Coconut Chutney

Ingredients
Coconut cut to small pieces - 1/2 cup
Green chilli - 1 big size
Pottukadalai - 2 to 3 tblsp
Salt and water

To Temper
Oil - 1 tblsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urud dal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 spring

Preparation
First grind coconut and green chilli in mixi to a paste and add pottukadalai and 2 tblsp of water and grind to a paste. Pottukadalai should be slightly coarse. Add salt and few tblsp of water to get chutney consistency. Finally temper items given under To Temper and add to chutney. Serve as side for Idly, dosa, uttapam, paniyaram, pongal, even for chapathi and pori .. and so on....

Note:
1. If you feel spice level is less add a dry red chilli to temper section.
2. You can also add pinch of hing while tempering. And small piece of tamarind while grinding.

Wheat Flour Parotta

Ingredients
Wheat Flour, water and salt.
Ghee/oil

Preparation

1. Prepare soft dough by mixing wheat flour and salt. Keep it aside for 30 min to 1 hr.
2. Now make small balls out of dough to make parotta. First roll it out like we do for chapati then
Spread 1 tsp of ghee or oil over and sprinkle a pinch of dusting flour.
3. keep Flit and roll as shown in below pictures. Finally roll out like chappathi and cook it on tawa.

Note

1. Cook in slow or medium heat only.
2. If you replace wheat flour with maida you get parota. But the dough should rest for atleast 2 to 4 hrs. You can also add 1 egg or pinch of soda.

Paniyaram

Ingredients
Idly/Dosa batter - 2 cups
Chopped onion - 2
Grated carrot - 1
Curry leaves - 1 spring
Green chilli - 1 slitted
Mustard - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tblsp
Urud dal -1 tsp
Rava - 2 tblsp
Oil, salt and water

Preparation
1. Heat oil in a pan and temper with mustard, urud dal, channa dal , green chilli and curry leaves. Add onion and grated carrot and stir until onion turns pink.
2. Add above fried mix to the batter and also add rava, generous pinch of salt and 2 tblsp of water.
3. Heat paniyaram pan and drop 1 tsp of oil in each paniyara space and pour 3/4 of it with batter. When sides turn brown turn it to other side and cook until it turns brown. Serve hot with Chutney of your choice!

Note
1. Adding rava is optional to get crisp outer texture.
2. Remove green chilli before adding to batter.
3. You can also add a well beaten egg.
3. Keep in slow flame and cook as inside of paniyaram should also get cooked well.

Uthapam

Ingredients

Idly/dosa Batter- 1 cup
Oil to sprinkle
Idly milaghai podi  and Chopped onion

Preparation
Heat dosa pan and pour a ladle full of batter and spread it to form a thick dosa. Now sprinkle fist full of chopped onion and sprinkle a tblsp of Idly milaghai podi. Now spread few drops of oil on sides and over toppings as well. When sides turn golden brown turn to other side and cook for a min. Serve hot with any spicy chutney or non veg gravies.

Note
You can also add grated carrot, chopped tomato , non veg keema, fried cashews, grated panner , cheese and so on to created different types of uthapams !!

Pori Urundai

Ingredients

Pori (Puffed Rice) - 4 cups
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Water - 3 to 4 tblsp
Oil/Ghee - 2 tblsp

Preparation

Heat pan with jaggery and water then remove impurities by filtering it. Reheat the jaggery syrup and stir till you get rolling consistency. Now switch off the stove and add puffed rice and mix well.
Grease hands with oil and start making balls by pressing them tightly.

Note

1. If you feel the mix is more sticky add some more puffed rice to it.
2. To check rolling consistency keep few drops of water in a plate and put few drops of jaggery over it.
It will come like thread and you can actually roll it.
3. For me it was easy to make balls when it was just warm and not too hot!!

Onion Chutney

Ingredients

Onion - 2 big
Tomato - 1 size
Coriander leaves - 2 tblsp
Curry leaves - 1 spring
Ginger chopped- 1 tblsp
garlic chopped- 1 tblsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - a very small piece
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urud dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tsp
Dry red chilly - 3
Oil - 2 tblsp
salt and water

Preparation

Heat oil in pan and temper with mustard seeds, urud dal , channa dal, curry leaves and dry chilly. Then add ginger and garlic. Once it turns brown add onion and fry until you get golden brown color then add tomato, turmeric powder and coriander leaves. When tomato turns mushy switch off the stove and allow ingredients to cool down. Then grind in mixi along with tamarind and salt. Serve the hot and spicy onion chutney for idly, dosa or paniyaram.

