Hema's Vantagadi

PudinaRice

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

Pudina Rice:

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

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

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

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

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

Ingredients for Pudina Chutney:

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

Method:

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

Pudina Rice:

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

Submitting this to:

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

"Lets cook with leftovers" by Nayna Kanbar.

PuriUrandai

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

Puri Urandai:

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

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

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

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

Ingredients:

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

Method:

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

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

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

This also makes an entry to

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

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

Cooking with Love event hosted by Saraswathi Iyer.

Cooking Challenge - Flavours of Tamilnadu.

TenkaiKarjikayalu:

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

Tenkai-Karjikayalu:

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

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

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

Ingredients:

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

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

Method:

Make small puris and keep coprapak laddoos in the center

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

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

Put it onto a vessel where the oil can be drained

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

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

This also makes an entry to

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

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

DatesKheer

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

Dates Kheer:

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

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

Ingredients:

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

Method:

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

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

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

This also makes an entry to

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

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

UradDhalHalwa

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

Urad Dhal Halwa:

Wet Halwa

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

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

Ingredients:

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

Method:

Fry urad dhal till reddish brown and allow it cool

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

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

Roast it well so that we can get nice aroma

Add milk to it and put it on a greased plate

Once its warm cut it into pieces

Put it in an airtight container and eat it

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 20 mins

Yielded: 20 pieces

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

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

This also makes an entry to

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

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

Onion Chutney

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

Onion-Chutney:

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

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

Ingredients:

Onion - 2

Oil - 2 tsp (for frying)

Oil - 1 tsp (for tadka)

Tomato - 2

Groundnuts (roasted) - 1 handful

Green Chillies - 4

Ginger - 1/2 inch

Coconut - 1/2 cup (grated)

Salt to taste

Curry leaves - few

Cilantro - few

Method:

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

Allow it to cool for sometime

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

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

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

Dark Chocolate Milk Shake

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

Dark Chocolate Milk Shake:

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

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

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

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

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

Ingredients:

B&W Photo

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

Method:

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

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

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

This also makes an entry to

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

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

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

MEC series by Kalyani started by Srivalli on Cooking4allseasons.

Weekly Series:

AlmondBreadGolls

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

AlmondBreadGolls:

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

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

Ingredients:

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

Method:

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

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

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

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

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

Serve both the dishes almond bread golls and bread crumbs mixture

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

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

Submitting this also to:

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

New "U" event hosted by Vardhini.

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

Rasayana-Sekarni

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

Rasayana/Banana Sekarni:

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

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

Ingredients:

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

Method:

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

Additional Info:

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

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

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

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

This is also submitted to:

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

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

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

Facial Powder using Dhals

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

Facial Powder using Dhals:

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

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

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

Ingredients:

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

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

Method:

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

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

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

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

MoongDal-Balls

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

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

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

Ingredients:

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

Method:

Roast the nuts and keep it aside

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

Add ghee to the mixture

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

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

Cut once it is cool

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

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

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

GreenGramDalFruitsSalad

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:22:00 +0000

Green Gram Dal - Fruits Salad:

Today is an ultimate day. So many things to complete it today. As there is a saying "Things which have a deadline apart from that day itself is called important things, but on the deadline day it would be urgent thing".

a. Tax - Today was the last date to submit all papers for Tax.

b. Children - As Aditya has not picked up with his heath still and my little son, Aadya is not at all sleeping properly tough time to manage to sleep and early in the morning rush for a breakfast.

c. I ended getting up late today but i thought i can cook sundal from green gram dal in the morning and soaked it overnight. :(. You know what thanks to office admin who has kept microwave in office. This was done using the same.

So, ended up with fruits + green gram salad, it turned out to be good, healthy and delicious. This is my 5th day recipe in blogging marathon.

Ingredients:

Green Gram Dal - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar to taste
Some fruits

Method:

Cook green gram dal in a microwave with milk (i know it is preheated but don't what's it is 195C or so on).

