Pavakkai Puli Kulambu/Bitter Gourd Tamarind Curry

This is only for those who love to taste that bitterness in Pavakka/Bitter Gourd. Others may step out as i know most of us don't go near this vegetable. It is a vegetable which is low in calories and dense with nutrients. Scroll down and read "tips and variations" section before handling pavakka recipes. The taste of this curry depends on how you handle the vegetable. For puli kulambu lovers you can also try Brinjal Puli Kulambu. 

Ingredients:

Bitter Gourd/Pavakka	1(medium)
Small Onion/Shallots	10
Garlic	5 cloves
Tomato	1
Tamarind	1 small lemon size
Salt	to taste
Chilly Powder	1&1/2 tspoon
Coriander Powder	2 tspoon
Sambar Powder	2 tspoon
Asafoetida Powder	2 pinch
Sesame Oil	1 tbl spoon
Jaggery(optional)	1 tspoon

For Grinding:

Coconut	1/4 cup
Small onion	2
Cumin seed	1/2 tspoon

To temper:

Oil	1 tspoon
Mustard	1/2 tsspoon
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Fenugreek seed	1/2 tspoon

Preparation:

(1) Chop bitter gourd to thin round slices(you can remove seeds and soak in salt water to reduce the bitterness, i didn't removed the seeds). Peel the skin of onion and garlic. Chop garlic and tomato to cubes. Keep it aside.

(2) Also soak tamarind in hot water and make 2&1/2 cup of tamarind water out of it by extracting the juice. Add needed salt to it. Grind the ingredients shown under heading "for grinding" in a mixer and make a fine paste by adding little water. Keep both aside.

(3) Mean while heat oil in a pan and temper with the ingredients shown under heading "to temper" . Add garlic, saute once. Now add onion and tomato pieces and saute for another 1 minute. To this add pavakka pieces with little salt and saute for another 5 to 8 minutes in medium flame till the pieces are almost cooked. 

(4) Once it is cooked add chillypowder, coriander powder and sambar powder and give a quick stir so that the raw smell will leave.

(5) Immediately pour the prepared tamarind juice to it and let it boil. Add the ground paste to it. Mix well and make a salt here. Let it boil in low to medium flame till it reaches the "kulambu" consistency. Add asafoetida powder and jaggery(i didn't used) in the last minute. Your pavakka kulambu is now ready.

Have it with rice and even with dosa or idly..

Tips and variations:

• To reduce the bitterness select bitter gourd which are less green in color and with less thornes.
• Soaking the pieces in salt water will reduce the bitterness,
• Always saute the pieces in oil till it is cooked before boiling in water. This helps to reduce the bitter taste.
• Grinding coconut is optional. If you want to avoid skip it.
• For all types of puli kulambu reduce the water level to the ratio 3:1.
• Adding jaggery gives an extra taste.
• You can also add deep fried pavakka slices.

Onion Chutney/Ulli Chutney

Nothing much to say about this recipe as many of you may know it. This goes well with dosa/idly. Below recipe is from my dear sathya. ClICK HERE To get other chutney recipes.

Ingredients:

Big Onion	1(small)
Small Onion/Shallots	15
Dry red chilly	6
Urad dal	1 tspoon
Tamarind	1 small gooseberry size
Sesame Oil	1 tbl spoon
Salt	to taste

To Temper:

Oil	1 tspoon
Dry red chilly	3
Mustard	1/2 tspoon
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Preparation:

(1) Peel the skin of shallots and cut big onion to cubes.

(2) Heat oil in a pan and add urad dal. Once the color changes add shallots with little salt. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes. To this add dry red chilly and tamarind. Saute till onion turns light brown color. Allow it to cool.

(3) Once it is cooled, grind it in a mixer with 1/2 cup of water. Add little salt too. Make a fine paste. Keep it aside.

(4) Heat oil in the same pan and add dry red chilly (second table). Add mustard. Once it splutters add curry leaves. To this add ground paste. Make a salt test. Once it starts boiling switch off the flame.

Have it with dosa/idly..

Tips:

• I used both big onion and small onion in equal proportion. Small onion gives more taste. You can use either big onion or small onion as per your convenience.
• It is a thick chutney so don't make it watery.

Puli Kuzhambu-no coconut

Hi all, here i'm back with another Tamilnadu style of recipe. I couldn't able to post here for some months as i was enjoying my vacation in India. Well, i'm not used to these types of kulambu. Once on a chit-chat with my friend anchu, i learned this recipe.

Ingredients:

Brinjal (small)	2 to 3
Shallots/Small Onion	10
Tomato (small)	1
Tamarind	1 small lemon size
Salt	to taste
Red Chilly Powder	3/4 tspoon
Coriander Powder	1&1/2 tspoon
Sambar Powder	2 tspoon
Asafoetida Powder	2 pinch

To temper

Sesame Oil/Nallennai	1 tbl spoon
Dry red chilly	2
Mustard	1/2 tspoon
Fenugreek seeds	1/4 tspoon
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Preparation:

(1) Chop brinjal into cube shapes. Take a bowl of water and add 1 pinch of turmeric powder to it. Dip brinjal pieces to the water. Now chop tomato to cube shapes and also peel the skin of onion. Mean while soak tamarind in hot water and make 2&1/2 cup of tamarind juice out of it. Add needed salt to it and mix well. Keep everything aside.

