Hyderabadi bhagara bhainghan masala

I had a bunch of brinjals lying in my fridge for some time. I wanted to try some dish to go with chappathi to be made out of this. I came across this recipe on one of the blogs that I frequent and decided to try it out my way.

Ingredients:-
Brinjals/Kathirikkai - 6 small ones, slice along its length into four pieces.
Peanuts(unsalted) - 1tbsp
White sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
Coconut - 1tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1tsp
Chilli powder - 1tsp
Coriander powder - 1tsp
Green chilly - 1 chopped fine
Onion - 1 large, chopped roughly
Tomato - 1 medium, chopped roughly
Ginger - 1" piece, chopped roughly
Garlic - 4 cloved, chopped roughly
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1tsp
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - for garnishing
Salt - to taste
Refined oil - 1tsp + 1tbsp for frying onions and for frying brinjals respectively
Water - 1 cup

Preparation:-
Dry roast the white sesame seeds until it turns slightly brown. Transfer it to a vessel. Dry roast peanuts next until it turns brown and set aside. Next dry roast, coconut until it turns brown and transfer it to a bowl.

Heat a kadai and add a tsp of oil. Add onion, ginger and garlic to this and fry it until brown. To this, add tomato and salt. Continue frying this until tomato turns mushy. Now, add turmeric, chilli and coriander powder. Mix it well and remove it to a bowl for grinding along with sesame seeds, peanut and coconut. Grind this into a smooth paste adding enough water.

Heat a tbsp of oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds when hot. Once the mustard seeds splutter, add fenugreek seeds and curry leaves and fry for few seconds. To this, add brinjals and fry till it becomes soft. Set this aside. In the same kadai, add the ground mixture and fry it till it leaves the side of the kadai. At this stage add a cup of water and mix it. To this add brinjals and cook until brinjals are soft. Transfer it to a serving bowl and garnish with coriander leaves.

Mour kozhambu/Butter milk gravy

I was longing to have sevai from a long time. I had it when my mom visited last year. Sevai aka rice noodles is prepared in the traditional seva nazhi. it goes well with mour kozhambu. Here, I'm going to post the recipe of mour kozhambu. My folks @ home hate sour curd/buttermilk, so this kozhambu is best to make when you have sour curds.

Ingredients:-
Sour curd - 1 cup
Water - 1cup
Turmeric powder - 1tsp
Asafoetida/perungayam - 1tsp
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few for garnishing
Coconut - 1tbsp grated
Refined oil - 1tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1tsp
Salt - to taste

To soak and grind
Red chilly -1
Green chilly - 1
Cumin seeds/jeera - 1 tsp
Toor dal - 1tbsp
Chana dal -tbsp


Preparation:-

First soak the ingredients under 'To soak and grind' for around 20 minutes.

Heat a kadai and dry roast fenugreek seeds until it turns slightly brown. It lets out a nice aroma at this stage. This roasted fenugreek seeds will be ground along with the other ingredients.

Take the 'To soak and grind' ingredients at the end of 20 minutes and grind it to a smooth paste along with grated coconut. At this stage, add fenugreek seeds and grind it coarsely. It will taste bitter if ground fine.

Blend this paste with curd and water to a smooth texture. Add turmeric, asafoetida powder and salt to this.

Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds when hot. After it crackles, add curry leaves and fry it for few seconds. At this stage, add the blended mixture of curd. Reduce the heat to the minimum as the curd may split if boiled on high flame. Keep stirring so that the heat is uniformly spread. Leave it for few minutes until a froth appears on top. Immediately transfer it to a serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Ghee rice/Nei chooru

Ingredients:-

Ghee - 1tbsp
Refined oil - 1tbsp
Onions - 2 medium, sliced
Green chillies - 2(slit lengthwise)
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Cinnamon stick - 1" piece
Cardamom - 1
Cloves - 2
Basmati rice - 1cup(washed and drained)
Water - 2cups(if you are making rice in a covered sauce pan) or 1.5 cups(if you are making in a pressure cooker)
Salt - to taste
Kismis - 10
Cashewnut - 10

Preparation:-
Take a sauce pan and add refined oil(1/2 tbsp) and ghee(1/2 tbsp). When its hot, add dry fruits(cashew nut and kismis). Kismis will fatten up and become light brown and cashew nut will become slightly brown. Take a perforated spoon so that you can filter and remove the dry fruits from oil. Add half the quantity of sliced onions to the oil and fry till it becomes brown. One easy way to quicken this is to add little salt. Once the onion turns brown, transfer it to a plate. Dry fruits and fried onions will be used for garnishing at the end.

