Snake Gourd Kootu - Podalangai Kadalai paruppu Kootu - Farm to Plate

Of all the gourd varities to grow snake gourd has proven to be kind of the hardest. It is a very delicate plant and the seeds don't germinate all that easily. One year the plants just did not set fruit that much, the second year I planted ridge gourd and snake gourd close together and the ridge gourd completely overwhelmed the snake gourd plant. This year I thought I had handled all of those well when the young plants started getting eaten by cucumber beetles. This is what happens when we have mild winters. The cold winter temperatures gets rid of bugs and beetles that are harmful. If you do not want to spray the best hope is that mother nature and climate will take care of it. Natural sprays like neem only does so much. So what you can control is the growing conditions.

The best bet against bugs is to improve the soil health. The healthier the soil the better off the plant is in dealing with bugs and beetles. Once the early problems of beetles were handled, a combination of neem spray and just picking them off the plant was able to handle it all by itself :)

Though I have grown snake gourd pretty much every year in fact but it seems like I rediscovered snake gourd in a new way. While it tastes delicious in a simple stir fry with just 2 other ingridients even though we never tired of it but occasionally it is fun to change things a bit isn't? That is how I chanced upon this kootu recipe.

The idea for this kootu came from Revathy Shanmugham's Lunch Combo. She uses moong dal (paasi paruppu), I have used channa dal (kadalai paruppu).

The recipe in pictures,

Set the channa dal to cook. Clean and slice the snake gourd.
Roast cumin and split urad dal. Add coconut and green chilies to it and blend to a paste.
Add snake gourd and salt to the cooked dal.
Pressure cooke for a whistle.
Add the bleended paste. Prepare the seasonings.
Add the seasonings, mix and turn off the heat.

Pretty simple procedure.

Snake Gourd Kootu - Podalangai Kootu
Preparation Time:15 minutes
Cooking Time:20 minutes
Ingredients

1. 2 medium sized snake gourds (about 3-4 cups of sliced)
2. 1 1/2 cups of channa dal (kadalai paruppu)
3. 2-3 green chilies
4. 1/2 tbsp of urad dal (ulundu)
5. 2 tsp of cumin seeds
6. 1/4 cup of grated fresh or frozen coconut
7. salt to taste
8. 1 tsp of turmeric powder
9. 1 tsp of oil
10. seasonings: mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves

Method

1. While prepping the snake gourd, set the channa dal to cook, wash add turmeric powder and 1/4 tsp of oil and let it cook. The dal should be cooked but not mushy, should retain its shape. In a pressure cooker just 1 sound should be good.
2. Split the snake gourd into halves length wise, remove the seeds and then cut into half moons. Not too thin.
3. In a small sauce pan roast the cumin seeds and urad dal till the dal turns golden. Take it in a blender.
4. Add in the coconut and green chilies and add a bit of water and blend to a fairly smooth paste.
5. To the cooked dal add the sliced snaked gourd and salt and cook for anothe whistle.
6. Once the steam has subsided, add the blended paste and salt and cook for 5 minutes.
7. In a sauce pan, add oil and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves and when the mustard seeds pops add to the dal and turn off the heat.

Serve with rice.

Extremely simple recipe but so good. Like what you are reading? Subscribe!

Coimbatore - Srinagar - Barshi (Contd..) - Third Stop - Gaargi - Pumpkin Donut - Poosanikai kachayam

Folks from DH's running group also post recipes that can be cooked when they reach their virtual destination. This recipe was posted by one of the runners and it has also become a hit in our house. With an abundance of pumpkins any recipe that utilizes pumpkins is welcome. The only thing that stops us from cooking this more often is that it requires deep frying, partially to avoid overeating deep fried foods and also the logistics of having to deal with the cleanup afterwards.

If you read books and articles on nutrition and health, there is always conflicting information, health benefit claims, importance of micronutrients and many dos and donts. The problem with all of this information is it is hard to follow and more importantly very confusing to most of us.

While we definitely have to control the sugar we consume especially people with sugar addiction like mine but eating varied kinds of food and in moderation is the key to leading a healthy life. Also these recipes were cooked because of the motivation provided by the running group. So being active means all of these different foods can be enjoyed without guilt.

I think in the traditional recipe you take a small amount of dough, flatten it in the palm of your hand with a hole in the center. But if the texture is a bit loose dropping hand full of dough and cooking it in oil also works.
The recipe in pictures,

Peel and chop the pumpkin and set it steam in a pressure cooker.
Mash the pumpkin so there are no lumps.
Add flour, jaggery, cardamom powder and poppy seeds and make the batter. Drop into hot oil for deep frying.
Remove from oil when it turns golden brown.

A very simply recipe with delicious results.

Gargi - Pumpkin Kachayam
Preparation Time:20 minutes
Cooking Time:30 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1/2 medium sized pumpkin (about 4 cups of steamed)
2. 2 cups of wheat flour
3. 1/3 - 1/2 cup of jaggery
4. 1 tsp cardamom powder
5. 1 tsp poppy seeds
6. Oil for deep frying

Method

Peel and cut the pumpkin and steam for about 10 minutes.

