Capsicum Dal

This is like normal dal but adding crunchy capsicum gives twist to the dal. When you are bored with your normal dal recipe, give this one a try. It goes very well with chapati or steamed rice or jeera pulao. The consistency is upto you but personally i like it a bit thick.

Ulli/Vengaya Vadai/Onion Vadai

When I think of this Ulli vada/Onion vada, I remember my childhood days when appa used to buy this for our evening snack, I love to eat this and have a hot sip of tea. This particular snack can be made in minutes unlike some snacks that need soaking grinding sort of pre preparations. Just chop the onions, add besan and chilli powder, make a batter, deep fry them. You get crispy Onion vadai :)

Potato Roast with dry fenugreek leaves

Fenugreek leaves are very good for health and as very flavorful ingredient. When you make this roasted potatoes, we can either use fresh leaves or the dried methi/fenugreek leaves.

Potato Carrot Stuffed Paratha

Neither me or Mams are fans of stuffed parathas. But I always wanted to try Aloo Paratha. As usual I didnt feel like cooking anything special today. So I decided to make this stuffed parathas so that I dont have to make any special kuruma to have it. I just served with tomato chutney. I think it would taste great with even pickle.

Pazha Appam/Paniyaram

This is another quick recipe and a solution to your evening snack cravings. This can be made in minutes with the ingredients at home. All you need is wheat flour, banana, sugar / jaggery. Make this Appam for this Vinayagar Chathurthi and get the blessings :)

Jangiri/Jhangri

I never thought making Jangiri would be easy. We used to get Jalebi in Indian Shops but I was missing our own Jangiri with the amazing aroma of rose essence. So I decided to make my own one. So I watched a number of videos on YouTube to know how exactly it is done. To my wonder, it was just simple with few ingredients. You just need Urad dal and sugar syrup and some oil to deep fry them. Well I made it finally today. It didn't turn fluffy, may be because i ground the batter in Mixie. Preparing the batter in wet grinder allows more aeration to it and also makes it fluffy. I used normal cover to press them into the oil. It would also work with squeeze bottle/Piping bag used for icing.

Wheat Dosa

This is an instant dosa recipe. Its healthy because it is made of whole wheat flour. This can be made in minutes. We can add twist to it by adding chopped onions, green chilli and curry leaves. I like both plain and with chopped onions.

Lemon Rice

I like variety rice very much. But my husband is not a big fan of it. As he has been eating it on a daily basis when he was a bachelor. But I used to make it still rarely. Lemon rice is my favorite. I like the smell of the tempering specially the curry leaves and the crunchy peanuts. It can be made with left over rice as well. But I prefer cooking it fresh. I like to have it with lemon pickle, yeah lemon rice with lemon pickle.. Yum.. Over to the recipe now :)

Spinach and dal Curry

This is one of the recipes that comes to play when I have no time or interest to make something new (basically laziness). I make it atleast once in a week. It is very healthy too as it has both dal and spinach.

Chilli Paneer

Chilli Paneer is a indo chinese dish. The taste comes from the sauces we add. The procedure is very similar to gobi manchurian or chilli chicken except that we add fried paneer here. It can be had as a snack or as a side dish for fried rice.

Appalam/Pappadam Poriyal

I don't know if you have tasted this poriyal, but my amma used to make it often. I like to eat with plain rice and this poriyal alone. If you have some fried appalam left out, you can try this poriyal. It has its unique taste to go with dal or sambar or plain rice.

Red Chutney with Cashewnuts

I have already posted the white chutney with roasted gram dal here .. Now I am going to share the recipe of Red chutney with Vathal Milagai and Cashew nuts. I have added a bit of tamarind for tanginess. Its also a quick chutney recipe.

Ulundhu Kanji/Porridge

Being sick at home is no fun.. Yep a sick leave after a long time.. I got this viral fever and on bed for a long time now.. I was not willing to have the usual kanji, so i remembered this ulundhu kanji that amma used to make. I made it finally and had it. For a cold winter with fever, this kanji is quite a relief.So here's the recipe.

Oma Podi

When I have Oma Podi, I can't stop munching them. I scanned through the Indian Shops for this one. I was not able to find the one we get in my native :(. So I decided to make my own one. Hurray it was a success. Just follow the quantities list, it will never go wrong.

Kadala/Chickpea Curry

This is a easy chickpea/kadala curry which goes very well with rice/chapathi/aapam. It has very few ingredients and easy to make as well

Goat Liver Varuval

Goat liver.. A very good source of Iron.. I dont eat that often.. Its not my fav either. One day Mams asked me why I haven't cooked(actually experimented) it at all.. So I thought to give it a try. Its very simple with limited ingredients. But its tasty and very healthy too.

Bread Pizza

I crave for pizza sometimes. I was thinking if we can make pizza at home on stove top because our oven is not working :( . I had a packet of bread, cheese slices, capsicum and onion, so I thought why not try to make bread pizza.

