Medu Vada

Ingredients
Urad Dal - 1 cup
Jeera (Cumin Seeds) - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Baking Powder - 1/2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure
The the urad dal in a bowl and wash well. Add water to it and set aside for 3 hours. Remove the excess water from the bowl and put this in a Grinder/Mixture jar. Grind well for a thick paste/batter. Add cumin seeds, salt to taste, baking powder to the batter and mix well. Take a butter paper and on it take a small amount of the batter. Give it a thick circular shape to it and in the middle of the circle make a hole with your index finger. Parallely take a deep frying pan and heat the oil With care remove this vada from the butter paper and deep fry in the heated oil on medium flame. Keep it moving in the oil till the vada is fried golden brown. And your delicious vada's are ready to serve.

Author's Note
Medu vada goes so very well with the red chilli chutney, coconut chutney, idli chutney and sambhar.

Uttapa

Ingredients
Urad Dal - 1 cup
Rice - 2 cups
Methi Seeds (fenu greek seeds) - 1 tbsp
Poha - 1/4 cup

For uttapa special
Onion - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Green Chillies - 5 or 6 numbers finely chopped
Coriander - Finely chopped
Coconut - Finely grated

Procedure
Take all the above ingredients in a bowl. Clean/Wash well with clean water. Add sufficient water (a little above the total ingredients) to this bowl and set aside for 4 hours. Remove the excess water from the bowl. Put all the above in Grinder/Mixture jar and grind well. Add water to make a fluid paste. Ferment this batter overnight. Next day morning add salt to this batter and beat well to make it ready. Add Onion's and Green Chillies and 1tbsp of cumin seeds to this and mix well. Take non-stick frying pan and heat it for a minute. Take the batter and pour the batter for thick uttapa. Add oil to the edges and in the middle and heat well on both sides.Garnish this with finely chopped coriander and finely grated coconut.

Author's Note
Uttapa is much thicker than Dosa, so make sure that you pour sufficient amount of batter for a thick uttapa. Uttapa goes so very well with Idli Chutney and Coconut Chutney.

Mysore Dosa

Ingredients

Urad Dal - 1 Cup

Rice - 2 cups

Methi Seeds (fenu greek seeds) - 1 tbsp

Poha - 1/4 cup

For dosa filling

Red Chilly Powder - 1 tbspOnion - 1/2 cup finely choppedSalt to tasteHeated oil 2 tbsp.
Mix all these ingredients very well and your Red Chilli Chutney is ready.

Procedure

Take all the above ingredients in a bowl. Clean/Wash well with clean water. Add sufficient water (a little above the total ingredients) to this bowl and set aside for 4 hours. Remove the excess water from the bowl. Put all the above in Grinder/Mixture jar and grind well. Add water to make a fluid paste. Ferment this batter overnight. Next day morning add salt to this batter and beat well to make it ready. Take non-stick frying pan and heat it for a minute. Take the batter and prepare round and thin dosas. Put some oil at the edges and in the middle of the dosa. Once the dosa is ready on the pan, take 1 tbsp of above red chilli chutney and apply over the dosa. Fold the dosa in pyramidal shape (more like Samosa) and your delicious Mysore Dosa is ready.

Author's Note

Serve hot and enjoy the taste!

Plain Dosa

Ingredients
Urad Dal - 1 cup
Rice - 2 cups
Methi Seeds (fenu greek seeds) - 1 tbsp
Poha - 1/4 cup

Procedure
Take all the above ingredients in a bowl. Clean/Wash well with clean water. Add sufficient water (a little above the total ingredients) to this bowl and set aside for 4 hours. Remove the excess water from the bowl. Put all the above in Grinder/Mixture jar and grind well. Add water to make a fluid paste. Ferment this batter overnight. Next day morning add salt to this batter and beat well to make it ready. Take non-stick frying pan and heat it for a minute. Take the batter and prepare round and thin dosas. Put some oil at the edges and in the middle of the dosa. This makes it crispy. And your plain dosa is ready.

Author's Note
Coconut chutney and Idli chutney goes very well with this dish. It's a good morning time breakfast and any time snack.

A variation to Dosa is to prepare Uttapa, using the same batter.

Plain Bonda

Ingredients
Urad Dal - 1 cup
Idli Rawa or Rice - 2 cups
Poha - 1/4 cup
Green Chillies - 2 Nos
Onion - 1 (Big)
Jeera (Cumin seeds) - 1 tbsp
Baking powder - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure
Prepare the batter as described in the idli section. Take 1/2 cup Idli battar and add 1/2 cup Maida to it. Add to this 2 finely chopped Green Chillies, one big finely chopped Onion, 3 tbsp of heated oil, 1 tbsp of cumin seeds, salt to taste and 1 tbsp of baking powder. Mix all the above ingredients and leave for 5 min. Heat the oil in deep frying pane. Take a handful of the batter in your comfortable working hand and slowly release in the heated deep frying pane to form small balls. Fry on medium flame till golder brown and crispy. And your delicious bonda's are ready.

