Moongdal Paneer Bonda

Dunno how you will love your evening snacks when the weather very down, but my choice will definitely go for some deep fried beauties with a cup of masala tea. If i get them for my rainy or chilled evening snacks, definitely am the happiest person in the world. Few days back, i prepared quickly this moongdal paneer bonda for our evening snacks when it was raining outside with some cooked whole greengrams and some leftover grated paneer. Just a quick stir fry with cooked moongdal and paneer makes an interesting stuffing for your bondas. If you are bored of the usual potato bonda, you have to give a try to this protein rich stuffing.

Also kids can have easily this deep fried beauties without any hesitation coz both moongdal and paneer works wonder together in the stuffing and they wont even notice them. You doesnt even need any sauces or chutneys to enjoy with this bondas, make some and feed your kids with this protein rich dal and paneer.Add more veggies or spices according to your taste if you want to make these simple bondas more interesting.

Kandathippili Rasam

Kandathippili is available in herbals stores in South India, they are about 2-3inch long sticks. These sticks have many medicinal values and its used in cooking. If you are suffering from body aches,cold or fever, make a simple comforting food aka rasam with these kandathippili sticks and enjoy it. After having this spiced soup you will definitely see the difference. My mom brought me these kandathippili sticks from India and i tried recently this rasam with those herbal sticks.

While talking with my mom she told that my grandma makes even tangy gravy aka kuzhambu with this sticks, however my first trial with this kandathippili sticks is this rasam. You can have this rasam just like a soup or else with some rice.This rasam is quite famous in Tamil Nadu cuisine especially among the Iyer community.

Sago Badam Kheer/Javvarisi Badam Payasam

Happy Onam wishes to all my mallu friends..

Am celebrating today onam with a delicious,nutty and very aromatic kheer prepared simply with sago aka sabudana ,which is cooked in a grounded almond and chironji paste along with saffron strands. This kheer is just amazing with a super nutty texture. Usually we make badam kheer simply with almonds, but for a change i prepared the usual badam kheer with sago and this combination is just mindblowing. Actually i mixed both sago kheer and badam kheer which makes a fantastic sago badam kheer.

If you want to make a different,delicious and innovative kheer, dont forget to make this combination, am sure this kheer suits prefectly for any occasions. This very rich kheer makes a royal dessert for a simple lunch  as well as definitely a crowd pleaser, serve chilled or warm this kheer is just out of the world.

Pomegranate Juice

Fresh juices have their important place in our diet,my kids love freshly squeezed juices from any fruits. Its quite a daily routine for me to serve fresh juices for their breakfast. Pomegranate is a seasonal fruit here and we get them only during summer abundantly, this juice is in my draft since a long and i want to post it today. This juice is a simple,quick,refreshing,healthy,sugarless and a fabulous drink to have if you have an hectic day in front of you.

I used agave syrup in this juice, mostly pomegranates we get here are very sweet so obviouslymost of the time i dont add sugar or either honey. This time my lil one asked me to add some sweetness thats why i have added some agave syrup in this juice, if you dont have agave syrup still you can add both sugar or honey.

Potato Bajji /Potato Fritters

Weather is super nasty, yes its raining nonstop here since few days. Dunno about you all, but i need some fritters to keep myself warm when the weather is down.Some fritters with a cup of masala tea makes a super delicious evening snacks which i would love to have while its raining outside.  Thought of making something to munch with a cup of tea, i finally prepared potato fritters,the famous urulai bajji as am craving for some since a long.These crispy beauties suits prefectly for snacks also you can serve as side dish for rice, seriously i enjoyed having them with a cup of tea and coconut chutney.Such an easy and tasty fritters even kids will love to have them with their favourite sauces.

Drumstick & Jackfruit Seeds Curry

We South Indians,cant imagine serving a meal without a side dish or dry curries. We do varieties of side dishes and obviously we try to serve two side dishes atleast for a simple lunch or dinner. Coming to this curry, this dish is a signature dish of my grandma who makes varieties of foods that too with freshly plucked veggies. She always makes this drumstick and jackfruit seeds curry, whenever its a peak season of jackfruits. My maternal uncle never failed to get a huge jackfruit from the nearby city which is quite famous for this fruit and we love eating jackfruits with honey. Once we get finished with the fruit, my grandma or my maternal aunt will definitely make this curry with freshly plucked drumsticks and jackfruit seeds. I love this curry with sambhar and rasam rice.

