Raw Mango Sabzi

Vegetable Pulao, Masoor Dal and Mango Sabzi

I found great quality raw mangoes at my Indian grocery store this year. The mangoes were very sour like their Indian counterparts, so I made pickles, mango rice and this sabzi many times during this summer season. This khatti chutney or sabzi if you call it makes a great combination with bland dal or varan.

Ingredients  

1 raw mango

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

4-5 methi seeds
1 teaspoon kalonji seeds or onion seeds

1/2 -1 cup cup jaggery or as desired

1 teaspoon red chili powder or as per taste
1/2 teaspoon haldi power

1 teaspoon oil

salt for taste

Method 
Cut the raw mango into 2cm cubes. Remove the mango seed and discard it. Heat oil in a pan and add methi seeds. Fry for a minute and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds pop add kalonji seeds, haldi and red chili powder. Stir for a minute and add the cut raw mango. Cover and cook till the raw mango is soft. Add jaggery and salt and cook till the jaggery is mixed well with the mango. Serve hot.

Garam Masala Powder

I usually make my own garam masala powder. I eyeball the ingredients most of the times and don't use standard weights to weigh the ingredients. Here is my recipe to the garam masala powder.

Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds
2 teaspoon black pepper seeds
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/4 teaspoon flennel seeds (badishep/sauf)
good sized pinch of mace powder or a small piece of mace approximate to a pinch (Javatri)
good sized pinch of nutmeg powder or grated nutmeg
good sized pinch of sahi jeera
1 1/2 teaspoon cloves
2 inch stick of cinnamon or 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
2 (2-inch approx) bay leaf

Method
Roast the above ingredients on low flame and grind into a fine powder.

Peanut Chutney / Moongfali Chutney

Peanut chutney is another of my mom's speciality dishes. This chutney is heavily influenced by Maharashtrian cuisine and it uses peanuts as its main ingredient instead of coconut. It is ready within minutes when one doesn't want to spend time grating coconuts. It goes well with spicy dosas (Indian crepes), rava idli, rava upma and I specifically love to have this with sabudana khichdi. I am re-posting this post sending this recipe to My Legume Love Affair hosted by Sra and Susan.

Ingredients
1 cup roasted peanuts
1 teaspoon chana dal
1 tablespoon grated coconut (optional)
1 teaspoon oil
small piece of tamarind (size of 2 peas )
3-4 tablespoon coriander leaves
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida
5-6 curry leaves
2-3 thai green chilies/ 1/2 Jalapeno or as per taste
salt for taste

Method
Fry the chana dal on low flame till light brown. Roast the peanuts till crisp and brown on all sides.
Grind all ingredients except mustard, oil, curry leaves and asafoetida into a fine paste with as little water as possible. Season the chutney with mustard, curry leaves, asafoetida.

Beetroot Chutney

This is a very simple chutney and a great way to use the nutritious beetroot leaves. I got amazingly fresh beetroot from the farmer's market. I used the tender and fresh leaves to make this chutney. It goes well with roti and rice.

Ingredients
1 cup beetroot leaves (washed and coarsely chopped)
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon urad dal or split and skinned black lentil
1/2 teaspoon chana dal or bengal gram split
2 roasted red chilies
pea size tamarind
1 tablespoon oil
salt for taste

Method
Put oil in a pan and add the chana dal and urad dal. Roast till light brown. Roast the red chili till crisp. Add finely chopped onion and fry till light brown. Add the beetroot leaves and cook till soft. Grind the leaves with rest of the ingredients into a smooth paste. Serve immediately.

Pizza Tomato Sauce

This is the recipe for the tomato sauce used for making pizza.

Ingredients
1 medium onion
2 cups canned tomato pieces
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoon butter
3 cloves of garlic
pepper powder as per taste
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt for taste

Method
Chop the onion and garlic finely. Take butter in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Saute for 8-10 minutes on medium flame till the onion and garlic are well cooked the raw smell is not present. The onion should not burn or stick to the pan. Add canned tomatoes, oregano and the tomato paste. Cook for 20 minutes. Add salt, sugar and pepper as per taste. Cool the sauce before use.

Tomato Chutney

In Bhopal we had a neighbor who was from Orissa. When we were leaving Bhopal for Pune in the summer of 97, D aunty had invited us for dinner. She had prepared tomato chutney. We loved the chutney and asked for the recipe. It was an interesting combination of tomatoes and dates---sourness and sweetness. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
3 tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped dates
1 teaspoon kalonji or Nigella
pinch of fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon oil
salt for taste

Method
Chop the tomatoes into quarters. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add fenugreek seeds, kalonji and turmeric powder. Fry for a minute and add the tomatoes. Add a cup of water and cook till the tomatoes are soft and well cooked. Add dates, chili powder and salt for taste. Cook well for around 10 minutes till the dates are soft. Serve hot with roti or rice.

