Dhavanai Idli

This is the dish when you eat once you wont forget the taste of it! Just try it!

Ingredients

Urad dal – ½ cup
Channa dal-½ cup
Toor dal -½ cup
Raw rice -1½ cup
For tempering
Mustard seeds -1 tsp
Urad dal – 1 tsp
Curry leaves
Coconut ½ cup freshly grated
Ginger finely chopped.




Method:
Total Dal quantity should be equal to rice quantity. Soak toor dal,channa dal together and urad dal and rice separately for 2 hours.

Grind the toor dal,channa dal first and rice second. Grind the urad dal lastly. Then mix all the batter together . add salt to the batter. Leave it overnight to ferment.

Heat oil in a kadai then add mustard seeds,urad dal,curry leaves, ginger and coconut . sauté it for few minutes. Add the sautéed things to the batter.Grease all the tumblers in oil. Then pour the batter in the tumblers and let it cook for 20 to 25 minutes in steam.

Allow it cool for some time then with a knife or spoon take the idlis from the tumblers and cut it into pieces. Serve hot with tomato chutney!

Potato Masala !

If you want to have potato masala (for poori) as a gravy just grind roasted gram with water into a paste and add it to the masala. Quantity wise you will have more masala too!

Tomato Chutney for Adai

Usually we will have avial, or some other chutney for adai. But this chutney will beat all.Try it out!This comes under 2 –in- 1 section for tomato.

Ingredients

Tomato – ripen 3 or 4
Garilic pods – 3 or 4
Red chillies - 2 or 3
Coconut freshly grated – ½ cup
Salt –as required



Method:
Grind all the ingredients given above. This is a great combination for adai.
Since garlic is put freshly in this chutney, Just be sure to have a pepper mint when you have this in morning.

you can temper it with mustard seeds if you want!

Tomato Soup

Seeing Vegan Ventures event in Suganya's Tasty Palettes , I thought this is the perfect oppurtunity for me to post this recipe. I got this recipe from my neighbour Lalitha who also has given so many recipes which are yet to be posted. I thank her for giving me so many recipes which are a great hit in my house.




This is my entry for Vegan Ventures.


Ingredients
Tomatoes -10 to 12
Cloves -3 to 4
Cinnamon – 2 sticks
Red chilli powder ¼ tsp or pepper powder as per requirement
Salt
Garlic- 4 to 5 pods





Method:
Dunk the tomatoes in hot water and peel. Grind the blanched tomatoes,cloves,cinnamon,garlic pods together . keep a broad pan in the stove and pur the ground tomatoes in it. Add 2 glassess of water. Put red chilli powder and salt.If you dont want red chilli powder then add pepper powder while serving.let it boil till the aroma of the soup comes. Then mix the corn flour in the water and pour it in the soup and let it boil for few minutes. Add finely chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

I decided to put this recipe in 2 in 1 category also b'coz I have another Tomato based recipe which will be posted soon.

Use Chilli powder instead of Red chillies!

Use Chilli powder instead of red chillies in Adai batter. The taste will be different!

Urundai Kuzhambu

This recipe is again a favorite of all members in my family!!! Actually this recipe is done by my Husband's aunty !she knows we love this recipe and she home delivered this to us! So here it is!!!!

Ingredients for the Balls
1.Channa dhal
2.Cumin seeds- 2 tsp
3.green chillies – 2
4.Garlic pods – 10
5. Onion – 2 finely chopped
6.Freshly grated coconut – ¼ cup
7.Salt

Soak channa dhal for 1 hour. Grind channa dhal with cumin seeds, garlic pods, coconut and salt. add chopped onion, green chillies to the ground dhal. Make balls and keep it aside.




Ingredients for the kuzhambu (Gravy)
1.Onion – 1 finely chopped
2.Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
3.Tamarind extract – ½ cup
4.Red chilli powder – 1 ½ tsp
5.Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
6.Curry leaves
7.Oil
8.Salt
9.Water 3- 4 cups

In a pan heat oil and put mustard seeds, after tempering mustard seeds add onion ,curry leaves and sauté well.Then add red chilli powder, turmeric powder after sometime add the tamarind extract , water and let it boil till it get thick. Add salt .You can add extra water if tamarind extract is too sour. Then add the balls to the gravy and let it cook for 20 to 25 minutes.No need to steam cook the balls. This will be very nice to have with white rice.

