Food Adventure XVII - Pudina Rice

I had a mixed opinion of mint/pudina. I used to like it's fragrance, but was apprehensive of cooking with it. It might be because, pudina would grow on its own with weeds and such in our quarters in jorhat, or maybe because i sometime in past ate something so strongly pudina-y that i am scared that it would over power the dish. But, today I gave in to the fragrance (and kaushik's farmaish) of pudina rice.

To prep for the dish - I separated leaves from the bunch and washed them thoroughly, chopped an onion, tomato and green chilli, grated half n inch of ginger and soaked 2 cups of basmati rice.

In a little oil, added some cumin seeds and hing. when the seeds splutter added the chopped onions and tomatoes. when they were done, added the mint leaves. cooked till the leaves wilted and turned off the flame (yes, we have a gas stove!). when cool, made a paste of the mixture.

In the same pan, added some oil, saunf and this paste. after few seconds, added the soaked basmati rice and mixed thoroughly. added 4 cups of water and cooked till the rice was done.

We loved the pudina rice - cucumber raita combo.

When spaghetti met a south indian

I've learned spaghetti is as versatile as chapati.. can be eaten by itself or with any side dish. spaghetti and meatballs is such a common dish that i wondered if it could be vegetarian-ised. and what you know... it can be! so we soaked up some black-eyed peas (alasandalu), pressure-cooked till soft and sauted them with some chopped onions, tomato, ginger and green chilli. when cool, made the mixture into patties and grilled them for 5 minutes on the skillet (tava). made the pasta as per instructions on the box ( i use the whole grain ones). added some store-brought marinara sauce and my very favorite maggie hot and sweet sauce to the cooked pasta. once i toss these together to coat the pasta, i soaked my black-eyed peas patties in the marinara sauce and voila! we have the very vegetarian spaghetti with b-e-p balls!

PS: We ate the leftover b-e-p balls with chapati, tastes great!

¡Buen provecho! ¡Buen apetito!

It's friday night and we needed something fun to eat with our weekly dose of movie. kaushik had promised me chana masala and i had promised him cilantro rice. and we both agreed to make them tonight. and we didn't feel like eating either of them when we were done. so we bring out the store-bought taco shells, spread a layer of jalapeno-cheddar cream cheese, add a tablespoon full of chana masala, add another teaspoon full of cilantro rice, sprinkle some freshly cut salsa.. drizzle some maggi hot and sweet sauce... and we have the most flavorful tacos we ever had! it was a great meal!

Food Adventure XVI - Mango Ice cream

It was a bit sunny that weekend and what comes out of the kitchen - mango ice cream.

The picture below shows all things you need to make this delicious eggless ice cream - 1 can mago pulp, 1 can condensed milk, 1 pack of whipping cream and a freezer :).

Whip the cream until it forms steady peaks (it's a lot of arm-exercise if you are doing it mechanically). In a large bowl, add mango pulp, condensed milk and the whipped cream. Fold with a spatula until combined.

Freeze the mixture for 4-5 hours, mixed it every one hour. We loved the end product.

Vinayaka Chavithi

It was another favorite festival on 23rd August: Vinayaka Chavithi. Memories of walking through the colony early in the morning, collecting patri, pooja katha, rava laddu coming back every vinayaka chavithi.

This year kaushik and I made a haldi idol and did our pooja with lot of love and neivedyam.

Varalakshmi Vratham

It is that Friday of the year again..it is Varalakshmi Vratham..the time to decorate ammavaru.. and .. to make pindivantalu... . At different ages, it meant different things to me. But always it felt great after the vratham. This time it was that much more special.. my first vratham after the wedding.

So with all my food adventure enthusiasm I was in for 9 (most of which are brand new to my culinary skillset) pindivantalu - pulihora, dadhojanam, ariselu, kajjikayalu, poornam bonda, garelu, kobbari lauzu, pappu-chekalu and china-grass sweet (milk sweet made with agar-agar/china grass/vegetarian gelatin). Kaushik and I had the whole thing planned out (ya the planning freak in me had written it down!) - we would split the cooking and spread the preparations over the week before pooja and I would take the friday off.

