Soraikkai Thuvayal

 

 

Meals. At times, they're something I put together in a jiffy. At others, they are painstakingly thought through. Ever since A started eating regular meals, I have started putting more thought into what I put on the table. All the same, I don't want A to have conventional ideas of what a meal must be and must not be. So, it doesn't have to be rice or roti. A meal could be dosai, pasta, soup and a sandwich, rice-dal-sabzi, parathas... as long as it has carbohydrates, proteins, fats and a good portion of vegetables, it is a meal.

 

One night, I decided to make wheat doddaks for dinner. A few years ago, I added moong flour to the batter and have not stopped since. Thus, the wheat and green gram doddak was born. My carb and protein elements had been taken care of. In order to convert it into a full meal, I grated some bottle gourd into the batter and made little doddaks for A. Now, that was a full meal for him. It had all that I wanted in his meal and it was something he wanted too (to be able to eat by himself).

But why all this talk about doddaks in a post about a thuvayal? Because putting in grated bottle gourd into the batter may make it a meal for my little one, but we adults need something to go with the doddaks. And since I have been known to make a thuvayal out of just anything, I decided to make the vegetable element of our meal into a thuvayal.


This recipe deviates from my usual thuvayal but is a keeper recipe.


1 cup Bottle Gourd, peeled and diced
2 tbsp Coconut, scraped
4 Red Chillies
1 tsp Mustard
1 tsp Cumin
3 tsp Urad Dal (Black Gram Dal)
1 tsp Chana Dal
1 tsp Sesame Seeds
1/4 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
3 tsp Oil
1 tbsp Tamarind Paste
Salt to taste




 

Heat the oil and fry the red chillies, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, chana dal and black gram dal for a couple of minutes. Add the bottle gourd and fry for 2 minutes. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Grind the mixture along with the coconut, tamarind paste and salt.

Serve with the doddaks. Serve on buttered toast. Serve with rice. Serve with chapatis. In short, serve it just about any way you like.

Pok Choy Thuvayal

I have access to a wide variety of greens here. I use them in many ways: stir fries, salads, etc. Sometimes, I simply use a local green in my regular Indian cooking instead of an Indian green. We have had Kai-lan (Chinese Broccoli) Dal, Kangkong (Water Spinach) Sambar etc. I like the idea of throwing in a green leafy vegetable into just any dish. And all of you know about my obsession with Thuvayals. When I found a couple of bunches of Pok Choy that weren't fresh enough for a stir fry, I made a thuvayal with it. It was very tasty and I know we will have it again soon.

 

1 1/2 cups Pok Choy, washed and roughly chopped

2 tbsp Coconut, scraped

1 tbsp Oil

2 Green Chillies

1/2 tsp Chilli Flakes

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

1 tsp Sesame Seeds

1/4 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

2 tsp Black Gram Dal

1 tsp Tamarind Paste

Salt to Taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Black Gram Dal

a pinch Asafoetida

5-6 Curry Leaves

Heat the oil and fry the green chillies, red chilli flakes, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, fenugreek seeds, asafoetida and black gram dal for a couple of minutes. Add the pok choy along with the coconut and fry for 2 minutes. Grind the mixture along with the tamarind paste and salt.

Heat the teaspoon of oil for the tempering in a frying ladle. Add the mustard, black gram dal and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this tempering to the pok choy mixture.

Mix some rice and ghee/ sesame oil. Add a couple of spoonfuls of the thuvayal. Mix well and get ready for a quick trip to heaven. That's how good this was.

Vendhaya Keerai Thuvayal (Methi Chutney)

I have a whole variety of dishes that I make with fresh fenugreek leaves. Methi Pulao, Methi Mutter Malai, Palak Methi Dal, etc. But I realized I'd almost never tried to use the leaves in any kind of south Indian cooking. This one time that I brought home a fresh bunch, I decided not to go down the Aloo Methi path and tread on my other tried and tested route instead. The route which leads me to the tangy, spicy paste we all know as a thuvayal or thogayal.

1 1/2 cups Fenugreek Leaves, washed and roughly chopped

1 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

2 tsp Black Gram Dal

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

2 Green Chillies

1/2 tsp Chilli Flakes

1 tsp Tamarind Paste

Salt to Taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Black Gram Dal

a pinch Asafoetida

5-6 Curry Leaves

Heat the oil and fry the green chillies, red chilli flakes, mustard, asafoetida and black gram dal for a couple of minutes. Add the fenugreek leaves and fry for 4-5 minutes. Grind the mixture along with the tamarind paste and salt. 

