Method:
Wash, peel, and grate the carrot. Pour honey (If you are using sugar/jaggery, mix those with the grated carrot) and add lime juice. Add salt and mix well. In a small pan, heat the oil and put mustard seeds. When mustard seeds start crackling, add jeera. Add curry leaves to the oil. Add this seasoning to the salad and mix well. You could add almonds, peanuts, cashews, rasins, any of these as per your taste. Personally I prefer adding almonds. Set aside for 5-10 mins to let the flavors blend. Crunchy munchy carrot salad is ready.

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Stuffed brinjal is easy to make and makes good accompaniment for rotis or puris. You can go crazy with your imagination and use anything you fancy for the masala of this recipe. Make this one and you will fall in love with brinjal.

Ingredients:
Brinjal (purple small round ones) – 250 gms
Cooking oil (sunflower) – 2 tbsps
Coriander leaves – a bunch
Salt – to taste

For masala:
Onion – 2 (medium sized)
Peanuts – 2 tbsp
Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp
Grated coconut – 2 tbsp
Garlic – 3 pods
Jaggery – 1 tbsp
Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder – 2 tsp
Cooking oil – 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method:

Please make sure that you use the small purple brinjal variety to make this dish. Wash the brinjal and pat them dry using a cloth. Make slits that cross each other while keeping the stem intact. Ensure that there is no dirt/worms. Keep aside.

Peel and cut the onion. In a pan, add one tbsp oil and add the onion, grated coconut, peanuts, sesame seeds, and garlic. Saute well. Add turmeric power, chilly powder, jaggery, and salt. Use your imagination and you can add anything you fancy, like coriander powder, garam masala, or ginger garlic paste instead of garlic. Turn off the flame and let the mixture cool. Grind this to a fine paste in a blender. Add just enough water so that the paste is not too loose. Carefully stuff this paste into the slit brinjal so that the paste of masala coats the insides of the brinjal. If you choose to and have the time and patience, you can keep this aside for half an hour before you start cooking the brinjal. I did not do this and cooked the stuffed brinjal straightaway after stuffing them with the masala.

In a thick bottomed pan, pour 2 tbsp of cooking oil and place the slit brinjal with masala stuffing. Close with a lid. Stir occasionally and cook until the brinjal is tender (about 10-15 minutes on medium fire). If you prefer some gravy for the dish, you can make the masala slightly watery and that will make the dish watery. If you prefer it tangy, you can cook the stuffed brinjal in tomato puree or tamarind water. When the brinjal is tender, remove from fire, and add chopped coriander leaves. Serve with rotis or warm rice. I cooked this dish in an iron kadai and hence the dish looks slightly blackish.

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Ingredients:

Bhindi/okra/lady’s finger – 250 gms
Copra/dried coconut kernel – 150 gms
Peanuts – a fistful
Garlic pod (medium sized) – 1
Chilly powder – 1 tsp
Cooking oil – 1 tbsp
Salt – as needed

Method:
The okra that you choose for this subzi should be of small size. Use only the tender ones. Make sure that you wash them thoroughly and pat dry. Remove both the ends and make a single slit on the okra ensuring that it does not split into two. Okra is a favorite hideout for worms! So make sure that you check for any dirt or worms! Keep aside.

Chop the copra into small, even pieces. In a thick bottomed pan, dry roast the copra pieces until golden brown (for around 5 minutes). Remove from fire. Dry roast the peanuts in medium fire for around 5 minutes. When the peanuts start changing color, remove from fire. Grind the roasted peanuts, copra, garlic pod, and chilly powder in a blender to make a coarsely ground powder.

In a pan, pour one tbsp oil and add the slit okra. Close with a lid and cook for 3 minutes in medium fire. Stir occasionally. When the okra is half cooked, add the the coarsely ground powder. Add the required amount of salt, stir, and close with a lid. Cook for 5 mins in medium fire. Stir occasionally. Stuffed okra is ready. Serve hot with warm rotis.

