Kathirikka Gothsu - Eggplant in a Tangy Tamarind Sauce - Side Dish for Venn Pongal

Venn Pongal (recipe here) is a rice and lentil based dish served for breakfast in South India. It is quite rich with ghee (clarified butter) and cashews. It is flavoured with pepper, cumin and ginger. The best side dish for Pongal is a Gothsu. It can be prepared with tomato called tomato gothsu (recipe here) or with eggplant. Other sides that go great with Pongal are Sambar and Coconut Chutney.



Ingredients

Onions 1
Eggplant 1 big

Mustard 1/2 tsp
Hing/Asefoetida a pinch
Dry Red Chilli 1
Green Chilli 1
Curry Leaves few

Tamarind Paste 1.5 tsp
Water 3 cups
Rice Flour 1 tsp (optional)

Oil and salt to taste



Method of Preparation

1. Bake the eggplant in an oven @ 230C for about 30 min. Grease it a little bit and make 3-4 slits on it before baking. Rotate it half way thru. Let it cool. Peal the skin and mash the eggplant. If you do not have an oven, you can char the eggplant on the stove top as well. Just use the smaller variety of eggplant (2 or 3).

2. In a pan, heat a little oil. Add the mustard seeds. When it sputters, add the red chilli (broken), green chilli (slit), curry leaves (chopped) and hing.

3 When it sizzles, add the onion and saute for a few minutes till it starts to brown.

4. Add tamarind paste and water. Add some salt and mix well. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes till the sauce thickens. You can optionally add a little rice flour to help it along.

5. Now add the eggplant paste and cook for few more minutes.

Serve as a side for Pongal. Will work great as a side for Dosa/Idli or even with rice and roti. 

Oats Pongal

It was quite interesting for me to make Oats Pongal. We eat oats quite often in our home. We cook oats, mix with some soya milk and raisins and enjoy a warm porridge. Occasionally, I add some apples or bananas to the oats. I love eating Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (my fav cookies, yet to make it- some day soon) and oatmeal bar. But never made or tasted anything savoury with oats.

When I told my husband I wanted to try making Oats Pongal for the Magic Mingle event, he gave me a look. It took me a week to convince him to let me make it.

Do you ever get scared of adding sugar to a curry or salt to your tea. I always keep them in different kinds of bottle and double check before adding. Today my hands were shaking when I was adding salt to oats. Something felt wrong.

Verdict - My little one refused to eat it. I said try it first and then if you don't like it you don't need to eat it. He tried a couple of spoons and then said a No. I first felt it was no different from the regular pongal. But as I kept eating it, I was not too sure :-) Husband felt it was ok and said he would not mind if I made again. So I guess though there are people out there who love oats in Indian savoury breakfast, it is not for our family.

I was not sure if I wanted to post this. But then I thought, it tasted as it should and it is a recipe. Just cause I don't like something is not a reason for not posting. :-) So here you go. Do let me know if you have ever tried making Indian tiffin with oats and how your family likes it



Ingredients

Oats 1 cup
Moong Dal 1/2 cup
Pepper 1.5 tsp
Cumin 1 tsp
Cashews few
Ginger a small piece finely chopped
Ghee 1 tbsp

Method of Preparation

1. Pressure cook the moong dal with enough water.

2. Heat 2 cups of water in a pot. Add the oats when the water comes to a boil. Cook till the oats is almost done.

3. Add the cooked moong dal and some salt. Cook till it starts to come together. Switch off.

4. Crush 1 tsp of pepper and the cumin in a mixie to a coarse paste. In a separate pan, heat some ghee. Add the cashews. When they start to roast, add the ginger and cumin-pepper powder and the rest of the whole peppers. Add to the oats and mix well.

Serve with some chutney or sambar.


Linking this to Magic Mingle #7
Linking this to Show me your hits - lentils and legumes. Event by Sangee, hosted by Nalini

Rava Pongal

Rava Pongal is kind of a fusion of Rava Upma and Pongal. I was just looking thru my Meenakshi Ammal book when I saw this recipe. It was a surprise to me when I saw the title. I have never heard of the dish before. I decided to go ahead with it as it sounded interesting.

If you want to visualize how it tasted - think rava upma. Add the taste of pepper, cumin and ginger to it. That kind of what it felt like to me.



