Puli Inji with green chillies

As the name suggests, is a dish made from Puli - tamarind and Inji- ginger. This tangy, hot and sweet side dish is a favourite in any Palakkad Iyer household. Festivals and special luncheons are never served without this dish to go with Saambhaar, rasam, kootu and poriyal/thoran. Hmm.. I love a nice saadhya/saapadu served on a fresh banana leaf. Coming to the recipe, this is my amma's version with fresh green chillies and ginger. As usual, my recipes include very little or no oil at all.

What you need ...

• Ginger - grated - 3/4 cup
• Green Chillies - chopped - 1/2 cup or less
• Tamarind - size of a small lime
• Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
  
• coriander seeds - 1/4 tsp
  
• jeera - 1/4 tsp
• Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder- a pinch
  
• Red chillies- 2
• curry leaves - 4/5
  
• Asafoetida - 2 pinches
• Salt 
• Jaggery - 3 tbsp
• Oil- 1 tsp

Process

• Heat oil in a kadai and add the tempering ingredients - mustard seeds, jeera, coriander seeds, methi seeds red chillies and curry leaves
• once the mustard crackles, add green chillies and saute for a minute
• Add ginger and then add salt, asafoetida (hing), turmeric powder
• Soak the jaggery in just enough water and strain it for sediments
• Add the tamarind pulp a few minutes later, add jaggery water and cook until done (until ginger and tamarind looses their raw smell)
• Let the cooked mixture cool and then grind

Puli inji goes well with thayir saadham (Curd rice)....YUM! Can be stored in the refridgerator for over a week. You could use it as a spread for your "bombay style" sandwich. I use it to make vepudu/thoran/poriyal.  This dish is a great digestive, no wonder it is a staple during festivities. We add jaggery to balance the heat from the ginger. Tamarind brings in the acid component to blend the heat from chillies and sweetness from the jaggery perfectly. Try it and enjoy!

Ginger pickle - allam pacchadi

Ginger is among easily available ingredients across the globe. Pickle lovers who wouldn't mind spending half an hour in the kitchen can make this yummy pacchadi at home. It is a lot better than buying a pricey bottle of any name brand pickle oozing stale smelling oil (The foot print aspect is an add-on). This recipe is fairly simple. I am not sure where I learnt this from (probably my amma).

I made it for the first time while in pune and have been making it for family and friends ever since. I should admit I am a huge fan of (Indian style) pickles. My versions require far less amount of oil and taste as good, or maybe better. This reminds of me Juhi Chawla's ad which sells a pickle with lot less oil in the bottle. The ad is kind of funny and markets the product as a healthier, less fat version. It is a fairly new concept for conventional cooks. And thats my kind of recipe!


Main ingredients include fresh ginger, jaggery, tamarind and chillies and chilli powder.

What you need!

Ginger - 100 gm / 1 cup (grated)
Jaggery - 100 gm / 1 cup grated
Tamarind - 50 gm / lemon sized
Oil (olive/sunflower) - 4tbsp
Salt to taste
chilli powder - Avakkai three mango brand - 1 tbsp
Dry red chillies - 5/6

garlic - 5/6 pods (optional)
Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 5 /6
Hing (asafoetida)- a pinch

Process:

• soak tamarind in just enough water
• wash and grate the ginger and dry roast it for a minute or so (till u get a hint of its aroma). Let it cool.
• dry roast coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, mustard (half the quantity), chillies, chana and urad dal  one after the other separately. Dry roastthe garlic cloves separately (optional)
  
• Grind the  above ingredients to a fine powder. Keep it aside
• Grind ginger and soaked tamarind together into a fine paste.
  
• now add the powdered ingredients to the mixture and grind wet and dry ingredients together
• Heat oil in a kadai and add the other half of mustard and fenugreek seeds, then add curry leaves and asafoetida. 
• Once the mustard crackles and fenugreek turns golden brown, add the ingredients from the blender jar and saute it with chilli powder. Add the garlic (optional) now (we grind it into paste separately)
  
• Keep the flame on low and "cook" the pacchadi until you can sense the aroma of the pickle's yummy goodness!
• Let it cool and store it in an air tight glass jar.
• this pickle can retain its freshness for over three months if left outside and maybe longer if stored in the refrigerator.
  

