GREEN CHUTNEY

Ingredients:-

·        Green chillies

·        Coriander

·        Coconut

·        Salt

·        Cumin seeds

·        Sugar

·        Oil/ghee

·        Asafoetida

·        Yogurt

Preparation:-

·        Grind together 4-5 green chillies, a bunch of coriander, 8-9 2 inch pieces of coconut, salt, a little sugar and half teaspoon cumin seeds into a fine paste. Add water if needed.

·        Add 2 tablespoons of yogurt to this chutney.

·         In a small pot heat a couple of tablespoons of ghee or oil. Add half teaspoon cumin seeds and a pinch of asafoetida. Pour this tadka over the chutney and mix it.

·        Chutney is served with a variety of snacks like idli, dhokla, samosa, uttapa, etc.

IDLI

Ingredients:-

·        Parboiled rice

·        Black bean dal/urad dal

·        Salt

Preparation:-

·        The proportion of the rice and urad dal for idli batter should be 2:1.Take two large bowls full of the parboiled rice and 1 bowl full of urad dal.

·        Wash the rice and dal separately and immerse in water completely. Soak overnight.

·        Grind the soaked parboiled rice and urad dal into a fine paste. Add water if needed. Mix them both and leave for 3-4 hours to ferment.

·        To make idlis, oil the bottom of idli moulds. Mix salt to taste in the fermented batter (add water if needed) and ladle out the batter into the moulds. Fill water in a boiler and place the moulds in it. Steam for 15 minutes.

·        To check if the idlis are done, sink the tip of a knife in one of them. If no batter sticks to the knife the idlis are ready.

·        Serve with chutney and sambar.

GULABJAMUN

Ingredients:-

·        250gms khoya/khawa

·        1 small bowl(wati) rawa/suji (50-70gms)

·        1 teaspoon baking soda

·        200gms ghee (clarified butter)

·        Sugar

·        Silver leaf/varkh

·        Almond shavings

Preparation:-

·        Mix together khoya/khawa, suji/rawa and baking soda. Leave to rest for 15-20 minutes.

·        Take small portions this dough at a time and rub it with the lower part of your palm on the counter or a plain surface to remove any lumps or grains. Repeat this process for all of the dough. It should feel lighter and fluffier when you are done.

·        Roll the dough into small round balls of 2 inch diameter.

·        Heat ghee in a wok. Fry the dough balls in the ghee till they turn dark brown.

·        For the sugar syrup, take 200-300gms of sugar and mix it with equal amount of water. Bring it to a boil and check with a spoon if forms strings. Add a few twigs of saffron if you like.

·        Immerse the fried gulabjamun in the sugar syrup for at least an hour.

·        Decorate with varkh/silver leaf and almond shavings.

·        Serve as dessert.

CAULIFLOWER RICE

Ingredients:-

·        250gms rice

·        250gms cauliflower

·        Garlic

·        Ginger

·        Dried coconut

·        Salt

·        Turmeric

·        Ghee (clarified butter)

·        Mustard seeds

·        Dahi/yogurt

·        coriander

Spices-

·        1 teaspoon black cumin seeds (shah jeera)

·        1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)

·        2-3 inch long pieces of dalchini/ cinnamon

·        2-3 black cardamom pods

·        2-3 green cardamom pods

·        2 teaspoon coriander seeds

·        4 cloves

·        1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Preparation:-

·        Clean and wash the rice grains. Heat 2-3 teaspoons of ghee in a pot. Add the rice grains to the pot and keep on stirring so that they don’t burn for stick to the bottom. Do this for 2-3 minutes, then add enough water to immerse the rice. Add salt to taste and bring it to boil and lower the flame. Add water if needed Cook with a lid on till the rice is just cooked. There should be a little resistance when you press a grain with your fingers.

·        Roast all the spices in a pan for a minute. Grind them into a fine powder.

·        Clean and cut the cauliflower into bite sized florets.

·        Use 3-4 cloves of garlic, 2 inch piece of ginger and 2 inch piece of dried coconut and make a paste.

·        Heat ghee in a pan. Add 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds and let them crackle.

·        Add the ginger-garlic-coconut paste to the hot ghee and stir till it turns golden brown. Put the cauliflower florets in and add 1 -1 ½ teaspoon of the powdered spices, ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder and salt to taste.

·        Add a half a cup of water so the cauliflower cooks nicely without burning. In the end put in finely chopped coriander and cook with a lid on. The cauliflower should be perfectly cooked. It takes about 10-15 minutes on a low flame.

·        Now, spread ghee at the bottom of a deep pot. Spoon in a layer of rice about an inch thick. On top of this layer spoon in the cauliflower and spread it evenly. Put some dollops of ghee and dahi/ yogurt over this layer. Again top the cauliflower with a layer of rice. Repeat this process to use all the rice and cauliflower. Put the pot on the stove with a lid on.

·        Keep for 3-4 minutes on a low flame.

·        Garnish with coriander and coconut and serve hot.