Poricha Kuzhambu

Poricha Kuzhambu is a classic south-Indian mixed vegetable stew served over plain steamed rice. This comforting dish, spiced with urid dal, pepper & coconut is also called as poricha (means 'fried' in Tamil) kootu (means 'mixed' in Tamil). Fried urid dal, pepper and fresh coconut are ground into a paste and is added to the cooked vegetables along with cooked lentils.

I love to have this as a side for paruppu sadham (dal rice). This is something that I grew up on and so for me, nothing can really beat this combo. This can also be served as a side for roti/ any kind of bread!

Basic Info

Complexity - Medium

Prep time - 20 mins

Cook time - 20 mins

Serves - 3-4

Ingredients

Mixed vegetables, cut into smaller pieces - about 3 cups (I used carrot, potato, beans, cabbage, peas)

Sambar powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Cooked & mashed toor dal - 1/2 cup

Roast & grind

Urid dal - 1.5 tbsp
Hing - 1 small piece
Red chillies - 3-4 nos
Pepper corn - 1/2 tsp
Grated coconut - 1.5 tbsp

Tempering
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Split urid dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method

Add 1.5 cups of water to a thick bottomed sauce-pan. Once water starts to boil, add all the vegetables, turmeric powder, salt, sambar powder. Once vegetables are soft & cooked, add the ground masala (paste from 'Roast & grind'). Stir often to make sure that the masala doesn't settle at the bottom of the vessel and burn the kootu. Add required water to bring kootu to required consistency. Couple of minutes after adding the masala & water, add mashed toor dal. Let it boil for a min and then, remove the pan from heat.

Add mustard seeds to a tsp of oil and let it splutter. Then, add urad dal and roast it until brown. Add them to poricha kozhambu and garnish with curry leaves.

Tips

- For poricha kozhambu, do not use vegetables that gets mushy after cooking like eggplant/spinach/ash gourd etc.

- Drumstick adds a nice flavor to kootu. So, toss a few of them (cut into small pieces of an inch long) along with the other vegetables.

- Drumstick/spinach/cabbage can be used independently to make poricha kozhambu of its own (by not mixing them with other vegetables. Recipe remains the same.

- If cooked with moong dal to a thicker consistency, this can also be used as a side for chapathi.

Events:

Linking this to "CWS - Peas" by Priya of Priya's Easy and Tasty recipes.

Jeera rasam

Jeera (Cumin) rasam - As its name indicates, this rasam is made with spices like jeera/pepper/red chillies etc. My mom usually prepares this rasam when someone at home has cold / not well. This rasam, when drank hot tastes like heaven especially in cold weather. If you don't have rasam powder in stock, then this rasam comes handy as it is made from fresh spices.

Tip:
Grind the spices just before you need the paste to be added to rasam. This way flavor of all the spices will be fresh & bold.

Ingredients
Finely chopped medium size tomatoes - 2 nos
Tamarind juice - size of gooseberry - Add hot water & extract about 1.5 cups of juice from it.
Jeera - 1 tablespoon
Pepper corn - 1/2 tablespoon
Raw Toor dal - 1/2 tablespoon (Note that this is raw toor dal and not cooked)
Red chillies (small) - 1-2 nos
Curry leaves - Few
Mustard seeds - Few - spluttered in little oil
Salt - to taste

Method
Pour tamarind juice in a pan/vessel and add tomatoes & salt to it. Allow it to boil until the raw smell of tamarind is gone and the tomatoes are cooked. Grind jeera, pepper corn, toor dal, red chillies, curry leaves and make it a fine paste. Take care to add water little by little while grinding else the paste might not grind very smooth. Add this paste to the boiling rasam, and wait until the rasam froths. Remove from heat and add spluttered mustard seeds. Serve hot with rice.

More rasam recipes to come :)

Paruppu Rasam

In Sanskrit language, 'Rasa' means Juice. In Tamil, rasam is commonly referred to the one prepared with Tamarind/Tomato juice with added spices. Rasam has a distinct taste in comparison to the sambar due to its own seasoning ingredients and is usually watery in consistency and eaten with rice. Rasam is also served as soup in restaurants these days.

Rasam is the one of the easiest recipes to cook, yet the toughest. All the flavors in rasam should be equally balanced else rasam can go sour or taste just like hot water.

Ingredients

Finely chopped medium sized tomatoes - 2 nos

Tamarind juice - size of a large gooseberry - Add hot water & extract about 1.5 cups of juice from it

Cooked & mashed Toor dal - 1/8 cup

Rasam powder - 2-3 tsp (depending on spice level)

Hing - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Cilantro - 5-6 stalks

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp spluttered in oil

Method

Pour tamarind juice into a small saucepan. Add tomatoes, rasam powder, hing, salt and bring it to a boil. 

Let the rasam boil until the raw smell of tamarind & rasam powder is gone. Mix mashed toor dal with 3/4 cup of water, add to the rasam and remove from heat as soon as it froths. Remove from heat, add cilantro & spluttered mustard seeds and keep covered until ready to be served.

Serve hot with rice. More rasam recipes to come.

Onion Raitha

Ingredients
Finely chopped medium sized onion - 1 no.
Yogurt - as required (I remember making raitha with sour cream once for a party and it was an instant hit)
Salt - to taste
Hing - a pinch
Splutter a teaspoon of mustard seeds in oil.
Cilantro - few

Method
Mix Yogurt, onion, salt, hing, spluttered mustard seeds to a thicker consistency and garnish with fresh cilantro.
Goes well as side with veg biriyani, tomato rice, peas pulao, stuffed paratha etc.,

Vegetable Biriyani

Vegetable Biriyani is a rice dish with spicy vegetables & lots of exotic spices. This is one of the vegetarian delicacies that me & my daughter simply love. The aroma of vegetables infused with all the spices makes this dish very inviting.

Speaking of Veg Biriyani, it brings back nostalgic memories of my childhood days. My mom makes very tasty & spicy veg biriyani. She usually prepares it in the evening time i.e., by the time we come back from school. And, I can smell veg biriyani with its aroma anywhere from our doorstep to couple of houses down the road - such is the aroma. Now, the history repeats itself :) My daughter can smell veg biriyani as soon as she steps into our hallway. I see a "mini-me" when my daughter shouts "Yayyyyy!!! Veg Biriyani".

Ingredients

Dry Masala

• Cardamom pods - 4 nos
• Cloves - 8 pieces
• Pepper corn - 1 tsp (Usually, I grind Cardamom pods, pepper corns, cloves into coarse powder. VJ hates to bite on whole pepper corns)
• Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
• Poppy seeds - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon sticks - 1-2 long ones
• Green chillies - 2 nos

Other items

• Vegetables cut into short pieces of same size (I use potatoes, carrots, peas & beans)
• Oil
• Ghee - couple of teaspoons
• Chilli powder - per spice requirement (If you want your biriyani with mild taste skip this one)
• Salt to taste
• Basmati rice - 2 cups (Soak in 1.5 parts of water to 1 part of rice for atleast 30 mins)

Method

In a heavy bottomed pan (I use my pressure cooker), add oil generously and grease the entire surface of the pan/cooker. Add all of the masala items and saute for 2-3 mins until the raw smell is gone. Add all of the vegetables, chilli powder & salt and saute them for few minutes.

Now, add rice & water to the vegetables along with ghee and pressure cook for 1-2 whistles. Usually I switch off for the first whistle and leave it on the stove for biriyani to be light & fluffy.

Serve hot with onion raitha.

Events:

Linking this to "CWS - Peas" by Priya of Priya's Easy and Tasty recipes.