I tried it out for 2 minutes and again increased to 2 minutes, finally to one more minute. As I have burnt two small boxes I doesn't want to take any chance with microwave. I have used a melamine cookware, which was available in office.

It was half cooked for 5 minutes, so i added sugar and kept it for one more minute.

Finally added fruits (musked melon, papaya and yellakik banana/banana which is small; yellakki means cardamom)

Today is my 5th day without lunch in the afternoon and staying only on cookies and today it is salads. Reason I have put on more weight and want to reduce.

Comments:

While i was preparing this, one of my friend came and said you should use a sprouted one, because non-sprouted one might increase gastric. :)

I gave to my friend and found out, she gave a comment usually green gram salad is had with vegetables. :)

My comment: It was good to eat and I feel filly after eating a box full of this.

Let me implement the first comment from next time.

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

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

Promises:

I am feeling so good today that I could keep up my promise atleast for few.

Promise to a colleague: My colleague asked me to come in saree today, i promised her "yes" yesterday. If you would have read my earlier comments you will definitely think how is this managed. I came in dress to office and changed into saree in rest room, because our office has a big space for us to get ready in our ground floor rest room. :) looks funny but at times could be managed.
Promise to my blogging marathon group/readers: Definitely I will come with a post on "Seven Delicious Dal".
Promise to my Christmas-NewYearEvent prize winner, Archana Toshniwal.: Unfortunately I don't know which courier to use to send gifts to people in remote places. I tried with DTDC and sent the consignment in 1st week of jan but it couldn't reach the person and came back to me only yesterday. Today again I have sent with Professional Couriers. Hope so it will reach her and she will feel happy.
Promise to myself to file up tax: Atlast I could complete it today.
Promise to my hubby: Will shop bedsheets for him, completed.

Hence, I told today is an ultimate day.

MasoorDal-MysoreDal

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:21:00 +0000

Hi All,

I am back again on 4th day of blogging marathon with a simple dal called masoor dal. As per the understanding some sweet/savory should be cooked using different dals, but I couldn't do anything due to the following reason:

Red Lenthils

My older son is not well due to throat ache and fever, and once I reach home @ 7pm my little son will be waiting at the door step to hug me and play with me. My mom-in-law would have become so tired bcoz of my naughty little son, so once I go to home, she will handover the kitchen and this little rascala to me.

Yesterday she had prepared only rasam in the afternoon and my turn was to prepare something for dinner along with rice. I have a super doper brain and I thought of preparing this easy Masoor Dal which will give me a post in the morning. Masoor Dal is also called as Mysore dal or red lenthils.

Inspired by the posts of Aarthi's blog I thought let me copy atleast the method of naming my pictures.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Masoor Dal
1 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds

And the other ingredients as shown in picture:

2 chopped onions

coriander leaves - few
curry leaves - few
2 tsp salt and
1 1/2 tbsp sambar powder

Method:

Cook Masoor dal with tomato and 1 tsp of turmeric in cooker for 3 to 4 whistles
Heat Oil in a kadai
Add mustard seeds and wait till it splutters, add curry leaves, salt and onions and sauté till they become translucent.
Add sambar powder allow it to boil for sometime
Finally, add cooked dal and allow it to boil for some more time

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

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

Dal-Palak

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:58:00 +0000

Dal-Palak:

It’s great to be in blogging marathon, everyday my blog is getting a new post in this week. My recipes include variation due to seeing other fellow bloggers way, the food is done. Thanks to Srivalli towards this idea. And comments passed by other fellow bloggers motivate each other.

This is my 3^rd day in blogging marathon and as you already know I have opted to cook “Seven Days of Delicious Dals”. Today’s Dal is Toor Dal/Tuvaram Paruppu / Togari Bele / Kandi Pappu.

