Vankaya banda pachadi (aubergine chutney) - Back to the old ways for a superlicious side dish

Sometimes she is the little baby that wants amma to hug her, at other times she is the all grown up, 'don't bother me' teenager.
Sometimes she jumps on amma's bed and cuddles up throwing her long arms and legs carelessly over me, at other times she is the independent adolescent that refuses to even come near amma's bedroom.
Sometimes she is the docile child that listens to amma, at other times she is the rebellious, spirited girl who will do just the opposite of what her mom wants her to do.
Sometimes she is running all around the house wildly screaming/singing at the top of voice, the epitome of the tomboy she can be, at other times she surprises us with her tender, responsible behavior in a completely unexpected situation.
She prefers reading suppandi comics to Shakespeare any day but works diligently on her essay for English class on topics that are too heavy even for adults.
She cooes and baby talks to her grand mothers in their respective languages but refuses to talk to me in anything other than English :-)
Sometimes she says her amma has no fashion sense, at other times she shamelessly raids her mother's closet and runs off with my newly purchased dresses :-).
I see the spirit of perseverance in her and feel proud at her independence to chart her own course in life, I also worry about the vulnerable child behind it all who thinks she knows how to navigate through this life.
I see so much of myself in her yet I see that she is her own person without a shred of doubt.
I love the fact that she seems more mature than I ever was at that age but also wonder if she is growing up too fast too soon.
I wish I could cocoon and protect her every step of the way and not let any harm touch her but I understand she has to go through her own experiences and feel through her own bruises and be responsible for them.

She is the one who calls me 'Amma', I think I am a better person because of my daughter. I don't remember the long labor or the anticipation leading upto her birth anymore, all I remember is holding that perfect little baby in my arms and gaping at the miracle with utter disbelief. I remember every little detail of her baby days though I don't have a record of many of them.

I remember leaving a bewildered, bawling baby at the day care for the first time, as I climbed in next to BH equally teary eyed on our way to work, I remember coming back in the evening and peeking into the windows of that play home to find her contentedly playing with other kids. I remember her gleeful smile when she spotted me at the window and jumped up and ran towards me with arms open wide for a hug. I remember her becoming so tuned my arrival times that she would pack her bag and tell her nannies that amma was here just as I stopped my vehicle infront of the play home. I remember the little girl who trusted her parents completely and believed every decision we made were actually wise. I pray she keeps her positive attitude in life no matter what and brings warmth and joy to people around her, I hope she continues to love her mother for eternity like I do love mine. I love her like I love no one else in the world and I think I understand how my mother loves me - unconditionally and completely and always.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers out there and people with motherly hearts. 

I have a recipe today that many mothers in the family have fed me. Wondering what the long name in the title means? Hang in there, I will explain what it means in a moment. Andhra cuisine is very famous for its numerous varieties of pachadis/chutneys/dips. There are pachadis made to stay for months at a stretch called niluvu pachadis and then there are pachadis that you will need to consume the same day or may be the next day. Pickles, thokkus belong to the first variety and most other pachadis belong to the second category.

Today's pachadi is of the second variety and has got the long name because of the way it is usually prepared - using a stone grinder. Don't run off now if you don't have the equipment shown below, there are very legitimate alternatives in this age of electricity. Are you thinking I went to India and got some pictures? I wish that was the case :-) but no I am very much here and tending to my routine life which is currently anything but routine since DD is running her month long marathon of exams - not that we are doing anything special but I just like to think so :-).

Well, on a recent trip to Costco, I found this really cute (thinks me) and extremely heavy (thinks BH) mortar and pestle, infact it had a gorgeous picture of guacamole ingredients on the top of the box which lured me. I have another mortar & pestle already which is about 1/2 the size of this new one and does a good job. So after a few minutes of standing infront of the stacked boxes doing my usual 'Need Vs want' analysis, I decided to splurge and buy one for myself. In my defense, my brain likes to take moments of rest and let the heart take over on some matters which I think is a very good balance. Like I told BH, if nothing else, it makes a great prop for the blog pictures :-) and it makes such a great addition in the corner of my kitchen counter.

So we duly brought it home and as I was taking out the stuff to put them into pantry or refrigerator, my eyes fell on the bag of those ultra cute, dark purple, petite baby aubergines (eggplants or vankaya) and I decided to inaugurate my new gadget by making a vankaya pachadi. I have eaten this from many mother's in the family, one of BH's cousins who used to travel on work used to bring some home cooked food with her whenever her parents were at home. She had a project going in the same town we lived for a while and we used to meet up often and when she came home for dinner, she had brought her travel food and one of the dabbas had this pachadi, amazingly mouthwatering!

