Keerai Masiyal Recipe Without Dal – Arai Keerai Masiyal/ Kadayal

I got this Keerai masiyal recipe without dal (also known as keerai kadayal) from my reader Priyadarshini. She shared some of her mom’s specialty recipes with me. This Arai Keerai masiyal is one among them. Last week, I tried it for our lunch along with Raw mango, drumstick vatha kuzhambu and shared a picture in my Instagram page too. In our family, we feed Keerai kadaiyal to one year old babies by making in a simple way adding garlic. But this recipe is entirely different from ours. So I was happy that I learnt and tried a new keerai recipe for lunch apart from my usual Keerai kootu, poriyal and sambar. Thank you so much Priyadarshini ! You can try this recipe if you want to consume more quantity of keerai in your diet. I guess this recipe works for mulai keerai and siru keerai too. Do include this healthy keerai recipe in your lunch menu and enjoy. Lets see how to make Keerai masiyal recipe with tomato, onion and tamarind.

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Travel Food Recipes Ideas–South Indian Variety Rice

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 travel. Lets see how we prepared this simple and yummy travel lunch menu.

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

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. 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 ?? Prepare & Enjoy it !!

 

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Bengali Lunch Menu Recipe – Vegetarian Thali 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

Recipe Links

• Bengali Chaler Payesh

• Mishti Doi

• Mishti Pulao/Sweet pulao recipe

• Kalai er Dal

• Begun Bhaja

• Aloo posto

• Doodh shukto

• Chanar Dalna

• Tomato chutney & pickle

• Rice

Check my lunch thali from other cuisines HERE

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Very good recipes Tags: Bengali lunch menu, Bengali vegetarian recipes, Bengali vegetarian lunch menu, Bengali lunch menu recipes, Bengali lunch menu list, Bengali lunch menu ideas, authentic bengali lunch menu recipes, authentic bengali lunch, Bengali recipes, Kolkatta vegetarian recipes, Calcutta recipes

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Coriander Leaves Biryani Recipe|Kothamalli Biryani-Sunday Lunch Recipes Series 20

In this week’s Sunday lunch recipe series, I am sharing an easy yet interesting biryani recipe using coriander leaves. Generally we all make Green rice/Pulao using mint and coriander leaves for lunch box. But when I came across this biryani recipe in Aval Vikatan’s Kalyana Samayal Supplementary edition, I got tempted to try it immediately. It was titled as “Kovai Kothamalli Biryani”. This recipe was given by a marriage caterer. I had already tried Ennai Kathirikai Poriyal and Mixed Vegetable Poriyal from that book and both of them were super hit in my home. So I tried this biryani confidently. It came out well and satisfactory. You can make this biryani when you run short of vegetables in hand. It’s an easy and good lunch box recipe too. Lets see how to make this simple Coriander leaves biryani in detail.

Kothamalli Biryani Recipe

Coriander leaves biryani recipe - Coimbatore special

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Lunch

Serves: 2

Prep time: 30 Minutes

Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total time: 50 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

Basmati rice - 1 cup ( India Gate) Water - 1.5 cups Salt - as needed To grind Coriander leaves - a handful small bunch To saute Cooking oil + ghee - 1 tbsp+1 tbsp Cinnamon- 1 inch piece Cloves – 3 nos Cardamom – 1 no Black stone flower – 1 no Fennel seeds – 1/2 tsp Big onion - 1 no Small onions - 10 nos Green chilli - 2 no ( slitted) G&G paste - 1 tsp Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Curd - 1/2 cup Green peas - a handful ( optional) Cashewnuts - few

HOW TO MAKE CORIANDER LEAVES BIRYANI - METHOD

Wash and soak the basmati rice for minimum 30 minutes. Grind the coriander leaves to a smooth paste adding little water.Set aside. Chop the onions and slit green chilli. Crush the small onions slightly and keep aside. Heat a pressure cooker adding oil+ghee. Put cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, bayleaf, fennel seeds and black stone flower. Add the onions and green chillies. Saute well. Now add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, garam masala powder and mix well. Now add the ground coriander leaves paste and saute well. Lastly add the curd and mix well. Add the basmati rice, water and let it come to a boil. Close the cooker and cook for one whistle in very low flame. Open the cooker and fluff the rice with a fork after the steam is released. Enjoy with Raita!

Note

For variations, you can grind mint+coriander leaves and add to masala. You can also powder the whole garam masala+fennel seeds and add to the oil instead of adding it as such. Add lemon juice at the end before closing the cooker for more tanginess.

Try this simple coriander flavored biryani. Enjoy !

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South Indian Lunch Menu Recipes For Amavasya -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 !!

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)

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

Rice/Sadam Paruppu/Dal Lady's Finger Sambar/Vendakkai sambar Rasam ( Skip Garlic and use Dal water) Raw banana curry/Vazhakkai poriyal Gooseberry Curd Pachadi/Nellikai thair pachadi Easy Mango thokku Cabbage vada Sago payasam/Javvarisi payasam Curd Appalam

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 .

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

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

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 .

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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 Sambar (Mixed veg sambar, Mullangi sambar, Drumstick sambar OR Onion sambar) Rasam ( easy rasam, Bachelors rasam and my rasam recipe) Curry ( Potato curry, Brinjal curry, Raw banana curry) Poriyal ( Vendakkai poriyal, Mixed veg poriyal, Cabbage poriyal) Kootu ( Keerai kootu, cabbage kootu, Avial, Mixed veg kootu) Pachadi ( Gooseberry pachadi or simple carrot pachadi) Pickle ( Instant mango pickle, Gooseberry pickle, Mango thokku) Narthangai pachadi Fine vermicelli Payasam ( Click here for 15 payasam recipes) Vada ( Urad dal vada, Masala vada) 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 !

