ENGAYI

Engayi!

The term “engayi” meaning enne kayi has to be prepared with oil and no water. But these days we have modified this by using if not too much water atleast a little bit of it. The same engayi is first prepared and then this is mixed with rice to make it vangibath (vangi as in brinjal and bath is rice). Before going in to vangibath lets first get to know how to prepare engayi.

Ingredients:

Potato-3 to 4(big ones)
Brinjal-7 small purple ones (although the best one to do engai is from the green long brinjals)
Sambhar powder- 3 tbl spns (sambhar powder recipe is coming up soon)
Jaggery-1 inch piece
Tamarind- ½ lemon sized (soak in one fourth cup water before you start)
Coriander leaves- ½ cup
Coconut- 2 tbl spns
Salt as per taste

For seasoning:

Mustard - 1tspn
Bengal gram- 1tspn
Black gram- 1tspn
Curry leaves- 10 leaves
Oil-3 tbl spns

Preparation:
1. Cut brinjal and potato in lengthwise like shown in picture.
2. Take oil in a pan, add the seasonings, and then add the brinjal and fry for few minutes till the raw smell goes.
3. Add the potatoes to this and fry for a couple of minutes. Pour in ½ cup water to cook the veggies. Add jaggery and salt; close the lid to cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the juice of tamarind, sambhar powder, coconut, and allow to cook the veggies completely.
5. Finally add coriander leaves for garnishing.

This method is usually followed by iyengars although it’s made in lot more ways. In Karnataka alone we have many varieties of engayi. I know one of my neighbour aunties prepares this in a different way and what she makes is also awesome!

Onion Pakoda

Onion Pakoda
(Serves 2)
Ingredients:

Onions – 3 medium sized
Gram flour- ½ Cup
Rice flour- 1tspn
Kasuri methi- 2 tspns
Green chillies- 2 fine chopped
A pinch of cooking soda (optional)
Red chilli powder -1tspn
A pinch of asoefetida
Coriander leaves - ½ cup finely chopped
Salt – 1tspn

Preparation:
1. Slice onions and take them in a bowl.
2. Add rice flour, kasuri methi, green chillies, soda, red chilli powder, asoefetida, coriander leaves and salt.
3. Slowly add the gram flour and keep mixing it. Do not use too much water.
4. Heat oil in deep frying pan and deep fry them.
5. Add the pakoras when the oil is hot and reduce the heat so as to allow it to cook well inside too.

6. When it is done put them on tissues to soak up extra oil.
7. Serve it with hot tea or coffee and with ketchup or mint chutney.

Heavenly right???????

Carrot and Kohlrabi soup

As promised I am including other recipes apart from Iyengar food. This one is definitely among that group and will surely attract kids.

Like how we appreciate and crave for good looking food, children are more choosy when it comes to food. So its all the more important to make their food look good and taste good.

Recently when my inlaws visited me , my father-in-law had been to veggie shopping. Whenever he goes, me and my mother-in-law know for sure that the whole of subzi mandi(veggie market) will be at home:-). Like I said, he had got 2 bunches of kohlrabi(navilkosu in kannada and ganth gobi in hindi). I used one bunch while they were here. I made akki rotti with some more yesterday. Today i thought I will make soup with carrot and the remaining kohlrabi. Its amazing for this winter. One more thing about vegetable soups are that they are really fast to make and very tasty.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

Kohlrabi (chopped)- 1

Carrot (chopped)-1 big one

Salt to taste

Pepper- freshly ground (2tspns)

Butter-1tbslpn

Preparation:
1. Boil carrot and kohlrabi together in water with little salt.
2. Once its cooked , cool it and blend it to a puree. Thin it with 2 cups of water.
3. Place it again for heating and bring it to one boil. Check for salt and add freshly ground pepper.
4. Add butter and mix well.
5. For garnishing sprinkle some bread crumbs, pepper and serve hot
with bun or toasted bread.

Akki rotti with grated Kohlrabi, Carrot and Onion

By popular demand, I am today posting the recipe of Akki rotti. Akki rotti is my all time favourite breakfast. Many of whom I know, say its very tedious to make when you have a lot of people at home. Thats very true. Although I still love making it. But this is one breakfast item thats very very fast and can be made with just about any vegetable at home. Today i used Kohlrabi (Navilkosu in kannada, ganth gobi in hindi) , carrot and onion.

