Its always raining here, this entire month and am finding it difficult to dry all the clothes. This is the best season to get cold, cough etc. Manja Paal is the one, we often prepare at home as one or the other one will have some throat problem. This drink will be very soothing to the throat and you can get good sleep after drinking this without any dry coughs. When i came to know about the event Think spice - Think Turmeric, this one flashed my thought immediately. My FIL is having a slight cold and he drinks it for the past two days.

Here are few medicinal values of turmeric

It is a natural antiseptic, antibacterial, anti inflammatory, stomach soothing agent

Is a natural liver detoxifier.

Reduces the risk of childhood leukemia.

Used to heal any cuts on skin

It plays a mjor role in anti cancer activities

Ingredients

Milk - 1 cup

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Pepper crushed or powdered - 1/2-1 tsp

Palm Sugar - 1 tsp

Method

No specific preparation done here.

In a cup of hot milk, add all the ingredients and mix well.

Drink before going to bed. Thats all.

I am sending this to Think Spice - Think Turmeric hosted by Sudhesna

and also to Healing Foods hosted by Yasmeen

This halwa reminds me of my childhood times. when i was doing my schooling, we had a petty shop near our school and there we get so much of kids cookies, chocos, biscuits and this one. I love this halwa a lot. I never knew this can be made at home. I didnt even know that this one is made out of maida. when i was browsing through net, I found this recipe from Srivalli's blog. It was so simple, that made me to try it at home on the same day.

Ingredients

Maida - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Kesari powder a pinch

Cashew - few

Ghee - as required.

Method:

Make the sugar syrup till one thred consistency

Prepare a batter with maida, kesari powder and water.

Pour this batter into the boiling sugar syrup and keep on stirring.

Keep adding the ghee till you get a well formed halwa.

Once it is ready, pour it on a greased plate and decorate it with roasted cashews.

I followed the exact recipe from hers and found it very tasty. My kid too loved it.

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I am back to the blogosphere. It was really a tough time to settle down and get things done. I really faced a very tough time as there were continuous doctors visits one after other in the family. I don't know what would have went wrong. Even now there are few more packed boxes, yet to be unpacked...and god only knows when it can be done.

Coming to the Indian Cooking Challenge, already I missed one (Murukku) last time. So I didn't want to miss this time too. I was planning this for almost one half month, got print outs of this recipe at least five times...got delayed....delayed and at the end I made it on sat evening.

Appah how many hurdles I should cross. I was grinding batter for Sunday breakfast and preparing the khova. All of a sudden my husband peeped into the kitchen and asked whether I will be able to prepare bajjis for him. It was raining outside and its a perfect time for a bajji too. It was really shock for me, as he is not a fan of bajji and he asked me for the first time in 3 years of my married life. What else...I got things ready for a bread bajji, the easier one. Finished off with the bajji session and I was very happy that my husband and kutty had a great time with the bajji.

Then started off with the jamuns, by that time the khova got ready and made the batter with the ingredients mentioned. Closed it and kept it. Kept the sugar syrup boiling. Used all the buffer time to finish off with my batter mixing. Once everything got ready, I fried the gulab jamuns and put it in the sugar syrup.

And then the comedy session started...I waited for half an hour....1 hr....8hrs....the next day morning too came....but jamun still remained hard enough.....ooops then only I realised on seeing the unopened cooking soda packet. :'( wat to do....Mission Failure. But the taste was good...but hard.

Please do read the comments from my husband and in laws

Husband - "I have sent one to Dr APJ, to try it as a new weapon and one more NASA to do a research on it"

BIL 1 - When my kid had a jamun in hand "Pappu hold it safe otherwise u may harm ur legs when it falls down"

BIL 2 - "Oh my god, you tried it a wrong time....we are done with the remodelling of our house and we don't need stones any more"

Its my fault and I am really scared of trying it anymore...as i was boiling 2 litres of milk on a LPG.

But anyway am posting this as I tried it. I am eager to see all your comments.

I got a transfer to Chennai and I am really busy with the things related. I was trying hard for this transfer for the past few months and it got clicked recently. This time I think it be will really really tough shifting things from here to there, settling down etc. So I thought I will come back to this space, once I settle down there. It wont take much time I guess. Moreover I can come back with a bash, as I would be having access even at home.

Here's a small recipe from my drafts,

Recipe for Masala Vada:

Ingredients:

Channa dhal - 1 cup

Onions - 1 big

Green chillies - 3

Red chillies - 3

Saunf - 1 tsp

Ginger - a very small piece

Garlic - 3-4 pods

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Salt - as required

Curry leaves and coriander leaves

Method:

Soak the channa dhal for 3 hrs. Drain the water fully.

