Preethi Bhojan

Vazhaikai podi

2012-01-31T01:15:00.000+08:00

Introducing a couple of items that we would not normally associate with a banana. One - a hot, spicy podi to go with white rice and the other - a saree. Yes, you read that right. A saree. Weavers from a town called Anakaputhur - barely 5 miles from my place in Chennai - are making wide range of sarees from banana fibre!

Coming to the recipe, plantain podi is one of my favorite recipe, which I am sending to the event 'Banana' hosted by Sameena in her blog 'My Culinary Creations'

Ingredients :

4 tbsp -- Channa dal
2 tbsp -- Urad dal
7-8 nos -- Dry red chillies
1/2 plantain
2 tbsp -- grated coconut (optional)
1 tsp -- asafoetida
1 pinch -- Tamarind
1 tsp -- oil
Salt to taste

Method :
--- In a medium heat, take a pan and add a tea spoon of oil and dry roast all the ingredient except plantain, salt and coconut if using. Roast the mixture till the dal colour changes to golden brown.
--- Transfer the mixture in a plate and keep aside to cool .
--- Meanwhile, peel the half plantain and dice them finely and cook them in the same pan. Just sprinkle some water and close the lid , will be cooked in minutes. Allow it to cool.
--- Once the dal mixture is cooled, grind them to a coarse powder, now add the cooked plantain, salt, and grated coconut if using to the powder and pulse the mixer for 2-3 times, just to mix them thoroughly.
--- Do not run the mixer in high speed, the banana will be get smashed, and you will not be able to enjoy the tiny bits of banana taste.
--- Enjoy this podi with steaming hot rice and a spoon of gingelly oil.

Vazhai poo / Banana flower tomato curry

2012-01-09T19:45:00.001+08:00

For the first time in the last 6 months of my Singapore life, last week I went to Buffalo Road in Little India. A friend of mine in Veena class referred this place when I asked where to get Vazhai poo and Vazhai thandu. As soon as I came out of the Little India metro station, I felt like I am in my home town market. Feeling like a child in a candy shop, went and bought vazhai poo, vazhai thandu, a big bunch of methi leaves and Gonkura leaves. True to our home town style, the owner lady threw in a bunch of curry leaves for free :)

Usually this much of Vazhai Poo would end up as plate loads of Vadai or paruppu usuli or sambar. But I wanted to try vazhai poo tomato curry. I have seen a lot of people who keep their distance from vazhai poo paruppu ususli because of the slightly bitter taste that vazhai poo brings. The tomato and onion in this curry offset that bitter taste and will bring those people right back to the dining table.

Ingredients :

1 cup -- Vazhai poo
1 no -- Onion, medium size
1 no -- Tomato, medium size
Chilli powder ***
Salt ***
Few strands -- Curry leaves
1 tbsp -- Tomato paste (optional)
1 tsp -- Garam Masala powder (optional)

*** As per taste.
You can increase or decrease any measurements according to your taste.

For Tempering
1 tbsp -- Oil
1 tsp -- Mustard seeds
1 tsp -- Channa dal
1 tsp -- Urad dal
1/2 tsp -- Jeera
1 no -- Dry red chilli

Method :
--- Clean the vazhai poo, by removing the strand with black head and a wing like wrapper from each florets and chop them finely.
--- Found a useful post in Sharmis Passion blog which explains 'How to clean vazhaipoo'.
--- Chop the onion and tomato finely.
--- In a pan add oil and heat in medium flame. Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds.
--- When the seeds splutters, add a tea spoon of channa dal, urad dhal, jeera and dry red chilli to the oil. Fry it for few seconds till the dhal color changes to golden brown.
--- Saute the onion in the tempered oil for 2-3 minutes and add the vazhai poo and the tomato.
--- Now add the chilli powder, salt and little water to the vazhai poo mixture. Close the pan and cook for few minutes.
--- If you are using tomato paste, add now and cook for 2-3 minutes until there is no raw smell of tomato.
--- Spicy, tangy vazhai poo curry is ready to serve with warm rice.

--- If using garam masala powder add it before turning off the heat.
--- You can add more water to get a gravy like consistency and use this as a side dish for Chappathi.

Dhal Soup

2012-01-06T23:53:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year to all.

Love, Give and Serve - Swami Shantananda Saraswathi.

Let us start the new year with a nice subtle tasting Moong dhal soup.

Few months ago I had this wonderful soup at Annalakshmi Restaurant, Singapore. I was able to persuade the master chef who made this soup to share the recipe with me.

Simple and easy soup with easily available ingredients. On top of all its very healthy and full of proteins. Okay, I am not talking about the goodness of lentils again in this post. You can check about the nutritional facts of lentils here.

Ingredients :

1/4 cup -- Moong dhal
1 no -- Tomato medium size
1 no -- Green chilli
1 tbsp -- Butter
1 tsp -- Jeera Powder
1/2 tsp -- Turmeric powder
1 -2 no -- Garlic pod
2 tbsp -- Besan / Chickpea flour
2 tsp -- Corriander leaves finely chopped
Salt and Pepper powder to taste

Method :
--- Pressure cook the Moong dhal, until the dhal becomes mushy and disintegrate its shape.
--- While that is cooking, grind the garlic and the chilli to a fine paste.
--- Heat the butter in a sauce pan in medium heat. Add the ground garlic mixture and saute them for few seconds and add the besan / chickpea flour, turmeric and fry in the butter.
--- Once a nice aroma comes from the flour, add jeera powder, cut tomatoes and mix well.
--- Turn the flame to low and add the cooked moong dhal and mix well in the flour mixture.
--- Add 1 cup water and cook for few minutes. According to taste add salt and pepper. Please bare in mind that we used a chilli in the first.
--- After 5 - 7 minutes garnish with fresh corriander leaves and serve warm.

Sumptuous restaurant style soup is ready to serve. Try not to over power the taste with garlic or Jeera. It will change the taste of the soup.

No-bake brownies

2011-12-23T22:37:00.000+08:00

A couple of weeks ago, these two cute little Reindeers appeared in my house along with a very cute and small Christmas tree. How sweet !
These two cuties kindled me to go and work in the kitchen for Christmas celebration.

Last year I made lots of cookies, Bourbon biscuit, choco cookies, coconut macaroons, Oh the list goes long. You can find all the recipes here. This time I started with no-bake brownies.

No-bake brownies are very simple, with simple ingredients like a pack of Marie biscuit, chopped nuts, cocoa powder and a tin of condensed milk. As the name says, no need to bake or cook. All you need is patience.

I tried this recipe from 'Cooking and me' by Nags. You can find the recipe here from her site.

In addition to her recipe, I added one of my favorite ingredient which made the brownies extra special. The secret ingredient is none other than peanut butter. To the brownie mixture I added 1/4 cup of peanut butter, rest all I followed the original receipe.

Since I used the peanut butter, I think my brownies were little fudgy. But the taste was wonderful. It reminded us the taste of Ferrero Rocher. Karthik started calling those brownies as Ferrero Rocher.

You will not believe me I bought a small pack of Ferrero Rocher the day I made the brownies and I am happy to report that the Ferrero Rocher is still there in the fridge while my brownies are long gone!!

Merry chrismas to all.

Nutritious lentils

2011-12-19T23:17:00.000+08:00

As a vegetarian, I dare not dream a world without lentils - my major source of protein. Last week, Alton Brown' Goodeats show was about one of the oldest and most versatile ingredient in the pantry, the lentil. Click the Goodeats to know more about the show and the recipes he tried.

Here are some interesting facts and articles about lentils that I culled from the net. Hope you find them useful.

Nutritional facts :
One cup of lentils, approximately 198 g, a single serving of cooked lentil contains 230 calories. Lentils are a healthy option for a weight loss diet, since they are filling while being low in calories. One serving of lentils contains 18 g of protein and only1 g of fat. There are 40 g of carbohydrate in one cup of lentils, including 16 g of fiber. The fiber in lentils is of both soluble and insoluble types. Lentils have no cholesterol and are low in salt, with only 4 mg sodium per cup.

Health Benefits :
Health magazine has selected lentils as one of the five healthiest foods. They are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber, helps in managing blood-sugar disorders. Lentils also provide good to excellent amounts of six important minerals, two B-vitamins, and protein—all with virtually no fat. This tiny nutritional giant fills you up--not out.

Love Your Heart—Eat Lentils. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine confirms that eating high fiber foods, such as lentils, helps prevent heart disease. Lentils can increase energy by replenishing iron stores. Particularly for menstruating women, who are more at risk for iron deficiency, boosting iron stores with lentils is a good idea--especially because, unlike red meat, another source of iron, lentils are not rich in fat and calories. Iron is an integral component of hemoglobin, which transports oxygen from the lungs to all body cells, and is also part of key enzyme systems for energy production and metabolism. And remember: If you're pregnant or lactating, your needs for iron increase. Growing children and adolescents also have increased needs for iron.

Go to your kitchen, quickly cook some lentil and enjoy them as a salad or a soup.

References :
Wikipedia.org, About.com - Home cooking, WH Foods, Live Strong

Cream of vegetable soup

2011-12-16T01:45:00.000+08:00

Last weekend we decided to eat out and headed to our favourite restaurant here. As usual the food did not disappoint and we stuffed ourselves up. Guilt began to bite us and we thought a long walk would quieten it. Walked along the beautifully decorated Orchard Road. Oh yeah, also saw the male models standing outside the Abercombie&Fitch outlet to celebrate the opening of their new shop in Singapore. This is the hot news here, with all the local news channels covering this for the past one week.

The food we had this time was a little different from our usual one. I wanted to try them at home in my style. This cream of vegetable soup is one among them. Most of the time I prepare tomato soup and red coloured vegetable soup. So I wanted to try this soup since it tasted so rich, creamy and with lots of vegetables, of course the color is different from what I used to cook:)

Very easy to make and satisfies your heart and stomach.

Ingredients :

1 cup -- Cut vegetables
1 no -- Onion (small size)
1 pod -- Garlic
2 cups -- Water or Vegetable stock.
2 tsp -- Corn flour
1 tbsp -- Butter
1/4 cup -- Milk
1/4 cup -- Heavy cream (optional)
1/4 cup -- Grated cheese (optional)
Black pepper and salt to taste

Method :
--- Heat the sauce pan to the medium heat and add butter.
--- Slice the onion, garlic and saute them in the butter. After a minute add the cut vegetables.
*** Choose the vegetables according to your taste. I used yellow and green coloured bell peppers, carrots, peas. Also cut the vegetable to small thin pieces. You can use cauliflower, broccoli, beans, corns, choices are endless.
--- Once they are half cooked add water or vegetable stock, pepper, salt and cook well.
--- Now take the corn flour and dissolve in the milk without any lumps. Pour the mixture to the cooking stock.
--- Cook until a creamy thick soup is formed. It will take about 3 - 5 minutes.
--- Last stage. add heavy cream and cheese and mix well . Turn the heat off.
--- Heavy cream and cheese are optional, this adds more rich taste to the soup.
I did not use cheese in this soup. Without that itself my soup tasted just like the one we had in the restaurant.

Restaurant style cream of vegetable soup is ready to serve at your table.

Quinoa Bisibelabath

2011-11-24T00:37:00.004+08:00

I had a good time in Chennai this time. After two years of our marriage this is the first time we were with our parents for Deepavali. Everybody was happy and excited, including the rain God. He was so happy and didn't let me go out for shopping too... Thank God, I did my shopping here in Singapore itself.
Hope you all had a good Deepavali too.

Coming to our recipe, this is the same Bisibelabath from another angle. Oh I am not talking about the photo angle :D

Okay, what new this time? Tried Bisibelabath with quinoa.

Quinoa bisibelabath, the recipe is the same as cracked wheat. Only difference is cooking quinoa. I cooked a cup of quinoa sepeately and did sambar seperately and then mixed both. As a last step , seasoned the quinoa mixture with mustard seeds, jeera and lots of channa dal and urad dal.
I cooked quinoa seperately because it heps to retain the texture of the quinoa without going all mushy. If you like you can follow the same procedure like cracked wheat. For cracked wheat bisibelabath recipe, click here.

Enjoyed the delicious bisibelabath with crunchy vadam and with beans paruppusli.

Besan milk burfi

2011-10-15T20:43:00.003+08:00

Just a little over a week go for Deepavali! We have booked our tickets to go to India the coming weekend. My Deepavali purchases? I am warming up. Bought a nice designer sari last Sunday from Lavanya Arts and Crafts. Will definitely contribute to Chennai's economy too!

While I am happy that I will be celebrating the festival with my family, I am more excited about the 'batchanam' gallata. I cannot wait to get into the kitchen with my mother-in-law to try new as well as traditional sweets and savouries with my in-law. Started my foundation for that. Making my grocery list now itself, this will save time :) Clever girl !

As a part of the foundation work, I tried this besan flour burfi yesterday.

Besan burfi, very easy recipe. No special ingredients needed, we can make this yummy burfi with easily available ingredients from our pantry with in 20-30 minutes. I tried this milk besan burfi from the site 'momreceipebook'

All you need is a cup of besan, ghee, milk powder and 1-1/2 cup of sugar. Nuts of your choice and 4-5 cardamom pods. You can find the recipe in here.

--- I did little variation from the original recipe. I used 1/2 cup fat free vegetable shortening for roasting the besan flour.
--- For sugar syrup I added only 1 cup of water instead of 2 cup as mentioned in the original recipe. This is my mom technique. She always say if you are making sugar syrup or jaggery syrup, use less water. So that we can achieve our consistency quickly.
--- I used 1/2 cup ghee when mixing the besan + milk powder mixture with the sugar syrup.
--- Also added 1/2 cup of dessicated dry coconut to the mixture.

I layered the greased wax paper on a plate and transferred the hot gooey mixture on the paper and topped with dry toasted cashews. Then using a greased knife I cut the burfi to 1 inch square shape.

Easy besan milk burfi is ready to serve.

Dual Sauce Pasta

2011-10-11T07:20:00.002+08:00

Hope you all had a wonderful Navaratri. I had a blissful time filled with pooja in the mornings and with some wonderful dance and music performances by the students of Temple of Fine Arts in the evenings. It has been 3 days since Vijayadasami but I still have not fully gotten out of the Navaratri mood yet!! Hopefully getting back to blogging will help me parachute back to reality. So, here comes, with twice the processing power...err.. I mean , twice the goodness of your normal pasta - The Dual Sauce Pasta!!

You can taste the hot and spicy taste from the vegetable sauce and a nice creamy cheesy tangy, garlicky taste from the white sauce. I found this interesting recipe while watching the Food Network show '30 minutes meal' hosted by Rachael Ray. Of course she used a meat sausage and some chicken stuff in her red sauce, but I tried it in my style with whole lot of vegetables.

Ingredients :

1/2 lb -- Pasta

For Red Sauce
1 No -- Onion big size
1 No -- Roma tomatoes
1.5 to 2 cups -- Diced vegetables
1/2 cup -- Tomato puree
3 - 4 tsp -- Chili powder
100 gm -- Fresh paneer cubes (optional)
3-4 tbsp -- oil
1 tsp -- Garam masala powder
2-3 tsp -- lemon juice
Salt to taste
Few Cilantro to garnish

For White Sauce
1 cup -- Milk
4 tbsp -- Butter
2 tsp -- All purpose flour
1 -2 pods -- Garlic
1/2 cup -- Cheese
Black pepper and salt to taste

Method :
First comes the red vegetable sauce
--- In a pan add the oil and heat the pan in a medium flame. Once it is hot add the paneer cubes and fry until the crust turns slightly brownish.
--- Take the paneer out and keep it aside. In the same pan, add the diced onions and cook until the onions are soft.
--- To the onions add cut vegetables and the diced tomatoes. I used beans, carrots, potatoes, frozen corns, green bell pepper and peas.
--- Add tomato puree, chili powder, salt and little water to the vegetables and cook until the vegetables are soften.
--- I like to have a little heat in my veggie sauce, which will balance out the creamy sauce. You can very much adjust the chili powder according to your taste.
--- Add the fried paneer, garam masala powder and lemon juice and mix well. The colourful vegetable red sauce is ready.

Now comes the White Sauce
--- Before we start the sauce, cook the pasta as per the instruction given. You can try this recipe with any shape pasta.
--- Take another pan in low flame, add butter. Once it is melted add couple of teaspoons of all purpose flour. This all purpose flour helps to thicken the white sauce.
--- It will be good if you add the flour in initial stages, so that it will be cooked and also no lumps will be formed.
--- Fry the flour until nice aroma comes from the butter flour mixture.
--- Add a cup of milk to the mixture and cook. The milk will cook the flour further and thicken the white sauce. If you need more sauce, you can dilute with water or more milk.
--- Grate the garlic, and add to the white sauce along with salt and pepper.
--- Add the cheese and mix well. Put the flame off and add the cooked pasta and mix well.

How to serve
--- Take the serving plate and put the creamy cheesy pasta in the middle of the plate.
--- Make a well in the middle of the pasta
--- Now scoop a big spoon full of vegetable sauce and pour into the pasta well.
--- Garnish with chopped cilantro on top and serve warm.

The colours so attractive and inviting, everybody will love to dig into the pasta well and enjoy the colourful pasta.

Walnut brownies

2011-08-26T22:49:00.001+08:00

Hmm... More chocolate coming on your way to dazzle you. Followed by Hazelnut chocolate fudge here comes walnut brownies.

Nearly, after 9 months I baked this mouth watering walnut brownies. Remember long long ago, I tried a walnut brownie with chocolate fudge recipe and those brownies turned to brownie walnut balls. To read more about that scrumptious walnut brownie balls, click here.

I tried some new ingredients to substitute eggs. Though it is an experimental recipe, the outcome was perfect. The brownies were soft, moist and delicious.

Ingredients :

1 cup -- All purpose flour
1/2 cup -- Cocoa powder
3/4 to 1 cup -- Granulated sugar**
1/2 tsp -- Baking powder
1/2 tsp -- Baking Soda
1/2 cup -- Walnuts
5 tbsp -- Butter
1/4 cup -- Condensed milk (optional)**
1/2 cup -- milk
1/4 cup -- Paneer
1/4 cup -- Banana smashed
2 tsp -- Espresso coffee

Method :
--- Preheat the oven to 350 F
--- Grease a 8" square pan and with wax paper. I strongly recommend to use a wax paper, but as I did not have wax paper in stock when I tried this recipe , I ended with brownie walnut ball.
--- Grind the paneer cubes to a fine powder.
--- Mix the paneer to the sugar, smashed banana, espresso coffee and milk. If using condensed milk, mix it also with paneer banana mixture.
** I had some left over condensed milk in the refrigerator, so I added the same.
** Brown sugar would have been wonderful, but i had to make do with granulated sugar. If not using condensed milk, adjust the sugar accordingly.
--- Melt the butter in a pan and mix the cocoa powder.
--- To the cocoa mixture add the banana paneer mixture.
--- Shift the all the rest of the dry ingredients. All purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda.
--- Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.
--- Last but not least, add the walnuts to the batter and mix well.
--- Pour the batter on to the pan and bake it to 25 to 30 minutes until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Enjoy the brownies with whipped cream or serve hot with cool vanilla Ice cream and chocolate fudge topping.

Hazlenut chocolate fudge

2011-08-24T14:07:00.000+08:00

Chocolate, hmmm yummy...

I made this yummy chocolate fudge a month ago. But it me took 4 days to get this into its final shape!

Now comes the behind the screen story of this fudge. At the end of the story I will ask a question, If you find the answer, please mail it to me :)
Last month on 27th we celebrated our Swamiji's 6th Aaradhana. I wanted to take some special quick and easy sweet for Neivedhyam. On the previous night, I decided to make chocolate fudge using microwave oven.

