Senai Kadi(Elephant Yam dal)

Senai Kadi or Elephant Yam Dal or Senai Kootu is one of my favourite dish .Everytime my mom makes it ,I will be eagerly waiting to have it with hot rice and paruppu and a spoon of ghee.Generally we make a shallow fry with senai kizhanghu or elephant yam  which is usually loaded with calories as we use a lot of oil to shallow fry it.But this is a very healthy and tasty alternative to use this root vegetable .My mom used to say that is a dish which she learnt from my paternal grandmother who hails from Thirunelveli.

Preparation time :30 minutes

Serves:3

Ingredients:

Elephant yam or senai (chopped)- 200 gms

Moong dal or pasi paruppu -5 tbsp

Finely chopped green chillies-2 nos

Finely chopped ginger-1/2 inch

Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp

Hing or asafetida-1/2 tsp

Tamarind - 1 small gooseberry size 

Salt- to taste

Oil-1 tbsp

Coriander leaves-to garnish

To be grind to a fine paste:

Shredded coconut-5 tbsp

To temper:

Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds-1/2 tsp

Urad Dal-1 tsp

Red chillies-2

Curry leaves-few

Procedure:

1.Soak the tamarind in half cup of water for 20 mins and extract the pulp.Pressure cook the diced yam along with chopped green chillies and ginger ,moong dal,turmeric powder and hing.

2.Grind the coconut to a fine thick paste .

3.Heat the tamarind pulp till the raw smell goes off.Add the ground coconut paste to the cooked yam and dal mixture .

4.Now add the tamarind extract to it and temper it with the ingredients given for tempering .

5.Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with plain rice and rasam.

Murungakkai Porichakootu (Drumstick Dal)

 Drumstick has a unique aroma which makes any dish to which it is added very scrumptious and flavorful .We have a drumstick tree at my mom's place and every trip of mine to Coimbatore ensures a big bundle of drumsticks parceled back to Chennai.So the following fortnight in my house has a lot of dishes which includes drumsticks .One such delectable and succulent dish is this murungaikai porichakootu or drumstick dal. There are two versions of this recipe and the one here is my mother in law's version and it is my hubby's favourite too.

It is very simple yet delicious and goes well with a bowl of hot plain rice and a spoon of ghee.Soon I will give my mom's version too.

Preparation time:30 mins

Serves:4

Ingredients:

Drumsticks cut to 2 inch pieces -3 nos

Cooked Toor dal or pigeon peas -1 cup

Turmeric powder-1 tsp

Hing or asafetida-1/2 tsp

Salt -to taste

Oil(coconut oil or sesame oil)-1 tbsp

Fresh coriander leaves-few to garnish 

To be grind to a fine paste:

Grated coconut-5 tbsp

Red chillies-3(increase or decrease according to your spice level)

Green chillies-1(optional)

Jeera or cumin -1 tsp

To temper :

Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp

Jeera or cumin-1/2 tsp

Urad dal -1 tsp

Curry leaves-few

Procedure:

1.Grind the items given above for grinding to a fine paste.

2.Boil the drumsticks in a wok with 2 cups of water along with hing,turmeric powder and salt.

3.Once the drumsticks are soft and succulent add the cooked and mashed toor dal and the ground coconut paste.

4.Keep the fame low and let the kootu boil for 8-10 mins.Then switch off the flame and add the ingredients given for tempering in oil .After the mustard splutter add it to the murungaikai porichakootu or drumstick dal.

5.Serve hot with plain rice and papad or it tastes good even with rotis.

Tips:

*Do not cook the drumsticks in pressure cooker as it looses texture.

*You can add snake gourd(pudalangai) or avaraikkai(Lima beans) to this poricha kootu along with drumstick.
*You can increase or decrease the red chillies based on your spice level and as they are the only source  which gives some heat to this dish.

