Award Time

Wow !! My first award ,I am really excited to receive this award from Saraswathy and Swathi.

Thanks Saraswathy & Swathi.


This Kreativ Blogger Award comes up with some set of rules and here are the rules


1.Thank the person giving the award.

2.Copy the award to your blog.

3.Place a link to their blog.

4.Name 7 things people don't know about you.

5.Nominate 7 bloggers

6.Place a link to those bloggers

7.Leave a comment letting those bloggers know about the award.




7 things about me


I love snow.

I am scared of spider.

I love to watch cartoon.

I love cooking and eating.

I love to play games with my son.

I love long drives.

I hate summer.

Now I pass this award to my fellow bloggers:-

Sangeetha

Shabs

Nisha

Priya

Padma

Priya

Rachana

Broccoli Stir Fry/ Broccoli Thuvaran

Ingredients:

Broccoli Steamed – 2 cups
Chopped onion- a small piece
Shredded coconut- ¼ cup
Cumin seed- 1tsp
Garlic- 2 Cloves
Curry Leaves- 1 spring
Chilli powder- to taste
Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp
Salt- to taste
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Urad daal- 1 tsp

Method:

Grind coconut,cumin seeds, garlic, chilli powder, turmeric powder and few curry leaves coarsely. In a pan heat a tsp oil and splutter mustard seeds and urad daal. Then add chopped onion and saute’ till translucent. Add the ground coconut mixture and fry for 2 mns. To this add the steamed broccoli and mix it well. Add salt. Serve with rice.

Chicken Lollipop

This is a great finger food and a perfect appetizer for parties. When you cut the wings, there will be 3 pieces. One is the drum stick; second one that looks like wings and the third is the tip. The drumstick piece is good for this recipe and I have used that piece in this recipe. The wing piece (with two bones) is good for stuffing, well I tried that too.


Ingredients:

Chicken wings- 2 lb

Marinade:

Garlic Paste or minced- 3 Tbs
Soy sauce- 2 Tbs
Chilli Powder- According to taste

Batter:

Egg- 1
All purpose flour: ½ cup
Cornflour: ¼ cup
Garlic Paste or miced: 3-4 tbs
Salt: to taste
Chilli powder: to taste
Soy Sauce: 2: Tbs
Oil: for frying

Method:

Clean and dry the wings. Cut the wings into 3 parts and discard the tip. Take the piece, cut the flesh around the bone. Hold it down on the cutting board and slowly push the meat down. The second piece has two bones, follow the same method and push the flesh down. Then slightly twist one of the bones and take it out.

In a bowl mix garlic, soy sauce and chilli powder. Add the clean wings and marinate it for 30 mns.

In another bowl mix together all the ingredients with water. The batter should be thick enough to coat the lollipop. Heat oil in a big wok, dip each lollipop in the batter and gently put it into the oil. Fry it in 4- 5 batches .Fry it until golden brown in color. Drain into a tissue paper and keep them aside and allow it to cool.

Serve with ketchup.

Adai Dosa

It’s very simple recipe yet very flavorful. My mom used to make it thick like an appam and she used to grind it coarsely. It pairs well with white chutney and a sweet strong tea or coffee. To make this dish healthier I used more daal and less rice

Ingredients:

Rice – 1/2 cup
Whole Green Mung – 1/2 cup
Channa Daal – 1/2 cup
Toor Daal – 1/2 cup
Onion – 1/2 small
Green Chili – 1, to taste
Cilantro Leaves – ½ a small bunch
Curry Leaves – 1 spring
Asafoetida (Hing) – a pinch or to taste
Salt – to taste
Ginger – 1/2″ piece
Sesame Oil – for making dosa

Method:

Wash and soak the daals, whole mung and rice in water for 3-4 hours or overnight. Drain out the water. In a mixer add the rice, mung and daal. Grind using a little water. To this add all the other ingredients and grind well. The consistency should be that of pancake batter.

Heat a skillet/tava on medium to high heat. With a paper towel oil the tava and pour a ladle full of batter in the center of the tava and spread the batter evenly. Drizzle oil on the Adai and allow it to cook for a couple of minutes. Flip the Adai to the other side. It should be golden brown in color. Cook for another couple of minutes and serve immediately with curry of your choice. I served it with white chutney.

I am sending this to MLLA - 19 started by Susan

White Coconut Chutney

Dosas or Idilis are often served with Sambar and coconut chutney. There are different kinds of coconut chutney. This chutney is very easy to make and pairs well with dosa, idili, masal dosa and adai dosa.

