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Lazy burger recipe

As we all look forward for friday evenings after an exhaustive week,  we still need to think through for dinner meals.  This recipe is very handy and makes the kids very happy and filling too.

Ingredients

Bread (white/Wheat) - 2 slices

Burger Patties- 

Cheese slice (Cheedar/Provolone)

Step by Step

1. Heat the grill to set to the right temperature

2. Cut the bread corner

3. I buy the burger patties from Trader joes, but you can use any pattie that family likes to eat.

4.  If it is refrigerated, put it on the grill to thaw it for few mins

5. Place it on the bread.

6. Place the slice of cheese on top of the patttie and grill it 

7. Yummy delicious burger ready

8. Try out with ketchup 

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Beetroot curry Recipe

Ingredients

Beets - 2 or 3

 Oinion (optional) 1 - finely chopped 

Mustard -1 spoon 

Hing

 Coocnut - Grated - 1 spoon

Pre-req: Pressure cook the beets for 3 whistle. This makes the beets soft and easy to peal and chop

In a pan add oil and mustard seeds , once it splutters add chopped onion. If you don’t wish to add onion it is totally fine.

Add the chopped beets . Since it is pressure cooked it is soft and will cook quicker than other veggies

Add Chilli powder or sambar powder , salt and Sauté

Cook the curry in sim mode

Make sure the raw smell of beetroot goes away

Sprinkle grated coconut and turn off the stove.

Yummy beets curry is ready

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Beetroot leaves Kootu/Sambar Recipe

I never knew beetroot leaves are super tasty until I tried this recipe. Try it and I am sure you will enjoy it too

Ingredients

Beet leaves - 1 bunch Toor dal - Soak for 30 mins before cooking Mustard - 1 spoon

Items to grind Coconut. - 1/2 small cup Jeera - 1 tea spoon Red chilli - 2 (Based on your spice level)

Step by step

Cut finely the beet leaves and pressure cook it for 3 whistles

Grid the above ingredients

In a pan/Kadai add oil and add mustard seeds , hing

Once it splutters add the cooked beet leaves

When it boils add salt and the grounded mixture

Cook the toor dal in pressure cooker

Add the cooked dal to the boiling sambar

After it boils turn off the stove and eat with hot rice .

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Tips & Tricks to make cooking easier

Being in tech world or any working field we have less time to spend in our kitchen at the same time we want to optimize our time while we are there. Some tips I will share that has personally helped me in organizing my meals everyday even with my busy schedule. 

Tips 

Precut the veggies and store them in an air tight container. Plan for  5 days and keep them ready 

If you are making Indian (South Indian ) dishes 

Prepare the tamarind water using the pulp and store it in container, this will stay good for a week

Planning to make sambar soak Dal in the morning for 30 mins, set your timer on and pressure cook it in Instant pot, Dal will be ready to mix

Roast Mustard seeds and Asafetida using oil) and keep them in a small glass bottle. This you can use for  seasoning immediately for curry , rasam or sambar

If you plan to cook roti, make the dough a day before and store it in an air tight container . The dough stays good for 3 days .

Try these and let me know if it helped you all 

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Rava & Atta mix Dosa Recipe

My ingredients are for 2 people in a family. Please adjust the proportion according to your family size

Ingredients 

Ravai - 1 cup

Atta - 1 cup

Rice Flour - 1.5 Cup

Jeera - 1 tea spoon

Black Pepper - 1 tea spoon 

Hing/Asafotedia 

Curry leaves 

Corriander Leaves 

Ginger - Grated small quantity ( optional) 

Onion - Thinly sliced

Green chillies/ jalapeno 

Salt for taste 

Step by step procedure to make this instant dosa without fermentation . Dosa lovers can try this . 

Soak rava for 3 hours in hot water. 

In a wide bowl add atta, rice flour , salt, hing, jeera, black pepper , curry & coriander leaves. 

Add the soaked rava to the above mixed ingredients in the bowl

Add water ( make the batter little thin  to make a crispy dosa)

Heat the cast iron pan and once it is hot start making the dosa

Add the sliced onions while cooking the dosa in the pan ( this is optional , you can skip this and still get a very tasty dosa)

Cook this in medium flame to make sure the dosa is well cooked. 

Serve the dosa with Onion /Tomato Chutney 

Batter consistency

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Sambar Recipe

Ingredients: 

Any vegetable of your choice (Preferable Capcicum , brinjal, okra, carrot, 

Mustard  - 1 tea spoon

Fenugreek seeds (Vendhayam in tamil) - 1 tea spoon

Asafoetida (Perungayam in Tamil) 

Toor dal ( Soak for 20 mins)

Tamarind -  1 small ball

Sambar Powder (Home made / Store bought) 

Pre-req; 

How to make tamarind pulp 

Take a small ball of tamarind and add water and microwave it for 2 mins. Once the tamarind pulp is soft strain the impurities and store it in a container and you can use it immediately. 

Step by Step 

Take a round pan  and add little oil 

Add Mustard, fenugreek seeds to the oil , wait for the mustard to splutter

Add Curry leaves ( optional) but this adds flavor

Add the vegetable that you would like to make sambar .  If you don’t have any veggies just use tomato or onion to make the sambar.

