Carrot Thogayal

When my neighbor handed me a cup of "Carrot" thogayal a.k.a rice-mix to taste, it didn't hit the right note for me. I mean, I have never tasted.. let alone tasting, I would've never even imagined such a recipe using carrots. "Carrots", "Fenugreek leaves", "Thogayal", all sounded like a strange combination, BUT..... only till I tasted it.

Kothamalli (Coriander) Podi

Very flavorful rice-mix! The most appetizing part of this podi is the aroma, inviting aroma from the roasted/powdered coriander seeds. Mix in a spoonful of this podi with hot rice & ghee and enjoy with morkuzhambu/ kootu/ appalam on the side. Personally, I love to have it with some plain yogurt on the side.. Yum is the word!!

Gongura Thogayal

Last week, I was at Indian grocers and fresh bunches of gongura (sorrel leaves) were calling out to me from almost every other shopping cart. And, that's how a bunch of fresh gongura leaves found its way into my pantry too! Even better, I have a telugu family (from Andhra) who recently moved in next door. Now, do the math yourself!!

Paruppu podi

Toor dal / Tuvar dal (split pigeon peas) is one of the most popular pulses in southern part of India. Toor dal being an important source of protein (usually 25% of protein by weight) in a vegetarian diet, is used in most of the south-Indian recipes, like sambar, rasam, kootu etc. Paruppu thogayal is a wet mixture of toor dal & spices used as a rice mix with milagu kuzhambu on the side.

Paruppu podi is the recipe where toor dal is dry roasted with other spices and ground into fine dry powder (slightly towards the coarser side). Then, this powder/podi is mixed with rice with a dab of ghee / gingelly oil and consumed with sutta (fire-roasted) appalam on the side. As simple as it sounds, this is also very tasty & nutritious. Healthy alternate to break your usual sambar-rasam routine.

My mom always keeps a bottle of paruppu podi in stock, that comes really handy while she 's not around to cook for us. Me & my brother are suckers for our mom 's simplest, down-to-earth form of this recipe, and I especially love it with poricha kuzhambu / plain yogurt on the side!

Basic Info
Complexity - Simple
Prep time - 30 mins (includes cooling time)
Cook time - 5 mins
Serves - approx. 1 cup

Ingredients
Toor dal - 1 cup
Black peppercorns - 1 tsp
Dry red chilli - 1 no
Salt to taste

Method

Dry roast toor dal, black peppercorns, dry red chilli until toor dal is golden brown. Let it cool to room temperature and grind into a fine powder.

If you store paruppu podi in a dry air-tight container, and use only dry spoons, it can stay good for months together.

Variations

- Dry roast 2-3 sprigs of curry leaves along with the dal and grind.

- Cumin seeds (~2 tsp) also makes a flavorful addition.

- Mix 2 big pinches of hing to the podi to aid in better digestion.

- Dry roast 6-8 cloves of garlic until crisp and grind it along with toor dal for the famous "Andhra Pappu".

- However you mix & match the above ingredients, you will always end up with a flavorsome, protein-packed paruppu podi.

Pulikaichal / Puliyodharai

Here it is! The "most wanted" recipe from a Brahmin's kitchen!

Pulikaichal, if literally translated, means boiled/condensed tamarind pulp and puliyodharai is pulikaichal mixed with rice. In a more elaborate sense, tamarind pulp is cooked with spices (like coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, dry red chillies etc) and thickened into a paste like consistency. Pulikaichal can then be used as a instant rice mix especially during the days when you are just too tired or plain lazy to cook. Works like a charm for lunch boxes & travel. With just chips/vadam on the side, puliyodharai makes a perfect picnic lunch.

Puliyodharai is so famous that south Indians consider it as a festival food, is given as prasadam in temples. Of all the varieties known, Iyengar puliyodharai tops the list and perumal kovil (Lord Vishnu temple) offers the best-tasting puliyodharai. The tanginess from tamarind & spiciness from the chillies strikes a perfect balance as it cures in gingelly oil and with the addition of crunchy peanuts, what's not to like in this 'divine' combo?!

This recipe here is my mom's and I am a big fan of her pulikaichal, especially when she makes it in kal-chatti (stone cooking-pot) - tastes out of the world! Don't be surprised with the recipe using less number of red chillies, you will still be able to achieve that spicy-tangy authentic taste.

