Uppilitta Manga | Salted Mango Pickle

The name raw mango is rhymed with pickles right? So here I am with another easy pickle. This is not a very spicy pickle rather a salted one, but it stays fresh for about a year at room temperature - if stored properly.

Kerala Style Uppilitta Manga or Mangoes in brine is one the ways of storing raw organic mangoes. We also have a famous film song (black and white) which has the lyrics - "uppilitta mangai undu unnan vaa machunane" meaning "salted mango pickle is available, come have lunch dear". 

For first timers who want to preserve raw mangoes; let me tell you that there is no such recipe for this. When I asked my Mother, all she said was boil salt and water together, cool completely, pour over mangoes, let it sit for at least a month and use it during the monsoons for curries, chutneys etc

It is better if this mango pickle is preserved in bharanis. But since I don't have them I preserve it in glass bottles. Until now I have preserved it for about 6 months and it stays good. Just keep the glass bottles in dark places.

Ingredients:

Raw Mango: 1 kg

Salt: 1 cups (125 grams)

Water: 3 to 4 cups or as needed 

Green chillies - 20 nos

Method:

• Clean and wash the mangoes, pat dry with a towel.
• I sliced the mangoes into cubes of 1 inch. Generally mangoes are cut into big pieces lengthwise. Or if they are small mangoes, then they are just cut into two. I cut them into smaller pieces so as to compactly fit in my glass bottle.
• Slit the green chillies lengthwise. 
• Add the chillies and the cut mango pieces to a glass jar/bottle.
• Boil salt and water together, cool it completely and pour it over the mangoes. Cover tightly with a lid and keep it for a week. In between I check on it and give it a shake.
• The mangoes should be completely covered with water. So add water accordingly.
• After about a week you should start seeing the mangoes skin change color from a bright green to a mild green.
• When the complete mangoes have changed color, you can start using them. 

Uppilitta manga ready!!!

Notes:

• I topped the sliced mangoes into a big clean and dry glass jar. If you have a ceramic pot or "bharani" use it, though steel or aluminum is not ideal.
• If the mango skin is thick, it might take time to absorb the salt and hence the change in color.
• Once in a while check if there is any fungus formation on top; if there is wipe off with a clean towel or napkin. Make sure water covers the mangoes.
• Use always a dry spoon to take the magoes out. I show the spoon in flame for about half a minute and then insert it into the mangoes.

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Mamidikaya pappu | Raw mango dal

Mamidikaya pappu is a famous dish of Andhra Pradesh. I came across this dish for the first time in one of my fellow marathoners blog. But then after, I found this recipe repeating itself in many of the food blogs and I felt compelled to prepare this mango dal. I had prepared this recipe over the summer when mangoes were available in abundance but somehow did not get a chance to post it. So i reserved this recipe for this mega marathon when I decided on one of the ingredients as raw mango. 

It is a very easy recipe and it turned out very well. The dal is cooked with raw mangoes and mild spices. Try out this mango dal in the following summer season and i am sure you will love this mamidikaya pappu . Though this dish is generally paired with rice, it also goes well with rotis also.

Ingredients:

Raw mango - 1/2 cup      

Toor dal  - 3/4 cup 

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp      

Red chili  - 2     

Green chili -  2 - 3     

Garlic  - 2 pods     

Ginger - a small piece    

 Asafoetida - 2 pinches     

Onion   - 1     

Curry leaves -  few     

Ghee  - 1 tblsp     

Oil - 2 tsp     

Mustard seeds  - 1/2 tsp     

Cumin | jeera  - 1/4 tsp     

Salt - to taste    

Coriander leaves  - few 

Method:

• Peel and cut  the mango into cubes and cook it in little water.   
• Wash and and cook the dal with enough water, salt and turmeric powder. 
• Chop the onions finely, slit the green chili and finely chop the garlic and ginger. 
• In a pan add ghee and add mustard seeds, cumin, slit green chilies and red chilies. 
• Once the mustard splutters, Add the finely chopped garlic and ginger and the asafoetida 
• Cook for 2 minutes and add the finely chopped onions. Fry till the onions are translucent.
• Now add the dal and the cooked mango pieces. Add water as per the required consistency. Generally mango dal is made thick. I too made it thick. So I did not add any water.
• Allow this to boil for 5 minutes.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Mango dal is ready!!  Enjoy with rice or rotis.

