Neem flower Rasam | Tamil New year recipes

Neem flower rasam |vempam poo rasam is made in all South Indian homes on Tamil New year | Tamil varusha pirappu. I have already posted the veppam poo rasam of my mil's version few years back. Though i am not a big fan of this neem flower rasam, this version i loved it very much. I learnt this from my cousin who taught me when she visited me few months back. I have posted a garlic rasam(with coconut milk), which i learnt from her. This is yet another flavourful and tasty neem flower rasam, which is her signature recipe too. As Tamil new year is coming up in few days (April 14th), i wanted to post this recipe of neem flower rasam |vempam poo rasam. Check out my full collection of Tamil new year recipes. 

Pavakkai curry recipe | Bitter gourd curry

Pavakkai | bittergourd|Karela dry curry made with fresh ground peanut based masala. We are a big fan of pavakkai curry from the childhood. Though it sound wierd, but yes,we are,as our mom makes it so yummy and we will look forward to it. We get one more variety of pavakkai, the mini ones called as medhi pavakkai, which i had rarely seen in chennai. We used to get it quite often in our native place. I haven't shared my mom's version of pavakkai curry in jeyashri's kitchen yet. This version i learnt from my friend Revathi. She shared the recipe and also made it one day and sent for me for tasting. Two days back i made this curry and we all liked it. Some how kids also had a small portion of the curry too. Check out my Bitter gourd fry recipe.

Spinach tomato pasta | Easy pasta recipes

Recipe with video

Creamy spinach tomato pasta made with spaghetti pasta. Two days back, when I and Varsha were browsing in Pinterest, found many interesting vegetarian pasta recipes. We both decided to go for the spinach tomato pasta after browsing lot of recipes. After seeing many recipes in that category, we both come up with our own recipe, which sounded so easy for me to try it out too. I have a box of cute baby spinach recipes, which i got from Fairprice. I made this for my lunch today and reserved a portion for Varun too and he had the pasta after coming back from school. Varsha couldn't taste this as she went to her friend's house today. But i promised her that i will make this again for her tomorrow.  Make this simple delicious creamy spinach pasta and enjoy your meal.
Check out my other pasta recipes.

• Pumpkin sauce pasta
• Sun dried pesto pasta

Beetroot chaas recipe | Summer cooler recipes

Beetroot chaas|Chukandar chaas is a healthy summer cooler recipe. It is similar to the masala chaas but the addition of beetroot makes it more healthy. Beetroot, yogurt and few spices, just mix everything and consume on hot sunny day. We south Indians make neer mor during summer. My mom used to make neer mor in the morning, during summer days and keep it in a big jug in the refrigerator. We have to finish that by evening. Those days we are never exposed to any aerated or bottle juices. Also we have 4 coconut trees in the house and we used to get fresh organic ilaneer from the home grown trees. Stay hydrated in the summer by taking home made summer coolers.

Beetroot chaas

  Preparation Time : 15 mins | Cooking Time : 5 Mins |Serves: 3

    Beetroot  1/2
    Green chili  1/2
    Ginger  a small piece
    Cumin seeds  1/2 tsp
    Yogurt   1 and 1/2 cup
     Water  1 cup
     Chaat masala 1/4 tsp
     Salt  as needed
     
     

Method:

• Chop the beetroot into cubes and cook in little water for 5 minutes. You can skip this step and straight away proceed to grind the ingredients.
• You can roast the beetroot in the oven too. 
• Allow this to completely cool. No need to drain the water.

• Grind the beetroot, yogurt, green chili,ginger,cumin seeds along with salt.
• Grind into a smooth paste. 

• You can straight away serve this but i wanted to filter it. 
• Filter the chaas and add chaat masala to this.

• Add 1 cup of water to bring it to a right consistency.
• Serve chilled. 

Notes:

1. You can temper the chaas with mustard seeds and hing as we do for south Indian neer mor.
2. Roasted cumin powder can be added in the last while serving. 
3. You can also add few mint leaves or coriander leaves while grinding.

