VIRUNDHOMBAL

Nenthram Pazham Payasam - delicious dessert with nenthram (banana) pazham, jaggery and coconut milk. An easy make ahead payasam dish for special occasions and festivals. This payasam is a popular dessert in Kerala. In Kerala and Nagercoil nenthram pazham is often used in desserts. I have already shared a quick halwa with nenthram pazham which can be easily cooked within 15 minutes. For best taste make sure to use extremely ripe bananas. Here also I used pagu vellam(brown jaggery) and fresh coconut milk for this payasam. If you are using canned coconut milk dilute the coconut milk with water as 1:1 ratio. When I first tasted this payasam in a restaurant I  thought it had chunks of bananas but it was just full of banana pulp with their tiny seeds in it. The bananas are cooked until soft and then ground smoothly. Then the banana pulp is cooked in the jaggery syrup for 15 minutes on medium heat. After 15 minutes, we have to add the thin coconut milk. For additional flavours dry ...

Aval Varatiyathu - prepared with aval, jaggery, coconut, cashew nuts, fried grams and black sesame.  This dish is a popular sweet in Nanjil that's easy to make and tastes like karthigai vella pori. In most of the Nanjil dishes they add a good amount of coconut and jaggery. For this dish use samba thin aval or white thin aval. Here we are going to saute the aval in a thick jaggery syrup, so no need to soak the aval. So do not use the thick variety aval because it will take more time to cook and it will also be harder. For 2 cups of aval add 1 cup of jaggery which will be perfect to coat the aval evenly. The coconut gratings can be added at the final stage without frying or you can add it while frying the cashew nuts. The roasted black sesame seeds add a nice flavour to any of the jaggery based desserts so do not skip it. With a wonderful balance of flavours the dish tastes so good. When tasting the sweet, you can feel how each mouthful is loaded with wonderful flavours. Ch...

Nanjil Sambar - prepared with the  combination of seasonal vegetables, toor dal and flavoured with freshly prepared sambar powder. Another interesting recipe from my Rema athai. As Nagercoil is her hometown, I learned many nanjil recipes from her. Nanjil refers to the area around Nagercoil, Agastheeswaram, Thovalai etc. Last month I prepared 30 varieties Nanjil recipes for the Aval Vikatan magazine. I have no time to take step by step pictures for all the 30 recipes, but took some pictures for a few recipes. All the 30 varieties are evergreen recipes of Nanjil. This Nanjil sambar is one of my favourite sambar for lunch. This sambar is similar to our Tirunelveli idi sambar but there is no need for any coconut paste.In both Tirunelveli sambar and idi sambar we add coconut paste in the final stage. For this sambar, you need fresh vegetables like drumsticks, brinjal, lady's finger, raw mango, yellow pumpkin, potato and carrot. Plus sambar onions, green chillies and freshl...

Bondas are a popular evening snack, which are served along with white coconut chutney. They are so good with a cup of warm filter coffee for evening snacks. Bondas are a type of snack similar to ulundha vada. Although both the ulundha vada and bonda include the same ingredients, these two differ in the making process. For bondas we don't add chopped onions but we add chopped ginger, green chillies and few coconut bits. After grinding the batter, simply mix all the ingredients together and fry the bondas.As I told in my medu vada post, for bondas also I recommend to grind it in a wet grinder. Because it gives you a soft texture for the bondas. Grind it in a wet grinder for 20 minutes until smooth and fluffy. If required just add 1/4 cup of water while grinding. Also, do not add salt during grinding because it makes the batter watery then you can't able to make the balls. If you are grinding in a mixer jar, try to soak for 3 to 4 hours and then grind it by sprinkling a ha...

Paal Payasam - delicious creamy dessert with just 3 ingredients in your kitchen. Made with cow's milk, raw rice and sugar. When it comes to payasam dishes, we add ghee and cashew nuts. But for this payasam, no need to add these because it tastes so yummy without any ghee and cashew nuts. If you want to add cashewnuts, add few broken cashews fried in little ghee in the final stage. Do not add more ghee as we add for jaggery payasams. 

Sambar sadham (rice) is a quick, healthy meal which can prepared easily within 30 minutes. This sambar sadham is usually prepared with fresh vegetables, rice, dal and flavoured with freshly grounded sambar powder. Sambar sadham is a popular food in many restaurants and temples. It is also a great food for a family get together.When combining any dals with rice, you can get a protein packed dish for your lunch. Plus, we add vegetables for fibre and ghee for fat, which will give you a healthy dish for your whole family.

