Happy Ugadi

Dear Foodies,

Nandana Nama Samvatsara Ugadi Subhakankshalu
Ugadi pachadi - jaggery, tamarind, salt, chilli powder, green mango/tart green apple, neem flowers/ground  fenugreek (methi) seeds

Wish all of you a Happy Ugadi | Gudi Padwa or Happy Friday!

No festivity is complete without a pulihara - Nimmakaya/Lemon Pulihara, Dhadhojanam & Potato Bajji's

Sweet Treats to consider - Bobabtlu/Poli;  Paal Payasam ; Pongal ; Kalakhand

Happy Ugadi!

Dear Foodies,

Happy Ugadi/Gudi Padwa

A very Happy New Year to all of you who celebrate it today. This year promises to be one of the most exciting ones for me. The wedding is just a few weeks away and as expected I am a complete mixed bag of emotions right now :))) There are loads of things I'm looking forward too - a new family to meet, new experiences to cherish and newer memories to create, memories that are going to last me a lifetime! I am nervous and I'm excited and I know its going to turn out fabulous :D I just can't wait to get on the plane and go meet my parents!

I made some rava kesari and masala vada to ring in the year. Ugadi at home meant my mom would treat us to a complete hotel style thaali/plate meal. I am not as fast as her nor as patient, so while I got busy making these two dishes, I skipped making a proper lunch :)) I'll come back with the recipes later :) You guys have a fabulous day and even more fabulous year ahead.

Ugadi Subhakankshalu

Dear Foodies,

Happy Ugadi and Gudi Padwa to all of you who celebrate the start of a near year today.

For the rest, I hope I can atleast say Happy Spring :-)

I plan to make some Ugadi pachadi, mango pulihara & masala vada's. Thats the plan, you'll know how far I get tomorrow :) What are you cooking today ?

Tomorrow, March 28th, 8:30PM - 9:30PM (local time) is Earth Hour. Remember to turn off your lights and enjoy a candle lit dinner, exchanging stories with your friends and family :)

Happy Holi!

Dear Foodies,

Its Holi today, and I miss it so dearly every year that I am away from home and can't celebrate it. Its been a long time since I played with colors!

I had a blast when I was kid, we were about 10-12 kids on our street and by the end of the day we would be so fully covered in colors that even we couldn't recognize each other. The first few hours were for allocated for dry colors and going around the neighborhood wishing everyone we knew. The second part, the most fun part, was playing with colored water. Our house was the place we all gathered up for it. My mom would fill two huge drums with water and we would add colors to it and start drowning each other :)) Not all of us had the pichkari's or hand-held water pumps and we would use mugs and buckets and whatever else we could lay our dirty hands on. It was just sooo much fun and feel lucky for it now :)

The rest of the day though would be lost in scrubbing the color off our skin. It was my mom's worst nightmare I guess. She would bring out the best from her arsenal - oil, shikakai, soapnuts (kunkudikaya), shampoos etc, and the scrubbing process would take for ever and just barely reduce the color at the end of it :)) The next day we would be off to school with pink cheeks or ears (the toughest part) and hands, and it would turn inta a competition among friends :)) Those were good memories, of days of complete abandon, no worries about water shortage or chemical laden colors, but just about having fun and enjoying it with those you love.

A very colorful and safe Holi to all of you. If you are using colors, make sure you use chemical free ones and be conscious of the people around you. Enjoy!

Happy Sankranthi

Dear foodies,

~Sankranthi Shubhakankshalu~

to all of you!

I just got back from a short, hectic yet extremely enjoyable and satisfying trip to India. And as has become the norm with me, my luggage did not make it back! Fortunately, this time it has been tracked down and is on its way. Once I spot all the goodies that I bought I will come back to share them with you :)

Enjoy this Festival of Harvest !

