Cool Summer salad

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.

Maavadu - Tender mango pickle

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.

Its Mango time... Mango rice

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.

Tried and Tasted - The week that was

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.