My family is made of vankaya/eggplant lovers but amma hardly makes this pachadi since stuffed vankaya or vankaya koora is always on the demand list (even when the vegetable is cooked more than twice a week :-)) and some how the pachadi gets to the back seat. Last time my in laws were here, I made sure she showed me her way of making this pachadi and we all licked the plate clean that night. Amma used coriander seeds a little more liberally in her pachadis than I do as I prefer the flavor of toasted mustard and fenugreek in my pachadis. So I have made a few changes and here is a delicious pachadi for all of you to enjoy.

I roasted all the ingredients and BH very sportingly helped mash it down into a pulp using the new gadget, it really made the pachadi taste so fresh and tasty. I soaked dal & rice in the evening for our weekly dosa batter and told BH that he could grind the batter in the new mortar & pestle, he gave me a look that said, "Don't push it" :-), so I employed my electric grinder for the job.

You can very well make this pachadi in your mixer/grinder like I did until a week or so back or you can find your own mortar & pestle that does a great job too. But try this pachadi in any case, low calorie eggplants spiced up superbly and goes well with hot rice and a drop of ghee.

What do you need to make Vankaya banda pachadi? 
2 baby aubergines or 1 medium eggplant
1 small tomato
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tbsp oil
handful of cilantro
To roast: 
2 Tblsp chana dal
1/2 Tsp urad dal
1 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp mustard seeds
1/2 Tsp coriander seeds
4-5 dry red chilies
2 green chilies
1/8 Tsp Asafoetida
small piece of tamarind

How do you make Vankaya banda pachadi? 

• Heat oil in a pan, add the chana dal and fenugreek seeds, let them roast for a minute or so.
• Add the remaining ingredients except for asafoetida and stirring frequently, roast them until mustard splutters and the dal & fenugreek turn pink and crisp. 
• Add Asafoetida, mix and take it out on to a plate, let cool.

• In the same pan, add chopped tomato and cook for a couple of minutes until the pieces turn mushy. 
• Add cilantro, roast for a minute. Switch off and remove the contents to the plate with the rest of the ingredients. 

• There are a couple of ways of cooking eggplant for this recipe, I will list them here and leave it to you to choose based on the availability of gadgets and time on hand: 
• Method 1 (Classic & gives the best roasted aroma): Wash, wipe dry the eggplant, poke a few holes with a fork or a knife all around the surface, smear 2 drops of oil on the surface and roast the egg plant on a grill turning it frequently until it is completely charred from outside and cooked through.

• Method 2(Time consuming but much cleaner and gentler than stove top): Wash, wipe dry the eggplant, poke a few holes with a fork or a knife all around the surface, smear 2 drops of oil on the surface and bake it in a 350F pre heated oven for about 1 hour, turning it once or twice for even cooking. 
• Method 3 (Good flavor but lot of clean up later on): Wash, wipe dry the eggplant, poke a few holes with a fork or a knife all around the surface, smear 2 drops of oil on the surface and roast it on direct gas flame if you have one. 

• Method 4 (Easiest and quickest): Wash, wipe dry and chop the eggplants into small bite sized pieces. Roast them in a pan with a Tsp of oil until soft and cooked. 
• If using method 1-3, once the eggplant is cooked, take it into a bowl, cover it tightly with a cling wrap and leave it aside for 10 minutes. The steam from the hot eggplant softens the skin and peels off easily. 
• Peel & discard the charred skin and remove the pulp of the eggplant. 
• Now to grinding, first grind the roasted ingredients (dal+others) to a coarse powder, now add the tomato & cilantro along with salt and grind it roughly. You will not need any water if you use the pulse mode in the mixer. 

• Finally add the cooked eggplant and give it a couple of whips so it breaks down and mixes well. 
• Take it out into a bowl and serve it with hot rice. 

Notes: 

• Roasting tamarind softens it and makes it easy to grind. 
• Whichever method of cooking you use, make sure eggplant is cooked through. A raw eggplant leaves a very bad taste in pachadi and totally spoils the pachadi experience. 
• Do not use water while grinding this pachadi and do not make a very smooth paste out of it. Coarsely ground pachadi gives that unmistakable texture

Roasted eggplant pachadiS - Vankaya pachadi 2 ways with the same roasted egg plant

This is a vegetable I have gone on the spectrum from 'I don't like' to 'I don't care if you make it' to 'Hmm, this is kinda nice' to 'wow, this is really yummy'. Growing up in Mysore, we used to get the slender, light green, about a finger long brinjals called 'eeranagere (name of the place) badanekaayi (brinjal in Kannada)' and Nammamma made delicious Vangi bhath with it. This variety has enough meat to hold shape when cooked but not become watery or goopy like the other varieties. Then there was the purple, small, round mullu badane kaayi named so because of the thorny texture at the base of the brinjal. These tasted divine when made into ennegaayi or a dryish sort of curry with home made spice powder. I have not found the long, light green variety anywhere here in the market though sometimes I have come across the longer, purple ones which have a buttery texture and generally seedless. During Summer, I also get a white brinjal and shades anywhere in between the white and the dark purple.

