Hema's Adugemane

Jeera Rasam - BM#13 - Week 2 - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:13:00 +0000

Jeera Rasam - BM#13 - Week 2 - Day 1:

I am herewith again in Blogging Marathon 13 for the second week. I have selected my theme as "7 days of delicious rasam".

Rasam is considered as a south Indian meal, which can be had along with rice or can be consumed as a soup. It’s very good for digestion. In my house, without Rasam my hubby or my son will not have their dinner.

I was going thro’ Wikipedia, Shanthi’sthaligai blog and iyercooks blog. I found this intereting Jeera Rasam. By the name, I thought it should be just adding cumin seeds powder along with rasam powder to make normal rasam. But there was a change in that, and it’s very instant one. Dhal Rasam is made out of cooked rasam and it can be thick or thin. Tomato Rasam is made out of tomato puree and it would be thick. Tamarind Rasam would be thin in consistency. As I never heard of it, thought it would be like tamarind rasam. I went through the post and found it was very interesting and handy also.

Ingredients:

Tomato – 1
Tamarind Water (medium consistency) – 5 tsp
Cumin Seeds – 2 tsp
Toor Dhal – half of our fist
Crystal Salt – 1 tbsp
Rasam Powder – 2 tbsp
Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp
Jaggery – a small piece
Water – as required

For seasoning:

Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – few
Coriander leaves – few

Method:

Keep all the ingredients ready so that you wouldn’t miss out anything
Chop the tomato into small pieces

Roast cumin seeds and toor dhal till they turn in color and keep it aside

Heat oil in a kadai and add tomato pieces to that once the oil becomes hot. Beware of the sizzling sound

Squeeze the tamarind and pour the water into tomato and leave it to boil

Coarsely grind cumin seeds and toor dhal

Add it into tomato-tamarind mixture

Add water as required and leave it to boil till the raw smell of tamarind goes off
Add rasam powder, turmeric, asafoetida (hing), jaggery and salt allow it to boil so that all these gets mixes well

Heat oil in a different kadai and once hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves and put it on the rasam leave it for one more minute by adding coriander leaves along with it.

Yummy rasam is ready.

My rasam was of medium consistency, if needed you can add water as per your requirement. I was happy because all tasted the rasam and told it was good, and the photos came out of little better quality.

Kindly check out what other Blogging Marathoners are up with in BM# 13

Submitting this to my event - Murari - Anniversary - Giveaway - 2012

Dedicating a song "Pyarge agabitite" , new kannada urdu mix song from film Govindaya Namaha to my blog readers.

4th Year Birthday - Banana Halwa

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:31:00 +0000

4th Year Birthday:

Happy Birthday "Hema's Adugemane". Hurray, you are turning 4 today.

Flashback: My first post was on Childhood which I wrote on 23rd Feb 2009. My second post was on Advantages by studying in one school and how we can have our friends from childhood. The next 3 posts were on any forwarded mail which I got and I was inspired by them. From the 6th post I started posting recipes from my son's KinderGarten English Text book which had good recipes on left and on right there was lessons and poems. Once the recipes in the book got over I did not understand what to post, so I started by writing recipes on this blog. Thus this blog became a "food blog".

Once I posted Shraddanjali to my beloved hero/actor, Dr.Vishnuvardhan the traffic started towards my blog. I took a break from Aug'2010 to Aug'2011 and was back in Sep'2011 when the page hits were just 7k+. My heart was literally broken due to less traffic.

I started posting in my blog and pasting the link in "n" number of pages in facebook. In Dec' 2011 I had an event for Christmas and posted its roundup in Jan' 2012. In Jan' 2012 I participated in Blogging Marathon conducted by Srivalli Jetti in her blog Spice up your life, this gave a new life to my blog and today the hits have reached 15k+ and increased the readers to 89. Thanks to all of you.

On this birthday, hence I am presenting you with Banana Halwa. This Halwa was published in "Swathi", a weekly magazine and my beloved hubby told me to try recipes which were there in that book.

Ingredients:

Banana (riped ones) - 2

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 4 tsp

Cardamom Powder - 1 tsp

Method:

Chop the bananas into small pieces and blend it in a blender/food processor/mixer.

Heat ghee in a kadai and add grounded banana into the ghee

Add sugar and cardamom powder and mix well

When the ghee leaves the edges of the kadai, and grounded banana would have taken brownish color remove it from the stove and pour it on a greased plate

My favourite song in dedication to you all, on this birthday.

Potato Chips - BM#13 - Day 7

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:48:00 +0000

Potato Chips - BM#13 - Day 7:

Hey great to see that I was able to post for 7 days a variety of chips. As I told you, today I will be posting a vegetable chips, I am herewith potato chips. Potato Chips which is very common, yes but I tweaked a little. Hema, is it same with pepper and salt along with butter. Wow, re you are great readers, you guessed it absolutely right. And again it is microwave oven recipe, right, sweetie? Hey my readers are absolutely great they know how I make chips now. Thanks to all of you for making me successful.

Surprising thing of my post on chips were I was not aware that there were no pineapple pieces chips, black grapes chips and tomato chips. It was my innovative, I did not think also that I can come up with something new.

Potato is a vegetable which is rich in starch. Elders say not to have too much because it might cause gastric problem. But seriously due to its taste I tend to eat more. So my granny told one thing, mix potato with pepper powder so that it would avoid gastric problem. So in today's chips I have added the same and presenting it here as well it was a send off to my friend, Poornima who is moving to other project to other building, which is about 1.5 kms away from our building. I had a nice time with her since Nov' 11 till date. She was the one who was the first one to tell on my face, that she liked or disliked my recipes. She said potato chips were great.

Unfortunately I started preparing it only by 5pm and power was shut down for few minutes because of which my potato turned to be only 80% crispy. I am skipping the ingredients as you would have read it by this time in my first paragraph.

How I made it?

I brought a big potato from home. Washed it and removed the skin by using my finger nails. Thanks to my nails which I could use as a peeler in office.
Chop the potato into thin slices.
Keep it in oven for 6 minutes
Remove it and grease each slice with butter, pepper powder and salt
Leave it for another 4 minutes. (I was short by 2 minutes here as my office cab started).
Munch it as a healthy snack.

Don't miss wonderful recipes cooked by other Blogging Marathoners in BM# 13.

If you have missed my other recipes of chips its here.

Day 1 - Paneer Chips

Biscuit: Day 2 - Marie Biscuit Coffee Chips

Chocolate: Day 3 - Chocolate Chips

Fruits:

Day 4 - Pineapple Pieces Chips

Day 5 - Black Grapes Chips

Vegetable:

Day 6 - Tomato Chips

Day 7 - Potato Chips

Tomato Chips - BM#13 - Day 6

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:01:00 +0000

Tomato Chips - BM#13 - Day 6

Dear All,

A heartily welcome to all my blog readers, with your support my blog is growing and growing. Thanks for all your valuable comments/suggestions.

