Ambarella chutney

Update (02/07/2014): As I wished to send in a dish to the first virtual vegan linky party initiated by Annie, Poppy and Angela, I decided to send in an old recipe that I had shared on my blog in its early days. So, I am sharing this chutney under the side dish category for the potluck.

The chutney recipe for today is ambarella (spondias dulcis) chutney. Ambarella is said to be good for people with diabetes.

Ambarella chutney

Time taken: 15 – 20 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Ambarella – 3
Cinnamon – 1” piece
Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
Sugar – 1 tbsp
Salt, to taste

Method:

Peel the three ambarellas. Chop up the ambarella into 5 or 6 pieces each and put them in a pan. The middle portion is difficult to remove or chop up so it can be left as it is and included in the pan.
Add 1 cup of water or just enough to cover the ambarella pieces.
Add a piece of cinnamon and some salt, to taste, to the pan. Cover and cook for about 10 mins.
If the water has completely dried up, add ½ cup of water.
Add 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp crushed chillies to the pan.
Increase heat and cook for some minutes till the chutney comes together and it is no longer watery but rather a thick sauce-like consistency.
Remove from heat and transfer to serving bowl.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Mango chutney

Today, I thought of sharing two of my mother’s chutney recipes.

Mango chutney

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Mango – 1, unripe
Onion – ¼, chopped
Malu miris/ capsicum – 1, chopped
Mustard – 1 tsp
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
Sugar – 1 tbsp
Vinegar – 1 tsp (optional – best to add, if you want to keep chutney for some days)
Turmeric – ½ tsp
Salt, to taste
Low fat oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Wash the mango, de-seed and chop up the mango with the skin into 1 inch slices.
Marinate the chopped up mango pieces with salt and turmeric. Keep aside.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the mustard and fennel seeds. As they start to splutter, add the chopped onion and malu miris.
After a few minutes of frying or once the onions become pinkish, add the marinated pieces of mango and mix well.
Cover and cook on low heat for 5 mins.
Remove cover and stir.
Add 1 tsp of crushed chillies to the pan. Mix well and cover and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
Remove cover again and this time, add 1 tbsp of sugar and the optional 1 tsp vinegar.
Mix well and cover and cook for a few more minutes.
Remove from heat and mix well before transferring to the serving bowl.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Brinjal salad

One of the brinjal recipes of my mother that I like is the brinjal salad. Her recipe is an adaptation of her grandmother’s recipe.

Brinjal salad

Time taken: 15 – 20 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Brinjal – 1
Chilli or capsicum – 1, chopped
Onion – ¼ , chopped
Pepper and salt, to taste
Freshly scraped coconut – 2 tbsp (Optional)
Lime juice, to taste

Method:

Wash the brinjal and then wrap the whole brinjal, in tin foil.
Boil a half-filled saucepan of water and then drop this tin-foil wrapped brinjal in the pan to cook for 10 minutes.
After the brinjal is cooked, remove from the pan and unwrap the foil. Peel the brinjal immediately as it will otherwise be difficult to remove if cooled.
Mash the cooked brinjal.
Add the chopped onion, chilli, optional scraped coconut and the salt and pepper seasoning. Mix well
Add some lime juice and serve with rice.

Note: My great-grandmother used to roast the brinjal, wrapped in a leaf, inserted among the firewood stove so I can imagine that the salad would have had a nice smoky, roasted flavour. So, translated into today’s world, roasting the brinjal wrapped in tin foil in an oven would be the equivalent.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Murungai Ilai Kanji

Update (04/07/4014): I wanted to also share a kanji (soup/porridge) recipe that is popular in Jaffna at the Soups with SS event hosted by Sonal and Shruti.

This morning, I will share my mother’s recipe for murungai ilai kanji. My mother makes different types of kanji occasionally for breakfast but I like this one the best.

