BANANA SKIN THORAN, BANANA SKIN STIR FRY

Banana skin (nendrankaya) is used to  make thoran or stir fry subzi in Kerala. After peeling the same for making the chips, the skin is chopped very finely, along with vella payaru it is called (lal chowli or red chowli or karamani), this subzi is made.  I normally eat the same with Curd rice as I love the taste of it with curd rice apart from serving the same with rasam rice or sambar rice.  Banana skin can be used for making thogayal, chutney too.

IDLI

Idli is a traditional breakfast in South Indian households, especially in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala too where it is a popular breakfast.  It is a savory cake that is made out of rice and dehusked black gram i.e. urid dal famous in India and neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka. The batter  is fermented and is put into the mould, then steam cooked. Served along with sambhar and coconut chutney.  The fermentation process breaks down the starches so that they are more readily metabolised by the body.

This dish can be served as breakfast, and at dinner time too. In fact it is any time favourite of Indians.

You can grind the rice and dal once in a week and keep in fridge for 3 -  4  days consumption.

The first day, Idli is prepared and second day, it becomes dosa, third day if the batter is remaining, then it becomes uttappa or kuzhipaniyaram.  While preparing dosa, you can add little bit of rice flour and water  to adjust the consistency.

Since all are familiar with this dish, I am not explaining much about it and let us straight away look at the recipe now:

Other idli varieites:  Kanjeevaram Idli, tuvar dal idli, idli fry, chinese idli,
How to preserve idli batter in natural way:

JOWAR IDLI

Idlis are always good for health.  In South Indian Families,  breakfast is incomplete without Idli, dosa.  We can make varieites of Idlis viz.  Kanjeevaram Idli, tuvar dal idli, idli fry, chinese idli, Ragi Idli, Rava Idli etc.

Here I am presenting another variety with Jowar.  The humble ancient grain, Jowar (orghum) belongs to the millet family.  Sorghum is packed with iron, protein, fibre and  has a higher content of calcium.  It is antioxidant, helps in lowering cholesterol levels.

We can make porridge, kichadi, roti etc. with this grain  which  has got good health benefits.

MASALA PEANUT

Recently, we had been a restaurant and had Hungama Masala over there as starter. fried peanuts with some mild gravy, was wonderful.  We liked it very much and forgot to see the ingredients and masalas described in the menu.  Never mind, I thought I will try my own version and tried it today and could not believe, the same was really tasty.  I am sharing this recipe with you and sure will love it.

If you are having the basic ingredients at home, it can be made very quickly.

MUTTER PANEER

Mutter paneer is made  with Mutter and paneer cooked in a delicious tomato based gravy, served with rice, roti, naan, paratha etc.  It is a very delicious, simple and easy recipe to cook and tastes yummy.  The paneer can be made at home and keep in fridge.  Similarly, during the season, you can also buy fresh mutter in huge quantities, shell them and put in zip lock bag and put in freezer or you can use the dried green peas by soaking in water overnight.  I always store tomato paste or tomato masala in the fridge hence making tomato based subzi is easy for me.

Making paneer at home: Videos on Youtube:  Paneer 1 , Paneer 2, Paneer 3

FRUIT CHUTNEY

Like other chutneys, fruit chutney also goes well with idli, dosa.   Apart from eating fruits as it is and making juices, salads etc.  out of it, we can also make use of them for the preparation of chutney.   Today, I made the chutney with pomegranate and papaya and was really tasty with idli. It has become a habit for us to have anything and everything with liquid subzi or chutney hence compulsorily, I have to make something. Every time to make make something without coconut is really a difficult task.  Still I manage with something or the other and this chutney was invented by me today which I am sharing with you all.  Hope you will also like this.  This is my kind of version and there is another version of making this sweet chutney with fruits, tomato etc. which shall be posted soon.

CARROT ONION TOMATO CHUTNEY

Today I made rava dosa.  Now a days, for any item,  we prefer to  have some  liquid subzi or chutney or curd.  The dry items viz. dosa milagai podi or gun powder it is called or any dry subzi with chapati is not enjoyed by us as we earlier used to enjoy.  May be the age factor counts, I feel so.  Any way, for idli and dosa, it is always preferred with sambar or chutney.

Another biggest problem is that we cannot consume coconut much.  Hence, always a biggest task for me to make chutneys without  coconut.  Though I have posted various chutneys, here is an instant chutney with carrot, onion, tomato.   It is very easy to make as you have got all the ingredients at home any time. It goes well with chapati, roti, rice, idli and dosa too.

PULIKUTTHI UPMA

Pulikutthi upma is made out of broken rice.  During 70's when I was in my native place, we used to get rice from the ration shop which we used not only for cooking, but also for making, idli, dosa and karuvadams.  That rice was best for karuvadams.  This rice contained broken rice too which we used to separate through a sieve and used for making pulikutthi upma.

Puli means tamarind.  Yes this upma is made in tamarind sauce and served with sutta appalam or roasted papad.  My mother used to make this lovely upma which I still remember and the taste was awesome. Though I used to make it, I still prefers my mother's upma  as it was too good.

JACKFRUIT KOZHUKKATTAI

Seasonal dishes I never fail to make as they are only seasonal.  Jack fruit is available during March to June (prefer not to buy in June as the water seeps into it as a result does not taste good).  The sweet bulbs can be eaten as it is or can make chaka varati, elai adai, appam etc.

Since so many years, I never made this kozhukkatai as no one likes in my family. My children prefer to eat the fruit as it is.  This time, I  made it a point that I must make it atleast for the recipe purpose and the yield was only 5 kozhukkatai which I managed to distribute among my friends and finished it off.

This kozhukkatai is made with rice, jaggery and it is a very lovely dish if you like sweets.

PICKLED SEVAI

I have already posted three varieties of sevai.  One day, I was cleaning fridge, there was little lime pickle in a bottle.  For little amount of pickle, I have to keep one bottle in the fridge, so thought of emptying it.  Co-incidentally, I had made sevai for my daughter who likes to eat with sugar and milk.  I just mixed the pickle with the sevai, tempered with urid dal, mustard seeds and curry leaves, garnished with coriander leaves, loved it.  So the recipe is here.  very simple, tasty and easy to make.

You can use any kind of pickle.

other varieties of sevai:    limbu sevai,  amaranth sevai, coconut sevai, kothamalli sevai