Hagalakayi Gojju - Bittergourd gojju

Hagalakayi or bittergourd is good for health especially for kidneys and for diabetes.
But due to its bitter taste many people avoid using it in their cuisine.

But bittergourd can be used to make some tasty recipes as well.

Below is one such you may try..

Ingredients
Hagalayaki/Bittergourd - 2 to 3
Onions
Tamarind pulp
Sambhar powder
Seasonings - mustard, turmeric, channa dal, urad dal, curry leaves

For Grinding
Grated coconut - a little
Fried gram - 2 tsp
Fried sesame seeds/white eLLu - 1 tsp
Fried Urad dal - 1 tsp


Method
1) Cut the bittergourd length wise and remove the seeds inside and cut into small pieces.
2) Add turmeric, salt and a little water to bittergourd and pressure cook it for 1 whistle.
3) Once cooled, remove the water - this will help remove the bitterness a little.
4) In a pan, heat oil and add mustard, channa dal, urad dal, curry leaves, turmeric and hing.
5) To this add chopped onions and fry.
6) Once onions are fried add the bittergourd pieces to this and fry for a while.
7) Add tamarind pulp, salt, sambhar powder, jaggery and water to this and allow it boil for sometime.
8) Add the ground paste to the boiling mixture and allow it boil for sometime till all ingredients come together.

Hagalakayi Gooju - ready to be eaten with rice and ghee.
Try the tasty and healthy gojju.. and have fun.

Majjige-HuLi

This is a dish prepared using curd (preferably slightly sour curd). Yes, there is a nice and tasty way of using up all those leftover curds lying around in the refrigerator :)
Majjige-huLi literally means sour curd in Kannada.

This is a very common dish prepared in Karnataka and has many variations to it.
It is part of most of the festivals and tops the menu list during functions like weddings in South India.

This recipe is prepared with different vegetables, like ash melon, chow-chow or bhindi.
Most popular and tastier one is the one with ash melon.
So I will posting a step to step guide to prepare the Majjige-Huli with Ash Melon (called boodu kumbalakayi in kannada) in this blog.

Below is a pic of Ash Melon

Ingredients for preparing Majjige-HuLi
1) Ash Melon - 1kg
2) Sour curd - around 1/2 litre (beat it lightly till it is smooth)


For Grinding
1) Grated fresh Coconut
2) Green chillies
3) Soaked Gram Dal/Channa Dal - 3-4 tsp (for about 1 hour)
4) Turmeric
5) Mustard - very little (arnd 1/4 tsp) - raw
6) Dhania/Corainder seeds - 1 tsp
7) Jeera seeds - 1 tsp
8) Coriander leaves

Method
1) Grind all the ingredients mentioned along with water and keep aside.
2) Peel the skin of the Ash melon and remove the seeds inside it and cut into medium sized cubes.
3) Pressure cook the Ash melon with little salt and some water (enough to immerse the cubes) for 1 or 2 whistles.
4) Once it is cooled, put the Ash melon in a vessel and add the ground mixture and add salt to taste and boil for a while.
5) Finally add the sour curd to this and mix well and allow it to boil once (once u see bubbles switch off).
6) Season with mustard, hing and curry leaves and add to majjige-huli.

Tastes awesome with rice :)

As mentioned there are many variations to this dish.
Some people who like garlic flavour in their cuisine, can add a bit of garlic to grinding.
Some also add some spices like cinnamon etc.

But this original version tastes the best and is a nice authentic dish which uses no dal and is good for digestion and great to be eaten during summers :)

Menasinakai Gojju (Chilli gojju)

I know what you might be thinking reading the title.
But it is not a dish to be scared of ;) as its not something sooper hot and spicy.
It is a nice, tasty and lightly spicy gojju which can be enjoyed with hot white rice and ghee :D

It is one of my personal favourites and my younger daughter's constant request to be present on the weekend  menu :)

Sharing the recipe for the same below... Try and let me know if you liked it. :)

Ingredients
1) Green Chilli
2) Red Chilli
3) Hing
4) Grated Coconut
5) Menthe seeds (Methi seeds)
6) Oil

Method
1) Grind grated coconut, fried dry red chillies (around 5-6 if using byadige red chillie), and hing along with little water in a mixie
2) Heat oil in a tava (around 5-6 tsp), add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Add hing, turmeric powder and curry leaves. Add some menthe seeds (1/2 tsp). To this add split green chillies (split length wise - around 4-5) and fry for a while.
3) Add the ground paste to this, a little water, salt, jaggery, tamarind pulp (2-3 tsp).
4) Allow it to boil for 5-6 minutes and the tangy spicy chilli gojju is ready to be enjoyed.

