EASY SEMIYA KESARI RECIPE (VERMICELLI KESARI)

Vj loves Semiya kesari equally as rava kesari. But I had no specific recipe for it and have not tried except for two times, both times dint turn out that good. Vj is expert in making kesari as I have said the story about his experience in making kesari in my Kesari post. So once he had made semiya kesari too for me as in this post for an event. But he too just makes it by fluke. Latest once he was craving for semiya kesari, I was in no mood to enter kitchen and he said he will make it in no time. Went inside the kitchen like a king and as usual, he called me every time for each and every ingredient, to locate it. So I thought I will rather watch him from kitchen itself rather going here and there. Then while making he just poured the sugar as the same amount we use for rava kesari and it became so watery. Then we had to pour lots of milk and we had it as payasam.


So once when I was chatting with my friend Sangeeta, she told me about this semiya kesari using fine vermicelli (its super fine / thin). And she told it is very very easy and quick to make, yet delicious. And even it sounded the same to me when she told the method. So made it here in my lunch menu also within 10 minutes. Its really easy and very very tasty! You must try this recipe to see what I mean. It doesn't need more ghee like the rava kesari, needs very less.

Easy Semiya kesari / vermicelli kesari recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweet
Prep Time: 2 mins    |  Cook time: 15 mins    |  Serves: 2

Ingredients

Fine vermicelli	2 cups, loosely packed
Water	3/4 cup (approx.)
Sugar	1/2 cup
Elachi (cardamom)	1, powdered
Ghee	3 tsp
Food colour (orange or yellow) Optional	A pinch

Method

1. Break the vermicelli roughly and measure 2 cups heaped. Roast in medium flame with a tsp of ghee in a pan. Just to coat the vermicelli and roast it a bit. Add water to this, just to immerse it.
2. As it boils, stir gently in medium flame and in no time, it gets cooked as the water evaporates. Now add sugar and elachi powder.
3. Sugar will melt and make the vermicelli also loose as we mix it. Add food colour and mix well. Everything in medium flame.
4. Continue mixing for 2 minutes, adding ghee in between, until the kesari starts leaving the sides of pan and becomes glossy. Transfer to a bowl or plate.

Notes

• For thick vermicelli, boil water first and add the roasted vermicelli.
  
• Water and sugar ratio – for 1 cup vermicelli 2 cups water and 3/4 cup sugar and needs more preparation time.
  
• For fine vermicelli, water should be added just to immerse it. Otherwise turns mushy.
  
• My friend said they make it authentically without food colour. The sugar itself will give glossy deep golden brown colour.
  
• Raisins can be added fried in ghee, otherwise nothing is needed for garnish.

Super easy and tasty kesari ready under 15 minutes! And it tastes like heaven, by the way ;)  

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Lunch menu 20 | North Indian lunch ideas

This weeks menu, I tried my best to make it as north Indian lunch. And I enjoyed this plate of meal myself. Don't envy, you can prepare and enjoy too, that's why this lunch idea :) I rarely buy tindora / ivy gourd / kovakkai makes rare appearance in my kitchen. I am cooking this for only the second time. Though I love this veggie, no body else likes it. And when ever I take a pack of kovakkai, Vj gives me a weird look, so I keep it back. But this time, I really wanted to make it for myself so bought a pack. And I loved it with triangle roti paratha. And the semiya kesari I made especially for this post, I am sure Vj gonna enjoy this when he is back from office. I got this recipe from my friend and this will be my next post too. So here is how I prepared this meal.

North Indian lunch idea

Recipe Cuisine:Indian   |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 30 mins     |  Cook time: 1 H  |  Serves: 3

1. Soak rice for pulao, atleast 30 mins. Mean while chopping works and grinding works. Clean, chop tindora.
2. Clean coriander, peal garlic, onion, ginger and gather ingredients to grind for pulao. Grind it and keep aside.
3. Cut onions for pulao, curry and raita.
4. Stove work : Prepare pulao in a small pressure cooker. Let it get cooked and prepare tindora curry over the other stove.
5. When both are done, prepare the semiya kesari. It is a very easy recipe which will be ready in minutes, will share it soon as promised.
6. Prepare raita, toast papad and lastly spicy masala chaas (will share the recipe next week as well). 

Serve everything in a plate and enjoy yourself along with your family. A filling and satisfying meal!

1. Triangle roti paratha recipe
2. Tindora curry recipe
3. Baby corn pulao recipe
4. Semiya kesari recipe
5. Masala chaas recipe 
6. Raita
7. Papad
8. Pickle

Browse the other Paratha recipes , Pickle recipes, Rice Varieties, Rava kesari recipe.

