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Schezwan sauce/chutney

Ingredients:

  • Dried Red chilli 2 cups
  • Oil 1/4 cup
  • Garlic finely chopped 1/4 cup
  • Ginger finely chopped 2 tbsp
  • Pepper powder 1/2 tsp
  • Vinegar 2 tbsp
  • Soy sauce 2 tbsp
  • Tomato sauce 2 tbsp
  • Sugar 1 tbsp
  • Salt to taste

Procedure:

1 Soak red chilli in hot water for 30m, blend smoothly and keep aside

2 Heat oil in a kadai, add garlic, ginger and saute well

3 Add chilli paste and saute for 2m

4 Add 1/4 cup water and mix well

5 Cover with a lid and simmer for 15m or till oil separates

6 Add pepper powder, vinegar, soy sauce, tomato sauce, sugar and salt

7 Mix well and, when cool, store in a container 

Banana Fritters(Pazha vadai)

Ingredients:

  • Very ripe banana 4 no
  • Jaggery. 250g
  • Wheat flour 3 Tbs
  • All purpose flour (Maida) 2 Tbs
  • Rice flour/ Suji(Rava) 1 Tbs
  • Grated coconut 3 Tbsecure:
  • Ghee 3 Tbs
  • Cooking soda
  • Cardamom 4 no -crushed
  • oil for deep frying

Procedure:

  1. Pour 2 Tsb of ghee in a kadai, add grated and heat until it turns golden brown and keep aside.
  2. Put jaggery in a kadai, add 50 ml of water and boil for 3m. Filter the syrup to remove dust and keep aside
  3. Peel and mash the ripe bananas without any lumps, add cardamom, roasted coconut, cooking soda, jaggery syrup, 1 Tbs ghee and mix well.
  4. Add required quantity of wheat flour, maida and rice flour to banana paste to get vada consistency.
  5. Heat oil in a kadai in medium flame, take a handful of banana batter and drop it in oil as small balls. Fry in medium flame till they turn dark golden brown. Drain the oil and serve.

Dosa batter

Ingredients

  • Idly rice – 4 cups
  • Whole skinless urad dal – 1 cup
  • Fenugreek – 1 tbsp

Procedure

  1. Soak all the ingredients separately for at least 5 hours .
  2. Grind urad dal until smooth and fluffy.
  3. Grind the fenugreek first until it’s smooth then add the idly rice and continue grinding until it’s fine but slightly grainy.
  4. Mix everything together with salt.
  5. Allow the mix to ferment at room temperature until the batter rises up and has a slight fermented smell.
  6. Store in refrigerator.
  7. Add water to get the consistency you want before making idly or dosa.

Shark Fish (Sura meen) Kulambu

Ingredients:

  • Fish 500 grams (1 lb)-Preferred fish: Shark (Sura)
  • Onion 2 cut into thick pieces
  • Tomato 1 thinly sliced
  • Tamarind paste 2 tsp
  • Red chili powder 3 tsp
  • Coriander powder 4 tsp
  • Turmeric powder ½ tsp
  • Garlic gloves-crushed-10 no
  • Pepper -coarsely crushed- 2 tsp
  • Gingelly oil -4 tbsp
  • Curry leaves
  • Salt

Procedure:

  1. Wash the fish pieces. Bring water to boil, add 1 tsp turmeric powder, add fish and boil for 2 minutes. Remove the fish, allow it to cool, remove the skin.
  2. Soak the tamarind in water and extract the juice. If you are using tamarind paste just dissolve it in water
  3. Add chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and salt to the tamarind juice and add more water if needed to get the desired quantity of kulambu.
  4. Heat 2 tsp of oil in a kadai and add onion pieces.
  5. After frying the onion for a minute add the tomato and fry till golden brown
  6. Add the tamarind mix from step 3 and let boil for 7 minutes or till the raw chili powder smell is gone.
  7. In a kadai heat 2 tsp oil, add crushed garlic and roast for 30 sec, add pepper and fry for 10 sec, add curry leaves. Add the kulambu mix in step 6, add fish slices and boil for another 3 minutes.

Curry leaves, pepper, jeera powder to reduce burping, acidity and indigestion

Ingredients:

  • Curry leaves, cleaned  –  4 cup
  • Pepper corn –  half cup
  • Jeera – half cup
  • Asafoetida – 1 cm cube / 1 tsp powder
  • Salt to taste

Procedure:

  1. Heat kadai, when hot add pepper corn and roast in medium flame, till it splutters and emanates smell. Remove from heat and keepa side to cool.
  2. Roast jeera and roast in medium flame, till it splutters and emanates smell. Remove from heat and keep aside to cool.
  3. Roast curry leaves till they dry well and become crispy. The leaves will crumble when you pinch them.
  4. Roast asafoetida piece with a few drops of gingelly/Sesame oil, dry roast for 1 m in case of powder.
  5. When the above are cool, add salt to taste,  powder them in a mixie and store in an air-tight container.
  6. While eating rice, mix  1 tbs of Curry leaves mix with 1 tsp of gingelly oil/ghee, and eat a few mouthful of rice at the start. Use the above mix as a side for idli or dosa as to reduce burping, acidity and indigestion. Use this method twice a day for one month, and once a day afterwards.