Pulagoora / Masappu

Pulagoora or Masappu is a dish prepared using only leafy plants/soppu.
This is prepared for rice - (to be used like sambhar with rice).

It is nice and healthy since we use only leafy plants in the preparation.


Ingredients
1) Koigoora/Arive soppu.(arnd 3 sets) If this is not available, then can use Dhantina Soppu as well. (These are kannada names, need to google it out to find out the names in other languages)
2) Onions
3) Green chillies
4) Tamarind
5) Coconut
6) Sesame
7) Poppy
8) Seasoning

Method
1) Wash the arive soppu well and put in a pressure cooker. Add green chillies, tamarind, one big onion (and garlic - optional) and a little water along and pressure cook till everything is cooked well.
2) Grind all the above that is pressure cooked - Soppu, Onion etc in mixie and keep aside.
3) Next, grind coconut, sesame seeds and poppy seeds with little water in a mixie and keep aside.
4) Now in a pan, heat some oil and add mustard, hing, a little channa dal and urad dal. Once seasoning is done, add chopped onions and fry.
5) To this, add the ground mixture - soppu and the coconut mixture both.
6) Add salt and little jaggery and boil everything till it comes together.

Pulagoora is ready to be served with hot rice.
Try it.

Cucumber Avalakki

Strange as it may sound, trust me, it is very easy and very quick to prepare.
And tastes wonderful and light for a healthy evening snack.

So here is how you do it....

Ingredients
1) Cucumber
2) Medium Avalakki (make sure you use medium avalakki only for this)
3) Green chillies
4) Corainder
5) Seasonings

Method
1) Grate cucumber along with the peel (remove the bitterness) into a bowl.
2) Add avalakki to this and mix well. Water in cucmber is enough for avalakki to become soft.
3) Add salt to this and mix well and keep aside.
4) In a pan, heat oil, and add mustard, channa dal, urad dal, hing, curry leaves, chopped green chillies to prepare the seasoning.
5) Lower the flame and the avalakki to this pan.
6) Further add grated coconut and finely chopped coriander to this and lightly warm it.

Your healthy tasty 5 min snack ready to be relished.

Gongura pachhadi - 1

Happened to get Gongura (not commonly available here) while I went vegetable shopping yesterday.
This is my one of daugther's favourite dishes.. and so picked up some to make the Andhra Special - Gongura Pachhadi.


Gongura is a leafy plant item like palak. It is basically very tangy by nature and is said to be a good source of iron, vitamins and folic acid.

For reference, gongura looks like below.

Gongura pachhadi is famous Andhra cuisine which is basically used as a pickle/chutney.

Below is the recipe for the pachhadi...

Ingredients

1) Gongura

2) Dry Red Chillies

3) White Ellu seeds - (sesame seeds - also called Thil in Hindi)

4) Dhania seeds

5) Jaggery

6) Salt

Method:

1) Remove the red stems from the leaf, wash the gongura well.

2) Spread the gongura on a paper or a muslin cloth so that the gongura dries well (there should be no water in the leaves, the leaves should be fresh - not dried).

This helps in storing the pachhadi for a long time.

3) In a thick bottomed pan, dry roast some dhania seeds, sesame and dry red chillies according to your taste levels.

4) Grind this above mixture into a nice powder in the mixie.

5) Add oil to the pan and add the gongura leaves and fry till the gongura becomes soft.

6) Now add this gongura to the mixie along with the powdered spices, add required amount of salt and jaggery and grind. Need not be a smooth mixture. Let all the ingredients mix well.

7) Now heat oil (use little bit more oil like in a pickle) in a pan, and add mustard seeds and let it splutter.

Add the ground mixture into this oil and deep fry on low flame till the mixture absorbs all the oil into it well.

Gongura pachhadi is ready to be served.

Tips:

You may add garlic to the pachhadi i.e when  frying the gongura, garlic can be added along and ground.

Normally garlic is used as part of gongura pachhadi, since I am not a huge fan of garlic, I have skipped that part.

Gongura pachhadi tastes wonderful with hot white rice served with ghee.

Add some finely chopped raw onions along with this and the taste will be awesome.

Enjoy :)

Rava dosae - Instant Batter

Rava Dosae is one the simplest dosas that can be whipped up in no time and instantly.
It is very tasty as well.
I learnt this from a friend of mine and was amazed at its simplicity.
So here goes the recipe for you...

Ingredients
------------
1) Rice Flour - 1 cup
2) Maida Flour - 1 cup
3) Rava (Chiroti/Peni Rava - Very small rava) - 1 cup
4) Green chillies
5) Jeera
6) Corainder
7) Pepper

Method
---------
Mix all the three flours in a bowl. Add in finely chopped green chillies, chopped coriander, jeera and pepper kernels (partially broken) to the flour mixture. Add in required amount of salt.
To this, add water and mix till a thin batter is achieved.
The batter should be slightly watery and runny.

