Parakeet - another winged visitor

Parrots visit our area everyday. During the dusk and the dawn they fill our place with their variety of tones... squeak, screech..... etc

I was trying to capture them in my camera for two years and finally succeeded taking a shot last week.

They normally sit on top of the trees or on cables running between tall towers. But this time a couple visited the cable hanging near our building finally I succeeded! ...... hurray!! here it is for your views

Lovely wild parrots isn't it?

Here is a video shot. Hear them squeaking happily :-).......

 

Similarly there is a song bird which is extremely shy to human presence. I can only hear them every morning and in the evening and sometimes during the afternoon if the climate is pleasant. Till now not succeeded to click a photo . Wish me goodluck pals :-)

Koorkankizhangu mezhukku piratti

Koorkai / koorkankizhangu mezhukkupiratti :-

Koorkai / Koorkankizhangu / Siru Kizhangu / Chinese potato / country potato :- is a very tasty seasonal root vegetable which is rich in calcium, iron and other essential vitamins. Palakkad district (kerala) is famous for cultivating this vegetable.

If you have a kerala / Tamil store in your area, you can look for it during inter season i.e. between December and March.

The peeled one will look like this :-

This is used in traditional kootu preparation and in dry dish preparation called mezhukkupiratti / mezhukuvarati / mezhukku puratti (this requires little more oil)

Cleaning this vegetable is a little messy procedure as you have to get your hands dirty. Traditionally at our house it is washed and then rubbed on a rough stone or floor to peel the skin. At home you can also use a peeler. "The amount of labour put in adds to the taste of the dish" is a saying but you need not trouble yourself anymore in cleaing it. Here is an easy tip to peeal this vegeable quickly

Let us get on to the mezhukkupiratti preparation :-

Ingredients :

1. Koorkai Kizhangu - 250 gm
2. Coconut oil - 3 tbsp
3. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
4. Turmeric powder  - 1/4 tsp
5. Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Procedure :-

• Wash it thoroughly to get rid of the mud and then rub it on a rough surface or peel using a peeler. Drop them in water after peeling otherwise it may turn dark.
• Dice them into small pieces and immerse in water
• Your hands may get stained like how it leaves a dark patch in your palm but apply oil and rub little salt to get rid of that stain.
• Heat a wok, add oil (traditional dish use coconut oil. You can use olive / sunflower oil too)
• Add mustard seeds. When they splutter add curry leaves. Then add the chopped koorkais
• Add Turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt to taste
• mix well
• Cover and cook while stirring in between till they turn tender and gets roasted nicely.

(I used less oil hence i didn't roast them but just cooked them till tender.)

• Delicious and aromatic koorkai mezhukkupiratti is ready to go with rice dishes. It tastes best with morkootan / morkozhambu and curd rice.

Padi kolam - 12 / naalu moolai kolam

Traditional padi kolam design no.12

Morkuzhambu / Morkootaan

Morkootan / morkozhambu is a southindian curry (sounds like khadi) which goes well with plain cooked rice as a main dish and as a tastiest side dish for Dosai / Dosa (indian pancake), rotis etc

Those days there were no refrigerator hence the balance buttermilk of every day is collected in a kachchatti (vessel made out of stone) which gave way to invent this dish. Nothing is wasted!

I normally make curd specially for this and leave it for some extra hours so that it attain the right amount of sour taste.

The dish will be little sour. If you don't like sour taste you can even use fresh buttermilk.

Vegetables that can go into making this dish :-

Elephant yam, Cucumber, Ashgourd,Raw banana, yam (colaccia)

Ingredients :-

1. Sour curd - 1 cup (churn & keep ready)
2. Cucumber - 1 cup (diced) [Madrasi kakdi]
3. Grated coconut - 1 cup
4. Green chillies - 2 nos
5. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
6. Fenugreek seeds - 2 tsp (dry roasted)
7. Water - 2 cups
8. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
9. Salt to taste
10. Rice - 2 tsp (soak for 30 minutes) or use rice flour (optional)

For tempering :-

1. Oil - 2 tbsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
3. Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
4. Red chilli - 1 No. 

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Notes :-

• If the buttermilk is very sour then it will not precipitate when boiled.
• To prevent such reaction, it is advisable to use some rice flour or add soaked rice to the masala for grinding and cook the dish in slow flame after adding buttermilk.

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Procedure :-

• Churn the buttermilk
• Dry roast the Fenugreek seeds / methi seeds 
• Put the diced vegetable into a vessel, add tumeric powder, salt and boil till the vegetable is tender & crisp. 
• Grind grated coconut, green chillies, cumin seeds and roasted fenugreek seeds to a nice paste adding little water
• Add the ground masala to the cooked vegetable and bring it to boil.
• Now lower the flame and add the buttermilk, mixing slowly
• Let it be on slow fire till foam forms on top (mix at regular intervals)
• Remove from fire
• Heat little oil for tempering, add mustard seeds when they start to splutter, add red chilli, curry leaves and add this to the curry.
• Toungue tickling aromatic Morkootan / Morkozhambu is ready!

Side dish suggestion :- This traditional dish goes well with another dry dish called "mezhukupiratti". I will make a post on this tomorrow. papad is also makes another good combo.