Cluster beans sambar ( Kothavarangai sambar in Tamil ) is my FIL’s favorite sambar recipe for rice. Today my in-laws visited my place.So I prepared this sambar and cauliflower poriyal for lunch. Even I love kothavarangai sambar more than kothavarangai poriyal or kothavarangai poricha kuzhambu. I learnt this recipe from my MIL. But I make a quick version in pressure cooker. It can be done easily in one pot. For variations, you can use green beans/ French beans as well. Do try this sambar with cluster beans for rice. I am sure you will love it. Lets see how to make cluster beans sambar with step by step photos !
Check out my 30 kuzhambu varieties recipes too !
Cluster beans sambar recipe
Cluster beans sambar recipe / Kothavarangai sambar for rice
Wash and chop the cluster beans of 2 inches size. Chop and Discard the tail portion of cluster beans. Peel the small onion, slit the green chillies. Soak tamarind in 1 cup of hot water for 10 minutes and take the extract. Set aside.
In a pressure cooker base, heat oil and splutter mustard seeds, methi seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves.After the mustard seeds splutter, add the slit green chillies, curry leaves, chopped cluster beans and small onions. Saute until onions turn transparent and cluster beans turns dark green in color.
To this, add 2.5 cups of water, toor dal, turmeric powder and mix well. Pressure cook in very low flame for 1 whistle. It takes nearly 10-12 minutes. After the steam is released completely, open the cooker and mash the dal well with a whisk. After the dal turns mushy, add the tamarind extract, sambar powder, salt and hing. Roll boil well till the raw smell leaves. Lastly add the chopped coriander leaves, boil for a minute and switch off the flame.
Transfer the sambar to a serving bowl and add 2 tsp of ghee. Cover with a lid. Serve with hot rice, poriyal/curry and papad/appalam. Enjoy !
Note
Add more sambar powder if you want spicy sambar.
Sauting cluster beans gives a nice flavor to this sambar.
You can use French beans/green beans instead of cluster beans.
You can also add 1 chopped tomato along with onions for variation.
Delicious cluster beans sambar is ready to serve with rice !
Gujarati special snack Khaman Dhokla recipe was in my try list for years. Once I had tried steamed dhokla recipe using my pressure cooker but it was not up to the mark. Then I left the idea of trying dhokla at home.
Recently my friend Shalini took me to a chat shop in BDA complex, Banashankari where Khaman dhokla is very popular. After tasting there, I got tempted to try it again. But this time, I tried an easy Instant dhokla in microwave. Yes, I watched this 4 minutes microwave dhokla recipe in a YouTube video and prepared it for our teatime snack yesterday. I made green chutney as well.
Actually I halved the original recipe, made a slight change and tried it. Its so easy to make. It came out soft, porous, spongy and fluffy. This is really a good recipe for instant. Microwave dhokla under 5 minutes. I am very happy with the result.
In this recipe, ENO fruit salt is used to bring the softness. You can replace it with equal quantity of baking powder and baking soda if you want to make it without ENO. Friends do try this easy, microwave dhokla recipe at home and share your feedback with me. Ok, Now lets see microwave dhokla recipe with step by step photos and a detailed video!
Chilli+Ginger paste - 1 tsp OR Green chilli -1 no ( finely chopped) + Ginger - 1/2 inch piece ( finely chopped)
Plain ENO - 1/2 tsp (Use fresh, active ENO)
To Temper
Cooking oil - 1/2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Green chilli - 1 no ( small, finely chopped)
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - 1 sprig
Sugar - 1 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup
Grated coconut - to garnish
METHOD
Keep all the ingredients ready before you start making. Take a microwave safe bowl ( Preferably square pan to make pieces) and grease it with oil. I used a thermal foil box as shown in the picture. Make sure the sides of box doesn’t touch the walls of microwave oven while cooking. Sparks may appear. So use any microwave safe dish if you have it or follow as I did.
In a wide bowl, add besan flour, curd, water, turmeric powder, chilli+ginger paste or finely chopped green chilli and ginger, salt, sugar and cooking oil. Mix everything well using a whisk. Batter should be of bajji batter consistency. So If needed add 1 tbsp water extra. Do not make the batter runny or too watery. Dhokla won’t cook properly. So add only the mentioned quantity of ingredients.
