Amla Pachadi (Nellikai/gooseberry Pachadi)

Amla Pachadi (Nellikai/gooseberry Pachadi)


At one point this winter I was looking for multiple sources of vitamin C and amla (gooseberry/nellikai) is rich in it. I knew my grandmother would make a pachadi (raita) with it so got the recipe from her and tried it. Needless to say, it came out well. I kept it for couple of days and had with few variety rice. Amla is supposed to fortify the liver, balance stomach acids, nourishes the brain, helps urinary system, good for skin and hair, cools the body among many other benefits. Amla is usually available in fresh and dry form and both are said to be nutritive. Amla is also said to be able to stimulate isolated group of cells that secrete hormone insulin thus reducing blood sugar in diabetics. Here is the recipe…

5-6 gooseberries
1 teaspoon channa dal
½ teaspoon urd dal
½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
2 dry red chillies
Asafoetida
1 green chilly
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1-2 cup yogurt
Few curry leaves
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Boil the gooseberries in water until done. Remove the seeds and mash them

Heat little oil and roast the channa dal, fenugreek seeds, dry red chillies, urd dal one after another, keep aside to cool and grind to powder

Heat little oil and add the mustard seeds, once it splutters, add turmeric powder, asafoetida, green chilly, curry leaves and add the ground powder and fry briefly

Add this to the mashed gooseberries, add yogurt, required salt and mix well

Serve

Potato kadhi (Rajasthani Sabji)

Potato kadhi (Rajasthani Sabji)


Rajasthani sabji, as the hostess of the TV show called it, is pretty much potato kadhi. I am quite limited on what raita I can have and prefer making raitas with cooked vegetable. That way, this kadhi recipe appealed to me and I had boiled potato in my fridge so it made it even easier. I normally keep one or two boiled potatoes in the fridge so I can make some quick dishes. This went well with the corn methi pulav I made but I think it will go well with any other more spicy rice too. I do not know if rajasthani sabji is the right name, but I thought it will be because the hostess is rajasthani. Here is how I made it…

1 large potato, boiled, cut
1 teaspoon onion seeds (kalonji)
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 cinnamon piece
2 cloves
1 cup yogurt
1 tablespoon besan (chickpea flour)
Turmeric powder
1 teaspoon chilly powder
1 teapsoon dhaniya powder (coriander powder)
1 teaspoon jeera powder (cumin powder)
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Heat some oil in a kadai and add the cinnamon, cloves and mustard seeds. Once it crackles, add the cumin seeds and onion seeds and wait for cumin to brown

In the meantime mix the besan and yogurt without lumps

Add the yogurt mixture to the kadai and simmer

Add chilly powder and turmeric powder and cook on low flame

Once it just boils, add the cumin and coriander powder, salt and allow to boil

Add the potatoes and simmer a few more minutes so they absorb the flavours. Cook the whole dish on low flame for best results

Serve!

Gatta Kadhi

Gatta Kadhi

Every time my brother and SIL visit us, we try our best to visit places together and also take good packed lunch with us so we can just spread our blanket in a nice place and enjoy nature at its best. My brother said he fancies having kadhi and also described one that he used to have when he was working in North India. I figured he was describing something made with besan added to the kadhi. I first thought it was pakoda kadhi and thought I will make fried pakodas for him. On second thoughts I wondered if it was gatta that he was referring to. The first time I came across gatta was on a television program where the presenter was Rajasthani and she was explaining how it was a common thing there and that it was considered a good form of protein for vegetarians as it is made with chickpea flour. Gatta is nothing but gram flour/chickpea flour dumpling. Anyway, I then looked up a book by Tarla Dalal and ever so slightly adapted the recipe to make this wonderful kadhi that everyone liked. Don’t get overwhelmed by the list of ingredients, trust me it is very simple to make...

