Sorakaya Sprouts Curry

A healthy nutritious and tasty curry to go with either rice or roti. We had it with both.

Ingredients
Sorakaya/bottle gourd - 1 long, peeled, and chopped into small pieces
Moong dal Sprouts - 1 cup
Oil - 1 and 1/2 table spoon
Cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon
Red chilli powder/Green chillis chopped ( I did not have green chillis at home yesterday so went with red chilli powder option)
Dhania powder - 1 table spoon
Salt to taste (I used 1 and 1/2 table spoon, you can use according to your taste)
Lime/lemon juice - 1-2 spoons

Method of preparation
1) Take a kadai or pan and add oil to it.

2) After it is heated, add cumin seeds to it. if you are planning to add green chillis then add it at this point. Add sorakaya pieces and spouts to it. Add a little turmeric and then cover and cook until sorakaya pieces are almost done.

3) At this point, add red chilli powder (if you wish to) along with salt and dhania powder.Optionally you can add tomatos at this point and cook for a minute until they are nicely done.

4) Just before turning it off add lemon juice to it. Your curry is ready to serve and eat.

Sorakaya Perugu Pachadi/Sorakaya Raita/Doodhi yogurt chutney

Ingredients
Sorakaya/Doodhi - Peeled, Chopped and Boiled in water
Yogurt/Perugu/Sour cream
Salt to taste
Coriander

For tadka
Oil
Mustard seeds
Red chillies
Cumin seeds

Method of preparation
1) Peel, chop and boil doodhi pieces in water . Add salt to water if you want the pieces to be a little sour.

2) Take a serving bowl. Add doodhi/sorakaya pieces to it along with Perugu and salt to taste.

3) Prepare tadka by adding oil to a small bowl. After oil is heated add mustard seeds. After they splutter, add cumin seeds, asafoetida turn off.

4) Crush the fried red chillies either with pestel and mortar or in blender. Add tadka and the red chillies crush to the serving bowl. Mix everything nicely so that the taste spreads out evenly.

Your raita is ready to serve.

Veggie Penne Pasta

Ingredients
Penne Pasta
Capsicum
Onion
Marinara Sauce
Olive oil

Method of preparation
1) Boil Penne pasta in a water as per the instructions on the pasta box. For me, I did

2) Take a kadai/wok. Add olive oil and then after it is warm, add chopped onions capsicum to it.

3) after a minute or two when you feel that they are cooked but they are stilled crunchy, add marinara sauce.

4) Boil it for few minutes or until it is heated.

5) Now add drained pasta to the above mixture. Adjust salt and red pepper flakes if needed.

6) Mix it properly and let it stand for a  minute or two and serve hot. While serving add some cheese on top if needed.

Kakarakaya curry (Bitter gourd curry)

This one is a simple recipe to make at home. I just tried it and it turned out to be tasty along with the combination of plain dal, tomato rasam and rice. So here it is:

Ingredients
Kakarakaya (bitter gourd) - 5 chopped in small pieces
Onion - 1 big chopped
seseme seeds powder - 4 tbsp
tamarind pulp/juice - 1/2 cup
cumin seeds
oil
red chilli powder
salt to taste ( 2 tbsp)

Method of preparation
1) Add oil to kadai and let it heat.
2) Add cumin seeds and now add kakarakaya(bitter gourd), onions at the same time. (it takes time to fry bitter gourd and in the meantime even the onions gets cooked nicely).
3) Add salt to above and let it fry.
4) once you feel that bitter gourd pieces are fried properly you can add red chilli powder and tamarind pulp to it.
5) after a few minutes add seseme seeds powder to it. If you want to have a little dry curry then leave it as is, if you want to have a grave one then add little water/tamarind pulp according to your taste.

Your bitter gourd curry is ready to serve.

Mango avakaya/pickle - In-laws recipe

Doesnt it look awesome and tempting? The mango season has started back in India and it is the time when we too want to eat the newly made chutneys, whether they may be instant or they are for long term. So I got this raw mangoes from store the other day and decided to it for my baby's first birthday occasion. Guess what the total chutney above is finished. I was happy. So here is the simple recipe for above:

Ingredients
Raw Mangos - 2 washed, peeled and chopped into very small pieces
Red chilli powder - 3-5 tbsp (depends on how spicy you like)
Salt - 3-4 tbsp (definitely use less salt than red chilli powder)
Turmeric - 1/4 tbsp
Fenugreek powder - 1-1and1/2 tbsp
Oil - 3 table spoons
mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
asafoetida - 1/4 tbsp
Red chillies - 2 no. cut into small lengths

Method of preparation
1) Take a serving bowl and add mangos chopped into it. Now put the salt and mix them thoroughly with hand. Try sqeezing the mango pieces after you mix it. This will mix the mixture nicely.

2)Now add turmeric, red chilli powder and fenugreek powder (menthi podi). do not mix it now.

3) Prepare for tadka by adding oil into a small tadka bowl and then add mustards seeds. Wait until they splutter, add asafoetida and red chillies and turn off the stove.

4) Add tadka to the mixture in step 2 and mix everything. If you feel that you need to add more oil, you can do so by adding little warm/hot oil to the mixture. Your chutney is ready. You can directly serve it or you can wait for few hours which will make then mangos taste even better as they grasp all the flavors nicely.