I had not eaten any other kind of brinjals until I got married. And then things changed :-). When the vegetable finds its way on the lunch/dinner plate atleast 3-4 times a week, my take on it was 'if you have to eat it, you better enjoy eating it' but then I found myself actually falling in love with it. Amma makes a number of side dishes with this vegetable and the most common varieties we get home are either the small, round, purple ones or the large, seedless eggplant. With a slight change of spices or the way it is cooked, the vegetable transforms into a delicious side dish. I am a convert now and enjoy this vegetable in all its glory.

Eggplants or brinjals or Aubergines as they are called are low calorie, high nutrient vegetables. Just watch the way you cook and the amount of oil used and you can prepare a delicious side dish that is also healthy.

Of the many different ways Amma cooks this vegetable, here is one of my most favorite one. I love, love the charred, fire roasted flavor of the eggplants. Though it is a messy way of cooking and leaves your stove top begging to be cleaned, the flavor from open fire makes this curry extremely delicious. Since I do not own a gas stove anymore, I use a couple of tricks to get as close to the smokey flavor as possible. If you have a gas stove, go ahead and roast the egg plants directly on the flame, be forewarned that the juices will flow out as the vegetable cooks and get settled on your stove top (not a pretty sight and definitely not something you would like if you like a spotless kitchen :-)).

I said 2 pachadis in my title of this post, so here is how that works. You roast the eggplants in the same way, half the pulp (or any other division depending on which version of the pachadi you favor more) and then proceed to make the 2 really yummy pachadis. You don't have to make both on the same day, infact we don't. I just made it for the ease of photos and blending them into a single post. Amma usually serves the one with tamarind as a side dish to fresh Kandi podi rice and the one with yogurt is typically mixed with hot rice. But, there is no food police out there and you can enjoy them any which way it pleases you. So let us get started, shall we?

How do you make roasted eggplant pachadis?
Variation 1: Tamarind based a.k.a Vankaya pulusu pachadi
1 large eggplant (see notes for selection)
1 lemon size tamarind
1/2 Tsp crushed/grated jaggery
1 Tsp salt
2 Tblsp finely chopped onion
Seasoning: 
1 Tblsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds
3-4 dry red chilies (broken into pieces)
1-2 green chilies broken into pieces(optional)
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
4-6 curry leaves
1 Tblsp finely chopped cilantro
1 Tsp chana dal (optional)
3/4 Tsp urad dal (optional)

Variation 2: Yogurt based a.k.a Vankaya Perugu pachadi
1 large eggplant
1.5 cups home made or store bought plain yogurt
1 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp sugar
Seasoning: 
1 Tblsp oil
1 Tsp mustard seeds
1 Tsp cumin
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
4-6 curry leaves
3-4 dry red chilies broken into pieces
1-2 green chilies broken into pieces

How do you prepare the eggplants for the pachadis? 

• Wash and pat dry the eggplant. 
• Brush a drop or so of oil all over the surface of the eggplant. 
• Make some incisions all over the eggplant with a sharp knife, this helps the eggplant to cook uniformly without it bursting open. 
• If you have a gas stove, roast the eggplant on the flame, turning it once in a while to ensure even roasting. 
• If you do not have a gas stove, you can either do this on a grill (heated to the maximum setting) or oven roast the eggplant at 400F for 50 minutes to an hour turning it once or twice in between. 

• If you are oven roasting the eggplant, once it is done, switch the oven to high broil and keep the eggplant inside for 2-4 minutes just to get a faint smokey flavor. 
• Take out the eggplant and let it cool slightly. Chop the stem end and discard.
• The skin will come off easily to your finger pull, take out the skin and mash the pulp gently to a coarse paste. You can put this in a food processor or chopper and give it a quick whirl to get the right consistency. 

• Below are the 2 ways you can make the pachadi, choose either one that appeals to you or make both of them as I did today :-).

How do you make Vankaya Pulusu pachadi? 

• Soak tamarind in water for about 30 minutes to soften it and extract juice. Add water to make about a cup and half of tamarind juice, keep aside. 
• Heat oil in a pan, add asafoetida, mustard, fenugreek and the dals (if using) and let the mustard start to pop. 
• Add the broken red chilies, curry leaves and mix it in. 
• Add the chopped onions and fry until they turn soft and pink. 
• Add the salt, jaggery and tamarind extract. Let it come to a boil.

