Lunch menu 27 - Full meals

Today, actually I planned for something else. I thought of mixing breakfast menu in between my lunch menu series and thought to start it this weekend with a breakfast menu. But then changed the plan as Vj planned to go office after lunch today. So cooked a full meals and clicked today. I will picture some breakfast menu ideas next in week and post. I wanted to make it a restaurant style meals this time, as I have posted already the authentic full meals in thalai vazhai ilai. So just added a chapati, thakkali kuzhambu and skipped the paruppu. I thought of keeping karuvepilai podi in this menu that I already had, but forgot. This lunch menu, though it looks elaborate, I kept things simple – like masala vadai, lemon rasam, carrot poriyal, and all these things, I made in less quantity as its only for 3 of us. I also used large onion in place of small onion for thakkali kuzhambu and used ready made coconut milk for it to reduce work. Like this, when doing an alaborate meal, that is with number of side dishes, I use some short cuts to keep it simple and myself cool. So here is how I prepared for this week’s lunch menu.
This menu has – triangle chapati, potato sambar, tomato kuzhambu, lemon ginger rasam, cauliflower curry, carrot poriyal, yellow pumpkin kootu, semiya payasam, masala vadai, papad, pickle and curd.

1. Soaked channa dal for masal vadai when I entered the kitchen for breakfast works. Then after breakfast work over, when I entered the kitchen for preparing lunch, Kept toor dal and moong dal in separate containers in the pressure cooker. Prepared dough for chapati.
   
2. Mean while, I prepared for the thakkali kuzhambu – boiled water and kept the tomato immersed in it for a minute. Mean while, cleaned and cut cauliflower. After taking out the tomatoes, I kept the cauliflower immersed in the hot water with salt.
   
3. Chop other items – carrot, yellow pumpkin, a potato for sambar. Chopped tomatoes for sambar and cauliflower curry. Chopped onion for kuzhambu, sambar, poriyal, curry and vadai. Grate coconut for poriyal and kootu. I used ready made coconut milk for my thakkali kuzhambu. Cut lemon for rasam.
   
4. Boiled yellow pumpkin for kootu and carrot for poriyal. By now dal cooker would have been done. So put rice inside and cook it.
   
5. Now prepared payasam in a stove. I prepare payasam in the beginning to give it some standing time, so even if it gets thick, you can add milk and make it loose while you re-heat.
   
6. Grind for kootu. Then to the frying part. First prepare kootu, and temper it and finish that work. Kootu ready.
   
7. Then rasam. This lemon rasam is the simplest of all. Just 2 minutes and rasam is done.
   
8. Temper and fry for sambar and let it boil in a stove. Then temper for kuzhambu and let it boil in another stove.
   
9. Then carrot poriyal also will get done so easily. Lastly cauliflower curry as it needs some time.
   
10. Kuzhambu and sambar also you should be able to finish side by side.
    
11. Lastly grind for vada. Since masala vadai, its easier than urad dal vadai in terms of grinding. Prepare vada and fry papad. I soaked 3/4th cup of dal and got around 9 vadas.
    
12. Get curd and pickle ready and when you are gonna eat, make chapati.

Lunch is ready!

You can see - triangle chapati, potato sambar, tomato kuzhambu, lemon ginger rasam, cauliflower curry, carrot poriyal, yellow pumpkin kootu, semiya payasam, masala vadai, papad, pickle and curd.

Check out the links for the recipes

1. Triangle chapati
2. Potato sambar recipe(Check this arachuvitta sambar recipe)
   
3. Thakkali kuzhambu recipe
   
4. Lemon ginger rasam recipe
   
5. Yellow pumkin kootu (similar to this bottle gourd kootu)
   
6. Cauliflower curry recipe
   
7. Carrot poriyal (carrot beans poriyal recipe)
   
8. Semiya payasam recipe
   
9. Masala vadai recipe

Check out the other kuzhambu recipes.
Meet you all next week with some other interesting menu!
Have a great weekend.

