Ingredients Raw Banana: 1 no. Vellapayar (Cow peas, lobia, Chowli): 2 tbsps. Turmeric powder: 1 tsp. Black pepper powder: 1 tsp. Salt to taste. Jaggery: a small piece Grated coconut: 1tbsp Curry leaves: a few Coconut oil 2 tsp for garnishing.
Method
Presoak the cow peas overnight. Slit the banana lengthwise and cut into 1 cm thick pieces. Pressure cook the cowpeas and banana pieces along with turmeric powder and pepper powder with just enough water. Remove and boil. Add the jaggery and salt. Boil for a few more minutes until all the ingredients are well blended. Remove and add curry leaves and coconut gratings. Pour the coconut oil on top.
Puliyekuthi Poduthuval is a family favourite, especially that of my beloved father. He just loved it. It has a delicious taste, with the combined flavours of the different vegetables that go into it and the tangy taste of the tamarind, all of it enhanced by the aroma of the special powder, freshly ground. The banana used in this recipe is called Mondan or Pondan or Vannan differently in different parts of Kerala.
Ingredients: Raw banana: 1 Fully ripe Red Pumpkin: 250 gms Brinjal : 200gms Ladies finger (Okra): 200gms Yam (Arvi, Chembu): 200gms (Some people put arvi leaves folded into small bundles. We don’t use this at home.) Turmeric powder: 1tsp Tamarind: lemon sized ball Jaggery: a small piece Salt to taste Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Roast and powder- Boiled rice (Not cooked but the boiled rice used for idlis): 1 tbsp. Toor dal: 1tsp. Methi seeds: ½ tsp. Hing: size of a pea Red chillies: 2 or more as per taste Curry leaves: a few
For garnishing- Oil: 1 tbsp. Mustard seeds: 2 tsp. Urad dal: 2 tsp. Red chilies: 1 (broken into small pieces) Curry leaves: a few
Method: Soak tamarind in little warm water and squeeze out the pulp. Keep it aside.
Dry roast all the ingredients for the powder, in the following order. Heat the pan and add the hing. When it starts getting fried, add the rice (washed). When the rice starts popping, add the rest of the ingredients and fry until they are all a nice pink color with a nice aroma. Cool and grind to a fine powder. Keep aside.
Cut the banana and pumpkin into 2” cubes. Wash and cut the brinjal and ladies finger to 2” pieces. Peel and cut the arvi. Boil the tamarind pulp with 3 cups of water and add the arvi. When arvi is half cooked add the banana and pumpkin pieces. Add the brinjal and ladyfingers when banana and pumpkin are half cooked. Add the turmeric powder, salt and jaggery. Add half cup of water to the prepared powder and make a paste. When the vegetables are fully cooked, add this paste and boil. If the consistency is too thick add a little more water and boil. It should be thicker than sambar in consistency, almost to the consistency of kootu. Even if the consistency is little watery, it will thicken as the curry cools. When the curry has boiled for 5 minutes remove it from the stove. Add a few curry leaves.
Heat another pan. Add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds crackle, add the urad dal and red chilli pieces.. When the urad dal is pink in color and the red chillies get fried, add the curry leaves and pour this tadka into the curry.
Enjoy with rice. This curry is mixed with rice using what we at home call fried oil. This is the oil left over from frying papads etc. This gives a delicious taste to the food. The right accompaniment for Puliyekuthi Poduthuval is Papads. The menu at home on Puliyekuthi Poduthuval day is Puliyekuthi Poduthuval, Rasam and papad. P.S. Arvi is best peeled after boiling them first. The skin comes off easily. What I do is to wash and put the arvi at the bottom of the pressure cooker with enough water and keep the other vegetables, excepting brinjal and ladyfingers, on top of it in a separate container. I add the tamarind juice, turmeric powder and salt also into the vegetables. Brinjal and ladies fingers are cooked separately. When the pressure cooker is ready, I remove the arvi, peel and cut them, mix all the vegetables and boil for 5 minutes and add the rest of the ingredients. ENJOY!
As with JFI rice, with Banana as the theme of this JFI, I was perplexed not knowing what recipe to post. Not because I did not have any original recipes, just that growing up in a Kerala village wholly dependent on the vegetables grown in our backyards (the most common being banana), we had a regular supply of bananas all through the year. And we had varieties and varieties of bananas and then some. Some were meant to be used only as vegetable, some as fruit and others as both vegetable and fruit. There would always be one or two full bunches of banana hanging from the hook in the ceiling in all households. Raw banana went into every preparation, be it molakootal, mezhukkupuratti , kalan or avial and just about everything else. Hence the dilemma.
