Me and My Kitchen

I Moved.

2006-05-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

I moved to a different place. Now I can be found at www.santhiskitchen.com. I am still trying to take baby steps in my new home. I hope that you will be along with me while I try to graduate from crawling to baby steps to walk. Please try to be patient with me while I try to improve the way my new home looks. And dont forget to change my address if you have me linked. Thank You all and see you at Santhi's.

Green chana salad.

2006-05-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

I bought green chana for the first time. Soaked over night and boiled them and they looked exactly like black chana. Absolutly no difference. This is our lunch today. Chanadal salad and refreshing glass of waatermelon juice. Ingredients 2 cups green/black chana, soaked and boiled with salt. Onion - chopped tomatoes - chopped Cilantro/Kothimeera chopped. 1 Lemon Chat masala - 1/2 table spoon. Method Mix them all well together and Enjoy. That was simple right. I know there is a lot of cilantro. I like the flavor and taste of it and then this was one of my purchases from the farm. It was actually very delicious. May be I could have added more veggies like red radish and cucumber. Will do that next time.

Fave Drink 2 - Badam Milk

2006-05-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

Continuing with my fave series, this is the second most favorite drink after filter coffee. Badam milk is simple to make and filled with nutrition. Nothing like a nice chilled glass of badam milk in summer heat. Straight to the recipe. Ingredients Milk - 1/2 gallon Almonds/Badam - 30-35 Sugar - According to taste Saffron - 5-6 strands. Powdered Cardamom/Elachi - 3 Method Blanch almonds and remove the peel. Make a fine paste of it with some milk. Boil milk. And let it reduce till it becomes 3/4 of the quantity. If you are in a hurry to make, you use one part of milk and one part of half and half. It will reduce the boiling time of the milk.] Add almond paste and sugar and cardamom. Dissolve saffron in 3 table spoons of milk and add it to the mixture. Mix well. Leave on low heat for few more minutes. Chill and serve. Here is Sailu's verson of Badam Kheer I personally like to have this after a meal, more like dessert.

Fun at a Farm - vegetable picking

2006-05-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

Summer is here in Los Angeles. It has been bright and sunny for few days now. Come summer lots of things to do here. And now Sahithi is old enough to pick an activity to do.:). She has been making plans saying that we should "go here" and "do this". According to her it is time to do "Some activity". All this talking Thanks to daycare.

strawberry flower and plant

The first summer activity we decided to do was "strawberry picking". Googled and found a farm where we could do it. Less than 30 miles from where we live. We drove there and were so totally surprised to see it. It was not for just strawberry picking but a completely working farm, complete with farm animals and a lot of vegetables being grown with a small shop where they we selling their produce. It was totally awesome. They has a show with all the farm animals explaining to the kids about how useful the animals are on the farm. And there were sooooo many kids. Sahithi thoroughly enjoyed herself and did a great job of picking ripe strawberries.

Sahithi picking berries

Sahithi Displaying the berry she picked

I am completely city bought up. Have not been on many farms and the only picking I ever did was in a peanut field. This was such a novel and beautiful experience. There were rows and rows of strawberry plants. This is the first time I ever saw one and was surprised to see how small they actually are. About 3/4 of a foot. The farm grows all kinds of vegetables. And they let you pick from the farm!!!!!!!!!!!.

Sahithi and I picking Spinach

I saw the plants for carrots, radish, five different kinds of beets, all kinds of lettuce, blue berries for the first time. I picked spinach, cilantro, radish and beets from the fields. Bought carrots from their shop.

All the veggies from the farm

Fave vegetable 1 Bendakaya/Okra

2006-05-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

I know I know I have not paying much attention to my fave series. And I have told myself this will have be rectified ASAP. Bendakaya/Okra is my most favourite vegetable. I like it in any form but the best is simple fry. Do you guys remember being told that "Eat lot of bendakaya and then you will be a wiz in math"?? Every adult I knew would tell me this when I was a child and I would totally believe it. I never liked math, don't like it much (Imagine what kind of an Engineer I am). And I would wonder, how come this is my fave veggie and I dont like math. It was and is a big mystery. Another intresting this about okra is that it is called "Ladies finger" in India. I dont the reason but like to think that it is so because the vegetable is long and slightly curved and beautiful to look at, like the fingers of a Lady. WOuld like to know what you guys think about it being called "Ladies finger" The plate full of food you are looking at is my most favourite meal in the WHOLE world. Spinach dal, okra fry with a side of vadiyalu and tomato pickle. I would pick this one over any other food any day. He is the simple recipe for okra fry. Ingredients Bendakaya/okra - 1 pound, chopped into bite sizex pieces. 1 big Onion - sliced lengthwise 4 green chillis - chopped lenght wise salt Dhania/coriander powder. Oil -1 table spoon Method Heat 1 table spoon of oil in a pan. Add the okra and salt let It fry till it is well cooked. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in another pan. Add onions and chillis and fry till they are nicely browned. Add little more salt, mix well and add okra along with a little dhania powder. Mix very very gently and let cook on a low heat for few more minutes. Enjoy as a side dish with rice or roti or if you are like me eat it by itself. :) Tip: Try to the curb the instinct that keeps telling it needs more stirring, because okra is very deliacte it tends to break if handled too much. When buying fresh okra, try to break the tip. If it breaks easily, it is a tender one and is good to use.

Ridge Gourd/ Beerakaya-Tomato Curry

2006-05-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Made this curry and got the pictures a couple of weeks ago. They just remained, ignored till now. Ridge gourd/Chinese okra is one vegetable which i did not like very much when I was back home. It was very tolerable, I could eat it once in a while, without making faces. But now I really really like it. I like it enough to make chutney out of the peel of ridge gourd. There will be a different post for it, There are so many nice recipes that can be made this vegetable. This is just one of them. Simple, easy to make, minimum ingredients and mostly DELICIOUS.

Here comes the recipe.

Ingredients.

Ridge Gourd/Chinese Okra/Beerakaya/Turia - 2, peeled and cubed Tomatoes - 2 Chopped Onion - 1 big, chopped Turmeric Salt Red chilli powder Curry leaves - 4 (Optional) Oil- 1 Table spoon

Method Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and curry leaves and saute. Add turmeric. Mix well and add chopped ridge gourd. Cover and cook a little. Add chopped tomatoes, salt, chilli powder. Cover and cook till everything is cooked well. There is no need to add water as water from tomatoes will be enough to cook.

Disaster from my kitchen - Care to take a guess?

2006-05-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

Did you guys think I always dish out nice food. How I wish that it was the case.:) This one is the worst disaster in a very very long time though. Can you guys take a guess what it could be? One clue I am going to give is that the main ingredient that has been used is completly out of shape.

So, here comes the story about the fish. We went to a chinese store over the weekend with the single purpose of buying fresh unfrozen fish. We have been planning for a couple of months and the plan finally materialized. It was such a huge store. Took us a few minutes to find seafood section. There was such a wide variety of fish. I did not know most of them. The only two kinds I am familiar with are cat fish and tilapia. I looked and looked but was not brave enough to buy any other kind. Tilapia it was going to be. I aksed the guy at the counter about fifteen times, if he would clean it and make it ready to cook and he kept saying "yes ofcourse, it’s a service we provide FREE OF COST". I picked one and he said it would be a 10 minute wait. The store being so huge and with so many kinds of veggies, calling me to inspect them, I could not wait there for 10 minutes. So told him I will be back to pick it up. According to my husband, bought quite a lot of stuff in 10 minutes :):):). Went back to the counter and the guy had neatly packed fish ready for us. Both of us were majorly thrilled with the purchase and went home, thinking and talking about the delicious dinner we were going to have. Hot rice and tangy fish pulusu. My mouth is watering as I type the word "fish pulusu" We go home. I put away everything else. Soaked tamarind. Cut onions and did all the prep work. I opened the packet and literally SCREAMED, Scaring Madhu and Sahithi. They thought I hurt myself in the kitchen. But alas, it was the content of the package. There were four HUGE pieces of fish. All the cleaning that had been done was to remove the scales and it had been chopped in 4 HUGE pieces, bones and all. I don’t know how the guy at the counter could call It ready to cook. There was no way I was going to do anything, I mean ANYTHING with those. The task fell upon Madhu. After two hours which included a lot of yelling and screaming, he declared he did his best to make it "cooking worthy". What I had on hand to work with was a mushy mass with some tiny pieces seen here and there. After all the work he did, I did not have the heart to say "No, I won't cook it". And the mushy mass you see in the picture was the end result. What a sad end to all the plans. And the craving for fish pulusu has magnifed many folds after this debacle.

