Poosanikai Mor Curry - Refresh Your Meal Time!

Vellai Poosanikai Mor Kuzhambu:

Other Names: White Pumpkin in Curd based Curry. Ash Gourd in Yogurt's Curry. Winter Melon in Yogurt's Curry.

I have witnessed people using a whole head of white pumpkin to avoid an imaginary evil eye (Dhrishti / much like witchcraft) in India. That is, if you take a stroll through the streets, especially in market area (invariably rural, urban and metropolitan) on Tuesdays and Fridays...You will notice smashed/broken whole lemons, coconuts and white-pumpkins on the streets, roads (maybe excepting highways...I guess)! Well, I never felt bad for those kind of stuff, back then. I know it is part of my culture. However, now when I shop for my own cooking and realized that I have been charged like $3.00 for this small portion of pumpkin!!!...Oh man, am surely bewildered for a moment! And, I use it religiously...I mean with utmost care:)

Ingredients:

White Pumpkin - cubed 2 cups
Yogurts 4 cups
Salt
Turmeric powder 1/4 spoon
Asafoetida 1/4 spoon
Oil few spoons.

Wet Grind these to a Thick Paste:

Pepper 1-2 spoons
Green chilies 5
Thoor dal 1 cup - soaked
Tomato 1
Ginger 3-4 inch size. peeled.
Garlic 4 -5 cloves

For Tempering:

Mustard seeds 1/2 spoon
Cumin seeds 1/4 spoon
Urad dal 1/4 spoon
Asafoetida 1/4 spoon
Dry red chilies 3
Curry leaves few
Oil few spoons
Oil for shallow frying.

Method:

Heat oil, in a wok, add wet ground paste to it. Fry them till the raw odor is gone.

Further add asafoetida, salt, turmeric and vegetables. Mix them well. Then add yogurts and bring it to boil.

In a separate pan, heat oil. Add mustard, cumin, asafoetida, red chilies, pepper and curry leaves. Fry for a while...till they pop and splutter. Run this seasoning over the gravy made above.

Serve warm along with plain steamed rice.

Poosanikai Poricha Kootu / Pumpkin Olan / Ashgourd Lentils Curry

Winter Melon Lentils Curry:

Ingredients:

Winter melon 1 large piece - peeled, de seed, diced
Mung dal (lentils) cooked 2 cups
Salt
Turmeric 1 pinch
Oil few spoons

Wet-grind These:

Green chilies 2
Grated coconut 1/4 cup
Toasted Urid dal 1 tablespoon
Cumin seeds 1 spoon
Ginger 1"grated

For Tempering:

Oil few spoons
Mustard seeds 1/4 spoon
Cumin seeds 1/4 spoon
Asafoetida 1 pinch
Curry leaves few.

Method:

In a wide wok, heat oil. Add diced pumpkin followed by salt, turmeric and cooked lentils. Cover and cook briefly. Further add the wet-ground paste to it, continue cooking, until tender.

In a separate pan, heat oil and add the tempering spices. Run this over the kootu/olan made above. Serve warm as a side dish to South Indian meals.

Hotel Style Tiffin Sambhar

Hotel Tiffin Sambhar:

Tiffin Sambhar, Thanni Sambhar.

Ingredients:

Eggplants or Pumpkin or Drumsticks - finely chopped
Thai Chili / Indian Green chilies 3 sliced
Pearl onions/ Spanish red onions sliced thinly
Country tomatoes 2 crushed
Thuvar dhall 1 cup
Salt
Turmeric 1/4 spoon
Chili powder 1 spoon
Tamarind paste 1/2 spoon
Oil few spoons.

To Be Toasted and Powdered:

Fenugreek seeds 2 spoons
Coriander seeds 2 spoons

To Temper:

Oil few spoons
Mustard seeds 1/4 spoon
Cumin seeds 1 pinch
Asafoetida 1/4 spoon
Curry leaves few.

To Garnish:

Cilantro leaves few
Grated coconut 1 spoon - optional.