And what was the first solid diet of infants? It was again our good old nutritious bananas, sun dried and powdered. This powder was mixed with buttermilk and cooked over a slow fire to get a jam-like consistency. We called it koozhu. Children grew healthy and strong eating this home made baby food. There was no fear of adulteration, non-availability or having the need to carry boxes and boxes of baby food while travelling. In the event of the powder not available readily on any particular day, the bananas were cut into small bits, ground and cooked. A special type of banana called kunnan was used for baby food. Nendran banana was the next alternative.
What part of the banana tree is not used? The stem, the flowers and the raw fruit are used as vegetables. Ripe fruit is of course an all time favourite. The leaves are our age-old disposable plates and don’t forget our yummy elai adais. Banana as a fruit or vegetable has many medicinal properties. The other parts of the banana tree, like the stem and flowers are also used as medicine. The juice of the banana stem is especially recommended for diabetics.
After much deliberation, I decided on Puliyekuthi Poduthuval and Puzhukku. Puliyekuthi Poduthuval literally means a poduthuval in which puli (tamarind) has been used. Puzhukku means steam-cooked or boiled. It is a very simple but mouth watering preparation. Commonly used as a side dish to Kanji, we also use it as a side dish with rice. Puliyekuthi Poduthuval is a typical Kerala Iyer speciality whereas Puzhukku is an original Kerala dish.
Noolpittu or Idiyappam is also a favorite Kerala breakfast item and Kerala Iyers prepare Sevai a cousin of Noolpittu. This again is a very simple oil free snack.
Ingredients: 1. Rice flour: 1cup 2. Salt 3. Hotwater 1 cup
Method: Roast the rice flour very lightly. Cool. Add the hot water and salt and mix with a spatula to firm dough. Fit the Anju thattu nazhi with the plate with tiny holes. Fill with the prepared dough. Press onto perforated plates or idli plates and steam until done.
Remove and serve with sweetened coconut milk. Needless to say, this is my second post for JFI Rice (first: Aappam).
When I saw that the topic for the current JFI was “Rice” I was thinking, I have posted all my favorite rice recipes. What can I post when I have already posted Palpayasam, the king of rice recipes and Idichu Pizhinja Payasam which is an all time favorite of all Kerala Iyers and in particular Puthucodians and now of many others . Our elder son suggested Idiyaappam or Noolpittu and Aappam.
Neither of the above is a Kerala Iyer specialty. In fact, I had never heard of these two items until our elder son started going to school. In school he had a close Malayalee friend, Krishnakumar, who used to bring aappam for lunch. Our son used to come home and ask me to give him, white dosa for his lunch. I only knew the conventional dosa and I tried making them white in color, by under cooking them. He used to say, “Amma, this is not the one, make white dosas for me”. This continued and it was not until I took up a full time job and I had malayalee colleagues, that I came to know about this secret of this white dosa. The white dosa he was referring to was Aappam and I got the recipe from the colleagues and started preparing them to my son’s delight. Our younger son never liked it though, as his liking was always roast dosa. Then I realized the reason why this preparation never entered the orthodox kitchens of Kerala Iyers. The main reason is the fermentation agent most commonly used in the preparation of the batter. Usually an alcohol prepared from the coconut palm (fresh toddy, country liquor or kallu ) was used in the fermentation process. Therefore, it is also referred to as Kallappam, Kallu being the name by which such alcoholic preparations are known. Even the mention of the word Kallu was banned in Iyer households in the olden days, let alone bringing it home for fermenting the dough. Now coconut water kept overnight, or yeast is used as the fermenting agent. Use of these items in Iyer households is no longer taboo and therefore this recipe. Partaking of this fresh toddy early in morning is quite common among the non-brahmin communities in the villages even today. Moreover cooked rice kept overnight (which also ferments) is also added during the grinding, which was taboo in the orthodox kitchens (pazhaya satham).
Aappam is a typical Kerala breakfast item and is comparatively oil free and full of vitamin B as it has been fermented. Usually train travelers from other parts of India travelling to Kerala, are greeted by Chaaya Velleppam as the train reaches Palghat, the first railway station in Kerala. As the train always reached Palghat early in the morning and we could reach home by breakfast time, we never even thought of trying this Velleppam. To this day, I have never tasted Velleppam other than what I myself have cooked.
As I have already mentioned, people later on started fermenting the batter with yeast and I ferment my batter with a home made toddy I prepare thus:
Whenever I break a coconut, I preserve the elaneer (coconut water) with a spoonful of sugar added to it. The next day, I make the batter for Aappam by soaking the rice in this home made fermenting solution.
