Potato-Peas-cauliflower Kurma

This vegetable kurma is a great side dish for chapathis or Kerala coin parathas. It is a coconut based white gravy flavored with mild spices.Its a quick one if you have grated coconut ready in your pantry.

Aloo-Mattar Kurma

Ingredients

Serves - 4
Spice Level - Moderate

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Badams/Almonds - 6
Jeera - 2 Tspn
Saunf - 1 Tspn
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 Tbspn
Green chilli - 4
cloves - 2
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Tomato - 1 Finely chopped
1 cup of chopped mix veggies, - I used potato,peas and cauliflower.
Oil - 2 Tbspn
Jeera - 1 Tspn
Salt -  as per taste
Turmeric - 1/4 Tspn


Method

First grind the first 7 ingredients with 1/2 cup water to a fine paste. Keep aside. Boil the chopped veggies till its half-cooked. Keep aside.

Heat oil in a kadai. Add jeera and let it roast. Add in the chopped onions and saute it till translucent. Add chopped tomatoes salt and turmeric. Cook till the tomatoes are soft and juicy. Now add in the ground paste , and saute for a couple of minutes. Add about 1 cup water and let it simmer in low heat for about five minutes.Now throw in the half-cooked veggies and let them cook through in the gravy. Add more salt if needed. Also add in water if needed to get desired consistency.Switch off flame. Serve with hot chapathis :). Simple NO?



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Pesarattu/Lentil crepe

This is not exactly the recipe of Pesarattu or Adai, something in between :-). This recipe is my mom's and I have adapted it from there. So "Adai paadhi, pesaratuu paadhi, rendum serndha kalavai naan" [for those who can understand Tamil ;)]. And i must say its one of  the easiest and fastest dish to create.

Pesarattu/Lentil crepe

Ingredients

Serves - Makes about 15 Pesarattu
Spice Level - Moderate

Raw Rice - 1 cup
Green Gram Dal - 3/4 cup
Yellow Moong dal - 1/2 cup

1. Green chilli - 4
2. jeera - 2 Tspn
3. Saunf - 1 Tspn
4. Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2 Tspn
5. Turmeric - 1/2 Tspn
6. Tomato - 2 medium sized
7. Coriander Leaves - a handful
8. Curry leaves - handful

Onion - 1 Large, chopped finely.
Corn Flour - 2 Tbspn
Salt - 2 Tbspn [as per need]


Method

Wash and soak the raw rice and green gram and yello moong dal in 3 cups of water for about 1.5-2 hours.Drain the water and use the same for grinding. Grind the soaked rice and dal along with ingredients 1-8 .It needs to be ground to a smooth dosa-like consistency batter.Transfer the batter to a bowl.

Now mix the corn-flour with 4 Tbpn water to make a smooth paste.Add this paste along with chopped onions and salt to the batter and mix well.

Heat a dosa pan. Take a ladle full of batter, spread like dosa. Sprinkle oil on the sides and top of the pesarattu.Once it turns brown below, flip it to get the other side done. Remove from dosa tava. Serve hot with Milagai chutney or coconut chutney.


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Beetroot Vadai

This is one of  the deep fried snack which is probably healthy as beetroot can be sold in this way for sure :).You can sneak in other veggies like snake gourd,cabbage,or anything remaining that you might want to finish. And it goes without saying that any shallow/deep fried snack is always a hit :). Now off to the recipe.

Beetroot Vadai

Ingredients

Serves - Makes around 25 vadais
Spice Level - Quite Spicy

Beetroot - 2 medium, grated.
Toor dal - 1/2 cup
Channa dal - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 big, finely chopped
Dry Red chilli - 7
Curry Leaves - 3 sprig
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 Tspn
Hing - a pinch
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt - as per taste
Cumin - 1 Tspn
Saunf - 1 Tspn
Oil for shallow frying.


Method

Soak toor dal, channa dal,red chilli, jeera and saunf in 1 cup of water for 20 minutes. Drain the water and grind it to a paste.It shouldn't be too coarse or either too smooth,somewhere midway. Use only 4-5 Tbspn of water while grinding. Using too much water will result in the vadais absorbing too much oil.It is fine if a few pieces of dal are not fully ground.Now add the grated beetroot, chopped onion, hing, curry leaves,turmeric and salt with this paste and mix well.

