In my opinion, Kootu is one of easiest dishes to cook and the cooking process is made easier when you have kootu powder ready. In addition Kootu is very healthy compared to a lot of other dishes. The best thing with Kootu powder is that it can be used when cooking Keerai as well.
Here's the kootu powder recipe that's been passed on to me by my mother-in-law from her mother-in-law, I had to alter the recipe to exclude coconut. The reason I had to exclude coconut was because a lot of the frozen coconuts that are available in US could not be sauteed nicely before grinding them, the dried ones smell strongly of almost spoilt coconut oil if the stock happens to be old and in addition after my dreadful trip to Kerala I have developed a total aversion for coconut and I'm yet to get out of that. Besides it's always a better idea to add fresh coconut right when u r cooking the kootu.
Ingredients:
1. 1.5 units channa dal
2. 1 unit urad dal
3. 1/4 units pepper
4. 1/4 units cumin
5. dry red chillies according to taste
Directions:
1. Fry all the ingredients separately until they turn golden brown, this would ensure that there's no moisture and also make the powder last long.
2. Just grind them coarsely.
Note:
If you by mistake ground them into fine powder, mix the powder nicely in a small amount of water before adding to kootu, this would avoid the clumps that could appear if you were to directly add the powder to the hot kootu.
In addition finally when you garnish your kootu, fry the mustard, asafoetida, urid dal and jeera in ghee instead of oil.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Cabbage baaji
Yaay! First cabbage recipe of this blog :). This happens to be one of my favorite dishes. It's more or less Kootu except that I use toor dal instead of moong dal. I love kootu a lot. Right from childhood I've always been very particular about the color of the dish I eat. I always loved the lighter, milder colored food compared to the darker ones. The only exceptions being vathal kozhambu and puliyodarai. Anyways, this is dish is delicious and can be consumed with rice just like any kootu.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup toor dal
1/2 - 3/4 cabbage
2-3 green chillies
1-2 tsp kootu powder
1-2 tsp Ghee
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard
a pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp broken urid dal
1 tsp salt
a bunch of curry leaves (optional)
Directions:
1. Pressure cook toor dal and set aside. I normally pressure cook for 4-6 whistles.
2. Now chop the cabbage nicely. Don't cut it to very small pieces.
3. Now put the cabbage in a sauce pan and add water, salt and green chillies (don't try and drown the cabbage in water, add water only to cover half the cabbage) and start boiling the cabbage in medium heat. Cook it covered.
4. Once the cabbage is cooked well, if there's excess water drain it (you can add salt to the excess cabbage water and drink it) then mash the toor dal nicely and add it to the cabbage and continue to cook at low heat.
5. At this point add kootu powder and cook it till it boils and then switch off the stove.
6. Now in a mini frying pan, add ghee and once its hot, add mustard and asafoetida and when the mustard starts to crack add urid dal and curry leaves. Once urid dal turns to golden color add this mixture to the cabbage mixture.
We had this kootu/baaji with rice and had vengaya vadam for the sides :).
Ingredients:
1/2 cup toor dal
1/2 - 3/4 cabbage
2-3 green chillies
1-2 tsp kootu powder
1-2 tsp Ghee
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard
a pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp broken urid dal
1 tsp salt
a bunch of curry leaves (optional)
Directions:
1. Pressure cook toor dal and set aside. I normally pressure cook for 4-6 whistles.
2. Now chop the cabbage nicely. Don't cut it to very small pieces.
3. Now put the cabbage in a sauce pan and add water, salt and green chillies (don't try and drown the cabbage in water, add water only to cover half the cabbage) and start boiling the cabbage in medium heat. Cook it covered.
4. Once the cabbage is cooked well, if there's excess water drain it (you can add salt to the excess cabbage water and drink it) then mash the toor dal nicely and add it to the cabbage and continue to cook at low heat.
5. At this point add kootu powder and cook it till it boils and then switch off the stove.
6. Now in a mini frying pan, add ghee and once its hot, add mustard and asafoetida and when the mustard starts to crack add urid dal and curry leaves. Once urid dal turns to golden color add this mixture to the cabbage mixture.
