Idli

This is the most common break fast in many houses in south India.

It is having both dal and rice in it so its prefect and a light dish.

Preparation time : 15mins + 1 day
Makes : 30 idli's approx.

Ingredients :

Urad dal : 1 cup
Idli Ravva : 2 1/2 cups if you are using mixi and 3 if you are using wet grinder.
(Urad dal : rice --> 1 : 3 or 1 : 2 1/2)
Sago (or) Sabudana : 3 tbsp (optional)
Poha : 3 tbsp (optional)
Salt to taste

Method :

Soak urad dal, sago and poha in plenty of water over night or for minimum of 6 hours.
Soak Ravva separately for minimum of 2 hours.
Sago and poha will give nice white, smooth and spongy idli's.

Add soaked urad dal mixture to grinder.
Grind them into a very fine paste by adding little by little water.
If you are using wet grinder you can do the entire grinding in 20 mins but if you are using mixi then do grinding it for 5 mins and leave it for 15 mins and again grind it for 5 min and so on ............ do it like that for 4 to 5 times.
If you do like this your mixi will not become hot and will not go wrong.
Take entire batter to a bowl with your hand,mix soaked ravva in this, cover it with lid and keep it in warm place.
[If you use your hand to take it into bowl then it will ferment nicely, i don't know what is the reason may be some chemicals from hand will go in  ;) ]
Leave batter to ferment over night or for a minimum of 12 hours.
(If climate is cold then don't leave batter outside, keep it in a dark , warm place like shelves or oven(off mode only) then it ferments good )
So if you want idli next day morning, then soak today morning , grind in the evening and ferment in night.
After fermentation the batter will looks to be double in quantity , mix it once with spatula and add salt.
Add salt only to the quantity that you are going to use, don't mix salt in entire batter.
Pour batter in idli moulds and steam cook them for 15 to 20 mins.
Apply ghee on them, cool a little bit for 5 mins or so.
Serve them with chutney.

Drumstick curry - 1

If you like the flavour of drumsticks then you will love this curry.

Preparation time : 20 mins
Serves : 2

Ingredients :

Drumsticks : 4
Onions : 2
Tomatoes : 3
Chilli powder : to taste
Salt : to taste
For tempering :
Urad dal : 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds : 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp

Method :

Heat a pan , add 1 tsp of oil , add tempering ingredients, saute them.
Add all other ingredients at once -- chopped onion, chopped tomato, cut drumsticks, salt, chili powder.
The quantity of onions and tomatoes should be same , then curry tastes good.
Mix them, Cover them with a lid (you need to take a shallow lid) and pour water on that lid.
If you do this way the vapour will not go out , it will fall in side again and the curry is cooked with that water and tastes great.
Cook it like that for 15 to 20 mins , mixing in between once or twice.
Check for seasoning and consistency.
Serve hot with rice or roti.

Raw rasam

This is the one which you can prepare in no time and it is tasty too ......

We call this as "Pacchi pulusu" in Telugu.

Preparation time : 5 mins
Serves : 2

Ingredients :

Onion : 1/2
Green chillis : 3
Sesame seeds : 3tbsp
Tamarind pulp : 5 tbsp
Water : 2 cups
Coriander leaves : 2 tbsp
For tampering :
Urad dal : 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds : 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves : 1 spring
Red chili's : 2

Method :

Fire roast chili's -- you need to make a slit for chili's before roasting other wise they will explode, crush them.
Take a bowl add these crushed chili's and chopped onions, mix them with hand.
Add in tamarind juice , water , 1tsp of sugar , freshly chopped coriander leaves.
Everything is to taste , all ingredients listed are approximate measures.
Prepare tampering - Heat a pan , add 1tsp oil, add in ingredients listed for tampering , saute them little bit.
Add tampering  and dry roasted sesame seed powder into bowl mix it.
In my picture , some of my sesame seeds are not powdered well , so you can see whole seeds :)
Check for seasoning -- A must fallow step.
Serve it with dal rice or simply with rice.

