Recipe: Vendakkai Pachadi (lady's fingers (okra) in tamarind gravy)

Pachadi means different things in different south indian languages. In Telugu Pachadi refers to all pickles. In Tamil, pachadi means fresh grated/cut or stir fried vegetables in curds seasoned with salt and the spices(the name for the same dish in Kerala is thayir pachadi or kichadi and in Karnataka it is known as Masuru Bajji).The Kerala Pachadi is vegetables in tamarind gravy, except in the case of Manga pachadi, where tamarind is not used. This dish is unique to Kerala.

Pachadis are prepared with lady's fingers, kanivellarikka, red pumpkin, brinjal, mango(raw and ripe,) ripe jackfruits, etc. The vegetables are cooked in tamarind syrup and a ground mixture of coconut, green chillies and mustard is added to it. The ground mustard seeds give a special flavour to the dish. This dish is a requirement in all the feasts. The feast menus (Sadhya vattam) usually start with, pachadi, kichadi, kari,....

Pachadis are usually served as a side dish. At home, pachadi is served as a main dish with a stir fried vegetable (mezhukkuvaratti) as a side dish. Pachadi prepared with kanivellarikka is very popular with hubby dear.

On to the recipe.

Ingredients:

Ladys fingers(okra): 250 gms
grated coconut: 1 cup
green chillies: 3 or 4
mustard: 1 tsp.
tamarind: size of a small lemon
turmeric powder: 1 tsp.
jaggery: 1 tbsp.(according to taste)
salt: according to taste

for tempering:
oil: 2tsp.
mustard : 1 tsp
red chillies: 1 or 2
curry leaves: 1 sprig

Method:

Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of warm water.Wash and cut the lady's fingers into 1"
long pieces. Squeeze the tamarind and strain the pulp. Boil the tamarind pulp with 2 cups of water.When the tamarind syrup starts boiling, add the cut vegetables. Add turmeric powder and salt, allow the vegetable to cook.

Grind the coconut,green chillies and mustard to a fine paste.

When the vegetables are cooked, add the jaggery and ground paste. Allow to boil. Switch off the stove.

Heat the oil in a pan. When the oil starts smoking, add the mustard and red chillies broken to small pieces. When the mustard stops spluttering, remove from heat, add curry leaves and pour over the pachadi.

If pachadi is used as side dish, the consistency should be thick (dropping consistency). If it is used as the main dish(for mixing with rice) then it should be of pouring consistency.

Pachadi is an excellent side dish for all types of molakoottals.

njoy!

Recipe: Chakka Pradhaman

Pradhamans are unique sweet dishes of Kerala. Pradhaman means numero uno. Pradhaman basically is payasam prepared with coconut milk, excepting pradhamans like Palada Pradhaman which is made with dairy milk. Varieties of pradhamans are made in Kerala, like Chakka Pradhaman, Ada Pradhaman, Godambu (Wheat germs - dhalia) Pradhaman, Rice and dal Pradhaman, etc. In the olden days, 4 pradhamans, 4 chips and 4 pickle varieties were served in grand wedding feasts. The concept of serving payasams in cups were not known then. Payasam was served with a big ladle (measuring up to 1 cup) on the banana leaf and 2 to 3 ladles were served at one time and it was repeated for a second and third time. There was a payasa pattu (payasam song) also while payasam was being served. Singing a song during payasam course gave the diners a chance to wait for the payasam to settle down so that they could have another go at it. Chakka Pradhaman is a very important item in any grand feast.

Preparation of chakka pradhaman at home for a few people is very easy if one has chakka varatti (jack fruit jam) readily available. During weddings and other big functions, instant chakka varatti is made. This chakka varatti is not boiled to a very thick consistency as it is used instantly.

When one has chakka varatti at home chakka pradhaman can be prepared at any time. Depending on the sweetness of the jam, one can adjust the amount of jaggery used. My chakka varatti is very sweet and I did not add any jaggery at all.


Ingredients:

Chakka varatti: 1 cup
Jaggery: depends on the sweetness of chakka varatti
Coconut milk: extracted from one small coconut
coconut pieces cut into very small bits: 1 tbsp.
dry ginger powder: 1 tsp.
jeera: 1tsp.
ghee: 1tbsp.

