Chatkhor

A Killer Combo: Potato cream cheese methi parathas and Palak Paneer and some random concerns.

2008-09-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

So where did i get this 'Killer' thing from, watched Bachna Ae Haseeno last weekend and there Ranbir Kapoor keeps going... iam killer types. So therefrom it comes, the movie was ok and funny at the same time, ranbir kapoor is still ok, but deepika padikone just doesnt know how to act.. she appears so unnatural, sad but true. For more of my ranting on this movie you have the BachnaArHaseeno Review. It was not just this, i watched The Last Lear and Mumbai Meri Jaan. So i had one movieic weekend last weekend. Whats up this weekend, i went to the DVD guy and he didnt have any new movie, Strangers doesnt appear in the online booking, horrible, thank god i have a dinner treat in the evening and some blog hopping for the day.

So people how are you doing.. a few things disturbed me and felt that ranting it infront of you guys will ease me off a little bit, just yesterday i spoke to a fren who lost a near one, a 14 yr old young boy in an inexplicaplable accident, he fell off from a public bus, no clue how, the bus was about to stop, he was not trying to get down before the bus stopped, it had almost halted, just that it was raining that day, maybe some water spilled on the stairs, and definitely the unruly travelers behind him, what troubles me is that such petty things which the common man doesnt care for, they crib about it, they crib about the administration but never think of the circumstances. Even i crib about the administration , i dont deny that, but theres one thing i dont know is, what to do, how to contribute my little something to avoid such things. Who is to be blamed for such things.
In this particular case, what i can think of is, the public transport becoming more responsible and stringent in their rules. If today we have a stern conductor on board who would instantly get those guys down from the bus who do not follow rules, maintain a decorum that people be safely seated in their seats till their stop arrives, and a strict no to the ones standing on the stairs. Just a mutual concern for such things, and fear of the consequences, not just for oneself but for their fellow individuals too. Life would be much simpler and safer. But dont know how can this be implemented.
I myself lost somebody in a small accident like this, at times we feel 'jo likha hota hai woh to hota hi hai' but the same time why dont we try to take care that we need to take some precautions, ok we take the precautions, even the pilion driver wears a helmet, we drive carefully, maybe because of one such careless driver, you never know how many lives can be at stake, not necessary that it has to be Fatal, even a small accident which leaves some scratches, leaves some fear, few weeks of uncomfort and other losses. Why, can there not be some mutual understanding among each other to take of oneself and others around you, has indias population gone so high that inbibing such small concerns in our minds has become next to impossible.
I was waitnig in a traffic signal, and there was this considerably big peice of brick in the middle of the road, and i wanted to remove it from there, coz i have always fund this horrible, it might be a small thing on the road for a truck driver, but it can easily disbalance a person on a 2 wheeler and skid his vehicle, and he might come under a bigger vehicle, whos to be held responsible for that, nobody, but this one precaution on the first go could have been of help, then why didnt i get down and do it, why all this gyan now, well i have tried this once before, but you know what happened to me, many fellow drivers started shouting at me as if i had lost senses, and why because they had to break the traffic signal, horrible, since then i have not took that effort again. That day a few even jumped the signal, a traffic guy standing in one corner as though he is blind, and shook the hell out of me since he crossed the signal so so close to me, i could have got a nice hit, just missed by a few inches. Then wont i be scared of it, to do it again, but the funniest thing was within seconds a truck ran over it, the mud settled, and voila, it would rain, the mud would settle and that part of the road will no longer be a smooth road :). I know iam talking complete ****.. but seriously it all happened in those 30 secs and was too funny and i had to rant it out somewhere.

Back to my Killer combo. When Siri announced her MBP Cheese event, i kept thinking what is that i cook from other blogs, and are cheese based. Well theres this saying na, 'ghar ki murgi daal barabar'... yeah there are two killer :D recipes that have become a part of my daily cooking, totally from two of my favorite blogs... Well The Potato Cream Cheese Methi PAratha from Sunitas world, and Palak Paneer from none other than Sia's Monsoon Spice.

Am an ardent fan of these two ladies. both of this blogging for almost 2 years, unbeatable write ups, mind blowing pictures, most innovative recipes. The beauty of their recipes is that you dont need to worry at all, you can blindly follow their recipes, and MBP, the beauty of MBP is that you dont need to write the recipes. Just cook, click and post. Wow!

The only changes i made to this were: for the Palak Paneer, Sia had prepared palak tofu, but we are paneer fans, so be it, and we prefer paneer without frying it, so to keep it soft, just before adding it to the palak, soak it in warm water with a pinch of salt for 5 mins, once the paneer gets tender, add it to the palak gravy.

For the cheese potato methi paratha i used asli pepper cheese spread (3 tbsp) and some cream(1tsp), and curd(2 tbsp). And a paste of 2 fried onions, 2 cloves of garlic and 1inch ginger. Just cant help it, being the onion fan, i had to add onions to this simple recipe.

So here you go, relish this amazing combination.

So i send these two recipes to Siris MBP Cheese Event.

The palak paneer is a direct entry to Zlamushka's Tried n Tasted. The great Sia being celebrated:), yes yes iam in !!

Also the Potato Cheese Methi parathas to The O Food Event. Do read through and participate to spread the awareness.

'September' is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. In honor of Gina DePalma, author of Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen and Executive Pastry Chef of Babbo Ristorante in NYC, who was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy, Jenn of The Leftover Queen, and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are asking you to donate to the:

Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (via FirstGiving.org)

and then, out of the goodness of your hearts and to be eligible for the O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Contest, please do the following:

1. Post a recipe to your blog using a food that starts or ends with the letter O (e.g., oatmeal, orange, okra, octopus, olive, onion, potato, tomato) and include this entire text box in the post;

2. If you’re not into the recipe thing, simply post this entire text box in a post on your blog to help spread the word about the event and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.

AND

3. Then send your post url [along with a photo (100 x 100) if you've made a recipe] to ofoods[at]gmail[dot]com by 11:59 pm (Italy time) on September 30, 2008.

We will post a roundup and announce prize winners on October 3.

Prizes:

1 Recipe Prize for best “O food” concoction: $50 gift certificate to Amazon;
1 Awareness Prize for only publicizing event: Copy of Dolce Italiano cookbook.

From the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund:

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
The American Cancer Society estimates that 21,650 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. in 2008 and about 15,520 women will die from the disease.
The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose. There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
In spite of this patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

What i picked as the ingredient is PotatO. Once again you ought to try this paratha. And do visit sunita some more innovations like this.

Savvy's Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala, My childhood fren Gannu maharaj, and a newly found Lullaby!!

2008-09-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

Hush Lil baby, dont you cry,
mums gonna sing you a lullaby...

Yes, Iam sure many of you would be nostalgic about your favorite childhood lullabies... well i do get nostalgic at times, and the irony is that all i can do is just remember them, God can be cruel at time, reason... i don't know.. well i have just heard 'hush lil baby... ' in books and heard it on television... my lullaby was always just one song... Aarari ra ra ro.. (kanne kallaimaane...).. amma used to hum for me to put me off to sleep... dont know if you would believe it.. i have even asked her to sing it for me till the time i was in 12th standard... yes my last years of school were full of fun, me growing up, anna out for studies, and summer afternoons just me and amma, me running off to get amul kulfi for both of us from a not so distant shop.. and then closing all the windows and doors, making the room cozy and cool, and have a good afternoon nap... wow.. it was bliss....
...ummm those kulfis used to have a taste of ecstasy(as in madhur jaffereys novel, climbing the mango trees).. yes... reminding me of those afternoons...
ok am sorry iam wandering here and there with no direction... there are so many things these petty instances remind me of that i just cannot help it... so aarariraro was sung for her highness swati.. whenever she wished for, by the best mommy in the world, ranjani raman.. and i used to sleep in seconds... and thats the reason i remember only a few words of this lovely lullaby... :) if somebody has it handy please please plase share.. another thing i would love to mention... my aunt jai.. yes i have mentioned her here before, she has only one lullaby to offer to her 2 sons.. hanuman chalisa, this lady is amazing, she has sung hanuman chalisa for sriram umpteen number of times.. and even today after 11 years she is singing it for raghav on demand... and the best part is yet to come... supposedly she sings this lullaby for them, but finally who falls asleep would be her and only her... hahaha... and its been a record that its always her falling asleep first than the kiddo...
OK, so where did this lullaby katha come into picture from, well i have a newly found lullaby... without which i cannot sleep, i wait for 10:00 pm to arrive so that i can have an hour long dose of this lullaby and then doze off to sleep.. and this is none other than Big Boss Season 2.. yes i religiously watch it and if i miss it, i make sure i catch up with the missed episodes... and then me and hubby dear religiously discuss the drama and nautanki on the show for another 10-15 minutes and then doze off to sleep. So had to share this latest fact about me with my blogger frens... :) you can catch hold of my Big Boss Gossip here at CafeTalkies.

On that note CafeTalkies has a lot new in store for you...

All of you who have watched Maan gaye mughle aazam, loved it, hated it, want to read about it, want to crib about it.. here you go....

If you have already seen Rock On, and become an ardent fan of farhan akhtar, hope you all know that most of his songs are sung by him, and the dialogues for the movie were written by him, i have become a biggg fan of him ... so go go go ... read about rock on... and its music review, and if you havent got the chance yet, this will be a biggggg motivator...

A Wednesday... i dont know how many of you have heard of it, this was a low budget movie that released last week, but with a brilliant storyline and some applaudable performance by naseeruddin shah and anupam kher... so heres a humble review for you...

And the Big Boss Gossip of course :D

So this was about my lullaby... now comes my very first Ganesh Chaturthi celebration...

Yes i did it, with full kozhyakattai(sweet and sovoury rice dumplings with cocunut and urad dal fillings...), payasam, and halwa.. wow wow wow... but before that a swati special tadka for this story... :) it was a holiday that day so i had all plans of making all this early in the morning, the alarm rang at 6 in the morning, i wake up look at the time, curse myself that why did i keep an alarm so early on a holiday and dozed off again.. hehe.. i remembered that i had a holiday but ganapati bappa... he would kill me for this... but we r childhood frens so i know its ok with him.. i remember as a child i didnt have any holy inclinations, guru brahma and gajananam were the only two sosthras i knew, and that too it used to come out like .... 'gajananam boothi ganati sevitham, kavithha jambu palasaar pakshidam, guru brahma guru vishni guru devoh maheshwarah.. guru sakshaat parabrahma.. tastsmai shri guruveh namah...' done were my prayers, and this was in a hurry becoause i used to eat vibhuti after the prayers... haha one funny creature i was.... so then if somebody used to ask a stupid question like which god do you guys worship .. i used to answer very confidently Ganesha, (down beneath my reason to that was he was the only deity i found to be freindly, i was scared of others as they seemed very seriuos... so i wanted to maintain a distance with them ..:)).. and then there was a liking for hanuman ji.. well that was heriditery... a belief that anything and everythnig can be soled by his mercy... :) today when i believe in all deities, still there remains a silent partiality for ganesh ji (aka Gannu maharaj) and hanumanji...

So Ganesh Chaturthi had to be special, and why not, it was the first time i was getting a chance to make kozhyakattais all by my own... i made both sweet and uppu(salt) ones and some kara urandei(spiced rice balls), and payasam(indian rice pudding) and some sooji banana sheera... (will post about this one soon...)..

And my latest experiment in kitchen... Women's Era's Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala..
which was first doscovered by sudha(aka savitri aka savvy) my aunt.. yes yes the chowmein and chilli paneer wali ... the super chef of our family... yes she does the most interesting experiments in the family and i can blindly follow her recipes... so this august when i had been home... Garg going there for the first time after marriage was pampered big time after marriage... mouthwatering biryani by jai... and some scrumptious paneer butter masala and dahi bhindi and blah blah by sudha... so for me... the attraction for the day was the so so different dahi bhindi... the method of preperation was different, and the ingredients also were different.. so i just had to try my hands on it once i got back and i did.... so called her one fine day, took the whole recipe and finally did it... and garg loved it.... (well garg didnt have the bhindi as he was too busy with the paneer, so this was another reason for me to try it without any delay)
.. and he loved it... infact i have made it twice since then.. passed on some to anna too and its a hitt... so here we go, so for me it is :

Savvy's(not Women's Era's) Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala:

Ingredients:

1/2 kg Bhindi(washed, dried, and cut into small 1/2 inches)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal(for tempering)
2-3 dry red chillies
1/2 tsp ginger very finely chopped
4-5 curry leaves
3 medium sized onions filely chopped
2 small tomaotes, peeled and finely chopped
10-15 cashews soaked in milk for 10 minutes
1-2 tsp dessicated/fresh coconut
1/2 tsp amchur
1 cup yogurth/curd/dahi
salt to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1-2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala/kitchen king

Method:

Sprinkle some salt over the small peices of okra/bhindi/ladies finger, and keep it aside for 1/2 hr. Believe me its worth the wait.
(Thanks to Sia, i missed the most important step...), After half an hour deep fry or atleast shallow fry the bhindi till crispy in generous quantity of oil, i used 3 tbsp)
In the meanwhile get your ingredients for the masala ready.
Heat some oil in a wok, add the mustard seeds to this when it is hot enough, let it splutter, now add the urad dal, dry red chillies(break into peices), curry leaves and jeera, fry till the urad dal is turning red and immedietely add the finely chopped onions.
Fry well till the onions have turned brown, to this add the dry spices(turmeric, salt, coriander, kitchen king, chilli powder) and fry well.
In the meanwhile grind the cashew and coconut together into a fine paste, use the milk in which the cashews were soaked for consistency, and keep it aside.
Once the spices are roasted well, add to this the finely chopped tomatoes, and fry till all are well mixed.
Now add the cashew coconut paste and stir for another minute, add the yogurth, and mix, if you find it very thinch you can add some water or some milk to make it to a consistency of your choice, just balance the salt accordingly.
Add the okra just before you want to serve it and heat it for 5 minutes, this keeps the okra crisp and yummy.
Relish this Hyderabadi delight, we have made it thrice since then and enjoy it d same every time.

This goes as my entry to a very interesting even hosted by one of my favorite bloggers Nags, the Saas bahu aur sensex contest. Seriously frens i like the concept of this movie and the day i see this movie it will definitely come on cafe talkies. I just hope it comes up to out expectations, iam a bit sceptical about this movie as theres this sub plot with tanushree dutta, and somehow iam not too fond of her. I hope this sub plot doesnt screw up the movie.
I enter this recipe as my entry to this event as this has been passed on to me by my chef aunt, and shes one gourmet queen you an blindly follow as far as food goes...
well its quick or not, umm for me it is, the day i tried it i gave her a call at 9 at night and seh was like make it some other day, it will take time, but i wanted to make it becoz i wanted to have bhindi(read it was the only veggie i had ;)) and i didnt want to go for a bhindi fry and a dal with it, i fonud it too lengthy, this was quick definitely compared to that combo and i take it as a shortcut whenever i want to avoid one sookha and one geela veggie and do away with one side dish :) ... for those day when you are back from office at 8 45, want to go off to bed by 10 and want to have your favorite bhindi... but not sookha :)

My deary deary fren Divya of DilSe is hosting her first self created even and am too excited for her, hats off buddy, dont know if i will ever have interesting ideas like this, i think 35 times a month that i should diet, not by cutting down on food but having the right food, i lack ideas and i let the idea go... so Divs deary has an amazing idea... a Diet food event... churn up a diet food, low on carbs, high on protien etc ... and go go .. submit it... :) am eagerly waiting for the roundup divyaa..

Savvy's Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala, My childhood fren Gannu maharaj, and a newly found Lullaby!!

2008-09-18T06:44:00.000-07:00

Hush Lil baby, dont you cry,
mums gonna sing you a lullaby...

Introducing Cafe Talkies : All about entertaintment

2008-08-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

Some 6 months back i started my journey of blogging, knew i will not be as wonderful as all you multitasking ladies, but couldnt resist from taking a plunge into this selfless community of enthusiastic people, and get the feel of it. And i must tell you that i have enjoyed every bit of it, i miss bloggong if i havent blogged for a week, miss interacting with you guys and get amazed at the fact that i have linked up so welll with all of you.

Would love to introduce all you guys with a very close fren of mine from college, A.
A is one bindaaas gurl like all of us and is waiting to get pals with all of you. Almost a month back we found out that both of us had a hidden wish to start something all about entertainment and share anything and everything that fascinates us with a wider range of people, and involve them in this. We have come up with baby steps in that direction: CT, Cafe Talkies, a blog about, movies, masti and how can i miss out on the foodies zone... so look forward for movies, restaurants, pubs, books, local dhabas, street food stalls, and any trivia thats buzzing around.
Presenting Cafe Talkies for you.
Looking forward to your valueable suggestions, feedbacks, what would you looks for from CT, etc etc...and for a lot of gup shup of course.

Latest what you can look for in CT:

Rajma Methi paneer ke parathe, My Arusuvai Gifts, and Vegetable Maggie noodles

2008-08-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Hello hello people, hows is everybody doing, me doing good have lots of stuff for you guys today, a nice n different paratha for WHB, a long awaited post about my arusuvai gift, and my saviour quick meal these days, and and and, and brand new, interesting on a new track blog from me and a good fren of mine. So lets start in order.

My goody goody fren Divya of Dil Se hosted her first event, and i just didnt want to miss her WHB, but me the late lateef, and no other reasons, and and divya the super fast.... she came up with the round up so so so fast. So basically i missed it, but deary this was totally for you.... so i had to post it. This is one my most interesting and yummy creations in parathas, ( i intended to talk of fenugreek leaves, methi as my ingredient but no use now..)had never heard of it, just tried it in my cooking from left over series and made me glad gladder gladest. Would love to make it pretty often.

Remember the spaghetti with bean balls , yess i made paratha with the bean balls and it was yummy. Just make sure you dont cook the rajma too much that it gets too soggy, and grate the paneer well, mash all the ingredients pretty well and it comes out to be one of the most melt in the mouth kinda paratha.

Now coming to my long awaited to post Arusuvai package, Arundathi sent me one o the best gift parcels i have ever get from a fren, some long interactions on Recipe Marathon, then many a mails exchanged and these 9 gurls have become an inevitable part of my life. And we decided that i will get a package from Anu, and such a darling she is ... heres the bigggg box i got as a parcel, am sure you all can guess how excited i was... The package consisted of a nice pair of perfumed candles(garg lit them for my budday, they were so relaxing), then was a nice set of 6 short glasses(for the drinks i mix .. hehe).. she was too sweet to send some homemade wadams made by her aunty.

This doesnt end here, i requested her to send gopuram manja podi, (turmeric powder), and yeah i got it.... the most interesting are yet to come, she had made her chocolate chip cookies then, and i begged for the last two and that too was granted ... people.... they were heavenly.. and some chocolates, and a small cute box of peppercorns, and in all this excitement i seriously forgot about the secret ingredient... to be very frank i knew the smell, the taste but couldnt guess the ingredient on the first go.... did some cheating and finally found out that the ingredient was Nutmeg Powder, in all this ho hullah... i couldnt prepare for think spice with this... but something very special is coming up with this.... Thanks a ton Anu ... i hope you know how special all this was... and will be, i cherish the candle, glasses will remain forever... and the cookies in our memory... love you da... thanks....

Now my savious quick meal, be it breakfast or at times a quick lunch, Maggi noodles
with lots of veggies, iam sure many of you prepare maggie like this, but its my favorite, and it got to be present in my blog...

Ingredients:

1 Maggi Double Pack(old, masala maida maggi)
1 cup each of vegetables of your choice(i use capsicum, onions, carrot, beans)
2 green chillies slit lengthwise
2 tsp cumin seeds
oil for tempering
Water to boil the noodles

Method:

Boil the Maggi noodles seperately, drop them in boiling water, with a few drops of
oil, and remove it half cooked from heat, let it stay like this for a while, drain all the water and wash it with cold water immedietely. This makes the maggi come out non sticky.
In the meanwhile in a pan, heat some oil, add the cumin seeds and let it spluter, once done add thr green chillies and then the onions. When light brown add all the
vegetables.
Let it cook for sometime, add salt sufficient for the vegetables, when all the veggies are cooked, add the maggi masala, and mix well.
Add the cooked noodles to this gently and serve hot. Dont they look tempting....

Healthy Comfort food : Medhaa's CHILRO/ BESAN CHEELA for Taste n Create

2008-07-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

Hello buddies, how is everybody doing, apologies for not blog hopping as frequently an avidly i used to do earlier but i promise promise to get back my pace and multitask as many of you amazing ladies have been doing without any complaints, yes i will not complain because iam loving this hulchul in my life, something i have been longing for more than 6 months.

I have never been used to sitting idle, hence came this blog, and then this job, you know theres something i wouls love to share with you guys, i have this great crush on two of my seniors in my job, hehe.. iam so happy nobody knows about this blog, and iam enjoying this crush season after ages it seems, else i used to get this feeling that i have become an old lady. On a serious note, the work environment is good, and iam getting to learn a lot, and the best part is me n hubby dear have new variety and interesting stuffs to discuss post job hours.

