Asadu Kootu / Eggplant Kootu

We were lucky to reap a lot of brinjals (or rather eggplants) this Summer and Fall. So, for the entire months of September and October, I had to think of every kind of eggplant-based dish to use all the ripe bounty. One of the recipes that I found in Meenakshi ammal’s cookbook sounded interesting, primarily because of its unique name - Asadu Kootu. “Kootu” means dhal in Tamil (a dish that is predominantly made with lentils and pulses), and “Asadu” loosely translates to silly or someone indulging in bad-behavior. Naughty, misbehaving kids are usually chided with the term. So, it’s very intriguing as to why a dish would be named so! I still don’t know the reason, but the recipe itself was easy to follow and quite similar to most Tamil kootus. But, I added a few extra ingredients, and used different measures of almost everything. So, here's my adapted recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup of uncooked Thoor dhal
2. 4 brinjals/medium Chinese eggplants (I was desperate to use as much eggplant as I could) - cut the eggplants into thin, long pieces.
3. 1.5 teaspoons of sambar powder (my addition to the recipe)
4. A small lime-sized ball of tamarind
5. 2 pinches of Kasuri Methi (dried methi leaves; again, this is just my addition)
6. 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
7. 1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
8. 1 teaspoon of salt (more or less)
9. 3 green chillies
10. A small piece of ginger - finely minced
11. Coriander/cilantro leaves for garnishing
12. 1 tablespoon of olive oil/vegetable oil
13. Freshly prepared ground spice powder from the following ingredients that are dry roasted, and then ground to a powder (you can roast the ingredients separately to avoid over--burning or under-roasting; roast until the ingredients turn light brown)
1. 2 tablespoons of coriander powder
2. 1 tablespoons of channa dhal / bengal gram dhal
3. 1 teaspoon of toor dhal
4. 2 teaspoons of split urad dhal
5. ½ teaspoon of black pepper
6. 2-3 dried red chillies
7. ½ teaspoon of Hing

Preparation:

1. Cook the thoor dhal till it is soft and mushy (pressure cooking is ideal and fast; cover the thoor dhal with 1 inch of extra water on top)
2. Extract tamarind juice by the following process - immerse the tamarind in 1 cup of hot water for 5-10 minutes. When the water is cool to touch, squeeze the pulp to get out all the juice. Strain the pulp, add more water (about 1/2 cup) to it and perform a second round of juice extraction. Throw away the final tamarind pieces.
3. In a pan, add a tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, splutter mustard seeds, green chillies. Add turmeric powder and ginger, and saute for a few seconds.
4. Add the brinjal pieces and stir/fry for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the extracted tamarind juice, salt, sambar powder and let the brinjals steam and cook in the spiced tamarind juice. You may cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for 15 minutes, until the eggplants are tender, and the tamarind water comes to a couple of boils. The boiling is also to ensure that the raw, pungent smell of tamarind dissipates.
6. At this point, add the cooked dhal and stir well. Add a cup of water if needed to dilute the mixture. Add the freshly prepared spice powder and mix well. Allow the kootu to come to a boil. Then reduce the heat and let it steep and simmer with a couple of pinches of Kasuri methi. The goal is to remove any raw smell of the dhal, so simmer till the flavors infuse (15 minutes or so).
7. Turn off the heat and garnish with coriander/cilantro leaves.

This dish goes well with rice and rotis. It is a mix of sambar and kootu. 

Spinach Dhal

No Indian’s meal is really complete without some dhal (pulses/lentils) in it. Especially so, for a vegetarian. Dhal is our major source of protein, so dhal-based dishes are both healthy and comforting. Dhal + vegetables is a double-healthy dish, or so I tell myself. So, here is the basic method that I follow - it’s borrowed from both the North and South-Indian versions of dhal. You may substitute the spinach with any kind of vegetable/s of your choice.

Ingredients:

1. Uncooked Moong dhal - 1.5 cups
2. Cut/torn spinach - 3 cups (spinach wilts and shrinks when it is cooked)
3. 1 medium onion - diced
4. a small piece of ginger, finely minced
5. 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
6. 1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
7. 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
8. 1.5 teaspoons of sambar powder (or curry powder, or any spice-powder of your choice; this is also optional)
9. 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
10. 1 teaspoon of salt (or more depending on your taste)
11. ¼ teaspoon of hing
12. 2-3 dried red chillies (depending on your tolerance to spice)
13. 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil/vegetable oil
14. some cilantro/coriander leaves for garnishing

Preparation:

