lemon pickle

This one's for you O. Call if you need to :)

Lemon pickle #1

Cut lemons into one cm². Small thin rind lemons into 8. Take out seeds. If large with thick rind, shave off some of the white pith. Julliene ginger. Slit green chillies.

Heat oil (2tbsp per cup). Add mustard, when it splutters, add Methi seeds, Hing. Add the lemons. Saute for a little bit. 5 mins tops. It should not cook. Just heated.  Add turmeric, red chilli powder. Add salt. It softens then. Saute for another 3 mins. Add 1tsp (per cup) brown sugar/jaggery. It will caramelize. Switch off. Cool. Store in glass jars.

#2

Cut lemons. Deseed. Add salt, turmeric. Leave in the sun for 4 days, shaking it up twice a day. It softens then.  Roast Methi and grind with mustard seeds. And add this mixture to the hot oil. Switch off. Add the tempering to the softened lemons. This pickle keeps upto a year. The lemons keep softening.

#3

Sweet lemon pickle (chunda)

Soak lemons overnight to take out the oil. Wipe clean. Cut into chunks, take out seeds and blitz. Add salt, sugar (lots of), redchilli. Cover the mouth of jar with muslin and leave for 15 days. Add roast jeera powder. (This recipe works for raw mango too). This pickle/chutney is great with parathas 

Paruppu usli

Soak chana dal and one dry red chilli for about an hour. Drain water. Grind coarse. Heat 2 tbsp oil. Add mustard seeds, when they splutter, add kadi patta, Hing, add the ground mixture. Roast till cooked. Add salt.

On the side, lightly boil or saute veg (any of these work - any kind of beans/cabbage/capsicum/carrot/ even greens). Add salt.

Add to roasted chanadal usli. Done.

Avial

Avial.... Boil veggies cut lengthwise in pressure cooker. one whistle. cool and remove. Drain. Add salt. 

Veggies used - mix of squishy, root, fresh. pumpkin/gourd, arbi/raw banana/potato/sweet potato, beans, cauliflower, carrot, peas, flat beans

Grind coconut, or a mix of coconut milk and dry coconut,  jeera, green chilly.  Add to cooked veg. Heat.

Add some curd. 

Temper/chownk mustard seeds and kadi patta in a spoon of oil (coconut oil if available). Done.

pongal and katrika gojju

You asked a second ago ro...so here it is.

Pongal

Rice plus moong dal (2.5 :1) in pressure cooker with 1stuff:3 water. Add salt. A bit of jeera and some black pepper. Cook well. Really well. 

In a kadhai, heat generous amounts of ghee. Add jeera, black pepper (yes again), ginger chopped really small or grated, cashews, and hing (important flavouring). Add this chownk to the cooked rice dal. Pongal done

Gojju

Cut brinjal/katrika/eggplant/aubergine/(bhindi works too). In a kadhai, heat 3 tbsp oil. Add mustard, methi, chana dal, green (or red) chilli, kadi patta, hing. Once mustard pops, add the cut katrika. Saute until done (or nearly). Add tamarind water (soaked earlier otherwise....tamarind+water+1min in mw). Let swim, simmer and soak. If too liquid thicken with a bit of rice flour slurry. I add a nugget of jaggery when it's in the jacuzzi. I just like it. Cook till thicker than sambar consistency..quite like kootu consistency.

Capsicum besan usli

Chop one onion. Tiny bits. Chop three capsicums capsici capsicae....same size as onions. Heat 4 tbsp oil in saucepan/kadhai. Add onions, dhania powder, spot of turmeric. Can add jeera powder if you have. Saute until onion is transparent. Add capsis. Saute until softish. Add salt. Add besan. As is. Powder form. Dry Roast. Some of the moisture will stick to it and you may need to add a bit of oil to roast it till the raw smell becomes toasty smell. That's it. 

You make for O to taste. Send pic. I'll paste here

Kamala pazham (go look it up) Mammalade

Deyy pasangala

This is my mom's mom's. And I used to look down on this del stuff. I'd tell her she was taking the 'use everything you can...it will be great' to a whole new level and make faces. But of course she was right. It was the bits and pieces that we'd normally throw away that made some of my best food memories of her. And now you know how the rasahalwa DNA made its way to uknowwho.

Ok story done...here's how you make

Orange rind - 4 of cut into slivers (get loose jacket oranges if you can.. Yes Ro those ones)

Jaggery - 1/2 cup

Kadi patta - curry leaves, karuvepilai, yeah those ones

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Methi seeds - 1tsp

Turmeric powder - I tsp

Red chilli powder - up to you

Hing - one dot umm... size of a whole black pepper

Oil - 2 tbsp

Heat oil in kadhai. Splutter the mustard, methi, hing, Kadi patta. Add orange rind slivers. Let it cook for 5. Add salt, turmeric, red chilli pow. Let it cook till it softens a bit. Add jaggery, 5 tbsp water and cover. So..here you can add a bit of tamarind concentrate if you want it tangy..Simmer until it becomes thick syrupy. Use your wisdom on the jaggery water heat ratio. Don't forget to switch off the stove. You can jar it. Tastes great with curdrice. 

And hey..it's SP's birthday today.... and she was reminded of her mum's (not lazy:) cooking