CHENA VARUVAL, YAM CHIPS

Potato chips, banana chips or Yam chips, we like to have it with rice and sambar, rasam or with curd rice.  This can be served with coffee/tea or just have it as it is.  I remember during feasts, kaippakka-kondattam-bitter-gourd-vathal and chena varuval are  the important items in the banana leaf.

Chena means Yam, Suran.  Like we make the banana chips, Yam also can be fried very crispy.  If you do not want to deep fry, you can put them in the kadai and keep stirring occasionally for sometime, you will get crispy chips but it is bit time consuming.  However, both ways, it is quite tasty.

MURINGAPOO MOLAGOOTAL, DRUMSTICK FLOWER MOLAGOOTAL

I am a nature lover and wherever I go, I always bring one plant, seed or a branch to plant it either in my balcony garden or in the society.  Today, as I was coming  from Happy Street from Upvan Lake, I happened to see the drumstick tree with full of flowers.  I could not resist myself from plucking one branch of the drusmtick plant and brought home.  I used the flowers with leaves  for making molagootal and planted the branch in my society which I was longing for quite some time.

Molagootal is a mild spicy dish with any vegetables or leafy vegetables with either moong, masoor or tur dal with coconut, roasted urid dal, fried red chilli and cumin seed paste added to the vegetables or leafy vegetables.    We can serve it along with phulkas, chapatis and rice.

Let us look at the recipe now:

PALAK KOFTA CURRY

I like green leavy vegetables prepared  in a simple way along with curd rice very much.  Spinach has a sweet flavour and is rich in vitamins A and K, folate, iron.   We can add the same while making omlete or in paratha, adai, dosa etc.  Puris are another option to mix this.

Since so many days, I wanted to try the palak kofta curry but somehow, could not try it.  Yesterday after coming from the office, I made it a point that I must make it and serve it along with hot phulkas which is made by my maid very late so that we are able to relish the same hot.

As I had planned and the ingredients were available, it was bit easy for me to organise it quickly for making the same.  Though it took some time to prepare it, the end product was really yummy.

BHEL KURMURA VAZHATHANDU SABUDANA FRYUMS

Bhel, the street food of Mumbai who does not know about it and are very rare that one has not tasted this when they come to Mumbai.  I used to make sweet kurmura with it for my children whenever they wish to eat as they love them.

Recently I posted the Aralu Sandige i.e Puffed rice fryums.  The curiosity to try with bhel  kurmura was there ever since I tried the Aralu Sandige.  Since I am making this for the first time, I thought  I will try it with one cup of kurmura.  Vazhathandu (banana stem) we always chop finely and put in the killu karuvadam when we make it during summer.  So I thought of adding the chopped banana stem in this.  While making it, it was not binding properly so I added 2 tbsp of sabudana which was kept for making sabudana kichadi.

Since the first attempt was successful, I thought of posting the same here as I wanted to share with you all because you all will love them to have with a cup of coffee/tea or with rice, sambar, rasam or with tomato rice etc.

ONION FLOWER SUBZI

When my cousin contacted me long time back to give her recipe for making subzi with onion flower.  I was quite surprised that onion flowers are available in the market.  Seriously, I have not seen them before till such time, I bought it yesterday from the vegetable vendor.

When she asked me about the recipe, I told her to explain to me how it looks like and honestly, I searched in google but could see varieties of onion flowers and was stunned to see the colourful pictures.  However, I gave her the recipe comparing the same with the green onion or known as spring onion subzi.

When I got them yesterday, I decided to make the subzi with potato and the fresh onions from the spring onion.  It was quite tasty and loved  it along with the phulkas and rice.

One must adopt the practice of including greens in their diet atleast once in a week. greens are always good for health.  video

FLAX SEED THOGAYAL, CHUTNEY

Flax seed has got many health benefits.  It helps in reducing the bad cholesterol in the body.  It can be consumed as it is or in the form of chutney, powder, thogayal or can mix it in the roti flour while making roti.   I had shared the recipe of flaxseed chutney with  www.simpleindianrecipes.com: flaxseed chutney.

Flax seed also linseed is an excellent source of two fatty acids that are essential for human health - linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid," but also, an excellent source of fiber and a good source of minerals  dietary fiber, mnganese, vitamin B1, Omega.

<sup>It also helps in prevention of hot flashes, controlling blood sugar, cholesterol etc.  One must always remember when you  have some advantages, there is also disadvantages.  Side effects associated with flax seed consumption are Flatulence, stomach pain, Nausea, constipation, diarrhea and bloating.  These are the information after browsing through the net.

Any item consumed moderately does not have much side effects.  Since I have triglycerides more, I made it a point to add one teaspoon flaxseed powder in the chapati atta every day.</sup>

I have already posted  in my blog  the flax seed  idli.  pumpkin, flaxseed gun powder, instant flaxseed dosa.


Here I am presenting another variety of thogyal/chutney which goes well with dal rice, dahi rice, dosa, idli etc.

AMLA WAFER, NELLIKKA VARUTHATHU

We all are familiar with the Amla chutneys, pickles and jams or murabbas, juice, amla supari etc.  This Indian Gooseberry may not be liked by everyone due to its taste, but this wonderful fruit has got many health benefits.

You can have eat this raw, put in salt water and keep.  whenever you want, remove and make arachukalaki with coconut and green chilli with little curd.  this one is my favaourite.

This is also known as Amlakka or Amlakai or Amla, Avla etc..  Other names are Usiri Kaya in Telugu, Nellikkai in Tamil and Nelli in Malayalam.   It is rich in Calcium. The health benefits are linked here:

Recently, one of my friend told me that they used to slice the amla very thinly and sun dry the same and make raita out of it.  I just want to try this hence I had purchased 250 gms of this amla and kept for drying.

I was bored and could not get sleep in the afternoon, I thought I will try making wafer of this. You will not believe it was quite tasty.  Those who love to eat amla will definitely like this for a change.  You may feel strange, but it is worth trying.

BHEL KURMURA UPMA

Upma is served for breakfast as well as in the evening along with a cup of tea or coffee.  We make various kinds of upma viz. suji, lapsi etc.  Since I was bored of eating the regular stuff, I thought of making the kurmura upma.  It is pending since long in my list so I tried this and was quite tasty.

Other varieties of upma:
vari tandulachi upma
vegetable upma
adai upma
methi leaves upma
sevai rava upma
tomato upma
bread semiya upma
kuthiravali rava upma
roti upma
sabudana khichadi


video

RADISH GREEN SUBZI

Greens are always good for health.  I always try to make use of the greens of radish, beetroot, colacasia, knol khol etc.   Here I have used the greens of radish and made a simple dry subzi out of it.

TAMARIND SEED DOSA

I have already posted tamarind seed gun powder.  Now I tried the dosa and was quite tasty like the normal dosa.

You have to take little pain to prepare the seeds as you have to roast it, remove the outer skin and soak it.  Bit tedious process but for a change, worth trying it.