Capsicum / Bell Pepper Tambuli

My sis, who has recently started cooking and doing a good deal of everyday cooking, had one serious comment for my blog. That the number of everyday recipes has reduced of late, and specialty recipes are increasing!

Oh yes, I realized, of course that is true! Though I make a big variety of dishes everyday, making sure not to repeat stuff more often, somehow there was a drop in interest to click it and blog about it. The cakes, breads, party recipes had been stealing the limelight of late. Her comment was that new brides like her are on the lookout for everyday recipes more than these baked goodies, party recipes and so on.

So here I am, trying to be fair to some great everyday recipes, posting them as well. This is one such, which can be made in a jiffy and serves as a great accompaniment to rice. Learnt this from mom quite recently, and this had been a savior on those tired-from-work-but-want-something-satisfying days.

Can you believe me all it takes is 2-3 minutes of your effort, and not more than 5 minutes in all, including the cooking and cooling time? And it just tastes heavenly. Seriously. You can have it for even all three servings and still not be bored of it, it is that good.

Try it out for yourself to believe me…

Capsicum / Bell Pepper Tambuli

Preparation time : 2 min

Cooking time : 1-2 min

Serves : 4

Ingredients:

Green capsicum / bell pepper - 1 medium sized

Ghee - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Pepper - 1 tsp

Dry Red chili - 1 or even half - optional

Coconut - 3 Tbsp, grated

Salt - ½- ¾ tsp or as per taste

Curd - ½ cup

For tempering:

Ghee - ½ tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Method:

• Core and deseed the bell pepper and roughly chop it into big chunks
• In a skillet, heat ghee and roast cumin seeds, pepper and red chili
• Once the spices are roasted, add chopped bell pepper and sauté till they wilt, for a minute or two. Do not overcook it, just a sauté is fine
• Let it cool for a minute or two
• Grind the above mixture with grated coconut into a chunky paste
• Transfer it to a bowl and mix in salt and curd

Tempering:

• In a skillet, heat ghee and add cumin seeds and allow to splutter
• Transfer the tempering to the Tambuli and serve with hot rice

Notes:

• If you have a microwave, you can dump the halved bell pepper, cumin and cumin and black pepper and cook for a minute on high and proceed with the next step. This is even easier!
• I like to grind it into a coarse consistency; you may grind it smooth as well.

Ashgourd in yoghurt sauce (Majjige HuLi)

What do you do if you have excess of curds or buttermilk? And some juicy vegetable like ash gourd or cucumber or bottle gourd? In our house it is Majjige HuLi, a special side dish for rice having veggies in a spicy yoghurt sauce. And this is generally accompanied by baLaka/majjige menasinakai (salted, fried green chilies) and sandige (fritters).It makes a nice change from the usual rasam and sambhar and in a very healthy way.

This time it is Majjige HuLi with ash gourd. Peel off the gourd and chop the outer part of the gourd for this. And what do you do with the inner pulp? Well, deseed it and save it in the refrigerator for another exciting recipe coming soon!
Here’s the recipe...

Ash gourd Majjige HuLi

Preparation time : 15 min, excluding time for soaking Cooking time : 15 min Serves : 4-5 Ingredients: Ash gourd - 2 cups (chopped into chunks, outer part) Chana dal - 1 Tbsp, soaked for at least ½ an hr Cumin seeds - 2 tsp Ginger - 1” cube Green chilies - 5-6, depending on taste Coconut - 3 Tbsp, grated Coriander leaves - 2 sprigs Curds - 1 cup Buttermilk - ½ cup Turmeric - 2 pinches Salt - 1 tsp or according to taste For tempering: Oil - 1 tsp Cumin seeds - 1 tsp Method: • Soak the dal in enough amount of water • Cook the chopped ash gourd in enough water till tender. Do not over cook • Meanwhile, grind the soaked dal, cumin, coriander, ginger, green chilies, turmeric and coconut to a fine paste, adding a little water • Once the vegetable is cooked, add the ground paste and salt and bring to a boil • Add curds and adjust the consistency with buttermilk and continue to boil for a couple of minutes. • Make tempering with cumin seeds, add and serve with rice. Tastes good even when cold Tips n Tricks: • Do not overcook the ash gourd • Let the sauce not be too thick. Adjust the consistency with more or less buttermilk Variations: • Veggies like ash gourd, cucumber, winter melon, bottle gourd make this dish good • The same can be prepared with greens too

Sending this to Akila's event: Dish name starts with A.

Brahmi Tambuli

Tambuli is a kind of raita prepared generally using a medicinal herb. It requires very few ingredients and is very easy to make, with high medicinal values. One of the types of tambuli is made from Brahmi or Vandalaga as it is called in Kannada.

Brahmi / Bacopa monnieri / Thyme-leafed gratiola is a long treasured herb, possessing antioxidant properties, and having the amazing ability to facilitate learning and enhance memory and concentration. It is a pacifier of all the three doshas — mainly kapha and vata. Brahmi is not only a memory-booster and intellect-promoting herb; it is also a tranquillizer, a muscle relaxant, an anti-convulsant, a blood purifier, and an anti-pyretic, carminative and digestive agent.

Brahmi is known for its salutary effect in anxiety, depression, hypertension, sleeplessness, mental retardation, insanity, hysteria and epilepsy. Ancient texts describe the use of Brahmi in a number of other disorders like biliousness, ulcers, asthma, skin diseases and in general and senile debility.

Brahmi Tambuli

Preparation time : 5 min Cooking time : 5 min Serves : 4-5 Ingredients: Brahmi leaves - 1 cup Ghee - 1 Tsp Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp Pepper - 1 Tsp Red chili - 1 Coconut - 2 Tbsp, grated Salt - ½ Tsp or as per taste Curd - ½ cup For tempering: Ghee - 1 Tsp Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp Method: • In a skillet, heat ghee and roast cumin seeds, pepper and red chili • Once the spices are roasted, add washed Brahmi leaves and sauté till they wilt, for a minute or two • Grind the above mixture with grated coconut into a fairly smooth paste • Transfer it to a bowl and mix in salt and curd Tempering: • In a skillet, heat ghee and add cumin seeds and curry leaves and allow to splutter • Transfer the tempering to the Tambuli and serve with hot rice Variations: • Other herbs like Doddapatre, ginger, etc can be used in place of Brahmi