Fave Chutney 1 & Second Entry for JFI - Mamidikaya Putnalu Pachadi

2006-05-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to be able to do two entries for JFI, one with ripe mango and one with raw mango. Did not know if I could. But then "where there is a will there is a way". So here comes my entry-II with Raw mango. And this is special because I got this Raw Mango all the way from INDIA. I have been saving the mango for a week and what could be more special than the first JFI to use it. And also this happens to be one of my favorite chutneys. Ingredients Raw Mango -1, chopped into pieces Putnala Pappu/Dalia/Roasted Chana Dal - Fistful Jaggery/Bellam - Handful Whole red chillis -3 Garlic - 3 pods. Salt to taste For tempering Oil - 1 Table spoon, I used Mustard oil Avalu/Rai/Mustard seeds - 1 tea spoon Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon Curry leaves - 5 Who red chillis -2 Blend all the ingredients in the first list. Heat oil in pan, add all the ingredients in second list and add to the cutney. Its as simple as that.

Entry for JFI - Rice Pudding with Mango/Mamidi Payasam

2006-04-30T23:36:00.000-07:00

Firstly, Thank you all for checking on me. Feeling much better now. This one is entry to Indira's Jihva for Ingredients. This one allows the host to pick one ingredient which needs to be used and Indira chose "Mango" , I got very excited and thought there are so many things I could make with it!!! I was soooo wrong. :). I kept thinking and looking for what I could make. Days passed but could not zero down a recipe. Finally, I told my self I will go into the kitchen, opened the fridge and will start making SOMETHING, just thinking wont help at all. So, I am in my kitchen in front of the fridge, looking, and the first thing I see is un-opened can of milk and I remembered reading some where about Mango Pudding, using condensed milk and half and half. And I thought I will make my version of Mango Payasam. Here is how I made it.

Ingredients Basmati Rice - 1/2 Cup Milk - 3 Cups Sugar - Sufficient enough for your taste Mango Puree - 1 cup Cardamom - 3 Method Crack the rice my blending it in a blender for a couple of minutes. Heal the milk in a thick bottemed vessel. Once the milk is hot, add the rice and let cook on low heat setting. It will take about 30-45 minutes for it cook. Add sugar, and mix well and leave for 10 more minutes. Add the mango puree and crushed cardamom, mix well. Cook for 10 more minutes. The result is a pale yellow, beautiful looking Mango Payasam. You could some dry fruits to the payasam, but I did not want the mango flavor to mix with the dry fruits. The rasins on the top are purely for decorative purposes. It tasted so very different and amazingly tasty. We had friends who dropped in. I asked them to eat see if they can figure out what it is. They really liked it but could not point out mango. :) But I thought that mango flavor was very dominating, but then ofcourse, I made it.

Favourite Five 2 - Non-vegetarian -Shahjeera Mutton.

2006-04-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

I was not feeling well yesterday. I think flu is catching me finally. :). Took half a day off and went home to rest. Hubby dear comes home and decides I have not been eating well!!!!!!!!!! No one, I mean ABSOLUTELY no one who has seen me will believe his words.:) Anyway, he decides we should have a nice dinner. Looks in the fridge and finds mutton. So, mutton it was we had for dinner, along with my first attempt at mooli parathas. Mutton came out really really well. I did go a little off my regular way of making and liked it much better. That’s the reason it going to my favourite series. Cant take away credit from hubby dear. All in all, it was combined effort to make dinner. Here comes the recipe for Mutton. Ingredients Mutton/Lamb - 2 pounds Yogurt - 1 cup Ginger & Garlic paste - 2 table spoons. Salt Chilli powder - according to taste. Oil- I table spoon. Marinate all the above for at least an hour. Heat the oil in Pressure cooker, add marinated mutton and cook till is tender. Its better to under cook and then cook a little more than over cook. Onion- 1 Medium, Chopped into tiny cubes Tomatoes - 3. I used Roma tomatoes, chopped into tiny pieces Garam Masala- According to taste Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 Table spoon. Shahjeera/Sajeera/Black Cumin Seeds - 1/2 Table spoon ( I know it’s a lot). Cloves -3 Whole cinnamon - A small piece about an inch. Cardamom- 3 Method Heat The oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the spices. Once you start smelling the lovely aroma, add chopped onions. Let the onions brown a little and add ginger garlic paste. Fry for couple more minutes and add the mutton and chopped onions. Cover the vessel and cook on medium heat for 7-10 minutes. Add garam masala, mix well and let it cook for 5-7 more minutes. It is relatively easy to make and extremely tasty. Recipe for mooli paaratha will follow.

Fave Roti2 - Broccoli Roti

2006-04-22T00:14:00.000-07:00

This would have been an ideal submission for meena's fusion cuisine. Could not do it in time. I guess better late than never. The recipe for broccoli roti came from shayamala. Broccoli was my LEAST favorite vegetable till about a year ago. I just did not like the way it looked and absolutely did not like the taste of steamed broccoli. All of this changed about a year ago. Why?? Thanks to my little one Sahithi. This is her absolute favorite vegetable. She eats it for lunch dinner and as a snack too!!!!!!!!!!! I cant describe my "pleasant horror", if I can use a phrase like that, when the lady who takes care of her in day care said " Sahithi Loves Broccoli". I had no option other than finding ways to incorporate it into my regular cooking now. The first ever broccoli recipe I made was broccoli dal and Madhu, that’s my husband, liked it and said "give it a shot before you write it off your list" and I did. And I LIKED it. From then on it has become one of the standard recipes in my kitchen. When shyamala, my friend told me this roti recipe, I was more than eager to try it. And I am glad I did. They are a big hit at home. Ingredients Grated Broccoli - 1 cup Low fat Ricotta cheese - 4 Ounces Wheat Flour - 2 cups Salt Chilli Powder Low fat milk - a little Method Mix everything together, except milk. Leave it for about 20 minutes. Knead the dough and add milk, if required to make a soft dough. Shape into balls. Roll the rotis and fry them on the pan. Had this with pinto beans curry. Recipe for curry will follow soon.

My response to all the comments abt Kova Kobbari Laddo.

2006-04-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

Thank you all. The reason why I have not replied for so long is I have been trying to see how long I can stay away from my own blog.:):)Lasted all of 4 days.:):). For all who want to make these, It's not hard at all. Its fairly simple process and uses even more simple ingredients. All you need is a little patience. CD, Can i list this one as Low-Oxalate?? And do try them out when you have some time. I highly recommend it for you. Lakshmi, Anjali, RP,Vineela,KA,Tanuja Thank you guys. I get a kick of reading all your comments. :). You say that it is my "blog fuel". Wheresmymind, If U like macaroons, you cant go wrong with these. You will surely like them. Karthi, I know the kova kajjikaya you are talking about. and you got the name exactly right!!!!!Its different from this. Kova is used as stuffing in that I have used kova as covering. L2C, I know what you mean. He is held as an example in my house too.:) Jasmine, Its so amazing to see one spice being used in so many different ways by different people right? I am learing so much from all the blogs. Genevive, I am not sure if you can buy something like this from a store. If you decide to make it, I promise you will not be disappointed. Sailu, What a compliment!!!!!!!!!. I am honored. Indira, my parents live in Punjagutta, very close to the pulla reddy store in Somajiguda. We can walk there. Two of my cousins are coming form India today and stopping over in our place for a couple of days. I am HOPING that they will carry some pulla reddy sweets. :) Lera, You got carried away by the pictures!!!!.I am just kidding:):). The post has the recipe for kova. Its very simple.

Fave Sweets1 - Kova Kobbari Laddo - Coconut stuffed kova Laddos.

