Lemon Rice

Ingredients:
Lemon 1
Green chilli  chopped 2 -3
Ginger finelly chopped
roasted peanut 2 tbsp
Oil
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
Black gram dal 1 tbsp
Chana dal 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Curry leaves 1 strand
Coriander leaves  finelly chopped 1 tbsp
Ing 1 tsp
Boiled rice 3 cups
salt to taste

Method:
Squeeze the lemon and take the juice. Add some salt and keep aside.
In a pan, for seasoning, Add 1 tb sp of oil. Add Mustard seeds and allow it to splatter. Add Urad dal and Chana dal and let it turn light brown.
Add Curry leaves, ing. Add green chillis, ginger and fry it. Add peanuts to it. Add turmeric powder to it.
Add the cooked rice to it and mix well.. 
Remove the pan from heat. Add lemon juice with required salt and mix well.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.
Note. To enhance the flavour 1 tsp roasted ground fenugreek seeds powder can be added.

Churma laddoo

Ingredients:
Wheat flour 1 cup
Gram flour 1/2 cup
Semolina 2 tbsp
Ghee 1/3 cup
Green cardamom powder 1 tsp
Sugar 1 1/2 cup
Cashewnuts

Method:
Roast the flours together till the raw smell goes off.
Powder the sugar and keep aside.
In a vessel mix together all the flours, sugar and green cardamom.
Add warm ghee, and make laddoos.
Decorate with cashewnut while making laddoos.

Thai stir fried vegetable in orange juice curry sauce

4 Persons:

Ingredients:
Brocolli 1 cup
Mushroom cut into half 1 cup
Green, yellow capsicum 1 cup
Baby corn sliced 6
Peanuts 2 tb sp
Sesame seeds 2 tb sp
Thai green chilli 2
Tofu cubed 100g
Salt to taste
Sesame oil 2 tb sp
Orange juice 1 1/2 cup
Soya sauce 1 tbsp
Corn flour 1 tbsp
Black pepper powder 1 tsp

Method:
Heat little oil and roast the sesame seeds and ground nuts, one by one and keep aside.
Add some more oil and fry the tofu cubes till light brown.
Add the green chilli and fry it.
Add all the vegetables,  and fry it for 4-5 minutes.
Mix the orange juice, salt,soya sauce, cornflour and add it to the vegetables and half cook it.
Add the roasted nuts and sesame seeds to it.
Add the black pepper at the end.
Serve hot with steaming rice and chilli sauce.

Chinese fried rice

4 persons

Ingredients:
finely chopped beans, carrot, capsicum, baby corn, Cabbage  2-3 cups
spring onions with green leaves , finely chopped 2-3
ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
Chilli oil 1 -2 tbsp
Soya sauce 1 tbsp
vinegar 1 tsp
salt to taste
Rice 2 cups

Method:
Cook the rice (1cup rice : 2 cups water ) with oil, salt and set aside.
In a pan add 2 tb sp of chilli oil and add the finely chopped spring onions bulbs to it. Saute for 2 minutes.
Add the ginger garlic paste to it.
Add the vegetables and cook it till tender.
Add the soya sauce, vinegar and salt to it.
Add the cooked rice to it and mix well. Cook it for 4-5 minutes.
Garnish with spring onion greens and serve hot.
Note: For chilli oil please refer to chilli garlic noodles in the earlier blog.
For rice, Jasmine rice is preferred.

Chinese Stir fried vegetable

4 persons:

Ingredients:
Sesame oil 1 tb sp
ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
dry red chilli 2-3
cabbage 1 cup
carrot chopped 1 cup
capsicum chopped 1 cup
Beans 1 cup
mushroom 1/2 cup
cauliflower florets or brocolli florets 1/2 cup
Onion  sliced 1
Soya sauce 1 tbsp
Tomato sauce 2 tbsp
Garlic chilli sauce 1 tsp
salt to taste
corn starch 1 tsp
pepper powder 1 tsp

Method:
Corn starch mix with 2 - 3 tbsp of water and keep aside.
Freshly coarsely ground the dried red chilli.
Take a big pan. Heat some oil. Add these red chilli powder to it.
Add sliced onions and saute for few minutes.
Add ginger garlic paste to it and saute  for a minute.
Add all the chopped vegetables to it and cook for some time.
Add salt,soya sauce, tomato sauce and chilli sauce to it.
For dry curry donot add water and cook till half done.
For gravy add water to it and when half cooked add corn starch to it and simmer for few minutes.
Garnish with freshly ground black pepper powder, spring onions and serve hot with steaming rice.