In the mixer, add the 1 green chilly and 3 red chillies, cumin seeds, saunf, ginger, garlic.

Grind them together smooth. Then add the soaked dhal. Using whipper, whip to get a coarse batter.

The batter should be thick enough.

Mince the onion, 2 green chillies and the leaves. Add it to the batter. Add salt and Aesfoetida. Mix well.

Heat cooking oil in the stove, slightly simmer it and fry the vadas in hot oil.

If you want a different taste, you add cinnamon and mint leaves to this.

Serve hot with chutney.

Please keep visiting my space, still I am back.

One of my mallu friend got me 'Erisseri' on the onam day. It was so delicious and I immediately wrote down the recipe from her. Then I tried it today morning. It came out very well and heres how I prepared it.

Ingredients:

Black Channa - 1 cup

Raw Plaintain - 1

Yam - 100 gms

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Pearl Onions - 6

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Seasoning

Mustard and urad dhal - 1 tbsp

Curry Leaves - few

Red Chillies - 2

Obviously we have to use coconut oil.

Method:

Soak the channa overnight. Pressure cook it with salt and 1/2 tsp chilli powder. Add only little water as this curry will be dry.

I microwaved the cubed Yam and plaintain seperately(with 1/4 tsp chilli powder each). They should be well cooked.

Once the pressure is released, add the yam and plaintain to the cooked channa and allow it to cook.

In the meanwhile, grind together coconut, pearl onions and cumin seeds coarsely.

Add this to the vegetables and mix well. Adjust the salt if required.

Cook for some 5 minutes and switch off.

Do the seasoning with the items mentioned for seasoning.

Thats it delicious curry ready to serve with hot sambar rice and pappads.

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Vinayaga Chathurthi is always my favorite festival. Since I was brought up in a village, its always a joyful event to buy clay ganesha. I will be roaming around to get all decorative things like umbrella, erukka maalai and so on for that ganesha. But this time we missed this festival, as we had to attend a close relative's marriage at chidambaram. After that travel, I couldn't find time to prepare this, as I had to bring back home to normal. I missed khamam dhokla also, so I didn't want to miss this time too. So I made myself to prepare something at least for Indian Cooking Challenge. I reached home by 8.30 PM after that I started my venture. When I read through the procedures, I realized only 2 recipes can be made easily at that time. So ended up my list to kozhukattais and peanut ladoos(from Valli's recipe)

I prepared the same way as mentioned by Valli. This is the second time in my life, I am preparing kozhukattai. Because my mom used prepare only pidi kozhukkattai and not this one, so I never had a chance of learning this. As my husband is very much fond of this sweet, he is very particular about the taste and texture. He has a great list of specification on how a kozhikattai should be. Even after 25 years of excellence in kitchen, he will find faults with my MIL's preparation of this sweet. This made me keep away from preparing this. No other go, I ought to prepare this at least once in a year during this pooja. I thought I am saved this year, but this ICC trapped me into trouble :( .

My poornam came out well and the dough too. But after seeing my first set of kozhukattais, my husband thought he only will prepare it. I was very conscious on the getting a fully covered kozhukkattai, but he felt that the cover is too thick. So he only did all the kozhukatais after that. Really it came out well and you can see the snaps.

Making peanut ladoos was not a big deal and it also came out as expected. Actually I thought of doing a small pooja with this as the neivedhyam, but its was toooooooooo late.

I found it very difficult to dump all my important things in a safe place, while we were doing remodeling of our house. Actually when we decided to remodel, we didn’t think of this point anytime and we thought we can dump in room. But at the last moment both of my brother in laws came back home, finishing their college days. We have to give them a room and obviously that’s one where we kept all our important things. When was looking for a good solution, I found out his website, who provide Storage Units on rental.

They are providing a wonderful solution with storage units in all sizes and according to our specific needs. Their site is accessible throughout the year. They also provide a Free Move in Truck with a Self Storage Unit Rental. I really felt it to be a very useful and compact for my needs. All you have to do is you have to create an account there and make payment online. They also provide valuable points to be considered while packing and moving. They have online payment centers also, which made my job easier. I think this will be a useful piece of information for those who are shifting or remodeling your house.

Drumstick leaves are always my favourite. I love everything made out of it. As you all know its rich in iron content and especially ladies who are pregnant need to take it for sure. Every doctor will prescribe iron tablets throughout pregnancy and even after post pregnancy. So it becomes a must take greens during pregnancy. When i was pregnant, we found it very difficult to get this leaves here. So my mom used to carry this greens wrapped in a wet cloth(to keep it fresh) from my hometown. I will soon post one more recipe on murungaikeerai kashayam, which i drank to get rid of the excess water accumulated. Everyone will face swelling in their legs during pregnancy and if you drink this kashayam, immediately the swelling will go off.

