Potato & Onion Fry

Ingredients

1. Potatoes - 1 lbs
2. Red Onion - 1
3. Chilli Powder - 2 tbsp
4. Dhaniya (Corriander Powder) - 1 tbsp
5. Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
6. Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
7. Salt - To Taste
8. Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure

1. Boil/Steam the potatoes, peal the skin and keep them aside
2. Julienne cut the the onions & sauté them till they turn golden brown.
3. Now, add the boiled potatoes with all the powders and keep sautéing it until the spices are properly cooked
4. This is a defacto curry for any entree. Enjoy with any rice.

Milagai (Mirch/Chilli) Bajji

Ingredients

1. Mini Bell (Green/Red/Orange/Yellow) Peppers - 5
2. Paprika powder - 2 tbsp
3. Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
4. Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Corriander Powder - 1 tsp
6. Crushed Peanut Powder - 2 tsp
7. Besan Flour / Chick Peas Flour / Kadalai maavu - 1 cup
8. Chilli Powder - 1/4 tsp
9. Salt - To Taste
10. Oil - 1/4 lbs.
    

Before Frying...

After Frying...


Procedure

1. The smartest way to make this Bajji is to buy the right kind of peppers. If you buy an Anaheim Chilli or a Jalapeno, you can reserve the loo for the next morning and take the day off from work, because you ain't coming out of that haven. Try to select mini bell peppers or pepper specifically for the the Bajji. You can check this in your Produce department and they should be able to help you with the Pepper's spiciness level.
2. You have to make a batter with Besan Flour, Chilli Powder & Salt. Make it a little viscous.
3. Make a paste/mixture with the rest of the powders (Paprika, Cumin, Turmeric, Corriander & Crushed Peanut Powder) & oil
4. Now, cut the peppers length wise and stuff the above mixture onto the peppers
5. Dip the above stuffed peppers onto the batter and deep fry them
6. This would be a wonderful afternoon snack especially when its cold outside. Ofcourse, its not a healthy snack, otherwise it wouldn't taste this good.

Ennai (Oil) Kathirikkai Kuzhambu

This is not just another variation of Vatha Kuzhambu, but a truly enriching experience, both to cook and eat with suda-suda sadham. I learned this from Harini's Amma, and if you don't know Harini or her Amma, wait for some more time. Harini's Amma is one real important person in my cooking life. Will come to that later and lets take a plunge onto the details... (yea, kelambu kelambu kaathu varattum dhan...)

Ingredients

1. Kutti Kathirikkai (Small Brinjals a.k.a. Egg Plant) - 5 or 6
2. Puli - a small lemon size
3. Kadalai Paruppu - 2 tbsp
4. Milagai Vathal - 6 or 7 (For, 'sema hot machi', use 9 or 10)
5. Dhaniya - 2 tsp
6. Perungayam - A small pinch
7. Kadugu - 1 tsp
8. Oil - 4 tbsp (Use this
9. Karuveppilai - 5
10. Salt - As much as you want

Procedure

1. Put the tamarind in boiling hot water with salt and leave it for 15 minutes. This will ease your work of squashing the tamarind and getting the water out of it
2. While the tamarind is soaked, put a heavy vessel on the stove (As usual, I used my vaanali!)
3. Add a few drops of oil in the hot pan and add the Kadalai Paruppu, Dhaniya, Vatha Milagai
4. Fry till it turns golden brown and transfer the contents to a mixie. Let is cool for sometime and grind it to a coarse powder (The less oil you use for frying, more powderized it is!)
5. Wash the kathirikkai nicely in running water and cut the stem. Make sure the kathirikkai's are small, say the size of a plum fruit that we get in India
6. Now, make 2 cuts in the center of the kathirikkai's, from the top, so that the two cuts are perpendicular. Remember, don't cut it fully and the kathirikkai should be as a whole
7. Stuff the powder that you just ground in the mixie, in the kathirikkai's (Remember, how a kezhavi in front of our schools would stuff milagai podi in the mango? Do just like that. If you don't know how she would stuff the milagai podi, go to school again and trust me, you've missed a few delicacies in life!). Stuff the powder in all the kathirikkai's and keep it aside. You should have some powder left at this point in time, keep it safe, as we will need it later in the game
8. Put the same vaanali in the stove and add 4 tbsp's of oil (yes, the kuzhambu should live upto its name, so, we need more oil!). Add mustard seeds, curry leaves and let is splatter
9. Place all these kathirikkai's in the vaanali with great care, make sure the kathrikkai's doesn't break and ensure that the stuffing doesn't pop out totally. (Of course, you can't help a little bit of the powder coming out of the kathirikkai's, but don't turn it upside down and make yourself look like a clown!)