In a microwave-safe pan I added a tin of condensed milk and 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and 3 tbsp of butter. Mixed them thoroughly and cooked in the microwave for 2 minutes. Then took it out stirred them along with a tsp of Vanilla essence. Again cooked in the MW oven for 5 more minutes. Transferred the mixture in to a greased pan and cooled it for 2 to 3 hours in the refrigerator. After 3 hours, I was ready and eager with my knife but alas, the fudge was not

The fudge was not set, so I kept it inside the refrigerator the whole night. Next day morning at 5 O' clock again I tried to cut the fudge it was so gooey. Since wanted to go for the Pooja early in the morning, I dumped the same in the refrigerator and rushed to the Pooja.

Next day, I took the fudge mixture in a non stick pan and added 1/2 cup of sugar and again cooked over the stove for 15 - 20 minutes. The mixture was not sticking on the sides. I transferred the same into a greased pan. Again chilled and the same thing happened. So me and my husband, both started to scoop the mixture and to eat the fudge. I kept a spoon permanently in the pan to ease the process and in two days we managed to complete half of the fudge from the 8" pan.

Still I was not convinced with what I made, on Friday 29th I took the pan and cooked in the MW oven for 5 minutes. Stirred well and added some hazelnut milk chocolate which I had in the pantry for more than a month. Approximately 1 cup of chocolate. Cooked in MW oven for 2 more minutes. Transferred the mixture to the greased pan, chilled it completely. Took my knife and tried to cut, voila it was perfect.

So, it is true. Perseverance does pay off!. Its question time, remember I mentioned in the starting. My question is : What is the final recipe and the cooking method of this yummy chocolate hazelnut fudge.

Cracked wheat vegetable puloa

2011-08-09T09:50:00.000+08:00

After tasting some success with Bisibelabath using cracked wheat, I wanted to try few other rice based recipes using cracked wheat . And also wanted to make it simple one pot recipe to minimize the cooking and washing process. One such try is vegetable puloa. It is more like a cracked wheat upma, but the spices make all the difference, also I used a coarser variety of cracked wheat which gives nice texture and nutty taste to the dish.

Cracked wheat vegetable puloa has become our favorite dish nowadays. In last couple of weeks alone I did this spicy vegetable healthy meal more than 4 times. Cracked wheat is healthy and rich in fibre content, helps to maintain healthy digestion and may help lower cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar.

Ingredients :
2 cups -- Cut vegetables
1 no -- Big size onion, diced into small pieces
1 cup -- Cracked wheat
1/2 cup -- Coconut milk
3-4 nos -- Green chillies
2 cloves -- Garlic
5-6 tbsp -- cooking oil
Salt to taste

Spices :
1 tsp -- Fennel seeds
1 inch -- Cinnamon
2 nos -- Cloves
1 no -- Cardomom
1 tsp -- poppy seeds

Method :
--- Cut vegetables, I used fresh carrot, beans, green bell peppers, cabbage and peas. I am leaving to your choice, you can use fresh or frozen vegetables. Everything will taste good.
--- Heat a pressure pan in medium heat and add oil, once it is hot add all the spices except the poppy seeds.
--- Nice aroma will comes after few minutes, now add onions, vegetables and cracked wheat and saute them for few seconds.
--- Grind the poppy seeds, garlic and green chillies into a carse paste and add to the cracked wheat vegetable mixture.
--- Now add salt,coconut milk and water to cook the mixture
--- Pressure cook the mixture for one whistle.
--- The last 2 step is little crucial, the amount of water and cooking time depends on how coarse the wheat is. If you add more water or cook for more time the texture of the puloa will change a lot.
I added less than 1 and 1/2 cup of water to the cocnut milk and pressure cooked for one whistle.

Vegetable puloa is ready, serve with plain curd and enjoy :)

Colorful Kadappa

2011-07-20T20:35:00.002+08:00

Kadappa, for me a place in Andra Pradesh, India till two years ago, I never know this as a South Indian recipe. When ever I ask Karthik, what to prepare for dinner, always his reply will be Puri Kadappa or Idli Kadappa, or Pongal Kadappa, the list goes endless with kadappa. I am not kidding, he always asks the same to me. This is his favorite recipe.

Its very simple, rich in flavour and easy to make. Long ago, my in-law told this recipe over phone. I did so many plus and minus to the recipe and arrived this final version. I have not tasted this recipe anywhere still. So I don't know the real taste of the kadappa. All I know is only my version. Longing to taste this recipe soon some where !

Ingredients :

1/4 cup -- Moong Dal
1 no -- Medium Potato
1 no -- Medium size Tomato
1 no -- Medium size Onion
1/2 tsp -- Turmeric
1/4 cup -- Coconut milk**
Few strands of curry leaves
Salt to taste
2 tsp -- Oil
1/2 tsp -- Fennel seeds
1 " length -- Cinnamon

Flavouring Ingredients : To be ground into a fine paste
4 tbsp -- fresh grated coconut
4 tbsp -- Roasted gram
1 no -- Cloves
1/4 tsp -- Poppy seeds (Kasakasa)
1/2 tsp -- Fennel seeds
1 no -- Cardamom
2-3 -- Garlic pods
4 nos -- Green chilly **
Few Ginger

Method :
--- I know you people will be surprised to see a whole list of Masala items in the flavouring column, these ingredients gives that fantastic flavour to this dish. According to your taste, you can add or reduce the items and the amount.
--- Pressure cook the moong dal and potato.
--- While that is cooking, grind all the flavouring ingredients and dice the tomato and the onion.
--- Heat up a sauce pan to medium heat with the oil and once it is hot, add the fennel seeds and the cinnamon stick.
--- Then add the diced onions and saute them for few minutes, add the ground masala mixture to the onion along with the turmeric powder and saute the mixture till the raw smell of the mixture turns into nice aroma.
--- To the onion mixture add the diced tomatoes, curry leaves and cooked dal.
--- Peel the potato skin and dice them into small cubes and add to the dal. According to the gravy consistency add the water.
--- Cook the dal mixture for one boil and turn the heat off. Oops, forgot to add salt. Add salt and mix well before turning off the heat.
--- Now add the coconut milk to the kadappa and mix well. This step is optional, this is the first time I tried it and the taste was extra ordinary.

Hot yummy kadappa is ready to serve along with your wonderful Pongal, Idli, ...

Karuveppilai (Curry leaves) Pasta

2011-07-08T23:44:00.001+08:00

Two day ago, I experimented this new recipe, since I wanted to finish a big bunch of curry leaf which was lying in the fridge for a week. And the result for my new attempt is this Indo Italian fusion recipe, Karuvepilai (curry leaf) pasta.

Though its only the trial version, Karthik enjoyed the pasta a lot. After having my first spoon, I was telling Karthik that something was missing. I want to correct it but will not do this recipe next time, because I am not a big fan of curry leaf recipes, so I didn't like it. As usual he encouraged me and had the pasta twice. Me, didn't go for second time :(

When you Cook for two, you will always end up with some left overs. This time, I ended up with little more than usual. The next day, I added some ingredients to the left-overs and had the same. It tasted very good. Hope you all can enjoy the same in the first trial itself.

Ingredients :
1/2 cup -- Curry leaves
3 tbsp -- Urad Dal
4 nos -- Red Chilli
1 tsp -- Dhania seeds
1 tsp -- Asafoetida
1 no -- Lemon
Salt to taste
Multi grain / Whole wheat Spaghetti -- Approximately 1/2 lb or less

Method :
--- Heat a non stick pan in medium heat.
--- Add little oil to fry the urad dal, dhaniya seeda and red chilli. Fry them till the dal color changes to golden red.
--- Let the mixture to cool.
--- Meanwhile cook the pasta according to the direction given on the pack and keep it ready.
--- Once the dal mixture is cooled, transfer them to mixer jar and grind along with the washed curry leaves.
--- Add little water and grind to a paste consistency.
--- Again take the same pan, add little oil and put the paste and fry them in medium heat till the raw curry leaf smell subsides and a nice aroma fills the kitchen.
--- Karuvepilai (curry leaf) chutney is ready. Now mix this mixture to the pasta.
--- If you feel the mixture is too dry to mix in pasta, add very little pasta water and mix well.
--- Add the frsh lime juice to the pasta, to get the tinge of tangy taste.

Tadaan, Indo Italian fusion pasta ready to serve.

Hope you all guessed right. This is the same Karuvepilai chutney we prepare to mix in the rice. Instead of mixing it in the rice, I used pasta.
Okay, now I tell you what I did the next day to the left over pasta. I added lime juice and a dash of salt. I have mentioned the same above. Hope often I try this pasta at home :)

Bisibelabath from a different angle

2011-07-01T22:30:00.000+08:00

Hi all, presenting Preethibhojan now from Singapore.

After enjoying 4 months with our family, last month, we moved here. Oh my, the last 4 months, I hardly went to the kitchen. Learnt some new recipes and many tips both from my mom and from my in-law. Even though I enjoyed regular food like a rice, sambar, curry and rasam, all the time I ended up with a new taste. Wonder how the tastes differs from person to person.

Now I am back to my den, our new home with a big open kitchen. Tuning up slowly to my routines. As a result of 4 months enjoyment me and Karthik put on lot of weight. So we both took an oath to get back into our shape again.

As a result of that, here comes an healthy recipe 'Bisibelabath' from my new kitchen.

If you ask, What is healthy in it ? The answer is Cracked wheat bisibelabath. Is in it healthy !

I moved last week to this home, with some basic ingredients. With that I wanted to try something different and the same time healthy. While this was in back of my mind, I was chatting with one of my friend and a fellow blogger, Priti singh from Indian Khana. While I was talking to her, I came across this recipe from her blog. Tadaan a flash in me, why can't I try bisibelabath using cracked wheat.

Ingrdients:
1 cup -- Cracked wheat
1/4 cup -- Toor dal
3 tbsp -- Chana dal**
2 cup -- Diced vegetables **
3 tsp -- Tamarind paste**
2 tbsp -- Chilli powder**
Salt as per taste
** Tamarind and chilli powder put according to your taste.
** Diced vegetables - You can put according to your taste. I would strongly recommend Red Pumpkin or squash, green capsicum, drum stick.
** Chana dal is optional. Adding this will give a wonderful texture and taste.

For seasoning : Oil, Chana dal, Urad dal, Mustard seeds, 2-3 Red chilli, Asafoetida

Method :
As Priti has mentioned in Indian Khana blog, we have many ways to make this dish. I tried my mom's way. But we do put our secret bisibelabath mixture to enhance the taste. Since I did not have a mixer, I did
without the secret mixture.
--- Take a pressure pan and add cracked wheat, toor dal and chanadal along with the diced vegetables.
--- Add 3 cups of water and pressure cook. Leave only one whistle and turn off the cooking
--- Once the pressure is released, open the cooker and add the tamarind paste, chilli powder and salt.
--- Again pressure cook it for 2 more whistles.
--- When the pressure is released, bisibelabath is ready.
--- Add the seasoning to the above mixture and serve hot with crunchy vadam.

Easy, healthy one pot meal is ready to serve. There will not be much difference from the regular bisibelabath to this.

Cool Summer salad

2011-05-21T00:16:00.001+08:00

Colour colour what colour do you choose ?
Hmmm, Can I go for the golden yellow in Mango or the mild green in mung sprout or the dashing red of the tomatoes 8-}

Colours of mother nature always unique and very hard to replicate. (Even when it comes for artificial colouring. I experienced this when I worked in the fabric dyeing unit for couple of years. Though we use the same machine, same measurement of dyes and chemicals no two batch will have the same colour. There will be atleast 1-5 % variation in the colour).

No more talk about the colour technology. Come, lets have a a nice colourful cool salad.

Ingredients :

1 no -- Ripe mango
2 nos -- Carrot
1 Cup -- Sprouted Mung dal
4 nos -- Okra
1 no -- Tomato
1 no -- Onion
1 no -- Cucumber
Salt to taste
Pepper -- Optional

Method :
-- As you all know, there is no much big step for any salad.
-- Thinly slice all the vegetables and mix well.

Health benefits of some ingredient:

Okra -- A powerhouse of valuable nutrients, nearly half of which is soluble fiber in the form of gums and pectins . Soluble fiber helps to lower serum cholesterol, reducing the risk of heart disease. The other half is insoluble fiber which helps to keep the intestinal tract healthy, decreasing the risk of some forms of cancer, especially colo-rectal cancer (Source -- by Prema Raja, Suleka.com)

Mung Dal -- Ratna Rajaiah, calls the Mung dal as 'The Queen of Hearts' in her book, How the Banana Goes to Heaven.
Dietary fibre, contains high source of Vitamin B. Like Okra, this also plays major role in reducing the risk of heart disease. Controls blood sugar.
Especially for ladies, the vitamin B2 in mung dal plays vital role for healthy eyes and clean shinny skin.
Cucumber -- Contains Vitamin C and minerals like silica, potassium and magnesium, which is mainly helpful for good skin complexion and also for all skin related problems. Cucumber is a high source of dietary fibre, maintains blood pressure level and more. (Source -- WHFoods)

Mango -- Mangoes are an excellent source of carotenes, vitamin C, vitamin B, vitamin E, copper, potassium, and magnesium. Recent studies proved that mango can be used to cure cancer, reducing risk of kidney stones and many more. Digestive enzymes in mangoes will help to break down proteins and aid digestion. Mangoes are used as medicines in Ayurveda and Unani. (Source -- Elements4health)

You can enjoy this cool salad as such or try like me. I enjoyed this with crunchy tangy javvarasi vadam like this.

Summer Special 1 - Tangy Javvarsi Vadaam

2011-05-11T00:43:00.001+08:00

Javvarsi vadam, the best side dish for the all the rice.

Vadam laid out to dry in my terrace. I am happy to be a part of this big vadam project. Last month, I went to my hometown and spent some days with my parents. My sister and my brother also joined me. It was a family reunion after 2 years with lots of fun with some sad moments.

As I said in my earlier post Maavadu, my mom work like a factory and makes pickles, vadams. As the summer season comes, she makes yummy homemade vadams and distributes to all. Oh yes, she sent some to Chicago too.

Since we all were there, my mom did little extra this time. While myself, mom and my sister-in-law were working on the vadam, my sister took care of the two vaalu kids.

Ingredients :

1/2 kg -- Javvarsi / sago
100 gm -- Green chillies
2 nos -- juice from Lemon
Salt as per taste
** Since this is my mom's recipe, all the measurements are in weight.

Method :
--- Soak the javarsi over night. Let the volume of the water be double the volume of javvarsi.
--- Next day morning, wash the green chillies and grind them to a fine paste . As you all know the measure of chilly depends on one's taste. So adjust accordingly.
--- Take a big thick bottom vessel with 2 litre of water and bring it to boil.
--- Once it starts boiling, add the javvarsi, chilly paste and cook. You can very much control the chilly now also.
--- Accordingly add salt to the mixture and cook until javvarsi is cooked fully and becomes transparent pearls.
--- The whole mixture becomes little thick, like kanji consistency.
--- Turn thr heat off and let it cool for few minutes.
--- Pour the lemon juice to the mixture and mix well.
--- Vadam kuzhu (liquid mixture) is ready.

--- Now comes the big part. Take some big plastic sheets and wash them thoroughly and drip out the water completely. You can also use white cloth for laying the vadams. But we prefer the sheet because, its easy to peel the vadam.
--- Lay the plastic sheet in the open terrace or where you can get proper sunlight and secure all the corners.
--- Now take the liquid mixture in a small spoon and place it over the plastic sheet.
--- The size of the vadam is up to your imagination. Place the vadam mixture in a row with some space between two, because when it spreads it will not touch the next in the row.
--- After a day if it comes peel the vadam from the sheet and dry it for 4-5 days until whole water is absorbed.
--- Then store it in a airtight box.

Always try to keep this vadam project in the early mornings before the sun. Fry the vadam in the oil or cook it in the microwave oven and enjoy when ever you want a crunch.

We enjoyed this tangy vadam along with a summer cool salad. Will post the salad recipe shortly :))

Easy peasy biscuit canape

2011-04-28T01:53:00.001+08:00

Grab one soon before it gets over...

Canape - an appetizer consisting of a thin slice or piece of bread toasted or fried in butter or oil, on which anchovies, mushrooms, caviar, cheese, or other savory foods, are served (Source: thefreedictionary.com)

How happy it will be when our kutti kutti childhood desire comes true after many years? I felt the same today after clicking these colorful cool canapes.

Long long ago, me and my sister saw a biscuit advertisement in a magazine in which the biscuits were topped with many layers and served colorfully. That time we did not know much about the cheese and toppings, so we simply used a Maggie tomato ketchup.

After many years, the time I started to know much about cooking and special ingredients used to give catchy look to the dish, I realized how simple it is to do topping over a biscuit. When I tried this biscuit canape today, the 12 year in me took over and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of preparing and serving this dish.

Ingredients :

Salt biscuit for base.
Cheese slice of any kind.
Thinly sliced mixed vegetables
   -- Carrot,
   -- Cucumber,
   -- Onion,
   -- Cilantro,
   -- Tomato.
Grated cheese and crunchy savory mixture.
**Note : There is no specific measure for the ingredients, prepare as much as you like. I am not going to restrict by giving the measurements.

Method :
--- This easy peasy biscuit canape is very simple, its only layering of all the ingredients.
--- Arrange the biscuit over the serving plate. Choose the plate according to your theme, because once we start layering it will be difficult to change the plates.
--- Take the cheese slice and cut into small squares or triangles according to the size of the biscuit.
--- Place the cheese slice over the biscuit as a second layer.
--- Take a spoonful of mixed vegetable and put it on the top of the cheese. This forms the third layer.
--- To make it little more crunchy, top the vegetables with little savory mixture.
--- Drizzle some finely grated cheese as a last layer.
--- The easy peasy biscuit canape is ready to rock the party

Variations :
--- You can use vegetables like green, red or yellow bell peppers, will give nice color to the plate.
--- Also to make it little spicy, you can use any ketchup in the bottom layer.

These canapes will be a best for any parties or quick snacks. Easy to make and so colorful to look.

Maavadu - Tender mango pickle

2011-04-26T22:22:00.002+08:00

Hurray, Its mango time again...

The time the mango season starts, the pickle season starts in our home. Maavadu, is a pickle made out of cute little tender mangoes.

My mother makes pickles like a factory and distributes it to all of us. For the past 2 years, she had it delivered to me in Chicago too. My sister resides in Mambalam and has ready access to almost anything you name. Specially in the summer she gets loads and loads of mangoes. The list starts from Maavadu mangoes, then Aavakaai mango, mangoes for vathal, thokku and of course mambazham. We finished the first batch of Maavadu at home a couple of weeks ago and my mother prepared another batch last week.

Ingredients :

1 padi** -- Maavadu, small size tender mangoes
50 gm -- Mustard seeds
4 tbsp -- Chili powder
3 tsp -- Turmeric powder
2 tsp -- Castor Oil
150gm to 200gm -- Powdered salt

** Since this is my mom's recipe, all the measurements are in weight.
And the padi is the old method of measuring unit, still used in some places. My mom and my in-law talks more often with this unit. Since they used to cook for big families.
1 padi approximately equals 8 cups

Method :
--- Wash the mangoes and dry them completely by spreading over a dry cloth.

--- After drying the mangoes, transfer the mangoes in a bowl or a jar in which you are going to store the pickle. Pour the 2 tsp edible Castor oil over the mangoes and mix well and make sure all the mangoes are coated with the oil.

--- Grind the mustard seeds to powder.

--- Add chili powder, mustard seed powder, turmeric powder and salt to the mangoes.
--- Mix well and close the bowl / jar with a lid.
--- Utmost try to use a dry wooden ladle to mix the mangoes or use clean dry hands.
--- Mix the mangoes daily for at least for a week to 10 days in the morning with wooden ladle, once the skin shrinks and the salt become watery, the pickle is ready to use.
--- Taste a mango after 3-4 days, if you feel it needs more salt. Go and grab the salt jar from the pantry and add to the mangoes.

--- Yummy tender mango pickle is ready to rock.

