AMMA'S PAPPU CHAARU

                            

Pappu Charu comes from the Southern State of Andhra Pradesh and it is almost a daily staple. Pappu means lentils and Charu is the term that is more synonymous to a soup. In other words,

 it’s a lentil soup with loads of vegetables and tamarind. It is Andhra version of Tamil Sambar without sambar masala or coconut.

Since I grew up eating this dish almost every week,  I remember every step of making it as I have seen my mother cook it many a times. Here is the recipe right from her Kitchen but with a twist where I will be using local  root vegetables in it instead of traditional aubergines, carrots and drumsticks.

Ingredients: for 4 portions

150 gm red gram lentil/dal/toor dal

1 small red onion, cut into quarters

1 big tomato, cut into quarters

3 green chillies, slit lengthwise

25 gm tamarind, soaked in 100 ml hot water – in case you don’t find fresh tamarind, use 25 ml of tamarind pulp and not concentrate. If you can’t get tamarind in any form, just use juice of 2 lemons and a tsp of sugar.

1 tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 bunch of chopped coriander leaves

350 ml water

salt  to taste

50 ml veg oil

Vegetables

100 gm celeriac diced

100 gm parsnip diced

100 gm swede diced

100 gm sweet potato diced

for tempering/tadka:

1 tsp urad dal/black gram dal

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

2-3 torn dried red chilies

1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped

I tbsp chopped ginger

few curry leaves

a pinch of asafeotida/hing

1 tbsp of  veg oil or ghee if you are up for it.

Method:

Wash and soak the dal for about 20 mins or so. Boil it in 350 mls of water till soft. It will take about 25 mins.

Meanwhile soak tamarind in 1 cup of hot water. Once the tamarind is soft, press it with a heavy spoon pass it through a sieve. Keep the tamarind water aside

With root vegetables, we could either rub them with some oil and oven roast them on 170 degrees for about 10 minutes or add them to the sauce pot directly.

Heat the oil in a sauce pot. Add the red onions, chilies and tomatoes. After a couple of minutes add  root vegetables(if you decided not to roast them). Sauté for 5 minutes on a medium heat.

 Add tamarind water, cooked dal along with remaining water, red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt. Check for consistency and if it’s too thick then add little more water. It should be of a thick broth consistency. If you have roasted the root vegetables this is the time they go in.

Bring it to a quick boil and check if the root vegetables are cooked. Time for tempering.

Tempering

Heat oil in a frying pan and add the mustard, cumin seeds, urad dal/black gram dal then add the torn dried red chillies, curry leaves, ginger and garlic.

 Once they are golden brown turn off the heat and add asafoetida/hing.

Immediately add the tempering spices along with oil to the pot of lentil soup and mix well.

Check for seasoning one last time and take the pot off the heat.

Serve hot with rice or as an accompaniment to dosa, idli or vadas or just have a bowlful of it as a filling soup. 

Hello Amigos,
I have kept myself away from this blog for a long time now but never forgot about it. A lot has happened since I posted on it last time. I left Jamie Oliver's Recipease and I have opened my little South Indian Cafe with my Business partner Euan Sey in Brighton, UK called 'Curry Leaf Cafe'. Go to www.curryleafcafe.com for more information on the Cafe.
It has been more 13 months since we have opened our doors and just after 1 year we have opened up the second kitchen.

 It has been an amazing roller coaster ride for me and has been very exciting and challenging at the same time but I am very proud that I have put South Indian food that I grew up eating on the culinary map of Brighton.
It has been a really busy crazy year for me so I had to put this blog on the back burner but I always wanted to come back to it and start sharing recipes,
stories and memories again.
So, though it might not be very frequent but I shall definitely keep posting on this blog again.
Cooking is fun but sharing what you cook is even more fun.