Peanut Chutney

Peanut chutney is one of the recipes my mom gave me. It is easy to make and goes well with bread sandwich or roti. It lasts for about a month. I am re-posting it and sending it for Let's GO NUTS! event. Here is the recipe.


Ingredients
1 cup peanuts
6-7 byadgi chilies or kashmiri chilies or any other red chili
1/2 teaspoon heeng or asafoetida
3 garlic cloves (optional)
salt for taste


Method
Roast the peanuts and garlic cloves for 10 -15 minutes on medium flame. The garlic cloves should be light brown in color. Cool it down and coarsely grind it with salt, chilies and asafoetida. Store it in a cool and dry container.

Alu Tikki Chole Chaat

Alu tikki chole is a popular street food in Delhi. I remember eating this spicy chat when we last visited in 1991. Samosa chat is another popular dish there. After returning from Tahoe vacation after all the snowboarding and snow shoeing adventures, we were craving for hot spicy chaat. We didn't have much energy to go to Fremont to Dana Bazar..our favorite chat place, so I decided to make this alu tikki chaat.

Ingredients
chole as per recipe here
mint chutney as per recipe here
tamarind date chutney as per recipe here

For garnishing:
1 medium onion finely chopped
5 tablespoon coriander chopped

For tikki:
7 medium sized potatoes
1/2 cup paneer
1 medium onion
2 chopped green chilies
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
oil for frying
salt for taste

Method
Chop the onion finely. Mash the paneer. Mix all the tikki ingredients except oil together. Make small cutlets and shallow fry in oil till brown on all sides.

To serve:
Place 3-4 tikkis on a plate. Put desired amount of chole on top of the tikki. Add the tamarind and mint chutney as per taste. Garnish with onion and coriander leaves. Add a teaspoon on curd or yogurt on top. Serve hot. The tikki chole can be garnished with sev or pomegranate seeds.

Tamarind Date Chutney / Meethi Chutney

Ingredients
1 cup deseeded dates
1/4 cup deseeded tamarind
1/4 cup gur or jaggery or molasses
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
salt for taste

Method
Boil the dates, tamarind and jaggery in one cup of water for 20 minutes. Grind it with salt and chili powder into a smooth paste.

Mint Chutney

Mint Coriander chutney can be used for all chaats and appetizers like pakodas or bhaji's.

Ingredients
1 cup coriander leaves
1/4 cup mint leaves (fresh or dried)
1/2 teaspoon jeera or cumin seeds
2 green chilies
1/2 teaspoon chopped ginger
1/2 teaspoon amchur powder or dry mango powder
salt for taste

Method
Wash the coriander leaves and mint leaves. Grind all the ingredients with 1 cup of water. Serve chilled if serving with chaats or at room temperature id serving with pakodas or bhajis.

Coconut Chutney

Coconut chutney is a versatile chutney which goes well with dosa and idli. This chutney can be made with the seasoning or without it. Traditionally it is seasoned with mustard seeds. But both I and my husband like it without the seasoning.

Ingredients
1 cup grated coconut
small piece of tamarind (size of 2 peas)
2-3 green chilies
salt for taste
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon coconut oil
4-5 curry leaves or kadipatta

Method
Grind the coconut, tamarind, chilies into a very fine paste. Heat oil in a seasoning pan and add mustard seeds. When the sesds splutter, remove from heat and add curry leaves. Add this seasoning on the chutney. Serve with dosa or idli.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Serves: 3-4

Coriander-Mint Chutney

Coriander mint chutney is also called sandwich chutney in India as it is usually used for making sandwiches. This chutney can be had with dhokla or dosa too. You can omit the mint if you don't have it on hand or if you are not a great fan. I usually buy fresh mint from the Indian grocery store and dry it in the hot sun. Then I store it in a air tight container. This stays good for 1-2 months.

