Tomato Rice

Something instant to cook on a busy weekday, at the same time delicious and approved by the family, is a recipe that I always lean on when tired and have hardly any energy to enter the kitchen. If its liked by all at home equally then you don't have to see people frowning at the dinner table. This Tomato rice is one such recipe that we can have for dinner after a long day at work - happy faces and most importantly, easy to put together. 

Some papad/chips and little bit of pickle is all what you need to pair with this delicious tomato rice to enjoy your meal. When I started my kitchen garden last year, I planted a tomato plant. It would produce flowers but nothing got converted to tomato, which made me think that either it is a flower plant :D or may be my hands aren't good enough for gardening. Its not gonna bear fruit. But this year, thankfully, if not it surplus, we got a decent harvest of tomatoes. And when making tomato rice, with the tomatoes from our own garden, it gets even more fulfilling. At dinner table, you can see me repeat it over and over again "it has tomatoes from our own garden". And my little harvester gets even more interested in having his tomato rice since his little hands were also involved in producing the tomatoes :).

Now off to the recipe. This recipe needs the everyday pantry items, so you need not just wait for to get the ingredients before you try it. So try it for todays lunch or dinner and I bet you won't regret.

Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 cup of white rice
2. 1 1/2 cup of chopped tomatoes
3. 1/2 cup of finely chopped red onion
4. 1 tbsp of finely chopped green chilly
5. 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
6. 5-6 mint leaves, finely chopped
7. 2 tbsp of finely chopped coriander leaves
8. About 2 3/4 cups of water
9. 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
10. 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder
11. 1/2 tsp of coriander powder
12. 3/4 tsp of black pepper powder
13. Salt to taste
14. Coriander/ Mint leaves for garnishing

For tempering

1. 1 tbsp of oil
2. 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
3. 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
4. 2-3 dry red chillies
5. 1/2 tsp of fenugreek seeds
6. 1 sprig of curry leaves

Method

• Wash and strain the rice. Keep it aside.
• Heat a pan. Pour in the oil. Once the oil gets hot, add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Now add the fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, ginger garlic paste, green chillies, dry red chillies and curry leaves. Saute it until the rawness is gone.
• Now add the onion and saute it. Once onion starts turning dull and translucent, add the chopped mint leaves and coriander leaves, and saute it.
• Add the tomatoes and stir it. Let it reduce and cook. Add the turmeric powder , coriander powder and black pepper powder. Saute and cook untill the tomatoes are all soft and the mixture looks like a paste.
• Add the rice, water and salt. Stir it to spread it evenly.
• Cover and cook on medium low flame untill the water evaporates completely. Turn off the heat.
• Garnish it with coriander/mint leaves and serve it hot with some raita and chips of your choice.

Tips

1. Using basmati rice would enhance the taste.
2. You could add some urad dal to the tempering to enhance the taste.
3. Keep a close watch when cooking rice. The cooking time and water required would vary according to the type of rice used.

Sambar

Sambar is one unavoidable item on the sadya menu. With onam fast approaching, I thought sharing a sambar recipe would be apt. Whenever I complain that Jacob should get more involved in the kitchen and should take up interest in cooking, he always picks on me saying "who taught you to make sambar ?". Well those initial days of marriages while I was learning to cook to feed our stomach, the sambar preparations were done by Jacob. He is such a sambar lover. I would always prefer moru kachiyathu over sambar for rice. But I guess, as year pass by living with a sambar lover, I too have started to like sambar.

Well this recipe is not the traditional method of sambar preparation. Usually, the sambar powder is fried in the oil along with tempering and added to the sambar . I avoid doing it, to cut down the consumption of oil. Also I find it as an easier way to prepare, without the fear of burning the sambar powder, especially when you have too many things on the menu for sadya and hurrying, things go wrong sometimes. So try my version of sambar if you would like to, for this onam and let me know if you liked it.

Ragi Idli

Ragi Idli could have never made it to our menu for breakfast, couple of years back. Only after my lil guy was born, we started feeding him Ragi and I started to try understand how wholesome and healthy it is. Hence I started trying different things out of it. The usual idli, puttu, dosa etc. started getting healthier by adding ragi in it. And its good to bring in some variety to the monotonous menu too. No doubt our family has loved it. Because every time I have served it, the plates have been left wiped clean :).

They were so pillowy soft. And that grainy feeling of ragi and its taste was mellowed down by a portion of rice that, it was loved by us, who otherwise would put on a sad face with the mere mention of the word ragi. If you are looking for including ragi in your diet, this ragi idli could be one yummiest ways to do it. So here is the recipe to it.

