Best Culinary Post - Avant Garde Bloggies Awards!

As I said here, my Gulab Jamun Recipe for Indian Cooking Challenge was nominated for Best ‘Culinary’ Post in Avant Garde Bloggies Awards - 2009. The polling has started now.


Please do vote for me!

Until my next post, wishes for a great week ahead!

IndiBlogger Chennai Meet

I have met food bloggers before on couple of occasions and I am regularly in touch with few. But this evening I had a different experience meeting bloggers from Chennai. The meet was organized by Indibloggers. The event started at 2.30 pm and went on till 6.30 pm.

Things have been hectic off late at home, so I was not sure if I would make it till the end. Result was I forgot my camera and I lost the presence of mind to click with my mobile. Anyway will put up some pictures when the organizers do.

The meet started with 30 sec fame, where all bloggers got to introduce themselves and which in turn had everybody knowing about them. I felt really happy when quite a few of them came up and said they read my blog and was happy meeting me in person. And many came forward to know the site details because they were interested in sharing the blog with their moms. That was really very sweet!

All in all it was a wonderful occasion and I ended up meeting some nice folks. I know this makes me to announce the meet I was planning, that will be done very soon!

Ugadi Wishes with Ugadi Festival Lunch 2010!

Happy New Year, Gudi Padva, Ugadi, Navreh to all my readers and friends!

We had a wonderful Ugadi Festival Lunch at Parents place. I managed to make two sweet dishes for my Cookbook, wanted to make the best of the off today. Then went to parents home to help Amma, who was in process of an elaborate lunch.

I was not able to get a better picture but still wanted to share something, so this was the offering to God today.

Hope everybody enjoyed their day!

Carrot Capsicum Rice ~ Mixed Rice Variety Weekend Special!

It was another weekend and another weekend menu planned. Only I kept it quite simple. Athamma has gone visiting for a week. You can imagine how that has left us. Boys on coming home, asked for her and before I could even say something, they told each other that "Nanamma has gone for a doctor checkup" Well as long as they are fine with that, is fine for us.

I made parathas with leftover potato kurma, Konda loved it so much that I was really surprised. Since it was a vegetarian meal at home for lunch, Amma sent Chicken Korma for the kids. I was so glad they loved it very much. Now on asking Amma for the recipe I realized I may not have cooked it yet. But then its been a while since I posted a non veg dish on the blog. So this Chicken Korma is next on list.

As for the Vegetarian meal, I was really short of ideas and asked Amma to suggest something. She told me this Carrot Capsicum Rice that she prepared a week ago, which was liked by all. This is again quite similar to the Dal Mint Rice that I posted sometime back. Though this tasted very much like spiced dal rice, vegetarians will surely like it a lot.

For the evening we took the kids to the beach and spent couple of hours playing. They even rode the horse and so trilled end of their adventure. Imagine Chinnu trying to swim on the sand! Gosh it was simply tough trying to make him stay put. In the end we had an eventful day all together and came back exhausted. I was mentally preparing for a week on our own. But trust Hubby dear to ring in positive thoughts always. He said a weeks time will pass off in a wink before we even know it.

Coming to the recipe for today, this mixed rice variety was very simple, yet a good one to make for variety. Works out best when you have these on hand. Variations are limitless again. I managed to take all pictures, while hubby dear was baby sitting the kids.

Which reminds of a conversation I had recently. I was asked how come I am doing Step by Step posts all of sudden. I was quite surprised by that question. I started my blog with Step by Step pictures, I have quite a few of such posts. Maybe I don't tag it obviously in the title or label it as such. But I do a Step by Step post when I have time or if I have planned ahead. Like all my Indian Cooking Challenge posts are Step by Step as I plan for a Saturday. Either this or when readers ask me for one. So I replied this person that either they have not checked my blog from the beginning or they are clueless.

Between wanted to share that I hit 100 posts on Spice your Life! Thank you everybody.

Carrot Capsicum Rice ~ Mixed Rice Variety

Ingredients Needed:

Rice - 1 cup
Carrot - 1 big
Capsicum - 1 of a big
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Hing - 1 big pinch
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - 2 springs
Lemon juice - 1 medium

For the Masala powder :

Toor dal - 1 tsp
Channa Dal - 1 tsp
Yellow Split dal -1 tsp
Dry Red chilies - 4-5

Dry roast all dals along with chiles and make a fine powder. Increase the quantity if you want to add more.

