Once again, this month was very difficult in choosing a winner as there were so many great entries. But in the end, I had to make a choice and the winners are listed below. Be sure to try their recipes!
FIRST PLACE:
- Sharmila Krishnamurty from San Diego created a dish called Cauliflower Parupu Usli which comes from the region of Tamil Nadu. The full recipe is listed below.
“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am at winning first prize! As a child I never helped my mother in the kitchen but would happily assist my father fix things around the house. After getting married I insisted that my husband and I live close enough to my parents’ place. The first few trials at cooking were an absolute disaster. My husband and I then settled on a routine where we would go to my parents’ place almost every single day for food. I started cooking here in the US as I had no other option and with the help of websites like yours plus my husband’s backing, I have reached a point where I can gladly announce that I am now a confident cook.”
SECOND PLACE:
- Shina Goel also created a great recipe called Nutty Cauliflower Chickpeas Kofta. Her recipe is also listed below.
I would also like to congratulate our other top contributors. Thank you so much for participating and I hope to see more for next contest:
- Sumona Saha
- Sunil Sandhu
- Bharatha Bhushana
- Spoorthy Prasad
- Rinku Sharma
- Noopur Srivastava
- Katherine Melton
- Rashmi Krishnappa
- Kayalvizhi Porselvi Kalidass
- Archana Singh
- Rekha Muniganti
- Mahitha Santhosh
- Anjana Thakur
- Rosni Ramesan
- Sharba Roy Chowdhury
- Shweta Gupta
- Reeta Shukla
- Adelina Moraru
- Angie Smith
- Aditi Agarwal
- Shweta Srivastava
- Chand Bagwan
- Antara Banerjee
- Viji Murali
- Sowjanya
- Ankita Wakade
- Shruthi Udupa
- Roopam Garg
- Viji Venkatesan
- Darshana Chauhan
- Janki Desai
- Priya Suresh
- Jayeeta Chakraborty
- Maitreyee Shah
- Prathima Naveen
- Meredith Tummeti
Sharmila’s Cauliflower Parupu Usli
This is a recipe that was given to me by my dear mother in law. Parupu usli is a popular method of making dry sabzis in Tamil Nadu and the cauliflower is often replaced with beans or cabbage.
Probably enough for 2-3 people.
Ingredients:
- Cauliflower – 1 small ( approx 3 cups of cut florets)
- Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
- Salt to taste
Initial Seasoning:
- Oil – 1 tsp
- Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
- Urad dal – 1/2 tsp
- Curry leaves – 2 or 3
For parupu usli:
- Toor dal – 3 Tbs
- Channa dal – 3 Tbs
- Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp
- Dry red chillies – 3 or 4
- Salt to taste
Method:
- Soak the toor dal and channa dal in hot water for about 5 mins. Grind into a coarse paste with asafoetida, red chillies, salt and a little bit of water
- Then steam cook the above paste for about 20 – 25 mins on medium high flame in a cooker without a whistle (just like how it is done for idlis or muthias). This step drastically reduces the amount of oil required to make this dish. This will turn the paste into a crumbling mixture of cooked dals also known as parupu usli.
- Take 5 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the turmeric and salt to the boiling water. Blanch the cut florets in that water for about 5 mins or till the florets are semi cooked such that they still have some crunch left in them. Drain the florets and keep aside.
- Take a pan and put in a tsp of oil. When hot enough add the mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves as initial seasoning. Add the parupu usli and roast till slightly brownish. Then
- add the drained florets and a little bit of salt (only if required). Cover and cook on low heat for about 4-5 mins.
- Serve hot with mor-kozhambu (a South Indian kadi) and piping hot rice.
Shina’s Nutty Cauliflower – Chickpeas Kofta
Ingredients:
Koftas:
- 1 cup cauliflower shredded
- 2 green chillies, finely chopped
- 1-2 tbsp chickpea flour or gram flour (besan)
- 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 3/4 cup boiled chickpeas
- 1/2 cup shredded paneer
- 4 tsp finely chopped cashews nuts
- pinch of salt
- oil for deep frying
Gravy:
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp ginger paste or finely chopped
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp cumin
- Pinch of asafoetida
- 1/4 cup of chick peas paste
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
- 1/2 cup mashed tomatoes
- 1/4 cup yogurt
- Salt to taste
- 2 tsp Green cliantaro (hara dhania)
Method:
- Wash and saok the chickpeas in water overnight or at least 7-8 hours.
- Add water and ½ tsp salt. Boil it in pressure cooker until tender.
- Drain the water of chickpeas and save it for the gravy.
- Mesh ¾ of the chickpeas in bowl with the back of fork or potato masher, it should not be very fine for the kofta.
- Shred the cauliflower and squeeze the water from cauliflower by keeping it between palms, save this water for mixture.
- Now put cauliflower, cashew nuts, chickpeas, paneer and all the koftas ingredients together and mix well, if it is very dry add the cauliflower water, the mixture should be soft dough and not too watery.
- Make small 1-2 inch diameter balls with greased hands and keep them in a greased plate.
- Place the kadhai on medium heat for frying of these koftas, put the oil 2 inches of the height of kadhai. Koftas should be dipped fully once when dipped in oil.
- To check the heat try small amount of mixture if it float in oil means oil is ready. Now put the koftas one by one in kadhai but do not fill the kadhai all once otherwise kaoftas will burst and mix together.
- Fry the koftas at medium heat otherwise koftas will not cook from inside.
- Turn the koftas occasionally and when it turns golden brown at all around, take out on a paper towel.
Gravy
- Take 2 tbsp of oil in a pan and keep it at medium heat. To check the heat first add 1-2 seeds of cumin if cracks, add cumin, and asafoetida.
- Add tomatoes, ginger and all spices, stir it until it becomes half or tomatoes start to leave the pan.
- Now add yogurt and stir it for another 1-2 minutes.
- Make the paste of chickpeas in grinder and add it and fry it for a minute.
- Now add cauliflower water and chickpeas drained water if needed add some normal water. Approximately 1 cup water should be added in the gravy. Stir it and leave it to boil. Water can be adjusted according to taste.
- After coming to boil the gravy, add koftas and boil it for another 3-4 minutes and put the heat off.
- Garnish the koftas with hara dhania and serve hot with chapatti, parantha or rice.
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