Coming to the recipe

Ingredients:

Drumstick leaves - 1 cup

Toor Dhal - 2 tbsp

Pearl Onion - 10

Green chillies - 4 nos

Seasoning

Mustard Seed - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Method

Pressure cook the toor dhal to a level, that it is done 3/4th.

Mince the onion and chillies.

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items.

Once the mustard splutters, add the onions and green chillies.

Then add the greens and dhal(along with the little excess water used for cooking the dhal)

If you want you can even garnish it with scrapped coconut.

That's all serve it with hot sambar rice.

This is my lunch box with Raddish Sambar, murungaikeerai thuvattal and curd rice.

This lunchbox enters the Wholesome Lunchbox event conducted by Margot.

Also this am sending for the Food for 7 stages of life - Pregnancy (Zero hour) event hosted by Radhika and Sudeshna

I am music freak and hence rapid share is more close to my heart. Now they have come up with an excellent Rapidshare Search Engine named Rapid4me. With the help of Rapid4me you can easily find any type of files such as video, music and games. Now my search has become more convenient and faster. I heard that the site's response is overwhelming. With their user friendly technology, it has already creating waves in the ever growing internet community. Let us make use of it and save our precious time.

This is one more for the Viki's Side Dish for Chappathi event.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower florets - 1 cup

Potatoes cubed - 1 cup

Green Peas - 1/2 cup

Paneer - 1/2 cup

Capsicum - 1

Onion - 1 big

tomato - 1 medium

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Saunf Powder - 1/4 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp

Coconut Paste - 2 tbsp

Cinnamon - 1 piece

Mint Leaves for garnishing

Method:

In a kadai add some oil and fry the cubed paneer. Drain them and put in a bowl containing water.

In the remaining oil, add the cinnamon and then onion. Then add the ginger garlic paste.

When the raw smell goes off, add the tomato and all the vegetables except capsicum & paneer.

Now add the turmeric, chilly powder, saunf powder, coriander powder and salt. Mix well and close with a lid. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the capsicum, garam masala and the coconut paste.

Cook it for 2 more mins and garnish with mint leaves.

Serve with hot chappathi.

My husband really loved this gravy and it was a great happiness for me.

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Work has become so tight nowadays and am finding it very difficult to post anything. Also we have been on continuous travel for some or the other functions. I have been silent viewer of my favourite blogs and kept worrying on seeing my blog silent. I just found some free time after a long gap. Just thought posting in all my pending dishes.

This is a very quick and delicious recipe, which goes well with chappathi.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1 big

Green Peas - 1/2 cup

Onion - 1 big

Green Chillies - 2 nos

Crushed Pepper - 2 tbsp(a/c to ur taste)

Salt - as per taste

Curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Method:

Put the cauliflower florets in boiling water and drain them.

In a kadai, add 1 tbsp of oil and add the onions.

Once onion is cooked, add the ginger garlic paste.

Once it is done, add the florets, green peas and mix well.

Now add the pepper powder, salt, sprinkle some water and close with a lid.

Once the veggies are done, garnish it with curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Serve it with hot chappathis and onion raitha.

I am sending this to the Side Dish for Chappathi event conducted by Viki's Kitchen

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This is recipe tried following a TV show.

Ingredients:

Paneer - 200 gm

Potato - 2

onion - 1

To Grind:

Pearl Onions - 10

Garlic - 10

Tomato - 1

Red Chillies - 10

Coriander Powder - 2 tbsp

Cinnamon - 1

Clove - 2

Cardamom - 2

Khus Khus - 1tsp

Fried Gram - few

cococut - 2 tbsp

Method

In a kadai, add 1 tbsp of oil and fry the cubed paneer. Drain it and put it in a bowl containing water and turmeric mixed.

Bake the potatoes and keep it aside.

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and add the cinnamon, clove and khus khus. Once it starts spluttering, add the onion and saute well.

Then add the garlic, red chillies. Saute till the chillies become crisp.

Now add the tomato and the coriander powder.

Put the coconut and fried gram in to the mixer along with the sauted ingredients and grind it to a smooth paste.

Keep a kadai add 1 tsp of oil and saute the onions. Then add the paneer and potatoes and the ground masal. cook it for 5 mins in simmer by closing the lid.

Serve this with Roti and hence I am sending this to Side dish for chapathi event hosted by Viki's Kitchen.

