Betel Leaves Rasam in Speedcook pot + $50 LNL voucher for $18

There has been lot going on for the past few days. Me & DH feeling sick, my final exams coming up (thank god! this semester will be over soon), organizing our kitchen….And I have been cooking only those dishes which will be done in a jiffy. I had some betel leaves left from kartheeka masam pooja. So I decided to use them in the rasam that I wanted to prepare. I came across this recipe for the first time in an Indian food channel.

This dish was very quick and easy, thanks to my LNL Cookplus Speedcook sauce pan. Here are some of its features that I liked. This pot has fast and efficient thermal dispersion, which helped in boiling rasam quickly. I should also mention that this pot has measuring lines to indicate serving. I am glad that these measuring lines are embedded in the pot and not printed on it (I have had experience in the past with some pots from another manufacturer where the measuring lines erased after few uses). The handles are silicone covered which makes it easy to hold them even when the food is cooked on high heat plus the yellow color matches my Cookplus ceramic yellow pan! And guess what? It has a lid which when overturned can be used as a plate! How cute is that? I also loved the idea of pouring spout which makes it easy to transfer the contents of this pot into a serving dish. This pot is originally intended to cook ramen noodles and hence the knob on its lid has chopstick holders. I think this was well thought and innovative.  If you would like to buy this sauce pan, now is right time as you can buy a LNL voucher worth $50 for $18. See details at the end of this post.

Now the recipe….

Ingredients:

For popu/tadka:

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Hing/asafetida – 1 pinch

Curry leaves

Coriander leaves – as desired

Red chilies - 1

For actual Recipe:

Betel leaves – 2 large

Tomato – 1 large

Black pepper powder – ½ tbsp.

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Amchur powder – 3 tbsp (or according to taste)

Water – 5 cups

Method:

1.   Heat oil in a frying pan. Add red chilli, mustard seeds, hing and cumin seeds and let them splutter and add curry leaves and coriander leaves as well.

2.   Add chopped betel leaves and fry them for a minute.
3. Add chopped tomato.  Add cumin powder, coriander powder, black pepper powder, turmeric and amchur. Fry them till the tomatoes become mushy.

4.   Now add water and boil the rasam for 10 minutes on medium high heat (with the cookplus speedcook saucepan, it hardly took 5 minutes for the rasam to boil).

You can serve this with rice and dal or take it as a soup in small quantities.

Living Social deal: Sign up to living social website here. You will get a $5 credit. Then go to this link (if you are already a member you can just click on this link and then log in, but you will not be able to get $5 credit). Click “Buy Now” button and use the $5 credit towards this purchase. The total should show $18 for new members.

And remember, there are a few LNL sets available here for either $9.99 or $14.99 for one day only i.e. only on November 21, 2011. (Update @November 22, 2011 7:27 AM - This deal is gone.)

Potlakaya Perugu Pachadi

Snake gourd/Potlakaya should be used for cooking before they get all woody and hard when the seeds inside mature. We used to have a vegetable garden in our backyard (thanks to my mom!) back home. Whenever there were one or two snake gourds (or whenever there was lot of homemade yogurt), my mom used to make this perugu pachadi, so that it will be sufficient for all the family members. And my dad loves any sort of perugu pachadi. It’s his all-time favorite. You can try tries this recipe with different vegetables like egg plant, zucchini etc.

Now, the recipe…..

Ingredients:

For Popu/Tadka:

Oil - 1 tbsp

Chana dal - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves

Red chilies - 1

For actual Recipe:

Onions – 1 large

Chopped Potlakaya - 1 ½ cups
Yogurt - 1 ½ cups
Green Chilies - 6
Turmeric powder: 1 tsp

Water – ½ to 1 Cup
salt

Method:

1. Wash potlakaya/snake gourd. Chop it into small round pieces. Squeeze and remove any and keep aside.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add red chilli, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds and let them splutter and add chana dal, urad dal. Add curry leaves as well.
3. Now, add green chillies.

4. Add chopped onions, turmeric, salt (onions really taste good in this dish if they are cut length wise into half-moon shape. Please see the picture).

