Mangai Thokku is a pickle made from raw mango. It’s packed with flavors from mango and red chili. It’s made from freshly made ground masala with no artificial preservatives and it tastes very good. Unlike Milagai Mangai (Chopped Mango Pickle), the mango will be grated and cooked along with spices. Mangai Thokku is a great accompaniment for curd rice and even for Idli / Dosa.

For any pickle we should be generous in spice and salt and for any sweet we should be generous in adding sugar / jaggery. This is one of the secret advice given by my MIL. Keeping that in mind, I have made this spicy and mouth-watering Mangai Thokku (grated Raw Mango Pickle).

Other yummy Pickle varieties to try:

1. Puli Milagai

2. Mango Ginger Pickle

3. Neer Elumichai Pickle

4. Avakkai Pickle

5. Lemon Pickle

6. Mavadu (Tender Mango Pickle)

7. Gooseberry Pickle 

8. Tomato Thokku

9. Kovakkai Pickle

10. Mahali Root Sour Pickle

 

Recipe Card for Mangai Thokku:

Mangai Thokku Recipe | Grated Raw Mango Pickle Recipe | Mango Thokku Recipe

Mangai Thokku is made using grated Raw Mango. End of Spring season, we start getting fresh Raw Mangoes that are tangy enough to make yummy pickles. Raw Mango Pickles are so tasty and a perfect accompaniment for Curd Rice. We can simply chop the Raw mangoes and add salt and red chili powder and prepare a yummy pickle. That is one variety. But this grated Raw Mango Thokku is always special and tasty.

• 1 Raw Mango (Big Size, atleast 300gms)
• 4 tbsp Red Chili Powder
• ½ tsp Asafoetida (Asafetida / Hing)
• 3 tbsp Salt (As Needed)
• ½ tsp Fenugreek Powder
• ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• 4 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tsp Mustard seeds

1. Wash, peel and grate the mango and set it aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of gingelly oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and hing. 

2. When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add the grated mango and mix well. Add turmeric powder and salt and give it a good mix. 

3. Keep the flame low and allow the grated mangoes to cook nicely. Generally in 3-4 minutes, the mango will be tender and soft. Now its time to add the red chilli powder. Add red chilli powder to the pan and mix well. Add 2 tablespoon of oil to the pan and stir well. Adjust the salt if needed.

4. Keep the flame low and allow the thokku to combine well till the oil oozes out of the thokku. Finally add fenugreek powder, mix well and Switch off the flame. Take the thokku in a air-tight container and once it comes to the room temperature, heat 1 tablespoon of oil and add it to the top of the thokku and close the container with a lid and refrigerate to have a long life. The oil preserves this thokku. While serving, do not use the top layer oil. Also use dry spoon while serving. Also once a day stir the thokku well and refrigerate again.

5. Yummy and spicy Mangai Thokku is now ready to serve!

1. Always store in air-tight container and use a dry spoon every time you serve. Do not put a silver spoon inside the pickle container it will become black and the pickle will be spoiled.
2. Instead of grating mango we can slice it and cook
3. Refrigerate the pickle to keep it fresh and use it for 3 months 
4. Adjust the spice level according to the sourness of raw mango

Method with Step by Step Pictures:

• Wash, peel and grate the mango and set it aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of gingelly oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and hing.

• When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add the grated mango and mix well. Add turmeric powder and salt and give it a good mix.

• Keep the flame low and allow the grated mangoes to cook nicely. Generally in 3-4 minutes, the mango will be tender and soft. Now its time to add the red chilli powder. Add red chilli powder to the pan and mix well. Add 2 tablespoon of oil to the pan and stir well. Adjust the salt if needed.

• Keep the flame low and allow the thokku to combine well till the oil oozes out of the thokku. Finally add fenugreek powder, mix well and Switch off the flame. Take the thokku in a air-tight container and once it comes to the room temperature, heat 1 tablespoon of oil and add it to the top of the thokku and close the container with a lid and refrigerate to have a long life. The oil preserves this thokku. While serving, do not use the top layer oil. Also use dry spoon while serving. Also once a day stir the thokku well and refrigerate again.

• Yummy and spicy Mangai Thokku is now ready to serve!

Mangai Thokku Recipe | Grated Raw Mango Pickle Recipe | Mango Thokku Recipe

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Other Sambar varieties to try:

1. Restaurant Style Sambar (Hotel Sambar)
2. Tiffin Sambar (Idli Sambar)
3. Avasara Sambar ( Quick Sambar)
4. Bisibelabath

Recipe Card:

Udupi Sambar | Udipu Style Sambar Recipe

 

Method with Step by Step Instructions:

1. 1. Soak the tamarind in warm water and extract the juice
   2. Take thur dal in a vessel. Wash and add turmeric powder and add water and pressure cook the dal for 3-4 whistles or till it gets mushy
   3. Heat oil in a pan. Add all the grinding ingredients other than coconut and fry them in oil till the dal turns golden brown color
   4. Allow these seasoned ingredients to cool down and then take it in a mixer jar along with grated coconut and grind it to a smooth paste
   5. Heat oil in a pan. Add shallots and fry till translucent. Then add the tomato  along with other veggies and saute in high flame for a minute.
   6. Add water to cook the veggies. When the veggies are soft, then add the tamarind juice.
   7. Add salt and asafetida and stir once. Allow the tamarind extract to boil for 5 minutes till the raw smell goes off
   8. When the raw smell of tamarind goes off, add the mashed dal along with the ground coconut spice paste and combine everything well. Bring the sambar to boil.
   9. Finally add jaggery and mix well and then switch off the flame
   10. In a separate pan, heat oil. Add mustard Seeds and allow it to sputter. Then add broken red chili and curry leaves and add this tempering to the sambar
   11. The delicious Udupi Style Sambar Ready to Serve!

