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 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

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. 

I think, everyone will be aware of the rich Iron content in the drumstick leaves. Unluckily, I was not able to find good drumstick leaves in any shop here. Either they will have a spoiled branch or dried branch. Its my favourite and was desperatly waiting for introducing this leaves to my kid. During our search for a play home for my kid, we found a fresh drumstick tree near my place, at the play school. I felt very bad, that the tree was unexplored till that time and it was only a few yards from my place. Anyway they didnt give admission for my kid, saying its too early to put him in a play home. I realized that i am running so fast for everything with my kid. But i felt happy for my discovery of drumstick leaves atlast. So with their permission am getting fresh bunch of leaves. I love everything made out of this, and the first thing that striked my mind was adding the leaves to the adai. 

Here goes the recipe

Ingredients 

Par Boiled Rice - 1 cup

Raw Rice - 1 cup

Toor Dhal - 1 cup

Channa dhal - 1/4 cup

Moong dhal - 1/4 cup

Urad dhal - 1/4 cup

Fried gram - 1/4 cup

Red Chillies - 8

Green Chllies - 2 

Pepper corns - 1 tsp

Gralic - 7 pods

Drumstick Leaves - 1 cup

Saunf - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1/2 tsp

Salt and oil as required

Onion - 2 big minced.

Method

Soak the both the rice together in a bowl. Mix all the dhal and soak them in a seperate bowl.

Let them be sokaed for an hour. 

In a mixer, add the garlic, chillies and saunf. Grind it to a smooth paste. 

Later add the rice and grind well. Add the dhal later and grind it coarsely. 

Add salt and aesfoetida and mix well. 

Heat a kadai and saute the minced onion with 1 tsp of oil. 

Once the onion turns translucent, add the randomnly cut drumstick leaves. Saute this for a minute. 

Add this to the batter and mix well. The batter should be little thick. 

In a tawa, prepare adai as we do for dosa. Be little liberal in using oil for getting crispy adai. 

Serve hot with crushed jaggery, which also is rich in Iron. This is truly a healthy meal(Iron + mor eprotein) esp for kids and ladies. 

I am sending this to Grammathu Kaimanam/Village Special Recipe Event hosted by Shama. 

also sending to SWC - Cooking with Greens event hosted by Sowmya

Its a simple but delicious recipe. In Tamilnadu,  smaller functions will have this dish for sure. Even a novice at kitchen can do it with ease. If you are diet conscious, its a good option. Nowadays I have started adding veggies in almost all things i prepare . Its reduces your intake of food at the same time provides you more intake of veggies. 

Coming to the recipe

Ingredients

Sooji/Rava - 2 cups

Cut Vegetables - 1 1/2 cups (I used carrot, beans, cauliflower, green peas, potato)

Onion - 2 big

Green Chillies - 5

Red Chillies - 2 

Ginger - 1/5 tsp finely chopped

Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt to taste 

Ghee - 1 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dhal broken - 1 tsp

Bengal Gram dhal - 1 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Method:

Roast the rava, till the aroma of roasted rava fills in air. 

Cut all the vegetables, onion and chillies. 

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

Then add the onion, chillies and curry leaves. Saute till translucent.

Add the veggies and saute till they become soft. 

Add 4 cups of water and close with a lid. 

When the water starts boiling, add the roasted rava and mix well without making any lumps. 

Smear 1 tsp of ghee and close with a lid. Cook in a lower flame for 5 more minutes. 

Delicious kichidi is ready, garnish it with coriander leaves and serve hot with Coconut chutney. 

Variation- 

Few people add 1 cinnamon stick and a clove while seasoning and a thick coconut paste while adding water. It also will be good, as I don't like masala much, I opted this way. 

If you want it little tangy, you can even add a tomato. 

I am sending this to the 15 minutes cooking event conducted by Mahimaa and also the WYF-Quick Meal event conducted by EC.

This also enters the FIC Favourite hosted by curry leaf, originated by Sunshinemom.

I am great fan of chinese cuisine(VEG though). But I like only in authentic chinese restaurants. At times I will try out something at home. Both me and my husband work in the same office. Everyday before leaving home, I will be bugging him to decide the menu for the dinner. But yesterday I was too lazy to prepare anything for dinner. So I decided my comfortable menu, which is quite a strange combo. I had some idlies prepared for breakfast and a noodles packet. So I made idly upma and then this noodles. These are the ones which you can finish it off within 10 mins and vacate the kitchen soon. Thinking that I will go to bed soon, I went home and prepared the same dinner. But my bad luck, my son was playing for a long time and I had to accompany him. So all my plan went flop :(

Ok coming to the recipe...

