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.

Gavar ki sabzi - Kothavarangai / cluster beans

Cluster Beans / Gavar / Guar / Kothavarangai :-

 

Cluster beans has calcium, phosphorous and little iron. 

How to buy :- Beans should be tender and look fresh. Avoid over ripen (very pale in colour) as it becomes chewy.  Avoid buying stained ones or beans with black spots as it means the beans are old. 

How to clean :- Some people feel cleaning is laborious but it is not so if you use a knife and chopping board. Wash it thoroughly, put inside a colander to drain. arrange few beans at a time (say 6 nos) with same sides together and chop off using a knife. Do the same with the other end too. Now the beans are ready to use.

This beans in Indian cuisine is used alone or along with potato and is prepared in different ways. It is also processed, dried and stored to use as a fried accompaniment (vaththal) along with curd rice.

The method i shared here is Maharashtrian preparation which goes well as a dry side dish with rotis, rice. It can also be directly mixed with plain white rice to make a variety rice for lunch box.

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Ingredients :-

1. Cluster Beans - 1 cup
2. Onion - 1 (medium)
3. Tomato - 1 (Medium)
4. Grated coconut - 3 tbsp
5. Roasted & powdered groundnut - 2 tbsp
6. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp (or as per your prefernce)
8. Coriander Powder - 1tbsp
9. Ghoda masala - 1tsp (maharashtrian garam masala or normal garam masala or you can do without this too)
10. Asafoetida powder - 1 pinch
11. Curry leaves - 1 sprig (finely chopped)
12. Oil for tempering - 2 tbsp
13. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
14. Salt to taste 
15. Jaggery - 1tsp (optonal)

 

Procedure :

• Wash the cluster beans, drain & remove the ends as mentioned above. Chop in to 3 or 4 pieces
• Finely chop onion and tomatoes
• Finely chop the curry leaves
• Heat oil, add little mustard seeds. After they splutter add, asafoetida powder & chopped curry leaves
• Add the finely chopped onions and fry till they turn translucent.
• Now add the chopped tomatoes and cook till they turn mushy.
• Add Red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, peanut powder and ghoda masala mix well.
• add required water, jaggery (optional) cover and cook until done. Keep mixing in between.
• Or you can pressure cook till two whistles, let the pressure come down. Then open the lid, switch on the flame.
• In the last stage, add grated coconut, mix well and cook for 5 minutes stirring in between.
• Delicious Gavar ki sabzi is ready!

Design-15

 

Design-15

Nonbu adais - sweet as well as salt

This is a special adai prepared for Kaaradayaan nonbu. Everytime i miss to take snap shots hence this year, I decided I will keep my camera ready (battery charged) so that I can share the recipe with you. By god's grace this year pooja too went on well and the Offerings (neivedhyam) - adais came out very well.

Lets get on to common preparative procedure for both the dishes.

First seek the blessings of Lord Ganesha and then Nala raja that all the preparations go smooth. Then start the work....

1. For both sweet & salt adais, the preparation of rice flour & cowpeas are same. You can either purchase processed rice flour / idiyappam or appam podi (available in kerala stores) or follow the below method.
2. Soak the cowpeas / chawli / kaaraamani for 4 hours and pressure cook
3. Soak raw rice for 30 minutes
4. Drain the water
5. Spread the rice on a clean cloth & let it air dry
6. Powder it in a mill or using a mixer grinder, finely
7. Sieve and measure & keep ready in separate bowls
8. Heat a kadai / wok, dry roast this flour till nice aroma comes
9. Spread a paper, transfer the roasted flour to it and allow to cool

Let us start with sweet thing first :D

SWEET ADAI :-


Ingredients :

1. Processed rice flour - 1 cup (I used Melam idiyappam / appam podi which is too good for this purpose)
2. Water - 1.5 cups
3. Powdered Jaggery - 1 cup
4. Boiled cowpeas (kaaramani / chawli) - 1 tbsp
5. Coconut - grated - 3 tbsp (normally small shredded pieces of coconut is used in the recipe. But grated coconut has its own advantage as the fresh milky taste blends well and it is easy to chew for the children & aged people)
6. Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
7. Ghee - 2 tsp (optional)

sweet adai

Procedure :

• Prepare the flour as mentioned above. If you are buying ready made flour, then just follow the process given for roasting the flour
• Heat 1.5 cups of water in a vessel
• In another vessel boil some more water (to use if needed)
• When the water in the vessel starts boiling, add the powdered jaggery.
• 
  
• Boil by keep stirring till the jaggery dissolves completely
• Remove from flame, using a fine strainer, strain for impurities
• Transfer the filtered jaggery water to a wok, add the boiled cowpeas, grated coconut and bring to boil (You can add the cardamom powder at this stage)
• Now while keep stirring add the rice flour little by little to the boiling jaggery water
• the mixture will thicken now. If you feel you can add some more water (say a tbsp or two) now (which you have boiled separately)
• Allow this mix to cool down a bit. (Add ghee now & mix well)
• In a bowl mix some ghee or (gingely oil) and some water to use as a greasing agent to prevent the dough sticking to your hands
• Divide the dough into small balls of equal portion (dip your hand inthe oil+water mixture to grease the fingers?)
• now gently knead each portion, shape into ball, flatten them into discs, make a hole in the centre.
• Same way prepare all the portions and in a steamer, steam it for 10 minutes
• Delicious, Soft & Sweet adai is ready!

SALT ADAI 

Ingredients :

1. Processed rice flour - 1 cup (I used Melam idiyappam / appam podi which is too good for this purpose)
2. Water - 1.5 cups
3. Salt to taste
4. Boiled cowpeas (kaaramani / chawli) - 1 tbsp
5. Coconut - grated - 3 tbsp (normally small shredded pieces of coconut is used in the recipe. But grated coconut has its own advantage as the fresh milky taste blends well and it is easy to chew for the children & aged people)  

Ingredients For tempering :-

1. Sesame oil - 2 tbsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
3. deskinned Black gram / white urad - 1 tsp
4. Curry leaves - 1 sprig (finely chopped)
5. Asafoetida powder - 1 big pinch
6. Green Chillies - 2 nos (finely chopped)

salt adai

Procedure :

• Heat oil in a wok.
• Add mustard seeds. When it start spluttering, add whole urad / black gram, asafoetida powder
• When dal turns golden borwn add chopped curry leaves, green chillies and fry for few seconds
• Now add 1.5 cups of water, boiled cowpeas and grated coconut, bring to boil
• Now add 1 cup roasted flour and mix well. If you feel you require some more water then add it little by little checking the consistency.
• Switch off the flame.
• Allow it to cool
• Shape them the same way as described for the sweet adai

Note :-

1. If the flour is fine, adequate water is used, the adais will remain soft even after several hours of preparation.
2. Knead each portion of dought lightly will remove the lumps & give smooth texture to the adais.
3. If you use grated coconut, it has two advantages. the freshly grated coconut will be juicy hence it blends well with the flour & gives added tastes and it makes the adai easily chewable for children and Old people

Serving suggestion :- Butter makes an excellent accompaniment for the dish