Murmura Chivda/Spiced Puffed Rice Chivda

Looking for a quick, easy breezy munchies for your sudden cravings or to have for mid-day hunger pangs, dont forget to check this incredibly delicious puffed rice chivda. With your favourite nuts and spices, you can dish out this chivda quickly with less efforts. Since this dish call for less oil, one can munch these murmura chivda with any sort of the beverages of their choice for an evening snacks or around 11 o'clock in the morning. Yes this chivda is a prefect munchies to enjoy if you want to have something light and spicy before your lunch. However puffed rice is very much used in Indian cuisine and puffed rice can be munch even without any spices. But i simply love this chivda as it will be bit spicy and nutty at the same.

Whole Wheat Berries Kheer/Godhumai Paal Payasam/Wheat Berries Pudding

Indian festivals are incomplete without sweet dishes. Obviously Indians makes varieties of sweet dishes. If you are not an Indian, just google for the varieties of sweets exists in Indian cuisine seriously you will be amazed to see the list of sweets. Some of the Indian sweets are quite easy to dish out while certain sweets have their own long cooking process which is definitely a traditional way of making sweets in India. Paal payasam which is known as Kheer aka Indian pudding is one of the easiest and most known Indian sweets. This sweets is often prepared in every Indian household to celebrate a special day or festival or else simply a pradasam to God for any special occasion. And this sweets can be prepared with immense mix and match of ingredients from vegetables to fruits, nuts to grains etc.

Quinoa & Moongdal Sweet Pongal/Quinoa Sakkarai Pongal

One of my favourite Indian festival is obviously deepavali, but i have so many fond memories about Pongal which is also known as Festival of harvest, dedicated to Sun God. Every year, Pongal falls on mid january and this festival is celebrated according to Tamil calender. This festival is celebrated for 4 days, obviously most of the Tamilians make a trip to their native village to enjoy this traditional festival with their family. Though its been many years i have celebrated this Festival of harvest in India, i plan myself to celebrate this festival here in Paris without any fail. Coming to this Quinoa Sweet pongal, this dish is definitely a delicious and ultimate Sweet dish to prepare without any fail for this festival.

Purple Cabbage Masal Vada/Purple Cabbage Channadal Fritters

If you are making often just some crunchy coleslaw or else some easy breezy salads with purple cabbage, you should definitely have to take a look to this crispy fritters aka TamilNadu style masala vadais. Masala vadas are quite a streetfood which can be found easily in every corner tea shops all over Tamilnadu. Masal vadas is usually prepared with channadal along with few spices, however many sort of variations do exists. One can add some grated vegetables or greens to make vadas more delicious and healthy to feed kids easily with vegetables or greens. And my today's post is one among those vegetable loaded fritters aka purple cabbage masala vadas. Cabbage is one of my favourite vegetable but at home its quite a struggle to feed my kids with this leafy vegetable.

Vegan Sweet Potato Murukku/Sakkaravalli Kizhangu Murukku

I have tried couple of Chaklis aka murukkus with different grains, root vegetables and even with spinach, but still i have some root vegetables to cook and dish out some savouries with. Hence i opted for Sweet potato. Sweet potato is an incredible root vegetable which is quite versatile to dish out many fantabulous sweets, bakes and many more fabulous dishes out of it.  Since its diwali, i cant  think more than making some chaklis aka murukkus with this excellent root vegetable. Initially i was bit skeptical to try as sweet potatoes as these root vegetables tends to be sweet. However my creative mind was very much tempted to give a try this sweet potato murukku hence i tried my hands with this combination.

Potato Ribbon Murukku/Urulaikizhangu Naada Murukku

One more savoury to make without any fail for the upcoming festival of lights is this Potato ribbon pakoda aka ola pakoda. After murukkus, ribbon murukku is a must in our Diwali savory list as we love to munch varieties of savouries. Ribbon murukku, is also known as naada murukku, ribbon pakoda, ola pakoda is a variety of murukku which is often made in Tamil Nadu especially for Diwali or Janmasthami in most of the houses. This murukku is called as ribbon murukku as its ressembles like nada, ribbon or string. And the main ingredients for making this crispy snack is rice flour and gram flour. Apart from it, various spices like chilli powder, cumin seeds, sesame seeds,asafoetida are added to this murukku dough to bring the flavor. As much as like other Murukku varieties, this murukku also calls for a special nozzle which is often available along with the Murukku maker.

