cake pops

I love the cake pops we get in Starbucks.  I wanted to make some when my girls have winter break.  I made these last week and it came out pretty good. I would not say that it looked professional but the taste was good. I used the pre-packed Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix for basic cake and betty crocker chocolate frosting for mixing the cake.

I followed the recipe from the site Love from the Oven.  Check out this site and its an awesome site with lots of cookie recipes.

Sundal Sandwich

This is a easy breezy sandwich and a nice way to use the leftover sundal.  I made sundal for weekend evening snack and as usual one of my twin didn't eat properly. I had half cup of sundal and i didn't want to waste it. I used it for my breakfast sandwich, the next day.

Ingredients:-

1. Bread slices - 2
2. Garbanzo sundal - 1/2 cup
3. Butter - to spread
4. Cheese slices - 1

Take a pan, toast the bread slightly. Spread the butter, sundal and place the cheese slice on top of the sundal and cover it with the other bread slice. Now toast it again in the pan, it till becomes golden brown. It was really filling and a nice way to start your day with this protein rich breakfast.

Bell Pepper Rice

My MIL made this rice last week. I make bell pepper / capsicum rice too but in a regular fried rice way. But this is something new which she made. She used a masala powder (homemade) to finish this rice. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Basmati Rice - 2 cups
2. Bell Pepper/Capsicum - 1 1/2 cups (chopped)
3. Onion - 1 medium sized (chopped)
4. Green Peas - 1/2 cup ( she used frozen)
5. Butter/Oil - 2 tbsp 
6. coconut oil - 1 tsp
7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. urad dhall - 2 tsp
9. channa dhall -  1 tsp
10. fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
11. Green chillies - 2
12. Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
13. Salt to taste
14. coriander leaves - for garnishing

Masala:-

1. Coriander - 3 tbsp
2. channa dhall -2 tbsp
3. Urad dhall - 2 tbsp
4. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. White sesame seeds - 1 tsp
7. Cardamom - 1
8. Clove -3
9. Cinnamon stick - 3 small pieces
10. Red chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
11. peanuts - 3 tbsp (optional - toasted)

Soak Basmati rice in water for half an hour. Take a pan, sprinkle a drop of oil/butter and fry the ingredients one by one to golden brown,  given for masala and let it cool and grind it into coarse powder. Keep it aside. Meanwhile, in the same pan, add one table spoon oil or butter. Add mustard seeds. When it crackles, add the urad dhall, channa dhall, fenugreek seeds &green chillies. Fry it till it becomes golden brown.  Add the chopped onion to it and fry it for few seconds. Add the chopped bell pepper, green peas to it and fry it for couple of minutes adding turmeric powder and required amount of salt (for both rice & masala) in medium flame.  Drain the basmati rice fully and add it to the ingredients and fry it for a minute. Transfer everything to a pressure cooker and add required amount of water and let it cook upto 2 whistles. ++ . When the pressure is released, open the cooker,  add the grounded coarse powder to it, remaining oil or butter, coconut oil and mix it with the rice. Make sure you don't break the grains. Enjoy the rice with onion raita & potato chips.

++ - In this stage, my MIL added required amount of water (1:1 1/4) directly in the pan and cooked the rice directly in the pan. I am not good in doing that process, so I have mentioned my way of cooking the rice. If you are confident enough to cook the rice in the pan, you can do so.

Mattar paneer 2

I made this side dish couple of weeks back. My girls hate eating paneer, but luckily they liked this side dish. I made this as a very rich and creamy side dish. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Paneer pieces - 1 cup (cut it into small cubes)
2. Green peas - 1/4 cup (I used frozen)
3. Tomato - 1 medium sized
4. Onion - 1/2 (if its big)
5. Cashews - 5 or 6
6. Coriander seeds -  1/2 tsp
7. Cardamom - 1
8. Clove - 1
9. Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
10. Salt to taste
11. Shredded coconut - 2 tsp
12. Fat free yogurt - 1 tbsp
13. Whole milk - 1/4 cup
14. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
15. Red chillies  powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
16. Ghee - 1 1/2 tbsp
17. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
18. coriander leaves - 2 tsp (chopped)

Thaw the green peas.  Chop tomato and onion. Now take the chopped tomato, onion, cashew, green chillies, coconut, clove, cardamom, coriander seeds and grind it into fine paste.  Pre heat a teaspoon on ghee in a pan, fry paneer pieces to golden brown and keep it aside. In the same pan, preheat remaining ghee, splutter cumin seeds to golden brown, add the grounded masala paste to it. Add 1/4 cup of water, turmeric powder, salt and red chillies powder and let it boil. When the raw smell goes, add the fried paneer pieces along with the green peas and let it cook for another 3 minutes. Now add the whole milk and yogurt and let it bil for 5 to 7 minutes. Adjust water according to the required consistency. Add the finely chopped coriander leaves and enjoy it with hot chapathi/poori.

