Mahanandi

Nimmakaya Pulihora:

Prasadam in temples, part of festival feast, or simple lunch – Chitrannam or lemon rice plays an important part of South Indian meal. Our celebratory feasts are not complete without this particular dish. The tangy rice prepared with lemon juice refreshes the palate after the sweet beginnings, as you may already know it is an Indian tradition to serve the sweet first. I think serving these two, traditional Indian sweet and chitrannam together, is our elders way of reminding us to appreciate life moments, both sweet and sour. That is why, I think the temple prasadam or the celebratory food in all moments of our lives includes chitrannam.

People, who know the taste, crave this lemony rice. Even though the recipe is so simple to make, there is always one expert in the family who prepares the best chitrannam. In my home, I can manage an edible one, but Vijay prepares the ‘can’t get enough’ version. We do use the same ingredients and methods; still I don’t know how his version always turns out so exceptional. I am sure it is true in every other south Indian family too. Only chosen few are blessed by Annapurna, the Goddess of Food, to prepare this favorite food of Gods. It is one of those recipes, where either you have it or you don’t. And I am sorry to say that even though I know the authentic recipe, follow all the tricks and tips still the end result in my case always turns out mediocre. There is no magic in my hand.:)

What about you, are you the chosen one? Try it out, if you have not already done so.

Recipe:
(Serves two)

Rice:
4 cups of freshly cooked rice. (Any kind of white rice is ok for this recipe, but I prefer ‘Sona Masuri’. Cook it like for pulao or fried rice but not like pongal or risotto.
Limes and Chillies
2 to 3 juicy limes – cut and juice to a cup
6 to 8 green chillies, Indian or Thai variety – slit vertically
(Chitrannam needs spicy punch from chillies. So, add one or two chillies (of any variety) more than your normal tolerance of chillies. Otherwise the dish falls apart, and lime juice dominates the taste.)
Seasoning
¼ cup – Chana dal (senaga pappu), pre-soaked in water at least half an hour before.
2 tablespoons – urad dal (minapa pappu)
1 teaspoon each – salt and turmeric
2 tablespoons –ghee, Or oil for calorie-consicous.
For popu or tadka
1/2 tsp each – mustard seeds, cumin, and red dry chilli pieces.
12- 15 fresh curry leaves. Don’t forget to add the fresh curry leaves. Chitrannam is not authentic or complete without the curry leaves.

You can prepare decent, basic version of chitrannam with the above items. But for special occasions, and if you want to impress guests or family, then you need the following items too.

Nuts
Quarter cup – cashews
Quarter cup – peanuts
Veggies
Quarter cup vegetables – I usually add potato, finely cubed, sometimes Indian type brinjal and shredded carrot too.
5 to 6 majjiga mirapa kaayalu (Green chillies soaked in buttermilk and completely dried in sun, a specialty of Andhra), deep fried in oil.

Method:

In a skillet, heat one tablespoon of ghee. First add peanuts, fry them until they turn light brown. Remove. Add and fry cashews next. Remove from the pan to a plate, keep them aside.

Now in the same skillet, add another tablespoon of ghee. Heat. Add and fry the curry leaves first. Then cumin and mustard seeds. When seeds start to splutter, add the split green chillies, chana dal, urad dal, and cubed potatoes. Saute them till golden and crisp. In the end, sprinkle half teaspoon turmeric for that golden yellow color. Mix and then saute for another one to two minutes.

Sauteing the cashews and Peanuts…… Sauteing the veggies and dals

Stirring in turmeric………. Squeezing some lime juice over rice and sauteed ingredients

Add the sauteed ingredients of skillet, and also the toasted peanuts and cashews to the cooked rice. Stir in salt and sprinkle the limejuice. Combine thoroughly and delicately (without breaking the rice grains) with your hand or using a big slotted spoon.

Have a taste, it should zing or shock your taste buds like sucking on a fresh lime wedge. If not, add some more limejuice and salt. Mix again. And keep in mind that rice absorbs the limejuice, and the tanginess you feel during the preparation reduces in intensity after sometime.

Serve with fried majjiga mirapakaayalu (buttermilk soaked, dried green chillies) and a cup of yogurt for a nice meal.

chitrannam(Lemon Rice) with majjiga mirapa kaayalu.

Chitrannam, the English translation of this Telugu word is chitra= wonderful, magical, Annam= rice. This Refreshing lemony rice is all that and more, and tastes great when served hot or cold.

