VIRUNDHOMBAL

Ash Gourd Mor Kuzhambu - an easy kuzhambu that's ready in 20 minutes. Different types of mor kuzhambu are a significant part of the Tamil Nadu and Kerala food culture. This ash gourd mor kuzhambu is one of the popular dishes in mor kuzhambu varieties.  How to make it 1. Cooking the ash gourd Start with cutting the ash gourd into cubes. We need to exert some energy to peel and slice if you are using a whole ash gourd. If you are using precut slices, just remove the seeds and slowly peel the outer skin and cut them into small cubes. Add some water and cook the ash gourds until soft. 2. How to prepare coconut paste  In the meantime, prepare the base mixture for the mor kuzhambu. This coconut paste is what is responsible for giving the particular colour and flavour to this kuzhambu. I will always suggest grinding it with fresh grated coconut. For this magic coconut paste you would require small onions, garlic cloves, ginger, green chilly, cumin, turmeric powder and soaked toor dal...

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...

Easy pumpkin sambar - this tiffin sambar is one of those nostalgic dishes prepared by my Kamatchi athai during our vacation visit to their house. During our summer vacation to Tirunelveli, she prepared this delicious and quick sambar within 20 minutes for idli. This was a few decades ago, and still I remember that beautiful yellow colour and the authentic taste.  My athai still follows this method for  pumpkin sambar due to its ease of preparation with rich flavours. A few days ago I asked my athai to share the recipe details and immediately she messaged me with the recipe instructions. Apart from the taste of the vegetables or dals or spices, there is one more magic ingredient we want to add in every dish is always love. Cooking with love always makes delicious meals.  Now coming to today's sambar recipe, it's a simple tiffin sambar made with yellow pumpkin, toor dal and sambar powder. The addition of fresh sambar powder makes this sambar so unique and gives the restaura...

A healthy diabetic friendly kichadi recipe made with wheat rava. You can start your breakfast with a cup of this healthy kichadi as it includes carrot, green peas and beans which blend together beautifully with wheat rava. A handful of fresh green peas gives a slightly sweet taste for the kichadi.  There are two main varieties of wheat rava - medium coarse and fine coarse. Fine coarse wheat rava is my favourite for kichadi and upma dishes. Medium coarse wheat rava is perfect for sweet pongal and payasam. Both types require more time to cook when compared to regular white rava. Fine coarse wheat rava doesn't need to be roasted for this kichadi. To cook 1 cup fine coarse wheat rava you will need 3 cups of water. After preparing the kichadi you should let it stand for 15 minutes, covered and undisturbed for a perfect fluffy texture. And once you find how to cook wheat rava perfectly, you will be making it regularly for your breakfast.  Check out my other tiffin recipes here Idli ...

Pearl millet is a perfect tiffin for relaxed weekends at home. It is a better way to introduce millet-based dishes for your kids for weekend breakfast.  I like the mild flavour in the pearl millet especially in the dosas. You can smell the mild flavour while cooking the dosas. Pearl millet is called kambu in Tamil and bajra in Hindi is a gluten free whole grain. Due to its numerous health benefits, we have to include in our diet monthly twice or thrice. Kambu flour is mostly used for making instant dosas, and roti. This is a fermented dosa batter recipe and I have used whole pearl millets, rice, black urid dal and fenugreek. I soak the pearl millets along with the rice for 4 hours. Soaking the pearl millets for a longer time helps to blend them better and have perfect soft fluffy texture. You can replace black urid dal with white urid dal. This pearl millet dosa is similar to our mulu ulundhu dosa. This dosa tastes good with small onions chutney, onion garlic onion chutney and ellu...

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...

Mint leaves coconut chutney - a simple chutney made with mint leaves, coconut, garlic cloves, green chillies, urid dal and tamarind. This mint leaves chutney is a regular dish in hotels for tiffin varieties. Though I make this regularly for rava dosa and dosa, the colour of the chutney will change a little bit. Recently when I spoke to Chef Revathi Shanmugam mam through a phone call, I asked her how to prepare hotel style mint leaves chutney.  She clearly explained the recipe and clarified my few doubts. Today I tried this chutney, and it turned out well and tasted similar to the hotel style mint leaves chutney. Now I am confident to post this popular mint leaves coconut chutney.  Let's see some few tips for this chutney For this chutney you can add 2 to 3 cloves of garlic or a small piece of ginger.  Always use fresh mint leaves. Wash the mint leaves well and drain the water completely. Do not overcook or saute the mint leaves for a long time.It will reduce the colour an...