Potato - onion curry

Preraration time : 20 mins
Serves : 2

Ingredients :

Potatoes : 1
Onions : 2
Green peas : hand full
Coriander leaves : 2 tbsp
For tampering :
Urad dal : 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds : 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp
Green chili's : 2
Curry leaves : one spring

Method :

Heat a pan , add 1tsp oil , when hot add ingredients listed for tampering one by one.
Add sliced onions and Saute them till they are done.
Now add cubed potatoes , green peas , salt cover and cook for 10 mins stirring in between.
If it is not done sprinkle little water , cover and cook for some more time.
When done mash some potatoes with spatula to get gravy texture.
Add little water for your desired consistency.
Check for seasoning.
Sprinkle freshly chopped coriander leaves.
Serve with any tiffin ...

Masala Dosa

Preparation time : 10mins + 1 day
Makes : 20 dosa's approx.

Ingredients :

Urad dal : 1/2  cup
Raw Rice : 1 1/2 cups
(Urad dal : rice --> 1 : 3)
Methi seeds or Fenugreek seeds : 1 or 2 pinch
Chana dal : 2 or 3 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method :

Soak all the ingredients except salt in plenty of water over night or for minimum of 6 hours.

Methi seeds will give flavour for your dosa where as chana dal will give a nice colour to your dosa.

Strain and save that water for further use.

Add soaked ingredients to grinder.
Grind them into a very fine paste by adding little by little of  that saved water.
If you are using wet grinder you can do the entire grinding in 20 mins but if you are using mixi then do grinding it for 5 mins and leave it for 15 mins and again grind it for 5 min and so on ............ do it like that for 4 to 5 times.
If you do like this your mixi will not become hot and will not go wrong.
Take entire dosa batter to a bowl with your hand, cover it with lid and keep it in warm place.
[If you use your hand to take it into bowl then it will ferment nicely, i don't know what is the reason may be some chemicals from hand will go in  ;) ]
Leave batter to ferment over night or for a minimum of 12 hours.

(If climate is cold then don't leave batter outside, keep it in a dark , warm place like shelves or oven(off mode only) then it ferments good )

So if you want dosa next day morning, then soak today morning , grind in the evening and ferment in night.

After fermentation the batter will looks to be double in quantity , mix it once with spatula and add salt.
Take a pan heat it , put a ladle full of batter at centre and make dosa by rotating the ladle from middle to end of the pan in a circular motion.
Turn it to the other side.
Serve it with chutney or curry.

If you want cone dosa then after you make dosa run your knife from center to the end -- a stright line , when dosa is done lift dosa at end of the cut that we made and rotate it in to form a cone shape.

Lemon dal

Preparation time : 30 mins
Serves : 2

Ingredients :

Toor dal : 5 tbsp
Salt to taste
Lemon juice : 2 tbsp
Coriander leaves : 2 tbsp
for tampering :
Mustard seeds : 1/2 tsp
Urad dal : 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp
Green chili's : 2
Turmeric : pinch
Curry leaves : 10
Garlic cloves : 6

Method :

Add toor dal and water ( 2cups approx) to pressure cooker and cook it till 2 whistles or until smooth.
Take a pan add 1tsp of oil.
When it is hot add the ingredients listed for tampering one by one and saute them a little bit.
Then add mashed cooked dal, lemon juice,salt.
(For more tasty dal if you have lemon pickle at home add 1tbsp of it)
Let it come to boil.
Add coriander leaves.
Serve it with rice or roti :)

Carrot Coconut curry

Preperation time : 20 mins
Serves : 2

Ingredients :

Carrots : 2
Grated Coconut : 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
For tampering :
Urad dal : 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds : 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves  : 10
Green chili's : 2

Method :

Heat a pan , add 1 tsp of oil.
Add ingredients listed in tampering one by one , saute them till they are brown.
Add in chopped carrots , salt , cover it with lid and cook it.
Add grated coconut, mix it.
Serve it with rice or roti.

Carrot Halwa

Preparation time :  15 mins
Cooking time : one hour
Serves : 6 persons

Ingredients :

Grated Carrots : 4 cups (or) 5 -6 big carrots approx...
Milk : 4 cups
Sugar : 1 cup
Ghee : 1 tbsp
Dry fruits : 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder : 1/4 tsp
Lemon juice or vinegar : few drops

Method :

