Aviyal is a dish that I learnt from a dear friend Nalini, at whose house I spent some wonderful days at Cochin.Thanks to her for teaching me so many Keralite delicacies.

Aviyal : Avery popular south indian vegetable dish
Ingredients
50 gms Lima beans/pavta (fresh unpeeled)
25 gms french beans cleaned and chopped into medium sized pieces
25 gms fresh pigeon pea (green toor)
Some curry leaves
1 cup fresh scraped coconut
4 green chillies
2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
A pinch of turmeric
1/2 cup beaten yogurt
Coconut oil as per requirement
Finely chopped coriander for garnishing
Boil the pigeon peas, lime beans and the french beans with some curry leaves and coconut oil, meanwhile grind the coconut, chillies, cumin seeds to a fine paste.
Once the vegetables are half boiled put in the paste, mix well and let it cook till vegetables are fully cooked. Add a pinch of turmeric powder, salt to taste, the beaten yogurt, mix well. Do not cook for long as the yogurt may split. Garnish with fresh coriander and put the flame off. Drizzle a little coconut oil.
Serve with puri or steamed rice. Enjoy

This recipe I learnt from one of my house helps. In some parts of Mumbai there are men who work as house hold helps and are called Ramas. The guy who worked for me also worked in a Chinese restaurant as a cook and he taught me this dish. Thanks to him and the dish gets dedicated to Shantaram, that was his name.

Ingredients

1) 1 and a 1/2 cup long grain rice pressure cooked and cooled, the grains should be separate and not sticky.

 2) Grind to a paste and keep ready 
 2 sprigs of celery, use only the leaves
1 spoon ginger paste
1 spoon garlic paste
6 red chillies soaked in water for two hours(drain out the water before grinding)
1 roughly chopped tomato
1 roughly chopped onion

3) Ajinomoto, optional
Fresh green coriander for garnish 
Salt to taste
3 eggs

In a kadhai take oil add the ground paste, cook till it leaves oil, break eggs directly into the cooked paste, add salt and stir and mix well till it becomes a scramble, now add the rice and add salt if required and mix well, let the aromas get well infused into the rice. Then remove from the fire top it with fresh coriander, serve with any Chinese gravy or Manchurian. 

Porridge made of Garden Cress Seeds with Caramelised Apple and Banana.

Ingredients
1/2 cup Garden cress Seeds soaked in little more than 1 cup of water, water an hour before preparation. They absorb water and swell up, so check in between to see if there is enough water or else add little to just submerge them fully.

1/2 a litre of milk
1 banana peeled, chopped into roundels
1/2 an apple peeled, chopped into medium sized thin pieces
 A pinch of cinammon powder
A small spoon of nutmeg powder
few strands of saffron, optional.

Sugar can be added as per taste

Method 
Bring milk to a boil in a deep bottomed vessel, add the soaked seeds, sugar and mix till sugar melts. Remove from fire and keep aside.

In a pan take some clarified butter add the pieces of banana and apple, sautee them till a little golden, sprinkle little sugar, nutmeg and cinammon powder, let them caramelise llittle, take them off the pan and add to the porridge, add strands of saffron if you like. Chill it and enjoy  it.

Baby Brinjal And Fresh Green Pigeon Pea Curry

Ingredient
200 gms of fresh pigeon peas pressure cooked and kept ready

6 baby brinjals ( small brinjals) slit from both sides in opposite directions, here i like to mention that many people make it without cutting off the stock fully, that means chop off the hard portion of the stock and then slit it, put these in a vessel of water for about half an hour, so they open up and also do not oxidize and turn black.

Grind to a paste, 1/2 cup freshly grated coconut, 6 cloves of garlic, 1 inch of chopped ginger, 2 tspoons of roasted sesame seeds, 2 roughly chopped onions, 1 roughly chopped tomato, 1 tea spoon of red chilli powder, 1 tea spoon full of malvani masala. Keep this ready.

Small bunch of coriander for garnishing.

