Sambar Rice

A lunchbox recipe

Keep these ready :

Cooked rice – 2 cups
Tuvar dal – 1 cup
Tomatoes – 2 nos
Small onions – 10 nos
Drumstick – 1 no
Carrot – 1 no
Turmeric – a pinch
Chilly powder – 1 tspn
Coriander powder -2 tspn
Tamrind extract – 2 tbl spn

Seasoning
Mustard – 1 tspn
Methi seeds – ¼ tspn
Red chilly – 2 nos
Green chilly – 2 nos
Curry leaves – few

Prepration

Pressure cook tuvar dal with one tomato chopped into pieces.

Take a pan. Add oil and add the seasoning items.
Add onions. Saute till they become soft.
Add chopped tomato.
When it is cooked, add the vegetables. ( You can use bringal/ash gourd/pumpkin). You can use vegetables of your choice.
Add turmeric,chiily powder, coriander powder and salt.
Mix well.Add enough water to cook the vegetables.
Cover and cook for 10 mts.
If the vegetables are cooked well, add the cooked tuvar dal. Mash the dal before adding.
Add the tamarind extract. When it starts boiling remove from fire.
Add fresh coriander and curry leaves.
Take the rice in a bowl. Slightly mash it with the ladle. Mix sambar with the rice well.

Maddur Vada

This popular snack of Karnataka is named after the town Maddur in Mandhya district. This vada is unique to the Karnataka state.
Here goes the recipe for mouthwatering, crispy vadas, which I learnt from a cookery show in a television channel

You need:
Raw rice powder – 1 cup
Wheat flour – ½ cup
Rava – ½ cup
Maida- ½ cup
Onion – 1
Curry leaves – 4 strands
Green chilly – 4 nos
Salt
Oil – for deep frying

How to make the vadas

Mix all the flours,salt, chopped onion, chillies and curry leaves. Mix well
Heat 3 tbspn of oil to smoking point. Pour the oil to the mix
Take a small portion of the mixture and mix water. Make a soft dough.
It is not advisable to mix the whole portion with water, since by the
time we prepare, the mixture will be soggy and it will absorb too
much of oil. Also you may not get crispy vadas.

Take a plastic sheet. Grease it with oil. Take a small ball of the mixture and keep it on the sheet.
Spread to thin vadas of small pappad size by your fingers.
Deep fry with medium flame.

Raddish Chutney

Ingredients

Medium sized raddish – 2 Nos
Onion - 1

Coriander seeds – 1 tb spn
Methi seeds – ¼ tspn
Urad dhal – 1 ½ tspn
Red chilli – 2
Jeera – ½ tspn

Prepration

Grate the raddish and fry it with little oil.
Saute onion.
Roast coriander seeds, urad dal, red chilli, methi seeds and jeera with little oil.
While roasting, add jeera and methi towards the end since it might get burnt.
Grind all the ingredients, except onion, to a fine paste.
Then add onion and grind coarsely.

This chutney goes well with dosa and chappathi.

Baingan Kurma

Things Needed

Brinjal - 1/2 Kg
Onion - 100 gm
Tomato - 200gm
Curd - 1/2 cup
Oil - 2 tbpsn
Garam masala - 1/2 tspn
Salt

Grinding -1

Garlic - 50 gm
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
cumin seed - 1/2 tsp
khus khus (poppy seeds) - 2 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Grinding -2

Grated coconut- 1/4 cup

Prepration

Cut the brinjal into long pieces. Apply little chilly powder,turmeric and salt. Keep it for 15 minutes.
Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the brinjals till light brown and remove.
In the remaining oil, fry onion till soft.
Add the grinded masala 1 to it and fry till aroma comes.
Add the chopped tomatoes and salt
When tomoatoes are cooked, add the fried brinjal and add little water.
Cook for 5 mts till the gravy thickens.
Add the grounded coconut paste and beaten curd.
Cook till it boils.
Sprinkle garam masala powder and remove.

Microwave Tomato Rasam

Required:-

Medium sized tomatoes - 2 Nos
Tamarind extract - 2 tbspn
Water - 2 cups
Red chilly - 3
Jaggery powdered - 1/2 tbspn (Optional)

For Powdering

Pepper - 5 corns
Coriander seeds - 1 tbspn
Cumin seeds - 1 tspn

Slightly fry all the three ingredients and powder them finely.

