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.

Custard

Everyone at my home are very passionate about fruits so it was a great idea to end our dinner with a healthy fruit custard. Every week we return home from the farmer's market with bagful of organic apples, mangoes, blueberries, oranges, grapes, pomegranates (which are in season now), guavas and many more. This egg-less custard with fruits is a very healthy way to increase the daily intake of fruits especially for kids. It also does not require much effort to make this colorful dessert. As kids, both I and my sister N loved to eating custard with strawberry jelly . My husband is also a great fan of this dessert. So I make an extra batch and store it in the refrigerator for the next day. Fat free milk can be used to make it a healthier recipe. I am re-posting this recipe and sending it to the CFK-Veggies and Fruits event and Food for 7 stages of Life – Kids (4-14 yrs) event.

Ingredients
3 tablespoon mango custard powder or any other flavor
3/4 liter milk (I used low fat milk)
7 tablespoon sugar or as per taste
2 cups of fruits ( pick from pomegranate, chopped mango, chopped apple, grapes, sliced banana, strawberry, chopped chikoo, blueberries, sweet limes, oranges)

Method

Dissolve the custard powder in 1/4 liter of cold milk. Boil the rest of the 1/2 liter milk. Dissolve the sugar in the hot milk. Add the cold milk into the hot milk and stir it well. Get it to boil while continuously stirring it to avoid lumps. If there are any lumps, blend the custard in the blender to make it smooth. Chill the custard in the refrigerator.

To serve, put the custard in a bowl and top it with fruits. Sponge cake and jelly can be added to the custard. The custard can be topped with nuts like walnuts, almonds, cashewnuts and raisins too or served with a dollop of ice cream.

Udupi Sambar / Lentils with Vegetables

Udupi cuisine strictly includes vegetarian recipes as it is part of temple cuisine. The cuisine in this part of the region revolves around fresh vegetables, leaves, pulses and fruits. The rich soil and abundant rainfall in the region helps to support variety of vegetables, grains and fruit crops. The commonly grown vegetables include beans, pumpkin, gourds, ivy gourds, raw bananas, raw jackfruit. Different leaves used are Valli (Malabar Spinach), colocasia, turmeric leaves, banana leaves, curry leaves, coriander leaves, brahmi leaves and many others. Variety of fruits like mango, pineapple, jackfruit, grapes and banana are used to prepare desserts like halwas and main course dishes like sassam. The vegetable is used to its fullest--even skins of ridge gourds, bottle gourds are used to prepare chutney and the skin of raw banana is used to prepare "Upkari" or sabzi. Coconut is used in abundance to prepare chutneys, curries, sweets and in salads like koshimbiris. Mangalorean and Konkani cuisine is also derives lot from Udipi cuisine, but it also includes seafood and meat dishes which contain onion and garlic and are a strict no-no in Udupi cuisine.
Udupi sambar is another kind of sambar which we make at home. I use Madras onions or shallots in this recipe. Onions can be skipped if it is not desired in the sambar. This recipe calls for making the sambar masala from scratch. It has a very different taste and texture than the other sambar recipe which I posted earlier. It goes well with rice, dosa or idli. I am reposting this recipe for the WYF:Specialty food event.

Ingredients
1/2 cup toor dal
1/2 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
1 green chili
1 tomato
1 cup chopped vegetables (potato (is a must at my home), lady's finger (okra), eggplant (brinjal), drumstick, cauliflower, ivy gourd (tendli), carrot, beans, pumpkin (squash), ash gourd, bottle gourd, peas -- use just one vegetable or combination of which ever vegetable is available on hand )
15-20 shallots or small red onions (washed and peeled)
1 teaspoon jaggery
3 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

Ground Paste:
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 1/2 teaspoon urad dal
1 teaspoon chana dal
1 teaspoon fenugreek or methi seeds
3 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon tuemeric powder
1/4 teaspoon jeera or cumin seeds
7-8 byadgi red chilies or as per taste
3-4 pepper corns

Seasoning:
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida
around 15 curry leaves
coconut oil or any other oil
salt for taste