Method:

Keep a piece of coconut aside for cutting into small bits (this is for garnish). Extract coconut milk from the coconut as explained here. Heat the third milk in a wide mouthed heavy bottomed pan  and melt the jaggery in it. Strain the solution to remove fine sand particles and reheat the same. Add the chakka varatti and keep stirring to dissolve the chakka varatti. The chakka varatti will melt in the coconut milk. Boil until the mixture thickens. Add the second milk and boil again stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens. Finally add the first milk and turn off the stove. Keep stirring until the milk is incorporated. Add the dry ginger powder(chukku podi)

Heat the gheee in a pan and fry the coconut pieces to a golden brown color. Add the jeera.When the jeera crackles pour the ghee with coconut pieces and jeera into the Pradhaman.

njoy!

Recipe: Chakka varatti (Jackfruit Jam)

I made elai adai today.

Having given the recipe for making elai adai long ago and having been requested by many friends to post the recipe for chakka varatti (jackfruit jam), the main ingredient in elai adai, I thought of writing it now, years after posting the elai adai recipe.

Preparing jackfruit jam is a laborious process. However, I prefer to prepare it at home as the store-bought jackfruit jam does not taste as good and also does not keep for long. When we were children many many tins of jackfruit jam were prepared at home and stored for the whole year and also for distributing to the extended family members who were living in far off places. We had jack fruit trees in our farm and huge jackfruits, some weighing up to 20kgs would get unloaded every day during the season. That was also the time when all the family members would get together for the summer vacations. It used to be great fun. With the jack fruit cut open and made into small pieces, all the children would sit around and remove the fruit-lets from the thick skin. The jam used to be prepared in huge urulis and the process took 2 or 3 days. It would get cooked on fire wood stoves and after it was boiled for 1 or 2 hours and the fire wood burnt out, it would be allowed to simmer in the heat of the stove.

These days I prepare in smaller quantities in 2 or 3 installments as stirring the thickening jam needs great arm strength.

While getting the jack fruit ready, one needs to oil one's palms before cutting the jack fruit otherwise the sticky resin in the fruit gets stuck in the palm. The fuit lets have to be removed and the white thick bracts on them also need to be removed and so also the seeds. The seeds can be used in many delicious curries.

On to the preparation:

We will go in 2 steps. First step is making jack fruit pulp.

Ingredients:

Jackfruit:  1

Clean the jack fruit as said above. Cut the fruit lets into small pieces. Pressure cook the jack fruit pieces with enough water to submerge the cut fruit.

Drain the water, cool and run the cooked fruit in the mixie or food processor to get a smooth pulp. Reserve the water for making jaggery syrup.The jaggery for the jam is measured in proportion to the pulp obtained.

On to the 2nd step:-

Fruit pulp as per method above : 1 measure
Jaggery: 1 measure
Ghee : 3 - 4 tbsp.for about three cups.

Method:

Melt the jaggery in the water reserved as in the step 1. Strain and heat in a heavy bottomed pan. Use a thick spatula to mix the jam.Add the fruit pulp and keep stirring until the whole mass thickens. This would take about 3-4 hours. This can be done in various stages also. Once the jaggery and the fuit pulp starts thickening, the preparation can be stopped and continued next day. The end point is when the jam leaves the sides of the pan rolls around the spatula. Add 3 tbsp. ghee and mix well. Allow to cool. Store in a clean,air tight plastic/stainless steel container and pour 1 tbsp of ghee on top.It can also be stored in zip lock bags. It keeps good in room temperature if prepared strictly according to procedure. It can safely be refrigerated for  up to 2 years.

Enjoy preparing Elai Adai, Chakka Pradhman, Elai Kozhukkattai or have with Adai or Dosa.

Recipe: Erissery

Atham was last week. Thiruonam is round the corner. It is not Ponnin Chingam yet. All the same, Onam festivities begin with Atham. How soon time flies. I cannot believe one year has passed since we last celebrated Onam. Happy Onam to all my readers.

As usual, I started my Pookkalam on Atham day. I was pleasantly surprised to see a nicely done Pookkalam in front of a house during my walk this morning. I regretted not taking my camera along. I did the next best thing I could at that moment, I went upto the door and rang the bell and congratulated the lady of the house for the beautiful Pookkalam.

As I have said in my earlier Onam blogs, Onam means good food, happiness and well-being. I would like to give few of the Onam special recipes during this Onam season.

