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.