Carrot Ginger Soup

Actually, this is an uncomplicated thick soup probably would fall under bisque category. I prefer accompanying this with light or no dinner. There are few dishes I like to add cooked carrots and this is one of them that brings out a wonderful flavor, taste and color of carrots.

Ingredients:

1. Carrot - 5

2. Ginger - 2" piece

3. Milk - 1/2 cup

4. Olive oil - 1 tbsp

5. Pepper crushed - 1/2 tsp

6. Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Peel and slice the carrots and ginger.

Step 2: In a pan, toss sliced vegetables with  olive oil in medium heat. 

Step 3: Saute them until tender. Let it cool down.

Step 4: Grind them fine in a mixer jar with some water as required.

Step 5: Heat milk in the same pan that is used to saute, stir in the pureed veggies and season with salt and pepper. Adjust consistency with water or milk.

Step 6: Garnish with fresh cream and serve it hot or warm.

Kathirikai kaarakuzhambu

Kaarakuzhambu is a thick spicy curry that is eaten with steamed rice. Coming from a village background, I have grown up seeing peasants and laborers consuming this almost everyday for supper. This is a preferred curry for mass cooking as it is simple, economical and quite filling. Even today, while I stand in the balcony or terrace, I see in the construction sites here and there someone cooking with small stoves making rice in pots and karakuzhambu in sattis, the aroma appetites me in no time. More than the taste of the dish itself, it is the love and gratitude I've seen these people eating it with after the whole day's exhaustion, they celebrate the mere satisfaction of hunger for food; sometimes they stay far away from their families for work yet become family with people around. I really envy their attitude of living in the present.

Ingredients:

1. Brinjal - 5

2. Onion - 1

3. Tomato - 1

4. Garlic - 1/2 pod

5. Gingelly oil - 2 tbsp

6. Vengaya vadagam - 1/4 ball or 1 heap tbsp 

7. Curry powder - 2 tbsp

8. Tamarind - gooseberry size or 2 tbsp store bought pulp

9. Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Wash and chop brinjal, tomato, onion and peel the garlic cloves.

Step 2: If using tamarind, soak the tamarind in water and squeeze out pulp and keep aside.

Step 2: In a kadai heat the gingelly oil and add vengaya vadagam to it. 

Step 3: Once the spices splutters and browns well, add onion, garlic to saute until soft; then add tomato and finally the brinjal. Saute for 2 minutes.

Step 4: Add curry powder, salt and water and let it boil for 10 minutes in low flame.

Step 5: Add the tamarind pulp and stir to boil for 5 more minutes.

Step 6: Serve with hot steamed rice along with papad.

TIPS:

* Vengaya vadagam is a mixture of spices along with onion that are soaked in castor oil and then sun dried; it is said to have lot of medicinal properties in addition to the strong flavour it renders to the curry. 

* If vengaya vadagam is not available, you can splutter the spices like mustard, cumin seeds, fenugreek, asafoetida, red chilies, curry leaves and urad dal seperately before adding the vegetables.

* Kaarakuzhambu can be prepared with other vegetables like potato, ladies finger, radish, colocasia or drumstick also.

Beetroot Juice

Today my husband prepared some beetroot juice for me with little help from me which entitles me to add it into this blog. I have had beet soups still not really the beet juice; usually beet juice is mixed with carrot juice for some reason but he made with plain beets. It had a very dark purple color and was dense in flavour. Beet juice is said to have treasures of minerals and is beneficial for blood. It looked so glamorous and tasted good.

Ingredients:

1. Beetroot - 4

2. Salt - 1/2 tsp

3. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

4. Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Step 1: Wash, peel and cut the beet roots into cubes.

Step 2: Using a juicer or a mixer jar extract juice from the vegetable. Strain it well if you are using mixer jar.

Step 3: Chill it in refrigerator, better not to use ice cubes.

Step 4: Add salt, cumin powder, pepper and mix well and pour into serving glasses.

Step 5: Garnish with mint leaves if you've.

Colocasia Fry

Many people do not like colocasia for texture when cooked or for its taste itself. The leaves of colocasia is also rich in iron and has wider culinary usage; however, fry is the most preferred recipe for making this vegetable edible in tamilnadu and I've not seen the leafy colocasia sold around here. Normally colocasia fries are marinated and deep fried; I do not choose to deep fry because I hate reusing that spice flavoured oil and  so I keep away from such recipes as much as possible. And I made a low oil fry, but it is little time consuming relatively but the taste and texture is equally good if not better.