Murungai Ilai Kanji

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 1 or 2

Ingredients:

Red raw rice – 3 tbsp
Murungai ilai/ Moringa leaves – 3 tbsp, chopped or ground
Carrot – ¼, chopped
Onion –1 tsp, chopped
Bean – 1, chopped
Pepper – ¼ tsp
Salt, to taste
Lime juice, to taste

Method:

Cook the rice in a pan with 1 cup of water for about 5 mins.
Add all the chopped vegetables and cook for another 10 – 15 mins.
Add the salt and pepper, to taste. Mix and cook for a couple of minutes before removing from the heat.
Squeeze some lime juice before serving hot.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Palakottai curry

This is one of the ways my mother cooks jackfruit seeds.

It is difficult to cut up fresh, ripe jackfruit. When you keep it for 2 to 3 days, it becomes easier to chop and peel the outer layers and remove the fruit. As you pull out each of the sweet and ripe yellow fruit, cut a slit and remove the seed inside and collect in a separate bowl.

Palakkottai curry

Time taken: 20 – 30 mins

Serves 3

Ingredients:

Palakkotai (Jackfruit seeds) – 1 cup
Coconut milk – 2 ½ cups (thin consistency)
Onion – ½ chopped
Curry leaves
Curry powder – 1 tsp
Salt, to taste

Method:

Wash and clean the jackfruit seeds.
Put the cleaned jackfruit seeds in a pan and add 2 ½ cups of thin coconut milk. Also add the chopped onion, curry leaves and the curry powder and salt.
Cook for about 20 minutes until the curry thickens and the seeds are cooked and soft enough.
Serve with rice or pittu.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Vallarai salad and chutney

The first recipe for today is vallarai salad followed by vallarai chutney. Vallarai/ Gotukola (Centella Asiatica) is a herb used in Ayurvedic medicine, traditional Chinese as well as African medicine. It is said to improve memory and some believe youthfulness.

Bunch of Vallarai/ Gotukola

(a) Vallarai salad

Time taken: 10 mins

Serves 3 or 4

Ingredients

Vallarai bunch – 2 cups, when finely chopped
Tomato – 1 medium or grated coconut – 1 tbsp
Chilli – 1
Onion – ½
Pepper and Salt, to taste
Lime juice – 1 tbsp, adjust as preferred

Method:

Wash the bunch of vallarai leaves thoroughly and then finely chop them up and put them in a large salad mixing bowl.
Chop up the tomato, chilli and onion and add to the bowl. For those who don’t like tomatoes, substitute with freshly scraped coconut.
Sprinkle some pepper and salt, to taste and add the lime juice.
Toss well and serve immediately.

(b) Vallarai chutney

Time taken: 5 mins

Serves 3

Ingredients:

Vallarai – 2 cups, finely chopped
Freshly scraped coconut – ½ cup
Onion – ½ chopped
Green chillies – 2
Lime juice, to taste

Method:

Blend the 2 cups of finely chopped vallarai with ½ cup of freshly scraped coconut, ½ onion and 2 chillies.
Squeeze some fresh lime juice over the chutney and mix before serving immediately.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Passion fruit and banana cake

Last week, when my mother bought some passion fruit, I had mentioned that I had seen a delicious looking orange and passion fruit syrup cake recently on Poppy’s Patisserie. The very next day, my mother had baked a tangy, crunchy passion fruit and banana cake. The crunchiness is from the baked passion fruit seeds inside the cake.

I would like to share my mother’s recipe for this delicious dessert cake today.

