Ingredients

Idli rice - 1 3/4 cup

Black gram - 1/2 cup
Fennugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tblsp

Method
1. Soak rice and black gram separately in water for atleast 1 hour. Soaking overnight can be done too.
Add fenugreek seeds to black gram.
2. Drain the water and grind the black gram to a silky soft texture.
3. Next grind the rice coarsely. Mix it with black gram batter along with salt.
4. Now leave the batter to rest and ferment for atleast 6 hours till the batter rises to almost double the
size.
5. Grease the idli plates with few drops of oil and fill with idli batter.
6. Steam them for about 10 minutes till they rise and become firm. (If you do not have idli stand,
grease stainless steel tumblers, fill it with batter and steam it as shown in the picture.)
7. Switch off the stove and let it rest for a minute or 2. After that use a wet spoon to remove the idlis
from the idli plate.

ngredients
Pigeon Peas (Toor dal) - 3/4 cup (You can also use masoor dal or green gram dal or
a combination of dals)
Vegetables (any choice of a single/mixed vegetables) - 1 cup
(The choice of vegetables can include brinjal, potato, radish, drumstick, spinach,
shallot onions, tomato, raw mango, carrot, zucchini, yellowsquash, lima beans,
pumpkin, yam, taroroot, okra, knolkhol etc)
Shallot Onions - 8- 10 (or 1 onion chopped)
Green Chilly - 1 or 2
Tomatoes - 1
Tamarind Juice - 1 1/2 tblsp
Sambhar powder (store bought or home made) - 1 tblsp (you can increase to your
taste)

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 5-7 seeds
Dry red Chillies - 2
Curry leaves - 2 strands
Cilantro - for garnish

Method
1. Boil the toor dal with the tomato, 2.5 cups of water and optionally 2 cloves of garlic.
You can cook it using the pressure cooke for 3 whistles. Alternatively cook it in a
normal vessel till it is a bit overcooked and is almost mashed up.
2. After the pressure is released, mash the dal using the back of a spoon or with
hand .
3. Heat oil in a deep vessel and splutter the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek
seeds, dry red chillies, curry leaves and asafoetida.
4. Saute the onions and green chillies.
5. Add the veggies to this and cook it till the veggies are soft with enough water.
(Alternatively you can cook the vegetables using a microwave and add it. You can
also cook the vaggies along with the dal in the cooker itself. If you have a double
decker pressure cooker container, you can cook the dal in one and the veggies in the
other.)
6. After the veggies are cooked, add the tamarind juice, salt, sambhar powder and
the
mashed dal.
7. Add enough water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the flame and simmer for 20
minutes for the flavours to blend. A nice aroma of sambhar will be filled throughout
the house.
8. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro and switch off.

9. Serve with rice, idli and dosa varieties. You can add a tsp of ghee on the
sambhar while serving to enhance the flavour.

Ingredients-1
Fish fillets/pieces - 1 lb
Tamarind juice - made from 2-3 tamarind (lemon sized tamarind ball or 1 tblsp of
tamarind pulp)
Tomato - 1 (optional)
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Oil (preferably coconut oil/sesame oil) - 3-4 tblsp
Green Chillies/banana peppers - (2 for garnish)
Cilantro - for garnish
Other veggies that can be added - Brinjal pieces, drumstick, banana peppers or raw
mangoes
Salt (preferably sea salt) - to taste
Ingredients-2 (12 spice)
Dry/Fresh Coconut - 3 -4 tblsp
Corriander seeds - 2.5 tblsp
Shallot/ Pearl Onions (sambhar onions) - 5-6
Garlic - 5-6 cloves
Ginger - 1/4 " piece
Dry Red Chillies - 7 (or as needed)
Pepper - 5-7 seeds
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 strands
Carom seeds - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 5-8 seeds

Sardines Fish Curry

Method
1. Heat oil in a small pan and roast the grated coconut with the onions, garlic, ginger
and dry red chillies till the coconut turns nice and brown. Set aside to cool.
2. Similarly roast the corriander seeds, black peppercons, curry leaves, cumin seeds,
fenugreek seeds and carom seeds too. ( Roasting each ingredient seperately is
better but if you do not have time, you can roast everything together.)
3. Once everything cools grind everything together (all the spices under ingredients
-2) to a fine paste and keep aside.
4. Heat little oil in a clay pot/deep pan. If you are adding any veggies, saute the
veggies and tomato pieces till it is partly mashed up.
5. Add the ground spice masala, asafoetida and tamarind juice. Add required water
and bring it to a boil.
6. Check for salt and add the fish pieces. Cover and cook it for 5-10 minutes.
7. Reduce the flame to the lowest and let the gravy simmer for another 15-20
minutes till the oil seperates from the gravy.
8. Heat little coconut/sesame oil in a pan and splutter the mustard seeds and curry
leaves. Add this to the gravy.
9. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro and split green chillies. The final curry should
have equal amout of spiciness from the masala, tanginess from the tamarind and
salt.
10. Let the gravy rest for 2 hours before serving for the spices to enter the fish pieces
nicely. Serve with hot plain white rice.