Thiruvadirai kootu

Idichakka cutlets (raw jackfruit and sweet potato cutlet)

Green chilli pickle with ginger

I like green chilies. It gives that zing to your every day less spicy food. 

Many times I end up eating raw green chilies!

Today tried a pickle which I can have with a variety of mains, subzis and cutlets.

Green chilli pickle

Brinjal chokha

Bihari cuisine is so diversed,there are a number of delicious food which are widely prepared and eaten fresh in the wintes. 

The large, big variety of brinjals are directly charred in the stove top or small firewood place lit by dried cow dung. The villagers add fresh green chilies into the brinjal and cook it. The flavour of the fresh chilies and charred brinjal make this dish a great treat with freshly rolled Jowar rotis.

I have tried this dish, charred brinjal on stove top and added chopped onion, tomato, green chilies a little mustard oil and Just to give a different touch a teaspoon of freshly made mango ginger pickle.

It was delicious.

Sweet potato subzi

Sweet potatoes are a rare vegetable in many homes. We grow sweet potatoes in small grow bags. I make sweet potato parathas, boil, roast and char them.

Today made a subzi out of soft cooked sweet potatoes.

Sweet potato subzi

4 medium sized sweet potatoes

2 tablespoon grated coconut

1 green chili

1/4 inch ginger grated

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 mustard seeds

1/4 teaspoon jeera(cumin)

Method

* Wash, peel and cut sweet potatoes into small circles or cubes. 

*In a kadai pour oil, add jeera and mustard, allow mustard to splutter. Add chopped sweet potatoes,salt and saute, cook by adding a little water until soft and tender.

*Add grated coconut and green chilli in mixer jar and run it make a coarse powder.

*Once the sweet potatoes are soft and become roasted add coconut powder. Mix well, adjust salt and off stove. 

*Serve with Sambhar,rasam and moorukuttan. 

*I like it as a mid morning snack!

Mango ginger pickle

Manga inji is a seasonal vegetable most of the time available for a few months.

It has a very mild aroma of ginger and mango, looks like ginger smells like ginger and has a subtle flavour.

Recipe for making manga inji pickle

Ingredients

150 grams mango ginger

3 green chillies

2 large lemon juice extracted

1/4 teaspoon heeng powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

*Wash,peel and cut mango ginger into small pieces. 

*Wash and cut green chilies into small circles.

*Cut lemons and extract juice, remove seeds.

*In a clean bottle add all the chopped mango ginger, green chilies and lemon juice, salt and heeng. Mix well. Close the lid.

*You can start using the pickle from it after a day, we've with curd rice. It tastes yum.

Mustard microgreens growing at home

Winter is the best time for mustard greens growing. I have tried doing it in the cozy comfort of my kitchen!

All you need is a container, kitchen paper napkin, a little water and a tablespoon of mustard seeds.

Mustard microgreens

Ingredients

A tablespoon mustard seeds

One kitchen paper napkin

One medium container with lid

Method

*In a container, I used a medium sized rectangular airtight container, place paper napkin. Sprinkle a little water, spread the mustard seeds. Close the lid.

*Let it sit in the corner of your kitchen counter.

*Open every day morning and check the tiny sprouts emerging from the mustard seeds. it took two days for them to sprout.

*Today it's fifth day and the microgreens are 1 inch long.

*It will take a weeks time to grow into a good plant. We will add it to salads.

*I am thinking of placing a few plants in grow bags. We will harvest mustard greens in two weeks time.

Happy growing microgreens at home. 

Notes

You can do the experiment with small containers or natural resources like coconut shell, empty ice cream boxes, cardboard boxes, mugs,  grow bags and whatever is available with you.

I have done growing microgreens in many discarded broken pieces of mugs, cups,saucers and wooden boxes.

You can follow the same procedure with seeds you want to grow. 

Day 1

Place a kitchen napkin or cloth towel, sprinkle water and spread a tablespoon mustard seeds.

Day 2

The seeds germinate.

Day 5

Day 7

Small container microgreens are trying to catch up with the big container microgreens.

