Tag: south Indian

Alasande Palya / Yard long beans dry curry:

June 7, 2018

Alasande aka yard long bean is very popular and one of the age old cultivated crops of Mangalore coast. It is tender, immature pods of black eye pea. In rainy season, most of the vegetable kitchen gardeners grow this super tasty veggie for day to day use.

Immature pods are one of the favourite food for little birds as well. It is a low calorie, high in fibre vegetable and tastes little sweetish and texture is little chewy and watery.

Alasande side dish is one of the very popular dishes during the festivities- either in weddings, festival cooking or day to day cooking. For day to day cooking, we normally toss this veggie with mild seasoning and for festivity cooking, we use coconut masala. Today I am going to share the recipe of my house hold which my family relishes whenever I prepare.

Ingredients:

Alasande / Yard long beans – 500 grams

Red chilli powder – ½ tea spoon

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Salt

Jaggery – 1 tea spoon

For seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Red chilli – 1 (optional)

Curry leaves – 1 spring

For Masala:

Coconut – ¼ cup

Roasted Byadagi Red chillies – 2 to 3

Cumin – 1 tea spoon

Tamarind – ½ tea spoon

Method:

-Wash, remove two ends of yard long beans and chop as required.

-Dry grind coconut with roasted chillies, cumin and tamarind for masala and keep aside.

-Now take one kadai, heat oil for seasoning, splutter mustard, add urad dal. If you are adding red chilli add that as well.

-When urad dal becomes red, add curry leaves, chopped beans, turmeric, salt, jaggery, red chilli powder and toss for two minutes.

-Add one small cup of water and cook until it is soft and firm.

-Add dry ground masala and mix everything. Keep it covered for two to three minutes and switch off the gas.

-Serve with hot rice or with thali as a side dish.

 

 

 

Spaghetti squash palya/stir-fry:

October 24, 2017

Spaghetti squash is oblong shaped spring vegetable. Like any other squash it has creamy yellow outer hard skin and inner core and seed part. It is rich in vitamins, rich in antioxidants and low in carbohydrate. Hence it is loved by weight watchers and one can enjoy this super magical veggie in many forms after baking it for a half an hour. After initial baking/cooking ,inner flesh tends to become thread like texture and which can be enjoyed in many ways as salads, as substitution for noodles etc.

I wanted to try this vegetable from so long. In my recent visit to USA, I asked my sister to bring this veggie when I was at her place. She did struggle a lot to find this vegetable in the Summer and finally managed to find one and handed it over to me. I knew it was extensively used as a substitute to noodles in salads, hence I wanted to incorporate it in our south Indian cooking and tried simple palya and it tasted great with rice and Rasam.

palya 2

Ingredients:

Spaghetti squash – 1

Red chilli powder – 1 tea spoon

Salt

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Jaggery – 1 tea spoon

Grated fresh coconut – 2 table spoons

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Red chilli -1 (broken in to half)

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

How to remove or prepare spaghetti, out of squash before making palya-

Ribbet collage 1

If you have not used spaghetti squash before, there are couple of things one should know. First you should cut this veggie into half lengthwise and carefully remove the seeds and attached fibre. Place these two pieces on a lined cookie sheet or any baking tray. Next spray some olive oil or any other vegetable oil and bake this in a pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes at 180 ®C or until it is cooked and water oozes and accumulates at the centre hollow region.

Ribbet collage 2

Next, remove from the oven, cool a bit. Take one fork and scrape all over and see the magic. Yup!!! You will see lots of noodle like strands and collect all these and keep it ready for further cooking.

How to make Palya:

-Take one kadai/wok add oil and heat. Splutter mustard, add urad dal, cumin, red chilli.

Ribbet collage 3

-When urad dal becomes light brown, add curry leaves, collected spaghetti squash strands, salt, jaggery, red chilli powder and little water.

-Cook until veggie absorbs all the flavours and water dries up. Garnish with coconut gratings.

palya 3

-Serve with rice or roti.

 

How to cook Vermicelli:

December 7, 2016

Initial days of cooking are very challenging. We face lots of hardships at the kitchen. Generally in south Indian cooking,  the quantity of water used, is crucial and the end result is depends on that. So, if we know the requirement of water for cooking that particular ingredient, half the battle is won.