Bread Cutlet

I made this bread cutlet last week.  I got the recipe my Nithya's fourth Sense Cooking... Recipe is exactly the same and I also followed the tip she has mentioned. I used bread crumbs and shallow fried the cutlets...

paneer parathas

This is something I made for my little one's lunch box. She likes to take it twice a week.  Pediatrician wanted my girls to take more dairy.  They hate milk and paneer.  They like to take yogurt. But that was not enough. So i thought of adding panneer in their diet.  Below given quantity is for two parathas

Ingredients:-

1. Wheat dough - 2 medium ball sized
2. Shredded panneer - 4 tbsp
3. Salt - a pinch
4. Ajwain -  2 pinches

First take the shredded paneer, ajwain and salt and mix it together and make it two small balls.  Now take the chapathi dough, flatten it into a small circle. Now keep the paneer ball in it and cover it just like kozhakkatai. Again spread the dough into circles. I prefer to make smaller ones. Heat a tawa and cook the parathas in medium flame.  Flip it when one side is half cooked. Spread a teaspoon of ghee (optional) on top of it and enjoy it with a good bhaji.  My girlie likes to have it with a dallop of butter.

Strawberry Muffin

I got this Strawberry Muffin recipe from AllRecipes.com. I followed the same recipe and the outcome was awesome as you can see in the picture. The taste was also wonderful..

Tomato Pachadi - Tribute to Jayasree Satish

This is another way of making tomato pachadi.  This is a tribute to our blogger friend who passed away last week. We will definitely miss you Jayasree :(

Vendaya Kozhambu

I made this vendhaya kozhambu and it came out very yummy. I got the recipe from my MIL. I haven't tried this before. So thought of giving it a try.  Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Tamarind - 1 medium lemon sized
2. Sesame oil - 2 tbsp
3. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
4. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
5. Channa dhall - 1/2 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Red chillies - 1
8. Jaggery -  a small piece
9. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

To grind:-

1. Fenugreek seeds/Vendhayam - 3/4th - 1 tsp (acc to taste)
2. coriander seeds - 3/4 tbsp
3. Red chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
4. Channa dhall - 1 tsp
5. urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
6. Shredded coconut - 2 tsp (optional)

Soak tamarind ball in water for half an hour (or Microwave it for 30 seconds). Squeeze water from it and keep it aside. In the mean time, dry roast the ingredients given for grinding and let it cool.  Take a wide pan, heat the sesame oil, splutter mustard seeds, add the channa dhall, urad dhall and red chillies and let it fry till it becomes golden brown. Now add the tamarind water (approximately 1 1/2 cups), turmeric powder, required amount of salt and let it boil for 5 minutes. Add the grounded powder immedately after it starts boiling.  Reduce the flame to medium and let it cook for 7 to 10 minutes. Stir it in between. Now add the jaggery and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Oil will start spreading out. Turn off the stove when you get the required consistency. Mine was little bit thick. It goes very well with rice and also as a side for curd rice.

Tomato Chapathi

My chitti makes tomato poori. She infact advised me to make these kind of pooris for my girls. I tried this tomato Chapathi very long back and managed to find time to post this recipe. Here goes the recipe.


