SuvaiArusuvai - Veg Recipes of India

Ingredients: Carrot - 2 nos Beetroot - 1  Black Pepper Powder - 1 tsp Mint leaves - 1/4 cup        or Mint Paste - 2tbsp Salt to taste Sugar 1 pinch Cashew - 1 no Badam - 1 no Method: Soak Badam in water for a while and peel the skin. Cut carrot and beetroot into cubes.  Grind carrot, beetroot, cashew and badam in a blender. Add 2 cups of water and strain it. Mix in salt, sugar and the black pepper powder.  Garnish it with mint leaves and serve chilled. Good to improve the HB count in blood.

If there is no Rasam Powder stock at home, an instant powder can be made. This can be stored for about 2 weeks. Ingredients: Coriander seeds (Daniya) - 3 cups Thoor Dal - 1/2 cup Jeera - 1/4 cup Red Chilly - 1/2 cup Method: Fry all the ingredients one by one in a dry pan till the raw smell is gone. When cool, grind them to a fine powder and store it in an airtight container.  Note:  1/2 cup of Curry leaves can also be fried and ground along with the other ingredients.

This is one of the method to make Thirattupal. A traditional sweet of Tamilnadu, which is one of the main sweets that is to be kept in seer during any functions and festivals. Ingredients: Full Cream Milk - 1 ltr Sugar - 2 cups Method:  Heat milk in a deep non-stick pan. When the milk boils reduce the flame and keep stirring occasionally. When the milk gets reduced to half add sugar to it and stir to make the sugar dissolve completely.  Keep stirring till the paste thickens again and turns pink in colour. Remove from flame and when cool, store it in airtight container. Note:  Instead of sugar, jaggery can also be used to give more taste.

Many sweet dishes, especially north Indian dishes ask for Khoya in the recipe. It is good if it is made at home. Both sweet and unsweetened khoya can be prepared at home. In a hard bottom pan, add one litre of fresh cream milk or whole cream milk and keep it on a high flame stirring occassionally, till the milk gets reduced. Once about 85% of the moisture in the milk is gone, remove from flame and let it cool. Store it in airtight container and use it to make Kajjar ka halwa, Cashew Peda etc. Care should be taken that the milk does not get burnt. To ensure that the milk does not get burned, a shallow non-stick pan can be used. The whole process can take about 2 to 2.5 hours

Many lactating women's primary concern is the amount of breast milk they produce. Many fear that they are not producing the right quantity that is needed for their babies. Lots of questions arise in their mind with regard to breast feeding. This article is a small intro into breast feeding.  Lactating women fear on so many things like small breasts, inverted nipples, am I getting enough milk to feed the baby (ies in twins), is breast milk alone enough for premature babies , should I take medicines to increase my breast milk and so many others.  But lactating women, should remember one particular thing, that breast milk which is produced by her, keeps increasing with the sucking of the babies. Mothers should feed the babies in both the breasts so that the baby gets to know to change sides if needed. When the baby sucks more, the breast produces more milk and never leaves it empty. The size of the breasts of the mother have no relativeness to the amount of milk produced by her to f

Nada Pakada, Tape are the other names given to this south Indian savoury. Ingredients: Processed Rice Flour  - 2 cups Besan Flour - 1 cup Butter - 100 gms Oil to fry Salt - 2 tbsp Hing - 1 inch piece Red Chilly Powder - 2 tbsp Method: Soak hing in water. Add water to salt to make 1/5th cup of salt water. In a shallow mixing bowl, add rice flour, besan flour, butter, hing water, salt water and red chilly powder and make it a dough. Heat oil in a shallow pan, reduce the flame when hot and squeeze the ribbon using the ribbon achu. Turn it to the other side. Fry both the sides till they become golden brown in colour. Remove from flame and spread it on kitchen towel to remove the excess oil. Store it in airtight container.  Note: Do not add salt directly, it will make the ribbon pakoda to splutter and break.

Ingredients: Par boiled rice - 1 cup Pepper - 1 tbsp Jeera (Cumin seeds) - 2 tbsp Tomato - 2 nos Tamrind  - small lemon sized Ghee - 1 tbsp Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Curry Leaves - 1/4 cup Coriander Leaves - 1/2 cup Method: Grind rice to a rawa consistency. Pressure cook it and let it cool. Grind pepper, jeera, tomato, curry leaves and coriander leaves to a very fine paste.  Make 3 cups of tamrind water from the tamrind. Boil it along with salt and turmeric seeds and ground paste. When it bubbles and boils remove from flame and add it to the cooked rice.  In a tadka laddle add ghee and mustard seeds and when it splutters add it to the kanji. Serve hot. This is a good breakfast recipe which can be had by any one.