Vadai Mor Kuzhambu | Buttermilk Curry with Masala Vada

Vadai Mor Kuzhambu, a delicious South Indian style buttermilk curry with masala vadai soaked in it. Mor Kuzhambu is a traditional South Indian buttermilk curry made with varieties of vegetables like okra, ash gourd and many more. 

But in our home, while we grew up, this vadai mor kuzhambu is the only variation that Amma used to make and I absolutely loved it back then and still do ! So far I have never made mor kuzhambu without masala vadai whether the curry has vegetables or not. 

If you haven't tried mor kuzhambu with vadai, then do give it a try ! It's absolutely delicious with steaming hot rice ! 

Can I use urad dal vadai / ulundu vadai / medhu vada in this curry?

Yes, you can ! I have seen many recipes using urad dal vada. But in our home we only used masala vadai.  So I'm more inclined to masala vada than the urad dal vada. 

Can I use buttermilk instead of curd ? 

Even though the curry name has buttermilk in it(Mor means buttermilk in tamil), it's usually made with thick curd whisked into thin buttermilk. But if you already have buttermilk, you can very well use that instead of curd.

Vadai Mor Kuzhambu

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Vadai Mor kuzhambu, Buttermilk curry with masala vada, Paruppu vadai Mor kuzhambu Vadai Mor Kuzhambu, a delicious South Indian style buttermilk curry with masala vadai soaked in it.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Thick Curd - 1 cup

Onion (sliced ) - 2 tbsp

Tomato - 1/2 

Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp

Salt - to taste 

Masala vadai - 8

To Grind 

Toor dal - 2 tsp

Coconut - 3 tbsp

Cumin seed - 1/2 tsp

Red chili - 4 (adjust to your taste)

To Temper 

Coconut oil - 2 tsp

Fenugreek seed - 1/4 tsp

Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - few  

Procedure

Soak the toor dal in 1/2 cup of water for 1 hr. Then add the soaked dal and other ingredients listed under "To Grind" into a mixie/ blender jar and grind into smooth paste by adding the needed water and set aside until use.

Heat a pan, add the coconut oil and temper the ingredients listed under "To Temper" one by one and then add the sliced onions & saute till the onions are translucent. 

Next add the roughly chopped tomatoes and give a quick stir. Then add 1 cup of water. 

Next add the dal-coconut paste and turmeric powder. Mix it well and then add the enough salt for the curry.

Bring into boil and then simmer the curry for a few mins until it turns slightly thick. Take the curd in a bowl and whisk it smoothly without any lumps. 

Keep the heat in the lowest possible setting and add the whisked curd, give a quick mix  and switch off the flame. 

Transfer the curry into a another bowl and add the masala vada. Let it soak for 5-10 mins and it's ready to serve. 

Tasty Vadai Mor Kuzhambu is ready to serve . Serve it with hot rice ! 

Related : How to make Crispy Masala Vada 

Notes:

• Adding water into the kadai before adding the coconut masala helps to avoid the masala sticking to the bottom of the pan.
• Because of toor dal, the curry tends to thicken quickly so adding enough water ahead is essential. 
• Don't add the dal more than the mentioned quantity otherwise the curry would be so thick.
• Instead of red chili , you can use green chili too for vibrant yellow color curry

 

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Capsicum Raita | Bellpepper Raita

Capsicum Raita, a simple and delicious side dish made  from curd and bell pepper/capsicum. In Tamilnadu, onion raita is quite a staple raita and it's widely served as a side dish for biryani, parotta and chapathi both in restaurants and in houses. Also, in South Tamilnadu and in Kerala, we're making "Thayir pachadi" with a lot of country vegetables like ash gourd,  cucumber and okra  which is somewhat similar to raita. 

Coming to today's recipe, here i have used a combination of yellow and orange capsicum, but you can use a single  color or any of your favorite colors. If you like capsicum flavor, then you must give this raita a try, it's simply awesome and tastes great as a side dish for all types of rotis ! Now let's check out the recipe.