(3) Mean while heat oil in a pan and temper with the ingredients shown under the heading "to temper". To this add small onion and saute for a minute. To this add chopped tomato and brinjal pieces along with little salt. Saute well for few minutes so that the brinjal may shrink and it will be half cooked.

(4) Now add chilly powder, coriander powder and sambar powder to it and saute well so that the raw smell of masalas will leave. Immediately pour the prepared tamarind juice to it and allow to boil. Add asafoetida powder and boil till it reaches "kuzhambu " consistency

Have it with your rice/dosa…

Tips and variations:

• You can also use other veggies like drumstick/lady's finger/bitter gourd.
• Be generous in adding tamarind juice.
• Adjust spiciness according to your taste.
• For all types of puli kulambu reduce water level to 3:1.

Kathirikai Puli Kuzhambu/Brinjal Tamarind Curry

Hi all, here i'm back with another Tamilnadu style of recipe. I couldn't able to post here for some months as i was enjoying my vacation in India. Well, i'm not used to these types of kulambu. Once on a chit-chat with my friend anchu, i learned the basic recipe of puli kuzhambu. Here i slightly varied it to suit my taste. The taste was slurp as it was some what similar to  varutharacha ULLI THEEYAL. Anyway we both starts to love this "kulambu" and so a big thanks to anchu :). CLICK HERE for no coconut puli kulambu recipe.

Ingredients:

Brinjal (small)	2 to 3
Shallots/Small Onion	10
Tomato (small)	1
Tamarind	1 small lemon size
Salt	to taste
Red Chilly Powder	3/4 tspoon
Coriander Powder	1&1/2 tspoon
Sambar Powder	2 tspoon
Asafoetida Powder	2 pinch

To Grind:

Grated coconut	1/4 cup
Small onion	1
Cumin seed	1/4 tspoon

To temper

Sesame Oil/Nallennai	1 tbl spoon
Dry red chilly	2
Mustard	1/2 tspoon
Fenugreek seeds	1/4 tspoon
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Preparation:

(1) Chop brinjal into cube shapes. Take a bowl of water and add 1 pinch of turmeric powder to it. Dip brinjal pieces to the water. Now chop tomato to cube shapes and also peel the skin of onion. Mean while soak tamarind in hot water and make 2&1/2 cups of tamarind juice out of it. Add needed salt to it and mix well. Keep everything aside.

(2) Grind the ingredients shown under heading "to grind" in a mixer by adding little water and make a fine paste. Keep it aside.

(3) Mean while heat oil in a pan and temper with the ingredients shown under the heading "to temper". To this add small onion and saute for a minute. To this add chopped tomato and brinjal pieces along with little salt. Saute well for few minutes so that the brinjal may shrink and it will be half cooked.

(4) Now add chilly powder, coriander powder and sambar powder to it and saute well so that the raw smell of masalas will leave. Immediately pour the prepared tamarind juice to it and allow to boil. 

(5) To this add ground paste. Mix everything, add safoetida powder and make a salt test. Now reduce the flame to low and allow the curry to boil for another 10 minutes or until you reach the "kuzhambu" consistency. Your puli kuzhambu is now ready.

Have it with your rice/dosa…

Tips and variations:

• You can also use other veggies like drumstick/lady's finger/bitter gourd.
• This dish can also be prepared without using coconut.
• Be generous in adding tamarind juice.
• Adjust spiciness according to your taste.
• For all types of puli kulambu reduce the water level to 3:1 ratio.

Crab Masala-Tamilnadu Style

Well, it was my long time desire to taste crab curry but i'm not pretty sure how to cook it. The thing i had no clue was regarding the cleaning process, but it was easy:). Luckily this weekend, my friend shiney invited us for lunch and guess what??Yeah it was THE CRAB!!! Wow i was super excited and asked her to start the process after our arrival so that i can learn the techniques. I clicked everything with my mobile camera and yeah sorry for the bad image quality, see how i love my blog :p. We had it with steamed rice and the taste was slurpp…awesome... A big thanks to shiney sangeeth:). I'm just sharing her recipe in my words.. You can expect various versions of crab curry in future….

Ingredients:

Whole Crab	8
Big onion	1 (big)
Tomato	1 (big)
Chilly Powder	2 tspoon or to your tolerance level
Green chilly	3 (medium)
Garam Masala Powder	2 tspoon
Turmeric Powder	1/2 tspoon
Tamarind (optional)	1 gooseberry size (Soak in hot water and extract the juice)
Salt	to taste

For grinding:

Garlic	20 to 25 cloves
Cumin seeds	2 tspoon

Preparation:

How to clean crab:

(1) If crab is live, kill it (:p) by dipping it in hot water/hot running water (We used both kitchen wash base for entire cleaning). 

(2) Take a crab. On the bottom side of the crab there is a flap like thing which will be in some triangular shape. See the picture.

