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.

Molake hesaru kaalu palya (Sprouted green gram stirfry)

A low calorie recipe after a long time in my blog, but a much needed one. It was treat to tummy during these festive seasons. Entire family enjoyed eating deep fried foods, various kinds of sweets & varieties of side-dishes, main course etc. After eating sooo many dishes, the entire family fell sick :( & everyone was served with only garlic pepper rasam.

We have regained our health back & want to start our normal routine. So.., thought of preparing something healthy & nutritious.

Here goes a slightly different but a nutritious side dish for chapathi/roti & rice.


Ingredients:
2 cups sprouted hesaru kalu (sprouted green gram)
1 carrot chopped (cut into cubes)
1/2 cup cauliflower
1/2 capsicum chopped (optional)
1 onion sliced
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
a pinch of turmeric
2 green chillis
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp cliantro/coriander leaves chopped for garneshing

Method:

• Pressure cook for one whistle the green gram, carrot & cauliflower by adding little water.
• Drain the water completely from the cooked green gram
• In a kadai, add oil. When oil is hot add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds splutter, add onion & green chillis.
  
• Fry the onions, until it becomes golden brown.
• Add capsicum & dice for a minute or 2.
• Now add the drained green gram & the vegetables. Add salt & cook for a minute.
• Finally add the lemon juice & garnesh it with coriander leaves.
• Palya is ready to be served. Have it as a side dish for rice or roti.

Tips: The drained water from the cooked vegetables can be used for preparing rasam or can be added while preparing soups.

Forgot to mention, I got another lovely award from my friend & a fellow blogger Sukanya. Thanks a lot for giving me this award.


I'm sending this simple & healthier recipe to Veda(Iyengar's Kitchen), who is hosting the Challenge event. Here is a small contribution from my side :)

Godi Shira (Wheat flour sweet dish)

The credit for this recipe should also go to my co-sister (and her granny). I had been to her paternal grand mother's place (Tyagali near Sirsi) and had this dish for the first time. Her granny had prepared this dish herself with all her love and care. So, it tasted divine and i wasted no time in asking her the recipe. After coming back home, i tried preparing it once; but couldn't quite impress people. I seeked my co-sister's help and learnt the nitty gritty of this dish.

Here is the secret recipe, especially for you folks:


Ingredients:
Wheat Flour 1 cup
Milk 2 cups
Ghee (Clarified Butter) 0.75 cup
Sugar 1.5 cups
Cashew

Method:

• Take a broad vessel;Add 1 tbsp of ghee
• When ghee is hot, add cashew nuts and fry till the cashew nuts turn golden brown; Keep aside only the fried cashew nuts
• Add wheat flour to the same vessel and fry till the raw smell of the wheat flour disappears (it changes its colour slightly, in the process)
• Allow it to cool.
• In another broad pan, boil the milk.
• When the milk starts boiling, simmer the flame and add the wheat flour to it
• Mix it properly so that no lumps are formed
• Cook it for a minute and add sugar to it.Keep stirring so as to hold the mixture together
• When the mixture starts sticking to the pan, add 2 tbsps of ghee with continuous stirring
  
• Repeat the above step until the ghee is finished or the mixture doesn't stick to the pan
  

As you can see, the method is quite similar to the rava (semolina) kesari bath, except for the addition of the ghee, in the end.

Sutta badane hashi (Smoked Brinjal Raitha)

There are umpteen dishes that could be prepared with smoked brinjal (sutta badane). Some of them being, baigan bartha, sutta badanekayi bajji etc. Here is one more interesting recipe using smoked brinjal.

To prepare this, I usually prefer Udupi Gulla (one of the brinjal varieties), but after leaving India, there was hardly any chance of getting it. So, I started preparing this with any kind of brinjal available. To know more about Udupi gulla, see this & also this.

This is easy to cook, yet tastier side dish for rice, pulav or chapathi/roti. As said by one of my friend, it tastes great with ragi mudde (finger millet balls) too :))



Ingredients:

1 brinjal
1-2 green chillies
2 tbsp grated coconut
1/2 cup curd/yogurt
1 tsp chopped cliantro/coriander leaves
salt according to taste

For tempering:
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2-3 curry leaves

Preparation:

• Wash & dry the brinjal. Smear a little oil throughout to the brinjal.
• Cook this brinjal over hot charcoal or gas flame or in a microwave for 3-5 minutes (The brinjal looks burnt from outside, but need not worry)
• Now, remove the outer skin of the brinjal & mash it thoroughly.
• Make a paste of grated coconut & green chilli using little water.
• Add this paste & salt to the mashed brinjal.
• Also, add curd to this.
• Prepare the tempering/oggarane. In a seperate pan, add oil, when oil is hot, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds splutter, add curry leaves & add this tadka to the brinjal mixture.
• Garnish it with coriander. Sutta badane hashi is ready.

