Green Tomato Kootu

Ingredients:

1 cup Yellow Moong daal
4 Green tomatoes
1 pinch Turmeric
1 tsp Salt
1 cup grated frozen coconut
3 Red chillies
1 Green chilli
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 twig Curry leaves

Method:

Cook the yellow moong daal in a pressure cooker ( 3 whistles) and keep aside.
Cut tomatoes into cubes and cook in water till soft.Add turmeric and salt while cooking.
Gind coconut, chillies, cumin seeds and curry leaves with little water in a mixer till smooth.
Add the cooked daal and ground paste to the cooked tomatoes and give it a boil.
Temper with mustard, urad daal, cumin seeds and hing.
Serve hot with rotis or rice.
This dish has a very unique taste to it.. tangy due to the green tomatoes.Yumm..

I found this snap of the same dish using Green Eggplants in one of my drafts and decided it to post it here since it is the same recipe using green eggplants instead of green tomato.

Coconut Chutney

This recipe has been taken from Chandra Padmanabhan's cookbook Southern Spice. I am an ardent follower of her previous book Dakshin ,Vegetarian Cuisine from the South and love every recipe that she has published.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
3 red chillies
2 green chillies chopped
4 tbsp chana daal ( Bengal gram daal)
1 tsp hing
1 cup froxen shredded coconut
2 tsp chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp tamarind paste
salt to taste

Tempering
Heat 1 tsp oil
Add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 red chilli
1/2 tsp urad daal
1 sprig curry leaves

Method
Heat oil in a pan
Add red chillies, green chillies, daal and hing and fry till daal turns golden.
Add this to a mixer.Add coconut, coriander leaves, tamarind, salt and 1/2 cup water.
Cool and grind to a smooth paste.
Transfer it to a bowl.
Add the tempering.

Serve hot with idli, dosai or pongal.
Thanks Chandra Padmanaban

Vengaya Sambhar (Onion Sambhar)

This is one of my favourite Sambhars. I love to eat it with Dosais and Idlis. It has just the right flavor to dip a piece of idli and pop into your mouth.

Ingredients:

2 red onions sliced
3 tsp Sambhar powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1 pinch turmeric
1 tsp Hing (Asafoetida)
1/2 cup Toor daal pressure cooked
water

Tempering
Heat 1 tbsp Oil.
Add
1 tsp mustard seeds
When the mustard seeds splutter, add
1 tsp Urad daal
1 dry red chilli
1 sprig curry leaves

Method

Pressure cook the daal in a cooker for 3 whistles.
In a big pan, saute the onion till pink.
Add the tamarind paste and 3 cups of water.Add salt, turmeric and hing.
Boil well till the water and tamaraind become thick in consistency (15 mins or so).
Add the daal.
Add water (about 1 cup or so) depending on how thick you want the sambhar to be.
Give it a boil .
Add the above tempering and enjoy hot with rite, idlis or dosais