Cabbage kottu

Ingredients:

Cabbage-1 cup
Boiled channadhal-1/2 cup
Onion-1
Tomato-1
Ginger garlic paste-1/2 tsp
Chilli powder-2 tsp
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Salt-requried

For seasoning:

Mustrad-1/2 tsp
Curry leaves-10

Preparation method:

1. Heat the pan,add 3tsp of oil,add seasoning ingredients,allow it to popup.
2. Add onion,g.g paste and chopped cabbage.saute well.
3. Add masala powders and salt.saute well.
4. Add chopped tomato and cook until it will become soft.
5. Add 2 cups of water and allow it to cook the cabbage.
6. Finally add boiled channadhal and mix well.
7. Allow it to cook for 5 min and garnish with coriander.
8. Serve hot with roti or rice.

Urulaikizhangu Podimas - Potato Lime Curry

URULAI KIZHANGU PODIMAS

Potato Lime Curry

One of the most common and all time favourite curry in South India, our blog would be incomplete without a post on the simple Urulaikizhangu Podimas. This post is also for my daughter’s friend who says that she lives in ‘white bread country’, and has no access to these dishes, unless she tries cooking herself!

The literal meaning of podimas is ‘mash’. Urulaikizhangu podimas is the name given to mashed potatoes. Indian kitchens are always equipped to convert any bland dish into a very tasty delicacy with just a dash of the right spices, and mashed potatoes are quickly transformed into this delicious and versatile curry.

My children loved to eat urulaikizhangu podimas curry rolled in chapattis during their tea breaks at school. It also makes delicious filling for sandwich toasts. Combined with a scoop of sautéed onions it becomes an irresistible filling for the masala dosas. It goes very well as a side dish with poories, and although an unusual combination, it goes very well even with the hot spicy bisibele bath!

This very same curry goes into the making of the famous potato buns baked at all Iyengar bakeries as well. Whenever I visit my close friend she welcomes me with a plateful of potato buns which is her ever favourite dish. We chat and chat for very long hours while the quartered potato buns add spice to our conversation!

INGREDIENTS:
Potatoes – 6 medium size
Lime – 2
Salt – 2 level tsps
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Cooking oil – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Black gram dal (Urad dal) – 1 tsp
Bengal gram dal (Channa Dal) – 1 tsp
Asafoetida – 1 pinch
Curry leaves – a few
Chopped Green chillies – 3
Coriander leaves – a little
METHOD:
1. Wash and cook the potatoes in the pressure cooker. Or you can boil it until it is soft and can be easily mashed.
2. Once the potatoes cool down, remove the peels.
3. Crumble the potatoes one by one by, by gently pressing it between the palm and the thumb.
4. Potatoes should not become mushy, and neither should there be very large lumps.
5. Extract the juice of the lime, and add salt and turmeric powder and keep it aside.
6. Heat oil in a pan and the mustard seeds.
7. When it splutters add the dals and fry till they are golden in colour.
8. Add asafoetida and the chopped green chillies.
9. Add curry leaves, followed by the lime juice, salt and turmeric mixture.
10. Stir once and switch off flame immediately. This is done to remove any raw smell from the turmeric. Be careful to switch off within a second, as prolonged heating will make the lime juice bitter!

11. Now add the crumbled potatoes and blend with all the seasoning.
12. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.

Enjoy the urulaikizhangu podimas curry in any of the combinations you like.

This post goes to FIC Yellow event at Tongue Ticklers.

Mozart's Hidden Kitchen

It's Mozart's 253rd birthday today.

That got us thinking about a Hidden Kitchen story we did two years ago when impresario and activist Peter Sellars created the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of Mozart's birth. Peter agreed to produce this Festival as long as there was not a note of Mozart in it. Instead, he wanted to present people from around the world who are creating art in the revolutionary spirit of Mozart -- musicians, dancers, filmmakers, sculptors, installation artists, farmers, chefs, school lunch ladies...

It was the part about the farmers, chefs and school lunch ladies that made us travel to Vienna to see how culture and agriculture link to each other and to the beauty and vision of Mozart.

"Mozart's Hidden Kitchen & The Tables of New Crowned Hope"

Have a listen