Ridge Gourd Chutney

Do you know you can prepare a healthy, wonderful chutney with the outer hard layer of Ridge Gourd vegetable? Most of you must be throwing away it as a waste.

Ridge Gourd is a healthy, green vegetable with rich fiber content. Most of us generally prepare curries with it. But, we need to peel off the hard outer layer (skin) of it before preparing the curry. While this procedure is okay for the curry recipes, you are missing the benefits of the nutrients received through the peeled-off skin. But, there is a nice way of utilizing the outer layers of it if you become aware of how to prepare a tasty and spicy chutney recipe with those discarded parts of the skin.

How to Prepare Ridge Gourd Chutney

Whenever you prepare the ridge gourd recipe, after peeling off the outer skin, you can prepare the chutney besides that curry recipe. If you are eating ridge gourd often, you can stock the peels for 3, 4 days in the refrigerator, and then prepare the chutney recipe collecting those peels.

Ingredients Required

I am providing ingredients for the preparation of chutney with peels collected from 1 kilogram of Ridge-Gourd (green vegetable).

• the peels
• red dry chilies (6 chilies)
• mustard seeds (one-and-half spoonful)
• cumin seeds (half of the mustard seeds)
• salt (one flat spoon)
• tamarind (one pod - seedless)
• turmeric (half-spoon)
• oil for frying (one tablespoon)

Instructions for Preparation of Ridge Gourd Chutney

1. Ensure that the peels are not wet. Wetness will decay the preparation quickly and make it foul-smell within 1 or 2 days. So, you can spread the peels on a paper or large plate and leave it to dry for 12 hours or so. If you are preparing it in the evening, you can spread them to dry early in the morning itself.
2. Now, you are going to fry all the above-mentioned ingredients except salt and turmeric. So, light the stove and place a deep-fry pan on it.
3. Drop the oil into the pan and let it heat.
4. Now, put the mustard seeds, cumin, and dry chilies simultaneously into the pan and fry them till you hear the splitting of mustard seeds.
5. Add the peels now and fry them for some time (for 2 minutes) turning them with a spatula so that the ingredients do not get burnt.
6. Now add the tamarind also to it and place a lid on it adjusting the flame to the minimum point.
7. Keep turning the ingredients every minute with the spatula and replacing the lid (for 5 minutes at least).
8. When you see that the peels have turned a slight brownish in color, you can turn off the flame and let it cool.
9. After cooling, put the fried mix into the moxie jar. Add salt and turmeric to it. Grind the mix into a paste. Let the recipe be a bit rough. So do not grind into a smooth paste. Somewhat roughness makes it tasty to your tongue as well providing good digestion.

Ginger-Chilli Paste - Home-Made Spices

Ginger Chili paste is a healthy spicy paste for spicing up your recipes. You can cook, saute, or fry your preparation and then, add this paste while spicing up your dish at the end stage. It is a healthy and hygienic thing in place of those market-made pastes which are seasoned by adding other preservatives and flavors. So, keep this homemade paste ready at hand for preparing your breakfast dishes or all those curry dishes needed for your meals.

How To Prepare Ginger-Chili Paste

It is very simple. Procure the ingredients and grind them in your mixer/grinder to a paste. And, store the paste in a tight-lid container in your refrigerator for daily use up to 10 days. 

Ingredients for Ginger-Chili Paste

1. Ginger (raw) 100 grams

2. Green Chili   100 grams

3. Turmeric Powder 1/2 t/spoon

4. Salt powder   1 teaspoon

Step-By-Step Preparation Instructions

1. First of all, you need to wash the ginger and dry it for some time. It should be completely dry before using it.
2. Chop the ginger pods into small pieces for easy grinding. Remove any bad portions from it.
3. Remove the top caps of the chilies and cut them into pieces. Each one can be cut into 2 or 3 parts depending on the length. (Ensure the chilies that you use are also fresh and not wet.)
4. Now, put all the four ingredients in your grinding jar and grind them to paste without adding water. No need to make it into a very smooth paste. A bit roughness is okay.
5. You may need to grind it 3, 4 times if the ginger is hard (mixing thoroughly during the intervals), without adding any extra water, so as to store it for 10 days.

Now, your Ginger-Chili paste is ready for use. Remove the paste from the grinder jar and store it in a tight lid container. You can draw from it with a dry spoon whenever you need it. One spoonful is enough for making spicy dishes for a family of 4 to 5 persons.

If you want to use it along with the pepper, coriander, cumin mixed spice powder, then you may halve the quantities of both those spice mixtures to prepare your dishes tasty and healthy.

You should add this paste or the spice powder while your preparation is still on the flame. After adding the mix, you need to fry or saute the recipe for one more minute or at least for half-a-minute to make it tasty.

Breakfast Recipes: Idli With Chutney

Idli is a very healthy breakfast item for your stomach. Eating Idli with chili-spice powder or a light Chutney is a good habit instead of consuming it with a Sambar dish.

I hope that most of you know that Idli is prepared with the ingredients of Rice and Black Gram Dal (known as Urad Dal).

But, it is not the ordinary rice that we use for making idlis. Idli requires boiled rice that is sold in markets (at all provision stores in Southern India) to make it.

The chutney that I refer to here is prepared with fried Chana Dal and Coconut (either raw coconut or dried nut).