Ingredients: Coconut : 1 (It is better to use a medium ripe coconut, as it will yield more milk. The shell of the medium ripe coconut is white in color, in contrast to the dark brown color of fully ripe coconut). OR Coconut milk : 1 cup Grated coconut : ½ cup Yeast: 1 tsp. Raw rice : 1 cup Cooked rice : ¼ cup Sugar 1 tbsp. Salt to taste Soda-bi carb. ½ tsp.
Method I: Make the fermenting solution thus: Break the coconut and reserve the coconut water with a tbsp. of sugar added to it. Keep it overnight. Grate the coconut and preserve. Next day, wash and soak the rice in the reserved coconut water for 4 hours. Grind the rice, cooked rice, grated coconut and salt to a very smooth batter. Leave it overnight.
Method II If using yeast, soak the yeast in little warm milk with a tsp. of sugar. Soak the rice in water and grind with yeast solution, grated coconut, cooked rice, sugar and salt to a smooth batter. Leave it overnight. The aappam is prepared in a special earthenware aappa chatty (kadai) with a lid. These days, non-stick aappa chattis are available; yours truly makes it in a regular cheenachatty with satisfactory result. Add the soda-bi-carb, just before preparing the aappams. Heat the aappa chatty and smear with a drop of oil. Add a big ladle full of batter and swirl the kadai so that the batter spreads on all the four sides. Keep the kadai closed with a lid and cook on moderate heat. After 2 or 3 minutes open the lid and remove the puffed aappams. Repeat the process. ENJOY WITH STEW.
Along with my recipe for Idiyappam, this is one of my entries for JFI Rice.
Stuffed capsicums can be prepared in a variety of methods. You can steam, grill or bake them. This time I have steamed them as I am now preparing some bland diets for my son who is recovering from gastritis.
Ingredients:
Capsicums: 4 Nos. Potatoes: 200gms Green chilies: 2. Grated ginger: 1 tsp. Onion: 1 no. Garam masala: ½ tsp. Turmeric powder: 1tsp. Lemon juice: 1tsp. Salt to taste: Oil: 1 tbsp or more (depending on the method) Mustard: 1 tsp. Jeera: 1 tsp. Finely cut coriander leaves: 1 tbsp. Maida: 1 tbsp.
Method:
Wash the capsicum and remove the stalk portion, forming a lid. Remove the seeds. Apply salt to the inside and outside of the capsicums and keep them inverted.
Boil, peel and mash the potatoes. Chop the onions and green chillies finely. Heat 1 tbsp. of oil in a thick bottomed pan and add the mustard and jeera. When they splutter, add the finely cut onion, green chillies and grated ginger. Saute until the onions are transparent. Add the mashed potatoes, turmeric powder, garam masala, and salt. Saute until all the ingredients are well mixed and dry. Remove from heat; add the lemon juice and half of the coriander leaves. Mix well and cool.
Stuff this mixture into the capsicums.
Make a thick paste of maida and water. Apply to the tops of the cut capsicums and close with the stalk portions. This will prevent the stuffing from coming out.
Now, steam them for 10- 15 mnts or apply a thin coat of oil on the stuffed capsicums and either grill them or bake them until done.
Remove, cut into halves or quarters, garnish with the remaining coriander leaves and serve!
There are many kinds of peppers. In India though, only black pepper is known as pepper and all others are known as chillies and bell peppers as capsicum.
Green chillies are widely used in everyday cooking and also pickling. I wish I could get photographs of all the different green chilies available. We have gundu molagais (the big ones), the byadagi (the long and less pungent ones), the Bhavnagar variety (so non-pungent you need to add some chilly powder to it) and the famous oosimolagai (the thin and short variety, which is the most pungent. So much so, some people were even called “oosimolagai” for their pungent words).
I shall give the recipe of Thayir Molagai, green chilies marinated in curds and dried, which is an all time favorite. Curds Rice garnished with fried thayir molagai tastes heavenly. Thayir molagai can also be used to garnish other rice preparations like lemon rice, coconut rice, etc. This adds a special taste to the rice.
Though dried thayir molagais are available in the shops these days, they are not marinated in curds for long enough and lack the original taste, I am told. I always prepare my thayir molagais during the summer. It is a messy, tedious and time consuming process though the end result is worth the trouble.
For thayir molagais, the less pungent variety of gundu molagai or big green chilies is used. Before buying the green chilies one should make sure to have thick sour curds to marinate the chilies.
