Curried Ridgegourd squash - Peerkankai Curry

Here's a really simple and sweet tasting curry that makes a satisfying side dish for rotis.

Curried Ridgegourd Squash

Ingredients:

• Ridge gourd - 2 big
• onion - 1 small
• tomato - 2 big, about 2 cups
• turmeric - 1 tsp
• green chillies, slit vertically - 2
• cilantro, for garnishing
• salt, to taste

Seasoning:

• mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• broken channa - 1 tbsp
• curry leaves - 2 sprigs
• oil, for sauteing

To grind:

• coconut, shredded - 1 tbsp, optional
• garlic, peeled - 4 cloves
• cilantro - 5 sprigs

Method:

1. Wash and peel the gourds. You can save the peels and make a chutney out of it. 
2. Cut the gourds into 1 inch thick slices. Quarter these slices.
3. Cut onions into 1 inch pieces. Chop tomatoes into one-eighths.
4. In a small mixer jar, grind the ingredients listed under "to grind", with little or no water.
5. In a heavy saute pan on medium high heat, add oil for sauteing. Before it starts smoking, add the ingredients listed under "Seasoning".
6. When the mustard seeds start splattering, add the onions. Stir once or twice until the onions have turned translucent.
7. Now add tomatoes, chillies and a little salt, to draw out moisture.
8. When the tomatoes are cooked, but still hold their shape, add the ridge gourd pieces. Also add some turmeric.
9. Taste and add salt at this stage.
10. Cover and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes or until the gourd turns fork tender.
11. Stir in the ground masala from step 4. 
12. Check consistency and add a little water , if desired.
13. Stir well to incorporate the flavors. Remove the lid and let this simmer for 5 minutes before removing from fire.
14. Garnish with more cilantro before serving.

Ridgegourd Curry served with rotis

Linking with  Hema's Adugamane.

Hakka Noodles

Hakka Noodles

My daughter is a very picky eater but would gladly polish her plate off when I prepare this dish. I stopped at the local Chinese grocery store to pick a pack of Hakka noodles with dreams of making this recipe. Imagine my surprise when I couldn't find it in their dry noodles aisle!
My husband asked a store clerk for help and he pointed us to the Indian goods aisle :) Looks like Hakka Noodles is truly Indian and hardly Chinese...

Ingredients

• Dry Hakka Noodles - 2 packs (200 gms each)
• Carrots, diced or matchstick cut - 1/4 cup
• Green Beans, sliced or french cut - 1/4 cup
• Sweet peas or broccoli florets, frozen - 1/4 cup
• Chopped Cabbage, optional - 1/4 cup
• Tomato ketchup  or Tomato Chilli Sauce - 2 tbsp
• Reduced Sodium Soy sauce - 2 tbsp
• Vinegar - 1 tsp
• Green onions, sliced thin - 1 bunch, divided
• sesame oil - 2 tbsp, divided
• garlic, sliced - 5 cloves
• Egg - 1

Method:

1. Fill a soup pot with enough water for the 2 packs of Hakka noodles. Add salt and 1 tbsp sesame oil. Cover and bring to a boil.
2. I prefer to crush the noodle cakes, as it makes lunch time easy for my daughter. You can skip this step if you prefer long noodle strands.
3. Add the noodles to the boiling water and let boil, uncovered for 4 minutes.
4. Crack open the egg in a small bowl and whisk it with a fork to blend the egg white and yolk.
5. Drain and toss noodles and while it is still hot, pour in the egg mixture. The egg will get cooked in the remnant heat of the noodles and form a nice coating on each noodle strand.
6. Have the rest of the ingredients ready now as you need to cook the rest in a stir fry fashion.
7. In a separate saucepan, heat 1 tbsp sesame oil.
8. When the oil is smoking hot, add garlic and fry until very light brown.
9. Remove the garlic. Now add carrots and green beans and sprinkle salt and pepper. Stir fry until slightly cooked but still crisp. Stir in the sweet peas. I have used broccoli also, with good results.
10. Add soy sauce, ketchup/sauce to the pan. Add back the sauteed garlic, as well.
11. Now empty the contents of the saucepan in to the pot of noodles and stir well. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.
12. Serve garnished with green onions.

This one pot meal (well almost, if you discount the pot for boiling noodles) is an excellent week day meal and does well in a Bento.

Hakka Noodles Bento

The fancy-cut carrot garnish makes the dish extra tasty, for my daughter!

