Heerekai Chutney | Ridge gourd Chutney | Thurai Chutney | Beerakaya Pachadi : South Indian Chutney Recipe

Wishing all my readers a very happy and a prosperous new year. Hope you all have a wonderful year.

The first week of  2015 was eventful. We hosted a Vishnu Sahasranama Chanting on 1st Jan at our house. I cooked palahara and the chanting went as planned. The very next morning, I got a call from my sis and bro. They informed me that our grand mom(mom's mom) passed away. I was heartbroken and speechless. I could not control my emotions. I will not write more as I can go on for hours about my relationship with her. RIP ajji is all I say.

Now back to the recipe.

Heerekai Chutney is a very simple and flavorful chutney that can be cooked under 20 mins. And the best part is, you can use the skin of the ridge gourd too for this chutney.

Preparation Time: 3 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:
Roughly chopped ridge gourd: 1 cup, with the skin
Green chilies: 3-4 nos, refer notes
Tamarind : 1/2 tsp, tightly packed
Salt: As needed
Turmeric powder: a pinch
Jaggery or brown sugar: 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida: a small pinch
Curry leaves: 3-4 nos, torn
Coriander leaves: 2 tbsp, finely chopped
Water: As needed
Grated coconut: 1/2 cup, fresh or frozen, refer notes

For tempering:
Coconut oil: 1 tsp, refer notes
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Urad dal | Black gram dal: 1 tsp
Asafoetida: a pinch
Curry leaves: 2 nos, torn

Method:
Add the ridge gourd, green chilies, tamarind, jaggery, curry leaves, asafoetida, coriander leaves, and turmeric to a sauce pan.

Add enough water to cover the vegetables and boil until the vegetables are tender and cooked. Turn off the heat.

Allow the mixture to cool. Once cool, grind it along with the coconut to make a smooth paste.
Scoop out the paste on to a serving bowl.

Prepare the tempering. Heat oil in a small sauce pan. When oil is hot, throw in the mustard seeds. When mustard seeds crackle, add the black gram dal and roast till the dal turns golden brown. Throw in the curry leaves and when leaves wilt, add the asafoetida and turn off the heat.
Pour the tempering over the scooped chutney.
Mix well and serve it with chapathi/poori/rice or roti.

Notes:

• Instead of fresh or frozen coconut, you could use dry coconut powder that is available at Indian stores.
• I have used Serrano peppers and Indian green chilies for this chutney. 
• If you do not wish to use coconut oil, you could use any other cooking oil of your choice.
• Do not add too much water to cook the ridge gourd. Just add enough water so that you could use the boiled vegetable water for making the smooth paste. In that case, you don't waste any boiled vegetable water which is filled with nutrition and flavor.

Dibba Rotti | Idli Batter Roti : Andhra Delicacy

I got to know about this dish from a friend of mine ! Initially, I was hesitant to try this dish. In the blog-world, I did find many blogs writing about this dish. My friend had asked me to ferment the batter & I followed her, though some blogs asked for freshly ground batter.

Cooking Time: 10 mins (for 2 rottis)

Ingredients: (Serves 2)
Idli batter: 2 cups, fermented & fresh.
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Salt: As needed
Oil: 2 tsp for each rotti.

Special utensil:
a heavy bottom kadai

Method:
Mix cumin seeds, and salt to the idli/idly batter & mix well.
Heat a kadai. When it is hot, add a teaspoon of oil. Pour around a cup of batter(I pour 2 big ladle full of batter).

Cook it covered on a low-medium heat for approximately 5 mins. The edges should turn crisp and brown.
Carefully flip the rotti. Sprinkle the remaining teaspoon of oil & cook for another couple of minutes.

Repeat the procedure with the remaining batter.

Pesarattu/Green gram crepes

Its been very very busy time for me, from the past couple of weeks. No time to sit at one place. I am moving all around the place to finish up all the work. At the same time, I am clearing my pantry too.

