My Receipes

Spicy Plantain Curry/Vaazhakkai kara curry

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:41:00 +0000

Plantain/Vaazhakkai is one of my favorite vegetable. I usually make vaazhakka curry or vaazhakka podimas in a simple way. But this time, I wanted to try the spicy curry which my chitti used to make. Actually she will make this curry using Taro root/chepangezhangu. But I wanted to try the same method with vaazhakkai and it came out really well..

Ingredients:-

Plantain - 3
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies powder - 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
Salt to taste
Rice flour - 3 tsp (required amount acc to the quantity of plantain)
Oil - 4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - apinch

There are two ways of cooking plantain. Just cut them into small cubes and cook it on stove top with required amount of turmeric and salt and drain it once its done or Pressure cook it along with the skin and peel the skin once it is done. I used the second method. Once it is cooked, peel the skin and cut it into cubes. Keep it aside for 10 minutes. In the mean time, mix rice flour, turmeric powder(if you have not added it before), chillies powder and salt together and rub those plantain cubes in it. Now take a pan, preheat oil, splutter mustard seeds and fry urad dhall & asafoetida powder to golden brown. Now add the plantain pieces to it and fry it in low flame. Cook it until all becomes golden brown. Enjoy it with Sambar rice or curd rice...

Simple Cabbage Garbanzo Curry

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:58:00 +0000

This is another recipe I learned from my cousin Rashmi. During our last visit to her place for get together, she made this curry. I really loved the combination of cabbage and Garbanzo beans. I usually add green peas with cabbage. But this is something new to me. So thought of trying it today.

Ingredients:-

Cabbage - 3 cups ( chopped)
Garbanzo beans - 1 cup ( I used canned beans cos its already cooked)
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste
Shredded coconut - 1 tsp (optional)
curry leaves - for garnishing

First drain the required amount of garbanzo beans from the can and keep it aside. Add the chopped cabbage in a pan, add required amount of water and salt(just enough for cabbage cos beans will have salt), cook it nicely. Make sure its not mushy. Drain the extra water from cabbage and keep it aside. Pre heat oil in the same pan, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall & red chillies to golden brown, add cooked cabbage and garbanzo beans and mix everything together. Also add the coconut and mix well. Turn off the stove. Garnish it with curry leaves. It just took me 7 minutes to finish this curry.

Quick Carrot Rice

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:47:00 +0000

Somedays you don't feel like cooking anything but you have people around and have no other choice, this rice comes handy. I learned this recipe from one of my friend's mom. Frankly speaking, it is easy to make and luckily my girls really liked that rice. I usually make carrot rice in this way. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

Carrot - 1 (shredded)
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Tomato - 1 finely chopped
Garlic - 1 clove
Ginger - a small piece (chop it)
Green chillies - 1 (acc to taste)
oil - 2 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Rice - 1 cup ( I used sonamasoori rice)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves - for garnishing

Preheat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds and cumin seeds and fry green chillies to golden brown. Add chopped onion, ginger & garlic and saute' for a minute. Now add the chopped tomato and shredded carrots to it. Add turmeric powder and let it cook for couple of minutes. In the mean time, wash the rice, drain it and keep it aside. When the veggies are half cooked, transfer it to the pressure cooker, add the drained rice, add required amount of water ( I usually add 3 cups of water for 1 cup of rice, but this time, I just used 1 1/2 cups of water along with half cooked vegetables and rice). Pressure cook it upto 2 whistles. Open the cooker when the pressure is released and garnish it with coriander leaves.

Deepavali Goodies....

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:04:00 +0000

HAPPY DEEPAVALI TO ALL MY FRIENDS HERE...

Diwali is one of our favorite festival we celebrate everyyear. I bet you guys must have celebrated it in a grand manner this year too. WE went to a potluck party this year and had fun there. I was planning to make lots of goodies this year, but ended up making only two because of some unavoidable reasons and the news from India that my patti (who is my first inspiration in cooking)is sick and she is in the hospital. I just made Atta laddoo and omapodi this year for diwali. Thanks to Rashmi who shared this recipe with me. Here is the recipe for Atta laddoo. This recipe is similar to rava laddoo we make. Instead of rava, I used wheat flour.

Ingredients:

Atta/wheat flour - 1 1/2 cups
Sugar - 2 cups
Ghee - 1/4 cup (I used little less than that)
Warm Milk - if necessary (to make balls)
Cashew & Raisins - a tbsp each

Take a thick bottomed pan, pre heat couple of teaspoons of ghee and fry the cashew and raisins to golden brown and keep it aside. In the same pan, fry the atta till a nice aroma comes from it. Keep the stove in a low flame while frying atta. In the mean time, also melt the ghee in a separate pan and keep it aside. When the atta is done frying, transfer it to another vessel, add the fried nuts and raisins and pour the warm melted ghee slowly and make small balls. If you feel the mixture is too dry, then warm 1/4 cup of milk and keep it aside. Sprinkle little by little and then start making laddoos.

