Kalan is a very popular and traditional Kerala dish. Sadhya’s are not complete without Kalan. It is prepared in two ways, either its of liquid consistency or a thick gravy. The Kalan I have prepared is the thick variety and it’s called Kurukku Kalan. If you plan to make Kalan be sure you have really sour curd. Since in my home none of us like sour curd, i plan it at least 2 days in advance, so i have enough sour curd. The method to prepare Kalan is simple but time consuming. Prepare a little extra Kalan and store it. It’s said that kalan tastes better when you have it the next day rather than the day you prepared it.

A quick rasam combined with the fruit of the season,Mango! The tangy taste of rasam is usually from tamarind, tomatoes or lemon. Here the rasam gets it tangynesss from mango. Enjoy it.

Ingredients

Mango 1

Green chili 1

Fresh coconut 2 tablespoon

Turmeric pwd 1/2 teaspoon

Rasam pwd 1 teaspoon

Jaggery 1/2 teaspoon

Mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon

Cumin seeds 1/2 teaspoon

Salt 1 teaspoon

Coconut / Sesame oil 1teaspoon

Few curry leaves.

Method

Take a raw mango that’s firm and just going to get ripe. Peel the skin and cut into small pieces. Grind together raw mango,green chili, coconut,turmeric pwd,salt and jaggery into a smooth paste. Boil the paste along with 1 1/2 glass water for about 5 minutes. Now add the rasam pwd ,give it a stir, boil it for further 1 minute and put of the heat. Heat oil in a pan ,add the mustard seeds, when they start cracking add the cumin seeds and curry leaves. Pour this over the rasam . Manga rasam is ready.

Here’s one more tiffin using raw rice. Upma kozhukatti , basically steamed rice balls. whenever my grandmother used to make it, my chithi used to call it bullets because she was not much in favor of it. The normal procedure is soaking, drying and powdering it coarsely. Here i have used rice rava / idli rava.

Ingredients
Idli rava — 2 cups
Toor dal — 3 tbsp
Ural dal —- 2 tbsp
Channa dal — 1 tbsp
Mustard seed— 1/2 tbsp
Coconut —- 1/4 cup
Green chili — 2
Dry red chili — 2
Sesame Oil— 2 tbsp
Water — 4 cups.
Few curry leaves.

Puttu Kadalai is a famous Kerala tiffin. People in Kerala normally have it for breakfast. Its quite a wholesome breakfast, small pieces of puttu with kadalai is very filling. Now a days its quite simple to make the puttu, since you get readymade puttu powder. Originally, the puttu podi / powder was made at home which requires soaking, drying, grinding,sieving and roasting of raw rice. Other then raw rice, puttu is made with red rice,ragi,wheat and multi grain which are all available in the market.

Ingredients

Brown chana / Kadalai—– 1 1/2 cup

Onion —– 2

Coriander seeds —– 1 tablespoon

Cumin seeds —– 1 tablespoon

Dry red chili —- 4

Cloves —- 3

Cinnamon — small bits

Mustard seeds —- 1/2 teaspoon

Asafetida —- 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric pwd — 1/2 teaspoon

Salt —- 1 1/2 teaspoon

Coconut oil — 2 tablespoon

Few curry leaves.

Method

Wash and soak the kadalai overnight or for minimum 7 hours. Pressure cook the kadalai. Heat 1 spoon oil ,add the clove and cinnamon,when you get a nice aroma add the red chili,coriander and cumin seeds and fry till they change colour,add the chopped onion and saute them till they turn pink in the colour,put of the heat. Cool it and grind it along with turmeric and salt. Heat the remaining oil ,add the mustard seeds,when they crack add the asafetida,curry leaves and slowly add in the grounded paste,give it a stir and allow it cook till you see the oil oozing out. Add this gravy to the cooked kadalai, add 1/2 glass of water and allow it to boil for 7-8 mintues. Kadalai is ready.

Puttu

Mix 1 cup of puttu powder and 1 cup of warm water,with salt and leave aside for 1/2 hour. Take the puttu maker and fill it with puttu powder and grated coconut and steam it for 10 mintues.

Enjoyyy Puttu Kadalai.

Adai is a evening or dinner time tiffin. The combination of rice and dal is high in protein. My recipe for adai here is normally prepared for Karthigai festival . Its a huge challenge to have 2 adais,especially the one made for Karthigai festival,because of its thickness. There are lots of combination to have adai. Some of the popular combination are Adai with aviyal, moru kootan. In our house my father used to love it with vellam / jaggery, my children love it with rasam and my grandson enjoys it with jackfruit jam (chakka varati)as he calls it.

Ingredients

Raw rice —- 1 glass

Idli rice —– 1 glass

Toor dal —- 1/2 glass

Channa dal —- 1/2 glass

Whole urad dal — 1/2 glass

Dry red chili —- 4

whole pepper —- 1 teaspoon

Coconut cut into small pieces — 2 tablespoon

Asafoetida —– 1/2 teaspoon

Salt —- 1 1/2 teaspoon

Sesame oil

Few curry leaves.

