Bottle Gourd / Sorrakaya Pulusu

Recipe Source: My Mom.

Ingredients:

Bottle Gourd --- 1 small
Green Chilies --- 4
Onions --- ½ of the big one (if you have small onions just cut them horizontally into half)
Jaggery --- 3 pieces
Tamarind --- a lime size ball
Salt --- as per taste
Red chilly powder --- 1 – 1 ½ tsp (adjust)
Rice Flour --- 1 tblsn

For Seasoning:

Oil --- 1 tblsn
Mustard Seeds --- 1 ½ tsp
Cumin Seeds --- 1 tsp
Dry Red Chilies --- 1 halved
Hing --- a big pinch
Curry leaves --- 1 strand

Note:

Hing is not good for the pregnant ladies. So, avoid it if you are or if you making for any of them.

Process:

Peel and chop bottle gourd into big cubes. Add them to a pressure cooker directly.
Chop green chilies. Add them to the cooker.

Chop onions and add them too.

Add 3 pieces of jaggery to the pressure cooker.

Clean a lime size ball or tamarind.

Heat it in the micro wave for 30 seconds. Take 2 cups of tamarind juice out of it by pouring little more water. Add tamarind juice too to the cooker.

Add a pinch of turmeric powder, 1 – 1 ½ tsp of red chilly powder, and enough salt.

Mix well and pressure cook it for 3 whistles. Wait till the pressure goes off.

Heat a tblsn of oil in a big deep pan. Season it with mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chilly, hing and curry leaves. Add the pressure cooked ones to the pan.

Take still more (around 4-5 cups) tamarind juice out of it by adding little-little water.

Add it to the pan.

Take 1 tblsn of rice flour. Mix with little water without any lumps. Add tht too to the pan.

Adjust salt.

Cook it for a boil.

Simmer it for about 15-20 minutes.

Have it with plain dal and rice by adding ghee.  Tastes wonderful.

Radish / Mullangi Sambar

Learnt From: My friend Saroj.

Ingredients:

Raddish / Mullangi --- 1 Big (20-25 slices)
Carrot --- 3
Toor dal --- 1 Rice Cooker Cup (160 ml)
Water --- 3 Rice Cooker Cups (480-500 ml)
Turmeric Powder --- a big pinch
Tamarind --- 1 medium lime size ball
Sambar Powder --- 5 tblsn
Jaggery --- a small ( ½ ) piece (optional)
Shredded Coconut --- 1 tblsn
Salt --- to taste

For Seasoning:

Oil --- 1 ½ tblsn
Mustard Seeds --- 1 tsp
Dry Red Chilies --- 2 halved
Curry Leaves --- 5-6
Hing / Asafoetida --- a big pinch

Process:

Peel and chop radish and carrots into thick slices.
Take a rice cooker cup of toordal. Clean twice with water. Add 3 rice-cooker cups of water to it. Add a big pinch of turmeric powder. Mix well. Add slice radish and carrots to the cooker.

Keep it for 3 whistles.
Wait for 15 minutes till the pressure goes away. Remove the lid of the cooker.
Make a small lime size ball out of tamarind. Clean well with water. Add a little water to it. Microwave it for 30 seconds. Take 4 cups (1000 ml) of tamarind juice by adding little and little water to it. Add 4 cups of juice to the cooker.
Take 5 tblsn of sambar powder into a small bowl. Add little water and mix without any lumps. Add this paste to the cooker.
Add ½ piece of jaggery to the cooker. (optional)
Add 1 tblsn of shredded coconut to the cooker and enough salt.

Keep it for a boil.

Taste it and adjust sambar powder and salt.
Keep it in medium heat for about 15-20 minutes.
In the meanwhile, season it with mustard seeds, red chilies, curry leaves and hing.
Transfer it to a big bowl.

Have it with rice.

Palak Sambar

Learnt From: One of my friends Saroj.