P.S: The first photograph was taken at the Hyderabad airport at a store called 'the Bombay store'. They had a very good collection of handicraft items from around India at very reasonable costs. I was tempted to buy many of them if not for my already heavy hand baggage. There was another store called 'Empower' that exclusively sold handicraft items from Andhra Pradesh like - Kondapalli dolls, Kalamkari paintings, lace products, Etikoppaka toys, and leather puppets.

The second is of my brother flying a kite on the day we were leaving Hyd. Though it was a few days before the festival we had to give it a try! We were up on the terrace only for an hour since we had packing left to do :(. Luckily though, we managed to scratch our his memory enough (with some help from my aunt) to get the kite to fly and successfully cut another kite tooo! yippieeee! woo hooo! This was taken under the bright afternoon sun, but I played with the exposure to get this shot.

Happy Halloween!

Dear foodies,

Trick or Treat ?

And its going to be a Treat for all you guys cos today is the last day of NabloWriMo! Its been 31 days filled with posts! I enjoyed myself for the most part but a few days it was race to the deadline :)) I hope you guys had fun with it and I did not end up spamming your feeds :)

Happy Halloween to everyone celebrating it this weekend!

Enjoy!

Happy Deepavali

Dear foodies,


Enjoy a fun and safe festival of lights today and share with me how you spent it! I would love to be part of it :)

Its Vada, Dahi Vada!

Dear foodies,

With one major festival done, we have another one coming up soon, Deepavali/Diwali. The last few weeks I noticed a lot of searches for sweets, but hey you know I love the savories more, so how about some of that for you and me to enjoy. May be some medhu vada/ulundhu vada ? and may be some dahi vada too ? okay! So lets get started, shall we.... my mother made these when she was here this summer.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - whole urad dal
• 1 tsp - whole pepper corns
• 2-3 - green chillies
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Wash and soak the urad dal in water for about 45mins. Drain all the water and blend the dal along with the pepper and green chillies using as little water as possible.Wet your hands a little with water as you add the dal and add water only by the teaspoons as find the need. A watery dough absorbs a lot of oil and is hard to shape as well. This is a globby batter that you can shape into dumplings unlike the pouring consistency of dosa batter. Add salt to taste and mix vigorously with a spoon or your hand to make it fluffy. This makes the vada's light and crispy.
2. Heat oil in a shallow pan, check if its hot enough by carefully dropping a small drop of the batter into it. If it bubbles around the edges and raises to the top immediately the oil is ready. Wet your hands slightly, place a glob of batter on your palm, with the forefinger of the other hand make a hole in the center (donut style) and slide it into the oil, or pick flip onto the free hand and then slide. You could also use a plastic sheet or banana leaf as a base while shaping the vada. But if you are in no mood for all this, just drop round balls of the batter into the oil, the taste is still going to be the same :)

and hey, don't forget Jai's appam pan method for frying. Yes, you don't have an excuse anymore to make deep fried goodies any more.

For the dahi in the dahi vada, south Indian style, grind together

• 2 Tbsp - grated, fresh coconut
• handful of cilantro/coriander leaves
• 1-2 green chillies

with required water ( ~ 1/4 cup) and add it to 2 cups of beaten curds with salt to taste. When the vada's are ready, soak them in the yogurt mixture for 1hr allowing it to soften and absorb the dahi. But if you are in a rush, dip them first in some light buttermilk/water, squeeze lightly between your palms and then drop them into the yogurt mixture. This step softens them up allowing them to take in the yogurt mixture.

Serve garnished with some more chopped cilantro and a sprinkle of red chilli powder and chat masala :)

Other variations would be to soak the vada's in sambar or rasam instead of dahi/curd or adding a few chopped onions to the batter. But do make enough vada's to munch on by themselves, afterall, the crunchies are the best part of the vada right ? along with some coconut chutney or mango pickle...Off it goes now to Pallavi, who is hosting her first event, Yummy Festival Feast - Diwali! and I forgot a main event here JFI, started my Indira!! Sorry Srivalli :(, one extra special order of dahi vada to you for the Festival Jihva :)

I had some issues with blogger y'day with it not allowing comments on my posts, especially the previous one here. So if you had something to share, please do drop in a line today :)

Sundal - Happy Dasara!

