Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Fifty-2 weeks of 2013

Gimme Red!!

RED!!  "Gimme red" is the theme for this week of Fifty-2 weeks of 2013. Sra  and Aparna have never failed to think out of the box for the weekly themes, everytime quite different from the previous weeks. Whenever i read a new theme, i realise how quickly the previous week of the year has passed.

Red is one of my favourite colours, and for me the first red thing  that comes to my mind is the colour of mehandi. According to the theme, we can either write a post on RED or post a photo or both. I preferred to post a collage of some of the mehandi designs tried by me.




Red chutney/ Allam chutney/ Ginger Chutney

The famous Red chutney of Andhra pradesh

This post is for my dearest friend T.



Ingredients:

Ginger - a small piece
Tamarind-  Gooseberry sized
Jaggery- 3 tsp
Green chillies- 1
Red chillies- 3
Urad dal- 1 tsp
channadal- 1 tsp
garlic cloves- 3
hing- a generous pinch
mustard seeds- 1 tsp
oil- 2 tsp
salt- to taste

Method of preparation:

Soak tamarind in hot water for 10 min, which eases extracting of the pulp.


 Meanwhile, chop the ginger and green chillies


 Yes, the ginger in the above picture is sufficient to make the chutney.

Now, heat a tsp of oil in a pan, fry urad dal, chanadal, red chillies, green chillies, ginger pieces and garlic cloves one by one taking care not to burn them.  Grate jaggery and mix it well with the tamarind pulp.


Transfer the roasted ingredients(dals,redchillies and garlic) along with salt to a dry mixer jar and pulse coarsely.

Add the ginger,green chillies, and the tamarind water and grind again

For seasoning:

Seasoning is very important to chutneys, the seasoning elevates the taste of the chutney to the next level.
Add a tsp of oil, throw in mustard seeds, add a generous pinch of hing and add to the chutney after cooling. Hot oil leaves moisture which may reduce the shelf life of the chutney, So take care to add the seasoning after cooling.

Notes:

Adding garlic is completely optional.
We can add curryleaves too along with the green chillies, they give the chutney a darker colour.
Best served with Pesarattu aka Green gram dosa.


linking red chutney to "Dish name starts with R" hosted by Akila of Learning to cook

\
AND TO WTML hosted by MY HOME MANTRA  



and to Soul food show hosted by viji of virunthu unna vaanga


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Fruit salad with icecream

 
Ingredients:

Fruits chopped- 3 cups
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Cashews and almonds chopped fine- 6 tsp
honey- 4 tsp
Milk- 1 cup
custard powder- 2 tsp
tutti frutti - 1/2 cup


Chop the available fruits( i used apples, bananas, a pomegranate, green and black grapes).



Boil 1 cup of milk in a wide mouthed vessel, mix 2 tsp of custard powder to 1 tsp of milk and add it to the boiling milk, Stir till the custard becomes thick and add this to the fruits along with a tsp of vanilla essence. Mix in the custard to the fruits.
Add finely chopped dry fruits of your choice, i added cashews and almonds.





and tutti frutti





Chill for sometime, divide the fruits into individual serving bowls, add honey and serve with icecream of your favourite flavour. I served my salad with Butterscotch.






Linking  to



 "your kitchen in spring" hosted by Anusha and Radhika 
 

Lets cook for kids @ simply.food




Saturday, March 23, 2013

semiya pulao

I just love Bambino vermicelli or semiya, one for its quality, two for its packaging and the recipes on the back of the cover. I tried this simple tasy semiya pulao from one of those recipes, loved both the look and the taste of the dish. Will do this more often.


Ingredients required:
For pulao:
Bambino vermicelli- 1 cup
mixed veggies- 1 cup
(i used potatotes,carrots u can add green peas,fresh beans and other veggies too)
onions- 2
tomatoes- 1
green chillies-2
oil - 2 tsp
coriander leaves- handful
mint leaves- handful
spices (shahjeera, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon)
salt to taste
For raita:
Curd- 1 cup
onion- 1 big
green chillies- 1
coriander leaves- a few
salt to taste

Method:

1. First boil 3 cups of water add 1tsp salt and 1 tsp oil and 1 cup of vermicelli. After vermicelli is cooked, strain in a colander and and run cold water through it to prevent the vermicelli sticking to each other.

2. Meanwhile Chop the required veggies, onions, green chillies and tomatoes.

carrots and potatoes chopped
onions and tomatoes chopped for pulao and raita

 3. Now heat oil in a pan, add the spices

spices in the oil

                               
chopped onions, green chillies

onions and green chillies added
  mint leaves, coriander leaves

mint and coriander leaves added
 tomatoes

tomatoes  added
mixed veggies

veggies and salt added
Add the above ingredients one by one along with salt allowing the onions to turn light brown and veggies to cook well.
 Add the strained vermicelli 

and mix well 

garnish with coriander leaves 

and serve hot with raita.






Linking semiya pulao to

 "your kitchen in spring" hosted by Anusha and Radhika 
 

Lets cook for kids @ simply.food


to the soul food show hosted by viji of virunthu unna vaanga


Giveaway time again @divalikes.com

HI all Participate in this amazing giveaway from divalikes.com and try your luck...


Friday, March 22, 2013

my surprise gift from divalikes

HI all!! This is the surprise gift package i had received from Lavanya of divalikes.com. I was selected as a random winner from the participants who had contributed to "write for us". A very active blogger and a very sweet person she is. She had received a total of 114 entries for this  "write for us" contest. She had the patience to post a recipe every day. She made to sure post only one recipe a day so that everyone could notice our hardwork. Very thoughtful indeed!! Eager to know what is inside??? scroll down...







yippeeeeeeee a stainless saucepan with a glass lid, i have been thinking of a pan with a glass lid for quite some time and the saucepan indeed is a big surprise to me....thankyou lavanya

Do check divalikes.com to find out the first three winners and their winning entries here.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Channadal halwa - Traditional Indian sweet from Lucknow

This post is for my first entry to SNC hosted by Divya pramil of "Youtoocancookindianfood". I have joined in the Southern team.


The challenge given to the southern team for the month of March is Chanadal halwa by Kirti of "Flavors from my kitchen"




 Off to the recipe now.

Ingredients:
Chanadal- 1 cup
Sugar- 1/2 cup (i added 1 cup though)
Milk- 2 1/2 cups(i used 2 cups)
Ghee- 3/4th cup
elaichi powder- a pinch
cashews,almonds-a few

Preparation:

                                   Soak chanadal in 2 cups of water for 3 hours.



                                  Drain the water and mash the dal or grind it once in a mixer.


Add ghee to a nonstick pan and roast the nuts till golden brown.


Remove the nuts onto a plate and add the chanadal mixture.


After the ghee is fully absorbed, add around 1/3th of the milk and keep stirring.


Keep stirring and when the milk is absorbed add the remaining milk in two batches.


Now add sugar and keep stirring.


Add dry fruits and keep stirring till u get halwa conssitency.


Transfer the halwa to a well greased plate and let it set for a while.


Mark the desired shapes and set it for some more time. 



Tastes when best when chilled.

:) :) :)

Linking this to the cooking with seeds event hosted by priya of priya's versatile recipes

Linking this to

Traditional Indian Sweets Event and Giveaway at Zesty South Indian kitchen . Swathi is organising this event/give away associated with 27coupons.com. 

Linking this to
hosted by chackoskitchen