Kathrika kara kuzhambu - Aubergine in Spicy Tamarind Sauce

The brinjal lover is back! The cloudy cozy days in Germany are at its peak and so is the craving for something hot and tangy and what better would be than good old brinjal with this effect?! This is one of the fastest and tastiest "kuzhambu" that one can make in spite of that panging hunger. Far from home, the mind often pushes you to be lazy and quick with food and this results in take outs which in turn results in an unsatisfied soul. So, to be in peace with the inner self and feast upon, here is a simple recipe.

Cut the Aubergine into 1 inch pieces. Heat oil in a pan and pop some mustard seeds. Add some channa dal, urad dhal and a pinch of hing and turmeric. Add a few curry leaves and immediately the cut pieces of brinjal. Once the brinjal hits the pan, it will soak up all the oil and this would result in charred lentils. So, a quick addition of the following is required. Sprinkle salt, chili powder and sambar powder and stir. Add a cup of tamarind juice (pre soak a lemon sized ball of tamarind in water and extract the juice or dissolve a spoon of tamarind paste in 250ml water). Reduce the heat to medium, cover the cooking pan and let the brinjals get cooked in the tamarind juice. It is essential that the mixture boils well to eliminate the rawness of the chili and tamarind. Chopped coriander is optional at this stage. Check for taste. In case of excess tanginess, dilute with water and let it boil for some more time.

One is always worried about the consistency during preparations like this. But since this preparation does not contain any cooked lentils, it will not be like a soup. However, the tamarind juice will thicken up with the sambar powder to provide a consistency denser than the rasam (minestrone soup) and ligher than a sambar (cream soup). Enjoy it with white rice!

Festival necessitates: Aviyal

Sometimes too much is still too less! Especially when it is Aviyal. A real long list of vegetables go into making this coconut confluence and it requires quite some skill to get it done without the vegetables losing their identity. But the patience and practice is worth. Almost every festival in South India is incomplete without Aviyal on the menu and the traditional marriage food on the banana leaf should include this too. 

Potatoes - 4 to 5 - washed (peeled if required) - cut into big pieces

Raw banana (vazhaikai) - 2 - peeled - cut into similar size as potatoes

Carrots - 2 to 3 - peeled - cut into thick and long strands

Colocasia (Sepankezhangu) - a few - cook separately - peel after cooking.

Beans - 200g - wash and break into 2-3 pieces per beans

Broad beans (Avaraikai) - 200g - wash and remove the tips. Retain as whole or just halve them.

Peas - half a cup

Aubergine - 2 or 3 - cut into big pieces

Pumpkin (Sweet) - 200g - remove thick skin, dice into big pieces

Yogurt - 1 cup

Green chillies, half a coconut, cumin, curry leaves and coconut oil.

Scrape half a fresh coconut and make a fine paste of it along with 4 or 5 big green chillies and 2 spoons of cumin seeds. Make sure the paste is really fine and homogenous!

These are some basic vegetables required to make Aviyal. It is very difficult to write the amount/weight of vegetables required. Cooking and flavor are tongue specific and the vegetable proportions can be varied according to personal interest. For example, I would always expect every vegetable in the Aviyal would magically transform into Colocasia! Other vegetables like cluster beans, banana stem, yam and drumstick can also be added. Strict NO-NO vegetables are ladysfinger (okra), bitter gourd, snake gourd and the likes.

First and foremost, the most important rule in cooking Aviyal is the right stacking of vegetables during the cooking process. Excepting colocasia, all the other vegetables have to be cooked together, but at the same time, they should not get over cooked! Aubergine and pumpkin cook really fast and the beans take more time. So one needs to follow the right order of adding the vegetables.

Fill 1/4th the level of the vessel with water and start to heat. Just before the water starts to boil, add the potatoes and carrots. After a minute, add the beans, broad beans, peas and the raw banana. Finally after a minute more, add the aubergine and pumpkin. Add the required salt around and shake the vessel carefully. DO NOT stir mix at this stage. Close the vessel for a few minutes until the aubergine and pumpkin is 70% cooked. Reduce the heat to medium. Now add the coconut-green chilli-cumin paste and stir it into the vessel. Also add a few curry leaves. Check for salt and add more if necessary. With the heat still in medium, close the vessel again and cook until the raw smell of coconut-cumin disappears. Add the pre cooked and peeled colacasia at this stage. Add 2 table spoons of coconut oil and stir well with the vegetables. Remove from heat. After 5 minutes of cooling down, add a cup of fresh yogurt and mix.

Just eat if fresh out of the cup or serve along with any type of rice (Sambar or coconut or lemon or tamarind)!

