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 :)