Keerai (greens) Thandu (stem) Kootu

There are so many varieties of keerais or greens available in India - especially in southern India - mulai keerai (type of amaranth), siru keerai (another type of amaranth), ponanganni keeri (dwarf copper leaf), pasala keerai (spinach), vendhiya keerai (fenugreek), murungai keeri (drumstick leaves), manathakali keerai, vallarai keerai (pennywort) – to name a few.  My mom would either buy these at a wholesale vegetable market where farmers send fresh produce, or from the vendor who would bring these to the door.  She would make these in different ways – keerai masial, keerai kootu, more kootu, keerai vadai, keerai kuzhambu etc. 

Keerai Thandu Kootu

We had a drumstick tree in our backyard – so we got murungai keerai from that.  My mom would add this to adais.  We also had a manathakalikai (European black nightshade) bush, and got the purple berries and greens from this plant.

Once I moved here, the only recognizable keerai I had access to was palak  - spinach.  Chopped spinach was available in the frozen vegetable section in the regular grocery store and that was the only keerai I made for the longest time.

A couple of summers ago, we became members of a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  Due to weird summer weather that year, most of the harvest was greens – arugula, kale, chard, mustard greens, spinach, and numerous others I don’t know the names of.  So I started experimenting with these – some hits and some misses.

Of late, the big Asian market near my house, has been carrying amaranth (a variety of mulai keerai) and pennywort (brahmi/vallarai).  I buy these and make it the same way that I make spinach.  The last time I got Amaranth, I noticed that the stems were really thick, and remembered this kootu (vegetables cooked with moong dal and spices) my mom used to make with keerai thandu (stems) and decided to make it.

The amaranth I get here has red and green leaves (red around the veins and green on the edges) – like this one in the picture.

I trimmed the leaves and used it to make saag, and chopped the stems to make this kootu

 

Here is what you need:

• ½ cup toor dal
• ½ cup moong dal
• 12 – 15 thick amaranth stems
• 2 tsp. dhania (coriander seeds)
• 2 tsp. jeera (cumin seeds)
• 2 tsp. urad dal
• 3 red chilies
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• ¼ tsp. hing
• ¼ cup grated coconut
• ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
• salt to taste

For tempering:

• 2 tsp. oil
• ½ tsp. mustard seeds
• ½ tsp. jeera
• ½ tsp. urad dal
• 2 red chilies
• few curry leaves

Here is how I made it:

1. Wash and rinse the dals, add water and cook in a pressure cooker till done.
2. Wash the amaranth stems and dice them.  Place them in a pot with water, bring to boil and cook on medium-low heat till done (about 7 – 8 minutes).  Drain the water and set aside.
3. While the stems are cooking, dry roast dhania, jeera, urad dal, red chilies, black pepper, and hing.  Let this cool a bit and grind to a coarse paste with coconut.
4. Now, add the mashed dal to the cooked stems.  Add a little water and salt to taste along with turmeric powder.  Bring this to a boil.
5. Add the ground paste and simmer for a few more minutes.
6. Heat oil for tempering in a small pan.  Add mustard seeds, jeera, urad dal, and red chilies. 
7. When the mustard seeds sputter, turn off the stove, add the curry leaves (carefully, because it tends to splash oil), and pour this over the kootu.

Serve with rice, rasam, kuzhambu or sambar.

Traditional Paruppu Usili with Kothavarangai (Cluster beans and dal curry)

You know the phrase “finger-lickin’ good”?  I think it applies perfectly to South Indian food.  My cuisine tastes best when eaten with your hand – so that at the end of your meal you can actually lick your fingers to show your appreciation of the meal.

I cannot understand how people who grew up eating with their hands, now eat rasam sadam, sambar sadam, or morkuzhambu with a spoon.  Where is the pleasure in that?  The best part of the whole experience is in slurping up the rasam before it drips down your palm towards your elbow :)

Sadly, my kids have not been exposed to this pleasure.  When they were young, I used to feed them rasam sadam (rasam rice), and by the time they were old enough to eat on their own, they felt eating with their hand messed it up too much.  They still use silverware to eat rasam rice or yogurt rice.  A couple of times, when we have been to weddings or other functions in India, they have been served a traditional meal on banana leaves – it was comical to watch them try and win the battle.

Most wedding or special function menus include payasam (kheer), sambar, rasam, morkuzhambu, couple of vegetables – one of which is typically paruppu usili, kootu or avial, thair pacchidi (raita), vadai, appalam, pickle,  kosumalli (salad), and some other sweet.  If there is morkuzhabu on the menu, you can almost guarantee that there will be paruppu usili to go with it.

Since I was making the traditional morkuzhambu for my husband, and had time, I decided to make paruppu usili too.  My Indian store gets veggies on Thursdays.  So I got vendaikkai (bhindi/okra) for the morkuzhambu and kothavarangai (cluster beans) for the paruppu usili.

I had posted a recipe earlier for paruppu usili using moongwadis.  This time, I made it the traditional way – soaking dal, grinding it, steaming it, and then making the dish.  It takes a little more time, but the taste in the end is totally worth it.

 

Here is what you need:

• 1 cup toor dal, washed and soaked for about an hour
• 4 – 6 red chilies
• ¼ tsp. hing (asafetida)
• salt to taste
• 2 cups cluster beans, washed, trimmed, and chopped
• 3 tsp. oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 red chili, broken
• few curry leaves

Here is how I made it:

1. Drain the water from the toor dal.  Grind it to a coarse paste with red chilies, hing, and salt, adding very little water.
2. Distribute the ground paste onto idli plates or a steamer, and steam for about 7 – 8 minutes.  Alternatively, you can steam this in the microwave in a bowl, stirring occasionally, till the paste is crumbly.
3. While this paste is steaming, place the cluster beans in a microwave safe bowl with enough salted water to cover the beans.  Microwave on high for about 8 minutes till the beans are cooked.  Drain and set aside.
4. When the steamed paste has cooled a bit, crumble well with your hand, so that there are no big lumps.
5. Heat oil in a pan.  Add mustard seeds and red chilies.
6. When the mustard seeds sputter, ad the curry leaves.
7. Add the dal paste and stir well.  Let this mixture cook on medium-low heat for a few minutes.
8. When the dal looks dry and starts getting slightly crispy, add the cooked beans.
9. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, adding salt if necessary.

Serve hot with morkuzhambu, rice, and rasam.

Bisibele Bath

I haven’t made bisibele bath from scratch in a long time.  The last few times, I just converted left-over sambar to make a hybrid bisibele bath.  Last Saturday, I had some time and I also had small onions at home.  My younger son, who does not like bisibele bath, was volunteering with his soccer team, and was also going to have lunch with them.  Since it was only my husband and myself for lunch, I decided to make bisibele bath.

Every time I make this, I remember Anand.  Anand was a graduate student in Boulder when I moved here in 1994, and was subjected to many of my cooking experiments.  He has now moved to India, and apart from working on numerous projects, has a farm close to Mangalore.  He sends me organically grown turmeric from his farm every now and then and I am thoroughly spoiled.  I can’t use store-bought turmeric any more.

Bisibele Bath

He is also my best food critic.  Most people tell me if a dish has come out well or not, if it has too much salt, or not enough, is too spicy or bland, but Anand can pinpoint the individual spices and tell me exactly what my dish needs to make it perfect.  Sometimes, this can be very annoying – and I am sure his wife will agree, but most times, I adjust the recipe the next time I make the dish, and it comes out well.

I have made changes to my bisibele bath recipe based on his critique.  I have added a little more cinnamon and have also included pottu kadalai (fried gram dal) while making the masala.

My husband, after lunch, proclaimed that this was my best attempt yet, and that everything – from consistency, to the level of spices, to the amount of veggies, was perfect.  He, of course, went on to criticize some other things, but I will save that for another post :)

I have an Oster blender.  It does not grind masalas well. So I make a dry powder with the masalas and a wet paste with the coconut.  If you have a Sumeet or other powerful blenders, you can make one masala paste with all the ingredients listed under masala powder and masala paste.

Here is what you need:

(easily serves a family of four)

• 1 cup rice
• ½ cup toor dal
• small lime-sized ball of tamarind, or 3 tsp. tamarind concentrate
• 3 tsp. oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 tsp. channa dal
• 1 tsp. split urad dal
• ¼ tsp. hing
• ¼ tsp. methi seeds
• 2 red chilies
• few curry leaves
• ½ tsp. turmeric powder
• 10 – 12 small onions, peeled
• ½ green capsicum, diced
• 1 small baby potato, diced
• ½ small eggplant, diced
• ½ carrot, diced
• ½ cup frozen green peas, thawed (see note)
• 2 tsp. sambar powder
• 4 tsp. ghee
• 2 Tbsp. cashew nuts
• few more curry leaves
•  coriander for garnish

       For the masala powder:

