BUTTER COOKIES

Yields: 16-18 cookies


Ingredients:

Butter: 100 gm
Maida: 125 gm
Powdered sugar: 75 gm
Baking Soda: 1/4 tsp
Vanilla essence: 2-3 drops

Preparation:

1. Sieve maida, and baking soda and keep aside.
2. Take bowl, mix butter and sugar till it is fluffy.
3. Add sieved ingredients, essence and mix well.
4. Make cookie shape biscuits and keep in a greased baking tray.
5. Bake cookies in a pre-heated oven  for 20 minute at 180°.

DONDAKAI PALYA

Ingredients:

Dondakai: 250 gm
Oil: 2 tbspn
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tspn
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tspn
Salt: as required
Palyad pudi: 2-3 tbspn(or as required)
Coconut: 2 tbspn

Preparation:

1. Cut dondakai in round/elongated shape. Wash and keep aside.
2. Take a pan, add oil, after it heats up add mustard seeds. Once it crackles add cut dondakai.
3. Add turmeric powder, salt, water, mix and cover. Cook till dondakai becomes little soft.
4. Sprinkle palyad pudi and mix. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
5. Garnish with coconut.

Note:

1. Dondakai palya can be had with roti, chapati and paratha, 
2. It can also be mixed with rice and had as Dondakai rice.

PALYA PUDI

Yields: 2 cups 

Ingredients:

Urad dal: 1 cup

Chana dal: 1/4 cup

Dhaniya/corriander seeds: 1/8 cup

Byadige chillies: 1/4 cup

Guntur chillies: 1/4 cup

Dalchini/cinnamon: 2 inch

Maratha moggu/kapok buds: 4 nos.

Tejpatta/bay leaf: 2 nos.

Kalpasi/black stone flower: 1 tspn

Hing powder/asafoetida: 1 tbspn
Curry leaves: 30 leaves 

Grated dry coconut: 1/2 cup

Preparation:

• Dry roast all ingredients separately and keep transferring to a bowl/plate once done.
• Each ingredient requires different temperature to get roasted.
• Roast both dals till it is light brown in color. Dalchini, maratha moggu and curry leaves can be roasted along with dal. After roasting add hing powder and allow it to cool. Kalpasi and tejpatta doesn't need much time to get roasted. 
• Use a little cooking oil while roasting the red chillies, to avoid burnt smell. If roasted in microwave, oil is not required.
• Roast the coriander seeds slightly till a nice aroma comes. Grind it separately, as it requires more grinding to get a fine powder. 
• Dry coconut also should be grinded separately and mixed with other ground ingredients at the end, as the oil from the coconut coming out will make pudi little sticky.
• Cool all roasted ingredients and grind into fine powder.
• After grinding leave the powder in a broad vessel for 15-20 minutes, as the powder will be little warm due to heat generated by the mixer. 
• Once cool store in an air tight container. If storing for more than a month, refrigerate it. 

ONION RICE

When you are looking for a quick fix dinner item or lunchbox idea, nothing seems simpler than Onion rice. It is simple in terms of time taken to prepare, ingredients required and most importantly its taste. Subtle tasting with sweetness from onions and heat from the green chillies bring in the perfect blend to ensure it pleases everyone. Despite its simplicity, there is no compromise on taste. Onion rice is one of the many rice dishes which can be prepared as a main course for lunch or dinner. For other rice dishes on this blog you can check Lemon Rice, Raw Mango Rice.

Onion Rice Recipe

Yields: 2 servings

Ingredients

1. Onion: 2 no.(big)
2. Green chilli: 4 no.(or as required)
3. Curry leaves: 8-10 leaves
4. Ginger: 1/2 tsp(chopped)
5. Rice: 1 cup(cooked)
6. Oil: 2 tbsp
7. Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
8. Udad dal: 1 tsp
9. Chana dal: 1 tsp
10. Salt: as required
11. Hing: 1/4 tsp
12. Ghee: 1 tbsp(optional)

Preparation

1. Cut onions and green chillies.
2. Take oil in a pan, add mustard seeds once it crackles add udad dal and chana dal.
3. When dals change colour add green chilli, ginger, curry leaves, cook for a minute
4. Add onion, salt as required for onion, stir once and cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add hing, stir well and switch off the flame.
6. Now add rice, salt and ghee and combine.
7. Serve hot with curd and papad.