For the gattas:

¾ cup besan
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon yogurt
Turmeric powder
Pinch of ajwain (carom seeds) aka omam
1-2 tablespoon oil
Salt to taste

For the kadhi:

2 cups yogurt
2 tablespoon besan
Few curry leaves
1 teapsoon cumin seeds
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
Asafoetida
A small piece of ginger
1 bay leaf

1 stick cinnamon

2 cloves
Turmeric powder
2 teaspoon chilly powder
2 teaspoon coriander powder
Oil
Salt to taste

To make gatta:

Mix all ingredients and make a firm dough using little water

Roll into a cylinder and cut into about inch long piece, ensure each piece is bite size. Boil these in plenty of water for about 7-8 minutes. It is important that the water is boiling before putting the gattas in. If required you can cut them further now

To make Kadhi

Beat the besan and yogurt together and add some water to thin it and ensure there are no lumps.

Heat little oil and add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, ginger, bay leaf, asafoetida, cinnamon, cloves and once the seeds crackle add the turmeric powder, chilly powder and coriander powder

Add this to the yogurt besan mixture and allow to just boil on low flame

Add the gatta and simmer for few minutes and add salt

Serve hot with rice!

You can enjoy this as a soup as well so the gattas fill you up while the yogurt cools you down.

Mango Kadhi

Mango Kadhi


It is almost mango season in India and that is one thing that I terribly miss. It is such a shame that the ones we get here are nowhere near the desi ones in terms of taste, flavour or even appearance. Having said that, I was still tempted to buy a couple of them at a shop when I saw the price low. It had been a while and the mango had ripened quite a bit and I had no choice but to make something out of it. The last time I made gravy with it, it came out quite well but this time I did not have much time and wanted something even simpler. I decided to make a kadhi so that it would go well with the rice I was making. I looked at few recipes and many suggested we need chilli paste, ginger paste etc. and honestly I could not be bothered blending them all separately to make such a simple dish. Again I was just a bit more practical and did not miss out on any of the flavours. Here is how I made it…

1 mango, seed and skin removed
½ inch piece ginger
1 green chilly
1 cup yogurt
1 tablespoon gram flour (chickpea flour)
Salt to taste

For tempering:
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 dry red chilly
¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
Turmeric powder
Asafoetida
Curry leaves

Blend together the ginger and the green chilly adding water if needed. Add the mango and make a pulp and mix this with yogurt and gram flour.  Mix well ensuring there are no lumps. You could add a wee bit of water depending on how thick you want the kadhi

Heat some oil in a kadai/skillet and add the ingredients for tempering

Add the mango-yogurt mixture and stir. Allow it to boil briefly on slow flame and add salt after taking off the flame

Serve hot or cold!

It could even be consumed like a soup.

Tomato Kadhi/Tomato Soup

Tomato Kadhi/Tomato Soup with a difference

God must have been in a great mood while creating tomatoes, he has given them wonderful colour and also flavour. Everytime I run low on stock of tomato, I get restless and need to go shopping. A wonderful vegetable that saves my day quite often! It was interesting to learn that tomatoes were initially considered toxic and to cause cancer and for this reason were avoided in the US until about 1800s. It is said that a traveller introduced it in his hometown of Salem by showing people that nothing happened tohim after eating a basket full of tomatoes. Recent research show that its current popularity is for good reason. The red pigment in the tomato, lycopene, is suppose to be a good anti-oxidant and key in preventing few cancers. Knowing all the benefits of tomatoes makes cooking even better because I know I am doing good for my family. It is a shame though that I cannot eat tomatoes raw because of my allergy to uncooked tomato.

My brother and sister-in-law were going to visit us and I was struggling to find time to cook. I had decided I will make corn pulav but was also thinking of a side dish. In the interest of time, I ditched that plan and wanted to make something simple, yet special. As the corn pulav did not have anything to give it a sour taste, I chose to make something with loads of tomato as a side dish for the pulav. I thought I will follow Tarla Dalal’s recipe for this but I must admit, I got lost but ended up with a very interesting dish. This dish can either be served as a soup or on the side with rice. Here is how I did it...

