Plantain Masala Curry / Vazhakkai Poriyal

I love and respect the plantain tree! Its one tree which could be useful for us from top to bottom :)

Plantain is a very versatile vegetable since it can simply take the flavors of the masala that we use and taste yummy. This time I tried a new version of curry with it by infusing two flavors - garlic and saunf. It turned out to be extremely aromatic and delicious :)

Ingredients:

Plantain / Vazhakkai - 2

Saunf / Sombu - 2 tsp

Urad dhall - 1 tsp

Garlic pods - 4

Curry leaves - few

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - for taste

Method:

Take saunf and urad dhall in a dry pan and roast it for two minutes. Now powder this in a mixie and keep it aside. 

Peel and chop the plantain into small square pieces. 

Take 2 tblsp of oil in a pan and crackle mustard seeds, curry leaves and now add the chopped plantain pieces and fry until the plantain becomes soft and cooked. 

Add salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder and the above made saunf & dhall powder to the plantain and mix well. 

Now crush the garlic pods roughly with a mortar and pestle and drop it into the curry. Mix well and fry for few minutes. 

Transfer to the serving bowl. 

Aromatic plantain masala curry is ready :) 

Serve hot with rasam rice or curd rice :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Spicy Baby Potato Curry

I love potato, you love potato, everyone loves potato!! Isn't it??? and that too these cute little baby potatoes are adorably delicious for me.

Boil it and spice it up with the flavors of your choice and it is a delicious snack by itself!

This time we wanted to try a nice spicy version to pack it along with curd rice for lunch. Hence added some of my favorite Indian spices like pepper etc and make it spicy and delicious :) 

Ingredients:

Baby potato - 1/2 kg

Pepper - 2 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Coriander seeds - 3 tsp

Red chillies - 2

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Garlic - 8 pods

Cinnamon - 1/4 inch piece

Cloves - 2

Cardamom - 1

Salt - for taste

Method:

Wash and pressure cook the baby potatoes for three whistles. 

Peel the skin and poke holes on the potatoes with a fork so that the spices seep through the potatoes. 

Take a tsp of oil in a pan and fry red chillies, corinader seeds, cumin seeds, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves for two minutes in low flame. Allow it to come to room temperature. Grind it along with ginger and garlic and make a coarse powder. Keep this aside. 

Take 4 tsps of oil in a pan and drop in half a tsp of jeera. Once it crackles, drop in the baby potatoes and fry for a while in low flame. The potatoes should get roasted on all sides to a golden brown color. 

Finally add the powdered spice mix and saute in low flame for 5 mins. 

Serve it hot with curd rice or pack it for lunch :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Capsicum Curry

Capsicum is one of my most favorite vegetable. The flavor is intense and adds amazing aroma to any dish that you add it to. 

This post has one version which will never fail to impress. Everyone will love it for sure :) just like how we all at home like it. 

Ingredients:

Capsicum - 3

Poppy seeds - 2 tblsp

Dry coconut - 4 tblsp

Coriander seeds - 2 tblsp

Green chillies - 3

Salt - for taste

Method:

Dry roast poppy seeds and coriander seeds for few mins and collect it on a plate. 

Take two tsp of oil in the same pan and fry the green chillies on low flame for three minutes. 

Now grind the poppy seeds, coriander seeds, green chillies, dry coconut and salt together into a smooth paste by adding little water to it. 

Chop the capsicum into large squares. Take two tsp of oil in a pan and fry the capsicum for five minutes. Now add the ground paste to it and cook closed on low flame for 15 minutes. The vegetable will become pretty soft and would have taken the flavors from the paste. 

Now serve it hot with ghee rice, dhall rice or chapathi. 

Delicious capsicum curry is ready :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Gutti Vankaya Koora - Stuffed Eggplant Curry

Gutti Vankaya Koora is the traditional dish of Andhra where the brinjals are split and filled with spice mix. Its almost the best brinjal dish I have ever had :) My mom makes it really well and in the authentic way. Happy to share her recipe here :)

This is almost the best brinjal dish I have ever had :) It has changed the history of me never touching brinjals ;)

Ingredients:

Brinjal - 1/2 kg
Urad dhall - 2 tblsp
Channa dhall - 2 tblsp

Redchillies - 10

Jeera - 1 tblsp

Turmeric powder

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp

Tamarind - 1/2 lemon size

Salt - for taste

Method:

Take a tsp of oil in a pan and fry urad dhall, channa dhall, redchillies, fenugreek seeds and jeera together for few mins. Collect it in the mixie jar. 

