Taro (சேப்பங்கிழங்கு) Curry - Do it yourself Videoblog

The traditional way of making Taro (சேப்பங்கிழங்கு) curry that my mother taught me is by staring to boil them whole.

We used a pressure cooker to boil the root (irrespective of how ugly and muddy it was) and then remove the skin after putting it in cold water (thermal shocking the skin!). 

It would still not peel off easily like a potato and needed some delicate care during the peeling process. Otherwise most of the stuff would be thrown away with the skin. Also it was not a nice experience peeling the skin off pressure cooker boiled Taro as it was very slimy and slippery to touch. The curry was usually made with large pieces and the end product would roast on select areas but for the most part would be mushy.

Recently a  us Taro, but potato curry style. It was crisp and not goopy! The secret? Peel it like a potato and almost fry it! Had to give this a try, but this method is very very labor intensive. It takes more time to get the thing cut than to actually make the curry.

The kids and San were out of the house for an hour and that gave me a chance to try this. Given I am still moping around with the antibioitics and no painkillers, this was a good idea to take my mind off things and do something I like! 

Here is a valuable tip. Pick the Taro carefully at the Indian store. Pick well rounded large size Taro without too many cuts and crevices as it makes this approach easier. Pick ones with the highest volume for a lowest surface area.. ie., pick nice round ones! 

The end result was yummy and crispy. Hope you have fun trying this at home.. when you have a lot of time on your hands! 

ps. The same procedure pretty much applies to Okra curry (you don't have to put it in turmeric water after cutting).. and to Plantain curry (there you put the cut vegetable in water with some tamarind paste.. aka tartaric acid to prevent it from going black and sticking together). 

Snake Gourd Kootu (புடலங்காய் கூட்டு)

Snake Gourd (புடலங்காய்) is one of our favorite veggies. However finding it in the US desi grocery stores is very rare. It is very seasonal and we are lucky if we get it here for a few months and getting good quality snake gourd .. we usually give up. 

So San comes back home from Indian store with a surprise for me. Great quality புடலங்காய்! Since pepper kootu is my eminent domain, she asked I make the kootu. Told her will do it on condition that it will be videoblogged.

The little one forced herself into the picture by being videographer. After some point mommy took over the camera..

Making the kootu is the easy part. Finding the vegetable is the hard part!

Hope the video is of help to folks who are trying to make milagu kootu with Pudalangaai..

Potato Box Curry (உருளைகிழங்கு கறி) - Do it yourself Video

The most flexible side dish to make, for eating with rice and rasam or roti's / flour tortilla's for a quick lunch (especially when you get 60 minutes for lunch, where you bike back from your department to apartment in 10 mins, make something, eat, clean dishes, drive back on time) is the potato box curry.

It goes with anything!

This video shows you in real time how to make this in under 10 minutes. If you are not picky about roasting the potato to a nice golden brown and getting them crispy 7 minutes should be plenty.

The only thing that is easier to do than this is making french style green beans or Okra using frozen cut vegetables. The taste isn't exactly super dee duper for those, but with some frozen coconut and south indian "gundu" milagai (round red chili) you can get that to be nice too.

Many a season's entire lunch menu was these quick curries on a rotation basis.

It is a treat the kids love. They eat the curry by itself like a snack!

Hope you have fun making this simple curry..

ps. The background noise shows you that sometimes 4 bathrooms in a house is not enough if you have two girls. Unless they come up with a potty that can have two girls go at the same time.. well forget that thought. It wouldn't work. Even then they will fight for the same sub potty. Girls!

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Vatha Kuzhambu (வத்தகுழம்பு) - Do it youself Video

If you are a graduate student and you have stocked up on some grandma (or mom) made Sambar Powder before embarking on your trip to a non-sambar country (or even managed to purchase some Sambar powder from the stores), you are in luck.

You can make a quick Vatha Kuzhambu using some of this powder, salt, asafoedita(hing) - which is optional, tamarind paste (or tamarind soaked in water). You will also need a pinch of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, some Channa and Toor dal, curry leaves (optional), Appalam (or papad) which is again optional.

The whole thing gets done in under 6 minutes.

NOTE : See how I usually taste the stuff we cook at the end of the video and here we didn't do that? Don't taste this thing as is. Just a touch and lick is fine. Remember, you are creating a concentrate that can be mixed with rice.

One glass of water in this case ends up becoming 1/2 glass (or cup) worth Vatha Kuzhambu. This is enough to mix with 5 cups of cooked rice!!! i.e., it can feed a family of one (aka graduate student) for upto 4 meals!.. Goes great with Potato chips or roasted (microwaved) appalam/papad.

As an option you can also add some frozen shredded coconut to the fried lentils(the Channa and Toor Daal) before you add the liquid in. The upside is it gives you an amazing smell and flavor, but the downside is that it will spoil sooner if you do not refrigerate.

Have fun making வத்தகுழம்பு!

ps. If you know your Appalam is slightly on the salty side, add less salt.. 3/4th spoon of salt for one spoon sambar powder and it will be perfect.

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Wheat Chips (Cheese Nips) - கோதுமை சிப்ஸ் - Do it yourself Video

My mom used to make delicious sweet or spicy wheat chips when we were kids. It was a treat, especially when we were confined to be indoors during the rainy season!

One of my successful grad student experimental variations was to put small blocks of Amul cheese inside these chips.

The videos explain it all..

You use wheat flour, salt, hing (asafoedita)and chili powder for the spicy version.

Just wheat flour and sugar for the sweet version.

Wait for 40 minutes to an hour for the dough to stabilize before making flats out of them, slicing and frying.

Warning : If you are a newbie at deep frying, make sure the cheese is completely encapsulated by dough and all the air is pressed out.

Think of this as the Indian equivalent of Tortilla chips..

Hope you have fun making Wheat chips (கோதுமை சிப்ஸ்) after watching this video. Guaranteed hit with little kids who love crunchy stuff.

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