Pesarattu

Ingredients:
Whole green gram or split washed Moong Dal - 1 cup
Raw rice – ¼ cup or Rice flour – ½ cup
Green chillies - 2-3
Ginger - 1 cm
Salt - to taste
Soak gram and rice together for 6-8 Hrs. Grind with rest of the ingredients to a smooth, thick batter.

Method:

Heat a thick flat griddle, preferably non stick, till few drops of water, sprinkled on it sizzle and evaporate quickly
Lower the flame,Pour about 1 ½ cup of batter on it and spread quickly with the back of a laddle, as thin as possible. ( It will be slightly thicker than standard dosa)
Drizzle some oil all round and on top.
Cook on medium heat till the under side is well browned.
Sprinkle some filling on the dosa and fold the other to cover the filling.

Serve hot with a chutney.

Tamarind Rice

Ingredients:
Rice 1 cup (measurement before cooked)1 & ½ table spoons Tamarind Paste 2 Green Chilies - Cut the length wise.
3 Red chilies1 tbsp Ginger finely chopped
3/4th tsp Turmeric Powder1 ½ tsp salt (or to taste).
1 tsp Sugar

For Seasoning
1/2 tbsp Mustard1 tbsp Chana Daal
1 tbsp urad daal
2 tbsp groundnutsa pinch of asafetida
A pinch of fenugreek powder – optional
2 tsp gingley seed powdered – optional
Few curry leaves2 tbsp oil

To make tamarind paste: Soak tamarind in just enough water, cook on medium heat for 15 min until soft and grind. Can be stored in refrigerator for at least a month (add 2 tsp of salt for 500 gm of tamarind to store well)
Method:
· Boil the rice with less water (than normal) so that the grains are separable from each other and allow it to cool in a wide bowl or a basin.
· Add tamarind paste, salt and turmeric to the cooked rice and mix evenly.
· Heat oil in a pan, add mustard, chana daal, urad daal, groundnuts, red chilies and fry just a little, then add green chilies and ginger and fry till daal and nuts become golden brown, now add curry leaves and asafetida fry few more seconds and remove from heat. (Basically fry all the ingredients so that they give out nice aroma and not over fried). Add fenugreek powder and/or gingley powder at this point if using.
· Pour this seasoning mixture over rice, and then add sugar.
Mix well with a wide flat spoon (or hand) until it is evenly mixed and serve.

Can be served with Papad. Also, goes well with potato curry, vegetable raita (vegetable and yogurt/curd salad) or spicy chicken curry.

Coconut Chutney

Ingredients:
1 cup coconut gratings
2-3 green chilies
Finely chopped Coriander Leaves
About 4 curry leaves - optional
Tamarind Concentrate-1\4 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:
To prepare chutney grind coconut, chillies, tamarind paste and salt to a smooth paste adding little water to grind. Mix coriander leaves. Season this with a tsp of oil, mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Rava Idli

Ingredients:
Rava/Sooji (White) - 1 1/2 cup
Mustard - 1 tsp
Green Coriander chopped - 1 tbsp
Green chillies Chopped - 4
Ginger grated - 1/2 inch
Curry leaves chopped - 10-12 leaves
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tsp
Curds - 2 cups
Cashew pieces - a few (optional)

Method:
Take oil in a pan and heat it. Add Mustard seeds and cashew pieces and fry for a minute.
Add rava and fry on medium flame for 3 minutes then cool it on a plate.
Take a mixing bowl and mix rava, chillies, coriander, curry leaves and ginger. Add salt.
Heat water in a pressure cooker.
Mix curds just before preparing idlies. Check for salt. Add baking soda and mix the dough lightly. You can see the bubbles coming from the dough. If the mixture is too thick you can add water.
Steam this mixture in idli moulds without putting weight to the pressure cooker. Cook on medium flame for about 12 minutes.
Let the idli stay in the cooker for a minute and then remove it.

Serve hot with ghee and coconut chutney.

