Pulingari - a tangy tamarind based gravy

When I chose the theme Gravies/Rice main course for the February blogging marathon, the first few dishes that I thought of are restaurant favorites - rich gravies and exotic rice dishes. However, what I often make and  what we truly enjoy is our simple, every day home cooking. This pulingari is an authentic Kerala Iyer recipe. Like all recipes from my home state of Kerala, this one too makes abundant use of fresh coconut which is ground along with some roast spices and added to vegetables cooked in tamarind.It is light and easy on the stomach, with no added lentils, and with an appealing tanginess that is balanced by the coconut masala paste. Pulingari literally mean a curry made of tamarind.  This is eaten with rice and a side of vegetables and papadam.

What you need:
Vegetables - 1/2 cup, diced (The commonly used vegetables for pulingari are pumpkin, ash gourd, brinjal, carrots, and colocasia. These vegetables can be used in combination or separately)
Tamarind - a lemon sized ball soaked in 2 cups of hot water
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

To roast:
Oil - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 3
Curry leaves - a sprig
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
Raw rice - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a small piece (If you use powdered asafetida, add it after the flame is turned off)

Heat oil in a pan. Add red chillies, curry leaves, asafoetida and raw rice. Roast over a low flame. Add methi seeds and roast for just a few seconds, taking care to see that the seeds do not burn, as this will make the curry bitter. Once cool, grind this with the grated coconut, adding a little water to make a smooth paste. Set aside.

In the same pan, take the vegetables. Add tamarind extract, turmeric powder and salt. Boil partly covered until the vegetables are three-fourths cooked. Add the ground paste and let it boil again until the vegetables are well cooked. The curry should be of a pourable consistency. So if you feel it is too thick, add some more water and if you feel it is too thin, let it boil till the desired consistency is reached.
In a separate pan, heat a teaspoon of oil (preferably coconut oil). Add 1/2 tsp each of mustard seeds and urad dal. When the seeds pop, pour this over the pulingari. Top with a sprig of fresh curry leaves.
Serve hot with rice and a dollop of ghee.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Methi dal

Remember the methi sprouts that LG & I planted that made an appearance in this post? Well, the methi has grown splendidly and with some of it, I made this dal for lunch.

What you need:
Moong dal - 3/4 cup
Methi leaves - 1 cup, washed and finely chopped
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Onion - 1, finely chopped
Green chilli - 2 or 3, minced
Garlic - 4 cloves, minced
Tomato - 2 large juicy ones, chopped
Ghee - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Add two cups of water to the moong dal. Add methi leaves, salt and turmeric powder. Cook in the pressure cooker till one whistle, reduce the flame and cook for another five minutes.
In a pan, heat the oil and ghee. Add cumin seeds When the seeds sputter, add the chopped garlic, green chillies and onions. Fry on a low flame until they start to brown. Add chopped tomatoes and fry till soft and mushy. Pour the cooked dal over this. Add some water if needed and let it boil for 5-8 minutes.
Serve with rice or roti.

Rules and methi kofta

Rules, especially in this part of the world that I live in, are meant to be broken. If there is a No-parking board on the road, chances are you will find that it is surrounded by parked vehicles. If there is a No-entry sign, you will find vehicles making a detour through that road.
Now, one of the first things we learn while beginning to drive is that, if you want to turn right, you switch on the right indicator....or in the absence of it, stick your arm out and point to the right....or do the same thing with your left arm/left indicator if you want to turn left. Apparently, MTC bus drivers either were not told of this rule, or they are a confused lot who can't distinguish between left and right. It is always better to give MTC buses a wide berth.....you never know in which direction they might move. The bus in front of you might be at the right most corner of the road, with the right indicator flashing, and then, before you know it, the driver might make a W...I...D....E turn to the left. On Indian roads, might is right....and there's nothing mightier than a bus that is overcrowded with five times the number of people it is built to accommodate.
Which rules, when broken, make your blood boil?
Now, on to a recipe, where the only rules is Dig in with gusto!!!
Methi koftas
(Recipe source : Mallika Badrinath's 100 Delicious Vegetarian Curries)
What you need:

For the koftas:
Fresh methi leaves - 2 small bunches(roughly half a cup)
Sour curd - 1 cup
Gram flour/besan - 1 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Salt

Mix gram flour, turmeric powder and salt with curd to make a thick paste. Heat a tsp of oil. Add cumin seeds and methi leaves. Fry for a minute or two till the leaves start to soften. Reduce the flame and add the flour paste. Keep stirring until it forms a thick mass. Once cool, mix in the garam masala and shape into balls.
After shaping into koftas, I used a paniyaram pan to fry these. You can deep fry in hot oil if that is what you choose to do, but believe me, there is no difference in the taste and this way, you use very little oil.
Add a little oil to each of the depressions in the pan and fry the koftas for a few minutes until the bottom starts to turn brown.

Turn over and fry until the other side turns crisp and brown.

Arrange the koftas in a serving dish and set aside.

