Bisi Bele Bath

Ingredients:

Rice - 1.5 cupsI use ponni or basmati but the regular rice you use every day will work just fine.
Toor / tuvar / kandi pappu / pigeon peas - 3/4 to 1 cup
Tamarind - a marble-sized ball or 2 tbsp tamarind paste
Chopped vegetables - 1.5 cupsYou can use any vegetables you have in hand like French beans, carrots, potatoes, peas, tomatoes, drumstick, capsicum, etc.
Green chillies - 2
Sambar Powder - 1.5 to 2 tbsp
Hing / Asafoetida / Perungayam - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
For tempering:

Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Preparation :
1. Add 1 cup warm water to the tamarind and extract juice. Discard pulp. If using tamarind paste, dissolve it in 1 cup water without any lumps.
2. Heat oil for tempering in the pressure cooker pan and add the rest of the ingredients. Fry the shallots for tempering, if using, until golden brown. Then add the hing, green chillies, turmeric and sambar powder and mix well for 10 seconds.
3. Add all the ingredients and sufficient water. To cook the rice I use every day, the ratio of rice:water is 1:2. Since I have used 1.5 cups rice here, I need 3 cups water in total. Tamarind juice is in 1 cup water so I added approximately 2 more cups of water to the cooker. Its fine if its slightly more than that.

4. Cook for 3 whistles. If you like your sambar sadam a bit mushy, then cook for 4 whistles and make sure you add slightly more water than specified above.
5. Wait till pressure leaves and serve hot with vadaam / chips / appalam and raita / curd.

Pongal Vada

Here is what we need:

For Pongal:
Rice - 1 cup
Pesara pappu (Moong dal) - 1/2 cup
Miriyalu (Pepper corns) - 10
Cashew nuts - 10
Jeera - 2 tsps
Ghee - 2 tbsps
Ginger - small piece
Green chilly - 1
Aavaalu (mustard seeds) - 1 tsp
Ingua (Asafoetida) - a pinch
Milk - 2 tbsps
Curry leaves - few
Water to cook

Method:

• Add dal to rice and cook in pressure cooker.
• Grind 1 tsp jeera, ginger, 5 pepper corns & green chilly to paste.
• Heat ghee in kadai. Fry cashews, 1 tsp jeera, mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves & 5 pepper corns. Finally add above paste and fry for 2 mins.
• Add boiled rice n dal mixture to it.
• Add salt to taste, 2 tbsps milk & water to get required consistency.

For Vada:
Minapappu (Udad dal) - 1 cup (soaked for 2 hrs)
Ginger - small piece
Green chillies - 3
Oil to fry
Salt to taste

Method:

• Grind soaked dal into fine paste.
• Add ginger and green chillies paste to it. Also add salt to taste.
  
• Take a small portion of dough on a plastic sheet and flatten little using wet fingers to form a circle. Insert a hole in center and deep fry in hot oil.
  

Mixed Veggi Paratha with Capsicum Corn Raitha

Here is what we need:

For stuffing:
Potatoes - 3
Carrots - 2
Beans - 6 - 7
Spring onions - one small bunch
Coriander leaves - few
Jeera (cumin) powder - 1 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander seeds) powder - 1tsp
Garam masala - 1 1/2 tsp
Green chillies - 3
Salt (to taste)

For dough:
Wheat flour - 1/2 kg
Salt a pinch
Water (as required)

For Raitha:
Capsicum - 2
Sweet corn - 10 gms
Coriander leaves - few
Curds (Yogurt) - 200 ml
Chat masala - 1 tsp
Salt (to taste)

Method:

For Paratha-

• Knead dough using wheat flour with a pinch of salt using water. Keep it aside.
• Boil potatoes, carrot and beans. Finely chop spring onions, coriander leaves and green chillies.
• Mash boiled potatoes, carrot, beans, spring onions & coriander leaves. Mix this well adding jeera powder, dhaniya powder, garam masala & salt.
• Flatten the dough a bit and insert ball of above mixture into it. Get the ends closer to enclose stuffing into wheat ball. Finally flatten it to form a paratha using rolling pin.
• Use butter while cooking the paratha.

For Raitha-

• Semi cook finely chopped capsicum & sweet corn in few drops of ghee/butter.
• Cool it and add the same to curds.
• Add chat powder and salt as per taste.
• Finally garnish with fresh finely chopped coriander leaves.

Note - This can be served along with Onions and cucumber pieces sprinkled with lemon juice and pinch of salt.