Thondekayi Saasime/Saasive (Ivy Gourd in Yogurt Sauce)

Thank you all for your inspiring words, mails & suggestions. I am back to normal now. I was home sick missing my parents, sister, brother & all the loved ones. This is the first time, I stayed away from them for such a long time. I called my mom, sister & all my loved ones; spoke to them many times over the last two weeks & now, I have got all my energy, enthusiasm back.

BTW, Don't you think I have given an overdose of yogurt recipes? By now, most of you must have known my affair with yogurt/curd. Be it a simple curd rice or a yogurt mousse, I absolutely love yogurt dishes. Hence, I love preparing, eating & blogging more & more yogurt based dishes like tambli, saasime, hashi etc.

Now, lets talk about ivy gourd; "bhendekayi buddivardaka, thondekayi buddinashaka" is a saying in Kannada. It's loose translation is, "okra helps in building one's intelligence while ivy gourd is converse of the above". I donot know how true is the above statement, but I know of few families who donot cook ivy gourd just because they have heard about this. Poor guys!!In our family, all of us love ivy gourd; so, I normally prepare this 'saasime' very frequently. So far, I think, the effect of eating this are not visible yet :)

Ingredients:
12-15 ivy gourd/ thondekayi
1tsp urad dal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1 big pinch turmeric
1 big pinch tamarind powder/amchur powder
1/2 cup curd
3 tbsp grated coconut(fresh/frozen)
1 green chilli (finely chopped)
1 broken red chilli
salt according to taste
2 tsp cooking oil

Method:
Wash the ivy gourd & chop them into very thin slices as shown below.

Add the oil to a broad kadai, when oil is hot, add urad dal.
When urad dal becomes golden brown, add sliced ivy gourd(sliced) & fry it in oil until crisp (takes around 6-8minutes).
When the ivy gourd is 3/4th done, add salt, amchur powder & continue to stiyfry the vegetable. Remove from flame & allow it to cool.

Make a fine paste of grated coconut, turmeric & mustard seeds. Add this paste, finely chopped green chilli, curd & salt to the cooled bendekayi. (Adjust salt accordingly as salt is added while stir-frying the vegetable)
Prepare the tempering. Add oil to a sauce pan, when oil is hot, add cumin seeds, when cumin seeds splutter, add broken red chilli, asafetida, curry leaves & pour this tempering to the saasime prepared.
Thonde saasime is ready to be served with rice or roti.


Award:
Smitha of Saffron Apron has passed me this beautiful award. Thanks a lot for the award Smitha.

Events:

Mahima's 15 minute cooking.

Basale Saasime (Malabar Spinach Saasime)

One more recipe from red vege( this is the name mentioned on these leaves in NTUC Singapore). It is also called red-stemmed malabar spinach. Picture of the red-stemmed malabar spinach can be found here. And regional names of this leaves can be found here.

As mentioned before in one of my posts that, this leaves if consumed 3 times a day for couple of days can cure mouth ulcers & also has a cooling effect on the body.

Here is the recipe for this coolant:

Ingredients:
1 bunch ಬಸಳೆ ಸೊಪ್ಪು/red stemmed malabar spinach
1/2 tsp urad dal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
a big pinch turmeric
1 pinch tamarind powder/amchur powder
1/2 cup curd
3 tbsp grated coconut(fresh/frozen)
1 green chilli
salt according to taste
1 tsp oil

Method:

• Discard the stem & chop the leaves.
  
• Add the oil to a broad kadai, when oil is hot, add jeera & urad dal.
• When urad dal becomes golden brown, add the finely chopped leaves, amchur powder & fry it in oil until . Remove from flame & allow it to cool.
• Make a fine paste of grated coconut, green chilli, turmeric & mustard seeds.
• Add this paste, curd & salt to the cooked leaves. Basale saasime is ready to be served. It is a great side dish for rice & also for roti.
  

Bhendi Saasime (Stir fried okra in mustard,coconut paste)

Very soothing side dish for people during summer. Saasime(some people call it saasive), hashi, methi tambli, are all said to have cooling effects on the body & helps one to fight summer temperatures. Hence, one of them will definitely feature in a 'hot day' menu in South Canara/Udupi.

As Singapore's climate is very similar to Mangalore/South Canara's weather, I prefer doing this atleast 2 times a week or sometimes more.

Here is one such saasime prepared using bendekayi/ladies finger.


6-8 thinly sliced bendekayi
1/2 tsp urad dal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1 big pinch turmeric
1 big pinch tamarind powder/amchur powder
1/2 cup curd
3 tbsp grated coconut(fresh/frozen)
1 green chilli
salt according to taste
1 tsp oil

Method:

• Add the oil to a broad kadai, when oil is hot, add jeera & urad dal.
• When urad dal becomes golden brown, add bendekayi (sliced), amchur powder & fry it in oil until crisp. Remove from flame & allow it to cool.
  

• Make a fine paste of grated coconut, green chilli, turmeric & mustard seeds.
• Add this paste, curd & salt to the cooled bendekayi. Bhendi saasime is ready to be served. It is a great side dish for rice & also for roti.
  

Note: For bhendi to be crispier, add the paste, curd & salt just before serving.