Dondakaaya (Tindora) mukkala pachadi

My mom taught this recipe, it is almost an instant recipe and with very little cooking and ofcourse less cooking more healthy. Most Andhra people know about Cucumber (Dosakaya mukkala) Pachadi. This recipe is of the same version. When I first heard about the recipe, I was little skeptical to try, but my mom keep encouraging me to try and kept saying, that it wont disappoint me, so I gave it a shot and it surprised me as to such a simple dish can make a huge difference on the plate and is so quick to present. I made this at a get together to share with my friends and they all loved it.

Ingredients-

• 20 Tindora (Dondakaya / Ivy Gourd)
• 6 Green chilies or according to taste
• Hand full of Cilantro  (Kothimera)
• Marble size tamarind (soak it in warm water for 5 min)
• 3 Garlic cloves
• 1 dry red chili
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp jeera
• few curry leaves
• Salt to taste

Directions-

1. Clean dondakaaya (Tindora) and trim the ends. Cut them into very small pieces.
2. Fry green chilies. In a blender, add soaked tamarind, green chilies, jeera, 2 garlic cloves and cilantro leaves and blend them into a paste. Add 2 tbsp of chopped dondakaya to the blender and blend it coarsely with some salt. Adjust the taste if needed.
3. Take the whole mixture and add it to the finley chopped dondakaaya (Tinodra) pieces. Mix well.
4. Heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds, when they crack, add jeera, red chilies, garlic and curry leaves. Sauté until garlic starts to turn light brown on the edges. Add this Popu (tadka) to dondakaaya (Tinodra) pieces mixture and mix well.
5. Serve with steam hot rice and any dal.

Donda mukkala pachadi

Andhra Gongura pachadi with red chilies

Weather is cooling down and my plants  are getting ready for fall. In the week end, I plucked all my Gongura leaves to make pickle with half and the other half went into freezer for use in winter.

Gongura pachadi/pickle is a popular authentic Andhra pickle and is world famous. Different regions call it with different names- Hibiscus cannabinus aka red sorrel leaves, roselle, gongura (telugu), pulicha keerai (Tamil), Ambad bhaji, ambada, ambadi(Hindi)

Gongura is a very rich source of Iron, vitamins, folic acid and anti-oxidants essential for human nutrition. Similarly, “Gongura” is popular in Tamilnadu as well, which is called “pulichakeerai” in Tamil. The famous combination with “pulichakeerai” is “Ragi Kali/Ragi Mudde“, which once used to be a regular food for the people in villages (since these items easily available in agricultural forms). It is highly recommended for sugar and heart patients to maintain their diet

This gongura pachadi can be done using dry red chilies or green chilies. When Red chilies are used, the consistency of pachadi will be little hard (hence, more oil is needed in tempering) compared to green chilies which give a moist consistency.

There are 2 varieties of this gongura, one is white stem gongura and the other is red gongura. Earlier vrariety (White gongura) has a little bitter taste than the latter (red variety). Both of them tastes extremely good. We can even combine both the varieties while cooking. My mom makes an excellent gongura pachadi with red chilies and when eaten with red onion hum!!! Delicious. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients-

• big bunch of fresh gongura / red sorrel (wash and separate leaves from the stalks and leave them out to dry)
• 10 whole dry red chilies
• 1/2 tsp methi / fenugreek seeds
• 1 tbsp minapppapu (black gram / urad dal)
• 1 tbsp senaga pappu (bengal gram / channa dal)
• 11/2 tbsp coriander seeds
• 5 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsps oil
• salt to taste

Tempering

• 4 tbsp oil (pickle made with red chilies needs more oil than green chilies)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp cumin
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 whole dry red chillies
• 1 stalk of curry leaves

Andhra Gongura pachadi mudda on gongura leaf

Directions-

1. Heat 2 tbsps of oil in a heavy bottom vessel. Add the leaves and sauté them until soft. Remove and let it cool.
2. In the same vessel add 1 tbsp oil and add methi seeds and fry till light brown. Add coriander seeds, urad dal(black gram), channa dal (bengal gram lentil) and dry red chilies and fry stirring constantly till light brown. Remove them into a bowl and let them cool.
3. In a grinder, add methi, coriander seeds, urad dal, channa dal, dry red chilies, cumin, garlic, salt and grind them. Add the fried gongura leaves and grind very coarsely.
4. Heat 4 tbsps of oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, when they splutter, add the whole dry red chilies, crushed garlic, cumin, curry leaves and fry until garlic is slightly brown. Remove the tempering from fire; Let it cool before adding it to the ground gongura pachadi. (When storing any pickles for more than few days, always let the tempering cool to room temperature before adding it to the ground paste, since adding hot oil to the ground paste releases some more moisture and spoils the pachadi)
5. Add the tempering to the ground paste along with the oil.

