Kovakkai / Ivy gourd / Tindora / Dondakaya Thuvaiyal

Why so many names?! ha ha...true...I just wanted to find the english name of the vegetable I know of only in Tamil and found some other translations too:-) and I knew my friends from other states also use this vegetable quite commonly. So, I hope this recipe is of interest to more audience than just one. I learnt this dish very recently from the wife of my apartments watchman! Every morning when I set off to work, I would never be able to miss the aromas wafting from her kitchen and on one such morning is when I learnt this recipe :-)

Ingredients:
- 200 gms kovakkai / ivy gourd
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 tbsp urad dhal
- 2 red chillies
- 2 green chillies
- 2 cloves garlic
- small piece of ginger
- a hint of asafoetida
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp oil



Prep time: 20 mins                                           Cook time: 30 mins

Preparation:

- Cut the vegetables into thin slices.

- In a tsp of oil roast the urad dhal, red chillies, green chillies, garlic, ginger and asafoetida and keep seperate.

- Heat the remaining oil, and fry the sliced vegetables for 15-20 mins , adding salt, until the vegetable is cooked well.
- Allow the vegetable to cool. On cooling, grind the vegetable, adding the roasted ingredients as above.
- Kovakkai thuvaiyal ready to be eaten with idli, dosa or mixed with hot rice and ghee and eaten with a pappad :-)

Potato Sagu

Potatoes are all time favorites for most of us and a dish with potatoes can never go wrong....and even if by chance it messes up, it can still not taste bad:-) So much for my love of potatoes...the most versatile veggie that can be cooked easy and tasty! So, here is a recipe with the lovely dovely potatoes which is quick and easy to make and can go well with roti or dosa! Choice is yours!!!

Ingredients:

- 4 or 5 medium potatoes
- 1/2 cup fresh/frozen green peas
- 2 medium tomatoes
- 3/4 tsp red chilli powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- Salt to taste
- Masala paste

For grinding masala paste:

- 1 onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 tbsp roasted gram (pottu kadalai / bhuna channa)
- 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp khus khus
- 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
- 2 cloves
- 2 green chilly (optional)

Prep time: 20 mins                                Cook time: 20 mins

Preparation:

- Boil the tomatoes until the skin breaks. Let it cool, peel the skin and then puree the tomatoes and set aside.

 - Pressure cook the potatoes along with the green peas. Drain the potatoes and peas of water and peel the skin off the potatoes on cooling and mash them.

- Grind all the ingredients given above under "masala paste" with 1/4 cup of water.

- In a broad pan/kadai, heat the oil. Add the fennel seeds and once it splutters, add the masala paste.

- To this, add the turmeric powder, chilly powder and salt and cook the paste until you don't get the raw smell of the masala.
- Once the masala is cooked, add the tomato puree, mashed potatoes and boiled peas and cook together for 3 to 4 minutes. Add salt if needed.

- If the gravy thickens after adding the potatoes, add little water to adjust the consistency of the gravy and bring it to a boil.

- Transfer on to a serving dish and garnish with fresh coriander leaves! Potato sagu is ready to eat with your favourite roti or dosa!

Raddish Leaf Curry

I have been looking forward to this weekend so much and am so glad its here! Work is usually very hectic during the first two weeks of the month that I usually do not get time to enter into the kitchen except to make my breakfast....well, that again is not an elaborate affair...its just plain oats cooked in milk...lol! So, after such hectic weeks of work I so wanted to unwind cooking some really healthy and quick food.

Although I have been claiming to be on a diet (which I am truly)....there have been few days in the past weeks where I had gone over board and indulged into some fried food a couple of times. Well, when you are on a diet regime(as long as its not for some Pageant:-))...I would suggest you give it up on a few occasions just so that you don't starve too much for junk and start eating loads of them on one fine day.

So, today when I ended up cooking, I took this vow to make it really simple and healthy and ended up making this super simple curry from Raddish leaves which was done in under 15 mins!!!

Ingredients:

- 1 bunch raddish leaves
- 1 small onion
- 1 green chilly
- 1 red chilly
- 1 tbsp coconut
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic (optional)
- salt to taste

Source: My Friends Cook:-)!

Prep time: 10 mins                        Cook time: 10 mins

Preparation:

- Wash the raddish leaves well, ensure there is no sand and drain.
- Chop the onions, garlic and the leaves finely.

- Dry grind the coconut and green chilly together. Just about a pulse in your blender or mixie would do.
- In a wide pan, heat the oil and let the mustard and cumin seeds splutter. Now add the red chilly and fry for a few seconds.

- Add the finely chopped onions and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes until they turn translucent.

- Now add the raddish leaves and salt and mix well. The leaves will begin  to shrink and let out some water.
- Cook covered for 5 to 7 minutes while stirring in between every 2 minutes.

- When the leaves are cooked add the coconut chilly mix and switch off the heat. Mix in the coconut well and transfer to your serving dish!

- Raddish leaf curry is ready in a jiffy! This is a good accompaniment to rice and roti as well!