Upma

Ingredients:
Cream of wheat (Hindi: Sooji)
1 cupThinly Chopped or shredded vegetables (Cabbage, Carrot, Capsicum and Onions)
1 cup Green Chilies 2 nos (1 for mild spice)
Ginger, minced – 1 teaspoon (optional, it gives good flavor that goes well with all other ingredients used)
Curry Leaves 1 sprigCoriander (cilantro) leaves to garnish
Salt to taste (about 1 tea spoon)
Sugar 1/2 tsp (optional)
Tomatoes chopped 2 nos (optional)
Water 2 cups
Oil 4tsps.Mustard 1 tsp.Channa dal (split garganzo beans) 1 tsp
Cashews or Groundnuts/Peanuts 1/4th cup (Eliminate this if you have allergy to nuts)

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, when it cracks add channa dal and nuts, when done (golden brown) add chopped green chilies, minced ginger and curry leaves. Add the vegetables
and onions. Add salt and sugar and cook the vegetables till done (about 5 min) on a low flame. (Don’t overcook or brown them)Add chopped tomatoes and cook till soft. Add water and bring it to a boil. Lower the flame and to the boiling water slowly stir the cream of wheat in and cook. (to avoid lump formation, add cream of wheat to the boling water very slowly from a cup while stirring the water constantly with a spoon). When the water content begins to reduce lower the flame and cook under cover for 5 minutes. Before serving garnish with coriander leaves.

Servings : 2
Cooking time: 15-30 Min

Upma can be made in different variations, according to the availability of vegetables. All the variations are tasty and have their own different taste. · Use just onions, without any other vegetables or tomatoes (this is just Upma)· Use Onions and Tomatoes (this is called Tomato Upma)· Those who don’t like onions can avoid onions and use combination of other vegetables. You can experiment with the mix of your favorite vegetables (well may be not Broccoli). Curry leaves is the key ingredient to get authentic flavor but Upma still tastes good without

Tomato Rice (Spanish)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil ( I use 1 tbsp, it tastes the same yummy)
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 garlic clove minced
1 tsp ginger minced - optional
1 red or green chili - optional
2 cups of long-grain white rice or Basmati or Jasmine rice
3 cups vegetable stock or water ( amount of water depends on the kind of rice being used)
Half cup freshly cut tomatoes and 1 cup cooked and pureed tomatoes (or) 1 cup freshly cut tomatoes (or) 1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste or
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp cilantro chopped
Salt to taste (more or less 2 tsp)

Method

1) Heat oil in a large pan. Cook the onion until softened. Add garlic, ginger and chili and stir through for 1 minute. Add rice to the skillet and cook onion rice mixture, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes or until the rice is starting to become brown.
2) In a separate sauce pan bring vegetable stock or water to a simmer. Add tomato puree and/or fresh cut tomatoes, half of the cilantro, brown sugar and salt. Add rice to broth. Bring to a simmer. Cover. Lower heat and cook 15-25 minutes, depending on the type of rice and the instructions on the rice package. Turn off heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Fluff and sprinkle rest of the cilantro and serve.

Coconut Rice

Ingredients:
3 cups Basmati or any fine rice
1 large fresh Coconut (grated) (or 1 can of coconut milk)
3 tbsp. ghee (or oil)
1 large onion (Finely sliced)
2 green chilies (or to taste)
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
½ cups finely cut coriander (cilantro) leaves
2.5 tsp salt (or to taste)
½ cup cashews
Serves 6
Method:
Grate the coconut, soak in three cups boiling water and when look warm, pass through a blender and strain the juice. (Or use 1 can of coconut milk)
Soak the rice for half an hour.
Heat ghee and fry cashews and keep aside. In this ghee fry the onion few minutes till transparent. Add ginger garlic paste and fry till golden brown. To this mixture add chilies and rice fry for 5 minutes. Add coriander leaves, coconut milk, water and salt. Cook in the rice cooker or till done. Garnish with cashews.

This rice can be made with vegetables like potatoes and green peas and/or carrots.

