Sunday, January 25, 2009

A delicious and simple lunch!

The last 2 weeks have been hectic for us here. First it was me who fell sick and then hubby caught the virus from me! I had not cooked for almost 2 weeks as I was too weak to eat and leave alone cook. I did not have the interest nor the energy to cook. Initially, I had fever and cold. Then the cough appeared. The cough syrups did not give relief neither did any of my home remedies. After few sleepless nigts rushed to the doc who gave some syrup and tabs. Within two days it worsened and again we met the doc and this time after taking an X-ray he put me on anitbiotics. Finally with medicines and home made remidies I am doing much better. In the mean time hubby dear caught cold and fever! both of us were coughing together. Luckily he has a week long holidays for the Chinese New year.. which starts from tomo. I will make a post on Chinese new year soon. 
Yesterday I was longing for something simple and quick along with some fries. My taste buds had gone really bland and were craving for something deep fried. It had been ages since I had fried anything. Thus decided to make a simple meal of rice, horse gram stir fry and horse gram saaru with cauliflower fry!
I am sending the horse gram stir fry over to Srivalli who is hosting My Legume Love Affair - Seventh helping which the brain child of Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook.  

Horse gram happens to be one of my fav lentil. It has a very funny story behind. Growing up, I used to always fall every now and then. I dont remember even a single year when I have not fallen! Be it inside the house, school playground or even temple! Whenever I used to come home after falling my mom used to joke and ask me "paay ponu ailie ve?" meaning Did you bow and come?!! After coming to Shanghai until my parents visit I had not fallen. I was mighty proud and told them one day. The same day we were just planning to go for walk and I was walking over the foot path and suddenly my ankle twisted and I was just about to fall but some how I didn't! Mind you I was not even wearing heeled shoes.. it was simple running shoes that I was in. You can imagine the look on my parent's face!! Anyway's due to this my elder brother always made fun of me and told mom to feed me Horse gram everyday so that my legs would becomes strong! Usually horse is fed horse gram and it is said that due to this it has strong legs and can run fast!
Such is the link between me and horse gram!




Anyways, here is the recipe:
Kulitha upkari 
3/4 cup horse gram
2 Green chilli's slit
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds 
oil
a generous pinch of hing/asafoetida
2 tbsp freshly grated coconut
Salt to taste
Procedure:
1) Pressure cook horse gram with lots of water until soft. Strain and reserve both the horse gram and the water.
2) Heat Oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add the cooked horse gram, salt, green chillis  and hing. You can little water too so that the salt is uniformly distributed.
3) When done garnish with freshly grated coconut and serve hot.

To make kulitha Saaru,  Boil the reserved liquid from cooking horse gram. Add two slit green chilli's and salt to taste. Give it a rolling boil. Prepare a seasoning by heating little oil and adding 4-5 crushed garlic cloves. Fry them until nicely browned and pour this over the Saaru. Enjoy with steamed rice :)









This is slightly different way to make the cauliflower bhajji's. I learnt this from my uncle who is a very good cook. His recipe is an all time hit in our family.  I have blogged about his cooking in one of my earlier post. I cannot give you the exact measure to make this as I just add the ingredients as and when necessary. I love this method of frying since it does not absorb a lot of oil and tend to become very crunchy.
I usually soak the bite sized cauliflower in salt and turmeric water to remove any dirt of worms. Ater 10 mins wash them well. In a bowl, add in the washed cauliflower pieces, red chilli powder,salt, jeera, besan, around 2 tbsp of rice flour and hing powder. Do not add any water at this stage. Mix well. The water from cauliflower usually helps to form the paste. After mixing if needed add little water (do not add much to make a paste) and besan as required until the florets are well coated with the mixture. Let it sit for 10 mins. Then Heat oil. While heating oil my uncle usually suggests to keep stirring the oil and when it turns hot deep fry the florets in batches on medium flame until crisp and golden. Enjoy hot.
I made a very small batch of the bhajji's and we enjoyed it with rice, kulitha upkari and saaru. The meal was perfect for the -6C weather we had yesterday. Will start blog hopping soon.. :)

26 comments:

lubnakarim06 said...

