Cucumber Gravy Curry (Dosakai Pulusu Kura)

Learnt From: My Mom.

Serving for: 2-3 People.

Ingredients:

Cucumber --- 2 medium size
Onions --- ¼ of the big one
Turmeric Powder --- a pinch
Tamarind --- 4 strands
Red Chilly Powder --- ½ tsp
Salt --- ¾ tsp (approx.)
Jaggary --- ½ of the small cube piece

For Seasoning:

Oil --- 1 tblsn
Mustard Seeds --- 1 tsp

Curry Leaves --- a few
Dry Red Chilly --- 1 chopped
Hing --- a pinch

Process:

Peel the skin of cucumbers.

Clean the cucumbers with water. Chop cucumber to pieces by removing the seeds.


Chop ¼ th of the big onion into pieces.
Take 4 strands of tamarind and little water in a bowl. Heat for 15 seconds in microwave. Take tamarind juice for it with that little water.


Heat a tblsn of oil in pressure cooker.
Add & Toast mustard seeds, chopped dry red chilly, curry leaves and a pinch hing.


Add chopped onions.


Add chopped cucumber along with onions.
Add ½ piece of jaggery (look in the photo in center of the pressure cooker).


Add a pinch of turmeric powder, tamarind juice, ½ tsp of red chilly powder (if you cant eat spiciness reduce the quantity of red chilly powder), and salt as per your taste.

Mix well. Pressure cook for 4 whistles…later keep in sim for 3 minutes and turn off the heat.
Wait till the pressure goes off.
Remove the lid of the pressure cooker. Uncover the pressure the cooker and cook for 5-10 minutes till the water evaporates. Turn off the heat.
Transfer the curry to a serving bowl.

Bagara Baingan

Learnt From: Vahrehvah.

Serving for: 5-6 People

Ingredients:

(Don’t get scared of the lengthy list of ingredients. If you do cooking regularly … all the ingredients are available at your home only. Check out the list. Just get fresh, small and round brinjals from the market.)

Brinjals --- 8 – 10
Peanuts --- 1 cup
Sesame Seeds --- 3 tblsn
Dry Coconut Powder --- 2 tblsn
Cinnamon Stick --- 1
Cloves --- 3
Cardamom --- 3 pods
Bay Leaf --- 1
Mustard Seeds --- 1 ½ tsp
Cumin Seeds --- ½ tsp
Green Chilies --- 2
Onion --- 1
Curry Leaves --- 7-8
Turmeric Powder --- a pinch
Ginger-Garlic Paste --- ½ tsp
Coriander Powder --- 1 tblsn
Cumin Powder --- 1 tblsn
Red Chilly Powder --- 1 tsp
Tamarind --- small lemon size ball
Jaggery --- a tblsn (optional)
Salt --- as per taste
Oil --- for deep fry

Process:

Heat a tblsn of oil in a pan. Add a cup of peanuts. Fry till they are ¾ th done. Add 3 tblsn of sesame seeds and dry coconut powder. Fry till sesame seeds are done. ( I don’t have dry coconut powder. So I used shredded coconut at the time of grinding)

Transfer the fried ones to a blender. Blend coarsely by adding around a cup of water to it. Keep tht aside.


Heat oil for deep fry in a pan.
Chop 2 green chilies and 1 onion. Keep them aside.
Clean brinjals along with stems with water. Opposite to the stem part of the brinjals cut ¾ th of the brinjal towards stem. Cut like Plus mark. Keep all the rest of the brinjals in the same way and keep them in salted water. (If you keep them in normal water the colour and the taste of the brinjals change. To prevent that … keep them in salted water.)
Clean lime size tamarind with water. Add little water to it. Micro-wave for 30 seconds. Extract tamarind juice out of it by adding ¾ cup of water.
When the oil is at right hot. Deep fry the brinjals till they are 3/4th done.



