Lunch Menu Series
Today, i have started this lunch menu series. In this series, i'm gonna share all types of lunch platter ideas and the combination that works together well. In each post, i'm planning to share 5 lunch menu ideas, so without much stories, let's jump to the series.
Lunch Menu -1
My favorite combo, often make them once in a week. Kootu Choru is such a healthy rice dish from Tiruneveli, with simple pachadi and/or vathal/appalam/Vadagam, it tastes absolutely delicious.

Lunch Menu - 2
Typical menu in our house, rice with sambar & any two side dishes and sweet.

Lunch Menu -3
Another typical menu in our home, for puli kizhambu, we prefer either paruppu or kootu as one of the side dish with another simple poriyal. And also i love to make masala vadai for puli kuzhambu sapadu, the combination taste so good. Since i have taken this pic on summer, mango was included.

Lunch Menu - 4
Again this is another favorite menu in our house, we love these combination.

Lunch Menu - 5
Rice with Rasam & Paruppu is the most comfort food and my favorite too. Guess i have picked all my favorite combo for the start of this series.

Rice with rasam
Paruppu(Cooked toor dal with basic tempering)
Aviyal

Thengai Pottukadalai Thuvaiyal, a delicious and quick to make thuvaiyal/thogayal from coconut and roasted chana dal. Next to coriander thogayal, this is my another favorite thuvaiyal, i love to have them with simple rice and rasam or you can have this as side dish for kootan soru( famous combination from our native.) or any variety like puliyodharai/lemon rice. Making thogayal using mixie/blender is a bit tricky, even a slight increase of water makes it as chutney instead of thogayal. After few initial trials, now i can make thick thogayal using mixie, the key is to add a tsp of water at a time to get the exact texture as using "Ammi"( a indian hand mortar & pestle ).Now let's checkout the recipe.

Thengai Pottukadalai Thuvaiyal

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Thuvaiyal | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Coconut - 1/4 cup
Pottukadalai/Split roast gram dal - 1/4 cup
Green Chili -1
Garlic - 1 pod
Tamarind - a pinch
Salt - to taste

Procedure

Take the coconut in the mixie/blender jar, add green chili, garlic and tamarind into the jar and run the mixie till it becomes coarse.

Now add the pottukadalai & salt in to jar and run the mixie till it all mix together.

Scrape the sides of the jar, add little water and run mixie till it comes together as thuvaiyal consistency.

Now Thuvaiyal/Thogayal is ready to serve.

Notes:

Adjust the green chili as per your taste.
Add little by little water to get perfect consistency.Else it became like chutney.

Mango Kulfi, a rich and creamy frozen summer delight made from the mango and thickened milk. Kulfi is a frozen milk dessert from India, now a days it comes with various flavor and this mango kulfi is one of the famous flavor across India. I had tasted kulfi(store bought) a few times in the past and really loved the creaminess and flavor. It's such a easy & creamy frozen dessert to make without any ice cream machine. Here in today's recipe, i have used kesar mango pulp available in the can, but you can use the fresh mangoes too, but may sure that they are sweet and has less fiber variety. Depends on the sweetness of the mango, you can add more or less of sugar as per your preference.

Though i make popsicle often in summer, i'm not a big fan of any frozen dessert or never once crave for them. Yep that's true, now i can imagine your facial expression while reading this line, it's hard to say it in the public, every time when i say "i don't like ice cream/popsicle", people has that confused look on their face, i can totally understand because i myself never seen any person who don't like ice cream/popsicle outside of my family. As a kid, me and my brother were very prone to colds and got sick often, just like any doctors, our doctor also suggested to avoid frozen dessert and our parents took it very religiously and keep us out of frozen dessert completely. After grew up, i found it too cold for my throat and it hurt, so i stopped having ice creams altogether . That's my story and ice creams!! Now a days I make all these frozen treats for ST only, he is a big frozen dessert lover, like all kind of ice creams and popsicles. I post here only after he approves and gives a big thumbs up !! and for this kulfi he did. Once it's melted, i too had few spoons, it's indeed delicious!!! So, now let's check out the recipe.

Mango Kulfi with Mango Pulp | Kulfi Recipe

Preparation Time : 6 hr | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 3
Recipe Category: Desserts | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Milk - 1 cup
Mango Pulp - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Cardamom -1
Pistachios - few (for garnishing)

Procedure

Heat the milk in a sauce pan, let it comes to boil.

Add sugar and keep the flame in low and let it simmer for 5 - 7 mins. By that time, the milk should be reduced to about the half.Switch off the flame.

Let it cool completely, then crush the cardamom seed and add into it. Next add the mango pulp into it and mix it well.

Pour the milk-mango mixture into the kulfi mold/any glass and cover it with foil paper.

Keep it in the freezer for 4-6 hrs/overnight. Next day, remove it from the freezer and peel the foil paper.

Keep it under running water for few secs and flip it on the any serving plate/bowl.

Yummy Mango Kulfi is ready.

Notes:

Adjust the sugar depends on the sweetness of the mango pulp.
Kulfi tends to melt very easily, so serve it immediately.
Cardamom here is optional, but i highly recommend.
Use full fat milk for richness and creaminess.
If you have popsicle stick, you can use them too,it will be more easy to unmold them.

Mullangi Sambar, a delicious south indian lentil stew made with radish as main ingredient. Mullangi sambar has unique flavor and taste because of the radish added into them and it's one of the favorite sambar in our home. Appa likes this sambar a lot compared to other sambar, so Amma makes this often for our lunch, but i didn't like this sambar when i was young because of its strong flavor. I had developed the taste for radish in recent times only, since lately, there is no turning back and i have often prepare this sambar on my own.
Recipe for this mullagai sambar is more or less similar to the mix veg sambar recipe that i had shared here with very little tweak here and there. In our home, we usually add coconut masala into the sambar, but if you don't have that habit, skip the coconut masala and add more sambar powder as per your liking. Now let's check out the recipe.