Heat the teaspoon of oil for the tempering in a frying ladle. Add the mustard, black gram dal and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this tempering to the fenugreek leaves mixture.

Serve this with rice and a little ghee and some papads or vadams on the side. I expected the thuvayal to be a little bitter, but somehow, the flavour of the fenugreek leaves came through with only a hint of the bitterness.



Poondu Thuvayal

Garlic. While many people I know would turn their noses up at this bulb, S and I are two of a kind, the other kind. Yes, we'd both firmly fall into the "Mad about garlic" club. A few months ago, S was unwell and his mother said that garlic would help. So, I sat and peeled an entire bulb. (Now I know it will be a long time before I have to sit down and peel an entire bulb. At least I have access to ready peeled garlic here.)

In one weekend, I made several dishes using garlic. I never did really find out if it cured S of his cold and congestion, but we did have one great meal after another.

One of these dishes was the simple thuvayal featuring garlic. 

1/2 cup Garlic cloves, peeled and roughly diced

1 tsp Oil

3-4 Red Chillies

2 tsp Urad Dal

1/2 tbsp Tamarind paste

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

7-8 Curry Leaves

In a small pan, heat the other teaspoon of oil and add the urad dal. When it turns slightly brown, add the red chillies and fry for a minute. Add the garlic and saute for 5-7 minutes. Grind this mixture along with the tamarind paste and salt.

In a frying ladle, heat the oil for the tempering. Add the mustard. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this to the ground paste.

Mix the thuvayal with some rice. Add a little ghee if need be. Make small balls of the mixture and enjoy each thoroughly.

Purple Carrot Thuvayal

There’s this woman we all know in the blogosphere. She’s more of a temptress, really. She’s made me crave so many things that I’ve sometimes wanted to dash across the city and insist that she feed me. She even obliged one time and brought me some home made Goda Masala so I could make her Spicy Nutty Cluster Beans. I remember looking at her Kadhi Pakoda and feeling hungry all over again. I think that was the dish that got me hooked to Anita’s blog. A year ago, on this very day, she posted Black/Purple Carrot Kanji. I wanted some because it looked pretty and I had heard so much about it. Fortunately, I didn’t have to make it myself. My colleague’s mother sent me enough, coincidentally the very next day!

This year, I bought the purple carrots with the sole intention of making Kanji. I did everything but that. I waited for the purple carrots to appear, I had bookmarked Anita’s recipe anyway, and was all set to make kanji. But fate intervened. I used one carrot in this dish and made a thuvayal with the others. I will be making this again and again, whenever these beauties are in season. Hopefully, I shall also make kanji!

4 Purple Carrots, peeled and diced


2 tsp Oil


1/s tsp Mustard Seeds


3-4 Red Chillies


2 tsp Urad Dal


1/2 tbsp Tamarind paste


Salt to taste






For the tempering:


1 tsp Oil


1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds


1/2 tsp Urad Dal


1/4 tsp Asafoetida


1 Red Chilli, broken








Heat one teaspoon of oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds, red chillies and the urad dal. When the mustard splutters, add the diced vegetable. Saute for a couple of minutes and cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Allow it to cool. Grind this along with the tamarind paste and salt.




In a frying ladle, heat the oil for the tempering. Add the urad dal and mustard. When the mustard splutters, add the asafoetida and red chilli. Add this to the ground paste.




Mix this thuvayal with some hot rice and add a little bit of ghee. Mix well and enjoy the purple sensation.

Cabbage Thuvayal

Amma calls me the "Thogayal queen". Whenever I cook a south Indian meal (Konkani, Tamil or Telugu) I try and make it a point to make a thuvayal. It serves many purposes:

• 
  
  There's one more vegetable dish
• 
  
  Mix it with rice and you've got one entire course
• 
  
  It removes the need for a pickle with curd rice
• 
  
  It makes for a good bread spread/side for idli and dosa, so the next morning's breakfast issue is solved
• 
  
  It gives S the feeling of a somewhat "complete" meal
• 
  
  I get another dish to blog about

I have a lot of processed vegetables in the fridge and freezer and these come in very handy when I'm putting meals together on weeknights. And I have been known to make thuvayal/thogayal with just about any. I am putting this up thanks to a lot of pressure from folks at work who can't seem to get enough of this. (K, this post is especially for you. I do hope you find it useful.)