Ragi Paniyaram

Day turns out to be good, if you started good. For me, if I have managed to have a good breakfast, day goes good. Its a bonus if I get some time to make something special, which is on weekends, since all are off from school and work and get up late, which gives me enough time to make something else if my hopefully interesting recipes turns out to be a disaster.

On weekdays too, we make variety of breakfast other than just cereals or sandwiches, which helps me not to deal with the tantrum of lil one wanting for something different and ignoring to eat what is offered. Well, I have the luxury of being a stay at home mom, if I may say so, which lets me plan a variety of breakfast option, so why not do it right?

Homemade Sambar Powder

While growing up, I always used to see my mother take the effect to dry the ingredients for sambar powder in the sun and then grind it to make the homemade sambar powder. It would be an effort but the end result is that delicious sambar that no other brand masalas can offer.

And the peace of mind that you get to have homemade product because you very well know what went into it and are not worried of the impurities that are present in the store bought ones. Oh, and that smell that gets filled in your home is just pure divine.

Pazha Manga curry/ Mango Curry

When it is summer, somehow to feel better and fresh from the scorching heat that leaves you dull and drained out of energy, you start thinking about good things that summer gives and it is things like Mango, Watermelon etc. This year my mind is stuck with mangoes. Well, every year it does :). May it be in the form of drinks or icecream or even curry, I just looove them.

This curry is an absolute bliss. I had a hard time finding smaller variety of mangoes with which it is usually made. But it didn't stop me or my craving from relishing it. They just make way to a happy meal. You got to try it and I am sure you would get hooked to it.

Capsicum Chutney / Bell pepper Chutney

Belonging to Southern part of India means, you definitely would have a soft corner for idli/dosa. For me, I wouldn't mind having it for any meal of the day. Bringing in variety in the usual combination makes it even more interesting.

I was not introduced to any other chutneys to go with Idli/dosa other than the red coconut chutney and the chana dal chutney. But thanks to so many blogger friends from across the globe and the blogging community that I have been a part of, I got introduced to variety of food. This capsicum chutney was introduced to me by the blogging world.

Vazhachundu thoran / Banana flower stir fry

At my home, we have never bought Banana flower from the market. We had banana trees planted and every time it flourishes, every part of it would take the shape of a dish. Few bananas would be kept apart to ripen, while others go into making of chips, stir frys , kalan etc. There were dishes made out of the raw banana peel and also the banana stem. Oh and how can I forget the extracting of honey from underneath the banana flower petals. I used to love it. In short, maximum utilization of having a banana tree at home.

However, now when I buy banana flower from market, I always think how good were those days when we used to have those organic food from our own vegetable garden. My mom laughed at me when I proudly told her that we got hold of some banana leaf(torn and sad looking) and bought it to make Meen pollichathu. 

Nadan Meen curry / Kerala style Fish curry

I am sure like us, most mallu's would have a special liking towards this fish curry. And it is one of the dishes that gets tastier as it ages. Yes, you heard me right. We cook it and reheat it everytime we are about to serve it for lunch or dinner, which helps the fish pieces to absorb the essence of the gravy and the tartness of the Cocum/Kocum and make it tastier.

Umm...now that is making me tempt. Other than having it with rice, I have always loved having it with Kappa (Tapioca/Yucca) before I got married. But my man loves the combination of Kappa with Beef curry. However, that has never made me sacrifice my craving for Kappa and fish curry combo, as fish curry is available at our home most of the days and that helps both of us to hog on our own respective favorite combos and feel content.

Kerala Paalappam / Appam

Weddings/ special occasions , Xmas / Easter ..... Or even a normal Sunday breakfast gets so special when you have these Appams paired with a stew. We usually make a large batch of it and have it for breakfast and tea. I sometimes have it for lunch/ dinner too :) . I just don't mind having it at anytime of the day because my craving for Appam is that strong :).

One wouldn't go wrong in its making, if the fermentation is done properly. If you happen to make it, you could try combining it with Chicken Curry, Fish Molly, Motta curry (Egg Curry), Green Peas curry , Mutton stew , Mutton curry, Beef curry etc. as a side. They taste so yumm that you would never want to put a full stop to having it.

