Vazhai Poo Vadai - Banana Flower Vadai

Its been a longtime since a new post. It was vacation time, and off we went for a whole week out. I will soon write about our vacation as well.


Here is one of the traditional type of vada, Vazhai Poo vadai.


1. Channa dhal - 1 cup
2. Red Chillies - 2
3. Sounf - 1/2 tbsp
4. Jeera - 1/2 tbsp
5. Salt to taste
6. Vazhai Poo or banana flower cleaned - 1/2
7. Turmeric - a pinch
8. Onion - 2 medium sized chopped
9. Curry leaves - 5
10. Coriander leaves - 5 tbsp
11. Coconut grated - 4 tbsp
12. Raw rice - 2 tbsp
13. Oil to deep fry.


Soak the Channa dhal and rice for 30-45 minutes. Grind the soaked dhal, rice, sounf, jeera and salt into a coarse paste. Remove the ground mix to a bowl. Now grind the banana flower, just for 2-3 seconds, say like running a wiper. Add this also to the mix.


Add all the remaining ingredients to the ground mixture and mix well. Make lemon sized balls.


Heat oil in a frying pan. Apply water on your left palm so that the dough doesn't stick to your hand. Keep the lemon sized balls on your hand, press them to make them flat to a shape of vada and shallow fry them till golden brown.


They would taste delicious! Serve hot as a snack or with rice.

Cauliflower and Double Beans Kurma

It was weekend and I was feeling very lazy to cook. It was too tiring. So what to cook was the question ? I started of slowly to cook. It just took 15 minutes to prepare. But it turned out too good. Lot of praises as well :) yes it is cauliflower and double beans kurma with rice for lunch. :) Quite simple but very tasty! Everyone liked it including my kids which was a surprise.

The same dish was used for dinner also for chappathi and dosa, with the praises still continuing.. :) Here goes the recipe for you:

1. Cauliflower - small sized. cut into 2 inch sized pieces.
2. Double beans fresh - 20 seeds.
3. Sounf - 1/2 tbsp
4. cumin seeds - 1/2 tbsp
5. Poppy Seeds - 1/2 tbsp
6. Coconut - 1 cup
7. Cashew - 2
8. Green Chillies - 4 to 5
9. Fried gram - 4 tbsp.
10. Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
11. Tomato - 1 medium sized Chopped
12. Garlic - 6 to 8 cloves - chopped
13. Mustard - 1/2 tbsp
14. Urad dhal - 1/2 tbsp
15. Coriander leaves - little chopped
16. Currey leaves 5 to 6
17. Salt to Taste
18. Oil - 4 tbsp

Heat 2bsp of oil in a pan. Add the sounf, cumin seeds,poppy seeds and saute for 30 seconds. Add greenchillies, cashew, fried gram and cook till cashew and fried gram slightly turn color. Add the coconut and stir for 20 seconds. Remove from heat, let it cool and Grind it to a fine paste.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a cooker. Add Mustard and urad dhal and let them splitter. Add the onion, garlic and curry leaves.when the onion chage color andd the tomatoes, cauliflower and double beans. cook till the tomatoes are completely cooked. Now add the ground mixture and cook for a minute. Add water and salt as required. After a whistle, simmer for 5 mins and remove from heat.Garnish with Coriander leaves.

Serve hot with Rice or chapathi or idli or dosa! It goes well with both rice and tiffin items. Its more like a two in one :)

You can use potatoes instead of double beans. Potatoes and cauliflower also goes well.

