Boondhi Kuruma | Kara Boondhi Kuruma | Side dish for Idli/Dosa

Are u looking for a different side dish or gravy recipe for idli and dosa? I have a new recipe to satisfy your need… I used the store bought boondhi which lessen my cooking time. You can even make ur own boondhi which needs much time to do. If u has excess of boondhi in home, try making this delicious recipe and serve with idli or dosa.

This is an apt combo for dosa especially than the idlis. I used coconut paste to get the thick version of gravy. Coconut milk can also be used or even kasa kasa (poppy seeds) or cashew pastes are sufficient to make this kuruma. Boondi which is added in the kuruma absorbs water and bulges in size. So make the gravy thinner than the usual kuruma recipe. Now, to the recipe… 

Preparation time: 5mins

Cooking time: 15-20 mins

Pudhina Chutney | Mint Chutney | Side-dish for Idli & Dosa

Though the recipe is very simple I wanted to share in my blog… this chutney has an exotic flavor of mint which I loved the most. If ur a mint lover, you would definitely nod ur head… am I right? This can be served with idlis and even with dosa. I like the same version of chutney with no coconut… it is the best combo with sambar and rice, like a thogayal/thuvayal. Try the same recipe without the coconut and serve for rice too. Since I like the flavor of green chillies more than the red ones I have used that in the recipe. It is optional and you can choose ur own variety of chillies. Serve with hot Idli. Yummm :) 

Prep & cooking time: 5-7 mins

Gobi Manchurian (DRY) Recipe

Preparation time: 15 minsCooking time: 10 mins

Chicken 65 Recipe

I was not a huge fan of deep fried items… and I rarely take this Chicken 65 whenever I visit a restaurant. On the other side TH, a chicken addictive always order this and makes me to taste. After marriage I came to see a street food shop which serves chicken 65 with Idyappam!!! Weird right… even I gave the same look to that… TH insisted me to taste that once, since he loves it… though it was full of oil and lots of red food colors in it, I loved the taste and also the combination of chicken with ldyappam. That weird combo makes to go drool… *slurp*

After coming to US, we miss the shop and the combinations of idyappam with that. TH started to crave for Chicken 65 these days and I tried at home. It was super soft inside and crisper on the outer. I dint add food color to make it more attractive, hence the color differences. I served it with Chicken Manchurian and with Chicken Fried Rice.

Preparation time: 1-2 hours

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Broccoli Rice Recipe | Easy One-pot Meal | Simple Lunch Box Recipe

I was not a fan of this broccolis and I hated it to the core and never tried or attempted to cook. After knowing the health benefits of it, I wanted to give a try. I tried making biryani with broccoli and it was not that great and TH doesn’t like the flavors. I don’t wanna give up trying again and again. When I saw this recipe in a cookery show, I got excited!!!

The technique I found from that show is, crushing the broccoli and adding to the rice gives a different taste and it neva make us to think that we are eating broccolis. I found it interesting and grabbed the idea and implemented with some of my thoughts. Adding mint leaves enhances the flavors and green peas give a crunchy feel in between. You can even try adding corns. Am damn sure this could be a one-pot meal and can be added to the lunch box menus. I served it with pappad and TH liked to have raitha for this. Let me know ur reviews about this recipes…

Preparation time: 5mins

Cooking time: 15-20mins

Methi Tepla Recipe | Gujarati Methi Tepla Recipe

I never failed to grab a bunch of methi leaves whenever I see it fresh in the market. Methi leaves or fenugreek leaves has a distinct taste than the other greens. I love the taste even if it is dried, which we call as kasoori methi. I prefer to add kasoori methi to most of my gravies. When I was in India, I had a cute little garden in my terrace which had mint, coriander, tomatoes, curry leaves and also methi leaves. I planted fenugreek seeds to get the methi leaves. In that way I had my own-grown fresh veggies. It is always fun to plant ur own veggies and the joy when u get ur first bud is enormous which can’t be expressed.

Whenever I think of methi tepla, I remember the Kashmir trip we went in my college. We went to Kashmir Vaishno Devi temple and also to Delhi and Punjab. It was a ten day trip and we had lots and lots of fun there. We used to travel in Air bus to visit the places and there won’t be time to spend for breakfast, since we ran out of it. So we need to skip our breakfast and sometimes even lunch. 

One of my Gujju friend had brought these teplas along with some pickle. Her mom made the best tepla I had in my lifetime and it was super delicious to have after a day of starving. Wen I made this tepla I remembered the good old days!!! Feeling nostalgic… the main reason in writing in this story is, you can store the teplas in room temperature for weeks… It never gets spoiled so easily. It can be a life savior in ur busy picnic schedules. 

