Potato Moong Salad

Potato salad is quite filling and so can easily be substituted for a meal. It is considered to have lower GI if eaten boiled, not mashed and cool; hence is a good choice for people who want to lose weight. It is very wholesome with carbohydrates, protein and other nutrients.

Serves:  2

Preparation Time:  15 minutes

Cooking Time:  5 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Potatoes – 2

2.    Moong sprouts – 1 cup

3.    Tomato – 1

4.    Onion – 1

5.     Green chili – 1

6.    Pepper crushed – ¼ tsp

7.     Salt as per taste

8.    Lemon – ½

9.    Olive oil – ½ tbsp

10.            Coriander chopped – 1 tbsp (optional)

Method:

Step 1: Boil the potatoes with salt, peel and cube them.

Step 2: Steam the sprouts with a pinch of salt.

Step 3: Chop the onion, tomato, green chili finely.

Step 4: Take all of these in a mixing bowl, sprinkle enough salt, crushed pepper; drizzle olive oil and juice of half a lemon and toss them well.

Step 5: Check and adjust taste before serving normal temperature or chilled.

Neer Mor Saadam

Coming from a village in Tamil Nadu, I am very much acquainted with pazhayathu or pazhanjaadam or neer  mor saadam. Though it is not a regular summer practice at our home, we did relish it often during the scorching summer while on vacation to our native. But now, knowing its benefits I have made this as our summer breakfast at least thrice a week. It cools the body, acts as a wonderful probiotic, very light and yet nutritious, completely medicinal yet tastes heavenly (of course, you need to have a taste for it.)

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 2 minutes

Cooking Time: NA

Ingredients:

1.      Steamed rice – 2 cups (Should not be hot or warm)

2.    Water – 1 lt

3. Salt – 1 tbsp (Body requires more salt and water to fight summer)

4.    Butter milk – ½ cup

Ø Preferably a mud pot to soak in.

Ø To accompany peeled raw shallots (madras vengayam or sambar vengayam) are the best, though green chilies or yoghurt chilies or the like would go well.

Method:

Step 1: Take the clean mud pot and put the steamed rice into it. The rice should not be hot.

Step 2: Add a litre of water, butter milk and enough salt.

Step 3: Mix well and leave it closed overnight.

Step 4: In the morning, stir well and serve with onion or chilies.

TIPS:

*My mom adds citrus leaves and curry leaves to give it an awesome flavour. Sometimes I fancy it with lemon rinds.

*My mom’s aunt makes tempering to it with mustard, asafoetida, yoghurt chilies, and crushed garlic with peel.

*Some people add chopped onion and chilies to it so that they don’t have to take them separately; I prefer them freshly bitten (oru kadi, oru kudi ;) that’s the classic way to have the dish)

Dosakai Kababs

Dosakai is a vegetable that seems like a yellow ball and is used mainly in Andhra recipes. I had got them from my vegetable vendor and was hunting for a novel recipe to try with it. I happened to come across a snake gourd recipe which I adapted, replaced snake gourd with dosakai and tried the recipe. This is a super hit starter with our friends. This is a must try for deep fried snack lovers or even as party starters. 

Serves: Yields 25 kebabs

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Dosakai – 1

2.     Snake gourd finely chopped – ¼ cup (Optional)

3.     Green chilies – 2

4.     Gram flour – 3 tbsp

5.     Bread crumbs – ½ cup

6.     Salt to taste

7.     Corn flour – 1 tbsp

8.     Red chili powder – 1 tsp

9.     Asafoetida – 1tsp

10.            Lemon – 1

11.             Cumin powder – 1 tsp

12.             Oil for deep frying

Dosakai / Dosakaya

Method: 

Step 1: I had chopped the dosakai and snake gourd after peeling but I think grating coarsely should be better. Chop green chilies finely.

Step 2: Add gram flour, corn flour, chili powder, asafoetida, cumin powder, salt and juice of a lemon and mix well. No water must be required as the vegetables leave water. If in case it is too water to roll into balls, add some gram flour, corn flour or even bread crumbs.

Step 3: Make them into to small lemon sized balls and roll them in bread crumbs. Once done, refrigerate it for at least half an hour. You can even freeze them for longer in case you want to.

Step 4: Heat oil in a deep kadai, and deep fry the kebabs till golden brown.

Step 5: Serve with ketchup, green chutney or fresh salad.