I will start with Erissery. Erisserry is an exclusive Kerala dish. Erisserry can be prepared using Yam and Banana, Red Pumpkin, Jackfruit, etc. Though the Onam special is erisserry made of Yam and banana, today I am giving the recipe of Mathan Erisserry (pumpkin erisserry) which is a favourite of all at home. During our younger son’s early days in America, he used to say he was not able to get red pumpkin (though when I visited US I found that varieties of squash and pumpkins were available). I used to tell him to go to the pumpkin carving during Halloween and collect all the pieces the carver would cut as waste.:) Let us get moving with erisserry.

Ingredients

cow peas : 2 tbsp.
Red Pumpkin: ½ kg
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp.
Red chilli powder: 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Jaggery: 1 tsp.
Grated coconut: 4 tbsp.
Jeera: ½ tsp.
Coconut oil: 1 tbsp.
Mustard: 1tsp.
Urad dal: 1 tsp.
Curry leaves: 2 sprigs.

Method:

Soak the cowpeas in water for 3-4 hours and pressure cook.

Grind 2 tbsp grated coconut and jeera to a fine paste.

Cut the pumpkin into 2” pieces. Cook the cut vegetables with turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt, adding 1 cup of water. Add cooked cowpeas.Add jaggery (this is optional. If the pumpkin is naturally sweet, you may omit the jaggery). Add the ground coconut paste and boil. Remove from the stove and add one sprig of curry leaves.

Heat the coconut oil in a wide fry pan, add mustard, urad dal and curry leaves. When the urad dal turns to light pink, add the remaining grated coconut and fry till the coconut turns red in color. Pour the seasoning on top of Erisserry.

This erisserry can be served with rice, chappathis, dosa, etc.

Enjoy!

Mango Mania

This is the first time I spent all the summer months in Hyderabad and what an experience it has been. For a person who has lived in Bangalore for 35 years where the maximum temperature never exceeded 34 deg C, the day temperatures of 45 deg C for a continuous period of almost 3 months is an experience. We just got roasted. Not used to this high temperature and losing essential minerals and salts by perspiration one always felt exhausted and tired with muscle cramps and summer boils. However, I learnt to beat the heat by drinking juices with added salt, and having kanji with added salt for dinner. At last the monsoon rain reached Hyderabad yesterday evening. We had a heavy down pour for about 20 minutes yesterday and we have been having sustained showers since the afternoon. I hope the temperatures come down.

The best thing about summer is the surfeit of mangoes. We had plenty of mangoes this year and we really enjoyed them. For a true Keralite no amount of mangoes is too much. There is a saying in malayalam, “Aaru maasam chakkayum mangayum, Aaru maasam anganeyum inganeyum,” which means Keralites live by jackfruits and mangoes for 6 months in a year and somehow manage the remaining 6 months. The saying was of course true only in the olden days when, as I have always said, people lived by the seasonal fruits and vegetables of that particular region. Especially in remote places like my maternal grandparents’ home, where we used to spend all our summer holidays during our childhood, we actually had only mangoes and jackfruits curries and preparations on all days. It was either manga koottan or chakka kari or chakka kootan and manga pachadi. Did we ever get tired of eating so many mangoes and jackfruits? Never. These days with all types of vegetables and fruits available all through the year, people don’t have to depend on chakkayum, mangayum. And yet, give me a manga pulissery or chakka kari any day and I would enjoy it immensely. Even the younger kids of our family, though they don’t like most of the traditional dishes prepared at home, devour manga kootans.

When we were growing up we had large mango orchards both at our paternal and maternal grandparents’ homes. In our maternal grandparents’ home where the house stood amidst acres and acres of greenery, wherever you turned you could see mango trees and jack fruits trees laden with fruit. Just one breeze and the court yard would be full of mangoes. When you stepped out of the house you could collect any number of mangoes. Any one who came home, from guests to beggars would be sent back with a big bag of mangoes. In our paternal grandparents’ home where we grew up, the orchards were far from home and only baskets and baskets of mangoes arrived as headloads. The mangoes were spread on hay in a room upstairs and we ate mangoes as and when we pleased. That was also the time all the cousins who were living outside the state would come home for summer holidays and our Kalathappa (our grandfather was called Kalathappa by all) was beside himself with joy seeing all his grandchildren enjoying the fruits of his labour. “Thinuungo, Thinnungo, Thinnin, Thinnin” (eat as much as you want), he would say.

Mangoes and Jackfruits in all forms are used by Keralites . From this size for kadugumanga

to this size for manga koottans, pachadis, aavakaya, manga curry, manga chammandi, pachakadugumanga.

And fruits as well. We also make special dishes with the mango fruit.

Similarly with jackfruit.
Idichakka

Big jackfruits.