Pav Burger

A simple innovative child friendly, box friendly snack!!
Thanks to Kirti Govind prabhu and his wife Nandini mataji for introducing this. I am sharing this recipe so that all can enjoy the effortless burger.

Things needed:
Laadi Pav 8 or 16 as much as you need.
Capsicum 3 large ones cut to pieces.
Tomatoes 5 or 6 medium sized ones cut to pieces.
Salt
Chilli powder
Butter for toasting
Cheese for the stuffing

Method for the stuffing:
Just toss fry capsicum and tomatoes with salt and chilli powder and keep them aside.

To toast the burger:

1. Slit the pav with a knife, just a few cms, you will find the hollow inside the pav. Dont cut too deep.
2. Inside the pav now stuff some cheese and then this vegetable mixture.
3. Slightly press the pav from top using a flat bottomed cup or bowl, so that it becomes thinner.
4. Smear butter on both sides of the pav and toast it over a hot tawa.

Serve hot... 

See who will say no for this. I bet you will be tired of making, kids love it any time !!!!

Easy Vegetable Rice

Things needed:

1. Rice (basmati or ordinary) 200gms
2. Carrot 1, cubed
3. Beans 10 lentils, cut ot small pieces
4. Cauliflower 2 florets optional
5. Capsicum 1, cut to pieces
6. Red chilli powder
7. Salt 
8. Tomato 2, cut to pieces

For seasoning:

1. Oil
2. Lavang 2
3. Sounf 1/2 tsp
4. Jeera 1/2 tsp
5. Badi elaichi a small scrap
6. Bay leaf 1/2 cut piece
7. Ginger a little bit, grated
8. Coriander

Procedure:

1. Take preferably a small cooker.
2. Heat oil in the cooker.
3. Add all the seasoning items except coriander.
4. Add the cut vegetables, toss them for a while.
5. Add red chilli powder and salt according to your taste.
6. Then add the washed rice to it, stir well, add 400 ml of water and pressure cook as you cook rice.
7. Once it is done, open the lid and season it with chopped coriander leaves.

This serves a good lunch box item.

Goes well with raitha or some kurma or simply curd or even with out any of them.

Kuzhi Paniyaram

Things needed:

1. Raw rice 2 cups
2. Boiled rice 2 cups
3. Urid dhal 1 cup
4. Methi seeds 2 tsp
5. oil
6. salt

Soak these grains together for at least 4 hours.
Grind them in a wet grinder adding sufficient water.
Ferment this batter over night.
Next morning add salt as needed to part of the batter.




Heat the kuzhi paniyaram pan, add 1/2 tsp of oil into each of the kuzhis.

Then pour the batter in to each kuzhi.
Let it roast on one side. Once the batter gets roasted it will come out of the pan, then you can turn it down side up to roast the other side.





Once both sides are cooked well, serve it with red hot chutney or idli podi (chutney powder) 

Cheesy Pasta - the Indian style

Things needed:


Pasta 500gms
Cubed carrots 2 cups
Capsicum cut to pieces 2 cups
Tomatoes finely chopped or pureed 3/4 kg
Coriander leaves a handful
Ginger finely chopped 1spoon
Corn pearls (optional) 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder 1tsp or more according to your taste
Oil 2 tbsp

Procedure:

First cook the pasta and keep aside. To cook pasta, use a large container letting space for the water and pasta and boil well. As per the instructions on the pasta cover, we may use 2 litres of water for cooking 500gms of pasta. Let the water reach boiling point, bubbles come up when the pasta can be added. Cook for 15 minutes on high flame, with occasional stirring. It might tend to bubble out of the container, hence needs constant watch and stirring. Add few drops of oil and some salt to the cooking pasta. Once it is done drain and run over cold water and keep aside.

Along side the procedure for the pasta sause or gravy can proceed.

Add oil on a large pan, heat it and add ginger and saute it. Then add the carrots and tomatoes. Let them cook very well, that the tomato gets mashed.

Now add redchilli powder and salt. Cook in medium flame until tomato leaves oil. Then add the capsicum and corn pearls. Both these are added later because they lose their flavor on over cooking. they need not cook as much as tomatoes do.

Toss for a while then add the finely chopped coriander leaves. Now the pasta sause is ready.

Now add the cooked pasta and stir well. At this point add the grated cheese while still on flame. Once the cheese melts and blends stop the flame. The cheesy pasta is now ready for serving.

