Tomato Pickle, Thakkali Oorugai

          Happy Halloween ! this time of the year always makes me nostalgic, I had landed in the US (New York ), years ago, during this time, in the month of October. Driving from New York, after gaping at the multi-laned highways and reaching Philadelphia, the next thing to catch my eye was these skeletons and other scary stuff, outside people's homes. Well, at that time I didn't know anything about Halloween, and I couldn't understand, why people would want to decorate their homes with these scary and sometimes gory things. But then now, after so many years, after all those Halloween costumes my daughter had worn, starting from pre-school, now she's 14, she's going to celebrate Halloween with a couple of friends here in India, I think back about the time in the US ( missing it ), and those memories make my eyes water. Well, now, wiping those tears and coming back to today' dish, Tomato Pickle, the recipe has nothing to do with Halloween, I made this to go with the Paneer Parathas that I have already posted. I didn't want to have the regular pickle with it, made this thokku or pickle with tomatoes and I tweaked the seasoning a little so that it had a more North Indian flavor in it. The pickle came out very good and tasted excellent along with parathas, next time you make parathas, do try this simple and flavorful Tomato Pickle..

Paneer Parathas, Flat Breads Stuffed With Indian Cottage Cheese

          Parathas are an all time favorite in my house and especially when the filling is with paneer, then my daughter is even more happy. Though rolling out parathas might take a little more time than regular rotis, we need not make a separate curry to go with it, so the time is compensated and the parathas can be served just with some plain yogurt and pickle. I have already posted many Parathas and even one with paneer and spinach combo ( Spinach Paneer Paratha ), but for today's dish, the filling is only grated paneer/Indian cottage cheese flavored with some spices and chopped coriander. The parathas came out very well and we had it with some tomato pickle ( recipe coming next )..

Mampazha Rasam, Mango Rasam ( Soup )

          It's more than two weeks now, that I have cooked anything, hopefully, my kitchen will be ready by this weekend, till then I am posting dishes that I had made some time back. Today's post is going to be Mampazha Rasam/Mango Rasam, I had made this in the summer when mangoes were in season. After the Mango Moru Kuzhambu, I wanted to try something else with ripe mangoes, something that can be had with rice and then I decided to make a rasam with it. We make rasam with pineapples, so I thought that something like that with mangoes should also taste good. Just like I thought, the rasam turned out really good and went very well with rice, try this rasam if you like Pineapple Rasam, because both of them taste a little sweet because of the fruits..

Mangalore Cucumber ( Vellarikkai ) Curry

          After all the sweets, savories and heavy food for Diwali, today's dish is going to be a simple one, a curry to go with rice. I have been seeing this Mangalore cucumber, so many times, especially after moving to Bangalore, but I never bought it as I was not sure about what I was going to do with it. Then I saw this curry here and I wanted to try it, this is a Mangalorean dish, it has a perfect blend of spices and a good amount of coconut in it. I followed the recipe exactly, except for a few changes, I reduced the amount of coconut and spices to our taste and it tasted very good with plain rice..

Varagu Arisi Idlis, Kodo Millet Steamed Cakes

          Today's dish is going to be another idli/steamed cakes using millets, and this time it's going to be with Varagu Arisi/Kodo Millet. I have already posted an idli recipe with Kambu/Pearl Millets, there I have used parboiled rice along with the pearl millet to make the idlis, But for these Varagu Arisi Idlis, I have used only varagu arisi/kodo millet along with urad dal/black gram and fenugreek seeds. The idlis turned out soft and fluffy and they would go very well with both sambar or chutney, we had it with some peanut chutney. As idlis are a part of the traditional breakfast served on Diwali, might be, you can try out these Varagu Arisi Idlis for this Diwali..

Diwali Delights

 
          With Diwali around the corner, thought I'll post some sweets and savory recipes that are made during the festival. Only while compiling the recipes ( the collection is not that big  ), I found that I don't have that many savory dishes like murukkus and mixtures in my blog and I made a decision that, I should make more of these and other traditional Indian sweets at least by next Diwali, till then enjoy these..

