Dhal and Brinjal roast/Stuffed Brinjal fry/Ennai Kathirikai

Ingredients:

Urad dhal : 1 cup
Chana Dhal : 1 cup
Dry red chillies : 15 or more
Violet brinjals : 250 gms
Cocoanut scrapings : 1 tea cup
Oil and mustard for seasoning. Asafoetida : 2 pinches

Wash brinjals, remove stalks. Slit into 4 pieces from the bottom, do not cut fully.
Roast the dhals and chillies separately in a pan without oil. Coarsely powder the roasted items in a mixie and finally add cocoanut scrapings and run the mixie for 1 minute. Take out this dry mixture add salt and stuff into the brinjals carefully.

Keep a thick bottom pan and pour 4 tablespoons oil and add mustard. When it splutters add asafoetida and after 5 seconds place the stuffed brinjals carefully in the oil. Sprinle the remaining mixture above the brinjals . Add some oil if necessary and cover and cook on slow fire till done. If desired can sprinkle tamarind dissolved in water before closing with lid for cooking. This is a dry and well fried side dish for rice and dhal or sambar.

Methi Dhal

Ingredients:

Tender Methi leaves cleaned and washed : 1 cup
Green gram dhal : 1 cup soaked in warm water for 30 mins
Garlic pods : 4 numbers
Red chillies (dry) : 6 nos
Cooking Oil : 2 Tbsps

Method:

Take a deep thick bottomed pan and pour the oil in it and keep on slow fire. Add the slightly crushed garlic pods and red chillies and fry till garlic turns golden brown. Now add the washed and soaked dhal and stir well. Cook for ten minutes and then add the chopped methi leaves and stir again and add salt to taste. Sprinkle water and cover and cook till done and dry. Serve hot as side dish with rice.

Onion Gojju

Ingredients:

Onions - 2 (Medium size)
Red dry Chillies : 5 or 6 (Roasted in oil)
Lime size Tamarind ( Cleaned and washed in drinking water)

Method: Fine Chop onions into small pieces

Crush roated chillies and salt in a wooden bowl with a wooden pound.
Add the onions to this and crush lightly. Add thick tamarind pulp to this and
mix well.Add water to get a thick consistency of "Gojju".
Makes a fine quick side dish.

Stomach upset- simple medicine from your kitchen

Just dry roast methi seeds (1/2 tsp) till it splutters. Pound it coarsely and add to half a glass of
buttermilk/curd with a pinch of salt. Drink this and you will get immediate relief from the stomach ache due to indigestion.

Ofcourse if pain is severe/persists see a Doctor

Calories Free Chutney(no coconut)

Ridge Gourd peel Chutney /Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

Peel of ridge gourd (without the ‘ridgy’ portion) of 1/2 kg ridgegourd(Tamil: Peerkankai,Kannada:Peerakkai).
Dry Red chillies ; 3 or 4
Green chillies : 2
Urad dhal : 1 ½ Tbs Methi seeds : 8 or 10
Hing : a pinch garlic: 2/3 pods fresh coriander leaves : a few sprigs
Tamarind : a little (small gooseberry size)

Method:
Pour 1 Tbs oil in a pan and add urad dhal , red chillies and methi seeds and roast for a while. Now add the peel, and rest of the ingredients with salt and roast dry till the peel gets cooked- changes to dull green colour.

Remove from fire and cool. Grind in mixie without adding any water to as smooth a chutney as possible.

Serve with hot rice and ghee or use as chutney for dosa

Replace the peel with ripe tomatoes cut into pieces and cook without adding water to a pulp and grind to smooth paste in a mixie. Mmmmm....this goes well with hot rice or dosas..

Savoury Pooris

Maida Flour 1/2 lb
Cumin Seeds 1 Tsp
Pepper 1 tsp coarsely ground
coriander seend 1 Tbsp
Green chillies 5
Cloves or garlic 1
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Sieve the flour and salt together and cumin seeds and pepper. Grind garlic coriander and chillies and add to the floor. Rub little ghee intot he flour adding warm water gradually. Knead into stiff dough and make samll balls fo the dough and roll out into puris and fry in hot ghee or oirl. Do not roll and keep. Make two puris at a stretch.

