Lovely Award !

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

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

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.