Mullangi Sambar with Coconut | Radish Sambar

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Serves : 2 to 3
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

Toor Dal- 1/4 cup

Mullangi/Radish -1/2 cup (sliced)
Drumstick - 5 (2 inch piece)

Pearl onion - 3 nos

Tomato -1(small)

Tamarind - small gooseberry size

Mustard - 1/4 tsp

Urad dal- 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Coriander leaves- few

Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt - to taste(about 1 1/2 tsp)

Red chili powder -1/2 tsp
Sambar Powder - 1 tsp(optional)

Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp

Water - to need.

Oil - 1 tsp

To grind

Grated coconut - 3 tbsp

Peal onion - 3 nos

Garlic pods-2(small)

Cumin seed- 1/2 tsp

Procedure

First cook the toor dal in pressure cooker along with asadoetida powder and keep it ready. Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup of water for 20 mins. Cut the radish into thin slices and tomato into cubes.

Heat the kadai with oil, add mustard and urad dal, let it splutter, then add the curry leaves. Next add the pearl onion, saute it for 1 mins, then add the radish & drumstick and saute for 2 mins.

Next add the tomatoes and tamarind juice extract from the soaked tamarind. Let it comes to boil.

Add all the spices(turmeric, chili & sambar powder) & salt. Let the veggies cook, in the mean time, grind the ingredients listed under "To grind" into smooth paste.

Once the veggies are well cooked, add the cooked toor dal and the coconut paste. Let it boil till the raw smell goes off. Finally add the coriander leaves and switch off the flame.

Tasty Mullangi Sambar is ready.

Notes:

Add more or less water as per your preferred consistency of sambar.
You can skip the sambar powder too and make this sambar.
For extra flavor, add a tsp of ghee in the end .
We like drumstick in our sambar, so i have added few, but you can skip that.

In the continuation of lunch menu series, here is the another 5 set of lunch platter that we often make them at home. If you haven't check out the previous post here is the link, do check out, it has some awesome lunch platter too.

Lunch Menu - 6
Mullangi sambar has unique taste and flavor compared to other sambar varieties, so in our home, we make sambar only with mullangi(raddish) often. So i have included that in my lunch series.

Lunch Menu -7
Another favorite lunch platter, vatha kuzhambu is our family favorite, not only it's tasty, it has medicinal properties that cures mild stomach disorders too.

Rice
Vatha Kuzhambu
Paruppu(cooked toor dal with basic tempering)
Mix veg Poriyal
Mango Slice

Lunch Menu - 8
Another favorite combo(Yeah, i know, keep on saying this for every menu :-)), often prepare it for lunch box too. Such a delicious combo from my native city,Tirunelveli

Lunch Menu -9
This combo is our go to menu for one day trip or any temple visit when we were in India. As the spices are all roasted and powdered fresh for this sambar, it stays good for longer time without get spoiled on high temperature too, so we often prefer this for road/train journey.Another typical Tirunelveli food.

Lunch Menu -10
Our typical ammavasai lunch menu. Appa has been observing this day ever since i have known and amma prepare this kind of lunch spread on every month without fail just like her MIL(my aachi). Usually it includes rice with puli/kara kulambu, katti paruppu, one poriyal, aviyal , one pachadi along with payasam and appalam.

Rice with puli Kulambu
Paruppu(cooked toor dal with basic tempering)
Pudalangai poriyal
Aviyal
Vendakkai Pachadi
Paruppu Payasam
Appalam

Egg Thokku, a simple and delicious accompaniment made from the boiled eggs. It can be served as side dish for all types of pulao, biryani, meals or even with chapati/roti too. It's one of our favorite way of eating eggs and it's good for lunch boxes too. If you have followed my instagram page , you might knew that how many times i have packed this egg masala for ST's lunch box. So far he never get bored of this and keep on asking for making them whenever possible. One time, i shared quick story on how to make this on my instagram page since few had requested and now here is the detailed post for this simple dish.

Now coming to the recipe, if you have boiled eggs in hand, within 10 mins, this muttai thokku will be ready. Take your time and saute the onions well, that will give that nice color & taste to this masala. Here in today's recipe, i have used curry masala powder since i was preparing as accompaniment for my mushroom biryani. But when i make the same as accompaniment for sambar / rasam rice, i would go for sambar powder to spice it up. So it's really up to you, what flavor you're looking for and you can use the spices accordingly. Now let's check out the recipe.

Egg Thokku | Boiled Egg Masala | Muttai Masala

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Accompaniment | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Boiled Egg - 2
Onion - 1/2
Tomato - 1/2
Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/4 tsp
Curry masala powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few
Oil -1 tsp

Procedure

Boil the egg and keep it ready, check out here on how to boil eggs perfectly. Cut the onion into thin slices and tomato into small pieces. Heat the kadai with oil, add the onions and curry leaves with pinch of salt.

Saute till the onion become translucent and then add the tomatoes and spices(turmeric, red chili, curry masala powder) & salt.

Cut the boiled egg into halves and keep it ready. Cook till the tomatoes are mushy and the raw smell of the spices are goes off.

Place the yolk side of the egg on the masala and cook it for 2 mins and then gently flip & cook the other sides too for 2 mins. Finally add the chopped coriander leaves on the top.

Tasty and spicy Egg Thokku is ready.

Notes:

Instead of curry masala powder, garam masala or sambar powder can also be used.
Adjust the spices as per your liking.
Boiled eggs shouldn't be over done, soft boiled eggs would be great for this recipe
Don't cook the eggs for long time in masala, it should be rubbery.