2006-04-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

Most of the people from AndhraPradesh, The state where I come from must be familiar with PullaReddy sweets. Theirs is probably the most popular sweet house in the entire state. The sweets available there are fresh and Amazingly tasty. It has been open for a long time now and old times say that the taste or the quality did not change over the period of time and that is probably where their success lies. Their outlet in somajiguda is HUGE and beautiful. But the best sweet that I had is not from any of their huge stores, but in Kurnool Bus stand. In Kurnool bus stand you can buy Pala kova in tiny one serving packets which tastes DIVINE. Its probably my liking for street side food that made this more tastier than what is available in their more upscale stores. :) This is my submission for Barbara's Ancient Spices. And the Spice I chose is "Cardamom" the QUEEN of spices, and I made kova and kobbari louju using cardamom. Did u know that cardamom is supposed to have aphrodisiac powers?? More about the history of Cardamom here Ingredients for Kova Milk - 1/2 Gallon Sugar - 1.5 cups Cardamom - 5 Method Boil the milk till it reduces to more than half in quantity. Add sugar, crushed cardamom. Add more sugar if you want it very sweet. Mix well and let the milk boil till it becomes a thick, light brown mass, which you can form a ball with. It is going to take alng time for this happen, about 2-3 hours. So please be patient while this is done. Ingredients for Kobbari Louju Grated coconut - 3 cups Sugar- 2 cups Water - 1.5 cups Cardamom - 5 Method Make a sugar syrup and let it boil until it becomes one thread consistency. Add cardadmom and grated cocunut and let it cook. Make sure you dont over cook as you my dry the mixture into flakes. Let it cool and make balls/Laddos out of it. To make Kova-Kobbari Laddos, Encase the coconut laddos with kova and make round balls. Kova is a little sticky. SO be careful while making laddos. Chill and serve. The only spice used for both the preparations is cardamom and the flavor really stands out when you bite into one of them. And a bite will leave an extremely rich and satisfying taste in your mouth, and then you will definetly want more than a bite. :)

This is also for blogparty#9 hosted by lovely Stephanie

Melon Balls skewer

2006-04-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

My last post was kebab. My intention was to make sheekh kababs and so I bought these wooden skewers. But I made something else instead of sheek kababs which did not require me using these. And these skewers were lying near my fruit basket, beside all the melons. I looked up, saw them all together and the result was melon ball skewer, wayyyyyy off from what I meant to do with skewers. :):):). And this also ended my search for a profile picture for myself. I have been around in blogosphere for a couple of months now and still had no profile picture. I kept looking through my pictures, never liking anything for a profile pic, until this came along. And there ended my search. Sahithi LOVED eating this. Of course I was watching her all the while to make sure she wont poke herself.

Fave Snacks 3 - Kabab/Kebab/Kebob

2006-04-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

I have been raking my brains thinking about another appetizer to submit for VKN's contest. And then I get a mail in my inbox with the content "Do you know how to make kebabs?". And there was my next entry!!!!!!!!!! Kabab is one of my fave snacks too. So, Kebab it is going to be. Kabab/Kebab/kabob has a lot of history attached to it. It is supposed to have originated in the middle eastern countries. Kebab literally means "small chunks of meat grilled on a skewer". It is said that there are more than 100 varieties of kebabs with ingredients ranging from meat to egg plant, made in Turkey, which is believed to be the home of kebabs. Shish kebab, Doner Kebab, chapli kebad are probably the more popular ones. This is my recipe for chapli kebab that I got from an ex-collegue. I Have made it a number of times and it always turned out to be crowd pleaser. Ingredients Ground Lamb or Chicken or Turkey Ginger & Garlic Paste Salt Red Chilli Powder Garam Masala Eggs-1 Onion- Finely Minced Tomato -Finely minced Cinlantro -Finely Chopped Oil 1 Table Spoon Method Mix all the ingredients together. Shape them into small round patties. Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook the patties in the oven until done. Alternativy these can be cooked on BBQ grill too. This is my second entry to VKN's MyDhaba's VCC -Q1 2006. I hope I am not too late in submission. This is also for Tony's CurryMela

My Very First Meme

2006-04-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

And I have been DOUBLE TAGGED. So I feel "Doubly Elated" if I can say that. Priya of sugar and spice and Karthi of Kitchenmate tagged me. This meme has been fun to answer because it bought somethings into a clear perspective. Especially the three things I want to try. 1.Please list three recipes you have recently bookmarked from foodblogs to try: 1. Indira's cashew-walnut Laddo. Every time I look at the picture, I crave for it. This tops my MUST try list. 2. Cooking medley's Sorakaya/Anapakaya/Bottle Gourd Curry with Milk: This is one vegetable that I have not experimented much with. 3. Pushpa's Peach Butter Cake: I am an absolute novice at baking. Trying to learn from pushpa. 2.A foodblog in your vicinity: Vineela of Vineela's Cuisine. 3. A foodblog (or more) located far from you: A lot of them :) 4. A foodblog (or several) you have discovered recently (where did you find it?): I am a fairly new blogger myself. So most of the blogs are kinds of new to me and I found all of them while browsing through Food Blogs Sumi's kitchen Sonali's Spice Hut Lakshmi's My Rasoi Tanuja's Kodaliskitchen 5.The latest food bloggers who I want to tag Most of them have been tagged already. But I could not leave this one blank :). So tagging a few people Luv2cook of Cookingmedley RP's Workshop Smogasboard

Sri rama navami - Vadapappu & Panakam

2006-04-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

"Seetamma ku cheisti cintaku patakamu ramachandra… Aa patakamunaku patte padi vela varahalu ramachandra." Sreerama navami is one of the Indian festivals that is celebrated with a lot of devotion. It is supposed to be the birthday of lord sreerama. Ramayana, one of the most important scriptures in Indian culture is the story of Lord sreerama, his wife Seeta and brothers. The kind of devotion and bhakti towards Lord sreerama is such that it is not uncommon to find people writing "Ramakoti", which is writing the word "Sreerama" 10 million times. Seetarama kalyanam is performed on this day. And hundreds of thousands of people go to badhrachalam to witness the kalyanam that happens there every year. Traditional food items that are made on this day are panakam and vadapappu. Panakam is a sweet drink made of jaggery. It is supposed to have cooling properties and is a very healthy drink in summer heat. It is also a tradition to serve panakam as a welcome gesture during South Indian weddings. It is kind of a welcome drink served by the bride's family to the groom's wedding party. :):) Ingredients for Panakam Water Jaggery Cardamom Black pepper powder Sonti/ Dry ginger powder. All of the above are mixed and served. Ingredients for Vadapappu Soaked Moong dal Fresh grated coconut Green chillis Salt. Method Soak moong dal for 2-3 hours. Add grated coconut, salt and chopped chillis and mix well. I like to contemplate for reasons sometimes for certain things. And as I was thinking about what could be the reason for serving these two as traditional prasadam, it struck me that Sreerama navami usually comes in the beginning of hot summer months. And both panakam and Moong dal are supposed to have cooling effect on the body. May be that’s the reason. What do you all think? Having trouble uploading pictures. Will do it as soon as blogger will let me do it.

Fave Five Breakfasts 3 -Masala Dosa

2006-04-02T00:03:00.000-08:00

This is my first post of the new year.Another addition to my favourite five breakfasts. Would it be an exaggeration if I say that a week does not go by with out making dosas for most of the south Indian homes? Dosa is supposed to be an exclusive south Indian territory. Its not at all uncommon to hear from north Indians " I can never make dosas right. Some thing always goes wrong." I think all south Indians are born with a "dosa gene" which is missing in everyone else. :):):) Masala Dosa. The word "Masala Dosa" brings a crispy dosa stuffed with potato curry with a side of chutney and a bowl of sambar. Right? I do like alu curry but I always prefer the onion chutney masala dosa. My mom makes the most awesome onion masala dosa. I still have miles to go before I can rest and say these dosas taste like my mom's. :):):). I will stop trying to be funny now and take you to the recipe. Ingredients for Dosa Urad dal/Minpa pappu - 1 cup Chana Dal/Senaga Pappu- 1/2 cup Rice - 3 cups Methi Seeds/Menthulu - 1 table spoon. Soak all of the above for atleast 6 hours. Blend and ferment over night. The dough will become atleast 1.5 times after fermentation. Ingredients for Onion Chutney 2 big Onions - coarsly chopped Jeera/ Cummin seeds - 1 Tea spoon Garlic - 3 pods Tamarind - a little Red chilli powder Salt Oil - 1 Table spoon Method Blend everything together except oil into paste. Heat oil in a pan. Add the paste and let it cook till the raw smell goes away. Picture on right hand side is uncooked chutney and on left hand side is cooked. Time to make dosas now. Heat the dosa pan. Season the pan with cut onion/Brinjal. Pour a laddle full of batter and spread it in a circle. Drizzle very little oil around the dosa. Spread the onion chutney on dosa. Sprinkle some putnala podi on it. Leave it on for a minute. Thats all. Dosas are ready to eat. Few tips to make dosas 1. Always spread the batter in only one direction. 2. You always get a better result if you season the pan with onion/brinjal 3. Dont heat the pan too much. Batter will stick to the pan if it is too hot. You can eat it with peanut chutney or coconut chutney or just as is. We had it with chicken sheruwa.It is not an uncommon practice eating dosas with chicken/mutton. Hubby dear really likes the combo. Any one of you like this combo?

Pappula Podi/Chitlampodi

2006-04-01T23:58:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favourite podis.:) Ingredients Dalia/ Veyinchina senaga Pappu - 1 cupJeera/ Cummin seeds - 1 Tea spoonGarlic - 3 podsRed chilli powderDry coconut powder - 1/4 cupSalt. Blend them all into a fine powder. This can be eaten with hot rice with a drop of ghee or Idlis or Dosas. It tastes good with any thing. Pictures soon to follow.

