Recipe - Egg Fried Rice

Steps in reverse chronological order. This is Tukun's recipe. I haven't made it yet.

Spring onion. 

Garnish with spring onion greens. Voila!! Done.

Add salt while mixing and fry it. Medium flame. Not to over cook and make the veggies mushy. Once the amount of vegetables reduces, add soya sauce and vinegar. Keep the salt low in veggies bcos salt is there in eggs and soya sauce as well.

Cabbage capsicum peas carrots

Once raw smell of onions and garlic is gone ...add the veggies

Fri onions, garlic and green chilli

Boiled rice ready

Prepare the egg first

Alu Jhol Sabzi

Recipe - Alu Jhol 

This is the alu sabzi to be had with poori or roti and the taste as was in KGP or Haryana railway station.

Boil a bunch (about 8 or 9) of potatoes. See picture below.

Then mash the potatoes with your fingers.

Grate tomatoes. Cut green chillies and ginger very fine. See picture below. 

Heat half a cup of refined oil Fry jeera, hing powder. Then add grated tomatoes, green chili ginger. Keep frying for 3 to 4 minutes. Then add haldi powder, red chilli powder, 2 tsp coriander powder (and salt). Keep frying until oil starts separating from the masala on the sides. 

Finally add the mashed potatoes and mix. Keep frying for another 3 to 4 minutes until alu soaks up the masala. 

Add water to make the jhol. Let the water come to a boil. Rub Kasuri Methi in your hands and add and then mix. Cook for 5 more minutes in sim flame with the kadai covered.

While rubbing kasuri methi below.

The station jhol tarkari is ready.

Tukun provided me with an easier recipe for jhol.

Fry jeera, add turmeric powder, hing powder. Add dhania powder or dhania leaves and kasuri methi.  

Add finely cut tomato, green chili, red chili powder. Add tomato and fry until oil seeps out. Then mash potato and add along with water, salt. After adding alu, fry for about 5 mins.

This recipe is simpler and easier and comes out better.

Interesting Eating Places In Chennai

• Amehyst's Branch: Chamiers Park (Opp Adyar Gate: https://www.zomato.com/chennai/chamiers-cafe-ra-puram
• Le Manche at Chamiers Road: https://www.zomato.com/chennai/lamandier-ra-puram
• https://www.zomato.com/chennai/10-downing-street-t-nagar: Beer and Punjabi food
• Una Mas: Not high priced but not good food either
• Best Dosa places: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/where-to-find-the-best-dosas-in-chennai/
• Nice places for eating out:
  http://www.polkacafe.com/best-vegetarian-restaurants-in-chennai-1634.html
  Anti Cafe Society in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar - This provides unlimited wifi and coffee.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Additional reading:
  
  
  Amethyst on Chamiers:
  1. https://chamiers.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/breakfast-at-cafe-chamiers-a-review/
  2. https://www.zomato.com/chennai/chamiers-cafe-ra-puram
  3. http://chamiershop.com

Recipe Gotsu, Sambar, Vetha Kozhambu, Chenai Masiyal, Vaazhakkai Koottu, Mor Kozhambu, Varuthu Aracha Mor Kozhamnu (VAMK), Peas / mattar rice, Tomato rice

Gotsu, Sambar, Vetha Kozhambu (VK) are dishes which are kinda similar.

In each of them, boil imli juice (puli thanni), a bit of solid hing (asafoetida), cut green chilies and tomato, salt. Sautee mustard, methi, urad dal, haldi powder. Add curry leaves. Add the powder(s), vegetables and boil.

Longitudinally cut vegetables (LCV) - drumstick, pumpkin, brinjal, bhendi, can be added for sambar and VK.

Read this in landscape mode if you are using a small screen

                                                Gotsu             Sambar          VK
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Powder to be added              1:1                     1:0            1:1

Click above link for recipe                                             
for making powder

Ratio of sambar powder to vk powder mentioned above
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional Vegetables         Fried onion +          LCV                LCV

                                            fried brinjal +       (as explained above)

                                 mashed boiled potato

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional seasoning             Chana dal               None             Chana dal + 

                                                                                                   Chundakkai
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional leaves        Dhaniya, curry     Dhaniya, curry   Only Curry
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In Chenai Masiyal(CM), Vaazhakkai Koottu (VK), Mor Kozhambu (MK), VAMK - coconut needs to be ground in each of them.

Yam (Chenai)  must be cut in the size 3/4 inch square by 1/4inch thick. Raw banana should be cut into 1cm cubes. 
Mix the vegetables in water (in case of VK, use imli water), add salt and additional  spice and boil. Grind the stuff after frying. Add the ground stuff to boiling stuff. Add dhaniya leaves. Sautee mustard, urad dal, haldi powder and hing powder. Finally add the stuff for sourness (in case of VK, imli is added in the beginning itself).

