The Onion-Tomato Duo

When I first learnt cooking, almost all my cooking was based on onion and tomato!! Every now and then, potatoes would make an appearance.

There is so much you can do with tomatoes and onions. You can make tomato rice, tomato based yogurt, tomato puli kuzhambu, simple tomato side dish for chapattis, simple side dish for dosa/idli, prepare sauce for pizza, pasta ..the options are endless.

I didn’t do the grocery shopping for this week. So all that was left in the fridge was tomatoes. Luckily, there were some onions left. So I made tomato rice for lunch and served it with tomato raita. So you can see for yourself how many dishes can be made with one single simple recipe.

Ingredients:

Onions : 1 big or 2 medium

Tomatoes : 5 medium

Green chillies : 2 or 3, per taste

Ginger : 1/2″ piece, chopped fine

Garlic : 4 pods, chopped fine

Salt : to taste

Turmeric Powder : 1/4 tsp

Oil : 1 -2 tsp

Method:

1. Chop the onion, ginger, garlic finely. Chop the green chillies into small pieces.
2. Dice the tomatoes.
3. Heat oil. Add the chopped onions, chillies, ginger and garlic. Fry till onions become transparent.
4. Add tomatoes, saute till it becomes soft. If it becomes too dry, you can add about 1/4 cup water.
5. Add salt and turmeric powder and cook till the curry is slightly dry.

That is all to it!!!

Note: 

• Substitute 1/2 to 1 tsp chilli powder for green chillies.
• You can add 1 tsp coriander powder and 1/4 tsp garam masala to this
• Use ginger garlic paste instead of ginger and garlic.  You can skip it altogether too, if you don’t like it.
• You can use butter or ghee, instead of oil, for a great flavor.
• Basically, this is just onion and tomato cooked fine with a bit of salt and spice (chillies or chilli powder).
• This mix can be used as a base for all vegetable side dishes. To this mix, add the cooked vegetable and cook for a few minutes and you are done!

I mixed  half of this paste with 2-3 cups of cooked rice. You need to adjust the salt according to your taste and ….

… Tomato rice is ready to serve.

To serve with the tomato rice, I mixed about 1-2 tbsp of onion-tomato with 1 cup yogurt. So you have a cool raita that goes well with the rice. This yogurt tastes yummy with plain rice too.

I still have some onion tomato mix left, I will adding some cooked cauliflower or potato to it and serve it as a side dish.

So here it is : A satisfying lunch with minimum effort :)

Eddoe Roast

1. Well, do you know what “Eddoe” is?  I didn’t. Until I Google-d for CheppanKizhangu.

Since Eddoe sounds fancier than CheppanKizhangu, I thought I will name this post after it. I get to quiz you guys about it too.

Would I have known the names Eddoe or Taro, if it were not for internet? I guess not. It struck me how much we are dependent on the net for even the smallest thing. Want a decent Morkuzhambu recipe? Google it. Want to get the names of restaurants near your home?  Google it.

So lets all ‘O Podu’ for internet and the search engines.

And let me eat my Eddoe fry ;-)

Ingredients:

Namma CheppanKizhangu : some 15 No.s (This serves two)

Oil : 2-3 tsp

Chilli powder :  1/2 tsp

Coriander powder : 1/2 tsp

Salt : to taste

Method:

1. Wash the root thoroughly in running water.
2. Boil it in an open pan till it starts to soften. Or you can pressure cook it for 2 whistles.
3. When its cooked, peel the skin and cut into small bite sized pieces.
4. Heat oil in a pan. Add the cheppankizhangu to it.
5. Add salt, chilli powder and coriander powder. Alternatively, you can add 1 tsp sambar powder.
6. Fry for about 5-6 minutes till it is roasted nicely.
7. Serve with rice, if there is any left after tasting ;-)

Easier Method:

1. Wash and pat dry the cheppankizhangu. Divide into two batches.
2. Microwave each batch for 2 -3 minutes, until steam builds up.
3. Wait for a minute or two till it cools down.
4. Peel the skin, cut into bite sized pieces
5. Follow from step #4 described above.

Note:

• According to your Microwave wattage, adjust the cooking time.

• Do not cook for a long time

• Always be around while cooking in MW

• If you are uncomfortable using a bag in MW, follow the stove top method.