Happy New Year 2008!!!!!

Wish You all A Very Happy and A Prosperous New Year 2008!!!!!!

Photo @ glitter-works.org

1 Week Break !!!!

Friends, my brother is in town this week .Meeting him after a couple of years. So i am taking a small break from my blog for a week.Would be back after CHRISTMAS.!!!

Wish you all a Happy Christmas and Happy Holidays..!!!!

See you soon !!!!

Tomato Rice

Tomato are very rich in viatmins . Many of us use tomatoes in our everyday menu.I make tomato rice quite often .They are really easy and simple to prepare. Here is my way ..


Raw Materials Required

Tomatoes - 4
Onions -1 diced
Green chilli -2 chopped
Green peas - 1 cup
Garlic -2 cloves
Jeera -1 tsp
Fennel seeds -1 tsp
Haldi -1 tsp
Red chilli powder-1/2 tsp
Sambhar powder -1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds -1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves handful
Salt as per desired
Basmati rice -1 cup
Oil - 3 tsp

Preparation Style

In a small kadai add oil and mustard seeds.When they start to crack add jeera, fennel seeds and fry for a minute. Then add onion ,green chili, garlic and fry them until they turn light brown.After sometime add the chopped tomatoes, and cook till tomatoes are a bit mashed and start to loose water . Add haldi ,chilli powder and sambhar powder and allow it to cook well.After 5 mts or so add the green peas and off the gas.
On the other side cook the basmati rice separately.Once the tomatoes are cooked, mix the rice and tomatoes together and garnish with Coriander leaves. Serve it hot with cold cucumber ratia..

Rava Ladoo

For this weeks ladies meet i was supposed to make dessert.I wanted to make something that i did not make before .I decided to make something simple and tasty and which is less time consuming .I made rava ladoo...So here it goes .Recipes includes few aspects from my mother and few from my mother in law.

Raw Materials Required

Rava -1 Cup
Sugar -1 cup
Cardamom - 5-6
Raisins -10-15
Almond -10-15
Ghee -4 tsp
Milk -1/2 glass


Preparation Style

Roast the rava with ghee until they turn golden brown.Off the gas and allow them to cool for 10-15 mts.Then dry grind the rava and sugar together along with cardamon and almond.It should be half fine grinded.Transfer the entire mixture in the a big plate and spread them .
In a separate kadia fry the raisin's with ghee and pour them to the grinded rava mixture and mix them well .Sprinkle milk on the rava (micro wave the milk for 1 mts) and try to make small ladoos .
I did not add loads of ghee, instead i used milk as a binding agent to make the ladoos .It turned out to be very tasty ..Enjoy

Simple Potato Curry

Potatoes are the most favorite at our place and i think this would be true at every body home . If you give my brother to eat potatoes all day along in different ways he loves them .He never gets tired of eating them .My husband too is a big fan of potatoes.

I am sure there are many ways for a potato curry .Here is mine version which is quite simple and easy to make .So enjoy this !!

Raw Materials Required

Potatoes -5 nos

Coconut -1 cup

Green Chilli -3-4

Mustard Seeds -1/2 tsp

Urdh dal -1/2 tsp

Hing a couple of pinches

Oil -2-3 tsp

Salt as per desire

Preparation Style
Cook the potatoes in the pressure cooker .Peel the skin and smash them and keep it separately.In a small kadai add oil and mustard seeds to it .Let it start to crack then add urdh dhal and hing to it .Add the smash potatoes and mix them well.

In the meantime grind the coconut and the green chilli by adding little water. Add the grinded paste to the potato and mix them well .After a couple of minutes add salt and mix them well and allow the potatoes to become little crispy in the bottom of the pan .Off them gas once done and serve them with hot rasam or sambhar. Enjoy

Simple tomato rasam

Tomato Rasam ..I think there are numerous ways to prepare it .Each of us have our own style and ingredients to it .This one is plain and simple tomato rasam .It just has a couple of simple ingredients and in no time you are done with it.So here it goes .

