Kootu

Summer has come and gone..... alarms, school buses, hurried mornings!! Back to a routine.....no more sleeping-in. Hope all of you had a great summer. I have been almost missing from blogosphere this summer. Don't blame me.....first it was all the fun then...my sister's visit...the anticipation the long chats and shopping !! Right now she is away for two weeks, so I sneaked with guilt into cyberspace....blog hopped for an hour and looked at some pictures that I had saved up for a rainy day and after some thinking I decided to post Kootu ....the tangy peppery flavor is too inviting to pass.

I wish I had taken better pictures.....well I will try and take some better clicks next time I have kootu on the dinning table and re-post :) :) bad pictures happen!!



Ingredients:
Spinach: 1 bunch, washed, finely chopped and cooked
Arhaar/Toor daal/ Pigeon peas: 1 &1/2 cup (1 cup for soup)
Turmeric  : one pinch
Jaggery: 1 tbsp
Ghee/oil: 1tbsp
Mustard seed: 1/3 tbsp
Curry leaves: 3-4
Hing/Asafetida: about a pinch
Lime: 1 diced in quarters and deseeded

Procedure:

Wash and cook toor dal in pressure cooker with sufficient water with turmeric, keep aside.
Heat oil/ghee in a saucepan add mustard and wait till it splutters, add a pinch of hing/asafetida, curry leaves, add the cooked spinach and cooked toor dal along with, jaggery, koot powder/paste, salt and bring to a boil. Serve hot with fresh lime juice and ghee, along with rice. Dilute it with water and can be enjoyed as a soup on a cold day.
For Koot paste:

Urad dal/Black gram(white split): 5tsp
Chana dal/Split chick peas: 1ts
Black Pepper: 3-4 tsp ( reduce the amount for milder version or soup)
Dalchini/Cinnamon powder: ½ tsp
Dhaniya/Coriander seed: ½ tsp
Jeera/cumin: ½ tsp
Red chili: 2-4
Hing/Asafetida: ¼ tsp
Dry Coconut: ½ cup

Roast the above ingredients in 1 tsp of oil and grind it wet or dry. If you make a paste, make sure you freeze it and it is good for a month. For dry powder, store in a cool dry place and it will be good for 2-3 months.

I am not going anywhere ....so plzzzz don't stop visiting....:):)