Now coming to Taste & Create, its been such a pleasure to be a part of it for the second time and i hope i participate regularly as long as possible., for those who dont know about this one, its an event where Nicole deligently pairs up two bloggers and each one of them has to cook up something from the others blog, the best thing i like about this event is that it makes you explore the most of your partners blog which otherwise you would never do, well i might get lazy that ways, this time i was paired with a logger fren Medhaa, yeah the sweet n simple medha with an extra A, yes the Medhaa who cooks with love, the one stop blog for sindhi cooking, and healthy and different yummyy cuisines, i love her sindhi creations, but because of time constraint i had to choose something simple, and what can be better than the simplest comfort food, and healthy of course, chilro in sindhi, cheela in hindi, gram flour pancakes for the rest.

Cheela have been my favorite since college days when a fren from UP had tought me how to make these and how do they eat them, otherwise i never knew what are these, this seemed something similar to our southindian adais but was a pleasant change. Since then i have been a fan of cheela, have had many variations and loved it even more every time.

So here i go i tried Medhaas Chilro, 'the quick n simple, healthy comfort food' my only variation was i added some vegetables to it, like grated carrot, red and green capsicums finely chopped, spring onions and some chat masala and pickel oil for that tang, enjoy this quick cheela as breakfast, lunch or dinner, with some pickel and curd as accompaniants.

Apologies, another Dil Dance Maare Moment & Yo China! - Hakka Noodles with Chilly Paneer

2008-07-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

First of all my apologies for not keeping up with my promise, of blogging everyday this month, and not blog hopping all these days, kaan pakadke sorry people, but i do have a reason to it, and am very sure all you loving frens of mine will forgive me for this one. I suddenly got busy with some continuous interviews in d process of my job hunting and had to join a job immedietely this Monday.

Yeah i have finally started with work, completely enjoying a hectic schedule after a long time, juggling between job and home, cooking, tiffins, dinner, etc etc etc, all of a sudden i have become more responsible and active, and touch wood. Hope i continue this way. People no exxageration, i was yearning to get back to blogging, check out the roundups for some interesting events i would have loved to participate in, and check out whats happening in d lives of a my good n close frens i have made in this food blogging community. How are you people, did u miss me :), i missed you all...

Yeah yeah this calls for a dil dance maare jhatka, well the first dance maare moment of that week was me winning the Open Sesame 2, what a moment of glory it was, hehe, seriously probably it is the first contest i have ever won, and i was so happy about it, and it came as a surprise to me when i had completely forgotten about it in the midst of all this. Hats off to you ladies, you rock with the riddles, the ideas, you make a great pair and i will always aprreciate your frenship.

In the meanwhile i was gifted some beautiful awards from some of my frens:

indranee, Uma- The Yum Yum Blog Award
Ranji, Sireesha and Skrible - Freindship award
Simran, Ranji, Rachel - Giant Beer Hug
Rachel Yummy Blog award
Medhaa - Blogging with purpose and Nice matters award.

Thanks Thanks Thanks people, it feels so great that even if i dont blog hop u guys think of me, i used to wonder when i read in other peoples blogs, that do people really care if somebody vanishes from the blogosphere all of a sudden, well they do, ur comments, mails and scraps made me feel so good and wanted, off i go to check out each of the posts i have missed in these days i promise, never knew blog hopping could be such a therapeutic to me at such times. I would like to pass on the most cheerful award i have ever seen, Giant Beer Hug to all my loving frens, this jadu ki jhappi really works for me, hope it does for all.

Now something i prepared for my dear DK and her innovative AWED Chinese event, i prepared this long back just after she announced the event, something that was the definition to the word 'chinese food' to me since childhood. Yes when somebody used to ask me would you like to have chinese, i would reply back Hakka noodles and chilli paneer na?, then it became hakka noodles with veg manchurian. I wanted to try out something new, some nice soup, some good gravy etc etc, but my partial self towards these two stuck me with them, my all time favorites, hakka noodles with chilli paneer.

This chilli paneer is special to me in one way, when we were kids and didnt know much about outside food, chilli paneer was what my super cool vivacious super chef aunt Sudha cooked, she is the only one in our family who taught us that treading into other cuisines is actually fine, so in some way she is an inspiration for my love for various styles of cooking. Her baby corn manchurian and chilli paneer cannot be replicated by any one, nobody can make it so accurately tempting for the indian palletes. So here goes her style of chilli paneer with the simple but my all time favorite veh hakka noodles( i like scrambled egg with this, but this is plain veg hakka noodles).

Ingredients:

For Hakka Noodles:

1 packet Chings Hakka Noodles
1 cup sliced onions
1 cup shredded cabbage
1 cup thinly sliced cabbage
1 cup thinly sliced capsicum(all green, red and yellow as per your choice)
3/4 cup chopped spring onions
salt to taste
chillli sauce to taste
tomato ketchup to taste
chilli garlic sauce (optional)
soya sauce to taste

For Chilli Paneer:

2 cups each of capsicum, onions, and paneer cut in similar sizes of your choice(rectangular preferred)
1 tso ginger minced well.
1 tsp garlic finely chopped.
2-3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2-3 tbsp soya sauce
1 1/2 tsp cornflour
1 cup water
2 green chillies slit lengthwise
2 pinches ajinomoto

Method:

For Hakka Noodles:

Cook the noodles exactly the way it is mentioned in the pack, wash it in cold water immedietely after removing from heat and let it cool on a flat container and sprinkle some oil over it.
Heat some oil in a wide pan, add 1 tsp ginger garlic paste and cook for a min, now add the onions and let it saute till translucent.
Now add all the vegetables and the salt and let it half cook(i like vegetables in noodles crunchy, if you dont like it this way let it cook completely.)
Once the vegetables are cooked add all the sauces, and mix well till the raw smell disappears. Now add the noodles to it and adjust the sauces to your taste. Remove from heat and garnish with spring onion rings. relish with chilli paneer or veg manchurian.

For Chilli Paneer:

Heat some oil in a pan and add the mince ginger and finely chopped garlic and saute for a min.
Now add the onions and saute for another 2 mins and let it remain a little crunchy.
At this moment immedietely add the capsicums and cooks it till a little crunchy. Add the ajino moto to this.
Now add the soya sauce and tomato ketchup, please be careful with soya sauce as many dont like it in excess.
Add the paneer cubes to thid mixture.
Mix 1 tsp of cornflour with i cup of water and mix it well to a consistent texture, add thid paste to the paneer in the pan, if you want it to be a little more thich mix the remaining cornflour with some water and add it.
Let it come to a boil or heat for a minute and switch off the heat, otherwise the gravy become very thick.

Off this goes to my dear fren DK for her AWED Chinese. She has already posted the round up, but this one is only for her.

How do you like your STRAWBERRIES ?

2008-07-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

My love for strawberries started when i was in mumbai and the mahabaleshwar strawberries were easily available, raw, shake, ice cream, anything is always a delight. How many of you are a fan of Mc Donalds Strawberry shake, well iam, and please if anybody knows the exact recipe to replicate it at home, please let me know.

I love to have strawberry lassi or shake once in a while. So heres a simple strawberry shake I make.

Method:

Blend 4-5 strawberries cut into peices, 1 tsp icing sugar(depending how sweet your strawberries are), 1 tbsp of whipped cream, and 1 scoop of strawberry ice cream, 1/2 cup milk, and blend till your strawberries are well blended.
Now add a cup of milk and blend for another 30 secs.
Serve with some strawberry and vanilla ice cream and garnish with a strawberry.
Perfect for a lazy weekend breakfast.

BIHARI PALAK KHICHDI aur uske chaar yaar : The Indian Comfort Food.

2008-07-04T20:07:00.001-07:00

"Jahan Chaar Yaar Mil Jaayen Wahin Raat Ho Gulzar .."

Yeah, the minute i have khichdi it reminds me of this song, i always wonder who would have coined this terminology, "khichdi aur uske chaar yaar", yes this is the term used for khichdi, which literally means 'hodge podge' or mish mash, accompanied by its chaar yaar, four friends, "raita, achar, papad, ghee" which makes for a complete one-pot meal, and is the proud leading candidate in the comfort food zone.

For me khichdi has been my savious in many lazy but craving days when i want to have something good and interesting but in no mood of outside food and elaborate preparations. There are times when iam super lazy i go for my simple moong dal khichdi, otherwise when theres still some love for veggies left i go for a veggie style khichdi, the bihari style with a combination of 2 dals and some veggies. As i had mentioned in this post the moong dal khichdi was taught to me by prachi which was never made at our house, as we southies were used to the traditional venpongal, with the yellow moong, ever since i have discovered this kind of khichdi once a staple diet in college, explored more, experimented more, and this has been an all time favorite comfort food for me.There were days when i would tell prachi .. aaj kuch halka khane ka mann kar raha hai prachi ... and she would instantly respond.. seedhe bol na .. khichdi khani hai ... and how can i forget her most
interesting tadka, well i guess this is enough motivation for all you guys who havent had the different types of khichdi to go fetch your cooker and stir up some delcious khichdi for youself.

This one is a nice blend of lentils, veggies, soy granules, and some spices, go ahead and try it if you havent had it this way.

This hardly take 15-20 mins to prepare apart from the pressure cooking time. And serves 2-3.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Masoor dal
1/2 cup Moong dal(split green lentil),
1 cup Basmati or ,any long grained rice.
1 cup finey chopped vegetables of your choice(i used onions, palak and capsicum, s that was all i had)
1 cup cooked soy granules
1 Cardamom, seeded
2 cloves
1 Black Cardamom seeded
1" Cinnamon stick
1 tsp chilli pwd
1 tsp Cumin seeds,
1 tsp cumin wd
2 tsp Coriander pwd
1 tsp garam masala,
1/2 tsp turmeric

Method:

Heat some ghee(clarified butter) in a pressure cooker, and fry the spices, like cardamom, cinnamon, cloves
for 1 or two minutes, now add the cumin seeds and let it splutter. Add the onions and saute for another minute to let it turl golden
brown, now add all the veggies and the pwder spices and fry it or another minute, add the soy granules, the lentils and the rice, fry it for another minute and
then add 4 cups of water.when the pressure releases, open and add the tadka
if you like.

Serve with the chaar yaars. i didnt have papad, but its a perfect pairing for a khichdi. And i served it with carrot onion raita, ghee and achar.

Disclaimer: Thid is an extension to the traditional bihari khichdi, to make it more veggie oriented and more healthy.

Recipe Flash:

Srivalli has the gala roti mela roundup ready, go check it out.

This goes as my entry to Archanas One Dish Meal Event

Chatakdaar Chutney STUFFED TINDORAS/ Stuffed Kundroo for JFI

2008-07-03T20:51:00.000-07:00

JFI-Tamarind hosted by super cool Sig is one event which i wanted to participate last month, and wanted to prepare my favorite stuffed tindoras for it, coz thats the only thing where my tamarinds are used other than the regular sambhar and kootus.

Tindora or dondakaya or ivy gourd is one of my favorite veggies since childhood, its stir fry by amma was one of my favorites with dal and rice, oh what days it were, amma would add a pinch of sugar to my dal that day and would ask me to guess whats special in the meal today, and i would be all happy because i would know it is the sugar she is asking about, hehe, dont know if such simple and beautiful days would ever return.
Now my tragedy, i made this especially for JFI, clicked so called cool pictures, of the stuffing chutney etc etc and i dont know where they are, and am in no mood of doing it all over again, so please bear with me, sig please haan. Infact i thought i would not participate coz i didnt have pics of the chutney seperately, but when i saw you extending the deadline wohoo, i could not resist. But believe me guys, this is one tangy side dish everybody would relish.

Ingredients:

250-500 gm ivy gourd
2 medium onions, sliced
1 tsp urad dal
2 dry red chilli
1 green chilli
1 tsp fresh ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp coriander powder
2 tbsp dessicated coconut(may use fresh grated coconut as well)
1 tbsp grated jaggery
1 cinnamon stick
1 cloves
1 lemon sized tamarind
salt to taste
1/2 tsp chat masala
2-3 tbsp oil

Method:

1. Heat a tsp of oil in a frying pan and add the coriander pwd, cloves, cinnamon and fry on medium heat without burning the coriander powder, do this till you get a nice aroma and let it cool. Similarly fry the urad dal and keep separately
2. Now add a tbsp of oil and add the onions, one red chillies, green chillis, and ginger garlic paste and saute for 4-5 mts. Please adjust the green and red chillies according to your taste. Finally add the dry coconut and stir for a few seconds. Remove from heat and let it cool.
3. Now make a paste of the above spices and urad dal along with ginger-garlic paste, jaggery, tamarind juice, sauted onions and salt.

This chutney can be had with dosa idli etc, we have had it and i keep making it now and then. This is one tangy one, Uma i keep remembering you whenever i make some chutneys.
4. Slit the kundroos by maknig a plus sign on one side of it so that you can stuff it. Take a tbsp of this chutney and stuff each of the slit kundroos.
5. Heat the remaining oil in a pan and add some curry leaves, dry red chillis and stir fry for 5-6 seconds. To this add halk a finely slit onion and saute for a minute, also add to it if some of the chutney is remaining.Place the stuffed tindoras in the pan and let it cook covered on medium heat.
6. Keep turning the pieces now and then so that they cook all over.
7. Cover and cook on low heat till the tindoras are cooked well and become soft.

Perfect with chapatis or rice.

Recipe Flash:

Bhags has a sultry blueberry yogurth ice cream, you have got to check out.
If you want to try out some tortilla chips, divya has them made at home.

Beat The Heat with CUCUMBER CHAAS/ Cucumber Cooler

2008-07-02T18:37:00.000-07:00

I love cucumber, i love chaas, and it gives a ' what an idea sirjee ' effect when i can have a combination of the two. This is one amazing chatakdaar drink you would make pretty often once you have tried it if you are a chaas fan.

Chaas or buttermilk or 'mor' whatever you call it, iam sure many of you would be a fan of this drink which is like a life saver in the summers. And when i saw Sailus post on her article being published at Marie Claire, wow, this lady is something, you have to have a look at those 6 coolers, each onw is a sure hit, and the pics, the setting for each pic is so creative and beautiful, you just cannot take your eye off that. I have tried almost each one of them, a few being common in southi indian households, but this one was new to me and a mega hit with me and Garg, we even prepared this one for our favorite uncle when he visited us :)

Ingredients:

1 large tender cucumber, skinned and cut into small peices
½ lt cold buttermilk (i used amul chaas and a little nestle yogurth)
1 inch cube ginger grated
1 pinch black pepper powder
1/2 tsp roasted jeera powder
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1/2 tsp chat masala
1 pinch black salt(optional)
few ice cubes

Method:

1. Whip the above ingredients well till the cucumber is crushed well.
2. Serve in glassed topped with ice cubes and coriander leaves.
Sailu suggests using some curry leaves for garnishing as it enhances the flavor, i didnt coz i didnt have it then.

Off this goes to Siri deary for her Yogurt event

Hope you have plans to vote for you favorite in Open Sesame 2, can have a look at my Tomato Shorba, The last date is 5th July. Register with Dining Hall if you haven't yet.

Recipes Flash:

All you baniya people, the yummy baniyon wala aloo there for you by the Pukka baniyani DelhiBelle:), see i did a ailaan.
How many of you wanted to try eggplant with pasta or spaghetti, well i did, and divya has one spaghetti with eggplant to offer.
Bhags made my fav fav fav Dal Palak and has a very interesting post to which most of us can relate to.

Happy B'day to 2 Beautiful Ladies of my life with Lisa's NO BAKE PEANUT BUTTER (marie) CHOCOLATE SQUARES

2008-07-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah yeah me too have gone crazy and joined in the NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month, where all you have to post for the next 31 days continious, and this months theme is FOOD, so why not, this would be one good exercise for me to get back in form, i have noticed that iam lazing around way too much and i need to gear up, hope this brings in some discipline in me as Srivalli. So people you got to tolerate me for the next 31 days.

Another quick note, the voting for Open Sesame 2 starts today, please vote for my Tomato Shorba, that is in case you liked it :) even otherwise you can vote if you wish, hehe.You have to be registered at the Dining Hall for that.

Now a very happy birthday to my Periamma, yesterday the 30th(ok people dont open ur mouth wide and go hooo if i tell you that i call all my aunts by their names, so she is Yasho to me)

Yasho is my mothers elder sister and the gaurdian angel of the family. One lady who has selflessly lived some 55 years of her life only and only for her family, at first i was wondering should i mention about her handicap or not, but i think its worth the mention, she is one lady who has surpassed all her disabilities and proved that theres nothing called IMPOSSIBLE. Apart from her calipers that she wears we have nothing to prove that to the world she is handicapped. The vigour with which she does her work and taking care of a big house is commendable. You will never see her cry for herself, she can cook amazing elaborate tamil cuisines for 10s of people without a hush, and not a sign of thakaan or disinterest in her face, kudos to you yasho. OK she is the one who would keep reminding me o the upcoming festivals in d tamizh calender which otherwise i would never know.
She can be her age when it comes to taknig care of my granny (patti) and be the naughtiest kiddo with the kids of our family, believe me my 7 year old cousin is d chirpiest when he is with her and loves her d most other than her parents. OK her aura doesnt end in the family, she works full time in a school and is the all-in-all in the functioning there, the staff loves, hates, cannot do without her. She actively sends entries to tamizh magazines, kumudam, kalaki, mangayi malar etc, and has won quite a few prizes there for her recipes. And she even shares a nice rapport with the editors of these magazines, and all this when she is sitting far away from channai, in jamshedpur. And hey the wet grinder that i use nowadays for my idli dosa batter was something she won in one of those magazines. Not to end she even made us all proudy proudy by having our family photo in womens era twice or thrice. hehe... she is one enthu lady. She would solve crosswords in magazines and send entries etc etc etc... Need some time management classes, yah shes the right one to catch up on. Guess this is where i should stop.
Wish you a very very happy birthday Yasho, You are the shining star of the family. I wish we are 1/2 as active as you and amma at your age.

It is ammas birthday today, for amma i have already spoken a lot in my other post, love you amma you are the most beautiful women i have ever seen, you know something, one thing that comes to my mind is, you used to proudly say that 'main kabhi budhi nai hongi' and yeah not for a split second i can imagine old age on you, and yes you image will remain so forever, for generations to come, and thats one thing i can feel good about. Happy Birthday Amma.

These peanut butter squares were something Arundathi had suggested me coz these dont require baking, and thanks so much anu, it was loved by one and all. Well it is Lisa's creation and she's to be thanked for this one too. Lisa has a few more No Bake delights in the same post, you got to check them out, a similar one is there in pearlsofeast's blog, that is another date delight i really need to try, so good for diabetics.

The only changes i did were:
I used Vita Marie Gold biscuits instead of the crackers(again an idea by Anu and DK)
I was ok with 1 cup of icing sugar instead of 1 3/4 may coz the vita biscuits are a little sweet in itself.
And i used 95gm, cadbury's dairy milk, 45 gms cadburys roasted almond(i seperated the almonds and crushed them in a pestle and mortar) and 30 gms or vouchelle dark chocolate. Lisa suggests an equal quantity of milk and dark chocolate.
This is one thing i would like to make pretty often, you can store it in your frigde, its heavy so it cannot be finished at one go , hehe, and when served to people its a delight.
Thank you Lisa and Anu once again.

Open Sesame 2 : TOMATO SHORBA & How do you peel your tomato?

2008-06-30T04:02:00.000-07:00

Hello people, am back after another lazy break. I dont know when will i get better, i get all charged up on the last day of any event or when the deadline is near, but thank god i participate in these otherwise i really dont think the lazy me would have posted even once in a month.

Open Sesame was one event of its kind which the rocking duo DK and Siri started. Three cheers for them people coz i have seen the most unique events coming from this duo. They know how to keep us on our toes. So as most of us know, Open sesame 2 also had 4 boxes, and we had to choose one, we get a riddle and we need to crack it, and then from that ingredient we need to cook up something and post. So i missed Open Sesame 1, the day these guys announced Open Sesame 2 i was supposedly the first person to ask for my riddle, had a guess on that very moment and never took d pains to think further, on 24th, the last day to crack the riddle i remember this, and go ahead with my first guess, Chilli Pepper, dont ask me why, jsut the envy and anger drew me to it.This was my puzzle..

I think I am a pleased woman since I blush so much
I am so soft and shiny to your delicate touch
But look what I have for relatives, so different with no common string
one used for smoking, one for hotness, one used to refer idler and one referred as veggie's King

I am not what you refer to me most often
I am 'fruit' of labour but never called one so
I am neither a wolf nor a peach in the scale of one to ten
but then why do you think I am called one as so?

I can go green with envy, or completely red with anger
A little crown on my head makes my walk look like a swagger
You cant do without me in your day to day cooking
Tell me what veggie I am without too much thinking.