Udupi Sambar | Udipu Style Sambar Recipe

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Tomato Peanut Chutney or Tomato Peanut Pachadi is one of the popular recipe from Andhra Cuisine. Its one of the wonderful dip served with Idli/Dosa. With the freshness and tanginess of tomato along with the nutty flavor of peanut, this is one of the delightful accompaniment for any South Indian Breakfast. This is an no onion no garlic recipe. For fasting or auspicious day we don’t include onion and garlic and this Tomato Peanut chutney is a perfect recipe.

Chutney is one of the integral part of any Andhra meal. They call it as Pachadi and usually they mix rice with the pachadi and enjoy. Normally, for tomato chutney, we use onion and make it very spicy and because of the tomato I don’t add tamarind. But for this Tomato Peanut Chutney we add tamarind and gives a nice flavor. We can enrich with onion and garlic but I have kept it simple.

I have also published another popular version of Tomato Chutney (no onion no garlic) which I learnt from an Andhra Friend. That style of making chutney is also so awesome.  Try both these versions and share your comments!

You can also try:

1. Bombay Chutney
2. Carrot Chutney
3. Kollu Chutney
4. Red capsicum Chutney
5. Kara Chutney

Recipe Card for Tomato Peanut Chutney:

Method with Step by Step Pictures:

• Dry roast peanuts for couple of minutes and then take them aside. If you already have a roasted peanut, then you can skip this step

• Heat oil in a pan. Add red chili, green chili, tamarind and saute in oil for couple of minutes. Make sure the red chili is not burnt.

• Add tomatoes to the pan. Then add turmeric and salt and saute the tomato till they are mushy. Once the tomatoes are mushy let it cool down completely

• Take the tomatoes+chili+tamarind mixture to the mixer jar. Add Roasted Peanuts and grind it to smooth paste without adding any water. Take the ground chutney in a serving bowl

• In a pan, heat oil. Add mustard seeds and allow it to sputter. Then add the split urad dal and broken red chili and fry till dal turns light golden. Finally add curry leaves and switch off the flame

• Add the tempering to the chutney and mix well.

• Yummy and tasty Tomato Peanut Chutney Ready! Serve with Idli/Dosa and enjoy this delightful accompaniment

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Ratna Cafe is a very popular fast food restaurant in Chennai. Ratna Cafe is one of the longest standing restaurant, popular for its sambar-idly and unique taste that has been maintained over the years. This sambar is a perfect side dish for Idli, dosa, Pongal, Vada, bonda, rice and you name anything. If we make this style of sambar once, we never want to go back to our conventional way of making sambar any more. 

I got this recipe in one of the FB group. An admin (Mr.Varagooran Narayanan) in “Brahmin’s Bojan” group shared this wonderful recipe. The way he explained the instructions and his explanation of why this sambar is unique is so inspiring and immediately I started gathering at all ingredients to make it. If I come across any recipe in social media, I will first make it for my family to see how they react to it. This time, its my husband who wants to give it a try. After I gathered the ingredients, he followed the recipe instructions word to word and it tasted so awesome. Couple of days later, I was again tempted to make this sambar and this time I wanted to make a video and record this recipe that will be helpful to many of us like me.

There are 4  steps in preparing this yummy Sambar:

The procedure for preparing this sambar seems little complicated and lengthy. There are lots of ingredients and different sets of procedure to prepare this Ratna cafe style Sambar.  Some of the ingredients are added multiple times in different steps but it’s not overwhelming or dominating. Generally in restaurants, especially South Indian restaurants, sambar is an integral food in the menu. They have to prepare in larger quantity and so they prepare the sambar in 3-4 steps and keep it separately and whenever they need to serve, they will combine all the separately prepared mixtures and make wonderful sambar.

I will tell 4 different steps now..

Step 1: Preparing dal and veggies

We first need to pressure cook dal and pumpkin. For sambar, we usually cook toor dal but for this sambar we use both moong and toor dal

Step 2: Preparing Onion-Tomato Mixture

Second thing we need to prepare is onion-tomato mixture. We are just going to grind raw onion, tomato and jaggery and set this aside which will be used later

Step 3: Preparing Sambar Masala

Third step is frying and grinding the ingredients for sambar masala.

Step 4:Combining all prepared mixtures with tamarind extract

Finally we need to cook veggies and tamarind along with the mixtures we prepared in step 1, 2 and 3 and finally garnish with coriander leaves and tempering in ghee. Ratna Cafe Style Sambar is ready!!!