Important note :
1) If the salt is more the life span of the pickle will also be more. If salt is less, then the pickle will be infected with fungus growth. So always better to check the mangoes daily.
2) Also use dry spoon to take the mangoes from the big container you stored.

If you follow the above two instruction you can store in the air tight container or ceramic jar in the room temperature itself and will lasts for more months, provided the consumption level, unlike us:-), is less. Or else you can even store it in a fridge and it will last for years.

Vishu Special - Idichakka thoran (Jackfruit Curry)

2011-04-15T17:39:00.001+08:00

Happy Tamizh new year and Vishu

It is very nice to be in our homeland to enjoy special dishes on special occasions. Though we cook the same recipes during ordinary days, we will not the get that divine festive taste in that recipe. Idichikka thoran, is one such special recipe for Vishu.

Cute little Young Jack fruit

Jack fruit is called as 'Idichakka' in Kerala. Jack fruit is a tropical plant which is found mainly in southeast Asia and some parts of Africa. You know, Jack fruit is highly nutritious fruit. I read many more interesting facts about this fruit in a book called, 'How the Banana Goes to Heaven' by Ratna Rajaiah. How I bought this book ? Its a nice short story. A couple of days earlier me and Karthik were at the Passport office. As usual nothing happened as per the schedule, so to kill the time we went to a nearby book shop, where I chanced upon this beautiful book.

Jack fruit

-- An antioxidant which fights diseases.

-- High in beta carotene which our body converts into Vitamin A.

-- Rich in dietary minerals like potassium and Iron.

-- Contains more calcium and magnesium than Banana.

-- Excellent source of complex carbohydrates and dietary fibers, makes the fruit as an energy food.

Like the fruit, the seeds inside them are also equally good for health. They are also high in Vitamin B1 and Vitamin B2, Also minerals like calcium, zinc, phosphorous and Sulphur.

First time in my life, I tried this Idichakka. My mother in-law helped me in cooking and Iam in love with this this wonderful recipe.

Ingredients :

1 no -- Small young jackfruit
1 tsp -- Turmeric powder
1 tsp -- Mustard seeds
1 tbsp -- Chana dal
1 tbsp -- Urad dal
1 tsp -- Jeera
3 no -- Red chillies
2-3 tsp -- Oil
Salt -- To taste
Few Curry leaves
** 1 no -- medium size onion
** 1/2 cup -- Grated coconut

** Onion or coconut -- according to your taste.

Method :
--- By using sharp knife, cut a thick layer of about 1cm skin from the fruit. Apply some oil to the hand and to the knife to avoid the gum sticking in your hands.
--- Cut the fruit into big chunks.
If using a very young jack fruit then no need to discard the center stem inside the fruit, if not cut the stem too.
--- Cook the big chunks along with the turmeric and 1 tsp of salt in the pressure cooker for 1 or 2 whistles.

--- Once the cooked jack fruit is cooled completely, by using a fork or hand shred the big chunks. Since it is cooked nicely all the fibers can be shredded easily. If you find difficulty put it in a mixer and just run for one or two times. Don't run continuously, then all the fruit will get smashed.
--- Put a pan in medium heat and add oil and after few minutes add mustard seeds. Once the seeds are popped completely add chana dal. urad dal, chillies, curry leaves and jeera.
---*** If you are using onion, cut them in to small pieces and add them to the oil mixture and fry until the onion become translucent.
--- Add the shredded jack fruit to the oil mixture and add salt according to taste.
--- Mix well and fry the jack fruit mixture for few minutes.
--- *** If you are not using the onion, avoid the onion step and add the grated coconut in the final stage and turn off the heat.

Enjoy the Idichakka thoran along with Vishu special pradamans :))

Its Mango time... Mango rice

2011-03-22T00:37:00.000+08:00

March month is marching fast. One side cricket world cup, other side board exams, in between elections. Oh, the days are really running fast. The good thing about this month are the fresh mangoes. The green fresh mangoes are already in the markets.

I like to eat mangoes in all the form, fresh green mango, pulpy fruit mango, dried mango pickles, yummmm. My mother will make different variety recipes using the mangoes. Starting from March till May, almost daily we have mango in our meal. Either it will be in sambar, pickle, pachadi, rice, vatha kuzhambu, thokku, mango paruppu, etc. Living in the US for the past couple of years, I missed mangoes a lot. We do get mangoes all through the year and mangoes imported from India during the summer but it was that very rare bunch that had the taste and flavour.

Mangoes are rich in vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidant.These comforting enzymes act as a digestive aid and can be held partially responsible for that feeling of contentment we experience during and after our daily mango ritual. An average sized mango can contain up to 40% of your daily fiber requirement. (Facts : All about Mangoes)

In this season, I bought a couple of mangoes yesterday and tried one of my favorite recipe Mango rice.

The recipe for making the rice is very simple. It is more like making lemon rice.

Ingredients :

4-5 cup -- Cooked rice
1 no -- Mango**
1 tsp -- turmeric powder
1 tsp -- Mustard seeds
1 tbsp -- Chana dal
1 tbsp -- Urad dal
1 tsp -- Jeera
3 no -- Green chillies
Salt -- To taste
2-3 tsp -- Oil

Method :
--- Wash the mango, peel off the skin and grate it.
** Select the sour mango fot this recipe, you will enjoy it better.

--- Keep a pan in the medium heat, add oil. Once the oil is hot add the mustard seed, once its popped, add jeera, chana dal and urad dal.
--- Once the dal color is fried, add the grated mango, turmeric powder and green chillies.
--- Saute the mango for 5 minutes. Since we are using grated mango, cooking will be very fast.
--- Now mango mixture it is ready to mix.
--- Add the mixture to the mixed rice. According to your taste, add salt. You can add salt either in the last stage or while you saute the mango.

--- The rice is ready to serve.

Sundaikai curry

2011-03-10T01:03:00.001+08:00

Sundaikai, Turkey Berry in English, is a very popular in Tamilnadu. Commonly prepared as vathal, dried sundaikai, this can also be cooked freshly to make curry, kootu, sambar, kuzhambu, pachadi, Thuvayal, etc..

Sundaikai contains high medicinal value and is very good for health. It is rich in Iron content and it acts like cleanser to clean our stomach. It is widely used in Siddha medicine for making chooranams, which is helpful for digestion problems. Even now most mothers feed sundaikai vathal to her daughter, after she give birth to a baby.

Earlier days, in our town almost every house had the plant in their back yards. I can recollect a lot of days when we ran out of vegetables at home and the fresh sundaikais from our (and our neighbours :-)) backyards saved the day. My mom makes sundaikai vathal at home itself. But now I am paying Rs.20 for 1/2 cup fresh sundaikai. Still its worth buying.

Last week, my mother-in-law made this wonderful curry. I never had this type of sudaikai curry before. Hope the image does justice to the wholesome taste of the curry.

Ingredients :

1 cup -- Fresh Sundaikai
1/4 cup -- Shreded coconut
1 tsp -- turmeric powder
1 tsp -- Mustard seeds
1 tbsp -- Chana dal
1 tbsp -- Urad dal
1 tsp -- Jeera
Salt -- To taste
2-3 tsp -- Oil

To fry :
1/2 cup -- Urad dal
1/4 cup -- Chana dal
2-3 tbsp -- Dania seeds
4-5 nos -- Dry chilli
2 tsp -- Pepper
Few curry leaves
1 tsp -- Asafoetida

Method :
--- We always get the sundaikai with the stem. Take the stem part, which will easily come off and wash it thoroughly.

--- After washing, take them in a zip lock bag, I prefer to put one more bag.
--- Now comes the messy part, take a small hammer and smash all the sundaikai. You no need to work hard for this, since those are very delicate, it will be smashed easily.

Before washing Sundaikai

--- Transfer the sundaikai in to a pan and wash out the seeds completely.
--- That's it, cleaning part is over. Cooking sundaikai is similar like cooking beans curry.
--- Take a pan and add all the ingredients listed below 'To fry" and fry them in the medium heat.
Fry till the dal color changes.
*** Important note - Adjust the chilli and pepper measure according to your taste. Don't blame me later :))
--- Transfer the fried mixture to a blender and let it cool for a while.
--- Keep the same pan in medium heat and add oil. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds. As soon as the seeds crackles add chana dal, urud dal and turmeric.
--- When the dal colors changes add the washed sundaikai.
--- Add little water to cook and close the pan.
--- Meanwhile grind the fried ingredients with a spoon of jeera and coconut. This is called as curry podi. You can use this for almost all the vegetables.
--- Now check the sundaikai, if cooked add the curry podi.
*** You can add the curry podi according to the taste you like. If you have some left-overs, store them in air tight container. As I said earlier, this will be good for any curry, also you can add this in sambar.

--- Add salt according to taste and cook for 3-4 minutes and turn off the heat.

Yummy Sundaikai curry is ready to serve with hot rice :)

Lovely Award !

2011-03-02T15:47:00.000+08:00

Gayathri Viswanathan from 'Kitchen - The Chef's Paradise' , a good friend and a fellow blogger of mine passed this 'Lovely Blog Award' to me along with few others bloggers. I thank Gayathri, a lot for sharing this award. I am so happy and honoured. Hurray,This is my first award !

Long long ago, in the month of December, Gayathri tagged me in the 'tagging chain questionnaire'. Since I was little busy with my cake decoration classes and pongal celebrations, I totally forgot the questionnaire.I take this opportunity as a right time to answer her questions and the original questions posted by Shobha and Shanavi.

Shobha and Shanavi's Question :

1. Are you a vegetarian, or have you thought about being one?
--- Yes

2. Who inspired you to cook or bake?
--- Cooking of course from my mom, mother-in-law, Chitra mami - my aunty, Priya - sister.
--- Baking, after seeing a lovely oven in my apartment.

3. How do you celebrate a favorite holiday of your choice?
--- Any festivals or holidays I like to celebrate with my family. We cook different varieties of foods at home and chat, play and have lots of fun.

4. Do you prefer to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends and/or family, or prefer to ring in the New Year quietly, and privately, at home?
--- Quietly, I celebrate the New Year's day with my family. Early morning, we all go to a nearby temple, where we usually give for Abishegam. We all have hot chakara pongal, Sundal, Milagu vadai as prasadam as well as our breakfast. After that we call all our friends and relatives and wish them.

5. If someone were to ask you to bring dessert to a party, what would you bring? Store bought, or homemade, and if you were to make homemade, what would you make?
--- Whether its a party time or a regular days, I always go for a freshly cooked food. If I were asked to bring a dessert I will take carrot Halwa, Karthik's favorite or a nice double layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, my favorite.

6. How will you celebrate your next birthday?
--- This year birthday was a most memorable one. Next year wishing to be with my family.

7. Do you have a New Year's resolution-and will you be sticking to it?
--- No :)) Good girl !

Gayathri's Questions :

1.What is your take on organic food , is it a big deal for you ?
--- After seeing a documentary called Food Inc, I wanted to go more organic. I am trying to stick to that.

2. Do you time your breakfast,lunch & dinner or eat when you are hungry ?
--- When working I didn't had any timing, If I were in office at lunch time I will eat, or else I will skip. But now, everything on time.

3. What is your inspiration to write a food blog ?
--- After we moved to an apartment in US, I was very happy to have a full size kitchen. My love towards cooking made me to explore the web a lot and try many new recipes. After few days, I realized that I need to keep a log of the recipes that I am trying out. So started writing my own food blog under 'Preethibhojan'.

4. How do you get new ideas for recipes?
--- Ideas for new recipes always depends on ingredients I have in my pantry. Sometimes I will start with one recipe but the end result will be bad, that time I will do slight variation and give the recipe a new name and look. Its all in the game !

5. Name three ingredients you consciously avoid or eliminate even when the recipe calls for it ?
--- Most of the time, I will choose the recipe which is very simple and with the ingredients which I use regularly. I avoid Egg, more masala items.

6. Name three things you have to use in most recipes?
--- Turmeric, Methi seeds, cumin

7. How important is eating meals together as a family to you?
--- When we were kids, my mom taught us and insisted more on having meals together. Since we all are running crazy in the morning, we atleast have our dinner together and discuss our days experiences.
8. You do not like a particular dish at your favorite restaurant, what will you do?
--- We hardly go to restaurant. Silently avoid it and let others who might like the dish to enjoy it.

Quinoa Pulao

2011-02-27T01:39:00.000+08:00

I m back into my blogging world, after a small gap. I m in Chennai now with my in-laws. Missing my kitchen and specially the oven.

Quinoa, Kinwa, I am still having a problem in pronouncing the name correctly.

Hope everybody knows the nutritional fact of this grain. It is rich in protein and contains essential amino acids. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest (Source : Wikipedia)

Quinoa is a high-fiber food with five grams of fiber per cup (cooked). Fiber not only promotes digestive health, but may also reduce the risk of breast cancer in pre-menopausal women, may prevent cardiovascular disease and diabetes, promotes weight loss, and aids weight maintenance (source:Suite101.com)

Do you know, 'Thinai', (tamil) grain is similar to quinoa.

Even though I have read many good things about this grain earlier, I did not take any attempt to try some recipe using quinoa. Last month, when we were buying our weekly grocery, I came across a shelf full of quinoa. I was thrilled and without any second thoughts I took a pack and tried a vegetable puloa.

--- Cook the quino as per instruction given on the pack
--- As we do for vegetable pulao, cook the vegetables* and keep separately.
--- Mix the cooked quino and the vegetables.
--- If you like add some fried cashew and serve warm.

Easy and healthy recipe. I brought 2 packs along with me to Chennai, going to try more recipe for my father-in-law. Hope this will be the best dietary food for him.

* Vegetables -- Any fresh veggies, as per your taste and availability.

A Upma with many names

2011-02-10T13:45:00.000+08:00

Morkali upma, khozamaa upma, Arisi upma, Morkuzh upma - one upma with different names. If you call by any other name, please write to me.

This upma is traditional recipe but not a popular one. If you ask your Paati (granny) or Kollu paati, she will tell you about this upma along with a nice old stories. Hearing the old stories, oh man, that's the best moment in your life. Sometime if my mom and her brothers were together, we kids will ask about their childhood. They used to talk about their childhood, school days, nick names, movies, books and the delicious food. Hope I will enjoy the same moment when I meet them all next month. Can't wait to see them all !

Whenever my mom prepare this upma, she always talk about her mom and the kitchen arrangement in the earlier days. No gas, no kerosene stove, my paati used to prepare in the traditional coal stove called 'kumuti adupu'. My mom prepares this upma in the same way except the coal stove.

I never tried this recipe until a month ago. Believe it or not, within this last 20 days I did this upma twice. Its an easy recipe, need no special ingredients or even a side dish. It will be best with a side dish, which I will tell later.

Ingredients :
1 cup -- Rice flour
2/3 cup -- Yogurt (will be nice if it is little sour)
1 cup -- Water
1/3 cup -- Oil (Trust me, you need it)
1 tsp -- Turmeric powder
2 tbsp -- Urad dal
2 tbsp -- Chana dal
1 tsp -- Mustard seed
Dash of Asafoetida
7-8 nos -- Red dried chillies or Mor millagai
Salt to taste
Curry leaves (optional)

Method:
--- In a bowl mix the rice flour, turmeric powder, Asafoetida, salt, yogurt and water.

--- Make the batter watery, like below. No harm in adding more water, if you need to get this consistency.

--- Take a heavy bottom pan with the oil. Turn the heat to medium. When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and once they are cracked add the urad dal, chana dal and dry chillies. If you are using mor millagai, adjust the salt accordingly.
--- If using curry leaves, add them also now.

--- Fry the mixture until the dal colour is changed to golden brown. Now slowly and carefully pour the rice flour batter to the oil mixture.

--- The main important thing, don't use spatula and disturb the mixture. Big surprise is awaiting at the bottom of the pan.

--- All the oil will be floating on top of the mixture, don't panic these oil will be absorbed once upma is cooked.

--- Close the pan and cook the mixture for 10-12 minutes, once cooked take a wooden spatula and mix the upma without touching the bottom of the pan. Shhhh that's the secret, we talked earlier.

--- Now comes the magic. Once the upma is being mixed, the oil which was floating above will get absorbed. This increase the flavour and the taste of the upma.
--- Transfer the upma onto a bowl and now you can see a thick layer, called Kaanthal in tamizh, stuck onto the bottom of the pan.

--- Let the pan to cool for a while. Using the wooden spatula, take the upma which is struck in the bottom of the pan. This is a little work, but your hard work will be paid at the end.
--- You will get a nice crispy, tasty Kaanthal from the bottom.

--- This is the best side dish to eat along with this upma. If you don't want to have crispy part, just mix the recipe in the first stage itself. Then you will not get the fun tasty crispy upma at the bottom of the pan.

Isn't this upma simple and easy. Enjoy the traditional tasty upma with your family and talk the old stories.

Lemon lentil soup

2011-02-05T03:28:00.000+08:00

Warm yellow color, tangy taste, nice aroma, hm... whenever, I think of lemon, I will go into my own lemony world.

Long long ago, my mami had a small lemon tree in her backyard, but it used to yield lots of lemons. Best example for the tamizh saying 'மூர்த்தி சிறுசு கீர்த்தி பெரிசு'. My mami's home was my summer holidays abode and I have sweet memories of that lemon tree and its fresh offerings. Poor thing, it had to make way when my mami's house was expanded. It is still a conversation starter when we all get together.

Coming to our story, I bought a dozen of big lemons and enjoyed all my favorite recipes, lemon rice, lemon sevai, lemon rasam, etc. Last week, when I was browsing, this recipe caught my eyes and when I fully read, it sounded more similar to our south Indian dish. One second I stopped reading and asked myself, am I reading the soup or sambar? Wanted to give it a try.

I found this recipe in Oprah.com. Tried this lemon lentil soup with a little twist and it tasted perfect. You can find the original recipe here.

Ingredients : Serves - 6 person
2 cup -- cooked lentil***
1 cup -- mixed vegetables chopped
2 tbsp -- Tomato puree
1 no -- Onion, medium size chopped
2 tbsp -- Olive oil
2 clove -- Garlic
lemon juice from half a lemon
Fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

*** In the original recipe Oprah have used red lentil, I used the left over dal I had in the fridge, Combination of toor dal and the moong dal

Method:
--- Take a sauce pan with the olive oil and turn the heat to medium.
--- Add onions, garlic and saute them in the oil for few minutes, Add the vegetables and cook until the vegetables become tender.
--- You can use any vegetables, I used carrots, beans and squash.
--- Once the vegetables become soft, now its time to add our cooked lentil, tomato puree. Add them to the vegetables and cook for 3-5 minutes. Let the mixture to cool a little.
--- Transfer the whole mixture to the blender and pulse the mixture for few times. We neither want the vegetables to grind fully or big chunks.
--- Pour the grind mixture in the pan again and add 2-3 cups of water depending upon the consistency.
--- Turn the heat to medium and add pepper,salt and lemon juice. And cook for 3 minutes, just to bring the flavour to the soup.
--- Finally add the chopped cilantro for color and taste.

Rich in protein, lots of vegetables and lemony flavour. Serve this soup with little cheese on top and along with the Garlic bread. I assure you that you will love this combination.

Garlic bread

2011-01-28T11:35:00.000+08:00

Are you sitting in the couch and wondering what to serve your loved one for the dinner? or Thinking to have something warm and crunchy to fight the bone chilling cold ?
It happens to me more often. I always wanted to cook something different for Karthik and surprise him when he comes back from office. Most of the time, I make something very easy and healthy, so that I can enjoy the food and have less cleaning work.

A couple of days ago I came across the recipe for Garlic bread. Its very simple, easy to make, minimal number of ingredients, no messy cleaning work. Takes less time to prepare this nice crunchy, garlicky bread. And no one can go wrong with this recipe.

Ingredients:
Bread slices -- 8 slices***
Garlic -- 2-3 cloves (depending upon the size)
Salted or Unsalted butter -- 1 tbsp
Olive oil -- 2 tbsp
Cilantro -- few leaflets***

*** You can use any kind of bread. I used whole grain white bread.
I wanted a mild taste, so I went with cilantro. If you like you can use any kind of herbs for topping. Parsley, powder onion, dried oregano, etc.

