Puliangudi Special - Ulundhamparuppu Curry - Udad Dal Curry

I wanted to make my 50th post something special, everybody does it with sweets, but I wanted to do  something different. I decided upon this Ulundham paruppu curry as it is special to me.

This is one of the recipes that is unique to my native place, it is made in Puliangidi, Kadayanallur, Vallam Sengottai areas. I think Udad dal dishes are prevalent in this area because udad is the crop used in rotation between the rice crops.

During season, green udad bean pods are available (directly from the fields). These are boiled whole in salted water and then peeled and the green beans inside are eaten. Let me tell you they are really delicious and it is something I looked forward to when I visited during my summer holidays.

Girls who have attained age and pregnant and post partem women are given ulundh kali, ulundham paruppu curry, Ulundhu vadai, ulundhu choru in fact in Unlundhu/Udad Dal in as many forms as possible because it is said to srengthen the pelvic muscles and the back bone. The kali has a bitter taste due to the addition of aliyam vidhai. I remember being force fed the kali when I attained age. But I am grateful now, because I am relatively free of the backpain that seems to be so prevalent among women of my age in my acquaintance. I will post the recipes for the other items in future, if the almighty wills.

aromatic and creamy ulundham paruppu curry

Now for my favourite Ulundham paruppu curry.
First Step:
Udad Dhal - 1/2  cup
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Garlic Cloves 2-3
Cook all the above together with water to cover till the dal is cooked but seperate.
Second step:
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/2 tsp Sombu / perunjeeragam/ sonf
1 " piece Cinnamon
1/2 tsp jeera
1 " piece Ginger
2-3 Garlic Cloves
Grind all the above to a fine paste.
Third Step:
1 Big Onion Chopped or a handful of Sambhar onions (preferable)
One tomato - fimely Chopped
two green chillies Slit
1 tsp Chilli Powder (Omit for post partem ladies and can use a bit of black pepper powder instead)
4 tsp Malli Masala Powder
salt to taste
1 tsp Mustard seeds
two sprigs curry leaves.

Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard, after it splutters, add curry leaves and chopped onion. When onions change colour, add tomato peices, green chillies, salt, chilli powder, malli masala, and stir till raw smell of chilli powder goes. Add the ground coconut paste. Add water to make thick gravy and simmer till the masala is cooked. Last add the cooked udad dal with its water. Adjust for salt and serve with plain boiled rice and tomato chutney or any spicy curry. We had it with Pavakkai waruval & cauliflower jeera stir fry (recipes following soon).

Variations:
When the masala is boiling you can add Drumsticks or Raw mango to it and boil till cooked to get a really different and delicious flavour.
For a non veg variation, after the dal is added, eggs are broken into the gently simmering gravy and cooked. This is also good, but my husband dosen't like it, so I take a little in another pan and do it seperately.
Instead of the cinnamon and sonf in the coconut masala, you can add a tsp of garam masala powder, but I prefer not to do so.
Remember not to overcook the paruppu/dal, if the dal disingerates, the curry will take on a slippery texture which is not palatable to some people.

I am sending this to Foodelicious - Only South Indian Event, Vegan Diet - Only Plant Based, Any One can Cook series 45, Healthy Morsels, Vidhya's and Vardhini's  - Love Locked - Legumes.

Koththu Parotta - Plain Version

Sometimes when we make or buy Parottas, there are leftovers. This can be turned into delicious Koththu parotta the next day. This is very simple & quick item.

Left over parottas - Chop into small pieces directly from the fridge. Its easier that way.
Onions - sliced - For three salad plate sized parottas, use one big Onion
Tomatoes - 2 - 3 finely chopped
Chillies - 2 slit
Salt to taste
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp or more if you want more heat.
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp Optional
Corrainder leaves - chopped - a little
Oil as required

Heat oil in a pan, add onions, fry till golden, add ginger garlic paste, green chillies and sautee till raw smell of masala goes, add the spice powders and tomatoes , add salt, stir till tomatoes are mushy, add a tbsp of water if the gravy is too dry, fold in the chopped parotta pieces and the corriander. Squeeze half a lime if necessary. Serve with chips or raita. Simple , fast, delicious.

Potato Biriyani

This is one of the recipes that bring back memories of myself fighting with my sisters to scrape the pan clean. Even my finicky younger sister would polish it off. The name is Biriyani, but my mother used normal rice (parboiled rice) for making it. When Rasi at Vegetarian Food & me asked for a dish which we make especially for ourselves, I was a little taken aback. I realised that though I like what I cook, most of my cooking is geared towards my DH & DD's preferences. I couldn't think of a single thing which was special for me alone!!! While I was pondering over this and whether I have lost myself and other great thathvams (philosophies), along came Aruna manikandans Baby Potato Biriyani. Now I remembered my Mothers Potato Biriyani, which graced our lunch box very often as it was a family favourite and is something which can qualify for what I make specially for myself.

