Mundakki Churmuri / Puffed Rice instant snack.

 Mundakki Churmuri / Puffed Rice instant snack.

In the temple town of Udupi , where I spent my childhood days, there is a circular ‘Car Steet’,  aound and inside which are the famous Ashta Mutts (Eight Mutts), each one of which, headed by a Swamiji,  would be worshipping the Deity, Lord Krishna, for 2 years by turns. Mornings and paricularly all evenings there would be huge crowd of devotees visiting the Udupi Krishna Temple. By the road side on this car street, among others there would be some carts selling  ‘Churmuri’. They dish out this spicy, tongue tickling ‘Churmuri’ instantly on order for a continuous stream of people from all walks of life. This was one of the U S P of Udupi Car street.   

It can be prepared in 3-4 minutes flat, served in a paper cone and has to be eaten instantly, before the crisp puffed rice becomes soggy. It goes very well at home also , as a snack along with a cup of steaming evening coffee or tea. 

Ingredients.
1) Crisp and good quality puffed rice - about 4-6 cups or 3 - 4 bowls.  2) Table salt and red chilli powder mixture  - about 1/2 tsp and 1 to 1 1/2 tsp respectively. 3) Sugar - about a small tsp.  4) One large onion chopped fine.  5) Coriander leaves - chopped fine.  6) Lime juice 3 - 4 tsps or one large lime.  7) Coconut oil -  3 to 4 tsps. 8) Optional - Aloo bhujia or Boondi, ready made from market  - say 1/2 small packet of ‘Town Bus’.  

Showing all ingredients - Mundakki, Coconut oil, Lime juice, Onion and Coriander leaves and mixture of salt, red chilli powder and sugar.

Method.
 Take the fresh crisp puffed rice in a large vessel or bowl, Chop fine and keep eady Onion, Coriander leaves and also lime juice. Mix the salt, Chilli powder and sugar.
 
Then quickly prepare the chumuri by slowly adding a generous quantity of coconut oil, constantly stirring the contents, to give a thin coating of oil to each grain of puffed rice, to make it water proof.  Then add the salt-chilli powder-sugar mixture and stir vigorously. Then add onion and coriander leaves  and lastly add the lime juice as you continue to stir the contents at a fast rate. Adding aloo bhujia or boondi is optional.

All ingredients quickly mixed and stirred vigorously.

Add aloo bhujia or boondi to add to crispness.

Serve in a bowl with steaming cup of Coffee/Tea.

Immediately serve in smaller bowls to the eagerly waiting consumers. To be eaten immediately along with hot steaming coffee or tea.

Preparation time about 5 - 6  minutes.
Serves 3 - 4 persons.

 

Keerai Paruppu Saadam or Palak Dal Rice.

Keerai Paruppu Saadam or Palak Dal Rice.

One more full meal dish using the plenty of Palak available in my home garden. It has a nice different taste compared to the classical Bisi Bela Bath or other Pulavs , in which lots of vegetables are used and a special Masala powder is also added.

Ingredients.

 1) Rice – one cup, Basmati or any other.  2) Toor Dal – 50% of rice in 2:1 proportion.  3) Onion – 0ne.  4) Tomato – one.  5) Tumeric powder ¼ tsp.  6) Red Chilli powder – one to 1 1/2 tsp. 7) Palak – one to 1 1/2 cups. 8) salt as needed.  9) Ghee – 2 tsp. 10) Cooking oil – coconut oil or any bother. 2 tsp. 11) Green Chillies, cut obliquely into 2-3 pieces each – two; this is optional.

Ingredients: 1) Rice - one cup. 2) Toor Dal 1/2 cup.  3) Palak or other edible leaves- 
one to 1 1/2 cups, when cut. 4) Tomato - one large.  5) Onion  -one large. 6) Turmeric -
1/4 tsp. 7) Chilli powder one large spoonful. 8) salt -mas needed - not shown. 9) Cooking oil - 2 tsps (not shown). 10) 2 Green chillies obliquely cut - optional.

Method.
  Wash rice and dal in water and soak for about 30 minutes. Chop onion, tomato and palak and keep them ready.  
 1) In a cooker heat 2 tsps. of coconut boil, blanch the onions on a medium flame, then add tomato, cook for 2 minutes.
 2) Then add turmeric and chilli powder and finally palak and cook for 2-3 minutes.

 3) Add rice and dhal and water in 1:3 proportion, add salt as needed, green chillies (optional) ,mix and pressure cook for 3 whistles.