Heat 7-8 tblsn of oil in a wide pan.
Add a cinnamon stick by breaking it, 3 pods of cardamoms, 3-5 cloves and a bay leaf. Fry them.
Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds.
Add chopped green chilies and onion.
Add enough salt to the onions.


Fry till the onion turn to brown colour.
Add curry leaves and a pinch of turmeric powder.
Fry for a while.
Add ½ tsp of ginger-garlic paste. Fry for a while.
Add 2 cups of water.
Add a tblsn of coriander powder and a tblsn of cumin powder and ¾ tsp of red chilly powder. Fry for a while.
Turn the heat to medium.
Add blended peanuts-sesame-coconut paste.


Cover it and boil.
Add tamarind juice and enough salt to the gravy.
Add a tblsn of jaggery if you like. I didn’t add jaggery to my dish.
Again cover it and boil.
Boil it still the oil loses.

Taste it and adjust the salt.
Add fried brinjals to the gravy.


Cook it on medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes.


Turn off the heat.
Transfer the curry to a serving bowl.


Have it with biryani or with rice.

Guthi Vankaya Kura / Stuffed Brinjal

Learnt From: Indira's --- Mahanandi

Ingredients:

Brinjals --- 6-8
Peanuts --- 1 Rice-Cooker Cup (160 ml)
Sesame seeds --- ½ Rice-Cooker Cup (80 ml)
Dry Red Chilies --- 15 medium size
Channa dal --- 3 tblsn
Urad dal --- 3 tblsn
Coriander Powder --- 3 tblsn
Cumin Powder --- 1 tblsn
Tamarind Paste --- 3 tsp
Salt --- 1 tsp

Process:

Dry roast peanuts. Let them cool. Remove the skin of the roasted peanuts. Keep them aside.


Dry roast sesame seeds. Keep them aside.


Heat a tblsn of oil in a pan. Add 15 medium sized dry red chilies, 3 tblsn of channa dal, 3 tblsn of urad dal, 3 tblsn of coriander powder & 1 tblsn of cumin powder. Fry them. Keep aside.


In a bowl… add 3 tblsn of tamarind paste. Mix it with ½ cup of water. Keep aside.


Don’t wet the blender. When it is dry add all the fried items…(roasted peanuts, roasted sesame seeds, fried red chilies, channa dal, urad dal, coriander seeds, cumin seeds) and grind them to a fine powder. Add tamarind juice from which you have made already and 1 tsp of salt to the blender and grind them to a tight paste. Don’t add water to it.


Now clean the brinjals with water. Cut the stems of brinjals. On the opposite of the stems slit the brinjal till 3/4th and one more slit as same as above like plus (+) shape. There should be a joint in the bottom of the brinjal.



In the plus slit of the brinjal fill the paste tightly to it.


(still you have ¾th to ½ of the paste.) Take 2 – 2 ½ cups of water. Add water little by little to the remaining paste and mix without any lumps. Add a pinch of turmeric powder. Adjust it with salt, red chilly powder & tamarind paste. Mix loosely like a gravy. Keep it aside.


Turn the heat to Medium-High. In a pressure cooker … add a tblsn of oil and heat it. Add and toast mustard seeds and cumin seeds.


Add the gravy which u kept aside. Keep the stuffing brijals in this gravy. Turn the flame to medium-low and keep it for 1 whistle.

Immediately turn off the flame and slowly remove the whistle and then lid.

Transfer them to a serving bowl.


Gently serve the brinjals with a ladle. Have it along with rice.

Gobi Manchurian

Learnt From:

I learnt this from Aayi’s Recipes.

Serving for:

As an evening snack it can be served for 4 people.

Ingredients:

Gobi / Cauliflower --- 2 cups of florets (medium size)
Besan --- 3 Tbls
White Corn flour or Maida (All purpose flour) --- 6 + 1 ½ Tbls
Red chilly powder --- 1 Tbls
Ginger-Garlic Paste --- 1 ½ + 1 tsp
Soya Sauce --- 1 + 1 Tbls
Tomato Sauce / Ketchup --- 1 + 3 Tbls
Water
Salt
Green Chilies --- 5
Garlic --- 5 cloves
Onion --- ½ of the big one
Capsicum --- 1
Oil --- to deep fry

Process:

Chop the gobi into medium sized florets.