Making of Soft Idlis

Idlis - most well associated as the breakfast of the south Indians. Being easy to make and also being the most frequently prepared breakfast at home, there are only countable number of days that these are not found, either in the form of idlis or dosa or uttappam or anything that could be made with this batter. Well, now you may think that what is so special about this recipe. Its very easy to make idli batter by grinding the correct ratio of rice and urad dal. But the differentiating factor is whether you can make, them soft and non sticky, consistently.

It makes my day, if the previous night I would have ground the Idli batter or Appam batter and the next morning I find it perfectly risen, to indulge in soft Idli/Appam. There were days when we used to buy idli batter from shops. But gone are those days. Now, not only do we make it at home, but I have been lucky to get the batter risen perfectly every single time I make it. So I guess I have nailed it and would love to share the steps that I do take, to make soft and spongy idlis.

Cucumber Pachadi / Vellarikka pachadi

I love making and having cucumber pachadi. The reason being that, the return on investment is on a greater side. Yes they taste too good for the very little effort put in making them. Especially if it is summer and I wouldn't feel like staying in the kitchen for too long then I choose to make these.

Back in Bangalore, we used to make these quite often. After a hectic day at work, when I end up cooking dinner, they used to be a stress buster resulting in my chopping board having deeper cut marks. And this pachadi used to be such a life saver, since they were easy to make and had kind of a soothing effect that helped me keep my cool :). Anyways, we had missed making them since it was winter here and you would want to eat hot and spicy food during the cold months.

Parippuvada!!!

Its raining!

What best could one do on a rainy day? Hot parippuvada with a steaming cup of coffee/tea..hmm my mouth is getting watery with the very thought of it. Some people like having parippuvada as it is , but for me having it with bananas makes me feel content.

These remind me of the childhood days when we used to travel by train to kerala to spend our summer vacations. The train would reach Palakkad station and the noise of the chaiwala's would wake you up. The Parripuvadas and Pazham poris would be in the scene, offered with a small glass of chai.

Uzhunnu Vada / Medhu Vada / Lentil Dumplings

Uzhunnu Vada - yet another favorite snack either during tea time or with idli/dosa in the morning. For a south indian, if you are out looking in for a restaurant for breakfast, what would be the item that you would have pre ordered in mind - Idli-vada. Yes, any restaurant that you get into would have it as the first item on their menu. And the server would also recite the menu starting with idli- vada, dosa-vada, masala dosa....

I have made these vadas a number of times.These are easy to make if you are not bothered about the hole that is supposed to be present in the center of these vadas. I never used to get the consistency of the batter right. Well, I should not call it a batter as, these get its shape only if, the mixture has the consistency between a dough and a batter. I still don't think I have gained that perfection, but atleast the hole is there,  is what I say to myself :).

Ari Pidi - A Kerala Delicacy

Pidi, a Kerala delicacy, is mostly well known in the central region of Kerala. We used to have a restaurant at the karshaka market(farmer's market) near to our home, where one could get it. But its very rarely found served at restaurants these days. Served best with chicken curry, these are yum to have.

Its been years now, since I last had them. Recently I watched a TV show, where they were showing how to make these and my mouth got all watery. I was scared to try these because of the thought that, what if it does not turn out well. But then again if I don't try, how would I ever know. Well, I gave it a try and luckily it turned out to be good.

Sukhiyan

Sukhiyan, yet another well known tea time snack in Kerala, had been on my to-make list for quite some time now. Finally, I succeeded in checking it off from the list. These snacks are found in most tea shops in Kerala, strategically arranged in small glass cupboards, right next to Ethakka Boli, making people tempt to have it.

My mom used to make these at home, whenever we would be home for vacation. Home made snacks have its own advantages, because you know that these are fried in fresh set of oil unlike in tea shops. Moreover, you get to decide the way you would like to make it; the type of oil you want to use ; how sweet it should be etc... etc. All said, I had to make it at home, as we don't get it anywhere around here :P. Turns out, the only thing that you should be careful about while making it, is not to overcook the grams.

Ethakka Appam / Ethakka Boli / Pazham Pori / Plantain Fritters

Ethakka boli had been my favorite tea time snack right from childhood. Sadly, these plantains were not available at the place where I grew up. But this used to be one of the items on my wish list to have, my stomach full, while we used to go to Kerala during vacation. Other items on my wish list included kerala parotta, bonda etc. My wishes are just weird, isn't it ? :).

Well, while I moved to kerala for my higher studies, these turned out to be available everywhere and at anytime - in the college canteen, hostel mess, in any other tea stall by the roadside. Having it everytime, felt to be the dream come true for me :). I am still addicted to these.