Free Imagine Things

Hi,
This is a pachadi my mother taught me very very long back, I keep doing it now & then, The other day when I was talking to my sister (who is in India ) , asked me what I had prepared for Lunch & I was telling her I did vendakaayi sambhar, Moolangi kosambari & Ridge Gourd pachadi, she said what is it ? how did I prepare that? I told her it was Mum's Recipe, She was upset because mom never taught her, well, I was the one who always loved cooking so, I always helped her in the kitchen & both of us trying new recipes & methods was great time, those bygone days .... was really fun, I told her how I did it and here I am posting this Recipe, My family do like it & I keep it doing it now & then.
As usual as Raji says no pachadi photo!!, I forgot to take one, next time I make I will take a photo & post it in the blog. Even though there is no interesting you all try & make this recipe which is really very nice.
Here is the Recipe :
RIDGE GOURD PACHADI
















Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized Ridge Gourd

To Grind

• 1/4 cup of fresh grated coconut
• 2 tbsp of Roasted gram (Hurigadale/chutney dal)
• 1 tbsp of Black Til
• 2 to 3 flakes of Tamarind
• little bit of jaggery
• 2 green chillies
• a pinch of asafoetida
• salt to taste

METHOD:

1. First of all scrape the Ridge Gourd skin and keep it aside do not throw them, If the Ridge Gourd are quite tender you can make chutney out of them, I have posted, how to make it, you can try and it really is very tasty.
2. Dice them into pieces & cook them in one or two tumblers of water until they become soft.
3. Meanwhile, Take a pan, dry roast the til seeds, until they start spluttering
4. Grind all the above said ingredients with the cooked Ridge Gourd & its water.
5. Season the pachadi with a tsp of oil & a tsp of mustard seeds.
6. Garnish with coriander leaves & serve with hot rice.
7. If you want, you can add plain thick curds/yogurt to it & serve.

VARIATIONS:

This pachadi can also be made with Mooli/Moolangi/Radish & cucumber, These Vegetables need not be cooked as Ridge Gourd, you can grate them & grind them with all the other ingredients said above & with cucumber chop them into thin slices as you cut them for Kosumbari (salad) and mix with it, season it & serve. Some people call this as Southekaayi Gojju.

When I was writing this I thought we can even try with chow-chow/seemebadanekaayi/Bangalore Katharika, but you have to cook them & not to grind the vegetable but just the ingredients, mix it with the cooked vegetable & cook them for few more minutes on the stove, season & serve!!!.

hi,
This Recipe I am sending to RCI: Chettinadu Vegetarian Cuisine, event announced by Srimathi of Fewminutewonders.
I was asking Raji of RAKS Kitchen, was their any event announced so i could participate, She sent some of the blog names which I could participate, and that is how I came into participating and cooking these dishes!!!!, Thanks raji, we had a lovely dinner day before yesterday, but only today i had the time to post it, and I think on time to enter. When I saw I had to cook something chettinadu, I called up my sister to get me some recipe, her sis-in-law lived in coimbatore for quite some time, she keeps a book like me, writing out all the recipes if we find it interesting and asking mum,chittis,perimmas, mannis and even cooks etc., She looked into her recipe and gave me these two recipes but she doesn't know where she got it from!!!.
Here are the recipes:
VENDAIKAI MANDI:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 Kg Ladies Finger (Okra/vendakai/Bendekaayi)
• 1 cup Small onions (peeled)
• 2 Green Chillies
• 2 Red chillies
• 1 tbsp Red chilli powder
• 5-6 pods o Garlic
• 2- Tomatoes
• Tamarind- small lemon sized
• 1/2 cup of Thick coconut extract
• 2 tbsp oil of frying
• salt as required

Seasoning:

• 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
• 1 tsp Black gram dhal/Urad dhal
• 1/4 tsp Fenugreek seeds
• 1 sprig of curry leaves

METHOD:

1. Soak Tamarind in warm water, Then wash and drain out water from okra, and taking a cloth wipe them clean, Then peel and slice onions & Garlic into small pieces.
2. Cut Okra into 2 inch pieces and chop the tomatoes and keep aside.
3. Take a wok, pour a tbsp of oil add the seasonings, then add the broken Red Chillies and Slit Green Chillies, fry then add sliced onions till transparent and stir in the tomatoes until they becomes soft.
4. Then add Ladies Finger pieces and fry for few minutes
5. Add Tamarind extract water and cook okra until it becomes soft and some more water to increase the quantity of the Sambhar.
6. Add salt and a tbsp of Rice flour and cook till the gravy becomes thick,
7. Mix coconut extract just before removing from fire & garnish with coriander leaves.
8. Serve this with hot Rice & I think it might go well with chapati too.

BANANA VARUVAL (DRY CURRY)

Ingredients:

• 2 Raw Bananas
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1 & 1/2 tsp Chilli Powder
• 1/4 tsp Aniseed (saunf)
• 4 pods of Garlic
• 3 to 4 tbsp of 1 sprig of curry leaves
• Salt as required

METHOD:

1. Peel the outer skin of Bananas and cut them into four lengthwise and again cut them into thin slices
2. Mix salt, chilli powder & turmeric powder and marinate these with the banana slices and leave it for an hour or so.
3. Heat oil in a wok or a pan, once the oil is hot add nicely crushed Aniseed & crushed garlic pods and then add the marinated Banana Slices
4. Fry in a medium flame until the banana gets cooked and turn into a golden brown in colour, adding more oil gives a good crunch in them!!

It was a great dinner and we all loved it with oven baked jeera papads and Vegetable pickles, Thanks to srimathi for hosting this cuisine, I had never used Aniseed like this and it was really very nice & a dare try, My family loved it very much.