We had this kootu/baaji with rice and had vengaya vadam for the sides :).
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Eggplant (brinjal/kathirikkai) curry
Kathirikkai curry happens to be one of my favorite dishes. I love it so much that I made it the first time my husband visited me and then found out how much he doesn't like brinjals!!! Over a period of time he seems to have started liking it :)
Ingredients:
15 small to medium sized brinjals
1 small to medium sized onion
2 tsp salt
2 dry red chillies
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp broken urid dal
2 tsp curry powder
5 tsp oil
Directions:
1. Chop the brinjals into small cubes and soak them in water. As you continue to chop them just dump the pieces in water. This helps avoid oxidation and thereby preserves the color.
2. In a pan, add 2 tsp oil and add red chillies and mustard, once mustards start cracking add the urid dal. When urid dal turns golden brown add the onions and saute them until they turn golden brown. Now drain the water and add the brinjals. Don't drain completely. Retain some of the water so that you could use it to cook the brinjal.
3. Add salt at this point and continue to add water in very small amounts to cook the brinjals. Keep stirring them every once in a while to prevent them from sticking to the bottom.
4. When brinjals are almost cooked add the remainder of the oil. To make sure the brinjals are cooked, you can take a piece of brinjal in your hand and see if it deforms when you simply touch it. In addition, cooked brinjals turn almost dark gray in color.
5. At this point add the curry powder, I add curry powder at the end because it helps absorb some of the excess water in the curry.
My husband and I sometimes mix this with rice and have it as our first course, it's excellent with paruppu sadam and all the other courses like samabar, rasam and curd.
Note: All the Indian curries come out nice and good when cooked in a kadai/wok rather than a nonstick frying pan/sauce pan.
Ingredients:
15 small to medium sized brinjals
1 small to medium sized onion
2 tsp salt
2 dry red chillies
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp broken urid dal
2 tsp curry powder
5 tsp oil
Directions:
1. Chop the brinjals into small cubes and soak them in water. As you continue to chop them just dump the pieces in water. This helps avoid oxidation and thereby preserves the color.
2. In a pan, add 2 tsp oil and add red chillies and mustard, once mustards start cracking add the urid dal. When urid dal turns golden brown add the onions and saute them until they turn golden brown. Now drain the water and add the brinjals. Don't drain completely. Retain some of the water so that you could use it to cook the brinjal.
3. Add salt at this point and continue to add water in very small amounts to cook the brinjals. Keep stirring them every once in a while to prevent them from sticking to the bottom.
4. When brinjals are almost cooked add the remainder of the oil. To make sure the brinjals are cooked, you can take a piece of brinjal in your hand and see if it deforms when you simply touch it. In addition, cooked brinjals turn almost dark gray in color.
5. At this point add the curry powder, I add curry powder at the end because it helps absorb some of the excess water in the curry.
My husband and I sometimes mix this with rice and have it as our first course, it's excellent with paruppu sadam and all the other courses like samabar, rasam and curd.
Note: All the Indian curries come out nice and good when cooked in a kadai/wok rather than a nonstick frying pan/sauce pan.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Adai
Adai is an awesome dish. It's rich in protein and really tasty as well. I'm posting the base recipe for adai here. This recipe is different from some of the other adai recipes because it the ratio of the dals vary. My mother-in-law gave me this recipe sometime back and when I tried it, the adais really came out great. I also came to know that my mom also uses the same recipe for making adai especially when all my aunts use a different one ;). My mom did tell me that adding extra channa dal makes the adai a lot more tastier.
Ingredients:
1 cup boiled rice (puzhungal arisi)
1/4 cup ponni or sona masoori raw rice (optional)
1/2 cup channa dal
1/4 cup toor dal
1/4 cup urid dal
2-3 dry red chillis
pinch of Asafoetida
handful of curry leaves
1-2 tsp salt
Directions:
1. Soak all the rice, dals and chillis together for about 3 hours atleast (the longer they are soaked, the softer the adai is). Whenever you soak dals make sure to add just enough water so that the water level is just an inch above the dals. This way you could avoid draining out water later on and compromising the flavor.
