Uzhundan Choru (Urad dal Rice)

This is one of Sunday Staple at Mom's.I just adore this dish and now my kids love it.
Made with Black Urad dal and Rice and very few ingredients to kick it up a notch.

You will need

Rice  - 3/4 cup
Black Urad dal - 1/4 cup ( You need black urad dal.Don't substitute this with any other urad dal)
Salt - as needed
Garlic - 1 clove ( finely chopped)
Fenugreek seeds ( Vendhyam) - 1/4 tsp
Coconut - 2 tbsp (shredded) (optional)
Water - 2 cups

How you will make :
Wash rice and urad dal and keep in aside.In a pressure cooker (or rice cooker) , add rice, urad dal, fenugreek seeds, garlic, coconut, salt and add 2 cups of water.Adding water depending the type of white rice you are using, so add it it accordingly.Cook the rice mixture like the same way you cook white rice.(pressure cooker - 3 whistles).That's it, it is ready to serve.
We serve 'uzhundan choru' with cocnut or coriander chutney, theeyal or with egg curry as seen in the picture below.

Savory/Kara Kozhukattai

One of my most favourite snack (well..I can eat this as breakfast.lunch /dinner etc) and hoping it is Ganesh's too..

Happy Vinayaka Chaturthi

You need
Rice flour - 2cups(dry roasted)
Boiled water-as needed
Coconut-1/2 cup(optional)
For tadka
Oil-2 tspn
Mutatrd,curry leaves(chopped),red chillies(break into small pieces),urad dal

How you will make
In a pan,heat oil and fry the tadka ingredients and keep aside.After dry roasting the rice flour, add salt and boiled water.Slowly mix the water and make a dough.(just like u do for Idiyappam).Mix the tadka with the dough and make into small bitesize balls.Spray the cooking spray in the idly pan and wipe it off with a paper towel.(for avoiding sticking)Place this balls into the idly pan and steam cook it for about 7-10 min.s.If you like you can serve it as it is or mix it with fresh shredded coconut. To make it more spicy, you can mix idly podi into steamed kozhukattai.

More Kazhi Urundai

A traditional snack/breakfast item , been there for ages. You might have or should have come across this at some point in you life.If not, it's high time to try this one.

You will need

Rice Flour - 1 cup (I used Sambha rice flour thus the color)

Yogurt - 3 tbsp (make sure it is fresh)

Mustard seeds -  1/4 tsp

Dry Red chillies - 2

Curry leaves - 2

Oil -  2 - 3 tbsp

Salt - as needed

Water - to sprinkle

Idli Podi - to serve

How you will make

Heat oil in the pan on medium heat and splutter mustard seeds.Once that's done, add red chillies, curry leaves.Fry for few seconds and add rice flour and saute them.Add salt as needed now.Once everything is mixed well, switch off the heat and add 3tbsp yougurt to this rice mixture.Mix well and start making small balls out of it. Note: sprinkle just enough water if flour mix looks too dry to make balls. Once urundai (balls) are made steam cook them for about 10 minutes.Serve them hot with idli podi. In my experience these are best served right away  as these tend to get a harder layer if kept for too long.

Note :I had chopped curry leaves as well, so that it is hard to throw away and kids will eat it hidden inside the urundai.