Method :
--- Preheat the oven to 375 F
--- Melt the butter and add olive oil. Grate the garlic and chop the cilantro and add in to the butter oil mixture.
--- Now take the bread and arrange them on a baking sheet. If you like cut the bread diagonally.
--- Brush the butter oil mixture over the bread and bake it for 10 - 12 minutes.
--- After 7 minutes, you just turn the bread and bake for few minutes.
--- Voilà, freshly home made Garlic bread ready to serve.

You can serve this crunchy garlic bread for an evening tea with tomato sauce dipping or with a nice soup for a dinner. Enjoy !!!

Spinach Veggie soup

2011-01-26T14:33:00.000+08:00

My laptop caught a virus and fell sick a fine morning and it took a week of heroic efforts from my husband and his friend to bring it back to pristine health. Thanks to 'draft' option in the Blogger, I was able to retrieve all the posts that I had completed a week ago. So after a long gap, here comes Spinach Veggie soup to recover any kind illness. Oh come on, Man or machine - soup is the best healing food

I have to admit that I was never crazy about soups. Almost all of my encounters with soups were in the form of ready-made soups, which have dried vegetables in it. I felt these flavours taste the same. Only the colors were different.

I love fresh vegetables. 99% I buy fresh vegetables only. No frozen or tinned stuffs. Now, weekly once you can find a soup in my dinner menu. No more store bought soups. I started making my own chunky fresh veggie soups. I love to have chunks of vegetables in my every spoon. Easy to make, hearty to eat.

Last week, I tried the spinach vegetable soup for my birthday dinner party. Oh, everybody like it.

Ingredients : Serves - 4 person
1 cup --- Chopped vegetables***
1 no --- Medium size onion
2 no --- medium size Roma tomatoes
2 tbsp --- Butter (optional) / Olive oil
1 cup --- spinach
Salt and ground pepper to taste
*** Combination of vegetables will be great for the soup
Carrot, beans, potatoes, peas, celery.

Method :
--- Maximum try to use fresh vegetables than the frozen or canned one.
--- In a sauce pan add the butter and turn the heat to medium.
--- Saute the onions until it turns translucent. Add all the vegetables and cook, until tender.
--- Meanwhile in a pan cook the whole tomato and the spinach leaves with a cup of water. After few minute, the skin tomatoes will shrink and cracks.
--- Take the tomatoes out, cool them and take the skin off.
--- Now, we go to the other pan which is cooking vegetables. Check whether the vegetables are cooked, once done turn the heat off.
--- In a blender, put the tomatoes, cooked spinach with the water and few cooked vegetables less than half quantity and blend it.
--- Turn the heat on, take the sauce pan which is having the cooked vegetables, add the tomato mixture from the blender. The blend mixture give the thickness and texture to the soup.
--- Add 3 cups of water to the mixture and cook for 10 minutes. You can increase or reduce the water accordingly depending upon the soup consistency.
--- Now its time to give little taste to the soup, add freshly ground pepper and salt, cook for 2-3 minutes.
--- Turn off the heat and serve warm with bake pakodas.

Pongalo Pongal

2011-01-18T02:29:00.000+08:00

Wishing you a very Happy Pongal...

From Jan 11th till yesterday, I was busy in the kitchen. In one week, 2 birthday dinner parties, a 3 day Pongal celebration, lots of different foods, (heavy sigh...). Hope, I will not cook for next two days. How many variety of food ?

This is the second time, I am celebrating Pongal away from my parents and in my apartment. As usual I celebrated with the fullest festivity. Though I missed my home, I did not miss anything from pongal rituals to food. The main highlight was I cooked for a small group of 6 people, including us.

First day, Bhogi pandigai. I cooked Puran poli, Bisibelibath, baked vadai. That very night I had a my kutti friend Kirthana's birthday party, so I helped her mom with the party.

Next day, Pongal, though I started everything a little late, but completed on time. In a hurry, I did almost everything. Put a nice kolam over my stove, decorated the pongal pot (vessel) with turmeric and kumkum. Did pooja to the pongal pot, screamed 'Pongalo pongal' in low tone :))

In our place, we all go and do pooja for Sun God in the open terrace. We take everything from the ground floor to the 2nd floor and do the pooja. We all scream 'Pongalo Pongal' in high tone and thank the Sun God. Here, we did pooja inside our apartment itself and thanked the Sun God.

-- Chakara pongal
-- Venpongal (Rice)
-- Plantain curry
-- Squash curry
-- Curd Pachadi
-- White pumpkin kootu
-- Vadai
-- Kosmalli
Compared to my mom's preparation, my list is very little. She cooks a lot. As always me and my sister are observers and helps her a lot in the kitchen.

Third day, Kanu pongal or mattu pongal. We keep the colored rice in the morning for the crow. This is my favorite festival, (Girly festival). My mom will keep us nalangu in the feet for us.We get new dress and money from my brother and uncles. Some of my uncles will give us the money after the Kanu also.

I celebrated the kanu in the freezing cold...

Cooked a nice tamarind rice, coconut rice, paysam, applam and aviyal.

Have to wait for 3 more months for next celebration...

Mac and cheese cupcakes

2011-01-14T10:28:00.001+08:00

A surprise gift from my husband and a silk saree along with sweet parcels from my in-laws, wishes and blessings from my parents, facebook messages, phone calls from friends, microwave oven from Karthik's friends, what else I will ask God on a birthday. Everybody made my day very special.

Since I was busy with the phone calls in the morning, I didn't cook anything for the lunch, did a simple yet delicious kesari. I like kesari a lot, my mom always make kesari on my birthday. I wanted to surprise my husband with the special food for the dinner.

I did a couple of different recipes which I did not tried before. One such recipe is this.
'Mac and cheese cupcakes' - These are cutie little pasta, cheese basket with some veggies in it.

Long time ago, I tried a similar kind of pasta cheese cupcakes in a baked potato basket. It was an experimental recipe, combining two different recipe which I saw in the Food network show. I named the new recipe as 'Potato Pasta Basket', you can find the recipe here. On my birthday I wanted to try the same recipe but wanted to have it simple. So I did cheese cupcakes without Potato basket. This is the Gaida's recipe from Food network program.

Ingredients :

2 cups --- Cooked pasta***
1 cup --- Sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup --- Mozzarella cheese
1 cup --- Cherry tomatoes halved
1 cup --- Spinach chopped nicely
1 cup --- Bread crumbs
Olive oil to drizzle
Salt and Pepper for taste
***Any kind of small shaped pasta, I used 100% wheat crown shaped coloured pasta. Cook the pasta as per the instruction given.

Method :
--- Preheat the oven to 370 F
--- Grease the muffin tray and dust with the bread crumbs. This will help the cupcakes to take out of the pan easily, or else the cheese will stick into the pan a lot.
--- Mix the spinach, tomatoes with salt and pepper and keep it aside. You can use any kind of vegetables in it. Blanched beans, broccoli, zucchini, eggplant ...
--- Fill the half of the muffin pan with cooked pasta.
--- Add some cheese of your favorite on top of the pasta.
--- Now add the mixed veggies over the cheese and again top them with the cheese layer.
--- Over the cheese layer, add left over pastas or veggies if any. Or else top them with the bread crumbs, approximately 11/2 to 2 tsp.
--- Drizzle some olive oil on top of bread crumbs.
--- Final layer again with loads of cheese.
--- This is simply layering different veggies, pasta and cheese inside the small pan.
--- Bake them for 12 - 15 minutes, untill the cheese are melt on top, also you can see golden brown color on sides.
--- Before taking them out, give some time to cool the cupcakes.

Thanks to Gayathri, (Kitchen - The Chef's Paradise), when she called to wish me, she suggested me a key ingredient 'spinach' for this cup cakes, when I was stuck in a confused stage. You can hide more veggies inside the cheese and can make kids to eat. This Mac and Cheese cup cakes are kids friendly dish.
You can also serve these cutie little cupcakes as an appetiser for any party. Easy and different, I got more applause for these cuties !

More toffee treats

2011-01-11T13:50:00.001+08:00

Remember, I did the caramel toffee last week. I tried the same recipe yesterday, with little variations. The result was fantastic. I did two type toffees with the same base recipe.

Nutty toffee bars
Chocolate toffee caramel bars

The base recipe for both the toffees were same. You can see my toffee recipe here. The only change to the recipe is the use of fondant. After turning off the heat I cooled the caramel mixture for couple of minutes (not cooled completely) and added approximately 2-3 tsps of fondant. I added the fondant in little pieces and mixed well.

Caramel Nutty Bars :

--- Grease the pan and line up with the parchment paper. Grease the paper lightly and let some paper hang out on each sides.
--- Add a cup of roasted cashews into the warm caramel mixture and transfer the mixture onto the greased parchment paper.
--- Once cooled, you can easily cut the caramel into required shape.
--- Since we have used fondant, the caramel will not stick to the knife or to the teeth.
--- The texture of this caramel toffees are entirely different to the earlier one. This toffees are soft, brittle and very much reminds toffees which we enjoyed in our childhood.

Chocolate toffee caramel bars :

--- Grease the pan and the parchment pan.
--- This is a double layer toffee with the caramel base with the chocolate topping.
--- Once you pour the caramel onto the greased pan, pour 1 pack of semi sweet chocolate chips over the caramel.
--- The chocolate chips will melt by the heat of caramel, use a spatula and spread the chocolate covering the caramel.
--- Once the mixture is cooled completely cut the toffees using a buttered knife.

Peanut butter cookies

2011-01-09T10:29:00.000+08:00

I like to eat the peanuts only in two dishes - peanut laddu / kadala mittai and in my mom's eggplant kootu. I don't like peanuts in any other dish or in any other form. It doesn't mean that i will not eat or cook foods using peanuts, but those two are my favorite dish.

You know, I stopped eating more chocolates and Ice creams here. Some of the chocolates have peanuts and all the ice creams are topped with peanuts. But I like to see the 'Jif' peanut butter advertisements. Oh, they are very nice and lovely. The kids featuring in those ads will be very cute. Since I like the advertisement, I wanted to taste the butter at least once.

I tried this cookies from Dhivya's Dil se... blog four days ago. They tasted delicious. The cookies were flaky and soft. Everybody certified that this was the best cookies I ever baked. I baked nearly 50-60 cookies and they were all gone in 48 hours.

Ingredients and Method :

I followed exactly the same from Dil se..., you can click here to find the recipe.

From now on, I will add this peanut butter cookies in my favorite peanut list.

Mexican tomatillo rice

2011-01-07T09:43:00.001+08:00

Did you know, Tomatillo is a fruit ?
Tomatillos are not the unripe tomatoes, they are totally a different variety but same family.
Tomatillos means little tomato in Spanish, and they are used mostly inMexican cuisine. Mexican rice, salsa cruda, salsa Verde, salads, etc.

I like the green colour and a distinct tangy taste of the tomatillos a lot. Mostly, I cook them with the dal or put them in the salad. A few days ago, I made the tomato rice, when I realized that I should not try the same using the Tomatillos. Today, I gave it a try.

Ingredients :

1 cup --- Rice
1 no --- Onion, medium size finely chopped
4-5 tbsp --- oil
1 tsp --- Jeera
2 clove --- Garlic
Few cilantro
Salt to taste
Pinch of turmeric for color.

To puree:
4-5 nos --- Tomatillos, medium size
2 nos --- Jalapeno small size
*** 5 nos --- small Indian chili

Method:
It is a one pot meal, I cooked this in the pressure pan. Easyyyyyy....
--- In the pressure pan, add the oil and turn the heat to medium. Once it is hot add a spoon of jeera to it. Simultaneously add the chopped onion and saute it.
--- Meanwhile, wash the rice and drain the water.
--- When the onion turns translucent, add the rice, garlic and saute them along with the onion for few minutes, until the rice turns slightly golden brown.
--- Add the tomatillo puree, pinch of turmeric and salt to the rice mixture and 2 cups of water for rice to cook.
*** Water depends on the rice quality. I used normal ponni rice.
--- Close the pan and cook the rice for 2 whistle.
--- Once the pressure is released, open the lid and let the rice cool for few minutes.
--- Add the cilantro and serve warm with the roasted potatoes.

Homemade toffee

2011-01-04T13:24:00.000+08:00

Believe me, this is the homemade caramel toffee. Even I can't believe myself.
Always wonder can we make toffee at home? Now, I got the answer, Yes we can !

Two months ago, I found this recipe in the Food Network magazine, under Christmas special treats. Its Ina Garten recipe, Fleur De Sel Caramels. From that day I wanted to try this, as you all know, I was little busy the whole month with cake decoration :))
As the name says, Ina Garten added Fleur De Sel in her recipe, but I used the regular salt.

This caramel toffee is a simple, easy and delicious treat. Once you do it then you can use your imagination and try many more toffee having this as a base recipe. I am having many to try on...

Ingredients :

1 and 1/2 cup -- Sugar
1/4 cup -- Corn syrup
1 cup -- Heavy cream
5 tbsp -- Butter
1 tsp -- Salt
1/2 tsp -- pure vanilla extract

Methods :
--- Grease a 8" square pan and line with the parchment paper. Leave some extra paper hanging on each sides. Grease the paper lightly too.
*** I didn't have square pan, I used the round pan and struggled much for aligning the parchment paper.
--- For preparing sugar caramel, in a thick bottom sauce pan, add corn syrup, sugar and 1/2 cup water and bring it to boil in medium heat. In actual recipe, Ina garten have specified the measurement for the pan - 6 inches diameter by 4 1/2 inches deep.
--- At any point, don't stir the mixture with the spoon. If you mix it with a spoon then the whole mixture forms into crystals. Experience talk. If needed just swirl the pan using the handle. Do it very carefully. Boil the mixture until it turns into golden brown.
--- In the meantime in another pan, boil the heavy cream, butter and salt in the medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Keep aside the mixture.
--- When the sugar turns to mild golden color, turn of the heat. Take the cream butter mixture and add very slowly and carefully into the caramel mixture. Now you can use a wooden spoon to mix.
--- In this stage the caramel mixture will bubble up violently. So take utmost care while mixing the both.
--- Add the Vanilla extract to the mixture and bring it to medium heat.
--- Cook the mixture for 10 minutes.
*** In the actual recipe, the chef mentioned to cook until the candy thermometer shows 248F, I did not have one, so I checked the mixture consistency using our traditional method. After 8 minutes I took the spoon and dropped the mixture in the chill water, try to roll into solid mass. I checked 3-4 times and at last I was able to do it. If you have candy thermometer, its well and good.
--- Pour the caramel cream mixture into the grease pan and cool it for 3-4 hours
--- When the caramel is cold, take the parchment paper from the pan and cut into halves.
--- Make a log by rolling each half and cut the log into pieces according to the size you like. And sprinkle the Fleur de Sel on top of the each if using the same.
*** I didn't roll them into logs, I just cut them into rectangles.

This toffee reminded me many of my childhood toffees, Maha Lacto, Lacto king, Coffe bite, Aasai, some Parry company chocolates.

One interesting thing happened when I was wrapping this toffees. My uncle called us to wish for New year. He is a food technologist, worked in Parry company and doing consultancy for many leading food companies. He told me to add fondant before pouring into the pan and after cooling the mixture a little. This will avoid the toffee from sticking to our teeth.

I have to try the same in my next toffee. Will keep you posted on the result.

Welcome 2011

2011-01-01T23:53:00.001+08:00

Wishing you all a very happy and wonderful New Year!!
Year 2010 left many good memories and brought many new friends. It was a very special year for me. Thanks to all followers and fellow bloggers for your support. When I started the Preethi Bhojan, I did not know anything about the food bloggers community, about the events they conduct, how to present a recipe, but now my whole world has changed.

Hope 2011 also brings me many more friends to me.

On new year day in my home town, early morning we go to a Perumal kovil near our home . Morning twilight, margahzi month chill mist, big rangoli kolam to welcome new year, a divine smell inside the temple, prasadam, Tulasi thirtham, Oh I am missing them. But not the chillness, because it is biting cold here.

This is my first post of the year, so let us start with the super double layered chocolate cake and welcome the new year.

I baked this cake for a dual purpose, new year special and for my project submission. As I mention in my earlier post, I did this cake for my cake decoration class. Since the theme and designs were our choice I selected this theme. So what theme in this?

I started with a winter theme and ended with a sunny theme. Winter theme, blue sky, tall tree branches without leaves, nice fresh snow and a welcome message for the new year. As I started working on the decoration, I changed the whole theme. Now this represents the Bahamas . Blue sea, Brown shells, big flowers, green branches. This theme is like modern art, so visualise the Bahama beach and look into the cake again, you will get it !

For recipe, click here
Followed the same recipe, which I posted last year in my another blog. I am having a 10 " pan now. So I increased some ingredients.
*** All purpose flour -- 1 and 3/4 cup
*** Sugar -- 3/4 cup
Rest all the ingredients and the methods are same.

Since this was a big and tall cake, I was able to to share the joy along with this cake to many of my neighbours.

photo from Google Images

Cake decoration class

2011-01-01T01:58:00.000+08:00

This month I went for a cake decoration class. Its Wilton cake decoration course for 4 days, 2 hours a week. It was quite a nice experience for me. I learnt more techniques in cake decoration.

The first class was about the basic steps for baking a nice flat cake and some basic cake decoration techniques.
Would like to share some tips to you for baking cake.

Always fill the half of the pan with batter and make sure the top surface is leveled. Tap the pan sometimes to make it smoother.
If you like, you can buy a wilton metal strip, wet them and place it around the pan. The metal strip has some fabric inside make the sides to cook slower so that whole cake will cook in the same time and the surface will be leveled. If you don't want to use metal strip, here is an easy way which I follow. Once the cake is done, take a tissue paper, and pat the top part a little and make it level. Don't press them too hard.
Use a big serrated knife to cut the cake.
In butter icing, there are three different icing consistency. For applying over all on the cake, make a thin consistency. For making flowers and stars medium consistency. For making rose thick consistency. You can see the Icing recipe here.

For the second day, we all went with our own cake to do decoration. I went with a double layered vanilla fruit cake. Third class was with vanilla cup cakes. And yesterday was our last day. Our instructor asked us to come up with our theme, colours and decoration idea for decorating the cake. It was like our final project submission.

I enjoyed the class a lot. Learnt some techniques to decorate the cake also earned a certificate too!!

Mughal feast for lunch

2011-01-01T01:15:00.001+08:00

Yesterday was the last working day of the year. In my husband's office only very few were working, excluding him ! He stayed at home and helped me in making the cake. That is the another story, will tell you in my next post.
Since he was at home I decided to make a richer meal than I normally would. We also invited some of our friends for the lunch. I did a mini Mughal feast with vegetable pulav and malai kofta.

I tried the vegetable pulav recipe from Kitchen - The Chef's Paradise by Gayathri. I love the richness of the vegetable pulav. My temptation level reached its peak after seeing her pulav and the stepwise snaps. Most of the time rice in the pulav will get smashed a little, luckily not this time. Though I did not use basmathi rice, my vegetable pulav came out good.

Since I made this for a larger group, did some variation from the original recipe.

*** I used green chilly paste, grinded with few cashews and coconut. This gave more flavour to the rice.

*** Along with the green vegetables, I added the uncooked rice in the pressure cooker and cooked it for a whistle.

A small tip - If your vegetable pulav or fried rice has gone little towards salty or spicy taste, then just add few lemon juice and mix well. The lemon taste will suppress them and give a little tangy taste to the rice.

Next comes, malai kofta.

My friend Kirthana's mom has been asking me to try this recipe because she wanted to make this for Kirthana's birthday party. Since I never tried this before, I was hesitating a little to give a try. Starting trouble :))
As soon as I planned to make vegetable pulav, without any second thoughts, I decided to make malai Kofta as a side dish. I had no idea how to make the malai kofta. As usual I searched the recipe and found many. In all the method, everybody have told to deep fry the koftas. Luckily I found a recipe, where koftas were baked.
I tried the baked malai kofta from Sandhya's Kitchen, you can find the recipe here.