Method:


Cook thuvar dhall on stove top, without using any lid over low-medium heat...until tender. Do not use pressure cooker. Its gonna be slow-cooking...sure this method imparts considerable flavor.

In a wide vessel, heat oil. Add chilies, onions and tomatoes...fry real good. Once the onions are brown and tomatoes wilt...add salt, turmeric and chili powders.

Further add the vegetables plus 1 cup of water. Cover and cook.

Add cooked dhall, tamarind paste and powdered spices. Once the vegetable is done till tender...remove from heat and top them with tempered spices. Garnish them as you please.

Serve to go with your idlies or dosas.

Poosani Kai Poriyal:

Pumpkin Poriyal.

Ingredients:

Orange pumpkin 4-6 slices - cubed
Salt
Dry red chilies 2
Curry leaves few
Mustard seeds 1/4 spoon
Oil few spoons.

Method:

In a wok, heat oil. Add mustards, curry leaves and chilies.

Then followed by pumpkin pieces. Saute for 2 minutes.

Salt it and cover with lid. Let it get cooked like this(without adding any water).

Remove from heat and serve warm as a side dish.

Vellore Fruit Halwa:

Vellore Fruit Halwa. Fruit Halwa.Vellore Jothi Sweet Stall Style Fruit halwa.

Vellore Jothi Sweet Stall Style - 'Fruit Halwa' really tastes better! Maybe generous amount of ghee and freshly prepared kowa, makes it unique and outstanding! Well...its one of my favourite Sweet dish from the town!

Since it is called 'Fruit Hlawa' don't confuse yourself with any kind of fruit! They use just 'pumpkin'! Well...it took me years to figure this! Nothing tough about the recipe....but using fresh ghee and kowa makes it really wonderful!!!

Ingredients:

White Pumpkin/Winter melon - pulp grated 2 cups
Dry Coconut - grated 1 cup
Fresh Kowa(sugarless) 1 cup
Tooty-frooty 1/4 cup(multi colored)
Organic yellow food color/saffron
Pineapple essence few drops (optional)
Cashew nuts halved 1/4 cup
Golden raisin 1/4 cup
Sugar 3/4 cup
Ghee 1 whole cup.

Method:

Prepare a pearly consistency sugar syrup. Stir-in grated pumpkin and grated coconut.

Cook over medium heat...with constant stirring. Add food color, essence, tooty-frooty, cashew and raisins to it. Continue cooking. Maybe till halwa consistency is achieved.

Add kowa and ghee now. Let them blend to it. Remove from heat.

Serve chilled as a dessert.

Pumpkin Sambar

Winter Melon Sambar:

Vellai Poosani Sambar. Kalyana Poosanikkai Sambar.

Ingredients:

Winter Melon 1 small(peeled, cored n chunked)
Thoor Dal 1 cup
Onion 1 large
Tomato 1 large
Salt
Turmeric powder 1/4 spoon
Chili powder 1 spoon
Sambar Powder(home made) 1-2 spoons
Tamarind paste 1 spoon
Ghee or oil few spoons
Cilantro leaves to garnish.

For Tempering:

Mustard seeds 1/2 spoon
Cumin seeds 1/2 spoon
Asafoetida 1/4 spoon
Curry leaves few
Ghee/ Oil few spoons.

Method:

In a pressure cooker, add thoor dal + salt + few spoons of oil. Pressure cook till tender. Maybe for 3-6 whistles.

Now set this dal aside.

In a large crock pot, heat ghee. Add onions and fry till it is transluscent.

Then add toamtoes and fry till they turn pulpy. Add salt, turmeric and chili powder to this. Fry for 2 minutes.

Now stir-in chopped winter melon chunks and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Maybe till the oil coats.

Add cooked thoor dal now. Cover and cook till the veggies are done.

When the veggies are done, add tamarind paste, samabar powder and cilantro leaves. Bring this to boil once. Then transfer the contents to display ware.

In a seperate pan, heat oil and fry the tempering items in it. Then run this seasonning over the sambar prepared.

