Arachuvitta Sambhar

Hey there,
Back after a long time.
I always loved the Arachuvitta sambar my friend Saro brought to college. So this is a basic sambar; only thing is you use fresh ingredients from scratch instead of using  sambar powder. 

Ingredients:
To roast and grind:
Kadalai paruppu 1-2 teaspoons
Red chillies 7-8
Coriander seeds 1 teaspoon

To Season:
Coconut oil 
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves
Urad dhal
Perungayam powder (Asoeftida)

Other:
Vegetables of your choice : (drumstick or Indian Brinjal or both or carrot with potato or chinna vengayam)
Thoram Parupu (Thoor dal)
Tamarind juice 1 tablespoon

Procedure:
After the "To roast" ingredients are roasted, add 2-3 teaspoons of coconut when you switch off the heat and roast until the moisture goes off. Once cooled down, grind it into a paste in a mixie.

In a pan, add the vegetables and let those cook with salt and turmeric along with boiled dal. Once cooked, add the ground paste and let it boil until the raw smell of coriander seeds goes... Add the tamarind juice and let it boil for one more minute.
In a separate kadai; In a lil coconut oil, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, urad dhal, lil perungayam powder and add it to sambar. Arachuvitta sambar ready.. ! The tast lingers.. 

The perfect muffin recipe

This is not my own.. but out of what I tried..this is the simplest and the best.

Banana muffins.. You can add vanilla essence.. or change the taste by adding other stuff.

Check out this link:

Banana muffins

Kozhakattai

Come Vinayaka Chaturthi, we all look forward to eat this delicious dish.

Ingredients:
Raw rice 400 grams
For Filling:
Sesame seeds and Jaggery
or Coconut scrap and jaggery
or Channa Dal(Kadala Parupu) and jaggery

Procedure:
Soak the raw rice in water for 2.5 hours. Grind it with one cup of water.
Then take a kadai and add 2 cups of water, add required salt and a tablepoon of sesame oil. When water boils, add the ground mixture and keep stirring. This is the hard part, you have to keep the heat in medium low and keep stirring till proper consistency is achieved. This may take half an hour and your arms have to be strong. Make ure you keep stirring or else the batter may get cooked. We dont want to cook it now, we are just making a dough to make the kozhkattais.
Now we have to make the filling.

Sesame seeds filling:
Take 100 grams sesame seeds and fry it in a kadai in medium heat till the seeds pop and nice smell fills the place. Then grind jaggery into fine powder. The amount of jaggery depends on how sweet you would like the dish to be. Now grind the sesame seeds for few seconds. It shouldn't turn into fine powder; just broken into smaller bits. Mix jaggery and ground sesame seeds. Add 1 Elachi/Elakai/Cardamom crushed or powder.

Coconut scrap filling:
Scrap half a coconut into fine shreds. Add required amount of jaggery powder. Add 1 Elachi/Elakai/Cardamom crushed or powder.


Channa Dal/ Kadala Parupu filling:
Boil 200 grams Kadala parupu or keep in pressure cooker for 2 whistles.
Mixie the boiled kadala parupu and fried coconut(1/4 coconut). Dont make it too powdery. Take 200 grams of jaggery and add it to boiling water. To this "Vella paagu" ; jaggery boiled in water, add the mixture of coconut and parupu. Add 1 Elachi/Elakai/Cardamom crushed or powder. Keep stirring till it becomes solid. This will used as filllng.

How to make:
With the raw rice mixture make balls. With the help of little oil, make it into "kinnams" small bowls and add a spoon or 2 of filling. Seal the edges. Different shapes can be made "Modagams", "Kozhakattais" "moonr elai".

In Idly cooker, let water boil. Fill in the idly plates with kozhkattais and close the cooker for 15 to 20 minutes.



Kozhkattais are ready.



This is my mom's recipe and I made these for the first time. It did come out delicious. Though Pillayar Chathurthi is over, you can make these and enjoy!

Chicken/Cauliflower Manchurian

This recipe was give to me by my friend Mahboob.

Part One

Ingredients:

½ kg boneless chicken or boiled cauliflower.
Marinade:- ginger garlic paste, lal mirchi pwdr(red chilly powder), dhaniya pwdr(corriander powder), haldi(turmeric powder), salt , 1 egg(optional if veggie)
Coating:- maida : corn flour :: 2 : 1 and some salt.