Banana Chips, a delicious snack made from raw plantain. In india, we use the special variety of raw banana know as "nethram palam" to make the chips. But here in canada, i can't source them, so i went with the available plantain that i got from walmart. Few times, i have tasted the banana chips that are available in walmart/ any local grocery store here, guess they are made with this plantain, though it won't taste like Nethram chips, it's good on its own, so instead of buying the ready to eat chips, i have tried my hands on making some.

Now coming to the recipe, it's so easy to make them, all you need is raw plantain, some oil to fry , salt and some good slicer. The key to get tasty chips is how thinly you slice the banana. If you have slicer/bajji kattai, then it would be very easy to make them. Currently i don't have slicer with me, the problem of moving frequently, you often forgot to pack the key utensils or you don't have enough space in your luggage to carry with you. But i learned to cook with the kitchen utensils that i have packed in 2 suit cases that i carried with me here., this is me who have recently moved to two different countries in the past 6 months talking, check me with one year later, i will pile up kitchen utensils again 😜 Ok, enough with my stories, back to slicer, if you don't have one, use sharp knife to cut as thin as possible like i did here. Obviously you end up with some thick slices unless you're a pro in knife skills. Once fried, thick slices tends to get soggy when sit at over counter for long time , so suggest to eat them first😊, now let's check out the recipe.

Vazhakkai Chips | Banana Chips | Plantain Chips

Preparation Time : 5 minsr | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2-3
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Plantain/Raw Banana/Vazhakkai -1
Oil - for frying
Salt & pepper - to taste

Procedure

First take the banana, peel and them make a thin slices.

The slices should be thin to get that crispy texture. Heat the oil for frying and add the sliced banana in batch.

Keep the heat on medium low and cook till "Shh" sounds and the bubble stops completely. Drain from the oil and place it on tissue paper.

Then immediately transfer into the bowl and add salt & pepper. Toss them well so that the seasoning coats them well.

Tada, yummy home made Plantain/Banana Chips are ready.

Notes:

Make sure the banana slices are thin, otherwise the chips became soggy easily.
Add the seasoning when the chips are warm itself, so that it coats on them well.
Instead of pepper powder, you can use red chili powder also for more heat.
The flame should be medium low for even cooking, otherwise the corners get burnt easily and left the inside chewy.

Mango Tapioca Pudding, a easy to make pudding with just couple of ingredients, it's perfect for this summer. Mango is my favorite fruit and it's really hard for me to control myself to eat as it is and try some recipe with fresh mangoes. Recently i have bought the mango pulp can from walmart here, it was so good and i have been trying all the mango dishes that i want to try for years. More over, it's very easy to put together the dessert/ sweet when you have mango pulp in hand.

Coming to today's recipe, this is in my todo list for years, at last i have made them last week with mango pulp that i bought from the store. All you need to do is cook the tapioca and the rest is simply put together everything, mix & refrigerate. If you're making this for party / get together, pour the mix into individual bowls/cups and refrigerator. It looks cute and definitely looks like a fancy dessert. I have used the "Riveria Yogurt bowl " here and it's look so damn cute. Now, let check out the recipe.

Mango Tapioca Pudding | Sago Pudding

Preparation Time : 4 hrs | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 1
Recipe Category: Dessert | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Tapioca - 1/4 cup
Mango Pulp - 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 tbsp(boiled and cooled)
Condensed Milk - 1 tbsp

Procedure

Wash and soak sago for 30 mins. Heat water in a sauce pan, add the soaked sago.

Bring into boil and then simmer the flame and cook till it's soft & then strain them.

Wash it in running cold water for 2 mins and then add into a bowl.

Add the mango pulp, milk & condensed milk and mix it well. Keep it in the refrigerator for few hours and it's ready to serve.

Yummy Mango Tapioca Pudding is ready.

Notes:

Depends on the size of tapioca, the cooking time varies.
Based on the sweetness of the mango pulp, add more or less of condensed milk.
Serve chilled for best taste.

Garlic Kara Kuzhambu, a spicy and tangy tamarind based curry without any vegetables and coconut. In our home, for almost all curries, we add coconut paste , never once Amma made any curry without coconut. Back in India, Amma use atleast one whole coconut for our one day cooking. But now here , i'm trying to use one coconut for a week, because of limited availability of Indian coconut and our inexperience in choosing good one from the store, usually we bought two coconuts for a week and half the time, one would be spoiled and we realized that only when break the coconut and in order to avoid an another trip to Indian store, i manage to cook with the available coconut. You would have seen me using coconut & curry leaves in my kitchen, i have treat them as treasure 😜

Ok, now, back to the recipe, because of that coconut story , i have learned to make curries without coconut. Omg, it was horrible at first, because of my inexperience to balance the spices. With my repeated attempt, i have learned to make well balanced Kara Kuzhambu / Puli kulambu without any coconut. If you're trying for the first time, even with the exact measurement and procedure, you may end with not so tasty kuzhambu. Not because the recipe is wrong, you have to learn to balance the spices. Every brand of tamarind and chili powder differs in taste, so by practice, you will achieve it. Now, let's check out the recipe

Garlic Kara Kuzhambu | Poondu Kulambu

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Tamarind - a gooseberry size
Pearl onion - 6
Garlic - 10 pods
Tomato(small) - 1
Curry leaves -few
Fenugreek Seed - 1/2 tsp
Red Chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1& 1/2 tbsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Jaggery - a small piece

Procedure

Soak the tamarind in a 1/2 cup of water for 20 mins, peel the onion & garlic and chop them roughly into pieces, tomato into small pieces. Heat the oil in a kadai, add fenugreek seed, mustard & urad dal, let the mustard splutter, then add the onion,garlic and curry leaves.