Raw Materials Required
Tomato -4
Black Pepper -1 1/2 tsp
Jeera -1 tsp
Toor Dhal- 1 1/2 tsp
Red chilli - 2-3
Ghee - 2 tsp
coconut -1/2 cup
Haldi -1/2 tsp
Salt as per desire
Curry Leaves Few

Preparation Style

Boil the tomatoes in the pan with half filled of water until the skin starts to peel .That would be the indication that the tomatoes has been cooked.Allow it to cool for sometime and later on blend them and make a perfect tomato juice .Strain them with the strainer to get the seeds out of it and keep the pure juice aside .

On the other hand in a small pan fry toor dal ,red chilli ,pepper and jeera together along with ghee .Fry them until they become golden brown.Allow them to cool and blend them along with coconut to get a nice paste.


Add the grinded pasted onto the tomato jucie .Add enough water to it to loosen it .Not to add to much to it .Add haldi and salt to it.Keep them on low flame and let it come to a boil.Add curry leaves, mix them well and serve it hot with rice . It taste great.

Paruppu Thogayel -Urdh Dal Chutney

You can call this as "Dal Chutney " too.This is very simple and easy to prepare.There are many ways to prepare thogayel but this one is very easy and simple . Just a couple of ingredients and its done .So here it goes.

Raw Materials

Urdh Dal -1 cup

Red Chilli -4-5

Coconut -1/2 cup

Hing 2 pinches

Salt as per desire

Preparation Style

Dry fry the dal ,red chilli and hing together until they are golden brown.Off the gas and allow it to cool.Later on mix the coconut and dal together in the blender by adding just little water. Add salt and mix them well.

You can roll them with chapati or have them with rice .It taste great ...Enjoy!!!

Cranberry Orange Bread Mix

I always wanted to bake .I love baking .But never tried it.My minds just gets around when i see the baking contest held at Food Network Channel.Can i ever bake cake or bread.This time i tried baking a Bread Mix .....I bought Cranberry Orange Bread Mix from the store.The outcome was great and excellent .I loved the combination of cranberry and orange together.

I bought "Betty Cranberry Orange -Bread Mix" and prepared it as per the instruction stated in the packet. It just took me to 40 mts to bake it and it tasted great. I prepared the icing .But it did not turn that great, of course for the first time try it was better. I prepared cream cheese icing .I browsed through the net for the recipe and prepared it .

Next time when i prepare bread or cake from scratch i will share the recipe with you all .Since it is a store bought one i did not mention the recipe .....

Belated Karthika Deepam .......

I think i would be the only girl who posted the recipe exactly one week late ...Too bad on me ..But sorry friends for the delay from my side in posting my recipes ....I was little bit held up with few household activities ...I hope all my friends have a great karthika deepam.I really enjoyed it .I made quite simple 4 recipes . Adai ,Avial, Nai Appam and Pori Urandai.I really wanted to make a couple of more desserts but did not have time.I started late and had to finish it by sharp 6.So need to hurry ...But everything came out really well and tasty ....So here it goes ....

Avaial and Adai

Avaial

Raw Materials Required

Beans -1/2 cup

Carrot-1/2 cup

Green Peas-1/2 cup

Drumstick-1/2 cup (frozen)

Yam (Frozen)-1/2 cup

Butternut Squash-1/2 cup

Raw Banana-2 nos

Curd -2 Cups (beat the curd well.Do not add too much water )

Curry Leaves -few

Green Chilies-4-5

Coconut -1 1/2 cups

Coconut Oil -3 tsp

Haldi-1/2 tsp

Salt as per desired

Preparation Style

Cut all the vegetable and cook them all in the pressure cooker.On the other side grind coconut, greenchilli together .After the vegetables are cooked transfer them in a big kadai .Add haldi to it ,salt and also curd.Then heat the kadai and add the grinded mixture of coconut and greenchilli.Add coconut oil and allow the vegetable to come to one boil.Off the gas and few curry leaves to it .Serve it hot with adai.

Now comes Adaia...

