South Indian Kitchen - Bongu Samaiyal 1

What is a blog without a recipe and I have decided to share my wisdom to the new cookies (tanglish). With number of little bro’s getting married and with the increasing number of brides arriving in Ausie land , I feel it is an absolute responsibility of a senior (alais peetha thalaivar) to share the tips and tricks to survive in the kitchen. Also after the call from dear babu and babhi (babu’s wife hehe), I consider myself in a position to provide culinary advises. Word of caution, my cooking is only for bachelors and amateurs , definitely not for the experts in the trade.

Preface :

I have never really cooked before I came to Australia and had few recipe books handy or call mom / mom in law when I stepped into the kitchen. I struggled to cook for more than 5 people because I would never know the right proportions. Then found something which I have named as “bongu samaiyal”. This is mix of authentic Indian cooking (predominantly south Indian) and modern microwave cooking and totally dependant on the time and patience I have at that point.

Most importantly its easy - tested and tried recipes. The cooking would definitely taste good enough for a weekday and relaxed weekends, can be shared with guests who are not critics ( I must say all the bros from KV to babu, ferni to amigo, shangy to buddy never complains).


Breakfast – Well we all would agree that we never have the time to cook any breakfast through weekdays. So in the weekends, I tend me make some decent breakfast which we end up eating at 11 ish.

Pongal – Sambar – This awesome combination is the simplest


Pongal
Ingredients ( serves 3 adults)
Rice – 1 cup
Moong Dhal (Paasi parupu) – ½ cup
Pepper – 10
Cumin seeds – 1 tea spoon
Green Chillies – 2 (optional)
Ghee – atleast 3 table spoon ( absolute essential)

1. Dry roast the moong dhal till it turns light brown
2. Wash rice and add dhal to the rice
3. Add 2 ½ times water ( for the measurement above – add 4 cups of water)
4. Add the pepper, cumin seeds and salt to this
5. Pressure cook this for 5 -6 whistles, the rice need to get the porridge effect
6. Switch off the gas and wait till the steam comes down.
7. For seasoning – in a pan heat 2 table spoons of ghee, add mustard seeds and slit green chillies and fry till the chillies turn white
8. Add this seasoning to the cooked pongal, add more ghee and salt if necessary

Sambar

Ingredients
Onion – 1
Tomato - 1
Toor Dhal ( Thuvaram parupu) – ½ cup
Sambar powder – 1 teaspoon
Tamarind Juice – 3 table spoons
Mustard seeds
Red chillies – 2
Salt

1.Cook Toor dhal with enough water in a pressure cooker
2. In a large pan add oil, finely diced onions and fry them till it turns transparent
3. Add the red chillies
4. Add finely diced tomatoes and fry till you see the skins curl
5. Add tumeric powder
6. Add any vegetable you want – to go with pongal have some soft vegetable – finely diced brinjal or carrot or potato. This sambar tastes fine even without any vegetable
7. Pour the cooked dhal into this, add sambar powder, salt and some water
8. Now add tamaring juice
9. Let it boil and turn of gas.

Options – You can add coriander powder and chilly powder when it is boiling to add additional flavours or even replace the sambar powder with these two.

Coconut Chutney

Ingredients
Shredded coconut – ¼ cup
Green or Red chilly - 1- 2
Roasted gram ( pottu kadalai) – a handful ( can be replaced with raw peanuts without skins ofcourse)
Garlic – 1 pod
Tamarind – a pinch
Salt – to taste

1. Soak coconut, roasted gram (or peanut) with just enough water for 10 minutes
2. Now just add all the other ingredients and grind in the mixie

For seasoning
1. In 2 table spoons of oil, add mustard seeds, split black gram dhal (optional) and very finely diced onions.
2. Make sure you fry the onion till it turns light brown

I can hear you all say ' vada pochey' - it is a bit complicated to be added to the bongu samaiyal list