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

Pepper Prawns Fry | Eral Milagu Varuval | Spicy Shrimp Masala

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Vengaya Sambar | Shallots Sambar Recipe

I have already posted two different method of doing sambar. The tiffin sambar is the best one for all the breakfast recipes and the instant sambar are speciliazed for bachelors and the working women. Now am going to post a basic recipe “vengaya sambar”.  You can even add any veggie of choice to this basic sambar recipe and change accordingly.

I used shallots (sambar vengayam) in this recipe. These are just the onions but quite smaller in size. Even though it is smaller in size it has all the health benefits than the regular onions… and there is no compensation in taste too. It has a rich amount of iron and fiber which helps to reduce ur cholesterol level. You can use these shallots in ur day to day recipes instead of the regular onions. But these are quite costlier than the regular ones. Let’s move to the recipe quickly!!!

Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins

Palak Paratha | Spinach Paratha Recipe

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 1-2 minutes

Chicken Manchurian | Indo-Chinese Manchurian Recipe with Step-by-Step Pics

Here comes my next chicken recipe for the weekend special . Manchurian has been my very first dish which I tried at home on amma’s guidance. I got the recipe from one of my fren and tried at my home. Amma helped me in deep frying the chicken and all that. She never allowed me to play with hazardous in the kitchen… Soooo caring she seems to be … but now I don’t have any option. I need to take care of myself,  uhhhf!!!

My first dish was a great success and I passed some to my aunt’s place and she was amazed on seeing me doing all this ...I don’t know wat wonder!!! They loved the dish and my uncle cleaned and wiped off the box and returned back for some more …

You can use cauliflower or paneer to make a veggie version of Manchurian. I served it with Egg Fried Rice and Chicken 65 (recipe soon).

Preparation time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 20 mins

Raw Mango Rice | Mangai Sadham Recipe

I never bought or tried raw mangoes before. I always have a hatred for that. Don’t ask me for reasons and all… on the other hand TH loves it. He loves the raw mangoes when it is made into a pickle. I bought just one mango from store and tried Raw mango Pickle (recipe coming soon) and also this Rice with the raw mangoes. I loved to temper the rice with lots of peanuts and cashews which gives a crunchy effect. And also I used both red and green chillies, it depends on ur wish to add either of it or try both as like me. Now straight to the recipe!!!

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 5 mins

Mochakottai Sundal | Valor Beans Sundal Recipe

The simplest snacks which can be done in just five mins are sundal. This could be the healthiest snack which u can even serve ur children. TH likes this version of sundal with the masala powders. I prefer to have it with the grated coconut alone and tempered on top. You can try this either way and I bet both are equally good. I used amchur powder to give a little sourness to the dish. And adding this is an optional. You can even try adding chaat masala.

Check out my other version of sundal with moong dal.

Preparation time: 6 hours (soaking time)

Cooking time: 5 mins

How to make PavBhaji Masala | PavBhaji Masala Recipe

Back, after a long vacation… It was our anniversary and we celebrated it in LasVegas. Wow!!! Watta place to hang out for a vacation. It was all fun there and no mood to return back home… wen ever to get come here, neva miss the Caesar Palace Buffet. It was all time awesome and worth the money. It took us nearly 2 hours to finish off the entire buffet. OMG!!!

Now back to my kitchen, trying new recipes and posting it… I decided to try some north Indian foods for our dinner one day. I thought of making pav bhaji at home and got an idea of using hamburger buns instead of pan. It was the exact replica of the pavbhaji we get to have in the streets of Mumbai. I referred to Vahchef to get this recipe for bhaji and added veggies of my choice. 

Preparation time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Chicken Tikka Masala

After a long gap, a post on non-veg recipe and that too with a chicken. It was almost a month I prepared non-veg at home. I got bored of making it and left a gap in between for the NVs. And now the time arrived to bug up with the recipes.  In this post am not gonna write more about chicken tikka since we had a blog post of it previously. Click here to check out. Here am gonna make a masala out with the tikka which we prepared already. If u have any left out tikka, you can use up in this way and make a awesome side-dish for rice and rotis.

