Pour 41/2cups of boiling water to the rice and veggie mix. Now bring the contents to a roll boil.Reduce heat now and close the pan with a tight lid. If you are using a pressure pan/cooker dont put the weight on. Cook for about 12 -15 mins on a reduced heat, without stirring. Now slowly open the cooker and pick out a grain of rice to see if it's done. If the rice is still underdone, keep covered for a few mins more till all the moisture is gone and the rice is tender. Garnish with fresh corriander leaves and a tsp of ghee for flavour. Fluff up the rice with a fork so that the grains dont stick to each other or break.

Mixed Vegetables and tomato pulao is now ready to serve.Tastes good with crunchy poppadoms and a raita.

Carrot Halwa/Gaajar ka halwa.

INGREDIENTS-[to serve 3-]

Carrots-peeled and grated-1/4 kilo
condensed milk-1whole tin
skimmed milk-1/2 cup
2tbsp sugar powdered with 3pods cardamom.
a pinch of saffron
ghee-11/2tbsp
optional garnish-few raisins,cashewnuts and pistacheo.

METHOD-Take a pan that has a thick base or a pressure pan.
Pour 1/2 cup milk and add the grated carrots.
cover the pan and cook on a low flame for about
15 mins.Now add the condensed milk and cook
till all the milk is completely evaporated and
the carrots are very tender . Now add 1/2 the ghee,
and keep stirring till the mixture turns dry. Now add
the sugar/cardamom mixture and saffron.
Now add the remaining ghee and garnish with nuts
and raisins that have been toasted in 1/4tsp ghee
separately in a pan till golden brown.
Serve Carrot Halwa hot/cold or with a dollop of vanilla
icecream.

Sweet Nei appam/Unni appam

sweet nei appams are usually made as an offering for Ganesh Chaturthi or Saraswathy Pooja.
They are so tasty that you can enjoy these yummy treats anytime!

STEP 4.

Gently flip the appams over after a while to ensure they cook on the other side too.You can use a spoon to turn them without breaking the appams.Cook till done.If you pierce a hole through the appams using a sharp skewer, it will come out clean without any batter sticking on it.This shows that the appam is fully cooked.Serve hot or cold.

STEP 3

Now pour a small ladle of the batter into the oil in every hole of the pan.

Reduce heat to prevent it from getting burnt.

STEP 2

Heat an appakarai [nonstick] Kuzhi paniyaram pan, thats available.Heat the pan on a medium flame and then pour a tsp oil/ghee, or a mixture of oil and ghee in all the holes of the pan.