My contribution to this event is a Garden Omelette and a simple Indian style Omelette. Unfortunately, I could not take good pictures as both the dishes were done in the last minute. My hubby waiting impatiently for his food and my son pulling my dress to get hold of the camera...Oh, I had a tough time. Anyway, we enjoyed both and here is the recipe for you to try.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Garden Omelette & Indian Omelette
My contribution to this event is a Garden Omelette and a simple Indian style Omelette. Unfortunately, I could not take good pictures as both the dishes were done in the last minute. My hubby waiting impatiently for his food and my son pulling my dress to get hold of the camera...Oh, I had a tough time. Anyway, we enjoyed both and here is the recipe for you to try.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Fresh Peach and Caramel Puff Pastry Pies
The original recipe can be found here . I tweaked it a bit to suit my palatte. I did not follow the measurements given in the original recipe as I wanted to make just two pies to see how it turns out. So, without further adu let's go to the recipe.
Ingredients:
Puff pastry sheet - 1
peach- 1 (finely chopped)
slivered almonds- 1 tsp
caramel sauce- 2 tsp
Mixture of egg white and whole milk- 3 tsp each
granulated sugar- for dusting
Procedure:
Thaw the pastry sheet as per the package directions. Unfold it on a lightly floured surface and level it using a rolling pin. Using a cookie cutter or a cup make 4 circles on the pastry sheet. Cut them out. Save the remaining sheet for later use. Line a plate with parchment paper and keep a circle of dough on it. Top with with some peaches and nuts. Then add 1 tsp caramel sauce. Cover it with another circle of dough. Seal the edges with some water and crimp it with a fork. Refrigerate it for 20 to 30 mins. Don't worry if the caramel has oozed out a little in this stage. Remove from the plate and apply egg wash on top. Then make an "x" mark on the top. Sprinkle with some granulated sugar.
Now heat oven to 400 deg and bake the pies for 15 to 20 mins. Warm pies are ready to be served with ice-cream. I did not have any ice-cream, so we enjoyed this warm dessert as it is with some powdered sugar and a drizzle of caramel on top.
Note: People who know me, must also know how scared I am to bake. But this one was pretty easy and yummy that even my hubby enjoyed it. You should try it too and you'll see what I mean. Still not convinced. How about another look?
I've been tagged by Asha, Laavanya and Raks for the Fantastic Four Meme. So, here it is guys.
4 places I've lived:
Coimbatore (granny's home)
salem (parents home)
pondicherry(hubby's home)
U.S.A(my home)
4 Jobs:
Irresponsible daughter to my parents
freak out with my little sister
careless wife
Impatient mom
4 places I've holidayed:
Singapore- our honeymoon trip
Delhi- my college tour
Niagara trip with my friends Anu and vijay
yercaud trip with my family
4 favorite foods:
Anything high in fat and sweet always attracts me. I'm a terrible chocoholic. Like the cookie monster in the sesame street I'd gobble up all the chocolates how ever much I try to resist.
Chocolates (milk chocolate and white chocolate)
Eggs fully cooked but in any form
Basandhi
chaat items especially cutlet
4 places I'd rather be:
Alone in my home
Any place with my sister
My grandma's home
A wonderland full of ice creams and chocolates
Thanks for tagging me guys. Really enjoyed doing it. Now it's my turn to tag. Yay....So, here I go. You're it.
Priar's
Indosungod
Richa
Cynthia
Bye bye and have a nice day!!!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Pongal
I have posted 2 types of pongal here. Sakkarai pongal and ven pongal. My sakkarai pongal does not have that deep color as I used the light colored jaggery . Usually, I get the dark brown jaggery but I couldn't find it in the store this time.
Raw rice- 1/2 cup
split moong dal- 1/4 cup
water- 2 cups
milk- 1/2 cup
jaggery- 3/4th cup elachi- 2 (crushed)
cashews- 4 (broken)
raisins- 7 or 8
coconut scrapings- 1 tbsp
ghee- 1 tbsp
Procedure:
Wash rice and dal together and pressure cook it for 1 whistle with milk, salt and water. When the pressure goes off, mash the pongal. Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashews, jeera-pepper mixture, ginger and curry leaves. Add this to pongal and mix well. Serve it with sambar and coconut chutney.
Masala Paal
This masala paal is just not milk and saffron. It has to be prepared in a certain way and drunk while it's still hot(temperature that you can tolerate). It's believed to induce sleep. So, my dear friends go ahead and have some masala paal tonight and let me know if the sleep thing is true.
