VIRUNDHOMBAL

Tomato Dosa is a simple and tasty tiffin for breakfast or dinner. Rice, urid dal and tomatoes are the main ingredients for this dosa. Onions, curry leaves and other extra flavours can be added as you wish. There is no need for fermentation process for this dosa. You can prepare right after you grind the batter.

Sweet corn and Paneer Pulav- simple and easy pulav with mild flavours. This Pulav is best for kids lunch box as they like both the sweet corn kernels and paneer cubes. The freshly ground ginger, garlic and green chilly paste adds a beautiful colour and a wonderful flavour for the Pulav. So please do not skip the ground paste or do not use ready made paste. In this Pulav, I have not used either tomatoes or lemon juice instead I have added thick curd while sauteing the onions. After cooking the Pulav, the paneer cubes are sauted in ghee or oil and then added to the rice.

Brinjal poriyal is a spicy and tasty side dish for many South Indian dishes. And also, for those who want to eat brinjals simply as a starter with less oil, this brinjal poriyal is the best one. For this brinjal poriyal, pick brinjals with smooth skin and heavy in size. You can use any kind of brinjal you have on hand. Recently, I made it with green brinjals. It's hard to cook crispy brinjals with a short time of cooking. But it is possible if you cook the brinjals on medium heat with frequent turns. One more trick to get crispy brinjals is to cook the brinjals in a heavy bottomed kadai and without any water. I prefer gingely oil or groundnut oil for brinjals and for brinjal poriyal I always use crushed garlics. Serve this brinjal poriyal with lemon rice, mango rice or rasam.

Sabudana vada is a perfect evening snack for your kids with simple ingredients in your kitchen. I learnt this recipe from Chef Prabhakar Prajapati. I actually cooked this vada for the first time and it was so yummy. It's perfect for an evening snack, potlucks and also for poojas. I prefer serving this vada with a simple coconut chutney or tomato ketchup, but you can serve it with anything.

Karakuzhambu - spicy and tangy kuzhambu with a combination of different flavours. This hotel style karakuzhambu is one of my husband's favourite kuzhambu served in restaurants for meals. After a few practices, I found the exact flavour and it was a big hit in our home. Tamil Nadu cooking is famous for its varieties of kuzhambu. This Karakuzhambu is one among them. The kara kuzhambu can be  prepared in two ways -  with vegetables like drumstick or brinjal and the other one is prepared with dried vathals like sundakkai vathal etc. Today we are going to see how to prepare hotel style karakuzhambu with dried sundakkai vathal.

Semiya Upma is one of my favourite tiffin. This plain semiya upma is such an easy tiffin that you can prepare within 10 minutes. For this plain semiya upma I prefer fine vermicelli (Anil semiya) which is perfect for this dish. I will tell some important tips for this upma.

Pachadi is prepared in two different methods - some are prepared with fresh curd while the other method is we have to cook the vegetable along with onions and tomatoes. Bitter gourd pachadi is prepared by the second method. Since bitter gourds have bitterness we have to add a good amount of chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, tamarind extract and finally a piece of jaggery. The coconut paste is the main ingredient in our cooking, so it is included in this dish also. There are many dishes with bitter gourd that we regularly prepare for our lunch, but this bitter gourd pachadi is extremely different with different flavours. This recipe is also similar to my ladies finger pachadi and the only extra ingredient in this dish is the jaggery. We will see the recipe in detail with step by step instructions.

Maa Vilakku is a typical sweet that makes a healthy prasadam filled with raw rice, jaggery and ghee. Perfect for poojas with simple ingredients. Maavilakku brings so many memories while growing up. Both my mom and Grandma never skip a special Poojas  without some prasadam. This maavilakku is one among them and it wasn't like a prasadam we had this maavilakku as an evening snack.