The creator of this puzzle is none other than Dhivya-The DK. Salute to you lady, you actually come up with amazing poetic and interesting riddles. My first guess was Chilli Pepper and Voila!! i lose those 25 points. I get my 1st hint, and yeah i get it right here, and settle with a Booooh! face with my 20 points. Me and Ms. Tomato have a very weird kinda rapo since childhood. May be that is why i could have never thought of it for the last two lines of the riddle :D. My periamma is way tooo fond of tomatoes and me and amma were never too fond of it, we will use it but in the minimalistic ways, and more so for the color it gives.

But lately when i read somewhere that the peel of tomato is not good for health, and u should peel it out everytime u use it, i started doing it religiously and even asked my near ones to do it. And i have realized that the peel was what i used to dislike in tomatoes, and i love tomatoes nowadays, not that i use it a lot but yess i cannot do without it a single day(lately). So how do you peel your tomatoes, some boil it once, some roast it, some just pel it off, and some heat it on the gas burner. I do the last, and hey got to mention that its my Mummas superb idea, peeling tomatoes was never this easy.

Now coming to my recipe, tell me frankly frens, how many of u think that i do more of bakwaas than some quality writing.
So i wanted to prepare something that has only tomatoes highlighted, as the main ingredient, otherwise i would have never bothered to make something with only tomatoes. Thanks DK n Siri. The king of soups, the Cream of tomato was my first option. But again i make that very often, the maggi or knorr wala :P and i love it, so it had to be somethnig different. I remember the first time i had had tomato shorba i thought the rest guys are trying to fool us, ajeeb sa kuch banakar shorba naam de diya, but later i realized that if it is made properly, it is way better than the classic cream of tomato also. I didnt get the perfect color, but no regrets. It tasted heavenly.
I took Bhags's shorba as my base recipe and the rest you know, there had to be some substitutions from my side.

Ingredients:

2 large tomatoes peeled and diced into slices
few sprigs of mint leaves
few sprigs of coriander leaves, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 clove
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 inch ginger minced
1 tsp gram flour
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 green chilly chopped
1/4 tbs cumin seeds
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp butter
few drops of olive oil
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp lemon juice(optional)
Coriander sprigs for garnishing

Method:

Heat a cup of water in a pan. Add the diced tomatoes, bay leaves, cloves, garlic, ginger, coriander and mint leaves.
Simmer till tomatoes become soft, and start giving out the catchy aroma.

Strain this to remove the seeds and pulp, and get as much juice as possible. You may, at the end run it in a blender to extract the last bits of juice.
Dissolve the gram flour in the coconut milk and make sure u avoid lumps.
Heat some drops of olive oil, and then add the butter(this is to avoid the instant burning of the butter, nice trick na)Add cumin seeds and green chilies and curry leaves and let it splutter.
Pour in the tomato mixture along with the coconut milk mixture. Also add the lemon juice. Let the mixture boil for a minute or two.
Add salt and pepper. Garnish with coriander.

Bon Appetite!!

Taste N Create : Spaghetti with Meatballs oops, Bean Balls

2008-06-23T05:37:00.000-07:00

Another late entry, on the last minute. Yes I have lived up to my expectations and iam here with another entry on the last minute. But this ones special, its my first ever entry into Taste & Create, i really appreciate this event which pairs two bloggers browse each other's blog to cook up the recipe of their choice from the partner's blog. Thanks a ton Nicole of For The Love Of Food. for formulating such a wonderful event and taking all the pains to pair up people and manage the whole thing.

My partner is Jescel of Spice of Life (love her tagline, eat drink and be merry) from Pampanga, Philipines, yeah yeah, and when i visited her blog for the first time i got a bit frightened, that ok , this lady just bakes or cooks non vegetarian stuff :), if not that the few vegetarian stuffs that she has posted consists of half such ingredients which i guess i will not be able to find in india. But the next minute the thought that came to my mind was that ok, i might not get the right stuff, but think of her plight, poor lady might not even understand what have i written, my posts are mostly in hin-glish, and mostly indian, but such a lively gurl she is that we interected a number of times and she was all set to post the dum ka murgh zafrani, i wonder how she was not afraid of the name. You can find her post here. Thanks again nicole for partnering me with another great baker, otherwise i would have missed some yummilicious recipes, i browsedbrowsed and this is what i cooked from her blog. Thanks jescel, its been a fun trip through your blog. You know what i searched for a whole afternoon for wonton wrappers to try ur wontons but all in vain i just couldn't find them here in bangalore.

Spaghetti with Meatballs. Just that i made bean balls instead of the meatballs, but i promise jescel, the next time i am going to make the meatballs. The beanballs idea was from DK, from her Spaghetti with Bean balls , thanks DK, what a substitute for the veggie me.

My variations from Jescels and DKs recipes:

I followed Jescels way for the sauce, the marinara sauce, well that was another thing not available in stored here so i prepared one myself, well i prepare something similar for my pasta, but never knew its called a marinara sauce. My learnt the recipe for marinara sauce from here. My variation, i added puree of one more tomato, and 2 tsps of chilli flakes to suit our palletes. I even added one tbsp of store bought Tify's Pasta Sauce to add that extra zing. And yeah 2-3 tbsps of white wine just zings it up completely. Hope Jescel is not after me for spoiling her recipe. I also added some cooked red kidney beans inspired by Jescels hubby , Jos's Spanish style rice.

Now for the bean balls, i followed DKs recipe, i just added some grated carrot, finely chopped spinach and some paneer to the mixture, believe me it was one delight. I did not have italian bread crumbs, so what i did was added some oregano instead, dont know if u would believe me, but i had half of the breadcrumbs just like that. And i dipped the balls in this marinara sauce instead, and even had some of them just like that as in the picture.

I hope Jescel that i did justice to the recipe and i will not stop my search for the wonton wrappers, and the day i get them, i will prepare your Chocolate Ravioli Wontons coz iam one big fan of nutella.
And all those folks can die for droolworthy non veggie recipes and baking escapades, please please visit her, it will be worth every minute.

OK people, if some of you did not find the lively me in this post, accept my apologies for that, iam kind of caught with certain things for a few days and didn't have the time to add on my regular masalas :)

Awards Gallore .. Beri Happy in my heart ... Dil Dance Maare re....

2008-06-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

OOOOO... White white face dheke dilwah beating fast sasura chance maare re ..
Oh bery… oh bery…Oh bery happy in my heart..Dil dance maare re!!

Yeah cant help it.. when its raining awards... thats how i feel... well bhartis dessert title did remind me of this fav song of mine.. which i had forgotten for may be an hour or two :D

First of all hearty thanks and very very very sorry to my frens who bestowed on me some beautiful awards and i wasnt being able to post them, i wanted to do it but somehow it got stuck, thanks a ton frens... you make my day with these...

OK OK , another thing i havent yet flaunted my gold medal for completing the marathon...Thanks Dhivya and Siri.. for starting such a lovely event and it blessed me with wonderful frens...

Sowmya and JZ passed the Rocking Blog Award
Medhaa and Shubha passed the Good Chat Blog, aah i so very love this award.
Sailaja Yummy Blog Award and Nice Matter Awards
Sukanya Ramkumar You make my day

Rocking Blog Award to:

Bharti of Veggie Foodist, a blogger i found just yesterday and got glued to her page, good talkitive posts.. with lots of ramblings to enjoy.. way to go gurl

Sukanya Ramkumar of Hot n Sweet Bowl ,another one with perfect pics and tempting recipes, and yeah my favorite black template, and a lively presence felt whenever she visits my page. thanks buddy.

Rachel of tangerine's kitchenI havent know her much but yeah shes also one show stealer, with innovative recipes. Would like to know you more buddy.

Good chat Blog Award:

Sandeepa of BongCookBook
Rock .. the famous bong mom... love all her posts and tales .. and she reminds me of many old recipes from my jamshedpur days.. thanks buddy..

JZ of Tasty Treats shes actually a dessert pro and love love love her pics... each one so tempting that u feel like virtually digging into her page and pick that dish up to ur delight...

Meeso of MyHumbleKitchen. .. one person with lots of zeal.... i lvoe the way she blends cuisines... have lately started visiting her and its a pleasure.

Yummy Blog Award:

TBC of the budding cook, perfect pics, innovative recipes and my fav black template, such a delight to visit your page.

Vandana of Cooking up Something Nice , another vibrant blog.... love to visit it, check out the soft n cool puran polis she has now.

Nice Matters Award:

Purnima of Fantasy Cooking
nice .. my dear pur , known for posting n recipes in one post :) she is good with that , makes my days with long and masst comments on mostly every post of mine. thanks pur thanks...

Sireesha Mom's Recipes
make comes up with the best recipes... i love her creations..

You Make My Day:

Rashmi of Delhi Belle , my best fren thru blogging, few comments which were very apna types, a few mails exchanged, and a phone call, things look good with her, and i feel very comfortable, thanks for encouraging me and tolerating my tantrums, folks shes one of the few to whom i show my tantrums..luv u ...

Simran the Bombay Foodie, the punjabi kudi has always made my day with her charming words, if u love mumbaiiii ... go get glued to get blog...

Madhavi (u know why this ones imp to me right.. u were d one who gave me my first award...), Shubha and Divya passed on the Inspiration Award

'Inspiration award ' started by Jamie of Flavor Pantry.Whether it’s to eat healthier, dive back into our past to conjure up something we ate as children, or just make the light bulbs in our brains go on with a new idea for a recipe.As recipients of this award, please share with us what inspires you and then pass on the Inspiration Award to other deserving bloggers. Please let them know what the award means and what to do with it.

I am inspired by

1. My amma, my periamma Yasho and now my more than a mother, my mother in-law, these ladies have been selflessly serving their loved ones... if i can become even 10 % of them i will b d best lady my family can wish for.

2. Hubby dear, who is so full of energy and insight, knows what he wants from life and knows how to keep his loved ones happy, and knows how to balance work n life, he is d idol guy everybody would like, he can code the most difficult stuff one min and d next min b the best hubby and d best son, i can keep learning from him till eternity.

3. Many such people who have n number of problems in life but still have a happy and smiling countenance for the rest, and keep spreading happiness, i want to be like them and realize my pains r nothing in front of many others...

4. Asha Di, Srivalli, and so so many of my blogger frens... they are so dedicated and superb bloggers, want to learn a lot from them.

I now pass this award to the following friends

Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons, share a nice relation with her in a small span of time, she knows how to get those mails for her roti mela entries from me hehee, right sri, being the lazy bum that iam , i admire this lady thoroughly, and wish can follow her even for 10-15%, you r too good sri.
you are one among the firsts, with whom i have been connected till now, i really appreciate your multitasking skills lady.... thanks for supporting me in ur small ways and ur smiling countenance of course.

Laks and Lathamma of the yum blog , theres was another such blog which really captured me for a while, so simple but so good, it was like lathamma is somebody i know for ages, funny but true, and one good fren in laks, what else can one ask for, believe me u inspire me till date that live life to d fullest and try to do as many things as possible, thanks.

Suganya Tasty Palletes, one of the most neat n beautiful blogs i visit, u really inspire me buddy to write more professionally and make my blog look better.

Arundathi of MyFoodBlog one bundle of energy.... gawd how much i want to be like her, enjoy life, balance work n life, be crzy at the same time, u really inspire me to live life to d fullest buddy... and all ur culinary experiments... i get some guts to try them...

Cham of Spice-Club, one loyal visitor i have :) love u cham , i find ur comments so genuine and FOR ME types, you inspire me to do well and more. You r like a lucky charm.

Ranji, she is rocking, energetic and chirpy, everytime, her innovations take a new swift turn , and love d way she bakes, shes promised me that shes gonna help me with it so this ones a bribe ;).

Sia of Monsoon Spice , another one with lovely pics, amazing write up, i idolize her, now dont give me that grin babes, but seriuosly u do.

DK and Siri , yeah u inspire me to do whatever i do with full zeal and in d bestest way ... hail ni.. frens... :)

Mansi of FunNFood , one lady who inspired me from day one.. u know that na mansi, i admire one thing in you, u keep health in mind, dont know when will i learn but time would come.

Ranji passed me on the "Blogging with Purpose" award ... wohooo i love this, yeah coz somebody sees the purpose behind my nonsense, well thanks for recognizing the not spoken about and hidden purpose my friend, love ya.

I pass it on to my dear dear dear frens Divya, Bhags, Shubha, Rashmi and Sangeeth and Madhavi.

DONE..... u guys dont know how guilty i was of not posting this one.....

ok enjoy the song and get hooked to it.... thanks bharti . ... i hym this one day n nite but u made me go looking for the video.... here it is

A quick news briefing:

Siri's Frozen Yogurth : Check it out quick. Whip ur curd and give yourself a treat.

A.W.E.D Chinese by DK : yeah yeah the the huan yin lady :) . Stir up some yummilicious chinese for yourself.

Want a look at some perfect looking Kerela Parottas and Gobi manchurian... its divine.. go check

Heard of famous chatpata street food, calcutta style Rashmi's Jhal Muri, go go check it out.

Did you check out Shubha madams latest Sketch, thats one masterpeice.

Anu madam created her Spaetzles. Go create your own

Lakshmi has her own Mini Roti Mela , it too good u got to check it out.

Check out d smallest possible shrimps with Bhags.

Divya baked some really scrumptious choco chip cookies folks.. you got to have a look at those divine creations.

Just keep checking on Srivalli for the mega , mega mega roti mela...

Have a great Weekend!!

Parathas with LEFT OVERS (I) : Dal Parathas : Lasooni Dal Palak and Urad Dal Paratha

2008-06-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

I have a self proclaimed fame to be the Leftover cooking Queen of my two member family :D

Ok that was no PJ, i love making parathas, be it stuffed or plain, with leftover dry veggies or some dal, its fun, easy and super delicious. You must have heard of dal parathas, where one kneads the flour with a dal and no water. Yes one more form of missi roti apart from the my previous one from scratch. Iam a fan of this kind of parathas, swati ka dal wala paratha series is what anna calls it, and yeah i can make parathas like this anytime, and i love them, they are so soft and so tasty.

In this line i have some really funny story to share with you, yeah where i unintentionally fooled my frens, just two months after my marriage i had a few frens from college at my place, and i had prepared dal parathas, my frens were super impressed, and they assumed that i have made this paratha from scratch, and were all praises about me, yes i was the great creator of that tasty dal ;) but the paratha was not that innovative as they were going gaga about it, :) but i was enjoying it, and i kind of gave them the recipe as if from scratch, i hope one day i tell them the trick behind it.

I love it when i without any extra efforts inculcate punjabi cuisine and start loving it too, so here we go with my dal paratha.. made by kneading my LASOONI DAL PALAK into the flour to form the dough for the paratha.
A similar worthy dal paratha is by kneading the toote hue urad ki dal wale parathe.. believe me its another delight.

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat flour (Atta) as per Consumption
Leftover Dal (cooked)
1 small Onion finely chopped(optional if your dal already has lots of onions)
2 Green chilies, finely chopped
Coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
Salt to taste
1 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric pwd
1 -2 tsp coriander pwd
Butter / Oil for cooking the paratha

Method:

1.Mix all the ingredients. Add enough dal to make a dough of rolling consistency(remember we dont use water here, if you think your dal wasnt dilute enough, use some milk, i havent used it ever). Cover it and keep aside for 15 minutes.
2.Then make small balls and roll them like parathas, Check out the six way to roll the parathas here

3.Put the paratha on the tava and cook applying ghee until done.

4. Serve with curd and chutney of your choice. Our all time favorite, the dhaniya pudine ki chutney

The uraddal parathe look like this:

Thanks frens for reminding me... This again goes to Srivalli, the Mela Queen's Roti Mela.

Six Styles of Making Parathas with Ajwain Wale Parathe

2008-06-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

I love parathas but i need something different in plain parathas too everytime. So my plain parathas will not be all that plain, i love ajwain ka parathas, it keeps it plain and simple but still makes it special. Iam sure most of you make these parathas, all you need to do is add some salt, ajwain(carom seeds) and some chat masala while kneading the dough.

OK a disclaimer, i know this might not make much sense to you but i had to keep a note of the various styles of making parathas and here they are:

1. The simple round paratha:

Heat tava (or cast-iron skillet) to medium high heat.
Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball. Place the dough balls a little apart on the corner of the board and cover with a damp cloth.
Roll a ball out into a disc about 2 inches radius. Brush some ghee on it, gather the corners and seal in the middle as shown in the picture.
Roll out the paratha to the size possible and place it on the tawa.
Turn the paratha after it puffs up and has brown spot on the bottom . Smear some ghee on this side and continue cooking until the second side has some spots on it. Turn it again and smear some ghee on this side too, and cook till the paratha is cooked completely.

2. The tikona (triangular) paratha:

Roll a ball out into a disc about 2 inches radius. Brush some ghee on it, fold it into a semi circle, smear some ghee on it again and fild it again.
Roll out the paratha to the size possible, as a triangle and place it on the tawa.
Now cook the paratha as mentioned above.

3. The Chauras (square) paratha:

Yet another interesting shape. Just follow the steps as shown in the pictures, remember to smear some ghee before folding it so that the paratha puffs.

4. Flaked Paratha:

Smear some ghee to the small round, fold it into a semi circle and then roll it into a cone as show in the picture.
Invert this cone inside out so that it takes the form as shown in the other pictures, the front and the back pictures are shown.
Roll it out to a circle and cook it up.

5. Lachcha Paratha:

Another form of flakes paratha, slit through a radius . Now fold it thro other quarters to form a cone. And invert it inside out, it takes the form as shown in the next picture.
You would love the crispy layers in this believe me.

6. Lachcha Parathas 2 -

Roll it on like a cigar, now roll this to form a bundle as you would do to a rope.
Now flatten it like shown in the picture. Roll it on to a paratha and cook it.

Thanks frens for reminding me... This again goes toSrivalli, the Mela Queen's Roti Mela.

Bihari SATTU Ka PARATHA (Sattu Roti) with Baingan ka Bharta

2008-06-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how many of you have had sattu, its a flour made from roasted chana, thats what i had known since childhood, many would ask me that whats the difference between sattu and chana, ok iam not too sure, and dont want to dwell into it much, all i know is i love sattu for its different taste, believe me its not besan :). Sattu is one important, full of fibres, and nutritious food, which was once one sasta and healthy food for farmers in bihar, one glass of sattu mixed with water salt or sugar and lime, believe me its one energizing and filling drink, and today its a favorite for one to all in Bihar at least. Believe me people you ought to try it.

The best forms of sattu i have had are Sattu roti or sattu paratha and litti with chokha. What heavenly creations they are. As i mentioned in my previous post amma was too good with her parathas, at times when amma used to come in her self praise avatar, i used to love her, she would be like see iam a tamilian who would say looknig at my sattu parathas .. they come as perfect and tasty as theirs, even manna aunty agrees(my dads best fren, a bihari's wife, uncle is manna uncle so aunty is manna aunty :)) .. love u amma for this, there r no doubts that u are the best. OK this was another paratha we used to have with curd and Ketchup :), curd is important as it makes your throut go dry, thats why its not advicable to be had in summers.

The good thing infact the best thing about the sattu parathas is the tough tickling filling, the spice of pickle oil, the tang of lemon, nigella seeds, garlic, every ingredients adds one classy tinge to the mixture. So here we go, the parathas..

Ingredients:

Paratha Dough(make it a little hard so that rolling the parathas gets easy)

For the Filling:

2 cups sattu ka aata
2-3 small onions very finely chopped
3-4 green chillies finely chopped
6-7 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 inch ginger cube finely chopped
2 tbsp niggela seeds(kala jeera)
2 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped
2 tbsp mustard oil
2 tbsp oil from any mango pickel
juice of 3 lemons(depends on your palletes)

Method:

For the Filling:
Mix all the ingredients well and adjust salt and lemon juice according to your taste, you may increase the oil or pickle oil content to make it a bit manageble.

For the parathas:

Make parathas as mentioned in my aloo paratha recipe, you will find more detailed pictures for steps for making parathas.

A good tip: Before adding the filling inside the dough, apply some oil on the inner side of the cup shaped dough, this would help in containing the filling inside, and each paratha puffs properly.

Sattu parathas are best accompanid with Baingan bharta and Dahi and pickle.

If you have not had sattu yet, this is one must try. Do try it if available. This again goes toSrivalli, the Mela Queen's Roti Mela.

ALOO 2 PYAZA Parathe with Vangayam Toghayal: D Ultimate Punju south indian Combo

2008-06-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

Amma was and will remain one lady who was a south indian and could cook the best best best north indian cuisines, well might sound a bit too i dont know what, but seriously i have never seen any other south indian atleast in my family to cook north indian food with such perfection. And yes she was one master in parathas, as a kid i was very ignorant to different kinds of cuisines, i never knew what was south indian and what was north indian, all i knew was what amma cooks is south indian, i was never too fond of outside food then, i would crave for food cooked by amma. If i try to recall now, we had hardly visited restaurants with amma and we hardly missed it, coz we were so so happy with her food. The impact of those yesteryears is so strong that till date i prefer home cooked to outside food, eventhough my cooking is nowhere near ammas.