There's another version of this at Talimpu and Nandita blogged about her adaptation of that recently. Mine is slightly different. In fact, all my thuvayal recipes are very very similar. Replace the vegetable in any recipe and it yields a completely new dish. Someday, I shall blog about my family favourite "Thengai Thogayal". Until then, we shall focus on 5-a-day!

1 cup Cabbage, chopped

2 tsp Oil

3-4 Red Chillies

2 tsp Urad Dal

1/2 tbsp Tamarind paste

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

Heat one teaspoon of oil in a pan and add the chopped cabbage. Saute for a couple of minutes and cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Keep aside.

In a small pan, heat the other teaspoon of oil and add the urad dal. When it turns slightly brown, add the red chillies and fry for a minute. Grind this along with the tamarind paste, salt, and sauteed cabbage.

In a frying ladle, heat the oil for the tempering. Add the mustard. When the mustard splutters, add the asafoetida and curry leaves. Add this to the ground paste.

Happy Rama Navami everyone. I will be making Panakam, Neer Mor, Rama Navami Pachadi and Kadalai Paruppu Sundal. What festive foods are you cooking?

The Singing Chef's turn on Tried & Tasted, this month at Divya's Dil Se. (Thanks for the logo Ksenia).

Zucchini Thuvayal

Winter. I have to talk about it in the past tense. As early as the first week of March. I’ve enjoyed using winter vegetables in just about every dish these past 3-4 months and I’m going to be sorry to see them disappear over the coming 2-3 weeks. Then it is back to the Tinda-Tori-Bhindi-Kundru-Lauki routine, all the way until November. Such is life.


I bought some zucchini to make a stir fry, but ended up using it in this thuvayal. I really wonder why I don’t make these thuvayals/thogayals often enough. They’re easy, tasty and are a great way to add another vegetable dish to your table.

2 Zucchinis, chopped

4 Red Chillies

1 tsp Mustard

3 tsp Urad Dal

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

3 tsp Oil

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Urad Dal

a pinch Asafoetida

5-6 Curry Leaves

Place the zucchini pieces in a microwave safe bowl. Add 2 tbsp of water and cook on high for 2 minutes. Squeeze out the water when cool.

Heat the oil and fry the red chillies, mustard, asafoetida and urad dal for a couple of minutes. Grind the chillies along with the tamarind paste and salt. Add the zucchini pieces and grind again. Finally, add the fried mustard and urad dal and grind lightly.

Heat the teaspoon of oil for the tempering in a frying ladle. Add the mustard, urad dal and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this tempering to the zucchini mixture.

Serve this with rice and a little ghee and some papads or vadams on the side. We ate this with rice, rasam, and Kootu.

Chana Salad

When we’re hosting a party, I am either extremely laidback (which means some Haldiram’s kind of items will flow from their packets, some McCain’s stuff will migrate from the freezer to the oven, and we’ll make do with what we have) or go extremely overboard (make cutlets, cut vegetable sticks and make a curd dip to go along with it, bake some savoury biscuits, crackers, muffins, mini pizzas etc, etc). It is very rarely that you would find me walking the middle path. On one of those very rare occasions, I made this salad and served it along with some readymade snacks. It was gone in almost no time.


1 cup Chickpeas, soaked and cooked
1 Tomato, chopped
1 Onion, chopped
1 Carrot, chopped
1/2 cup Coriander Leaves

2 pods Garlic

1" piece Ginger

2 Green Chillies
Juice of 1 Lime

Salt to taste


Prepare the chutney by grinding the coriander leaves with the garlic, ginger, green chillies and salt together. Add the lime juice and mix well.


Place the chickpeas, tomato, onion and carrot in a salad bowl. Add the chutney like a dressing and toss well.


Tasty, healthy and great with drinks. There’s precious little you could ask for over and above all this. No, really!

Turai Thuvayal

There are many vegetables I just never bought because I didn’t know how to cook them. For the longest time, I only cooked with the so-called English vegetables. Slowly, over the last couple of years, I have started getting better acquainted with many vegetables. While I have jumped with joy to find even those vegetables that I couldn’t have cared less for in a different avatar, I have started incorporating more local produce. In fact, when I made Tinda Koora, I couldn’t help but think of this post at Nupur's blog. At the same meal, we had this other very south Indian dish made with a very north Indian vegetable. Given my penchant for making thuvayals/thogayals out of every vegetable I can lay my hands on, this comes as no surprise.

