Curry In Kadai ~ An Indian Cooking Blog: Coconut

Showing posts with label Coconut. Show all posts

Happy Dussehra / Vijaya Dasami _ Paala Bellam Pongal ~ Rice Pudding ~ Sweet rice with milk, jaggery, dried fruits and nuts ~ An offering to Durga maa!

6 COMMENTS Posted by KALVA at 2:00:00 PM

We @ Curry In Kadai, wish you all a very happy Dasara( Vijaya Dasami ). May this Dusshera light up for you and bring in happiness for one and all! For us Dussehra means celebrating it at ammamma( grandma ) house. Wow, we used to go to Kalikamma temple everyday during dussehra, and amma(goddess) would be dressed in different avatars everyday. I remember, in my grandmas place the goddesses are 5 sisters and each sister will be in different color, like yellow, white, red, etc.,

All these 10 days the goddesses or ammas come out for Oregimpu( a procession ). A person would sit behind the goddess figure and starts dancing according to the music. And sometimes the person would be possessed by the goddess( poonakam ). We when kids used to have mixed feelings, like half scared and half interested in the whole proceedings. We miss all the happenings here in US though!

Here's is a Milk porridge, Paala payasam/sirannam, rice cooked and simmered in whole milk and cooked with raisins, badam(almonds), dried coconut, cashew nuts and elaichi that is mostly offered to god as prasadam. A must in any festival in moms house!

Here are some pictures and i will post the recipe soon!!

P.S. Everyone has unique taste palette, so please adjust the ingredients according to your taste.

Happy Navaratri ~ Seemevankaya Kobbari Kura ~ Chayote / Chow Chow with Coconut

4 COMMENTS Posted by KALVA at 4:49:00 PM

Happy Navaratri Everyone!! I know, how every ones home is now being swamped with coconuts everyday! Here's one simple dish using coconut that you can bring to the table in minutes, its moms Seema vankaya kobbari talimpu aka Chayote squash with fresh coconut. Ah i love this curry, its not spicy, not fancy but yet bursts with lots for flavor from fresh coconut!

This Seemavankaya kobbari kura / curry would be perfect during these Navaratri days, as people who fast wouldn't eat onion and garlic when they break the fasting at the end of the day. This curry is easy to make , and goes well with rice, rotis, or even better as it is!

Ingredients you need:

2 big or 3 small chayote squash/seema vankaya, peeled and chopped into big cubes
1/4 cup fresh grated coconut
3-4 green chillies
cilantro
curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds / dhaniyalu
1 tsp urad dal / minapappu
2 tbsp oil

How to:

In a pressure pan/cooker, heat oil and add tadka/tempurings, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and urad dal
Once they start to crackle, add curry leaves, turmeric, green chillies and choppedsquash pieces( seema vankaya mukkalu ).
Mix them together close the lid and cook for just one whistle. Alternatively you can cook covered until the pieces are softened.
Once the pressure goes off, put the cooker back on heat and then add salt and coriander, if u you dont like any water in the curry just cook under high heat until the water evaporates, personally i would mind some water!
Adjust salt to taste and then finish it off with fresh cilantro.

Tada!! Chayote curry with coconut is ready to be relished! you can add more coconut if youd like, also you can reduce the green chillies to one, if you prefer to eat the curry as is. One thing i love about this curry is, i can make this anytime of the day, need not wait for friday( ususally the day we get all Indian vegeatbles ), chayote squashes are abundatly available all through out the year in regualr american grocery stores like Publix, kroger, target..!! Thanks Mom, for this wonderful dish!! love you!

TIP:
Apply some lime juice before handling these squashes, and your hands would come out clean!!

Kobbari Pachadi -- Fresh Coconut Chutney ~ Sweet, Spicy and Tangy!!!

4 COMMENTS Posted by KALVA at 8:44:00 PM

Coconut and Tamarind In Fresh Coconut Chutney is a delicious marriage made in my mom's kitchen! Yep Coconut and tamarind gel so well in this tangy spicy fresh coconut chutney. I remember my first culinary adventure started with this coconut chutney and potato fry during my school days! This chutney is super simple yet tastes great! You can whip up this chutney in minutes and make sure you keep some of the chutney just for yourself before you bring it to the table, no kidding!! This chutney where Fresh coconut is ground with green chillies and tamarind and topped with tadka along with hing and curry leaves is definitely worth a try!!