One of her forte's was her parathas, amma making paratha was a treat to everybody, those weekends would b like a long wait for a feast, be it her alloo paratha, sattu paratha, mooli paratha, gobi paratha, peas paratha, etc etc. She was perfect in this. And everybodies favorite was ammas aloo paratha with vangalyam toghayal. Now that i have been in north for long i understand that thwe classic combo with parathas is curd and some pickle, but for us since that day it had been aloo paratha with vangayam toghayal.

It seems so funny now, when for the first time Garg saw people eating parathas with a ketchupin south, he got the shock of his life, he hails from the heart of punjab, and for him the ultimate combination with parathas are loads of butter, some pickle and thick curd, but for me having parathas with ketchup was pretty common coz that is how we used to have it at home. Different cultures different habbits, but love unites and binds them so easily.

A pause at my gupshup, my paratha is named alloo 2 pyaza coz amma used to put amost equal quatities of potato and onions, and it used to be heavenly. So here we go:

Ingredients :

For Parathas:

3 Potatoes boiled and peeled
2-3 big Onion finely chopped
2 Green chillies finely chopped
1 inch ginger cube grated or finely chopped
1/2 tsp Chilli pwd
1 tsp Coriander
1 tsp chat masala
1/4 tsp turmeric powder(i add it coz amma used to add, else i havent seen punju style parathas with turmeric)
Salt to taste
2 tsp Coriander leaves finely chopped
dough for parathas (3 potatoes will be sufficient for 6 parathas)

For the Chutney:

4 onions
4 tbsp urad dal
4 dried red chillies
Salt to taste

Method :

For Parathas:

1. Prepare dough for parathas and keep aside. (ok i have no clue how to explain how to knead a dough, i will soon post something)
2. Pressure cook Potatoes, peel them and mash them witnh your hands, or a spoon, some even use pav bhaji masher.
3. Heat a pan with oil, add the cumin seeds, let it splutter, now add the green chillies, and the ginger and onions and sauté onions till the onions are translucent or brown. Add the salt and rest of the spices and fry for another 2 minutes.
4. Now add the mashed potatoes and fry till everythnig is mixed well, make sure you dont add any water and the potatoes are also not over cooked as it might create problems while maknig the parathas. Let it cool and divide into equal portions.

5. Divide the dough into equal portions, the size should a little bigger than the regular chapatis, and can be even bigger if u like the large size punjabi dhaba style parathas.
6. With your fingers, flatten a dough by pressing the sides to form a bowl shape to fit the potato filling, the middle should be thick and sides should be thin.

7. After placing the potato filling, close on the sides to completely cover the stuffing, giving it a pouch shapeand seal it well. Press it lightly from the top so that it is closed evenly.

8. Roll it over some flour and press on the board. Then gently roll out with the rolling pin.

9. Heat a tawa, Once the parantha is rolled out, place it on the hot tawa. Keep the flame on medium and let it on till you have some black spots on the bottom. Turn it around and spread oil around it. and a little on the sides too. Turn it around and smear some more oil, let it cook for 2 more minutes and change sides if not cooked completely.

Mouth watering atoo parathas , and some vangalyam toghayal, and dahi and some pickel,, aah heavenly.

For the Onion Chutney:

Fry the sliced onions and let it cool, fry the red chilies and urad dal seperately and gring all this together into a coarse paste, add salt according to taste. Chutnet is ready.

This one goes to Srivalli, the Mela Queen's Roti Mela.

Love your Mela concept Sri, i hope i get to post all that i have clicked.

An Ode to THE KING of Street Foods: Calcutta Style PANI PURI / Puchka / Gol Gappa

2008-06-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Street food is like ultimate moksha to me, however depressed iam , feeling low, one thought of pani puri or chat or any street food brings a sparkle in my eyes. To top the list would always be Pani puri or golgapas or puchkas .. however you call it, the ultimate street food.

Gol gappa has many fond n chatpate memories attached to it, puchka or gol gappa is i believe a vital part in the daily dos of any east indian, so it was for me and my family. Amma was as chatkhor as me and we would have gol gappa almost every alternate day. We would take a rickshaw to our favorite chaat wala and have pani puri, then papdi chaat, then chat etc, ok this might be sounding to insane but that is how the mommy daughter duo used to be. First it was there, then we shifted house, there was a new pani puri wale bhaiya having a stall jsut next to our flat and it was a blessing, now it happened every evening, this was when i had left for Delhi for my grads, somehow since the delhi style and east india style pani puris are so different in their prepartions, i never liked the delhi pani puri. Coz they used to use blande boiled potatoes as filling whereas we were used to the spiced up filling. Be it the days with amma.. or evening walks for pani puri with prachi .... be it in jamshedpur or mumbai ... its been blissful, and i just cannot imagine a week without pani puri, too much haan , but its true, i remember when my pani puri wala from kasturi nagar closed its shop, i was in tears, garg didnt know what to do, i was so depressed, that i dont have a pani puri wala next to my house, i hate bangalore..hehe, and when we discovered a calcutta victoria chat house very close to our house i was so elated, such is my love for gol gappas and i swear i cannot live without them.

So when madam Sia declared MBP June as Street food, my aim was to look for calcutta style puchka and i went crazy when i got the perfect perfect perfect recipe to link for calcutta style puchka. Thanks Archana of Archana's Kitchen . Check out her recipe here. I have made very little changes to the recipe, only to suite my chatkhor taste palletes. Otherwise this is one perfect recipe.

Wiki the savior says :

Panipuri or Gol Gappa or Gup chup is a popular street snack in the Indian sub-continent. It comprises a round, hollow "puri", fried crisp and filled with a watery mixture of tamarind, chilli and potato. The name panipuri literally means "water in fried bread".

Yeah this is not just street food, its soul food, etc etc, i can go on writing about this one, but i would prefer to skip it short and go on with the yummilicious chatpata PUCHKA.

Ingredients

1. 20 store bought puris’s
2. ½ cup chopped onions

For the pani:

1. 5 cups water

2. 1 cup finely chopped mint

3. 1 cup finely chopped coriander

4. 1 tablespoon chopped green chilli

5. ½ teaspoon of chilli powder

6. 2 tablespoons tamarind pulp

7. 1 tablespoon black salt

8. 1 tablespoon roasted and powdered cumin

9. 1 tablespoon chaat masala powder

10. 1/2 tsp red chilli powder

11. Salt to taste

For the filling

1. ½ cup boiled black chick peas/kala channa

2. 2 boiled and mashed potatoes

3. 1 teaspoon chilli powder

4. 1 teaspoon black salt

5. 1 teaspoon green chilli paste.

6. Salt to taste

7. 1 teaspoon finely chopped coriander leaves

8. 1 tsp roasted cumin powder

9. 1 tsp chat masala

10. 1/2 cup finely chopped onions

Method:

For Pani

Blend all the ingredients except the water and strain, discard the residue. Add the water and dilute and adjust the spices as per your tastebuds. You may refrigerate it, but i dont beleive so, thats a typical delhi style, that does taste good, but this type of puchka doesnt require this, its used just as it is prepared.

For Filling

Mix all the ingredients and set aside. Be generous with the spices, believe me you cannot be accurate with the measures, you ought to taste it in betwen and keep adjusting depending on your palletes.

How you can relish it:

Tap the Puri at the center lightly to make a half inch hole in it.

Add about 1 teaspoon of the filling into the puri.

Now add 1 tablespoon of the Date and Tamarind Chutney. This is optional for people who do not like the sweet taste along with the sour taste. Some like the pani to be chilli hot, some like it sweet and hot, some like it just sweet. So alter it to your taste and have fun. So well said archana. I like it hot hot and hot! so no meetha chutney for me. Its d best without the meetha chutney.

Dip the filled puri into the pani , and serve immediately.

Now a special thanks to all my dear frens, you guys kept looking for me, and it was such a nice feeling, iam sorry i wont repeat this laziness again.
Thanks frens
for all the awards you have been giving me in this period, i will post it tomorrow.

Last but definitely the perfect ending... i found this presentation on the net, what a wonderful slideshow.. iam sure you would enjoy it, look at each page its amazing... especially if you are a pani puri panatic, you would nod your head at each slide.

>

| View | Upload your own

Ande ka funda with MIXED VEG EGG BHURJI ..and CLICK and the Recipe Marathon ends

2008-05-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

"Today's egg is better than tomorrow's hen"

This proverb has been one savior to me since childhood, dont really remember when did i start having egg, probably sometime when the doc asked mommy to feed me eggs coz i required proteins etc etc, and mommy started feeding us egg, against the wish of elder folks in our house, and since then i got hooked to it. I love eggs in any form, love it completely. There was one stage in my life when i had decided to leave eggs when i complete college, why so , well then the excuse was that thats the only good thing i can prepare for myself when life has nothing good for me :).

Seriuosly, i remember my days in delhi, the food the dibbawalas used to provide used to be horrendous. So the only way i could gulp down those papad like rotis was to pair that waery roti with some yummy egg bhurji. There were days when i used to have 6 eggs a day, 2 eggs in breakfast as omlette, 2 eggs bhurji with lunchn and another two at night. And i never complained, such is my love for egg bhurji. For similar strange reasons, i love the song ande ka funda, have u guys ever paid attension to its funny but mast lyrics,
aao sikhaun tumhe ande ka funda... anda agar na hota .. to murgiyan na hoti .. jo murgiyan na hoti.. to partiyan na hoti.. jo partiyan na hoti.. to ladkiyan na hoti.. jo ladkiyan na hoti .. to ashiqi na hoti...
howzzattt... i love this song for such non sensual lyrics.. its funn..

OK , coming back to the topic, i love bhurji and am sure is a favorite for many, how many varieties do u have it as, i like it the thick types, not fried much, that is the dofter version, sometimes crispy, with frying it till we get granular bhurji, and sometimes with no veggies, and sometimes with loadddds of onions, and sometimes with lots of other veggies too. Do tell me which kind do u like it as, i would love to try the different variations of bhurjee.
So here goes my version of a mixeg veg bhurjee, with lots n lots of vegetables, any random one u like to have, and make sure the quantity of veggies is more than that of the eggs, if you havent had it yet, you are going to love it.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup onions finely chopped
1/2 cup onions sliced
1/2 cup capsicums
1/4 cup each of yellow and red bell peppers.
1/2 cup finely chopped cabbage
1/2 cup carrot finely chopped
2-3 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
3-4 green chillies slit lengthwise
1 tsp chilli pwd
1/2 tsp turmeric pwd
2-3 coriander pwd
1 tsp chat masala
2 tbsp milk

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds and let it splutter, once cracked, add the green chillies and all the onions. Saute till the onions r light brown.
2. To this add all the veggies and saute for another 5 minutes
3. Once the vegetables are a little soft add all the spics and cover the container for another five mins and stir occasionally to avoid sticking.
4. By now the veggies woul b done, beat the eggs with the milk seperately and add this to the vegetable mixture, adding milk is to make it soft. Stir continuously to avoid sticking of the egg and consistent cooknig of the bhurjee, you might add some moe oil here if you find it necesary.
5. Goes best with phulka and a simple dal, may be moong dal.

So today the much talked about Recipe Marathon comes to an end. I dont want to believe it, well to be very frank i do, but for some very strange reasons i dont want it to end.
I want it to end because i dont want to be guided by the fact that i have to post everyday, considering the fact how lazy iam , but in these 15 days i made some wondrful frens, with my fellow runners, Siri, Dhivya, Sri, Arundathi, Bhags, lakshmi, Ranji, Divya, Raaga. Life was different in these 15 days, checking d mailbox for new gossip on the group mail, chatting with one of them all the time, somehow this virtual network had brought us all so close, i wont say we are best of frens now, but yes i know them so much more better, they are nomore a blogger profile to me, i know them considerably well, and relate to most of them in a better way, learnt a lot from many of them, and the very thot that from tomorrow it would not be the same , well it makes it all gloomy suddenly.. but life has to go on.. love you folks, it was and will be cherished throughout. Will post a roundup tomorrow or day after with something about my journey through the first marathon. See you all tomorrow.
Will update what the others have in store for today soon.

And this is my humble entry to the Click event. My favorite day, the ingredient lentils for dal makhani or simply ma ki dal.

We are all fans of the jugalbandi duo, b it CLICK, or their posts or any damn thing about them, we look up to them , and today they touched me again with a post of theirs, the June CLICK, its for Bri, i dont want to write anything here, all i want you do is go through this. This is a nobel cause and you mus appreciate it, i have done my petty share and would appreciate if you too take your time and take part. You might find some more details here and here
If you find some problems donig a contribution as you are in India or some other countr, contact me, i suppose i can be of help.

CHICKEN KHEEMA MASALA with PEAS, n HAIL Shane Warne

2008-05-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

I swear theres not going to be another chicken(read disaster) story by me, i know i should not test your patience. I remember when my friends used to see that iam a vegeterian and Garg is a hard core non vegeterian, everybody had there own solutions as to how i should try one or the other chicken dish which would make me comfortable with that kind of food, and i remember kheema used to be top on the list, and boy does that convincing really work so well psychologically or may b its the texture of it, i am pretty comfortable with handling kheema, doesnt really feel like iam handling chicken , feels like the soya granules, and i really admire the way they mince the chicken, fabulous! So with not much veggies left in the fridge, and some kheema available, i prepared this kheema masala with peas quickly, i had to catch up on the semi finals between rajasthan royals and delhi dare devils right. I made an amazing mixed veg egg bhurji for myself, which i will post soon, maybe tomorrow. So lets have the recipe first and then will let my emotions flow for the perfect win by the royals!

Ingredients:

250 gms chicken kheema
3 big onions finely chopped
1 cup peas
2 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 green chillies slit lengthwise
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp turmeric pwd
1 tsp chilli pwd
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
1 egg boiled and diced.

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a wok and add the cumin seeds, let it splutter, now add the green chillies and onion to it, and saute for 3-4 minutes, till the onions turn a little brown.
2. To this add the ginger garlic paste and saute for another minute. To this add the peas and saute for 3-4 minutes.
3. Add all the spices and saute for a minute. Now add the kheema to it and cook till the kheema is cooked completely.
4. Garnish with coriander and egg dices. Hope you guys liked the cute little face i made, i enjoyed it.

Now coming to todays first semi final, two strong teams, Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Dare Devils. What we saw was a true proffesional world class performance by the rajasthan royals who played their hearts out, what a splendid performance. At the end the intensity was just too much for the dare devils to handle and the royals swept away a royal win of 105 runs.. it was not a day sehwag and band would like to remember, but the boys from warnies banwagon were on a roll..what i enjoyed the most was, today anything could have happened but everything was well planned and strategic..hail shane warne, thorugh this IPL i cheered jaipur, wanted mumbai to come up in the semis to have a good match for jaipur to paly, but this man has shone out as a star, carved the so called underdogs to the most envied team, he proved himself as the best tactician may be as per my little knowledge after hansie cronjie.. his pacing of the innings was tactically a sensible hitting throughout, whether they r chasing a target of 190+ or they plan to hit a 190 an mind it all in those 20overs, on the otherhand today DD at times they were fabulous and suddenly they had lost it alltogether, that consistent form has been seen only in jaipur in IPL this year, all would agree that all the energy, the zeal comes from him, pepping up each n evry player, dedicated individual encouragement was seen throughout the game, yusuf pathan, watson, smith, each have played their respective roles.
He was there chattering around after every ball and made sure that the batsmen know that there is a team who are there to conquer them, overall a great tactitian and the team executued each of his tricks amazingly..

HAIL SHANE WARNE, i really really really pray that you guys take the trophy, as you are the most deserving team.

This is our succesful 14th day run of the Recipe Marathon, will update soon what others have for today:

Sri has a new Lunch box
Arundathi has yummy looking mushroom rolls
Divya has scrumptious orange cake
Siri has a tali hui bhindi
Lakshmi has a sinful Hot Chocolate
Ranji has vaiganache upkari
Dhivya is up with one more interesting dish today!
Raaga made a delicious looking Raspberry Raisin Ring today.

ALOO PARWAL ki SABZI n a chatterbox award

2008-05-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

Dont know how many of you are aware of this coz i dont see many of you blogging about it, but its a very common veggie in eastern india, places like jamshedpur, bengal, orrisa, well thats all i know, i did see this veggie in in delhi but i remember my PG aunty telling me 'hum nai khate hai yeh, yeh sasti si sabzi hoti hai .. jo up bihar se mazdoor log gote hain na wohi khate hain ye to .. ', and at this point she knew that i was from jamshedpur and was a proud of that fact and didnt feel bad if somebody called me bihari. Whatever her opinion was, but i was and till date one of my favorite veggies, am really fond of this veggie, parval and tindora (which we call kundru) were very common in our place and i a common veggie for biharis, bengalis and oriya folks. It is a healthy vegetable especially for stomach related ailments and its seeds are known to be good for blood. Its crispy and crunchy even after it is cooked.

Parval also called pointed gourd is a Small cucumber like vegetable with the skin bein very thick and looks like a plumpier version of tindora or kundru.

Ingredients

2 cups parval scratched and sliced lengthwise
2 cups of peeled potatoes sliced lengthwise, as for fries.
2 cups slices onions.
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp amchur powder(dried mango)
1 tsp kitchen king (optional)
oil for sauting
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan, add the potatoes as shown in the picture and let it fry for 5-10 mins, till it gets a brownish color.
2. Remove and drain d excess oil in napkins if required. In the same pan, with the remainig oil add the cumin seeds and let it splutter.
3. To this add the onions and saute for 5 mins till it gains a pink color, to this add the parval, the fried potato, and the other spices.
4. Once the spices are distributed consistently, cover the pan with a lid and let it cook over medium heta, stir occasionally to ensure that theres no sticking.
5. It will take another 15 mins for it to cook completely.
6. Remove from heat and serve with dal and rotis.

This is one quick n easy side dish for me, it looks simple but its very tasty. You ought to try it once.

One happy news for me, i have been given the Good Chat Blog Award from Asha of Foodies Hope,(i love to read whats going on in her life in her blog) and was elated delighted, etc etc when she called me a CHATTERBOX, Garg says its not a very good compliment beta, but i feel proud about it, so am happy :).

I feel every blogger speaks out his or her heart out and thats d USP of the food bloggers, so every blog is worth this award.. People like Srivalli,uma, raaga, ashaji, divya, madhavi, priyanka, cham, purnima.. and many more.. she wish refresh some of your old memories, narrate some of her incidents in such a way that u become a part of it.. i love reading their posts.. but most of them have already recieved it..

But these two bloggers whose chats i love to read , and i pass on this to them..

Rashmi of DelhiBelle, there are many things coming out in common between us... so i love to check out whats the next thing in common...:),
Gaurav of Gastronomic By Choice, he will have a story to narrate before every post and you could relate to it, read the cheesecake post, the latest one.. when he tells how he finally ended up in the kitchen.. :), or be it his 5 best picks every week.. i like it...ok gaurav.. its all gals in that pic, just assume these r d blogger ladies chatting about your blog :)

Ok this is the 13th day of the marathon and yippe am still going good... here what others have in store..

Sri has an aptly named tangy Chicken Masti ready

The rest i will update soon.. they r sure coming up with some or d other yummies... for a change i am up with a post before them .. :)

PANEER JALFREZI n my disaster with the leg peices.

2008-05-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

My love for paneer and especially paneer jalfrezi runs long back, i remember d few times we used to go to restaurants and while giving an order we would have a choice of having one dry veggie and a gravy, may be a dal or a paneer dish, and i would convince people to go for paneer jalfrezi because its not just paneer it has onions and capsicums and other veggies as well( i very well knew that it doesn't constitute of anything else but these 3). I love the way paneer onions and capsicums blend with each other, these 3 soak the tomato flavor and the rest of the spices very well and overall it is a delight. Fine you must be wondering what this one has to do with my disaster with the leg pieces, well i had this plan of making a paneer and egg coated leg peice dish and it had a sad ending but no regrets, i was destined to make my fav paneer jalfrezi today. But do read about my disaster at the end of this post. So here we go with the splendid panner jalfrezi.

Ingredients:

250 gms paneer(cut into 1 inch cubes)
2 big onions cut into small square pieces
1 big onions paste
1 big capsicum cut into equal sizes as the onions
2 tomatos puree(i took one tomato puree and one cut into pieces)
2 inch cube of ginger cut into long strips
1 tsp garlic paste
2 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 dry red chillies
1 tsp turmeric pwd
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin pwd
1/2 tsp lemon juice.

Method:

1. While you start preparing, boil some water and dip the paneer peices into this with a pinch of salt, this will make the cheese cubes extra soft.
2. Heat some oil in a wok and add the cumin seeds and the red chillies to this, let it splutter, now add the ginger, onion paste and the garlic paste to this, and let it saute till you have the aroma of ginger flowing or till d onions r light brown.
3. Now add the onion peices, saute for another 2 mins, to this add the capsicum pieces and saute for 3-4 mins. Add the salt and other spices to this and cover the lid and let it cook for 5-10 mins over medium flame, till the capsicum is cooked but has not shrinked and lost its texture, the fresh green color should remain.
4. Now add the paneer pieces, and stir for 5 minutes, to this add the tomato puree and let the excess water evaporate and the paneer pieces absorb all the masala.
5. In another 10-15 minutes you would observe that the paneer is soft enough and has absorbed the spices. The sabzi is ready .
6. Serve hot with chapati or any indian bread and some dal or gravy.