Method

In a pan put little oil, add mustard seeds let them splutter, add turmeric powder and asafoetida and then add the slit brinjals, sprinkle little water, add salt 1/ 2 tspoon malvani masala, cover and let them cook till almost done. remove in a vessel. Now put some oil in the kadhai again and add the ground paste, let it cook till it leaves oil, add the brinjals, let it cook for sometime, add salt as per taste, water as per your liking, garnish with fresh coriander, serve with rice or paratha.

Mushroom manchurian
Fresh mushrooms washed well chopped into medium sized pieces, sauteed in oil with little salt and kept aside.
Ingredients
6/7 cloves of garlic
A bunch of fresh coriander
An inch of chopped ginger
4 green chillies
Salt as per taste
2 spoons dark soya sauce
Ajinomoto is optional
1 teaspoon of honey
For the masala take 6/7 cloves of garlic, a bunch of fresh coriander, an inch of chopped ginger, 4 green chillies and put them in a hand blender to make a coarse mix. 
In a kadhai take some oil, put the masala, saute it well, add the cooked mushrooms, ajinomoto (optional), salt as required,dark soya sauce,((please keep in mind that soya sauce has salt in it ), once all this gets well mixed, just sprinkle a little cornflour on it, mix well, at the end drizzle a few drops of honey to balance the pungent taste. Enjoy with phulkas, spread it on bread or have it with fried rice.

Creamy fruity nutty cake
1 cup cake plum cake preferably, if available, or any cake will do
4/5 pieces of watermelon
4/5 pieces of apple
4/5 pieces of orange
4/5 hazelnuts chopped
A generous serving of fresh cream
In an ice cream cup place the cake, pour fresh cream, arrange pieces of fruits in a layer, again a nice generous pour of fresh cream, top it with hazelnut chops. Enjoy the sinful cup:):)

The Spicy Toasted Egg Sandwiches or Jaffles as they are called in Masterchef.

It is a Savoury Toasted Sandwich which can be had at breakfast or as an evening tea accompaniment. Good option for egg lovers, specially those who enjoy the heat of the fresh green chilli.

6 slices of whole wheat bread

6 eggs beaten with salt pepper and a 1/4 cup milk

6 green chillies finely chopped,use dark green chillies, specifying because all green chillies do not have the desired heat.

Small spoon full of finely chopped garlic
2 onions finely chopped
Small spoon of turmeric powder
Small spoon of asafoetida
Oil as desired

Method

Take oil in a pan add green chillies,onion, garlic and sautee till light brown, now add the beaten egg, add the rest of the ingredients, make a scramble, add the chopped coriander.

Take the bread slices, put the egg scramble inside, keep all all sandwiches ready, spray the toaster with olive oil or butter, butter tastes best. Now put the sandwich in the toaster and again either spray olive oil or butter on top too and toast till golden brown and crisp. Now enjoy them with tomato sauce or chilli sauce or a dip of your choice.

Exotic Vegetable Mix

This is a vegetable made with exotic vegetables and a little of our good old Cauliflower with Indian Spices.

Ingredients

2 cups of broccoli and 1 cup cauliflower florets washed thoroughly and drained,, 1 green, 1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper washed and chopped into squares.

1 tspoon of coriander powder, !4 tspoon of black pepper powder, 1 tspoon cumin powder, 1 tspoon chilli powder, 1/2 tspoon fenugreek powder, 1 tspoon curry leaf powder, 1 small spoon mustard powder,

For tempering you need oil, mustard seeds, turmeric powder, asafoetida.
For this preparation you need a little extra oil in the tempering, since the veggies will all cook in oil and not on steam.

Method

Take a pan add oil in it, add mustard seeds let them splutter, add turmeric powder, asafoetida, add the bell peppers, stir for a while add the broccoli, cauliflower florets, add all the powders and mix well, let it cook uncovered, keep stirring, once cooked garnish with chopped fresh coriander.Tastes amazing with roti, parathas and phulkas.