• Switch off the stove, add the mashed eggplant pulp and the chopped cilantro and give it a good mix. 
• Vankaya pulusu pachadi is ready to be eaten, as I said it makes a good accompaniment to Kandi podi anna or patholi and hot rice.

How do you make Vankaya perugu pachadi? 

• Take the yogurt, salt, sugar in a bowl and whisk it into a smooth blend. 
• Add the mashed eggplant pulp and mix it well. 
• Heat oil in a pan, add asafoetida, mustard and cumin and let mustard start to pop. 
• Add the red chili pieces and curry leaves. 
• Pour the seasoning on top of yogurt mixture and give it a mix.
• Enjoy the delicious, cool pachadi with rice or roti.

Notes: 

• Select eggplants that feel heavy for their size, these will have good amount of core in them and also stand the heat well. 
• As it cooks, the eggplant shrinks in size and the juices will start oozing out. You need to cook until it feels soft when poked with a knife or the back of a spoon. 
• For the tamarind based pachadi, the onions do not have to be very tender, a little crunch adds to the texture. 
• Both pachadis do not have a lot of spices and are generally milder, you can bite into the green or red  chilies for an extra dose of spice while eating :-)
• Tamarind based pachadi is usually of pouring consistency while the yogurt based pachadi is more of dropping consistency. So adjust the tamarind water for the first one. 
• The tamarind extract needs to just come to a rolling boil for this recipe and there is no need to thicken the sauce. 
• Taste the tamarind mixture as it boils and adjust salt, jaggery as needed. The pachadi is a slightly tangy, with a hint of jaggery in it. 

Bell Pepper Chutney - a very amenable side kick

Work has been busy and I am not finding as much time as I would love to spend on the blog. Also since DD has another 2 weeks of Summer vacations, right now the priority for any non-working hours is to spend time with her. I am cooking and taking pictures, it is just that I haven't sat down to write about them.

By now, you all know I am a chutney gal and love them in all forms and shapes. If you love chutneys as much as I do, I guarantee that you will have your own variations of whipping up a new chutney every day, actually I made something like that today with a blend of two of my favorite chutneys and it turned out a keeper. But more on that later just because I didn't expect it to be blog worthy and hence didn't take pictures :-(. All chutneys essentially have some kind of base or ingredient to give them volume such as fried dal or nuts or vegetable peels or vegetables, then there are flavoring agents like coconut, tomatoes or onions and add ons such as ginger, mustard, coriander or fenugreek. And then the usual suspects - salt, tamarind/lemon, chilies(red/green), jaggery/sugar, if you achieve balance of these you end up with a perfect chutney no matter what you have put into them. Amma yesterday was mentioning a 'gaddi chutney' or chutney made with hay that had a King licking his fingers and brought riches to the poor old lady who served him the chutney. She just couldn't remember which place in Andhra Pradesh had that story after its name :-). As you keep experimenting, you will find many that work great together and some that do not.

Here is an easy bell pepper chutney with some roasted peanuts to give it body. BH bought me an electric grill recently and made me the happiest of the wives in the world. Blogging has its advantages when BH notices what you cook and actually works on the subtle hints you drop about gadgets that are (needed) wanted in the kitchen. Although I could have gone to the store and bought one myself, there is no fun in that as much when he gets it for me, don't you agree ;-). So, I dropped generous hints and was one happy camper to get the grill home. I have been roasting a lot of stuff on it and will post the recipes one by one.

Back to the bell pepper chutney, in the 'pre-grill' era, I used to put the slices of bell pepper in my regular oven and bake them at 350F until it turned brown on both sides. So, you can very well do this with a conventional oven or if you don't have one, no need to fret. Heat a flat pan (preferably cast iron), smear a drop or two of cooking oil on the bell pepper slices and arrange them in a single layer in the pan. Let it turn brown on one side before turning it over. Do not keep stirring but keep on eye on it to prevent burning. The idea is to roast the bell pepper and if you can get a smoky flavor (which you will with the grill or the cast iron pan), it adds to the flavor.

So choose any of the methods above and get to cook up a delicious chutney that goes well with idli, dose or rice. Added bonus, this chutney hardly uses any oil.

What do you need to make Bell Pepper Chutney? 
2 sweet bell peppers (red, orange or yellow)
2 Tblsp peanuts
1/2 Tsp crushed jaggery/brown sugar
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 dry red chili (optional)
1/2 of a small red onion
1X1 inch tamarind piece

How do you make Bell Pepper Chutney?

• Wash, pat dry the bell peppers, cut them in half, remove the seeds.
• Slit lengthwise and make 4 pieces from each bell pepper. 
• Cut the onions into wide pieces. 
• Heat a grill, coat the bell pepper and onion pieces with a couple of drops of oil, arrange them on the grill and let it roast until they are tender and cooked well. 
• My grill took about 40 minutes on high setting. 