Technorati Tags: full meals,south indian meals,south indian tamil meals,lunch recipes,restaurant style full meals,south indian thali,chapathi with meals

    
This is actually a guest post from a reader friend – Sakshi – She sent me this recipe sometimes back to try and she said she was okay even if I post it as a guest post from her. It took sometime for me to try it as I kept forgetting. Finally found chance to try this one day and clicked. I tried it as such she sent the recipe only that I added turmeric to the recipe as I was worried about the colour while cooking. Otherwise the same.
Usually I do not accept recipes from readers, as I am afraid of copyright issues, that I would never know where it came from, but Sakshi was sure that its an authentic dish from her community and they call it as ‘Upponkai’. When I tried it, I really loved it with chapathi and she had mentioned in her mail that it goes well with even rice, so try it out for a change. Thanks Sakshi for the recipe!

Side dish for chapathi - brinjal recipes

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 10 mins    |  Cook time: 15 mins    |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Brinjal	8, medium sized
Onion	2
Garlic (small variety)	12 cloves
Turmeric (optional)	1/4 tsp
Salt	As needed

 

To Grind

Coconut	1/4 cup
Green chilli	8
Garlic	2 cloves

 

To temper

Oil	1 tblsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig

 

Method

1. Chop onion and garlic very finely. Chop brinjal and keep immersed in water until use. Grind items under To grind table.

2. Grind it to a fine paste with little water. Heat kadai and temper with mustard and curry leaves.

3. Add onion and fry only until its transparent and add chopped brinjal and add salt and fry in medium flame.

4. Cook covered for 4 minutes or until done.
   
5. Add the ground paste, turmeric if desired and mix well. Cook until raw smell goes off. You can add water depending upon what consistency you want. As much as 3/4 cup.

Serve with chapathi or as an accompaniment for rice. I had with phulkas and as a brinjal lover, I loved it a lot .  

Technorati Tags: side dish for chapathi,side dish with brinjal,brinjal recipes

COCKTAIL IDLIS RECIPE | FLAVORED MINI IDLIS FOR KIDS

This is pretty good idea for making mini idlies more interesting, flavoured with the podi things we have at home and can be made in jiffy too. Kids would love it to see colourful idlies and also a different way from the usual way of eating. You can make it for parties as starters too. Thanks to Sangeeta for letting me know this idea. I usually make mini idlies and sambar(post coming up next week) but this was quite a different idea and for a change we enjoyed it very much. Do try it out, you and your family might love it! I often get requests from reader friends to post kids friendly recipes, and I hope this could be my contribution :)

Cocktail idlis recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 10 mins    |  Cook time: 25 mins    |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Please refer this link for idli dosa batter recipe

Mini idlies	36
Idli podi	1 tblsp
Curry leaves podi	1/2 tblsp
Lemon	1/2
Ghee	2 tblsp
Oil (sesame oil)	1 tblsp
Salt	2 pinches
Asafoetida	A pinch
Turmeric	1/8 tsp

 

Method

1. Very easy, just make mini idlies and keep it in hot pack. Just before serving, you can make it ready. First heat a tblsp of ghee in a non-stick kadai and in low flame, add the idli podi, give it a quick stir. Add 12 mini idlies and toss well in medium flame for a minute. Transfer to a serving bowl.
   
2. Wipe the kadai and add one more tblsp of ghee. In low flame (ghee should be hot but) add the curry leaves powder and toss well for a minute same as idli podi and transfer this too a serving bowl.
   
3. Lastly wipe the kadai again (or wash if needed) and add oil, mustard and a pinch of asafoetida and turmeric. Squeeze in the lemon and add salt. Make sure oil is more and add the idlies, toss it well. Switch off the flame and keep aside.
   
4. Now take tooth picks and insert the idlies, either same flavor as I have did or you can even mix it and insert. Arrange in a plate and serve it!