Coriander Coffee

Ingredients:

  • Coriander Seeds  – 2 cup
  • Dried Ginger (Sukku)-2″

Procedure:

  1. Roast Coriander seeds, in a kadai, in medium flame, till smell emanates.
  2. Crush dried ginger and roast in a kadai for 1 min.
  3. Allow both to cool.
  4. Grind coarsely roasted ginger, add roasted coriander seeds and grind coarsely.
  5. Store in a air-tight container.
  6. Heat one cup of water to boil, add 1 tbs of coriander mix, boil in medium flame for 4 to 5 min.
  7. Strain the clear coffee, add 1 tbs of milk, 1 tsp of palm/brown sugar and drink warm coffee to reduce burping, acidity, heart-burn, improve digestive power.
  8. Avoid Coffee or Tea while you have digestive related issues.

Keerai Tannisaru

Ingredients:
1.Any green (spring onion, leaves of drum-stick etc, cleaned and cut into small pieces-4 cups.
2.Toor Dhal-half cup
3.Small onions-sliced into .25 cm thick pieces
4.Tomato-1 no cut into small pieces
5.shredded coconut – half cup
6.Sombu – 2 tsp
7.Red chili powder 2 tsp
8.Coriander powder – 4 tsp
9.Turmeric powder – half tsp
10.Oil-6 tsp
11.Salt to taste
12.Karuvadagam – 3 tsp

Method:
1.Boil door dhal. Grind cocunut with sombu into smooth paste
2.Heat 5 cups of water (better to use the water used for cleaning rice) in a kadai, add red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, onion, tomato and boil for about 8-10 m.
3.Add greens and boil for another 2 m,
4.Add cocunut-sombu paste, boiled toor dhal and boil for another 3 m.
5. Heat oil in a kadai, reduce heat and add karuvadagam. After it splutters, add it to tannisaru. Close with a lid and boil for one more minute.

Kolukkattai, Sukiyam

Ingredients:

  • Rice Flour – 2 cup
  • Salt half tsp
  • Oil 1 tsp
  • Water 3 cups

Procedure:

  1. Heat water in a pan with salt and oil till it starts to boil
  2. Add hot water in small quantities to the rice flour, continuously stirring with a ladle,  till it becomes a thick paste
  3. Roll into a ball, cover it with a damp cloth, cover it with a lid and allow it to stand for 5 min
  4. Make small balls and roll it into a round and thick sheet of flour- Traditionally, we place flour ball on suitably cut plantain leaves and press it with fingers or roller to get flour sheets.  Or place cut plantain leaves on the bottom side of the press and put the flour ball in the middle. Place butter paper/oiled plastic sheet over it and lightly press to get a thick sheet of flour. Remove the butter paper/plastic sheet
  5. Put a spoonful of sweet or chutney mix ( Refer to Kolukkattai Pooranam) at the center and fold into a semicircle and pinch the edges to close it to get the dumplings.
  6. Steam the dumplings on a idly cooker for 3 to 4 min.

Cabbage/chowchow/snake gourd-Moong Dhal Gravy

Ingredients:

  • Pasiparuppu (Moong Dhal/broken green-gram dhal)-1 cup-wash in water and drain
  • Cabbage/Chowchow/Snake-gourd – 250g-finely chopped
  • Green chilli 5 no/ more or less according to taste -1″ long & longitudinally split
  • Big Onion 1 no – cut into small pieces
  • Tomato – 1 no – cut into small pieces
  • Cumin (Jeera) seeds – 1 tsp
  • mustard seeds 1 tsp
  • oil – 3 tsp
  • curry leaves 10
  • turmeric powder half tsp
  • salt to taste
  • Coconut – grated 1 cup

Method:

  1. Heat 5 cups of water in a pan till it starts boiling
  2. Add the moong dhal and cook in open pan for 5 min
  3. Add onion, tomato, green chilli and cook for 10 min
  4. Add cabbage, turmeric powder, salt and cook for 5 min with the pan covered with a lid
  5. Heat oil in a small kadai add mustard seeds, while it splutters add cumin seeds and as it splutters add curry leaves
  6. Add the above to the Cabbage gravy and cook till done
  7. Remove from heat, add chopped coriander leaves and grated coconut. Goes well with rice, chappathi, or dosa
  • Tips: While cooking the gravy add boiling water at any stage for desired consistency

Thick Red Chiili-Garlic Paste for Idli/dosa

Ingredients:

  • Red chilli – 10 no
  • Garlic gloves – 4 no
  • Salt to taste

Procedure:

  1. Grind all the ingredients into thick paste. Add a little water to make a smooth paste.
  2. Before serving add one tbs gingelly/sesame oil to enhance the taste.