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Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Koi Thotakura Fry ~ Amaranth stir fry

Koi Thotakura Fry with crushed peanuts, garlic and red chilli powder

Andhra's favorite green is Thotakura (Amaranth/Chauli/Mulakeerai) after of course Gongura (Hibiscus cannabinus/red sorrel leaves/Roselle). Every morning in the streets of our Vizag you will hear vegetable vendor shouting and selling these farm cut fresh greens. Koi thotakura is the one with red stems and locally grown in Andhra. Here in US we don't see this vareity often, its almost like nil here in NJ.

Fresh Koi Thotakura ~ Amaranth Leaves
My SIL sent me these garden fresh Koi-Thotakura from her backyard through my In-laws visiting us from Boise, ID . Here is a picture of leafy vegetable patch in her backyard.

SIL's backyard patch

Thotakura can be cooked with dals/lentils, can be stir fried or just sauted with light seasoning. Today I am blogging my MIL's recipe which is very tasty and can be a side dish with plain rice, and roti. I am sending it to Vani from Batasari, the host of Weekend Herb Blogging started by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen.

Source: My Mother-In-Law
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:

3 C Koi Thotakura, washed, dried and coarsely chopped along with the stems
Salt diluted in 2T of water
to be coarsely grind:
3 cloves of fresh garlic
handful of roasted peanuts
1/2 t cumin seeds
1 tsp red chilli powder/cayenne/paprika (for less heat)
for tempering/tadka/seasoning:
1 t mustard seeds
1 t cumin/jeera
1 t urad dal/black gram
1 t chana dal/bengal gram
4-5 curry leaves (optional)
2 T cooking oil

Method:

1. Wash and dry the leaves on a kitchen towel, make sure its dried thoroughly. Then coarsely chop the leaves along with the stems discarding any tough ones.
2. Heat oil in a large pan, add mustard seeds and let it splutter for a minute, then add the rest of the seasoning ingredients and let it fry for a minute.
3. Add the chopped leaves and stir occasionally for even cooking, sprinkle the salty water over the leaves, saute and cover with a lid for 4-5 mins.


MIL teaching me the recipe

peanut-cumin-garlic-chilli powder mix

4. The leaves will shrink down and now is the time to add the grounded powder of garlic, peanuts and chilli powder. Mix well and cover for another 2 mins till it dries out of any excess water.
5. Serve with Rice and dal or Rotis/Indian flat bread.

31 comments:

FH said...

Padma,I grew some of those Amaranth last summer in small flower pots, loved it. Patch looks so good there.I will plant them on the ground this Summer.
Kura looks delcious, thanks for the recipe, got to wait for summer harvest!:)

Latha said...

OH PAdma! How i miss this kura! Looks delicious...

Latha said...

Oh BTE, your sil's patch looks lovely!

Rajitha said...

i actually was never a big fan of these till i came to the US..it was then i started to miss this..guess i got used to eating this weekly at home!! This recipe looks fab! i will try it with kale..it is more sturdier than spinach :)

TBC said...

I like your ground mix. It will go really well with a number of dry veg dishes.

Sagari said...

yummy curry padma looks delecious I love dal made with that greens

EC said...

Different masala to the green vegetables...have it try it out

Shella said...

What a lovely patch, n the harvest is great. Its always so nice to have homegrown stuff. Delicious subzi..

Lakshmi said...

Another lovely recipe. Thanks padma. I can imagine the aroma of peanut+garlic+Cumin ....

remya said...

love ur style of making ths thotakura....cool padma

Mansi said...

ooh wow! I really am looking for some new greens these days! can i get these in an Indian store, you think??

bee said...

your SIL grows this in this season? wow. i need to buy some amaranh seeds now. your pics are lovely.

DK said...

seeing this post brought back my mom's cooking in my taste buds..it really made me miss home!

Cynthia said...

Oh ho, these were the leaves you were referring to when I mentioned about the sorrel fruit and drink - good to know.

Shivapriya said...

I miss thotakura sooo much here. I buy erra thotakura from Korean store :(, it works from me. Something is better than nothing right!!

DEEPA said...

oh padma ....this looks yummy and delicious !

Latha Narasimhan said...

lovely koora! I grew up in Andra and love all andra delicacies! :) mouthwatering!

I posted the award you gave sometime back! Thanks a ton for the same. I am rightnow busy till 2nd week of feb. Will try to blog hop as and when I find time.

MR said...

nice recipe!!
will have to try,
nice patch of greens

Sig said...

Oh yummy... you are so lucky, your SIL did all the hard work, and you got to enjoy the fruits - I mean greens - of her labor :)

KayKat said...

Amaranth truly rocks, doesn't it? I love the depth of flavours that it has.

Finla said...

My sister makes this and i love them. But we don't get them here.

Chef Jeena said...

Padma this looks so mouthwatering! You are so lucky being able to get fresh amaranth leaves given to you. It look great. :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I just stumbled on your blog.You have a very nice collection of recipes.I Bookmarked you and I'll be coming back for more.This is a very nice recipe.

Anamika:The Sugarcrafter said...

Hi Padma
Nice blog content..interesting reading stuff...
Greetings to you from Botswana.

Anamika:The Sugarcrafter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Laavanya said...

I like the spice mix your MIL has added padma.

Kalyn Denny said...

The mix of garlic-cumin-chile-peanuts sounds just fantastic. I've never tasted this type of greens, but I can tell it would taste wonderful prepared this way.

Kalyn Denny said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

the greens look like bayam (spinah in Indonesia). we usually make it for curry or stir-fry. lovely!

Anonymous said...

didn't taste as i expected!!!!

sorri!!!!!!!

Padma said...

to Anony...
I am so sorry that it did not turn out as expected to you. But I always loved this recipe specially with the spice mix, it is simply superb...

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