To the dhokla batter, add ENO fruit salt and mix well. Batter will become fluffy and becomes almost double in quantity. Pour the batter immediately to the greased microwave bowl. Microwave in high powder ( I Kept in 800W) for 4 minutes.(Check it once at 3 minutes). After 4 minutes, remove the dhokla and insert the back of a spoon. If it comes out clean, dhokla is done else keep it for another 30 seconds or 1 minute. Run a knife in the corners and invert the dhokla in a plate after it becomes warm. Cut into pieces.
Heat oil in a kadai and splutter mustard seeds, curry leaves and finely chopped green chillies and coriander leaves. Add water, sugar. Boil for 2 minutes. Add this water over the dhokla pieces and serve with green chutney. Garnish with grated coconut if you like !
For Green chutney : Grind a handful of coriander leaves, 1-2 green chilli, 3 garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp sugar, few drops of lemon juice and required salt to a smooth paste. You can add a tbsp of grated coconut of you wish. Make this chutney and serve it as a side dish for dhokla. Enjoy ! ( Once you get this recipe perfect, you can double the quantity of ingredients and try it. Please follow the mentioned quantity if you are a beginner)
Note
Use all the ingredients of mentioned quantity not less than that. It will give you perfect result.
Do not skip ENO. If you don’t have ENO, add 1/4 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp baking soda. Mix the batter and cook immediately.
Do not rest the batter for long time after adding ENO.
The quantity of water may vary slightly as per the thickness of curd. I used semi solid curd not thick.
You can use vinegar instead of lemon juice. But do not avoid it.
If your microwave high power is more than 800w, reduce the cooking time.
Try this easy, instant microwave dhokla recipe at home and enjoy your teatime ! In the chat shop, Dhokla with green chutney was served in a paper plate. So I too did the same.
Beans usili is our family favorite side dish for mor kuzhambu. Basically paruppu usili is a popular, traditional side dish for sambar rice, mor kulambu that is made in all the South Indian households especially among Tamil Brahmins. Usili is nothing but the combination of cooked vegetable with spiced, ground dal. Its basically a healthy, protein packed side dish for vegetarians.
Traditionally paruppu usili is done by soaking chana dal + toor dal, ground to a coarse paste with chilli and then steamed to cook. This dal paste would be tempered and mixed with any one of these cooked vegetables like Cluster beans, green beans, Banana flower/Plantain flower or even cabbage. But today I have shared a very simple, easy to make and quick beans paruppu usili recipe without steaming process.
I found this easy recipe from Shanthi mam’s Instagram feed. This recipe is really a keeper for working women and for housewives who wants to do quick cooking. We are using Fried gram dal/Pottukadalai instead of chana dal & toor dal. So it can be made instantly and it tastes equally well to the traditional ones. I loved this recipe a lot and I am going to apply this easy method for other veggies like kothavarangai/cluster beans and plantain flower/vazhaipoo soon.
Do try this easy paruppu usili recipe and enjoy with morkuzhambu or sambar rice. You will love it for sure. Now lets see how to make easy green beans paruppu usili recipe with step by step photos !
How to make paruppu usili recipe in an easy way ! - You can use vegetables like green beans, cluster beans, plantain flower, cabbage or make as plain usili.
Red chilli - 2 to 3 nos ( Use bydagi chilli for nice color)
Salt & water - as needed
To temper
Cooking oil or coconut oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Hing/Asafetida - a big pinch
Coconut oil - 1 tsp ( to garnish at the end)
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT PARUPPU USILI - METHOD
Wash and chop the head and tail part of beans ( use string less French beans for best taste). Chop the beans into small pieces or of 1/2 inch length as you wish. Take them in a pressure cooker. Add 1/2 cup of water, turmeric powder, required salt and mix well. Pressure cook for one whistle in low flame. Remove the lid after the steam is released. Drain the excess water in a bowl and set aside. Beans would be cooked soft.
Soak fried gram dal and pinched red chillies in a bowl with very little water for 5 minutes. Grind it to a coarse powder without adding water.
