Gummadikaya Barada

This is very famous recipe from my village. Easy to make, healthy and also it is supposed to increase the math brain of ours. Almost every household in our village has either an engineer or doctor from each home. Part of the reason they mention is because of the food we eat like Gummadikaya barada and Bhendi fry. So here goes one of the traditional recipes:

Ingredients
Gummadikaya (Winter melon) - 1 piece.
Chana dal - 1/2 cup
Moong dal - a fistful (or more depending on your taste)
Cumin seeds (Jeera, Jeelakarra)
Oil
Mustard seeds
Asafoetida
Green chillies
Red chillies
Red chilli powder
Salt to taste
lemon juice or citric acid (if you are planning to use the citric acid them use less salt)

Method of preparation
1) Scrape off the chilka/pottu of gummadikaya (winter melon) and chop it into big pieces.

2) Prepare the gravy by grinding the dals(chana dal, moong dal) along with Jeera (cumin seeds, jeelakarra), asafoetida. Grind them coarsely and not too soft or powder type.  You can also soak a fistful of chana dal in water for sometime (like 15-20 minutes) to add to curry.

3) Now add red chilli powder, salt required for the curry to the above powder and mix them. Add sufficient Oil to it so that it looks like the following photo: The mixture should resemble like a paste.

4) Now take a kadai and add oil to it. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Now add asafoetida, jeera and green chillies to it.

5) Add the winter melon chopped pieces and also the soaked chana dal. Add turmeric to it and cover and cook for two minutes. Winter melon here (USA) cooks very fast, so be mindful of the time you are cooking it. Keep it for less than two minutes. If you are attempting this curry in other places (like India), then cover and cook for sometime until the winter melon pieces are half cooked.

6) Now add the dals mixture we prepared. Add 2-3 cups of water (add more until the dals are totally soaked). Cover and cook for 5 -10 minutes, by stirring in between. If the gravy is becoming very thick, then add some water again. keep it on stove till the dals mixture is cooked properly. Oil will float on top once the dals and melon are cooked. Adjust the salt (or citric acid) and chilli powders if required. Switch off the stove and take it in a serving bowl. Add tadka on top of the curry with Oil, mustard seeds and red chillies.

The best combination of this curry is to have it with Rice, mudda pappu and challa pulusu. You can eat the curry just with rice and it will taste good.
Note:
1) If you like the tangy taste then I would recommend adding less salt and add citric acid. This will give a special taste to the curry.
2) You can do the same curry with Dosakaya (Indian cucumber-yellow) by replacing the winter melon with dosakaya in the above curry recipe.

Let me know how the recipe turns out. Also please let me know if I am missing something.

Jeera Rice

Ingredients
Cooked Rice - 1 cup
Oil/Ghee - 2-3 spoons
Cumin Seeds - 2 spoons
Green chillies - 3 or 4 (depending on your spice buds and also on the spiciness of the chillies)
Cashews - roasted or fried in little oil
Coriander leaves - chopped
Salt to taste


Method of preparation
1) Cook the basmati rice(Grains separated).
2) Heat ghee in a kadai and fry the cashew nuts. Transfer them into a bowl. 
3) Heat the oil in the kadai ,add jeera and sauté till brown. 
4) Add green chillies and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add the cooked rice and mix well.(You can add a few tbsps of ghee if you want.)

5) Garnish with cashew nuts and freshly chopped coriander.