   

Radish masala recipe | Side dish for chapathi

Radish masala | mullangi masala is a easy and delicious gravy made with radish and serves as a perfect side dish for chapathi | roti and even for dosa too. It even goes will with jeera rice too. I learnt this recipe from my friend's mom. When i went to her house to learn the triangle samosa recipe, i saw her cooking this radish masala. I noted down the masala recipe and this recipe i have given in the Aval vikatan Supplement magazine which i gave in 2014. We always make make radish sambar, radish paratha and sometimes add in salads but this side dish for roti is quite simple and yum too. I have slightly altered the recipe given by aunty. Enjoy this radish masala and let me know how it turned out.

Basil lemonade recipe | Summer coolers

Basil lemonade is a perfect summer thirst quencher recipe. This recipe is made with basil leaves, lemon and honey. If you have all the ingredients in hand you can make the drink quickly. Last week when we ordered food for a party from a lady who stays nearby and does catering service, she told me about this basil lemonade. So curiously i asked her about that and she explained about and i got a bunch of thai basil leaves another friend from her home garden. I tried basil lemonade at home and even posted this in Jeyashri's kitchen Instagram story too. Today i tried with sweet basil leaves and it turned out very nice too. Make this small variation in your usual lemonade and enjoy the summer.
Check out my other lemon based summer coolers

• Shikanji
• Home made lemonade 

Mango Payasam recipe | Mango semiya kheer

Ugadi special

Wish all readers a Happy Gudipadwa and Ugadi. Ugadi (Telugu new year) and Tamil new year are around the corner. Generally we make a menu which has all the six tastes,sweet, sour, salt, spice, astringent and  bitter with naturally available ingredients. I have posted neem flower rasam, mango pachadi, raw mango rice, mango pickle and obbatu |poli recipes. Since mangoes started coming in the market i decided to make mango payasam. I love vermicelli payasam so i decided to make mango vermicelli payasam.   

Red coconut chutney | Coconut chutney with red chili

Red coconut chutney is one of the easiest chutney we can make as a side dish for idli |dosa. If you have coconut in hand you can make this chutney in a jiffy.I have already posted coconut chutney recipe. My mom makes coconut chutney with red chili on the days she is running out of green chili. I love the addition of garlic in the red coconut chutney. But i haven't added garlic in the red coconut chutney today. I love tempering the coconut chutney with shallots | small onions. Here is my version of red coconut chutney. Enjoy this with your favorite tiffin. Check out my collection of chutney recipes. 

Savory Dumplings with Orange sauce | Paneer dumplings

Dumplings are steamed food generally popular in South East Asia. It is more like the momo but the outer cover is made with rice flour for dumplings. Dumplings can steamed snack and generally we Indians make it as modak or kozhukattai during ganesha chaturthi festival. I wanted to try some savory dumplings and to make it kids friendly and made that with paneer and potato. I got this idea of shaping from a youtube video and you can make it as a modak too. The orange sauce i learnt from Masterchef Nikita gandhi 's cookery workshop which i attended in November 2016. She is a super talented young girl and all the recipes she taught were interesting and tasted yum. She made this citrus sauce to pair with momos. Try this easy and healthy dumplings at home and let me know how your kids liked it.
  I wanted to make a full video recipe but it had some lighting issues as i shifted to a new location to shoot the video. So ended up posting the shaping part only. Scroll down to see the video on how to shape the dumplings.

Rose lassi recipe | Lassi recipe

Lassi is a popular yogurt based Indian drink. I have posted punjabi sweet lassi, kesar lassi, mango lassi in jeyashri's kitchen. This rose lassi is quite famous in road side dabbas and anything with rose essence i love it. I have tried rose gulkand lassi for my Kutties kitchen cook book. When i bought rose milk essence 2 weeks back, after trying the watermelon rose cooler, i tried this rose lassi recipe. Varsha a great fan of rose milk, just like me😊enjoyed it very much, after she came back home from her exams. As the weather is getting hot, stay hydrated by drinking enough water, buttermilk and once in a while indulge in such summer coolers.