Ingredients:
Coconut grated- ½ cup
Shallots-5 nos
Ginger – a small piece
Green chilly - 1
Asafoeitda( hing)- a pinch
Tamarind- size of a gooseberry
Curry leaves -few
Salt – to taste
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp

Method:

In a mixer grind together grated coconut, ginger, tamarind, green chilly, shallots, asafoeitda with a little water. If it’s too thick add some more water. In a pan heat some oil and splutter mustard seeds. To this add curry leaves and add the coconut mixture. Add salt and heat it for 2-3 mns. Serve hot.

Blueberry Scones

Flaky Scones, a cup of coffee and an interesting book on a cold snowy day, what else can u ask for? I never cared for the coffee house goodies. When we moved to MI from GA, we brought very few things and surprisingly it din’t have our coffee maker. When DH comes back from work , he’ll ask “ shall we go and get a cup of coffee”. “Oh Yeah” I was waiting for that, lucky for us there is a “Biggby”near by. It’s there I first tasted these; it pairs well with coffee, tea, hot cocoa . Very versatile dough, you can add anything that you like for eg: chococlate chips, cinnamon, raspberries or don’t add anything and you get the plain scones. The simple secret behind a flakier scone is that the butter should be very cold, the colder the butter the flakier the scone.

Ingredients

Flour- 2 cups
Sugar- ½ cup
Baking powder- 2 tsp
Baking Soda- ¼ tsp
Salt- 1tsp
Lemon Zest- 1tsp
Milk- ½ cup
Sour cream- ½ cup
Unsalted butter- 1 stick/ 8 tbsp
Fresh/ Frozen Blueberry- 1 ½ cups

Prepration:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Grate the butter and keep it in the freezer. Grating the butter will avoid butter lumps in the dough. If you are using fresh blueberries, keep it in the freezer for 1-2 hrs. This will stop the blue berries from bleeding when added to the dough .If it’s frozen, don’t thaw it.

In a bowl sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt. To this add lemon zest and frozen grated butter. In another bowl add milk and sour cream. Mix well. Add this to the dry ingredients and stir just until the dough comes together. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Do not over mix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and then pat and roll, the dough 4-5 times. If it gets sticky add more flour on the surface. Roll out the dough into a circle or square that is about 12 inches.

Fold it into square and freeze it for 10mns.

Heavly flour the board and roll the frozen dough again into a square. Spread the frozen blueberries on the dough and slightly press them down.

Start rolling the dough from one end and form a tight log. Cut this log into 4 pieces. Cut each piece into two triangles.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place the scone on the baking sheet and brush it with melted butter or egg wash. You can sprinkle some cinnamon or sugar on top of this, that’s optional. Bake it for 18- 20mns. Once it’s done, cool them on a wire rack and enjoy with butter or preserves.

Vegetable Noodles

I am a big noodle lover, so does my family. I don’t think that will ever change. This is a quick but satisfying meal. This is a vegetarian version. If you are planning to make non-vegetarian version add scrambled egg and fried chicken seasoned with pepper and salt, if it’s seafood add fried shrimp seasoned with pepper and salt.

Ingredients:

Noodle- 1 packet (I used ching’s)
French Beans- 2-3 cut into juliennes
Carrots- ½ medium cut into juliennes
Cabbage – 1 small piece cut into juliennes
Capsicum- ½ cut into juliennes
Soy Sauce- 1 Tbsp
Green Chilli Sauce- 1 Tbsp
Salt- to taste
Garlic- 2 cloves

Oil- 2 Tsp

Preparation:

Cook the noodles according to the instruction. Run cold water over the cooked noodles, drain it. Add a tsp of oil, this will stop the noodle from sticking.

Heat a pan and pour oil. Add chopped garlic, carrots, French beans, cabbage and sauté till they are half cooked. Add Soy sauce, Green Chilli sauce, salt. Mix well. To this add the noodles and stir fry.

Serve hot.

Inji Curry/ Ground Ginger Curry

No “Sadya”(feast) is complete without Inji curry. This simple curry is considered to be equivalent to 101 curries.It’s served like a pickle. My mom always made sure that we were never low on this curry. My sister loved this and she used to have with Dosa and idili, yeah she’ll start her day with that. My husband also loves this a lot. He likes to finish his meal with mooru curry (similar to kadi) mixed with little inji curry. Somehow I didn’t have the courage to make this and as usual depended on mom to make it for us. Yesterday she was getting ready to make this and I thought why don’t I grab the occasion and try it myself. So under my mom’s supervision I made it. The result:- I learned how to make and my hun loved it.

