Spicy Buttermilk

Buttermilk is a probiotic food. Buttermilk is also a great source of calcium, phosphorus, potassium and B12 . Buttermilk improves digestion. It is useful in the treatment of digestive disorders, gastro-intestinal disorders, lack of appetite, anaemia, spleen disorders and inflammation. Little or no fat buttermilk is highly beneficial in Winter. Curd and full-fat buttermilk have cooling effect, so they are beneficial in Summer. 

Preparation: 

• Beat the curd/yogurt. I used home made curd. Add an equal quantity of cool water and salt to taste. Beat well. You can add more water if you like it thinner. I add more water.
• Crush the ginger, shallot, green chilly and curry leaves. Add this to the buttermilk. Stir well. If you have fresh lime/lemon leaves tear it and add it to the butter milk for added flavor. 
• If you want you can pass this drink through a sieve before serving. Otherwise also it is very good.
• Enjoy this refreshing drink on a hot summer day. 

*Ingredients: 

Curd/ Yogurt - 1/2 cup 

Cool water - 1/2 cup + more 

Salt to taste 

Green chilly - 1 small or cut a one inch piece from a bigger one. 

Ginger - 1/4 inch piece 

Shallot -1 

Curry leaves - 2 or 3 leaves 

Lime/ lemon leaves - 1 (optional) 

*For a Single serving 

Shallot Chutney and Wheat flour Dosa

Shallots are part and parcel of Kerala cuisine. They contain more anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals than onion and garlic. Shallots contain proteins, dietary fiber, Vitamin C, A, B6, potassium, folate and manganese. They are rich in flavanoids and polyphenolic compounds.

Preparation:

• Soak red chillies in hot water for 15 minutes.
• Grind the red chillies, shallots, tamarind and salt. At first it will appear coarse. Add water little by little and grind until you get a smooth paste. 
• Transfer to a bowl. Adjust the salt. 
• Add the coconut oil. Mix.
• Serve with idly/dosa/ boiled tapioca, sweet potato etc. 

Ingredients: 

Dry red chilly - 5 - 6 (less hot variety preferably) 

Shallots - 6 - 7 peeled 

Tamarind - Half inch square piece/1/2 teaspoon 

Salt to taste 

Coconut oil - 1 tablespoon 

Wheat Flour Dosa 

• Add the wheat flour into a deep bowl. Add the salt and water. Using a spoon, mix into smooth batter. Set aside for 15 minutes. 
• Heat a tawa on medium flame. Smear it with a very thin film of oil. If there is too much oil it will be difficult to spread out the dosa. Pour a spoon full of batter and spread it out, not too thin. Allow to cook on medium-low flame. Once one side is cooked well, flip and cook the other side. Be patient. 
• Serve wheat flour dosa, hot/warm/cold. It is a very soft dosa.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 11/2 cups 

Water - 2 cups (+ little more, if needed ) 

Salt to taste 

Oil - little, for smearing on the tawa 

Ari Unda / Rice Laddu

Ari Unda or Rice Laddu is a traditional snack of Kerala. It is made of rice, jaggery and grated coconut. The Ari unda which i am going to prepare now has very long shelf life. There is another easy ari unda recipe which i will publish later 

Preparation: 

• Melt the jaggery with half cup of water. Sieve and remove the impurities. Transfer the liquid jaggery into a a large, heavy pan. 
• Add the rice flour and fresh coconut into a large bowl. Knead the coconut and rice flour with your hands. Just the rice flour and coconut. Knead well. Roast this mixture on medium flame. Stir continuously. Roast until the mixture changes color and a good aroma arises. The important point is the removal of moisture from the mix. Remove from fire and keep aside. 
• Place the pan of jaggery on medium flame. Stir occasionally. Allow it to thicken. Check the consistency in between. Take a little jaggery in a spoon, wait a few seconds so the heat becomes bearable, take the jaggery in your index finger and thumb and stick the two fingers together and then pull apart, if a single string is formed between your fingers, its time to add the rice mixture into the jaggery syrup. Add the powdered cardamom also. Mix well on low flame. I like the one string consistency because the laddus will remain soft. If you want it harder you can allow the jaggery to thicken to 2 string consistency. Remove the mixture from flame and allow it to cool down to bearable heat. Using your hands make lemon sized laddus. Roll the laddus in a plate of rice flour, so that they won't stick together.
•  If the mixture cools down and you are unable to make balls, keep it on fire again and heat it up a bit. 
• Cool the laddus and store in air tight containers. 
• Serve Ari unda with tea. 

Ingredients: 

Rice Flour - 500 grams (Available in stores) 

Fresh coconut grated - 300 grams 

Jaggery - 800 grams 

Cardamom crushed/ powdered - 10 

Rice flour - 1 cup 

Neyyappam

Neyyappam is a sweet fried snack popular in Kerala, similar to donut. The ingredients are almost similar to that of Unniyappam. The main difference is unniyappam is fried in a mould (Appam patra or Appa karai). Neyyappam batter is directly poured into the hot ghee and deep fried. Ney means ghee in malayalam. The name neyyappam came to existence because it was fried in ghee. You can fry it in ghee or oil.

