greetings i'm allen mello and i invite you to join me as we prepare dishes with south indian flavors that are easy to prepare and that will be a kit with your friends and family including children today we are creating three exquisite dishes with South Indian flavors nutritious and tasty lentil crepes seasoned potatoes in onion and tomatoes sauce and a heavenly lima bean side dish also if you want gluten-free foods all three of these dishes are gluten-free sounds good let's start cooking first we will make lentil crepes today these crepes are an excellent gluten-free substitute for bread and it's a hearty breakfast item for anyone here are our ingredients I have half a cup of yellows but B's got a cup of split red lentils half a cup of split mung beans 2 red chili peppers 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tsp fennel seeds 1/2 a TSP ground turmeric 1/2 a tsp salt I also have 1/2 a cup of long grain rice and half a cup of chopped onions and quarter cup of chopped fresh cilantro all these ingredients I'm going to put a yellow split peas here I'm going to put the red lentils and I'm going to put the Munga lentil and that rice ok see how this looks this is the dry ingredient look how beautiful it is the lentils are filled with protein and it's very very nutritious it's a great pancake that's what I have and then what I did was right here we need to soak it in the warm water so I soaked it in the warm water and this is what it looks like leave it for two hours and then we get this okay I'm going to take the soaked lentils and I'm going to put it in the blender and I'm going to blend it here we have a rainbow of colors right here so I'm mixing all the lentils and the rice and since it's all soaked it is clumped up quite a bit what I'm going to do is I have some water here so I'm going to put this here and then I'm going to add some water I have about a cup and a half okay of water here and I'm going to grind it and while we are blending this we may want to use the spoon and we want to see that it grinds well okay and we are grinding this to make a nice like a coarse cornmeal so it is kind of thick I like to put it in high now I'm going to be adding okay that's it we put the fennel seeds the cumin and the pepper in here so I'm going to take a bowl and I'm going to take this and pour it in here yeah see that it is like a coarse mixture and now they don't mix it right now with all the red lentils moong lentils rice cumin fennel and red pepper looks really good and it's a right consistency I have about a cup and a half of water and we are going to add the turmeric here and turmeric gives a beautiful yellow color to the scrapes okay and then I'm putting the salt so look at that isn't that beautiful so now what we are going to do is I'm going to be adding the onions and I'm going to keep a nonstick skillet here and I want to make sure it's really hot and then it can be a little bit more harder okay so this is called a day these crepes are an excellent gluten free substitute for bread it is so tasty and healthy and I think my pan is ready so I'm going to start making the lentil crepes so we give it a good stir and we take it and kind of do it in a circular fashion like that while this is cooking I'm just going to take some oil and I'm going to put it around it and the goal here is to get these crepes nice and crunchy and golden brown and I'm Hmong oh it's already smells so good because it has all kinds of lentils so that is fine and we are going to let it cook for a while so turn it turn it over the first one is always tricky you know when you're making your pancakes but as you go along it will come through okay and I think we are going to do this and it look how beautiful it is the golden color with the green cilantro it's beautiful and this is called the our day and our day is very it's very unique to South India here you just need to soak all the lentils with rice and sink that's it and what we have here I'm going to reduce the heat while you're making your pancakes you are just the heat accordingly and we keep it here let's make another one and adding is very good because it doesn't require any fermentation we just need to soak them and then grind it and we can make it right away and it's a very it's a really it's a filler food once when you start eating these pancakes with some chutneys it's really filling and you will not look for a snack until next meal and because it has a lot of lentils it's very nutritious and I remember in India when I am coming back from school this particular snack is made for us to have after-school snack and it's really very nutritious and I love eating this with a chutney so it's all these crepes and lentils in India are not served with any sugar syrup but we make good chutneys like eggplant chutney honey and tomato chutney or