Prepration

Make puree of the tomatoes

Take a microwave safe bowl. Mix tomato puree,tamrind extract, water,salt, jaggery, powdered masala.Add the red chillies after breaking into two.

Keep in the oven for 4 mts at micropower high

Stir once and keep for another 1 minute depending on your oven type.

Season with mustard seeds. Add curry leaves and coriander leaves.

You can use this rasam with rice or drink it as soup. It will be a good appetizer.

Microwave Mysurpa

This is the microwave version of the mysurpa. Unlike the traditional way of making, this is quite easy and can be quickly made.

Ingredients
Besan flour - 1 cup
Powdered sugar - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Milk - 2 tspn

Lightly fry the besan. This is just to remove the raw smell of besan. You can as well heat the pan for few minutes till it turns hot. Remove the pan from fire. Then add besan and keep mixing for sometime. That heat is enought to roast the besan flour.

Mix besan,powdered sugar and ghee in a microwave safe bowl. Make sure no lumps are there.

Keep it in oven for 2 1/2 mts at micropower high.

Take the bowl out and add milk and mix well.

Again keep for 2 1/2 mts at micropower high.
Here please check after one minute .Becoz, the heat differs from oven to oven.So there is a chance that it might get burnt if kept for a longer time. So check in between. You can make out the change in the color of the mixture. It froths.

Remove the bowl and mix well.

Transfer the contents to a greased plate.

When cool, cut into pieces.

You get very soft,tasty mysurpas in five mts

Total prepration time - 15 mts

Coriander Chutney

Kothamalli Thokayal


Ingredients

Coriander leaves - 1 cup
curry leaves - 1 strand (optional)
urad dal - 2 tb spn
red chilli - 3 nos
tamarind paste - tbspn
salt

How to prepare
Raost urad dal and red chilli with a teaspoon of oil. When urad dal turns red, remove from fire
Saute coriander and curry leaves for a minute, till they change the color.
Grind all the ingredients to a coarse paste. Thokayals taste good if it is grinded caorsely.

Enjoy with molakootal. This will go with dosa/chappathis also.

Madras Vethakozhambu

I think I should rename this as chennai vethakozhambu...

Ingredients
--------------
Chundakka/manathankkali vethal - 2 tb spn
Red chilli - 2 nos
methi seeds - 1 tspn
small onion - 8 nos (optional)
mustard - 1 tspn
Gingelly oil (Nallennai) - 2 tbspn
tamarind - small lemon size
Salt
turmeric - a pinch

Grinding
--------
Coriander seeds - 2 tbspn
red chilli - 6 nos
jeera - 1 tspn
methi seeds- 1 tspn
curry leaves - 1 strand

Grind the above ingredients in powder form. Don't add water. It is not necessary that it should be powdered finely.

Prepration
------------
Take a wok. Add gingelly oil (I prefer nallennai. it tastes good).
Add mustard seeds. when splutters, add red chilly and vethal.
Let it fry for 2/3 minutes
Add onions and saute till it turns brown.
Then add the grinded masala . Fry for a minute.
Add the extracted tamarind juice, turmeric and salt.
Let it simmer and when it starts to thicken, remove from fire.

Small quanitity of the kozhambu is taken while mixing with rice unlike sambhar and other kootans.

Nenthrapazham varattiyathu - (Banana in jaggery syrup)

Ingredients
Ripe banana - 1
Powdered jaggery - 4 tbspn
ghee- 2 tspn
powdered cardamom - 1/2 tspn

Take one ripe nethrapazham variety of banana. It shld not be over ripe.
Cut into circles of 1/4 inch thick pcs. Don't slice into thin circles since it will be get mashed when u mix later.
Take a non-stick pan.
Add a tspn of ghee and add the banana pcs.
Cook it over low heat.
When it is 3/4 th cooked, add powdered jaggery and mix well.
Cover and cook for 5 mts.
The jaggery would have melted and get coated over the banana pcs. Remove from fire and half a tspn of ghee and a tspn of cardamom powder.

A good breakfast accompaniment. healthy too....

Following the same steps,it can be cooked in microwave oven also.