2. Now grind the soaked mixture, with asafoetida. Coarse grinding is enough
3. Now add salt and chopped curry leaves to the mixture. Adai batter is ready now and you can even store it for making adai later. Remember to store the batter in the fridge.
4. After grinding the batter, when you choose to make adai, all you need to do is take this ground batter and spread in a tawa like dosa and pour a little oil around the circumference. Most people would make a small hole in the middle as well and pour a little oil in it to make the adai more crispy.
Note: The recipe given above is just a base recipe, you could enhance it by adding chopped plaintain flower or drumstick leaves.
Ingredients:
1 cup boiled rice (puzhungal arisi)
1/4 cup ponni or sona masoori raw rice (optional)
1/2 cup channa dal
1/4 cup toor dal
1/4 cup urid dal
2-3 dry red chillis
pinch of Asafoetida
handful of curry leaves
1-2 tsp salt
Directions:
1. Soak all the rice, dals and chillis together for about 3 hours atleast (the longer they are soaked, the softer the adai is). Whenever you soak dals make sure to add just enough water so that the water level is just an inch above the dals. This way you could avoid draining out water later on and compromising the flavor.
2. Now grind the soaked mixture, with asafoetida. Coarse grinding is enough
3. Now add salt and chopped curry leaves to the mixture. Adai batter is ready now and you can even store it for making adai later. Remember to store the batter in the fridge.
4. After grinding the batter, when you choose to make adai, all you need to do is take this ground batter and spread in a tawa like dosa and pour a little oil around the circumference. Most people would make a small hole in the middle as well and pour a little oil in it to make the adai more crispy.
Note: The recipe given above is just a base recipe, you could enhance it by adding chopped plaintain flower or drumstick leaves.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Aloo Palak
My husband and I like to have rotis for dinner on Sunday nights and we try and have a new side dish every time. I decided to make Aloo Palak by following the recipe my mom-in-law gave to me when she was here. It came out really very well and my husband told me it was one of the best aloo palak's he had tasted (yaaay!! isn't that awesome). Here's the recipe
3/4 bag of frozen chopped spinach or one full bag of fresh spinach.
1 medium sized onion
1 large tomato
1-2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 green chilli
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (optional)
6-8 fingerling potatoes
1-2 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon extract (optional)
2 tbsp oil
Directions:
1. First boil the potatoes using pressure cooker until the first whistle blows. Use just enough water to barely touch base of the potatoes. After first whistle, switch off and keep this aside.
2. Meanwhile rinse the spinach and boil it with just the water clinging onto the leaves. Keep the lid of the pan closed. Boil until the leaves turn to dark green in color, then switch off and set aside to cool down.
3. Now dice the onion, tomato and green chilli and grind them fine.
4. Put the ground onion mixture in a sauce pan, add the ginger garlic paste and start heating it, until the gravy changes color and becomes slightly darker red.
5. Now grind the spinach. Coarse grinding is enough and add it to the already boilt onion mixture.
6. Add garam masala, chilli powder, salt and turmeric powder and stir gently and let the mixture continue to cook. Switch off when mixture starts to boil.
7. Now peel the potato skin and cut them into small cubes and fry them in oil for a minute and add them to the palak mixture.
8. Upon switching off, add the lemon extract.
3/4 bag of frozen chopped spinach or one full bag of fresh spinach.
1 medium sized onion
1 large tomato
1-2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 green chilli
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (optional)
6-8 fingerling potatoes
1-2 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon extract (optional)
2 tbsp oil
Directions:
1. First boil the potatoes using pressure cooker until the first whistle blows. Use just enough water to barely touch base of the potatoes. After first whistle, switch off and keep this aside.
2. Meanwhile rinse the spinach and boil it with just the water clinging onto the leaves. Keep the lid of the pan closed. Boil until the leaves turn to dark green in color, then switch off and set aside to cool down.
3. Now dice the onion, tomato and green chilli and grind them fine.
4. Put the ground onion mixture in a sauce pan, add the ginger garlic paste and start heating it, until the gravy changes color and becomes slightly darker red.
