Mahanandi

For this weeks’s Indian Kitchen:
Mango Juice
Mango Pulp
Slice of Fresh Ripe Mango
Slice of Unripe Green Mango
Dried Mango Pulp Cubes
Amchur Powder (Dried, Unripe Mango Powder)

Looking forward to receiving your entries via email, for tomorrow’s JFI ~ Mango event.

I started out my weekend with a plan. The plan was to prepare the famous Andhra mango pickle, ‘avakaya’, for next week’s JFI. You know about pickles. To prepare and present it, you need to make it at least one week in advance. So, I went to Pittsburgh and picked out the greenest mangoes available at one of the Indian grocery stores. The mangoes were very green and hard and so I was confident that they were unripe. On Sunday, I was in full pickle making mode. Cleaned out the kitchen, dried out any signs of moisture from counter tops and prepared all the essentials – mustard seed powder and red chilli powder. I was all ready to make pickle. But alas…

As often happens with the best laid out plans, things went awry. In this case, green, hard and thought to be unripe mangoes, when cut open, were ripe inside. The flesh was pale yellow and the taste was not very sour. I had to drop my plan to make pickle. Instead of going down the path of questioning my life in US, where I can’t even prepare my favorite pickle, I picked up my spirits and quickly found a use for my not so green, not so ripe mangoes. I remembered Mika’s comment about her way of preparing mango rice with coconut and also her recently blogged mango rice recipe. I had all the ingredients, including a fresh, decent coconut. Viola… the life in US looked much better.:)

I tried out the mango pulihora with coconut and mustard powder. Between the tangy sweetness of mango+coconut and the sharp, zesty flavor of mustard+chillies, the taste of pulihora was so unique and irresistible. I was glad that I tried this recipe, this one is a keeper. Thanks Mika.

Fresh coconut, Green Unripe Mango, Mustard Seeds and Green Chillies

Recipe:
(steps written in order of preparation)

Cook Rice:
1 cup of rice in 2 cups of water.
(I prepared it with Sona Masuri Rice)

Finely Powder:
2 teaspoons of mustard seeds – using a spicemill or coffee grinder

Make a Paste:
1 medium sized green unripe mango – peeled and cubed
½ cup of finely chopped fresh coconut
8 to 10 small green chillies

Grinding the mango, coconut and green chillies

Heat and Toast:
1 teaspoon of peanut oil, in a big sauté pan.
¼ cup of peanuts to golden brown color and remove.

Do the Popu or Tadka:
Add another teaspoon of oil or ghee to the same pan. Do the popu by toasting one teaspoon of each – cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, few pieces of dried red chillies and curry leaves.

Sauteeing the ingredients

Add and Sauté:
To the popu, add the
Mustard seed powder,
Smooth mango-coconut-chilli paste,
1 teaspoon of turmeric and salt.

Stir and sauté this mixture for 3 to 5 minutes on medium heat, until the mango paste leaves its raw smell. Don’t overcook, that would kill the precious mango flavor completely. Stir in the toasted peanuts that were kept aside. Switch off the heat.

To this sautéed mixture, add the cooked rice. Mix thoroughly and serve. The pulihora should taste little bit tartly because of unripe mango, sweet due to coconut, spicy strong because of chillies and mustard powder.

Mango-Coconut Pulihora

Mango Pulihora – Andhra Style

Menthi (Methi, Fenugreek) Sprouts (Planted on March 10th)

Menthi growing in a container (On April 22nd)

Closeup of baby menthi

I did the sprouting thing with methi to try methi sprouts salad last month and found that the salad was very bitter for my taste. I planted the leftover methi sprouts in a container. (Sprinkled the sprouts on soil and covered them loosely with soil.) Watered them daily and kept the container in direct sunlight. After a month, they are now at this size, growing healthy and in a beautiful shade of green. So pretty to look at.

I’ve plans to plant mint, coriander,tomato and peas. So what are you planning to grow this spring/summer?