Ingredients:

Hakka Noodles Packet - 1

Cut Vegetables - 1 cup (I used capsicum, carrot, beans)

Onion - 1 big

Green Chillies - 2 split

Ching's Manchurian sauce - 1 tbsp

Salt - little

Method

Cut the vegetables and onion. 

Cook the noodles and wash it in cold water. Keep it aside. 

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

Saute well, till they becomes soft. 

Add the Chings manchurian sauce and salt. Add the noodles and mix well. Close with a lid for a min and serve hot. 

Both Idly upma and this noodle can be done within 15 mins so am sending this to the 15 minutes cooking event conducted by Mahimaa. 

Greens are very cheap and you can make much varieties out of it like kootu, poriyal, thuvattal, kadaiyal, keerai vadai and so many. The cooking time is very less. Only time consuming process is to sort out the keerai and cleaning it. If somebody does it for me, I will prepare keerai even everyday ;) 

Ingredients for keerai kootu

Arai Keerai - 2 cups (washed, cleaned and chopped finely)

Pearl Onion - 10 minced

Green Chillies - 3 split

Tomato - 1 minced

Green Gram Dhal (Paasiparuppu) - 1/2 cup

For Seasoning

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Split Urad Dhal - 1/2 tsp

cumin seeds  - 1 tsp

Red Chillies - 3

Aesfoetida- 1 pinch

Method:

For this recipe the dhal should be less and the keerai should be more. Its good on both the health and taste front. 

In kadai, cook the dhal (don't pressure cook it). Once it is half cooked add all the ingredients to it and close it with a lid. Let it cook for some time. 

That's all season the kootu with the seasoning items. 

Serve hot with rice and potato fry. 

This is my kid's favourite during lunch time and hence I am sending this for Monthly Mingle -Kids Lunches hosted by Srivalli and originated by Meeta. I truly had a lovely lunch. 

Again am sending this to FIC Red+Green hosted by Neha(don't know whether it fits her tricky guidelines ;)) originated by Sunshinemom

Also when I am alone at home, I will prepare this for me and not much of cooking involved, hence sending this to  Single Serving Recipes hosted by Spicyrasam

Ingredients

Capsicum - 1 or 2 depending on the size

Toor Dhal - 1/2 cup

Sambar Powder - 2 tsp

Tamarind - lemon sized

Pearl Onion - 10

Tomato - 1

Seasoning

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Broken Urad Dhal - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Red Chillies - 2

Method:

Pressure cook the toor dhal. Mince capsicum by removing the inside seeds, onion and tomato. 

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil. Add the onion, tomato and capsicum and saute for few minutes. 

Add the dhal, turmeric, sambar powder and salt. Capsicum takes less time to cooks. So within five minutes add the tamarind extract. Allow it to boil for five more minutes. 

Once the raw smell of sambar powder and tamarind goes off, swtich it off. 

Season the sambar with the items mentioned for seasoning.

Garnish using coriander leaves and curry leaves. 

This sambar goes to Lentils Mela hosted by Ashwini

It’s my long time goal, that I should prepare a good kesari. Finally I mastered in that after several trials. Whenever i say i am going to prepare kesari, my husband used to tell me "You prepare rava upma instead, as it will be far better when compared to your kesari". Scared of his comments I will stop trying out. But yesterday, I was so determined to prepare the kesari and get any sort of comments from him. When you have tensions on how it would turn out, the recipe will be spoiled. This time I didn’t take any tension and I did it my own way. Hurray I did it and my husband enjoyed it a lot. More than him my kid loved it so much. That’s what i needed.

Ingredients: 

Rava\Sooji - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 1/2 cups

Water - 4 cups

Cardamom powder - 1 pinch

Saffron color powder - For coloring

Ghee - 4 tbsp

Cashew - 10

Dry Grapes - 10

Hell a lot of patience and love 

Method:

In a hard bottomed kadai, add 1 tbsp of ghee and roast the cashew and dry grapes. Keep it aside in a plate.

In the same kadai, add the sooji and roast till it the aroma of roasted sooji fills the room. Keep it aside.

Add the water and saffron color powder to the empty kadai and let it boil. Once it starts boiling, add the roasted sooji slowly, so that it doesn’t form any humps.

Close it with a lid and cook it for 10 mins in a low flame. Once the rawa is cooked well, add the sugar and stir well.