Onion, Tomato cooked, turmeric and Chilli powder added & Palak added & blanched

Soaked Rice & Dal added and water and salt to be pressure cooked.

4) Cool and open the cooker, transfer to serving dish and sprinkle 2 tsps. of ghee for the flavour. 
 It is now ready to be served hot for lunch or dinner.

Transfer it to container or serving dish and add ghee on top for flavour.

 To be eaten with and raita, curds, pickles and some crunchy papad, boondi or a mixture. 
Preparation time – about 35 minutes.

Serves 2 or 3 persons if used as the main and only item for lunch or dinner or more persons if part of a meal with many other items.  

Mango Voggarane

 Mango Voggarane

A friend in Suvidha, gave me a few Mallika mangoes grown in our colony.  But when I peeled and cut it, I found it was too sour. When I cut another it was neither sweet nor sour. Apparently, the gardener had plucked it from the tree, before it was ripe/ready.  Instead of discarding it, I thought why not make a dish out of it, by adding some jaggery and green chillies etc.  It turned out to be awesome, with some sourness of the mango, sweetness of the jaggery and a bit of spiciness of the green chillies.  

Ingredients.

  1) One or two sour of bland ripened mangoes. 2) Green chillies, about one for each medium sized mango.  3) Jaggery about 1 ½ teaspoon powdered for each mango. 4) Salt – ¼ t0 ½ tsps.. 5) Items for seasoning – coconut oil, mustard, mor molaga (Curd chilly) – one and curry leaves. Optionally you may add ½ tsp of Asafoetida also to give it a zing.

Ingredients: 1) Peeled and cut mangoes - two. 2) Green chillies 2-3. 

3) Jaggery powdered 2-3 tsps. 4) Salt 1/2 tsp 5) Tadka - mustard, 

Mor-molaga and curry leaves (coconut oil, not shown)

Method.
 Peel the mangoes and cut the flesh into pieces. Add 1 or 2 green chillies, powdered jaggery and little salt and just puree it in a mixie.
 Transfer it to serving dish and add tadka/voggarane. Adding some Asafoetida powder is your choice.

Your yummy Mango Voggarane is now ready to serve. It is a good combination to eat it with Idly, Dosa, Chapathi, curd rice or as it is also.  

Preparation time – five minutes.

Serves 4 -5 persons if you use 2 mangoes.  

Twists in daily cooking 4 better health and taste.: Bisi Bela PALAK Anna / Bisi Bela PALAK Bath.

Twists in daily cooking 4 better health and taste.: Bisi Bela PALAK Anna / Bisi Bela PALAK Bath.: Bisi Bela PALAK  Anna / Bisi Bela PALAK  Bath.   Story behind this variation of the standard Bisi Bela Bath - Bisi Bela Bath is a popular m...

Bisi Bela PALAK Anna / Bisi Bela PALAK Bath.

Bisi Bela PALAK  Anna / Bisi Bela PALAK  Bath. 

Story behind this variation of the standard Bisi Bela Bath - Bisi Bela Bath is a popular main dish in South India, for lunch, dinner or breakfast.  Here in Suvidha Retirement Village, Bangalore, I had in my home garden a very good crop of Palak, and after cutting out only the leaves, leaves sprouted again and again. Hence every now and then I planned some dish or other using palak. For a change I thought, why not use my abundant palak for a Bisi Bela Bath!  It tasted like the usual Bisi Bela Bath and is also quite nutritious because of the generous use of fresh palak.  Instead of varieties of vegetables added in standard Bisi Bela, Palak leaves are added in this variation. 

Ingredients.
 Same as usual Bisi Bela Bath except that instead of various vegetables, we use plenty of Palak and one Onion and one Tomato.   1) ½ Cup Rice – can use Basmati, if preferrd. 2) Equal amount of Toor Dal – 1:1 with Rice.  3) Palak One cup or more.  4) Onion one medium sized. 5) One Tomato, medium sized.  5) Green Chillies 2-3.  6) Tamarind juice from a small lime sized Tamarind. 7) Jaggery about one tablespoonful.  8) Bisi Bela Bath Masala Powder – ready made from market; I use home made one – about 3 -4 teaspoons. 9) salt as needed. 10) Ghee, 2-3 teaspoons. 11) Cashew nuts 6-8 split.   12) Curry leaves – few.

