Kadala Paruppu Sundal

Gram dhall 1 cup
Water 1 1/2 cups

Mustard 1/2 teaspoon
Green chillies 2 medium ones
Curry leaves Few leaves
Shredded coconut for garnish
Asafoetida
Salt

Soak gram dhall for an hour. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard. Once the mustard splutters, add green chillies,curry leaves and water. Once the water is hot, add the dhall and let it cook until it is edible. Keep stirring to make sure the dhall gets cooked evenly. Add asafoetida and salt to the sundal and mix well. Add shredded coconut  and mix the sundal well before removing from the stove.

P.S. Moong dhall can be used in place of gram dhall to prepare Payatham paruppu sundal using the same recipe.

Coriander Rice

Coriander 2 medium bunches
Green chillies  3 or 4 medium ones
Shredded coconut  5 tablespoons

Basmati Rice 1 1/2 cups
Onion 1 big one
Ginger garlic paste 2 table spoons
Garam masala powder 1 teaspoon

Oil 1/3 cup
Salt

 Remove coriander leaves from stalks and wash several times to remove the mud. Grind the coriander leaves with the green chillies and the coconut into a fine paste adding 1/3 cup water. Chop the onion fine. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion until it turns golden brown in colour. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute until the raw smell is lost. Now add the coriander-coconut-chilli paste and fry well for 5-6minutes until paste looses its raw smell and turns dark green in colour. Add the garam masala powder and the required salt. Mix well and the paste for the coriander rice is ready for use.

To prepare the rice, take the rice needed and add 2 tablespoons of the paste to rice and mix well. Check the taste and add more paste or salt if required. Few spoons of ghee could be added to the rice if it's dry. Adding ghee also brings the spiciness down. The coriander paste can be frozen for a month or more for later use. It stays good for 4-5 days in the fridge as well.

Things that are making me Happy !

1. Ananya had her first Piano concert yesterday and it went well. She's been practicing everyday since they announced the concert. She was confident and relaxed about the concert and that's a good beginning !

2. Ananya is finishing 4th grade in style by winning "Student of the semester" for Language Arts. She's been doing really well with reading,writing and spelling right from kindergarten and it's good to see her win this award that she fully deserves.

3. Ananya is almost 10! and she is growing. :) It's great to see the confidence with which she is moving from childhood to girlhood !! From the little girl riding her Winnie Pooh Truck, to the young girl zooming by on her scooter and bike with spirit, she has definitely grown a lot !

4. Really warms the heart to see Ananya-Akshara enjoying their time together-- Ananya asking "enna kutty?" and Akshara with one hand on her hip sternly telling me "You have to be nice to Ananya"!
They are two  beautiful, smart, loving and creative girls who remind me of how fortunate I am to have them both for daughters. I sometimes find it surprising to accept that I am the mother of these smart girls. :)) I am sure as they age, their would be more bonding and less bickering !

5. Akshara has been working hard on learning the numbers and letters. She is almost there ! Akshara has also made progress with her pronunciation. No more "Le-llow" and "ti-rara" !! On the whole, their is better clarity in her speech.  Hopefully, she will make more progress during the summer and in preschool.

6. Akshara's menu is growing- bread toasted in ghee, Vanilla milkshake, chocolate icecream, french fries and hash browns ! She seems to have gained height and is having a blast riding her Dora bike all over our neighborhood. Really happy to see her quietly move on from stroller to bike, sippy to tumbler !

7. We did think a lot about moving to India. Though we could not go ahead immediately, we gave it a serious thought and have a better idea of what to expect in India in terms of school, allergy awareness and preparedness. Gaining an idea of what would work and what might not work for each of us is definitely progress !

Pudhina Chutney

Recipe Source: Rakskitchen.net
Notes- Made twice the given quantity using 8 red chillies. Too Spicy for Ananya.Next time use 3 chillies and for double the quantity, try with 5 chillies.

Idlis

Recipe source: Rakskitchen.net

3/4 cup whole urad dhall
4 1/2 cups Idli rice
1 teaspoon Fenugreek seeds
Salt 4 1/2 teaspoons

Soak around 5 hours
Grind urad dhall for 20 to 25 minutes
Grind idli rice for around 30 minutes
Water- used 2/3 cup water in place of 1/2 mentioned in the recipe and as it progressed, added water whenever needed to help grinder run smoothly.

Mix the batters after adding salt. Heat oven and place the batter overnight in the oven.
Takes atleast 12 hours to ferment depending on the climate !!

Batter quantity:  Less than 3/4 of Big Thooku

Whole wheat Eggless Banana Muffins

Recipe source: priyaeasyntastyrecipes.blogspot.com

Hakka Noodles

Tried the recipe from Sharmispassions.

For 1/3rd of noodles packet (1 round plastic box full of cooked noodles), used 1 onion, 3 cloves garlic?, 2 teaspoon of soysauce, 2 teaspoon of pepper powder(double of recipe), carrots and capsicum. Oil- 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Taste was very good and spicy !!
Mixing small quantity of noodles is easier than adding all the noodles.