Roz Ka Khana

You’re correct in the assumption that of the 12 days I spent in India, more than 8 were at restaurants. I visited 4 cities in 12 days, and each one had its own specialty, Hyderabadi Biryani, Bombay pav bhaji and gujarati food. I probably spent the most time eating at home in Chennai. I had to ask my sister in law Meena, to make this dish for me and of course share it on Roz Ka Khana. Its called Ambat (Sour) Bhaaji (vegetable dish). Its made from sour greens like amaranth or puli keerai as we say in Tamil. Can also be made from spinach leaves. The sourness to the dish comes from adding the tamarind.

Ambat Bhaji is a Tanjore Marathi inspired dish and is sort of a hybrid between a sambar (lentil and vegetables soup) and a koottu (vegetables in gravy).

Ingredients:

Spinach – 1 bunch. You may also use amaranth.

Tamarind – lemon sized ball

Turmeric – 1 tsp

Asafetida – a pinch

Toor dal (yellow pigeon peas) – 1 cup boiled and mashed

Methi seeds (fenugreek) – 1  tsp

Dry red chilies – 4-6

Chopped Cilantro – for garnish

Method:

1. Wash and chop the spinach. You can chop the spinach and steam in a heavy bottomed vessel with a little bit of water. This helps retain the green color better. You can also microwave the fresh spinach. Alternatively, you may use frozen spinach.

2. While the spinach cooks, soak the tamarind in a little warm water, and squeeze it to extract tamarind paste. Alteratively, you may use about 1 to 1 1/2 tsp of tamarind paste. Add water to this paste (about 1 cup) and take this tamarind water in the heavy bottom vessel (kadai)

3. Add the spinach, salt and asafetida to the tamarind water. Let this mixture boil till the raw smell of tamarind goes away.

4. Now add the boiled and mashed toor dal. Boil for another 5 to 10 minutes till everything is well blended.

5. Now dry roast the methi seeds and the red chilies, grind to a fine powder. Add this powder to the dal mixture and boil one more time for another 2-3 minutes. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot with white or brown rice.

In the above picture, we mixed the mashed dal with the ground powder and then added the mixture to the tamarind water. You may do this as well, but I think adding the powder at the end and then boiling provides an added taste.

This one is a toughie to translate into plain English. Once again, an authentic Tamil dish, Kuzhambu, which means a kind of stew or soup, and Vatral which refers to sun-dried vegetables, is a comfort food in my home.

But before I write about this recipe, let me back up. I almost forgot , but today marks the 1 year anniversary of Roz ka Khana! I am actually a little embarrassed to say that I almost forgot that it was our birthday. I mean, yes it was February last when I penned the Paruppu Rasam recipe, but I had to go back into the archives to look up the actual date. And maybe I am a little overwhelmed too thanks to my dear friends and readers who reminded me to go look up that date! Sheela, thank you for being such a sweetie and shaking me out of my doldrums with your cheery note.  Thanks for being such an ardent follower among everything else.

And I should also thank Anu of AnEmily’s Vegan Adventures for requesting this recipe. Anu, this was the perfect recipe for RKK’s one year anniversary. I don’t think I’m really a Tamil purist when it comes to recipes, but Tomato Paruppu Rasam (lentil and tomato soup) and Vatral Kuzhambu are the staple, comfort foods in my home, so what better way to pay my tribute to RKK than to post another favorite comfort food? While the Rasam is my staple recipe, this one is Girish’s. As I wrote earlier in the 2 month anniversary of this blog with Girish’s Curry leaves Soup (Karuvepillai Kuzhambu) recipe , he is the inspiration behind this blog. So here’s to Girish again for your love and support, and to all of you family and friends who have been contributing and following this food chatter so far….thank you.

Vatral Kuzhambu recipe (Tamarind Soup)

This is also called Pulusu in Andhra/Telugu lingo. As I mentioned in the Curry Leaves soup recipe, this tastes best in a kachitti or a stone vessel, especially when it’s a day old. If you don’t have this vessel, it can also be made in a regular pot or pan, but make sure to save some for the next day so it has had all the time to let the flavors of the sesame oil, the fenugreek and the vegetables sink in. Also, this recipe is not really true to its name as we did not add the sun-dried vegetables or vatral. The sun-dried vegetables are available as is in Indian stores. We did not add it here since the onions have such a strong flavor that you can make this soup without the vatral. The real reason also was that we didn’t have enough vatral handy:). You can also call this recipe Vengaya Vatral Kuzhambu (Tamarind Soup with baby Onions)

Ingredients:

(I don’t have too many pictures to post for this one. I inadvertently erased some of the colorful ingredient pictures that I took  as I was transferring the pictures to my computer. As soon as I’m done poring through the 2500 photos on my hard drive in a desperate attempt to find them, I will try to update this post with better pictures.)

A large lemon sized ball of tamarind (enough to make about 2 cups of tamarind juice)

1/2 cup pink baby onions or shallots

2 tbsp fenugreek seeds

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 tsp vatral kuzhambu podi (I get this from India, but you can also use Sambar powder that is available in Indian grocery stores – MTR Madras Sambar powder). Alternatively you can find the recipe here.