5. When the onions turn golden brown, add potlakaya/snake gourd pieces. Fry them on medium heat till they are cooked well. It took me 20 minutes to fry them. If you want you can put the lid for first few minutes.

7. Meanwhile, add water to yogurt and beat it well. Add water little by little till you get the desired consistency.

8. When the potlakaya pieces are done, add the beaten yogurt and fry it on low heat for couple of minutes.

Note: Instead of bottle gourd pieces, you can add eggplant (vankaya) or zucchini pieces as well. They taste equally good. If you don’t have any vegetables, you can make the plain perugu pachadi with just onions (in that case, avoid step 5 and add yogurt to onions). You can avoid adding water to yogurt; in that case it will be little bit thick. You can also reduce the turmeric; I like it to be yellow.

Sorakaya (bottle gourd) pulusu

Sorakaya is also known as Anapakaya/Bottle gourd/Lauki. I remember my mom making sorakaya curry with milk whenever she made pooris. Anapakaya curry has lot of water in it and balances the deep fried pooris. I also remember my cousin who grows her own organic veggies used to prepare sorakaya halwa for me. Aah! I always loved it. But, here I am presenting Sorakaya pulusu - my mom's way. Some people also call this as thootlu(poke) pulusu because they poke the Sorakaya pieces 4 or 5 times with a fork before cooking them. My mom uses tamarind sauce for the tanginess in this dish. I've substituted it with amchur powder. I have been using amchur powder for five years. It is made from sun-dried, unripe mangoes. It adds a tart and tangy taste to your food. You can get amchur powder from Indian markets and the ethnic section of some high end grocery stores. Now, the recipe……

Ingredients:

For Popu/Tadka:

Oil - 1 tbsp

Chana dal - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves

Green Chillies - 5 (or more if you want it to be spicy)

For actual Recipe:

Oil - 3 tbsp

Bottle gourd/Sorakaya  - 2 small sized

Onions - 3 Large

Aamchoor powder - 

Coriander seeds - 2 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder - 3 tsp (or more if you want it to be spicy)

Garam Masala - 2 tsp

Cloves - 5

Cinnamon - 1 stick

Method:

1. Grind the Onions, Cloves, Cinnamon stick, coriander seeds into a fine paste.

2. Heat 3 tbsp oil in a pressure cooker and add the paste made in Step 1.

3. Fry this on medium flame until the raw smell of onions is gone. It took approximately 12 minutes for me.

4. Now add salt, turmeric, red chilli powder and fry for 5 more minutes.

5. Cut the Sorakaya into big pieces (don't peel off the skin) and remove all the seeds in it.

6. Add the sorakaya pieces, amchur powder. Fry them for 5 minutes on medium flame. 

7. Pour enough water and pressure cook the sorakaya pieces. Wait until the pressure is gone and then remove cooker lid. Transfer this into a serving bowl.

8. Now heat oil in a frying pan and add Chana dal, mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them splutter. Add the curry leaves. Now pour this over the pulusu. 

Sorakaya pulusu is ready to be served with rice.

Green Papaya Curry

I have been wanting to post this recipe from the past 1 week. I always enjoy making this green papaya curry. There are not much spices used and hence it is very healthy too. Now off to the recipe:

Ingredients:

For popu/tadka:

Chana dal - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Split urad dal - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves

Oil - 1 tbsp

For the actual recipe:

Green papaya - Medium size - 1 (cut this into 1 inch cubes)

Onion - Medium size - 1

Tomatos - 2

Chana Dal - 1/4 cup

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Red Chilli powder

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a frying pan. Put chana dal, mustard seeds, urad dal and cumin seeds and curry leaves.

2. Add the onions and turmeric powder (Tip: It is always good to put turmeric powder after onions, otherwise its nutritional values may be lost). Add salt to sweat the onions. Also, add the red chilli powder.

3. When the onions are golden brown color, add the tomatoes and fry them until they are mushy. And then, add the chana dal.

4. Pour enough water and pressure cook the papaya. You can serve this with rice or roti.