Ginger Chutney

Its still lockdown central here at home and today was Vada/Garal for breakfast. The recidents of my house  aka my fam...they looooove Peanut Chutney but today along with that I also made Ginger Chutney. This one is equally easy to make.

The red onions I used , gave the chutney a purple hue

Ginger Chutney(Ginger and Onion side for Indian Breakfast)

Ginger chutney

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium small onion chopped
2. 2 inches of ginger peeled and chopped
3. 1.5 tablespoons chana dal
4. 1 tablespoon urad dal
5. 1 teaspoon oil
6. 2 dried red chillies
7. 1 teaspoon cumin
8. 1/2 cup thick juice of tamarind
9. 1 teaspoon salt
10. 2-3 tablespoons jaggery or brown sugar

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the chanadal for a minute. Add the urad dal and fry till they start turning brown. Drain and add the onions and chillies into the same pan and fry for 2 minutes. Add ginger and fry for 3 more minutes. Let them cool.

Grind all the ingredients together until smooth. Enjoy with idli or vada or dosa

Wheat Dosa with Bottle Gourd Peel Chutney

Lauki Chilka Chutney

When I make any of the recipes with the skins of the vegetables which we usually discard I think of how resourceful Indian used to be in the olden days. There used to be so much less waste in everything. But India is changing sooooooooo much. People are being very wasteful and boastful
           Anyway, I made this Dosa with Wheat flour which was called "Poola" in my house. My grandma useds to love it and it is, as a matter of fact pretty delicious and easy to make. And to go with it I made Chutney with Ridge gourd. Enjoy

Poola (Whole Wheat Flour Crepes)

Wheat Dosa (pola)

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups wheat flour
2. 1/2-3/4 cup plain yogurt beaten
3. 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
4. 1 green chilly finely chopped
5. 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
6. water as needed
7. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon each of salt,
8. oil for frying

In a bowl sift the wheat flour with salt and mix the beaten yogurt. Add onions and green chillies and cilantro. Add water little by little until you get a thin pan cake batter. Heat the griddle and add a teaspoon of oil. Take batter in a ladle and star pouring in a circle from outside. Add some more oil at the edges. Let it get fried for 3 minutes or until the edges turn golden. Turn and fry for a couple of more minutes. Serve hot


Sorakaaya Thokku pachadi (Bottle gourd peel cooked and ground to paste)

Ingredient:

1. 2 cups Bottle gourd peel (Remove peel with any spots on it)
2. 1 large or 2 small tomatoes chopped
3. 2 green chillies
4. 1/2 inch ginger
5. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
7. 2 tablespoons oil
8. small lemon sized tamarind soaked in 1/4 cup of water water
9. 1/2 teaspoon each of mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal
10. 2 red chillies broken
11. few curry leaves
12. 1 heaped teaspoon dry roasted sesame (optional)

Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and fry the tomatoes and ridge gourd peels green chillies and ginger and cook for 3 whistles along with turmeric and tamarind puree and a little water. After the stream escapes open the cooker and grind it to a smooth paste along with the salt. In a pan the oil and fry the urad dal, cumin and musatrd seeds for a couple of minutes. Add red chillies and curry leaves and fry till they start to splutter. Add the chutney to it and cook for 5 minutes. Enjoy
The Chutney I made was a bit sour than what I wanted so I included the sesame seeds while grinding and it turned out to be sooooo good

You might also like Brinjal Chutney
                    Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney
                    Carrot Chutney

Dosa, Potato curry and Ridge gourd Peel chutney

In India many indian do not eat rice on Saturday nights. They only eat very light on Saturday...especially the Vegetarians. Breakfast items are supposed to be light (not really!!!) so DOSA is a favoured Saturday night dinner item. Here are the recipes for Dosa and its accompainments (1) Potato curry (2) Beerakaaya chutney

Dosa (Crepe made with peeled black gram and rice)

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup peeled black gram (Urad Dal)
2. 2 cups rice
3. 3/4 teaspoon salt
4. 2-3 cups water
5. oil for frying

Soak the black grams and rice separately in 3 cups of water over night. Grind them to a smooth paste and mix with salt and water to get a thin pancake batter consistency. Heat a griddle and add a laddle of batter in the center and spread the with the back of the laddle with a light hand. Add a teaspoon of oil around the edge of the dosa. Fry for 3-4 minutes until the edges turn golden. Turn it and fry for 1 more minute. Serve immediately with Potato Curry

Potato Curry (Simplest and delicious potato curry )

Aalo curry

Ingredients:

1. 2 large potatos peeled and sliced into quarters 1/8 inch thick
2. 1 medium onion sliced
3. 2 tablespoons oil divided
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, salt, turmeric
5. 2dried  red chillies
6. Few curry leaves

In a pressure cooker heat a tablespoon of oil and fry the onions they they become tender. Add the potatoes, salt and turmeric and cover and cook for 2 whistle with a cup of water. Once the steam escapes open the cooker. In a pan heat the remaining oil and fry the cumin and mustard seeds, dried chillies and curry leaves till they begin to splatter. Add the boiled potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. garnish with cilantro and serve with Dosa

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Beera kaaya is also known as chinese okra or ridge gourd and cooks very quickly and has lots of water content.  There are lots of dishes in India which are made using it. I will be posting some of them here
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Beerakaaya Tokku Chutney (Turai/Ridge gourd cooked and ground)

Ridge Gourd Peel

Ingredients:

1. 1 large ridge gourd
2. lime sized tamarind** soaked in1/3 cup of warm water
3. 1/2 each of  teaspoon salt, turmeric, cumin, mustard seeds
4. 2 dried red chillies
5. few curry leaves
6. 1 big green chilly
7. 2 tablespoons oil divided

Peel only the ridges of the ridge gourd and wash it. Cut it into chunks and fry it in a tablespoon of oil. Cover and cook for 15 minutes along with salt, turmeric and the soaked tamarind (Water and all). Let it cool and grind to a paste. In a pan heat the remaining oil and  fry the cumin and mustard seeds, dried chillies and curry leavesand chopped greeen chilly till they begin to splatter. Add the ground paste and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve

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**If you don't have tamarind or don't know tamarind you can use either citric acid or lemon juice to give a little bit of sourness to the chutney