Ingredients:

Toor Dal – 2 cups
Palak – 1 bunch
Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder – 1 tsp
Coriander Powder – 1 tbsp
Green Chillies – 3 to 4 (chopped)
Cooking Oil – 2 to 3 tbsp (I use Dhara – Groundnut oil)
Curry Leaves – few
Cilantro - few
Salt to taste
Water to cook dal

Method:

Cook dal for 4 to 5 whistles (depending on the dal)
Wash and chop palak into small pieces
In a kadai heat little oil and add mustard seeds wait till it splutters and add curry leaves
Add salt and once it dissolves, add palak fry them nicely in oil till it is cooked
Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, chopped green chillies and mix them well with palak
Finally add cooked toor dhal to palak and leave it for 5 to 10 minutes until it boils
Serve it hot with Puris.

Yummy, this is my breakfast for today along with Puris..

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

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

Poriyal Podi-urad dhal

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:09:00 +0000

Poriyal Podi-urad dhal:

It’s the second day of Blogging Marathon, and I have not broken my promise, of making one variety of dhal out of Seven Days of Delicious Dals.

UradDhal+RedChilli

While cooking, powders viz., Sambar Powder, Rasam Powder, Poriyal Podi/Palya Powder/Curry Powder will help you to make the things easily. Powders is not only restricted to these you can make anything which you feel it would be a must for your cooking. Other Powders are Masala Powder, cardamom powder, fenugreek powder, dry ginger powder. You name the ingredient a powder can be made out of it.

Today, I have selected urad dhal to make curry powder or poriyal podi.

Ingredients:

Urad dhal – 50 gms
Ground nut seeds – 100 gms
Fried Gram – 50 gms

Fried Gram Dhal

Red Chillies – 50 gms

Method:

Roast urad dhal till reddish brown or a kind of aroma comes out
Roast red chillies but watch out it might get burnt out if it is roasted more, it should be roasted either with one teaspoon of oil or without any oil
Roast ground nut seeds
Remember, roast everything separately

Curry Powder/Poriyal Podi

Add roasted ingredients with fried gram dhal and grind them to make a fine coarse powder

Today’s breakfast was Aloo Rice which is made so easily due to this curry powder. Here is the recipe:

Chop aloos into small pieces
Heat 2 tsp of oil in cooker
Add mustard seeds wait till it splutters
Add curry leaves and powdered salt
Add chopped aloos to the above mixture and mix well
Leave it for 3 whistles
Once it cools down add curry powder and mix well
Serve it with cucumber raita.

Submitting to:

Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

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

Let’s Cook – Rice @ Tickling Palatea by Radhika

MLLA series is a monthly blog hop started by Susan @ The Well Seasoned Cook. Claire is hosting this month - Jan 2012 MLLA, the legume is "Dal" hence submitting this to her post which is a 43rd blog hop.

Sweet Heat Chilli Challenge is started by Lyndsey on Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops. This month is a 4th edition hosted by Michelle on Food, Football and a baby.

Weekend Herb Blogging-#317 @ Briciole hosted by Simon started by Kalyn and now organized by Haalo. Its a great event as every week since 7 years it is on and going on.

Tomato Rice (direct)

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:15:00 +0000

Tomato Rice (direct):

Searching/Juggling for a breakfast every day morning is really difficult. I feel so bad because if I do new things my family members will try it out and pass a comment, "its good".

But, if I try traditional ones, I will get a comment from my hubby "did you eat? is it good? nobody in the house had it except you". In office, if I share the same they will pass a comment saying, "Its good". Seriously I am tired and don't know how to understand taste of my own family. Speaking truth is bitter sometimes, but I don't have a go except for sharing with you all.

I tried out tomato rice today, in the way my mom-in-law used to cook.