Egg Dosa

Prepare Batter as mentioned in Idly recipe section and add some water and pinch of salt to make it easy to spread and make dosa.

Heat the dosa pan or tawa. Spread a ladle full of batter and make dosa shape. Spread few drops of oil/ghee on sides. Now spread well beaten egg over the dosa and sprinkle few pinch of pepper powder and generous pinch of salt over the dosa. Once you see nice golden brown color on sides flip it to other side cook for a min and serve hot with chutney / sambar / non veg gravies.

Note:
You can also sprinkle few chopped onion and coriander leaves , non veg keema, grated carrot ..etc

Dosa

Prepare batter as mentioned in Idly recipe section and add some water and pinch of salt to make it easy to spread and make dosa.

Heat the dosa pan(Iron pan) or tawa. Spread a ladle full of batter and make dosa shape. Spread few drops of oil/ghee on sides. Once you see nice golden brown color on sides flip it to other side cook for a min and serve hot with chutney / sambar / non veg gravies.

Simple Fish fry

Ingredients

Fish - 1 Kg
Home made Chilly powder -2 tblsp
Tumeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tblsp
Ginger and garlic paste - 2 tblsp
Oil to shallow fry
Salt

Preparation

1. Clean the fish well and drain water completely.
2. Mix all ingrediants and keep the marination for 30 min to 1 hr.
3. Heat pan with oil and fry the fish in batches. Serve hot !

Note:

1. Always try to cook fish in slow or medium heat to get nice golden brown color and even cooking. 
2. Increase or decrease spice level as per your taste.

Somas

Ingredients

For outer layer

Maida - 1/2 cup

Rava - 1 Tblsp

Ghee - 1 tsp

Salt and water

Pooranam

Grated coconut - 5 tblsp (Prefer kopara)
Pottukadalai - 5 tblsp
Elachi - 1
Sugar - 8 tblsp

Oil to deep fry

Preparation
1. Mix all items given under outer layer and make a soft dough. keep it covered & set aside for 1 hr.
2. Grind all items under pooranam except coconut and mix grated coconut at last.
3. Make small poori shapes out of dough prepared and keep a spoon ful of pooranam inside it, close it like a half moon. You also get somas shape makers and I have also used similar one for this.
4. Finally deep fry them in hot oil.

Note:
1. Adding ghee in madia dough adds a good crisp texture. Increase or decrease sugar qty as per your taste.
2. Check twice to ensure the somas is closed properly else while  frying if pooranam comes out it will spoil the oil!!
3. Inside pooranam is upto your imagination . You can keep spicy stuff, veg pooriyal, non veg keema, instead of pottukadalai you can add rava roasted in ghee and so on..

Idly

Ingredients
Idly rice – 4 cups
Urud dal – 1 cup

 Feenugreek seeds – 1 tblsp
Water and salt

Preparation
Soak urud dal and fenugreek together and rice separately for 3 to 4 hrs. Grind Urud dal first to a very smooth texture batter. If you put a drop of it in water it should float. Then grind rice to smooth texture batter. Mix it with urud dal batter and add salt. Mix them well and ferment overnight.Mix well before making idly. Pour the batter in Idly plates and steam it for 10 min. Nice aroma of Ildy makes sure that is done. Dip knife in water first and then in Idly. It should come out clean. If batter sticks to knife then idly is not cooked so steam it for another 5 min. Serve hot with sambar, Idly podi or chutney. My favorite is mutton kurma!