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 3 cups

Jeera-2tspns

Green chilles (chopped)- 3

Grated carrot- 1 or 2

Grated kohlrabi-2
Onion - 1 chopped finely
Curry leaves chopped-2tspn

Coriander leaves-½ Cup

Coconut- 2tblspns

Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Use a broad vessel to make the dough. Add the flour, vegetables, rest of the ingredients.

2. Take 2 cups of water but dont add it completely. Like how we use water for making chapathi dough, in the same way keep adding little water and mix the dough.

3. The dough should be of such consistency as in it should be easy to pat on the pan. Dont make it watery nor too hard.

4. Next take a non-stick pan, add 2 - 3 drops of oil , spread the oil with your hand throughout the pan.

5. Now take the dough about the size of a small orange and pat it on the pan, nice and uniform. If incase the dough sticks to your hand use little water or oil to pat it.

6. Once you are done , make a small hole in the middle of the rotti using your finger tip. This is done to pour oil in the middle, so it spreads to the middle portion of the rotti.

7. If you want to make small rottis like the one in the picture, then take a lemon sized dough to pat in the pan. These small ones are good to attract children and a good one to go with coffee too.

8. Once you are done, switch on the gas and place the pan. Drizzle oil on the sides and in the middle and close it with a lid to cook.

9. Cook one side of the rotti and then reverse to the other side and close the lid.

10. Once its done, serve with ghee and coconut chutney, or chutney pudi(powder) or with sambhar. Always have it hot!!!!

11. To make the next rotti simply immerse the hot tava in running tap water. It does surely make some frightening noise but nevertheless the fastest way to make another rotti because the pan has to be completely cooled down to use it again. If you have two non- stick pans, it becomes even more easier. You can make 2 rottis simultaneously. Nothing happens to the pan when you run it under tap water because i have been doing this for 5½ yrs now and I am still using the same non-stick pan! So go ahead and try it out!

You can make this rotti with onion, carrot, capsicum, cucumber, raddish and many more vegetables. I will surely include more varieties of akki rottis in the future. Meanwhile try this and enjoyyyyy!

Mehndi

Check this out. I know this has no relevance to iyengar food but I tried something new. I put mehndi on my maid's hand. I have never touched a mehndi cone before in my life but i thought i did a pretty decent job for a first timer. Take a look!

Mor (buttermilk) kolambu

Today I made mor kolambu with capsicum and cucumber. It tasted awesome and my little daughter said "mummy its yummy!!!!!".

Ingredients:

To grind in to paste:

Coconut-½ cup
Coriander leaves-½ cup
Green chillies-4
Turmeric-½tspn
Ginger-½ inch piece
Jeera-½tspn

For seasoning:
Oil-2 tspns
Bengal gram-1tspn
Black gram-1tspn
Curry leaves-6 to 7

Other Ingredients:
Curd-1 cup (beat the curd with little water)
Capsicum (chopped in to small pieces)- 2 (you can use more if u want to make it for more people)
Cucumber(peeled and chopped in to small pieces)-2 small ones (you can use one big one also)

Preparation:
1. Take oil in a pan and add the seasonings, curry leaves, and then add capsicum. Fry for few minutes.
2. Add chopped cucumber and fry for 1 minute. Add ½ cup of water to cook the veggies. Add little salt for the veggies.
3. Take care not to add too much water as the water content in cucumber separates out.
4. Allow this to cool down once the veggies are cooked.
5. Meanwhile add the ground mixture to the curd and mix well.
6. Now add the veggies to the curd and mix well. Add more salt if required.

This kolambu is prepared very often in iyengar homes. This is very different from the usual rasam, sambhar routine. There's also another method using bengal gram dhal. I will surely post the recipe for that one too. Meanwhile try this and do let me know how it turned out.

Baalekayi palya (Raw Banana)

This goes very well with rasam and rice.

Ingredients:

Raw bananas-4
Onions-2
Red chillies-4 ( can use green chillies too)
Coconut-½ cup
Coriander leaves-½ cup
Oil-4tspns

For seasoning:
Mustard seeds
Bengal gram
Black gram

Procedure:
1. Take oil in a non stick pan, add the seasonings, red chillies, onions. fry well.
2. Then add the raw bananas peeled n chopped in to ½ inch pieces.
3. Fry well , take care not to burn.
4. Add salt and fry for some more time till its cooked well.
5. Finally add coconut and garnish with coriander leaves.

There are many recipes which we make using raw bananas. This is a very simple one but very delicious. I will post some more of them in the future.