Gooseberry Tokku (Chutney)

Indian Gooseberry or Amla is a fruit and it plays a very important role in Indian cooking and in Ayurveda medicine for thousands of years.

Gooseberry is called Nellikai in Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam, Usinikai in Telugu, Karouda in Hindi, Dhatrik in Marati.

One of the Hindu Myths states that when there was a fight between Gods and Rakshasa for Amruth, a drop fell on the earth and that has grown as Gooseberry tree. Gooseberry is the gift from the nature that it has a power to cure many diseases

Gooseberry (Nellikai), known as Amla is the healthiest fruit, due to its high nutrient content. It is rich source of antioxitants, iron, Vitamin A and Vitamin C, Fiber, Potassium, magnesium, calcium etc. It improves eye health, improvers hair growth, skin and anemia. It also helps to lower the blood cholesterol level.  Gooseberry is very good for diabetes since it increases production of Insulin hormons. It also help to slow down the process of ageing. Goose berry cures every disease and is also good in extending the longevity of life.

Gooseberry is used in pickles, in various dishes and its eaten raw also. It is also used for making jam (Morabba).
Here is a recipe of gooseberry tokku ( a kind of longlasting chutney) and it can be eaten with snacks or/with main course. Use it like a side dish.

Things needed :

Gooseberry : 1 Kg
Salt : 1/2 Cup ( 6 to 8 spoons
Methi seeds :1/4 spoon
Mustards Seeds : 3 to 4  Table spoons
Ingh :  1/2 Tea spoon
Oil : 2 Table spoons.
Chiily powder : 3 to 4 Table spoons
Lemon : 2 to 3

Method:

1. Wash and dry gooseberries.
2. Steam gooseberries in a pressure cooker for 4 to 5 minutes. Powder Mustard seeds and keep it aside.
3. Now cut the steamed gooseberry and remove the seed from inside.

4. Dry grind de-seeded gooseberries.

5. Keep a pan on the fire. Add oil and put methi seeds and ingh

6. Add dry ground Gooseberry. Stir for some time (2 to 3 minutes)

7. Add salt and keep stirring. When it turns little thick add dry ground mustard seeds.

8.    Add chilly powder and stir until it leaves the pan..
9.    Do not stop stirring. Put one more spoon of oil and mix it again
10.  When it starts leaving the pan add lemon juice. Stir for 2 more minutes.

11..Now shift the mixture to another bowl and leave it for cooling.

12. Store in a glass bottle when it is cooled and you can use it as chutney and as pickle with curd rice.

Note :

You can add more oil and chilly powder if you like. You can also dry roast mustard seeds and powder it. This taste different and nice. While using salt you should be careful. Do not add more. Adding lemon juice helps the Gooseberry chutney to get a good taste and that will not be spoiled even if you keep it out for 2 weeks. Keeping the Gooseberry Tokku can be used for a long time if it is kept in the fridge.  You can also use this chutney and prepare spicy Gooseberry Rice.

Time 40 Minutes
Shelf time : 3 to 4 months.

Gooseberry Morabba with Jaggery :
Cook gooseberry the same way as above and stir with jaggery till it thickens. No need to add any oil or ghee. Add a spoon of lemon juice at the end. You can add little pepper powder if you like.

Jaggery Kesari Baath/ Gul Pavate

Gul Pavate/Jaggery Kesari is a sweet dish.

It is prepared  using jaggery, rava, ghee and cardamom.Gul Pavate is one of the traditional and healthy dish. Loads and loads of ghee used in preparing Gul Pavate. May be some thing like Chooran Halwa which is prepared with wheat, sugar and ghee. In olden days this dish was one of the kids special too. There is a proverb in Kannada " Kallu tindu jeerna Maadi kolluva kaala ". This means kids can digest whatever they eat. in the younger age. But as the time changed, the favour for using sugar grown and sugar replaced the jaggery in most of the items and it became more fancy and the status too. So lots of sweets prepared using sugar loaded the market too. It made easy for people to have more crave for sugar made sweets. Now again people prefer to intake jaggery and reduced the consumtion of sugar.

There are innumerable benifits of jaggery. Jaggery is a great remedy for anemia, astama, joint pains and menstrual pains. It also aids in digestion, purifies blood and keeps the skin away from problems like pimples and acnes. It is a great enery booster as it provides us lots of energy. Jaggery is a very good source of minerals for the body.

Semolina is made from durum wheat and it is digested slowly. Semolina improves kidney function. It contains potassium. Samolina is an ideal food for active, energetic people. It contain protein and variety of minerals. Samolina contains Vitamin E and Vitamin B.

Remember Samolina is high gluten content and it should be avoided by those who are sensitive to gluten.

Here is a Gul-Pavate recipe. As I said, gulpavate is prepared using rava-jaggery, ghee and cardamom. I added carrots to Gulpavate. Carrots provid the natural colour and taste to the Gul Pavate. I am sure the whole family will enjoy eating Gulpavate and all age group will surely like this dish.

Things Needed :

Rava : 1 Cup
Jaggery : 1/2 Cup
Ghee : 1/2 Cup
Cardamom Powder : 1/2 Tea spoon
Carrots : 1 Cup

Water : 1 1/2 to 2 cups
Cashew nuts : 1 Table spoon

 :

Method :

1. Wash and grate carrots, cut cashew nuts and powder the cardamom. (5 to 6 pods)

2. Keep water for boiling.
3. Keep a pan on the fire and heat.
4. Add 1 spoon of ghee and fry cashew nuts and carrots for 2 minutes. Keep it aside.
5. Keep a bigger pan on the fire. Heat and put 2 to 3 table spoons of ghee and fry rava until the raw smell disappear. (3 to 5 minutes).

6. Add boiling water and stir slowly. Let the rava cook and become thick.

7. Add jaggery and stir kesari. Let it mix it nicely.
8. Add fried carrots and cashew nuts. Stir and mx it well.
9. It starts to become thick Stir until it starts leaving the pan.
10. Now add cardamom and remaining ghee.
11. Mix it well and shift the Jaggery Kesari to a serving bowl.
12. Serve Jaggery kesari with any savoury or as it is .

Note:

You must roast Rava well to get good Kesari baat. You can add jaggery according to your taste. I have used organic jaggery. You can also prepare jaggery syrup and filter it and get the clean jaggery. Adding ghee increases the taste of the Kesari. You can also use ripe banana or pineapple or ripe mango pulp to give a fruit taste and natural flavoural.   

Time : 30 minutes 

Serves : 3 to 4