The God of simple food: Dosai

The Dosai or the Indian Rice Pancakes (Indisches Reispfannkuchen) is one of the most important innovations that has been probably passed down since the time of cooking itself. Rice and lentils were in abundance in ancient India (oh, so it is now, take a look at 1kg for 1 Rupee :P) and so one can only imagine how the magnificent dosai came into existence. Living in India with parents, we always look upon dosai as the tasty miracle conjured by mothers in an attempt to fulfill the undying appetite. Mothers are kind and they would propose that we should eat them hot as soon as she prepares and that would only after sometime lead to frustrated looks and the statement that she needs to have the batter to feed others in the family! But the moment we guys move away from dear India (only to miss India more), we start to miss dosai. Yes, the lucky ones in America have Saravana Bhavan, but in Europe, Indian food is always the North Indian Punjabi cuisine. I have absolutely nothing against it, just an observation! And yes, we start to crave for the simple yet godly dosai.

For quite some years (4 to be precise), I have never attempted to may my own dosai. I have of course purchased the instant MRT dosai mix and scribbled away on the pan, making no where near round dosai and feeling proud that I have still not grown up. But as craving increase, one has to step up. Unless you take care about yourself, no one else is going to! So I began my dosai making and frankly, I have never felt so happy and satisfied. And oh, it is simple. Long live Bachelors !!!

Break the rules or Strictly No Rules (Thala!!!!!). I have made dosai with (a) Raw rice (b) Par boiled rice and (c) Basmati rice. And I have not let the batter ferment for a few hours. But still, the dosai is as tasty as it can get!! 

Rice ( par boiled/raw/basmati) - 2 cups

Urad dhal - 1/4 cup

Fenugreek seeds (optional) - count of 5 to 10 (just a little little, I like a strong flavor and so I added one table spoon)

Soak the Rice, Urad dhal and fenugreek seeds for 8 hours. The easiest way is to just soak it overnight and wake up just a few steps before the most satisfying breakfast! Drain the water and transfer the contents to a blender. I used a hand held blender and it does the job to satisfaction. So, if you have a bigger powerful one, you are guaranteed to have a better batter. Blend until smooth. Add water to aid in blending and to reach the consistency. It is a bit tough to describe the consistency with words, but all I can say is that, neither too thick nor too thin. It is always to start with a thicker batter and slowly add water and blend more to reach the best consistency. Add the required salt at this stage. Dosai perfectionists would prefer to wait until this batter ferments. Living in Germany, I can only dream that it would ferment when left outside. But still, if you prefer, you can pre heat your oven for sometime, switch off the oven, wait for 2-3 minutes and then place the batter inside for a few hours! But oh, who has the patience?! Once you smell batter that is ready at hand, it is impossible to resist making dosai from it.


Place a non stick pan on medium heat. Pour 1 - 2 ladles of the dosai batter and spread gingerly without applying too much pressure. Sprinkle finely chopped onions (optional), add a table spoon of oil around the dosai and wait for few minutes until one side is golden brown. Flip over and let the side with onions cook for a minute or two. Eat hot with chutney, sambar, yogurt, gun powder, yesterdays rasam, todays rasam, pickle, etc. !!!!

Deep rooted traditionalism: Kathrika sudal (Grilled Aubergine)

श्रीमान वेंकट नाथार्याह कविथार्थिक केसरी |

वेधान्थाचार्य वर्योमे संनिधात्तम सदह्रीदी ||

Salutations to shri vedantha desikar, he remains the greatest devotee until eternity.

No disrespect, but when I think of what Shri Vedantha Desikan would have had for lunch I can imagine mor kuzhambu, parupu usili and kathrika sudal! I think kathrika sudal dates back as long as Vaishnavism itself and until now I havent seen an Iyengar family that does not relish this traditional dish. The methodology of preparation is simple, very simple. When I think about this dish now, I am surprised how I could have hated Aubergine so much during my pre-teens. I used to give away my share of aubergine to my sister and she would be the happiest child ever. Unfortunately now, I even steal away her portion. Every time mom used to cook this, she had to make sure world war III would not start in Mylapore just over a portion of Kathrika sudal.

Kathrika sudal can be translated as Grilled Aubergine. Though grilling is only the first step and not the only step, its referred to as this. What I present here is the traditional way without variants (the variant using tamarind is equally amazing).

Aubergine/Brinjal/Kathrika (huge) - green chili - mustard seeds - cumin seeds - broken urad dhal - hing - salt - yogurt - oil.

Smear a drop of oil over the Aubergine. If you have a gas stove, then grill the aubergine over the naked flame (keep the flame on medium, place the aubergine over it and turn it occasionally so that its cooked uniformly). Else, set your microwave in the grill mode and toss it in for 10-15 minutes. In a conventional oven, the aubergine takes 15 minutes at 200 C (heat from top and bottom). Once the aubergine is grilled, allow it to cool before peeling off the skin. Remove the crown of the aubergine and transfer it to a bowl. Heat a table spoon of oil and crackle the mustard and cumin seeds. Fry 1 table spoon of broken urad dhal until golden brown. Add chopped green chillies and a dash of hing and pour this over the grilled aubergine. Add the required salt and a cup of thick yogurt and smash the aubergine finely. For the best taste, use clean hands so that you can squeeze the chili into it. (Ooooo, hands?! People who think like this, just go ahead and use your vegetable smasher :-) )

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve with hot sambar rice.