Capsicum Raita

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 5 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Raita | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Capsicum Raita, Bell pepper Raita, Raita Recipe, Side dish Capsicum Raita, a simple and delicious side dish made from curd and bell pepper/capsicum.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Capsicum - 1/4 cup(chopped)

Green Chili - 1

Curd - 1/2 cup

Coriander leaves - few

Salt - to taste

Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp(optional)

Oil - 1/2 tsp

Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

Chop the capsicum and green chili into small pieces. Take the curd in a bowl and add enough salt and whisk it well. Heat the pan with oil, add mustard and urad dal. Let the mustard splutters.

Then add the capsicum and green chilies with a pinch of salt. Saute till the capsicum are soft. Let it cool a bit, then add into the curd along with chopped coriander leaves. Mix it well. Tasty Capsicum Raita is ready to serve. 

Notes:

• You can use any color of capsicum in this recipe.
• I haven't used the garam masala, but for more flavor, you can add some garam masala while sauteing.

 

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Mint Yogurt Chutney, a delicious and flavorful chutney that goes well with any type of kebab or starter recipes. Mint & coriander leaves give great flavor and the yogurt/curd give the enough creaminess to the chutney and make it perfect as dipping sauce for your starter recipe. This mint yogurt chutney is mandatory in our home whenever i make kebabs !!! It's so similar to restaurant style kebab chutney  and if you haven't tried it before, do give it a try !!!  

Mint Yogurt Chutney | Kebab Green Chutney

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Chutney | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Mint, Coriander,Chutney,Kebab chutney, Yogurt chutney,Restaurant Kebab Chutney,dipping sauce Mint Yogurt Chutney, a delicious and flavorful chutney that goes well with any type of kebab or starter recipes.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Mint - 1/4 cup(tightly packed)
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup(tightly packed)
Green chili - 2 to 4
Ginger - 1 inch pieces
Garlic - 4 cloves
Curd/Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste

Procedure

Clean mint, coriander leaves and put into the blender along with green chili, ginger & garlic and grind into coarse mixture.Then add curd & salt into it and grind it as smooth chutney. That's it , Tasty & Flavorful Yogurt Mint Chutney is ready. For kebab recipe, check out here and here 

Notes:

• Use fresh curd for great taste
• Adjust the chili as per your liking.
• Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice for more tanginess.

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Pineapple Raita, a delicious and quick to make raita from pineapple chunks. For past few months, ST has started to take curd as side for his lunch box daily, so instead of packing plain curd, sometimes i like to add some seasonal fruits which are available in my pantry at that time. Few are instant hit and like it so much like this pomegranate raita. 

Coming to this pineapple raita, when i had tried this raita for the first time, i packed it for lunch box after given a taste test which was actually really good. At lunch time, ST called me and told me that the raita was too bitter and asked me to discard the remaining.Even i had tasted, it was so bitter.

I was wondering why it turned out bitter after some time ? Then obviously i had searched on google and it says "Raw pineapple contains bromelain, an enzyme that breaks down the protein in your milk/milk product, making it bitter". So it's not advisable to keep pineapple and milk product together for  longer time. 

If you're making this, i would suggest to finish it off at once or if you're planning to have it later, to avoid the bitter taste, you can pre cook the pineapple and then add into the curd.  Otherwise it's such a delicious raita to finish off the meal, do give it a try and let me know how you like it. 

For the past few days, i have been listening to some of the videos from food blogger submit conference on various topics like SEO improvement, instagram engaging, how to make videos and the list goes on. After listening to all this, it was really overwhelming. 

With every inventions, there are equal amount of opportunities and challenges. If you want to excel in grabbing those opportunities, you have to face all the challenges first and over come it. Like Google search, it showcases your interest to the world(if you have page) whoever search on that particular topic, but in order to be on the top result, you need be a SEO expert first.

For me, there are days that i really want to make my page on that top list. And there are other days that i don't even care about a single thing about the blogging. So the really challenge is  always find balance between these two extreme ends and being consistent. 

Hope this is applicable to various life scenario not only blogging. But is that even possible all time? I don't know, guess even google can't answer 😜  Thanks for reading all the way to the end of my random thoughts scribbled. Now let's check out the recipe.

