Spicy Pomegranate raita with Alvas Natural Yogurt

Alvas Yogurt - A review

Yogurt|Curd|Thayir, we Indians include in our everyday meal, either in the form of curd rice or buttermilk or masala chaas.  I got a mail from Alvas, an Indian Diary Producer in Singapore, to  write a review on their yogurt. I readily accepted it and they sent me their products in 2 days.

Alvas Natural curd comes in 3 different sizes, 200ml, 500ml and 1litre. 

Alvas Natural Yoghurt is available in Sheng Shiong outlets, FairPrice shops and Mustafa Center in Singapore. I felt the availability of the yogurt is quite reachable to all, as we have Sheng Shiong and FairPrice outlets island wide. Apart from these places, it is available in all Indian Mini marts. Coming  to the price, the 200 ml is priced 1.20 SGD , the 500ml is 2.80 SGD and the 1 litre is priced 5.40 SGD. 

This review is based on my personal opinion. I am not paid by the company to write the review. I was given only the yogurt by Alvas Natural. 

Chakka unniyappam | Jackfruit uniappam recipe

Chakka unniappam with video
Chakka unniyappam or jackfruit neiappam, is generally made using chakka varati.  We make unniappam | nei appam for aavani avittam, Gokulashtami and Karthigai deepam. After making jackfruit modagam, i wanted to try jackfruit poli and ela adai this year. Ela adai , few days back my friend's mom taught me while she was making it. But today due to some urgent work, i didn't have time to make poli or ela adai.  During our India trip in June, we attended a wedding in Kerala and came to know that they make nei appam with jackfruit. So i thought i will give it a try. It tasted so awesome, if you are a jackfruit lover then you will love it for sure. The nei appams were crispy outside and soft inside. Check out my

• Karthigai appam
• Wheat flour appam

Mint Coriander Chutney recipe for dosa, idli

Peanut flavored mint coriander chutney, goes well with idli and dosa. Last week while making puliyodarai for lunch box, the peanut box was kept on the kitchen counter. I was busy preparing chutney for dosa on the other side and instead of adding urad dal or channa dal for making the chutney, i added peanuts and turned out so well. Varsha, my daughter is a huge fan of green chutney, loved this peanut flavored mint chutney. Today i made this again to post the recipe of Kothamalli pudina chuntey. I have made a quick video for this chutney recipe too. Check out my collection of Chutney recipes.  

Paneer in white gravy | Malai paneer recipe

Malai paneer gravy | Paneer in white gravy, is a rich creamy white gravy, goes well with roti, naan and spicy pulaos. Generally i make paneer gravy with onion tomato base. Even for malai kofta also i make the same thing but recently during my India trip i happened to taste Malai kofta in white gravy, in a party. I tried this with biryani and naan and it tasted well with both. I tried the same with paneer yesterday. This is similar to the methi malai mutter. You can make koftas also with this White gravy as base. I adapted the recipe from Tarla dalal's website, with little changes. Even for parties or potlucks you can include this along another spicy tomato based gravy, it will be a great combo to pair these with naan, rotis and pulao.

Masala paratha recipe | Square paratha

Parathas| Indian flat bread, those who know me personally, will vouch my love for both cooking and eating parathas. . As such i am a great fan of one pot meal and to me Paratha is a also an one pot meal😋. When i posted the triangle paratha, i wanted to try out the square paratha. But somehow missed it. Last week when i was scrolling in Instagram, i happened to see this masala square paratha in a restaurant page. This paratha can be packed for lunch box too as it stays soft even after few hours. So finally i tried this today for my breakfast. You can have this for lunch or dinner too.  I have posted this Square paratha recipe with a quick video, so that it will be easy for beginners to get the shape.
Check out my other paratha recipes:

• Gobi mutter paratha
• Aloo paratha
• Palak lacha paratha

Onion Bajji recipe, Vengaya bajji

Onion bajji |  South Indian style vengaya bajji is a deep fried onion fritters. They are dipped in a flour batter and deep fried in oil. Bajjis take place in our home very rarely but when we were kids bajjis are made on all Sundays. Amma used to make Vazhakkai bajji often as we get fresh home grown vazhakkai(raw banana) always from the garden. Also kathrikkai(eggplant) bajjis are our most favorite ones too. We feast on bajjis and skip our dinner or just drink some buttermilk and sleep off. Onion bajjis are made rarely as amma makes it whenever there is some extra batter left over. That too she will finely chop all the onions and mix it with the remaining batter and fry in the oil. It is more similar to the north Indian style onion bhajiyas. We love to eat this with curd rice.

  When i called up amma yesterday that i am going to make onion bajji for post, she told me to try out bajji by soaking channa dal and rice. The procedure is to make a thick batter out of this and make bajjis with that batter. My appa's mami sued to do this and she told it would taste awesome. But i didn't have time for that as i already kept everything ready to take video of bajji. But will try this method and post the recipe soon.

Panchamirtham recipe

Panchamirtham is a mix of banana and other dry fruits generally made as a prasadh | neivedhyam for many festivals like janmashtami, Ganesha chathurthi, navaratri or any other pooja we do at home. Even for house warming ceremony and ganapathi homam at home we do this panchamirtham. During our childhood days, we get regular supply of Pazhani panjamirtham from Palani. Also we get the same pazhani panchamirtham in thiruparankundram temple too. But i never liked that as do not like any jaggery based sweets. But now everything has changed. In my sister's house they make this during the time they visit their anscestoral temple. They make it there in the temple and offer as a neivedyam to the God. This recipe, my sister's brother in law passed on to me, the way he explained made me to try this immediately.  As janmashatmi | krishna jayanthi 2016 is on aug 25th, i am posting the this recipe of panchamirtham.  Check out the video of the recipe too.

Vendakkai Thoran recipe

Vendakkai thoran, is a simple curry from the Kerala cuisine. Thoran is included in Onam sadya Menu.  We make Vendakkai curry regularly at home but thoran is made  with the addition of coconut and onions. I have tried this during my initial days of blogging from Bharathy's space. Last weekend i tried this after a very long time and everyone liked it very much. So i wanted to make a post on how to make vendakkai thoran. Ladies finger | vendakkai is loved by everyone at home so they love to eat this in any form. Check out my other ladies finger recipes

• Ladies finger fry
• Bhindi badam masala 

Lasooni dal tadka recipe, Garlic dal recipe

Lasooni dal tadka | lasuni dal is a simple dal recipe made with the addition of lot of garlic. I have given this recipe for Aval vikatan supplement 3 years back. While i was going through those books, i thought i will post this easy dal recipe. This can be had as an accompaniment with plain rice or with chapathi or paratha. Adding lot of garlic gives a nice flavour to the dal and also enhances the taste.
Check out my other dal recipes

• Dabba style dal
• Carrot dal fry
• Masoor dal tadka

Masala Dosa recipe ,Masal dosai

Masala dosa with video

Masala dosa,or Masal dosai is a popular south Indian breakfast recipe. I wanted to post masala dosa recipe when i posted Hotel Saravana bhavan style mini tiffin. But somehow missed it out. I got a tip of cooking onions in the pressure cooker along with the potatoes, from my suresh's chitti. Though i make masala dosa rarely at home but whenever i make i cook the onions along with potato. You can make it for poori masala too.
During my childhood days my grandmother makes yummy masala dosa. Once we had our friends who has come for night study to our house, when they are about to leave by morning 6.30, she was ready with dosa batter and potato masala. She didn't let anyone to go without tasting the masala dosa. Happily they all had the yummy dosa early in the morning.
Check out my

• Cauliflower masala dosa
• Mysore masala dosa