                             CM              VK                      MK                 VAMK
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sourness               Lemon         Imli water        Buttermilk        Buttermilk
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When to add 
sour stuff               End              Start                   End                    End
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vegetables            Cut yam       Cut raw banana     LCV                  LCV

                           (as above)    (as above)             (as above)       (as above)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Any other spice    Solid hing       Solid hing             None             None
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fry                       None             Chana dal+         None           Chana dal+
                                                Urad dal                                 Urad dal +
                                                                                              Methi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grind the fried   Red chili +           Red chili +          Methi+          Red chili +
stuff PLUS         green chili +                                green chili      green chili
coconut PLUS     ginger
Jeera 
PLUS                   
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coconut is also to be fried at the end in VK and VAMK before its ground with the rest.

Pooshnikkai / snake gourd koottu:

Cut white pumpkin / podalangai into small pieces. Boil it. 

Grind coconut, jeera, chilli (green for pumpkin, red for podalangai), little rice, salt. Mix this with boiled vegetable. Add tarka.

Tarka will include chana dal apart from hing powder, haldi powder, mustard seeds, urad dal. 

In Tomato Kozhambu:

Grind roasted dhaniya,  chana + tuvar dal + red chili + pepper + jeera 

Boil tuvar dal

Boil tomato, drain the water, remove the skin, then mash tomato, add solid hing,  cut green chilies, boiled tuvar dal.  Sautee mustard and urad dal. And boil.

The first step can be replaced by putting rasam powder.

Boiled Tuvar dal and the rest.

Final Tomato Kozhambu

In Pattani Chadam (Peas rice)

1. Boil peas mixed with salt. 
2. Fry cashew,  sautee mustard + urad dal + chana dal
3. Roast each of tuvar dal + chanal dal,  red chili + dhaniya, jeera, pepper and then grind.
4. Mix all with boiled rice and dhaniya leaves.
5. 
   Proportion of peas and rice. Rice should be about 100ml which is half of the container below. Actually rice should be a little less than that.
   
   
   
   
   
6. 
   
   4 spoons of the ground mixture was used, not all.

Step 3 can theoretically be replaced with rasam powder. 

Recipe - Pulikachal

A cousin of mine makes excellent pulikachal. It's supposed to be spicy and mixed with rice and eaten.

Here is her recipe.

Mix tamarind with water, heat it a little, extract the tamarind juice and boil. Add groundnuts roasted for a couple of minutes. Sautee mustard, haldi powder. Add all this and salt to the tamarind - water.

Roast urad dal (a little), chana dal and red chilies, solid hing and very little methi and grind the mixture. Add this also to tamarind water. Add a little curry leaves also. My cousin said too much methi gives the product a sambar like taste. A lot of gingelly oil needs to be added. Groundnut skin has to be peeled.

Heat and stir the mixture until its like a paste. 

Fried with Solid Hing, Haldi, Methi, Urad Dal, Chana Dal, Then added red chilies also

All fried stuff to be ground.Added salt also

Sauteed Mustard, Hing powder. Imli water is added, then ground stuff, curry leaves, lot of gingelly oil.

Final Pulikachal

Additional reading:

• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-list-of-indian-mostly-tamil-lunch-and.html
• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2016/08/making-sambar-and-rasam-powder-and.html
• https://youtu.be/3Q1W0nuxqew?si=_d7HKwQNVA92Lavr
  

Recipe - Mango Thokku And Avakkai

Thokku:
Grate mango. Roast methi,  fry solid hing and then powder both by hand grinding just as in Puli milagai. 
Fry mustard, red chilli powder,  salt,  haldi powder, add grated mango and keep frying. Add powdered methi and hing. Grated mango has to be fried for about 25 minutes in medium flame. பச்சை வாசனை போக வேண்டும். (Raw smell has to go.)

The ratio of mango (grated, not cut) and chili powder and salt will be about the same as for avakkai pickle (see later). Note that there will be no kadalai or mustard powder nor a 3-4 day soaking period. This one gets done in about an hour. Transfer from frying kadai to a bottle (porcelain or glass only. NO plastic container for any pickle. 

Mustard fried.

Grated Mango - 4 numbers from my mango tree

Roasted Methi and Fried solid hing being ground. Til oil container to the left.

Grated mango being fried in til (gingelly) oil

Chili powder and salt added. Also powdered hing and methi and haldi powder. Add sufficient til oil

Keep Stirring and frying. That's it

Avakkai Pickle:

1. Take cut (and peeled) avakkai
2. Avakkai: chili powder : salt : mustard  powder = 3:2:0.67:1 = 9:6:2:3 by volume. For 3/4 kg mango about 0.5 liter Idhayam gingingelly oil needed. Grind small mustard to create mustard powder, the smell is apparently better than with large mustard.
3. Mix the powders in gingelly oil after adding a little oil until it becomes a paste. Then add mango, add more oil until it becomes like gravy. 
4. Add koththu kadalai (black karuppu konda kadalai) - about a 50-100gms. Add one teaspoon methi also. 
5. Let the mixture soak for 3-5 days. 
6. Stir the mixture everyday during that time while adding til oil each day.

Note:
Store in a cool dark place. Stir every month and add some gingelly oil once in a while. You can buy mustard, red chilies and grind in a mixie to make the respective powders. When you mix on the first day add a little less of the powders than mentioned. Each day when you mix well and add oil, taste the WIP (work in progress) pickle and add extra powder as necessary.

