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Hi friends, Hope you are all doing, It is so cold and horrible out here, I cannot even stand in the kitchen as I don't have a heater there, and I cannot even cook as my toes and legs are getting numb if I stood long in their, I have never the temperature getting so cold, They say it is going to be like for some more time. May be I think we are going to have a white Christmas after all.
Coming back to the post, Using these Banana Flowers Paruppu Urandai/Dumplings, I made this dish, Which I had never tried before, was very delicious, I have used Banana Flowers/Vazhaipoo in some dishes, even though I did not cook much all the time in it, as It is very time consuming, even this I took one whole day!, I am not scaring you off you know these flowers are very nutritious, but certainly a tedious job, I always loved it to unveil these flowers and wonder how beautifully God has created this. A few days back when I went to an Asian shop I saw these but just give it a thought, my H behind me said, shall we buy this ?, Mmm., I thought and said ok, and it was in a my fridge laying quietly, when I was going through Priya's blog and saw these two recipes, I knew what I was going to do :), So here I am with this recipe...........
As usual I had to tweak the recipe, actually started what Priya had done like here, to make a kozhambu, but when I came back from work, H said we had to go visit our friend tonight as their parents were leaving for India day after tomorrow, I just had time to make the Urundai/dumplings, pressure cooked them and left.
Check out Viki's blog, for a beautiful description of how to clean the Banana flowers, and how it looks like, and also check out this blog with beautiful photographs and description about the same.
It is important to soak them in buttermilk otherwise it changes colour, you can note the difference of my Urundai and hers!.
So, when I came back I had no time to go to the Grinding process in her recipe, So quickly I made this Rasam.
BANANA FLOWER BLOSSOM/VAZHAPOO PARUPPU URUNDAI RASAM
INGREDIENTS:
15 No Banana Flower/Vazhapoo Paruppu Urundai
1/2 lime size Tamarind
1 Medium sized Onion
2 Tomatoes
1 and 1/2 tbsp of Rasam Powder
Curry leaves
Salt
Asafoetida
Seasoning:
1 tsp of Mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and cumin see
1 tsp Pepper Corns
1 tsp Cumin seeds
METHOD:
To take the extract from Tamarind, just take 1/2 cup of water with tamarind and microwave it for a minute, Meanwhile, Take 2 litres of water, Bring it to boil, then add a some cold water to the microwaved tamarind, so that your hand is comfortable enough to handle the hot water then squeeze out the tamarind extract, and pour into the boiling water and then allow it to boil for few minutes until the raw smell of the tamarind disappears then add Rasam powder.
Then add salt and the Banana Dumplings into them slowly, and you can see that the balls start floating to the surface, then using a pestle and mortar, grind pepper corns and cumin seeds to a coarse powder add this and Asafoetida to it. you can see in the picture below how the dumplings are floating to the top.
Meanwhile chop the onions and Tomatoes and set aside, In a wok, heat a tbsp of oil, once it is warm add mustard seeds, after they splutter add fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds when they change colour and chopped onions and curry leaves, once the onions are transparent add the chopped tomatoes and sauté for a minute so they get cooked well, add this whole Sautéed Ingredients to the boiling water.
The combination of Rasam with the dumplings was so delicious, and perfectly suitable for the cold weather, Kids did not ask for a dry curry or a papad, as they always when I make Rasam or Sambhar. They used the dumpling as a curry going well with Rasam :)).
The Iyengar way of making this Rasam, you have to omit Sautéing of onion and Tomatoes, but just add the Dumplings into the Tamarind water and in the end season it with mustard seeds and curry leaves and of course do not miss adding the coarsely ground pepper and cumin seeds.
An another look at my Vazhapoo Rasam, alas I cannot pass it on to you...
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.
BANANA FLOWERS/VAZAHPOO/BAALE HOOVA
photo courtesy from www.shutterstock.com, while I was searching for a photo I found this in Google Images, the flowers were so beautifully photographed, I just fell in love with this, isn't it so beautiful, so I picked this one up. Dear shutter stock thanks for your lovely clicks hope my readers would enjoy and visit your stock! of lovely Photographs.