BTW, do not forget about the current event going on at my blog. Kindly send in as many entries as possible. Thanks :)
Now that I am super excited in hosting my first event, that I am visiting Prathibha's space everyday to try something. Pesarattu is one such recipe I tried from the blog. She has blogged about upma pesarattu. Since I was making them for the first time, I wasn't sure if my family would take upma & pesarattu together. Hence, I skipped making upma. Will include it next time. I followed the recipe blindly & it was a super hit at my home.

Original recipe could be found here.

Ingredients:
For dosa batter:
Green gram/Hara moong: 2 cups
Raw rice: a fistful
Ginger: 1 inch piece
Green chillies: 4 nos (original recipe asked for 2)
Cumin seeds: 1.5 tsp (this is the only addition I did!)

Other ingredients:
Oil : 1/2 to1 tsp for each pesarattu.

Method:

• Wash the green gram & rice. Soak the green gram & rice together for 4-6 hours or over night.
• Drain the water from the gram & rice. Add the ginger, green chillies, cumin seeds & make a fine paste of the green gram & rice using a Indian mixie/blender or wet grinder.  

• Scoop out the paste & adjust the consistency of the batter. The batter should be like a thick milkshake (just like the normal dosa batter).

• Add salt & mix well.
• Heat a griddle/tava. When griddle is hot, pour a ladle full of batter to the center of the tava & spread it like normal dosa. I make the pesarattu very thin.
• Pour around 1/2 to 1 tsp of oil over the pesarattu & cover the pesarattu with a lid. Let it cook on a medium-high heat for a minute.
• Remove the lid & increase the heat to high & cook for another 30-45secs.
• Remove the pesarattu from the griddle. No need to flip the pesarattu & cook it on another side.
• Reduce the flame & pour few drops of water to decrease the tempeature of the griddle. If the griddle is very hot, the batter sticks to the griddle.
• Repeat the procedure with the remaining batter. Serve it hot with a chutney/dip of your choice.

Notes:

• Pesarattu is cooked on one side only. 
• In case you have soaked the green gram for some other purpose & want to use it for making pesarattu, dont worry that you have not soaked rice. Just grind the green gram & add a fistful of rice flour. Proceed as usual.
• Prathibha has clearly explained about how to roast the pesarattu. Have a look at it. 

Tomato pappu/Tomato dal

Here is an Andhra dal/pappu recipe. I tried this from amma cheppindi blog. Made very few changes to the original one. The highlight of this pappu/dal is the addition of rasam powder to the dal!!

Here goes my version of the same.

Ingredients: (Serves 3-4)

Toor dal/thogari bele/split pigeon peas: 1 cup

Turmeric: 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida: a pinch
Red chili powder: 1/2 tsp
Rasam powder: 1/2 tsp (Original recipe called for MTR rasam powder, I used home made)
Salt: According to taste
Water: As needed

Coriander leaves: 1 tbsp, finely chopped (for garnish)

For tempering:

Oil: 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Garlic: 2 pods, minced
Curry leaves: a string or 6-8 nos
Red chili: 2 nos, broken
Tomatoes: 2 nos, medium sized

Method:

• Wash the toor dal thoroughly & add water, turmeric & asafoetida to it. Cook the toor dal in a pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles. Allow it to cool.
• Meantime, heat oil in a broad pan. Add mustard & cumin seeds. When seeds splutter, add curry leaves, red chili & garlic. Saute till the garlic turns golden brown.
• Add the tomatoes. Mix in the rasam powder, red chili powder & cook the tomatoes till they are soft.
• Mash the dal/lentils gently with the back of a spatula or a masher. 
• Add the mashed lentil to the tomatoes. 
• Add the salt & 1/2 cup of water (adjust accordingly). 
• Allow the dal to boil. Once the dal starts boiling, turn off the heat. 
• Garnish it with coriander leaves & serve them hot with rice.

Notes:

• The highlight of this dal is the usage of rasam powder. Hence, do not try to skip it.
• For a tangier dal, add 1-2 tsp of lemon juice at the end.