One of such quick recipes is Upma with vegetables.
One of the main reasons for my Sunday Blues (for us in the Middle East, Sunday being the first working day) is not only getting up early in the morning after having a great weekend, but also deciding what to make for breakfast and lunch. On Sundays, I always end up making a breakfast - cum - lunch quick meals to get on with the rest of the day's work.
One of such quick recipes is Upma with vegetables. Last year, during our vacation in Kerala, our hotel happened to be very close to a major spices market. While shopping for them and enjoying every bit of the different fragrances, we suddenly stopped at a stall as I could smell an amazing Sambar Masala smell! None of the other stalls had any ground masalas to offer. So with very hopeful eyes, went and asked the shop owner if he had ground Sambar Masala, and to my disappointment, he denied, instead offered us his sambar lunch.
Not kidding, but seeing my love for South Indian food, my husband really believes that I should have married a south-indian and not him. On every weekend, it's our written-in-stone schedule, we HAVE to go to any udipi restaurant for a late breakfast and an early lunch (eating 2 meals at one time implied!). And trust me, I believe, we contribute to 25% of the restaurants business on that day!
This is one of my all time favorites, and I can literally gulp it down like soup. The combination of idli pieces, soaked in sambar for 5 minutes, then dipped in chutney, is DIVINE. God bless the person who ever invented it! A little interesting fact about this dish. The origins of this dish are uncertain, although legend has that it originated in the kitchen of Thanjavur Marathas ruler Shahuji during the 18th century from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is believed that Shahji had a liking for a dish called amti which had kokum as one of its main ingredients. In one particular season, the kokum, which was imported from the Maratha homeland, ran out of supply, and someone suggested to him that the locals used tamarind pulp for sourness. Shahji experimented with the pigeon peas, vegetables, spices and the tamarind pulp and served his coterie and his cousin. The court liked the dish and named it sambhar after the guest of the day, Sambhaji, second emperor of the Maratha Empire. Bon Appétit I am sure a lot of South-Indians would disagree with me, but since childhood, I have always known them as Appams.
My mom has always made the best idli / dosa batter. When we were growing up, almost every alternate weekend would be an idli - dosa breakfast-cum-lunch massive meal. She would always make the batter in larger quantities, so the left over batter could be used to make other variations. This is one of her creations. We have always loved it! And because of its tiny size, its even easier to get a quick bite and get back to work. In my school days, we would always have a long break and a short break. Whenever I had appams for my short break quick bites, I would never even get to see my lunch box opening! My friends loved it so much that it was like the appams had wings and they flew out of my lunch box, without me even getting a whiff of it! This is one of my all time favourites! Hope you like them as much too. Bon Appétit In spite of its bitter taste, I have always loved bitter gourd. Especially fried slices of bitter gourd with dal-rice. Absolutely delicious! And I have been trying to find a way to get Mitul to have it once a while too.
In one of the Kerala Recipe Books, I came across this recipe, and had to make it right away. The coconut and the onions definitely tone down the strong bitter taste of the gourd. And that trick worked perfectly with Mitul, as he loved this dish. Tastes amazing with simple curd rice and fish fry. For some weird reasons, I just can't stand the smell of fish, or anything to do with fish if I have to cook it. And I don't stop hearing the end of it from Mitul. I am a maharashtrian, and my husband is a gujarati. So, for him and according to him all maharashtrians are coastal people, who live, eat and dress like them! And every time I refuse to cook any fish for him, I get to hear and justify the same story! Last year during monsoon, we decided to have a quiet, peaceful vacation, by spending all the time in just one place and driving around it. Luckily we landed in Alappuza, Kerala. The hotel’s restaurant was right by the lake, and the ambience was absolutely stunning! A typical Kerala themed restaurant, with antique wooden chairs, tables, pillars and everything else! It was absolutely gorgeous! Especially with a heavy downpour, Mitul and I have spent hours sitting at that restaurant and looking at the lake, sipping on chilled beer, reading books and working on the clicked pictures of the day. We loved the hotel's restaurant food and the location so much that we would make sure to come have lunch and dinner there. One of the days I decided to get a bit more adventurous and order the Kerala Masala Fried Fish. I have never tasted anything so delicious!! It was so gorgeous that Mitul had to order his own fish! Me feasting on a fish was the highlight of our vacation! In all the days that we spent at the resort, we ordered that dish daily! It was so awesome that I had to walk to the kitchen and compliment the chef! We tried to find out the recipe, but the chef couldn’t give us a lot of information on it. On our way back, at the airport we had a little time to spare, so walked into one of the bookstores, and I headed straight to the cooking section and picked a book which had the same picture of my most relished dish! And hence, this weekend when I got the request of making ''my people's dish'' differently, I thought of trying my hand at this. Surprisingly, it turned out fabulous! Didn't taste or smell like raw fish at all! Definitely a must-try! Bon Appétit Last year, during the peak of monsoon season, my husband and I spend the most amazing 10 days in Alapuzza, Kerala. And lucky us, our holiday happened during Onam. We had heard a lot about Kerala cuisine, but never had had the chance to relish it. Our holiday gave us THE perfect opportunity to do so. On one of our canoeing rides, our guide, Anil, was very kind enough to invite us to his house for the Onam celebrations. Anil, Jayanti and Anandu ; one of the simplest, and the most down to earth family, who lived it king size with whatever they earned everyday or managed to fish out of the lake..... Our delicious lunch that day had Vendekka Varathathu, prawns fry (caught in the lake RIGHT outside the house and tossed on to a pan!), parippu curry, avial, riace and poppadums. I have never tasted anything so soo delicious! Ofcourse, cooking them on wood-fire gives it the best smoky taste, but apart from that, the combination and proportions of spices was just perfect! I had to get all the recipes from Jayanti and definitely try them out! Hopefully I have made some justice to Jayanti's expertise. Bon Appétit Last year, during the peak of monsoon season, my husband and I spend the most amazing 10 days in Alapuzza, Kerala. And lucky us, our holiday happened during Onam.