Ingredients:

Ripped Tomatoes - 6
Salt to taste
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Cilantro - few (chopped)
Turmeric Power - 1 tsp
Dhaniya/Coriander Seeds Powder - 1 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Green Chillies - 3 to 4
Fenugreek seeds+Mustard seeds - grinded powder - 1 tsp
Jaggery - small one (just for taste)
Oil - for tadka
Urad dal - 1 tbsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp

Method:

Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds to it, once it splutters, add curry leaves to it.
Add urad dal, channa dal, salt to the oil and leave till it turns reddish brown
Add chopped ripped tomatoes to the above mixture and mix them well
Add little water and leave tomatoes to become soft for 10 minutes
Add chopped green chillies, red chilli powder, dhaniya powder, fenugreek seeds+mustard seeds powder, jaggery and mix well
Once it turns to boil add cilantro/chopped coriander leaves and switch off the stove
Cool the rice and mix the mixture with it

Submitting to:

Weekend Herb Blogging-#316 @ Simona's Kitchen started by Kalyn and continuing by Haalo.

Lets Cook Rice @ Tickling Palatea by Radhika.

Aamvada-channadhal

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:32:00 +0000

Aamvada-channadhal:

I feel great to take participate in Blogging Marathon event hosted by Srivalli on Spicing up your life.

Blogging Marathon is an event which is celebrated last two weeks in a month which comes up with some group events. Instead of just blogging it’s an important rule to pass comments in the group on other posts. So Srivalli had made a group in google called as blogging marathon. In this way the communication develops not only between food bloggers but also in the house to find the different recipes related to the group selected. To prepare a dish there might be more than one variety of making it for example check out my versions (1st - gojju mix with rice, 2nd - without gojju) of tomato rice.

I have selected the concept of Seven Days of Delicious Dals. Today is my 1^st day, I am posting “aamvada” a vada made from Channa Dal. In my family all of us love to eat vadas, and this is one of them.

Ingredients:

Channa Dal – 100 gms

Baking soda – 1 tsp

Coriander leaves – few

Green Chillies (small sized which will be more spicy) – 3 to 4

Salt – to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Soak channa dal atleast for 3 hours

Remove the water and grind it along with baking soda, green chillies with little water as the consistency should be thick

Add salt and coriander leaves and mix well

Leave the oil to become hot

Make small dough from the hand and make it like a plate drop it in hot oil

Leave it to fry until the color becomes reddish brown

Turn to the other side and leave it to fry

Remove it from the Stove and put it on to vessel which has pores (a vessel which removes extra oil)

Serve it hot with chutney

Submitting to:

Blogging Marathon @ Spice your Life by Srivalli

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

MLLA - 43

Walk through the memory lane

Walk through the memory lane by Gayathri @ Gayathri's Cook Spot is an event which says to learn and prepare from our elders. I learnt this from my mother-in-law and for festivals this is a must in my house.

Sweet Heat Chilli Challenge is started by Lyndsey on Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops. This month is a 4th edition hosted by Michelle on Food, Football and a baby.

Chocolate-Cashew&Raisins

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:13:00 +0000

Chocolate - Cashew & Raisins:


Choc-Cashew&Raisins

Right from my childhood days I love to eat chocolates. Same goes with my elder son, Aditya. On Friday, I browsed thro’ the net and found chocolate recipe by Nikko Kitchen in youtube. I was surprised to see that it was that easy to make chocolate. There is a saying which goes like this “Till we learn things are very difficult, once you learn it’s a child’s work”, it’s true. Once you know and work on it, you would develop a like towards making things that might be cooking or testing software.

Nowadays children get stuck to Television so much, Oh my god, save my little Aditya, who is 8 years old. To keep this guy busy I should find out a way either painting, helping me in kitchen, cycling. In cycling, he is great and even at 8pm he takes his cycle and goes around like a college guy, but to avoid this on Saturday I planned to prepare chocolate along with him.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp icing sugar
2 tbsp milk powder
Butter – 50g
Pinch of salt

Method:

Melt butter and switch off the stove

Add cocoa, icing sugar, milk powder, a pinch of salt to melted butter

Stir the mixture check the consistency it should neither be too thin or too thick
Put a butter sheet on a tray and pour the mixture

Garnish with Cashewnuts and Raisins (this was done by Aditya)

Keep it in deep-freezer for an hour
Turn the chocolate to other side and leave it for one more hour
Transfer the contents into air tight container

Note: You can add more icing sugar to make sweeter.

