This weekend - recipes and more

This weekend I saw the movie "Smart Guys in the room" - story about the Enron scandal. Its kind of a documentary not a real movie. Anyone who sees the movie would know that not only the executives at Enron were responsible for the scandal - all the bankers, auditors, politicians, traders were all responsible.

Justice should be done to the affected with a good verdict in this case.

Food today:

Poosinikai Sambar and gorchikidikai(Kothavarangai) curry.

Eversince I moved to bay area about 4 months ago I wanted to try out this recipe. The succulent pumpkin in sambar.

Poosinikai Sambar

Ingredients :
1 slice of pumpkin
half a medium onion
one medium size tomato
1 tablespoon sambar powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/3 cup tamarind puree
two fistfuls toor dhal
tempering - 2 tsp oil and half tsp each of cumin,mustard,fenugreek,curry leaves
salt to taste

Procedure :
1. Peel and slice the pumpkin into big 1" chunks.
2. Saute oil and temper with mustard, fenugreek, cumin, curry leaves
3. Add onion and continue till onions turn pink. Then add chopped tomato. Wait till the juices come out ( may be a couple of minutes ) and then add pumpkin pieces.
4. Add sambar powder, turmeric powder, salt and cover and cook the veggies. If needed add a little water
5. Pressure cook toor dhal with enof water upto four whistles. Wait till steam is all let out.
6. Mash cooked dhal add pureed tamarind and allow to boil for 5 to 10 mins. For idly-sambar I puree the dhal in a mixer.
7. Add a fistful of chopped cilantro and switch off. Enjoy over hot rice ;)

Sambar powder
I use the one that my mother sent me. If you want to prepare at home - like garam masala each one has different set of ingredients. My mother adds one part of chili powder to three parts of dhaniya. If you cannot get one prepared at home, you can use the sambar powder at any indian grocery.

Kothavarangai curry ( Gorchikidikaya koora )
Ravi is from Andhra and his food habits are totally different from mine. He loves Kothavarangai ( Gorchikidikaya ) done this way. He obviously love spicy foods and I spruce up the dish a bit spicer than usual for him. So if you are trying this dish tone down the chili powder.


Ingredients :
1 packet frozen Kothavarangai
2 big onion
3 medium size tomato
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala powder
tempering - 2 tsp oil and half tsp each of cumin,mustard,curry leaves
salt to taste

Procedure :
1. Boil the kothavarangai for 5 minutes in the microwave and drain off the water.
2. Temper the oil with cumin, mustard and curry leaves and add finely chopped onions.
3. When the onion becomes soft ( a handy tip is to saute it in medium-low flame, this prevents the raw smell of onions in the cooked dish ) add the kothavarangai and tomato.
4. When the tomato is soft add chili powder, turmeric, salt and close with a lid and put the stove on medium low. Add a little water if needed.
5. When most of the water is absorbed add a little bit of garam masala powder and switch off after a couple of minutes.
6. Goes well with rice