Khatti Meethi Chutney

I am just back from a short holiday and it was so much relaxing to take this leave as we desperately needed a break from work. We needed this break badly as it's been a year since we hadn't taken any. I am back to work in high spirits!

As a continuation to my previous post for Khaman Dhokla, I am posting the recipe for Khatti Meethi Chutney with tamarind and dates. Amma makes this often at home and I am inspired to learn from her. This is one of the simplest and the easiest methods to make and can be used in many other savories, like chats and dips. It calls for no fuss, no cook recipe and can be done in minutes.

I prefer the use of dates due to it's natural sweetness instead of sugar. Dates have a great taste and sweetness that can be easily substituted for sugar. Apart from that, it's also to derive the health benefits from it as it is rich in iron content. This fruit is affluent in natural fibers, sugar, proteins as well as many essential vitamins. So here it goes.

1/2 cup of dates
1/4 cup thick tamarind pulp
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chilly powder
Salt to taste
A little water

For tempering:

1 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
Few broken red chillies
A sprig of curry leaves

Just put all the ingredients to a mixer and pulse them till they become a thick paste. Add water to adjust the consistency. It's good enough to consume this way, but tempering would enhance the flavors further. So heat some oil in a pan, add mustard, cumin seeds, broken red chillies and curry leaves. Fry them for a min and then add to the prepared chutney/dip. It's ready to serve!

The ones that are commonly used in chats or in street foods are made by heating tamarind pulp with sugar and spices till it comes to a slightly thick consistency. It stays for a longer duration. However, as I mentioned this is a quicker and healthier version, this one has a shorter life span and needs to be consumed in a day or two. It will also require refrigeration if it is not consumed in a day.

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Khaman Dhokla

I am inspired a lot by my amma's cooking. I think most of us are. Somehow or the other our cooking is influenced by the way our mums' cook. The tastes, the ingredients, particularly the spices, all in a way do have an effect. I think we are all brought up in a significant manner and lifestyle which varies from one household to the other. Our food and taste buds are accustomed to particular spices.

Back home, amma is a little low on spices. She makes sure that the food is tasty, healthy, appealing to taste buds, not overly hot or spicy and happily eaten by all... from kids to elders. It is always a mélange of spices, sweet, salt and tang. After marriage, I was greeted into a family who loved spice and oil. I think my mother in law consumes a litre of oil in one week, which would otherwise last a month at amma's place! Though I love spice, I take pleasure in indulging in it once a while, but despise eating everyday. I like it light and easy on the tummy.

My cooking is a mix of both cultures. These days, my husband understands the health benefits of medium spice and appreciates it well. I make sure it's just rightly spiced and low in oil, so that it can cater to health benefits.

Over this weekend, I made this Khaman Dhokla. I have made this one couple of times earlier and was loved by my hubby and his parents as well. It is mildly sweet which caters to my nibbles, has enough spices that caters to their likings well. Khaman Dhokla dressed well with tadka and served with accompaniments like Khatti Meethi Chutney and Pudina Chutney can leave your mouth tangling and craving for some more.

Here's what we need:

For Dhokla:

1 cup Besan / Chickpea flour
2 tbsp Rava/ Semolina
1 sachet Eno fruit salt
1 tsp Sugar
Salt to taste
A pinch of Hing/Asafeotida
A pinch of turmeric
1 tbsp oil
1/2 cup water / buttermilk

Make a dry mix of all the ingredients in the list from 1 to 7. Finally add in the oil and the buttermilk and mix well to avoid the lumps. Next transfer to a clean greased plate (1 1/2 inch in height) and place it in cooker. Ensure enough space is let in the vessel for the dhokla to rise in height during the cooking process. Cook without weights on medium-low for 15-20 mins till done. Insert a fork to test. It should come out clean, else cook for some more time. Once done, allow to cool a little so that the dhokla can be removed easily.

Next give a good tadka to the prepared Dhokla. For the Tadka here's what we need:

1 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
A sprig of curry leaves
2 chopped chillies in rounds
1 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp lime juice

For the tadka, heat the oil in a tempering pan. As the oil heats, add mustard. Next add curry leaves and green chillies. As they splutted add sugar and water. Finally add lime juice and turn off the gas immediately. Allow the dhokla to cool a little. Then add this tadka on top of the dhokla. Dhoklas are soft and fluffy and will absorb the water. This gives a nice moistness to it. Cut into sqaures and serve. Serve this with Khatti Meethi Chutney and Pudina Chutney. This also serves a great snack at a high tea!

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Chiwda

Since our childhood days, one of the most common tea time snack back home was always a bowl of Chiwda. And amma always made sure that she would promptly prepare a big batch of chiwda once the old batch was almost getting over. Even today she makes this one without fail. She enjoys this a lot and is a must for her evening bites over a cup of tea. Off late I had been missing this a lot. One morning, I set out to make my batch of Chiwda. I made it similar to my amma's way. However, amma makes it less spicier than I do. I just loved this one so much that I made another batch of these again, but instead of puffed rice, I made them with the paper rice. They were just fantastic. A pass time snack that one can munch on any day at anytime.