Beetroot Dal(Beetroot Kootu)

Beetroot Dal(Beetroot Kootu)

 I was not too familiar with Beetroot dal or Beetroot kootu until I got married and was served Beetroot Kootu for lunch with my new family after marriage.I always like to have beetroot as a stir-fry along with rasam or sambhar and not as a dal.I was hesitant at first but it didn't taste quite bad as how I thought and it was tasting really nice.My husband likes this beetroot dal a lot and I was forced to cook it quite often at my house.So this frequent dish made me to tailor the recipe a bit to suit my tastebuds as well. And after slight changes,voila ! beetroot dal became my favourite too.I tried to balance the sweetness of beetroot with some heat from the green chillies(the original version didn't have any and was more on a sweeter side) .The preparation is very simple and the outcome is too delicious to believe that with such simple ingredients one could get such an outcome.It tastes great with chappathi or roti and goes well even with rice and rasam/thogaiyal(chutney).

Beetroot Dal

 Preparation time-20 mins

Serves-3

Ingredients:

Finely chopped beetroot-250 gms

Moon Dal/Pasiparuppu-8 tbsp

Sambhar powder-1 heaped spoon

Turmeric powder-1 tsp

Hing-1 tsp

salt-to taste

Grated Coconut(Ground to a fine paste)-4 tbsp

Oil-1 tbsp

Fresh Coriander leaves-to garnich

To temper:

Mustard Seeds-1/2 tsp

Jeera-1/2 tsp

Urad dal-1/2 tsp

Slit green chillies-1 or 2 (according to your choice)

Curry leaves-few

Procedure:

1.Pressure cook the chopped beetroot and moong dal with turmeric powder,hing and sambhar powder for 4 whistles or till the beetroot and dal are cooked.

2.Once they are cooked,add salt and coconut paste to it .Add water to it if the mixture is too thick and heat it on a low flame for 5 minutes and temper it with the ingredients given for tempering.Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with chapathi,rice or roti.

Tips:

*You can add chopped onions and tomatoes ,by sauteing them one after the other during tempering the ingredients.

*Do not omit coconut paste and sambhar powder as they both are the star ingredients for a superb taste.

Beetroot Dal(Beetroot Kootu)

Kothavaranga Pulikootu(Cluster beans in tamarind gravy)

Kothavarangai or cluster beans are very nutritious and a low-calorie option.When I was a kid I didn't like it a lot as it sometimes has an after taste bitterness if the cluster beans are not very tender.once my mom made this very tasty pulikootu with kothavarangai and from that moment I liked this vegetable.as we add tamarind there was no bitterness and it tasted scrumptious .mostly everybody makes a poriyal or paruppu usli with this vegetable.but you must surely try this and goes well with any thogaiyal or mor khuzhambu or just with plain rice.

Preparation time:20 mins

Serves:2

Ingredients:

Kothavarangai or cluster beans-250 gms

Gram dhal-2 tbsp

Tamarind-1 small goose berry size(don't add too much otherwise the dish will turn sour)

Sambar powder-1 1/2 tsp

Grated coconut -3 tbsp

Curry podi(optional)-1 tsp

Turmeric powder-1 tsp

Hing-1/2 tsp

Jaggery -1/2 tsp

Fresh coriander leaves- to garnish

Oil-1 tsp

To temper:

Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp

Jeera-1/2 tsp

Urad dal-1/2 tsp

Curry leaves-few

Procedure:

1.Boil one cup of water in a wok with the gram dhal,turmeric powder and hing added to it.Once it starts boiling,add cluster beans and simmer the flame and close the wok with a lid and cook till the cluster beans are soft.

2.Meanwhile,soak tamarind in water and extract it's juice.once the cluster beans are cooked add tamarind juice,sambar powder and salt to it .Let it boil till the raw flavour of sambar powder is gone.

3.Grind a tsp of curry powder with coconut in a mixer to a fine paste.

4.Add this ground paste to the cluster beans mixture and let it boil for another 5 mins on slow flame.After 5 mins,switch off the flame and add the coriander leaves and jaggery.

5.In a separate pan,add oil and all the tempering ingredients and after the mustard splutters add it to the cluster beans gravy.The kothavarangai puli kootu is ready and serve it hot with any thogaiyal and plain rice.

Tips:

*You can skip curry powder if you don't have.

*Curry powder : Dry roast and grind to a fine powder the following.

                          Urad dal-1 tbsp

                          Gram dal-1 tbsp

                          Coriander seeds-1 tbsp

                          Red chillies-4 nos