Pongal

Ingredients:
1.)Rice - 1 cup
2.)pesara pappu - 1/4 the cup
3.)pepper corns- 1tbsp
4.)curry leaves - 10
5.)astefodia - pinch
6.)cumin seeds - 2 tsp
7.)salt to taste
8.)cashewnuts - 8
9.)ghee/oil - 1tbsp

Procedure:
Wash rice and pesara papu. In a pan add rice and pesara papu and add water in the ratio of for 1 cup of rice/ dal 2 and 1/4 cups of water and let it boil(Amount of water may vary based on the rice u use). In a presuure cooker cook it for about 6-7 whistles. Then once the steam is gone add salt and mash the rice and dal mixture to a coarse paste.
In another pan, add ghee/oil. When it is hot add cumin seeds, pepper corns, astefodia, cashews. curry leaves. WHen the start spluttering and the cashews get brown add this mixture to the rice and dal mixtures and mix well. Pongal is ready to serve. this goes well with mango pickle or any chutney.

Aloo puttu/curry/masala for dosa

Ingredients:
1.)potato-3 boiled and coarsely chopped
2.)green chillies - 4(cut into 1/2 inch pieces)
3.)onion - 1 small(chopped)
4.)mustard seeds - 1tsp
5.)cumin seeds - 1tsp
6.)channa dal - 1 tbsp
7.)ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
8.)curry leaves - 4
9.)oil - 1tbsp
10.)salt -to taste
11.)turmeric powder -

Procedure:
Take oil in a pan. When it is hot, add mustard seeds,cumin seeds and channdal. Once the mustard seeds start spluttering add onions and green chillies

Carrot and Peas Pasta

Ingredients:
1.)Paste (penne)-1 cup
2.)pasta sauce - 1 and 1/2 cup
3.)peas and carrot - 1/2 cup
4.)salt - to taste
5.)cheese - 1/4 cup(could vary the variety and quantity of cheese according to ur taste)
6.)water - 4 cups
17.)sugar - pinch

Pasta Sauce:
1.)Tomatoes - 2-3 (large)(could use tomato paste instead, about 3/4 cup)
2.)salt-to taste
3.)pepper - 1/2 tsp
4.)garlic - 1-2 tbsp(finely chopped) (could use a little less too, but I like the garlic flavor)
5.)oil - 1 tbsp
6.)italian seasoning - 1 -2tsp(u get this in the super markets. If not this u could use some of the italian spices like basil, oregano etc).
7.)Rose mary- 1/2 tsp

Procedure:
To prepare the sauce, blanch the tomatoes and let them cool(for blanching tomatoes, take boiling hot water and add the tomatoes to it.Let them stay in the water for a minute or so. Immediately get the tomatoes out of the hot water and run them through cold water. Now you will see that the tomatoes skin come off pretty easily.)Remove the skin of the tomatoes. Having remove the skin of the tomatoes , crush the tomato pulp with hand or use a blender to get a paste.do not add water, try to get athick sauce.
Instead of going through the whole procedure you could use the tomato paste instead, whoch generally use. In a pan take oil, when it is hot add onions, garlic and saute well. When the onions get transparent add peas and carrots and saute well. Add salt ans pepper and mix well. To this add tomato paste and mix well. Let it cook till the raw flavor of the tomatoes is gone.Then add the italian seasoning,rosemary and a pinch of sugar and mix well.
If the mixture is too thick and stick to the bottom of the pan, add a little water.
While this is going on, in another pan boil 4 cups of water with a pinch of salt. Once the water starts boiling, add pasta and let it cook.Once the paste is cooked, fish it out from the water and add to the tomato sauce in the other pan and mix well. Let it stay in the pan for about 5 mins. Finally top the pasta with cheese and serve hot.

Note:-Rosemary gives a very nice flavor to the pasta. I generally add a little rosemary in addition ot the italian seasoning. It is optional.

Palakura/Palak/Spinach papu/dal

Ingredients:

1.)Palak - 250gm

2.)onion - 1 small chopped(not very finely)

3.)toor dal - 1 and 1/2 cups

4.)green chillies - 5 to 6

5.)curry leave - 6-7

6.)mustard seeds - 2 tsps

7.)cumin seeds - 1 tsp

8.)astefodia - pinch

9.)sambar powder - 1 tsp

10.)turmeric - 1/2 tsp

11.)ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Procedure:

Wash the toor dal well and soak it in water for about 15 mins to half an hour.Take oil in a pressure cooker.When it is hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds,when they start spluttering add onions curry leaves and green chillies. Saute till the onions get transparent. Add turmeric powder and ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw flavor goes away. then add astefodia and stir for a min. Then add the spinach and saute for 2 to 3 mins. Now add the toor dal and stir for 2 to 3 mins and add approximately4 to 5 cups of water. Ans pressure cook for 4-5 whistles.