Saute till the onions become translucent, keep the flame in low and then add the spices(turmeric, red chili & sambar powder),saute them in the oil for few mins.

Then add the tomatoes, give a quick mix and add salt.

Extract the tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind and add into kadai and add more water to your preferred consistency.

Let it boil until the raw smell goes off and finally add the jaggery pieces. Cook it for few more mins and switch off the flame.

Delicious Kara Kuzhambu is ready.

Notes:

Keep the flame in low when adding the spices,otherwise it will be burnt easily.
Adding the spices in the oil gives enhanced flavor to the kuzhambu.
Sambar powder that i have used here is home made and haven't had any chilies in it. If your sambar powder has chili in it, reduce the chili powder and adjust to your taste.
Boil the curry till the consistency you prefer.

Pineapple Pulissery, a modern twist to the traditional pulissery. Pulissery, a delicious and creamy curd based curry from Kerala and it's made with both vegetables (like ash gourd, pumpkin) and fruits like( mango, pineapple). It's one of the common dish in Onam Sadya menu. This can be prepared as curry or as a accompaniment based on the consistency. Today i have prepared as accompaniment for our meal, it tastes good with rice & any spicy curry. In our home ,we often prepare thadiyanakai kootu, this recipe sounds so similar to that, instead of ash gourd, pineapple is used in this recipe. Whenever i try any kerala recipe, it sounds so familiar to what we cook back in my home town,Tiruneveli, to be precisely saying, in our family, the cooking style is so similar to what we call now as "Kerala cuisine" more than the "Tamil cuisine". After all ,all this state partition happened after independence, but even before that people have their way of cooking, right?? With that thought, let's check out the pineapple pulissery recipe.

Pineapple Pulissery | Pineapple Pachadi

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Pineapple(chopped) - 1cup
Curd - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
To Grind
Coconut - 2 tbsp
Green Chili - 1
Cumin seed - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 1 pod
Pearl onion - 1
To Temper
Coconut Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Pearl onion(sliced) -2

Procedure

Cut the pineapple into small cubes, heat the kadai with 1/2 cup of water and add the pineapple.

Once it comes to boil, keep the flame in low and let the pineapple cook. In the mean time, grind the ingredients listed under to "To Grind" into smooth paste.

Once the pineapple is almost cooked, add the coconut paste, turmeric powder and salt. Mix it well and let it cook completely. Beat the curd into smooth texture.

Keep the flame in low(if you're using electric stove/induction stove, switch off the flame, the residual heat in the stove is enough) and add the curd, give a quick mix and switch off the flame. Keep the ingredients ready for tempering.

Heat the oil in kadai, temper the ingredients listed under "To Temper", saute until the onions become brown, switch off the flame and add into the pulissery.

Finger licking delicious Pineapple Pulissery is ready.

Notes:

Coconut oil gives great flavor to pulissery.
While adding the curd, keep the flame in lowest possible to avoid the curdling.
Adjust the consistency as per your liking.

Baked Onion Samosa, a savory pastry made from phyllo sheets with spicy onion fillings. Guess, samosa need no introduction, it's a deep fried savory pastry from india. Samosas which are quite famous in the west has potato filling inside. But in India, you can find variety of stuffing inside the samosa and the famous stuffing next to potato is onions. In tamilnadu, you can find this mostly in road side vendors, especially when you shop in Tnagar, Chennai, you can't miss this crispy samosa from the road side vendors.

I have the fond memories of having them in T nagar,Chennai. When i first moved to chennai for job, i was really confused by the name "Samosa". In my home town, we call this onion samosa as "Onion Samsa(சம்சா)" and the sweet one (made with roasted chanal da powder) as "Samosa". So it really take time to get used to the local slang :-). Now coming to the recipe, here i have used phyllo pastry to make this samosa. I have already tried few savory items like potato samosa and avocado roll with the phyllo sheets. So i'm quite confident about the outcome, as expected it turned out super crispy and delicious.

Instead of phyllo sheets, you can use the samosa sheets that are available in the frozen section of the grocery store, but i'm not sure how good it will be when it's baked. When comes to phyllo sheets, it bake so well with both sweet and savory filling. So whenever i buy phyllo sheets to make baklava, i always reserve few sheets to try some savory items. Let's check out the recipe.

Baked Onion Samosa using Phyllo Sheet

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 8
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Phyllo Sheets - 4
Onion -1(big)
Carrot-1
Curry leaves - few
Fennel seed - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp + 1 tbsp(for brushing)
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves - few
Salt - to taste

Procedure

First cut the onions into thin slices and grate the carrot. Heat the oil, temper the fennel seed.
Next add the onions and curry leaves with pinch of salt.

Saute till the onions are translucent, add the spices(turmeric,red chili and garam masala powder) and salt. Give it a good mix.

Add the grated carrot, saute till the carrot are soft. Finally add the chopped coriander leaves. Switch off the flame. Stuffing is ready.

Thaw the phyllo sheets as per instructions and keep it ready. Take a sheet, cut into half, take one half and fold them vertically.

Apply oil on the sheet, then place the onion mixture and start folding in triangle.

Continue folding till the end. Seal the edges with water.

Place it on baking tray and brush it with oil on top.Do the same for the remaining sheets and bake them in preheated oven at 370F for first 10 mins and then reduce the temperature to 350 F and bake it for 10-15 mins.

Tada, Yummy Onion Samosas are ready.

Ready to dig in

Notes:

The mild sweetness from the carrot balance out the spices and gives great taste to this samosa.
Keep on eye on the samosa after 20 mins to avoid burning.
For more flavor, you can use oil and ghee mixture to brush the sheets.

