Mahanandi

Eggplant- different names and its culinary journey through different cultures is quite interesting. Whatever you do with this vegetable, it always comes out as a winner in the taste department. It’s the only vegetable who has songs written about it (praising the taste) in my native language Telugu. Even though what’s available here is different in shape and taste from that of, my home place, I still cook it the same way and it tastes great.

Eggplant Curry:

First, make a powder of 3 red chillies, one garlic clove, small piece of ginger, 2 tsps of dry coconut and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Next, wash the eggplant thoroughly to lose the wax coating. Pat it dry and cut it into small cubes. In a pan, add 1 tsp of oil, when it is hot, do the popu (frying cumin, mustard seeds and curry leaves). Now add the eggplant cubes, toss them a few times, then spread them evenly in the pan. Reduce the heat; let them cook for few minutes. Sprinkle a pinch of turmeric, half tsp of salt and the red chilli powder prepared earlier, toss them again. On low heat, cook them for few more minutes. Switch off the heat before they turn into big shapeless mush.

Served with rice and ghee, a cup of yogurt on the side – one satisfying meal.

Carrots and bananas – what happens when you put the two together, you get a deliciously rich and different dessert that’s the best of both. The recipe is my own – out with the pineapple, cloves, all-spice and eggs – in goes the bananas and cardamom. They give the cake a wonderful, fruity, honeyed fragrance. The recipe is somewhat different but tastes as good, I might say, even better than the traditional carrot cake.

Recipe:
2 cups of Betty Crocker pancake flour
2 cups of grated carrots
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dry unsweetened coconut flakes
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 tsp of baking soda
Mix all of the above in a big bowl.

5 cardamom pods- peel and powder the seeds inside
2 big ripe bananas- peel, mash and beat until fluffy
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup to 1 cup of brown sugar- (your wish)
In another big bowl, mix them well.

I used the pancake flour only because I want to finish off the BIG packet, purchased at Costco last winter. You can always substitute that with all-purpose flour. You can purchase dry unsweetened coconut, golden raisins and cardamom at low prices in an Indian grocery shop.

Now back to cake making – Preheat the oven to 350 F. Meanwhile fold the wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly but not hard. Add some milk and combine again if the batter is too tight. Pour this mixture into a big round buttered cake pan. Bake the cake at 350 F, for about 30 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool it before applying frosting or decorating. The topping on the carrot cake is walnut-coconut caramel (see the post below for the recipe)

Comparable to an Indian version of carrot sweet called carrot halwa, this carrot cake is simply moist, rich and delicious.

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.

I prepared a big block of paneer this weekend. Half of it went into the palak paneer and with the remaining half, I prepared this tasty kadai paneer, today.

Ingredients:
Three ripe juicy tomatoes, 4 bell peppers, small onion – all cut into small pieces
Half tsp of ginger- garlic-cilantro paste
Cumin-coriander powder, salt and red chilli powder~ each half tsp or as per your taste
10 to 15 paneer cubes.

Preparation:

Just like the regular curry, first fry the onions in 1 tsp of oil, then add g-g-c paste and c-c powder, sauté them little bit, then add salt, red chilly powder, tomatoes and bell peppers. Cook them for few minutes until the gravy (juice from tomatoes) thickens, then add paneer cubes. Simmer them for few more minutes in the gravy.

Kadai paneer and chapati- that’s one good and filling combination

You can always substitute paneer with very firm tofu. I often make paneer curries with tofu. Different taste, but after knowing how they obtain milk here, I cautiously use milk and its products.

I learned the organized approach to cooking North Indian dishes from Deviji, a kind Punjabi lady, our neighbor in Pittsburgh, when we were living there. She taught me how to cook my favorites, she insisted that I come and see how she prepares in her kitchen so that I won’t forget. She used to say if you see, you won’t forget, particularly cooking. I think that is true. My entire north Indian cooking is her recipes including the paneer post below. Hope you try them and enjoy as much as we do. Here is one…The famous palak paneer

Recipe:

One big bunch of spinach (fresh green ones)
Paneer ~10 to 15 cubes
One medium sized ripe tomato
Green chillies 5, half onion~ chopped finely into small pieces
Half tsp of garlic-ginger-cilantro paste
One tsp of dhania-jeera (coriander-cumin) powder
Quarter cup cashews
Half tsp of salt

Preparation:

Spinach and Green Chillies – Wash the spinach, cut or tear them into big pieces. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a wide skillet. First add green chillies to hot oil, then spinach. Saute until the leaves are wilted. Turn off the heat. Wait few minutes to cool. Add them to a blender and also a pinch of salt – blend to smooth paste. Adding green chillies to spinach puree is very important step; it gives punch to bland spinach.