Basic Info
Complexity - Medium
Prep time - 20 mins
Cook time - 30 mins
Serves - 1 cup

Ingredients
Tamarind - about the size of a lime
Water - 2.5 cups
Urid dal - 2 tsp
Channa dal - 2 tsp
Dry red chillies - 4 nos (broken into 2 halves)
Hing - 1 small piece
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Gingelly (Sesame) oil - 1/3 cup
Curry leaves - 8-10 nos
Peanuts - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1 tsp



To dry roast
Dry red chillies - 7 nos
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tbsp
Corainder seeds - 2 tbsp

Method

Extract about 2.5 cups of tamarind juice and set aside. Refer Notes below to learn how to extract tamarind juice.

Roast peanuts in a tsp of oil until golden brown and set aside.

Meanwhile, dry roast all the ingredients under "To dry roast". Let it cool completely and grind it into a fine powder. Set aside.

Heat a tsp of gingelly oil in a deep saucepan preferably non-stick. To this, add mustard seeds and let them splutter, fry broken red chillies, urid dal & channa dal until golden brown. 

Add rest of the gingelly oil, and when the oil gets hot, add the tamarind juice extract, turmeric powder, hing and let it come to a boil. Be very careful when adding tamarind juice to hot oil, as the oil might splutter on your hands & face. After boiling on medium heat for 10 mins, add the ground spice powder, curry leaves, salt and stir to mix. 

Let the mixture boil (on medium heat) for another 20 mins and voila.. pulikaichal is ready! Can you see the mixture reduced down to 1/3 rd of the initial quantity in the pictures above & below?

Remove pulikaichal from heat, add roasted peanuts, mix well and let it cool.

Enjoy puliyodharai (pulikaichal mixed with rice) with chips/vadam on the side.

Note

• Note that pulikaichal might look a little runny when hot, but it thickens to a paste like consistency as it cools. 
• Pulikaichal tastes great as it sits for a day or so - needs time for all the flavors to mingle. 
• If you store pulikaichal in a air-tight container and use only dry spoons, it stays good for even more than a month.
• Gingelly/Sesame oil is the key to get the right flavor, nothing else works. Also, be generous when it comes to oil for couple of reasons - oil helps to preserve pulikaichal for weeks together & gingelly oil is good for health.
• Do not let the number of red chillies being added to bother you. You need them all to perfectly balance the tanginess from tamarind juice. After a week or so, you 'll see the spice level to even out and pulikaichal becoming less & less spicier. 
• If needed, you can always add more salt when mixing puliyodharai. 
• When mixing with rice, add more/less pulikaichal depending upon the spiciness you prefer.
• Pulikaichal works best with fluffy, perfectly cooked rice.
• Pulikaichal can also be used as a side (as pickle) for curd rice / idli / dosas.

How to extract tamarind juice

Heat about a cup of water and soak tamarind in it for atleast 15 mins. This is basically to soften the tamarind for easier handling.

After 15-20 mins of rest, 

- Squeeze the tamarind hard enough using your fingers to release its juice. 

- Now, strain the juice into a clean bowl. 

- Add half of the remaining water to the tamarind pulp and repeat the first step.

- Strain the juice into the same bowl used in step 2 above.

- Add rest of the water and repeat the first & second steps again.
- I used about 2.5 cups of water for this recipe that yielded about a cup of pulikaichal.

The basic idea is to extract as much juice as possible out of the pulp. Finally, discard all the membranes & seeds.

Ellu podi

There is a famous adage in tamil "கடுகு சிறுத்தாலும் காரம் குறையாது", which literally means "Size doesn't matter". It very well applies to sesame seeds too. You might get surprisingly-shocked (if at all there is a term like that!) to learn about its health benefits. Its medicinal properties are known for treating major conditions like diabetes, lowering blood pressure, cancer, depression etc and also used in oral health & infant health. Sesame seed's anti-oxidant & anti-inflammatory properties contributes to improve cardiovascular health too.

Sesame seeds are available in various forms viz., white sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, sesame oil etc. Make sure to include one (or) more in your day-to-day meal. Also, know that sesame seeds/oil could be seriously allergic to few people. So, be cautious about it, if you are using it for the first time.

How genius of our ancestors to include a healthy ingredient like this in their day-to-day life?! pure wisdom!! A tbsp or two of sesame oil mixed with rice (like lemon rice, ellu rice, tamarind rice, vathal kuzhambu etc) or with idli-milagai podi (gun powder) goes a long way!! Our ancestors have also used sesame oil as hair & skin vitalizer, even for infants. No wonder, our parents, grand-parents & generations before could easily maintain good health, clear skin & thick, long hair whereas we are wasting our precious time knocking at the doors of health centers & beauty salons!

Ingredients
Black sesame seeds - 1/2 cup
Whole urid dal - 1/8 cup
Dry red chillies - 4 nos
Hing - a small piece
Salt - to taste

Method
Dry roast hing, urid dal, dry red chillies until crisp & urid dal turns golden brown. Set aside.

