Receipe 16: Sweet Pongal (Chakara Pongal)

What you need?

Raw Rice
Moong Dal (Half of Raw Rice)
Channa Dal (1 or 2 teaspoon)
Jaggery
Cardamom powder
Cashews

Le Method:

Separately fry rice, moong dal and channa dal. Mix everything together and keep it in the pressure cooker. If you add one glass of mixture of rice, moong dal and kadalai paruppu, double the amount of water. Let it cook.

Scrap the jaggery and make a jaggery syrup with water. Add this syrup to the cooked mixture of rice and dal. Stir it well. Add lot of ghee for the rich taste. Add cardamom powder and garnish with fried cashews.

Receipe 15: Banana Toast

It is a very simple receipe and can be cooked in a few minutes.

What you need:

Bananas
Ghee
Cardomom powder
Sugar

Le Method:

Heat ghee. Cut the bananas into snall pieces and fry them. It should turn golden brown. Add the cardomom powder and sugar. Mix well and devour!

Receipe 14: Curd Rice (Thayyir Saadam)

This receipe was bound to find a place in my blog sooner or later. All seasons..all time favorite.

What you need?

Boiled rice
milk
fresh curd
salt
finely cut ginger
green chillies
Asafoetida
Coriander leaves (finely chopped)

For Seasoning:

Mustard
Curry Leaves
Broken urud Dal


Le Method:

Make sure the cooked rice is not hot. Mash with hand and add thick milk. (Milk is optional)
Then,heat oil, add the seasonings and fry till golden brown. Add green chillies, curry leaves and
ginger, sauté for a minute and pour over the rice. Add curd, salt, asafoetida and mix well. Serve soon after mixing with curd. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Receipe 13: Brinjal Curry (Ennai Kathrikaai)

This is one great lip-smackin' dish..

What you need?

Brinjal
Oil
Channa Dal
Whole urud Dal
Red chillies
Asafoetida powder
Coriander powder
Curry leaves
Salt

Le Method:

Slit the brinjal into 4 with out separating the pieces and with the stalk on. Fry the different Dal's
with dry red chillies, coriander powder and some oil. Grind them. Add the asafoetida powder. Stuff this inside the slit brinjal's. Heat oil in a pan and roast this stuffed brinjals.

Receipe 12: Paneer Dosa

Never heard of it? But trust me, it tastes heaven (Assuming you like fried paneer).
I first tasted this at a small shop called "Sabari Dosa Point" at Coimbatore (Nearly 10 years back)...

The taste still haunts me :D

What You Need?

Paneer cubes
Tomatoes
Onions
Garam Masala
Salt
Oil

Dosa Batter

Le Method:

Deep fry the paneer cubes and keep it aside.

Fry some cut onions and grind it with tomatoes and keep this gravy ready. You can add garlic if you want. Heat a little oil in a pan and pour the onion-tomato gravy. Let it boil. Do not pour a lot of water. It should be very thick. Add garam masala, salt. Add the paneer. Thats it.

Now make dosa and use this gravy as filling. We make masala dosas. Instead of masala, we use this paneer gravy here.

Ready for gobblin' away!

Receipe 11: Thattai

Been my fav savory snack for a long time.

It takes more patience to do this if you are planning to do it alone. Last week, it was a combined effort of 4. My paati did the major work, i "tattified" the thattais, Sherin fried it and my mom was doing both these tasks in turns.

What You Need?

Arisi Maavu ( Rice Flour)
Whole Urud Dal Flour
Butter
Kadalai Paruppu (Channa Dal)
Chilli powder(or Chilli Flakes)
salt Water
Curry Leaves

Le Method:

Step 1: Making of the Dough

First, soak some channa dal (not more than 2 hours). Drain the water and keep it aside.
The Rice flour and whole urud dal flour mixture in 4:1 ratio.
Take all these three and put in a bowl and make a dough. First mix it with few small lumps of butter and then use water to make the dough. Add the chilli powder, cut curry leaves and salt water and keep the dough ready.

Step 2:

Take a plastic paper and spread some oil on it. Rub your hands with some oil as well. Make small balls of the dough and flatten it. Use your palm to do it.

Deep fry it till you hear the crackling sound stop.

You are done.

Receipe 10: Coconut Burfi

Last weekend I had gone home (Coimbatore). Learnt this receipe from my paati.
It didn't turn out to be perfect (Culprit: ME). I delayed in pouring the mixture to the buttered plate and it hardened fast. So what happened? I didn't get the perfect shapes. But who cares about the shape as long as the taste is good! (I am going to try the receipe again soon to prove that i can get the shape right).. So lets start.

What You Need?

