Pachi pulusu

On Bhogi festival, the kid within me was craving to eat typical Andhra menu. When I was a kid, my mom used to prepare Pulagam, Pachi pulusu(raw rasam), mixed vegetable curry, sajja rotte(bajre ki roti) and peanut chutney on Bhogi day. The magic of that taste inspired me to prepare the same menu last week.

One thing I always forget is Pacchi pulusu preparation. As usual, called my mom and asked the recipe and now I'm blogging it.... with the hope to not bug her next time ;-). Anyways, here are the tools and techniques to prepare Pachi pulusu.

Ingredients:   

• 2 big lemon sized Tamarind
• 1 Onion small
• 2 dry red chillies
• 2 green chillies
• 10 Curry leaves
• Coriander leaves 
• 1 tbs sesame seeds
• 3 tbs baked chana daal (pappulu/putnaalu/buna chana daal)
• 1 tbp jaggery (add as per your taste)
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• Little bit red chilli powder
• Jeera and mustard seeds for seasoning
• 1 tbs oil

Preparation:   

• Soak Tamarind in water and prepare 4 cups of soup.
• Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and jaggery powder. Mix well.
• In Mixie, make sesame powder and then add baked chana daal  to make it into fine powder.
• Add the above powder to Tamarind juice and mix well.
• In a pan, heat oil and add jeera & mustard seeds. Once mustard seeds splutter, add curry leaves and dry red chillies. Add this seasoning to Tamarind soup. 
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Pachi pulusu is ready. Enjoy it with Pulagam (rice cooked with moong daal) and ghee.

And this was our Bhogi meals. Enjoyed drinking Pachi pulusu ..mmmmmmm...yummy. Kids wanted more...but we ran out of soup in no time :-)

Kamaranga pickle

If you never heard of the name Kamaranga...don't worry...this is a fruit. Even I never heard or saw this fruit until yesterday. We were on our way back from Chilukuru Balaji temple near Hyderabad. We stopped at a farm house to enjoy our lunch under the shade of fruit trees. We picked up one tree that had enough shade to cover all of us. Here is a snap of the tree and that's my husband taking nap after lunch :-).

While having lunch, we realised that the tree is filled with lots of fruits...which were hard to spot as they blended well with the green leaves..but in digital pictures they are standing out... they know how to pose for the camera :-). With great amusement, myself and my sister-in-law were talking about the unknown fruit in the farm. My husband looked with great surprise at both of us and told that it is Kamaranga fruit and its pickle tastes good. Initially we thought he was joking. But on the way we saw people selling those fruits...and trust me, they are very expensive. When we asked the lady selling the fruits, she told that it is called Pulla Beerakaya in Telugu.

Little research on the internet revealed its name as Star Fruit /Carambola. If you want to know more facts about this fruit, read http://www.answers.com/topic/carambola-1.

As per my husband's recommendation, we got these fruits. Thought we'll eat them raw...but the tart taste didn't allow us to take more than two bites. Thanks to my husband who volunteered to prepare Kamaranga pickle. But the moment he told pickle, I was bit skeptical as it reminded me of sweet tomateo pickle in West bengal...which never makes my plate. So I didn't pay much attention as I was sure he'll add sugar to the pickle. After 15 minutes he was done with the preparation and we all sat for lunch. The dish looked like curry rather than pickle...but to keep up my husband's spirit, I'll call it pickle.

Trust me, this is the last item I served as I thought it'll be sweeter. But the moment everyone tasted it, all the other items went to bay. No words to express...the taste is awesome and it made its way to this blog as kids truly enjoyed licking it. In no time, we ran out of the pickle. And to my surprise, my brother was asking my sister-in-law to learn the preparation.

My husband's answer "It is simple to prepare and only a two step process. First step, add oil in pan and put whatever masalas you find in the kitchen. Second step, add the cut fruits and water and boil it. DONE" :-). Hehe....and my brother's response "Jo bhi mila vo daal diya...aur voh instant hit ban gaya..." and he asked why he couldn't find coffee and tea powder in the kitchen. So my husband's disclaimer "No coffee powder and tea powder" :-).

ok..here is the preparation after carefully observing the masalas near the stove and digging my husband's memory:
- Heat oil in a Kadai/pan and then add jeera, mustard seeds and curry leaves.
- Add cut onions, tomatoes, green chillies and stir well.
- Now add all the powders (turmeric, salt, Dhaniya and little bit sugar) and stir well.
- Add sliced Kamarangas <sounds odd ;-)>, water and cook well.
- At the end, garnish with Coriander leaves.

That's it, the pickle or curry is ready...NEW dish for NEW YEAR...what a good start.