Mushroom has become a mandatory item for lunch on every weekend. Rarely we prepare non veg and rest all times its mushroom curry, with rasam/sambar. We will late lunch by around 3-4 pm on weekends. Nowadays my kid is insisting on eating with his dad alone. My hubby dear finds it difficult to have his food properly. but its truly a great enjoyment. I will be busy cooking in the kitchen and my kid will come & take a plate for my husband (whenever my kid feels hungry). He will show that plate to me and ask "Tha" (which means give). I will put something in that plate, he will go running with that to his dad and have the food with him. He come back for the second serving. So cute of him.

Coming to the recipe

Ingredients

Mushroom - 200 gms

Potato - 1 or 2

Onion - 1 big

Tomato - 2

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp

Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 3 tsp

Coriander Leaves - few

Method

Clean and cut the mushroom and all other veggies.

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and add the onions.

Saute till it becomes translucent. Then add the ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes.

Add the tomatoes and all the powders and salt.

Now add the potatoes and mushroom. Mix well.

Sprinkle some water and close the kadai.

Stir in between till the veggies are done.

Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with rasam or sambar rice.

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This is one more excellent side dish for any sambar. But I like it to have as a gravy with rice. Usually on a rainy day, my mom will surely prepare this porial, rasam and hot rice. She mix the hot rice with this porial and feed us even when i was doing my college. I love my mom's mixing as she will add a little more salt and it would be nice to have from mom's hand always.

Lets get into the recipe.

Ingredients

Broad Beans (Avarakkai) - 500 gms

Pearl Onion - 10

Tomato - 1 small

Sambar Powder - 2-4 tsp

Salt - as Required

Mustrad and urad dhal for seasoning.

To Grind:

Coconut - 3 tbsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method

Grind the items to grind to a smooth paste.

Heat a kadai and add 1 tsp of oil.

Add the seasoning items and then the onion. Once the onion is soft, add the tomatoes and then the minced avarakkai.

Saute for a awhile and then add the sambar powder, turmeric powder and salt.

Sprinkle some water and close with a lid. Saute in between til the veg is done.

Once the veg is cooked well, add the ground paste. Mix well and switch off the stove.

you can have it as a side dish with sambar or else directly with white rice.

In this modern era, everything is growing in a rapid speed. Even thieves are using recent technology for burglary. A proper Home security system becomes more essential nowadays. Recently I read a home security system review article and there they have mentioned certain preventative measures to keep our home safe.
Few are listed here
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This is my all time comfort food. We went on a unplanned temple visit and we all were so tired after coming back home. Every one was hungry but no one had energy to prepare anything. So I ended up preparing a simple comfort meal containing Rasam, Ennai Kathirikkai Porial and few pappads. Everyone enjoyed this meal and finished off everything.

Ingredients

Brinjal - 1/2 kg

Garlic - 20-30 pods

Sambar powder - 2-3 tsp

Salt - as required

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad dhal split - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves and Coriander Leaves - Few

Method

Cut the brinjal Lengthwise and put it in water.

In a kadai, add 1 tbsp of oil and add the seasoning items.

Then add the garlic and saute for few seconds. Then add the brinjal, sambar powder and salt.

Sprinkle some water over it and close with a lid. Saute well in between, so that it doesn't get burnt. Adjust the water until the brinjal is done.

Finally add the leaves. I used more coriander leaves, this will add up the aroma.

So simple yet delicious dish.

I am sending this to FIL-Brinjal conducted by Sanghi.

I am very much fond of sarees. I believe any woman can look like an angel in a saree. When it comes to sarees, I love handloom cotton sarees the most. But for festivals and marriage it’s our tradition to wear silk sarees. My sister in law's marriage is nearing and I was checking out for a nice designer saree for her reception. That’s how I came to know about the utsavsarees through a India shopping website. They have a splendid collection of sarees, salwars, gagras etc. All are at reasonable rate. I really loved this Wine Pink Faux Georgette Saree and ordered the same for that reception. Yeah...my next search is for the right accessories for this awesome saree.

I love any vegetable in the form of kootu, as it requires only very less oil and rich in protein. From the beginning, instead of giving only pappu, I used give any veg kootu to my kid. He loves to have kootu rice with ghee. I usually prepare this kootu as a side dish for any kulambu. Today i prepared pachai mochai kulambu along with kootu.

Ingredients:

Snake Gourd - 3 pcs

Bengal gram Dhal - 1/2 cup

Onion - 1

Green Chillies - 3-4

Red Chillies - 2

Aesfoetida - a pinch

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Mustard and urad dhal for seasoning.

Method:

Pressure cook the dhal. Cut the gourd, onions and chillies.

In a kadai, add 1/2 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items and cumin seeds.