Ingredients:
Green Chillies: 1 kg. Thick sour curds: 1 to 11/2 lts. Salt: 200gms.
Method:
Wash and dry the green chillies. Make a slit up to halfway from the tip (keep the stalks intact), or pierce a hole in the centre of the chilies with a skewer. Dry in the sun for a day. Meanwhile, beat the curds to a smooth consistency and add the salt. Marinate the sun dried chilies in this curd. The chillies should be completely immersed in the curds. If not, pour some more. Allow the chillies to marinate for one full day. After that, drain the chillies from the curds and sun dry them. Put the dried chillies back into the left over curds in the evening. Repeat the process until all the curds has been absorbed. Dry the chillies for few more days in the sun, until they become crisp.
These sun dried chillies can be stored in air tight containers for up to 2 years.
Heat oil to smoking point, reduce heat and fry the chillies well to a nice black color.
ENJOY with your curd rice.
Tip: When the chilies are dry, the absorbed curds will flake off as a white powder residue. Use this curds residue as chilly flavour while preparing dals. It gives a delicious taste.
I have been preparing this curry for a long time. I don’t think I learnt it from any recipe book or from anyone. I just started making my own recipes and this one turned out to be superb. I learnt how delicious it was only when my sister-in-law asked me once, “I understand you prepare a new variety or brinjal curry that is just superb, how do you make it?”
Here is the recipe.
I use the round violet brinjals for this.
Ingredients:
Dhania : 1 tbsp, Chana dal: 1 tbsp+1tsp Urad dal: 1 tbsp.+1tsp. Hing : size of a pea Red chillies : 2 or 3 Curry leaves : few Brinjal: 250 grams Onion: 1 big (100gms) Tomatoes: 200 gms Turmeric powder: 1tsp. Mustard seeds : 1 tsp. Salt to taste Oil : 2 tbsp.
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Preparation:
Wash and cut the brinjals into 2” long pieces. Cut onions into small pieces. Cut the the tomatoes into small pieces.
Roast the hing, dhania, 1 tbsp. chana dal, 1 tbsp. urad dal, red chillies, and few curry leaves to a light pink color. Cool and coarsely powder.
Heat the oil, add mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add the urad dal and chana dal. When they turn light pink in color, add the curry leaves and onion and saute until onions turn light pink in color. Add the tomatoes and saute until they are mushy. Add the brinjal and turmeric powder and salt and saute in medium heat until brinjal is cooked. Add the ground powder and remove from heat. Garnish with finely cut coriander leaves.
Serve with rice or chapatis.
Enjoy! Update: Needless to say, this post along with my recipe for Vangi bath and my first post on brinjals are my entries for JFI July.
Vangi bath is a Karnataka specialty and is a full meal in itself. It is prepared with the long green variety of brinjals.
Ingredients:
Brinjal : 200 gms Dhania : 1 tbsp. Chana dal : 1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. Urad dal : 1 tbsp. + 1tsp. Khus khus : ½ tsp Hing : size of a pea Sesame seeds: 1 tsp. Cloves: : 2 nos. Cinnamon : ½" stick Marathi moggu: 1 piece (this spice looks like a big clove, I do not know the Hindi or English names of this spice. It is called Marathi Moggu in Karnataka) Red chillies : 2 or 3 Curry leaves : few Copra or dry coconut : 2 tbsp. (grated) Gingelly (sesame) oil : 2 tbsp Mustard seeds: 1 tsp. Ground nuts : 1 tbsp. Turmeric powder : 1 tsp. Salt to taste. Coriander leaves 1 tbsp. Rice : 1 cup
Preparation:
Any cooking oil can be used according to individual taste. I prefer gingelly (also known as sesame or till) oil for this preparation for the flavour it adds to the dish.
Wash and cook the rice adding 1 tsp of gingelly oil to keep the rice grains separate (it should not be very soft). Spread in a plate to cool.
Heat ½ tsp oil and add the hing, dhania, 1 tbsp chana dal, 1 tbsp urad dal, khus khus, cloves, cinnamon, marathi moggu, red chillies and curry leaves and roast till the dals turn light pink in color and give off a nice aroma. Cool and powder coarsely.
Wash and cut the brinjals into 1” square pieces.
Heat the remaining oil and add the mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add the remaining urad dal, chana dal, ground nuts and curry leaves. When the dals turn light pink in color add the cut brinjals and saute them on low heat, adding turmeric powder and salt. When the brinjals are almost done add the ground powder and saute for another 5 minutes until they are thorughly mixed. Add the cooled rice and mix well. Garnish with finely cut coriander leaves and your vangi bath is ready.
