Tomato chutney

Ingredients

• Chopped Onion - 2 cups
• Chopped Tomato -2 cups
• Red chillies - 4
• Tamarind paste - 1/4 tspn
• Jaggery - 1/4 tspn
• Sesame oil - 7 tspn
• Asafoetida (aka Hing, Perungayam), curry leaves, mustard and urad dal for seasoning
• Salt to taste or 1/2 tspn approx

Method

1. Saute onion, tomato and red chillies with sesame oil until onions become soft. Let it cool for few minutes.
2. Grind the above mix to a fine paste.
3. Heat oil in a pan and add the seasoning mix & let it splutter.
4. Mix the ground paste along with tamarind, jaggery and salt & continue heating for few more minutes till the oil separates.
5. You may add or remove a chilli to make the recipe little bit hotter or mild.  

Hummus

Hummus is a middle-eastern dip made with chickpeas. There are so many varieties of hummus like roasted garlic hummus, roasted red pepper hummus, cilantro hummus...etc. The main ingredient in all of them is chickpeas. It can be used as dip for pitas or as a spread for falafal. It is mixed with a paste called Tahini which is nothing but a sesame paste. You can either buy it from grocery store or make it at home. You can find it at Indian stores, Middle-eastern store or at Walmart. I found it easier to make it at home, so I am giving you the homemade recipe too.
Tahini
White sesame seeds - 1/2 cup
Olive oil or vegetable oil - 1/8 cup or half of quarter cup

Method
Dry roast the sesame seeds till it turns golden colour.

Let it cool. Grind it in a blender with the oil. This will be like a thick sauce. This can be stored in fridge for three months. This is what you get from grocery store. Thick consistency is needed for making hummus. To make it thinner add some water & continue blending. This thin sauce is used to drizzle over falafal sandwich. Shelf life of thin sauce is shorter because of added water. It can be stored for 3 days in  refrigerator.

Hummus 
Cooked chickpeas - 1 cup
Tahini -1/2 cup
Roasted garlic - 3 cloves
Lemon - 3/4
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

Method
Place the chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice,seasonings & some water in a blender.

Process until smooth, adding little more water if necessary. Transfer the contents into a shallow bowl. Mix some olive if you like. This can be stored in a fridge for one week. While serving as a dip garnish it with some paprika, black olives & parsley.

Vendakkai(Okra) Mandi

Mandi is a tangy and spicy stew of vegetables. Traditionally, Mandis are made using water used for washing rice. This water is called arisi (rice) mandi (remnants) and is not normally discarded. Husk of the rice contains an essential  vitamin called Thiamine (Vitamin b1). Washing the rice with water will wash out this vitamin. Hence, it is common practice to not discard the water but reuse it for making Mandis. However, not many reuse washed rice water because nobody knows what chemicals were used to treat that rice. Therefore, the Mandi recipe that I am going to share with you will use a teaspoon of rice flour instead of the washed rice water to get that same authentic Mandi taste. This dish can be kept for more than a day since it uses lots of tamarind. This dish goes very well with yogurt rice.

Ingredients
Okra(Vendakkai) - 1 pound or 1/2 kg
Medium Potato - 1
Motchai (Val lilva beans)  - 1 handful(optional)
Small  onion(preferable) - 7 or medium sized onion - 1
Garlic - 7 pod
Green chillies - 6
Tamarind paste - 1/2 - 3/4 tspn
Rice flour - 1 tspn
Mustard & urad dhal for seasoning

Method
Soak the motchai overnight & cook it  with a teaspoon of salt. Cut the okra & potatoes into cubes. Remove the skin from onion & garlic & cut it into small cubes. Slit the green chillies lengthwise. Heat some oil in a pan & season it with mustard and urad dhal. Saute the onions, garlic & green chillies. Drain them and keep it aside. In the same oil add the okra & saute it till the sticky substance goes off. In the meantime microwave or boil the potatoes till tender. When the okra turns dry ( not mushy anymore) add the sauteed onion mix, potatoes, cooked motchai along with tamarind paste & rice flour mixed with some water. Let it boil till the veggies takes up the flavor & taste. Taste the mandi & adjust the salt & spice. If you want it little more hotter, fry some red chillies & add it to the mandi. This dish is usually in tangy side. So adjust the tamarind as per taste.

Variation:
There is no set rule to make the mandi with just okra. Any veggies can be added. Some of the most commonly used veggies are plantain, mango, eggplant, drumstick & beans like black eyed bean& chick peas.

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.

Ginger garlic paste(preservative free)

Ginger and Garlic is an essential ingredient in Indian cooking. I normally purchase them in a nearby Produce where they usually sell it in bulk (2-3 pounds). It would go stale if we didn't use them up within a month. So I came up with the idea of freezing it by converting it into a paste to make it last longer & fresher. The main advantage of this over store bought bottled ginger-garlic paste is the lack of preservatives on this one.The frozen paste as I mentioned lasts longer & also retains the freshness. I have been using this method for over a year & have not run into any issues so far. You may also freeze them directly without making them into a paste. This way you can take them out & grate them onto your dishes directly whenever you like. However, to me, paste seems to be a more convenient approach than direct freezing. Below is the method for paste making & freezing.