Once the mustard splutters add the onion and chillies and saute well.

Now add the snake gourd and saute for a while.

Now add the cooked dhal, salt, and turmeric powder. Close with a lid and cook till the veg is done.

Add curry leaves and coriander leaves for extra flavor.

If you want, you can also add a small tomato for this.

Serve this kootu along with kulambu or rasam rice.

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Recipes are transferred from generations. In my case both my Mom and my MIL learnt cooking from my mom's mom. She was an expert and till now some of her masterpieces remains unacheivable. Like athirasam, idyappam, suzhiyam etc. Some of them were tried several times and left as it didnt turn out upto her level. Later they stopped trying even. When I heard of this Indian Cooking challenge, I felt very happy to get a chance to try out the tough ones. After mastering them, I can challenge my Mom and MIL ;) hehehe

Coming to the trial run, my trial run was a great success. As it is already month end, I decided to prepare it yesterday. I had all the ingredients ready at home. But when I started, immediately the power went off. Ooops what a bad sign I got. I determined to go ahead and finish it off with the charged light. Cooking in Candle Light:) As I am doing it for the first time, I took a print out of the recipe mentioned there. My hubby dear helped me in getting things done and reading out for me. The only thing is he was very keen on measurements. I wanted to have less sugar, but he was jumping on not use different measurements. It appeared so kiddish, but I really loved the overall experience.

I used the exact measurements and the same procedure as mentioned.

Only thing I couldnt achieve was, I couldnt get a good round shape, as it was so hot. I prepared the balls immediately, after I took off from the stove. Later I realised I would have waited for some more time, so that it would have cooled little bit. Any which ways, I will be preparing it often, as it turned out well.

The most lovable thing was, my son loved it so much. He was asking for it, before he went to bed. Later the next morning as soon as he got up, he took that box and was asking me to open it and give him one. Thats the appreciation I got.

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My hubby dear's birthday is nearing and I will definitely gift him with a Movado watch. Bluedial is giving an excellent discount on this collection. The collection they have is so awesome. I really loved the user friendliness of their site.

For the past two years I was not able to relish the taste of mango. Firstly I was pregnant and that was my morning sickness time. The next year, I was feeding my kid and was not allowed to take mangoes. So I was eagerly waiting for this season to come. From the time the season started, I was having mangoes like anything. Upon that we got a box full of Organic Mangoes from the orchid, as a gift from a friend. Those were so natural and tasted so heavenly. That's was really a great treat for my mango quest.

Ingredients

Mangoes (Fully Ripen) - 2 or 3

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/4 - 1/2 cup depending on your liking of sweet. I didn't add sugar at all as the mangoes were extremely sweeter.

Method:

Peel off the skin of the mangoes and cut them into pieces.

In a blender add the mangoes, sugar and blend them well.

Add the milk and blend it once. That's it. If you want it more cold, store it in fridge and have it after sometime. Or you can have right away.

This Mango Smoothie enter the Mango Mela conducted by Srivalli.

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Because of hectic work both at home and office, i couldn't manage to post regularly. Nowadays my kid also giving me tough time for feeding him. In that I am not at all getting involved to take a snap of what i prepare.

We were been to a relative's wedding and I took a week off to help them in the preparations. There will be around 20-30 people at home for one or the other function. For a lunch the cook prepared potato podimas. As there were so much of diabetic patients in our family, they didn't had much. In the evening the cook prepared sweets and savories. While preparing mixture i asked them to prepare some batter extra and asked them to prepare aloo bonda with the leftover potato podimas. All the children and youngsters loved it and everything got over in minutes.

This is a very simple evening snack, especially on a rainy day.

Here goes the recipe...

For the Batter:

Besan Flour - 1 cup

Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Rice Flour - 1 tbsp

Salt - as Required

For the Stuffing

Potato - 2 big

Onion - 1

Green Chillies - 4

Lime juice - 1 tbsp.

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Mustard and Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Bengal Gram dhal - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves - few

Method:

Bake the potatoes and mash it. Mince the onion and chillies.

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the seasoning items like mustard, urad dhal and bengal gram dhal.

Once it splutters, add the onion, green chillies and turmeric powder.

Once onion is sauted well, add the mashed potato and mix well.

Before switching off the stove, add the lime juice and leaves.

Stuffing is ready now. Make small balls out of it.

In a vessel make the batter with the items mentioned in 'For the Batter'

Dip the balls into this batter and fry them in oil.

Aloo bonda is ready and serve it hot with Coconut chutney.

Note - You can make the stuffing like this or you can reuse the leftover potato podimas as I did ;)

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This is one more easy dish, which can be made on the days we grind for idly batter. I either prepare paruppu adai or this one, on every batter grinding day. I have added drumstick leaves jus to add to the taste of the adai.

