Directions

To begin making the Manga Ingi Sadam, first get all the ingredients ready - by grating the mangoes and ginger. Using a day old cooked rice also helps in making the Manga Ingi Sadam faster.

Heat a wok or a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and the urad dal and roast them until they crackle and the dal is golden brown. Add the curry leaves, green chilies, grated mango and ginger and saute until the mango softens for about 4 to 5 minutes.

Once the mango softens, add the turmeric powder, cooked rice and salt. Stir all the ingredients together until well combined. Check the salt and adjust to suit your taste.

Once done, turn off the heat and serve.

Serve the Ingi Mangai Sadam along with a bowl of yogurt or buttermilk for a lunch box or even along with your main course meal.

Directions

On a skillet, lightly toast the sesame seeds. Allow to cool.

In a mixer jar, grind the sesame seeds, crushed jaggery and seeds from cardamom pods intoa coarse powder

In a large bowl, add the peeled bananas and mash coarsely with a fork. Add the flours, the jaggery-sesame-cardamom mix and mix well with the fork.

Add the milk and whisk with a fork until you get a thick batter. You will find small bits of banana in the batter, which you can leave as it is.

Add 1 tbsp melted ghee and stir to mix well and keep covered and let it sit for 15-20 minutes.

Heat a non-stick pan, grease with ghee. Pour 1 tablespoon of batter per dosa/pancake, do not spread /thin out. You can make 4-5 dosas / pancakes at a time depending on the size of the skillet/tava.

Allow to cook on one side for 45 seconds-1 minute and then flip over. Drizzle ghee along the sides and allow this side to cook and turn golden brown as well.

Directions

Heat a pan for frying, with a level of about an inch of Oil.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and corn flour in a bowl. Add cold water and mix the batter by hand, so as to not form lumps. It should be a thick consistency, but also easy to pour.

Chop the bananas as per preference. I chopped them diagonally into thick slices. Take some corn flour in a plate and dredge the banana slices in it. This helps the batter stick to the otherwise slimy banana slices.

Once the oil is heated, coat the banana slices with the batter and fry till golden on both sides, about 3-4 minutes. Don't crowd the pan with too many slices, as that can lower the oil temperature. 4 slices at once is a good amount! You may need to adjust the consistency of the batter with cold water as you go, it tends to thicken as it sits.

Drain the fried banana slices on a paper towel. Mean while, heat up the sugar on medium in a non stick pan. Add few drops of water if desired, and wait patiently till it turns into a gorgeous golden caramel.

While this happens, ready a bowl with lots of ice and water and keep ready.

Once the caramel is ready, add few slices of the fried bananas to it, coat them well and immediately add them to the ice bath. Repeat till all slices are done. The ice water shocks the caramel and turns it into a super crispy exterior.

Directions

Cut the green bananas, with their skin, in 3 or 4 pieces. Cut the potatoes, with their skin, in two halves.

Boil the cut pieces of the green bananas and the potatoes together in a pressure cooker. Throw away the water after they are boiled. Be careful that the black water, due to high iron content in the green bananas, does not spill on your clothes as the marks will never go away even after washing the clothes.

Peel the skin of the boiled green bananas. Mash the green bananas well. Add salt, chopped onions and green chillies to the mix.

Take a handful of besan/ maida/ atta and mix it with the mashed boiled bananas as a binding agent. Now form medium shaped balls with the banana dough with the mix and keep  them aside.

Heat 4 tbsp of white oil in a non sticky pan. After that, lower the heat. Put the banana balls in the oil and fry them in medium heat. Turn them over when one side becomes brown. You can also fry them in batches if you cannot manage all of them at a time.

When they look golden brown, take them off the fire and set them aside in a bowl.

In a wok, put 2 tbsp white oil and heat it up. You can add 1 more tbsp oil later, if you need. Lower the heat and put the whole cumin seeds, bay leaves, crushed cardamoms, cloves and the cinnamon stick (broken into pieces).

When nice flavour starts coming out, put the onion paste in the oil and stir. After a while, add the garlic paste and stir.

Then put the peeled boiled potatoes, cut into cubes, and fry them along with the onion and garlic paste.

Pour the turmeric, red chilli and cumin powders (made into a paste with some water) on the potatoes. Stir the spices for a while along with other things. Then add the tomato puree. Keep stirring till the oil gets separated.

Pour 2 cups of water and add salt to taste. Let it boil on medium heat for sometime. Then put all the fried balls in the gravy.

Immediately sprinkle garam masala powder. Stir for a minute and then take the wok off the gas and cover it for 5 minutes. Please do not boil the balls for more than 1 minute as they will turn soggy. The banana balls soak up quite a bit of gravy. So make allowance for that. Pour the banana 'kofta' curry in a bowl and serve it with roti/paratha/puri or rice.

