Nellikkai Thokku - Gooseberry Preserve (Savory)

Prep time: 0 min                                Cooking time: 20 min                                  Makes: 1 small cup

Gooseberries (nellikkai/ amla) are rich in Vitamin C and anti-oxidants. It is said that the fruit provides a host of health benefits including reduction of bad cholesterol, insulin production, anti-ageing, preventing constipation, etc. And from what I've heard, as a bonus, it makes your hair and skin glow :-)

As a child (why, even now), I loved the tingling sweet taste when one sipped water after chewing a bit of it... 

Thokku Kattu or Kollu Paruppu Rasam

Prep time: 5 min                       Cooking time: 15 min                          Serves: 4

Kollu/ Kaanam in tamil is the pulse also known as hurali/uruli(in kannada), muthira (in malayalam), kulith (in marathi) and gahat or kulath (in hindi)... wait wait.. i am not so multilingual, this is from wikipedia, listed here so that you all can get associated with this wonderful lentil. It is rarely ever  found as a regular ingredient in North Indian kitchens and is only slightly more popular in the South. But this NO-OIL recipe is something which no paruppu/dal loving person should miss. It is very tasty, quite filling and what more, it is considered to be very very nutritious.

Date Almond Milkshake

Prep time : 5 min               Cooking time: 0 min                        Serves : 2

Here's one more chiller loaded with nutrients and goodness in the form of dates, almonds, apples, milk turned into a delectable drink.. And what more, it has a dash of chocolate for enticing kids too into taking the first sip, luring them into asking for more...

Strawberry - Mint Lemonade

Prep time : 5 min                                 Cooking time: 0 min                        Serves : 2

This summer has been very unpredictable with sudden dips in temperature on certain days. But other days are the usual, if not HOTTER days.. And what better to beat the heat with than a chilled glass of lemonade? And to add colour and zest to change the monotony, a handful of strawberries, a bit of ginger and a few mint leaves... Yummm. :)

Musk Melon Juice

Prep time: 5 min                   Cooking time: 0 min                Makes: 2 tall glasses

Come summer, all that the throat and stomach crave are juices, smoothies and other coolers. Food becomes just a mere necessity and the heat in the kitchen makes elaborate cooking even more difficult. But good thing is, there are plenty of green leafy vegetables and juicy fruits available in the market. So, instead of just the plain old lime juice (which is still a fav), I keep trying out newer and newer juices and milkshakes nowadays.

Until moving to North India, the only musk melon I knew was the one with sandal-colourish-flesh and brownish skin that we get in the South. At home, we just sliced it into cubes (after peeling and deseeding), sprinkle sugar on top, give it a quick mix and eat as such. It was plain heaven in summers.. yumm :-)

Four-ingredient Mutton Curry

Prep time:  5 min           Cooking time: 15 min                         Serves : 4

Making non-vegetarian dishes usually involves a lot of preparation  - peeling pearl onions and garlic, grinding fresh ginger garlic paste, chopping loads of onions and tomatoes, grinding masala paste, et al. All this labour mean non-vegetarian dishes being usually reserved for Sundays. So, when my mother-in-law told me about this simple mutton curry with very little prep and no ginger-garlic, I was surprised and even wary of trying it fearing that the taste might be traded off for all the effort saved. But when I did try, what a pleasant surprise it turned out to be!

Cauliflower Oats Adai

(Cauliflower- Oats Savory Pancakes)

Prep time: 6 min approx             Cooking time: about 4 min for each adai          Makes :6 adais
 

This recipe was inspired by Sharmi’s Oats Recipes collection.. After seeing them (visit her collection here), I was tempted to try my own version of the oats adai a little while back.. It was peak cauliflower season in North India and so I thought, why not cauliflower in adai? And to keep it light (in fact, truth was I did not have the preparation time to soak the dals. Hence the excuse :) ) , I avoided the pulses too.. But the batter needs something to hold together, right?

Milagu Muttai Kuzhambu

(Egg with peppery gravy)

Prep time: 8 min          Cooking time: 5 min               Servings: 2

I wanted to begin the blog with this one since this is my first original recipe. I had travelled from my place of posting to my home for the weekend and reached just around dinner time. V was about to start from his office and I wanted to make a quick dinner for us before he reached home. I looked in the fridge and what was there.. Just a couple of eggs and 2-3 not-so-fresh onions. No veggies or tomato or coconut to even lend that usual gravy base in typical South Indian cooking.