Tambuli.. a Desi dish

Tell me, have you really heard this dish name?! Mostly no. That is good, you get to know something new
I too heard this dish name from a friend and had no clue if it mean something. Just to ensure it doesn't mean something bad  I went to http://www.dictionary.com  & searched for its meaning.:) Fortunately it means nothing. It asked me "Do you mean Tambala?" How smart ? :)

But Google was a lot smarter, the moment I searched it threw up 6380 results for "tambuli recipe".  Be assured folks, all are fake. This is the one and only original recipe :)

What does it matter where knowledge comes from? :) just take it. Besides Google is so common place and Princess Kitchen is a special place. Who wants to be in a common place when you can be with the princess in her palace. Right?! :)

The thing to remember is, this is a damn healthy and tasty dish. At least when I make it :)

The ingredients are not too uncommon. The only special thing is Vaali leaf. Look at the picture below, its so beautiful.. greeen and round :)

Start Cooking...........


Ingredients:

(For those who don't know English, the corresponding French word is in the brackets)

1. Vaali leaves( Basale soppu in Kannada) - (Feuille de Vaali)
2. Curd (Caille)
3. Chillies (Le Poivre)
4. Coconut (grated-3 spoons) - (Coco)
5. Ginger (Gingembre)
6. Cumin seeds (Graines de Cumin)
7. Mustard seeds (Graines de Moutarde)
8. Oil (1 spoon) (Huile)
9. Curry leaves (Feuille de Curry)
10. Salt (Sel)
11. Asafoetida (also known as Hing, as in "Martina Hingis" :) ) 
12. Chopped spring onions (Ciboule)

Cooking:

1. Sort the nicely washed Vaali leaves in oil till they become soft and shrink.
2. Fry chillies in a spoon of oil.
3. Grind fried chillies+ginger+grated coconut+cumin seeds. 
4. Add sorted Vaali leaves and curd at the end and grind a little
5. Take a pan & add Oil, Mustard seeds, Curry leaves and Asafoetida to it
6. Let it cool and take it in a bowl.
7. Add the ground mixture to it along with little water and salt.
8. Garnish with spring onions and serve with rice.

There you go :) You just added another feather in your handsome cooking cap.. Bravo Master Chef!! :)

Faast Food

  After a long time I thought of helping bachelors and bachelorettes with an easy dish...Tasty ofcourse (Others!!! Please don't get offended that I m being partial here ;)). With minimum ingredients and minimum time we can do miracles in kitchen.. So friends pls feel free to try out.

Ingredients:
1)Rice (cooked 2 cups- You should be able to count each grain like 1..2..3..4..)
2)Spring onions (cut into pipes of one inch length)
3)Ghee (a spoon)
4)Salt
5)Chillies 3-4 (slit each one into 2 pieces vertically)
6)Onions-2 (Slice them in sickle shape... shape matter!!!!)
7)Ginger garlic paste (2 spoons)
8)Cumin seeds (2 spoons)
9)Coriander leaves (nicely chopped)
10)Oil (3 spoons)
 

Way to go:

1)Take a pan (as usual)
2)Put 3 spoons of oil and heat
3)Add "Eid ka chand" jaise kata huva onions. and forget it...(Remember back when they turn brown and crispy. Take them out and keep aside).
4)For the same oil, with flame on, add cumin seeds, ginger-garlic paste and sort it out.
5)Add chillies and spring onions, fry till they shrink.
6)Last but not the least, add salt and ghee

Your masala is ready... take white rice which is cooked and mix the masala. serve by garnishing with nicely chopped coriander leaves.

Oooops.. wait wait... what did we do with "Eid ka Brown Chand"? they are still kept aside and forgotten???? too bad guys.. we have to add them along with coriander leaves. Better late than never ;).. So add them now and serve :)

Popular Pumpkin Paratha

   Look at the round pumpkin.. Isn't it so tempting?? Now don't get worried about getting a round tummy :). If you eat moderately I can assure you there won't be any problem. So ready to try out a wonderful dish ?! Lets get started straight away.

Ingredients
Open the cupboard, take the shopping bag, take your purse :) ... Just kidding.. Go get the following stuff from the corner shop first

• Pumpkin - Grate it nicely (Make around 3 cups)
• 3 to 4 Chillies (Chop them fine)
• 2 cups of wheat flour (Don't chop this :))
• Haldi powder (To make it look bright as Sun...!! :))
• Ginger garlic paste (Wonder how these two got paired!! :))
• Ajwain seeds (To cook not to plant)
• Mustard seeds (We eat so much seeds, we could be a field :))
• Oil (The one you like most - Rice bran seems to be the trend of trendy)
• Coriander powder
• Onion (Chop about half a cup of this)

Preparation
Let the master chef in you jump out and run away :). Just follow these instructions. Don't act too smart.. I know you are :)

1. Take a pan
2. Add 2 spoons of oil
3. Heat a bit
4. Add the following in order
1. Ajwain seeds and mustard seeds
2. Chopped chilies (or red chili powder)
3. Haldi powder (I am hoping by now you know the measure :), don't blame me)
4. Chopped onions
5. Ginger garlic paste along with it
6. Grated pumpkin
5. Sort it adding a little salt and a spoon of coriander powder.
6. Prepare a dough of wheat flour (Make it a little soft :))
7. Take the dough and press it like chapati(small rounds)
8. Stuff the prepared mixture with the wheat dough and expand it more, as large as poori
9. Take a pan
10. Add a little oil (Use ghee or butter if you wont feel guilty about it)
11. Fry it on the pan both the sides( till it gets brown dots here and there giving it a proper design)

There you go :), Your pumpkin paratha is ready to eat. Let me know how it tastes. I am totally irresponsible if you eat too much and become fat. You might :)

Ciao until next post. Hey, you did not invite me to taste any of the stuff you cooked :). I am sure its because the dish was so tasty and you did not want to share. Call it optimism :)