VIRUNDHOMBAL

Paruppu podi is a healthy, protein rich dish with very simple ingredients. I personally enjoy this paruppu podi with (suda suda sadham) hot rice, appalam and ghee. I wanted to post this paruppu podi for a long time, and recently got the recipe from my mom with exact measurements. As it is the fasting season now, this paruppu podi will be perfect to mix with the pacharisi sadham. Also, this is a perfect podi to send to your children who study abroad.  There are many different ways to prepare paruppu podi. We usually follow this method, and it stays good for 2 months if stored in an airtight container. To make this paruppu podi, measure all the ingredients and keep them ready to roast. I would like to share some important tips to make perfect paruppu podi.  To get the best result, ensure the dals and spices are fresh and clean. For uniform roasting, I recommend roasting all the ingredients on a medium heat.  Red chillies and peppercorns are added for the spiciness. You can increase or de

Instant Milk Peda recipe with full video and step by step pictures. A simple way to prepare homemade milk peda is this instant milk peda recipe with just three ingredients within 15 minutes. Traditional milk peda is prepared by simmering the milk for 1.5 to 2 hours to prepare the khoya. Then the khoya is further combined with sugar to prepare pedas. For those deciding to prepare homemade milk peda for the first time, this method is the best. Once you become expert in preparing basic milk peda, you can start experimenting with different flavours. Various milk sweets in sweet shops quickly attract children with their colour and designs. Starting from my childhood days milk peda is one of my favourite sweets and I was very eager to search for milk peda recipe in cookbooks and tv shows to prepare homemade milk peda. Two years back, I saw this instant milk peda recipe in the living food cookery channel and prepared it for last year's Diwali without any tweaks. It turned out great and we

In most of the houses, ribbon pakoda with rice flour or ribbon pakoda with ground rice batter will be made for Diwali. A few months ago, bought this ragi flour ribbon pakoda from Sri Krishna's Lala shop in Tenkasi  and it tasted good with soft crispy texture. When I was planning to post Diwali recipes, my son Siva suggested to try ragi flour ribbon pakoda. To make this ragi flour pakoda you will need ragi flour, rice flour, fried gram flour, butter, asafoetida powder, white sesame seeds, asafoetida powder and oil. The butter gives the crispness and fried gram flour makes the pakoda slightly crumbly.  Tips for Ragi flour ribbon pakoda 1. Make sure to use fresh ragi flour because the old ragi flour has a nutty taste and not suitable for pakodas.  2. Roasted gram flour can be replaced with besan flour but, the texture will be slightly hard.  3. If you are not getting proper ribbon shape, then your dough is too moist, then add some rice flour and knead again.  4. If it is very hard to

Saamai manathakkali keerai rice is a healthy one pot rice that takes just 20 minutes with easily available ingredients.  This rice consists of little millets (saamai rice), black nightshade greens (manathakkali keerai), small onions, tomato, garlic, moong dal and my secret masala powder. I use little millets in this recipe, you can also use Kodo millet or barnyard millet which also tastes good. You may also use regular ponni rice, but you need to adjust the water and cooking time. Before you start to cook this rice together, you need to prepare the masala powder for the rice. Chana dal, cumin, pepper, red chilli, curry leaves and coconut are dry roasted for a few minutes and then coarsely powdered in a mixer jar. Manthakkali leaves are easy to separate from the stem when compared to other greens. Once the chopping works and the roasting works are ready, saute everything together in a pressure cooker. To add protein, I used split moong dal as it tastes good with manathakkali leaves. Thi