Skip to main content

Recipe: Mor kuzhambu

Today, I am sharing a recipe of Mor kuzhambu, a curry made out of buttermilk - Mor (buttermilk) + kuzhambu (curry), which is an authentic recipe from Tamil Nadu. There are many variations of curry prepared using curd/ buttermilk across India like majjiga pulusu (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana), pulissery (Kerala), majjige huli (Karnataka), kadhi (Punjab) etc. 

I am a big fan of Saravana Bhavan mor kuzhambu, made with ground spices and sour buttermilk. The Saravana Bhavan at our office cafeteria used to serve delicious mor kuzhambu every Thursday as part of its South Indian Thali menu. Whenever I could, I used to skip bringing lunch from home, to savor Saravana Bhavan's mor kuzhambu with hot steamed rice. 

Ground spices and sour curd/ buttermilk are the heart of this curry.  I tried my hands at different proportions of spices and finally arrived at the best version, which I am posting today. Do give it a try and share your feedback in comments section.

You can add vegetables like bottle gourd, pumpkin, drumstick, chayote (chow chow), lady's finger (bhindi), eggplant (brinjal), etc. per your preference or cook it plain without any veggies. It tastes its best when paired with steamed rice. 


Like what you read? Follow me on YouTube for fresh videos and updates on every new post!

Ingredients:

  • Curd (slightly sour) - 1 cup
  • Diced bottle gourd - 1.5 cups 
  • Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
  • Water - 3 cups
  • Oil - 1 tbsp 
  • Salt, per taste
  • For mor kuzhambu paste
    • Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
    • Green chillies - 2 
    • Dhania (Coriander seeds) - 2 tsp
    • Jeera (Cumin) - 1 tsp
    • Toor dal (Yellow split pigeon peas) - 1 tsp
    • Rice - 1/2 tsp
  • For tempering
    • Mustard - 1/2 tsp
    • Jeera (Cumin) - 1/2 tsp
    • Fenugreek seeds - 1/8 tsp 
    • Red chilli - 1
    • Hing (asafetida) - 1 pinch
    • Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Procedure:
  • First add a cup of water to the curd and whisk well to make thick buttermilk
  • Rinse and soak dhania, jeera, toor dal and rice in water for 20-30 mins
  • Add a cup of water, 1/4 tsp turmeric and 1/2 tsp salt to bottle gourd and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Alternatively, you can cook bottle gourd in a vessel. Ensure it is not overcooked.
  • Grind soaked spices along with coconut and green chillies with 1/2 cup of water, to make a coarse paste
  • After releasing pressure, add the ground paste to bottle gourd, mix well and cook until the curry boils
  • Now, reduce the flame to low, add buttermilk to the boiling mixture and cook 
  • Add 1/2 tsp salt and water as required, until desired consistency is achieved
  • Once the curry starts to bubble, switch off the flame and set aside
  • Keep a pan and add oil. Once the oil is hot, add mustard and jeera and allow it to splutter well. Finally add fenugreek seeds, red chilli, hing and curry leaves and sauté.
  • Add the tempering to mor kuzhambu and mix well
  • Enjoy mor kuzhambu with hot rice and potato fry for side 
Tips:
  • Use sour curd. Otherwise the desired taste will not be achieved.
  • If you use lady's finger or brinjal, fry it in oil along with salt and turmeric until its cooked and then add to the curry. Pumpkin, chayote, drumstick should be cooked similar to bottle gourd explained in this recipe
  • If you are a spice lover, you may use 3 chillies
  • Coconut oil tempering enhances the flavor of this dish 
  • Yam/ bhindi/ plantain fry taste good as side dish for mor kuzhambu

Check below for the video recipe









 

Labels:

Comments

  1. suryaApril 3, 2022 at 9:37 PM

    😋

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 4, 2022 at 9:59 PM

    Thanks, i tried and it was easy and quick.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Neoflam AustraliaJune 7, 2022 at 2:24 AM

    I found one successful example of this truth through this blog. I am going to use such information now. Griddles Pan