Voila...you have ur home made allam pacchadi to go with a plate of idli or rice. I love it with thayir sadam. ah!

I tried using sundried mango pieces or kokam instead of tamarind. It worked well  both the times. Dry mango version tasted yummier!..Do try it. Ginger is known for its digestive and anti inflammatory properties. It is a great way to bring in the goodness of ginger into your diet. Other goodies such as puli inji, fresh inji thuvayal are also equally tummy friendly sidies. I will try posting about these two dishes in detail.

take care

Home Made pickles - Lemon

I wanted to upload the picture of a batch of lemon pickle I made some time back. I started making pickles on my own while in Cyprus. Lemon was an obvious choice in the haven for citrus fruits. Kypro! It all happened because Srinath's friend lived in a private villa and the landlord had an abundant harvest of lemons that season. She came up and asked me to prepare her a jaadi of lemon pickles. I began, and ended up making seven large batches for other friends. They loved it. Here is the picture of one of the many jars of pickles I made in these six years.

 

The recipe is pretty basic and conventional.

• We start with washing and drying lemons for slicing them into eight or 4 equal pieces (based on the size of the lemon)
• keep aside two lemons for the juice for the lime pieces to soak
• Sliced pieces are marinated with salt and turmeric and left to soak in juice (of two lemons) in an air tight container. 
• After five to six days we spread this mixture onto a tray or a plate to sun dry. 
• Once the water is almost dried out and lemons are decently soaked, (takes three days generally) 
• Temper the mixture using an oil of your choice (sunflower / olive /  til). 

Lemon pickle doesn't go well with garlic. It is better to temper them without garlic. This is when you add  required amount chilli powder. Tempering would require mustard seeds, methi seeds and asafoetida. (just eye ball the quantity depending on the quantity of lemon used). For example, if you have two cups of lemon mix, 1 tsp each of mustard and methi seeds and 1 pinch of asafeotida would be good.

Lemon pickles are easy to make and just need a little bit of elbow grease. They taste wonderful with kanji-vallam or a simple thayir sadam. Stuffed parata and kulcha taste great with lemon pickle. A small bite of lemon pickle with "vepamboo " (neem flower- dried) rasam and sadam. tastes great. Weird! believe me, the combo tastes yummy. Lemon actually sets off "vepamboo".'s subtle bitter flavor. This is particularly when I am recouping from fever or cold. Just try it. It tastes yummy!

My HOT favourite - raw mango pickle

i could go on and on about how much i like this dish. My amma could lure me into eating thayir sadam with just a mention of this pickle. My kollu paati in tiruchy makes it with "kili mooku manga" - thothapuri variety...what ever the mango type is..i simply love this pickle...It is instant and doesn't have to be used in minimal quantities...unlike the avakkaya version of the long term mango pickle.

I am not going to give you the recipe but wanted to share the fact that i drool when i see my mom slicing up a raw mango to make this pickle. I get fascinated by the number of ways i incorporate this pickle into my food until the jar my mom stores it in is empty. My hot favourite being eating it with "pazhe sadam" and gingely oil, salt and hing. ...yum...it is a perfect cooler on a hot summer afternoon. Add a spoonful to a cup of curd and lo u have wonderful thayir pacchadi, raita or a dip..what ever you call it...it is going to be wonderful. Drizzle it on top of your favorite salad recipe and lo...you have that tangy yummy dash to your salad. i like to put it on anything and everything i eat...crazy as it may sound..but that's how i love it. The pic is the batch i made with the precious "one" mango i bought at a local Indian store!...

Recipe:
1 Raw green mango
Salt
fenugreek seds - 1/4 tsp
Hing/asafoetida
Turmeric powder
mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
red chilli powder - 1tbsp (or lesser)
oil - for tempering
Process:

• Wash and pat dry the mango and chop it finely (with the skin)
• Add salt, asafoetida, chillipowder and turmeric powder and mix well
• Heat oil and ad mustard seeds and let them crackle.
• Add to the mango mix and let it rest for a while before serving