Mamidikaya/Mango Charu

This is another recipe which I love. Easy to do and yummy to taste. I believe a modified version of this called "aam ka panna" is very famous in Maharastra. So lets see this charu recipe:

Ingredients
Raw Mango (taste it to check if it is sour)
Green chillies
Curry leaves
Water
Salt to taste
Oil
Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds

Method of preparation

1)Peel the mango skin and chop it into small pieces. Add little water to mango pieces and put it on stove. (mango pieecs should be drowned in water. Do not add too much water at this point. We can add more water while making charu.)

2) After it is done try to mash the pieces with hand or masher until it is kind of soft water. If you want you can filter the water.
3) Take a kadai and add oil to it. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter after the oil is heated. Add jeera (cumin seeds) to it.
4) Add asafoetida to it now and also green chillies at this point. Now add the mango mixture and water to it.
5) Add salt to it and boil it for 5 minutes. 

This charu goes well with plain dal or any dal of your choice with rice.

Tamarind chaaru or pachi chaaru

This is one of the simple and easy to make dish. This item goes good with any dal & rice, or with papukaya(with any curry).



Ingredients
Tamarind - Lemon size
Onions - chopped into small pieces
Green chillies - chopped into small pieces
Cilantro (Coriander)
Salt to taste

Tadka:
Oil
Mustard Seeds
sesame seeds
Curry leaves (Optional)
Asafoetida (Optional)

Method of preparation
1. Soak tamarind for 1/2 hour or you can microwave for 1 minute and remove the pulp. Add enough water. Remember it might become too soar if you make it thick. So add enough water.

2. Add chopped onions, green chillies and salt to the above.

3. Now take a small vessel/bowl for tadka. Add oil and let it heat. Now add mustard seeds and let it splutter. add sesame seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida. switch off and add the tadka to the chaaru made on step 2.

Your chaaru is ready.

Terminology:
Tadka - Popu, talimpu, ponee(Telugu)
Coriander - Kothimeeru (Telugu)
Curry leaves - Karivepaaku (Telugu)
Tamarind - Chinthapandu (Telugu)

Challa Pulusu

This is one of very famous dish of our place Manthani.

Ingredients
Buttermilk(pulladi, Sour)
Ghee
Green chillis
Mustard seeds
Jeera
Asafoetida (Hing)
Curry Leaves
Ginger
Besan flour
Coriander
(Bhendi,Drumsticks and Radish are optional)

Method of Preparation
1. First mix 2 spoons of besan with buttermilk well(without solid balls).

 2. Take kadai and add 1 to 2 table spoons of ghee.

3. After ghee is heated , add mustard seeds.

4. Wait till mustard seeds pop then add jeera, chilli and grated ginger and 2 whole elaichi (cardommom), curry leaves. Add vegetables(optional).

5. Let it boil for 5 minutes. Then add the buttermilk mixture to it and boil for 10 minutes until it starts boiling.

6. Add salt and garnish with coriander.

Note: Shall post some pics soon.

Sambar

Sambar is very famous South Indian Recipe. This is a good combination for most of the Tiffins like Idli, Dosa, Pesarattu and also for Rice. There are lot of ways that you can do Sambar. One of the way is explained below. I used home-made Sambar Powder. But if you dont have any then use MTR, it tastes good. I dont have much experiance with other powders so I cannot comment on it. In the near future I shall publish how to do the sambar powder at home. It is pretty simple too. Now lets turn on to recipe.

Ingredients
Toor Dal - 1/2 Cup
Bottle Gourd - 1/4 Cup (Chopped length-wise)
Carrots - 1/4 Cup
Raddish - 1/4 Cup
Red Onions - 1/4 Cup (Can use normal onions chopped length-wise)
Chinese Okra - 1/4 Cup
Tomato - 1/2 piece (Optional)
Tamarind - small piece (Soaked in Water)
Oil - 4-5 Table Spoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 Table Spoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 Table Spoon
Asafoetida - a pinch
Sambar Powder - 1-2 Table Spoons
Turmeric - 1/2 Table Spoon
Chilli Powder - 1 Table Spoon
Coconut - Grated (4 Table Spoons)
Curry Leaves
Coriander
Salt to taste

Method of Preparation
1. Soak tamarind in water for about 15-30 minutes.

2. Cook dal and vegetables(Raddish, Carrot, bottle gourd) in the rice cooker. Cook until 3 whistles or until toor dal is done.



3. Take a deep pan and add oil to it. Let the oil get heated.

4. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, Asafoetida, Curry leaves and then Onions.
Note: If you wish to add ginger garlic paste then add it at this point.

5. let the onions turn brown or fry for few minutes. Then add Chinese Okra. Let the above cook for 2-3 minutes



6. Now add the cooked dal and vegetables to above.

7. Add Turmeric, Chilli Powder, Sambar Powder, Salt and cook for 2 minutes.

8. Sqeeze the pulp of tamarind in water, so that we can tamarind juice. Add this tamarind juice to the above. If you want it to be more liquid, you can add water also.

9. Cook until it comes to boil. Before removing from flame, add grated coconut and coriander. Cook for a minute and remove from flame. Serve with anything you like.

Rice with Sambar, Beans Curry and Mint Chutney is our dinner yesterday.



Preparation Time:10-15 minutes(Excluding from cooking toor dal)
Category: Main Coarse(Liquid)

Terminology:
Toor dal - Kandi Pappu(Telugu)
Bottle Gourd - Sorakaya(Telugu), Kaddu(Hindi)
Chinese Okra - Bendakaya(Telugu), Bhendi(Hindi)
Raddish - Mullangi(Telugu), Muli(Hindi)
Asafoetida - Ingu(Telugu)
Cauliflower - Gobi(Telugu), Phool Gobi(Hindi)


Variation:
1. Maharastrian people add cauliflower also in Sambar. It tastes good too. :)

2. Can add Tamarind paste if Tamarind is not available.

3. All the vegetables can be optional. You can add most of the vegetables in the sambar or can add only onions and make it too.