Method
Fry methi seeds till it is pink. Then fry tor dal and chana dal till it is crisp and light pink in color. Then fry coriander seeds, cumin, pepper corns and red chilies. Add 6 curry leaves and fry till they are crisp. Add the grated coconut and fry on low flame till crisp. Fry all the ingredients on a low or medium flame so that they don't burn. Cool the ingredients and then grind them with little water into a smooth paste.
Boil the toor dal, mash it and keep it aside.
Add 2 tablespoon oil in a pan and add slit green chili. Fry for a minute and then add the onions. Fry for 5-6 minutes and add chopped tomato and vegetables. Fry for 5 minutes and add the tamarind concentrate and jaggery. Add 2 cups of water and cook the vegetables till soft.
Mix the toor dal, the masala paste and the vegetables in a vessel and add desired quantity of water. Salt it as per taste. Get the sambar to a boil. Season the sambar with oil, mustard seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice, dosa or idli.

Beetroot Kurma and Ridge Gourd Tamboli

I saw this kurma recipe on Keerthana's blog. It is perfect recipe to go with cold Ridge Gourd tamboli which is also another recipe I tried from her blog. I told my mom about these recipes and she also wanted to try them. I find such recipes more healthier than the coconut laden traditional curries. I made this kurma from the fresh beets I bought from the farmer's market and it really enhanced the taste of the kurma. Click Here to see the recipe for the beetroot kurma from Keerthana's blog.

Ridge Gourd Kadhi, Beetroot Kurma, Beetroot Leaf Chutney

Alambe Phodi / Mushroom Fritters

Latest addition to our local farmer's market is a stall which sells different varieties of mushrooms. I bought button mushrooms from them this week and made fritters (called phodi in Konkani). It does not involve deep frying, though one can always deep fry it as frying always is enchanting to the taste buds. One can also have these as a appetizer.

I remember watching a show on Travel channel where they reviewed the country's most popular Deep Fry eateries. Here is a site which gives a list of Deep Fried Paradises in US. The strangest of them all was one called Chipshop. Here is a description of the shop in their own words. " In 2001, a British-born cook named Chris Sell established CHIPSHOP in Brooklyn, NY. His goal was to bring British comfort food to the city of New York. Although CHIPSHOP is famous for its fish and chips, it is also famous for its willingness to fry anything. From pizza to chocolate bars, you name it, and CHIPSHOP will fry it.". Interesting!!

Coming back to my humble mushroom fritters, these can be made in in a short period of time. If there are unexpected visitors for lunch or dinner and if you want to add an additional side dish, phodis or fritters are a very useful addition.

Ingredients
10-15 mushrooms
Rava or sooji for coating
red chili powder for taste
salt
oil for frying

Method
Wipe the mushrooms and cut off part of the woody stem. Cut each mushroom into thin slices. Apply salt and chili powder and keep aside for 20 minutes. Grease a tava with oil and heat it. Roll the mushroom slices in the rava or sooji and place on the tava. Cook covered till golden brown on one side. Then flip the mushroom slices to the other side. Cook uncovered till golden brown on the other side. Serve hot.

Microwaved Pear with Dryfruits

I saw a baked pear recipe on the food network long time ago. I was not familiar with baking fruits and never tried it. This week when we visited the farmers market, I heard a lady asking a farmer if the pears he was selling were good for baking. He said yes and I remembered the recipe which I had seen on the food network channel. I microwaved the pears with the apricots, raisins and walnuts and it turned to be a very delicious dessert. It takes just around 10 minutes to make this pear dessert.


Ingredients
2 pears
3 walnuts
2 apricots
16 raisins
2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
vanilla extract

Method
Cut the pear into half. De-core it and place it on a microwave safe plate. Fill the core with chopped walnuts, apricots and raisins. Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle it on the pears. Add a drop of vanilla extract into the core of each pear. Top it with honey as per the level of sweetness desired.


Microwave it for 8-10 minutes or till the pears are soft. Let it stay for 5 minutes before serving. The pears can also be baked in the oven at 300 degrees for around 15-20 minutes.