Arachu kalakki

Arachu Kalakki is a type of kadi that can be made in a jiffy. The name itself means arachu - grind kalakki -mix. So its just grind and mix to make this dish which gets done within 10 minutes.  My mom in law used to make this quickie whenever we had very little time to make dinner. In Tambram households one can always find baby mango (whole) pickles (vadu-mangai), usually home made when in season. My mom used to make mango pickle during summer when women carrying big baskets of baby mangoes used to sell them door to door. These will be washed, measured and salt added proportionately, and placed in big "Bharanis" and left to marinade. It will be a week or more before you can taste the pickle. Chillis and other spices are added to make chilli mango pickle.

The glory of mango pickle is exalted in this saying which i have heard my amma say "matha ootatha sadam mangai ootum" meaning even if your mother does not feed with her own hands, if you have mango pickle you will eat the rice.

So why did I say so much about the mango pickle in a blog post for arachu kalakki? Well pickle is the important ingredient in this dish. If you do not have baby mango pickle, you can use amla(gooseberry) pickle too. On our recent trip to India I picked up a couple of bottles of vadu mangai pickles. But they were so very spicy that we could not even take a bite without downing a couple of glasses of water, so I set them aside for the arachu kalakki.

Ingredients
Vadu Mangai -- 3-4 baby mangoes with some gravy
Coconut flakes - 5 tbsp
Asafeteida(hing) - 1/4 tsp
Cumin (Jeeragam) - 1/2 tsp
Red chillis - 1-2 (optional- depends on the spicyness of the pickle)
Salt (optional again depends on the pickle)
Yogurt (preferably sour) - 4 tbsp
Water as needed

Tempering
Cooking oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 0.5 tsp

Garnish
Curry leaves - 5-6 leaves shredded

Method

1. Grind together all the items under ingredients to a smooth paste by adding required quantity of water. Taste test and add salt or chillis as needed and grind again.
2. In a saucepan pour the grind and add water to bring it up to desired consistency. Put on medium flame.
3. Once the liquid starts to froth, remove from heat. Do not boil as the yogurt and water will separate. Add the garnish.
4. Prepare the tempering and pour over the grind.

Arachu kalakki is ready and is best eaten with rice and idiyappams.

Gujarati Daal (Lintels)

In one of the recent dinner parties we went to, a good friend of ours served this amazing dish. It was so light and tasty that I had rice and naan as an accompaniment to this as a main dish!!! This daal is a common dish in a gujarati household but is definitely an indulgence in my home which I will keep making time and again. I have made some small changes to the traditional method of preparation like adding moong daal and since I did not have kokum I substituted with amchur powder (dried mango powder) and lemon juice.

Ingredients
Toor Daal -- 1 cup
Moong Daal - 1/2 cup
Tomato - 1 no medium size
Green chillis -- 2 nos chopped
Turmeric - a pinch
Ginger -- 1 tsp grated
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Amchur Powder - 1/2 tsp
Perungayam (Asofeteida/ Hing) - a pinch
Lemon juice - 2 tsp
Jaggery (gud/ vellam) -- 1 tsp powdered
Salt to taste
Curry Leaves - 4-5 leaves chopped
Coriander Leaves  to garnish
Water as needed

For Tempering
Oil/Ghee - 1/2 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin Seeds (Jeeragam) - 1/2 tsp

Method
1. Wash the daal and pressure cook the daal along with chopped tomatoes, green chillis, turmeric, water and a couple of drops of oil. The oil will not let the daal to overflow when cooking.
2. Once cooked remove the daal mixture from the cooker. Add water if necessary to make a soup like consistency.
3. In a deep vessel, add the cooking oil or ghee and mustard & cumin seeds. Once the mustard seeds splutter, add the cooked daal.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients except lemon juice and coriander leaves. Cook for 5 minutes until all the ingredients blend together nicely. If needed add more water to daal to maintain the soup consistency.
5 Remove from flame and add lemon juice, mix well and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve warm with rice, chappati, naan for a simple yet delicious meal.