I followed my patti's recipe for making oma podi too..

Ingredients:-

Omam/ajwain - 1 tsp
Rice flour - 2 cup
Besan flour - 1 cup ( Most people use this more than rice flour)
Salt to taste
Unsalted butter - 2 tsp
Hing/asafoetida -a pinch
Oil-to deep fry.

Soak omam previous night in water. When you are ready to make this, filter omam and just take the water(my MIL used to grind this and then filter the omam, but patti just use the water). I personally felt my MIl's method is better than this one. Add all the dry ingredients, add butter and start kneading the dough adding omam water. Add water if necessary. Pre heat oil in a pan, Take required amount of dough and put it in the Omapodi press and press it in the hot oil(careful while doing this). Fry it till it becomes golden brown...

Dhaniya Podi (coriander seeds Podi)

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:17:00 +0000

I am reposting this Corianderseeds Podi (Dhaniya podi) for Priya's Think Spice-Think Coriander Event. This is my husband's favorite. Ingredients for making this podi are as follows:

Ingredients:-

Channa dhall - 1 Cup
Toor dhall - 1 cup
Urad dhall - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Coriander seeds - 3 cups
Red chillies - 4 (acc to taste)
Black pepper - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Asafoetida powder.

Fry all the ingredients one by one to golden brown (including salt). Let it cool and grind it into a fine powder. This goes well with white rice and a teaspoon of sesame oil. This podi recipe goes to Priya's Event

I am linking this coriander logo to Sunita's blog.

Oats chapathi & Mint chapathi

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:57:00 +0000

I have never tried roti/chapathi with oats. One of my friend from the kids' school told me about this oats chapathi and I wanted to try this today. She wanted me to try this adding more oats than wheat. Since I wasn't sure whether it will wor, i just tried with more wheat and a part of oats....Here is the recipe I followed..

Ingredients:-

Wheat flour - 1 cup
oats powder - 4 tbsp (grind quaker oats into a fine powder)
salt to taste
Water to knead
Sesame oil - 1 tsp

Mix wheat and oats flour, add salt and knead the flour into a nice dough. Spread the sesame oil and leave the dough for atleast half an hour. When you are ready to make roti, take required amount of dough to make one roti and spread it into a circle shaped roti of 7" diameter. Cook it on both sides and enjoy. Surprisingly, it was really good. This is the first time, I am trying roti with oats. Since my husband stopped eating oats, I have a whole bunch of oats in my pantry, and now I can use them for making rotis...

I also made one more flavor roti. I first made two small rotis for my girls using the dough and I used some leftover Mint thogayal to the remaining dough. I used two teaspoons of thogayal with the remaining dough and made chapathis with that. It tastes new to me cos this is the first time I am trying chapathi with mint leaves.

Saraswathi Pooja Celebrations & goodies

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:41:00 +0000

Saraswathi Pooja is my most favorite celebration when I was a girl. Cos thats when we don't have to do any homework nor do we study on that day(lol). Since its the last day of navrathri, in my mom's place, we make lots of goodies on that day. This year, I wanted to do the same way so that my girls could also learn our tradition and culture. This year I made aama vadai, pal payasam, kondakadala(black channa dhall) sundal and the regular south Indian traditional samayal. It was really fun that day and we successfully enrolled our girls for swimming lessons. Since I have posted recipe for pal payasam already, I am just posting recipes for aama vadai and kondakadalai sundal here along with few more pictures of that day...

Kondakadalai sundal:-
Ingredients:-

Kondakadalai/Black Channa dhall - 1 cup
coconut - 1 tsp
salt to taste
oil - 1/2 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
red chillies - 1
curry leaves- few
asafoetida powder - a pinch

Soak black channa dhall over night. Pressure cook it when you are ready to make sundal. Drain it fully when the pressure is released. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall and red chillies to golden brown. Now add the cooked sundal to it. Add salt and mix it well. Turn off the stove. Now sprinkle the coconut and asafoetida powder and mix it well. Garnish it with curry leaves.
Well I guess I need to post the recipe for aama in my next post cos my girls want me to read a book now.

Happy Navrathri!!!

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:50:00 +0000

HAPPY NAVRATHRI TO ALL MY BUDDY BLOGGERS!!!

Hope you guys are having fun with all those wonderul dolls. Kolu is one of my favorite Indian festival where we get to see lots and lots of beautiful dolls. This year I got some help from my girls cleaning up the dolls, setting kolu padi, giving manjal kumkumam to friends etc. Since I had to go get thamboolam from my friend's place, I am doing sundal & sweet on every other day and the remaining days, I just use white rice for neivedhyam. Yesterday I made Kadala paruppu sundal & Rava Kesari for neivedhyam. On sunday I made Garbanzo sundal and aval Payasam. I am sharing the recipes of kadala paruppu sundal and rice flakes payasam here cos I have already posted the recipe for rava kesari and Channa sundal.

