India Tips Today

Rava Ladoo, Suji Ladoo, Sooji Ladoo, Rave Ladoo

2011-11-09T04:11:00.000-08:00

This is prepared as a delicacy during festivals to distribute amongst friends and relatives or it is can be served as a snack for the children, even the elders would look it.
The preparation is very easy and is healthy as well, especially for the children.

Ingredients:

1. Sooji, suji, rave, rava - 1 kg
2. Pure Ghee 200gms
3. Sugar powdered - 750 gm.
4. Elaichi, Elaka , Elaki, Cardamon powder - 7/8
5. Milk boiled and cooled - 1/2 liter
6. Nuts ( Cashew nuts & Raisins preferable) you choice, fried in ghee.

Process:

1. Need to fry the Sooji /Rava in a pan on very low heat for at least 30 minutes, until it becomes nice and crispy when you touch it with your hand. initially fry plain Sooji/rava, after 10 minutes slowly add the ghee and fry it along with the sooji , in total for 30 minutes or more until the Rava is nicely fried , make sure the color doesn't change, but yet it is fried nicely. This needs constant stir, may be every 30 seconds.

2.once it is nicely fried take it off the flame and add the powdered sugar, and mix well in such a manner the powdered sugar and the fried sooji is evenly mixed without any lumps. Also add the powdered cardamon powder and mix well.

3. Now the mixture is ready to be shaped into Ladoo's.

4. divide the mixture into 3 parts, this is basically for convenience.

5. Sprinkle the milk that is boiled and cooled and mix well , it need not be a paste or dough , you are using the mix just to bring together the mixture and shape it into a Ladoo. Hence, sprinkle little by little and once you feel it can be rolled up into a Ladoo with your hand, roll it in your hand like you would roll up a marble in a playful manner. don't forget to add 1 or 2 fried nuts while rolling it up into a Ladoo. ( ensure that it doesn't become too sticky , because it is difficult to make it into small Ladoos)

6. And place it on a plate to dry off, once dried it should be ready to eat, you can store in nice airtight containers and eat it later as well, though cant be stored for very long because it has milk in it.

It is very simple to prepare and tastes excellent!

There are certain myths that the milk should be hot , also the mixture should be hot. Not required.

Tips to cook fish fry without the stinks

2011-10-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

Fish fry is a very delicious and desirous food to every non vegetarian in India, but it is also true that fish fry gathers a lot of attention because of its unpleasant smell, because of which many people dare to cook fish fry at home and resort to fish fry's only from eat outs and restaurants.

I have a very simple tip, that can drive away the unpleasant smell while deep frying or shallow frying fish. All one needs to do is add some fennel seeds ( may be pinch) to the hot oil before adding the fish, fennel seeds emit a very strong aroma which over powers the smell emitted by the fish and makes the whole experience of fish not just tasty even pleasant.

Fennel Seeds are called Saunf, Sonp, Sombu, Badesopu, Sopu in various Indian Languages.

Hence forth, don't scare away from having a home made hot crispy , crunchy, yummy fish fry. Prepare and enjoy it right at home.

Do let me know how it turned out.

Vermicelli Payasam , seviyan, Semiya, shemai, Shavige

2010-06-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

This is a quick sweet dish that is healthy, high on nutrition and kids will love, leave alone the kids you will too.

1. Take 200 gms of Vermicelli ( as usual try with smaller quantity)
2. Take a Frying pan or kadai. Add 1-2 tablespoons of Pure Ghee
3. once the Ghee is warm , add the vermicelli to it, and fry it on low flames. this would take a good 10-15 minutes time. you need to continuously stir it every 40 seconds so that the vermicelli doesn't get over fried.
Note: It is important to fry the vermicelli in ghee into to prevent it from becoming a paste later on after cooking.

4. Once the Vermicelli is fried, keep it aside and let it cool.
5. In the meanwhile you could boil milk on another burner, once the milk is boiled, you can allow to continue on low flame in order for it to thicken.
6. Now you can take water in a container, measure of water should be 3 times that of the vermicelli. you could use a cup to measure it.
7. Allow the water to boil, add Cardamon or elachi to it for flavour.