Tamarind Broken Wheat Upma/Godhumai Rava Puli Upma

Puli upma aka tamarind upma is usually prepared with rice flour, coarsely grounded rice batter or else with rice rava. Its quite an interesting dish which makes a fabulous breakfast, snack food or else prefect for dinner. Almost like upma,this puli upma is flavoured with usual spices which we usually use for upma apart from cooking the grains with tamarind extract. Whoever loves to kick start their day with a dose of tanginess in their food will definitely enjoy this healthy version of puli upma. Since this dish is a delightful breakfast dish, you doesnt even need a side dish to enjoy with. To bring more nuttiness to this incredible healthy broken wheat upma with tamarind extract, i didnt forget to add some peanuts while tempering which is completely optional. Since i want to give a healthy twist to this traditional dish, i opted for broken wheat,however you can replace the broken wheat very much with rice.

Mutton Kheema Masala Kuzhambu/Minced Meat Masala

Minced meat Masala is my hubby's favourite, he just love this masala with anything. When served with dosas, idlies or else with rotis, one can enjoy this lipsmacking kuzhambu without any fuss. Its a prefect dish for meat lovers. Excellent to relish even with mildly flavoured pulao or parottas this dish is definitely a must try. My meat lovers at home are crazy fan of this dish, however i love to prepare this minced meat masala with both chicken and mutton. My today's post is Minced mutton, and i opted for pressure cooking method. Yes this dish is one pot dish, as you need just a pressure cooker to prepare this fingerlicking masala. However you can dish this incredible dish even  by cooking them in traditional way as much as like other mutton dishes. If you are a vegetarian, you can dish this spicy and flavourful dish with minced soya chunks, crumbled paneer or else with crumbled tofu.

Black-eyed Peas Dumpling in Tangy Gravy/Kaaramani Urundai Kuzhambu

Black-eyed peas, which i fondly call as Kaaramani is one of the protein rich legumes aka beans which have loads of nutritious content in it. Do you know just a cup of Black eyed peas have 20% of daily value of magnesium, calcium and iron. Yes if you are vegetarian, dont forget to add this beans quite often in your diet. Also a cup of cooked black-eyed peas have 160 calories with interesting fiber in it. Black eyed peas is one of my most favourite legumes after Red kidney beans,obviously my pantry will always have this. South Indians makes a lipsmacking tangy dish with steamed dal dumplings dunked in a spicy tamarind gravy. Its quite a popular dish and we call it as Paruppu urundai kuzhambu. Highly rich in protein, this dish is often prepared at home whenever we feel like having something tangy and protein rich food for our meal. Since i want to give a twist to the usual Paruppu Urundai kuzhambu, i replaced the toordal dumplings with steam cooked black-eyed peas dumplings.. Trust me this dish is just prefect to enjoy with hot steaming rice and papads.

Chettinad Prawn Thokku/Chettinad Eral Thokku/Chettinad Prawn Masala

Chettinad cuisine is one of most popular cuisine of Tamilnadu and this cuisine is somehow very close to my heart. Yes Pondicherrian cuisines have chettinad touch in their cooking style. Obviously some of the Pondicherrian traditional dishes ressembles quite like Chettinad cuisine. Our seafoods curries to vegetable pirattals, i can list out many of Pondicherrian dishes which sounds almost like Chettinad dishes. Am running this week's blogging marathon with Indian Regional dishes, after a lipsmacking Punjabi dhabba style Egg curry, my today's post goes for a delicious sea food thokku aka Prawn thokku. This dish was sitting in my draft post for more than two years and dunno why i kept on postponing to publish this dish in my blog. Late but not least, this week's theme was a prefect one to write this dish and publish. Been a Pondicherrian, seafoods are my weakness. Actually i cant survive more than a week without seafoods. Obviously i cook many different dishes with seafoods, though my space have less seafoods dishes. However am planning to post some seafoods friendly dishes once a while to please some non vegetarian followers of my space..