ENJOY
Optionally 1 tbsp. of lemon juice can be mixed to the vangi bath.
Suggested accompaniments: Vangi bath is just delicious as such, or can be served with roasted papads, or raita, or keerai masiyal ( more about it later).
Update: Needless to say, this post along with my recipe for Vangi bath and my original post on brinjals are my entries for JFI July.
Brinjals (also known as eggplant in the U.S.) are available in different varieties. Though there are many varieties of brinjals available in market today, my early memories are only of the long variety in both green and violet colors. The round ones were seen less often. As I have said earlier, when we were growing up most of the vegetables we used were home grown and during the monsoon months we had only the lady’s fingers and brinjals grown in our back yards and the summer gourds hung from the ceilings.
There weren’t many different ways in which brinjals were cooked those days, the most popular ones beings the Mezhukkupuratti (either brinjals alone or in the combination of raw plantain and yam ), arachukalakki and the nezhukari. Brinjals were used in Sambar and molakoottal also.
Since our family had great Andhra connections (long story for another time), we also prepared the stuffed brinjals or Guthi Vangaya koora. My father also used to relish the simple Vangaya Veppudu, a cousin of our Mezhukkupuratti.
Brinjal has remained a favourite with our handsome and charming children also. I prepare many varieties of brinjal curries and I could write for a long time on brinjal recipes alone. Here then are the two recipes that I prepare quite often. The first is Vangi bath, the other is my own invention, I don't really have a name for it, I'm just calling it Brinjal Masala. Along with this post, those two comprise my entries for JFI July.
This rice preparation is a favourite of the family. It is spicy, tangy and well balanced and is a meal in itself. It can be had with just papads or a raita. I serve it with a bland gourd curry (kootu) as the rice is spicy.
The recipe calls for dhania powder and chilli powder, however I use my sambar powder instead as the sambar powder contains a lot more spices, this enhances the flavour and taste of the rice. Actually, in most dishes I use sambar powder in place of dhania powder, which gives an excellent aroma to the dish.
Coconut milk is an important ingredient in this recipe. I make cooconut milk by blending fresh grated coconut with ½ cup of warm water and straining it through a colander. I repeat the process with some more warm water to extract all the remaining milk from the coconut.(While blending the coconut, I add the garlic and ginger to it, so that the juices are extracted along with the coconut milk). Ready made coconut milk can also be used.
Try this recipe and enjoy.
Ingredients:
Tomatoes : 250gms Basmati rice : 1 cup Coconut milk : 1 cup Ginger : 2” piece Garlic : 6 or more pods (as per taste) Onion : 100gms. Green chillies : 2 or 3 Cloves : 2 Cinnamon : 1” stick Black cardamom : 1 no. Bay leaves : 1 or 2 Dhania powder : 1 tbsp. Chilli powder : 1 or 2 tsp (as per taste) Turmeric powder : 1 tsp. Salt to taste Ghee or oil : 2 tbsp.
Cashew nuts : for garnishing. Curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing.
Preparation:
Blanch the tomatoes by dipping in boiling water for 5 minutes and immediately dipping in cold water. Remove the skin (blanching helps in removing the skin easily). Make a puree of the tomatoes. Keep aside.
Pepare coconut milk as explained above or use ready made coconut milk. Extract the juice of ginger and garlic by blending and straining the juice. Keep aside.
Slice the onions and slit the green chillies.
Wash and soak the rice for 10 minutes. Heat ghee in a pressure cooker and fry the cashew nut to a golden brown color. Remove and keep aside for garnishing. Fry the onions to a golden brown. Remove and keep aside for garnishing. Into the same ghee, add the whole garam masalas (cloves, cinnamon and cardamom) and bay leaf. When they stop spluttering, add the slit green chillies and saute for a minute. Add the rice and fry till the rice starts spluttering. Add the tomato puree and coconut milk and juice of ginger and garlic. As the tomato puree is quite thick it provides only half its measure of water for the rice to cook. The ratio of water to rice for cooking the rice varies depending on the rice. Normally basmati rice will need two cups of water to one cup of rice. If quantity of coconut milk used is 1 cup and tomato puree is 1 cup, we need to add an additional half cup of water to the rice for cooking. Add the dhania powder, chilli powder (or the sambar powder), turmeric powder and salt. Close the pressure cooker and cook the rice with the weight valve on. When done, garnish with curry leaves, coriander leaves and cahsew nuts and fried onions.
ENJOY! P.S.: Of course, this is my entry for JFI Tomatoes