Dry roast sesame seeds until the popping sound of the seeds subsides (similar logic that we use when popping pop-corns). Also, take care not to over roast the seeds. Let it all cool down completely.

Use a mixer to grind hing, red chillies into fine powder. To this, add sesame seeds, urid dal, salt and give it a pulse or two. Not more than that! (See Notes)



To make ellu podi sadham (sesame seeds rice), take about a cup of cooked rice (I used sona masoori), add 1 tsp of ghee, 1 tsp of sesame oil, 2-3 tsp of ellu podi and mix well. Take care not to mush up the rice. Taste & adjust salt / ellu podi, if required. Serve it with urid dal vada on the side. Perfect combo!

Notes:

• Known for its high oil content, sesame seeds gives out oil when you run it in the mixer for more than couple of pulses and podi could become wet & sticky. It is okay if urid dal is coarsely ground, it gives a nice crunch when you eat it with rice.
• If the brand of sesame seeds that you buy has any kind of impurities/stones, first wash them in water and soak it for atleast 30 mins. Wash the seeds again to remove all the impurities & stones. Then, dry roast in a pan until crisp / the seeds stop spluttering.
• My mom always makes ellu podi with just roasted sesame seeds, red chillies & salt. She doesn't add hing. And, while mixing it with rice, she roasts a tsp of urid dal & a sprig of curry leaves in a tsp of sesame oil and adds it to the rice.

Coconut Thogayal

Thengai (coconut) thogayal is one of the first few recipes that I learnt in my early days of cooking. Those were the times when I had the luxury of enjoying my mom 's cooking and not have to cook too often (really .. those were the days .. sighhh !!!!!). I had this problem of forgetting the recipes & ingredients that goes into each recipe. But, coconut thogayal was a cake-walk for me, everytime. This recipe uses just 5 ingredients - hing, urid dal, chillies, tamarind, coconut (salt & oil are the obvious ones) and it was so easy for me to remember (yayyy ...)!

I would have made sure that this recipe is featured in the food channel show "5-ingredient fix", if I were the host of that show :)

Coconut thogayal is a welcome change to the regular sambar/rasam routine. I love this thogayal when it is on the spicier side. Personally, I love thengai thogayal rice with appalam on the side.

Basic Info
Complexity - simple
Prep time - 25 mins (includes scraping fresh coconut)
Cook time - 10 mins
Serves - 3-4

Ingredients
Freshly grated coconut - 1.5 cups
Hing - 1 small piece
Whole urid dal - 2 tbsp
Dry red chillies - 5-6 nos (adjust to your spice level)
Green chilli - 1 no
Tamarind (soaked in hot water) - about the size of a gooseberry
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1 tsp

Method

Roast hing, urid dal, red chillies in a tsp of oil and set aside to cool.

After it is cooled, use a mixer to grind the fried items along with green chilli into a fine paste.  Then, add coconut, salt, tamarind and grind them all together. Use as little water as possible.

Coconut thogayal is ready to be mixed & relished with hot rice!

Note

• Use freshly grated coconut for maximum flavor.
• Grind fried items first, so that the spices are mixed evenly in the thogayal.
• When mixing with rice, add a tsp of ghee for wonderful aroma & taste.
• Coconut thogayal can be refrigerated and used upto 2/3 days.

Vazhakkai podi

Vazhakkai (raw banana) podi is one of the not-so-common recipes, but features every now & then in my mom 's kitchen. Though it looks like a curry, it actually serves as a rice mix (podi). For me, this is an extended version of paruppu podi (sort of, because of the toor dal). Podi tastes great when mixed with hot rice & a dash of ghee and makes a great combo with morkuzhambu / kootu / sutta (fire-roasted) appalam on the side.

Basic Info

Complexity - Medium
Prep time - 20 - 30 mins (includes cooking raw banana)
Cook time - 15 - 20 mins
Serves - 2-3

Ingredients

Raw banana - 3 nos

Toor dal - 3/4 cup

Whole urid dal - 1/4 cup

Hing - 1 small piece

Dry red chillies - 2 nos

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 tsp

Method

Heat a tsp of oil and fry hing until roasted & crisp. Add toor dal, whole urid dal and fry until golden brown. Add dry red chillies and stir for couple of mins until they are crisp & fragrant. Set aside to cool.

Use a mixer and grind cooled dal mixture into a fine powder (without adding water).

Roast raw bananas directly on the stove in medium flame until the sides are completely charred & black and the inner flesh is all cooked. Set aside to cool and then, peel the outer layer and chop the raw-bananas into 1/2 inch cubes.

