Green Chutney with Pudina (Mint)

During Summer time, we can opt for no cooking recipes wherever possible to cut our sweating time in the kitchen.  Sharing with you one such wonder recipe for this Summer.

There are variety of Chutneys prepared through out the country and many of them can also be used as a DIP.

So, today I am sharing a Green Chutney recipe which is Colorful, delicious and Flavourful. It is good to include greens in our diet. Coriander and Mint are such lovely greens that has lot of health benefits. Hence this no cooking recipe makes it more healthy.

I tasted this super spicy chutney in a street food vendor cart where they were making & selling hot vadapav and bread bajji. 

You will need :-

1. Pudina (Mint) leaves - 1 cup
2. Coriander leaves - 1 Cup
3. Green Chillies - 3 Nos. (or as preferred)
4. Garlic Pods - 3 Nos.
5. Ginger - 1/2" piece (optional)
6. Sugar - 1/2 tsp (optional)
7. Salt to taste
8. Lemon juice (optional) - 1 tsp

Procedure :-

• Grind everything together by adding little water to a fine paste. 

Suggestions :-

• This chutney tastes superb when fresh. 
• It Can be refrigerated and used for one day only as it may lose its fresh aroma as it gets old. So prepare it fresh.
• This chutney can be served as an accompaniment to Idli, Dosai
• Can be used as a spread instead of Mayo for a healthy eating. 
• Can also be used as a bread sandwich Chutney.

Solkadhi and Kokam Curry

Sol Kadhi / Solkadhi is a popular pink drink from the Konkan Region and also famous in the state of Goa.   The kokam curry or Kadhi can be consumed mixing with plain rice or it can be drunk as a digestive aid after a hearty meal. You can also take a sip of it as a health drink like I do :-)

During our visit to Goa, we found that this drink varies at different household.  some add coconut milk and some add buttermilk instead. Some make it plain and call it kokam curry, which I have mentioned with a photo at the end of this post.

Kokam or Kokum is also known as Kodampuli (Malayalam) / Kodai Puli or Pazhaya puli (Tamizh) / Garcinia Indica. / Aamsol (hindi)

It is the oldest known souring agent of our country and is used to replace tamarind in certain dishes. It has lot of medicinal benefits. It has antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties, soft on your stomach compared to tamarind, Improves digestion, etc

Fresh Kokam Fruit looks like this (as in the image below) [image courtesy : google search]

When dried but moist it will be slightly pinkish in color  (as seen in the image below) :-

If it is completely dried and not fresh in the market then it will be brown in color (so you may not get the pink color but it is still good for health).

The Kokam, gives this recipe a slightly tangy taste and that lovely pink color.  It is consumed in various forms viz., suppliment for tamarind in cooking, kokum syrup is readily available in the market as a health drink, it can be consumed with buttermilk or coconut milk as Solkadhi.

Before we get into the recipe, let us know the possible variations in taste and flavour.

• Solkadhi can be prepared in two ways. It can be prepared with coconut milk thus becomes very good for stomach and rich in taste or we can replace coconut milk with buttermilk to make it more subtle yet yummy.

• Again, you can control the flavour as per your preference. Chopping the ingredients and adding them to the kadhi will keeps it light as only when you bite on the chillie pieces or the coriander leaves, you get the strong taste and flavour. The other option is to grind them together and filter. This method will  give a differnt color (little dark) and strong flavour to the kadhi.

• There is another simple preparation of kokam called kokam curry.  One of my friend said that it is also called "Tivli" where to the kokam water, just salt and chopped green chillies are added and served along with a meal.

• When you feel little lethargic to cook, this becomes the best accompaniment for rice eaters.

• Soaking is required. Thus it makes this recipe a no-cooking recipe. However, if you forget to soak it, you can boil  the kokam till it becomes soft and then use it in the recipe.

You will need :- (Serves 2)

1. Kokum petals - 6 nos.
2. Green Chilli - 2 nos.
3. Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp
4. Buttermilk - 1.5 cup 
5. Water - 1/2 cup
6. Salt to taste

Procedure :-

• Soak Kokam for  2 hours. This will ensure that kokam becomes soft and also infuses its taste, flavour and specially the color to the water.
• Finely chop the green chillies and coriander leaves. 
• After soaking squeeze and extract water (just like you do with tamarind) and filter it.
• Add finely chopped green chillies, finely chopped coriander leaves to it.
• Add Salt to taste, buttermilk  and water to it. 
• Mix well and serve.

Variations:- 

1. Coconut milk: In the above recipe, if you intend to make using coconut milk, then add 1 cup of coconut milk and 1 cup water (dilute as per your preference)
2. Grinding : If you want to infuse strong flavour and color to the recipe, then grind the kokam, green chillies and 2 tbsp of chopped coriander leaves with little water and filter it and use in the recipe either with buttermilk or coconut milk.