Notes:

• You can also cook the dal along with the spices and mango pieces in cooker. Since I Tried it for the first time I tried everything on stove top.
• Add green chili according to the sourness of the mango. 
• I garnished the dal with fried onions along with coriander leaves to enhance the taste.

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Manga Chammandhi | Chutney with raw mango

As promised in my previous post, the next recipe is Manga chammandhi which I make with the kilichundan manga. I learnt this recipe from my MIL. I always make this chammandhi along with biriyanis. Its a very great combo. When it is off-season for mangoes, we substitute mango with lemon juice for the tanginess. This chammandhi is a very good accompaniment for kanji also. It is ground without adding water and all the ingredients are added raw. So stays fresh for a longer time. 

Ingredients:

Coconut (grated) - 1 cup

Raw mango - 1/2 of a mango (kilichundan)

Green chillies - 5

Shallots - 3

Ginger - 10 grams

Salt - to taste

Coriander leaves - few

Mint leaves - few

Method:

• Wash the raw mango. Grate and keep it aside. You need not discard its skin.
• Peel the ginger and shallots.
• Put all the ingredients along with salt in a mixer and grind coarsely.
• In between open the mixer and mix all the ingredients with a spatula and pulse the mixer 2-3 times so that the chutney is ground evenly. Do not add water.

Easy Manga Chammandhi is ready!!

Notes:

• Check the tanginess of the raw mango before adding it to the chutney.
• This chammandhi is very high on the spice level. If you want to reduce the spice level then you should also reduce the tanginess or the amount of raw mango.

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Manga Kari | Instant Pickle

Yippeeeeeee. We are in the last week of this month long marathon and I am happy that I have managed to be ready with all the 5 recipes for this week. I just have to edit the pictures and my post.

For the last week the ingredient I have chosen in raw mango. It is off-season now but I managed to get 1 or 2 mangoes for some of my recipes and few recipes I had prepared over summer but never posted. 

Manga kari makes an entry 2-3 times in our kitchen during the summer season. There is a mango in the name of kilimooku in tamil and kilichundan in malayalam meaning parrot's nose. Whenever I find this mango (Raw) I buy them in huge and make a variety of recipes like this manga kari, manga chammandhi, manga koottan etc... Will try to post most of these in this week's marathon. 

Starting this week with a very easy to make and instant pickle. This pickle often finds its place in the sadya menu. This can be made in a jiffy. The only time consuming process being chopping up the mango into small pieces. This kari stays good in room temperature for 2-3 days. Most of the times it gets over within that time. If you are planning to keep it for more time then it has to be refrigerated and consumed within about a week.

Ingredients:

Mango,unripe - 1 

Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp 

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Roasted fenugreek seeds powder - 1 pinch

Salt - As needed

To temper

Sesame oil - 1 tblsp

Mustard - 3/4 tsp

Method:

• Chop the cleaned mango finely - as tiny as possible and place in a mixing bowl. 
• Add salt and raw asafoetida and mix everything with the chopped mango.
• In a pan/ kadai, heat oil and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table. 
• Switch off the stove and add fenugreek seeds powder, turmeric, red chilli powder and mix well.
• Add this to the chopped mango. Mix well until the oil is evenly coated.

Instant mango pickle is ready!! Enjoy with a bowl of curd rice.

Notes:

• Adjust the spice and salt according to the tanginess of the mango.
• You can also add 1 red chilly while tempering. I usually don't add.
• This pickle also goes well with biriyanis.

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Varagu Pongal

The last one in the 'varagu' aka 'kodo millet' ingredient week is Pongal with varagu. Millets are rich in fiber, low in cholesterol and are gluten free. I made this pongal along with vadai. Pongal vadai with sambar and chutney is an wholesome breakfast. This varagu pongal is very easy to prepare, tastes delicious and also very healthy. There is not much difference between rice pongal and this pongal except that I felt it a little dry when compared to our normal rice pongal. I mean it was not muchy.

