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Showing posts with label LUNCH MENU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LUNCH MENU. Show all posts

May 15, 2016

Travel Food Recipes Ideas–South Indian Variety Rice

travel food recipes ideas
Last week we had a trip to Valparai near Pollachi,Tamil nadu for summer vacation in our car. We packed few rice varieties for lunch and had it during our road trip in Attakatti. Usually we make Tamarind rice/Puli sadam and Curd rice for travel. But this time, Sendhil told us to prepare some other rice varieties for a change. So my MIL made this yummy, easy, comforting and a healthy South Indian meal for our travel.I thought of sharing this easy travel food recipes idea with you all. It would be helpful for you to plan and prepare food for your short trip/Picnic during this Summer holidays. My MIL made Milagu jeeraga sadam/ Pepper cumin rice, Ellu sadam/ Sesame seeds rice, Lemon rice and Curd rice along with vadam/Vathal. We also carried some store bought sweets and snacks to munch during our travelWinking. Lets see how we prepared this simple and yummy travel lunch menu.
Travel lunch recipes

Here is a collage of Valparai-Athirapally Pictures. Check THIS LINK for more pictures.
Valparai trip

Travel Food Recipes Ideas


Travel Food Recipes Ideas South Indian lunch menu for travel
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Travel recipes
Serves: Serves 4
Prep time: 20 Minutes
Cook time: 30 Minutes
Total time: 50 Minutes


INGREDIENTS
1 cup = 250ml
For rice varieties
  • Steamed rice - 2 cups
  • Water - 6 cups
  • Gingely oil - 2 tsp
  • Salt - as needed
For lemon rice
  • Lemon - 5 nos
  • Green chilli - 6-8 nos
  • Red chilli - 2 nos
  • Curry leaves - few
  • Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
  • Urad dal - 1 tbsp
  • Chana dal - 2 tbsp
  • Roasted peanuts - a handful ( optional)
  • Hing/Asafetida - 1/2 tsp
  • Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
  • Cooking oil - 2 tbsp
  • Gingely oil - as needed while mixing the rice
  • Salt - as needed
For Pepper cumin rice/Milagu jeeraga sadam
  • Ghee - 2 tbsp
  • Pepper corns – 1.5 tbsp
  • Cumin seeds - 2 tbsp
  • Salt - as needed
  • Curry leaves - few
For Ellu sadam
  • Black sesame seeds - 2 tbsp
  • Red chilli - 2 nos
  • Garlic cloves - 3 nos
  • Salt - as needed
  • Curry leaves - few
For curd rice
  • Steamed rice or raw rice - 1 cup
  • Water - 5 cups
  • Salt - as needed
  • Cooking oil - 1 tbsp
  • Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
  • Urad dal - 1 tbsp
  • Chana dal - 2 tbsp
  • Green chilli - 2 nos ( finely chopped or slitted)
  • Ginger - 2 inch piece ( finely chopped or grated)
  • Curry leaves - few
  • Fruits like grapes, pomegranate - to mix in the rice
  • Coriander leaves - a fistful
Koozh vadam/Vathal - as needed ( to deep fry)
Mor milagai & Pickle - side dish for curd rice
Lemon rice recipe
Milagu Jeeraga Aval ( replace aval with rice)
Curd rice/Thayir sadam
Tamarind rice/Puli sadam

METHOD

  • On the previous day night of travel, prepare the lemon rice paste.Make sesame seeds powder by dry roasting the sesame seeds, red chilli and then powder it adding salt.Make pepper cumin seeds powder. Refrigerate the lemon rice paste alone. Keep the powders in an air tight box and store it.
  • The next day morning as soon as u get up, wash and soak the rice in required water for 20 minutes. Use two cookers. One for curd rice and other one for rice varieties. Soak the rice separately in 2 cookers. Rice will be well soaked by the time u take bath.
  • Pressure cook the rice for one whistle in low flame and switch off the flame. Remove the lid after the steam is released.
  • NEVER USE YOUR HANDS FOR MIXING THE RICE. USE LADLE FOR HANDLING THE RICE.