Vyayanama Samvatsara Ugaadi Subhakankshalu

2006-03-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

A very happy Ugaadi to all. Yet another year comes to an end. Lots of things happened last year. Most of them good and some not so good. That is the whole concept of life. I am getting way too philisophical here. Back to Ugadi talk. One thing that is made across all the households in Andhra on this day is "Ugadi Pachadi". Ugadi pachahdi signifies life as it is. Each ingredient that goes in has a meaning. All the flavors signify the Importance of the flavors in Life. "Jeevitam shadruchula sammelanam". Loosely translated it means " life is a mixture of all six varieties of tastes". This is the first thing that’s eaten after the puja is over and before the festival feast begins. Ingredients for Ugadi Pachadi Raw Mango/Mamidi Kaya - Pulupu/Sour Tamarind -Pulupu/Sour Neem Flowers - Chedu/Bitter Jaggery -Teepi/Sweet Fresh Sugarcane-Teepi/Sweet Coconut -Vagaru Green chilli -Karam/Hot Salt -Uppu Method Mango and coconut are grated. Pulp is taken out of tamarind. Green chillis are chopped into small pieces. Sugarcane is chopped into pieces. And then all the ingredients are mixed well. I used to substitute neem leaves with bitter melon juice.This year I am lucky to have neem flowers. Thank you very much Shyamala for mailing it all the way from New Jersy and Thank you Kavita for sharing it with me. If you have read so far, you should remember the festival feast I spoke about. :) Mamidikaya pulihora Oligalu/Bobbatlu/Bhakshalu/PooranPoli Alugadda vankaya koora/ Potato brinjal curry Vadiyalu/Papad. These are some of things that are the part of traditional meal. Today is a working day. Just made pulihora for lunch. May be I will cook a feast for the dinner. :):) Once again A very Happy Ugaadi to you all.

Fave Five Snacks - 1 and 2. Mirchi Bajjis and Spicy puffed Rice

2006-03-29T11:58:00.000-08:00

Rainy evenings and mirchi bajjis go hand in hand. This post is two birds in one shot. Two snack recipes for my Favourite Five series. Spicy Puffedrice/Karam borugulu and Mirchi Bajjis sit right in the top one and two slots of my Favourite snacks. Nothing like hot spicy mirchi bajjis on a rainy evening. Yesterday was an extremely wet day in LosAngeles. It rained non-stop. And all I could think of was mirchi bajjis the whole day. They actually popped up on my monitor at work!!!!!! The only way I could get them off my mind was to make and EAT them. :) In most of rayalaseema households mirchi bajjis and some kind of puffed rice/borugulu/maramaralu are spoken in the same breath. It could be plain puffed rice, Uggani or Spicy Puffedrice/Karam borugulu. We were in a mood for Karam borugulu. That’s what we had on a gloomy rainy evening. Ingredients for Bajji Yellow Chilli pepper - 6 Besan/Senaga pindi - 1.5 cups Jeera/Cummin seeds - 1 Tea spoon Onion- Chopped into small pieces Lemon wedges Salt to taste. Oil for deep frying. Method Heat one tea spoon oil in a pan. Add 2 table spoons of besan and crushed jeera and let them fry till the mixture is nice and brown. Slit the mirchis and deseed if you think its going to too hot. Else you leave the seeds in for the kick. Use the mixture for stuffing the mirchis. Add a little salt to besan and mix it with water. It should not be too watery nor too hard. The mixture should be thick enough to be able to drop in dollops. Heat the oil in a pan. Coat the mirchis well with besan and deep fry. Cool a little. Make a slit in the center. Stuff onions into it. Add few drops of lemon. Take a bite and you are sure to forget the gloomy weather. :):). Ingredients for Karam Borugulu puffed rice/borugulu/maramaralu. Peanuts Curry leaves Veinchina senagapappu/Dalia Karam/Redchilli Powder Chopped Garlic -Optional Salt Oil Method Heat oil in a pan. Add garlic and curry leaves. Add peanuts and let them fry. Add dalia and fry for few more minutes. Add salt and chilli powder and Immediately add puffed rice. Chilli powder will burn if you let it stay long. Mix well and enjoy with bajjis or just as is.

Salad & Sandwich - Entry for Make it in 30 Minutes

2006-03-26T20:17:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to do this post for the past three days. It has been a crazy weekend. Lots of things going on at work and at home too. But i REALLY REALLY wanted to do something for "Make it in 30 Minutes" And this is such a last minute entry. I am glad I am actually able to do it. I am totally waiting to check of the entries to this because as much as I love cooking, I would like to cook it in as less time as possible. Its achallege I pose to myself sometimes. How much of multi tasking can I do in the kitchen with out messing up things? I can multi-task resonably well but I think there is always more to learn. What can I cook in 30 minutes? That was the first question. I did spend sometime pondering over it and finally decided on sandwich and salad. I quite like open grilled sandwiches. My entry going to be " Grilled Cottage cheese and Bell pepper sandwiches and Simple Salad". Ingredients for sandwich Whole wheat bread Red, Green and Yellow bell peppers Yellow cilli pepper Paneer/ Cottage cheese. Tomatoes salt Olive Oil. Cut all the peppers. Crumble paneer. Heat oil in a pan and add all the peppers. wait for two minutes and add crumbles panner and salt. Saute for two more minutes. Cut tomatoes into round slices. Place them on the bread and arrange the pepper & paneer mix on it. Broil in the over for five minutes for a regular toast. I Like my toast burnt. So I put for seven minutes. Ingredients for simple salad. Romaine Lettuce Tomatoes Cucumbers Ranch Dressing. Method. Tear the lettuce. Chop tomatoes. Cut cucumber into round slices. Mix all of them well with ranch dressing in a bowl. The whole process will need a little multi tasking. Let me give you the detail of how I went through the process. Start heating the oil and the cut the peppers. Crumble paneer while peppers are being sauted. Cut tomatoes while waiting for the pepper/Paneer mixture. And the Make the salad while waiting for the sandwich. I am sure you will enjoy it if you decide to give it a shot. Tagged with: IMBB24 + 30Minutes

Favorite Five -1.Non Vegetarian- Methi Keema

2006-03-22T23:35:00.000-08:00

Did you guys think I was going to do five breakfasts before I move on?? Well that was the plan. How many of the best laid plans ever get converted into best actions? Very few and I speak from experience. Excuses, excuses for not getting doing things right. How many of you are thinking that right now? Who ever said yes got it RIGHT!!!!!!!! Are you surprised that you got it right?? I most definitely am not.:) That was the plan initially. But then, it means waiting for couple more days for the next breakfast item and I did not want to do that. I am ready with something else that falls into favorite category and I thought this needs to be posted, better today than tomorrow. :):) I am a non vegetarian. And I like my non- veg food, a lot. I have met a lot of vegetarians who respect my food habits I have had the opportunity to live a vegetarian roomie in school. Thankfully she was not a fussy person and it was OK with her to cook non- veg fare in our kitchen. I have also met my share people whose reactions range from wrinkling of their noses to pure HORROR when I say I am a non-vegetarian. Initially that would provoke me into getting into an argument. Over a period of time as I grew up (There are few people around who have their own doubts about my growing up part:))) I have learned to live with the fact that such people will always be around and I do not owe any sort of explanation to them about what I eat. It is a very personal choice, which does not require any approval from them.

What provoked this piece from me the posting of garam masala. Go ahead and read it here. The first non- veg item in this series is methi keema. The plate does look inviting right? This one is an absolute favorite in my home. Bribing Chapati/Paratha and methi keema as a meal, I can get a quite a number of things done at home :) This is the first time I used organic keema, one of the purchases from my organic store visit. And I found a remarkable difference in taste. To the recipe now. Ingredients Ground Lamb - 1 pound 1 Medium Red Onion chopped into small pieces Ginger Garlic Paste- 1 Table spoon Fresh methi - 1 bunch, take the leaves out Green chillies- 2, chopped into tiny pieces Oil- 1 Table spoon Salt, red chilli powder, garam masala to taste Method. Heat oil in a pan. Add methi leaves. Let them fry for about 2 minutes. Add onions and green chillies. Once onion looses its rawness, add ginger garlic paste and let them fry till onion gets a nice brown color. Crumble keema and add it to the onion mixture and mix well. Make sure no lumps are left. Cover and let it cook on a slow heat. Once it is half done, add salt and chilli powder. Mix well and let it cook completely. Add garam masala and leave it on for few more minutes on slow heat. Is this not a simple recipe? Had this with Spinach-cottage cheese roti, recipe courtesy SaffronHut.