Heat about 1/2 to 1 cup oil in a kadai. Once the oil is quite hot, move the flame to sim. Pinch small lemon sized balls of the mix, flatten them on your palm and drop in oil.Fry it for two minutes on low flame and move the flame to medium.Fry until both sides are done well.

Server hot with green chutney as a snack with masala chai. Nothing can beat this kind of snack. :)

Notes

1.While frying make sure,both the insides and outsides of the vadai are done well. If the oil is too hot, the outsides will brown faster,but it will still be undercooked inside.On the other hand if the flame is too low, the vadai will absorb too much oil.So take care while frying.


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Vegetable Fried Rice

Vegetable fried Rice is somewhere near the top of the list when it comes to S favorite food.I have tried this a couple of times before, but wasn't able to nail the flavor and color exactly.We wanted the flavor to be mild, the rice to retain its white color. Yesterday's try was a winner. :)


Vegetable Fried Rice

Ingredients


Serves - 2
Spice Level - Mild [Keep it that way please ! ;)]

Cabbage - 1/3 cup, sliced thinly
Carrot - 1 Medium, Julienne cut
Green Capsicum - 1/2, sliced thinly lengthwise
Beans - 15 , sliced thinly.
Spring Onion white part - 3 bulbs, sliced thinly
Spring onion greens - 3 Tbspn, chopped finely , to garnish
Garlic cloves - 5 , finely chopped
Basmati Rice - 1.5 cups

Soya Sauce [Preferably Light soy if you have] - 1 Tspn
Green Chilli Sauce - 3 Tspn
Salt - as per taste [2-3 Tspn approxm]
Olive oil - 4 Tbspn

White Pepper powder - 1 Tspn [optional]

Method

Firstly, cook the rice in 2.25 cups of water for 15 minutes. Once the rice is done, spread the rice on a large plate/bowl and cool it completely. It needs to be cooled, so when you add rice to the veggie mix in the wok and saute it, the rice will not get mashed.

Heat a deep wok with olive oil.Add the spring onion white parts and garlic. Saute for 2 minutes. Add all the vegetables -cabbage,capsicum,carrot,beans and 2 tspn salt.Increase the flame to high.Saute for 3 minutes on high flame. Switch the flame to medium now. Add soya sauce, green chilli sauce and saute till the veggies are half cooked [slightly crunchy]. Now sim the flame and add the cooked rice into the wok and add one more Tsp of salt. Mix the rice with the veggies well to incorporate all the flavor into the rice. Be careful not to mash up the rice when you do this.Once the rice is well mixed, taste to see if there is enough salt. Add more salt and mix if necessary.You can add 1tsp of white pepper powder at this point if needed and mix well with rice. Saute the rice for 2 more minutes and switch off fame.Add 2 Tbsp of spring onion greens and mix well.

Transfer rice to a serving bowl .Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of spring onion greens on top. We had this rice with paneer masala curry and a glass of cold Pepsi. We absolutely loved it. :)

Notes

1.Once the rice is cooked, within 5 minutes , remove it from the bowl, and spread on a large plate.If you leave the rice to cool in the cooker vessel, the rice will clamp up, and you will have difficulty in getting to separate the rice while adding to the wok.

2.While trying to mix the rice with veggies, you may switch off flame,take a few extra minutes to ensure the rice is mixed well, and then saute on high flame later.

3.If you are using dark soy sauce, be cautious. Dark soy has a strong flavor and color and can spoil the appearance of the dish. Hence use anywhere between 1/2 tsp to 1 tspn dark soy for 1.5 cups of rice, adjust according to flavor/color.


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Banana Bread

I had 4 really ripe bananas which i needed to finish off and that was enough motivation to try the banana bread . This is the first loaf that i did try to bake. Turned out fine :).