This particular pickle can be stored in the refrigerator for almost 3 weeks and goes well with hot steamed rice, a dash of ghee and sliced red onions.

Andhra gongura pachadi with raw onion

Carrot Chutney

Andhra House hold cusine is famous for their innumerable pachadis. Each house hold has their signature pachadi. The combination of spices that is used with each vegetable, gives a unique finger licking taste.

The sweetness of carrot and the spices compliments each other to get a refreshing unique falvor.

I love this pachadi with a little curd which makes it carrot perugu pachadi (carrot yogurt chutney) and my DH loves it by itself. So, I satisfied him with his version yet having my own (with little yogurt) at the same time.

This Carrot pachadi is simple, colorful, healthy and tasty with a pleasant blend of flavors and a great accompaniment with hot rice and ghee.

Carrot Pachadi Ingredients

Ingredients-

• 2 Carrots diced
• 6 green chilies slit length wise
• tamarind to taste
• 2 small garlic cloves
• salt to taste
• 3 tbsp curd (Optional)

Directions-

1. Heat a skillet with oil and fry green chilies for a min. Separate them into a dish.
2. Add diced carrots and sauté them for 3min, until they are half cooked.
3. Soak tamarind in little hot water (you can microwave) for 50 sec.
4. Let all the above ingredients cool to room temp before grinding.
5. In a blender, take cumin, sautéed green chilies, garlic, soaked tamarind, salt and blend them thoroughly.
6. Add sautéed carrot pieces and grind them coarsely.
7. Take this into a bowl and add curd (optional)
8. Heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds. When they crack, add cumin, garlic, curry leaves. (This step is optional)
9. Mix this seasoning to the chutney (pachadi) and serve with hot rice and ghee.

Carrot Perugu Pachadi (Carrot yogurt chutney), Carrot Pachadi

Vankaaya Dosakaaya pachadi

Roti Pachadi was my family favorite. My Mom always makes a curry, stir fry and a Roti pachadi in our meal.

When ever I need to work with Doasakaya (Cucumber) I remember my dad. He loves it so much, mainly his favorite Dosakay Mukkala pachadi which I am going to post soon.

This chutney is so famous in Andhra house holds. Its flavor comes from that nice purple brinjals and yellow cucumber. Choose a Cucumber that is firm or hard to touch, it should not be soft.

When I first came to US, I tried making this pachadi but the brinjals we get here are pretty long and has more water content. So there was a lot of taste difference. As my culinary expertise has grown a bit from so many years of cooking, I learnt that choosing the right cooking pan for the recipe we would be making, makes the cooking not only fast but tastier.

Example, In US, the brinjals or egg plants has more water content and when cooked they become mushy and looses the texture needed for the dish. In order to prevent this, we need to choose a wide mouth pan, instead of a small mouth pan. The wider the mouth of the pan, should depend on the quantity of vegetable we are choosing. By doing this we are cooking the water out as soon as the vegetable releases it, thus frying the vegetable instead of boiling which hold the texture of the vegetable instead of getting mushy.

Hope my tip helps you all, now coming to the recipe-

Ingredients-

• 4 Brinjals or Egg Plants washed and Chopped
• 1 Medium cucumber peeled and seeded. (Check the taste of the flesh too…sometimes it can be bitter too, discard if bitter)
• 6 green chilies (Adjust according to taste) slit lengthwise
• Lemon size tamarind soaked in warm water (When soaking use very little water)
• ½ tsp Jeera (Cumin)
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp salt or adjust according to taste
• 1 tbsp oil

Directions-

1. Cut cucumber into very small pieces and keep them aside. (Check the taste of the flesh too…sometimes it can be bitter too, discard if bitter)
   Heat oil in a pan and saute green chilies. Keep them aside.
2. Add chopped brinjal pieces to the oil and saute them till they are soft.
   In a blender add sauteed green chilies, cumin, salt, soaked tamarind, Garlic cloves and grind them thoroughly.
3. Add fried brinjal and grind it coarsely. (Pachadi should have some texture, don’t blend it too smooth)
   Add a handful of chopped cucumber and grind it coarsely.
4. Take a bowl, add the coarsely grounded chutney and the rest of cucumber pieces and mix them from top to bottom making sure that the cucumber pieces are well mixed.