Mixed Chutney - Malayala chutney

This is a recipe which I learnt from my mom-in-law. Thats how she calls it - Malayala Chutney. Basically it is a mixed chutney with great taste! Add all that you want and you like and your chutney is ready. Here it goes :)

1. Onion - 2 medium sided
2. Tomato - 1 medium sided
3. Ginger - 1/2 inch
4. Garlic - 2 to 3 cloves
5. Coconut grated - 8 tbsp or 1/4 cup
6. Green chilly - 1
7. Red chillies - 2
8. Tamarind - 1 inch piece
9. Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
10. Curry leaves - 1/4 cup
11. Mint leaves(Pudina) - 1/4 cup
12. Salt to taste
13. Mustard - 1/4 tbsp
14. Urad dhal - 1 tbsp
15. Toor dhal - 1 tbsp
16. Asafoetida - 1/2 tbsp
17. Oil - 2 tbsp

Heat Oil in a pan, add the mustard, urad dhal, toor dhal and saute for a minute. Add asafoetida . Add onion, green cilly, red chillies, ginger and garlic and saute for a min. Add  tomato and all the left out ingredients except for coconut. When the green leaves are half cooked add the coconut and continue stirring for 5 mins. The total quantity now would be half of what you added to the pan. Remove from heat, let it cool. Grind and serve with any type of dosa's or Idli.

They taste excellent! Try it out and find the difference in your home. I bet nothing would be left out :)

Special Rava Dosa

Coming up today is another ready to make dosa. You can prepare the flour and store it. This is just like wheat or rice flour. You can store it for 2 to 3 months.


 The method for the preparation of the flour.


1. Raw rice - 1 kg
2. Rava - 1 kg


If you have time, you can wash the rice and dry it, else use it just like that. Grind both the rice and rava together in the rice flour mill of your mixer to a very fine powder. Sieve and store in a box.


Its easy. Now it is available to you anytime you want to make. Lets see how to prepare the dosa now.

1. Ground flour - 2 cups
2. Salt to taste
3. Oil
4. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
5. cumin seeds - 1/2 tbsp
6. Urad dhal - 1/2 tbsp
7. Onion - 2 finely chopped
8. Ginger - 1 tbsp finely chopped
9. Green chillies - 2 finely chopped
10. Curry leaves - 10 to 15 finely chopped
11. Coriander leaves - handful finely chopped.


Heat a pan, add oil and season with mustard, cumin seeds and urad dhal. Add ginger, green chilles and curry leaves and saute for a minute. Add the onions and saute. When the onions slightly change color, remove from heat and add to the batter.

Heat the tava, and spread the batter just like maida- rava dosa, in the form of outer circle and the batter would run inwards and make dosa with lots of small holes in it. Add oil and cook on both sides till they turn light brown.

Crispy, special rava dosa ready! Serve hot with onion or tomato chutney.

If we keep the flour ready. then the preparation is instant, it would take a maximum of 10 minutes. Kids would like the taste of this dosa, as they are crispier and different from the usual one, they would enjoy it.

Maida - Rava Dosa

There are a lot of ready mix available these days for preparing dosa varieties. We can make a lot of them at home itself. It would save money, serve more number of times and important of all, will keep you healthy, coz there is no added preservatives for home made stuff. Here we go, lets try out one version of these kind of dosa's.


This is one of my favorite of my mom's preparation. They taste excellent!

1. Maida - 2 cups
2. Rava - 1 cup
3. Rice Flour - 1/2 cup
4. Onion - 3 medium sized finely chopped.
5. Mustard - 1/2 tbsp
6. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tbsp
7. Urad dhal - 1/2 tbsp
8. Ginger - 1 tbsp finely chopped
9. Green chillies - 2 very finely chopped
10. Curry leaves - 10 to 15 very finely chopped
11. Coriander leaves - handful finely chopped (optional)
12. Salt to taste
13. Oil

Mix Maida, Rava and rice flour together in a bowl. Add salt to your taste. Add 4 to 5 cups of water and mix to form the batter. The batter should be of soup or juice consistency (so thin). Keep it aside for 15 to 20 mins.

In the meantime, heat oil in a pan, add mustard, cumin seeds and urad dhal and saute for half a minute. Add the green chillies, ginger and curry leaves and saute for another half a minute. Add the onions and stir for 2 mins. when the onions change color slightly add this to the batter and mix well. Add the coriander leaves and mix.

The dosa mix is ready. Heat the tava. You cannot spread the batter as you make regular dosa's. so just pour it in the outer circle area of the tava and it would automatically move inwards and make dosa with lots of small holes in it. Add oil and roast it and cook on both sides till they turn little brown.