Add the freshly-ground spice powder, salt and mix well, so that the spice powder coats each and every piece of raw banana.

Mix it with hot rice & ghee and enjoy!

Note:

• The same recipe works good for making potato podi too! Just boil, peel and mash the potatoes and mix it with the ground powder and enjoy!
• You can also mash / grate the cooked raw banana instead of chopping.
• You can also pressure cook the vegetable (for 2 whistles) and use it to make podi.
• The podi is good for 1 to 2 days.

Kothavarangai (Cluster Beans) Kootu

When I was a kid, I still remember how elders in our family made it a point to visit the Holy Place Kasi atleast once in a life-time. One of the practices is that, when you take a dip in the Ganges at Kasi, you are supposed to renounce a vegetable (besides a fruit, a leaf etc) that you are very much attached to. Almost everyone in my family invariably gave up kothavarangai. It is not that they are very much attached towards kothavarangai, more so because they did not prefer this vegetable that much - could be because kothavarangai is not a very common vegetable (or) is a bitter variety of beans (or) cutting this vegetable is cumbersome (needs to be topped and tailed before cutting into small pieces).

Whatever it is, I am a big fan of kothavarangai kootu. Oh yes, I like bitter taste too! If cooked in a proper way, even vegetables with bitter taste can develop amazing flavors. When dealing with bitter vegetables, make it a point to cook them with atleast one of these ingredients - coconut,  tamarind, jaggery to cut off the bitterness.

Kothavarangai kootu can be served as a side along with plain white rice.

Ingredients

Kothavarangai (Cluster beans) - 3-4 cups (cut into small pieces)

Toor dal (raw) - 1/4 cup

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Sambar powder - 1 tsp

Tamarind water (diluted) - 3/4 cup 

Hing - 1/4 inch piece (or a tsp of hing powder)

Urad dal - 2 tbsp

Red chillies - 4-5 nos

Pepper corns - 1 tsp

Grated coconut - 3 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Broken urad dal - 1 tsp

Raw peanuts - a handful

Curry leaves - Few

Oil - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Method

Pressure cook toor dal with a pinch of turmeric for upto 2-3 whistles until it can be completely mashed. Keep it aside.

Pressure cook kothavarangai (cluster beans) for 1 whistle so that the beans are cooked, but retains its shape.

Heat about a tbsp of oil in a pan, fry hing, urad dal, red chillies, pepper corns for 2-3 mins until urad dal changes to golden brown color. Let it cool and then grind 'em with very little water into a fine paste along with grated coconut in a mixer. Keep it aside.

Now, transfer the cooked beans into a pan (along with the water that is used for pressure cooking beans), add sambar powder & salt and cook it with tamarind water for about 2-3 mins in medium heat until the raw smell of sambar powder / tamarind is gone. Add the ground paste & dal and let it cook for 2 more mins. Add water and adjust the kootu to required consistency. Remove from heat.

Heat ghee in a small pan, splutter mustard seeds, fry broken urad dal & peanuts until golden brown along with curry leaves and mix it with the kootu.

Serve hot with rice and enjoy!

Kothamalli Thogayal

Kothamalli (cilantro) thogayal is one of the simplest & healthiest rice mixes around. Using fresh cilantro in the recipe makes this rice mix very rich in anti-oxidants. I find the color & aroma of this thogayal very inviting.

Ingredients
Cilantro -  2 bunches
Urad dal - 1.5 tbsp
Red Chillies - 4-5 nos
Hing - 1 small piece
Tamarind - of small marble size
Oil & Salt - to taste

Method
Wash and clean the cilantro leaves.

Heat oil in a pan. Fry hing, urad dal & red chillies until hing is fried & urid dal turns light brown. Transfer all the roasted ingredients into mixer and grind them along with fresh cilantro leaves, tamarind and salt.

Serve with hot steamed rice with a teaspoon of ghee/sesame oil and chips/vegetable fry on the side.

Ericha kozhambu

Ericha kozhambu (kozhambu that is heated again & again) also called as "ezhu kari kozhambu" or "Thalagam" is simply arachu vitta kozhambu (spicy lentil gravy) made with seven vegetables. My mom makes this kozhambu during two occasions - Thiruvathirai & Pongal. Although the name suggests to add 7 vegetables, you can add more (or) less vegetables as you want. But, it is a practice to add odd number of vegetables (though I don't know why). Usually vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, winter melons, butternut squash, raw banana, broad beans etc are used. Traditionally, "only Tamil vegetables are used in this kozhambu". Carrots, radish etc are supposed to be English vegetables and hence not used in this kozhambu. Vegetables that tends to get mushy are also not used. Having said this, feel free to experiment it with veggies of your choice.