***I baked the kofta for 35-40 minutes, until they become crisp. Isn't this looks so yummy :))

We all enjoyed the nice mughal's feast, vegetable pulav and the yummy malai kofta.

Christmas cookies continues...

2010-12-22T11:25:00.002+08:00

Here comes another Christmas treat in my cookie series.

Pinwheel Cookies

Zebra cookies

Gifting home baked cookies is the great way to celebrate these holidays. But why settle for one type of cookies when you can easily have many ?

One base
recipe

Some
magic

   Bourbon biscuits
   Choco cookies
   Pinwheel cookies
   Zebra cookies

Doesn't the above equation reminds you the old chemistry class or Maths Theorem class ?
This is the secret formula for my Christmas cookie treats. By keeping the bourbon biscuit recipe as my base recipe I did little variation and did 3 more kind of cookies. Thanks to Nithu's kitchen, the Bourbon biscuit now got two more little sisters, Pinwheel cookies and Zebra cookies.

For both the cookies, I used two coloured cookie dough with single recipe.

Ingredients :

One layer -- the chocolate layer the ingredients same as the choco cookies.
Second layer -- Plain one, except the cocoa powder and instant coffee.

Preparation :
--- Prepare the two separate dough as mentioned in the choco cookies. Don't make the dough more soft. Play with water and make sure all the crumbs are held together and knead the dough.
--- Wrap both the dough separately and refrigerate it for an hour.

*** Click here to find the recipe and the method to prepare the dough

Method - for Pinwheel cookies
--- Preheat the oven to 350 F
--- After an hour, take both the dough out from the fridge, unwrap them.
--- Take either one of the dough, divide the dough into two equal parts. Roll one dough to 3-4 mm thickness on a parchment paper and make approximately 10" x 8 " rectangle.
--- Follow the same procedure for another color dough and make another rectangle.
--- Place rolled white dough on to the chocolate dough, press gently to make an even layer.
--- From one end, start rolling the rectangle dough tightly and form a log. Wrap the log and refrigerate again for an hour.
--- Follow the same step for the rest of the dough.
--- Take the dough and cut 1/4 inch thick slices. Now you can see nice two coloured swirls.
--- Place them on the cookie sheet and bake it for 10 - 12 minutes.
--- Once baked, cool it and put it in air tight container.

I did not roll tightly the first set of dough and also did not refrigerate it. So the dough was little flimsy and I was not able to cut the log properly. This led me to Zebra cookies.

Here comes the method for making these cookies.

--- Since the log was flimsy I was not able to cut the dough log in proper round. So I cut the log to 1/2 inch plus thickness.
--- Then cut the 1/2inch dough vertically, flattened it and formed a round shape. I got uneven color on the flattened uncooked cookie.
--- Made some impression using the fork, sprinkled some raw sugar. Placed on the cookie sheet and baked them at 350 F at 10 - 12 minutes.

These cookies were a big hit, my husband still asks me how I made the patchy effect on the Zebra cookies and the double swirl effect on the Pinwheel cookies.

Christmas choco cookies

2010-12-21T04:23:00.001+08:00

When I think of Deepavali, the first thing strikes my mind is the fresh smell of new clothes, next comes the smoke of crackers and different kind of sweets and savories. When I think of Christmas, it is decorations, Christmas tree, exchanging gifts and baking delicious cookies and cakes. It is just 4 days to Christmas and I like to drive through to see the light decorations in the night. It is very nice to see the houses, malls and the streets decorated with hundreds and thousands of lights.

My holiday celebration started from the Thanksgiving day. Windows are decorated with the cute multi coloured LED lights and a kutti Christmas tree as a center piece of attraction. As a final part of the celebration, here comes the Christmas treat.

Baking cookies and cakes at home is a holiday tradition. Ginger bread, sugar cookies, butter cookies and cookies cut into various shapes related to holiday themes, fruit cakes... So many varieties.

Choco cookies

Infact, these choco cookies are ' little sister ' of the Bourbon biscuits, which I tried from Nithu's Kitchen. I used the same recipe, instead of filling the cream in between the two biscuits I used it to decorate on top of each cookie.

Ingredients :

1 cup -- All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup -- Butter
1/2 cup -- Sugar
1/2 tsp -- Instant Coffee Powder**
1/2 tsp -- Baking Soda
1/2 tsp -- Baking Powder
2 tbs -- Cocoa
1/2 tsp -- Vanilla Extract
4 - 5 tbs -- Milk
** Instant coffee powder is optional. But always try to use instant coffee are freshly brewed coffee when you are using chocolate in any recipe. This will enhance the chocolate flavour more.

Method:
--- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
--- Mix the sugar and butter along with the vanilla extract.
--- Sieve all the dry ingredients (Flour, Coco powder, Baking powder, Baking soda) except the instant coffee.
--- To the dry mixture, add the instant coffee. If using fresh brewed coffee, you can add along with the sugar butter mixture.
--- Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients and mix well. If required add milk half to one tsp at a time to the mixture and form a dough.
--- Take the dough and roll them to 3- 4 mm thickness on a plastic sheet and cut them according to desired shape and bake it at 350 F for about 12-15 minutes.
--- Once the cookies are out, cool them completely before doing any decoration on it.

This is a very simple cookie. To have a celebration touch I decorated these cookies with the store bought Icing tube, resembling the snow effects.

Homemade frozen roti

2010-12-08T09:22:00.001+08:00

Are you a kind of person, who does preparatory works on weekends and do a little work on weekdays, specially when it comes for food?

My Chita Mami used to do lot like this when I was staying with her in Chennai. She will cut all the vegetables required for the week, prepare Idli / Dosa batter ready, sometimes she also make Milagu kuzhambu, puli kachal, tomato thokku for Monday's lunch. This preparatory work always make our work easy. She is very smart and fast and in 1.30 hrs she will make sambar / Rasam, curry, sadam for lunch, breakfast. Also pack 3 set of lunch boxes, get ready herself. Everything used to be very easy and fast because of the already cut veggies.

Frozen roti is one such thing.

Though I am not lazy to cook and have plenty of time, I still have the frozen roti in stock for those emergencies. This will be very handy whenever we come home late and are either too bored or tired to cook. I used to buy my supply of frozen rotis from the grocery store. While it was cheap and convenient, it felt a bit 'heavy' and I could never eat more than 2 rotis in a meal. I then realised why shouldn't I try the same at home.

Ingredients :
Roti dough - prepare as per your taste
12" x 12" size Cut Polythene sheets
Some oil

Method :
--- Make the roti dough and press the rotis as usual.
--- Take a polythene sheet, oil it on a side. Place the roti on oil side.
--- Brush some oil on the other side and place ne more polythene sheet.
--- The pressed dough should be sandwiched between the sheets.
--- Make as many roti as you want and repeat the same procedure.
--- Put all the sandwiched rotis in a ziplock bag and throw it in the freezer.

This will stay upto 2 months, I tried many times.

Whenever you want to cook, these rotis are no need to be thawed. Just take it from the freezer remove the sheet and put them on hot pan and cook it. If you keep it out then it will stick on to the sheet.

Coconut Macaroons

2010-12-07T00:33:00.001+08:00

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. I made couple of dishes and gave a sweet surprise to him.
Banana cake with Fondant Icing topping and Coconut Macaroons

I wanted to serve this lovely white macaroons with a nice cup of coffee on birthday morning. But I ended up doing that the day before his birthday. You want to know why? It was a lovely cold white Saturday morning. It was snowing outside, first snow fall of the year. The white crisp snow very much reminded me the white fluffy flaky coconut macaroons. How can anyone control the temptations ?

I found this lovely recipe in a magazine that I was reading at the library. I frequent the food and health related magazine section in the library and always have a piece of paper handy in case I come across an interesting recipe. This one came that way. But this recipe is special to me. This had a nice story behind it.

A 10 year old girl, name Sabrina Shefer doing 5th Grade from Minooka, Illinois bakes these Coconut macaroons for a cause. She bakes these lovely macaroons and other cookies the earlier day and goes to farmer markets early morning along with her brother and sell them. And all the money they earn goes to the charity. How sweet...

What a fool am I, forgot to note the magazine name and the charity organisation that she works for. But clearly taken the recipe of hers :(

Ingredients :

2 1/2 cup -- Unsweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup -- All purpose flour
2/3 cup -- Condensed Milk
1 tsp -- Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp -- Baking powder
1/8tsp -- Salt
1/2 cup -- Nuts (optional)

Method :
--- Preheat the oven to 350 F
--- Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and condensed milk, Vanilla extract thoroughly without any lumps
--- To the mixture add the shredded coconuts, nuts and mix well. Make sure all the coconut are well coated with the flour mix.
--- The mixture will be more sticky.
--- Just take a small heap of coconut mixture and place it on the greased cookie sheet. Don't make any balls out of it.
--- If using ice cream scooper, it will be well and good. If you trust your hands, better grease a little with butter and do it, so that it will not stick to your fingers.
--- Bake the macaroons at 350 F for about 15 to 20 minutes, until you see golden brown color on the edges.

--- Don't bake it for too long, the coconut will start to burn at the bottom, check for the golden brown colour carefully.

My husband was so happy and truly surprised. Both enjoyed the chill morning with the coconut macaroons and hot coffee

UPDATE 20-Dec-10
Oops, I forgot to mention about adding vanilla extract earlier. Have corrected it now.
Thanks to 'Anonymus' for pointing it out.

Bourbon biscuits

2010-12-03T13:16:00.001+08:00

A glass of warm milk and plate of freshly baked Bourbon biscuits, Oh its great !
Bourbon biscuit is one of our favorite biscuits from the childhood. We all grew up eating this biscuit. Hope everybody agree with me. Even last week we bought two pack from an Indian Grocery and finished it on our way back from the shop. FYI, the distance from the shop to our home is only 2 miles. We can't stop eating after having one. I like the large crystal sugar on top of the biscuit.

I used to wonder how they make this biscuits. Even in my dreams I never thought of baking one by myself.
But I did it, I baked my all time favorite Bourbon yesterday.
Thanks to Nithu, she commented in couple of my earlier posts. When I visited her space the first post I saw in 'Nithus's Kitchen' was Bourbon biscuit. Can't believe by myself, can we do these biscuits at home? If yes, then why shouldn't I try at once ?

Whenever I am trying a new recipe, always I will call my husband and tell him . About this Bourbon, I didn't give him any clue. Wanted to surprise him. Quickly went to the kitchen, took all the ingredients and started working on the biscuits. Since its our favorite one, I doubled all the measures.
Did a couple of changes from the original recipe.
**Instead of granulated sugar, I used Brown sugar.
** And I used 1/4 cup Vegetable oil and 1/4 cup butter. This is because I had only one butter stick, I needed 1/4 for cream, so...
Rest all I followed the same from the original recipe For the recipe, click here

The biscuits turned out perfect. Indeed my husband was little shocked on seeing this. He was so happy and announced that from now on he is going to stop buying outside. How is it !

Healthy quick snack

2010-12-01T13:17:00.001+08:00

First flurries of this season drizzling outside and I am feeling chilly and cold inside. Wanted to munch something hot to warm up myself from the cold. The first thing came to mind are Pakodas.

Sometimes if it is raining, my mom will make crunchy hot fried items like Pakodas, Bhajjis and Vathal. We all sit and enjoy eating under soft glow of candle light, this is because of the Power cut in India. As you all know if its electricity department see a lightning or a thunder they will switch off the power. Oh God, when this is going to change in India?

Now coming to my story, I wanted to eat hot crunchy pakodas at the same time I wanted it to be healthy. This again because of the spark from the sudden flash on Sunday. Didn't you read that yet, click here to know more about it.

I baked the pakodas, which I tried from Trendy Relish. To make little more healthier I added some vegetables in it. The recipe is very simple and easy. Hardly I spent 10 minutes to prepare and 20 to 25 min for baking.

Ingredients :

1cup -- Chickpea/Besan Flour
3 tbsp -- Rice Flour
I no -- Medium size onion
1 cup -- cut vegetables**
2 no -- Green chillies
Salt as per taste
Oil

** I used some green and orange bell peppers, Cabbage.
I stopped using baking powder for this, as this is baking well for me. But in the actual recipe they used 3/4tsp of baking powder. So the choice is yours.

Method :
--- Preheat the oven to 400 F
--- Mix the dry ingredients well.
--- Add cut vegetables, green chillies and onions to the dry mixture .
--- To the mixture add 2 tsp of oil.
Oil will give some crisp effect to the pakodas. You can very will omit this.
--- Add water little by little to the mixture, until everything binds well. If its little watery no problem, add some more flour and adjust.
--- Line the cookie sheet with Parchment paper, otherwise the batter will stick into it. I spoiled one cookie sheet like this. Experience talk :))
--- On the sheet, take the batter in small portions and arrange them. No need to give more space in between each uncooked pakodas, since its not going to expand like cookies. But make sure they are not touching each other,
--- Using pastry brush, brush some oil on the uncooked pakodas. This is get a nice golden brown color on the pakodas
--- Bake it in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes. After 10 minutes, take the sheet out and turn the pakodas and brush some oil and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes.
--- After 15 minutes healthy crunchy snack is ready to serve.

This is one of the best way to make kids to eat vegetables.

Whole Wheat Pizza

2010-12-01T01:43:00.001+08:00

Did anyone say NO to pizza ? That too if it is made of cent percent healthy stuffs.

Last Sunday, I took the kitchen cleaning job. Though I live in America, still my litchen is very Indian. Like our mom does in her kitchen, I changed all the kitchen cabinet papers and put them a new one. When I was doing so, I came across an article from a health magazine, which I was using to put inside the cabinets.
'7 Steps to eat clean and healthy food in the dirty world'

Be a (Mostly) Vegetarian
Eat Organic
Skip the White stuff
Count the ingredients
Identify it
Eat the whole thing
Ban the brew

Suddenly, a light flashed inside me. Being a vegetarian, at least I should follow some simple steps to stay healthy. This Whole wheat pizza is the one spark from that flash.
This is 100% whole wheat pizza with lots of green vegetables and cheese. In my dictionary, Pizza means cheese and cheese means Pizza. Everybody might think that this girl has put this much cheese on her pizza and still calling healthy. Oh yes, the main highlight in this Pizza is the cheese. Its a gluten free, cholesterol free with 0g trans fat. I found this amazing cheese alternative from 'Whole Foods' organic shop.

You can find lot different flavoured cheese alternative in this brand. I am a big fan of this. These cheese alternatives are best substitute for the fatty cheese.
Twice I bought whole wheat pizza crust, wanted to try the same at home and the result was very encouraging. I would like to share the recipe, so you all can also enjoy a healthy comfort cheese pizza.

Ingredients :

For Pizza Base:
3 & 3/4 cup -- Whole wheat flour
1 pack -- Dry yeast
2 tsp -- Olive oil
1/2 tsp -- honey / sugar
1 tsp -- Salt

For Topping
2 to 3 cups -- Rice shreds cheese alternative**
1/2 cup -- finely chopped green and yellow bell pepper**
1/2 cup -- finely chopped onion**
1/2 cup -- sliced tomatoes**
1/4 cup -- Organic tomato basil sauce**
**Above are the things which I used, you can always change or add your style of toppings.

Method:
--- For pizza base, take a cup of Luke warm water to activate the dry yeast. The water should be neither hot or cold. I do not have any food thermometer at home. To activate the yeast I take half a cup of water. Put it on the stove for about 30 - 40 seconds and switch off the heat and add remaining half cup water. This is my small trick to activate the yeast. If it works to you, share it with me.
--- In the warm water add the full pack of yeast and honey / sugar. Let this mixture stand for 5 minutes.
Warm water is to activate the yeast and Sugar/ Honey is the food for the yeast.
--- Now you can see a thick layer of foam over the water, if not probably the yeast is not activated. Better luck next time, you have to try again with fresh pack.
--- When the yeast is ready to use, mix it with the wheat flour + salt. Add water in little, as you start kneading the dough.
--- Once the dough is ready, apply the oil over the dough and cover it with a damp towel for couple of hours.
--- This is the time span yeast will take to grow. After an hour you can see the whole dough has doubled in size.
--- Knead the dough and again keep it for an hour.
--- Pizza dough is ready to roll. Cut the whole dough into four quarters.
You can make a 9" pizza from a quarter, if you are not going to use all, take unused dough apply olive oil and put it in a zip log bag and throw it inside the freezer, it will last for minimum 2 month.
--- Roll the dough to 1/4" thick, add the toppings and bake it in the oven for 425 F for 12 to 15 minutes.
Yummy, cheesy, healthy pizza will come out of the hot oven.

Now tell me, did anyone say NO to this organic healthy pizza ?

French fruit cake

2010-11-25T04:01:00.001+08:00

Baked this cake last Sunday, for a birthday party.

Wanted to surprise all with a different cake than my usual one. I was planning a cake with lots of decoration using the fondant icing. Since I did not have enough knowledge about it, was little afraid to take a risk on a birthday cake. When I was talking about this with my husband, he suggested me to use some fresh fruits in the cake, because he likes my Pineapple upside down cake a lot. This kindled some idea and planned to decorate the cake with colorful fresh fruits.

Birthday means colorful, fun and joy. So I did colorful cake. Double layer Chocolate cake, white color frosting cream, and fresh fruits on top, sliced almonds with skins on sides.

Ingredients :

For Cake recipe
2 1/2 cup -- All purpose flour
1/2 cup -- Cocoa powder
1 tin -- Condensed Milk
1 cup -- Butter
3/4 cup -- milk
2 tsp -- Vanilla essence
2 tsp -- Baking powder
1 tsp -- Baking soda
1 cup -- Chopped nuts and Raisins
7-8 -- Sliced Pineapple rings**

For Decoration
2 box store bought whipping cream
Fresh strawberries halved**
canned Orange**
Sliced skinned almonds

Method:
--- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F, and grease the 2 nos of 8"pan. If you are having only one, not to worry grease one pan and keep it ready. Once a cake is baked we can bake other in the same.
--- Melt the butter and cool it. Add milk, condensed milk and mix thoroughly.
--- Shift all the dry ingredients. APF, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder.
--- Add the dry ingredients in batches to the wet ingredients along with Vanilla essence.
--- Mix well and make sure there are no lumps. Now add the nuts and raisins to the cake batter and fold the batter from the center to mix the dried nuts and fruits.
--- **I wanted a layer of pineapple in between the cakes, so in one pan I arranged the pineapples rings on the bottom.
--- Pour the cake batter in both the pans. Eyeball measuring half quantity in each pan.
--- Bake the cake in 350 F for 35 - 40 minutes. If using two pans, keep changing the pan in the racks in equal time interval for even baking. If using one pan, bake a cake first, cool completely then take the cake out. Wash the pan, grease it and follow the same procedure.

--- Once both the cake are done, cool the cake completely.
--- Mix the whipping cream with a dry spatula and keep it ready.
--- With a knife cut the top bulged portion of the cake. Apply a little cream in the center of the plate or board in which you are going to mound the cakes. This is to avoid the movement of cake on the board or plate.
--- I kept the pine apple cake as a down layer. If you are doing without that, keep any of the cake. Upside cut portion to be kept down. Now apply the cream on the top.
--- Take another cake and place it on the cake with the frosting, make sure you are keeping the cut side down. Again like upside down.
--- Using a clean big spatula, apply generously the icing cream on the sides and then gradually move to the top. If you feel the icing is little too jelly to handle the icing on the cake. Keep the cake into the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes and then work again.
--- If you see some dents and marks on the icing, no problem. We are going to apply a nice nutty layer on the sides which will cover everything.
--- Take handful of sliced almonds and pat it down on the sides.
--- On top of the cake, according to your desire decorate with strawberries and oranges.
--- You can use any fruits and decorate. No STOP sign for your imagination

Pocket Sandwich

2010-11-17T09:48:00.002+08:00

I wanted a day off from cooking and cleaning, so my Husband promised me to take out for lunch one day. So last weekend, we planned to go out for lunch. From the time we woke up, we both were sitting and watching movie. My kutti friend, Kirthana also joined us, but we both enjoyed some music in Youtube.
Since the movie was very interesting, we both canceled the lunch and decided to go for dinner. But it was drizzling and was very windy and chilly that we lost all will to make the 20 mile drive to our nearest restaurant.