Raw Materials Required
Rice -1 cup

Toor Dhal-1 cup

Urdh Dhal - 1/2 cup

Channa Dal -1 cup

Red chillies -4-5 nos

Haldi -1/2 tsp

Salt as desired

Preparation Style

Soak all ingredients for about 2-3 hrs before you grind them in mixer.Then make a semi liquid batter.Not too soft and semi grind it.Heat the tava, wipe with an oil dipped cloth, and spread a ladle full of batteron the tava like a dosa.Turn once it cooks .Then after you turn allow it to cook until it its little crispy . Cook till both the sides are golden brown and crispy.Serve it hot with avaial.

Nei Appam




I always made appam and never used to come the right way .Seema had made them once when she invited me over for lunch .It was just great.She gave me this simple recipe and believe me it came out to be awesome.

Raw Materials Required

Raw Rice - 1 cup

Jaggery -1 1.5 cup
Elachi -1 tsp
Coconut Pieces -few handful
Nut pieces (Kaju ,Badam)

Preparation Style

Soak the rice for 1 hour and grind it with jaggery in the grinder.Add water at times to make it a smooth and soft batter.Then after the batter is done add the elchi ,coconut pieces and also nut pieces and mix it well.Add little oil (ghee is a must but because its too fatty i added oil) to the Appam pan (AppaKaral) and after it becomes hot add the batter to it.Once they are cooked it starts to come out of the shape.Then turn it around with the help of the long thin stick.See to that both the sides are golden brown and then remove it from the pan.Serve it hot or cold it taste yummy!!!

Avial Pori

Raw Materials Required

Pori -3 cups
Jaggery -1 cup
Elachi-1 tsp

Take the jaggery and break them to small lumps (pieces), as much as possible, and mixing it with a little quantity of water, heat it till the jaggery is melted and there are no lumps on them.Once all the jaggery is melted then add the Pori,coconut pieces and thoroughly mix them.Add the elachi powder to it and turn off the gas.Allow the mixture to cool a bit , but see to that it is not too cold and should be relatively hot when you touch. Using both hands,take a small amount of pori shape a good quantity of Nel Pori-jaggery-coconut-mix in to balls. Don't let time pass.Dont allow it to rest.Make small balls and serve it .It taste great. If the jaggery hardens, then you will not be able to shape them into balls and will have to distribute as udhiri pori.

Will Be Back Soon!!!!

Loads of things happening around me .So could not post my dishes on tuesday .Will be back in a couple of days with my recipes and pics.

Hope to catch up with you guys soon!!!!!

Happy Karthika Deepam

Wish you all a very Happy Karthika Deepam....I will be back on tuesday with recipes of this festival.

Guessing Game Over ----M-A-M rice and Methi Paratha

Ohhhh !!!This time all my friends are almost right ....Yes i made M-A-M rice and Methi Paratha .....Very simple and very easy dishes ....So here how i made them ....

M-A-M Rice ....(Methi Aloo Matar Rice)

Raw Materials....

Basamathi Rice -1/2 cup

Methi -1 cup

Aloo-1 cup

Matar (Green Peas)-1 cup

Onion -1/2 cup (Chopped)

Dosai Mulaga podi -3 tsp

Oil-2 tsp

Jeera -1/2 tsp

Salt as per desired

Preparation Style

Pressure cook the rice separately.In a small kadia add little oil along with jeera.After a couple of minute add the onions and fry them until they turn golden brown.Then add the diced aloo 's on them and allow it to cook on low flame.Then after sometime add the methi leaves ,Mulaga podi and salt and allow it to cook well .Methi lets little bit water as it cooks..After few couple of minutes add the matar and mix them well .Cook it on sim unless you see the methi have cooked and you get the flavor out of it .After it is done mix the basamathi rice with the sabji and serve it hot .Yummy Yummy M-A-M rice is ready .....