Ingredients:

1. Colocasisa - 10-15
2. Gram flour - 1 tbsp
3. Rice flour - 1 tbsp
4. Corn flour - 1/2 tbsp
5. Curry powder - 1 tbsp
6. Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
8. Salt to taste
9. Oil - 2-3 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Wash, par boil the colocasia, peel them and make thick slices out of them.
Step 2: Mix all the given dry ingredients in a cup well.
Step 3: Heat oil in a non-stick fry pan and put the dry mix into it. Fry for half a minute in low flame and add the colocasia delicately into the pan.
Step 4: Toss to coat the vegetable with masala and them spread them evenly on the surface of the pan with a flat ladle.

Step 5: Flip or toss after 5 minutes to brown on the other side of the vegetable. Keep the heat low  to medium throughout.
Step 6: Once crisp and brown, turn off heat. Overdoing would harden the vegetable.
Step 7: Serve with sambar rice or rasam rice or curd rice. 

Strawberry Custard Pudding

Custards are harmless desserts, I mean it is as good as a milk shake without grease or loads of sugar. We can enhance its goodness with fresh fruits and flavours. I use china grass alias agar-agar as the solidifying agent, it is a vegetarian substitute for gelatin and I learn it has certain health benefits as well.

Ingredients:

1. Milk - 1/2 litre
2. Sugar - 4 tbsp
3. Custard powder - 2 tbsp
4. Strawberry - 8-10
5.Strawberry essence - few drops (Skip if your custard powder is flavoured or you don't have essence)
6. China grass - 1 tbsp (if it is available as strands take say 5-6 of them)

Method:

Step 1: Boil milk with sugar in a thick bottomed pan.
Step 2: In  few spoons of cold milk dissolve the custard powder.
Step 3: Boil  1/4 cup water in a cup and dissolve china grass in it. Strain it if necessary.
Step 4: Slowly pour the custard mix into the boiling milk and keep stirring to avoid formation of lumps. Add essence if you are using it.
Step 5: Switch off the stove and pour the dissolved china grass into the custard. Let it cool down for sometime.
Step 6: In the mean time wash and cut some strawberry slices and arrange them flat in the bowl you are going to set the custard.
Step 7: Chop or pulp the rest of the strawberries and mix it in the custard.
Step 8: Pour the custard slowly into the bowl and set it for at least 6 hours.
Step 9: Take a big plate whose circumference is larger than the custard bowl's; cover the plate upside down over the bowl and now topple it. Tap slightly if it is not coming onto the plate.

TIPS:
* Pineapple/ Raspberry/ Mango and Vanilla are other common flavours of custard pudding. Caramel forms the crust for vanilla flavour instead of fruits.
* The stiffness of custard pudding depends on amount of china grass used and creaminess depends on custard powder and milk.
* Use bowls without inside grooves else the fruits don't stay in place, also while sliding out they may get broken.

Cauliflower Masala

Phool gobi is a big winter gift; those heap of cute, white blossoms are lovely to just look at in the vegetable market, let alone the umpteen recipes that wait the whole year for these to come in season. I still remember the plain salted and blanched cauliflower that I had in Auroville when I was 4 or 5 years old. Cauliflower is so nice as is; so I usually eat a portion of simply blanched gobi whatever dish I prepare with it after that.

I had prepared gobi masala today with phulkas for lunch. It is perhaps a basic recipe that people adapt for gravies like these.

Ingredients:

1. Cauliflower - 1 small
2. Onion - 1
3. Tomato - 1
4. Cashew nut - 5
5. Poppy seeds - 1 tbsp
6. Oil - 2 tbsp
7. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp
9. Chili powder - 1 tsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Garam masala - 1 tsp
12. Coriander chopped - 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Soak the cashews, poppy seeds and grind them into a smooth paste.
Step 2: Clean the cauliflower well and chop or break it into small florets.
Step 3: Heat some water, add turmeric, salt and blanch the florets for just 2 minutes so that they are cooked but firm. Drain them and keep aside.