After4-5 whistles, turn off the stove and let it rest till the steam is completely gone. (Test for this is, try to lift the weight of the pressure cooker.If no steam comes out,or, u do not get a whoosh sound, the steam is gone.Otherwise let it stand for some more time.)

Once the steam is gone completely, open the lid and mash the dal into a semi-smooth paste.Add salt and sambar powder and stir well. If the dal is too thick(dal is generally thick so do not add too much of water), add a little water and let it boil for 15-20mins. Finally take oil in another pan add 2 tsps of oil.When th oil is hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and dried red chilli. When mustard seeds start spluttering, pour this over the spinach dal and mix.Spinach dal is ready to be served. This goes well with white rice.

Note:
Add water to toor dal in 1:2 proportion(for 1 cup toor dal, add 2 cups water). Here we add a little more, because of the spinach that we added. The extra water is for the spinach to cook. As a rule of thumb, add water until the ingredients and completely immersed. This rule works pretty well most of the time :).

Arbi/Chammgada fry

Ingredients:

1.)Arbi - 5

2.)mustard seeds - 1tsp

3.)cumin seeds - 1tsp

4.)urad dal - 1tbsp

5.)curry leaves - 6

6.)ginger gralic paste - 1/2 tsp

7.)turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

8.)salt - to taste

9.)chilli powder 1/2 tsp

10.)oil-4tbsp

Procedure:

Boil the arbi(for 3 whistles), peel its skin off and chop into 1/2 inch peices. Take oil in a pan, when it is hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal ,curry leaves and turmeric paste. When they start spluttering add arbi, ginger garlic paste and fry. Next add salt and mix well. Fry till they get golden brown. When it starts getting brown add chilli powder and mix well.Keep stirring frequently to avoid burning of the vegetable.Once the vegetable gets golden brown the vegetable is ready to serve.This goes wel with curd rice,sambar rice or roti

Sakara/Sweet Pongal

Ingredients:
1.)Rice - 1 cup
2.)pesara pappu - 1/4 the cup
3.)cardamon powder - 1tsp
4.)jaggery 3/4 cup(depending on how sweet u want the dish to be vary the amount of jaggery)
5.)Ghee - 1tbsp
6.)raisins - 8
7.)cashews - 8(or any nut that u like)
8.)milk - 2 cups

Procedure:
Wash rice and pesara papu. In a pan add rice and pesara papu and add 2 cups of water and tow cups of milk and let it boil. Ina presuure cooker cook it for about 6-7 whistles.
In the meanwhile take the jaggery and dissolve it it hotwater (to disolve jagerry faster, take jagerry ina bowl add a little water and put it in the microwave for a couple of mins until u find the jaggery dissolved.).Then once the steam is gone add the dissolved jaggery and mash the rice and dal mixture to a coarse paste.Now again put the mixture back on to the stove.To it add cardamon powder and mixwell. Keep mixing occasionally other wise the misture stick to the bottom of the pan. Leave it on the stove for about 5 mins.
In another pan, add ghee/oil. When it is hot add Cashews and raisins. When the raisins and puffed and cashews are brown add this to the rice and dal mixture and mix well. Pongal is ready to serve.

Zucchini snack

This is one of the quick recipes which goes extremely well as an party snack or appetizer. Or it is good even for an evening snack on a rainy day.

Ingredients:
1.)Zucchini - 2
2.)Salt-to taste
3.)oil - to deep fry

Procedure:
Wash the zucchini well and pat dry. Now using a peeler keep peeling the zucchini until u start to hit the seeds(do not peel the seeds part of zucchini, leave the core and use it in sambar.Follow the kheera/cucumber sambar recipe.)
Now heat the oil and fry the zucchini strips till golden brown. Do not brown it much, because it will start tasting bitter. The main thing to get zucchini to right color is to make sure that oil is really hot.
Now remove the golden brown zucchini skins and sprinkle salt. Make sure u sprinkle salt when the zucchini skins are hot. This ensures it sticks to the snack.