Kootanchoru means (to my knowledge)…where bunch of kids (usually girls) gather up to play with their dummy kitchen toys! But, amazingly end up making yummy meals. Is that right, folks?

Well, this is not exactly my recipe or even an idea, okay! One of my Desi friend from my locality generously shared this recipe with me (Thank you Rani ji).  She insisted on, that I better follow her tidbits carefully. Since, she traces her roots to Tirunelveli, I have to trust her. Hmmm, though she is basically an American (Indian American) who traces her origin to Andhra…but her forefathers had had got settled down in Kerala some four or five generations ago! So, they forgot all about speaking Telugu in the course of time and got Malayalam influence! ( I should have known it…when she said all about using kokowknuts! ) Anyhow…back to the ‘Ancestry Story’. However, she was born and raised in Tirunelveli. Thus, she is much more comfortable speaking in Tamil (that’s Tamil??) with me. Looong live Telugu & Malayalam!! But, you see all these happened in the past! Right now its been more than four decades she got settled in America. (Someone…get me some water, please!) Well, you see someone has to preserve our languages, right! We NRI’s do it.

Alright…let me come to the center point of this post! She is an amazing person with great culinary skills (why can’t be…she can narrate the whole recipe in so many languages than the Chandamama Charitha )! So.. I think its enough, all about the Identity crisis we have in alien lands, right now! And, off to the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw rice
• 1/4 cup thuvar dal (yellow lentils)
• salt
• 1 pinch turmeric
• 1/4 cup tamarind water

To Wet Grind

• 5-7 pearl onions
• 4 Tsp grated coconuts
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 5-7 dry red chilies (I like it hot)

Vegetables 

• eggplant
• raw green plantain
• broad beans
• yellow pumpkin / white
• raw mango
• drum stick vegetable
• drumstick greens
• amaranthus greens

Tempering

• 1/4 cup sesame oil
• 2 tsp thallippu vadagam
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 cumin seeds
• 1 dry red chili
• few curry leaves

Method

1. Now, cook the rice and lentils together along with salt and pinch of turmeric.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a wok and saute the wet-ground paste plus vegetables to tender. (Needless to say, I used some basic knowledge in choosing which vegetable goes first in the pot and when to add greens. Depending on the choice of vegetables you use…or even the size of the cut vegetable. Saute one by one to cook them to tender. )
3. Then, turn in these to the cooked rice and lentils pot and continue cooking until they are mushy.
4. Top it up with tempered spices.
5. Serve this steaming hot as a main course along with vathal or vadaams. Enjoy.