This is one of my favorite dishes that my mom makes. I changed a little bit of the recipe here and there, but it gives the same result like my mom's ! ;)
Ingredients
Moong Dhall (Payatham Paruppu)- 3/4 cup
Chayote Squash (Chow Chow) - 1 chopped into small cubes
Sambhar powder - 1 teaspoon
Cumin Seeds (Jeeragam) - 1.5-2 teaspoon
Curry Leaves (Karuvepillai) - 5-6 leaves
Red Chili (Kaintha cheppu milagai)- 1-2 (medium spicy) , 3-4 (spicy)
Green Chili (pacha milagai)- 1-2
Mustard seeds (Kadugu)- 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder (manjal podi) - 1/4 teaspoon
Coconut shredded (thengai thuruval)- 3-4 tbsp
Salt (Uppu)- 1/2 teaspoon (add to taste)
Asofoeteida powder (Perungaya podi) - 1/4 teaspoon
Vegetable/Canola Oil - 1-2 tbsp
Start off by cooking the Moong Dhall and Chayote Squash in pressure cooker.
For 3/4 cup of Dhall, use 1.5-2 cups of water. Peel off the skin of Chayote Squash and chop it into medium sized cubes and add it to the dhall. Add little more water till the Chayote Squash pieces are lightly submerged. Add little turmeric and pressure cook it.
While the cooker is working, you can start making the spice mixture. Take 1.5 teaspoons of Cumin seeds, number of red chillies as desired, green chili (again as desired), curry leaves, coconut and grind these with a little water added to form a paste (if it's little watery, that's ok)
Heat oil in a sauce pan, add Asafoateida, Mustard, Cumin seeds(0.5 teaspoon) and let it pop. Turn the heat to medium, and pour the cooked Dhall/Chayote Squash into it. Let it cook for 10 minutes, and when the raw smell ("pacha vasanai") of dhall is gone, add salt, sambhar powder and the ground paste to it. Let this boil for 5-10 minutes.
Yummy Chayote Squash (Chow Chow) Kootu is now ready for serving!
Goes well as a side dish for Chapathis or rice.
You can make a milder version of this by omitting the ground paste (less spicy).
You can also add other types of Lentils like Toor Dhall(1/2 cup), Channa Dhall(1/4 cup) to cook along with Moong Dhall. You can also substitute Chayote Squash with vegetables like cabbage, carrot, zucchini, snake gourd etc.
Serving Size: 4 people
Thursday, September 11, 2008
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3 comments:
Good work.
1. You can use good badam instead of the thengai as tengai you know is not too good and when you put it in the fridge, tengai does not last long. Badam gives the same taste...
2. Also this is new to me. Making the dhal, chow chow boil and then add sambar podi.. Normally we put kai, sambar podi and then after sambar poi smell goes away, we add the dhal and then let it to boil.. Idhu periamma style aha.. Interesting.. Will try when I get back :)
Good venture Saran. Nice to know you are of cooking
Hi Prem,
Thanks for the nice idea..will try badam next time instead of coconut!
Perimma's recipe is like how you do it..cooking dhal and vegetables seperately..I mix them and cook, easy/quicker :)
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