Eggplant Kootu

Ingredients

• Indian eggplant - 4
• Moog dhal - 1/4 cup
• Onion - 1/2 medium
• Green chilies - 2
• Urad dhal, cumin seeds and curry leaves for seasoning

health tip

Eggplant is an excellent source of dietary fiber, vitamins B1, B6 and potassium. It is also a good source of copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, niacin and folic acid. The skin is rich in antioxidant called Nasunin which helps nourish the brain cells. Potatoes are rich in Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, copper, potassium, manganese, and dietary fiber. They are very high in carbohydrate. Dhal adds protein to the dish.

Eggplant Kootu

method

1. Wash the mung dhal and place it in a deep vessel with some water. Let it cook for 5 minutes. The mung dhal doesn't have to be soft at this time.
2. Dice the eggplants and onion. Slit the green chilies.
3. Add the veggies to the mung dhal and cook them together till the veggies get tender. Add some salt.
4. Heat some oil in a seasoning pan and season it with urad dhal, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add the seasonings to the kootu and mix it well together and garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.
   The whole process can be simplified by cooking all the ingredients except seasonings in a pressure cooker for one whistle. Season the kootu when the pressure goes off.

Cabbage Porriyal

Ingredients

• Cabbage - 8 leaves
• Medium Onion - 1
• Green Chilies - 4
• Channa Dhal - 1 handfull
• Mustard, Urad dhal and curry leaves for seasoning

health tip

Cabbage is rich in vitamin C, K and A. Steamed cabbage has more cholesterol lowering capacity than raw cabbage. Short cooked and raw cabbage has anti-cancer benefits.

Cabbage Porriyal

1. Discard the dark green leaves from cabbage and use the pale green leaves by peeling the leaves layer by layer. Peeling the leaves instead of cutting the whole cabbage helps to store it for longer time. Wash the leaves in water. Cut the middle hardy part and trash it. Fold the leaves lengthwise and slice it into thin strings.
2. Slice the onions and slit the green chillies halfway from the middle.
3. In a wide bottomed pan heat some oil and season it with mustard and urad dhal. When the mustard starts to splatter add a hand full of channa dhal and curry leaves and green chillies.
4. When channa dhal turns golden brown, add sliced onions. After a minute add the cabbage and saute it till it shrinks in quantity. Add some salt to taste. There is no need to add water. Depending on your personal preference, you can turn off the stove when the cabbage is little crunchy or let it cook till it gets softened.
5. This porriyal goes well with rasam and sambar.
   Shredded coconut or scrambled tofu can be mixed in with the hot porriyal to enhance the taste.

Kale Poriyal

Ingredients

• Kale - 1 bunch
• Onion - 1
• Moong dhal - 1/2 cup
• Mustard, Urad dal & 2 red chillies for seasoning

health tip

Kale is rich in fiber and is a good source of Vitamins like K, A, & C & minerals like folate & iron. Kale is also rich in flavonoid called kaempferol which helps to protect against ovarian cancer.

Kale Poriyal

method

Kale is a leafy green vegetable that belongs to the Brassica family which also includes vegetables like cabbage, collards and Brussels sprouts. I have tried Kale before but it has always been on and off. However, after getting to know its health benefits, I have become a convert & decided to add Kale regularly in our diet. This recipe even after multiple tries still tops the chart in our home.

1. Cut the vein in the middle. Chop it finely & wash it.
2. Chop the onion. Wash & soak the moong dal for 5 minutes but not more than that.
3. Heat some oil in a pressure pan & season it with mustard seeds, urad dal & broken red chilli. Saute the onion. When onion turns soft add the chopped kale & moong dal & saute it for two more minutes.
4. Add 1/4 cup of water & let it cook for 1 whistle. Add salt after the pressure goes off. Salt should not be added to greens while they are cooking. I am not sure about the reason (probably it might alter the taste I guess) but is always better to add salt at the end after the greens are cooked. Serve it with rice or have it as a salad.
   

   Toor dal can also be added instead of moong dal. Cook the toor dal & kale separately. Toor dal doesn't have to be over cooked like for sambar. Add the dal after the kale is cooked.

   
   

Chicken 65

Ingredients

• Chicken - 1 pound or 1/2 kg
• Yogurt - 2 tbspn
• Soy Sauce - 1/2 tbspn
• Corn flour - 2 tbspn
• All purpose flour - 1 tbspn
• Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1 1/2 tspn
• Garam masal - 1/4 t.spn(optional)
• Lemon juice - 1 tspn
• Salt - 1/2 tspn
• Oil for frying

health tip

Chicken is a white meat low in fat & is a good source of protein.

