PESARATTU (HESARUKALU DOSAE)

Pesarattu, made of  hesaru kaLu/whole green gram/moong, is a typical Andhra dish.  It is a very nutritious and tasty dish,  and easy to make too. It is quite filling and so is good as a breakfast, evening snack or  dinner. This does not require any other planning except that you need a few hours for the moong to get soaked.

To prepare this, you need:

Hesaru kaLu/whole moong                        1 cup
Rice flour                                                    1 table spoon
Green chilies                                               2
Ginger                                                         1" piece
Coconut grated                                           1/2 cup
Curry leaves                                                5-6
Salt                                                             1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds                                               1 teaspoon
Onion                                                          2 medium (one of them finely chopped)
Coriander leaves                                         2 tablespoons, finely chopped
Oil                                                               1/4 cup


Procedure:

Soak hesarukaLu for three to four hours.  Drain water. Grind it together with ginger, one onion, green chilies, coconut and salt to a coarse paste.   The consistency of the batter is a little thicker than the usual dosae batter. Now mix in chopped onions coriander leaves, rice flour and cumin.  Spread one scoopful on the tawa just as you spread for other dosaes. Make a few holes in the middle. Add a bit of oil into the holes and also around. Fry, reverse and add one more teaspoon of oil and roast the other side also. Adding oil into the holes makes the center part also get cooked well and makes the dish crispy too.

Take it out from the tawa. Serve with any chatni, pickle or chatnipuDi.  If it is hot and spicy, you don't need any other side dish with this.

With this amount of hesarukaLu, you can make 5 or 6 dosaes. 

SAAGU (MIXED VEGETABLE)

Actually this is not only the favourite of mine, but everybody's. As a young girl I used to consume three chapatis in place of usual two, if there was saagu as a dish. Ajji makes wonderful saagu and you know that.


 Nutrition-wise also this is very good since it contains different varieties of  vegetables.


The vegetables that are suitable to prepare saagu are;

Cabbage
String beans
Chow Chow (seeme badane kai)
Peas
Corn
Beetroot
Carrot
Potato
Cauliflower

Cut the vegetable to about 1cm square pieces. There is no rule for the quantity of each vegetable to be taken, but suppose you have cut vegetables to fill a 1 litre container, let there be just one small potato and about 2" square piece of beetroot. This small piece will just give a good colour to the saagu.

Other Ingredients for masala (to be ground into a paste) :

Grated coconut 1 cup
Onion 1 midium, sliced
Roasted gram dal 2 level table spoons
Cinnamon 1" piece
Cumin 1 teaspoon
Ginger 1 inch
Green chilly 1

For seasoning:

Oil 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves 5-6
Haldi 1 pinch
Garlic 2-3 pods finely cut (if you like garlic)
Onion 1 big (finely cut)

You also need salt, one or two cups of water and a teaspoon of sugar

Method:

Cook all the vegetables in a microwave or in a pressure cooker. Take take care that it is not over cooked. In fact except potato, you can just half cook the vegetables such that one should be able to recognise each vegetable in the ready dish. Moreover, I feel it gives a better taste and the vitamins are also well retained thus.

Now keep a kadai on the flame and add oil. When hot, add mustard. When it sputters add curry leaves, cut garlic and onions and fry for one or two minutes. Add haldi, mix well and add the cooked vegetables. Add salt to taste. Mix well and add the ground masala. Add about a cup of water and mix well and bring it to boil. Let it boil for two minutes. It becomes very thick, add half or one cup of water more and bring to boil. Finally add a teaspoon of sugar.

This is a sabji which is a bit liquidy, but there will be no gravy separately. You can make out in the picture. It is a wonderful accompaniment for plain parathas and pooris.

GOJJINA PUDI

Usually when people make special gojju, for example, gojjus of kittale sippe, bende kai, pineapple etc., they prepare the masala pudi separately. Otherwise they use just saarina pudi. I don't like to use sarina pudi and many times I am lazy to prepare fresh masala, especially when I have no time or when I am in a hurry. But everyone at home likes gojju. So I thought, why not prepare gojjina pudi also just like we prepare huli pudi, saarina pudi, etc.

