Triple Decker Fruit Salad

Fruits are the best source of good health. It is always recommended to eat at least one fruit a day. I am a very poor fruit eater and so is my hubby. But I made it a point to eat fruits every day during my pregnancy (however, with some difficulty). People who are bored to eat fruits as such can try starting with a fruit salad, a fruit chat or a fruit juice or a fruit mocktail. However, these can never match the health that is rendered by eating fruits naturally. I am sure, a fruit salad once in a while can actually hep you start eating fruits regularly.

I had tried this triple decker fruit salad many years ago from a cookery show. It is such a wonderful desert which everyone, right from children to old people, will love to have. This can be made purely by your imagination; so I am not giving exact measurements of the ingredients. Here we go for the recipe!

Ingredients:

Mixed cut fruits - Banana, mango, grapes, pineapple, apple, watermelon
Dry fruits - Dates, raisins, cashews, apricots, fig
Fresh or processed cherries
Gelatin crystals (Strawberry or raspberry flavour to give a bright red colour)
Custard powder (Vanilla flavour)
Fresh cream
Milk
Sugar
Wafer to decorate

Method:

• Prepare the jelly and also the custard with milk and sugar as per instructions given on the pack and let it set and refrigerate for an hour.
• Take a transparent glass and first layer it with the custard.
• Then add the mixed fruits one by one in layers (I just used banana and mango).
• Then layer it with the red coloured jelly.
• Add some fresh cream atop this. Add the cut dry fruits (I added dates).
• Finally crown it with a cherry. Decorate it with a wafer.
• Serve as such or you may serve it chilled.

Variations:

• You can add vanilla ice cream, choco chips, choco shavings and also top up with a little chocolate sauce along with the cream.
• If adding ice cream, do not add cream.
• You can include more fruits and more layers of custard and jelly, in which case you would need a tall glass.

Potato Pulav/Easy Potato Pulav

I am a big fan of pulavs. Any pulav or one-pot biryani is always my favourite and is in my wishlist even when I to restaurants. I would strongly recommend to make any kind of pulav with basmati rice as it imparts a nice flavour and aroma to the dish. This potato pulav is my very own recipe!!! Yes, this recipe I dint even plan for. It just occurred to me as I was mulling over as to what to make for dinner. I just had potatoes and some frozen peas. I had not planned anything for dinner. I just went in to the kitchen and started off with whatever was available, and finally came out with this tasty pulav. I had no plans of posting this one. So I did not take stepwise pictures.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 1 and 1/2 cups
Potatoes (finely diced into cubes) - 2 nos
Onion (chopped into thin strips) - 1 no
Frozen peas - a fistful (optional)
Green chillies (slit vertically) - 2 nos
Bay leaf - 1
Star anise, cinnamon - 1 each
Jeera - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Shahi pulao masala (store-bought) - 2 tsps
Ghee and/or oil - 2 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves - for garnishing
Salt to taste

Method:

• Soak the basmati rice for 15 to 30 minutes. Wash, drain and then keep aside.
• Switch on an electric cooker,  and in the vessel pour some oil and/or ghee and add the cinnamon, start anise and bay leaf. Then add the onions and the green chillies and stir fry for a minute or till the onions become golden brown.
• Then add the shahi pulao masala (I used Catch) and mix well.
• Add the soaked basmati rice and a little ghee on top and mix for about half-a-minute.
• Pour 1 and 1/2 times of water to that of rice; 1 cup of rice is to 1 and 1/2 cups of water.
• Add salt at this stage and close the lid of the cooker and let it get cooked.
• Meanwhile, in a separate pan add oil and splutter some jeera. Add the cubed potatoes and add salt and turmeric powder. Let this get fried/roasted well (Just like potato curry).
• Finally add the chilly powder and mix well.
• When the rice is done, add the peas and the roasted potato to the rice and mix gently so as to not break the rice.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.
• Serve hot with any raitha or just plain curds. It tastes heavenly.

Chole Masala/Channa Masala/Side Dish for Poori

Chole masala or channa masala is a healthy, tasty and filling side dish, usually taken with Batura or 'Chola Poori' as it is known in South India. It is an easy-to-make dish if you have the channa soaked well. This is made with the white channa or Kabuli channa with which we make sundal. You can also make this with some left over sundal!

I made this for poori when we had guests at home. It came out really tasty. I used the basics from Manjula's kitchen and made some variations to it. This went well with the pooris.

Ingredients:

• Kabuli channa - 50 g or 1/2 cup
• Tomatoes pureed - 2 to 3 nos
• Onion finely chopped - 1 big
• Chilly powder - 1 to 2 tsp
• Dhania powder -  3 tsp
• Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• Green chillies - 2 slit
• Besan flour - 1 tbsp
• Ghee/oil - 1 tbsp
• Coriander leaves - for garnishing
• Salt to taste

 Method:

• Soak the Kabuli channa overnight for about 12 hours. Pressure cook the soaked channa with water and salt along with a teabag for 3 to 4 whistles. The addition of the teabag is to give colour to the channa.

• In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat oil and/or ghee and add the besan flour and stir well. This is to give good thickness and consistency to the gravy. This also enhances the flavour. Then add slit green chillies and onions and stir fry for sometime.

• Then add the tomato puree and fry till it comes to a boil and leaves the sides of the pan. Add the powders one by one and mix well. Add water if necessary and salt to taste.

• Finally add the cooked channa and give it a boil. Adjust water accordingly. Garnish with coriander leaves. While serving you can add a dash of lemon juice if desired.

