I was thrilled when Zlamushka chose Jai and Bee for the Tried and Tasted event this month.

I love their blog and their pictures. Love the way they experiment with food and all recipes are so healthy. This weekend I was looking for black chickpeas recipe and landed on their blog, the Kadala Curry was something I have never eaten so immediately decided to try it. Bee suggests that this curry needs lots of patience and i followed their suggestion. Love the smell of caramelized onions. It was so different from what we make it, we are so used to putting tomato in everything, this was a welcome change though we added lime to it since we were missing the tangy taste we are used too. We loved it and ate it puri. This is a Kerala dish and normally eaten with puttu, I have not eaten puttu and soon plan to try it with the Kadala Curry. My picture does not do justice but the flavours are amazing. The only difference is I did not add the potatoes, made it more gravy like instead of a dry curry since we were eating with puri and also added lime.

Kadala Curry



Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cups black chickpeas
1 and 1/2 cups chopped sweet onion
1/2 cup unsweetened dry dessicated coconut
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 dry red chillies
2 cloves garlic chopped
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 inch cinnamon
3 cloves
12-15 curry leaves
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
coriander leaves to garnish
Juice of 1/2 lime
salt

Method

1. Wash and soak the chickpeas in water for at least 12 hours.
   
2. Rinse the chickpeas, and cook them in pressure cooker till soft.
   
3. Drain the chickpeas, and save the water.
   
4. Dry Roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cinnamon, cloves and red chillies for a minute or so in a hot pan. Keep aside to cool.
   
5. Roast the coconut until golden brown. Keep aside to cool.
   
6. Heat 2 tsp oil in the same pan fry the onions on a medium-low flame until they are golden brown and caramelised. Keep aside to cool.
   
7. Grind the roasted spices, coconut, caramelized onions, turmeric to a fine paste. Use the chickpea water while grinding.
   
8. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds. Once they splutter add the curry leaves.
   
9. Add the cooked chickpeas, the ground paste, salt.
   
10. Add the chickpea water.Bring it to a boil.
    
11. Simmer till required consistency. Add more water if required and boil.
    
12. Add the lime juice.Garnish with coriander leaves.
    

Pineapple Rasam

I happened to look for Pineapple Rasam and again found a recipe on their blog. Most of the recipes I found used some dal, theirs did not require dal and was quick and easy. I so loved it. I used some garlic instead of ginger and put in a little bit more of tamarind paste.



Ingredients
2 cups fresh pineapple, chopped
1 tsp tamarind paste mixed in 1/2 cup water
1 and 1/2 tsp rasam powder
a pinch of asafoetida
2 finely chopped green chili
1/2 tsp. crushed garlic
1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
6 curry leaves
salt to taste
1 tsp. oil
coriander leaves to garnish

Method

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds and let them splutter.Add the asafoetida, rasam powder, garlic and curry leaves.
   
2. Add the tamarind water, pineapple,green chili and salt.
   
3. Bring it to a boil.
   
4. Garnish with coriander leaves.
   
5. Serve with rice.
   

There are so many more recipes that I would love to try. Thank you Zlamushka for this opportunity. Thank you Jai and Bee for these wonderful recipes which I will be making more often now. Your blog is inspirational and the pictures are excellent. Love what you are doing and I eagerly wait for your posts.