Aloo rasedar/Potato gravy curry

Well I tried this last week. It came out so good that I did not get a chance to take a picture of it before it finished. I made poori's along with the rasedar curry. So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients
Potatos - Boiled, peeled and chopped into chunks - 6 pcs
Onion - 1 large - chopped into very small pieces
Tomatos - 1 large - chopped into small pieces
Cashew/Badam/walnut powder - 1-2 spoons
Oil - 3 spoons
Red chilli powder - 2 spoons(or according to your taste)
Salt - 2 table spoons (or according to your taste)
Cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon
Ginger garlic paste - 1 spoon
Method of preparation
1) Take a kadai and oil to it. Let it heat and then add the cumin seeds to it.
2) Now add onions to it. Once the onions are almost done, add ginger garlic paste to it. Fry until the raw smell is gone for the gg paste. (this may take few seconds or a minute)
3) Now add the cubed potatos along with tomatos also.
4) Add rest of the ingredients along with two cups of water. Mix them all and cover and cook for couple of minutes.
5)  Once the tomatos are also done and the gravy becomes thick, you curry - aloo rasedar is ready. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with Puri or Roti or even with rice.

Let me know how it turns out.

Vegetable Utappam

Well this is an indian tiffin (can be used as breakfast or snack time). We can also say that these are the Indian version of pancakes (not sure if pancakes over here are born first or the utappam :) ).

Ingredients
Rice - 2 and 1/2 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Chana dal - 1/2 cup
Moong dal - Depends on your flavor (can add from a fistful to 1/2 cup)
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Onions - 1 chopped finely
Tomatos - 1 chopped finely
Grated carrot - (optional)
Peas - (optional - I did not add this)
beans - (optional - I did not add this)
Salt to taste - (1-2 table spoons)
Oil  - 1 spoon for veggies and some more for frying utappam

Method of preparation

1) Soak rice, urad dal, chana dal and moong dal in water for few hours (probably soaking them in the night and grinding them in the morning is a good idea).

2) Grind the soaked mixture with little water. Make sure it is not too liquidish type.

3) Fry veggies in a table spoon of oil for 2 to 3minutes until they are undercooked but almost done. (include green chillies also). Add some salt and your veggie mixture is ready to add to the utappam base.

4) Now add the veggie mixture to the utappam base. and you are now ready to do yummy vegetable utappams.

5) To make utappams: Take a flat pan and put it on stove. Once the pan is heated sprinkle few drops of water and clean it with either paper towel or with a onion. Add 1/2 spoon oil in a circular motion to cover the surface of the pan. Now add a laddle full of batter in the middle. Spread out the batter to make a circular shape. Now add little oil along the edges of the utappam and cover it with lid for 1/2 minute to 1 minute. Remove the cover and turn the utappam on the other side. Add little oil to the side so that it comes off easily. Remove the utappam from the stove once it is done and serve hot with either Tomato chutney or any chutney you like.
Note: I could not take photos this time of the utappam made as they were finished faster. I will try to add pictures of how to make utappam later.

Tomato Tupp curry

Well this is one of the simple to do but makes you feel that you made special curry. I am sure that you will get more compliments for it. People who love tomatos, will surely be a fan of it. So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients
Grape tomato's
Jeera (cumin seeds)
Onions - 1 (chopped lengthwise or small)
cashew paste/powder - 1 spoon
poppy seeds - 1-2 table spoons
Oil - 3 table spoons
Red chilli powder
Salt to taste

Method of preparation
1) clean the grape tomato's and put an X mark with knife on top of the tomato'ss so that the gravy and taste will be nicely blended with tomato's.
2) Take the poppy seeds with very little water (probably 1 tablespoon water for 2 table spoons of poppy seeds or a little more). Grind it into a nice paste.
3) Now take a kadai/pan and add oil to it. Let it heat and now add cumins seeds to it. Now add onions and saute them until they become translucent or golden brown. Do not over cook it.
4) Now add the X marked grape tomatos to it. Let it cook for a minute or two covered. Now add the popy seeds paste, red chilli powder, salt and water to it (for gravy).
5) Give it two more minutes and then add cashew powder or paste. Add enough water to it, because cashew powder thickens the gravy. If desired, add a spoon or two of yogurt to it for nice taste.
6) Once tomato's are cooked, which means you curry is ready to serve. Transfer the curry into a serving bowl and garnish with deep fried onions and coriander.

This curry goes good with rice or roti or parathas. So enjoy it with anything you like. Let me know if you find it good. Thanks for trying.