Notes

• The original recipe said to mix in the lemon, turmeric with the batter, but I did it this way.
  
• You can replace ghee with sesame oil too.

Serve this at snack time for your family in a weekend and make it special. You can make a carrot chutney if you want to go with this. My favorite is this nei podi idli .

Technorati Tags: Cocktail idlies,cocktail idlis recipe,kids recipes,kids party recipe ideas,indian cocktail starter ideas,flavored idlis,mini idlis,flavored mini idlis

Lunch menu 26 - South Indian lunch combo

This week’s menu is no fancy meal, but an usual and simple south Indian menu. I often pick healthy vegetables like vazhaipoo (banana-flower), vazhaithandu (banana-stem), murunga keerai (drumstick leaves) etc.; when ever I see it fresh in the shops. When we were kids, healthy vegetables are often made by our mom / MIL, but here, we have to take care of ourselves and more in ours- ladies hands. So I never miss to buy these and cook for the family. I used to hate eating these when I was kid and have told gazillion times I would never ever buy these things when I cook. But things do change. Now a days, when I cook these, I too love it. And coming to vazhaipoo, I do agree its time consuming process. But sure worth to do this once in a month for its health benefits. So I will sit in front of the TV and watch my favourite show/ songs and do this work to avoid boredom. Mostly in weekends so that the family is sitting near by . Aj is not a big fan of this, but he eats without complaining when I mix with rice and give. This lunch menu has beetroot poriyal, chow chow sambar and vazhai poo poriyal.
Here is how I prepared  this lunch:

1. First thing was to clean vazhaipoo. It may take 45 mins or upto an hour for cleaning and chopping it. Cleaned and kept it soaked in buttermilk mixed water. (You can use water with a lemon squeezed to it too.
2. Then pressure cooked rice and dal in separate containers, in between which I cut chow chow for sambar and let it get cooked in another stove. Soak tamarind for sambar.
3. Boil/ steam vazhaipoo too for the poriyal. Use less water if you are boiling to prevent loss of nutrients.
4. Mean while I chopped beetroot for poriyal and cooked it once the vazhipoo is done. Chopped onion for same and one for sambar in between. Cut one tomato for sambar and kept ready curry leaves for all these.
5. Grate coconut and extract tamarind juice. Now on to the final stove work. First temper and fry for sambar and add it to the cooked chow chow along with tamarind juice and other ingredients needed and let the sambar boil.
6. Next vazhaipoo poriyal and lastly beetroot poriyal. Add dal to sambar and finish that too. Lunch is ready!

Check out the links for the respective recipes :

1. Beetroot poriyal recipe
2. Vazhaipoo poriyal recipe
3. Chow chow sambar (Basic sambar recipe)

You may be also interested in other sambar recipes – keerai sambar recipe, mango sambar recipe,arachuvitta samabr recipe.

Other curry recipes please browse here.
Have a Happy Weekend!

Technorati Tags: Simple south indian recipes,south indian tamil lunch,tamil cooking

  
Tomato sevai is my MIL’s staple recipe. But she makes tomato idiyappam version. I think there is a difference between idiyappam and sevai. I always make it as idiyappam – with rice flour. Mostly store bought idiyappam flour. My karaikudi mami gives a ready made idiyappam flour from her place when ever she visits us. It gives a great idiyappam just like making using fresh homemade rice flour. Though there are many brands this idiyappam flour is the best I have tasted so far. Here in SG, I buy BABA’s brand and I make use of the most in this world I think. Yeah I can say I found it to use a idiyappam flour for making murukku, kozhukattai other than making idiyappam. You can see I have used it in potato murukku, thenkuzhal murukku, magizhampoo thenkuzhal, ribbon pakoda, kara sev etc.; and in kozhukattais. Yeah its very useful and gives me the best results. I hope many got benefited by this tip . Though I am not sure how authentic it is to use this for the above recipes, sure its a great help for us to make things easy.