Foot note:

- The leaf tastes a little bitter, so adding coconut helps to enhance the taste.
- Adjust the spice level according to the quantity of the leaf.

Karunai Kizhangu (Yam) Masiyal

This is the second recipe am posting for this week and feels so good to be able to do it regularly. I have so many posts lying in my folders that are waiting to see the light of the day. I hope to clear them all and create space for more new recipes. My only wish at the moment being....find more time for blogging:-)!

This is a very simple and quick to make recipe and can be done under 30 minutes, most part of which is to pressure cook  the veggie and the wait time to open the cooker! Many do not buy this veggie because of the fear that it will give them an itchy sensation in their throat or tongue. However, during the Dec-Jan period, while this veggie is most in season, one can be sure, there would not be so much trouble from it.

The dish goes very well as an accompaniment for dhal rice.

Ingredients:

- 400 gms yam
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 green chillies (as per choice)
- 2 tbsp boiled toor dhal (optional)
- 1 tbsp coconut
- 1 inch of ginger
- 1 tsp oil for tempering
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- Mustard seeds, curry leaves for seasoning
- Salt to taste


Prep time: 5 mins            Cook time: 20 mins

Preparation:

- Wash and cut the yam in half and boil them in pressure cooker. Once the steam escapes, peel the skin and mash the yam with your hands or a laddle.

- Grind the coconut, green chilly and ginger with water.
- In a pan, heat the oil and splutter the mustard and curry leaves.
- To this add the mashed yam, boiled dhal, ground coconut chilly paste, salt and add 1/4 cup water. Boil for 5 minutes on low flame.
- Switch off heat and mix in the lemon juice. Serve with hot rice and ghee.

Onion-Tomato Thogaiyal

Back again only after about a week yet feels like ages. Did'nt realise I had been so addicted to blogging until I had to take this break. Well, I should say am not completely back but my jet lag is giving me sometime to blog. Just when I thought I had gotten over it, today my body clock is reminding me that its not yet ready for India:-) Have been up since 2.30AM...all fresh! With all the shopping areas and malls bustling with Diwali fervour, I plan to get out of home at the stroke of 9 and do some good amount of shopping....just the thought of it relaxes me completely.....shopping be it hardcore or window walk, is my all time therapy for de-stressing....LOL!

Did not want to miss out on the blog hop event of this week. So, I tried a recipe of oats-poha idli out of my partner for this week which I will be posting tomorrow. I made a side of "thakali vengaya thogayal" (tomato-onion chutney) and it went perfectly with these super soft idlis! My cutlery's are yet to arrive and you will notice a lot of Indian cutlery's until I set my kitchen!

Ingredients:

- 2 medium tomatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 2 red chillies
- 1 tbs urad dhal
- a pinch of turmeric
- Salt to taste
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp mix of urad dhal, channa dhal and mustard for tempering
- Few curry leaves

Prep time: 15 mins       Cook time: Nil

Preparation:

- Chop the tomatoes and onions into fine pieces.

- In a pan, heat 1/2 tsp oil, add the urad dhal and red chillies and roast them until the dhal turns slightly red in colour.
- Add the onions and tomatoes, salt and turmeric and fry them until the onions turn translucent and tomatoes are mushy.Allow this to cool.
- On cooling, grind them in a mixer or blender without adding any water.

- In a pan, heat the remaining oil and temper the dhals, mustard and curry leaves and top it on the chutney.
- Tasty thogaiyal or chutney is ready to serve with your favourite idli, dosa or chapathi.

How to make Pumpkin Puree

This is a very short and sweet post on how to make pumpkin puree. Being the Halloween season, we can find pumpkins almost at every grocery store! There are quite a lot of recipes in which these puree can be used. Recently I made the Pull-apart pumpkin slice bread in which I had to make use of this puree. Its fairly simple to do...here you go with the steps...

Ingredients:

Pumpkin -as much as you need

Prep time: 30 mins

Preparation:

- De-seed the pumpkin and cut them into huge chunks.

- Steam the pumpkins using a steamer until the flesh turns tender to a fork inserted in the middle.
- Remove from steamer and scrap the flesh on to a plate using a spoon or fork
- On cooling, grind it in a blender and sieve it through into a bowl.

- Use as required and store remaining in an air tight container in the refrigerator or freeze for future use.

Foot note:

- Instead of steaming, you can put it in a baking tray, bottom coated with a cup of water. Place the flesh side facing down and bake at 300 deg F for 20 mins or until soft.
- Boiling the pumpkin may alter the taste of the puree considerably.So, not advisable.
- Passing the blended pumpkin through the sieve is optional. Just to make sure there are no lumps, you can do this process.

Linking this to Vardhinis Halloween Fiesta at Zesty Palette

Thakali Thokku - Spicy Tomato side dish

Thakali thokku or a spicy tomato chutney is a side dish that can be made and preserved for atleast a week in the refrigerator. This will come in handy during the morning rush hour or lazy evenings when you don't have the time or interest to make a chutney. 

