Coconut Thuvaiyal/Thogayal

Most of the days, we'd have traditional breakfast (like my school days). Well, today I prepared this thuvaiyal as a side dish for dosas for breakfast.

In the past, we used to have 5 coconut trees in our garden and the trees would give lots of coconuts. Other than everyday cooking, coconuts were given to relatives. Coconut oil would be made out of them as well. My mom used to grind coconuts in ammi for chutneys, thuvaiyals and for kurmas. Talking about kurmas, Sundays were the perfect days for making kurmas like green peas kurma, mutton kurma or fish kuzhambu with some fresh ground coconut.

Ingredients:
Coconut - half (grated)
Black gram (husked) - 2 tbsp.
Whole dry red chillies - 3 (or as per taste)
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp.
Salt (to taste)
Sesame oil - 1 tsp.
Tamarind - 1 gooseberry size

Method:

A half shell of coconut.

Grate the coconut.

Wet the tamarind and keep aside.

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the black gram.

Saute till the grams become slightly golden colour. Add red chillies and asafoetida powder. Continue sauteing.

Saute till it becomes fully golden colour along with the red chilles and asafoetida.

Remove from the pan and place them on the plate. Allow them to cool.

Add the black gram, red chillies into the mixie jar.

Then add the wet tamarind pieces.

Grind.

Now add the grated coconut.

Add little water and grind them.

Add required salt and again grind them.

After final grinding, the thuvaiyal should be thick not watery. Unlike chutneys, there is no need for tempering.

Serve with hot white rice along with ghee or sesame oil. Goes well with idli, dosai, utthappam, set dosa, upma, etc...........

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Sambar Rice

A traditional way of making Sambar rice in pressure cooker in these modern times.

Ingredients:
Rice (ponni) - 1 cup
Tuvar/arhar dal - 1/2 cup
Mixed vegetables:
Drumstick - 1
Brinjals (small) - 2
Beans - 5 to 6
Capsicum (small) - 1
Potato - 1
Carrot - 1
Sambar powder - 2 tbsp. (or as per taste)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
Salt (to taste)
Coriander leaves - few (chopped)
Onion - 1 (sliced)
Tomato - 1 (chopped)
Tamarind - a small piece
Oil

To temper:
Mustard seeds, whole black gram (husked), cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida powder and curry leaves, oil.

Method:

This cup (aazhaakku) is used for measuring rice, dal and water.

Soak the tuvar dal in 1 cup of water for an hour. Cover and keep aside.

Soak the tamarind in little water and soak for an hour. Cover and keep aside.

Tuvar dal soaked after 1 hour.

Chop the vegetables and keep them ready.

Heat the oil in a pressure cooker. Add the onions and saute till they become translucent.

Add the vegetables and saute till they become soft.

Add the tomatoes and saute for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add sambar powder and turmeric powder.

Mix the powders with vegetables.

Wash the rice and add.

Add the soaked dal along with its water.

Crush the tamarind soaked in water. Discard the pulp.

Pour this tamarind water to the vegetable rice dal mixture.

Mix well.

Pour 3 cups of water.

Cover and cook in medium low flame.

I pressure cooked up to 4-5 whistles. Set it aside. When the pressure is released, remove the weight (should be easy to remove and no steam should appear while removing).

For the tempering, heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, black gram and fenugreek seeds.

When the mustard seeds start to crackle, add curry leaves and sprinkle asafoetida powder.

Saute the curry leaves and remove from flame.

Add the tempering to the cooked sambar rice.

Add the coriander leaves.

Add salt.

Mix gently.

We consumed the rice with appalams, coriander-mint thuvaiyal, and yam roast (which I made it later)

Serve hot with appalam or with any of your favourite side dish.

 

Note:

 

Add water according to the quality of rice and dal and the desired 'mushiness'.

It is recommended to add salt after cooking the rice to get the desired 'mushiness'. Because salt makes it tough to cook the rice when added in the initial stages of cooking.

For those who want to be done with it quickly, add masoor dal instead of tuvar dal. But if you still want to stick to using tuvar dal, soak it in hot water for 20-30 minutes.

 

Tamarind paste can also be used instead of tamarind.

 

While serving, you can add a spoon of ghee.

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Bitter gourd/Pagarkai chips

When I lived in Neyveli, my mom used to buy vegetables from the vegetable market (sandhai/sabzi mandi) on Tuesdays or Thursdays (unlike now, there weren't any daily markets in the 80's). The market held on Thursdays was somewhat close to our house and my mother used to walk 1.5 km just to buy those vegetables. She would return back from the market with two bags-one containing greens and tomatoes and the other bag containing onions and vegetables. Among them, bitter gourd is the regular visitor of my mother's cooking.

Whenever my mother prepared food during my school days, I would sit and do some chit-chat with her. While watching the food being prepared, the smell would make me *click* automatically record it instinctively in my mind. Unlike a typical boring teacher, she didn't teach me, "you have do this and do that" and blah blah, whatever.

She also prepared pickles out of  unripe fruits picked from those trees in our own garden like lemons, mangoes and gooseberries, etc.

After marriage, I actually came to know and see the existence of some different and exotic vegetables, fruits and spices such as squashes, broccoli, persimmons, etc. in Michigan and Texas which were not available in the town we lived in. I still continue my quest to discover some amazing hybrids of the veggies, fruits, spices and all.

Coming back to the story of bitter gourd, mother always prepared varuval (fry) or puli kuzhambu (tamarind sauce). Knowing the nutritional value of the gourd, she never squeezed out the juice just to remove the bitterness (I follow the same technique now as well). However, my tongue would repel the taste of bitterness and I only consumed the gourds in a minuscule amount.

In March 2012, I prepared these chips. My parents, who were visiting me, enjoyed it to their hearts' contents. I learnt this recipe from a magazine and made a few changes to our tastes.

Now on to the recipe.

Ingredients:
Bitter gourds - 5
Kashmiri red chilli powder - 2 tsp. (or as per taste)
Gram flour besan - 3 tbsp.
Rice flour - 1 tbsp.
Corn flour/starch - 1 tbsp.
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp. (or as per taste)
Salt (to taste)
Fennel seeds - 1.5 tsp. (coarsely powdered)
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp.
Oil (to deep fry)

Method:

Wash the bitter gourd.

Slice the bitter gourd into thin pieces. Remove the hard seeds.

Add the sliced bitter gourd pieces into a big bowl. Add pepper powder.

Add coarsely powdered fennel seeds.

Add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, besan, rice flour, corn flour and salt. Mix well.

Sprinkle little water and continue mixing.

Heat the oil. When the oil becomes medium hot, add the bitter gourd to the oil. Every slice should be separate.

Fry till they become crisp and golden brown in colour. Remove and place them on absorbent paper. Continue with the remaining bitter gourd slices.

Serve with sambar rice or rasam rice.

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