Coming to the disaster, This is one weird week for me, i planned to cook some chicken delight for hubby dear and wanted to surprise him with it, so i went out and bought a pack of two leg pieces. So this was the first time i was purchasing chicken myself, done. The recipe required me to debone the leg piece and marinate it in one mixture first and in another after some time. Fine, all well, i see to it that i have all the ingredients, now how do i debone it, ok i get this instruction in one of the sites which almost gives me a brief session on how to operate the little leg piece, (about to faint..), i request my servant to debone it for me, and she says yes she knows, wow nothing like it, so she does it for me, i gather all the guts and stand by her when she is doing that, and am succesfull in controlling myself from puking almost twice, good efforts, theres a skin kinda thing over it, i ask her, did ise nai nikalte ho kya? and she confidently tells me that no theres no need to take that out, ok i agree shes d boss then , but guess what shes gone and then i notice that in the recipe they i need to debone and deskin the leg peices, oops, that means i need to remove that too, why didn't i ask her to remove it, she has washed it, all i would have had to do was to marinate it and my gloves would have been a good saviour in this, but gosh i have to do it now, so gloves on, good knife which would not enter my regular use kitchenware again ready and there iam , succesful in removing it halfway, am all happy but suddenly i start feeling puky again, i dont know what am i doing with it, it slips once, i handle it, second time ok, saved, and the third time it goes straight into the sink, baby you are a loser, go to hell, and this way i waste it completely, i just cannot pick it and wash it again, and there i go , fetch a bag, dump these two peices in and throw it off into my dustbin, all this mite sound hilarious, stupid but seriuosly this is what happened in a strech of around 2 hours in the afternoon, so i thot why not share it with u guys, and like a sardaar why not laugh at myself first before anybody else takes the golden opportunity, am sure garg will have a gala time discussing this with my brother and a few common friends.

We are still running the Marathon. And heres what the others have in store for you:

Sri has some brilliant looking Mango sevai
Siri has some tindora rice
Arundathi has some different rice cooked up
Raaga has a tangy Peerkangai Toghayal
Divya tosses her tomatilla salsa
Lakshmi has a traditional Varuthu araitha kootu
Ranji has decilious looking Puttu and kadala
Dhivya has the appetizing Couscous with Moroccon Tagine
Bhags presents a spicy Hummus for you

ARBEE and NUTRI NUGGETS in Tomato Gravy : Aftermath of Mumbai Indians getting kicked out of IPL

2008-05-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

What happens when Mumbai Indians disappoint you like anything, when you don't know whether to blame them or to feel sorry for them, all they could do now was to pray and pray hard that Deccan Chargers win their last match, Chennai Super Kings simply loose their seat in the semis, horrible! And to top it all, a team with real good players , Herschelle Gibbs, Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi.. and some other good performers.. again in a position where they are playing their best, but still almost visible that they will loose it.. and finally they loose it, huh, Mumbai Indians out of IPL, deccan chargers prove to be losers once again.. bad very bad.. OK sorry, why all this irrelevant talk over here, seriuosly, what i made today was an aftermath of this, and yess i had to take out the frustration somewhere.

So the final result was this weird combination, arbee and nutri nuggets, i would have never thought of this combination, but this is what is IPL doing to me, i really really wanted Mumbai Indians to be there in the semis, iam happt jaipur and mohali are there, they deserve it, but somehow mumbai indians were better off than chennai super kings(so what if dhoni from jharkhand(my hometown) is there in my chennai team ), but they are to be blamed, i felt like ******* jayasuria after yesterdays match, how could he, and than fernando bowling a wide when they need 3 runs from a ball, they should be sewed.. these two matched were the most dissapointing matches, made me and garg fight, seriuosly, coz he was not supporting the team i was, guess what i had most of d only kulfi left in the firdge simply because garg was not supporting mumbai indians but was all for Jaipur.

OK i stop this here, so basically when i was totally distressed with these results and the way hyderabad was performing today i didnt know what to cook, i was frustrated, i had some arbee in my hand but when u dont find things right around you, you simply dont want to make thats normal(atleast not me), arbee fry :( (will have to cook dal alongwith it).. ok arbee ki rasse wali sabji(why are you behaving like Deccan chargers.. dont u know anything other than yorkers, try some other ball), so here iam , unaware of what am i about to do , i fetch some nutri nuggets and finalize on ,mixing arbee and nutri nuggets. But when everything else was not gonig right, this one thing didnt go wrong, yeah, it turned out pretty tasty, the flavors blended pretty well and the end result was appreciated, by the time i was serving this, i had kind of realized that i had come up with something very weird and its very much possible that garg deary might not like it, and i should be ready to accept it, instead of venting out my frustration on him, but surprisingly bnoth of liked it, it did taste good, and we might go for it again when we want something different from the usuals. So here we go ..

Ingredients:

250 gms Arbee
100 gms nutri nuggets
2 big onions finely chopped
2 big tomatoes finely chopped
1 inch ginger piece finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 green chillies slit lengthwise
1 tsp turmeric pwd
1 tsp red chilli pwd
2-3 tsp coriander pwd
1 tsp kitchen king(optional)
1/2 tsp amchur (dried mango pwd)

Method:

1. Boil the nutri nuggets as intructed in the pack, usually you need to soak nutri nuggets in boiling water for 10-15 mins, and the water needs to be drained out and kept aside.
2. Pressure cook the arbee for not more than two whistles. Otherwise it gets soggy, peel and keep aside. Cut it into small peices, 1 inch dices
3. In a pan add some oil and heat it, fry the arbee pieces till they become light brown and remove from heat and keep aside.
4. In d remaining oil add the cumin seeds and let it splutter, now add the green chillies, ginger and onions, and saute till the onions are done, add all the salts and saute for another minute or so.
5. To this add the tomatoes and saute till the tomatoes are blendecwell in this mixture, this mite take another 5-10 minutes.
6. To this add the nutri nuggets and fried arbee and mix well. Add 2 small cups of water and cover the pan and let it cook for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to check it doesn't stick . Once the gravy blends well with the nuggets and arbee, the curry is done, remove from heat, it is ready for serving.
7. Serve with hot phulkas.

Running on the marathon on the 11th day feels good.. this is what others have for you.

Siri has a Eggplant Rice for AWED.
Dhivya has some deliciuos looking quick swirls with spinach
Sri has another roti for the roti mela
Arundathi has a yummy Tosca Cake
Lakshmi has another yum recipe- white chocolate truffle
Raaga has interesting Potato Mushroom cakes

More to come.

You might also like to visit my previuos interesting posts:

Amritsari Chole Bhature
Momos
Side Dishes

Chacha ke AMRITSARI CHOLE BHATURE : A Chatkhor's favourite

2008-05-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

Since the day i read Srivallis post on chole bhature i was craving for it, it has been an all time favorite, since the time i have had these in delhi i love them , and have been a loyal fan when it comes to having a junk food as a whole meal, so filling so heavy and so so yummy. From my days in delhi university not a single week went by when i didn't have kamla nagar's chacha ke chole bhature, this guy is amazing, this is a small shop, with no sitting arrangement, but there wasn't a single day when i didn't see a crowd at his shop, it was always crowded, and of course he was d master, have never had such soft bhatures ever, it was his USP. OK i can go pages praising chacha ke CB, but seriously, you know what, people would come in mercs and what not to have his chole bhature and even to buy his chole ka masala, well yeah he used to sell that too.

Coming to amritsari chole bhature, whats that, well you must have had that dark brown looking chole with bhature, well that variety is called amritsari chole, and its a delight. Also some of the chole is mashed into the masala to make it a bit mushy n creamy. For me that color is a must with bhature. So here we go..

Ingredients:

For the bhature:
3 cups all purpose flour
7-8 tbsp yogurt
salt to taste
1/4 cup water(warm)
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp oil

For the Chole:

2 cups Chole (white chickpeas)
3 Tea Bags
2 Badi Ilaichi
Salt to taste (half black salt+half white salt)(i used 3/4 black salt in this stage, it made it very tasty)

3 Cloves
2 inch long Cinnammon Stick
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
2 tsp. cumin pwd
3-4 tsp coriander pwd
1 tsp Anardana
1 - 1 1/2 tsp red chilli pwd
1/2 tsp turmeric pwd

2-3 Tomatoes finely chopped
1 inch Ginger cut into think strands
2 Onions paste, 1 onion sliced
1/2 tsp Mangopowder (aamchur)
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
Ghee
2 Bay Leaves
1 tsp garlic paste
salt to taste

Method:

1. In a big vessel soak the chickpeas over night.
2. Chole masala: In a pan, dry roast all dry masale given in the second set of ingredients and keep aside.
3. In that same water in which the chickpeas were soaked, drop the tea bags, salt and moti elaichi and boil till it become soft. (for my variety , it took 7 whistles)
4. When cooked discard the tea bags, and 3/4 of the water, you may keep some of it to dilute the chole later.
5. In a separate pan heat the ghee and add bayleaves, ginger and the garlic paste, now add the onions(first the sliced, saute for a minute and then the paste) and fry it till golden brown, to this add the roasted powder we have from the second step, saute for another minute or so.
6. Now add the tomato puree to this and let it cook for 2 minutes. While cooking it mash some of chole with masher to mix all the masala well. To this add the chole and let it cook for 10 minutes.

7. For the bhature, knead a dough out of all the ingredient well to make a very soft dough and let it set for 1-2 hours, the longer you keep the softer bhature you get.

8. Make the bhature at the time of serving, nothing can beat a hot bhature n chole, make tennis ball sized rounds from the dough and roll them into cirles, well any damn shape, believe me, with bhature, the shape doesnt really matter.

9. Deep fry them. To make sure they do not soak much oil, make sure u have let the dough set for 1-2 hours, let the oil fume first, only then add them to fry, and fry them on medium high flame.

Serve it hot with chole, and onion rings, some lemon and green chillies, perfect street food.

Yippe day 10 of the marathon..

Siri has a health drink there for you
Sri has a different Dosa waiting.
Dhivya has some choco walnut brownie worth a drool.
Arundathi has a saffron risotto
Ranji is up with some sexy looking chicken drumettes
Lakshmi has some roasted eggplant wafers
Divya has a new version of bhindi
Bhags has a Tzatziki raita
Raaga has a new variant .. Spinach in coconut milk

Lazy Sunday Upma 2 : OATS UPMA

2008-05-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

Good oats will be sown sometime, and one of the arts of life to sow them at the right time." ;)

Yet another sunday and yet another breakfast to be prepared, and what can be better than an upma, mind tosses here and there, semiya upma.. naah.. Garg is gonig to kill me, i cannot take advantage of him like this, last 4 times we have made upma has been semiya upma, rava, he is not too fond of, ok forgt it, what else, oats, he hates it, he says Jaun(oats) hai, woh to hum ghodon ko khilate hain :D, (we feed that to horses).
But nothing else comes to my mind other than oats now, so i finally decide on trying the oats upma, had always heard of it, the carton of quaker oats also provides a recipe to it, exactly the same way we make any upma, so finally i made it, and to my surprise it was a pleasant surprise, we really liked it and would love to have it again. So here goes the simple oats upma, i simply made it the way you would make any upma.

Ingredients:

1 cup Quaker Oats
1 big onion sliced
2 tbsp peas
2 green chillies slit lengthwise
2 dried red chillies
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp chana dal
1 tbsp urad dal
salt to taste
a pinch of heeng
2 cups water
6-7 curry leaves
4 tsp ghee
1 tsp ginger finely chopped

Method:

1. Roast the oats without oil in a pan without oil till it turns brown may b for 2-3 mins and keep aside.
2. Heat some ghee in a wok ans add the chana dal and urad dal, let then turn brownish, now add the green chillies and red chillies
3. Add sliced onions, ginger and curry leaves to it, and saute till the onions are tender. To this add the heeng and salt and peas
4. Add the water and let it come to a boil, to this add the roasted oats. Keep stirring till all the water evaporates and are cooked thoroughly, if you think water is less you can add some more.
5. Serve it hot with some coconut chutney or with some fresh yogurt.

So this is my lazy run to the marathon day 9 :) What the others have in store for you today :

Siri has some quick home fries.
Ranji has d ultimate combo Dal Makhani n jeera rice
Divya has a great variant of a ginger chutney
Dhivya has her masala oil
Arundathi has some cutlets ready for snacks.
Sri has some pancakes for you.
Bhags has an interesting Tofu coconut soup
And Raaga has an onion chutney
more to come...

This goes as my entry to Eat Healthy : Fibre Rich event started by Sangeeth Thanks Sangeeth for reminding me to send it over for this event.

Bucking Bronco : Beer Cocktail - sip and go naked!

2008-05-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

"He was a wise man who invented beer"

- Plato

What a saying i must say. I hate beer, cant stand the smell of it. Here i must not forget to mention a story about the first time i tried beer, i was the one who pressurized Garg that i want to taste beer, and when finally he got me one, well according to me he had got me a real light one possible from that store, Kingfisher premium, and then i almost vomit it out, and throw the rest of it in the loo, i don't even allow him to drain it in the wash basin telling him it would stink :D, and to top this all i don't let him drink it too , the reason, well how can i let him drink something that stinks so much , :)). So that was me some 4 years back, and here I am with all the gyan about drinks and stirring up some interesting drinks for him now and then. But the whole mixology is fun, i must say.

Saturday night fever, beleive me if you wish to go crazy on a saturday night this ones gonna be a hit, Garg went crazy, and i really thought that oh my God Shatbhi basu is actually right with her words, and the name to the drink is so apt. She called it bucking bronco, which i later interpreted why.

Bronco, is a term used to refer to an untrained horse or one that habitually bucks. It may refer to a feral horse that has lived in the wild its entire life, but is also used to refer to domestic horses not yet fully trained to saddle, and hence prone to unpredictable behavior, particularly bucking. Now you know why its called bucking bronco rite, and the aptness of the tagline to it:)

How you make it:

Freeze a mug that kicks for 15-20 mins. Pour 5-6 cubes ice.
Squeeze in some lime, a little sugar syrup, and a spot of gingerale and shake it.
Pour in a little vodka 30 ml, and then top it up with some beer, best suggestion, the mexican one, Corona Extra, it zings it up completely, the ice n lime, and there you have.. bucking bronco sip and go naked...

Some more beer cocktails by shatbhi basu that you can try:

Shandy, beer and lemonade, just a little bit- softest but crispest one... refresh d beer, perfect when you are out in the sun on a poolside .. beach ... cut alcohol and make it refreshing

beer and gingerale works really well.. adds a spice... this is nice spicy shandy ...

Cola... trust her on this one... muddy shandy... as it turns it completely muddy... rounds it off in some manner... honestly thats what d cola does to it...

Enjoy your beer cocktails this weekend and on the weekends to come :)

Some beers facts related to health: Source Wiki - the savior

The moderate consumption of alcohol, including beer, is associated with a decreased risk of cardiac disease, stroke and cognitive decline.
Is known to be a rich source of nutrients; therefore, as expected, beer can contain significant amounts of nutrients,including magnesium , potassium, vitamin B etc.
A 2005 Japanese study found that low alcohol beer may possess strong anti-cancer properties.Another study found nonalcoholic beer to mirror the cardiovascular benefits associated with moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages. However, much research suggests that the primary health benefit from alcoholic beverages comes from the alcohol they contain.
It is considered that overeating and lack of muscle tone is the main cause of a beer belly, rather than beer consumption.
A recent study, however, found a link between binge drinking and a beer belly. But with most overconsumption it is more a problem of improper exercise and overconsumption of carbohydrates than the product itself. There is conclusive evidence that heavy and prolonged consumption of alcohol leads to liver disease including cirrhosis and malignancy. Heavy alcohol consumption has also been linked to pancreatitis.

Here goes some beers garg has tried and suggests: (in descending order of his choice)
Corona Extra(Mexican - a swig of lime is a must with this beer)
Guinness(the stout ones)
Budweiser
Heineken
Kingfisher Premium lager
Asahi(japanese)

Well the fact remains that after he has tried corona he has never gone for any other.

So this was my Day 8 run into the marathon, iam the lazy bee here. The others are up with:

Srivalli made my fav Rava Upma for breakfast.
Raaga has the soup!
Arundathi has Chana Masala and roti ready for lunch!
Ranji has some amazing Mango Kulfi waiting for you.
Divya made some spicy Chilli bajjis for snacks!
Have a blast at nite with Siris Sunshine Punch
And yeah Dhivya has Rajma Chawal for lunch.
and of course my bucking bronco. And this will b updated .. more to come..

Isnt it amazing a whole day meal courses ready for you.:) Ah what a weekend, wish this could b parceled to your places too.

Happy weekend people!!

Bon Appetite : MOMOS/ DIMSUMS Steamed Veg and Chicken Kheema Deep Fried

2008-05-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

" Appetizers are the little things you keep eating until you lose your appetite. "

-Joe Moore

Isn't this true for any appetizer you name, you go to a restaurant and ask for any appetizer to have a good start, spend some time leisurely before u order that main meal and by the time u have ordered a good main course, you are half full and you have ordered a little more than required, hehe i say some of you nodding your heads .. umm yess..
For me momos or dimsums are one such appetizers, iam so fond of it that i can very well have it as a main course any time. There have been times when i have had a full serving of dimsums or momos as my main course. Momos are one of the famous cuisines from Sikkim. It reminds me of my days in Delhi. It is said that the number of momo hawkers in Delhi can give a good competition to those in sikkim, the native to this kind of food. You ought to have it if you havent had it yet. OK momos come in four varieties:

1. Veg - both steamed and deep fried
2. Non Veg - both steamed and deep fried

So lets explore this beautiful variety of appetizers from our very own, North East India.
Momos are had with this yummy .. spicy tangy dipping sauce, some call it momo sauce but i prefer to call it the schezuan sauce, this is what the delhi haat momoz wala explained to me the first time i had it there. A must have with Chinese too. So lets kick-start finally. :)

The best outlets that i remember in delhi were of course my fav Delhi Haat Momoz, Momo point at Kamla Nagar and of course the momo stalls at model town III, not sure if the same ones still exist..

Ingredients:

For the Sauce:
15 dry red chillies
2 small tomatoes
10-12 garlic cloves
1/2 inch cube of ginger chopped
2 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
3-4 drops of soya sauce for color
extra virgin olive oil for frying.

For the Dumpling:
All purpose Flour - 1.5 Cup (8 momos)
Water for kneading(approx 1 cup)
Vegetable oil 2 tsp

For the Filling:(Non Veg)
100 gm Chicken Kheema
1 1/2 Onions (finely chopped)
1 tsp ginger finely chopped
2 tsp garlic finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chilli / chilli sauce
1/2 tsp coriander powder
salt to taste
1 tsp coriander leaves finely chopped

For the Veg Filling:
1 1/2 Onions finely chopped
1 carrot grated or finely chopped
1 small cup cabbage finely chopped
1/2 small cup red bel peppers finely chopped
1 tsp ginger finely chopped
2 tsp garlic finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 green chillies finely chopped
1/2 tsp coriander powder
salt to taste
1 tsp coriander leaves finely chopped
1/2 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp chilli garlic sauce

Method:
For the schezuean sauce:

1. Boil red chillies for 5 minutes and drain. Meanwhile peel the tomatoes and chop roughly. Chop half the garlic roughly.
2. Now grind all these and the rest of the ingredients except the remaining garlic and oil.
3. Heat some olive oil in a pan, add the remaining finely chopped garlic, once it turns a little brown add the mixture to this and stir till most of the water is evaporated and it starts leaving the oil from the corners.
4. Spicy tangy sauce is ready for the momos.

For the Dumplings:
1. Knead a soft dough out of flour and water, it should b soft as required for bhatures. Cover with a linen and keep aside.
2. Chicken Kheema: Heat some oil in a wok and add the cumin seeds, let it splutter, add d onions and ginger garlic and saute till golden brown, now add all the spices and saute for another minute. To this add the chicken kheema and stir regularly till the kheema is cooked properly. Once done remove from heat and keep it aside.

3. Veg Filling: Follow the same steps as the kheema, just add all the veggies in place of the kheema and add the sauces just before removing from heat. Keep this aside too.

4. Take an inch sized diameter balls and roll it into a thin small round circles. Fill 2 tbsp of the filling into this & fold over as you would do for any paratha. (see pic).
5. For steamed momos: Place the momo's on a cabbage leaf(so that it does not stick(it does not help oiling it at times, this is d best way)) and then on the steamer and steam for 15-20 minutes. For deep fried ones, just deep fry these and they are ready.

Serve it with the spicy tangy schezuan sauce and Bon Appetite !!