• Heat a pan, roast the peanuts and red chili (if using) until peanuts start to pop and show small black spots on the skin. The raw smell should go away completely. 

• Let everything cool down to room temperature. 
• Take the roasted pepper, onion, peanuts, chili, tamarind, salt & jaggery and blend it in your blender. Start with the pulse mode to break the ingredients down and then run it full speed. I like to stop it just before reaching a smooth paste. Add water only if absolutely necessary. 

• Enjoy with idli, dose or plain rice. 

Notes: 

• Use the sweet bell peppers for this recipe and not the green ones, as they alter the texture and taste greatly.
• Do not chop bell pepper or onions into small pieces, wider cuts ensure uniform roasting without letting them burn. 
• You may remove the husk of the roasted peanuts but I like to put them in anyway. 
• If you are using the conventional oven, turn the pieces over half way through and switch to broil mode for not more than 2 minutes at the end just to get the charred flavor. 
• As always it is important to let the ingredients cool down before grinding them. 
• Pulsing the ingredients breaks them down and also adds moisture from the onions and bell peppers to make the grinder work smoothly. Do this before adding any water. 
• The bell peppers and the red onions make this chutney mild, so addition of jaggery is optional.

Bottle gourd pachadi - continuing the pachadi series

I know I talked about the pachadis we make regularly at home and kind of went silent after a couple. The reason is that I have just not found the time to take pictures every time we make the pachadis (almost every day now) and hence have been stalling on the blog posts. But here I am with an extremely delicious chutney.

When we went to India last February to attend a cousin's wedding, we also took one day whirlwind tour to visit family in one of the cities. We reached Hyderabad early morning and starting at 7am made 6 stops, the last one being at 11.30 pm on our way to the airport. It was tiring but very well worth the effort as we got to see lot of the relatives after a gap of almost 6 years.

One of our cousins is a home maker turned entrepreneur, I am so impressed with her idea, actual execution of the idea and the way she conducts her business. She runs a fresh fruits and juice business in one of the schools and employs mainly young girls. They go to the school around the lunch time, cut fresh fruits and serve different combinations of seasonal fruits in cups. She has expanded it to fruit juices now which is made right there on order. I saw a lot of kids and parents who came to take the younger ones home stand there and enjoy the fresh fruits and juice. With the weather being what it is in Hyderabad, this is a very welcome thing for the parents as they are happy to see kids eating fruits instead of junk food. Syamala, our cousin has her own 2 kids going to the same school, so she gets to see them during the day which is an added bonus not available to many working mothers.

In addition to running this business, Syamala is a very good cook and just like her mother in law who is our defacto pachadi queen in the family, she makes delicious pachadis and other traditional Andhra dishes. She made this bottle gourd pachadi when we had lunch at her place that day and I fell for it totally. I asked her for the recipe and since we were rushing through, I just remembered the ingredients and the taste. Since coming back I have tried it many times and last time I made it, I thought I nailed the recipe and hence wanted to share it with all of you. This is also one of the stone grinder recipes adapted for the mixer/blender and usually mixed with rice and eaten as a side with rice and other dishes. It is generally strong with spices.

I have been referring to this as bottle gourd pachadi, amma makes a different version with only the peels of the gourd and that has coriander seeds and tastes very different from this one. I will post that another time.

What do you need to make bottle gourd pachadi?
1 small bottle gourd
1 flat Tblsp mustard seeds
1 flat Tsp fenugreek seeds
1 Tsp urad dal/uddina bele/uddi pappu
5-6 dry red chilies (adjust the amount to your spice tolerance)
1 or 2 green chilies broken in half
1 inch piece of tamarind or 3/4 Tsp tamarind concentrate
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
4-5 twigs of fresh cilantro
2 Tblsp cooking oil

How do you make bottle gourd pachadi? 

• Wash, trim the ends and peel the bottle gourd, save the peels and chop them into small pieces.
• Chop the bottle gourd into small pieces, use the core if the seeds are tender (see picture to get an idea), discard if the seeds are hard. 
• Heat 1 Tblsp oil in a pan, add urad dal and fry for 30 seconds. Add mustard, fenugreek, chilies and asafoetida and fry it until your kitchen is filled with a nice roasted aroma. Watch for mustard to crackle and urad dal to turn golden brown.

• Take all the roasted ingredients and keep aside. 
• Heat the remaining oil, add the chopped peels, bottle gourd pieces, salt and turmeric powder and mix well.

• Cover and fry this on medium heat, stirring it occasionally for 10-12 minutes or until the bottle gourd pieces cook well and become soft to touch. 