  • Spread the rice in a plate and add some gingely oil. Take the rice in curd rice cooker and mash it well adding salt and milk. Do not curd when the rice is hot. Add curd after the rice becomes lukewarm. Add the seasoning ingredients for curd rice. Mix well. Add curd and mix well.Check for taste. Do not make the curd rice too thick or too watery. Make it like a creamy consistency so that it won’t become too hard in the afternoon.Check for taste and add more salt if needed. By the time, u mix the curd rice, the rice spread in the plate would have become warm.
  • Divide the rice into 2 portions. Take one portion of the rice and make lemon rice adding the lemon rice paste.Add gingely oil generously. Check for taste and add more salt & paste if needed. Take the other portion of rice and divide into 2. Use one portion for making ellu sadam and the other one for milagu jeeraga sadam. Add gingely oil for ellu sadam and ghee for milagu jeeraga sadam generously.Do not forget. NEVER USE YOUR HANDS FOR MIXING THE RICE. USE LADLE.
Prepare all the rice varieties and stack in the boxes. Make Neer mor/Spiced buttermilk (Thalicha more) and store in a bottle. Deep fry Koozh Vadam/Vathal  or papad and mormilagai.Store the vadam in a polythene bag or ziplock covers after it cools down. Pack some pickle in a small container. Arrange everything for travel in a bag. Take the sweets, snacks and fruits if any for travel.
South Indian rice varieties

Enjoy !


Note
I have shared some general point to remember while preparing food for travel.
  • Never put your hands to mix the rice varieties, use a spoon or ladle instead. If you mix the rice with your hands, it won’t stay good for more than 2 hours in summer.
  • Add gingely oil generously while mixing the rice. It helps to prevent the rice from drying.
  • Make sure you don’t use raw coconut in the dishes. If you use coconut, roast it well or saute the coconut based dish in oil till all the moisture content is completely gone.
  • If you are making curd rice, add less curd and more milk while mixing. It helps the curd rice to set well while eating.Never add curd in hot rice. Carry a bottle of spiced buttermilk or diluted curd to add in the rice while eating. Suppose if the curd rice becomes too thick, you can add buttermilk and bring it to proper consistency.In the buttermilk bottle, put some slitted green chillies, ginger and few curry leaves with mustard seeds seasoning ( make thaalicha neer mor). It helps to keep the buttermilk fresh and tastes less tangy.
  • We packed the rice in our steel travelling set. If you don’t have a travelling set, you can pack them in use & throw silver foil packs or plastic boxes. It is better to use banana leaf for packing the food. It gives a nice flavor and a healthy choice as well.

Is it not a happy and comforting meal for your travel ?? Happy Prepare & Enjoy it !!
Travel lunch idea - Indian
 
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February 7, 2016

Bengali Lunch Menu Recipe – Vegetarian Thali List

Bengali Lunch menu List
Its been a year since I shared a North Indian lunch menu here. After I had tried & posted my Punjabi & Gujarati Lunch Thali, I was looking forward to try Rajasthani and Bengali Lunch platters. Based on the suggestions I received from Facebook’s Chef at large group ( one of my favorite groups in facebook ) foodies, I tried this menu list for a Sunday lunch.Thanks everyone for flooding your ideas. Most of them are everyday Bengali recipes. Being a vegetarian, I tried some typical, authentic recipes to make an yummy lunch menu. I prepared Bengali Chaler payesh, Mishti Doi, Mishti pulao, Begun bhaja, Kalai er dal, aloo posto, Doodh Shukto, Bengali tomato Khejur chutney and pickle.I have shared the links for all these recipe below. I am yet to post mishti doi, Doodh shukto and tomato chutney recipes. But I have given the link for the source of these recipes. I thoroughly enjoyed cooking and tasting all these dishes.When I cooked all these recipes, I found Bengali Gobhido bhog rice, Panch phoron – 5 spice mix plays a major role in Bengali cooking. Cooking procedures were very simple yet delicious. It took nearly 1.5 hours to make this entire plattter.Sendhil & Myself enjoyed this thali very much. I loved chaler Payesh , Begun bhaja the most whereas Sendhil’s choice was Chanar dalna and tomato chutney. Over all Iam very happy that I tried & tasted this authentic Bengali Vegetarian Lunch Menu.Lets check out the menu list with some pictures below. 
Check my lunch thali from other cuisines HERE


Authentic bengali lunch menu
Recipe Links
Check my lunch thali from other cuisines HERE

Authentic bengali  vegetarian lunch menu


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July 28, 2015

Sundakkai Vathal Podi, Thakkali Poricha Kuzhambu Recipe - South Indian Lunch Menu For Stomach Problems

Actually I had to share a biryani recipe in my Sunday lunch series today. Sorry for disappointing you all with this post. Last 3 days I was in Rameswaram for temple visit. We had good darshan but unfortunately we all got stomach problems due to some food allergy. By God’ grace, our trip was successful and reached Bangalore yesterday.

As our stomach is completely upset, we wanted to avoid spicy foods for some days. So this afternoon I made Sundakkai Vathal podi (Dried Turkey berry powder) & Spice less, no tamarind thakkali poricha kuzhambu (tomato gravy without tamarind) along with Paruppu sadam (moong dal tadka) & thayir sadam for our lunch. I guess most of you just make dal & rasam during sick days but this is our standard lunch menu whenever we recover from any health ailments.

