Pusinikkai Kurma, Winter Melon ( White Pumpkin ) Kurma

          Whenever I buy winter melon, the first dish that I would do with it is Moru Kuzhambu ( curd based gravy ) or a kootu or raitha, and the Pusinikkai Dosa. Couple of weeks back, I had to make a side dish to go with rotis and I had to do it with Winter Melon, so then I thought I could make a kurma with it. It's an easy recipe, it  turned out good and went very well with the rotis..

Vendakkai Dosai, Bhindi Dosa, Okra Dosa

          It's been more than a month, something or the other kept me away from the blog and now I think, I have lost the habit of blogging. I haven't cooked anything special for the blog in the last 2 months, even today's post is something that I had made sometime back, well slowly I have to get back to the blogging routine. Today's dish is another simple and delicious dosa, Vendakkai Dosai or Bhindi or Okra Dosa. I came across this recipe in a cook book by Mrs Chandra Padmanabhan, and I was surprised at the thought that one can make dosas with lady's finger/okra. The batter needs to be fermented and the resulting dosas are soft and fluffy and nobody would be able to notice the okra in it, until you actually tell them, and they go well with a spicy chutney and sambar..

Amaranth Leaves Chutney, Mulai Keerai Thogayal

          Finally got to post after about 2 weeks, and today it's going to be a simple and delicious chutney using amaranth leaves, Mulai Keerai Thogayal. Till now, I have used these leaves only in a gravy and a masiyal, this is the first time I made this chutney or thogayal with it. We saute the leaves and grind them with some coconut and roasted spices, this tastes very good when mixed with some white rice and ghee..

Tendli Bhat, Mahrashtrian Ivy Gourd Rice

          I have heard of this Tendli Bhat, a rice made with ivy gourd in the Mahrashtrian style, but never got a chance to try it until now. When I saw the recipe, I found that I had made an almost similar rice using cucumber as the main ingredient, Cucumber Masala Bhat. This is a simple one pot meal with rice and ivy gourd/ kovakkai as the main ingredients and is very flavorful with the fresh masala powder made with sesame seeds and dried coconut/ copra and other spices. Serve it with some papads or chips and raitha or curd for a simple and delicious meal..

Basale Soppu Koddel, Malabar Spinach Sambar

          Every week, on alternate days, I used to get three types of leafy vegetables home delivered and I had opted for a bunch of spinach, methi and amaranth leaves. But on a couple of days, when methi was not available, they had sent me this Nela Basale Soppu ( soppu means greens in Kannada ), a local leafy vegetable. Verdolaga is the botanical name of these greens and you can check here to know more about the health benefits of it. The first time, I made a simple stir fry with it along with onions and tomatoes, but the second time, I tried out this Basale Soppu Koddel, a Mangalorean style sambar with them. We don't use sambar powder for this sambar, instead we make a fresh paste with coconut, chillies and other spices and we also add peanuts and small onions, This gives a nice taste to this sambar and it goes very well with white rice..

Eggless Pav Buns, Pav Bread

          Pav Buns or Pav Bread has been on my do-list for a long time, and I don't know the reason for not baking them until now. We have Pav Bhaji for dinner, but whenever I made it, I bought the buns from the store and just made the bhaji only at home. But once I started baking my own bread at home, I wanted to make these buns also at home itself. For today's post, it's going to be Pav Buns made with plain flour or maida, but I am sure that, the next time I bake them, it'll be with whole wheat flour, but once in a while we can enjoy these soft and pillowy buns with all purpose flour..

Quinoa Adai

          Though I have been cooking quinoa for so many years now, I have been using it only, in the place of rice in pilafs or just cooked it as such or with some rice and used it with sambar and curries. Only now, I have started using it in dosa batter and muffins and the next in that list is this Quinoa Adai. This is not a big recipe, we make it the same way as regular adai, using quinoa in the place of rice, the adai came out well and the quinoa gave a nice taste to the it..

Sorakkai Chutney, Bottle Gourd ( Lauki ) Chutney

          Today's post is going to be another healthy and delicious chutney with bottle gourd, Sorakkai Chutney, Bottle Gourd or Lauki Chutney. The first time I tasted it, I was even surprised to know that there was bottle gourd in the chutney, but now when I think about it, we make chutneys with almost all vegetables and greens. Though, basically this chutney is made to go with idlis and dosas, you can still have it with rotis or even have it with some plain rice..

Suran Sabzi, Senai Kizhangu Curry, Yam Curry

          Whenever I bought Senai Kizhangu/ suran/ yam, the first dish that I made with it was always the senai kizhangu fry, and the next one would be the masiyal and sometimes I have made a gravy/ kuzhambu with it to go with rice. I have never tried making a curry with it to go with rotis, this is the first time that I tried this sabzi with suran. It's a curd/yogurt based gravy which gives the thickness and creaminess to it and it goes very well with both rotis and rice..

Soy Chunks Pulao, Meal Maker Pulao

          We like soy chunks at home, it's a good source of protein in a vegetarian diet, usually I add it to kurmas, briyani and I have also made parathas with it too. Recently I made this pulao with soy chunks, it's a simple and flavorful dish and very nutritious. Serve it along with a vegetable raitha or kurma for a complete and delicious meal..