Method to prepare:

Wash and soak the rice for 10 mins. Then you can either cook it with lots of water and drain or cook with regular ratio of water in low flame and keep it aside. Just ensure the rice is not over cooked. To get this state, I normally cook in 2 cups of water in low flame.

To make the Rice

Heat a wok with oil, add Cumin seeds along with curry leaves. When they splutter, add the hing, sauté, add grated carrots along with finely chopped capsicum. Cover with lid so that the carrots and capsicum are cooked with its own steam.

When the vegetables are cooked well, add the rice along with the dal powder and mix well. Just before removing from stove, squeeze in the juice and coriander leaves.

This makes a quick and easy rice dish for weekends, so that you can spend time with your family!

Wishing you all a happy Ugadi, will come back with a festival spread!

Ugadi Special Dishes!

As a kid I fondly remember looking forward to Ugadi every year. It was one festival when Amma would make Poli and she used to make so much to distribute to the entire neighborhood. It took us quite some time to convince her to make the Sweet Polis on other days too. 

After marriage, I was elated to know that Athamma has the custom of making Poli for all festivals. It is only natural that I embrace this habit wholeheartedly!

This year Ugadi falls on March 16th 2010 and is the most important festival celebrated in Andhra Pradesh. 

I thought I would list out the dishes that we normally make at home for Ugadi.

Yugadi (Kannada: ಯುಗಾದಿ, Telugu: ఉగాది) from yuga + aadi, yuga means era, aadi means start. The start of an era) is the new year's day for the people of the Deccan region of India. While the people of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh use the term Yugadi/Ugadhi for this festival, the people of Maharashtra term the same festival, observed on the same day, Gudi Padwa. Sindhis, people from Sindh, celebrate the same day as their New Year day Cheti Chand.[1]- source Wiki

Check our festival lunch from last year!

The special Festival lunch would almost be same every year with few alterations and additions.

At my Mom's place we make the following

Pachimirapakaya Pappu ~ Dal with Green Chilli

Ugadi Pachadi,
Poli,

Masala Vada/ Meddu Vada Onion Pakodas/ Vazhakai Bajji ~ Plaintain or Banana fritters

Semiya Payasam

While the special dishes at my in laws would always be

Chitrannam
Brinjal Potato Curry,

Poli,

We also make Onion Baji or other deep fried specials.

This year I am discussing with them on what to make new. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy reading these and would find this collection useful.

Revisiting older posts: Vegetarian Burger Indian Style!

Sometime back I thought I should redo things for better. Yes many times in life we think we should get another chance. Maybe not all times we are offered this opportunity but in a food blog you can right. I decided seeing the hasty pictures and what not, I should click better pictures and post them.

This is the first of this venture. I removed the older pictures as they were such sore ones that I didn't want to see them myself!

 

 
The hearty Burgers with these another version patties will make any day more bright than what it was. I used the white sauce instead of Mayonnaise and Veg Patties instead of the usual meat. Konda loved it much and eat them through the day.

Weekend was F.U.N, you can read between lines or letters. But then I am kidding, Saturday went well and Sunday went off without a hint, meaning it was so hectic that none of us had a moment to breath! I really salute those teachers who man 40 toddlers! Imagine your plight if you got to oversee 40 smart zippy kids who are always one step ahead you and you a grown up adult left wondering how to outsmart them, no chance.

Anyway hubby dear finally what one has to do. He took them to shop and bribed them with toys. All three came back with a big bag which had a Rail Engine, Aeroplane, a smaller aeroplan, and another car. They were so occupied with it that they didn't know we went missing for 30 mins. And they even slept with it on them. Believe me they got up twice at night, to ensure their new toys were within reach. Boys I tell you..

As for a recipe for the day, I am revisiting my Burgers, hope you enjoy the pictures. I recently posted this recipe on Beyond Curries, wanted to share it with all of you.