Here come my mom's Potato Biriyani, especially for me:

1 1/2 cups Rice (Any Indian Non glutinous Rice - Just adjust water accordingly)
1 1/2 cups - Cubed potatoes (around 1 " Cubes)
1 Onion - Sliced
2 tomatoes - chopped
1 green chilli - slit
1 tbsp - ginger garlic paste
1 tsp or less - chilli powder
1 tbsp - malli masala powder
salt to taste.
Oil/ Ghee or a mixture - as required.
Powder together the following:
3 cardomoms
1 " piece cinnamon
4 cloves
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp jeera
1/2 tsp sonf
1/2 tsp Black pepper.

Wash and clean rice. Soak it till you process the other ingredients for this dish.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker or in a heavy bottomed pan. Add sliced onions, sautee till translucent. Add green chilli & ginger garlic paste. Add chilli powder, malli masala powder and the powdered masala and salt. fry till aromatic on low flame. add chopped tomatoes and sautee till mushy.
Now add the cubed potatoes, drained rice and enough water to cook rice (for parboiled rice the amount is three times the volume of rice, for raw rice 2 times and for jeerakasala rice 1.5 times). Check for salt at this stage. Close the lid and cook till done. Garnish with chopped corriander leaves.
Serve with a salad or pappad or potato chips.

I am sending this to Vegetarian Food & Me - I am the star ,  Any One Can Cook Series 45 and to Comfort Food

Strawberry Dates Milk Shake

Freshness in a Glass

Ingredients:

10 sttrawberries
10 pitted(seedless) dates - chopped
2 Ripe bananas
1 - 2 cups Whole Milk
date syrup - as per taste.
Strawberry Ice cream - 1 scoop

Blend everything smoothly, serve chilled. easy peasy and so wholesome. I felt instantaneously energised and my daughter loved the strawberry flavour.

I am sending this to Kalyani's Kitchen Chronicles - Summer Splash guest hosted at Sangeethas Kitchen

If I have given the wrong link please feel free to correct me, I am confused about this hosting business. Still am a baby blogger. :)

Update: 27-03-2012:

I am also sending this to Tase of Pearl City's Any One Can Cook: Series 45 and Healthy Morsels
For those ladies during their first trimester with the morning sickness may not be able to drink milk can try this with Yoghurt, it will be more soothing. One thing I did to combat this is to have a glass of water which I drank as soon as I woke up , I also kept sliced cucumber with lemon juice and salt in the fridge, peeled orange segments in covered bowls so that I had something to change my mind when I thought I was feeling nauseous. It worked very well.

Update : 14-07-2012

I am sending this refreshing drink to Ramadan Friendly Recipes @ The Halal Foodie

Kathirikkai Poriyal (Brinjal Stir Fry)

Even though it is not a popular vegetable it is amazing how many delicious dishes can be made with this bland spongy vegetable. It is an indispensable vegetable, economic and available through out the year. In my native place, we mostly use the light green striped variety or the white one. It is versatile and takes on the flavour of whatever spices or masala added to it. One of my favourites is this simple poriyal.
I got this recipe from my relative in sharjah, by relation she is my grandmother ( My own grandmothers cousin sister).

Ingredients:
Brinjal - Cubed 2 cups ( Since my hubby bought Long narrow variety I just sliced into 1/2 inch thick roundels so that they will hold their shape when cooked)
Onion - 1 Nos chopped
Curry leaves 1 sprig
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp.
Jeera - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 4 nos
Garlic - 1-2 cloves
Coconut - 2 tbsp grated
salt to taste
Oil - 2-3 tbsp.
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Udad dal - 1 tsp

Procedure:
Cur brinjal, put in salted water to draw out the bitterness if the brinjal is not tender. If the seeds are prominent, then the brinjal is well ripened and may be bitter to taste in whatever dish it is used. Best not to use such in poriyals. You can use them for kaarakuzhambu, not even sambhar.
Grind Jeera, red chillies, coconut and garlic into a coarse dry mixture. Don't add water.
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard and udad dal, after mustard splutters add Chopped onions, and when it turns colour add turmeric powder, salt and the ground mixture. stir fry the masala, you will get a wonderful aroma at this stage with the frying of the coconut, garlic & jeera. If you dont add salt and by chance the masala burns, the red chillies will smoke and choke you. Believe me I have experienced this. Next add the drained cubed or sliced brinjals and stir well to coat well with the masala. Cover and cook for around five mins. It should not cook too much or you will end up with a paste, tasty but nonetheless a paste.
Stir well on medium flame to lightly roast the cooked brinjal pieces and remmove from flame. Your Kaththirikkai poriyal is ready.