Other yummy Sambar varieties to try:

1. Udupi Sambar
2. Tiffin Sambar
3. Sambar podi
4. Bisibelabath
5. Kadamba Sambar Rice

Recipe Card:

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Aadi Sevvai (Aadi Chevvai) are the Tuesdays in the Tamil month of Aadi. Aadi is the 4th month in Tamil Calendar year. Though this month is considered inauspicious of certain things like marriages etc, still Usually during Fridays and Tuesdays in the month of Aadi, many women keep fasting, chant all Devi slokas and pray to Goddess Parvati. There is a special fasting they call it as “Ovvai Nonbu“. Kozhukattai made with rice flour and jaggery is a Prasad prepared for this nonbu. Temples decorate the idols of Goddess Parvati in different forms like Durga, Chamundeswari and many other forms of Devi.

Tradition:

In villages there is a tradition, especially in Tirnunelveli district of TamilNadu. Unmarried girls gather together on Aadi tuesday and they go to the riverbanks of Tamaraibharani river, take bath in the holy river and after dressing up, they go and see the darshan of Goddess and return to their homes. In homes, they consider the unmarried girls as the form of Goddess Parvati and treat them with Manjal Pongal (Yellow Rice+dal) and Thalagam.

There is a song that the girls will sing when they are coming back from the river

ஆடி செவ்வாய் தேடிக்குளி
அரைச்ச மஞ்சள் பூசிக்குளி
அறையாத மஞ்சளை எனக்கு தா
தொடுத்த பூவை நீ வச்சிக்கோ
தொடுக்காத போவ எனக்கு தா
மாடப்புறா மஞ்சள் அரை
கோயில் கொளத்துல குளிச்சு வா

Its a belief that ladies have to take hair bath, apply turmeric for the body and keep fasting and pray to Goddess Parvati for their wellness of their husband.This tradition is slowly fading away. Still my MIL recalled this wonderful tradition she followed in her childhood and wanted to share with you all along with the recipe of Manjal Pongal and Thalagam.

Manjal Pongal

This Manjal pongal is not the conventional Ven Pongal that we make for breakfast where we dry fry the moong dal and rice and pressure cook with pepper, green chili, ginger, and many other spices. This Manjal Pongal is very simple. Its just the rice with toor dal along with turmeric, salt and sesame oil, pressure cooked. There are no spices added other than turmeric and salt. The reason we add sesame oil is that it will help the dal to cook with the rice.

Thalagam

Thalagam is a traditional Tirunelveli Delicacy made using multiple seasonal vegetables. For Thiruvathirai Festival it’s served with Thiruvathirai Kali as an offering to god. We use atleast seven different types of vegetables to make this kuzhambu. Also it’s in thick consistency hence its also called 7 kari kootu.

Please refer the Recipe of Thalagam in this link. 

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Other Idli Recipes to try:

Recipe Card:

Method:

• Take 4-5 Left over Idlis and chop them into bite size cubes. Put the chopped Idli pieces in a zipper cover and freeze it for 2 hours. This step is important as the Idlis will become firmer and it will be nicely fried in oil. If you are not refrigerating , then Idlis will break or become soggy and absorbs more oil while frying.

• After 2 hours, take out the frozen Idlis. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, and deep fry the idlis. Deep Fry the Idlis will they are crispy and golden brown color. Set these fried Idlis aside

• In another heavy bottomed pan, add oil. Add Fennel seeds and allow it to sputter. Then, add chopped onions along with pinch of salt and saute the onions till they are transparent.

• Also, add ginger-garlic paste, sliced green chillies and saute for few seconds. Add chopped tomatoes and cook it till the tomatoes are mushy.

• Now, add salt, red chilli powder, garam masala and coriander powder and mix well. When the tomatoes are cooked, add capsicum cubes along with green peas and cook everything for 5 minutes in medium flame.

• Then, add fried Idlis and mix gently. When the Idli becomes incorporated with the masala, then garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and switch off the flame

• Serve the delicious and spicy Kaima Idli with Onion Raitha and enjoy your dish!

Kaima Idli Recipe | Restaurant Style Kaima Idli

 

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Method for with Step by Step Instructions:

1. • Soak the channadhal and raw rice in water for 3 hours. We can also add boiling water to channa dal and soak it for 1 hour. After 3 hours, drain the water and add 1/4th of the channa dal to the mixer along with green chilli, ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves, fennel seeds and grind it till the green chillies and ginger are ground nicely

 

1. • Wash the mint leaves and add it to the mixer and grind it again. Add the remaining dal and give a pulse or two just to get a coarse vada mixture

 

1. • Take the coarse vada mixture and add salt. To that add chopped curry leaves, coriander leaves and chopped onion and mix well

 

1. • Heat the oil in the pan and check if the oil is hot enough by adding little dough, when the dough starts rising in the oil then the oil is ready for frying. Take small balls of vada dough and press it in the centre and then gently drop it in the oil and fry the vadai in the oil on the both sides till it becomes crisp and the colour changes to golden brown color. Then remove the crispy vadas from oil and dry the excess oil in a tissue paper and keep it aside.

 

1. • The crispy, spicy Masal Vadai(Masala Vada) is ready to serve with Chutney and Hot Tea!!!

