KOVAKKA THOKKU

I am a fan of pickle.  varieties of pickles I try even though I know that eating too much of pickle is harmful to our health which increases acidity due to the stressful life we are leading now a days.  But sometime, we need the pickle as accompaniment as pickle is part of our Indian food.

We make pickles usually with Mango, Lime, Wild lime, gooseberry etc.  Now a days, I have started trying the pickles with vegetables and fruits.

I have already posted one kovakkai pickle but this one is thokku in a different form. This pickle was appreciated by my colleagues and friends as they liked it very much.

Kovakkai thokku

video:

CARROT JUICE

Carrots are available in India in two varieties  - one is Delhi Carrot and another one is English carrot.  

Most of the benefits of carrots can be attributed to their beta carotene and fiber content.  This root vegetable is also a good source of antioxidant agents.  Further, carrots are rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B8, pantothenic acid, folate, potassium, iron, copper and manganese.

My children prefer to eat carrots raw and do not like to cook them.  If I put in kichadi or pulao, they remove them and keep aside.  Hence I always give them in the form of salad only.

My son always prefer to drink something cold always hence I very often make juice out of it.

Since summer is fast approaching, I thought of posting some juice recipes.

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: