Boondi Raita

My daughter had gone to her friend Saloni' place to play and she had lunch there. This was about 2 or 3 years ago. Although I have made this raita before that also, she enjoyed this raita so much at her place and has requested me to make this more often after that.


This is the most simplest of all the raitas. If you have the packet boondi, you just have to mix the salted beaten yogurt to it. If you want add bit if tadka to this or not, (your wish). Garnish with fresh corainder leaves and or some chaat masala, and you are ready to attack this.


My daughter loves it with all the tadkas, chaat masala and little kala namak.... :)


But the only thing is you can't have this sit at the table toooooo long before eating, because the boondi's will get mushy. The right time is about 10 minutes from when you add the yogurt, when the boondi's are soft on the outside and still crunchy on the inside.


Goes with vegetable pulav or any paratha....

Mooli Paratha - Radish Paratha

I have been meaning to blog about this for a long time now. It is quite simple to make it but requires some planning atleast 2 to 3 hours before you want to eat it, which is quite difficult in my kitchen, since I like to eat everything as soon as I start to cook :)

I followed the same exact recipe as this.
I used the daikon radish for this.
You will need

For the filling

1 Daikon radish or 2 to 3 indian radishes - grated
3 cloves of garlic - chopped finely
1 inch piece of ginger - peeled and chopped
3 small green chillies - finely cut
1 small handful coriander.
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
salt as needed

For the dough
2 to 3 cups of whole wheat flour
salt as needed

Grate the radish and add the garlic/ginger/coriander/salt and all masalas to it and mix it well and let it sit for an hour or so
It will let a lot of water.
Squeeze all the water and let the radish be dry.
Use that water to make the dough and proceed to make parathas like this.

I served this with some boondi raita!! Awesome.......

Vazhaipoo Paruppu Usili - Banana Flower Lentil Dry Curry

I have already blogged about the Banana Flower Lentil Gravy here, this is the other dry curry I make with this heavenly vegetable!

Please read the Lentil gravy post on how to cut this vegetable and refer to the Pole Beans Paruppu Usili post on how to make this vegetable.

This is an excellent companion to Vathakuzhambu, where I have written about this kal chetti. Please look at the video on how the vathakuzhambu is boiling even after the stove is switched off!

Instant Lemon Pickle (Another Version)

This is even easier way than this to make pickles.

Wash the lemons and dry them.

Cut in 8's and add Turmeric powder and salt and put it in the pressure cooker for 3 whistles.

When it is done, it will look like the pickle on the right. This tastes very good with plain curd rice.

If you add tadka to it it will look like the one on the left. This will not last lng since it is made this way so finish it fast.......

Please look to my this for all pickle spices measurements.

Winter Melon Raita

Winter melon is my husband's favorite vegetable. I always buy a whole one. I usually cut and freeze about half of it. When I freeze it, I store it in small freezer ziplocs so it will be easy to defrost and use the whole bag in a kootu or Sambar. Please note that you can use it only in gravy dishes as it lets a lot of water. If you want to make this raita, it has to be a fresh one. I also make Wintermelon Dry curry. Now we can talk about this Raita...

This is such an easy Raita.... All you do is just wash the winter melon. Peel the skin with a pareing knife, and take the soft stuff out, from inside. And then grate it well. Mix with beaten curds and give it Tadka.

Tadka -- Take some oil in a kadai, add some mustard seeds, when it sputters, add some green chillies and some slit red chillies, and some hing and add some curry leaves.

Tastes So Good........ with anything...

I have started adding raw Wintermelon to salads also, it tastes great in that also.

Daangar............

Sounds a lot like Danger, but it is absolutely the safest thing ever!

A plain pachadi (raita) becomes daangar when you add roasted the urad dal powder to the yogurt. In this case, I have made Vendaikai Daangar or Okra Daangar!

To make 2 large servings of this

You need

2 to 3 cups of Okra cut in an inch length

Thick Yogurt - beaten about 2 cups

Salt as needed

Urad Dal - 2 tablespoons

Oil - 1 teaspoon

Mustard - 1/2 teaspoon

Dry Red chili - 1

Asafoetida - 2 dashes

First

--->Roast the urad dal on a dry pan until it becomes rosy red...

--->Make apowder and keep aside

--->Take 1/2 of the oil and keep the stove on a low fire and start roasting the okra, slowly, until it gets brown. This will take a long time, since we are using very little oil. If you like, you could add more and do this faster....

--->Take the yogurt and mix the salt and Urad dal powder in it and then add the roasted okra to it

--->As a last step, take the rest of the oil and when it gets hot add the mustard seeds, and add the asafoetida and the red chili to this and pour it over the Daangar.

You can make daangar with any vegetable you make your raita with, you have to eat this as soon as this is made since the urad dal stays crunchy for a short time only.

Treat this like you would treat Boondi Raita...

Kanu.......

I missed a lot of Happy's......... so

Happy New Year!

Happy Bogi (the day before Pongal)!

Happy Pongal (or Sankaranthi for some)!

Happy Maattu Pongal and Kaanum Pongal!

I did celebrate all of the above, and since I was tooo busy celebrating couldnt blog about it! but Kanu is very important at our house, so my daughter and myself braved the cold weather in Atlanta and kept Kanu. I have to thank my son who came out and took the picture..

This is traditionally done in early morning, so all the crows can have at it.....

My cousin's wife helped me remember the thing you should say while keeping it,

"Kaakka pudi Vechen, Kannu pudi Vecchen

Kaakkayum Vaazha, Kannum Vaazha

Pukkaamum Poranthaamum Pongi Pongi Vaazha"

This is celebrated for the well being of your brothers home as well as the home you are married in to.

I have a lot of pictures waiting to be on this blog, so I will write about them soooooon