Kooto

Kooto or Kutu? How to spell this tasty treat? I do not know. Another recipe from Mahesh's mom. 


INGREDIENTS

-- 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
-- 2/3 cup moong dal

-- 2 cups cut up cabbage and/or cauliflower.
-- salt to taste
-- 1 teaspoon sambar powder

-- 2 teaspoons oil
-- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
-- 4 teaspoons black gram dal
-- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
-- 3 teaspoons dried shredded coconut


INSTRUCTIONS

1. Boil moong dal and tumeric in water until it gets tender. Keep aside.

2. In a separate container, put your vegetables, salt, and sambar powder. Boil until the vegetables are tender.

3. In a seperate small pan (tawa), put mustard seeds and oil, cook until mustard seeds splatter. Add black gram dal, ground black pepper and coconut fry it a little, then add to vegetables. Add cooked moong dal to the vegetables as well.

4. Boil everything together for 2-3 minutes, then you are done!

Rasam

This is the 2nd main soupy dish that South Indians mix with rice and eat with curries. I have never made it but if I do I want it to taste good, this is Mahesh's mother's recipe.

INGREDIENTS

-- 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
-- 2/3 cup toor dal, cooked

--3/4 liter water
-- 1 teaspoon Tamarind paste
-- salt to taste
-- 1/2 teaspoon sambar power (can substitute storebought curry powder for this)
-- 1/4 teaspoon asofetida
-- 1 small tomato, cut into pieces
 
-- 1/2 teaspoon rasam powder

-- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
-- little oil

-- 1 handful cilantro


INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix tumeric powder with toor dal, soak it 30 minutes, or 10-15 minutes with hot water. Then cover with 1-2 inches water and cook in pressure cooker for 4 whistles or until soft. If it doesn't get soft, grind in mixee.

2. While that is going, boil the water with tamarind, salt, asofetida, sambar powder, and tomato until the tomato is tender.

3. Add cooked toor dal, rasam powder, and extra water to the container until the container is filled. On a slow fire boil until froth comes to the top. Turn off the heat.

4. In a seperate pan, cook mustard seeds in a little oil over a flame until they pop. Add to rasam.

5. Add a handful of chopped cilantro to the finished dish.

Dosa / Idly (or Idli)

Dosas are my favorite, I have never made them but now that Mahesh's mom and dad bought us a proper Indian mixee (grinder/blender) I will give it a shot someday.

Dosas

INGREDIENTS

-- 2 1/2 measures idly rice
-- 1 measure Urad (or Broken Black Gram) dal
-- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt or to taste (if using 1 cup measure)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cover dal with water, soak at least 5 hours, in a separate container, cover rice with water, soak for at least five hours.

2. Thoroughly rinse rice at least 3 times after it has soaked. Rinse dal also but you don't need to be so thorough.

3. First grind dal with water in blender or mixee until it gets fluffy, not too liquid. Pour in a bowl.

4. Using the same bowl for the mixee, grind rice in two or three batches with water (only fill mixie halfway) until it is a smooth nice batter (can grind a bit more coarsley for idli batter), add to bowl with dal and keep grinding until all rice has turned into batter.

5. Add salt to your batter and mix it thoroughly. Ferment it on the counter for one night, depends on the weather, until it gets fluffy and full of air bubbles. Then stir the batter and and keep it in the fridge after that.

6. When you are ready to cook dosas, make sure the consistency of the batter is right, you may need to add some water.

7. You fry dosas sort of like crepes, pour one spoon in a flat pan, then spread it out in a circular fashion. Drip a little oil on the outside edges of the dosa as it cooks to make the edges crispy. Flip the dosa when one side is finished, cook the other side until done.

8. Eat with gunpowder, sambar, chutney, whatever you want.

TO PREPARE IDLY:

You can use dosa batter to make idlies. To do so, add 4 cups water to pressure cooker, oil idly plate and fill each divot with batter until it is flat. Put in pressure cooker, DO NOT ADD WEIGHT, put on high flame for 10 minutes, medium five minute for 5 minutes, low for 5 minutes, then turn it off. Wait 5-10 minutes, then open pressure cooker and enjoy idlies! 