Banana Bread

Ingredients

Ripe Bananas - 4, mashed well.
Flour - 1 + 3/4 cup
Granulated Sugar - 1 cup
Butter at room temperature- 120gm
Cinnamon - 1/2 Tspn
Baking soda - 1 tspn
Baking powder - 1 Tspn
Salt - 1 Tspn
Eggs -2
vanilla Extract - 1 tspn
Milk - 2 Tbspn

Method

Preheat the oven to 175 deg C for 10 minutes.Prepare a 9*5 loaf pan for baking.I usually use a non-stick cooking spray to spray the pan, line it with parchment paper and spray again with non-stick cooking spray.

Meanwhile prepare the cake mix as below.

Cream the butter and sugar and whisk till you get a smooth mix. Break in the eggs one by one, add mashed bananas and vanilla extract. Mix till all of them combine well.Now add in the flour,baking soda,baking powder, cinnamon,salt and milk. Mix well till all of the ingredients come together.

Pour the cake mix into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes to one hour at 175 deg C. At the 50th minute, insert a tooth-pick into the center of the loaf and if it comes out clean , its done, else bake for 10 more minutes.

Once the cake is done, cool it for 20 - 30 minutes, before you slice them. Don't be impatient, if you try
to slice them when its hot, it will crumble. I cooled it for 30 minutes, and put it in the fridge over-night.It sliced like a charm the next day.

Note: I used 165 deg C for 1 hour as my oven heats up quite quickly, so adjust your oven temperature accordingly.


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Urad Dal Halwa /Aadikool

Aadikool or Urad dal halwa is a famous chettinadu sweet dish usually had after morning breakfast. Its a 10 minutes dessert if you have all the ingredients. Really!! :).

Urad Dal Halwa

Ingredients

Urad dal flour - 1 cup
Broken Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup

Note: To make the urad dal flour, you need to dry roast the urad dal till brown , cool it and grind it in a mixer jar to a smooth powder.


Method

Firstly boil a cup of water in a pan, and add in the jaggery pieces. Let the water boil in low flame, till all of the jaggery dissolves. Then switch off flame and keep aside the jaggery syrup.

Heat a pan with 1/2 cup oil. Add in the urad dal powder, mix well with the oil. There must be enough oil for all the flour to soak in. If its less, you will end up with a lot of lumps in the halwa which we don't want.After a minute, add in the jaggery syrup, and mix well with the flour. Switch off flame when you get a consistency which is not as thick as a halwa and not too loose either, it needs to be mid way as it tends to thicken later.

And thats it you are done. :)

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Authentic ChettinaduTherrakal/Coconut Gravy with brinjal and potato

This is another authentic Chettinadu dish . The coconut based gravy is used as a side dish for dosais and Idlis. It is super yum and this preparation never fails to impress. This curry has been a super hit in all parties that I have hosted until now:).

Therakkal

Ingredients

Brinjal - 2 medium sized, chopped into small pieces
Potato - 1 Medium sized , chopped into small pieces
Tomato - 1 Medium sized, chopped.
Onion - 1 Large , chopped finely
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 Tspn
Curry Leaves - 1 Sprig

To Temper

Mustard - 1 tspn
Jeera - 1 Tbspn

To dry roast and Grind

Mustard - 1 Tbpn
Jeera - 1 Tbpn
Raw Rice - 2 Tbspn
Fenugreek - 1 Tspn
Saunf - 1 Tspn
Khus Khus - 1 Tspn
Dry red chilli - 4
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup


Method

Heat a pan and dry roast the following - throw in mustard, jeera,raw rice, fenugreek,khus-khus,saunf one after the other. Let them roast for a minute or two.Then add in the grated coconut and dry red chilli. Roast for couple of more minutes and switch off flame. Cool and blend in a mixer with 1/2 cup water to a smooth paste.

Now in the same pan , heat 2 Tbsp of oil. Add mustard and when it splutters, add jeera ,let it roast.Add in the onions,curry leaves and ginger-garlic paste. Saute till onions are translucent.Add the tomatoes and saute till its soft and juicy.Add the brinjal pieces and saute till soft. Now add the ground paste and 1.5 cups of water, and let it boil. When it boils, toss in the potato pieces, and cook till they are half done. Add salt and cook on low flame till the potatoes are fully done and all the flavors in the curry come together. Add more water if you would like to loosen the gravy.