Ingredients:-

1. wheat flour - 3 cups
2. salt to taste
3. sesame oil -  2tsp
4. Tomato - 2 Medium sized
5. Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
6. omam/ajwain - a pinch

First boil the 1/2 cup water. Put the two tomatoes in it and let it boil for few minutes. Let it cool and peel the skin.  Now take those tomatoes, green chillies and salt and grind it into a fine paste without adding water. The paste will be watery by itself. Now take the wheat flour in a wide bowl, add the tomato paste, omam and mix everything well and knead it into a fine dough.  Sprinkle water if necessary. Make lemon sized balls and spread it into 8 or 9" diameter circle.  Cook it in a hot tawa. Enjoy it with a dallop of yogurt or any of your favorite side dish.

coconut Burfi/Thenga burfi

I made these burfi couple of week back. Just after the varalakshmi Vratam, I had so much coconut (we buy atleast two -one for kalasam & one for naivedhyam). My husband and my girls never take coconut. I was literally wasting two coconuts and I don't use coconut in my cooking. Thought of making this burfi and called my chitti for the recipe. Here foes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Coconut - 1 cup (shredded)
2. Sugar - 1 I/2 cup (acc to taste)
3. Cardamom - 1
4. Edible Camphor / Pachakarpooram - a pinch
5. Milk - 2 tsp
6. Ghee 2 tsp

Take a heavy bottomed pan, add the sugar and required amount of water (i took 3/4 cup of water for 1 1/2 cups of sugar) and let it boil.  Milk is used to remove dirt from sugar syrup. When it starts boiling, just add it. White foamy stuff will form. Thats dirt. Remove it. Add the cardamom seeds and pacha karpooram to it. Look for one string consistency.  If you touch the sugar syrup(be careful it will be super hot), it should form a single line. Now add the shredded coconut to it and mix it well and make sure no lumps are formed. Add ghee to it and spread it in a flat plate and cut it when it is warm. Enjoy. I added 1 1/2 cups of sugar to it. If necessary we can always reduce the quantity of sugar. I made this sweet especially for myself ! So I didn't bother to reduce the quantity of sugar :)

Reposting for Vrat ka Khaana Event.

I am reposting my Adai Kozhakattai recipe for the Vrat ka Khanna Event by Mom Chef.

karamani Mezhukkuvaratti

Mezhukkuvaratti is a common side dish people make in most of the Palghat Iyer family. This is nothing but just a stir fry and requires very less amount of seasoning and very less amount of ingredients. I made Karamani mezhukkuvaratti last week.  Here is how I made.

Ingredients:-

1. Karamani/Long Beans - 2 cups (cut it one inch sized)
2. Red chillies - 1 or 2
3. Coconut Oil - 2 tsp
4. Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
6. Salt to taste
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Pre heat oil in a wide pan, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall and red chilli till golden brown. Now add the long beans, required amount of water, salt and turmeric powder and let it cook. Keep the flame low and fry it for 5 to 7 minutes.  Do not burn the veggie.  It tastes very good with sambar/vathakozhambu. My patti used to eat it along with just ghee rice. We can also make mezhukkuvaratti with chenakezhangu.

Icecream Cone Chaat

My girls wanted me to buy them Kurkure from Indian stores. I was very sure that they will not finish it cos they have tried it many times and wasted the whole packet. Again this time, they promised me that they will finish it. I am quite sure that they will not. But I did not want to disappoint them so bought one packet and asked them to share. As usual, they wasted it after trying once. While reading the packet, I came across this recipe. I changed it to our taste. It was pretty good. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Tomato - 1 (finely chopped)
2. Onion - 1 (medium sized-finely chopped)
3. Green Onion - 2 tsp (chopped)
4. coriander leaves - 2 tsp (finely chopped
5. Kurkure - two table spoons (chop it)
6. Walnuts - finely chopped - 1 tbsp
7. Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
8. Garam Masala Powder -  a pinch
9. Wafer Ice cream cones - 3

Add all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Serve it in the ice cream cones. The above given ingredients is sufficient for 3 medium sized Ice cream cones.

Pumpkin Peanut Vatha Kozhambu

I make vatha kozhambu with pumpkin most of the times and also with some vathals.  After seeing Prema's Verkadalai Kozhambu, I wanted to try this too. Wasn't sure whether it will be good without any vegetable. She has also used eggplant & onion in her version. I added pumpkin and onion and almost followed the same recipe. Except, I fried handfull of peanuts in oil and added it to the kozhambu finally for extra crunchy taste.

I am sending this to Bookmarked Recipes event, by Priya Of Mharo Rajasthan's Recipe.

Blueberry Milkshake

I am not a very big fan of blueberries. I eat with when they are in muffins. But one of my twin loves BlueBerry.  After watching an episode in Dora, she started eating blue berries cos dora loves blue berries :).  As you know blueberries have less life. She managed to finish most of'em except 1/2 cup. She didn't want to eat those anymore. My other twin hardly eats any fruits. she likes to eat only bananas.  So i wanted to finish the blueberries by making a milkshake. Here is how I made .....