Ingredients:

1/4 of a shelled coconut
2-3 green chillies
1 inch of tamarind
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
5 - 10 curry leaves
1 tbsp oil
a dash of hing /asoeftedia
salt to taste

Preparation:

Chop fresh coconut into thin slices
In a chopper/blender grind coconut, green chillies, tamarind and salt without adding any water( Note: Use pulse mode in the blender if you have one , and it should be roughly ground )
In a separate kadai or pan do the tempering or tadka with oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and urad dal. Once the mustard seeds start to crackle switch off the heat and add curry leaves.
Add the above tempering to the ground coconut and chilli chutney and mix everything together, adjust salt to taste and finish it off with cilantro( optional )

This chutney tastes so good with steaming hot rice along with some ghee/ butter. You even have this chutney along with Dosa, Idly, Upma, Pongal or anything you would like to! Don't plan on storing the leftover chutney as you wouldn't end up with some.. yep its that good.. Never forget to add the tempering as it adds so much depth and flavor to the already delicious Fresh Coconut Chutney.

This simple coconut and tamarind chutney is on its way to:

Think Spice - Tamarind started by Sunita
Twenty-20 Cooking event hosted by Niloufer

Sweet Potato and Coconut Parathas / Flat Breads -- Gensigadda/ Chilakada dumpa Kobbari Roti and an Award!!

34 COMMENTS Posted by KALVA at 4:02:00 PM

A bunch of thanks for Mythreyee of "Paajaka" who is hosting a "Sweet Series-Sweet Rotis" event., otherwise i could have never made these healthy, moist and soft rotis, I wouldn't have thought out of the box for coming up with these Simple n Nutritious Sweet Potato and Coconut Parathas.. As soon as i saw the announcement, i started thinking of various sweet rotis grandmas, mom and my MIL makes, but i wanted to something even simpler than those.. Usually the sweet rotis they make are Sojjappam/Halva Poori , Oliga/Puran poli and Paala Poori.. But these are time consuming and you need to have both time and patience( Hehehe, I am very bad at this though!!! )..

Stack of sweet potato and coconut parathas

I thought of making peanut butter rotis, kova Rotis, etc.., before these Sweet Potato and Coconut Rotis.. I wasn't really sure if could at least bind the flour and sweet potato together, anyways i decided to try a few rotis.. Cooked the potato in microwave , added some dry coconut, a little bit of sugar, ghee and Wheat flour, Tada!! To may surprise I was actually able to bind everything together to a very soft pliable dough... Adding coconut gave these rotis that extra nuttyness and flavor.. And here goes the simple recipe..

Microwaved and Mashed Sweet Potato

Ingredients:

1 medium sized sweet potato
1/4 cup dried coconut or fresh coconut grated very fine
3/4 - 1 cup whole wheat flour( Atta )
1 cardamom grounded / 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
Sugar/jaggery according to taste
Ghee or butter stick for cooking

Soft and moist dough from Sweet Potato and Coconut

Method Of Preparation:

Cook the sweet potato in a microwave under potato setting in a microwave safe bowl covered with very little water.
Once the sweet potato is completely cooked, peel and mash the sweet potato. While its hot add jaggery / sugar, elaichi( cardamom powder ), nutmeg, salt.
If you want to add dried coconut add it now, otherwise if you wanna use fresh scraped coconut add it once the sweet potato mixture is cooled to room temperature
Once the potato is cooled, add some milk( optional) add flour and try to bind together.. You might need to adjust the amount of flour, milk according to the size of the sweet potato..
The dough should be very soft and moist.. Apply ghee( clarified butter ) allover the dough keep it covered for half an hour. Resting is a must for moist rotis.
Divide and roll out the dough using very less flour.., and heat them on the griddle just like chapathis., for instructions on hot to heat and store them click here.
Serve them hot or cover them for later..

Fruity Sweet Potato and Coconut Flat Breads

Serve these sweet potato coconut flat breads with some fresh ripened straw berries.. These rotis came out thin and very moist. I just bought some more sweet potatoes from farmers market to make these rotis again.. Hail to sweet potato...!!! These sweet potato rotis are going to be in my regular everyday Menu from now on...

Thanks Shubha of Chutki Bhaar Pyar for giving this Rocking Girl Blogger Award.. I feel elated, thanks dear.. I would like to pass this award to each and every blogger in this Food Blogosphere who put so time and effort in cooking, taking pictures and posting the recipes... Hail to all fellow Bloggers!!!...!

My sweet potato and coconut whole wheat rotis are rich in protein from Whole wheat flour, coconut and sweet potato... And these sweet potato and coconut rotis are on their way to: