Carrot halwa

Ingredients

1. Carrots - 1/2 kg
2. Milk - 1/2 litre
3. Sugar - As per the taste
4. Cardamom pods - 3
5. Ghee - 3 tbsp
6. Cashew nuts and almonds (To garnish)

Method:

• Roast the cashew nuts and set aside
• Peel the skin of carrot and grate
• Mix the grated carrot and sugar 
• Melt the ghee in a frying pan on medium heat.
• Add the carrot mixture and stir fry until the sugar syrup evaporates completely
• Add the milk and cook until the milk dries
• Crush the cardamom pods into powder and add to the halwa 
• Garnish with cashew nuts and almonds

vazhakkai(Raw Banana or Plantain) podimas

Preparation time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Raw Banana(Plantain) - 2
Coconut(Grated) - 5 tbsp
Oil
Mustard - 1 tsp
Chana dal -3/4 tsp
Green chillies -2 finely chopped
Ginger - 1/4th inch
Curry leaves -few
Hing - a pinch
Salt - as per the taste

Coriander leaves for garnishing


Method

• Pressure cook plantain for just 1 whistle with the skin, check it should not overcook
• After it cools, peel off the skin and smash it into small pieces
• Heat oil, add mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and saute for a few minutes
• Then add green chillies, ginger, salt
• Keep the flame low, add the grated plantain and fry for 2 minutes, if required add oil
• Now add the grated coconut, mix well
• Switch off the flame and garnish with coriander leaves, the healthy Podimas is ready.

Curd rice

Curd rice

Ingredients:

1 Cup Boiled Rice
2 cups of plain yogurt (Curd)
2 Tbsp Oil
1/4 cup milk
Finely chopped coriander leaves
1-2 green chilies
1 tsp. chana daal
1 tsp. urad daal
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp. finely chopped ginger
2 Tbsp desiccated coconut
1/2 tsp. salt

How to make curd rice:

• In a saucepan heat 2 tablespoonful of oil.
• Add mustard seeds to the oil.
• When the mustard seeds start popping add chana and urad daal.
• After a minute, add in the ginger, coriander and green chilies.
• Sauté them for a minute.
• Take the pan off the gas. Add in the rice.
• Mix the salt and desiccated coconut.
• Just before serving, mix all the ingredients with yogurt (curd) and milk. Curd rice is ready to be served.

CARROT RICE RECIPE

CARROT RICE RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 cup rice
2 onion
5 carrots

Cashew nuts
2 tsp oil
a small piece of cinnamon
1 tsp broken block gram
2 nos cloves
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp bengal gram
a few sprigs curry leaves
Salt as per taste

For Masala:

1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
3/4 tsp cumin seeds

Roasted Cashew nuts
4 nos red chillies

How to make carrot rice:

• Heat the pan, pour the 1 tsp oil. Add red chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and fry till it turns brown.
• Cook the rice and let it cool.
• Put the carrots in warm water. Grate it without peeling the skin.
• Heat oil in a pan. Add cloves, cinnamon, mustard, broken block gram and Bengal gram. Fry them.
• Add curry leaves and chopped onions. Once the onion is cooked, add the grated carrots. Fry till the carrots are cooked.
• Add Roasted Cashew nuts and remove from the heat. Grind it after it cools down.
• Add rice and fry in a low flame. Add salt and the ground masala powder. Mix it well with the rice.
• Serve hot.

Jeera rasam or Jeeraga rasam

Ingredients:

1. Tomoto:1
2. Corainder seeds: 1/2tbsp
3. Toor dal: 1 tbsp
4. Pepper: 1 tbsp
5. Jeera: 1 tbsp
6. Curry leaves: 4 stems
7. Red chillies :3
8. Tamarind
9. Hing
10. Turmeric

Method:

• Soak the tamarind in luke warm water for 15-20 minutes.

