Lemongrass Tambli:

Lemongrass is used as a culinary as well as medicinal herb in the Asian continent. It has a mild citrus flavour with sweetish taste. It can be used in a dried, powdered or fresh form in various things like teas, soups and curries. This particular curry is called “Tambli” and it is prepared by grinding fresh leaves with coconut and mixing in buttermilk and it doesn’t need boiling. You can savour this like an appetiser or mixing with piping hot rice in this really hot summer. It has healing properties and is very good for the digestive system.

How to prepare this:

Ingredients:

Lemongrass sticks – 5-6

Fresh grated Coconut – ½ cup

Green chilli -1

Salt –to taste

Lemon – ½

Buttermilk – ½ cup

Method:

  • Chop lemongrass into bite size.
  • Take your mixer jar, grind lemongrass pieces, coconut gratings, green chilli and salt by adding ½ cup of water into smooth paste. Sieve this mixture to get smooth liquid. (Sieving is very important over here, otherwise lemongrass will irritate your throat)

  • Once again add half cup of water, do exactly like earlier and repeat this process for two or three times, so that we will remove all the traces of liquid and discard the remaining fibre.
  • Now mix in buttermilk, adjust the consistency by adding water. Check the salt and add lemon juice.
  • Now your Tambli is ready to savour.
  • If you want to add the seasoning, heat one tsp of ghee, fry little cumin and curry leaves and add to Tambli.
  • Beat the heat by having this either as an appetiser or with hot rice.

NOTE:

  • To make vegan version, please omit the buttermilk and rest you can proceed as it is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neeru mavinakai Gojju/ Brined mango curd curry:

Neeru Mavinakai” is what we call brined mango, which is basically a firm fully grown, matured but un-ripened mango which is preserved in salt water. We usually relish this in the rainy season or in the off season by preparing some of our traditional dishes. I have shared how to preserve mangoes in my earlier post.  Today I am going to share one of our favourite simple curd curry, which we used to relish even in our childhood days. It is a simple curd curry, seasoned with curd chillies (known as majige menasu), curry leaves and garnished with chopped onions to give the extra zing.

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Ingredients:

Preserved raw mangoes – 2

Curd – 1 cup

Coconut milk – 2 table spoons

Green chilli – 1 (chopped)

Onion – 1 (chopped)

For Seasoning;

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Curd chillies – 1 to 2 (chopped)

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Hing – ¼ tea spoon

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

-Remove required number of mangoes from the brine water.

-Immerse these mangoes in fresh water for some time to reduce its salt content.

-Sometimes brined mangoes will be soft or hard. If it is soft, mash it and use.

Ribbet collage

-If it is very hard, cook for a couple of whistles in a cooker by adding little water and try to mash or grate.

-What I had was very hard, and I used it by grating.

-After this is done, mix in curd and coconut milk.

-If you don’t have coconut milk, you can use maggi or some other brand of coconut milk powder as well. (addition of coconut milk will reduce the tartness)

-Mix in chopped onion, green chilli.

-Do seasoning, heat coconut oil, put in mustard. When mustard starts to splutter, add in urad dal, Hing, chopped curd chillies and fry until chillies turns out dark brown.

– Add curry leaves to this hot mixture and add the seasoning over Gojju.

-Traditionally we enjoy this Gojju either with Boiled rice ganji (gruel) or with curd rice as an accompaniment.

 

 

Indian Gooseberry/Amla Thokku:

Indian gooseberry is a sour and tangy fruit with many medicinal values as it is a rich source of vitamin C. It is known as Nellikai in Kannada, Amla in Hindi. This berry has been used for years in Ayurvedic medicines as well as in Home remedies.

I used to get Amla Thokku from an “Iyengari shop”. I wanted to replicate this lip smacking Thokku at home. Hence, I began my experiment with the same and tried it a couple of times with some minute tweaks. I finally achieved the taste of the original Thokku and now it is my yearly ritual to prepare this in the season and preserving it for my year-round usage. This recipe has minimal ingredients and is very easy to prepare.

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Now to the recipe:

Ingredients:

Amla – 300 grams.

Green chillies – 80 -100 grams

Mustard seeds – 2 tbsp.

Salt –to taste

Turmeric powder – 1tsp.

Method:

-Wash amla, pat dry them and remove the seeds.

-wash green chillies and pat dry them as well.

-put mustard and turmeric in a small mixer jar and powder it. Now add cleaned gooseberry and green chilies little by little and churn (dry grinding), take this out and keep it in a clean bottle, mix in salt and keep this bottle tightly closed in a cool, dry place.

-Every day mix this Thokku with a dry spoon/spatula, until it is set (almost 10 days), check for salt (it should be a little salty)

– After it sets, store this in a fridge.

Ways to Use this Thokku:

  • You can have this Thokku with white rice and little ghee.
  • You can also have it with curd rice.
  • Lassi: mix 1 tea spoon of Thokku in thin butter milk and drink as spicy, tangy lassi.
  • Make raita with curd: In a vessel take one table spoon of Thokku, add little curd and chopped onion, mix nicely and relish this raita with plain rice.

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  • It helps to reduce acidity and soothes. It also helps to regain appetite when you are not well.