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1 cup

Par Boiled Rice - 1 cup

Thuar Dhal - 2 tbsp

Green Chillies - 4

Red Chillies - 4

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard+Urad dhal+ cumin seeds mixture - 2 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Onion - 2 big

Green chillies - 2

Curry Leaves + coriander Leaves - few or Drumstick leaves.

Method:

Soak the rice and dhal together for 4 hours. In a grinder, add the chillies and fennel seeds.

Once they are grinded well, add the rice and dhal. Grind it to a smooth batter.

In a kadai, heat 1 tsp of oil and add the items mentioned for seasoning.

Saute well till the raw smell goes off. Mix this with the batter, add salt and mix well.

The batter should be little thinner.

Heat the tawa and prepare adai's out of this batter.

If you add drumstick leaves, the taste will be heavenly.

I am sending this Arisi Adai to the Ravishing Rice event conducted by Nags

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This is a special side dish, often prepared in brahmin families. I learnt this recipe from one of the TV shows. It sounded so easy and hence I thought of giving it a try. I first tried it with beans and it came out so well, but I didnt took pictures. This time I made it again just to take some snaps. This time I used cluster beans(kothavarangai). 

Ingredients:

Cluster Beans - 1/4 kg

Channa Dhal - 1 cup 

Red Chillies - 5

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

salt as required

Seasoning:

Mustard & Urad Dhal - 1 tsp each

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Onion - 1 

Curry Leaves Few

Method:

Soak the dhal for 1/2 hr. Drain the water and grind it with chillies & little salt. Grind it coarsely as we do for vada. 

Put this paste to a microwave safe bowl and bake it for 5-8 mins(depending on your microwave). It will become like one hard dried dosa. 

Cut it and grind it in mixer again. You will get a coarse powder. 

Cut the cluster beans and cook it in microwave by sprinkling some water and salt. 

Once it is cooked well, add the powder and mix well. Cook it for a min again. 

In a sepearate bowl, heat a tsp of oil and add the seasoning items mentioned, with the help of microwave. 

Add the cooked beans and usli mixture to this seasoning and cook it again for a min. 

Thats it. Its ready to serve with a hot sambar rice. 

It will be really easy to cook this dish with the help of microwave. 

This Usli enters MEC:Essential Extras event hosted by Rachel originated by Srivalli.

This quick fix dish also enters the WYF:Quick Meal hosted by EC

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My hubby dear loves this. He doesn't like poori, but love to have this masala with dosa. Hence every time I prepare poori masala, he will be having only dosa. Anyway I dont like this combo. 

This time I prepared only masal for dosa, especially for him(as a thanks note for getting me some nonstick ware). 

I prepared masala dosa once. For first dosa, my husband said "Masala is more inside the dosa". For the second dosa, he said "I am searching for the masala inside the dosa". My reaction: Stopped the masala dosa and served this dosa masal. He can take the masala, how much ever he wants. 

OK here comes the recipe. 

Ingredients:

Potato - 4

Onion - 2

Green Chillies - 5

Red Chillies - 2

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves - few

Mustard Seeds and Urad dhal - 1 tsp each

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Tomato - 1 (optional)

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Salt - as required. 

Method:

Boil the potatoes, cool it and mash it gently. 

Mince the onion and chillies. 

Heat oil in a wok, and season the masal with mustard, urad dhal and cumin seeds. 

Add the onion, chillies and saute well till its get cooked well. 

Add the potatoes and mix well. Add 1 cup of water, salt and turmeric powder. 

Mix well and close with a lid. 

It wont take much time to cook. Once it reaches the required consistency, switch off the stove and add the leaves. 

My version will be little gravy/watery kind, to serve with dosa. 

You can even make it thick and serve it closed inside the dosa. This is what we call masala dosa. 

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This is one more kind of preparing greens. 

Ingredients 

Arai Keerai - 1 bunch

Pearl Onions - 10

Green Chillies - 3

Red Chillies - 2

Coconut Scrapped - 2 tbsp

Seasoning

Mustard - 1tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Channa dhal - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Method

Sort the greens and wash it cleanly, to remove all the sand. 

Mince it nicely. Mince onion and chillies too. 

In a kadai, add a tsp of oil and add the seasoning items.

Then add the onion and chillies. Saute till the raw smell goes off. 

Then add the greens and salt. Mix well and wait until it gets cooked. No need to add water as the greens will get cooked in its own water. 

It will take jus 5 mins to cook. Once cooked, add the scrapped coconut and mix well. 