It was a crazy week (week of July 27th). By Wednesday we had made pappu chekalu, kajjikayalu, ariselu, kobbari lauzu, china-grass sweet. By this time, I had blisters on my right palm... had been sleeping only 3-4 hours per night ( thanks to hectic work @ office)... the house smelled like a restaurant kitchen.. and the deep-fryed oil smell wasn't giving Kaushik any peace. I obviously had the other important tasks (including shopping for pooja-stuff) reserved for the day before and guess what!.. we had a fertilizer factory burn down in Bryan and we had mandatory evacuation orders by 4:00 pm on thursday !! what are the odds! I was almost in tears... there were rumours of the air being 'poisoned' and i was scared i would have to trash my hard work without even having a chance to taste it (talk about paronia!). I was like.. lets take the passport and the food with us!! We evacuated to the Navasota Omkarnath temple. God has his/her way of de-stressing us.. doesn't (s)he?!

On friday, things went by fast.. woke up.. took bath (?!)... put muggu (the search for a 'perfect' muggu is another story in itself!).. made pulihora, dadhojanam,.. and got stuck! I was dumb enough to not grind the chana daal after cooking it! argh! I realised this after ading jaggery. and i didn't think my lil magic bullet could take jaggery ladden chanadal in it (i might be totally wrong.. but then .. o well!) so i re-cook the chana daal till its soft in the jaggery water (which took soooooooooooooooo long!) and mash it.. till it was ok-soft. well after this, another shocker.. i could swear i didn't use ANY water to grind my urad daal but my garelu batter was runny! (reason: dad told me later, you are not supposed to let garelu batter stand for more than 1 hour if you want a hole in your garelu). Ya, the super-planner than I am.. I made my batter before-hand! so anyway I just made a couple holeless-garelu for prasadam. Finally! Now we are ready for the pooja.

This gave me the most joy... decorating ammavaru. After some hiccups with laptops, I finally managed to do my varalakshmi vratham. It was about 1 pm when I was done and I when I drank that coconut water-teertham...... I understood why coconut water. After all the empty-stomach-vratham-hard-work theertham gives the strength you need.

So that was my special day. Kaushik and I were so happy we did it and did it this way :)

And.. I could make my "perantam-packets"

Food Adventure - XV: Eggplant Parmesan

Eggplant Parmesan is one of those dishes that make my mouth water just by the thought of it. And since moving back to CS, this had to be my special dinner adventure. So on july 11th on my regular grocery list, I added marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese,eggs and italian eggplant (we had some pasta left). I took Bobby Flay's and Nithya's recipe and modified it per our taste and what was available. We had only 3 slices of old bread, so couldn't get much for the bread crumbs. I combined marinara sauce with my maggi tomato hot and sweet ketchup to lightly coat the pasta and added a little garlic-chilli sauce to marinara sauce to bake the eggplants. The preparation took painfully long (we both were too hungry for the time it was taking).. the marinating eggplant slices in salt.... heating the bread slices in the oven... pan frying the eggplant... then dipping in egg white.. coating with bread crumbs... pan frying again... baking it... aah the wait for good food.. but it was worth the wait.. we LOVED it!! Buon Appetito!

Chaat-Scrabble

We love Lazy Sunday Afternoons... we had one such lovely afternoon on June 7th... plates full of yummy chaat and hand full of scrable cards. :)

JFI Attempt: Mirchi Ka Salan

I have been longing to make mirchi ka salan for quite some time now (read 4 years). JFI July (Chilli) seemed to be the perfect occasion, but did not have time to post and mirchi ka salan was a common entry into the event (duh~!) Anyways, I did make it and man! we loved it.
This picture lists out all you need for the reciepe.
















I slit the chillies and took out the 'heat' part, and sauted them for a little bit. Roasted the peanuts and sesame with some jeera and curry leaves. when the sesame gave out a nice aroma added coconut flakes and took the mixture off the flame. In little oil, added jeera, ginger and onions and sauted them till the onions were done. On cooling, blended the peanut-sesane misture with the onion-ginger mixture by adding some tamarind juice. In very little oil added the smooth paste, remaining tamarind juice and the fried chillies and let them cook for 10 minutes. Add coriander, salt, mirchi powder and whisked yogurt and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Done Done Done!
I made Mixed Vegetable Biryani to eat with our salan.