Today is Day 6th in Blogging Marathon 13 and as you all know I have selected the theme "Seven Days of Chips". Chips is a very good friend of you when you want to pass time by seeing TV and munching something crispy or semi-crispy.

As I am at office I opted to make chips using microwave oven method but without knowing how to work with it.

I have already posted 2 chips on fruits, so for the next two days you can see chips from vegetables.

It's my own style of making things and as they taste good to me, I am posting it here, my cooking journal or my diary.

Medicinal Property of this fruit is: Tomato consumption has been associated with decreased risk of breast cancer, head and neck cancers and might be strongly protective against neurodegenerative diseases.Tomatoes and tomato sauces and puree are said to help lower urinary tract symptoms (BPH) and may have anticancer properties. Tomato consumption might be beneficial for reducing cardiovascular risk associated with type 2 diabetes. (Source: From wikipedia on tomato)

Ingredients:

Tomato - 1 riped one

Butter - 2 tsp

Pepper Powder - 3 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Cut the tomato into pieces and remove the water contents completely

Keep it in a oven for 3 minutes (in between I check them because even if a small fire comes out a fire alarm will ring and we all should run out of office)

Mix the tomato with butter, pepper powder and salt

Put the mixture back in the oven for another 3 minutes till the tomatoes turn to be crispy

Munch them while writing this post

Worth watching out what other Blogging Marathoners are up with in BM# 13

Black grapes chips - BM#13 - Day 5

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:46:00 +0000

Black grapes chips - BM#13 - Day 5:

Black grape is a variety of grape and its widely used in making wine.

Black grapes contain three kinds of polyphenols, namely, flavanoid, phenolic acid, and resveratrol. Flavanoids are responsible for the dark hue of grapes. The darker the variety, the more the concentration of flavanoids you would find. This may be why black grapes are used more often for health reasons as compared to other varieties. (Source: http://www.diethealthclub.com/health-food/black-grapes-health-benefits.html)

Knowing the uses of these black grapes I experimented making chips out of them today. I have given list of benefits after the preparation of chips.

Ingredients:

Black Grapes - 3 nos
Pepper Powder - 1 tsp

Equipment:

Microwave
Microwave Bowl

Method:

Chop the black grapes using your hand and remove the seed within it
Put in a microwave bowl for 4 minutes inside the oven
Grapes would have become crispy by that time
Sprinkle Pepper powder on them and munch it

Worth watching out what other Blogging Marathoners are up with in BM# 13

Grapes benefits:

Healthy heart: The flavanoids in grapes may prevent occurrence of blood clots and promote heart health by lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack. It also strengthens the heart wall and maintains flexibility of the heart muscles.

Lower cholesterol: Resveratrol, another polyphenol in black grapes, promotes health by lowering the risk of high cholesterol. LDL cholesterol tends to oxidize due to the action of free radicals in the human body. This damage can cause a spike in your cholesterol levels. Luckily, resveratrol fights the damage caused by free radicals and keeps the arteries plaque free. It is also responsible for the free flow of blood and oxygen to the brain cells.

Anti-aging properties: Antioxidants in black grapes contain anti-aging properties, and research shows that it may even help increase life span.

Cancer-fighting properties: Many of the polyphenols in grapes may help battle cell damage, especially in the case of lung, prostrate, or breast cancer. This is good news for women who are at a risk for developing breast cancer due to imbalance in estrogen levels. The phytonutrients in grapes can reduce the risk of cancers and tumors.

Microbe and germ-fighting properties: Grape juice maybe recommended to individuals on a cleansing or detoxifying diet. Interestingly, the maximum benefits are derived from the thin skin or seeds of grapes rather than the fleshy pulp.

Fights Alzheimer’s: Polyphenols in grapes are also responsible for fighting signs of aging such as brain cell activity. Continuing studies show positive results that individuals who eat grapes or drink wine in moderation may be at a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Research indicates that grapes and products made from grapes such as grape juice and red wine may be beneficial for overall health. However, since red wine does contain alcohol content, it is best consumed in moderation. Pregnant women and individuals with existing heart or medical conditions should avoid wine and alcohol.

Pineapple Pieces Chips - BM#13 - Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:27:00 +0000

Pineapple Pieces Chips - BM#13 - Day 4:

Pineapple is a fruit which is yellow in color. It is also called as ananas in native language.

Raw pineapple is an excellent source of manganese (45% DV in a 100 g serving) and vitamin C (80% DV per 100 g).

Mainly from its stem, pineapple contains a proteolytic enzyme, bromelain, which breaks down protein. If having sufficient bromelain content, raw pineapple juice can thus be used as a marinade and tenderizer for meat. Pineapple enzymes can interfere with the preparation of some foods, such as jelly or other gelatin-based desserts, but would be destroyed during cooking and the canning process. The quantity of bromelain in the fruit is probably not significant, being mostly in the inedible stalk.

Furthermore, an ingested enzyme like bromelain is unlikely to survive intact the proteolytic processes of digestion.

Any chips made out of fruit would turn out to be sweeter but to give a sweet cum hot style just add pepper to it and enjoy. I would like to stick to my words might be it is at work place or personally. Nowadays due to comments from my readers I am glad to try out one or the other recipe and munch it.

Ingredients:

Pineapple: 2 pieces
Pepper Powder: 1 tsp

Equipment:

Microwave

Microwave bowl
Camera to click the snap

Method:

Chop the pineapple big pieces into smaller ones
Put it in a microwave bowl and allow it to get semi-crispy for 4 minutes
Sprinkle the pepper powder and munch it

As one of my blog reader, Vaishali says it wouldn't be more crispy.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 13

Chocolate Chips - BM #13 - Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:09:00 +0000

Chocolate Chips - BM #13 - Day 3:

You all would have known by now, that I am part of Blogging Marathon - 13 and I have selected "Seven Days of Chips" for this week. Here is my 3rd day chips called chocolate chips.

I was waiting to find and try out chocolate chips. While I asked my Google brother to find out he gave me a beautiful link at heavenlyhomemakers.

Chocolate Chips are small chunks of chocolate, which actually would be in round or flat bottomed teardrop shape. They are mainly used in cookies, pancakes, cakes, cream, muffins and various types of pastry.

There are many flavors namely - semi-sweet chocolate, bittersweet chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, mint chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, and white and dark swirled chocolate chips. Out of them semi-sweet chocolate is the original one. Nestle and The Hershey company are among the top producers of chocolate chips. (Source: Wikipedia)

My assumption is, the kid's favorite breakfast - Chocos from Kellogg's resembles more or less like chocolate chips.

