Soyikura aaku garelu/Sabakshi soppu Vadas/Dill Vadas

Its winter and time for hot and crispy snacks. Soyikura or Sabakshi soppu as the leafy vegetable is called in telugu and kannada respectively is high in nutrients. It is called Dill in English and is commonly available is most of the stores world over. We love the Soyyi kura vadas, not just because they are crispy and yummy but also for the distinct aroma that fills the kitchen when they are made.

Preparation time: 15-25 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Dill (Soyyikura aaku/Sabakshi soppu) 2 bunches

Mint Leaves (Pudina) 4-5strands

Spring onions 1/4th bunch

Coriander 5 strands

Curry leaves 10

Green chillies 5-7

Ginger 1 tsp

Refined cooking oil 1cup

Black gram (Urad dal/minapappu/udin bele) 1cup(100 gms)

Bengal gram ( Senagabedalu/kadle bele) 1 cup(100 gms)

Green gram (Moong dal/pesara pappu/hesarbele) 1cup(100gms)

Grated coconut(Optional) 1 cup

Salt to taste

Method:

Soak Black gram, Bengal gram and green gram for half an hour.

Finely chop the Dill leaves, mint leaves, coriander, curry leaves, spring onions and keep aside.

Grind in to a coarse paste the soaked dals,green chillies and a tsp of ginger.

In broad vessel, mix together the above ground paste with the finely chopped veggies. Add salt to taste, fresh and grated coconut(optional) and mix well to make a batter.

Take medium sized balls of the mix and pat slightly to make thick, medium sized, disc shaped cakes .Deep fry in pre-heated oil.

Soyyi kura aaku vadas are done. Soyyi kura aaku vadas taste awesome with tomato sauce or coconut chutney. A must have on a cold winter evening with hot chocolate to sip along.

Pineapple Kesaribath

This is our most favorite sweet and it the best thing we have ever had. Kesari bath is a typical Karnataka sweet and pineapple kesaribath is a variation of it. Every Kannada household is sure to make this sweet for every festival and every occasion at home.

Preparation time: 15-20 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Small pineapple 1

Semolina (Rava/Sooji) 1 cup

Sugar 1 ½ cup

Milk (paalu) ½ cup

Ghee 4-5tbsps

Cardomom powder(Elaichi powder) 1tsp

Pinch of turmeric

Saffron(Kesar strands) to garnish

Dry fruits of choice

Method:

Roast 1cup of semolina in a tsp of ghee. Keep aside to cool.

Cut pineapple into cubes. Now a days most supermarkets sell pineapple slices. 4 such slices will do for the recipe.

Boil 2 and a half cups of water in a vessel for 5 mins. When the water reaches boiling point add the pineapple cubes.Leave to boil for 5 more minutes. Add 1 and a half cup of sugar and leave to boil till sugar melts to make semi-liquefied syrup (the proportion of water and sugar is to 1 cup of semolina. Please adjust accordingly)

When the sugar is forming a syrup, add 2 tbsps ghee and mix. Add a tsp of cardamom powder and a pinch of turmeric and mix (yellow food color can also be used, but turmeric is natural and thus preferred.)

Add half a cup of milk, the roasted semolina and keep stirring till it thickens into a soft pudding/halwa consistency.

On another pan, heat 2 tsps ghee. Add cashewnuts, raisins and the dry fruits of choice like pistachio, almonds etc and roast till raisins are big and transparent while the cashews are light brown.

Season the kesaribath with the ghee-roasted dry fruits and garnish with saffron. Pineapple kesaribath is a great dessert and a delicacy for a festive evening. For us of course, it can be main course too. Pineapple kesaribath can be chilled and served or served hot. Any which way it tastes “heavenly”. We wish our blog visitors a sweet and Merry Christmas!

Palak Kofta

Winter is here and so is the best time to have greens. Amma always tells us that fresh and best greens are available in winter and it is the best time to prepare them as not only are they nutritious but also take lesser preparation time. Spinach koftas or palak kofta is an ideal recipe for a lazy winter sunday afternoon lunch when the mood is to have something crispy yet healthy.

The recipe and pictures are contributed by Nanditha Reddy. Thank you Nanditha.