Panakaram /Panakam, a delicious cooling drink prepared from lemon. For many temple festival in south tamilnadu, this panakaram(that's how we mention "Panakam" in south tamilnadu) and neer moor are the most distributed drink to the people. In my school days, i had fond memories of having them druing ther thiruvizha(temple car festival) in my home town, Tirunelveli. During that time, people used to make panthal(small temporary store) on the road side and bring the panakaram and neer moor(Both are real thirst quencher and keep you cool in hot sun) in a large vessel to give to all the people who pay visit to the car festival.

Amma says that in those days, the panakaram was mainly made with tamarind, instead of lemon. For tamarind panakaram, soak the tamarind in water, extract the pulp and add water as needed and add the remaining ingredients as such in the ingredients list. Even now, in certain temples, they do the same. When talking to Amma over phone last week, she mentioned that she prepared this panakam for around 100 people to distribute to the nearby Amman temple on Aadi Velli(Friday of Aadi(Tamil) month), since then i was craving for this delicious drink and made this few days back 😊 . Now let's check out how i have prepared this delicious panakaram with lemon.

Panakaram | Panakam | Traditional Drink

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Lemon - 1/2
Jaggery - 3 tbsp
Water - 1 & 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

First measure and take the jaggery in a bowl, add water, let it sit for couple of mins or until the jaggery dissolves completely.

Strain the jaggery water to remove the impurities, then add the lemon juice squeezed from the 1/2 of the lemon.

Next add the salt and cardamon powder. Mix it all well together and the panakaram is ready.

Delicious Panakaram is ready to serve.

Notes:

Ground the jaggery into fine powder using hand motor and pestle or mixie to dissolve it easily.
Salt really enhance the taste, so highly recommend to add.
You can use ice water for chilled drink.
In addition to cardamom, you can add pinch of dry ginger/sukku powder too.
If you have tulsi, add few leaves. I can't source it here, so skipped it.

Pineapple rasam , a delicious and tangy rasam with wonderful pineapple flavor. Rasam is a integral part of south indian meal. But i have seen people running away from dinning table when they hear the word "Rasam" and also sarcastically claim rasam as visham (poison). For me, i love rasam like anything right from childhood, rice with rasam and thogayal is one of my favorite combo and love to have them any time now also. But so far, i stick with the my basic rasam recipe and very rarely give it a try on other varieties. I have heard about this pineapple rasam a lot, hence i want to try this for a while, finally i have made it today. When i searched for pineapple rasam recipe online, all of them has dal in it, as i said earlier i like simple rasam without dal, so i have used my rasam recipe as base and made this pineapple rasam without any dal, it turned out awesome, the flavor was so good and the mild sweetness from the pineapple really enhance the taste of rasam.

Pineapple Rasam Without Dal | Pineapple rasam

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Rasam | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Pineapple - 2 rings

Tamarind - a small gooseberry size

Tomato - 1 (medium)

Curry leaves & coriander leaves - few

Salt - 1/2 tbsp(approx)

Ghee - 1/2 tsp

Mustard & urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Red chili - 1
Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp

To grind

Pepper corns - 2 tsp

Cumin seed - 1 tsp

Garlic pods - 6-7

Procedure

Cut the pineapple and tomato into small pieces.

First grind the ingredients listed under "To grind" into coarse paste and keep it aside, in the same jar, add 1/2 of the pineapple and grind into coarse paste.

Next add 1/2 of tomato and grind into paste.

Heat the kadai with ghee, add mustard,urad dal, curry leaves and red chili, let the mustard splutter, then add the pepper corn mixture, saute till it's aromatic.

Then add the chopped pineapple & tomato followed by pineapple and tomato puree.

Add 2 cups of water and the tamarind extract from the soaked tamarind.

Add salt, turmeric powder and asafoetida powder into the rasam.

Bring into boil and finally add the chopped coriander leaves & switch off the flame.

Flavorful and tasty Pineapple rasam is ready.

Notes:

Depend on the sourness of the pineapple, you may need more or less of tamarind.
For extra flavor, add 1/2 tsp of ghee at the end.

Murungakkai Poriyal, a delicious and quick to make poriyal with drumsticks. Actually i haven't prepared this poriyal often because whether in US/Canada, the drumsticks are not easily available, only indian stores have them sometimes. So whenever i got them, i prefer to add few pieces in sambar, karakulambu and aviyal such that it will last for 7- 10 days. Last time, when we went to indian store here, the drumstick was so fresh, so i picked couple of extra drumstick than the usual and in the same week, all of sudden we had a travel plan to other city and were out of town for 10 days because of ST's work. And i didn't want to waste them so before traveling made this poriyal for our meal along with rice and sambar. It turned out super good, the flavor was subtle and simply love this poriyal. Now let's check out how i have prepared this poriyal.

Drumstick Poriyal | Murungakkai Poriyal

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Accompaniment | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Drumstick - 2
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt - to taste

To grind

Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
Green chili - 1

Peal onion - 1 nos

Garlic pods-1(small)

Cumin seed- 1/4 tsp
To Temper
Sesame oil - 1 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Pearl Onion -1
Curry leaves- few

Procedure

Cut the drumstick into 1 inch pieces. Heat about 1 cup of water in a kadai, bring into boil, then add the drumstick pieces.

Cover cook until the drumsticks are tender and well cooked.In the mean time, grind the ingredients listed under "To grind" into coarse paste.

Once the drumstick is almost cooked, add the turmeric powder and salt.

Next add the coconut mixture, give a good mix and let it cook until the raw smell leaves.

Temper the ingredients listed under "To temper" and add into the drumstick poriyal.

Tada, Delicious Drumstick Poriyal is ready.