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Ingredients:
Carrots – 250 gms
Milk – 1 cup
Sugar – 100 gms
Ghee – 100 gms
Almonds/raisins/cashewnuts – 8-10 pieces
Elaichi powder – 1/4 tsp

Method:
Soak the almonds in water for half an hour and peel and cut to small pieces. Cut the cashewnuts into smaller pieces. Wash, peel, and grate the carrots. Place a thick wok on fire and pour a teaspoon of ghee. Roast the almonds, cashews and raisins in this ghee. When the nuts and raisins turn golden brown, remove from fire and keep aside.

Pour milk into the thick wok. Empty the grated carrot into milk and cook in medium fire. Stir occasionally. You can use water instead of milk or use a mix of milk and water. The advantage of using milk is that you can cut down on the usage of ghee.

When the milk is fully absorbed and the grated carrot is tender and cooked, lower the flame and add sugar. At this stage, the mixture becomes a little loose. Stir occasionally and cook until all the water is fully absorbed. You can modify the quantity of sugar depending on your taste.
Add ghee in small quantities, mix, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add elaichi powder and the roasted nuts and raisins. Mix well. Remove from fire. You can serve carrot halwa hot or cold. Try it with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.

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Your chance of finding them in the market is miniscule. Only way to taste them is to try them out at home. So here goes recipe for colocasia wafers.

Ingredients:
Chembu kizhangu (taro tuber/colocasia tuber/arvi) – 1 kg
Oil (sunflower/coconut/cooking oil) – 250 ml
Salt – 2 tbsp
Water – Half a glass

Method:
Wash and scrape to remove the outer skin of the tubers. Slice the tubers to thin pieces using a slicer. Colocasia tubers are sticky in nature. Take care to separate the sliced pieces so that they do not stick to each other.

Mix the salt in half a glass of water and keep it aside.

Heat oil in a thick iron wok. When the oil smell hits you and the oil is hot enough, adjust the flame to medium and then drop a bunch of sliced pieces (as much as the oil can hold) into the oil. If you put more than the oil can hold, the slices will not cook properly.

The oil starts to bubble as soon as you put the slices. The bubbles reduce steadily as the slices get cooked and when they are properly cooked and crisp enough, the oil will not have any bubbles at all. This is one way of judging whether the slices are cooked or not. Of course, the slices turn brown in color too. Stir occasionally using a spatula. In medium heat, it takes at least 4-5 mins for the pieces to get cooked. The pieces turn golden and clink against the spatula. At this stage, turn down the heat to low and pour a teaspoon of salt water into the oil. Ensure that you stand a little away from the wok while doing this as this causes bubbles and splutter in the oil. When the bubbles die down, remove the slices from oil and spread them on to a tissue paper/newspaper to absorb extra oil. Turn the heat medium and repeat the process to make more chips.

Wafers are sometimes served with rice and it’s a big hit with many.

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Ingredients:
Raw rice – 1 cup
Jaggery – 1 cup
Water – 2 cups
Ghee (Clarified butter) – 3-4 tbsp
Coconut pieces – 2 tbsp
Elaichi – 1/2 tsp
Cashew – 1 tbsp
Crystalized sugar – 1 tsbp (optional)

Method:
Clean the rice and cook it. Make sure that you drain the extra water from the rice. Dissolve the jaggery in water and strain it to remove any impurities. Pour the melted jaggery into a thick bottomed pan (preferably uruli) and bring to boil. Add the cooked rice to the jaggery. Stir occasionally. When it thickens and water reduces add elaichi powder. Roast the coconut pieces and cashews in ghee. Add this to the cooked payasam and its ready! My cousin would sprinkle generous amounts of kalkandam (crystalized sugar) to the payasam along with ghee. This makes it a truly heavenly treat.

If you add moong dal to this payasam, it becomes sweet pongal. You can check out the recipe here.

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Ingredients:

Poha (beaten rice/aval) – 3 fistfuls
Boiled potato – 1 medium sized
Bread – 1 slice (optional)
Onion – 1 medium sized
Coriander leaves – 4-5 stalks
Curry leaves – 2 stalks
Lemon juice – juice of 1/2 a lime
Green chillies – 2
Asofetida – 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Red chilly powder – 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Rava – 2 tbsp
Oil – 3 tbsp
Water – 1 cup

Method:

Moisten the poha with water and mash it. If the poha is of thicker variety, you will need to soak it in water for a minute and then drain the water. Mash the boiled potato and bread and mix it with the moistened poha. Chop the onions, coriander leaves, and green chillies finely and add it to this mixture. To this, add the lemon juice, red chilly powder, turmeric powder, asofetida, and salt and mix well. Make small balls out of this mixture and flatten the balls into rounds that are 1-cm thick using the palm of your hand. Place the rava on a plate and coat the cutlets with rava.

