CHETTINAD SPECIAL MANGAI VENDAIKKAI MOCHAI MANDI

Ah!! It's very hot here in Chennai, but one thing I like about it is the Mangoes.  Mangoes are available throughout summer.  Be it a tiny baby tender mango which is used to make Maavadu (a kind of pickle without oil), raw mangoes or riped one, my family likes in any form.  This is the starting season here and I started including in all the recipes. 

Moving to this particular recipe, this is a authentic Chettinad region recipe which is very famous there, Vendaikkai Mandi.  Mandi is the washed water taken from rice which adds a special flavor to the recipe.  DH is very fond of this recipe and asks me to prepare this often.  Adding mangoes to the dish adds a unique taste to the dish.  This dish can be mixed and eaten with cooked rice.

Ingredients:

Ladies Finger - 1/4 kg

Raw Mango - 1 small cup (cut in cubes)

Onion - 2 (chopped)

Tomato - 1  (chopped)

Garlic pods - 10

Pressure cooked Mochai (Field Beans) - 1 cup

Arisi Mandi (Washed water from rice) - 3 cups

Tamarind  - small gooseberry sized soaked in Mandi water

Chilly powder - 1-2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Salt - To taste

Oil - 2 tsp

To Temper:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Slit green chillies - 2 

Preparation:

1. Dry roast Mochai for a minute or two in a thick bottomed pan and pressure cook for 6 whistles or until soft along with salt and a  pinch of turmeric powder.  You can also soak overnight and pressure cook for 2 whistles.

2. Wash 1/2 cup of rice in water and then add 3 cups of water and soak for 5 minutes, drain this water and soak the gooseberry sized tamarind in this.  

3. Meanwhile cut the ladies finger in 1", raw mangos in cube size, chop the onions and tomatoes and keep it ready, and peel the outer skin of garlic pods.

            

 

4.  In a heavy bottomed kadai, add 2 tsp of oil, when hot throw in mustard seeds, slit green chillies, and few curry leaves.

5. Add the onion and tomatoes, later drop the ladies finger and cut cubed mangoes.  

                  

 

6. Add salt, chilly powder, coriander powder and saute well.

                  

 

7.  Add the extracted mandi-tamarind based water to the mixture and let this cook in medium flame.

8.  Once the vegetable has cooked well, add the cooked mochai and let this boil for 5 more minutes. 

 9.  The final outcome will neither be too water nor too thick.            

          

 

 10. Serve hot with cooked rice.  We relished with two curries, kovaikkai (Tindora) and pagarkai (Bitter gourd).  It was a full appetizing meal indeed.

CHETTINAD KARUNAI KIZHANGU KARA KUZHAMBU

Karunai Kizhangu is from Yam's family but am not sure about its perfect English name.  Its smaller in size (refer the pic below) and creates prickliness in the tongue if not properly cooked but it has lot of healthy benefits.  To eliminate the itchiness, this is prepared in a tangy way adding thick tamarind sauce.

I learnt this recipe with DH.  Because of the itchy nature, I avoid buying this vegetable but recently I need to rush to office on a weekend for a support and I requested hubby to manage the lunch eating outside but to my surprise he has cooked on that day.  When I returned home, he insisted me to taste the kuzhambu and it was simply superb.  DH is more concentrated towards Chettinad cuisine as he hails from that region and the addition of right amount of tamarind sauce with necessary spice powders make the dish look more colorful and flavorful.  Then next weekend, with his inputs, I prepared this kuzhambu and it came out more than as desired.  From then, in a very short interval, I have prepared this dish many times.  

Ingredients:

Pidi Karunai - 1/2 kg

Peeled small onion - 1 cup

Garlic (optional) - 10-15 pods or as desired

Tomato - 2

Sambar powder - 2 tsp

Chilly powder -2 tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Tamarind water (Extracted from pulp)- 2 cups

Salt - as desired

Oil - as desired

To Temper:

Curry leaves - few

Mustard seeds -  1 small tsp

Fenugreek seeds -  1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Pressure cook the vegetable for 2 whistles.  Make sure not to overcook as it would turn mushy.

                       

 

2.  Extract the tamarind water from the soaked tamarind pulp.

3.  Peel small onions and garlic pods and keep it ready.

4. In a heavy bottomed vessel, add oil as desired and throw in the tempering items one by one (mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, and curry leaves).  

5. Add small onions, garlic pod, and tomatoes.  Peel the skin of the cooked vegetable (karunai Kizhangu) and cut it in 1 inch size and add it to the mixture and mix well.

                       

 

6.  Add salt, chilly powder, coriander powder, and sambar powder and mix well.

                         

 

7.  Add the extracted tamarind water and let it boil in low flame until everything gets cooked and mixed well.  The more the boiling time, the more the taste would be.