Semolina Halwa (Kesari)

4 persons:

Ingredients:
Semolina 1 cup
Sugar 1 1/2 cup
Ghee 2-3 tb sp
Cashew nuts 4-5
Raisins 1 tbsp
Water 2 1/2 Cup
green Cardamom powder 1 tsp
Kesari powder 1/2 tsp

Method:
Heat a pan. Add semolina to it and dry roast it till light brown. Keep aside.
Put the kesari powder in 1 tb sp water and keep it aside.
Take the measured water in the pan and add the sugar to it.  When sugar starts melting also add the roasted semolina, kesari powder mix to it and keep stirring.
Add cardamom powder to it.
Add ghee in between and keep stirring till semi consistency is reached.
In a separate pan add ghee and roast the raisins and cashewnuts and give it to the halwa and mix well.
Keep stirring till the halwa doesnt stick to the pan.

Coconut chutney

Ingredients:
Grated coconut 1
roasted chana dal 2 tbsp
tamarind marble sized
chopped green coriander leaves 1 tbsp
ginger 1 tbsp
Green chilli 3-4
salt to taste
for tempering
Urad dal 1 tsp
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
Curry leaves 1 strand

Method:
Grind the grated coconut, green chilli, ginger , coriander leaves, roasted chana dal, tamarind, salt to a paste with some water.
Take a teaspoon of oil and add mustard seeds to it and allow to splatter.
Add urad dal ,curry leaves and fry till light brown.
Add to the ground paste and serve with idlis or dosas.

Note: If roasted chana dal (potu kadalai) is not there, roast the normal chana dal and use it.
For garlic lovers, a pearl of garlic can be also used. It need not be fried and can be directly added with rest of the ingredients for grinding.

Paruppu podi

Ingredients:

Toor dal 1 cup
Moong dal 1 tbsp
Black pepper handful
red chilli 4-5
Oil
salt to taste

Method:
Take 1tsp of oil and roast the dals together till light brown in colour.
Roast the black pepper and red chilli.
Let it cool down.
In a mixer grind all the ingredients together with salt and grind to a powder.
Store in an airtight container.
For using, take steaming rice, add ghee and a teaspoon of this powder. Mix well. Goes well with papadams, curry s or vethal kuzambhu.

Chutney Powder

Ingredients:
Chana dal 1 cup
Urad dal 1 cup
Tamarind marble sized
Red Chilli 1 cup
Sesame seeds 2 tbsp
Jaggery a small piece
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Take 1 tsp oil. Add chana dal and roast it till light brown.
Similarly  roast the Urad dal and chilli separately.
At the end dry roast the sesame seeds and add to the dals.
Let it cool down.
In a mixer first grind the chilli, tamarind, salt.
Then add the dals, jaggery, sesame seeds  to it and grind coarsely.
Store in a airtight container.
For use, take a teaspoon of this chutney powder and mix it with sesame oil and serve it with steaming Idli s or Dosas.
Note: Donot use lot of oil for roasting the dals and chilli. Use of nonstick pan will reduce the consumption of oil and thus will increase the shelf-life of the powder.
For roasting the sesame no oil is required as the seeds contain oil.

Puran Poli

For 12 pieces

Ingredients:
Maida 1 cup
Salt a pinch
Ghee 1 1/2 tsp
Oil 1/4 cup
Turmeric powder a pinch
water to make dough

For filling
Bengal gram dal 1 cup
Grated jaggery 1 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder 1 tsp

Oil or ghee for frying the poli

Method
Mix salt, turmeric, ghee to the flour.
Pour oil on top and mix well till the oil is absorbed completly. Gradually add water to make to a soft dough.
Half cook the dal and drain the rest of the water.
Grind to a smooth paste with jaggery and cardamom.
If the filling has still some water, then fry till dry.
Divide the dough into small balls. Make a small roti and keep a ball of the filling and seal it carefully. Press it uniformly and make into big, thin polis by dusting some flour on the polis.
Heat a  frying pan, put this poli. Change the sides and brush some ghee on both the sides.
serve hot.

Note: Donot use the dough immediately. Wait for an hour or two before using it.
Rest of the dough and the filling can be refriegerated and used when it is required.
Always serve hot with a little topping of ghee on top. It tastes better.