Directions

Put green chillies and vinegar in the mixer pot and crush them. Don't make a fine paste.

Heat oil in a pan and fry crushed garlic.

Add ginger paste, crushed chillies, jaggery, tamarind pulp and both salts and let it cook for 10 minutes on medium flame.

Let it cool and store it in a jar in the refrigerator. It'll last you a month.

Eat it with paranthas, chips, nachos, mathri, crackers or sausages. It's the perfect chutney to spice up your simple dal-chawal meal.

Directions

In a saucepan (which is not on the flame) whisk the yolks, sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, salt and 1/2 cup of milk. Keep whisking until the mixture is smooth. To this slowly add in the remaining 3 cups of milk.

Put the saucepan over a medium flame, and continue whisking occasionally till the mixture has thickened. Remove from heat once thickened, and add in the lemon juice.

Divide the mixture into serving bowls and refrigerate for 1-1/2 hours.

Heat about 2 tablespoons of water in a pan. Once the water comes to a boil, drop in the finely chopped pieces of jaggery. Cook the jaggery until it thickens and darkens, and a syrup like consistency is achieved.

Add the roasted peanuts to the jaggery and mix well. Smoothen this mixture on to a greased plate, spread evenly and allow to cool.

Directions

Add the butter (preferably room temperature and not cold) and sugar and stir it all together, Mix well.

To this mixture add the honey or molasses and keep stirring it.

Add the egg to this and mix it all well.

Start adding the flour to this mixture. Don't add it all together, start a bit at a time. so add about half the flour and mix well.

Add the baking soda, cinnamon powder, ginger powder or bits of candied ginger (you can also add both if you want a more intense flavour) and mix in.

Add the rest of the flour to the mixture and it will start to form a sort of dough. If you can't keep using a spatula at this stage you can use your hands to mix all the ingredients well. Place the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 mins.

Pre-heat your oven for ten mins. Grease your baking tray with butter so the cookies don't stick.

Roll out the dough into little balls, flatten them a slight bit and dip one side in some of the sugar and place them on the baking tray. Keep repeating till all the dough is over. If it all doesn't fit you can use the rest of the dough later or do it in batches.

Bake in the oven for about 10 mins and serve warm.

Directions

Heat oil in a pan.

When the oil is hot, add cloves, black peppercorns, cinnamon and bay leaf.

Let them crackle for 5-6 seconds and then add onions.

Fry till onions turn translucent.

Add ginger and garlic and fry till onion turns golden brown.

Add green chili and chicken and fry chicken on high heat for 3-4 minutes.

Whisk yogurt with flour and add it in the pan.

Cook for 3-4 minutes on low heat until oil starts to separate on the sides of the pan.

Add Kashmiri red chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, salt and 1/2 cup of warm water.

Add ginger and cover the pan.

Cook till chicken is done.

Add lemon juice and cook for another minute.

Garnish with Ginger juliennes and coriander.

Serve hot with rice or phulke.

Directions

In a small bowl, add some water and soak tamarind in it to extract its pulp.

In a pot, heat up vegetable oil and add chopped tomatoes. Add some salt in order to let the tomatoes cook down. Keep stirring and add some sugar to balance the flavour.

Once the tomato is cooked for about 4 minutes on a medium heat, add tamarind pulp. Remember to fish out the tamarind seeds, skin and to add only the liquid. Once you've done that, add the rasam powder, chilli powder, chopped coriander and stir well.

Add water and bring it to a boil for about five minutes. Taste to adjust seasoning. Take it off the heat and close with a lid.

To temper, in a separate tempering pan, add oil, mustard seeds, hing, chilli, and rasam powder to sizzle. Immediately add this to the rasam and close the lid again to keep the smoky flavours sealed in.

Take your rice noodles and add cold water to it to soften. Once softened, drain and add boiling hot water to cook it through. If you're using flat noodles, you will need to boil it for a couple of minutes. Just follow the instructions on the box.

When your rasam and noodles are ready, it's time to assemble. In a bowl, add the noodles and spoon over the rasam. Serve piping hot with assorted condiments close by.

Directions

Combine cornstarch, garlic powder, red chili powder, ginger powder, pepper and salt in a large zip lock bag and mix well to combine.

Add the chicken pieces and toss until evenly coated.

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large nonstick pan.

Add the coated chicken and cook for 2 minutes undisturbed then continue to stir fry until cooked through, about 5-7 minutes.

FOR THE SAUCE

Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat.

Add the garlic and ginger and saute for 30 seconds.

Add the remaining ingredients and whisk to combine.

Bring sauce to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until sauce thickens (approximately 3 minutes).

In a large bowl, toss the cooked chicken with the sauce using a spatula until evenly coated.

Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and chopped spring onion.

Serve immediately over rice.