Puzhungal arisi and pachai payaru soochi (Boiled rice and green gram sundal)

Puzhungal arisi and pachai payaru soochi (Boiled rice and green gram sundal) - Preparation time 15 to 20 mins

Felt very hungry one night and didn't have stamina to cook vegetable soochi or make dosa so my husband asked to prepare this payaru sundal. Actually it is a healthy tiffen. It is also easy to make and tasty sundal with limited ingredients.

As it didn't came well when i prepared first time, so before starting i called my mom and checked the recipe again. I want to know from her particularly the water and rice proportion. After that i started preparing. It took hardly 5 mins to fry and put in a pressure pan. Within half an hour it will be ready to eat.

Ingredients:-
Boiled rice - 1 cup
Green mung dhal (Pachai payaru) - 1/2 cup
Water - 3 cup
Salt - To taste
Red chili - 2 (i removed the seeds in the chili as we don't want to be spicy)
Curry leaves - 2 string
Onion - 1 chopped finely (optional)
Sesame oil - 1 tbsp
Grated coconut - 1 tbsp
Mustard seed - 1/2 tsp
Split urad dhal - 1 tbsp
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp

Preparation method:-
In a kadai dry roast the rice till it become white and slightly brownish. Transfer to a cooking vessel.

Now roast in medium flame the full green mung dhal till it starts cracking.

Transfer the roasted green mung dhal to same vessel which contains rice.

Wash rice and mung dhal well to remove any dirt. Add 3 cups of water to rice and mung dhal mixture. 
Heat oil and add mustard seed to splutter, urad dhal to become golden brown. Add the red chili, curry leaves along with asfoetida and switch of the flame.  I have included onion you can skip onion.

Add the garnishing along with required amount of salt, grated coconut, to the rice, mungdhal and water.

Now pressure cook this for 4 to 5 whistle and cook in very low flame for 10 mins before switching off.
Leave for few mins to release the pressure and then serve hot with ghee and jaggery. If you like you can garnish with fresh curry leaves.
Yummy, healthy, filling and easy to make breakfast or dinner is ready to eat. 

Cluster beans and Carrot gravy (Kothavarangai and carrot kootu)

Cluster beans and Carrot gravy (Kothavarangai and carrot kootu) - Preparation time 15 mins

To avoid the slight bitter taste of kothavarangai i tried adding carrot and prepared the kootu. The kootu tasted good. I prepared this when mom and dad visited my home. They liked this kootu very much.


Ingredients:-
Kothavarangai - 1 cup (chopped to small pieces)
Carrot - 1 small size (Skin peeled and chopped to small pieces)
Turmeric - ¼ tsp
Sambar powder - 3/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Water - 1 or 1 ½ cup water (till the greens get immersed)
Thalikkum vadagam - 1
Pepper corn, cumin seed - 1 tsp  {Grind this with coconut and make a paste}
Toor dhal (Thuvaram paruppu) - one cup (pressure cooked).
Grated coconut - 3 tbsp (optional)
Sesame oil - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 6 (finely chopped)


Preparation method:-
Boil water with turmeric, salt & sambar powder. When water boils add kothavarankai and carrot to cook.
Add cooked dhal to cooked vegetable and boil.  When the gravy starts boiling add the ground paste of coconut, cumin and pepper. Switch of the flame
In a tawa add thalikum vadagam (which is made of jeera, urad dhal, onion, mustard, castor oil, etc) to splutter. It you don't have thalikum vadagam you can roast mustard, urad dhal, cumin seed and curry leaves with little oil for garnishing
Finally curry leaves. Kootu and 1/4 tsp of ghee can be mixed with rice and taken along with some deep fried pappad. It will be very tasty. Sorry forgot to take pics will add later :-).

Pachai Sundaikai, Vengayam, Poondu Puli kuzhambhu (Turkey berry gravy)

Pachai Sundaikai, Vengayam, Poondu Puli kuzhambhu (Turkey berry gravy) - Preparation time 15 to 20 mins

Always mom used to make sundaikai poricha kootu when she buys fresh sundaikai. We all love that kootu because this vegetable has unique flavour and taste. When we used to get this in small quantity we will use brinjal along with sundaikai to make kootu.

When i went to native last month, our neighbour gave freshly pricked sundaikai. It was very tender and i want to try making puli kuzhambu using that. When i asked my mom she told that she haven't tried using fresh sundaikai. I called my aunt and asked she explained the procedure and also told it will be very tasty. I made this puli kuzhambhu for lunch and told mom that this alone is enough for lunch along with some fried pappad.

You know after cooking this we got some guest for lunch so we cooked all dishes (sambhar, rasam and dry curry). Informed mom we haven't tasted sundaikai puli kuzhambhu so don't serve them to guest. People who came for lunch insisted to serve puli kuzhambhu also so mom served them. To our surprise all loved sundaikai puli kuzhambhu gave some to neighbor they liked this very much and told that they will also start making fresh sundaikai puli kuzhambhu. This is the story of my sundaikai puli kuzhambhu evolution :-)

Ingredients:-
Tamarind extract - Got from small gooseberry size tamarind ball
Sambhar powder - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Jaggery - small piece
Thalikkum vadagam - 1
Sundaikai (Turkey berry) - 1 cup or 100 to 125 gm  (slit in the middle)
Small onion - 10
Garlic (peeled) - 10 to 15
Sesame oil (nalla ennai) - 1 tbsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Toor dhal - 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seed - 1/4 tsp

Preparation method:-
In a kadai roast the fresh sundaikai with little sesame oil till nice aroma comes (slightly it will be brown) and keep in a cup.

To the hot kadai, add sesame oil, thalikkum vadagam, toordhal, urad dhal. When nice aroma come add fenugreek seed along with garlic and onion.
Fry till onion become glossy and transparent and add the roasted turkey berry (sundaikai) . Add turmeric, sambhar powder, salt sortae for few mins.
Add the tamarind extract and boil till the raw smell of tamarind goes off. Check the spice level and adjust to your taste at this stage.

When the gravy become thick and oil start to separate add jaggery and boil.

Actually the turkey berry will taste like peas and the gravy will have the flavor of sundaikai along with all other taste.
Hope you like this recipe.