Now back to the recipe, it takes only 3 ingredients to make chips + 1 ingredient. Ha ha, 3 + 1 why couldn't I write 4 directly, this might be the readers question. The style of making it did not allow me to mention 4 directly. Read the below method of making it, I enjoyed it. Before going to the method let me tell you, here is one more technique how to melt butter as butter and not as ghee. :). Wait, don't scratch your head, when i read the post i did the same thing, but after doing it i have become good at it.

3 Ingredients to make choco chips:

Butter - 4 tbsp (i used amul butter)

Cocoa - 2 tbsp

Icing Sugar - 3 tbsp (reduce the quantity to make semi-sweet)

1 important Ingredient in making chips but we will not use it inside the chips. This was the excited part for me.

Water - 2 cups

Story: I wanted a glass jar to make this chips, I was searching in my kitchen on Saturday morning to get it, but no luck. Then I remembered about our dinner ware glass, ultimately I could use it. More than the family member who else will know what is available in the house, but as I use them less it did not flash immediately to me. I doesn't wanted to hide it as you readers, are my mentors.

Method:

Heat 2 cups of water in a bowl and wait till it boils

When the water starts boiling simmer the stove completely and place a glass jar/tumbler into the water

Add butter to it, and add cocoa powder and icing sugar star stirring continuously

Keep the butter paper on your tray ready, once the butter melts completely pour it onto the butter paper and spread it across

After sometime, leave it in your deep freezer for 4 to 5 hours it would completely dried

Now cut it into pieces and store it in air tight container.

Fact: Do you agree with me now, why i wrote 3 + 1 ingredient. Water was very important to melt butter but I never used it to make chips.

Chips photo:

Momma, I brought these chips from home to take photograph and realized only in the afternoon they had turned to be semi-solid again. So I have left them in refrigerator in office.

Its worth glancing at what my other Blogging Marathoners are doing in BM# 13

Marie Biscuit Coffee Chips – BM#13 - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:34:00 +0000

Marie Biscuit Coffee Chips – BM#13:

Shock by the name, does it look strange like me? Ha, ha Readers, I told the actual name of the chips what I named it. I am not sure if you have come across it or not but I am sure you would have come across Choco logs. While I was searching for what can be made out of cocoa and icing sugar on the other day I came across a post called Marie biscuit - Chocolate logs. I was surprised and clicked here. Recipe was quite interesting and innovative; sometimes to make children eat you should try different things with the same old ingredients else they will say “aiyoo, my mom cooks the same dish everyday”, my first son Aditya, passes this comment without even a second thought.

In the morning I thought of getting carrot to office and then do carrot chips here. But as the time passed by due to my little son I had to rush to catch my office cab at the last moment. So I was just thinking what to prepare, if I go and ask one carrot the shopkeeper will look as if I have gone mad. If I take more I don’t know what to make from the remaining except cook mix with rice and eat. Time passed as the training is on in office and I felt in the afternoon to eat something let me cook in the oven a beautiful chips. I took rusk and went into my pantry but as they itself were crispy I thought it wasn’t a good idea. Then this chocolate logs appeared like a bright screen in front of my eyes. So thought let me put my hands on to it.

Ingredients:

Marie Biscuits – 8 Nos

Coffee Powder – 1 tsp

Milk – ¼ cup

Sugar – 1 (it was less in sweet so advisable to add 2)

Method:

Break the marie biscuits into small pieces (as small as possible)

Put it in a microwavable cooking box

Pressed “tea with milk” in my office coffee machine I got ¼ cup of milk

Added coffee powder to the milk and mixed well

Pour the mixture on to the biscuits and mix it well

Take a small heap and make it into desired shape

Keep it in oven for 6 minutes

Remove it and add the crispy rusk along with it and munch it

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 13

Paneer Chips - BM#13 - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:06:00 +0000

Paneer Chips – BM#13:

Hey blog readers, did you check the date today it is 16^th of the month, so, what’s the special? Don’t be surprised it’s once again the time of blogging marathon. 18 bloggers are in this week and 24 are in next week while last month it was 15 and 23. It will be interested to see the new groups in every blogging marathon each one is unique. To watch out the groups in this months’ blogging marathon, just visit here. For previous entries, please click here.

[BM-12 my entries]

I am in the group of making “Seven days of Chips” along with Preeti. “Chips” not the Microsoft ones, but the one most of munch just to pass our time like snacks. Chips will use very few ingredients and they are crispy it can be either salt or sweet. It is made up of vegetables and fruits.

I checked my mails in the morning and found “finger chips” or “French fries” published by Preeti. It immediately stroke to me about the Paneer Fingers, which I used to have when we used to go for dinner/lunch along with friends or hubby. Due to training I was waiting for my lunch time, when it was up, I quickly had my lunch in 5 minutes (a dhal rice) and ran to the nearby food store called as food world. Checked out I could get “Nandini” Paneer. Nandini is very famous dairy farming unit in Karnataka originated from Karnataka. I checked if I can get 100gms of Paneer because I thought it would be more, but I could get only 200 gms. Thought it would be more, surprisingly when I started munching I realized it was just over in very short time.

Ingredients:

Paneer – 200 gms

Salt – to taste

Pepper Powder – to taste

Method:

Cut the paneer into small fingers/cubes (actually I should have done it long fingers itself)

Put it into a oven and leave it for 6 minutes, till you see a brown one (u know my style of heating it in a oven right leave it for 2 minutes and check how it is then again leave it for 2 minutes and check, 2 minutes and check)

Mix well with a kitchen knife or a fork and sprinkle salt and pepper nicely on it and again mix it

Leave it for another 4 minutes

Paneer Fingers is ready, put it into a bowl and munch it

Note:

You can also use salt and chilli powder to spinkle on paneer and have a different taste

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 13

Vennai Puttu - ICC Feb 15 - Wedding Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:50:00 +0000

Vennai Puttu - ICC Feb 15 - Wedding Anniversary:

I feel proud to say that I have been part of Indian Cooking Challenge in this month, February 2012 reason this recipe is not only been prepared by me but also by all the participants who have participated in Indian Cooking Challenge. Entry to this blog is restricted only for the users.

ICC is an event which happens every month. Host of this blog ICC, Srivalli would be selecting a recipe with the help of participant(s) and announcing it to the team. Whole team has to prepare the same dish and post it on their blog on 15^th of every month. Post has to be in their own words with pictures and link it to the announcement page and also link it to the source.

Last time, I was late in taking up the challenge of making Pheni Pattar or Chiroti and had to give up. This time, the recipe was announced on Feb 2^nd and I had enough of time to prepare. This recipe is called Vennai Puttu, it looks like halwa and tastes like Akkibele Payasa. It’s a special dish of Tamilnadu shared by Priya, one of ICC team member. Nirmala had shared this recipe.

