Procedure 1 Wash and dry the okra. Discard the top and bottom of the okra. Cut it lengthwise. Again split each half lengthwise. So you would have 4 finger like pieces. If the okra is big cut the pieces half midway (so 8 pieces from each okra) or use it as it is.

2 Transfer the okra pieces to a bowl. Add oil (if using) or sprinkle very little water so that the seasonings would stick to the okra.

3 Then add all the other ingredients and mix it thoroughly with your hand.

4 Make sure the plate in the microwave is clean and place the seasoned okra on it directly.

5 First I set the time for 5 minutes. Stirred it and cooked it for another 2 minutes. Be careful while stirring because the plate will be hot. Microwave oven settings vary, so chose the time considering the type of oven you are using.

6 From then on I increased the time by 30 seconds each time until I got the crispy texture. Don’t forget to stir after every 30 seconds. I did like this thrice. Be alert or else it would get burnt.

7 Taste it after a standing time of 1 minute. You would be floored by the crispiness. Repeat the same for rest of the okra.

My Notes 1 First I did it with oil and then tried it with water. Both taste the same if consumed immediately, but the one with water becomes a little chewy after a while.

2 I resisted my temptation to chow down everything to see how it fares after sometime. It stays crisp at least for 2 hours but becomes chewy later.

Zucchini Thayir Pachadi

1 Wash the zucchini and grate it with the skin and place it in a bowl. Add the required amount of salt.

2 In a small frying pan heat the oil, add the mustard seeds. Once it splutters add the sliced green chillies, hing and fry it.

3 Add this to the zucchini and mix it well.

4 Mix the yogurt to the zucchini when ready to serve.

My Notes 1 If you don’t have the time to prepare the bisi bele bath masala powder you can buy it. I’ve tried MTR brand and it’s good too.

2 You could also buy the frozen Avial vegetables available in Indian grocery stores and save time chopping vegetables.

3 I have pressure cookers in all size so I used one for cooking the vegetables and one for cooking rice/daal. You can also cook both in any vessel on stove top, but as far as I’ve read brown rice takes more time to cook like that.

4 We don’t eat spicy food, so I used only 2 red chillies for the masala powder. The heat was very mild. If you prefer it more spicy use about 4-5 chillies.

Step-by-Step Procedure 1. Toast the rice flour in a dry skillet until hot.

2. Boil little water (around 1 cup) with salt and turmeric powder.

3. Sprinkle as much water as required in the toasted flour little by little. The correct consistency is, you should be able to form balls, but at the same time you should also be able to crumble it back into powdered form.

4. Steam this flour mixture for 20 minutes. My mother filled little water in a big frying pan, placed a small trivet in the bottom and used the vegetable steamer which came alongwith my electric rice cooker to steam the flour. Wet a cotton cloth and pour the prepared rice powder in it and cover by bringing the ends of the cloth over the flour and place it on the vegetable steamer and close the frying pan with a lid.

5. Once the flour is steamed, transfer this mixture to a big plate and spread it. If it has lumps sift it using a sieve.

6. Meanwhile in another vessel add the jaggery and water just enough to cover the jaggery and melt it.

7. Sieve the jaggery solution to get rid of any impurities.

8. Again pour it back in the vessel, add the coconut, cardamom powder and pachakarpooram and let this mixture boil.

9. When a drop of the jaggery syrup is dropped in cold water, you should be able to form it into a ball. When you reach this consistency switch of the stove and remove the vessel from the stove.

10. Now add this mixture little by little to the steamed flour and simultaneously mix the flour and jaggery syrup with the other hand using a spatula. I have a big wooden fork which is simply perfect for this job. Be careful because the syrup will be very hot and it will scald your skin if it drops.

11. In a dry skillet toast the cashew pieces and add it to the prepared Puttu.

My Notes 1. The above measurement gives a fairly big portion of Puttu. You can try it on a small scale with 1 cup of rice flour, 3/4 cup of powdered jaggery and 1/4 cup of grated coconut.

2. Cashewnuts can be toasted in ghee. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee and fry the cashews in it and add it to the Puttu. This keeps well for a week.

Procedure 1. Finely chop the beet greens, both the leaves as well as the stems. Place it in a big bowl and fill it with water and let it stand for atleast 5 minutes. By doing this any dirt/sand in the greens would settle down in the bottom of the vessel. Now remove the greens and rinse it in cold water again.

2. I pressure cooked the beet leaves and beet stems together. Add water just enough to cover the greens and little salt too. I left it for 2 whistles.

3. Now grind together the coconut, cumin, chillies, besan. Add little water if required.

4. Mix this mixture with the yogurt and add enough water. This should be in the consistency of pancake batter or even thinner.

5. In a saucepan add the cooked greens, salt and yogurt sauce. Remove the pan from the stove after the first boil.

6. Add coconut oil in a small frying pan. Once it heats add mustard seeds and curry leaves. Once it splutters pour this in the kootu.

My Notes The greens which I got this time had very thick stems. So I did remove some fibrous strands while chopping it. Usually I pressure cook beet greens and stems for 1 whistle only, but this time I left it for 2 whistles for the same reason.

Procedure 1. Open the tofu packet and drain the water. Wrap the tofu in paper towels and place some weight on it and leave it for 30 minutes. After draining the water cut the tofu into cubes of 1cm thickness. I got around 20 pieces.

2. Take a 1 gallon ziploc bag and add all the ingredients required for the marinade in the bag.

3. Whisk it with a fork and add the tofu cubes in the bag. Remove the air out and close the bag and toss it well to coat all the tofu pieces with the marinade.