7 Layer Burfi

Ingredients:
1 cup besan
1 cup oil
1 cup coconut powder
3 cups sugar
1 cup milk
1 pinch baking powder

Method:

Mix every thing together and cook

Ricotta Burfi

Ingredients:
15 oz Ricotta cheese
3/4 cup milk powder
1 cup sugar
4 tsp ghee
4 cardamoms powdered

Method:
Mix all the ingredients and cook on medium high heat for 10 min and on medium heat for another 5 min. Pour this mixture over a greased pan and let it cool. Cut into pieces and serve.

Mango Pie

Ingredients:

1 can - Mango pulp
8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
8 oz Cool whip
3 packets unflavoured gelatin
1 cup sugar
3 cups water

Method:
Boil water, stir galatin into hot water carefully and mix well to dissolve all the lumps. Blend together cream cheese, mango pulp, sugar and cool whip while slowly adding gelatin water mix. Pour this mixture over pie base and refrigerate for 6 hours or un til done.

Pie base is not necessary, I refrigerate this mixture as it is in a pie plate. It tastes yummy wtihout pie crumbs.

Ginger Chutney

Ingredients:
50gms ginger
4 green chilles
Small lemon sized (table spoon) tamarind soaked in hot water
2tbsp Jaggery
2 cloves of garlic
Few sprigs of Coriander Salt to taste (try 1 teaspoon, then add as needed)

(To me the above measurements are a bit hard to remember and confusing when I actually start preparing in the kitchen so I just take approximately equal amounts of ginger , tamarind, chillies, jaggery and use the other ingredients to taste. For me this way works great.)
Method:
Grind all of the above ingredients till smooth.
Garnish with (not needed as the chutney tasted good without garnishment):Half spoon of each of these: mustard, urad daal, garlic, curry leaves, small pinch of Hing (asafetida), all together roasted in small amount of oil.

This chutney goes well with any Rice dish, Idli, Dosa, Upma or any snack items like pakoda, Vada etc. and also tastes excellent as bread spread. If you want to store chutney for more than a week, make sure chillies and ginger are dried off after washing, use hot water for tamarind and do not add coriander when grinding, instead add fresh to small amounts of chutney when you use. If prepared this way, chutney can be refrigerated for 3 -6 months.

Groundnut (Peanut) Chutney

Ingredients:
1 Cup dry roasted Groundnuts1 green chilli (or to taste)
1 spoon of tamarind (raw soaked in water or paste) (can replace with lemon, gives different taste)
2 teaspoons dry coconut grated
2 cloves of garlic
1 spoon of cumin (roasted or not roasted o.k.) seeds
2 stems of coriander
4-5 Curry leaves Salt to taste (1 spoon or less)
¾ to 1 cup water (to the consistency you like)
Method:
Grind/blend all of the above ingredients in mixer/grinder.
(Garnishing with garlic, curry leaves etc. in heated oil is the normal way). But for the times we are living in, using less oil in the dishes wherever possible makes sense. So just grind all the garnishment ingredients with the chutney and it tastes as good.

This chutney goes well with Idli, Dosa, Upma and any snack items like pakoda, vada etc.

Carrot Lemon Rice

Ingredients:
Rice 1 cup (measurement before cooked)2.5 to 3 table spoons Lemon juice, freshly extracted
¾ cup Grated Carrots2 Green Chilies - Cut the length wise.
3 Red chilies1 tbsp Ginger finely chopped
1/4 tbsp Turmeric Powder1 ½ spoon salt (or to taste).
For Seasoning
1/2 tbsp Mustard1 tbsp Chana Daal
1 tbsp urad daal
2 tbsp groundnutsa pinch of asafetida
Few curry leaves2 tbsp oil

Method
Boil the rice with less water (than normal) so that the grains are separable from each other and allow it to cool in a wide bowl or a basin.
Add salt to the lemon juice.
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard, chana daal, urad daal, groundnuts, red chilies and fry just a little, then add green chilies and ginger and fry till daal and nuts become golden brown, now add curry leaves, and then grated carrots and asafetida fry few more seconds and remove from heat. (Basically fry all the ingredients so that they give out nice aroma and not over fried).
Pour this seasoning mixture over rice, and then add turmeric, lemon juice + salt mixture and sugar.
Mix well with a wide flat spoon (or hand) until it is evenly mixed and serve.

