Cucumber Thayir Pachadi:

Grind the coconut, chillies and mustard seeds, without water, to a coarse paste. Add this to the yogurt and whisk by hand, a couple of times till the yogurt is well mixed and smooth.

Add the salt and the chopped cucumber and mix well.

Heat the oil for tempering and add the mustard. Once they stop spluttering, add to the yogurt-cucumber mixture/ pachadi.

Chill and garnish with mint before serving.

Mujadara:

You can cook the rice and the lentils together, but it is easier if you cook them separately as one can ensure the rice and lentils do not cook into a mush.

Cook the rice with some salt and a tsp of oil till well done but the grains are separate. Spread the rice on a plate to cool.

Also cook the lentils with enough water (do not add salt as the lentils might not cook if you do) till theyu2019re done but whole.

You can cook them on the stove top. I personally always cook my lentils, and the rice too, in a pressure cooker.

Melt the butter and oil in a large pan , large enough to contain the rice and lentils. Add the sliced onions and salt, stirring occasionally, and cook them over medium heat till soft. Turn heat up slightly and keep stirring the onions frequently till deep brown and almost crisp. Remove the onions and spread on a paper towel to drain.

There will be a little oil-butter mixture in the pan. Donu2019t turn off the heat and add the garlic and ginger pastes to this and sautxe9 for a couple of minutes. Turn down the heat to low and add the cumin powder and garam masala powder.

Sautxe9 this for a minute and add half the caramelized onion, the cooked lentils and rice. Also add the chilli flakes and some more salt if necessary.

Gently mix everything together. Turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice and mix well.

Transfer the mujadara onto your serving dish and uniformly sprinkle with the remaining onions and chopped coriander. Serve warm with some plain or seasoned yogurt for a very filling and well balanced meal.