Mushroom Masal

Mushroom – 1 pack

Ginger paste – 3 tsp

Garlic paste – 3 tsp

Onion paste – 3 tbsp

Red chili powder – 2 tsp

Coconut milk – 1 cup

Finely chopped onions 

Finely chopped ginger

Finely chopped garlic

Curry leaves

Cinnamon sticks, cloves, elachi powder, fennel seeds for spluttering

Cut mushrooms and fry them in a little butter with salt in a pan. Keep this aside. Now take a pan and add a little oil and then ginger garlic paste, then add chili powder. Add the fried mushrooms and 1 cup of coconut milk to this. In a different pan, add a little oil and splutter the cinnamon sticks, cloves, eliachi powder, fennel seeds and then addfinely chopped giner, garlic, onions, curry leaves and add this to the mushroom gravy. Add a little bit of soy sauce and tomato sauce to this and switch off the flame. This is now ready to be served with roti or chappathi. 

Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

Kuzhambu:

In a pan, add 1 to 2 tbsp oil. Add mustard, channa dhal, thoor dhal, 4 to 5 red chilis, fenugreek seeds, pinch of asafetida, 1 to 2 tbsp sambar powder, curry leaves then thick pulp of tamarind extract. Once it boils, it should take 15 to 20 mins, now add salt as needed.

Paruppu Urundai:

1 cup thuvaram paruppu, soak it for 2 hrs. Add red chilies as needed and salt and add this soaked dhal (with less water) in a blender and grind it coarsely. Add onions and tomatoes finely chopped to this and keep it aside. 

In a pan, splutter mustard seeds, urud dhal, and then add slit green chilis, followed by finely chopped onions. Once its sautéed well, then add the paruppu made above to this. Mix one tsp of rice flour, add a very little water just to knead it. Make small, tough, round balls out of this dough. 

Now 5 mins before the kuzambu is done, add these balls slowly into it. The balls slowly will come up to the surface when its cooked. Then boil for another 5 mins and then the kuzhambu is done. 

Take the balls out of the kuzhambu and keep it separately. Right before serving, add them back to the kuzhambu as it will dissolve in the kuzhambu if you leave it completely immersed. 

Note: For 1 cup paruppu, you will get around 8 balls.

Lunch Sambar / Vegetable Sambar

Cook thoor dhal for 5 to 6 whistles in a cooker and keep it separately. In a separate pan, splutter mustard, urud dhal and curry leaves. Add diced onions and tomatoes and add any vegetable of your choice. Saute it a little bit and add it to the dhal in the cooker. Now add a pinch of turmeric, 1 tbsp of sambar powder and salt as needed. Now close the lid of the cooker and leave it for 1 whistle. Once the steam is gone, open the lid and garnish with coriander leaves. If you like add a pinch of asafetida to it.

Paruppu Masiththal (moong dhal)

This is a very healthy yet, simple dish and it is one of the items that can be found in the chettinad lunch menu for sure. Take ½ cup of moon dhal in a pan, add 1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds), one crushed garlic and 1 broken red chili, pinch of turmeric. Add 2 cups of water and 1 tsp oil to it and let it boil. After 15 to 20 mins, the dhal will be done and then add salt as needed and this is ready to be served with ghee. This is served as a first dish before anything else is served for lunch.

Tomato Chutney (liquid version)

In a pan add a little oil and splutter mustard and urud dhal, with curry leaves. Then add finely chopped onions , saute them well and then add finely chopped tomatoes, saute them well. Add a little turmeric, salt and sambar powder or chili powder. Once its cooked well, then add water and boil. This will be very liquidy. 

Modification, you can add very less water and make it semi solid and also use it. 

For both versions add asafetida at the end. Enjoy with idly or dosai. 

Idly Sambar (paasi paruppu sambar) / Breakfast Sambar

Take ½ cup of paasi paruppu (moong dhal) in a cooker. Add water to it. Add small cubed brinjal / eggplant, small cubed potatoes, onions and tomatoes. Add a tsp of oil and turmeric, optionally add slit green chilies to this and let the cooker cook for 5 to 6 whistles. In a pan, splutter mustard, urud dhal and broken red chilies, along with curry leaves. Add tamarind juice a little and also add asafetida and salt. Add the content from the cooker into this and let it boil and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. And the sambar is ready to be served. 

Modification, you can do this also with thoor dhal (thuvaram paruppu sambar). But the only difference is, leave only 2 or 3 whistles instead of 5 or 6 in the cooker.

Enjoy it with Idly or Dosai.

Katharikkai (eggplant)-potato Puli Kuzhambu (Amma’s Recipe)

Take a pan, pour 2 tbsp oil. Add mustard seeds, split urud dhal and curry leaves to splutter. Then add cubed eggplant and potatoes, sauté them well. Then add few cubed onions and tomatoes. Add a pinch of turmeric powder. Sauté them and then add tamarind juice extracted from a small lemon size ball of tamarind.  Then add chili powder around 1 tbsp or reduce it according to your spice level. After this mixture boils well, in a separate pan, add 4 to 5 pepper balls in a very little oil and add crushed garlic 2 or 3 cloves, sauté them and add it to the kuzhambu before switching off the gas. Yummy kuzhambu is ready to be served. 

Egg Kuzhambu (Amma’s Recipe)

Take a pan, add 2 tsp oil. Add mustard seeds and once it splutters, add chopped onions, garlic and a little turmeric powder. Once the onions and garlic are sautéed and tomatoes. Then add chili powder as needed. Get the tamarind extract out from a very small lemon sized ball (adjust according to your taste). Add the tamarind juice and allow it to boil. Then break the eggs carefully and drop it inside the boiling liquid.