2 sprigs of curry leaves

6-7 green chilies (the Thai variety)

a pinch asafetida ( we use a brand called SSP that we have only found in India but you can use any brand. SSP is in the granule form instead of powder and we use about 3-4 granules for a good strong aroma )

1. Heat the sesame oil in the kachitti or the stone vessel.

2. When it starts to smoke a little, add the fenugreek seeds, lower the flame and let the seeds get dark brown and oil starts to smoke again.

3. Add the asafetida. Add the kozhambu powder (podi).

4. Add the shallots, curry leaves, green chilies and the sun-dried vegetables (vatral) if available here. Fry till medium brown.

5. Add the tamarind juice and salt.

6. Let the mixture boil on a low flame for 10-15 minutes until the soup starts to thicken a little. You can also add a small amount (half a tsp)of jaggery (crystallized brown sugar) here for an added taste. If the soup is too watery, you can add a little rice flour and water made into a paste to thicken it. But if you let it boil enough, you may not need this step at all.

7. Serve with hot white or brown rice and ghee (clarified butter) with a side of paruppu (boiled and mashed lentils).

You would think that 2 whole weeks of being at home during the winter holidays would have resulted in many culinary experiments for Roz Ka Khana. In my case, it’s sadly the opposite. Crazed school day mornings, busy swim and basketball class evenings leave me rushed and stressed but I feel like I always find the time to squeeze in that pistachio cookie or banana-nut muffin as a means to de-stress at that unearthly night hour. I know, it’s quite crazy. But when I had 2 weeks of late, lazy mornings and nothing planned for the day, cooking was the last thing on my mind. And so, when Uma, my good friend, offered to try one of her signature recipes and also offered to come home to make it for us, it was a perfect solution to get me out of my lethargy. Thanks Uma, for the recipe and for snapping us all out of it with your scrumptious brunch recipe.

The bright idea of making this Kerala delicacy came from my husband, Girish, who mentioned it to Uma one afternoon, since we were, as usual, talking about food. We were, actually talking about rare South Indian delicacies, rare, because there is a dearth of South Indian restaurants in Dallas, specifically. So we make do with just talking about it, and craving for it;) Girish was talking about this dish that he had in Toronto, round white lacy, spongy pancakes with a vegetable gravy like dish. You could tell he was reminiscing every little detail though he didn’t remember the name of the restaurant.

Uma is from Palghat or Palakkad, a town in the state of Kerala in South India, that connects Kerala to Tamil Nadu. When she heard about this Aappam craving, she generously suggested that she made it often and would love to make it for him one day. We were shameless enough to keep reminding her about it, so within a week, Uma was home to make it for us and for Roz Ka Khana.

Aappam (Kerala Rice Pancakes)

2 cups idli rice or parboiled rice (available in Indian stores)

2 cups raw rice (Ponni rice or Sona Masoori rice or any kind)

1/2 cup urad dal (skinned black gram – split or whole)

Soak the above for 4-6 hours. Grind to a smooth paste in a grinder or blender. Make sure to keep the batter thick, so don’t add too much water while grinding. Keep the batter in a warm place overnight, to help it ferment. (You can keep it in a warm oven – preheat to 200F and then turn off the oven – and keep the batter in the oven overnight). You can store this fermented batter in the fridge till you want to make hot, fresh, aappams.

On the day of making the aappam, take about 4 big serving spoons of batter in a saucepan, add about 1/8 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 cup coconut milk. You may also add a little water till the batter is of a slightly thin, pouring consistency.

You will need to use a round, deep, preferably non stick vessel to make the appams, like the picture below. Using a dab of oil on a paper towel, wipe the vessel so it is coated with a thin coating of oil.

When the vessel is hot, pour the dough slowly, from the rim all around, until the vessel is completely coated with the dough. You may also swing the vessel in a circular motion so is gets completely coated.

Cover with a lid and leave for a minute or two. When the aappam is cooked completely, the edges get a little golden and it starts to leave the sides of the pan. When you hold the vessel sideways, the completely cooked aappam will just slide off on its own. Serve with hot vegetable stew.

Vegetable stew (to serve 8 )

Potatoes – 2, sliced lengthwise

Onions – 1 1/2, sliced lengthwise

Carrots – 2 or about 6-8 baby carrots, julienne cut

French beans – 12, julienne cut

Zucchini – 1 , chopped into small lengthwise bits

Ginger – 2″, grated

Green chilies – 6-8, sliced lengthwise

Coconut milk – 1 can

1. Heat a kadai or heavy bottomed vessel. Add 1 tbsp oil.

2. Add crushed ginger and green chilies and saute for 2 minutes

3. Add onions and saute again for about a minute or two. Make sure not to brown the onions, it has to just cook until glazed.

4. Now add the carrots, beans, potatoes and zucchini. Add about a cup water, some turmeric and salt. Cover with a lid and let boil until the vegetables are just cooked. Make sure not to overcook.

5. Lastly add the can of coconut milk to the stew. Simmer for a few minutes and then turn off the stove.

6. Garnish with chopped curry leaves. Serve hot with aappam.