Sambar Vadai:

Ingredients:

For Vadai:

Urad dal 1 cup
Rice 1-2 spoons
Salt
Ginger 2" peeled & chopped
Whole peppercorns 1 spoon
Cumin 1/4 spoon
Asafoetida 1 pinch
Coconut 4" piece finely chopped
Curry leaves few
Sago 1 spoon - powdered(to give glossy color)
Oil for deep frying.

Ingredients:

For Sambar:

Thoor dal 1 cup
Small Onions 1 cup/Red onions sliced
Country Tomatoes 2-3 diced
Garlic 5 cloves crushed
White pumpkin diced 1/2 cup
Drumstick 1 chopped to the same size of pumpkin
Jaggery 2 spoons
Curry leaves few
Salt
Turmeric 1/4 spoon
Chili powder 1 spoon
Asafoetida 1/4 spoon
Mustard 1/2 spoon
Tamarind paste 1/4 spoon
Coriander leaves finely chopped 1/2 cup
Ghee 1/2 cup

To Be Roasted Each Separately And Powdered Together:

Coriander seeds 2-4 spoons
Chana dal 2-4 spoons
Curry leaves few
Fenugreek seeds 1 spoon
Dry red chilies 3-5
Asafoetida 1 spoon.

To Garnish:

Finely chopped onion
Finely chopped chilies
Finely chopped cilantro leaves
Lemon juice and pich of salt.

Method:

For Sambar:

In a pressure cooker, heat few spoons of ghee. Add 2-3 cups of water to this. Further add thoor dal to this. Pressure cook till 5-6 whistles or till the dal is soft.

In a separate non-stick cook- ware, heat ghee. Add mustard, asafoetida and curry leaves to this. Let them splutter.

Now add onions and garlic to this and fry for a while. Add tomatoes and fry till they loose their water content and oil shows up on sides.

Add vegetables and fry them for awhile. Add turmeric powder, salt, chili powder, jaggery and 1 spoon of freshly prepared sambar powder to this. Toss them well to all sides.

Now add cooked dal along with water to this. Cover and cook over medium flame.

Once the vegetables are done add tamarind paste, remaining sambar powder and freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Run a few spoons of ghee, before serving.

Mehtod:

For Vadai:

Soak urad dal and rice in water for nearly 1-2 hours.

Then drain off its excess water. Wet grind them to thick butter like paste.

Now mix all the above mentioned items to it(except oil)

Heat up th eoil in deep frying pan. Wet your hands and make a small roundels out this above batter.

Drop the same in oil. Fry till golden to reddish brown. Let the outer vada turn nice and crispy.

For Sambar Vadai:

Dip th ewarm vadai in luke warm water for few seconds and leave it in serving bowl. Then pour some generaous amount of sambar on top. Garnish with cilantro leaves.

Serve at room temperature.

Fruit Halwa:(Vellore Style)

This is one of my ever favourite Sweet from my native town. As a matter of fact, I rarely found it good.....anywhere other than from Vellore. Hey, one important thing! Though its called 'Fruit Halwa'.....it doesnt actually has any fruits in it, to my knowledge. But still they call this same. Anyways.....here it goes!

Ingredients:

Thinly grated White Pumpkin 2 cup
Thinly grated Coconut 2 cup
Tootty Fruity - 1 cup (green + red + yellow)
Green grape raisins(dry grapes-green)-1/2 cup
Cashewnuts 1/2 cup(splitted)
Cardamon seeds powder 1 spoon
Fresh Milk Gova sweetened 1 cup
Sugar 1 cup
Ghee 1 cup
Saffron Strands 1-2 pinch(or yellow food color)

Method:

In a wok heat few spoons of ghee and add sugar to it. Further add, 1/2 cup of water to it. Let it boil and come to syrup consistency.

To this syrup add saffron strands and cardamon seeds powder.

When pearl consistency is acheived, add pumpkin,coconut, cashew nuts and dry green grapes in it. Let it get well cooked. One could further add ghee if needed. (No need to fry cashews or grapes for this recipe)

Once halwa consistency is acheived, add tootty-fruity, milk gova and drizzle ghe on top.

