Milagu Kuzhambhu or Pepper Sambhar

This is one of my favourite sambhar for those lazy cold nights.
I have two different recipes.
One of my granny's and other my mil.
Today I am posting my grand mother's recipe.
Basic ingredients though remain same but my mother in law adds cooked dal, coconut and coriander leaves while grinding and also she uses only pepper(no red chillies) and no tamarind pulp.
Any way I will post her recipe sometime later in detail with pictures.

Ingredients:
Tamarind - 1 medium lemon size, soaked in warm water and juice extracted,
Jaggery - 1 small marble size,
Salt.

To Temper:
Oil - 1 teaspoon,
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon,
Asafoetida - a pinch,
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig,

To Roast and Grind:
Chana Dal - 2 teaspoon,
Coriander seeds - 11/2 teaspoons,
Urad dal - 3/4 teaspoon,
Red Chillies - 1,
Pepper - 1 teaspoon,
Curry Leaves - 5-8 leaves,
Asafoetida- a pinch,
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon.

Method:
Dry roast ingredients, except turmeric, under roast and grind table, until dals are evenly browned.
Cool and grind to fine powder with turmeric and keep aside.
In a kadai add oil and heat it.
Add mustard seeds, once it crackles add asafoetida and curry leaves.
Add tamarind juice, salt and jaggery.
Boil until you get nice blended aroma of jaggery and tamarind (approximately 2-3 minutes).
Add the ground powder and boil until you get sambhar consistency or medium thickness.
Enjoy with steamed rice.

Note:
While adding ground powder, take care not to form lumps.
 If you are not confident mix water with ground powder to make a paste and then pour to the sambhar.
If the sambhar becomes thin, mix a teaspoon of rice flour in water and add to sambhar and give it a boil and serve. 

Saagu for Poori

This is a very yummy tasty saagu recipe, just the restaurant style.
IT is very common saagu given with poori in all the restaurants in Bangalore Mysore.
It can also be used as an accompaniment with chapathi, paratha or rawa idly.
Tastes very yummy and can made very quickly.
Now coming to the recipe,

Ingredients:
Oil - 2 teaspoon,
Onion - 1 large finely chopped,
Tomatoes - 2-3 medium finely chopped,
Mixed Vegetables - 250 grams(French beans, carrot, potato, cauliflower..),
Green Peas - 1 fistful,
Salt.

To Grind:
Cinnamon - 1 inch,
Cloves - 5,
Fried gram - 1 tablespoon,
Fennel seeds - 1 teaspoon,
Poppy Seeds - 1 teaspoon,
Coconut grated - 1/2 cup,
Turmeric - 1/2 teaspoon,
Green Chillies - 8-10,
Coriander leaves - 1 tablespoon,
Ginger - 1 inch,
Garlic - 2-3 cloves.

Method:
Grind the ingredients under the grinding table to smooth paste and keep aside.
In a pressure cooker heat oil.
Add chopped onion and fry until pink.
Add chopped tomatoes and fry until mushy.
Add veggies and fry for a minute.
Add ground paste and salt.
Add 1/2 cup hot water.
Pressure cook for 1 whistle.
Allow to cool and mix well and serve hot with poori, chapathi or even ghee rice.

Note:
Take care not to cook vegetables too much.
Take a small pressure cooker as to reduce the cooking time.
Alternatively you can steam cook the veggies and add after frying the ground masala.
Fry masala, when it smells heavenly add cooked veggies and add water to adjust the consistency.
Add green chillies according to your taste and sharpness of green chillies.

 

Paneer Pakoda

Paneer is very favourite in my family.
My son loves paneer in all form of sabjis and also in pulao and biryanis.
Though he doesn't like deep fried stuff, but when it comes to paneer, he loves paneer pakoda.

Now coming to the recipe:
Ingredients:
Paneer - 250 grams,

For Batter:
Gram flour or Besan - 1 cup,
Rice flour - 1 tablespoon,
Corn flour - 1 teaspoon,
Red chilly powder - 1 teaspoon,
Turmeric powder - a pinch,
Cumin Seeds - 1 teaspoon,
Soda Bi carbonate - a pinch,
Salt.

Oil for deep frying.

Method:
If you are using store bought paneer, thaw them in warm water until it is fried in the batter.
Mix the ingredients under batter table into medium thick consistency batter.
Heat the oil for frying.
Squeeze the water from paneer.
Dip in the batter and deep fry evenly, until golden brown.
Remove them on a tissue paper to drain excess oil.
Sprinkle chat masala and serve.

Note:
Instead of cumin you can add carom seeds or ajwain.
Make sure that you squeezed the water well from paneer, before dipping in the batter, else it will make batter too watery.
 

