This is a peculiar Kerala dish which will be a little hot and a little sour curry. Ingredients: Potatoes Onion Muringakka (Drumstick) Tamarind Curry leaves Corriander seeds or corriander powder Unsweatened grated coconut In a pan fry half glass of corriander seeds using 1 tbsp of oil. Fry until light brown (don't burn it to dark brown or black). Fry the grated coconut (with no oil) . When it is light brown add curry leaves and let the coconut turn golden brown and add one bunch or and stir. Grind well the "fried corriander seed, coconut, curry leaves" combination like a thick paste. Cut drumsticks and potatoes into 3 inch long pieces. Cook it with just enough water to simmer it in a deep cooking vessel. Add half tsp turmeric powder and 1 tsp salt when it is half cooked and let it cook well. While the drumsticks are being cooked shallow fry onions (1 and half inch sized thin pieces) in a pan with a little turmeric powder (half tsp)and 1 tsp salt . Add this into cooked drumsticks and let it boil. Add 1 tbsp tamarind paste and stir well and let the curry boil for 5 more minutes. Now add the grinded curry paste and let the curry boil for few more minutes. Garnish the curry with fried poppy seeds and curry leaves. This curry will go well with idli's, dhosa's or rice.
Variation 1: You can add shallow fried Kaypakka (which is bitter in taste, but very rich in iron and vitamins).
Variation 2: You can add plantain or carrots or both (cut into 2 inch long pieces). You can add this along with drumsticks.
Variation 3: You can use mathan (pumpkin - remove seeds and skin) pieces instead of potatoes. In this case you need to add pumpkin pieces when drumsticks are half cooked.
Variation 4: You can use elavan or kumbhalanga cubes (winter melon - remove seeds and skin) about 2 inch size, instead of potatoes.
Important : 1. Don't mistake winter melon with water melon. You cannot use watermelon for this curry :-))
2. You have to shallow fry Kaypakka if you are using it. Other wise the curry will be too bitter to eat.
3. You may or maynot shallow fry onion. Try both and see which one you like.
4. Pumpkins usually cooks faster than drumsticks. So add pumpkins only when drumsticks are half cooked.

Sambhar

Ingredients: Thuvar daal (yellow/orange daal) 1 glass, 2 small potatoes, one midium size egg plant, one big onion, or several small baby onions (kunjulli), coriander powder 2 tbsp, chili powder 1 tsp, asatofedia powder (one-fourth tsp), methi/uluva powder (one-fourth tsp), turmeric powder (one-fourth tsp), about 1 tbsp salt, 5 cups water, 1 tsp tamarind paste. Preparation: Sambhar powder/masala: In a sauce pan dry roast coriander powder 2 tbsp, 1 tsp chili powder , one-fourth tsp asatofedia/kaayam powder (or a cube of fresh asatofedia), one-fourth tsp methi/uluva powder well, and add this to the curry. Cook one cup of thuvar daal well in 2 glass water, and blend it in blender. In this thuvar daal sauce cook potatoes (drumstick, cucumber or elavan - optional ) with salt and turmeric powder while adding one more cup of water. To this add sauted / shallow fried (with very little oil) onion and egg plant (cut into one inch cubes), add tamarind paste, one cup water and let it boil well. Now add the sambhar masala powder and let it boil well.. You can add one sliced tomatoes, and let it boil and cook in the curry (optional). Add more water and salt to meet your own consistency of the curry. People make it medium thick or with lots of gravy. In a pan take 2 tsp oil, and warm it well. Then add half tsp mustard seeds and let it pop/fry and add 2 red chilies, one-fourth tsp methi seeds, one-fourth tsp asatofedia powder and fry. Use this to garnish the sambar. You can add fresh corriander leaves to the sambhar if you like. Sambhar go well with rice, iddlis, dhosas, or vada or as plain soup.

Ladies Finger Curry

Shallow fry ladies finger, onion, green bell pepper/capsicum and zuchini with turmuruic powder, chilli powder and paprica powder and salt. Add corn starch solution and stir well and let it boil... Add a litle coconut milk powder and let it boil... Add "Classic" egg masala powder and stir well... Add corriender leaves and turn off the heat.. Serve hot.

Cuccumber-daal curry

Cook any variety of daal and keep aside. Cut cucumber to small pieces and cook with salt and turmeric and keep aside.Fry mustard in a little oil and add to it onion and saute. After a while add tomatoes, salt, turmeric, green chilies and curry leaves and saute. Add cooked daal and cucumber to this and let boil. Goes well with rice.

