Kozhukkatta - Steamed Rice balls - Guest Post

There are numerous food blogs in the Internet. There are zillion dishes cooked in the kitchen and are not blogged. Each one is a good cook on their own terms. Not everyone has the time/passion to blog about it. So I thought of inviting my friends/blog readers to contribute a recipe to my blog. I discussed this idea with few of my friends and they were happy to play along. I had told them any common dish they prepare is enough and need not prepare for the matter of posting it here. Some told me that they are not good at food photography and the like. And the recipes and photos may not be matched to an avid food blogger. All that matters to me , is showcasing their recipe, on my blog. And I plan to make this a monthly series.

My friend who calls herself Shivakami in her world (a Malayalam blog), sent me the following recipe. Now on to the recipe in her own words-

Ingredients :

Boiled rice – 1 cup

Salt to taste

Grated coconut – half portion of a coconut

Oil – 1 tablespoon

Seasoning
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon

Urad dal - 2 teaspoon

Small onions(cheriya ulli) - 8-10 nos, chopped

Curry leaves

Method
Soak rice for 3hrs. Grind it coarsely to a thick batter and mix salt. Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard, urad dal, curry leaves and chopped onions one after the other. Add the batter and stir well. Add grated coconut also and mix well.cook till the whole batter gets into a solid mass. Take out from stove. Keep idli cooker on stove. Make small balls of the rice mix. Place them on idli plates and steam cook for 5-10 minutes. This can be made using raw rice too. With boiled rice, kozhukkatais are more soft and has a nice texture.

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Bittergourd/Parikkai Palya

I have grown up eating all kind of veggies. There is no veggie that I completely avoid, i.e to say the veggies that I is cooked in my house. My appa was very particular about that. He did not want to hear us saying "I don't like this". Later on, knowing about the goodness of bitter gourd/parikkai, I see to that its included in our diet often. I am used to pitlai and dry subzis of this veggie. When Sia announced RCI, I was going through the bookmarked recipes from Sia for the on going RCI- Udupi/Mangalore at her blog and decided to try this. It turned out be very tasty and was enjoyed by all. Its very easy to make.





You need

Bittergourd/Parikkai/Pavakka - 2 medium sized
Tamarind - small lime sized
Jaggery - 2 tblspn
Turmeric - 1/4 tspn

Dry Roast and powder
Sesame seeds - 1 1/2 tblspn
Urad dal - 1/2 tblspn
Coriander seeds - 1 tblspn
Cumin seeds - 1 tspn
Red chilly - 4 nos
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

To temper
Oil - 1 tblpsn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Hing - few shakes
Curry leaves -few


Roast the spices together and coconut separately. Cool and grind the spices and coconut together with out water.

Wash and chop the bitter gourd into bite sized pieces. I used a variety which is light green in color and less bitter. So I chopped and used it right away. Else follow Sia's tips to lessen the bitterness. Mix the bitter gourd, salt, tamarind extract, turmeric and 1/2 cup of water and MW for 10 minutes. Check if it is cooked well. Else keep for another 5 minutes or so. Stir in the powdered coconut-spice mix and cook uncovered for 5-10 minutes till it is dry. Season with the tempering ingredients and serve with hot rice or rotis. Its spicy and has a slight sweet tinge from the coconut and jaggery. Tamarind and jaggery helps to mellow down the bitterness to some extent.