So we dropped that plan totally. Since I was not in a mood to cook, we bought some ready to eat Indian food. I picked a new dish called Babu's Pocket Sandwich from the frozen section. It was very good and different. I wanted to try the same in my kitchen and the result, taddan... Pocket sandwich

It is a stuffed roti at heart, but more sandwich-y in thickness. Don't want to confuse you people a lot. Straight away I am going to the recipe.

Ingredients :
For Roti, you all know.
-- Wheat flour
-- Salt
-- Water
**I had a bunch of fresh methi, so I added the same. Also added wheat bran.

For stuffing, your choice. Below is what I made today.
-- 2 boiled Potatoes
-- 3 boiled Carrots
-- 1/2 Bell pepper
-- 1 medium size onion
-- Small tomato
-- 3 tsp Tomato Puree
-- some Raisins
-- 1 tsp Garam Masala
-- 2 tsp Oil
-- Salt and chili powder according to taste.
-- 1 tsp butter

Method:
-- First make the stuffing part ready.
-- Heat the oil in pan and saute the onions, once it is soft add bell pepper and tomatoes.
-- Don't add any water, just close the pan and cook. Once it is soft add the boiled carrot and potatoes, tomato puree, raisins along with the chili powder and salt.
-- Mash all the vegetables and cook for 5 minutes.
-- Before turning off the heat, add Garam masala powder, butter and mix it thoroughly.
-- Your stuffing is ready now. Let it cool completely. So that you can work easily later while stuffing.
-- As usual make the roti flour and roll it thin.
-- Brush some oil over one side.
-- Take 3-4 tbsp of the prepared stuffing and place it in the middle of the oiled side. Make it like a little rectangular block in the middle.
-- First close the small side in both direction and crimp the edge and then close the other two lengthy side in the middle. Take the water in your finger and apply as glue at the edges to make it adhere.
-- Uncooked sandwich is ready.
-- Heat a non stick pan and grease it with oil. Place the sandwich and cook.
-- Cook for 3 - 4 minutes in medium heat and flip the other side carefully and cook for another 2 minutes.
-- You can see the sandwich will be in golden brown color.

Pocket sandwich is ready to serve. Since we stuffed all good things inside the roti, we no need to go for a separate side dish. Simple tomato sauce will go great with this.

This is an easy recipe for a good lunch, evening snacks and for a dinner. You can use your own imagination for inside stuffing and enjoy this pocket sandwich. In my opinion, this will be great time saver for parties and get-togethers. You can prepare the uncooked sandwich ahead of time and refrigerate it. You can cook it just before the party and serve hot and tasty.

Moroccan spaghetti

2010-11-10T12:09:00.001+08:00

'Who does not love Pasta ?' Oh, no I am not asking the question to you, this is asked by DK in Chef in You, under her recipe Moroccan Spaghetti . The answer is Me. Once upon a time I was not a big fan of Pastas, but now it is directly opposite. All credits goes to DK.

I love to browse foodie sites a lot, one day when I was doing so I came across this wonderful colorful recipe. Specially the photo was eye catching. So I read the whole recipe and found it was very simple, hence decided to give it a try. The very next day went for shopping and searched for Spaghetti's in the Pasta section. Since it was first time me and my husband looked almost all the brand in the aisle and took a whole grain pasta pack. It was a funny nice experience. I even posted a blog about this, If you would like to read about that, click on Fun and Dreams blog.

Let me cut short the story and come directly to the recipe.

Multi grain / Whole wheat Spaghetti -- Approximately 1/2 lb or less

Cherry Tomatoes -- 1 cup

Onion -- 1 medium Size

Chick Peas -- 1 cup cooked

Cut Vegetables (carrot, Potato, Bell pepper) -- 1 cup**

Tomato Paste -- 2 tsp

Ginger Garlic Paste -- 1 tsp

Olive oil -- 1/4 cup
Chili Powder -- 2 tsp
Salt -- as per taste

Cilantro -- few bunch

Saffron -- a pinch

** I used a cup of vegetables, not used in the original recipe.

Method

-- Cook the spaghetti as per the instruction given on the pack

-- Until that cooks, in a pan saute the onions till it become soft. Then add the garlic and cook for a minute. This is to avoid the burning of Garlic.

Here is a quick tip. In case if you don't like garlic, you can put the whole garlic and cook for some minutes and you can take it out from the pan. before adding other ingredients.

-- If using vegetables, add them now and cook it until the veggies become tender or else you can even add the cooked veggies. If you are not using, skip this step and jump to next step.

-- Cut the cherry tomatoes into halves and add them to the pan along with the chili powder, salt and tomato paste.

-- Mix the saffron in little water and add the water to the paste. This is the one of a key ingredient which gives nice texture and aroma to the recipe.

-- Cook the above mixture for 5-8 minutes and add the cooked chick peas and cook for few minutes.

-- Now add the cooked spaghetti to the veggie pot and mix well.

-- That's it colorful Moroccan Spaghetti ready.

-- When serving add the cilantro and garnish them.

Isn't that dish so easy.

I am sending this recipe to Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes for the event 'Tried and Tasted - Chef In You'

Bournvita Milk cake

2010-11-04T01:59:00.001+08:00

Here comes another sweet treat for Deepavali...

Its again my Mom's recipe, in which I made a small twist to make it little more delicious. She will make yummy cake for Deepavali. Most of the time, she call me or my sister to help in this, as this cake gives a good exercise to our hands and shoulders.

I enjoyed making this cake today, because I did a lot of workout after a very long time. Hard work always pays off. The amount of work you put in making this dish will yield a fruitful result. Ok, let me straight away come to the recipe now.

Ingredients:
--- 1 cup Maida / All-purpose Flour
--- 3/4 cup Bournvita / Sweetened cocoa / Drinking Chocolate
--- 1/2 tin Condensed Milk

--- 3 cup Sugar

--- 1/2 cup Ghee
--- 1/2 cup Roasted nuts ( I used Cashews)

Preparation:

First Stage --- In a sauce pan add ghee and Maida and fry it for 10 - 15 minutes, until a nice aroma fills the whole kitchen. Exactly it will be like a freshly baked biscuit from a nearby bakery shop. If you want to taste the mixture, don't hesitate go and give it a try, it will taste like biscuits. Don't get too absorbed by aroma, because you might burn the mixture. Once it is done, keep the mixture aside and let it cool.

Second Stage --- Now comes the chocolate part, mix the bournvita and the condensed milk. Its a little messy work. To make it easy, first mix the bournvita in little warm water and make the cocoa batter without any lumps. Now pour this mixture to the condensed milk and mix it. No need to mix thoroughly, anyways we are going to put all these into a giant pot.

Third Stage --- Grease the pan or plate and keep it ready.

Final Stage --- Take a heavy bottom pan. Add sugar and 1/2 cup of water. Make sugar syrup with a single string consistency. Don't keep the burner in high flame, have it in medium flame and cook. Now add the roasted Maida and mix thoroughly. After few seconds add the Bournvita, milk mixture. That’s it all in one pot. Now comes the arm exercise. You have to constantly stir the mixture till it thickens. This is to avoid the mixture sticking to the bottom. Once the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan add the roasted nuts in to it. Turn off the mixture and transfer it to the greased pan.

--- Though the mixture tempts you, please don't attempt to put your fingers in to it. Experience talk, I burnt my finger today.

--- keep aside the tray for cooling, meanwhile when the cake is warm, take a greased knife and cut the cake according to desired shape. Let the cake cool completely before taking from the pan.

Share the joy and happiness along with the bournvita sweet treat...

Coconut Ladoo

2010-11-02T13:11:00.001+08:00

Happy Deepavali to all...

My mom will make delicious sweet for Deepavali. When we were kids, me, my sister and brother all three will sit and help her. We do Somasi, Jeera puri, Ladoo, Mixture, Thattai, Jamuns, Halwa, Badhusha, burfi, the list go on and on...Oh God, I am missing her a lot.

When ever she get Milkmaid, condensed milk me and my sister will cut the wrapper and send them to the given address to get recipe books. Though we will not cook we were so excited to see the recipes. We both sit and enjoy seeing the preparation and the presentation of each and every recipe. We used to dream to make and present such yummy dishes. We still have all the recipe books at home.

One main recipe, which we liked was Coconut Ladoo. Since I didn't have those books now, I found this sweet ladoo recipe from Dhivya Kudua's Easy cooking.
When I saw the recipe, remembered all the days which I spent seeing the ladoos in the 2 D picture.

Its very simple, easy and tasty recipe.All we need is only 2 main ingredients :
--- 1 tin Condensed Milk
--- 31/2 + 1/2 cup grated coconut

Preparation :
--- Take a heavy bottom pan mix the condensed milk and the grated coconuts
--- In a medium flame, cook the above mixture for 5-10 minutes, until the mixture thickens and leaves the sides of the pan.
--- That's it, the ladoos are ready to roll now. Once the mixture is warm, grease your hands with little ghee, roll them into small balls. Then roll the balls in the 1/2 cup coconut to give a nice coating.

More sweets are yet to come... Enjoy !!!

Chocolate Cake Balls

2010-11-01T05:17:00.001+08:00

Happy Halloween.
Isn't the cutie nutty balls are attracting you to grab one ?

Last Thursday, we went out for a 3 day trip to Smoky Mountains with couple of our friends. For any trip, I always take our foodie bag with lots of food which can stay for a couple of days. This time my husband wanted me to make Choco cup cakes for the trip. Since we planned to start in the evening, I spent the whole day in cooking. I had the Choco cakes as a last item in my list, because it will take only 30 - 45 min.

The clock flashed 4.00 and I tuk, tuk grabbed all the ingredients and made the choco cake batter. Turned the oven on to 350 F and poured the batter into the tray and baked it. Once done, took the tray and kept aside for the cakes to cool. The cup cakes were looking exactly the same as I baked last time. Meanwhile I was getting ready and packing all the baggage.

I was so happy and excited to take those cup cakes out from the muffin tray, unfortunately I couldn't :((
Those cup cakes were not coming out of the tray. Think, I forgot to grease and flour the tray in a hurry. Though the cake was fluffy and nice, I was able to take only the top part not the whole cake. Sad story !
Didn't have anytime to think about the cakes, wrapped the tray and placed it in the fridge and went. We were back from the trip on Monday. Wanted to do something out of the cake, which is lying in the fridge for 4 days.

While searching for a recipe to fix, found this Cake balls recipe, for a moment I went ..... speechless. Next second, felt so happy and relived from a great tension.
This is the best recipe when we have cake leftovers. Easy to make and tasty to eat.
Here comes the recipe...

Required Ingredients
--- Left over cake (I had chocolate cake with lots of nuts and choco chip)
--- 1 box Frosting cream (I used store bought Pillsbury, Vanilla cream)
--- 1 pack Mini Chocolate chip ( I used Semi sweet)
--- Nuts (optional)

Steps

--- Scratch the cakes into very small pieces.

--- According to the cake quantity, add the frosting cream and mix thoroughly.

--- Make small balls.

--- Line all the cake balls in the cookie sheet and refrigerate it for 3-4 hours
--- Once the cake balls are harden enough, Melt the chocolate chips and dip the above cake balls.
--- Again refrigerate all the balls.
--- You can serve these balls with chocolate coating or else you can roll them over the nuts and also form a nutty layer on top.
--- Either way the balls will be delicious to eat.

Sending this chocolate treat to Madhuri Kumar's, Cook-Curry Nook for her 1st Anniversary celebration.

Easy Choco cup cakes

2010-10-26T09:10:00.001+08:00

I did this cutie cup cakes a month ago along with my cute kutti friend.

Her name is Kirthana, 2 yrs old, my best friend in our neighborhood. She is very naughty, but very sweet. We both watch, sometimes even dance for rhymes and Tamil songs. As of now, songs from film Boss enkira Baskaran and Enthiran tops her favorite list. But her all time favorite is Aayarpadi Mailigayil song.

I will not go to my kitchen when she is around with me, first of all she wants our full attention and my laptop. Next reason as you all know, working in oven with a naughty little is very difficult. Hats off to all Moms !
Of course I baked this easy choco cup cakes when her mom was with us, she is equally sweet. Like mom, like daughter. She is another person who always appreciate my cooking and blogging.

One day when we both were talking, I was telling how easy to bake a cake and what are the essential things we need to bake a simple and tasty cake. Also about the variations we can do having one base recipe. While talking, I just grabbed all the available ingredients from the pantry and started working on this cakes.

Now comes the cake story...This cake again I bookmarked long ago from Cook curry-nook by Madhuri Kumar. But I did little substitution and variation and baked in conventional oven.

Ingredients:

In Madhuri's cake, she used Flax seed 4 tsp substituting 4 eggs. I didn't use any, instead I used 1/2 cup of Milk powder + 1/2 cup of milk.
Also for a little extra taste I added 1/5Th cup of strong brew coffee.
For decoration I used 1/4 cup chocolate mini chips and toasted almonds.
Rest all the ingredients same. You can find the actual ingredients and the recipe here.

Instead of baking in 8inch pan, I poured the cake batter in muffin tray. On top of it I sprinkled the mini chocolate chips and some toasted Almonds. After 20 min , sweet choco cup cakes are ready.

Tomato & Onion - Made for each other

2010-10-17T06:29:00.002+08:00

Tomato and Onions are made for each other, especially when it comes for Thokku or Chutney.

This is my mom speciality thokku. Whenever we go for any tour for 2-3 days, my mom will make this thokku a day earlier for the trip. This will stay upto 4-5 days without needing refrigeration*.
*Condition - we should use a dry, clean spoon and seal it in airtight container.

As I said in earlier post, Sambar is the best combination for all South Indian dishes, but it has to be served hot and fresh. Thokku doesnot need any special VIP treatment and whats more the taste actually gets richer after a day. This is one of the best dish that we can rely on during a long road trip. Like Sambar, this is also go well with all dishes. Idli, Dosa, Roti, Bread, Rice, Puri, Pongal, vadai. Anything you name, this will be the best.

Ingredients :

All the measurements depend on individual taste.

-- 4 Roma tomatos
-- 3 medium size Onion
-- 4+ Tbsp Chilli powder (+ According to taste)
-- Salt according to taste
-- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
--1 tsp each Mustard, Channa Dal, Urad Dal
-- 1 tsp Fenugreek

Procedure :
--- Cut Tomato and Onion into small dice.
--- In a heavy bottom pan heat oil and add Mustard seeds.
--- After the mustard cracks add Channa and Urad dal along with fenugreek.
--- Once dal turns the color add Tomato and onion.
--- Saute the mixture for 5 minutes, then add the chili powder and salt as per the taste.
--- Cook the mixture until the whole mixture becomes half and less. Now both Tomato and Onion will loose their identity and become one.
--- Turn off the thokku when the oil oozes out from the mixture.
--- Time taken approximately 30 - 45 minutes.

For better result, cook the thokku with little extra chilli powder and oil, because after a day the thokku will absorbs the chilli. And the extra oil will extends its life span.

As a tradition, I started doing this thokku for all our trip. When we ever we plan for a trip, first thing comes to my mind is Thakkali thokku and Chappathi. You can read about my foodie bag here.

Story of Sambar

2010-10-12T08:22:00.001+08:00

A magical word, whenever we read or hear the word Sambar, we feel hungry. It is also a magical dish goes well with all. The best combination for all South Indian dishes Idli, Dosa, Pongal, Upma and mainly with rice.

Sambar is everyone's favorite. When I was working, a German lady worked with us. She liked sambar a lot. She used to order food from Vasantha Bhavan quite often and drink only the sambar with appalam being the side dish. Not only her, a lot of my friends from North India go crazy when they see sambar.
When my in-laws were here, sambar used to figure in our menu atleast twice a week. Every time I do it was not the same. They liked my sambar a lot. When my mom met them last week, they especially praised my sambar, how nice is that !

Here comes the 'Story of Sambar'. Dedicating this post to my husband, because he sent this link a month ago and nagging me daily to publish it. I was waiting for a perfect Sambar photo and at last I did it yesterday. Dosen't my plate looks colourful !

I read the same story in a couple of other sites in the net, but I am not sure how authentic this story is.Sambar was a 18th Century dish which accidentally originated in Tanjore, when Marathas were ruling. The King Sambhoji was a great cook in the palace and he always cooked amti made of special Kokum. Click here to know more details about Kokum.

In a particular season Kokum were imported from Maharastra to Tanjore for cooking. Once kokum didnot reach on time to the palace, that time one of his sous chef suggested about Tamarind to the king and asked King to do some experiment with tamarind pulp. Sambhoji tried a dish with Toordal, vegetables and tamarind pulp. King served this recipe in his coterie and they all liked this recipe. Also named it as 'Sambhoji's amti'. Later the name turned as 'Sambar'. What a happy ending :))

Will post some more history soon... Bye

From America with Love, Contd...

2010-10-09T08:10:00.001+08:00

Last comes, the Almond cookies.
This is the third cookie which I sent to India, a special treat to my family. For the other two cookie recipe, check my earlier post here .

Since I did one cookie with lots of nuts and rich in taste and another with chocolate chip, wanted my third cookie to be mild and rich in taste. So went for Almond cookie using almond paste.
When I searched for the recipe, I ended up recipes using only the Almond paste without flour, If I would have followed it, I might have left with a dozen cookies. So I made my own recipe and the result was perfect.

Ingredients:
1 can / 8oz - Almond Paste, 1 Cup - All Purpose Flour, 1/2 cup / 1 Stick - Butter, 3/4 cup - Sugar, 1 tsp - Baking powder, 1 tsp - Baking Soda, Few roasted Almonds (optional), A pinch of salt.

Method :

-- Pre-heat the oven to 350 0F
-- Melt the butter and cool it. To the melted butter add Sugar,salt and almond paste and mix well.
-- Sieve the Flour along with baking soda and baking power.
-- Mix the dry and wet ingredients and knead gently, till all the flour mixed together. The dough will look similar to Chapathi dough.
-- If you are using Almond, coarsely powder the almonds and add in the mixture.
-- Using rolling pin, flatten the dough to 1/2 an inch thick.
-- Cut the dough according to the desire shape and bake it.
-- Baking time 10 - 15 minutes.

I used approximately 2" dia cap and cut the cookie dough, so got around 25-30 Almond cookies.

P.S
The almond paste has some sweetness in it, according to your taste please vary the sugar level and enjoy the almond cookies with a cup of hot coffee.

From America with Love

2010-10-07T12:09:00.001+08:00

Few weeks ago, one weekend I did 3 different types of cookies. Those were very special cookies which travelled India. One whole day I spent with APF, Oats, sugar, baking powder, variety of nuts and hot oven, continuously my oven was at 350 0F from the morning till 5.00 in the evening.
No more build ups, will tell you the story behind it.

After confirming the return tickets of my in-laws, we all went for shopping and bought different kinds of chocolates, nuts and other things for give away purpose. But I was not satisfied with the store bought stuffs. Wanted to send something special to them and to my parents. I decided to send some cookies along with them. Since the cookies are going for two big families, I wanted to give more, atleast 3 dozen each. So I did 3 different cookies.

First comes, Lace cookies. A perfect name for the cookies and an high five to the person who named it! It looked like a brown coloured lace in the cookie sheet when I took it from the oven. It was very rich in taste and look. I tried this from Maduram's Eggless Cooking and did small variations from the original recipe.