• 6 -7 red chilies
• 2 Tbsp. channa dal
• 3 Tbsp. coriander seeds
• 2 –3 pieces of flat cinnamon, each 1” long
• 3 tsp. khus-khus (poppy seeds)
• 3 – 4 cloves

      For the masala paste:

•  ¾ cup grated coconut
• 1/3 cup fried gram dal

 

 

Here is how I made it:

1. Wash the rice and dal together in several changes of water.  Transfer it to a pressure cooker-safe bowl.  Add 5 cups of water (I use Sona Masoori rice which needs more water - 1:3 ratio.  Adjust water according to the rice you are using).  It should be a little mushy.
2. Cook in a pressure cooker, turning the heat to low, after the first whistle, for about 10 minutes.
3. While the rice is cooking, extract the juice from the tamarind and discard the remaining pulp (if you are using tamarind)
4. Dry roast all the ingredients listed under masala powder, and grind it to an almost fine powder.  Set aside.
5. Grind the coconut and fried gram dal, with a little bit of water, to a fine paste.  Set aside.
6. Heat oil in a saucepan.  Add mustard seeds, channa dal, urad dal, hing, methi seeds, and red chilies.
7. When the mustard seeds sputter, add the curry leaves and turmeric.  Sauté for a minute.
8. Add the small onions,   and fry for a couple of minutes.  Then add the other vegetables. Sauté for a few more minutes.
9. Add sambar powder. Mix well
10. Add the tamarind extract.  If you are using the tamarind concentrate, add a cup of water and the concentrate.  Add salt.
11. Let this come to a boil, then simmer for a few minutes till all the veggies are cooked.
12. Now add the powdered masala and the ground paste. Let this come to a boil and then turn the heat to medium -low.
13. After about 5 minutes, add the cooked rice and dal.  Mix well.
14. If it seems very thick, add some water.  Taste to check if there is enough salt.
15. Now, heat the ghee.  Add cashews.  When they turn slightly golden, add the curry leaves. Turn off the heat and pour this over the bisibele bath.
16. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Serve hot with papads or potato chips.

Note:  I like the peas we get in our Indian store, because they seem to be a bit more firm than the ones we get in a regular grocery store.  You can use either.

Paruppu Thogayal (Lentil Chutney)

I loved having my paternal grandmother visit us.  She would tell us all these great stories from Indian mythology and from her childhood.  The time to catch her would be when she settles down for her afternoon nap, after lunch.

She would wear only 9-yard sarees that she would wash herself.  There was a well in my house.  She would draw water from the well and wash the saree and hang it to dry on the clothesline.  It would stay there till the next morning for her to wear after her bath.  She continued this routine well into her nineties, when she could no longer lift the heavy wet sarees.  She also had great memory and would remember details about not only her grand kids but also her great grand kids.

She was also a very orthodox woman.  She was very particular about “madi” and “acharam” – meaning the person who was cooking, needed to have a shower, wear clothes that they had washed the previous night, and prepare the food without touching any one else.

Paruppu Thogayal

My mom, a working woman, could not consistently keep up with this because she had kids to get ready for school and when I was younger, had to braid my hair, cook the food for our breakfast, and lunch, pack it all up, as well as make food for my grandmother, before she left for work.  So my grandmother did not spend as much time with our family as she did with my father’s older brother.

When she did spend time with us, I remember that she would eat only one full meal a day – around 1:00 in the afternoon, after all her daily ablutions and pooja were done.  She would have "palakaram" in the evening – something like idli, dosa, adai, upma, or rotis. She would not eat onions or garlic.

Everyday, with her lunch, she had some kind of thogayal.  Thogayal is chutney that is thicker than the chutney you make for idli/dosa.  It is something that you can mix with rice and eat, and typically has some dal in it.  Of all the thogayals my mom made, paruppu thogayal was my favorite.  It is so simple to make and tastes so good.

Here is what you need:

• 2 tsp oil
• 1 cup toor dal
• 6 red chilies
• ¼ tsp. hing (asafetida)
• salt to taste

You can add few cloves of garlic or some coconut to this too.  I did not

Here is how I made it:

1. Heat oil in a saucepan.  When the oil is hot, add the hing, dal, and red chilies.
2. Fry till the dal turns a beautiful, golden brown. Turn off the heat and let it cool.
3. Grind in a blender to a coarse paste with salt.

Serve with rice, milagu kuzhambu, milagu-jeera rasam, and potato curry.  My favorite way to eat this - add thogayal and a little bit of sesame oil to steaming hot rice and mix well.  Have with potato curry and papads.