Kitchen and Home Making

I always like to have my cup of Chai / Tea (a hot beverage) piping hot. I use to start my day daily with a cup of hot tea, which makes me brisk and bright. Masala Chai is a blend of aromatic spices with our normal tea. Masala Chai gives a warmth feeling, when we have it during rainy days or at winter time. Combination of spices and the amount of spices added in preparing masala chai powder depends upon individual taste. People who love the flavor of ginger in tea can add more ginger while preparing masala powder and who love cardamom flavor can add more number of cardamoms. So, everything is at their own discretion. When you have cold and congestion in nose, Masala Chai really gives a good relief and soothing feel.

Garam Masala, a flavorful masala powder, a blend of most of our Indian spices, used in lot of variety rices, biriyani’s, and gravies. So, we can say it is a must to have ingredient in our Indian kitchen. If you start google for this recipe, you will have a lot and lot of recipes, and Here, I have shared my version of preparing Garam Masala, which I believe it, as a strong, flavorful one. Whenever I prepare this garam masala at home, its nice aroma, fill my home, a whole and whole day. The secret ingredient of most of all my recipes is this “Homemade Garam Masala”.  

Sometimes, simple and less amount of ingredients, with less work, makes magic tastewise and even we too stick to its taste and use frequently and repeatedly ( Hope everyone agrees with me).  Such one recipe is Idly Milagai Podi. “Idly Podi” or “Dosa / Dosai Podi” or “Ennai Podi” or “Idly Milagai Podi”, called out with varied names and with varied recipes, from home to home, state to state, is a spicy dry powder, made with a main combination of Black Gram and Dry Red Chilly,  which is mixed with sesame oil, and used as a side dish (sometimes Ennai Podi becomes main dish for me and my son, we both love that much, mmmm….mouthwatering for me now itself!) , for Idli’s and Dosa’s (Hhhmmmm….. whooo…. completed the very long sentence anyhow!(LOL!) ).

Homemade sambar powder always have a nice aroma and fresh flavor infused in it, when compared to store bought ones. I never use store bought sambhar powder for preparing sambar in my home, since am not compromised with the taste. I always and always love homemade ones. The ingredients included in sambar powder may vary from home to home and everyone of them has  different taste. My mom use to make sambar powder in her own way and we all love the Sambhar made out of it. Am also following the same recipe of my mom and always prepare in large quantity and store it in air tight containers. This sambhar powder, if prepared and stored as mentioned here, shelf life will be about 6 months with its fresh aroma.

Kuzhambu Podi is a ready mix powder use to prepare all types of kulambu varieties / South Indian gravies and we can prepare even North Indian gravies too with this powder since it has all basic ingredients like coriander, red chilly, urad dhal, and fenugreek.  Kulambu podi is prepared in different methods but we (sourashtra people) use to prepare this in such a way to suit our taste and needs. We use to  prepare it in large quantity and store for more than 6 months or a year. It stays good for a long time since we fry all the ingredients and dry it in sunshade well, which increases the life shelf of the powder. The aroma of the powder stays good when it is stored in an air tight container.

 Since am a sourashtrian from south of Tamilnadu, our recipes and cooking methods will be little different from other people of South Tamilnadu.  Such one recipe is "Rasam Powder". We use to make rasam with this powder only.Though making of this powder needs little experience and patience, it is easy to prepare. Once you stuck up with the taste of the rasam made with this powder, you never mind the time taking process behind it. An one day tiresome job, will help you to prepare tasty  rasam daily for years. Let me come to the recipe straight, without building my story. Rasam Powder Ingredients: Black Peppercorns - 2 cups ( I used my measuring cup) Dry Red                 - 250 gms Cumin Seeds         - 25  gms Asafoetida            - 50 gms Method:      ...