Note:

1. Grease the idly plates with oil so that when taking out all comes out clean. 
2. Show back side of idly plate in running water for few seconds and then remove them with idly spoon it will come superbly. Because most of the time when you remove the idly from plates when its too hot it might stick to plates here and there.
3. You can also take 2:2 ratio of raw rice and Idly rice.
4. You can use the same batter for Dosa, uttapam, Paniyaram..etc
5.  Add water to batter and make it thin for dosa. When you pour idly batter from ladle it should fall slowly where as for dosa it should fall freely.
6. You can add fist full of cooked rice or aval while grinding for a more soft idly.
7. While grinding dont add more water and make thin batter, it will not ferment well and Idly wont come out well. You can always add water before preparing Idly or dosa to get right consistency. So while grinding make sure not to add more water.
8. If you are preparing batter for only Idly then grind rice to slightly coarse texture.   
9. Keep batter in big container as after fermenting the quantity will increase.You need to beat the batter well with laddle before making Idly or dosa.

Appam

Ingredients

Raw rice - 1 cup

Idly rice – 1 cup
Urud dal – 4 tblsp
Fenugreek seed – ¼ tsp
Salt and water

Preparation

1. Except salt soak all ingredients in water for 2 to 3 hrs and grind them to very smooth batter.

2. Make the batter ferment overnight (8 to 10 hrs).

3. Heat kadai or Appam pan and grease with oil. Pour a ladle full of batter and rotate the pan so that it spreads over. Close the lid and cook in medium flame for few min( say 2 to 5 min).

4. Serve with coconut milk or spicy gravy of your choice.

Note

1.You can add 2 tblsp cooked rice while grinding as it gives a very soft texture for appam.

2.Grease appam pan with oil for first one alone. Rest should come out well without oil.

3.The batter should be bit thin than dosa batter so it spread easily on pan.

Channa Masala

Ingredients
Elachi – 1
Cinnamon – 1 inch piece
Garlic – 5 pods
Ginger – 1 inch piece
Onion – 1 big one
Tomato – 2
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Home made Chilly powder – 1 tblsp
White channa – ½ cup
Salt and water
Oil – 2 tblsp

Preparation

1. Soak channa in water for overnight. Pressure cook for 3 to 4 whistle.

2. Heat oil in pan temper with elachi and cinnamon. Then fry garlic and ginger to golden brown followed by chopped onion. Fry till it turns brown and then add tomato. Once tomato is mushy add turmeric and chilli powder fry till raw smell goes. You can add few drops of water if it burns at bottom. Once done cool it down and grind to a smooth paste in mixi.

3. Heat same pan and add the cooked channa, grinded paste, salt and 1 ½ cups of water and boil it for 5 to 10 min or until the right gravy consistency is attained.

Note:

1. Add the water used for cooking the channa and reduce plain water accordingly.

2. Onion and tomato ratio is 1:2 . Based on size/quantity add them.

3. You can also add fennel seeds for tempering along with Elachi.

Pongal

Ingredients:

Raw rice and Moong dal in 3:1 ratio (I have taken 1 cup together)

Water - 4 cups

Tumeric powder  - 1/4 tsp

Salt

To Temper:

Oil/Ghee/Vanaspathi - 1 tblsp

Pepper - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Hing - Generous pinch

Cashew - 1 fist 

Ginger Chopped - 1 tsp  

Curry leaves - 1 Spring

Preparation

Soak rice and dal in water for few min say 30 min and then add salt and tumeric powder. Pressure cook for 4 to 5 whistle.
Temper items given under To temper and add to Pongal. Serve hot with sambar and vada.

Note:
1. In a tsp of oil/ghee roast moong dal for few min until raw smell goes as this step adds extra flavour.
2. Dont burn jeera when you temper as it will spoil the taste very much.
3. I generally add cashew after switching off the stove. The heat in oil is enough for getting the golden color!.
4. I use refined oil to temper and put ghee on top while serving.

Sambar

Ingredients

Thoor dal - 1 cup (cooked)

Onion - 1 big size

Tomato - 1 

Drumstick - 1 (Any veggie of your choice)

Home made Sambar powder - 1 tblsp

Tumeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Water - 2 1/2 cups

coriander leaves - tblsp

Salt

Tamarind - 1 tblsp thick extract

To Temper 

Oil - 2 Tblsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urud dal - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 Spring

Hing - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

Heat oil in pan and temper items given under to temper and then add sliced onion and fry till light brown color. Then add sliced tomato and fry till it turns mushy and then add veggies and add all powder and fry for 1 min. Add water and boil for 15 min or until the veggies are cooked. Mean while mash the dal and mix coriander leaves and tamarind extract well. When the veggies are cooked and the dal mix to sambar and add salt . Cook for 5 more min and your sambar is ready.