Ingredients:

Rice – ½ cup

Water to grind – ½ of rice quantity

Cooked Channa Dal – ¼ cup

Jaggery – ¼ cup

Water for Jaggery Syrup – ½ of jaggery quantity

Ghee – 2 tsp

Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp

Water for sweet – twice of rice – 1 cup

Method:

Soak rice for atleast 3 hours. I had soaked it overnight.

In the morning remove the water from the rice and along with half quantity of rice blend it like idli batter and keep it aside.

Cook channa dal and keep it aside

Put jaggery in to a vessel and add water and make a medium consistency jaggery syrup

Pour water for the sweet and allow it to boil

Once the water starts boiling add grinded / blended rice batter and star stirring continuously so that it does not form lumps. Never stop stirring till the sweet is removed from the stove.

When the raw smell in the rice batter vanishes add jaggery syrup, cardamom powder and cooked channel dal and stir continuously till a mass like substance is obtained or the mixture leaves the side.

Grease a plate and pour the mixture on to it and spread it across.

When it is warm make it into desired shapes and then serve it.

Story: Yesterday was a right time for me to do this as it was our wedding anniversary and mom-in-law had prepared only kheer to celebrate the occasion. Just for info, it was our 9^th anniversary and I was happy that I could do something on this special day.

I soaked the rice overnight and blended it and kept. I could do the sweet only in the afternoon as my little son was not well and I had to take him to doctor. In the afternoon when I checked the consistency of batter all the water was on top and the thick batter was settled down in the bottom. I removed the excess water and learnt the trick. If you add excess water while grinding might be this method can work out to remove the excess water.

Once I did the sweet, my hubby who will never eat sweet came and tasted a little told it looks more or less like akkibele payasa. That was the great surprise.

Alammurabha-MagicMingle-Feb2012

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:15:00 +0000

Alammurabha:

Alam in telugu means Ginger, which is hot. Almonds is a nut which is widely used in making sweets. A combination of this, wow isn't a wonderful thought. Thanks to Kalyani who runs this event, which is a monthly blog hop. Last month she had cinnamon and chilli. I missed it out. This time also I thought I might miss it out, then I remembered my bookmarked post - almond-ginger truffles.

Ginger is grown at the root of the plant. Ginger has been claimed to decrease the pain from arthritis, though studies have been inconsistent. It may also have blood thinning and cholesterol lowering properties that may make it useful for treating heart disease. (Source: wikipedia).

Almonds is a nut which stands in the top of the list which is good to health because it reduces cholesterol greatly.

Ingredients:

Almonds - 10 to 12 nos

Ginger - 2 inches

Dates - 3 nos

Sugar - 5 tsp

Method:

Roast almonds and keep it aside

Peel the skin of ginger and grate it into small pieces

Use the dates skin and throw the seed. I used wet ones not dried one.

Add roasted almonds, grated ginger and dates along with sugar and blend it well

As I used wet dates the mixture, turned out to be moist. Hence I could avoid adding ghee to mix the sweet.

Serve it.

Note:

Incase you use dry dates like lion dates and so on, kindly use ghee to mix the mixture.

Story: When I gave this to my co-brother and my sister-in-law (hubby's sister) she told this is "alammurabha". Great I was surprised because I never ate this after my marriage at my home or before marriage in my home. I was happy too. My co-brother told the concept is new as I have used ginger in sweet.

Submitting this to Magic Mingle #2 - Almonds and Ginger in the month of February 2012 at Kalyani's Blog.

"Love Lock - Sweets #2" hosted at Killer on the plate this time but started by Vidhya Subramony on her blog, SweetKaramKapi.

"Just 4" event by Sobha @ good food.

Fast Food not Fat Food by Priya @ bon appetit.

Healthy and Hearty by SethiaJyothi.

Let's Cook Sweets series by Radhika on TicklingPalates

MicrowaveSemolinaPayasam-BlogHopver2.0-Feb2012

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:26:00 +0000

"Blog Hop Wednesday" is a monthly event and this is the second version which has been started at Radhika's blog. This event happens every second week of the month. It would be announced on Wednesday and within 3 days there should be an entry from your partner's blog, which Radhika would have intimated through her google group, "blog hop wednesday".

I had been paired with Nirmala. She is in US and mom of two children who are married. Interesting thing is her daughter, Archana also writes a blog. She had quite interesting recipes. I had bookmarked her recipes - groundnut rice, microwave burfi and this one.

Semiya Payasam is an instant sweet done with Semiya or Semolina which will be like noodles but very short. I usually do it on a stove top, but doing it through Microwave in the office which served for my today's lunch is great. Thanks Nirmala for this recipe as I don't have stove inside the office and I am afraid to work with microwave as its very new to my style of cooking. In office, we get milk, biscuits, sugar, salt, fruits, and so on, as its software company and projects might have hectic pressure they have arranged for all these eatables.

Microwave ovens vary with their temperature and its very important to know what are they? Unfortunately, my office had not maintained its manual and for a beginner like me, its too difficult. So I usually do keep it for one minute, check out, again keep it for one more minute and check. This will go on till I have reached the end product.

Ingredients:

Roasted Semolina - 1/2 cup
Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup
Raisins - few
Cashewnuts - few
Ghee - 2 tsp
Milk - 3 glasses (each glass is of 50ml)

Method:

Boil Milk for 2 minutes

Mix roasted semolina, powdered sugar, raisins and cashewnuts and then keep it ready by the time milk boils

Add the mixture along with ghee to the milk and keep it for 4 minutes, till the semolina turns to be soft

ThenkaiDosa

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:05:00 +0000

ThenkaiDosa+Dosapowder

Thenkai Dosa:

Thenkai means coconut and dosa out of it. I was literally surprised to see this recipe in Shanthi's blog.

First thing I remember about coconut is it is used to worship God in our Hindu culture. It's a must on festival days to make sweets or savories, to worship, in some of the houses it is used to take drishti/nazar lagna (evil eyesight).

Where is coconut found?

Found across much of the tropic and subtropic area, the coconut is known for its great versatility as seen in the many domestic, commercial, and industrial uses of its different parts

Coconut tree has got a tap root system means the roots is a straight line with root hairs on either of the side.

I remember a line of a poem in kannada "kelage upu niru kudive, mele sihi nira koduve" means i will drink salt water in the bottom, means what we pour for the roots is salt water but i give you sweet water which is coconut water.There are lot of uses from this tree.

What are the uses of coconut?

Coir:

Coconut Coir - used for pulling water

Copra:

Copra used for cooking

Dasara Celebration with copra

Coconut Oil used in soaps and cosmetics

Coconut Oil:

This parachute hair oil if you use it for your hair one hour before your head bath, the hair will be so smooth and soft. Thanks to Parachute.

