Green Mango Rice / Mavinakayi Chithranna

This is similar to Lemon Rice. You can also use the prepared gravy as a spread for chapathi roll for lunches. If you store this gojju in the fridge, will last for at least one week.

Cook 400ml rice and make sure it is not overcooked, let it cool down  to room temperature. This can be made with Basmati rice or Andra/Ponni rice. However, tastes better with Andra/Ponni rice.

Peel raw mango with a peeler and cut into big pieces. Grind mango with:

2-3 tablespoons of coconut

1/4 tsp of methi seeds 

1 tsp of jeera/cumin seeds

6-8 grains of peppercorns

4 Kashmiri chilies

1/4 tsp of dhania/ coriander seeds

pinch of turmeric

water

little coriander leaves - add this to grind at the end so that coriander is coarsely ground. 


Now do the seasoning in a kadai with 3-4 tbs oil, mustard, peanuts, channa dhal, urud dhal, hing, ginger 1 or 2 sliced green chillies, little bit of finely chopped/grated ginger and curry leaves. Finally add the above ground paste and fry for 4-5 minutes on low to medium flame, add salt. Your gojju is now ready. 


Now you can mix this gojju with rice and add extra salt if needed. finally garnish it with some more coriander leaves.

Dhal - Andra Special Dhal

This recipe given to me by mum. From memory, she got the recipe from local TV show in India and of course, modified to our taste buds. 


You need:
Toor Dhal - 200ml
finely chopped onions - 100ml
finely chopped tomato - 200ml
turmeric - pinch
chili powder - 1 tsp or, according to your taste
garlic - cloves, if they are small like Indian garlic just peel them. if they are big, like Australian garlic peel them and cut each of them into pieces.
Broken red chillies - 4-5 pieces
asafoetida/hing
curry leaves - few
Coriander for garnishing
oil
salt


Pressure cook dhal with a pinch of turmeric. In a kadai or fry pan, fry chopped onion for 3-4 minutes. Then add chopped tomato and fry for 2 minutes. Then add chili powder, salt and fry until it thickens. Add cooked dhal to this and add required amount of water and cook for further 10 minutes and remove. Then, take a table spoon of oil in a small seasoning pan and season using mustard, garlic, curry leaves, red chillies and hing. Add this seasoning to dhal and cover it immediately. Finally garnish with coriander just before serving.

Dhal - Mung Dhal Pesalu Pappu

Mung dhal is quicker to make when compared to toor dhal, hence using pressure cooker to cook this dhal is not a must.
Dhal - 200 ml
mustard - 1/2 tsp
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1/2 tsp
curry leaves - 10-15
red chillies - 3-4 pieces
Finely chopped onion - 3 tbs
chopped tomato - 3 tbs
chilli powder - 1/2 to 1 tsp
chopped coriander - 2 tbs


Fry a cup of mung dhal on a low-medium flame. Make sure that dhal does not change its colour much. Then wash it and cook in a sauce pan with some water. Alternatively you can pressure cook it for 1 whistle. 


Take 3 tablespoons of canola/peanut/sunflower oil in a fry pan. Do seasoning with some mustard, Jeera (cumin seeds), asafoetida. Then add curry leaves and red chillies and fry for 1/2 minute. Then add onion and fry for 3-4 minutes or until it is transparent. Then add tomato, chilli powder, salt and fry on low-medium flame for about 5 minutes or until it becomes thick and not sticking to the pan. Then add cooked mung dhal and boil and water if needed and boil for 5 minutes. Then transfer this into serving dish and garnish with coriander and serve with warm rice or chapathi or rice. If you have with rice, it tastes nicer with a few drops of ghee. 

Mixed Dhal Curry

Masoor Dhal - 100ml
Mixed dry beans - 200ml (can use Red kidney beans, Kidney beans, Lead beans, Black eye beans, Broad Beans etc)
Finely chopped onion - 100ml
Chopped Tomato - 150ml
garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp

aamchoor powder - 1/2 tsp

lime - 1/2 - Optional
Coriander for garnishing


For this curry, I normally use Masoor 100ml and mixed dry beans of 200ml. Soak all dry beans, except Masoor overnight. Next day, add masoor to soaked dhal and pressure cook with a pinch of turmeric and some salt.