Ingredients:

   Varagarisi /Kodo Millet- 1/2 cup
   Split green gram dal/Moong dal/pasi paruppu -2 tbsp
   Water - 2 1/2 cup
   Salt to taste

   For the seasoning

   Oil - 1 tbsp
   Ghee - 1-2 tsp
   Cumin seeds/jeera - 1 tsp
   Whole black pepper/milagu - 1 tsp
   Cashew nuts - 4-5
   Ginger finely chopped - 1 tbsp
   Curry leaves - a sprig

Method:

• Dry roast moong dal in little ghee until it is hot to touch. 
• Wash and pressure cook both dal and millets with 2 1/2 cup of water and salt needed for 3 whistles.
• Once the pressure subsides, open the cooker and mix the content well.
• Heat ghee in a kadai/pan, add mustard seeds. When mustard crackles add cumin/jeera seeds, pepper finely chopped ginger, curry leaves. Fry for 30 seconds and pour it over the cooked millet + dal.
• Fry cashewnuts in ghee and pour it over the pongal.
• Cook the pongal on low heat for 3-4 minutes. Add remaining ghee, mix well and switch it off.

Delicious pongal is ready!!! Enjoy it with chutney and sambar.

Notes:

You can substitute kodo millet with little millet (samai) or barnyard millet (kudraivali) and prepare the same recipe.

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Varagu Pakora | with leftover idli batter

I normally make pakora with left over idli batter. Thats how I got the idea for this varagu pakora. But this time I didn't have any batter left from the idli/dosa batter made with varagu arisi. SO I prepared fresh batter just to make these pakoras.

This is the 20th recipe we are posting in this month long marathon and we have 6 more recipes coming up. This time I haven't done much justice with commenting on my fellow bloggers who are participating in this mega marathon. But I am happy that I am able to prepare and post the recipes as planned. Hope the rest of the 6 days will also go smooth.

When we have idli batter leftover for more than 2 days, these pakoras are the best option. Since the batter will also be little sour, it gets compensated with the onions and the rice flour added and gives a nice crispy taste. Well at my place, people did not make out that the idli was made out of varagu arisi. The same goes for pakoras also :)

Ingredients:

Leftover sour idli batter (with varagu) – 2 cups

Rava / Sooji – ½ cup

Onion – 1

Pepper powder– 1 tbsp

Salt – to taste

Green chillies – 2

Rice flour – 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves - a bunch

Oil – for frying 

Method:

• Finely chop the onions, coriander leaves and green chillies.
• Now add the onions, green chillies, rava, pepper, salt, coriander leaves and rice flour to the idli batter.
• Mix them well. The consistency should be thick, so if required add water.
• Let the batter sit for 10 -15 minutes. Meanwhile heat oil in a kadai.
• Once the oil is hot enough, bring down the flame to medium. Using a spatula or a spoon pour the batter in the oil.
• Fry till they are golden brown. I fried 4-5 pakoras at a time. 

Pakoras are ready!!! Relish it with hot tea.

Notes:

• Don't crowd too many pakoras in the oil. Otherwise they will stick to each other.
• You can add more vegetables to this batter and make it a vegetable pakora.

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Varagu Idli and Dosa

The next in line with kodo millet is our beloved idli and dosa - the staple breakfast of tamil nadu. Sometime back I read somewhere that idli is the best breakfast recipe from all the breakfast recipes available all over the world. This is because - idli is made from fermented batter, the fermentation process breaks down the starches so that they are more readily metabolized by the body. Idli has black lentils (de-husked) as one of the ingredient which imparts lot of strength to the body and idli is made by steaming. So no oil and steamed foods are considered the best when compared to other ways of cooking. 

Actually I should have tried idli / dosa first. Somehow this struck me a little late. Nevertheless I decided to post varagu idli and varagu dosa as one post - since the batter is the same. Only the preparation differs. I didn't tell at home that the batter is prepared with varagu. They all ate heartily and didn't find any difference. The idlies were so soft - the same like we prepare with rice. The dosas also came out crispier. So another easy way to squeeze millets into our diet. Do try it out.

Ingredients:

Varagu | Kodo Millet   3 cups    
Urad dal        1 cup    
Poha | Aval    3 tblsp    
Salt     to taste

Method:

Batter

• Wash the varagu rice , urad dal and poha nicely and soak it separately for 4-5 hours.
• Grind this in a wet grinder or a mixie separately (you can mix poha and varagu). After grinding mix well with hands for about 10 minutes. Add salt while mixing. Ferment this for 8 to 9 hours till the batter raises to almost double the quantity.

Idli

• Grease the idli plates and pour one ladle ful of batter in each of the rounds.
• Steam the idlis for 10 minutes in a medium flame.
• Let the idlis sit for about 5-10 minutes so that they cool down little.
• Carefully take it out with the help of a spoon.
• Soft idlies are ready to be served.

