VIRUNDHOMBAL

Tomato Kurma - easy and flavourful kurma with onions, tomatoes and coconut paste. One of the best thing about this tomato kurma is that you can use as a base gravy for many dishes. After preparing this kurma, you can add your favourite ingredients like boiled soya chunks, cooked mushrooms, cooked green peas or whatever is left in your refrigerator. But don't forget to precook them. I like this tomato kurma with plain dosa, chapati or poori. Believe me, this kurma is one of the best option when you want to prepare a gravy within 10 minutes. I like the flavour of fennel and curry leaves in my coconut based kurmas. Not only it gives flavour to the gravy and it also helps in digestion. This kurma recipe isn’t a dish with specific instructions, it’s a simple process of three basic cooking methods and will always taste good with whatever tiffin you like. Now we will see the Tomato Kurma recipe with step by step instructions.

Masala Vadai - delicious evening snack prepared with chana dal or yellow split peas as the main ingredient. This masala vadai is not only an evening snack, but it is also a favourite side dish for our lunch too. Really, I enjoy this masala vadai with lemon rice and curd rice. Most of our traditional snacks are easily  prepared with healthy ingredients using simple methods. Masala vadai requires simple preparation works like soaking and grinding the dals. These two methods require some attention so be careful while preparing the dough.

Nellikai Sadham - a healthy rice for your lunch box with simple cooking methods. Once again thanks to my Karthi Uncle who taught me the Aloo Gobi recipe prepared this healthy rice. The way we prepare for lemon rice and mango rice applies to this Amla(Nellikai) rice also. In addition, we want to grind the amlas in a mixer jar without any water and then we have to saute it with our classic tempering ingredients. Ponni raw rice is much preferred when preparing these type of rice varieties, but if you are looking for a healthier choice you may replace it with cooked millets.

Udupi Sambar - colourful and flavourful sambar for idly, dosa and vada. Udupi Sambar is prepared with the same spices and vegetables we add for tiffin sambar but we use bydagi chillies which give a deep red colour for the sambar. Bydagi chillies are roasted along with our regular spices like coriander, cumin, chana dal and fenugreek and then ground it to a smooth paste. The bydagi chillies are also known as Kashmiri chilli and are available in all supermarkets. This bydagi chilly is a less hot than a regular long chilly. So if you want a less spicy sambar for tiffin, choose this Udupi Sambar. The secret to getting the sambar to a smooth consistency with a deep red colour is we have to add the ground paste as soon as the vegetables are done and boil them slow and long so they cook perfectly. The slow cooking method helps to blend well with the vegetables. Then we have to add the cooked toor dal and jaggery. For Udupi Sambar I prefer drumsticks, brinjal, small onions and tomatoes. You...

Sweet Pidi Kozhukkatai - a classic prasadam recipe for pooja made with raw rice, jaggery, coconut, moong dal and black sesame seeds. This Pidi Kozhukkatai is a popular kozhukattai dish with different variations, although the most common method is prepared with the freshly prepared homemade rice flour as we do for maa vilakku. As I said in my previous posts, the coconut adds a great flavour to the jaggery based desserts.

Vazhaikkai (Plantain) Poriyal can be prepared in many different methods. It is a vegetable that can be used for most of us during fasting. It is included in our diet after the fasting is over. It is helpful in boosting the immune system and regulate digestion. We prepare plantain puttu or plantain poriyal or aviyal during fasting and other important days like Pournami, Shasti and Ammavasa.