 Thank you all for supporting me and following my blog and I shall soon come up with interesting stuff.
'my food is not about fine dining, it's about fun dining'
Hasta Luego
KANTHI THAMMA
CHEF/CO-OWNER
CURRY LEAF CAFE

Lemon Rice

Left over steamed rice from last night? No problem at all. In just few minutes you can make it into one of the most delicious flavoured rice dishes.This was such a staple in our family when we were kids as there always was left over rice from the night before at home and Mom would make this in the morning for our lunch boxes.

Having said that, there is a devotional side to this dish. This is made in many South Indian Temple kitchens as an offering to God and then distributed among all the devotees who visit the temple for the rest of the day by the priest as they consider that God has blessed the offering. Temple style Lemon Rice always tasted better than home made one. I still do not know the reason why. This dish is also made almost for every festival  in South Indian homes.So, I prepared it last night as it was Diwali festival and my friends who tried it for first time thought it was absolutely delicious.

 Also, I would strongly recommend to serve this rice as an accompaniment with sea food. Be it fried fillets or grilled prawns or even a seafood curry with coconut milk. This can also be your summer rice salad when served cold.
Here is the recipe for 4 sides.
Steamed rice- 250 gms
Lemon juice- 2 medium lemons
For tempering
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Dry red chillies- broken in halves- 2
Green chillies-cut in qaurters-2
Curry leaves- as many as you like
peanuts- 50 gms
yellow split peas(optional)- 1 tbsp
Ginger chopped-25 gms
Oil- 50 ml
salt -to taste( if you cooked rice in salted water then do not add more salt to tempering)
Method
-heat the oil in a shallow frying pan on a medium heat
- add mustard seeds and allow them to crackle
-add ginger, red chillies, turmeric, green chillies and yellow split peas and quickly stir fry them for a couple of minutes.
- add curry leaves and peanuts and mix them with rest of tempering spices and let them cook for another 2 mins.
-turn the heat off and pour in the lemon juice and give it a quick stir.
-add the tempered mix to cold rice and mix well.
-taste and see if you need more salt, if you do then dissolve a little bit of salt in water and sprinkle this water over rice.
-mix well again and if you want to have it hot while serving,cover the dish with a foil and put in the oven at 100 degrees C for about 10 mins.
That's it!!! It's all done and ready to eat. I told you, it's really quick and easy. Enjoy!!

Quick and easy Lentil and potato kichidi

Kichdi or Kichree is inspiration for the famous British dish 'Kedgree'. This is a very basic recipe with two main ingredients being rice and lentils. It is a popular comfort food cooked al over India but has it's variations as different regions have their local influences and versions of it. This is also a student favourite to cook because it's simple and takes less time with really few ingredients to use. This dish made it's way into Greek and Russian books dated 15th  century AD and  was very popular in the kitchens of Mughal Emperors. It's actually funny I say that because generally this is considered to be a poor man's diet. Though traditionally all the ingredients are cooked together in one pot, I used an Italian technique of cooking Risotto to make this version of  Kichidi. It worked and made complete sense to me. You can use vegetables of any kind that you would like to eat in it , I only had tomatoes and potatoes at home and as it was raining and cold I did not bother going out shopping and this is such a perfect dish for a cold , rainy day. Let's have a look at the ingredients and method of cooking.

 Before we prep the vegetables, let's start boiling the lentils.
Toor daal or Yellow split lentils(you can use any sort of lentils you want)- 100gm
Bay leaves-2
Whole crushed garlic cloves-2
Sliced Ginger- 20 gms
Dried Red chilli -1
-Wash the lentils and place them in the pan with the rest of the ingredients and add lots of water.This water is what we will be using to cook our rice with.

While the lentils are cooking prepare the required vegetables. The list of veggies I used for this recipe-

Onion- medium size- sliced- 1

Tomatoes- Medium size- sliced-2

Potatoes- cut into small cubes- med.size-2

Chopped ginger- 50 gm

Chopped garlic- 25 gm

Coriander leaves- 1 bunch

For Tempering-

Whole cumin seeds- 1 tsp

Whole mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp

Dry red chilli- 1

Black peppercorns- 5-6

Turmeric Powder- a pinch

Sunflower oil- 2 tbsp

Rest of the ingredients-

Basmati Rice- 200 gm

Cripsy onions- 100 gm(These are just for garnish, if you don't find them in supermarkets, don't bother making them at home. Just use some toasted nuts for texture.)