Lemon Rice

Ingredients:
Rice 1 cup (measurement before cooked)Lemon juice – 2 table spoons freshly extracted2 Green Chilies - Cut the length wise.
3 Red chilies1 tbsp Ginger finely chopped
1/4 tbsp Turmeric Powder1 ½ spoon salt (or to taste).
1 spoon sugar
For Seasoning
1/2 tbsp Mustard1 tbsp Chana Daal
1 tbsp urad daal
2 tbsp groundnutsa pinch of asafetida
Few curry leaves2 tbsp oil

Method

Boil the rice with less water (than normal) so that the grains are separable from each other and allow it to cool in a wide bowl or a basin.
Add salt to the lemon juice.
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard, chana daal, urad daal, groundnuts, red chilies and fry just a little, then add green chilies and ginger and fry till daal and nuts become golden brown, now add curry leaves and asafetida fry few more seconds and remove from heat. (Basically fry all the ingredients so that they give out nice aroma and not over fried).
Pour this seasoning mixture over rice, and then add turmeric, lemon juice + salt mixture and sugar.
Mix well with a wide flat spoon (or hand) until it is evenly mixed and serve.

Can be served with Papad. Also, goes well with potato curry, vegetable raita (vegetable and yogurt/curd salad) or spicy chicken curry.

Pongal

Ingredients:
1 cup - raw rice (do not need Basmathi rice for this item)1/3 cup - Green gram daal (split Moong daal)
½ cup milk (optional)
1 tsp - black pepper
1 ½ tsp - cumin seeds
1 tbsp - broken cashew nuts
1 tbsp - finely cut ginger (optional)a few curry leaves
1 tbsp – ghee (use oil if fat conscious, flavor is good with ghee)
5 cups - water
salt to taste

Method
1. Wash rice and daal and cook them together with water and salt in pressure cooker for15min - or until 4 whistles (Indian pressure cookers).
2. Add half a cup of boiled hot milk to the cooked rice-daal mixture.
3. Sautee ginger, cashew nuts, pepper, cumin seeds in ghee till light brown, add curry leaves and fry few more seconds.
4. Pour this spice mixture over the rice-dal mixture.
5. Mix well and serve steaming hot with sambaar, coconut chutney, or ginger chutney. Pongal tastes good by itself.

Ravva Laddu

Ingredients
Makes - 10 Laddoos of normal size
Rava / Semolina - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - 25 gms
Milk - 25 ml
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Cashew nuts - 10 whole nuts
Raisins - 10 nos
Grated fresh coconut - 25 gms

Method

• Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a kadai. Once the ghee is hot enough, simmer the flame and roast cashew nuts and raisins.
• Once the raisins balloon up, remove. Then roast the grated coconut.
• Remove once done. Keep all these aside. Add the remaining ghee and roast the Rava till its well roasted and aroma starts coming out.
• In a bowl, take all the roasted Rava, Nuts, Coconut and add the Cardamom powder. Then add the sugar. Mix well.
• Then slowly add the warm milk into the bowl. Check if you are able to gather as balls.
• When you find that milk added is enough to get you laddos, transfer it back to the kadai and cook in sim for 2 mins. Mix well and then cover it and let it rest for 2 mins.
  Notes: This step may be unnecessary since it forms perfect balls at the get go and even without following this step it comes out well.
• Then immediately make balls or laddus.

Notes:
While roasting the Ravva, make sure you set the stove in low-medium heat, or else there is a chance of the ravva getting over roasted.
Its enough to add only the required amount of milk to get you form balls. Depending on the ravva and the sugar at times we may not use all the 25 gms
Since we add milk, its best to consume within 5 days of making them. If you store them in fridge, you can have them for a week.