Kadala Paruppu Sundal:-

Ingredients:-

Channa dhall/Kadala Paruppu - 1 cup
Red chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste)
Salt to taste
Shredded coconut - 1 tbsp
Asafoetida powder - a pinch
oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves -few

Soak dhall for an hour. Pressure cook it upto one whistle. Dhall should not be over cooked. Other wise it will be mushy. Once the pressure is released, drain the dhall and keep it aside. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall and red chillies to golden brown. Now add the cooked dhall to it and mix it well.Add salt and asafoetida powder and mix it. Turn off the stove and sprinkle the coconut and garnish it with curry leaves.

Aval Rice Flakes Payasam:-

This is the first time I am trying this payasam and I found it very easy and handy. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

Rice flakes - 1 cup
Milk - 2 cups
Sugar - 1 cup(acc to taste)
Cardamom - 1 or 2 ( powder it)
Edible camphor/pachakarpooram - a pinch
Food color - a pinch (this is optional/I used orange color)
Cashew - few for garnishing
ghee - 1/2 tsp

Soak rice flakes in water for half an hour. Drain it fully and keep it aside. Now take a thick bottomed pan and pour a cup of milk and bring it to boil. When the milk starts boiling, add the aval to it and let it boil for 3 minutes. Now add the remaining mil, cardamom, food color and pachakarpooram and let it boil for another 5 minutes. When the quantity becomes 3/4th turn off the stove and add the sugar at the end and mix it well. Fry cashew to golden brown in ghee and pour it on top of payasam. It just took 10 minutes to finish this payasam.

Lemon Poha

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Well after seeing Srivalli's Poha Upma I was so tempted to make that upma last week. Since my kiddo was sick that time and my MIL suggested me to give her something with a pinch of lemon, I got this idea of making lemon poha. I just followed the steps we use for making lemon rice. Instead of rice, I used poha/riceflakes. Here is how I made this lemon Poha..

Ingredients:-

Rice Flakes/Poha/Aval - 1 cup
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp (acc to taste)
Green chillies - 1
Ginger- a small piece
cashew nuts - 1 or 2 (I used little only for my other twin)
salt to taste
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Sesame oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
asafoetida powder - a pinch
coriander leaves - for garnishing..

First wash and soak rice flakes in water for 1/2 an hour ( it depends or which flakes you use whether its thin or thick). Drain it fully and keep it aside. In the mean time, chop green chillies and ginger, squeeze juice from lemon and keep it aside. Take a pan, pre head sesame oil, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall, green chillies and ginger and fry it till it becomes golden brown. Now add salt and turmeric powder in the oil itself and mix it well. When it is done frying, add the fully drained poha to it. Turn off the stove and mix it well so that turmeric powder spreads all over the dish. Garnish it with coriander leaves and let it cool. After 5 or 10 mts. add the lemon juice to it and mix it well.

I fried the cashew nuts separately and added to poha for my other twin. Luckily both of them liked it very much and they ate fully which made me very happy. I am sending this dish to Srivalli's Kids Delight Event along with another dish and few art work by my girls.Another dish which I would like to send for the event is the Kids friendly chapathi which is a very big hit in my family and many of my friends here are still following the same recipe to make their kids eat chapathi/roti.

Kids Friendly Chapathi

This is a heart made by one of my twin. I got my wisdom tooth extracted few months back and both the kids were so co-operative and they didn't any trouble to my husband(except they started asking "when is amma gonna cook"? after eating his rasam for two days). Last week I had my dentist check up and this little one assumed that I am going to have another surgery. So she made this heart by herself. She took a single side white sheet from our printer and drew a heart and cut it and colored it and made some decorations in it. I was really impressed by this and was very happy to see this heart which she gave it to me after I came back from the check up.

This is another art work by the other one. She made this maracus and call it "shake-a-shake-a-boom-boom". I really have no idea why she named it like that. Most of you know that I do beading work. I keep some of the defected beads or broken beads in a separate box so that I could use those for some other art work. Last sunday I was busy cooking for our guest and these two were busy watching some cartoon(thats what I assumed actually). This one came to me and asked for two empty yogurt box and I gave her and told her not to disturb me for another 30 mts. Within few minutes I heard the beads rolling in my living room and as usual I came out from the kitchen screaming(lol). I saw she had the box full of defected beads and she said she want to sort them and she also promised me that she will clean up the hall. I was ok with that and I went inside. But after 10 minutes, she came inside with this maracus saying "amma I made shake a shake a boom boom with your beads". I was really surprised and was very proud.

All the above given recipes and the art work goes to SriValli's Kids Delight Event.