Ingredients:

Palak --- 1/3 rd of lb packet
Tamarind --- a key lime size ball
Sambar Powder --- 4 tblsn
Salt --- as per taste
Toor dal --- ½ rice cooker cup ( 80 ml )
Chick peas or Black eyed beans --- ¾ cup of the rice cooker cup (120 ml )

For Seasoning:

Oil --- 2 tblsn
Mustard Seeds --- 1 ½ tsp
Dry Red Chillies --- 3 chopped
Hing --- a pinch

Pre-Requisite:

Clean and soak ¾ cup of chick peas or black eyed beans in water overnight.


Process:

Clean and pressure cook toordal and chickpeas or black eyed beans together for 3 whistles by adding 3 cups of water.
Wait till the pressure goes off, which takes about 15 minutes.
Mash tool dal with a big ladle. Keep that aside.


Clean and Chop spinach.


Heat 2 tblsn of oil in a pan.
Add and toast seasoning like chopped dry red chilies, mustard seeds, and hing.
Add chopped palak leaves.
Cook till palak done. The water which comes from the cleaned palak is enough to cook. If needed … add water.


In the mean while, take key lime size ball of tamarind. Clean tht with water. Add little water to the tamarind. Heat for 30 seconds in micro wave.


Take 2 cups tamarind juice. Keep that aside.
Add cooked toordal to the palak.


Add tamarind juice and 3 cups of water to the pan.
In little water mix 4 tblsn of sambar powder. And add to the pan.


Add enough salt and keep it for a boil.


Taste it and adjust salt and sambar powder.
Reduce the heat to medium and cook it for 15-20 minutes.
Stir it up for every 5 minutes or intermittently.
Turn off the heat.
Palak Sambar is ready.

Kattu

If you make this with yellow moong dal (pesara pappu) it is called as “pesara kattu”. If you make this with toor dal (kandi pappu) it is called as “kandi kattu”.

Learnt From: My Mom

Ingredients:

Yellow Moong Dal / Toor Dal --- ½ Cup (Rice Cooker Cup) (80 ml)
Water --- 2 cups (Rice cooker cup) (160 ml)
Turmeric powder --- a big pinch
Water --- 3 cups (750 ml)
Green Chilies --- 4
Ginger --- 3 inches
Tomato --- 1 big
Salt --- as per taste
Coriander leaves --- a few

Lemon --- 1/2 of the large one

For Seasoning:

Oil --- 3 tblsn
Garlic --- 5
Urad dal --- 1 tsp
Mustard seeds --- 1 tsp
Cumin seeds --- ½ tsp
Hing --- a pinch
Dry red chilly --- 1 chopped
Curry Leaves --- a few

Process:

Take dal in a pressure cooker.
Clean the dal twice with water. Add double the water to the dal to the cooker.
Add a pinch of turmeric powder.
Cover it and Cook for 3 whistles.
Wait till the pressure goes off. It takes around 15-20 minutes.
In the meanwhile, chop 5 garlic, 3 inches of ginger, 4 green chilies, 1 big tomato & a few coriander leaves. Wash a few curry leaves. Keep them aside.
Heat 3 tblsn of oil in a pan.
Add and Toast seasoning one by one like … garlic, urad dal, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, a pinch of hing & chopped red chilly.
Add curry leaves, Chopped green chilies and ginger to the pan and fry them till the green chilies get white spots.
Add chopped tomatoes to the pan.
Add a pinch of turmeric powder and enough salt to tomatoes to the pan.
Cover it and cook till the tomatoes mash which is the sign that they are cooked properly.
Turn off the heat. Remove the pan from heat. Keep the pan aside.
When the pressure of the cooker goes off. Open the lid of it. Mash the dal with a big ladle.

Add 3 cups (750 ml) of water the dal.
Turn the heat to Medium-High or to High.
Bring the water to a boil. Turn the heat to medium.
Add the fried seasoning and tomatoes to the cooker.


Add enough salt to the cooker.
Keep it for 15-20 minutes till the water becomes slightly thick.
Turn off the heat.
Add chopped coriander leaves when hot.
Transfer the kattu to a serving bowl.
Let it come to room temperature.
Squeeze lemon juice from 2 lemon wedges (1/2 of the big lemon).



