Sweet Basil and Amla Dal, Lauki and mattar kootu

Fresh cut sweet basil from the balcony and two frozen Amla (Indian Gooseberries) inspired me to make this mixed dal dish. I ran out of onions at home so used spring onions and a small clove of garlic. Pressure cooked my dal with amla. And then the standard dal recipe with jeera and red chilli sauted with garlic, spring onions and a handful of chopped basil. Not to forget my ever so staple kuzhambu powder. I am sure this is nothing unusual but it is sheer joy to see a dish turn out well that too when ur kitchen has run out of supplies!

The other dish being lauki and mattar kootu ...Now that my mixie is broken, I had to made do with powders and pastes i made earlier. I generally prefer fresh ground sauce bases to make kootu. Today's version of the curry (which fell short of being a kootu) was boiled lauki and pre soaked mattar with salt, haldi, hing, puli inji paste, rasam powder and mint leaves ( fresh from the balcony)...Oh I m so proud of myelf...lol!

Indian gooseberry or amla is a good source of vitamin C. Ayurveda considers amla (in hindi) good for curing imbalances in Pittha. We find this fruit being used for culinary as well as medicinal purposes. A special mention here would be the amla pickle which is a great digestive and has anit oxidant properties.

 Image source: omagrobiotech.com

sunday special

An uneventful Sunday and now its dinner time. Had a batch of shredded lettuce so asked Srinath to cut some "salad" veggies and srinath was proactive this time around and did not ask me for the list. lol. So the chopping board witnessed slaughter of sweet red and yellow peppers ( a costco staple), white onions, tomatoes and of course the leaves. I put in a few black olives. For the dressing, I mixed up a cup of curd, lemon juice, and a tsp of puli inji whipped it up with a few drops of olive oil and a dash of dried herbs (rosemary, oregano, basil). Added salt and molagu jeeram podi and finally coriander leaves. The Salad is waiting !...see you later...before i go ..here is the pic!...enjoy

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