Recipe Source:Attamma(MIL)

I’ve been quite busy for the past couple of days, cleaning up the house, rearranging things. All these are part of the preparation for the most important festival, ‘Vijaya Dasami’. The ten-day festival, also called ‘Dassera’ or ‘Nava Ratri’, celebrates the Goddess Durga, the Mother Force of Hindu Scriptures. The festival starts from today, 4th Oct and ends on 12th with grand prayers, processions and feasts.

It is very easy to let go of these traditions and say “whatever or next year”. Because we live in an isolated environment, far from our traditions and festivals, particularly from the festive mood and the atmosphere. I understand the values and importance of these festivals so I try to be enthusiastic to follow the rituals and celebrate as much as possible.

What I am going to do on my food blog during these ten days of festival is to try to write about all the food items that I am going to prepare on the grand festival day, Vijaya Dasami. I usually prepare: a dal, two types of curries, rasam, chutney, papads, bajji, chitrannam with lemons, rice and bhakshalu(poli). I am planning to write about one item each day for the next ten days.

I am going to start my festival food with dal, not any dal but the Andhra special –Gongura dal.

For the uninitiated in Andhra cuisine, Gongura is a leafy vegetable and has very distinctive sour taste. For the past couple of years we are able to purchase it in Indian stores, here in US too. I am sorry but I don’t know its English name, it’s usually sold here also as ‘Gongura’, under its Telugu name. When cooked with toor dal or as pickle, it wakes up, more like zings the taste buds and makes you crave its unique taste.

Recipe:

1 bunch of Gongura, leaves separated & washed
1 cup or four fistfuls of toor dal
Green chillies at least 6, jalapeno variety
1 medium sized onion, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp of turmeric

What makes this recipe unique(my family variation) and so tasty is adding one garlic clove, half tsp of coriander seeds and cumin, all together made into smooth paste and then added to the dal. This paste compliments and gives wonderful aroma and taste when cooked with gongura.

Preparation:
In a pressure cooker, take all of the above ingredients and add one glass of water. Mix them once and pressure cook until three to four whistles or until toordal is tender and breaks apart when held. Wait until the pressure is released, remove the lid and add one teaspoon of salt to this cooked mixture and mash it with a wooden pappu gutti or using an immersion blender into smooth paste.

Now, in a sauce pan, over low medium heat, do the popu or tadka (means toasting the mustard, cumin seeds, red chilli pieces and curry leaves in one tablespoon of ghee or oil). Add the cooked and mashed gongura dal to this popu. Stir all of it once and cover with a lid. Gongura dal is ready.

Tastes great with rice or jowar roti. Best way ofcourse is the combination of this dal mixed with rice, ghee and papad.

Gongura and rice mudda(ball) on sabudana(sago) papad.

I bought okra (benda Kaayalu) from Wal-Mart supercenter’s frozen section last weekend. As mush as I detest Wal-Mart business practices, I still shop there occasionally for groceries during fall and winter times, as we live in a rural area, and fresh vegetables that I prefer are really pricy after the summer. This behemoth shop carries quite a range of fresh and frozen vegetables at affordable prices year long.

After reading some of the fellow food bloggers posts about okra, I was tempted to dish out my favorite okra recipe from Nandyala, the famous bendakaaya sambar (okra sambar).

Smooth and silky okra when cooked in sambar, absorbs all the wonderful flavors of sambar spices and takes ‘I can’t believe this is okra’ kind of avatar, and goes down without resistance when eaten.

Recipe:

Toor dal (Kandi Pappu):
1 cup of Toor dal – In a pressure cooker, take toor dal and water in 1:2 ratio, cook to soft, and mash the dal to smooth consistency.
Sambar powder Preparation:
1 teaspoon each – cumin, coriander, fenugreek seeds, chana dal, urad dal and dry coconut, Dry roast. Cool. Powder them together to fine. Or buy readymade sambar powder from an Indian store. We need atleast a tablespoon of sambar powder for this recipe.
Tamarind:
Soak key-lime sized tamarind in half cup of water for 10min. This will soften the tamarind. Squeeze the pulp and discard the seeds.
Veggies for Sambhar:
Cut – 10 to 15 whole okra, 10 to 15 cherry tomatoes and one onion (What shape and size, see the photo above)
Seasoning:
Salt, red chilli powder and turmeric – half teaspoon each, or to taste.
For popu or tadka:
1 teaspoon peanut oil
½ tsp each – curry leaves, chopped garlic, cumin and mustard seeds

Cooked Okra-Tomato Veggie Mixture……. Toor dal added to the veggie mixture

Preparation:

In a big pot, take peanut oil. On medium heat, do the popu or tadka(toast curry leaves, garlic, cumin and mustard seeds). When seeds start to pop, add the onions and saute to soft. Then add tomatoes and okra pieces. Also stir in sambar powder, red chilli powder, turmeric, salt, tamarind and one glass of water. Bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat, cover the pan, let simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the okra is tender.