 

       Ingredients: 1) Rice 1/2 cup. 2) Toor Dal 1/2 cup. 3) Tamarind- small lime size.
       4) Jaggery - about a tablespoon. 5) Green Chillies -2.  6) Bisi Bela Masala - 2 tsp. 
       7) Tomato -one. 8) Onion -one. 9) Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp. 10) Cashewnuts -5/6.
       11) Palak - about one cup when cut. 12) Ghee - 2-3 Tsp (not shown).

Method:
 Wash in water, rice and toor dhal and soak for about 30 minutes. Cut washed and dried palak into small pieces. Chop onion and Tomato fine and split the green chillies.

 1) In a pressure cooker heat 2 teaspoons of coconut oil or any other cooking oil, and blanch in medium flame, Onions first, then add Tomato for about a minute and lastly chopped Palak. Cook for about 2-3 minutes.

                     
Onion, Tomato & Palak blanched/cooked.             Soaked Rice and Dal also added. 1:3 water.

2) Add soaked rice and dal, add water in 1:3 proportion and pressure cook for 3 whistles.

 3) Open the cooker when cool, check consistency (not too dry nor too watery); add water as needed and salt required, split green chillies, tamarind water and powdered jaggery. Finally add Bisi Bela Bath Masala – about 3 tsps., mix and bring to boil once again. 

 
After pressure cooking, add water if needed, salt, Tamarind juice, powdered Jaggery, Split Green Chillies and Bisi Bela Bath Masala.  

 4) Transfer it to serving dish and garnish with split cashew nuts in ghee till light brown with some curry leaves too.

Finally garnish with cashew nuts roasted in ghee with curry leaves.

Bisi Bela Palak Bath is now ready to serve. It is eaten with Cucumber, Tomato raita, plain curds, pickles like Mango thokku and Crisp Boondi or appalam.

Preparation time – preparing and chopping all items, and complete cooking and garnishing, about 35 – 40 minutes.

Serves 2 – 3 persons as the full meal or more persons if part of a meal with some other dishes, like Parotas, Poori etc.          

 

 

Sambar Stuffed Idli & Chutney Stuffed Idli.

 Sambar Stuffed Idli & Chutney Stuffed Idli.

Yes, you read it right; sambar stuffed inside usual Rice Idli and coconut chutney stuffed Idli. But how can one stuff Sambar or chutney inside the idli, one may wonder. See how it is done!
This ‘all in one’ Sambar Idli or Chutney Idli tastes just the same as Idli soaked in sambar or Idli eaten with coconut chutney. By this new method you can take these Idlies on a picnic or during your travel, with ease and without hassle of carrying sambar or chutney in a separate vessel and additional spoons, ladle etc. You can just bite into the delicious Idli like you eat a ‘burger’.  

Sambar Stuffed Idli.
Ingredients.
 1) Cooked mashed toor dal – about 3-4 tablespoons.  2) Thick tamarind juice from about ½ sized lime. 3) Jaggery – one teaspoon. 4) vegetables – green peas, finely cut onions and tomato, all uncooked (or any other cooked vegetables of your choice for the sambar) – about 3-4 table spoons. 5) Sambar powder – 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons.  6) Salt as needed. 6) Standard overnight fermented Idli batter.

All ingredients: Cooked mashed toor dal, Vegetables- onions, tomato & peas., Jaggery, Tamarind, Sambar powder & salt.

Method.

Mix well all the items 1 to 5 above to make a thick paste, the ‘sambar mix’, and divide it into portions according to the number of Idlies (Say about 4-6 in this case) you are going to make. 

Pour only 50% of the Idli batter into the oil greased idli moulds, and spread it thin, gently till the very edge. 

50% batter spread on the moulds and 'sambar mix' gently deposited on it.

Carefully and gently deposit the sambar mix on the batter.

Deposit one more layer of batter carefully to cover up the sambar mix. 

'Sambar mix deposited in all and covetred with batter in two of them.

All 4 idlies fully covered and inside the cooker.

Steam the Idlies in a cooker for 10-12 minutes. 

Cool it, carefully take out the Idlies and serve hot; if needed reheat just before serving, after separating from the mould.

Ready to eat with butter and with apple juice for breakfast.

Stuffed Sambar Idli is now ready to eat; bite directly into the Idli like eating burgers.

Topping it with some Idli Chutney Podi and/or butter or ghee is optional.

Preparation time if cooked toor dhal and batter are ready is about 20 -25 minutes

Can make 4-6 Idlies with the above amount of ‘Sambar Mix’ and serves 2-3 persons.

Chutney Stuffed Idli.

Steps are similar to the Sambar stuffed Idli. 