Dear foodies,

A very Happy Dasara to all of you!

I could not go through Dasara and not make sundal, that would be blasphemous! I used to look forward to this festival so I can go around hogging on sundal, not just made my mom but everyone in the neighbor hood :P (now don't you bring this up!) So here goes this year's quota,

Ingredients:

• 1 can - Chickpeas, or dry beans, soaked overnight and pressure cooked until tender but still holding shape.
• 1 tsp - Mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds
• 1 tsp - Chana dal
• 1 tsp - finely chopped Green chillies
• 1 nos -Red chili
• 5-6 nos - Curry leaves
• a pinch of Asafoetida/hing
  
• 2 Tbsp - grated, fresh Coconut
• 2 tsp - Oil
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat a suate pan with oil on medium heat. Add the mustard and cumin seeds, when they start splutering add the dal. As they start turning a deep orange add the chopped green chilli, saute for a minute, then the broken red chili and curry leaves with a pinch of asafoetida.
2. Next add the chickpeas, salt and saute for 3-4 mins. Since they are pre-cooked, we only need to get them coated well with the seasonings. Before turning off the heat add the grated coconut and saute for an additional minute, cover and let it rest for a sometime so the flavors blend together.

Thats it, you are all done. You can add chopped green mango to this recipe in the last step like I did here. I seem to have done much better in the cooking department when I was still in school! hmph!!

My mother would make sundal with a different legume/bean every day for Navratri. I've only tried it with chickpeas and lima beans until now. Peanuts, chana dal, moong dal, kala chana, dry green/white peas, blackeyed peas can all be used. I am sure I've left out a few more options but you get the idea right ? :)

Enjoy your day :)

Should I too ?

Dear foodies,

What say you ?
If you've already been here (psst, its her b'day today) and here, then you know what I am talking about. Its NaBloWriMo time, ok ok, don't run, its National Blog Writing Month! I have always tried to blog more often but I never really do it, so this is going to be another attempt, to post every single day this month, well if not everyday, then hopefully every week day :) (see, I've already made room for excuses!!)

But hey, Happy Navaratri to all of you!

Have the celebrations begun at your place ? Here is a photo of the kolu/bommala koluvu/doll arrangement in my home at Hyd by my mother. This is a fun festival for kids I think, (not that the rest aren't :P), I remember helping my mom set-up a zoo, a village scene, cricket ground, temple scene and so many more each year, and this was just for the area beside the main arrangement. There isn't one this time :(

On the topmost level is the Ashtalakshmi set, below that the Dasavatharam (no, its not Kamal hassan! can you believe that all the results for a google search of the word relate to the movie!!) collection and below that in the chettiar family, the cutest of the lot. We had an older pair of dolls with the famous wobbling head, but over the years they got chipped. They represent the business class and have tiny vessels containing grains, salt and spices. We had other dolls to depeciting various mythalogical characters over the years, like Lord Rama, Lakshmana, Sita and Hanuman; Radha-Krishna; and then there were dancers, soldiers and many others. Each family has their own unique collection and some handed down through generations. My mom has three main steps this year with two tinier ones at the bottom (odd numbered always), we've also had six main steps a few years, aah miss those days. I have so many little stories connected to this festival, but I can't use up all of then in one day right?, so stay tuned :D

Now tell me what you did or how you remember celebrating it as a child ? I'm off to listen to the VP debate now.

Vinayaka Chavithi Shubhakankshalu

Dear foodies,

Happy Vinayaka Chavithi to all! 

These are the rava ladoo's my mother made when she was here, infact she made them more than a couple of times for my brother since it's his fav sweet. Yes, I enjoyed them too, but he owns the sweet tooth :D 

The recipe is similar to the one I posted here. Adjust the sugar according to your taste, start with a 1: 1/2 ratio of rava and sugar and then increase the amount of sugar from there. If you are familiar with the sweetness of the sugar you use, then this should be an easy guess without the need for tasting. Another variation of this recipe would be to replace a portion of the rava with roasted urad dal flour or roasted moong dal flour. Just as I have been telling in all my Indian sweet recipes, don't skimp on the ghee! 

