Green Chilli Pickle

by Deerga // April 28, 2015 // No Comments

Pickle is an accompaniment in Indian cuisine similar to mustard and ketchup in American or salsa in Mexican cuisines. Pickle in the US has a different meaning altogether where it is cucumber fermented in brine or vinegar. Pickle is very popular in Andhra cuisine where it is almost had with all main entrée dishes.
Back home, there are literally hundreds of variety of pickles (both sweet and spicy) and green chilli pickle is one among them. Green Chilli pickle is a recipe from my grandmother, passed on to my mother and now to me (and I will pass on to my daughter when she is ready ). Green Chilli pickle is the best complement for curd rice.

I love Green Chilli pickle very much and have wanted to make it for a long time. As the name suggests, green chilli is the main ingredient (and mango-ginger as well) in this recipe. I am sure all spicy food lovers will love this one. Try this wonderful pickle , have it with curd rice and let me know your thoughts.

GREEN CHILLI PICKLE/ INJI MANGA OORGAI

Recipe type: Lunch

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 5-10 servings

Ingredients

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Chopped Shallots – 10
Garlic cloves – 10 (minced)
Chopped green chillies – 10
Chopped ginger and/or mango ginger – 1 ½ tbsp
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Tamarind – big gooseberry size
Coriander powder -1 tbs
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Gingelly oil – 2 tbs
Salt as required

Instructions

Soak tamarind in water and make a thick paste out of it.
Heat gingelly oil in a pan and temper with mustard seeds. Add onions and sauté until the color changes. Add chopped ginger, garlic and green chillies and sauté for few minutes.
Add chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt and immediately add the tamarind extract.
Give it a stir and switch off the flame when the oil separates.

Notes

1.You could also substitute ginger with mango ginger (Inji maanga) and that tastes awesome too.
2.You can refrigerate the pickle and use it for a week. If you want to store it for more days add very little jaggery while making the pickle.

PULIKUZHAMBU

by Deerga // April 13, 2014 // No Comments

Pulikuzhambu is a south Indian gravy made from tamarind. Again, there are many variations to it based on geographical locations. It is specific to Tamilnadu. Pulikuzhambu is very easy to make and involves very limited ingredients. It is one of the main dishes served in a marriage feast along with Sambar. There are many variations of Pulikuzhambu but I would say almost every one of them is easy to make.
Pulikuzhambu is one of my favorite vegetarian dishes. I love the tanginess (because of tamarind) in it. And I love the one prepared by my mom. There is this tradition in most of the homes in Tamilnadu where quite often families have dinner under moon light, sharing food with their dear ones. It is called as Nilachoru (Nila- Moon, Choru – rice) in Tamil. Pulikuzhambu is often the dish that we used to have in our nilachoru back home. So whenever I prepare Pulikuzhambu here, I feel nostalgic and start missing my home.
The drumstick Pulikuzhambu recipe that I have given here is my Mom’s so it guaranteed to come out well when you prepare it :). I love having Pulikuzhambu with rice and poriyal (for which I given the recipe here (link)) and also with curd (yoghurt). So do try this wonderful and simple recipe at your home and let me know your comments.

DRUMSTICK PULI KUZHAMBU |MURUNGAIKAI PULI KUZHAMBU

Recipe type: Lunch

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 3

Ingredients

Gingelly oil – 1 tbs
Mustard seeds & urad dal - 1 tsp each
Fennel seeds- ½ tsp
Curry leaves- a sprig
Shallots – 7 nos (cut lenghtwise)
Garlic cloves – 5 (cut lenghtwise)
Drumstick – 1 (cut into equal pieces)
Sambar powder – 1 to 2 tbs
Grated coconut – 1 tbs
Tamarind – big gooseberry size
Salt as required

Instructions

Soak tamarind in a cup of water and extract the juice.
Blend together a shallot, grated coconut and a tbs of sambar powder with little water to make a paste.
Heat a pan with gingelly oil followed by mustard, urad dal, fennel seeds and curry leaves. When they start to sizzle, add in chopped garlic and sauté for few seconds until the aroma spreads. Add shallots and sauté for a while.
When the shallots turn translucent, add sambar powder followed by drumstick. Give a quick stir and add the ground paste and the tamarind extract. Stir and bring it to boil. Close the lid and cook until the drumstick is done (drumsticks easily disintegrates when you poke it with your cooking spatula).
Serve hot with any poriyal or kootu. Enjoy!

PULIYOGARE |PULIYODHARAI |PULIKAACHAL RECIPE|TAMARIND RICE

by Deerga // April 7, 2014 // No Comments

A traditional spicy and tangy puliyogare recipe which you can easily make at home.

Temples always bring back fond memories to me; beautiful sculptures, devotional songs, the divine atmosphere and the one of a kind prashadam-puliyogare! During my childhood days, I never forget to get to bring back some puliyogare (if the visit was to the Lord Vishnu temple).
The puliyogare version that I love the most (after the temple prashadam, of course!) is my mom’s. I always get excited when she makes it at home 🙂 . It is also very popular among my friends and my mom always prepares some for me to take back after my visit to home during my college days.
Puliyougarae/puliyodharai goes well with coriander chutney, paruppu vada or chips. The base ingredient called as pulikachal, can be prepared well in advance (as far as one week earlier). Whenever you feel lazy or don’t feel like trying out anything new, just mix some pulikaachal with white rice and tasty puliyogare can be prepared in no time.
Though it doesn’t look like the temple prashadam, it tastes yummy!

PULIYOGARAE

Recipe type: Lunch

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 3

A traditional spicy and tangy puliyogare recipe which you can easily make at home.

Ingredients

Coriander seeds - 2 tbs
Fenugreek seeds- 1 tsp
Hing( solid) - 1 small piece
Turmeric powder -1/2 tsp for color
Pepper -10
Red chilly -7
Curry leaves- handful
Tamarind - lemon size
Gingelly oil – 2 to 3 tbs
Salt as required

Instructions

Puliyogarae powder:

Heat a pan, dry roast coriander seeds, pepper and fenugreek for few seconds until fenugreek seeds turn golden brown. (make sure not to burn the mixture). Now add hing atlast. Switch off the flame and take the pan off the stove (as the heat from the stove might burn the mixture).
Wait until the mixture cools down and grind to a fine powder (shelf life for this powder is 2 months).

Tamarind paste:

Soak lemon size tamarind in hot water for 10 to 15 minutes and drain the juice.
Heat a tawa and add the tamarind juice with enough salt, bring it to boil. Add turmeric powder when the mixture starts to boil and wait until it gets thicken. Switch off the flame when the tamarind paste is ready.

Pulikaachal:

Heat a pan and add gingelly oil (meanwhile break the red chillies into smaller pieces and keep it ready). When the oil is hot, season it with mustard seeds, urad dal, few curry leaves and red chillies(peanut and chenna dhal are optional)
Add little puliyogarae powder to the seasoning and immediately add the tamarind paste.
Add in the remaining puliyogarae powder to the mixture and boil it until oil separates.

Puliyogarae:

You can now mix the pulikachal with steamed rice in small quantities depending upon how tangy and how spicy you want the rice to be. Your Tamarind Rice is now ready. Serve puliyogare with coriander chutney or it goes well even with potato chips.