VIRUNDHOMBAL

Narthangai Pachadi - tangy and spicy pachadi prepared with narthangai (citron), small onions, green chillies, tamarind and jaggery. In our hometown Tirunelveli, pachadis or thokkus are a staple dish for our lunch.

Pasiparuppu thuvaiyal -  we use to make thuvaiyal with different kind of dals (fried grams, chana dal, horse gram and moong dal) as a side dish for tamarind rice or tamarind based kuzhambu dishes. They are super healthy and I like to taste them with a cup of warm rice. I recommend to prepare this as a side dish for your short picnic for your favourite puliyodarai or lemon rice . Because they taste really amazing with puliyodarai and have a beautiful flavour. The moong das are roasted well and then ground with a few tablespoons of grated coconut. It requires minimal ingredients but tastes delicious.

Mochai Potato Sagu - made with fresh mochai (lima beans), potatoes and other basic ingredients. This sagu dish tastes good with idiyappam, aapam, chapati and dosas. The cooking method is very easy and you can prepare it within 30 minutes.

Green moong dal sabji - simple homestyle sabji for roti and rice. Several dal or sabji dishes that are made with lentils, we prefer to cook the lentils in a pressure cooker which will be cooked softly and then other ingredients are added for flavours. In this green gram sabji, I have not cooked the green moong dal in a pressure cooker. Instead, the green moong dals are soaked overnight and then the dals is cooked along with the onions and tomatoes. The dals look beautiful in the sabji and the taste was so yummy. We had this dish in a restaurant as a side dish for meals. The taste of the moong dals along with the crunchy onions and tomatoes was so nice. As we are cooking the dal in the kadai, it will take around 30 to 40 minutes to cook completely. So make sure to soak the dals for 8 to 10 hours for perfect results. Do not add salt while cooking the dal, as it delays the cooking time. Now let's see how to prepare this sabji with step by step instructions.

Paneer Kofta Biryani is an easy biryani prepared with paneer koftas and other basic spices. This paneer kofta biryani is a favourite lunch for my son for his lunch box. I prepared the koftas with homemade paneer, besan flour and other seasonings and then formed into koftas. The koftas are deep fried in oil and then we have to add it in the rice in the final step. If you are looking for an easy biryani for a family party, this paneer kofta biryani suits perfectly. There is not much chopping work, plus the koftas attracts your guests.

Every day we prepare two varieties of vegetable side dishes for our lunch. Among those two varieties there must be a poriyal dish and the other one is kootu, aviyal or varuval. Varieties of poriyal  dishes are countless with our seasonal vegetables. As I said in my poriyal or thuvaram dishes, we add the ground coconut mixture prepared with coconut, small onions, garlic cloves and red chilly or green chilly. This unique coconut paste is often used in our poriyal or thuvaram dishes. Some prefer to add grated coconut or desiccated coconut powder for poriyal dishes. I actually don't like poriyal dishes made without any flavours. For me, poriyal must have a mix of flavours with perfect textures. We usually precook the vegetables in a vessel (except for keerai poriyal) and then we saute it with the tempering ingredients and finished with our coconut mixture. If you find it difficult to precook the vegetables, you can prepare as you like. But actually pre cooking the ...

Mint leaves coconut chutney paired with rava dosa is one my favourite combination. In many restaurants I have tasted this chutney and after a few practices I found, how to retain the beautiful pale green colour in it. Because after grinding the chutney with coriander leaves and mint leaves the colour will change to a dull green colour. The secret is just a teaspoon of chana dal and we have to saute the coriander leaves, mint leaves and green chillies just for a minute. Try to use fresh coriander leaves and mint leaves and do not add a bunch of leaves for grinding. Just 10 to 15 mint leaves and a few coriander leaves is enough for a cup of grated coconut. Now let's see how to prepare this chutney.