I did not have Rosewater and sufficient quantity of Pistachios, so I used a tsp of Vanilla extract and added 1/2 cup of walnuts to the Pistachios that I had. After mixing all the mentioned ingredients my dough was not in Idli/ Dosa batter consistency as specified by Madhuram. It was more like regular cookie dough. I was little concerned. Experimented initially by doing very small balls and baked 4-5 cookies. The end product was amazing. The dough spread out evenly and baked well.

I followed the same measures of ingredients, but ended with more than 50 cookies. The size of the lace cookies were more or less like our regular cookies, correctly say palm size, :)) Happily sent more cookies to India

Next comes, Chocolate chip cookies.
Once in two weeks, I do Coconut Raisin Oats cookies. One day I ran out of my speciality cookies and we had to buy Chip Ahoy chocolate chip cookies. My Mother in-law liked the chocolate chip in the cookies. Ha,ha,ha... Who doesn't like chocolate? She asked me whether I can do the same cookies at home. I was so happy and explained the making of chocolate chip cookies and the variations we can do in baking cookies. Also mentioned the various type of chocolate chips available in market. Next week I did Chocolate chip cookies. She was so happy.

So my second choice to give away was Chocolate chip cookie. Recipe for this, same as Coconut Raisin Oats cookies, instead of Shredded coconut and Raisin I used a cup of Mini semi sweet chocolate chip.
In a hurry, I forgot to take the photo of cookies. If I do next time, sure I will post the same.

Third recipe, my own recipe... Coming up in my next post.

Power of Turmeric

2010-09-30T13:17:00.001+08:00

Turmeric, Vermillon, Haldi, Manjal in Tamil, Pasupu in Telugu -- Many names with many faces.

This post is all about Turmeric. I am going to share my good old memories with Turmeric, with some facts.

Last week, when we were shopping in a Homeopathic shop for my Mother in-law, we found this Nutrition magazine. This magazine is all about Natural ingredients and its medicinal value. While we are glancing the book, we came across an article about Turmeric. Later that day, me and my Mother in-law had a very good discussions about the turmeric.

Do you know a fact, it is called as South Indian Saffron. Erode in Tamil Nadu is the world's largest producer of Turmeric.

Turmeric - we use in our daily life in wide variety of way.
Cooking, always comes first in every bodies mind. We always add few pinch in our daily cooking.
Next comes our rituals. Vermillon plays a vital role in our Hindu Religion.
In early days when we were kids, my mom ask us to write the monthly grocery list and always first thing we write is 'மஞ்சள்' (Manjal). We can see in all houses that people will apply Turmeric in the main door to welcome, the Goddess, Lakshmi. Turmeric is equally treated as a most sacred ingredient . In all Poojas, Wedding or any function its important we have Turmeric.

Another form of turmeric, where we come often is cosmetics. It is mainly used in soaps, face creams, etc. High five to 'Vicco turmeric' girls, I also one among those. When me and my sister were kids, all Fridays we apply Turmeric + coconut oil all over our skin. My mom always say that it will heal all the skin diseases and gives shine to our skin. Later days, we stopped doing that, its a different story :)) Ha, ha, ha...

These are the forms which we know mainly about Turmeric. But the main form of turmeric is as a Medicine. It is an anti bacterial agent. It got a healing power to heal almost all major disease. Digestive problems, Liver disease, Arthritis, Brain and Mood benefits, Cancer, specially Breast cancer.
'Curcumin' is an antioxidant found in turmeric. This is main ingredient in all the medicine which helps to cure the above diseases.
To know more about turmeric, pls check in below sites :
-- Turmeric India
-- Pure Skin by Maggie
-- Turmeric for cancer

Every mother will give masala milk - A cup of milk with a pinch of pepper and a pinch of Haldi powder, when we cough badly. We will feel a nice soothing effect after drinking the warm milk.

Last but not least it is used as colouring agent, Natural dye. Hey, its my subject, I can't leave this :))

Moral of the story -- Prevention is better than cure.

Why to gulp medicines when we have immediate solution in our hand. Include turmeric in the food and daily life and get rid of all disease in initial stage.

Pineapple Upside down Cake

2010-09-29T08:15:00.001+08:00

I baked this delicious looking and tasting Pineapple upside down cake yesterday. Doesn't this look pretty !

You all might be wondering where this girl vanished suddenly. She has been cooking and baking so many dishes and giving sweet surprises to her in-laws. What to say friends, my in-laws shortened their stay here and flew back home last Monday :(

I am having so many new informative things and recipes to share with , but since the time they left the home seems so empty and dull without all the constant buzz . Absolutely no cooking for first 3 days and survived with frozen rotis. Slowly I recovered and started seeing my routines in Food network shows. In one of the show I saw a similar cake using corn meal, so wanted try it. Same day I bought cherries and pineapples.

I will always take a month to try a recipe after book marking it , luckily this time I tried Pineapple upside down cake within two days. Found this wonderful recipe from " Cooked Dil Se..." by Siddhi. This is again a recipe where I faced couple of challenges.
First thing in the morning found my oven door broken and thanks to my apartment guys, for fixing it quickly. The original recipe has a stick of butter. Oops, I forgot to buy it. Want to know what I did, tadaan, replaced it with 1/3 cup of vegetable oil. Also added lots of walnuts and Raisin for more taste.

That's it poured my cake batter on top of pineapple and cherries and baked it for 40 minutes in 300 F. Once baked cooled the cake in the pan for some minutes then turned the cake. I can't believe myself, at last I baked pineapple upside down cake... Huh huh can't wait to share with you all...

If you want to give it a try, you can always find the recipe here. Enjoy !!!

Dates Bread

2010-09-03T09:06:00.001+08:00

Another bread in series. I bookmarked this recipe long back and tried this few days before. Wonderful healthy recipe.

I am a chocoholic, used to have a packet of chocolate in the fridge. Some months ago, I replaced them with dates. More concern about my health, wanted to stay healthy, so only... I was eating regularly, after few days I stopped it, since it was too sweet.

Since we didn't eat, the whole 2 lb box was kept untouched. Long long ago, I found this recipe in "Parita's World" and bookmarked it and waited for a loaf pan. Last month, when I was shopping with my in-laws , I was telling the same above story and they bought me the loaf pan.
From that day, it has been raining breads in my kitchen.

Banana Bread

2010-08-24T10:11:00.001+08:00

Bananas are the one and only fruit in my grocery list every week. Never knows how it gets over in my home. Some times my husband will have it for the break fast. I used to eat bananas for breakfast and also as main meal for my Lunch not now...! Those are the days, before my in-laws arrival.

Also I mainly use it for baking, will always use bananas in the place of eggs. So in some form we will have bananas daily.

Last week, we had left with over ripen Bananas. From the day it started to change color from normal yellow to golden yellow, my mother in law was asking us to eat. Me and my husband found the jar of cookies more tempting. After a day, the color of the banana changed more, the black dots over the skin spread all over the banana. Neither I liked to eat it or to throw. So decided to bake cookies using it.

I wasted one more day and the bananas were looking very bad at this point, the skin was totally blackish, but fortunately the fruit inside was unspoilt. I searched for a new dish and found one but I could not try that as the quantity of banans that I had was not sufficient. Planning to make tomorrow, if it turns out well sure I will share with you.

With the above mentioned 2 bananas, I did banana bread, from 'Medhaa's' blog. It was a big surprise to my in-laws and to my husband, because I just went inside the kitchen and came out with a lovely, tasty bread. Didn't gave them any hint about baking.

Recipe here.

Nanaimo Bars

2010-08-15T06:11:00.001+08:00

At last I did it...

Hope you didn't forget my earlier post ' Cocoa burfi' and my experiment with Nanaimo bars. And also I promised that Hit or Flop I will share with you all.

I tried Nanaimo bars yesterday and here is the result. My first two layers were perfect, had a little difficulty in the third layer. Yet it was a big hit.

Nanaimo bars are rich in taste. No simple words can fully describe the taste of it, unless you try one. Nutty bottom layer filled with lots of Walnuts, Coconut, wafers, sweet and cocoa. Middle layer with soft custard Icing and the Top layer with rich chocolaty taste. Want to try this recipe at once, pls click here for the recipe with clear steps and photos from Chef in You.

Thus comes to frutition, one of my long pending chocolate dreams.

Graham crackers cocoa Burfi

2010-08-12T12:48:00.001+08:00

This is another recipe like Chocolate Brownies where I started with one recipe and ended with another. Wanted to include this dish in my earlier post 'Need another attempt' , since this recipe also has a nice story I wanted to post it separately.

Graham crackers coco burfi, I chose this name for the burfi.
I wanted to try 'Nanaimo bars', the three layered chocolate desert from Chef In You. Since I am a chocolate lover, wanted to eat this chocolate, nutty bars. On fine day, I started this. Since this recipe has 3 layer I started with the first layer.

OK, let me give a short break to the story and see some facts about 'Nanaimo Bars'

The Nanaimo bar is a dessert of Canadian origin popular across North America. Made of chocolate no-bake square, it is named after the West-Coast city of Nanaimo, British Columbia.
The bar originated in Ladysmith south of Nanaimo in the early 1950s. Mabel Jenkins, a local housewife from Cowichan Bay, submitted the recipe to the annual Ladysmith and Cowichan Women's Institute Cookbook. The first printing of recipes featuring Nanaimo Bar ingredients is found in the 1952 Women's Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook. They are referred to as the Chocolate Square or the Chocolate Slice. Some say the first use of the name Nanaimo Bar was in an Edith Adams cookbook printed in 1953. (Facts from Wikipedia)

Welcome, after a short break :))

I was nearing the finishing stage of first layer, enjoyed the moment as if I finished making the whole recipe. There started a problem, all the ingredients were still not bound together to form as base layer. Again I went to the site and read all the ingredients and steps. Oops , I over looked a main thing which binds all :((

That main thing is egg !!! Now this is a problem :-(

Gave some work to my brain, took the milkmaid can from my pantry shelf. Without any measure I added half a tin to the base mixture. Now, the whole mixture become little gooey. The whole joy vanished in a moment, one good thing I did was didn't started anything for next two layers. Wanted to make some good sweet out of the mixture.
Tadaan, tadaan, tadaan... Background music.

In a sauce pan I added 2 tsp of milkmaid and 6-7 tsp of cocoa powder mixed well. Turn on the flame very low, after 3-4 minutes added the gooey cocoa, graham crackers, almonds, coconut mixture and mixed well for few more minutes, Until it formed more solid gooey mixture. Transferred that in to the greased pan. After few minutes, cut them and made nice coco burfis.

Dear All, wish me luck, I am going to try Nanaimo bars again next week :))
Hit or flop I will share with you all.

Need another attempt

2010-08-10T14:10:00.001+08:00

In my earlier posts I have been sharing you about my hits in the Kitchen, under 'Tried and Tasted'. This post for a change I am going tell you all about some recipes, which I think need more work.

Stuffed Potato

I just steamed the potatoes for few minutes. Then cut into halves and baked it at 400 F for 10 minutes. Then cut the potatoes in to two halves. Scooped the potatoes leaving a thin layer with the skin. Again bake the potatoes for 20 more minutes. The crust will be crunchy now. Don't throw away the scooped potatoes. Mix the potatoes with cream cheese and season with salt and pepper as per taste. Just for a small crunch I added carrots.
My husband loved it. But still I am not satisfied with what I did. Wanted to try it again. Wish me luck :))

Potato and Dill Biscuit

My husband love potatoes, who doesn't like it ? Answer - My sister :(( She didn't like Potatoes at all. We always call her 'Vichitra Piravi'. Ok, let me come to point. He saw this recipe in Chef in you and asked me to do this. Luckily I had all the ingredients except Dill, I replaced it with jeera. Followed all the steps and baked the biscuits.
For me it looked like roti, taste was OK. The biscuit become so hard next day. Wanted to try this again :))

Photo missing !

Sorry, no picture for this. Accidentally deleted the image from my SD card and I frantically searching for a data recovery tool to recover my images

Fresh Plum bread

2010-08-05T10:33:00.001+08:00

I baked bread last week for the first time. Baking bread has been my desire for long time. As once DK said, even I used to think baking bread is only possible in the bakery and big oven. From what I gathered from many cookery blog I realised that this might be possible even at my home. So I tried a recipe from my favorite site, Chef in you

I tried this recipe using Sour cream instead of Butter milk. Also I topped this bread with lots of walnuts and oats. After an hour the aroma filled the whole house. After waiting for few more minutes, delicately took the bread from the pan.

This is again one more sweet surprise to my in-laws. It tasted little sour, sweet with each bite leaving a rich and delightful taste of plum and nuts. If you like to try this bread, pls click here .

Savory Muffin

2010-08-03T07:00:00.001+08:00

My husband always asks me to try any savory type baking. I will tell some reasons to escape from him and from savory baking. Few days ago, before arrival of my in-laws I bought a packet of Corn meal, searched and found many recipes. In that, I tried the one for which I had all the ingredients ready at home . Tadaan..... It is savory cheese corn muffins.

Its a easy and a wonderful recipe. Main ingredients needed are

2 measures of self raising flour,

1 measure corn meal

More than a cup of cheese.

Milk used as binding agent. As per taste salt and pepper should be added. If we wish we can also add some fresh herbs for the color and taste. Also add 2 tsp of Olive oil.

Mix all the dry ingredients first and then add milk and slowly fold the flour with milk and form a thick batter. Now pour the batter in the muffin plate and bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 15 - 20 minutes until the muffins become golden colour.

I tried this recipe from Priya's Easy and Tasty recipes.

Tried and Tasted - The week that was

2010-07-23T12:38:00.001+08:00

Its exactly a week since my in-laws came here. To showcase my newfound culinary talent I am doing different dishes in the evening. We usually do normal South Indian food for our meal. Since they haven't fully recovered from jet lag ,while they are asleep during the afternoon, I silently sneak into the kitchen and finish up everything before they get up.
So everyday its a sweet surprise for them.

One day I did 'Coconut Raisin Oats Cookies'. Its my husband's all time favorite. My cookie box will never go empty. This cookie is a must item when we go for a long drive. I tried this recipe from the Madhuram's eggless cooking . For our PA trip, I did oats cookies - 4 times of original measure.

Whenever I see any stew recipe in Food network channel I like to try it once without the meat. I was waiting for an opportunity to do a colorful vegetable stew. The time has come to try it. Oh yes, I did last week for dinner. It was so colorful and rich in taste, here and there the stew had the Indian touch.

Aren't these cut vegetables looking cute ? Similarly, my stew looked very colorful. Since I was in over excitement I didn't take the picture of my stew :(

Tuesday morning, I received my new Mandolin Slicer from Amazon. Can't wait to try that, wanted to slice something to know how it works. My husband warned me before leaving to office not to play with that. I wanted to surprise him also. Without making any noise, took some potatoes, did a thin slice and baked it in the oven for 400 Fahrenheit for 20 - 25 mins. That's it my Potato Chips were ready. I tried this baked chips from Divya Vikram's 'Dil Se'... This is again a recipe where I was waiting for a nice slicer to try it.
Unfortunately I didn't click this too, this all because of my husband. He didn't gave the chips bowl to take a snap :))

Yesterday, I did a very new recipe, which I didn't heard before at all. Want to know what ???

Tadaan, Its Mango kesari. When I was looking for a sweet recipe in Mango, I got this Mango kesari recipe from Priya's 'Easy N Tasty' recipes. The original recipe had a pinch of food coloring, but I didn't add any, since the natural colour itself looked nice. Bright warm yellow !!!

I am rocking in my kitchen. Thanks to all food bloggers.

Sweet Surprise

2010-07-16T13:16:00.001+08:00

After the food mela event, I was bit busy in other work, so took a break for a week from my blogs and was doing some cleaning and clearing work to welcome my in-laws. Oh yes, they are here with us now. I am so happy :))

The chocolate cake which I made last week for the Food mela tasted good. It melted like ice cream in the mouth, everybody enjoyed it and appreciated me a lot. End of the day nothing left for us. I decided to do the same to give a sweet surprise to my in-laws when they come home.

Instead of chocolate cake I tried cup cakes. The recipe was exactly the same, instead of baking in 8" pan I baked them in a muffin tray with reduced timing. With the store bought frosting I decorated them.

After a tedious 24 hour journey, as soon as they entered I gave them a good coffee and surprised them with these cupcakes.

Food Mela

2010-07-08T08:42:00.001+08:00

We conducted one more food mela last Thursday. This food mela is a part of a fund raising program for the construction of a free hospital in Coimabatore, India for Women and Child care. The 'Shiva Shantha Mother and Child Health Centre' is run by volunteers who are devotees of Swami Shanthanada Saraswathi. In addition to providing service at the hospital they also frequently conduct rural health camps and vaccination campaigns
This hospital had its humble origin as a single room clinic around 20 yrs ago and now being expanded as a 3 storey building to provide full range of health care services for pregnant women and new born children.

CLINIC - 20 years ago

MODEL OF THE HOSPITAL

HOSPITAL BEING CONSTRUCTED - FEB 2009

As usual I cooked some of our favorite dishes for the food mela dinner
**Start with appetizer - Spinach cheese swirls
**Main course :
-- Adai served with Green chutney
--Sambar Rice with oven roasted Taro root curry
-- Appalam for a crunchy bite
-- Curd rice with Mango pickle
**Dessert - double layer chocolate cake

One of our friend's son was so happy playing with Wii games. And another kutty girl, she was playing with all the soft toys which I had. Everybody enjoyed the food and had a very good time. Also generously contributed for the good cause.
We both are very thankful to all who helped us to keep this work moving.

To know more about this organisation you can visit us here http://shivanjali.in/ . If you would like to give us a hand to help them please contact us.

My Milk story - Milk cake

2010-06-26T11:56:00.001+08:00

As always last week I bought 2 gallons of milk. Normally I finish it off with in 2 weeks.

Daily my hubby has it along with cereals for breakfast, but last couple weeks he is getting up late and almost rushing to office straight from the bathroom. Also I make my own fresh curd every 2 days, this time it also failed me. For the past one year I have been making my own curd as a daily ritual and excepting just a handful of days it use to come beautifully well. Wondering what happened this time, my milk is not turning as curd at all. I tried options like putting a chilly and a very small piece of tamarind in the milk along with the curd but still the curd was not good. Left with no option, I started buying 'Desi curd' from Indian grocery

I had a gallon of milk left in my fridge with yesterday's expiry date. I felt terrible about having to throw it all away. So I started searching Milk sweet recipes. Suddenly I thought of my Auntie who once sent us a milk sweet from Chennai. It was fantastic. Last night, I called her, took the recipe and tried it in a litre of milk.

Milk cake - Easy available ingredients but time taking process. Though its a little painstaking process in the end all your effort will be rewarded.

Ingredients : 5 measures of milk, 3 measures of Sugar and 1 measure of Ghee
Procedure : Mix all the ingredients and boil until the milk mixture becomes one third. Stir it becomes to the Halwa stage.
Time : 3.30 hrs

The aroma of the milk sugar mixture filled my whole room. It took 2 hours to come to a stage of condensed milk.

Nobody can go wrong with this recipe. In different stage we can get different kind of milk sweet.

Stage 1 - After 3 .15 hours the milk will be in a molten lava stage, called 'Theratti pal'. A famous south Indian dish.

Stage 2 - Further boiling will thicken the milk more. Now you can pour it on to a greased tray. Cut in to desired shapes. It will be bit soft like the one below.

Stage 3 - Boil the mixture until it leaves the sides of pan. Then as usual pour it on to the greased tray, cut it and eat it. This will be hard milk cake.

In any of these stages the end result will be a sweet and delicious one. Enjoy the Milk sweet :)

Chocolate brownies

2010-06-24T13:18:00.001+08:00

A month ago, I bought some ingredients for making "Classic chocolate fudge brownies", a bookmarked recipe from 'Chef in you'. Don't know why I waited a long time to give it a try. Last Thursday after watching the serial "Everybody loves Raymond" my temptation towards brownies reached the climax. Immediately went to the kitchen and started doing it.

