Typical south indian tempering/tiragamota/popu

All South Indian kitchens use tempering in their cooking. Most South Indian dishes including curry, pappu (dal), rasam, pacchadi (chutney), pickles, and many others have a dash of tempering as the first part of cooking.

A typical south Indian tempering consists of:

1. 2-3 tsp vegetable oil
2. avalu/mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
3. senaga pappu/yellow lentils – 1 tsp
4. minapappu/horsebean/urad dal – 1 tsp
5.  Endu merapakaya/dried red chilly – 2
6. sajeera/cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
7. Karivepaku – Curry leaves – 10-12 

1. Heat oil in pan.
2. Add mustard seeds.
3. Wait for them to crackle.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients one after the other.
5. Add curry leaves at the end.
6. Make sure they don’t burn. Always have low flame while tempering.

Simla Mirch/Capsicum/Bell pepper curry

Another of my favourite vegetable is capsicum aka bell pepper. I love all 3 colours of it. Pleasantly all 3 have a different and unique taste. The red one is a little sour, yellow one little sweet, and green needs to be blended in cooking for taste. This is a very easy recipe using all 3 colours. I love decorating my dining table with bell peppers. A bowl with all 3 colours in it makes the table look on fire!! smokinggggggggggggggggggg!

Well, I use olive oil for this dish. Thing about olive oil, even though it’s a late starter in India, it’s catching up real fast. If you are still unaware, olive oil is supposedly better than the regular vegetable oil we use. Not just health, olive oil brings a different flavour to the dish. Since it’s not so popular in India kitchens yet, if you have guests arriving, cook your regular dish in olive oil and you will notice an obvious difference in taste! No sweat :)

Serves 4-5 people.

Ingredients:

1. Olive oil: 5-6 tea spoons.
2. Tempering/tiragamota/popu
3. Finely chopped green chillies: 3-4
4. Finely chopped onions: 1 big
5. Finely chopped garlic cloves: 4-5
6. Finely sliced Capsicum (red, yellow and green): 2 each and deseeded.
7. Salt to taste
8. Everest/MDH sabzi or curry powder: 2 teaspoons (optional, this gives colour)
9. One small glass water

Preparation:

1. Add olive oil to the non stick pan.
2. Add tempering.
3. Add garlic and green chillies and fry for 2 minutes.
4. Add onion and fry for 3 minutes
5. Add curry powder and fry for another 2 minutes.
6. Add water.
7. Add the red and yellow capsicum slices and cook/saute for 5 minutes. (Red and yellow capsicum take longer to cook compared to green capsicum.)
8. Add green capsicum slices and cook until the dish is tender.
9. Garnish with coriander.

This curry is not about spice but about different flavours in one dish. It’s very easy to make,especially if you have guests, its a sure bet for an instant hit.

Improvisation: You may add cream for gravy and cook with more spices. You may add mushrooms. 

Susmita

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Beerakaya pottu pacchadi – Ridge gourd’s skin chutney

 

I love beerakaya or beerakaya pottu pacchadi. Plus this vegetable is one of the easiest to work with, needs almost no oil, and cooks fast. It’s skin is not a waste and is just as tasty too. You don’t have to buy ridge gourd just to peel the skin and make chutney out of it. Whenever you peel save the skin.

Do not refrigerate it. Best way is to wrap it tightly with a newspaper and put it in a corner in the kitchen. Add more to it whenever you peel the skin. This recipe will give you measures for 4-5 beerakaya skin. You can make instant pacchadi with the skin of 1 beerakaya also.

Ingredients:

1. Beerakaya pottu: skin of 4-5 ridge gourds
2. Green chillies: 7
3. Tomatoes: 3
4. Salt to taste
5. Garlic: 3-4 cloves
6. Ginger: 1 teaspoon full of pieces
7. Lemon rind: 1/2 tea spoon (optional)
8. Lemon juice: 1 table spoon (optional)

Preparation:

1. Heat 3-4 tea spoons of oil in the pan.
2. Fry ginger and garlic pieces for a minute.
3. Add beerakaya pottu and fry for 5 minutes.
4. Toss all the other ingredients barring lemon juice into the pan and cover with lid.
5. In medium flame let the ingredients cook for 10 – 15 minutes.
6. Cool all for a while.
7. Once cool transfer the ingredients into the blender.
8. Blend until you get a smooth consistency. Add little water for moisture and easy blending.
9. Add lemon juice in the end and mix with a spoon.

Your pacchadi is ready.

Susmita

Baby potatoes with spring onions

Baby vegetables and baby green leaves are my absolute favourite. Their taste is truly unbeatable. It carries a sense of sweetness which is simply delectable. When I cook I mostly prefer using my desired or liked ingredients. Excepting a couple of vegetables, I've grown to like most of them which gives me a wide range to choose from.

This recipe uses baby potatoes, spring onions and some herbs. Commonly used western herbs, like rosemary and thyme, are now easily available in big or hyper markets. If you don't get them it's alright, there's nothing like our good old pudina(mint) and kothimeera(coriander) :D

I've twisted this recipe for Indian kitchens. Serves 4.