Ingredients:
Whole Milk- 2 cups
Rock sugar- 1 1/2 tbsp (can reduce or add more as per taste. But the actual dish should not have too much sugar. Just enough to sweeten the milk. Still, I prefer mine sweet)
saffron- 1 generous pinch (I mean it generous)
badam- 5 or badam powder- 1/2 tbsp
saarai paruppu- l/2 tsp (I do not know the english name for it. This is a dry fruit too)
cardamom- 1
clove-1
pistachio slices- for garnish(I used this as I did not have saarai paruppu)
Procedure:
If you are using fresh badam, soak it in hot boiling water for atleast 3 hrs and grind it to a smooth paste. Boil the milk with cardamom and clove until it reduces to half the quantity. Then add rock sugar and dissolve it completely. I used the small white rock sugar here. Now add ground badam or badam powder and saffron. Stir it well until it gets the nice yellow color. Finally add saarai paruppu roasted in (few drops of ghee). I did not have it so I used pista slices here. Switch off gas.
To cool it a bit, tranfer the milk between two vessels and make it frothy. I don't know how to explain this part. We call it "aatharathu" in tamil. Finally serve it with some cardamom powder on top.
Enjoy guys and have a nice sleep. Sweet dreams.zzzz....
Monday, October 22, 2007
Aayutha Pooja Celebrations
On the day of aayutha pooja we wash & clean everything from home to vehicles. Dress up all the doors, appliances and vehicles with sacred ash (viboothi), turmeric and kukumam. Then each person in the house keeps their work related thing in front of God. When I was little , my sister and me would keep our books(now I keep my cookbooks), dad & mom their stethescopes (both are doctors) and my grandparents would keep their property documents. Then we would offer our neivedyam and will be off in a flash to watch the special programs on TV.
The next day is Saraswathi pooja. This used to be my favorite pooja during my childhood days as we needn't study on that day b'coz all the books will be in front of god.
After that, it's vijayadasami. On this day, we take our books from the pooja and start studying. Parents teach the little kiddos to write "aana aavana" on a thaambalam filled with rice. The pooja ends on this day. This is how we celebrate it in our home.
Also, I wish to send the same to Vee who owns a great blog "Past, Present and Me" for JFI:DASERRA event.
Channa Dal Vada, Pasi paruppu payasam, chick pea sundal, Black channa sundal, Rice with toor dal and ghee, Sambar, vatha kuzhambu, rasam, appalam, mango pachidi, curd and pickle.
I couldn't get everything in the pic. So, I've taken only a few here.
Procedure:
Procedure:
I come to an end with this. I'm sorry guys for missing some of your post in the last three days and also not responding to your precious comments. Will go thru them soon. I was a little busy with my son. Some of my sweet friends had enquired about kavin as he was sick. Thank you so much dears. He is doing a lot better now. Had a tough weekend though!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Poriyals
Vazhakkai Poriyal:
Ingredients:
Vazhakkai(green plantain)- 1 (medium size)
onion- 1 (chopped)
garlic- 5 (sliced, I love garlic. If you don't want so much reduce the quantity)
curry leaves- few
salt
sambar powder- 1 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
besan powder- 1 tbsp
Procedure:
Peel off the outer skin from the plantain. Cut it into any shape you like. Usually I do the rounds. This time I did it different. Keep the cut plaintains in water as it might turn dark when exposed to air. Heat oil in a kadai, fry mustard seeds, urad dal and channa dal (1/2 tsp each). Then fry onions, garlic and curry leaves. When onion turns transparent add the cut plaintains and turmeric and sambar powder. Fry for 2 mins. Then add reqd salt and 1/4 cup water. Close and cook until 3/4 th done. Then remove the lid and allow all the water to dry. Check for seasonings. Add more salt or chilli if you want. When it is dry and almost done add besan powder and mix well. Keep it in medium low flame and roast till done. This curry goes well with sambar rice, rasam rice or curd rice.
Next is podalangai or snake gourd poriyal. I do not add turmeric in this.I prefer to maintain it's nice green color. This is such an easy poriyal that even first timers can do it. I've not add enough coconut in my poriyal as my hubby is watching what he is eating. As for me, I cannot make compromises with food. So, you can scroll down and see what I made for me on the same day I made this snake gourd poriyal. Now to the recipe.
Ingredients:
snake gourd-1 (big and firm)
onion- 1/2 (chopped)
curry leaves- few
red chillies- 2 (broken)
coconut- 3 tsp(add more if you want)
Procedure:
Trim the edjes and cut it into 3 pieces. Scrap off the outer skin and cut into thin long strips. Heat oil and fry mustard seeds, urad dal and channa dal(1/2 tsp each). Then fry onions, red chillies and curry leaves. When the onions are transparent add the vegetable, required salt and 1/4 cup water. Close and cook till 3/4 th done. Add more water if you want to cook the vegetable further. I like mine cooked but still with a crunch in it. Then remove lid and allow to dry completely. Finally add coconut and mix well. Your curry is ready.
See, I told you that it's easy. Serve this with puli kuzhambu or vathal kuzhambu.