Chicken 65

method

Chicken 65! How did they name it? Some say 65 ingredients were added to make this dish in the past, others say, it was the 65th item on the menu card of a hotel where they served it. There are lot of stories going around regarding the name for this dish. Anyways, Chicken 65 is such a tasty and popular dish back home in India and has a fiery red color to it. Ajinomoto(MSG) & red food color added to the recipe enhances the taste and color of this dish. My recipe above is devoid of the above two ingredients to be completely home style yet yummy.

1. Wash & cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl except oil & marinade the chicken for minimum 3 hours in the refrigerator.
2. Take it out after 3 hours & deep fry the pieces. It does stick to the frying pan because of the lemon juice but lemon juice enhances the taste. If you do not want it to stick, you may eliminate the lemon juice while marinading but instead sprinkle it while serving the dish.
3. That is it. Enjoy the dish as an appetizer or as a side.

Marinating the chicken overnight in the refrigerator will help permeate the flavr into the chicken nicely.

Mixed Vegetable Kootu

Ingredients

• Carrot - 1
• Eggplant - 1
• Cabbage -1 leaf
• Potato - 1
• Beans - 3nos
• Peas - 1/2 cup
• Moong dal - 2 tbspn
• Green chilli - 1
• Medium onion - 1
• Kootu Podi - 1 tspn
• Coconut - 2 tspn (optional)

health tip

Veggies are rich in Vitamins, Minerals & fiber. Dal (pulses) is rich in protein.

Mixed Vegetable Kootu

method

Kootu Podi goes very well with this mixed vegetable kootu. I added moong dal for this kottu recipe since channa dal was already added to the podi. I did not want to try red gram dal since it is normally added to all sambar recipes. We usually make sambar when making kootu. However, you may use any kind of dal you want with this recipe. This kootu is both delicious & nutritious. Any vegetable of your choice can be added as well to this recipe.

1. Wash, Peel & dice the veggies & onion.
2. Wash the moong dal & add the diced veggies & onion along with kootu podi. Add 1/2 cup of water & pressure cook the veggies for 2 whistles or till the dal is completely cooked.
3. When the pressure goes off, add ground coconut (optional) & salt to taste. Season it with cumin seeds, curry leaves, slit green chilli & urad dal in some oil or ghee.
4. This recipe serves two people.

Cauliflower Masala

Ingredients

• Cauliflower - 1/2 of the flower
• Onion - 1
• Tomato - 1
• Channa dal - 3 tspn
• Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tspn
• Curry powder - 1 tspn
• Chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn
• Fennel seeds & curry leaves for seasoning

health tip

Cauliflower and other vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, and kale contain compounds that may help prevent cancer. Sulfur-Containing Phytonutrients in cauliflower promote liver detoxification. It is rich in Vitamin C, K and folate. Spicing cauliflower with turmeric helps promote men's health. Channa dal adds protein to this dish.

Cauliflower Masala

method

1. Soak the channa dal in water for 30 minutes.
2. Dice the onions & tomatoes. Cut the cauliflower into florets & soak them in warm salted water.
3. Heat some oil in a pan & season it with fennel seeds & curry leaves.
4. Saute the ginger garlic paste, onion & tomato. Add turmeric powder, salt, curry powder, chilli powder & drained channa dal. Saute them till the oil separates.

Adding split gram dal(pottukadalai) powder at the final stage will absorb extra moisture & make the cauliflower nice & dry.

5. When the oil separates, drain & add the cauliflower. Cover the pan with a lid & cook till the florets are 3/4th done. Sprinkle water if needed. Open the lid & let the masala dry out. Garnish it with coriander leaves.
   

Eggplant Avial

Ingredients

• Indian eggplant - 4-5 or 3 cups diced(if using other varieties)
• Medium Potato - 1 or 1 1/2 cups diced
• Medium onion - 1
• Medium tomato - 1
• Coconut - 3/4 cup
• Sombu(fennel seeds)- 1/2 tspn
• Cumin seeds -1/2 tspn
• Chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• Poppy seeds(optional) - 1 tspn
• Garlic paste - 1/2 tspn
• Roasted split gram dal(Pottukadalai) - 2 tspn

health tip

Eggplant is an excellent source of dietary fiber, vitamins B1, B6 and potassium. It is also a good source of copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, niacin and folic acid. The skin is rich in antioxidant called Nasunin which helps nourish the brain cells. Potatoes are rich in Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, copper, potassium, manganese, and dietary fiber. They are very high in carbohydrate.