Serve with hot idli, or freshly done dosais. Awesome combination I tell you!.


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Raw Plantain Curry

I cant think of anything special to say about this, but its a quick dish :). Always helps on one of those "running late" mornings :). Goes best with curd/rasam rice.

Raw Plantain Curry

Ingredients

Serves - 3
Spice Level - Moderately spicy

2 Big Raw Plantain - Peeled and sliced in 1/4 inch pieces.
Onion - 1 Large sliced thinly lengthwise
Curry/Masala/Chilli Powder - 4 Tbspn
Coriander powder - 1 Tspn
Turmeric powder - 1 Tspn
Salt - as per taste
Rice flour - 1 Tbspn
Water - 1/4 cup
Mustard - 1 Tspn
Jeera - 1 Tspn
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
Oil - 6 Tbspn

Method

Take a bowl and toss in the coriander powder, masala powder, turmeric powder, salt, rice flour, and add 1/4 cup water to form a masala paste.Add in the sliced plantain pieces and mix well with the paste , such that the pieces are coated well with the masala. Keep aside for 15 minutes.

Heat a pan with oil. Add mustard seeds and when it splutters , add jeera- let it roast. Add onions and curry leaves. Saute till  the onions turn a shade of glossy pink. Add in the masala coated plantain pieces, and stir well with the onion. Close the lid for 4-5 minutes till the plantain gets cooked. Open the lid and add more salt if needed.Let it sit on low flame for 10 minutes till the plantain pieces are roasted well. Switch off flame.

Serve this curry with curd rice , but don't fall asleep after this lunch. :)



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Carrot Thayir Pachadi/Carrot Curd Curry

This preparation belongs to the absolutely easy/yummy/healthy dish category. If you are one among those who licks clean the raitha, mor-kuzhambu, other curd based savory dishes off the bowl you will love this.When you are cooking for a big lunch group,you can easily pass this off as one dish and it will not take more than 10 minutes of your time.Best served with rice and kara-kuzhmabu and appalam.

Carrot Raitha

Ingredients

Carrot - 2 small ones grated.
Jeera - 1 Tspn
Mustard - 1Tspn
Curd/yoghurt - 1 cup
Salt - as per taste.
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Hing - 1/4 Tspn
Oil - 1 Tbspn
water - 1 cup

Method

Heat oil in a tawa pan. Add hing and then mustard. When the mustard splutters, add jeera and curry leaves - let it roast.Toss in the grated carrot and saute for a minute. Switch off flame.

Add 1 cup curd and 1/2 cup water to a serving bowl. Beat/whisk well till you get a creamy/smooth texture. Add more water if needed [as per desired consistency] and beat well again. Add in the prepared carrot curry and salt into the curd. Mix well. Its done. :)


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Aloo Bhaji/Yellow potato Gravy

This dish is nicknamed as "Manja Kizhangu" [yellow potato] and this is how i refer to it. I usually pair this dish with chapattis.It is somewhat similar to the yellow potato curry you get along with pooris in South Indian restaurants but takes on a more loose gravy form.

Aloo Bhaji/Yellow Potato curry

Ingredients

Serves - 4
Spice Level -  Spicy

Potato - 5 Large ones, peeled, pressure cooked and mashed
Onion - 1 large , finely chopped
Garlic cloves - 4 chopped
Green chilli - 3 slit lengthwise, and cut into half
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Tomato - 1 large , chopped
Mustard - 1 Tspn
Jeera - 1 Tspn
Salt - as per taste
Turmeric powder - 1 Tspn
Oil - 3 Tbspn

Method

Heat oil in a kadai.Add mustard and when it splutters add jeera, curry leaves. Let it roast. Now throw in the onions, green chilli and garlic cloves. Saute till onions becomes translucent.Now add in the tomato , some salt and turmeric powder. Saute well and close the pan with a lid. It will take a few minutes for the tomato to get cooked well and become soft and gets mashed. After this,toss in the mashed potato and mix well with the onion-tomato mix. Add 2 cups of water, sir well, add more salt and the let the curry boil for 5-10 minutes. Switch off flame. Serve hot with chapattis.