Ingredients:

Grated/ thinly sliced Ginger- 2 cups
Tamarind- Size of a small lime
Salt- 2 tsp
Chilly powder- 3 tsp
Curry leaves – 2-3
Jaggery- a small piece
Mustard seeds- ½ tsp
Curry leaves- 4-5
Water- as needed
Oil- as needed

Prepration:

Soak the tamarind in some water and keep it aside. Squeeze half of the juice from the grated ginger. Heat a pan on low flame and add some oil, once the oil is hot add the ginger and 2-3 curry leaves. Fry the ginger till it’s golden brown or crisp. Just be careful not to burn it . Keep stirring it. Once it’s done switch of the flame and remove from the heat. In a mixer put the roasted ginger, tamarind water. Grind it into a paste.

Heat the same pan, add some oil. Once it’s hot add mustard seeds and splutter. Add Red Chilli and curry leaves to this. Fry for 2 mns and add the ginger paste to this. If it’s thick add some more water. Keep it on low flame and let it boil. Once it starts boiling add chilli powder , salt and jaggery. All these can be adjusted to your taste. Once it starts to thicken, keep stirring. Switch off and let it cool down.

Aloo Vegetable Parathas/ Flat bread stuffed with Potato & Vegetables

We all love Aloo Parathas, especially kids. My baby is a chapathi fan he calls them “pappadam”.I just thought of sneaking in some veggies along with the aloo and make it more healthy. Warm flatbread stuffed with potato & veggie mixture, Aloo-veggie Parathas can be enjoyed with yogurt, pickle or with any curry.

Ingredients:

For Dough:

Whole Wheat Flour - 1 1/2 cups
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Water – enough to make dough

For Filling:

Potatoes - 2 large, boiled and peeled
French Beans- 5-6 minced
Medium Carrot- 1/2 minced
Onion – 1/2 small, finely chopped
Salt – 1/2 tsp or to taste
Cilantro - 5 sprigs, finely chopped
Spray Cooking Oil – for pan frying

Method:

I a shallow bowl mix the flour, salt and water. Prepare smooth and soft dough and keep aside.

In a pan heat a tsp oil and cook the onion, minced carrots and beans till soft. In another bowl grate boiled Potatoes. Grating prevents lumps. Add the cooked vegetables, coriander leaves, salt and mix well. Make small filling balls and keep aside. Divide the dough into equal size balls. Roll out one dough ball into a small disk.

Place a filling ball on the center of the disk and fold the dough around the filling ball, completely enclosing it. Flatten the stuffed ball and dip it into the dry flour on both sides. This will be thicker than normal chappathis. Using a rolling pin, roll out the stuffed ball into a disk. Repeat the same process with other dough balls.

Keep a tava or skillet on the stove at medium to medium high. Spray or oil the tava and place the parathas on the tava. Once bubbles appear, flip the paratha over and lightly spray it with cooking oil. Allow this side to cook for 30 seconds and flip it over once more. Keep flipping the paratha until the look of raw dough is gone and it looks completely cooked. It should have light golden/brown spots. Serve warm

I am sending this to Creative Food for Picky/Fussy Eaters Healthy Breakfast and Dinner hosted by Saraswathi Iyer

Egg Fried Rice

This is one of the dishes that I experimented on my parents and cousins a lot . Luckily my partner in crime also loves chinese, so I make it often . Yeah but it has to be served with Gobi Manuchrian, cause he loves it. So by default Fried Rice==Gobi Manchurian.

If you are planning to make vegetarian version just avoid the egg , if it’s seafood add fried shrimp and if it’s chicken fried rice add fried chicken seasoned with pepper and salt.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice-1½ cup
Water- to cook rice
Egg-1
French Beans (chopped into thin round slices)- 6
Medium Carrot cut into small cubes-1
Capsicum cut into small cubes-½
Onion Chopped- 1 medium
Garlic Chopped -2 cloves
Soy sauce-1 tbs
Green Chilli Sauce-1 tbs
Spring onion stalks (chopped into thin round slices)- 4
Oil
Black Pepper powder (optional)
Salt- to taste
Preparation:

Boil water in a large sauce pan and add oil. Add salt and rice and cook the rice uncovered until soft. Drain the rice in a colander and run cold water. Drain well and reserve the rice.

Heat a large wok or pan, add a dash of oil and scramble the eggs. Keep them aside.