Mixed Vegetable Rawa Idly

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:37:00 +0000

Another post after a week. I was kinda running between doctor's office and home cos one of my twin is sick and she has stomach flu. This is something I hate and it takes more than 10 days for my girls to start eating properly. I learned this from Sripriya's blog and tried this one for my other twin. She was not actually excitied after seeing vegetables in Idly, but she tried one and she liked it. My husband really liked the new changes in regular rawa idly. I followed almost the same recipe of Sripriya but skipped few vegetables. Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:-

Coarse Rawa - 2 cups
carrots - 1 (shred it)
Peas - 2 tbsp (I used frozen)
Beans - 2 tbsp (finely chopped)
Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
Ginger - a small piece
Yogurt - 1 cup
salt to taste
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
oil- 2 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
cashew nuts- few
Eno salt- 2 tsp

Take a wide bowl, add rawa, yogurt, salt, turmeric powder and vegetables and mix well. Also add oil, eno salt and add water accordingly to get it like idly batter. Let it sit for half an hour. when you are ready to make idly, pre heat oil, in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall and cashew nuts and fry it to golden brown. Also add green chillies and ginger and fry it and pour it on top of the batter. Now spray the idly moulds, add the batter and steam cook it for 10 to 12 mts. Garnish it with coriander leaves.

Vanisri has passed this Honest Scrap award. Thanks vani..

Rules are:

I Must than the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link it
I must list 10 honest things about myselt (which is pretty hard:D)
I must put a copy of The Honest Scrap Logo on my blog
I must select at leatst 7 other worthy bloggers & list their links
I must notify the bloggers of the award and hopefully they will follow the above three requirements also.

Okie here goes the honest scrap about me...

love to travel with my family
love to wear cotton sarees
love to make fashion jewelry
love to stand in the beach (water of course) for hours.
Love to eat cotton candy.
very very possessive
lazy most of the times....
god fearing
love to read Dr.Seuss books
love to watch movies late night....

Well according to me all my friends who visit my blog are worthy bloggers for this award. So I am sharing this award with all my friends.

Reposts for Purva's Janmashtami & Ganesh Chathurthi Event...

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:15:00 +0000

I am reposting the recipes of Vella Kozhakattai, Uppu Kozhakattai and Ulundhu Kozhakattai for Purva's Janmashtami & Ganesh Chathurthi Event.

Vella Kozhakattai:-

For Poornam (stuffing)

Grated coconut - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch
ghee - 2 tsp

For Dough:-

Raw rice - 1 cup
Salt - a pinch
Sesame Oil - 1 tsp

Most of us use rice flour for making the dough. But the traditional way of making this dough is to use rice. Soak rice for an hour. Grind it into a fine paste and add water to bring it to watery consistency (like dosa batter). Add salt and sesame oil. Take a pan, pour this batter and stir it continuously to make sure no lumps are formed. When the water is fully absorbed, it will come like a shiny ball. Turn off the stove, take it out of the heat and cover it with a lid. This is the flour coating we use for making kozhakattai cups. In the mean time, mix the jaggery, cardamom powder to coconut and put it in a hot pan, add ghee and stir it continutously so that all the water in coconut and jaggery is fully absorbed. This should again form like a ball without sticking in the pan. Remove it from the hot stove and let it cool. This is poornam.

When you are ready to make kozhakattai, check the rice dough, if it is slightly dry, then sprinkle a hand full of hot water and knead it so that it becomes softer. Smear a drop of coconut oil, on your hands, so that it becomes easier to make small cups. Make small balls out of the jaggery mixture, keep it inside the flour cups and cover it. Steam cook the kozhakattais for 15 mts. until its fully cooked.

Uppu Kozhakattai:-
Ingredients:-

Toor dhall - 1/4 cup
Urad dhall - less than 1/4 cup
Channa dhall - 1/4 cup
Moong dhall - 1 tbsp (optional)
Red chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
Salt to taste
curry leaves - few
asafoetida powder - a pinch

For seasoning:-

Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp

Soak the above said dhall for an hour to two adding red chillies to it.
Grind it coarsely adding required amount of salt, red chillies.
Add 1/4 cup of water, a drop of sesame oil and turmeric powder and mix it well.
Put it in a microwave safe vessel and microwave it for 6 mts.(stir it in between) till the lentils are cooked.
Take a pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters add urad dhall, curry leaves and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown.
Add the cooked lentils and mix everything well. Let it cool and make small balls out of it.