Add some ghee to it and make sure it is not stuck to the bottom or side of the kadai.

Keep on stirring it in a low flame, it should look like some halwa not sticking to the kadai. That’s how the ghee will be taken in by the sooji. Later the same ghee will be oozed out. That point you can stop. 

Add the roasted dry fruits to it and mix well. I started it about 7 pm and I stopped it only by 9pm. Have patience and get the tasty kesari. Enjoyyyyy.

I am sending this to FIC – Orange hosted by Aparna, originated by Harini. Hope they accept mine. 

Yesterday I prepared Raagi Adai after a longtime. It was my grandpa's all time favourite. He was no more now, but still I have never seen such a self disciplined person like him in this world. Even at the age of 88, he will take his breakfast only after finishing his bath and prayers. Everyday early in the morning he go for walking, whatever may be the season. And he will have his own milestones to be reached during walking and maintains his punctuality in that. Also while walking he will be humming his favourite Devaram poetry (this is a tamil litreture sung in the praise of lord shiva). He was working as HOD Tamil in the Delhi university. As a diabetic patient, whenever he consult a doctor and finds his sugar level gone up, he will take the immediate steps and bring down to normal within a week. Even doctors have admired this. He will a perfect balanced diet that suits his health. He lived as a legend, leaving us with his fondful memories. 

When I thought of the event Just For You, the next moment I decided that I should dedicate my grandpa with his favourite recipe. Here it is..

Ingredients:

Ragi Flour - 1 cup

Onion - 1/2 cup minced (Preferrably pearl onions)

Green Chillies - 4

Red Chilies - 2

Curry leaves and Coriander Leaves - 2 tbsp minced nicely. 

Salt to Taste

Method:

In the hot kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and seasoning items like mustard seeds, urad dhal and aesfoetida. 

Once the mustard splutters, add the rest of the ingredients and saute well. 

Add this to the ragi flour and mix well. Now add salt and water and mix well. The dough should be like vada dough.

Take a plastic sheet and brush some oil over it. Take a medium sized ball of the dough and spread it with hands in that plastic sheet, to a dosa shape. 

Take it out and put it a hot tawa. Turn it to both the sides and cook well by adding little oil. You must have patience till it gets cooked. If its half cooked, you are sure to get stomach pain. So be little careful and cook it well.  

This can be served as a dinner or as a evening snack. This is very good for growing children and diabetic patients too. 

This Ragi Adai is sent to Just For You event started by Alka. 

My mom made this for my wedding anniversary this year. I don't eat much of sweets either homemade or store bought. I love to eat only spicy ones. But this one was too good, as it had only mild sweetness in it. Also my son loved it a lot. When my mom started preparing it, I really loved the aroma which filled in my entire house. It was a cardamom aroma, it was very pleasant. This needs not much work to be done and it can easily be prepared within minutes, when the batter is ready. The batter can also be stored for a week as it is made of jaggery. This dish is actually prepared during Maatu pongal offering to GOD. 

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Uradh Dhal - 1 tbsp

Jaggery - 1/2 cup (If you need it more sweeter, you can add more)

Cardamom - 5

Coconut - 2 tbsp

Method:

Soak the rice and dhal for 1 hr and grind them together in a grinder.

Before taking it off the grinder, add the rest of the ingredients and grind it. 

The Batter is ready now. In a kadai add oil for frying. 

Once the oil is heated, pour a spoon of batter. Immediately it will swell like a poori.

Turn it aside and take it off. Don't fry it too much. 

Actually this one will have crispier portions at the end and softer portion in the middle. The crispier portion will be like a ring and center portion will be like an idly. 

If it is of less sweet, you can have 4-5 at a time. If it is more sweeter, you can have only 2. 

This Paniyaram goes to RCI:Chettinadu Vegetarain Cuisine hosted by Srimathi. 

Hurry!!!!!!!!!! I have completed 50 Posts today....a small milestone reached...

This sambar is made without using any powder such as sambar powder or chilly powder. This 

can be easily made within minutes and I love the taste so much. This we used prepare often during winter that too for dinner. Because the taste will be delicious only when you have it hot(both the rice and sambar should be HOTTER). In this cold weather, I prepared this and whole of my family loved having it. 

Ingredients:

Toor Dhal - 1 cup

Pearl Onion - 20

Tomato - 2

Green Chillies - 10

Red Chillies - 5

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Tamarind - Gooseberry sized.

Salt as required

To Season:

Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Urad Dhal (split) - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves - few

Coriander Leaves - few

Method:

Pressure cook the dhal and mince the onion and chillies.