Add the cooked and mashed toor dal to the simmering contents in the pot. Mix and have a taste. Adjust the salt and chilli powder to your taste and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve. I usually let it sit for at least for about 15 to 30 minutes, so that when it is served, you can actually taste the flavor of sambar powder.

Okra Sambhar with rice ~ Our Meal Today

When it’s this easy to make flavorful, delicious pizza at home, I can only imagine restaurants suffer. Why? This homemade crisp pizza tastes as good or better as any thin crust pizza I have ever had in a restaurant.

I started with few leftover chapatis of yesterday. I added the tomato chutney layer and topped with red beans and cheese. Baked in an oven for few minutes, the outcome was a scrumptious looking, saliva inducing meal. An impressively, easy way to satiate the pizza cravings without doing the back-breaking pizza labor.

Recipe:

1. Pressure cook: One cup red beans(soaked in water overnight beforehand) to tender or use the canned red beans.

2. Prepare chutney: In a skillet, add oil and cook coarsely chopped one onion, two tomatoes, three cloves of garlic and four chillies to brown. Cool, then add salt and blend to coarse puree.

3. Take fresh or leftover chapatis, about 4 to 6. Cut each chapati to 4 wedge-shaped pieces of equal size.

4. Slice to thin strips or grate cheese. I used Monterey Jack cheese in this recipe – About half cup.

Before Meal Time:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

In an iron skillet or in an ovenproof dish:
First, place the chapati pieces, then on top, add and spread tomato chutney to a thin layer. Sprinkle some red beans, cheese and cilantro. Continue until the last chapati, ending with a layer of the chutney, beans and cheese on top. Place the skillet in the oven and bake at 400°F for about 10-15 minutes, until the cheese melts and chapatis start to brown. Remove, slice and serve.

The whole combination of baked chapatis, spicy tomato chutney, red beans and cheese came out very well and tasted real good.

It’s been a while since I bought cherry peppers. I believe it was in Houston about 4 years ago. Last weekend I found them again at a price I like to pay, here in Ohio at a nearby grocery shop called Rulli Brothers. This local Italian grocery shop is old, located in a 60 to 70 year old building. I gathered from reading the local newspaper Vindicator that because of some family financial problems, the brothers closed this shop for several years and recently reopened it for business. I think this also contributed to the whole dilapidated look and feel of the shop.

At first being new to this area, not knowing the history, we were hesitant to try this shop. After a while we came to know that they sell mainly local produce and meat. After seeing how busy the parking lot always was, one fine day, we braved, liked what we saw, now regularly shop at this local grocery. Every week, I would find something interesting to buy at an affordable rate and last weekend I eyed cherry peppers and other varieties of peppers priced at 50 cents per pound. Needless to say I came home as a happy person with lots of peppers.

First I wanted to stuff them with potato filling and dip them in besan batter and deep-fry them in oil like egg pakora. But these past few days it has been very hot here with temperatures touching almost 90° F. The idea of oily food didn’t appeal to me. So I prepared stuffed, roasted cherry peppers.

Recipe:

Ingredients for stuffing
1 cup of roasted chana dal
Half cup of cut dry coconut pieces
Small marble sized tamarind
4 red chillies
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1/4 tsp of salt

Powder them all together in a Sumeet mixie jar or in a food processor. This is your filling.

Preparation:

Wash the cherry peppers and dry them with a towel. Cut the top off and remove the seeds from inside of each pepper. Fill the well in each pepper to the top with the roasted chanadal-coconut powder prepared earlier.

In an iron skillet, take about one tablespoon of oil, when it is hot, gently place the stuffed peppers. Leave space around them so that they will cook evenly. Reduce the heat to medium low and cover the skillet with a lid and leave them like that undisturbed for about 30 to 40 minutes. By the end of cooking, the bottoms will be brown, and the sides and top are cooked in their own moisture.

Even though they are feared as hot ones, they are surprisingly mild and sweet cooked in this way and also because of the filling. No upset stomachs with this recipe, I can guarantee you that.

Stuffed cherry peppers with spinach dal and rice.

During festival times, the sugar of choice at our home for Naivedyam is jaggery.

