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Vegetable kootu with kootu podi
If you are a blogger, you probably know the Arusuvai friendship chain started by Latha and Lakshmi of The Yum blog. It is basically an event where you send a “secret ingredient” to some of your friends. They cook something delicious with the ingredient and blog about it. This chain which was very popular among the bloggers in India, was started in US by Latha of Masala magic.
I have been reading about this for sometime now, but didn’t exactly know all the details. One fine day, I got a mail from Bee of Jugalbandi asking if I would like to get a surprise package from her. Well, who says no to such a delicious offer? I was eagerly waiting for the package and on a Tuesday received a lovely package in the mail. It had a very fragrant kootu podi, Bee’s favorite California chocolate, a beautiful purse from India and peanut chikki :). Wow!!! I can’t thank you guys enough. It reached me at a time when I was so upset about whole blogging and was thinking to do some drastic changes on this blog. It definitely made me feel very good. Thanks Bee and Jai.
I would also thank Maya for offering me a secret ingredient. I was not sure if it was the same ingredient which is circulated or different one. Now that I know what it is, I feel bad that I let down one more great offer.
Continuing the chain, I am passing a secret ingredient to Shn of Mishmash, Manjula of Dalitoy, Manasi of A cook at heart.
According to Wiki,
Kootu is a Tamil dish, common in both Tamil Nadu and South India. Kootus are essentially vegetable and lentil dishes which are semi-solid, i.e., less aqueous than sambhar, but more so than dry curries. Rice and kootu is a common and simple Tamil meal. In Tamil cuisine kootus are considered substitutes for both curries and sambhar.
I have heard of kootu before and also prepared few different types. But frankly speaking, I never tried to understand what a kootu is. My experiments were mainly the Kannada version of kootus with very different spices. After reading the above definition from wiki, I thought of making something like a sambar with it. It came out to be very delicious, not as hot as sambar, but very fragrant and tasty.
Some more kootu recipes can be found at Jugalbandi, Sailu’s food, Mane adige, Masala magic, Vindu.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup toor dal
1 tea spn kootu podi
2 tbl spns frsh/frozen coconut
1 cup vegetables - green beans, carrot, cauliflower, onion, potato, eggplant(brinjal), tomato etc
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
5-6 curry leaves
A pinch asafoetida
A pinch turmeric
1/4 tea spn tamarind extract(optional)
Oil
Salt
Method:
Cook dal with turmeric till it is mushy. Cook vegetables (If using cooker vessels, keep dal in bottom most pan and vegetables in topmost).
Grind coconut, tamarind with kootu podi.
Add the ground paste to dal and vegetables. Cook for about 7-8mins.
Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves, asafoetida. Pour this over kootu. Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 25mins
Kootu looks delicious, Shilpa!! Nice post and looking forward to more fun with those you pass your ingredient on to!
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:19 pmShilpa,
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 pmWow, thats a lovely dish, Kootu! New to me! I hope you are better now! Pls take care, you matter a lot to most of us!!
glad you liked the kootu podi, shilpa. would love to try your karnataka version sometime.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:39 amI’m glad you tried this dish Shilpa- it often graces my table and each time is very different, depending upon the veggies used… some people add a little gur to balance the tamarind, and some also add fine-chopped dill to the mix- optional, but good if you like this herb!
March 4th, 2008 at 2:46 amAnd Shilpa…you have one of the best blogs ever! I could not even begin to thank you enough for all that I’ve learned from you!
March 4th, 2008 at 2:51 amLook at that kootu! So beautiful and delightful! The Arusuvai does have a very comforting effect, you are so right on that!
March 4th, 2008 at 4:53 amIt is really fun to see what each “secret” ingredient is. Kootu and kootu podi is totally new to me…your dish looks delicious!
March 4th, 2008 at 6:25 amI got “Arusuvai”offer too, waiting for it!:))
March 4th, 2008 at 6:45 amKootu look delicious, beautiful color.
Kootu is new for me…like the look of it though
March 4th, 2008 at 8:13 amWow, lovely kootu. Looks so yummy!
March 4th, 2008 at 11:51 amI too have kootu podi ready in my pantry always. Great for vella pooshanikaai kootu, beans kootu etc. Adding many vegetables to the kootu is a wonderful idea. Thanks!
March 4th, 2008 at 12:11 pmhi ,
i tried this recepi today. it turned out really good.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:23 pmShilpa, Why were you upset? You have a wonderful blog, really nice pictures, awesome recipes and even though I dont know you personally, you come across as this honest, down to earth, sweet person thru ur blogs….I made your chana ghashi yesterday, it turned out to be amazing!
Shilpa: Thanks Kiran :). I am over it now.
March 4th, 2008 at 12:34 pmHey Shilpa, chin up… Don’t worry about the idiots who leave hurtful comments, they are just jealous and have nothing better to do than spread their venum around. I had some of those recently too, and my response to all of them was to go get a life… You have such an amazing blog with wonderful recipes, don’t let these people get to you…
March 4th, 2008 at 12:46 pmShilpa: Thanks Sig :). I am over it now and next time will be more careful not to let it hurt me.
Hi shilpa
Kootu looks tasty mmmm
March 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pmI got arusuvai offer 2…waiting for that
Hi
It is really very easy to prepare dish.
Thanks for posting such easy dishes. Really useful for beginners.
Regards
March 4th, 2008 at 2:01 pmAshwini
Kootu looks really nice..Does it taste like kolmbo ??
March 4th, 2008 at 11:05 pmHi Shilpa
Hearing about Kootu for the first time and its a nice post..!!
March 5th, 2008 at 10:46 amWill be sending a mail to you tomorrow…I still remember
Hi,
I’ve blogged your Kootu as a model recipe in the 1001 South Indian curry cookbook at http://ramkicooks.blogspot.com
/Thanks for the detailed recipe
Ramki
March 6th, 2008 at 10:23 pm