Usli

USLI

INGREDIENTS

-- 1 cup split bengal gram (also called Chana dal, which is different than chana)
-- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
-- 1/2 teaspoon salt
-- 2 pinches asofetida

-- 4 Tablespoons oil
-- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
-- 5 or 6 curry leaves (optional) can add dried
-- 1 cup cut green beans, or 1 cup cabbage, minced

STEPS

1. Soak split bengal gram 1/2 hour, then wash and grind it in the mixie until it's coarsely ground with some water to make a batter.

2. Add the batter to idly plates, or any other small metal plate, then steam 2 whistles in the pressure cooker. Then pulse in the mixee to break it all up again.

3. Put the pot on the stove, add oil, and mustard seeds, cook until they pop. Add in curry leaves, if using.

4. Add the dal mixture and vegetable to the pan, fry until vegetables are cooked and usli reaches the correct consistency.

Sambar

This is the main soupy dish that South Indians mix with rice and eat with curries. I have made it a few times now, this is Mahesh's mother's recipe and when I make it it tastes pretty similar to her delicious sambar. 

INGREDIENTS

-- 1 teaspoon tumeric powder
-- 1 cup toor dal
-- 2-3 teaspoons oil
-- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
-- 3 curry leaves (optional)
-- heaping 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek (methi) seeds
-- 2 big dashes asofetida
-- 2 1/2 - 3 teaspoons Tamarind paste
-- 4 teaspoons or 1 heaping Tablespoon sambar power (a mixture of red chili powder, coriander powder, tumeric, black pepper, cumin, fenugreek, toor dal, and black gram or channa dal)
-- 2 teaspoons salt
-- 2 cups of any vegetables you want, eggplant, okra, buddah's hand (cherimoya squash), onion, radish, carrots, green pepper, etc.
-- 1 handful cilantro
-- 2 teaspoons sambar spice (different from sambar powder, has the following in it: coriander, channa dal, chili, asofetida, cumin)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a medium high-walled metal dish, mix tumeric powder with toor dal, soak it 30 minutes, or 10-15 minutes with hot water. Then, put 1-2 inches water into pressure cooker, add the container with the toor dal, water, and tamarind mixture, cover and cook for 3 whistles or until dal is soft. If it doesn't get soft, grind in mixee.

2. Add oil to pan on stove, heat over medium heat. When hot add in mustard seeds, cook until they pop. Add asofetida powder, curry leaves if using, and methi, cook until methi gets a little brown. NOTE: If you are making onion sambar, you can add in the onions now and saute for 3-4 minutes, or until the raw smell of the onion goes away.

3. Add 3 1/2 - 4 cups of water and vegetables to pot, then tamarind paste, then salt, then sambar powder, cook until vegetables are cooked through, maybe 10 - 15 minutes.

4. Add the cooked toor dal (approx. 2 1/2 cups) and sambar spice to the pot. Cook 5 more minutes or until it reaches proper consistency, then add minced cilantro, turn off stove.

forgot to add the cilantro for this photo

NOTE: When making sambar for dosa, don't use as much dal, and less vegetables -- maybe just a little onion, maybe add a tiny bit of jaggery.

Coconut Chutney

This is a favorite from Mahesh's mom Sukunya, I have made it a couple times -- when I tried using fresh coconut, even with my indian mixee (a super powerful blender/grinder), I ended up with chunky chutney, but we have recently discovered frozen coconut meat (Deep brand is best) and that makes this chutney MUCH easier.

COCONUT CHUTNEY

INGREDIENTS

-- 1/2 coconut (using the equivalent amount of frozen coconut meat, defrosted, is much easier!)
-- 1 handful cilantro
-- 1 tablespoon fried gram dal (can use broken bengal gram dal and fry if you don't have fried gram dal)
-- 1 indian green chili
-- 1/4 teaspoon tamarind paste
-- salt to taste (start with 1/2 teaspoon)
-- 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon whole mustard seeds (optional)
-- two dashes asofetida powder
-- 2 t. urad dal (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. If you don't have already-fried dal, fry the bengal dal in some oil until it's a little brown, then soak in water 30 mintues

2. Add the dal into the Mixee (indian grinder/blender), with cilantro, chili, and tamarind paste. NOTE: can add mint to this if you want that taste. Grind until completely powdered.

3. Add coconut to mixture with some water and grind until it reaches chutney consistency -- a watery paste.

4. In a small saucepan or tawa, fry mustard seeds in some oil until they pop, add asofetida, and urad dal, and fry until the dal is slightly brown.

5. Add contents of saucepan to the chutney, along with salt, and mix together.

Enjoy!!