Thotakura Vepudu - aka Land Cress

It was a cold grey and wet morning, with only me in the house!  I didn't really feel like cooking as there was some leftover rice, rasam and cauliflower poriyal in the fridge.  I was feeling a bit restless wanting to take a little walk in the garden despite the wetness.  On the pretext of empyting out the compost bin, I ventured out with a plastic bag tucked into my jeans - hopeful that I may find something of interest in the garden!
I found a few plants of landcress which were doing brilliantly!  They were in fact getting ready to set seed by sending up flower spikes.  The leaves were massive and glossy, much bigger than what I had collected over the summer, and were a bright deep green.




I got busy grabbing them in handfuls and headed back to the kitchen giving them a thorough wash in 3 changes of water.  Rather than tediously draining them I gave them a quick spin in the salad spinner and roughly chopped them up.




I found three cubes of frozen chopped spinach remaining solidly frozen even though they were the remmants from what I had used to pack my sons lunch last night.  I also found a small container of sliced onions which made my job so much easier.






I love garlic with any kooraku - greens, so sliced a few cloves of these and quickly did a tadka using mustard seeds, and 2 red chillies; adding the onions and garlic, followed by the cleaned cress and the frozen spinach.
It took about five to maybe seven minutes to get ready, at which point I threw in  a  handful of grated coconut that I keep handy in the freezer door, and my kooraku was ready for eating.


I am not giving a recipe here as I didnt measure the amount of land cress I collected.  At a rough estimate on chopping it would have provided about three big cups at least. Onions used would have been about a half cup.

It was gorgeous with the peculiar flavour of the land cress and the pepperiness of it which makes it one of my favourite greens!  The next time I will add some crumbled goats cheese instead of the coconut and let you know how that turned out!

Murrukku

I am craving murukkus! And when the craving hits me I need to succumb to it. If I were back home in India it would be a simple matter of either getting our reliable maid to buy some for me or for me to take a walk to the shops and choose from a variety of snacks and murukkus that the local sweetmeat shop has on sale!

There's a lot to be said for indigenous foods in each country; and I have grown to love and appreciate the multitude cakes and pastries in England. What I find lacking is a good range and variety with savoury snacks. Apart from the roasted nuts and crisps it is uncommon to walk into a store or bakery and find any mouthwatering savoury snacks to delight the palate.

This recipe for murukku is one that was given to me by a friend; and is made with mostly rice and roasted gram flour. Some may consider it tedious but believe me when I say it is well worth the extra effort!!

Ingredients

Boiled rice (puzhungal arisi or uppidi biyam) - 4 cups

Roasted gram flour (pottu kadali, chutney pappu, putnala pappu) - 3 cups

3 teaspoons chilli powder

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

2 tsps jeera or white sesame seeds (ellu, nuvvulu)

50 gms butter

Wash and soak the rice for about 6 - 8 hours.

Grind it using minimal water in the grinder - I use the Ultra Grinder (table top). The resulting paste should be very smooth and free of any gritty particles of rice. When you take a pinch of the paste and rub between your thumb and finger it should be smooth, you should not feel even the tiniest of resistance from uncrushed rice.

Powder the roasted gram and sieve it so it is free of any bits which may cause the murukku to spit or burst when put into hot oil.

Prepare the area for making the murukkus by clearing the counter space and spreading a thick folded sheet on which to press out the murukkus.

In a large kadai or fry pan pour oil so it is half full. Aim to have about 3 - 4 inches depth of oil, and ensure that there is ample space for cooking the murukku. allow for the oil and murukkus to bubble up, which means the depth of the pan needs to be at least 8 inches for safe cooking.

Start heating the oil, keeping a jalli ganta (jalli karandi) or vada kambi to move and remove murukkus ready.

Add the gram flour to the rice paste, mix well.

Add chilli powder, salt and mix it.

By now you should be having a fairly large ball of murukku dough. To this add the butter working it uniformly into the dough amd finally add the jeera or sesame seeds.