I am sending this to Foodelicious 'Only' South Indian event, Vidhyas and Srav's Vegan Diet - Only Plant based Food and to Taste of Pearl City's Anyone can Cook : Series 45

Spinach & Chana Curry

This is a curry I started making when I wanted something low carb as usually I paired it with Parotta made from maida, or Khubz same maida but baked so I console myself healthier. There's something fascinating about the huge round oven in which the baker puts the flat disc of dough inside and it puffs beautifully into Khubz. We have been having Khubz regularly for years because my Hubby like arabic food.
I try to compensate by overloading the fiber factor in the accompaniments, it has worked so far because even though we regularly take parotta or khubz, we are free from constipation, cholesterol etc...

Weelllll coming to the recipe, this is a very healthy recipe full of the goodness of Spinach and Chana.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Cooked Chana (or one can)
2 cups - chopped spinach
1 cup  - Chopped Onion
1 cup - Chopped tomato
1/4 cup - Chopped corriander leaves
2 Nos - Chopped green chillies
1 Tbsp - Ginger garlic paste
1 Tbsp - Corriander powder
1 tsp - Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp - garam masal powder
1 tsp - Pepper - jeera powder
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt to taste
Oil as required.

Heat oil in a kadai, sautee onions till golden.
Add ginger garlic paste and the chopped green chillies and sautee till it turns colour.
Add chopped tomatoes and a little salt and cook till tomatoes are mushy.
Add all the spice powders excepting pepper jeera powder and stir till masala is aromatic.
Add Chopped spinach and stir a little, add a little water and allow the spinach to cook till semisoft.
Mash the cooked spinach with the back of the spoon.
Stir in the cooked chana and corriander leaves and let it simmer for five mins or so to blend the flavours.
The consistency should be semi solid, add water as required and check for salt level.
After switching off the stove, stir in the pepper jeera powder and the lemon juice.

This amount was just right for the three of us, but it will serve four persons witha little more water added to the gravy.

When I had a larger fridge, I used to soak and sprout 1 kg chana at a time, pressure cook with salt to taste and divide into four or five parts and freeze. The chopped spinach usually was kept aside when I made poriyal the previous day or the day before. So all that remained was chopping the onion, tomatoes and green chilles. This you can do while the pan is heating on the stove so it was a quickie recipe for me. It takes maybe fifteen to twenty mins if all the ingredients are in hand.

Ladies pressed for time and energy can use canned garbanzo beans, frozen spinach. There is no problem in using what resources you have available to make a home cooked meal for your loved ones.

We have this with chappaties, poories or when tired with parottas from the nearby cafeteria or Khubz from the bakery.

I am sending this to Chel Al Dente's Gimme Green, Taste of Pearl City's Healthy Morsels, Vidhyas and Vardhinis Love Locked - Legumes, Srav's Vegan Diet - Only Plant Based, Show me Your HITs Series 2 Fiber Rich Foods

 

Iam also sending this to Taste of Pearl City's : Any One can Cook Series - 45

Seven Cup Sweet

Or should I say 3 1/2 cup sweet ?

Of the three of us, me my DD & my DH, only my DH has a sweet tooth. So I make sweets rarely. My sweet making takes place during Ramdaan time, and when guests come. This is a simple sweet, nutritious sweet, easy to make and good for children. Bigger people can limit themselves to one piece if they can ;-).

The actual recipe is as follows, I halved the recipe.

1 cup - kadala maavu (Besan aka Chick pea Flour)
1 cup - Cocnut finely grated (avoid the brown part near the shell)
1 cup - Milk
1 cup - Ghee (Clarified Butter)
3 cups - Granulated Sugar

Take a heavy bottom pan, heat it, reduce the flame, add ghee, add besan, grated coconut, fry a little, then add other ingredients.
Stir continously for fifteen mins or so on medium flame. The whole mixture will give a toasted aroma and change colour slightly and come off the sides.
You can add 1/2 tsp of cardomom powder for flavouring, but it is optional.
Pour into greased plate and cut into squares or diamonds when half set. Break apart when fully set. I got around 15 pieces which will last around three days in my house :-)


Dont they look glossy ?