• Once all the ingredients are completely cool, take it to your blender/mixer along with tamarind and cilantro and make it into a paste. Start with pulse mode to break the ingredients first and then grind it. Avoid using water in this recipe for best taste. The oil used for frying is sufficient to blend the mixture. 
• Enjoy the delicious pachadi made flavorful with fenugreek and mustard with hot rice and some ghee. 

Thanks Syamala for sharing a family recipe

Notes: 

• Choose bottle gourd that is tender and has light green skin. When you pick up the bottle gourd, it should feel heavy and not hollow.
• It is important to fry the mustard, urad and fenugreek on medium heat and until well roasted. Urad dal gives a raw taste and changes the consistency if not fried completely.
• Mixture of dry red and green chilies gives a nice taste to this pachadi, adjust the amount based on your spice tolerance.

Allam Pachadi or Ginger chutney

Ginger has such a beautiful and strong fragrance. I love ginger especially when it is roasted well in a little bit of oil. I try adding ginger julienne into lot of my preparations from curd rice to dal and most curries.

I know I have been talking about pachadis and chutneys a lot these days :-), I have many more coming up on the blog. One of the reasons is my in-laws are here with us now and we are making varieties of pachadis and mainly because I love them. So, you will see many pachadi recipes but I promise to space them out so as to not bore you with the same kind of dish.

I have blogged about ginger tambuli before but today's pachadi is very different in taste and texture and very versatile too. Now that I have a blog, my family is also enthusiastic about making dishes in the kitchen and I hear a lot of 'Have you put this yet'?, 'You should blog about this..' every day now. Infact, my FIL has declared that he made this trip especially to taste the dishes that go on Sattvaa and also to give me gyan on many more recipes to put on the blog. So for the allam pachadi (ginger chutney), all the credit goes to him for patiently peeling and cutting the ginger roots. Then it was taken over my amma for further processing.

Allam pachadi is a very quintessential Telugu recipe and fares commonly in home meals, festive occasions and restaurants. If you happen to have an Andhra thali in an authentic restaurant, you will see this as one of the side dishes. It is also a great accompaniment for Pesarattu (Moong dal dosa) as it complements the mild pesarattu very nicely. Again, both Amma & Nana were discussing the variations of this pachadi and enlightened me that some people make the pachadi with raw ginger (no frying involved). While they wanted to make it both ways, I vetoed it down since we had only so much ginger at home. So we ended up making it the way amma does and we all love. May be, I will try the non-fried ginger another day and tell you how it worked out. But for now, here is a very fragrant, spicy chutney made with fried allam(ginger).

We made a bowl full of this pachadi yesterday and packed it for our lunch today as we went for a drive up the mountains. The bowl was emptied and wiped clean after the pachadi very ably accompanied sandwiches, curd rice and every thing else we had packed. So, I will be buying more ginger on my next grocery shopping trip :-)

Allam pachadi mudda(allam pachadi mixed with hot rice) in a plate made of chips :-)

What do you need to make Allam Pachadi?
Fresh ginger roots - washed, peeled and chopped into small pieces to fill 2 cups
2 Tblsp mustard/aavalu
1 Tblsp fenugreek/menthilu
1 golf ball sized tamarind
1/2 cup grated/crushed jaggery (adjust to taste)
10-12 dry red chilies
1/8 Tsp of good quality asafoetida/hing
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
2 Tblsp cooking oil
1 Tblsp water

How do you make Allam Pachadi?

• Wash, pat dry, peel and chop the ginger roots into small pieces (See notes)

• Heat 1 Tblsp of oil in a pan, add asafoetida,  mustard, fenugreek and red chilies and fry for a minute or two until mustard splutters and fenugreek turns pink. Keep this aside. 

• In the same pan, add the remaining oil and the ginger pieces and frequently stirring, fry it for 4-5 minutes until ginger turns slightly brown and your kitchen fills with a gingery aroma. Take it aside and let cool. 

• Add water to the hot pan, add the tamarind and jaggery and switch off the stove after 30 seconds. Let it cool. The idea is to gather any sticking remnants of the ginger in the pan and also heat the water to be used in the pachadi later. This process also softens the tamarind.
• When all the ingredients have cooled to room temperature, take them to your blender with salt and grind into a smooth paste. Avoid adding any more water, start by pulsing the mixture, once it gets broken down, put it on grind and make it into a smooth paste. 

• This pachadi stays well upto 10 days if you refrigerate and use clean, dry spoons to serve. The allam pachadi you see in the stores has lot more oil and stays longer. 

