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FAVOURITE RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Tomato Thokku - Thakkali thokku

Tomato thokku - easy homemade thokku prepared with tomatoes, chilly powder, tamarind and fenugreek powder. An interestingly unique side dish for any breads and rice. You can also use this thokku as a base to prepare tomato rice, tomato poha upma or tomato idiyappam.


Tomatoes are evergreen vegetable, so you can prepare this whenever you want it. Like the mango thokku, this tomato thokku is also prepared by the same method, but we have to use tamarind extract for this thokku to increase the shelf life. For best tomato thokku, the tomatoes are sauted in the oil on medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes. I always prefer to cook many of my dishes on low to medium heat for perfect results. The next important point is to use heavy bottomed hindalium kadai as it retains the heat uniformly. As i told  in my garlic thokku recipe, do not use iron or non stick kadai for thokku or any tamarind based dishes. It is important to stir the thokku in between to avoid burns, especially after adding the chilly…
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Potato Chips - Homemade Potato Chips

Potato chips - yummy homemade chips recipe for your kids. Many different kinds of potato chips are available in stores with different flavours and shapes. But homemade products are always safe for us. Do you agree? Tell your kids why homemade snacks are better than store bought snacks.


The potato is a commonly used vegetable in our kitchen and you can prepare these chips when you have free time. The potatoes are sliced thinly and then soaked in the water for 20 to 30 minutes to remove the starch in it. After 20 minutes, the slices are dried in a white cloth for 2 hours without any moisture. This method helps to get a  crispy chips. Soaking and drying the slices are the important steps that you must follow for this potato chips. Once the slices are dried without any moisture, then they are deep fried on low heat. For deep frying little patience is very important to get perfect results. Don’t be hurry to finish the frying process, because the chips will turn soggy or you will get a bro…
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Potato Masala Dosa

Potato masala dosas are those dosas that nobody can say no to it. You can easily prepare this masala dosas by simple techniques. For potato masala dosa we will first see about how to prepare the masal. Potatoes are the main ingredient for the masala. Plus, we have to add onions, green chillies, ginger and other tempering ingredients. The potatoes must be cooked well to get a smooth masala. Next we are going to see about the dosa batter. The simple method is to prepare with the regular idli dosa batter. The batter should be light and you must prepare the dosa as thin as possible. I strongly suggest to use iron dosa pan for preparing dosas. There are many new non stick dosa pans are available, but I have not tested with them. I suggest to cook the dosas on low to medium low heat. When dosas are cooked for a few seconds, gently scrape the thick layer with a spatula to get thin dosas. After a few practice, you will find your perfect timing and temperature to scrape it.  We will see how t…
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Agathi Keerai Poriyal | Humming bird tree leaves stir fry

In our motherland there are so many varieties of greens. Different varieties of greens such as murungai keerai, ponnangani keerai, manathakkali keerai, agathi keerai are nature's gift for us because there are so many health benefits in each and every greens. Cooking greens properly is very important for digestion. Particularly, for agathi keerai poriyal, we have to cook the leaves well because the leaves are thick and  it takes more time to cook when compared to other greens.


Naturally, this keerai has a very good flavour too. It's slightly bitter and is combined with the coconut and cooked toor dal to prepare a delicious poriyal. The ground coconut paste is the final touch of many dishes in Tirunelveli cooking and in addition to it a tbsp of powdered jaggery and coconut oil is added to this poriyal to enhance the taste. Now we will see some important points to remember about this keerai.
After removing the leaves from the stalk  don't need to chop the leaves. Just toss th…
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Sambar Vada - Medhu Vada with Sambar

Sambar vada - easy and tasty  homemade sambar vada with simple cooking methods. For this Diwali, we prepared a lot of medhu vada and sambar for morning breakfast. In the evening, my husband came into the kitchen and quickly prepared a tasty sambar vada for us with the leftover sambar and vadas within 15 minutes. Everyone was so happy with the tasty sambar vada and we were not able to stop at just one vada.  Before that, I haven't prepared sambar vada. After a week, I prepared this sambar vada and it came out really well.


The recipe for the sambar is same as the tiffin sambar recipe posted early this year. The only change in the tiffin sambar recipe is that I have added toor dal instead of moong dal because moong dal will be thick for sambar vada. The fried medhu vadas are soaked in the warm water for 10 minutes and then added in the hot sambar. The tiffin sambar can be made ahead of time and refrigerated. Just warm the sambar in a broad pan or kadai to soak the vadas. For vadas I…
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Cauliflower Fry - Easy Evening Snack with Cauliflower

Cauliflower fry is a favorite evening snack for my son Siva. This cauliflower fry is a deep fried snack, which many of us will order as a starter in restaurants. This cauliflower fry is an easy dish to prepare, but it requires some little attention to get perfect results. The ready made mix for snacks are slowly entering in many of our kitchens for cooking easily without much effort. But it's not healthy as it includes artificial colour, preservatives and monosodium glutamate. Actually, preparing homemade snacks is very easy and healthy too.


This cauliflower fry includes besan flour, rice flour, corn flour and maida. To add the flavours ginger garlic paste, chilly powder and lemon juice are added. After mixing the batter, it takes only 20 minutes to prepare it. Now we will see some important tips for Cauliflower fry.
When selecting cauliflower, always choose medium flower which is tightly packed. If they have black spots then it's not fresh.
The consistency of the batter sh…
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Sambar Powder - Homemade Sambar Podi

Sambar powder - perfect homemade sambar powder with few basic ingredients in your kitchen. My mom is an expert in preparing homemade spice powders for kuzhambu varieties. This is also my mom's recipe. My mom taught me that fresh ingredients are all you need to make a good sambar powder. Plus, roasting the spices right before powdering gives the sambar powder more flavour. So  always try to use fresh spices for sambar powder.


Sambar powder tastes good with the perfect blend of spices. For this measurement, you will get around 250 grams of sambar powder which will be good for 2 to 3 months. The first thing about making sambar powder I learned was this : the dals and coriander seeds need to be roasted in the correct heat until you can smell a nice aroma from it. Excess roasted chana dal and coriander seeds will change the taste also. If the spices are not roasted well, then there will be no flavour in the sambar powder. The next important thing is roasting the dried chillies. We hav…
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Kuzhi Paniyaram - Healthy South Indian Tiffin

Kuzhi Paniyaram is an easy and healthy tiffin prepared with a few basic ingredients in our kitchen.Once you have decided to prepare kuzhi paniyaram for your dinner, prepare the batter and allow it to ferment for 5 to 7 hours.  You can also ferment the batter overnight and you can prepare a healthy tiffin for your family during weekends. Makes an easy tiffin for your regular week night or weekend breakfast. It's spongy and slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.


In this kuzhi paniyaram recipe, you need idly rice, raw rice, urid dal, fenugreek and other tempering ingredients. Many people prepare kuzhi paniyaram with the dosa batter, but I recommend to grind the batter separately for kuzhi paniyaram. Never skip the fenugreek because it  helps to give you a soft and spongy paniyarams. To add additional flavours I have added fresh grated coconuts, chopped onions and green chillies. For frying the kuzhi paniyaram you can use groundnut oil or gingely oil. Finally, don'…
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