Step 4: Heat oil in a kadai, crackle cumin seeds, saute ginger garlic paste, finely chopped onion, then add chopped tomato and saute well.
Step 5: Add little water and the ground paste to it and let it boil. Add chili powder, garam masala and salt as per taste.
Step 6: Once the gravy loses raw smell of poppy seeds, toss the blanches cauliflower to it and mix well. Add water you want to thin the gravy, but make sure you don't boil the vegetable longer else it will become mushy.
Step 7: Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot with phulkas.

Puttu With Kadalai Curry

Most of us know kozhaputtu with kondakadalai is a super dooper combo from kerala. Puttu is also called Pittu. When we were on a trip to Kerala my sister initiated this puttu venture; not only did we get the cook from the resort we stayed to demonstrate us puttu & kadalai curry preparation but also bought each of us a puttu kuzha to try it out. For some reason, I assumed puttu is a cumbersome dish and when I tried it myself I realized it was pretty simple. I got puttu flour from store; the preparation of the flour itself would be little complicated. You get many varieties of puttu flours; rice is the usual one used but now you can see variants such as red rice, wheat, bajra, corn, ragi and so on. This time I made corn puttu. Healthy, tasty and colorful :)

Kuzha Puttu making requires a special kind of steamer called puttu kuzha which is shown in the picture below. It has a pot below that holds water, above which the cylindrical part that contains puttu flour is fixed so that the steam from the pot flows above to cook the flour to get soft puttu. A small perforated disc shown in the picture forms the base of the cylindrical part; the small lid with black handle is used to close the cylindrical part while the black twig is used for pushing out the puttu cakes once they are done.

Ingredients:

       For Puttu:

      1. Puttu flour - 1 cup

      2. Salt as reuired

      3. Water - 1/4 cup

      4. Scrapped coconut – ½ cup

       For Kadalai Curry:

1.     Chickpeas - 1 cup

2.     Onion - 1

3.     Tomato - 1

4.     Green chilies - 2

5.     Garlic - 4 cloves

6.     Ginger - 2" piece

7.     Scrapped coconut – 2 tbsp

8.     Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

9.     Salt to taste

10. Red chili powder - 1 tsp

11. Coriander powder - 1 tsp

12. Oil - 2 tbsp

13. Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp finely chopped

14. Lemon - 1/2

Method:

Puttu:

Step 1: Add salt to the water and heat it until warm.

Step 2: Now start boiling water in the puttu pot and prepare flour in parallel. Drizzle few drops of warm salted water over the flour and rub them between your palms. Keep adding drops of water until you get to a stage in which, when you hold a fistful of puttu powder the shape should hold on after releasing the fingers. At the same time don’t add too much water to the flour and make it lumpy or sticky, it should be just a moist powder.

Step 3: Now take the cylindrical portion of the puttu kuzha, drop the perforated disc inside to cover the base, with a lond spoon drop a spoonful of scrapped coconut to spread evenly, then spoon in few spoons of prepared flour and finally cover it with another spoon of scrapped coconut. You can make two or three layers of puttu by filling flour and coconut alternatively depending on the puttu kuzha’s length and the puttu length you desire.

Step 4: Cove the puttu kuzha with its lid and fix it over the steaming puttu pot. Cook for about 4 -10 minutes. Time depends on the width and height of the puttu kuzha.

Step 5: Let it cool for a minute and then tilt the kuzha and push out the puttu with the twig given. If the puttu is not staying in shape it is either under cooked or there is less moisture than required. If undercooked, the flour tastes and smells raw, in which case you can cook it again. This way we can settle with a time estimate for forthcoming batches of puttu.

Kadalai Curry:

Step 1: Wash, soak the chickpeas overnight and pressure cook them with salt.

Step 2: Grind together the chopped tomato, green chilies, garlic and coconut.

Step 3: Heat oil in a pan, crackle cumin seeds and sauté the finely chopped onion, add to it the tomato paste and sauté until the oil seperates.

Step 4: Add chili powder, coriander powder, salt and mix some water if the gravy is very thick.

Step 5: Stir in the cooked chickpeas, taste and adjust salt/ spices/ consistency and cook in simmer for 2 minutes.

Step 6: Switch off the stove, squeeze juice of half a lemon and mix well.

Step 7: Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with puttu.