Organic vs. Non-Organic- Would love to hear what you all think

2006-03-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

Why am I asking this?? Well there is a reason. There is always a reason for everything right?:) Well, I visited an organic food store with the purpose of taking a look at things that they sell for the first time. I go to Trader Joes on and off but never really noticed stuff. The store that I went to is Wholefood Market. It’s a chain. It took us 15 minutes to find parking and the parking is exclusively for the store and I could not believe my eyes when I walked into the store. It was SWAMPED. There was so much crowd that we had to wait in a line to move between aisles. And this on a week day, during lunch time!!!!! I went out of curiosity, and after seeing the crowd, my curiosity multiplied many folds. Do you guys use organic food. If you do, do you find a difference in the usual food and organic? Do you have preference for certain kind of organic food? Do you think organic is way too over priced? These are just a few questions. Please fell free to say what you all think on this. I would really like to get your opinions.

Follow up on Ponganalu

2006-03-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

Looks like ponganalu have their own share of faithful following. This is for people who want to make them but have no pan. Thanks Krishnaarjuna for letting me know that they are available here in US, but with just a different name. They are called aebleskiver pan. You can find the cast iron pan in target. You guys can take a look at it here. More Information about aebleskiver and its history is here. Hope this information is helpful to people who want to make this authentic dish.

Favourite Five Breakfasts2 - Uggani

2006-03-18T22:44:00.000-08:00

Uggani, Borugula Tiragamatha/Puffed Rice Upma. Mouth wateringly delicious. Anyone wondering what Uggani is? It is an upma kind of preparation made with puffed rice. This I am pretty sure is typical to Rayalaseema and karnataka. There are a few different ways of making it. Different households make it differently, using one of the following lemon, tamarid or tomatos. In our house its usually made using tamarind. There is a small story behind how I make it though. I never made it while I lived in India. The very first time I wanted to make it after coming to US of A, I was expecting Sahithi and was craving Uggani like crazy. Like everyone else, I called home to get the recipe for mom. I knew all the ingredients. I had them all ready before I called. Daddy picks up the phone and tells me that mom went out. I cant put it in words how disappointed I was. So, he pacifies me and says "Its no big deal. I will tell you how to make it". This coming from my daddy, who never ever made it in his life. I asked him how will you know? He replies "I ate it enough number of times" and gave me the recipe of how he thought it should me made. I followed it exactly and LOVED it. Till date, its his recipe that I follow to make the FAVOURITE breakfast in our home. Ingredients Puffed rice - 7 OZ 1 big Onion- chopped into big squares Tamarind- size of a lime Curry Leaves green chillies Jeera/Cummin seeds Avalu/rai/Mustard seeds Garilc-2 big pods fistful of putlanlu/dalia/roasted chickpeas, finely powdered. Salt Oil Method Soak puffed rice in water for few minutes and then take all the water out. They become nice and soft after soaking in the water Soak tamarind in water and the take the pulp out Heat the oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. Once they start spluttering add curry leaves and onions. Make a paste of chillies, jeera,garlic and salt. Once onion starts browing, add the paste. Let it fry a little and the add the tamarind pulp. let it cook for few minutes . Onion soaks in some of the tamarind, add the soaked puffed rice. Mix well and add powered putnalu and let it be on the heat for few minutes. Putnalu power is very very important as it makes uggani dry and gives a unique taste. Please do not skip this, if you make it. Traditional way of eating uggani is with mirchi bajji. We were not patient enough to make bajjis. Uggani was tempting on its own. This is one recipe that I have made for quiten a few of my friends and they all really really liked it. Hope you guys will enjoy it too.

Apologies

2006-03-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

Please bear with me while I am trying to fix the side bar so that the navigation will be made easy on this site. Not all the drop down may work currently. I am in the process of making it better. Thank You all.

Favourite Five Series

2006-03-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

I am back. Was not well past couple of weeks. Absolutely no energy to do anything. Now feeling much better. I did not realize how much I will miss blogging. :) This will be kickoff of a series of recipes. "Favorite Five". Thanks Indira for suggesting the name. Like I promised I will start off with "Favorite Five Breakfasts" These favorite things are in no order of preference at all. Now having said that it is time to kick off.

Favourite Five Breakfasts1-GuntaPonganalu

Today's breakfast item is "Gunta Ponganalu/Punugulu". Ponganalu are very typical to Rayalaseema. I have friends from other regions of Andhra but none of them are aware of "ponganalu". A special pan called "gunta ponganala patra" is used to make these, with main ingredient being leftover dosa batter.

In some other regions of Andhra, pretty similar recipe is made, but the batter is deep fried in oil and they are called "punugulu". As far as I know, making "Gunta ponganalu" in a pan is unique to rayalaseema and may be some parts of Karnataka.. Anyone reading this, please correct me if I am wrong. Now to the recipe with no further delay. Ingredients Leftover Dosa batter Chana dal Urad dal Onion - finely chopped Cilantro/Kottimera- finely chopped Curry Leaves Green chillies Cumin seeds/Jeera-1 tea spoon Oli - 1/2 Table spoon. Heat oil in a pan. Add jeera, chana dal, urad dal and curry leaves. Add chopped green chilli and onions. Once the onions loose the raw smell add this to the dosa batter along with chopped cilantro. We have the batter ready now. Heat the pan and put a spoonful of batter into each hole. Add one drop of oil on the batter. Let them cook on slow heat. Once they cook turn them over to the other side and let them cook completely. Seven can be made out of each batch. They are good to eat on their own because of the chilli and salt and other things that we have added. But the perfect thing to eat them with is the peanut chutney. Recipe for the chutney will be in a future post.

I remember standing in the kitchen with a plate in my hand waiting for mom to take them out of the pan directly into the plate and being warned of them being too hot to eat right away. ADDENDUM This is going to be my entry to Stephanie's Blogparty#8 Here is the followup on the availability of this pan in US of A

Theme for my blog

2006-03-08T13:40:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about having a theme for my blog. I have been doing random recipes so far and thought it would be nice to have a theme in place and this is what I came up with. I call it "Five Things" because I lack in imagination. Thats all I could come up with. Now what are these "Five Things"? They would be a series of varieties of food like snacks, breakfasts, curries, rotis etc in fives. They would be south indian and I will try my level best to focus on food from rayalaseema. What do you guys think? I am hoping to start off with 5 breakfasts first. I would really appreciate any one visting this blog letting me know of what they think about this.

The art of Baking

2006-03-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

I have tremendous amount of respect for people who can bake well. Baking is some thing that I have not explored and would like to. Everytime when Sahithi's birthday is around the corner, I go into this "I HAVE to learn to bake" mood. and then the phase goes away. I blame it on Eddie's Pastry shop. I dont know if I can ever ever come anywhere close to what they make in the looks and taste. Here is the sample of how they look. Pictures from Sahithi's birthday.

Filter Coffee

2006-03-06T20:54:00.000-08:00

Coffee. How many agree with me that this is a synonym for elixir? I am sure at least a few would. to There are probably millions out there for who the day does not start with out their first cup of coffee. I used to be one of them. I was a coffeeholic. It took me a while to cut down my coffee consumption to what it is today which is 1 cup. And the cup I enjoy the most is not a capuccino, not any of the flavors available at work, not a cup of Java freshly brewed in starbucks, but steaming cup of frothy filter coffee. Coffee brings back so many memories. Back in India, mummy wakes up and the first thing she does is make the decoction for coffee. By the time we finished brushing, decoction is ready. She would make 2 cups one for her and one for me and we would sit in the balcony and talk about all the things. I would tell her about what happened in school/college, who fought with who, who is going steady with who and she would tell me about what's happening with her work. And some days we would just sit there and imagine what it would be like, a few years from that day. This routine never changed as long as I was home. This used to be the most relaxing time of the whole daya for both of us. Just sit there, sipping freshly made filter coffee,share, imagine and dream. This was one thing i TERRIBLY miss after coming to US. And I know she misses it too. This post is for you ma. Most of you would know what's in the picture. For people who dont, this is a coffee filter. Are you guys thinking how is coffee made in this thing?? Can you make it out that there are 2 parts to the filter? Ground coffee is spooned into the the top part which is perforated and the plunger is put and then boiling hot water is poured into it. In few minutes the brew collects in the bottom part. Milk and sugar are added to this brew and heated on stove top. It tossed a couple of time and then divinely aromatic, frothy filter coffee is ready. Its best had a steel glass. Not that it is going to taste any different in a cup, but somehow drinking it a steel glass just makes it taste better. Here is another picture of the filter.