For dough, we use the same method just like jaggery kozhakattai (see here). Make small cups out of the dough, place the lentil balls in it and cover it in the shape of a triangle. Stem cook it for 15 mts. This can eaten with Jaggery kozhakattai

Ulundhu Kozhakattai:-
Ingredients:-

Urad dhall - 1 cup
Green Chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 1
Curry leaves - few
Asafoetida powder - a pinch
Salt to taste

For Dough:-

Rice - 1 cup
Sesame Oil - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Kovakka Masala Curry/ Tindora Masala Curry

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:15:00 +0000

Well this dish happens to be the first ever dish I made when I was in 10th standard. Till that time, I had no idea about cooking or gas stove or making some curry. It was a saturday morning, my dad had a low blood pressure suddenly and my mom had to take him to the hospital and before leaving she asked me to cut the kovakkai into small round pieces and she said, she will come back from the doctor's office and finish the curry. I did cut the kovakkai(that time, I didn't know that my mom never uses ripe kovakkai in her cooking and I cut all of them). Since it was taking long in the doctor's office, she called me and explained me how to do the curry and she wanted me to make the curry. I was not very sure about my cooking skill but I had no other choice so went inside the kitchen and started making the curry. Everything went off well and I also finished the curry. I could not find any flaws in it. But after coming back from the doctor's office, we had our lunch. First of all my mom was little upset after seeing the ripe kovakkai and immediately taking the first bite, my mom said most of the pieces were not cooked at all. Those were literally raw. I just kept it in stove for about 5 mts and just drained the water and seasoned it with regular seasoning. But I didn't forget to put turmeric powder and salt :). We had our lunch without curry that day and after finishing our lunch, my mom cooked it and made a proper curry. Ofcourse, I got all those scoldings (because I was already 15 and never helped my mom in any of the house chores), but I didn't bother:). Today I made I made kovakka curry (not the same recipe and ofcourse Its fully cooked). Here is the recipe..

Ingredients:-

Tindora/Kovakkai - 1 cup (chopped)
Onion - 1 (chopped)
Tomato - 1/2 (if it is big or 1 if its medium) (chopped)
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies powder - 3/4 tsp (or according to taste)
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
oil - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves- for garnishing.

Pressure cook chooped tindora adding turmeric powder upto 2 whistles(do not over cook). When the pressure is released, drain it fully and keep it aside. In the mean time, pre heat a pan with oil, splutter mustard and cumin seeds, when its done, add chopped onion and saute for couple of minutes. Now add the chopped tomato and make sure both are fully cooked. Do not over cook onion and tomato. Now add the drained tindora to it and mix it well. Add red chillies powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder and salt(I added everything together; some people add garam masala finally) and mix it well. Sprinkle a hand full of water and cover it with a lid for few minutes. When all the water is gone, turn off the stove and garnish it with coriander leaves....

This recipe goes to Shama's FIRST COOKED FOOD EVENT

Eggless Apple Muffin

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:23:00 +0000

Well I got this recipe from Trupti's blog. I almost followed the same recipe except cinnamon powder and apple sauce. My husband doesn't like cinnamon and I didn't have apple sauce. So I had to skip those two. Other than that, I followed the same. Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:-

All Purpose flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 2 1/2 tsp
Apples - 1 (if it is big or two if it is medium/small)
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup (I used canola oil)
Sour cream - 1/2 cup ( I used fat free sour cream)
Raisins - 2 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Line the muffin pan with liners. Mix the dry ingredients well. Grate the apple into thin strips or chop it finely. In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and vegetable oil well and keep it aside. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients, raisins, grated apples and the wet ingredients well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4th and bake it for 230 to 23 mts until golden brown or till a tooth pick comes out clean from it. I let my twins to fill the muffin cups. Thats why my muffins are in different shapes...

Reposts for Sireesha's Soup "N" Juice Event...

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:57:00 +0000

I am sending these juice recipes to Sireesha's Soup "N" Juice event...

WATERMELON JUICE:-

STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE:-
MANGO LASSI:-
MANGO JUICE:-

Award & a Tag

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Shama has tagged me for these questions.. Thanks Shama. Lets see how it goes..............

Rules :

1) Link the person who tagged you .
2) Post the rules on your blog.
3) Share the ABC'S of you.
4) Tag 4 people at the end of the post by linking their blogs.
5) Let the 4 tagged people know that they have been tagged by you.
6) Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people,so that there is a big netwotk of bloggers doing the tag.

Questions :

1) A - Available/Single ? ???????? absolutely not.....
2) B - Best Friend ? -- Kalyani
3) C - Cake or Pie ? Cake
4) D - Drink of choice ? Coffee or Mango Juice .
5) E - Essential item you use every day ? Car keys .
6) F - Favourite color ? .Orange 7) G - Gummy Bears or Worms ? gummy
8) H - Hometown ? Chennai
9) I - Indulgence ? Making Fashion Jewelry,
10 ) J - January or February ? January
11) K - Kids and their names ? Twin Girls - Meenakshi &.Neelakshi
12) L - Life is incomplete without ? CHILDERN .
13) M - Marriage date ? November 24, 2002
14) N - Number of siblings? None
15) O - Oranges or Apples ? Oranges
16) P -- Phobias / Fears ? Bugs, dogs.
17) Q - Quote for today ? Take Life as it comes
18) R - Reason to smile ? My family. If you have a happy family, then you will definitely smile everyday....
19) S - Season ? spring .
20) T - Tag 4 people ? Sripriya, Jaishree, Sireesha, Priti
21) U - Unknown fact about me ? Its unknown to me too. .
22) V - Vegetable you don't like ? Snakegourd .
23) W - Worst habit ? will skip breakfast everyday... .
24 ) X - X-rays you've had ? yes for my Visa Interview .
25) Y - Your favourite food ? anything made out of mango .
26 ) Z - Zodiac sign ? CANCER .