Yes, from past few years, there is always a gojjina pudi jar along with all other pudis in my kitchen shelf. This is really very convenient. I don' like to spend much time in the kitchen, but I want tasty things. This attitude has given rise to many innovations.

You take:

coriander seeds 1 cup
Byadagi chillies 3 cups
Oil 1 teaspoon
Gram dal 2 tablespoons
Menthya seeds 1 teaspoon
Cumin 1 tablespoon
Ellu (til) 2 tablespoons
Dry coconut grated 1 cup

Procedure:

Dry roast coriander seeds, gram dal and cumin to a golden brown colour. Roast menthya and Ellu till they start sputtering and take out immediately or else they get burnt very soon.

Dry roast coconut on a slow fire till crisp. You can even just leave it in a hot kadai after turning off the flame. Keep stirring so that it doesnt get burnt in case the kadai is too hot.

Cool it to room temperature and grind the ingredients (except cry coconut) to a coarse powder. Add coconut and grind again.

Store in air tight jar. It is a good idea to store this in a fridge to prevent it from becoming stale since unlike huli pudi, sarina pudi this is rarely used and so may last longer.

HAGALKAI PALYA (BITTERGOURD)

This is a variation of the usual North Indian dish, the stuffed bitter gourd. In case  stuffed  bitter gourd  deep fry this after stuffing it with spices. To avoid deep frying, I tried this method. Turned out quite well

Ingredients:

Hagalkai/bitter gourd                          1/4 kg (cut as shown)
Onion                                                   1  big , slit as shown
Amchur powder                                   2 teaspoons
Salt                                                      1 level teaspoon
Red chilli powder                               1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder                                1 pinch

oil                                                           1 tablespoon

Method:

To quicken the process, take cut bitter gourd in a bowl, add salt, mix well and microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, tossing once or twice in between.

Now take oil in a thick pan and heat. Add soumph. When it turns golden brown add cut onions and turmeric. Fry for a minute. Add chily powder, mix and add cut bitter gourd and cook without adding water. Fry till cooked . Add amchur powder and mix well. After about a minute, remove from fire.

This tastes better when eaten the next day! The reason is that the hagalkai pieces will have absorbed salt and amchur and the palya will not be very bitter. If you like it bitter, you can eat the same day.

This is a side dish and tastes very well with plain roti and dal.

HUNISE GOJJU (FOR HUGGI)

So this is the `gojju', a South Indian accompaniment for the Huggi. Shortly I will give you the recipe of the Khichdi and gojju , the North Indian style, which I have adapted to my own style.

You should have sarina pudi ready for this gojju and I am for sure that any South Indian family does have a stock of it ALWAYS. Am I right?




What you need:

Tamarind paste 1/2 cup thick
Jaggery powder 1/2 cup
salt 1 teaspoon
saarina pudi 1 teaspoon (more if you want it spicy)
Oil 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon
Urd and gram dal 1/2 teaspoon each
Ingu 1 pinch
Turmeric powder 1 pinch
curry leaves 5-6

Method:

Mix tarmarind paste, jaggery together and heat till jaggery dissolves. Decant it because there might be sand granules in the jaggery. After decanting add salt and saarina pudi.

Heat oil in a small kadai. Add mustard seeds. When it sputters add gram dal and urd dal. When they turn golden brown, add ingu, turmeric and curry leaves and immediately pour in the other ingredients and boil for one minute. If it is very liquidy, you can stir in a table spoon of rice flour or wheat flour and boil for a minute so that it becomes thick and easy to serve.

This can stay in the fridge for about 15 days. So, now that recipes of Huggi and Gojju are both ready, common have it for dinner ! Let me know how it was!

