Ven Pongal & Gosthu

For Day 5 of BM# 10 under Winter Special theme, I have a very comforting and hearty combo, Ven Pongal & Gosthu. I'm sure these dishes are made all year round, but a hot bowl of pongal with the hearty vegetable & lentil curry just warms you up from within, making it a very special winter dish in my opinion. 

Recipe for Ven Pongal is adapted from Chandra Padmanabhan's Dakshin cookbook and I made Suganya's gosthu to go along with it. A perfect way to end a looong day of shopping. 

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Pulihora & Daddojanam (Tamarind Rice & Curd Rice)

After posting two American sandwiches as picnic food, today I have two South Indian dishes that are great make-ahead meals and perfect picnic food. I remember my mom making these for our school picnics and we would be happy campers eating them on site.

Tamarind rice is perfect for picnics since the flavor gets time to meld and the more time the rice has a chance to absorb all the tangy & spicy flavors the better it tastes. Curd rice, if made with half yogurt & half milk, tastes sweet and not sour at all. All in all both these dishes are really close to heart and bring a ton of memories associated with picnics.

Tamarind Rice

Ingredients:

Rice - 2 cups (I use sona masoori rice)

Tamarind - ¼cup

Peanuts - 3tbsp

Chana dal - 2tbsp

Urad dal - 2tbsp

Mustard seeds - 2tsp

Dry red chilies - 4, broken

Hing - 1/8tsp

Curry leaves - 8-10

Turmeric - 1/8tsp

Green chilies - 4

Ginger - 2tbsp (optional)

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Cook rice so that each grain is separate. Remove in a large, wide bowl to cool. Add a pinch of turmeric and salt, mix gently and set aside.
• Add 1 cup of hot water to tamarind and set aside until tamarind is soft. Squeeze and remove the stringy matter and keep the pulp to the side.
• Add 2tbsp oil in a medium pan, add peanuts and fry them on medium flame, stirring constantly until reddish and nicely fried on all sides. Keep aside.
• Add 1tbsp more oil to the same pan, add the dals and fry until they turn golden, next add mustard seeds and once the seeds start to splutter, add dry red chilies and hing.
• Once the red chilies turn slightly darker, add green chilies, curry leaves and ginger (if using). As soon as the mixture starts to smell fragrant, return the fried peanuts to the pan. Next slowly pour in the tamarind pulp.
• Lower the heat and simmer the mixture until thickened, takes about 8-10 minutes.
• Add the cooked tamarind mixture to the rice, season with salt; mix well, be gentle. Take care not to break the grains.

Cover and let the rice sit for at least 30 minutes to an hour before serving.

Notes: If you think the rice is not sour/ tangy enough, add some lemon juice. No one would even know that the sourness is coming from lemon.

Curd Rice

Ingredients:

Rice - 1cup

Yogurt - ¾cup

Milk - ½cup (or more if necessary)

Green chilies - 2, slit

Ginger - 1" piece, finely grated

Carrot -3tbsp, grated

Salt - to taste

For tempering:

Chana dal - 1tsp

Urad dal - 1tsp

Mustard seeds - 1tsp

Hing - a pinch

Dry red chili -1, broken

Curry leaves - 6-8

Turmeric - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Mash rice a little bit, add turmeric, salt, yogurt and milk. Set aside.
• Heat 1tsp oil in a small sauce pan, add chana and urad dals and once they turn golden, add mustard seeds. Add dry red chili and hing once the seeds start to splutter. Next add ginger, green chilies and curry leaves. Fry until it starts to smell fragrant.
• Add the tempering to the rice mixture. Mix well. Check the seasonings and garnish with grated carrot.

Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Notes: If the rice soaks up all the yogurt and milk and seems dry, add some milk to make it more soupy.

Now lets see what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up for Day 3 of BM#6.

Coconut Rice

Before leaving to India I realized I still had some veggies and these 2 coconuts that need to be used up. So I asked my DH to break the coconuts for me, so I can freeze some of it and make this rice dish with the rest of it. We followed Alton's Brown's method of drilling into the eyes and removing the water and then baking the coconut in a 375degree oven to break the shell. It worked pretty well. Here are some pics of my DH.

This recipe is from Chandhra Padmanabhan's Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine From South India and we really enjoyed the final dish.