Submitting to:

Chocolate Fest @ Srav's Culinary Concepts hosted by Sravani.

Chocolate Lover @ Daily-Cuppa hosted by Reshma.

Chocolate Mela @ Cooking for all seasons hosted by Srivalli.

A dog's WillPower

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:59:00 +0000

I smiled after looking at the first photo...you will also smile.

Just scroll down and you will get to know the story of Will Power.

Here it goes....

You thought the dog is imitating the man.....

Entertaining the college kids...right?

Now have a close look at it....

So.....

Got the message???

Despite being an animal he gets respect...

He gets warm welcome everywhere.....

He gets a pat on his shoulder...

He is STAND-ALONE

'Will Power' which can make an animal walk on TWO LEGS...!!

Hema's Blog: TomatoChappati

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:08:00 +0000

Hema's Blog: TomatoChappati

http://www.simplysensationalfood.com/2012/01/tomato-chappati-blog-hop-wednesday-11th.html

Fafda-SSF

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:43:00 +0000

Dear All,

Welcome to the blogging world. Its a great pleasure to say that I am participating in "Blog Hop Wednesday" started by Radhika on Tickling Palatea.

This is the second version of Blog Hop Wednesday which happens monthly once on every 2nd week of Wednesday. Earlier version used to happen once in 15 days in last year.

Concept: In this version, every month one would be partnered with other fellow blogger and she/he can cook any number from her partner blog. On 2nd Wednesday you have to link it with partner's blog as source/courtesy and link it with Tickling Palatea.

Rules:

a. If one blog hop is missed also, you are not entitled to get into the other blog hop. Reason: Your partner for that month will definitely feel bad as her dish from her site did not get displayed.

b. You cannot enter in between as partners are already made for that month. But if registered then you are allowed from the following month. Click here to register.

I was partnered with Nayna Kanbar, a citizen of London who writes her posts in her own blog - simply.food. She submits her post to City.Connect, she says "simply.food is a featured recipe author @ City Connect an online magazine which promotes everything from businesses to events, connecting people to each other in the local area and beyond."

Fafda - Chora Fari

I thank Radhika and Nayna to gave me a wonderful chance to provide an option and to partner with me respectively on this Blog Hop.

It was really tough to select one dish from her blog as it had many varieties of dishes. I had selected Fafda - a crispy snack as my partner dish and linked it here. It is also called as "chora fari", Indian tea time snack.

Ingredients:

Fafda - B & W

Maida - All purpose flour - 200g
Besan - 50g
1 tablespoon chilli powder
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 tablespoon groundnut oil (Dhara)
3 green chillies finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon freshly chopped coriander
Water for making dough
Groundnut oil for deep frying

Never do this: As in my house Maida and Besan is stored in refrigerator they were cold and to get to normal temperature I made a mistake of adding little rice flour which made my fafdas to become hard.

Method:

Put Maida, besan, chilli powder, turmeric powder, sesame seeds, chopped green chillies, salt, chopped coriander, oil and by adding water as required kindly make a dough.
Leave the dough for sometime to get settled down.
Make small doughs and roll them using rolling pin and cut them into desired shapes.
Fry them in hot oil and put them into vessel which drains oil. Vessel would have small pores.
Serve it hot with tomato ketchup or chilli sauce.

I had made into my desired shapes same like bajjis just because my son would love to eat thinking it is same. Great this idea worked out, he had 10 with tomato ketchup.

Aditya's activity: He came and prepared fafdas as rolls and round.

Do: Store these into air tight container to use them upto a month. I made these yesterday(10thJan2012) and unfortunately I did not do that and lost the crispy-ness the today (11thJan2012).