Sending this to Tried and tested event Started by Zlamushka and now taken care of by Lakshmi and guest hosted by Nivedita of Seduce your taste buds.
Hope she accepts my late entries.
This was one Night our Dinner (?), we all enjoyed it so well!!, Thanks to this lovely Lady, I still have to try her different Unusual Named recipes!!, My clicks are super good (?), I always keep writing that my clicks super stupid!, so I thought form now on I willl think positively (God knows how long I will think like this) and post the recipes which are just piling up in my computer!.
As I said earlier not everybody gets these kind of chances to live and travel to different places and meet different people, but this lady seems to have really enjoyed this opportunity and has learnt lot of dishes with different names and most popular and a wonderful person, someday I hope to meet her, she never misses to update her status and lovely comments in my blog, I thank you lathaji! for your encouragement, advice and Of course how can I miss those lovely recipes!.
I made this Nangainallur Rasam and Tomato Pulikaachal from her blog, and this Aloo-onion Roast was my side dish to the main dish!
NANGAINALLUR RASAM, PULIKAACHAL AND POTATO-ONION ROAST
Rasams are a part of south Indian cooking, they are quite healthy and gives a very refreshing feeling after a very heavy meal or if you are out from sickness. It is must in our everyday cooking, it accompanies with lot of other dishes, with a tsp of ghee, it is heavenly. It is usually served with plain rice and tsp of ghee and accompanied by dry curries, koshambaris or papads. You can even drink rasams like soups, The pepper-cumin seed rasam is used just like that if you are sick with cold & cough with a touch of ghee in it, helps & soothes your body.
- 1 cup pineapple
- 1/2 cup Tuvar dal
- 3 to 4 flakes of tamarind (marble size)
- 1/4 tsp of turmeric
- 1 & 1/2 tbsp Rasam powder (of your choice and as required according to your taste)
- 3 to 4 sprigs of coriander leaves
- 1 sprig of curry leaves
- salt as required
- 1 tsp of oil (or Ghee - Clarified butter)
- 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
- Cook the chopped pineapple pieces in 2 to 3 cups of water until they are done, Meanwhile pressure cook tuvar dal with turmeric in a cup of water till soft and keep aside.
- soak tamarind in warm water and squeeze the juice out of it. For a quicker method, You can just warm it in a microwave for a few seconds and can squeeze the juice immediately. Discard the pulp and seeds if any. (These days you can buy tamarind which are quite cleaned without any seeds and other things in it )
- In a vessel with a cup of water allow the tamarind extract to boil so the raw smell of the tamarind disappears then add rasam powder allow it to boil, then add the cooked tuvar dal let it keep on boiling
- Meanwhile take the cooked pineapple into a sieve with the water and squeeze all the juice out of them and discarding the pulp.
- Add this pineapple extract to the juice and allow it to boil for very few minutes in simmer, keeping the flame low, so that the pineapple absorbs the spices and everything in the rasam
- Meanwhile in a small kadai heat oil and add the seasonings, add this to the rasam, garnishing with chopped coriander and curry leaves and allow it to stay on the stove for another 2 minutes, put off the stove and it is now ready to served with rice and a dollop of ghee or drink it just like that.
- 1/2 tsp pepper corns
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp Bengal gram dal
- 1 tsp Tuvar dal
- 4-2 Red chillies (Guntur-Badgi)
- 1/4 tsp asafoetida
- 4 to 5 curry leaves
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
I got this rasam variety from my sister's book when i went to India, she said she has a collection of some Manglorean dishes from her friend, She is a Dental Doctor, and a lovely one too..., My sister has always had been lucky to have different regional friends, I think staying away from your own place, you would be meeting lot of people and interact in various kinds of subjects. That way my sister had a good chance, when she got married first she was in Ghaziabad, then moved to New Delhi, then to Umbergaov (gujarat) and now she is in Pune. The other thing was she always lived in Flats and that means it just becomes like big family, She has friends from different cultures and knows about their style of cooking and their religious practices too!.