Mix them thoroughly. Serve chilled.

Madras Rathna Cafe Sambar / Vellore Palace Cafe Sambar:

Vellore Palace Cafe Style Sambar/Madras Rathna Cafe Style Sambar:

Idly & Sambar is a popular breakfast food in Tamil Nadu! Though lot of restaurants perefected this recipe...Few really mastered it to the core. They really stand out of the crowd. The legendary places are 1. Madras - Rathna Cafe, Triplicane and 2. Vellore - Palace Cafe, near CMC Hospital. Now don't expect that these places to be high end restaurants or star hotels, they are just regualr non-A/C ones (pretty much like a bigger version of mess). They make it really unique and mouth watering sambar to go with their idlies. Maybe they are very particular about the coriander seeds, chilies, chana dal...all roasted to perfection and blended, who knows!! The addition of right amount of jaggery brings upt he real good flavour and nice color to the sambar. This is always said, two idlies and a bucket sambhar here, yummm! Even the idlies look very flat and lot coarse than the usual ones! Next time when you visit Madras, sorry Chennai...please try this recipe!:)

Ingredients:

Thoor dal 1 cup
Small Onions 1 cup/Red onions sliced
Country Tomatoes 2-3 diced
Garlic 5 cloves crushed
White pumpkin diced 1/2 cup
Drumstick 1 chopped to the same size of pumpkin
Jaggery 2 spoons
Curry leaves few
Salt
Turmeric 1/4 spoon
Chili powder 1 spoon
Asafoetida 1/4 spoon
Mustard 1/2 spoon
Tamarind paste 1/4 spoon
Coriander leaves finely chopped 1/2 cup
Ghee 1/2 cup

To Be Roasted Each Separately And Powdered Together:

Coriander seeds 2-4 spoons
Chana dal 2-4 spoons
Curry leaves few
Fenugreek seeds 1 spoon
Dry red chilies 3-5
Asafoetida 1 spoon.

Method:

In a pressure cooker, heat few spoons of ghee. Add 2-3 cups of water to this. Further add thoor dal to this. Pressure cook till 5-6 whistles or till the dal is soft.

In a separate non-stick cook- ware, heat ghee. Add mustard, asafoetida and curry leaves to this. Let them splutter.

Now add onions and garlic to this and fry for a while. Add tomatoes and fry till they loose their water content and oil shows up on sides.

Add vegetables and fry them for awhile. Add turmeric powder, salt, chili powder, jaggery and 1 spoon of freshly prepared sambar powder to this. Toss them well to all sides.

Now add cooked dal along with water to this. Cover and cook over medium flame.

Once the vegetables are done add tamarind paste, remaining sambar powder and freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Run a few spoons of ghee, before serving.

Pumpkin Halwa:

Poosani Halwa/Kaasi Halwa.

Ingredients:

Pumpkin 1/2 kilo(finely grated)
Cashew nuts 1 cup(slitted)
Dry grapes 1 cup(raisins)
Ghee 2-3 cups
Milk 1-2 cups
White sugar 2 cups
Cardamom powder 1 spoon(made from its seeds alone)

Method:

In a wide non-stick pan, add 1 cup of ghee. Add sugar and little water up to sugar level...will be fine. Use wooden spatula to mix it well. Wait till the sugar syrup attains pearly consistency.

Now add shredded pumpkint, milk and cardamom to this. Cover and cook.

In a separate pan heat ghee, fry cashew nuts and dry grapes. Add it to the halwa too. Add the remaining ghee too.

Once Pumpkin is cooked. Remove the cover and cook...till all its water content evaporates. If needed add few spoons of ghee just before removing from stove.

Serve chilled.

Araithu Vitta Sambar(Agragaram Style)

Ingredients:

Onion 1 large sliced
Tomato 1 large sliced
Tamarind small ball size soaked in water and extract the juice(maybe 2-3 cup)
Thoor dal 1 cup soaked in water for 1 hour
Jaggery 1/2 cup
Mustard seeds 1/2 spoon
Cumin seeds 1/2 spoon
Dry red chilies 3
Chenna dal 1/2 spoon
Urad dal 1/2 spoon
Asafoetida 1/2 spoon
Curry leaves few
Oil few spoons.