Enjoy the delicious drink or add it as a curry to plain rice and enjoy the simple yet delicious meal!

Rava Idiyappam - quick and easy semolina string hopper

The recipe sounded interesting when a friend shared this recipe. Gave it a try and it came out excellent! unlike the usual rice idiyappam (rice string hoppers), this one absolutely require the least amount of labour.  The friend is non other than Chitra Viswanathan lovingly known and called as CV

An excellent dish for a breakfast or evening tiffin when you want to cook in a jiffy or to entertain your unexpected sudden arrival of guests.  No soaking, No Grinding, No hard labour, No Blunders!!!

A best recipe when you feel lazy to cook for yourself.

Rava Idiyappam / Semolina String Hoppers / Rava Seviyan!!!

 

The recipe is so yummy that even the two 'happy buddhas' are doing a hip hip hurray by raising their hand happily!

You will need :-

1. Rava - 1 Cup (go for chiroti / fine rava)
2. Water - 1 Cup
3. Salt to taste
4. Oil - 1 tsp
5. Chakli press with sev mould (murukku achchu with omapodi thattu)
6. Steamer (I used a idli steamer)

Procedure :-

• Boil 1 cup water (Please note Boiling hot. Not just hot)

•  Put rava / semolina in a big mixing bowl, add salt, mix well.

• Add boiling water to the rava and mix it quickly with a spoon till it becomes a thick dough.

• Add a tsp of oil and mix it again. 

• Place the idli steamer with water on the stove. while it is heated up let us get into pressing process.

• Grease the idli plates applying little oil 

chakli mould with different plates. the last one on the right with many tiny holes is used in this recipe

• Take the chakli mould, put a lump of dough into it. Presse it (with no effort!) over the greased plates into each depression in a idli plate.

• Steam for 5 minutes.

• Yummy, Jiffy idiyappam / ravai sevai ready!

 Serving suggestion :-

1. sprinkle some grated coconut and sugar on top and have
2. have with coconut milk sweetened with sugar
3.  Have with kadalai curry
4. Have with Peas Curry

 

Note :-

1. You can use roasted rava for this recipe.
2. If the water is not boiling hot, it may not turn out the way it has to be.
3. Mix till you get the dough otherwise when you press, it may not comes like a string.

One Pot Pumpkin Curry / Kadhdhu subzi / parangikai curry / maththan curry

Sharing with you another interesting, simple and easy to cook recipe with you. What is so special & interesting about this? 

• I used my 3 lit Pressure Cooker for making this. you can use even 2 or 2.5 litre PC. Cook on low  flame only.
• No water used. No supervision. No stirring in between. 
• Quick cooking process
• Using pressure cooker saves time, labour and energy. 
• Cooking time is 4 minutes. Standing time for the pressure to come down before opening is 5 minutes. So within 9 minutes we can get absolutely delicious pumpkin curry. 
• In this process,vegetable is let to cook in its own juice under pressure cooking.
• Absolutely a pleasure cooking experience. 
• I got the idea of no water cooking in a Pressure cooker from a group called United By Food (UBF) in facebook where members test and post the recipes where I also participate with my recipes. Though we cook vegetables in their own juice in our daily cooking method, for me it happened over a wok (kadai). Using a pressure cooker for the recipe sounded good and interesting. After members tried and posted, i started making the experiment with my cooking and the outcome is remarkable!

Let us get on to feel the pleasant cooking experience.

Pumpkin Curry

I have kept it for little longer time to make it easily chewable for my old FIL.

Ingredients :-

1. Pumpkin cubes - 1 cup (Pumpkin / Maththan / Manjal Poosani / Lal bhopla / Kadhdhu / kasi bhopla)
2. Garlic Pods - 4 Nos
3. Ginger - 1.5" piece
4. Curry leaves - 5 Nos.
5. Red chilli powder - as per your preference
6. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Salt to taste
8. Oil for tempering - 1 tbsp
9. Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
10. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
11. Asafoetida - a pinch

 Procedure :-

• Wash and peel the pumpkin. Dice into cubes.
• Crush with a single hit with a pestle or stone - garlic and ginger. Then with a knife you can easily chop them in seconds.
• Chop the curry leaves finely. (this is to infuse its flavour fully into the recipe and also helps the benefit of this wonder leaf reach the consumer )
• Heat the pressure cooker, add a tbsp of oil (I used coconut oil), add mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
• AFter they crackle, add a pinch of asafoetida powder, finely chopped ginger and garlic, curry leaves. mix.
• Add the pumpkin cubes, salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder. mix
• Close the cooker and put the weight. Cook on low flame for 4 minutes
• Switch off, let it stand for 5 more minutes.
• Open and serve!