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.

Vinku's upma

Fry cashews separately.  Keep aside.  Heat oil, burst mustard.  Add urad dal, slit green chilli, ginger, curry leaves.  Add hing and lots of tomatoes (3 tomatoes for one cup).  Once tomatoes are cooked, add 1 cup of rava.  Saute for a bit.  For the liquid, the ratio is 1 rava  : 2 liquid.  For the liquid, half cup buttermilk with juice of 1/2 lime, and the rest water.  Add salt.  Mix, cover and cook till done.  At the end, add cashews and 1/2 tsp ghee.  (Note:  the cup measure used here is a rice cup).

Found these recipes handwritten by mom with Vinitha in Austin.

Bagara Baingan

450 gms Brinjals
5 gm red chillies
115 gms coconut
15 gms coriander seeds
5 gms garlic
5 gms sesame seeds
225 gms onions
115 gms tamarind
5 gms jaggery
Mustard seeds
Turmeric pwdr
Curry leaves

Wash brinjal without breaking the stem.  Cut lengthwise so that brinjal still remains whole.  Heat oil and fry brinjal till the skin becomes brown.  Remove and keep aside.  Fry onions with the coriander seeds and red chillies.  Grind it with the coconut and garlic.  Extract tamarind pulp and add to the ground paste.  Roast sesame seeds separately and powder.  In a little oil, saute the paste well.  Add the brinjal and sesame seed powder.  Cover and cook till gravy thickens.  Add jaggery.  Tadka mustard seeds and curry leaves in ghee and pour over the curry.

This used to be one of our favorites growing up.

Basic Curry Gravy

2 finely chopped onions
2 medium tomatoes finely chopped
Curry leaves
Salt to taste

Grind to a paste:
3 cloves garlic
one piece ginger
3 dry red chillies
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
25 gms cashews

Heat oil and saute onions till golden.  Add masala paste and saute for about 10 mins, adding a little water if paste tends to stick to bottom of pan.  Add tomatoes and cook for 5 mins.  Add 2 cups water, curry leaves and salt.  Bring to a boil.


Is this the curry gravy that mom used to make with potatoes or the tomato masala recipe?

Dhansak

Turmeric pwdr 1/2 tsp
Tuvar dal 1/2 cup
Mixed dals (green gram, Bengal gram) 1/2 cup
1 large potato
1 Brinjal
2 onions
1 piece red pumpkin
2 carrots
1 piece ash gourd

Grind together:
1/2 tsp methi seeds
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp chilli pwdr
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 small piece ginger, cinnamon, one green chilli, coriander leaves
Grind these with one onion and tamarind.

Wash and soak the dals for 1/2 hour.  Cut the vegetables into small pieces.  Pressure cook veggies, dlas with the turmeric pwdr for about 25 mins.  Chop the second onion fine.  Saute till golden brown.  Add ground masala and fry well.  Add cooked dals and veggies, salt to taste, required water and mix well.  Simmer for some time.  Garnish with coriander leaves.

Rava dosa as per Sangi's mom-in-law

2 cups rice flour

1 cup rava

About a handful of atta to bind

Mix.  Give tadka of jeera, ginger, green chilies

Ragi dosa per Sangi's mom-in-law

2 cups ragi

1 cup urad dal

Soak both separately for a couple of hours.  Grind urad first, then add ragi and grind. 

Chithi's tinda and aloo curry 

Main ingredient is tinda, just a little aloo

Grind tomatoes, garlic, onion, green chillies, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon.  Then sauté in a little oil until it separates and raw smell goes.  Add turmeric pwdr, chili pwdr, jeera and dhania pwdr. 

Then add aloo and tinda.  Sauté for a few minutes, add water and pressure cook for 2 whistles.  Might require one more whistle.  If too watery, can boil off the water or add wheat flour to thicken. 

Adai with millet

1 cup different dals, 1/2 cup rice, 1/2 cup millet

Sangi's Bajra kitchdi

Bajra (instead of rice), moong dal (she uses yellow, can use any - maybe try green skin moong)

Pressure cook both Bajra and dal in separate vessels.  After cooking, the water is not to be thrown, so don't use too much water to cook.

Tadka in ghee - jeera seeds (can also add sesame seeds and ajwain).  Add ginger, turmeric and pepper. Can add veggies like beans, carrot, peas.  Either pressure cook the veggies or add with tadka.  Add salt, Bajra and dal along with water and cook for some time.

Amma's small onion Sambar 

Roast Chana dal, red chili, coriander seeds and coconut.  Sauté the small onions.  Grind few onions along with the spices.  Boil the rest of the onions in tamarind water until raw smell goes.  Add the paste and boil for a few mins.

Amma's Vetha Kuzhambu

Soak tamarind.  Heat a little Idhayam oil and add hing.  Keep it aside.  Grind 1/4 cup coconut and keep aside.  Burst 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 1/2 tsp methi seeds, 1 red chili, 3 tsps tuar dal. Grind into a paste. In some regular oil, saute some vethal.  Once done, add coconut paste, tamarind water and salt and if needed some jaggery.  Then add seed paste.  Boil until raw smell goes.  

Mom just added hing to the oil before adding coconut.