Sundakkai/Turkey berry is a good antibiotic to kill the ameoba in stomach. Pepper & cumin seeds used in this powder helps to improve appetite and aids digestion. Tomato is an energy booster basically. Coconut, cumin seeds/jeera and onions acts as a coolant for the upset stomach and helps for digestion. 

Moong dal and curd/buttermilk helps to cure stomach inflammations. To sum up, this South Indian Lunch menu would be soothing and tasty for an upset stomach & bitter tasting tongue. Do try this menu for a change. U may like it. Not just sick days, you can consume Sundakkai podi at least once in a week to keep your stomach clean if you eat hotel food regularly. Lets check out the recipes of sundakkai podi and thakkali poricha kuzhambu below. Last but not the least, I will surely share my biryani post sometime in this week.

South Indian Lunch Menu For Stomach Upset


South Indian Lunch Menu ideas South Indian Lunch Menu idea for persons with stomach problems
Cuisine: South Indian
Category: Lunch Menu
Serves: Serves 3
Prep time: 10 Minutes
Cook time: 20 Minutes
Total time: 30 Minutes


INGREDIENTS

SUNDAKKAI PODI/TURKEY BERRY POWDER
  • Turkey berry-20 nos 
  • Pepper corns – 10 nos
  • Cumin seeds/Jeera – 1/2 tsp
  • Garlic cloves – 2 nos
  • Salt – as needed
  • Cooking oil – 2 tsp
NO TAMARIND TOMATO GRAVY 
  • Cooking oil - 1 tbsp
  • Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
  • Urad dal - 1 tsp
  • Chana dal - 1 tsp
  • Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
  • Green chilli – 2-3 nos (slit)
  • Tomato - 3 nos( finely chopped)
  • Small onion/Big onion – 15 nos/1 no
  • Moong dal – 1 tbsp
  • Curry leaves – few
  • Turmeric powder – a pinch
  • Hing/Asafetida – a pinch
  • Coriander leaves - to garnish
  • Salt & water – as needed
To grind
  • Grated coconut- 1/4 cup
  • Cumin seeds/jeera – 1/2 tsp
METHOD
  • Sundakkai podi : Heat oil in a kadai & saute the turkey berries/sundakkai. Add cumin seeds, pepper corns and roast everything well till you get a nice smell of roasted turkey berries. Powder everything together adding salt & finely chopped garlic. Mix with plain rice adding ghee.

  • Thakkali poricha kuzhambu : Heat oil in a pressure cooker base. Splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, cumin seeds. Saute onions, curry leaves, green chillies and tomato till it turns mushy.
  • Add water,moong dal,turmeric powder,salt and pressure cook for 2 whistles in low flame. In the mean time, grind the coconut+jeera to a smooth paste adding little water. After the steam is released from the cooker, add this paste and boil well. Gravy will thicken. So add water and salt accordingly. Serve with plain rice adding few drops of ghee.
For paruppu, pressure cook dal adding a pinch of hing, turmeric powder and mash it. Do the seasoning at the end and serve with rice & ghee.

Start your lunch with paruppu sadam continue with podi, poricha kuzhambu and finish with curd rice or drink buttermilk. Enjoy this healthy and spice less lunch menu.



Try this simple lunch menu during sick days. U can recover quickly !




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June 17, 2015

South Indian Lunch Menu Recipes For Amavasya -No Onion No Garlic Lunch Menu

No onion No garlic lunch menu
I have been thinking to share our amavasai vazha ilai saapadu for years. But somehow I couldn’t do it.Yesterday I made this South Indian style No onion No garlic thali for No moon day/Amavasya (Mahalaya amavasya). 

Every month on No moon day my FIL used to do “Tharpanam” by keeping all these dishes in banana leaf. So we make Vadai and payasam along with Rice, Sambar, Kootu or curry, Pachadi, Paruppu, Rasam, Appalam and Pickle.Vada and Payasam/Kheer are optional. Some people make it every month.Vaikasi and Aadi amavasai are very special to us for which Vadai and payasam are compulsory.

Yesterday I prepared all these dishes especially for this post. I love cooking this Amavasai lunch menu as it is very easy to prepare with less chopping and grinding works. It takes just 45 minutes to make this platter if you don’t prepare Payasam and vada. I have shared the method of preparation and recipes with links. Please click them to view the particular recipe. I have also shared more ideas for cooking a no onion no garlic lunch menu. 

Hope this post would help the South Indian beginners who want to cook a No onion No garlic food for their lunch. Please check out my Tamil nadu lunch menu ideas – 1 , Lunch menu ideas – 2  and a complete South Indian thali for guest with a detailed serving procedure if interested !