Methi Paratha

Raw Materials Required

Wheat Flour -2cups

Methi Leaves -1 cup (fine chopped)

Red chilli Powder -1 tsp

Salt as per desire

Preparation style

I mixed all the ingredients in together by adding little water .After the dough is prepared then set it aside for 10-15 mts. Then make small dough balls and make a chapati and cook them on the hot tava by adding little oil or ghee as desired.See to that both the sides of the paratha are cooked well.Remove it from the stove and serve it hot with the mixed vegge sibji.

I prepared mixed vegetable sabji to go long with the paparatha.Just diced Cauliflower ,Carrot and Matar and cooked them on low flame by adding salt ,haldi and chilli powder.Simple sabji is ready.Ohh i forget i first fried the onions and then the vegetables and then the seasoning .....

Enjoy Maadi!!!!!!

Guessing Game Contd........

This is Methi leaves ( Fenugreek) .There are 2 dishes coming our of this ingredient.Can you name them ....Results will be out on Monday morning ..Keep guessing !!!!!

Game Over .....Aloo Cutlet with Paneer Stuffing

I think all my friends did hit the nail at the right spot.Yes the secret ingredient is " Paneer" ....We had a small ladies meet at our friends place.I had to make cutlets .I decided to make some additions to the old recipe.I added a touch of paneer to it.All my friends enjoyed it .So here is the recipe.....


Raw Materials


Potato (Aloo) -1 LB
Green Peas -2 cups
Paneer -2 cups (grated)
Red Chilli Powder -3 tsp
Gram Masala -2 tsp
Salt -As desired
Oil for shallow fry

Preparation Style

Pressure cook the potatoes.Smash them well in a small bowl.Then add peas ,chilli powder,gram masala and salt to it .Make small balls of potato and press them in your palm.It would almost be in the shape of tikki.Then add little paneer (grated) and close the tikki.Shallow fry the potato and serve it with tomato sauce.

Guessing Game Contd.........

These are Aloo Cutlets...But I have stuffed something inside each of these cutlets .Guess What is the stuffing (secret ingredient) ? .....

Results will be out by Wednesday

Happy Diwali

Wishing all a Very Happy Diwali!!!! Have a great, peaceful and happy year ahead.

I am not keeping well for the past few days .Will be back by next week with some posts.

Photo from Fotosearch...

My Friends Gift -Fruit Pizza

Thankyou so much Seema-My Randap .This is a excellent dessert.It tastes awesome .The cream cheese and the fruits out of the world . Thankyou so much seema for this wonderful gift.

Very Special Day

Yes friends you all guessed it right ...Today is my wedding day ...Special Day in my life ..Loads of plans and special dishes i am going to prepare ...Will start posting all of them from Monday ....See you all on Monday!!!!!!!

Chaat -2 Japat Kurkure Chat

Friends perfect reply from almost every person ...Oh man this product is an excellent choice for any tea time snack .After seeing the ad where they make "KURURE SHAKE" ..i decided to try on my one ..So here it goes .Simple and easy one

Raw Materials

Kurkure -1
Tomato -1
Cucumber-1
Lemon Juice -4-5 tsp
Cilantro


Method

Open the kurkure snack in a small bowl .Chop the tomato and the cucumber into small piece and add to the bowl .Add lime juice and cilantro and mix them well .Japat Kurkure chat is ready .Mouth watering one!!!!!

Chaat Week 2-Guessing Game !!!!!!

Name the secret ingredient in yellow color ??????......

Results will be on thursday !!!!!!

Chaat Week - Ragda Patis -1st one in the Row

Wow!!!I still remember those days when my self,mom,dad and my brother used to go to Juhu beach (Mumbai) and have ragda-patis.Man that was the best chaat .Juhu beach was so much famous and i think till today and even in the future it would be the best and outstanding .On the other day i decided to make some here for my self and my hubby .I enjoyed making it and also enjoyed eating it ...So here it goes ...

