Poori and Potato Saag

Poori Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 2 cups
Maida (all purpose flour) - 1/2 cup
salt - 1/2 tsp or as per taste
Oil - 3 - 4 cups enough to deep fry the pooris

Preparation:

1. In a vessel mix the flour and salt. Add water little by little and knead to make a semi-soft dough ( similar to chapathi or pizza dough).

2. Make small lime sized balls of the dough.
3. Flatten each dough into a round shape similar to chapathi (but smaller in size).

4. Heat oil in a wok.
5. Add 1 - 2 pooris at a time depending on the size of the wok and amount of oil. The pooris must fully subemerge in the oil.

6. Flip them to make sure both sides are cooked. Take them out when they are light golden brown in color. You may use filter paper or a mesh to drain the oil.

Aloo (potato) Saag ingredients:

Potatoes - 2 -3 big ones or 4 -5 small ones. Any kind will do.
Onions - 1 big - cut them length wise into thin long slices.
Tomatoes - 2 medium sized.
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Besan (channa dal flour) - 3 - 4 tsps
Green chillies (Jalapenos) - 2 -3
Dry Red Chilli powder - 1/2 - 1 tsp (Balance the green chillies and chilli powder depending on spice level)
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - just a pinch
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Ajwain (oregano seeds) - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 4-5
Cilantro - 3 - 4 sprigs
Lemon - 1

Preparation:

1. Boil the potatoes, drain and cool. Peel off the skin and mash the potatoes. It doesn't have to be a smooth paste. Let there be few bite sized chunks. Keep it aside.
2. In a kadai, heat 3 tsps of oil. Add mustard seeds, let it splutter. Add chopped green chillies. fry for a few seconds. Add Hing, Curry Leaves, Urad Dal, Ajwain and Jeera in that order (urad dal, omam and jeera char soon).
3. Add the onions and garlic paste. Fry till onions are golden brown in color.

4. Add the tomatoes. Add salt and cover with a lid till the tomatoes cook. Fry in between to prevent charring.

5. Add the mashed potatoes and mix.

6. In a cup of water, add the besan (channa dal flour) and mix well to remove lumps. Add this to the kadai with constant stirring to prevent lumps.

7. Add chilli powder, 1 cup water, mix, cover with a lid and let it boil. Stir in between to prevent charring. Add more water if the saag is too thick.
8. The saag should boil well till the raw taste of the flour is gone.
9. In the end, add lemon juice and garnish with cilantro.

Serve hot pooris with Aloo saag. Aloo saag goes well with chapathis also.

Onion Sambar

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 1 cup
Onions - 1 big or 10-12 shallots (small sambar onions)
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Sambar powder - 3-4 spoons (depending on spice level)
Tamarind paste - 2 tsps
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
oil - 2 tsp

For Oggarane (tadka)

mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
oil - 2 tsps

Preparation:

1. cook toor dal and keep aside.
2. In a wok, heat 2 tsps of oil. Add turmeric and onion. fry the onions till they turn transparent. Add salt and cover till onions are cooked (just a few mts after frying).
3. Add the cooked dal and curry leaves. Add tamarind paste, salt to taste and bring it to boil.
4. To the boiling mixture, add sambar powder and let it continue boiling for 10 - 15 mts with intermittant stirring.
5. In a small kadai, heat 2 tsps of oil for tadka. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add the asafoetida.
6. Add this tadka to the sambar.

Sambar is ready. Excellent to eat with idli, vada or rice.

Coconut Chutney

Ingredients:

Fresh grated coconut - 2 cups
Green chillies - 3-4 (depending on spice level)
Cilantro (kottambari soppu) - 1 bunch
Hurigadale (Split Dhalia dal) - 1/4 cup
Tamarind paste - 2 tsp or lemon sized ball of tamarind pulp

For oggarane or tadka:

oil - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - just a pinch
Curry leaves - 4-5 leaves

Preparation:

1. Grind all the ingredients with 1 cup of water into slightly coarse paste.
2. In a wok, heat oil for tadka. Add mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Then add the other tadka ingredients and fry for a few seconds till urad dal turns light brown.
3. Add the tadka to the ground paste. Add salt to taste and mix well.

Add more water if needed.

Alternatives:

1. Instead of cilantro, you can use a bunch of mint leaves (pudina) for mint chutney.
2. If you do not have hurigadale at home, you can use Channa dal (kadle bele) and Urad dal (uddina bele) as follows. Fry 1/2 cup Channa dal and 1/4 cup Urad dal in a tsp of oil till medium roast (Channa dal turns slightly brown in color and starts giving out a nice aroma). Cool and then grind it with other ingredients.
3. If you need more spice for the chutney, add 1-2 dry red chillies (broken into small pieces) to the tadka.

Pongal (Hot and Spicy)

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Moong Dal - 1 cup
Pepper corns - about 1/2 tsp
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tsp
Green chillies - 1 slit
Bay leaves - 2 - 3
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Ghee - 4 - 5 tsp
Asafoetida - Just a pinch

Preparation:

1. Cook Moong Dal and Rice well with enough water. Use 3 cups of water for each cup of rice-dal mixture. Keep it aside.
2. In a Wok, heat ghee. Add pepper corns, Jeera, green chillies, turmeric and asafoetida.
3. Add the cooked dal and rice and mix well.
4. Add the bay leaves, salt to taste and bring it to a boil.
5. If the pongal is too thick, you can add more water.

Pongal is ready. Serve with chutney or raita.