Vendaikai Pachadi (ladies finger pachadi)

Note: Pachadi is supposed to be raitha or a dish made with curd in popular understanding. But in Chettinad cuisine pachadi is made out of tur dhal and some vegetables while raitha is referred to as thayir pachadi, not simply pachadi. So readers who might feel, what is bindi pachadi, come out of the feeling that it is a raitha kind of a dish, then read on.

Things needed:
Bindi 1/2 kg
Tomato 3
Green chillies 5 to 7
Tamarind little bit optional
Sambar powder optional
 Thur dhal 75gms

For seasoning:
Rai
Jeera
Heeng
Curry leaves
Red chilly 2

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook the dhal, not too soft but just cooked and keep aside.
2. Cut the tomatoes and ladies finger, slit the green chillies.
3. Heat the oil in the pan, add the seasoning in order of rai, jeera, heeng, red chillies and curryleaves.
4. Add the ladies finger pieces and the green chillies and fry them for a while.
5. Then add the tomatoes as well. Fry for a while add the tamarind paste and sambar powder and salt and let it boil until the vegetables cook.
6.  Once they are cooked add the precooked dhal to it, let it come to a boil, mix it well add the coriander leaves for nice flavour and switch off flame.

Samba Rice (Pepper Jeera Rice)

This is my grandpa's favorite. Every time I make this or think of this I remember you my grandpa!!


Things needed:
Rice 200gms cooked
Ghee 1tbsp


Seasoning:
Urid dhal
Rai
Heeng
Curry leaves
Pepper jeera powder 2tsp or more according to your spice need


Procedure:
Very simple. It needs just the seasoning after it is cooked.


Heat the ghee and add the seasoning in the following sequence seeing that each one is well cooked before the other one is added.

1. Urid dhal
2. Rai
3. Heeng
4. Curry leaves
5. Salt
6. Pepper jeera powder as it flowers out add the rice and mix well.

Your samba rice is ready. Serve hot, tastes like heaven.

Potato Roast the simple hot way

Thing needed:

Preferably baby potatoes or choose small sized ones 1 kg


Seasoning:
Urid dhal
Rai
heeng
curry leaves
turmeric
salt
red chilli powder/ sambar powder
2 tbsp oil

Method:

Boil and peel the potatoes.
Cut them into reasonable sized ones.

Ready all the masala items open in front of you - turmeric, chilli powder and salt.

Heat the oil in the fry pan, be very attentive in the sequence you add the seasoning and extra conscious about them not over roasting, as they might show up a burnt look and taste later.

As the oil gets heated add the following in the SAME sequence:

urid dhal - let it turn slight golden
rai - let it break
heeng
curryleaves
turmeric salt and chilli powder and waste no time in adding the cut potates and let it roast well in the oil on high flame itself. Simmering the potatoes only sweetens them. See that there is enough oil, so that they dont burn and stick to the pan. The curry should look greasy. If the coat of oil is not found its ok to add a little more oil around.
 When the potatoes look sufficiently roasted remove from flame.

This is an all time all age favourite!! Goes well with rice as well as chappathis.

Bisebela bath

Ingredients:
Rice 200gms
Tur dhal 100gms
sambar powder 2tsp
salt
turmeric
Tamarind size of lemon
Equal quantity of various vegetables
White pumpkin
drum stick
beans
papdi (kothavarangai)
carrot
brinjal (optional)
Jack fruit seed (optional)

Seasoning:
Rai
Jeera
curry leaves
heeng

Dry masala:
Red chillies 2 or 3
fenugreek 1 tsp
dhania seeds 2 tbsps
jeera 1tsp
tur dhal 1tbsp

Procedure:

Dry roast the ingredients for dry masala and dry grind them and keep aside.

Cut into 2 to 3 inch long pieces, all the vegetables.
Cook them on a large pan separately.

Pressure cook the dhal and rice together.

Once the vegetables are cooked add tamarind extract and the regular sambar powder, turmeric and salt to it. Let it boil. Once the raw smell goes, add the cooked rice and dhal to this sambar and stir to make a homogeneous mixture. Let the pan you take be large enough to contain the entire rice mixture.

After it blends well, add the dry masala and blend again.

Finally season it with afore said ingredients in a mixture of 1 tbsp ghee and 1 tbsp oil.

Another procedure:

Cook the rice and dhal separately.

After the vegetables are cooked, can make a sambar out of the dhal with the vegetable, tamarind and sambar powder and salt and then add the rice to the sambar and blend to have the besibela bath. Then you can make the seasoning and add the dry roasted masala.

