Watermelon Lemonade

Ingredients:
1. Water melon cut in cubes  - 2 cups
2. Lemon juice - 2 teaspoon
3. Ice cubes - few

Method:
1. Remove the seeds from watermelon.

2. Puree all the ingredients together in a blender.

3. Strain the juice if it contains any small chunks of watermelon.

Linking this recipe to "Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge", a monthly event started by Priya and now managed by Mayuri. For the month of June, I am paired up with Mayuri who gave me Watermelon and Lemon as my ingredients.

Mayuri blogs at http://mayurisjikoni.blogspot.in/

Pacha Manga Kichadi | Mango Kichadi

Kichadi is a Kerala dish made with one kind of vegetable in a yogurt based gravy. Vegetables that can be used include cucumber, mango, winter melon, okra/lady's finger and even pineapple.

Unlike kichadi, pachadi is made in a coconut-yogurt based gravy.  Some of the pachadi recipes in my blog:
Kumbalanga Pachadi 

Cucumber Pachadi

Vellirikka Pachadi

Kichadi and Pachadi are often served as part of Kerala Sadya.

Ingredients:
1. Raw Mango - 1 medium
2. Yogurt - 1 cup
3. Ginger grated - 1/2 teaspoon
4. Green chillies - 1 or 2
5. Curry leaves - few
6. Fenugreek seeds - 1/8 teaspoon
7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
8. Dried red chillies - 2
9. Oil - 1 teaspoon
10. Salt to taste

Method:
1. Wash and cut mango into small pieces.

2. Take a saucepan and add cut mangoes,  grated ginger, slit green chillies, salt to taste and 1 cup of water. Cook until mangoes are soft and well cooked.

3. Once the mango is well done, turn off the stove and allow it to cool. Add a cup of yogurt and mix well.

4. Heat oil in a small pan and splutter mustard seeds. Add dried red  chillies, curry leaves and fenugreek seeds. Add this seasoning to cooked mango mixture and mango kichadi is ready to serve.

Linking this recipe to "Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge", a monthly event started by Priya and now being managed by Mayuri.

The theme for the month of May is Mango along with 2 ingredients. I am paired with Rafeeda of The Big Sweet Tooth  who gave me Yogurt and ginger as secret ingredients and I decided to make this mango kichadi.

Cucumber Pachadi

Ingredients:
1. Cucumber- 1 small sized
2. Coconut grated - 1/2 cup
3. Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
4. Green chilli - 1
5. Dried red chilli - 1
6. Curry leaves - few
7. Yogurt/Curd - 1 cup
8. Oil - 1 teaspoon
9. Salt to taste

Method:
1, Wash the cucumber, remove seeds and cut into small pieces. Transfer cucumber in a mixing bowl.

2. Grind coconut and green chilli into a fine paste. Roughly crush 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds. Add this coconut paste, crushed mustard, yogurt and salt to cucumber and mix thoroughly.

3. For seasoning, heat oil in a pan and splutter 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds. Add dried red chilli and curry leaves. Transfer this seasoning to pachadi and serve.

Kayappam | Undampori | Bonda

Kayappam is easy-to-make and one of the popular snacks in Kerala tea shops. It tastes best when  served with tea.

Ingredients:
1. Wheat flour - 2 cup
2. Banana - 1 medium or 3 small bananas
3. Jaggery - 1/2 cup
4. Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon
5, Salt - 1 pinch
6. Baking soda - 1 pinch
7. Oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Melt jaggery with 1 cup of water. Strain the syrup to remove any impurities and allow to cool.

2. In a large mixing bowl, take wheat flour, cardamom powder, salt and baking soda and mix well.

3.  Peel and mash the bananas with a fork. Add the mashed banana to dry ingredients along with jaggery syrup. Combine well to form a very thick batter. It more or less should be like a sticky dough.