Finally, it's my fav okra fry. This dish can be done in a jiffy and gives a lift to any ordinary meal. I chose this for me when my hubby is eating healthy. Hey, don't stare at me. No compromises in food and it's ok to enjoy these once in awhile.So, here is the recipe.
Ingredients:
Okra -15 (medium) (cut into 1 1/2" pieces)
onion- 1 (medium, sliced long)
curry leaves- few
salt as reqd
sambar powder- 2 tsp
besan powder- 2 or 3 tbsp(i didn't measure mine, just eyeballed it)
Procedure:
Mix everything without adding water. The stickiness of the vegetabele is enough to hold all the dry ingredients together. Set aside for 15 mins. Mix again. Add little more besan if the okra is not covered well. Heat oil in kadai and fry them in batches until they are golden brown. Drain them on a napkin and serve with sambar rice. Here is a plate for you too. Enjoy!!!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Kothavarangai parrupu usili
Ingredients:
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Few food pics from my India Trip
My second SIL with her groom and two girls on the sides are my first SIL's kids.
Virundhu in my first SIL's place for the newly wed. The items are Chicken Biryani, onion raitha, Era varuval, vangiram fish fry, boiled egg and chicken roast.
Desserts are fruit salad (banana, jack fruit, mangoes and nagapazham) and rasamalai.
Pictures was taken in yercaud. The sour mangoes with spicy chilli powder mix is a perfect one for the cold days. This is the
American sweet corn that is grilled on charcoals and served with lemon and a spice mix.
Look closely. It's not just two monkeys. There are three of 'em. The left one is a mommy hugging the little one.
A big plate full of figs / Athi pazham. When I saw a fig dessert in viji's blog I wished this picture would become real so that I could grab some and try it. I absolutely love figs.
Last but not least is my all time favorite Panju mittai/ cotton candy. I don't like the ones we get in US. It just dosen't taste the same. I ate 3 of them in a row. YUM YUM.
That's all guys. Just wanted to share them with you. Have a nice weekend!!!
Pan fried BitterGourd
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Yay!!! My 100th Post!!!
So, what's kept me going inspite of so many hurdles? It's all of your encouragement through comments. "Appreciation". Who dosen't like this? There are so many dishes that even my hubby has failed to appreciate(mostly he wil be engrossed in TV or talking to my son), but you guys are awesome. You have always been there for me. You are all the best!!! So, I want to take this opportunity and thank each and everyone of you who spent time on my blog going thru recipes, writing your valuable comments and given me suggestions to improve.So, here is a big "THANKYOU" for everything.
Ok, without further delay let's go to the recipe. This time I tried "Thai Red Curry". This has always been my favorite in thai dishes. I tried this recipe(red curry paste) from the cookbook "Authentic Thai Food". It was really good although I missed few of the authentic ingredients . So ,I wanted you guys also to try it. So, here is the recipe.
Ingredients:
Chicken- 2 breasts
onion- 1/2 (sliced)
green bell pepper- 1/2 (sliced)
red bell pepper- 1/2 ( sliced)
mushrooms- 5 (sliced)
Pineapple- (canned, drained, cut into big chunks)
You can use babycorn, bamboo shoots or anyother veggies too of your choice.
Thai basil- 6 leaves(I used regular basil)
coconut milk- 1 can
For curry paste:
small red chillies-13 (seeds removed,soaked in water)
shallot-3 tbsp (chopped)
garlic- 4tbsp(chopped)
galangal-1tbsp(thai ginger,chopped)
lemon grass-2 tbsp (I did not get it, so I didn't use it)
kaffir lime rind-2 tsp (I used fresh lime peel)
corriander root- 1 tbsp (I used stems the closest part)
white peppercorns-20
corriander seeds- 1 1/2 tsp(ground,roasted)
Cumin- 1/2 tsp(ground,roasted)
shrimp paste- 1 tsp
sea salt- 1tsp
Procedure:
Blend all the ingredients for curry paste with 2 tsp oil and little water. The paste should be smooth and thick. Mix it evenly with coconut milk. Cut chicken into strips and flatten it a little with a hammer. This will tenderize the meat. Heat oil in a kadai and fry chicken until it is no longer pink. Add some salt. Then add all the veggies except pineapple and basil. Stir fry it. When the veggies are half done add the coconut milk mixture and bring it to a boil. Test for salt and chilli level. Add more if you want to. Finally add pineapple and basil. Mix well and serve with white rice or fried rice. Enjoy!!!
One thing before I end this post. I wanted to participate in the "click" event hosted by Bee.
Here is my contribution for the event. Please guys don't laugh. Have a nice day!!! And once again a big "Thankyou". Hugs. :))
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Gutti Vankaya/ Stuffed Brinjal Curry
sesame seeds- 1tbsp