Ingredients:-

1. Blueberries - 1/2 cup 
2. Milk - 1 1/2 cup (1% Milk fat)
3. Sugar - required amount or according to taste
4. Ice cubes - few (optional)

Put everything in a blender and blend it smooth. You will get purple color fluffy milkshake. Enjoy!!

Cheese Parathas

I made this cheese Parathas last week for my girls. Well for one of my twin. She actually liked it a lot with a cup of yogurt and sugar as side.
  Here is how I made this Paratha.

Ingredients for making one Paratha:-

1. Chapathi dough- a medium lemon sized
2. Cheese Singles - 1
3. ghee - for cooking.

Just  flatten the dough to poori sized circle. Cut the cheese singles in to pieces and put it on top of the circle. Cover it and roll it for about 9" diameter. Heat a skillet and cook it in medium flame. Make sure the cheese don't ooze out. Spread the ghee on top of the paratha. This can be a healthy lunch for kiddos. Even we can pack it to school for lunch.

Raddish Poricha Kozhambu

Ther are two ways of making porchia kozhambu. One is Thanjavur style and the other one is Kerala style Poricha Kozhambu.  This is Kerala Style Poricha Kozhambu. I wanted to make eggplant poricha kozhambu, but after finishing the preparations, I realized that there is no eggplant in my fridge. Then wanted to try it with raddish. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Raddish - 1 cup (chopped)
2. Red Karamani (Red Cowpea Beans) - 3/4 cup
3. Tamarind - medium lemon sized (2 cups approx)
4. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Salt to taste
6. Sambar powder - 1 1/4 tsp (acc to taste)
7. Jaggery - 2 tsp (optional)

To Grind:-

1. Coriander  Seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
2. Channa Dhall - 1 tsp
3. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
4. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
5. Red chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste)
6. Shredded Coconut - 1 tbsp

For Seasoning:-

1. Oil - 2 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 tsp
4. Hing - few pinches
5. Curry leaves - for garnishing

Pressure cook karamani till its done and keep it aside.  In the mean time, squeeze tamarind juice and keep it aside. Take a wide bottomed pan, put the raddish pieces, tamarind water, turmeric powder, sambar powder and required amount of salt and let it boil or 7 to 10 minutes or till the raddish is 3/4th cooked.  Mean time, fry the ingredients given "To Grind" to golden brown and grind it into a fine paste. Keep it aside. When the vegetable is 3/4th done, add the grounded paste to it along with required amount of water and let it boil for another 5 minutes. Now add the cooked karamani to it along with the powdered jaggery (optional) and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Now Poricha Kozhambu is ready to serve. It goes really well with white rice. Also with Verum arisi adai.

Pumpkin Kheer

This is something I made when we were in Delhi last year. I finally managed to find time to write this post. I was actually searching for the picture in my folders.  I made this in microwave and it came out pretty good.  My girls were not so excited about this payasam ( they like pal payasam ). Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Pumpkin Pieces -  1 1/2 cups (chop it into small cubes)
2. almonds - 10 seeds
3. Milk - 2 cups ( I used the regular mother dairy milk we get in Delhi)
4. Sugar - 1 cup (acc to taste)
5. Edible Camphor - a pinch
6. Cardamom - 1 or 2
7. food color - Orange color a pinch

Take a microwave safe bowl, put the pumpkin pieces and almond seeds adding required amount of water. Cover it with a lid and MW for 5 to 7 minutes, checking / stirring in between, or till it is done. When the pumpkin pieces are cooked, take the bowl out very carefully and let it cool. Grind it into a fine paste. Again put the pumpkin paste in the bowl, along with one and half cups of milk& food color  and let it cook or 3 to 5 minutes. Check it often cos the milk may spill. Now add the edible camphor and cardamom seeds and the remaining milk & sugar and let it boil for another 3 to 5 minutes. Take it out. Let it cool, refrigerate and enjoy. Be careful before taking it out from the MW.

I am sending this to Srivalli's MEC Potluck Party.