Again, Shama passed me this wonderful award. Thanks Shama, it means a lot to me....

The rules are:

Put the logo on your blog or post.
Nominate at least 7 blogs
Let them know that they have received this Scrumptious award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.

Well according to the rule, I have to nominate atleast 7 blogs. Well I think all those bloggers out there are doing a great job. So I would like to pass this award to all my buddy bloggers.

Vinayaka Chathurthi celebrations...

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:14:00 +0000

First of all "Happy Vinayaka chathurthi" to all my friends here. Well this year its special for me because I got some help from my twins in making Kozhakattais. They tried making those cups. Even though it didn't work out well for them, I am happy they took part in this process of making Neivedhyam and helped me arranging pooja items. This year I made Vella kozhakattai and two kinds of Uppu kozhakattai and ammani kozhakattai. In my mom's place we make uppu kozhakattai using only Urad dhall. But in my in-laws place, we make uppu kozhakattai with all the three lentils i.e., urad dhall, channa dhall and toor dhall. I wanted to make both of them and I did it. Since I have already posted the recipe for vella kozhakattai and uppu kozhakattai, I am just posting the recipe for only Ulundhu kozhakattai which we make in our mom's place, here along with my pooja pictures.

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

Urad dhall - 1 cup
Green Chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 1
Curry leaves - few
Asafoetida powder - a pinch
Salt to taste

For Dough:-

Rice - 1 cup
Sesame Oil - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Most of us use rice flour for making the dough. But the traditional way of making this dough is to use rice. Soak rice for an hour. Grind it into a fine paste and add water to bring it to watery consistency (like dosa batter). Add salt and sesame oil. Take a pan, pour this batter and stir it continuously to make sure no lumps are formed. When the water is fully absorbed, it will come like a shiny ball. Turn off the stove, take it out of the heat and cover it with a lid. This is the flour coating we use for making kozhakattai cups.

Soak urad dhall for two to three hours along with green chillies to it. Then grind it after two hours, coarsely and stem cook it adding salt to it. When it cooked, scramble it and keep it aside. Now take a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall, red chillies, asafoetida powder and curry leaves to golden brown and add the scrambled urad dhall to it. Stir it for couple of minutes. Sprinkle water, if it is too dry. Turn off the stove and make it small balls when it is warm. Now when you are ready to make kozhakattai, make small cups out of the dough, fill it with urad dhall balls and cover it according to the required shape. Stem cook it for 15 to 28 mts or till its fully cooked.

Reposts for Viki's "Side dish for Chapathi" Event

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:37:00 +0000

I am sending these recipes for Viki's "Side Dish for Chapathi" event.
Channa Masala
Bengan Bartha

Mattar Paneer Masala

Green Peas Masala

Palak Paneer

Dhum Aloo

Dhall

Kara Poli

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:41:00 +0000

This is another dish which I tasted in India during my trip. I have heard my MIL talking about this kara poli from Sri Krishna Sweets, very often. she made this for me once and it was really spicy and yummy. But I forgot to take pictures of that kara poli. I made this one here last week. After having those horrible food in flight, I wanted to eat something super spicy. We thought of going out to some restaurant and have something. But one of my twin fell sick, so we could not go out. So I tried this at home and it was not that super like my MIL, but it was not that bad either:)

Ingredients:-

Maida/All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Orange/yellow food color - a pinch
Sesame oil - 2 tbsp (or required amount)
Salt to taste.

For filling:-

Potato - 1
Onion - 1 or 2 (acc to size) (chop it)
Peas - 2 tbsp ( I used frozen peas)
Tomato - 1 (optional) (chop it)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies powder - 1 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
Garam masala Powder - 3/4 tsp (acc to taste)
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
urad dhall - 1/2 tsp