10. In the meantime, get your tamarind water ready and add it to the vaanali after the kathrikkai's are well fried. Pour it carefully from the sides, so that the kathirikkai's doesn't break
11. Add salt to taste and let it boil till the viscosity increases, keep the stove in medium flame (The more you keep the more viscous it gets!)
12. Before you switch off, add the remaining powder and perungayam
    

Your Ennai Kathirikkai Kuzhambu is all set to be attacked with any of the options I had listed for Vatha Kuzhambu.

Variations: You can add 5 or 6 black peppers with the red chillis, to increase the spice and flavor. (I would be debarred by Harini's Amma though!)

Vaazhakkai Fry

Ingredients

1. Vaazhakkai (Raw Banana) - 4 Nos.
2. Chilli Powder - 2 tbsp
3. Dhaniya (Corriander Powder) - 1 tbsp
4. Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
5. Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
6. Salt - To Taste
7. Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure

1. Peal the skin off the Raw Bananas and cut them into round pieces (as shown above)
2. Add the cut pieces onto a pan with some oil with all the powders and keep sautéing it until the spices are properly cooked
3. You can add more oil as needed to roast it really well.
4. That's about it

Paruppu (Lentils) Thogayal

Ingredients

1. Toor dal - 3 tbsp
2. Channa dal - 2 tbsp
3. Fresh coconut - 1 tbsp
4. Black pepper - 1 tsp
5. Red chillies - 2
6. Asafoetida - A small pinch
7. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
8. Curry Leaves - 5 or 6
   
9. Salt - To taste
10. Oil - 1 tsp

Procedure

1. Take a pan, preheat the oil and fry ingredients (#1 thru' #5) until it turns golden brown
2. Let it cool and grind them all together adding a little bit of water and salt to it. It should be pretty viscous
3. When its nicely ground, do a Tadka with mustard seeds, curry leaves & asafoetida and garnish the Thogayal
4. It makes an ultimate combination with a Vatha Kuzhambu

Vatha Kuzhambu & I...

... are like nagamum-sadhayum.

I used to get this in a dabara soon after Amma is done preparing it and will just drink it as if it were a soup. I don't remember when I started eating this, but I for sure remember when I first made one all by myself. Well, I had to call another prodigy to ask how to do it, as Amma used to be in Pondicherry at that time. (I will talk about prodigies sometime later, as there are quite a few people who deserve just more than a mere mention in this space, who were, in some way or another, an inspiration to me.)

When there is Vatha Kuzhambu at home, you can easily find me doing one (or) more of this --

• Plain-a, verum-na, dabara la oothi, spoon pottu soup madhiri kudipaen
  

• Vadaam, Poricha Appalam, Thaenkoozhal, Murukku - idhula edhavadhu onna eduthu Vatha Kozhambu la thochu-thochu saapiduvaen (I understood from my Manni the other day that Sid is doing the same thing these days, well, prodigies seldom differ!)

• Edu vaazhai ilai-la (literally, all right), suda-suda sadham pottundu, paruppu, nei oothi pesanju, side-la konjam/neraya Vatha Kuzhambu oothi, thottu-thottu saapta - aah..ha... "Sorgame Endralum..."

• Adhe Edu vaazhai ilai-la (pinna, ovvuru saadhathukkum elai maathuvaangala?), suda-suda sadham pottundu, nall-ennai (Gingely Oil) vittu, Vatha Kuzhambu oothi pesanju, Poricha Arisi Appalam-oda (they say Sutta arisi appalam is the best combo, but I like it this way) thottundu saapta, it will be heavenly divine!

• Aprm, Adhe Edu vaazhai ilai-la, sadham pottundu, nalla gettiya thayir vittundu, pesanjuttu, oru pidi thayir sadham eduthundu, right hand nadu viralala kuttiya oru kuzhi madhiri pottukanum (Just like you would while doing Ulundhu Vadai). Andha kuzhi-la Vatha Kuzhambu oothi gulp-nu vaaila pottunda, ada ada ada - pramadhama irukkum. I used to be a spoilt kid when it came to food and Amma would never let me eat anywhere else, ellarum naan saapidaradha paathu kannu pottuduva appadinu, as if their kannu-pottufying will elachufy me! anyways, the spoilt part is, i would ask amma to oothify the vatha kuzhambu in that kuzhi while i am eating thayir sadham, and amma would diligently do it for me though. Chae, adhellam oru kaalam...