4. Leave it in the fridge for 30-45 minutes.

5. Meanwhile preheat the oven at 425F/220C for 15 minutes.

6. Grease a baking sheet lightly, place the tofu pieces and bake it for 25-30 minutes, turning once in the middle.

7. To have a crispy outer, broil it for another 8-10 minutes.

This can be had alone as an appetizer, snack or can be added to salads.

My Notes 1. If you are a paneer fan like me you are not going to like the tofu tikkis immediately. For those who have not tasted tofu before, though they both look alike, the taste is totally different. So don’t expect the taste of paneer tikka. Try to appreciate the taste of tofu and then you would love it. After eating 3-4 pieces, I started liking it. Now this is my husband’s favorite.

2. We don’t eat very spicy foods. So taste the marinade to check the spices and add accordingly to suit your taste. Since tofu is bland, it definitely requires more seasoning than you would normally use.

3. The marinading can be done in a bowl too. I saw the ziploc bag method in Food TV, so I thought of giving it a try. It’s definitely easy and no clean up. Simply toss the bag in the trash later.

Procedure1. Rinse thoroughly the greens and finely chop the beet leaves as well as the stems. In a pressure cooker cook the toor daal and keep it separately.

2. In a saucepan add all the ingredients listed for sambar except the toor daal and keep it on the stove.

3. The greens should be cooked completely. Add some more water if required.

4. Now add the mashed toor daal to the greens and let it cook for another 3 minutes.

5. In a small frying pan add the oil, once it heats add the mustard seeds. Once it starts to splutter add the methi seeds and the slit green chili and fry it for a minute. Add the tempering to the boiling sambar and leave it in the stove for another 2 minutes and then switch off the stove. This sambar should not have a very thick consistency also. It will taste better if it’s little watery.

My NotesMy family consumes very little tamarind, so 2 teaspoons is more than what we use regularly. So the important point is, use 1/4-1/2 teaspoon extra tamarind than you would use normally. The same goes with sambar powder and green chillies also. If you are used to spicy food, go ahead and increase it as well.

Procedure1.  Wash the rice like you always do, but instead of pouring it down the sink pour it in a sauce pan and add cubed zucchinis, tumeric powder and close the lid.  When it is half cooked add the required amount of salt and let it cook for another couple of minutes.  It should not become very mushy.

2.  Meanwhile grind all the ingredients together mentioned in the list and also do the tempering.

3.  Add the ground mixture and tempering to the zucchinis and let it boil for another 5 minutes.  Garnish it with cilantro.

Procedure
1. In a vessel combine the beet water, tomatoes, salt and turmeric powder and let it boil.

2. Meanwhile do the tempering. In a small frying pan add ghee, once it heats, add mustard and cumin, once it crackles, add the chillies and garlic cloves and sautee it until the raw smell is gone.

3. While the mixture is boiling, add the daal water (if you have) and the tempering and let it boil once again for 3 minutes. Garnish it with cilantro and beet rasam is ready. The color was unbelievable, so was the taste too. This can either be had as soup by itself or mixed with hot rice.

Procedure
1. Simply tear the leaves and rinse it thoroughly. We did not use the stems this time, because we did not know that it was edible.

2.  The daal and greens can be either pressure cooked together adding enough water for 1 whistle or it can be cooked in a vessel directly on stove top itself, if you are using moong daal.  In case you choose to go with the latter method, first add the daal, turmeric powder, hing and enough water in a vessel and don’t close it with a lid.  If you close the vessel with the lid, the water will start overflowing while boiling and you will have to spend the next 5 minutes cleaning the range.  Once the daal is half cooked add the cleaned greens and cook it tender adding water as required.  Once both the daal and greens are cooked add enough salt.

3.  While the daal and greens are cooking add all the ingredients mentioned for grinding in a blender and grind it to a fine paste using milk/water. 

4.  Add this paste to the cooked greens and let it boil for another couple of minutes, while you prepare the tadka.

5.  In a small frying pan add oil and after it heats add the remaining ingredients and fry until the daals turn golden brown and add it to the greens and remove it from heat.

My Notes
1.  I have mentioned to grind the ingredients with milk because, while cooking any greens adding a very small quantity of milk will enhance the flavor of the greens.  This is my mother’s tip.  So you can either grind using milk or first grind it with water and after adding the paste to the cooked greens add some milk and let it boil for another 3-4 minutes.

2.  Another tip, while grinding for any kootu/daal using a combination of red chillies and green chillies gives a better taste than using either one of them alone.

3.  Find some more beet greens recipes here.

New Updates
1.  While grinding the ingredients for the daal, you can also use coconut milk powder instead of coconut.  It gives an excellent taste to the daal. 

Similarly if you don’t have coconut at home, you can also use carrots instead.  This works in any kootu/daal recipe and also in mor-kuzhambu (but you will have an orange color kuzhambu).  The end product tastes as good as using coconut itself.  This was my mother’s discovery.  Back in South India, there is a practice that they don’t want you to eat coconut for atleast 2-3 months after delivering a baby, especially if you are breast feeding.  The elders say that it will create digestive problems in the newborn.  So my mother experimented using carrots instead of coconuts in daals and other stuff and it came out very well also.  Even yesterday I didn’t have enough coconut for grinding chutney, so I used half a carrot. But you will have to increase the quantity of chillies to offset the sweetness of the carrots.  The chutney had a light orange color, but no difference it taste whatsoever.  

2.  Spring onions/scallions daal can also be prepared in the same way as above.  This is one of my favorite side dish for chapathis.  This is my grandmother’s recipe, which I had mentioned in my tribute to her.