Eggplant Avial

method

1. Dry roast the coconut, fennel, cumin, roasted split gram dal, poppy seeds & grind them with chilli powder into a fine paste.
2. Dice the eggplant, potato, onion & tomatoes.
3. Heat some oil in a pan & season it with 1/2 inch cinnamon stick, some fennel seeds & curry leaves.
4. Add the garlic paste & saute the diced onion & tomato. Add some turmeric powder & salt. When the tomato gets mushy, add the diced eggplant & potatoes. Saute them for 2 more minutes & mix in the ground paste. Dilute it with water to make a gravy &. Add chilli powder & salt if needed. Cover it & cook till the veggies are soft.

   You may accelerate the whole cooking process by pressure cooking for 1 whistle

5. Garnish it with coriander leaves & serve it with Idli or Dosai.
6. This recipe serves 4 people

Eggplant Fry

Ingredients

• Baby eggplant - 4
• Chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• Rice flour - 1 1/2 tspn
• Corn starch - 1/2 tspn
• Salt - 1/4 tspn or as per taste
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn

health tip

Eggplant is an excellent source of dietary fiber, vitamins B1 and B6 and potassium. It is also a good source of copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, niacin and folic acid. The skin is rich in antioxidant called Nasunin which helps nourish the brain cells.

Eggplant Fry

method

1. Wash & cut the eggplants into thin slices.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together, toss the eggplant slices & sprinkle little water to the mix. Adding little water helps to hold the dry powder stick to the eggplant while frying.
3. Deep fry the slices till the outer layer is crisp.
4. Chinese eggplant may also be used for this recipe.

Beetroot Vadai

Ingredients

• Grated beetroot - 2-3 cups
• Channa dal & Toor dal -1 1/2cups combined
• Chopped Onion - 1 1/2 cup
• Chopped coriander & curry leaves - 1/4 cup
• Chilli powder - 3/4 tspn
• Sonuf(Sombu) - 1 tspn
• Hing - 1/4 tspn
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn
• Salt - 1 tspn

health tip

Beet greens are a very good source of calcium, iron, Vitamins A and C. Beetroots are an excellent source of folic acid. Betacyanin is the pigment that gives beetroot its color and has powerful antioxidant properties. Beet fiber has been shown to have cholesterol lowering capabilities. Beetroot contains the bio-active agent betaine which supports healthy liver function.

Beetroot Vadai

method

1. Wash & soak the dal for 2 hours.
2. Grate the beetroot & squeeze the juice out. You may also grind the beetroot coarsely instead of grating. Either way you will have to take out the juice completely. You can see the pictures below for both grinding & grating. Beetroot juice that is left out may be used to make healthy soup.
3. Chop the onion, curry leaves & coriander finely.
4. Grind the sombu(sanuf) coarsely. Drain the dal & grind it coarsely along with ground sanuf without adding water. The dal should not be ground finely. Grinding them for 2-3 seconds yields a good texture.
   

   If the ground mix is watery, you may reduce the water by adding a teaspoon or two of besan flour. If the mix is still too thin, you may make usili instead of vadai by sauteing the ground mix in a nonstick pan with some oil till the mix becomes dry and powdery.

   
   
5. Mix the ground mixture, chopped onion, curry leaves, coriander leaves & other powders together. Make equal sized balls & flatten them & fry the vadais in hot oil. This recipe yields 20 vadais.
   

   Vadai can be frozen for future use. Make the vadai as per the procedure & freeze them before frying them. Place the vadai 1/2 inch apart in a flat freezer safe box. Place a plastic wrap between each layer if two or more layers have to be added(see the picture below for reference). Freeze them flat. You may thaw the frozen vadai by placing them separately in a microwave safe plate & by microwaving them for 1-2 minutes followed by frying.

   
   

Cabbage kottu

When we were newly weds, my Hubby used to describe the recipes he made during his bachelor life. I thought he was a much better cook than me back then :-). One of the dishes that he makes is kootu & he completes the dish by mixing ground coconut & cumin seeds. However, when I make the same dish, I neither do the grinding nor add the coconut & this makes the dish taste very normal. But, when I want to make it really special, I would make it like him by adding ground coconut & cumin to the final dish. He really loves all kinds of dish as long as they have coconut on it. You can try this recipe to enhance your ordinary kootu dish into an extraordinary one.

