Dondakaya vepudu or tindora fry with peanuts October 18, 2007

Ingredients

2 pound tindora or dondakaya (preferably boiled)
Curry leaves
Popu or tadka
Popula powder
Peanuts – half a cup
Red chilli powder – half tsp
Salt to taste

Method

Pour two tablespoon of oil in a deep pan and add popu ( chana dal, urad dal, jeera, mustard seeds – half tsp) Add curry leaves, peanuts and fry for a while. Add the sliced dondakaya pieces and mix it well so that oil is covered on all pieces. Add salt and red chilli powder. Do not cover it with lid and keep frying it for at least 15 minutes. In the end add popula powder and again fry for a while. It tastes very well with hot chapatis.

Dondakaya or tindora curry October 11, 2007

Dondakai Curry or Tindora curry

Ingredients

2 Pounds Dondakai
2 tsp Popula karam
2 tbsp Oil

Method

• Chop dondakai in long thin slices.
• Add 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot enough add all the chopped dondakai. Keep mixing and stirring the curry pieces. After the pieces begin to soften add salt to taste. Do not cover with a lid if you like a fried taste 
• After about 20-25 minutes the pieces would soften and now you can add chilli powder and popula karam.
• Add chopped coriander leaves and curryleaves.  Mix and leave it on for a while.
• This can be served with rice or chapattis.

Popula Karam 
 

Ingredients

1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp urad dal
1tbsp chana dal
1/4 tbsp mustard seeds
1/4 tbsp jeera seeds
6-8 menthulu
tamarind -size of half a lemon
3 tbsp groundnuts
4 pinches HIng (Asefotida)
10 Red chillies

Method

• Take a medium depth pan and add  1/2 tsp of vegetable oil.  Roast urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds, jeera seeds , menthulu, hing, tamarind, and red chillies. Roast this mixture till the seeds start to turn light brown.
• While this is going on, take another pan and dry roast the peanuts [make sure that they are roasted well and are dry and are not too oily.
• Once both the above steps are complete keep them aside to cool.  Grind them into coarsee powder.
• Store the powder in airtight container.  This powder can be used for most fried version of almost all vegetables. Mostly I use it for potato , dondakai, bhindi, egg plant , cauliflower….