How are you feeling now? Recipes look simply yummy. Take care of your self dear.

Gita Jaishankar said...

Are you feeling better now? I should also start cooking with horsegram...the dishes look very delicious...

CurryLeaf said...

Take care and take care.I am not a horse gram peson(avoid it all the times),but saaru is my fathers favourite .Love the variety of dishes and esp the cauliflower fry.I too soak gobi in salted and turmeric water for removing worms.LOL

Shama Nagarajan said...

had a nice delicious and simple meal

Cham said...

Take care of urself. Horse gram reminds Horse for me too... The cual bajji looks good too

Raks said...

Saaru,upkati and bhaaji looks so delicious! Take care:)

Varsha Vipins said...

Hey Ujwal,Hope your are fine now..:)
The food look so comforting n simple too..:)

Poonam said...

Simple and delicious. we too make it the same way!!

Dershana said...

Hi Uj, was wondering where u disappeared! hope u get rid of the bug fast.

i love horsegram dishes too and make them often. your way of making bajjis sounds interesting. i always make the batter and just dip the veggie in; ur's sounds better.

Namrata Kini said...

Thanks for all the lovely comments Ujwal. Thats such a simple and comforting meal. I never slipped as a kid but since I came to US I have lost my balance many a times. Whenever there is a snowfall I have to slip on the sleet formed.
Hope u and ur hubby get well soon. Take care dear.

Ashwini said...

Hope you and your husband get well soon. Got to be very careful in this cold weather. Yummy lunch. We call this Bus or Basida saru..

Unknown said...

That's quite a lunch..hope both of you are feeling perfectly all right now.

And yes, this is indeed a different way of making bhajjis. On my list to try.

Deepthi Shankar said...

LOL about story, i used to fall often too, I remember in Mumbai, after having dinner at a restaurant, we came out & I fell & rolled on to the road, it was soo embarrasing ... I love horse gram too, Get well soon girl ..

Raaga said...

I hope you're better now.

I've made all the three items :-) And I must say, they'd rank as some of my favourites :-)

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2007/12/kultha-saar-upkari.html

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2007/09/cauliflower-phodiyo-fried-cauliflower.html

Aps Kitchen said...

hey ujwal i hope ur fine now
uj kulitha saaru is my favourite thank u for remembering me about that il do it soon

Sabitha said...

Dear Ujwal,

I was also thinking why you were silent. We are happy that everything is O.k. now.

Mouthwatering Kulta saaru!

Try Kulta upkari with garlic (Substituting mustard &green chilly with red chilly&garlic).

Finla said...

Hope you are feeling beter now.

suvi said...

Loved reading the horse gram story! never tried horse gram, but the saaru looks very tempting.

Anonymous said...

Love that story :) And that recipe looks great too! Im glad you're feeling so much better now to share this recipe.

I would like to introduce you to Foodista.com - the cooking encyclopedia everyone can edit - and invite you to link your blog to foodista-related pages using our small embeddable widgets. Check it out here.. This is a good way for you to build traffic and connect with other food lovers! Also feel free to share your recipes and tips with us!Thanks!

Deepa Hari said...

Hope you are feeling better Ujwal....all 3 recipes are simple and yummy.

Shreya said...

hope you are better, take care! love the 3 recipes.. horse gram especially since i have never had it before...

Ashwini said...

Hi Ujwal.. How are you feeling now..There is an award for you in my blog(Lemonade)..Enjoy..

Usha said...

All three items look really simple and delicious...hope you get better soon !

Sunshinemom said...

This is different - the cauliflowers! The kulith saaru sounds good too. My colleague mentioned something similar - thanks for the recipe!

Srivalli said...

I simply love horsegram chaaru..:)..thanks for the entry!

Unknown said...

My friend back in school who used to always fall down had hypermobile joints. Exercises and braces can help, if you have the same issues.

Her falls were bad, as she would often break her leg falling down in the middle of the street or down the stairs. Spent most of junior high in casts.