My mom used to make the sevai version, she has that special press for making it, but we used to help her. ‘we’ means we all! Yes – me, my bro and my dad too. My mom makes the rice idli and passes it to us, and my dad will press it(turn/screw) to make the sevai. Me and my bro will hold the three legs with our tiny hands to hold the press in the place. My grand ma will help in mixing the sevai varieties. So we share the work. So now you know the ‘we’ means real ‘we’! Since its a big family, it was always like that to share the works. especially these kind of things were there is a need of lots of hands to help. And she makes a whole lot of varieties like one with jaggery and coconut syrup, lemon sevai or tamarind sevai, paruppu sevai (check out the recipes of tamarind idiyappam and paruppu idiyappam). To make these for dinner for the whole family of 6, sure she needs help right? . My MIL makes idiyappam version and her idiyappam varieties are so different and easy. She uses just sugar and coconut for sweet version, lemon idiyappam, this tomato idiyappam and milagu idiyappam. She makes for breakfast and so keeps it simple and easy. When I got married, I used to miss my moms sevai varieties a lot. But now I am used to these idiyappam varieties my MIL makes too. And after so many years, I am making this tomato sevai and found that I am loving this too these days. I tried my hands on instant sevai for the first time in my life. I have never tried any instant versions so far as I am very much comfortable in making my own idiyappam in a jiffy with store bought flour. But tempted to try this sevai after tasting a delicious coconut sevai in Vidhya’s house at her Golu. So got a pack(concord) to try it. You can also try the same with idiyappam too.

Tomato sevai/ Thakkali sevai recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 15 mins    |  Cook time: 20 mins    |  Serves: 2

Ingredients

 Please refer here to see how to prepare plain idiyappam with store bought flour

Cooked sevai / Idiyappam	2 cups
Onion, big	1
Tomato	2
Red chilli powder/ sambar powder	1 tsp
Green chillies (optional)	2
Turmeric	1/8 tsp
Carrot, finely chopped	3 tblsp
Salt	As needed
Chopped coriander leaves	2 tblsp

To temper

Oil/ ghee	2 tsp
Mustard	1 tsp
Urad dal	1 tsp
Channa dal(optional)	2 tsp
Jeera/ cumin seeds	1 & 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Method

1. Prepare idiyappam as mentioned in my old post if using idiyappam. Or prepare the sevai as per the package instructions. Chop onion, tomato finely, carrots very finely and slit green chillies. Temper with the items given under ‘To temper’ table in order. Fry onion till transparent, add the carrots, fry for a minute.

2. Add chopped tomatoes, sambar powder/ red chilli powder, turmeric and salt.Mix well and cook until mushy. Add the chopped coriander leaves. Switch off the flame.

3. Add cooked sevai and mix well. Check for salt, add ghee or sesame oil to top it. Give 2 minutes standing time before serving.

Notes

• You can add Garam masala powder if you like that smell. We dont like so I dont add. Also chopped garlic can be added along with onions.

Enjoy this tangy spicy sevai for breakfast to make your breakfast special.

Technorati Tags: tomato sevai recipe,tomato sevai,thakkali sevai,tomato idiyappam,idiyappam variety recipes,idiyappam varities,raks kitchen idiyappam recipes

Khandvi recipe | Indian snack recipes

This is the first time I am tasting a khandvi that too tried first time by me. This ingredients are so similar to that of khaman dhokla, only the method is different. Quite tricky but sure not difficult to try. But I always had a fear to try this though I wanted to try it earlier. I had a recipe written in my cookbook handwritten and passed to me by my mom. But I was so afraid as I was thinking it would be difficult. Then how did I overcame this? . My friend Sangeeta sent me step by step pictures of the khandvi her aunt made and inspired me and gave the confidence to try. Thank you for taking time to send those pictures Sangeeta. Now I can make this often and make it when ever somebody visits for snack time. Yes, its perfect for party as starter. Just make a green chutney and make this and everyone can pick and have chit chat along with this delicious yet guilt free authentic snack!

