Paneer Wrap

Ingredients

Tomato - 2
Capsicum - 1
Cabbage - 6 leaves
Paneer - 1 pack
Jeera - a little
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Chaat masala - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp
Corriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Gram masala - 1/2 tsp
Kasuri methi - a little
Corriander leaves - a little
Mayonnaise - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Chapathis - 6
Oil - 1 tbsp

Method

Cut the cabbage, capsicum and paneer into juliennes.
Deseed the tomatoes and as cut them into juliennes.
Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot add the jeera.
Next add the cabbage and suate for a while.
Then add the capsicum and saute.
Add all the powders, Chat masala and kasuri methi.
Mix well. Add salt to taste.
Saute well little the raw smell of the powders are gone.
Next add the paneer and tomato.
Mix well.
Turn of the heat and add corriander leaves.
Then apply mayonnaise on one side of the cooked chapati.
Next add the paneer filling.
Roll it tight in butter paper or aluminum foil and serve hot.

Ulundu Vadai/ Medu vadai/ Lentil Salty Donut

Meduvadai or Ulundu vadai is one of the popular dish of south Indian cuisine which can be served as a snack in the evening or served along with idlis, dosas and pongal as breakfast. It is often made on all festivals and auspicious occasions in South India.

Ingredients
Urad dal- 1 cup
green chillies- 1
ginger- 2 inch
curry leaves- a string
whole black pepper- 1/4 tsp
baking soda- a pinch (optional)
water
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Preparation:
Wash and soak the urad dal for 1-2 hours. I

Strain the water and grind the urad dal in a blender with curry leaves, ginger, green chillies and little water to get a fine thick paste and as smooth as a butter.

Add salt and whole black pepper to the paste and mix well.

Heat oil in a pan for frying. Check the temperature of the oil by dropping a small drop of the paste.

Grease your palm with oil or  wet your palm with water so that the paste doesn't stick to your hand.

Take a spoonful of the paste in the palm. Slowly slide it to you four finger and make a hole with your thumb in the middle and gently slide it into the oil.

Fry the vadai on a medium flame.

After 4-5 minutes flip them and fry them until golden brown.

 Remove them from oil and drain them on a paper towel.

Serve them hot with coconut chutney and sambar.

Note:
I prefer to refrigerated the urad dal while soaking because this will prevent the batter to get heated while grinding.
To make vadais in large quantities I prefer using a wet grinder to make the batter inorder to get the butter consistency.

Rava Dosa / crispy semolina pancake

Rava Dosa is a crispy pancake of South India. It is a derivative of the popular Dosa. This variety of dosa does not require fermentation. It is usually considered as a light meal which can be served for breakfast or dinner.

Ingredients: 

Semolina/ Sooji rava/ Farina- 1 cup 

Maida / All purpose flour- 1/2 cup

Rice flour- 1 cup

Ginger- 1 inch (chopped)

Green Chillies- 2-3

Cumin seeds- 1-2 tsp

Crushed black pepper- 1 tsp

Few broken cashew nuts (optional)

salt to taste

water

oil / ghee to make dosa

Preparation:

Mix the above ingredients with water and bring it to butter milk consistency. Heat a flat pan and sprinkle the batter evenly on the pan with your hand. Add ghee or oil  and cook it on a medium high flame. You would get a crispy Rava Dosa. Rava Dosa can be served with coconut chutney and sambar.

Suggestion: Finely chopped cabbage can be used as a topping for the dosa.

Ragi(Finger Millet/Red Millet) Dosa

Ragi is rich in calcium and extremely good for vegans and vegetarians. It is the best source of calcium. 100 gms of ragi contains approx 350 mg of calcium. We make ragi dosas very regularly at home to get our required calcium intake. Women should have a good amount of calcium in the diet as with age and deficiency of calcium, the bones become porous and cause problems. This recipe is from my mother. Very simple to prepare and goes very well with the Tamarind Cilantro Chutney that I had posted earlier.

Ingredients:

Ragi Flour (Red Millet/ Finger Millet) – 2 cups
Urad Dhal - 1/2 cup
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Salt according to taste

Method:

Soak the urad dhal and fenugreek seeds for 45 minutes and grind the same like we do for our regular dosas adding water in a mixer. Next mix the ground urad dhal, ragi flour and salt together. Add water and mix everything well. The batter should be slightly thin than the regular dosa batter. Keep this batter covered overnight.




In the morning mix the puffed up batter very well. On a medium hot tava pour the batter with a help of a ladle and spread it slowly.

Sprinkle some oil on top. Flip and cook the other side. Serve hot with chutney or sambhar.

The above picture shows the ragi dosa served with the Tamarind Cliantro chutney.