Paruppu Rasam

Ingredients
Tomato - 1 small size
Tamarind - 1 small ball (or 1 tblsp thick extract)
Coriander leaves - 1 tblsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Pepper Powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp
Dhaniya powder - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 3 pods crushed
Salt
Water - 3 cups
Thoor dal - 1 tblsp

To Temper 
Oil - tblsp
Dry chilli- 2 Nos
Curry Leaves - 1 spring
Mustard - 1 tsp

Preparation
Cook the dal and mash it. Extract tamarind juice and mix all ingredients well.
Heat oil and temper the items under To Temper and then pour the mix, close the vessel and allow to cook. when its about to boil switch off the stove. Rasam should not boil.

Note
You can try boiling rasam. In that case add pepper and jeera powder at end that is after you switch off  the stove.

Idiyappam

Ingredients

Rice flour, salt and water.

To prepare flour you can try any of the method listed below.

Method 1: Take any ready made rice flour and dry roast till raw smell goes. Dont burn them to get brown color!

Method 2: Soak raw rice in water for 2 Hrs. Then drain water and place over cloth or paper to remove wetness and then grind in mixi in batches and sieve them to nice flour. Before preparation steam the flour or dry roast.

Method 3: Take 3:1 ratio of raw rice and boiled rice and give it in Mill and grind them atleast thrice to get nice flour.

Preparation
1. Boil water and add salt to it. switch off the flame and add flour little by little to Hot water until you get smooth and soft dough.(You can add water to the flour as well)

2. Make them big balls and put in idiyapa Achu and squeeze the dough in idiyapa plates or Idly plate and steam it for 8 to 10 min.

Note
1. Once the dough is ready you can make balls and keep it in hot pack so that the warmness is retained. It will be easy to squeeze when the dough is hot. If dough is dry the Idiyappam will not be soft.

2. The same dough can be used for outer layer of kozhukattai.
3. Reduce water and add warm milk say 1/2 cup and try making the dough. It will be soft and you also get nice white color.

Pulka

Ingredients
Wheat Flour, Salt and water.

Steps
1. Prepare a soft dough as we do for chappathi. I generally use hot water so that the softness of chappathi retains for long time. Keep for at least 30 min aside and then start rolling to prepare them.

2. Roll the dough like we do for puri that is neither too thin nor too thick.

3. Place it on tawa and cook until golden spots appear, it will take 30 sec to 1 min. Take it out.

4. Then place the less gold spots side touching the direct flame. Your no oil puri i.e pulka will puff up then you can remove from flame and serve with spicy gravy of your choice.

Note
1. Do not use oil . It will not puff up well.

2. Use minimum flour for dusting else the pulka will be dry.

3. Make small size pulka so that it will fit the flame properly and hence get cooked evenly.

4. Make use of both the burner that is one side tawa , the other for direct flame cooking for better results.

 

Andra Style Paruppu Podi

Ingredients:

Pottukadalai - 1 cup
Dry red chilli - 8 to 10
Jeera - 1 tsp
Garlic pods - 3 or 4
Crystal salt - 1 tsp
Hing - generous pinch

Dry roast one by one except last two. First grind all except pottukadalai and finally add pottukadalai and grind to powder. Serve with hot rice and melted ghee .

POTATO CHIPS

Steps
1. Clean the Potato and peel the skin.

2. Soak in plain water for 10 Min.
3. Heat oil for frying and slice the potato using a chips slicer directly over the oil. Fresher can slice first in a plate and drop them one by one in oil. But by this way the color changes before frying. So for one potato you can try. For many, best is to slice directly over hot oil.
4. Once the Zzzz sound reduces and bubbles get disappear you can take it out.
5. Finally sprinkle salt and toss it. Also , if you like add chilly powder / chat powder as you wish.



Note:
The Crispy chips is purely dependent on your slicer size and sharpness. If it makes big slices don't try chips, go for bajji !!
Don't skip to soak in water which retains the Crispiness.