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Sometimes, we have surplus of coriander leaves. Though we chop and store it in air-tight container and refrigerate it, sometimes it might get rotten. So we can make coriander leaves thogayal or thokku. Coriander leaves Thokku (Kothamalli Thokku) is another travel friendly recipe. For long time travel, we always plan ahead about many things.  One of the important aspect in travel is the food. Many of us are not a great fan of restaurant food. Once a while, we love to have restaurant food, but to have it continuously might affect our digestive system because of many artificial substances being added to food in restaurants. So many of us plan to take some homemade travel safe dishes.

Coriander leaves thokku is one such wonderful dish which is travel safe dish too. This dish you could make it very quickly and the aroma of the coriander leaves  is extraordinary. We can make this yumy thokku and mix with hot steaming rice along with a spoon of gingelly oil. If you are making this for travel, then add 2 tablespoon of oil as a top layer of the thokku before closing the thokku with a lid.

Recipe Card for Coriander Leaves Thokku

 

Coriander Leaves Thokku Recipe | Kothamalli Thokku Recipe

Coriander Leaves Thokku Recipe | Kothamalli Thokku Recipe, is a thick gravy made with coriander leaves and Indian Spices. Its is like our conventional pulikachal mix. This kothamali thokku is a perfect travel friendly recipe and goes good with Idli/Dosa or even with hot steaming rice.

• 2 Cups Coriander Leaves (Tightly Packed)
• 1 Gooseberry Size Tamarind
• 5-6 Red Chili
• ¼ tsp Asafoetida (Asafetida / Hing)
• 1 tsp Grated Jaggery

For Tempering

• 2 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tsp Mustard seeds

1. Remove the leaves and thin stem of the coriander leaves and measure it and clean it nicely

2. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil, add tamarind, red chilli and saute it for couple of minutes. Then add the saute red chilli and tamarind in a mixer and grind it nicely

3. Then add washed coriander leaves and grind it to a smooth paste by adding only little water. 

4. Heat the remaining oil in the pan again and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add the ground coriander-spice paste along with salt and allow the thokku to oil for 10 minutes in low flame. After 10 minutes, you can see the oil starts oozing out of the thokku and the thokku would have become thick also. Add jaggery now and mix well and remove from flame.

5. Now Coriander Leaves Thokku (Kothamalli Thokku) is now ready to serve!

1. We can take equal quantity of mint leaves and coriander leaves instead of only coriander leaves.
2. Cook in low flame till all the moisture in the thokku is evaporated and the oil started to ooze out
3. Store the thokku in an air-tight container and refrigerate for longer shelf life

Coriander Leaves Thokku Recipe | Kothamalli Thokku Recipe

Method with Step by Step Pictures:

• Remove the leaves and thin stem of the coriander leaves and measure it and clean it nicely

• Heat 1 teaspoon of oil, add tamarind, red chilli and saute it for couple of minutes. Then add the saute red chilli and tamarind in a mixer and grind it nicely

• Then add washed coriander leaves and grind it to a smooth paste by adding only little water.

• Heat the remaining oil in the pan again and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add the ground coriander-spice paste along with salt and allow the thokku to oil for 10 minutes in low flame. After 10 minutes, you can see the oil starts oozing out of the thokku and the thokku would have become thick also. Add jaggery now and mix well and remove from flame.

• Now Coriander Leaves Thokku (Kothamalli Thokku) is now ready to serve!

Coriander Leaves Thokku Recipe | Kothamalli Thokku Recipe

 

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Recipe Card using White Pumpkin Kootu

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Homemade Healthy Mix Powder | Sathu Mavu Kanji Podi is very easy to make. With all the pulses and nuts in hand, its so quick and easy to make and when its homemade, it’s cheaper, we ensure hygienic with right pulses and nuts that’s suits our body. Also, easily we get a kg of this healthy mix powder which we can store and and use for a month.

We can get store bought Healthy mix that comes in very popular brands. Though the store bought mix has the ingredients written, few of them might not be suitable for our body condition and we can’t exclude that from the mix.  But the popular brands also sell the mix of pulses and nuts which we can take and make the powder at home.

Easy to make at home

For the healthy mix, we are going use lots of healthy pulses like Ragi, Bajra, Barley, Wheat, Red rice, sago, and much more. All of those pulses and nuts are just heated up and grind into smooth powder. If we have access to rice mill near our home, thats so great. We just need to heat up the pulses individually and then take it together to the rice mill and we need to tell them to grind it smoothly. But for the people like me, who don’t have access to rice mill, we need to do it our regular mixie. While grinding it in mixie, we need to do in batches so that the mixie doesn’t gets heated up. Also sieve the powder twice to make sure we have smooth powder.

Different ways to use the Healthy Mix:

1. Porridge : We can make very yummy porridge with this healthy mix powder. Porridge made with healthy mix makes us feel full. If we have the healthy mix powder at home handy, then its so easy to make the porridge. We can either serve the porridge with milk and sugar or we serve with buttermilk and salt.
2. Sathumavu Ladoo: We can make yummy ladoos with healthy mix powder. We can either use palm sugar or jaggery and make awesome ladoos
3. Dosa / Adai – We can also use the healthy mix powder and add it to dosa/idli batter to make it more healthier. If we add equal quantity of rice flour r rava with this mix we can do dosa instantly and aadai with drumsticks leaf I do in my house

Other Homemade Special Recipes to try:

1. Postpartum Balanced diet for Digestion | Prasava Legiyum
2. Homemade Sprouted Ragi Powder
3. Angaya Podi
4. Kambu Koozh

Recipe Card for Homemade Healthy Mix Powder | Sathu Mavu Ladoo:

Method with Step by Step Instructions and Pictures

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Aadi month(July 17th – August 16th) is the 4th month of the Tamil Calender. The next six months from Aadi to Margazhi is the Dakshinayana punyakalam. It marks the beginning of the night of Devas. Traditionally, Aadi month is considered as inauspicious and most people avoid auspicious ceremonies during this period. But few important festivals are celebrated in this month.