Submitting this to:

Blog Hop Wednesday @ Tickling Palatea.

Black & White by Susan @ The Well-Seasoned Cook.

Susan started this event as a weekly event and the important concept is your picture which is shared with this event should be in B & W. For more info please read her blog.

MurariAnniversaryGiveaway-2012

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:54:00 +0000

Celebration Time:

Anniversary Giveaway

Two of my special events viz., Wedding Anniversary on Feb 14th and Blog Anniversary on Feb 23rd are in February.

To make it special, I am presenting a giveaway - Embroidery Pillow Cover.

To win this award my dear blog readers, present your Vegetarian Curry which can range from Sambar to a gravy and much more. Anything which can be cooked in Indian Kitchen.

Rules:

Please do send me any number of entries to the event.
For a successful entry to the contest, each entry must include logo and it must be linked to this page. Simply linked widget can be used to link.

Non bloggers can also send me their recipe along with its photo and a subject line "MurariAnniversaryGiveaway-2012 at Hema's Blog" to my email hemasrini(dot)2007@gmail(dot)com. It should be in the format Your name, Your Recipe Name and Picture of the recipe.

No archived items in my contest please.
Duration for my event is from 5th January 2012 to 29th February 2012. Winner would be announced on 1st March 2012.
Link to this event page and usage of logo is a must as it spreads a word.
Like towards my page in facebook and follow through friendconnect is a must to keep in touch with all of you.

Winner, kindly acknowledge within a week with complete postal address to deliver your prize. After a week, it would go to other participant.

I request all my blog readers to make this event success.

Christmas_NewYear2011_Event_Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:58:00 +0000

Thanks to all of my blog readers and HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2012 to all.

I am pleased to announce the roundup of my event Christmas_NewYear2011_Event which obtained 22 eggless cake entries. Out of which 1 link was broken, 2 were duplicate entry. Thanks to all the participants who made this one success better than the first event.

Winner is Eggless-Rainbow-Zebra-Cake prepared and submitted by Archana Toshniwal from Archana's Kitchen.

Thanks to all other entries from:
a. Tickling Palatea

b. Spicy Food

c. Edible Entertainment - 1

d. Edible Entertainment - 2

e. Edible Entertainment - 3

f. Karus Delicacies - Unfortunately this entry link has been broken.

g. Pumpkin Farm Food - 1

h. Pumpkin Farm Food - 2

i. Poornima Tasty Treats - 1

j. Poornima Tasty Treats - 2

k. Poornima Tasty Treats - 3

l. Chitranna - 1

m. Chitranna - 2

n. Archana's Kitchen

o. Jais Recipe

p. My Cooking Diary

q. Kaarasaram

r. Maayeka

s. My Entry

GlanceOf2011

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:26:00 +0000

Thanks to 2011 which gave me an opportunity to become an active blogger. Following are few things which I wanted to share in my post - glance of 2011.

I was an infant in kitchen

I am a child now in kitchen

Top 5 recipes of the year - 2011

Gun Powder (Sweet) Unde

Best dish of the month

Sep-11 – Sweet Pova

Oct-11 – Diwali_Sweet_Savory

Nov-11- Ullavalu_Rasam

Dec-11 – Crispy Potato Poriyal

Best recipe prepared from other blogs

Mosaru Kodabale Mosaru Nipatu from The Chef and Her Kitchen

Banana Chips from Kailas Kitchen

Best Meal of the year

Pista Cerelac Vada

New things discovered in the year

Cake through Steaming

Preparation of Instant Sweets

Best post or picture of the year

Christmas New Year Eve – 2011: This is the best post as my traffic got increased. I learnt how to make cake.

Best Picture: Adi – The Chef, as above.