Technorati Tags: South Indian lunch menu,South Indian lunch recipes,south indian lunch menu vegetarian,Lunch menu for guests,south indian lunch menu for party,South Indian lunch menu for marriage,South Indian lunch menu ideas,thalai vazhai ilai saapaadu

Very good recipes Tags: South Indian lunch menu, South Indian lunch recipes, south indian lunch menu vegetarian, Lunch menu for guests, south indian lunch menu for party, South Indian lunch menu for marriage, South Indian lunch menu ideas, thalai vazhai ilai saapaadu

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Bitter Gourd Biryani Recipe-Pavakkai Sadam-Sunday Lunch Recipes-7

Bitter gourd biryani/Pavakkai masala rice -Yeah, you heard it right. Its an easy, yummy biryani recipe using bitter gourd. If you love bitter gourd like me, you must try this rice. It tastes super flavorful with mild bitter taste. When I was looking for this week’s Sunday Biryani Recipes, my MIL suggested me to try this biryani by reading this recipe from a Tamil Magazine.

Initially I was hesitant to try this worrying about its bitter taste but she also told suggested me a method to remove its bitterness. So I tried it confidently & the result was unbelievably great with a very mild bitter taste only in pavakkai pieces and not in rice at all. Raksha took two servings of this rice without knowing it had pavakkai. 

U can make it very easily in busy morning hours as it has no grinding job and pack it for your lunch box too. But soak the bitter gourd pieces in curd+salt mixture and refrigerate it overnight so that you can prepare this biryani instantly in the morning. You can also use vinegar as suggested in the original recipe. But squeeze and rinse the bitter gourd thoroughly to remove vinegar smell.

Bachelors & working women can try this biryani if you love bitter gourd recipes. Try and share your feedack with me. Lets see how to make this yummy bitter gourd biryani.

Bitter gourd biryani recipe

Bitter gourd biryani/Pavakkai Masala rice- Easy n delicious rice variety

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Lunch

Serves: 2

Prep time: 30 Minutes

Cook time: 15 Minutes

Total time: 45 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

Basmati rice - 1 cup Milk - 1 cup Water - 0.75 cups Salt - as needed Oil - 1 drop To soak for 30 minutes ( helps to remove bitterness) Bittergourd – 1 no ( medium size) Sour curd – 1/2 cup Salt – little(u can use vinegar in place of curd) To saute Cooking oil - 1.5 tbsp Cinnamon - 1 inch piece Cloves - 3nos Biryani leaf- 1 no Kalpasi/Black stone flower - 1 no Big onion - 1 no ( sliced) Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Red chilli powder - 1 tsp ( use more for extra spicy taste) Mint & coriander leaves - a fistful Ginger & Garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp ( Grind 2 inch ginger & 7 cloves garlic) Ghee - 1/2 tbsp Lemon juice – 2 tsp

HOW TO MAKE BITTER GOURD BIRYANI - METHOD

Wash and slice the bitter gourd pieces thinly as possible. Remove the seeds if any OR If you like the crunchy taste of seeds,retain it. Take half cup of sour curd. Add some salt, mix well and soak bittergourd for 30 minutes. Similarly wash and soak the basmati rice in water for minimum 30 minutes. Chop the onions,coriander & mint leaves and set aside. After 30 minutes, squeeze the bitter gourd pieces very well using your hands and discard the curd mixture. Take the bitter gourd pieces alone in a plate. Heat oil in a pressure cooker base and put the cinnamon, cloves, biryani leaf, kalpasi. Add onions and saute for a minute and then add the ginger, garlic paste. Mix well for few seconds and add the mint+coriander leaves. Mix it. Now add the turmeric powder & red chilli powder, salt. Lastly add the squeezed bitter gourd pieces and saute well for a minute till it shrinks a bit. Add little more oil if needed. Now add the soaked basmati rice without water. Add 1 cup of milk and 0.75 cups of water. Add 1/2 tbsp of ghee & 2 tsp of lemon juice in water. Check for salt & spiciness.  Pressure cook in low flame till one whistle. It takes 8-10 minutes. Remove & fluff with a fork after the steam is released. Serve it hot with onion raita. Enjoy !

Note

Add more chilli powder if you want extra spicy taste.The quantity I have mentioned here would be just right. U can also add 1/2 tsp of biryani masala powder or garam masala powder for more spicy flavor. I have used milk + Water. U can also use coconut milk for more richness. Do not skip mint & coriander leaves as they lend a special fragrance. I din’t use biryani leaf here.  I used freshly ground ginger, garlic paste. U can use store bought too. Soak basmati rice for minimum 30 minutes to get lengthy rice after cooking.

Try this unique and healthy bitter gourd biryani. It tastes yum with simple onion raita !

Technorati Tags: Pavakkai sadam,Pavakkai rice,Bitter gourd biryani,Bitter gourd recipes,Pavakkai recipe,Bitter gourd rice recipe,Bitter gourd biryani recipe,Rice varieties,Sunday lunch recipes,Biryani recipes,Easy biryani

Very good recipes Tags: Pavakkai sadam, Pavakkai rice, Bitter gourd biryani, Bitter gourd recipes, Pavakkai recipe, Bitter gourd rice recipe, Bitter gourd biryani recipe, Rice varieties, Sunday lunch recipes, Biryani recipes, Easy biryani

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