Coconut( Fresh and Grated)
Sugar (Same measure as grated coconut)
Elachi Powder
Broken and Fried Cashews


Le Method:

Heat a pan with water and pour the sugar in it. Let it melt. The water proportion depends. Start with less water and later if you feel you need more water to immerse the grated coconut, add.
Add eleachi powder and broken-fried cashews.

NOTE: Never boil the sugar and coconut together. It will harden in seconds and what more.. you don't want to break your teeth.

When you see that the sugar is melted, add the grated coconut and stir continuously. Keep doing it till the coconut mixes well with the sugar syrup and starts to slowly turn into a non-watery mass.

Take a flat plate, spread some butter on it and empty the mixture on this plate. Never let it cool for a long time. It will harden so much that it will again threaten your teeth. So just leave it in the plate for a minute and with a help of a knife cut it into nice squares. Tada.

Receipe 9: Veg Cutlet

A tasty and a..well.. not so healthy snack. But havin' it once in a while ain't gonna hurt.

What you need?

Potatoes
Peas
chilli flakes
corn flour
carrots/beetroot (optional)
onions(optional)
green chillies(optional)
bread (optional)
salt
oil
kitchen king
garam masala

Le Method:

Boil the potatoes and green peas and mash them nicely.

Add salt, garam masala, kitchen king, chilli flakes, green chillies and mix it with corn flour.
Mix it well and shape it. Deep fry. It's done!

Variations: You can add chopped onions, boiled carrots and grated beetroots if you want.

If you want it more crispy, you can mix it with bread crumbs. The downside of using bread crumbs is - It pulls in lot of oil.

Makes a great combo with tomato ketchup.

Receipe 8: Spicy buttery Garlic Bread (Le version Indian)

This receipe is for all garlic bread lovers. It is very simple to make and not to say - tastes brilliant. You can make this for a quick brunch or a snack.

What you need?

Fresh milk/sanwich bread(sliced)
green chillies
onions
chilli flakes
garlic (cloves/powder)
butter (even ghee will do)
cheese (optional)

Le method:

Cut the onions and chillies into fine pieces. If you don't have garlic powder, cut the garlic cloves into small pieces.
Add little oil to a frying pan and fry the cut onions, chillies and garlic.

Heat the toasting pan, spread butter one one side of the bread and toast it. Take it out. Spread our mixture (onions, chillies n garlic). Finally sprinkle chilli flakes. Serve and relish.

You can add cheese if you don't mind the fat.

It is an Indianised version of garlic bread.

Simple right?

Receipe 7: Paruppu Vada/Masala Vada

A very yummy snack. Very easy too!

What you need:

kadalai paruppu (Channa Dal)
Ulutam paruppu (Urud Dal)
Red chillies
Curry Leaves
Salt
Refined Oil
Onions

Le Method:

Soak the channa and urud dhal in water for 2 hours along with red chillies and curry leaves.
(Add chillies according to your taste.)

The proportion:

For one glass of channa dal, take a handful of urud dal (or slightly less than quarter a glass).
Note: Never soak it for more than 2 hours, else you won;t get crispy vadas

After 2 hours, grind it in a mixie.

Urud Dal basically gives cripness to the vada. You may choose not to add it also.

Add some salt to taste and then make it into vada shape in your hand and deep fry it in a frying pan with heated oil.

To make it more tasty, add cut onions (cut it very small) to the grinded mixture. You can also add coriander leaves if desired.

Serve with delicious coconut chutney.

Receipe 6: Malai Kofta

One more north Indian dish! Malai Kofta is typically a sweet dish.
Malai means cream. But if you would prefer it the non-sweet way, just don't add cream to the gravy, don't add paneer to the kofta and finally do not add dry grapes,cashews. This will reduce the sweetness and still will taste good.

This dish will take a considerable cooking time since deep frying is involved. But with some enthusiasm mixed with hunger, will make you conjuring up this dish pretty quick.

What You Need?

For the Kofta:

The sweet way:

Paneer
Potatoes
salt
cashews
dry grapes
corn flour
oil

and a Frying pan.

The not so sweet way:

Potatoes
Carrots
salt
Corn flour
oil

And you still need a frying pan.

For the Gravy:

The sweet way:

Tomatoes
Onion
Lots of cashews
paneer
salt
malai(fresh cream) [You can get this readymade in most of the super markets]

The not so sweet way:

Tomatoes
Onion
Garam Masala
Kitchen King
salt


Phew! That was quite a list!.. now the

Le Method:

Kofta Prep:

Sweet way:

Grate the paneer. Boil the potatoes nicely and mash it. It should almost be like a paste. Take a vessel and mix the paneer and potatoes together.Add a little salt. Use corn flour to knead all the contents. Most of the time you need not add water since the water in the boiled potatoes is more than enough for kneading it. If needed, you can sprinkle some water. But!! never add more water by mistake, since we are going to make balls out of this mixture and deep fry it.