Rice mixed with grated unripe mango is a festival rice that is specifically prepared on “Ugadi” – The Telugu New Year celebration, in our homes.

Here is the simple, 4-step preparation process of festival rice – in images:

Step 1:
Peel the skin and grate the unripe mango. Measurement is: for 1 cup raw rice – 1½ cups grated mango to 2 cups. (Adjust the quantity to suit your tart/tangy preference.)

Cook the rice (preferably ‘Sona Masuri’). Maintain the grain integrity, don’t cook to mush.

Step 2:
In a skillet, heat peanut oil or ghee. Add and toast the listed ingredients below. One by one, until pale gold, in this order:

Cashews
Peanuts
Chana dal (presoaked in water for about 30 minutes beforehand)
Slit green chillies -brown them for better taste
Curry leaves and few pieces of dried red chillies
Mustard seeds and cumin

At the end, bring all these toasted ingredients, sprinkle turmeric and asafetida. Stir to mix and saute for another two minutes. (See the photo above)

Step 3:
Add the grated mango to the pan. Stir to mix with other toasted contents in the pan. Cook it on medium-high just for two minutes and switch off the heat. (This is done to remove the raw smell of grated mango. Do not cook the mango gratings more than two minutes, that would kill the precious mango flavor.)

Step 4:
Add salt and mix this toasted mango-peanut mixture with cooked rice thoroughly with a big spoon or with your right hand. Serve hot.

Celebrating Ugadi Festival with Maamidikaya Pulihora

Ingredients:
(For two)
1 cup rice (uncooked, raw)
1 to 2 cups grated green mango (quantity needed depends on how sour the green mango is)
6 to 8 Indian or Thai variety small-sized green chillies – Cut into 2or4 pieces lengthwise
¼ cup of cashews and peanuts combined
1 tablespoon of chana dal (soaked in water for ½ hour)
1 teaspoon each – cumin and mustard seeds
10 curry leaves, and 4-6 small pieces of dried red chilli
½ teaspoon of turmeric
Pinch of asafetida
Salt to taste or ½ teaspoon

We celebrate Ugadi (New Year) festival on 30th of March this year, and Ugadi is all about mangoes traditionally. Back in India, we decorate our houses with mango leave garlands; at home we prepare recipes with unripe mangoes. You see, by March and April, the bazars are usually flooded with mangoes. First the unripe mangoes in a beautiful shade of pure green, then golden yellow colored ripe mangoes make an appearance at local ‘ritu bazars’ tantalizing the senses. No wonder, we celebrate mango season with a festival.

But here, where I live, green mangoes are hard to come by. I had to travel 100 miles, paid humungous amounts, just because I couldn’t resist a beautiful tradition and I’m very lucky to get them. With the green mangoes I purchased, here is one, an original Andhra recipe – ‘Mango dal’. Green mango cooked with toordal. Little bit tart, fruity with a hint of caramel undertones from mango and earthy nutty smoothness because of toor dal – is a taste that one will never forget.

Green mango, Chilli Powder, Turmeric, Toordal and onion – Ingredients for Mango dal

Recipe:

1 green mango
1 medium sized red onion – sliced into big chunks
4 fistfuls of toor dal (¾ cup)
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
¼ teaspoon of turmeric
½ teaspoon of salt or to taste

Popu/Tadka
1 tsp of peanut oil or ghee
1 tsp of each – mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, chana dal
4 to 6 dried red chilli pieces and curry leaves
2 garlic cloves – finely chopped

1.Wash green mango thoroughly to remove any pesticide sprayings. Dry it with a towel then cut it into small cubes. I don’t like to peel the mango skin for this recipe. The tough outer skin of mango, imparts kind of tarty flavor to the dal, so following the tradition, I keep the skin. Scrape any white flesh attached to the seed with a peeler and then only discard the seed. (see this photo for the stripped seed.)

2. Take toordal, mango, onion, chilli powder and turmeric in a pressure cooker. Add one and half cups of water. Close the lid and pressure cook until 3 whistles or until you are sure the dal is soft and mushy. Turn off the heat and wait for the pressure to go off.