Clean the florets with water.
Add plenty of water to the cleaned florets and boil them in salted water for about 10 minutes.
Transfer the cooked florets to a colander to drain the water.


To deep fry heat the oil.
In a bowl add 3 tblsn of besan (gram flour), 6 tblsn of corn or maida flour, 1 ½ tsp of ginger – garlic paste, 1 tblsn of soya sauce, 1 tblsn of tomato sauce, 1 tblsn of red chilly powder and ¼ tsp of enough salt.
Mix them to make a semi-thick batter as if u make for pakodas.


Taste it and adjust the salt.
Add some of the florets to the batter.


Dip them in the batter one by one like a thin coating should be made on the gobi.
To know whether the oil is hot or not drop a small ball of batter … it should come up immediately onto the upper layer of the oil … at the same time oil should not over heated.
When the oil is hot … drop gobi by gobi into the oil.


Move the gobies upside down with help of spatula to fry uniformly. At the same time try to separate the gobies with spatula if they stick to each other.
Deep fry till it turns to golden brown.
Transfer the fried gobies onto the paper towel to remove excess oil.


Till now, one step was done.
Mix 1 tbls of corn flour in little water without any lumps… then add ½ of water to it and mix. Keep it aside.
Chop 5 garlic cloves, 5 green chilies, ½ big onion (length-wise) and 1 capsicum.
Heat 2 tbls of oil in a wide pan.
Add chopped garlic, green chilies. Fry for 2 minutes.


Add chopped capsicum. Fry for 2 more minutes.
Add sliced onions & 1 tsp of ginger-garlic paste to the pan.
Fry till capsicum done 3/4th .
Add 1 tbls of soya sauce and 3 tblsn of tomato ketchup to the pan.


Add the corn flour which u already mixed and kept aside to the pan. See and adjust water. It may take still half more cup of water. But the gravy should be thick.


Stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
Add the fried gobi to the pan.


Stir fry for 2 more minutes.
Transfer the gobi manchurian to a serving bowl.


Have it with tomato sauce.


Or with rice.

Ladyfinger / Bendakaya Curry

Learnt from: My brother's Cook Vani.

Ingredients:

Lady-Fingers --- 2 cups when chopped
Onions --- 1/2 of the big one
Tomatoes --- 2 medium size
Salt --- 1 tsp (adjust it)
Red-Chilly Pow der --- 3/4 tsp (adjust it)
Water --- 1 cup
Turmeric Powder --- a pinch
Tamarind





For Seasoning:

Oil --- 3 tblsn
Fenugreek Seeds --- 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds --- ½ tsp
Cumin Seeds --- ½ tsp
Dry-Red-Chilly --- 1 chopped
Curry leaves 5-6





Process:

Chop Ladyfingers.
Chop Onions.
Chop Tomatoes.
Fry the chopped ladyfingers on medium flame till the stickiness goes away. It will take around 10 to 15 minutes. Keep them aside.
Heat some oil in other deep pan.
Add & Toast seasoning one by one like… fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, cumin seeds,re chilly, curry leaves.
Add Sliced onions into the pan.
Fry the onions till translucent.
Add Tomatoes fry for 2 minutes.
Add Fried Ladyfingers into the pan.
Add a pinch of Turmeric powder, Salt to taste, and a tsp of Red Chilly Powder into the pan.
Add a cup of water into the pan. Don't cover it with lid.
Cook it until the lady-fingers become tender. Don’t cover the pan with lid.
Meanwhile prepare Tamarind juice. ( take tamarind keep some water into it and heat for 30 sec in microwave. After that take thin juice abt ½ cup from it. ).
Add the Tamarind juice into the pan.
Cook until tamarind juice goes away as vapour.
Then turn the flame off.
The curry looks gravy.
Have it with rice.