Raw Materials

3 large Potatoes (Cook it separately)
1 cup dry Channa (soak it overnight and cook it separately)
4-5 Puris (One used for pani puris)
1 1/4 cup Onion (Chopped)
1/4 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp chaat masala
4-5 strands of chopped coriander leaves
4 tsp lemon juice
Salt
Thin Seva (Store bought)
Mety Chutney (Tamarind /Jaggery)(Store bought)
Green Chutney (Pudhina /Coriander)(Store bought)

Smash the potato well and add some salt to it .Then make small tikki and place them in the hot tava .See to that both the side of the tikki become brown .We can add little oil to make it brown and crisp .Remove it from the tava and place them in the plate.Then add a couple of spoons of Channa on top of it .Then add a couple of spoons of mety and green chutney on the top of it .Then sprinkle some onions and coriander .Then add coriander powder, cumin powder,chaat masala and chilli powder on it .Add salt and lemon juice .Then sprinkle seva and crash the puri's all over the plate and serve it .Yummy it was !!!!!Enjoy friends ....

My Golu-I am back friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am back finally with my golu .Sorry friends due to some personal reasons i could not keep my self active in the blog world .I thank all my friends for enquiring me often ..
This is the second year i have kept my golu ...I shall start posting my recipes in a day or two .....

My Bangles ..ME ME contd........

I was so happy to see that all my friends wanted to my wedding snaps , that too of my bangles that i had mention .I did not click any snaps of my bangles alone , but could select only a couple of them and that too only few of the bangles on the snap .Will come back with some recipes in a couple of days ....Hope you all like my bangles ....

My First MEME and Papadi Chat

I feel so happy that 2 of our friends Tee and Archana have tagged me for this MEME .I feel so happy to be a part of the food blod friends community .So my MEME goes like this ..

1-It was in search of few recipes in the internet that made me inspire to create this blog .I was exploring Indus Ladies website, where in the recipe section I found our very own Mythre’s Blog Mythreyee-Try This Recipe .That was the first instance I thought, why not I also share with the world some of my recipes .I always had an desire to cook something new and different .Thanks to mythree for helping me out initially and giving me few basic guidelines. It was after marriage I entered into full fledged cooking note. Before in India I used to prepare food but only during weekends .It would not be a daily routine for me as my dearest mom would take care of the Kitchen .But I had to do it here .My husband is the first hand critic as well as inspiration to cook more and different recipe. After watching Food Network channel and food blog’s I developed so much passion in cooking and trying out different recipes.

2-I am very soft and sensitive female and a perfect Sagittarius person. My best friend is my mom and I have been missing her badly since I got married .I wish she could always be beside me throughout my life. Thanks to the world of technology which helps me in talking to her over phone and through Internet everyday. It has been close to 2 years now that I have seen her .Just waiting for the time when I could see her again and just hug her. My dad has always stood beside me during all my hardships and has encouraged me to always think positive and achieve in life .My brother is a cute brother .We fight a lot over the phone , but the next minute we are friends again .I miss my family a lot .

3-I got married in 2005 with a very sweet and cute husband of mine .Vishy is very quite and calm unlike me who always want to talk and talk. Half the time goes in me talking and the result he has to listen to it. He wants me to be both a career oriented women as well as a good home maker. I think I am satisfying the second part and not the first. The first is not in practice because of the immigration concerns. But both of us believe that one day our dreams come true. My in laws are very soft spoken .In fact my mother in law sometimes provides me with some different recipes to try out .She notes it down from the Tamil books and send me a mail. Nice of her.

4-I love shopping .If you call me for shopping in the mid of the night, yes deepa is ready. I just want to go to shops and do some window shopping .But I always come back buying something or the other .I have a huge craze for bangles and a huge craze of dress. You would not believe guys for my wedding reception I wore 96 bangles on each of hand .Does it sound crazy……I bought all my bangles at Jill Mill in Chennai .Oh I still remember my self and my cousin spent close to 5-6 hours in selecting all the bangles. I bought close to 25 dozens that day alone for all my wedding sarees. It was crazy and just a crazy buy. But the sad part is I could only bring only a couple of dozen to US. But waiting for the time to get all my bangles here.