Preparation: 

• Wash and soak the raw rice for 4 hours. Melt the jaggery in half cup of water. Sieve and remove the impurities. Thicken the cleaned jaggery solution on low flame. (Add more jaggery if you want it sweeter.) 
• Fry the fresh coconut bits in ghee to golden brown. Keep aside. 
• Grind the rice well. But not too finely. Add the jaggery into the rice batter in the mixer bowl and mix it well. You add mashed banana now. But mashed banana reduces the shelf life. So it is optional. 
• Transfer the batter to another bowl. The batter must be neither  very very thick nor runny. Idli batter consistency. 
• Add the sesame seeds, fried coconut bits and a pinch of salt. (Other things which come under optional category may be added now). Set aside for a minimum of one hour, 4 - 5 hours is best. 
• Heat oil in a deep pan. When the oil is hot reduce heat to low. Scoop the batter in a deep spoon and pour into the hot oil. Flip and fry both sides, till deep brown. If cooked in high flame the insides will remain raw. 
• Drain on a paper towel. Serve with tea. 

Ingredients: 

Raw rice - 250 grams 

Jaggery  - 175 grams 

Fresh coconut bits - 50 grams 

Sesame seeds - 1 1/2 tablespoons 

Cardamom powder - 1/4 teaspoon OR 2 cardamoms powdered 

Salt - 1 or 2 pinches

Ghee - 2 teaspoons 

Oil or Ghee for deep frying

Water as needed 

Maida (flour) - 2 tablespoons (optional) 

Sodium bicarbonate - 2 pinches (optional)

 OR

Banana (mashed) - 1 (optional)

Mysore Bonda

Preparation: 

• Soak the urad dal (Black gram) for two hours, and grind well with very little water. Add salt to taste.
• Add the coconut bits, chopped green chilly and pepper corns. 
• Heat oil. When it starts boiling, wet your hands in water and take a little batter, roll into a ball and deep fry to golden brown. Repeat the process until the batter is over. 
• Serve with tomato sauce or coconut chutney. You can even have it as such. 

Ingredients:  *

Urad dal - 1 cup 

Green chilly - 1 chopped finely 

Black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon 

Coconut bits - 1 - 2 tablespoons 

Salt to taste 

Oil - 1 - 2 cups (depending on the size of the deep-fry pan) 




* Makes 28 mysore bondas.

Rava Dosa and Easy Chutney

Rava dosa is an easy breakfast recipe. This recipe doesn't use curd. Made with ingredients available at hand. 

Preparation: 

• Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add enough water and make a very thick batter. Start with 350 ml water. Add salt to taste. Set aside for an hour, minimum. 
• After one hour, stir the batter, if it is too thick add little water and loosen it. Be careful not to add too much water.  
• Heat a flat tawa, non-stick or otherwise, Smear a thin layer of oil, lower the flame, pour a spoonful of the thick batter in the center of the tawa and gently push the batter from the center, outward gently in circular motion, till the batter is evenly spread out. You can also do the same by taking off the hot tawa from the flame and putting it back on the flame after spreading the batter on it. Cook on medium flame. Add a few drops of oil around the sides of the dosa. When one side is cooked flip ad cook the other side. OR Use a dome-shaped lid to cover the dosa while cooking, so you don't have to flip. 
• Serve hot with chutney. An easy chutney recipe is given below. Yo can also serve the rava dosa with a chutney of your choice.
• If you like, you can add a pinch of asafeotida/hing, half a teaspoon of jeera, one finely chopped greenchilly and 3 or 4 tablespoons of finely chopped onion into the batter. Mix well and make dosa. 

Ingredients: 

Semolina/Bombay rava (Fine) - 1 cup 

Rice flour - 1/4 cup 

Maida (Flour)/Whole wheat flour* - 1/4 cup 

Salt to taste 

Water 

Oil - 2 -3 teaspoons 

Easy Chutney 

Ingredients: 

Onion chopped finely - 1 large 

Red chilly powder - 2 teaspoons 

Salt to taste 

Coconut oil  - 1  or 2 tablespoons 

Method: 

Mix all the ingredients together. Your chutney is ready. 

*Note: i used whole wheat flour. So the color.

Mix the batter well, each time, before pouring the batter on the tawa. 

Beetroot Curd Salad

Beetroots are a powerhouse of nutrients. It contains more Vitamin C than spinach. The nitrates in beetroot helps in lowering the blood pressure. It increases your stamina. A certain constituent in beetroot prevents birth-defects, so pregnant women must include it in their diet. The pigment that gives crimson color to beetroots can  prevent cancer. Beetroot detoxifies your body.

Preparation: 

• Wash the beetroot and cook it in its jacket, in a pressure cooker for 5 - 6 whistles. Don't forget to add one and a half cups of water in the pressure cooker before cooking. The beetroot should be partly immersed in water. Vary the amount of water according to the size of the cooker. Keep aside to cool. You can also cook and store the beetroot in the refrigerator, a day before. 
• Chop the beetroot finely. 
• Chop the onion finely. 
• Cut the green chilly into 3 or 4 pieces. 
• Beat the curd/yogurt. 
• Mix all the cut vegetables together in a bowl. Add the beaten curd and salt. Mix thoroughly. Your beetroot salad is ready. Sprinkle a pinch of cumin powder, but it is optional. 
• Serve with rice. You can also eat it as such. 

Ingredients:

Beetroot - 1 big 

Onion - 1/3 cup chopped 

Green chilly - 2 

Curd - 300 ml 

Salt to taste 

Cumin powder - 1 pinch (optional)