Take handfuls of the dough/paste and fill the murukku mould, press out small circular rings onto the sheet.

Fry one murukku or even a small piece of the paste, and when cooked check to see if the salt and chilli proportions are to your liking.

Once you have pressed out a few, use a flat spoon like the dosa ghanta (dosa karandi) to scoop up the murukku and drop carefully into the hot oil.

Turn the murukku over and when it is golden all over remove from the oil. Drain and transfer to another bowl with paper towels to absorb excess oil.

Lip smacking - Gongkura Pachadi

One of my earliest memories of eating 'Andhra' food. Just the mention of Gongkura can bring tears to my eyes! Tears of near anguish mingled with joy on account of the fiery nature of the pachadi which in true or traditional style is very very hot!

This dish is not one of my husbands favourites so I do not make it frequently. On the occasions when I can get my hands on the gongkura and prepare a pachadi, I wait for that first moment when I put a mouthful of hot rice mixed with the pachadi and getti pappu, not forgetting a generous dollop of fragrant ghee or 'nei' and relish the varying sour and kaaram tastes that hit my tastebuds and gets them alive.... not to mention the sensory overload to my salivary glands that has me literally drooling!

Recipe to follow...

గొంగ్కురా పచడి

Chakkara Pongal to delight the soul

At Sankranthi, (Pongal) one immediately thinks of pongal, the sweet variety.

It is the highlight of the festival with the whole family looking forward to the sweetness and comfort of rice, dal, sugar and ghee, not forgetting of course the obligatory cashew and green raisins.

As a dessert or sweet dish on every other occasion the humble chakkara pongal is quite often overlooked. What's not to like in this dish? It is filling, comforting and full of flavour on account of the dal and cardamom used to flavour it.

Recipe to follow shortly

It is more than a couple of years since I started this post, and it is high time this is completed.

It seems to me that with every passing year the cooking communities are reaching out to each other to pinch an idea here and there to give a new twist to their own traditional ones. I am referring here to the 'rice pudding' which is a pale comparison to our chakkara pongal. Recently I have seen English programmes giving their pudding a makeover by adding caramel to it, adding generous doses of butter and brown sugar. All it remains for someone to do would be to change the flavouring by adding cardomom to it, and garnishing it with some fried cashew nuts and hey presto there you have it....... chakkara pongal. Of course it still wouldnt be the same, without the addition of our paruppu to lend it the nutty richness we all love so much.

So here is the recipe as we make it in our family.

Ingredients

Raw rice - 1 cup

Moong dal - 1/3 cup (can be increased to 1/2 cup if preferred)

Jaggery - 1 1/2 cup (increase or decrease to suit your palate)

Cardamom - 5 to 6

Ghee - 4 Tbsps

Split cashews and green raisins a handful

Pacha karpooram a pinch

Milk (optional) - substitute half the water mentioned below for milk.

Method

Wash the rice and dhal and cook in the pressure cooker with roughly two and a half times the amount of water. I reduce the flame to simmer once the first whistle sounds and remove it from the hob after five mins.

If cooking on the stove top cook the grains till they are well done and easily get crushed when pressed between your fingers.

While the rice and dhal cook, make a syrup of the jaggery by powdering it roughly and adding 1/2 cup of water to it. Let it cook till the jaggery melts, filter it to get rid of any dirt or sediment. If you find a lot of 'scum' rising to the top as the jaggery is heating remove this before filtering.

Take a heavy bottomed vessel and place it on the stove.

Add the cooked rice and dhal. Pour the melted and strained jaggery syrup and cook till it gets absorbed.

While the pongal is coming together, fry the cashew nuts and raisins in a tablespoon of ghee and set aside.

Crush the cardomom seeds to fine powder and add it to the rice and jaggery mixture.

Stir well, add the remaining ghee to the pongal and cook for a further few minutes.

If you are using the pacha karpooram, crush and powder this adding it to some milk. Pour this over the pongal and mix well.

Now add the fried cashew and raisins and remove.