Bell Pepper and Coconut Thogayal / chutney

Bell Peppers are on sale now and I picked up a bag of these mini peppers from safeway. I like to eat them raw with humus. What do you like to eat them with as a snack?

I made a quick thogayal with this and some coconut and it was pretty good. Our family enjoyed this with some steaming rice, ghee and okra fry.

Here is the very simple recipe for it. You can use  sauted onions and garlic instead of the coconut. I used 2 long red chillies, as my family does not eat very spicy food. But if you like spicy thogayal, u can use 4 red chillies.

Get Ready

• Mini bell peppers ( red, orange) 5 
• 2 red chillies
•  1/4 cup broken urad dal
• 3 tbsp grated coconut
• 1/2 tsp asafetida powder
•  1 tsp tamarind paste
•  1-1 & 1/2 tsp salt or per taste.

To Temper

• 2 tsp oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds/ kadugu

Go:

• wash the peppers, remove the stem cut in them in big chunks and set aside. 

• In a pan add 1/2 tsp oil and roast the red chillies and urad dal till the chillies are shiny and the dal is golden brown. set aside to cool.

• In  the same pan, add a drop of oil and add the peppers. saute them and cook till they are soft but still crunchy. turn the heat off and set them aside to cool.

• In a blender add the sauted peppers, red chilli, asafetida, tamarind, salt to taste and coconut and grind them till coarse. add a little water if it is dry.

• Add the urad dal and the end and grind them again to desired consistency. I like my thogayal with a little crunchy urad dal pieces in them. 
• In the same pan that you sauted the peppers, add a little oil and to the tadka with mustard seeds.

Serve hot with rice, idli, dosa, pongal, chapathi or spread on toast and enjoy!

Sambara puli aka Kothamalli dry chutney

"Sambara puli " is what they call the dry kothamalli/ coriander chutney in most of the tam bram households. I remember my grandma preparing this while I drool over the sweet, spicy and tangy chutney. My grandma used to make it in the traditional " attukkal" which means the hose maid has to stay for an extra shift. The addition of jaggery gives this chutney an enhanced taste of the tamarind and other spices used.

It tastes so good with molagootal, idli, dosa and of course mu favorite is to eat with thayir sadham
( curd rice).
It stays good in the fridge for few weeks and comes in handy if you want to make some coriander chutney. Just add this, some coconut and grind and your chutney is ready.


Get Ready

• 1 bunch of cilantro washed
• 1/4 cup urad dal
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
• 5-6 red chillies
• marble sized tamarind
• A small marble sized ball of jaggery ( optional)
• 1 -2  tsp oil
•  Salt to taste

Go:

• Spread the washed cilantro on a towel and let it air dry over night. Discard the thick stems and leave the rest intact. The cilantro will look wilted, but will still have some moisture in it. 

• coarsely chop the cilantro and set aside.

• In a pan, add the oil and roast the urad dal on medium heat till golden. set aside
• Add a little oil and roast the red chillies till they are shiny and crackly. Be careful not to burn them. set it aside.
• Add a little oil and roast the tamarind and set aside.

• Once every thing cools, to a blender add the roasted red chilli, cilantro, jaggery, tamrind, asafoetida, salt and pulse them several times.

• Add the roasted urad dal and pulse multiple times till everything comes together. You can grind the urad dal as coarse as you want if you want the sambara puli to be crunchy. store them just as is or make small balls and set aside.

Store it in an air tight container and refrigerate.

Enjoy this samabara puli and let me know if you like it!

Creamy Grilled Eggplant Dip

Recently I had a few friends over and made this grilled egg plant dip to serve with appetizers.
This is a make ahead dip and can be put together very easily.
Serve them with pita chips or any chips of your choice. Mine served a lot of people and you can reduce the quantity if you are making for a few people.


Get Ready: ( serves 20 plus people)

• 2 large eggplants
• 1 small tub of sour cream
• Lots of finely chopped cilantro
• 2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 Red chilli powder
• 2-3 thai green chilli finely chopped ( optional)
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Go

• Wash and dry the egg plant. Poke a couple of holes on them with a fork. 

• Cover with foil and grill them on a medium gas flame turning them multiple times.

•  Keep the grill closed. Cook them till the are soft. One can also roast them on open gas flame to get a nice smokey flavor. Let tit cool well, peel the skin off, it comes easily and take the flesh of the cooked eggplant.

• Mash the cooked flesh with a fork into a nice pulp.