Ekadesi Idly (Moriya/Samo Idly)

This idly is made out of moriya (generally called 'Samo') that we use for ekadesi. These idlies are very simple to prepare. I learned this recipe from one of my senior god sister. I was once talking to her saying that I am bored of dosas for ekhadesi, she immediately gave an answer make idlies. This how I landed on this recipe and now it’s a very regular ekadesi item at home.

Ingredients:

Moriya - 1 cup
Curd - 2 cups
Carrot – 1
Capsicum – 1
Ginger – 1 small piece
Green Chillies - 2.
Curry leaves – a few
Corriander leaves – a small bunch
Salt – as per taste

Method :

Mix the moriya and curd together. Do not add water, the water in the curd itself is sufficient. Next mince the carrot, capsicum, cilantro leaves, curry leaves, green chillies and ginger. Add the minced items to the moriya and curd mixture. Keep it aside for 30 – 45 minutes. Make idlies from this mixture and serve hot with any ekadesi chutney or gravy.

Green Gram (Whole Moong Dhal) Dosa / Pesarattu

I am a big dosa favourite and love to try different types. This green gram dosa is my mother’s recipe. Its real easy to make and very healthy protein rich item. This one is a regular at my house. Hope you like it too.


Ingredients :


Green Gram (Whole Moong Dhal) – 1 ½ cup
Rice - ¾ cup
Red chillies – 5
Cumin seeds – 1 ½ tbsp
Asofoetida - 1 tsp
Salt according to taste


Method :

Soak the green gram over night for 6 - 7 hours and rice for 3 - 4 hours. Wash the green gram and rice. Add both along with the other ingredients to the grinder and grind the mixture to a smooth paste. Add salt and mix well and leave it outside over night. You can start making the dosas in the morning for breakfast. Actually before making the dosa we can actually cut and add little green chillies, carrot, capsicum, curry leaves, cabbage, ginger and coriander leaves. But this is optional only, we can make the dosa plain as well. This dosa goes well with coconut chutney or tomato thokku.

Palak Roti

One of my friends at work use to bring Palak Roti regularly and I always thought I should try this. But the recipe she gave me had garlic. So I went hunting on the internet and landed on two different types. I kind of did a mix of both and landed on an awesome Palak Roti. Since I was kind of nervous as to how it’s going to taste I made only 10 numbers and after tasting it, me and my husband realized that it’s not going to be enough for us. Hope you enjoy this healthy recipe.

Ingredients


Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Bengal gram flour - 2 tbsp
Palak (Spinach) leaves - 1bunch
Ginger - 1 inch
Green chiliies - 2
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Carom seeds - 1/4 tsp
Few cilantro leaves
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - a little less than 1/4 tsp
Curd - 2 - 3 tbsp
Water to knead


Method

Wash the palak leaves well, boil in hot water for 2 mins and wash them with cold water. Grind all the above ingredients excluding the wheat flour and besan flour to a fine paste. While grinding the paste make sure you don’t add water, the water in the curd itself should be fine, else the dough will become very watery. Mix this mixture with the flour, add salt and make malleable dough. Roll out the rotis, fry on both sides with oil and apply little ghee. Serve hot with curd and pickle.

VenPongal / South Indian Khichri / Steamed rice with lentils

A popular breakfast/dinner option is the Ven Pongal. "Ven" means white. Mildly spiced (according taste preference) it is served with Coconut (White) Chutney and Sambhar. Pongal - Vadai - Sambhar is one of the commonly sought out combination at restaurants. No restaurant menu card in Tamil Nadu is completing without pongal. Each restaurant have their own way of preparation, the recipe below is the way most of the families in Tamil Nadu make pongal at home. Ven pongal is not only famous in restaurants, but it is very popular in many temples in south India. Pongal is commonly referred to savory pudding made with beautiful combination of lentils and rice tempered with spices and nuts sautéed in Hot Ghee. This is very easy to prepare and the taste is filling and yummy.
Here is the easy to cook and ready to serve recipe for you…:)

Ingredients For Pongal :

To go the Cooker

Raw rice / Sona Masoori rice – 1 cup
Split Moong Dal – ½ cup
Water – 4 (1/4 )cups
Hing – 2 pinch
Salt - As required

Seasoning
Ghee – 3 tablespoons
Cashew nuts – 10 to 15 broken
Ginger – 2 teaspoons finely minced
Curry leaves – One string
Whole pepper corns – 15 to 20
Cumin seeds – 3 teaspoon

Procedure:

Wash the rice and dal. Then measure water and mix the dal and rice. Add salt and hing powder. Now cook this mixture in rice cooker or in normal pressure cooker.
In a separate pan add ghee and let it heat. Followed by whole pepper corns then cumin seeds, ( you even crush the pepper & cumin seeds coarsely) when the cumin seeds turns light brown color add the minced ginger fry for few seconds then add cashew nuts, hing powder and let the cashews fry and finally add the curry leaves and let it splutter then remove from the heat and add it to the cooked pongal and mix it well.