1. Cook the moong dhal with enough water (there should be 1-2 inches of water above the dhal) till it is mushy and soft.
2. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, splutter some mustard seeds. Next add, some cumin seeds, hing, turmeric powder, and red chillies and saute for a few seconds. Add the ginger pieces and the onion and saute on medium heat until the onion turns translucent.
3. Next, add the minced garlic and continue to saute for a minute or two.
4. Add the cut spinach leaves and saute till the spinach begins to wilt. When the spinach begins to wilt, add salt and sambar powder and mix well. Allow the spinach to cook (you may close the pan with a lid to aid the cooking)
5. When the spinach is cooked, add the cooked dhal and mix it well with the spiced spinach. You may add a couple of cups to water to adjust the consistency of the dhal to your liking. The resulting dhal continues to thicken as it cools and stores.
6. Let the dhal simmer with the spinach until there is no raw smell of the cooked dhal. Put a lid on the pan, reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer for 10-15 minutes.
7. Taste the dhal to check for seasonings. Finally, remove it from heat and garnish it with coriander/cilantro leaves.

Dhal can be had with steamed/cooked rice, or had as a side-dish to roti.

Avial

Avial is a coconut and yogurt based gravy that originated from the state of Kerala. It’s quite easy to prepare and tastes a bit like the Thai based coconut-milk curries. It goes very well with cooked rice.

Ingredients

1. An assortment of vegetables - carrots, beans, potatoes, peas, drumsticks, bell peppers, cauliflower etc. It is entirely flexible and depends on the kinds of vegetables you like and have in store. We used carrots, beans, potatoes and peas. The sliced vegetables amounted to about 4 cups.
2. 1.5 tablespoons of crushed cumin seeds
3. 1 cup of grated/shredded coconut
4. 4-5 green chillies (as per your spice tolerance)
5. a small piece of ginger (optional)
6. 2 cups yogurt
7. Salt to taste (1-2 teaspoons)
8. A tablespoon of vegetable/olive oil
9. 1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
10. ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder
11. A few curry leaves
12. A pinch of hing

Preparation

1. Slice the vegetables into long strips. The more uniform the strips, the more evenly the veggies cook, and the more prettier they look.
2. Cook the vegetables in salted water until they are tender (you can alternatively steam them in a cooker). Drain the water from the cooked vegetables.
3. Grind together the coconut, crushed cumin seeds, ginger, and green chillies by sprinkling some water ( ¼ - ½ cup). The ground mixture shouldn’t be too watery, but the ingredients should be finely ground.
4. Mix this coconut gravy with the cooked vegetables along with some turmeric powder. Add a little bit of water to dilute the gravy (1/2 - 1 cup of water) and let it come to a boil on medium heat. Add a teaspoon or two of salt, as per your taste.
5. When the avial comes to a boil and the raw smell/taste of coconut subsides, reduce the heat and add the yogurt. Stir well and let the avial simmer on low heat for 5-7 minutes. If your avial is too thick in consistency, dilute with a bit of water. The consistency of the avial should be like that of a rich gravy. Do not over heat yogurt. Remove avial from heat after the 7 minute mark.
6. To garnish - heat a spoon of oil in a small pan. Splutter mustard seeds, a pinch of hing, and curry leaves. Add the garnish to the avial and mix well. Serve.

Anand is a self-proclaimed avial expert! So, he prepared 97% of this dish with the help of his dad’s instructions. 3% of my work involved fixing the dish with a few ingredients he had missed out ;).

Beans Paruppu Usili

Paruppu usili is a quintessential, archetypal, authentic Tam-Brahm dish. In my mind, if you get the fundamentals of this dish down, you can impress any intimidating, highbrow TamBrahm crowd. This dish is also one of my favorites - I’m another stereotype myself ;). It might seem like a simple dish of roasted, cooked dhal and beans, but they come together in a delicious, crunchy harmony.

 

The recipe for this dish comes from my mom who always get hers paruppu usili just perfect. So, here goes.

Ingredients

1. 3/4 - 1 cup of Toor dhal (yellow lentils)
2. 3 cups of finely diced green beans
3. 3-4 dried red chillies (or as per your taste)
4. ½ - ¾ teaspoon of hing (as per your taste)
5. 2 teaspoons of salt
6. 3 tablespoons of olive oil
7. 1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds
8. ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder
9. a few curry leaves