As I told in my South Indian full meals post,I will share a North Indian Thali very soon. Stay tuned !!



South Indian lunch menu ideas
Vegetables to be used for No moon day lunch menu
Lady’s finger, Broad beans, Cluster beans, Raw mango, Red pumpkin,White pumpkin, Chayote/chow chow, Raw banana, Sweet potato, Yam, Karunai kizhangu, Seppan kizhangu, Stem of greens ( Keerai thandu), Banana stem, Banana flower, Bitter gourd, Sundakkai/Turkey berry.

Vegetables to be avoided
Drumstick, Brinjal, Bottle gourd, Carrot, Beans, Potato, Onion, Garlic, Green leaves ( Keerai)

South Indian Lunch Menu

No onion No Garlic Lunch Menu


No onion No Garlic Lunch Menu South Indian style No onion No Garlic Lunch Menu for No Moon Day/Amavasya
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Lunch menu
Serves: Serves 3
Prep time: 45 Minutes
Cook time: 40 Minutes
Total time: 85 Minutes


INGREDIENTS
How to prepare this amavasya lunch menu
  • Wash and soak Urad dal for 30-45 minutes for making vada. Refrigerate and soak it. Use the soaked ice water for grinding to get crispy vada. Within this soaking time,u can prepare this lunch menu if you follow the below steps.
  • Soak the tamarind for sambar and rasam.Crush a tomato and add to tamarind soaked for rasam. Add some salt for quick soaking.
South Indian lunch menu ideas
  • You need to use 2 pressure cooker and 2 burner gas stove. Take one cooker, wash and pressure cook the rice till its done. In another cooker, take the toor dal for sambar and keep a small bowl inside the cooker. Place the moong dal needed for serving dal/paruppu. Pressure cook them in low flame for 15 minutes. This takes nearly 15 minutes for both the cooker to release the steam.

  • In that 15 minutes, chop all the vegetables need for making sambar, poriyal, pachadi etc. For this menu, you have to chop Lady’s finger, Green chillies for sambar. Raw banana for poriyal and Gooseberry for pachadi. Grate 1/4 cup of coconut for Pachadi and poriyal.

  • First grind coconut, green chilli, amla, salt and hing for pachadi. Mix the paste to curd and keep aside. Pachadi is ready. You can temper at the end.
South Indian lunch menu ideas
  • Now let's make sambar and rasam. Heat oil in a kadai and when it gets heated splutter mustard, methi seeds and saute the lady’s finger, green chilli, red chilli, curry leaves for making sambar. Add tamarind extract and boil well.
South Indian lunch menu ideas
  • When it is boiling, heat another kadai and temper with mustard seeds,jeera for making rasam. Prepare the rasam in this kadai. The steam would have released in the cooker. So remove the dal, mash it well and add to the boiling sambar and little dal water to the boiling rasa as well.
  • Now sambar and rasam would be ready. Heat little oil in a kadai and splutter mustard seeds, urad dal and cumin seeds for topping the moong dal and thayir pachadi. Add this tempering to pachadi and dal. Add little water to adjust the consistency of dal and pachadi. Both are ready now.
South Indian lunch menu ideas
  • In the same kadai,roast the sago for making payasam. Roast till it becomes white and puffs up well. I used Nylon variety sago. If you are using big white ones, soak it for 30 minutes in hot water and then cook it. Add water and cook the sago by covering the kadai with a lid. Keep the flame medium.
South Indian lunch menu ideas
  • In another burner,cook the raw banana in a kadai adding sambar powder, a seed of tamarind, water and salt. Raw banana and sago takes almost the same time to cook. So keep an eye on both. Make sure nothing gets burnt. Raw Banana should not become mushy. It should be firm in shape.
  • After the sago is cooked well, add crushed jaggery, cardamom to it. Boil well by adding some water. Lastly add some plain milk or coconut milk and switch off the flame immediately.
South Indian lunch menu ideas
  • Take the cooked raw banana and drain the excess water. Temper mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Put the raw banana pieces and saute well. Lastly add some grated coconut. All the dishes are ready now. Lets make vada.
By this time, urad dal would have soaked well. Heat oil in a kadai to deep fry the vada.Keep the flame medium. Grind the dal adding pepper corns and hing in mixie. Add little water ( say few tbsp at a time) and grind a thick batter.

To the ground batter, add salt, chopped curry leaves and mix well. Check the oil temperature and make vada. Lastly roast few papad if you wish and switch off the flame.
South Indian lunch menu ideas

Rice, sambar, rasam, Poriyal, Pachadi, Vada, appalam are ready to serve.
I had already made and kept mango thokku. U can keep any pickle as you wish.
Enjoy this no onion no garlic thali !