 

Khandvi recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 20 mins    |  Cook time: 10 mins    |  Serves: 4

Ingredients

Besan/ Chickpea flour/ gram flour/ Kadala mavu - 1/2 cup

---

Curd - 1/2 cup

---

Water - 3/4 cup

---

Asafoetida - 2 generous pinches

---

Salt - As needed

---

Turmeric (optional) - 1 pinch

---

Coconut, grated - 3 tbsp

---

Coriander leaves, chopped - 3 tbsp

---

To temper

oil - 2 tsp

---

Mustard - 3/4 tsp

---

Asafoetida - 2 pinches

---

Method

1. Take besan, curd, water, salt and asafoetida (turmeric also if adding) in a heavy bottomed pan. Using a whisk, beat it smoothly.Heat this in medium flame with constant stirring. Make sure you stir well until bottom as the bottom of the batter gets thickened faster. Stir until the mixture thickens and gets cooked. It must not be too thick, just like a paste that will be easy to spread. Do not let it over cooked, otherwise you may not be able to spread. 
2. Keep ready – clean counter top or a cutting board smooth and plain as I have used as shown in the picture. You also need a spatula to spread the mixture. If you are not comfortable using counter top as such, u can use aluminium foil over the counter top.
   
3. Act quickly, transfer the batter to the counter top.If you have more batter, do it in two or three places. I used very less, so needed only one plastic cutting board. So I spread the batter thinly using the spatula. Let it cool down completely.
   
4. Draw lines with a knife into strips. Trim the edges. I divided the stips into two and gently rolled into khandvis. I will soon upload  uploaded the video below.
   
5. Lastly arrange it in a tray and temper with the mustard, asafoetida and spread it over the khandvis. Garnish with coriander and grated fresh coconut.

Notes

• If the mixture gets over cooked and too thick, then you will not be able to spread properly.
• If the mixture gets cooled down, the spread will become thick and so do the khadvis too. SO act quickly.
• Instead of spreading as rectangles, you can do like a dosa/ crepes and cut that too. Use a ladle to spoon the batter also a spatula to level the thick parts.
• If your batter is not cooked properly, then you cannot roll the strips and it will be sticky.
• Do not apply pressure while rolling, do it gently. otherwise it will break and wont look nice.

Serve it with lots of fresh grated coconut garnished along with Green chutney as side dish/ Dip. Perfect tea time snack for your family too.

Check out the full video

Technorati Tags: Khandvi recipe,khandvi step by step,khandvi,easy snacks,Indian party starter recipes,Indian snacks recipes

Lunch menu 25 - North Indian lunch recipes

I clicked two south Indian lunch menu plans last week, having posted one already last time, this week wanted to go for a north Indian lunch menu. I bought a bunch of freshest methi leaves sometime back. Along with that bought vazhaipoo (banana flower) and I usually cook it as soon as I buy, otherwise I will keep forgetting or postponing, that it would become spoilt. Same way, I kept this methi leaves to clean and at last, when I saw the leaves starting get yellow, then I took it and cleaned and froze it finally. I always freeze methi leaves as I make only methi roti, as methi mutter malai is rare to cook coz of the cream part. But I love love this methi thepla or roti – both eating and making. It comes out so so soft and the rolling part is so very interesting, I love to roll this.
For this menu, I had methi leaves frozen, so my job was easy making it, if you too plan to make methi recipes, you can clean and freeze it when you are free, you can do it while watching tv or talking over phone.
Here is how I prepared this lunch menu. (considering you have methi leaves ready)

1. Soak basmati rice alteast 1/2 hour before cooking it. I always soak basmati rice as much as I can for long time. It ensures cooking with less water, so you get separate grains still soft too.
2. Fry the methi leaves and add it to the atta (usually frozen methi leaves - I add as such without frying), add all the other ingredients needed and prepare the dough with buttermilk and set aside.
3. Pressure cook dal and rice in two containers in a pressure cooker. You can do this according to your availability, do it two times in the same cooker, use two cookers etc.
4. Chop onion, capsicum and tomatoes and other needed ingredients like green chillies coriander etc. mean while.
5. Boil water and keep the paneer cubes immersed in water. By now rice and dal would be done and fluff the rice, mash the dal and keep aside.
6. Temper for dal and then prepare kadai paneer. Lastly roll and keep the theplas in hot pack.