5. Now grind the spinach. Coarse grinding is enough and add it to the already boilt onion mixture.
6. Add garam masala, chilli powder, salt and turmeric powder and stir gently and let the mixture continue to cook. Switch off when mixture starts to boil.
7. Now peel the potato skin and cut them into small cubes and fry them in oil for a minute and add them to the palak mixture.
8. Upon switching off, add the lemon extract.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Semiya Payasam
Last Friday happened to be Karadaiyan Nonbu and I had to make some sweet. Payasam is one of my stronger areas so I decided to make semiya payasam. Paysam is one of the most easiest to cook and here's the recipe.
Ingredients:
1 cup vermicelli (semiya)
1.5 - 2 cups sugar (sakkarai) (2 cups for the sweet tooth)
4 cups milk (paal)
4 tpsp ghee (nei)
1.5 tsp cardamom powder (elakkai podi)
10 cashews (mundhiri)
10 raisins (dratchai)
Directions:
1. Take a nice sauce pan and add a little ghee and roast the semiya in it turns golden brown.
2. Once the semiya turns golden brown add milk to it and let the semiya get cooked.
3. Keep stirring frequently to prevent the semiya from sticking together or to the bottom of the pan.
4. Just add the powdered cardamom to this mixture (adding cardamom to milk enhances the flavor)
5. When the semiya is almost fully cooked add the sugar and continue to stir the mixture.
6. Roast cashews in ghee separately and add it to the milk and semiya
7. Roast raisins in ghee separately and add it to the milk and semiya.
Note: As you add ghee, the color of the payasam changes, it's no longer white in color, it becomes off white. That's a clue to determine if you've added enough or too little ghee.
Ingredients:
1 cup vermicelli (semiya)
1.5 - 2 cups sugar (sakkarai) (2 cups for the sweet tooth)
4 cups milk (paal)
4 tpsp ghee (nei)
1.5 tsp cardamom powder (elakkai podi)
10 cashews (mundhiri)
10 raisins (dratchai)
Directions:
1. Take a nice sauce pan and add a little ghee and roast the semiya in it turns golden brown.
2. Once the semiya turns golden brown add milk to it and let the semiya get cooked.
3. Keep stirring frequently to prevent the semiya from sticking together or to the bottom of the pan.
4. Just add the powdered cardamom to this mixture (adding cardamom to milk enhances the flavor)
5. When the semiya is almost fully cooked add the sugar and continue to stir the mixture.
6. Roast cashews in ghee separately and add it to the milk and semiya
7. Roast raisins in ghee separately and add it to the milk and semiya.
Note: As you add ghee, the color of the payasam changes, it's no longer white in color, it becomes off white. That's a clue to determine if you've added enough or too little ghee.
Intro...
Hello
Welcome to the "Holy Cabbage". The blog has nothing to do with cabbage except ofcourse there can be recipes for dishes that use cabbage. This is primarily a recipe blog that could also contain restaurant reviews occasionally.
I love to cook simply because it makes me happy every time my husband tells me how much he enjoyed the food that I just made.
I try and cook new dishes over weekend and would like to publish the recipes. One thing is for sure, the recipes I post would range from easy-medium difficulty levels, nothing would be real hard to try out.
Cooking ain't rocket science and if I (who has never really been in the kitchen, until I left home 4 years back) can cook, then anyone can cook.
Hope you enjoy trying out the recipes posted here :)
Welcome to the "Holy Cabbage". The blog has nothing to do with cabbage except ofcourse there can be recipes for dishes that use cabbage. This is primarily a recipe blog that could also contain restaurant reviews occasionally.
I love to cook simply because it makes me happy every time my husband tells me how much he enjoyed the food that I just made.
I try and cook new dishes over weekend and would like to publish the recipes. One thing is for sure, the recipes I post would range from easy-medium difficulty levels, nothing would be real hard to try out.
Cooking ain't rocket science and if I (who has never really been in the kitchen, until I left home 4 years back) can cook, then anyone can cook.
Hope you enjoy trying out the recipes posted here :)
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