For the gravy:
Grind together 1 onion, 2 tomatoes, a small piece of ginger, a green chilli, 1/2 tsp of dhania, 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder, a little sugar, salt, and red chilli powder.
Heat 2 tsp of oil in a kadai. Add the ground paste to it and fry on low flame until the raw smell is gone. Add a little water if you feel that it has become too thick.
Just before serving, pour this gravy on top of the koftas and garnish with corriander leaves.

Serve with parathas or rotis.

This goes to Divya's Show me your curry event.

Rajma methi

The first time I tasted rajma was in Delhi. It was served with rice and tasted absolutely, positively divine. I am yet to find a recipe that I like to eat with rice, but whenever I make rotis and want to serve rajma curry, this is the recipe that I follow. The methi leaves are a last minute addition intended to save them from going directly from the refrigerator to the dustbin.

What you need:
Rajma (Red kidney beans) - 1 cup, soaked in plenty of water overnight and cooked
Onion - 1, large, chopped
Tomato - 2, chopped
Green chilli - 2, minced
Ginger - a small piece, chopped
Garlic - a few cloves
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt
Sugar - a little (optional)
Chopped methi(fenugreek) leaves - 1/2 cup or a small bunch
Oil/ghee - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 3/4 tsp
Kalonji seeds - 1/2 tsp

Heat oil/ghee. Add the cumin and kalonji seeds and toast for a few seconds. Stir in the chopped green chillies, ginger, garlic and onion. Saute until onions start to brown. Add the tomatoes and heat until mushy. Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt, sugar, garam masala and stir well to mix. Add the cooked rajma along with the water in which it was cooked. Boil for a few minutes until the gravy thickens. Add chopped methi leaves and simmer until the leaves wilt and soften. The addition of methi leaves will make the curry bitter. So skip this step if you don't like anything that tastes bitter.
Serve hot with roti/puri.

This goes to Simona who is hosting the 5th edition of My Legume Love Affair. MLLA was started by Susan of the Well Seasoned Cook.

Green peas and fenugreek leaves curry

Fenugreek (methi in Hindi, uluva in Malayalam, Menthyam in Tamil) makes a frequent appearance in Indian cuisine both as a herb and a spice. It has a characteristic odour and a slightly bitter taste. In my home, the seeds soaked in curd/buttermilk are used as a digestive aid and to cure an upset stomach. The seeds are also said to boost milk production in lactating mothers.
The curry that I have here today is a very simple yet flavourful preparation that goes well with rotis. The peas have been added to balance out the bitterness of the methi leaves. You can choose to leave them out.

What you need:
Fresh fenugreek leaves - 1 cup, chopped
Green peas - 1/2 cup (raw, cooked or semi-cooked)
Tomato -1
Onion - 2 medium sized
Ginger - a small piece
Garlic - 3 cloves
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 3/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt
Sugar - 1 tsp (optional)
Oil - 1 tsp

Add some salt to the chopped fenugreek leaves. Mix well and set aside.
Puree the tomato, onion, ginger and garlic.
Heat a tsp of oil. Add the puree to it and boil until the raw smell goes off.
Add salt, sugar, garam masala, red chilli powder, and turmeric powder. Mix well.
Stir in the peas. If you are using raw or semi-cooked peas, add some water and boil until the peas are cooked but not mushy.
Squeeze all the water out of the fenugreek leaves and stir it into the curry. Boil for 3-4 minutes or until the leaves just start to wilt.
Serve hot with rotis.
This is my entry to Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.

Methi theplas for RCI-Rajasthan

Looking around for a Rajasthani dish that I could make using ingredients that i had on hand is what led me to the book "Taste of Rajasthan (Delicious Vegetarian Food from the Land of Rajasthan) by Harveen Choudhary. The fact that I had a bunch of fresh methi just waiting to be used helped decide on the dish that was going to be cooked. I have followed Choudhary's recipe almost to the T except for certain small changes.

What you need:
Fresh methi leaves(chopped) - 1 cup
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Gram flour - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Green chillies - 2, ground into a paste
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Sour curd - 3/4 cup
Oil - 3 tsp

Mix the chopped methi leaves and curd in a bowl and set aside for an hour. Add all the other ingredients to this and knead to a smooth pliable dough. If needed, add some warm water while kneading. Cover and keep aside for an hour.
Take a small ball of dough. Dredge it in some wheat flour and roll out into a thick circle. Transfer the thepla to a heated tawa....cook until you see a few brown spots on the bottom. Turn over, drizzle some oil/ghee over it if you'd like to and cook for a minute. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
Serve hot...or cold...it tastes good either way...

What I think of these theplas:
They turned out super soft and delicious...the original recipe called for 1 cup of curd and that's what I used, but the dough turned out to be a little sticky and so I had to add more flour.
I loved the colour that the turmeric and garam masala gave to the theplas. I don't find much difference between these and the methi parathas that I make...except for the fact that I've never soaked the methi leaves in curd before...I suppose that takes away the bitterness. These tasted great on their own....the only thing I'd probably eat with it is mango thokku...but even that is not necessary.

This is my entry to RCI-Rajasthan hosted by Padmaja of Spicy Andhra and to Srivalli's Roti Mela.