Mushroom curry

Saute onion, tomatoe paste and mushroom . Add garam masala, paprica, chili powder and meat masala powder. Dry roast coconut and perumjeera powder and grind well and add to the sauted mushroom. Let it boil. Very good for paratha's and chappathi's!

Egg Plant Curry

Shallow fry of deep fry egg plant and drain it. In the same oil shallow fry crushed onion. Add garam masala, corriander powder, chillie powder and stir well. Then add the egg plant. Then add the tamarind paste dissolved in very little water and cook well. Let it simmer for a while. Reduce heat and after some time add milk (not coconut milk) while stirring and turn off the heat.Garnish with corriander leaves. This curry go well with rice or chapatis

Mushrom-Cauliflower curry

Shallow fry mushroom with salt, turmuric and chilie powder, and a little Classic egg masala powder. Shallow fry cauliflower with salt, turmuric and chilie powder, and a little egg masala powder and then add water and let it cook. Add corn starch and coconut milk powder and let it boil ... Add the prepared mushrooms and cooked potatoes into it. This can be garnished with corriander leaves. This curry will look yellowish in colour. For a variety : Shallow fry crushed onions with paprica and tamarind paste. Add water and boil it well and add to the above curry.

Cauliflower-Potatoe curry)

First cook potatoes. When it is 75 % done, add cauliflower and cook them together.. Add salt and turmeric powder (No other masala powders). Then added kaduku + karivepila + pachamulaku grinded, and also add shallow fried chopped onion+ ginger-garlic paste. Let the whole curry cook for 5 minutes. You can also try the same without adding the roasted onion + ginger garlic paste.. Still good/simple.

Simple cauliflower curry (Indu's mom's reciepe)

This curry is different because its not as heavy as regular masala curries. Fry ground onions,gin,gar. When oil starts separating, then add ground jira+khus-khus+kaduke (powder all). Then some slit green chillies, black pepper, salt and turmeric pd. After a few turns, ripe chopped tomatoes. Fry more. Then add small cauliflower stalks and lots of chopped malli-ela. You can put in the pressure cooker for very lil time or cook it covered. Can add more malli-ela when serving. the gravy is not thick...

DHOKLA (Sangeetha's reciepe)

Ingedients : 1. Besan - 1 cup 2. Sugar - 1 tbsp 3. Ginger and green chilli paste - 1 tsp each 4. Oil - 1 tbsp 5. Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp 6. Water - enough to get the right consistency (should be thicker than idli batter) 7. Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp 8. Eno Fruit Salt - 1 tsp. 9. Salt to taste Seasoning 1 tbsp oil 1 tsp Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp hing and methi (optional) each. Method 1. Mix ingredients 1 to 7 and salt, and make a smooth batter 2. Leave aside for ten minutes 3. Add the Eno fruit salt....it will become frothy. 4. Steam in pressure cooker (like how u cook idlis). 5. leave to cool for a few minutes. 6. Cut into pieces, and add seasoning. 7. Garnish with fresh coriander and coconut. u can adjust salt, chilli and lemon according to taste.

Sago pappadams: (Indu's reciepe)

1 1/2 cups sago (small white balls -North Indian name for sago is 'sabudhana') 7 cups boiling water. Salt, jira pd, chilli pd to taste. I used to change the spices each time. Mix all and boil for 5 mins only. Should not become too thick. Take off fire. Spread tablespoon full on plastic sheet (not too thin plastic.. as mixture is hot plastic will melt- I had a thick plastic for this- DO NOT USE COLOURED - the colour may come on the pappadams). You do not have to spread - should spread by itself (roundish). Keep it under the hot sun for 2-3 days till you can easily peel it off. As per my recipe I used to get 50 small pappadm sized ones. Store in airtight container. deep fry when needed. Puffs up. Pls be careful of bugs and orther things that fly in the wind here in Canada. I don't want u to fall sick.

Chutney for ada dhosa (Indu's reciepe)

Fry 1 tsp each kaduke (mustard) and urid daal. Then add 1 1/2 tsps kadalaparippe, pinch of kayam/karam, one chopped onion, 3 tbsps coconut, 2-3 sprigs Kariveppila (curry leaves), small bunch of chopped malli-ella (corriander leaves), tamarind and salt to taste. Fry all and then grind to make a paste. This chutney go well with all kinds of dhosas and also with iddlis.