Preparation

consistency of the ground dhal

steaming the dhal

crumbled dhal

1. Soak the Toor dhal in enough water that covers it, for 1 hour.
2. In the meanwhile, cook the beans in salted water (with about 1-1.5 teaspoons of salt). This is my mom’s tip to make sure the beans are properly seasoned. It takes about 10 minutes to cook. Drain the cooked beans and allow to cool. (You can alternatively steam the beans too).
3. When the dhal is soaked enough, drain it and set aside (remember to drain all the water). Grind 3-4 red chillies with 1 teaspoon of salt. Then add the drained, soaked dhal and coarsely pulse/grind it with a few sprinklings of water (maybe up to ¼ cup). Do not add too much water at this stage. This is crucial to how the dish turns out. Grind until there are a few whole pulses.The coarser the better.
4. Steam/cook the ground dhal. Traditionally, the dhal is steamed in idli plates for 10-15 minutes. But, you can adopt your own method of steaming/cooking. Thanks to my friend’s suggestion, I have been cooking the dhal in the microwave. Spread the ground dhal on a plate (greased with some oil, so that the dhal doesn’t stick), and microwave it for 8 minutes. You could remove it at 4 minutes, fluff it with a fork and continue heating so that the dhal doesn’t dry out on the top and remain uncooked at the bottom. But no matter what, the microwave technique leads to hardened edges, giving rising to a few hard, dried lumps of dhal. Steaming on the stove is ideal.
5. When the cooked dhal is cool to touch, crumble it into little pieces. You can also pulse the cooked dhal to crumble it evenly.
6. In a pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is hot, splutter mustard seeds, add hing, turmeric powder, and a few curry leaves.
7. Add the crumbled (cooked) dhal to the oil and fry till the dhal turns golden and begins to crisp. This stage requires a couple of extra drizzles of oil to crisp up the dhal (but I added only 1 additional tablespoon of oil, and the usili came out just as crispy as my mom’s). Fry on medium heat and continuously stir/saute the dhal so that it doesn’t burn.
8. When the dhal is fried, add the cooked beans and mix it with the dhal. Check for seasoning, and add more salt if needed. Saute the beans for 5 minutes till it is heated through and incorporated with the dhal. Turn off the heat and serve.

The key to getting crispy dhal and tender beans is to first fry the dhal and then add the beans. The other way around results in wilted beans and soft dhal - a mistake I’ve committed in my earlier attempts. The other aspect of this dish is determining the optimal ratio of dhals : beans. I usually aim for a 1:1 ratio, but somehow my measurements have never led me to that state.  My impression is that you can err on the side of extra dhal than beans. The novelty and essence of this dish is the crispy, roasted dhal. 

Variation: Substitute cabbage for green beans to make a delicious cabbage usili

 

Roasted Carrot Soup

Every now and then, all of us get gripped with the resolution to cook and eat healthier dishes. Salads, soups, and subs materialize out of the random assortment of vegetables, fruits, and condiments hibernating in the fridge. In this random trial and error, a few attempts click. Here is one such a dish that is heart-warmingly good for you, especially on a bleak winter evening that looks into the final week of the semester.

Ingredients (serves five)

1. 6-7 medium-sized carrots
2. 2 tomatoes
3. 1 medium-sized onion
4. 5 cloves of garlic
5. 1-2 cups of cooked beans (kidney beans, soy beans, white beans, garbanzo, black-eyed, black beans etc.)
6. 2-3 teaspoons of salt
7. 2 teaspoons of pepper
8. ½ teaspoon of ground nutmeg
9. 3 tablespoons of olive oil
10. 4 cups of vegetable stock or water
11. some croutons for garnishing
12. some sprinkling of grated cheese for garnishing

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Roughly chop the carrots, tomatoes and onion, and toss them with the garlic cloves. Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil, add a teaspoon of salt and pepper, and combine well till the vegetables are evenly coated. Roast the vegetables at 400 F for 40-45 minutes.
2. Allow the roasted vegetables to cool. When cooled, blend them together adding a few cups of water/vegetable stock until the vegetables are pureed. Since carrots are slightly fibrous, the puree will not be totally silky and smooth. Some may prefer to strain the fiber, but I don’t, since I believe it has some good nutrients that should be consumed.
3. Transfer the puree to a pot and let it come to a boil on medium heat. Taste the puree and adjust the seasonings (salt and pepper) accordingly. When the soup begins to heat up, add half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg (freshly grated will be more aromatic). If you have bullion cubes, you could add a couple of them at this point. Adjust the consistency of the soup by adding more water/vegetable stock. I don’t like my soups to be diluted with a lot of stock of water, so I keep it on the thicker, pulpier side.
4. Stir occasionally until the soup reaches a boil. At this point, add the boiled/cooked beans to give the soup some protein. I added kidney beans/rajma beans. Reduce the heat, and let the soup simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
5. Finally, turn off the heat. Serve the soup with some croutons and grated cheese on top.

I like the idea of having proteins and vitamins in one easy and tasty dish. It’s also easy to gulp down when you have deadlines that eat into your precious meal time.