This is also a good procedure. Here you can have a stock of sambar in store if the rice gets thickened over time. You can add this sambar and loosen the rice when you serve.

Beetroot Poriyal

Ingredients:

Beetroot 1/2 kg, red chilli powder and salt

Seasoning:

Oil, Urid dhal, Rai, curry leaves

 Procedure:

Peel and cut the beetroot into small cubes. Steam cook them and keep aside.
On a kadai, add oil and add the seasoning, once they are done, add the cooked beetroots cubes and add red chilli powder and salt, stir well, keep in low flame until the raw smell of the masala goes and take off from flame.

This goes well as a side dish for any rice preparation or chappathi.

Beetroot poriyal

How to make rasam?

Ingredients:
one small lemon sized tamarind ball
ripe tomato - 1
rasam powder 2tsps
thur dhal 1tbsp
water 500 ml

for seasoning:
rai 1tsp
jeera 1tsp
heeng
curry leaves
fresh dhania leaves

Procedure:

Pressure cook the thur dhal, mash it and keep aside.
Soak the tamarind and take out thick extract.
Boil and mash the tomato and keep aside. ( Can even cook the dhal and tomato together with some haldi and heeng )
To the tamarind extract add rasam powder, haldi and let it boil. Let the raw smell of tamarind go.
Then add the tomato and cooked dhal and salt to it. Add as much water as required.
Just when it comes to a boil can switch off the stove.

Then do the seasoning over this rasam preferably with a little ghee and add the coriander leaves at the end.

Cover the rasam until served so that the flavour doesn't escape.

This I learnt from my friend Vidya.

Rasam powder

Dry roast the following ingredients and dry grind as well. That gives you the base for the rasam.

Ingredients:

Red chillies  1 cup

Dhania seeds  2 cups

Black pepper  1/2 cup

Jeera 1/2 cup

Thur dhal 1/4 cup

rasam powde

Ennai Vaazhakkai ( Green banana in oil)

Ingredients:
Green banana/ katcha kela/ vaazhakkai   -  2 medium sized (for 2 people)
oil    -   1 table spoon
red chilli powder  -  1 tea spoon
haldi and salt as required

For seasoning:
Udid dhal 1 tsp
Rai 1 tsp
heeng
curry leaves

Procedure:
Peal the banana.
Slice them as for chips but not as thin as that, but 2 to 3 mm thickness.
Need not soak in water, the cut pieces, they wont turn black as popularly believed.

But should cook as soon as you cut, hence cut only when you are about to cook.

On a hot kadai, add the oil, and as it heats up add the seasoning, see that the udid dhal turns golden and the rai breaks.

Then add the sliced banana and cook in medium flame. No need to toss much, or it will get broken. Let it roast slowly, half done and add the spices specified. Then let it roast for some more time.

When the banana slices are separate and roasted, you can take off from heat.

This is quick to cook and goes well with any kind of rice like sambar rice, rasam rice or curd rice.

This is basically a rice accompaniment. 

Pumpkin Halwa

Ingredients:

Red pumpkin ripe and fleshy 1 kg
Sugar 1/4 kg or less, according to your taste








Procedure:

Steam the pumpkin and remove pulp from the hard skin and keep aside.

Add sugar to the pulp and keep cooking on a hard bottomed vessel, till all the water evaporates and the halwa turns glassy.

You can add little ghee if you want the flavour of it, otherwise diet conscious people can just enjoy the sweet with out ghee.

My Humble Self!!!

This is a blog I am creating to share my recipes to like minded people.

I am a cook of chettinad cuisine since last 17 years, but from last 4 years I have transformed my cooking style excluding onions and garlic and creating a new style called Chettinad Vedic cuisine.

I dedicate my cooking skills whatsoever to my mom, my mom-in-law and her mom, a cook aunty at our grand mom's place and a number of other friends who had influenced me.

The taste of my stuff can never go wrong for my husband, with the heavy quality control standards and criteria for the items served. Once he approves of my food, then I can trust it can be staged anywhere and everywhere. Thanks to his stringent specifications, I could develop my hand in the kitchen.

Above all, Lord Krishna, for whom all my food stuff is offered first before anyone tastes, is the key to the taste of my cooking. Krishna knows my family's demands and transforms my simple cooking into delicious one. I bet, devotion to the Lord is the magic in any work and is 100% so in cookery.

With this brief introduction about me, let me start my journey and solicit the readers' goodwill and feedback.