MALAI KOFTA (Indu's reciepe)

KOFTAS: Mix boiled mashed potatoes, salt, garam masala, chopped coriander leaves, panir (use the badly shaped pieces instead of wasting good pieces) lil maida or cornflour or kadalapodi. Taste for salt. Shape - oval or round. Deep fry till brown. Keep aside. CURRY: Fry in oil - ground onion+ginger+garlic (optional). Add powdered cinnamon, cloves, cardamon, pinch of perumjeerakam, jira. (If you want u can use coriander pd. I don't always use it since we use so much in other dishes). Red chilli pd to your taste. I add chilli pd for erive and paprika for the colour. Fry till oil comes out. Then add finely chopped tomatoes* and cook till it all looks like one. Tomato paste 1 tsp. Add 1 small tsp of sugar. Stir. Then add 6-10 cashews ground in lil milk. Stir again. then add boiling water. Cook till correct thickness (as in restaurants). Taste to see if u need to add anything. Before serving boil curry. Take off fire add cream (reserve 1 tbsp). Pour over koftas. (If you feel koftas are cold warm in toaster oven). The remaining cream randomly put on top of the kofta curry as decoration. Also chopped coriander. Serve immediately or the cream just disappears! * Instead of chopped tomatoes use tinned pureed tomatoes. In this case add the ground cashews before adding the pureed tomatoes

MURUKKU Maida murukku (Indu's reciepe)

Put the maida in a cloth in the cooker container (pathram that goes inside the cooker). Then steam it well as for idlis (without weight). When u take it out it resembles ari-podi. The rest of the spices were the same as for any murukku. Various combinations can be used for murukku 1. rice flour 2. rice flour+kadala- podi 3. rice flour+maida+kadala-podi

Chana/Chole Curry

For Masala: Grind Onion, garlic, ginger and garam masala (powder patta, gramboo perumgeerakam, elakka, cus cus-poppy seed. Roasting the spices is optional. Grind the spices in a coffee grinder then add it to the onion in the processor) and keep aside. Cook patta, tea bag (to get colour), onion and channa (kadala) together in pressure cooker. Saute prepared masala well in cooking oil. Then add salt, chili powder and saute. Then add sliced tomatoes and saute again. If you use tomatoe paste the colour of curry changes to red instead of the dark brown colour. Even with tomatoes (fresh) make sure you fry the onion-spice (spices roasted or not roasted) etc (+ tomato) mixture very well till the right colour comes. Once you add kadala, water etc you will never get the colour again. Its only for the frying stage you need patience. Fry taking enough time. Not too high heat. Then only add the drained chole. Then when the masala has nicely got into chole, then only add the drainedliquid (which has proteins) and boiling water if necessary. Stir, cover and cook again. After removing the curry from stove add corriander leaves and lime concentrate on top.. This curry goes well with bhaturas, puries and chapathies.

Masala powder(Indu's reciepe)

About 3/4 cup each coriander seeds and red chillies. Fry in a few drops of oil on low fire. Stir till smell comes and just before it starts smoking. Take off fire. Cool. In 1 tsp oil fry 2 tsps each of kadugu, uluva, whole black pepper, jeera seeds, khuskhus. When kaduku pops and it starts turning brown keep aside. In same pan add 2 small pieces patta, 1/2 tsp kayam pd and last 2 handfuls karivepila. Stir for a minute or two. Add turmeric pd. Take off fire. Cool. Grind all. I grind the ones with solid pieces first in my coffee grinder. Lastly the now dry kariveppila. Store in a bottle. It has blackish..maroon.. colour. It has an interesting different flavour. I use it in many dishes. And I add other powders to it sometimes. Even for a different type of chenna/chole... with onions, tomatoes/or paste, malli-ela and instead of malli-pd etc... this one is nice!! In a pan, add little olive oil, and when it is warm, add this powder, and stir. To this stir in cooked basmati rice, and stir well.. This rice tastes less bitter than puliodarai

Pickle

Lemon or green mangoes cut into pieces - 4 cups Salt - 2 TBSP Chili Powder 2 TBSP (more if you want it very hot) Fenugreek powder - 2 tsp Asafoetida powder - 1 tsp Water - 1 3/4 cups Oil - 3 TBSP Mix all spices together. Heat oil. Put spice mixture and roast -- make sure it does not burn. Add water and bring to boil. Once it starts to boil well, keep boiling for about 30 seconds. Turn stove off. Add lemon/mango pieces and mix well. Cover and let stand till it cools down.