Tomato- Boil tomato in hot water till the skin break down, remove the skin, mash the tomato to a pulp.

Cashews- Roast cashews lightly, make fine powder of them.

Paneer- Lightly saute paneer cubes in one teaspoon of ghee till they are golden brown. (This is optional, you can add paneer cubes just as they are.)

Now with the curry:

Add one teaspoon of ghee or oil to a wide skillet. When it is hot, fry the onions till translucent. Add ginger-garlic-cilantro paste and dhania-jeera powder, mix them and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.

Now add pureed spinach, tomato and cashew powder along with a pinch of turmeric and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly and add water if needed. Do not dilute the curry too much. It should not spread like flooding river when served on a plate.

Cook it covered on low flame for about 5 to 10 minutes. Just before turning off the heat, add the paneer cubes. Mix them with the spinach (palak). Let simmer for 2 or 3 minutes and then turn off the heat.

Serve the curry hot with chapatis (rotis) or with rice. Also for novelty, you can make a Palak Panner Naanini (Split naan into two layers, apply generous potions of palak paneer in-between. Grill or Oven-broil for few minutes and serve with yogurt raita.) Anyway you prefer, palak paneer is truly a guilt free, satisfying, well balanced delicious dish.

Palak Paneer with Chapatis ~ Our Meal Today

My Mother in law sent me this powder. I tried to make the powder here, but the garlic available in US markets is too moist and mild, lack the sharp burning taste of Indian variety.

Few garlic cloves, lots of dried red chillies and salt pounded in a stone mortar into fine powder, adding just one teaspoon gives a kick to bland vegetable curries. Rice, dal and ghee mixed together with this powder, that’s home and comfort food to me.

Fresh radishes that we get here in spring time are the best. They make a colorful curry-salad, has a bit of crunch and lots of flavor and when served with chapatis, makes a satisfying light lunch.

Recipe:

Fresh Radishes 15 to 20
Red pepper flakes 1 tsp
Salt and turmeric each 1/4 tsp
For popu or tadka: 1 tsp each mustard seeds, cumin, minced garlic & curry leaves

Preparation is very simple. First, scrub and wash the radishes, remove the damaged ones. It’s not necessary to peel if they are fresh. Dice or slice them into bite-sized pieces.

In a pan, add 1 tsp of oil, do the popu, add the radishes, saute them for few minutes. Add salt and red pepper flakes, cover and cook them for few seconds. Don’t over cook them, they will turn into soggy tasteless bits. They taste better when they are served hot. You can prepare this curry while making chapatis. All it takes is 5 minutes, that’s it.

It is difficult to muster much enthusiasm for radishes, I know. But they are rich source of vitamin C and look colorful when cooked. Hold your nose and munch them for your health. That’s the way I eat my radishes.

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.

We Indians make pickle out of almost everything from mangoes to fish. “Even if we don’t have anything to eat, we can survive on pickle and rice” is the common dialogue in our Telugu movies between love struck hero and heroine. Father of the heroine always cautions her against hero, “If you marry him, you know what will happen to you, you have to live on pickles”. Pickles are that common in our household.

Lime pickle is particularly good because it is tangy and hot at the same time. Tastes good with dal, rasam and sambhar and on boiled eggs.

My version of lime pickle:

Take 12 limes. Wash and pat them dry. Take 4 out of them, cut them and squeeze the juice in a cup, keep aside. Cut the remaining 8 limes into 4 or 8 wedges depending on their size.

Mix the cut pieces with 6 teaspoons iodine free salt, and lime juice. Mix thoroughly. Take them in a clean, dry glass or porcelain jar with tight lid. Keep them tightly covered for about 4 days.

On 5th day – dry roast 1 tsp each of cumin, mustard and fenugreek (methi) seeds grind them to fine powder. Add this powder into the jar along with pinch of turmeric and 5 tsp of red chilli powder; mix thoroughly with a clean dry spoon.