a peanut chutney or coconut chutney that is really good that's a great combination too but today I'm going to be making a wonderful sauce with the potatoes and onions in a tomato sauce and that is a great dipping sauce and that's what we have here and we want to have that nice and golden and it's yellow color because of beautiful tumeric and as you may all know tumeric is called Indian gold and it has lot of wonderful health benefits and also adds color to the food so there we go now we will prepare potatoes in onion and tomato sauce this hearty tomato based sauce served with potatoes makes an excellent side dish here are every ingredients let's go through the spices I have one bay leaf right here 2 to 3 slivers cinnamon stick half a teaspoon cumin seeds 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds quarter teaspoon ground turmeric 1 TSP ground cumin 1/2 a teaspoon cayenne pepper and quarter teaspoon salt and I have some fresh ingredients here I have 1/2 medium onion cut lengthwise about half a cup 1/2 a cup of chopped tomatoes and I have about 1 and a half cups of peeled and potatoes cut into up long pieces and I have 1/2 a cup of tomato sauce and 1 and 1/2 cups of hot water and quarter cup of chopped fresh cilantro I'm going to add oil light cooking medium oil I have no oil here and I'm going to drop the bay leaf it's just beginning this is all once when you drop the bay leaf it gives a wonderful aroma to the oil and I'm going to put my cinnamon stick here and then the cumin and the goal here is to brown the seeds and black mustard seeds see now we are its mustard seeds are popping and cumin seeds are turning light brown and I could smell the wonderful aroma of the cinnamon and the bay leaf together now we don't know we add up onion and we saute the onion and cook that for a while and then add the turmeric ground turmeric and after we add the turmeric see how often you're using the turmeric so now I'll add the tomatoes the smell of the cumin the cinnamon the bay leaf with the onion and tomato is good enough to eat right now and I'm going to add the potatoes as I told you the potatoes are cut into oblong pieces and I put some water in it so that it doesn't get brown okay and I'm going to add the potatoes and really stir this well with the turmeric turmeric is known as a Indian gold look at the color of the potatoes and it is it's it gives the food a beautiful rich color and then you add the cayenne Cayenne is hot but when you are cooking it with potatoes and tomatoes it is not that hot at all you want a good hotness to a dish so add a little bit and see how you like it and if you want more wine is cooking because it is in the ground form you can add more time to the dish all the seeds have to be roasted in oil but if it is a ground spice mixture you can add it at any time now I'll add the salt to look at that mixture isn't that beautiful and what I'm going to do is I'm going to reduce the key and I'm going to add the tomato sauce in India when they are cooking they add more Tomatoes more spice powders to make it thick but this is my own innovation that is you add everything what you want to add and to give that nice rich taste I add the tomatoes sauce so see we added all the spices and the ground spice mixture the salt and now I'm going to add a little bit of water so that helps speed up cooking clean cooking the potatoes and it looks so delicious I'm going to increase the heat and what I'm going to do is I'm going to close this and let the potatoes cook this is called Misawa box and look at this I have all the spices right here I have the black mustard seeds the fennel seeds the fenugreek cumin cinnamon you read the lentil this is an amazing lentil black mustard seeds with red will gives a nice crunchy taste to a dish and a red pepper okay then when you put the red pepper in the hot oil when it's infused it gives a great flavor okay so I have it like this and when I'm cooking instead of setting it up like in a little dish like we did I take my spice box here I put the oil and then I just go like that you can shop for spices once in six months spices have long shelf life so when you have all your spices set up like this all you need to do is really get your fresh vegetables and you're ready to cook like this it smells good I like it very much now I'm cooking this dish and it may well it can serve about two to four people depending upon how much they are used and I am now this potato is cooking I'm going to add some cilantro and this particular saucy dish is like a nice dish to go with a day our Doce are the lentil crepes that we made so I let it simmer and there you have it a wonderful potato onion tomato sauce now we will prepare heavenly lima beans here delicate spices and tomatoes elevate humble lima beans to a sublime side dish do you know lima beans