Pineapple Raita | Raita recipe

Preparation Time : 2 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 1 
Recipe Category: Raita | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Pineapple raita, raita,yogurt,curd Pineapple Raita, a delicious and quick to make raita from pineapple chunks.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Curd - 1/4 cup
Pineapple - 1/4 cup(cubed)
Salt - a pinch
Paprika - 1/8 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/8 tsp
Mint leaves - few

Procedure

Take the curd in a bow and whisk it smooth, cut the pineapples into small pieces.

Add the pineapples,salt,paprika,cumin powder into the curd and mix it all together.

Tasty Pineapple raita is ready. Add some mint leaves on top before serving.

Related : How to make Cucumber Raita

Notes:

• Use thick curd for better taste.
• I have used fresh pineapples, but you can use caned ones also
• For extra spice,instead of paprika, you can use red chili powder.
• Cumin powder for flavor, but it's optional.
• Keep it longer time make it bitter, so it's advisable to serve it immediately.
  

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Pomegranate Raita | Pomegranate Yogurt | Raita Recipe

Pomegranate Raita, a refreshing and delicious yogurt/curd with pomegranate.More than a recipe this post is just a idea for making delicious yogurt. All you need to do is put everything together and your delicious yogurt is ready in minutes. It can be served as room temperature or as chilled, both way it tastes amazing. Coming to pomegranate, here it's bit difficult to get the good quality pomegranate. Mostly they are too sour and doesn't suit to our taste. But fortunately for the last few times, we got good pomegranate from the local store here.  Apart from eating as it is, i have been adding pomegranate seeds in raita, fruits salad & curd rice. My personal favorite is raita/yogurt, the mild pink color is really inviting and the yogurt is mildly sweet with fantastic pomegranate flavor. If you like pomegranate and have the habit of eating curd/yogurt, do give it a try!!

I didn't grew up eating curd/yogurt as it is, in our home we used to have it with rice, mostly curd rice is the way to end our meal. If there would be more curd/yogurt left after the meal, then we sprinkled some sugar on it and had it. I got introduced to all those fruit flavored yogurt when we were in US especially from the hotel breakfast. When i was new in the foreign land, apart  from the cereal & bread, the fruit flavored yogurt was my savior in the hotel breakfast menu especially when we travel and stayed in hotel. It was yummy and really liked them a lot. So after that i used to make flavored curd at home, but instead of adding awful lot of sugar like the commercial ones, i would make them without sugar like Indian Raita recipes., the natural sugar in the fruits in just enough for us. Similar to this pomegranate raita/curd, strawberry , raspberry raita can also be made, that too tastes good. It's definitely a healthy choice for dessert !!! But today, i have served this raita along with our meal. Now let's checkout on how to make this simple yet delicious raita.  

Pomegranate Raita | Pomegranate Curd

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 1 
Recipe Category: Raita | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Curd, Healthy, Pomegranate Raita, Raita, Fruit Yogurt, Pomegranate Raita, a refreshing and delicious yogurt/curd with pomegranate.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Curd - 1/2 cup
Pomegranate seeds - 1/2 cup
Salt - a pinch.

Procedure

Take the curd in a bowl, add the salt and whisk it smooth without lumps.Take the pomegranate seed, gently mash half of the pomegranate with hand motor & pestle.Add the mashed pomegranate into the curd, mix well and then add the remaining pomegranate as it is.Tasty Pomegranate Raita is ready to serve. 

Notes:

• I have used the juice and seeds from the mashed pomegranate, if you don't like the seeds, you can discard that and add juice alone.
• Adding pinch of salt helps to balance the taste.
• If you want more flavor, you can add a pinch of chat masala or garam masala powder.
  

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How to make curd at home in cold place | Home made Yogurt

Home made Curd is very easy to make and tastes so creamy and delicious. Back in India, in our home, Amma makes curd every day as fresh. In the night, after finishing all the chores of the day, she adds a little bit of leftover curd to the lukewarm milk and the next day, the curd sets so beautifully without much effort because of the warm temperature. 

When in summer, she used to make the curd in the morning only, within 4 hours, it sets beautifully and ready for our midday meal. So if you're in a warm place, making curd at home is such an easy task. 

But if you live in a cold place like me, I'm not gonna say that it's hard to make curd at home, but you need to take care of certain things to set the curd properly, otherwise it will turn slimy with some weird smell.