PS: Care should be taken so that gravy doesn't get dried up.you can add water and let to boil if there is no enough gravy.

If Tomato chutney gets too hot!!

If your Tomato chutney gets too hot by the chillies then add a quarter tsp of sugar to it. The chutney will taste better.

Pudalangai puttu/Snake gourd puttu

This recipe is loved by every one in my family!! when sunitha announced this month's event I thought of all dishes which has cumin as major spice and this dish instantly came to my mind.



Ingredients
1. Snake gourd -4
2. Onion -3
3. Red Chillies -4
4. Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
5. Garlic – 15 pods
6. Salt – as per the requirement
7. Channa dhal – ¾ cup
8. Curry leaves
9. Oil – as per the requirement

Method
Soak the channa dhal for one hour. Grind the channa dhal with cumin seeds ,red chillies ,garlic pods and salt .
Chop the onions, snake gourd . Heat oil in a pan and sauté onion and curry leaves. After sometime put the snake gourd and sauté thoroughly. No need to put salt in this since salt has already been put in the channa dhal paste. Then put the ground paste and let it cook in medium flame. Oil can be poured generously to enhance the taste while sautéing.

This is my entry for 'Think Spice -Cumin'

Bread with Coconut milk!

This one is again a favorite of mine which was intoduced by my grand father. This recipe can be done in a short time.



Ingredients
1. Bread 10 slices
2. Coconut milk – 2 cups
3. Sugar as per the requirement

Method
Cut the bread slices into pieces. Pour the coconut milk and add sugar. Keep refrigerated for fifteen minutes and serve! It will taste delicious.

Baby Corn Manchurian

We all know about Gobi manchurian... this one is really different! check it out! my friend asked about this.. so this recipe.

Ingredients

1. Baby corn –slitted
2. All purpose flour (Maida)-1 fistful
3. Rice flour -1 fistful
4. Corm flour – 2 fistfuls
5. lime juice -2 tsp
6. soya sauce – 2 tsp
7. salt – as per requirement
8. sugar- ½ tsp
9. green bell pepper – 1
10.onion -1 finely chopped
11. ginger garlic-chilli(1) paste



Method

Mix maida, rice flour, corn flour, salt,sugar,lime juice, soya sauce and baby corn well. Just sprinkle water to bind the ingredients . then deep fry the baby corn till it turns golden brown. Keep it aside.
You can have it as dry Manchurian also.

For the gravy
Heat oil in a wok and sauté onion, ginger – garlic-chilli paste. Add capsicum, soya sauce 1 tsp and again sauté for 2 minutes. Add salt and fried baby corn .Then add some water. Mix corn flour in water and add to the above.

Kadalai Paruppu Adai /Thavalai Adai

Kadalai paruppu adai or thavalai adai is a favorite one in my mom's place! if you do not want to prepare adai one by one then this is the one you will be looking for!

Ingredients
1. gram dhall -1 ½ cups
2. raw rice – 2 cups
3. salt
For tempering
1. mustard seeds
2. urad dhall
3. asafetida – ¼ tsp
4. curry leaves
5. red chilies -3 or 4
6. cashew nuts – broken(optional)
7. pepper corns – 1 tsp
8. cumin seeds – 1 tsp





Method
Soak dhall and rice together for 2 hours. Wash and grind it into a not so smooth batter. Add salt while grinding.
Heat oil in a kadai and put mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Add urad dhall, red chilies, pepper corns, cumin seeds, asafetida , curry leaves, cashew nuts . wait till all the ingredients get golden brown in color.mix all the ingredients in the ground batter. Then heat the pressure cooker and pour oil in it. Let the oil gets heated and pour all the batter in the cooker and close the cooker. Let it cook for 25 to 30 minutes. Then serve hot. Sugar is a good accompaniment for this dish.Do not put weight in the cooker.