provide virtually fat-free high quality protein you won't believe how delicious lima beans can be here are other ingredients I'm going to be using 2 tablespoons oil I have 2 to 3 slivers of cinnamon stick 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds 1/2 a teaspoon cumin seeds quarter teaspoon ground turmeric quarter teaspoon cayenne one teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 a teaspoon salt and here I have some fresh ingredients I have one 16-ounce package frozen lima beans which is thawed and boiled and it's ready to go and I have half a cup chopped onion 1 cup chopped tomato 3/4 cup of tomato sauce and 2 tablespoons of unsweetened shredded dried coconut I'm heating my pan and I'm going to add the oil about 2 tablespoons of oil the curry leaves is an aromatic herb and if you have it it's fine if you don't have it you can still prepare this dish when I drop it it's going to see that it's getting there and it adds a wonderful aroma and taste if you have it fine if you don't don't worry about it ok but it enhances the taste of the dish now I'm going to add the black mustard seeds the cinnamon and then the cumin and what I'm going to do is I'm going to lower the heat because the oil is sufficiently hot and I'm going to add audience in here and we are going to cook it for a few minutes until it becomes translucent talking about the cutting needs because this was so hot it turned a little bit black but you know what you don't have to if you're using a bay leaf in cooking you may want to remove it before serving but curry leaves is quite alright to be in the food when you're serving because it is a delicate flavored leaf it got kind of too dark so I'm removing it this is fine let us let's leave it like that if you want to remove it it's fine if you don't want to let it let it cook with the onions and tomatoes and here I have the tomatoes when I'm chopping the onions and tomatoes although the recipe may call for half a cup or a quarter cup whatever if I have a little bit of leftover Tomatoes just use the romaine reminder remaining Tomatoes into the dish it will only enhance the taste okay when I'm cooking this lima beans so we got the seasonings all the seeds are brown and I added the onions and tomatoes now I'm going to add the Indian gold which is the turmeric and when we add the turmeric the whole dish looks so beautiful when you add the Cayenne at this stage you could even remove this dish just the way it is and cool it and add it to the yogurt and make onion tomato your good salad now we'll add the ground cumin cumin and cayenne they go so well together and lima beans is so bland so if you like a little bit more hot free adventurous and add cayenne to your food because Cayenne has a lot of wonderful health benefits now you're going to add the tomatoes sauce I'm going to add a little bit first and then I'm going to see if I need more or less not unless because I already added it so I'm going to just keep cooking and when I add my lima beans if I need more tomato sauce I will use it okay what I'm going to do is I'm going to add the lima beans lima beans is an amazing dish so when when you really seasoned the lima beans the resulting dish becomes an irresistible vegetable dish transforming people from hating to loving lima beans and lima beans not only can be served as a side dish to any meal but let me tell you if I have a leftover I'll be putting this in the refrigerator and when I'm hungry I just go and take those lima beans from the refrigerator warm it up in the microwave and have it with a cup of tea or coffee or juice whatever I want to do it's an amazing snack dish - and now the coconut I want to talk about the coconut I there are two types of coconut available fresh coconut and also unsweetened shredded coconut this is available in the grocery stores in the natural food stores when you add coconut to it the sauce all gets nicely it's it's binding okay and it gives a nice taste to it and if you cannot find the coconut don't worry about it you can still make this dish that's what I'm saying you know just because you don't have one ingredient just go with the flow and add what you have and then see still your dish will definitely turn out really good there you have it thank you so much for joining me today as we explore cooking three dishes with delightful and distinct South Indian flavors and all of these dishes are vegetarian and gluten-free so long for now with love from my kitchen to yours Vanakkam to order copies of alamelu's cookbooks including recipes from this series or the DVD set of this cooking series visit mptv.org and click on store all prices include shipping and handling for more information about healthful indian flavors with ala Malu log on to mptv.org or find us on facebook at healthful indian flavors with ala mailer you