Corinader powder-1 tsp

-Once the lentils are almost cooked, switch off the heat and add all the potatoes into the water that lentils are being cooked and leave them in there so that they start getting soft.

-Heat oil in a deep pan and add all the ingredients for tempering.

- I quite like to bite into pepper corns so I leave them whole. If you are not comfortable with the idea then just crush them and add.

-Once, the tempering spices have been sautéed for a minute , add chopped ginger and garlic.

- Add the onions once the ginger and garlic are cooked for 2 minutes.

- Once the onions become transparent, add washed rice and stir for a couple of minutes.

-Then add sliced tomatoes and cook for another 3 minutes.Add Coriander powder.

-It's time to add the water in which lentils and potatoes have been cooked and do not add it all at once.

-Just add a ladle full of lentil water at a time and let the rice soak it and cook gently on low flame.

-Once all the water is in add the salt, lentils and potatoes and cover with a lid and cook for about 5 mins.

-Take the lid off and check if the rice is cooked and once it is then let the reaming liquid evaporate but not all of it. Kichdi should be a little moist and a bit starchy. 

-Add the coriander leaves and sprinkle some crisp fried onions or toasted cahsewnuts and serve it.

In the English adaptation of this dish, they use smoked Haddock and boiled egg as garnish. Give it a go. It's Delicious.

I personally do not enjoy this dish piping hot as you do not get to taste all the lovely flavours in it so I tend to wait for about 10 minutes after it's been cooked and then eat it. 

Potato, Butternut Squash and Mixed Pepper curry

I do not know what to call this dish. I just thought of few ingredients to begin with and then made it up as I kept cooking. So, yet to find a name for it. But, I did take some influences of 'Kadai Masala' cooking which is popular in North India.This recipe is quick, simple and packed with flavours.I always make my own spice powders and try a different combination each time. This time I kept it very simple. So, lets have a look at the spice mix.

Coriander seeds - 2 tbsp
Dry red chillies- 2 nos
Cumin seeds-1tbsp
Cinnamon stick-1
Fenugreek seeds- 1 tsp
Dry roast all the above spices in the pan for about 2-3 minutes on a medium flame and make a coarse powder out of them either using a pestle and mortar or spice blender.

Vegetables-
potatoes- cubed- 250gm
Butternut Squash-cut into 1/2 inch-200gm
Red pepper-1
Yellow pepper-1
Chopped onion- 1
sliced Green chillies-2
Ginger- 25gm-ground into paste with garlic
Garlic-25 gm
Chopped tomatoes in can -400 gms
chopped Coriander leaves- 1 bunch
Garnishes- single cream and roasted peanuts.


Whole Spices-
Bay leaves- 2
Cloves-4
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Cardamom pods- 3
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Method -
Heat vegetable oil in a deep thick bottom pan on medium heat and all the whole spices to it.
Sauté the whole spices for a minute and let the oil get infused with all the whole spices.
Add the turmeric powder and 2 tbsp of the ground spice powder. Cook for about another minute.
Add the chopped onions and green chillies and cook at least for 10 minutes till the onions have caramelised .
Add ginger and garlic paste and sauté for another 5 minutes.
Add potatoes and stir them till they are well coated with the onion and spice mix.
 After 5 minutes add the butternut squash and  salt.
Add chopped tomatoes and then stir in the peppers.Add just enough water to cover the veggies and let them simmer for about good 12-15 minutes.
The starch from the potatoes will thicken the sauce and you will end up with a sauce of coating consistency.

