Araichu vecha murungakai kulambu (Drumstick gravy- Typical of Tamil Nadu)

I like any araichu vecha kulambu(a gravy which requires frying and grinding some of the ingredients), these are typical of Tamil Nadu and goes well with rice/idli/dosas. And most araichu vecha kulambu will have coconut added to it. This drumstick kulambu I believe people outside of Tamil Nadu will also enjoy. I learnt this from my mom, but I am not sure if I can make it exactly like hers..she makes the best out of limited resources.
Ingredients:
 Drumstick - 2
 Coconut- grated coconut 1 cup
 red chilli powder - 1 spoon (less or more as again with your spice level)
 coriander powder - 2 spoons (double the amount of chilli powder)
 tamarind - 1 lemon size / gooseberry size depending on how tangy you want it.
 small onions/shallots - 10-15
 Jeera- 1 spoon.
Curry leaves- 10
Mustard- 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/2 spoon for frying onions and 1-2 spoons for making the gravy.
salt to taste.

Method:
     Peels the onions and Heat oil(1/2 spoon)  in a pan and add Jeera , when it browns add onions and fry until the raw smells goes and they slightly turn brown. Now switch off. Let it cool and transfer into a mixer Jar and add chilly powder ,coriander powder, grated coconut. Add water and grind into a fine paste.Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup of water.

Now heat oil in a pressure cooker and add mustard seeds , after they crack add curry leaves and the drum sticks (cut into 2 inch long pieces) and fry for 2 -3 minutes, then add this ground paste , add turmeric, salt.add  water little water- say 1/2 cup (dont add more as we will add tamarind water as well at the end). Close the pressure cooker and let it go for 1 whistle, so the drumstick is cooked just right and not too much.  After the pressure goes down open the cooker. Now add the tamarind pulp little, taste it and then add more if required. You can modify the consistency of the gravy as you wish, so add less water in the beginning. Let the gravy boil for some time after adding tamarind pulp and switch off.

Enjoy this gravy with rice/idli/dosa.

Groundnut chutney - from my mom

My mom used to make this ground nut chutney along with Crispy dosas or crispy paniyaram(this is a small crispy balls made with same dosa batter , also called as Paddu in kannada). My dad loves this chutney , and so do I. People who are calorie conscious can try it out once at-least to know this taste.and today I am going to make this .....

Ingredients:
 Ground nut - 1 cup (dried ground nuts)
 Red chillies - 3 - 4 (or depends on your spice level)
 Tamarind - small gooseberry size(you can reduce it if you do not like it tangy)
 Salt to taste
 For seasoning:
 Oil- 1/2 spoon
 Curry leaves
 mustard - 1/4 tsp
 Urad dhal- 1/2 tsp
  channa dhal- 1/2 tsp

Method:
         Dry fry the ground nuts in a pan until the skin peels off , keep turning it aroundor it will get burnt. Once the ground nuts are fried, cool them and crush them with you palm, so the skin comes out. Now separate the skin from the ground and grind together the ground nuts, tamarind, red chillies, salt with water. This chutney should not be thick, it should be little running consistency. Now heat a pan with  oil and add mustard, uradh dhal, channa dhal, when the dhal browns add the curry leaves and switch off the heat..Add this seasoning to the chutney and enjoy this with Idli /Dosa/Paniyarram.

I have also tasted this groundnut chutney with coconut added to it.. But I like this plain ground nut chutney...

Garlic fry - to eat with rice - Read this only if you like Garlic

I usually make this after a day full of consuming pulses or when ever I do not find vegetables in the fridge or woke up late and do not want to eat cafeteria food. You can take this for lunch but mind you, you should have mouth fresher right after your lunch :).

This below recipe serves just one :).

Ingredients

garlic- 10 pods
Curry leaves - 5 to 6 leaves
Oil/Ghee- 1- 2 spoons
Red chilli flakes/ Red chilli powder - 1 spoon or  based on your spice level
salt to taste.

Method:
        Crush / cut the garlic into very tiny pieces, I usually crush it. Wash and cut the curry leaves. Heat Oil/ghee or combination of the two in a pan and add curry leaves and then add the garlic and salt fry for 2 minutes , and then add the chilli flakes or chilli powder and switch off immediately (if you add chilli powder switch off and add , if chilli flakes you can add switch off, to avoid burning).

Add this to rice and have. for box you can mix it with rice and take it.

Coconut- raw mango chutney (Recipe from my friend's mom)

This is the same coconut chutney that we make by substituting tamarind with raw mango. This chutney goes well with hot rice and curd rice.

Ingredients:
      Coconut- 1/2 coconut grated
      shallots/pearl onions- 4 to 5 
      Green chillies -4 to 5 (depends on your spice level)
      raw mango - remove the skin and scrape half mango (you can reduce or increase the amount of raw mango based on how tangy you like it)
      salt as required.
      Chutney dhal (optional).
Method:
         Grind the above in a mixer with very less water so you get a thick chutney. Have this with hot rice or curd rice.

Vegetable Dosa

By the title you would think it is the usual dosa topped with vegetables, which even I am not so excited about. Dosa is the best and easy one when you think about something for breakfast or dinner during your weekdays for most of the south Indians. But I feel when we have this as our regular food, there should be some nutrients added to it. My mom used to give dosa/uthappam topped with carrots/onions which is a good way, but I do not really get excited about those vegetables on top of dosa. So I made a variation to this (grind the vegetables) , for 1 kg of dosa batter you could do the below

carrots - 2
onion- 1
green/red chillies - 6 -7 (or change this based on your spice level)
beans- 10-15
cabbage- small one (or say 10-15 leaves)
Channa dhal- 1 spoon.
salt as required  just for the vegetable(remember dosa batter will have salt in it)

Method: (This is the same method as porial)
     Cut the onion, chillies, carrots, beans and cabbage. heat oil in a pan and add the channa dhal, when it browns add the green/red chillies, fry it for a minute and add the carrot , beans and cook for 5 to 10 mins and add the cabbage and cook for 10 more minutes adding salt.

Now cool it and grind it (dont make it very fine paste ). Add this mixture into the dosa batter and make dosas. This will look and taste almost like Adai.

Another quick raw recipe with fresh grated coconut - again my grand mom's recipe

Required ingredients:
Fresh grated coconut- 1 cup
Curry leaves - 1 spoon chopped
Chilli powder - as required
salt- as required
garlic - 2- 3 cloves

Crush the garlic and add it to the fresh grated coconut, add the curry leaves, chilli powder and salt as required , and mix it well with your hand so that juice of garlic and curry leaves gets mixed well with coconut. And we are done.

Now mix this above coconut mixture with hot rice and ghee and enjoy. You can enjoy this only if you like coconut and garlic and mind you it is all raw not cooked.

A simple but very tasty way to eat idli- My grand mom's way to make us eat idlis

Required ingredients:
Oil/Ghee
Salt
Chilli powder
Heat equal amount of oil and ghee (if you are not conscious about calories then use only ghee), add required salt  and switch off heat and before pouring this on the idli add the chili powder when the oil/ghee is still hot, the chilli powder will bubble, and pour it on the hot idlis before the chilli powder gets burnt. and now eat idlis. I will eat extra idlis when I get this ghee/salt/chilli podwer mixture.