chow chow recipe ~ kootu and thuvayal

I rarely cook with this vegetable before. but after trying thuvayal, i started to cook often. chow chow kootu is the second recipe, i cook. But my personal favorite will always be this thuvayal! To know more and to find nutritional information about chayote/chow chow check here.

                                              Chow Chow Thuvayal / Chayote chutney

Chow Chow Recipe

Prep Time: 05 mins 

Cooking Time: 20 mins  
Serves: 2
Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Recipe Type: Vegetable

Ingredients:



Ingredients:

Chow chow / chayote - 1
Sunflower oil - 2 tsp's
Urad dal - 2 tsp's
Dry red chilly - 3 or 4
Tamarind - a small pinch
Grated coconut - 2 tbsp's
Salt to taste
Water - 3 tsp's



for tadka:

Oil - 1/2  tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method:

First wash the chow chow and peel its skin. then cut into half and remove its seed and white veins. chop them into chunks and set aside.

In a Pan, add 1/2 tsp of oil and heat it. once the oil is hot, add urad dal and dry red chilly. roast till the urad dal turns into golden color. remove the roasted urad dal and dry red chilly to a separate bowl and set aside.

In the same pan, add remaining oil and add in the chopped chow chow. saute them in medium flame for about 7 - 10 minutes, till it is cooked soft. add tamarind and also roast along in the last minute.

Transfer the sauteed chow chow to your chutney jar, add in the roasted urad dal, red chilly and grated coconut. add salt to taste. grind it coarsely first. then add water and grind into a thick chutney. transfer to a serving bowl.

For tadka, heat a small tadka pan, add 1/2 tsp oil, 1/2 tsp mustard and curry leaves. once the mustard splutter, add the tadka to the chutney / thuvayal.

Serve with rice and rasam combo. this chutney tastes good with dosa too.

Note:

You can skip grated coconut and make this chutney as such.

 Chow chow kootu / Chayote Dal

                                                      Chow chow kootu / Chayote Dal

Ingredients:

chow chow - 1
moong dal / paasi paruppu - 1/4 cup
turmeric powder - a pinch

to dry roast and grind:

dry red chilly - 3
cumin - 1 tsp
grated coconut - 3 tsp's

for tadka

oil - 1/2 tsp
mustard - 1/2 tsp
split urad dal - 1/2 tsp
dry red chilly - 1 (broken)
asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method:

First wash the chow chow and peel its skin. then cut into half and remove its seed and white veins. chop them into small pieces and set aside.

Heat a pan and dry roast the cumin, dry red chilly and grated coconut. grind into a smooth paste with little water.

Wash and cook the moong dal  with a pinch of turmeric in 1 cup of water. when the dal is half cooked, add in the chow chow pieces to the dal and cook for another 5 minutes. chow chow and dal  has to get cooked well(the whole process may take 15 minutes).

Then add the grounded mix to the pan and let it boil for a minute and transfer the dal to a serving bowl.

For tadka, heat a tadka pan, add oil and heat it. add mustard, urad dal and dry red chilly. when the mustard splutter, add asafoetida powder and curry leaves. transfer the tadka to the dal.

Notes:

You can add 1 green chilly and crushed garlic, while cooking the dal and chow chow together. this way, you can get a different taste.

 Don't pressure cook the dal and vegetable. the texture and taste of the dal gets spoiled, when pressure cooked. so best to cook in stove top.

You can also make this with chana dal instead moong dal.

Ragi dosa with dosa batter ~ Fermented Ragi Dosa

I was desperate to introduce ragi to my son. as he did not like ragi in porridge form, i had to find other ways. last month, i just added ragi flour to the dosa batter and made dosa. it came out well. but it did not taste good also my kid did not like it. then my friend suggested me to ferment ragi and then mix with dosa batter. this worked out very well today. the dosa tasted superb and my kid ate it without any complain. i am going to make these dosa's quite often.