TIPS:

* Though the black chickpeasis very commonly used for kadalai curry white chickpeas is also prominent.
* Papadam is usually served with puttu & kadalai curry though I did not make it.

* Another typical tradition of serving puttu is accompanying it with ripe banana and sugar.

*The picture above is the sweet puttu which I got by adding chopped banana, sugar and some ghee to the puttu; my husband said it tasted like prasadam, we loved it.

Broken Samba Wheat Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is an arab salad conventionally made from a wheat kind of cereal called bulgur which is parboiled and dried, process similar to our parboiled rice. This bulgur is high in fiber, protein that is easily digestible and so is the samba broken wheat which I've used for my version. Couscous and quinoa can also be used in the same recipe instead of broken wheat. My addition to the simple traditional tabbouleh is some pomegranate beads and capsicum.

Ingredients:

1. Broken samba wheat - 1 cup
2. Onion - 1
3. Tomato - 1
4. Capsicum -1
5. Pomegranate beads - 3 tbsp
6. Coriander chopped - 3 tbsp
7. Olive oil - 1 tbsp
8. Salt as required
9. Pepper crushed - 1/2 tsp
10. Lemon - 1/2

Method:

Step 1: Boil 2 cups of salted water and cook the cleaned broken wheat in that until done. In case there is excess water, drain it completely.

Step 2: Finely chop the onion, tomato (seeds and inside removed), capsicum, coriander and squeeze half a lemon's juice into the chopped vegetables.

Step 3: Add pomegranate beads, coriander, salt and toss in the veg bowl.

Step 4: Now add the cooked broken wheat, crushed pepper, olive oil and toss well again.

Step 5: Serve immediately. If you prefer it cool, chill the chopped vegetables before mixing with the wheat.

Veg Hakka Noodles

Hakka noodles or chowmein has been one of my favorites ever since I had it for the first time in the premises of Tirupathy during a family trip long time back. Hunger always adds taste to the food and company augments it much more.  However, hakka noodles or chowmein as such is a wholesome dish if we add a lot of vegetables to it.    

Ingredients:

1. Hakka noodles - 1 pack

2. Cabbage - half of a small one

3. Bush beans - 10-12

4. Carrot -2

5. Capsicum - 1

6.Onion - 1 large

7. Garlic - 5 cloves

8. Soy sauce - 1 tbsp

9. Vinegar - 1 tbsp

10. Pepper powder - 1 tsp

11. Salt to taste

12. Gingelly oil - 3 tbsp

13. Dried red chili - 2

Method:

Step 1: Boil water and cook the hakka noodles as per the instructions on the pack and drain them. Toss with a few drops of oil so that they don't stick to each other.

Step 2: Clean the vegetables and cut them into long thin pieces like in the picture below. (I know there are 2 portions of bush beans in my pic, because my husband is a hard core fan of it ;)). You can also add some bean sprouts if you've.

Step 3: Heat the oil in a large kadai (If you have a wide wok or a deep skillet pan, that's the best, go for it), add garlic and broken chilies to it.

Step 4: When aroma surrounds saute the onion and then thrown in other vegetables in a minute.Stir fry the vegetables for a couple of minutes with some salt sprinkle over it.

Step 5: Now add the cooked noodles and toss them well.

Step 6: Add the soy sauce, vinegar, pepper and toss them on high heat. Though we can't get the effect of that large wok tossing the noodles almost a feet high, like we see in the street fast food stalls; we still would a decent chowmein on table this way.

Coleslaw

I tried this coleslaw with a purple cabbage without the traditional coleslaw seasoning. It is very simple and refreshing.

Ingredients:

1. Small purple cabbage - 1
2. Onion - 1
3. Salt as required
4. Pepper crushed - 1/2 tsp
5. Vinegar - 1 tsp
6. Gingelly oil - 1 tbsp
7. Roasted sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
8. Coriander leaves

Method:

Step 1: Shred the cabbage, cut the onion into thin long slices and chop the coriander leaves.
Step 2: Now in a bowl toss them all by drizzling vinegar, gingelly oil and sprinkling salt and pepper.
Step 3: Garnish with roasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Turmeric Pickle

In Tamilnadu, we celebrate a harvest festival called Pongal in the mid of January month. During this festival, fresh turmeric is tied to the new mud pot in which pongal is made. This fresh turmeric is the protagonist of our recipe today. We learnt this recipe from my paternal grandma. Turmeric gives us a lot of immunity and is a powerful antibiotic in addition to its various other positives.