8. Once the water boils, add the vermicelli to it and allow it to cook. It is best if it is cooked on medium flame.
9. Once the vermicelli is cooked, you can check by seeing if you can smash it with you hands. remember it shouldn't overcook.
10. By now the quantity of water will also be less , now you can add sugar to it. One and half cup preferably( You can increase or reduce based on your requirement). Note: Sugar needs to be added only after the vermicelli is cooked if not it wouldn't cook properly.

11. Now allow the sugar to melt and allow the excess water to evaporate. you will see that the vermicelli mixture is semi liquid, now turn off the flames.
12. Now keep it aside to cool off a little bit.

13. Turn of the milk that was on flames for condensing purpose, allow it to cool down a bit as well.
14. Now you could have all possible nuts ( Cashew Nuts, raisins, almonds, pista ) fried in ghee.

15. Once you feel the milk and the vermicelli is not too hot, and cooled off a bit, you can mix the milk, the vermicelli and the fried nuts.

16. you can eat it hot or cold. Tastes excellent either ways.

Raw Banana, Plantain, Vazhakai Fry

2010-05-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

Raw Banana, Plantain, Vazhakai is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium and Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin B6.

Here again the best tasting raw banana fry I have eaten so far, as far as I have seen raw banana are either used as an ingredient for the famous banana chips from Kerala, or cooked in fashion that is not very interesting. But I once eat it in my aunt's place and realized it is very tasty. I thought everyone has a right to eat tasty and health food.

Ok let’s start the cooking. As usual lets try it first with a small quantity.

1. Take 2 raw bananas

2. Scrape off the green skin. Important raw banana's have the tendency to change colour when in contact with oxygen likes apples.

You could avoid its colour change by keeping them in vessel containing water.

3. Now you start chopping them into smaller pieces. I suggest the following style, which enhances the taste.( slit it open into 4 across it length, you will end up getting 4 long pieces, now slice them into smaller pieces across its width, don’t make very thin slices likes in chips , but make double or triple thickness. ) remember all which it is in a vessel containing water and goes back into.

It’s best to cook it immediately it is chopped.

4. After the chopping process, you may wish to immerse it into clean water again and drain it off completely.

5. In the meanwhile, have a dry non stick cooking pan ready on your stove, add 3-4 table spoons of cooking oil to it.

6. Once the oil is hot enough add the chopped raw bananas to it. Let the flame be between low and medium.

7. Stir it after 1 minute and continue to stir or pan fry it for up to 8-10 minutes, you will see it become lightly brown in colour.

8. Now you add a pinch of turmeric and stir again to spread the turmeric across evenly.

9. Now sprinkle salt for taste and stir it again.

10. After 1 minute or so, add chili powder may be 2-3 teaspoons based on your liking hot food.

11. Continue to fry until the raw smell of chili powder is gone and you see nice and crispy raw banana fry.

Isn’t it simple, but lot tastier than it could be otherwise.

Try it and have fun!

Seppan Kizhangu, Colocasia, Arvi, Taro, Cheppan kizhangu

2010-05-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

This is very tasty root that I relish, but I have noticed that it is not eaten by everybody simply because people do not know how to cook it. It is very simple, but is a little tricky.

Well I will help you all enjoy this must eat root, which you will want to eat again and again once cooked rightly and eaten.

This root is easily available in most vegetable markets, and usually sold in measures of Kilograms.

May be you could try it out with smaller quantity and see if you like it, and then can try out with larger quantity as I am sure you would love it.

You can buy 250 grams of this root.

1.Wash it thoroughly as it is a root and will come along with mud/spoil.

After you it is washed, you can move it in a container and immerse it completely with water and set it on flame for cooking. It would take approximately 15-20 minutes on Medium flame, you could check it with a knife to see if it is cooked, the same way you check potatoes.

Caution: Do not overcook it; it doesn’t taste good if overcooked.

2. Once it is cooked, take it off the flames, remove the water from it and set it to cool, once the heat is bearable you can peel the skin of, again the same way as in potatoes.

3. Chop it into smaller pieces, keep aside.

4. Now comes the tricky part, this root has sharpness in it, when eaten you feel like it is cutting your tongue, now we need to get rid of this sharpness, don’t you worry it is a simple process.