Please refer my

No Onion No Garlic Recipe collection for more ideas .

Other Options
  • You can replace Lady’s finger with Broad beans or cluster beans to make sambar. In that case, pressure cook the veggies along with dal.
  • You can make the same poriyal using sweet potato or lady’s finger too.
  • For Pachadi, you can make simple curd raita by grinding coconut+green chilli+ginger or Lady’s finger raita.
  • You can also make masala vada instead of urad dal vada but do not add onions in the batter.
  • Instead of Sago payasam, you can make moong dal payasam,Aval payasam or Vermicelli kheer too. Please go through my 15 payasam varieties for more ideas.
Please refer my No Onion No Garlic Recipe Collection for more ideas .

South Indian lunch menu ideas

Make this No onion No garlic lunch feast for occasions and celebrate the day !

Amavasya Lunch menu



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May 20, 2015

South Indian Full Meals | Lunch Menu For Guests | Thalai Vazhai Ilai Virundhu

South indian meals

Last week I made this full meals for my guests. Its been years since I posted a South Indian full meal lunch menu here. So I thought of sharing this yummy platter with you all. After Onam Sadya, I din’t get any chance to make an elaborate lunch menu and serve in Thalai Vazha Ilai / Banana leaf. 

Generally South Indians especially Tamil people make this kind of lunch menu for marriage feast, guests, newly wedded couple / Maapilai virundhu or for festivals and occasions. According to Tamil people, serving food in Thalai Vazhai ilai is considered to be the way of showing love and respect towards our guests. Not just that, there is a traditional serving order that has to be maintained while keeping the dishes in banana leaf.

In Tirunelveli, our people give more importance to the serving order. Before I served this platter, I called my mom and asked her about the serving order but still I got confused on where to keep the pickle and kept it wrong I think. So I asked my mom again and wrote this post with corrections. There may be slight variations from the write up and picture. So please don’t get confused. I have divided this post into sections for easier understanding. 

Hope this lunch menu post would help beginners especially newly wedded girls who are new to cooking. In the above platter, you can find (from left) Salt, Poriyal/Curry, Kootu, Thayir pachadi, Pickle, Rasam, Payasam, Curd, Banana,Vada, Rice, Dal, Sambar and Appalam. I have shared all these points based on my understanding and cooking style. Pardon me for mistakes :)

Check out my other state and some more Tamil nadu lunch recipes here .

Thalai vazhai ilai virundhu

SERVING ORDER
First lets see how to place the banana leaf and serve the dishes in order.
  1. Always place the banana leaf such that the broader side of leaf should be on the right side of person who is going to eat. 
  2. Start with salt on upper part left side of banana leaf (as shown in the pic). Some people may need more salt in dishes. Hence salt should be kept so that the person can add if its needed.
  3. Then serve the thayir pachadi on the right side upper part. Then comes kootu. Next to kootu keep poriyal, curry/roast. Here I served carrot thayir pachadi, keerai kootu and potato curry.
  4. Lastly keep the pickle varieties next to salt. Don’t forget to keep a tumbler of water.
  5. In the below part of banana leaf, keep the appalam, chips, vadam, masala vada or urad dal vada, Banana in the left side. Keep the rice in the middle of leaf and put some dal +ghee in one corner of rice. In Tirunelveli, people keep the dal in the right side and pour some ghee over it. In another corner of rice, add some sambar with vegetables.
  6. After the person finished eating dal rice, serve the sambar along with ghee if needed.
  7. Next to sambar, serve vathakuzhambu or more kuzhambu if you have prepared it.
  8. Then comes rasam. Before serving the curd, serve payasam. Some people wish to have in banana leaf and some prefer to have payasam in bowls. So serve it as per their wish.
  9. Lastly add the buttermilk / curd.
  10. After you finish eating, if its a marriage feast, close the banana leaf by pulling the upper part and cover the bottom part with it. It signifies that the person wishes to have this kind of food very often. Whereas if you have this food in a condolence meeting, then you should close the upper part with bottom part in the reverse manner.
South Indian Lunch menu

South Indian Full Meals


South Indian Full Meals South Indian lunch menu for guests - Banana leaf spread / Thalai vazhai ilai virundhu
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Lunch
Serves: Serves 4
Prep time: 45 Minutes
Cook time: 45 Minutes
Total time: 90 Minutes


