Kundru/Tindora Sabzi (Indian savory of Coccinia Grandis)

Kundru/Tindora Sabzi

Kundru/.Tondali/Tindora/kovakka is also called Cipherlandra Indica / Coccinia Indica or Coccinia Grandis.It's English name is Ivy-gourd / baby watermelon / gentlemen toe (and sometimes misleadingly Gherkin). It is a green color an inch long fruit having white stripes. Its flesh is white / pale yellow when unripe and becomes red when ripe. Ripe fruit tastes a little sour and becomes hard so not good for making savory. Tender green fruit is best for making savory. 

The tender fruit of Kundru is rich source of protein, fibers, calcium,beta-carotene and vitamin A B, C and many micro-nutrients. 

Kundru plants is considered medicinal herb in ayurveda. The juice of it's leafs is applied on fore -head and is  helpful in bringing down fever, reducing headache, helpful in sunstroke. The fruit is very good for peolpe suffering from type 2 diabeties. So its savory/ sabzi is not only tasty and nutritious but has medicinal value also. 

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Servings: 4 medium servings

Nutritional value of savory made from 250 g of Kundru (Coccinia Grandis): 

Energy-140K cal

Fats 14g (Mono and Polybsaturated)

Protein 3.0g

Sugars 0g

Sodium 2.25 mg

Potassium 80mg

Carbs 8 g.

Cholestrol 0g

Fibers 4.0 g

Iron 3.5 mg

Calcium 100 mg

VitaminB1,B2,B3 ,A ,C, 

Water

Ingredients Required To Make Kundru bsabzi (Coccinia. Indica Savory):

• Kundru: 250 gm
• Mustard Oil: 1 tablespoon
• Cumin seeds: 1 Teaspoon
• Mustard seeds: 1/2 Teaspoon
• Dry Red chili: 1
• Turmeric Powder 1/4 Teaspoon
• Salt: 1 Teaspoon or to taste

Directions For Making Kundru Sabzi:

• Wash kundru nicely and towel dry then.
• Remove the tip and the stem from it.
• Cut them lengthwise to 2-3 mm. thick slices. My kundrus were small so sliced them to four pieces lengthwise. If you desire you may cut thyem to round pieces also but make sure that the pieces are not too thick.

Sliced Kundru

• Crush dry red chili.
• On high heat in a thick bottom wok heat 1 tablespoon of mustard oil or any other cooking oil. I prefer mustard oil because it has mono and polysaturated fats which are good for health as they promote formation of HDL (good choloestrol).
• When the oil is hot add cumin and mustard seeds. When the seeds start spluttering add crushed red chili.

Cumin, Mustard seeds and Crushed red chili cooking in mustard oil

• When red chilies change the color immediately add sliced Kundru. Mix nicely and bring the heat to medium. 

Kundru slices added to oil with Tempering

• Add tuemeric powder and salt. Mix nicely.
• Now again bring the heat to high and keep on stirring the ingredients in the wok while they are cooking on high heat. 

• Do not cover. Sprinkle 10-20 ml. of water and keep cooking for another 5 minutes. 
• Please note that heat is to on high and continuoius stirring is required. After 5 minutes of cooking on high heat switch off the heat and cover the wok. Let it cool. 

Cooked Kundru Sabzi

• Kundru sabzi is cooked.The kundru pieces will be soft and slightly crysp not gooey.

Kundru Sabzi

Take it out in a serving bowl. Serve with Dal-chawal/roti/parantha.

Tips:

• Wok or cooking pan shoulod be thick bottomed.
• Since the taste and falvor of Kundru is very delicate thus too many spices are not added while making sabzi. Too many spices will overcome the atste and falvor of Kundru.
• While cooking high bheat is required with constant stirring so that kundru are cooked evenly and do not turn gooey. Kundru sabzi tastes best when it has a little bite to it. El dante.
• Sprinkling little water makes sure that sabzi does not get burnt and moisture is maintained.

Alternate Suggestions:

• One medium size potato can be thinly sliced and cooked with kundru. If you are using potato my suggestion would be that sautee it for 2-3 minutes before adding kundru, this will ensure that potatoes are cooked properly.
• Chili powder can be added according tob taste. I prefer not to so that kundru flavor predominates.