Author's Note
There are very good for evening snacks and should be served hot for optimum pleasure. Lal Mirchi ki chutney (Red chillies chutney) goes very well with this. Procedure for making this chutney - Take 1/2 cup finely chopped onions, 1 tbsp Red chilli powder, Salt to taste, heated oil 2 tbsp. Mix all these ingredients very well and your Red Chilli Chutney is ready to be served with Plain Bondas.

Idli

Ingredients
Udad Dal - 1 cup
Idli Rawa or Rice - 2 cups
Poha - 1/4 cup
Salt to taste

Procedure
If using Rice - Soak udad dal and rice together in a bowl, add sufficient amount of water. Soak for around 3-4 hours. After this wash them well and add Poha to this with water. Leave this for a couple of minutes. Remove the excess water. In a Grinder/Mixture jar take the above ingredients and grind well for smooth paste. Add water is required during grinding.

If using Idli Rawa - Soak udad dal in a bowl for 3-4 hours. Add Poha to this and leave it for a couple of minutes. Remove all the excess water from this. In a Grinder/Mixture jar take the above ingredients and grind well till hard and smooth paste and put this aside. Wash the idli rawa and hard squeeze the water from this. Add this to the already prepared hard and smooth paste of udad dal. Mix well.

Now we need to ferment this overnight (Good fermentation means the paste has to swell good). Next day morning add salt and some water to the paste. In the idli container put a little oil so that the idli's don't stick to the container. Put the idli paste on the idli container and heat this for around 15 min. And your idli's are ready to serve.

Author's Note
Idli Chutney, Coconut Chutney, Ground Chutney can be used as side dish along with Idli.
A small variation to the normal/plain Idli would be to make Masala Idli. Prepare the batter as explained above and allow it to ferment overnight. Follow the below steps -
In a frying pan, take 3 tbsp oil, add 1 tbsp of Jeera (cumin seeds), 1/2 tbsp of Chana dal, 1/4 tbsp Rai (mustard seeds), 1/4 cup coarsely chopped onions, 5 or 6 nos. of Green Chillies chopped, 2 small carrots grated and salt to taste. Fry these for around 5 min.
Allow this to cool for some time and then add it into the batter. Mix well and using Idli maker/container prepare the delicios Masala Idli's.

Methi Puri

Ingredients
Wheat Flour (Atta) - 1 cup
Fenu greek (Methi) - 1/2 cup (finely chopped)
Green Chillies - 3 or 4 (depending upon how spicy you want)
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 6 or 7 flakes
Curd - 3 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Garam Masala - 1/2 tbsp
Coriander Powder - 1/2 tbsp

Procedure
In a Grinder/Mixture jar take Green Chillies, Garlic and Cumin seeds and grind well to make a paste. Add all the remaining above ingredients in a bowl. Add to this the paste prepared and make a dough, add water if required (make sure the dough is thick enough to make the puri). Make the puri's from this dough.

In a deep frying pan, heat the oil. Fry the above prepared puri's in this oil and your Masala Puri is ready to serve.

Author's Note
This dish is very simple to prepare. The most important part of the dish to making the dough properly. You can have these puri's with either tomato ketchup
or with curd (salted or sweet).

Masala Puri

Ingredients
Wheat Flour (Atta) - 1 cup
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tbsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tbsp
Coriander Powder - 1/2 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 tbsp
Jeera (cumin sees) - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil to fry
Butter - 1/4 cup

Procedure
In a bowl add all the above ingredients and prepare a dough for making the puri (make sure the dough is thick enough to make puri). Make the puri's from this dough. In a deep frying pan, heat the oil. Fry the above prepared puri's in this oil and your Masala Puri is ready to serve.

Author's Note
This dish is very simple to prepare. The most important part of the dish to making the dough properly. You can have Potato curry with these puri's. Adding butter while preparing the dough gives Puri a nice taste.

Vegetable Cutlet

Ingredients
Boiled Potatoes - 2 or 3 (big)
White Bread - 8 slices
Green Chillies - 3 or 4 (depending upon how spicy you want)
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tbsp
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp
Oil to fry
Salt to taste

Procedure
In a bowl take some water and dip 4 Bread slices. Squeeze the water from the bread immediately and keep seperate. Put remaining 4 slices in Grinder/Mixture jar and grind for a min. Now in a bowl take smashed potatoes, dipped bread slices, Jeera (cumin seeds), Green Chillies (finely chopped), Ginger-Garlic paste, salt and mix well. In a deep frying pan put oil and heat in low flame. Make small triangular shaped tikki's with the above mixture. Dip this in the grinded bread on both the sides. Now deep fry this in the heated oil (remember to keep the flame low). And your Veg Cutlet is ready to savor.