5 tomatoes

½ teaspoon chilly powder

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

2 tablespoons besan (Bengal gram flour/chickpea flour)

1 sprig curry leaves (optional)

1 small cinnamon stick (optional)

Salt to taste

Asafoetida

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Dry roast and grind:

3 cloves

3 dry red chillies

2 teaspoon coriander seeds

Wash and cook the tomatoes in half cup water. Cool and blend. If desired, pass through a strain to get rid of skin and seeds. I chose to keep them.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, add a teaspoon oil, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Once mustard crackles, add asafoetida, turmeric powder (and curry leaves, cinnamon if using) and the chickpea flour (besan) and fry for a couple of minutes, be careful not to burn it.

Add the tomato and dilute with about half cup water. Allow it to boil.

Add chilly powder and the ground spice powder

Simmer for few more minutes, season with salt. Add dollops of yogurt before serving.

If you do not have time to roast and grind the spices, just add coriander powder, more chilly powder. Add few cloves along with cinnamon.

Kadhi is a traditional Gujarati dish and they tend to add some sweetness to the dish. If desired, you could add some jaggery.

Charred Aubergine/Brinjal/Eggplant Raita (Pachadi)

I need no excuse to cook eggplant as I just Love it. But it was interesting to find that the plant is native to India. Also interestingly its name has originated from Sanskrit. It is such a beautiful looking and cooking vegetable. I could just keep rambling about it but it is suffice to say I very much miss the variety of brinjals that I could get in India. We get only the Spanish ones here and the wee ones can be found in Indian stores if lucky. My mother-in-law used to tell me that she was warned not to eat brinjals while pregnant as they thought it could make the baby’s skin dark. She being a nutritionist, decided it was not quite possible and that if anything, the iron content in brinjal will be helpful. And guess what, my husband is not dark.


This particular recipe I am sharing is one of my favourites. It is quite simple and quick to make. My grandmother used to make it often for me. She used to make it with the green brinjals. I had to be happy with the big Spanish brinjal but the dish was still yummy. Ithink this is one of the many recipes that shows that Indian cooking is not always about using a number of different spices, but just few simple ingredients can come a long way. Here is the how to make it part...

1 aubergine or more depending on variety you are using

1teaspoon mustard seeds

2-3 green chillies

1 sprig curry leaves (optional)

Asafoetida (optional)

1.5 cups yogurt, slightly beaten

Salt to taste

Wash and wipe the brinjal. On the stovetop char the aubergine on direct flame. As the aubergine gets cooked, fluids will ooze out of it and it will cave in when done.

Put it in a cup of water, preferably cold, so you can peel the skin off. Transfer to a bowl and mash it with a fork. It is not very nice to have it smooth so keep it a bit chunky.

In a small pan or kadai, add less than a teaspoon of oil. Once hot, add the mustard seeds and after it splutters, add the chopped green chillies, asafoetida, curry leaves.

Add this tempering to the brinjal and mix with yogurt. Wonderful charred brinjal raita ready!

You could add some urd dal to the tempering. If you like you can also add turmeric powder to it to get the yellow colour.

Radish Raita/Radish Pachadi

Radish Raita/Radish Pachadi
Radish was always far down in my list of vegetables I like. Mom use to make radish sambar but I would so dislike the smell of radish and never bothered to give it a try. It was after wedding that I gave it a shot in my mother-in-law’s place. She had made a salad which my husband usually enjoys. I then revisited my list and moved radish up. My mom used to get a bunch of fresh white radish just uprooted from the ground from a field adjacent to the place where she would go for morning walks. Just the sight of those fresh radish would be tempting enough but there is another great reason why love for radish is well worth it. And that is because it is called free food...hold on, you got to pay to buy it but it is free to eat i.e. it is almost empty on calories with just about 16 calories per 100g. Isn’t that great? The Tesco here stocks Mooli, the white radish but they are not as good as the ones I used to enjoy in India so I buy the British radish. These are small turnip shaped red-pink coloured radishes. Despite their size they are so rich in nutrition including vitamin C, folates and minerals like iron, magnesium, copper and calcium. If all this goodness is not enough, this dish does not need any cooking and is quick to make.
1 packet of radish (about 10-15 radishes)
¼ teaspoon cumin powder (jeera powder)
¼ teaspoon coriander powder (dhania powder)
Salt as required
1 cup yogurt/curd
Wash the radish in cold running water. Cut the root end and holding each of them by the side where the leaves would have been, grate the radish. There is no need to peel the skin. Once salted the radish give up water and could make the raita watery so do the rest of the preparation just before serving. Add curd and salt (if required) and the cumin and coriander powder. Raita is ready for you to enjoy.
I love this raita and can finish a bowl of it all by myself. It goes very well with a variety of rice and breads especially if you have spicy side dishes. Hope you enjoy it.

