VIRUNDHOMBAL

Welcome to our new series featuring my beautiful cast iron vessels! During our recent trip to Madurai, we discovered the wonderful Sikandar shop, where we picked up these stunning cast iron vessels. They have an amazing variety of products, and we were impressed with the quality. In today's post, I'll show you how to make a delicious sweet potato fry using one of our new cast iron skillets - and the best part? It's made with very little oil! Sweet potatoes are a staple in our kitchen, adaptable to countless preparations like fries, sabji, and roasts. This pan-fried version is quick and delicious, seasoned with a simple mix of crushed garlic and homemade red chili flakes. Customize the spices to your taste and enjoy a flavorful side dish.  This pan-fried sweet potato recipe is one of the easiest ways to get crispy sweet potatoes without any complicated steps. Many recipes suggest parboiling or steaming the sweet potatoes first to shorten the cooking time. However, this recip...

Cozy up with a warm and comforting bowl of street style sundal masala, perfect for the winter season. This flavorful evening snack is made with a combination of green and yellow peas, cooked in an aromatic gravy. To prepare this dish, soak the peas for 7-9 hours, then pressure cook until soft. The magic lies in the ground masala, featuring onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, and mint leaves. Add a blend of chilly powder, kuzhambu chilly powder, and garam masala powder to elevate the flavor. Finish with a sprinkle of chat masala and a garnish of chopped onions, grated carrot, and coriander leaves. Now let's see the detailed recipe to prepare this mouthwatering Sundal Masala gravy.  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 Vadai Ulundha Vada  Tapioca Bonda  Urad dal Bonda...

Sweet corn fried rice - another fried rice recipe without any sauce, vinegar and mono sodium glutamate. This fried rice tastes exactly like the heaping fried rice you order at the restaurant. It's fluffy, full of flavour with crunchy capsicum pieces and impossible to stop with one plate.  So, what makes Sweet corn fried rice special? It's all about that beautiful yellow colour and mild sweet taste from the fresh sweet corn kernels. The rice is flavoured with black pepper powder, green chillies and cloves. I also added a handful of fresh green capsicum in my sweet corn fried rice. Just dice the capsicum  and do not saute it for more than 30 seconds. This sweet corn fried rice takes about 10 minutes of preparation to get the veggies diced, another 5 minutes to remove the sweet corn kernels, then 10 minutes to cook the rice. I hope you like this Sweet corn fried rice recipe and kindly watch the video for step by step instructions. I have been experiencing severe shoulder pain for...

Make this delicious lemon rice with fresh lemon and freshly ground masala powder for your lunch box this week. Lemon rice is one of the favourite lunch box dishes for my husband and I tried this new recipe with puliyodarai flavour. Here comes the lemon rice recipe with the flavours of puliyodarai but without any tamarind.  All you need for this rice - lemons, rice, chana dal, coriander seeds, red chillies, white sesame seeds, peanuts and the regular tempering ingredients. I learned this recipe from my Grandmother and this is one of my favourite rice varieties these days.  How to prepare the masala powder You can prepare the masala powder well ahead of time. Just roast fenugreek, chana dal, coriander seeds, red chillies and white sesame seeds without any oil. Grind it to a fine powder. That's it. Your masala powder is ready. When needed, do the tempering procedures and add the lemon juice. Then mix the cooked rice and the masala powder. I have used white sesame seeds in this re...

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 ...

Try this easy and quick nenthram pazham halwa for your kids. When I think about easy yet delicious, sweet dishes, Nanjil recipes come to my kitchen. There are many delicacies in Nanjil cuisine which are healthy and easy. From payasam to halwa, we like traditional dishes. And this nenthram pazham halwa is one among them. Pagu vellam (dark brown jaggery) gives a nice lingering taste to the halwa. The best part is that it can be made within 20 minutes. Now let's see how to prepare this Nenthram pazham halwa.  Check out my other sweet recipes  Thiribagam (Three in one delight) Rava ladoo Kaju Katli   Rava Ladoo - Easy Rava Ladoo Recipe Kesar peda Easy Milk Sweet Chocolate Burfi Mango and Coconut Burfi Moong dal flour Ladoo Coconut Burfi Paal Kova with milk powder  Paal Kova with Naatu Sarkkarai Kesari Pineapple Kesari Milk Kesari Mango Kesari Badam Katli - Almond Fudge Carrot Burfi Dry Gulab Jamun Easy Milk Sweet Badam Coconut Burfi Badam Burfi  Badusha Potato Halwa...

