Parrupu Podi (Kandi Podi)

Ever been to one of those small restaurants where you get a veggie thali on a banana leaf? If not, I would say that you have missed some really good condiment. Usually people in towns and villages serve meals on banana leaf. I absolutely love that taste. The other day I made this at home for a good friend of mine who is visiting from Florida. Hope she likes it as much as I liked to make it for her :)

Ingredients:
Moong Dal (Paasi Parrupu): 1/2 cup
Channa Dal( kadala parrupu/ Bengal gram): 1/2 cup
Toor Dal (Tuvaram parrupu/ split dal): 1 cup
Hing: 1/2 tsp
Jeera/Cumin: 1 tsp
Red Chili Powder: 2 tbsp (you can increase this to 3 tbsp also)
Pepper Powder: 2 tsp
Salt: according to taste

Method:

• Heat a pan and fry all the dals separately until they become light to golden brown. 
• Keep the dals aside and while its still hot, add cumin and hing and mix well. 
• Once the dals cool down, grind them until the desired consistency. I like mine slightly coarse.
• Now add salt, chili powder and pepper powder. 
• Store in a air-tight container.

Serving Suggestion:
1. Hot rice and ghee with this powder.
2. Mix few drops of oil or ghee in this powder and use as a condiment for idly/dosa.

Beerakaya Pachadi (Ridge Gourd pickle)

Having lived in Andhra Pradesh for a long time, I have grown up eating lot of pickles/chutneys. One of my favorites and easy to make chutneys is Beerakaya/Ridge Gourd. This is easy and its my mom's way of making this.

Ingredients:
Ridge Gourd: 2 medium sized
Green Chili: 3 (you can increase or decrease this)
Garlic: 3 cloves
Channa Dal: 1 tsp
Jeera: 1 tsp
Curry Leaves: 1 string
Salt: according to taste
Oil: 2 tbsp

For tempering:
Mustard Seeds: 1 tsp
Cumin: 1 tsp
Hing: a pinch

Method:

• Wash and peal the ridge gourd. You can leave a little bit of skin if you like the texture to be slightly rough. Chop the veggie in to small 1 inch pieces.
• Heat 1 1/2 tsp of oil in a pan and add Channa dal, jeera and curry leaves. 
• Stir and add garlic pods and green chilies. Fry for a minute.
• Now add the chopped ridge gourd to the above and cook without adding water. Stir once in a while.
• Once the veggie is cooked, remove from the stove and cool it. 
• In a mixer grinder, blend the veggie until it is soft. Add salt. 
• Now, in a little pan, heat oil and add everything under 'for tempering'. 

Chutney is ready!

Serving Suggestions:

1. With hot rice and a tsp of ghee. 
2. With sambar rice.

Coconut Chutney- Method 2

Like I said in my Coconut Chutney Method 1, there are numerous ways to make any chutney. Simple alterations bring out different taste while the basic recipe remains the same.
This time I have excluded the tamarind part and added cilantro and a little piece of ginger.

Ingredients:
Fresh Coconut: 1/2, removed from its shell
Coriander/cilantro: handful, washed
Green Chili: 2
Ginger: 1/2 inch piece
Curry Leaves: 1 string
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Channa dal: 1 tsp
Salt
Oil: 1 tsp

Method:

• Wash the coconut pieces after removing from shell and put them in a blender.
• Add coriander/cilantro, green chili, ginger piece and salt to the blender along with the coconut. 
• Add 1/4 cup of water and blend until the coconut is completely mashed. Transfer this to the serving bowl.
• In a small pan, heat oil and add the mustard seeds, channa dal and curry leaves. Once they all start to splutter, add to the ground coconut chutney. 

Serve with Pongal, Idly, Dosa, vada, you name it!

Tomato Chutney- Iyer Style

This recipe goes back to my college days from London. When I initially went there for studies, it was around the time of Vinayaka Chaviti (Ganesh Chaturthi). I was invited for dinner by one of the ladies. She was known as Iyer Akka. That's where I first had this kind of chutney. I absolutely fell in love with the taste and ever since I often make this at home. Thanks to the traditional recipes and Iyer Akka.My husband also loves this! 

Ingredients:
Tomatoes: 1/2 kg
Green Chilies: 6 (increase or decrease this according to taste)
Cumin/Jeera: 1 tbsp
Oil: 2 tbsp

For Tempering:
Mustard Seeds: 1 tsp
Cumin: 1/2 tsp
Channa Dal: 1 tsp
Curry Leaves: 1 string
Hing: 1 pinch

Method:

• Heat 1 tsp oil in big pan (enough to fit tomatoes) and add cumin and green chilies. Once chilies are roasted and softened a bit, remove from the pan to another small bowl. 
• In the same pan add add the washed and chopped tomatoes and keep cooking until tomatoes are completely cooked. This will take some time considering you are cooking 1/2 kg of tomatoes.