This pachadi does not need any talimpu / Tampering, which cuts those few extra minutes. Tampering tastes good for so many dishes but there are few dishes that taste much better with out tampering and this pachadi is one of those few.

Vankaaya Dosakaaya pachadi / Eggplant cucumber chutney

Beerakaya Thokku Pachadi

I had ‘beerakay’ (Ridge Gourd) from my Garden, vegetables from garden are quiet precious for me and ofcourse organic. I made ridge gourd curry  yesterday and had the left over peeled skin, which I don’t want to waste. So I head out to my garden to see if I can find one more ridge gourd and I do see. So I am all ready to make this chutney (Pachadi).

This is full of fiber, and I don’t want to waste the goodies. This is really a very easy pachadi and goes well with hot rice and a dash of ghee.

My mom always make a curry, a fry and a Pachadi for our meals and I love that combination. I do try to maintain the combination.

When making this pachadi , try to choose the ridge gourd which is not too hard. Peel of all the hard ridges and make the dish with only the skin and a little bit of vegetable flesh (optional)

TIP- Adding tomato will give nice texture and will be little easy to grind. If we do not add tomato,  the chutney will be very hard and more over we need to add water to grind, which reduces the taste.

Ingredients:

• peeled skin of 2 Beerakaya’s /turai/ridge gourd
• ½ cup of Beerakaya/turai/ridge gourd pieces (Optional)
• 1 clove of garlic chopped
• 6 green chilies
• 1 medium tomato
• 1 inch of tamarind (adjust to taste)
• 2 tbsps oil
• Salt as per tasteDirections-

1. Clean the gourds and trim the ends. Peel the skin of Beerakaya/ridge gourd (Discard the hard ridge). Cut ½ cup of berakaya/ridge gourd pieces (optional)
2. Heat oil in a pan, to this add the gourd’s peeled skin, pieces and green chilies. On medium flame cook for about 2 mins.
3. Add chopped tomato and sauté for a min.
4. Add ¼ tsp salt mix it and close the lid. Let it cook for 5 min’s stirring occasionally, till the skin and pieces are fully cooked.
5. Let the mixture cool.
6. In a grinder, add tamarind, green chilies, garlic, cumin, salt and grind it till the chilies and garlic are crushed.
7. Add cooked vegetable mix and coarsely grind to paste.
8. Serve with hot rice and ghee.

Beerakaya/turai thokku pachadi/ridge gourd pachadi

We always make peanut chutney that goes as dipping for dosa, idlii etc.. which i love to eat. But, I always look forward to enjoy it in rice and I finally found it.

One great thing I love in this chutney is the use of lemon juice instead of tamarind extract. I like citrus, it is very refreshing . when ever possible i like to replace tamarind with lime/ lemon.

Here is the peanut tomato chutney that goes very well with rice.

Ingredients-

½ cup raw peanuts

1 small onion

2 small tomatoes

4 green chilies

2 garlic cloves

salt to taste

1 small lemon juice

Tempering:

1 tsp each of oil, mustard seeds, jeera,

2 Garlic cloves and curry leaves

pinch of asafoetida/inguva/hing.

Recipe-

• Dry roast peanuts.
• Heat oil in a vessel, add green chilies and onion pieces, let them sauté till onion is translucent.
• Add tomatoes and cook them till they are soft.
• Cool it for some time.
• Take the blender and add cumin, salt, cooked green chilies, garlic, onion, tomato mix that we cooked above and grind it nice.
• Now add roasted peanuts and grind it coarsely and keep it thick if you want to serve with rice.
• Take a skillet, heat 1 Tsp of oil and add mustard seeds, cumin, garlic, red chilies and curry leaves. Cool this mixture and add this to the grinded chutney.
• Serve it with rice and ghee…it tastes so yummy!!! You just cannot stop eating…

Note- If you want it little thin, boil water and let it cool before adding it to chutney, then the chutney stays for at least 3 days. If you add regular water, sometimes the chutney gets spoiled (smells bad)  for the next day, mainly when it is summer.