I am a great fan of this kozhambu and I love it especially on the second (or) third day and it tastes unbelievable with dosa (or) as a side for curd rice. For those who don't know, this kozhambu is made in excess and will be reheated and used for 2-3 days.

Margazhi Thiruvathirai is basically Lord Shiva 's birthday and I always used to wonder why kali & kozhambu is offered to Him as Neivedhyam. Recently, I read an interesting explanation for it at subbuskitchen and I thought it was very convincing.

Ingredients

Vegetables - 3-4 cups (chopped into small cubes of same size)
Sambar powder - 1 tbsp
Tamarind - 50 gems or 1 small lemon size
Cooked & mashed toor dal - 1 cup
Oil & Salt - to taste
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - Few

Roast & grind

Hing - small piece

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 4 nos

Channa dal - 1 tbsp

Coriander seeds - 1.5 tbsp

Grated coconut - 2 tbsp

Method
Roast all of the ingredients (under 'Roast & grind') except coconut in a pan with little oil and grind it along with the fresh coconut. Taste of the kozhambu changes, if the coconut is also roasted. Mix the ground masala & cooked dal into a paste with little water. Take care not to add too much of water, as consistency of the kozhambu will be very watery.

Heat oil in a pan/vessel. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. 

Add tamarind water followed by vegetables, sambar powder, salt and allow it to boil until the raw smell of tamarind goes and the vegetables are cooked. Now, add the ground paste + dal mixture to the kozhambu and bring it to a boil.

Garnish it with curry leaves and enjoy with kali.

Pudina thogayal

Pudhina (Mint leaves) thogayal is a warm, fresh, aromatic & colorful rice mix. This thogayal has a perfect mixture of sweet (from pudhina), tangy (from tamarind) & spicy (from pepper) taste.

Ingredients
Mint leaves -  2 small bunches
Urad dal - 1.5 tbsp.
Red Chillies - 2-3 nos
Hing - 1 small piece
Tamarind - of small marble size
Black pepper corns - 1/4 tsp
Oil & Salt - to taste

Method
Wash and clean the mint leaves.

Heat oil in a pan. Fry hing, urad dal, red chillies & peppercorns until hing is fried & urid dal turns light brown.

Transfer all the roasted ingredients into mixer and grind them along with fresh mint leaves, tamarind and salt.

Serve hot with steamed rice with a teaspoon of sesame oil and roasted papad.

Kathirikkai Thogayal

Kathirikkai (eggplant) thogayal is a spicy condiment that is eaten with hot rice and crispy papad on the side. Eggplant is VJ 's first love (no kidding!!!) and this thogayal is one of his favorites.

In India, we roast eggplants directly over the open flame (or) on gas stovetop. But in US, my kitchen only had an electric range and I just couldn't figure out how to roast eggplants to make this thogayal.

On a terribly chilly night, I decided to make this thogayal and started roasting eggplants directly on the electric coil, only to end up with smoke all over my kitchen. To make things worst, the smoke alarm went on and I had to open all the doors & windows to let the smoke escape. Chilly weather, rumbling tummies, empty vessel and smoke all over the house - life couldn't get any more worse, or could it?! That night, I was very close to give up on this thogayal. Then, something just told me to try conventional oven for roasting eggplants and boy, was I glad?!

This thogayal also serves as a great savory spread for chips, bread, bread crisps, roti (or) just with anything!!

Basic Info
Complexity - Simple
Prep time - 20-25 mins (includes roasting eggplants)
Cook time - 5 mins

Serves - 1.5 to 2 cups of thogayal

Ingredients

Eggplant - 2 nos

Hing - 1 small piece

Dry red chillies - 6 nos

Urid dal - 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Tamarind - size of a gooseberry

Salt - to taste

Method

Cut the eggplants lengthwise into 2 halves. Broil at 400 degrees for about 15 - 20 mins (or) until inner side of the eggplant turns brownish black (see pictures). Let it cool.

Soak tamarind in 1/2 cup of hot water and keep it aside.

In a pan, add a tsp of oil and fry hing. Add cumin seeds and let it sizzle. Then, roast red chillies, urid dal until golden brown. Allow it to cool.

Scoop out just the flesh and grind it along with the roasted ingredients & soaked tamarind (drain the water). Add salt to taste and mix well. Smokey, spicy eggplant thogayal is ready to serve & eat!!

Tips:

- You can also add a handful of cilantro while grinding - a great flavor boost to thogayal!

- Sending this off to Made with Love Mondays!