More (curd/yogurt) Kuzhambu

As a family we are a huge fan of curd/yogurt in its many forms. One of our all time favourite side dishes is the more kuzhambu /pulisseri/ kadi. "More" means curd in tamil and this dish is called pulisseri in Kerala. It used to be prepared in my home back in India when the curds turned very sour over the span of a few days and could not be used for making thayir sadam (curd rice).  It just needs a couple of vegetables and is very easy to prepare. Whenever I make this more kuzhambu my family ends up asking for more with the last drop being slurped up.
Traditionally its made with cucumbers, ash gourd etc but I love the taste of potatoes and carrots in a curd gravy. So this is my version of this recipe.

Ingredients
Potatoes - 1 no: cubed
Cucumber -- 1/4 cubed
Carrots - 1/2 a carrot (if big) diced
Turmeric
Salt to taste
Curry leaves - 5-7
Water - 1 cup

For Tempering
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chillis- 1 no broken into 2-3 pieces

For Grinding
Sour Curd (yogurt) - 1/2 cup
Coconut shredded - 1.5 tbsp
Jeeragam (cumin) - 1 tsp
Red chillis - 2-3 nos as per spice level
Water - 1or 2 Tbsp

Method

1. In a vessel boil the vegetables until al dente and add salt, turmeric and curry leaves.
2. Grind the said ingredients into a thick paste and set aside.
3. Pour the ground mixture to the boiled vegetables. Reduce heat and let the mixture froth. Do not let it boil after adding the ground mixture because the Kuzhambu will become watery as the curds separate.
4. Crackle the mustard seeds in a kadai and add the tempering. More Kuzhambu is ready to serve and tastes best with rice or sevai (rice noodles). 

Aviyal

One of my all time favourite dishes is aviyal. It is an important side dish for all festival and auspicious lunches. My mother once told me that the origin of the dish was infact due to a totally different reason. Sometimes the lady of the house will find that she has a small quantity of every vegetable and each not enough to make the required quantity of a dish for the whole family. So the aviyal came about.

Ingredients

The vegetables for avial are chenai (suran or elephant yam), cucumber (indian variety preferable but you can use field cucumbers too), ash gourd, carrots, beans, long beans (payar), zucchini, drumstick, cheeni avarakkai, eggplant all cut into 1" length thin pieces. Raw mango is optional and only one half of the mango is needed. Potatoes too can be added but you will not find this in the traditional recipe. Most of these vegetables will reduce in quantity when cooked, so you will need a medium sized bowl amount of uncooked veggies for a family of 4.

coconut oil - 3 tsp

shredded coconut - 3tbsp (fresh or dry)

red chillis -- 4-5 nos according to taste

tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp(reduce quantity if you have added raw mango)

Jeera / Cumin -- 1/2 tsp

curry leaves -- 1 sprig

turmeric powder - a pinch

salt as per taste

water

Method

In a deep vessel put 1 tsp of coconut oil and then add all the cut veggies along with water to cover half the quantity. Add salt, turmeric and semi cook the veggies. An alternative is to cook the veggies in the pressure cooker with a little water for 2 steams. In the meanwhile grind the coconut, cumin and redchillies to a semi smooth paste and set aside. Once the vegetables get semi cooked add the tamarind paste and let it mix well and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the coconut paste, mix well. Make a well at the center of the aviyal and add the remaining coconut oil and curry leaves, cover it with aviyal from the sides. Cover the vessel for a few minutes and then switch off the heat. Your aviyal is ready.

Another version of aviyal is made by using sour curds(used instead of tamarind) and green chillis (used instead of red chillis), and omitting turmeric. The rest of the method is the same and the result is a white aviyal.

Aviyal Kuzhambu is made by the same method, but you need to add little more water so that the dish has gravy. It is best eaten with ghee rice with or without any other side dish accompaniment.