Roast them till the raw smell goes away 

Add tamarind pulp water to the above roasted veggies. 

Once it starts to boil add sambar powder 

Let the mixture boil well 

Add the cooked toor dal (soaking toor dal , makes it easier to cook faster and mushy within few mins in pressure cooker)

  After adding the toor dal cook the sambar for few more mins..

Yummy sambar will be ready as your rice is cooked in Instant pot or pressure cooker :) 

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How to make homemade yogurt

Ingredients

Milk (2% or whole milk) - 2 cups

Curd - 3 tablespoon( Preferably use homemade culture)

This recipe might sound simple and silly too but making this is little tricky initially to get the right consistency.

Stove method

Take a saucepan and add 2 cups of milk

allow the milk to boil and keep stirring the milk until it is very hot.

low the sim and let the milk boil for sometime

once it is done transfer it into a glass container ( easy for storage)

Mix 3 table spoon of curd gently into the curd . Add them slowly and mix them well.

Instant Pot Method

Take a stainless/metal vessel

Add milk to the vessel

Make sure you keep the instant pot vessel and add water to it before placing the stainless steel vessel inside it.

once placed close the lid and press yogurt option

When the boiling completes it displays ‘YOGURT’

Repeat the above steps 3 to 4 times till the milk boils well

once it is done transfer it in a glass container and mix the curd gently 

Note: if you have oven place the glass container inside the oven for 8 hours. close the container with a thin lid. Don’t close them tight. It needs some air to ferment. Yummy yogurt will be ready :)

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Tomato Rasam(Thakali Rasam)

Ingredients:

Tomato - 1 big or 2 small 

Rasam Powder 

Salt 

Toor dal - 1 small cup 

Tadka Ingredients:

Mustard

Ghee

 Jeera

Black pepper powder 

Jeera Powder

This is one of the most simple and quick dish which can be made at time in the day. It goes well with chips if there is no veggies to cook

Pre-req: Soak the toor dal in water for 30mins and pressure cook it 

Step by step way to make a yummy Rasam

Take the tomato and cut it into 4 halves 

In a bowl add the tomatoes and water and microwave it for 1 min till the tomatoes are mushy 

Remove the outer layer from the tomatoes

Take a sauce pan and add this mixture

When it starts boiling add salt and rasam powder. 

In case you dont have rasam powder you can make instant rasam powder (dry roast 1 spoon of dhania, red chilli 4, black peppercorn - 8 , jeera - 1 teaspoon) 

Add the rasam powder to the boiling tomato mixture

Once it boils and thickens add the water from toor dal ( Please note: dont add the toor dal then it will be like sambar , only add the water from the cooked toor dal)

Once it boils and froths switch off the stove

Tadka  in ghee the following : Hing, Mustard, jeera, jeera powder, black pepper powder )

chop coriander leaves and add to it 

add a pinch of sugar (shhhhh this is the secret ingredient) to make yummy rasam

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Methi Sambar

Main Ingredients :

Methi leaves 

shallots/Big onion - 1/2 cup

Tomato - 1 cup 

Cut methi in to fine pieces. Cut little onions and tomato. In pan add oil and splutter mustard seeds . The add onion , methi and little garlic if you like, saute till raw smell goes away. Then add tomato and saute. Add little tamarind water and let it boil. Soak toor dal and then pressure cook it . Once the sambar starts to boil add sambar powder or any spices that you usually add. Then at the end add cooked toor dal

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Paruppu Usuli

Ingredients

Channa dal - handful Toor dal - 1 spoon Red chilli - 1 (based on the spice level)

Soak all 3 for 30 mins in hot water. Strain the water and grind it coarsely. Steam the grinded paste for 2 whistles. Let it cool down and then grind it back . Grind in pulse mode to make it like a coarse powder.  In pan, add oil, splutter mustard seeds, add this powder fry it and then add the veggie that you have steamed and kept ready . Toss it for few mins and then usilli is ready

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Paal Payasam (Milk Kheer)

Ingredients:

Basmati rice /Sona Masoori  - 1 table spoon

Milk - 2 cups

Evaporated Milk - 1 can 

Sugar - Based on your taste 

Saffron - 5 strands (Soak this in water , before adding to the kheer)

Paal payasam is one of my all time favorite dessert.  

Step by step on how to make this yummy kheer 

1. In a pan add a spoon of ghee and roast the rice (basmati rice makes the taster richer but any rice is fine too)

 Once it cools down grind it in mixer in pulse mode  to ravai consistency 

Pressure cook the grounded rice 

 Take a thick bottom pan and add milk (2% or whole milk )

 Once it boils add the sugar (Sugar add according to your taste ,   I generally add less sugar even for desserts :))

Add the cooked rice into the milk and mix it well without lumps

Add the evaporated milk into it and reduce the stove flame to sim mode

Add the soaked saffron into kheer 

Add a pinch of salt to the kheer (shhh this is a secret ingredient) 

Server it hot 

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My First Blog

Hi All, 

I have just started to blog my recipes due to lot of interest from my family especially my brother and his wife  and friends. My blog is more for home cooking on everyday basis nothing fancy like restaurant .I will be posting my own tried tested recipes which people can try out with simple ingredients at home. My motive of blogging is to make cooking look easy and fun for everyone.