Chenai Masiyal / Suran Chutney / Elephant Yam chutney

Elephant Yam / Suran / Chenai is a root vegetable which is even given to new mothers who have given delivery because it is such a safe vegetable and easy to cook and is very tender.

Various dishes can be prepared using it. I am now sharing a traditional mouth watering recipe with you. As I said traditional recipe it means we use coconut oil for it. But you can use the oil of your choice. If you like the flavour of coconut oil, you will find it even more delicious.

Chenai Masiyal 

Ingredients :-

1. Elephant Yam - 1/4 kg
2. Lemon - 1/2 
3. Curry leaves - 2 sprigs (reserve one for tempering)
4. Red chilli -  2 Nos
5. Green Chilli - 1 no.
6. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
7. Urad whole - 1 tsp
8. Hing - 1 pinch
9. Turmeric powder - 2 pinches
10. Grated coconut - 4 tbsp
11. Ginger - 1" piece
12. salt to taste
13. Coconut oil - 3 tbsp (reserve 1 tbsp for garnishing)

Procedure :-

• Peel, wash thoroughly and dice them

• Boil water, add salt and turmeric powder, put the diced yam and bring to boil, lower the flame and let it cook till it becomes tender.

• Drain (you can use the water for other cooking purposes or dilute and drink like soup and let it cool

• In a mixer grind the grated coconut, curry leaves, ginger, greenchilli coarsely (without water).\

• When the yam cubes cools down, mash them or just put in a mixe and whip it.

• Heat oil in a wok, add mustard seeds, urad, red chilli and hing powder. 

• When the mustard splutter, urad turns nice red in colour, add curry leaves and then add the mashed yam and grated coconut masala.\

• Mix well for 2 minutes

•  remove from fire 

• when it cools down a bit, squeeze in juice of half a lemon, the remaining 1tbsp of coconut oil and adjust salt if required. Mix well.

• Mouthwatering and flavourful masiyal / chutney is ready!

It goes well with plain hot white rice (as a main dish), and as side dish with chapathis and other rices varieties. A very good accompaniment for curd rice.

Deepavali lehyam / legiyam

With deepavali / diwali festival fast approaching, many of you will be busy planning for the festivals, making sweets, shopping etc.

• Staying healthy before, during and after festival is very important to let the bliss continue for few more days following it. 

• Eating without any restriction and falling sick will kill all the fun that the festival had brought in.

• Eating moderately, slowly, enjoying what we eat, is more important.

• I prefer to include herbs from my kitchen into the daily menu. So among the goodies there will be some dish which is not only tasty but also aids in digestion. 

• Deepavali lehyam is one such dish which helps in digestion and calm down your stomach. You can google for the pictures if to know how the herb will look like so that you can procure them from the store selling the herb (naatu marundu kadai / jadi booti dhukan).  Let  us go to the recipe

Ingredients :-

• 1 tbsp - Kandan Thippili / dried long pepper
• 1 tbsp - Airisi thippili / pippali (small and looks like grains)
• 1 tbsp - Chukku / Dry ginger / Sunth
• 1 tbsp - milagu / Black peppercorns / kalai miri
• 1 tbsp - Jeeragam / Cumin seeds / Jeera
• 1 tbsp - Omam / ajwain / caraway or carom seeds
• 1 tbsp - pattai / Cinnamon / dalchini
• 1 tbsp - chitharathai / Thai ginger / alpinia galangal
• 7 Nos. - elakkai / cardamom / ilaichi
• 1 cup - Jaggery
• 2 tbsp - Ghee / nei / clarified butter

Procedure :-

1. Dry roast each ingredient separately except jaggery and ghee.
2. Powder them separately.
3. Dissolve jaggery in water and filter
4. Heat the jaggery water, when it comes to boil, add a tablespoon of each of the dry roasted & powdered items and keep stirring in a low flame
5. when it thickens, add 1 tbsp ghee / nei and keep stirring
6. when it becomes thick like a paste, remove from fire
7. Add the remaining 1 tbsp ghee and mix till ghee mix well
8. cool and store in a clean bottle.

You can add some sugar candys (kalkandu), if you want, to the above Lehyam.

The above lehyam aids digestion, fights food poisoning, cures gas trouble and lot more health benefits.