Check for the potatoes if they are cooked. They should be well cooked but not mushy.
Check for the seasoning and add more salt if needed.
Add the chopped coriander leaves and finish it with a swirl of single cream.
Sprinkle some roasted peanuts or any nuts of your choice or no nuts at all if you are allergic.
Serve hot with steamed rice or chapatis.

Old Delhi Murgh Makhani/ Butter chicken

So, we come to what is popularly knows as 'The National Dish' of India.
Murgh Makhani is what it is traditionally known as but then Brits fell in love with this dish and came up with a simple name 'Butter Chicken'.Few generations later the off spring of this curry was born in Scotland and was named  'Chicken Tikka Masala' which went on and grew up to become  national dish of The UK. WOW, Mother is National dish of India and son, UK. Though it comes form the state of Punjab in India, I tried the best version of it in Old Delhi. Hence, I  called it Old Delhi Butter Chicken.

North India , Punjab in particular is a dairy rich state so you see a lot of dairy products such as butter, cream, ghee, yogurt, paneer(Indian honemade cottage cheese) etc. in the cooking.They use nut pastes like almonds and cashew nuts to give richness to the sauce.Tandoor , is a clay oven that is used to make delicious tikkas, kebabs and naan breads. Here, since not all of us can have a tandoor oven in our kitchens, we will make do with our regular kitchen oven. Let's get cooking then..
For the marinade-
Boneless chicken thighs- 1 kg( I  recommend thighs because when you oven cook the chicken the fat in thighs help to keep chicken moist)
Full fat yoghurt- 200 gm
Ginger paste- 2tsp
Garlic paste-2 tsp
Coriander Powder- 1 tsp
Cumin Powder- 1tsp

turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Kashmiri chilli powder/ mild paprika- 2tsp(this powders give the curry a good red colour but does not make it too hot)
Lime juice- 1 lime
salt - 1 tsp

For the sauce-
Medium sized onions- chopped-2
Chopped tomatoes-(best  to use italian chopped tomatoes in can in case fresh tomatoes are not juicy)- 500 gm
Green chillies-sliced- 3
Dried fenugreek leaves/kasoori methi/fresh fenugreek leaves- 100 gms (if you have an Indian supermarket close by then you can go for kasoori methi or dry fenugreek leaves. If you cant get hold of it then try to get fresh bunch of fenugreek leaves)
Butter- 200 gms
kashmiri chilli powder/mild paprika- 1 tsp
Garam Masala powder- 1 tsp
double cream- 50 ml
Honey- 10 ml
Cardamom powder- 5 gms
Whole cardamoms-5
Bay leaves -2
Cashewnuts- 50gm
Corinader leaves- 1/2 bunch
salt - to taste
Method-
- pre heat your oven to 220 degrees C.Mix all the ingredients for marination, cut each boneless thigh into 2 or 3 pieces.
- get the chicken into the marinade and make sure all the marinade coats pieces of chicken well.Rest it in fridge for about 4 hours.
-Chop onions, tomatoes(if using fresh) and chillies.
-Place the chicken pieces on a rack and get the tray into the oven for 20 minutes, 10 on each side.
-once chicken is in the oven cooking,place a heavy bottom pan on the stove on medium heat.
-melt butter, add whole cardamom, bay leaf and sauté for 30 seconds.
-add onions and chillies. Cook for about 10 minutes till onions become transparent and then add fenugreek leaves.
- saute for another 5 minutes and add cashew nuts.some prefer soaking the cashew nuts and grinding them into a paste separately but I do not see a point in doing that. Cashew nuts will any ways soften up while cooking along with onions and tomatoes.
-After a couple of minutes add chopped tomatoes and slow cook for another 10 minutes till tomatoes are all mushy.
- get the bay leaves out, switch off the flame and let the mix sit for 10 minutes till it becomes warm.
- add this mix to a jar and blend till it turns smooth and rich.
- get the sauce back into the pan and simmer it on a low heat.
-add chilli powder, garam masala ,cardamom powder and honey and mix .
-by now the chicken should be cooked and out of the oven.
-add the chicken to sauce and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes.
-here is a tip, instead of adding water add all the juices from the chicken and marinade that has dripped into the baking tray because it adds a lot of flavour to the sauce. So, please do not throw the liquid away.