Cool and mash the cooked pumpkin, add the wheat flour, sugar, poppy seeds and cardamom powder. *

Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.

Now drop about a table spoon of dough in the hot oil.

Let it cook till the bubbles subside. It should be dark brown in color, not black.

Perfect as an evening snack. Like what you are reading? Subscribe!

Coimbatore to Srinagar - Third Stop - Barshi - Konkan Chicken Recipe

It has been exciting, this virtual travel. As a result we have added a bunch of places that we should travel to and most importantly the foods we should enjoy. My idea of travelling is all about food. Staying in a all inclusive resort kind of crimps my food craving. Most of these resorts crater to a non native Western palate and the food gets to be kind of blah after the first day.

The best vacations are when we visit places and are able to eat at the local eateries, interact with locals and check out the small eateries which do native food best. So what I have learnt during our travels is eating in smaller places will teach you much about the local cusinie than the larger more posh ones.

Travelling across India should be fun for any food enthusiast. The focus of my dream trip will just be visiting places and eating local food, no trying to cram toursit attractions into the schedule. Travel leisurely and eat our way through all the places.

The recipe chosen was a chicken recipe and by doing a bit of research on the ingredients we decided on Konkan chicken. The bright vibrant colors of the curry with the roasted coconut was delicious. The ingredients seems elaborate but it is fairly simple process.

Recipe in pictures,

ingredients along with the roasted dry masala spices.
masala paste and cooked chicken.

Delicious!

Konkan Chicken Recipe
Preparation Time:20 minutes
Cooking Time:30 minutes
Ingredients

1. 2 lbs of chicken
2. 1/2 cup of finely diced onions
3. 2 tsp turmeric powder
4. 1/2 tbsp coriander powder
5. 1/2 tbsp kashmiri chili powder
6. handful of coriander leaves
7. salt to taste
8. 1 tbsp oil
Dry Roast Powder Masala
9. 1 tsp pepper corn
10. 2 tsp coriander seeds
11. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
12. 1 tsp poppy seeds
13. a small piece of cinnamon sticks, few cloves, star anise, and cardamom
14. 3-4 red chilies
15. 2 tbsp coriander seed
Masala Paste
16. 1/4 cup chopped red onion
17. 5-6 garlic cloves
18. 1 inch ginger

Method

1. Cut, wash chicken and coat with turmeric and set aside.
2. In a saute pan, saute the ingredients other than coconut under the Dry Roast Powder Masala till they turn golden. Remove.
3. Lower the flame and saute the coconut till it is nice and golden brown but take care not to burn. Mix and set aside.
4. Cool and blend to a powder.
5. Now heat a tsp of oil in the pan and saute the onions till it translucent, followed by the ginger and garlic and saute them till they are golden brown. Cool and blend to a paste.
6. In a wide mouthed pan add a tbsp of oil, saute the onions and when translucen, add turmeric, coriander powder, kashmiri chili powder. Mix it well.
7. Add in the chicken and saute till the outer edges start turning brown.
8. Add half of the roasted and powdered masala powder, the blended onion, ginger, garlic paste. Mix well.
9. Add a cup of water and let it cook.
10. Once the chicken is almost cooked add the rest of the powdered masala powder.
11. Add coriander leaves and turn off the heat.

Got some of th best aromas when it was being cooked. Serve with rice or any Indian bread Like what you are reading? Subscribe!

Coimbatore to Srinagar - Second Stop - Hampi - Stuffed Brinjal (Long green brinjal)

Stuffed Brinjal or Badane Kaayi one of the famous North Karnataka dishes was the food that was made to celebrate reaching the second week milestone (Oct 25).

This was a time when we had plenty of long green brinjals the sought after kind for making vangi bath or brinjal rice. DH is actually quite good at cooking I have come to realize. I have been tricked into thinking or I have tricked myself into thinking that he can't cook. The biggest trouble has been for me to stop nit picking and let things take their own course. I don't put my nose in and the end results have been delicious. Every one has a certain style of cooking, the same ingredients and measurements turn out differently depending on who is at the helm.

First up, I would have never cooked this recipe with green brinjals but hey it was delicious all the same. The curry was on the drier side with concentrated flavors. Recipe Consulted: Karnataka Style Badanekai Yennegai

Stuffed Brinjal
Preparation Time:15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1 lb of long green eggplants
2. 1/4 cup of chopped red onion
3. seasonings: mustard seeds
4. salt to taste
5. 2 tsp of oil
6. small lemon sized piece of tamarind
7. 2 tsp of jaggery
For the masala
8. 6-8 shallots
9. 4 red chilies
10. 1 inch piece of ginger
11. 2 tsp of coriander seeds
12. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
13. 1 tbsp of penauts
14. 1 tbsp of grated coconut

Method

1. Blend all the ingredients under the masala section and set aside.
2. Slit the eggplants keeping the stem part intact and stuff about a tsp of the masala inside.
3. Extract the tamarind pulp with about 1/4 cup of water.
4. Heat a pressure cooker, add oil and when hot add the seasonings. When mustard starts to pop add the onions.
5. Add the onions and saute till translucent.
6. Add the stuffed brinjals and saute for a few minutes till the brinjals start to get some brown spots.
7. Now add the extra masala and the tamarind pulp, jaggery and salt.
8. Pressure cook for 1 whistle.