Dosa.

• I made the batter a little more watery when compared to the batter used for idli. Lets say added about 1/2 glass of water for 10 ladles of batter.
• Keep a dosa tava on flame. Grease the dosa tava with little oil. Pour a ladle full of batter and spread it in a nice round shape.
• Cover and cook the dosa for two minutes. Flip the dosa and cook covered for another minute.

Dosas are ready!! Enjoy with chutney and sambar.

Notes:

• If you want crispy dosa then make the dosa very thin and at last cook uncovered for about a minute.
• Adding poha makes the batter soft. DO not miss it. Alternatively you can add cooked rice.

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Varagu Adai

The next recipe I tried with Varagu is Adai. I just replaced varagu instead of rice in the traditional adai recipe and it turned out nice. Such replacements are a good technique to include millets in our day to day food. This adai was spicy, crunchy and a very healthy option too. I had the adai as is without any side dish and loved it to the core. For others I served it with tomato chutney.

Ingredients:

Varagu - 1 cup
Channa dal / Kadalai paruppu - 1/4 cup
Toor dal/ Thuvaram paruppu - 1/4 cup
Urad dal - 2 tblsp
Moong dal - 2 tblsp
Poha/ aval - 2 tblsp
Red chilli - 6
Asafoetida - 1/8 tsp
Onion - 1
Coriander leaves, chopped - 2 tblsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Ginger, chopped - 2 tsp
Salt - As needed

Method:

• Wash and soak varagu separately and other dals, poha together for about 3 hours. 
• In a mixie, first powder red chilli, salt and asafoetida.
• To the powder, Add soaked varagu, drained from water. Grind it to a little coarse paste. Transfer to a bowl.
• Add soaked, drained dals and grind coarsely.
• Transfer to the bowl. Mix well and set aside for about 2 hours. 
• Add all the other ingredients, chopped onion, curry leaves, coriander leaves, ginger just before making adai.
• Heat a dosa pan, grease with oil and make small thick adais. Cook in medium flame and flip, cook until golden in colour and the ends turn little crisp.

Varagu adai is ready!!! Enjoy with some nice chutney

Notes:

• We can also add 2 tablespoon of cooked rice instead of poha. Poha / cooked rice makes the adai soft. Don't miss it.
• The adais can also be made little thin like dosa. In that case add more water to the batter. But traditionally adais are thicker ones.
• Of course the best side-dish for adai is jaggery.

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Varagu Kanji | Porridge with kodo millet

The second recipe I tried with Kodo millet is a simple kanji. H had running nose one day and preferred to have some hot kanji. Instead of making it with the normal rice, I made it with varagu.  I made this kanji just similar to vendhaya kanji we make with coconut milk. But I used normal milk instead of coconut milk. Since garlic cooked in milk is good for common cold, I chose this recipe. And it was very soothing to have it hot. I made it with just 1/2 cup (125 grams) of varagu and the quantity was huge. We both had it for about 3 times. This would be a very good option for a healthy breakfast.

Ingredients:

Varagu / foxtail millet -1/2 cup

Milk -1 cup

Water -1/2 cup

Garlic -4 flakes

Pepper powder -1/4 tsp

Cumin seeds / jeera - 1/2 tsp

Salt -As needed

Method:

• Wash and drain the kodo millet.
• In a pressure cooker add the varag (millet), milk, water and peeled garlic.
• Pressure cook in medium flame for 1 whistle and then cook it in low flame for 10 minutes. Once done, mash it well.
• Add more water or milk and salt. Bring to boil and continue until you get the desired consistency.
• Add crushed cumin seeds and pepper powder at last.

Varagu kanji is ready!!!

Notes:

• Milk is optional. You can make this kanji with plain water too.
• You can add curry leaves or coriander leaves also.

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Varagu Pulao | Pulao with kodo millet

My ingredient for this week is Kodo millet (Tamil: Varagu; Malayalam: Koovaragu  Hindi: Kodra;  Telugu: Arikelu; Kannada: Harka). I have just started experimenting with millets. The only millet I use extensively in cooking is Ragi - Finger Millet. So wanted to try out with other millets. This time when we visited lal bagh for the Independence day special show - I saw an organic outlet selling millets. I got a kg of Kodo millet for Rs 100/-. Mind you it is very costly when compared to ragi as a millet.