• This can be made ahead and kept refrigerated.
• Before serving, add the sour cream, desired salt, chopped cilantro and mix.
• In a pan, add the oil, add the red chilli powder and cumin. once the cumin seeds sizzle, pour it over the dip.

Onion Chutney/ Vengaya Chutney

 The festival season has just started! we still have Diwali, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and many more to come. We all will be cooking many fancy things to enjoy with our friends and families.

But we still need to cook our basic rice, dal, rasam, idli, dosa etc.. A perfectly hor plate of idli's or dosas would be incomplete with this super flavored onion chutney. I used pearl onions which gives a tons of flavor. One can easily replace it with red or vidalia onions. Yes...I know peeling those little pearl onions is a task, but think of the chutney... you won't mind doing that job!

I am sure you are checking your kitchen to see if there are some onions lying around! Using the red pearl onion gives a nice color to the chutney.


Get ready

• 1 cup pearl onions peeled
• 2 red chilli ( i used the round small ones)
• 1/4 tsp tamarind paste
• 1/2 tsp jaggery powder or to taste
• salt to taste

For Tadka

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp urad dal
• A pinch of hing/ asafetida 
• curry leaves 3-4

Go:

• Grind the onions,red chilli, tamrind paste, jaggery and salt to a fine paste. No need to add water.
• In a pan do the tadka with mustard seeds, urad dal and hing.
• Add the onion paste and cook on medium heat till the water evaporates and the chutney leaves the sides of the pan. i.e for 2-3 mins.

Serve with hot steaming idli's, crispy dosas or with rice!


Enjoy!

Tomato Cashew Chutney

I had bookmarked this a while ago and finally made it! Yay.... It was such a flavorful , creamy chutney to be enjoyed with steaming idlis or crispy dosas.

Get ready:

• 1 medium tomato chopped
• 1 tbsp cashews
• 1 tsp chopped ginger
• 1 tbsp chopped onion
• 1tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp coconut grated
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp urad dal
• a few curry leaves

Go:

• In a pan add 1/2 tbsp oil and fry the cashews till golden.
• Add onion and saute till translucent.
• Add the ginger, tomatoes, red chilli powder and fry till the tomatoes are mushy.
• Add salt, coconut and fry for few min. turn the heat off.
• Once cooled a little, blend them into a chutney like consistency.
• Do the tadka with the remaining oil, mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves.

  

Sending this to bookmarked recipes

Almond Chutney

 

I haven't been blogging for a long time now. With the new job, it has been very hectic and busy! However, I did try a couple of new dishes. But I didn't have time to take pics or post it. Yesterday I was watching Julie and Julia and was inspired to post this quicky.
Here is the quick and easy recipe for almond chutney.

 

Ingredients

 

• A handful of almonds (soaked in warm water for 15 min. and peeled) or sliced almonds
• 3 green chillies 
• A pinch of asafoetida
• Salt (for taste)

•  For tadka/ tempering
• 1/4 tsp Mustard seeds,
• 1/4 tsp urad dal,
• 1tsp oil
• curry leaves

Method

• Grind the peeled almonds with chili and salt in a blender.
•  Temper with the seasonings.
• Serve with idli, dosa, or upma.

Happy Eating =)

Sending this to Now Serving's Chutney Chow down

Basil

I bought a packet of basil from our local farmers market and did'nt know how to use them. I loved the fragrance and was desparate to use it in my cooking. Unfortunately my husband is not a fan of trying new things or the smell of basil.

Just to give you some facts, basil is widely used in Italian cooking. It is called "Ocimum basilicum". the smell reminds me of our good old "Tulsi" which is called Ocimum tenuiflorum. Apparently it tulsi is also called holy basil.

So i finally madea basil coconut chutney and basil thogayal. Boy, let me tell you it was super delish.

I will post my recipie for these two.

Basil chutney

basil leaves a hand ful

coconut 2 tbsp

tamarind paste 1tsp

green chilli 4

grind all the above and add salt to taste. Season it with mustard seeds and urad dhal. chutney is ready. serve for idli or dosa.

Basil thogayal

basil leaves 1/4 cup

urad dhal 2 tbsp

red chillies 2

perungayam a pinch

tamarind paste 1 tsp

In a pan, fry urad dhal and red chilli with litle oil till golden brown. the nadd the basil leaves and fry them as you would do for pudhina thogayal. let it cool and grind all the ingredients with salt and perungayam. in thogayal consistency. It tastes goodwith rice, bread and chapathi.