Kathrikai rasavangi

Bookmarking kathrika rasavangi recipe from Menu Today.

Mom and k thought it rocked :)

Original dinner!

For once, both the sambhar-style-kootu and curry-style-stirfry I made are original recipes, straight from RS's kitchen!

For the sambhar-kootu:

Ingredients: a cup of broccoli florets, a cup of yellow moong dal, a cup of crushed tomatoes or tomato juice, 2 tspn sambhar powder, tadka ingredients (2 teaspoons ghee, pinch of hing (asafoetida), few curry leaves, mustard), salt.

This is a quick recipe, ideal for a weekday meal and worth trying especially if your husband, like mine won't eat broccoli unless it's invisible! Pressure cook the moong dal and broccoli in 2 cups of water. In a kadai, mix the moong dal with the tomatoes, sambhar powder, bring to a boil, add salt. In a small pan, add hing, curry leaves, splutter mustard seeds and add to sambhar. Done and no tell-tale signs of broccoli to deal with!

For the stirfry:

Ingredients: Left over veggies - 1/2 cup carrots (sliced), 1 bell pepper (chopped to cubes), 1/2 an onion (chopped to cubes), 1 ridge gourd, peeled and cut to cubes, few table spoons coconut shreds, 2 red chillies, 1 tspn coriander seeds, 1 tspn cumin seeds, hing, 2 tablespoons butter, 1/2 tspn turmeric, 1/2 tspn red chili powder, salt.

There is no method to this madness :p I started by lightly roasting the red chilies, coriander seeds and cumin seeds, added onions, coconut shreds and toasted till light brown. I added the mixture to my mortar and pestle and crushed them as best as I could. Just thought it would be interesting to crush the onions too.



In a kadai, add 2 tablespoons of butter, pinch of hing, fry the veggies for 5-7 mins, add the crushed ingredients, turmeric and red chili powder and continue to fry on medium heat. Add a bit of water as needed to avoid browning the veggies, cook closed for about 5 mins stirring in between. Add salt. Simple and tasty side dish even if I do say so myself :p

Cauliflower kurma

Got this new mortar and pestle from ikea and really wanted to try it out today, so I made up this kurma recipe which k claims is the second best dish I make!

Ingredients:
1 tspn coriander seeds, 1 tspn fennel seeds, 2 cloves, 1 clove garlic, 2 green chillies, 1 tspn jeera ground together!
1 cauliflower chopped
1/2 onion chopped
1/4 cup grape tomatoes
1/4 cup grated carrot
few tbspns cream (if desired)
mustard seeds, oil for tadka
cilantro chopped

Really simple recipe. Splutter the muster seeds in hot oil, add the ground spices and fry for a minute or so. Fry the onion until translucent. Add the cauliflower, carrot and tomatoes, cook for five minutes. Add cream, cover and cook for 10 minutes on low-medium. Decorate with chopped cilantro.

Black-eyed peas curry

Yay! Managed to make my first tasty curry with black-eyed peas! I generally don't like the peas and beans variety (green beans and peas are ok :) but managed to follow instructions religiously from onehotstove this time and make a decent curry!

Ridge gourd (peerkangai)

This is the first time I ventured cooking with a vegetable that always scared me. After reading several food blogs featuring ridge-gourd, I decided it was time I stood up to it!



So, I tried Priya's recipe to make a peerkangai chutney and also managed to whip up a peerkangai subji with tomato gravy (I used coconut milk for a creamy gravy) - probably the first time I cooked two different dishes using the skin and pulp of the same vegetable!


I was very apprehensive of the chutney but it was even better than the subji! Am scared of ridge gourd no more!