Bhakshanam

Palak  – Spinach

The information i had in my mind about Dhaba was completely different from what wikepedia could explain.  In Bangalore, when you are on  a casual one day trip to near by places you can find so called Dhabas on the way, although we never ventured into it.  So far i have just visited once when we from NIIT batch took a two day crash trip to Coorg.  I hardly remember the place, as it was night.  All remember was eating roti and Palak Paneer.

Myself is all open to taste different kinds of curries, but my family mostly comfortable with south indian stuffs.  So there is a wide range of punjabi food i have never got a chance to taste.

Coming to Palak recipe, I have a habit of rechecking known recipe from different resources when i cook something different from our regular routine food. The reason being i am not cooking that particular dish very often.  But the Palak dish, i managed to do it on my own without any help from any of regular references.  I never googled,  checked cookbooks or asked friends. And i am making this dish in my own way since so many years.  So its a dish i feel,  i have ‘invented’ and is close to my heart. BTW, it tastes good.  Everyone likes this in my family.

The Palak remains the same, Paneer can be replaced with potatoes, peas or cauliflower florets.

(4 servings)

Ingredients,

Spinach(Palak)  -  4 bunches (approximately 300 gms cleaned leaves)

Onions – 2 large, cut into bite size pieces

Tomatoes – 2 medium, blanched and pureed

Ginger – 1″ or 2″

Garlic – 1 small bulb( 15 small pods)

Chilli powder – 1/2 tsp

Green Chillies -4  long ones

OR

Chilli powder – 1Tsp

Green chillies -  2 long ones, slit

Everest Kitchen King masala – 1 tsp

Garam Masala powder  – 1 tsp

Oil – 2 tbsp

Garnishing,

Butter – 1 tbsp

Lemon – cut squarely

Onion – cut your way(rings or chopped)

Green chilli – 1 or 2 slit

Potatoes – 2 medium sized, cut into bite size

Salt

Keep – ready,

Boil enough water in a big vessel along with little salt.  When water starts boiling cut the flame and add cleaned and washed Palak into the boiled water and close with lid.  Keep aside for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, grind onion, ginger and garlic into fine paste, keep aside.  Blanch the tomatoes to make thick puree.  Take out the Palak and immediately wash it with cold water to keep the green colour in it.

Start – cook,

Preferably use nonstick pan.  Heat the oil in the pan,  Add up Onion ginger garlic mixture.  Fry at medium flame till the mixture turns dry and lightly brown.  Add tomato puree to this.  Increse the flame and fry the ingredient till oil spearates.  Add Everest Kitchen King masla and chilli powder and little bit of turmeric.  Fry nicely.  Add  nicely ground spinach to it. Stir continuously so that Palak paste blends with the other ingredient.  Add 1/2 cup water.  Partially close the lid.  Keep the dish on sim for 10 minutes.  Add Garam masala powder and slit green chillies and mix well.

Shallow – fry,

Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a frying pan.  Add potatoes and keep sauteing till the potatoes are golder brown and cooked..  Add  potatoes into Palak gravy.

Garnishing,

Garnish with butter, green chilli and onions,

Take a bite with

Roti, naan, kucha, chapathis, poori or puttu.

Ragi – FingerMillet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_millet

Ragi Muddey – Ragi flour cooked and shaped into balls

Bassaru – ‘Basida Saaru’- Filtered liquid curry

Chikkudu kayi – Chapparada avarey kayi- Indian Broad beans

Oggaraney – Seasoning

Ragi Muddey:

It has been a big break from the blogging.  But always kept updated about blog world, popped in my favorite blogs once in a way though never had time to comment on, cooked few dishes learnt from bloggers.  Some still keeping in touch, loads of thanks to them.

Coming back to namma Bengaluru(my Bangalore) much later after a forced  good stay at abroad, the memories are slowly unwinding, i would rather say my nostril are opening up with olden aromas, which is hard to believe that once Bangalore used to be the place where i could sense these smells.

I am not sure in this so called Bangalore metro anybody can feel these aromas any more, but sure to feel  it in country side if it has still not lost its innocent ambience. That was how my father taught me the ‘culture’ of picking  the aroma of hot Ragi balls that is being cooked outside a hut, as a food for poorer lot  especially while driving or riding back home late evenings.

It used to be kind of very tempting hot smell of wood fire, aluminum vessel and ragi flour getting cooked. Once the smell is sensed, you are assured of a family close by, though there are no lights to be seen anywhere around.  My father just survived on those Ragi balls for those many years and little rice.  Its amazing to know that in many parts of Karnataka, its still a staple food in most of the households,and people with same interest and respect  make those muddey.—————————————————————————————————————————-

For those of you, who are really adventurous foodies and would like to taste a bit of every part of India can try this making at home with little Ragi flour available in most of the super markets. Those of you who really liked the taste can go through the elaborate process of storing large amount of Ragi flour and add  up in everyday diet, as Ragi is rich source of calcium.