Note: In this recipe, only the ingredients are more important. The amount of tamarind, jaggery and saaina pudi can be varied according to your taste. That is, you can prepare it according to how much sour, sweetness or spicy you like. This is a dish for which you can dip in your finger, lick and taste :), and change the quantity of the ingredients to get the taste you like.

HUGGI ( KHICHDI KARNATAKA STYLE)

Whenever Ajji makes Huggi, she says it is made usually in Dhanurmasa ! This is the winter season and according to Hindu calender, from December 16th to January 15th is Dhanurmasa. And for those who believe, this is supposed to be an auspicious month and they perform special poojes during this period. The story goes that Indra's wife Shachi made this and offered to God :)

As you know Makara Sankranti time is Harvest season also. Taking this into consideration, and also the body requirements during the winter season, the important ingredients used to make Huggi are rice, moong dal, ghee, black pepper, cumin, etc.

Anyway this is a wonderful, simple and healthy food and having this as a breakfast in an early winter morning, with suitable accompaniments, you just can't stop consuming it.

Ingredients:

Rice 3/4 cup (washed)
Moong dal 1/4 cup (roasted to a golden yellow colour)
(you can 1/2 cup rice and 1/2 cup dal also)
Water 4 cups
Salt 1 level teaspoon
Ghee/oil 2 teaspoons
Jeerige 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves a few
Ginger 1/2 inch grated or finely chopped
Black pepper 6-8
Clove 4-5
Dry coconut cut into size of peas-1 table spoon; you can take grated also.
(cut pieces give a special effect while eating)
Cashew nuts 10-12 cut into halves
Masala (if you want it spicy take just half a chilli, finely cut,
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper powder, 1/4 teaspoon of clove
powder)


Method:

Put ghee in a small pressure cooker. When it is just hot, add jeerige and fry till brown. Now add pepper and clove and fry for half a minute. Add curry leaves and immediately add cashew nuts and fry till golden brown and then add dry coconut pieces and fry till golden brown. Add masalas and immediately add only 3 cups of water. Add rice, dal and salt and pressure cook till done. When the pressure is released, take out the lid and add one more cup of water and boil again. Huggi should have a bit liquidy consistency and if you like you can half a cup more of water. Serve/eat hot. Not just that ! But with a heaped table spoon of butter (!!!!!!) if you want to enjoy life, and sugar powder and/or hunise gojju !!!! I will give you the recipe of hunise gojju in my next post.

Now a days they serve this in hotels with coconut chutney/raita, which I don't relish. Anyway, prepare this, enjoy and let me know how it was!

GUAVA JELLY

Given a choice, Anu mausi would practically live on guava jelly ! :) She loves it thaaaaat much. As you know, we spread it on bread just as we spread jam, but Anu mausi loves to eat it like halwa :)

The speciality of any jelly is that it is transparent, it can take the shape of the container, it is not sticky and so can be cut with neat edges.

Way back in 1976, I attended a workshop on food preservation conducted by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in our campus in Bhopal. ( I have a certificate and I could start a manufacturing unit, but I didn't:) ) Of all other products like jam, marmalade, squash, pickles, etc. that I learnt there, guava jelly became the most favourite of all at home because of its flavour and also appearance. It is so nice to see and taste a transparent jelly with a rich flavour of guava. So I have made it a point to prepare jelly every year during the guava season. But nowadays guavas have become very rare. But two days back, I couldn't believe myself when I heard a man selling `Allahabad' on a Thela in front of our house! (Allahabad is known for very good quality guava, but here any type of guava, whether it is small, hard, seedy, rotten...... is referred to as Allahabad :), but not as guava). So, now though they were not of very good quality, they met the other requirements.... almost the same size and just right stage of ripeness (yellow but firm) to make jelly. So I immediately bought about 40 of them in the noon and by late evening jelly was ready.