Start making balls. There is no hard and fast rule it should be made in shape of a ball. I would go for a ball shape since its more easy to make for lazy people like me. You can let your creativity play here. For example, you can make it in the shape of a roll or flat cutlets. It is upto you! When you are making the balls/rolls, embed a cashew, few dry grapes in each kofta. Heat oil in a pan to deep fry it and well.. deep fry it!! Once you are done, keep it aside.


The not-so-sweet way:

The procedure is same as the "sweet way". Instead of paneer, add the carrots. Boil the carrots along with potatoes and mash both together with cornflour. cornflour acts like a tightening agent. You don't add any cashews or dry fruits in koftas here. Just make the balls/rolls and deep fry them.

Note: Boiled carrot will carry lot of water with it. Never add extra water to knead the mixture. You will be in a mess!

Let us move to the making of the gravy.

Gravy Prep:

Sweet way:

The trick is to minimize the amount of tomatoes here. Say if you add 2 onions, add half a tomato. So remember the 2:1/2 onion to tomato ratio if you are going to prepare the sweet gravy.

Like we make the other north Indian gravy, cut the onions, fry them a bit. Once it is cooled, blend it along with the tomatoes in a mixie. Keep this mixture aside. Next grind the grated paneer and cashews. Before grinding the cashews, fry it grind it. Blend the cashews and paneer separately. When grinding paneer, use milk instead of water to enhance the taste.

Finally, add everything (tomato-onion paste, grinded milky paneer, powdered cashews) into a frying pan with 2 spoons of heated oil. Let it boil for 3 minutes. Add some salt to taste. Last but not the least, pour the fresh cream to the gravy.

After you take the gravy aside, add the koftas. You can also garnish it with fried cashews and dry grapes. It is a very rich dish!

Voila. I know it is a pretty big process. But with some interest and patience coupled, you will do it easy enough.


The not-so-sweet way:

Use onions and tomatoes in the same ratio here. Fry the onions, grind it with tomatoes and keep it aside.

Heat some oil in a pan (2 spoons) and add this onion-tomato paste to it. Let it boil. Add salt, garam masala and kitchen king. Finally add the koftas.

This is a lot more easier to make and also consumes less time and your body also consumes less fat! :p

That is it! Now you know malai koftas are not rocket science!

Receipe 5: Dry Cauliflower Florets

Let me admit, I made up this receipe name. :P

Yesterday i was planning to make gobi parathas..but when i was boiling the cauliflower,i couldn't help but admire the nice white florets. I didn't have the heart to mash it up for the paratha. So i came up with this receipe. By the way, I am sure this is healthy receipe coz it is not fried.

What you need!

A nice fresh cauliflower
Salt
Garam Masala
Kitchen King
Chilli Flakes ( If you dont have it, take the red chillies and extract the flakes from inside)
Some tomato sauce


Le Method:

Cut the cauliflower into nice florets and boil it in water. Add some salt to the water when boiling. It will help to kill any worms if they are hiding in our cauliflower. Boil it nicely..as in - till it gets cooked.
Drain the water. Heat a pan with a one spoon of oil. Add these boiled cauliflower to it. Add salt, garam masala, chilli flakes, kitchen king and mix it well.

Finally add the tomato ketchup.

Thats it! It tastes brilliant with chappati!

Receipe 4: Dum aloo/Aloo Dum/Kashmiri Dum Aloo

Well.. If you are wondering what is the difference between all these names, its none! The Kashmiri variant will have more sweet in it. Thats about it.

Most of the north indian gravy dishes are similar.. and it is no rocket science either. ! I will tell you how simple can cooking panner butter masala and malai kofta be!

Dum aloo is pretty simple to make. All you need is some patience and interest!

Here we go!

What you need!

Aloo
onions
tomato
green chillies
garlic (cloves/powder.. anything will do)
fresh curd (should not be sour)
curry leaves
garam masala
kitchen king
Oil

Plus -

A Mixie and lots of patience!

Le Method:

Part one: Making of the Yummy Gravy

Cut the onions. Don't trouble yourself to cut it into very small pieces. You have the mixie to help you do that. Cut the tomatos and peel the garlic if you are adding it as cloves. Heat some oil in the pan and add the cut onion to it. Add the garlic with it. Keep frying it till the onion turns slight brown.

Note: The main trick for the gravy to taste good lies in frying the onions. If you blend raw onions, it will taste disastrous. So getting back...

Once you have fried the onions, cool it. Never add hot stuff to mixie. !! I dunno why though!

