Snakegourd Yogurt pickle

Potlakaya Perugu Pachadi ki true translation is Snakegourd yogurt pickle. This is another simple and easy to make and tasty sides. I feel its healthy too.

Ingredients
Snakegourd - 1 chopped round
Green chillies -3-4 chopped small(depending on your taste)
Yogurt
Salt to taste
Oil - 2-3 teaspoons
Mustard seeds
Jeera/Cumin Seeds
Urad dal
Asafoetida
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves

Method of preparation
1. Boil Snakegourd chopped pieces in water added with salt until the pieces are totally done/well cooked.

2. Drain the water and take the boiled snakegourd pieces in a bowl. Add salt, yogurt, green chillies, Coriander leaves.



3. Take small bowl for tadka and do tadka by heating oil and then adding mustard seeds, jeera, Curry leaves, Asafoetida and urad dal. Switch off when the urad dal turns lightly brown.

4. Add the Tadka to the mix done in Step 2. Mix everything and then serve it with Rice, roti or with any biryani.

Quick utappam

All credit goes to a MAA TV show called "Maa Voori Vanta". I saw that yesterday afternoon and tried it at home. It came out good. I should say it can be used as quick snack or as breafast. Try it whenever you have time. So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients
Maida (All purpose flour) - 2 table spoons
Senagapindi (Chick pea flour) - 2 table spoons
Biyyampindi (Rice flour) - 2 table spoons
Onions - Chopped - 1/2 cup
Tomatos - Chopped - 1/2 cup
Green Chillies - 3-4 depending on your taste, chopped
Coriander - 2 table spoons
Ginger - 1/2 table spoon (Optional)
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1/2 tea spoon (I added Jeera powder instead)
Salt to taste
Oil
For topping use karivepaku podi or any podi of your choice.

Method of preparation:
1. Take chopped tomato, onions, green chillies, coriander, ginger(optional), Jeera or Jeera powder, Maida, Senagapindi, biyyampindi, salt. Mix all above with hand.

2. Add little water and make sure it is not watery. It should be a not too loose and not too think consistency. (little think than dosa batter). Adjust salt and others according to your taste.

3. Take a tawa and let it heat. Spread small amount of oil on tawa. Now add a laddle or two of the batter mixed above and spread it like utappam (not too thick and not too thin like dosa).

4. Add very little oil on top and let it heat. once the edges are done (or changes color), then turn the utappam onto other side and spread a little oil on the edges of the utappam.

5. After both sides of the utappam is done, add Karivepaku podi or any spicy/soft podi of your choice on it and serve with chutney.

Try with and let me know how it turns out.

Note:
1. Although in Show they mentioned only two table spoons I added little more of the powders to make the batter kind. You may adjust all the quantities depending on your like.

2. I would also recommend adding grated carrot to make it little healthy dish. :).

Aloo Gobi Curry

Ingredients
Aloo
Gobi florets
Onion, chopped into big pieces - 1 or 2
Tomato - 1 or 2
ginger garlic crushed/paste - 1/2 table spoon
Oil - 4-5 table spoons
Red chilli powder - add it according to your taste
Garam Masala - 1 table spoon
Kasoori Methi - a pinch
Coriander powder (optional) - 1/2 table spoon
Salt to taste
Kothimeeru (Coriander) to sprinkle at last.

Method of preparation
1. Take a vessel, add oil to it. Let it heat up and add cumin seeds to it. Add chopped onions, crushed ginger garlic or paste and let it fry for a minute or until onions turn golden brown.

2. Add Aloo and Gobi to it with pinch of turmeric, red chilli powder, Garam masala and let it stand for 5 minutes covered. Try to mix in between so that the curry do not stick to the pot/vessel. If you feel it starts sticking then add 1/2 cup of water to it.

3. Add chopped Tomato's, Salt, kasoori methi, coriander powder and mix well. Add little water and let it stand for some more time until all veggies are cooked.

4. Add Chopped and washed Coriander leaves to the curry and serve hot either with roti or rice.

Spring Onion Tomato Dal

This is one of my favourite. I never forget to get spring onions when I go for grocery shopping. Here is the recipe for it.

Ingredients:

Spring Onions chopped - 1 cup
Tomato - 1 medium
Turmeric - a pinch
Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder - 1 table spoon or
Green chillies - 2
Jeera(Cumin Seeds) - 1 table spoon
Tamarind/Tamarind paste - small piece for sour taste or 1/2 table spoon (Optional)
Garlic cloves chopped - 2 (Optional)
Oil for tadka
Salt to taste

Method of Preparation:

1. Cook dal in your way after adding a pinch of turmeric and cumin seeds, tamarind piece (optional) and tomato also.
2. Take a vessel, add oil to it. After oil is heated add garlic (optional), green chillies. Then add the chopped and cleaned spring onions to it.
3. Let the spring onions be lightly fried. If we add dal before the spring onions are fried, the raw smell remains intact and does not go away. After the spring onions are fried, add the dal.
4. Then add salt, red chilli powder (if needed), stir it. After it is mixed thoroughly , your dal is ready to serve and eat.

Happy Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays to all....... Hope you will all have a blast.

Coconut Chutney

This is a simple recipe which can be made instantly but still tastes delicious. Ofcourse, the hardest part will be to cut coconut into pieces. I use the frozen ones sometimes to avoid that pain.

Ingredients
Coconut pieces (scraped or small pieces)
Green chillies
red chillies (optional)
Tamarind - little to get the sour taste
urad dal
Oil
Salt to taste

For garnishing:
Kothimeeru - Coriander leaves
Tadka (Oil heated and then add mustard seeds, jeera, urad dal, red chillies and curry leaves)

Method of preparation

1. Make the coconut pieces ready by either scraping the coconut or by cutting the coconut into small pieces.

2. Do the tadka now, by heating oil in a small bowl and add mustard seeds. After mustard seeds splutter, add Jeera, urad dal, red chillies, and tamarind also and switch off the stove.

3. Grind the coconut, green chillies, salt and half of the tadka(add all the tamarind in the tadka while grinding). If needed add water in between.

4. Take the coarsely grinded paste into a bowl, then garnish with remaining tadka and chopped coriander leaves. Your coconut chutney is ready.

This tastes good with all the south indian tiffins or with rice.