This month is special for Goddess Shakthi. Poeple worship Goddess and her different forms during this month to get her blessings for their wealth and happiness.

Auspicious days in Aadi Month:

Aadi Pirappu(17-Jul-2019): 

First day of this month Aadi, usually it falls on 16th or 17th of July. In 2019, it is on 17th July. People celebrate this day as Aadi pandigai especially newly-weds. Special puja is performed followed by a special food which includes delicous “Payasam(Kheer) with coconut milk“, “Purana Poli” and Vadai. The new groom in the family is invited to the Brides house and the couple is gifted with new dresses and other presents and treated well with a feast.

Aadi Pirappu Prasadam Recipes

Aadi Velli (5 Friday’s of Aadi Month):

Aadi Velli refers to the divine Fridays that occur during the Tamil month of Aadi which falls from July 15th to August 15th. There are totally four Fridays in the month of Aadi, all of which are sacred days to unite with the Goddess power or the divine feminine Shakti.

1. The 1st Friday of Aadi month is dedicated to Goddess Swarnambika, a form of Goddess Parvati.
2. The 2nd Friday of Aadi month is dedicated to Goddess Kali, Offering your Prayers to the Goddess of Siddhi powers will bless you with Extraordinary Intelligence.
3. The 3rd Friday is dedicated to Kalikambal, a form of Goddess Parvati, who bestows us with courage and health.
4. The 4th Friday is dedicated to Kamakshi Amman, a form of Goddess Shakti. It is considered that offering special prayers on this day to Her will remove the obstacles in marriage, relationships, etc and will help us to be successful in life.
5. The last Aadi Friday is dedicated to Lakshmi, the consort of Lord Vishnu and Varalakshmi Pooja will be observed on this day. This is a special day for all women. On this day, Goddess Lakshmi listens and fulfills the needs and desires of women, who earnestly pray to Her. It is said that if a woman earnestly prays to the Goddess on this day, she will invoke the blessings of Goddess for her entire family.

Many rituals are performed on Aadi Fridays and Tuesdays even on Sundays

Aadi Velli Prasadam:

Aadi Chevvai (4 Tuesday’s of Aadi month):

Aadi Chevvai Recipes:

Aadi Ammavasai:

No moon day in Aadi month is very special to offer Tarpan to our Ancestors. This year is on 1st August  2019. Aadi amavasai is one of the three most powerful new moon days to offer Pitru Tarpanam (ancestral rituals) to honor your ancestors and receive their eternal blessings. As per our tradition, we have a custom to perform Tarpan (ancestral rituals) every month on the new moon day. But some of us miss to do the tarpan every month due to their personal reasons. Even though we miss the monthly tarpan, we should never miss doing tarpanam on Aadi Ammavasai, Thai Ammavasai and Malaya Ammavasai.

There is a belief that on Aadi Ammavasai, our ancestors start from their spirit world to travel and come to our world to see us. Their journey continues and they reach our world on Malaya Ammavasai and on Thai Ammavasai, they again travel back to their spirit world. Thats the reason all these 3 Ammavasai are considered to be most auspicious and its mandatory to do tarpanam. Rameshwaram is considered to be the most auspicious place to do tarpanam on aadi ammavasai. Many people travel to Rameshwaram, take bath on the holy river and perform tharpanam on the banks of the holy river.

Aadi Pooram(3-08-2019):

 

Aadi Pooram is the celebration of the birthday of Andal. Andal herself is considered as the form of Goddess Shakti as it is believed that the goddess herself comes to Earth in this auspicious day to bless Her devotees. Goddess Andal and her devotion to Lord Ranganthar is known to all of us. Hence, Aadi Pooram is celebrated so grandly in almost all the Vishnu Temples in Tamilnadu. Likewise, this day, also holds immense importance in Goddess Shakti temples all over the country. Glass bangles are offered to Goddess and then distributed among the devotees. On this auspicious day, devotees chant Thirupavai and Lalitha Sahasaranamam.

Aadiperukku(3-Aug-2019):

Tamil Month Aadi, marks the beginning of monsoon in TamilNadu. During this month, water levels in the rivers increases due to monsoon. To show our gratitude to the nature and to thank Mother Cauvery river, we celebrate Aadiperukku. Adiperukku is a unique South Indian and specially a Tamil state festival celebrated on the 18th day of the Tamil month of Aadi.The 18th day of Aadi month is celebrated as Aadi perukku. Aadiperukku is a festival of fertility and people of Tamil Nadu especially women offer prayers. They wear new clothes and perform abhishekham for Kaveri amman.

