Notes about Recipes in this book

• Ordinary sambar (Kuzhambu)

  • michalow on January 01, 2013

    Easy (infinitely more so if you opt for tamarind paste, not pulp) and so, so good.

  • London_Mummy on January 28, 2026

    This is a very traditional, classic, reliable recipe, using a pressure cooker to cook the oily toovar dhal separately first.

• Small onion sambar (Vengaya sambar)

  • Ganga108 on March 29, 2023

    I found some frozen, cooked split toor lentils at the bottom of the freezer, and made this sambar - so easy when the toor is pre-cooked. Delicious. You can use purchased sambar powder instead of the spice mix in the recipe, but the spice mix is specific to the vegetable used (to enhance its contribution to the flavours), AND it's also designed to thicken the sambar slightly. Meenakshi Ammal's books taught me a good trick if you accidentally end up with a sambar that is too thin - use a little chickpea flour paste or rice flour paste to thicken. The chickpea flour paste gives it a nice colour as well.

• Curry leaf sambar (Karivepilai kuzhambu)

  • Ganga108 on February 18, 2022

    This sambar is really nice, especially with very fresh leaves. I used the dal water from Matki beans - delicious!

• Bitter gourd pitlay (Paavakkai pitlay)

  • cedarmakesthings on February 12, 2017

    Tried this recipe on a whim, since I had never tried bitter gourd and found some in the Indian market. The name says it all, bitter. This recipe turned out delicious though, I used canned coconut milk and a little extra jaggery, as well as significantly less peppers so my kids would eat it, and they did! The sauce was amazing, I am not sure I love bitter gourd though.

• Tomato rasam (Thakkali rasam)

  • cedarmakesthings on February 12, 2017

    This recipe is so simple, and so flavorful. It comes together quickly (once the toor dal is cooked), but has such impressive flavor. I could eat this daily.

• Lemon rasam (Elumichampazha rasam)

  • Yildiz100 on December 18, 2021

    A delicious rasam. I used masoor dal so it cooked very quickly. Reduced asafoetida to 1/8th tsp per my taste. Could use 1/4 tsp next time. Used only half a lemon because my lemon was one of those large, very juicy, seedless varieties.

• Ginger rasam (Inji rasam)

  • Yildiz100 on November 09, 2020

    Very sweet. Reduce sugar to 1 tsp next time.

• Bean poriyal

  • michalow on January 01, 2013

    A little citrus zest perks this up.

• Cabbage poriyal (Muttakos poriyal)

  • anu_luke20 on March 12, 2026

    This is such an easy and delicious vegetable recipe! I usually pair it with one other sabji and eat with Indian flatbread.

• Potato masala (Potato paliya)

  • Yildiz100 on January 03, 2019

    Really delicious, even though I had to omit the curry leaves and asafoetida. Did not use the optional tomatoes either.

• Snake gourd kootu (Pudalangai milagu kootal)

  • Ganga108 on February 18, 2022

    Very delicious!

• Mashed amaranth (Keerai masial)

  • jenburkholder on August 11, 2023

    This was ugly but tasty. Could have used a bit of acid but was all right with yogurt.

• Fresh cucumber salad (Vellarikkai kosumalli)

  • jenburkholder on January 01, 2022

    Very tasty and easy, too. Might not bother with the soaked moong dal if making again, though, as it doesn’t add much and slows the whole thing down significantly. Served with potato bonda and chutneys.

• Lemon rice (Elumichampazha sadam)

  • Ganga108 on February 18, 2022

    A classic recipe for Lemon Rice.

• Ordinary dosai (Dosai)

  • cedarmakesthings on February 12, 2017

    I had been previously using a dosa recipe by Julie sahni, which was delicious, but this one blew it out of the park.

• Oothappam

  • Ganga108 on February 10, 2024

    I still have batter so today we are using the variation topping from this recipe. Everything has been delicious.

• Potato bonda (Urulaikizhangu bonda)

  • jenburkholder on January 01, 2022

    Delicious. As with most chickpea-flour snacks, they don’t really stay crisp after frying, but that doesn’t prevent them from being delicious. We omitted the chile powder from the batter, as the filling was spicy enough to our tastes, and added a pinch of turmeric for color. Also, there’s too much batter - a bit over a cup of chickpea flour is adequate. Served with tamarind-date chutney and cilantro chutney (both from Andrea Nguyen’s Asian Dumplings).

• Vegetable rava uppuma

  • jenburkholder on May 19, 2025

    Yum! Made as written other than omitting the peas.

• Vermicelli payasam (Semiya payasam)

  • Ganga108 on September 01, 2022

    There is no better way to end a spicy Indian meal than with something sweet. Vermicelli payasam is a long time favourite, after being introduced to it a couple of decades ago by an Indian friend. I made it with sultanas and slivered almonds, then drizzled it with HM pomegranate honey. There is nothing like using raisins and cashews, the flavours with the Indian vermicelli are wonderful. But sometimes you have to use what is in the pantry. Just a note on the amount of vermicelli to milk - I found that 1 cup (approx 76g) was too little, and when I translated 6oz to grams (170g), it was too much. Somewhere in between would be better.