Aloo Bonda

During my school days I used love the fried snacks when I come back from school.
But now I don't like it as much I used to when I was little, might be because  I have become a bit more conscious of health and also I don't reuse the oil once used.
I have to throw, so I completely avoid frying.
But my little daughter loves fried stuff, so sometimes I make it for her.
I do fried stuff only when I have guests, so that it will be shared with the guests and don't end up eating a lot more of them.
Though this bonda has potato stuffing, yet completely different from vada pav, vada stuffing. Will post it some other time.
Now coming to the recipe,

Ingredients:

For Batter:

Besan or Gram flour - 1 cup,
Rice flour - 1 table spoon,
Salt,
Turmeric powder - a pinch,
Red Chilly Powder - 1 teaspoon,
Cooking Soda or soda Bi carbonate - a pinch,
Water.

For Stuffing:
Potato - 2 medium,
Oil - 1 teaspoon,
Mustard - 1/2 teaspoon,
Asafoetida - a pinch,
Chana Dal - 1/2 teaspoon,
Green Chillies - 2-3 finely chopped,
Curry leaves - 6-8 leaves chopped,
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon,
Lemon juice - 2 teaspoon,
Chopped Coriander - 1 teaspoon,
Salt.
Oil for frying.

Method:
Boil potatoes with salt.
Once cooked, peel the skin and mash them and keep aside.
In a pan heat oil. Add mustard and asafoetida.
Add chana dal and fry until light brown.
Add green chillies and curry leaves.
Add turmeric powder.
Add cooked and mashed potato.
Mix well and adjust the salt.
Remove from heat and add lemon juice and coriander.
Mix well and keep aside to cool.
Meantime  mix all the ingredients under the batter table to make a thick batter.
Heat oil for frying.
Make balls of potato mixture to medium size balls.
To make sure oil is properly heated, check by dropping very little batter into the oil.
If the batter comes up immediately, then it is ready to fry.
Dip potato balls in the batter, take care to coat the potato balls very well, drop in the oil slowly.
Turn the heat to medium and fry the bondas all round to even brown colour by occasionally turning them.
Drain excess oil on a tissue paper and enjoy with chutney and coffee or tea.

Note:
Take care the batter to be thick, otherwise it might not coat the potato balls evenly.
If you wish, you can add 1 medium onion chopped before adding potato.
Fry until soft and then add potato.



 

Rice Semia Upma

I always like rice base dishes, like rice semolina upma, rice flour rotti or even rice semia or vermicelli.
I used do this rice vermicelli like any other upma with onion and vegetables, until I tasted in a udupi restaurant.
It is on the highway between Bangalore and Mysore. I don't remember the name of the restaurant as it was very long back, when I was in India and used to travel frequently from Bangalore to Mysore.
But When I tasted it for the first time, my taste buds just opened up so instantly, even the third plate was not enough to satisfy me.
After that every trip to Mysore Bangalore was incomplete without this upma.
After moving out of India, I used to crave for it and then decided to make it as the taste was still lingering in my mouth.
After making and tasting, I was happy as it tasted almost the same.
My affinity towards udupi cuisine might be because of the food I used to have in sudha aunty's kitchen.
I was soo used to it and loved it every time. Though in my family, they never use coconut oil in their cooking, I love the taste and aroma of it.
Now coming to the recipe,

Ingredients:
Rice Vermicelli - 250 grams,
Salt,
Sugar - 1 tablespoon,
Lemon juice - 1 table spoon,
Coconut grated - 2 tablespoon,
Oil - 2 teaspoon,
Mustard - 1 teaspoon,
Asafoetida - a pinch,
Urad dal - 1 teaspoon,
Cashew - 15-20 broken,
Green chillies - 5-6 chopped finely,
Curry leaves - 10-15 leaves,
Coriander - 1 tablespoon chopped finely,
Coconut oil - 1 tablespoon.

Method:
Cook rice vermicelli in lot of boiling water with enough salt and a teaspoon of oil.
Once vermicelli is cooked, drain water and pour enough cold water immediately to stop further cooking.
In a broad pan heat oil, add mustard and hing.
Once the mustard splutters, add urad dal and cashew.
Once dal turns pink, add green chillies and curry leaves.
Remove from flame and add cooked vermicelli.
Mix gently, not to make the vermicelli mushy.
Adjust the salt, remember that salt was added while cooking the vermicelli.
Add sugar.
Now bring back to low heat and just warm it. Remove from heat.
Add coconut and chopped coriander and mix well.
Finally add coconut oil for that extra flavour and enjoy this wonderful rice vermicelli.

Note:
Coconut oil adds extra flavour and taste to the upma,  but it is completely up to your taste.
Again adding sugar is also completely up to your taste, but  I liked the sweet taste of the vermicelli.
You can serve this vermicelli upma with chutney of your choice.
 

Poppy seeds Kheer

One more to my mil's corner.

My mil is an expert in pickling which can go for years.

I will try to post those traditional pickling when I get to see the authentic way she does it.

