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)

Recipes from my village ...

Gummadikaya Barada (can make it with Dosakaya also):
Update: The recipe of this curry is at following location:
http://myindiancooking.blogspot.com/2010/12/gummadikaya-barada.html







Muddakura
The recipe is at following location:
http://myindiancooking.blogspot.com/2009/03/muddakura.html


Pachi chaaru or chintapandu chaaru
Update: This recipe is at the following url:
http://myindiancooking.blogspot.com/2008/09/chinthapandutamarind-chaaru-or-pachi.html

Brinjal/Eggplant Bhaji

I dont know what others call, but at our place because of influence of Maharastra we call it as Vankaya Bhaji. Following is hte recipe. Previously I published recipe by heating it in a kadai. This time I tried it with the burning on stove. The taste of original is marvelous. Nothing can beat it. So here is the recipe

Ingredients
American eggplant or any fat eggplant
oil
Onions chopped
Green chillies
Salt to taste
Tomato chopped - Optional
Tadka (oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal and red chillies)

Method of preparation
1. Apply oil to the brinjal and let it be on the stove. As the skin turns different color, slowly move the brinjal to other side. Do this until the whole brinjal skin turns different and it becomes soft.

2. Remove the skin of the brinjal and take out the gujju (inside part) in a bowl or serving dish.

3. Add chopped onions, tomatos green chillies and salt to taste.

4. Add tadka on top and mix all the above.


Terminology

Vankaya - Eggplant, Brinjal

Special food on Janmashtami

Mirchi Bajji:
Vankaya Pachadi:
Thali on Janmashtami:

French cut green beans curry

Simple and tasty to eat. I love the french cut green beans in frozen section, we get in stores like Giant, safeway, shoppers or some asian stores. They are thin and a little long. They taste wonderful and here is the simple recipe to make it fast and eat.

Ingredients
French cut green beans
Tomato
Oil
Jeera (Cumin Seeds)
Chana dal - 2 table spoons
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder
Turmeric - 1/2 table spoon or less
Optional:
Onions
Grated Coconut (I used the frozen one we get in indian stores, you can use fresh also).
Cilantro (for garnishing)

Method of Preparation

1. Take the french cut green beans and put it under water so that all the extra ice gets melts away.

2. Take a kadai, add oil to it. Add Jeera after the oil is heated.

3. Add chana dal to it. Add Onions (if you want to ). After they turn golden, add the beans.

4. Add turmeric, red chilli powder. Cover it and let it stand for 2-3 minutes.

5. Add Salt, tomatos to it and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

6. Add coconut, let it leave the smell of raw coconut and then turn off the heat.

7. Garnish it with Coriander leaves (Cilantro) and serve.

This curry is good with both Rice and roti.

In my opinion, this curry tastes good than the normal beans curry we cook. So try it and let me know how you feel.

Recipes with Mango Pulp

Hi all

I know a few recipes with mango pulp which I would like to share with you all. Hope you like it too. One of them is Mango Milk Shake, and other is a sweet.

You can get Mango pulp tins in any Indian store or International grocery store. So try them at your conveniance and enjoy.

Mango Milk Shake: I love milk shakes, it has the goodness of milk and the flavor you want. I generally make milk shakes at home whenever I have fruits. So I shall post more milk shake varieties as and when I get do them from now.

Mango Pulp Sweet: is ready in 5 minutes. This is very useful, when you have unexpected guests or when you wish to eat sweet and do not have patience to spend more time cooking or making something. All you need to do is have the things ready at home. and most of them you might have them at home :). So try it and enjoy. Do tell me how it is !!!

Mango Milk Shake

Ingredients
Mango pulp
Sugar
Milk ( of your choice, I prefer 1% milk)
Icecream (any flavor, I used Kaju Draksha)
Elaichi powder - a pinch (optional)

Method of Preparation
Blend Mango pulp, Sugar, milk, ice cream in a blender/ smoothie maker. If you like you can also add a little crushed ice to the above. Add the Elaichi powder and then serve chilled. You can also optionally blend in few cashews if you like.

Mango Pulp Sweet, Ready in 5 minutes

Ingredients
Mango pulp - 1 tin
Whipped Cream - 1 box (big) or 2 small ones
Condensed Milk (Optional - I did not include this in my later on makes)
Fruit Cocktail tin - 1 - 2 tins (depends on if you want more fruit pieces)

Method of Preparation
Mix the mango pulp, whipped cream, condensed milk together. After they are mixed, drain the fruit cocktail tin, clean them and then add them to above mix. Serve chilled.



Tip: Try adding more whipped cream to get rich, creamier and wonderful taste. I know people would worry about fat content, but you can try with non-fat things also. Try using non-fat condensed milk, fat free whipped cream. This is just for our satisfaction that we are intaking less fat.