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Coriander Chutney/Kothamalli Thuvayal

Kothmalli thuvayal is one of our favorites, and we usually have this with ghee rice along with a nice gravy or with idli/dosai.It feels so comforting  when its mixed with curd rice especially . Its one of my "lick off the plate completely" food. :)

Coriander Chutney

Ingredients

Spice Level - Medium
Serves - 3

Coriander Leaves - 1 bunch - washed and picked.
Onion - 2  Medium, chopped roughly
Jeera - 1 tsp
Saunf - 1 Tsp
Garlic cloves - 5
Tamarind - size of quarter of a lemon
Green chilli - 3-4 
Grated Coconut - 4 Tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Oil - 2tbsn
Water - 1/2 cup
Salt - as per taste

Method

Heat a pan with oil. Add mustard and when it splutters, add urad dal, jeera and saunf - let it roast. Throw in the onion, garlic,green chilli and saute them. Saute till the onions are translucent.Now add the tamarind, grated coconut, saute for a min.Add coriander leaves and saute till the raw smell of the leaves vanish.Switch off flame.

Cool the mixture and blend with 1/2 cup water to get a smooth paste. Transfer to a bowl ,add salt and mix.Eat happily along with ghee rice and vadagam like me or with Egg Dosai,how S likes to have it. :)

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Pongal Kara Kuzhambu

I usually call this preparation of my mom's as "Pongal Kuzhambu" and this tops my list of favorites. This is made during the time of Thai Pongal (Tamil festival of harvest) and it tastes so divine. The specialty of this dish is the variety of vegetables used and hence tastes much better than your normal kara kuzhambu.No "English vegetables" must be used for this Kuzhambu.

Pongal Kuzhmabu

Ingredients

Note: We normally use all of these vegetables listed below. But you could still try it with any 5-6 vegetables from the below list [discounting potato] and I promise you it will taste brilliant. A strict no to veggies like beetroot/cabbage/cauliflower/carrots/peas etc.

Serves - 4
Spice level - Medium

Shallots - 15 peeled, and each shallot cut into 2
Garlic cloves - 10
Tomato - 1 large chopped
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Drumstick - 2 cut into 10 pieces
Potato - 1 cut into medium sized pieces
Mochai [Field beans] - 1/2 cup
Karamani [Yard Long beans]- 5 chopped
beans - 5 chopped
Pumpkin - 4-5 medium sized pieces
Radish - 1 medium- cut into pieces
Avarkai [Flat beans] - 5 cut into pieces
Tamarind - size of a large lemon, extract thick juice from it.

Mustard - 1 Tbspn
Fenugreek -1 Tspn
Jeera - 1 Tbspn
Urad dal - 1 Tspn
Salt - to taste
Sambar/Kuzhambu powder - 4 Tbspn
Coriander powder - 1 Tbspn
Oil - 6 Tbspn


Method

Firstly, extract thick tamarind juice and mix 1.5 cups of water to it. Add the kuzhambu powder and coriander powder to it and make sure they dissolve well and keep aside.

Take a pressure cooker vessel and heat about 6 Tbspn of oil.Add mustard, and when it crackles, add in the fenugreek seeds, cumin , urad dal, and curry leaves and let them roast.Add shallots ,garlic cloves and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add in the tomato pieces and saute till it becomes soft and lets out juice.Now throw in all the vegetables and mix well with the onion-tomato mix.Add in the tamarind extract mixture prepared before.Mix well. Now add another 2 cups of water and salt. Make sure the water level in the cooker is well above the vegetables. Now close the cooker with its lid and pressure cook for 15 minutes. Cook at high flame until the first whistle and then sim the stove and cook for remaining time.After the cooker cools, open the lid, let the kuzhambu boil for another 15-20 minutes until it thickens.Add more salt/water/kuzhambu powder if needed and boil again to get desired consistency and switch off flame.

Serve hot with rice and appalam.


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