7 facts about me!

I was quite surprised when tagged by Laavanya and suganya!Actually I liked to read all other's meme...got to know about others a lot.This is my meme!

1. I am a voracious reader though I started reading books in my UG course! My dear friend prabha introduced me to books. I just love to read anything!

2. I am a coffee lover ! How I came through my pregnancy time without coffee is really a puzzle to me .

3. I love spending time with my daughter pavithra ! she brings so much of happiness and laughter in our lives!

4. I like to go to functions and visit all the friends and family members otherwise where you can see all your relatives at once ??.

5. Suganya and I are not only classmates ,we did some programmes for (All India Radio) AIR for some days during our PG course!

6. I believe in hard work. Whatever you want to achieve hard work will surely help you to achieve it.

7. I will not be easily discouraged. I believe in “you can win”.

I am tagging cynthia,ramya .Please write about you only if you are interested!!

Podi Dosai

This type of dosai was introduced to me by my grandpa.if you do not want to prepare ordinary dosai then try this type..



Ingredients
Dosai batter
Onion – 2 finely chopped
Green chilies -2 chopped
Milagai podi – as per requirement
Oil – as per requirement

Method
Sauté onion, green chilies. Then mix it with the dosai batter. Heat the tawa and pour a ladleful of batter. Then sprinkle milagai podi on top of the dosai. Put oil on side of the dosai. Turn over the dosai after it turns golden brown. Then take the dosai from the tawa after the other side also gets cooked. Repeat the same for the remaining batter. Serve hot podi dosai with coconut chutney. Dosai can be served as it is also.

Re Heat Idlies in microwave oven!

You have left over idlies??? dont want to make idli upma too? Then soak the idlies in water and put it in microwave idli plates.. then set the oven to high power (100%) and set the time to one minute or one and half minute. you will get idlies as soft as the freshly made idlies!!

Maggi Vegetable Noodle!!

We all know maggi noodles which is the most favorite for the children and elders too. This Noodles is the favorite of my friends in college. whenever I take it to college it will get over in the first hour itself. My friend asked me to post this recipe. So I have .


Maggi Noodles 1 packet
Onion – 1
Tomato – 1
Carrot – ½ cup
Potato – ½ cup
Beans – ½ cup
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Salt – as per the requirement
Water – 2 cups for maggi and 1 cup for vegetables
Oil as per the requirement



Method
Heat the kadai and pour oil. Sauté the onion and tomato. After 2 minutes put the vegetables and sauté. Then put chilli powder and maggi Taste maker powder. After 2 minutes pour the water. Let the vegetables cook for some time. Then break the maggi noodles and put it in the kadai. Let it cook for some time.
Vegetable maggi noodles is ready!

While Melting Butter to make ghee!!!

Wash the cooking butter in the water(just open the tap and show the friezed butter in water!!).It will not smell bad while melting.

To make adai crisper!!

To make adai crisper and protein enhanced add soyachunks while grinding the adai batter!!

For quickly sauteing Onion and Tomato

If you want to saute onion and tomato quickly then add salt while sauteing.They will be sauteed quickly!

Pepper Dhal

Dhal is one of the basic ingredients in south indian cooking.Dhal has amino acids which is very good for health.There are so many ways to cook dhal like just tempering it with mustard seeds,green chillies for one and so on.. This recipe is again taught to me by my MIL which is a favorite in my family.




Ingredients

Toor dhall - ¾ cup
Onion -1 chopped
Tomato - 1 chopped
Salt
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Oil
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves

For grinding
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Black Pepper – 1 tsp
Garlic – 6 to 7 pods

Method:

Cook toor dhall with turmeric powder in pressure cooker. Heat pan and put oil in it. Put mustard seeds in oil. let it splutter. Then add chopped onion, curry leaves and sauté it. After one or two minutes add tomato.
After the tomatoes are sautéed then pour the dhall in the pan .then put the ground mixture into the pan. Then add salt .
Serve with hot rice or rotis!

