Brunch according to wiki originated in England and more popular in US.Read here for more. But here in our place what we eat mostly (those who are not working and on week ends)is mostly brunch.It goes with out saying,that we all begin cooking a bit late on weekends and cooking a big brunch makes sense perfectly.Recently I got request through FB for few no onion no garlic recipes,some lunch ideas and also few authentic south Indian dishes.I am putting my conscious effort to blog as many of these recipes as I can and I hope to continue with zeal.To begin with yesterday I started south Indian breakfast trail,where in once in every week(mostly Fridays) I will be blogging about a complete south Indian breakfast platter and today I am beginning another series.Express brunch menu.In this series I shall be blogging about a complete brunch,what I cook for us.It may south or north Indian or something different from a different part of World.But once thing I would want to make sure is it is balanced.When one cooks a typical south Indian meal,there is no need to break the head for cooking a balanced meal.The rice.sambar/kuzhambu,rasam,kootu and poriyal are sources of different nutrition,curd acts as the coolant and small amount of oil/ghee supplies the necessary fat.Here I am starting with the south India meal I cooked last week.The platter contains
1.Steamed rice with sesame oil,chinna vengaya vatha kuzhambu
2.Parppu rasam(Not in pic)
3.Spinach stir fry
4.Potato roast
5.Vellarikai thayir pachadi
6.Pickle
The total time taken for cooking this is 1hr 10 minutes
1.Pressure cook rice along with dal and potatoes
2.Soak tamarind,clean and blanch spinach in another stove while rice is cooking.
3.Once rice is cooked,allow the pressure to release and utilize that time for chopping onions,tomatoes for kuzhambu,shredding cucumber for salad and whisk the curd.
4.Cook kuzhambu in one stove and spinach in other.
5.Finally take the water from cooked dal and make rasam in one stove,potato roast in other.
6.Temper for thayir pachadi and add to the shredded cucumebr.Add curd while serving to keep it fresh.
General notes:
1.If I make vatha kuzhambu,I cook some dal along with rice to mix with rice and eat,and use that water for cooking rasam
2.Sometimes I make vatha kuzhanbu and avoid rasam,instead make a kootu with dal and vegetable
3.If I make sambar with dal and vegetables,I make a stir fry,salad and curd rice.Sometimes I fry appalam(papads) too.
4.The whole point is to keep the meal balanced with a portion of carbs,vitamins,protein and necessary fat
Recipe for vellarikai thayir pachadi(Cucumber raita)
Peel and shred one large or 2 medium salad cucumbers.In a small kadai add 2 teaspoons oil,temper with mustard,uraddal,dried red chilli and asafoetida.Add it to the shredded cucumber.At the time of serving add 1 cup whisked curd and salt.Mix well and serve.
