Ulundham Paruppu Saadham/Urad Dhal Rice
This is again a recipe from the nellai saiva pillai household. Ulundham paruppu saadham is traditionally made when a girl attains puberty. The young girl is made to take oil bath and later fed this nutritious and tasty dish. I have already mentioned, in one of my older posts about the health benefits of urad dhal. Unhusked urad dhal reportedly strengthens the pelvic bones of a girl. So when a girl attains puberty, in the days following she is fed a lot of urad dhal recipes like ulundhu vadai, ulundhan kali, ulundhan kanji, ulundham paruppu saadham etc. Female relatives i.e. Athai, Chithi and Periamma of the young girl take turns to make such dishes in liberal quantities, which is then consumed by everyone and also distributed to the neighbouring households (I guess that the girl is just an excuse ). Ulundham paruppu saadham can be prepared and eaten on any occasion, but is typically made during above mentioned times and also during saturdays after taking an oil bath. It is typically served with ellu thuvaiyal and/Karuppati with gingelly oil, with aviyal and/vendakkai pachadi and appalam. The first course of the hot rice is mixed with gingelly oil and tasted with karuppati (palm jaggery). If you don’t like the sweet version you can straight away go to the second course ,which is rice mixed with ellu thuvaiyal and gingelly oil and eaten with aviyal/vendakkai pachadi and appalam. The third course is the same rice mixed with curd/buttermilk and tasted with ellu thuvaiyal. Try this recipe. It is definitely different, but worth it.
Linking this recipe to South Indian Cooking- Event #1 conducted by Anu’s Healthy Kitchen.
Ulundham Paruppu Saadham
Ingredients:
4 cups boiled rice
1 to 1 ½ cup split black urad dhal
½ tsp fenugreek seeds
10 -15 no garlic flakes
1 cup shredded coconut
Salt- a little less than required
Method :
- Wash and clean urad dhal and rice separately.
- In a pan dry roast the urad dhal and fenugreek till you get a nice aroma. Keep aside.
- Now roast the shredded coconut separately.
- Put rice, roasted coconut, roasted urad dhal and fenugreek, garlic flakes, salt everything together along with triple the quantity of water( 15 cups) and pressure cook till the rice is well cooked. Alternatively the rice can be cooked in the traditional method of cooking in a big open pan.
- Taste ulundham paruppu saadham with ellu thuvaiyal, aviyal/vendakkai pachadi and appalam.
Puli Milagai
This is a hot and sweet pachadi, that goes well with idly, dosa and curd rice. You can make this recipe when you are tired of the regular chutneys. This is a saiva-pillai recipe which I learnt from my mom. This recipe is typically made with young and tender green chillies -my mom calls them pinju milagai / kunju milagai. When the chilly season ends the chillies which remain in the plant do not mature and remain small in size. Such chillies are ideal for this recipe. These green chillies are not very hot and spicy and they can be eaten along with the pachadi. Green chillies and shallots are sautéed in gingelly oil and simmered in tamarind sauce to which jaggery is added to create this yummy sidedish. This stays at room temperature for 2 days and in fridge for 3-4 days.
Posting this recipe for “spotlight-curries and gravies” event conducted by Chandhrani of Cuisine delights, originally started by Indrani of Recipe Junction.
Puli Milagai
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. gingelly oil
10 12 no. young & tender greenchillies
25 no.shallots / sambar onions
¼ tsp turmeric powder
A big marble size tamarind
A small lemon size ball of jaggery
Salt to taste
For tempering:
1 tbsp.gingelly oil
½ tsp mustard
½ tsp urad dhal
A pinch of hing
Few curry leaves
Method:
- Wash and slit the green chillies half way through .
- Peel the shallots .
- Extract juice from tamarind.
- In a pan heat 1 tbsp. gingelly oil. Add the chillies and shallots and sauté well, till they are half cooked.
- Now add ½ cup of water. Let the chillies and onions get cooked thoroughly.
- Now add the tamarind juice, turmeric powder and salt . Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add jaggery to the mix, let it simmer for few more minutes and remove from fire.
- The tempering is done liberally with gingelly oil. Enjoy puli milagai with hot Idli or Dosa.
Kurunai Dosai/Mulu Ulundhu Dosai/Whole Black Gram Dhal Dosa
This is a speciality from my mom’s cuisine. This is recipe is a regular in many of the pillaimar households. This recipe uses whole black gram with its skin intact instead of the white deskinned one to make dosa. In olden days, when the reap from the fields used to come home, only the broken black gram was used for the dosa and whole ones are deskinned for regular idly/dosa. And hence the name “Kurunai Dosai”. My grandma also calls it “Karutha Dosai” because of its greyish black hue.
The batter preparetion is similar to regular dosa. But this Dosa tastes very different from the regular dosa and is healthy too because of the whole grams. Taste it to believe it…
Posting this recipe for ‘show me your dosa’ event hosted by Divya of Dilse.
Also sending this recipe to “Food palette series Black” hosted by Torviewtoronto.
Kurunai Dosai/Mulu Ulundhu Dosai/Whole Black Gram Dhal Dosa
Ingredients:
4 cups boiled rice
1 cup of black urad dhal
1/2 spoon fenugreek seeds (optional)
salt as required
Method:
- Soak the rice and dhal for 3-4 hours separately.
- First grind the dhal into smooth batter.
- Next grind the rice into a fine consistency.
- Mix both and add required salt. Allow the batter to ferment overnight.
- Next morning make dosas in the dosa griddle. These dosas taste good when made either soft or crispy.
