INGI KARUVEPILLAI THOGAIYAL

Weekends are getting busier and busier.  Most of the weekends, had relatives and friends visiting home and mostly involved in cooking an elaborate or special meal for them.  However, I could find no time for clicking pictures :(.  

Ten days back, Jr. H turned eight and I cooked an elaborate meal all alone for family and friends.  It was the first time I managed to cook for 25 people.  I would say I managed it to near perfect :-)..

Moving to today's recipe, this is one of the pathiya samaiyal recipe I prepare once in a month.  This recipe has lot of medicinal benefits.  Ingi (ginger) is known for alleviating gastrointestinal problems and helps in loss of appetite and karuvepillai (curry leaves) has a rich source of iron and folic acid and accelerates hair growth.  Addition of sesame seeds add extra medicinal benefits which include but not limited to preventing wrinkles, lowering cholesterol, healthy skin etc.,  This thogaiyal can be mixed with hot rice or can be taken as a side dish for curd rice/tiffin items.

Ingredients:

Curry leaves - 1 cups (tightly packed)

Ginger - 50 g

Coconut - 1/2 cup (small sized)

Tamarind - gooseberry sized (soaked in warm water)

Jaggery - little

Salt - To taste

To roast and grind

Sesame seeds - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Red chillies - 10

Urad dhal - 3 tsp

Asafoetida - small piece

Peppercorns - 10 in number

Preparation:

1. Wash curry leaves in fresh cold water and keep it aside.  Wash and cut the ginger lengthwise as shown in picture. 

 2. Dry roast sesame seeds in a pain until it splutters and keep aside.

3. In the same pan, add little oil, roast the items given in to roast section.  Transfer the contents to a plate.

4.  In the same pan, add the curry leaves and ginger lastly and keep in flame until the curry leaves shrink and the raw smell of the curry leaves disappears.  Add tamarind and shredded coconut finally and keep in flame for half a minute. 

                           

 

5. Grind smoothly the ginger-curry leaves-coconut mixture with salt and red chillies first.  Add little water while grinding if necessary. 

 6.  Add the roasted ingredients to the ground mixture and grind it coarsely.  Finally add little jaggery and run the mixer in whipper mode for 10 sec.

7. Enjoy with plain rice or curd rice.

We enjoyed this thogaiyal along with chow chow carrot kootu and paruppu rasam.