ORANGE JUICE

Orange is a juicy fruit  which containts Vitamin C and fiber.  They are good source of folate, Vitamin A (in the form of cartenoids), B1, potassium, copper etc.    It also helps in protecting the skin, fight against viral infections,  helps prevent  cancer, lower cholesterol, regulates high blood pressure, kidney diseases and stones.

The fruit is very juicy and consuming as it is I prefer.  Sometimes my children wants juice so I make juice out of it and give them.  I always give them the seasonal fruits.

It it is sweet, then no need to add sugar, otherwise you may have to add little bit sugar.  The best way to make the juice is through a hand juicer or a plain juicer to get the juice out.  I prefer the plain juicer.

ORANGE JUICE

SOUPY BRINJAL CURRY

Soup brinjal curry I made was very easy and tasty too.  If you have some unexpected guests, this curry is very easy to make provided you have brinjal at home.   You can use potato, capsicum, onion and other veggies too to make this.  We can serve it along with rice, chapati, roti etc.

Normally in my house, my husband and children do not eat the brinjal but I am a fan of this.  I love to eat in the form of baingan bharta, bharleli vangi or brinjal dry subzi or poricha kuzhambu with raw banana and karamani.

I bought a big brinal to make bharta as my friends were supposed to come, but it got cancelled.  Hence I had no choice but to make the brinjal curry and took it to office to share with my colleagues.

You can either use the big one or small purple colour brinjals which we use for ennai kathrikkai.

SOPUPY BRINJAL CURRY

KOVAKKAI PORIYAL, IVY GOURD STIR FRY

Kovakkai, ivy gourd, thenli, tindora it is known as.  The white fleshy part of the thenli tastes like cucumber.  We can make kootu, stir fry subzi, along with black chana and pickles too. It can be served as a side dish for chapati, rice etc.

This vegetable contains Vitamn C, also filled with the set of vitamins such as beta-carotene, Vitamin A, Vitamin B1 & B2, in addition the properties of anti-anaphylactic as well as anti-histaminic.  It is believed that consumption of this veggie helps to lower fever. The prsence of anti oxidants in this veggie assists our body by eliminating various illness conditions, as per the study.

MANATHAKALI LEAF SOUP

I have posted the Manathakali Vathal Kuzhambu few minutes ago.  Now I am presenting you  the soup  which I made today  with the leaves as my neighbour's son was having some stomach issues and not eating the food for the past five days.  Since the manathakali leaves got the medicinal values and are good for the stomach, I decided to make the soup for him with the coconut milk.

After making the same, when I gave it to the mother for tasting it, she said it is really awesome.  Most of the parents are not aware of the herbal values and the home made medicines specially for the children.

Since I had the plant in my balcony garden, I could make it very easily and share it.

Manathakali leaves soup

UNDHIYO

Undhiyo is a Gujarati dish prepared with varieties of subzis available.  During winter, this is prepared as the ingredients in it helps in keeping the body warm and also varieties of vegetables are consumed by one as it is available seasonally.

Undthiyo is a delicious dish which can be served with puri, phulka.  I tried my hands on it for the first time and was happy with the result as it tasted "Awesome"

While speaking about mix seasonal  vegetables,  Undhiyo is somewhat like the  South Indian Kavathu Puzhuku or Thalagam  (minus the Methi Muthia) made by Keralites and Tamilians during Thiruvathira along with  Thiruvathira Kali.   In Undiyo,surti papadi is used, whereas for the South Indian version, papadi i.e avarakka is used.

 I have posted both the above recipes and let us look at the undiyo  recipe now:

MANATHAKALI VATHAL KUZHAMBU, BLACK NIGHT SHADE KUZHAMBU

Manathakali keerai, sukuti keerai or black night shades in english is very good healing stomach related ailments.    It is also known as Sunberry and Wonderberry.

The fruit as well as the leaves are having the medicinal values.  The raw fruit is soaked in curd and salt and sun dried for storing.  it remains for a longer period.  whenever you want can fry it and serve with rice, curd rice etc. or can use for vathal kuzhambu.

During our childhood, we used to pluck the fruit and pop it in our mouth though it does not have any kind of particular taste.  After moving to Mumbai, I used to see this plant on the compound wall or in the backyard of our office building.  Whenever, I get a chance to see this plant, I somehow remove it and bring home to replant the same in my balcony garden.  Same case, goes with sundakkai also.

Once I gave the ripe fruit to my son and he loved it.  Still he remembers  though he is 24 year old, eats it and tell his sister that you do not know the taste of it as she refuses to eat it.  When we were  very small, we used to call it chinna thakali (means small tomatoes).  I have seen an light orange variety during my childhood, but now a days, cannot see them.  We also had a purple colour chilli plant in our garden when we were small and used to wonder from where the seeds come from.

Coming back to the manathakali, after plucking the raw fruit from the plant, always put in salt water for washing as there could be some small insects in it.  If you put in salt water, it dies and can be removed after straining in the poori jaara.

We make poriyal, kootu, molagootal  etc.with the leaves but you need a sizeable quantity of leaves.  We make soup out of this and is excellent with coconut milk.  Even you can feed the children too as it will have mild sweet flavour because of the coconut milk which is again good for the stomach.

 I have posted  the photographs of the plant, raw fruit and the ripe fruit below.

click here: video

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.