But for now it is her popy seeds kheer or gasa gase payasa

Ingredients:

Poppy seeds - 1 cup,
Raw rice - 1tblspn,
Jaggery - 11/2-2 cups(preferably powdered as this will reduce the cooking time),
Cashew - 5-6,
Badam - 8-10,
Cardamom powder -1/2 tspn,
Coconut - 1cup(fresh or frozen).

Method:

In a pan dry roast popppy seeds and rice until it emits nice roasted aroma and slightly browned and rice turns bleached.

Take care not to burn the poppy seeds.

Grind the above with coconut, cashew and badam to fine smooth paste.

In a broad vessel mix 1/2 cup of water and jaggery and boil until jaggery is completely dissolved.

Strain it for any impurities and return it back to flame.

Boil for couple of more mins until you get the nice sweet smell of jaggery and now lower the flame and slowly add the ground paste.

Keep mixing, until it mixes up smoothly without any lumps.

Allow it boil for 5 - 6 mins approximately, until you get smooth pouring consistency

 Add cardamom powder.

 Serve chilled or hot.

Note:
Poppy seeds to be ground to very smooth paste.
Lower the flame while adding the ground paste to the jaggery syrup otherwise in high flame the mixture may curdle.
You can also fry some cashew amd raisins in ghee and add to kheer.
If you are using the left over the next day, do not forget to refrigerate as it may turn sour.
The next day you can add a little milk and heat it up and serve.

 

Sambhar for Idly

This recipe is been asked by my many friends. Now I am posting it today.
This is a typical Bangalore darshini style udupi sambhar.
This recipe is from my friend's mom 'sudha aunty'.
Though I have great cooks in my family, to begin with my granny,(my dad's mom)no one can ever beat her food, and my dad, his sisters, his brother and my uncle(dad's brother-in-law).
My mom's mom was a fantastic cook.
In this generation my cousin sisters, all are very fantastic cooks.
But for me, I was very influenced by sudha aunty's cooking when I was just started to learn cooking.
I was amazed by her talent and interest, the way she used to cook, everything had a definite way of doing things.
Like measurement of ingredients, their roasting time, adding water, when, how much and so on....
The way she used to make sure that nothing goes to bin, or to make use of old clothes into foot mats and tea towels.
If I have to write about her, then I can write a whole of  3 to 4 posts.
Thanks sudha aunty for everything.
This is her recipe, she is from udupi.
I have made a bit of changes to suit our palate.

Ingredients:
Toor dal - 1 cup,
Tomatoes - 3-4(medium sized),
Onion - 1 large,
Turmeric - 1/2 teaspoon,
Tamarind - Small marble sized(soaked in warm water and juice extracted),
Salt,
Jaggery - 1 tablespoon.

For roasting and grinding:
Coconut Oil - 1 tablespoon,
Coriander seeds - 3 teaspoon,
Urad dal - 1 teaspoon,
Chana dal - 1 teaspoon,
Cumin - 1/2 teaspoon,
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 teaspoon,
Raw Rice - 1 teaspoon,
Curry leaves - 1 sprig,
Red chillies - 8-10,
Kashmiri Red Whole Chillies - 5-6,
Coconut - 1 cup.

For tempering:
Oil - 1 teaspoon,
Mustard - 1 tablespoon,
Red Chillies - 3-4,
Curry leaves - 1 sprig.

For Garnishing:
Coriander chopped - 1/2 medium bunch.

Method:
In a pressure cooker,  cook toor dal, onion, tomatoes and turmeric with enough water upto 3 whistles.
Once cooled, blend everything from the back of the ladle and keep aside.
Fry the ingredients under the roasting and grinding table, in coconut oil, except coconut.
When dals turn  brown, add coconut and fry for minute and remove from flame.
Cool it and grind it to smooth paste with water.
In a broad sauce pan bring tamarind water, salt and jaggery to boil.
Boil until the you get a nice aroma of tamarind and jaggery(approximately 4-5 minutes).
Add ground paste and bring to boil.
Add cooked dal and veggies. Let it boil for less than a minute and remove from flame.
Temper with the ingredients under the tempering table and garnish with chopped coriander and enjoy!!!







OR
You can alternatively,
Cook dal with turmeric with enough water.
In a broad sauce pan temper with the ingredients under ingredients table.
Add chopped onion and fry until soft.
Add chopped tomatoes and cook until soft and mushy.
Add tamarind juice, salt and jaggery.
Bring  it boil and boil for 4-5 minutes.
Add ground paste.
Boil it.
Add cooked dal and switch off the flame after just one boil.
Garnish with chopped coriander and enjoy!!!!!!!

Note:
Kashmiri Red chillies give nice colour, flavour and thickness to the dish.
Coconut oil gives exact udupi sambhar taste, but if you wish you can add normal vegetable oil.
Along with onion and tomatoes you can add any vegetable of your choice like, potato, brinjal, chow chow,  drumstick and so on.
This sambhar will be slightly sweetish.
After adding cooked dal never boil too much as the dish will lose its flavour and taste.