Quinoa Masal Vadai/Gluten Free Quinoa Dal Fritters

Third dish with Quinoa for this week's blogging marathon is our usual South Indian masal vadai aka channadal fritters loaded with quinoa. You might have noticed that am running this week's blogging marathon with Protein rich ingredients and i opted for Quinoa. Quinoa is a protein rich grains,and these tiny grains are extremely versatile to dish out many incredible dishes out of it. Masal vadais are quite popular in South Indian cuisine, these dal based fritters have their own place in any festive meals or for an evening snacks. These masal vadais are common snack foods in many tea shops and they are easily available in each and every corner of Tamil nadu. Its quite a street food as well. Masal vadais are prepared with many variations, however channadal based masal vadais are the most common one and i love these vadais very much.

Gluten free Quinoa Coconut Milk Payasam/Quinoa Kheer with Coconut Milk

If you are looking for a healthy and droolworthy Indian sweet dish for your festive meal or to celebrate an event, dont forget to give a try to this gluten free Quinoa coconut milk payasam. Actually South Indians makes ultimate coconut based kheer with freshly squeezed coconut milk along with rice. Obviously i cant stop myself to dish out the same kheer aka payasam with protein rich quinoa. Am running this week's blogging marathon with Protein rich ingredient as theme for this week. After a tangy and fingerlicking quinoa vatha kuzhambu, am posting an another delightful and super delicious kheer prepared with less efforts. Quinoa is definitely a versatile grain and you can cook many ultimate dishes out of this Protein rich grain. I have been cooking with these grains since a while and this grain is one of my favourite grain after Oats. If you want to give a try to this grain, give a try with a sweet dish with this ultimate grains.

No Onion No Garlic Vatha Kuzhambu with Quinoa/Quinoa Vatha Kuzhambu/Quinoa in Tangy Dry Berries Gravy

If you want to give a twist to your usual Vatha kuzhambu saadham aka tangy dry turkey berries or dry black nightshade berries gravy with rice dish, then you have to look at my today's dish. Actually while i was running the Mega marathon, i picked No onion No garlic dishes as theme for my second week of April's marathon. And i prepared this lipsmacking gravy for the theme, but unfortunately i couldnt post this delicious dish for the theme. However I learned this dish from a Chef who is a good friend of mine. He rocks with so many interesting dishes and i crossed him accidentally through Facebook. When we were chatting i asked him to give a different dish to cook at home but i was looking for a traditional one. Then he asked me what about making no onion no garlic recipes and he suggested me one of his signature dish aka Vatha Kuzhambu without onions and garlic. Immediately he gave the ingredients list and i dished out this lipsmacking Vatha kuzhambu loaded with dry black night shade berries for our lunch.

Herbal Chicken Biriyani/Green Chicken Briyani/Mooligai Kozhi Biriyani

My kids are meat lovers, though i love vegetarian foods, i had an obligation to cook meaty foods atleast a meal per day. Though i cook meat dishes often, i post them very rarely in my space. If you check non vegetarian dishes in my space you will find them lesser than the vegetarian dishes. Dunno why i think twice to post meat friendly dishes here. Since its sunday today, i felt like posting this flavorsome green chicken biriyani aka Herbal chicken biriyani i cooked recently for our lunch as sunday special. This chicken biriyani tastes absolutely fabulous with eye pleasing green colour. Though this dish is also named as Nilgiri Biriyani, i felt like naming this dish as Herbal chicken biriyani as this dish calls handful of mint and coriander leaves with couple of spices. Yes this dish is completely cooked in a special mint & coriander leaves paste grounded along with whole garam masala, green chillies. This briyani is tomato-free dish, only onions is used in this dish with ginger garlic paste. I used yogurt to prepare this biriyani, if you want to make them more flavourful, just replace the yogurt with freshly squeezed coconut milk.

