Lemon Rasam

Blogging Marathon#66: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes 

Dish: Lemon Rasam from Nalini

We are starting our final week of blogging marathon today and my theme for the week is 'Bookmarked recipes'. For the first day I made this simple yet very tasty Lemon rasam from Nalini's blog.

Nalini made it for the April mega marathon and I bookmarked and made it right away. It took this long to post the recipe here. Rasam in our households is made with tomato and tamarind. Toor dal or any kind of dal is not usually added. Our version is rather watery and is usually eaten along with a thicker dal.

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Rajasthani Dal Dhokli

Blogging Marathon#64: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Wholewheat Dishes

Dish: Dal Dhokli

We are starting our 3rd week of blogging marathon today and my theme for the week is 'Wholewheat Dishes'. For the first day I made a hearty and comforting dish popular in both Gujarat and Rajasthan, Dal Dhokli. This has been on my list of dishes to try for a very long time and finally got a chance to try it out.

Dal dhokli is a filling one pot meal where dhoklis aka Indian style wheat pasta :-) are simmered in dal until cooked through. From what I read, Rajasthani version is slightly spicier than Gujarati version. I tried the spicy version and it was amazing, both my kids loved it too. I told them this how close an Indian dish can get to Italian pasta and they were very happy to try.

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Punjabi Dal Tadka

I made this Punjabi Dal tadka along with this Aloo curry for a mini Punjabi meal. Recipe for the dal is from a Telugu cooking show and I have made it quite a few times already.

Like any dal, this is very easy to make and is very hearty and comforting dish. It is a simple dish but tastes amazing and the lovely thing about this dish is it can whipped up for a simple dal-chawal menu on a weeknight or can be served with naans and jeera rice for a party.

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Mysore Kattina Saaru

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Regional Specials

Dish: Mysone Kattina Saaru
We are starting 3rd week of blogging marathon today and my theme for the week is 'Regional Specials'. I chose Mysore as my region and I have 3 delicious dishes from there.

Vani who blogs at Mysoorean has a ton of authentic dishes from Mysore. After a lot of browsing on her site, I found this simple dal recipe that only needed few ingredients which was perfect because I only had a couple of veggies left in the fridge and it was time to go grocery shopping.

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Asparagus Tomato Dal

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Seasonal Veggies & Fruits

Dish: Asparagus Tomato Dal

My theme for the second week of this month's marathon is 'Dishes with Seasonal Veggies & Fruits'. First up is a simple dal with asparagus and tomato.

Asparagus is a spring vegetable and I look forward to buying it when in season. Asparagus has a delicate flavor and is composed of 93% water. It is low in calories and very low in sodium. It is a good source of vitamins and minerals, dietary fiber, protein etc etc.

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Vegetable Dhansak

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Parsi Dishes

Dish: Vegetable Dhansak
We are going to our regular 3 day schedule of Blogging Marathon this month and my theme for this week is 'Parsi Dishes'. Parsis, meaning Persians, are the followers of the ancient Persian religion known as Zoroastrianism. They emigrated to India from Persia to avoid religious persecution by the Muslims.
While looking for Parsi dishes, I came across this lovely post by Peri. She is a Parsi blogger and her blog has tons of delicious Parsi (and non-Parsi) recipes. In that explains, she explains the different between Indian and Parsi food and how parsi cuisine is unique. Do check it out more details.
For my first day, I made a very flavorful and spicy Dhansak. It is a hearty dish with lentils, vegetables and choice of meat (which I skipped, of course). It is flavored with aromatic spice blend and is usually served with Parsi brown rice and a kachumber salad (cucumber salad). I didn't make the rice, so served the dhansak with some roti.

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Gujarati Khichdi

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Weekend Brunch Recipes

Dish: Gujarati Khichdi

My theme for the first week of this month's marathon is 'Brunch Recipes'. Brunch should be hearty and filling, but not too filling that it is going to make you take an early afternoon nap. Also since we are skipping breakfast to eat brunch, it should be nutritious enough to keep you going and charged for at least 3~4 hours. 

With all those in mind, here's a one pot dish that is sure to keep you full and energized until the next meal. Being a south Indian, I grew up eating rice for just about all the meals. Breakfast could be anything like lemon rice, tamarind rice, curd rice or pongal and that used to keep us full till lunch. But nowadays eating rice for breakfast or even brunch has become quite a rarity in my household.

As I was thinking of Indian dishes to make for brunch, khichdi came to my mind right away. It has dal (lentils) for protein and rice for carbs, which in my mind is perfect dish for any time of day. I found this Gujarati Khichdi recipe in Sanjeev Kapoor's Vegetarian Rice, Biryani & pulao cookbook.

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Darbari Dal (Revisitng Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 45: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Revisiting Old Recipes
Dish: Darbari Dal

We are starting our final week of blogging marathon today and I picked a seemingly easy theme, Revisiting Old recipes. But it was quite a tough task picking just 3 dishes to revisit from my archives. This blog has been around for more than 8 years and there are ton of dishes that need some TLC. So after browsing through the blog for a very very long time I decided on 3 dishes that I wanted to remake and take some new pics.