I bought this at the right time. I was thinking of some special ingredient - which I haven't yet used in cooking to feature in one of the weeks of this mega marathon. So Kodo millet is the one... I read a lot of blogs to understand how this is cooked. Actually cooking millets is easy. Atleast from my experience kodo millet gets cooked really fast when compared to rice. 

I read the varagu pulao recipe in Rak's kitchen and took the idea from there. Since this was my first attempt with kodo millet, I wanted to make something interesting so that people at home don't reject it. After cooking, when I opened the cooker, the aroma was same as vegetable pulao and very inviting. Tastewise also there was absolutely no compromise. 

Ingredients:

Varagu/ Kodo millet - 1 cup

Water - 1 & 1/2 cups

Chopped Carrot, beans, green peas, mushrooms - 1 cup

Onion - 1

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Green chilli - 2

Mint leaves - few

Salt - As needed

To temper

Ghee/ oil - 3 tblsp

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Fennel seeds/ sombu- 1 tsp

Cardamom - 2

Cloves - 3

Bay leaf - 1

Method:

Wash the millet. Drain and keep it aside.

Heat a small pressure cooker with oil/ ghee. In medium flame, add cinnamon, fennel seeds, cardamom, cloves, bay leaf. Do not let fennel change its colour. Add onion and give it a stir. 

Add ginger garlic paste. Fry for a minute in medium flame. 

Add the chopped veggies, mint leaves. Fry in medium flame for about 2 mins. 

Add washed millet to it and mix well. Let it dry. Flame should always in medium.

Add water, salt and bring to boil. mix well and cook for a whistle in medium flame and then in low flame for another 3 minutes. 

Open the pressure cooker. Transfer the pulao to another big vessel and let it cool so that the whole thing doesn't become mushy.

Varagu Pulao is ready!! I Served it with boiled egg curry.

Notes:

Mint, fennel adds a nice flavor, so do not skip it. We can also garnish with coriander leaves.
Do not fry in high flame at any stage as it will change the colour of the pulao.
Also while cooking the millets, let the flame be low to ensure even cooking.

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Puttu payasam

Ending this week on a sweet note!! I tried payasam with the leftover puttu. My mom makes vella puttu which I haven't yet tried. This time I tried making payasam with milk and sugar. I really liked it. H said he will not give 100% marks as a payasam probably around 80%. His opinion was this could be served as a very good dessert in parties rather than a payasam in a sadhya. Anyways heres the recipe of puttu payasam.

Ingredients:

Cooked puttu - 1 cup

Milk - 1 litre

Coconut - 2 tbsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Cashewnuts / dry grapes - 2 tbsp

Method

• Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed vessel. 
• Once the milk boils, simmer the gas stove and add the cooked puttu. Add the grated coconut and mix well. Keep stirring for 5 minutes.
• Now add the sugar. Mix well and keep stirring. Continue this for another 10 minutes.
• Add the cardamom powder finally and mix well. Switch off the stove.
• In a kadai add the ghee. Once the ghee is hot, fry the cashewnuts and dry grapes until they turn brown. Pour this into the payasam.

Puttu payasam is ready!!

Notes:

• We can also add saffron to make the payasam more interesting.

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Thakkali Puttu

Thakkali puttu is enhancing the taste of puttu with tomatoes. I make this very easily with tomato thokku. I generally have a stock of thakkali thokku at home whenever the tomato prizes comes down like 10 rs a kg. Because having tomato thokku makes life easire. It can be used as a side dish for idli, dosa even chapathi and can be mixed with rice for a quick dinner. 

Since I foten mix rice with thakkali thokku and have it for quick dinner, I thought why not try the same with puttu. And the result was awesome. I have already posted thakkali thokku recipe here. So over to thakkali puttu recipe,

Ingredients:

Puttu - 1 cup

Thakkali thokku - 3 tbsp

Onion - 1 small

Green chilly - 1 small

ginger - 10 grams

Oil - 1 tbsp

Cloves - 2 nos

Coriander leaves - few

Method:

• Finely chop the onions, green chilly and ginger.
• In a kadai add oil. Add the cloves and fry for 30 secs.
• Add the chopped onions, green chilly and ginger. Fry until the onions turn translucent.
• Add the thakkali thokku and add 2 tbsp water. Mix well until the mixture boils.
• Simmer the gas stove. Add the left-over puttu and mix well.
• Heat it for another 2 minutes.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Thakkali puttu is ready!! Serve with some papad or fryums..

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