Boodu kumbalakai majjige Huli:Type 2(Wintermelon in Yogurt Sauce)

This is one of the oldest posts in my 'drafts' folder. This photo was taken in Jul'09 & the recipe was drafted by my mom-in-law. When she was here, my mom-in-law was so excited about my blog & she wanted her son to publish this recipe (on her behalf) !!!. But, somehow, this activity went on the back-burner. Finally, this recipe is seeing the light of the day. So, here goes the majjige huli (mor kolambu or yogurt curry) from my mom-in-law.

You can see my mom's version here.

Ingredients:
Fenugreek seeds: 1/4 tsp
Winter melon: 2 cups (chopped into 1 inch cubes)
Raw rice: 1 tsp (soaked in water)
Grated coconut: 3/4th cup
Buttermilk: 2 cups (do not use thick yogurt)
Green chilli: 3-4nos (adjust according to your family needs)

For tempering:
Oil: 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds: 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Broken red chilli: 1 no (optional)
Curry leaves: a string
Asafoetida: a pinch

Coriander leaves: 1 tbsp (for garnishing)

Method:

• Soak the fenugreek seeds in warm water for an hour. 
• Add 1 cup water, soaked fenugreek seeds to the chopped winter melon & cook the vegetable on a medium heat. The winter melon must be soft yet crunchy (do not overcook the melon).
• Meantime, make a smooth paste of coconut, green chillies & rice (soaked in water). 
• Add the coconut paste & salt to the cooked melon. Heat it for 2-3mins.
• Now pour the buttermilk to the melon mixture & boil the curry on medium heat.
• Prepare the tempering, Heat oil in a small pan. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds & cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add curry leaves, broken red chilli & asafoetida. Pour this tempering to the boiling curry mixture. 
• Finally garnish it with coriander leaves, mix well & serve it hot with rice. 

Tips:

• For preparing the buttermilk, add 1 cup water to 1 cup yogurt (natural yogurt) & whisk well. 2 cups buttermilk is ready.
• Be cautious after adding the buttermilk to the mixture. The buttermilk may spill from the container as it comes up.
• Vegetables like ladies finger, cucumber, chayote squash(chow chow), snake gourd, capsicum can also be used for preparing this dish. 
• Do not boil this dish many times (as we do for normal sambar). It is best to finish it off when it is fresh. If the dish is left over, transfer it to the fridge immediately & just heat it the next day & consume.
• Refer here to know more.

Kashi Halwa (Winter melon halwa)

We normally go for shopping with our 30 months naughty Junior, who keeps pulling everything while passing by. Intelligent hubby makes me hold my son & he continues with the shopping. My son helps his father, pick the tomatoes, capsicum & other vegetables :p

Me: Buy phuay leng (Chinese Spinach), coriander leaves, carrot, winter melon....
Hubby: Hold on...recession time, try to avoid unnecessary items ;) Also, cook for the family & not for blog or blog events ;)
Me: do you think I just prepare it for the event, take pictures & throw the food prepared?? Don't we all enjoy eating the same food??

Him: Okay okay...this time, I will buy that big winter melon , prepare halwa for me.

Me: OK..done !!.

...and so it goes.

As I have mentioned before, my hubby is crazy for sweets. He does not mind skipping a meal & relishing on sweets. He finally bought a winter melon weighing almost 3kilos & I prepared halwa with 2.5kilos for two of us at home :D It took me around 1.5 hours to prepare the halwa. This is again a very time consuming dish, but you will forget the efforts put to prepare this as soon as you take a bite. Halwa just melts inside & our taste buds dance out of joy.
I enjoyed preparing this thoroughly, hubby enjoyed eating & hope you also would enjoy reading it.