• Squeeze it well and get the extract and keep it aside 
• Soak the dal, pepper, chillies, cumin seeds, curry leaves, tomoto for around 30 mins.
• Blend these ingredients to fine paste.
  Now transfer the tamarind juice to a small pan and boil it till the raw smell of the tamarind goes away.
• Add salt, hing, tumeric to this and boil.
  Now reduce the flame, add the above rasam paste and let it cook in a low flame for 5 to 10 mins.
• Heat Ghee/Oil in a pan.
• Add mustard seeds and when it crackles add the cumin seeds, add this into the prepared rasam

Vella Payar (Sweet cowpeas)

Ingredients

1. Cowpeas or Alasandulu: 1 cup 
2. Jaggery : 3/4 cup
3. Cardamom : 2 (Crush into powder)
4. Freshly grated coconut: 1/4th cup

Method

• Wash and soak the peas in enough water overnight.
• Pressure cook the peas and it should be cooked very soft (Otherwise they will harden when put in the jaggery syrup)
  Melt the jaggery in one cup of water, strain to remove all the impurities.
• Pour the strained syrup along with the cardomom powder in a wide, thick bottomed pan and heat to make a soft syrup.
• Add the coconut gratings and cooked peas.
• Keep stirring until all the moisture is absorbed. Remove from heat.

Offer this as Nevedyam, a special sweet made especially during Navarathri or Dasara...

Roasted Makhana Recipe

Ingredients: 

1. 2 tbsp ghee or oil
2. Red chilli powder
3. Black salt or rock salt (or use regular salt)
4. Makhana

Method:

• In a kadai, heat the ghee over a medium flame.
• When it melts, add makhana and roast it for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Add red chilli powder and salt.

Store in air tight containers and enjoy as a snack!

NOTE:

If you are fasting do not add Chilli and salt just roast Makhana in ghee and have.

Gongura or Red lentil rice

Ingredients:

For rice:

1. Basmati rice – 2 cups
2. Turmeric – ½ tbsp
3. Salt – as per the taste

For powder:

1. Curry leaves – 10 to 15
2. Red sorrel leaves – 2 cups(washed)
3. Mustard seeds – 1 tbsp
4. Methi seeds – 1 tbsp
5. Black Till – ½ cup
6. Red chilies – 7

For tempering:

1. Channa dal
2. Urad dal
3. Mustard seeds
4. Cumin seeds
5. Green chillis slit length wise
6. Hing
7. Peanuts
8. Oil

Method:

• Sprinkle turmeric pwd, salt, a tbsp of oil to the cooked rice and keep aside.

• Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, methi seeds, curry leaves and dry red chillis and roast over slow flame till the methi turns red. Do not burn them nor under roast them.

• Add Till and roast, then remove from pan and cool.

• In the same pan, add oil, add the red sorrel leaves and roast them on low flame till they lose their rawness. Remove from heat and cool.

• Grind the roasted mixture to a coarse powder and then add the cooled red sorrel leaves and grind them together to a fine paste. Do not add water. Remove and keep aside.

• Heat the remaining oil in a cooking vessel, add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. Addcumin seeds, peanuts, channa dal, urad dal and fry for a minute till light brown. Next add the slit green chillis, asafoetida and few curry leaves and fry for a few seconds.

• Add this tempering along with red sorrel leaves to the cooled rice and combine well such that its spread all over the rice and add salt. 
• Finally add coriander leaves.

Mooli Paratha

Preparation time: 60 mts

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

For stuffing

• Mooli(Radish) – 4
• Green chillies – 2
• Garam masala – 1/4^th tbsp
• Salt – as per the taste
• Coriander leaves
• For making Chapati dough
• Wheat flour
• Salt
• Oil

Method:

1. Add some salt to the wheat flour and add water and knead it to stiff dough.
2. Add some oil and knead for 5-10 mins, cover and keep aside.
3. Peel the skin of the radish and grate it.
4. Squeeze and drain all the water.
5. Add salt, red Garam masala, green chillies, corainder leaves to the grated radish and mix well.
6. Heat the pan and fry the radish, until it loses the raw smell and becomes dry
7. Make small balls of the dough
8. Roll it into small circular poori and put stuffing and cover all the sides
9. Roll again into a thick, round paratha
10. Repeat the process for all the balls remaining.
11. Heat a tava and fry paratha both sides to brown. Put some oil over the paratha if required
12. Serve the mooli paratha hot with raita or curry.