Crispy, tasty, yummy dosa ready. Serve hot with onion chutney.

Try this out and I bet you would love it.

Crispy Rice Wada

The weather is really good in bangalore for the whole week. Soo cold. How would it be to sit on a warm sofa and eat hot bhaji or wada? Just the thought makes me hungry. Here is something for you to try for this season.


1. Rice flour - 1 cup
2. Sounf - 1 tbsp
3. fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tbsp
4. Onion - 1 medium sized
5. Salt to taste
6. Oil to deep fry
7. Water - 3/4 cup
 
Add sounf and fenugreek to the water in a bowl and heat it for 5 minutes. Stain the water and heat it again. Add the rice powder and salt to it and stir. when it becomes thick and starts leaving the sides of the veseel, remove from heat. Add finely chopped onion and mix well.
 
Heat oil in a pan. Make lemon sized balls of the mixture, press them with your hands to the shape of thin wadas and deep fry them in oil and serve hot.
 
Easy to prepare and tasty to eat. If there are guests at home, and something needs to be prepared quick.Then, this is the right dish. It take a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes for preparation.
 
Its raining or are there guests? Be it any reason, try this out :)


Don't forget to let me know how it turned out :)

Palak Paneer

With so many us more caution about diet, it has become more of roti's these days. The main course being chapathi, the next question would be what sabzi? Something new everyday would be our thought. This dish is a common one prepared by most of us. I tried this out from Mariasmenu and turned out to be too good! And so sharing it with all of you.

1. Paneer – 200gm
2. Palak(spinach) – 1 bunch
3. Tomato – 2 medium
4. Ginger – 3/4 inch piece
5. Garlic – 5 to 6 cloves
6. Small onion – 4
7. Green chilli – 2
8. Onion – 1 chopped
9. Chilli powder – 1 tbsp
10. Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
11. Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
12. Garam Masala – 1/2 teaspoon
13. Salt to taste
14. Oil

Presuure cook palak, tomato, ginger, garlic, small onion,  green chilli in 2 cups of water for one whistle. Let it cool. Grind this to make a coarse paste.

Cut the panner into 1 inch cubes. Shallow fry them and keep them aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add the chopped onions.  Saute the onion till it becomes brown. Add the masala powders and stir for 5 minutes. Add palak paste and salt. Mix well. Add paneer cubes. Serve hot with roti.

It is a very simple and Healthy dish. It turned out really good. This was one of my best try of north indian recipes.

Hope it works out well for you as well :)

Kuli Paniyaram - Sweet and Salted - Paddu

Whenever I pass by any south indian restaurants in bangalore, I have noticed most of the north indians enjoying this dish. :) so it happpens to be the favourite of all kind of people. when prepared at home, you can have 2 versions of this, One is sweet and the other one is salted.

The batter is common for both. Lets first see how do we make the base.

1. Raw rice - 2 cups
2. Idly Rice(boiled rice) - 2 cups.
3. Urad dhal - 3/4 cup
4. Fenugreek seeds - 2 tbsp

Soak raw rice and idly rice together. Take another bowl and soak urad dhal and fengreek seeds.After 3 to 4 hours, grind the urad dhal and fenugreek seeds in a wet grinder as you do for idly. Remove this and then grind the rice also very finely. Now mix both together and leave it overnight.


The batter is ready to prepare in the morning.The sweet recipe goes first. Always start with a sweet :)


1. Jaggery to taste
2. Pinch of salt
3. Grated coconut
4. Ghee


Take a little powdered jaggerey according to your taste in a small bowl and add very little water just for it to get completely immersed. Heat the mixture and stir continuosly. When it has dissolved, take a little of the batter in another bowl and filter the dissolved liquid into the batter.


Add a pinch of salt and grated coconut to it and mix them well. Heat the non stick kuli paniyara pan, add a little ghee into each of the small cups on the pan, and fill half of these cups with the batter. Let it cook for a min, then turn it over with the stick, and leave it to cook for another minute. It should be toasted to light brown color on both sides. Serve hot.