Pumpkin Kofta Savory (कद्दू के कोफ्ते की सब्ज़ी)

Kaddu Kofta Sabzi

Koftas are a variety of fritters. Koftas can be made from different vegetables and Paneer (Cottage cheese. The technique of making koftas varies for different vegetables.  Vegetable which have high amount of juices (water content) need slightly more gram flour (Besan) and paneer, methi, etc. which have less water content require less besan. I do not squeeze the juice from grated vegetables because the juices of the vegetables are high in nutrient. Since juices of vegetables is not squeezed and discarded thus addition of water while making the batter for koftas (Fritters) is not required. Vegetables like lauki (Bottle gourd),gajar(carrots), Patta Gobhi (cabbage), Kaddu(Pumpkin) can be introduced into meals of children who are picky about these vegetables , by making koftas. Koftas can be had as snacks as well as they can be used to make sabzi by making yummy gravy and dunking these koftas in the gravy. You will be surprised how all family members including children will enjoy the kofta sabzi (Fritters savory) with hot chapati/paratha.

Always read Tips and Alternate suggestion. They are very helpful.

    Preparation Time: 10-15 minutes

    Cooking Time:

               To make Kofta 15 minutes

               To make gravy: 10 minutes

    Servings: 

              15 koftas

              5 Medium servings of sabzi

    Nutritional Value  of Kaddu Kofta Sabzi made from given amount of ingredients:

• Energy: 255 calories
• Fats: 50 gm
• Protein: 1.0 gm
• Fibers: 2.0 gm
• Sugars: 1.5 gm
• Carbs: 6.5gm
• Sodium: 3mg
• Potassium: 440mg
• A,D,Iron

Ingredients Required For Making Koftas:

• 150 gm Unripe Green Kaddu (Unripe green pumpkin)
• 5 tablespoon Besan (Chickpea flour)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt (Or to taste)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ajwain (Carom seeds)
• 1-2 Green Chilies
• 5-6 Sprigs of green coriander
• 1 Pinch of Turmeric powder
• Oil for frying

Direction For Making Kaddu/Pumpkin Koftas:

• Remove the seed part of the pumpkin discard the seeds and the fibrous mass holding them.
•  Do not peel the pumpkin. Grate the pumpkin along with the peel.

Grated Green Pumpkin 

• Slit the green chilies and remove the seeds. Chop the cleaned green chilies.
• Chop coriander.
• Take the grated pumpkin in a bowl and add:
• Besan
• Salt
• Ajwain (Carom)
• Chopped green chilies
• Chopped coriander
• 1 Teaspoon oil
• 1 pinch of Cooking Soda

Mixture for Kofta Batter

• Mix nicely.
• As pumpkin has enough water thus addition of water is not required to mix all the ingredients and make batter.

Kofta batter

• Heat cooking oil in a wok, the oil should be hot but not smoking. Once the oil is hot enough lower the heat.

Batter being add to hot oil for making Kofta

• Drop dollops of mixture to the hot oil and fry them on low heat till golden brown. The amount of batter you put in oil for frying depends on the size of koftas you want. I use I table spoon (Approx.) batter. From the above mixture I got 12 Koftas.

Koftas frying

• These koftas can be used immediately for savory or can be stored in fridge to be used later. The taste and texture of koftas is maintained even after a week  in the fridge.

Soft fluffy Kaddu Koftas

Ingredients Required For Making  Kofta Savory:

• 75 gm Onion 
• 100 gm Tomato
• 5-6 Cloves of Garlic
• 2-3 cm Piece of Ginger
• 2-3 Cloves
• 3-4 Pepper
• 1cm stick of Cinnamon
• 1 Green Cardamom
•  Nutmeg (A small pinch grated)
• 1/2 tsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 2 tsp Salt or to taste
• 1/2tsp Red chili powder
• 1/2tspoon garam masala
• 3-4 Sprigs of fresh coriander leaves
• 2ml. Oil

Direction for Making Kofta Sabzi (Pumpkin fritters sabzi):

• Peel and chop onion to fine pieces.
• Chop tomato roughly and grind it to fine paste.
• Peel garlic and ginger and grate them.
• Coarsely crush cloves and black pepper, green cardamon and cinnamon.
• Heat oil in thick bottom wok and when the oil is hot enough (not smoking hot) lower the heat and add cumin seeds. Once the seeds start spluttering add :
• Cloves
• Pepper
• Nutmeg
• Green cardamom
• Cinnamon

