VIRUNDHOMBAL

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....

Varagu Arisi Kozhukattai - super easy tiffin recipe with kodo millets also called as varagu arisi. No need for soaking and no other difficult preparation works needed for this dish. Many of us use millets as a substitute for rice. While millet flour is available in many super markets, you can easily make this at home using a mixer grinder. The kodo millets are roasted in a pan and then powdered nicely. Roasting the millets in a pan, brings a nice flavour and it gets powdered easily. Then we have to prepare the dough as we prepare for arisi upma. In this dish, I have not added onions and green chillies, you can include finely chopped onions and green chillies while tempering. For one part of millet flour add 2.5 cups of water. If you add too much of water, the dough will get soggy and it will be difficult to prepare kozhukattai. After preparing the dough, prepare small lemon sized  balls or oblong shaped balls and press it in the centre with your fingers and then steam coon t...