Husks and Shells: The husk and shells can be used for fuel and are a source of charcoal.

Olden Days Cooking Stove

In earlier days, when they used to boil water for bath using a place where they used to put these wooden logs, husks, shells, eucalyptus leaves etc. There husks/shells used to play a very good role.

Coconut roots: The roots are used as a dye, a mouthwash, and a medicine for diarrheaand dysentery. A frayed piece of root can also be used as a toothbrush.

Coconut trunks: Trunks are used for building small bridges; they are preferred for their straightness, strength and salt resistance. In Kerala (India), coconut trunks are used for house construction.

Coconut Timber: Timber comes from the trunk, and is increasingly being used as an ecologically sound substitute for endangered hardwoods. It has applications in furniture and specialized construction, as notably demonstrated in Manila's Coconut Palace.

Coconut milk: Coconut milk is obtained primarily by extracting juice by pressing the grated coconut's white kernel or by passing hot water or milk through grated coconut, which extracts the oil and aromatic compounds. This is used in making sweets. When it is refrigerated the cream comes to the top which gets separated from milk. The milk can be used to produce virgin coconut oil by controlled heating and removal of the oil fraction.

Processed Cocojal

Fresh Tender Coconut

Coconut water: Coconut water contains sugar, fiber, proteins, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and provides an isotonic electrolyte balance. It is consumed as a refreshing drink throughout the humid tropics and is gaining popularity as an isotonic sports drink.

When somebody falls sick and is in hospital the first thing offered is fresh tender coconut which has more water or only water. In other tender coconut we will have fresh coconut also which is so tasty to eat.

The same is processed and then stored for days together which is called Cocojal.

Because of its "n" number of uses it is also called and worshiped as "Kalpavriksha" means a tree which can give whatever you ask.

For more information refer to the source: Coconut

Ingredients:

Whole Urad Dhal - 2 cups (1 cup = 100 gms)

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Method:

Soak urad dhal overnight in the morning blend it nicely with water.

Retain some urad dhal in the end and mix it with coconut and blend it till its smooth to touch.

Add salt and baking soda to the batter and keep it for fermentation for one hour. Batter should be thin in consistency.

Heat a tawa and pour little oil on top of it and pour the batter

Spread it across by rotating the tawa so that the batter spreads

Leave it get roasted, put oil on the batter and once crispy turn it to the other side

Remove it from the stove and serve it with chutney powder and/or with groundnut chutney

PuliAval

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:38:00 +0000

PuliAval:

Tamarind is a fruit which we get it from Tamarind tree. This tree is such a good friend of human beings because of its uses. To cook we can use its leaves, covered fruit when it was fresh, eat the fruit after peeling the skin. We can also eat the fruit when it is tender without removing the skin and also after peeling the skin by making them as lollipops by mixing them with salt and little chilli powder. But to get the fruit out of its cover lot of work needs to be done.

Kolar Grandma's 8 acre land

In summer holidays, that’s almost in Spring season we used to go to our grandma’s house in Kolar. We had a field which had one tamarind tree and other field had 3 tamarind trees. We had one more field which was of 8 acres agriculture land where we used to grow groundnuts, paddy, ragi, tomato according to the season. Then my mother and her sister brought up 4 acres land and planted mango plants in 1990. Definitely I guess by now the mango plants would have yielded good fruits and vegetables, no clue what happened to them after my marriage.

Well coming back to the topic of tamarind, tamarind used to be plucked and given to peel off the skin. We all used to sit beat the fruit with a stone or with hammer and peel out the fruit from it and take out the seeds from that. We used to play pallankuzhi/aali guli mane with the seeds. In Singapore it is called as congkak. Remove the hair like structure on the fruit and store it. Then my grandma used to pack all this fruit in different covers and send it to my house, our cousins houses, her brother house, as we all stayed in Bangalore. Instead of buying we used to get it from her and as there is a saying that tamarind is runa (credit), we used to pay her some money. Hmmm, gone are those days, today we have to pay money to get tamarind and we don’t get such a good quality one.

Game: Pallankuzhi/aali guli mane. This game is played by 2 players.

There will be 7 holes for each player and they will put 7 tamarind seeds into each hole and once it is over. From the 8th hole they will again take 7 seeds and put it into next 7 holes. Once they reach 8th hole and if it is empty they will put a hand into that and then take the 9th hole and its opposite hole seeds. One who has got more number of seeds is considered to be the winner. This is usually played in villages by two ladies after all their work for time-pass. Hope so I have not forgotten the rules.

aaligulimane

pallankuzhi

Tamarind Seeds: Grandma, used to tell these tamarind seeds are very poisonous and if anybody consumes it by powdering it they will die.

That's the story of tamarind, its tree, its fruit and the game and tamarind seeds.

I was browsing on Monday through “Dilse- Show me your breakfast round up“hosted by Divya in 2010 for some breakfast recipes. I found a variety of breakfast over there, and found quite a number of interesting recipes. Among them I used to always fail to do PuliAval or huliavalakki or gojjuavalakki, its parched rice spiced with tamarind juice and other spices. Hence, I selected to do that for today’s breakfast. Finally, I found a recipe in Prathibha's blog.

Ingredients:

Tamarind – a lemon sized ball

Chilli Powder – 3 tsp (as spicy as it is required)

Salt – 2 tsp

Jaggery – gooseberry sized ball (better if its powdered)

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Parched Rice – 250 gms

For seasoning:

Onions – 2

Green chillies – 5 to 6 nos (again as spicy as required)

Salt – 2 tbsp

Curry leaves

Mustard Seeds – 1 tbsp

Cilantro

Oil – 2 tbsp

Groundnut Seeds – a little (roasted)

Cashewnut – a little

Method:

Soak the tamarind in luke warm water for sometime

Extract the pulp and use the skin in washing copper or brass vessels

In the pulp add salt, jaggery, turmeric, chilli powder and keep it aside

Soak the parched rice for some time and wash it for 3 times in the same manner, so that maximum husk and dust will come out

Pour the tamarind mixture on the parched rice and mix well. Watch out so that the water should be just enough to soak parched rice and should not be more. Keep it aside for 1 hour.

Did you guess what? I missed out to add jaggery and then mixed it with hot water and poured it on the washed parched rice. -:)

Seasoning:

Chop onions, green chillies, cilantro and keep them aside

Heat Oil in a kadai and when it is hot roast cashewnuts and keep them aside

Again add little more oil and when it is hot add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add curry leaves and allow it to fry

Put salt, green chillies, onions and fry the onions till they are translucent

Add groundnut seeds to the mixture and mix them well

Add parched rice to it and mix well allow it to cook for sometime

Garnish with cashewnuts and coriander leaves

Comments: My friend tasted it and said it is less spicy.
For the first time, my hubby told, you should have made some more. The taste was good.