Notes: 

• Choose ginger that is fresh and tender. Do not use old, dry ginger as it spoils the taste of pachadi.
• Cutting ginger into small pieces is important as it gets cooked evenly and faster when you fry it. 
• You need to balance ginger's fieriness with tamarind and jaggery, adjust the quantity to suit your taste buds.
• Use 1.5 Tblsp of tamarind concentrate in place of tamarind and replace jaggery with brown sugar if you like.

Tomato-mint chutney - A spicy relish

Chutney's are like a beautiful piece of jewelry or a pretty dress, they are decorations, embellishments to enhance a meal. Growing up, my chutney experience was limited but married into a Telugu family where chutneys or pachadis as they are called is a norm at every meal, I have broadened my horizon with chutneys. A traditional Andhra home meal is not complete without a chutney/pachadi. Some day, I will blog about thalis at home when I can get to such a well prepared fare :-) but until then it will be in bits and pieces.

Chutneys are two types - one you mix with rice which is slightly dry and spicy and the other you use as a dip or side dish with dose, idli, roti etc which is slightly runny in consistency. We had a stone grinder at home in Mysore and it was my favorite kitchen work to make chutneys in it, the fringe benefit was that I could keep tasting the chutney as I ground the ingredients. But the tasting was only allowed with nammamma's permission and was completely taboo on certain days:-), so I had to be sneaky. The best part of the chutney grinding in a stone grinder was if the rice was ready, amma would give me a couple spoons of rice to put into the grinder, scrape the chutney off, mix it with rice and take it onto a plate to slowly enjoy the fresh, spicy chutney anna(rice), Ah... that is a visit to heaven right there.

Today's chutney is an evolved recipe and is mainly an accompaniment to dose or idli. We love mint flavor at home and I make the popular pudina/mint chutney very often with coconut. I wanted to try something without coconut and also recreate a tomato chutney I had had at a restaurant. Resulting chutney is delicious, spicy and goes well with a variety of dishes. This has now become a family favorite.

What do you need to make tomato-mint chutney? 
3 medium sized tomatoes (use fleshy variety of tomato) chopped roughly
1 cup packed picked mint leaves
1 Tblsp chopped onions
Small piece of tamarind or 1/2 Tsp tamarind paste (see notes)
1 Tsp chana dal/kadle bele
3-4 black pepper corns
2-3 green chilies - slit lengthwise
1/2 Tsp crushed jaggery/brown sugar
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp cooking oil

How do you make tomato-mint chutney?

• Heat oil in a pan, add chana dal, pepper corns and green chilies. Fry for a minute until chana dal roasts and turns light pink. 
• Add chopped onions and fry for a minute until it turns pink.

• Add the mint leaves and give it a stir.

• Add the chopped tomatoes and continue to fry until tomatoes turn mushy and the leaves wilt completely - additional 3-5 minutes depending on the heat. 

• Switch off the stove, add salt, jaggery and let the mixture cool completely. 
• Take everything to your grinder/mixer and blend it to a smooth mixture. You will not need any water for this as tomato blends well. This chutney does not have a bright red color as tomato mixes with green mint.

• Enjoy the spicy chutney with a hint of sweetness and loaded with mint flavor. We had ours with the water melon rind dose. 

Notes: 

• Wait for the mixture to cool completely, if you grind when hot or warm, the taste changes. 
• Adjust the chilies and black pepper to your taste, I like it more peppery than the chili heat. I added a piece of dry red chilies also this time.
• You do not need tamarind if the tomatoes are sour, so adjust accordingly. 
• Whenever using green chilies in frying, make sure you have cut it open (a slit or a chop), else you will have them popping over the place.  

Dosakaya pachadi - Brighten up your meal with this tasty accompaniment

Summer is the time to enjoy cucumbers, squashes and melons. These are not only tasty, they make perfect vegetables to eat in summer due to their high water content. While the green cucumber is the most commonly used variety - you can eat it raw in salads and gojjus or cook it in sambars and palyas, the yellow cucumber (called banna sautekayi in Kannada) is known for its flavor and has many uses. This is grown widely in Southern and coastal Karnataka and is preserved through out the year unlike the green cucumber which doesn't stay long.

I was introduced to the pleasures of this golden beauty by amma via her yummy pachadis, dal and pickles. I will post all of these one by one but today we will enjoy this tasty dosakaya pachadi which is a favorite at home. This is not a smooth ground chutney but has dosakayi pieces in it and is usually an accompaniment for hot white rice. A delightful combination of flavors, this pachadi lights up a plain rice and dal meal wonderfully.