Serve hot with sambar rice. 

When I am in a good mood to cook, I will take time and prepare all these chutneys together for idly. I love to have idly with variety of chutney as they serve in restaurants. Whenever I go home from hostel, I used to torture my mom, by asking her to prepare three chutneys in little quantities for me. It will delicious to have like that.

Chutney 1: Coconut Chutney

Ingredients:

Coconut - 1 cup scraped

Green chillies - 6

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece

Roasted Gram - 1/4 cup

Salt

Method:

In a kadai add 1 tsp of oil and saute the chillies and ginger.

Add this with the rest of the ingredients and grind it smooth.

Season it with mustard, urad dhal, and curry leaves.

Chutney 2: Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

Pearl Onion - 20

Garlic - 10

Tomato - 2 fully ripen

Red Chillies - 10

Salt

Method:

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and saute all the ingredients, till they are cooked.

In a mixer, grind it coarsely by adding salt.

Season it with mustard, urad dhal, and curry leaves, using gingelly oil.

The other one is pudhina chutney for which u can find the method here.

Serve all the three chutneys as side dish with spongy hot idlys.

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This is a sweet prepared only during the "Mattu Pongal", when we used to do pooja for our "Veetu Theivam"(family GOD hehehe). From the morning, we will be preparing only tiffin items for breakfast and lunch. Will start cooking only in the evening. We will do a heavy menu for the offering, which will the standard items every year. This sweet will surely be a part of the menu and this will be the last preparation. We will do the pooja only after 10pm in the night, have dinner after pooja and we will wear the new pongal dress after that only. But being an atheist, me and my chithi(who is also from an atheist family) will taste everything on time, before pooja. After all these hungama, "swamy ther" (Chariot) will come and we will offer this sweet to that god or goddess (i don't know as I will be almost sleeping on that time every year and get scoldings the next day morning). Stories aside, here comes the recipe

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1 1/2 cup

Ghee - 5 tbsp

Cashew - few

Raisins - few

Cardamom - 3

Coconut scrapped - 2 tbsp

Method:

In a kadai roast the rice, till it becomes puffed. 

Cool it and grind it in a mixer. It will become like rice semolina. 

Heat a 1 tsp of ghee and roast the cashew and raisins and keep it aside. 

In the left over ghee, add the coconut and roast till golden brown. Keep it aside. 

In that kadai, add the jaggery and 4 cups of water. When it starts boiling, add the rice semolina and mix well, without forming lumps. 

keep on mixing as you do for halwa. Till it becomes thick enough. 

It is usually served ball shaped while offering to god and for us in a bowl with a spoon ;)

I was thinking so long for the Mithai Mela conducted by Srivalli and ended up here. But I missed the deadline, I don't whether she will accept this. 

When it came for remodeling our house, there were many ideas from all of our family members. But I was very adamant to accept any idea for kitchen remodeling. It’s my space and i only knew all the difficulties faced and comforts needed. I was very keen on selecting the best modular kitchen, tiles for the kitchen, plumbing and appliances. I wanted to replace everything with the recent trends. That’s how I came to know about the sinks in different shapes and sizes. I got to know about the site sinks USA which has a varied collection of kitchen sinks . All of them are really attractive. What I found more attractive is the double sinks . I feel it will be very useful, while washing the vessels.

 You can use one sink for washing and other one for draining. So there wont any water spilling around the kitchen. As a working woman we have many hectic days and we won’t be in a position to do washing vessels that day. The next day when we wake up, we will find many vessels being piled up in the sink. We won’t be able to search for cups also to wash, for having a coffee. In that situation, I felt if we have a double sink, we can drop all big vessels in the bigger one and the smaller things like spoons and cups in the smaller one. So that it will be easier to segregate on hectic times. I am surely going to use this in my kitchen.

When it comes to non veg, we rarely prepare at home. My hubby dear is very much intended towards Vegetarian and me too not a strict non vegetarian. I have one of my best friend and her mom is an excellent cook, especially non veg. Till date if I wish to prepare any non veg item, I used to call her and get recipe from her. Everything has turned out so well. This is one among them. Its so simple and it tastes so great. 

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1/2 kg

Onion - 1 big

Tomato - 2 

Green Chillies - 2

Red Chilly Powder - 2 tsp

Coriander Powder - 4 tsp

Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tbsp

Coconut Paste - obtained from half coconut+1tsp cumin seeds

Seasoning

Clove - 2

Cinnamon - 2 inch piece

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

Star Anise - 1

Cardamon - 1

Method:

Cut and clean the chicken pieces well. First with water and then with turmeric powder. 

Cut the onion, tomato and green chillies. 