Jaggery – the pure, wholesome and traditional sweetener of India is made out of raw sugarcane juice by slowly simmering it in big pans until all the water is evaporated. The final solid product is then poured into moulds. The complete process is 100% chemical-free, prepared in natural way and no animal parts (bones) are used or added at any stage. This process is unlike the commercial sugar manufacturing, where cane juice is subjected to a potpourri of chemicals as sulfur dioxide, lime, phosphoric acid, bleaching agents & viscosity reducers.

How do I know all this? Well, some of our relatives cultivate sugarcane and produce jaggery in small scale. They do that in the fields after harvesting the sugarcane. It is quite an event with all the relatives and friends come to help and taste. The thing I always remember is the smell. The sweet smell of boiling sugarcane follows you forever.

It is the ancient wisdom and is now scientifically proven that jaggery is known for its many medicinal benefits. One thing I know is jaggery is rich in Iron. In India, people who know, even doctors advise anaemics and pregnant women to take jaggery daily to increase their hemoglobin levels.

What can I say about the taste of jaggery- there is always the sweet taste but there is something more. The taste is not a mind numbing sweetness but more subtle, much more flavorful and makes us want more. Its sweetness is quite different from that of commercial sugar, brown sugar or even molasses. Because it contains the minerals and vitamins inherently present in sugarcane juice.

In addition to using it for traditional sweets of festival times, like Undrallu, Jaggery is my sweetener of choice always, for ragi malt, vegetable curries, rasam, occasionally for tea & coffee. Compare to commercial sugar, it is not that expensive. You can buy a 10-pound block of jaggery for about 5 to 8 dollars in an Indian grocery shop, here in US.

Jaggery from India

Undrallu is a sweet, especially prepared on Vinayaka Chavithi festival. They are made with jaggery and chana dal then wrapped in dough and deep-fried in oil or ghee. The tradition is we have to prepare 9 varieties of undrallu with different fillings for this festival. My mother prepares 9 varieties for puja whenever we girls visit home. She has a saint like patience and great time management. You see we have to prepare all varities on the day of festival, by afternoon while on fasting. At least the person who does the puja and cooking must be on fasting till the puja is done. Family members would taste the festival specials only after the puja and naivedyam are done. Our customs dictate that the first offerings on festivals and special occasions must be to God, a sign of respect.

Recipe:
(For two)

For Purnam:

One cup – chana dal
One cup jaggery (pounded into tiny pieces)
6 cardamom pods, seeds separated and powdered

Wash chana dal and take them in a pressure cooker. Add the cardamom and about one cup water. Mix and pressure cook to 3 whistles, till the chana dal is firmly-soft. There should be no water left in pressure cooker. and we want a tight cooked chana dal. If there is excessive water, drain the dal using a colander and then spread the cooked dal on paper towels or on a cotton cloth to remove the moisture and to make them firm.

In a food processor (mixer), or in a stone mortar, take the cooked chana dal. Add jaggery and grind to smooth. The end product must be solid and it has to hold the shape. Make baby’s fist sized small rounds. My mother also dips the rounds in coconut gratings.

This is Purnam.

Chana Dal, Jaggery and Cardamom ~ Pressure-cooked, Mashed and Made to Small Rounds called Purnam

Preparing the Dough:

There are two kinds of wraps for the Purnam.

1. Urad dal and rice flour wrap called chovi. For it, take quarter cup of urad dal and soak them in water overnight. First thing in the morning, drain water and grind the dal in a blender to smooth adding very little water. Remove to a cup and half cup of rice flour. Mix them together thoroughly. Keep it covered for about 2 to 3 hours. This is called chovi. Purnam balls are dipped in this batter and fried in oil or ghee. Tasty and good.

2. Maida (all purpose flour) wrap: My mother’s method and I prefer this wrap.
Take one cup all-purpose flour (maida) in a bowl. Make a well in the center and add about half cup water. Mix and make a firm dough. Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons ghee and gently knead the dough, until it becomes very soft and pliable. Keep it covered for about 2 to 3 hours. Preparing the maida dough is the first thing I do in the kitchen on festival day morning.

When you are ready with purnam:
Take out and knead the dough again adding ghee for about 5 minutes.
Divide the dough into marble sized rounds.
Roll out each one into a small round using a rolling pin or with hand, thin at the edges and thick in the middle.
Place a lemon sized Purnam in the middle and cover it by bringing the edges together. Place them on a plate and cover with a wet cloth, to prevent drying out.
Repeat the procedure for all the dough rounds with the purnam.

Once you are done, place a kadai on stove-top. Add and heat the oil or ghee for deep-frying.
Gently drop the rounds and deep fry them to pale gold. Offer them to God first, then enjoy.

