Thinai Idli, Foxtail Millet Idli

          Millets is finding back its place in South Indian cooking, we can find them in many stores, and they are available whole, as flours or even coarsely broken like semolina/rava. In my house, I use them mostly in the place of rice in tiffin varieties like idlis, dosas, pongal and adais. I have already posted idlis using kambu/ pearl millet, varagu/ kodo millet, today's post is once again idlis, this time I have made it using thinai/ foxtail millet. I have also used some rice and rice flakes along with the millets and the idlis came out really soft and fluffy..

Carrot Halwa, Gajar Halwa

          Though I had made a resolution to do at least three posts in a week, something or other comes up and I am not able to keep it, I'll try to be more regular from now on wards ( hopefully ). Coming to today's post, Carrot Halwa, this is an easy and delicious dessert, we have to keep just one thing in mind, the final dish should not smell 'carrots'. I just can't have it, if it has the vegetable smell at the end, the texture should also be soft. We can use regular carrots for making the halwa, but since the red ones are now in season, I have used them, it gives a beautiful color to the halwa. The method is very simple, needs just a few basic ingredients, sugar, some milk, cardamon and a little ghee for flavor. We can serve it both hot or at room temperature, I prefer it warm, served as such or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side..

Methi Matar Malai, Creamy Curry With Fenugreek Leaves and Peas

          Methi Matar Malai, the first time I tried this dish, it came out so bitter, I couldn't eat it and I had to throw it away. After that, I totally gave up on the dish, until I tasted it again at my friend's place, it tasted so creamy and delicious, I got the recipe from her but then I lost it. So this time, when I made it, though I was sure of all the ingredients that I added, I was a little skeptical about the taste, but then, when I tasted it, I was totally satisfied, it was perfect, creamy ( but I am telling you, I didn't add any cream, only milk ), flavorful and delicious..

Quick Bisi Bele Bath

          Today's post is going to be a quick alternative for the delicious Bisi Bele Bath, making it the traditional way may be little lengthy, grinding the special bisi bele bath masala paste, cooking the rice and lentils, then the vegetables and then mixing them all together for the final dish. But, I have made this like a one pot meal, in the pressure pan or cooker, it's very easy to make and the taste is really good. Since avarakelu is in season now, I have used it along with red pumpkin, but if you can't find avarakelu, you can use frozen or fresh green peas..

Vegetable Puff ( Capsicum And Onion Filling )

          My daughter likes puffs, this is the first time I made them at home, from scratch, of course I used to make them in the US, where readymade puff pastry was available, but after coming to India, this is the first time. Well, making puff pastry from scratch is a little time consuming, so when I made them for my Eggless Baking Challenge, I had saved some for making these puffs. We can make so many fillings, either sweet or savory, I have used sauteed red capsicum and onion filling, topped with some cheese, the puffs turned out absolutely delicious..

Saamai Ven Pongal, Little Millet Pongal

          Happy Pongal/Sankranti ! While going through my blog, I realized that I had lot of sweet/sakkarai pongal recipes but not one ven pongal ( savory ), so decided to post this today. But instead of using rice I have used millets, I have used saamai/ small millet for making this pongal. It's a very easy recipe, it came out really good and tasted as good as the regular pongal..

Vegetable Stew With Coconut Milk

          As I had mentioned in my previous post, I had made this Vegetable Stew to serve with the Appams. There's this restaurant called ID (the I and D stands for idli and dosa respectively) in Chennai, my daughter and I, both love their appam and stew, and I had been wanting to try it out at home. This stew is not very thick or starchy, as I don't add potatoes, but it's very light with a slight sweetish taste and goes very well with appam and idiyappam, do try this out the next time you make appams..

Appam

          Happy New Year to everyone, it's a bit late to wish, we were on a vacation in Dubai and after coming back to India, was a little sick, could make a post only today. May this New Year give all my friends and followers the best of health and happiness. I would have loved to start the year with a sweet dish, but couldn't make it, so, today's post is soft and spongy Appams, I had made it sometime back along with Vegetable Stew ( recipe to follow ). We use two varieties of rice and a little urad dal, and the ground batter is fermented with a little toddy, but I haven't used toddy here, I have just added some coconut while grinding. In other versions, cooked rice is added while grinding the batter, and yeast is also used I am going to try them soon. I usually serve it with sweetened coconut milk or with the vegetable stew but it tastes good with kurma, vada curry or even with some coconut chutney too..