3. After all the valve pressure is released, remove the lid. The contents usually are cooked soft by now, add salt and with a wood masher or whisker, mash the dal, until all the toordal turns into fine mush.

4. In a vessel, heat peanut oil or ghee, Toast the popu ingredients in this order. First add dried red chilli pieces, garlic and chana dal. Then urad dal and curry leaves, finally add and toast cumin and mustard seeds.

5. Remove the mashed mango dal from pressure cooker and add it to the popu in the vessel. Stir to mix and cover the vessel with a lid so that the dal could absorb the flavors of popu

Serve with rice and ghee, a dry sauté curry by the side and some papads for a memorable meal.
My preference: Mix mango dal with rice and ghee thoroughly. Shape the mixture into small rounds and have them with papads preferably sago (sabudana) papad.

(Maamidikaya pappannam mudda on a saggubiyyam vadiyam)
Mango dal mixed with rice&ghee. Shaped into round ball & placed on a deep fried sago(sabudana) papad.

For mango dal, we in our homes, use only chilli powder. Do not substitute it with green chillies.
Sago (sabudana) papads are available in Indian grocery shops and green unripe mangoes- during spring and summer seasons.

Maamidikaya (Unripe Green Mango) ~ For this week’s Indian Kitchen.

(Cut Green Mango and on the side is seed of the mango)

Recipes:

Mango Dal
Mango Rice

Though ordinary in looks, Aloo methi- the famous north Indian curry is full of flavor. Boiled and quartered baby potatoes are saut̩ed with methi (fresh fenugreek leaves) and generously flavored with pan grilled garlic, onions and green chillies Рthe result is one simple yet delicious curry, which tastes great when combined with rice and dal or with chapatis.

Aloo Methi with Rice and Methi Dal ~ Our Simple Meal Today.

Recipe:
6 baby potatoes – boiled in water until tender and then skins removed and cubed
1 bunch of fresh methi – washed and leaves plucked
1 red onion – finely chopped
4 green chillies – finely chopped
4 garlic cloves – finely chopped
Pinch of turmeric and salt to taste
For popu or tadka – 1 tsp of each, peanut oil, cumin and mustard seeds
*******
In a kadai or sauté pan, heat peanut oil; toast the cumin and mustard seeds. Add and fry the garlic, onion and chillies, stirring well for few minutes. Stir in turmeric and salt. Add the cubed potatoes and sauté them for few minutes until they turn light red. When potatoes are almost done, stir in fresh methi leaves, stir-fry for few minutes, until they wilt. Turnoff the heat, close the lid and allow them to absorb the flavors for few minutes. Turn on to a dish and serve.

Red onion, Methi leaves, Garlic, Green chilli and Baby red potato – Ingredients for Aloo Methi

I was watching David Letterman show on a Monday night few days ago. He was making jokes about Winter Olympics… about Bode Miller, his poor performance and how Germany won the No.1 spot in medal count beating the US etc., He also made a joke about German victory celebrations – “Germany celebrated the No.1 spot in Winter Olympics with a victory parade. It started in Berlin and ended in Poland“. He was of course referring to German occupation of Poland under Hitler. I got the joke, but couldn’t laugh because I was thinking how could he make jokes about Germany, when his own country is committing war crimes, occupying and killing thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Talk about projection. Dave is the most cynical and sharp one in late night circuit, I was surprised at his pretense that Nazi Germany is worse than current US behaviour. US is following the pattern, aren’t they?

Well, anyway, back to cooking, today it’s methi chutney.:) People back in India may wonder how come methi is so popular in Mahanandi’s world? Methi, spinach, and occasionally gongura (ambari) are the only familiar green leafy vegetables available year round in Indian grocery shops here in US. Reason for the methi’s frequent appearance.

