Cabbage Salad

Ingredients
Cabbage - 1/2 small (sliced)
Carrot - 1 (shredded)
Green Bell Pepper (capsicum) - 1/2 (sliced thinly)
Mung Sprouts - 1 cup
Jicama - 1/2 cup (julienned)
Cilantro - 2 tblsp (finely chopped)
Almonds - 10 (chopped)

For Dressing
Orange Juice - 1/2 cup
Ginger juice - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Sugar/ Honey - 1 tblsp
Black Pepper Powder - 1/8 tsp

Method
1. Mix all the vegetables together. Chop all the vegetables in uniform size.
2. Whisk together all the ingredients for dressing.
3. Mix the dressing with the chopped vegetables. Adjust any seasoning if required.
4. Chill the salad and serve as a healthy meal.

Variations : You can make the salad colourful by adding other vegetables like red cabbage, beetroot, colourful bell peppers, red radish, cauliflower etc. Sometimes I also like to add raisins.

Cranberry Jam

Ingredients
Fresh Cranberries - 1 bag (8 oz)
Water - 1 cup
White Sugar - 1 cup
Brown Sugar/ Jaggery - 2 cups
Vineger/ Orange juice - 1/2 cup
Cardomon powder - a pinch (optional)

Method

1. Wash the cranberries and cook it in the microwave for 2 minutes. If you do not have microwave, bring the water to a boil and add the cranberries. When the cranberries skin pops and it is half cooked, remove from stove.
2. Puree the cooked cranberries along with the water in a blender.
3. In a pan, mix the remaining water, brown sugar, white sugar, vinegar/orange juice, cardomon powder and bring it to a boil.
4. Add the cranberry puree and cook until it reaches the jam consitency.

Khandavi

Ingredients
Gram Flour (Besan) - 1 cup
Yogurt - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Turmeric Powder - 1/8 tsp
Asafoetida - pinch
Ginger paste - blueberry size
Green Chilly paste - 1/4 tsp (optional)
Grated Coconut - 1 tblsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame Seeds - 1 tsp
Dry Red Chilly - 1
Oil - 2 tblsp
Curry Leaves - 1 spring
Salt - to taste
Cilantro - for garnishing (finely chopped)

Method
1. Mix together the gram flour, ginger paste, green chilly paste, turmeric powder, asafoetida and required salt.
2. Add the yogurt and water gradually while stirring continuously to make a smooth paste.
3. Transfer this to a pan and cook the mixture for about 10 minutes stirring continuously.

Carrot Rice

Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup (uncooked) or 2 cups cooked rice
Grated carrot - 1 cup (about 3 carrots)
Onion - 1 (chopped)
Green chilly - 2 (slitted)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - 1 tblsp
Cilantro - for garnish

For tempering
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves - 1 strand
(You could also use channa dal and some cashew nuts for tempering)

For Masala
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
Dry red chillies - 3-4
Peanuts - 1 tblsp
Grated Coconut - 2 tsp

Method
1. Cook the rice separately and keep it aside. Spread it on a tray to ensure that the grains dont stick to each other.
2. Heat little oil (2 tsp) in a pan and splutter the ingredients under 'for tempering'.
3. Add the chopped onions and green chilly and fry for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add turmeric powder and the grated carrot and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Toss in the rice and required salt.
          (If you are in a hurry you could stop with this but I like to go further and add some more flavoring.)
6. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a small pan and fry the ingredients under 'for masala' until it turns nice and golden brown.
7. Coarsely grind it and toss this powder along with the rice. This adds nice flavor and crunch to the rice.
8. Garnish with ribbons of carrot and finely chopped cilantro and serve with some raita.

Kasayam For Cold

Ingredients

*Dry Ginger (Chukku)  - 1" piece
*Black peppercorns (Mialgu)  - 5-6
*Thippili (Long Pepper) - 1 piece
*Coriander seeds - 5-6
*Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
*Basil (Tulsi) leaves - 5
*Ajwain leaves - 2
*Water - 2.5 cups
*Panam Karkandu/ Honey/ Karupatti - to sweeten

Add if available

*Thoothuvalai leaves - 2
*Kuppaimeni (Indian Nettle) leaves - 2
*Mint Leaves - 2-3

Method

*Slightly crush the seeds (coriander, cumin, peppercorns), thippili (long pepper) and dry ginger using a mortar and pestle.
*Take the water in a sauce pan. Add the crushed items.
*Tear and add the herbs. If you have dried herbs, add as such.