4. Allow the batter to ferment for 4-6 hours.

5. Heat oil in a frying pan on low-medium heat. Wet your hands by dipping in a bowl of water, take a lemon sized batter, roughly shape into rounds and drop in hot oil. Fry on low-medium heat until the outside turns dark golden color.

6. Drain excess oil in a tissue and serve with tea.

This can be stored in an airtight container for 2 days.

Check out the video of how to make kayappam in youtube.

Ribbon Pakoda | Ribbon Murukku | Pakkavada

Ingredients:
1. Rice flour - 1 cup
2. Besan/Gram flour - 1/2 cup
3. Asafoetida - 2 pinch
4. Carom seeds/Omam - 1/2 teaspoon
5. Sesame seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
6. Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon or as per your spice level
7. Salt to taste
8. Hot oil - 1 teaspoon
9. Butter melted - 1 teaspoon
10. Oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Take gram flour, rice flour, carom seeds, asafoetida, sesame seeds, red chilli powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Add a tablespoon of hot oil and heated butter to it and combine well with a spoon.

2. Add water little by little and combine to make a soft dough.

3. Heat oil for deep frying on medium heat. Put a handful of dough in a murukku press with thin slit disc(refer pic below). Press it directly into hot oil. Fry on both sides on medium heat until bubbling of oil stops.

4. Remove from oil and drain the excess oil on a kitchen tissue. Store in a airtight container after cooling.

Murukku Press with thin slit disc

Banana Berries Smoothie

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
1. Banana - 1
2. Strawberries - 5
3. Raspberries - 5
4. Cold Milk - 1 cup
5. Honey - 2 tablespoon

Method:
Add all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

You can adjust the quantity of honey as per your taste.

Linking this recipe to "Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge", a monthly event started by Priya. For the month of April, I paired up with Nirmala who gave me Strawberry and Raspberry as my ingredients.
Nirmala blogs at "Nirmala's Kitchen".

Cucumber Dosa

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
1. Rice (Idli rice/Sona masoori) - 1 cup
2. Cucumber - 1 medium sized
3. Salt to taste
4. Oil/Ghee for greasing dosa

Method:
1. Wash and soak rice in water for around 4-5 hours.

2. Drain the water and grind rice with cucumber pieces. There is enough water in cucumber to help with grinding, if not add little water.
Grind rice until smooth and add enough water to get dosa batter consistency. You should be able to pour the batter and spread it with a ladle.

3. Prepare dosa in a nonstick or cast iron pan. Drizzle oil or ghee as per your preference.

Serve hot with chutney/sambar.

Recipe Courtesy: Nivedita

Sweet Potato Carrot Soup

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
1. Sweet Potato - 1 medium sized
2. Carrots - 2 medium sized
3. Ginger  - 1/2 inch
4. Onion - 1 small
5. Oil - 2 teaspoon
6. Salt and pepper powder for seasoning
7. Cilantro - 1 sprig for decoration

Method:
1. Heat 2 teaspoon of oil in a large saucepan and add ginger slices and onion. Fry until onions turn translucent.

2. Add cubed sweet potatoes and carrots and saute for a minute.

3. Add around 3 cups of water and cook covered until sweet potatoes and carrots turn soft.

4. Allow them to cool completely and then put them in a blender. Blend until smooth.

5. Put the soup back into the saucepan and bring it to boil. Add salt and pepper for seasoning and turn off the stove.

6. Decorate with a sprig of cilantro and serve hot.

Oats Energy Bites

Ingredients:
1. Quick cooking oats - 1 cup
2. Pitted dates - 1 cup
3. Honey - 1 tablespoon
4. Vanilla essence -  1/2 teaspoon
5. Cocoa powder -1 teaspoon
6. Salt- a pinch

Method:
1. Dry roast oats on stove top until they turn crisp. It takes around 15 minutes on medium flame. Stir continuously to avoid burning.