INGREDIENTS
Vegetables to be chopped
For sambar
  • Raw mango - 1 no (Use 1/4 mango for pickle)
  • Drumstick - 1 no
  • Big onion - 1 no
  • Green chillies - 3 nos
  • Curry leaves - few
  • Coriander leaves - to garnish
For curry
  • Potatoes - 4 nos
  • Big onion -1 no
  • Curry leaves - few
For kootu
  • Keerai - 1 bunch ( I used mulai keerai)
  • Small onions - 5 nos
Other Ingredients
  • Rice – 2 cups
  • Toor dal – 1/2 cup
  • Moong dal – 1/4 cup for serving + 2 tbsp for kootu
  • Sambar powder – as needed
  • Salt & water – as needed
  • Cooking oil,mustard,urad dal,cumin seeds – as required


 
    HOW TO COOK A FEAST
    I prepared this lunch menu for 4 adults + 1 kid. It took nearly 1 hour 30 minutes for me to finish the preparation. I started around 10 am and finished making all the dishes except rice at around 11.30 am. I used 2 pressure cookers, a small & a big one and 3 kadai. I always pressure cook the rice at the end while making feast so that you can serve the rice hot hot while eating. No worries even if sambar, rasam and other dishes are cold. In fact making these dishes earlier gives more taste. So the earlier you prepare, the better its taste would be ; ))
  • In the previous day night, wash and soak the dal for vada. Soak it over night. Soak the tamarind in separate bowls for sambar and rasam in the previous day night.
  • The next day morning, start the cooking at least 3 hours before serving time. First take a big pressure cooker and add the toor dal, salt, turmeric powder, hing and a drop of oil (for making sambar). Take a small container or tiffin box like thing that suits the cooker. In that, put the moong dal,water, hing, turmeric powder and a drop of oil. This dal is for serving. Wash and cut the potatoes into two and put them inside the cooker. Hope you can get the idea by seeing the picture. It takes nearly 15 minutes for cooking.
South Indian lunch menu
  • In that 15 minutes of time, you can go for chopping works. First grate 2 carrots and finely chop a green chilli for pachadi. Keep in a bowl adding salt. Chop onion, green chillies, Drumstick and mango for sambar. Keep in a plate. Chop a portion of mango into small pieces for pickle. Add salt, red chilli powder and hing to it. Mix well and set aside. Now wash the greens / Keerai twice and chop it roughly. Take it in a small cooker. Chop few small onions for kootu. Keep in a plate. Chop some onions, curry leaves, mint leaves and coriander leaves for vada.
South Indian lunch menu
  • By this time, the pressure would be released in the cooker, dals & potatoes would be ready. So remove the potatoes using a tong and keep them immersed in cold water. It helps to peel the skin easily. Chop them into cubes and set aside.
South Indian lunch menu
  • In a small cooker, take the chopped greens, add moong dal, salt and required water. Cook for 1 whistle in low flame. It takes 10 minutes to cook.
  • In that time, do the grinding job. First grind for vada and then for kootu. Keep them in separate bowl. Mix the chopped onions+greens with vada batter & set aside.
  • Now you have cooked the dal for sambar, dal for serving, potato for poriyal and keerai for kootu. So pressure cooking, chopping and grinding jobs are over simultaneously.
  • Then heat a kadai with ghee and roast the vermicelli for payasam. Add milk and cook it. Transfer the payasam into a bowl and close it with a lid.
South Indian lunch menu
  • In another kadai, make sambar. While the drumstick and mango is getting cooked in tamarind extract, add the ground coconut paste to the pressure cooker in which you cooked the keerai. Let it boil for sometime till kootu thickens.
  • Now the veggies in sambar would have cooked. Add cooked dal to the sambar and let it boil for sometime. Garnish the sambar with coriander leaves and add a tbsp of ghee at the end. Cover the bowl and set aside. Heat oil in another kadai and temper the ingredients for potato curry. Add the peeled potatoes and roast it well.
South Indian lunch menu
  • Sambar, poriyal, kootu making is over. Now heat a small tempering kadai with 3 tbsp of oil and splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves, jeera. Add half the tempered items in small quantities to serving dal ( thick dal), thayir pachadi and lastly add the chopped onions in the kadai and saute till transparent. Add it to kootu. Add some coconut oil. Close the kootu with a bowl to retain the aroma.
  • Now make rasam and close the bowl by adding a tsp of ghee. Add some water to the tempered moong dal along with salt and hing. Mix well. Similarly add the curd to the grated carrot with some salt. Mix well. Thayir pachadi is ready.
South Indian lunch menu
  • Just 45 minutes before serving, pressure cook the rice in one burner. Heat oil for deep frying in another burner. Make vada, roast papad, chips or vadam. That’s all.Rice, Sambar, rasam, kootu, curry, thayir pachadi, paruppu/dal,  vada, appalam is ready.
  • Start to serve following the above mentioned order. Enjoy the feast !
  • TIPS : Add a tbsp of ghee in the sambar, garnish with coriander leaves,check for salt and close the lid of sambar bowl.Addition of ghee & coriander leaves gives a nice aroma to the sambar.Similarly add a pinch of sugar and a tsp of ghee to rasam. It enhances the taste and gives a clear rasam while you serve.
    If you want to finish the entire process within an hour, you can do some pre preparatory jobs in the previous day night. Finish the chopping works and refrigerate the vegetables, grated coconut and carrot in separate zip lock bags. Soak the dal for 4 hours and grind the vada batter. Mix onions,greens and refrigerate the batter too. Doing all these jobs will spare 30 minutes of your cooking time on feast day. So its your choice. Enjoy the South Indian Full Meals : ))