Methi chutney is completely an acquired taste. Sauteed methi and sesame combined with other ingredients, taste little bit bitter, sour and spicy. If you are going to prepare it from my recipe, first check the list of ingredients, imagine the taste, see if you like the combination, then attempt it. Please don’t nag me if it doesn’t turn out to your expectations in a typical mother-in-law fashion. Some people would say that I didn’t add this, I didn’t do that, or I didn’t cook their way etc., I might have accepted these if I were their daughter-in-law, but I am not :-).

Recipe:

3 cups of fresh methi leaves (one small bunch)
¼ cup of sesame seeds
8 dried red chillies or more
(This chutney needs a little bit of extra hotness, so don’t skimp on chillies)
2 teaspoons tamarind juice
½ teaspoon urad dal
¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon of peanut oil

In a kadai, heat half teaspoon of peanut oil. First add and toast dried red chillies, then sesame seeds and urad dal, until golden. Remove them. In the same kadai heat another half teaspoon of oil and sauté methi leaves for few minutes. Take them all in a plate, wait to cool. Whenever you make these kinds of chutneys always wait for the ingredients to cool, never blend when they are hot. If you do this, the change in taste will be significant.

When they are cool enough to touch, take them in a blender, add tamarind juice and salt. Puree them to smooth paste. If necessary add few tablespoons of water for smooth blending. (Don’t make it too watery.) Remove and serve this chutney with upma or with rice and dal.

Semolina Upma with Methi Chutney

Curry leaves in Indian languages:
Assamese – no-ro-hxingo paat
Bengali – Barsunga
Gujarati – Mitho limdo,
Hindi – Meetha neem, Kari patta, Katneem, Bursunga
Malayalam – Kareapela
Marathi – Kadipatta
Oriya – Basango
Punjabi – Karipata, Karipatta, Bowala
Sanskrit – Girinimba, Suravi
Tamil – Kariveppilai, Karuveppilai
Telugu – Karepaku, Karivepaaku

For this week’s Indian Kitchen, it is “curry leaves”. This aromatic fresh herb is native to India and is an essential ingredient in “popu or tadka“. The leaves when lightly fried in oil or ghee, release wonderful fragrance and when mixed with rice or with dals, enriches them by their unique appetizing aroma and essential oils.

The curry leaves are in light green color when young and are usually added as whole to the cooking. The mature leaves are dark in green, and are usually teared into two or three pieces or finely chopped before adding to hot oil. For each recipe, the number of leaves I usually add varies from 4 to 10. Some recipes I blogged so far, where curry leaves are a must – 1.Coconut chutney 2. Chitrannam (lemon rice) 3. Sambhar, just to name a few.

If you live in a warm climate, it’s really easy to grow this small deciduous plant. Plant a mature fresh sprig branch or small seedling/offshoots in mineral rich soil, water it daily and watch it flourish into a fragrant, pretty neat plant. It needs sunshine and lots of it.

You can find packets of fresh curry leaves either in fresh vegetable section, or in refrigerated area of your local Indian grocery shop. Usually priced at one dollar a packet, even less during summer times. If you ask me, they are the best bargain, or the most over priced item:) one can buy in US. Fresh leaves stay fresh at least for two to three weeks, when stored in refrigerator, sealed in a plastic bag. When left opened, they dry out easily. Dried leaves can be used in cooking, but the flavor of fresh curry leaves is superior and irreplaceable!

More about curry leaves:
Curry Leaf Heaven
The Goodness of Curry leaves!
Curry Leaves, different names – Source

Fresh beans can be exciting, particularly Indian broad beans. Compared to green beans, they have a more prominent beany taste and the seeds inside are plump, meaty and mildly sweet like baby lima beans. Back in Andhra, it is a popular vegetable to grow. Backyards covered with these bean plants provide shelter from the hot sun; they not only enrich the soil with their roots(legumes) and also us – the plump beans are nature’s tiny capsules of proteins. Very nourishing and tasty. You can find Indian broad beans during spring and summer at local Indian grocery shops here in US.