Ingredients
1 cup chopped coriander or cilantro leaves. (I love to have a dense flavor of coriander leaves, so I usually add 15-20 strands of the leaf. )
1 tablespoon dried mint leaves or 10-12 fresh mint leaves
small piece of tamarind (size of 2 green peas) or1/8 the teaspoon tamarind concentrate
2-3 green chilies or as per taste
3 tablespoon grated coconut
1/4 teaspoon jeera or cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon chopped ginger
1-2 cloves of garlic (optional, I don't use garlic only if I am going to serve the chutney with dosas)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt for taste

Method
Wash and chop the mint and coriander coarsely. Grind all the ingredients into a very smooth paste. Serve with dhoklas, dosas or sandwiches. If this is not being used immediately, store it in the fridge. This chutney can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 5-6

Ridge gourd or Turai Chutney

This is a very simple and tasty chutney. Traditionally, only the ridge gourd peels are used to make this chutney, but I add the ridge gourd pieces with skin. The ridge gourd skin had lot of vitamins and provides a very good texture to the chutney. This chutney uses very less coconut because of the dense texture of the ridge gourd. It goes very well with dosas and idlis. Ridge gourd can sometimes be bitter. Ridge gourds have cheated me many times. I would make the dish using the ridge gourd and then find that the dish is bitter due to the ridge gourd. Now a days, I taste pumpkin, ridge gourd, cucumbers, summer squash and bottle gourds before using it in any dish. Taste the ridge gourd before frying it or you could end up with a bitter chutney.

Ingredients
1 cup ridge gourd with skin (or just the skin of 2 ridge gourds)
2 tablespoon grated coconut
5-6 garlic pods
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon jeera
small piece of tamarind
2 -3 green chilies or as per taste
salt for taste
oil

Method
Fry the onion, garlic and jeera in a teaspoon of oil. Fry till onion is brown and th garlic is pink. Add the ridge gourd or the skin and fry for 10-15 minutes on a medium flame till it is light brown.

( If you don't have much time to make the chutney, the fried onion and ridge gourd can be stored in the freezer before hand and then ground it with other ingredients when you need the chutney). Grind the onion and ridge gourd/ skin with other ingredients into a fine paste. I don't season this chutney as it already has a great flavor from garlic and onion.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves: 3-4

Quick Panipuri in 20 minutes !!/ Golgappa

I love Indian street chat food. So I try to make some or the other chat or snacks during the weekends. We had been to one chat place few weeks back and the chat food there was not at all good. So I had this panipuri project in mind to reminisce the chat food I used to have in Pune. Pani means "Water" and puri means crispy fried puffed chips. It is possible to make puris at home, but I usually get it ready made from the Indian store. We would get amazing chat food in the City area and in Aundh. I have also made panipuri's in India and I would be the panipuri wala bhaiya making the puris while my father and sister would compete for eating the puris. This weekend I tried making panipuri and my husband and myself devoured many panipuris.

Ingredients
Ready made Puris from the Indian grocery store
2-3 potatoes
2 cups of sprouted moong or green gram (boiled kabuli chana or chick peas can also be used)
ice cubes
sev (optional)

For Metha Pani
1 tablespoon tamarind concentrate or tamarind water
1 1/2 cup grated or cut gur or jaggery
1/4 teaspoon coriander powder
1/4 teaspoon red chili powder or as per taste
salt for taste

For Theeka Pani
2 tablespoon Everest jaljeera masala
1/4-1/2 teaspoon kala namak or black salt
4-5 green chilies
1 handful coriander leaves
around 10-15 mint leaves
1 teaspoon amchur
1 tablespoon ginger chopped

Method
Peel and cut the potato into small cubes. Boil the potato and moong in the microwave.

Sweet chutney: Mix all the meetha pani ingredients and add water as per desired consistency. I like it more watery, so I added 2 cups of water. Get the meetha pani to a boil in the microwave (I heated it for 5 minutes). Add ice cubes to the water to cool it down.


Theekha chutney: Grind the green chilies, coriander leaves, ginger and mint leaves with 1 cup of water. Strain it one and keep the water aside. Grind the remaining green residue with another cup of water to extract all the flavor of the herbs. Strain again and mix the strained water with the previously extracted water. Add rest of the theekha chutney ingredients and salt as per desired taste. Add ice cubes if you desire cold pani.

Assemble the puris, pani and potato and moong. Take a puri and break the top lid. Put the desired quantity of moong and potato in the puri. Add desired amount of the theeka and meetha pani. Garnish with sev and eat it immediately.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Chayote Chutney / Seemae BaDhneKayi Chutney

I came to know about this vegetable when we visited my aunt A in Bangalore. She would make sabzi or chutney out of this vegetable. When my parents shifted to Bangalore, my mom started using this vegetable to make chutney in Bangalorian style. When I came to US, I saw this vegetable in the Indian store by the name of Chayote, but I was not very sure if it was the Seemae BaDhneKayi I had seen in Bangalore. So I never bought this vegetable. Now when my parents visited us, my mom confirmed that the vegetable was indeed Seemae BaDhneKayi and we got it home. This chutney requires only 1 tablespoon grated coconut, but tastes like pure coconut chutney. Also this vegetable does not contain any fat. Read more about Seemae BaDhneKayi here. Here is my mom's chutney recipe.

