Muringakka , parippu thoran (Drumstick n dal)

Our mom used to make a lot of dishes with drumstick fairly often since we had a drumstick tree in our home. This was a favourite with all of us. Mom also used to make a exquisitely tasty things with the flowers from drumstick tree as well as the leaves.

Drumsticks - 2 (choose fleshy ones)

Thur dal - 1 cup

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Cook the thur dal with water over 1/2 an inch over it's level. when the dal is half-cooked, add the drum sticks till everything is cooked through , add salt to taste and make sure the water is nearly gone.

Coarsely grind

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Garlic cloves - 2 nos

green chillies - 2 nos

Add the ground coconut to the cooked drumstick and dal.

In a deep pan, heat 2 tsp oil , temper with

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp (I prefer a bit less)

Raw rice grains - 1 tsp

Dried red chillies - 2

Curry leaves - 2 stems

mix well and serve hot.

Cheera Thoran - (Red spinach with coconut)

I got my hand on an amazingly fresh bunch of Red Spinach..hadn't seen any like that in a while... Just grabbed them....

The worst thing about store bought leaves, (as opposed to home-grown, and we have had that in plenty!) is that sometimes no amount of rinsing can get rid of the DDT..when u finish soaking the leaves,pick them leaf by leaf and the slice them finely, and finally cook it and lo and behold, instead of the amazing aroma of cooked spinach, u smell the awful powder used to kill ants !!!

But this time the whole bunch was perfect.........

Clean the spinach as much as possible in lots of water...
Drain well. Towel dry if needed(especially if the leaves are limp.)
Cut very thinly, stalk and leaves.

Grind coarsely
Coconut - 1/4th of one ( scrapped )
Green chillies - 2
Small onions - 3
Jeera/ Cumin - 1/4 tsp

To the cut spinach, add the ground coconut, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder and mix well.

Heat oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds, curry leaves and add the spinach. Keep a lid and steam the spinach for 5 minutes or until they are evenly steamed. Slowly stir to ensure even cooking and turn off the heat.

Great combination with rice, curd, pappad n pickles....And I could just eat it by itself too!

Thoran - Cabbage and String beans

This is the traditional malayali preparation of thoran. Usually, we use vegetables like beans, cabbage etc individually, or combine carrots, cabbage , beetroot etc together.

I got some very tender string beans which could have been used in another preparation, but since I had some grated coconut handy, I made the thoran. And just to put a different twist on it, added some cabbage too..

String bean is achinga in malayalam, and karamani in tamil. To avoid any more confusion, I am adding a picture I got from the web..there are many varieties of string beans, but what i made looked exactly like those in the picture.

String beans - 1/4 kilo
Cabbage - 1/4 kilo

chop both vegetables into the tiniest pieces.

Coconut - grated (1/4 to 1/2 cup)
Green chillies - 2
Small onions- 3 to 5 (peeled)
Jeera/ cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
lightly grind the coconut and the rest of the ingredients. 2 to 3 pulses in a dry grinder should be sufficient.

Turmeric - 1/ 4 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Add the above ingredients, the ground coconut, to the chopped vegetables and mix well.

In a kadai, add
oil - 2 tbsp

temper with
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Raw rice - 1 tsp
Dry red chillies - 2 (broken)
Curry leaves - 3 stalks, leaves separated.

Put the chopped vegetables, close the lid and steam for about 5 to 10 minutes. Mix well and take off the stove.