Not yet over buddies:) We have completed the 7th day of the
The good gurls are done with the day with:

Siri stirs her childhood memories with Egg puffs

Lakshmi has some healthy green Pudina Sadam (Mint Rice)

Arundhati has yummy looking Steamed Wontons

Dhivya heads to middle east with Beet Hummus

Srivalli has a perfect lunchbox with Puliyodarai

Ranji has an interesting Papdi Pizza

Divya - Reva Kesari

This goes as my entry to RCI: North-East Indian Cuisine. Thanks bhags ... i made momos myself... dont know if i would have made it otherwise.

This also goes as an entry to Mansi's Fun n Food for Monthly Mingle. What say Mansi... hope this is appetizing enough for the Mingle :)

CHATKHOR'S Must have CHUTNEY : Dhaniya Pudine ki Chutney / Mint Coriander Chutney

2008-05-22T08:14:00.001-07:00

Chandu ke chacha ne, chandu ki chachi ko,
chandni raat mein, chandi ke chammach se,
chatpati chatni chatayi...

Remember trying to say this rhyme as fast as u can without stumbling on a word or two... this always reminds me of my favourite chutney.. the dhaniya pudine ki chutney.. tangy, can be used as a dipping sauce.. a must have for every street food.. be it kachodi.. papdi chaat.. etc etc.. Seriously from d day i have started my so called grahast jeevan i havent had a day without this chutney in my fridge, never thought will be using this chutney is such varied ways but yeah these are some ways how it is used..
1. A must have with parathas(remember the way i had it with missi roti in d balanced brakfast) yes mixing it with fresh cream its d best combo with any paratha.
2. For chutney sandwich, just a layer of this chutney for your sandwich and it makes each of those cucumber slices taste a lot more better.
3. Garg loves to mix 1/4 tsp of this chutney to a finely chopped salad, to add that extra zing.
4. Mix a little of this with Dahi in your raita.
5. As a side chutney for invariably anything, substitutes pickles with chapati , with samose, with papdi chat, with dahi bhalle.. oh my god i feel like having all of them now..
I know this would b probably the most common thing in most north indian families and another variant of this with only corainder in south indian families but this i didnt want to miss on this in the marathon.. i guess it will b a great match for Dhivyas fried herb mozzarella. :)
OK here goes my simple recipe for my favourite fav fav chutney.. a must have in my pantry..

All you need is:

1 portion mint leaves
2 portions Coriander leaves
1 medium sized onions sliced
1 medium sized tomato peeled and cut roughly
5-6 green chilled cut roughly
Salt to taste

All you need to do is:

Grind all this together till a smoth paste is obtained. Tips: be generous with the chillies and salt, otherwise it becomes blande. Seriuosly if you want it chatpata you ought to be generous with it.

Check out what d other fantastic runners were upto today:

Srivalli refreshes her childhood memories with Onion Chapathi
Raaga presents her Vegetable Foccacia
Arundathi has some nice Raspberry and Blueberry Muffins
Siri has a tasty looking Tomato Coconut Chutney
Divya comes up with Cauliflower Peas Poriyal
Lakshmi has some medicinally good Kashayam

Ranji ready with her Simple Jhovan

Sukanya and JZ gifted me d most precious You make my day award. What better can you get when somebody feels you make his/her day .. thansk buddies. you make my day too.. with your kind words.. encouraging comments... thanks a ton... thank you all ... you have been a bigggg support...

Authentic Punju ALOO GOBI and Beckham Paji...

2008-05-21T03:37:00.000-07:00

Has Swati gone mad.. these weird titles are becoming a habit to her.. now what does she mean by Beckham paji here... well well well are these the thoughts fluttering in ur minds right now.. :) for a sec it struck me too.. so u r totally justifies(all that occurs in great minds like mine are totally justified.. i dont mind justifying the rest too ;)) OK iam sure many of you mite have guessed it the minute you read it.. Yes remember the much famed and acclaimed Bend it Like Beckham.. with the tagline "why cook ALOO GOBI when you can bend it like beckham"... yeah This Book Makes me Cook event hosted by my fellow Recipe Marathon by Bhags.

This is one of my favourite movies...
This movie is about Jessminder Bhamra's journey to the football fame from kick-abouts in the park to freekicks in the Final. Its about this football freak who knows how to bend that big ball like beckham from this orthodox Punju family who feel that instead of running around in shorts chasin that stupid ball.. she should instead be clad ni a traditional salwar kameez and should learn how to cook the authentic punju delicacy ALOO GOBI to gain points in the eligibility for a indian guy.:)) love this movie.. the family and every min of the movie. So this is one movie which makes me cook aloo gobi... coz i cannot bend it like beckham .. sorry beckham pajji.. :D

Well one doesnt need a reason to cook aloo gobi .. me and garg and luckily everybody i know are really fond of aloo gobi and love it d same way as my first time .Luckily i have learnt it from my mumma(mother in law) d authentic punju style aloo gobi.. i always used to wonder that my aloo gobi doesnt come like that ... but ever since i learnt the trick .. mine is a hit too... :) and its so quick .. Another unique and spicy aloo gobi variation that amma used to prepare hasnt been replicated by anybody yet.. i have tried it twice but was kind of disappointed, that was one such dish when she used to prepare .. d most sophisticated would lick their plate till the last spot of it. I promise the day i will be able to prepare something near to that one.. i will surely post that version. So here goes mummas punju version:D

Ingredients:

1 big cauliflower
2 big potatoes
3 onions sliced into 1 inch long slices.
1 tsp ginger finely chopped
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 green chillies slit lengthwise
2 tsp coriander pwd(dhania)
1 tsp turmeric pwd
salt to taste
1 tsp chilli pwd
1 tsp kitchen king (optional)

Method:

1. Cut medium sized florets of cauliflower and 1 inch cubes of potato as shown in the pic. Cut onions sliced lengthwise and then just one slit in d mid.
2. Heat some oil(2-3 tbsp) in a kadhai and when heated, add the potatoes to it and fry till it is fried well , brownish.
3. To this add the onions and ginger, fry till the onions become light brown. Now add the florets and stir for a minute. Once the florets have some oil on them , add all the spices and stir till it is spread consistently over all. Cover the pan and let it cook for 5 mins over medium flame.
4. Remove the cover in between and stir, dont add any water and keep stirring occasionaly to make sure it doesnot stick. In some 15 minutes the aloo gobi is ready.

Variations:

You can even add half a bowl of peas at the time you add the onions, as i did.
You can even add tomatoes, but authentic aloo gobi dosnt have tomatoes.
Ginger is optional.
You may fry both aloo and gobi seperately and add the fried florets at that stage, even this tastes great, amma used to do this in her version, but her masala was different. Will post that someday.

Not bad.. still running on the 5th day of d marathon. Heres what my fellow runners r up with

Siri has a yummiliciuos Hash brown melt sandwich waiting for you.
Arundathi makes one of the first recipes she learnt bell pepper with besan
Sri has some spicy Andhra muttor pepper fry
Laks has something heavenly to fool you with
Check out Dhivs tempting pics of her fried herb mozerrella
Ranji has mastered with professional looking Homemade Banana Chips
Divya has tasty quick ont pot meal, Carrot Rice

Will update the rest soon. Hoep you guys r keeping track of us :)

Ok this is like a awards month for me... all of u have made me so so so happy.. am on cloud nine.. two months into blogging and i have quite a few of them. Priyanka of AsanKhana passed on the "Rocking Gurl Blogger" award... thanks a ton.. am flattered .. elated... etc etc :) There r so so many of u whom i think u rock.. some with their pics... some with their writing styles.. some with their energy ... dont know what all.. you all do in some way or the other.. but want to stick to the rules once atleast .. so here r d rocking ladies i pass on the award to... u guys seriuosly rock....

Divya Vikram
Uma
Lakshmi
Srivalli
DK
Siri

U ROCK buddies!!

Meet u tomorrow with yet another run!!

Folks... Priyanka of asankhana, her feeds r not showing in TOI.. for some reasons.. do check out her page.. shes back after a break with a cool aasundi and a neat new template:)

Neelam ji ki Teekhi aur Meethi Methi wali KADDU ki SABZI : Recipe Marathon Day 4

2008-05-20T08:13:00.001-07:00

Kaddu is never made as a dry veggie in southie homes especially with chapati... all i remember is having pushnikaya kootu which was a fav to me... and having pushnikaya as a taan in saambhar..i meet prachi agarwal my best fren and she introduces this veggie to me when aunty stayed with us for a week in mumbai ... aah and since then iam a fan of this veggie.. me and aunty have been very frank and love her for her way of speaking.. playing pranks... and non veg talks... shes one lady who can make you blush with her top notch jokes... shes a cuto.. gol matol... loves dressing up... matching bindis.. loves gajras.. her cheeks glow.. she has a beautiful charm which nobody can miss.. shes one lady who loves loves loves cooking... and whateever she cooks is just class apart.. i remember that 2 weeks the way she had treated us... papdi chaat.. besan ke laddu .. rajma chawal etc etc ... all that a mom wud love to do for her kids... well i love her for her vibrant energy.. the way she pampers me.. calls me billi(naughty kid in local lingo..).. and understands ur state of mind without a hush.. and makes sure the generation gap never comes in between... i call her neelam ji :) thats how its b/w us.. love u aunty...
miss u many a times..hope u read it soon..this recipe is one she narrated to me when i called her especially to recall how to make this one... and shes too good... she starts like.. haan to note kijiye.. 1 chay wali chammach(teaspoon :)) ... dhyaan rakhna ki ... phir dheemi aanch par dhak dena.. etc etc... it was like she was reading it out from a cookbook written by her in her mind...
Aah i feel so good with this title.. it gives the exact feel of the sabzi... yess this is one tangy sabzi which gives the rite kind of high to my tastebuds as required... :) This is teekha... coz of the green chillies.. meetha coz of the sugar and chatpata coz of the amchur.. what else can we ask from this one man army... u ought to try it out to understand my emotions..:)
So here we go.. 2 things we need 2 remember which will guide the taste.. one that we should not remove the skin of the pumpkin, and second the order in which we add the ingredients should be followed strictly.

Ingredients:

500 gms kaddu(pumpkin)
2 medium onions finely chopped
2 tsp finely chopped ginger
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp fenugreek seeds(methi)
salt to taste
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 big green chillies slit lengthwise
1 tsp chilli pwd
2 tsp coriander pwd
2 tsp sugar (may vary with taste)
1 tsp amchur pwd(dried mango pwd)
1 pinch hing

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds to it, let it splutter add the green chilles, onions, ginger and saute till the onions turn light brown.
2. Now add the spices except for the sugar, amchur and hing, fry for a minute, now to this add the sugar and let it melt and mix well with the onions.
3. Once you have a fluid available(as the sugar melts) add the pumpkin peices to this (1 inch cubes of pumpkin to be cut with the skin)
4. Keep stirring occasionally, and very lightly so that the pumpkin doesnt break, make sure the oil is sufficient so that the pumpkins do not stick, this takes some 10-15 minutes, if done in medium high flame.
5. Just before you switch off the flame add the smchur and hing and stir for one last time.

The kaddu ki subzi is done... tastes best with chapti and rasse wali tamatar aloo ki sabzi (as suggested by neelam ji ).. when i had called her for the recipe.. she patiently gave me recipe and told me to make aloo tamatar ki sabzi with it.. and guess what she said... " billi iske sath aloo tamatar ki sabzi ...patli tari wali banana... eldum baniyon wala khana ho jayega... khush ho jayenge parvesh ji ... " too sweet she is... :) I managed to get a picture of aunty in d last min..Just look at her.. her smile.. her cheeks... d way she is posing for d pic... her bangles.. her nosering.. isnt she cute..:)

This is my day 4 run for the Recipe Marathon. Iam d late lateef.. probably d last.. but hey am still running :).. this is what my fellow runners have for the day:

Siris tempting looking vegan Morrocon Sphegetti
Lakshmi's one classic post on How to set Curd
A new veggie by Sri Kasara Kaya Vepudu
Dhivya's perfect looking Banana Cardamom Bread
Ranji's quick n easy methi leaves dosai
Arundhati's tasty Dipping Sauces
Divya's tempting snackMoong Dal Sundal
Bhag's Lucky Seven Dish.

Will update the rest soon..

Uma passed on the Nice Matters Award to me. Thanks Uma
“Nice Matters Award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.”

I beleive all of u have had very positive impacts on me... This is deserved by each one of you who visit me.. encourage me... appreciate my work. But i need to pass it on to a few. Will do that tomorrow. Very sleepy now.

Am back ... i pass on this award to :

ranji
Sukanya Ramkumar
Cilantro
Madhavi
sowmya

Congrats frens... all u guys deserve this... iam pretty new with all this.. accept it as a humble offering...

Shimla mirch Paneer Bhurji | Paneer stuffed capsicum and potato stuffed capsicum in makhani gravy

2008-05-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

Just a few days after i had made a post for Jhiva for Love with stuffed capsicum i saw the event announcement for VOW and JFI Bell Pepper . As i had already mentioned that i was not too fond of capsicum .. welll that would b an understatement..i used to hate bell peppers... but suddenly i have noticed that like onions, potato and tomatoes r d mandatory ones in the list when i go to shop for veggies... i see to it that capsicum stocks are also always full whether other veggies r available or not... so basically i have concluded that i no longer hate capsicums infact now i like them :)

So here iam with my 2 entries (as of now) for this event.

Shimla Mirch Paneer ki bhurji
------------------------------------

This capsicum bhurji was a hit at our place...make sure that quantity of paneer is halk that of capsicum... only then the tingy taste of capsicum gets enhanced.

Ingredients:

3 big capsicums very finely chopped (2 cups)
1 cup cabbage finely chopped
1 1/4 cup onion finely chopped
1 tsp ginger grated
Salt to taste
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chilli pwd
2 green chillies slit lengthwise
2 tsp coriander pwd
1 tsp kitchen king (optional)
1/2 cup milk

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds and let it splutter, now add the onions and saute till light brown.
2. Now add the chopped cabbage and capsicum and spices and cover it and let it cook for 5 mns, keep stirring in b/w so that it does not stick.
3. Once the veggies are done, add the milk, and the paneer, quickly stir to make a consistent mixture and make sure the panner doesnt form lumps, as our panner qty is very less(50-100gms) it should not b a problem for us.
4. Serve hot as a side dish with parathas or any indian flatbread.

Potato Stuffed and Paneer stuffed capsicums in Makhani Gravy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have already given a detailed recipe of the aloo ki sabji wala stuffing. You can find that recipe here.

A few days back i prepared a paneer stuffing for capsicums... sorry folks i couldnt take pics of the capsicums in gravy... Here goes the preperation...

For the paneer stuffing :

2 cups crumbled paneer
1 onions finely chopped
Garlic - 1/2 tsp (crushed)
Ginger - 1/2 tsp (grated)
Green Chillies - 2 finely chopped
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Milk - 3 tbsp
1/2 tsp chat masala
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Method:

1. In a pan heat some oil and add the cumin seeds, once they splutter, add the onions and saute till light brown, to this add all the spices and ginger garlic and chillies and saute for another minute.
2. To this add the milk and the crumbled paneer, cook for 2 minutes, the paneer is ready for the stuffing.
3. Now follow the procedure to make stuffed capsicums exactly the way it was done with potato stuffing here.

This is todays run on the Recipe Marathon. Heres what my fellow runners upto today.

Dhivya has her Spicy-Roti
Lakshmi's tempting Onion
Siri's interesting and delicious looking Fatayer Bisabanikh Spinach Pastry
Sri's must go with curd rice Dahi Mirchi or Mor Malaghai
Ranji starts it fabulously with her Blueberry Muffin
Raaga's interesting Jackfruit Curry one of my favourites.
Divya's yummilicious looking Cranberry Muffins.
Bhags comes up with this super healthy Soup stock
Arundhati's home made Grape jam

Lazy Sunday Entry to the Marathon : Bread ka Upma / BREAD POHA

2008-05-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

Have never ever made a post on a sunday .... lazy me as always ... but here iam ... it was one of the most lazy sundays i have had yet... get up late... take a 3 hr nap in d afternoon and keep lazing around d whole day... i loooooooooove such days... when both of us keep asking the other to do a certain thing... pettiest of things like switching on the light.. or bringing a pillow from the other room... and siting the bestest of reasons why the other should do that task... well we both are well capable of donig this :) and we love doing this... and finally one of us will have some pity on the other and do it... (hidden motive.. that will be the reason for the next task.. why the ither should do this one... coz i did this one for him... even though he should have..)

OK one fine day a bunch of u will sew me for torturing u with all this bakwaas.. :) till then i guess i can go on with it :P .. Bread upma is one easy quick and luxury thing for me when iam lazy but want to have a good home cooked breakfast.. dont want to have a sandwich.. dont want to have d blande cornflake.. there i go .. fetching the bread for a good upma whatever you wanna call it. It is a dry upma.. so evertime i make it, my tomato ketchup keeps calling out.. 'hey swati aap banaye bread upma behter..' :) seriuosly it enhances the taste.. and makes it much better.. as always this bread and ketchup duo goes so well... :) Here goes my quick and simple Bread upma..

Ingredients

6 slices of bread
4 medium sized onions
1 tbsp cumin seeds(jeera)
2 green chillies slit lengthwise
1 tsp turmeric pwd
1/2 tsp chilli pwd
2 tsp coriander pwd(dhania)
1 tsp chal masala (optional)
7-8 tbsp tomato ketchup
salt to taste

Method :

1. Heat some oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds and the green chillies, once it splutters add the finely chopped(lengthwise) onions and saute till brown.
2. Now add all the spices and saute for another 2 minutes, and then add the tomato ketchup.
3. To this add the small bread pieces to this, and stir continuously so that the onion mixture covers all the bread pieces consistently.
4. Cover the pan and let it cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves and may be some more ketchup :)

Enjoy a quick n easy breakfast on a lazy sunday morning as we did :) This goes as my second entry to the Recipe Marathon. Would update soon what are my fellow runners upto today.

Dhivya's Simple yet tempting Peas Pulav
Lakshmi's lovely Thengai dosai or Coconut Dosa
Siri's refreshing Kosambari
Sri's home version of the Sambar Powder
Raaga's interesting Sundal.
Bhags yummilicious Coffee Cake.
Divya's perfect snacks, the Vegetable puffs.
Arundhati's Taste n Create Pierogies

My first stint with Non Veg Cooking : DUM KA MURGH ZAFRANI - Chicken slowly cooked in yoghurt - My DAY1 run on the RECIPE MARATHON

2008-05-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Heyyy frens... i need a tap on my back ... finally i collected all the guts to go in for non veggie cooking in my kitchen ... and huh the ice breakings done :) and that barriers gone... i can cook non veg for garg now on... he is a hard core non veggie... loves loves loves anything that lies in that category.. can survive on it for inumerable continuos meals.. hehe.. and poor guy is stuck with this veggie who has a aversion with raw chicken and thats the reason i could never think of cooking it myself... well he was sweet enough to make sure that he cleans the peices and do all the steps that need to be done with the raw peices.. ok too much of my gana... so i wanted to treat him with something special, something rich, he loves rich food.. and there i go, thanks to the sweet lil Chicken Delights cookbook i got to get some chicken basics clear... wel this has my own alterations, to suit his pallete, being the fidgity person iam i can never stick to a recipe.. it came out really well ... looking at the color.. the gravy was blissfull and the three people who had it had beautiful expressions on their faces.. these three who can be the bestest of critics...

Anna - my elder bro... hes d certified taster of our family... can be the best critic as far as food is concerned, he can give you the best words of praise if it ticks his tastebuds.. and the best part.. if he cannot control his sleep by the end of his meal.. that means the food has touched all his senses... yeah he loved it.. and had a 2 hour sleep after it...
Garg.. who else can know the real worth of a chicken dish other than Parvesh Garg.. if he has 3 to 4 helpings without a second thot then yes its a clear hit.. :) and yeah.. he was all proud :) ok people... just a lil more.. it was an acheivement for me .. first of all my first chicken dish.. and then garg getting happy about it.. i have all d rites to flaunt it rite :) ..
ok.. and anirban bhaiya.. a fooodie by heart.. i remember him having the simplest sambhar sadam and idli chutney with all praise... so chicken for the bong.. was a delight.. he even clicked a pic of this from his mobile... he loved the color of the gravy.. and then " itna achcha chicken main bahutt dino baad kha raha hun".. aah it was heavenly... it was a plessure.. the barrier.. the mental block that i dont want to cook non veg coz i cannot bear it got vanished... anything for ppl i love... and why not when they reciprocate so well...

Aah.. i feel so good after taking out all this in front of you guys... :) so here we go.. Dum ka Murgh Zafrani for all my non veggie frens... do gimme you feedback ..