MOONG DAL SUNDAL RECIPE ( PASI PARUPPU SUNDAL) | EASY SUNDAL RECIPES

Paasi paruppu sundal or moong dal sundal is one staple recipe mom makes so easily and perfectly. I have never seen the moong dal turned mushy. Also I love the texture. Teeny tiny moong dal cooked softly and perfectly made to sundal tastes great. My mom says moong dal should be cooked perfectly. And I too make sure it gets cooked just right, that even my MIL appreciates me for that ;) . This can be made instantly and easily, which makes perfect for navratri. Gives so much volume too. So try this simple sundal for this navarathri. And thank you Jeyashri for the cute pillayar idols as gift for my golu. Much needed one :)

Moong dal sundal recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 5 mins    |  Cook time: 15 mins    |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Moong dal / Paasi paruppu	1/2 cup
Grated coconut	4 tblsp
Sesame oil (optional)	1 tsp
Salt	As needed

To temper

Oil	1 tsp
Mustard	3/4 tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Red chilli	2
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Asafoetida	2 generous pinches

Method

1. Soak moong dal for 1 hour if needed. Boil 3 cups water with sesame oil and add the soaked dal(strain from water and add it to boiling water).Boil for 5 minutes – once it starts to boil, simmer to prevent overflowing, in between add salt. Drain from water once its cooked soft from inside. Do not overcook or under cook.

2. Now heat oil in kadai and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table. Add the cooked dal and mix well.

3. Lastly add coconut and mix well for a minute.Transfer to the serving bowl.

Notes

• Soaking makes the dal cook fast.
• As it overflows easily keep an eye all the times and stir then and there. Always cook in medium or low flame after it starts boiling.

Heavenly sundal is ready, looks heavenly and tastes divine as well!

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RAJMA SUNDAL RECIPE | SUNDAL RECIPES

I rarely cook rajma, but really like it. I actually forget this too use. I loved both quesadillas as well as rajma masala. So wanted to try sundal with it. I have had this sundal when I was very young in a neighbour’s house. Also its always fun to eat rajam one by one and it tastes so unique from the other legumes too. So why not try it for this Navratri 2013 as a sundal? This is one way of making sundal by grinding the coconut ginger and green chilli. This can be followed for all the sundals like peanut sundal, Channa sundal and channa dal sundal as well. Tastes and smells great. Vj enjoyed this very much that he finished in no time. So I should make this often here after.

Rajma sundal recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 12 hours soaking time    |  Cook time: 10 mins    |  Serves: 2

Ingredients

Rajma / red kidny beans	1/2 cup
Coconut, grated	4 tblsp
Ginger	1/2 inch piece
Green chilli	2
Asafoetida	1 pinch
Salt	As needed

To temper

Oil	2 tsp
Mustard	3/4 tsp
Urad dal	2 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Asafoetida	1 pinch

Method

1. Soak Rajma overnight (12 hrs) Drain water, add water just to immerse the rajma and pressure cook for 3 to 4 whistles. Reserve the cooked water.

2. Grind coconut, green chilli and ginger along with asafoetida coarsely with out adding water.

3. In a kadai heat oil and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order. Add cooked rajma, 1/4 cup of reserved water with salt.

4. Let the water evaporates completely then lastly add the ground item. Stir well until fragrant, say 2 minutes.

Notes

• Always buy rajma that is dark red in colour. Black rajma sometimes not get cooked.
• Do not pressure cook rajma with salt, it may not get cooked properly.

Rajma sundal, healthy and tasty… Perfect to make in bulk too as it gives more volume.

Technorati Tags: rajma sundal recipe,rajma recipes,red kidney beans recipes,sundal recipes,navratri recipes,navratri 2013,healthy sundal recipes,healthy

KADALAI PARUPPU SUNDAL | CHANNA DAL SUNDAL RECIPE | SUNDAL RECIPES

Mom makes Channa dal sundal AKA Kadalai paruppu sundal every time once in Navratri days for kolu. This is such a simple yet packed full with flavours. I always loved the aroma that the house is filled when mom tempers for sundal. Ginger, green chilli and asafoetida combines to give a great aroma that takes you out of this world! I love that combination. That too mom uses kadalennai (ground nut oil) for tempering and uses little coconut oil which enhances the flavour. Though I use refined sunflower oil for cooking, I just love kadalennai for tempering. So I find idayam kadalennai (peanut oil) these days in Mustafa and buy that and use it sparingly in my cooking. It took for me some years to realise why my tempering is not wafting the same aroma as mom’s or MIL’s tempering. Silly me.
      