• After the tomatoes are completely cooked through, remove from the pan and cool it. 
• After they are cool, transfer to a blender and add salt and also the fried cumin and green chilies from step 1. 
• Blend them fine and transfer to a serving bowl. 
• For tempering, take a small pan and heat oil. To the oil add everything under for tempering and stir for a few seconds until everything is well roasted. 
• Add this to the tomato chutney. Also add salt for taste.

Enjoy with hot rice or even with any break fast item! 

Dosa-avakaya Pachadi (Cucumber Pickle)

The days are still cold and the nights are worst. I usually fall sick around this time of the year with the lack of sun light for more than 5 months at a stretch. When I am sick, I feel like having something hot and spicy. Luckily the last time we went to the grocery store we found the Indian cucumber which we call Dosakaya in Telugu (is there a Tamil word for this?).
Oh how I love this pickle!! I can have it anytime of the day with hot rice and a tsp of ghee...yummy!

Ingredients:
Indian Cucumber (Dosakaya): 1
Mustard Powder: 3 tbsp:
Red Chili Powder: 3 tbsp (make it 4 more more spicy pickle)
Salt: 1 to 1/2 tbsp (stop at 1 1/2 tbsp, you can add later if you need more).
Sesame oil (til/nuvvulu/ellu): 4 to 5 tbsp

Method:

• Wash the cucumber and dry it. There should not be any water residue. Now, cut the cucumber in to half and remove the seeds. Now, chop them in to 1 inch cubes.
• Mix salt, chili and mustard powder in a separate bowl and add to the cucumber pieces. Mix well. Now add the spice mix to the cucumber pieces and mix well. 
• Slowly add the oil to the cucumber pieces. The mixture should me slightly oily like shown below but not too much.
• Now, cover the bottle/bowl with a tight lid and leave it aside for about a day.

• The above picture shows how it is supposed to look like when it is freshly prepared. The first picture is how it looks like after a day when we can enjoy the pickle with hot rice, ghee and and mudda pappu (dal without tadka).

Mint-Coriander Chutney

Just like Imli-ki-chutney, this goes great with all the chaat's. The best part is, it takes only 3 minutes! No kidding!

 

Ingredients:
Coriander/cilantro: 1 cup
Mint leaves: 1/4 cup
Onion: 1 very small
Ginger piece: 1/2 inch
Salt: As desired.

Method: Fine grind all the ingredients together fine and check for salt. That's it!

Imli-Ki-Chutney

Mouth watering, sweet and sour dip! Perfect for Samosas, Dhoklas and what ever you fancy!

Ingredients:
Water: 1 1/2 cup
Tamarind pulp: 1/4 cup
Cumin: 1 tsp
Cumin powder: 1/2 tsp
jaggery: 1/4 cup
Salt: 1 tsp
Red chili powder: 1/2 tsp
Oil: 1 tsp

Method:
Mix water and tamarind pup. Heat oil in a vessel and add cumin seeds. When they splutter, add the water and tamarind mix. Bring it to a boil. I use hot water to begin with; so, it hardly takes 2 mins. Add the jaggery, salt,chili powder and cumin powder.
Boil for another 15 minutes. Check the taste and switch off. The chutney thickens when cooled off. 

Chicken Pickle

Having been in Andhra for many years, it is but natural that I developed a taste for pickles. My mom's kitchen, till date, has at least 5 bottles of pickles at all times of the year. Its convenient for her because she gets to make seasonal pickles like Mango, Amla etc in the respective seasons. Now that I relocated, I mostly end up buying pickles from stores.
So, I made chicken pickle the other day and, boy oh boy, it sure did come out well.

Ingredients:

Cloves: 8

Cardamom: 3

Cinnamon: 1 inch

Mustard seeds: 1 tsp

Coriander seeds: 1 1/2 tbsp

Cumin seeds: 1/4 tsp

Poppy seeds  (optional): 2 tbsp

Dry roast all the above ingredients separately and fine grind them. Keep aside.

You will also need 8 tsp of red chili powder (or 10, according to require spice level) and 1 tbsp of lemon juice. 

Chicken (boneless): 1 lb (A little under 1/2 kg)
Turmeric powder: 1/8 tsp
Oil: 1/4 cup

Cut the chicken in to the desired shape and boil the chicken pieces until tender with turmeric powder and drain. Now, heat 1/4 cup of oil in a pan and roast the pieces until they turn slightly brown.Shouldn't take long at all. To this chicken, add the ground spices, red chili powder. Add salt according to your taste.
At this point you can add more oil if you think its too dry. 
Mix in lemon juice and stir for another 2 minutes.

For tadka:
Oil: (again) 5 tbsp
Cumin seeds: 2 tsp
Red Chilies (optional): 4 
Curry leaves: 2 strings

Roast the above in a pan and to the chicken pickle.
Let this cool completely and store in a container with tight lid. You can also refrigerate this. This can store well for even 8 weeks!

