Amma's rasam powder

Whole red chillies 2 cups
Dhania seeds 1 1/2 cups
Channa dal 1/2 cup
Toor dal 1/2 cup
Jeera seeds 3/4 cup
Peppercorn 1/4 cup

Roast and powder

Black Dal

Got this recipe from a friend of mine.  This is how I make it now - it comes out really well.

2 1/2 cups whole urad dal
Handful rajma

Cook rajma separately.  Saute half onion, 1 1/2 tomatoes and 2 inch piece of ginger.  Blend with the cooked rajma into a fine paste.  Pressure cook the urad dal.  Heat some oil in a saucepan, add the paste and saute until raw smell goes.  Add garam masala, chilli powder and salt.  Once the paste is cooked, add the urad dal and let it cook for some time.  Add butter at the end.

Kalyani Athai’s Idli

3 cups idli rice

1 cup urad dal w/o skin but whole, not split

1 tsp methi seeds

Add just enough water to cover the rice.  Do the same with the
urad dal & methi seeds combined.  Put both in the fridge
overnight. In the morning, grind them separately and mix.  
Then keep outside for a day and night to ferment. Make idlis
the next morning.

Note:  For regular idlis, can use idli rava in place of the idli rice.  
In that case, just mix the idli rava with the ground urad dal and
methi seeds.

Note:  For dosas, use rice (can use regular rice or rice flour).

Sangi’s palak paneer

Fry onions and tomato, garlic, ginger, pepper.  Blanch palak.
Grind everything. Heat oil, add haldi, coriander powder, jeera
powder, salt.  Add palak mixture. Then add paneer.