Jelly gets its beautiful consistency because of the high pectin content in the guavas. It is a very easy, but a time consuming process, needs a little patience, but it is really worth all the trouble. And it is really surprising that it is not at all available in the shops. No jam companies make them. Don't know why. So if you really want to prepare,

here is what you need to make the jelly:

Ingredients:

Guavas 1 Kg -yellow in colour-just ripe and firm but not soft(cut into 1/2cm slices
as shown in the picture)
Sugar 1 Kg
Water 1 litre
Citric acid 5 gms. ( 1 heaped teaspoon)

Procedure:















Take a thick and wide bottomed vessel and arrange the guava slices in it and add one liter water so that all the slices are fully immersed in water. Boil for about 45 minutes on a low flame. Never stir it. We have to get a pure pectin extract to get a transparent jelly. If you stir it, small particles or pulp of guava get mixed up and jelly won't turn transparent.(left over pulp can be used to make toffee or burfi).

Now, strain this through a thin cloth. Add sugar, citric acid and boil. Filter this after the sugar is dissolved. Boil till it reaches 222 F or 105.5C.
















If you don't have a thermometer, you can test the end point through what is known as a sheet test. This is done by taking the product in a flat spoon. When you hold the spoon horizontally, instead of falling as drops, the contents form a sheet as shown in the picture.














It means that the process is complete. Switch off the flame and transfer immediately to the jars.

How to store:

Keep ready two or three washed and dried glass jars and keep them in a trey of water so that about an inch of the bottle is immersed in water. Keep a spoon in the jar. The jelly is still in liquid form and pour it immediately after taking out from the fire. Keeping the jars in water and keeping spoons inside the jars prevents jars from breaking due to expansion from heat. Fill till the neck of the bottles. Half cover with lids till it attains room temperature. Then close the lids fully. From 1 kg fruits you will get about two standard half kg jam bottles of jelly.

Some other info: Usually I get a golden yellow coloured jelly. But this time it is dark, like Pears soap! This might be because, the quantity was more and the vessel was small and hence the evaporation became slow and the contents were on the stove for a longer duration.

There is a test for the quantity of pectin that is in the extract. You take two teaspoons of pectin extract and add one teaspoon of spirit and shake. A white precipitate is formed. Pour into an empty glass. It may fall as 1 lump or 2 lumps or many lumps depending upon the quantity of pectin in the extract. Accordingly you have to use 1kg, 3/4 kg and a little less than 3/4 kg of sugar for 1 kg of fruit.

I do not follow this, but I use sugar on an approximate basis. If you market it, then better follow all these. You can also get an instrument called `gelmeter' which of course, I haven't even seen :))

HULI PUDI

All these recipes of puDis are my mother's and I have been following this ever since I started cooking. Many people say they don't like cinnamon in huLi puDi. But those who say so also have enjoyed my huLi a lot. Actually it does give a special flavour to the dish.

Many people do not add dry coconut to the masala saying that the coconut has a tendency to get stale  fast and hence the huLi puDi doesn't last long. But the fact is that the dry coconut should be really dry. It should not have any moisture content in it. That is why we have to roast it in a pan, or microwave for one to two minutes till it becomes crisp. We have to take care that it doesn't get over roasted. So, here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Coriander seeds                            1 cup
Red chilies                                    3 cups (Byadagi) 2 cups (if Guntur)
Oil for roasting                             2 teaspoons
Gram dal                                       2 tablespoons
Cinnamon                                     10 gms
Cloves                                           2
Menthya/Methi seeds                   1 teaspoon
Dry coconut, grated                      1 cup (grated)

Procedure:

Dry roast gram dal till golden brown along with cinnamon and clove and keep aside.

Dry roast coriander seeds and menthya seeds separately till golden brown.

Put oil in kadai and roast red chillies till they sound dry and light.

Roast grated dry coconut taking care that it doesn't get burnt, as it has tendency to get over roasted with even a little excess heat.

Run all the ingredients except dry coconut in a mixture, to a fine powder. Then add dry coconut and run the mixer again.

Store the powder in air tight jar.