Kovil thayir sadam recipe | Temple style curd rice

Daddojanam | thayir sadam

 Curd rice | yogurt rice | dahi annam is a quite common south Indian rice variety. From the childhood, our meal is never complete without a curd rice. Generally we eat it by mixing plain with home made yogurt . When we have guests or on any special occasion we do seasoning to the curd rice and serve it. I have already posted a curd rice recipe few years back. When i shared the temple style sakkarai pongal post in facebook few weeks back, one of my friend asked me to post temple style curd rice recipe too. Coincidentally, 2 weeks back we joined a prayer at perumal temple here, on the occasion of a friend's mil birthday. We took back home puliyodarai, kesari and thayir sadam. Tasting the thayir sadam, i could make out the ingredients and make it at home yesterday,for my lunch. The taste was very close to the one we had in the temple. Since today is varalakshmi pooja and for doing the punar poojai tomorrow, many of us will make thayir sadam as neivedhyam for amman. So try out this temple style thayir sadam at home and let me know how it turned out.
Check out my

• temple style sakkarai pongal
• temple style puliyodarai

Eggless Whole wheat Pancake recipe

Pancakes i make rarely in my kitchen as only Varsha likes it a lot. Me Suresh and Varun are a not a great fan of pancakes. I have given this same recipe, replacing flour with  millet flour in my Millet cookbook  2 years back. So i thought i will try a pancake recipe using whole wheat flour. I just tried replacing half of the flour with whole wheat and turned out pretty well. These pancakes turned out soft and fluffy and perfect one to serve for  breakfast . Try this at home and let me know how it turned out.

Ginger Lemon Rasam | South Indian Rasam recipes

Ginger lemon rasam | Inji elumichai rasam, is a simple south indian rasam with lemon, ginger and tomato as a major ingredient. This rasam did not include tamarind or sambar powder. So you can try this easy and simple South Indian lemon ginger rasam at home. Also this rasam can  be had as a soup too. Overall i can say it is a perfect one for Rasam lovers. Though we make lemon rasam at home, this varition of lemon rasam is quite interesting. I learnt this from my mom's sister(my perimma), recently. She didn't mention to add ginger but i wanted to make a slight variation so i added ginger to this rasam. Check out my

• Kalyana rasam
• Pineapple rasam 

Dal Baati recipe | Masala Dal baati

Masala dal baati | dal baati is an authentic and popular rajasthani recipe. I have tasted this in Rajdhani restaurant in chennai few times and tried at home once too. But i am not so satisfied with the results and so I  didn't post  that time. Recently i happened to try this at my friend's place, who has come from chennai, to stay with her daughter who is studying here. they are basically from Rajasthan and settled in chennai. The dal baati tasted awesome and she served me this Masala dal baati and also panner stuffed dal baati. Along with that she served me a delicious aamras too, which i have posted few months back. Though i asked her the recipe, somehow i forgot the details of the recipe. So again messaged her for that. She patiently explained my queries and today i tried it at home. It turned out very well. Traditionally split green gram dal is added but if you want you can replace with yellow moong dal or toor dal or mix of both. Check out a similar Dal dhokli recipe

AADI 18 SPECIAL RECIPES| COOKING FOR GUESTS 25

Aadi 18 2015| aadi perukku | 18 aam per| is celeberated tomorrow (august 3) . Generally variety rice is prepared on this day. The word "perukku"means flourish , so whatever new thing you start in this day it will multiply. Generally, farmers sow seeds on this day. When we were kids we used to wear new dress for this aadi perukku. Amma used to buy something in gold on this day. But i won't say this tradition is followed in all houses. Mainly in our relatives houses i have seen them making them variety rice only. After i got married, in my in laws house, they are not much fond of variety rice and so for this aadi perukku just a paruppu payasam will be made along with usual lunch menu.
When i was pregnant with my younger one, my perimma who lives in Trichy, visited my mama's house in chennai. During that time aadi 18 was there and my perimma invited me for lunch . Even after 10 years, i could recall the items she cooked and the taste of all the dishes was awesome. So i thought, i will post a cooking for guest series with a South Indian aadi 18 lunch.
Check out my complete list of aadi festival recipes
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Curry leaves rice | South Indian rice variety