Method :

Marinate chicken/cauliflower in the marinade for an hour
Roll it in the coating
Deep fry

Part Two

Ingredients:

White portion of spring onions – chopped – 3 handfuls
Green portion of spring onions – chopped
Ginger- chopped – ¼ cup
Garlic- chopped – ¼ cup
Capsicum- cut in rings – 2 no.s
Salt – to taste
Sugar – 3 tsp
Ajinomoto - ½ tsp
Soy sauce – 2 tbsp
Tomato sauce - 2 - tbsp
Green chilli sauce -1- tbsp
Vinegar – few drops
Oil – 2 tbsp
Corn flour – 2 tbsp – dissolved in ½ litre water
Red chillies- 10 no.s – boil in water – cool – add oil – blend in a mixie to form a paste


Method :

Heat oil in a kadai
Fry the white portion of the spring onions till golden
Add 1 tsp sugar to caramelize
Add the ginger and garlic - fry
Add the chilli paste - fry
Add the soy, tomato and green chilli sauces
Add the vinegar
Add salt
Add capsicum and wait till the raw smell goes
Add the corn flour mixture while stirring continuously
Add the rest of the sugar and ajinomoto
Add the chicken/cauliflower and simmer for 10 mins
Add the green portion of the spring onions.

Semiya Kesari

Everyone likes this sweet for an evening snack or as a dessert.

Ingredients
Semiya/Vermicelli 1 tumbler 200 grams
Ghee/ clarified butter
Cardamom - 1 or 2
Water : 3 tumblers
Sugar - 100 grams
Cashews
Kesari/saffron powder

Procedure:
If what you have isn't fried vermicilli, you have to fry it in ghee. Keep a kadai, add 3 teaspoons of ghee and fry the vermicilli until they are light brown. Remove and keep aside. In the same kadai, add a teaspoon of ghee and fry the cashews. Keep aside. In the kadai, pour 3 tumblers of water and bring it to a boil. Then add the fired vermicilli. Let it cook for about 10 min. It should become soft. Otherwise cook until they become soft. If there is not much water for it to cook, add more water. Add the sugar now. Also add the kesari powder. Mix well. Check for sweetness. If you want it to be more sweet add more sugar with a little water. Let all the water get evaporated. Now add the cashews and serve hot.

Egg Salad Sandwich

This is a delicious easy to make snack.

Ingredients:

Boiled Egg - 2. (Take a vessel and add water and let it come to a boil. Then add the eggs and let them remain in the stove for 15 min with the medium heat on. After that switch off the stove. After about 10 min, peel the eggs. The eggs shouldnt be over cooked to an extent that blue lines/grey colouring happens to the yolk. All nutrients are lost that way. By trial and error, you will learn the perfect timing for boiling your eggs.)

Bread slices
Pepper powder
Salt
Chilly Powder
Onions chopped

Procedure:
In a bowl, add the 2 boiled eggs. Add salt to taste. Add a teaspoon of chilly powder. Add some pepper powder. With fork, mix these. Keep on mixing well so that the yolk breaks and the whites stay in bigger pieces. Add some mayonnaise or butter which will help in forming a paste. The whites shouldnt be broken into too small pieces as they only give texture to the dish. Add the onions. Mix well again. You can add more ingredients like chat masala , lemon juice or whatever flavours you like.

Now heat the tawa, add little butter and toast the bread slices. Then scoop up the mixture and spread on a slice. Top it up with another bread. Now your egg salad sandwich is ready. This will serve two people.

Vidya's Chapathi roll

This is an easy to make snack or dinner.

Ingredients:
Vegetables like carrot, beans, tomatoes, onions finely chopped and boiled slightly in microwave or sauted in kadai with little water so that they are soft.
Chapathis
Butter
Salt
Pepper powder
Chilly powder
Chat masala

Procedure:
Drain all water from the vegetable mixture. Add little salt and a teaspoon of pepper powder, half teaspoon of chilly powder and half teaspoon chat masala. You can add any other flavouring as per your taste. Mix well.
Spread butter onto a hot chapathi and spread this mixture. Roll it and its ready to eat.