I don't have that much energy like amma to make curd everyday, so usually i make curd once a week. Once it sets, I will keep it in the refrigerator and use it as needed.   

Though I have shared my daily meal platter in Instagram, it's been a while since I have posted anything here, so today morning itself, I was so determined to sit, write and post a recipe. I have a handful of recipes with pictures in draft for a while, and will post one by one soon. 

For the past three weeks, the temperature here has dropped drastically, hardly it goes above 0C, fall back daylight time change, earlier sunset around 4.30, all makes me lethargic. 

After the colorful autumn foliage, the whole city now turned into white and grey because of one heavy snow storm. It seems like the colorful screen in front of you changes into black and white screen all of sudden. Really fascinating !!!

Ok, now back to today's recipe, here i have shared my tips to set the curd properly, this post will be useful for beginners or those who try to make curd for the first time at home and the experts, please excuse !!!

How to make curd at home in cold place

Preparation Time : 6 hrs | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Makes : 2 cups 
Recipe Category: Curd | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Homemade Curd, Yogurt, Basic, How to make Curd Home made Curd is very easy to make and taste so creamy and delicious.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Milk - 2 cups
Curd - 2 tsp

Procedure

Pour the milk into sauce pan, let it bring into boil.

Once the milk started to boil, switch off the flame and let it cool a bit.  Take the curd in bowl and whisk it well without any lumps and keep it ready. 

Pour the curd into bowl which you're gonna set the curd, check the milk temperature by placing your finger in the milk. It should be bearable but still it's warm, that's correct temperature. Pour the milk into the curd culture. 

Mix it all well together and partly cover the bowl with lid and place it in the warm place. I kept it in oven with lights on. 

After 6-8 hrs, the curd would be set beautifully, immediately keep it in the refrigerator to avoid further souring of curd.Tasty home made curd is ready. 

Related : How to make Indian Cottage Cheese / Malai Paneer

Notes:

• Make sure that the curd culture is at room temperature before using it.
• Don't cover the bowl with lid completely when the milk is warm to avoid the milk sweating.
• Make sure to mix the curd culture with the milk well.
• Keep the milk in warm temperature to set the curd.
• Use good quality of curd culture, if the curd culture is slimy, then the end product will also be the same.
• You can use the store bought curd as curd culture.
  

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Cucumber Khichadi | Vellarikka Thayir Pachadi | Cucumber Raita

Vellarikka Khichadi, a delicious curd based pachadi/accompaniment made from cucumber. Few months back, while browsing through pinterest, i had came across this recipe and thought this was so similar to the ash gourd kootu that we used to prepare often at home, instead of ash gourd here the cucumbers are used, since we are very fond of the ash gourd kootu, without a second thought, the very next day, i had prepared this khichadi along with sambar for lunch , it was so delicious and we liked it a lot. Now it's become the routine dish in my kitchen whenever i had the cucumbers in hand.

And also learnt that this khichadi is famous in kerala and also it's included in sadya menu at onam festival. If you like coconut & curd based side dish for your rice, then definitely give a try, i'm sure that you're amazed by its simplicity and tastes at the same time. Now let's check out how to make this yummy cucumber khichadi.

Vellarikka Thayir Pachadi | Cucumber Raita

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Raita | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Cucumber - 1 
Curd - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
To Grind
Coconut -2 tbsp
Green chili - 2
Garlic - 2 pods
Cumin seed - 1/2 tsp
To Temper
Coconut oil - 1 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Red chili -1 

Procedure

First peel the cucumber, cut them into half vertically and remove the seeds from them, then chop them into small pieces.Beat the curd well without lumps and keep it ready. Heat a kadai with 1/2 cup of water and add the chopped cucumber and let it cook till it's soft.In the mean time, add all the ingredients listed under "To Grind" into mixie jar and grind them into smooth paste. Once the cucumber is well cooked, add the coconut paste and salt.Mix it well and cook till the raw smell leaves, switch off the flame and then add the curd and mix it well.Temper the ingredients listed under "To Temper" and add into the cucumber.Tada, Tasty Cucumber Khichadi is ready to serve.

Notes:

• Adjust the green chili as per your taste, the given quantity is for mild spice.
• Coconut oil gives great flavor to the curry, so highly recommend to use it.
  

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