Tomato Gojju

click here to read in Tamil.தமிழில் இங்கே படிக்கலாம். 
Yesterday, feeling bored, I was surfing tv channels. So many news channels..... giving their own versions and trying to make even trivial matters as sensational news. As I was surfing, suddenly I saw myself landing in a kitchen. The chef was busily cutting a heap of tomatoes. What could he do with so much of tomatoes.....I wondered. My curiosity allowed me to stay there for a while.

In the course of chef's conversation, I came to know that he was preparing tomato gojju.I continued to watch. After watching the show, even I tried my hand on this recipe.A very simple recipe , but with a great taste.

To my surprise, this recipe had a warm welcome at home too.

Let me share the recipe with you now.

All you need to prepare this:

1. Tomatoes ---- 1/4 kg.
2. Turmeric power---1/2 tea spoon.
3. Redchilly powder/Sambhar powder---3 or 4 spoons(as per your taste).
4. Salt to taste.
5. Jaggery crumps -- a fistful.
6. Asafoetida--1/4 spoon.
To garnish
7. oil--- 2 spoons.
8. mustard seeds a little.
9. fenu greek seeds/methi-- one spoon.

Preparing Instructions:

Wash the tomatoes well before cutting them into small pieces. Keep it aside.Pour a spoon of oil in a pan and heat it. Then add mustard seeds . When mustard starts popping, add the fenugreek seeds. When fenu greek seeds turn golden brown, add the cut tomatoes.To that add turmeric powder, chilly powder, salt and jaggery.Mix it well. Pour a little water for the tomatoes to get cooked. Close it with a lid and simmer the gas. Stir it now and then. When the tomatoes get cooked, remove the lid. keep stirring the tomatoes till the gravy thickens to a smooth paste consistency.

Remove from fire and garnish it with asafoetida.

Wow! The flavour is sure to sail with the wind and bring back neighbours to your kitchen.

Puttu

Puttu -  A south Indian delicacy. To be more precise puttu is one of the traditional food that  can be found in any  Tamil  kitchen. let us see how to prepare this.

All we need is

1. Fried rice flour/ Idiyappam flour  --2 cups.
2. Jaggery -----1/2 kilo ( increase or decrease according to your taste)
3. Grated coconut --- 1 cup.
4. Powdered cardamom - a little.
5. Cashews -a little. 
6. Ghee -- one or two spoons 

 .

Preparing Instructions  :

First let us prepare  a thick string of jaggery. To prepare this, powder the jaggery. Put it in a bowl. Add water. Bring it to a boil. Remove from heat and pass  this jaggery water  through a strainer to get rid of dirt. 

Now start heating the strained jaggery water again. Add the grated coconuts and keep stirring. This will take some time to turn into a thick string. If you drop a little of this jaggerystring  in a cup of water , this string will not dissolve. At that time you can add powdered cardamom and remove from heat. Keep it aside. Let itcool.

Then, add a teaspoon of salt to a cup of water and heat it. When it becomes a little more hot, than warm remove from heat . Sprinkle this warm water over the rice flour just to make the flour wet and mix it. Let it not turn into a dough.The rice flour should still  look like powdered flour except for it is wet. Keep it aside for half an hour. 

 After half an hour keep this flour in an idli cooker and cook till the flour gets cooked. (Do not put on the weight of the cooker) It wil take 15 to 20 minutes for the flour to get cooked.

Then remove from heat. Spread this flour in a wide mouthed bowl. Smash the lumps. Then add the jaggery string slowly .to the flour and mix. Little by little add the jaggery string to the cooked flour .You can add the jaggery string to your taste. Garnish with  cashews ( fried in ghee).

If there is jaggery string still left out don't worry. You can keep aside. It has a good shelf life. You can use it afterwards for anyother delicacy .

Your Puttu is ready to serve. If need be you can add ghee while serving. 

Enjoy the delicacy  and ofcourse don't forget to give me a feed back.

Sweet Bitter Gourd Gravy (Paagarkai pitla in Tamil)

Bitter gourd can be turned into a sweet dish with a little effort. Let us see how to make the bitter gourd taste sweet.

For that all we need :

1.  Bitter Gourd  1/4 kilo.
2. Tamarind  (size of a small lemon).
3. Turmeric Powder 1/4 tea spoon .
4. Sambar Podi  to your taste.
5. Grated coconut  2 teaspoons.
6. Salt to taste.
7. Powdered jaggery 2 to 3 teaspoons.
8. Oil to fry and garnish.
9. Mustard  to garnish.
curry leaves and coriander a little.

To fry and  grind:

Asafoetida a little.
Dhaniya   2 teaspoons.
Bengal gram dhal( Channa dhal)  2 tea spoons
Raw rice  2 tea spoons.
Red Chillies  2 or 3

Cut the bittergourds into small pieces.
  
Pour oil in pan. Heat it. Fry the asafoetida and then fry the rice,dhal, dhaniya and red chillies  till they are golden brown. Put all these fried ingredients along with grated coconut  in a mixie  jar, powder it , add water  and  grind to a paste. The paste should not be very fine or smooth. Let it be  a little coarse , so that the consistency of the gravy will be good. Otherwise it will become  very thick and sticky.

soak the tamarind in water  and extract  the juice.. Let the juice be a little watery

Now, heat a little oil in the pan. add mustard seeds. Let it pop. Then add the curry leaves and the cut bitter gourds. Fry a little. Then add the tamarind juice . Add salt,turmeric powder, sambhar powder. Keep in mind the red chillies you have ground , when you add sambhar powder.

Let the bittergourds  get cooked. After that  add the  ground paste to the bittergourd.  When the mixture starts boiling , add the jaggery. After the jaggery get dissolved , remove from fire. If you keep the gravy on fire for a long time  it might get thickened to a paste. The consistency should be like  sambhar.
Taste the  gravy. If need be ,you can add sambhar powder/ salt/ jaggery.

Serve it Hot. This goes well  with rice.

Don't forget to  serve it with lots of love and affection. 
Iam sure that will make a world of difference in taste .