Pagarkai Pitlai

As anybody else, I don't like eating pagarkai, for its bitter taste. But my mom make all possible steps to make me eat it. Here is one of her step - Pitlai - a traditional South Indian dish.

Pagarkai / bitter gourd is very good for health. For preparing this pitlai, we must plan and work, so that we can bring out its delicious taste perfectly.

Ingredients

Pagarkai / Bitter gourd – ¼ kg

Channa Dhall – 1 cup
Thoor Dhall – 1 ½ cups
Tamarind – 1 big lemon size
Bengal gram dhall – 2 tsp
Dhaniya / Coriander seeds – 1 ½ tsp
Red chilli – 7
Raw Rice – ½ tsp
Curry leaves – 5 strands
Coconut (grated) – 1 ½ cups
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Cooking oil – 1 tsp
Coconut oil – 3 tsp
Salt – as needed

Method

Soak Channa dhall for 6 to 7 hours. We have to soak it overnight if we are planning to do this for next morning.

Soak tamarind in little water for 20 minutes and take tamarind extract and keep aside. We need little extra tamarind than sambar.

Pressure cook Channa dhall and thoor dhall separately. Channa dhall must be soft.

Mash the thoor dhall and keep aside.

Cut Pagarkai in round shape and marinate with little salt and turmeric powder.

Roast coconut in coconut oil and keep aside. We must use half of the roasted coconut for grinding and half for garnishing.

Roast Bengal gram dhall, dhaniya, red chillies, raw rice, curry leaves with very little cooking oil till golden brown. Grind this to a fine paste with half the roasted coconut and keep aside.

In a deep thick bottomed pan, heat cooking oil. Fry the cut pagarkhai for few minutes. Add tamarind extract, salt and bring to boil. When it boils, keep the stove in low flame. Cook till the raw smell of the tamarind goes. Also the pagarkai must be soft.

Now add cooked channa dhall and continue cooking. Then add the ground paste and add little water if needed. When it come to boil, add mashed thoor dhall and continue cooking.
Pitlai comes to continuous boiling and it will be thicker now.

Now add the remaining roasted coconut. Season with Mustard seeds. Add fresh curry leaves.

Serve hot.

Have a nice day and healthy days ahead. 

Veppampoo Rasam

Veppampoo or flowers of Neem, as we all know have high medicinal value. We all prepare this rasam for our celebrations on Tamil New Year day. We can make our kids to eat veppampoo, without any hesitation by giving this rasam mixed in hot rice and appalam as sidedish. (My mom made me eat in this way only!?!?) I'm happy to share the recipe with my friends.

Ingredients

Veppampoo (Neem flower) – 3 tbsp

Tamarind – 1 Amla size (approximately)
Tomato (Finely Chopped) – 1 cup
Thoor Dhall – 1 ½  tsp
Red Chillies – 3
Black pepper – 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves – 2 to 3 strands
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Salt – as required
Oil – for frying

Method

Heat oil in a pan and fry the Veppampoo (Neem flower) till golden brown and keep aside.

Take 1 tsp thoor dhall, red chillis, black pepper, cumin seeds, curry leaves. Roast these ingredients with little oil and grind it to a fine paste and keep aside.

Soak tamarind in water for 20 minutes and take extract with chopped tomato.  (Adding tomato to tamarind extract, will give a delicious taste to the recipe and also it takes off the bitter taste from tamarind.)

Fry the remaining ½ tsp thoor dhall with very little oil till golden brown.

Add fried thoor dhall, salt and asafoetida powder to the tamarind extract and bring to boil.

Now add the ground paste to the boiling tamarind extract and bring to boil. When it boils, add required water and cook in low flame till the froth appears. Turn off the stove.

Season with mustard seeds.

Add the fried Veppampoo and little fresh curry leaves and serve hot.

Have a nice day!

Kandathippili Rasam

Rasam, is one of the most common recipe in South Indian cooking, but we definitely make some changes to bring differences in our cooking. Here, I'm going to share with one such different rasam which is made using Kandathippili. This is the stalk of the plant "Thippili or Long Pepper. "Kandam" means neck in Sanskrit and the stalk of the plant is named after this. Kandathippili has high medicinal value. My Mom use this in preparing "Deepavali Leghiyam".  But I love my Mother-in-law's preparation, "Rasam", which gives a very good taste and aroma. It helps in easy digestion and also a good appetiser. Here, I'm very glad to share the recipe with all my friends.

Ingredients

Kandathippili – 7 sticks

Tamarind – 1 small lemon size (approximately)
Tomato (Finely Chopped) – 1 cup
Thoor Dhall – 1 ½  tsp
Red Chillies – 3
Black pepper – 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves – 2 to 3 strands
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Salt – as required

Method

Take Kandathippili, thoor dhall, red chillis, black pepper, cumin seeds, curry leaves. Roast these ingredients with little oil and grind it to a fine paste and keep aside.