Usually I get a query in my message box regarding some doubts or the other from my near and dear ones. In one such query’s person had asked me, why she can’t cook perfect vermicelli Upma?  Further she said, her preparation becomes little soggy each time she makes vermicelli upma. That day, while answering her query, I thought of making one separate category for learners in my future blog and today here I am, writing my first post, dedicated to cooking learners.

Here, I will guide you to make simple Vermicelli Upma –

pic-9

Ingredients:

Vermicelli – 2 cups

Onion – 2 medium

Green chillies -2

Salt

Grated coconut – 1 table sp

Lemon – 1/2

For seasoning –

Mustard – 1 teaspoon

Urad dal – 1teaspoon

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Cumin- ½ teaspoon

Red chilli -1

Oil /ghee – 2 table spoon.

Method:

-First, Chop the onions, chillies and measure vermicelli and keep aside.

pic-1

  • Keep one small bowl of water for boiling.

pic-2

  • In another burner, keep thick bottomed kadai; do seasoning by heating ghee or oil, or mix of both. When it is hot, add mustard. When the mustard splutters add urad dal. After it becomes light brown add red chilli, cumin, curry leaves.
  • After this add chopped onion, green chillies and fry for a while.

pic-3

  • If you wish to add turmeric, you can add it now.
  • Add little salt and fry onion until it is light brown.
  • Add vermicelli and fry for a while.
  • How to check if oil is sufficient or not: while mixing vermicelli, if oil coats vermicelli and becomes wet and shiny, oil content is perfect for this upma. If you feel vermicelli is dry and it is not holding together, add little more oil or ghee.

pic-4

  • Next- how much roasting or frying is needed? After frying it for a couple of minutes on a low flame, you will see the colour change and each strand will becomes whitish and crispy. It is now time to add boiling water.(refer to this above picture)

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  • How much quantity of water? Please refer to the picture. While pouring, Water should be just above the vermicelli. Mix the mixture and check for the salt. If salt is needed add and cover the kadai with a lid and cook it in a low flame.

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  • After a couple of minutes, open the lid, if water is evaporated and top part of the layer appears cooked, that is it. If you find, it is yet to cook, sprinkle little water and keep it covered for couple of minutes.

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  • If you like to garnish with coconut, add coconut and add lemon juice and mix.

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Serve this upma with a cup of coffee or tea.

Pumpkin Tawa Fry

November 27, 2016

Two years back I had a pumpkin vine in my kitchen garden. We enjoyed so many delicacies from its flower and we used to love the  tawa fry of the flowers a lot. Even now my daughter remembers the taste of it and asks me to make them. Last week she asked me to try pumpkin tawa fry, instead of the flower and it turned out to be absolutely delicious and she was happy too. It is a blend of all kinds of flavours, the sweetness and hing combine to make it a great side dish.

pumpkin-tawa-fry

Here I have used green colored young pumpkin –

Ingredient:

Pumpkin slices – 20

For marinating:

Salt – 1 teaspoon

Hing – ¼ tsp

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Outer cover:

Chiroti /fine rawa – 3 table spoon

Rice flour – 2 teaspoon

Powdered Hing – ½ tsp

Salt – to taste

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric – ½ teaspoon

Coconut oil – 3 -4 table spoon.

Method:

  • Slice pumpkin into ¼ “thickness, with outer skin intact.

pic-1

  • Put marinating ingredient and mix this and keep aside for 1 to 2 hours.
pic-3
Rawa coated pumpkin pieces
  • Take one bowl: mix all the ingredients under outer cover- rawa, salt, rice flour, hing, red chilli powder, turmeric – and mix without adding water.
  • Whenever you are ready to make it, heat iron Dosa griddle, dip each piece in the rawa mix, coat both the side nicely and keep them for frying on the hot iron griddle.
  • Roast both the sides by applying sufficient coconut oil.

pic-9

  • It can be served as an appetizer or side dish for a South Indian lunch.

-Hope you will like the dish as much as we did 🙂

Have a nice day! Cant wait to put up more dishes for you 😀

P.S: If any of my ideas inspire you to create something on the similar lines, I would feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding 🙂