Regional recipes

Today am sharing an traditional and authentic recipes originated from Nellai/ Thirunelvelli , Tamil nadu . We know thirunelvelli halwa is very famous next to halwa comes this very comforting and popular festival recipe. For today’s letter T I have chosen an Thirunelvelli/ Nellai , Tamil nadu spl  Sodhi with Thogayal.  

Sodhi is a very famous dish in thirunelvelli  as they are a part of the menu in marriages.  In marriages they have  two day fair in which the groom / Boy side family Host the next day meal and  prepares this sodhi for Girls / Bride’s family ( For thanking ) so they name this dish as “Mappulai sodhi”. As this stew is cooked in coconut milk they are generally heavy and are accompanied with ginger thogayal for easy digestion. 

As you all be knowing there is a new group TST ( Tamizhar samayal Tuesday ) I  was thinking a lot and came up with this authentic thirunelvelli / Nellai spl gravy from Tamil nadu 🙂 and Luckily It matched my BM theme too so linking it Both the events.

Lets move on to the recipe of nellai spl Sodhi and Inji thogayal.

Ingredients

Coconut milk (thick) – 1/2 cup
Moong Dhal boiled -1/2 cup
Lemon juice-1 tbsp (squeezed from fresh lemon)
Carrots-1 No ( chopped) 
Drum stick- 1 No ( cut in to 2 – 3 inch length)
Potato-1 No ( Chopped)
Onion -1 No ( Medium sized chopped)
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Turmeric – 1/4 tsp

To grind

Grated coconut 4 tbsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Green chillies  2-3

Method

• Take the  coconut milk (I used the canned thick coconut milk), and dilute it in water to make one can of thin coconut milk about  1- 2 cups and let the vegetables cook in the diluted coconut milk in a pan.  Cook till the veggies are nice and soft then it aside. In a pressure  cook  moong dal with little water for 3 whistles.

• Grind the ingredients  Under “To grind”.
• Now In another pan heat oil add chopped oinion  saute for a while then add ginger garlic paste and saute them well.

• Add the boiled veggie with coconut milk and let them boil.
• Add the ground paste and cook them for a while.
• Now add the cooked  Moong dhal with turmeric pd ( mash the dhal  well before adding ) and bring it to nice boil.
• Switch of the stove after they boil for few Minutes .
• When Sodhi cools down add salt and lemon juice .
• Heat oil in a pan add  mustard, curry leaves and urad dhal . Transfer this tempering to sodhi.

Note: Try not to heat the sodhi and have it with piping hot rice or idiyappam.

Sodhi is normally is  made for lunch as it is a very heavy dish, but it taste awesome the night it is cooked and they also go well with plain idiyappam.

Inji / Ginger Thogayal

Ingredients 

Ginger – 1 finger size ( chopped)
Red chilli – 2-3 No’s
Coconut – 2 tbsp (grated)
Salt to taste
Jaggery (powdered) – 1 tbsp
Coriander seeds – 1/4 tsp
Tamarind –  1 small marble size soaked in water  and extracted.
Oil – 1 tbsp
Urad dal  – 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig


Method

•  Heat a pan, dry roast red chilly, Coriander seeds and coconut .
• Grind the all the roasted ingredients along with chopped ginger  by adding little amt of water to make them in to paste.
•  Add the thick tamarind extract and salt and let it blend for a second. 
• In a pan with oil, temper mustard seeds, curry leaves, Urad dhal and add the mixture and let it boil for in medium flame till the sides leave out oil.
• Just before you take it off the stove, add a  jaggery and Mix well.

• This thogayal is definitely made with Sodhi  as they pair with it well and also helps in digestion.

Linking this to Tamizhar samayal Tuesday whose brain child is +nalini suresh .