Traditionally, Kozhakattai or modak are made on this day along with savory rice dumplings called undrallu. Its basically a upma made from rice rava, which is moulded into oval/round balls and steam cooked like idlies. Its served with puli-inji, a tamarind-ginger based gojju. I thought I had posted a recipe for it and dug out my archives only to realize they weren't there, so it'll be coming soon.Enjoy the festival in whatever measure you plan to celebrate and spread that smile on your face to everyone around you :)

I found this photo in my archives today, could be from a couple of years back. This is at my home in Hyd.

and here is one from this year's Varalakshmi Vratam

Happy Rakhi!

Dear foodies,

to a bond that can only grow stronger...

P.S: I caught the crocheting bug from Nupur and am close to finishing my first bag. I used yarn and the left over threads from this project to make the Rakhi!

Bobatlu/Poli

Dear foodies,

The festive season has started in India, atleast at my home it has! Tomorrow, Friday, my mother will be performing the Varalakshmi vratam. Its a major puja at my home and my mother puts in a lot effort every year decorating the altar and getting all the neivedyam ready. You can see the photos from the year before last in this post. The alankaram for the Goddess is done with great detail including the pattu pavadai or saree, a handmade flower piece for the hair, jewelery and the flowers. My mother and I would usually sit the previous night and get all the decoration done, will I was only a sidekick, so is my father :) I miss home the most on these occassions, they have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Every festival has its own pattern to follow and a set of customs unique to it. Its not so much about the religious aspect but more about the joy of celebrating as a family and sharing it with everyone around you. Festivals just perk up our moods and when everyone around you is that way, there is no room for conflict. I also feel that they set such deeply embedded memories in you that you will cherish for life, its tough to remember the years past otherwise :P I will post pictures from this year's puja once my father sends them over.

So since my mother is going to have a huge spread laid out for tomorrow, here is a tiny token for you and me to share. She made poli (or bobatlu or puran poli) one of my favorite sweets when she was here. I tried to take as many photos as I could while successfully irritating her in the process :D

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 1 cup - Channa dal
• 1 1/2 cup - Jaggery
• 1/2 cup - grated Coconut
• 2-3 nos - Elaichi/cardamom, powdered
• 1/4 tsp - dry Ginger powder

Method:

• Filling: Pressure cook the chana dal for one whistle (or in a saucepan). It should still hold its shape but yield under pressure when gently squeezed between your fingers. Drain and allow to cool for a while. Grind the dal with jaggery along with the elaichi and ginger powder(to fight all the channa dal, you don't want to be reading this later :D ) to a smooth paste.
  
• If you find that the filling is too watery, heat it on low flame and cook, stirring frequently until it dries up.

Dough:

• 1 cup - Maida/All purpose flour
• 1/2 cup - Wheat atta/flour
• 2 Tbsp+ - Oil
• a pinch of salt and turmeric
• Water
  

Method:

• Dough: Make a soft and pliable dough by mixing the flours, salt and turmeric with the oil and required amount of water. For a soft poli, use more oil than water to make the dough. The oil combined with the maida will result in the elastic dough which will hold more of the filling without tearing apart while rolling. Once kneaded, smear oil over the dough and cover loosely with a damp cloth to avoid drying.

• Assembly: Oil your palms, rolling pin and rolling surface well. (use as little flour as possible for lasting softness of the poli). Take a lime sized ball of the dough, flatten it into a ~5"dia circle and form it into a cup shape by placing it on your palm, place a slightly lesser sized ball of poornam into in and seal the opening with the dough. (ref. Photo above)
  
{To form the cup shape by hand, flatten the dough between your palms, hold it with both your hands, 4 fingers of each hand covering the base of the dough and the thumb placed inside. The dough is then rhythmically passed between the fingers with the thumb forming the cup. Very hard to explain with words and I don't have any good pics :( There is one on this post, step 4).