Carrot Halwa/Gajar ka Halwa

2006-03-04T15:33:00.000-08:00

I had lots of carrots in the fridge. My vegetable shopping is never complete with out buying some carrots as Sahithi is very fond carrots in both cooked and un cooked form. Guess i just bought too many over a couple of shopping trips and now too many carrots in the fridge. Had two options make carrot fry or carrot halwa. As usual hubby dear voted for carrot halwa. He has the sweet tooth. And then I have not made carrot halwa in probably more than a year. Takes too much effort to grate them. I know I can use the food processor, but some how that does not seem right to me. :) Finally finished grating carrots, made the halwa and finished eating the whole thing, and now is the time to blog (brag) about it. :):). Most of the recipes use milk in the making of halwa. I am usually a big fan of dairy products, but i like my halwa with out the milk. It takes a little longer for it cook, but its worth the few extra minutes for the taste. Now to the recipe with out any further ado. Ingredients Grated carrots - 3 cups Sugar - 1.5 cups, Can use more if you like it sweeter. unsalted butter - 1/2 cup cardamom cashewnuts raisins. Method Heat unsalted butter in a heavy bottem pan. Add the grated carrots once the butter melts. Now is the waiting part. Let the carrots cook on slow heat. Keep stirring it every few minutes. Once the carrots are 3/4 cooked, add sugar, mix well and let the carrots cook complelty. Add crushed cardamom. Granish with roasted cashewnuts and raisins. My favourite way to eat is hot carrot halwa and cold vanilla icecream together in a bowl. Sadly no icecream for anyone at home as all of us cought cold. So garam garam gajar ka halwa it was for the dessert.

Spinach with Soychunks

2006-03-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

This is for the curry mela hosted by Tony of Anthony's kitchen. Spinach is something that I can never wrong with. I don’t mean it in a sense that I cook spinach well, which of course I do, but in a sense that Spinach can rarely not taste good. Palak dal Palak paneer Palak aloo Palak rice and the list can go on. This particular recipe is from my friend sweta. I ate it at her place a few months and was promptly bowled over by the taste. It tasted spinach alright, but it also had some thing very different, a very appealing flavor , the kind that fills you with a satisfaction to say "aaaaaaaaaaaaha" and then ask for more after the first bite. It is fresh methi leaves/fenu greek leaves. The combination of Spinach, methi and soy chunks can blow you away into a land of great smells and greater flavors and tastes. Now to the recipe with out any further delay. :) This will be a first from me. Posting the pictures as I go along and not just the end product.

Ingredients Spinach - 3 Big bunches, wash and chop Fresh methi/fenu greek - bunch, wash Soy chunks - 1.5 cups, boil in water for 5 minutes or microwave until soft Onion - 1 small chop into small pieces Ginger&Garlic paste -1/2 table spoon Oil, turmeric, Salt chilli powder accordingly Thanks to Indira for her tip on photography. Method. Heal oil in pan. Add onions. Once onions start browning add ginger&gralic paste. Leave it on for few minutes and then add methi leaves. You can smell methi being cooked. Add salt and turmeric Now's the time to add cooked soy chunks. I usually cut them into bite sized pieces . Let them cook for few minutes and then add spinach. Cover and cook. Once spinach is half done, add chilli powder, cover and cook completely. Spinach really shrinks in size and the quantity will go down quite a lot. I made it yesterday night in the same proportions and now I have very little left over after dinner. This will probably be enough for three people if eating with roti.

Sorry for posting pictures late. Had a little trouble with blogger today.

Samosas and Hot Tea

2006-02-28T12:42:00.000-08:00

It was rainy day yesterday. What more than a hot plate of samosas and a steaming cup of tea to make it a perfect evening. The big one is home made, the smaller ones are store bought for Sahithi. She likes these tiny samosas that she can hold and eat comfortably.

Ragi mudda/Ragi Sankati

2006-02-27T11:38:00.000-08:00

Ragi is one of the most popular cereal in South India. Its called Ragi in most of the Indian languages Finger Millet in English and nachni in Hindi.

Ragi has a lot of nutritional value, especially calcium. 7.3 gms of Protein, 1.3 gms of Fat 2.7 gms of Minerals 344 gms of, Calcium, 3.6 gms of Fiber. Did u notice the amount of calcium. No wonder it is one of the popular infant/baby food. With such amount of calcium, proper growth of bones and teeth can ensured in children . And it would also help aging adults with the problem of bone loss. Ragi some how was not very popular until a few years ago. Now, with the increase in the number of people who are conscious about health ragi is back with a BANG and finding place in the menus of some health conscious restaurants too. According to my parents there are some restaurants whose biggest selling point is that ragi mudda on their menu. It is probably one the best things diabetics can eat. Incorporating ragi in our diets on a regular basis will be another step in the direction of healthy, nutritious and tasty food.

I ate ragi on a regular basis while growing up in the form of Ragi malt and Ragi Mudda. While ragi mudda was not a universal favorite at home, I always liked it. The beauty of ragi mudda is that you can eat it with a lot of different things like peanut chutney, Sambar, All kinds of dal and I think the most popular is mutton. I personally like it with dal made with green chilies "Pachimirapakaya pappu". Hot Ragi mudda with just a hint of ghee, dipped in this dal is one step closer to heaven for me.

Ingredients Hand full of rice Ragi Flour - 2 cups salt accordingly. Add rice to water and cook. Once the grain becomes soft add salt. Expert way to make would be to dump ragi flour into this boiling water and mix vigorously. If you are not fast enough in mixing, lumps would form. To avoid lumps I mix flour with cold water, make sure there are no lumps and add this to boiling water. Close the lid and let it sit on medium low of few minutes. You can actually hear the boiling and if you have used a loose plate to cover it would start moving because of the steam. Take the lid away and mix well. Using a strong wooden spoon will help. Leave it on for few minutes in low and then turn the heat off. Dip you hand in cold water and make a round ball and there you have it ready in your hands ragi mudda Pappu would be made in a very similar way that "mango dal" is made. I will list the ingredients. All that needs to be done is pressure cook everything and season it exactly like "mango dal". Toor dal - 1 cup Thai chilli pepper - 5 Red Onion- 1 Small garlic pods -2 cumin seeds/jeera - a little, turmeric - pinch, Tamarind - very little.

Shahi Chicken

2006-02-26T18:58:00.000-08:00

Here comes the recipe for the chicken curry, that I promised from my previous recipe post Cut chicken - 2 pounds Plain Yogurt - 2 cups Onion -1 tinily chopped Tomatoes - 2 Big Almonds -5 Cashew nuts - 5 Coconut - 2 Table spoons ginger garlic paste - 1 Table spoon Fennel seeds/Saunf - 1 tea spoon. Oil - 1 Table spoon Dry fenugreek leaves/ Kasuri mehti - 1 Table spoon This is an optional ingredient. Salt, red chilli powder, garam masala - per taste Heat oil and fry onions. Add ginger garlic paste to yogurt and mix well Once onion browns nicely, add the mixture of yogurt and ginger garlic paste. Leave it for about 10 minutes. Once the mixture seems to thicken a little, add chopped tomatoes. Once tomatoes are half cooked, salt ,turmeric, chilli powder and chicken. Cover and let it cook on medium heat. Mean while make a paste of coconut cashews and almonds. Once the chicken is cooked add garam masala and after few minutes add the paste. mix well and let it sit on the heat for about 10 minutes on low heat. Add kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves. I think I am going to call it "Shahi chicken". Any other ideas for names will be definetly appreciated. I think substituting vegetables and paneer for chicken in this will be equally good. I have not tried it. Will let you guys know as soon as i try.

Grater/Mandoline

2006-02-25T18:15:00.000-08:00

When I went to Indian store last week, I saw a mandoline. I already have one, a four sided one that stands. This one was interesting. A regular mandoline plate with a attachment behind, a plastic thing that made the behind of mandoline, a box. It holds all the grating with out the need of plate. I never saw anything like this before. For $1.49, it was a steal and I HAD to buy it. Here are the pictures

Hare Bhare Roti

2006-02-25T09:22:00.000-08:00

It was friday yesterday. I waited almost the whole week for the weekend this time. I am glad finally it's here. Came home and both of us were a mood to eat something very nice. I had chicken at home but was bored of the usual variety that I make. So I started looking online for recipes. After 20 mts of search could not find even one recipe for which i had all the ingredients, and we were getting hungry. So I walked into the kitchen thiking I will make something different and will do what ever i rememberd from all the recipes that i have seen. So i started with no definite plan and just made as i went along. And the outcome was unbelievably good. Sahithi who usually eats only chicken after washing the gravy away asked for more gravy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. While chicken was being cooked , made hare bhare roti. Well I named my own roti because it looks so nice and green. This is what our dinner looked like yesterday. Roti and Chicken Curry Recipe for roti. Ingredients Wheat Flour - 2 cups Fenugreek/Methi Leaves - 1/2 fist full Chopped Cilantro - 1/2 fist full Chopped Spinach - 1 fist full. Mix all the things together make a tight dough. Cover with a wet muslin cloth for 15 minutes. Divide it into 10 equal parts. Roll into rotis and roast them on flat griddle or tava. Sahithi loved them for the color and did not fuss at all to eat it. I am thinking what else can I add to the dough to make it look colorful and nutrious. All suggestions are welcome. Recipe for chicken would follow in the next post.