•  Serve hot with bautra, poori, chapathi or rice.

Bajji/Assorted Bajji/Vegetable Bajji

Bajji is a favourite South Indian fried teatime snack. The ingredients are very less and its easy to prepare with whatever veggie is available at home. I am a big fan of bajji and so are others in my family. My mom used to make small hot bajjis and I used to eat it without keeping count of it. In shops or restaurants we will not be able to eat more than 2 or 3. But at home, the number is infinite. When I talk about bajji, I should surely mention the bajjis available at Besant Nagar Elliots beach in Chennai. If you are not worried about the oil once in a while, the bajjis taste heavenly there. I too came to know of it only through my mom's boss and his family who took us there once especially for the bajji! Wow, it tasted awesome. Now, over to the recipe.

Ingredients

• Besan flour/channa dal flour - 1 cup
• Rice flour - 1 cup
• Assorted sliced vegetables - Potato/Raw banana/Onion/Capsicum/Brinjal
• Chilly powder - 2 to 3 tsp (adjust to your taste)
• Asafoetida powder - A pinch
• Ghee - 1/2 tsp (optional)
• Orange food colour (optional)
• Oil - As needed to fry
• Salt - As needed
• Water - As needed

 Method

•   Slice all the veggies thin and keep aside. I used potatoes and capsicum for the bajjis.

•  In a bowl, mix all the ingredients except the veggies and water.

• Now add water to the mix and make a pourable batter.

• You can keep this aside for about 10 minutes for the spiciness to get absorbed in the batter.
• Meanwhile heat a kadai with oil to fry.
• Then dip the sliced veggies one by one in the batter until the veggies get coated well with the batter. Immediately drop them in the hot oil and fry them one by one or in batches until golden brown. Turn the bajjis around with a ladle while frying.

• After frying, drain  them in a strainer vessel and a paper towel.
• Serve hot with tomato sauce or coconut chutney or even left over sambar from lunch.
• I always like to have it as such.

Wheat Halwa/ Tirunelveli Halwa

To begin with, I am posting the recipe of a sweet - the ever famous wheat halwa or Tirunelveli halwa. So, what's the difference between Bombay halwa and Tirunelveli halwa? Bombay halwa has the addition of gelatin to gain the stiffness it needs. Tirunelveli halwa just uses wheat and the rubbery texture to it is imparted by the gluten present in the wheat. I got this recipe from my perima; she made and brought this to me when I was pregnant. It was yummy! So, here we go to the recipe...

Ingredients

• Broken wheat/Samba wheat rava - 1 cup
• Sugar - 2 cups heaped + 1 level cup
• Water - 2 cups + as needed to soak
• Cardamom/elaichi powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Nutmeg powder - 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
• Kesari colour - A pinch
• Ghee - 4 to 5 tablespoons

Note: 1 cup mentioned here is 1 measure using any size of cup.

Method

•   Soak the broken wheat rava in water for 1 hour.

• Meanwhile, fry some cashews in some ghee and keep aside. Grease a tray with some ghee and keep aside.
• After 1 hour, drain the water from the soaked samba rava. Empty the soaked rava in a mixie and add 1 cup of water to it and grind till smooth. Strain the ground rava to get a milky substance (this is the main ingredient of the halwa).
• After straining, take the rava pulp, add the other 1 cup of water and grind it, and then strain it again in to the vessel. You discard the remaining pulp (which will not be much).
• In a pan (preferably nonstick) add the sugar and pour water until the sugar is immersed. Mix it in low flame until the sugar dissolves completely. There is no need to get any syrupy consistency.
• Now, pour the samba rava milk in to the dissolved sugar and mix. Add kesari colour at this stage.

• Mix well and add the cardamom, cashews and nutmeg powder at this stage.
• Keep mixing well; add ghee little by little while constantly mixing. In some time, the halwa will separate out from the pan and roll up together.

• Add a little more ghee and then switch off the flame when the halwa comes out clean and nonsticky.
• Pour it on to the greased tray and make pieces. Garnish with some more cashews if needed.
• For me, the pieces came out in good shape only the next day. But the taste was good enough.

About the Site

Hi,

I am Dhaarini Vinodh, an editor and a mother of a 1-year-old. Cooking is my passion, I should say right from childhood, as I remember always sneaking in to the kitchen when mom and granny were cooking and used to observe what they were doing. I would also enjoy the cookery shows along with them. In fact, I and my cousins would try out some new dishes without using the stove and give names to it when we were children! It used to be fun! As I grew up, I simply kept watching cookery shows when possible, but never tried anything much at home. I just tried making some rice varieties and side dishes at home. During my college days, me and my friends used to decide up on a meal recipe and would schedule a day at each of our homes and cook together. Wow! What fun it was! We would begin without knowing where to start with, but will end up making fa(u)ntastic dishes! Yumm they were. Whatever it is, I never used to try our own South Indian conventional cooking. After my marriage, I tried my hand in different types of cooking and learnt many conventional and unconventional dishes. Then I started to follow some food blogs also, which inspired me to start this one.

I should thank all elders at home for inspiring me in cooking and introducing me to new dishes. Credit must also go to my hubby for he was the one who introduced me to a lot of cuisines by taking me to some new restaurant every time.

This blog will feature only vegetarian dishes (as I am a vegan). Most of the recipes I should say are fusion, because those will be altered according my taste and availability of ingredients. Hence the name of this blog. Credits will surely be given to those from whom I got the recipe. More than the cooking and eating what we cook, the appreciation that we get from others is what really keeps us going. Don't you agree? Come on, let's relish!:)