2. Blend roasted oats with rest of the ingredients in a food processor or blender.

3. Roll into balls. They can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Linking this recipe to "Shhh Cooking Secretly Challenge", a monthly event started by Priya. For the month of March, I paired up with Amrita who gave me oats and honey as my ingredients.
Amrita blogs at "The Food Samaritan".

Kara Sev

Ingredients:
1. Gram flour/Besan - 1 cup
2. Rice flour - 1/2 cup
3. Carom seeds/Ajwain - 1/2 teaspoon
4. Hot oil - 1 tablespoon
5. Salt to taste
6. Oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Take gram flour, rice flour, carom seeds and salt in a mixing bowl. Add a tablespoon of hot oil to it and combine well with a spoon.

2. Add water little by little and combine to make a soft dough.

3. Heat oil for deep frying on medium heat. Put a handful of dough in a murukku press with medium holed plate. Press it directly into hot oil. Fry on both sides until bubbling of oil stops.

4. Remove from oil and drain the excess oil on a kitchen tissue. Store in a airtight container after cooling.

Beetroot Chapathi

Makes 8-10 chapathis.

Ingredients:
1. Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
2. Beetroot - 1 medium
3. Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
4. Oil/Ghee - 1 tablespoon

Method:
1. Puree beetroot in a blender. Make sure it is a fine paste with no lumps.

2. Take whole wheat flour in a large mixing bowl and add beetroot puree, oil and salt.

3. Combine all the ingredients well and make a soft dough. Add water if required.

4. Rest the dough for at least 30 minutes and make chapathis.

Linking this recipe to Shhhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge. My partner for Feb month challenge 

was Sandhya Ramakrishnan of My Cooking Journey who suggested flour and beetroot as my 

secret ingredients.

Beetroot Leaves Stir Fry | Beet Greens Stir Fry | Beetroot Ela Thoran

Ingredients:

1. Beet greens - 1 bunch

2. Onion - 1 small sized

3. Coconut - 1/4 cup grated

4. Cumin seeds - 1/4 teaspoon

5. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

6. Garlic - 1 clove

7. Green chillies - 1 or 2 

8. Oil - 1 teaspoon

9. Salt to taste

Beet Greens

Method:

1. Wash the beet leaves(including the stem) and chop them finely. 

2. Take coconut, cumin seeds, garlic and green chillies in a mixer and pulse for few seconds to make a coarse mixture.

3. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds.

4. Add finely chopped onions and saute for a minute.

5. Add finely chopped greens and salt to taste. Cover and cook for couple of minutes. 

6. Add coarse coconut mixture and mix well. Cook for couple of minutes and now it is ready to serve. 

Serve as a side dish for rice. 

Sweet Potato Corn Cutlet

Makes: 8 cutlets

Ingredients:
1. Sweet potato - 2 medium
2. Sweet corn(frozen) - 1/2 cup
3. Scallion/Spring onion - 2 nos. finely chopped
4. Coriander leaves/Cilantro (chopped) - 2 tablespoon
5. Cumin powder - 1/4 teaspoon
6. Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon
7. Bread crumbs - 1/4 cup
8. Rice flour - 1 tablespoon
9. Lime juice- 1/2 teaspoon
10. Salt to taste
11. Oil for shallow frying - 1/4 cup

Method:
1. Cook sweet potato with skin-on in boiling water in a pressure cooker or an open vessel. Alternatively, you can cook in an microwave. Wrap the sweet potato(with skin) in a paper towel and microwave for 4 to 7 minutes. Time varies depending on the power of your microwave and size of sweet potato. To check if it is well done, just insert a knife through the sweet potato and it should slide in smoothly.

2. Remove the skin off the sweet potato and mash it well. To this add, frozen corn, finely chopped scallions, chopped cilantro, red chili powder, cumin powder, lime juice, rice flour, breadcrumbs and salt to taste. Mix well to form a dough.
If you think the dough is bit watery, then add more breadcrumbs.