4 medium SpongeGourds (Turai/Tori/Mantav Ghashale), scraped and chopped
4 Red Chillies
1 tsp Mustard
3 tsp Urad Dal
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
3 tsp Oil
1 tbsp Tamarind Paste
Salt to taste

Place the sponge gourd pieces in a microwave safe bowl. Add 2 tbsp of water and cook on high for 2 minutes. Squeeze out the water when cool.

Heat the oil and fry the red chillies, mustard, asafoetida and urad dal for a couple of minutes. Grind the chillies along with the tamarind paste and salt. Add the sponge gourd pieces and grind again. Finally, add the fried mustard and urad dal and grind lightly.

Serve this with rice and a little ghee and some papads or vadams on the side. We ate this with rice, sambar and Tinda Koora.

Katrikkai Thuvayal

Smoked brinjal. Something I really detested while growing up. Amma didn't make bharta back then, but she did make this thuvayal/thogayal every once in a while. Later, she learnt that one could steam the brinjal in the cooker and started making it that way. I could more than tolerate that as it didn't have the "smokey" flavour. I even remember her using the microwave to roast the brinjal, but she says she hasn't tried. I insist that she did. (I've lived away for so long now that at times I met my other relatives almost as often as I met my parents. So, maybe she is right after all.)

This thuvayal is a favourite of many and S tells me that this is made in Andhra Pradesh as well. So, it is one dish that is common to both households. I have, of late, started to enjoy the flavour. Maybe it is all the bharta that I get to eat at work (at home too!) or maybe my tastes have simply evolved over time.

1 Large Brinjal
4 Red Chillies
1 tsp Mustard
3 tsp Urad Dal
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
3 tsp Oil
1 tbsp Tamarind Paste
Salt to taste

Oil to brush the brinjal

Brush the brinjal with a little oil. Roast the entire brinjal on an open flame. Turn it around until the entire brinjal is roasted and the skin is evenly black and the brinjal is cooked. (You could use a skewer for this.)

Place the brinjal in a bowl of water. Cool and remove the skin.

Heat the oil in a kadhai and fry the red chillies, mustard, asafoetida and urad dal for a couple of minutes. Grind the chillies along with the tamarind paste and salt. Add the brinjal and grind again. Finally, add the fried mustard and urad dal and grind lightly.

As a variation to this, you could substitute the red chillies with an equal number of green chillies (more or less, depending on your taste). Back home, that's how Amma makes it.


While this is great with some rice and papads, it makes a great chutney to go with idlis and dosas. Especially, if you, like me, are trying to reduce your dependence on coconut for chutneys.

Paruppu Thuvayal

Food combinations. I always wonder where they come from. Who decided that X shall go with Y or that A should be paired with B. Earlier, I didn't question this at all. Paruppu thuvayal or thogayal was always made with Menthi Kuzhambu or Milagu Kuzhambu. When I decided to make this one evening, S told me that his family makes "Kandi Pappu Pachadi" to go with idlis and dosas.

I made this again when my parents were here and I asked Appa if he wanted to eat this thuvayal with dosas and he was taken aback. I must admit, I was a little surprised when S suggested this, but with some extra red chillies, this thuvayal goes from being a mild accompaniment for rice to a flavourful side for idlis.

1/2 cup Toor Dal

1 tbsp Pepper Corns

1 Red Chilli

1 tbsp Oil

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the pepper corns, red chilli and toor dal. Fry for 4-5 minutes. Add the salt and take it off the flame.

Add enough water to cover the dal and keep aside for 30 minutes. Grind to a fine paste.

Mix this with some hot rice. Enjoy it with some Milagu Kuzhambu. There couldn't be a better way to enjoy a lazy sunday lunch. Off this goes to Divya as she hosts this month's edition of Think Spice... Think Pepper.

Tomato-Coriander Chutney

I can't remember the last time I made coconut chutney at home. I have started making thuvayals to go with idlis and dosas. I figured that if I sneak vegetables into the most unusual of dishes, I wouldn't have that much of a problem if one of my meals turned out to be a vegetable less one.