This is how the container has to "packed" to keep it cool and away from light - for 3-5 days. The top is wrapped with a cloth

Avakkai - soaking in yummy கடுகு பொடி (mustard powder) and gingelly oil and salt, chili powder etc. After 3rd day.

After 6 days

Stored in a Glass Bottle - Never in Plastic container.

Stir avakkai once in 2-3 weeks after adding gingelly oil, if necessary.

Additional reading:

• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/02/recipe-puli-milagai.html
• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2016/08/making-sambar-and-rasam-powder-and.html
• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-list-of-indian-mostly-tamil-lunch-and.html

Recipe - Mor Milagai And Manathakaalikkai Vethal

1. Cut green chilies into one inch pieces. 
2. Dip green chilies in butter milk. Add salt and hing powder to the butter milk. Should soak for 4-5 days outside in cool area.  
3. Then remove green chilies and dry in sunlight for few hours. 
4. Put dried chili back in the same buttermilk and let it soak overnight. 

Repeat steps 3-4 everyday for a few days until all butter milk is absorbed by chilies or manatha kaalikka veththal. Green chilies should become white. I do not know what color manatha kalikka vethal should become. 

Finally store the by now crisp milagai or manatha kalikka veththal.  Fry it and serve.

Cut into 1" pieces

Dipped in buttermilk

After 3 days of soaking

Buttermilk and Green chili - both being dried in the Sun. I think buttermilk is dried so that the salt can be absorbed better by chilies when the latter is soaked in the former later in the day,

I use a cover for both buttermilk and green chilies (milaga) so birds and insects don't mess with them.

Final Mor Milagai (molaga or molagai) - Its Crisp

Recipe Puli Milagai And Mola Mangai

The dishes here are good to have with curd rice.

Dry roast methi and solid hing and hand grind the same to a powder. Fry this in oil and also add lots of cut green chilies. Mix puli (imli/tamarind) in water. Heat puli in a container, add fried chilies, salt, haldi, fried hing and methi, fried mustard. Until it becomes thick.

Methi being roasted

Hing fried in oil

Mix methi and hing and powder it

Rock salt also added to methi, hing and powdered

Fry Cut Green Chilies

Heat Imli water until it shrinks

Add green chilies, powdered mixture and a little vellam (jaggery) shown above... The final puli milagai is a thick lliquid.

Mola Mangaai 

Same as puli Milagai except

1. There is no heating involved
2. Cut mango replaces tamarind (imli) and red chili powder replaces green chilies.

Cut Mango Pieces

Milaga Mangai stored in bootle

Additional reading:

• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/04/recipe-mango-thokku.html
• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2016/08/making-sambar-and-rasam-powder-and.html
• http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-list-of-indian-mostly-tamil-lunch-and.html

Recipe - Tarka, Aludam, Rajma, Ghooghni, Khichdi

Tarka, Aludam, Rajma, Ghooghni, Khichdi, Dal Makhni:

• The base for all the 4 is the same. Cut onions, tomato, ginger, garlic. Add all this and red chilies and rock salt (I always use rock salt where there is some water) and grind. Then fry the mixture well. The base is ready.

Tarka: Soak pachai payar
Rajma: Soak rajma
Ghooghni: Soak white chana (aka white peas or vellai pattani) and Dal Makhni: Full black urad dal (soak overnight in water) 

In each case it should be soaked in water with some (rock) salt overnight and then boiled. In case of aludam, boil potato.

• Finally add the boiled stuff to the fried and ground mixture. Add finely cut dhaniya leaves.

• In case of khichdi, add the fried mixture to moong dal and then add dhaniya leaves and vegetables (potato, peas, carrot) and boil.

Ghooghni:

Make Thayir Chadam first: 

Boil rice. Sautee mustard, urad dal. Add green chilies (or as in this case I added red chili powder) and salt. Add butter milk or curd (yoghurt). And mix well. Curd rice goes well with any of tarka ghooghni etc. 

White peas (vellai pattani) being soaked overnight for ghooghni. Remember to add salt.

Boiled after being soaked. Now one part of the dish is ready. It needs to be mixed with the base and fried well. We have to make the base. Note that the base is same for all dishes.

Additional reading:
Khichdi across India: https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIw35mjsjk&source=gmail&ust=1486958969822000&usg=AFQjCNHAjkuxy3tJnTFGqYe0Tz_mFgIQ2Q

Grind red chilies, salt, tomatoes, onion pieces, dhaniya, jeera, ginger and garlic. Add Dhaniya leaves also

After grinding. - This is the base. This is the 2nd part of the dish (same for all dishes: Khichdi, Tarka, Aludam, Rajma)

Add slices of grated coconut. (only for Ghoooghni). Cut the slices into small cubes. Not needed for tarka, khichdi etc

Coconut slices added to ground base. Mix well

Mix the two parts. Boiled white peas and the ground base.

Top: Ghooghni AND Bottom: Ghoogni mixed with Curd rice

Dal Makhni: May need some more water.