Recipe:

20 to 25 Indian broad beans (pick plump ones)
2 ripe tomatoes and 1 onion – finely sliced
Make a paste
½ cup of roasted peanuts
1 tablespoon of tamarind juice
2 cloves and 1 small cinnamon stick
½ tsp of chilli powder and salt
¼ tsp of turmeric
1 tablespoon of powdered jaggery
(Take all these in a blender, add half glass of water and puree them to smooth paste)
For Popu or tadka
1 tsp of mustard seeds, cumin, minced garlic and curry leaves

Preparation:

Wash the broad beans. Take them in a plate, remove the ends and string them. Just pluck the end of a bean with your hand, and then pull downward; if a thick thread comes away, the bean need stringing, so do the same on the other side. The beans can then be sliced either using a sharp knife or with your hands. Cut or pluck them into small pieces.

Heat one teaspoon of peanut oil in a big pan. Add and toast mustard seeds, cumin, minced garlic and curry leaves. Add and saute onions and then tomatoes. When they are softened, add the cut broad beans. Stir in peanut-tamarind paste and another half to one glass of water. Cook them covered, stirring in between, on medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the beans are properly cooked. Have a taste and add salt and jaggery if needed.

Serve warm with rice or chapati and enjoy this classic sweet and sour, nutty and beany, Andhra curry.

Indian Broad bean curry and rice (Chikkudu kaaya kura and Annam) ~ Our lunch

Recipe Source:Amma

“Okay, it’s my turn now”, I said.

“What is your turn for?” she said with a curious look on her face.

“I want to make chips with the plantains we bought yesterday. You just relax and wait for a tasty snack I’m going to make for you”. I said to her. But it wasn’t just for her. It was for me too. I like plantain chips very much. But, I don’t get very good quality chips here. So, whenever I could find good quality plantains, I prepare the chips myself.

Making of plantain chips in-house started few years ago, when we were in Houston. We have a good friend, Sunil Sukumaran, who is a Keralite. I knew that plantain chips were popular snack food in Kerala and I always wondered how they were made. I thought that there would be some special process to make them, because they were different, tasted good and had a special flavor. During one of our visits to their house, I asked my friend Sunil.

“Sunil, do you know how these plantain chips are made? I like them a lot, they are really tasty.” I expected a very long answer. I will tell you the truth. I was getting ready to note down the details on a sheet of paper. But his answer surprised me. Just one sentence!

“Pick unripe plantains. Slice them into thin rounds and deep fry them in oil.”

“That’s all?!” I didn’t believe it.

“That’s all there to it, man. What more you want to do? That’s how we make them back home in Kerala. We use coconut oil to fry them, but you can also use peanut oil.”

You don’t know how much relieved I was. Oh, I can make my favorite snack food right in my home. That’s fantastic.

Houston is a very lively city with all kinds of people from all over the world. Also a great place to get all kinds of food and vegetables. Most importantly (for me), I could get four fresh plantains for a dollar! How nice! Bought four of them and brought them home. Washed them thoroughly and scraped the outer skin lightly. I didn’t remove the skin completely. Cut them into circular chips. In the meantime, I had a big cast iron frying pan with peanut oil heating on the stove. When the oil reached proper temperature for frying, I dropped the chips in oil. One after the other, I filled the pan until the whole oil surface was covered by the chips. Reduced the heat to medium-high, and fried them for about three or four minutes. I turned the chips in the pan occasionally to make sure that both sides are properly fried.

I was very happy. Why? I just made the first batch of plantain chips myself. They looked just like the chips I was used to buy in Kerala bakeries. I sprinkled little bit of salt and they were ready to eat. I thanked my friend in my heart for sharing the great secret with me.

Now, coming back to Boardman, Ohio, there I was making the chips again, for Indira (and myself too). A full bowl of chips were ready in just few minutes and they also disappeared in just few minutes. But, I was quick enough to take some pictures to share with you. Here they are, tasty and crunchy, homemade plantain chips.