Vegetable ragi millet noodles recipe with step-by-step instructions. Recently I bought this ragi millet noodles from mothers millets brand in a supermarket. They have a wide range of millet noodles, red rice noodles and many more.  I haven't tried any millet noodles and this year is the international year of millets and I wanted to take this as a chance to cook and post different millet recipes to share with you all. I tried this ragi vegetable noodles with the colourful vegetables as we add it for our regular vegetable noodles. As it's my first time, I have added their tastemaker maker given in their pack. I haven't added any other sauces and masala powders. It came out really good and it can be prepared easily within 20 minutes.  Check out my other tiffin recipes here Idli Black urid dal Dosa Pearl Milet Dosa - Kambu Dosa Aapam - Aapam without yeast  Ragi flour Upma Arisi Upma Poori Bottlegourd Adai Pepper dosa - Milagu Adai Rava Upma Semiya Upma   Rava Dosa V...

Idli upma are quite popular in Tirunelveli and I like them very much, especially with a cup of filter coffee. As much as I like to experiment with new dishes, I also like to create a new dish with the leftovers. But this is our grandma's idli upma recipe with leftover idlies. This idli upma is straight forward. We first crumble the leftover idlies with little gingely  oil. During any occasions, if you have a lot of store bought leftover idlies or if your idlies are hard my grandma recommends dipping the idlies in water for a second and then we have to crumble the idlies to get the soft texture. We always Iike to add chopped small onions for idli upma and it's super delicious to taste the crispy curry leaf and the chunky onions in the upma. But if you can't get small onions, use regular onions. To spice up the upma we use both red chilli and green chilli.  Check out my other tiffin recipes here Idli Black urid dal Dosa Aapam - Aapam without yeast  Ragi flour Upma Arisi Upm...

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...

Vermicelli vegetable kichadi or upma is a crowd-pleaser tiffin, perfect for small occasions and lunch boxes. We like upma dishes, especially the vermicelli upma.  This vegetable kichadi is a mild one, with minimal ingredients. I have made it simple with readily available vegetables and simple ingredients. I always prefer short vermicelli (anil brand) because it holds and stays well without becoming soggy for a long time. You can use thick vermicelli too. Make sure to cook the upma with the correct amount of water. If you add more water and if you cook for a long time, it might turn mushy. So always cook with correct water measurements. I always add 0.75 cups of water for 1 cup vermicelli which gives perfect non-sticky fluffy upma. Now let's see how to prepare this vegetable kichadi in detail. Here is the video link for Vegetable Semiya Upma Check out my other tiffin recipes here Idli Black urid dal Dosa Aapam - Aapam without yeast  Ragi flour Upma Arisi Upma Poori Bottlegourd ...

Yellow split peas adai (Pattani paruppu adai) - easy to make adai recipe with step-by-step pictures and full video. Yellow split peas look similar to chana dal, but it tastes different. This is a simple tiffin recipe made with yellow split peas, rice, urid dal, chillies, onions and curry leaves. The addition of the yellow split peas makes this adai so unique and gives the crispness. You might all now think, what is the difference between chana dal and yellow split peas dal? Both the dals are popular in Tirunelveli cuisine. Yellow split peas dal has a soft texture with mild flavour. Yellow split peas dal is widely used in masala vadai, kara vadai, adai and also the ground split peas flour is added in omapodi, karasev and bajji flour.  For this adai we have to add equal amounts of dal and rice. Soak them for three hours and then grind the batter with red chillies and green chilles. And add some onions, curry leaves and coriander leaves. When it comes to adai, everyone has their own u...

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 ...