Ingredients :

1 kg Chicken (medium sized chunks)
1 cup Clarified Butter,
4 large Onions, sliced
1 Tomato, peeled and pureed
1 bay leaf
2 cloves
2 tsp Garlic Paste
1 tsp Ginger Paste
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
3 green chillies slit lengthwise.
4 tspCoriander Powder
1 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
2 cups Warm Milk
1 cup Water
1 1/4 cup Yoghurt
2 tbsp fresh cream
5 tbsp almond(badam) paste
1 tsp Saffron (1g)

Method:

1. Heat half of the clarified butter in a pan and saute onions till brown. Remove, drain excess ghee and blend to make a paste.
2. Heat remaining ghee, add all the ingredients except onion paste, almond paste, tomato puree and saffron. Stir fry the dry items for a few minutes and then add the milk, waer and yoghurt to it.
3. Add the chicken peices and cook on low heat till half done.(You can simply use the chicken as it is or else marinate it for an hour before you start with this process, it gives the chicken peices a rich taste.. i marinated the chicken peices in dahi and a little vinegar and 2 tbsp of fresh cream for an hour or so.)
4. Meanwhile saute the onion paste, once done completely, add the tomato puree, and then the almond paste to it, keep stirring till it starts leaving oil from the corners, keep it aside.
5. Once the chicken is half done, stir in the paste made above and the saffron , turn the flame to low and cook till the chicken peices are tender. (well dont ask me what does that mean coz at this stage garg was testing if the peices are cooked completely.)
6. Remove from heat and serve hot with plain rice spliced with some bay leafs and cloves, garnished with some fresh thyme, coriander or parsley whatever available.

Tips: Marination makes the peices tender, if you dont have much time to marinate, add all the ingredients required for marinating in a ziplock bag, try to create vacuum as much as possible and zip lock it, now place this in the freezer, this reduces the time required for marination to half.

Pleople forgive me any mistakes in explaining or methods and no detailed pics, as this was my first stint with this style of cooking. Hope you all like it and do gimme your feedback.

I wanted to take my sunsign for the Fortune Cooking event, Leo as i keep singing the song .. iam Born Leo... leos are this.. leos r that .. hehe... but found hubby dears sunsign.. Aries taknig advantage as the Sign having chicken with it... HAD TO BE hehe... so i thought nothing can beat this... this has to be my entry to the famed event.... i love this concept of yours shriya... so here goes my entry to it....do check out this event people ... you even have got prizes to win....

OK whats better than to start my run on the Recipe marathon with something that will remain special to me for various reasons. This goes as my Day 1 run to the wonderful Recipe Marathon started by DK and Siri. Hats off to u people.. where do you get such ideas from. This would really keep me on my toes to post all the pending recipes i need to post.:).

Heres what my fellow marathon runners have created as Day1 run:

Dhivya's Bhindi Jaipuri
Sri's Chicken Semi Gravy
Bhag's Shorba
Raaga's Masala Lauki Chana Dal
Siri's Baked Cauliflower with Puck's Marinara Sauce
Divya's Peas Kurma

The list of participants can be found here. My names not there.. will be added soon.:)

Will keep adding more as i find the exact list.

Beat the Heat II : Screw Driver, the Orange cocktail and my Plum Screw Version.... and guess who Makes my Day

2008-05-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

A Screwdriver is a popular cocktail made with orange juice and vodka. Sometimes it is referred to as "Vodka and Orange". Loved its mention as the most yankee concoction of vodka and orange juice.

The name of the drink, Screwdriver, is a wordplay. In bar lingo, the two main ingredients are called screw (orange juice) and driver (vodka).

Variations

The classic Style - glass full of ice.. 1 part vodka and two parts orange juice best when you are not in the mood of stirring up a lengthy cocktail..

Replacing the flat orange juice with a carbonated orange drink, such as Fanta, produces a cocktail known as a Hi-Fi. A screwdriver in which Tang is substituted for the orange juice is known as a "fuzzy cosmonaut".

To make the beverage more palatable a sweet liquor is often added such as Amaretto. This is often referred to as a Samerreto.

Another variation occurs when the ratio of the components is switched. When mixed as 1 part orange juice and two parts vodka, it is referred to as a Drivescrewer.
The well known Harvey Wallbanger cocktail is a Screwdriver with a splash of Galliano floated on top.

A screwdriver in which the orange juice is replaced with blue Gatorade is a "sonic screwdriver", after the blue-lit device from Doctor Who. Another popular term for any Vodka/Gatorade cocktail is "Vaderade".

All this detail comes from none other than the saviour.. Wikipedia..

Another Variation by me : and i name it Plum Screw

Muddle red plums,2 to 3 sprigs of mint, some lime cordial, gingerale and some honey together, strain it, take one part of this, one part of vodka and one part of orange juice.

Garg was elated with this concoction.... he rated it better than screw driver and the kiwi martini...but bucking bronco was still at number one... will post that one soon....

______________________________________________________________

And now comes the who Makes my Day stuff... Swati of Sugarcraft India passed on the "You Make my Day" award... its such a nice feeling that i came to her mind when she had to think of people who bring a smile to her and make her day... if i deserve even 1% of that credit.. its my pleasure... this makes me think of my varying thoughts through these 2-3 months of blogging... the day i thought of having my own blog.. the thoughts in my mind were that i too make somewhat good food.. i didnt want to miss out on the fun you guys were having ... wanted to maintain a log of my creations... and spend my time in a productive way... whenever i used to see ppl sharing notes of frenship i used to wonder if its all true... does it really exist in this virtual world.. etc etc... but unknowingly i started getting involved with n number of u ppl... u guys started giving my page a notice.. thanks buddies... i feel great.. dont know how long will i be able to continue with this strainous job.. coz am not as hard working like u guys.. but these 2 to three months have been a bliss.. i have been searching for a job too for these two months but things are not falling into place ... somewhere something is jinxed... but you have all made my day every passing day....

why all this MELODRAMA...

hehe.. seriuosly no wonder some ppl call me drama queen and tragedy queen... but all this stuff is simply because i need to mention a speacial thanx to tell each one of you ... who have regularly or even once given a vidit to my place.... left behind some sweet,.. some encouraging... some flattering words... :) thanku thanku thanku... You guys really make my day .... :)
Yess .. i mean it.. each one of you make my day as i mentioned.. even if you visit it regularly or even once.. every new comment brings a new smile on my face... :) but i dont want 10 to loose out on the chance to spread this happiness to others... So heres my list of 10 who make my day..

Divya Vikram
Dhivya ,
ANJALI J. ,
SMN ,
Sig ,
pearlsofeast,
bee ,
SHUBHA ,
Mansi Desai ,
Sia,
pritya,
Srivalli ,
Sukanya Ramkumar
notyet100

I dont know d rules of this.... how many people to forward it to... so i take the benefit of doubt... people you really make me happy and inspire me to post more and get more comments yu ha hahahahaaa... :)) thoda zyada ho gaya... sorry.... and thanks a ton for tolerating my nonsense...easycrafts , Swati of Sugarcraft India, Madhavi , Cham , Uma, you too make my day but not in that list coz u have already recieved it beforehand...please accept it as a gift from me too.. :)

well that line in my melodrama class that whether i will be able to continue blogging or not doesnt make any sense... atleast not now... coz iam enjoying it and would definitely enjoy it for the coming many months and years i guess:)

An Ode to Rajasthani Cuisine - Dal Bati and Churma ni ladu / PANCHMEL Dal and STUFFED Batis

2008-05-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

RCI Rajasthan.. the minute i read about this event what clicked my mind was dal baati churma... but d next question in mind was do i really have the patience to indulge in this hectic task ... what the heck ... coz if i dont try it now.. well i dont think ill ever give it a shot.... so here i was.. but swati deary could not compromise with just dal baati .. the foodie swati insisted.. dal baati and churma are inseperable.. cook swati got scared.. humbly tried explaining it to foodie swati that dear.. its a long long process.. and the cook is me... i will have to take all the pains.. anyhow i missed RCI Bengal for silly reasons like i have already posted d bong dishes i know and out of laziness it was gone.. so another RCI... lets compromise on it...foodie swati started pestering.. my tastebuds started pleading .. cook swati started convincing.. lets compromise on gatte ki sabzi or rajasthani style mixed veg.. foodie swati insisted.. somebody has already prepared gatte wale pulao or sorts.. this would not b upto your mark... you can definitely deliver something better... etc etc etc... and cook swati finally got convinced... (senti ho gayi faaltu mein... thinking that shes a great cook..yu ha hahaaaaa..)

Seriuosly this is literally what happened yesterday .. a good long argument between my foodie and cook self... the palates had to win... and there i was preparing churma ni ladu in the morning and then dal bati in the evening.. and it was not all... i wanted to have some variations... so i tried the stuffed version of bati and added onions and tomato to the authentic style dal.. but alls well that ends well... i could not have come up with something better... it was my bestest of my trials..

My first stint with Rajasthani food was when i met my fren anjali maheshwari from udaipur during my graduation days.. never knew a particular regional cuisine could be so diverse and unique.. the more she used to mention about them the more i used to fall in love with it... i still remember the numerous varieties of snacks she would get from home after vacations... be it mathri .. sev.. chivda..kair sangri..churma... aahhh.. nights discussing how different things are in our respective hometowns jamshedpur and udaipur.. having chilgoze.. she inviting me to her room when her roomies were not around.. for a chit chat and offering me her snacks.. and i can bet .. all her snacks got over courtesy swati raman coz mam used to have food like a chidiya.. and yeah not to forget the much famed panchkute ka achaar.. am sorry if i have named it incorrectly but it was an achar made from some 5 wild fruits or herbs.. and it was amaziiing... hey anjali missing you... (ur food to be precise ;)).. ok ok then i had daal bati for the first time at a very good frens place.. at my first night out of my life... i was all excited.. anchal being a jain.. and aunty knowing that iam a close fren treated me with the desi dal bati which is served to special guest in rajasthan.. thanks aunty didnt know abt it then.. now i know how much efforts it takes ... hats off to all those rajasthani folks who effortlessly come up with this lipsmacking dish .. hats off to you..
the much acclaimed Rajasthani thali is incomplete without the Dal-Baati-Churma. It consists of baatis or round wheat flour dough dumplings baked over firewood or over kandas, cow dung cakes, as done in villages till date. Baatis can be baked in a gas tandoor or an electric oven as well. I dont have an oven so my version different but didnt seem different..
The one thing common for baatis, irrespective of their cooking technique is that they are always served dipped in ghee, clarified butter accompanied with panchmel or panch kutti dal(consists of 5 dals) and churma.
The dal is cooked with ghee, the masalas in the dal are fried in ghee and more ghee is mixed into the dal before serving. So all you calories consious folks this is just not your dish..
Often a large batch of baatis is made and part of the dough is left unsalted. This unsalted dough then shaped into rounds and deep fried in ghee. Later these deep fried baatis are crushed and sugar or jaggery is mixed into them to make a sweet dessert- churma. I have the churma ka laddu for you guys.. The three together make a very filling and rich meal.

This goes as my entry for RCI Rajasthan hosted by Padma of Spicy Andhra. Thanks a ton dear, otherwise i would have never thought of making it myself. So here we go..

Ingredients:

For the panchmel dal

1/3 cup split Bengal gram (chana dal)
1/3 cup toovar (arhar) dal
1/3 cup green moong dal (split green gram)
2 tbsp urad dal (split black lentils)
2 tbsp whole moong (whole green gram)
1 big onions paste
1 medium tomatoes puree
1 tbsp ginger finely chopped
1 tbsp 3 teaspoons chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1 teaspoon coriander (dhania) powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
2 green chillies, slit
2 pinch asafoetida (hing)
2 tsp amchur (dry mango powder)
3 tablespoons ghee
salt to taste

For the baatis (for approx 10 baatis)

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (gehun ka atta)
2 tbsp rawa
4 tablespoons Bengal gram flour (besan)
1/2 cup milk water mixture
5-6 tbsp melted ghee
1 tsp chilli pwd
1/2 tsp ajwain
salt to taste

For the stuffings

1 cup boiled peas
1 big onion finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chilli pwd
1 tsp coriander pwd
1 tsp kitchen king (optional)
salt to taste

For the Churma Laddu

1 1/2 cups (200 grams) whole wheat flour (gehun ka atta)
2 tblspn rawa
1/4 cup grated dry coconut (copra)
3/4 cup (150 grams) jaggery , grated
2 tablespoons ghee
ghee for deep frying
poppy seeds (khus khus) and dry coconut powder for coating the laddus

Method:

For the panchmel dal

1. Clean the dals and Pressure cook for 2 to 3 whistles in medium flame or till the dals are cooked.
2. Combine the chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala with 3 tablespoons of water and keep aside.
3. Heat the ghee in a pan and add the cloves, bay leaves, cumin seeds, green chillies and hing. When the cumin seeds crackle, add onions paste ans saute till golden brown. Now add the prepared masala paste and saute for another minute or 2. Now add the tomato puree and let it cook till the mixture starts leaving oil from the corners.
4. Add the cooked dals, amchur, and salt and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. Adjust the consistency of the dal before serving and if required, add some water.

For the Stuffing:

Heat 1 tblspn of oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, let it splutter, once done add the ginger saute it for a minute, now add the onion and fry till it turns light brown, now add all the spices and saute for a minute. Now add the boiled peas, and 1/2 cup of water, cover the lid and let it cook for 10 minutes, just check in between that the it doesnt stick. Let all the water evaporate and see to it that the peas have got the flavor and are cooked. Set it aside and let it cool before you add it as a stuffing.

For the baatis

1. Mix all the ingredients and knead into a firm dough. Knead well, it should be much harder than the regular chapati dough.
2. Divide the dough into equal portions and shape each portion into an even sized round, Flatten the rounds lightly using chakla belan and hold it as a bowl, add 1 tablespoon of the stuffing and seal it from the top shaping it as pedas or golgappas:)
3. Boil water in a vessel and drop the baatis in the boiling water. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes over a high flame. Once the baatis are done they would start floating. When the baatis are done, drain and keep aside.
4. Heat a gas tandoor or oven, well i dont have one so i went the gas stove way, heat a thin tawa and place the batis on it, roast it for 10 to 15 minutes, it will become light brown from both the sides, keep turning sides to have this. Roast them on a medium flame to ensure that the baatis are cooked on the insides also.
5. Once they are slihtly done remove and deep fry in ghee.

For the Chorma Laddu:

1. Make a stiff dough of the whole wheat flour and rawa using 1/2 cup of milk water mixture. Knead very well making a hard dough as in bati.
2. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. Shape the portions into the shape of your fist and press with your fingers or nails here and there to make indentation to ensure even frying.
3. Heat ghee in a large kadhai and deep fry the dough portions on a very slow flame for approximately 15 20 mins until they are brown in colour. Drain on absorbent paper and allow them to cool.
4. Break it into small peices you may even use a mortar pestle in this case. And then grind the pieces further in a food processor to get a fine powder (churma). As coarse as rawa powder.
5. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a pan, add the grated coconut and saute for about 2 minutes. Remove and keep aside.
6. Heat the jaggery with the remaining tablespoon of ghee and 2 3 tbsp of water on a medium flame till the jaggery dissolves. let it cool slightly.
7. Mix the ground churma, coconut and nuts powder (in between break some cashew, almonds and pista into peices, fry them for not more than a minute on medium flame and grind them just once so that you have a mixture of powdered nuts and some small peices.) with the melted jaggery. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.
8. Divide into 10 portions and shape into rounds. Roll each laddu in poppy seeds and coconut. Store the laddus in an air-tight container.

How to have it:

Arrange the baatis on a serving plate, break each baati into 4 pieces and pour melted ghee on the baatis. Pour hot panchmel dal over the baatis. Serve hot with churma, papad, salad and pickel:)

Iam Back...My first AWARD and a MEME - Thanks a ton friends...

2008-05-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello people .. iam back after a hectic week at the wedding.. my first perfect punju wedding... being awake the whole night... 3 days of loads of work... trying to keep everybody happy :) (my first time at my in-lawas place without hubby dear... but i enjoyed it to the fullest)... performing all the rituals a bhabhi should perform... trying to pamper sissy dear as much as possible... it was funn... i even tried hands on mehendi art... it was not that great but mainu ki fark painda hai ... :) afterall chachi ke haath the... but the result was not all that bad.. :) i tried hands on wadiyon ki sabzi ... overall everything was really funn... icing on the cake... when i returned... daddy dear gave praised me infront of garg... ki uske aane se shadi mein jaan aa gayi... and moreover she was a frontrunner :) aah mogambo khush hua... :)

OK ppl tooo much of self praising.. heheehe.. now some facts... i missed you guys like mad... never thot blogging had become such an imp part of my life... checking out taste of india... refreshing frens pages... its such an addiction... no wonder i made garg post abt my absence and he was all happy boasting his short term bachelorhood :) well i really have to go thru all you blogs to chaeck out whats cooking... i dont want to miss anything... as it is i missed the click au naturel..:( eventough i had the pics there... but last minute submissions are a habbit... better luck next time...

So i want to share some good news with you guys.. I got my FIRST AWARD... the YUMMY BLOG AWARD... it was such a pleassure... at first i thought why me... havent reached that level at all... but who would like to miss on the happiness... so here iam cherishing this first award of mine...thanks a ton Anjali and Madhavi for thinking of me for this award. our very own Anjali J. of Soups n Snacks and Madhavi of Vegeterian Medley passed this award to me. This award has been started by Roopa of My Kitchen Treats who says,

"Yummy blog award is given to the blog with most yummy recipes/photos".

The rules require me to quote my favorite yummy-licious dessert(s) that they have ever prepared/eaten. So here i go .. but just 4 desserts... thats a sinnnnn... i love them all... i adore them all... :) but i salute these four all time favourites..

Aate ka halwa
Ferrero Rochers
Chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream topped with sizzling chocolate sauce and nuts...
rum n raisins and almond fig icecreams topped with caramel or chocolate sauce and roasted nuts...

Aaah they r sooo sooo very yummilicious and irresistable... i love dairy milk .. i love any payasam ... i love gulab jamuns...and any dessert for that matter...

OK thats done.... now i need to pass it on to 4 of my frens who i think really really deserve this award... well coz i recieved this award twice i would like to take the advantage of passing it on to 8 others.. I hope Rupa doesnt have a problem with that :) .... The minute i received this award i had a long long list to choose from... to whom i can pass on this award... ranging variedly from Arundathi , easycrafts , SMN , Swati: Sugarcraft India , ANJALI J. , Sig , Dhivya , Cham , Divya Vikram , Madhavi , bee , Uma , ranji , Pearlsofeast, Homecooked , SHUBHA , shriya , Srivalli , notyet100 , Madhavi , Nandita, Mansi Desai , Sia , KayKat, Coffee.. and may be i have missed a few more frens who are real inspirations with thier yummmmmmmy recipes and pictures... i admire them ..i envy them ..:) i keep drooling over their recipes.... they have all changed the perspective of cooking for me in some way or the other... but i need to restrict myself to 8. And moreover most of them have already recieved the award... i missed the chance buddies. Here are my picks for the yummy blog awards. People iam too small to pass this award to great bloggers like you... but i dont mind honouring you with this one.

Sig of Live to Eat fame. Sig all that you prepare has a charm attached to it. Iam a fan of your attitude and yeah no two thoughts i have taken you for my cocktails guru. Everytime i mix a drink you are there on my mind.
Shubha with her Chutki Bhar Pyar. Hey shubha i love the way you rite... we relate to each other in many senses.. and you know that well... love every post by you...it actually has that pinch of love ;).
Jai n bee flaunting their super duper Jugalbandi. They are the masters. The first time Bee commented on a post.. i actually treated myself with a chocolate.. The click experts are just amazing. Iam just nobody to speak about them believe me. You have been an insparition and will always be.
Sia of Monsoon Spice. Buddy you are really passionalte about life n spice.. i love your pics and just crave to get my pics somewhat like them ...:) Yours was one of the first blogs i really got hooked to ... You are a star... the way you put small excerpts before every post is amazing.. hats off to you.
KayKat from Cooking from A to Z. I love your pics, youe one liners in between your recipes and bindaas style of writing... makes the recipes even more yummier. Glad to know you buddy.
Srivalli happily Cooking 4 all seasons. One fine day this lad comes with a frenship chain info and i go fida over her energy.. her zest and her creativity and to all the directions her mind can go as far as recipes goes. All yummy sounding stuffs she would come up one after another. Not to forget her roti mela and dosa mela. You inspire me with your energy.. truly..
Smn with her cookspot. My legal consultant :) i love calling her by that name... what a zest in her photographs.. and such a variety. I love the way you present your stuff... its mindblowing... You too have been an inspiration as far as photographs goes.
Coffee of the Spice Cafe. I love you recipes, i love your template, i love your pics... everything about your page... you rock buddy... you truly deserve to be named yummy....
LAst but not the least the humble Mansi Desai of Fun n Food. Everything that she prepares would b perfect and so proffessional and very very innovative. She was one of the few who encouraged me by notocing my page. Hats off to you mansi i learn a lot from you.

People you may pass this award and follow the rules as mentioned here. This was a task... but was my pleasure. I take this opportunity to thank each one of you for being with me, appreciating the petty things i make. Sig Bee Sia and Mansi you were the first ones who indirectly instigated me to start with this page and iam totally in love with it now. Thanks. Shubha, sri, kaykat and smn thanks for being there with me along this journey so far... your visits r a pleasure.I also want to thank Dhivya , Divya Vikram , Arundathi , easycrafts , ANJALI J. ,Madhavi , Cham ,Uma, Pearlsofeast and notyet100 for always being there around my site with thier kind words.