When it is cooled, add the onions, garlic and tomatoes to the mixie and grind it into a nice paste. Add some water to grind it if needed. Most of the time the water in the tomatoes will do the trick. Our gravy is almost ready now. Keep it aside in a container.

Part two: Making of the ..well ..rest of the stuff

Cut the potatoes into small cubes. Not too small though!..
Heat some oil in the pan and deep fry the potatoes till it gets nice and crispy. Filter it and keep it aside.

Heat around one teaspoon of oil in a pan, add some curry leaves and a green chilli. (slit the chilly vertically). Also add garam masala and kitchen king to the oil. Pour the gravy on this and add some salt to taste. Let it cook for say 3-5 mins. Finally add the potatoes to it. Last but not the least, pour some curd on this gravy and mix it well.

The Kashmiri variant : Add cashews, dry grapes and cut apples and pineapples.

Tada.. done! It was not that difficult right!?

And don't forget to make some nice soft rotis!

Receipe 3: Carrot Halwa

This new year, i was in a mood of having some sweet. But i was lazy too. So Carrot Halwa came to the rescue!

Carrot halwa's cooking time is hardly 15 mins (includin' grating of the carrot). I guess its a bit healthy than other sweets. So what are we waiting for! Lets start.

What you need!

Carrots (One big carrot serves one)
ghee
sugar
cashews
elachi
saffron (optional)

Le Method:

Step 1:

Grate the carrots. Once you are done grating, heat some ghee in a pan and start frying the grated carrots. Fry it till it gets cooked. Don't over fry it though. Alternate option is cooking it in a cooker. But the risk is it might get over-cooked. So frying in a pan with ghee is the safer and tastier option. It should get cooked within 5-7 mins. Keep it aside.

Step 2:

Make sugar syrup. Just boil some water and add sugar. The measure depends. The quantity must be just enough to submerge the grated and fried carrot. Instead of adding the carrot to the syrup, I would suggest adding the syrup to the carrot. This way, you can be sure that the quantity is right. After adding the sugar syrup to the carrot, mix it well and let it cook for around 5 mins. In the meanwhile add fried cashewnuts, powdered elachi and saffron if you have some.

Voila .. its ready to serve.. huh eat!

Note : You can also cook it with milk. Thats a variation.

Receipe 2: Veg Pulav

Veg Pulav is one of the easiest dish to make.. and not to mention, it tastes terrific too!

The method is pretty simple. Cutting the vegetables is the only time-consuming factor in this.

So lets see what we need to make this delicious rice.

What you need?

Basmati Rice (Using normal rice won't hurt either.. but there will be slight downside in the taste)
Carrots
Beans
Onions
Peas (its not all seasonal.. but it enhances the taste anyday!)
cauliflower(optional)
curry leaves
cinnamon
cloves
green chillies
garam masala (Everest Brand is damn good)
Kitchen King (Everest again.. no i am not the Everest Brand ambassador)
Cashews (Optional)
Ghee to fry Cashews
Oil
Salt

And for the raita, you need

Curd

Le Method:

Step 1:

As i said, cutting the vegetables is what takes time in this receipe.
Cut the onions, carrots, beans and keep it aside. Pull out the peas from its cover if you have got peas.
If you want to add cauliflower, cut it taking its flowers separate and boil it in water for about 10 mins. (To kill the worms.. Caluliflower comes with a terrific collection of worms.. unless you are intersted to taste the worms, best is to kill them by boiling. Eating dead worms is better than live ones anyday! ahem!)
With this, our preparation comes to an end.

Step 2:

Heat a pan with some oil.. Just enough to fry the onions. When the oil gets heated up, add the onions, chillies,curry leaves, cloves and a bit of cinnamon. (Please don't add more than one green chilly if you don't want it spicy.) Once the onion turns a bit brown, add some salt to taste and add one teaspoon of garam masala and Kitchen king. If you want you can add those pulav masalas you get in market. But its not needed. Turn off the gas and keep this mixture aside.

Step 3:

Wash the rice. Now if you want to make fried rice, all you hav to do is to fry the rice before you cook it. You can fry it with some ghee. It will turn out delicious. But for pulav, we need the rice to be soft. So no fryin is required. The measure of rice-water is same as we cook the normal rice. The ratio for rice and water will be 1:2.

Then put the rice in the cooker and on top of it add the cut vegetables and the onion masala mixture. And let it cook.

Step 4:

Thats it! Its done. Its nothing but adding vegetables to our normal cooked rice. For garnishing you can add some fried cashews. If you are diet conscious, you can skip this.
Check the salt. Add more if you want. Incase it turns out to be more spicy than your liking, you can add salt to supress the spice.

Step 5:

Making of the raita.

Just add the cut onions to fresh curd. Add salt and garnish it with coriander leaves if you want.

Step 6:

Lets Eat!