For longer shelf life of Pickle!!!

If you prepare pickle at home,grind and powder the mustard seeds and put it in the pickle.Pickle wont get spoiled for long time.

Idli with Thakali Kuzhambu!!

Chutney,vadakari,sambar...... what are these ?? side dishes for idli, dosais...these are the ones i knew. But my MIL taught me Thakali kuzhambu which as soon as I had for the first time became my favorite one.It has all the spices ... which will taste very nice and very very easy to make too.

Ingredients
1. Onion – 2
2. Tomato -3
3. Cloves-2
4. cinnamon -2 small sticks
5. Bengal Gram –a fistful
6. Red chillies – 3
7. Coriander powder – 2 tsp
8. Pepper corn -3
9. fennel seeds -1 tsp
10. Cumin seeds-1 tsp
11. freshly grated coconut - ¼ cup
For tempering
12.oil
13. Mustard seeds
14. Curry leaves
15. chopped onion – ½
Method
Chop the onions, tomatoes . Heat the pan and put oil. Sauté all the things given in the ingredients list.Let it cool. Then put in the mixer and grind into a smooth paste.
Again heat oil in the pan and put mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Then put onion, green chillies,curry leaves and sauté. Then add the ground paste . Add water till you get the pouring consistency.let it boil for 10 to 15 minutes.
Serve hot with idlis or dosais!

This is my entry for WBB#12 Spice it up event!!!

Simple Baby Corn Masala

There is baby corn manjurian which is apt for starters, fried rice etc.. but I thought a simple masala which can be used for rice and rotis will do.. so the simple baby corn masala!

Ingredients
Baby corn –cut into small pieces
Onion -2
Tomato
Ginger-Garlic Paste – 2 tsp
Chilli powder -2 tsp
Salt
oil
Method:
Heat oil in a kadai and sauté onion. Then put ginger-garlic paste. Sauté it till the raw smell goes. Then put tomato. After some time put chilli powder. Then put the baby corns . Then add salt.
After 10 or 15 minutes take it out and serve hot with sambar rice or rotis.

To Make paneer soft!

After frying the paneer cubes, put it in water for some time.It will become soft .

Baby Corn Bajji

I got inspired by suganya to do a 1-in-3 recipes.I thought of giving 2 in 1 recipes instead.when I searched the crisper I just had baby corns.. and an idea came just in time.yes! I am talking about baby corn bajji... which came very nicely too





Baby Corn Bajji
Ingredients
1.Baby corn
2.Besan flour -2 cups
3.Rice flour – ¼ cup
4.Chilli powder -2 tsp
5.salt – 1 tsp
6.soda bi carb – a pinch
7. water
Method
Mix besan,rice flour together. To that add salt,chilli powder,soda-bi- carb and mix well. Add water to this mixture and make it like idli batter (for consistency).Heat oil in a kadai. Then if the baby corns are tender just soak in the batter else slit the baby corn . put it in oil and fry till its golden brown in color.

For Softer Chapathis...

To make chapathis even softer ,turn upside down the stack of chapathis in between. keep it in a closed container.

Enhance the Taste!!!!!

Add a spoon of gingelly oil to Rava Upma after it has been cooked.It will enhance the taste.
(After switching off the stove!)

The Foodie Blog Roll !!!!!!

I saw this foodie blog roll in HOT N'SWEET BOWL blog! which is a very nice idea to integrate all food blogs...

Those who want to take a look can go Here

Adai !

Adai is the favorite dish for everybody in my family. Nothing can beat the taste of adai! Give it a try !

Ingredients

Toor dhall - 1½ cups
Uncooked rice - 1½ cups
Red dry chillies - 4 or 5
Garlic - 8 to 10 pods
Cumin seeds – 2 to 3 tsps
Salt - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Onion - 2 finely chopped
Curry leaves
Oil

Method
Soak uncooked rice , toor dhal together for 2 hours . grind the rice and toor dhall .while grinding put the red chillies, cumin seeds, garlic pods, turmeric powder and salt. Grind a bit coarsely. Do not grind too smoothly.
Sauté onion and curry leaves. Mix the sautéed onion in the batter.
Heat the tawa and pour a ladle full of batter in it and make adai. Pour oil in the edges of the adai. Wait till it turns golden brown. Turn the adai and again wait till it gets cooked.