Thenkuzhal Murukku, Savory Snack With Rice Flour

          Thenkuzhal Murukku, second savory snack that I made for this Diwali along with the Kara Boondi. This is another simple and easy one that even beginners can try out, just needs a few ingredients that are commonly available and of course a Murukku maker. The Murukku maker comes with about a dozen plates or blades for making different shapes of murukkus ( just like a cookie cutter ). The plate that we use for this, is the one with 3 holes, but I had misplaced it somewhere, so I used the one with 5 holes. The murukkus are not spicy but very flavorful from the cumin seeds and asafoetida, crunchy and delicious snack..

Thengai Burfi, Coconut Burfi

          Thengai Burfi/Coconut Burfi, this is the second sweet I made after the Rava Ladoo. I had thought that I would be making a couple more, but then, now since my kitchen renovation is going on, I might not be able to do. But, still I am having my microwave, if time permits, I am thinking of doing something, using the microwave. Coming to today's sweet, this is another easy one that anyone can make and it requires just 3 ingredients. Coconut and sugar, can anything go wrong with this combination, the only thing that we have to be careful is not cooking them together too long, then the burfis might turn into coconut and sugar crumbles, other than that, this is a simple, yet delicious sweet that can be done in no time..

Dal Tadka ( Lentils )

          Whenever we ordered naans at restaurants, we usually order some kind of dal and vegetable curry to go with it. When it comes to dal/lentils, my personal favorite is always dal tadka, I simply love the flavor of the tadka/seasoning, cumin and garlic seasoned in ghee gives an amzing flavor to this dish. I have used a combination of masoor dal/ red lentils and moong dal/husked green gram, again, masoor dal has a unique flavor, it's a very simple dish but extremely tasty with both rotis and rice..

Kara Boondi

          We are renovating our kitchen, started the work couple of months back, but it all seems to come together only now, just before Diwali. My kitchen is totally ripped out and I will not be able to cook anything for at least a week from now. I managed to make some goodies ( yeah, of course for my blog ) yesterday, one of them is this Kara Boondi, very easy and tasty savory snack made with besan flour/ chickpea flour..

Rava Ladoos, Semolina ( Sooji ) Ladoos

          Diwali is hardly two weeks away, people who celebrate this festival would be busy with shopping clothes, cleaning their homes and preparing goodies and gifts for friends and relatives. Growing up, Diwali for me was all about sweets and fireworks, every household makes at least 4 or 5 varieties of sweets and savouries to be distributed among friends and neighbors. So I am going to share a couple of sweets and savories here, today it's going to be Rava Ladoos/ Semolina ( Sooji ) Ladoos. This is one of the easiest sweets that we can make, needs very few ingredients and not very time consuming too..

Kothu Parotta

          Kothu Parotta, my husband's favorite dish, whenever we go to an Indian restaurant and if this dish is on the menu, he orders it for sure. On the other hand, I am not a big fan of this dish, especially in restaurants, it's too heavy for me and I feel full after taking a couple of spoons. But I like it when I make it at home, I add a lot of vegetables and it's not as heavy as it's in the restaurants. You can make the parottas from scratch ( will post recipe soon ) and use them, but for today's dish I have used the readymade ones. If we have the parottas ready, then this dish is very easy to make, serve it warm with some onion raitha/curd/yogurt on the side..

Zucchini And Mushroom Curry

          Hope everybody had a nice weekend, and some of you might be a little tired after Navratri celebrations. After seeing and eating lots of sundals and payasams for the past week , today it's going to be a simple curry using zucchini and mushrooms. This is the first time that I have tried this combination,  but, of course I have tasted them together in Thai curries. Since both the vegetables give out a lot of moisture while cooking, to have some gravy in the dish, I have used some curd. We had the curry with some rotis but it would go very well with rice or pilafs too..

Chilly Paneer ( Cottage Cheese )

          Chilly Paneer, it's a nice side dish to go with fried rice and noodles, an Indo-Chinese dish, Indian paneer ( cottage cheese ) cooked in Chinese style. It's a very easy dish, the paneer is shallow fried and added to sauteed bell peppers, spiced up with chilly and soy sauces and flavored with ginger, garlic and spring onions. I have given approximate measurements for the chilly and soy sauces and pepper, feel free to increase or decrease according to your taste..