VIRUNDHOMBAL

There are endless varieties of masalas and gravies in our everyday cooking. These days, I consciously try to prepare most dishes using minimal oil and without adding rich ingredients like fresh cream or cashew paste. Personally, I feel that light gravies and simple masalas are easier to digest and also give a lot of satisfaction after a meal. Rich, cream-based gravies can always be enjoyed occasionally, maybe once a month — that’s my personal choice. Today, I got fresh cauliflower and tender green peas, and I decided to make a simple homestyle masala using very little oil and no cream. By lightly roasting the vegetables and cooking them in a well-balanced onion-tomato masala, the flavour turned out so comforting and delicious. This kind of curry feels light on the stomach, yet full of taste, making it perfect for everyday meals. This Cauliflower Peas Potato Masala pairs beautifully with chapati, roti or rice and is a great example of how simple ingredients, when cooked with care, can c...

Cauliflower fry is a popular and delicious dish. Today, we'll see a crispy cauliflower fry recipe. A blend of gram flour, rice flour, and corn flour provides a satisfying crunch and texture, while ginger garlic paste and seasonings add plenty of flavour.  Here are some essential tips to make a tasty cauliflower fry  Use fresh and tender cauliflower florets. Avoid soaking cauliflower in hot water for more than 5 minutes. Fresh ginger garlic paste brings a burst of freshness and flavor; always opt for fresh paste. For maximum flavor, marinate the coated cauliflower florets to allow seasonings to penetrate deeply. Ensure the coated batter is thick enough to coat but not too dry (which makes it hard) or watery (which leads to poor results). Deep-frying the coated cauliflower florets on medium heat yields the perfect taste. Allow them to cook thoroughly in medium-heated oil, then flip for even cooking. Check out my other Evening Snacks Recipes Vazhaikkai (Plantain) Bajji  Caul...

Today we are going to see an interesting street style vegetable fried rice with simple cooking techniques. For the past twenty years, vegetable fried rice and pani puri have been a favourite food for many of us. Everywhere we can see, these two dishes are the stars of the street food. One day during our trip to Tirumala, I learnt this street style vegetable fried rice from a street food vendor. He prepared varieties of fried rice within a few minutes, very casually. As he was preparing, I saw exactly how it was done. There's something magical about eating hot fried rice on the streets.The sound of the street vendors tossing the tang tang with their wok is always enjoyable to me. How to make street style vegetable fried rice in your home kitchen  You can use basmati rice or long grain rice. Always prefer the open pot method to cook the rice for fried rice. The texture will be perfect with less stickiness. Brands such as Unity and India Gate are perfect for fried rice.  You can ...

Easy Vegetable Kurma - an easy one pot kurma that's ready in 30 minutes and tastes good for chapathi, poori, parotta, idiyappam, aapam and ghee rice. I have been making this easy vegetable Kurma for many years and it is a favourite of mine. If you like vegetable kurma with mild flavours, give this a try. Personally, I like to experiment with vegetable kurma recipes a lot because they are our evergreen side dish for chapathi and poori. Nothing can beat vegetable kurma for chapathi. This easy vegetable kurma is also incredible, similar to my hotel vegetable kurma with little variations in the method.  How to make Easy Vegetable Kurma Before you start making this kurma make sure you have all the ingredients prepared and ready to go. Dice all the vegetables and chop the onions and tomatoes. Prepare fresh ginger garlic paste, grate fresh coconut. Soak the dry green peas for 6 hours.  To make the process easy, I suggest preparing the kurma in a pressure cooker or pressure pan. It re...

Capsicum onion pakoda  is an easy tea time snack made using onions, capsicum, besan flour, rice flour, chilli powder and garlic. When we were in the US, I frequently prepared these pakodas with tri-colored capsicums as a starter for potluck parties. This pakoda tastes yum with our meals also.  To make onion capsicum pakoda, you need to cut them uniformly. You need to cut the onions and capsicums into slightly thicker pieces. Discard all the seeds and the thin white layer in the capsicums and then slice them equally. After slicing the onions and capsicums you are left with just mixing the flour, chilly powder, crushed garlic and frying it until crispy and golden. Now let's see how to make this onion capsicum pakoda with step by step pictures.  Check out my other Evening Snacks Recipes Vazhaikkai (Plantain) Bajji  Cauliflower Fry    Nullikai urundai - Urid dal balls Kara Vadai -  Pattani Paruppu (Yellow Split Peas) Bonda Sabudana Vada -  Javarisi Va...

This Carrot halwa is a classic dessert from North India made with Delhi red carrots, milk, sugar, nuts and ghee. This recipe will give you the perfect, rich and melt in your mouth carrot halwa. It is a healthy dessert when compared to other halwa dishes. As carrots are naturally sweet, we are adding very less sugar and ghee and no kova. The cooking methods are also easy. The only tough part is grating the carrots evenly without any solid pieces and stirring constantly for 1 to 1.5 hours. In this recipe, I have used Delhi carrots which are slightly pink in colour. You can also use orange Ooty carrots which are widely available in our markets. Try to use fresh, bright and juicy carrots.  I always prefer to use full cream milk for carrot halwa as it adds richness and creaminess to the halwa. For flavours I have added cardamom and you can also use a few saffron strands. For parties you can serve this halwa with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream and chopped pistachio nuts on the top. It tast...

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 a...

Today we are going to see our all time favourite Chana Masala. It's a simple yet complete food that's easy to make within 30 minutes. I got this recipe from our friend's mom who is from Bodi. The flavours are just delicious. She gave me one kg of her homemade garamasala powder and it is one of our new favourites! The garamasala powder is free from the addition of preservatives, artificial colours and mono sodium glutamate. Any masalas or kurmas made with a unique blend of spices, tastes good. I have been trying to make my own garamasala powder but just keep putting it off. Now I am confident to prepare homemade garamasala powder as she clearly explained the recipe with exact ingredients and measurements. I will try posting the homemade garamasala recipe in virundhombal soon. During our visit to their house, she prepared so many dishes and all of them were lip smacking and the masalas were perfectly balanced, not overpowering the other.  This Chana masala is not the authenti...