Mango Pulihora/Raw Mango Rice

2006-02-23T21:46:00.000-08:00

Its more mango time. This time it is mango pulihora. Pictures first and recipe later. This is my entry for "From my Rasoi" hosted by Meena of "Hooked on Heat". I do have a small story behind this. Our first ugaadi after we got married, I wanted to celebrate it the traditional way. Ugaadi is the New Year for telugu people. And I wanted it to be a perfect traditional new year. It usually comes in the beginning of summer when the mangoes start making the first appearance in the market. "Mamidikaya Pulihora/chitrannam" is one of things that’s made on this day. And hubby dear is very fond of any kind of rice that is yellow. That is his absolute favourite. Digressing a little if you guys are wondering what is chitrannam, it is the same as pulihora. Its just a slang from Rayalaseema. Now, Back to the story, I had all the motivation to make it. Went to the indian store, bought nice looking green mangoes. Since it would be the naivedyam for the pooja, I did not taste the mango. Made all the delicious dishes. Did pooja and we were starving and as usual hubby wanted to start with pulihora. He eats one spoonful and goes " I thought you made it with raw mango but it tastes SWEET". And indeed it was sweet. The mango looked green and all but it just tasted very very sweet. You can Imagine the disappointment. Now we look back at it and laugh but at that time I was a little crushed. There ends my story and now for the recipe. Ingredients Raw Mango-1 Cooked rice - 4 cups Mustard seeds -Tea spoon Chana Dal, Urad Dal - I table spoon each Curry Leaves -5 Whole red chilli -1 Green Chilli -4 Sliced Pea nuts - Hand ful Turmeric - Pinch Oil -I Table Spoon Grate the mango. Mix it with rice. Heat oil in a pan. Add Mustard seeds and jeera. Once they start to splutter add Chana and Urad dal and let them brown a little. Add curry leaves, Green chilli,red chilli and Turmeric powder. Let them fry for a couple of minutes Add the seasoning to the rice and mix well That’s all these is to it. Its tangy but in a very different way than Lemon rice. You should make it and eat it to believe the taste.

Mamidikaya Pappu/Mango Dal

2006-02-22T13:43:00.000-08:00

Its mango time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday went to the Indian store and there I see tempting looking fresh green mangoes. I am not extremely fond of the fruit, but the raw mango makes my mouth water. They are a little pricey but i had to buy them. After all they are only available 2-3 months a year. Three things that are made of raw mango that I like a lot are 1.Mango pickle 2.Mango Dal 3.Mango Rice I made Mango Dal yesteday. Nice, thick, tangy, mouthwatering "mamidi kaya pappu" Ingredients Big Raw Mango -1 Toor Dal - 1 cup Small Red Onion - 1/2 Garlic - 3 Big pods cut into pieces Cummin seeds - 1 tea spoon Turmeric powder - a pinch Red chilli powder - As desired Salt - As desired. Oil- 3 drops. Mix everything except salt and pressure cook. Open the cooker, mash the mixture nicely and add salt. Now's the time for popu or tadka or seasoning Heat 1 Table spoon of oil in a pan. Add chana da, urad dal, rai, jeera, whole red chillies, cut garlic and curry leaves in the order. Mix it with the dal. Divinely tasting mamidikaya pappu is ready to eat. Thats what we had for dinner yesterday and lunch today.

Vamu Annam/Rice with Tymol

2006-02-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

Where Was I??

Did u guys think I disappeared again???? No I am very much here. One of my closest friends got married over this weekend. Got back home yesterday night after a delay of 3 hours in the airport. Wishing SC and RC a very happy married life. This post will be in the newly wed's Honor as I picked up this recipe from RC's mom. :) I never had it before and HAD to make it as soon as I can. How can we go the recipe with out some story behind it?? South Indians are famous for many different varieties of rice dishes. This is one of those rice dishes from the region of West Godavari. This was some how never a part of our house hold and dear hubby confirmed that it was never a part of his household either. Its called vamu annam. Vamu in telugu Ajwain in Hindi Omam In Tamil Oma in Kannada Tymol Seeds in English Vamu is supposed to have many medicinal values associated with it. I remember as a child when my mom used to give some to swallow when I had cough and I would love the flavor of it in "chakkilalu" that she used to make.

Ingredients Cooked Rice- 2 Cups Mustard Seeds - 1/4 Tea Spoon Jeera - 1/4 Tea Spoon Chana Dal, Urad Dal -1 Table spoon each Vamu - 1 Heaped Tea Spoon Green chilli - 4 Slit Curry Leaves - 4 Leaves. Turmeric Powder - 1 Pinch Oil - 1/2 Table Spoon. Heat oil in a pan. Add Mustard seeds and jeera. Once they start to splutter add Vamu, Chana and Urad dal and let them brown a little. Add curry leaves, Green chilli and Turmeric powder. Let them fry for a couple of minutes and the add cooked rice. Mix the rice well with the seasoing. Let it remain for a few minutes on the heat and Vamu Rice is ready to eat. I made it for lunch today. Turned the rice cooker on before I left to work. Went home at 12 PM, made it and ate it by 12 30. I am giving the time frame just to show you all how simple it is to make. For a change Hubby dear went ooooooohhhh and aaaaaaahhhh about it and paid a genuine compliment. :)

Chicken 65

2006-02-16T05:23:00.000-08:00

Blog party #7- Red & Hot I have kept my promise to myself. Made some thing RED AND HOT appetizer for Stephanie's Blog Party#7 It's called Chicken65. A very typical and popular South Indian appetizer. This my first entry for a blog party. Will have to see if this even classifies as an entry or not. :) And now a little history for this recipe. Chicken65 is a common find in the menus of most of the restaurants, be it big or small in south India. You can find it in a 5 star rated place as well as a street vendor with a tiny portable cooking joint. This is one of the tastes that I really missed after moving to the US of A. I have probably checked out most of the recipes on Internet for it and asked most of the people I know how to make and made it numerous times to get the taste right. Now two things are possible. 1. I got the taste exactly right 2. I have been away so long that I forgot the taste and just started liking what I make.:) If you want me to bet my money on one, I would probably favor Number 2. :):) The recipe follows Ingredients Boneless and Skinless Chicken Breast - 1 Lb Crushed Ginger -1/2 Tea Spoon Crushed Garlic - 1/2 Tea Spoon Salt Red Chilli Powder Boneless and Skinless Chicken Breast - 1 Lb Crushed Ginger -1/2 Tea Spoon Crushed Garlic - 1/2 Tea Spoon Salt Red Chilli Powder Corn Flour-1 Table spoon All Purpose Flour - l Table spoon Egg Whites -2 Oil - Enough to fry Fresh Garlic-3 Pods, Julienned Curry Leaves Thai Chilli pepper - 3 Dark Soy Sauce -2 Table Spoons Yogurt - 1/2 cup Pinch of red food color

Method Heat the oil in a pan. Mix Ingredients 1-8 and fry in hot oil like fritters. Heat very little oil in a different pan. Add curry leaves, Thai chilli pepper and garlic. Fry them nicely and add soy sauce. Add the chicken once Soy Sauce it hot and mix well. Chicken will absorb all the sauce. Leave it for a few minutes. Add a pinch of red food color to natural yogurt and pour it on the chicken. Chicken will absorb all of the yogurt and becomes nice and soft and contrary to what you are thinking it will be dry and you can just pick one up with your fingers and eat. :)

Gulab Jamoon

2006-02-14T22:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day.. Hope you all had a fun filled day.... What did I do for valentine's day??? Did I hear someone say that??:):) It was a pretty regular day. Nothing out of the ordinary. Got a little miffed at dear hubby for not getting me anything.:):) Very late in the night he says he has to run some errand that cant wait and comes back with potted pink carnations :) I was surprised and thrilled. What did I cook??? Was anyone thinking this??. Even if you were not here comes the answer. Made gulab jamoons. Not the Indian store mix variety. Here comes the recipe Ingredients Dry Milk powder - 3 cups Bisquick or any other pancake mix - 1cup Heavy whipping cream - 1/2 pint Oil- Enough to deep fry Sugar - 3 cups water - 2 cups. Method

1. Mix milk powder and pancake mix with heavy whipping cream. It forms a crumbly mixture. Leave it for about 15 minutes.

2. Make syrup with sugar and water and once it turns golden in color, turn the heat to a low setting.

3. Make firm round balls of the mix. Make sure there are no cracks in the balls you make.

4. Heat the oil in a kadai and let it heat and then turn the heat to medium and let oil cool a little.

5. Fry the balls till they are golden. Cool them a little and add to the syrup.

Gulab jamoons are ready to eat.

