Oats upma

Ingredients:

Oats - 1 cup
Onion - vengayam - 1 no.
Tomato - Thakkali - 1 no.
Green chillies - Pachai milagai - 2 nos.
Mustard seeds - Kadugu - 1 tea spoon
Black gram dal - Udaitha ulutham paruppu - 1 tea spoon
Bengal gram dal - Kadalai paruppu - 1 tea spoon
Ginger garlic - Inji poondu - little quantity
Curry leaves - karuvepilai - Handful
Turmeric powder - Manjal thul - 1 tea spoon
Oil - Ennai - For tempering
Salt - Uppu for taste
Lemon - elumichai pazham - for taste

Method:

Heat 1 tea spoon of oil in a pan and fry oats for some 3 minutes. Keep it aside. Peel off skin and chopp onions. Wash and slice tomatoes. Wash and peel off skin and keep ginger ready. Peel off skin and keep garlic ready. Now heat oil in a pan, temper mustard seeds, black gram dal, bengal gram dal, green chillies, ginger, garlic and curry leaves. Now add turmeric powder, salt. Stirr well. Add 2 cups of water to it. Once it boils add fried oats to it. Keep stirring. Once it is cooked turn off stove. Now squeeze lemon on top of it. Upma is ready to be served. It can be served for 2 people. Requires hardly 15 minutes to cook.

Note: Any type of oats can be used. Oats is very good for health. Serve with any kind of chutny.

Optional: Red chillies can be added instead of green chillies. Coconut gratings, cashew nuts, coriander leaves can be added. Ingredients can be added/removed.

Groundnut/Peanut chutny - Verkadalai chutny

Ingredients:

Groundnut/Peanut - Verkadalai - 1 cup
Red chillies - 3 nos.
Broken black gram dal - Udaitha ulutham paruppu - 1 table spoon
Tamarind - Puli - lemon size
Mustard - Kadugu - 1 tea spoon
Oil - Ennai - For tempering
Hing/Asafoetida - Perungayam - a pinch
Salt - Uppu - For taste

Method:

Fry ground nuts in a pan/kadai and remove skin. Keep it aside. Heat a table spoon of oil in a pan, fry red chillies, ulutham paruppu, tamarind, add hing and add this content to ground nut, add little salt and grind it to a paste. Temper mustard seeds and add to it. This can be served as side dish for Idly, dosa, Pongal, Upma.

Note: Ground nuts should be of good quality, if it is not good even one peanut will spoil the whole chutny.

Optional: Coconut gratings can be added. Ingredients can be added or removed.

Potato bajji - Urulai kizhangu bajji

Ingredients:

Bengal gram flour - Kadalai mavu - 1 cup
Rice flour - Arisi mavu - 1 table spoon
Chilly powder - Milagai thul - 1 table spoon
Ginger garlic paste - Inji Poondu vizhuthu - 1 table spoon
Potato - Urulai kizhangu - 1 no.
Hing - Perungayam - a pinch
Salt - Uppu - For taste
Oil - Ennai - For frying

Method:

Mix kadalai mavu, arisi mavu, chilly powder, ginger garlic paste, hing, salt and add water and make it like idly batter. Wash potatoes and peel off the skin and cut into round pieces. Now dip potato into the batter. Heat oil in a pan/kadai when it is hot add potatoes one by one. When it is deep fried it is ready to be served. Serve with any kind of chutny.

Note: Kadalai mavu can be ground in mill or we get readymade in shops. Arisi mave also we can prepare or get readymade. Batter should not be too thick or too thin. Always cook in medium flame since if it is in high it will burn out and taste will not be good. It should be cooked well and should be crispy too.

Optional: Instead of potatoes, onion, pachai milagai, vazhaikai, peerkangai or any vegetables can be added.

Ragi Ball - Kali

Ingredients:

Ragi flour - 1 cup
Rice - 3/4 cup
Salt - For taste

Method:

Mix ragi flour with water, consistency should be like dosa batter. Prepare this and keep for fermentation overnight. Next day morning heat this batter and stir continuously until the flour is cooked well and not sticky. Use wooden spoon and heavy bottom vessel for cooking. Now add alreay cooked rice or broken rice to this. If we use broken rice add enough water for cooking rice. Both ragi and rice must be cooked well and when it is hot make it to ball shape. Any spicy and hot side dish like vatha kulambu can be served for this.

Note: Broken rice is nothing but noi arisi. We will get this in shops. Or if left over cooked rice is there we can use that as well.

Optional: Side dish can be spicy kulambu, onion, chillies, keerai poriyal.