In the same pan add some more oil add garlic and sauté just until they are soft. Then add onions and sauté till translucent. Add carrot and stir fry until it is half done. Add the beans and capsicum and stir fry until all the vegetables are half cooked.
Add rice along with soy sauce,green chilli sauce, pepper powder, scrambled egg and stir for 2-3 minutes until the rice is heated up and mixed well with other ingredients. Before adding more salt taste the rice. Switch off the heat and add the chopped spring onion .Serve warm

Gobi Manchurian / Cauliflower Manchurian

DH is a big fan of this dish, Chinese means manchurian for him. No matter what, he sticks with the dish, he would be the first to order while I am still figuring out . The only thing that keeps changing about this dish is the dry & gravy part. So when I am making this at home, I make sure what he wants. This time I changed a little bit, just added ½ tsp cornflour to ½ cup water and added to final stage and reduced it. The result – dish was neither dry nor gravy type,but something in between and had a beautiful glaze. DH was happy and mom very proud . A good start for New Yr.

If you want ,egg can be added to the batter. If you want gravy add a tsp of cornflour to 1 cup water. Add this to the sauce and cook till becomes thick. Then add the fried cauliflower and serve.

Ingredients:-

For the batter :

All purpose flour – 1/2 cup
Corn flour – 1/4 cup
Garlic paste or minced – 2 tsp
Soy Sauce – 1/2 to 1 tsp
Salt – to taste ( both the batter and sauce has Soy sauce)
Water- as needed

Sauce:

Cauliflower – 1 medium sized cut into medium sized florets
Garlic chopped – 5 tbsp
Green chilies chopped – according to taste
Onion Chopped- ½
Capsicum cut into cubes- 1/2
Soya Sauce – 1 tbsp
Green Chilli Sauce – 1 tbsp
Tomato Ketchup – 3 tbsp
Salt – add only if needed
Oil – as needed
Coriander leaves – for garnishing
Spring onion chopped- a small bunch

Method :-


Batter:

Prepare batter with all the ingredients adding water. Batter should be thick enough to coat the cauliflower florets. Heat oil in a big wok, dip each floret in the batter and gently put it into the oil. Fry it in 4- 5 batches .Fry it until golden brown in color. Drain into a tissue paper and keep them aside and allow it to cool.

Sauce:

Heat little oil in a pan, add chopped onion,green chillies,garlic and saute them for a while. Add capsicum and saute. Now add soya sauce,chilly sauce and tomato ketchup. Mix them well, check for salt. Mix ½ tsp cornflour to ½ cup water and simmer it. Once it’s cooked well add the fried cauliflower florets. Mix them together until all the florets are well coated with the sauce. Add spring onion and coriander leaves and toss it well for few minutes. Serve immediately.

I served it with Egg Fried Rice

I am sending this Served With Love hosted by Arundhuti

Sweet Corn Vegetable Soup

Sweet corn Soup


Kids and vegetables !! The result of this combination is a tough time for the parents and kids. Like all parents we also have a tough time feeding our son. The moment he sees the plate in our hand with food ,endless demands pops up ( tv, dvd, iphone,snow ,ice cream, pepsi etc etc) . 98% of the time my mother will be the victim of this event , yeah I meant she happily takes up the task and in return she will have to do all that he asks for. Along with the junk food I have seen him happily relishing on soups. So I made this soup for New Year keeping him in mind, since it’s sweet kids would love to have it and again it has all the veggies.

Ingredients:

Water- 3 cups
Carrot chopped - 1 medium
French Beans chopped – 5-6
Cauliflower chopped – 4-5 florets
Cornstrach- 2 Tbs
Water- ½ cup to mix cornstarch
Cream Corn- ½ cup
Corn Kernel- 3 Tbs
Salt- to taste
Pepper- ¼ tsp (optional)
Spring Onion - 4 chopped
Sugar- 1/2 tsp


In a stock pot add water and bring it to a boil, add carrots and cook it . When it starts boiling add beans and cauliflower, boil for 2-3 mns. Then add creamstyle corn and corn kernels, keep mixing till it starts boiling. To this add sugar, salt, pepper. Mix cornstarch in ½ cup water and add this to the soup. Let it come to a boil , switch off and add the spring onion. Serve it hot.

I served it with Vegetable Rolls.

Vegetable Rolls

Always wanted to make these from scratch. This pairs well with Sweet Corn Soup or can be served with tea or coffee. Kids will love these crispy rolls.

Ingredients:

Filling:

French Beans- 2-3 cut into juliennes
Carrots- ½ medium cut into juliennes
Cabbage – 1 small piece cut into juliennes
Capsicum- ½ cut into juliennes
Soy Sauce- 1 Tbsp
Green Chilli Sauce- 1 Tbsp
Salt- to taste
Garlic- 2 cloves
Oil- 2 Tsp

Batter

All purpose flour- 1 cup
Water- to make batter
Salt- to taste

Oil- for frying

Prepration:

To make the batter mix flour, water , salt and mix them well until everything is blended without lumps.
Heat a small frying pan onto medium heat; pour ½ a ladle of batter to form circles .
Just cook the pancake on one side and take them out. Place them in a plate rubbed with oil.