Heat oil in a kadai and splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, hing, cumin seeds and curry leaves.Add the cooked beans and ground dal. Stir in low flame for few minutes till it gets mixed well. Once its mixed well, sprinkle few tbsp of water and stir well.
Adding water helps to soften the usili and dals gets coated with the beans.Add salt if needed. Cook for a minute and switch off the flame. Add 1 tsp of coconut oil, mix well and serve with rice ! Usili tastes the best with morkuzhambu, sambar and keerai kuzhambu.
Enjoy with a papad !
Note
Add more chillies if you want to make spicy usili.
Use byadgi chillies to get nice color. I used the same.
Soaking the red chilli and fried gram dal helps for even grinding.
Try this easy usili recipe with your favorite vegetable. You will love it for sure !
Recently I tasted a spicy masala poori in a restaurant lunch buffet. It was very tasty. We all loved it. I wanted to try this yummy poori recipe at home.When I browsed for the recipe, I found masala puri is a popular Gujarati snack recipe. I watched a YouTube video and tried it for our Sunday breakfast along with aloo bhaji / Potato masala as side dish. Actual recipe called for amchoor powder. I din’t use it as I had no stock.I have used garam masala powder to make it more flavorful. But its not used in the authentic version. So this recipe has a slight variation from the original recipe. But it came out very well and we loved the combination of masala poori with Bhaji. Gujarati people carry this masala puri for travel to have it as breakfast or teatime snack. As it tastes spicy, you don’t need any specific side dish for this poori. But if you wish to have it for breakfast, you can try it with aloo bhaji, Batata nu shaak, Aamras or even with pickles. When I tried this recipe, I reminded about the famous roadside masala puri chat recipe. Of course, both are completely different recipes but the name masala poori tempted me to try that chat recipe as well. I should make it very soon and share in my space. Today we will see how to make this yummy Gujarati special masala puri recipe with step by step photos and a video !
Do check out my other poori recipes
Thenum Thinai Maavum is one of the most popular neivedyam recipes offered to Lord Muruga in Tamil nadu. Yesterday I made Thinai maavu urundai ( Foxtail millet flour laddu in English)for the first time on account of Skanda shasti. You can offer this for Karthigai deepam festival too. I should thank my neighbor for suggesting me to try this.
Traditionally speaking, foxtail millet (Thinai arisi) is dehusked, roasted, ground to a fine powder and then mixed with honey. But nowadays we get readymade foxtail millet flour( Thinai maavu) in all the organic & popular departmental stores. As I had a pack of flour in hand, I made these balls/ urundai very quickly and easily.I referred Viji’s blog for the idea.
For variations, thinai urundai can be made with jaggery instead of honey.It is called as thinai maavu laddu. Honey or jaggery, both make this dish more healthy when combined with Thinai flour. Do try this healthy Thinai urundai/ Foxtail millet balls with honey for a change. You will like it !
In a kadai, melt ghee and roast the cashew pieces. When it starts to turn golden brown, add the measured 1/2 cup of thinai maavu /Foxtail millet flour and roast in medium flame for few minutes. Let it cool down completely. ( If you don't have foxtail millet flour, you can dry roast whole foxtail millet till aromatic. Powder , sieve and use it).
Do not add honey when the flour is hot. The balls will become chewy to taste. After the flour is completely cooled down, add honey to the roasted flour. Mix well and make balls.
Arrange in a plate and offer to Lord Murugan. Get his blessings!
Enjoy !
Note
Do not add honey when the roasted flour is hot. It should be cooled down completely.
Add more honey based on your liking.
In place of honey, you can use powdered jaggery.
If you don’t want to make as balls, you can just mix the flour with honey and eat as it is.
Healthy, Thinai urundai with honey. You can make this at least once in a while to reap its health benefits !
Recent days I have been exploring varieties of vazhaipoo recipes ( Plantain flower/Banana flower in English) in my kitchen. Most of the South Indians especially Tamil people make Vazhaipoo vadai and Vazhaipoo paruppu usili using this vegetable and it would be their favorites as well. Me too not an exception. But apart from these usual recipes, I wanted to try some interesting and unique recipes with vazhaipoo. As a result of which I have tried and posted Vazhaipoo Kuzhambu / Banana flower gravy and Vazhaipoo dosa recipes in my blog. Here comes yet another yummy, kids friendly snack with banana flower.