PS: I wish i took pictures of the container after we ate it :P

Online Food Events: JFI (Jhiva for ingredients)

New job - Again! yes! Job in CS means, walking to work with kaushik, lunch with kaushik, coffee breaks with kaushik and dinner with kaushik: Things I missed the most in the past 2 years.
So now that I am not spending most of my weekend-time driving, I can restart my hobbies or shall we say experiments. So I decided to take part in online food events. I have read about many such events across the food-blogosphere, but found one that interests me on my most-frequently-visited food blog Mahanandi; JFI (Jihva for Ingredients). Ingredient for July was 'Chilli'. I thought of many things to make: Stuffed Capsicum, Mirchi Ka Salan and Curd Chillies. And, made them. But found out/read that others have sent the same recipes, so I just kept them for us. The stuffed capsicum was again quite filling and the mirchi ka salan was simply tasty! (i never thought i could make it!) But the dahi mirchi was a flop show! thanks to the untimely sand storm. (i have no clue where in CS do we have so much sand...oh wait a min.. must be from the new biomed building construction site across the street...huh!)


So I patiently waited for August and the ingredient chosen was 'peanuts'.. yay! i was all up to make peanut brittle/palli patti/chikki. I soon found out/read that the host made it for the event..so i didn't make palli patti, but did make many many many ... ok 6 new pindivantalu for varalakshmi vratham.

Food Adventures - XIV: Apple Custard

'Jobless' days are almost over and I realized I might not be continuing with my food adventures anymore, as I start my new job on April 1st (YA!) And then it dawned on me that I didn't try making what Kaushik likes the most - Custard! So bought the 'bird' brand of custard from local desi store and followed the instructions. Result: pretty decent! I was so amazed by the change in state from powder to liquid-ish to semi-solid. I am just amazed!

Angel has a new friend!

Food Adventures - XIII : Palakoora Pappucharu and bendakaya-nuvvu podi koora

The whole idea of 'pappu-charu' always made me curious. But mom never made it coz dad doesn't like the idea and dad never made.. well! So in my series of adventures, I thought of including a pappu-charu. So after the pappu is cooked, I started off with usual popu, added frozen spinach till it was cooked (well, till i think it is cooked!). Then added some tamarind pulp and the pressure-cooked toor daal. After the mixture boiled for about 5 minutes added salt, turmeric and a little chilli powder. That resulted in my version of pappu-chaaru.
Kaushik loves Okra/Bhindi/Bendakaya. so after the usual ritual of cleaning-drying-wiping, i cut okra into small pieces and put aside. In very little oil, roasted dry red chillies, jeera, curry leaves and sesame seeds. When the sesame gave out a nice aroma (this time i could distinguish the aroma from the burning smell), turned off the heat. when the mixture cooled, made a powder in my magic bullet! Meanwhile, took usual popu in little oil (little is the measure!) added chopped onions. after they looked cooked (this i can 'see'; turning of the pieces into translucent) added okra pieces and let them cook. when done added a pinch of turmeric, salt and the nuvvula podi. Done and done!

Food Adventures - XII : Hakka Veg Noodles

So hubby dear is missing his maggie noodles diet. So tonight's menu: Hakka Noodles - wheat noodles, stir-fried veggies with a dash of soya sauce and chilli-garlic sauce.
We finally got a chance to use the korean chopsticks amma sent.

Food Adventures - XI : Kandi Pachadi

So my cooking interests have shifted from main course to side dishes, particularly chutneys and podis. After my failed attempt at alam pachadi, i thought of trying kaushik and my favourite kandi pachadi. To accompany the all-nutritious pachadi, i made carbs filled aritikaya koora and ulipaya pulusu. The pulusu as usual was too high on mirchi count. The unbearable sidhu-siddhartha roy from Khusi was the cinema dish for this fun lunch.

Food Adventures - X : Beans Parupu Usili and Mor kozhambu

My thirst to make something 'different' landed me on tamil food blogs. Considering my hubby dear is a tamilian soul trapped in a telugu body, I thought it was great idea. After about 98% of cooking, I found out he doesn't like beans parupu usili but loves mor kozhambu. But when the dinner was served, he loved it!! yaay!
My excitement was put to rest when I learnt I didn't make an out-and-out tamil dish, its also an andhra dish with a different name : beans patoli and majjigapulusu! so much for innovation!