Author's Note
This dish goes very well with Tomato Ketchup. For the health conscious, instead of deep frying we can shallow fry in a shallow frying non-stick pan. Heat the
frying pan and put 1 tbsp of oil. Then put the above prepared tikki's on the pan and shallow fry.

Mixed Chutney

Ingredients
Dudhi - 6 pieces
Tomato - 2 Nos
Brinjal - 3 Nos
Green Chillies - 5 or 6 (depending upon how spicy you want)
Garlic Flakes - 6 or 7
Jeera (Cumin seeds) - 1/4 tbsp
Tamarind
Turmeric - 1/4 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure
In a frying pane add 1 tbsp of oil and heat for a couple of minutes. Add the Dudhi pieces, Brinjal and Tomato to this pane and fry till soft. Then add the Green Chillies, Turmeric, Cumin seeds and fry for a minute or two.

In a the Grinder/Mixture jar add all the above ingredients, Salt to taste, Garlic Flakes. Grind well till smooth paste.

In a frying pane take 1 tbsp and heat for a minute. Put couple of red chillies (dry), cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves, a pinch of aestofida (hing) and the above paste. And your South Indian Cucumber Chutney is ready to serve.

Author's Note
All season chutney goes well with Chappattis.

Mango Chutney

Ingredients
Raw Mango - 1 (cut in small pieces)
Red Chillies Powder - 2 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 6 or 7 flakes
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure
In the Grinder/Mixture jar add the mango pieces, Red Chilli powder, Jeera, Garlic Flakes, Salt to taste. Grind well for a minute.

In a frying pane take 1 tbsp and heat for a minute. Put couple of red chillies (dry), cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves, a pinch of aestofida (hing) and the above paste. And your South Indian Cucumber Chutney is ready to serve.

Author's Note
This chutney goes very well with Chappatis and Rice.

South Indian Cucumber Chutney

Ingredients
Cucumber - 1/4 kg
Green Chillies - 6 or 7 (depending upon how spicy you want)
Ground Nuts - 50 gms
Jeera (Cumin seeds) - 1 tbsp
Coriander Leaves - 1/4 cup
Tamarind
Garlic - 6 or 7 flakes
Turmeric - 1/4 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil - 3 tbsp

Procedure
Cut the cucumber is small pieces. In the frying pane take 1 tbsp oil and heat for a couple of minutes. Add Green Chillies, Groundnuts, Cumin seeds, Tamarind and Turmeric to this pane. Shallow fry for 3-4 minutes.

In the Grinder/Mixture jar put all the above ingredients and add Garlic flakes to it. Add salt to taste and half the cucumber pieces. Grind well till smooth paste.

Add the remaining cucumber pieces to the above paste. In a frying pane take 1 tbsp and heat for a minute. Put couple of red chillies (dry), cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves, a pinch of aestofida (hing) and the above paste. And your South Indian Cucumber Chutney is ready to serve.

Author's Note
This chutney goes well with Dal/Rice combination.

Hari Mirchi Chutney (Green Chilli Chutney)

Ingredients
Green Chillies - 10 Nos
Jeera (Cumin seeds) - 1 tbsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tbsp
Coriander Leaves - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 6 or 7 flakes
Tamarind - 1 or 2 flakes
Salt to taste
Oil - 3 tbsp

Procedure
In a frying pane take 1 tbsp of oil and heat for a minute. Put Green Chillies, Turmeric, Cumin seeds and shallow fry for 3-5 min on medium flame. Shut down the flame and add Coriander Leaves to it. Cover it and leave it for 5 min.

In the Grinder/Mixture jar put the above contents in it. Add to it Garlic flakes, Tamarind, Salt and grind fine. And your Hari Mirchi ki Chutney is ready.

Optionally, you can give a Tadka to it. In a frying pane add 2 tbsp of oil and heat for a minute of two. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds to this and add the above chutney into it. Heat it for couple of minutes and your chutney is ready to serve.

Author's Note
This chutney goes very well with Bhakri (Jwari ki roti) and Chappatis.

Idli Chutney

Ingredients
Coconut (grated or cut pieces) - 1/2 cup
Groundnuts - 1/4 cup
Green Chillies - 4 (depends upon how spicy you want)
Tamarind - 1 or 2 flakes (depends upon how khatta you want)
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1/2 tbsp
Rai (mustard seeds) - 1/2 tbsp
Garlic - 6 or 7 flakes
Salt to taste
Oil - 3 tbsp
Curry Leaves

Procedure
In a frying pane heat 1 tbsp of oil for a min. Put Coconut pieces, Groundnuts, Green Chillies, Jeera in the frying pane. Shallow fry for about 5 min till the coconut pieces are turning brown at the edges.