Adai Pradaman is a rich and delicious dessert prepared with rice adai, jaggery and coconut milk. This payasam is a perfect dessert for special occasions and special festivals. I like the combination of rice adai with jaggery and coconut milk. If you like jaggery based desserts, I'm confident that you will love this payasam. My favourite way to enjoy this payasam is to eat it in the plantain leaf with small pieces of bananas.

Sambar vada - easy and tasty  homemade sambar vada with simple cooking methods. For this Diwali, we prepared a lot of medhu vada and sambar for morning breakfast. In the evening, my husband came into the kitchen and quickly prepared a tasty sambar vada for us with the leftover sambar and vadas within 15 minutes. Everyone was so happy with the tasty sambar vada and we were not able to stop at just one vada.  Before that, I haven't prepared sambar vada. After a week, I prepared this sambar vada and it came out really well.

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.

This Pineapple Kesari dessert uses only four ingredients and comes together in less than 30 minutes. This Kesari is made with fresh pineapple chunks so they have a bold pineapple flavour. You can also use canned pineapple chunks, but I have not tested this recipe with the canned pineapples. Have you noticed that all kesari dishes always require double the measure of sugar? That's the only thing I won't prefer to do these type of dishes frequently. Once in a while for special occasions or festivals, I prepare this kesari with a good amount of sugar and ghee. If we reduce the sugar and ghee it won't taste and look like kesari.

Sarkkarai Pongal - this is a quick and easy dish for prasadam. And this Sarkkarai Pongal has also been an absolute favourite prasadam for many of us. The taste of this Sarkkarai Pongal, depend on the quality of the jaggery we use. I usually prefer pagu vellam for pongal and payasam dishes. The colour and taste of this jaggery vary from place to place. Some jaggery are dark brown while others are yellow or orange coloured jaggery. In this recipe, I have used the dark brown jaggery and it tastes so good. My husband bought me this dark brown jaggery (Kottayam Vellam) from Nanguneri. Now let's see some important tips for perfect Sarkkarai Pongal.

Kara Vadai - simple evening snack for your weekend and party appetizer too. This Kara Vadai is very easy to make using very few ingredients. It is made with pattani paruppu (yellow split peas), urid dal and rice flour. The vadais are flavoured with green chillies, coriander leaves, mint leaves and onions. Kara Vadais with crispy outer layer and tender texture make this as a special one. I learnt this recipe from our relatives at Nanguneri . They are experts in cooking a variety of meals, tiffin varieties, evening snacks and cater for small family functions too.

Kadalai Paruppu (Chana dal) Payasam is prepared with chana dal, jaggery, coconut and cashew nuts. There are several jaggery based payasam dishes in Tamil Nadu. Moong dal payasam, chana dal payasam, rice payasam are the most popular payasam dishes. I learnt this payasam from my Chithi. All the ingredients are handy and you can prepare this delicious payasam within 20 minutes. We will see some important tips for this payasam.

Plantain (Vazhaikai) bajji with a cup of hot masala tea is an all time favourite evening snack for many of us. Among the evening snacks like vada, pakoda, bajjis are an easy snack which is much easier to master. Before you begin, let's see some tips and tricks to make a perfect bajji. Mixing the batter Preparing batter for bajji is actually a simple process, but we must focus carefully when adding water. Before you proceed to mix the batter, it is a good practice to sieve the besan flour. For 1 cup of besan flour 1/2 cup of water is perfect for dipping the plantains. The batter should have an idli batter like consistency. In order to puff a pinch of sodium bicarbonate is added to the batter. After combining the batter to the right consistency leave it undisturbed for 10 minutes. If you are using readymade bajji mix measure the flour using the measuring cup and then add the water. Flavours for baji For a flavourful bajji we add a good amount of garlic and as...