Bottlegourd Molagootal

Molagootal is a very common dish in a Kerala Iyer family.  In my mom's house, people prefer molagootal than Sambar or rasam. Even now my mami makes this twice or thrice a week. I like molagootal with some thogayal. This is bottle gourd molagootal I made couple of days before. I started using bottle gourd when we were in Delhi last year. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Bottle Gourd - 1 1/2 cups (chopped into small cubes)
2. Toor dhall - 1 cup
3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 + 1/4 tsp
4. salt to taste

To Grind:-

1. coconut - 1/4 cup
2. Green Chillies - 4 or 5 (acc to taste
3. Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

To Temper:-

1. Oil - 2 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. Curry leaves - few
4. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
5. Hing -  few pinches
6. Red Chillies - 1 (optional

Pressure cook toor dhall with 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and keep it aside. In the mean time, take a pan, put the bottle gourd pieces and required amount of water, salt & turmeric powder and let it cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Bottle Gourd usually takes less time to cook.  Grind the ingredients given "To Grind" to a fine paste and keep it aside. When vegetable is half done,  add the grounded paste to it and let it boil for 5 more minutes or till the raw smell of green chillies go away. Now add the cooked toor dhall to the ingredients and add required amount of water to adjust the consistency. Now the molagootal/bottle gourd dhall is ready to serve.  Take a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall curry leaves, red chillie & hing to golden brown and pour it on top of the molagootal.  Serve it hot. It goes well with steamy rice or even with rotis/chapathis.

Thamarakezhangu Vathal kozhambu

Thamara kezhangu / Kamal kakdi / Lotus Stem is something i really love. I remember my patti used to make this vathal at home. When we were in Delhi, sabjiwala used to bring the fresh Kamal Kakdi. Even our landlady asked me to try out some sabji she made with kamal kakdi. It tasted pretty good but we were not excited about that.  But I know more about this thamara kezhangu vathal. My husband is not aware of this. But he tried it and liked it too.  Since we make vatha kozhambu with manathakali, sundakka, pagakka vathal, I wanted to try with this thamarakezhangu too.  I got the thamarakezhangu vathal from Ambika appalam, Chennai. It came out pretty good. We both really liked it.

Ingredients:-

1. Thamara kezhangu vathal - 1 cup (divide it to 3/4th & 1/4th)
2. Tamarind - Medium lemon sized ball
3. Sesame oil - 3 tbsp
4. turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Sambar powder - 1 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
6. Salt to taste
7. Jaggery - 2 tsp (optional)
8. mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
9. urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
10. Red chillie - 1 or 2 (acc to taste)
11. Oil - To deep fry
12. Hing -  few pinches
13. curry leaves  -  for garnishing.

Soak tamarind in 1 1/2 cups of water. In the mean time, heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall, red chillies  along with a pinch of hing to golden brown. Now Add 3/4th portion of thamarakezhangu vathal and fry it till it becomes crispy. Do not burn it. In the mean time, squeeze out juice from tamarind and keep it aside. Now add the tamarind water to the fried ingredients adding required amount of salt, turmeric powder & sambar powder and let it boil for 7 to 10 minutes. When the raw smell of tamarind, sambar powder goes, add the crushed jaggery to it and let it boil. Adjust water according to the required consistency.  Turn off the stove. Now in another pan, heat oil given for frying. Deep fry the 1/4th portion of vathal to golden brown and add it to the kozhambu.  Garnish it with curry leaves.  Serve it hot with warm rice and teaspoon of seasame oil.

Oats Pongal

Original Recipe is from Raks Kitchen. I wanted mine squishy mushy. So I added more water than what she mentioned in the original recipe. It was really yummy. thanks Raks for sharing the recipe

Boca Patty Burger

 This is a all time favorite burger of our family. All four us like this burger. We usually buy frozen boca patties from costco and use it. When I first came to US,  I really have no idea about sandwiches or burgers. My husband used to make these burgers before and happily agreed to teach me when I got interest in learning one. Here is how we make this burger.

Ingredients:-

1. Burger Bun - 1
2. Butter - to spread
3. Fat Free Mayo - 1 tsp (just enough to spread)
4. Tomato Ketchup -  enough to spread
5. Yellow Mustard - 1/2 tsp (my kids dont like this taste)
6. Cheese singles -1
7. Boca patty - 1
8. Tomato - couple of sliced pieces
9. Onion - thinly sliced couple of pieces
10. Lettuce - 3 leaves (optional)
11. Pickle pepper - 1 or 2 (optional)

Thaw the frozen patty for few  minutes before you cook them. Take a non-stick skillet and cook the patty, both sides in low flame. in the mean time, half toast the bun (optional), spread butter, mayo, ketchup and mustard, one by one and spread it evenly on both the buns. Arrange the vegetables, lettuce & pickle pepper (if you have one), cheese slice and wait for the patty to be done. when the patty is fully cooked, place it on one side and cover it with other half of the bun. Leave it for few seconds so that the cheese gets melted. Now boca patty burger is ready to serve.