Vegetable Rice

2006-02-13T10:27:00.000-08:00

Another happy cricket night yesterday… Happy because India won. What a treat to watch dhoni bat…. Back to food talk. Sunday was one of my cousin's anniversary. We had a small gathering at our house. Simple lunch followed by not so simple cake. Lunch was home made but the cake was store bought. What did we have for lunch?? Vegetable rice Egg pulusu Raita. I love vegetable rice for 2 reasons 1. It is one of the the things that Sahithi eats with out any fuss. 2. Its so simple to make. Recipe for Vegteable rice Rice-3 cups Carrots-2 clean scrape and cubed Green peans-3/4 cup Green beans- 1/2 cup This is optional. Small onion-1 Sliced lengthwise Cloves-4 Cinnamon-Inch long Cardamom-4 Bay leaves-2 Salt Oil/Ghee/Clarifed butter-1Tbs.

Method Heat oil in a pan. Put in bayleaves, Cloves, Cinnamon and cardamon. Once you smell the cloves, it takes less than a minute, put in onions fry for a couple of minutes, Add the vegetables and salt. Fry for another couple of minutes and turn of the heat. Wash rice add water and the vegetables and cook in the regualar rice cooker. My pictures are not good yet. I have to learn to take good pictures and buy a new camera too.( Blaming it on the camera). :):):) Hoping that my photographing skills will improve soon.

Mango Icecream

2006-02-12T00:04:00.000-08:00

Friday night was India Pak second ODI. Perfect start for the weekend per my husband. And when its a cricket match,more people watching it the merrier it is. One of our friends bought a brand new 60 inch TV and all the friends were invited over to watch the match at their place. Its hard for one person to cook for everyone. So,Most of the gatherings that we have are Potluck. It was my turn to make a dessert yesterday. All of us were hoping that India will win the match and then we can celebrate with a sweet.:):) Got back home at 6PM and we were to leave by 7 30. Not much time there. Made mango icecream. Easy, quick and mouth wateringly delicious. Here comes the recipe Ingredients If fresh mangoes are available, take the pulp of 2 ripe mangoes, else use the can Mango pulp - 1can Cool whip-8 oz Condensed Milk-8 oz. Mix all of the above together in a bowl. A hand mixer is of great help here. Granish with chopped pistachios and freeze. Thats all you need to do and your icecream is ready. India did win the match and after a dinner of egg biryani, chicken fry, dal and lots of other goodies we enjoyed the icecream with relish. :) Try this recipe and let me know.

Chapatis with leftover sambar

2006-02-10T15:03:00.000-08:00

Made yummy rotis for dinner yesterday. Combined a couple of ideas. An aquiantence told me that she has trouble getting her daughters to eat veggies. So what she does is put in lots of veggies into sambar, takes them out and use those veggies to mix the dough for rotis and the girls eat the rotis with out complaining. Thankfully no such problem with sahithi for me. She is one child who totally LOVES vegetables. Both raw and cooked. Frozen french cut beans are her absolute favourite. The lady who takes care of her at the daycare is always amazed to see her eat veggies with such relish. I keep telling my self that I should not deviate from the topic but invariably I wander of to some that's totally not related to what I was talking about.:) Back to rotis now. I had little leftover sambar with lots of veggies in it. Used those to make rotis and also added an avocado. This tip came from Indira. The end product was a deliciously different roti. It had a nice color to it because of the sambar and tasted absolutly great. Did not get a picture from dinner yesterday. I made enough dough to last for another meal. Will add the picture after I make the next batch. Anybody visiting this blog on a regular basis, please get used to me talking about Sahithi very often. I try not to do it but it's hard. :)

Vankaya Masala/Baingan Masala

2006-02-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

My last post I mentioned about cooking my daughter's birthday. The hit curry of the party was eggplant curry "baingan ka Salan" in hyderabadi terms or Vankaya masala. I am not a big fan of eggplant. I have started appreciating this vegetable only a few years ago. This is one of the eggplant preparation's that I really like and is a slight variation from traditional gutti vankaya koora. Ingredients Indian Eggplant- 10 Oil-2 Table Spoons Onion-1 chopped and blended into paste Ginger Garlic Paste- 1 Table Spoon Salt Tamarid- Soaked and strained Tomato Puree-1/2 cup. Fresh tomato puree always tastes better. You can use a can if pressed for time. Masala Peanuts-Fistful KhusKhus-1 Table Spoon Jeera or Cummin seeds-1/2 Table Spoon Methi seeds or Fenugreek seeds-1/2 tea spoon Dry coconut-2 Table Spoons Dry Whole red chilli -2 WHole Dhaniya or Coriander seeds-1/2 Table Spoon Nuvvulu or Seseme seeds- 1 Table spoon Method 1.Do not cut the stem off from eggplants 2.Cut egg plants from the top on the other side of the stem to 4 pieces but not completly. Egg plant remains one piece but is sliced from the top. 3. Heat 1 Table spoon oil in a flat pan and once the oil is hot add the cut egglpants and close the pan. 4.Let the cook on medium heat and turn after a few minutes. Egg plants shrinks in size and become tender. For Masala Dry Roast Peanuts. Dry Roast Khus Khus. Dry Roast Fenugreek seeds , Seseme and cummin seeds together. Add coriander seeds after the two are half roasted. Once you start smelling cummin seeds, turn off the stove and add dry coconut. Let everything cool and make a paste of this. 1.Heat a hevay bottemed pan. 2.Add 1 table spoon oil. 3. Add onion paste once the oil is hot. 4. Fry onion paste for a few minutes and add ginger garlic paste 5. After afew minutes it starts browning and now its time to add tomato puree. 6. Fry until the raw smell of tomato goes away. 7.Add the ground masala, mix well and cover. 8.let it cook for few minutes and add salt and red chilli powder. 9.Add the fried egg plant. 10.Add the tamarind and let it simmer a little while. Salt, chilli powder and tamarid can be adjusted according to your taste. It might seem a little tedious but it is not. The masala can be made and frozen for future use and it will taste equally good as the freshly ground. This is a tried and tested recipe and has always been liked by anyone who ate. Please try and let me know how you liked it. I am attaching a picture of the curry from the party. Will try to get a better one next time I make it.

I am Back

2006-02-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

I am back... I have just been very lazy... I have to Thank Indira of Mahanandi Why you may ask. And even if u dont here comes the answer. I happen to visit her blog by chance and fell in love with all the beautiful pictures. And thats what made me think I should start a food blog too, because I am a foodie. Past weekend was my daughter's birthday. She turned 3. Had a Terrific Party and I cooked for all 50 people. Had a huge argment with my husband about it. He just wanted us to cater and I wanted to cook. My argument wa sthat it would just give me immense satisfaction to cook and his was why so much effort. I won ofcourse and cooked.:):) You can see the picture of my daughter here. Back to food talk. I am promising myself that I will have some thing ready for stephanie's blogparty#7 some thing Red and HOT.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2006-01-14T17:19:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at blogging. And this attempt is made with an intention of making this a food blog. Why a food blog?? If anyone had this questions... here comes the answer. I enjoy food. In terms of cooking and handling various ingredients and the way they all come together to make various explosive combinatios. I ofcourse do enjoy eating too...but not as much as i do cooking. Cooking to me is a therapy. And according to my darling husband the taste of anything depends on what kind of a mood I was in while cooking.:):):). I will try to add the pictures of any reciepe that will be published here. The first picture I am going to add is my first attempt of making a pineapple upside down cake. Will have figure out how to add pictures on the blog first.

YEAHHHHH Did that. Figured out how to post a picture.

This cake was baked for christmas of 2005. I followed a recipe told to me by a friend looong ago.What I did not remember I Improvised.

RECIPE

Ingredients

1. Betty Crocker Pineapple cake mix

2.Egg-3

3.Oil-1/3 cup

4.Pineapple Juice

5.Brown Sugar-1/2 cup

6.Butter-5 table spoons

7.Pancake Syrup-2 table spoons

8. One can of Pineapple rings

Procedure

Butter a cake pan.

In a thick bottom pan bring butter syrup to a boil on medium heat and then add brown sugar. In about 45 seconds the mixture will start boiling. Turn the stove off and pour the mixture into the cake pan.

Open the pineapple can and try to blot as much liquid as possible from the pineapple rings. Place them in the cake pan on the top of the mixture.

Prepare the cake mix exactly as it says on the instructions. Only variation is use pineapple juice instead of water

Pour the cake mix into the pan on the pineapple and bake according to the instructions on the pan.

VOILA....Pineapple upside down cake is ready.

My almost 3 year old daughter absolutly LOVED this one. And I can see that I will be making a lot of this cake in future.:):)

Anybody who visits my blog please leave me a comment on how you liked it.

Test Post

2005-11-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

hmmmm..... well now that i want to write the big Q is what am I going to write about?