Passion fruit and banana cake

Time taken: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Passion fruit – 4 large or 5 medium fruits + 1 (for topping)
Banana – 1 (local varieties: kolikoottu or anamalu)
Wheat flour – 1 cup
Semolina – ½ cup
Oats – 3 tbsp
Sugar – ¾ cup + 2 tbsp (for topping)
Low fat vegetable margarine – ½ cup
Water – ¼ cup
Baking powder – 1 ½ tsp
Baking soda – ½ tsp
Rose essence – a drop

Method:

Sift the wheat flour and semolina together with the baking powder and baking soda. Keep aside the dry mix.
In a large bowl, whisk the margarine and sugar by hand, using a large spoon.
Mix the passion fruit pulp, including the seeds, and the oats with the water in another bowl to make a wet mix.
Stir in the wet mix into the bowl containing the whisked margarine and sugar and continue to whisk.
Add in the finely chopped banana and the drop of rose essence into the bowl and mix.
Stir in the dry mix into the large bowl of the wet ingredients gradually.
Pour the cake batter into the baking tray.
Pre-heat the oven and bake at 140⁰C/ 284⁰F for 45 mins.
Beat the pulp of 1 passion fruit together with the 2 tbsp of white sugar and pour over the baked cake, while still hot from the oven.
Serve warm for dessert.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Veggie roti

Roti has always been a favourite of mine. What is even better is that it is amongst the few food that seems to have been and continue to be comfort food across different generations in my family.

Today, I will share the recipe for my mother’s veggie roti.

Veggie roti

Time taken: 35 mins

Makes 4

Ingredients

Wheat flour – 1 cup
Scraped coconut – ¼ cup
Chillies – 2
Onion – ½
Beans – 4
Carrot – ½
Water, as required
Low fat oil (sunflower or canola), as required

Method:

Finely chop the carrot, beans, onion and chillies.
In a bowl, add the wheat flour, freshly scraped coconut and mix in the finely chopped vegetables.
Add some salt, to taste.
Stir in some water slowly and make the mixture into a ball of dough that should not stick to your fingers.
Pour in a little oil and divide the dough into 4 balls and keep aside for 10 – 15 mins.
Roll out each of the four balls and cook them on a flat pan or griddle on low heat. Flip the roti to the other side after a few minutes so that both sides are cooked and slightly browned.
Serve with soyameat curry or sambal.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Murungai ilai varai

The second recipe I would like to share today is my mother’s murungai ilai recipe. Rich in iron and calcium, murungai (moringa oleifera) is very much part of Jaffna cuisine.

Murungai ilai Varai/stir fry

Time taken: 25 – 30 mins

Serves 2 – 3 persons

Ingredients:

Murungai ilai/ Moringa leaves – 1 ½ cups
Fennel seeds –1 tsp
Green chillies – 2, chopped
Onion – ½, chopped
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Coconut scraped – 1 tbsp
Curry powder – 1 tsp or pepper – ½ tsp
Salt, to taste
Sesame oil, as required

Method:

Wash and clean the bunch of murungai ilai. Extract the leaves from the stalk.
Drain off the water and chop the leaves finely. Sprinkle with salt and keep aside.
Heat 1 tbsp of sesame oil in a pan. Saute the chopped onion, green chillies and curry leaves with fennel seeds.
Add the salted leaves to the pan. Increase the heat and stir fry for about 10 mins.
Now, add the freshly scraped coconut and curry powder or pepper and mix well.
Continue to stir fry for another 5 mins before emoving from heat.
Serve hot with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Fried bean curd

This is the most common way my mother makes bean curd at home.

Fried bean curd

Cooking time: 15 – 20 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Bean curd – 150 g
Onion – 1
Ginger – 1 inch
Garlic – 2 or 3 cloves
Capsicum – 1 or green chillies – 3
Soya sauce – 1 tbsp
Tomato sauce – 2 tbsp
Low fat oil (sunflower or canola) – 2 tsp

Method:

Cut the bean curd into 1 inch pieces and deep fry the pieces until browned.
Chop onion, ginger, garlic and chillies.
Heat the oil in the pan and sauté the chopped onion, ginger, garlic and chillies.
Add the soya sauce and tomato sauce and sauté for 1 minute.
Add the fried bean curd pieces and fry for another 3 to 5 minutes.
Serve hot with rice or soup noodles.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.