RAVA PONGAL/ RAVA KHICHIDI

Yields: 3-4 servings 

Ingredients

Bansi rava : 1cup
Moong dal : 1/4 cup
Water : 5 cups
Ghee : 3 tbsp
Cumin seeds : 1 tsp
Pepper powder : 1 tsp
Pepper: 1/4 tsp
Green chilli : 1 no.
Ginger : 1/2 tsp (chopped)
Curry leaves : 10 leaves
Fresh coconut : 1 tbsp (cut into pieces)
Kaju : 10 nos.

Preparation

1. Take a pan and cook moong dal with 1 1/2 cups of water till done.

2. In another pan take 1 tbsp ghee and fry fresh coconut, kaju and curry leaves. Transfer it to a plate.
3. Now take 2 tbsp ghee and add pepper, cumin seeds, ginger, pepper powder, bansi rava and fry till rava gets raoasted and then add moong dal.
4. Add 3 1/2 cups of water, cover with lid and cook for 10-15 mins till rava becomes little soft.
5. Once done add fried fresh coconut, kaju and curry leaves and mix.
6. Serve hot with coconut chutney or tomato gojju.

RAVA DOSA

Yields: 6 medium sized dosas.

Ingredients:

Chiroti rava/Fine Sooji: 1/2 cup
Maida: 1/2 cup
Rice flour: 1/2 cup
Hing: 1/4 tspn
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tspn
Salt: as required
Oil: 1 tbspn + oil for roasting, as required
Corriander leaves: 2 tbspn, finely chopped
Curry leaves: 5-6 nos. finely chopped
Water: as required


Preparation:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients and oil.
2. Add water slowly and mix well ensuring there are no lumps. Add enough water to make a batter of a runny consistency.
3. Let the batter rest for about half an hour.
4. Heat the pan and pour the batter (in a thin layer) from the edges towards the centre (unlike traditional dosa, where you pour all the batter in the centre and spread it out towards the edges of the pan.)
5. Sprinkle oil on top for roasting.
6. Let it roast till golden brown at the base. Flip and cook for some time on the other side till done.
7. Serve hot with coconut chutney, sambar, dosa molaga pudi.

Notes:

1. It is necessary to use the finest of rava/sooji/semolina to ensure you get a thin batter and thin, crispy dosas. You can use medium rava too instead of fine rava, however you will need to rest the batter for a longer time, say 1 hour or so.
2. You can add finely chopped onions, grated carrots, finely chopped green chillies, grated ginger to the batter etc as per your taste.
3. If roasting on an iron tava, it helps if you can spread oil on the pan before starting making the dosas to ensure that the dosas do not stick to the pan. Pour the batter on the hot pan (at high flame). Once batter is poured, reduce the flame to medium and allow it to roast slowly.
4. In case of non-stick pan, you can both pour the batter and roast it on high flame throughout.
5. Rava dosa takes more time to roast than traditional dosas.
6. Pouring the batter with a thin spread on the pan will enable making crispier dosas.

LEMON RICE

Ingredients:

Rice: 1 cup(cooked)
Oil: 2 tbspn
Ghee: 1 tbspn
Mustard seeds: 1 tspn
Udad dal: 2 tbspn
Chana dal: 2 tbspn
Groundnut: 2 tbspn
Curry leaves: 10-12 leaves
Green chilli: 3 nos.
Corriander leaves: 2 tbsp, chopped
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tspn
Lemon: 2 tspn
Grated coconut: 2 tbspn
Salt: as required


Preparation:

1. Take a pan, add oil. When oil becomes hot add mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds crackles add udad dal, chana dal, groundnut. Once the dals change colour add green chillies, curry leaves and mix.
2. Add turmeric powder, salt, mix well and switch off the flame.
3. Add Lemon juice and the grated coconut.
4. Now add cooked rice and ghee to it and mix.
5. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Notes:

1. Do not cook the mix after adding the lemon juice else it will turn bitter.

VEGETABLE CHEESE GRILLED SANDWICH

Ingredients:

Brown bread: 4 nos.