Hot and sweet inippu paniyaram ready!


No worry if you dont have the kuli paniyaram pan, just use the same batter to prepare dosa. Vella Dosai is how it is called, this also would taste YUMMY :)


Now on we go to the salted version.


1. Onion - 3 medium sized (finely chopped)
2. Grated coconut - 1 cup
3. Curry leaves 12 to 15
4. Coriander leaves - a small bunch
5. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
6. Oil - 1tbsp
7. Ghee
8. Salt to taste


Heat a pan and add oil. When the oil is hot add the mustard seeds. Let it splitter. Add the Onion and curry leaves and cook till the onion change color. Let it cool. Add it to the remaining batter.Add salt, coconut and coriander leaves. Mix well. Heat the non stick kuli paniyara pan. Add a little ghee say a drop into each of the small cups on the pan, and fill half of these cups with the batter. Let it cook for a min, then turn it over with the stick, and leave it to cook for another minute.It should be toasted to light brown color on both sides. Serve hot with onion chutney.

For added flavour you can add grated coconut and cashew.

Since it is different from the usual dish, kids would love it, another reason being it is small in size, so they play and eat :)

Pudina Rice

I had gone to visit my sister this week, and joined my mom and sister for lunch. My mom had prepared pudina rice. It was totally different and very tasty. Thought would share with all of you. It can be added to our list of fried rice’s, for, whenever there is a party or gathering, we would like to have one type of fried rice. This dish would go well for these occasions.


Also, this dish would be fine for a hurry or working women as well as the preparation is very simple :)


1. Pudina - a small bunch cleaned
2. Rice - 200 gms
3. Garlic - 8 cloves
4. Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
5. Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
6. sounf - 1/4 tbsp
7. cumin - 1/4 tbsp
8. Green Chillies - 4
9. Ghee - 1 tbsp
10. Oil - 3 tbsp
11. Bay leaf - 1
12. Onion - 1 medium sized.
13. Water - 2 cups
14. Salt to taste

Peel ginger and garlic, add sounf, cumin, green chillies, pudina and grind it to a paste. Now, grind coconut separately into a fine paste.

Heat oil and Ghee in a cooker, add the Bay leaf. Leave it for 15 secs. Now add the Onion finely chopped. When the onion turns brown add the pudina mixed paste and stir for 2 mins. Then, add the coconut paste and stir for a minute. Add the washed rice and fry for one more minute. Add water and salt. Close the cooker and leave it for a whistle. Simmer for 5 mins and let it cool.

Serve hot with raita.

I can feel the smell of it..mmmmmmmmmmmm :)

Just let me know how it worked out for you :)

Garlic Podi – Poondu Podi

If you are the kind of a person who likes spicy food, then this is a right choice. Easy to prepare and tasty to relish. This dish goes well with idli or dosa.


1. Garlic – 30 cloves
2. Salt to taste
3. Chilli Powder – 2 tbsp
4. Oil – ½ cup


Peel the Garlic. Grind the Garlic and salt together. Heat oil in a pan. When it comes to boil, switch off and let it cool.

Add chilli powder to the ground mixture and mix well. When the oil is a little warm, add the oil to the mixture and mix well. Hot Red Garlic Podi is ready!

Serve with idli or dosa.

You can prepare it instantly as it takes very little preparation time and also you can store this podi for a week.

Bottle Gourd Dosa - Sorakkai dosai

Different varieties of Dosas following.... Here is another version of healthy dosa.

1. Bottle Gourd(Sorakkai) - 300 gms
2. Rice - 300 gms
3. Onion - 3 medium sized
4. coriander leaves a small bunch
5. Curry leaves - 5 to 6
6. Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
7. sounf - 1 tbsp
8. Asafoetida - 1/2 tbsp
9. Red chilli - 3
10. Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup
11. Salt to taste
12. Oil

Peel the skin and cut the bottle gourd to small pieces with the seeds.
Soak the rice before 2 to 3 hours for preparation.
Grind the rice, red chilly, Asafoetida, sounf, cumin seeds together little coarsely.Pour it to a bowl. Now grind the bottle gourd also little coarsely and mix it with the grinded rice.