Linking to Kid’s delight post aat 

Kaara Kuzhambu

Kara Kuzhambu is one of the few dishes that I hated , as a child. I was one of those few South Indians that preferred bland food to spicy food. Give me a good white sauce pasta anytime, I say!
My preferences ran to cheese, yogurt, curd... you get the idea. I was known to ask for curd rice when my mom had just cooked biryani and 3 kinds of meat dishes ! In fact, I am the absolute opposite of  what a foodie blogger should be. Try as hard as I may, I couldn't think of anything nostalgic about kara kuzhambu. Except that, Kara kuzhambu, when cooked right, would have a sweet undertone to it. Here's how:

Ingredients:

• Vegetables - chopped in big chunks, 1 cup. Good candidates are okra, cooked and peeled yam (சேப்பங்கிழங்கு) etc.
• tomato - 1 big, chopped coarsely 
• onion - 1 small, coarsely chopped. Cut the onion into quarters. Keeping all quarters together, run your knife cross wise twice. this will yield approximately one inch square pieces.
• tamarind - 1 small lime sized ball
• red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
• corriander powder - 1 tablespoon
• garlic - 4-5 cloves
• turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
• gingelly oil - 1 tablespoon, optional

For seasoning (தாளிப்பு):

• mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
• fenugreek seeds - 1 teaspoon
• cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
• curry leaves - 1 sprig
• cilantro - 5 sprigs
• asafetida - a pinch
• high heat oil - 1 tablespoon

Method:

1. Prepare tamarind water. 
2. In a sauce pan on medium heat, pour a high heat oil of your choice. When it has heated through, but not smoking, add mustard seeds. After the seeds splatter, add fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida and curry leaves. Let this saute for a minute.
3. Add onions and garlic and fry until they are translucent.
4. Add tomatoes and sweat it with a little salt.
5. When everything has turned mushy, add chilli powder and corriander powder to the pan.
6. If you plan to add any vegetables, add it now. Also add turmeric powder.
7. When the raw smell of the powders have dissipated, pour tamarind water in this.
8. Let this boil for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust salt, water and chilli powder per taste.
9. Server over hot fluffy rice. Since this is spicy, any relatively bland side dish like cabbage poriyal and microwave appalam pairs well with it.

Tips:

• If the kuzhambu tastes too sour/tangy, it means you did not add enough salt.
• After adding the tamarind water, be sure to let it boil for 5 minutes. This contributes to the thickness of the stew.

Everyday Rasam

Back home, Rasam was a staple in my mom's everyday cooking. Be it the hump day or a special Sunday, you are sure to see fluffy white rice and tangy rasam on the table at lunch.
Here's how my mom makes it.
Ingredients:

• tamarind - a small lime sized ball
• tomatoes - 1 medium roma 
• cilantro / kothumalli - 5 sprigs

to grind:

• pepper corns - 1 teaspoon
• cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
• garlic pods / poondu pal - 4

for seasoning / thalippu:

• mustard seeds
• cumin seeds
• asafetida - a pinch
• curry leaves / kariveppilai - 1 or 2 sprigs
• dried red chili - 1
• gingelly oil

Steps:

1. Prepare tamarind water. 
2. If the tomato is firm, soak it in 1 cup of warm water. When it is pliable, coarsely chop the tomato. 
3. Wash and dry curry leaves and cilantro on a paper towel. 
4. In a spice grinder or the smallest jar of your mixer, coarsely grind the ingredients listed under "to grind".
5. On medium heat, warm gingelly oil in a sauce pan / kadai. When hot, add mustard seeds. When the seeds crackle, add cumin seeds, curry leaves, dried red chilli and asafetida. 
6. Add tomato and a sprinkle of salt. The salt will help soften the tomato quickly.
7. Wait for a couple of minutes. The tomato pieces should have turned mushy by now. Add the ground spices to the above. 
8. Add tamarind water to the pan and let this mixture simmer at a boil for 3-5 minutes.
9. Taste the rasam at this stage and adjust salt and water per your taste.
10. Remove from heat. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve hot over fluffy white rice. Pairs well with microwave appalam.

The above rasam is a little like the everything bagel. It could be considered a mix of poondu rasam , tomato rasam and milagu rasam. Mom just prefers to have the goodness of all three in 1 dish.

Up the amount of black pepper corns in the recipe and it becomes a very soothing dish for sore throat or heavy cold.