Kadamba Poriyal

Kadamba poriyal is a combo of beans, carrot and cabbage poriyal. In southern Tamil Nadu, we call this poriyal as Kadamba poriyal. Its such an easy and less time consuming dish. In Tirunelveli, this poriyal is done in almost all marriages and functions. Lets see how to make this simple dish.

Ingredients:

Carrot - 2 medium sized.
Beans - 10 to 12 in numbers.
Cabbage - Less than quarter of a medium sized whole cabbage
Grated Coconut - 3 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Red Chilli - 1
Small Onion - 1 peeled
Mustard, Jeera, Chopped onions - few for seasoning

Preparation Time: 20 mins

Servings - 3 persons

Method:

Clean and cut the veggies into small pieces.

In a flat base pan, add very little oil, Once heated, add mustard, jeera. When they splutter, add onions and saute until they become brown. Now add the veggies together and add 1/4 glass of water.

In mixer, grind together coconut, jeera, red chilli and small onion into a coarse powder.

Sprinkle the coconut powder on top of the veggies. Adjust salt and cover the pan with lid.
In another 10 mins, the veggies will cook fully. Add curry leaves and then switch off the flame.

Kadamba poriyal is now ready.

Suraikkai Koottu

Suraikkai / Bottle gourd is such a good cooling agent, it can be taken often during this hot summer. It helps in weight loss also. We can prepare a variety of dishes with Bottle gourd. Today lets see a simple kootu with suraikkai.

Ingredients:

Suraikkai - 1 medium sized
Moong Dal - 1/4th of the cut quantity of bottle gourd
Green chilli - 2
Grated Coconut - 3 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Small Onion - 1 peeled
Garlic - 1 peeled, minced, for seasoning
Onion - finely chopped, for seasoning
Curry leaves - few for seasoning
Mustard, jeera - few for seasoning
Corriander leaves - few for garnish
Curry leaves - few for garnish

Preparation Time: 20 mins

Method:

Cut the bottle gourd into small pieces after peeling the skin. Wash moong dal and boil both in a pressure cooker. Let it whistle twice.

Now grind together coconut, chilli, small onion, jeera into a fine paste.

Once the bottle gourd and dal are cooked well, heat oil in a pan. Add few mustard seeds and jeera. Once they splutter, add finely chopped garlic and onion. When they turn brown in color, add the cooked suraikkai and dal to the pan. Now add the coconut paste and adjust salt. Let it boil for 5 mins. At this time, the raw smell of jeera will be gone, Add few corriander leaves and curry leaves. Switch off the flame.

Simple Suraikkai kootu is now ready. It goes very well with Kaara kulambu and rasam.

Baked Mushroom

Mushroom is fully loaded with antioxidants and health beneficial nutrients. Lets see how to make baked mushrooms. Its very time consuming too. It can be taken as a healthy evening snack.

Ingredients:

Portabella Mushrooms - 1 or 2
Pepper powder - 3 to 4 tsp
Salt - As needed
Olive oil - To toss
Lemon - 1/2

Preparation time: 15 mins

Method:

Clean and cut the mushrooms in linear size.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Now add pepper powder, salt, olive oil and squeeze lemon to the mushrooms. Mix it well and put it in the oven.

In 5 to 7 mins, turn the mushrooms upside down to cook the other side of mushrooms too.  Switch off the oven in 5 mins. 

Baked mushrooms are now ready.