Thanks for Prathibha for her recipe and my little son, who helped me by sleeping while I was preparing and cooking this.

Appreciate your glance at Star of this month page and January recap page. I highly value your healthy comment or healthy criticism.

PudinaRice

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:50:00 +0000

Pudina Rice:

Pudina is nothing but mint leaves or also called as Mentha. They are good in aroma and healthy too. The colors range from dark green and gray-green to purple, blue, and sometimes pale yellow while the flowers are white to purple. The fruit is a small dry capsule containing one to four seeds.

Cultivation: All mints prefer, and thrive in, cool, moist spots in partial shade. In general, mints tolerate a wide range of conditions, and can also be grown in full sun.

They are fast growing, extending their reach along surfaces through a network of runners. Due to their speedy growth, one plant of each desired mint, along with a little care, will provide more than enough mint for home use.

Culinary: The leaf, fresh or dried, is the culinary source of mint. Fresh mint is usually preferred over dried mint when storage of the mint is not a problem. The leaves have a pleasant warm, fresh, aromatic, sweet flavor with a cool aftertaste. Mint leaves are used in teas, beverages, jellies, syrups, candies, and ice creams.

Medicine: Mint was originally used as a medicinal herb to treat stomach ache and chest pains, and it is commonly used in the form of tea as a home remedy to help alleviate stomach pain. In Rome, Pliny recommended that a wreath of mint was a good thing for students to wear since it was thought to "exhilarate their minds".(Source: Wikipedia)

Ingredients for Pudina Chutney:

Pudina or Mint leaves - 1 bunch
Green Chillies - 6
Salt to taste
Water for grinding - a little
Oil - as required
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few

Method:

Separate the mint leaves from its stem, wash it well in cold water
Add pudina, green chillies (washed), salt and water for grinding
Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds to it, once it splutters add curry leaves
Now add the chutney and fry well so that the rawness in mint goes away and a good aroma comes out
Keep it aside.

Pudina Rice:

Once the chutney is ready add rice to it and mix it.

Submitting this to:

"Cooking with Leftover Kitchen Chronicles" - Jan2012 series was hosted by Veena which was started by Kalyani.

"Lets cook with leftovers" by Nayna Kanbar.

PuriUrandai

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:55:00 +0000

Puri Urandai:

I couldn’t believe myself that I could make a sweet that fast. Thanks to the Blogging Marathon team and to the host who started this, that’s none other than Srivalli of spicingyourlife.

Today being the last day of second week of Blogging Marathon, I am glad to say that I have learnt very good sweets which can be made with less or more time. Thanks for my family and friends who had been very supportive.

Thanks for all the exciting comments which made me jump high on the air.

Puri Urandai is made up of beaten rice and jaggery. I was shocked to see this sweet getting ready just in 10 minutes and I cooked keep my lovely little angel my little son on my hip and then do this, but needed help of somebody while making it rounds. This is a must sweet made by Tamilians during “Karthika Deepam”.

Ingredients:

Beaten Rice – 1 1/2 cup
Jaggery – 1 cup
Cardamom Powder – 1 tbsp
Poppy Seeds – 1 tbsp
Chopped Coconut – as you desire
Fried Gram Dhal – as you desire

Method:

Put jaggery and water in a thick bottomed vessel to make jaggery syrup.
When you feel the syrup is almost ready put a drop into a small cup/vessel which has water, you should be able to make a round or small dough.
Once you are able to make, add cardamom powder and poppy seeds.
Pour it into the vessel where your beaten rice is ready along with fried gram dhal and chopped coconut. Watch out it would be hot, make your hand wet and start mixing dry ingredients with jaggery syrup.
Keep it on a plate, take a snap, and eat it with family members.

Submitting this to:Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 12

This also makes an entry to

Kid's Delight - Something Sweet at Edible Entertainment by Kavitha Iyengar and this series were started by Srivalli in her blog.

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

Cooking with Love event hosted by Saraswathi Iyer.

Cooking Challenge - Flavours of Tamilnadu.

TenkaiKarjikayalu:

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:51:00 +0000

Tenkai-Karjikayalu:

Tenkai Karjikayalu is my 5^th day post for 2^nd week of Blogging Marathon. My theme for this week is Kids Delight – Something Sweet.

I had done it on Saturday, 28^th Jan 2012 when I cooked lunch for my family. Lunch comprised of Methi Dhal, Tomato Rasam, Rice and curds. Special entry was my sweet Tenkai Karjikayalu (tenga kolakottai or coconut rolls). Our breakfast for that day was Puri and after everybody having breakfast there was wheat flour (atta) remaining. It flashed my great brain why don’t I do this sweet. I asked my mom-in-law she told once lunch is ready I could make them; she said and went to sister-in-law’s place who stays nearby.

I was eager to make so I couldn’t wait, moreover my little son was sleeping, so it was a good time for me to do along with lunch. I kept sugar and water to become sugar syrup, and blended coconut in blender. Once sugar syrup was getting ready I added poppy seeds, cardamom powder, baby saffron and mixed well, add blended coconut to the mixture. I hope you remember I made little almond powder last week, I added them into this. As almond contains oil, it’s better to utilize them at the earliest.

Ingredients:

CopraPak Laddoos – 18 (I could get 18)
Small dough/puri – 12

I had to eat 6 laddoos directly and myself, my son, and sis-in-law son, sis-in-law and co-brother it was over in no time.

Method:

Make small puris and keep coprapak laddoos in the center

Cover the dough properly so that laddoos doesn’t come out

Heat oil in a kadai and once it is full hot, keep it into medium flame and fry the rolls

Put it onto a vessel where the oil can be drained

Submitting this to:Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 12

This also makes an entry to

Kid's Delight - Something Sweet at Edible Entertainment by Kavitha Iyengar and this series were started by Srivalli in her blog.

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

DatesKheer

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:29:00 +0000

Dates Kheer:

Kheer is nothing but payasa, sweet which is made either of semolina or of any other ingredient with milk. It can be made instantly and ingredients are also too short. I just added dates to it.

On account of yesterday holiday and tomorrow holiday I am on leave today also. J Hence made dates milk shake, but as I had to take Aditya to doctor due to some allergy plan got changed. Suddenly it flashed, I can just do kheer in the afternoon adding dates milk shake. Yummy, it gave me very good company in my children lunch today.

Ingredients:

Semolina – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Milk – 2 cups
Dates – 5 to 6 nos (used fruit not the dried ones)
Ghee – 2 tsp

Method:

Soak dates in water for an hour
Add milk, sugar and dates and blend it together to get a milk shake
Add ghee in a thick bottomed vessel
Roast semolina and keep it aside
Add dates milk shake and allow it to boil
Add roasted semolina and allow it to become soft/cooked
Serve it

Submitting this to:Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 12

This also makes an entry to

Kid's Delight - Something Sweet at Edible Entertainment by Kavitha Iyengar and this series were started by Srivalli in her blog.