Once the batter is ready, leave it for 10-15mins.

Now heat a non stick tawa, and add a little oil. Now pour the dosae mixture on the tawa, as thin as possible.
Start from the outer ring and move in. There is no need to rotate/spread the batter on the tawa like a normal dosae. Just pour in the batter and leave it.
The thinner you make it, the crispier it will be.
Turn and fry the dosae on both sides and serve with chutney.
Tasty, crispy rava doase is ready to be relished. It will be as good as or even better than in hotels.

Tips :: A small cup of curd also can be added to the batter.
          If finely chopped onions are added to the batter, then you will end up with Rava Onion Dosae.
          If you add in some aloo curry (like in masala dosae) inside the rava dosae, you will get a Rava Onion Masala Dosae.
Once the base recipe is known, many such variations can be tried (like in hotels).

Some pics attached...

Khara Dosae / Adai Dosae - No ferment

I was thinking of making some pulav yesterday night and so washed and soaked the rice. Later due to change in plan for dinner, forgot about the soaked rice and hence it paved the way for today's breakfast :)
Since there was rice already soaked, soaked some dal as well overnight and prepared Khara/Adai dosae for morning breakfast.

Recipe for the dosae is below,

Ingredients
-----------
1) 2 cups rice - soak overnight
2) 3/4 cup toor daal - soak over night
3) A little gram/channa dal - soak overnight (all 3 can be soaked together)

Method
--------
Grind the soaked rice and dals, along with green chilli, pudina, coriander, a little grated coconut, raw onion and salt in a mixie.
The mixture need not be very smooth.

Season mustard in a kadai and fry finely chop onions along with it.
Add this to the dosae batter.

Batter is ready for preparation.

Heat a pan on medium flame, and pour the batter on the pan.
And bake like a normal dosae.

The khara dosae is ready.

It can be served with chutney or tomato ketchup.
It tastes very good with allam pachhadi (a chutney made of ginger).

Mysore Pak

After completing the day's chores, found time to sit in front of computer now.
So, I prepared this dish the other day, called "Mysore Pak" - a very famous sweet dish in Karnataka.
It is a simple and yet very tasty dish. It is said, this was first prepared in Mysore by a palace cook and hence the name Mysore Pak.

Below is the recipe for the same.
I will try to capture some snaps when I prepare it next time.

Ingredients
------------
Gram flour (besan) - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups
Milk - about 1/2 a cup
Ghee - 2 cups
Cardamom powder

Method
--------
Step 1 :: In a thick bottom kadai, lightly fry the besan flour.  Do not over fry.
Once the flour is warm, remove into a plate.

Step 2 :: In the kadai, add sugar and enough milk to immerse the sugar. On a medium flame allow the sugar to completely melt in the milk. Ensure there are no granules of sugar present.

Step 3 :: Grease a plate with ghee and keep aside

Step 4:: Once sugar has completely melted, add the besan flour and 1 cup ghee.
Stir the mixture so that all the ingredients mix well.

Step 5 :: Keep stirring till the mixture begins to thicken. When the mixture begins to thicken, add the rest of the ghee (1 cup) and stir till the mixture starts to leave the sides of the kadai.

Step 6 :: Once the mixture starts leaving the pan, add elaichi powder and remove from flame. Transfer it into the greased plate and allow it to cool.

Step 7 :: Once it has cooled down, cut them into pieces of desired shape (traditionally mysore pak is cut into diamond shape).

Enjoy the mysore pak which is ready to melt in your mouth :)

Tips :: When the mixture starts to thicken, milk khoa (readily available in stores) can be added. It makes the mysore pak even more softer and tastier.

Special Coconut Burfi

Here goes my first post on the blog.
As said.. anything new should be started with something sweet, hence I am posting a simple and tasty sweet dish for my first post.
Try and let me know how it turns out :)

Ingredients

-----------

Milk - 4 cups

Sugar - 3 cups

Fresh grated coconut - 2 cups

Ghee - 1 cup

Method

---------

Mix all the above ingredients together in a thick bottomed kadai on a medium flame.

Allow the mixture to boil till it reaches a thick consistency.

Meanwhile, grease a plate with ghee and keep aside.

Once the mixture starts to thicken, start stirring continuously till the mixture leaves the kadai at the sides.

Add powdered cardomom to this and pour the mixture into the greased plate.

Allow it to cool for 10-15mins and cut into pieces.

Your delicious coconut burfi is ready to be enjoyed. :)

Tips :: Add powdered badam/cashew powder along with the cardamom powder, to enhance the taste further.