Bitter guard & Brinjal rice

On a cold night, after a tiresome day when you enter your home after work how will you feel when a piping hot bowl of flavorful rice with papads and pickles are presented before you ? Simply heaven right? My lovely mother showed me the heaven yesterday by her heartfelt love and this wonderful dish.

This can be categorized under a quick meal as she said it took less than 10 mins of prep work and the entire process took around 20 mins. Here comes the simple recipe! 

Ingredients:

Raw / Basmati rice - 1 cup

Water - 2.5 cupsBig onion - 1 (chopped)

Tomato small ones - 2 (chopped)

Bitter guard - 1/4 cup (chopped)

Brinjal - 1/2 cup (chopped)Ginger Garlic paste - 1 T

Green chillies (slit lengthwise) - 4 nos

Turmeric - a pinch

Salt - as per taste

Peanut oil - 3 T 

How to make it?

Wash the rice and add the 2.5 cups of water. Place the rice with water in the cooker and without closing the lid keep it on stove top with medium flame. Chop up all veggies and heat oil in the kadai. Once it is hot add the ginger garlic paste and fry them till golden brown. Now add the onions and fry them till they turn pink. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 more mniutes. Now add the bitter guard and brinjal along with turmeric and cook till the brinjal starts wilting. By this time the water with rice in the cooker will be hot enough. Add this veggie mix to it along with required salt, mix well, close the cooker lid and put on the weight. Cook for 3-4 whistles (depends on your cooker).

Serve piping hot with papad and pickles. You can have it with your favorite raita too.

Amma made a delicious curry with Nethili dry fish.  Believe me, bitter guard never tasted as good as in this rice!

Killi pota sambar - A sambar without sambar podi

Its a long while I posted any recipes in my blog. The work front is taking up most of my time and the rest was eaten by my kids Atlast I am posting a simple recipe (will be posting a series of them regularly) thats easy to make and will soon turn to be a comfort food. This sambar is named so becase its not-so-hot as the split red chillies alone are added to make it so. Since the splitting is called as “killi podaradhu” in tamil this should have got its name! From my experince this is a “kids favorite” as everyday morning I make this to feed my elder one with idlis.
And now coming to the recipe…
Ingredients:
Toor dal - 1/2 cup
A medium lemon sized ball of tamarind soaked in 1 cup of water
Red chillies - split into 2 to three pieces each - 2 nos.
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Onions (sliced thinly) - 1 Big Onion
Tomato (chopped) - 2
Garlic - 1 pod
Peanut oil - 2 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

How to make it?
Cook toor dal with 4 cups of water, asafoetida, garlic and turmeric until mushy. Squeeze the tamarind and get the extract (it would be around 1 cup). Add it to the cooked dal. Heat a wide skillet and pour the peanut oil. Once hot, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add the split chillies. Once the mustard seeds splutter add the onions and saute in high flame just for about 10 secs. The onions should still be crisp. Add the chopped tomatoes and saute further for 10-15 seconds. Add the toor dal + tamarind mix. Add required salt. Boil for another 5-7 minutes till the raw smell of tamarind goes off. Switch off the stove and enjoy with hot idlis or with rice. A spicy pickle will go well with this sambar and rice. This is our all time comfort food.