Before that let me tell you what tempted me to do brownies. Let me tell you in short about the serial, for those who don't know ? Everybody Loves Raymond - A hilarious comedy serial. Raymond is a main character and the whole story goes around him and his family. His wife Debra, daughter Ally and Twins Michale and Jeffery. He resides opposite to his parents house. His father is a Korean war veteran named Frank Barone and mother Marie, House wife. Raymond has a big brother named Robert, NYPD Sergeant. If you like to watch the serial, click here and enjoy it. Its our all time favorite comedy serial.

OK, let me come to the point about last week Episode, Its a Christmas eve, Marie and Debra were in kitchen preparing dinner after exchanging gifts. Marie - consider herself as a master cook, prepares her special Brownies with Walnut. As Raymond enters inside the kitchen, she offers him the spatula to lick it. He takes and starts licking it.
After seeing this, who will not get tempted to eat brownies !

I followed all the procedures and set my oven in baking :))

After cooling the brownies in the pan, I applied a nice thick chocolate frosting on top and kept in the fridge to set completely.

After 30 minutes took the knife and ran through the sides of the pan to make sure the brownies come out easily from the pan. Then I turn upside down and patted on the bottom of the pan. After few seconds top part of the brownies fell off and the bottom still sticking to the pan. I was shocked to see it.
Felt like crying, called my hubby and told him. He convinced me a lot and asked me to try again after some time. The brownies tasted good, I don't want to throw them. An idea flashed my mind, I scratched down all the brownies from the pan, mixed them with the top frosting part . Voila ! made a yummy chocolate walnut balls out of it.

When my husband was back from office, he thought that I lied to him, because those brownie balls tasted delicious. Though I made some mistake the end product was good. Felt more satisfied and happy.

Small fact about brownies - Brownies are introduced in the end of 19th century and got more popularized in US and Canada in the mid of 20th Century only.

Say NO to Deep fry !

2010-06-19T08:03:00.001+08:00

Nowadays all of us are more health (fat) conscious. The moment we think of eating fatty items we immediately think about the health, our intake calories, daily workouts, blah, blah, blah....

I like to eat deep fried snacks like hot spicy pakoras, bajjis, Home made chips etc, occasionally, when I am enjoying the good weather like a rainy day, breezy evening, or bone chilling cold. Before marriage my mom used to make delicious evening snacks . If I talk about fat, high calories to her, she would laugh at me and say that once in a while if you eat nothing will happen. She is my role model in cooking and in eating.

After marriage, I am also little concerned about the health. Not cooking deep fry items. (This because of my hubby). But I was surprised when I come to know about baking instead of deep frying. Thanks to all, whoever did this research and shared your healthy recipe to us.

Some of the items I regularly do at home for nice yummy, spicy crunchy snacks.

Pakodas

When I saw this recipe first, felt as if I got a treasure pot from nowhere. I couldn't believe that we can bake pakodas instead of deep frying.
I tried two different kinds of pakodas - crunchy one and a bit chewy one.

Procedure : For Crunchy type
All the steps are same except frying. Final step, line up on the baking sheet and bake it @ 400 F for about 20 min. I tried this recipe from 'Trendy Relish'.
Procedure : For Chewy type
Add equal measure of Besan flour with Whole wheat flour and little Rice flour. Add onions and Cilantro (optional). Without fail add chilly powder or green chillies and salt as per your taste. Mix it with little more water (Like Roti dough consistency). Baking procedure same as above.
PS: I forgot the site from where I got the recipe from.

Paruppu vadai

A must recipe in all our festive menu.
Procedure : All the steps are same as we do at home except frying. Instead of putting in to the oil, line up on the cookie, sheet brush little oil on batter and bake it @ 400 F for about 15 min on each side. That's it ! the taste is similar to how we deep fry it. This recipe is from Chef in you . Hm...one more information our vadai is called as 'Falafel' here. For more details check here

Baked Nippattu

Nippattu, the name itself is so fascinating, isn't it !!! It is a savory cookie. The main Ingredient is Maida, like other cookies 'Baking powder' is an important ingredient, rest all other ingredients like spices, onions etc. are optional and as per our taste.
It is a Karnataka recipe, I tried from website called ' Red Chillies '. You can see the ingredients and the procedures of this baked Nippattu here .

Say NO to deep fry and enjoy eating healthy food.

Recipes,Tried and Tasted - Muffins

2010-06-11T13:09:00.001+08:00

Apple Raisin Muffins, today's Special in our Menu

Whenever I bake cookies or cakes here, next day I will call home (India) and tell everybody what I did and how it tasted. My sweet manni (Sister-in-law) once asked why I hadn't try Muffins yet.
The very next day I went and got my Muffin tray.

Then I sat down and searched for recipe in 'Google', the first hit was 'Madhuram's Eggless Cooking'. In her recipe I chose Apple raisin mini Muffin. Why I selected this is because, I had many apples at home :)) LOL. Also the procedure was pretty simple.

First time I was baking muffins, read her notes and updates for couple of times and carefully followed all the steps of Madhuram's. This is the first recipe I tried from her site and liked the way she writes; especially her warm and personal tone.

My hard work got answered... The muffins tasted great. The grated apple gave a nice texture and taste to the muffins. For the original recipe pls click here. From then I started doing lot of different muffins.

Recipes, Tried and tasted (tested) - Thattai

2010-06-09T10:25:00.002+08:00

The one nice thing which I am doing now-a-days is cooking. Cooking good and healthy food. If I am bored at home, immediately I will check for new recipe and give it a try instantly, No, i m not joking, that's how I learnt lot about cooking.

Thanks a ton, to all food blogger for sharing wonderful healty recipes.
Here, I am going to post all the recipes which I tried, tasted and tested, of course it is a test for my hubby :)). I m sure he likes it.

Diwali Special : Thattai

This is my very, very special recipe in many aspects... This is the first recipe which I tried from for my first Diwali from a site called "Chef in You" . When I wanted to try this, I had so many silly doubts. Immediately I wrote to DK and got it clarified. Thattai was a big hit in my Diwali bakshanam. It lasted only for a day. My hubby and his friend finished it on a day.
This recipe introduced me to a new blogger friend, DK. To see her recipe, please click here.
Hey, one more thing, after somedays my "Thattai" photo along with the thanking notes got published in the 'Chef in you' site. If you want to see that, you can check it out here

I was so happy, felt like flying in the air.

Its always nice isn't it, when our little work got appreciation !!!

Our long trip and the foodie bag

2010-06-05T07:03:00.000+08:00

We went to Pennsylvania last week .Hey hey...a long drive after 8 months, we enjoyed a lot. We both with 2 of our friends planned this place a month ahead.

The main highlight of the trip is our foodie bag. This bag is successfully coming with us for almost all our trips.
This time we took some foods which will lasts for our three day trip. Poor thing it lasted only for 2 days, because nothing was left for the third day. Do you want to know what I took for our trip :

1.Idlies – 32 nos
2.Chappathis – 50 nos
3.Puli Sadam – 2 big boxes (1 liter capacity each)
4.Thakkali Thokku – You can imagine how much I would have made to fulfill both Idlies and Chappathis
5.Curd – 1 litre
6.Oats + Raisin Cookies – 3 dozen
7.Chocolate Chip cookies – 3 dozen

Everybody enjoyed the food , its unfortunate that we didn't take a proper photos of my food.

One more main highlight was we had the food in so many different places
1.Out side a service plaza with mosquito bites
2.In the middle of a Lancaster, Amish county place besides a stream under a small tree. (It was more romantic)
3.A very funny place inside the car, outside a shop under hot sun.

We all enjoyed the trip a lot with the good home cook food.

If you have any funny experience, pls write to me

Potato Pasta basket

2010-05-26T07:49:00.001+08:00

Last week I tried a whole lot of new recipe.

Its totally a different one... I experimented a little and combined 2 recipes into one.
Some times you have to do experiment with food and others with your new innovations (like what I m doing with my Hubby)

First recipe : baked-macaroni-and-cheese-cupcakes
Second Recipe : Eggs in basket
(To check the both the recipes, click here : First and Second )

When I saw the recipes in Food network show, I liked both. Wanted to something different like these recipes. Did bit research to make it as vegan recipe and after some time, decided to combine both in to one. Since both had meat and eggs in it.

Ok let me tell you what I did in my “ Potato Pasta Basket “.

From the second recipe I took only the potato part. Grated some potato squeezed out all the waters from it. And made the basket in Muffin tray and baked it first.
And then instead of Eggs, I put boiled pasta, cheese, spinach and cherry tomatoes inside my baked potato.
Baked again as Gaida did in her first recipe.

End result, tadaaan …. Lovely colorful cheesy crispy potato basket with pasta with veggies in it.

Try this out and pls do write your comments to me !!!

Milagu Vadai

2010-05-15T11:03:00.001+08:00

Sounds so crunchy and Yummy, no ?

I made this yummy, crunchy, peppery, bitterly tasted Milagu Vadai / Peppercorn fritters yesterday.

I had been busy for the past few days. I Wanted to add some colors to my home and was doing some handcrafts at home with paints, papers and tissues. To know what I did, please check here
Since I completed some of my tasks, I wanted a break. And moreover the weather was absolutely perfect. Day before yesterday, it was raining the whole night and the next day, it was neither sunny nor chilly. It was warm and more crisp. Full cloudy and the wind was blowing nicely. Who doesn't like this kind of weather... (Sorry, for the ones who is in India, specially Chennai)

I wanted to enjoy this with a nice snack. As usual I started hunting for the recipes. I found this recipe in my favorite website : chefinyou

Already I had my soaked Dal for making Idly batter. I don't want to miss the weather and this instant crush towards the vadai. So without a second thought I started doing it. It really turned out well. When I tasted my first vadai (before my hubby) I felt a tinge of bitter taste in it, after that only I realised, along with the urad dal I added one tsp of Fenugreek seeds for my idlies.

Still the Milagu vadai was good to eat. We both had it and enjoyed the nice weather.

My Experiment with Pizza

2010-05-10T04:46:00.001+08:00

Two months earlier I wanted to do my own Pizza from the scratch. One fine day I did Pizza and found my base was not cooked properly. After a week I tried and the result was same. I was little upset and wanted to give up the pizza making.

My hubby always encourages me, asked me to give one more try. So I started doing all research on the dough making process. Result of my research was yeast reproduction. Yeast is a vital ingredient in baking breads and Pizzas. The articles I read were all insisting on one point - activating the dry yeast. Once again I tried and took more care while doing the yeast activation part. Maintained the lukewarm temperature and added little sugar. This time it was very good as like we buy it from outside.

I have made Pizza's around 5 - 6 times since my first attempt and now i am very comfortable with the dough making process. My latest Pizza was a Spinach pizza that I made for a food mela that we conduct last week. More on the food mela here.

Did you all know? Yeast is a living fungi.

It is responsible for leavening the dough and imparting a delicious yeast fermentation flavor to the product.

Man used yeast before he knew how to write. Hieroglyphics suggest that the ancient Egyptian civilizations were using living yeast and the process of fermentation to cause their bread to rise over 5,000 years ago.

Invention of the Microscope, identified Yeast is an living micro organism which is responsible for fermentation. Commercial baker's yeast are produced in 20th century only.

There are many types of yeast used in baker's yeast, Nutritional yeast, Brewer's yeast etc.

Baker’s yeast is one of the type which we all familiar with.
Baker’s yeast is produced from the genus and species of yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Saccharomyces, refers to “saccharo” meaning sugar and “myces” meaning fungus.
The species name, cerevisiae, is derived from the name Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture.

Yeast cell is approximately equal in size to a human red blood cell and is spherical to ellipsoidal in shape.
Since it is very small in size, 1 gram of baker's yeast contains 30 billion yeasts cells.

Yeast reproduction is called as 'budding', during which a new bud grows from side of the old or existing cell wall. This bud breaks away from the mother cell to form a separate cell. This process will take place up to 12-15 times.

During Commercial production, yeast is grown in controlled condition with help of sugar medium. In this conditions yeasts cell reproduces every two to three hours.

To know how yeast are produced pls click here http://www.dakotayeast.com/yeast_functions.html

Masal Vadai Vs Falafel

2010-04-25T13:28:00.001+08:00

I am a big fan of Food network Channel. Particularly like the shows on cookies, cakes, toppings, frosting, salads, soups, the list go on and on...

When I was watching a show yesterday, something very familiar caught my eye. Pleasantly surprised to see our own masal vadai in its middle eastern avatar called 'Falafel'.
A couple of our friends frequent a Italian restaurant nearby. And used to rave about the wonderful falafel they had. Very happy to see our humble beloved Vadai being adored here.

Definitely should be a connection between both recipes, either our ancient Mama, Mami's suttu-fied (copied) the recipe from Arabs or Arabs suttu-fied from our Mama, Mami's.
Personally I would like to believe that its from us :))

Anyways, here are the facts from Wikipedia

Vadai, could not find much history about the vadai. Still found some details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idli
The earliest Tamil writings are traced to about 300 BC, but references to edibles and food habits abound in literature between 100 BC and 300 AD (Idaicchangam). 'Dosai' and 'Vadai',were popular.

Falafel an middle eastern recipe, Falafel is an Arabic word, meaning fluffy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falafel This food originated in Egypt first, It has been theorized to a lesser extent that falafel has origins in the Indian subcontinent where it and other chickpea-based dishes are also popular. Israelis were the first to spread falafel to Europe and the United States sometime in the 1970s.

Phyllo Pastry

2010-04-21T12:03:00.001+08:00

I did not complete any work yesterday. There were a couple of posts still half way, sometime later I wanted to draw, after few attempts dropped it. Totally all my thoughts were jammed with too many things, so started cleaning my fridge. Had some left overs in lot of big containers. Also had small qty of Mozzarella, feta cheese, Phyllo sheets, Spinach and some vegetables.

Tadaan, idea ! Why can't I make Spanakopita triangles ??? Immediately went to Chef In You to look for the recipe. My god DK has used varieties of cheeses. I'm not having that much and moreover don't want to include that much amount of cheese, I m not a fitness freak, but still !!!

In my own style along with Spinach, i included one carrot, one small potato, 2 stems of Celery and 1/2 cup peas and made delicious Spanakopita triangles.
If you have Pastry sheet at home then you are the king, we can do any sweet or savory using it.

Ok, let see the brief history of Pasty sheet :

'Phyllo' dough originated in Greece, meaning 'Leaf', often referred to as a baked good that holds a filling to create a recipe. Still used in traditional Greek cuisine, especially in deserts and appetizers.

Its a light dough made out of flour, oil and water, commonly used as a pastry in Greek and also in Middle Eastern recipes.
Eleventh-century Turkish used an early form of it to create layered breads and with the rise of the Ottoman Empire, phyllo-based pastries became a jewel of Turkish cuisine. Machines for producing filo pastry were perfected in the 1970s,

The dough is simple enough to use in its chilled state. It is too delicate to handle, if exposed much time to open air then it will become brittle. Each sheets are to be separately greased enough to get a nice flaky pastries. Too much filling inside will become soggy and all the ingredients are to be carefully added,

Phyllo dough is easy to roll up and create layers within the food; this is one of the reasons why it is such a popular ingredient in many appetizers and desserts.
For more information, pls check the below sites :
http://www.blogger.com/goog_1745786101
http://www.ehow.com/about_4571452_fillings-phyllo-pastry.html

Veppampoo (Neem Flower)

2010-04-16T10:19:00.001+08:00

Yesterday we celebrated Tamizh New year with Traditional food, we invited some of our friends for dinner.

The main Highlight in the food was Vepampoo (neem flower) pachadi, Mango Pachadi and poli.

Vepam Poo -- Its my favorite one. I love it at anytime and every time.
Tiny little white flowers.

(Image Source - Google Images)

Earlier days in our neighboring plot we had a couple of neem tree which shed all its flowers and leaves in our back yard. My house was always filled with the aroma of neem flowers.
Still remember I used to climb over our water tank to collect the fresh flowers for doing Pachadi. Also we will always have dried flowers in stock at home. MY mom will fry it and mix with rice or will make nice rasam. I will always call that rasam as 'Katta erumbu rasam' (Big Black ant rasam)

Vepam poo pachadi - Tastes bitter, sweet and tangy also.
Surprisingly we got the dried flowers in our Indian shop.

Staple food

2010-04-07T11:39:00.000+08:00

For the past two days, I am doing only Idlis for lunch and Noodles for dinner.Wish I could cook something different today for dinner. Though it sounds good, Its not at all satisfying.
In our cusine eating rice with more cereals for the lunch is a must. I have seen lot of people eat roti because of its dietary benefits.Even they iclude atleast a cup of rice in their lunch. We cannot imagine any party, functions without rice. All our festivals are also unique in term of food / prasadam we serve.

When i think about our food culture always wonder what a normal American will eat as a lunch. Its a big question for me and my Hubby. What they really eat ? What is their staple food ?
Do they only eat chicken, meat or some thing like that along with a salad and burgers ? I started to see the food netwok channel to find the answer for our question. And daily I am seeing the same thing.

Sometime very rarely they cook pasta, rice and Pizzas but most of the time its only Chicken, prawns and any kind of meat.

Cookies

2010-04-02T23:00:00.001+08:00

To celebrate the launch of Preethi Bhojan I did cookies and cupcakes yesterday

And also to start with a sweet entry :)

Cookies and cakes : Just by varying some ingredients in the base recipe we can do wonders in baking.

For your convenience, here's Brief History about Cookies - mostly gathered from Wikipedia.

The cookies were originated in 7th Century in Persia (now Iran).

And in 16th Century Dutch and English immigrants introduced cookies to Americans.Since people started to explore all places, cookies were the ideal food. They stayed fresh for long periods (for an year), when stored in right conditions.

In 17th and 18 th Century, due to lack of sugar and more labour cost, cookies were considered as a spl treat. In Europe to become a baker one must undergo years of training (We are so lucky in this !!!)

During 19th century cookies developed tremendously because of Industrial revolution which lead to invention of Ovens, chemicals like Sodium bi carbonate (Self raising chemical)

Each country has its own name for cookie :

-- 'Biscuits' in England and Australia,

-- 'Galletas' in Spain,

-- 'keks' or 'Plätzchen' for Christmas cookies in Germany,

-- In Italy there are several names to identify various forms of cookies including ' amaretti ' and ' biscotti ' and so on.

The name cookie is derived from the Dutch word koekje, meaning "small or little cake."

Biscuit comes from the Latin word bis coctum, which means, “twice baked"

Talking about cookies, though I bake varieties here and try out many cookies when ever I hit grocery shop, my all time favorite is Bar-bone and Good Day biscuits.

But nothing will beat my home town bakery biscuits. We will get lot of freshly baked biscuits like coconut macaroons, salt biscuit, butter biscuit, Herb biscuits and so on. They will be always fresh.

I was a regular customer of the corner bakery shop.

One of my favorite here is Mint fudge cookie. Wish I could try to bake soon :))

I would like to go on and on about cookies but will reserve rest for a later post.

Welcome to Preethi Bhojan

2010-04-01T20:04:00.000+08:00

Me and the art of cooking have had a on and off relationship.

When in school " Hotel Management and Catering Technology " was my dream career. Fortunately or unfortunately, a middle class high school girl does not have much choice in selecting her career. I did a course in Textile Technology,loved every moment of it and did not have much time to think about anything else. Before I got married my relationship with food usually began only after it was in a plate in front of me. Not that I did not cook at all. I was a Okay cook and used to help out my mother and aunt occasionally but I was nowhere near being passionate about the art of cooking.

But now the whole world has changed :)) I love to cook a lot. A lot of great food blogs and some superb shows on the Food Network - coupled with an conventional oven in my apartment that we moved into - have kindled an interest in me and the result of my love is "PREETHI BHOJAN".

In other terms its " God's Prasadam ". My Mother-in-law always tells " whatever we are eating and cooking is all Prasadam."

"பார்த்ததும், சமைத்ததும்" literally means " what I am seeing, I am cooking "
This blog is all about that. All things about food that I enjoyed.