Koorka/Chinese potatoes mezhukkupuratti

Koorka/Chinese potatoes mezhukkupuratti

Koorka or Chinese potatoes are seasonal vegetable. We get these during the winter season that too for a very short period. 

The delicate flavour and the laborious job to clean these muddy vegetable makes it even more popular amongst us! 

These tubers are ovel,round,dark to black and absolutely aromatic.

It requires patience and lot of time in hand for cleaning the vegetable. We used to put the tuber in small gunny bags or jute sacks and beat it on the floor till the outer skin peels off and then we use a knife to remove the leftover skin here and there.

But sometimes we pressure cook the koorka and peel it off like potatoes or arbi.

The recipe for this delicious mezhukkupuratti is very simple.

 

Koorka/Chinese potatoes mezhukkupuratti

Ingredients

500 grams Koorka 

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon urad dal

1 red dry chili broken

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

2 springs curry leaves

2 teaspoon coconut oil

Salt as required

Method

*Wash, clean and remove the skin of the Koorka either by scrapping the skin or by pressure cook and remove the peel. Cut into small cubes or halves.

*In a kadai pour oil add mustard,urad dal, broken red chili.Let mustard splutter. Now add cooked and cubed koorka, I have cooked it in pressure cooker and peeled them.

( If you are using the raw koorka, cook it till it's tender)

*Once the koorka has cooked well add red chilli powder,turmeric,curry leaves and salt. 

*Now reduce flame and slow roast the koorka, it will take about 5 to 6 minutes. Off stove, serve with rice and sambhar. 

I am sure your family will enjoy this tasty koorka mezhukkupuratti.

The cooking and peeling process

Wash, clean and remove the mud with hands, change water three times before Cooking the koorka in pressure cooker.

Remove the outer skin

It look like this once you remove the outer skin.

Cut koorka into desired shape

Koorka mezhukkupuratti is ready to devour.

Mixed vegetables pickle

We enjoy eating a variety of colourful,crunchy vegetables. Winters bring in such vibrant shades of fresh vegetables making it even more interesting.

Here is a simple winter vegetables pickle that we enjoy as a delicious snack.

Mixed vegetables pickle

1 beetroot

1 carrot

A few broccoli florets

1 cucumber

1/4 inch ginger

5 whole peppercorns

1 large lemon (juice extracted)

Salt as required

Method

*Wash, trim, peel beetroot,carrot, ginger cut  into desired shape.

*Wash trim and cut cucumber and broccoli florets.

*Spread in a kitchen napkin, Sun dry for about 15 minutes. 

*In a clean bottle add all vegetables, pour lemon extract,salt and peppercorns. Mix in. 

*Gently toss two or three times before serving. 

Tips

*You can enjoy the freshly made vegetable pickles with your raw salads, sprouts and dishes.

*Make in small batches as we are not adding any preservatives except salt and lemon juice the shelf life of this fresh pickle is 2 to 3 days in room temperature.

Amla,ginger candy

We get plenty of Amla during winters. Most of the time we end up making pickle out of it,  the other day I added a few fresh Amla pieces in coconut chutney and we loved it.

Here is another such an effort to make fresh candy out of Amla. I have added chopped ginger and crushed peppercorns.

Amla, ginger candy

10 large gooseberries(Amla)

1 inch piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced

10 crushed peppercorns

Salt as required/optional

3 tablespoon jaggery powder or sugar

1/2 teaspoon garam masala,

 (I used homemade spice masala which I have made for tea, here is the recipe link )

http://jayanthisindianrecipes.blogspot.com/2020/11/tea-masala-powder.html

Method

*Wash and cook Amla with very less water in a pan. Off stove,let it reach room temperature, we will cut and remove the Amla and discard the seeds.

*Wash, peel and cut ginger into thin slices/ you can grate if you like.

*In the same pan we cooked Amla, pour jaggery powder,let it melt, add sliced ginger, Amla, salt, crushed peppercorns and garam masala powder. Mix in. Reduce the flame, cook for two to three minutes. Off the stove.