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Then goes the following procedure of making muddey.

Try for one person, that is to try with yourself

Ragi flour – 100 gm

Water -  200 ml

salt – little or not required

Ghee- 1/4 tsp

Very simple procedure, but needs a li’l bit of practice.

Boil the water in a aluminum vessel along with salt and ghee and little powder.  Simmer it and add up Ragi flour, little by little simultaneously whisking the ingredient, with a wooden spoon or a small but thick stick, so that there should not be any lumps formed and slowly it gets thicker.

Close the lid and keep on low flame for about 2 min’s. Cook to desired consistency.  Put off the burner.  Take two big spoonful of  paste , place it on a wooden top and roll on it to make balls with wet hands when it is warm.  Eat with Ghee if you are not calorie conscious.  Ruchi also has a variation in ragi mudde preparation, check it out!!

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Bassaru:

This is typical village charu or saaru or watery curry which is cooked with one or more vegetables and lentil or whole moong with different kind of greens.  There is distinct combination when using vegetables for this curry.  What adds up to the curry is the combined flavor of vegetables and masala that goes together. This is a typical curry that goes very well with Ragi muddey.

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - Yellow Lentil  -  150gm

Cabbage  – 100 gms chooped

Chikkudu Kayi - broad beans – 100 gms chopped

The quantity of each ingredient varies according to the taste as some can prefer vegetables more or some may prefer lentil more.  But this  can give approximately 4 servings of dry fry.

For masala:

Coconut – 2 Tbsp

Tamarind – half lemon size

coriander leaves – half fist full

onion – one small chopped into two parts

huli pudi – sambar powder (home made or Shakthi Sambar powder) – 1Tbsp

Jeera – 1/4 tsp

curry leaves – two strings

Cooked toordal cabbage chikkudu – 2 tbsp

Pallya oggaraney - dry fry seasoning

Oil – 1Tbsp

Mustard – 1/2 tsp

Red chillis – 2 long one broken into halves

Curry leaves – one string

To start with:

Boil lentil with water in a vessel till Lentil get little more than half cooked.  Add Cabbage and Chikkudu and cover cook till the vegetables get cooked.  Drain the whole ingredient, so that the Lentil and vegetables are separated by thin kattu or liquid of dal water.  Keep aside both.

For Dry fry,

Now the dal and vegetables should be allowed to cool completely, make sure that dal is not over cooked.  Add pallya oggaraney.  Dry mix the vegetables for a minute or two along with salt and oggaraney.

For curry,

Fry one part of onion, cumin seeds and curry leaves in oil till transparent.  Add coconut, tarmarind,  hulipudi, coriander leaves and second part of raw onion. Blend all the ingredients to a fine paste. Add, 2 Tbs cooked toordal cabbage chikkudu mixture.  Grind again to fine paste.  Mix the paste with drained lentil water or kattu. Bring to boil.  Add salt.  Oggaraney with mustard and curry leaves.

No..No.. i am not back yet.  I was feeling sick that i missed Sailu’s JFI -Dal event. Yesterday, i just happen to pass through her blog, found that event is still waiting for the round up. Anyway, i know i am too  late, but i did it!!

Life has been little hectic and more chaotic …yes..guessed it right, it would have been better if it was really hectic and less chaotic… i dont know i am not seems to be systematic any more. Kitchen is all packed and set to move this week end (i.e Friday,). Somehow was feeling odd to cut a sorry figure to Sailaja for not participating in the event. Then, I just remembered long forgotten whole black gram still in my store, and went to a neighbour with a cup to get some Rajma(kidney beans).

Dal Makni in my kitchen was a disastrous project couple of years back with a potful of brown water and dive through to find some black dal at the bottom. The imporved rather a tasty(ofcourse, when i add two tablespoon of butter!) version of Dal Makhni, am contributing to Sailu’s JFI – Dal/Lentils.

Soak overnight

Whole Black gram(whole urad dal) 1 cup

Kidney beans 1/2 cup

Boil soaked beans mixture with 3-4 cups of water along with

Turmeric 1/4 tsp

chilli powder 1/2 tsp

till the beans becomes broken and mashy.

Grind

Onion 1/2 of medium size cut into chunks

ginger 2″

Garlic(Indian) 1/2 bulb

Splutter

Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp in oil 2 tbsp in a sauce pan.