Method

Wash and soak both the rice for 4 hours. Wash and soak dals for 1 hour.Grind the rice with red chili and whole pepper coarsely. Grind the dals separately coarsely. Add salt,asafoetida and mix both the batter well, let the batter be thick.Keep aside for 1/2 hour. Add coconut bits and curry leaves before making adai. Heat a tawa ,apply little oil,lower the heat and spread the adai mav ,sprinkling some water. With the spatula make holes. Pour oil around the adai and in the center. Once the adai is cooked on one side turn it, drizzle some more oil and cook on the other side.

You could add extra water to dilute it little more,so that you can use ladle to pour mav and make adai as you make dosai.

Note — The difference between normal adai and Karthigai adai is the use of normal urad dal, minus pepper and coconut pieces, but still it would taste great.

Pongal is a breakfast item in most of the South Indian houses. Its usually prepared with rice and moong dal .Here’s a different and maybe a little healthier version of pongal. I used samba instead of rice. I am saying little healthier since you need to add a little extra ghee. Pongal without ghee is not Pongal!

Ingredients
Samba — 2 cups
Moong dal — 3/4 cup
Green chili — 2
Whole pepper — 6-7
Cumin seeds — 1/2 teaspoon
Mustard seed — 1/2 teaspoon
Crushed pepper cumin pwd — 1trespoon
Asafetida —- 1/2 teaspoon
Cashews —- 1tablespoon
Ghee —- 4 tablespoon
Salt —– 1 1/2 teaspoon.
Water —- 4 1/2 cups

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It’s a age old thing, every mother would do this trick. Fill the leftover chapati with something and give it to their children. I vividly remember my paternal grandmother making pulka’s by 6pm and apply nei/ghee, sprinkle sugar, roll it and give it to me. I would sit on the window still in Matunga and enjoy it, nothing to beat it because more than nei and sugar their used to be lots of love. So let the flow of love continue. And since this generation is more familiar with pizza and wraps. Here’s my version of chapathi wrap.

Here’s the twist,prepare a quick filling with fresh vegetables which doesn’t require much cooking, roll it and serve it.

Tortillas / chapathi 4

Sweet corn, Capsicum,Carrot

Red chili pwd 1/2 teaspoon

Chaat pwd 3/4 teaspoon

Oregano 1/2 teaspoon

Tomato ketchup 1 tablespoon

Salt 3/4 teaspoon

Oil 1 teapoon.

Method

For the filling,heat oil in a pan, add capsicum, saute for a minute. Add the sweet corn, shredded carrot,give it a stir ,further add the ketchup, chaat pwd, oregano and salt mix well and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Just before serving,heat the tortillas / chapatis, remove it. Place it in a plate,top it with the filling,roll up, cut in half ,vegetable wrap ready.

Your children enjoy cheese. Then give them a cheesy wrap. Place the cut vegetable wrap in a pan, top it up with some shredded chess, cover the pan and cook for a minute in low flame. Enjoy yummy, cheesy- vegetable wrap. 😊

You don’t have to go through the procedure of grinding and fermenting. Here’s a simple way of preparing a healthy yet tasty uttapam.

Ingredients

Oats —- 2 cup

Rice flour —– 1 cup

Curd —– 1 cup

Green chili —– 1

Ginger —- 1/2 inch

Carrot —– 1

Capsicum —- 1

Salt —–1 teaspoon

Oil.

Method

Method

Powder oats in a grinder. Add curd to it ,mix well and keep aside for an hour.Now add rice flour ,add water and mix well like to a uttapam consistency.Add the grated ginger and chopped chilli,mix well. Heat a tawa,spread a ladle full of batter,it should be thick,sprinkle some shredded carrot and cut capsicum, drizzle some oil around the uttapam, turn it, drizzle some oil on top of the uttapam. Remove and enjoy hot uttapam!

An Omelette without egg! Here’s a twist to the normal bread toast.Prepare bread omelette for breakfast or have it for dinner along with salad / soup.

Ingredients

Bread—- 4

Besan —- 1/2 cup

Rice flour — 1 tablespoon

Onion —- 1

Tomato —- 1

Green chili — 1

Oregano / mixed herbs — 1 teaspoon

Chili flakes — 1 teaspoon

Salt —– 1/2 teaspoon

Oil / butter.

Method

Cut onion, tomato,green chili into small piece. Add 3/4 glass of water to besan and rice powder , blend it well without lumps. Now add all the other ingredients except oil /butter and mix well.Heat a pan with 1/2 teaspoon of oil /butter or both , soak the bread in the batter and immediately,place it in the pan, lower the heat, turn the bread after about half an minute, let it cook and remove from pan . Enjoy bread omelette with tomato ketchup.

Panagam is offered as prasad for some festivals. Today I prepared and offered panagam being Ram Navami, celebrating the Birthday of the deity Lord Ram.

Take 1/2 cup jaggery and dissolve in 2 glass of water. Strain the jaggery water for any impurities. Now add juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/4 teaspoon of each cardamom powder and dry ginger powder. Stir everything together. Before offering the panagam, I added a drop of ghee.