Ingedients.

Only TWO;  coconut chuney made with very little water, like a thick almost dry paste

and standard overnight fermented Idli batter.

Only 2 ingedients - Coconut Chutney and Idli batter. 

Method.

Steps of making Chutney stuffed Idli are similar to that of doing it with the ‘Sambar Mix’.

50% batter spead on the mould and chutney mix deposited on it.

Chutney being covered with one more layer of batter.

Cooked Chutney Stuffed Idlies on Breakfast plate with butter and Chutney podi if preferred.

Preparation time – about 15-17 minutes if Chutney and batter are ready.

Serves 2 - 4 – 6 or more persons depending on quantity used. Being bigger Idlies one can eat only 2 or 3 or maximum 4 at a time.  

Special Note.

You may make more Idlies and store them in plastic boxes in the freezer compartment for 5-10 days or even longer. Before re-use, take it out and reheat in a microwave or re-steam it in a cooker for 2-3 minutes. 

 

Gonkura Patthrode Balls.

Gonkura Patthrode Balls.

The story behind this is that in the last few days two of my dear friends in Suvidha Seniors Village in Bangalore, gave me some delicious Udupi Patthrode, each of them slightly different but very tasty as usual. So I also wanted to make some of my own, but no ‘Patthrode’ leaves were available. In my own garden some Gonkura leaves were available, but not enough to make the usual Gonkura Chutney or Pickles. “Why not try to make a different shaped patthrode using these leaves” is the thought that occurred to me. After all the main flavour and taste of this dish is because of the batter used to make it. So I tried this experiment and it turned out well and tasting exactly like the classical patthrode. A Mangalorean friend in Suvidha, to whom I gave the sample, called me up to say that my ‘Patthrose‘ was excellent. She didn’t even notice that a different leaves were used!
The standard Patthrode using the Colocasia leaves in an elaborate process and has many steps and more time consuming. But this Gonkura Patthrode is just made quickly and in one step!

Ingredients.
 1) White rice – dosa rice or any other – ½ cup. 2) Coconut gratings or pieces – about same quantity.  3) Red chillies – 4-5.  4) Jeera – one tsp. 5) Coriander seeds – 1 ½ tsp.
6) Jaggery – about 2 tablespoons.  7) Tamarind** – a small lime sized. 8) Salt as needed. 8) Gonkura leaves washed, cleaned and dried – about one bowl. 
 ** We add less tamarind here since Gonkura leaves have a slightly sour taste.

Ingredients: Gonkura leaves - 1 bowl, Rice , Red Chillies, Tamarind, Coconut, Jaggery, Jeera and Coriander seeds.
Method:
Rice is washed and soaked for about 1-2 hours.#
Cut the Gonkura leaves into large pieces – need not be fine, and keep it aside.
Grind all items 1 to 7 in a mixie adding little water to make a thick slightly coarse batter.
Mix the batter and the leaves and make into lime size balls.
Steam the balls for 12-15 minutes, keeping them in a stainless plate, or an idli mould set.

All ingredients made into a coarse opaste in a mixie & Gonkula leaves cut up into pieces.

Gonkura leaves mixed with paste, made into balls and stam cooked in am Idli Cooker.

Gonkura Patthrode balls are now ready to serve – can be eaten as it is as a snack or with honey, or jaggery or date syrup or only ghee.

Cooked Gonkura Patthrode Balls - serve hot.

Preparation time 20 – 25 minutes.

Can make about 10 balls and can serve 2 - 3 persons as snack.

Special note: Even the standard Colocasia leaves Patthrode can be made this way in the shape of balls, by cutting the leaves into small pieces and following same steps. It is much easier, faster and taste would be same.  

Nutritional Information.

https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/go-for-the-gongura/article19125502.ece

Gonkura leaves are a rich source of iron, vitamins, folic acid, Vitamin C and anti-oxidants essential for human nutrition.  

The very mention of gongura pachhadi will have any Telugu drooling. When cooked with toor dal, it adds a certain zing to the dish and is popularly known as gongura pappu. Apart from curries, varieties of pickles are made with gongura. Cooking gongura with colocasia is a popular ethnic dish in Assam. In Tamil Nadu, it is widely used for pulichakeerai masiyal and thokku.

Gongura is an excellent source of folate and a very good source of vitamin B6, both of which are needed to maintain low homocysteine levels. Apart from this, it is a rich source of iron, vitamin C, anti-oxidants, calcium, iron, zinc and vitamin A.