Chow Chow Curry

Beans 1/2 kg
Peas
Caauliflower 1 large
Potatoes 4-5
Carrots 3-4
Red chillies 3
Coconut 1 small
Cinnamon 2-3
Cloves 2-3
Tamarind size of a marble
Pepper Corns 4-5
COriander 1 tsp seeds
Curry Leaves 10-12
Onions 2

Preparation:
Grate the coconut and fry it to a brown colour.Fry the chillies cinammon, cloves pepper and coriander seeds and curry leaves in a teaspoon of oil.Grind them to a smooth paste with coconut and tamarind.Cut up the vegetables and cook them in salted water. Slice and fry the onions to a golden brown colour.Mix the masala paste witht he vegetables and fried onions. Cook till the curry is quite thick. Serve hot with Chappatthis or puris.

Alooo ki roti

Wheat Flour 2lb
Potatoes 1lb
Onions 2
Green chillies 4
Coriander leaves 1 bunch
Ginger a small piece.
coriander seeds 1 teaspoon roasted and ground
Back Pepper 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground
Salt to taste



Preparation:
Chop onion green chillies, coriander leaves and garlic finely boil potatoes peel and chop them. Heat a little ghee in a panand fry the onions till brown and add all the remaining ingerdients into this incluiding the potatoes and remove from the fire, cool and mash coarsely with a fork. Knead the flour with little wate ran a pinch of salt as for plain rotis. Make 8 equal portions of the potato stuffing. Roll out puris making 8 equal portions of the dough also. Place the stuffing in the centre of the puri. Hold bringing the edges to the center and then flatten the chapatthis and fry on a Tava.

Mysore Idlis

Vermacelli 1 1/2 lbs
Sooji (Semolin) 1/2 lbs
Curds 2 Cups
Ginger Piece 1 pod
Mustard 1 tbsp
Black Gram Dhal 1 1/2 Tbsp
Curry Leaves One twig
Corianger Leaves 1Tbsp Chopped
Hingu 1 pinch
Ghee 2 Tbsp or more
Cashewnuts 1 Cup
Salt to taste

Chop the green chillies finely and the cashewnuts coarsely. Heat ghee in a kadai and fry the bengal gram Dhal, mustard, chopped ginger, coprianderand curry leaves finely chopped,green chillies, cashewnuts and lastly fry vermacelli to light brown, add samolin and fry fopr a mixture. Remove from the fire and allow to cool. Mix the curd and enough water tomake a thick batter, adding hingu (asafoetida) and salt to taste. Leave to soak for 2 hours or more covered with a piece of cloth. Fill the idli katoris with this batter and steam in a idli steamer until done (7-10 minutes) Serve with coconut chutney and sambar.

Masala Brinjal Curry

Brinjals - 6 small
Coconut milk - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Garlic 1 pod
Black Gram dhal - 2tbsp
Grated coconut 1/4 coconut
Ghee 3tbsp

Preparation:

Fry the above ingredients except coconut milk in a small quantity of ghee and grind to a fine paste. Remove the stalks from the brinjal and slit the quarters not cutting right through. Heat some ghee in a pan and pour in the coconut milk, water and salt. Put the brinjal in and cook until all the gravy is absorbed. Remove from the fire and fill in the masala, fry the brinjals carefully in ghee or oil and serve immediately.

Quick Dahi Vada

4 Cloves
Bread 1 lb
Gram Flour 1 lb
1 Small Onion
Curds 4 Tbsp.
Cumin Seeds (Jeera) 2 Tbsp.
Red Chilli Powder 1/2 Tbsp.
1 Bunch coriander leaves
1 Ginger
Oil to fry

Preparation:
Cut the bread into square pieces of medium size, say 1/4 inch thick. Roast the cumin seeds and cloves on a tava. Grind this finely into a powder and keep aside.Cut the onions, green chillies, ginger and coriander leaves and grind them into a smooth paste. Keep Dahi ready with salt. Mix all of the above adding water and make a thick mixture as you would make for pakoras.

Heat Ghee in a Kadai, dip the pieces of bread carefully in the mixture one at a time and fry in oil. Put all these pieces in the seasoned curd when cool, sprinkle powdered masala and chilli powder. Fry mustard seeds in ghee when they crackle pour the vadais.and you vadais are ready.

Mamamma's Discourse on cooking !!

Hi my little friends out here on the internet. I am 83 and am happy that the internet world has so much to offer today. I am taking this opportunity to make optimum use of the same and publish some of the best recipes which I have personally prepared and tasted over the past 60+ years. For this effort I thank my grandson Arvind who has always stood by me through my slow but steady journey on something that totally amazes me, the internet !

I look forward to bringing out one recipe every week and I shall love to see all of you on this this website give me your inputs on how tasty these dishes turned out to be. Happy browsing. Most of the recipes listed here will be archived and will be available for use all through the year.

Please feel free to use the comments section to get back to me on any sugfgestions or improvements that you may feel are required in making this a positive experience.