Past and Present Blogroll

In 2009 I started blogging inspired by Sara’s Corner and Dil Se blogs. But I became active only in blogging from September 2011. I had subscribed for the list of blogs in 2009 but frankly half of the mails I couldn’t make myself to check it out. I deleted certain mails today after making a list of them which I subscribed.

Previous year(s) Subscriptions:

Following since 2011:

A Girl's Diary..

A2Z Healthy Vegetarian Cuisine

ANU'S HEALTHY KITCHEN

Cuisine Point

Daksha's Vegetarian Recipes World

Debbi Does Dieting... My Dieting Diary

Eggplant To Go

Experiments in Kailas Kitchen

Flavours and Tastes

Foodie's Hope

Indian Khana

Jagruti's Cooking Odyssey

Karnataka - Food Blogs / ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಖಾದ್ಯಗಳು

Kitchen Chronicles

Mharo Rajasthan's Recipes - Rajasthan A State in Western India

Sanghi's Food Delights!

Seduce Your Tastebuds...

Spicie Foodie ~ Spicy Foodie Healthy, Fresh and deliciou

Tasty Appetite

Teczcape-An Escape to Food

The Mad Scientist’s Kitchen

The Chef And Her Kitchen

Yummy Tummy

Edible Entertainment

Ancoo Journal

La cucina di cristina

Priya’s Easy N Tasty Recipes

Cooking resolutions for the Year 2012

Participate in weekly, biweekly and monthly events

Every 2 to 3 months plan for an event or a giveaway

Remember the blogs followed every month

Give atleast one label in the post which indicates a month name uniquely

Attend Bangalore Bloggers Meet as and when possible

Blog Promotions

Facebook

Blog Loving

Bloggers

SITS

Very Good Recipes

Cook Eat Share

Networked Blogs

Friends/Followers Google friend connect

BlogHer

Ontoplist

Blogadda

Blorner

Buzzerhunt

Blog Catalog

Great Cooks

Blogs Top 100 Add

Indian Cooking Challenge

Add Me

Blog Nation

Indi Blogger

Food buzz

Foodista

Food blogs

Blogging Women

Blogs which give information on Events & Roundups.

SaraFoodEvents

Events-n-roundup

DilseFoodEvents

Submitting this post to Best of Year 2011 in Cooking 4 all seasons.

WISH YOU ALL VERY DELIGHTFUL NEW YEAR - 2012.

Crispy Potato Poriyal

noreply@blogger.com (Hemavathi Murari) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:07:00 +0000

Crispy Potato Poriyal:

I had bookmarked this since a long time from Yummy Tummy by Aarthi.

Potato is an herb. It’s a nick name of my little son, Aadya also. I have named my first son as Aditya and nick name is Tomato because when he was born he was very pink. My little one when he was born was black in color due to breathing problem. Later on he turned to be wheatish brown same as Potato color. When I said this to his dad, he named me as Toyota, my elder son who was studying Science text book (III Standard) he named my hubby as Stomato. Thus is our family :)

I am addicted to Potato like most of the South Indians. They love to add it in their main dishes viz., Sambar, poriyal. Especially for masala dosa this is a must in South India. Instead of the same traditional poriyal I tried a crispy version and thanks to my family they just had it along with rasam rice.

Ingredients:

Steamed Potato (cut into desired shapes) – 200 gms
Salt to taste
Oil - 4 tbsp
Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – few
Cilantro/coriander leaves – few (for garnishing)
Turmeric Powder – 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder – 2tbsp

Method:

Put oil into the kadai (preferably non-stick because it would not require more oil and oil spreads it makes potatoes crispier). I have used my cooker.
Add mustard seeds when it splutters add curry leaves
Add salt let it get dissolved
Add chopped potatoes into the kadai and leave it to get crispier
Mix well in between, add turmeric and mix again
Sprinkle Red Chilli Powder on top of the potatoes and mix well
Garnish cilantro on top of it just before removing the poriyal/curry from the stove

I am happy to send this post to Midweek Fiesta - #9 by Amy at Food Corner.