For the filling heat a pan and pour oil. Add chopped garlic, carrots, French beans, cabbage and sauté till they are half cooked. Add Soy sauce, Chilli sauce, salt. Mix well and reserve it.

To make the rolls:

Mix a little flour with water, since we are not using egg this will hold the roll together.

Take a sheet and brush this flour mix on all sides . Place a small amount of filling .Fold both sides to enclose the filling in and then roll it completely to seal the filling in, as shown in the picture . Finally brush a little more at the end and this will hold the filling in place.

Heat a frying pan filled halfway with oil. Fry these rolls in the oil until golden and crisp.

Serve hot with ketchup.

PORTUGUESE TOMATO RICE

There are many ways to dress up Rice dishes and I am always in search for new recipes. I stumbled upon this recipe and it looked easy to make. Flavorful , fragrant and easy to make.

I served this with chicken tikka.

Ingredients
• Olive oil- 2 Tbsp
• Finely chopped onion- 1 1/2 cups
• Minced garlic- 2 teaspoons
• Salt1- 1/2 teaspoons
• Crushed red pepper flakes- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon
• Bay leaf- 1
• Chopped tomato- 1 1/2 cups
• Cups water- 2 1/4
• Chopped fresh parsley leaves- 2 tablespoons
• Chopped fresh cilantro leaves- 2 tablespoons
• Long-grain white rice- 1 1/2 cups

Directions

In a 4-quart medium saucepan heat the oil over high heat until hot. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, 4 minutes. Add the garlic, salt, red pepper, and bay leaf and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the tomato and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the water, parsley and cilantro and bring to a boil. Add the rice and stir well. When the liquid returns to a boil, stir again, then cover the pot and reduce the heat to low. Cook the rice undisturbed for 20 minutes, or until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender.
Let rice stand for 5 minutes undisturbed before fluffing with a fork. Serve immediately.



I am sending this to AWED-Portuguese guest hosted by Priya

Cantaloupe Cooler

Cantaloupe, very crisp,musky and sweet flavoured fruit.Cantaloupe is normally eaten as a fresh fruit, as a salad, or as a dessert with ice cream or custard.This is a very refreshing drink and is best during summer to cool down the heat.Adding an orange will just give it a citrus flavour not too much to dominate the cantaloupe.

Ingredients

Cantaloupe- 4 wedges, cubed
Orange-1-2
Sugar- according to your taste
Water- 1-2 cups (depending on the thickness)

Mix all the ingredients in a blender and serve cold.

Brie wrapped with Crescent

This is a very simple appetizer. If you like cheese, trust me this will hit the spot. If you haven't tasted Brie cheese ,pls try with a small piece. The cheese is really rich and has slight smoky flavour.The rind is edible and there's no need to remove it. It can be served or paired with any fruits.You can even cut the brie in half,layer it with craberries and then bake it.

INGREDIENTS
Crescent dinner rolls - 1 can
Brie cheese - 1
Egg, beaten - 1 ( optional)

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 350°F.
If using crescent rolls: Unroll dough; separate crosswise into 2 sections. Pat dough and firmly press perforations to seal, forming 2 squares
Place 1 square on ungreased cookie sheet. Place cheese on center of dough. With small cookie, cut 1 shape from each corner of remaining square; set cutouts aside.
Place remaining square on top of cheese round. Press dough evenly around cheese; fold bottom edges over top edges. Gently stretch dough evenly around cheese; press to seal completely. Brush with beaten egg. Top with cutouts; brush with additional beaten egg.
Bake 20 to 24 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes. Serve warm with fruits and crackers.

Glow Serum

7'o clock in my house is juicing time for the past two months now. Hubby has started this new hobby and he develops new recipes. We all enjoy this and i thought of sharing this simple recipe with you. For kids this can be strained. Since fruit juice is good and this one includes everything that's good for the skin, i came up with this name.

Ingredients:

Orange peeled - 4
Cataloupe- 1 wedge cut into cubes
Carrots- 4-5 ( we use baby carrots)
Water- 1-2 glasses ( depending on the thickness)
Sugar - according to your taste


Mix all the ingredients in a mixer. For kids it can be strained. For adults i believe this will be fine and it provides good amount of fiber.