Dill Raita

Dill was on sale in my local Indian store.I wanted to make the Dill Raita as an accompaniment to the Aloo Paratha I was planing to make for dinner. It was as simple as can be.
Dill - One Bunch (probably 1 cup washed ,chopped and filled tightly)
Yogurt - 2 Cups
Sour Cream - (Optional) 2 Tablespoons
Salt - As Needed
Garnish
Oil - 1 tsp
Garlic - 4 Cloves (Chopped)
Ginger - 1 Inch Piece (Peeled and Chopped)

--->Wash the Dill
--->Drain it well
--->Chop it
--->Beat the Yogurt and Sour Cream well
---> Mix in the Chopped Dill
--->In a Pan, add the oil, and when it gets hot, add the chopped garlic and ginger to it and saute for a few minutes
---> Add the garnish to the yogurt and dill mister.
--->Just before serving add salt, so it doesn't get watery

An option is to ad some cucumbers to this, in case you dont like the stong taste of Dill. It is tastes better than the tzatziki you get from costco!

Serve with Hot pulav or Roti or Paratha 

Cucumber Raita

As with any Raita, You start with good Yogurt. I make my own. I got this Culture from a Friend, Vasanthi. In case I lose the culture for what ever reason, there is a yogurt group which also includes my cousins, so there is a back up...

So take the Yogurt about 2 to 3 cups, beat it well....
You Need
Yogurt - 2 To 3 Cups Yogurt
Cucumber - 3 or 4, peeled and chopped or grated
Ginger - 1 inch piece grated
Salt - as needed
Black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Red Chilli powder - Optional - Pinch
Chopped Coriander - a handful
Method
--->Add the cucumber, grated ginger, salt and Black pepper to the Yogurt, and mix well
--->Now just spinkle the red chilli powder and Coriander

As an extra option,
You can add Tadka to this also.......

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....

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...