I never had decent coconut rice in my whole life; I don’t remember my mom making this dish at home and the ones in the restaurants are always below par (I’m not even sure if they use real fresh coconut). Well anyway, I found my favorite coconut rice recipe and I’m going to be making this more often now. To go with the saada (plain) coconut rice and to use up my huge onions, I made this onion+veggie curry.

Recipe adapted from Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine From South India
Ingredients:
Rice (Sona masoori rice is preferred)– 2 cups
Fresh grated coconut – 1½ cups (from about ½ a coconut)
Sesame seeds – 2 tbsp (optional, but highly recommended by me :-D)
Cashews – 3tbsp
Green chilies – 2-3
Curry leaves – 6-10
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Urad dal – 1tsp
Chana dal – 1tsp
Dry red Chili – 2
Hing – ½tsp

Method:

• Cook rice and set aside to cool.
  
• Dry roast sesame seeds and grind to powder.
  
• Heat 1tbsp ghee, add cashews and sauté till lightly browned. Remove and keep aside.
  
• Heat 1tbsp ghee; add grated coconut and sauté till reddish brown. Keep aside.
  
• In the same pan, add 2tsp oil, add urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chili and hing. Once the seeds start to splutter add the green chilies and curry leaves.
  
• Add the rice, sesame powder, salt and coconut to the tadka. Turn off heat and mix well. Serve hot.

Mamidikaya Pulihora & Ragi Dosa

I bought Dakshin-Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan on my last trip to India. It’s a neat little cookbook with lot of south Indian recipes, mostly from Tamil Nadu. I tried coconut sambhar and adai recipes from the book, they were both awesome.

I wanted to try a different mamidikaya pulihora (mango rice) recipe and found Mangai Ogaray in the book and the result was nothing like the regular mango rice I usually make. It is a lengthier process but I think it is well worth it.

Ingredients:
Grated Mango – 1½ cups (I used half of a medium mango)
Peanuts - 4 tbsp
Rice – 3 cups, cooked (I used Sona masoori rice)
Curry leaves - 6

For the Spice paste:
½tsp
Dry red Chilies – 6
Fresh Coconut, grated – ¼ cup
Hing - ½ tsp

For Tempering:
Oil – 3 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tbsp
Dry red Chili - 1, halved

Method:

• Grind the ingredients for the spice paste to a fine paste, adding ½ the grated mango; keep aside.
• Cool cooked rice on a large plate.
• Heat oil and the tempering ingredients; when the mustard seeds splutter, add the peanuts.
• When the bengal gram turns golden add the rest of the grated mango and sauté for 4-5 minutes on medium flame till mango doesn’t smell raw anymore.
• Add the spice paste and sauté for another 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Add salt and curry leaves to rice and mix well. Stir in the mango mixture, a little at a time and mix well; season with salt if needed.

I made Adai Kunukku and Sakkarai Pongal from Dk's Culinary Bazaar. It was an awesome Tamil Nadu meal that we enjoyed very much.

Mango Rice with Adai Kunukku & Sakkarai Pongal

Ragi Dosa: Another recipe that I tried from Dakshin is Ragi Dosa. I bought ragi flour from Indian grocery sometime back and I’ve been looking to make something with it.

Ingredients:
Ragi flour – 2 cups
Rice Flour – ½ cup
Small Onion – 1, chopped fine
Green chilies – 3-4, chopped fine
Coriander leaves – chopped fine
Sour curd – ½ cup

For tempering:
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Hing – pinch
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Mix ragi flour, rice flour, onions, coriander leaves, chilies and salt. Add the curd and enough water to make thin batter. Cover and keep aside for 2 hours.
• Heat 2 tsp oil; add the seeds and hing. Mix it in the batter.
• This batter is similar to rawa dosa batter and it has to be poured from outside-in instead of inside-out like in regular dosa.
• Take a ladleful of batter and start pouring from outside-in onto the hot griddle pan. Try to make the batter thin by swirling the pan around (my husband’s trick) or with the ladle itself. Pour about ½ tsp oil along the edges and let the dosa cook for 1-2 minutes on medium-high flame. Gently lift the dosa and cook the other side for another minute. Serve hot with any chutney.

We had our dosas with Karivepaku karam (Curry leaf powder) & Chutney powder. My son enjoyed these with his apple sauce. I wrapped the leftover dosas in a foil and put in the fridge. I wasn’t sure how they would turn out; they tasted just fine microwaved after 4 days, but I had to be real careful handling them as they got very delicate and crumbly.