Notes:

Depends on your preference, you can add more or less chili. The given quantity has mild spice level.
Sesame oil gives great flavor to the poriyal.

Milagu Thattai, a delicious savory snack made from rice flour with wonderful pepper flavor. I have been thinking of posting this recipe here for very long time, as Krishna Jeyanthi/Gokulashtami is just around the corner and thattai is one of the popular snack prepared for this festival, thought of, this might be the right time to post here and made them last evening just to post here and of course we enjoy eating them too 😊.

In our home ,we grew up eating varieties of home made murukku and seedai, thattai was not in the picture when i grew up, later when i was chennai for job, i got tasted the A2B's pepper thattai for the first picture and instantly love the flavor. Ever since i always prefer to buy the pepper thattai whenever visit A2B shop. After moving to aboard, i started to make them at home, one of the difficulties of living far away from home town, whenever you're craving for something from your home town, the only choice you have is make it on your own. No regrets at all, actually i see that as the opportunity to learn on how to make them otherwise i would never make them on my own. Ok, enough with my stories, coming to the recipe, today i have used home made rice flour, but you can use the store brought rice flour too for this recipe, i had used them in the past and it worked fine. Now let's check out how to make this flavorful pepper thattai.

Pepper Thattai | Milagu Thattai

Preparation Time : 15 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 20-22
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Rice flour - 1 cup
Roasted chana dal flour/Pottukadalai maavu - 3 tbsp
Chana dal - 2 tsp
Peppercorns - 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 spring
Butter - 1 tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - for frying

Procedure

Soak the chana dal in water for 10 mins. In a bowl, take the rice flour & roasted gram flour.

Add the peppercorns into the hand motor & pestle and crushed them into coarse powder and add into the flour along with salt.

Finely chop the curry leaves and add into the flour mixture along with asafoetida powder, mix it all well together, then add the melted butter and give a good mix.

Add the soaked chana dal and the needed water and make a dough. Divide the dough into small lemon sized ball.

Take a zip lock bag, cut the sealed edges and make it open, grease it with oil and place a dough on one side of the bag and cover the top with the other side of the bag.

Using a flat bottom bowl and press the dough to flatten it out evenly. Prick on the top using fork.

Heat the oil for frying and add the pressed dough.

Let it cook in medium flame. Gently flip it for couple of times while frying.

When the "shh" sound stops and the thattai floats on the top without any bubbles, remove from the oil and place it on tissue paper. Do the same for the remaining dough.

Tasty and crispy Pepper Thattai is ready. Let it cool down completely and store them in air tight container to maintain the crispiness.

Notes:

Instead of hand motor & pestle, you can using mixie to crush the peppercorns.
Prick the top using fork helps to avoid puff up while frying.
The given quantity of pepper is for mild spice. Add more or less as per your liking.
Instead of zip lock bag, you can use any polythene bag for shaping thattai.
To make roasted gram flour, add the roasted gram in the mixie and grind into fine powder.If need sieve it once otherwise use them as it is.

Rava Coconut Ladoo, a delicious and easy to make ladoos with semolina and coconut. Rava ladoo is one of ST's favorite sweet and the only sweet he asks me to make often. So far,apart from the regular rava ladoo, i had tried quite few variations like making them using condensed milk and sugar syrup without ghee. Each one has its unique taste & texture. And this rava coconut ladoo is my recent favorite in this rava ladoo series. In general, i love anything with coconut in it and coconut gives nice aroma and taste to this ladoo. If you like me who loves coconut, give this method a try on next time when you make rava ladoo.

While making this ladoo, make sure to roast both rava and coconut until they are aromatic, that makes a lot of difference in both taste and texture wise. So far i had made this ladoo for handful of times and in every time, the amount of ghee needed varies slightly plus or minus 2 tsp of ghee. So add ghee little by little and stop when it starts holding shape, even it doesn't hold shape after using all the ghee, you can add more ghee or simply use couple of tsp of warm milk or water. Milk actually reduces the self life of the ladoo, so if you're making this ladoo in large quantities, i recommend to sprinkle couple of tsp of warm water to hold the shape. It doesn't affect the taste at all. Now let's check out how to make this delicious rava coconut ladoos.

Rava Coconut Ladoo Recipe

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 8
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Rava/Sooji - 1/2 cup
Grated Coconut - 3 tbsp
Sugar - 1/3 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Ghee - 2 to 3 tbsp
Cashew - 5

Procedure

Heat a tsp of ghee in a frying pan, add rava and start roasting the rava.

Roast until the rava is aromatic, remove from the heat and transfer to the plate, in the same plate, add the grated coconut.

Roast till it slightly started to changes to its color, remove from the heat and transfer to the plate. Now add the remaining ghee in the pan and heat it.

Broke the cashews into pieces and add into it. Roast until it becomes golden. Switch off the flame. In a mixie jar, add the sugar and powder it.

Next add the rava and coconut into it and pulse it couple of time until it all mix together.

Transfer into the bowl, add the cardamon powder and the ghee along with roasted cashews.

Mix it all together and start making ladoos.

Yummy Rava Coconut Ladoos are ready.

Notes:

No need to powder the rava, just give a couple of pulses inthe mixie until it all mix together.
The ghee should be hot, so that it holds the ladoo in shape well.
If the ladoo shape doesn't hold well, you can add a couple of tsp of boiled milk/warm water.