Neer Dosa

1. soak 1 cup rice in enough water for 4 to 5 hours or overnight. i generally soak overnight and then grind them the next day.

2. drain the soaked rice and add them in a wet grinder jar.

3. just add enough water for grinding the rice. if you add all the water then you won’t be able to grind the rice well.

4. grind to a smooth batter and then take it in another bowl or pan. the batter should not have tiny coarse particles of rice. if the grinder becomes hot, then wait for some minutes and then grind again.

5. add more water to get a thin flowing watery consistency almost like that of milk. i added 2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice. the addition of water depends on the quality and kind of rice. so add water accordingly. you can add from 1.5 to 2 cups of water.

6. add salt as required.

7. in a cast iron pan or a non stick pan. drizzle ½ tsp of oil. before adding the oil, if using a cast iron pan, sprinkle some water to check the temperature of the pan. if the water droplets sizzle and evaporate, then the pan is ready to make dosas. avoid doing this method on a non stick pan as adding water on a hot non stick pan, will affect the non stick coating.

8. just spread the oil all over with a spoon. you can also use a small piece of cotton kitchen towel to do the same. or you can dip half of an onion in oil and smear the pan with the halved onion.

9. stir the batter in the pan/bowl and take a ladle full of batter.

10. then pour the batter moving outwards to inside like the way we do for rava dosa. or you can just spread the batter and tilt/rotate the pan. do not spread the batter with the back of the ladle like the way we do for regular dosas.

11. fill in the large gaps too with some of the batter.

12. cover with a lid and cook the neer dosa till done. don’t brown it.

13. here the neer dosa is done. neer dosa is never flipped. just the base has to be cooked well. when the dosa is cooked, it separates from the pan.

14. make a triangular fold on the tawa itself.

15. then remove the dosa and place it in a plate. make neer dosas this way and place them separately without them touching each other in a plate. once they cool down, you can keep them in a casserole or an airtight container/dabba.

16. serve neer dosa hot or warm with coconut chutney, veg sagu, veg korma. neer dosas remain soft even after they get cooled down. so you can serve them later too.

Naan Katai

Ingredients

(measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml)
1 cup maida or all purpose flour, 125 grams
¼ cup besan/gram flour, 40 grams
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sooji/fine rava/cream of wheat, 20 grams
2 to 3 pinches or ⅛ tsp nutmeg powder or grated nutmeg
½ tsp cardamom powder
½ cup ghee (semi solid) or butter at room temperature, 80 grams
½ cup sugar, 100 to 110 grams or ⅔ cup powdered sugar or icing sugar or as add as per taste
½ tbsp dahi/curd or yogurt
1 to 2 tbsp milk
few almonds or chironji/charoli

Instructions

powder the sugar finely in a grinder.
then cream the ghee and powdered sugar with a electric mixer or blender. you can also cream in a food processor.
the mixture should become smooth, light and creamy.
sift the the following dry ingredients - maida or all purpose flour, gram flour/besan, baking powder and baking soda. keep the sifted dry ingredients aside.
add curd/yogurt to the creamed ghee+sugar mixture. mix very well.
now add the sifted dry ingredients. also add the sooji/rava/cream of wheat, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder.
gently mix everything. do not knead. just mix and gather to a smooth dough. if the mixture is too crumbly and you cannot bring together to a dough, then add 1 to 3 tbsp of milk. mix lightly and bring the mixture to a dough.
pinch medium sized balls from the dough.
roll them evenly in your palms. slightly flatten them. press chironji or almonds on the top lightly.
you can also make some criss cross designs on the nankhatais with a fork or toothpick.
place the cookies in a baking tray.
keep some space between them as they expand while baking.
bake the nankhatai in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees C for 20-25 mins till light golden.
remove and place them on wire racks.
when cooled, store the nankhatai in an air tight container.

NOTES
as the temperatures vary in different oven models, keep an eye while baking. if the nankhatais are not baked enough then bake them for some more minutes.