Cow Peas Kootu/Thatta Payaru Kootu

Cowpeas, this nutritious protein rich legumes is well known among the South Indians. We make quite often puli kuzhambu with cow peas and the most favourite evening snacks 'sundal' with this incredible beans. For a change, i picked this kootu from one of my mom's cookbook which is called Kootu,Kuzhambu Vagaikal which she own from a long. Fortunately she carried from India during her last trip from her cookbook collection. While i was talking with her i asked her for a recipe to finish out some leftover cow peas, immediately she said she have a cookbook with her and passed me before few days.

I crossed pulikuzhambu with cow peas in that cookbook again but this kootu with cow peas tempted me a lot.I prepared this delicious kootu with this nutritious beans for our lunch and served this dish with fried papads.This kootu is definitely a different dish from the usual kuzhambu and sundal we make this incredible beans. Since i picked this kootu from a cookbook,this post goes  for the CC Challenge of the month.

Muparuppu Vadai/Three Dals Fritters/Three Lentils Fries

Muparuppu vadai is a evening tea time snack fritters you can munch them with your cup of tea.Muparuppu means three dals, moondru means three and paruppu means dal.This vafais can be a younger sister of masala vada which goes just for channadal,while this vada goes for toordal, channadal and urad dal.Actually this vadai is quite often prepared in Village tea stalls, i tasted this vadai for the first time at my grandma's village and its one among my favourite vadas since ever i tasted it.

If i want to make a different vadai from the usual ones, i'll definitely make this muparuppu vadai which goes for a simple preparation apart from the soaking time. Some may add onions while some wont add them, but my grandma's version is different,she also add some fennel seeds with onions to enhance the flavour to these fried beauties. If you want to make a quick vadai,just skip the onions, fennel seeds and go with other ingredients as per the recipe goes.Every 2nd and 4th tuesdays of the month, we a group of friends shares authentic dishes from Tamilnadu and the name of the event is Tamizhar Samayal Tuesday, please do check the announcement if you want to be a part of it.

Paneer Cutlet

Paneer, this famous Indian cheese is our family favourite, i never forget to pick the store bought ones from Indian store or else i'll make myself at home. I stuffed them in parathas,fried them as pakodas,made many varieties of sabzis and many varieties of rice dishes with this incredible cheese. But trust me i never tried cutlets aka tikkis out of this Paneer. Happily i made some cutlets out of this famous cheese aka  paneer after watching a TV show, i dont remember the name of the show but i still remember this recipe.

This cutlets was in my draft since a long actually more than 5 months and finally am posting for today as i want to clean my draft posts.However this cutlets goes for usual potato and usual spices but the addition of crumbled paneer makes the difference in the texture and the taste. My kids enjoyed thoroughly this paneer cutlets with their favourite tomato ketchup.This post goes  for the CC Challenge of the month.

Urulai Podithuval/Potato Stirfry

Urulai podithuval, this dish is from a TV cookery show called Anjerrai Petty under the segment called Parambariya Samayal, the host of this segment is a Brahmin woman who cooks traditional dishes both South and North India. When she cooked this podithuval for the show,after watching it i tried them the day itself for our lunch, this stir fry goes for a flavourful grounded coarse mixture of coconut,curry leaves and green chillies,This masala mixture gives a wonderful flavour to this podithuval.

A prefect side dish for both sambhar,kuzhambu and rasam rice, i simply served this easy breezy potato podithuval along with vatha kuzhambu. Trust me this combo is just out of the world and we enjoyed it thoroughly.This post goes  for the CC Challenge of the month.Sending to my own event Healthy Diet-Vegetarian Side dish guest hosted by Nandoos..

Vendaikkai Sambhar/Bhindi Sambhar/Okra Sambhar

Sambhar is a dal based gravy which is prepared quite often at South Indian's home.Sambhar or sambar can be prepare very well just with dals, or with veggies or sometimes with greens. One of my most favourite sambhar is always with okras, after drumsticks these sticky veggies gives a wonderful flavour to this dal based gravy. This simple sambhar doesnt need any specific preparation,with simple ingredients you can make this sambhar very much quickly apart from cooking the dals.

Usually i cook my dals with my small pressure cooker which makes my life easier, i cant survive without my pressure cookers, do you want to know how many pressure cookers i have??..I have 5 pressure cookers, yep i cook every day with them and they have their important role in my kitchen.Every 2nd and 4th tuesdays of the month, we a group of friends shares authentic dishes from Tamilnadu and the name of the event is Tamizhar Samayal Tuesday, please do check the announcement if you want to be a part of it.Since sambhar belongs to Tamil Nadu cuisine, am posting this dish today.

Vellari Kuzhambu/Cucumber Curry

I recently saw a TV cooking show called Anjarai petty in a Tamil channel and got hooked to this easy breezy dish. The housewife who prepared this vellari aka cucumber kuzhambu with simple ingredients told that she learned this dish from her husband,how wonderful na. Call this dish as kuzhambu, mor kuzhambu or else as mor curry however this curry goes for curd, coconut,green chillies,cumin seeds and cubed cucumber. If you feel lazy or dont want to spend more time in kitchen,you can make this kuzhambu which gets ready in a jiffy. This kuzhambu will be bit thin but trust me the taste was simply awesome.

Make this curry and serve with rice along with lemon pickle, am sure you will definitely have a filling lunch. Actually we make dal based kootu with cucumber but this curry is defnitely a different dish. If you want,you can replace the cucumber with bottlegourd or pumpkin and go for the same cooking process.This post goes  for the CC Challenge of the month.

Egg Vegetable Rice

A quick,simple and prefect lunch box dish is this egg vegetable rice. If you have leftover cooked rice already this colourful egg rice will gets ready in a jiffy. This rice suits prefectly for any ages as they are spiced mildly just with pepper powder. If you want this egg rice to be more spicy and flavourful, some garam masala will make the magic. My mom makes this rice quite often for my sister's lunch box when she was doing her engineering and everytime i'll wait for my share to enjoy for my lunch, coz i dont carry lunchbox to my college.

This easy egg vegetable rice is my daughter's favourite and i'll do atleast twice a month whenever i feel lazy to cook or else my daughter asks for. If you want to make this more interesting,you can also add some cooked,shreded chicken or else simply add some cooked soya nuggets.

Instant Sprouted Fenugreek Pickle

Sprouting fenugreek seeds at home is not a difficult task, a bottle and soaked fenugreek seeds place in a dark place makes wonderful sprouts.Wat you need is more patience but not anything special for making these wonderful sprouts. After making many interesting dishes out of these sprouts,finally i finished them making this interesting instant version of pickle. Actually this pickle goes for an interesting preparation,both tamarind and jaggery are used in this pickle which sounds quite new for me. I picked this pickle for my cook book name pickles i bought during my last trip to India.

Coming to this instant pickle, they will get ready in very less time and they can be eaten immediately once you finished making this pickle,however i loved mine after a day. This mildly tangy,mildly sweet,mildly bitter pickle goes awesome as side dish with a bowl of hot steaming sambhar rice. Seriously i enjoyed thoroughly this instant pickle with methi theplas,yes this combo works wonder.This post goes  for the CC Challenge of the month.Sending to my own event Healthy Diet-Vegetarian Side dish guest hosted by Nandoos..