Cheese slice: 2 nos.
Onion: 2 tbspn, chopped
Tomato: 2 tbspn, chopped
Capsicum: 2 tbspn, chopped
Carrot: 2 tbspn, grated
Oregano: 1/4 tspn
Salt: for sprinkling
Butter: as required, for applying on bread


Preparation:

1. Take a slice of bread. Top it with cheese slice and spread the veggies on it.
2. Sprinkle oregano and salt. Close it with another slice of bread.
3. Apply butter on both sides (outer sides) of bread and grill it.
4. Serve it with tomato sauce/ketchup and/or green chutney

Notes:

1. You can use pepper powder instead of oregano.
2. You may apply green chutney to the bread slices before grilling to give it that extra flavour and heat.
3. You may use any kind of bread, white or brown. 

TOMATO GOJJU

Yields: 2-3 cups of gojju

Ingredients:

Tomato: 2 nos., medium sized, roughly chopped
Green chillies: 2 nos. (slit)
Curry leaves: 10 nos.
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tspn
Fenugreek seeds: 1/2 tspn
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tspn
Hing: 1/2 tspn
Chilli powder: 1/2 tspn
Tamarind: Lemon sized
Oil: 1 tspn
Salt: as required
Rice flour: 1 tspn

Preparation:

1. Soak tamarind in hot water. Extract tamarind water from the soaked tamarind and discard the pulp. Keep aside.
2. Add about 2-3 tspn water to the rice flour and make a smooth runny paste. 
3. Take a pan, add oil. When oil becomes little hot add mustard seeds. Once it crackles, add fenugreek seeds, slit green chillies, curry leaves, hing, chilli powder, chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder and little salt.
4. Cook for 5 minutes till tomatoes becomes little soft.
5. Add tamarind pulp and salt. Bring it to boil.
6. Add the rice flour paste and boil for 2-3 minutes.
7. Tomato gojju can be served as a accompaniment to rice pongal, rava pongal/khichidi, plain rice, paddu etc.

VEGETABLE UPMA/UPPITU

Serves: 2-3 servings

Ingredients:

Medium rava: 1cup

Oil: 4 tbspn

Mustard seeds: 1/2 tspn

Udad dal: 2 tbspn

Chana dal: 2 tbspn

Green chillies: 4 nos or as required, slit

Ginger: 1/2 tsp, chopped

Curry leaves: 10-15 leaves

Onion: 2 tbspn, chopped

Potato: 2 tbspn, cubed

Carrot: 2 tbspn, cubed

French beans: 2 tbsp, chopped

Cabbage: 2 tbspn, chopped

Capsicum: 2 tbspn, chopped

Tomato: 1 medium sized, chopped

Salt: as required
Coriander leaves: 2 tbspn, chopped

Ghee: 2 tspn

Kaju: 10-12 pieces

Preparation:

1. Dry roast rava in a pan till slightly golden and you can smell the aroma of roasted rava. Keep aside.
2. Take oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, udad dal, chana dal. Once dals change colour add green chilli, ginger, curry leaves and onion. Saute for a minute.
3. Add all other vegetables and a little salt for vegetable and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add 1 1/2 cups of water, salt and bring it to boil.
5. Now add rava to it slowly stirring continuously making sure it does not form any lumps.
6. Cover and cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
7. Add ghee and cook for 2-3 minutes.
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and kaju.

EGGLESS BROWNIE

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:
Maida: 1 cup
Cocoa powder: 1/4 cup

Baking powder: 1/2 tsp
Baking soda: 1/2 tsp
Salt: a pinch
Sugar: 3/4 cup

Wet ingredients:
Oil: 4 tbspn
Curd: 1/4 cup
Milk: 1/2 cup
Walnuts: 1/4 cup

Preparation:

1. Mix all wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately.
2. Add dry ingredients to it. Add some milk to the mix if the batter seems too dry.
3. Grease baking tray or a glass square vessel and pour the mixture in it.
4. Bake it at 180° pre-heated oven for around 20 minutes.

RAVA TEA CAKE

Here's a healthy and tasty tea time snack which is both unique and easy to prepare.


Ingredients

Medium Rava: 3/4 cup
Maida: 3 tbspn
Powdered sugar: 3 tbspn
Milk powder: 3 tbspn
Baking powder: 1/2 tspn
Baking soda: 1/4 tspn
Milk: 1/4 cup
Oil: 3 tbspn
Curd: 3 tbspn
Kaju draksh: 1 tbspn


Preparation

1. Mix all wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately.
2. Add dry to wet ingredients and mix well. Add Kaju draksh.
3. Grease baking tray and pour the mixture.
4. Bake the mixture in a preheated oven for 35 minutes at 180°.