Food Adventures - IX : Samosa

What time is it?...It's tea time!! What better than using the left over potato stuffing and maida dough from my previous food adventures!! So using good old tricks learnt way back in school (one use of SUPW), I made this so-so samosas for tea.

Food Adventures - VIII : Stuffed Capsicum

This time it was another old favourite's chance to be cooked: Stuffed Capsicum. Many variations to this filling dish, but I made it my favourite way - stuffed with potatos and a whole list of veggies. I add veggies to any and everything; one trick I've learnt over time to make Kaushik eat all his veggies.

Food Adventures - VII : Kajjikaya and Gutti Vankaya Koora

Another reason to celebrate and a really important one: Kaushik's paper accepted in PRL!! yaaay!! We celebrate the night with another set of favourites : Kajjikaya and Gutti Vankaya Koora.
Thanks to all those various food blogs (too many to mention) which helped me make these dishes.

Food Adventures - VI : Akki Roti

This time I wanted to make something 'different' and instantly 'akki-roti' came to my mind. One quick call to Nethra, my good kannadiga friend and once roommate and I was ready with the recipe and tips for akki-roti. I made allam-pachadi to go with it.


Experience: Don't get creative like me and make the pachadi with green chillies, it gets HOT!

Food Adventures - V : Gulab Jamun

V-day is nothing more than a 'commercial' holiday. But this doesn't stop us from celebrating love. We did it with Kaushik's favourite: Gulab Jamun. To accompany the sweet, I made peas pulav and rajma masala. Again, thanks to vahchef for his tips!



We watched this 'logically-amazing' telugu movie, Chirunavvutho; a must-watch. We liked the logics-filled dialogues so much that one of them found its place on my fridge-board.

Food Adventures - IV : Aloo Kofta

Husband's first paper published and it's time to celebrate!! yaaay!! What better than a nice dinner. No, we are not going out. We are going to make aloo-kofta. This time too the food-blogosphere helped, but did mislead me - resulting in too much besan in mu koftas, nevertheless, hubby dear loved them! I just took out some extra digenes after the dinner.

Food Adventures - III : Chivda

This snack is another long lost favourite. In fact, the snacking habit by itself WAS long lost. It was time for yet another evening coffee and my mind paused at the big poha packet we bought out of 'atukula-pulihora' craving. Thanks to the food-blogosphere, we had nice chivda to accompany our coffee.


This time however, the husband couldn't come home, so we 'to-go' this chivda with coffee in hubby's favourite san-antonio flask.

Food Adventures - I : Mysore Pak

It all started in Summer of 2006, with my then-roommate, Shilpa promising this wonderful sweet for a special Sunday (which never happened). The thought revived memories of the mysore paks perfectly made by dear most amamma. After a long phone conversation, I gathered the tips and directions from amamma, but could never find the time for it. Now that I was 'jobless', literally, this was the first I thought of making. After a wonderful visual explanation from vahchef, I set out to make this all-time favourite.

Ingredients:
1 cup Besan
1/2 cup Sugar
2 cups Ghee
1/4 cup water
Method:
Add a tsp of hot ghee to the besan and sieve it. Take sugar in a thick-bottomed sauce pan and add water just enough to cover the sugar. Keep stirring till the sugar dissolves and attaines a soft-ball or thread consistency. You can check the consistency by dropping a drop of the sugar syrup in a bowl of cold water or by using your fingers OR (thanks to madhu atta for the idea) use a kitchen thermometer to check the syrup temperature, it should be 250F. I got caught up in checking this and my sugar syrup became fit for Chakkara Achchulu (Sugar Figurines). Following madhu atta's tip this time, I added water again and started over. When the consistency is right, add the besan and keep stirring. Now add the hot ghee one ladle at a time. (For first-timers like me, the amount of ghee might give a slight heart-ache, but we'll get used to it) When you see the color change, pour the mixture onto a greased plate/bowl and let it cool. When firm, cut into desired pieces.

Food Adventures - Intro

This is a series on my 'jobless in college station' food adventures. An attempt to chronicle the cooking spree to vent out frustration on the current economy. But, bright side of life is my hubby dear gets to eat fresh cooked (most-of-the-time) food for every meal. So get ready for a feast fit for a hungry soul.
P.S: Please feel free to grab a hajmola or two! (We had an entire bottle with 120 tablets!)


Kaushik-the taster,unaware of the storm cooking in the kitchen.