                           

 

8.  At one stage, the gravy would thicken with nice color coat over the gravy and oil starts to float on top. Switch of the stove and transfer to a vessel.

9.  Enjoy this lip smacking kara kuzhambu with steamed white rice.  

I prepared along with spinach kootu and potato fry and it tasted awesome.   

CHETTINAD CAULIFLOWER RASAM

I first tasted this rasam during my visit to my Periyamma's place (Mother's sister).  She lived in Chettinad region for many years and learnt this recipe from that place.  I like it from the very first time.  This can also be taken as soup or can also go well with cooked rice. Addition of ginger, pepper, jeera would give medicinal flavor and aroma to the rasam and would be a soothing relief for sore throat.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower florets (Washed in warm water) - 1 cup

Riped tomatoes - 3 big size

Onion - 1

Lemon (cut in half) - One half

Cooked toor dhal - 1/2 cup

Green chilly - 1 or 2

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Salt to taste

Curry and coriander leaves - few

To grind:

Pepper - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1/2 tsp

To temper:

Ghee/oil- 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Cook toor dhal in pressure cooker and keep it separately.

2.  Wash the cauliflower florets in warm water.  Keep the items given in the ingredients list ready before preparation.

                          

 

3. In a heavy bottomed kadai, a tsp of ghee/oil add the mustard seeds and wait until it crackles. Add green chilly and curry leaves and later followed by cut onions.  When the onions turn brown, add the tomatoes.

                          

 

4.  Once the tomatoes turn mushy, add the caulifower florets, salt, and turmeric powder.  Add 1.5 cups of water and let the cauliflower gets cooked in that.

                     

5. In between, powder jeera and pepper in a mixer and keep this ready.  Once the florets are cooked, add the powder followed by mashed cooked toor dhal.

                        

 

6.  When the rasam gets frothy, switch off the flame, garnish with coriander leaves and squeeze out the juice from the cut lemon.  

Now the aromatic cauliflower rasam is ready to serve.  This can be taken as such as a soup.  The crunchiness and taste of onions and cauliflower adds an additional zing to the dish.  

Happy New Year - Mysore Pak (Burfi)

Hearty New Year Wishes to all my readers.  Sorry for not posting for quite some time as I was settling down slowly after the Chennai floods.   Lot of personal priorities to be taken care of and I took some time to clear one by one.

Last year was a remarkable year for me both in person and professional front.  Lot of wishes and dreams have come true.  The start of the new year is also divine.  I went to the famous Tirumala and had a very good darshan on two consecutive days.  Looking forward this year with lot of hopes..

I thought to start the new year with a sweet.   Here's the recipe for Mysore Pak.  Very easy and authentic recipe which can be made in just half an hour.  The quantity can yield around 30 to 35 medium sized mysore paks.  

Ingredients:

Bengal gram flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 cups

Melted Ghee - 1.5 cups

Sugar for sprinkling - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

Preparation:

 1. Sieve the bengal gram flour to get rid of lumps.  This is a must to be done step to get a perfect mysore paks.  Grease a plate with ghee as a ready step.  Due to lighting, the flour looks white in color instead of pale yellow.

2.  In a heavy bottom pan, add a tsp of ghee and fry the flour until the raw smell of flour vanishes. This would hardly take 3-5 minutes.

3. In a heavy bottom pan, add sugar with water enough to immerse it (approximately half cup of water).

4. Boil until 1 string consistency.  If you take the ladle, a string will form as shown in picture.

5. Add the flour slowly stirring continuously.  The flame should be in low to medium side during this step.  Don't worry if lumps are seen, slowly it will disappear if you keep stirring continuously.

6. Add ghee in between slowly and keep stirring until the ghee mixes and add the next batch of ghee slowly.  

                              

7. At one stage, the color changes and add 2 tsp of oil.  Adding oil would bring tiny hollows to the mysore pak as like in shops which would taste crispy and stiff while eating.

7.  At one stage, the whole mixture starts frothy as shown in the picture.  Also there will be a fragrance filled of cooked besan in ghee.  

                          

 

8. When the mixture comes as ball without sticking to the base, pour it to the greased plate.  Do not flatten it, it will spread it by itself.

9. Sprinkle a tsp of sugar over the mixture.  This is an optional step but would given an excellent touch to the sweet.  Slice according to your desire, either square, rectangle or diamond.  Being a woman, I fond of diamonds, so cut in diamond shaped :-) .

11.  Soft melting mysore paks are ready to be served to your loved ones. 

Note:  Do not reduce the sugar and ghee level as it would turn out giving hard mysore paks.  The quantity given here has been tried multiple times and has always been perfect.