Preparation time: 5 mins (excludes Chicken tikka preparation) 

Cooking time: 20 mins

Punjabi Style Capsicum Masala | Side Dish for Roti/Chapathi

Capsicum/bell peppers has a unique taste and flavor of its own. It doesn’t need much time to cook. You can just sauté and add to ur salads and it tastes yummy. It can also be eaten raw. In this recipe I just roasted the capsicum and added it to onion-tomato gravy. This can be served with chapathi and roti and also be taken with jeera rice topped with some onions. I tried it with the green bell peppers. You can even try this with red or yellow bell peppers.

Preparation time: less than 5 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Brown Rice Pilaf - How to Cook Brown Rice - Rice Cooker Method

Hey friends!!! Hope the diwali celebrations went on good for all of u… It was a hectic day for me… traveled a long for this diwali and enjoyed lots of things in and around Calif. and now back to form and to blogging...

After hogging the sooper damaka festival recipes and all, I tuned back to a healthy recipe… I sometimes turn super-nutritious person and starts to follow a strict diet chart which goes for a week or so. Then the next week I look back for a yum-sum foods… one such food which I follow in my diet chart is Brown Rice Pilaf… In most of the restaurants they serve Brown rice pilaf. When the brown rice is cooked to perfection, it would the stage taker.

If ur more conscious about health, go for this rice. Generally White rice which we consume for the day-day life lacks so much of vitamins and minerals. This is because of polishing the rice to looks much whiter and to make it easy for cooking. Browse Wikipedia for much more health benefits about Brown Rice. Click here to logon.

For my convenience I used mustard and onion in the dish. You can skip adding it... I served it with Paneer Matar Masala.

Preparation time: 30-45 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Beetroot Halwa Recipe | Diwali Special Recipes

This is one of the easiest sweet u can make in just half an hour. It is delicious and the beets are healthy too… beets has its own color, so there is no need for an artificial ones. Grated beets would be much better than the chopped ones. The laze me, used the chopper to make it fine. But no one finds out…

You can also use milk for cooking the beets. Add some milk to the beets while cooking, say 1-3 tsp for a cup of beets. This induces the taste much more. Ghee is the important person for making any kind of halwa. Play with that… if ur so much concerned about the calories and all that, restrict it to some level.

I like to have lotsa cashews in my halwa (u can see that in the pics below) … the crunchiness it gives make the halwa much more delicious. I like the halwas to be hot. You can even serve hot depends on their wish.

Try this simple recipe for this diwali… let all the happiness knocks ur door … Happy Diwali 

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 15-20mins

How to Make Soft Idli | Tips for Soft Idli | Idli Recipe

Idli and Dosa are the staple meal in all the South-Indian families most especially in Tamilnadu. Amma used to make the batter in the weekends which stays in the fridge always. She takes up a little for day-to-day use. These two are our daily breakfast for most of the days… and she makes a perfect combo chutneys to accompany the soft idlis… she uses Laxmi wet grinder which she bought during her marriage and it is working till now… almost twenty five years or so… and now she switched over to a table top grinder to make things easier…

My first preparation of making idli batter was a grand success. I just followed the instruction from amma, the idlis turned out super soft. After coming to US I bought a Mixer grinder which is very good for making idli batter for a people of two. Even I have the habit of grinding the batter in the weekend and it makes super soft idlis and dosai for the next entire week.

I came upon several queries in many groups and forums about idli batter and thought of posting in my blog. There are several important factors which makes ur idlis soft. I will be posting the tips and tricks along with pics below. Go through and enjoy “batter-ing” 

Preparation time: 6-7 hours (includes Soaking time)

Cooking time: 10 mins

Paneer Mattar Masala | Side-Dish for Roti/Pulao

I most of the times prefer taking chapathi for dinner. I already listed the side dish for chapathi column separately. (Click here tocheck) even though I make different side dish for roti, paneer is my favorite ones.  Paneer with green peas are the best combo forever. Try this recipe out and u ll know why am telling like that.

I served it with roti for dinner and had the left for the next day lunch along with brown rice pilaf (recipe coming soon)

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Ridge gourd Chutney | Peerkangai Chutney | Peerkangai Thogayal

You will never know to which u ll become addictive. I never used to taste this peerkangai in my life and don’t tried this before even. But when my mom told she made chutney using the outer skin of ridge gourd, I gave a thought of trying it at my home. I asked for the recipe from her and replicated it in my kitchen. Here in US it is very tough to get Indian vegetables at the local market. So I need to travel thirty miles to get the veggies. Once I went to the Indian market I purposefully got one and tried the next day. I just loved it when I had with the simple sambar. It will be a taste savior when had at the times of nausea. 

