A side dish with coconut, and easy to make.

Ingredients

Raw banana — 2 Chena / Yam —- 2 cup / 150gms Coconut oil —— 3-4 tbsp Dry red chilli —- 2 Turmeric pwd —- 1/4 tsp Salt —- 3/4 tsp

Method Peel / remove the skin of the raw banana and chena and cut into small cubes. Immerse the cut pieces till you use it otherwise it would get discolored. Add turmeric pwd and salt to the vegetables and pressure cook for 2 whistles Heat a pan with oil, add the broken red chili. Now add the cooked vegetables, give a stir. Fry the vegetables in low heat for about 5mnts, stirring in between. Enjoy chenai-vazhakkai mezhukkupuratti.

Modak or Kozhukattai the favorite of Lord Ganesha. I make kozhukkai every-year, this year I have made the fried modak. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients for filling

Grated Coconut —- 2 cup Jaggery —- 1 cup Ghee —– 2 tbsp Cardamom pwd —– 1/4 tsp

Ingredients for dough

Wheat flour —- 2 cup Maida —– 2 tbsp Ghee —– 2-3 tbsp water, pinch of salt. Oil for frying

Method

Add 2 cups of water to the jaggery, mix it well and put it to boil. Boil it for 2 minutes and put off the heat. In a pan add 2 tsp Ghee add the coconut and stir for an minute in a low heat. Now add the jaggery water and keep stirring till everything comes to together. Add the Cardamom pwd,stir and put off the heat. Cover and let it rest for 10mnts. After it cools down make small balls.

For the dough,warm the ghee. Mix the wheat flour, Maida, pinch of salt ,ghee. Add water. Knead well and into a semi- stiff dough.

How to proceed Make small poori, place a small coconut filling in the center. Pinch it from the circumstances at regular intervals and bring it together. Repeat this with rest of dough. Heat oil in deep pan. Deep fry all the modak’s till it turns golden brown in the color. Fried Modak ready.

COCONUT FILLING

DOUGH

Ingredients Carrot— 1 cup Milk—- 4 cups Sugar—- 3/4 cup Ghee— 1 tbsp Almonds—- 7

Method Wash and scarp the skin of the Carrot. Cut it into small pieces add 2 cups of milk and pressure cook for 4 whistles. Boil the remaining 2 cups of milk in a deep pan in low heat. Cool the pressure cooked carrots and grind it now add this to the boiling milk. Give it a stir, add the sugar, stir and further cook for 3-4 minutes. Put of the heat. Slice the almonds ,heat ghee in a pan add the Almonds, fry for an minute ,add this to carrot payasam. Carrot Payasam, enjoy it😊.

With rain pouring one feels like having something hot to drink again and again and one obvious choice is tea! Try out this healthy tea.

Gud wali chai.

Gud (jaggery) chaai. When you hear Namak Shamakz, Namak Shamakz, you know it’s the great chef Harpal Singh. Some time ago I had watched him make this simple but healthy tea, so tried it today and it was awesome.
Here’s how you make it– boil 1 1/2 glass of water, pound 3 cardamom, add it, add 3/4 teaspoon sauf(fennel/sombu) & 3 whole pepper. Let it boil for a minute, then add 2 teaspoon of tea powder, allow to boil again for 3-4 minutes then add one glass milk. When it boils put of the heat and strain it over a vessel which has jaggery in it. ( I used karupatti vellam) . Strain the tea once again.
Enjoy hot healthy tea☺

Thokku is usually made with whole red chilli or red chilli powder. I wanted to tweak the traditional recipe and hence decided to use the little green chillies. The result was interesting and super tasty. Try out this thokku using green chilli and do drop in your reviews of the same.

Ingredients

Ingredients
Raw mango         —  300gms
Green chili            —- 50gms
Sesame  oil          —-  4 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds  —- 1/4 tsp Jaggery —- 1 1/2 tbsp
Salt                         —- 1 1/4 tsp.

Method

Wash, peel and grate the raw mango. Dry roast the fenugreek seeds. Cool and powder it. Wash the green chili and wipe it dry. Add salt to the green chili and grind it. Heat oil in a pan,add the grated mango and give it a stir. Now add the grounded green chili, salt and stir. Keep stirring for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Now add the jaggery mix well and further cook for 2-3 minutes till everything comes together. Put off the heat and add the fenugreek powder. Cool it and store in bottle. Refrigerate it after 24 hours. Enjoy mango- chili thokku.

Eid Mubarak to one and all! No Eid is complete without biriyani and here is a new recipe for all biriyani lovers. I wonder who can resist aromatic flavorful basmati soaking the richness of vegetables fresh and greens!

Ingredients

Basmati Rice — 2 cups Cashews —- 1/2 cup Paneer cubes —- 1 cup Coriander leaves — 1 cup Dry red chili — 3/4 Onion — 2 Tomatoes— 2 Carrot —- 1 cup Beans —- 1 cup Garam Masala — 1 tsp Bay leaves — 3-4 Ghee —- 1/2 cup Few Cinnamon, Cloves ,Cardamom, Salt — 1 1/2 tsp Water — 5 cups.

Method

Wash rice and keep aside for half an hour. Cut all vegetables in small pieces. Grind together fresh coriander and red chili into a paste. Heat a deep pan add ghee, now add the whole spices, bay leaves, sauté. Next add the cashews and fry for a minute, further add the grounded coriander paste, now add the vegetables and paneer, saute for a minute. Now add the water. Once water starts boiling, add the rice, garam masala, salt. Lower the heat, cover and cook till the rice is cooked. Paneer- Coriander Biriyani ready!

It’s 4 years since I started my blog, which now has 230 recipes A big thank you to everyone for following my blog and encouraging me to publish traditional dishes and try new ones too. 😊

A salad that is quick and easy to make and healthy too.

Ingredients Pineapple pieces —- 1 cup Cucumber pieces —- 1 cup Tomato pieces —- 1/2 cup Onion pieces —- 1/2 cup Peanut —- 1/2 cup Salt —- 3/4 tsp Pepper pwd —- 1/2 tsp Sauf / Fennel seeds —- 1/2 tsp Fresh coriander leaves & juice of half lemon.

Method Pressure cook peanut with 1/4 tsp of salt,cool it. Mix together all ingredients except salt and lemon juice. Just before serving add salt, lemon juice and toss everything together. Enjoy Pineapple- Cucumber salad.