Grate carrots using grater with bigger holes , if you grate them using smaller holes grater then entire thing will become like a paste and you can not get that texture.
Take a pan and heat it.
When it is hot add ghee , then add dry fruits and saute them till they are golden brown in colour.
Add carrots mix them well then add 2 cups of milk.
Let carrots to cook in milk -- it will take half an hour approx.
(If you don't have enough time you can add 1 and half cups of evoperated milk instead of milk)
Mean while take a pan and add remaining 2 cups of milk , once they come to boil add few drops of lemon juice or vinegar and let the milk to curdle (When you see clear water from milk take pan out from flame )
Strain the liquid , wash paneer with cold running water and hang it for further use. (You want all water to go out)
People will add khoa instead of paneer, you can use either of them. khoa is  made of either dried whole milk or milk thickened by heating in an open iron pan.
Even some people will use condensed milk too. 
Once that carrot and milk mixture thickens , add 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 tsp of cardamom powder.
Mix it till sugar melts and ghee starts to leave from the pan.
Add prepared paneer now and mix it well.
Carrot halwa is ready.
Cool it before serving.

Coconut jaggery laddu

This is called as "Bellam kobbarunda" in Telugu . 

One thing that we used to buy in our childhood when my mother used to give some pocket money to spend. Each laddu used to cost 25p or 50p -- based on size.

[And even we used to get one Asha chocolate with that 25 paisa coin :) :) ]

Sad that now Indian government banned 25p coin .........

Preparation time : 20 mins
Makes : 12

Ingredients :

Grated Coconut : 1cup
Jaggery : 1cup
Ghee : 1 tsp

Method :

If you are using dessicated coconut then you should keep that in warm water for at least 15mins and squeeze out the water.
If you are using freshly grated coconut then you can proceed straightaway.
Heat a pan, add 1/2 tsp of ghee  coconut and jaggery to it.
Keep stirring it until the Jaggery melts and becomes thin liquid. It gradually thickens. ( The indication is when  nothing sticks to the pan )
Take it off from flame. Let is cool for a bit just enough for you to be able to handle it and make laddus :).. Please note that it will very difficult to make laddus if it cools down completely. ( Something like strike the iron when it is hot :) )
Use remaining 1/2 tsp ghee now.
Apply ghee to your hand and make it into nice balls.
These laddus you can keep them out in a box and they will stay fresh for 10 to 15 days.
This is very good for kids -- because of the ingredients.

Potato Peels curry

Preparation time : 30  mins
Serves : 2

Ingredients :

Potatoes : 2 (Large size)
Khuskhus or poppy seeds : 1 tsp
Besan or gram flour : 2 to 3 tbsp
Salt : to taste
Chili powder : to taste

Method :

Peel the skin of potatoes first.
Then with peeler peel the entire potato and you will end up with potato peels.
Keep these peels in a bowl , add in the gram flour and mix it well.
Now take a pan , heat it , add 1 tbsp of oil.
Add poppy seeds saute of half min , then add salt and chili powder to pan .
Now add in Potato peels and mix well.
Cover them and cook for 10 to 15 mins mixing in between.
Then remove cover and cook for 15 more mins.
By this time they are well cooked and they will separate
( initially they stick to each other but after frying them they will separate )
If you feel they are too sticky you can add one more tbsp of oil while frying.
Serve them hot with rice.

Pakodi

If it is raining out side and you want to eat something hot...

This is the best snack.

It is called as "Gatti pakodi"  in Telugu.

My father loves this snack , especially when my mother in law prepares. 

She is a great cook and obviously i learnt this from her.

Preparation time : 15 to 30 mins
Serves : 2

Ingredients :

Onions : 2 medium
Besan or gram flour : 2 cups approx
Green chili's : 6
Garlic cloves : 3
Ginger : 3 " piece
Ajwain seeds : 1 tsp
Cumin seeds : 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Water : 1 cup approx...
Oil to deep fry

Method :

Cut the onions to long slices.
Heat oil to deep fry.
Grind ginger,garlic and green chili coarsely.
Take a bowl , Add flour , sliced onions , salt and 2 tbsp of very hot oil.
Mix all these very well.
Add in seeds and that coarsely grounded spices , Mix all together very well.
Check for taste.
Don't mix water to entire flour at once.
If you are frying them in batches then add water, only to flour that is enough for one batch.
One more thing is don't add too much water , just sprinkle water such that all ingredients stick together
( don't  form a dough with that )
Drop this in hot oil little by little .
If oil is too hot it gets color fast and does not cook inside.
If oil is not hot then pakoda's will absorb lot of oil.
Fry them till they are nice brown in color.
Take them out.
Crispy pakoda's are ready, Serve them hot..
You can have them directly or you can serve them with tomato ketchup.

One more great thing about this snack is it will stay fresh up to one week.