Ingredients:

1. Turmeric - 250 gms
2. Gingelly oil - 1/2 cup
3. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
4. Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
5. Chili powder - 3 tbsp
6. Salt - 2 tbsp
7. Fenugreek  powder - 1 tsp
8. Dry ginger powder - 1 tsp
9. Lemon - 2

Method:

Step 1: Wash, pat dry, peel and grate the turmeric in a fine grater. There is catch, it is a little tedious task, your palms remain yellow yellow-dirty fellow for one day, even the grater retains a deep orange color from a gummy substance in turmeric. But it is all worth the taste and goodness of the pickle.

Step 2: Heat the oil in a kadai and splutter the mustard seeds; sprinkle the asafoetida and saute the grated turmeric in it. Cook it covered for about 5-10 minutes by stirring in between.

Step 3: Now open the lid, add salt, chili powder and stir cook for another 5 minuted without covering.

Step 4: Taste and adjust spices and mix the fenugreek powder and dry ginger powder.

Step 5: Switch off the stove and squeeze in the juice of a couple of lemons and stir well.

Step 6: Once it comes to room temperature, store it in a clean and dry bottle.

TIPS:
* Turmeric does not cook once the salt is added. So make sure it is cooked well before adding salt or spices.
* Use the finest grater to ease the cooking process.

Garlic Thovial

As we were brought up by our granny who does not eat garlic, garlic takes place very rarely in our cooking. But knowing of the abundance of goodness that the garlic offers I started bringing it closer in my kitchen. My niece has taken it too very closely I would say, from the time she started eating solid food, garlic has impressed her so much and it continues to be her favorite even now. This dish is a way where we can easily add a couple of fistful of garlic in a breakfast or dinner.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 2 minutes

Ingredients:

1. Garlic - 2 pods

2. Coconut grated - 5 tbsp

3. Dry chilies - 3-4

4. Tamarind - 2 marble sized

5. Salt to taste

6. Oil - 1 tbsp

7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

8. Urad dal - 1/2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Peel the garlic cloves; roast them in few drops of oil.

Step 2: Roast dry chilies with a drop of oil.

Step 3: Prepare tempering by spluttering mustard seeds in hot oil and frying urad dal in it. Keep aside.

Step 4: In a mixer jar, take grated coconut, roasted chilies & garlic, tamarind, enough salt and grind into a coarse paste with some water.

                     

Step 5: Mix it with the prepared tempering and serve with idli, dosa or even rice.

Plain Banana Ckae

The other day I had baked a banana cake. I bake cakes in a pressure cooker on stove and they come out really well. I used less sugar expecting the bananas to be very sweet but the cake was less sweet; however I have given the corrected measure.

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour - 1 cup

2. Sugar - 1 1/2 cups

3. Banana - 5 small or 2 big

4.Butter - 3/4 cup

5. Baking powder - 1 tsp

6. Baking soda - 1 pinch

7. Vanilla essence - 2 drops

Method:

Step 1: Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl.

Step 2: Beat softened butter and sugar into a smooth paste and add mashed or pureed banana and vanilla essence to it and mix well.

Step 3: Grease and dust a baking tin and preheat the oven or cooker.

Step 4: Fold the dry ingredients in the wet mixture and mix thoroughly, add few drops of milk if the consistency is too thick.

Step 5: Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 20-30 minutes.

TIPS:
* Coco powder can also be added to banana cake to give added flavor and color.
* Add nuts of your choice or some raisins or tutti fruitti.

Sprouts Pesarattu

I had lots of sprouted moong and wanted to use it in the main course for dinner today and amma gave this idea of pesarattu with sprouts. Because consistency did not work out, I mixed some rava to it and it came out well.

Ingredients:

1. Sprouted green gram - 2 cups
2. Rava/ Sooji - 1 cup
3. Onion - 1
4. Green chilies - 2
5. Ginger - 2" piece
6. Salt to taste
7. Oil as required
8. Coriander chopped - 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: In a mixer jar take sprouts, green chilies, onion, ginger and grind well into thin batter.