Keep the lid tight for another 3 days, so that the lime wedges can absorb all the flavors and soften. (This time period depends on the thickness of lime rinds. If they are thin, they will soften up within a week and if they are thick, they would take atleast a month. My recipe is prepared with thin skinned, juicy limes and they changed from hard to firmly-soft in a short time.)

After that time period and just before serving the pickle:
Heat 4 tsp of oil, toast one teaspoon of mustard seeds in oil until they start to crackle and then turn off the heat. Bring this seasoned oil to room temperature and then add this oil to the pickle. Mix well and thouroughly. Serve and enjoy with rice, dal and ghee.

Pickling is like making jam. Take extra precaution in using the dry utensils, jar, spoons and your hands. Using the wet or damp things is a sure way to spoil the pickle.

I’d like to contribute something to SHF but I don’t know any sugary dishes with citrus except lemon juice with honey. So this is my hot not sugary citrus contribution to SHF. Thanks Stephanie for the suggestion.

To clear the confusion, Lemon in India = Lime in US.

Added on June 06:

Thin skinned and juicy limes are preferred for this type of pickle.

If you find them still firm even after 15 days – keep them undisturbed for one to two months -they will sure get softened. And you need to see that sufficient limejuice and salt is avialble for softening process. The pickle should never look dried out at any stage. Traditionally at our homes in India, minimum two months are given for pickles to soften and juiced up.

Usually finely ground pickle masala (cumin, mustard and fenugreek (methi) and red chilli powder) is added. And you can adjust the amount of this ground spice pickle masala to suit your taste.

I prefer Savoy cabbage. It has a mild flavor and I recently found out it has more folic acid and beta carotenes than regular cabbage, so an extra dollar I spend on this variety is not a waste.

Mandoline is a useful thing to have, it has a way with cabbage, don’t you agree? You can cut cabbage into thin strips in a jiff with mandoline. When I used this contraption for cabbage, I was relieved to know that I didn’t waste 19 bucks, you see, it was a middle of the afternoon, impulsive, first time purchase from HSN. Ya, sometimes I do buy things from TV shopping networks.

Back to cabbage curry…

Recipe:

I medium sized Savoy Cabbage: Cut cabbage into thin long strips. Remember cabbage reduces in volume by 60 to 70% when cooked.
1 onion, 5 green chillies finely chopped.
1/4 cup of soaked chana dal
2 tsp of coconut powder
1/2 tsp of each, salt and turmeric
popu or tadka ingredients: 1 tsp each of cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and curry leaves

Preparation:

First do the popu (fry mustard seeds, cumin, garlic and curry leaves in oil), then add onions, chillies and chana dal, sauté them.

Add cabbage, salt, coconut powder and turmeric, mix them together. Cover and cook the cabbage in its own moisture. It will retain more nutrients in this way, (rather than cooking it in water, draining and then adding).

Five minutes maximum, curry is done. Have it with chapati or with rice and dal.

Cabbage curry, chapatis and cup of yogurt ~ our lunch today.

This potato kurma with soya chunks goes great with rice or chapatis/nans.

Recipe:

3 to 4 potatoes peeled and cut into cubes
4 juicy tomatoes and 1 onion cut into small pieces
Half cup peas
1 tsp of ginger,garlic,cilantro paste,
2 tsp coconut powder (fresh or dried)
1 tsp each of red chilli powder, salt and turmeric
popu or tadka ingredients (read the preparation)

I also added protein rich soya chunks (the white round ones in the photo below) to this carbo rich curry.

Add 1 tsp of oil to a hot pan, saute 1 tsp of each cumin, mustard seeds(popu or tadka), when they start to splutter, add garlic ginger cilantro paste, sauté it, and then add onions, tomatoes and peas.

Once the tomatoes are well cooked and juicy, add potatoes, soya chunks, salt, red chilli powder, coconut powder, turmeric and little bit of water. Cook them covered, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are tender, for about 10 to 15 mts, on medium flame.

Chapati and potato kurma, yum…. this is good eating. How many times I prepare and eat this curry, the taste never gets boring.

Like chillies, bell peppers are also members of the capsicum family. They range in color from green through to orange, yellow, red and now the latest fancy color in US markets is purple.

The most common varity we see in Nandyala region is green bell peppers. They have refreshing juicy flesh and crisp texture. And unlike mature bell peppers yellow and red, they do not have sweet flesh, which suit the curry preparations.

