Palak Paneer

Ingredients:

1. Palak - 1 bunch, cleaned and stems trimmed
2. Paneer/Tofu - 200 g
3. Onion - 1 large (cut into large pieces)
4. Tomato - 1large (cut into large pieces)
5. Garlic - 5-6 pods
6. Green chillies - 2 or 3
7. Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp.
8. Kasoori methi - 1 tsp. (optional)
9. Salt - to taste
10. Oil/ghee - 1 tbsp.
11. Fresh cream - 1 tbsp.

Procedure:

1. Cut the paneer/tofu into half inch cubes.
2. Cook palak, tomato and green chillies in a covered  thick bottomed vessel with minimum or no water for 3-5 mins till the leaves becomes soft and shrink. Do not burn. Allow to cool.
3. In a kadai, heat oil/ghee and fry the onions and garlic till the onion turns translucent.
4. Grind together the onions, garlic, green chillies, palak and tomato to a smooth puree.
5. Heat the same kadai (which contains the remaining oil/ghee after frying the onions),  pour in the puree, add salt, jeera powder, kasoori methi and bring to a boil. Add the paneer cubes and mix in well. cook for another 2 minutes. 
6. Switch off and garnish with fresh cream.

Kambu adai

Adai is a multi-dal dosa. Recently, I got the fancy to try out some unconventional cereals in my food (for their nutritive goodness) and bought some bajra/pearl millet/kambu. My mother who had never seen kambu herself, suggested that we should try kambu adai, by just replacing rice with kambu in the regular adai recipe. It turned out pretty good.

Ingredients:

1. Kambu/Bajra - 1 cup
2. Toor dal - 1/4 cup
3. Chana dal - 1/4 cup
4. Urad dal - 1/4 cup (or even less)
5. Moong dal - 1/4 cup
6. Asafoetida - 1/2 inch piece
7. Curry leaves - 10
8. Red chillies - 2 or 3 ( you can 2 green chillies and 1 red chilli also)
9. Salt - to taste
10. Oil (preferably coconut oil) - for making adai

Procedure:

1. Soak the kambu and all 4 dals in water for 2-3 hours. I sometimes reduce the amount of chana dal and increase toor and moong dal.
2. Grind them with asafoetida, chillies, curry leaves and salt to make a batter. Do not add water initially. Add water slowly and adjust the amount to achieve batter consistency. The batter will not be as smooth as dosa batter, will be coarse, yet will be ok to flow when poured from a ladle.
3. On a tawa, pour one ladle of the batter and spread like dosas. Roast on one side on high flame by pouring a tsp. of oil on the sides. After a minute, turn over and cook on the other side for around 30 seconds on low flame. Remove and serve hot as and when you prepare with a piece of jaggery, butter or with avial or red chutney.

Ven Pongal

Traditional South Indian breakfast, regular recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Rice - 3/4 cup
2. Moong dal - 1/2 cup
3. Ghee - 2 tbsp.
4. Jeera - 1 tsp.
5. Peppercorns - 1 tsp.
6. Cashewnuts ( broken) - 1 tsp.
7. Curry leaves - 10
8. Ginger - 1 inch piece

Procedure:

1. Roast rice and moong dal separately over medium flame. It is better to use new rice for pongal as it turns mushy on cooking (probably that is the reason the harvest festival is celebrated as Pongal and not as Biryani). Basmati and other long grain varieties are not suitable as they remain as separate grains upon cooking.
2. Cook the rice and dal together in a pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles either directly or in a container. Use around 4 cups of water. Mash this up lightly by stirring after it is cooked.
3. Crush jeera and pepper coarsely using a hand pestle. Chop ginger very finely.
4. In a kadai, heat ghee. Fry the cashewnuts in this lightly. Add crushed jeera, pepper, ginger and currry leaves. Pour this into the cooked rice and dal and stir well.
5. Serve piping hot with gotsu.

Bombay Chutney

My sister-in-law's mother-in-law had made this chutney as a side-dish for idlis when we visited them for the first time. I was in the kitchen with her while she made it and was nonchalantly listening to the method of preparation. As soon as I tasted it, I wished I had paid a little more attention that could have saved me the time I spent on the internet digging out its recipe. As usual, I created an amalgamated version of the many recipes I found and also aunty's recipe and came up with this.
I have no idea why it is called Bombay chutney, for that matter why chutney at all. Nevertheless it makes a quick and tasty side dish and makes for a good change.

Ingredients:

1. Besan/Gram flour - 1/4 cup dissolved in a cup of water without lumps.
2. Onions - 1 large or 2 small thinly sliced
3. Oil - 1 tbsp
4. Mustard - 1/2 tsp.
5. Green chillies - 2 slit length-wise
6. Chana dal - 1 tsp.
7. Curry leaves - 5-6 chopped
8. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
9. Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp.
10. Cinnamon powder (optional) - 1/4 tsp.
11. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. In a kadai, heat oil and temper with mustard seeds, chana dal and curry leaves. 
2. Add green chilies and ginger-garlic paste and saute well.
3. Add onions and fry till they are tender and turn golden brown.
4. Add turmeric powder, cinnamon powder and salt.
5. Add the besan solution to this and cook while stirring continuously on medium/high flame for 5-10 minutes till the raw smell of besan is gone. Add water as required while stirring to adjust the consistency. The thickness should be like aloo sagu.
6. Serve with idlis/rava idlis/dosas/pooris.