Peas Fried Rice.

This is a very quick and easy dish. This is something which i would prefer doing it for lunch to office. It tastes good and takes the minimum time :) It would also serve as a good dish when you prepare a whole menu for a grand dinner or lunch party.

Lets see what are the ingredients:

1. Onion meidum sided - 2 thinly sliced.
2. Garlic - 12-14 cloves.
3. Green Chillies - 4
5. Bay leaf - 1
6. Oil - 5tbsp
7. Peas - 1/2 cup
8. Rice - 1 cup
9. Water - 125ml
10.Salt to taste.
11. Coconut milk - 100 ml

Preparation of Coconut milk: This is something which most of them know. In case if you are new to cooking, then this might help you. Grind half a grated coconut with a glass water. Then filter the liquid and remove the coconut. Use only the coconut milk.

Preparation of peas rice:

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Saute the bay leaf, when it turns brown add the onion, garlic and green chillies and cook till the onion and garlic are half brown. Add the peas and cook for another minute. Add rice and cook for a minute. Now add the coconut milk and water. Both together should be in 1:225 ml ratio with rice.

Add salt to your taste and close the pressure cooker. Cook for one whistle and simmer it for 5 minutes then. Remove from heat.

Serve hot with pomogranite salad! The color of the rice is also exciting for kids white with green balls :)

It would taste yummy! It will be everyone's favourite soon in your house as well :)

Try it out and leave me your commnets.

Green Gram Dhal

Its long time since a post. North Indian or south indian, these days its chapathi for dinner in most of our houses. So, what will be the side dish, something different every now and then to keep it interesting for kids to eat.

Green Gram - 200gm.
Tomato - 4 medium sized
Green chillies - 4
Garlic - 8 cloves
Bay leaf - 1
Water - 3 cups (600 ml)
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp
Jeera - 1/2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 5 to 6
Onion - 1 medium sized
Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp

Pressure cook green gram, tomatoes, garlic, bayleaf, 3 green chillies, chilli powder, half salt and water for 15 to 20 minutes in simmer anfter steam, so that green gram is compltely cooked.

Heat oil in pan, add jeera, onion thily sliced, 1 green chilly, curry leaves. Fry till the onion turns brown.

remove the green chillies and bay leaf from the pressure cooked mixture and mix the remaining ingredients. Add the fried onion to this and bring it to boil. Add water and salt according to the consistency you require.Serve hot!

It tastes good with chapathis, idli and rice.

It is a very healthy dish for all ages :)

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.