This curry goes for vadagam, a flavoured seasoning which is prepared mainly with onions and few more spices, this vadagam is prepared every year during summer and conserved in huge pots or bottles for tempering curries,gravies or sometimes sambhars too. This vadagam will give a distinct flavour to this curry, if you dont have vadagam,you can still make this curry just by replacing them with usual tempering.

Gooseberry Rasam/Nellikkai Rasam

Life is back to routine, kids are back to school and am missing their small fights, their discussion,suddenly the house is so calm and boring now. Coming to the recipe, its a delicious,healthy and a quick rasam with gooseberries. This weekend i picked some gooseberries from Indian stores and tried my hand in preparing this different and healthy rasam. Gooseberries, Amla aka Nellikkai have numerous health benefits and this berries are cooked as many dishes in Indian cuisine.

Usually i'll make rice or pickle out of this gooseberries,after making a rasam with gooseberries few month back, i tried an another version of rasam and they came out extremely awesome. Instead of cooking or adding whole pieces of gooseberries,i went for a gooseberry puree which i prepared simply by grinding the raw berries, check an another interesting gooseberry & dal rasam i prepared previously by pressure cooking the gooseberries. If you get gooseberries abundantly dont forget to make some rasam out of it.One more interesting rasam from my kitchen which am adding to my vast rasam collection.

Announcing Tamizhar Samayal Tuesday Event - Showing The Traditions

We group of friends started a new event Tamizhar samayal tuesday which is going to happen in 2nd and 4th tuesday of every month.Tamilnadu cuisine is famous for its flavor and spices,each disrict has their own signature foods.We know very well that Tamilians have many delicious foods, for example Kanchipuram is famous for idlis, while tirunelveli is famous for halwa, needless to say much about the famous Chettinad cuisine and another well known kongu cuisine.

Yes we are proud to be Tamilians and we love to share our knowledge of this famous foods, thus we planned this event.In this event you can cook and show case the food which is very popular and traditional in any region of Tamilnadu.Both veg and non-veg recipes are allowed.

This event doesn't have any specific themes or ingredients,cook anything popular in the region of Tamilnadu.

The main motto of the event is to know the food cultures followed in each region especially in village sides.

Want to be a part of this event, do leave your mail id in the comment box.

Karupatti Thengai Paal Kozhukattai/Palm Jaggery, Coconut Milk Dumplings

Paal Kozhukattai is well known in Chettinad cuisine,its one of a traditional dish of Tamilnadu. This dish is prepared during festival as festive foods or else you can serve them for evening snacks. Some use jaggery for making this delightful dish while others use sugar, but my version is completely different from it. I used palm jaggery a natural sweetner in coconut milk which gives a mild gorgeous brown colour to this cute dumplings

Since this dish is prepared completely in coconut milk, i named this dish as karupatti thengapaal kozhukattais, which means Palm jaggery,coconut milk dumplings.Enjoy this dumplings bit warm and am sure you will love it thoroughly.I used freshly grounded rice batter for making my dumplings, you use very well the store bought ones too.

Broken Wheat Upma Kozhukattai

How about eating a healthy stuff for your breakfast or for your dinner???.. Actually i love anything cooked with broken wheat /wheat rava/Godhumai rava,make it either as a porridge or cook as like rice or else as briyani or upma, i love it to the core. Yesterday i felt bored of eating the same broken wheat upma, i tried my hands in making a upma and then steam cooked as dumplings, they came out simply awesome. You doesnt even need a side dish to enjoy this healthy dumplings, but still they tastes fabulous with a simple spicy coconut chutney.If you want to give a new avatar to the usual healthy broken wheat upma, make them as this steam cooked upma kozhukattais.

Microwave Basmati Rice

Are you searching for a prefectly cooked rice with less effort and without constant stirring, microwave cooking will definitely help you. Yes you can trust your Microwave oven for prefectly cooked basmati rice, i do prepare my basmati rice for pulao or fried rice through microwave oven coz cooking through stove top always need more attention. Sometimes eventhough we have an eye while cooking rice through stove top, we may fail to get well cooked rice. Basmati rice cooked through microwave oven goes hardly for 20minutes of cooking in high power. But however the cooking time may varies according to your microwave oven.

This easy cooking of basmati rice will be very helpful for bachelors as well as working moms. Cook your rice through microwave to know the difference. Each grain will get cooked prefectly and your rice will be ready in less time to cook.Sending to my own event CWS-Rice guest hosted by Shruti Dhingra Wahi of Shurti Rasoi.