But eat moderately so that you can enjoy the festival and take precautions to prevent yourself from falling sick because of over eating (which kills all the happiness & fun you had during the celebration)

Wish you all a happy & safe deepavali.

Palak Soup / Spinach Soup

Invite you to have a cup of hot & healthy Palak Soup / Spinach Soup.

Spinach / Palak has more nutritional value. Rich in antioxidants which destroys the free radicals and help in cell rejuvenation, Iron, Calcium.

While picking spinach select the one which is fresh, crisp as well as tender. Store them in a vegetable bag in the fridge.

Thoroughly wash it well before you use it for cooking. Cooking time for spinach is less, so you just need to blanch it for 5 to 10 minutes in hot water to retain its nutritional value.

There are variety of dishes prepared using spinach (dry as well as gravies). So here is a healthy reciipe for making soup using spinach.

Ingredients :-

 (serves :2)

1. Palak leaves - 25-30 nos
2. Garlic pods - 2 nos.
3. Onion - 1 no. (small)
4. Ginger - 1" piece
5. roasted Cumin powder - 1 pinch sprinkled for 1 serving
6. lemon juice - 1 tbsp (optonal)
7. Green chilli -1 no. (spicy variety)
8. Cinnamon - 1/2"
9. Cloves - 2 nos.
10. Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
11. salt to taste
12. Vegetable stock / water - 2 cups

Procedure :-

• Wash & chop the spinach leaves. Boil 2 cups of water / vegetable stock. switch off the stove and put the spinach leaves, keep it covered for 10 min (this is called blanching).
• Peel Onion, wash and chop finely
• Chop ginger and garlic pods
• Drain the spinach and save the stock. Let the leaves cool down.
• Heat oil, add cinnamon & cloves. when it is fried, add onion and saute till it becomes translucent. Add some stock and let it boil for 3 minutes. Remove from fire and let it cool. Drain and remove the cinnamon & cloves and reserve the stock.
• Puree the spinach and onion
• Add the reserved stock, salt and mix well. Heat it and adjust water level as per your preferred consistency.
• Before serving, add few drops of lemon juice (optional) and sprinkle a pinch of jeera powder / cumin powder.
• Healthy cup of yummy spinach/palak soup is ready!

Pumpkin Soup / maththan soup / Manjal Poosani soup

Winter is on. air is dry and lightly cold. I have started making a soup daily. Today made Pumpkin Soup.

Pumpkin also known as Kadhdhu / Kasi bhopla / Maththan /manjal poosani / budi kumbala / budikumbadi is a bright orange vegetable which is easy to cook and is little sweet in taste. The flesh, seeds, stringy inner part all are edible. With the stringy part inside on which seeds are seen can be used in chutney making. (will post the recipe). 

It is rich in vitamins and minerals. Good for prostrate gland and heart, irritable bladder and the seeds are used to treat mood swings and depression.

Pumpkin is orange inside (which means it is ripe). If it is pale in colour then it is not a ripe pumpkin. Some mistake it for ashgourd which is white inside and is also used in the famous 'petha' from Agra.

The best way to get all the nutrients in a vegetable is by par boiling it. So let me share a nice soup recipe today.

Ingredients :-

1. Ripe pumpkin - 1/4 kg
2. Bay leaf - 1/4 leaf
3. Black pepper - 4 nos.
4. Onion - 1 small
5. Salt to taste
6. Water - 1 cup
7. Butter - 1 tbsp (you can use olive oil to make it more healthy)
8. Lemon juice - few drops
9. fresh cream for garnishing (optional)

Procedure :-

• Wash, peel and dice the pumpkin into cubes 
• chop onions
• In a pan, add the butter / olive oil, bay leaf 
• Add the chopped onion, black peppers and fry for 3 minutes
• Add the pumpkin cubes, fry for a minute
• Add water and pressure cook it for a whistle 
• strain and save the stock. cool the vegetable, remove the bay leaf and puree the vegetable.
• Transfer the puree to a vessel, add the stock and bring to boil adding salt
• remove from fire, add few drops of lemon juice, mix it
• Serve hot garnishing with fresh cream

Enjoy the winter with a cup of soup each day.