You need some tamarind juice to do so, you can take 3 inches of tamarind and soak it in 50 ml of water, make a thick juice of it, and keep it aside, and we will use it soon.

5. Now take a frying pan, set it up on medium flames.

6. Take 4-5 table spoon of cooking oil, be generous

7. Once the oil is hot enough for frying, had the chopped roots, pan fry it for 2 minutes.

8. Now had the tamarind juice you prepared a while ago to it. Continue to pan fry for another 2-3 minutes, you will see that the juice is been absorbed by the roots, and it is getting roasted in the generous supply of cooking oil.

9. Now it is time to add salt for taste.

10. Add a pinch or two of turmeric powder.

11. Add Chili powder, make be 1-2 tea spoons, if you like eating hot food, you can make it 3

12. Continue to pan fry it. You can see it is becoming nice and crispy. When you feel it is golden brown in color and don’t want to over fry it, take it off the flame, you can drain the oil off, if any excess oil is left.

You have yummy, crispy and heavenly tasting roots. Try it, Trust me I love it.

Free Audio Conferencing in India

2010-05-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

Till date , there was no company providing free conferencing service in India, whereas there are loads of free services available in countries like USA, UK and Australia etc. Even if you did come across something in India, it was some kind of a scam to introduce unwanted products and services.

There is this company Eagle Conferencing located out of Bangalore that provide absolutely free conferencing service on par quality of service with other leading service providers in the Market.

You can Avail you service on Eagle Conferencing's Website

Let me give you another piece of information that will over joy you, along with the free conferencing, you also get free UK connecting number to do multi country conferencing. Have fun.

You have come up with a fantastic video that will help people who are using conferencing for the first time to understand and take advantage of conferencing better.
Click here to see the video.

Cook non sticky bhindi, gumbo, lady's finger or Okra

2010-05-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

Gumbo, Okra, lady's finger, bhindi is a very tasty and nutritional vegetable which is left out of many Indian Kitchens because it becomes sticky and messy while cooking. Here is a small tip which will not stop you from enjoying the taste and benefits of this wonderful vegetable.

Bhindi cannot be cooked like other vegetables; it needs to be treated differently.
Normally we wash the vegetable and chop them and cook them directly, in the process there is some water that gets carried into the cooking when washed.
Bhindi doesn’t like that; it wants to leave the water behind. And the water is what causes the sticky Mucus like substance.

So simple take a clean muslin cloth and wipe out the water from the bhindi and chop it dry into shapes and sizes you want.

Also Bhindi does need water to be cooked, it segregates its own liquids, in which it gets cooked, and you can of course add some cooking oil to facilitate the same.

A simple Example will help:

Bhindi Fry: Serves 2

1. Take 20-25 Medium Sized bhindi's / Lady's Fingers, Tender Okra's are preferred.
Wash them proper, may be a couple of times.
Drain out the water and Wipe the Bhindi's one by one, make sure there is no water left.
Take a dry chopping board and a dry knife.
Chop the Okra's into small pieces of one inch each approximately.
You can throw away the both the tips of the Okra’s.
Caution: Look for worm while chopping, if you find throw it out (that is not part of the recipe).
2. One medium Sized Onion (Red or White Onion, easy available in Indian Markets)
Chop it into small pieces.
3. Take a dry cooking pan or kadai.
4. Once the pan is hot, take a table spoon or two of cooking oil, it will take a few seconds to heat.
5. Add the chopped onions and Okra's and pan fry them on low flame (Not very low though).
6. Continue pan fry a few times until 8-10 minutes, now you can see that onions have gone slightly brown and the Okra has segregated all its liquids.
7. Now add salt for taste.
8. Add Pepper Powder or Chilly Powder (again depends on how hot you like your food)
9 Optional: you can add a medium sized tomato, if you what it to be tangy. Water and chop the tomato into 4-5 pieces and add it to the kadai and cover with a lid for a few minute for the tomato to be cooked. Mix well and pan fry again for a few times.

There you can a non sticky, simple, healthy and tasty Okra Fry. Now you can make your own okra dishes and have fun!

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates

2010-05-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

Blogger Buzz: Blogger integrates with Amazon Associates