Eggless Quinoa Muffins

          It's been a long time time since I had baked some muffins or cakes, in fact I have not been doing much baking because of the hot weather also, but now the temperatures have come done, so might be I'll be baking more. Coming to today's post, I have wanted to use quinoa in baking for a long time, but the first time, I had used uncooked quinoa in baking and the results were not good. After that, for some reason, didn't do it again until now, this time I used cooked quinoa in these Quinoa Muffins and they turned out good and I was very satisfied with them. I have used whole wheat flour/ atta along with the cooked quinoa, and they are not too sweet, so they are perfect for breakfast or snack. I have also added some grated carrots, golden raisins and walnuts and they tasted very good with a nutty texture from the quinoa..

Methi Chaman, Fenugreek Leaves With Paneer

          My daughter's favorite side dish for rotis is Palak Paneer and I have two versions of it on the blog. Recently I came across this dish, Methi Chaman and gave it a try, we can call the dish, a cousin to Palak Paneer. We grind and cook a mixture of fresh methi/ fenugreek leaves and spinach and add paneer at the end. This dish looks similar to Palak Paneer, but the methi gives a wonderful flavor and taste to the dish and it goes very well with rotis, naan and pilafs..

Pineapple Kesari, Pineapple Sheera

          Kesari is a favorite at home and since we all like pineapple, we love this Pineapple Kesari very much. It's been a long time since I made it at home, and now since pineapples are in season, I made this kesari. It's a very easy dish, we can use both fresh and canned pineapple, and the pineapple flavor takes the regular kesari to the next level..

Vazhaipoo Kuzhambu, Banana Flower Gravy

          Vazhaipoo Kuzhambu, gravy with banana flower, I had seen this on a cookery show, long time back, but never got to try it, until now. I remembered the recipe very vaguely, so then I saw this recipe video and followed it. They also call this gravy as ' Saiva Meen Kuzhambu ', which means Vegetarian Fish Gravy', the reason might be that, the ingredients added and the way it's cooked is all similar to that of a Fish Gravy. The kuzhambu is tangy and spicy and goes very well with some plain white rice..

Quinoa Dosa (Crepes)

          Today's post is going to be another healthy and delicious dosa with quinoa and brown rice. The most common way in which I include quinoa in our diet, is adding a little to the regular rice that I cook for lunch. Now this Quinoa Dosa has become another regular in my kitchen. The dosa comes out very good, it has the perfect texture, perfect color and also tastes really awesome with any chutney of your choice..

Ragi Aval Puttu, Finger Millet Flakes Puttu ( Sweet Breakfast Dish )

          We all know that millets have become very popular now, we get them in many forms, whole millets, flakes, semiya, noodles, flour and semolina too. Till recently, I was cooking millet flakes just like regular rice poha, soaking them and then cooking them covered. Then I saw on a show, they just rinse the millet flakes and then steam them. This method seems to be more suitable for millet flakes. Today's post is Ragi Aval/ Finger Millet Flakes Puttu, it's a sweet dish served for breakfast. It came out really good, soft and tasted absolutely delicious..

Methi & Carrot Chutney, Fenugreek Leaves & Carrot Chutney, Vendiya Keerai Carrot Thogayal

          I get three types of organic greens, spinach, methi and amaranth every week and sometimes the methi leaves bunch turns out to be a really big one. After making the usual stuff with them, I had some more and I was looking out for something new to try with it. I looked up for some chutney recipes with fenugreek leaves and finally decided to make this one with methi/vendiya keerai and carrots. This chutney has a coarse texture and tastes best when mixed with some rice and ghee. This is the first time I made this and we loved it, it goes well with some curd rice too..

Mushroom Briyani

          Mushroom Briyani, jotted the recipe down from a cookery show by Mallika Badrinath and I have been making this for so many years now. It's an easy dish and the mushrooms give a nice flavor to this briyani. We don't add any ghee in this briyani, so it's vegan too, the method is slightly different from the regular briyani and it tastes awesome. Serve it with some potato chips and raitha or curd for a delicious meal..

Palak Aloo Parathas, Spinach Potato Parathas

          I have already posted spinach parathas and aloo/ potato parathas and this time, it's a  combination of both, Spinach Potato Parathas. Usually I would have added some mashed spinach and potato along with other spices directly to the flour while making the dough, but this time, I made the dough with the spinach puree and used the potato mixture as the stuffing. The parathas turned out really soft and delicious and we loved the combo of spinach and potatoes, serve them with a pickle or a chutney and some curd on the side..

Nungu Payasam, Palm Fruit Kheer, Ice Apple Payasam

          Last week I had bought this Palm Fruit, known as nungu in Tamil and also as Ice Apple. While waiting for the guy to remove them from the shell, I was talking to him, he asked me whether I needed the small tender ones or the thick matured ones. We like the tender ones at home, but then I asked the guy, whether someone asked for the matured ones. I was surprised to hear when he told that people actually asked for them and the guy didn't stop there, he also told me about this Payasam/ Kheer that they made with it. After coming home, I made this payasam, this is one of the most easy and delicious payasam that I had ever made..