Mullangi curry (Radish stir fry)
Hola peeps. I have mentioned my friend Hari multiple times I am sure. He is the one who setup this blog for me and helps me run it. He went through my recent blog posts & messaged me saying – Tofu bites is awesome but the tomato soup is an obie post. He clarified it clearly by saying the tomato soup is something really basic that even he can do it & he wasn’t expecting something as basic as tomato soup to feature in the blog :). I was laughing by now and told him he has given me content to write for this post. PERCEPTION – such an important thing in anything including food :). SELLING – this is also another very important thing in life :). How exactly am I linking our conversation to these 2??
Perception – Tomato soup is something we have all had growing up. We all make it different ways & even a basic tomato rasam can be called a soup. We make it, our moms/ dads make it and even our paatis (grand moms) have made it to us in whichever possible way they know. We have it at restaurants.. be it a indo-chinese one or our local sangeetha/ saravana bhavan :). Hence just the sound of it sounds basic & easy. On the other hand, tofu is something that is still not very common in a lot of our cooking. We mostly just have it at restaurants (I am not talking about the ones who make tofu often in their house :)) and so just the mere sound of it being used in anything as basic as our bhajji/ pakoda equivalent still has us gushing :). And that exactly what happened with Hari I think. Now I didn’t call the Tofu dish as Tofu bhajji or pakoda.. I called it Tofu Bites that probably also caused a little attraction (and hence a nicer perception) towards the dish.
Selling – Perception itself covers half the part of selling. Once there is a nice perception of something, selling becomes easier. Add some frills to the presentation/ packaging & you are mostly sorted :). So I didn’t play around much with the soup presentation. There are people who present soup wonderfully and I am not one of them. Keeping one celery stalk made me feel I gave some fancy touch :D. On the other hand of course those tofu bites look all nice with one almost tumbling down the tower. Hari, read this and tell me what you think of this analysis :p. Off late, kozhi kuruda sevudangradhum mukkiyam, ulpavadaila enna design-ngradhum mukkiyam :).
And If I had to compare the below 2 dishes in terms of complexity, ingredients, time both are fairly easy to make but the tofu bites is easier since it takes lesser no of ingredients, much less time, doesn’t require any grinding skills. So IMO, tofu bites is wayyyyyyyy easier to make than the tomato soup & the scope for sodhappal aka ruining the dish is veryyyyy low.
I specifically wanted to key in the above thoughts right for this food post – mullangi curry aka radish stir fry. Super simple, super easy, no fancy ingredients, main ingredient absolutely ZERO fancy, presentation though I really liked :). Felt I fancified something generally unfancy (selling part) and I am quite happy about that. But overall, a very simple and non-fancy dish. I want to post something as simple as this here is because I realise sometimes there will be people who may not know something as simple as this can be done out of an ingredient such as this (I did not realise a stir fry could be done out of this up until recently when mil made it for me). Personally for me, it also helps me when I want to make something with something and I can’t think of anything instantly, the blog helps. Anywho, this post is for those of you who did not know radish can be made into a basic curry. It tastes awesome, takes very very little time to make & anyone can make this dish. But for those of you who hate radish, a note that you will still obviously get the underlying pungent taste at the end of each bite. It will be very less but it will surely be there.
- 1 big radish chops roughly into 2 cups
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds/ jeera
- 1/8 tsp asafoetida
- 1/8 tsp turmeric powder
- few curry leaves
- 1 tsp curry powder/ molagapodi (idli powder)
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Wash & peel radish skin & chop it into small cubes.
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In a kadai, heat oil & add mustard seeds.
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Once it starts to splutter add urad dal & just as it starts to brown add jeera/ cumin seeds.
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When the jeera starts to brown & urad dal browns, add asafoetida, turmeric powder & curry leaves.
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Along with this, throw in the chopped radish, 1/2 tsp rock salt, a tsp water.
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Mix everything & close with a lid (keep it on low flame).
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After 2-3 minutes, check on the veggie to see if it needs a bit more water (if the veggie doesn't have a lot of water content in it, you may have to add another teaspoon water). Mix everything once again.
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In a total of 5-7 minutes, the veggie should be cooked (just take 1 or 2 cubes and see if it mashes it in between your fingers).
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Once the veggie is cooked, add curry powder & toss it together (also check & adjust salt here). Turn off heat.
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Serve alongside sambhar/ curd rice.
- If you don't have curry powder or idli powder at home, you can simply use red chilli powder.
- There will still be a small hint of bitterness that will come with every bite. It may not be everyone's cup of tea this one but I really like it.
Stepwise pictures
Wash & peel radish skin & chop it in small cubes.
Heat oil in a kadai. Once heated, add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Once it splutters, add urad dal.
Once the urad dal starts to brown, add jeera/ cumin seeds & wait for it splutter (and for the urad dal to brown).
Add asafoetida, turmeric powder & curry leaves.
Finally throw in the chopped radish.
Add rock salt (regular salt would do just fine), a tsp water. Mix everything well. Close with a lid & let the veggie cook on low flame.
After 2-3 minutes, check on the veggie to see if it needs a bit more water (if the veggie doesn’t have a lot of water content in it, you may have to add another teaspoon water). Mix everything once again.
In a total of 5-7 minutes the veggie should be cooked (take 1 or 2 cubes in between your fingers to see if it mashes well when you press it). At this stage, add the curry powder & toss everything together. Check & adjust salt as well. Turn off heat.
Serve hot alongside sambhar/ curd rice. I like to have just this plain curry (a whole bowl just for myself :D).