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I Write - Q&A with Manu

I keep getting direct and indirect questions on Why I Write? There won't be a better occasion than this to address this Q and other frequently asked Qs. It's been exactly 2 years since I started this website -  Manu's Medley  and apparently this is my 100th blog post.  So Why I Write?  I can give a fancier reply stating "I chose to follow my passion". But I won't, as it isn't true. After being in the IT industry for more than a decade, working tirelessly all through the weeks, months and years, I moved to Canada carrying my little one, when the whole world was witnessing one of the deadliest diseases COVID. It was at the same time, I had to take a career break due to few compelling personal reasons and decided to be a full time mom.  It's a new place and a new role, with almost zero support, unlike the support system at India. To top it, the lockdowns and restrictions were never ending. The three of us spent months together within our apartment and my ...
8 comments
Read more

Review: Anex Monkey Smart Watch

Hello Readers,  Welcome back. While browsing through a weekly flyer by Canadian Tire, my eyes got hold of a smart watch, primarily for its name - Monkey Smart Watch. It's original price was $89.99. On account of Father's Day, the price was slashed 70% and offered for just $24.99 (from June 9th to June 16th).  As it was listed on Canadian Tire website, I thought the product should be genuine and googled to know more about the product. But there weren't sufficient reviews online. So I decided to try it myself and booked it online. This smart watch was launched in the last quarter of 2021 as Anex Monkey Smart Watch. Last year, it had been sold for just $19.99 as part of Black Friday deal. Even after 5 days of waiting, Canadian Tire didn't process my order. On the other hand, the stock was vanishing real quick and only 80 watches were available in our near by store. When checked with their customer service executive, I was told to cancel my online order or wait until they p...
32 comments
Read more

Keep Rutabaga Fresh! Storage Tips & 2 Indian Recipes You'll Love

Stepping beyond our usual choices in kitchen can open up a world of exciting flavors and nutrients. All it takes is to try a new vegetable or a cooking style to add novelty to our daily meals. Rutabaga, a vegetable I haven't explored before turned out to be a delightful discovery. If you haven't read my previous article on rutabaga, be sure to check it out here . It gives you a wholistic look at this underrated super vegetable along with a lip smacking Indian-style Rutabaga fry recipe you won't want to miss.  Apart from the fry, I prepared a flavorful Andhra-style karam pulusu and a comforting Tamil-style kootu using rutabaga. Surprisingly, both dishes turned out even more delicious than the fry! If I had to rank all the three recipes, the rutabaga pulusu would easily take the top spot—it was simply irresistible! How to store rutabaga for weeks? Rutabagas come in all sizes, but the smaller ones can be more bitter and the bigger ones could be woody and tough to cut. So go fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Book: First They Killed My Father

"First They Killed My Father" was on my To Be Read (TBR) list for sometime. Finally, I read it as part of my book goals for the year 2021. It is a heart wrenching memoir written by Loung Ung, who survived the Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia.  The story starts off with Loung narrating her family and life at Phnom Penh before communists took over Cambodia; their family fleeing Phnom Penh due to Khmer Rouge’s attack; the struggles their family encounters while travelling from one village to the other, concealing their identity for survival; their ordeal working for Khmer Rouge. In the due course, Loung’s father gets killed, her family gets separated with Loung ending up in the Khmer Rouge troop as a child soldier. By the time Cambodia is liberated, Loung also loses her mother, 2 sisters and finally unites with rest of her siblings. The books ends with Loung migrating to the United States along with her elder brother and sister-in-law. It is a very well written book ...
7 comments
Read more

My experiments making baingan bartha (Roasted brinjal curry)

Brinjal is known as "the King of vegetables", for its beautiful purple body with a crown and rich nutritional value. There are umpteen varieties of brinjal and is known by different names grown across  the world - eggplant, baingan, aubergine, garden egg etc. This versatile vegetable can be easily turned into a variety of mouth watering dishes. In many recipes, it is also used as a substitute to meat. When I come across people who don't eat this wonderful vegetable, I silently laugh inside knowing what they are missing.  Fortunately, everyone in our family loves brinjal in whatever form it is prepared - sambar, fry, nune vankaya, guthi vankaya, vankaya pachadi (chutney), katrika kootu, katrika karakuzhambu, aloo baingan, baingan bartha, baba ganoush (mediterranean eggplant dip), grilled eggplant, eggplant parmesan (similar to lasagna) and the list goes on..... Baingan ka bartha is a very popular Punjabi recipe. As a pre-preparation, we have to roast the brinjal on direct ...
1 comment
Read more