Take a little bit of coconut and grind and get the milk out of it and add it along with the tamarind, to get the kuzhambu thick in consistency.

Poori Potato side dish

Boil the potatoes and remove the peels. In a pan, pour 2 tsp of oil, add mustard seeds and split urud dhal with jeera (cumin seeds). Once they splutter, add sliced or diced onions and few green chilies slit, with turmeric powder. Once the onions are sautéed, if you like you can add tomatoes. Once the tomatoes are cooked add the boiled potatoes and salt and leave it for 5 mins in low flame and switch off. Potato side dish is ready to be served with poori or chapati.

Optional: you can add 1-inch piece of ginger finely chopped as well as 3 or 4 cloves garlic finely chopped while sautéing onions. Ginger and Garlic are very good for health. So, I try to add in as many dishes as possible.

And also, if you don’t like tomatoes, add 1 tbsp of lemon juice once the dish is done and mix it thoroughly. 

Tomato Soup

Roma tomatoes – 4

Chili powder – 1tsp

Pepper – as needed

Corn flour – ½ tbsp

Boil the tomatoes and remove the peels. Then grind it in the blender. Add the juice in a pan along with chili powder and salt. Once the raw flavor goes away, ad corn flour mixed in a little water and then add pepper. Garnish with coriander leaves. And serve with croutons on top of it.

Parotta

Maida / All Purpose flour - 2 cups

Egg - 2

Salt - as needed

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Add the eggs to the flour, add salt and sugar and make it a dough. After few minutes, make small balls out of it, and roll them one by one. Once you roll, fold them into fourths and then roll them back again so that layers will be formed. Dont roll them too thin. Use a  pan to cook it back and front. Parottas are ready to be served with some side dish.

Gravy for Naan

This is one of the recipes my chinna maami wrote it for me in the recipe book before my marriage. She tries new items everytime. She’s a good cook. 

Ginger - 1 inch 

Garlic - 10 to 12 cloves

Onion - 2 chopped (medium sized)

Tomato - 3 chopped (medium sized)

Cinnamon, cloves and elaichi
curry leaves

Grind ginger, garlic, 1/2 of onions that are chopped, tomatoes together. In a pan pour a little bit of oil and add cinnamon , cloves and elaichi , add the rest of the onions and curry leaves. Once the onions are sautéed, add the ground paste and sauté until the raw smell goes away. Then add chilli powder as needed, then add 1/2 tsp of garam masala. Once it starts to boil, add 1/2 cup of curd. once this starts to boil, You can add veggies like peas, cauliflower, potato or anything of your choice like panner.
Once the veggies are done, add coriander leaves and serve it.

Naan

Maida / All Purpose Flour - 2 cups

Yeast - 2 tsp

Salt as needed

Start the process at least 2 hours before the actual meal.

Take 1/2 cup of warm water and mix the yeast. Let it dissolve. Then add this to the flour and if needed a little bit of warm milk and salt while making the dough.  Also add kasoori methi leaves and crushed or minced garlic to the dough. Make it like chappathi dough consistency. Let it rest of couple of hours. The dough will double in its size then punch the dough to remove the air formed and then let it rest for another hour. The Dough will raise again and now deflate the dough and make small balls and roll it like making chappathi. Now toss in a pan with a little ghee and your naan is ready to be served.

Chettinad Style Coconut Thovayal

Coconut – 1 cup

Onion – ¼ or ½ cup (depending upon your liking for onion taste) (if you can use pearl onions, that’s the preferred one rather than the big onions)

Red chilis – 4 (depending upon your spice level)

Tamarind – small piece

Salt as needed

Two ways of doing this. Both will give a different flavor.

1.       First way is to grind all the above ingredients raw in a blender (mixie) and tamper it with mustard seeds, split urud dhal, and jeera. Add a little asafetida in the end and mix it thoroughly.

2.       The second way is to sauté all the above ingredients one by one in a pan with a little oil and grind it in the blender and tamper it with mustard seeds, split urud dhal and jeera. Add a little asafetida in the end and mix it thoroughly.

Either methods, the thovayal tastes so good with hot idly or dosai.

This is Amma’s(my mom’s) recipe

Chettinad Style Paruppu Thovayal

Pottu Kadalai (split Bengal Gram) – 1 handful

Red Chilis – 1

Garlic Clove - 1

Salt as needed

Grind all the above ingredients raw in a blender (Mixie) and serve it with Rasam Rice (rasam Saadham) particularly. This is given when you are not feeling well with fever. This will give a particular flavor to the tongue while in fever.

There are different variations…

1. Instead of Pottu Kadalai, you can roast Paasi paruppu (Moong Dhal) in a dry pan and roast it until it changes little brown in color and use it.
2. The other kind is instead of pottu kadali, you can dry roast thuvaram paruppu (thoor dhal) until it changes little brown in color and use it.

This is Amma’s(my mom’s) recipe

Chettinad Style Poondu Thovayal (Garlic Chutney)

Tomato – 3 or 4

Red Chilis – very few (as you can get spiciness from Garlic pieces)

10 Garlic cloves (reduce or increase depending on the spice level)

Tamarind – little piece

Salt as needed

Grind all the above ingredients raw in a blender (Mixie) and tamper it with mustard, split urud dhal and Jeera. Add a little Asafetida at the end and mix it thoroughly.

This is Amma’s(my mom’s) recipe