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Lucknowi Dal

Blogging Marathon# 45: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: North Indian Side dishes
Dish: Lucknowi Dal

We are starting our second week of Blogging Marathon# 45 today. My theme for this week is 'North Indian Side Dishes' and I have 3 delicious sides planned for the next 3 days.
First up is Lucknowi Dal. Dal is a quintessential dish on almost all Indian menus. Dal/ lentils are one of the best sources of protein for vegetarians and I always plan at least protein based dish for all my meals.
As I was looking for some North Indian dal recipes, I found this interesting and different dal on Farrukh's blog. It is a no-onion, no-tomato recipe, but has one very unusual ingredient in it, Milk. I was initially skeptical how this dal would taste, but it tasted really good. I didn't really taste the milk, but it added a nice creaminess to the dish. My kids and even my husband really liked this dal. I will be making this dal often especially when I'm running out of tomatoes and onions.

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Nepal -- Simple Vegetarian Thali (Recipes)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: N for Nepal

Dish: Vegetarian Thali (Recipes)

We are exactly half way through the marathon, 13 done -- 13 more to go. Our next stop is Nepal and this was the very first country that I cooked for. I knew it was going to be Nepal for N from the very beginning. Ever since I saw Sandhya's Nepali dishes for one of the previous BMs, I wanted to try them and this was the best opportunity I got. Also when I was planning the dishes, we were freshly done with the Indian states mega BM and all the thalis that were posted really inspired me to plan a thali for Nepal too.
The Nepalese are mostly immigrants from India, Tibet, North Burma and the Chinese province of Yunnan via Assam. So the culture and the cuisine is mostly influenced by all these countries. Much of Nepalese dishes are made in India too, especially in the North eastern Indian states.

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Mixed Dal Sambar with Onion & Radish

It has been a busy month so far with the on-going A-Z International mega marathon. But I didn't want to miss Valli's 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge' because I have so many recipes bookmarked that if I don't make them now, I'll never make them.

This Mixed Dal Sambar recipe is from a recent Telugu cooking show that I watched and liked the use of more than one dal to make sambar. I jotted it down and made it today for lunch. I've blogged masoor dal sambar & regular sambar already. Taste wise I don't think there's any difference between this and the regular sambars, but I think texture wise adding moong dal makes this a little more creamy than the other versions. Give it a try if you looking for a slightly different variation to your regular sambar. Also change the veggies too and add whatever you fancy or have in your fridge.

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Green Beans Kootu

Good times don't last for too long. I say this because we are almost at the very end of our vacation in India and we will be back home before we even realize it. I haven't had a chance to finish my shopping and these last few days will be really busy with shopping and packing. 

Today's kootu is my mom's recipe. I'm not sure where she learnt it, but she has been making it for years now. Green beans can be substituted with cabbage, spring onions or other vegetables of choice. This kootu is thick and is the perfect combination of vegetables and lentils. It is great to serve with either rice or roti.

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Andhra style Greens & Chickpea Curry (Chukkakura & Gongura Senagala Kura)

It is always amazing to see how fast kids bond with their grandparents even if they never met them before. My in-laws were visiting us for couple of weeks and they were seeing my little one for the first time. But it took her just a few hours to get to know them and in no time she was playing with them as if she's known them forever.

So my kids had a great time playing and having fun with the grandparents and we had great time enjoying the yummy dishes my MIL cooked. She made some new and interesting dishes and I made sure I clicked them and wrote the recipes down, so I don't forget. 

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A Vegetarian Indian Thali

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Bookmarked recipes from BM# 39
Dish: Indian Thali

So for the last day of the marathon, I created a thali with some of the recipes that I bookmarked from last month's mega marathon. Indian thali usually consists of a Bread, Rice dish, a dry curry, a gravy curry, chutney and something sweet to end the meal. 

Most of the dishes in this thali are from the North Eastern states of India. To be honest, I had no idea about the eating habits or the popular dishes from any of the North Eastern states. Thanks to the research that all of the marathoners have done last month, I know a lot more about these cuisines now. I also wanted to make this black rice pudding from Nagaland for dessert, but I made this thali for myself and I wasn't motivated enough to make a dessert and also I was tooooo full after eating this meal. buuurp!!

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Panch Phoron Tarkari & Kulath ki Dal

Kulath ki Dal from Uttarakand: Horsegram is a completely new ingredient for me. I bought it just before April's Mega marathon in the hopes of using it in one of the dishes, but I didn't use it for any of the dishes. But luckily I found quite a few interesting recipes using it and here I am with the very first dish I made with Horsegram.

This dal is from Uttarakand and it is a very simple and earthy dish which is very mildly spiced. Using rice flour makes the dish thick and creamy.

