Kadhi

All time favorite... soul food. Sour Curd / Yogurt - 2 cups Water - 1 cup approx to liquidify the curd to lightly thick buttermilk Gram Flour / Besan - 3 tbsp Ginger green chilli paste - 1 tbsp Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp Salt - to taste Sugar - 2 tbsp (or to taste) For Tempering: Oil / Ghee - 1 tbsp Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp Coriander Seeds - 1 tsp (optional) Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 tsp (optional) Cloves and Cinnamon - 2 and 1" stick Cilantro and Curry leaves - 2 tbsp chopped finely Dry red chillies - 2 (optional) Whisk curd well and add water to form a thick liquid consistenty. Add gram flour and mix well ensuring no lumps are formed. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil on medium flame till done and the gram flour is cooked well. Heat oil in a pan add the ingredients of tempering fry for few seconds and add to the kadhi. Serve with rice.

Masala Khichadi

Food for the Soul - Khicadi! You will need : Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp Bay leaves - 2 Cinnamon - 1" stick Cloves - 3-4 Peppercorns - 1/2 tsp Peanuts - 2 tsp Ginger - Garlic Paste - 1/2 tsp Green Chilles - 2 tsp chopped Onion - 1 chopped finely Tomato - 1 chopped Other veggies - handful carrot, potato, peas (optional) Ghee / Oil - 2tsp Rice - 1 cup Tuvar Dal - 1/2 cup Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp Salt to taste Coriander Leaves - 2 tsp Cook the rice and dal together in a pressure cooker upto 3 whistle with 4 1/2 cups of water. Keep aside. In a pan heat ghee or oil, when hot add the cumin seeds and other spices and peanuts. Stir for few minutes. Add the ginger garlic paste, green chillies and onion. Stir and cook for few minutes and then add the tomatoes and mixed veggies. Add salt, turmeric powder and garam masala. cook till the veggies are done. Add the cooked rice and dal, water if required mix well and cook covered till done. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with Kadhi and papad!!

Unpalatable Sabudana Khichadi

I was sooo bored yesterday to cook something... so thought of wrapping up the day with some easy enough tiffin sabudana khichadi... made some chapatis and subzi for the next day dabba... But didnt soak the sabudana well so ... unfortunately the khichadi never turned well... never realised could throw that away and eat the food prepared for the next day... and cook something else..... Wonder why brains get soo rotten sometimes!!

Dhokla or Khaman Dhokla

Not sure which is the right term.. But after nth time of trying i got this one right finally :-) I used to often indulge in Dhoklas and other snacks from our favorite BhelPuri Corner. Also tried preparing it with all the possible recipes that used to come on TV but never got this one right... Havnt tried the Dhokla mix yet...... as its not a favorite regular snack. This is how close I could get to the street shop dhokla... I just added double quantity of gram flour (Besan) to my existing idli batter and some spices and eno salt.. and it truned really great. I normally end up having some left over of idli batter which normally doesnt make good idlis nor dosas... so dhokla does the trick..