Put the above contents in Grinder/Mixture jar for grinding. Add Garlic flakes, Salt, Tamarind and a little amount of water for smooth paste. Grind well till smooth paste. And your Idli Chutney is ready.

In a frying pane take 2 tbsp of oil and heat for a minute or two. Put in 1/2 tbsp mustard seeds, 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds, couple of Red Chillies (dry), few Curry Leaves and shallow fry for a minute. Add the chutney to this and fry for a minute or two. And you have given the "Tadka" to it.

Author's Note
This is a perfect side dish with Idle or Sada Dosa, Moong Dosa or Upma. This chutney has to be consumed in a day or two (storing in freeze if for more than one day).

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

Tomatoes - 3 Nos
Groundnuts - 2 tbsp
Green Chilli - 5-6 (depends upon how spicy you want)
Garlic - 6-7 pieces
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Tamarind/Lemon - 1 flake (depends upon how khatta you want)
Salt to taste
Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure

Cut the tomatoes into medium sized pieces. In a frying pane heat the oil for a minute. Fry the cut tomato pieces till they release water and are a little softer. Add turmeric powder to this while frying tomatoes. Put this aside. In the same frying pane add 1 tbsp oil and fry the Green chillies adding to it Groundnuts and Jeera to the same. Fry for couple of minutes on medium flame.

Mix all the above shallow fried things in a Grinder/Mixture jar. Add Garlic flakes, Tamarind and salt to taste. Grind well to a smooth paste. And your Tomato chutney is ready.

In a frying pane put 1 tbsp of oil, add to it some jeera, couple of red chillies (dry) and add the above paste to it. Fry for a minute and your Tomato Chutney is ready to serve.

Author's Note
This chutney goes very well with Chapatis and Rice dishes. This is instant, ready to use chutney to add spice to your meal. This has to be consumed with a day or two (storing in freeze for more than one day).

Dudhi Chutney

Ingredients

Dudhi - 1/4 Kg
Green Chilli - 5-6 (depends upon how spicy you want)
Garlic - 6-7 pieces
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Tamarind/Lemon - 1 flake (depends upon how khatta you want)
Salt to taste
Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure

Take the oil in a frying pane and shallow fry the dudhi pieces untill golden brown (till the edges are a little fried in oil). Fry on very low flame to make them a little soft. Add jeera, chilli pieces & turmeric to the pane and fry for 8-10 min. This will shallow fry jeera and chilli pieces along with the coconut.

Put this in a grinder/mixture jar. Add to this the garlic flakes, salt to taste, tamarind/lemon and water (very little for easy grinding/mixing). Grind for 3-5 min under medium speed of the grinder/mixture. Add coriander to this and grind once (This is purely for taste purpose, if you want).

And hurray! your coconut chutney is ready.One last step, though! Put some oil in a frying pane and add couple of pulses along with red chilli (dry) and some Curry Leaves (Kadipatta). Fry this for a minute and then add the chutney and fry to a minute. And your chutney is ready for serving. We call this as "Tadka Lagana".

Author's Note
This chutney goes very well as a side dish while main meals. It's equally well with chapatis and rice items. Served with plain dal, this makes a beautiful combination. This chutney has to be consumed in a day or two (should be stored in freeze if for more than one day).

Coconut Chutney

Ingredients
Coconut - 1/2 (cut to small pieces)
Green Chilli - 5-6 (depends upon how spicy you want)
Garlic - 6-7 pieces
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Tamarind/Lemon - 1 flake (depends upon how khatta you want)
Salt to taste
Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure
Take the oil in a frying pane and shallow fry the coconut pieces untill golden brown (till the edges are a little fried in oil). Add jeera, chilli pieces & turmeric to the pane and fry for 8-10 min. This will shallow fry jeera and chilli pieces along with the coconut.
Put this in a grinder/mixture jar. Add to this the garlic flakes, salt to taste, tamarind/lemon and water (very little for easy grinding/mixing). Grind for 3-5 min under medium speed of the grinder/mixture. Add coriander to this and grind once (This is purely for taste purpose, if you want). And hurray! your coconut chutney is ready.
One last step, though! Put some oil in a frying pane and add couple of pulses along with red chilli (dry) and some Kadipatta. Fry this for a minute and then add the chutney and fry to a minute. And your chutney is ready for serving. We call this as "Tadka Lagana".

Author's Note
This chutney goes very well with Idli or Dosa. Also, this can go very well with medu vada. This chutney has to be consumed in a day or two (should be stored in freeze if for more than one day).