• Once you have the stuffed balls formed, take a wide plastic sheet, we used a ziploc bag cut open, smear it with a little oil and place a ball in the center, cover with another sheet on top and roll the dough it into a circle. Using the plastic sheet totally reduces the need for flour and makes the rolling a lot easier. (ref. Photo above)
• Heat a tawa/cast iron pan on medium heat, place a rolled poli and let it cook completely on one side before flipping it. (use the appearance of tiny brown spots as an indication to flip) Since there is enough oil in the dough you will not need any in this step.
  
• When cooked on both sides, smear them with a little ghee before taking it off the heat.
  

Poli is a decadent sweet treat and can be savored hot or at room temperature. I like to eat it with sugar sprinkled on top and some warm milk poured over it. My dad likes to have it with sugar dusted on top and a drizzle of honey all over, and my brother, well he'll have it anyway you give it to him :) This is a sweet that you might indulge in very rarely, so don't skimp on the oil or the ghee when you do or all the effort you put in will not be rewarded with the same amount of satisfaction.

Kozhakattai/Modak is a sweet made specifically on Varalakshmi vratam, for other Indian sweet recipes on my blog click here. Have a lovely puja at home if you follow this custom and drop me a comment sharing your experience.

Christmas Fever !

Dear Foodies,

Merry Christmas - with Kalakhand

Did you guys catch the Christmas fever too ?? There is something about this festival that I have always loved ! Whether it is the beautifully decorated Christmas tree, or the red, white and green colors that take over everything and every one or was it the carols we got to sing .... maybe it was because of the convent school I studied in which intertwined my memories of school days with those of Christmas. Being a Hindu, Christmas is not part of our tradition, but celebrate it we did ! We had neighbors and family freinds who celebrated the festival and so it has been part of my childhood, making it very much part of me.

During Christmas vacation, my friends and I would create hand made greeting cards for the Sisters at the convent and go to school on Christmas day to give them the cards and get loads of goodies in exchange. I now think we had a couple of very close family friends who celebrated Christmas, that meant more cards and tons of goodies. Each had their own specialty, one made the best fruit cake, another churned out the most flavorful and crunchy rose cookies and ginger ale...another made a sweet whose name I don't quite remember now.... On the whole we had about 5 families in the neighborhood and there was the convent.

The whole day was packed visiting each house, ooh'ing and aah'ing at the decorations and eagerly waiting for the sweet treats. Looking back, I have to admit, the best part of the day would be the smile on their faces when they saw our cards and were touched that we made it ourselves and hand-delivered it to them...

Joy of sharing...

The celebrations at school would begin at the start of December with competitions for the best Christmas play and carol singing. If I remember correctly, my group one the first prize during my last year at school. And it was not plain vocal singing, we would have a guitarist and some music playing in the background too. So with all those years of carol singing I know quite a few of them and love listening to them even now.

Another fabulous thing about Christmas was the aroma of fresh fruit cake wafting out of every little bakery on the road. It is just impossible to stay away from them, even if you were the most staunch non-believer of the festival.

Wrapped to flatter..

Christmas here in the US is all the more beautiful, with the snow laden trees and houses, the magic spreads into everything you do. The stores are all decked up, everyone makes the extra effort to beautify things around them. People in general are in high spirits & you are enveloped in a feeling of goodness and cheer all through the month. (Well, I am going to keep the issue of Food TV and gift stores going totally overboard with things, just to keep the cheer going on !! )

Now if you are wondering about the photographs, we have a potluck luncheon on our floor today at office and I made some Kalakhand. I wanted to make something Indian and I was juggling between Rasgulla and Kalakhand and decided on the later cos its easier to eat at a potluck. I wrapped each one in plastic wrap and due to the fever I've caught, I tied a little bow with red and white threads. I placed them on the table this morning and have been getting compliments ever since. Yayyyy !! Not many could place the cardamom in the sweet and were left wondering how it was made, and what was that mysteriously good flavor...ummmm I also added some saffron this time, giving it the pretty yellow color (Manisha, thanks for asking !) (Now you know why the whole post is overflowing in goodness ...hehehe)

Merry Christmas !