- The ideal combination is vengaya thuvaiyal or vadaga thuvaiyal.
Inji Pachadi / Ginger Pachadi
This is a very simple dish served as an accompaniment to sodhi. It also tastes good with curd rice. It is very good for digestion.
Reposting this recipe for DNSW-I event hosted by Akila of Akila’s Kitchen.
Inji Pachadi / Ginger Pachadi
Ingredients:
50 gms ginger-peeled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1-2 red chillies
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
A large lemon sized ball of jaggery
Salt to taste
2+2 tsp oil
For tempering:
1 tsp oil
½ tsp mustard
½ tsp urad dhal
1-2 sprigs curry leaves
Method:
- Heat the pan. Add 2 tsp oil and fry the red chillies. In the same oil fry the chopped ginger till golden brown.
- Add 2 more tsp of oil and fry the shredded coconut till golden brown.
- Allow this to cool and grind in mixer along with salt to a fine paste.
- Transfer this paste along with turmeric powder to a pan and allow it to simmer. Add the jaggery and simmer till raw smell is gone.
- Temper with mustard, urad dhal and curry leaves. Serve with rice and sodhi.
Tirunelveli Sodhi / Maapillai Sodhi
This recipe has been in my ‘to do’ list for a long long time. I mean – to post about this recipe.
Sodhi is a classic recipe from tirunelveli. Tirunelveli saiva pillai marriage is a two day affair. ‘Sodhi sappadu’ is the second day lunch , which is served on behalf of the boy’s side to the girl’s side and the guests ( a way of saying thank you ). Because of this it is also known as ‘Maapillai Sodhi’. It is a very rich dish made of coconut milk and vegetables served as a classic combo of – rice, sodhi, potato roast ( urulaikilangu varuval), inji pachadi/inji thuvaiyal along with papads and rice vadaams. The ginger pachadi is supposed to help in digestion of the heavy coconut milk.
My mom says that in olden days one coconut per person was used for getting the coconut milk- it means if you want to serve four persons you have to extract milk from four coconuts!!! Well gone are those golden days! Because of the increasing vegetable prices and the increasing calorie consciousness among people we are using less coconut now. Nowadays we use 1 coconut for 2 persons as an average…You can adjust the amount according to your taste 
One of my non-veg colleague used to mock me – what variety do you have in veg dishes? I don’t understand what you people serve when you have guests at home….. She doesn’t realize that – Heaven! Thy name is SODHI!!!
Reposting this recipe for Walk down the memory lane event hosted by Kalyani of Sizzling tastebuds, started originally by Gayathri’s cookspot.
Tirunelveli Sodhi
Ingredients:
1 large sized coconut ( I used this for 3 persons)
1 drumstick
2 large potatoes
2 carrots
2 large onions
4-5 green chillies
1 tsp oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt as required
For tempering:
2 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp urad dhal
Few curry leaves
Method:
- The first and crucial step is to extract the coconut milk. Take 2 cups of thick milk and 2-3 cups of thin milk from the shredded coconut.
- Cut the drumstick into long pieces and cube the potatoes and carrots. Cut the onions into long but thick slices.
- Sauté the onion in oil and add it to the thin milk along with the chopped vegetables. Allow the vegetables to cook in the thin milk in a medium flame.
- In the mean time grind the green chillies and required salt into a fine paste and add it to the thick milk.
- After the vegetables are cooked well and the thin milk has reduced in quantity add the thick milk to the pan.
- Allow to simmer in a low flame till you see froth on top. Do not allow to boil. Switch off the stove.
- Add the juice of lemon after the sodhi has cooled off a little( when warm). Otherwise it will curdle. Alternatively the lemon juice can be omitted ( some of my family members like it that way- so my mom makes two versions each time , with and with out lemon juice).
- Tempering is optional and can be done with mustard, urad dhal and curry leaves.
- Serve sodhi with rice, potato roast and ginger pachadi. Sodhi also tastes good with aappam and idiyappam.
Mangai Pachadi / Raw Mango Pachadi
Iniya tamil puthandu nalvazhthukal (Wishing you all a very happy tamil new year). This recipe is a staple at my home on tamil new year’s day. I don’t know what is the relationship of mango and tamil new year. I guess the month of “chithirai” marks the onset of mango season and so it is cooked on the day of tamil new year.
This is a very simple recipe. This sweet and tangy recipe tastes good with sambar, rasam and curd rice as well. From my experience I know it tastes good with rotis also.
Posting this recipe for ’C for colorful currries’ event hosted by Charitha of ’women’s era2008′.
Reposting this recipe for mango recipes hosted by Sameena of myculinarycreations.
Mangai pachadi / raw mango pachadi
Ingredients:
I medium sized raw mango (preferably kili-mooku type which is not very sour)
¼ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp chilli powder
Salt as required
1 big lemon sized ball of jaggery
¼ cup shredded coconut
½ tsp jeera
For tempering:
1 tsp oil
½ tsp mustard
½ tsp urad dhal
1-2 sprigs curry leaves
Method:
- Wash and peel the mango .
- Now cut the mango into thin slices.
- In a pan add half a cup of water and cook the mango slices with salt, chilli powder and turmeric powder till the mango pieces become very soft and mushy. Alternatively you can pressur cook the mango for two whistles.
- Grind the coconut and jeera into a paste. After the mango is cooked add this coconut paste and jaggery and simmer for 2-3 minutes
- . Temper with mustard, urad dhal and curry leaves. Tangy mango pachadi is ready to serve.
