Yummy Coconut Rice

Ingredients:
Coconut- 1/2 cup (grated)
Rice- 1 cup
Oil- 1 tbsp (preferably coconut oil)
Channa dhal- 1 tsp
Urad dhal- 1 tsp
Groundnuts- 2 tsp (fried without salt)
Green chillies- 3 (finely chopped)
Curry leaves- few
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Asofeotida - a pinch
salt- to taste
Preparation:
Cook rice and keep it separately (make sure the rice doesn't stick to one another). Take a kadai and add oil to it. After it heats up add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter and add asofeotida, green chillies and curry leaves. Fry for a few seconds then add all the dhals and fry until they turn brown. But make sure they don't change color from brown to black. Then add the grated coconut and salt and fry until all the water in the coconut is dried up. Take it off from the gas and mix it with rice. You can store this powder in a container too and use it whenever necessary but make sure all the water is dried up. If you want you may add a few cashewnuts while frying as it may be attractive for children. Best to pack for children's lunch or snack box. This may accompany well with potato chips, papads or potato fries.

Neer Dosa

Ingredients:

Raw rice- 2 1/2 cups
Coconut- 1/2 cup (grated)
Salt- to taste

Preparation:

All you need to do is to soak the rice in water for about 2 to 4 hours. (But I soak it overnight as it becomes easy for me to grind it and use it immediately in the morning). Strain the water and grind it along with grated coconut. make sure to add water until you get a milk like consistency.Add salt and make it as dosa immediately on a heavy bottomed dosa pan and close it with a lid and cook nicley. You neednt put the dosa on the other side. Just fold the dosa into half and again into another half as it looks like a triangle and serve with groundnut chutney and coconut milk. (Coconut is optional. You may grind it without coconut too.) But the batter should be little watery. "neer" in kannada is water. As the dosa batter is watery it is called as Neer Dosa.

Idlis Recipe

Ingredients:

Boiled rice- 4 cups
Raw Rice- 1 Cup
Urad Dhall- 1 cup and a little more
Methi Seeds - 1 tbsp (if required)
Salt- to taste

Procedure:
Soak all the ingredients said above for about 4 to 5 hours separately. You can mix both the rice together and the urad dhal and methis together while soaking.(But I dont use methi seeds as I feel they change the taste of the idlis). Grind urad dhal first in a Mixer grinder or food processor and then the rice. Mix both of them together completely until they are blended together. If you want you may add salt now or you may add salt before making idlis. The idli batter is ready. Allow this to ferment for about 8 to 9 hours in the room temperature. Now put this batter in the idli plate and steam cook them for about 15 to 20 minutes. Simmer the flame, slowly open the lid of the cooker and check whether the idlis are cooked. Switch off if cooked and serve them hot with spicy tomato and onion chutney or coconut chutney or nice hot sambar.

South Indian Vathal Kuzhambu

Ingredients:

Tamarind- size of a small lemon
Oil- 2 tbsp
Mustard Seeds- 1 tsp
Methi Seeds- 1/2 tsp
Some vegetable like Red pumpkin or Drumsticks- 1/2 cup (nicely cut)(optional)
Onions- 1 (nicely Chopped)
Sambar Powder -2 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1 pinch
Asafoetida - 1 pich
Green Chillies- 1 or 2 (Slit) (If required)
Curry leaves- a few
Salt- to taste

Procedure:

• Soak tamarind in water for about half an hour and make it into a thick paste and keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard and methi seeds and allow it to splutter.
• Now add the slit green chillies and curry leaves and fry them until they turn crisp.
• Now add the Asafoetida and turmeric powder and fry for a few seconds.
• Now add the cut onions and fry until they become translucent.
• Now add the cut vegetables. (Instead of cut vegetables we can add "manathakali vathal" which will be available in south India mainly in Tamil Nadu in all grocery Shops. Which is a dried seeds of a green leafy spincah. This is very good for your stomach and they say that it has healing powers to heal mouth and stomach ulcers. It will be little sour in taste and this is also a recommended food for women who have delivered recently)
• Fry them for a while and add the sambar powder and immedieately the tamarind pulp.
• Add salt to it and mix well.
• Allow it to boil for a minimum of 20 minutes.
• Hot vathal Kuzhambu is ready to be served with steaming hot rice.

Lemon Rice

Ingredients:

Rice - 150 gms (cooked and kept seperately)
Lemon Juice- 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

For Tampering:

Oil- 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Ground nuts- 2 tsp
channa dhal (chick peas)- 1 tsp
Urad dhal- 1 tsp
Turemric powder- a pinch
Curry leaves- few
Corriander leaves- few
Green chillies- 2 to 3 (finely chopped)
Carrot (grated)- 1 tsp (if required)

Preparation:

Cook the rice and put in a large plate for cooling. Make sure the rice is not sticky. Take a small pan and add oil. When the oil heats up add mustard seeds and allow it splutters. Now add the channa dhal, urad dhal and ground nuts and fry until brown. Add the pinch of turmeric. Now add the green chillies and curry leaves to it and fry for a few seconds. Add the grated carrots and allow it to cook for some time. Add this tampering, lemon juice and salt to the cooled rice and mix well. Add corriander leaves on top and serve with potato fry or beans poriyal or even a simple pickle of your choice.

This also a prominent dish in many south Indian households. I don't really know whether everyone prepare the same way. But I learnt this from my mum as well as my mother-in-law and with a few variation of adding carrots and corriander leaves (for my son as he eats if it is colorful as well as it is nutritious) of my choice.

Semiya Payasam (kheer)

Ingredients:
Semiya(semolina/ Vermicelli)- 100 gms
Ghee- 2 tbsp
Milk- 500 ml
sugar-150 gms
Cashews and Raisins- 50 gms
Condensed milk- 200 ml (if required)
Water

Preparation:

Boil the milk in a separate vessel and keep it aside to cool down. Now take a pan and add a few drops of ghee and fry the semolina till brown and little water (water should be very little above the semolina). Allow it to cook and every now and then mix them up with a spatula. If the semolina softens then it is that it has been cooked. Now pour the boiled milk to it and allow it to cook in the milk for some more time. Add sugar to it and make sure that you don't allow it to boil. Remove it from the flame as soon as the sugar gets dissolved. Otherwise it may become very watery. Now add the condensed milk to it (Never add condensed milk on flame. There is a chance of the kheer getting curdled up) Take another pan and add the remaining ghee to it and fry the cashews and raisins until golden brown and add this to the kheer. This kheer is a South Indian dish and is mostly prepared in almost all Brahmin households during functions and marriages.

Tomato And Onion Chutney- A new Method

Ingredients:

Coconut- 1 cup(grated)
Tomato- 1 (chopped)
Onion- 1 (big)(chopped)
Chilli powder- 2 tsp(if you want it to be more spicy you may add a little more)
Fried grams- 1 tbsp
Salt- to taste
Oil- 1 to 2 tsp
Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
Curry leaves- a few leaves
Procedure:

All you need to do is to grind all the above said ingredients except oil and mustard to a fine paste with little water. Remove it to a bowl and heat the oil in a small kadai and add the mustard seeds and the curry leaves. Allow it to splutter and add it to the chutney. The mouth watering chutney is ready to be served with hot steaming dosa, ildli or rice at times. (If you like the taste and smell of asafoetida, you may add a pich to it when you are spluttering mustard seeds in oil).