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

UradDhalHalwa

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:25:00 +0000

Urad Dhal Halwa:

I came across this sweet in Nayna Kanbar's blog (simply.food) I had bookmarked this sweet for a longer time. When I had paired with Nayna during Blog Hop Wednesday ver 2.0 started by Radhika on her blog (tickling palates) for Jan 2012.

Only modification I did to this is the shape, rest all remains the same.

Ingredients:

Wet Halwa

Urad Dhal - 1cup
Chopped Coconut - 1 cup
Sugar - 1cup
Cardamom Powder - 2 tsp
Saffron - 3 num
Milk - a little
Ghee - 4 tsp

Method:

Fry urad dhal till reddish brown and allow it cool

Add roasted urad dhal, chopped coconut and sugar and blend it

Add ghee in a kadai when it melts add the ground powder

Urad Dhal Halwa

Roast it well so that we can get nice aroma

Add milk to it and put it on a greased plate

Once its warm cut it into pieces

Put it in an airtight container and eat it

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 20 mins

Yielded: 20 pieces

Submitting this to:Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 12

This also makes an entry to

Kid's Delight - Something Sweet at Edible Entertainment by Kavitha Iyengar and this series were started by Srivalli in her blog.

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

Onion Chutney

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:03:00 +0000

Onion-Chutney:

"Weekend Herb Blogging" was started by Kalyn and after 3 years Haalo took over to continue this. This series is on and continuing since 7 long years and it has reached #318 series this week. This week series is hosted by Cindystar here.

Onions are often chopped and used an ingredient in various hearty warm dishes, but are often used as a main ingredient in their own right, for example in French onion soup or onion chutney. They are also used raw in cold salads. Onions pickled in vinegar are eaten as a snack. These are often served as a side serving in fish and chip shops throughout the United Kingdom and Australia, often served with cheese in the United Kingdom, and as "pickled onions" in Eastern Europe. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion)

Ingredients:

Onion - 2

Oil - 2 tsp (for frying)

Oil - 1 tsp (for tadka)

Tomato - 2

Groundnuts (roasted) - 1 handful

Green Chillies - 4

Ginger - 1/2 inch

Coconut - 1/2 cup (grated)

Salt to taste

Curry leaves - few

Cilantro - few

Method:

Fry onion, tomato, green chillies and ginger in a kadai with hot oil

Allow it to cool for sometime

Using a blender blend all fried ingredients along with roasted groundnut seeds, coconut, salt and cilantro or coriander leaves

Heat little oil, once it becomes hot, add a tsp of mustard seeds and wait till it splutters

Add curry leaves and pour this tadka on to the onion chutney.

Dark Chocolate Milk Shake

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:12:00 +0000

Dark Chocolate Milk Shake:

I planned to prepare puriundai (might be my next recipe) but ended up preparing dark chocolate milk shake in office. :(.

Great thing I did yesterday is, I informed my hubby somehow stating that I like my blog which motivates me to cook/make/bake new things and asked him to cooperate my work. Reason is, my little son has become a nightmare for me, he doesn't sleep nor he lets anybody sleep (including my older son). As my mom-in-law would have cooked something in the afternoon and very rarely I get a chance to cook something, great thing I do is cook rice in the evening which will hardly take 5 minutes. I need to put this guy to sleep and then prepare whatever I would have planned.

In the early morning, once I got up, my little son also got up and as it was just dosa chutney had to be done. Good my mom-in-law did a new chutney and the recipe will be out shortly.

In the office today I was supposed to have some training and instead of keeping my blog readers wait i just thought a dark chocolate milk shake can also serve as a sweet as we had sugar to it. Please pass your valuable comments if it can be considered under sweet or not.

This is going to be my 3rd day in Blogging Marathon under 2nd week event. As you are aware my group is "Kid's Delight - Something Sweets" for this week.

Ingredients:

B&W Photo

Dark Chocolate - 4 pieces (one chocolate will have 8 pieces)
Butter - 1 tsp
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 1
Fruits of your taste (just to make you have a good breakfast)

Method:

Melt butter in microwave
Add dark chocolate to them and melt them in oven
Add milk, sugar and heat it for a moment so that chocolate mixes well with milk
Take a bowl for fruits add your desired fruits. I have added musk melon and pineapple.
Click a pic and have the milk shake with fruits. :)
Post it after tasting the milk shake.

Submitting this to:Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 12

This also makes an entry to

Kid's Delight - Something Sweet at Edible Entertainment by Kavitha Iyengar and this series were started by Srivalli in her blog.

Bake Fest @ Pumpkinfarmfood by Pradnya started @ Zesty Palette by Vardhini.

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

MEC series by Kalyani started by Srivalli on Cooking4allseasons.

Breakfast Club Jan'12 series hosted Aimée @ Food, Je t'Aimée which was started by Helen

AlmondBreadGolls

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:53:00 +0000

AlmondBreadGolls:

It gives me immense pleasure to treat my blog readers who are making me successful in a very short time from the time I restarted my blog.

Golls or balls made out of almond and cashewnut powder and kept inside bread and baked for 2 minutes in microwave oven.

Ingredients:

Wheat Bread Slice - 4
Maida Bread Slice - 1
Almond - 4
Cashewnut - 2
Sugar - 4 tsp
Ghee / Clarified butter - 2 tsp
Spraying Oil (to spray on the bread so that it doesn't get burnt)

Method:

Blend almond, cashewnut to a coarse powder
Cut the sides of a bread (bread crumbs) and put little ghee on both sides of it
Keep the ghee in microwave for 1 minute so that it would become thin

Add blended powder, sugar to ghee and mix and keep it for 1 minute so that it gets mixed well

Now take the bread as a cup shape and put the mixture on to it

Nicely cover the bread with little water or with ghee and spray some oil on the bread
Keep it in oven again for 2 more minutes so that the bread gets roasted.

Take it out from the oven and allow it to cool
Take the bread crumbs into a glass, add some milk and sugar

Serve both the dishes almond bread golls and bread crumbs mixture

Submitting this to:Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 12

Submitting this also to:

Bake Fest @ Pumpkinfarmfood by Pradnya started @ Zesty Palette by Vardhini.

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

MEC series by Kalyani started by our BM preacher Srivalli on Cooking4allseasons.

Rasayana-Sekarni

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:41:00 +0000

Rasayana/Banana Sekarni:

It gives me immense pleasure to participate in this week of BM also. It’s my second week of blogging marathon. And my group is and this time my group is “Seven different sweets”. Chey, that was the name given by me, but the group name is "Kid's Delight - Something Sweet". Why only kids will sweets is it, not me :), I mean elders.