Add salt to your taste. Now, finely chop Onions,Coriander leaves and curry leaves and add to the mixture. Add the grated coconut for extra flavour.

Heat the tava. spread a little of the dough on the tava and spread it like dosa. reduce the flame to half. add oil and cook for about a min. now turn the dosa on the tava and let it cook for another minute. when the dosa turns brown on both sides remove from heat.

Serve hot with chutney of your like. This dosa also goes well with any version onion or tomato chutney.

Enjoy the new healthy dosa!

Green gram Dosa - Paasipayar Dosai

Its time to write a breakfast! Just felt that I have to write a maincourse to be relished with the chutney written on my previous post.
Something different... Paasipayar Dosai! This is how we call it.. Green gram Dosa.

1. Whole Green Gram - 300 gms
2. Idly Rice(Boiled rice) - 300 gms
3. Onion - 3 medium sized
4. coriander leaves a small bunch
5. Curry leaves - 5 to 6
6. Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
7. sounf - 1 tbsp
8. Asafoetida - 1/2 tbsp
9. Red chilli - 3
10. Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup
11. Salt to taste
12. Oil

Soak the green gram for about 6 to 8 hours. Drain the water and let it sprout.Sprouted green grams have high fibre content and are very good for health. Soak the rice before 3 to 4 hours of preparation.Grind the rice, red chilly, Asafoetida, sounf, cumin seeds together, little coarsely. The ground mixture should not be very soft nor very coarse. Add little water when you grind. Pour it to a bowl. Now grind the sprouted green gram also in the similar fashion, little coarsely and mix it with the other ground mixture.
Add salt to your taste. Now finely chop Onions,Coriander leaves and curry leaves and add to the mixture. Add the grated coconut for extra flavour.
The consistency of the dosa mix should be like idly mix, like a thick gravy.
Now heat the tava. spread a little of the mixture on the tava like dosa. Reduce the flame to half. Add oil and cook for about a min. Now turn the dosa on the tava and let it cook for another minute. when the dosa turns brown on both sides remove from heat.
Serve hot with Onion chutney.

Healthy Dosa ready! :)

Onion Chutney

The most traditional south indian breakfast are Idli and Dosa. For the matter, any breakfast say paddu, akki roti, adai dosai, neer dosai we need a side dish. When we decide on what are we going to prepare for breakfast, the next thing to think is what will be the side dish?
Here we go with a whole variety of chutney's which would go very well with any south indian breakfast.
Onion Chutney
1. Onion - 4 medium sized
2. Tomato - 2 medium sized
3. Red Chilly - 4
4. Tamarind - 1 inch piece
5. Salt to Taste
6. Oil - 2 tbsp
7. Mustard - 1/4 tbsp
8. Urad Da1 - 1 tbsp
9. Asafoetida - 1/4 tbsp
10. Curry leaves - 5 to 6 leaves
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard, urad dal and let it splitter. Add asafoetida. Now add all the remaining ingredients and fry. Keep stirring it continously till the onions turn brown and tomoatos are completely cooked. When all the water from tomato is dried up, remove the pan from heat.Let it cool. Grind it and serve with idli or dosa.
More varieties of chutney's to follow :)

Rava Toffee

Hello All!

This is my first blog.

Let me start my first blog with a Sweet message.
Here is the sweet for all who read my blog.
Get said go.. Just walk around with a small bag and shop Rava, sugar, milk and ghee.
Enjoy the blog with Rava toffee.
Take 1/4 cup of rava, 1/4 cup of ghee, 3/4 cup of milk and 3/4 cup of sugar.
Add all the ingridents to a bowl. Start heating the mixture and keep stirring it continuosly. Once the mixture starts getting thicker, try making a small ball with a little piece, if it doesnt stick to your hand and make a fine ball, you are done.
Apply ghee on a small plate and pour this mixture to it. Let it cool.
Cut them into small pieces of your favourite shape and enjoy the toffee.

It would melt in your mouth :)
Kids love this home made toffee!