Yes, Its Vazhaipoo Kola urundai i.e Spicy fried plantain balls. I found this recipe in Nalini’s blog and I have tried it thrice so far. Once I made these balls for preparing Vazhaipoo kola Urundai kuzhambu ( Will post the recipe soon) for our lunch and made the same twice for my daughter’s evening teatime snack.
This vazhaipoo kola urundai is sure a welcome change from vazhaipoo vadai. It can be made instantly without soaking dals. But it tastes crispy and the best only when hot. My daughter Raksha likes to relish these balls with her favorite tomato ketchup. Friends, do try this healthy snack with banana flower for your kids when they come back from school. I am sure they will love it a lot.
Ok, Now lets check how to make Vazhaipoo kola urundai with step by step photos !
Vazhaipoo Kola Urundai recipe
Spicy fried plantain balls/ Banana flower balls - Vazhaipoo kola urundai - Instant version
Remove the florets from the banana flower and set aside. Remove the Kalan(black colored stamen) from the florets and soak the florets in water or buttermilk till use.
Pressure cook the banana flower adding little water in high flame for one whistle. Drain the excess water, squeeze it and remove from the cooker.Grind them in batches in a dry mixie jar. You should wipe the sides of jar every time for proper grinding. (I din’t cook the banana flower. I ground them directly as raw florets) Once the florets are coarsely ground, add the red chilli powder, grated coconut, fennel seeds, salt, g&g paste and big onion. Grind everything nicely to a smooth paste. Add 1 tbsp of water if necessary while grinding.
In another mixie jar, powder the fried gram dal and set aside.
Take the ground batter in a wide plate.Add the powdered fried gram dal and rice flour. Mix well without adding water. Fried gram flour and rice flour absorbs the moisture content in the banana flower mixture and becomes dry. Make small balls out of the dough and arrange it.
Heat oil in a kadai and when it gets heated ,drop a pinch of dough. If it comes up immediately, heat of the oil is perfect. Now put the balls ( 3-4 at a time) and deep fry in medium flame for few minutes. Keep turning both the sides for even cooking. Remove when the balls turn golden brown in color. Serve them hot to enjoy its best taste. serve with tomato ketchup. ( you can prepare the dough in advance, refrigerate it and make balls whenever needed)
Enjoy your teatime!
Note
Add more chilli powder based on your taste.
Check for salt & spice and adjust them while mixing the dough.
Try to grind the vazhaipoo mixture to a smooth paste without adding water. At worst case, you can add 1-2 tbsp.
If the dough is sticky and too wet, add more fried gram dal flour and little rice flour to adjust the consistency.
Try this snack with banana flower for a change and enjoy !
Restaurant style Paneer Butter masala recipe with step by step picture- In this post, you can learn how to make North Indian, restaurant style Paneer butter masala at home. I tried this recipe from Nags Space. I made slight changes in the original recipe by simplifying its cooking procedure & the list of ingredients.It came out excellent in taste .Thanks a lot Nags. Its a quick and easy to make recipe.So I make it very often for Raksha’s lunch box. She loves the combination of soft chapathi with paneer butter masala more than other gravies.The addition of cashew paste, milk and fresh cream makes it so rich. You can make this gravy without onion and garlic too. I am sure it tastes great. I want to treasure this recipe in my blog for future reference.So here comes the yummy restaurant style Paneer Butter Masala recipe. Do try this recipe at home and let me know your feedback ladies .
Paneer Butter masala - Restaurant style
How to make restaurant style paneer butter masala at home
Paneer – 50 gms (cubed ) ( Soak in hot water till use)
Big onion – 1 no (chopped roughly)
Tomatoes – 2 nos (medium sized)
Cooking oil or butter - 1 + 1 tbsp
Ginger , Garlic paste – 1 tsp ( Or grind 1 inch ginger & 5 cloves of garlic)
Coriander powder/Dhania powder – 1.5 tsp
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala powder – 1/2 tsp
Tomato ketchup - 2 tsp
Salt- As required.
