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! 🙂
Shilpa,
Wow, 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.
I’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!
And 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!
Look at that kootu! So beautiful and delightful! The Arusuvai does have a very comforting effect, you are so right on that!
It is really fun to see what each “secret” ingredient is. Kootu and kootu podi is totally new to me…your dish looks delicious!
I got “Arusuvai”offer too, waiting for it!:))
Kootu look delicious, beautiful color.
Kootu is new for me…like the look of it though 🙂
Wow, lovely kootu. Looks so yummy!
I 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!
hi ,
i tried this recepi today. it turned out really good.
Shilpa, 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.
Hey 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…
Shilpa: 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 🙂
I 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
Ashwini
Kootu looks really nice..Does it taste like kolmbo ??
Hi Shilpa
Hearing about Kootu for the first time and its a nice post..!!
Will 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
i am happy , that non- southindians can learn the core method of south indian (karnataka recepies) and can become an expert. I will definetly tell my friends to blog this wongwerful site. Thank u very much!
very delicious………
Hi Shilpa,
Normally, Kootu can be made with any Dhal. But since we use Dhal in Sambar and Simple Dhal Curry, we use KadalaParuppu (Channa Dhal) or PasiParuppu (Split Moong Dhal).
If u get time, try our version of Kootu. You would definetly love it and will repeat making it. And, your Cake made during India’s victory is definetly feast to our eyes.
http://tamilsamayaldiary.blogspot.com/2011/03/kadalai-paruppu-channa-dhal-kootu.html
Hi Shilpa,
Looks like Bee’s blog has gone missing… if you have the recipe of Bee’s kootu podi please post it…