Mullangi Mor Kuzhambu

I made mullangi mor kuzhambu or radish yoghurt curry or mooli kadi (okay enough of my translations)... I prepared it with a quite elaborate recipe derived from several blogs and from mom’s kitchen. I’ve used radish in this recipe which is also a first time experience but it really was awesome. I know it sounds like self-praising, but if you had tasted the mor kuzhambu that I had attempted twice earlier you’ll completely agree with me (they had turned disasters). Except for tur dal (pigeon peas) I’ve used every possible ingredient that possibly can go into the mor kuzhambu making; however people generally choose only a subset of this in their recipe.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Curd – 2 cups

2.    Turmeric powder – 2 pinches

3.    Asafoetida – 1 pinch

4.    Radish – 1 large

5.     Curry leaves – 1 sprig

6.    Coriander chopped – 2 tbsp

7.     Green chili – 1

8.    Coconut grated – 2 tbsp

9.    Ginger – 1” piece

10.  Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp

11.  Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp

12.Cumin seeds – ½ + ¼ tsp

13. Pepper corns – ½ tsp

14. Dry chili – 2

15.   Bengal gram or Tur dal – 2 tbsp

16. Raw rice – 2 tbsp

17.  Salt to taste

18. Oil – ½ tbsp

19. Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

20.  Mor milagai/ yoghurt chilies – 2

Method:

Step 1: Soak the rice & Bengal gram together for 15 minutes. Dry roast dry chilies, pepper corns, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds separately.

Step 2: Grind together into a fine paste: the soaked rice & dal, dry roasted ingredients, coconut, green chili and ginger. Dilute it with a cup of water and keep aside.

Step 3: Beat sour curds with turmeric and asafoetida to a smooth consistency.

Step 4: Peel and cut the radish into thick half circles and sauté them in few drops of oil with some salt until it is done. Keep it aside.

Step 5: Now in a kadai prepare tempering by heating some oil, spluttering mustards seeds & cumin seeds, adding curry leaves & yoghurt chilies and then add the masala mix in simmer while stirring.

Step 6: When it starts to boil pour the beaten curds and add the radish and keep stirring until you see it bubbling. Now add salt, mix and transfer to a different container immediately. Garnish with coriander.

Step 7: Serve with hot steamed rice along with appalams (Kundan & I prefer different types of deep fried vathals to go with this)

TIPS:

*Stopping to stir, high heat, unbeaten curds and salted curds might curdle the curry. It doesn’t happen always but I would be careful.

*You can avoid dry chilies & pepper corns and add more green chilies to give brighter color.

*You can avoid rice and add rice flour to the ground masala mix or even skip it completely; it is for thickening the curry and dal would do that job to some extent.