Fry

Onion 1  medium finely chopped and ground ginger-onion-garlic paste till transparent.

Toss in

ripe tomato 1 medium chopped and 4-5 slit green chillies, and fry till the oil separates.

Sprinkle

Red chilli powder 1/2 tsp (preferably Kashmiri, if so 1tsp)

Coriander powder 1tsp

cumin powder 1/2 tsp

Fry the mixture for 5 minutes.

Pour in cooked dal mixture into the saucepan. Allow it to boil for 10 mins.

Stir in 3 tbsp of Butter, (those weight watchers, pls… cant help, its Dal makhni!!), 2tbsp Kissan Tomato puree(taste enhancer), Garam masala powder 1/2 tsp, Salt to taste.

Garnish with 2tbsp finely chopped fresh Cliantro and 1/2 finely chopped onion.

Pantry notes: Kissan Tomato puree, gives that rich taste to the curry. You can omit this if you are adding fresh puree of 2 small tomatoes and have to fry in the beginning along with chopped tomatoes after frying  onions.

Why do i mention its kannur style is because, there is one more place called Payyannur, which is just few kilometers away from kannur, in Kerala, has a different preparation, called payyannur style. The taste of fish curry varies with such short distances.  Ofcourse, there are plenty of variations in the uniqueness of the flavor in its own neighbourhood.

Though i have not done any fishing expedition on this aspect, but i find in coastal part of kerala, being fish as staple, almost similar kind of ground paste or masla is used in all the fish curries except that it uses different kinds of fish in every curry and so that the taste varies according to the flavor of the fish.  This is why, a very low spiced flavor in masala is prepared, so that flavor of the fish dominates the taste of the curry . In a nutshell, taste of the curry depends on the taste of the fish.

But, after all this there is one more important factor that enhances the taste is, clay pot. After more than a year of my marriage, and self instructed cooking classes, i found that peparing curry in the clay pot can enrich the taste to perfection. The subtle flavours of masala is enhanced, without much altering the flavor of fish by using chatty.

On my first field trip to kerala, from Bahrain, I packed my bag with one such chatty found in the local market. All set to go back to Bahrain after a long vacation of one month, and in the airport, i was warned at the customs, as i had put this object in my hand bag which was not allowed. My belly luggage was fully jam packed leaving no room for any squeezes.  At that moment, i felt i can just leave that clay pot somewhere in airport. But chatty had mesmerized me for what so ever reason. People around me were big eyed what would be my next foolish act.  But above all, i felt if i am not carrying this oldy goldy, i am going to miss something in my taste for next one year. That is it!! i was not ready to compramise on that. I pulled out some of my saris( can manage with salwars for one year), and chatty was secured under the cloths safely.  Those, crème de la crème and sophesticateds around, found me very ridiculous and nutty.  But soon they changed their mind (i think!;)) as they saw me on seventh heaven.

Its been four years and chatty is part of my everyday cooking.  chatty gets conditioned when it is used everyday. My husband’s grandmother, feels for it, if she breaks an old chatty by some mishap. Because conditioned chatty gives that authentic taste to the food especially when you cook fish curry in that. It takes years for the clay pot to get conditioned.

When a clay pot is newly bought, it has to be soaked in water overnight to filter away the impurities.

Here goes the recipe,

Chatty ingredients:

Fish Any kind of fish, 1/4 kilo, cut into pieces, or 4-6 medium king fish

Red chilli powder 1 tsp

Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp

Salt 1tsp

Green Chillies 4 medium (halved and slit)

Curry leaves 2 strings

Ginger 1 tbsp (crushed finely)

Tomato 1 medium (cut into small pieces)

For paste or masala:

Coconut  1curd cup (grated)

Tomato 3/4 small (cubed)

Turmeric  1/4 tsp

Red chilli powder 2 tsp

Cumin seeds 1 tsp

Additions

Pulp of one lemond sized Tamarind

Recipe:

• In a conditioned claypot, add chutty ingredients, in the same order as mentioned above.  Keep aside.
• Take Masala ingredients in a blender/mixer, fine paste them by adding little water.
• Take out the only fish from chatty, keep aside.
• Add the ground paste into the chatty, pour two cups of water and mix the ingredients throughly with clean hand.  Allow the mixture to boil on medium heat for 15 minutes.
• When the curry thickens, place the fish one by one into the chatty, allow it to cook in medium heat.
• When fish is almost cooked, stir in tamarind pulp. Boil till end.
• Add salt and tamarind to desired taste.

This is a simple, easy-to-cook recipe for those who likes the exact taste of fish. For appetite appeal, we can fry 1/2 finely chopped onion, fry till brown in coconut oil, pour it over the curry.