Tasty adai is ready to eat .
You can eat it as it is or with chutney ,tomato ketchup.

Don't Add Salt at the beginning!!!

Do not add salt while cooking vegetables in microwave at the beginning because it will never get cooked.(it will take all the water content from vegetables and the vegetables will become dry.)

For chat items!!

Use white onions for bhel puri and chat items since its not as hot as other onions.and also remove the inside pulp of tomatoes for the same items because chat items will become watery if tomatoes are used as it is.

Rava Idli

Tired of making ordinary idlis ?????? try this rava idli... its easy to make once you have all the ingredients together.

Ingredients
Rava -4 cups
Curd -2 cups
Milk - ½ cup
Green chillies-3
Mustard seeds -1 tsp
Cumin seeds-1 tsp
Black pepper-1 tsp
Ginger 1 inch piece cut into small pieces
Urad dhall 2 tsp
Cashew nuts broked
Curry leaves
Turmeric powder ½ tsp
Salt 2 tsp
Oil –for tempering

Roast rava in a pan for 10 to 15 minutes. Let it cool. Heat oil in a pan ,add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dhall, green chillies, ginger, cashew nuts , turmeric powder . fry these things in oil till urad dhall ,cashew nuts become brown in color.Keep it aside.

Mix the rava and the fried things together. Add salt. Let it cool.
Add curd and mix. if the batter is dry ,add milk and some water. Do not add too much water. The batter should be like idli flour consistency.if the curd is sour too much you can add another ½ cup of milk. So it wont be sour.

Pour the batter in the idli plates and cook for 25 to 30 minutes in idli cooker.
Serve hot with coconut or pudina chutney.
P.S you can add grated carrot at the top of the batter in idli plates.it will look great!

This is my entry for Nupur’s A-Z of Indian Vegetables

Peel garlic in a jiffy!

Soak garlics in water for 15 to 20 minutes and you can peel the garlics easily!

Vegetable Biriyani

To cook the same sambar,kootu,poriyal,Rasam daily!!!!!!!!! Oh! boring!

Vegetable Biriyani is an ideal lunch for sunday!!

Ingredients

Basmati rice-2 cups
Onion-3
Tomato-4
Green chillies-7 to 8 Slitted
Beans-1 cup
Potato- 2
Peas-1 cup
Carrot-1 cup
Pudina leaves-1 cup
Ginger- garlic paste
cloves-3
cinnamon-2
Chilli powder-1 table spoon
Turmeric powder 1/2 spoon
Salt according to the taste(app 2 to 3 table spoons)
oil-approximately 5 table spoons(pour to your need)
water -4 cups(2 cups for 1 cup rice)

Cooking Method

Wash Basmati rice and soak it for 15 minutes. cut the onions length wise.cut the vegtables. put the Pan and pour oil in it. after the oil is heated put cinnamon,cloves. let it fry for 1 minute then put pudina leaves. then add onion and green chillies and saute it. add ginger-garlic paste.let it fry for 2 minutes. then add tomatoes and saute it. Now add vegetables and let it saute it for some time. Add turmeric powder and Chilli powder. Add salt and 1 cup water for the vegetables to cook.let it boil for 10 minutes. Then add the rice and pour 4 cups of water.
Do not close the lid immediately.
let the water evaporate till the rice can be seen.then put the stove in medium flame and close the lid. After 15 minutes switch off the stove.serve it with onion or cucumber raitha!

Garam masala for gravies only

Do not put garam masala powder for pulavs, biriyanis. it should be put only for gravies!

Softer rava idlis!

Add some milk to rava idli batter to make idlis soft! it really works! try it out!

For salty dishes!

To decrease the salt amount in a dish put some raw potatoes and boil it. the saltiness will be reduced