- finish with cream and coriander and give it one final stir so that the cream is mixed well into the sauce.
-check for seasoning and add salt if required.
- Serve hot with naan bread/chapatis/parathas or even steamed rice.


This definitely is one  recipe that any one who loves Indian cuisine should try. Its not hard to cook and not too spicy at all. So, non spicy eaters will love it too. Also, for vegetarians, use paneer cheese  instead of chicken and call it 'Paneer Butter Masala'-another most popular Indian Vegetarian dish. HAVE FUN!!

Roasted Vermicelli Upma- A south Indian Breakfast dish with Italain Pasta

Hello from The  USA. I came here to spend some time with my family in Denver, CO. I did not know what to expect form this city but to be honest I really like it. It has a beautiful country side with a lovely view of Rocky mountains. Unfortunately, most of the roads are closed due to horrifying floods that hit the state recently and terrible damage that it has caused. So, had to spend most of the time indoors which I wanted to make most of. So, started doing some cooking with my mom and sis-in-law and it's so much fun learning and teaching at the same time.
Last night I showed of my skills by making Chicken curry and this morning my mom made one of my favourite dishes for break fast called 'Semiya Upma' which is made out of roasted Vermicelli pasta.Vermicelli is used in many forms in Indian Cuisine. We make desserts out of it, snacks, sweets and breakfast too. How did this Italian ingredient become so popular in Indian cooking? I do not know to be honest, I have to do some research on it.I know that Romans used to trade gold and other ingredients in exchange of Black Pepper, silk and pea cocks but did vermicelli date back to 30 B.C? Their port was Tamil Nadu which is in South of India so it makes a lot of sense that Vermicelli is used a lot in South Indian cooking. OK,  that’s enough of history, let’s get to this recipe that I took form my mom but I did add my tweaks and twists to it.

Ingredients-
Roasted vermicelli- 500 gm
Large onion chopped- 1
Green Chillies slit in half - 3
Curry leaves- 2 stems
Ginger grated- 20 gms
Carrots grated- 50 gms
Green Peas fresh or fresh frozen- 100 gm
potatoes- small dices- 50 gms
Lime zest- 1
water- 1 lts
For tempering-
Sunflower oil/veg oil/olive oil- 100 ml
Mustard seeds- 10 gm
split yellow chick peas/chana dal- 10 gm
Dry red chillies -2
Garnish-
Lime wedge
Roasted cashew nuts
Method of Preparation-
 - heat oil in a pan and add the tempering ingredients.
-stir for a couple of minutes then add green chillies, grated ginger and sauté for another 2 minutes.
-add onions and curry leaves and cook till onions become transparent.


Note- the pictures are a little different from my recipe as I have changed the recipe a bit.
-Add potatoes and then pour in water.The ratio of water must always be double the quantity of vermicelli.
-let the water come to a slow boil and add some salt into it.
-add carrots and green peas and cook for a minute before you add vermicelli.
-then add vermicelli and stir for a minute and you will notice that it soaks up most of the water and at this point , lower the flame and
keep stirring  once every 30 seconds.
- make sure that vermicelli is not over cooked and it stays separate,not sticking to each other and form into a lump.
-stir in the grated lime zest before finishing and check for seasoning.
- garnish with some roasted cashew nuts and a wedge of lime.
- get the Upma into a bowl, press it gently with a spoon and de mould it onto a plate for presentation and use the lime wedge for garnish.
*adding vegetables not only enhance the flavour of this dish but also makes it look very colourful but in case you are in a rush you could do it without veggies, just like my mom did this morning.Enjoy this breakfast dish with a steaming cup of coffee.LIFE IS GOOD!!