Step 2: To the batter add rava, salt, chopped coriander and mix well. Leave it for 30 minutes.

Step 3: Heat griddle or a dosa pan and grease it with some oil. Pour a ladle full of batter and spread it with the back of the ladle into a medium sized circle.

Step 4: Drizzle little oil around it and cover it with a lid. Simmer the heat and wait until the bottom side browns.
Step 5: Flip the pesarattu delicately, drizzle oil if required and cook it uncovered for 1 minute.

Step 6: Serve hot with coconut chutney or coriander chutney. Actually it is flavorful and tasty even without any side dish.

Banana Avocado Mousse

This is another avocado mousse I had tried yesterday. This avocado mousse is very tasty and is pretty healthy too. That's the reason I keep repeating it, both of us loved the taste. And you know what, this is damn simple a dessert.

Ingredients:

1. Avocado - 1
2. Small banana - 2
3. Sugar - 1 tbsp
4. Vanilla essence - 2 drops

Method:

Step 1: Peel the riped banana, chop them and mash it in the mixer jar.
Step 2: To the jar, add sugar, vanilla essence, scooped avocado and whip them to a smooth consistency.
Step 3: Chill it until serving.
Step 4: Have it plain as this is flavorsome with vanilla, banana and avocado. If you prefer, garnish with nuts or banana slices.

Bajra Kitchadi

Bajra is good for health and especially for winters it makes good choice for dinners. I made instant bajra kitchadi today with the moong dal sprouts I had.

Ingredients:
1. Bajra - 1 cup
2. Moong sprouts - 2 cups
3. Salt to taste
4. Ghee - 1 tbsp
5. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
6. Asafoetida - 1 pinch
7. Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
8. Chili powder - 1 tsp

Method:

Step 1: Clean and course grind the bajra in mixer jar.
Step 2: Pressure cook the broken bajra, moong sprouts and some salt with 3 cups water for 5-7 whistles.
Step 3: In a non stick handi, heat ghee and crackle the cumin seeds; then sprinkle asafoetida, turmeric, chili powder and pour in the cooked kitchadi.
Step 4: Stir well, adjust salt and consistency by adding water if required and cook for 2 minutes and switch off stove.
Step 5: Serve hot with roasted papad and pickle.

Avocado Chocolate Mousse

I got some avocados from Bangalore when we went to visit my new niece Anishka. I wanted to try recipes apart from milkshake because we've had them earlier and mousse is something I had tried earlier and did not work out very well; but with avocado it should work fine. It did turn out well...

Ingredients:

1. Ripe avocado - 1

2. Dates - 5

3. Cocoa powder - 3 tbsp

4. Hershey's chocolate syrup - 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Soak the seedless dates in some warm water for 10 minutes.

Step 2: Scoop the pulp from the butter fruit into a mixer jar.

Step 3: Drain water from the dates and add it into the jar. 

Step 4: Add cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup and whip well until all the ingredients blends smooth. If the sweetness is not enough, add more chocolate syrup or some sugar and blend again.

Step 5: Spoon them into bowl and chill it until serving.

Step 6: Garnish with chocolate syrup or strawberry or nuts of your choice.

Cabbage Chutney

Cabbage chutney is goes well with dosa varieties and we got to know of this recipe from Padma aunty, my sister's mother in law. I have made my version with slight changes to the original recipe.

Original recipe Source: Padma Aunty

Ingredients:

1. Cabbage - 1 cup chopped
2. Onion - 1 sliced
3. Green chilies - 4
4. Oil - 1 tbsp
5. Lemon - 1/2
6. Salt to taste
7. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
8. Urad dal - 1 tbsp
9. Curry leaves - 1 spring
10. Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Method:

Step 1: Heat oil in a pan and prepare tempering with asafoetida, mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and pour it in a bowl.
Step 2: In the same pan add some drops of oil and add green chilies to it, then the onion and finally add cabbage into it and saute for 3 minutes. Now turn off heat and let it cool down a bit.
Step 3: In a mixer jar add the vegetables with some salt and juice of half a lemon. Grind it to a slightly grainy consistency with minimum water as the cabbage would leave out some water.
Step 4: Spoon the chutney into tempering and mix well. Serve with hot dosa or idlies.