Pulav (Indu's reciepe)

Basmati rice must be soaked first in water. After an hour or more... drain well. I leave it in a colander. Add ur spices to hot ghee, onions/vegs (if being used), then add the rice. Stir 3 mins or so. Then add boiling water. Usually 2 cups for 1 cup rice. I add less since it is already pre-soaked. So 1 1/2 .. then cover almost completely.. just a lil open.. you can add more boiling water if u feel it's necessary. Keep aside. Lightly fluff up the rice with a fork. Rice will continue to cook since it is still hot. You can add some milk if u want rice to stay more white.. then reduce water. I do the same with/without rice cooker. Layer half cooked rice and veg masala. Then cover and bake or cook in pot. Serve with fried onions nad fried cashes/raisins. Try baking the assembled biryani. Just pour a lil milk or water plus lil melted glee. Add few strands of saffron in the warm milk(not boiling milk). Cover with foil. Bake and serve hot. Real aroma!

Pasta with spinach in white creamy sauce(Indu's reciepe)

Boil & drain your pasta(any type is fine:fettucine, linguine etc). Run under cold water. Drain. Keep aside. Heat oil. Preferably olive. Saute onions, garlic(optional), Oregano or just pizza seasoning, Celery salt(or plain), pepper to taste. I do add other herbs too.. like fresh basil etc. Its optional. Add the vegetables (sliced mushrooms, boiled chopped spinach) saute. Can add strips of red peppers and green peppers, carrots etc to your taste. Then add your Alfredo sauce (follow instructions on pkg). Cook till it is a nice semi-thick sauce. Tip:Remember it thickens a lil more even after taking off fire & if u end up with too thick sauce, just add a lil milk. Serve hot over pasta. (Tip:I run some water from my kettle over pasta if it too dry.. when u cook ahead it dries up. Remember to drain). White sauces are generally bland. Not spicy, so you may need some type of spicy sauce on the side. Serve with garlic bread on which I sprinkle chilli peppers/ seeds of our dry chillies while grilling. We also sprinkle chilli peppers and grated parmesan cheese while serving.

Chinese Fried Rice:(Indu's reciepe)

Fry ginger, garlic with or without green chillies (indian chinese) in soy sauce. Then add the onions, different vegetables according to your choice (eg: celery, spring onions, cabbage, then par-boiled carrots-beans, all tiny cubes, cauliflower, peas, brocholi) and fry. Add more soy sauce than you would normally cause the taste gets diluted when u add the rice. Lastly add the previously boiled/cooled rice. Stir well over low heat and check for taste. You can add ajinomoto (1-2 pinch). Ajinomotto is the also known as mono sodium glutamate- MSG- but it is banned in some countries because of some health reason.). This can be served as a main meal for dinner.

Bhelpuri:(Indu's reciepe)

Mix "pori"(rice crispies), sev (can also make at home with kadalamavu), chopped onions, chopped corriander leaves, sweet chutney (reciepe below) and corriander chutney and serve immediately.

Bhelpuri Sweet/Dates Chutney:

Ingredients: Seedless Dates, tamarind, brown sugar, Chili powder, perumjeera powder, jeera powder, black salt or regular salt, Water. Cook the above ingredients in pressure cooker. Grind and make a paste.

Corriander Chutney:

Ingredients: Corriander leaves, ginger, green chilies, perum jeera powder, jeera powder

Ladoo:

Ingredients: Kadalamavu: 6 cups + salt + water : make a paste and fry. Suger: 7 glass, water 2 glass : Make syrup Yellow food colour, cashewnuts, raisins, elakka, gramboo powder, pachakarpooram powder.

Perfect dessert for summer... SUMMER FRUIT FLAN/PIE (Indu's reciepe)

1 gram pie shell (or butter pie shell.. as long as it is not chocolate) 2 cups whipped topping (like cool whip) 1 1/2 cups cut fruit (mixed fruit can.. but make sure u add chopped mango!) 1 pkg orange jello 1 cup boiling water Stir water into the jello. Put in fridge till slightly thick (must not set fully). Then take out beat well. Gently add in 2 cups of topping. Then the fruits. Pour into pie crust. Refrigerate. Can decorate with fruit. Sugar is only required if u want it more sweet. You can try with different combinations of jello.

Apple crisp(Indu's reciepe)

Cut apple into pieces, put a brown sugar+butter+oats topping to make it slightly crunchy and bake well. Tastes good with plain vanilla icecream.

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