Tomato Chutney (without onion)

I tried this recipe when Maams was on viratham for sabarimalai because we shouldn't add onion or garlic during that time. It goes well with dosa, idli, and even rice.

Ven Pongal

I am not a big fan of ven pongal, but after moving overseas and not able to get these south indian specials that often, I have started missing them. So I decided to make this ven pongal, vadai and sambar combo this weekend. I have already shared Medhu vadai recipe earlier, I am sharing the ven pongal recipe here.

Rava Ladoo

I made this rava ladoo for Gokulashtami today. Even if I have made it so many times before, I felt like it came out perfect this time.

Ingredients:
Rava - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom - 3 or 4
Ghee as needed

Method:
Dry roast rava till it gets roasted. Powder rava once its cooled.
Powder the sugar along with cardamom.
Take all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
Add ghee and make the powder into small balls. Enjoy :)

dry roast rava

powder rava and sugar

add ghee

make them into small balls

enjoy these rava ladoo.. :)

Rava Paniyaram

This paniyaram is a solution to your sudden craving for something sweet. This is easy to make and the ingredients are readily available most of the time.
Ingredients:
Maida - 1 cup
Rava - 1 cup
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
Jaggery - 1 cup (you can replace with sugar)
Salt - 1 pinch

Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients first, then add the jaggery and enough water to make to a dosa batter consistency.( I made a jaggery syrup to remove impurities, so just used the same)
Heat oil in a pan and once the oil is hot enough, pour a laddle full of batter into the oil, wait for a min, it will raise and come above, then flip the other side.
Keep the flame in medium to cook the paniyaram perfectly. Do the same with rest of the batter.

take all dry ingredients

add jaggery syrup,sorry missed some steps

paniyaram ready

Medhu Vadai

I love medhu vadais with chutney and sambar while maams like paruppu vadai. Today morning I decided to make it finally. I soaked some urad dal yesterday. To my surprise the medhu vadais today was awesome, it was crispy outside and soft inside. Here comes the recipe. The batter is best when ground in wet grinder. I dont have one.. So just made it using mixie.

Ingredients:
Urad dal - 1 cup
Ginger - 1 inch piece chopped finely
Onion - 1 chopped finely
Green chillies - 2 chopped finely
Curry leaves - few chopped
Salt as needed
Oil to deep fry

Method:
Drain off the water completely from soaked dal and start grinding it. The batter decides the quality and texture of vada.
If the batter becomes too watery it will absorb oil, so make sure you add water drop by drop. I just added 3 tbsp of water. (If using mixie, use the pulse function, it works best)
Add the rest ingredients only when you are ready to make vada as onion may ooze out water and make the batter watery.
Keep a bowl of water on side, each time you shape vada dip your hands in water first
Take a small ball first, pat on your hand, dip your thumb in water and make hole in centre and deep fry them(see pic)
Keep the flame in medium and fry so the vada will get cooked inside as well.
Serve with coconut chutney and sambar :)

Stepwise Pictures:

drain the water from soaked urad dal

make dough by adding few drops of water

get ready with other ingredients

add to the ground dough

mix and make the dough ready

take a small ball of dough

make a hole in centre using your thumb

drop in oil

cook in medium flame until its cooked

crispy vada ready

Dry Gobi Manchurian

When I hear Gobi Manchurian before, I used to think OMG this should be hard to make at home. But when I researched few recipes and made my own version, I have made this more than 5 times now, Its always a hit. With no more stories, Here comes the recipe.

Ingredients:
Cauliflower - 1 cut the florets and keep it in hot water for a min
Capsicum - 1/2 cubed
Onion - 1/2 cubed
Garlic - 4 or 5 gloves minced
Ginger - 1 inch piece minced
Spring onion/Coriander leaves - to garnish

To make a batter:
Maida - 2 tbsp
Corn flour - 2 tbsp
Rice flour - 1 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
Garlic paste - 3/4 tbsp
Salt as needed

To make sauce:
Tomato sauce/Ketchup - 1 tbsp
Red chilli sauce - 1 tbsp
Soy sauce - 2 tbsp
Salt as needed

Method:
Take the florets and keep it immersed in hot water. Drain the water and set aside.

Take all the ingredients under to make batter in a bowl

Make it into a smooth batter and put the florets into this batter

Deep fry these florets in medium flame until they turn golden brown. Drain excess oil in a paper towel.

Mix all the sauces under the list to make sauce

Heat oil on a fry pan and add the ginger and garlic minces. Cook till it gets cooked.

 

Add the cubed onion and capsicum and saute for a minute. I just did for a couple of mins coz i like my capsicum to be crunchy.

Add the sauce mixture and give a good mix.

By the time you are ready to serve or eat, mix the fried florets with the sauce mixture and garnish with spring onions/coriander leaves.

 

Yummy crunchy manchurian is ready:)