Ridgegourd peel chutney (Beerakaya tokku pachadi)

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  Beerakaya pachadi (Ridge gourd chutney) with combination of white & brown rice.

  Ridge gourd is one of my favourite vegetables. It’s so soft and sweet that it just melts in your mouth. Not just the inside part, I happen to love the skin too. Though it has that rough look and texture it makes a very good pachadi(chutney) when cooked with the right Indian spices.

  This picture was indeed taken a couple of months back. Actually when my mom was here she used to make it very often. That’s when I took this picture.

  

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  Recipe:

  Peel of Ridgegourd (Beerakaya)-1 cup
  Urad dal- 2 tsps
  Cumin and coriander seeds- ½ tsp each
  Dry red chillies- 6 to 8 (adjust acc to your spice level)
  Garlic pods- 2
  Little bit of tamarind soaked in water and
  Salt to taste

  Wash the ridge gourd, peel and chop the skin discarding the pointed edges.

  In a pan put 1 tsp of oil and fry the urad dal, cumin, coriander and red chilies till light brown color.
  Remove and in the same pan add 2 tsps of oil and fry the ridge ground till it becomes little soft.

  Now in a mixer add the dry spices and grind to a powder. Then add the ridge gourd, tamarind, garlic pods and salt and grind to a smooth paste.

  If you mixer rejects to grind add little bit of water (not too much) that will work.

  Serve the pachadi with some rice and ghee.

  

kobbari pachadi (coconut chutney)

If there is any one statement that can, in a nutshell, describe the Andhra kitchen, it is: Andhra food is hot! Local legend say there was once a severe famine in the area and all that grew, and grew well, were chillies – red chillies, famous in a place called Guntur in Andhra. So people made as many dishes as possible with chillies….more info here

Andhra meal is not complete with out a pickle, popularly called as pachadi. Andhra is popular with its different types of avvakayalu(pickles) which stay from few months up to a year. In addition, Andhra house holds are also popular for instant pickles. We call it roju vari pachadulu (day- to-day pickles), these pickles should be used in max 2 to 3 days.

One such is the kobbari pachadi. All the ingredients used here are raw. This was one of my favourite pachadi which my mom used to make. I definitely miss that flavor here in U.S. My mom used to grind this pachadi in a mortar. You can use the mixer or food processor, just make sure to grind the coconut coarsely.

 This is my entry to Ashwini’s Jihva for coconut

Ingredients:

• fresh coconut - half
• green chillies-4 to 5
• a small red onion-1/2
• tamarind juice- few teaspoons
• curry leaves

Procedure:

Break the coconut and use half of it. Cut the coconut in to small chunks.

Grind the chillies, coconut, tamarind juice and salt coarsely. Make sure not to make a paste out of it.

Now add some chopped onion and just give a pulse. You should still be able to see some chunks of onion.

Do the popu or tadka with ( 2 tsps oil, few mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp chana dal, cumin seeds, 1 dry red chillie and curry leaves)

Add the tadka to the coconut chutney and enjoy with some hot rice.

Note: Adjust the chilies and tamarind juice according to your taste.

 Recipe: amma

Green coconut chutney

                     

This kind of chutney is very common in karnataka, Venkatesh’s home state. As I am from andhra, I didn’t know much about this chutney untill I got married. In the beginning I was not a big fan of it, may be because I was just used to my mom’s way of cooking. But now I like it very much and this is one of my favourites.

In karnataka there are two ingredients which people try to incorporate in every meal- coconut and jaggery/sugar. I sometimes tease my husband saying that, like Italians who put cheese in anything and everything, you guys put coconut and sugar in everything. But one thing i agree is that coconut defintely makes a meal rich and tastes good.

Ingredients:

• Daliya ( roasted chana dal/chanaga poppu)- 1/2 cup
• grated cocount- 1/4 cup
• green chillies- 6
• coriander (cilantro)
• sugar- 1/4 tsp (optional)
• lemon juice
• salt        

Procedure:

Grind all the above ingredients with some water in a mixer to a smooth paste. Now do the popu or tadka with ( 1tsp oil, few mustard seeds, few curry leaves and a pinch of hing). Mix this popu into the chutney and serve with dosa or idli.

                    

                                    Green coconut chutney with semiya (vermicelli) idli