Aadi Perukku Recipes:

Varalakshmi Viratham Recipes:

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Paruppu thogayal is more of an accompaniment type than a mix for hot steaming rice. Its less spicy than most of the thogayal varieties and that’s why its being served as a side dish for rasam varieties like Aracha Rasam, Jeera rasam or Kuzhambu varieties like Vathakuhambu, Milagu Kuzhambu etc. We can mix this paruppu thogayal with rice but because of its less spice it will taste little bland.

I often make Thogayal with mint leaves, Coriander leaves or with veggies like chow Chow, Ridge Gourd or simply with Coconut. All of this thogayal tastes so good when mixed with rice. Sometimes we feel to have a light lunch after a heavy festive treat or a treat from auspicious events like marriages or other occasions. Aracha Rasam or  Jeera rasam with Paruppu Thogayal is an excellent combo and would help to soothe our tummy.

Recipe Card:

Method:

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Plantain Stem (Vazhaithandu)

Other Recipes made using Vazhaithandu (Plantain Stem)

1. Vazhaithandu Mor Kootu – Yet another way to cook the healthy Plantain Steam (Vazhaithandu) in a more tasteful way!
2. Bajji made using Plantain Stem – Crispy and tasty Bajji with Coriander paste
3. Vazhaithandu Poriyal – Healthy fiber rich Poriyal Variety

Recipe card for Vazhaithandu Kootu (Plantain Stem Stew)

Method with step by step pictures :

• Remove the outer rings of the stem so that there are no more rings seen in the cross section. Cut the stem into thin disks. Remove the fibers between the disks by one of your fingers.It is the most frustrating part of preparing banana stem for cooking :-)Slice the disks into a smaller pieces and immerse the same in the butter milk and water mixture as this will preserve the original color of the stem otherwise this will turn out to be black in color

• I always prefer to cook the Plantain stem in pressure cooker as it will take more time to cook over gas top. Take the chopped plantain stem in a vessel and add turmeric powder and water. Place the vessel in the cooker and allow it to cook for 2-3 whistles. Once the plantain stem is cooked, allow the pressure to release and then gently remove from cooker and set it aside.

• Pressure cook the thurdal with a pinch of turmeric. Once cooked, mash the dal nicely and set it aside

• Heat oil in a pan and fry the grinding ingredients other than coconut. Take these in a mixer and add coconut to the mixer

• Grind all these to a nice paste. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add split urid dal and saute them till the dal turns golden brown. Then add broken red chili and curry leaves and saute for few seconds.

• Add the cooked plantain stem to the pan. Add the mashed dal to the pan and mix well

• Next, add the ground paste along with salt and mix well. Bring the stew to boil and then switch off the flame.

• The healthy Plantain Stem Stew is now ready to serve!

Plantain Stem Stew Recipe | Vazhathandu Kootu Recipe

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Pasta is all time favorite for many kids! My kids love to have pasta even everyday for their lunch. But I make it once a week for their lunch box. But always Pasta tastes awesome when served hot. I usually make Indian Style Masala Pasta and Basil Pesto Pasta  and also Avocado Pesto Pasta. But once I made white sauce pasta and kids loved it so much that they keep asking for more white pasta.

What is White Sauce?

White sauce is basically butter with all purpose flour cooked with milk and enhanced with cheese. The whole sauce when cooked in low flame with patience will have their beautiful white color and creamy texture. If we are concerned with the usage of maida (all purpose flour), we can alternate with besan (gram flour) or Wheat Flour. I have tried many times with wheat flour and it didn’t change any taste or flavor. Once a while taking a tablespoon of maida will not impact much. So We can make it rarely with maida.

What type of Pasta to use?

When I look for White Pasta in the web, I usually see the white creamy sauce coated on Penne Pasta. But we can use any type of pasta for this White sauce. There is no such hard and fast rule to use only Penne Pasta.

How to cook Perfect Pasta?

1. Always use boiling water to cook pasta. Also cook pasta just before serving.
2. Adding salt while boiling pasta makes it more tastier than adding salt later with the sauce.
3. Add only little oil when cooking pasta. More oil will make the pasta so smooth and sauce will not properly coat the cooked pasta
4. Cooking time may vary with different kinds of pasta depending upon their thickness and shapes. Most kinds of pasta are cooked between 8 to 12 minutes.
5. Once pasta has reached the “al dente” stage, turn off heat. “al dente” means,  tender but still firm when you bite into it.
6. Drain the excess water once the pasta is cooked. Also Rinse the cooked pasta to remove starchy water. We can retain the drained water and add it to the sauce to adjust the consistency(not for white sauce pasta)

What Veggies and herbs can we use?

Veggies are our choice. If we want a white creamy pasta to be perfectly white and cheesy we can exclude veggies. I personally like the green bell pepper, carrot and corn in white pasta. We can also use red and orange bell peppers that will give a very nice appealing look in this white sauce. Also we can use Basil, Oregano, Italian Seasoning for added flavors. Some use even lemon zest to give a slight tangy flavor.