Ingredients
Chopped Cabbage - 2 cup
Chopped Onion - 1 small
Green chillies - 2
Coconut - 3 piece
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tspn
Channa Dhal - Less than 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds,Urad dhal & curry leaves for seasoning.

Method
Slit one green chilli from bottom halfway to top. Add the chopped cabbage, onion, washed channa dhal & and the slit green chilli along with water ( around 1/4 - 1/2cup) in a cooking vessel. Let it cook with the lid closed. Mix them from time to time to make sure it doesn't get burned at the bottom. Add some more water if it is evaporated. Let it cook till the channa dhal & cabbage gets cooked. In the meantime when the veggies are cooking grind the coconut, 1/4 tspn cumin seeds & the remaining one green chilli into a fine paste. When the veggies are cooked, add the ground paste & salt. Let it cook for 5 more minutes & season it with the seasonings in some oil. Using little bit of ghee along with oil for seasoning also gives a nice flavor.

Mushroom Masala

Ingredients
Mushroom - 1 pound or 1/2 kg
Large onion - 1
Tomato - 1 1/2
Ginger garlic paste  - 1 tspn
Curry powder - 1/4 tspn
Chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn
Hand full of almond or cashew ground to paste.

Method
Chop the mushrooms, onion & tomatoes. In a kadai heat some oil & add ginger garlic paste. Saute the onions & tomatoes along with 1/2 a teaspoon of salt till the tomatoes gets mushy. Add all the powders & saute till the oil separates. Now, add the mushrooms & saute it for some more time. Mushroom usually gives out lot of water so cook it with lid open until 3/4 of the water evaporates. When 3/4th of the water is evaporated, add the ground paste & mix it in the masala. Leave the stove on, till the masala gets dry. Garnish it with fresh coriander leaves & serve hot.

Chettinad Eggplant Masala

Ingredients
1. Eggplant - 2 pounds
2. Onion - 1 nos
3. Tomato - 1 nos
4. Coconut - 4.tspn
5. Fennel seeds - 1/2 tspn
6. Red chillies - 4 nos
7. Garlic - 2 nos
8. Roasted split gram dhal - 1 tspn
9. Black pepper - 1/4 tspn

Method
Grind the ingredients from number 4 to number 9 above into a fine paste and set aside. Dice the eggplant, onion & tomato into cubes. Heat some oil in a pan & season it with 1/2 inch cinnamon stick & some curry leaves. Add the onions & tomatoes & saute it till the tomatoes get mushy.You can add some salt to fasten the process. Add the eggplants & saute it for 5 more minutes. Mix in the ground paste along with some turmeric powder.

Cover the pan with a lid & cook till the eggplants are 3/4th cooked. Open the lid & let all the water in the masala dry out. Remaining one fourth cooking will be done in this process. Turn off the stove & garnish it with coriander leaves.

Variation
          You can add diced potatoes along with eggplant. Since the vegetables cook time varies add the potatoes first & let it cook for some time, then goes the eggplant & the ground paste. This dish goes well with any type of rice.

Chettinad Chicken

Ingredients
For paste
1 tspn each of coriander seeds, cumin & fennel seeds
3 no. red chillies
1" piece of cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pods
2 cloves
2 tspn poppy seeds
4 tspn coconut
3 garlic
1" ginger
4 small onion or 1/4 chopped big onion

For Sauteeing
Curry leaves
Star Anise - 1
Kalpaasi
Onion - 1 large
Tomato - 2
Chilli powder - to adjust your taste
Turmuric powder
Chicken - 2 pounds or 1 kg



Method
Dry roast all the ingredients given above for paste until it gives out a nice aroma. Grind into paste when cool.
In a pressure cooker season the curry leaves; star anise & kalpaasi. Saute the onions &  tomatoes. Add the cleaned chicken pieces & saute them with some salt till raw smell from the chicken goes off. Now add the ground paste, turmeric powder, chilli powder & saute them for 2 more minutes. Add water according to the consistency of the gravy you desire. This dish normally has a semi gravy(not too runny) consistency.  A teaspoon or two of yogurt can also be added at this stage to soften the chicken. Pressure cook in medium for 1 whistle. Open the cooker when pressure goes off and add some lemon juice & garnish it with coriander leaves. Enjoy the chicken with rice or roti. It goes well with almost anything.