Vellarikka Parippu Curry / Cucumber Dal Curry

Vellarikka Parippu Curry / Cucumber Dal Curry - A delicious main curry (ozhichu koottan) in Kerala cuisine, goes well with rice / rice - fish fry / meat dishes.

Serves: 3 

Ingredients

For parippu / dal:

Leftover 1 cup boiled turdal

or

1/3 cup / 80 g (Indian standard measuring cup of 80 ml / 6 oz capacity) tur dal / arhar dal

1 cup / 200 ml water

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon oil

Wash and clean dal. Soak in a pressure cooker for half an hour with turmeric powder, oil and 1 cup / 200 ml water and cook for 15 minutes or till done ( reduce the heat to medium after 3 rd whistle (3 quick whistles) and cook for 10 minutes until done / soft. Allow the cooker to cool naturally. Reserve dal stock (cooked dal water).

For coconut paste:

5 tablespoon (50 – 60 g) grated coconut

5 shallots (chuvannulli / sambar onion / small onion), chopped

½ teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)

1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

2 tablespoon water

Make a fine paste of above ingredients in a small mixer bowl. Sprinkle 2 tablespoon water when making the paste.

Other ingredients

½ piece vellarikka (yellow cucumber / mogge) gently peel off the outer skin, remove seeds , wash and cut into ½ - inch cubes

2 green chillies, slit lengthwise

¾ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Method

In a wide bowl , mix boiled dal (along with the stock / dal water), vellarikka  pieces, salt to taste and 2 slit green chillies. Mix all the ingredients well. Cover with a lid and cook on low to medium heat for 15 minutes or until 3/4 done / vellarikka  pieces almost transparent.

Add coconut paste, adjust the consistency of the gravy with extra ¼ cup (50 ml) water if required.  Gravy should of pouring consistency (Please do not make it too thin like moru curry / moru kachiyathu or rasam). Mix well and cook on a low heat for 8 - 10 minutes or until done / well cooked.

For seasoning:

2 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)

6 curry leaves

1 dried red chilli, halved

Method

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add jeera , halved red chilli and curry leaves and fry till crisp. Pour the seasoning over curry. Serve with rice / rice – fish fry / meat meat dishes ..

Appam / Palappam (4th recipe)

Appam / Palappam (4^th recipe) - with Eno Fruit salt and without Yeast / Baking Powder / Cooking soda.

 Palappam is a traditional breakfast dish in Kerala cuisine, goes well with stew, non vegetarian  gravy dishes , korma, egg roast ..

Additional recipe links

1, Here' s the recipe of '' How to make tasty and spongy Appam (with yeast and without coconut milk.

2, Here's the recipe of Appam  - made of coconut milk.

3, Here's the recipe of Nirapara Easy Palappam.

4,  Here's the photos of Appachatty (Hopper pan)

Makes – 9 - 11

Ingredients

Please use same measuring cup to measure rice and grated coconut.

1 ¼  cup Ponni  Raw Rice / Silky raw rice ( good quality pachari ) (Please measure in Indian standard measuring cup of 200 ml / 8 oz capacity)

2 tablespoon sago (sabudana)

2 cups water (to soak rice)

2 tablespoon leftover cooked and cooled rice

½ cup grated coconut

½ teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 sachet (4.6 g)  Eno Fruit salt (available at medical stores and supermarkets. It’s an antacid and good for digestion). Eno fruit salt is used to make Dhokla (Gujarati snack). It helps the batter to rise well. So need to keep the appam batter to ferment too long. 

To prepare Appam batter:

Wash and clean ponni rice and sago. Soak  ponni raw  rice and sago (sabudana)  in 2 cups water for 4 hours. Drain out water.

 Grind soaked ponni raw rice – sago,   cooked rice and grated coconut  together in a mixer in 2 batches.  Batter should not be too watery. You can add 1/4 cup water  (3/4th level of rice and other ingredients)  when grinding.

Transfer this batter into another vessel and mix  with salt.  Stir the batter nicely with a thick ladle.  Cover and keep aside to ferment  for minimum 4 - 5  hours (or 6 - 8 hours / overnight). Do not refrigerate appam batter during fermenting. 

Now add ½ teaspoon sugar and 1 sachet Eno fruit salt. Stir well continuously for 2 -3 minutes.  Cover and keep aside this batter for 10 minutes.

Appachatti is used to make Appam. If there’s shortage of Appachatty or Hopper pan, use dosa pan (normal tawa) to make flat appam.

Appa chatty (Hopper pan) - Hopper pan is available at all leading steel utensil show room / supermarkets in India and also online stores. Price Rs 835 for Hawkins brand and Rs 790 for Prestige Omega.

1, Heat non stick appachatty (or normal frying pan / dosa tawa - If using dosa tawa, do not make more circles).

2, Grease the appachatty with little oil.

3, Pour 1 full ladleful  of appam batter to the appachatty.

4, Lift the pan ( from the stove ) and slightly twist around to spread the batter in the pan to make circular shape .