Note: Serve this hashi after 10 mins, as the sutta badane absorbs the curd & the coconut mixture. As said before, it goes well as a side dish for rice or can even be consumed as a raitha for any pulav prepared.

Balekayi dose (Raw banana dosa)

A different & a tasty dosa that can be prepared in minutes as it does not need fermentation.

Generally, most of us forget to plan for the next day breakfast & try to plan for something only after finishing the dinner. Am I not right? So, here is one such recipe that comes handy & is a very easy preparation. I'm sure ladies(also for guys who love to cook :)), all of us will be benefited with this one :)

Here are the very minimal ingredients for this dosa

1 cup raw rice (soaked in water for 3-4 hours)
1 cup balekayi (raw banana) with the outer skin lightly peeled
salt according to taste.

Method:

• Grind together the rice & the raw banana to form a smooth batter (very similar to normal dosa)
• Add salt according to taste & start preparing the dosas :)

Dosas become very crisp & thin.
Below is the dosa plate for you, it has dosa (ofcourse :-p), karibevu chutneypudi & sambar

Basale Tambli

I got red spinach (kempu basale) from NTUC today to cook basale tambli. They say, kempu basale is a very effective medicine for curing mouth ulcers.

This tambli can be prepared using normal basale(malabar spinach) also. Tambli turned out very tasty, unfortunate that I had cold, I had to restrict myself from eating. My husband enjoyed this tambli. He even drank it after finishing the dinner ;)

Let's see the recipe for this tambli.

Ingredients:

1/2 bunch of kempu basale finely chopped (use only the leaves & discard the stem)
1.5 tablespoons of grated coconut
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
1.5 cups of curd/yogurt ( buttermilk can also be used for this)
1 green chilli
1 tsp oil

For tempering:
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal
a pinch of hing
1 red chilli

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan, when oil is hot, add jeera.
• When jeera becomes golden brown, add onions & saute for 45 secs. (Onions need not be sauted till golden brown)
• Add chopped basale(spinach) leaves to it & saute for 2 mins. No need to cook the leaves completely by adding water. Saute till the leaves become soft. Allow it cool.
• Make a paste of the spinach leaves (together with onion & jeera), coconut, green chilli by adding buttermilk/majjige/curd/yogurt
• Now add salt according to taste & add enough curd. The tambli should have the consistency of thick milkshake.
• Prepare the tadka/tempering. In a seperate pan, add oil, when oil is hot, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds splutter, add urad dal, red chilli, hing & add this tadka to the hashi prepared.
• Basale tambli is ready to be served.

Tamblis (various kinds) are consumed as an appetizer. If I try to recollect, festive food for the people from north canara, starts from tambli or appe huli & then followed by rasam/sambar.

Basale Hashi (Malabar spinach curry)

Was talking to my aunt on phone & asked her about the dishes that could be prepared using basale. I knew how to prepare basale hashi, basale sambar but nothing more. She told me couple of more recipes, will publish them as soon as I prepare. Not only the recipes, I got very useful information from her. We get a lot of red spinach (kempu basale) here in Singapore. I never bothered to get them, she told me that there are umpteen medicinal values with kempu basale & also that it is not so easily available in South Canara, Karnataka. She told me that it is called bayi basale soppu (Bayi is a kannada word & its literal translation is "mouth"). It is a very effective medicine for mouth ulcers & has a cooling effect on the body.

Now, some general information about this soppu (leaves). It is a sticky vegetable like okra(bhindi), but the leaves are not so very sticy when compared to stem. The stem along with the leaves are used for sambar preparation, but for hashi, saasime.., some people only add the leaves (just to avoid the stickiness). I see the quality of the stem, if it is quite tender, I just chop it finely & add the stem also for hashi (as stem also has medicinal values....and I have paid for the stem too ;))



Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup finey chopped basale soppu ( only leaves or both stem & leaves)
1/2 cup curd/yogurt/mosaru
2 tbsp grated coconut (fresh/frozen)
1 green chilli
1/2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp amchur powder/huli pudi
salt according to taste

For oggarane/tempering:
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal
a pinch of hing
1 red chilli

Method:

• Add the oil to a broad pan, when oil is hot, add the basale & fry them. Cook the basale in oil until soft (add very little water, if required).
• To remove the stickiness of the leaves, a little amchur powder & salt is added to the leaves while cooking.
• Make a fine paste of coconut & green chilli.
• Allow the basale to come down to normal room temperature & add the coconut paste, salt & curd. Mix them well.
• Prepare the tadka in a seperate pan, add oil, when oil is hot, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds splutter, add urad dal, red chilli, hing & add this tadka to the hashi prepared.
• Hashi is ready to be served. Tastes good with rice & rotti.

I had shared this recipe with my friend Lakshmi, she has published the recipe & a nice snap in her blog too.., you can see it here.