When you are planning to make this poli for evening tiffin, just make the maida dough afternoon and keep it aside for couple of hours. Mix maida with required amount of salt and food color and make it as a chapathi dough. Add the sesame oil to the dough and keep it aside. Now cook the potato and mash it. In a pan, add a tsp of oil, splutter mustard seeds and urad dhall and fry it till it becomes golden brown. Now add chopped onion to it and saute till it becomes transparent. Now add peas to it and saute for another few minutes. Now add the mashed potato to it. Add required amount of turmeric powder, chilly powder, garam masala powder and salt to it and mix everything well. Now sprinkle required amount of water to the ingredients and cook it for another 3 to 5 minutes till everything mixes well. Turn off the stove when all the water is absorbed. Keep it aside and let it cool.
When you are ready to make poli, make small balls out of the maida dough and spread it with your hand. Now keep required amount of potato stuffing and cover it.
Spread it evenly with your hand to get a thin circle shaped poli.
Now heat the tawa and cook the poli on both sides adding a teaspoon of ghee on both sides. Serve it hot.
I have never tasted kara poli from Shri Krishna sweets. So I am not sure this is how they do it or they have some other ingredients in theirs....

Vaazhapoo Thogayal

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:29:00 +0000

This recipe is something I came across after reading Mangayar Malar magazine. This is something new to me and I have not tried this thogayal before. I make paruppu usli, curry and adai using vaazhapoo but never tried thogayal. So I wanted to try this thogayal this time and it came out pretty well. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

Vaazhapoo florets - a handfull
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dhall - 2 tbsp
Red chillies - 4 ( acc to taste)
Salt to taste
Coconut - 1 tsp (acc to taste)
Tamarind - a tiny ball sized or 1 tbsp paste
Oil - 1 tsp

Remove kallan from vaazhapoo. Then, pre heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall and red chillies and fry it till it becomes golden brown. Do not over fry or burn urad dhall. Keep it aside. In the same pan, fry coconut to golden brown and keep it aside. Now fry the vaazhapoo florets for few mts and let everything cool for few minutes. Now add required amount of salt to the above ingredients along with tamarind and grind it into a fine paste. This goes really well with hot white rice with a teaspoon of sesame oil and also with chapathi, idly and dosa.

Bisibelebath 2 - Leftover special

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:11:00 +0000

Well this is something my MIL made last week using the left over Pongal she made for breakfast. She finished all the cooking work in the morning along with the breakfast work and we went out for shopping. She forgot to keep rice and when we returned after all those shopping trips, we both were really tired and we all were hungry and the kids became cranky. Since she had made eggplant sambar and godhsu as side dish for pongal, she said she will make quick bisibelebath with leftover pongal. I was not sure how it will come out but she was very confident and she started making arrangements for making the dish. I am just gonna give the quantity of pongal, godhsu and sambar she used to make this. Hope this will help...

Ingredients:-

Pongal - 3 cups (leftover finished pongal)
Godhsu - 1/4 cup (leftover)
Sambar - 1/2 cup (finished samabr)
Garam masala - 3/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste (if necessary)

For Seasoning:-

Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 2
Cashewnuts - few
curry leaves - to garnish.

Heat a pan, put the godhsu (tomato & onion godhsu), add required amount of water and let it boil for another couple of minutes. Now add sambar, garam masala powder and salt (if necessary) and let everything mix and boil for few minutes. Now add the leftover pongal to the mixture and mix everything well and let it cook for another 5 to 7 minutes. Add water according to the required consistency. Turn off the stove and keep it aside. Now seasoning for this rice is purely optional because, we would have seasoned pongal, godhsu and also sambar. In order to add some more taste, we can season this with cashews. Fry cashew nuts to golden brown and pour it on top of the rice and garnish it with curry leaves. Frankly speaking friends, the taste of this bisibelebath was much better than the original one we do. It was really good along with the cumin and pepper taste.

Drumstick dhall

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:48:00 +0000

This is something my MIL made couple of weeks back for lunch along with some sambar and curry. She made this as a side dish. I took the picture but didn't get time to write the post. I was just watching her when she made this dhall. It was super easy and was very delicious.

Ingredients:-

Drumstick - 2 or 3 (acc to required quantity)
Moong dhall - 1 1/2 cups
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Black pepper powder - 1 to 1 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
oil - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
urad dhall - 1 tsp
red chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
Asafoetida powder - few pinches
Curry leaves - few

Cook drumstick and moong dhall separately on stove top adding turmeric powder in both. Do not cook the dhall in pressure cooker(which I do every time to save time). Once both drumstick and dhall is 3/4th cooked, mix it in a same pan and add salt, pepper and cumin (can also use the mixture of pepper and cumin powder) powder. Let everything mix together and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes. Add water according to the required consistency. Turn off the stove when the raw smell of pepper and cumin goes. In a separate pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry uradh dhall, red chillies and asafoetida, to golden brown and pour it on top of the dhall. Garnish it with curry leaves. I had this along with rice in the morning and also as a side dish with roti in the evening.

Break

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Hi friends. I will be taking a long break for eight weeks from now. We are leaving to India tomorrow and will be back only in August, I may or may not post recipes during this period. If time permits I will definitely check out the other bloggers recipes. Since my mother in law is the person from whom I learnt cooking, I will ask her to cook some new dishes and try to post it.

spinach - Leftover special Side dish.