Soak tamarind in water for 20 minutes. Take extract with chopped tomatoes. (Adding tomato to tamarind extract, will give a delicious taste to the recipe and also it takes off the bitter taste from tamarind.)

Add salt and asafoetida powder to the tamarind extract and bring to boil.

Now add the ground paste to the boiling tamarind extract and bring to boil. When it boils, add required water and cook in low flame till the froth appears. Turn off the stove.

Season with mustard seeds and add little fresh curry leaves and serve hot.

Hope, you all love this recipe. Will revert back soon with yet another good recipe. Till then have great days friends!  

Milk Payasam / Kheer

A very very special dish which we prepare for all auspicious occasions and functions is Kheer or Payasam. After many trials and errors, finally I learnt to do Payasam with great effort. I would like to give a special thanks to my Manni, Mrs. Latha Anandhan, for guiding me in this learning process. I'm very glad to share the recipe with all my friends.

Ingredients

Milk – 2 litres

Basmathi Rice - 1/4 kg

Sugar – ½ kg

Khoa – 100 g (with or without sugar)

Ghee – 2 tbsp

Badam seeds – 100g

Cashew nuts – 50g

Raisins – 50g

Cardamom powder – 2tsp

Poppy seeds / Khus Khus – 1tsp

Method

Soak Basmathi rice in water for 30 minutes.

Soak Badam seeds in hot water for 30 minutes and remove the skin.

Boil the milk and keep aside.

Take peeled badam seeds, khoa, poppy seeds and grind it into a fine paste with little milk and keep aside.

In a deep, thick bottomed pan cook the soaked basmathi rice with water in low flame. Add required water. Check frequently for, it will not catch to the pan in the bottom.

When it is finely cooked, add boiled milk to it and stir well. Continue cooking in low flame. Milk must blend to the rice and it will reduce in quantity. (This stage is very important.)

Now the milk mixed rice will be thicker.

Add Sugar, stir well and continue cooking.

When the sugar dissolves in the mix, it will become thinner. Continue cooking for 5 minutes. Check frequently for, it will not catch to the pan in the bottom.

Now add the badam-khoa paste to the mix and stir well. Continue cooking. Check frequently for, it will not catch to the pan in the bottom.

The mixture will come to a continuous boiling and it will be thicker now.  We can feel the good aroma of the payasam. Turn off the stove.

Add cardamom powder.

Heat ghee in a separate pan. Fry cashew nuts and raisins till golden brown and add to Payasam.

Serve hot or cold, as per your wish.

To make it more delicious:

We can add Milkmaid/fresh cream after adding the badam-khoa paste.

Bisibelebath / Sambar Sadham

Finally I found an easy and time saving method to prepare Sambar Sadham. I would like to share this easy method to everybody. You can do it in pressure cooker directly.

Ingredients

Raw Rice - 1 cup
Thoor Dhall - 1/2 cup
Tamarind - 1 lemon size
Mustard - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Groundnuts - 2 tsp
Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 strands
Onion (chopped) - 1
Tomato (chopped) - 1
Carrot (chopped) - 1
Chayote or Chow Chow (chopped) - 1
Brinjal (chopped) - 2
Potato (chopped) - 1
Pumpkin White (chopped) - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 3 strands
Salt - as per needed
Oil - 2 to 3 tbsp.

To roast and grind

Bengal Gram Dhall - 2 tsp
Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Coconut (Grated) - 1 cup

Method

Soak Rice, Thoor dhall and Tamarind separately for 20 to 30 minutes.

Take chopped tomato and soaked tamarind and prepare tamarind extract and keep aside.

Roast Bengal gram, Coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves with very little oil and wet grind with grated coconut and keep aside.

In a deep thick bottomed pressure cooker, heat oil, and add mustard seeds.

When it splutters, add fenugreek seeds, groundnuts and asafoetida powder and then add curry leaves and then add chopped onion. Saute till the onion becomes transparent.

Then add carrot, potato, chayote or chow-chow, brinjal and pumpkin and mix well.

Now add the ground paste and mix it well.

Add tamarind extract and add salt as per your requirement.

Add the soaked rice and dhall to it.

Mix well and add 4 to 5 cups of water to it. Pressure cook for upto 4 whistles.

Open and add 2 tsp of ghee to it and finely chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves. Serve hot.

Appalam, Chips, and Potato poriyal will be a nice combination with this yummy Bisibelebath.

To make it more delicious:

Take one tomato, Onion, two green chillies, carrot, coriander leaves, curry leaves and grind it to fine paste and add to the preparation before adding rice. It will be an added flavour.
 (We can do this while preparing our regular Sambhar - while adding tamarind extract )