This is my last entry for Srivalli's Sandwich Mela.

Gobi Parathas

I made this Gobi Parathas using the leftover cauliflower masala curry I made for yesterday's dinner. It came out pretty good.  Here goes the recipe.

For dough:-

1. Whole grain wheat flour - 2 cups
2. salt to taste
3. Water - Just enough to knead the dough
4. Oil - 1/2 tsp

For Filling :-

Cauliflower Masala Curry - 1 tbsp (for 1 paratha).

Prepare the dough first and keep it aside. Add required amount of salt and water and knead the dough. Spread oil on top and cover it with a lid or a cloth. Keep it aside. Make a small ball with the cauliflower curry (Scramble it if necessary).   Now make a small poori sized roti, keep the cauliflower curry balls and cover it just like how we do for making kozhakattai.  Keep it till you roll all the curry balls (the recipe asks for keeping it some time). Now start rolling the stuffed rolls in to paranthas of 6 to 7 inches sized.  Cook it in a hot tawa (iron skilled preferably). Coat it with some oil/ghee of your choice (I skipped it).

CauliflowerMasala Curry

I made this curry last week along with drumstick sambar. It came out pretty good. My girls felt it was little bit spicy. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Cauliflower Florets - 2 cups 
2. Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
3. Tomato - 1 medium sized chopped
4. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Rasam Powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Red chillies - 1/4 tsp
7. Salt to taste
8. Oil - 1 tbsp
9. mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
10. urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
11. curry leaves - for garnishing
12. Hing - few pinches

Take the cauliflower florets in a microwave safe bowl, add required amount of salt & turmeric powder and microwave it adding required amount of water, for about 5 to 7 minutes. In the mean time, pre heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall to golden brown. Add chopped onion along with curry leaves and saute till it becomes transparent. Now add the chopped tomato to it. Add required amount of salt it along with turmeric powder to it and saute for couple of minutes. Now add the cooked cauliflower to it along with rasam powder, red chilli powder to it and let it cook till the excess water evaporates. Cauliflower curry is ready to serve with hot steaming rice.

Lemon Sevai

This  was our yesterday's evening tiffin. My girls used to give trouble for eating this sevai. But this time, they liked it. This is one of my favorite tiffin too. Here is the recipe for making lemon sevai.

Ingredients:-

1. Rice sevai - 1 cup
2. Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
3. Salt to taste
4. Lemon - 1
5. Green chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste)
6. Ginger - a small piece
   
7. Cahsews - few
8. Curry leaves - few
9. mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
10. urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
11. Channa dhall - 1/2 tsp
12. Sesame Oil - 2 tbsp
13. Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp
    

Take a wide vessel, put the sevai in it. Add the required amount of salt and pour required amount of hot boiling water on top it (just required amount to cover the noodles). Cover it with a lid and keep it aside. Drain it after 10 to 15 mts. Keep it aside. In the mean time, squeeze the juice from lemon and keep it aside.

Take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds, urad dhall, channa dhall, curry leaves, cashew nuts, green chillies, ginger, turmeric powder and fry it till it becomes golden brown. Now add the drained noodles to it and mix it well. Turn off the stove. Remove the pan from the stove top. Add the lemon juice to it and mix it well. Just add required amount of lemon juice. Taste it before adding extra juice. Mix it well and garnish it with coriander leaves. Serve it hot with coconut chutney.

Paruppu Usli Sandwich :)

Yesterday I made Vaazhapoo Paruppu Usli & Sepagezhangu More kozhambu for dinner. My girls generally like to take beans paruppu usli. Whenever I feed them, I make sure they take vaazhapoo usli too. But now a days they have started eating by themselves. So yesterday, no luck with vaazhapoo paruppu Usli :(. Now I have two full cups of this usi in my fridge. Wanted to make use of it in a good way. So I had it as sandwich spreading it in between two bread slices. It may be sound wierd but it was really yummy surprisingly!! Here goes the recipe..