Plantain with outer skin scraped and sliced into thin round chips

Deep-frying Plantain Chips in Peanut Oil

Homemade Plantain Chips

–Guest post by Vijay Singari

Everyone has their own food weaknesses. Mine has always been rice and dal. I loose my dietary control over this combination. I am a dal-holic.:) So, what did I do with ridge gourd purchased from ‘Lotus’ yesterday, I have ridge gourd dal. Simple yet divinely tasty when mixed with rice and ghee. Today, no portion control for me.

Ridge Gourd – In bite sized pieces………….. ……………Presssure-cooked toor dal and vegetable mixture

Recipe:
for two for two meals

Toor dal – 4 fistfuls (¾ cup)
Vegetables:
One medium sized ridge gourd
outer ridges peeled first and then cut into small cubes
One medium sized onion & 6 to 10 green chilli peppers –all finely chopped
Seasoning:
1 tablespoon of tamarind extract
¼ tsp of turmeric
½ tsp of salt
For popu or tadka: 1 tsp each of mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, minced garlic and curry leaves

Take toor dal, vegetables (listed above), tamarind and turmeric in a pressure cooker. Add about two cups of water. Pressure-cook them til 3 whistles or until they turn soft. Wait until it’s safe to open the lid, then add salt to this cooked mix. With a wood masher, make a smooth paste of the cooked dal-veggies. At this stage, for a more soup kind of dal, add water to your liking, stir and bring it to a boil. (Do this step only if you add more water to the cooked-mashed dal. Otherwise it’s not necessary to cook the dal further.)

In a steel vessel, heat one teaspoon of peanut oil. Sauté the popu or tadka ingredients until golden, then add the mashed dal-veggie paste from the cooker. Mix the dal with popu ingredients thoroughly. Serve hot with rice and ghee.

Ridge gourd dal and curry with rice and ghee – my weakness and indulgence.

We went to Strip district, last Saturday. This downtown wholesale produce market is where people go to hangout on a weekend morning in Pittsburgh. Full of ethnic groceries, wholesale organic produce, fresh meat and fish shops, roadside stalls, bakeries, cheese and coffee shops, eateries, difficult to find free parking space and big crowds; The atmosphere is usually like a carnival, more so on last Saturday, because of Steelers Super Bowl. We saw Polamalu wigs, face paintings, jam packed stalls carrying Steelers memorabilia. There were impromptu parades and street dancers, dancing to Steelers songs. The mood was boisterous and we had a fun time watching the spectacle.

We also did some grocery shopping; we bought Indian vegetables at ‘Lotus’, the big Chinese grocery shop in Strip distrcit. Because of Chinese New Year, the shop was buzzing with people. Crowds everywhere. One vegetable I bought after a long time was silk squash (or ‘neti beerakaya’ in Telugu), the smooth and silky cousin of rugged ridge gourd. Similar in taste to ridge gourd and its distant cousin zucchini, silk squash is great in curry avatar. This is very easy to prepare and is an Andhra variety.

Recipe:
(For two, for 4 mini burgers)

1 medium sized, fresh and firm silk squash (neti beerakaya)
(Lightly scrape the outside skin, wash and cut into bite sized pieces)
1 onion – finely chopped
2 green chillies – finely chopped
½ tsp each of coconut powder and turmeric
¼ tsp salt
–
Popu or tadka ingredients – 1 tsp each cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and curry leaves

I also added half cup of bean sprouts for little bit of crunch and to boost the nutritional value.

Preparation:

In a wide pan, heat one teaspoon of peanut oil, toast the popu ingredients, add and saute onion and green chillies first, then add the silk squash. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes until the squash pieces soften. Remove the lid, stir in turmeric, salt and coconut powder, cook for few more minutes. Just before switching off the heat, I added bean sprouts.
This Andhra style curry tastes great with rice and dal or with chapatis.

This weekend, in addition to vegetables, I also bought some fresh dinner rolls (buns) for pav bhaji. With some of those rolls, I prepared mini burgers today, for lunch. I sliced the roll (bun) into half, removed little bit of white bread from insides (to make space for curry filling), and pan grilled them for few minutes, on each side. Then filled them with silk squash curry. For Vijay, I also made an egg-white omelet for his burgers. The whole preparation took me about 20 minutes and the curry burgers tasted awesome.