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Simple Vegetarian Tamil Nadu Thali

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Bookmarked recipes from BM# 39
Dish: Tamil Nadu Thali

Today we are starting the final week of blogging marathon# 40. After posting the unused posts from last month's mega marathon, this week's theme is still related to the mega marathon. I'm going to post the bookmarked recipes from my fellow marathoners for the next 3 days.
Mega marathon was sure mega in lots of different ways -- mega research, mega posts, mega yapping on Whatsapp and then mega bookmarked posts after the marathon itself. I had bookmarked a lot of dishes, which I'm sure I will not be able to get to if not for this theme. After seeing so many amazing thalis during the marathon, I'm kind of obsessed with the thali concept. So for the next 3 days, I decided to do 3 thalis with bookmarked recipes.
For the first day, I have a very simple thali from Tamil Nadu. Initially I was planning to make an elaborate thalis like the ones Sandhya & Nalini posted. But one the day I planned to cook, one dish after the other got dropped out of the list and in the end it was an extremely simple thali with everyday dishes. In case you are wondering what I took off the list, I planned to make masala vada/ paruppu vadai, sundal and a lentil based dessert.

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Kanchipuram Idli & Kara Chutney (Breakfast Thali from Tamil Nadu)

The month long mega marathon is still lingering in the air and I have quite a few posts in the drafts that I made and could not post. So here we are with a breakfast mini thali from Tamil Nadu that I wanted to post for Tamil Nadu, but changed and did this Chettinad Vegetarian Biryani.

Kanchipuram idli has been on my to-make list for a very very long time. I think I saw the recipe in a Telugu newspaper many many years ago and it stayed in my head, though it wasn't until very recently. I jotted it down for Tamil Nadu, but with the winter lingering around a little too long, I wasn't sure if the batter would rise. I waited till it started to get a little warm again to make the idlis. It took me 48 hours for the batter to ferment and the idlis turned out fluffy and delicious.

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Orissa -- Mitha Khechudi & Mitha Dali

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 21
State: Orissa
Dish: Mitha Khechudi & Mitha Dali (Sweet Khichdi with Sweet Dal)

Today we are going to Odisha, formerly known as Orissa, located in the east coast of India. Orissa shares a border with Andhra Pradesh, but I never had a chance to visit it. My dad went there for work years ago and brought back a souvenir from Konark Sun Temple. I've seen his pictures at Puri Jagannath temple and Bhubaneshwar. That's the most I knew about Orissa.
Cuisine: Odisha has culinary tradition spanning centuries. I was really surprised to read that rasgulla actually originated from Odisha, I always thought it was from Bengal. Also Kheer or rice pudding, that is relished all over India, also originated in Puri 2000 years ago.
Oriya cuisine is rich and varied and relies heavily on local ingredients. The flavors are usually subtle and lightly spiced, unlike the fiery curries typically associated with Indian cuisine. Only 6% of the population of Odisha is vegetarian. Oriyas are very fond of sweets and no Oriya meal is complete without the dessert course at the end.
Specialties: Dali, Dalma, Khechedi, Mittha Dali, Pakhala, Chena Poda, Dahi Bara, Kalakand etc.

Today's Dish(es): After reading about the Oriya cuisine, I initially planned on making a dessert. But after making quite a few desserts for the marathon, I decided against it. I wanted to make something simple, yet traditional and authentic to Orissa. So after a lot of searching, I found this Oriya blog, Turmeric Kitchen, by Jagruthi. She has a ton of traditional dishes and I picked two that were simple and easy to make.

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Jharkhand -- Dhuska & Ghugni

Blogging Marathon# 39 - Indian States: Day 12
State: Jharkhand
Dish: Dhuska & Ghugni

Jharkand is a state located in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar in the year 2000. The name Jharkhand means The land of forests, Jharkand accounts for 40% of the mineral resources of India.

Cuisine: Jharkhand's cuisine is very similar to Bihari cuisine. Jharkhandis use different types of flowers as vegetables like the flowers of drumstick etc., Use of Saag, i.e., leaves of different shrubs and other small plants, is perhaps another peculiarity of Jharkhani food.
Staple Food: Urad dal, Rice, Vegetables.
Specialties: Litti Chokha, Dhuska, Dudhauri, Charpa

Today's Dish(es): I made a traditional dish from Jharkhand and Bihar. Dhuska is made with unfermented rice & lentil batter and is usually deep fried. I followed Vaishali's tip and cooked them like dosas instead. I had some batter leftover after making dhuskas which I left to ferment for about 10~12 hours and then made dosas with the batter. Dosas turned out crisp and perfect. Dhuska is served with ghugni traditionally and that's what I made.

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An Ayurvedic Meal (Thali)

With the ongoing BM mega marathon, thalis have become quite popular among our BM group. I wish I had more time to make thalis for some of the states. But it is what it is, so I decided to make a thali for Cooking from Cookbook Challenge instead. Today's thali is an Ayurvedic Thali from Sukham Ayu.

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