I prepared them in two shapes, the round ones are called undrallu, and the other two are called Kudumulu in Telugu.

Back to our life here, sort of “The Truman Show“. Like Truman character in the movie, we do realize we are never going to be satisfied here in this picture-perfect world, unlike we thought before. Few more years, that’s what we planned and that’s what we are going to do with patience. And the in-between visits to India are like pilgrimage and therapy to our souls.

For India trip – we just don’t shop, pack and leave. Like any pilgrimage, we follow a 3-month ritual preparing for our trip to India. At least 3 months before, we finalize the dates and purchase tickets (the only way, we can obtain tickets at a discount price $1300 to 1600 roundtrip). Then we would focus our total concentration on health and fitness. Our motherland is not for fainthearted and weak bellies, she tests the strength and stamina, and so we always go prepared. At first we start slowly stop eating all kinds of junk available here, try to reduce the food portions, increase our daily exercise routine and expose our body to the elements (walk daily in a park trail, from 4 miles a day gradually increasing to 8 miles). We struggle a lot during this month. Then in second month, our bodies adjust to this new routine, we do feel more energetic, lean and with positive energy. And the last month we go into yogi diet, all nuts, beans, fruits and vegetables, of course yogurt and lots of water. There is no pain or cravings anymore. Mind is in total control of the body, immune system awake and a happy heart. This is our India trip preparation.

Example of our yogi diet is this recipe with blackeye beans. Back home, during fasting and after long pujas at temples they are prepared and served as Guggullu.

I did Americanize it a bit by adding the fresh sweet corn.

Recipe:
(serves two)

1 cup of black eye beans, soaked in water overnight, drained
1 fresh corn, kernels sliced
1 red onion and tomato, diced
2 green chillies, finely chopped
Salt to taste and pinch of turmeric
Juice of half lime

In a large saucepan over high heat, combine the beans, water and one teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan and let the beans simmer until tender and drain. Or simply pressure-cook them (they cook in less time in this way, but you have to watch them closely. Turn off the heat immediately after the first whistle, otherwise they are more likely to overcook and break apart. We don’t want that).

In a saute pan, heat half teaspoon of peanut oil over medium heat. Add the corn, onions, tomato and green chilli, saute until corn is tender crisp for about five minutes. Add the black eye beans (Alasandalu) to the corn mixture along with 1/4 tsp of salt, turmeric and lime juice. Toss to mix and serve immediately.

We had guggullu and a cup of tomato rasam plus yogurt on the side for our meal today. It was a good yogi diet.

Paruppu Usili or Lentil Curry, even though it’s an old classic from South India, I never made this at home before. Shammi’s post tempted me to try it. I liked the ingredients and nutritional aspects of this curry and also the quick way it can be made.

I followed Shammi’s recipe mostly.

-Soaked two fistfuls each of toor dal and chana dal overnight.

-Grinded the dals with half tsp of salt and six dry red chillies and pinch of hing into coarse matter, without adding any water.
-Fresh green beans are the vegetable I chose to make Parappu Usli.
-I chopped beans, one medium sized onion and one garlic clove finely.

Did the popu (frying mustard seeds, cumin and curry leaves in 1 tsp of oil), then added onions and garlic, saut̩ed them for few minutes. Then added the coarsely grounded dal paste and green beans. Cooked them covered on low medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pinch of turmeric and salt to my taste, with these final touches and few more minutes on stove Рmy new favorite curry was ready for chapatis.

Thanks Shammi for showing this classic recipe.

Pappulu, Putnala pappulu or Dalia are prepared from chickpeas. Not the regular, white chickpeas but from a special variety of chickpeas specific to India and commonly sold under the name “Kala Chana or Black Chickpeas”.

The preparation of pappulu (dalia) is a fascinating process. First, the black chickpeas get soaked in water for several hours, and then after draining, chickpeas are roasted in big caldrons under controlled low fire for several hours. Until the chickpeas turn to crisp. Once the roasting process is completed, the hulls of chickpeas will be removed and each chickpea will be split into two equal pieces. This whole soaking-roasting process intensifies the chickpea flavor, and also changes them to light yellow, mildly sweet pappulu or Dalia. This process is done in special places called Bhattis. Almost every town in Andhra Pradesh would have a bhatti. People go there to buy the freshly prepared pappulu and also the puffed rice There were couple of bhattis near our home in Nandyala and we were used to buy them fresh and hot from those places.

