Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Gobi 65

This is a simple side dish that makes any meal special. It goes well with fried rice, veg biryani or any other variety rice. There are many different ways to do this. If you have already been doing this, try it this way for a change. Actually, this is my mom's recipe. When she put in the ingredients I did not get a chance to measure it. So I just eye balled it. After that I just followed her instructions.
I do it the same way too, but the difference is in the measure of ingredients. And I also add egg white. But here I have not used egg . It turned out perfectly fine, infact tastier than mine.


Ingredients:
Cauliflower-1 (medium size)
onion- 1
green chillies- 3
garlic- 1
corriander leaves-few

for marinade:
turmeric- 1/4 tsp
chilli powder- 2 tsps
salt-as required
color powder- optional
cornflour- 1 tbsp
maidha- 2 tbsp
curd- 2 tsp
tomato sauce- 2 tsp



Procedure:
Cut cauliflower into bite size florets and put it in hot salted water for 2 to 3 mins. Drain and put all the ingredients under 'marinade'. Mix everything well without adding water. Keep it aside for 5 to 10 minutes. Heat oil and deep-fry the florets.

In a kadai, heat little oil and saute onion, green chillies, garlic and salt. Remove when onions are cooked but still crunchy. Add some pepper and corriander leaves. Keep this aside. After draining the cauliflower florets add it to the onion mixture. Mix well and serve with ketchup.
Here is a bite for you...Enjoy the long weekend. See you guys next week.

Sepankizhangu Fry

I have already posted a poriyal dish using taro root/sepankizhangu . Now it's the deep fry version. It might not be that healthy as it is fried. But, once in a while it is ok to have these. This dish is a great accompanient for sambar rice, rasam rice or curd rice. The preparation work can be done ahead and refrigerated even the previous day. When you are ready to eat, you can just fry 'em up. It is great evening snack too. Try it for yourself. You will like it.


Ingredients:
sepankizhangu- 6
onion- 1 (sliced)
turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
chilli powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Besan powder- 2 1/2 tbsp
Rice flour- 1/2 tbsp
Rava- 2 tsp
curry leaves- few
salt- as required

Procedure:
Pressure cook sepankizhangu for 1 whistle. Cool and peel off the outer skin. Cut into two or bite size pieces. Add the rest of the ingredients. Blend well. Keep adding water little by little until the besan coats the taro root completely. Check for seasonings and deep fry in hot oil. Enjoy with rice.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Adhirasam

Here I am with more smiles. Yes, one more award from my new friend Sobila. Thank you so much for encouraging me. I'm not sure if I'm worthy enough for this award. But my heartfelt thanks to you for remembering me and sending me one. So, here is one more dessert item for everyone to enjoy.
















Today it is adhirasam. In my childhood days I used to eat the batter as it is even before frying it up. This sweet dish brings me memories of a prank I played on my cousin. This is what that happened.
Everytime I got an adhirasam to eat, my cousin would tap my head and take it off from me. As he was older I was scared to speak against him . So, I let go 4 of my adhirasams. After that, I lost patience. So, the next time I put some tamarind in between 2 adhirasams. As usual he grabbed that also. Then....You should have guessed it. He spit out everything and started chasing me. Ha ha ha...See how crooked I've been.
Ok let's get going to the dish. Actually, I did not make this sweet. My MIL made this during my India trip. I wanted to take more step-by-step pictures but I missed a few steps. So, here is what I got for all of you.

Ingredients:
Raw rice - 1/2 kg
Jaggery- 1/4 kg
elachi- 4 or 5
sukku- little
oil- for deep frying

Procedure:


Soak rice for 2 hrs in water. After that ,decan all the water and dry it on a clean towel for sometime. The rice should not become completely dry. After that grind the rice in a mixie. The end product must be 95% smooth powder and 5% coarse powder. Sieve this powder and get the flour ready for adding jaggery syrup.