1. Peel the skin from ginger or garlic whichever paste you are planning to make.
2. Grind the peeled ginger or garlic into a fine paste.
3.  Fill about 1/4th size of a freezer bag. Over filling will make the job tougher to break the ginger paste when needed. Garlic is usually pliable,so it doesn't matter even if you make the garlic sheet a little thicker.Ginger paste gets harder like ice when frozen. Simply add the paste 1/4 or less than the bag size.
4. Take out the air & seal the bag. Spread the paste into an even, thin layer  of sheet & freeze the paste by laying it flat in the freezer.

5. Whenever you need the paste, just break the quantity you need for cooking & put the remaining in the freezer.

Idli Milagai Podi

Podi refers to dry powder in Tamil. Idli podi is usually eaten with Idli or Dosai (Please look out for my Idli recipe in the coming weeks). Idli podi is more like an instant mix & is an excellent alternative when full blown sides like Samabars cannot be prepared. Idli podi is also packed with proteins since it is made from different type of pulses. Just mix the Podi with sesame oil & voila! you are ready to eat with your delicious Idlis or Dosas. Here goes the recipe...

Ingredients 
Channa Dhal - 1/4 cup
Urad Dhal - 1/4 cup
Toor Dhal - 1/2 cup
Red chillies - 3/4 cup
Curry leaves - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1 tspn
Sesame seeds- 4 tspn (optional)
Asafoteida - 2 piece or 1 tspn

Method
Dry roast all the ingredients separately. When it cools down grind them into a coarse powder. It is not necessary to roast the salt. Instead of roasting, I tried to oven roast them. It was an experiment to save time. It came out well.The method for oven roasting is as follows..

 Spread the dhal in 3 different cookie sheets & put it in the oven at 300 degrees for 7-13 minutes till the dhal turns light brown. Make sure it's not over browned. Since different dhal roasts at different time, open the oven time to time and take out whichever turns light brown first. For red chillies, curry leaves and sesame seeds you can roast them in a pan. It doesn't take much time. If you prefer roasting them in oven, set the oven at 200 degrees and follow the same procedure as for dhal. So within 30 minutes all the ingredients will be ready to grind without spending much time near the stove. It will be roasted while doing something else. Another advantage of oven roasting the chillies is, it doesn't give out as much fumes as doing the other way. This podi will  last for 2-3 months. If you are planning to keep it for long time, opt out the sesame seeds. It goes rancid in few months when roasted and ground to powder.

Ragi Rolls

This blog post is in response to Madhuram's JFI for Ragi event. This event was a big wake up call for me since I have not done anything new with ragi for a looooong time. The last dish that I tried with ragi if my memory serves right was ragi dosa. However, I did not want to repeat that same dish for this event. Therefore, as always, I consulted with my assistant (my husband ;-)) and came out with this idea of preparing Ragi Rolls more on the same lines of other veggie wraps. Sounds yummy, isn't it? This dish can be served as an appetizer or as a main course. Here goes the recipe...Enjoy!

Ingredients

For Wrap

• Wheat flour - 2 cups
• Ragi flour - 1 cup
• Garam masala - a pinch
• Chilli powder - 1/4 tspn
• Methi leaves - 1/4 tspn
• Salt - to taste

For filling

• Julienne cut carrot - 2
• Julienne cut cabbage - 2 leaves
• Julienne cut onion - 1
• Crushed black pepper - 1/4 tspn

For Sauce (Tomato Chutney)

• Diced medium Onion - 1
• Tomato - 1
• Red chillies - 2
• Tamarind paste - 1/4 tspn
• Jaggery - 1/4 tspn
• Sesame oil - 5 tspn
• Asafoetida (aka Hing, Perungayam), curry leaves, mustard and urad dal for seasoning
• Salt to taste

Method

Sauce - Tomato Chutney

1. Saute onion, tomato and red chillies with sesame oil until onions become soft. Let it cool for few minutes.
2. Grind the above mix to a fine paste.
3. Heat oil in a pan and add the seasoning mix & let it splutter.
4. Mix the ground paste along with tamarind, jaggery and salt & continue heating for few more minutes.

Filling

1. Heat some oil in a pan and add the veggies given for filling.
2. Saute them for 5 minutes with the pan open
3. Add salt and pepper to taste.Veggie should be crunchy & not over cooked.

Wrap

1. Mix all the ingredients given for wrap and make a dough with a consistency similar to Chapati dough.
2. Roll the dough into thin wraps using a rolling pin.
3. Place the rolled dough in a pan & heat them on either side for couple of minutes similar to chapatis.

Ragi Rolls

1. Spread the sauce (Tomato Chutney) on to the wrap.
2. Add a thin layer of the filling on top of the sauce.
3. Roll the wrap as tightly as possible.

You may serve the roll as is or you may cut them into smaller pieces (similar to sushi rolls) & insert a tooth pick for easy serving.