Ingredients
1 Seemae BaDhneKayi or chayote
1 tablespoon coconut
1 teaspoon jeera
1/2 inch tamarind piece or 1/4 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
1-2 green chilies
salt for taste

Method
Peel the chayote and cut it into small cubes. Boil the chayote pieces till soft. Grind the cooked chayote pieces with the rest of the ingredients into a fine paste. You can serve this chutney with dosas, idlis, rice or roti.


Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2-3

Coconut Chutney with Asafoetida / Heeng chutney

Konkanis make variety of chutneys to go with various dosa's and idli's. This chutney is made with asafoetida and tastes delicious with a strong flavor of asafoetida. I served this with masala dosa.

Ingredients
1/4 teaspoon heeng or asafoetida
1 cup coconut
2 green chilies
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon tamatind concentrate or 1/2 inch piece of tamarind
salt for taste

Seasoning (optional)
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
4-5 curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon oil
1 red chili

Method
Grind coconut, green chilies, tamarind, sugar, salt and heeng. Add oil in a seasoning pan and add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add curry leaves and red chili. Remove from heat and add to the chutney. Mix well and keep the chutney covered for 5 minutes before serving.


Preparation time: 10 minutes
Serves: 2-3

Dosa Chutney

This chutney uses less coconut, so I make this most of the time instead of the traditional coconut chutney. This is very easy to make and if you don't have much time to make breakfast, the onion and dals can be fried the previous day and chutney can be made for breakfast in 5 minutes the next day by grinding all the ingredients. Here is the recipe.


Ingredients
1 onion
1 teaspoon urad dal
1/2 teaspoon chana dal
2 green chilies
2 tablespoon coconut
1/4 teaspoon jeera
1/4 teaspoon tamarind concentrate or small piece of tamarind
1/4 teaspoon chopped ginger
4-5 coriander leaves
2 teaspoon oil
salt for taste

Method
Fry onion in 1 teaspoon oil till transparent. Fry urad dal and chana dal in another teaspoon oil, till brown. Add all the other ingredients to the onion and dals and grind into a fine paste.


Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 2

Kairi chutney/Ambule Gojju / Konkani Raw Mango Chutney

I love both raw and ripe mangoes. During my college days, I and my friends used to buy the masala kairi from a vendor who used to sit outside our college during summer afternoons. He would cut the kairi into pieces and apply salt and secret masala (chili powder and other spices). It was a awesome, tangy snack which I miss here in the US.

In the past when there were no refrigerators, my maternal grandmother, who lived in Mangalore, would preserve raw mangoes in sterilized water. In this manner, the mangoes could be used year round, even when the fresh mangoes were not available. She would boil handful of salt and water in a vessel and then add raw mangoes to the water. When cooled, the mangoes along with the water would be put in a ceramic contained called "bharni". Copper aluminum or iron containers could react with the sour mangoes, hence ceramic jars were used. This jar would be kept in a cool and dark place. When fresh mangoes were not available, my grandmother would take out a raw mango from the jar, peel it and use the flesh to make this chutney. My mother also would store around 15-20 mangoes using the same method when we were in Pune. Another method to store the mangoes is to cut the raw mangoes and put them in a glass bottle with salt and keep them in the fridge. The mangoes keep up to 6-9 months if stored in this manner. Raw Mango contains lot of vitamin A and vitamin C and has low sodium. When we were young, we were given mashed rice mixed with milk and ambule gojju as a side dish.

I don't get good raw mangoes here in the US. The raw mangoes I buy from the Indian store have a sweet taste, and they don't impart the sour taste and flavor of Indian raw mango. I then tried the chutney with the frozen kairi from the Indian store. This imported frozen kairi turned out to be very tasty and had the smell and flavor of the Indian kairi. I don't peel the mango skin while making this chutney. This chutney can be served with both rice and chapatti.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup kairi/raw mango pieces
1/2 cup grated coconut
1-2 garlic pods (optional for people who don't like garlic)
1-2 methi (fenugreek) seeds
one pinch heeng or asafoetida
salt as per taste
1-2 green chili

Method:

Grind all the ingredients into a fine paste. Serve immediately after preparing.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Serves 4-5