No onion no garlic recipes | Karuveppilai sadam recipe

Curry leaves rice | Karuveppilai sadam is a traditional rice variety made for festivals such as aadi perukku and other South Indian festival too. Even we can make this for lunch box too. I have already posted a version of karuveppilai sadam | curry leaves rice and also a karuveppillai sevai too. This variety of curry leaves rice i learnt from my cousin during my recent visit to India for a wedding. He patiently explained me the recipe and the way he told me tempted me to try this  and i made this on the day i returned back home. It was a huge hit at home. The richness of the cashew nuts, texture of coarsely ground urad dal , the pepper flavour, the crunchiness of peanuts made this more exotic . As aadi 18 is coming up (aug 2nd - Tomorrow) , i thought this will be a perfect recipe to try it out on that occasion. For more aadi perukku recipes click the link here.

Godhuma Rava Payasam | Samba Rava payasam recipe

Godhumai rava payasam is a simple and easy payasam made with samba wheat rava, milk and jaggery as the main ingredients. I tried this last week itself but somehow struck with editing the video and by the time i finished editing it was too late . So i decided to post the recipe of Samba rava payasam today. Generally we use dalia | samba rava | godhuma rava for making upma or porridge . But this is a creamy and delicious payasam with godhuma rava . As i have mentioned in one of my recent posts, i am taking skype class for a group of 30 people, who are learning sanskrit and vedas (from a different teacher). As a part of their class, traditional cooking is being taught. I am previlaged to share my cooking knowledge with them by showing them how to cook traditional recipes. For the first class i made this godhuma rava payasam and a variety rice recipe(coming up soon). Check out my other easy payasam recipes:

• Rava payasam
• Arisi thengai payasam

Baked potato with cheese | Jacket potato recipe

Baked potato recipe with video

Baked potato loaded with cheese and beans, is a classic recipe made with potato. I was introduced to this jacket potato by my brother in law, whom we visited this June. He was casually telling us that he will make make jacket potatoes for her daughter and it is very simple to make also. Honestly, i haven't heard the name before and was fascinated by it and asked him for the recipe. He laughed out loud and told me it is simple microwaved potato and served with butter and cheese. Also he told there are many other ways to eat that, but he always makes in this simple way. He also made it for us on the last day of our trip and i totally enjoyed it and the kids too loved it very much. It was exactly a month now and finally i am here with my own version of baked potato with cheese. See the notes section for few variations to this recipe. This can be done in microwave too. Read the full post and try it, let me know your feedback. A perfect kids friendly baked potato recipe

Vendakkai puli mandi recipe | South Indian gravies

Vendakkai puli mandi , is basically a chettinad recipe, with vendakkai | ladies finger based gravy, pairs well with plain rice. Though i have heard this, happened to taste this in my neice wedding, i recently attended in India. Me and my sister got hooked up by its taste and asked the person who was serving, the name of the dish. Then we both went straight into the kitchen and looked for the chief cook and asked him the recipe. He was bit busy that time and gave his phone number and asked me to contact him the next day. So after the wedding got over, the next day i called the chief cook (Mr. Janakiraman)  and he patiently explained the recipe and also clarified my queries on few other authentic recipes too.
Check out my other south Indian gravy recipes

• Vendaya keerai kara kuzhambu
• Arai puli kuzhambu 

Sun dried pesto pasta recipe | Easy pasta recipes

Sun dried Tomato pesto pasta is a simple pasta  recipe, made with sun dried tomatoes as a base. I have got few varities of pasta from Italy, during our Europe trip. And now slowly exploring interesting pasta recipes too. I have a pack of sun dried tomatoes lying in my freezer for some time. Few days back when my cousin shared a picture of a pasta in Instagram. As the name sounded interesting, i asked her the recipe. She messaged me quickly and on seeing that itself i somehow felt, i should try this soon . She made the pasta with store bought basil pesto. But since i have sun dried tomatoes wanted to make use of it and tried with that. Generally pesto recipes uses parmesan cheese in it. But since they say it is not suitable for vegetarians, i just omitted the parmesan and added olive oil in that place. Check out my other pasta recipes.

• Pumpkin sauce pasta
• Sweet corn pasta