The Radical Radish

Serendipity! This is one of the most well know situations in the scientific life as well as the kitchen life. But there are many situations that lead to serendipity. For example, this one in the kitchen. A few years back I opened my fridge on a Sunday afternoon only to discover that I just have a bunch of radish left. No other vegetables and no lentils either. Germany being comfortable in so many ways, loses out on no-shopping-sundays. Well, if you really need something, there are places to go and distances to travel and then shop. But, as I already mentioned before, Sunday! So taken into account the laze factor and that it was snowing outside, I wanted to make something tasty with what I have. And I succeeded quite well :-)

A bunch of radish-tamarind-chili powder-cumin powder-coriander seed powder-salt-fresh/desiccated coconut-mustard seeds-cumin seeds-oil

Wash and cut the radish into pieces of 4. If you do not get the small radish bunch, you can always use the normal white long and tastier one that we get in India! Heat 2 spoons of oil (sesame/sunflower) in a pan and pop the mustard and cumin seeds on it. Add the cut pieces of radish and sprinkle necessary salt over it and let it get 60% done. At maximum heat it takes only 5 minutes for this. Extract the juice from a lime sized tamarind and pour into the radish. If you are going to use tamarind paste, then dilute one spoon of the tamarind in 250ml water and then add to the radish. Immediately add along 1 spoon of chili powder, 1 spoon of coriander seed powder (dhaniya) and half a spoon of cumin powder. Sprinkle hing and turmeric. Lower the heat to medium and close the pan. Allow the radish to get cooked in the tamarind juice. When the tamarind juice starts to boil, open the lid and cook  until almost 90% of water has evaporated. Add the desiccated coconut powder or the freshly scrapped coconut, stir and garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve with hot rice. 

Zucchini Lasagne

I have always wanted to make lasagne! Ever since I ate this wonderful Italian food in one of the street side Italian restaurant in Dusseldorf I became a huge fan. Lasagne is not for the diet-size conscious mind. It is for people who like to indulge in an extra dosage of cheese fueled by an uncompromising desire to eat the best! However, a lasagne made like this can be eaten once a year. Lasagne can also be made healthy and tasty and be a very wholesome and hunger satisfying lunch/dinner. Here I present to you a very healthy and tasty lasagne.

Lasagne-zucchini-onions-tomatoes-milk-basil-thyme-pepper-flour-cheese-salt.

First read the instructions on your lasagne package! Some require boiling in water before using them as layers and some can directly go into the oven without pre boiling. I choose to have a lasagne that doesn’t require pre boiling since it is easier to handle! Wash the zucchini and cut into thick round pieces. Cook on medium heat in an oiled pan along with sliced onions. Sprinkle salt and freshly ground pepper. Keep aside and let it cool. Meanwhile, chop fresh tomatoes into a pan and start to cook on medium heat with addition of some water. Once the tomatoes are cooked and smashed, add basil and thyme and two table spoons of butter. After the butter melts, add half a cup of milk and stir well. When the milk starts to boil, sieve in a table spoon of all purpose flour with constant stirring until the sauce thickens. Adjust salt in the sauce and add pepper if required.

Alternate layers of lasagne and cooked zucchini-onions in an oven bake-able glassware. Finish with lasagne on top and pour the sauce so that entire surface is covered. Sprinkle cheese on top (shredded or cut into thick strips). Bake for 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. There is no need to pre heat the oven. Serve hot with a good red wine!

Potato au gratin!

Yo, food blog after a long time! Surprises are good, so I have heard and so I have experienced quite recently. So in celebration of my surprise, I decided to surprise some people with this food blog. I know this sounds lame, nevertheless, let move on to food.

Potatoes are fascinating and probably there are very few people in the world who can hate them. Boiled, fried, grilled, baked or even in the form of vodka, potatoes are everywhere. Almost every guy who starts to cook, especially abroad, makes the traditional urulakezhangu fry (potato fry) and proudly starts his kitchen career. I was no exception. My first in Germany was potato fry and I used the spices available in the German supermarket and was quite proud of my near desi flavour. Years have passed since that first potato fry and lead me this current potato au gratin.

It might not be the traditional au gratin, so people wanting to complain, I already accept this. Nevertheless, here is how I made this tasty yet another poetic potato.

Potatoes-onions-cream-butter-gouda cheese-salt-nutmeg-thyme-basil-pepper.

Select big potatoes (be it any kind) and peel the skin off. Make thin slices and arrange them on a bake proof glassware (or ceramic). Fry onion in butter and spread a layer of fried onion over the potatoes. Arrange potatoes slices again over this. Take 300ml of 30% cream and mix into it salt, powdered nutmeg, thyme, basil and freshly ground black pepper. Pour this evenly all over the potatoes. Add one more layer of fried onions if desired and spread the shredded Gouda cheese over this. Gouda can be substituted with cedar cheese or the common store sold pizza cheese. Pre heat the oven for 10 minutes at 200 C and then bake for 30 minutes with heating from top and bottom.