Ingredients

Rava (semolina) 2 cups
Moong dal 1/2 cup
Cashews few
Jeera 1 tsp
Pepper 1 tsp
Ginger 1 inch piece
Ghee 4 tbsp

Method of Preparation

1. Heat a pan and add the moong dal to it. Dry roast it for a little bit and then add some water. Cook till it is cooked, but still has its shape and is a little hard. Drain water and keep aside.

2. Heat another pan, add 2 tbsp of ghee. Add the rava and fry a little. Keep aside.

3. Make a course powder of jeera and pepper.

4. In the same pan, add the rest of the ghee. Add the cashews.

5. When it is slightly fried, add the chopped ginger and cumin/pepper powder.

6. Add 2 cups of water and salt.

7. When the water boils, simmer and add the rava. Cook a little.

8. Add the moong dal and cook till all the water is absorbed.

When I made it, is had a kind of dry texture to it. It did not have the mushy texture of rice pongal. Not sure if that was what the author intended. Ofcourse, if I add more water, it will get a little more bound together. We enjoyed this new tiffin.

Chakkara Pongal

Hope you all read my post about our pongal celebration. I know I am late in posting my Chakkara Pongal recipe. Thought its better late than never.

I am usually lazy and make it just in the cooker. This time, after seeing Radhika's post, I was inspired to try making it without cooker. I think it was worth the effort. It tasted heavenly.



Ingredients

Rice 1/2 cup
Moong Dal 1.5 tbsp
Jaggery 2 cups
Cardamom little
Cashews few
Raisins few
Ghee a few tbsp (as per taste)
Milk 3 cups
Water 3 cups

Method of Preparation

1. Dry roast the moong dal and keep aside.

2. Wash and soak the rice and roasted dal together for about 15-20 minutes.

3. In a big pot/pan, take the milk and water and bring it to a boil.

4. Add the rice and dal to it and cook in medium low flame stirring in between. Keep the pan covered. Initially the milk will boil over. So be careful. Keep stirring often.

5. In a separate pan, add the jaggery and a little water (around 1/4 to 1/2 cup) and melt it. Remove any dirt/dust from it and keep ready.

6. When the rice and dal is fully cooked and muched up, add the jaggery mix to it. Simmer for some more time till it all comes together.

7. Fry some cashews and raisins in ghee.

8. Add the cashews, raisins, cardamom and all the ghee to the pongal and mix well.

It solidified a little more after a few hours and tasted best the next day. 

Venn Pongal with Tomato Gothsu

Pongal is made of Rice and Moong dal. Venn Pongal literally means white pongal. It is the salty version of the Chakkara Pongal (sweet pongal) made during the Pongal festival. If you are wondering why I did not make the Chakkara Pongal today, read my post on Sweet Idli. I am still heart broken.

It is the standard recipe. But I have made one small change to it. Usually the rice and dal are cooked together. I somehow don't like that much as my dal always fails to cook well. Also, the ratio is of rice and dal are different for Sweet Pongal. So if I cook separately, I can mix whatever ratio I want.



Ingredients

Raw Rice 2 cups
Split yellow Moong dal 1 cup
Melted Ghee 1/2 cup
Pepper 2-3 tsp
Cumin 2 tsp
Cashew few
ginger small piece finely chopped
Salt

Method of Preparation

1. Pressure Cook the rice with 5 cups of water. (1:2.5 ratio). Cook the dal as well till well done.

2. Coarsely powder the pepper and cumin.

3. In a pan, heat half the ghee. Add the cashews. When it starts to brown, add the ginger, pepper and cumin.

4. After a few seconds, add the rice, dal and salt. Add the rest of the ghee. Add a little water if required. Stir well and mash everything together.

Serve with chutney or gothsu.

Gothsu is usually prepared with Eggplant (Kathirikka). As I have told you already about my husbands 'love' for Kathirikka, I make a tomato Gothsu that works well with Pongal.

Ingredients

Onion 1 big sliced
Tomato 3 chopped into small pieces
Curry leaves and green chillies (optional)
Sambar powder 3 tsp
Mustard 1/2 tsp
Tamarind 1/2 tsp
Salt and oil to taste

Method of preparation

1. Heat oil in pan and add the Mustard.

2. When it sputters, add the onion, curry leaves and green chillies.

3. When the onion starts to cook, add the tomatoes. Cook till it is wilted.

4. Add sambar powder and tamarind and some water and boil.

5. If it is too watery, you can add some rice flour to thicken it. I did not add it today.