Preparation time: 35-45 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Medium sized Potatoes (aloo) 3

Tomatoes 4

Onion (ullipaya)3

Carrot 1

Bunches of Spinach (Palak/Palakura) 4

Green Chillies 4

A heaped tablespoon of corn flour 1tsp

Sandwich bread slices 2

Refined cooking oil 1cup

Cashewnuts 10

Chilli powder 1tsp

Ginger paste/ginger 1tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Koftas:

Boil, peel and mash the potatoes. Grate the carrot, finely chop the spinach and set aside.

To the mashed potatoes, add the grated carrot, 1 bunch spinach chopped, 2 bread slices,1 finely chopped green chilly, salt and a heaped tbsp of corn flour. Mix well and make average sized balls of the

mixture.

Deep fry the balls in pre heated oil to make koftas and set aside.

Spinach gravy:

Take 4 tsps oil in a kadai/pan(bandli/mookudu). Add finely chopped onions and green chillies and fry till golden brown.Add cashew nuts and fry for half a min.

Add a tsp of ginger paste or ginger flakes as available, 1 tsp red chilly powder, chopped spinach,tomatoes and salt to taste. Leave to cook for 4 mins.

Grind adding water if required ( the tomatoes and spinach already are rich in water content and we generally don’t need to add more water.) into a liquefied gravy.

Add the koftas just before serving. Crispy and yummy palak koftas are ready. Palak kofta is a good rice/Indian bread supplement. Garnish with fresh cream to add flavor.

Srilankan Arati Puvvu Curry

Arati puvvu is Banana flower in English. Bananas are an integral part of the South east asian traditions, more so in India. Right from the leaves of the banana plant to the trunk, the flower and the fruits, bananas have been an orthodox south Indian kitchen’s main ingredient. So much that in most of our homes, the backyard is filled with Banana plants.

Banana flower curry or arati puvvu kura that we are writing now was taught to us by Kamala aunty. Thank you aunty. This is the Sri lankan way of making banana flower curry. High in fibre and protein content, banana flower curry or arati puvvu kura is a healthy as well as a yummy recipe.

Preparation time: 30-45 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
Small banana flower(Arati puvvu) 1
Whole green gram (Moong dal sabut/pesalu) 1 cup(200g)
Onion 1
Mustard seeds(aavalu) 1tsp
Cumin seeds(jeera/jeelakarra) 1tsp
Curry leaves 4-5
Green chillies(optional) 2
Grated fresh coconut 1 cup
Refined cooking oil 4 tsp
Pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste

Method:
Generally in Andhra and Karnataka, we remove the outer layers of the banana flower that seem like its petals and cook the inner pollen kind of white substances. But for this curry we shall use the petals portion that is the red/maroon and purplish outer petals.

Wash the flower as a whole and finely chop like we chop cabbage. There is a hard inner crust that keeps coming in the way while chopping. As we are chopping, we keep removing the hard inner portion to get just the finely chopped petals. We can also keep the pollen kind of white substances aside to be used in our Andhra kind of curries.

Finely chop an onion (2 if the banana flower is medium sized or big).

Add a pinch of turmeric to the whole green gram and pressure cook upto 6 whistles.

In a kadai/pan(bandli/mookudu), add 4 tsp oil. Once hot add a tsp each of mustard and cumin seeds. Once they splutter add curry leaves and green chillies( the curry is essentially sweet and bland. But for those who prefer spicy food, finely chopped green chillies are optional).

Once the above tempering is done add the chopped onions and fry till golden brown. Add the finely chopped banana flower, a pinch of turmeric, salt to taste, cover and leave to cook on simmer for around 6-8 minutes. Sprinkle water if required. Once the flower feels soft and cooked, add the pressure cooked whole green gram and mix well. Since the gram is already cooked adjust the salt and switch the stove off.

Add 1 full cup of fresh and grated coconut to the curry just before serving and mix well.

Sri Lankan banana flower curry or aratipuvvu kura is ideally had with rice or the Malabar parathas. It also goes well with any of the Indian bread. It can also be served as a salad as it tastes awesome just like that. Another way is to serve is as prasadam during festivals like Varalakshmi vratham.Ganesh chaturthi, dussera when ladies are invited home for perantam or harshanekumkuma or Haldi kumkum(a la sundal or oosli).

Sri Lankan arati puvvu curry is a must try dish and one that we will keep on making again and again because it is simple and yet healthy.