Ingredients:

- 4 or 5 ripe tomatoes

- 2 tbsp urad dhal

- 7 to 8 red chillies

- a small pinch of tamarind

- 1/4 tsp asafoetida or hing

- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder

- mustard and channa dhal for seasoning

- Salt to taste

- 2 tbsp oil

Prep time: 15 mins          Cook time: 20 mins

Preparation:

- Wash and boil the tomatoes for 10 minutes. Drain the water and allow the tomatoes to cool.

- Meanwhile, heat little oil in a pan and roast the urad dhal and red chillies. When they are roasted to a slightly red colour, add the tamarind and hing and roast them for a minute. Switch off the heat and set aside for cooling. 

- Peel the skin off the tomatoes, add them in a blender along with the roasted ingredients above and grind them all together to a fine paste. 

- Heat the 2 tbsp of oil in a deep pan and splutter the mustard seeds and roast the channa dhal.

- To this add the ground tomato paste. Add salt to taste and turmeric powder. Mix well and simmer on medium for 15 minutes or until the oil separates.

- On cooling transfer to an air tight container and store in fridge. This goes very well with idli, dosa or even chapathis.

Sambhar for dosa/idli...hotel style

This is a very light version sambhar that i make with left over dhal! It goes very well with dosa or idli and is more like the thin sambhar you get in hotels. You could make this and soak the mini idlis to make delicious "sambhar idli"! This requires very little dhal and no tamarind at all

Ingredients:

- 1 onion sliced across
- 2 tomato sliced across
- 2 tsp sambhar powder
- 1 tbsp boiled toor dhal
- 1 green chilly slit
- 1 tsp rice flour ( thickening agent)
- curry leaves and coriander for garnish
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/2 tsp methi seeds
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- Salt to taste
- Adding 1 or 2 cloves garlic is optional

Prep time: 5 mins                  Cook time: 20 mins

Preparation:

- Cut the onions and tomatoes and keep the ingredients ready

- In a deep pan, heat oil, add  the mustard, methi seeds, green chilly and curry leaves.

- Once the mustard crackles, add the onions and tomatoes and fry a couple of minutes.

- To this add the sambhar powder, salt and 2 1/2 cups of water.
- Boil on medium for 10 mins or you will get the raw smell of the sambhar powder.
- Now add the toor dhal and bring to a boil.

- If you find the sambhar is too thin, you could mix 1 tsp rice flour to very little water and add to the boiling sambhar. This will thicken the sambhar slightly.
- Use this sambhar as a side for dosa, idly or pongal as per your choice!

Peerkangai Thuvaiyal

Ridge gourd (பீர்கங்காய் ) called Peerkangai in Tamil, is a very popular vegetable in most states of India. It is a vegetable with a lot of water content and can be used completely including its skin! There are lots of dishes that can be made with this veggie, however, the one I make almost every time I buy it is the thuvaiyal (துவையல்).

Ridge gourd or பீர்கங்காய்

All this while, I have never used the skin of this veggie to make this recipe but I came across quite a lot of links where the skin has been used to make this recipe. I will deftly try it the next time and post the recipe, however, this time, I have used the veggie sans the skin! 

There is also a twist to this in the end! A cousin of my hubby spent a week with us this year and taught me some fabulous ways to make regular food interesting! She is an amazing cook in her own rights and I learnt quite a lot of things from her...especially the tempering of food! Thanks Vaisha ...u r my "tempering guru"...:-)!

Ingredients:

- 1 Ridge gourd or Peerkangai

- 1 tbsp urad dhal

- 2 to 3 dry red chillies

- 1/8 tsp hing or asafoetida

- 1 1/2 tbsp coconut

- a small piece of tamarind

- Salt to taste

- 1 tsp oil for tempering and frying the dhal

Prep time: 15 mins              Cook time: 5 mins

Preparation:

- Heat 1/2 tsp oil in a kadai and roast the urad dhal and red chillies. When the dhal is roasted, add the hing and the tamarind, toss it a few seconds and remove from heat and let it cool.

Coconut, roasted dhal, chilly, hing and tamarind

- Peel the skin of the veggie and cut the veggie into small pieces.

Cubed pieces of the veggie

- In a kadai, add the cut veggie, add salt as desired and cook for 3 to 4 mins in medium heat. The veggie will release a lot of water after you add the salt and will cook very quickly.

Cooking the veggie

- Let the veggie cool .

- Once the dhal and veggie has cooled, blend everything together with the coconut.

Cooled veggie and dhal ready to blend

- Do not add any water unless absolutely necessary.

After blending

- Once done, the dish is ready to serve with hot rice and ghee!This can be tempered with little mustard, channa dhal and curry leaves just before serving. 

After Tempering....Ready to serve!

- The crunch of the channa dhal while eating makes you go..."yeh dil maange more..."
- This dish can go very well with rice as well as idli, dosa or chapathi! When mixed with rice, you can make a side of Daanghar Pachadi to go with it!