Dal Curry

The simplest of all dishes I present here is the basic dal curry, which can be eaten with rice, dosa or idlies...

Pongal

Pongal is one of the main rice dishes of Tamil Nadu.
Simple and easy to prepare. Can be eaten along best with sambhar or with pickle.

Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1 cup
Jeera - 1 tsp
Slightly ground pepper balls - 1 tsp
Cashew nuts - 3 or 4 nos.(Optional)
Dry grapes - 1 tsp(Optional)
Ghee/Oil - 2-4 tsp

Method of preparation:
1) Heat ghee in pressure cooker. Add jeera, slightly ground pepper balls, grapes and cashew nuts.
2) Wash rice and moong dal thoroughly with water. Add rice and moong dal to the pressure cooker. Add 4 cups of water. For 1 cup of rice and 1 cup moong dal, add double the water to the pressure cooker. That's 4 cups of water for 2 cups of rice-moong dal.
3) Add salt to taste. Close the pressure cooker. After the first whistle blows, keep flame low for another 5 minutes.
4) Allow the pressure cooker to cool on its own to release the pressure.
5) Pongal is ready. Its best to served hot with sambhar. Other alternative could be to serve it with pickle.

Parippu Vada...

An South Indian evening snack, also, given along with morning breakfasts, parippu vada is one of my favorite delectable. It's
quite easy to prepare. Here goes, on how to prepare it.
Kadala parippu - (Bengal gram) - 1 cup.
Onion - 1
Green Chillie - 2
Ginger - A small piece
Salt to taste

Method of preparation:
1) Soak Kadala parippu in water for about two hours.
2) Cut Onion into small pieces. Cut Chillies and ginger into small pieces.
3) Drain water completely from the Kadala parippu. Squeeze the extra water.
4) Slightly grind the Kadala parippu in mixie. The kadala parippu must be ground very lightly.
5) Mix the kadala parippu with the finely cut onion, green chillies and ginger.
6) Add salt to the above mixture.
7) Make small balls of the mixture and flatten it slightly.
8) Deep fry these flattened balls in oil.
9) Drain oil and serve hot.
Note: No water must be added to Kadala parippu while grinding. Water must be drained completely by sqeezing the kadala parippu.
Site to get ingredients in local language. http://asiarecipe.com/indgloss.html

Why another blog?...

Being a newly married wife and as a person who never tried her hand at cooking before, I thought I could consolidate all the recipes that I have in mind into a blog. Whatever I learnt from my mother, I have jotted down in a scattered papers that I keep looking for it whenever I start cooking. This blog that way, would help me to organize whatever I know by the means of a blog...