I made this chutney to go with these mixed dal and dalia cutlets. I made it again to go with some onion uttapams. It is full of flavour and I love the fact that we can eat as much chutney as we eat whatever we're eating it with. And not feel guilty!

3 Tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup Coriander Leaves, chopped

1 tsp Oil

1 Green Chilli, chopped

1 tsp Ginger Paste

2 Pods Garlic, chopped

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the chilli, ginger paste and garlic. Fry for a minute. Add the chopped tomatoes and salt. Add the coriander leaves and cook until the leaves wilt. Grind the entire mixture to a fine paste.

The tomato chutney is ready. As a variation, you could also add some mint leaves. In a pinch, I'm sure I could have this chutney with some hot rice as well.

Knol Khol (Kohlrabi) Thuvayal

One of the benefits of being an adult is that one gets to do what one wants. I apply this logic to my eating habits. So, while my upbringing made me eat all vegetables without as much as twitching my nose, there are vegetables that I promptly forgot about when I set up my "own" kitchen almost 10 years ago. This year, it seems like I am trying out new vegetables with a vengeance. I also discovered thuvayals sometime this year. More like rediscovered really. And I also figured that the easiest way for me to "like" a vegetable that I didn't see eye to eye with for the past 3 decades is to make a thuvayal (or thogayal) with it.

Kohlrabi has started making its appearance in markets here. Knol khol in Tamil and Gaanth Gobi in Hindi, I had no reason to ever like this vegetable. I think I had this aversion to all vegetables that look like this: Tinda and Chayote Squash being part of the same family for this purpose. I bought 3 of these last week because they were so fresh and they were really calling out to me. Amma suggested that I make it like this. But I wasn't sure if I was ready to come really face to face with this vegetable yet. A standard karumadhu does nothing to mask the taste of any vegetable that features in it. She also suggested putting into a kurma. I had not the patience to chop that many vegetables. She then went on to ask me why I bought them if I didn't want to eat them at all. (How could I explain to her that I was just keeping my resolve? I've never resolved to do much, and on the rare occasions that I have, I've not kept the resolve for long.) Anyway, I ended up making this thuvayal.

1 cup Kohlrabi, peeled and diced
2 tsp Oil
3-4 Red Chillies
2 tsp Urad Dal
1/2 tbsp Tamarind paste
Salt to taste

For the tempering:
1 tsp Oil
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/2 tsp Urad Dal
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves

Heat one teaspoon of oil in a pan and add the diced vegetable. Saute for a couple of minutes and cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Keep aside.

In a small pan, heat the other teaspoon of oil and add the urad dal. When it turns slightly brown, add the red chillies and fry for a minute. Grind this along with the tamarind paste, salt, and sauteed vegetable.

In a frying ladle, heat the oil for the tempering. Add the urad dal and mustard. When the mustard splutters, add the asafoetida and curry leaves. Add this to the ground paste.

As we come near the finish line, see what my fellow marathoners are up to: Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Anu, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, Pavani, Karuna and Roochi.

Parangikkai Thuvayal (Pumpkin Chutney)

As the summer vegetables start making way for the winter produce, I get the feeling that, this year, I may miss my new friends when I can't find them shouting out to me in the supermarket or our local markets. I've experimented a lot this summer and tried out dishes that a year ago I would have considered alien.

While planning a weekend lunch, I decided to make pumpkin sambar and remembered that I had fresh ash gourd as well. So I made ash gourd sambar instead and used my bag of frozen pumpkin to make this thuvayal. I was a little worried that it might taste a tad sweet, but this thuvayal surprised both of us.

1 cup Pumpkin, cubed
4 Red Chillies
1 tsp Mustard
3 tsp Urad Dal
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
3 tsp Oil
1 tbsp Tamarind Paste
Salt to taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

Place the pumpkin pieces in a microwave safe bowl. Add 2 tbsp of water and cook on high for 2 minutes. Squeeze out the water when cool.

Heat the oil and fry the red chillies, mustard, asafoetida and urad dal for a couple of minutes. Grind the chillies along with the tamarind paste and salt. Add the pumpkin pieces and grind again. Finally, add the fried mustard and urad dal and grind lightly.

In a frying ladle, heat the oil and add the mustard and asafoetida. Add the curry leaves after the mustard has spluttered. Add this to the ground mixture.

I'm sending this to dear Sug for the second edition of Vegan Ventures.


