Tomato Chutney

A side dish that can be had as a side-dish with idlis/dosas.
Ingredients:
1) Tomato - (Medium-sized) - 2-3
2) Onion - (Medium-sized) - 1
3) Ginger - 2-3 pods
4) Green Chillies - 3
5) Curry leaves
6) Corriander leaves
7) Garam masala - 1 tsp
8) Corriander powder - 2 tsp
9) Chillie powder - 2 tsp
10) Black pepper powder - 2 tsp
11) Mustard seeds
12) Jeera(Cumin seeds) - 1 tsp
12) Salt - 1 tsp
13) Sugar - 1 tsp
14) Oil

Method of preparation:
1) Chop onion and tomatoes into small pieces. Chop ginger and green chillies into small pieces.
2) Heat oil in a frying pan. Fry the onions until they are slightly brown. Add in tomatoes, ginger and green chilles. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes. (For a tangy taste, add a 1/4 tsp of tamarind paste.)
3) Add in the curry leaves. Add sugar and salt to the mixture. Blend this mixture using a blender adding little water.
4) Heat oil in a frying pan. Add mustard seeds. Let it splutter out. Add cumin seeds. Add the masala powders one by one - garam masala, chillie powder, corriander powder and pepper powder.
5) Add the blended mixture to the above prepared masala powder mix. Mix it well.
6) Delicious tomato chutney is ready!
This can be stored in refrigerator for about 4 days.

Fried Fish

Fried fish, again, is another favorite dish of mine. Its recipe goes this way....
Ingredients:
1) Fish pieces - 1/2 kg
2) Ginger-garlic paste - 1-2 tsp
3) Chillie powder - 3 tsp
4) Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5) Salt - 1-2 tsp
6) Oil - to fry

Method of preparation:
1) Wash fish pieces thoroughly with water.
2) Mix ginger-garlic paste with chillie powder, turmeric powder and salt. Sprinkle water and make a paste.
3) Spread the paste over the fish pieces and marinate the fishes for about 20-30 minutes.
4) Heat oil in a frying pan, place the fishes into the frying pan. Turn sides of the fishes after 20 minutes.
5) Fried fish ready!

Fish Curry

Being a Christian, non-vegeterarian dishes have been a part of our diet. My mother's fish curry is the best fish curry that I have had in my life. So, here , I produce the recipe of fish curry.
Ingredients:
1) Fish pieces - 1/2 kg
2) Ginger-Garlic paste - 1-2 tsp
3) Chillie powder - 5 tsp
4) Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5) Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
6) Small onion - 5-6 pieces
7) Green chillies - 2-3 pieces
8) Tamarind(kudampuly in Malayalam) pieces - 2-3
9) Salt - 2-3 tsp
10) Oil - 3 tsp

Method of preparation:
1) Wash fish pieces throughly with water.
2) Wash the tamarind pieces thoroughly with water.
3) Cut the onion into small slices.
4) Heat oil in a frying pan.
5) Add mustard. Allow it to spread out. Add onion. When onion turns slightly brown, add green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, chillie powder, turmeric powder and salt. Mix well.
6) In a mudpot, boil water with tamarind pieces.
7) Place the fishes into the mudpot. Add the mixture prepared in step 5, into the mudpot.
8) Cook fish in the mudpot for about 20-30 minutes in low flame.

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...