photo credit: Jayashree Govindarajan

Well who doesn’t know what sambar is? I had shared with you a quick sambar recipe for those who have less time to spend in the kitchen. However its Onam time, and spending some time in the kitchen is totally justified

Brinjal – 1 no (diced)
Drumstick – 1 no (cut into 2 inch pieces lengthwise)
Ladies Finger – 4-5 nos (cut into longish pieces)
Potato – 1 no (peeled and diced)
Carrot – 1 no (peeled and diced or sliced)
Tuar dal (yellow lentils) – 1 cup
Tamarind – size of a big lemon
Water- 4 cups
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Salt to taste
Asafoetida – ¼ tsp
Coconut Oil – 2 tbsp

For fresh Sambar masala
Husked gram dal (chana dal)- ¼ tsp
Fenugreek (methi) – ¼ tsp
Dry red chili – 4 nos
Coconut Oil – ½ tsp
Dry coriander seeds – ½ tsp

1. Fry all ingredients for sambar powder, cool, grind and keep aside
2. Wash dal and cook it with turmeric powder and 2-3 curry leaves
3. Mash tamarind in 1 cup water and strain to get tamarind water
4. Boil tamarind water with red chili powder, salt, curry leaves and asafetida
5. Add coconut oil when it boils and add all the vegetables except ladies finger as it cooks faster
6. Once the vegetables are done add the cooked dal and bring it to a boil and ladies finger
7. Add the prepared sambar masala and allow it to boil
8. Temper it with mustard seeds and dry red chilies
9. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves

* if you don’t like any of the vegetable used in this recipe, omit and use what you like instead! Onions, tomatoes, raddish anything!

Onam Asamsakkal!

For recipe click here

photo credit: David Davies

After Idli its dosa that a must eat specially when you are visiting South India.  With little bit of love and effort you can make it at home too! Given below is a recipe for plain dosa. If you planning to make masala dosa then make bhaaji and use it as filling. We have an outlet in Kochi which serves 57 varieties of dosas. You get my drift? All you need is to get creative and make your fillings – potatoes, beetroot, egg, chicken,mutton….anything! go crazy with your experiment!

Raw rice – 3 cups
Golden or par boiled rice – 1 cup
Black Gram daal – ¾ cup

Soak all together for atleast 3 hours and grind to a fine paste.
Add salt and leave it overnight to rise.
The final batter will be of medium consistency (neither thick nor watery)

1. Take a flat pan
2. Ladle out batter in the centre of the pan and swirl it around with the help of the ladle so that it takes a thin pan cake kind of form. Cook on medium flame
3. With a flat spatula overturn the dosa and let it cook on the other side on low flame
4. Serve hot with chutney and sambhar

Coconut Chutney

Coconut shaving – 1 cup
Tamarind – 1 pinch
Sugar – 1pinch
Ginger – ¼ inch piece
Green chilli – 1 No.
Salt to taste

For tempering

Mustard seeds – 1-2 tsp
Curry leaves – 2-4 leaves
Red chilli – 1 No.

1.    Grind all ingredients for the chutney in a mixer adding bit of water to a fine paste
2.    Temper the ingredients in a bit of oil and add to the ground chutney*

Till tomorrow….happy cooking!

*For those who are new to tempering here is what you need to do ….Oil + warm + mustard seeds + let it splutter + add curry leaves + red chilli and add to the chutney!

photo credit: avlxyz

This is my favorite all time food… I can have idlis for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yeh, thats how much i love them!During our stay in the North India….my mom used to be a official idli supplier to most of our north Indian and Punjabi neighbors! No kidding…you should have seen the amount of batter my mom used to ready in the huge electric grinder we had at home!

Though I know how to make the batter for Idlis, I play a little lazy. Now that I am staying in the south ready made batter is available, which I use. But for bigger families better option is to prepare the batter at home…Its much more viable.

Idli Recipe

Idli rice – 4 cups ; Raw rice – 1 cup
Black Gram dal – 1 cup

Batter
1.    Combine both rice and soak for 3 hrs
2.    Wash daal and soak separately
3.    Grind daal first. It comes out fluffy. Remove it into a container
4.    Now grind rice
5.    Mix both ground rice and daal. Add salt and leave it overnight to rise.
6.    Please note that the final batter should be of drooping consistency.

Making idlis
1.    Fill water in the water compartment
2.    Grease stand slightly with oil using your fingertips
3.    Place the batter into the greased idli stand ith the help of a spoon
4.    Steam it for 15-20 minutes
5.    Serve with Sambar

* you need idli stand / vessel to prepare idlis

Sambar Recipe

This is an easy recipe I learnt from my mother while I was working and hardly had time to cook!

Toor dal / Arhar dal (Yellow lentil) – 1 cup
Combination of vegetables (drumstick, lady’s finger, carrot, aubergine) – 1 cup
Onions – 2 medium (diced)
Tamarind water – 4 tbsp (soak small lemon sized tamarind ball in warm water and squeeze out juice after 10 minutes)
Tomato – 1 big (finely chopped)
*Sambar powder –2-3 tsp

For tempering
Asafoetida (heeng) – ½ tsp
Fenugreek seeds – 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1-2 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Red chili – 1 No.

1.    Pressure cook or boil Toor daal till soft and mushy.
2.    Add vegetables and onions to boiled dal and let it cook
3.    Add tomatoes when vegetable are half cooked
4.    Add salt and tamarind water
5.    When its starts boiling, add sambar powder
6.    Take a small pan and add 1 tsp oil. When warm add mustard seeds and wait till it splutters
7.    Add red chili, fenugreek seeds, Asafoetida,curry leaves and add to the main dal
8.    Garnish with Coriander leaves (optional)

Serve hot and steaming idlis with hot sambhar

*if you do not have sambar powder then take in a cup 1 tsp coriander powder + ½ tsp chili powder and add sufficient water to soak the masala. This is to be used in the last stage along with tempering and added on to main dal.

Till tomorrow….happy cooking!