Among all the lentil types available in an Indian store, pappulu are the only one which you can just open the packet and pop them into mouth. As kids and even now, we love to eat them as they are or mixed with murmura. They are a snack item for us, like popcorn. If you are from South India, I assume you already know the pappula taste. For those of you who don’t, you must try them at least once. They are usually sold in Indian grocery shops under the label “Dalia” in lentil section. They are really great tasting, guilt free snack.

Pappula Podi is a famous Andhra preparation. In some parts of Andhra this is also called gunpowder. We add it to season the curries and also to prepare chutneys and to spread on dosas, idly, pongali and upma. Pappula Podi not only spices but also adds a mild sweetness to the preparation. This following recipe is from my mother’s and my most valued one. If you are used to besan (gram flour) preparations, try this one instead. You will be delighted, I promise.

Pappula Podi:

1 cup – Pappulu
6 to 8 – dried red chillies, Indian variety
2 tablespoons – grated coconut or dried coconut pieces
1 tablespoon – cumin
½ teaspoon – salt or to taste
4 garlic cloves (this is optional, even without garlic this powder tastes great.)

Take pappulu, chillies, coconut, cumin, garlic and salt in a clean and dry mixer jar or food processor. Grind to fine powder. This is a dry preparation and do not add water. Store the powder in a clean, dry, airtight container. This will stay fresh as long as it remains dry.

The following are the most common ways I enjoy the Pappula Podi:

1. Add a tablespoon of Podi to fistful of cooked rice. Add a teaspoon of ghee. Mix and make small rounds. Eat.

2. Add a tablespoon of Podi to cooked rice and dal (tomato or spinach etc). Add a teaspoon of ghee. Mix and eat.

3. Prepare dosas and spread the pappula Podi on the dosa for Masala Dosa. Yum!

4. Dunk and coat the Idly, Upma and pongal morsels in Pappula Podi, and eat. My new favorite is Pappula Podi and oatmeal upma combination.

5. I also add pappula Podi to vegetable curries. Cabbage, bell pepper, green beans and Indian variety broad beans (Chikkudu kaya), the sauté style curries with these vegetables taste great spiced with pappula Podi. I usually sprinkle one tablespoon of this powder before turning off the heat.)

6. Add roasted onion, garlic and few branches of fresh cilantro to Pappula Podi, along with about half glass of water. Grind to smooth to make an instant chutney.

Pappula Podi

Buggani, the name itself makes my mouth water. A simple and common dish, prepared with puffed rice or borugulu , it’s traditionally served as breakfast in our Rayalaseema region. My mother makes the best buggani in the whole world, so I follow my mothers recipe exactly to the last words.

In Nandyala, my hometown in India, we buy freshly made puffed rice from street vendors. Here in US, in Indian grocery shops, puffed rice is available in only one size i.e. 14 OZ packets. Usually I prepare Buggani with half of that (25o g) packet for us two.

Recipe:

Puffed rice
One big onion – finely chopped lengthwise
4 green chillies – made into paste
1 tsp each of salt and oil
Pinch of turmeric
Popu
1/2 tsp each of cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, few curry leaves and one red chilli
extras
1 tablespoon of roasted chickpea powder(putnala pappu podi)
1/4 cup of roasted peanuts
1 lime

Buggani needs hot, spiciness from green chillies. So don’t hesitate to add enough green chillies.

Preparation:

First, take a big pot, fill half of it with tap water and add puffed rice to the water. Because of lightweight, they will float. Using your hands push them under water for few seconds. Let them soak water. Exactly after 5 minutes, remove them from water by taking handfuls and firmly squeezing the water from them by pressing the hands together tightly. Remove them all from water in this way and put them in a colander.

In a large frying pan over medium heat, heat one tsp of oil and do the popu (frying the mustard seeds, cumin, red chillies and curry leaves in oil). Add onions, sauté them until light brown, then add green chilli paste, sauté it till it turns from bright green to light green colour, don’t brown it. Finally add a pinch of turmeric and salt. Stir them all once and turn off the heat.

Add this hot onion mixture immediately to puffed rice along with roasted peanuts and roasted chickpea powder. Mix them all together and add salt if needed. That’s it. Serve them as soon as you prepare them.

Just before eating, squeeze few drops of lime. We usually serve this Buggani along with few pieces of finely chopped onions (washed in water beforehand), some more roasted peanuts, and a lemon wedge.

I like dosas of all kinds, when Mika posted a dosa recipe with sprouted moong dal, I knew I had to try it. At least once a month, I do the whole, three day, moong dal sprouting thing – meaning- soaking moong dal overnight in water, next morning draining the water from the soaked moong dal and hanging them in a wet cheesecloth (aka-clean cotton cloth with tiny wholes) by the kitchen window. Because of hot weather these days, the moong dal loses the moisture quickly so you have to wet the cloth frequently. By the next day, there you have it- sprouted moong dal. What’s more beautiful than sprouted beans, with their tiny white sprouts protruding.