Marinate the chicken with ginger garlic paste, salt, chilly and coriander powder. 

In a kadai, heat 1 tbsp of oil. Add the seasoning items and then add the onion. 

When the onion turns translucent, add the tomato and green chillies. Saute for a minute. 

Then add the marinated chicken and saute till the chicken is half cooked. 

Add 2 cups of water and close the kadai. Once the chicken is cooked well, add the coconut paste. 

Switch off the stove, once it starts boiling. 

Garnish with pudhina leaves. 

This kulambu will be little watery. Its a good combination with dosa/Idly. You can even have it with Rice/Roti.

I am sending this to The Potluck - Chicken event conducted by Viki

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This website is really user friendly and they have information on almost all gadgets like vacuum cleaners, humidifiers, kitchen appliances etc. They have categorized the gadgets so well and it is very search any product. They have all updated information and it makes us easy to know the recent trends. The best thing I noticed in their website is they have the entire brand names list and you can read reviews about the product, do cost comparison etc. Very useful know!! I am really excited and believe you also will be ready to browse through this site immediately. 

Continuing my post related to chitra pournami, I am posting this tamarind Rice. Please do take some time to read my post on chitra pournami. 

Recipe for Tamarind Rice

Ingredients

Cooked Rice - 1 cup

Tamarind - Big lemon sized

Red Chillies - 10

Mustard Seed - 1 tsp

Urad Dhal - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1/4 tsp

Channa Dhal - 1 tsp

Groundnut - 1 handful

Cashew - few

Curry Leaves 

To Grind

Fenugreek Seeds - 1 tsp

Red Chillies - 4

Mustard - 1 tsp

Method:

Cook the rice with 1 tsp of gingelly oil added. 

Cool down the rice in wide vessel.

Dry roast the items mentioned to grind and grind it to a smooth paste.

Take a thick extract of tamarind juice and add turmeric powder to it. 

In a hard bottomed kadai, add this tamarind juice and keep stirring, till the raw smell goes off and thick base is got. 

In a wok, heat 3 tbsp of gingelly oil. Add all the seasoning items one by one and saute till the groundnut and channa dhal are fried properly. 

Add this seasoning and ground powder to the cooled rice and mix well. 

Add a little tamarind paste and mix well. Add salt and check for the taste. 

Accordingly adjust the tangy or spice level. If you feel its not so spicy, you can roast few more chillies in gingelly oil and add to it. 

Serve it with potato chips or plantain chips. 

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Charter’s Twitter Feed has over 6000 movies and shows to choose. They also have thousands of titles, which you can watch for free. That’s really a grand sweep. It will be great to have a living room decorated with a 52" Sony Bravia and a picture perfect Charter HDTV Connection. That would be a dream for many people. It has become so easier to achieve now.  I have already posted about their April campaign. Their April Campaign was about winning a home theater system and one year of free Charter Digital Cable® service with HD programming. They also have given prizes like Xboxes with 360 games and Honda Civic. The prizes have always been more interesting. The more you play, the more are the chances to win.  

I just thought of sharing my own way of preparing curd rice(seasoned). Recently we celebrated chitra pournami. This is not a must to celebrate festival in tamilnadu, but we do celebrate just to have moonlight dinner with all the family members. Let me define Chitra Pournami(obviously for those who really dont know). This is the full moon day in the month of Apr-May, that is the tamil month Chithirai. The day is dedicated to Chitragupta, the official assistant of Lord Yama. This day is considered as Chitragupta' s Birthday.Chitragupta, the first assistant of Lord Yama, is the one who keeps record of the good and bad deeds of human beings on earth. After death, when one reaches the abode of yama, it is he who tallies the good and bad deeds and declares it to Yama. Therefore, the day is dedicated to Chitragupta and devotees pray to him to forgive their sins.

On this day we should be on fasting for the whole day and cook in the evening at before the moon comes. We will have our dinner only after seeing the moon. That will really nice to sit in the terrace, watching the moon and having food, chitchatting...so much fun.

Ok coming to the point, I prepared lemon rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice and curd rice finally. all in very small quantities, just to have a flavour of all variety rice. 

Here comes the recipe for Seasoned Curd Rice

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1 cup cooked

Milk - 1/2 cup

Curd - 1/2 cup

Green chillies - 3 finely cut

Ginger - 1 small piece finely cut

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Urad Dhal - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method:

Cook the rice with 1 cup extra from normal cooking. 

Add the milk to the rice and let it cool. 

Heat a vok and add 1 tsp of oil. Add all the seasoning items and saute for a min. 

Add this to the cooled rice and mix well. 

Add the curd, salt and mix well. 

Serve with mango pickle.