Preparation time: less than 5 mins

Cooking time: less than 5 mins

Chilli Chapathi Recipe - Recipe with Left over Chapathi

How many of you had tried the Chilli Parotta which we get in Saravana Bhavan? This dish is one of my favorite recipes in their menu. I knew about the extra calories am gonna get from that. But still I can’t even control myself from ordering it whenever I visit there. Amma always make this chilli chapathi instead of parotta with the left over chapathis. I sometimes prefer to have this as my lunch box special goody. Try the same recipe with Parotta for Chilli Parotta. 

 I got enough appreciation when I served it in a potluck. Do u need to get appreciation by making a delicious dish with the left over chapathis? Then, this is the “must try recipe”.

Check out my another recipe by using the “Left-Over Rice”.

Preparation time: 15 mins ( includes making chapathi)
Cooking time: 20-25 mins

Walnut Brownie Recipe

This post was sleeping in my list for more than a month and here the time comes to share this beautiful recipe. This is the first time am trying a brownie at home. We usually buy a box of brownie from Costco and it comes for the entire month for snacking. 

Suddenly I gave thought of trying a brownie at home and this was super delicious. Since am new to baking I just adapted the basic brownie recipe and added walnut to it. Check out more about Chocolate muffins and Eggless Vanilla Cake.

Paruppu Sadham | Toor Dal Pulao | Easy One-Pot Lunch Recipe

This is a one-pot lunch recipe which doesn’t need any side dish to compliment with. I like to have it plainly or with just pappad. You can get the satisfaction of getting carbohydrates and proteins together in a single scoop. I used to add green peas in this recipe which increases the taste and flavor. You can try with other veggies like carrots or beans or even soy chunks taste better along with this. I have given 2-3 green chillies which is spicy to my taste buds… adjust accordingly. Make sure u cook the rice into fine grains else the recipe will turn into a mess. Adjust the whistles ratio according to ur rice quality.

Check out other recipe for lunch box menu.

Preparation time: 15 mins (includes Soaking time)

Cooking time: 10 mins

Mushroom Peas Masala | Side Dish for Chapathi, Parathas, Roti & Naan

I was hitting my head to make some gravy with mushroom to complement the chapathi for dinner. I had some frozen green peas in the refrigerator and I thought of giving it a try to make gravy. This recipe is so simple with the usual ingredients. If u have no time to spend in the kitchen yet wanted to make some delicious side dish for the chapathi, u can definitely try this out.

Check out my other recipes with mushrooms.

Preparation time: around 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Rava Kesari | Sooji Kesari | Simple & Easy Indian Sweet Recipe

I don’t even know making a kesari is so simple than any other sweet. Since it’s a Friday and I wanted to make some sweet for poojai, I made it in just 15 minutes . I had some left sooji in my rack and am bored of doing the same upma and kichadi with that. Undoubtedly I took and made a kesari, but without food color. I felt it is not so important for a kesari to be in bright orange color. Why can’t we make a plain white colored kesari. Does it make any change in flavor or the taste?  No. then why we add it!!! And it is not good for health too…  I can give u many reasons for not using a color, but the major reason is I don’t have any colors at home  … I prefer not to use any food colors in my recipes.

Coming to the recipe… I used four cups of water for one cup of sooji. It depends basically on the brand and variety of sooji ur using. Generally 3-4 cups is more than enough to cook the sooji. The big trouble for most of us is rava forming lumps while adding to the water . The trick  to get rid of it is, add the roasted rava slowly to the heavily boiling water and constant stirring with the other hand. You need to be ambidextrous at sometimes, you see… 

 I learned another trick from my maid to get rid of this lumps while cooking rava. Heat water in a separate pan and roast the rava in another one. Once the water starts boiling, add the water to the roasted rava in the pan. This reduces the amount of lumps u get while cooking and this doesn’t need constant and quick stirring. Ok! Let’s move on to the recipe for kesari. 

Preparation and Cooking time: 15-20 minutes