When it comes to sweet, I am mad of all sweets but my hubby doesn’t eat so I prepare it only at times. L But as blogging marathon is giving a new shape to my blog and its posts. I thought let me take up this challenge. And this time I don’t want to miss any day including Saturday and Sunday.

Ingredients:

Ripped Bananas (chopped) – 2
Coconut (grated) – 1/2
Sugar – 3 tbsp
Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp
Honey – 1 tsp
Milk – 50 ml (optional) or according to your taste

Method:

Chop the bananas and put it in a bowl
Grate the coconut and add it to bananas along with sugar, cardamom powder, honey
Pour milk and mix them nicely
Leave it for atleast half an hour, so that it would nicely mixed and tastes better
Serve it with puris/chappatis or eat directly

Additional Info:

This sekarni can be made it of mangoes also. Add little custard powder and one more taste is ready.

NOTE: Sweets are healthy when it is prepared with Jaggery, as it is unrefined one, Sugar is a refined one, and it should be less used in sweets.

Submitting this to:Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 12

This is also submitted to:

Kid's Delight - Something Sweet at Edible Entertainment by Kavitha Iyengar and this series were started by again our BM heroine - Srivalli in her spiceyourlife blog.

Banana Event @ Easy to Cook Recipes by Dr.Sameena Prathap.

Cook, Eat Delicious - Desserts @ Veggie Platter; this series was started by Raven.

Facial Powder using Dhals

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:11:00 +0000

Facial Powder using Dhals:

Unfortunately, Saturday and Sunday will be more hectic than the weekdays due to so many works in the house. Inspite of having support from maid servant for cleaning the vessels, washing clothes using washing machine, sweeping, wiping the house still there will be lot of work at home viz., cooking, taking care of kids, making children do something new instead of stupid TV, taking care of ourselves, cleaning almirah, oh my god so many things. Only when we complete them we will find a great charm on our face. If friends/relatives visit us then the whole day is spent in gossiping. But as we plan for a project earlier we should plan our day so that we can make ourselves time for each and every activity. It’s great to tell but when will I plan, “God knows”. I knew that it was the last day of Blogging Marathon #12 so decided to post something new. I prepared for it but couldn’t post it.

My dear blog readers, my sincere apologies for yesterday due to unavoidable circumstances. ~~My bluetooth has become slow since two days no idea if it is either laptop problem or mobile problem. Hence I will put a picture later. Inconvenience is regretted.~~ My bluetooth is working and including pictures.

Coming to the seventh day of BM12, as you know my group was “Seven Days of Delicious Dhals” I am posting this facial powder, which is made of dhals. Facial Powder, dhals?? Before all surprises start let me just put it this way: Yep, dhal is not only used in cooking, it can also be used in making facial powder.

Ingredients:

Moong Dhal – 1 cup
Urad Dhal – ¼ cup
Masoor Dhal – 1 cup
Almond/badam - 10
Channa Dhal – 2.5 cups (or kadale maav or besan – 1.5 cups)
Lemon powder - 2 tsp
Orange peel powder - 6 tsp
Lavangam(cloves) - 2
Tulsi powder - 6 tsp

(You can consider 1 cup = 100 gms, but I have taken a lesser quantity)

Method:

Keep all dhals and badam in sunlight more than 2 hours, so that they all will become warm or hot. (use a sunny day)
Add all ingredients and grind it
It well suits the whole family, can give a try instead of soap. Just add rose water or/and curds to the powder.
For Ladies, kindly add manjal, rose water and/or curds along with the powder.

NOTE: You can also use rose petal powder instead of rose water and just add water or curds. Curds will remove the dirt and yields to a better glowing skin and keeps moist body.

Submitting this to:Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 12

MoongDal-Balls

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:54:00 +0000

Sweet made out of Moong Dal. This is my recipe for BM 12 6th day.

After a long research on internet on Moong Dal Sweet I got this recipe.

Ingredients:

Moong Dal - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardmom Powder - 2 tsp
Milk - 3 tsp (i have used more and it has become halwa :))
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Nuts (almond, cashewnuts) - roasted few

Method:

Roast the nuts and keep it aside

Add moong dal, sugar and cardamom powder fry them for sometime in medium flame

Add ghee to the mixture

Fry for some more time, add nuts and little milk to get the consistency

Once you feel ghee coming out from sides put it on to the greased plate

Cut once it is cool

Info: After adding milk wait till it becomes thick, else it would turn out to be halwa instead of balls.

Submitting this to:Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 12

Hema's Adugemane

Jeera Rasam - BM#13 - Week 2 - Day 1

4th Year Birthday - Banana Halwa

Potato Chips - BM#13 - Day 7

Tomato Chips - BM#13 - Day 6

Black grapes chips - BM#13 - Day 5

Pineapple Pieces Chips - BM#13 - Day 4

Chocolate Chips - BM #13 - Day 3

Marie Biscuit Coffee Chips – BM#13 - Day 2

Paneer Chips - BM#13 - Day 1

Vennai Puttu - ICC Feb 15 - Wedding Anniversary

Alammurabha-MagicMingle-Feb2012

MicrowaveSemolinaPayasam-BlogHopver2.0-Feb2012

ThenkaiDosa

Coconut roots: The roots are used as a dye, a mouthwash, and a medicine for diarrhea and dysentery. A frayed piece of root can also be used as a toothbrush.

Coconut trunks: Trunks are used for building small bridges; they are preferred for their straightness, strength and salt resistance. In Kerala (India), coconut trunks are used for house construction.

Coconut Timber: Timber comes from the trunk, and is increasingly being used as an ecologically sound substitute for endangered hardwoods. It has applications in furniture and specialized construction, as notably demonstrated in Manila's Coconut Palace.

Coconut water: Coconut water contains sugar, fiber, proteins, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and provides an isotonic electrolyte balance. It is consumed as a refreshing drink throughout the humid tropics and is gaining popularity as an isotonic sports drink.

When somebody falls sick and is in hospital the first thing offered is fresh tender coconut which has more water or only water. In other tender coconut we will have fresh coconut also which is so tasty to eat.

The same is processed and then stored for days together which is called Cocojal.

PuliAval

PudinaRice

PuriUrandai

TenkaiKarjikayalu:

DatesKheer

UradDhalHalwa

Onion Chutney

Dark Chocolate Milk Shake

AlmondBreadGolls

Rasayana-Sekarni

Facial Powder using Dhals

MoongDal-Balls

Coconut roots: The roots are used as a dye, a mouthwash, and a medicine for diarrheaand dysentery. A frayed piece of root can also be used as a toothbrush.