Spices in hot oil 

• Cook for 4-5 sec. then add grated garlic and ginger.  Cook for 10-15 seconds. Garlic pieces will start turning light golden in color. Immediately add finely chopped onions and cook on low heat with constant stirring for 2-3 minutes. Onion pieces will turn translucent.
• Add tomato paste and cook on low heat with constant stirring till tomatoes get cooked completely. The mixture in the wok will start leaving the edges and oil will start separating. At this stage tomatoes are cooked completely.
• Add:

• Red chili powder
• Coriander powder
• Salt
• Cook on low flame for 30-40 second

All spices added to Onion Tomatoe mixture

• Add koftas in the cooked mixture in the wok. Mix with gentle hand such that the mixture covers all koftas. Cook on low flame for 2-3 minutes . Stir once flipping the koftas.

Koftas cooking in Curry paste

• Add 200 ml. water and bring the heat to high. Give one boil.

After adding water and giving one boil

• Switch off the heat.
• Add 20 ml cream and garam masala and mix nicely.

After adding cream and Garam masala

• Cover and let the spices of garam masala seep into koftas.
• Kaddu Kofta sabzi is ready.
• Remove the kofta sabzi (Kofta savory) in a serving bowl, garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.

Kaddu Kofta Sabzi

• Kaddu kofta sabzi (Pumpkin fritters savory) is ready to be served with Roti/parantha/ steamed rice.
• https://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/roti-indian-bread-no-oil-dry-so-low-on.html?m=0

Tips:

• Chop the onion very fine or make paste then cook. If onion pieces will not be fine, then the gravy will not come out good.
• Do not allow the onion to brown, if onion become brown then the color and taste of gravy will not be good.
• Always taste the chili powder for its hotness and use accordingly.
• Once kofta are added then mix very gently and do not cook except for giving a boil. Else koftas will break in the gravy making the sabzi a big mish mash thing. I forgot to switch off the heat and remembered after 2-3 minutes and the result was a wok full of tasty kofta Mash.

Suggested Variations:

• 1 Teaspoon kashmiri red chili powder can be added to impart red color and flavor of chili to gravy.
• I always make the gravy paste and freeze in ice trays. They are easier to use and big time and effort saver.
• https://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2020/04/oil-less-indian-curry-paste-onion.html?m=0

Frozen curry paste

• Take required number /amount of frozen gravy paste. Thaw it or direcly add it to the tempered oil. Cook on low heat till it starts leaving the edges and the oil starts separating.

Frozen curry apste cooking in tempered oil

Gravy base is ready 

• Add
• Chili powder
• Coriander powder
• Salt Turmeric and cook
• Cook on low flame for 30-40 seconds
• Gravy can be made separately. Koftas and gravy can be stored in firdge for later use to make sabzi as and when required.
• Add 250 ml water and bring the heat to high. Once the mixture stars boiling then lower the heat and cook for 5 minutes.
• Add 20 ml cream and mix nicely.
• Gravy for kofta is ready.
• Let it cool and store in container. Boil the gravy and add the koftas. Cover and allow the koftas to soak in the gravy. 

• Ginger and garlic can be replaced by Ginger and garlic paste in 1:1 proportion.
• Koftas can be made in Appe pan, this will reduce the oil content in sabzi as well as the calorific value also.

Beetroot Raita/चुकन्दर का रायता #Beetroot Dip

Beetroot Raita

Beetroot is the healthies vegetarian food. It has negligible fat, less calories but rich in vitamins and micro nutrients and dietary fibers. In my earlier blog I have posted how to make healthy and yummy beetroot sabzi 

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2013/06/beet-root-vegetableindian-savory-of.html

Raita are the Indian savory made as an accompaniment to the main course. When vegetables are mixed with thick curd along with salt and spices the outcome is yum and the vegetables can be chosen according to the season. Say in summers cucumber (which is very cooling), in winters Bathua (Bathua is leafy winter vegetable), ever green onions and tomato in any and every season. Same stands true to beetroot.

Beetroot is available almost every day of the year. This slightly bitter, sweet tap root of beet plant when boiled loses the bitterness and develops a heavenly taste. Apart from making vegetable and salad out of it, it can also be used to make healthy, colorful tasty raita.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time:  20minutes

Servings: 4 Medium servings

Nutritional value: (Approx.)

