BITTER GOURD FRY

Bitter gourd, an unliked  vegetable in general . There are also some people who are crazy for bitter gourd for its bitterness. There are so many ways of cooking bitter gourd  tastier. Here is my,  one of the way of preparing  bitter gourd curry. 

Ingredients:

1. Tomato - 2

2. Onion - 1

3. Bitter gourd - 3 ( medium size)

4. Lemon juice - 1 or 2 tsp according to taste

5. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

6. Salt - according to taste

To grind:

1. Coconut - 1 tbs

2. Dhania / coriander seeds - 1/2 tbs

3. Jeera - 1 tsp

4. Red chillies - 2 or 3

5. Asfotedia / hing - 2 tsp

Seasoning:

1. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

2. Jeera - 1 tsp

3. Curry leaves - 1 twig

4. Oil - for cooking

Method:

1. Wash and clean the bitter gourd nicely.  Slice it as thin as you can.

2. Heat 2 tsp of oil in a pan. Add thinly sliced bitter gourd and fry nicely. Its enough to fry until they get cooked. Keep it aside.

3. In the mean while, grind fresly grated coconut, dhania/ coriander seeds, jeera , hing powder and red chillies to a fine paste and keep it ready.

4. Heat oil in a pan for seasoning.  Add mustard seeds, jeera and curry leaves. Once they got popped, add thinly sliced onions and tomatoes. After they become soft,  add the grind paste and keep frying without sticking to the pan for 2-3 minutes.

5. Once the raw smell goes, you can add the fried bitter gourd to the pan and mix it well. If you want you can even add 2 spoons of water to the curry and fry for 1 more minute to give a nice blend. 

6. Transfer the cooked curry to a serving bowl. Add lemon juice on top of the curry, and mix it well. 

7. Serve hot with  white rice or roti and also as  a side dish with sambhar and rasam. 

WHITE PUMPKIN KOOTTU

Kootu means a semi liquid curry, cooked with lentils and vegetables. In south India, this is one of the dish served as a must in marriges. There are 3-4 types of kootu variations, commonly in use at south Indian kitchens.  This is commonly cooked with water vegetables like, white pumkin, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, snake gourd,  plaintain stem, plaintain flower and also with brinjal sometimes. 

Ingredients:

1. Chopped white pumpkin - 2 cups
2. Channa dhal / split peas - 2 tbs
3. Regular refined oil / coconut oil - 2 tsp 
4. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
5. Hing powder - 1 tsp


To grind:

1. Coconut grated, freshly - 1 tbs
2. Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
3. Red chilli - 1 


Seasoning:

1. Jeera - 1 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
3. Curry leaves - 4-5 leaves
4. Urud dhal - 1 tsp


Method:

1. Heat a pan on the stove with 2 tsp of oil.  Add mustard seeds, jeera, urud dhal and curry leaves. Once they got popped, add 1 1/2 cups of water and allow to boil.

2. In the mean white, clean and wash the channa dhal. Add it to the boiling water. You can even soak channa dhal 1/2 hr before to reduce the cooking time.

3. Once the channa dhal is 3/4 cooked, add  chopped white pumpkin to the boiling water. Make sure the pumpkin is chopped into bigger chunks. Because pumpkin cooks fast and gets smashed.


4. Add freshly grated coconut, coriander seeds, red chilli into the blender and grind it to a fine paste by adding few spoons of water.


5. Add the coconut mixture to the boiling pumpkin gravy and stir. Add salt, turmeric powder, hing powder and stir again. Keep stirring then and there, so that the spice gets absorbed by all the vegetable chunks.


6. Allow to cook, until the pumpkin and the dhal cooks to the right stage and the spices gets coated well with the vegetable. The consistency should be in semi liquid stage. If you want it to be thick, thats also fine. Keep strring in the stove, until it gets thick without sticking to the pan.


7. Transfer it to a serving bowl. Serve hot as a side dish or with white rice.

CABBAGE CURRY - CHINESE STYLE

This is a dry curry suitable for naan, roti and chappathi.  Many people dislikes the smell of cabbage, which has so many nutritional values and we too have less recipes out of cabbage in practice. So I would like to share my recipe which came out successfully. In tamilnadu, we use to have kothu parotta ( parotta torn into pieces and mix with egg scramble). You can feel almost the same taste with this recipe too. 


Ingredients:


1. Cabbage - thinly shredded ( 1 CUP)
2. Spring Onions - 1 bunch
3. Crushed ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
4. Green chilli - 1 or 2 chopped
5. Soya sauce - 1 tsp
6. Sugar - 1 pinch
7. Salt - as required
8. Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp or as required (optional)
9. Egg - 1
10. Oil - to cook


Method:


1. Clean and shred the cabbage into small and thinner.


2. Clean the spring onions and chop it roughly with the shallots.


3. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a pan. Add green chillies, crushed ginger garlic to the pan. For for few seconds.


4. Add the shredded cabbage and keep stirring for 4-5 mintes.  


5. Add chopped spring onions to the cooked cabbage and keep stirring for 4 more minutes or until it get cooked soft. 


6. Add the soya sauce, salt and sugar,  keep stirring . Add red chilli powder, stir nicely until it blends well with all the items. 


7. Once all gets cooked, broke and pour one egg on the centre and stir it well. Keep frying until the egg cooks well and the raw smell goes. If you want you can add 1 more tbs of oil to fry. 


8. Transfer to a serving bowl, serve hot with roti and naan. 


Variation - You can mix the cooked hakka or egg noodles to this mixture and have a variety dish. 