Have it with rice.
Tastes really good.

Sambar

Learnt From:

I learnt sambar from my Mom.

Ingredients:

Toor dal --- ½ cup
Turmeric --- a pinch
Tamarind --- small lemon size
Green chilies --- 5 medium small
Onion --- ½ of the big one
Potato --- 1
Carrots --- 3
Drum Sticks --- 2
Sambar powder --- 3 tsp
Coriander leaves




For Seasoning:

Oil --- 2 spoons
Urad dal --- ½ tsp
Mustard seeds --- ¾ tsp
Cumin seeds --- ¼ tsp
Red chilly --- 1
Curry leaves --- 7-8
Hing --- a pinch




Process:

Clean the toor dal in the pressure cooker for 2 times with water. Add a pinch of turmeric to the pressure cooker. Add thrice the amount of water to the dal. Keep it for 3 whistles.

In the meanwhile, chop the vegetables. Peel the skin of potato and carrots. Chop … green chilies, onions, carrots, drum sticks and potato.

By tht time you get the whistle. Transfer the dal to a deep pan in which you are going to prepare sambar.

In the cooker add all the chopped vegetables. Add 2 cups of water, enough salt to the vegetables and a pinch of turmeric powder. Keep it for 3 whistles. Wait till the pressure goes away.

In the mean while, take a full fist of tamarind. Clean it with water and add little water and heat it. (in microwave keep it for 30 sec.). Take tamarind juice by adding water to it

Mean while, in a small bowl add sambar powder. Mix it well without any lumps by adding little water.

When the whistle comes… transfer the stuff of pressure cooker to the dal. Add tamarind juice, sambar mix & enough salt to the dal. Heat it on the stove for one boil. Keep it in sim for 5-10 minutes. Then turn off the heat.

In the mean while, heat one spoon of oil in a pan. Add and toast seasoning one by one like … urad dal, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chilly, curry leaves and hing. Add seasoning to the sambar.
Add coriander leaves.

Cabbage Curry With Onions & Cabbage rasam

Here is a short story behind Cabbage Curry & Cabbage Rasam. We like cabbage rasam very much. But we dont like tht curry. So, my Mom used to Blackmail us like... if we take curry only she used to serve tht rasam... To get the taste of the rasam we used to take tht curry also. When I went to my Brother's house... his cook made this curry... I like tht taste. Now started doing tht curry in tht way. Now I like both cabbage curry & rasam.

Learnt From:

Curry from my brother's cook Vani. Rasam from my Mom.

Ingredients:

Cabbage --- 3/4th of Big one
Onions
Green Chilies
Turmeric Powder
Salt as per taste

Seasoning:

(Urud dal, Mustard Seeds, Cumin Seeds, Red chilly)

Process:

Chop Cabbage into small pieces
Keep them in a pressure cooker


Add pinch of turmeric powder and salt
Add 2 glasses of water
Mix up them finely with bare hand
Turn on the flame and keep the cooker for 1 whistle.


And turn off the flame and wait for 15 minutes.
Separate water from the stuff through colander. Drain the water in a vessel. (We can make tasty cabbage rasam with tht.)


Let it cool.
Squeeze water through bare hand.
Heat oil in a deep pan.
Add seasoning one by one like… urud dal, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, chopped red chilly both for the curry and cabbage rasam.
Keep half in the pan and add the remaining half into the rasam bowl.
Add chopped green chilies and onions.
Fry them until the onions turn to transparent colour.
Add the boiled cabbage.
Taste the salt in cabbage… if you feel need to add more then add more salt as required.
Once stir uniformly.
Keep it for 5 minutes.
Then turn off the heat… there ends cabbage curry.


Cabbage Rasam:

Already you have separated water from cabbage and kept seasoning into it.
Now add Green chilies and shredded coconut into it.


Once taste the rasam…whether salt is according to your taste or not… then adjust salt according to your taste.
Keep the rasam for one boil.


Keep it for 5-8 minutes and turn off the heat.
The tasty Cabbage rasam is ready.


It tastes very good.