VIRUNDHOMBAL

Sweet Corn Jeera rice - Rice Cooked with sweet corn and flavoured with cumins A hearty and delicious rice with basmati rice, sweet corn kernels and tossed in ghee or butter with cumins. Simply Delicious!! Now a days sweet corns are available any time of year and onions, green chillies and other spices are kitchen staples for most people, so this is really a best and easy dish.  Adding fresh sweet corn kernels and roasted cumins look beautiful in the rice. With a side of any light gravies, this rice is beautiful to serve for your holiday lunch or dinner. You can use jeera samba rice instead of the basmati rice,  but I prefer the basmati since its flavour was so nice in this dish. When making this rice if your sweet corn kernels are not fresh or don't look in bright yellow colour the rice would not taste good either. So try to use fresh sweet corn kernels for this rice. Let's see how to prepare this Sweet Corn Jeera Rice with step by step photos. The best side dish for this ri

Chilly Bread (Breads with spicy onion tomato paste) If few slices of bread are left untouched in our kitchen, then I will prepare this  chilly bread within 20 minutes.  Back to my college days, I quickly gather some ingredients and prepare this quick lunch with a side salad. Even now, this chilly bread is a quick and tasty lunch for my son. This crispy chilly bread is flavoured with ginger garlic paste, onions, tomatoes and garamasala powder and served with few fresh onions. These chilly breads were made with sandwich bread slices. I have consistently used sandwich bread slices for this recipe because they are perfect when they are mixed with the onion tomato mixture. The other varieties of bread slices tend to change its cubical shapes after mixed. The bread slices toast in the pan and then tossed in a spicy onion tomato mixture. Besides the sliced onions and tomatoes that I use to flavour the breads, you can also add thinly sliced green capsicums and topped with fried cashew nuts

Paruppu Keerai (Common purslane greens ) Kootu/ Greens with dal I always like to work any greens into our diet because they are just good for you and I happen to know these types of kootu are really delicious with any South Indian meals and also for rotis & parathas. I like paruppu keerai greens very much because it's flavorful and quite healthy. I added some chopped tomatoes for taste and soaked moong dal for thickness and as usual, small onions coconut paste for the flavours. You can eat them as a side dish or you can mix it in a bowl of plain rice and eat it as a meal. I kept the ingredients pretty simple, but if you want to make it rich you could add some chopped garlics, green chillies or even some chopped big onions. The amount of kootu that this recipe makes will vary a quite bit depending on the size of the keerai(greens) bunch. My kootu yielded about 2 cups, but you could even add another bunch if you want more. Similar Keerai Recipes Mudakathan Keerai Dos

Vazhai thandu(Plantain pith) thuvaram/stir fry Vazhai thandu thuvaram is one of my all time favourite side dish for meals. Vazhai thandu has a good source of fiber, pottasium, phosphorus, B6 and calcium. Having banana stem in our food will prevent constipation and ulcer problems as it contains lots of fiber. Most of time when I cook vazhai thandu(plantain pith) in the deep vessel there is a  lot of leftover juice that end up going to a healthy soup. Vazhai thandu(plantain pith) likes to retain its water, so drain the water completely or give it a slight squeeze with your hands after draining. Precooked vazhai thandu(plantain pith) is the best for thuvaram and salads. This method also helps to remove its woodiness in the stem. 

Coconut Milk tomato aval upma (Flattened rice upma with coconut milk) A mild aval(poha, flattened rice) recipe with tomatoes, onions, coconut milk and crushed peanuts. It is easy to make and doesn't require too many ingredients. Some people find cooking this type of aval upmas  a little tricky so follow these simple points for good results.

Malabar Vellarika Patchadi / Indian Yellow cucumber in coconut paste. This Malabar Vellari is from the same family as squash.  Malabar vellarika is a high moisture vegetable  which makes it perfect for patchadi. This type of Vellari is widely used in Kerala foods.  T he traditional Kerala patchadi is made with coconut paste and curd but in this reci pe I made with onions, tomatoes and coconut paste. This dish is  colourful, tangy  and a great side dish for your meals. My husband loves this vegetable so much and he likes finding creative ways to use veggies in our traditional foods. This recipe requires some chopping work, but it looks beautiful in the resulting dish.  For best results, saute the chopped malabar vellarika on low flame  and don't overcook them, as they become mushy. The chopped tomatoes and green chillies give the patchadi a beautiful colour. This recipe is made with standard yellow malabar vellarika but it would be equally delicious with any tender summer squash