5, Close appachatty with a lid and cook on low heat till the edges are golden brown. When the Appam is ready, the edges resemble crisp lace and centre soft . Traditionally this is eaten with Stew/ chicken curry / egg roast/ coconut milk/ sugar.

Kabuli Channa Ani Potato Galnu Soyi Bajjilli Gashi

Kabuli Channa Ani Potato Galnu Soyi Bajjilli Gashi (Curried Chickpeas and Potatoes in Dry coconut paste. A delicious main dish in Konkan cuisine)

Please find here more details  and recipe of Mossolu (dry roasted coconut paste)

Serves: 3 -  4

Ingredients

For Kabuli channa  (chickpeas):

1 cup (100 ml / 4oz – Indian standard measuring cup) chole (white chick peas)

3  cup water

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½  teaspoon salt

Method

Wash and soak Kabuli channa / white channa for 6-8 hours (or overnight) in 3 cups water (300 ml). Add salt, turmeric powder and pressure cook (pressure cook along with soaked water – Final water level should be 1 – inch above chole / channa / chickpeas) for 30 minutes ( reduce heat from high to medium after 3rd whistle and cook for 25 minutes ). Allow to cool naturally. Open the lid and. Reserve  ½ cup (75 – 100 ml) stock for later use.

For dal:

¼ cup / 50 ml tur dal (or 1/2 cup leftover cooked dal)

2 potatoes, cut into cubes

1 ½ cup water (250 ml)

½ teaspoon oil

½ teaspoon salt

(Adding dal will make the gashi thick and creamy texture)

Wash and clean dal and soak in 1 ½ cup water for half an hour.

Boil tur dal and potato cubes  in 1 ½ cup water (in which dal is soaked) with oil and turmeric powder in pressure cooker for 15 minutes or till done ( reduce the heat after 2nd whistle and cook for 5 minutes ). Allow the cooker to naturally.

Other ingredients

1 kudampuli (darmbyasole)

½ teaspoon  salt (or to taste)

Extra 1/4 cup hot water (optional)

3 – 4 teaspoon massolu

Final preparation:

In a wide bowl, boil  cooked dal - potato (along with stock ), boiled channa (along with stock), salt to taste and kudampuli.  Cover with a lid and cook on a low to medium heat for 10 - 12 minutes or until  all the ingredients well combined / slightly thickens (gashi should be of pouring in consistency / medium thick gravy). If the boiled dal – potato mixture / boiled channa is thick in consistency, adjust with ¼ cup hot water.

At this stage, add 3 - 4 teaspoons dry roasted coconut paste / massolu (you can dilute massolu with 4 teaspoons water before adding. Then it will mix easily with dal)  and cook on a low heat for 10 - 12  minutes / brown in color / fragrant. Serve with Rice / Polo / Idli / Santhan / Hittu ...

For Cauliflower Gashi: Wash  and clean 200 g (18 - 20 florets) cauliflower florets. Boil cauliflower florets along with boiled dal, salt to taste  and darmbesole (kudampuli) for 10 - 12 minutes on a medium to low heat until half done. At this stage, add 3 - 4 teaspoon  massolu and cook until done / gravy slightly thickens / fragrant.  Do not over cook cauliflower florets. Serve with rice / idli / dosa / hittu ...

Mixed Dal Fry

Mixed  Dal Fry - A  less spicy tasty dal, made of masoor dal (pink color dal),  tur dal and green gram dal.  Best with rice / rotis / puri / parathas ..

Serves: 3

Ingredients

For dal:

1/4 cup (50 ml) masoor dal (pink color dal)

¼ cup (50 ml) tur dal

¼ cup (50 ml) moong dal (split gram dal – yellow color)

3 cups (300 ml) water

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon oil

Method

Wash and clean dal. Soak in 3 cups of water for 15 minutes and boil in pressure cooker with its soaking water, turmeric powder and oil until done and soft (Switch off the heat on high after 3 rd whistle and allow the cooker to cool naturally). Open the lid.

Final preparation:

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)

1 onion. finely sliced

1 green chilli, slit lengthwise

½ teaspoon red chilli powder

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Boiled dal

Extra  ¼ cup (50 ml) hot water

½ to ¾  teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Method

Heat oil in a kadai / pan.  Add jeera and fry on a low heat for 1 minute until fragrant. Add finely sliced onions and fry till golden color on a medium to low heat.

Add slit green chilli and fry on a low heat for 1 minute.

Add red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Stir well on a low heat for 1 minute until well combined with onions  and raw small goes.

Add boiled dal  and salt to taste. If the dal is too thick in consistency, adjust with extra ¼ cup hot water. 

Dal should be of pouring consistency / medium thick. Mix all the ingredients well. Cover with a tight lid and cook on a medium to low heat for 10 – 12 minutes or until done and dal slightly thickens. Serve with Rice / Rotis / Puri .. Sprinkle chopped coriander leaves.