Preparation time: 5-7 mins

Cooking time: 1-2 mins

South-Indian Style Pomfret Fish Fry | Vavval Meen Varuval

After a long search process I found an Asian store which sells all live fish. I got so excited to see the store which has most of the fishes from almost all the countries. Last Sunday I bought one pomfret along with one golden thread fish. Pomfret, here they also call it has Golden Pompano. In Tamil it is called vavval meen. It doesn't have much bone, so it is easy to make steaks. It needs just a sharp chef knife to make the job easier. TH does the job for me making thin steaks and I cleaned the fish later.

 In this recipe I just used spice powders and tamarind juice to make the fry. This is the easiest masala which also suits any other fish too. I personally like the flavor of onions and tomatoes along with this masala. You can do that by adding little of onions and tomatoes paste to the fish with the powders. TH doesn't like this flavor so I avoided using it.

I also have a fish fry recipe with the chettinad flavors. Checkout the recipe here. I served it with Meen Kuzhambu along with rasam.

Preparation time: 1-2 hours

Cooking time: 20-30mins

Raw Mango Pickle | Cut Mango Pickle | Instant Mango Pickle

Raw Mango Pickle / Cut Mango Pickle are the easiest pickle recipe which can be made in a minute. This can be done instantly when u have just raw mangoes at home. Just chop the mangoes and temper!!! That’s it; the pickle is ready to serve for a grand meal. How could our Indian meal get completed without a pickle?

I always have different varieties of pickle at home to accompany our lunch menu. Sometimes it goes either for parathas or with dosas too. Tomato thokku are the best one which I make. It can be served as a pickle or chutney. And the other pickle I mostly prepare is chilli-garlic pickle which suits best for all parathas. Click on the link to get the recipe. This pickle joins the hand when I found raw mangoes in the nearby shop. Check out my other recipe with raw mangoes.

Preparation time: 3-4 mins

Cooking time: 1-2 mins

Vendakkai Kara Kuzhambu | Bhindi Masala | Okra Masala

This is simple South Indian gravy which can be done in thirty mins or so. I have got few request to upload traditional kuzhambu recipes and here comes my first recipe of making vendakkai kara kuzhambu. Amma always have the method of adding coconut milk in her kuzhambu varieties to suppress the heat in the kuzhambu and it also enhances the taste… I generally don’t like to eat kuzhambu with idli or dosa, but this kuzhambu is an exception. Since we add coconut milk it gives an extra ordinary flavor and it can even be served for idli or dosa.

Click here to know “how to get rid of the stickiness in okras”

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 20-30 mins

Nethili Meen Varuval | Anchovies Fry Recipe

Time to share the weekend special non vegetarian recipe… this time it is not chicken or prawns. Its Anchovies, in tamil we call it has Nethili Meen. These are small sized fish and they are sun dried generally to store for a long period. In India, people used to sundry these anchovies during the summer days and make use of it in the winters. Usually they add lots of salt to the anchovies. Hence it can be preserved for long days without any preservatives. Sun drying helps to take out the moisture from it, so it never gets spoilt easily.

For the first time I saw this anchovies in a Vietnamese shop and I quickly grabbed ones and tried on a week day. Amma always used to make this on a week day since weekends are meant only for fish and prawns. Being a non vegetarian it is always fun to eat all these… *slurp*   

When u buy anchovies, make sure they are dried. Wet anchovies are not suitable for making this recipe. Wet ones are always good to make gravy and the dried once are for roasting. Make sure about the salt content before u add any by urs.  

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 15-20 mins

Spinach Dosai | Palak Dosai | Simple Breakfast Recipe

I love to add lots of greens in my lunch menu. But I don’t find any good variety of greens here as like we get in India. So I need to completely depend on spinach all the time. I make all the traditional kootu, poriyal and masiyal with this spinach and it became very boring day by day. Amma gave this idea of adding spinach leaves to chapathi and dosa. I already posted recipe about palak chapathi and now here is the time to share palak dosai/spinach dosai.

In this recipe I used red chillies and I have mentioned of using either green chillies or red chillies. When ur serving for kids try avoid using green chillies since they are extremely hot than the red ones. I served it with chili-garlic pickle; you can try with any types of chutney. 

Preparation time: less than 5 mins

Cooking time: 2-3 mins

Mushroom Biryani | Mushroom Pulao Recipe

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 15-20 mins