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:13:00 +0000

Well friends, I made this side dish last week using the left over Tomato godhsu and cooked plain spinach. I made spinach kootu with the frozen spinach. I just used half the box of spinach and kept the other half. I used it for this dish along with the tomato godhsu I made for breakfast. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

Boxed spinach - 1/4 box (thawed & cooked)
Tomato Godhsu - 1/4 cup
Salt to taste (only for spinach)
Shredded coconut - 2 tsp

Pre heat a pan, add the spinach with 1/4 cup of water, add required amount of salt (only for spinach) and let it boil for couple of minutes. Now add the left over godhsu and let it mix with spinach and boil for 5 more minutes. Sprinkle the coconut on top of it and serve it. Add water according to the required consistency. If its too watery, just mix a teaspoon of rice flour in water and add it to the sabji and let it boil for couple of more minutes which help to thicken the sabji. The taste was really good and my kids really like this way of making spinach (lol...)

Chakka Pradhaman/Jackfruit Payasam/Jackfruit Kheer

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:53:00 +0000

Jackfruit is my all time favorite fruit. I can eat a whole bowl of ripe jackfruit at any time:). During the vishu season, in my mom's place, we used to buy two big whole jack fruit for vishu kani and after vishu kani day, my patti used to make chakka varatti(jackfruit Halwa) in a large dabba and store it. I like to eat it as Chakka varatti too. She makes chakka pradhaman with chakka varatti which always be a hit for my Patti. I saw jackfruit last weekend near our Indian grocery store. Immediately I bought it. Took out the seeds from it and used half of the fruit as side dish for curd rice(!) and I wanted to make this chakka pradhaman with the remaining. Main motivation for making this was Jaishree's post. I was so tempted after seeing her payasam. Lol...I saved it for today cos its my husband's birthday. I didn't make chakka varatti first. I just used the jackfruit direcly for making payasam/pradhaman. I got the recipe from my grandma. This is the traditional chakka payasam she makes everytime. Here goes the recipe...

Ingredient:-

Jackfruit Pieces - 20
Jaggery -according to the available quanity of Jackfruit paste
ghee - 2 tbsp
Coconut pieces - few
Cashew - few
Coconut milk/regular full fat milk - 1/4 cup (can also increase the quantity)

Jackfruit Paste:- First pressure cook the jackfruit pieces upto one whislte. Let it cool and grind it into a fine paste. If you are going to make the payasam immediately, then measure how much paste you have and take jaggery according to the ratio of 1:1 (equal amount). I made this paste on tuesday and I refrigerated this paste in an air tight container. I used it today.

When you are ready with the paste, just take equal amount of jaggery and keep it aside. Take a heavy bottomed pan, put the paste first and add 1/4 cup water to it and let it melt first. Once the paste becomes watery, add the jaggery to it and mix it well and let it boil under low flame for another 7 mts. You can see bubbles coming out. Now its time to add coconut milk or regualr milk and mix it with the ingredients and let it boil for another couple of mts. You can smell the jackfruit, jaggery and coconut. Its means payasam is ready. Now take a small pan, pre heat ghee, fry coconut pieces and cashews to golden brown and pour it on top of paysam and mix it well. Don't forget to keep on stirring the payasam otherwise jaggery will stick in to your pan.

I used regular full fat milk instead of coconut milk. Also we can add more ghee in between too. I didn't add that much ghee. I just used 2 tbsp (which is too much for my hubby dear). We can also use a lot of coconut pieces which i reduced because of my husband.

For Chakka Varatti recipe, please visit here...

Pizza...

viyer79@gmail.com (Vidhya) — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:20:00 +0000

Well friends this is not a pizza made from scratch. All of a sudden, my girls wanted to bake cake. I had nothing in my pantry. They started crying immediately. I went to the local grocery store and bought the pillsbury pizza dough and I asked them to spread the dough in a cookie sheet, spread the sauce, arrange the toppings, and asked them to add the cheese too. Of course I helped them put it in the oven. The final result was really amazing and the crust was very soft and it was really delicious.Lol.. my girls were very happy and they had couple of pieces too.. Here I am just sharing the toppings and the quantity of cheese I used...

Ingredients:-

Pillburry Pizza Dough - 1 roll (store Bought)
Cheeze - 3/4 cup ( I used the shredded mexican blend)
Pineapple - 1/4 cup
Black Olives - 1/4 cup
Pasta Sauce - 3 tbsp

Pre heat Oven for 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with oil. Roll the pizza dough, spread the pasta sauce, arrange the toppings accordingly, spread the cheese, bake it in the oven for 13 mts or till the edges become brown. Enjoy.. Since I didn't want to discourage my girls to try. I am really happy that my girls tried something and it came out really well.