Dahi Mula ( Mooli ka Raita )

'Dahi-Mulaa' or Mooli Raita is one of the dishes prepared for Lord Jaganaath's Midday meal, also known as the 'abhada'. With a generous amount of coconut and a tinge of sweetness, it is a nice thick raita that tastes wonderful when served with anna, dali and besara. However, I enjoy it with plain rice and yellow dal or even paratha.

Cooking time required: 10-15 mins

Ingredients:

• Radish(mooli) ( 1 large)
• freshly grated coconut ( 1 cup)
• curd (3/4 th cup)
• sugar ( 1-2 tsp)coriander seeds (1 tsp)
• mustard seeds (1/4 tsp)
• red chillies (1-2 nos)
• curry leaves (5-6 nos)
• oil (1 tsp)
• salt to taste
• 2-3 pinch coarsely ground pepperorns (golmaricha)

Cooking: Grate the radish, squeeze out excess water and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the grated coconut, curd, sugar, ground peppercorn and salt. Mix well and keep aside.

Heat the oil in a pan, when smoking add the spices (red chilli, coriander seeds and mustard seeds) and a few curry leaves (curry leaf flavor should not dominate the dish). Pour the spluttering mix into the mixing bowl and mix.

Serves as a excellent side dish for any vegetarian meal (personally, i prefer not to have radish with any non-vegetarian dish. Not a very good idea to have two dominant flavors fight it out among themselves).