Aval payasam is a healthy and easy dessert prepared with aval, jaggery, coconut milk and cashew nuts. For this I have used samba red aval, but you can use any type you have in your kitchen. The total cook time is not more than 20 minutes. There is no pressure cooking or any other major preparation work for this payasam. Jaggery based payasams are basically prepared with coconut milk or ground coconut paste. It makes the payasam amazing. We use coconut in the kitchen all the time. Avals(Rice flakes) are suitable for both sugar based and jaggery based desserts. Now let's see some important tips for preparing this payasam. Use a fresh aval(rice flakes) and pagu jaggery for best results. If possible, try to use freshly extracted coconut milk. If you are using canned coconut milk mix half cup coconut milk with 1/2 cup of water and then add it the cooked aval. Roasting the aval(rice flakes) is the most important step in this dish. The taste of this payasam comes from roasting the...

Idly, Dosa and Pongal are our common breakfast items. If  a  breakfast eaten with a healthy sambar that will keep you satisfied until lunch. For this reason most of us prefer sambar for idly and dosa. It's high in fibre and include healthy ingredients like dal, onion, drumstick, carrot, potato and tomato. You can replace any vegetables and dals of your choice. Now let's see some important tips for perfect tiffin sambar. Tiffin Sambar tastes equally good with toor dal or moong dal or masoor dal and I prefer moong dal as they can be cooked easily and it gives you a perfect consistency also. Moong dal is hence very well suited for idly sambar. You can also add both toor dal and moong dal. Moong dals are very tiny, so you can cook in an open vessel also. If you are in a hurry, pressure cook the dal, just for 2 whistles. Drumstick, carrot, potato and small onion are natural companions to this tiffin sambar. So try to include any of these two vegetables. The above are...

Arisi paruppu payasam prepared with moong dal, raw rice, jaggery, coconut and cashew nuts. This payasam is easy to make with simple and healthy ingredients. You won't go wrong with this payasam and it is perfect for family get together or for any festivals. Raw rice works good for this payasam as it produces a nice aroma. Roasting the moong dals and raw rice produces an aromatic payasam. Make sure to use rice in lesser quantity because it expands after cooking and it will absorb the sweetness. Just a handful of rice has been enough for 1 cup moong dal. For payasam, pongal and other traditional desserts I always prefer pagu jaggery but if you can't find it, regular jaggery will work fine. The best way to prepare payasam is to cook slowly on low heat until smooth. We must stir it frequently to avoid sticking at the bottom. If the payasam cooked too quickly in the jaggery syrup it turns out very thick and your payasam will look like halwa. This payasam should have a smooth c...

This semiya (vermicelli) javarisi (sago) payasam(kheer) made with just four ingredients. This payasam is the ultimate dessert for special occasions, festivals and also for family get together. Like the kesari and halwa we add a good quantity of sugar for this payasam. My favourite sagos for this payasam are the very tiny sagos which can be easily cooked with vermicelli. You can use any variety as you wish. For best results, I suggest to pressure cook the roasted vermicellis and the sagos just for 1 whistle. In the payasam, the sagos must look like individual balls and vermicellis must not stick to each other . Now let's see how to prepare this payasam with step by step photos.

Ulundha vadai - Medhu vadai Most of the food items from Tamil Nadu contains the urid dal which has many health benefits. All the food items based on urid dal does not need much preparation work and we can enjoy a healthy and tasty dish easily.  This ulundha vadai is one among those easy and healthy dish. Follow these instructions and prepare a tasty ulundha vada for your family.  Important points to follow for a perfect vada I always like to grind the batter in a wet grinder, because it grinds well with very little water and gives you a puffy vadas. If you do not have wet grinder, then grind it in a mixie by sprinkling water with regular intervals. Soaking the dals also is very important for this vada. Try to soak at least 3 hours and then grind it.  In addition to finely chopped onions and green chillies I have added finely chopped carrots and cabbages. This is my grandma's idea to add these vegetables in the vada which makes some extra toppings in it. ...

Rava kesari is a well known dessert which can be easily prepared within 20 minutes. As compared to other desserts rava kesari is easy to learn and easy to make, especially for beginners. My Uncle (Periyappa) is an expert on preparing this rava kesari. He shared his useful tips and techniques with me for the perfect consistency. He said that we have to roast the rava well in ghee and then the rava must be cooked well in the water (for 1 cup rava, 3 cups water). He always prefers any dessert with sharp sweetness, so he usually add 3 cups sugar for 1 cup rava. And finally the other important tip for the recipe success is the ghee. The ghee must float on the sides of the kesari. This kesari is absolutely delicious when it's hot.Follow the above instructions and try this easy rava kesari for this Navarathiri poojas.