Onion curd raitha

Ingredients:

1 medium onion

1 cup thick fresh curd or plain yogurt

1 tsp salt

1 green chilli

1 tsp chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)

Method:

Cut one onion into thin slices. Slit a green chilli lengthwise. Mix these with a tsp of salt and keep covered till serving.

Just before serving, drain the excess water from the onion. Add a cup of thick fresh curd (or plain yogurt) and mix well. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves (optional).

Time management in cooking an elaborate Indian Non-veg Dinner/Lunch

• Our menu is:
  Mutton Biryani
  Mutton Kozhambu
  Chicken Fry
  Curd Rice
  Onion Curd Pachadi
• Potato Chips (You can buy the readymade chips)

Method:

• Wash and marinate the chicken for chicken fry.
  
• Set the cooker with mutton as per the recipe for mutton kozhambu in the bottom vessel, mutton for biryani in the middle vessel and rice for curd rice in the top vessel. Pressure cook for 20 minutes as per mutton kozhambu recipe.
• This time is used for preparing the other items on the menu.
  Prepare the seasoning for curd rice and pour it in a vessel, to be used for curd rice as per recipe.
  
• When mutton is cooked and steam is let off, mash the rice for curd rice. Keep aside and when it is cooler, add the seasoning and mash some more without lumps. Mix the fresh and thick curd when it is cool.
• Start cooking the chicken in the pressure cooker as per chicken fry recipe. Use the back burner for this.

Now, to use the front burners:

• Start cooking the biryani on one front stove, using the top stock of the mutton for the biryani.
  
  
• The mutton and some stock would be left in the vessel. Use this for mutton kozhambu using the other front stove for this.
  
  
• When these two items are cooking and left to simmer, put them on the back burner. Now use the time for finishing curd rice preparation.
• Chicken would be ready by now and you can start the finishing process in the meantime on the front burner. The mutton for biryani can be cooked on the other front burner.
  

If you cook this way, you can finish cooking all the items managing time optimally. It needs a juggling act but with practice you would get used to planning and preparing everything in the right sequence.

You can serve bread or chappathi, as the first course, if you want to impress your guests with one more item in the menu. Biryani and curd rice are served after this first course. Chicken fry, mutton kozhambu, onion raitha and potato chips are the side dishes.