For my third day of cooking from a celebrity chef, I chose my most favorite chef and cook book author, Meenakshi Ammal. After my mother, I owe a lot of my cooking skills to this lady. Her books are the most essential copies of the books that I have owned. To this day whenever I am cooking traditional food, my go to person is her book Samaithu par (in Tamil) or Cook and See (English).The recipe that I chose today, Podalangai Poricha Kuzhambu, is a kind of Araichu vita kuzhambu made with snake gourd. Many other vegetables other than snake gourd could also be used, but this is a very commonly used vegetable in my house for this kuzhambu. Also we have been harvesting some snake gourd from the garden, so thought would choose this recipe for the third day.
Preparation time – 10 mins
Cooking time – 45 mins
Difficulty level – easy
Ingredients to make Podalangai Poricha Kuzhambu – serves 4-6
- Snake gourd – 3 cups (chopped)
- Thuvaram Paruppu/Red gram dhal – ½ cup (could also mix in some payatham paruppu/moong dal)
- Sambhar powder – ½ tsp
- Salt – to taste
- Curry leaves – few
To fry and grind together –
- Coriander seeds – 2 tsp
- Kadalai paruppu/channa dal – 2 tsp
- Red chilies – 4
- Ullutham paruppu/Urad dal – 1 tsp
- Coconut (grated) – ¼ cup
- Asafetida – ¼ tsp
- Oil – 1 tsp
For seasoning –
- Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
- Ullutham paruppu/Urad dal – 1 tsp
- Oil – 1 tsp
Procedure to make Podalangai Poricha Kuzhambu –
- Cut the vegetable in semi circles, add salt, sambhar powder and enough water (to cover the vegetable) and cook until soft.
- Cook the thuvaram paruppu in pressure cooker until soft. Keep aside.
- Fry all the ingredients mentioned above in about 1 tsp of oil and grind it into a smooth paste.
- Once the vegetable cooks, add the ground paste and the cooked dhal and mix well.
- Let the kuzhambu boil for few minutes until it thickens.
- Season with mustard seeds and urad dal.
- Serve the podalangai poricha kuzhambu hot with rice and a dollop of ghee.
Srivalli says
I love MA books..I have all her books in eng version..and enjoy browsing through them..:)
Jayanthi Padmanabhan says
Nice, hearty Kuzhambu. I've been after this book for some time now. I couldnt find it in Landmark or Amazon. Any idea where I can find the "Cook and See" english version in Chennai?
nandoos Kitchen says
Very tasty podalangai curry. Delicious.
On-going event: What's with my cuppa?
Sona S says
Delicious kuzhambu, sounds yummy with rice.
Chef Mireille says
perfet poured over a bowl of rice
Pavani N says
That is such a flavorful and delicious kuzhambu.
Yes Cook says
tasty curry. i have never cooked snake gourd. wonder why?
Thanks for sharing.
Manjula Bharath says
wow thats a super flavorful and yummy kuzhambu 🙂 Tempting yumyum...
Priya Suresh says
Droolworthy kuzhambu, even am a die hard fan of Meenakshi ammal's samaithu par, but unfortunately my book is in India, wish i have a copy of this book.
Swathi Iyer says
Delicious poricha kuzhambu Sandhya, Love Samiathupar cook book. I am leaving the link of my new site,please visitZest South Indian Kitchen
Preeti Garg says
So healthy wealthy recipe
Arthy Suman says
delicous kuzhambu...wowweee
Sapana Behl says
Delicious kuzambu ! I can imagine the flavors...
Harini-Jaya R says
Sounds very flavorful. Good choice! I have heard some very good reviews about this cookbook.