Heat the oil in a flat non-stick pan and shallow fry the cutlets.

Place the cutlets on a tissue paper to drain excess oil. This is a very tasty snack and easy to prepare too.

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Ingredients:

Brinjal/Eggplant (Bartha Baingan) – one medium sized
Onion (small) – 1 (you can use a few shallots also)
Red chilly powder – 1 tbsp
Salt – as needed
Oil – 3 tbsp

Method:

Cut brinjal into thin round pieces.

Grind the onion and red chilly powder salt into a fine paste. Coat the brinjal pieces with the ground paste along with salt. Mix well and keep aside for at least half an hour.

Heat oil in a flat thick bottomed vessel. When the oil is sufficiently hot, place the brinjal pieces on the oil one by one. Keep the fire on Low-Medium.

After a minute or two, turn over the brinjal pieces using a flat ladle. When both sides of brinjal is suffiently brown, remove from fire. Place on absorbant paper to remove excess oil. Can be served as a snack or served with rice.

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Making a sweet jackfruit dosa is really simple. Grind a few jackfruit pieces along with soaked raw rice and jaggery. Make dosas crisp at the edges by sprinkling some ghee and they are yummilicious! so here we go:

Ingredients:
For grinding:
Jackfruit pieces: 1 cup
Raw rice soaked in water for 2 hours: 2 cups
Jaggery: 1 cup
Elaichi: 2 pods

While making dosa:
Ghee – 1 tbsp

Method:
Grind the jackfruit pieces along with raw rice, jaggery, and elaichi into a fine paste. Add sufficient water to get a normal dosa consistency.

Heat a dosa tawa in medium flame. A non-stick tawa would be ideal. When the tawa is adequately hot, lower the flame and spread half a teaspoon ghee on the tawa. Pour a ladle full of sweet dosa batter on to the tawa. Do not spread because the thinner the dosa, the more the chances of it sticking to the tawa. Cook in low flame. The sweetness of the dosa might cause it to stick to the tawa. Cook in low flame to avoid this. After a minute or so when you see the sides getting brown, pour some ghee on the dosa, and gently flip the dosa using a spatula. Cook for a minute. Remove from tawa and serve.

I feel that Keralites have the most varieties of recipes using jackfruit, both sweet and unripe. Do write to me if any of you know some unique jackfruit recipes. You know i am a die-hard jackfruit lover.

Ingredients:
Parboiled Rice- 2 cups
Coconut grated- 1 cup
Salt to taste
Red chillies (curd chillies) – 2-3
Curry leaves- 2-3 stalks
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tbsp
Chana dal- 1/2 tbsp
Urad dal- 1/2 tbsp

Preparation Time (for batter): 10 min
Cooking Time: 5 min

Method:
Soak the rice in water for 2-3 hrs. Drain the water & grind the rice in a mixer to make a coarse paste. Add very little water while grinding. The batter should not be watery. To the coarsely ground batter, add salt and grated coconut. Mix well.

Heat oil in a thick wok, add mustard seeds, urad dal, and chana dal. If you are using curd chillies, add it along with the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds crackle, add red chillies and curry leaves. Pour the batter to this and keep stirring. The heat should be medium. Keep stirring until the watery batter turns to a thick dough. Turn off the fire.

When the mixture cools, make small round balls double the size of a lemon and place in an idli stand. Put the idli stand with the rice balls in a steamer and steam for 15 mins. Turn off and kozhukkattai is ready to be served with sambhar or chutney.

List of accompaniments:
Can be served with sambhar or chutney. You can have it with sugar too.

Health Benefits/Alerts:
You can make the dough and store in the fridge overnight and make the kozhukattai the next day.

Skill Level:
Medium

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