Vegetables:

Eggplant(brinjal) small size 4 - sliced
Drumsticks 2-3 chopped to 3 inches size
Pumpkin 200 gms diced (4 inch size)
Carrot 2 chopped to 3 inch size
Beans chopped (3 inch size)

Masala Preparation:

(Fry these each separately in oil till reddish brown and till fragrant. Wet grind to thick paste altogether)

Thoor dal 3 spoons
Chenna dal 3 spoons
Urad dal 3 spoons
Coriander seeds 1 cup
Dry red chilies 10
Fenugreek seeds 2 spoons
Asafoetda 1/2 spoon
Curry leaves few
Grated coconut 1 bowl full.

Method:

In a pressure cooker add thoor dal along with soaked water. Add salt and few spoons of oil. Now pressure cook them for at least 5-6 whistles.

In a pan heat oil, add onions and fry till golden brown. Now add tomatoes and fry till it looses its water content.

Add turmeric, salt, jaggery and chili powder. Fry them for a while.

Then add vegetables. Add tamarind water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Now add the cooked thoor dal to this and cook till vegetables are 3/4 done.

Further add the thick masala paste to this and cook till the sambar thickens.

In a separate small pan, heat oil. Add mustard, cumin, dry red chilies, asafoetida, chenna dal, urad dal and curry leaves. Run this seasoning over the sambar made.

Serve them hot along with plain rice. Run few spoons of ghee over it just before serving.

Aviyal: (Kerala Special)

Mixed vegetable dish(Semi dry)


Aviyal is an authentic kerela recipe. Traditionally its been cooked with tamarind water. But cooking with buttermilk is also not uncommon. I never tasted 'aviyal' from any authentic kerelite home/restaurant. So....its only from other places, I am only familiar to this buttermilk version! Moreover...I never thought of cooking it on my own until AK said..he is an expert in making aviyal. So once he dazzled me with his cooking techniques. The recipe was awesome! He had brilliant choice of veggies. Being veggie lover....he used wide vareity of cauliflowers, eggplants, plantain, carrots, beans and what not. AK is a good cook himself. I like his 'Aviyal Recipe' and 'Kothamalli Saadham(Cilantro Rice)' very much. So today he prepared this and I all assisted in grating, grinding and chopping. Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

Vegetables:(chop them into 3-4 inches size like a stick)
Carrot 1 cup
Raw plantain
Yellow pumpkin small 1 cup
Cucumber 1 cup
Elephant yam 1 cup
Snake gourd 1 cup
Drumsticks 1 cup
Eggplant(brinjal) 1 cup
Long runner beans 1 cup
Beens 1 cup
Mango 1 piece.

(You can replace vegetables like even squash, cauliflower, Ridge gourd, etc....it turns out good. Its not the rule to use only traditionally used vegetables and method. Be liberal as the time demands too. I think no one is actually going to cook with firewood in 22 century....Just try your old dish in new pot....enjoy!)

Sour buttermilk 1 jar
salt
Onion 1 large sliced
Turmeric powder 1/4 spoon
Bell onions 1 cup
Coconut oil 1-2 cup
Cumin seeds 2-3 spoons
Green chilies 6
Whole coconut(fresh)
Mustard seeds 1/2 spoon
Curry leaves few.

Method:

In a wide vessel heat few spoons of oil. Add sliced onions, vegetables, salt, turmeric and buttermilk. Cook them covered.

In a blender add 2 spoons of cumin seeds, bell onions, green chilies and coconut. Grind them well using very less water. And set aside.

When vegetables are 3/4th cooked add this thick coconut paste to it. Cook without cover. Let all the water evaporate.

In a separate small pan heat remaining oil. Add mustard, cumin and curry leaves. Run this oil over cooked Aviyal above.

Serve this side dish with sambar rice.