My anjarai petti - Well technically ezharai petti

Here...

Always keep the basic items that you require to cook in this box. This will help you to access the items that you need regularly for cooking. I usually have the following:
1. Salt
2. Chilli Powder
3. Curry Powder
4. Jeera/Cumin
5. Mustard
6. Tumeric
7. Fenugreek Seeds/Vendhaiyam(in tamil). Keep this powdered if possible.

All the above contents needs to be added in all the dishes that we make. So keeping them all in one place helps us. Here is a pic of my box in which I keep these.

Poricha kootu / Vegetable kootu

The healthy and tasty dish that I like to make is Poricha kootu. Any vegetable of choice can be added. It can be eaten with rice and it also serves as a good side dish for Chapathi. So here are the easy steps in making the dish.

Total time taken - 15 minutes/ 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Vegetables:
1. Chow chow - 1/2 cup
2. Carrot - 1/2 cup
3. Peas - 1/4 cup
4. Cabbage - 1/2 cup
Any good vegetable can be added based on your choice.

For Seasoning:
1. Black Pepper - 2 teaspoons
2. Urad Dal - 2 teaspoons
3. Channa Dal - 2 teaspoons
4. Mustard - 2 teaspoons
5. Asafetida - 1/2 teaspoon
6. Ginger garlic paste - 1 teaspoon

Create paste with:
1. Coconut - 1 cup
2. Red chillies - 3 pieces
3. Jeera/Cumin- 2 teaspoons
4. Dhania - 1/2 teaspoon
5. Tamarind(wash with water and add) - a pinch

Others:
1. Toor Dal - 1 cup
2. Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
2. Turmeric Powder - 2 tespoons
3. Salt to taste
4. Oil - 2 teaspoons
5. Chilli Powder - 2 teaspoon
6. Curry Powder - 1 teaspoon

Tip: Don't worry seeing so many ingredients... Once you start using them regularly they will seem to be easy to use. And always remember to keep all the ingredients ready before cooking. This dish is thick and heavy, when eating with rice, choose an easier side-dish. Also, wash all the vegetables before cutting them. If washed later, the nutrition would be lost.

Steps:
1. Pressure cook Toor dal and Moong dal. Add turmeric powder along with it initially.
2. Keep the stove in normal heat and in a pan add oil and the ingredients required for seasoning and saute for few minutes.
3. Once done, add the vegetables and pour some water and close the lid. Let them boil for 5 to 10 minutes. Make sure all the vegetables are boiled properly.
4. Once done, add the paste, curry powder and chilli powder.
5. Mix all of the above contents well. Then add salt as required. Always add salt little by little so that it does not go excess. Once done, take the dish in a spoon separately to check the salt level.
6. Add the dal that was pressure cooked into the pan.
7. Keep the stove in high for 2 to 3 minutes until all the ingredients are mixed well. Keep stirring.
8. Once done keep the stove in sim and let it be there for few minutes.
9. Now pour the dish to a content and garnish with coriander leaves.
10. For people who wish to add seasoning at the end, it can be done by following the step 2 in the end.

And thats all, the dish is all ready to eat. I just love to eat it with chapathi as it is very much filling and also is very healthy!
Do let me know if you follow the same steps or how different yours is!

Make sure to -
1. Wash the vegetables and boil them enough so that the raw taste is gone.
2. Avoid microwave heating. I know its easier. But its not good in long run!
3. Cook only the amount needed. Do not waste food.

And as always, enjoy eating and enjoy more while cooking! :)

Here is a pic of hot hot poricha kootu that I made:

My first dish - Pongal

I guess most of our South Indians begin our journey into cooking by starting with this very indian dish... Easy to make and tasty to eat! Being in Chennai, the one function which I remember celebrating the most is Pongal! So here I go with my way of cooking...

P.S.: There are different ways of cooking Pongal, I am posting here the way I do!

Ingredients:

1. Rice - 1 cup
2. Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
3. Curry Leaves - few leaves
4. Jeera(cumin seeds) - 2 tbl spns
5. Black Pepper(whole) - 2 tbl spns
4. Ginger - few pieces
5. Cashew - few pieces
6. Ghee - amount required to fry
7. Salt - to taste

Tips: Always keep all the ingredients you need before cooking that way you can be cool and relaxed while cooking. I used to initially mess up things as I would never "be prepared" for cooking! :)

Steps:

1. Some people fry rice and moong dal before cooking. I dont prefer this. But if interested you can! so my first step is mix both rice and moong dal in rice cooker.
2. Usually for 1 cup rice, we add 3 cups of water. But since we want pongal to be little watery, we add 4 cups of water(my mom's tip).
3. For 1/4 cup moong dal add 1 cup water. So totally 5 cups of water to be added with rice and dal. Add the required salt into it and mix well.
4. Close the cooker and keep it on the stove. Ok, for those using rice cooker, no worries, just turn on the cook button. For those using induction stove, make sure you heat it in 7 or 8.
5. While the dal&rice is being cooked, take a pan/kadai and pour the ghee.
6. Add jeera & pepper initially and saute them for 1 or 2 minutes.
7. Then add ginger and cashew and fry them for few mintues. Make sure the cashew does not turn brown.
8. Add the curry leaves.
9. Once the rice&dal is done, pour the ingredients in the pan into the cooked dal&rice. Mix them well in such a way that they are evenly spread.

Few other things to keep eye on -
1. Make sure salt is distributed evenly in the pongal.
2. Add a little water towards the end if required to make it more liquidish.
3. More the ghee, more the taste. But also more the fat. So your call!

Super, so we are good to cook Pongal... :) Here is a pic of Pongal that I made...

Madhu's confessions

Here are a list of confessions before even I publish my blogs...

-> The first time I started cooking was when I was 24. Have been to kitchen before that but to eat whatever mom cooks...
-> I started cooking regularly only after my marriage...
-> Never thought I would be blogging about cooking... :P
And the most important thing is the reason for me to blog about cooking... I know there are enough sites to teach cooking... But here I am posting this because I want to share my experiences while cooking and would like be an encouragement for those who are beginners in this area and mostly because I would love to get more ideas and comments from each one of you who know more than I do!

So here I go...