That’s it, toast papad and keep ready pickle and curd/ dahi in the table and you are ready for the lunch.



Lunch with methi roti/ thepla, kadai paneer, dal tadka, steamed rice, papad, pickle, dahi. Check out the links for the recipes

1. Methi roti/ theplas recipe
2. Kadai paneer recipe
3. Dal tadka recipe 

Check out other paneer recipes here. 

You can also try other sabzi like cauliflower sabzi, aloo gobi, aloo gobi mutter, baby corn sabzi, aloo bhendi fry.

Other dals like simple dal tadka, green moong dal fry, dal palak or dal makhani.

Technorati Tags: north Indian lunch menu,north indian lunch idea,Indian lunch ideas,north Indian lunch recipes,indian lunch recipes

NUTELLA CHAPATI | INDIAN NUTELLA RECIPES | KIDS RECIPES

  
I am sure most of you and mainly your kids will be nutella fans. I wanted to post some kids recipes using nutella that too something that is easily adapted to our usual Indian cooking. This is a simple and easy Indian nutella recipe that you can make for your kids lunch box or as a snack/ dinner. Kids would love this, even you may like it. And I am so sorry for tempting you all who ever are determined not to touch nutella here after. I am also one who take it as oath that from tomorrow I wont touch nutella and then breaking it everyday. There is no such recipe to share, just I am sharing an idea, hope it will be useful. And thanks to friend Sangeeta for the idea of folding, I made use of it here in this recipe. Is your kid allergic to coco? Dont worry, you can stuff sugar and ghee paste inside instead nutella. That’s what she originally shared, but I tried with nutella.

Nutella chapati recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 20 mins    |  Cook time: 15 mins    |  Makes: 8

Ingredients

Wheat flour / atta	1 cup
Nutella	1 tblsp per chapati
Water	As needed
Salt	As needed
Oil/ Ghee	As needed

Method

1. Mix flour with salt and add water and prepare dough. Usually its little less than half cup for 1 cup flour. Prepare dough and let it rest for 15 mins. After 15 mins, knead again to make it smooth and divide into 6 or 8 equal sized balls depending how big you want it.
2. Roll it as you do for chapati, but make sure not too thin. You can roll slightly thicker.
3. Spread the nutella in half the chapati and fold it leaving a little space as shown in the picture. Press it with your fingers to seal it.
4. Now fold it decoratively with the left extra space. By practise this will come our pretty well. I will try to upload video to show how to fold it later.
5. Heat tawa and toast both sides with few drops of oil or ghee as required. Press gently in the folded area to ensure even cooking. 

Notes

• Make sure you fold the edges small, otherwise it wont get cooked.
• CAUTION: The inside stuff will be hot as soon as you take it out from tawa. So be careful.
• Use your imagination for stuffing, you can add a tsp of finely chopped banana or thinly sliced banana 2 or 3 pieces. You can try the same with strawberry too. Goes well with nutella.
• You can also try coconut, sugar and dry fruits and nuts inside in this same way.

I am sure your kids  will be excited to have this, so try it for their lunch box or snack box or as evening snack when they are back from school. I am sure you too will be equally loving this one. Bachelors who do not want to disturb their moms also can try this on their own.

Technorati Tags: nutella chapati recipe,nutella chapati,kids recipes,kids indian recipes,indian nutella recipes,nutella recipes for kids,kids lunch box ideas