Channa dal sundal recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 1 - 3 hrs soaking time    |  Cook time: 10 mins    |  Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

Channa dal / Kadalai paruppu	1 cup
Green chilli	3
Grated coconut	4 tblsp
Coconut oil (optional)	1 tsp
Salt	As needed
Ginger, finely chopped	1 tsp

To temper

Oil	1 tsp
Mustard	3/4 tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Asafoetida	2 generous pinches

Method

1. Soak channa dal for atleast 1 hour or upto 3 hours. Boil 3 cups water and add the soaked channa dal(strain from water and add it to boiling water).Boil for 5 mintues in between add 1 tsp salt.

2. Drain from water once it cooked soft from inside. Do not overcook or undercook. Now heat oil in kadai and temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table.

3. Add ginger, chilly and stir well. Add the cooked dal and mix well. Lastly add coconut and mix well for a minute, add coconut oil if desired.Transfer to the serving bowl.

Notes

• You can use red chilli in place of green chillies. Just use 2.
• You can also pressure cook the channa dal for a whistle instead boiling.
• Soaking dal makes it easy to cook. So more you soak, quick it gets cooked and stays moist too.

Enjoy this flavourful sundal, perfect for making this Navarathri in the evenings as prasadam.

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ATTA LADOO RECIPE | EASY DIWALI SWEET RECIPES

I tasted atta ladoo only once when my friend Sangeeta made me when she visited me. It was tasting good and I was surprised that its atta ladoo. And loved the way she had decorated the ladoo with some pistachio toppings. I thought of trying on my own and asked her for the recipe. It was similar to other ladoo recipes like rava ladoo and aval ladoo. Simple but healthier when compared to rava ladoo. Mainly this can be made and given to kids as its healthy for them. And us? well its good only with lots of ghee in it. So, its up to you
. With Navaratri and Diwali coming up, this can be made easily and gift packed. So thought of posting this.

Atta ladoo recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweet
Prep Time: 15 mins    |  Cook time: 15 mins    |  Makes: 15 small laddus

Ingredients

Wheat flour/ Atta	1 cup
Sugar	1/2 cup heaped
Ghee	1/2 cup
Elachi	2
Pistachios	4 tblsp

Method

1. Roast atta well in medium flame stirring continuously. If you feel its turning brown quickly at bottom, you can even roast in low flame. Roast very well, until it turns golden brown, taking care not to burn it. Powder sugar with elachi seeds.

2. Take both atta and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Melt ghee and add it to this and mix well.

3. Now keep a shallow bowl with a tblsp of melted ghee and powder pistachios coarsely and take it in another shallow bowl/ plate. Shape ladoos and dip(touch) a small part of the ladoo in ghee.

4. Then the ghee dipped part in powdered pistachios. This way it sticks to the ladoos. Continue the same to finish.

Notes

• Never compromise in ghee, otherwise may not taste good, this is the tip from my friend.
  
• You can increase sugar if you want
  
• You can skip the pistachio part and add chopped, ghee fried nuts of your choice, mix and make ladoos.
  
• Instead of powdering the pistachios, you can also thin slice it and follow the same.

Aren’t they appealing and tempting enough to try? I arranged them in these cute little muffin liners.

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Lunch menu 19 - South Indian lunch ideas

This week’s lunch is a healthy one with my favourite Karuveppilai  kuzhambu. I have been craving for some tangy kuzhambu, so thought of trying this. I got all the veggies today fresh from Little India and got a bunch of curry leaves. So immediately decided to make use in this kuzhambu. This is very healthy, everyone knows the benefits of curry leaves, its rich in Iron. Its best home remedy to slow down greying of hair. When you see your first grey hair, include curry leaves more in you every day diet and the rate of greying sure will slow down. This is the best way to include curry leaves in diet. Otherwise, if we use in tempering and other ways in our cooking, we may pick it and throw away without eating it. SO here’s how I prepared today’s meal.

South Indian lunch idea

Recipe Cuisine:Indian   |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 20 mins    |  Cook time: 40 mins    |  Serves: 3

1. Kept the pressure cooker with rice and dal (for kootu) separately in different vessels. Soaked the required tamarind in hot water.
2. Meanwhile, I cleaned the curry leaves, then keerai (spinach), peeled onion and garlic for the kuzhambu and then ladies finger, chopped everything.
3. Grated coconut for kootu and poriyal. By now the cooker was done. Then I extracted tamarind juice. Started cooking spinach for kootu.
4. As it was getting cooked, I ground for kootu and then curry leaves for kuzhambu.
5. Prepared kootu - this time, followed MIL method of adding only green chillies along with the keerai instead of sambar powder- it gives greeny look! Then temper kootu, temper for kuzhambu and let it boil in another stove.
6. Prepared poriyal as the kuzhambu getting boiled and now everything ready. I also fried some javvarisi vadam and some sundakkai vathal mom passed me.