Palli (Ground nut) Chutney

My husband absolutely loves this chutney. Apart from coconut chutney, this is another chutney I make often. I keep changing the recipe as and when my mood changes but the below recipe is one of the basic ways.

Ingredients:
Ground nuts: 1 cup
Onion: 1/2, cut small pieces
Garlic: 1 small clove
Green Chili: 3 small
Salt
Tamarind pulp: 1/2 tsp

Grind everything together with 1/2 cup of water or more and keep aside.

Tempering:
Oil: 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Channa dal: 1 tsp
Urad Dal: 1 tsp
Curry leaves: 1 string

Heat oil in a small pan and add everything in the same order and fry for a minute. Now, pour over the palli chutney paste and serve with breakfast of your choice! Today I served this with Rava Dosa.

Coconut Chutney (Thenga/kobbarikaya chutney)

I make Thenga chutney as often as I make sambar at home. This goes well with pongal, idli, dosa etc. Of course there are many ways to make this chutney and today I am going to post the basic way. Below ingredients serves 2.

Ingredients:

Fresh coconut: 1/2, cut in to small pieces
Green chili: 2 or 3, depending on required spice level
Tamarind pulp: 1/2 tsp
Salt

In a blender, grind all of the above together with a little water and transfer into a container.

For tempering:
Oil: 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Channa dal: 1 tsp
Urad Dal: 1 tsp
Curry leaves: 1 string

Heat oil in a small pan and add everything in the same order and fry for a minute. Now, pour over the coconut paste and serve with breakfast of your choice!

Pudina (Mint) Chutney

One of the easiest chutneys to make is Pudina chutney. This goes well with all the breakfast items and can also be used as spread for a veg sandwich.
There are 100 (or more) ways to make Pudina chutney. The below is my favorite way because its easy and can be made with literally 5 ingredients. OK, six including salt. Fresh mint I am using comes from my backyard.

Ingredients:
Fresh mint leaves: 1 big bunch, washed, dried and leaves separated
Fresh Ginger: 1 inch piece
Garlic pod: 1
Red Chilies: 3 or more, depending on the spice level you like
Tamarind pulp: 1 tsp
Salt and oil: 1 tsp each

Method:

• Heat oil in a pan and roast the mint leaves until they change color. I usually let them brown and keep them aside.
• in the same pan, add a bit more oil and roast ginger, garlic and red chilies and keep aside.
•  
• Take a blender (I used stainless steel, juicer will not do) and grind all the ingredients including salt and tamarind.
• Check for salt and you are good to serve! 

Variations:
1. Some times I also add a small bunch of coriander (cilantro) leaves to mint leaves while roasting in oil.
2. You can also add green chilies along with red chilies for a different taste.
3. Sometimes i also add fresh coconut (1/4 cup) while roasting the ginger and garlic. This also gives an entirely different taste.

Picture from my garden...

Thengai Podi (Coconut Powder)

This recipe brings back memories of my paternal grand mother. My paternal grand parents are from a small village in the interiors of Andhra Pradesh. Since my mom's side is from Tamil Nadu I had a chance of experiencing a fine blend of Telugu and Tamil cultures (not that they are very different from each other).
My grand mom calls this in Telugu as Kobbari podi/karam. They never had a gas stove until much later. So my grand mom used to place 3 big stones with some fire wood in between and make our meals. I used to sit beside her while she is doing away...what she has to do.
This is fairly easy to make and goes very well with Idly, Dosa, Upma, besan dosa and you name it. My hubby even eats it with plain rice with a drop of ghee mixed in it! If you have iron pan, try this out in that. Somehow the taste is different when i make this in a non-stick pan.

Ingredients:
Fresh coconut thinly sliced: 2 cups (1 coconut would yield 2 cups) We need to thinly slice the coconut so that it is easier to dry roast them.
Urad Dal: 1/4 cup
Channa Dal: 1/4 cup
Curry leaves: 3 strings
Red Chilies: 12-15
Salt: as per taste

Method:

• Dry roast the coconut until the slices turn golden brown. Use iron pan if you have one. 
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• Dry roast all the other ingredients one by one separately until they turn slightly brownish. For Curry leaves, you may add 2 tsp of oil to fry (I used peanut oil).
• Let the ingredients cool so that when you grind them together, they do not become like a paste. 
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• Take a blender (I used stainless steel) and grind all the above ingredients with some salt.
• The powder is meant to be slightly coarse. So after you grind for a few seconds, open the lid and check. 
• When its all done, dry the powder for a few minutes in a plate before you transfer into a container. 

This will store well for at least 3 weeks if stored in an air tight container. Enjoy!

P.S: While I was making this the other day, I became nostalgic. I cant believe so many years have passed since I was a little girl sitting beside grand ma and see her make this. Now, my husband sits beside me while I do this :)