Recipe Card for White Sauce Pasta:

Method Creamy White Pasta:

COOKING PASTA

• Add 3 cups of water in sauce pan and bring the water to boil. Add oil and salt and let the water come to rolling boil. Add the pasta and cook the pasta till it is soft. Once the pasta is cooked, drain the water from pasta and set it aside

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Onion Raita is one of the best accompaniment for Biriyani or Pulao. Raita is a yogurt sauce with spices and a mix of vegetables like Onion, Cucumber, Tomato, etc.,  Yogurt (curd) is an integral part of our (Indian) food.  With heavy meals like Biriyani / Pulao, the Yogurt is getting added in the form of Raita as an accompaniment. It helps to cool and balance out the heat from the spices.

Raita can be made in about 10 minutes with minimum ingredients. I am sharing herewith the plain Onion Raita recipe, but we can make many variations in the Raita by

• Adding finely chopped tomato
• Chat masala or powdered Jeera powder can be aded
• Mint leaves will add additional flavor and taste

Recipe Card for Onion Raita

Method with step by step Pictures

• Peel the skin of the Onion and cut into two halves. Slice the onions into lengthwise

• Take the curd in a bowl and whisk it nicely

• Add Salt, chopped onions, green chili, coriander leaves and mix them well

• Raita is ready to serve with Biryani / Pulao

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Method with step by step pictures:

• Heat the pan and a ½ teaspoon of ghee. Add Toor dal, Red Chilies, Coriander seeds, Kanda Thipili and Arisi Thipili and fry till the Toor dal turns golden brown color. Take the fried ingredients in a mixer

• Add remaining ½ teaspoon of ghee in the pan. Add peeled garlic cloves to the pan and fry it for a minutes in a medium flame. Take the fired garlic cloves to the mixer

• Add Pepper and Cumin seeds to the mixer. Grind all the fried ingredients along with pepper and cumin seeds into a fine paste

• In a Pan add a teaspoon of Ghee. Once the Ghee is hot add Mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds finished sputtering add the curry leaves

• Add the tamarind extract and salt. Keep this mixture in flame for 5 minutes till the raw smell of the tamarind goes off.

• Add the ground paste and keep the flame in medium low.

• When the mixture starts to boil, add required water to adjust the consistency.

• Now the delicious Poondu Rasam(Garlic Rasam) is ready to serve with plain rice.

Poondu Rasam(Garlic Rasam)

 

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Sorrel Leaves has a natural tanginess. Gongura is a plant grown for its edible leaves in India. Gongura comes in 2 varieties green stemmed leaf and red stemmed leaf. The red stemmed leaves are more sour than the green ones. Sorrel leaf is known as Gongura in Telugu, pulicha keerai in Tamil and Pitwaa in Hindi. We need to balance the salt and spices with the tanginess from the gongura in this dal for it to be really delicious; otherwise you will end up with a super tangy pappu.

We can make many wonderful recipes with Gongura (Sorrel) leaves. One such yummy recipe is this Gongura Pappu. Pappu is an integral part of Lunch Menu in Andhra Cuisine. We can even say that an Andhra meal is incomplete without a dal dish cooked with some veggie.

Pappu (Dal):

Toor Daal (Kandi Pappu) or Moong Daal (Pesara Pappu) cooked with a vegetable or green. Generally masala is not added to the dal. Some regions include garlic and onion in the seasoning while some regions prefer asafetida (hing). Toor dal is often cooked with leafy vegetables like Palakura (spinach), Gongura, malabar spinach, and vegetables such as tomato and mango. Sometimes the cooked version of the dal is replaced with a roast and ground version of the dal like Kandi pachadi (roasted toor daal ground with red chiles) and pesara pachadi (soaked moong daal ground with red chilies or green chilies).

Variations in Gongura Pappu

We can bring in many variations in Gongura Pappu.

1. Many Andhra people like to add cooked peanuts along with their Gongura Pappu. One of my neighbor, soak 1 handfuls of raw peanuts overnight and pressure cook it along with toor dal and add it to the cooked Gongura pappu.
2. Gongura leaves itself has the sourness nature in it and hence most of the time we don’t add additional tamarind or tomato to Gongura recipes. Even when we make Gongura Pulihora, the tanginess is only from the gongura leaves and we don’t add tamarind.
3. We can combine jeera, coconut and green chili and make a paste and add it to the dal

You can also try:

1. Gongura Pulihora
2. Gongura Pachadi
3. Pepper Rice
4. Andhra Capsicum Rice
5. Pulihora
6. Nalla Kara Podi
7. Andhra Pepper Rasam
8. Mango Dal

Recipe Card:

Method with Step by Step Pictures:

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Potato Stew is a very easy and simple dish of Kerala that goes well with Appam, Poori, Chapathi, Puttu, Idiyappam, or even with plain bread. Recently, I tasted this in my friend’s house. She served this yummy potato stew with brown rice Idiyappam and it tasted divine.  My MIL used to grind the coconut and add the coconut paste to this stew, but my friend told that its conventional to use the coconut milk instead of grinding and adding the coconut paste. So, this time, I tried adding coconut milk and it turned out so yummy. Also, instead of adding only potato, I enriched with peas, carrot and beans to make it much healthier.

Please click here for the other version of the Potato stew recipe

Kerala Style Potato Stew Recipe

Recipe Card:

Kerala Style Potato Stew

Kerala Potato Stew is a delicious Indian recipe served as a Curries. A Perfect accompaniment for Idiapam.