Ellu Urundai, a delicious sesame seed balls sweetened with jaggery syrup. I have been thinking of posting this recipe for long time and yesterday when i was browsing through pinterest, i got to know that the ellu urundai is one of the dishes prepared for ganesh chathurthi. In our family, we make kozhukattai/mothagam and sundal for ganesh chathurthi, never remember of making ellu urundai on this particular day, later when i talked to Amma, she mentioned that even in some part of tamilnadu, ellu urundai is prepared for ganesh chathurthi. With all being said, thought it's the right time to post this recipe since ganesh chathurthi is few days away, today morning i have prepared this ellu urundai. It's such a simple recipe to make in no time on this festive season.

Now coming to the recipe, the cooking part of making this ellu urundai is so simple if you got the correct syrup consistency. When it comes to shaping them, i find it little difficult to bear the heat. If you're like me who can't bear the heat and have sensitive hands(the heat from the jaggery syrup would easily burn the palm slightly, nothing to scare but still it hurts a little.), i would suggest to make them as burfi instead of balls.Once the mixture is ready, pour it on the greased plate and let it cool for mins and then you can cut into desired shape.Now let's see how to make this delicious sesame ladoo.

Ellu Urundai | Sesame Seed Ladoo

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Makes : 8 small balls
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Sesame Seed - 1/4 cup
Jaggery - 1/4 cup
Cardamom -1
Water - 1/4 cup

Procedure

First heat a pan and dry roast the sesame seed until it starts to burst, remove it from the heat and transfer into the plate.

In the same pan, add the jaggery and water and let the jaggery melts completely.

Strain the jaggery syrup to remove the impurities and pour the syrup back into the pan(make sure to clean the pan before using) and add powdered cardamom & bring into boil again.

Once the syrup starts to bubble, pour few drops of syrup in the water and check the consistency.

The syrup should form a soft ball consistency, that means you can take the syrup from the water and able to form a ball. That's the correct stage, add the roasted sesame seed and mix it well.

Within few seconds, it forms together a ball, remove from the heat and start making small balls.

Tada, Yummy Sesame balls/ Ellu Urundai is ready.

Notes:

The syrup consistency is important to form ball shape, so keep the flame in low when the syrup is about to reach the consistency to make sure that you don't miss the correct stage.
Apply a few drops of ghee in your hands, it will helps to roll smoothly.
You must roll them when the mixture is hot, if you can't bear the heat, simply layer it on the tray and cut into pieces.
Instead of white sesame seed, you can used black sesame seed also.

Unniyappam/ Unni appam, a delicious sweet balls made from the rice flour, jaggery & banana and flavored with coconut, cardamom and sesame seeds. Though it's one of the traditional sweet from Kerala, India, we often make them at our home as snack. Unni appam is a variation from neiyappam recipe. In unni appam, mashed banana is added additionally and it gives such a nice aroma and taste to this recipe. Unni appam can be prepared by either deep frying or just like me, you can use the appe pan to to control the over use of ghee/ oil.

Whenever i have well ripen bananas in hand, this unni appam or wheat flour appam or banana bread would be my chance to finish off the banana without wasting them. Though i often make this unni appam at home, i'm wondering why i haven't posted the recipe here. As onam festival is near by, thought it would be the right time to post this unniappam (it's one of the dish on the sadya menu) and made this as snack for yesterday evening and here i'm with the post. Let's check out how to make this yummy sweet.

Instant Unniyappam | Kerala Unni Appam

Preparation Time : 30 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 18 small appam
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Banana - 1/2
Jaggery - 1/4 cup
Cardamon - 2
Baking soda - 2 pinch
Coconut bits - 1 tbsp
Sesame seed - 1 tsp
Ghee - as needed

Procedure

First add the banana into mixie jar and make it as puree and transfer into the bowl.

Next add the jaggery in a pan with couple of spoon of water. Heat the mixture and let the jaggery melts completely.

Once the jaggery is melted, strain the impurities and add into the banana puree, mix it well.

In a pan, heat 1/2 tsp of ghee and add the coconut bits, roast till it starts to change its color, remove from the heat and transfer into banana jaggery mixture.

In the same pan, roast the sesame seeds until it starts to pop up and add into the banana jaggery mixture.

Then add the rice flour into it and mix it all well together.

If needed add the water and make it as thick batter like idly batter.

Let it rest for 30-40 mins and then add the cardamom powder and baking powder and mix it well.

Heat the paniyaram pan and fill half of it with ghee, then pour the batter in each hole. Let it cook on low flame for 3-4 mins and then gently flip on to the other side.

Cook till they are golden brown on both sides and remove it from the heat. Do the same for the remaining batter.

Yummy Unniappam is ready to serve.

Notes:

Here i'm using big variety of banana, so i have added only 1/2. If you're using small variety, you can add one whole banana.
Make sure that the banana is ripen well.
Instead of completely using ghee, you can use mixture of ghee and oil or just oil too.
If you have time, let the batter rest for 4 -6 hrs, it ferments well then, so no need to add baking powder.

Inji Puli, a delicious,tangy and spicy pickle made from ginger. It's one of the must dish in the sadya menu of onam festival. Two years back, when we were in Houston, one of our friend invite us for onam feast at their home. That was my first onam feast, i was literally mind blown by the varieties of food that they offered on that day. From her only i came to know about this puli inji and beetroot pachadi. Both are my absolute favorite and often make them at home as the accompaniment of our meal.

In our home, we make inji pachadi as the side dish of sothi kulambu, for me, this inji puli sounds so similar to that pachadi. Elders in our family always recommend to make and serve inji pachadi with sothi kulambu,since sothi kulambu has lot of coconut in it, the inji pachadi helps to aid digestion well. Guess in sadya menu also, this inji puli is served for the same reason since sadya menu has so much varieties. Always wonder about how wise our ancestors are, the food and the combinations are not only tasty, they act as medicine for many times. Ok, with that thought, will check out the recipe for inji puli.

