Adai -Savory Lentil Pancakes

This is not everyday food. I will start by saying that if your hand is shy of dropping oil on the tava, please do not try this. Not that it cant be made with less oil, but the taste is certainly different.  This uses less rice and more lentils, so might be a good change for people looking out for dishes with more protein than carbohydrates. My mother makes the best adai in town and this is her recipe. I just cut down the number of  red chillies that go in.

Serves 4

Preparation time - 10 minutes
Soaking time - 4-6 hrs
Cooking time - 4 minutes each

Ingredients:
TO SOAK
Rice - 3/4 cup
Channa Dal - 1/2 cup
Toor Dal - 1/4+1/8 cup
Moong Dal - handful (optional)
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Red chili - 4 (to taste)

Curry leaf - few
Oil - 1 Tbsp each
Salt to taste

- Wash and soak the ingredients under TO SOAK list for minimum 4 hours to overnight.
- Grind the soaked ingredients with little water to a coarse paste. The mixture should be coarse, a smooth adai loses points.
- Add salt and chopped curry leaves to the mixture. Let it sit for minimum 10 minutes before proceeding. There is no necessity for fermentation here.
- Heat a tava, iron tava works best as high heat is needed. Spray the tava with oil. (I have a cheesecloth tied to a potato masher, and I wet the cloth with oil and rub the cloth over the hot tava.
- Take a ladle full of the adai mixture and pour it on the hot tava. Now spread it as much as you can. Make a hole in the center with your ladle. Pour 1 tsp oil in the centre. Pour 1 tsp oil all around the edges. Let it cook for a minute in high heat. Reduce the flame to medium and cook for another minute. Turn over the adai and let it cook for 2 minutes more
- Take it out of the tava on to the plate. Have it hot with sambar / tomato sambar / coconut chutney / Ghee / Jaggery

Carrot halwa

This was the first dessert I prepared and it turned out well on the first attempt. I was a novice in the kitchen arena then, still this was one easy dessert to prepare. You cant go wrong with this one. The ingredients are few and a little less or more of any of the ingredients does not change the outcome drastically.

Serves - 4
Preparation time - 10 min (To grate the carrots)
Cooking time - 25 min

Ingredients:
Grated Carrot - 1 1/2 cups packed
Milk - 1 cup ( I used 3% fat milk)
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom powder / cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
Ghee / Oil - 1 Tbsp

Steps:
1. Grate the carrots.
2. Heat 1/2 Tbsp oil in a non stick pan and add the grated carrots. Stir for 2 minutes in medium flame.

3. Add 1/2 cup of milk and increase the heat and cook with the lid open till the milk is absorbed, say 5 minutes.

4. Add the remaining milk and reduce the flame to medium low and cover the pan and let it cook for 7 - 10 minutes.
5. The milk must now be absorbed, if not give it another 2 minutes with the lid open.
6. Add the sugar, stir it and cover it to cook till the mixture comes together. If there is little liquid remaining, do not worry, it is absorbed when the halwa cools down.

7. Do not overcook. If the sugar is overcooked, halwa will harden.

Coconut chutney

I feel if there is a dish any south Indian knows to cook, it must be coconut chutney. It is really simple to make, does not involve many spices, and is yummmy. But I have to say, the best chutney is what my father makes. Even my hubby and my MIL agree with me.

Serves - 4
Preparation time - 5 minutes
Cooking time - 2 minutes (optional)

Ingredients:
Coconut - 1/4 coconut ~ 3 Tbsp
Green chili - 2 -3 (to taste)
Pottukadalai (Roasted bengal gram / fried gram) - 2 Tbsp
Salt

Optional:
Garlic - 1 clove
Coriander leaves - 2 sprigs
Shallot - 1

Tempering:
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - few chopped
Oil - 1 tsp

1. Grind all ingredients with water for desired consistency.
2. Heat oil in a tadka / tempering pan and pour the tadka over the chutney.
Serve with idli / dosa / upma / adai

Chicken Curry - I

There are so many ways to make chicken curry, keeping a note of them is a difficult task. And I am the kind of person, who can never ever stick to a recipe. I cant help but change something either out of laziness, which happens more often or out of curiosity to see what happens because of the change. There are very few recipes which I make without changes. Then I cook like an automated cooking machine running an automated script to cook.This is one recipe which I run on script. It does have a list of ingredients and might sound like a lot of work, but after making it you will realise, it was quite simple once you have put the ingredients together.