In the kadai, add 1 tsp oil and add the items to season. 

Add the onion and chillies and saute well. Now add the tomatoes and saute well. Dont let the tomatoes get smashed. It will be good only when they are sepearate. 

Add the cooked dhal with 1 cup of water, turmeric powder and salt. Once it starts boiling add the tamarind juice and cook it for 5 more mins. 

This dish will be watery only, so dont bother about the consistency. Serve hot with hot rice, Potato Fry and Rice Friyums. 

The Side dishes which suits this sambar are Garlic Egg Plant Fry, Potato Peas masala, Mutton Curry and Yam Fry. 

This is a perfect yellow and hence I am sending this to FIC-YELLOW conducted by SunshineMom and also as a second entry to the MLLA Seventh Helping hosted by Susan and Srivalli 

I was born and brought up in a small village near karur. A Cauvery delta region, so we can get fish abundantly. Every weekend my dad used to apply oil for me and my sister and we will be going to the river to take bath. We will play around for about 3 hours there and come back home for lunch. That time we will be jumping with appetite on the way back home. At home my mom will be ready with the lunch and the usual menu will be Mutton kulambu and Mutton pepper fry. We will finish our lunch and will end up in a afternoon nap. In the evening my mom used fry fish as a snack. It will be delicious. 

After shifting to Chennai, we got used to sea fish, that too vanjaram. My dad used to goto the fish market as soon as it opens, so that he can get freshly caught ones. Here in Bangalore, I am not at all getting fresh ones and also they wont slice it very thin as they do in Chennai. So I am fed up a lot and stopped preparing it in Bangalore. 

This time I got some what better so I thought of posting it here. If you are lucky to get the fresh and thin sliced ones, you are sure to have a treat. 

Ingredients:

King Fish - 5 pieces

Chilly Powder - 2 tsp

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1/2 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tsp

Corn flour - 1 tbsp

Rice Flour - 1 tsp

Salt required 

Tomato Juice - 1 tbsp

Tamarind Juice - 1 tbsp

Method:

Mix all the ingredients except the fish, to a smooth paste. 

Apply this paste over each piece of fish and marinate it for 1 hr by keeping it in the freezer. 

Before frying take it out and allow it come down to room temperature.

In the kadai add some oil and deep fry the pieces one by one in a low flame. 

While serving we can also squeeze a piece of lemon over it for a different taste. 

I am sending this Trupti who is hosting Winter Treat event.

This is my First post on new year and am expecting to post a lot and lot more. 

First of all I wish everyone a VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2009 and also thanks everyone for visiting my blog. A special thanks to Spice Club Cham who always visits my site and leave a comment for each of my post, which is an energy tonic for my site. I celebrated my new year by visiting so many temples in and around Thanjavur. My Trip Details are updated in Kayalsworld. 

OK lets get into work, after new year when I checked my mail, there was a mail from Srivalli regarding the MLLA Seventh Helping event. I thought my first post in this new year should go for an event and am proudly sending this for Srivalli's event(You know my first ever entry for an event was also for this MLLA only!!!).

Everyone will be knowing Toor Dhal, but many of you wouldn't be knowing the bean version of 

it. Because this is the first time I saw it. It looks like a bean family and we got to use the dhal inside, which is similar to green peas. These peas will be dried up, processed and packed as toor dhal, which we use for sambar. My MIL got this and its her recipe, but I prepared and posting it here. 

Ingredients:

Green Toordhal Peas - 1 cup

Tamarind - lemon sized

Pearl Onion - 10

Garlic - 10 pods

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Salt to taste

To Grind:

Red Chillies - 20

Coriander seeds - 2 table spoon

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Pepper Corns - 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp

Method:

Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of water for 1/2 hr and get a thick extract. Dry roast all the items mentioned to grind one by one. Grind it to a smooth paste. 

In the kadai, add 2 tbsp of Gingelly oil, add the seasoning items and then the onion and garlic and saute well. 

Add the Thoor Peas and saute well. Now add the ground paste and tamarind extract. Add turmeric powder and salt. Close it with a lid and cook till the required consistency. This peas will take only less time to cook. 

If you like you can also add 1/2 cup of coconut milk at the end. But the taste will be different. Both the ways it will be delicious.

Serve this curry with hot rice, vegetable kootu and pappad. Now am sending this to Susan  Srivalli's MLLA Seventh Helping and

I am sending this to Grammathu Kaimanam/Village Special Recipe Event hosted by Shama.