(3) Lift that using hand or with a knife and pull away the top shell (other side) just like opening a box by holding the bottom of crab with one hand. Remove that shell. Gently scrape away the gills on either side and remove the intestine which runs down the centre (don't remove the flesh part). Remove the yellow layers in the cavity. Rinse the crab in running water/water and remove unwanted dirt/mucus like stuffs from the crab.

(4) After removing the dirt of all the crabs, cut it in a cutting board  Remove the ends from legs of the crab as shown in below picture. You can use the whole shell (centre part) or can cut into two. Use a sharp knife/back of a knife to break it. 

(5) Have a look at a clean crab:) (You can first remove the  legs one by one or you can keep it with the centre part, don't throw away the legs, they are edible).

There are lot many videos in youtube demonstating how to clean the crab. Click here.

How to Cook Crab Curry

(1) Chop onion and tomato into slices. Keep it aside.

(2) Grind garlic and cumin seeds in a mixer and make a fine paste by sprinkling little water. Keep it aside.

(3) Now heat oil in a bottomed kadai/vessel. Add onion slices, green chilly with little salt. Saute till onion changes light brown. Now add tomato and saute till tomato turns juicy.

(4) Add the ground paste to it and mix well. Now add chilly powder, garam masala and turmeric powder. Saute till the raw smell leaves and oil separates. Pour tamarind paste and add little salt. You can add add 1/4 cup of water if you find the masala dried. Mix well. Your masala for crab is now ready. To this add the crab pieces.

(5) Mix well. Make sure to coat all crab pieces with masala. Close the vessel with a lid and allow to cook for some 15 to 20 minutes in medium flame.

(6) Mix the crab pieces with masala in between cooking by opening the lid. Your crab curry is now ready.

Enjoy the crab curry with boiled rice/appam…

Tips:

• Adjust spiciness according to your tolerance level. 
• Eating crabs develops lot of heat in your body. Drink more water.

Vegetable Cutlet

This will be a perfect snack for your kid. I'm trying for the first time and it came out good...

Ingredients:

Potato	2
Carrot,green peas	1 cup
Big onion	1(small)
Green chilly	3
Chilly Powder	1/2 tspoon
Turmeric Powder	1/4 tspoon
Garam Masala	1 tspoon
Salt	to taste
Maida	1/4 cup
Bread crumbs	1 cup
Oil	to deep fry

Preparation:

(1) Chop vegetables into small cube shapes. I used potato, peas and carrot. Chop onion and green chillies into thin pieces.

(2) Pressure cook potato for 2 whistles and mash it well. Steam cook vegetables till it turns soft : For that keep vegetables in a steel bowl and close it with a lid. Keep it inside a pressure cooker . Above the lid you can keep potatoes. Pressure cook everything for 2 whistles(You can also pressure cook/cook vegetables with water. But extract water out of it using muslin cloth or cotton cloth, should not retain water in it). Once the vegetables are cooled down slightly mash it using hand. Keep it aside.

(3) Heat 2 tspoon of oil in a pan. Add chopped onion and green chilly with little salt. Saute till onion turns brownish. Now add chilly powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Saute till raw smell leaves.

(4) Add cooked veggies and mashed potato to it with little salt. Mix well. Now your masala is  ready. Allow it to cool. Once it is cooled add 2 tbl spoon of bread crumbs to this and mix well using hand. While mixing break if there are any lumps. Try to make a smooth mixture so that you can easily shape it.

(5) Mean while heat oil in a tawa to deep fry. Once masala is cooled down divide it into equal balls. Slightly press it using the hand and make circle shapes(you can make your desired shape).

(6) Also mix maida with water and make a loose batter (i used besan flour instead of maida). Dip  one piece into maida mix and immediately coat it with bread crumbs.

(7) Drop that piece to oil. Continue with other pieces too. Fry till it is cooked.

Vegetable cutlet is now ready. Enjoy with tomato ketchup…For other evening Snacks/Sweets CLICK HERE

Tips:

• You can use other vegetables like beans and beet root. 
• It is better to steam cook the vegetables.
• For non-veg lovers, you can beat 2 eggs and use it as the first coating instead of maida.
• I used home made bread crumbs. You can get it from store too.

Home Made Bread Crumbs

Bread crumb is easy to prepare at home. I used it for onion rings and cutlet.

Ingredients:

Bread

4 to 5 slices

Preparation:

(1) Chop the sides of bread and place it in a baking pan.

(2) Preheat oven to 365 degree F. Bake it for 10 minutes. Allow it to cool.

(3) Break the baked bread into pieces using hand. Grind it in a mixer without adding drop of water. Make a very smooth powder like that of rava. Your bread crumbs is now ready...

Another Method:

Heat dosa tawa. Remove the sides of bread and heat it by placing over hot tawa. Flip in between. Continue till you get brown color. Cool and grind it in mixer

Have it for the preparation of snacks liek onion rings, cutlet…

Tips:

• You can use any bread. I used wheat bread.
• Store bread crumbs in airtight container or refrigerator for long term use.