Serves - 2

Preparation time - 5 minutes + 15 minutes to wait

Cooking time - 20 minutes

Here is what I used:

Chicken - 300 grams

To Grind:

Onion - 1 Large

Tomato - 1 medium

Coconut - 1 1/2 Tbsp

Roasted Channa Dal - powdered / Besan /All purpose flour(Maida) - 1 Tbsp

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp (fresh is best)

Chicken masala - 1 tbsp

or

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Chili powder - 1 tsp (to taste)

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp 

Oil - 2 Tbsp (roughly 25 ml)

salt - to taste

Coriander leaves for garnish

Steps:

1. Grind everything under To Grind section to a not so fine paste. Mix it with the chicken and let it sit for 15 minutes or more.

2. Heat the oil in a kadai or a pressure cooker, add the cumin seeds to sizzle and then add the chicken mixture.

3. Stir fry for 5 minutes, then add water and salt.

4. Cover it with a lid. If using a pressure cooker, turn off the heat after 2 whistles. If using a kadai, cook for 10-12 minutes or till the chicken is well cooked.

This chicken curry goes well with steamed rice and chapati.

Franco Indian Toast

I know, the name sounds funny. English Indian is called Anglo Indian, so I am hoping French Indian should be Franco Indian. Anyway, this is nothing as fancy or as crazy as the name suggests. It is simply French Toast the Indian way. You can make it as hot and spicy as you want or without any chillies. I feel there is no fun when there is no spice(barring a few favorites, ofcourse)

Serves - 2
Preparation time : 7 minutes
Cooking time: < 10 minutes
Here is what I used:
Bread slices - 4
Eggs- 2. If the egg size is small, make it 3.
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Coriander - a handful maybe, finely chopped

Green chillies - finely chopped (optional)
Red chili sauce - 1 -1 1/2 tsp per slice according to taste
Milk - 1 Tbsp per egg
Sugar (optional) - to taste

There are exactly no instructions to mention here. Just beat the eggs with salt, milk and sugar if using. Dip the bread slices in the egg mixture in a way, bread is covered nicely and egg mixture is dripping from it. Now add the sauce and seasoning and throw it on a hot skillet or tava. Garnish with onion, green chili, coriander leaves and cook it on both sides till crispy. Remove from heat and relish.

Vermicelli / Sameya Upma

This is one of the breakfast foods that all of us are fond of. It takes no time at all to make and is indeed filling and we dont have a need to grab a bite before lunch time. Finely chopped veggies like beans, carrots, cabbage, peas, cauliflower can be added to make it more fulsome.

Serves - 3
Preparation time - 5 min
Cooking time - 12 min

Ingredients:

Vermicelli - 200 grams (Roasted vermicelli works best)
Onion - 1 medium onion chopped
Green chili - 2 or to taste
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp (optional)
Curry leaf - few
Salt - to taste
 Water

How to:
- Heat a pan and pour the oil. Keep the flame high. Once the oil is hot add the mustard seeds. Let it splutter and add the urad dal and curry leaf. Once the dal is browned, add the green chili and onion.
- Saute onion till it turns translucent. Add the roasted vermicelli and salt and saute for 1 min on low flame. Take care not to burn the vermicelli.
- Add enough water so that all the vermicelli is soaked and increase the flame to high and cover the pan. After 3 minutes, reduce the flame to medium low and let it cook for another 3-4 mins. Switch off and let it rest for a minute or two before serving.

Best served with coconut chutney / onion chutney / pickle & curd / tomato thokku.

I have served this with tomato thokku and coriander thokku.

Niramish Jhol

This is a bengali staple food. My mother in law insists this is a comfort food and a health food and I agree completely. If you are not feeling well especially for stomach issues, this Jhol should help you bounce back to your normal self. It has a lot of vegetables and has jeera, turmeric, coriander. You can choose any number of vegetables for this, but potatoes and brinjal are recommended.

Here I have used potatoes, brinjal, squash, cabbage and potol.

Serves 2
Preparation time : 10 min
Cooking time : 15 min

Ingredients :

Vegetables of your choice - 250 grams
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Green chili - 1-2
Chili powder - to taste (if you want it hot - optional). I have not used it.
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 1/2 Tbsp
Salt - to taste

Steps:
1. Clean and cut all the vegetables into equal sized pieces.
2. Heat the oil in a kadai or saucepan, add the vegetables and stir them so that the oil is coated. (Add the vegetables one by one keeping in mind their cooking times. For example, potol takes long time to cook and cabbage the least. So, potol goes in first and cabbage the last after 3 minutes)
3. Add salt and stir fry for 5 minutes, till vegetables turn tender.
4. Now add all the powders except cumin powder and add a cup of water. Boil for another 5 minutes
5. Add Cumin powder and boil for another 5 minutes or so when the jhol reaches desired consistency and vegetables are well cooked.(Recommended consistency is jhol should be runny)