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.