HORSE GRAM CURRY, MUTHIRA KOOTU

Horsegram is or kulith or muthira it is called, is  rich in B-complex vitamins,  proteine and  highly nutritious. 

It is  commonly prescribed in ayurvedic medicine for conditions like difficult breathing, cough, gastric problems, ulcers, worm infections and excessive perspiration. Some alternative medicine experts even consider horse gram as a good remedy to control joints pain. It can be also used as a natural health tonic.    It tones up the digestive system and prevents acidity and flatulence. 

People suffering from spleen enlargement, colic and weak liver can also benefit from this plants medicinal properties. People with kidney stones, hypertension, gall stones also benefit from its intake.   
Let us have a look at the recipe now

Various dishes are made out with Kulith or horsegram or muthira.  One of the dish is presented here for you.

horsegram curry

RIBBON PAKODA, PAKODA, NADA,

Normally, ribbon pakodas are made with rice flour and gram flour.  But my friend Jayashree shared some pakodas made by her and it was very crispy.  when i checked with her how she made it, she shared the recipe with me which i am sharing with you all.

BANANA FLOWER THORAN, BANANA BLOSSOM THORAN, VAZHAPOO THORAN, BANANA FLOWER STIR FRY

Banana flower thoran is made of banana flowers finely chopped, cooked and garnished with grated coconut or crushed coconut with green chilli and cumin seeds.  It is a nice side dish for sambar rice, rasam rice, dal rice, chapti etc.

banana flower subzi thoran

BANANA FLOWER SAMBAR, VAZHAPOO SAMBAR, KHEL PHOOLCHI SAMBAR

Banana flower sambar is made like the normal sambar you make.  either you can use the ground masala or sambar powder instead.  

Banana flower sambar

Banana flower  preparation  is liked by me very much be it a thoran, sambar, pachadi, raita, vada or usli.  It is quite healthy, tasty and easy to make any thing out of it.   Here i am presenting the Banana flower sambar.  Normally I make the sambar without tamarind.  Yes, you must be wondering how to make sambar without tamarind..  Instead of tamarind, we can add amchur powder, tomato, kokum etc.  but i do not use anything of this frankly speaking but still it is tasty. 
banana flower sambar      banana flower sambar

KASHMIRI PULAO

Kashmiri pulao i tasted when we went to Srinagar around three years back.  Mr. Abdul who was our driver was kind enough to make us eat kashmiri pulao and  drink the famous Kava (a kind of tea they drink),  we liked very much and brought some tea packets which i still  have and enjoy once in a while. shall post the recipe soon.

This pulao is slightly sweet with mild spices, can be prepared easily.  The fried onions and nuts and fruits  adds more taste and flavour to this pulao.  It can be served with  onion, tomato, cucumber raita or lauki yakhni.  Lauki is called Al in Kashmiri and  Yakhni is a curd based sauce.  The lauki roundels are shallow fried and added to the  curd sauce which goes well with this pulao.  No garnish is made in this but for the photo, I have added coriander leaves as I like the same with the raita very much.

HEALTHY SALAD

Salad is part of every Indian meal.  Salads are made wth raw vegetables like cucumber, radish, beetroot, onions etc.  This salad i am presenting is slightly different.  You can make it within 5 minutes if you are fast in cutting veggies. It is slightly sauted and only salt and black pepper powder is added.  You can eat it just like that or can serve with roti, pulao etc.

Healthy salad

RAVA DOSA, SUJIDOSA, SEMOLINA DOSA

Rava dosa is instantly made without much hassles.  What you need is rice flour, suji/rava/semolina and little bit of maida mixed with green chilli, ginger, coriander leaves, cumin seeds, curry leaves if you wish.  While preparing this dosa, you have to be very patient as it take some time to cook properly unlike the normal dosa.   My mother used to temper with mustard seeds too in this. It can be served with chutney/sambar/pickle/curd/gunpowder and oil etc.  I love to eat the same with curd and lime pickle.

Rava dosa

BAMBOO SHOOT PICKLE

Bamboo shoot pickle is made out of bamboo shoots with kpra masala (ready made).

Since childhood, i have seen preparing bamboo shoot subzi but never bothered to look at it even though it was available plenty in our backyard.  one of my relative used to make something with the bamboo rice (mula ari in malayalam) i remember faintly.  after coming to Mumbai, years together i used to see the stuff in the market but never bothered to buy it.  But since for the past few months, I want to taste this stuff so thought of buying it last week.

JAGGERY DOSA, VELLA DOSA, SWEET DOSA, GUD KA DOSA, CREPES

Vella dosa, jaggery dosa, sweet dosa is one of  the favourite dish of my son.  My mother in law used to make them for him and he love this.  Whenever i ask him what you like of Thattimas's dishes (he used to call grandmother Thattima), he would say, one is vella dosa and another one is appalam kuzhambu.  he love the kuzhambu with chapati.

Today when I asked him what to make for breakfast, he said Kuch Acha that is his usual dialogue.  He never specifies what he wants to eat.

In fact, in search of Kuch Acha (something good), i took interest in cooking and today i am with my blog in front of you.  Tomorrow, one of you must be coming out like this.  Some one is behind your success. that is true.  Now coming to the recipe.

THATTAI, FLAT RICE CRISPIES

Thattai or flat rice crispies are made out of rice flour, urad dal flour with chilli powder and salt.  It is a very nice snack item too with a cup of tea or coffee.  During festival season viz. krishna jayanti or gokulashtami or ashtami rohini is called, Kai murukku, thattai, cheedai, vella cheedai etc. are the main dishes prepared in every household.


Normally, my mother in law make the Murukku, cheedai, thattai etc. with the same dough which is made for the murkku.  only variation is that in cheedai, we add black pepper, coconut grated and in thattai we add bengal gram.  I always follow her method as it is the perfect one for me.


She never  wait for any festival to come.   whenever she feels like make it, without any hesitation and laziness, she prepare the same for my children.

Now let us have a quick look at the recipe