*Once the candy reached normal room temperature, trasfer it to a strarilized/sun dried ceremic pot/bottle/airtight container.

* Enjoy the delicious aromatic, flavourful sweet,sour and crunchy candy.

Raddish carrot and broccoli pickle

We make many different types of pickles and many times Aru who just can't stand spicy food won't try to eat.

So today I tried a pickle for her, it's a pickle we generally get served in the pan asian restaurants.

The ingredients are sun dried and added with just a little vinegar and whole peppercorns.

Radish carrot and broccoli pickle

1 raddish

1 carrot

A few florets of broccoli

5 small onions (shallot)

3 to 4 garlic pods

Salt as required

1/4 cup vinegar

10 to 15 peppercorns

Method

*Wash, peel and cut raddish carrot onion and garlic into desired shape. I have put onion and garlic whole.

* Wash broccoli florets. We will keep all the cut vegetables in sunlight for about 10 to 15 minutes. Spread it on a kitchen napkin.

*Sun dry the bottle in which we are making the pickle.

*After about 15 minutes put all the ingredients in the sterilized bottle. Mix well adjust salt. Shake well.

The best part of this simple pickle you can immediately start enjoying it 

Beetroot, carrot,beans soup

Soups during winter months are such a luxury! I enjoy making different types of hot steaming soups.

Here is the recipe of a spicy, flavourful and creamy soup perfect for the winter afternoons!

Beetroot carrot and tomato soup

Ingredients

1 medium sized beetroot

2 small carrots

4 ripe tomatoes

2 green chillies

An inch long ginger

10 french beans

3 small onions (shallot)

4 garlic pods

1 small cube thyme cheese

A few crushed peppercorns

1 bay leaf

salt as required

10 cups water

Method

*Wash, peel and slice all vegetables and ginger to large pieces.

*Slit the green chillies, peel and slice onion and garlic.

* In a pan add all vegetables, crushed peppercorns,bay leaf, ginger and green chillies. Pour water,add salt.

*Pressure cook for 3 whistles.

*Once done open lid, use a handblender to blend the soup. Add more salt and crushed pepper if required. 

*Grate thyme cheese and garnish soup, serve hot and it's the best you can have in the chilly winters!

Palak burnt garlic soup

Palak soup, we had a bunch of leftover red amaranth stems, palak and carrot. 

I thought of using them for vegetable  stock which can be used in many dishes.

But as I started cooking garlic and shallots, I added a handful of chopped palak. Sauteed it for a few minutes, added a small carrot to it, poured a few cups of water and let it slowly cook in croc pot. To this I further added chopped amaranth stems,a teaspoon crushed peppercorns, bay leaves and salt.

Once cooked Aru blend it with hand blender, strained it and added little more crushed peppercorns, cream, we had the most delicious soup!

The result was amazing, do try and tell us how you use the leftover pieces of vegetables.

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Kitchen garden

Having a small kitchen garden and waiting for the flowers bloom and polinate,turn into fruits and vegetables is such a relaxing and interesting activity/hobby. 

I have learnt the basics of taking care of trees, plants, herbs and shurbs by observing my dad.

It's was not less than a school project, learning to take care of the tiny saplings, preparing soil, adding manure, watering the plants, pruning and collecting dry leaves and flowers for home compost.

Once I succeed in making home compost with dry flowers and fallen leaves, I started kitchen waste compost.

Adding egg shells, tea coffee residue and carefully separate seeds from vegetables and fruits and collect peels. Adding a handful of cocopeat in between to make sure there is balance between green and brown things!

By the way I got a compost three pots from our neighbour who donated the same. I was glad I could create more compost with it and adopted!

Last Sunday our gardeners rearranged the grow bags and pots, we did a bit of repotting, trimming and planted a bunch of plants into small to big sized grow bags.

The little effort we take give us satisfaction. Self sustainable and cooking from home grown greens and vegetables is a delight. 

What are your thoughts on having a kitchen garden?