Spinach Raita

Raita is a yoghurt based condiment and usually contains vegetables. It is my belief that the intent of having raita is to help cope with the heat and spices in the main meal. There are some vegetables like onion and cucumber that are commonly used for raita. I wanted to do something different but did not have lot of vegetables left in my fridge. I had however left a tiny portion of spinach which I couldn’t have used for anything else. Spinach, as everyone knows is one of five a day vegetable. The green leaves are rich in iron,folates and calcium as well. This raita may make it easier to enable children to have spinach as it is otherwise not quite popular among kids. Here is the key to this simple raita...
1 cup spinach washed
3-4 cloves garlic
1-2 green chillies chopped
Yoghurt
Salt if required
Less than a teaspoon cooking oil
In a saucepan, add oil and garlic and chillies. Fry for a couple of minutes and add spinach. Once the spinach wilts, take off the stove and allow to cool. Grind to make a paste and add desired amount of yoghurt. Season with salt if desired. I try to reduce salt intake as much as possible and prefer to bank on the flavour from yoghurt.
You could serve this raita with a main dish that may not have green vegetables just so that the meal is balanced. If you do not like garlic, you may want to use ginger instead.

Tomato Pachadi / Raita

Tomato Pachadi/Raita

Tomato is an everyday vegetable in our household. I would normally feel very uncomfortable if I had anywhere less than 4 tomatoes in stock. I think it is such a versatile vegetable and possibilities are endless with tomatoes. In a way, tomato does amaze me. I was always used to having cooked tomato. My husband was insisting on me eating more fresh vegetables in the form of salads and so one fine day I tried adding tomato to the channa sundal when snacking at work. Few minutes later my mouth felt funny and kind of itchy and burning. I thought it may be the tomato but just ignored it. Couple of years later when I was tested for allergies for a different reason they found that I was allergic to uncooked tomatoes. I found it quite strange coz I seem to be bothered only when I eat uncooked cut tomato but tomato juice does no harm.

My mother-in-law does a far simpler version of tomato raita wherein she mixes cut tomatoes with curd and seasons. However, due to my allergies and preference to my mom’s raita recipe, I always do it my mom’s way.

3 big tomatoes cut into bite sized cubes

2 green chillies

1 cup yogurt/curd

Mustard seeds

Few curry leaves

Turmeric powder

Chilly powder

Cooking oil

Asafoetida

In a kadai heat oil and put the mustard seeds. After the seeds stop spluttering, add some turmeric powder and curry leaves and ensure they do not get burnt. Add the green chillies and tomatoes. As I prefer to have the tomatoes a bit chunky in the raita but at the same time I want it to be well cooked with in its own juice, I add a little bit of salt at this stage. Once the tomatoes are cooked, add some chilly powder. Cook for a couple of more minutes and season. Add the yogurt/curd and if desired garnish with coriander leaves.

I make this recipe atleast once a week to go with lime rice. It tastes great when mixed with plain rice and even curd rice.

Tomato is supposed to be rich in Vitamin A and C and is one of the five-a-day veggie. I find this a yummy way to have the healthy and beautiful tomato !! And as I understand, tomatoes are considered as fruit and not veggie !!