Check out these blogs too: Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Anu, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, Pavani, Karuna and Roochi.

Dosakaya Pachadi

I am on a spree. There's a lot of Indian cooking happening in my kitchen these days. There's also a lot of new vegetables landing on our plates. Gurgaon has changed more in the last 2 years than it had in the 5 years I had been away. It is probably the ever changing population that's driving this change. When I first moved here, there was one main South Stores and one really small Balaji Stores. That's where you went to get your supply of Sona Masuri rice or Til Oil or sambar onions. I didn't find vegetables like drumsticks or raw bananas until or unless I visited INA or the market in the Bengali part of Delhi, Chittaranjan Park. Now, I seem to be able to find things like Pasalai Keerai, Snake Gourd, Drumsticks and Broad Beans in my local market. And they sit right next to the mushroom, broccoli and coloured capsicum. Welcome to my glocality!

During one of my visits, I found Dosakaya or the Yellow Cucumber. I have no idea what this is called in any other language as such. I think it is Magge in konkani and the first dish that comes to mind is the famous Ambat. I made a Telugu pachadi instead. As with all thuvayals/pachadis, we enjoyed this with some steaming hot rice.

1 medium Yellow Cucumber, peeled and diced

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

2-3 tsp Oil

Salt to taste

1 1/2 tsp Urad Dal

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

2-3 Red Chillies

1-2 Green Chillies

7-8 Curry Leaves

3-4 tbsp Coriander Leaves

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the urad dal. When it turns golden, add the mustard and turn off the flame. Add the asafoetida, red chillies, green chillies, curry leaves, and coriander leaves. Grind this with the tamarind paste, salt and a handful of the yelow cucumber.

In a vessel, take the remaining chopped vegetable and add the ground paste. In a frying ladle, heat the oil for the tempering. Add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, pour this over the vegetable-paste mixture. Your pachadi is ready.

I'm sending this to dear Sug for the second edition of Vegan Ventures.

I'm trying out vegetables for the first time. What are you all up to? Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Anu, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, DK, and Pavani.

Bengaloor Katrikkai (Chowchow) Thuvayal

As a child, teen or young adult, I ate everything that Amma cooked at home. For years, I cooked only a certain set of vegetables. That set comprised cauliflower, peas, potatoes, beans, carrots, capsicum, corn, baby corn, spinach and broccoli. This year, I experimented with loads of new vegetables. Tori, Tinda, Raw Jackfruit, Cluster Beans, Bitter Gourd and many more. During one trip to the INA Market, I found this vegetable that I hadn't eaten in about 5 years: Chowchow, Marokkai, Vilayat Vaingan or Bengaloor Katrikkai. The vegetable, known as the Chayote Squash, looks like this (courtesy Google Images):

I bought a couple right away. Peeled and chopped them at the first available opportunity and put them away in freezer bags. This is a vegetable I ate, but never relished. So, I never thought of buying it as I didn't really miss the vegetable. A few days later, I was chatting with my classmate and friend of many, many years one afternoon about what we had eaten for lunch that day. She said, "Chowchow kootu" and I told her, "I plan to make that soon. I even ready chopped vegetable at home." She suggested that I make a thogayal/pachadi as S would probably like it. I tried it that very day and it turned out just great. I know I will make this often. Thanks A. This is one way that I would eat this vegetable without complaining.

1 cup Bengaloor Katrikkai, peeled and diced

2 tsp Oil

3-4 Red Chillies

2 tsp Urad Dal

1/2 tbsp Tamarind paste

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Urad Dal

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

Heat one teaspoon of oil in a pan and add the diced vegetable. Saute for a couple of minutes and cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Keep aside.

In a small pan, heat the other teaspoon of oil and add the urad dal. When it turns slightly brown, add the red chillies and fry for a minute. Grind this along with the tamarind paste, salt, and sauteed vegetable.

In a frying ladle, heat the oil for the tempering. Add the urad dal and mustard. When the mustard splutters, add the asafoetida and curry leaves. Add this to the ground paste.

We had this with some steaming hot rice and although I had intended this as a side, that's about all I ate that evening.