5-I love eating .Specially eating outside ….If anybody knows Sree Mitai in Chennai .I am sure all of you must have been there ….Oh I really love eating there .I miss Sri Krishana Sweets , Gangotri , Food Court ,Punjabhi Dhaba …These where my favorite places , where I used to eat .Missing them

6-My childhood was spent in Mumbai and Lucknow .After living in Lucknow for 7 years I love winter climate and hated the heat of Chennai .I came to Chennai for my college .i just hated Chennai for the extreme heat wave and traffic. Else Chennai is great.I love winter and the extreme of winter too..But cannot tolerate the heat and the sunlight.

7-I am very closely attached to my family and my uncle and aunts. I miss my grandfather a lot who passed away just 2 days after my engagement. He used to call me “baby” and even today it rings me into my ears.

There are lots more about my self .Will surely keep posting about my self some more later.I am going to tag Hema , Seema, Sukanya .Play along only if you wish to .No compulsion at all

Now coming to recipe part.Papadi chat is the inspiration from my friend Seema.We had potluck at out place and she prepared papadi chat as a appetizer.Oh i really was in love with this one .So simple and easy and very tasty .i decided to make on my own and share it with all of you .So here it goes .

Raw Material Required

Papadi - 1/2 pkt (Store Bought)
Thin Sev -1/2 pkt (Store Bought)
Aloo -3 or 4 (cooked and smashed well)
Tamarind Chutney - 1 bottle (we shall be using only few tsp -Store bought)
Coriander Chutney -1 bottle (we shall be using only few tsp -Store bought)
Coriander for garnish
Red Onion - 1 (Cut into small pieces)
Chat Masala -1 tsp
Gram Masala -1 tsp
Salt as per taste

Preparation Style

Mix the aloo ,chat masala , gram masala and salt in a small bowl .Then place the papadi in the plate.The take small quantity of aloo and place it on the papadi .Pour 1/2 tsp of tamarind chutney on top .Then pour 1/2 tsp of coriander chutney on top .Place some onion pieces and spread the store bought sev on them .Ganish it with coriander leaves and serve it .It taste great.

Game Over ----------Yelai Vadam

After preparing Javarsi vadam , my next venture was making Yelai Vadam .I love Yelai Vadam .I remember those days when my grandpa and mom used to sit down and prepare this vadam every summer .I am a great fan of it .But i was feeling bad that i cannot make this vadam without the vadam stand which we get it in India .Then i came across our own friend Hema's Vegconcoctions preparation of Yelai Vadam .On that day i was really so much thankful to hema for she taking efforts to explain each and every step of preparing this vadam with out the stand .Thanks a lot hema .Here is my version of it .

Raw Materials Required

2 Cups - Rice

Salt as per taste

2 tsp of sesame seeds (white color)

Hing few pinches

Preparation Style

Soak the rice over night and grind it next morning .Make the same batter as we make for the dosai .Infact we should add some more water to it in order to make the batter light .Then add salt , sesame seeds and hing to it .Just over the batter with the plate and allow the it to ferment for a couple of days .Once you start getting the smell out of it then it is an indication that we can prepare the vadam .












Take same size plates .Apply little oil in the plates so that the vadam can be easily removed after steaming .Then take a small spoon of batter and pour it in the plate .Try to make a the same shape as dosai.Initially it would be little difficult , but after a couple of them the circle comes out very easily .On the other side , place the kadia in the gas with little water in it .This is required for steaming .Then place the plate in the kadai and allow it to steam for 2mts.Each plate requires to steam for 2-3 mts .Then remove the plate from the kadia and then try to take the vadam out of it .Then vadam comes out very easily.Place the vadam in a plastic sheet and allow it to dry in the sun .Now again apply oil in the plate and pour the batter and make small circles .Repeat this process until you complete the batter.Then after the vadam dries , it becomes hard.We need to keep the vadam in the hot sun for a couple of days. After that we fry those vadams in oil .Yelai Vadam ready .It taste great .Enjoy

This would be my entry for the MBP-EVENT--PRESERVE IT hosted by Coffee-The Spice Cafe