Baby potatoes roasted

I got baby potatoes from the market, it seems like freshly harvested lot,straight from the farmers. With a bit of black clay soil and smelling fresh. I have to wash the potatoes many times and gently used a knife to remove the soil. 

Boiled the potatoes by adding sufficient water to immerse the potatoes. Added a teaspoon of salt. Kept it for 3 whistles. Luckily the potatoes were just boiled and skin was intact.

I removed the potatoes and let it cool down, slowly and carefully removed the outer skin.

Proceeded to the kitchen to roast them.

These were the ingredients I used for this delicious roasted potatoes.

Baby potatoes roasted 

Ingredients 

1 kg boiled and peeled baby potatoes

1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder

1/2 two turmeric powder

1 tsp jeera powder

1tsp coriander powder 

1tsp crushed peppercorns

1 tsp amchoor powder

1/2 tsp ginger powder

2 tablespoon peanut oil

2 red chilli broken into halves

2 tablespoon coriander leaves chopped 

2 tablespoon white and black sesame seeds 

Method

In a large flat pan pour peanut oil, keep the flame medium, once oil is hot, add jeera, crushed peppercorns, red chilli broken, and once jeera splutter, add all the dry masalas. Mix gently add peeled potatoes.

 Mix well coat the potatoes with the masala. Add required salt. 

Reduce the flame, cook in slow fire, till the potatoes are roasted. 

Add chopped coriander leaves. Adjust salt. 

Add black and white sesame seeds. Cook for a little more time and serve hot as a chaat. 

Palakkad Iyer Samayal (ebook available on DC Books)

My first recipe ebook available on DC Books.

It's a three years constant effort to bring out an e-book for my readers.

Each recipe shared is tried and tested at home at my kitchen.

Happy reading!

Mango and jackfruit pachadi

When we have abundance of ripe jackfruit and ripe mangoes. I make pachadi out of it.

Today I had a few very ripe jackfruit pieces, so thought of making the jackfruit pachadi. It so happened today, I also had one raw mango and one small cup of ripe mango. I thought the ripe and raw mangoes in the same dish will balance the sweet,sour taste.

So here is the simplest recipe which you can do with a handfuls of ripe jackfruit, mango and of course a raw mango!

Ingredients

6-10 ripe jackfruit pieces, thinly sliced

A small cup of ripe mango pieces

1 sliced raw mango

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon jaggery

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

2 green chilies slit

A pinch of heeng

Salt as required.

For the tadka

1 teaspoon coconut/gingly oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp urad dal

1 red chilli broken

Few curry leaves

Method

In a stoneware add one cup water, add chopped jackfruit, ripe and raw mango and cook.

Add turmeric powder, salt and slit green chilies. Cook till the jackfruit is tender.

We can add the jaggery, red chilli powder, heeng and cook for a while.Off stove 

In a small pan pour a teaspoon of gingly or coconut oil, heat it, add mustard,urad dal and let it splutter. Add a broken red chilli and some curry leaves. Pour it on top of the prepared pachadi.

The pachadi can be enjoyed with rice, roti and as a side dish. 

Sweet and sour kathrikkai

Sweet and sour brinjal, photo and recipe courtesy from our cousin, Sheila.

I have always admired my mother in law's elder sister and she was one of the most celebrated grandmother in our household.

I have fond memories of Kamalu Patti as we all called her. Some of her recipes are so unique and she used to take lot of efforts to make a simple dish tastes amazing.

Last week her daughter was with us and I was more than happy to learn more dishes from her.

She was gracious enough to share her recipe and I have shared her recipe on my blog, here is the image of sweet and sour brinjal straight from her kitchen

Sweet & sour kathrikkai(brinjal)

1. Grind in mixie some roasted sesame & groundnuts, sambar powder, garam masala powder, garlic pieces, haldi powder, salt. 

2. Now slit brinjal, stuff this powder and cook brinjal in very heavy duty pan with lid after porichukotting/seasoning (tadka) &  adding water. ( Takes only few minutes if pan is heavy & shallow ).