For the jaggery syrup, add 2 tsp water with the jaggery and keep boiling it for sometime. You have to switch off the gas just before the string stage (kambi padham). Decan the jaggery syrup if there are any dust particles in it. Then add sukku powder and elachi powder. cool it for sometime.


Then add it to the rice flour little by little. Keep stirring constantly until you don't see any white flour left. Jaggery syrup can be added as per taste. The consistency should not be too thick as the jaggery will thicken when it is completely cooled. Allow it to cool completely.




When you are ready , take a small scoop of the jaggery rice flour . Oil your palms and make a ball with the flour. Then flatten it on a ziploc bag. Here my MIL used banana leaf. Carefully remove it from the leaf and deep fry until you get the dark color. You can take it a little earlier too if you want it that way. Drain the adhirasam's on a tissue paper. Now it is ready to eat hot or cold. You can store it outside for more than a week without refrigeration.

Enjoy everybody!!!!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I'm back!!!

Hi Friends,
wondering why I'm here before Sep 6th? Actually, I came home a week back. My vacation kinda ended short. Due to some official work my hubby rescheduled my tickets and within 5 days of notice I got ready to leave. After coming back, I felt very home-sick and moody. Anyway, I just got out of it and I'm slowly getting used to my routines.

Oh my! Oh my! How many posts have I missed? Great to see my friends (asha, viji, sia, prema, indosungod, bharathy, mandira, richa, Inji pennu, sharmi and sukanya) holding awards. HEARTY CONGRATS to all of them.

I was also thrilled to see an award waiting for me too. It was really sooo sweet of Richa to pass me on the "Rockin Girl Blogger" award. Thanks Richa, you really lifted my spirits and gave me such an encouragement. I have no words to say except, "THANKS" again.

I would like to pass this award to my other friends too. You guys rock too!!!

Aruna- Mistress of spice
Chandrika- Akshayapatra
Chinni- Andhra Kitchen
Pravs-Simply Spicy
Revathi-En Ulagam
Seema- Recipe Junction
Suma- veggie platter
Sukanya- hot and sweet bowl
Sumitha- kitchen wonders
Trupti- spice who loved me
Surya Hith-Healthy n Spicy

Although some of my fellow bloggers have already won these awards, I really want to give the "Inspirational Blogger Award" to:
Asha of Foodie's hope
Richa of As dear as salt
Inji Pennu
Sia of spice corner and
Prema of My cookbook

Thank You gals for everything. I hold a place in blogsphere b'coz of you guys. I also want to take this opportunity to thank my blog visitors who leave kind comments and encourage me more & more. A big thanks again.

Ok Ok. Now it's party time. Let's celebrate with a sweet dish called SeemPal. Wondering what kind of name this is? Actually, it is the the milk that the cow lactates for atleast 3 days after the calf is born. This milk is high in protien and has tons of nutrients in it. It is similar to the colostrum. I used to have this often in my childhood. Lucky me, I got a chance to have this dish again during my India trip.

This dish looks and tastes like flan but it has no eggs in it. It is steam cooked and can be eaten hot or cold. But most of the people like it chilled. Me too. So, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
seempal- 1 lt
sukku- 2gm
elachi- 1
cow's milk- 400ml
jaggery- 1/2kg
Procedure:
Heat jaggery with very little water , decan it and use it according to taste. Mix this with seempal, cow's milk, elachi and sukku. Pour this mixture into a vessel till it reachesthe 3/4 th level. Careful not the pour the mixture upto the brim , as the milk will come up during the steaming process. Keep this vessel in the cooker with some water in it. Cook for one whistle. When the pressure is gone you can take it out, rest for 5 to 10 mins and start making slices. I used a ice-cream scoop for my plate. It tastes heavenly when it is chilled for atleast 6 hours.
Here is the bottom view of seempal. You can slice-off the bottom portion if you don't want the sukku and elachi in your mouth. Enjoy!!!!