Chicken 65

It is a popular fast food item, which can easily be prepared at home.

Ingredients:

• Chicken (boneless, legs, or thighs: 1/2 kg, cut into small pieces)
• Chili powder: 4 tsp
• Coriander (Dhania) powder: 2tsp
• Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp
• Garam masala powder: ¼ tsp
• Lemon juice: 5 tsp
• Yogurt/curd: 2 tsp
• Ginger-garlic paste: 1 tsp
• Food color: 3 pinch
• Oil for deep frying: 2 cups
• Coriander leaves (for garnishing): 4 stalks
• Salt to taste.

Method of preparation:

• Mix red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt, garam masala, color, ginger garlic paste, lemon juice and curd in a deep bowl.
• Prepare a thick paste.
• Add chicken pieces and stir well so that the masala is coated all over the pieces. Marinate for about an hour.
• Heat edible oil in a wok.
• Deep fry on medium flame until brown color.
• Drain excess oil.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.
• Serve with onion – lemon – tomato salad.

Very tasty to have with rice, biriyani, pulav, kushka, puri, purotta (parantha), etc.

Cabbage Pickle / Pickled Cabbage

Cabbage pickle is an easy to prepare tasty pickle. It will last for about ten days, if preserved properly in a fridge.

Ingredients:

• Grated cabbage – 1 cup
• Chili powder – 1 tsp
• Mustard powder –1tsp
• Finely grated Garlic pods – 4
• Edible oil – 2 tsp
• Salt – 1 tsp
  
  

Method of preparation:

• Sprinkle salt on grated cabbage.
• Leave it for about an hour.
• Separate water by squeezing the cabbage completely.
• Discard the water.
• Add all other ingredients one after the other.
• Cabbage pickle will automatically be ready within about five hours.
• Tastes good with cooked rice, parotha, chapatti, etc.

Idli (Idly)

• Wash 4 cups of parboiled rice (pulungal arisi).
• Wash 1 cup of urad dal (husked black gram / ulundham paruppu) + a tsp of fenugreek (methi / vendhayam). (Wash only a little to retain available yeast, which is useful for fermentation).
• Soak them separately in water for about 2 hours.
• Grind rice and dal separately to a smooth fine paste. Add water little by little while grinding to achieve desired result. Cold grinding is preferable.
• Mix together with 2 teaspoon of salt with your hand and make a thick batter and just cover the container.
• Leave it for not less than 8 hours to ferment. The duration of fermentation is more during winter or in cold countries. The volume of batter increases and becomes almost double at the required fermentation stage. So select the container accordingly.
• Boil water in idli cooker.
• Apply oil over plates of idli stand.
• Stir the batter a little (If you stir more air bubbles will come out resulting in less spongy idlies), pour in the idli plate with the help of a spoon and place it inside the cooker.
• You can use normal cooker without the weight.
• Steam for about 10 minutes.
• Take out the stand, remove idlies from plates by using a sharp wet spoon.
• Serve hot with sambar, chutney, mutton /chicken gravy, or milagai podi with gingelly oil.

Mango Rice, Coconut Rice, Potato chips, Salad, Sambar Vadai, Payasam (Kheer), Sweet Porridge, Rava (Suji) Laddu, Halwa, Nellikkai(Amla) Chutney,etc.

Mango Rice (Mangai Sadam)
Cook 1 cup of Rice. Cut a small piece of ginger and 2 green chilies (chillies) into very small pieces. Peel and grate a raw mango. Fry 1/4 Cup of Peanuts(ground nuts) for about one minute, by using 2 tsp Oil,1 tsp Mustard seeds and fresh Curry leaves. Add ginger, green chilies and grated mangoes. Stir, till the mango gets cooked. Remove from flame. Mix with rice and Salt to taste. Serve hot or cold.

Coconut Rice (Tengai Sadam)
Fry 1 Cup of grated coconut, by using 2 tsp coconut oil, 1/4 tsp each of mustard seeds, black gram(ulundam paruppu,urad dal), Bengal gram(kadalai paruppu,channa dal), some peanuts (ground nuts), cashew nuts, fresh Curry leaves and 2 green chilies. Continue frying on a medium heat till the appearance of golden color. Mix this well with 2 cups of cooked rice and salt to taste.

Potato chips
Slice potatoes thin and round. Add some salt in a bowl of water, soak the slices for 5 minutes and dry. Deep fry them in oil. Mix with red chilly powder.

Mixed fruit salad
Cut required quantity of fruits like grapes, banana, papaya, orange, apple, pineapple, and dates. Boil some jaggery in a little milk and filter. Mix every thing slowly with pre boiled cold milk and keep in refrigerator. Serve cold.

Idli Podi
Roast and grind 100 gm each of Black gram (ulundam paruppu,urad dal), Bengal gram (kadalai paruppu,channa dal ), 50 gm each of red chilly, white sesame and a few curry leaves, separately. Mix all with a little asafoetida (perungayam,hing) and required amount of salt. Store in air tight container.


Sambar Vadai
Soak 1 cup of urad dal (husked black gram, ulundham paruppu) for ½ an hour. Grind to a smooth paste and mix well with a tbsp of rice flour (arisi mavu) , 1/2 chopped onion, 1 chopped green chilli, 2 coarsely broken blackpepper, a handful of mixture of chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves and salt to taste. Shape into vadais of preferable size and deep fry.Put them in hot sambar. They float,absorb sambar, and become smooth and tasty Sambar vadais.

Quick Pal Payasam (Kheer).
Take 1 litre of milk, ½ Kg of sugar, a handful of washed rice of your preference & a pinch of cardamom in a pressure cooker. Cook for one whistle and then for about 5 minutes.

Sweet Porridge
Boil 100 gms of broken wheat with 100 ml of milk, a tablespoonful of coconut turnings and a little water, till the broken wheat becomes soft. Add 50 gms of jaggery and a pinch of cardamom powder. Boil further for 5 minutes. Serve for 5.

Rava Laddu
Roast 1 cup of rava slowly until it gives an aroma. Allow it to cool. Grind it soft. Grind 1 cup of sugar into powder. Mix them with ½ tsp of cardamom powder. Fry qty 6 cashew nuts and qty 10 raisins (kismis) in ¼ cup of ghee and mix well with the powdered mixture of rava, sugar and cardamom. Make laddus (round balls). Add hot ghee if required to make laddus conveniently.



Carrot Halwa
Boil 500 gm of grated carrots in 750 ml of milk. Stir intermittently at the beginning and continuously when it starts thickening. Reduce flame; add 200gm of sugar, a tsp of ghee and a pinch of cardamom powder. Stir until the ghee comes out. Serve hot with decoration of your choice.



Nellikkai (Amla) Chutney
Take 100 gms of nellikkai. Remove seeds. Grind with a green chili, a little ginger, garlic, salt and jaggery (optional).Season with mustard seed, jeeragam (jeera or cumin seed) and oil.

Ginger Tea
Boil 500 ml of water. Add some slices of fresh ginger root. Reduce flame. Cook for 10 minutes and strain. Add honey and/or lemon juice of your choice. Drink hot. (Good remedy for sore throat, cold, etc.)