Strawberry Milkshake

Strawberry was not my favorite fruit until i started tasting it in the form of milkshake. This is the first time I got to try the milkshake at home and it came out very well. 


Ingredients:
Strawberries - 6
Milk - 300 ml
Sugar - 10 Tablespoons
Vanilla Ice cream - 2 scoops

Preparation:
1. Boil milk in a low flame until it becomes 3/4th of the initial volume
2. Allow the milk to cool.
3. Now blend the strawberries with milk, sugar and ice cream.
4. Refrigerate the milkshake and serve it with ice cream for more taste


PS: 
1. I use 2 to 3 tablespoons of sour cream or few drops of vanilla essence instead of ice cream for a variation in taste
2. I do not filter the milkshake as i like the little crunchiness you get out of the strawberries. If you do not prefer that, you can filter the milkshake before serving

Potato Curry

A simple spicy curry with potato. I pefer to make fresh ground powder for this preparation, but you can also try the same with garam masala. 

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1. Potato - 4 medium sized
2. Onions - 2 medium sized
3. Garlic - 10
4. Oil - 4 Tablespoon
5. Red chilly powder - 1 Tablespoon
6. Coriander powder - 1 1/2 Tablespoon
7. Cloves - 4
8. Cinnamon stick - 2 small pieces
9. Salt - to taste

Preparation:
1. Chop potoato and onions into fine pieces.
2. Grind cloves and cinnamon stick to a fine powder.
3. Heat oil in pan and add onions and garlic and fry well.
4. When onion becomes golden brown, add potatoes, salt, red chilly powder, coriander powder and cook well for next 15 minutes.
5. Do not add water. When the potato is almost cooked and looks little mushy, add the masala powder and cook for another 5 minutes.

Hot and spicy potato curry is ready. This curry is a very good side dish for Sambhar/rasam/curd ice.

Tomato Rasam

There are different versions of tomato rasam - either with or without dhal. Recipe presented here uses toor dhal and gives the perfect taste. Tomato rasam with paruppu thogayal would be like Amirtham if I return back home after any trip.

Preparation Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

1. Toor dhal - 1/2 cup

2. Tomatoes - 3 medium sized

3. Red chilly powder - 3/4 Tablespoon

4. Pepper and Jeera powder - 1 tablespoon

5. Salt - to taste

6. Ghee - 2 Tablespoon

7. Mustard seeds - 2 Teaspoon

8. Red chillies - 3

9. Asafoetida - a pinch

10. Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

11. Tamarind Juice - 50 ml

12. Coriander Leaves - for garnishing

Preparation:

1. Pressure cook toor dhal with required water and turmeric powder and smash it nicely.

2. Grind tomatoes to a coarse paste.

3. Mix the cooked dhal, tomato paste and the tamarind juice. Add salt,red chilly powder and pepper/jeera powder and bring it to boil in a pan.

4. When the mixture comes to boil, switch off the stove.

5. Heat 2 tablespoons of ghee and when hot season with mustard seeds, red chillies and asafoetida.

6. Add the seasoning to the mixture and garnish with coriander leaves.

Hot tomato rasam is ready to serve. You can serve it with rice or even drink it as a soup.

Ladies Finger Curry (வெண்டைக்காய் புளி கூட்டு)

I generally make sambhar/mor kuzhambu/karakuzhambu with Ladies Finger. At times i also make simple curry with it. I wanted to try a recipe that i tasted once in my friend's lunch box with a little variation and it came out very well.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1. Ladies Finger - 300 gms
2. Coconut (grated) - 3 Tablespoon
3. Cumin seeds - 1 Tablespoon
4. Mustard seeds - 3 Teaspoon
5. Urud dhal - 1 Tablespoon
6. Asafoetida - a pinch
7. Red chillies - 4
8. Tamarind juice - 1/2 cup
9. Salt - to taste
10. Jaggery - 1 Tablespoon
11. Oil - 3 Tablespoon
12. Curd - 2 Tablespoon

Preparation:
1. Chop ladies finger to fine pieces.
2. Grind coconut, cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds and red chillies into a paste with little water.
3. Heat oil in pan and when it is hot, add 2 teaspoon of mustard seeds, urud dhal and asafoetida and fry well.
4. Add chopped ladies finger and cook with required amount of salt for 10 minutes.
5. Add the ground paste and tamarind juice and cook until the raw smell goes off.
6. Now add the jaggery and curd and cook for another 5 minutes.

Ladies finger curry is ready to be served with Rice/Roti.

Yam Smashed Curry (கருணைகிழங்கு மசியல்)

Masiyal means anything that is Smashed. Yam goes well in this preparation and this is a very authentic tamil dish with easy and quicker preparation.

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

1. Yam - 300 gms

2. Onion - 1 meidum sized

3. Red Chilli powder - 1 tablespoon

4. Salt - to tatste

5. Tamarind juice - 2 tablespoons

6. Mustard seeds - 2 teaspoon

7. Red chillies - 3

8. Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

9. Curry Leaves - 5 to 6

10. Urud dhal - 1 tablespoon

11. Oil - 2 tablespoon

12. Asafoetida - 1 pinch

13. Jaggery - a small piece

Preparation:

1. Peel the skin from Yam and boil it in water until it is completely cooked. Meanwhile chop the onions into fine pieces.

2. When the yam is cooked, strain the water completely and smash it finely. Add the tamarind juice, red chilly powder, salt, turmeric powder and crushed jaggery and mix it well.

3. Heat oil in a pan and when hot add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add urud dhal, curry leaves, red chillies and asafoetida one by one and fry.

4. Add the chopped onions and fry it until it turns transparent.

5. Now add the yam mixture and cook it for next 4 to 5 minutes with continuous stirring. You can add couple of more table spoon of oil if required.

6. Remove from flame and garnish with Coriander leaves and serve.

Tips:

1. Use non-stick pan for cooking the dish without sticking to the pan.

Spicy Mushroom Curry

Every time I get Mushroom, I want to try some different recipe out of it.  I had tried out few recipes with mushroom - mushroom briyani, mushroom kurma, mushroom pepper fry. This time wanted to give it a different flavor. It really came out very well and tasted yummy. If you are not a mushroom lover, try this recipe with Potato or cauliflower and it would be good choice too.

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

1. Mushroom - 500 gms

2. Onions - 2 medium

3. Tomatoes - 3 medium

4. Ginger/garlic paste - 1 tablespoon

5. Red Chilly powder - 1 tablespoon

6. Coriander powder - 2 tablespoon

7. Curd - 4 tablespoon

8. Salt - to taste

9. Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

10. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tablespoon

11. Curry leaves - 7 to 8

12. Oil - 3 tablespoon

Preparation:

1. Wash the mushrooms and marinate with ginger/garlic paste, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder, curd and salt for 15 minutes.

2. Chop onions and tomatoes into fine pieces.

3. Heat oil in a pan and when hot, add cumin seeds and curry leaves.

4. Add chopped onions and cook until it turns transparent.

5. Then add the tomatoes and cook well by smashing it.

6. When the tomatoes are almost cooked, add the marinated mushroom and mix it well. 

7. Do not add water, as mushrooms will leave some water as it cooks. Also since we have used curd for marination, the mushrooms would cook in that liquid.

8. Close the pan with a lid and cook for next 15 minutes by continuous stirring.

9. When the mushroom is completely cooked and the tomato and onion paste is blended well, add the Garam masala and cook for another 2 minutes.

10. Garnish with coriander leaves and our spicy mushroom curry is ready to serve.

You can serve this with rice/rotis/idly/dosas.