Here are the links to the recipes in the above plate :

1. Karuveppilai kuzhambu recipe
2. Keerai kootu recipe 
3. Vendakkai poriyal recipe

Instead of keerai kootu you can also try other kootu and vazhakkai poriyal can also be replaced for vendakkai poriyal.

Check our Karuveppilai podi recipe if interested!

Have a great weekend!

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SPICY VEGGIE PIZZA RECIPE | HOMEMADE PIZZA WITH ZUCCHINI TOPPINGS

I make pizza very often at home, atleast once in a month!  Aj just loves it. Vj is not a big fan. I too love pizzas, be it ordered or homemade. If its left over, I will also eat (and feel guilty later). If any kids come home, I just make this and they too love it. This pizza dough recipe is such a keeper. I have been using this same until now. Same as in my first  homemade pizza and in the paneer tikka pizza . It comes out perfect and the measurements are so precise. Soft and stays soft even after cooling down and above all homemade!



This spicy pizza is an inspiration from pizza hut’s Spicy veggie pizza. Vj likes Dominos pizza, but Aj loves only pizza hut pizzas. So Vj’s choice will be this spicy veggie pizza. Though its different from the one I tried, the concept of using chilli and zucchini, I grabbed from that. They use a spicy sauce with thai red chilli padi. But I used as topping and used cayenne pepper. Its not too spicy,  but its mildly spicy. And I have tasted zucchini in my life first time only in the spicy veggie pizzas and loved it. So I thought of trying at home. Zucchini and cheese are made for each other and goes well with pizzas. Now a days I am sure in India also we get these zucchini. Sometimes we get colourful zucchini here – green, red and yellow. I used green. So when you are making for kids, you can use the colourful zucchini together in pizzas to make it appealing.

Spicy veggie Pizza recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 1 Hr dough resting time    |  Cook time: 20 mins    |  Makes: 1 large pizza

Ingredients

All purpose flour/ Maida - 1 & 1/2 cup

---

Instant Yeast * - 1 tsp

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Milk - 1/4 cup

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Water - 1/4 cup (approx.)

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Olive oil - 1/8 cup

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Salt - 3/4 tsp

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Sugar - 1 & 1/2 tsp

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*You can replace with active dry yeast – 1 tblsp

For topping

Pizza cheese/ Mozzarella, grated - 3/4 cup

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Onion, tomato, capsicum and zucchini - As needed, chopped

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Red ripe chilli (Cayenne pepper) - 1

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Pasta sauce - 2 tblsp

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Method

1. In a bowl, mix flour, salt and yeast. Mix milk and water and heat it just luke warm. Dissolve sugar in it. Now add this milk and olive oil to the flour and mix.
2. Make a smooth dough. Knead for 5 minutes. Keep aside covered with a cling wrap. Preferably in a warm place. I keep inside the oven with oven light ON. After an hour or 1 & 1/2 hour, the dough would have doubled and risen.
3. Preheat the oven to 200 deg.C . Get the toppings ready. Knead again the dough smoothly and in a well floured surface, roll out into thick pizza (dust the surface generously if sticky). Just make the sides like a rim. Transfer this to a well greased and sprinkled with some flour pizza pan.
4. Spread pasta sauce inside the rim and spread some half of the grated cheese, I used mixed cheese.
5. Arrange the toppings as desired in pattern or just toss the toppings here and there and cover with the remaining grated cheese.
6. Bake for 14 - 15 minutes in a preheated oven until the cheese melts and pizza turns golden in colour. The pizza should move freely in the pan, with which you can check if its cooked perfectly.

Notes

• I used instant yeast – which has to be mixed with the flour and kneaded.. But if you are using other yeasts, you have to dissolve the yeast in luke warm milk in step 1. Keep the yeast solution for 5 minutes so that it will become frothy. This ensures the yeast is active. If it has not become frothy even after 10 mins, then you yeast is not good enough to bake. So  do not proceed making pizza, otherwise you may end up in hard pizzas or smelly pizzas.
• Do not skip sugar.
• You can use 50 50 wheat flour and all purpose flour too.
• Water quantity is approximate and just use it as only a guidance and adjust accordingly.
• The dough should be soft and pliable and not stiff to get a soft pizza.
• Feel free to use your own toppings.
• More cheese = more tasty, but do not overload, otherwise, centre of the pizza will be looking white and gooey.
• Do not roll too thick, remember, the dough will rise a bit while baking too.

Here we go with homemade soft and delicious pizza that will melt in your mouth and kids would love each and every bite of it.

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