3. Take a small portion of dough (lemon sized) and shape it into patties.

4. Shallow fry the patties on medium flame until both side turn golden brown.

Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

Sharkara Varatti | Sharkara Upperi

Ingredients:
1. Raw plantain - 2 nos.
2. Dry ginger powder - 1 teaspoon
3. Jaggery - 1 cup
4. Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
5. Salt - 1 teaspoon
6. Sugar powdered - 1 tablespoon
7. Oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Remove the skin of plantain and cut them lengthwise along the center, then cut them into 1/2 inch thick slices.

2. Take 3 cups of water in a bowl and add cut plantain pieces and a teaspoon of salt. Let it rest for 10 minutes.

3. Drain the water completely and lay them on a paper towel to remove all the water.

4. Heat oil for deep frying. When the oil is hot enough, reduce the flame to low-medium and add the plantain slices. Do not overcrowd the vessel.

5. Fry on low-medium flame until they turn crisp. It takes around 35-45 minutes to turn crisp. To test you need to remove a piece from oil and break it half, if it still soft in the center it is undone and needs more frying.

6. Once done, remove from pan and drain excess oil in a paper towel.

7. Now let's make jaggery syrup. Take jaggery and  2 tablespoon of water in a heavy bottomed pan and bring it to boil. Cook until jaggery syrup forms into 1 string consistency. To check, add a drop of syrup in cold water and it should form a ball rather than dissolving in water.

8. At this stage, reduce the flame to low and add fried plantain, cardamom powder and dry ginger powder and give it a good mix. The jaggery will coat the chips well. Now add powdered sugar and give it a final mix.

Before frying

After frying

Pineapple Kesari

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
1. Rava/Semolina - 1/2 cup
2. Sugar - 1/4 cup
3. Pineapple pieces - 1/2 cup
4. Ghee - 3 tablespoon
5. Raisins and Cashews - 2 tablespoon
6. Salt - a pinch
7. Turmeric powder - a pinch for color

Method:
1. Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a pan and fry raisins and cashews and set aside.

2. In the same pan, add pineapple pieces and 1/2 cup of water and cook until all the water evaporates.

3.  In a different pan, boil 1 1/4 cup of water and add salt and turmeric powder.

4. Reduce the flame to medium and add semolina and stir continuously. Make sure there are no lumps.

5. Now add cooked pineapple, 2 tablespoon of ghee and sugar and give it a good  mix. Cover and cook for few more minutes and finally add fried cashews and raisins.

Serve hot or cold.
Turmeric powder can be substituted with saffron or yellow food color. Sugar quantity can be adjusted as per your taste.

Banana Bread

Recipe Source: Grandma's Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1. Ripe Bananas - 3 large
2. All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cup
3. Butter (melted)- 1/3 cup
4. Egg - 1
5. Sugar - 1 cup
6. Baking soda - 1 teaspoon
7. Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F/180 deg C. Grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.

2. Combine salt and baking soda to flour and set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together melted butter and mashed bananas.

4. Add sugar, egg and vanilla extract.

5. Add flour mixture and mix well.

6. Pour the batter in greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Kulkuls | Goan Christmas Sweet

Ingredients:
1. All purpose flour/ Maida - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1/3 cup
3. Melted butter - 1/4 cup
4. Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
5. Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
6. Oil for deep frying

Method:
1. Add sugar and vanilla extract to melted butter and mix well.

2. Take flour in a mixing bowl and add salt and butter mixture. Rub the flour between your palm to get a course texture.

3. Add water little by little and knead the flour into a soft dough.

4. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.

5. Take small marble sized portion of dough and shape into a ball. Place the ball on the back of fork, flatten it and gently roll to form a shell shaped kulkuls. Do the same with remaining dough.

6. Heat oil for deep frying on medium flame.

7. When oil is hot, fry the kulkuls until they turn golden brown. Drain excess oil on a paper towel.

8. Cool them completely before storing in an air tight container.