We had heard a lot about Kerala cuisine, but never had had the chance to relish it. Our holiday gave us THE perfect opportunity to do so. On one of our canoeing rides, our guide, Anil, was very kind enough to invite us to his house for the Onam celebrations. Anil, Jayanti and Anandu ; one of the simplest, and the most down to earth family, who lived it king size with whatever they earned everyday or managed to fish out of the lake..... Our delicious lunch that day had Vendekka Varathathu, prawns fry (caught in the lake RIGHT outside the house and tossed on to a pan!), parippu curry, avial, rice and poppadums. One of my childhood favourites! Simple, quick and delicious as ever with a little maharashtrian touch to it.
The typical rava dosa recipe makes the dosas very thin and crisp, but this recipe, keeps them a little thicker and fuller to taste. This recipe doesn't use maida or rice flour to bind the batter, instead uses gram flour, or besan, giving it a much softer texture than a traditional rava dosa. In comparison to the traditional recipe, this also uses curd to give it a slight sour after taste (similar to a fermented dosa batter). Rava Dosa, is an instant dosa that doesn't need any fermenting, and hence is a much quicker fix than the fermented-batter dosa. The batter is spread onto a hot pan; by pouring it over the pan. (Unlike other dosas where a ladle is used to spread it on the pan) It's cooked until it becomes crispy, and served along with chutney. Biryani is believed to be a north-Indian dish, but if you taste the south-Indian biryanis, they taste so much better than any other biryani found anywhere else. In my opinion North-Indian biryanis are known to be very rich in flavor with a lot of ghee and saffron-milk used to enhance the taste, but comparatively, the south-Indian biryanis have so much more essence. The amazing blend of coconut, roasted spices and the vegetables comes to life in this recipe. As this recipe emphasizes more on the spices mix and the coconut flavor, it doesn't make the biryani as heavy or rich as a regular north-Indian or Hyderabadi dum-biryani. It is a slightly time taking recipe, but absolutely worth all the efforts. While watching Khana Khajana, one of the episodes featured this recipe and I had to try it out. Absolutely loved it! I am not a big rice fan, but I am sure I ended up eating about a month's rice quota that day. A must try! Bon Appétit In our college, during quantity food production practicals (Hotel Management course. In quantity cooking 15 of us had to cook a 6 course meal for the whole college, around 400 people in 3 hours), this was one of the first recipes we had made, and I have loved it ever since. Superbly simple and a quick recipe, with a stunning taste! It can be had simply by itself or with aachaar too. Have it with simple dal and rice, and you wouldn't want to stop eating it! Bon Appétit For some weird reasons, I just can't stand the smell of fish, or anything to do with fish if I have to cook it. And I don't stop hearing the end of it from my husband, hence I finally put a pin on my nose and decided to try making this curry for him. Surprisinglt, it turned out fabulous! Didn't taste or smell like raw fish at all! Hope you enjoy it too! Bon Appétit In our old residential complex, diagonally opposite to our house, a Malayalam family used to live there. Their youngest daughter got married in Kakinada, a coastal town. We all were invited for the wedding there. My sister and I were super excited as it meant we would be traveling in the train for a long time and as the wedding was in the wee hours of the morning, we could sleep late!
After the wedding, we were invited by the groom's family for a meal at their place. His mother made some amazingly delicious dishes for all of us! Pesarattu was one of them. I was too small them to bother asking the name, instead happily feasted on them so much, that I remembered the taste 17 years later! Luckily the recipe turned out pretty simple and I could make an awesome batch of the dosas to treat my friends with. A definite must try! A super quick fix and one of the tastiest recipes!
If you are craving for some South - Indian food without having to follow long recipes, this one is the best and the quickest, with the closest results to an authentic Idli. They can be had just the way they are, or with simple Chutney or molagapudi or with Samabar. There’s something so tasty about South Indian food, that even when you are very full, it makes you keep wanting for more.
Amazingly simple, fresh ingredients make such beautiful, delicious dishes! This is one of them. I have always had 3 - 4 extra servings of this chutney whenever at a South Indian restaurant, and always wondered how do they make it so delicious! The recipe couldn't be any simpler than this. A very quick recipe and absolutely heavenly! An absolutely delicious find! My sister came up with this recipe. Her son lives on an idli diet and to make sure he ate some vegetables with it too, she came up with a variation of the original recipe.
Idlis are very delicious by themselves anyways, add to that batter, nicely tempered, roasted vegetables and it definitely tastes more delicious than ever. What a perfect way to feast on 2 - 3 day old idlis tossed with a little variation to the recipe.
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