Ingredients:-

1. Wheat Bread slices - 2
2. Paruppu Usli  - 2 tbsp
3. More kozhambu - 1 tsp
4. Butter - to spread

Toast the bread, spread the butter on both the bread slices and spread the usli on one of the bread slices and spread the more kozhambu on the other one. Cover it on top of the other slice and cut it into two halves. It tastes really good by itself with out anything to dip.

This sandwich also goes to Srivalli's Sandwich Mela.

Aloo Bindi

I made this yesterday as a side dish for our dinner. It was really good and my girls loved. I had to combine potatoes with okra because the available quantity of okra in my fridge was not enough for four of us..It was so simple to make. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1.  Potato - 1 cup (chopped into cubes)
2. Okra - 1 cup (chopped into 1" sized)
3. Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
4. tomato - 1 chopped
5. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tso
6. Chilli powder - 3/4 tsp (acc to taste)
7. salt to taste
8. Oil - 1 tsp
9. Ajwain - few pinches
10. Coriander leaves & curry leaves - to garnish

Microwave potato cubes adding required amount of water,salt(enough for potato) & turmeric powder, in a microwave safe bowl, for 3 to 5 minutes or till its done.  In the mean time, preheat oil in a pan, splutter ajwain seeds, add chopped onion, saute for a minute. Add chopped tomato and mix it and let it cook in low flame for couple of minutes. Now add the chopped Okra/vendakkai/bindi pieces to the ingredients along with turmeric powder, chilli powder and required amount of salt and sprinkle a hand full of water and let it cook for 3 to 5 minutes. When the Okra is 3/4th done, add the cooked potato to it and mix it well and sprinkle  few spoons of water and let everything cook well for couple of more minutes or till its fully done. Garnish it with coriander leaves. 

We can always add garam masala powder to it if we need to.

Strawberry Sandwich

If you love to eat strawberry, then you should be loving this sandwich. I came across this sandwich recipe while reading a magazine. Forgot the name of the author. But its from family circle magazine couple of years old edition..  One of my twin loves to eat strawberries in any form. After seeing that recipe, I wanted to try it with my girlie. She really liked it too.  Its one of the easiest recipe I have ever made and the taste was awesome...Here goes the recipe...



Ingredients:-

1. Whole wheat Bread Slices - 2
2. Butter - to Spread
3. Strawberries - 2 or 3 (depending upon the size)

Toast the bread to light brown. Cut the strawberries to small pieces. Spread the butter on the both the breads.  Keep the strawberry pieces on top of one and cover it with other bread.

I am sending this to Srivalli 's Sandwich Mela.

Zuchini Mixed Vegetables Kootu

I made this kootu last week. It came out pretty good and it went well with rice an also with Roti. Here goes the recipe.


Ingreients:-

1. Zuchini - 1 cup (chopped)
2. tomato - 1 (chopped into cubes)
3. Mixed Vegetables - 1 cup (frozen)
4. Moong dhall - 1/2 cup
5. Toor Dhall - 2 tbsp
6. Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
7. Salt to taste
8. Oil -1 tsp
9. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
10. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
11. Hing -  a pinch
12. curry leaves - for garnishing

To grind :-

1. Coriander seeds - 3/4 tsp
2. channa dhall - 1/2 tsp
3. red chillies - 2 or 3 (acc to taste)
4. Coconut - 2 tsp (shredded) **
5. fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp

Pressure cook moong dhall & toor dhall adding required amount of turmeric powder.  Keep it aside. Thaw the frozen vegetables and keep it aside.  In the mean time, fry the ingredients given for grinding, to golden brown and let it cool. Grind it into a fine paste and keep it aside. In a wide pan, put the zuchini pieces and chopped tomato pieces, add required amount of water & turmeric powder and let it cook for about 5 to 7 minutes. If both the veggies are 3/4th cooked, add the thawed frozen veggies & salt to it and let it boil for another 3 to 5 minutes. Now add the coconut paste to it and boil it for another 3 minutes. Add the cooked dhall to it. Let it boil for another 3 to 5 minutes.  Now kootu is ready. In a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall to golden brown, add hing and pour it on top of the kootu. Garnish it with curry leaves.

** - If you are allergic to coconut, then try using almonds in the place of coconut. For 2 tsp of shredded coconut, you can use 4 almonds.

vaazhakka podimas

The original recipe is from Lataji's Flavours & Tastes. Instead of shredding the vazhakkai, I just scrambled it. It tastes super good.