CAPSICUM CURRY

This is a nice and spicy curry which you can accompany as a side dish. It also blends well with white rice and roti. Its so simple and takes lesser time as cooking and chopping capsicum is a easy job.

Ingredients:

1. Capsicum chopped (any colour or mix together) -  1 cup

2. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp or as required

3. Salt - according to taste

4. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

5. Besan/ gram flour - 1 tbs

6. Oil - for cooking

Seasoning :

1. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

2. Jeera - 1/2 tsp

3. Curry leaves - 1 twig

4. Urud dhal - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Chop  capsicum into medium size pieces. Remove all the seeds.

2. Heat oil in a pan. Once  oil gets heated add mustard seeds, jeera, urud dhal and curry leaves.

3. Once they got popped, add chopped capsicum to the pan and saute well until the oil and the seasoning gets coated well.

4. Close the pan with the lid. Cook in the slow flame itself. Open the lid and keep stirring then and there to avoid turning black.

5. Continue the process for 5-7 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of water to the pan and allow to cook softely.

6. When few spoons of water available in the pan add salt, mix well. Add besan powder sprinkling on top the cooked capsicum and keep stirring without leaving your hands to avoid sticking.

7. Keep frying until the besan cooks well and the raw smell goes and the colour of the besan changes slightly.

8. Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve this authentic curry with rice and roti.

optional :- you can add lemon juice on top of the curry before serving.

                  You can even add even tamarind juice before adding besan flour to the curry.

MUSHROOM THOKKU

After trying so many gravies and curries, you will sure enjoy this thick pasty mushroom recipe as your side dish.

Ingredients:

1. Button mushrooms - 200gms
2. Onions - 1 medium size, sliced thinly
3. Red chilli powder - 2 tsp or as required
4. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
5. Salt - as required
6. Garam masala powder - 1 1/2 tsp or as required

To grind :

1. Freshly grated coconut - 1 tbs
2. Onion - 1 medium size
3. Green chillies - 1
4. Coriander seeds - 1/2 tbs
5. Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
6. Garlic cloves - 3 cloves
7. Ginger - 1/4 inch or just a small piece
8. Tomato - 1 medium size

Seasoning:

1. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
2. Jeera - 1 tsp
3. Coriander leaves - finely chopped
4. Lemon juice - 1 - 2 tsp

Method:

1. Clean the mushrooms without any dirt and chop it into quarters.

2. Heat oil in a pan, fry the chopped mushrooms for 3-4 minutes and keep it aside. If you keep on frying without leaving your hands in high flame, mushrooms won't leave much water. Dont allow the mushrooms to shrink too much. Even it leaves water keep it aside together with the fried mushrooms in a seperate bowl.

3. Grind coconut, fennel seeds, green chillies, onion, tomato, ginger ,garlic and coriander seeds together in a blender. No need to add water, unless it is required. Grind it little bit coarsely.

4. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and jeera. Once they got popped add thinly sliced onions and fry until they turn golden brown. Add ground masala to the pan and fry until the raw smell goes. Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt to the masala and fry for few more minutes. Add little bit oil to pan for not sticking to it. 

5. At this stage add fried mushrooms to the masala and stir for 1 -2 minutes. Sprikle chopped coriander leaves  and a dash of lemon juice on top and transfer to the serving bowl.

6. It goes well with chappathi and roti.

SRI LANKAN PUMPKIN CURRY

In Sri Lanka the large orange pumpkin is a popular vegetable. This is a traditional Sri Lankan preparation and has a delicious flavour. Coconut milk is the major ingredient in sri lankan cooking as Indonesian and thailand foods. But Srilankan foods do have the blend of our Indian foods, especially south indian foods. So try this contempary food and have fun.

Ingredients:

 1. Pumpkin - 450 gms
2. Desiccated coconut -  2 tablespoon
3 Garlic -  5 cloves
4. Curry leaves - a few
5. Onion -  ½ medium-sized
6. Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon
7. Cumin powder - ½ teaspoon
8. Turmeric -  1/4 teaspoon
9. Black mustard seed -  1/4 teaspoon
10. Oil - . 1 teaspoon
11. Salt - to taste
12 Creamed coconut -  2 tbs
13. Hot water - 1 cup

Method:

 1. Wash the pumpkin. Peel off the skin and remove the seeds and the fibrous flesh around the seeds. Cut the pumpkin into  (1") cubes.

2. Roughly chop the garlic and the onion.

3. In a heavy-bottomed frying pan, over a low heat, dry roast the coconut until dark brown. It requires constant stirring to prevent the coconut from burning. In a food processor transfer the peeled garlic, the chopped onion and the roasted coconut. Add 2 tablespoonsful of water and grind to a smooth paste.

4. In a medium-sized pan heat the oil, add the mustard seeds and cook covered on a low heat until the seeds 'pop'. Add the curry leaves and the coriander powder, cumin powder and turmeric powder and fry for half a minute.

5. Dissolve the creamed coconut in the hot water and add it together with the salt. Add the ground ingredients and lastly add the pumpkin pieces and bring to the boil. Simmer covered for 12-15 minutes or until it get cooked well, but not smashed (when a fork inserted, it goes through).

6. Serve it hot with white rice or with coconut milk rice or even with roti.

Note :- This recipe which I have received, don't have any chillies or red chilli powder. Still it tasted good. If you want to add a touch of spicyness to this curry, you can add 4-5 pepper corns while grinding masala in a blender or you can add 2-3 green chillies while seasoning mustard seeds and curry leaves.