Hotel Vethal kuzhambu

serves 4

Ingredients:
Coriander seeds 1 tbsp
Coconut 2 tbsp
poppy seeds 1 tsp
Red chilli 4
Chana dal 1 tsp
Urad dal 1 tsp
asafoetida 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
curry leaves handful
small sambhar oinions 100g or one big onion
Manathakaali 1 tbsp
Tomato big 1
Chilli powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1 tsp
Tamarind lemon size
salt to taste
 Sesame Oil

Method:
Soak the tamarind in water for 10 minutes and take the tamarind water extract for use.
Roast the redchili, coconut, coriander seeds and poppy seeds separately in a teaspoon of oil and grind it.
Take a vessel. add 2 tbsp of oil to it, Add mustard seeds and asafoetida and allow it to splatter.
Add Urad dal and chana dal and fry it till light brown. Add curry leaves and Manathakaali to it .
Add sambhar onions to it and fry it till transparent.
Add tomato to  it and fry it till the tomato is completely mashed.
Add coriander powder, red chilli powder and turmeric powder to it and fry for 2 minutes.
Add the tamarind extract and cook well till the raw smell of tamarind goes off.
Add the ground mixture to it and required salt to it and cook till the semisolid consistency is reached.

Note: Use of Sesameoil enhances the taste and aroma of the dish. If not available any other oil can be used.
Manathakaali ( Withania somnifera) are dried southindian berries, with lot of medicinal properties.  The use of this berry enhances the taste alternatively this vethal kuzhambhu can be prepared without it, by adding the rest of the ingredients.

Coconut Rice

serves 4

Ingredients:
Grated Coconut 1
Urad dal 1 tsp
Chana Dal 1 tsp
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
Green chilli 2
Ginger 1 inch
Red Chilli 1-2
Ground nut 2 tb sp
Curry leaves handful
Cooked Rice 250g
Oil 2 tbsp
salt to taste

Method:
Take a pan. Add oil to it, add mustard seeds and allow it to splatter.
Add chana dal and urad dal to it, and fry it till golden brown.
Add curryleaves, green chilli, red chilli and ginger to it and fry it.
Add groundnuts to it and fry it till light brown.
Add the grated coconut to it and fry it till light brown.
Add salt to it.
Add cooked rice and mix well. Serve hot with chips.

Note. Instead of fresh coconut , dry dessicated coconut can be also used.  Fry it till light brown.

Pasta pesto

Ingredients:

Pesto Sauce

Basilikum leaves 100g

Grano padano cheese 2 tbsp

Cashew nut 10

Pine seeds 1 tbsp

Black pepper seeds 1 tbsp

Garlic 2-3 pearls

Olive oil 4 tbsp

Salt

pasta

Cream 2tbsp

green Chillis 2 

Garlic 1-2 pearls

Italian herb mix

Method:

Boiling the pasta

Take a big vessel with water. Add 1 tsp of olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt.

Bring it to boil.

Add the pasta and allow it to cook.

When it is 3/4 th cooked, remove it from heat, filter it through a sieve and show it under running cold water and drain it.

for the sauce

Give all the ingredients for the sauce in a grinder and grind it. Add the oil in intervals while grinding.

Final mixing

Take a  pan, add 2 tbsp of oilve oil.

Add the well chopped  chilli and garlic and fry for 3 minutes.

Add the herbs mix and cook it.

Add 2 tbsp of the above given sauce and saute.add the boiled pasta and mix well.

Add the cooked pasta and mix well.

Add cream to it and mix well.

Garnish with Pepper powder and Serve hot.

Note:  The sauce can be stored for more than 10 days in an air tight container and should be refrigerated.

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Kathi rolls

Ingredients:
5 thin large rotis made from wheat flour or Maida or all purpose flour

mix together in a bowl
Tomato puree 3 tb sp
Tomato sauce 2 tb sp
Ginger garlic paste 1 tb sp
Soya sauce 1 tbsp

Vegetables
Carrot thinly sliced 1
Capsicum thinly sliced 1
Onion sliced 1
Cabbage sliced 100g
Beans thinly sliced 100g
Grated paneer 100g
Lemon 1
Chilli sauce 1-2 tb sp
Chaat masala 1tsp
Salt to taste
Oil

Method
For the rotis:
Make thin  rotis from wheat flour or maida.

For the filling
Take a big pan. Add 2 tbsp of oil. Add the onion and saute for 2 minutes.
Add the rest of the vegetables and cook well.
Add the mixed sauce, salt  to it and cook it for few minutes till the vegetables become a little tender.
Add the soya sauce, chilli sauce and mix well.
Donot over cook the vegetables. See to it the vegetables remain crispy and half cooked.
Add the chaat masala, lemon juice and mix well.

For the rolls.
Reheat the rotis in a pan or a microwave oven.
Keep the filling in the middle and roll it well.
Roll a baking paper or aluminuim foil on one end.
Serve hot.

Note:
For the rolls readymade tortillas or wraps can be used.
See to it that the filling is dry.