South Indian Full Meals | Lunch Menu For Guests | Thalai Vazhai Ilai Virundhu

• Raw mango – 1 no (Use 1/4 mango for pickle)
• Drumstick – 1 no
• Big onion – 1 no
• Green chillies – 3 nos
• Curry leaves – few
• Coriander leaves – to garnish

For curry

• Potatoes – 4 nos
• Big onion -1 no
• Curry leaves – few

For kootu

• Keerai – 1 bunch ( I used mulai keerai)
• Small onions – 5 nos

• Rice – 2 cups
• Toor dal – 1/2 cup
• Moong dal – 1/4 cup for serving + 2 tbsp for kootu
• Sambar powder – as needed
• Salt & water – as needed
• Cooking oil,mustard,urad dal,cumin seeds – as required

HOW TO COOK A FEAST
I prepared this lunch menu for 4 adults + 1 kid. It took nearly 1 hour 30 minutes for me to finish the preparation. I started around 10 am and finished making all the dishes except rice at around 11.30 am. I used 2 pressure cookers, a small & a big one and 3 kadai. I always pressure cook the rice at the end while making feast so that you can serve the rice hot hot while eating. No worries even if sambar, rasam and other dishes are cold. In fact making these dishes earlier gives more taste. So the earlier you prepare, the better its taste would be ; ))
• In the previous day night, wash and soak the dal for vada. Soak it over night. Soak the tamarind in separate bowls for sambar and rasam in the previous day night.

• The next day morning, start the cooking at least 3 hours before serving time. First take a big pressure cooker and add the toor dal, salt, turmeric powder, hing and a drop of oil (for making sambar). Take a small container or tiffin box like thing that suits the cooker. In that, put the moong dal,water, hing, turmeric powder and a drop of oil. This dal is for serving. Wash and cut the potatoes into two and put them inside the cooker. Hope you can get the idea by seeing the picture. It takes nearly 15 minutes for cooking.

• In that 15 minutes of time, you can go for chopping works. First grate 2 carrots and finely chop a green chilli for pachadi. Keep in a bowl adding salt. Chop onion, green chillies, Drumstick and mango for sambar. Keep in a plate. Chop a portion of mango into small pieces for pickle. Add salt, red chilli powder and hing to it. Mix well and set aside. Now wash the greens / Keerai twice and chop it roughly. Take it in a small cooker. Chop few small onions for kootu. Keep in a plate. Chop some onions, curry leaves, mint leaves and coriander leaves for vada.

• By this time, the pressure would be released in the cooker, dals & potatoes would be ready. So remove the potatoes using a tong and keep them immersed in cold water. It helps to peel the skin easily. Chop them into cubes and set aside.

• In a small cooker, take the chopped greens, add moong dal, salt and required water. Cook for 1 whistle in low flame. It takes 10 minutes to cook.

• In that time, do the grinding job. First grind for vada and then for kootu. Keep them in separate bowl. Mix the chopped onions+greens with vada batter & set aside.
• Now you have cooked the dal for sambar, dal for serving, potato for poriyal and keerai for kootu. So pressure cooking, chopping and grinding jobs are over simultaneously.
• Then heat a kadai with ghee and roast the vermicelli for payasam. Add milk and cook it. Transfer the payasam into a bowl and close it with a lid.

• In another kadai, make sambar. While the drumstick and mango is getting cooked in tamarind extract, add the ground coconut paste to the pressure cooker in which you cooked the keerai. Let it boil for sometime till kootu thickens.
• Now the veggies in sambar would have cooked. Add cooked dal to the sambar and let it boil for sometime. Garnish the sambar with coriander leaves and add a tbsp of ghee at the end. Cover the bowl and set aside. Heat oil in another kadai and temper the ingredients for potato curry. Add the peeled potatoes and roast it well.

• Sambar, poriyal, kootu making is over. Now heat a small tempering kadai with 3 tbsp of oil and splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves, jeera. Add half the tempered items in small quantities to serving dal ( thick dal), thayir pachadi and lastly add the chopped onions in the kadai and saute till transparent. Add it to kootu. Add some coconut oil. Close the kootu with a bowl to retain the aroma.
• Now make rasam and close the bowl by adding a tsp of ghee. Add some water to the tempered moong dal along with salt and hing. Mix well. Similarly add the curd to the grated carrot with some salt. Mix well. Thayir pachadi is ready.

• Just 45 minutes before serving, pressure cook the rice in one burner. Heat oil for deep frying in another burner. Make vada, roast papad, chips or vadam. That’s all.Rice, Sambar, rasam, kootu, curry, thayir pachadi, paruppu/dal,  vada, appalam is ready.
• Start to serve following the above mentioned order. Enjoy the feast !
TIPS : Add a tbsp of ghee in the sambar, garnish with coriander leaves,check for salt and close the lid of sambar bowl.Addition of ghee & coriander leaves gives a nice aroma to the sambar.Similarly add a pinch of sugar and a tsp of ghee to rasam. It enhances the taste and gives a clear rasam while you serve.
If you want to finish the entire process within an hour, you can do some pre preparatory jobs in the previous day night. Finish the chopping works and refrigerate the vegetables, grated coconut and carrot in separate zip lock bags. Soak the dal for 4 hours and grind the vada batter. Mix onions,greens and refrigerate the batter too. Doing all these jobs will spare 30 minutes of your cooking time on feast day. So its your choice. Enjoy the South Indian Full Meals : ))