LINKS FOR DISHES WITH CHOICE
Please check out my recipe index page for more sambar, rasam, kootu, poriyal and pachadi ideas.

Try and Amaze your guests and family members with this South Indian Full Meals menu, get the applause !
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March 22, 2015

Ugadi Lunch Menu-Karnataka Style

Karnataka lunch menu
Friends, this week I have shared a Karnataka style Ugadi lunch menu instead of Sunday biryani recipe.  Yesterday I made this simple yet delicious lunch menu for Ugadi celebration. So I thought of sharing that platter here. Its been my long time wish to post a Karnataka style lunch menu in my blog. So I took Ugadi festival as an opportunity and made a simple lunch menu.

After I prepared Holige successfully, I asked my friends to suggest me an easy lunch menu idea for Ugadi festival. Based on their suggestions, I made Obbattu, Obbattu saaru, Mavinakayi chitranna, Mysore Bonda, Beans palya, Shavige payasa, dal, plain rice and the most popular Kosambari recipe. Also Megha suggested me a very easy recipe for Obbattu saaru.

As I had made Obbattu in the previous day, making this menu was easy for me. In this post, I have shared the recipes of Kosambari( using moong dal ) and beans palya. I have made a separate post for Obbattu saaru and Mavinakayi chitranna. I have given links for all these recipes below. Please check it. Ok, Now lets see this yummy Karnataka lunch menu recipes for Ugadi festival.

Check out my other lunch menu posts here . 

Wish you all a very happy Ugadi !!

 Ugadi lunch menu

Ugadi Lunch Menu


Ugadi Lunch Menu Ugadi Lunch Menu Recipes-Karnataka style
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Lunch menu
Serves: 2
Prep time: 30 Minutes
Cook time: 1 Hour
Total time: 1H30M


INGREDIENTS
Kosambari recipe
  • Yellow moong dal - 2 tbsp
  • Carrot - 1 no small
  • Green chilli - 1 no
  • Cucumber- a small piece
  • Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp
  • Grated coconut - 3 tbsp
  • Salt - as needed
To temper
  • Cooking oil - 1 tsp
  • Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
  • Curry leaves - few
  • hing/asafetida - a pinch ( optional)
Beans palya recipe
  • Beans - 20 nos
  • Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
  • Green chillies - 2 -3 nos
  • Salt & water - as needed
To temper
  • Cooking oil - 1 tbsp
  • Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
  • Urad dal - 1 tsp
  • Curry leaves – few
Click these links for other recipes
METHOD

  • I assumed that you have made obbattu/Holige the previous day and shared the procedure of making other dishes below.
  • Wash and soak moong dal for 30 minutes to make kosambari. Wash and soak urad dal for mysore bonda for 45 minutes in enough water.  You can also make vada instead of bonda. 
  • To make this menu, pressure cook one cup of rice along with moong dal in a small closed container. Soak tamarind in water for 20 minutes. Pressure cooking rice and dal will be done in 15 minutes.
  • In another burner, boil the vermicelli and let it cook. In the mean time, wash and peel the skin of raw mango. Grate it and finely chop the green chillies. Heat a pan and do the tempering, add green chillies and grated mango.
  • Saute well adding salt and turmeric powder. Mix well till mangoes get cooked. Lastly add the grated coconut, saute for a minute and switch off the flame. After the pressure is released, spread the rice in a plate and let it cool. Add this maavinakayi paste and mix well adding sesame oil. Adjust salt and garnish with coriander leaves. Please refer my mavinakayi chitranna recipe post for another method.
  • Now vermicelli will be cooked well, add milk, sugar and roasted nuts and remove from the flame. Set aside.
  • To make kosambari, take the soaked moong dal, drain the water completely and add grated coconut, grated carrot, finely chopped cucumber, green chillies and coriander leaves. Mix well. Add salt just before serving otherwise this mixture will leave more water while serving. So add salt only before serving. Lastly do the tempering and Kosambari is ready.
  • For beans palya,wash and chop the beans into small circles. Heat oil in a kadai and temper mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves. Add finely chopped green chillies and beans. Add the required salt and saute well for few minutes. Sprinkle some water and cover cook the beans till its done. Mix it once or twice in the middle. Add the grated coconut in the end, give a stir and switch off the flame. Beans palya is ready.
  • Lastly you can do the obbattu saaru by using the reserved holige pooran dal water. Please check the link for obbattu saaru recipe above. By now, urad dal would have been soaked well. Grind the batter and make bonda. Serve saaru and bonda really hot to enjoy its best taste. So I made it at the end.
You can finish the entire process within an hour if  you plan it right. Serve everything hot and enjoy !