Boiled Milk – 1/2 cup to 1 cup ( use as required)
Fresh cream - 1 tbsp ( I dint have fresh cream .So I removed a tsp of skin from the boiled milk and added it.)(Paalaadai)
Cashew – 5 nos ( to grind to a smooth paste)
Crushed Kasoori methi - 1 tsp
METHOD
Peel and chop the big onion roughly. Chop the paneer into cubes. Boil 1 cup of water and add 2 tomato. Let it boil till the skin of tomato cracks. Switch off the flame and remove the tomatoes, set aside. ( You can peel the skin of tomatoes if you wish) Add the cubed paneer pieces to the remaining hot water. Let it be in hot water till use. It helps to keep the paneer soft.No need to fry the paneer pieces. ( For variations, you can skip blanching the tomato and grind with onion mixture as shown in the next step)
In a kadai, heat oil( use butter for rich taste) and saute the onion till transparent.Add Ginger&garlic paste,saute till its raw smell goes off.Now add the red chilli powder, dhania powder , garam masala powder. Saute in low flame. Make sure you don’t burn them. Let the mixture cool down completely.
To the mixture, add the blanched tomato and raw cashews. Grind everything to a smooth paste adding required water. Heat oil ( or butter) in a kadai and saute the ground paste till thick.
Add tomato ketchup, sugar and salt. Mix well and boil the gravy till oil starts to float on top. Add the boiled milk. Mix well and check the taste. Let the gravy boil for few minutes. Gravy gets a nice orange shade. Lastly add the crushed kasoori methi, paneer cubes.If the gravy is too thick, add more milk. Mix well. Add fresh cream at the end and switch off the flame.Check for spice & salt. If its too spicy add some more milk and vice versa. Serve with roti !!
Enjoy !
Note
Use butter instead of cooking oil for rich taste & flavor.
Instead of grinding cashews along with tomato, onion mixture, you can grind it separately and add it along with milk.
You can also use almonds/badam in place of cashews. But cashews are the best !
You can peel the skin of blanched tomato, grind it to a puree and add to the gravy. But I ground it with onion masala.
Adjust the quantity of chilli powder and dhania powder as per your taste.
Adding kasoori methi gives the perfect restaurant style taste.So please don’t skip it.
Yummy Paneer Butter Masala is ready to be served hot with Chapathi , Naan.
I came to know about this Kadamba chutney recipe from a reader’s request. I thought kadamba chutney and mixed vegetable chutney are one and the same. But then I realized Kadamba chutney is made with the combination of onion, tomato, coconut, ginger, garlic, chilli, urad dal, chana dal, mint+coriander+curry leaves. Its made without carrot, chow chow or any other vegetable.
This morning, I prepared this chutney for our breakfast as a side dish for idli. I followed the recipe from Sangeetha’s blog. It was very nice and tasty. We all loved it very much. I felt this chutney recipe goes well with dosa, rava idli and even for mixed lentil dosa/ Adai.
Do try this easy and yummy side dish recipe for your breakfast/dinner and let me know your views. Now lets see how to prepare this yummy South Indian style Kadamba chutney recipe for idli, dosa with step by step photo.
Wash and chop tomato, onion, green chilli. Peel ginger and garlic. Grate or finely chop the coconut. Set aside. In a kadai, heat oil and saute the urad dal + chana dal. When the dals start to turn golden, add the pinched red chilli and chopped green chilli. Saute for few seconds. Then add the chopped ginger, garlic, onion and saute for a minute. Lastly add the tomato and grated coconut along with the required salt and a small piece of tamarind. Saute until tomato turns mushy.
Switch off the flame and add the mint+coriander+curry leaves. Saute quickly. They shrink and mixes well with the mixture. Let everything cool down completely. First grind them to a coarse paste without adding water. Then add water and grind to a thick paste. Remove the chutney to a serving bowl. Temper mustard seeds and curry leaves. Add to the chutney bowl and mix well. Serve with hot idli , dosa or adai !
Enjoy !
Note
Adjust the quantity of chilli as per your taste buds.
Adding tamarind is optional but it gives a mild tangy taste to the chutney.
Do not add more ginger. It will dominate the chutney flavor.
No need to use more coconut. Its just for binding. You can skip it if you don’t want to use it.
Yummy Kadamba chutney is ready to serve with Idli, dosa !!
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