What do you need to make Dosakaya pachadi? 
1 medium sized yellow cucumber
1 Tsp jaggery or brown sugar
1 Tsp salt

For Masala:
1 Tbsp kadle bele/chana dal/senaga pappu
3-4 dry red chilies (adjust according to your spice tolerance)
3/4 Tsp coriander seeds
1/2 Tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
1-2 black pepper corns (optional)
1/4 Tsp mustard seeds
1 inch piece of tamarind or 1/2 tsp of tamarind concentrate
1 Tsp cooking oil

Vaggarane/Seasoning:
1 Tsp cooking oil
1/2 Tsp mustard
2-4 curry leaves

How do you make Dosakaya Pachadi?

• Wash, peel and deseed the cucumber. 
• Chop the cucumber into small pieces.
• Heat a Tsp of oil in a pan and fry all the ingredients listed under masala until they are well roasted, 4-5 minutes on medium heat. Switch off and let cool.
• Take all the fried ingredients and 2 Tblsp of chopped cucumbers into your blender/mixer and grind it to a smooth paste along with jaggery and salt. Do not use any water - see notes below. 
• Mix this paste to the remaining chopped cucumbers.

• Heat oil in a pan, add mustard and let it splutter. Add the curry leaves and switch off. 
• Pour the seasoning on the pachadi and mix well. 

• Enjoy the sweet, spicy, sour and crunchy pachadi as an accompaniment with your meal. 

Notes: 

• Avoid water while grinding, the masala is traditionally pound in a mortar and pestle. Adding 2 Tblsp of cucumbers leaves water and helps grind the masala. 
• Let the pachadi sit for atleast 30 minutes after you mix in the masala so the cucumber pieces soak up the flavors.

Gongura Pachadi - chutney with gongura(Sorrel leaves)

As I said before, my pachadi recipes other than a few (coconut chutney, heerekayi sippe chutney) are all from Amma's kitchen. I tasted gongura pachadi for the first time after I got married. It was a love with first bite :-).

For the uninitiated, gongura or sorrel leaves are green leaves with a tart taste, I have mainly seen the red stemmed versions of this leaf here but I hear there is a green stemmed variety also. Due to its inherent tart taste, these leaves impart a distinct flavor and go very well in recipes for chutneys and dals.

One of BH's atta's is an expert cook and her pachadis(chutneys/relishes) are very tasty, she follows a very traditional way of making the chutneys by hand grinding or pounding the ingredients in a big stone grinder (think much bigger version of mortar and pestle). It is also made with lot of oil for taste and for preserving. Typically this chutney is high on the spices loaded with hot red chilies and is mixed with hot rice and butter (according to my FIL) and eaten. This is a family favorite and like any chutney recipe, has its variations made to suit family's taste buds.

If you are in US, you can get these leaves in Indian groceries, farmers markets and Chinese stores.  It typically starts to show up in mid to late Spring. 

Here is a very low fat version of the yummy gongura pachadi.

What do you need to make Gongura Pachadi?
3 packed cups of gongura leaves (picked from the stems)
3 Tsp fenugreek seeds/methi seeds
2 Tsp white sesame seeds (optional but greatly recommended for flavor)
8-10 dry red chilies (I used only the milder Byadagi variety, if using spicier chilies like the Guntur variety, ease the number down)
1 Tsp cooking oil
1 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tbslp water for grinding

How do you make Gongura Pachadi? 

• Wash gongura leaves in water, drain them and pat them dry. 
• Heat a heavy bottom pan on medium heat and fry methi seeds until they turn light brown and start to pop. Keep them aside.
• Dry fry the chilies for 2-3 minutes until they crisp up and you see tiny brown spots on their skins. Keep aside.
• Dry fry the sesame seeds until they pop and keep aside. 
• Add oil and drop the cleaned gongura leaves into the pan, fry until the leaves wilt completely and become a single mass (4-5 minutes). 

• Take the red chilies, salt, methi seeds and half of the fried sesame seeds to your blender/grinder, make a dry powder. 
• Add the gongura leaves and blend them together adding water only as needed.
• Add the remaining toasted sesame seeds and give it a whirl in your blender. 

 

• Here is how we relished it - mixed it with hot cooked quinoa, a couple of drops oil and chopped onions with a side of Majjige huli. A bowlful of pachadi vanished in a single meal. 

Notes: 

• You need to balance the tartness of the leaves with a good proportion of red chilies and methi seeds, so the pachadi doesn't turn out primarily sour. 
• Slow toast methi seeds until it turns light brown and red chilies become crisp for enhanced flavor, don't rush through the toasting process. 
• I like the nutty flavor from the sesame seeds, keep a little portion to the last blend/grind cycle to have a few un-powdered seeds in the pachadi. 

Tips: 

• As amma knows my love for spicy food, she fries a couple of red chilies in a Tsp pf oil and pours it on top of the chutney so I can break them and mix it in for the extra punch. If you have people with different levels of spice tolerance, go mild on the chilies while making pachadi but use this trick to please that one person :-)