Serve with rice. Simply delicious with the sweetness, sour and heat.

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Coimbatore to Srinagar - A food journey with a purpose - First Stop Hassan - Pumpkin Idli and Mango Rasam

I want to preface this by saying, some of us are fortunate that this pandemic has given us more time on our hands. I know of several people who have grabbed the time to do things that there is normally no time for in our mad dash of everyday life. The one thing I and probably everybody else absolutely don't miss the is the hours sitting in traffic getting from one place to another especially the every day commute in getting to and fro from work.

So what does one do with the extra time on hand? It has been heartening to hear what people have done - pick up hobbies that had stopped for want of time, volunteering, trying to grow food for the family and exercise - the thing that everybody wants to but has no time for in the hustle and bustle.

I got lucky when a group of friends wanted to start a virtual exercise program with a goal. I will share what our eventual goal is in a future post. But the "Coimbatore to Srinnagar" is DH's project. He started a virtual exercise program for his undergrad college friends. Nothing fancy, setup a goal of a number of miles per week, motivate people to exercise regularly, download an app to keep track of the miles (these days nothing works without an app right?) and of course start a WhatsApp group to get it going. I think he surprised himself with the response he got.

Having something to look forward to and make folks stick to the program is perhaps why he came up with the Coimbatore to Srinagar program. They travel to places based on the number of miles the group runs. Why I am excited about it and why it made its way into the foodblog is that they cook foods of the places where they stop. I get to eat different foods from other regions and best of all I don't have to cook it. I only eat and write about it.

Their first stop was Hassan in Karnataka.

Hassan in the Malanad area of Karntaka has a cuisine all its own. Malanadu covers the eastern and western slopes of the Western Ghats and seems to be one of those breathtakingly beautiful places.

The foods from this region that was cooked at home was Pumpkin Idli and Mango Rasam. Pumpkin Idli is a quick idli that needs no fermentation. The cold no cook mango rasam was simply delicious. These 2 are fast becoming favorites in our house. With an abundance of home grown pumpkin I think it will make its appearance often. Here is the list from which the recipes were taken, Malanad Special Recipes.

Source: Pumpkin Idli

Pumpkin Idli
Preparation Time:20 minutes
Standing Time:1 hour
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1 cup idli rava or cream of rice
2. 2 cups grated pumpkin
3. 2 tbsp of kadalai paruppu or channa dal or bengal gram
4. 1 tsp of crushed pepper
5. 1 tsp of cumin crushed
6. 1 tbsp grated ginger
7. 1 green chilies chopped
8. a few sprigs of coriander leaves finely chopped
9. a sprig of curry leaves chopped
10. salt to taste

Method

1. In a bowl of hot water soak the channa dal.
2. Wash the idli rava and strain the water completely using a colander and pressing on it gently.
3. Add in the grated pumpkin, soaked channa dal, pepper, cumin, ginger and curry leaves but not the salt.
4. Let this stand for about an hour. After this time there should not be any water dripping from the batter. If it is squeeze it out.
5. Get the pressure cooker or idli vessel to steam the idlis. Grease the idli pans.
6. Now add salt mix it.
7. Laddle the mixture onto greased idli pans and steam for 10 minutes. Cool and remove from idli pan.

Pair it with any chutney. We enjoyed it with some Gongura Pachadi.

This Mango Rasam is another recipe that would never have been tried if not for this journey. Green mangoes are the recommended kind for this recipe. The ones DD managed to find were slightly ripe and we actually liked the slightly sweet taste of the half ripe mango.

Source: Mango Rasam

Mango Rasam
Preparation Time:15 minutes
cooking Time:5 minutes
Ingredients

1. 1 Medium sized Mango grated
2. 2 green chilies
3. a pinch cumim seeds
4. salt to taste
5. 2 cups of water
For Seasoning
6. 1 tsp mustard seeds
7. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
8. curry leaves
9. 2 tsp ghee

Method

1. Add the grated mango along with the chilies and cumin seeds to a blender and 1 cup of water and blend it.
2. Drain the mango extract and return the pulp back to the blender, add more water and pulse few more times and extract the rest of the pulp.
3. Add salt and mix it in.
4. In a small saute pan add the ghee and when hot add the mustard seeds and when it pops add the cumin and curry leaves and pour it over the mango water.

I was reluctant at first and a little skeptical of the taste but it was absolutely delicious and I was quite surprised. We will meet soon with the recipes from the second stop.
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