Most of the times, we saute them lightly, sprinkle some salt, instead of popcorn etc., we munch on them. Sometimes we do the whole onion, coconut, green chilli, saute in oil thing. Now by trying this recipe, we found another great way to consume sprouted moong dal.

I mostly followed Mika’s recipe, grinded the sprouts adding ginger, chillies and salt. Then, to grinded mixture I also added cumin seeds, half cup of water, finely chopped onions and cilantro. Mixed all the ingredients thoroughly and prepared the dosas. They are more like utappam version of pesarattus, thicker and more tastier because I used sprouted moong dal.

Served with coconut-cilantro chutney, we couldn’t get enough of them. These gave us great satisfying taste with minimal effort. Thanks to Mika for a great recipe.

The recipe for this lentil soup comes from the kitchens of my amma and ammamma. During the summer months in Rayalaseema, when temperatures reach 100F* and above, my mother prepares this watery rasam (soup) with toor dal, to calm our stomachs from summer heat.

Recipe:
4 fistfuls of toor dal (half cup)
2 garlic cloves peeled,
½ teaspoon of red chilli powder & turmeric
Salt to taste
2 glasses of water
popu or tadka ingredients: 1 tsp each of cumin, mustard seeds, curry leaves

Take toor dal in a pressure cooker, add a glass of water, garlic, red chilli powder and turmeric. Close the lid and pressure cook them until 3 whistles. (Or simmer them in a saucepan until they are very tender and beginning to breakdown.) Once the valve pressure is all released, remove the lid and mash the dal to smooth paste. Add another glass of hot water and salt. Bring this diluted rasam to a boil.

Meanwhile, do the popu or tiragamata(frying mustard seeds, cumin and curry leaves in one tsp of oil) in a vessel, add this popu to the rasam. Because of extra glass of water addition, we’ve to cook the rasam for 10 more minutes on medium heat, partially covering the vessel. This simmering process brings out the richness of toor dal. Turn off the heat, let cool little bit, and serve warm.

This cream less creamy toor dal soup is great on its own, or you can have it with rice and ghee – a light meal any day of the week.

I enjoy going to flea market on weekends. I feel excited when I find a unique, useful item at a bargain price. Luckily what we have here in Ohio near our home is a flea/farmers market. We can buy stuff and fresh veggies too. Last Sunday, weather was fine and sun was out, so we decided to make a trip to the flea market. I bought cherries, white icicle radishes, red radishes, tomatoes, and cantaloupe. Vijay bought a Sony radio for 3 bucks and yes, it is working. He wanted one for his office room. I saw two very thick, aluminum, restaurant quality pans, but they have no lids, and so I decided to not buy. This is our first visit to this flea market as we recently moved here. Compared the flea market, where we used to go in Pittsburgh, this one is much bigger with lots of stalls. We went there around 9, walked for 3 hours, we still had a lot to browse. Well, the whole summer is ahead of us.

After coming home, I prepared white radish (mullangi) sambhar for our meal. They have mildly pungent taste, sweeter than the red skinned radish and they tasted delicious in sambhar.

White Icicle Radish ~ Fresh from Farmer’s Market

Recipe:

1 cup toordal
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric
One onion (if you find pearl onions, use them as whole, about 6 to 8 ), 2 ripe tomatoes and 6 white icicle radish – sliced thinly lenghtwise
3 tsp of tamarind (imli) pulp
1/2 teaspoon of red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt or to taste
2 teaspoons of sambhar powder (Homemade or storebought)
(I added jaggery to compensate the pungent taste of radish, about a tablespoon.)

Different vegetables give different flavors to the sambhar. You can use carrots, cauliflower, capsicum, potatoes, okra, eggplant, and cucumber; choose whatever you like or combinations.

1. Ingredients for Sambhar ……. 2. Pressure-cooked and Mashed Toor dal

Preparation:

Pressure-cook toor dal thoroughly until it falls apart with turmeric in two cups of water. Mash the cooked dal and make smooth paste. Keep it aside.

While the toor dal is pressure-cooked, heat 1 tsp of oil in a big saucepan. When oil is hot, do the tadka. Add and crackle some mustard seeds, jeera and curry leaves. Add onions, tomatoes, white radish, sauté them until they are well-cooked.