Silk Squash Curry Burgers ~ our lunch today and my entry to the Stephanie’s ARF Event.

In old times, the marriage feast in our areas always included brinjal-ginger curry. Considered a classic both in taste and aroma, brinjal-ginger curry brings out the best of both ingredients.

Recipe:

10 round brinjals – (purple or greenish-white)
1×1 inch fresh ginger
4 green chillies
4 sprigs of fresh cilantro
½ tsp of salt and turmeric each
For popu: 1 tsp each – mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, curry leaves and 2-3 pieces of dried red chillies

Preparation:

Brinjal: Wash and cut brinjal into bite sized pieces. Take water in a vessel; add 1 tsp of salt and mix. Add the cut brinjal pieces to this salted water. This is again an old-time tip, to prevent discoloration and onset of sourness in cut brinjals.

Ginger: Scrape the skin and wash. Finely chop ginger, green chillies and coriander. Add pinch of salt, make a smooth paste in a mortar or using a blender, without adding any water.

Curry: Heat one teaspoon of peanut oil in a wide pan. Add all the popu ingredients listed above and toast them till the seeds start to splutter. Take cut brinjal pieces from water, fistful each time, add them to the spluttering popu ingredients. Stir in the ginger paste and turmeric. Mix them all together, reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover with a lid and cook, stirring only once for about 10 minutes. When the curry starts to smell incredible, pieces turn to soft, sprinkle salt, mix and turn off the heat. Serve with rice and dal.

Brinjal-Ginger Curry, rice, tomato dal and little bit of ghee – savoring the tasty stroll in Andhra food heaven.

note to readers: Add salt at the end (so that brinjals can cook fast) and the recipe works only with fresh green chillies, don’t substitute with red chilli powder.

I was tagged by lovely Rosa of Yummy Yums to list my cold/flu remedies. Like her, it’s been a while, 10 years to be exact, since I got sick. I go through mental up&downs like a normal human being, but physical ailments like common cold/flu, fever etc., nothing, nada, zip. My immune system, like me, seems to be enjoying an early retirement deal. Or overworking? Anyway, the deal is not bad at all.

Home remedies for common cold & flu, that I can think of, like and often prepare-cold or no cold, are- one is tomato rasam, I blogged already and the other is ‘sonti kashayam’. This traditional remedy, an ayurvedic weapon against cold/flu is prepared with dried ginger, black peppercorns and sweetened with jaggery or honey. The resulting concoction is one strong drink that reboots the downgraded systems, starting with GI. Body on fire, is the sensation it gives at first. Then once it settled down there, ginger and peppercorn work their magical powers and make the symptoms of cold/flu disappear.

Recipe:
(For two cups)

1 inch length dried ginger (Sonti) (available in Indian grocery shops)
4 peppercorns (Miriyalu)
1 tsp of powdered jaggery or honey
1 glass of water

Preparation:

First, make a powder of dried ginger and peppercorns using a mortar and pestle. Meanwhile take water in a pot, bring it to a rolling boil. Add the powdered ginger, pepper and jaggery to the water. Cover partially; boil it for at least 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover completely, and let it rest for 5 minutes. After 5 to 10 minutes of rest period, using a filter, pour the drink into a glass. Stir to cool and finish it off in two or three gulps.
Set the body on fire and say goodbye to cold/flu symptoms.

Variation – add tealeaves to make an extra strong tea or plain soda (carbonated water) to make ale.

A glass of Sonti Kashayam (dried ginger ale)

I like this meme (to spread) and I would love to learn other food bloggers remedies for common cold/flu. So I’m going to tag

Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries
Barrett of Too Many Chefs
Brett of In Praise of Sardines
Doc of Gluttony is no Sin
Heidi of 101 Cookbooks (Thank you Heidi, for ‘Daily Links’)
Kay of Towards a Better Tomorrow
Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness

I’m sure they have some fabulous remedies up their sleeves and I hope they share them with us
.