I couldn’t believe how fast time flies. It is as though I started the month long non stop marathon yesterday, but I am in the final day. I have been blogging recipes from Tamil cuisine in the order of A-Z and today is the day of Z, the final letter. Searching a Tamil word which starts with Z was very tough. There is no word that could start with Z and I was baffled. For this marathon, we created a whatsapp group and even two days back discussions were going on. Zucchini is an easy option but as it was not a traditional vegetable of Tamil Nadu, I didn’t want to use it. Priya suggested using zingiber for Z, which is nothing but the botanical name of ginger.
Then started the recipe hunt for ginger. Ginger is a really spicy root which is normally used along with garlic or used in less quantities and so I couldn’t pin point a recipe where ginger is the star ingredient. I have already blogged about inji chaaru and inji murappa and so I couldn’t find a recipe. Fortunately I stumbled upon Bhojana Recipes where there was this recipe.Venthasaar was a new word for me and I did some search for it. Venthasaar is a Tambram recipe which is mainly based on tamarind and shallots. This recipe was quite unique with ginger as the star ingredient and looking at the ingredients I was so tempted to try. This is a very easy recipe and the gravy is slightly on the thinner side. It is very hot and spicy because of the ginger and so my daughter didn’t eat it. But we enjoyed it with hot steamed rice.
Recipe Source: Bhojana Recipes
Ingredients:
Ginger – 50 gm
Gingelly Oil – 2 tbs
Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Fenugreek or Methi Seeds- 1/4 tsp
Hing / Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp
Curry Leaves – 2 sprigs
Shallots/ Pearl Onion – 6-7
Tamarind – a small lemon sized ball
Red Chilly Powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder – 1/4 tsp
Salt- to taste
Jaggery – little
Procedure:
Wash and peel ginger.
Cut into smaller pieces.
Pound them in a mortar and pestle until coarse.
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard, methis seeds and when they crackle add in hing and curry leaves.
Add the onions and saute for a minute or two.
Now add the ginger and saute on low flame for 2-3 minutes.
Extract water from tamarind and add it to the pan.
Add chilly powder, turmeric and salt.
Bring it to boil.
Reduce flame and let it boil covered until the raw smell of the tamarind is gone.
Finally add jaggery and mix well.
Serve it hot with rice and appalam.
Zingiber / Inji Venthasaar Recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients
- Ginger - 50 gm
- Gingelly Oil - 2 tbs
- Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
- Fenugreek or Methi Seeds- 1/4 tsp
- Hing / Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
- Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs
- Shallots/ Pearl Onion - 6-7
- Tamarind - a small lemon sized ball
- Red Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
- Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
- Salt- to taste
- Jaggery - little
Instructions
Procedure
- Wash and peel ginger.
- Cut into smaller pieces.
- Pound them in a mortar and pestle until coarse.
- Heat oil in a pan and add mustard, methis seeds and when they crackle add in hing and curry leaves.
- Add the onions and saute for a minute or two.
- Now add the ginger and saute on low flame for 2-3 minutes.
- Extract water from tamarind and add it to the pan.
- Add chilly powder, turmeric and salt.
- Bring it to boil.
- Reduce flame and let it boil covered until the raw smell of the tamarind is gone.
- Finally add jaggery and mix well.
- Serve it hot with rice and appalam.
Vendhasaar, a new name hearing for the first time, sounds like a very aromatic dish.
That’s a wonderful preparation to spice up any plain rice.
A very flavorful stew. I didn’the understand initially what the title meant. My MIL used to prepare it without onion to serve it with pongal and used to call it allam gojju.
Using botanical name of ginger is a cool idea. I took the easy route and did z for zucchini.
Clever idea to use the Botanical name Gayathri! This is a new dish to me but sounds so flavorful. Enjoyed all your posts in this series Gayathri
Awesome twist Gayathri..I knew you will come up with such fantastic ideas..Really nice reading about this new recipe. Though I keep a yard away from ginger, nice knowing it came to your rescue..I enjoyed all your tamil dishes, so new and so many bookmarked. Wonderful run all in all!
yay gayathri, you used botanical name, super!!!! Love the idea!!! Vendhasaaru looks very delicious!!!
Nice idea to use the scientific name for Z.Lovely recipe.
Wonderful ginger curry… Perfect with rice and gingelly oil. Love that irumbu kadai.
That is such a delicious looking dish with ginger — spicy and yummy!! Love your choice of the letter Z. Enjoyed all your healthy and nutritious Tamil dishes in this marathon.
Nice to use the botanical name also a great pick..Vendhasaar looks so flavorful,enjoyed your recipes especially your millet recipes in this edition.
That’s really nice using the botanical name, the curry looks flavorful and delicious. It was a great journey with you the past month, I learned so much about Tamil cuisine and millets usage. Thanks for sharing:)
wow that is so cool..lovely curry too.Kudos Gayathri.
Super cool using the botanical name 🙂 Very flavorful gojju.
I would love a curry so full of ginger. Your Vendhasaar looks amazing and sounds perfectly flavorful. Wonderful finish to the month long marathon with this dish!