Try this easy yet yummy lunch menu and enjoy Habbada Oota on this auspicious day !

 Ugadi lunch menu
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January 18, 2015

Veg Fried Rice Recipe In Rice Cooker(Indian)-Sunday Lunch Recipes-3


I am glad i have successfully reached the 3rd post in my Sunday lunch Recipes SeriesHappy.I have been sharing biryani,pulao & other rice varieties that i make in weekends.This week,i have blogged my vegetable fried rice recipe in Indian style using electric rice cooker.I know most of u make veg biryani & veg pulao in rice cooker.But making a fried rice in rice cooker may be new to some of u.Not just this,the method i have shared here may also be new & it is somehow different from our usual fried rice recipe.A very big thanks to my dear friend Shalini for teaching me this easy,hassle free,wonderful ,Indian style fried rice recipe.Whenever i go out for shopping in weekends with my family,i make this rice recipe along with curd rice.It stays warm & as soon as we reach home,i just saute the required amount in ghee & serve it hot hot.As we love to have fried rice with tomato sauce as side dish,i don’t make any specifically.But my friend suggested peas butter masala & paneer butter masala as the best side dish for fried rice.So make it as per your choice.Ok,Lets see how to make fried rice recipe in electric rice cooker.
Check out my tomato rice recipe using rice cooker & Chinese veg fried rice recipe


Veg fried rice recipe in rice cooker


Veg fried rice recipe in rice cooker Indian style Vegetable fried rice recipe using Rice cooker
Cuisine: Indian
Category: Lunch
Serves: Serves 3
Prep time: 60 Minutes
Cook time: 20 Minutes
Total time: 80 Minutes


INGREDIENTS
To cook in rice cooker
  • Basmati rice - 1 cup
  • Water - 2.25 cups
  • Lemon juice - 1/4 tsp
  • Oil - 1 tsp
  • Finely chopped vegetables - 1/2 cup ( 1 carrot,5 beans,1 potato,green peas)
  • Salt - as needed
To saute in oil
  • Cooking oil - 2 tbsp
  • Shredded cabbage - 1/4 cup
  • Capsicum - a small piece
  • Spring onion - 2 sprigs
  • Big onion - 1 no (optional)
  • Garlic cloves - 5 nos ( optional) 
  • White pepper powder - 1tsp ( add more for spicy taste)

  • Ghee - 1 tsp ( for one person)
  • spring onions – to garnish
METHOD

  • Wash the rice twice & drain the water.Soak it adding 2.25 cups of water,lemon juice & oil for 1 hour.Rice will be soaked well.In the mean time,finely chop the vegetables,onion,capsicum & spring onion.Keep it ready.

  • Switch on the rice cooker,keep in cooking mode & allow it to heat for sometime. As soon as the plate is heated,add the soaked rice along with water,finely chopped carrot,beans & potato.Add the required salt,mix well & cover the rice cooker.Let the rice cook well.Open it once in the middle & fluff it with a fork.Once its cooked,rice cooker will switch to Keep Warm mode automatically.
Veg fried rice-1

  • Finely chop the cabbage,onions,garlic cloves,bottom part of spring onion & capsicum. Heat oil in a kadai & saute them well adding little salt( remember we have added salt in rice) Add this to the cooked rice.Add pepper powder & keep it closed till use.Now the rice cooker will be in”Keep warm” mode.
Veg fried rice-2
Veg fried rice-3
  • Just before serving,heat ghee in a kadai and add the required amount of fried rice.Saute well in high flame for a minute,Keep tossing & serve hot immediately.Enjoy with any side dish or tomato sauce.
Veg fried rice-4


Note

  • I have not used soya sauce here.You can use it if  u need.
  • Adding onions & garlic is purely optional.My friend doesn’t add it.
  • Adding lemon juice in rice helps to give u white colored rice after cooking.But do not add more.
  • I don’t add ajinomotto as it is not good for health.



Try this easy veg fried rice recipe using rice cooker & enjoy ur weekend lunchHappy


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