In the same kadai, add rest of the ghee and oil(1/2 tbsp each). When its hot, add cinnamon stick, cardamom and cloves. Fry them for few seconds and add onions, green chilies and ginger garlic paste. Fry till the raw smell goes. Add basmati rice to this and fry till rice is coated in oil. Add 2 cups of hot water if you are planning to prepare this in the same sauce pan. Cover and cook for 20 mins in small flame. When its almost done, add salt and give it a good mix.

If you are planning to make it in pressure cooker, add 1.5 cups of water to the rice and cook for 2 whistles.

Once cooked, remove it to a serving bowl and garnish with the dry fruits and onions.

You can have this with vegetable kurma/curry.

Chuttaracha chammanthy

Chuttaracha chammanthy is a typical kerala style chutney to be had with rice. The name derives from the way the coconut pieces are burnt in fire and then ground.

Ingredients:-
Coconut pieces - 8 long ones(long enough to be held with tongs as we have to burn it in flame)
or grated coconut - 1/2 cup
coriander - 1tbsp
Red chillies - 5
Tamarind - 1 fat pinch
Refined oil - 1tsp
Salt - to taste

Prepartion:-
Burn coconut pieces in flame till it becomes slighly brown. Or, fry the grated coconut in a kadai until it turns brown. Remove it to a bowl. Add oil to the kadai and fry red chillies and coriander until it lets out a nice aroma. Please make sure not to burn them. Set it aside and allow it to cool. Once cool, add the burnt/fried coconut, coriander seeds and red chillies along with the rest of the ingredients and grind it to a coarse paste. Add 1-2tbsp water maximum while grinding.

Chammanthy is ready and you can mix it with rice and have it along with papad.

Peanut chutney

Ingredients:-
Peanuts - 3/4 cup
Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup
Red chillies - 2
Tamarind - 1 tiny bit
Salt - to taste
Water - 1/4 cup

Preparation:-
Heat a kadai and dry roast peanuts and red chillies until it becomes slightly brown and lets out a nice aroma. Let it cool and remove the skin and set aside. Take a mixie jar and add the peanuts and coconut along with other ingredients   with little water. Remove it into a bowl and the chutney is ready. You can have it with idli or dosa.

Saambar saadam

Ingredients:-

Rice - 1cup
Toor dal - 1/2 cup
Carrot - 2 medium, chopped into thin discs or any shape of your choice
Beans - 1/2 cup(when chopped fine)
Potato - 1 small, chopped into cubes
Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
Sambar onion(small one) - 10 nos
Tamarind - 1 lemon size ball soaked in water(1/4 cup)
Hot water - 4 cups water for cooking rice and daal.
Water - 3/4 cups additional for extracting tamarind pulp. Add 1/4 cup water at a time and extract.
Salt - to taste
Sambar powder - 2tbsp
Gingely oil - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 1tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Chana dal - 1tbsp
Curry leaves - few

Preparation:-
Pressure cook rice, daal and vegetables in 4 cups water along with turmeric powder. Once the pressure releases, mash the rice-daal-veg and add salt. Set this aside.

Heat a kadai, add gingely oil and then ghee. When it turns hot, add mustard seeds, when they crackle, add chana dal and curry leaves. Fry till chana dal turns slightly brown. Now add the rice-daal-veg to this and mix well. Now add the extracted tamarind pulp(1 cup) to this and let it come to a boil. Add sambar powder and mix it well. At this point, if the mixture is too thick, add little hot water and loosen it. Transfer it to a bowl.

You can have this sambar saadam with onion raitha and papad.

Pacha mouru(Buttermilk)

I went out for Onam to have sadya(meals) at a local mallu restaurant and quite liked the mouru served towards the end. Here's the version

Ingredients:-
Curd - 1.5 cups(300 ml)
Water - 0.5 cups
Shallots(small onions)-4
Green chilli - 1 long
Curry leaves - 2 strands
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Salt(Kallu uppu is better) - to taste


Preparation:-
Crush the ingredients except curd. Add it to a blender along with curd. Whisk it nicely and add around half a cup of water. Again whisk to have a consistent texture.Transfer it to a bowl and enjoy the pacha mouru. If you don't have blender, juicer jar of your mixie will also do. Or, we can also prepare buttermilk using the traditional way by using 'matthu'.