3. Mix jaggery powder in tamarind water & add this sweet & sour sauce to brinjal, bring to boil & switch off.

( Can add pepper powder & red chilli powder from top. Gives nice flavor).

Garnish with coriander.

Sweet , hot & sour brinjal is ready.

Recipe courtesy : Sheila Shekhar

Photo courtesy :  From Sheila's kitchen

Khotte idly (jackfruit leaves basket)

Soft, spongy Idli

Ingredients

Urad dal - 1 cup

Idli rice (Ponni boiled rice/Doppi rice) - 3 cups.

Aval/Avallakki - a handful

Methi - 1 tsp

Salt - 1 1/4 tsp

Method of Preparation

Soak urad dal, rice,methi and aval in separate vessels for about 4 to 5 hours. (I soaked methi and aval with rice)Grind urad dal first for about 35 minutes in wet grinder by adding just enough water. When the batter is ready to be removed off the grinder and look for bubbles in the urad dal paste. If you see big bubbles coming and bursting  that means your urad dal is ready to be removed. The quantity will be 3 times of urad dal you added. Remove from grinder keep aside. Now add idli rice,methi and aval allow it to grind for about 12 minutes, now add prepared urad dal. Allow both the batter to grind together for about 10 minutes, Add salt. Carefully remove the batter in a large vessel. The batter will be double the quantity you grind when fermented. So make sure your vessel is big enough. We are going to allow the batter to ferment overnight for about 8 hours. 

Prepare Khote kadbu by filling idly batter in jackfruit leaves. You can make the small leaf basket if Jack fruits leaves are available.  I bought it from local market. Allow the iddly to cook for about 12 minutes. Poke a fork and check whether idly is cooked. You can serve the dish in the jackfruit basket itself in the serving plate. Serve hot with freshly prepared sambhar or chutney

Banarasi Kaddu Ke Subzi

We as a family are very fond of pumpkin, especially the one you get in winters, the fresh light yellowish greenish pumpkins. I generally buy a whole pumpkin weighing about 2 to 3 kilos.

We make Olan, Sambar,Poduthuval and Roti/Puri subzi.

Today I have tried a unique tangy-sweet Banarasi Kaddu Ke Subzi.

The most important thing about this delicious subzi is, it consists of jaggery, salt, amchoor, red chilli powder, turmeric and a whole lot of spices.

This making it a balanced tasty subzi, with khatta-meeta flavours and you will love the mildly sweet-sour-salty-spicy subzi.

Mouthwatering, isn't it?

Let's see how to make this subzi.

Banarasi Kaddu Ke Subzi

Ingredients

250 grams of green pumpkin

2 green chillies

1/2 inch of ginger

1 tablespoon of fresh coriander leaves chopped

Dry masalas

1/2 teaspoon of turmeric

1/2 teaspoon of red chilli powder

1/4 teaspoon amchoor powder

1 tablespoon of Jaggery powder

Salt as required

For the tadka

1 tablespoon of mustard oil

1/2 teaspoon of saunf (fennel seeds)

1/4 teaspoon of kalonji

1/2 teaspoon of methi seeds

2 dry red chillies

2 bay leaves

Method

Wash, peel and cut the pumpkin into cubes.

Chop ginger and green chillies.

Keep all the ingredients ready in the counter, as we may have to be quick in adding each one of them in hot mustard oil for better flavour enhancement.

In a kadai pour mustard oil, let it heat, add saunf, kalonji, methi seeds and quickly give a toss, once the spices emit aroma, add the broken red chillies. 

Now add ginger and green chillies, cubed pumpkin and mix gently.

Close the lid and cook for 3 minutes. Sprinkle little water, allow to cook further. 

We will add turmeric powder and less salt and mix well. Once the pumpkin is tender, add jaggery, red chilli powder and amchoor powder. Quickly give a toss. Close the lid for the dry masalas to mix in.

Now off the stove and finally add chopped coriander leaves. 

Service the katta meeta kaddu subzi with phulkas aur puris.