Vegetables for Stew

• 3 Potato
• 2 Onion
• 10 Beans
• ¼ Cup Green Peas
• 3 Green Chili
• 1 tbsp Chopped Ginger
• Few Curry Leaves

Spices & Other Ingredients Needed

• 1 tbsp Coconut Oil
• 1 tsp Peppercorns
• ¼ tsp Pepper Powder
• 2 Cup Thin Coconut Milk (1 Cup – 250ml)
• 1 Cup Thick Coconut Milk
• Salt (As Needed)

For Tempering

• 1 tbsp Coconut Milk
• 1 inch Cinnamon Stick
• 3 Cloves
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 2 Cardamom

1. Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add oil. Add whole garam masalas and saute them in oil. To that, add the peppercorns, slit green chillies, curry leaves and chopped ginger and saute them all till you get a nice aroma out of the masala

2. Then, add the thinly sliced onions and saute them in oil till they turn translucent. When the onions are translucent, then add chopped potatoes, carrot, beans and peas and stir-fry in high flame for couple of minutes

3. Then add thin coconut milk along with salt and cook the veggies till they are nicely tender and soft

4. When the veggies are cooked completely, add the thick coconut milk and mix well. When the stew starts to boil, add coconut milk along with chopped curry leaves and pepper powder and mix well

5. The delicious Kerala Style Potato Stew is now ready to serve! Relish with your roti, idiyappam or appam and enjoy the dish!

1. We can exclude other veggies and add only potato and onion
2. We can use store bought coconut milk. I usually get 1 can of coconut milk, take half of it aside for thick milk. Dilute the rest of the milk with 1.5 to 2 cups of water and keep it aside for thin consistency.
3. Always switch off the flame and add the thick coconut milk. We should not boil the stew after adding thick coconut milk.

Method with Step by Step Pictures:

• Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add oil. Add whole garam masalas and saute them in oil. To that, add the peppercorns, slit green chillies, curry leaves and chopped ginger and saute them all till you get a nice aroma out of the masala

• Then, add the thinly sliced onions and saute them in oil till they turn translucent. When the onions are translucent, then add chopped potatoes, carrot, beans and peas and stir-fry in high flame for couple of minutes

• Then add thin coconut milk along with salt and cook the veggies till they are nicely tender and soft

• When the veggies are cooked completely, add the thick coconut milk and mix well. When the stew starts to boil, add coconut milk along with chopped curry leaves and pepper powder and mix well

• The delicious Kerala Style Potato Stew is now ready to serve! Relish with your roti, idiyappam or appam and enjoy the dish!

Please click here for the other version of the Potato stew recipe

Kerala Style Potato Stew Recipe

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Nellikai Thayir Pachadi is one of the traditional and conventional Pachadi Variety in Tamil Nadu. Pachadi is similar to Raita. The main ingredient is curd along with some vegetables. The main difference between Pachadi and Raita is that, for Raita its simple We just add the vegetable raw without any cooking and add spice like Green chili or Pepper and garnish with coriander leaves. For Pachadi, we grind the coconut along with green chili and mustard. The coconut spice paste really adds a nice flavor. This Pachadi is generally served as an accompaniment / side dish with Poricha Kuzhambu, Sambar or Rasam.

What Vegetables we can use for Pachadi?

1. Plain Pachadi – Pachadi without any vegetables. A simple curd with Coconut Spice Paste. This Plain Pachadi is a perfect accompaniment for Medhu Vada or Paruppu Vada
2. Senai (Chena) Pachadi – We can take 4-5 big cubes of Chena and cook it till soft. Then, we need to grind the cooked chana along with coconut, green chili, mustard seeds and grind it to paste. Finally we need to mix the paste with curd and add tempering
3. Mavadu Pachadi – During Tender baby mango Season, most of us prepare Mavadu (Vadu mangai) Pickle. We can take 2 of the small Mavudu and we can grind it along with coconut, green chili and mustard and mix with curd and temper with mustard and curry leaves
4. Dangar Pachadi – Another yummy Pachadi Variety made using Roasted Urad Dal Powder. We can use this pachadi as a side dish  for vathakuzhambu, kariveppilai thokku and many more.
5. Tomato & Okra Pachadi – We can cook tomato or okra and mix with coconut spice paste and add curd. This is a simple Pachadi variety we can make on regular days.

Recipe Card:

Method with Step by Step Pictures:

PREPARING GOOSEBERRY

• Take 2 good Gooseberries and wash it thoroughly. De-seed the gooseberries and chop it into small cubes

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Method with step by step pictures to make Keerai Thoran :

• Finely chop the spinach and clean it thoroughly. Strain in a strainer to avoid excess water

• Heat the pan, add oil and once the oil becomes hot, add the mustard seeds and when the mustard seeds start to sputter add urdhal and fry it till the dhal becomes golden brown color. Add the broken red chilli and strained spinach and add turmeric powder and salt cook it till it becomes soft

• Grind the grated coconut along with cumin seeds and red chilli in a mixer without adding any water

• Add the ground grated coconut to the keerai and mix well. Stir-fry for a minute and then remove from flame.

• The yummy Keerai Poriyal(Spinach Poriyal)/Keerai Thuvaran is ready to Serve

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