Idli Preparation Method

You need to keep things ready 10 to 12 hours before the actual preparation of this recipe. You need to soak the main ingredients for at least 6 to 8 hours before grinding them to paste. Then leave the mixture for at least 2 to 3 hours before preparing the idlis. Of course, you need the Idli Cooker (the idli frame and its container) for preparing the idlis. I am explaining this process, step-by-step, in full detail in the following sections.

Ingredients for Idli Recipe

• 250 grams of Idli rava (roughly ground particles of Boiled Rice). The rice is broken in the flour mills to obtain medium-sized refined particles. 
• 100 grams of split black gram known as urad dal (The split lentil is white in color)
• salt one tea-spoonful
• water for soaking and grinding

Step-By-Step Preparation Instructions

1. Soak the lentils in a bowl filled with water for 8 hours.
2. Remove the soaked lentils from water and put in the grinding jar. Now, grind carefully adding some water each time till it gets ground into a smooth paste.
3. Now, remove the paste from the jar into a large bowl.
4. Mix the idli rava into it along with the salt and some water to make it a soft paste. It should not get diluted.
5. Leave the mixture for some time so that the contents blend thoroughly.
6. Now, get ready the idli cooker with its plates.
7. Apply ghee or any refined cooking oil to the plates so that the cooked idli does not stick to the plates and could be removed without damaging its round shape. (Apply only a bit of oil with your fingers to the plates)
8. Now take the empty cooker and add some water into it for the purpose of cooking idlis with the steam generated from it. Take care that the water level does not touch the idli plates frame when you put the frame in it.
9. Pour the idli mix with a ladle into the oil-applied-plates to their levels (taking care that it does not spill out when fixing the plates to the frame).
10. Now, place the filled frame into the cooker. Light the stove and put the cooker on the flame. Close it with the lid.
11. Within a few minutes, the idlis will be cooked and you will listen to the whistles coming. Wait for 3, or 4 whistles so that it gets perfectly cooked.
12. Now put off the flame and leave it to cool for some time. After cooling, you can remove the plates and separate the idlis from the plates carefully with your fingers.
13. You can serve them instantly to the members along with some side-dish like chutney, spice powder, or the soup known as Sambar.
    

Idli Chutney 

Ingredients for Chutney

1. Fried Chana Dal (Fried chick pigeon peas) 100 grams
2. Coconut (normal or dry nut) 50 grams
3. Green chili 3 nos.
4. Ginger (a small piece) for taste
5. Salt 1/2 spoon (or as you prefer it)
6. Top-Up ingredients (like mustard seeds, cumin, hing, a bit oil)

Step-By-Step Preparation Tips for Idli Chutney

1. Cut the coconut into small pieces for easy grinding. Cut green chilis also.
2. Now, put the ingredients from no.1 to no.5 into your grinding jar.
3. Grind them adding water little by little, in stages, as per the requirement. You can add a little curd also if you prefer to get some good taste. After grinding, the chutney should become soft and in a thick liquid form.
4. Now, remove the chutney into any bowl and top-up it by frying the topping ingredients in a small frying pan.
5. Now you can serve the chutney with a tablespoon along with the idlis to your members.

Home-Made Spices - Multi-Purpose Spice Powder

A multipurpose spice powder that can be used as your sambar/rasam powder as well as a masala powder to spice up all your cuisines. I prepare my Rasam, Sambar, and all my vegetable curries or even breakfast dishes often using this spice powder.

Preparing this powder is very simple by grinding only 4 types of spice ingredients and a bit of lentil in a mixer-grinder.

Ingredients Required for Rasam-Cum-Curry Powder

1. Black Pepper 50 grams

2. Cumin seeds  50 grams

3. Coriander seeds 50 grams

4. Red Chili (dry) 20 to 25 nos.

5. Yellow Pigeon split lentil 75 grams

Step-by-Step Preparation of Home-Made Spice Powder

Step 1: If you can dry all these ingredients in the hot sunlight for some hours, it is well and good. Otherwise, you need to dry them in a hot pan. For this purpose, light your stove and place a deep frying pan on it. After it gets heated, decrease the flame to the minimum level and heat the ingredients one by one. You only need to get them dry so that they can be ground into a powder. After each one gets heated, remove it into a large plate. And, follow the same procedure until all ingredients are done with. Pour all the heated ingredients into the same plate. The lentil may take some extra time. But everything gets done within 5 minutes.

Step 2: Cool the hot ingredients for some time so that they become warm enough to be ground. They may cool down within 10 to 15 minutes. Touch them with your hand and ensure that when you put them in a grinding jar, the jar will not get warm and hot.

Step 3: Now, put those ingredients in the jar and grind them to powder. But, do not make the powder too soft. It should be a dry free-flowing powder to enjoy the spiciness of your dish.

Step 4: Remove the powder from the grinder into a bowl and allow it to cool. Or, you may let it cool in the grinder itself for some time, stirring it with a spoon 2, to 3 times at intervals. After it gets cooled, transfer the powder into any tight-lid container and use it as and when required with a spoon.

How To Use This Multi-Purpose Powder

1. If you are preparing the Rasam dish (a kind of liquid taken with food for better digestion purposes), you need to simply add this powder as it is according to your requirements along with a small quantity of tamarind, salt, and turmeric in a bowl of water and bring it to the boiling point.

2. For preparing other vegetable curries, and breakfast dishes like Upma, Oats, and even meat dishes, you need to fry this powder in some cooking oil along with the other ingredients that you may be adding before cooking the recipes.

I hope you will enjoy the taste of any food prepared with this spice-powder just like me.