Vegetarian Burgers Indian Style

Ingredients:

Burger buns - 4 nos
Onions Rings  - 8 slices
Tomato Rings - 5 -6
Shredded Cabbage as per taste
White Sauce - 1 cup
Cheese Slices - 4
Potato Peas Patties - 4 nos
Tomato Sauce - 3 tbsp
Red Chili flakes - 1 tsp (opt)

Method to prepare:

To make the White Sauce: Whisk 1 cup of All purpose flour along with 3 cups of milk and cook in 1 tbsp of butter till you get a smooth sauce.

To make the patties: Boil Potatoes, carrot and peas, mash it finely. Then sauté onions, ginger garlic paste along with green chili paste, cumin powder. Then add the boiled potatoes and peas. Once it is cooled, make equal balls, dip in flour that is mixed with water, then on bread crumbs. Shallow fry in on a non stick pan until crisp.

To assemble to burger.

Slice the burger bun through the middle,

Spread the inner sides with white sauce liberally.

On the lower slice, place a cheese slice, sprinkle some tomato sauce if you like.

Press one Patty firmly on it.

Then place the onion slices, Actually you can separate the rings and use less. But I like to munch on the entire slice as such!

Next goes the tomato slices,  then the shredded cabbage, Sprinkle the tomato sauce again!

Finally place the top bun slice back on this and press down firmly so that they stick together!

Optionally you can sprinkle Red Chili flakes for extra kick!

I had promised to make this for my daughter for her breakfast. She was very upset as I couldn't finish on time. So she lived on burgers through the day, for lunch, evening snacks and for dinner. I only tasted a quarter piece of the tempting one so I know it was way to good!

Notes:

• White Sauce can be prepared ahead of time and stored.
• Same goes for Patties too. And you can make any vegetable into a patti. Make in batches and refrigerate it for 2 -3 days. Make it on demand for the kids.

Aloo Matar Tikkis Recipe ~ Potato Peas Patty Recipe Step by Step

I never realized so many things can happen almost at the same time. One moment you are overjoyed, the next moment upset over illness.

This is what happens when you are high or rather loose track of events. Saturday was full of spirits as I was trying to make 5 different dishes for the book, only to know kids will be back by 1 pm. You know how time flies right. And the phone never stopped ringing. Hubby dear was most amused knowing so many friends called in to wish me. While most of them were my childhood friends, it pleased me no end to realize how many wonderful friends blogging got me. I was really touched with those lovely 4 blogger friends who called me in to wish me.

After the crazy cooking, managed to click some pictures. I was really happy that the day was productive. Konda had planned for some gala birthday party. I refused to let her invite elders, saying I no longer feel like a teenage gushing to celebrate birthdays. When finally it was over, we went out for dinner and a movie in the open air. But when we came back home we saw that Peddu was not keeping well. He threw up whatever he ate which was only a cake. Sunday was spent washing up everything, finally we had to take him to hospital. Thank God, he is doing fine today. Still we didn't send him to school, and Chinnu missed him so much at school, when I called him in the morning.

Missing out on work the past two days, I really had so much to do. So I thought I will share this simple aloo matar tikkis that I made for the burgers. This recipe is something like you just make with whatever you have.

Aloo Matter Tikkis Recipe

Step by Step for those of you who wanted to learn!

Boil Potatoes, peas and Carrot till tender

  

In a pan saute onions ginger garlic paste, coriander leaves, green chili paste till done. then add boiled vegetables.

  

After the onions are browned, remove to a bowl and allow to cool. Then add about 1 tbsp of All purpose flour!

  

Mix everything together.

  

 Then make big balls and flatten over your left palm.

  

 Continue with the rest of the mix

  

You will have like this ready

  

Then make a batter of Maida/ All purpose flour with water. The batter should be quite thick. Then have bread crumbs ready.

First dip the Alo batter in the Maida batter, then press over the bread crumbs till you have the tikkis are rolled up like this!

  

 Flatten using your palms

  

 Heat a non stick pan with little oil, place the tikkis over it.

  

 

Simmer till each side is well done. It will turn colour like this.

 When you have the colour like the above you are done!

As I said this is a very simple recipe, but anybody wants in exact proportions, just leave comment, else I will assume the pictures are self explanatory!

Have a good week ahead.