The following is a traditional recipe with green bell peppers from Nandyala, India. In peanut sweet and sour sauce, this beloved bell pepper curry is easy to prepare and tastes quite good.

Green Capsicum, Tomato and Onion

Recipe:
3 green bell peppers (capsicums)
1 small onion
1 big, ripe tomato
Cut the above vegetables into bite-sized pieces.

For gravy:
1 cup of roasted, unsalted peanuts, skins removed
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
2 tbsps of tamarind juice
2 tbsps of crushed jaggery or cane sugar
2 cloves, 1-inch cinnamon stick, 1 tsp cumin (jeera)
1/2 tsp of salt.
Grind all the above into a smooth paste by adding half cup of water.
Sometimes I substitute peanuts with toasted sesame seeds and sometimes I combine both peanuts and sesame seeds for different tastes.

Preparation:

In a pan, add one teaspoon of oil, when it is hot, add pinch each –jeera (cumin) and mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the cut vegetables. Saute until they are half cooked. Stir in the prepared peanut paste and half cup of water. Mix well, taste the gravy and add jaggery, salt and red chilli powder if needed. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes on medium flame, covered, stirring occasionally, till the bell peppers become tender and gravy thickens.

This capsicum curry tastes great with rice and with chapati.

Capsicum in peanut sauce with rice ~ Our meal today.

Taro root (Chaama Dumpalu) is a starchy tuber vegetable like potato but has nut-like flavor when cooked. I know four recipes with taro root, among all; the easiest one is this taro root rasam or soup.

Boil 5 medium sized taro roots (chaama dumpalu) in water for about 5 to 8 minutes. Don’t keep the roots in hot water for too long. They must be firm, not soft or mushy to touch after removing from the water.

Remove them from the water. Peel the skin off. The skin comes off easily and the tuber inside holds its shape without going all mushy. That’s the result of timely removal from hot water and is what we want for this recipe.

Cut each one into one inch thick round pieces.

Ingredients to make taro root soup (chaama dumpala rasam):

1 small onion, cut into thin long pieces
3 tablespoons of tamarind juice,
Small piece of jaggery or 2 tsp of sugar
1/4 tsp of redchilli powder and turmeric
1/2 tsp of salt
popu ingredients: 1 tsp each of mustard seeds, cumin, minced garlic and curry leaves

Preparation:

On medium flame, in a saucepan, add one tsp of oil, do the popu (tiragamata).To it add onions, fry them little bit, and then add tamarind juice, salt, red chilli powder, jaggery (sugar), and one cup of water. Stir them once, cover and bring it to boil. Remove the lid and add taro root pieces and let it simmer for few more minutes.

Serve the rasam hot with rice.

Taro root rasam

Pressure-cooking with toor dal is the most common way that we consume green leafy vegetables like spinach etc., in our home. Combine all the ingredients below; mix them with one glass of water and pressure cook. Within a half an hour, you can have a tasty, nutritious dal. Mix it with steamed rice for a complete meal, or enjoy it like a light and filling soup.

Recipe:

One bunch of Spinach, washed and cut or tiered into big pieces
One cup of Toor dal (Kandi Pappu)
One medium sized tomato and onion, cut into pieces
One tsp of chilli powder or 7 to 8 Indian variety green chillies
Half tsp of turmeric (pasupu)
Key-lime size tamarind (Chinta pandu)
One glass of water
For popu or tadka:
1 teaspoon of peanut oil or ghee
1 teaspoon of each – cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic, chana dal, urad dal and few pieces of curry leaves and dried red chilli pieces

After pressure-cooking all of the above ingredients, add 1 tsp of salt and with a whisk or a wood masher make a paste of spinach dal.

In a saucepan, add one tsp of oil or ghee and lightly fry the minced garlic, urad dal, chana dal, cumin and mustard seeds, red chilli pieces and curry leaves. This is called “Popu” or “Tiragamata”in Telugu. Without the Popu the dal is not ‘dal’, so don’t even think about skipping this step. Popu not only adds wonderful fragrance to dal, hot oil or ghee with all other toasted ingredients makes the dal more palatable, sort of like dressing it up.

Add the spinach dal to the popu and combine them together. Serve the dal with rice or with chapati/roti.

Our meal:
Spinach dal with rice, ghee and papad and of course a cup of yogurt on the side.

Recipe Source: Amma