My perfect way of relaxing and unwind on a weekend evening is to lazy on the couch... listen to my favourite numbers on my ipod... sipping a hot cup of tea with a big bowl of chiwda. That's my get-away...

Here is what we need:

250 gm of puffed rice
100 gm roasted peanuts
5-6 green chillies, chopped in rounds
1 tbsp mustard seeds
3 tbsp oil
1 tsp turmeric powder
5 sprigs of curry leaves
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Roast puffed rice till crisp. Keep aside. Heat the oil. Add mustard. Let it splutter. Next add curry leaves, chopped chillies, peanuts and fry them well. Add turmeric, salt and sugar and immediately turn off the gas. Add the puffed rice and mix well till all the spices are mixed. Allow to cool completely and store in an air-tight container. This stays well for a long time. In case the puffed rice lose their crisp, toss them to micro and reheat them or roast them to remove the absorbed moisture and become crisp again.

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Havyaka lunch

I have come across so many bachelors and friends who actually crave eating a simple home cooked meal. Dal-Chawal! I too felt the same during my single-hood days! Every time I came back home from college, tired and torn by the day's activities, one thing that I would look forward to was fulfilling my hungry tummy. These were the days when I was staying alone by myself. Just a morsel of good home cooked food was what I craved for. The thought of going to the kitchen and cooking a meal for myself was good on mind, but was lethargic to do so. Or more so, I think it was the boredom to eat all alone. But of course, I would make them at home on weekends... that meant treating myself.

Every time, I went home for vacation, it meant feasting myself on amma's food. Amma's food is just unbeatable. Just the thought would make me yearn to go back home, sit on the table and relish the hot food that comes out of the kitchen to the table, lovingly cooked and fed by amma. A simple home food can not only be healthy, but more satisfying and fulfilling. Today, I appreciate the care and efforts that she took to feed us lovingly every single day without any qualms. I know what it means to cook a full meal, to be careful that it is healthy, tasty, filling and lovingly fed.

I am sharing with you my plate of lunch made over the weekend. A full meal, the Havyaka way with Hesaru KaLu Kai HuLi, Bendekai palya, Eerulli gojju served with rice and homemade amTekai uppinakai. Uddin happala and curd may be missing in this pic, but is definitely a part of this meal! And to end with a sweet note, nothing can be better than Shavige payasa.

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Hesaru KaLu Kai HuLi

I love the use of garlic in roasted form. They are so intense and can impart such great flavors to a recipe. Garlic may not compliment all dishes, considering it is pungent. Not everyone would even savor it's taste. But to me, I just love it! Considering it is good for heart, it gives me more excuse to use them often!

Amma's Hesaru KaLu Kai HuLi is one of my favorite Havyaka dish which tastes heavenly when tempered well. There are few ingredients that can make or take flavors away in a South Indian cooking. The secret behind a great tasting South Indian food is in it's tempering. And many of the gravy dishes do call for a good tempering... tempering in the right way. Another go get ingredient is the use of compounded hing/asafeotida. This is very different from the powdered stuff that we get. I find the powdered hing that we get is nothing but a dry powder which has no taste or flavours. This works good for recipes that don't require the hing flavors, but for an authentic Manglorean HuLi recipe or gassi, the compounded one is a must. Try them yourself both the ways, you bet you'll know the difference.

Hesaru KaLu Kai HuLi

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sprouted green gram/hesaru kalu
A little more than 1/4 cup grated fresh coconut
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
2 tsps coriander seeds/dhania
1/4th tsp fenugreek seeds/methi seeds
4-5 red chillies (I used Byadgi chillies)
1 small lemon sized tamarind (soaked in warm water)
1 tsp powdered jaggery
A little compounded hing/asafoetida

For tempering:

1 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
3-4 curry leaves
5 cloves of garlic, crushed in a motar & pestle

DIRECTIONS

Pressure cook the sprouted moong dal with salt and turmeric until they are soft. Dry roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, methi seeds and red chillies till they are just browned. Grind the cooled dry roasted ingredients along with coconut and tamarind to make a smooth paste. Add this masala paste to the cooked moong dal. Add little water if required and bring this to a boil. Adjust salt, add jaggery and allow this to come to a boil. Mix the compounded hing in a little warm water or probably remove a little curry out into a cup and mix in the compounded hing. Add this to the boiling curry. I always use compounded hing/asafoetida for these kind of recipes as the flavor it imparts to the dishes is just out of the world. I don't think this curry would be even closer to what it should be without this!

Next the temper. In a small pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add curry leaves and chopped/crushed garlic. Add this tempering to the above prepared curry and cover immediately. Mix well and serve. Goes very well with hot rice.

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