Calories: 165

Carbs: 10gm

Cholesterol: 0

Fat: 6.2gm

Dietary Fibers: 2.8gm

Sodium: 200 mg

Potassium: 325mg

Sugars: 7gm

Proteins: 8.6gm

Apart from this it is rich in

Vitamins A, B₆, B_12,

Minerals (Micro nutrients) Magnesium and Calcium

Ingredients Required For Making Beetroot Raita:

• 100 gm Beetroot
• 200 gm Low fat Curd
• 1-2 Green Chilies
• 2 twigs of Curry Leafs
• 1/4Teaspoon Mustard Seeds
• 1/4Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
• Salt to taste
• 1 Lemon

Directions For making Beetroot Raita:

• Wash beetroot and boil it. In pressure cooker it takes approximately 10 minutes and in open container 15-20 minutes. Boiled beetroot should not become mushy. It should remain firm.

Boiled Beetroot

• Let the boiled beetroot cool.
• Till Beetroot is cooling, Cut the green chilies to finely, remove leafs from curry leafs twigs. Keep away for further use.
• Peel the boiled beetroots and grate them.

Boiled and Peeled Beetroot

Grated Beetroot

• In a wok take 1/2 teaspoon oil and heat it. When the oil is hot add
• Mustard seeds
• Cumin seeds
• Finely cut Green chilies
• Curry leafs

Tempering Ready for Beetroot

• Cook for 1 minute on medium heat.
• The seeds will splutter and aroma of spices will emanate from wok.
• Add boiled, grated beetroot to the wok and stir to mix the oil and spices to the beetroot.
• Add salt and lower the flame.
• Mix nicely and cover. Cook for 4-5 minutes with stirring in between, to avoid the beetroot sticking to the bottom of the wok.
• By now the beetroot will become soft yet holding the shape it had after grating.

Beetroot Ready For Raita

• Cool the cooked beetroot.

Cooked Beetroot For Raita

• Whisk the Thick curd with and add the cooked beetroot to it. Mix nicely.
• Add 1/2teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice to the mixture of curd and beetroot.
• Mix again and add salt if required.
• Beetroot raita is ready to be served.

Beetroot Raita

• Enjoy Beetroot raita with any vegetarian/Non-vegetarian food. It adds an altogether dimension to the meal.

Tips:

• Make sure the curd is not sour. Fresh thick curd is required. If the curd is old and sour the sweetness and flavor of beetroot will be obscured.
• While boiling beetroot make sure it is not over cooked, mushy, pulpy beetroot is no good for making raita.
• Taste chilies before use. Take the chilies according to your taste and hotness of chilies. The raita should have a balance of sweet, salt, sour and chilies.
• Do not use red chilies or chili powder as it really does not go well with beetroot.

Suggested variations:

• Soft leafs of beetroot can be used for garnishing.
• Fried leafs of beetroot can be used to garnish the raita to add texture to raita.
• Finely cut coriander leafs can be used for garnishing.

Delicious Vegan Buns

Delicious Vegan Buns (Unglazed)

Innovation and making things tailored to personal taste and health requirements lead to new recipes. I used to get pav and buns from market but the bleached All-purpose flour used to make me hesitant to consume it thus I would be longing to have my fix of missal–pav and burgers. But one fine day I decided to take the baking of buns in my own hands and succeeded in making these crunchy soft buns which I consumed with missal and made yummy burgers using homemade banana cutlets and all greens with little butter as my high cholesterol limits me from butter intake. The buns were made from 1:1:1 ratio of multigrain flour: All-purpose flour: Suji (semolina) with olive oil and milk. So what more one could ask for when the outcome was healthy and tasty.

Please note that :
Since I wanted to avoid use of sugar/butter/more honey thus did not glaze the buns
To avoid use of more yeast (personal choice) proofing time is increased and yeast amount is far less.

