Foodie Workz

Celery is one such vegetable which I came to know of only after coming to the US.    Having pretty much used in salads or soups,  my first attempt to include in regular Indian cooking was in the sambar.    In recent times though, I have tried to come up with dishes like Celery Coriander Thokku , Celery and Potato Podimas , and more recently the Celery  Tomato Rice .   Today, I have attempted to camouflage this vegetable in yet another way......   1 cup finely chopped celery 1/2 cup peanuts 1 red chilli 1 tea spoon tamarind paste salt to taste Take a spoon of oil and saute the celery with little salt for 2 minutes. Add the red chillies and the roasted peanuts and saute this again. Add the tamarind paste and little more salt.  Let this mix well.  Grind this to a paste adding little water. Season with mustard seeds

Celery was one such vegetable where I was always tempted to add it my grocery cart but was at loss of ideas as to how to use it in the kitchen.   I  used to see that it was a staple in soups American restaurants and served quite often on salad platters in parties.  I have also used the celery for such dishes.   But how many kids would ever go for the celery given its fibrous and stringy texture?  But over the years I have learnt to use it abundantly in my traditional dishes as well.  I have been using it in sambars and oflate used it in these recipes Celery Paratha(to be posted),  Celery Coriander Thokku  and Celery and Peanut Chutney(to be posted). Thus was born the idea of a nice tangy Celery Rice combined with some ground tomatoes.  It can also be made into pulao by including onions and whole garam masala. 3/4 cup finely chopped celery 1 big tomato 1 long green chilli 1 inch ginger piece 1 c...

Podimas is a very well known dish in any typical Tamil Brahmin household.   I decided to try this out differently by adding celery to it.   The addition of celery gave a nice added flavor to the potaotes.  3 medium potatoes 4 long stalks of celery trimmed 2 long green chillies 1/2 tsp mustard 3/4 tsp of urad dal and chana dal ginger small piece  few curry leaves salt to taste lemon juice to taste Boil the potatoes, peel and coarsely crumble them.   Chop the celery into medium size pieces and steam cook them for 2-3 minutes.  Process this in a food processor. Heat up the oil, add the mustard, dals, green chili, ginger and curry leaves and stir the celery first.  Add the potatoes and salt and keep stirring it on medium flame till it combines well with the celery. Squeeze some lemon juice in the end and give a good mix.  

I always like to try out common recipes with some non traditional ingredients.  One such attempt is this thokku with celery.  Though celery is best eaten when raw,  I tried this for a change after having used in salads, soups.   8 stalks of trimmed celery(you can add the trimmed leaves while grinding) 1 big handful of trimmed coriander leaves 4 green chillies 3-4 tsp of tamarind paste 1 tsp each of coriander and cumin powder 1 small ginger piece salt to taste pinch of turmeric powder pinch of brown sugar/jaggery(optional) 2-3 tbsp oil 1/2 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp urad dal nice pinch of hing powder Chop the celery stalk into small pieces and steam cook them for a couple of minutes.  Let this cool down.  Grind this along with the rest of the ingredients to a fine paste.  When you grind this, it is going to be little liquidy.  Take oil in a pan and splutter the mustard and urad dal, add the hing powder and then the paste. ...