- 3 to 4 Tomatoes medium sized
- 2 sprigs of curry leaves
- 2 tbsps of fresh grated coconut
- 1/2' fresh ginger
- a little bit of jaggery
- 2 green chillies
- 2 Red chillies
- 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 2 flakes of Tamarind
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- oil for seasoning
- 5 to 7 sprigs of fresh coriander leaves
- a bit of asafoetida
- salt as required
- Take tomatoes, green chillies ( use chillies according to your taste buds and check the spiciness of the chillies), Red chillies, coconut, cumin,coriander seeds, ginger and Tamarind flakes in a mixer and grind them all into a smooth paste.
- Take a container and add the smooth paste with enough water to make it into rasam consistency and allow it to boil until the raw smell disappears.
- Then add asafoetida and jaggery and required quantity of salt.
- Take a wok,heat oil and then add mustard seeds when they began to splutter turn off the stove and add the seasoning to the rasam
- Add finely chopped or whole curry leaves and allow it to boil for 2 to 3 minutes and put off the stove
- Now it ready serve it with hot rice and a spoon of desi ghee !
This is a Rasam which is very good for health, Mum made this when we were sick, with cold & cough, or definitely once a week to cleanse our stomachs!!, after I got married even mom-in-law made this once a week or somebody not feeling well, The only difference with mom's & mom-in-law's seeraga-molagu rasam was Mom-in law used Thuvar dal & Tomato in it!, Here I have made it the way my Mom made...... I will also tell u how my Mom-in-law made.
SEERAGA-MOLAGU (JEERA-CUMIN) RASAM
Ingredients:
- Tamarind - 3/4 th Lime size
- A pinch of Asafoetida
- salt to taste
- A sprig of curry leaves
To Grind:
- 1/2 tsp Pepper
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp Thuvar dal
- 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 2 - 1 Red chillies (Guntur-Badgi)
Seasonings:
- 1tsp Ghee or oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
METHOD:
- Fry the above in To Grind ingredients except cumin seeds in a 1/2 tsp of oil and grind them with cumin seeds into a smooth paste or fine powder.
- If you do not want to use oil u can roast them too.
- Soak the tamarind & with that u make about 1/2 litre of juice, and put it on the stove & allow it boil so that the raw smell disappears.
- Now add the powder or if u have made it into a paste mix it with little more water & then pour it into the Tamarind juice,
- Boil for a few more minutes, when the rasam froths up, add curry leaves & asafoetida
- Remove from fire, season with mustard.
METHOD II
This is my mom-in-law's method of cooking this Rasam
- Pressure cook a cup of Tuvar dal washed with one or Two Tomatoes, When u increase the Tomatoes reduce the quantity of Tamarind, with a pinch of Turmeric.
- Follow the same method as in Method I only thing is you have to add cooked Tuvar dal & Tomatoes.
- Season it with mustard seeds, curry leaves, hing & coriander leaves.
- Serve it with Rice with a spoonful of Ghee.
This is one more Recipe I learnt from my mom, It is not only good for health but also very easy to make it, and tastes very well,
This Rasam goes well with Ginger pachadi & paruppu Thuvaiyal.
Here is the Recipe:
PORICHA RASAM:
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup or fistful of Moong dal/Hesaru Bele/Paitham paruppu
- 1 sprig of curry leaves
- 2 to 3 sprig of coriander leaves
- salt to taste
- Tamarind Gooseberry size
To Grind:
- 1 tbsp of Black gram dal/Urad dal
- 1 tsp of pepper
- 1 or 2 Red chillies
- a pinch of asafoetida
- 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp of grated fresh coconut (optional)
METHOD
- Cook dal with enough water say around 2 glasses of water in a pressure cooker
- except for cumin & coconut , fry all the ingredients in a tsp of ghee or oil until they change the colour
- Grind all the ingredients to a fine powder
- Take the cooked dal in a vessel, with enough water in it & squeeze the tamarind extract, add to it and boil for some time so that the raw smell seizes from it
- Then add the ground masala powder & boil it while the rasam froths up, remove from fire & garnish with curry leaves & coriander leaves
- Season it with a tsp of oil & mustard seeds.
NOTE: You can squeeze lime juice when you are eating this Rasam mixed with rice and it gives a great taste to the dish. You can decrease the quantity of pepper,chillies & tamarind according to your taste.