Idhellam panninaaaa.... train vandhurum (purilena, Anbe Sivam poi paarunga!)

Ingredients

1. Puli (Tamarind) - a small lemon size
2. Kadalai Paruppu (Channa Dhal) - 1 tbsp
   
3. Vendhayam (Methi seeds) - 1/2 tsp
4. Perungayam (Asafoetida) - 1/3 tsp
5. Milagai Vathal (Red Chilli) - 5-6 (Sometimes, I use 10 to make it real hot!)
   
6. Karuveppilai (Curry Leaves) - 5-6
7. Kadugu (Mustard Seeds) - 1/3 tsp
8. Vellam (Jaggery) - 1 tbsp
9. Sambhar Powder - 2 tbsp
10. Manjal Podi (Turmeric) - 1/4 tsp
    
11. Oil - 3 tbsp
12. Salt - As much as you want
13. Any of these vegetables - Onion, Drumstick, Okra, Egg Plant, Sweet Pumpkin

Procedure

1. Put the tamarind in boiling hot water with salt and leave it for 15 minutes. This will ease your work of squashing the tamarind and getting the water out of it
   
2. While the tamarind is soaked, put a heavy vessel on the stove (Typically, I use a vaanali / uruli. Amma had a kal chatti and this requires "special" care. I neither have the patience nor the knowledge to use that, so I just stick to my vaanali/uruli)
3. Add the oil in the hot pan and the mustard seeds, curry leaves
4. After the splattering, add Kadalai Paruppu, Vendhayam, Red Chillis, Asafoetida and fry it in the oil
5. When it turns golden brown, add the vegetables (say, onion), curry leaves and turmeric powder on top of it
6. Fry it till the onion turns golden brown and add the tamarind water to the whole mixture
7. Add sambhar powder & salt to the boiling contents and let it boil till the viscosity increases, keep the stove in medium flame (The more you keep the more viscous it gets!)
   
8. Just before you switch off the stove, add the jaggery to the Kuzhambu and let it boil for exactly 2 minutes (This is just to add flavor and trust me, this wont make the kuzhambu sweet!)

Variations: You can add manathakkali kaai, appalam, sundakkai vathal, thaamarai kezhangu, kothavarangai vathal instead of the vegetables. Basically, you will fry any/all of these and add it in the boiling kuzhambu.

Your Vatha Kuzhambu is all set and it just has to be attacked with any of the options I would normally do as mentioned above.

Note: The Vatha Kuzhambu in the picture was made by Anu yesterday. I better give her the credit, if not I ain't gonna get one such in the near future!

Payatham Paruppu Adai a.k.a Pesarattu

We decided to make Payatham Paruppu (Moong Dal) Adai a.k.a Pesarattu, as a close friend of ours' called up and said they're coming over for dinner and we ran out of usual options for roti & side dishes, poori & masal, briyani & raita. Mainly because, we were too bored to do those usual things and/or the fact that we didnt have enough to prepare one such. Just before we could pluck our last hairs to decide what we should make for them, something struck our minds and we started off with this simple, yet mouth watering dish...

Ingredients

1. Moong Dhal - 1 1/2 cups
2. Plain raw rice - 1/2 cup
3. Red Chilli - 5-6
4. Asafoetida - 1/3 tsp
5. Salt - As much as you want
6. Curry Leaves - 12-15
7. Corriander Leaves - 5-7 stems
   

Procedure

1. Soak the Moong Dhal and Raw Rice in water for 90 minutes. (True, you can get this going as fast as this)
2. Grind the soaked contents with Red Chillis, Asafoetida, Salt (Dont grind it fine, let it be a little coarse - just like you would do for adai)
3. Cut the Curry Leaves & Corriander Leaves into small pieces and mix it well with the grounded mixture
4. Heat kadai and pour a little oil and lay the batter just as you would for dosai/adai and cook on medium flame
5. Don't over heat the kadai as the adai would become dark (karinju poidum)

Serve hot with Tomato Pickle/Chutney, Sambhar and Curd.

Variations: You can add finely chopped onions/spinach/cabbage to the batter.

For the record - Nobody called up and said they would come for dinner, I was just trying to accentuate just for the sake of this post.

Ellam... eye wasss...