Do check out my fellow marathon runners on day 2 of the marathon:

My fellow runners are:
1) DK

2) Siri

3) Srivalli

4) Ranji

5)PJ

6)Curry Leaf

7)Medha

8)Priya

9)Bhawna

10)Raaji

11)Ruchii

12)Anu

13)Kamala

14)Roopa

15)Divya Kudua

16)Rekha

17)Divya M

18)Lakshmi

Amla Pachadi

There are some very basic differences between a standard Tamil meal and a standard Telugu meal. One of those differences, according to me, would definitely have to be the presence of a chutney or a pachadi on the menu. Where I grew up, a chutney, also called a thuvayal or thogayal, was made when there wasn't enough sambar or kuzhambu for 4 people. That's when the different podis made their appearance on the table along with a thengai thuvayal. Where S comes from, the podis and the pachadis are almost integral to every meal. Every once in a while, I try to make a pachadi to go with our meals. And totally in line with my plan to include new fruits and vegetables in my diet, I made this pachadi with fresh Indian gooseberries. A complete treat for all garlic lovers, we enjoyed this pickle like pachadi with some hot rice and ghee on a cold Sunday afternoon. This recipe has been sitting in my drafts for months now and will finally see the light of day.

250 g Indian Gooseberry (Amla), deseeded and halved

3-4 tbsp Garlic Paste

6 Red Chillies

2 tsp Mustard Seeds

15-20 Curry Leaves

1 tbsp Chilli Powder

2-3 tbsp Oil

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pan and add the curry leaves, mustard seeds and chillies. When the mustard crackles, add the garlic paste. Fry the paste for a few minutes. Add the chilli powder, salt and the gooseberries. Cook on a low flame for about 5 minutes. When cool, grind to a coarse paste.

Hot and sour all at once, this unconventional pachadi is a real treat.

Green Tomato Chutney

There was this time when we ran out of tomatoes. I simply continued to cook without using them in my cooking. I either made recipes that didn’t need tomatoes or dropped tomatoes from any recipe that did. Then finally when we did get to go shopping, I didn’t find any tomatoes at all. I was about to give up hope when I found a cart of green tomatoes. I thought something would be better than nothing and picked up a few. But I had no idea what to make with them until I came across this recipe at Lakshmi’s My Rasoi. I modified it a little bit. I decided not to add any tamarind as I thought the green tomatoes would be sour enough. I omitted the garlic from the seasoning, but added an onion to the chutney.



Ultimately, this was the recipe I followed:


4 Green Tomatoes, chopped roughly
1 Onion, chopped
3-4 Green Chillies, slit
1 tsp Cumin
1 tbsp Oil
½ tsp Mustard Seeds
7-8 Curry Leaves
2-3 Red Chillies, broken
Salt to Taste


Heat ½ a tablespoon of oil and add the cumin. When the cumin crackles, add the green chillies and the onions. Fry for about 2-3 minutes and then add the salt and the tomatoes. Cook for about 5-7 minutes and then take off the flame. Grind the mixture and transfer to a bowl.


Heat the other tablespoon of oil in a frying ladle. Add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the curry leaves and red chillies. Fry for a minute and pour over the ground mixture.



We had this with some steamed rice for dinner the day I made it and I spread it over my toast for the next three days. Less is definitely more and off this goes to Nupur’s MBP: Less is More. Since this dish makes use of a vegetable (or fruit?) that I can see only in summer, I am sending this to Sia for her edition of WBB: Summer Feast.

Peerkangai Thuvayal

I found a bag of Ridge Gourd while I was shopping for groceries at the upscale GK I market. (Don't ask why I do my grocery shopping there!) I have not seen it in Delhi/Gurgaon before. I have only seen the smoother version (tori) in markets here. It is not as though I love Ridge Gourd, but when I see vegetables I don't usually, I am tempted to buy them. I made the Ridge Gourd version of Lauki Moong Dal and had some left over. I tried this thuvayal sometime back. I was so thrilled with the outcome that I know I'll make this more often.

4 medium Ridge Gourds, roughly peeled and chopped

4 Red Chillies

1 tsp Mustard

3 tsp Urad Dal

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

3 tsp Oil

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

Salt to taste

Place the ridge gourd pieces in a microwave safe bowl. Add 2 tbsp of water and cook on high for 2 minutes. Squeeze out the water when cool.

Heat the oil and fry the red chillies, mustard, asafoetida and urad dal for a couple of minutes. Grind the chillies along with the tamarind paste and salt. Add the ridge gourd pieces and grind again. Finally, add the fried mustard and urad dal and grind lightly.

Serve this with rice and a little ghee and some papads or vadams on the side.