Wash the tamarind. Take a dry pan and drop in the tamarind and saute for few mins for it to become dry. 

Put the tamarind, turmeric and salt also in the mixie along with the above fried items and powder it a little coarsely. 

Collect the powder in a plate and smear 1 tsp of oil in the powder and mix it well. 

Wash and split the brinjals like a plus mark from above leaving 1/2 cms on the bottom. Now fill the above done powder into the brinjals. 

Take few tsps of oil in a heavy bottomed vessel and crackle mustard and curry leaves. Now place the brinjals carefully into the vessel and keep the flame medium. 

Now take a larger flat bottomed vessel and fill it with 1 cup of water and place it on top of the brinjal vessel. The brinjals would get steam cooked from the top. 

The brinjals would get cooked in 10 minutes. Check inbetween and turn the brinjals a little until it is evenly cooked. 

Remove from flame and serve it hot with ghee rice :)

Note:

The taste depends on the brinjal quality. Choose the best purple brinjals that are medium sized and firm but not too hard. 

Be careful while splitting the brinjals and fill the powder and press firmly for it to stay intact. 

The taste ofcourse adds on when you do it in the traditional method of placing water on top. Do not skip that step. 

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Plantain Pepper Curry

Banana plant is one of those kind where all the parts of the plant are very useful to mankind. :) I love bananas a lot, be it raw or ripe. They are so filling and yummy :)

Deep fry or shallow fry or simply fry or cook.. whatever you do, plantain would taste perfect and blend with all the spices you try to add to it. That is simply called as versatility.

This is one aromatic and different flavoring of plantain tat I recently tried out and it was really tasty. It got over in no time :)

Ingredients:

Plantain - 2
Onion - 1
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Saunf / Fennel(Sombu) powder - 1 tsp
Pepper - for taste
Salt - for taste

Method:

Peel and chop the raw banana into thin long pieces and keep it aside.

In a pan take few tsps of oil and add curry leaves, saunf powder, finely chopped onions, ginger garlic paste, chopped plantain pieces, turmeric powder, coriander powder and salt one by one and fry for a min. Now sprinkle some water and close the pan with a lid. Simmer the stove and allow it to cook for a while. This will take five minutes. Once the plantain gets cooked and the curry becomes dry, add the pepper powder and mix well.

Plantain pepper curry is ready to serve :)

Serve with with curd rice or ghee rice :)

Happy making :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.

Cabbage Coriander Aromatic Curry

Decoration: Used my favorite little plastic bonsais to decorate the dish. :)

My taste buds are extremely choosy and so is my nose. :) They get so excited to some ingredients like coriander and garlic. When the aromatic ingredients blend along with healthy vegetables, I am sure no one can just resist eating.

One such simple and awesome blend is this cabbage curry. Try it out and you would never regret. Happy and healthy cooking :)

Ingredients:

Chopped Cabbage - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Green chillies - 2
Onion - 1
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
Garlic - 3 pods
Bengal gram dhall - 1 tbl sp
Salt
Curry leaves

Method:

Cook the chopped cabbage and Bengal gram dhall separately and keep it aside. Grind coriander leaves, green chillies and ginger together into a fine paste without adding water to it. Now take a spoon of oil in a pan and season with mustard and curry leaves. Then add diced onion and finely chopped garlic to it and fry till onion turns golden brown. Add the cooked cabbage, Bengal gram dhall and saute it for few more min. Finally add the ground coriander paste and mix well.

Aromatic cabbage curry is ready to eat :)

Serve it with ghee rice or curd rice. Happy making :)

I am happy to send my Poppy seed halwa to Think spice event conducted by Radhika of Food for seven stages of life. Think spice is a lovely event started by Sunitha.




And I am sending Masala pori to Tea time snack event conducted by Simple Indian Food blog.

Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com

Pigeon Pea (Toor dhall bean) Sundal

Legumes are one of the most nutritious ingredients that we can add to a normal dish to make it an extra healthy dish. :)

The choice of legumes make me feel really excited about it. Every time I visit the market, there is some new legume that I can experiment with. :)

This time its the pigeon pea also called the toor dhall bean that caught my attention. I just loved the cute red dotted combined with a bright green color of the pea. :)

Ingredients:

Pigeon pea(Thuvar dhall bean) - 1 cup
Coconut - 1 tbl sp
Onion - 1
Garlic - 2 pods
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
Green chillies - 2
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Asafoetida - a pinch
Lemon - 1 tsp
Salt - for taste
Coriander leaves
Curry leaves

Method:

Cook the pigeon pea. Grind coconut, onion, ginger, garlic, green chillies, turmeric, asafoetida and salt together and keep it aside. Take a spoon of oil in a pan and season mustard and curry leaves. Now add the ground paste and fry for few min till the raw smell leaves. Once done add the cooked pea along with lemon extract and saute well. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves. Pigeon pea sundal is ready to eat :)

Serve it hot. You can have it just like that or with curd rice.

I am sending this to the lovely event "My legume love affair" By Srivalli which originated in Susane's blog.


I am also sending my Disaster Halwa as an entry to a very cute event called "Kitchen Mishaps" conducted by Malar Gandhi in her very interesting blog Kitchen Tantra.




Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com

Smashed Yam Curry (Karunai Kilangu Masiyal)

Karunai Kilangu(Elephant foot yam) Masiyal is one of the best currys that i ever crave for. Its an all in one sweet, sour and spicy curry. It goes super good when mixed with ghee rice or even with curd rice.

I am sure it would be a favorite of all dish. :)

Karunai Kilangu(Elephant foot yam)
Image source: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2277/2329935739_d4dccb134c.jpg

Ingredients:

Elephant Foot Yam(Karunai Kilangu)- 1/2 kg
Tamarind paste - 2 tblsp
Onion - 4
Red Chilly - 2
Chilly powder - 2 tsp
Jaggery - 2 tbl sp
Rice flour - 2 tbl sp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Turmeric powered - a pinch
Salt - for taste
Oil
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few

Method:

Pressure cook Yam and peel the skin and smash it smoothly. In a bowl, mix together the smashed yam, turmeric powder, asafoetida, salt, jaggery, tamarind paste, rice flour and chilly powder.

Now in a pan(Preferably non stick kadai), take 2 tbl sp of oil and season with mustard, curry leaves and red chilly. Now dice onion into small pieces and add it to the pan. Fry till golden brown. Once done add the yam mixture to it and keep stirring it in low flame for 20 min(until it rolls out without sticking to the sides). You can add more oil if it sticks too much to the sides. Finally add the cut coriander leaves to it.

Yummy yam masiyal is ready.

You can mix this along with ghee rice or have it along with curd rice too. :)

Happy eating :)

Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com

Plantain Flower Usili (Vazha poo/ Anti poo)

Plantain flower(Vazha poo/Antipoo) is one of the most delicate ingredient(Should I call it flower/vegetable!!!! I am not sure) that is used for cooking. You need a lot of patience and time to remove the petals and clean them up. But the pains taken are absolutely worth it. The usili curry is so yummmm :)

Ingredients:

Plantain flower(Cleaned and Chopped) - 1 cup
Red chillies - 5
Thoor dhall - 1/2 cup
Coconut scrapings - 2 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt - for taste
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaves


Note: Take a look at this link to know what parts of the flower you need to remove before cooking.

Method:

Clean and chop the plantain flowers into small pieces and soak it in watery butter milk until you use.

Cook the chopped plantain flower in the pressure cooker for 2 whistles and keep it aside.

Soak thoor dhall in water for 1 hour and grind along with red chillies, coconut scrapings, cumin seeds, asafoetida , turmeric powder and salt. The batter should be coarse and thick. Do not add excess water while grinding.

Now steam cook the batter in a pressure cooker like idly. Once it it done let it cool for a while. Crumble the idly finely with hands. For best results, cut the idlis into small portions and run it in the mixie slightly to crumble it well. Keep this aside.

In a pan take a tsp of oil, cracle mustard, add the curry leaves and then add the cooked plantain flower and fry for few min till it becoms dry. Finally add the crumbled powder and then fry for 2-3 min till it all blends well.

Plantain flower usili is ready to eat. I bet no one can hate it :)

Serve it with curd rice or just mix it with steamed white rice along with some ghee. :)

Decoration: I have used the plantain flower petals to mock a lotus design.

I would like to thank Ambika for giving me the giant bear hug and thanks to Sangeetha Subash for giving me the one lovely blog award :) I should thank Raje for sharing her love by awarding me both together. It gives me so much energy to go on :)

Written by: Nithya
post your queries to fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com