No Onion No Garlic Banana Blossom Tomato Kuzhambu/Vazhaipoo Thakkali Kuzhambu

South Indian makes excellent tangy gravies with tamarind extract. Though i have already posted varieties of tangy tamarind gravies in my space, am yet to post some more delightful gravies. And my today's post is a No onion No garlic tamarind based gravy with Banana blossom and tomatoes. Banana blossom is very much used in South Indian cuisine. Though people dish out often some crispy vadas with this incredible banana blossom, you can make some delicious dishes with this extremely healthy blossom. Whenever i feel like making tamarind based gravies at home, i couldnt keep myself away from shallots and garlic cloves. Yes i cant make Kuzhambu aka tamarind gravies without these two. But i took an interesting theme to run this week of Mega marathon. You might have noticed that am running this month's blogging marathon with 4 themes for 4 weeks which sounds absolutely prefect for me to run this long month of blogging.

No Onion No Garlic Pepper Gravy/No Onion No Garlic Milagu Kuzhambu

Am kick starting my second week of this month's Mega marathon with an another interesting theme. As i told earlier am running this month's marathon with 4 different themes. After posting 6 International breakfast dishes from different part of the world, this week's posts are going to be some fingerlicking delicious gravies with No Onion No Garlic as theme. South India gravies or curries are rarely prepared without onions & garlic. Even i cant imagine making gravies without these two ingredients. Obviously my vegetable basket will always have both onions and garlic in stock. When i picked the NO onion NO garlic dishes as theme for this week's blogging marathon i prepared a list of no onion no garlic dishes and picked 6 among those dishes which are usually prepared with loads of onions and garlic cloves. My own version of Pepper gravy aka Milagu kuzhambu always have shallots and handful of garlic cloves. When i planned to cook Pepper gravy for this theme,its seriously hard to skip these two ingredients,but still you can prepare this dish specially for No onion No garlic dieting peoples.

Muttai Kola Urundai/Spicy Egg Balls

Today's dish is completely one of my trial which turned into some fabulous spicy balls. Actually i want to create a kola urundai aka spicy chettinad style balls with eggs since a while. And this week's blogging marathon theme pulled me to come up with this incredible spicy balls. I used boiled eggs to dish out this incredible spicy balls. If you dont have enough eggs to feed your family member, dont forget to give a try to this ultimate balls. With just 4 boiled eggs, you can definitely feed your family members quickly with this egg balls. Everyone at home enjoyed thoroughly these crispy beauties with hot chilly sauce and just loved it.

Thengai Poli/Kayi Holige/Coconut Jaggery Sweet Paratha

This week is going to be some delicious sweet flatbreads with different stuffings. Yes i picked Sweet flatbreads as theme for this week's blogging marathon. Poli/Holige is a Indian sweet flatbread which calls for channadal-jaggery stuffing. Though channadal stuffing is a quite popular stuffing for making some polis, many different versions of polis do exists. One of the popular poli after Puran poli aka channadal stuffing poli is this Thengai poli. Freshly grated coconut, once grinded with jaggery and cooked for few minutes makes this fantastic polis.

Kalkandu Pongal/Rock Candy Sweet Pongal/Kalkandu Sadham

Rock Sugar/Rock candy/Sugar Candy is known as Kalkandu in Tamil, this rock sugar is used in South Indian cuisine for making many delightful desserts out of it. My today's recipe is an another Sankranthi special sweet pongal or sweet rice you can prepare easily with sugar candies or rock candies. This pongal dish calls for milk, which makes this more creamy. Usually prepared with raw rice and split moongdal, this sweet rice is definitely a must to try if you want to prepare a different sweet pongal on Sankranthi. But my recipe calls for just raw rice. Adding split moongdal or skipping the moongdal doesnt change the taste of this dish.

Red Rice Flakes & Coconut Sweet Pongal/Sivappu Aval Thengai Sakkarai Pongal

Pongal/Sankranthi, the popular harvest festival is around the corner. Obviously after Christmas and new year celebration, Indians get ready to celebrate this famous festival. Been born and brought up in South India, i have many beautiful memories about this festival. If you live in City, you might visit the villages to see how this festival is celebrated there. Though many traditional versions of Sweet pongals exists,some easy breezy versions of pongals do exists to prepare on this auspicious day. Even a novice cook, can dish out those easy and delicious pongals on Sankranti with less efforts.