Maaladoo

Ingredients


Pottukadalai/porikadalai/Chutney Dal - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups ( can take 1 1/2 cups also if u wish to have it less sweeter)
Ghee - 1 cup
Powdered caradamom - 2 tea spn
Cashew,raisins (Optional)

1) Dry roast the pottukadalai for 2 mts. It makes powdering easier.
2)Grind the pottukadalai finely
3)Seive the powdered flour to separate the coarse ones.
4)Finely powder sugar
5) Heat a tea spoon of ghee in a kadai, roast the cashew and raisins.
6) Mix the roasted cashews,raisins, cardamon powder,powdered pottukadalai and sugar.
7) Mix well
8) Take one portion of the mixture in a bowl.
9)Heat 3 tablespoon ghee for a minute.
10) Pour ghee into the mixture taken in the bowl
11) Mix and see to that it is reached to a consistency where u can roll them into lemon sized balls.
12) Repeat steps from 8 -11 for the remaining mixture left.

Cucumber Wheat Dosa

An easy to make breakfast recipe and healthy too. This recipe will come in handy when you run out of resources for the usual idly and dosa. Also can try this for a change.

Ingeredients
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Grated cucumber - 1 cup
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
crushed/powdered pepper - 1 tea spn
jeera - 1 tea spn
salt - to taste
water - as required.

Make a smooth batter mixing all the ingredients. Keep it aside for 15 mts.
Make dosas. You get good soft doasas.Any type of chutney goes with it.

Rasa Kaalan

Ingredients

ash gourd - 1 cup
yellow Pumpkin- 1 cup
(Both cut into cubes)
drumstick - 2 nos cut into 1.5" long
brinjal - 1 (optional)
Ladies finger - 5 nos cut into 1" long pieces (optional)
powdered jaggery - 1 tspoon
blended curd - 1 cup

Grinding
grated coconut - 1 cup
green chilly - 5 nos
black pepper - 8 corns
rice flour - 1 tspn ( I add rice flour for thickening of the gravy. Amount of coconut can be reduced)

Grind the above to a smooth paste and keep it aside

(no of chilly and pepper can be adjusted according to one's taste)

Seasoning
mustard seeds
Red chilly - 2
methi seed -1/2 tspn

Take ash gourd,pumpkin and drumstick in a vessel. Add water so that the vegetable pieces are immersed in water.
Add 1/2 tspn salt, pinch of turmeric and 1/2 tspn of red chilly powder. when these vegetables are half cooked, add brinjal and ladies finger pcs. Add powdered jaggery.
Once the vegetables are cooked, add the grinded paste. mix well.
When it starts to boil, add the blended curd. Add salt as required. (Salt added in the beginning is for the vegetables and now for the gravy).
When bubbles start forming, it should be removed.
When adding curd, it should not boil too much, else the gravy will become thin and taste also changes.

Add the seasoning and curry leaves.

Yummy gravy for rice is ready. This is one of my favorites of mom's cooking. Many a times I can't match her taste.

Seven Cup Cake

Seven Cup Cake

An easy sweet to make. Not much of paakam etc so even beginners can take a plunge....

Milk - 1 cup
Basin - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups
Grated cocunut - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 cup

The ingredients add to 7 cup and hence the name. Actually if you want you can reduce the quantity of sugar to 2 1/2 cups also.

Take a kadai or a heavy bottom vessel.Boil the milk.
Add coconut to the boiling milk. Stir till the milk mixes with the coconut and no moisture is left.
Add sugar. When sugar syrup starts to thicken ( make sure no sugar crystals seen)add the besan flour slowly without forming lumps. Let it cook for 3 minutes.
Slowly add ghee to it and keep stiring.
When it starts to leave the sides of the pan, pour the mixture on a greased plate.
When it cools, cut into desired shape

Kesari

First recepie - A sweet.

Rava Kesari
Fried Rava - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Elaichi powder - 1/2 t.sp
Cashew/Kismis - 1 tb sp
yellow/red colour - 1 pinch

Boil water after adding color to it. Add the fired rava slowly to the boiling water. Keep mixing while adding rava to avoid forming lumps. When rava is cooked (ie, when the rava and water forms a solid proposition) add sugar to it with continuous stirring. You will see some rava lumps already. Don't panic. You can break them using the laddle by pressing on the lumps. Keep mixing. When it starts to solidify, add ghee little by little. Add elaichi powder. When the mixture does not stick to the sides of the pan, it is ready.
Take a small frypan. Add 1 teaspoon of ghee. Add cashew to it. When cashew starts browning, add kismis.
Add the fried cashew and kismis to the kesari and mix well.

Preparation time - 15 mts
Serves - 4

Usually I make this after dinner when Hubby dear cannot find any sweet to eat. This is the instant sweet which can be made with the 'all time' readily available items in the kitchen.