Preparation Time: 1 hr. (proofing time not included)

Baking Time: 10 -15 min. /batch

Serving: 15 buns

Ingredients Required For Making Delicious Buns:

• 300 gm. All-purpose flour
• 300 gm. Multigrain flour
• 300 gm. Semolina (Suji)
• 1 ½ Teaspoon Dry active Yeast
• 100 ml water
• 200 ml Soya Milk
• 3 Teaspoon Honey
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4-5 Teaspoon Til
• 6 table spoon + 1 teaspoon Olive oil or softned nutrelite butter(for regular bunsl 

Direction For Making Delicious Buns:

• Mix
• Multigrain flour
• Semolina
• All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Keep aside this mixture.
• In a deep bowl or glass take
• Water and warm it to 35-38 Degree centigrade. (You should feel the water warm when finger is dipped not hot)
• Dissolve sugar and 1 teaspoon of All-purpose flour in it.
• Add yeast and stir till all granules of dry active yeast are dissolved.
• Cover with a lid and keep in warm place for 20-30 minutes.
• The yeast mixture will become frothy and the glass/bowl will be quite full by this time.
• Add
• Yeast
• 100 ml. of soya milk
• Honey to the flour mixture and knead.
• The dough should not be hard but pliable.
• Add remaining soya milk in little portions and keep kneading.
• Add Olive oil and knead till all oil is incorporated. (You can add oil in small portion to ease the work)
• Make a round of the dough and apply one teaspoon of oil all around it and keep it in a container covered tightly for 6-8 hrs. in a warm place.
• By this time the dough will have proofed and will become double or more than its size.
• Dust some flour (I used multigrain you can use all-purpose also) on the place /container you are going to knead the proofed dough and take out the proofed dough on it.
• Punch the air out of the dough and knead. You may require oiling your hands if the dough sticks to hands.
• Do not add flour as this will result in dense and hard buns.
• Once nicely kneaded (max 5 minutes) divide the dough to 15 portions and roll them using oiled palms to nice balls.
• On a baking tray (oil the tray if it is not non-stick, I used silicon baking sheet) place these balls at a distance of 3 inches.
• Sprinkle little Til (sesame) seeds on each ball.
• Cover with moist cloth or a container which would not touch the top of dough balls. Keep aside for 30-40 min for second proofing of the dough.
• The dough balls would become almost double their size.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 220 degree for 10 min. Check with a dry stick by poking the buns with the stick. If it comes out clean the buns are done.
• Remove from oven and keep in a basket or cloth lined container covered with thick cloth to make sure they neither become dry not the moisture during cooling makes them soggy.
• Since I did not glaze the buns, so no shiny top of my buns in picture.

Delicious Vegan Buns

• To get shiny glazed to get shiny top of buns brush them with soya milk+ honey/ soya milk+ sugar/lemon +juice sugar before sprinkling sesame seeds and sugar syrup just after baking.
• Enjoy the hot freshly baked buns Missal (An Indian savory made from sprouted pulse) 

Missal-Pav aka Vegan Buns

•  Just sut them to two halves and put some butter and jam and enjoy with tea  /make burger with cutlet and green of your choice. My husband liked them so much that he said I can eat without any accompanimentJ
• Please note that the buns will be little crunchy and dense because of very less fat and All-purpose flour.
•  My due apologies to all followers and friends. Step by step pictures could not be taken as power supply was erratic and I had to hurry when supply was restored.  I will post them when I make them next time.

Tips:

• Make sure the water for yeast is not too hot else the yeast will die and will have to be thrown.
• An activated yeast mixture will always be too frothy.
• Mix salt and all flours properly for even distribution.
• Fine grained semolina gives better result.
• Always preheat the oven for 15 minutes before baking.
• If the power supply plays tantrums then keep the dough in the fridge do not keep the dough ball for too long outside as they will not rise during baking and the final result may not be too good.

Suggested Variations:

• You can increase the amount of all-purpose flour and reduce multigrain flour.
• Multigrain flour can be replaced by whole wheat flour.
• Honey can be replaced by white sugar or brown sugar. Remember honey not only is a sweetening agent but also add moistness to the baked products.
• Sugar/honey can be increased to double if more sweetness is required in buns.
• For those who do not want vegan buns
• Soya milk can be replaced with dairy milk.
• Olive oil/ Nutrelite butter can be replaced by dairy butter. 
• Egg white can be brushed on the top of dough balls before sprinkling til (sesame seeds).
• To get more soft bunsand glazed top buns increase the amount of oil / butter to double the amount.
• If proofing time is desired to be decreased to 2-3 hours then increase the amount of yeast to 3 teaspons.
• Add 2 Teaspoon of cinnamon powder  and 2-3 teaspoons of sugar powder to the flour mixture  before adding wet ingredients and make these hot cross cinnamon buns. 

Hot Cross Cinnamon Buns Topped with Sesame seeds (Un-glazed)