Rava ladoo

Ingredients:

• Rava (Sooji or semolina) - 1 கப்
• Sugar 3/4 cup
• Ghee - 1/ 4 cup
• Milk - 2 tbsp
• Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
• Raisins - 1 tbsp
• Cashew nuts - 5

Preparation:

• Roast the rava in a thick pan until the aroma starts to come out and gold color.
• Make sure it doesnt turn brown.
• Fry the cashew and rasins with ghee in a pan.
• Add roasted rava,sugar,cardamom powder,ghee,and milk and make a small balls out of it.
• You can either press the rasin and cashew at last on it or you can mix them to the mixture itself before forming balls.
• Make sure not to disturb them until hard otherwise there are chances of breaking them.
• Makes a nice snack and festival item.

Chicken Biriyani

Ingredients:

• Basmati Rice - 1 1/2 cups
• Long Chopped Onion (med) - 2
• Cashews- few
• Green chillis - 2
• Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1 tsp
• Mint and Coriander Leaves - 1/2 cup
• Ginger paste -1/2 tsp
• Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
• Cinnamon -1
• Bay leaf - 2
• Cloves - 4
• Cardamom - 3
• Butter - 3 tbsp
• Salt

Marinade:

• Chicken pieces - 1/4 kg
• Curd - 1/2 cup
• Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1 /2 tsp
• Turmeric powder -1/2 tsp
• Ginger paste - 1 tsp
• Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Preparation:

• Marinate the chicken with all that mariande items on the list for 30 minutes.
• Soak the rice for 10 minutes (else it may become overcooked at the end).
• Heat butter in the wok and add all the bay leaves,cloves,cinnamon,green chillies,cashews in it.
• Once the aroma starts to come out,add onion to it and saute until little crisp brown.
• Now add the garlic and ginger paste , corriander,chilli powder to it.
• Add the chicken with the marinade into it and saute for few minutes until the oil starts to separate.
• Add the rice,salt,garam masala into it.
• Close the lid of the pressure cooker and wait for 2 whistles .
• Serve hot with onion raitha and egg.

Pazham Aval

Ingredients:

• Aval - 2 cups
• Jaggery - 1/4 cup
• Banana - 1
• Coconut -grated-1/4 cup
• Cardamom - 1
• Nuts - any (optional)

Preparation:

• In a pan heat jaggery with very little water and form a syrup.
• Add powdered cardamom to it.
• Add coconut to it and mix well.
• Turn off the heat and allow it to cool a little but it should be warm.
• Take aval in a bowl and add the above syrup to it and add little mashed banana to it and mix well.
• Serve with sliced banana and top with nuts if desired.
• This dish is nutritious.

Bread Pakoda

Ingredients:

• Bread-6 slices (brown sides peeled)
• Potato-2 small
• Onion-1 medium
• Coriander leaves - hand full
• Cumin seeds-1 tsp
• Salt
• Oil for frying
• Gram flour - 2 tbsp (optional)

Preparation:

• Boil the potatoes ,peel and mash them.
• Add the diced onion ,cumin,salt,coriander leaves to it and mix well.
• Dip your palms into water and lightly wet the bread (I have used whole wheat bread for health reasons) with your palms so that it becomes a little soft but not too soft.
• Now stuff small amount of the potato mix into the bread ,close the bread from all sides and roll it into a ball.
• Deep fry in hot oil.
• One more way to make it a little desi would be to dip it into gram flour mixed with water and little salt and fry it.
• Serve hot with ketchup.
• It makes a good evening snack and kids love it.