Hi friends! There was a bug in my blog and so lot of bloggers were not able to post their comments and i came to know about it from Mahimaa and thanks a lot, Mahimaa! I have rectified the problem now and you all can comment on my post as usual! My Ragi Dosa recipe is chosen as 1 among the top 10 recipes in the contest conducted by Sangeeth of Let Us All Cook . and you can find the poll in right side of her blog . Now it is time for voting and it ill be kept opened till Dec 8th. I request everyone to Vote for my recipe and let your friends know so that they can vote too for my recipe:). My recipe is in position number 1. Please vote for me! Let's Come to the recipe now! Bitter Gourd/ Pavakkai Fry Ingredients: Bitter gourd - 3 (cut into thin circles) Onion -1 (finely chopped) Chilly Powder – 1 tsp Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp Rice Flour – ½ tsp Corn Flour – ½ tsp Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp Curry Leaves - few Salt – to taste Cooking Oil Cooking Instructions: Marinate ...

Ingredients: Coriander Seeds – 100 gms Fenugreek Seeds – 20 gms Dry Red Chilly – 100 gms Bengal Gram – 100 gms Cumin Seeds – 25 gms Solid Asafoetodia / Katti Perungayam – 50 gms Cooking Instructions: Fry coriander seeds in a deep pan in a simmer flame until it smells well and keep it aside. Fry the fenugreek seeds in a pan in a simmer flame until it turns a little brown and keep it aside. Fry dry red chilly for a while in a simmer flame until it turns a little brown and keep it aside. Fry Bengal gram in simmer flame in a pan until it turns brown and smells well. Similarly fry asafoetodia and cumin seeds in pan in simmer flame until it smells well and keep it aside. Now let all the fried ingredients to cool for a while. Add all the fried ingredients in a mixie and grind it to fine powder. Let it cool for a while and store it in an airtight container and use whenever it require. Like this article? Subscribe to the RSS feed!

Ingredients : Curry Leaves - 10 gms Dry red Chilly - 8 Bengal Gram (channa Dal) - 1/4 cup Broken Black Gram (urad dal) - 1/4 cup Pepper - 2 tsp Salt - to taste Cooking Instructions : Fry the curry leaves in a pan without adding oil till it is crispy and keep it aside. Fry the urad dal and channa dal in a pan until it turns golden brown. Fry the red chilly and pepper in a pan withou oil for a while. Grind all the ingredients with salt to a fine powder. Store this powder in an air tight container. You can mix this powder in hot rice with a tbsp of ghee.

Ingredients : Cardamom - 10 gms Aniseeds - 10 gms Bay Leaf - 10 gms Cinnamon - 10 gms Cloves - 10 gms Cumin Seeds - 10 gms Cooking Instructions : Stir fry all the above ingredients in a pan in a simmer for a while. Grind it to a fine powder and preserve in an air tight container. You can use this powder to the required level in tomato rice, Briyani ,Pulao and Gravies.

Ingredients : Dry Mango Powder - 10 gms Coriander Seeds - 10 gms Dry Red Chilly - 8 Pepper Corns - 5 gms Cumin Seeds - 5 gms Salt - to taste Cooking Instructions : Stir fry all the ingredients to a fine powder. You can use this powder for all chat items.

Ingredients: Coriander Seeds - 50 gms Dry Red Chilly - 50 gms Cinnamon - 25 gms Cloves - 25 gms Turmeric Powder - 25 gms Pepper - 25 gms Salt - to taste Cooking Instructions: Stir fry all the ingredients in a pan without oil. Grind it to a fine powder and preserve it in a container. This masala can be used for all non vegetarian and vegetarian items.

Ingredients : Roasted Gram (Pottukadalai) - 25 gms Bengal Gram (Channa Dal) - 25 gms Red Gram (Tuar Dal) - 50 gms Pepper - 10 gms Dry Red Chilly - 10 gms Salt - to taste Cooking oil/ Ghee - 1 tbsp Cooking Instructions : Heat oil in a pan and add tuar dal, channa dal and let it cook till it turns golden brown. Add Pottukadalai to it and fry for a while. Add pepper, dry chilly and salt and fry for a while. Grind it to a fine powder. This powder can be mixed with hot rice with a tbsp of ghee.

Ingredients : Coriander - 50 gms Aniseeds - 10 gms Cinnamon - 5 gms Cumin Seeds - 10 gms Dry Red Chilly - 20 gms Cardamom - 10 gms Pepper - 10 gms Bengal Gram - 25 gms Cooking Instructions : Stir fry all the ingredients in a pan and grind it to a fine powder. This masala can be used in tomato rice, vegetable briyani, khuska, ghee rice and in non veg briyanis.