Congratulations to everybody on their award.

Man this does not end here... I have been tagged by Divya vikram for a MEME. And i have been tagged by easycrafts. So here goes my MEME.

1) LAST MOVIE U SAW IN A THEATRE?

Khuda Kay Liye

2) WHAT BOOK ARE U READING??

Chowringhee by Sankar

3) FAVOURITE BOARD GAME?

Ludo, Pictionary.

4) FAVOURITE MAGAZINE?

India today, Business Week and Filmare - gives me my share of gyan and gossip.

5) FAVOURITE SMELLS?

Geeli mitti ki khushboo, Jovan Musk, Davidoff Cool Water and TED Lapidus.

6) FAVOURITE SOUNDS?

Rock and Kishore Kumar.

7) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?

Solitude and Bankrupcy.

8) WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE?

Do i really have to get up.

9) FAVOURITE FASTFOOD PLACE?

Calcutta chat House here and Thakkars and Chowpatty in Mumbai.

10) FUTURE CHILDS NAME?

Ram Prasad and Laxman Prasad.. lol

11) FINISH THIS STATEMENT—’IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D’

Gimme the money first honey... then i'll show you what all i can do with it...

12) DO U DRIVE FAST?

Yeaaahhh..

13) DO U SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?

Yes....at times.

14) STORMS–COOL OR SCARY?

Depends on my mood..

15) WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?

A miniature wooden open jeep.

16) FAVOURITE DRINK?

mango shake , Mc D's Strawberry shake and badam milk.

17) FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD…

Sleeeeep...

18) DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?

Yes.. did this imply something...

19) IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?

Burgandy

20) NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN?

Jamshedpur, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore.

21) FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

Cricket , Football

22) ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?

Divya - very down to earth.. i love her charm...

Easycrafts - very creative be it art n crafts or food... i admire her talents...

23) WHATS UNDER YOUR BED?

May b some dust... :P

24) WOULD U LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN??

Of course yessss...

25) MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?

Night owl..

26) OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP?

Sunny Side Up

27) FAVOURITE PLACE TO RELAX?

Home - my bean bag, my bed

28) FAVOURITE PIE?

Apple may b...

29) FAVOURITE ICECREAM FLAVOUR?

rum n raisins and vanilllaaaa

30) OF ALL THE PEOPLE U HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?

No clue.. the one who does gets a surprise gift :)

Arundathi , shriya , Srivalli and notyet100.. i would like to tag you... for this meme... if only you are interested in this meme... please go ahead ... would love to know more about you.... will resume my blogging from tomorrow i guess...

She will be back soon :)

2008-05-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hey all buddies of my wife, this is just a post to inform you that she is not available for a few days. She had to go urgently for a wedding between. Here are her apologies for not being able to post during these days. She was mostly worried about passing on her first award :)

Well, I'm done with spreading the information and it's time to get back to my reincarnated short term bachelorhood ;)

A Tribute to Amma - And her STUFFED CAPSICUMS in Makhani Gravy / Bharwan Shimla Mirch - Missin u Amma

2008-04-28T04:46:00.000-07:00

I became all nostalgic reading all these wonderful posts by people remembering their lovely parents, grandparents and other special people, and they are so expressive.. I think once i think twice, should i should i not.. I am not that expressive with words... well Jigyasa and pratibha come up with this beautiful theme of Jihva for Love , paying tribute to Pedatha.. thanks a ton people... so what am not too good with words...and here iam, i get a chance to pay a tribute to the beautiful and ever sacrificing Amma.. my mother.. all mothers are special in their own way and are the quenns of their worlds in their own charm.. arent they... but i guess i could get much chance to express this to her.. all the while we were together.. i was a kiddo.. taking her for granted.. knowing the fact that this is one lady who is there for me come what may... i can show all my food tantrums to her... i can get angry with her... etc etc etc...

but by the time i became mature enough to express my gratitude.. to pay back all the love and care.. i had lost her... this post is a tribute to Amma who took up the 24*7 job of raising anna and me as the best kids... ideal kids.. giving us many of those petty pleasures with ease.. which now we understand were not very economically feasible then... be it the pocket money for the melas we had to attend in school... or the kulfis i loved to have with her on the summer afternoons... as kids we were never fond of any pricy pleasures but these petty ones were just a wish away...

Moms tolerate every little tantrum of ours with that lighted smile forever... be it asking my van driver to wait for me in the mornnigs because i had not tied my shoe lace before leaving for school... or later come runnig and asking the driver to stop coz i had forgotten to take my tiffin box.. be it waiting for me in the afternoons to return from school so that we could have lunch together... or going to the local market for dialy buys.. and on our way back a halt at the chaat wala for pani puri and chaat... whether it was possible in that days budget or not....

She was the one who would hide my poor marks from other family members till the report card date so that i can be spared of a few days of their taunts... having calm worlds with my class teacher when i didnt score good marks in a term ... or amy b when i was not one of the most sincere students in the class... scold me the whole afternoon and take me to the chaat wala becoz she was guilty of all the scolding she gifted me with.. and then being the same mommy gonig all praises about my petty painting which gets acclaim in the small batch of painting class... or the only inter school dance competition win i get... proudly boast about my unique art skills and what all i do in my summer vacations... :) crying for me when i get my first MC:) ... cries buckets when i go away from home for the first time for college.. goes all praises in the muhalla and family when i come third in my first year of college.. cries buckets again whenever she sees that same school van which doesnot stop infront of our house anymore.. writes her forst letter in english which is worth a read by a lady who did just her intermediate in an hindi medium ... and expressing how all she misses my presence... cries buckets again when she cannot enjoy those summer afternoons with me having kulfi and watch those weirdest movies on zee cinema;) and fighting over ludo... cries buckets again ovr the phone when i forget a onion chutney with the theplas that she packed for my train journey..

My food tantrums... i had never shown my tantrums much to other family members but she knew i hate hate hate capsicum and karela and cannot gulp arasi puama...(rice powder).. the day i used to return from a vacation somehow once there upama for dinner and i got completely depressed that nobody loves me... and the next few times she made sure that i get hot crispy dosas when iam on vacation.. she was great with her stuffed capsicums.. but i used to make the most horrific faces seeing those stuffed greens... and she very lovingly would call me aside to show me that she has left some potato curry aside for me so that i could have the chapatis with them...do hell with the world .. she knew what can make me happy... :)

Amma we all miss you like mad and find ourselves so helpless... couldnt really show our gratitude then but really regret that... life without you has never been the same... having capsicum almost twice a week in college taught me how to have it... but could never relish your stuffed capsicums again... thanks for all the love and sacrifices you made for the family... miss you in my chaat sprees .. miss you in the kitchen .. miss your letters.. wish life could have taken a reverse gear... this post and this blog goes as a tribute to the beautiful you... I made these stuffed capsicums myself... and all loved it... hope you like it...

Here goes the stuffed capsicum in Makhani gravy people....

Ingredients:

For stuffed Capsicums:

4 small capsicums

4 potatoes

3 onions(medium)

3 green chillies finely chopped

turmeric powder

red chilli powder

dhania powder

bharwan sabzi masala/kitchen king(optional)

fresh coriander finely chopped

1 tsp finely chopped ginger

1 tsp finely chopped garlic

For the gravy:

3 onions chopped

2 big tomatoes peeled and pureed

10 cashew nuts soaked and grinded to paste

3 tbsp fresh cream

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

coriander for garnishing

salt to taste

turmeric powder

red chilli powder

coriander powder

Method:

1. For the stuffing, Wash the capsicum well and pat dry. Cut the top off (the stem portion). Remove all the seeds and pith and discard.

2. Wash the potatoes and then boil till soft. Peel, mash roughly and keep aside. Heat 3 tbsps of cooking oil in a pan on medium flame, till hot. Add the cumin seeds and cook till it splutters. Now add the green chillies and ginger garlic and fry, Add the onion and fry till soft and golden brown.

3. Now add all the powdered spices and fry for 1 minute. Add the mashed potato and mix well to blend with all the spices. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. Turn off the fire, add salt to taste and mix well. You may add some water if it seems very dry, but it is less advised.

4. Fill each green pepper to the top with the mashed potato mix. Press to ensure they are well filled.

5. Heat the remaining cooking oil in a shallow pan on a low flame. When hot add the peppers (standing up) and fry till soft. Gently turn the peppers over onto their tops so that the potato can fry. Fry till all sides turn a little black and skins starts shirnking. Turn off fire.

6. Place peppers on a plate lined with paper towel to allow excess oil to be soaked up. When this is done, serve plain or with the makhani gravy.

7. Makhani gravy is prepared in the same way the gravy for the lauki ke kofte was prepared. Just that here the almond paste has been replaced with mommys authentic cashew paste.

This was a treat at our place hope you guys like it too...

Moong Dal ki khichdi (with baniyon wala tadka) and carrot raita for MBP - My One pot Wonder

2008-04-24T05:46:00.001-07:00

Here goes my entry for MBP-One pot wonders hosted by Pavani this month.. THe first time i saw the details to this event i was dumbstuck.. iam one gurl who can effortlessly use all the utensils in the kitchen for the simplest of things. And this lady demands for a One pot wonder.. impossible.. i had decided i wud not participate when i saw my altime saviour and favorite and lifeline dish.. well the simplest off all which gets ready in minutes and is such a treat. I know something as blande as a khichdi can be my fav... but it is...

This reminds me of my dearest fren Prachi who taught me this khichdi, split moong was never seen in my house when i was a child but during my college days when this khichdi became a staple diet.. we became a fan of it... i instantly fell in love with it... there were days when i would tell prachi .. aaj kuch halka khane ka mann kar raha hai prachi ... and she would instantly respond.. seedhe bol na .. khichdi khani hai ... and how can i forget her most interesting tadka, i have followed Sia's recipe completely, just that i have increased the quantity of onions as iam an onion fanatic, and cut down on the clove, i try to avoid it whenever possible. Also while adding salt and turmeric i added a tsp of coriander powder, as my khichdi remains incomplete without it. Coming back to the tadka...Once the khichdi is ready to srve, heat some desi ghee in a tadka pan, add some cumin seeds, let it splutter, remove from heat, add 1/2 tsp of chilli powder, 1/2 tsp of dhania powder, and some curry leaves, serve the khichdi hot with this tadka over it, believe me you too will fall in love with it . I had been told that this is a very common tadka at any Baniya or marwari family, and at my punju baniya sasural too :) (I used desi ghee throughout)

As far as the carrot raita is considered, i added some chat masala to it to suit my tastebuds, and while making its tadka i added a pinch of hing.

I am not daring to explain the recipe here because i think Sia is a master in this... this lady got 82 responses(83rd is mine :)) for this simplest recipe.. all credits to her presentation and writeups... hey Sia am a fan of your style buddy. My pics are nowhere near yours maybe they would b somewhere cloe to talk abt in another 2 yrs;) I make this khichdi too frequently, but this carrot raita was an icing on d cake.

Lauki ke Kofte/Bottle gaurd dumplings in rich gravy and some medicinal facts about lauki juice.

2008-04-24T01:05:00.001-07:00

Lauki, Kaddu, Ghiya, bottle gourd... so many names to this veggy and not many are too fond of it because it doesnt have much taste to itself... but am a big big big fan of this poor veggie... be it simple lauki tamatar or lauki chana dal.. but i wanted to try out lauki ki kofte as i had not prepared that even once for hubby dear after marriage.. so here we go yummliciuos lauki ke kofte.. I adapted one step from Mansi of Fun n Food where her addition of almonds attracted me a lot. Thanks Mansi it really did give a very rich taste to it.

Ingredients

For the koftas:

1 medium sized kaddu
2 onions grated.

1 tspn finely chopped

ginger

1 tspn finely chopped garlic
3 chilli, finely chopped
3 tbspn chopped fresh coriander
3 tbspn besan
salt to taste

1/2 tspn chaat masala(optional)
vegetable oil for frying

For the gravy:

3 onions chopped
2 tomatoes
1 tspn ginger garlic paste
1/2 tspn haldi
2 tspn dhania powder
1/2 tspn chilli powder
1 tspn cumin powder

1 tspn kitchen king masala

10-15 almonds.

1 tbsp fresh cream

1- 2 cup milk

2 tbspn fresh chopped coriander

Directions:

Soak the almonds overnite or atleast 3-4 hrs and gring it to a smooth paste using a few drops of water or milk.

1. Grate the kaddu and sprinkle some salt over it. Squeeze it and drain the water and keep it aside. Do the same with 2 onions. Drain the water and keep it aside.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients to make a mixture from it. If you find it too hard, water your hands and knead it to make it soft, and if its too sticky, add a little more besan, it should become like a regular roti batter.

3.Heat a pan or kadai on high flame with 1-2 cups of oil till it’s just under smoking. Reduce the flame to medium. Drop a small ball of the batter into the oil, if it surfaces up immediately, the oil is ready. Make small balls of the batter and drop them into the oil about 5-6 at a time. Fry till golden brown. Set koftas aside over a tissue.

4. For the gravy, grind the onions and tomatoes seperately to a paste.

5. Heate a pan, add the 2 tbspn of oil, add the cumin seeds to it, once they start spluttering, dd the onion paste and the ginger garlic paste.Cook for 5-7 minutes on medium-high until the onions turn golden brown.

6. Add the spices and cook for onother minute. Now add the tomato puree and let it cook and it darkens in color a little. At this stage add the almond paste, you will notice it lightens in color immediately and gives a very rich color. Thanks Mansi :).

7. Once this mixture is totally cooked, that is when it starts leaving oil from the sides, add the milk to make it a little dilute, the gravy should not b very thick as the koftas would soak the water.

8. The gravy is ready, Add koftas just before you want to serve it, and cook through gently for another minute or two. Serve with hot chapattis or garama garam ajwain wale parathe... .

Note: To make sure the koftas arent undercooked inside, fry them at a slightly reduced flame.

Cool Facts About Bottle Gourd and its juice:

Bottle gourd is very low in calories, which is of 12 kcal per 100 gm. Small amounts of vitamins and minerals are present. Vitamin C and carotene is not present in this vegetable. It has sodium of 1.8mg per 100gm and 87 mg of potassium make it suitable vegetable for hypertensive patients.

The cooked vegetable is cooling, diuretic, sedative and antibilious. It gives a feeling of relaxation after eating it.

Bottle gourd is very valuable in urinary disorders. A glassful of fresh juice (prepared by grating the whole fruit, then grinding and then strainig the juice twice) should be mixed with teaspoonful of lime juice. It should be given once daily in the treatment of burning sensation in urinary passage due to high acidity of urine. It serves as an alkaline mixture.

The juice of bottle gourd is a valuable medicine for excessive thirst due to severe diarrhoea, diabetes and excessive use of fatty or fried foods. A glassful of plain juice with a pinch of salt should be taken everyday in this condition. Its use during summer prevents excessive loss of sodium, quenches thirst and helps in preventing fatigue.

Mixture of bottle gourd juice and sesame oil acts as an effective medicine for insomnia. It should be massaged over scalp every night

The Gourd fruit juice is used in the treatment of insanity, epilepsy and other nervous diseases.

The juice of the fruit is used in the treatment of stomach acidity, indigestion and ulcers.

The juice is also very good for marks left after rashes or allergies, it simply vanishes if you have this juice every morning.
These facts have been tested on my father and my aunt, they have been having this juice regularly and appas diabetes is in control and my aunts marks from some disastrous allergy have just vanished.

I read a very nice excert by Dr. Raju on ideal daily schedule , i feel if we can follow a few steps, it would be great, as i know all is not really possible.

Some facts have been copied as it is from some sites from google search, but have seen the effects with my people.

BEAT the HEAT with Kiwi Mango and Mint Cooler - Both Martini and Cooler Versions.

2008-04-20T23:57:00.001-07:00

Hello people.. am back with another mixology experiment which was highly appreciated by Garg. Though he was never too fond of Vodka, my experiments with martinis have made him ever ready for a Vodka martini. As per Wiki martinis essentially are Gin cocktails, i wouold surely come up with some authentic gin martini soon, but unavailibility of Gin and Vodka being available gave rise to this zingy cocktail - according to garg - "kya cheez hai yaar, aankhein khol di" :)

seriously the heat is taking its toll in bangalore and we madly wanted something to beat the heat. For the teetotallers and for me :) i had the Cooler version of this martini with 7up replacing the vodka and for sure it did the work for me.

Looking at the summers here in banglore i wonder how terrible it would b in places like madras, jamshedpur and interiors of punjab, and yeah calcutta, the most humid place i know, people would be sweating hard at these places.

This drink is screaming chill and freshness, making it perfect for summer evenings or summer spring parties. The Kiwi Mango Minty cooler is light and refreshing and a cool fruity mix of kiwi vodka and mango. Added to that the refreshing hint of mint and we have a fantastic drink.

So here wo go..

You need:

1. 1 kiwi fruit

2. 2 -3 1 inch cubes of mango peices

3. 2 tbsp lime cordial(or lime juice)

4. 1 tbsp of Gingerale(optional)

5. 3 ounces vodka

6. 1/2 cup Mango Nectar/ Juice

7. Ice cubes

8. A ring of Kiwi, a sprig of mint, and 2 small peices of mango for garnishing.

How you Mix it:

Freeze the Martini glass for 15 20 minutes and take it out just at the time you want to serve it.

1. Muddle one Kiwi and the mango peices with lime cordial, gingerale in a Martini Shaker or a simple glass, no worries.

2. Add three ounces Vodka, and 3-4 ice cubes (the Cooler version has the 7up or SPrite or Dew replacing the vodka).

3. Shake well and pour into sugar rimmed(optional) martini glass. You may like to include the kiwi seeds that add a good flavor. This takes 3.4 of the glass.

4. Top the remaining one fourth of the glass with Mango nectar.

5. Garnish it with a half slit kiwi, mango peices and mint for that photogenic look.

This goes as my entry to Fun n Sand event hosted by EasyCrafts. This is one event which is gonig to bring to us some really cool stuffs for this summer.Thanks buddy, its a rocking idea.

AATE KA HALWA / Wheat Flour Sweet Dish - Happy b'day Sriram and Happy Anniversary Mumma Papa

2008-04-16T00:12:00.001-07:00

Its so sad tht you cannot be with your loved ones on their birthdays and anniversaries coz you are sitting far away from them, and a birthday or anniversary cannot always a good enuf reason to travel all along just to celebrate these special occasions, so what if many dear ones have are getting together there, you have other priorities set .. :( thats life and guess most of us have accepted this fact, well here goes a halwa for these people really special to me.

This is the easiest halwa i know... and the yummiest...

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup wheat flour (aata)

2. 1 cup sugar (i prefer less sugar, 3/4 was perfect for me)

3. 3/4 cup ghee

4. 1 cup water

5. Cashew nuts and almonds for garnishing

6. 1 tsp cardomom / elaichi powder.

Method:

1. Heat the ghee on medium flam on a kadhai or pan
2. Add the atta to the heated ghee & stir continuously till it turns golden brown/brown, just make sure it does not burn.
3. Keep all other ingredients ready as they have to be added quickly one after the other.
4. Alongside add the sugar to the water and the elaichi powder and heat it till the sugar dissolves in the water, once done keep it aside.
5. As soon as the atta is brown and you get a nice aroma flowing through your kitchen :), add the water mixture to the atta and stir continuously.
6. Keep stirring till it starts leaving the gheel from the corners, this takes some 15 mins.
7. The halwa is now ready to be served. Garinish with the nuts and serve hot.

Guess what this is the first thing i cooked at my sasural(in-laws place) after my marriage :), theres this ritual when i have to make something sweet and i get shagun from the elders.. i earned something like 5k that day.

Its marriage anniversary for mumma and papa, my in-laws.. who have been the most caring parents to me, coz of them i just didnt realize that i was new to this family, i was a tamil brahmin who has to adjust to this family in the heart of punjab.. Thanks mumma papa... hope you stay as lively and loving as this forever... Mumma you have been so nice, seems as if amma has sent you, i do miss amma but you loved me and guided me through the first phase of my marriage as amma would have done.. and not as a mother in law.. And you're one of the reasons, I'm married so happily.

Papa has been more than a friend, he has shared my joys and shared his joys too, he has been the person who has made me feel comfortable in a new home, he has admired my pettiest gestures in the most encouraging ways, could see the acceptance for me as a twinkle in his eyes... he has given me a new insight about life.. and how to cherish it... Thanks mumma Papa.. wish you the best in life and hope i see you merrier in the years to come... you are one couple i really admire.

Its Happy Birthday to my loving cousin Sriram too ... :) he is a geniuos... really mischeviuos and at the same time understands life much more than other kids of his age.. he is in 7th std but had the capability to pull out the whole family from bad times with his smile and soothing words... HAPPY BIRTHDAY Srirama... isnt he cute :)

One again Happy Anniversary Mumma papa and happy birthday sriram...