Lemon Pickle

I made this pickle with the lemons I got from our backyard. I made lemon rice using one last week and the I used 4 lemons for making this pickle. Felt so good.  This is basically my patti's recipe. But most of us use the same recipe to make pickle.  Here goes the recipe:-

Ingredients:-

1. Lemon - 4 Nos (Medium sized - US lemons)
2. Salt to taste
3. Red chillies powder - 2 tsp (acc to taste)
4. Sesame oil - 3 tbsp
5. turmeric powder - 1 tsp
6. Fenugreek - 2tsp
7. Mustard  - 1/4 tsp +1/2 tsp
8. Asafoetida powder - few pinches.

First cut the lemon into small cube sized. Sprinkle the required amount of salt on it and keep it aside in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days depending upon how well the lemon is soaked. Mine took 3 days to soak fully in salt.  When you are ready to make pickle, first dry roast fenugreek and mustard (1/4 tsp) and grind it into fine powder.Preheat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add turmeric powder and red chilli powder and let it fry for couple of minutes. Do not burn it. Add the ingredients to the soaked lemon and mix it  well.  Now add the ground fenugreek & Mustard powder to it and mix it well. Let it  soak for couple of hours  before we start using it.  Store it in a air tight container and can be used for one week to 10 days.

Appalam Vathakozhambu

This is another kozhambu I tried when we were in Chennai.  I got the recipe from a aunt who visits our place very often and she is a very good cook too. I just followed the same recipe.

Ingredients:-

• Tamarind -a medium lemon sized
• ulundhu Papad/appalam - 3 or 4 acc to the required quantity
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Sambar powder - 3/4 tsp (acc to taste)
• Salt to taste
• Hing -  a pinch
• Sesame Oil - 3 tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
• Red chillies - 1
• curry Leaves - few for garnishing

  Ingredients required for roast and Grind:-

• Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
• Channa dhall - 1 tsp
• Uradh dhall - 1 tsp
• Pepper  - 1 tsp (acc to taste)
• Red chillies - 2 or 3 (acc to taste)
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 1/2 tsp

Soak tamarind in water for half hour. In the mean time, dry roast the ingredients given for roasting and let it cool. Squeeze out water from the tamarind and keep it aside. Grind the roasted ingredients and keep it aside. Now take a heavy bottomed pan, . preheat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall & red chillies and fry it till it becomes red. Now add appalam pieces to it and fry it for few seconds. Now add the tamarind water, turmeric powder, sambar powder, salt and let it boil for five minutes. Now the ground powder to the boiling kozhambu and let it boil for another 7 to 10 minutes. A nice aroma will come after few minutes. Once you get the required consistency, switch off the stove.  Serve it hot with hot rice.

Excess roasted powder can be stored in an air tight container and can be used in future.

Snake Gourd Usli - Podalanga Paruppu Usli

Podalanga Usli

I finally managed to find time to write a blog post after almost 6 months.  This is something I made when we were in Chennai. Till then I never knew that we can make paruppu usli with podalanga. My MIL said, its a common dish in Thanjavur iyer families. I was not very sure whether I should try making this one. But that particular day I had no choice. So I tried this one and it came out pretty good. This is how it goes..








Ingredients:-

• Snake Gourd - 2 medium sized (cut it into tiny cubes)
• Toor dhall - 1 cup
• channa dhall - 1/2 cup
• urad dhall - 1 tbsp
• Rice - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• curry leaves - few
• Red chillies -2
• Green chillies - 1
• Asafoetida powder - apinch
• Salt to Taste

First soak toor dhall, urad dhall, channa dhall, and rice in water for atleast an hour or two. In the mean time, wash the snake gourd. Cut it into small pieces and cook it. When it is fully cooked, keep it aside. Now grind the soaked dhall and rice mixture adding salt, green chillies and red chillies to it.

Grind the dhall + rice + turmeric powder + chillies + salt in to a fine paste. Steam cook it in a idly pan, for 15 mts. Allow it cool and scramble them. Keep it aside. Take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add curry leaves and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Now add the steam cooked dhall to it. Fry it till the dall becomes softer. Now add the cooked snake gourd to it and mix everything well. Turn off the stove. This is the traditional way of making paruppu usili.