Stir in the tamarind juice, salt, red chilli powder, sambhar powder and one glass of water. Mix well. Cover the pot with a lid. Bring the water to boil and then add the mashed toor dal. Let simmer for fifteen minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally, till the wonderful sambhar aroma fills your kitchen.

Serve hot with rice. Don’t worry about leftover sambhar, it tastes even better the next day.

Sambhar is quite popular all over South India. How did the plain dal or pappu rasam turned into Sambhar? If you are curious, read this quite interesting story.

These easy to prepare no-meat burgers are great on their own or on buns. The recipe is from Eating Well magazine. I tried it today and they turned out good.

Recipe:

1 cup toordal or (recipe called for French green lentils, but I used toordal)
½ cup sliced almonds (badam)
1 tsp of salt
Vegetables:
½ cup carrots
1 onion
5 green chillies
cilantro (whatever herb you prefer, celery, thyme) finely chopped.
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
Magazine recipe also used eggs as binding agent, but I skipped the eggs.

Preparation:

Pressure cook lentils with little water or cook lentils in water until tender, drain the water, keep aside. Meanwhile, heat 1 tsp of oil in a skillet; add carrot, onions, chillies, cilantro and almonds. Sauté them until the almonds are lightly browned. Let them cool down a little bit. Then transfer the mixture to a food processor, add the cooked lentils and salt. Pulse several times, scraping the sides, until the mixture is coarsely ground. Take this mixture into a bowl, add lemon juice, and mix it well.

Form the lentil mixture into round patties. Heat 1 tsp of oil or ghee in a cast iron skillet. Add the patties, cook for 3 to 4 minutes on medium low, each side, until lightly browned. They are delicate; use a big spatula to turn them.

Serve them hot with ketchup.

Toor dal – Almond Burger with ketchup ~ our lunch today

Recipe source:Eating Well magazine

Buddala Pacchadi:

Peanut chutney is the usual accompaniment to breakfast dishes like upma, pongal, pesarattu, dosa, and vada at my home so I prepare peanut chutney quite often. Also it makes a decent substitute to coconut chutney. Fresh coconut is a premium thing here at Ohio, because of that whenever a chutney recipe is called for I usually go with home classic, a crowd pleaser and an Andhra delight ~ peanut chutney (Buddala pachadi in Telugu language).

Peanut Chutney Ingredients

Recipe:

1 cup – peanuts
5 dried red chillies
1 small onion and 1 garlic clove – sliced to big chunks
2 teaspoons – tamarind pulp or to taste
½ tsp salt or to taste
For popu or tadka – 1 tsp each – cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal and six curry leaves

First step is roasting the peanuts.

If I have some time to kill, I usually go for stove-top method.
Place an iron skillet on stove top and on medium heat, slowly roast the peanuts to golden brown color. Cool and rub the skins off. I love the roasted peanut taste produced in this slow-cooking method.

In a rush, needs to prepare quickly, then I go for microwave method.
Pick a wide and big microwave safe bowl. Place peanuts and microwave them for 2-4 minutes, uncovered. How fast the roasting process is done depends on how powerful the microwave is and the quantity of peanuts. After each minute of microwaving, remove the bowl and mix or turn the peanuts with a spoon for even cooking. Microwave again for another one minute and repeat the process. Do this until the cream colored peanuts turn to light brown color. I have to warn you though, just like in any roasting process, microwave method is also a delicate one and in a split second perfectly golden peanuts could turn to charcoal black. Please be careful and pay attention to the process, if this is your first time. Once you get the hang of it, it will be really a breeze to roast peanuts in a microwave.

Step Two:
Heat a tablespoon of oil to smoking point in an iron skillet. Add and brown dried red chillies, onion and garlic.

Wait few minutes for them to cool down. This cooling process somehow increases the chutney taste tremendously and saves the motor blade of your mixer from melting.

Take roasted peanuts in a blender/food processor. Grind to fine.
Add other ingredients, plus tamarind, salt and a cup of water.
Grind to fine consistency.
Remove the chutney to a bowl.
Do the popu or tadka (toast popu ingredients listed above, in half teaspoon of oil in a vessel), add them to the chutney. This is always the final seasoning thing we do.
Mix and serve.

For breakfast dishes like upma, dosas, idlies etc, I always make the chutney little bit watery (see the chutney photo below). If the chutney is for rice (yes, it tastes quite good with rice also) I’d make the chutney little bit tight with as little amount of water as possible. (In the first case we have to dunk the breakfast item in chutney and in second case we have to mix it with rice and shape it into a round.)

Peanut Chutney