Ingredients:
3 cups grated winter melon/kumbalakayi
1.5 cups sugar or a little more (adjust according to taste)
1 tbsp cashew nuts
1 tsp raisins
½ tsp cardamom powder
4-6 strands of saffron (optional)
3 tbsp ghee/clarified butter

Method:

• Peel the skin of the winter melon, discard the skin & the seeds. Grate the melon & squeeze out water from the grated melon. Try to squeeze as much water as possible.
• Take a broad pan, add 1 tsp ghee. Fry the grated melon for a minute or until raw smell disappears. Scoop out the melon & pressure cook for 2-3 whistles (don’t add milk or water while pressure cooking). Allow it to cool.
• Take a thick bottomed pan, add the cooked melon along with water (it releases tremendous water when pressure cooked, don’t discard that water). Keep the flame on medium, & start stirring until all the water is absorbed (it might take 15 mins or so).
• Mix sugar now & you would see water appear again in the pan :) Keep stirring once a while until water is absorbed (20 mins or so)
• When most of the water is absorbed, add 1tbsp ghee, cardamom powder & start stirring rigorously until it forms a single mass like shown below.
  

• The grated winter melon would plump up now & starts looking like a small grain.Turn off the flame & allow it to cool. Meantime, fry the cashew nuts & raisins in the remaining ghee & pour this to the prepared halwa. Add saffron strands & mix well.
• Serve the halwa hot, warm or cold.

This is also known as kumbalakayi halwa, dumroot. I love to eat this halwa with vanilla ice-cream. Simply divine !!!!

Boodu kumbala koddel | Winter Melon Sambar | Kumbala Kai Huli : Udupi Sambar Recipe

How to make Udupi Sambar?

As you all know, kumbala kayi (Ash gourd or Winter melon) is a cooling vegetable; so, it pays to eat this vegetable in the Singapore tropical climate. It is also low in calories; so, all you diet freaks out there, it's time to pick up a ash gourd and prepare this sambar.

BTW, there is no sambar powder concept in south canara and the usage of toor dal is also very minimal. Keeping all this in mind, here goes my 'South Canara style' kumbda koddel

Ingredients: (Serves 2-3)
1/2 kg ash gourd(Peel out the skin, remove the seeds and chop the vegetable)
1/2 coconut grated (around 1cup of fresh/frozen)
6-8 red chillies, less spice variety (also known as Byadgi Menasu or Kashmiri Mirch)
1 tsp jeerige (cumin seeds)
2.5 tsp dhania (coriander seeds)
1/4th tsp methi seeds(fenugreek seeds)
1 tbsp thick tamarind extract
1.5 tbsp jaggery
salt according to taste

For tempering/tadka:
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
4 curry leaves
a pinch of asafoetida/hing
coriander leaves (for garneshing)

Method:

• Add enough water to ash gourd & cook it until soft (Need not pressure cook as this would become soft quite fast)
• Dry roast the jeera, dhania, methi seeds & dry red chilli seperately & allow it cool for a while.
• Make a paste of the above dry roasted spices along with the coconut. Dont add too much water to prepare the paste.
• Add tamarind extract, salt & jaggery to the cooked ash gourd & bring it to a boil again. (This is to ensure that the tamarind is cooked well & the raw smell of tamarind is no more).
• Now add the spice paste to the ash gourd & cook it in a slow flame for 5 minutes or untill the mixture becomes thick.
• Prepare the tadka in a small pan. Add oil, when oil is hot, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds splutter, add curry leaves, asafoetida & add this tadka to the koddel prepared.
• Garnesh it with coriander leaves. Koddel is ready to be served.

Notes:

1. There is no toor dal added to this koddel, thickness of the sambar depends on the amount of coconut + water added to this.
2. To make this koddel/sambar more thick, add a tbsp of raw rice while making the spice paste.
3. You could make a similar koddel with other vegetables like Mangalore Southe (Cucumber) , Chayote Squash too.  

This is also called as hasi masale huli (hasi = raw, masale = spices, huli = sambar/curry).
Believe me, this sambar tastes so good because of the hasi masale.

Wow!!, I started smelling the aroma of this sambar right now, even though I prepared this sometime back..

Update: Pictures are updated on 11/15/13.