Dry Grind:


Kashmiri Red Chillies - 5-6
Green Chillies - 1 or 2
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon - 1 small piece
Cardamom - 1
Fennel seeds/Saunf - 1/4 tsp
Ginger - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 1/2 tsp 
Curry leaves - 5-6 leaves
Kus kus - 1/2 tsp


Grind the masala in a small jar, without any water, Masala will be a bit course since you do not add water and it is quite ok. If you add water the taste will be different, which is good as well. However, you end up adding more oil to fry it. 


Fry onion with a bit of oil until it becomes brown. Then add ground masala and fry for 2 minutes on low flame. (if you add water to masala, you can add extra oil and may need to fry it a bit longer, until raw masala smell goes). Then add tomato and fry for 3-4 minutes on medium flame. Then add cooked dhals, salt and 2 cups of water, cook on low to medium flame for 20-30 minutes. This is very important as it adds flavor to the curry and beans will get all the masala soaked up as well.  You can keep adding little hot water if it gets very thick.  If you want you can add some lime juice after taking out from flame.


Finally garnish with some coriander.


Normally I do not add cream in this curry. However, if I am cooking mainly for kids, usually add 2 table spoons of fresh cream. 

Dhal - Red Lentil (Masoor Dhal)

This dhal is one of the easiest and quickest dhal to make. Learnt this from my friend Jeevitha. This will be very nice to have with Chapati/Rori or plain white rice and papad.


Red Lentil Dhal - 1 cup
Chopped Onion - 1/2 to 2/3 cup
Chopped Tomato - 1/2 cup
Chopped green chillies - according to your taste
Crushed ginger - 1/2 to 1 tsp
Crushed garlic - 1/2 tsp
turmeric - 1 pinch
salt - according to your taste


Wash and soak lentil in cold water for 10 minutes in a saucepan. Add all the above ingredients to dhal along with 2 - 3 cups of water and cook until the dhal is just cooked. Try not to overcook dhal. Then do the seasoning and add to the dhal and mix well. Garnish with coriander.


For seasoning:
2 tablespoons canola/sunflower/vegetable oil
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
cumin seeds/geera - 1/2 tsp
dried red chillies - 2 
curry leaves - 10-15 leaves (Optional)
chopped coriander leaves - 2 tbs

Majjige Huli / More Kuzhambu

This is one of the traditional dish which goes very well with rice and papad. This is very quick to make as well. You can make this with Chokes, zucchini or white pumpkin.  Normally people use green chillies or red chillies. However, Sulochana, my mother-in-law made this with sambar powder when she visited us in Melbourne and it was very nice.  


Grind the following with some yogurt (curds):


poppy seeds - 1/2 tsp

cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1/2 tsp

mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

pottukadale (roasted channa) - 1 tbs

chopped onion - 1.5 tbs

coconut - 2 tbs

First, cut 1 onion and desired vegetable into pieces and add to 2-3 cups of boiling water and add about 1 to 1.5 tsp of sambar powder, turmeric and salt. Boil for 10 minutes or until vegetable is cooked. Then add the ground masala and add chopped coriander. When it starts to boil turn off the flame and finish it with seasoning using mustard, curry leaves, 1 red chilly and hing.


A variation to this is you can substitute sambar powder with red chilli powder or add red chillies for grinding.


Another variation instead of sambar powder and pottukadale, add green chillies and soaked channa dhal (1 tbs) for grinding.

Lime Pickle - Indian

Lime Pickle - Indian

Savithramma's Lime Pickle 

This is my mum's Recipe and my son loves this with Yogurt (curds) rice

Style:

(Bangalore) South Indian style

Ingredients:

• 15-25 Limes, depending on the size
• 100-150 ml Salt
• Fresh Chilli powder - 3-4 table spoons
• 1 tsp mustard - roasted and powdered
• 1/4 tsp Methi - roasted and powdered
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric
• Asafoetida (hing) - little
• 1/4 Cup water - Boiled for 10 minutes and cooled

Method:

Step 1:

• Wash and dry limes thoroughly, cut into desired size pieces
• add salt and mix it well and store it in a tight container for 2 months in fridge. (Remember to stir once in every 10 days

Step 2:

• Add all the other ingredients and mix it well
• you can do seasoning if you like. But remember to add it after cooling it
• transfer to a glass jar/bottle

Can keep in the fridge for 1 year.

Enjoy this pickle 1 week after Step 2!