Lemon Rice

Lemon Rice

Ingredients
2 cups of cooked rice
1 medium sized lemon
1 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste

Seasoning
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp bengal gram
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp mustard
4 green chillies sliced
1 strand of curry leaves

Preparation
Squeeze and extract lemon juce, deseed it

To the juice add enough salt and turmeric powder and mix well

Add the juice content to the cooked rice and mix well.

Heat a pan and add oil, season mustard, urad dal, bengal gram, green chillies and curry leaves.

Add the seasoning to the cooked rice and mix well.

 Serve with any fried side dish like potatoes or ladies finger fry.

Hotel Sambar for Idli , dosa and pongal

Hotel Sambar

Ingredients
For dal preparation:

1/2 cup thoor dal
1 medium sized onion chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
5 flakes of crushed garlic
1 green chilly slit
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1 strand of curry leaves

For seasoning
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1 strand of curryleaves

Dry Roast and powder:
1 tsp mustard
2 tsp urad dal
2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tbsp grated coconut
3 red chillies
2 tsp channa dal/bengal gram
1 tsp corriander seeds
1 tsp black pepper

few corriander leaves for garnishing
small lemon sized tamarind
salt to taste


Preparation

Dry roast the mentioned ingredients and powder it

Cook dal in pressure cooker adding dal,onion, tomatoes,green chillies, curry leaves,cumin seeds, asafoetida and crushed garlic,turmeric powder.Cook for 5 whistles.

Heat pan and add the cooked dal and allow it to boil.

Add ground masala powder to the dal and mix well and add 2 cups of water,salt to taste and allow it to boil for 5 minutes.

Now add tamarind extract to the sambar and allow it to boil for 3 minutes.
Heat another pan for seasoning; Add oil and season mustard, fennel seeds asafoetida and curry leaves.

Add the seasoining to the sambar, stir well.

Serve with plain rice or venpongal

Cumin Rice

Cumin Rice

Ingredients

8-10 shallots or 1 medium sized onion finely chopped

7-8 green chillies

Few mint leaves

2 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp cumin powder

½ cup of  coconut milk

3 ½ cup water

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp ghee

2 cups of rice

Salt to taste

Preparation

Heat pressure cooker on medium fire, then add oil and ghee.

When oil is hot, add onion sauté till it turns golden brown, then add green chillies.

Now add mint leaves

Followed by cumin seeds

Add cumin powder and salt

Now add ½ cup  of coconut milk and mix it well.

Add rice.

Now add 3 ½ cup of water to the rice.( To cook normal rice in correct consistency for pulao or rice varieties, always use 2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice. Here ½ cup of coconut milk + 3 ½ cups of water )

Allow it to boil and pressure cook for 2 whistles.

Once cooked, open the cooker and mix the cooked rice with wooden laddle.

Serve it hot with kurma or chalna

Manathakali Vathal Kulambu

Ingredients:

1 medium sized onion

2 tomatoes

8-10 garlic flakes

2 tbsp of manathakali vathal

Lemon sized tamarind

3-4 tbsp of oil

For seasoning:

1 strand of curry leaves

½ tsp fenugreek

1 tsp fennel seeds

2 red chillies

2 tbsp chilly powder

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tbsp cumin powder

Salt to taste

Preparation:

Cut onions and tomatoes

Heat pan on medium and add oil to it

Season with fenugreek, fennel seeds, red chillies, curry leaves and then add manathakali vathal.

Add onions, garlic and sauté till cooked and then add tomatoes. Then add salt and cook till tomatoes are cooked and mashed.

Add chilly powder, coriander powder and cumin powder mix it well. Now add 2 cups of water.

Allow the kulambu content to boil till it  reduces to 1 cup.

Switch off the fire, and now the kulambu is ready to be served with plain rice.

Soft Chapatis

Soft Chapatis

Ingredients:

3 cups of wheat flour/ atta

1 cup of fresh milk or boiled milk

1 cup of water

1 tbsp of salt

2 tbsp of cooking oil/ghee

Preparation:

Add water and milk together and bring it to boil.

Once boiled, switch off the fire, and add 1 tbsp of oil and keep it aside.

To the flour, add 1 tbsp of salt and mix well

Now add the boiled milk and water to the flour and mix it with a ladle.

When the flour is warm, mix and knead well with your hand and make it into a dough.

Leave the dough covered for atleast 20 minutes

After 20 minutes, you could see small bubbles formed on the flour.

Now again add 1 tbsp of cooking oil and knead once again.

Make the dough into small dumplings.

Take a dumpling and dust it with atta flour and flatten it using  a roll pin.

Flaten the dough neither too thin nor too thick.

Heat the tawa on medium and place the rolled chapatti on it.

Cook for 5 seconds and flip it to the other side and cook for another 5 seconds.

Now using small cloth or tissue, press the edges of the chapatti to puff up.

Turn the chapatti to the other side.

When the other side also puff up, remove it from tawa.

Now it is ready to be served with a side dish.