Inji Puli | Ginger Pickle

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 4
Recipe Category: Condiments | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Ginger - 1/4 cup
Tamarind - a lemon size
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Green chili - 4
Jaggery - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
To Temper
Coconut oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 spring
Red chili - 1

Procedure

First peel the ginger and cut into small pieces.

Next cut the green chili into small pieces.

Soak the tamarind in water for 20 mins. Heat the pan with coconut oil.

Add the ingredients listed under "To Temper" one by one, let the mustard splutter, then add the ginger and green chili.

Saute in the oil for 5 mins, then extract the tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind and add into the pan. Add turmeric and chili powder.

Next add the salt, mix it well and let it bring into boil. Once it starts to boil, lower the flame and let it simmer for 10-15 mins.

Finally add the jaggery and keep it in the flame for few more mins. Once the oil separates on the sides and the pickle thickens, switch off the flame.

Tasty Puli Inji is ready.

Notes:

Adjust the chili powder and chilies as per your preferred taste. The given quantity has mild spice level
My green chili has very mild spice level.
Using coconut oil gives great flavor to this recipe. But you can also use sesame seed oil.
Like hot spices, you can add more or less of jaggery as per your liking. Adding jaggery helps to balance the tanginess and hotness of the pickle.

Cherupayaru Thoran, a delicious and easy to make healthy accompaniment from green moong dal. Green moong dal is know by various names in South India like "Pachai Payaru","Siru Payaru"& "Cherupayaru" and it's commonly made as accompaniment for breakfast in south tamilnadu & kerala along with puttu,kali & kanji varieties. Recently when i search for onam recipes, i came to know that this cherupayaru is also served as one of the sadya menu in Onam festival. Though it sounds so simple, it tastes so awesome with wonderful coconut flavor. If you haven't tried this recipe before, do give it a try, it can even be served as snacks for the evening time too like the sundal. Now let's check out the recipe.

Cherupayaru Thoran | Pachai Payaru Thoran

Preparation Time : 6 hrs | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2-3
Recipe Category: Accompaniment | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Green Moong Dal -1/2 cup
Salt - to taste

To grind

Grated coconut - 2 tbsp

Peal onion - 1 nos

Garlic pods-1(small)

Cumin seed- 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 2 pinch
To Temper
Coconut oil - 1 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Red chili -1
Curry leaves- few

Procedure

First soak the green moong dal for 6 hrs, then discard the soaked water and add into the pressure cooker along with fresh water.

Add salt enough for dal and pressure cook it for 2 whistle.

Add all the ingredients listed under "To grind" into mixie jar and grind into coarse mixture.Heat the pan with coconut oil and temper the ingredients listed under "To Temper".

Then add the grounded coconut mixture and saute it in the oil for 3-4 mins, then add the cooked moong dal.

Mix it well with the tempering and let it set in the flame for few more mins and then switch off the flame.

Tasty and healthy Pachai Payaru Thoran is ready. Serve it as the accompaniment for breakfast or lunch. We had it with Ragi Puttu.

Notes:

If you soaked the moong dal for overnight, then one whistle is enough for pressure cooking the moong dal.
To want more spice, add a green chili along with "To grind" ingredients and grind it.
Coconut oil gives great flavor to this thoran.

South Indian Lunch Ideas | Lunch Menu Series (1-5)

Thengai Pottukadalai Thogayal | Thengai Thuvaiyal | Thogayal Recipe

Thengai Pottukadalai Thuvaiyal

Mango Kulfi with Mango Pulp | Kulfi Recipe

Mango Kulfi with Mango Pulp | Kulfi Recipe

Mullangi Sambar with Coconut | Radish Sambar | Sambar recipe

Mullangi Sambar with Coconut | Radish Sambar

South Indian Lunch Ideas | Lunch Menu Series (6-10)

Egg Thokku | Boiled Egg Masala | Muttai Masala

Egg Thokku | Boiled Egg Masala | Muttai Masala

Vazhakkai Chips | Banana Chips | Plantain Chips

Vazhakkai Chips | Banana Chips | Plantain Chips

Mango Tapioca Pudding | Sago Pudding | Pudding recipe

Mango Tapioca Pudding | Sago Pudding

Garlic Onion Kara Kuzhambu | Poondu Kulambu

Garlic Kara Kuzhambu | Poondu Kulambu

Pineapple Pulissery | Pineapple Pachadi | Pulissery Recipe

Pineapple Pulissery | Pineapple Pachadi

Baked Onion Samosa using Phyllo Sheets | Onion Samosa | Vengaya Samsa

Baked Onion Samosa using Phyllo Sheet

Panakaram | Panakam | Traditional Drink | Summer Drink

Panakaram | Panakam | Traditional Drink

Pineapple Rasam Without Dal | Pineapple rasam | Rasam Recipe

Pineapple Rasam Without Dal | Pineapple rasam

Drumstick Poriyal | Murungakkai Poriyal | Poriyal Recipe

Drumstick Poriyal | Murungakkai Poriyal

Pepper Thattai | Milagu Thattai | Snacks

Pepper Thattai | Milagu Thattai

Rava Coconut Ladoo | Rava Ladoo | Ladoo Recipe

Rava Coconut Ladoo Recipe

Ellu Urundai | Sesame Seed Ladoo | Ladoo Recipe

Ellu Urundai | Sesame Seed Ladoo

Instant Unniyappam | Kerala Unni Appam | Onam Sadya Recipe

Instant Unniyappam | Kerala Unni Appam

Inji Puli | Ginger Pickle | Onam Sadya Recipe

Inji Puli | Ginger Pickle

Cherupayaru Thoran | Pachai Payaru Thoran | Onam Sadya Recipe

Cherupayaru Thoran | Pachai Payaru Thoran