Recipe Fundas!-Simple,Tasty, Healthy Vegetarian recipes for a Vibrant Living!

Neer Dosa is a recipe I picked from a TV show of Mr.Venkatesh Bhat. My mother usually makes Rice Adai. But Neer dosa has more coconut, batter can be watery and it is very soft. Ingredients: Idli Rice: 3 cups Grated coconut: 3/4 cups (I used half of a big coconut). Soak Rice for about 4-5 hours. In a wet grinder, grind the rice and the grated coconut together adding about 1 glass of water. Add required amount of salt and 1 spoon of sugar. This dosa can be made immediately (does n't need fermentation) and can be served with any spicy chutney/sambar/curry. Here, I have shown you with Chettinad Kaara Kuzhambu. Kara Kuzhambu

This is a delicious side dish for any kind of Chapathis/Naans. I did not use the canned corn, but bought full sweet corns from the market, peeled them and boiled them in pressure cooker for about 4-5 whistles. Base for the Masala: Red Onions: 3 finely chopped Tomatoes: 2 finely chopped Ginger: a small pinch Turmeric power: 1/2 tbsp Chilli powder: 1 tbsp Kasoori methi: 1 tbsp Full cream milk: 1/2 cup ( can be replaced with fresh cream too). In a pan, I added 2-3 tbsp of oil and fried Onions and tomatoes adding ginger, turmeric powder first. Once the onions started changing color, I added chilli powder and salt and added 1/2 glass of water. Once the ingredients started boiling, I added the boiled corn shells and cooked in slow flame. Then, I added milk and let the gravy cook well. I added Kasoori methi leaves and cooked for 2 mins and turned off. This recipe, I picked from a Sindhi restaurant and it indeed was a delight to the tongue.

Ofcourse, as a South Indian Tamil household, we experiment with Dosas a lot. Here is my last week's breakfast recipe: Idli rice: 3 cups; Full Urad dhal: 3 table spoons; Fenugreek: 3 tablespoons. I soaked all these ingredients above overnight. Fenugreek needs more than 3 hours to soak , so it is better to soak them for a longer duration. Next morning, after grinding these ingredients with a cup of water and adequate quantity of salt, dosa batter was ready. I served this with coconut chutney and sambar. This dosa smells more of Fenugreek and will be fully brown and crisp, if you cook in small flame.

I wanted to prepare some delicious and healthy range of sweets and snacks and living in Singapore, provides you very easy options for Deepavali. Some of my relatives in India are buying 100% of Deepavali sweets from the stores; but I am someone who is satisfied on doing things hands-on. In Singapore, there are atleast 4 brands that do a very good job on doing all the long prework for sweets and savouries-  Babas, Lingas, Mahalingams etc are sourced from Malaysia and the taste is closer to home for the Tamil people. I used Babas brands and followed the instructions in the pack. Ribbon Pakoda: This had a taste of garlic and white sesame in it, but with an extra spoon of butter. This was awesome! Murukku: This has been a standard for me these days; to take some packets to pass to parents and parents in law. Nei Urundai: This was just gram flour balls. I heated ghee in a pan and added little by little to make them into balls. Well, when I posted this pic...

Food is the universal language of Love a nd in my opinion, most men and women recall their childhood moments with their mother- making special dishes for them. In my home, we are not after the baked breakfast options/ Quick cereals.  I like to try always, with what our previous generations healthy food options are. At a time when everything is fast paced, it is important to find our own ways of living and making our next generation aware of our culture. Recently when looking at some Indian Magazine here in Singapore, I saw an advertisement of a company selling Pearl Millet (Semi- Broken form/ As Flour). In my weekly visit to grocery stores, I saw such new products are available in Singapore also. Millets are fibre rich and when all of the world is talking a lot about food crisis, Millets are the Options. Millets can be grown with very less water and India is the largest producer of Pearl Millets in the world. Here is our Breakfast today with th...

Tapioca  is a common root vegetable available all over the world. You would have seen something like this, in the wet markets. A quick read on Tapioca  in Wiki, made me wonder on the number of countries, this vegetable is available. It is commonly eaten as Chips or in a boiled form. As an Indian, who likes Spicy Food, I tried an alternate recipe with Tapioca and I am sharing it here. Ingredients: 1. Tapioca-2 2. Chilli Powder- 2 tablespoons full 3. Salt- as Needed 4. Oil- as needed Optional Ingredients for Sauting: 5. Mustard- 1/2 tablespoon 6. Curry leaves- a small bunch 7. Hing- 1/4 Tablespoon How to make this curry: 1. Boil Tapioca after cutting into large pieces in an open pan/ pressure cooker. 2. Peel off the skin and take out the long vein that is seen in between the layers. 3. In a big cup, mix Tapioca , chillipowder and salt and mix nicely with your hands. 4. In a pan, add oil and add ingredients for sauting. Then, add thi...

What I have shown below, is a typical South Indian Dish, served as side dish with Rice. This is fairly simple to make and is high in Vitamins. My key ingredients in this recipe are: 1. Moong dhal- 1 handful (Yellow split bean) 2. Coconut- Grated- around 4 tbsp 3. Green chillies- 2 4. Cumin seeds- 1/4 tbsp 5. Spinach- washed and finely chopped after removing the roots Since Moong dhal will cook fast, add 1 glass of water in a open wok and add moong dhal. Let it cook fully. Keep adding water until it cooks well. Then add the spinach and lower the flame, stirring occassionally. Grind coconut, cumin seeds and chillies and add to this mixture. Once spinach has cooked well, add required salt. To saute: I have used, chopped small onions, mustard seeds, hing and red chillies in the end. It added a rich aroma to this dish.