Ingredients:
1) Herbs - Rosemary, thyme, pudina and kothimeera (all in tiny cup each quantity)
2) Olive oil - 3-4 tea spoons (you can go up to 6 if you please)
3) Butter - 1 tea spoon
4) Baby Potatoes - 1 KG
P.S. Skin or not to skin potatoes is left to your discretion. If you give them a good wash you can leave the skin on.
5) Salt to taste
6) Tempering - left to your discretion.
7) White pepper - 2 good pinches. Same amount for black pepper if you have no white pepper at home.
8) Spring Onions - Bunch of 8 cut in small pieces.

Preparation - very easy :)

1. In a small bowl add olive oil, all herbs, salt, pepper, and butter and mix them together well.
2. In your pressure cooker throw in the baby potatoes and the mix.
3. Keep your cooker in low flame (sim) and let one whistle go. P.S: if you fear that the potatoes will burn, place the ingredients in a steel bowl, add some water in it. Add water in the cooker and place the steel vessel in it for cooking.
4. Meanwhile stir fry your spring onions in 2-3 tsp of olive oil and keep them aside.
5. Once the whistle comes off stir fry the potatoes in a non stick pan and turn the flame off.
6. Add the spring onions.
7. Add more salt if necessary.
8. Shift the dish into a bowl.

You are ready to serve. Do not add the regular spices to the dish. You will only corrupt it. I bet that you will love this dish.

You usually stir fry for Chinese dishes. For stir fry olive oil is the best. Here's how you stir fry:

1. In the pan heat olive oil (5-6 tsp).
2. Keeping the flame high add the ingredient.
3. Fry for 2-3 minutes and remove into a bowl.
4. Use the method to stir fry anything.

Bloopers

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

This happened when I was in college. One evening my mom asked me to turn the stove off as the pressure cooker was on it's 3rd whistle. I entered the kitchen to follow her instructions. All I remember next was hot piping rice on my hands, and a big bang noise while I performed the Macaulay Culkin's priceless expression!

Lid hits the roof

The pressure cooker's lid went off and hit the roof, fortunately landing right in front of me. With it, it took some cooked rice flying high which unfortunately didn't miss me. I stayed away from entering the kitchen for a good 15 days, though mom was not amused.

Easy and tough tips

1. Cooking Pasta
Do you find it difficult to cook pasta without them sticking together?
Well, there's really no quick tip for this. Here's how you should always cook pasta to keep them separate.

Pasta in a colander set

1. Take a large vessel. In India kitchens our big pressure cookers are good.
2. Let the water boil.
3. Add pasta, and stir frequently for the first few minutes to make sure they don't stick.
4. Add good amount of salt. Salt will help you keep pasta separate.
5. People think adding oil does the trick, but this ain't rice so adding oil simply doesn't matter.
6. Keep stirring intermittently and check if the pasta is cooked.
7. Once cooked, dip the pasta into a colander set. (See the picture to know what a colander set is.)
8. Continue with your recipe.

If you are going to follow your recipe later.

1. Transfer pasta into a large vessel.
2. Cool it under cold water.
3. Add olive oil and toss the pasta.
4. Right before you want to continue with your recipe reheat pasta in boiling water for 2 minutes.

Pancakes - Banana and Vanilla/Strawberry essence

Pancakes and waffles are my absolute favourite. I wish I could devour them everyday for breakfast. Apart from Dosa, it is only pancakes and waffles that can never bore me. Never ever. Making pancakes is very very easy. You do not have to complicate the procedure at all. Introduce it in our Indian kitchen once in a while, see your family members appreciate variety.

Well I did see how to make a pancake before I attempted to make one, but improvised on it to make it simpler. Ingredients are easily available in local super markets. Infact if you make cakes or ice creams regularly you will have most of these ingredients in your kitchen.

Ingredients:

Thick Pancakes

1. Maida (all purpose flour): 2 cups
2. Corn flour: 1 cup
3. Icing Sugar: 1/2 cup (If you don't have icing sugar, blend sugar for a few seconds in your mixer, viola icing sugar is ready!!)
4. Eggs: 2
5. Banana: 1 mashed
6. Vanilla or Strawberry essence: 2 tea spoons (If you have any strawberry crush or grape crush you can use that instead of essence.)
7. MUST: MAPLE or PANCAKE syrup (easily available in local super markets or marts). People say that you can use honey as a supplement....naaaaaaaaaah. Don't. Use only maple or pancake syrup.

Preparation:

Thin Pancakes

1. Beat eggs.
2. Add maida, corn flour and icing sugar to the egg beat and mix slowly.
3. Add mashed banana and essence or crush and mix well.
4. Check the consistency and add water if it needs to be thicker.
5. Butter the pan a little bit. Avoid this step if you do not wish to butter or if the pan is non stick.
6. Depending on the size of the pan you can bake 2-4 pancakes at one time.
7. Do not turn over the pancake repeatedly. Let one side bake well before you turn it over.
8. Once done, take them all into a plate.

Serving:

Before eating top your pancake with whipped cream, sliced fruits, chocolate syrup, and maple syrup. Or use only maple syrup. You can never go wrong with a pancake. Because all you need to do is get the dough right, like for dosa or idli. Experiment with toppings as much as you want. Especially if you have kids. Make funny faces out of toppings. You can also use gems or poppins. Well let your imagination go wild.

Let me know if you have questions.

Susmita