Ragi tastes better, when it is fermented. so the day before, mix the flour in water in thick consistency and leave it in room temperature to ferment. this way, ragi dosa tastes good! Highlight of this recipe is, you will not feel the raw smell of ragi and ragi gets cooked quickly.

serves - 3
requires overnight fermentation
cooking time - less than 2 mins

Ingredients:

Ragi Four - 150 gms
Water - 1 cup
Idly / Dosa Batter - 1 cup
Finely chopped onion - 3 tbsp
Finely chopped green chilli - 1 tsp
Finely chopped corriander leaves - 2 tbsp

Method:

To make ragi dosa's next morning, mix ragi flour with water without any lumps. mix should be thick like idly batter. mix and close in a bowl and put it on your kitchen top the previous day evening. It takes 12 hours to ferment.

Next day, mix the fermented ragi mix with dosa batter, add salt to taste and add finely chopped onions, green chilly and corriander leaves. stir well and make dosa's.

Serve with coconut chutney, it makes a yummy combo!

You cannot make very thin dosa's with this batter, as it is not easy to spread on the tava. also leave a bit of oil extra, to make the dosa little crispier.

Notes:

It is not good to eat ragi dosa at night, as it takes long time to digest. Ragi is good to have for break-fast.

If serving for kids, skip green chilly and onions.

Sweet and Spicy Vegetable Curry / Theeyati Pulusu

Collecting cookbooks interests me a lot! after collecting so many book's, i felt that only few book's are worth saving for life-time. now a days i restricted myself in buying cookbook's. only if i desperately long for a book, i buy it. Cooking at home with Pedatha was one book, that i wanted to buy for a long time, when hubby gifted me the book for my last year's birthday, i was so excited about the gift! maybe the warmness and love filled recipes in the book or my favorite andhra recipes should have been the reason for excitement! Today's recipe is from Cooking at Home with Pedatha! do try, you will love this curry as it will have balanced taste of sweetness of jaggery, tangy from tamarind and spicy from lots of chillies!

I almost cook just an hour before the lunchtime. mostly i don't plan my meals, i go and check my refrigerator and decide on that. some times i call and ask my hubby on what to cook, he always leaves to my choice!! I wanted to try this curry for a long time, luckily had vegetables in hand and went ahead! Do you plan your meals the previous night?

                                           Theeyati Pulusu / Sweet and Spicy Vegetable Curry

Serves - 3

Preparation time - 20 minutes

Cooking time - less than 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Vegetables :

Bottle Gourd - 1

Sweet potato - 1

Drumstick - 1

Raw Mango - 1/2

Pumpkin - 1/4 

Brinjal - 1

Tamarind - 1 small lemon size

Sambhar powder - 2 tbsp

Jaggery - 2 tbsp

Green Chillies - 3 or 4

Corriander leaves - 1 tbsp

For Tempering:

Oil - 2 tbsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Asafoetida powder - 1/2 tsp

To grind into powder:

Split urad dal / udaicha ulundhu / minapa pappu - 1 tbsp

Bengal gram / kadala paruppu / senaga pappu - 1 tbsp

Sesame seeds / ellu / nuvvulu - 1 tsp

Method:

Heat a pan, and dry roast the split urad dal, bengal gram and sesame, till they reach golden color  let them cool and grind into a fine powder.

Boil 1/4 cup of water and remove from flame and add tamarind to it and let it soak for 10 minutes and squeeze the pulp.

Wash the bottle gourd and peel it's outer skin and chop into big chunks. do the same to sweet potatoes. chop the other vegetables into big chunks.

In a pan, heat oil, add mustard and let it splutter, add fenugreek seeds, asafoetida powder, green chillies and curry leaves. Then add all the vegetables together and mix well with the tempering. add enough water to cover the vegetables and let it boil for almost 10 minutes, till all the vegetables are cooked well.

Meanwhile, To the squeezed tamarind water, add 1 cup of water then the grounded powder, sambhar powder and mix well. also mix in the jaggery ,mix with your hands. this way, you can mash the jaggery and also mix well.

Now, after the veggies are cooked, add in the tamarind water and mix well with the vegetables. Let the curry boil for 5 minutes in medium flame..

Garnish with corriander leaves and curry leaves.

Serve warm with rice and ghee!