Disclaimer

These are some recipes I have come up on my own or learnt it from someone else or modified/adapted known ones. No guarantees are made as to whether they will taste "good" or whether they will meet your nutrition intake requirements etc. By accessing this page, the user agrees not to hold the author liable in any way for any errors, damages or costs of any type incurring due to incidences of injury, burns, poisoning, allergic reactions or even death arising out of trying out the following recipes. This page is meant to be for purely informative and fun purposes.

Acknowledgements are made as and when required.

Moru Kachal
Banana Cake
Velappam
Hara Chaas
Kadala Curry
Idli/Dosa
Cucumber Raita

Moru Kachal

Ingredients: Buttermilk, onion, grated ginger, grated garlic, tomatoes, green chilli, turmeric, asefoetida, mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Procedure: Heat oil and check its temperature by throwing in a couple of mustard seeds. They should pop immediately. Throw in the remaining mustard seeds. Once all of them have popped put ginger, garlic and green chillis along with some asefoetida. Put the cut onion and some curry leaves once garlic has turned golden in color. When the onion is soft, put the tomatoes in. And after a couple of minutes, a teaspoon of turmeric powder and salt to taste. Pour buttermilk and turn off the gas when the buttermilk has just turned hot. Thats it. Enjoy the curry.

Variations:

Notes: You can store it in fridge after it has cooled and use it over the week. Very handy for those who are lazy to make some curry everyday.

Banana Cake (Thanks Anu aunty)

Ingredients: Baking tray, 6 eggs, 2 cubes butter, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, cardamom powder, vanilla essence, brown sugar, ripe bananas, cashew nuts, raisins, sundried orange and lemon peels, Red Vine or sugar water.

Procedure: Soak cashew nuts, raisins, sundried orange and lemon peels in Red Vine overnight. For teetotalitarians, soaking the above in sugar syrup will do. Break the eggs and pour it in a container. Melt butter and add to it. Mix them thoroughly with a ladel. A handmixer is really handy for this. But if you dont have one, no worries. It isnt that difficult either. As you keep mixing, add all of the above ingredients except the nuts/raisins in small quantities. Make sure no blobs are formed. Once you have a nice mix, add the Vine soaked nuts and raising to the mix. Take out the tray and give its inside a thin coating of butter and then spray some flour onto it. Pour the whole mix and bake it in an oven at 350F temperature for around half an hour. The cake is done when it doesnt stick to a knife when you poke it.

Variations: I have tried adding apple sauce to it. Would love to try adding Bacardi Select to make a banana rum cake. If you can think of something more interesting, please let me know.

Notes: None.

Velappam (Thanks Anu aunty)

Ingredients: Boiled rice (idly rice), yeast, grated coconut, salt.

Procedure: Soak required amount of rice in water for 5-6 hours and then blend it with coconut and yeast. Use X cups of grated coconut for X cups of rice. Keep overnight to ferment. Heat frying pan. Pour and make it just like pancakes.

Variations: Haven't tried yet.

Notes: Goes well with kadala curry and vegetable korma.

Hara Chaas

Ingredients: Buttermilk or yogurt, cilantro leaves, curry leaves, asefoetida, ginger, salt, green chillis, mustard.

Procedure: Blend together buttermilk or yogurt, ginger, green chillis, little bit of curry leaves, asefoetida (quarter teaspoon) and salt. Heat some oil. Test its temperature by throwing in a couple of mustard seeds. It should pop immediately. Then add the remaining mustard seeds and the remaining curry leaves. Add it to the mix from the blender.

Variations: A little bit of black pepper can also be added to the mix.

Notes: If buttermilk or yogurt is not sour enough, add some sour cream.

Kadala Curry (Thanks Anu aunty)

Ingredients: Black channa dal, LOTS of cut onion, grated ginger and garlic, tomatoes, finely sliced coconut pieces, turmeric, corriander powder, redchilli powder, finely sliced green chillis, mustard, jeera, fennel powder, curry leaves, corriander leaves.

Procedure: MUST soak channa overnight. Before starting, cook the channa with a teaspoon of turmeric powder in a pressure cooker for about 15 minutes. Heat oil and check its temparature by throwing in a couple of mustard seeds. They should pop soon. Add the remaining mustard. Once they all pop, add the jeera. Grated ginger, garlic and sliced chillis are added when jeera turns brown. When the garlic turns golden, add onion along with curry leaves and sliced coconut pieces. Once the onion gets soft add the tomatoes. Add some redchilli powder, corriander powder and fennel powder in another 2-3 minutes. Keep stirring for another 10 minutes and then add the cooked channa dal from the pressure cooker. Stir once every 5 minutes and let it boil for about half an hour to an hour. Throw in some cut corriander leaves and salt to taste.

Variations: Havent tried yet. Might want to add a bit of garam masala and potatoes.

Notes: The gravy for this curry comes mainly from the onion. So you really need lots of them. For best results, make it the previous day itself. It tastes amazingly better. You can make chicken with the same recipe without adding coconut pieces. This curry goes very well with dosa, idli and parathas.

Idli/Dosa

Ingredients: 3 cups idli rice (boiled rice), 1 cup urad dal, 2 handfuls methi (fenugreek).

Procedure: Soak the rice along with methi for about 5-6 hours. Urad dal needs soaking for only about half an hour. Grind urad dal separately from the rice/methi mixture. Mix both of them, add sal to taste and allow the batter to ferment overnight. That's it. Make idlis in a idli-cooker. You can use the same batter to make dosas. Just set aside the batter and add "little" water so thin it a bit.

Variations for dosa: I have experimented by adding eggs, Bacardi COCO rum, wheat, rava. Click here to know how we landed up with some of these. All of them turned out pretty tasty. If you have any other ideas, drop me a line.

Notes: For best ferment results, keep the batter near the heater in cold countries. Also, DO NOT wash the urad dal and methi. You will just wash away and kill the dry wild yeast in them because of chlorine. If you really need to wash, use old dechlorinated water and just rinse once.

Cucumber Raita

Ingredients: Grated cucumber, cut tomatoes, sour buttermilk, cut cilantro, finely sliced green chillis, grated ginger, mustard and asefoetida.

Procedure: Mix the cucumber, tomatoes with the buttermilk. You might want to use some sour cream if the buttermilk isn't sour enough. Heat oil and throw in a couple of mustard seeds to check if its hot enough. If the mustard seeds pop immediately, reduce heat a bit. Add the remaining mustard seeds. Once they have all popped, throw in less than a quarter teaspoon of asefoetida and then the sliced green chillis and grated ginger. Add the above to the mix and then finally the cilantro leaves. Add salt to taste.

Variations: Add some really small cubes of boiled potatoes.

Notes: For best results, make raita an hour before the meal.

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