Deepavali Treats # 1

Dear Foodies,

A VERY HAPPY DEEPAVALI TO ALL !!

I really really miss being at home for Deepavali, some how this festival shares a very special place in my heart. Its probably because of the goodies mom makes or the Lakshmi Puja at home or the new dresses that Daddy buys for all of us or the fire crackers or the festive look in the house and the neighbourhood or the non-stop Deepavali special shows on TV or its just ALL of them.

Every year we kids in our street would have a competition of who light's the first cracker for Deepavali. And so, my brother and I would be up at 4:00 am in the morning, not to get ready for an oil bath, not to help mom with the preps... but to get the first 100 wala lit on the road !!! And the excitement in the air would be really infectious, and one after the other for abt 30 mins everyone in the street would hear 100 wala's and 500 wala's going off instead of their boring alarms. And that would begin the wonderful day for us :) No matter how splendid the fireworks display in the US is, I would still prefer our small bijili pattasu, flower pots, sparklers, rocket bomb and Vishnu chakra any day !! When I was a kid, I would roam around the whole day with a gun filled with roll caps with a cowboy look and pride on my face :D And when all is over, in the night when we collect all the trash papers we would toss in a few roll caps and serpent tablets for that finishing touch :D The whole day was just AWESOME !!

Read the list of fireworks industries based in Sivakasi, one could call it the fireworks capital of India, here and its history here ( .pdf file).

Being in school, I havent found time to make anything for the Big Day. But well, there has to be a silver lining somewhere rite, its Deepavali !! And here it is, tomorrow, that is on the eve of Deepavali we have a concert by none other than the outstanding carnatic vocalist, Sudha Ragunathan rite here in the university, just 10 mins from where I am now :-) Its being organised by SABHA. Hats off to SABHA !! Well I bet all of you have heard Sudha Ragunathan, if you havent please do listen to her render a carnatic song and you will be enthralled for life :-)

Well back to the food part of this blog, every Deepavali my mother makes boondi laddu and kara mixture at home apart from other sweets & savouries. She makes them in huge quantities too and a major portion is for sharing with relatives and friends and neighbours. Deepavali is a traditional Indian 'Thanksgiving' thing.

This year though, my mother did not carry her usual enthusiasm as both my brother and I are here in the US. But well, God has His own way of getting things done :-). So my pedamma (Aunt) volunteered to make a bigger batch of treats to share with us for our naivedyam and my mom did a beautiful job at photographing every stage of the laddu making process. After looking at the pictures I felt me writing out the recipe would be redundant !! Have a look at them yourself.

All thanks to Vee for hosting the JFI-Diwali, its a wonderful idea and has lit up all our blogs. Its bringing in the festive look I was missing staying away from home :-) THANK YOU VEE

So here goes the recipe for the laddu our the family, my aunt making them, my mom photographing it, and me happily blogging about it :-) (The recipe for home-made mixture is in the previous post)

~ Boondi Laddu ~

This plate is on its way to Vee's JFI-Diwali

Ingredients:

• 1 cup - Besan

• 1 1/2 cup - Sugar

• 1 tbsp - Rice flour

• 5 nos - Cardamom/Elaichi, powdered

• 10 nos - Cloves/Lavang

• A pinch of saffron color

• Few kalakand pieces

• Water for sugar syrup

Procedure:

1. Prepare the sugar syrup, by adding required amount of water and boiling it till u get the one-string consistency(see second pic below for the 1-string test). Add some saffron color and reserve.
   
   
2. Make a batter with the besan by adding required amount of water to get a bajji batter like consistency i.e., the batter needs to be slightly runny.
3. Heat oil in a kadai and on a medium flame. Now pour a spoonful of the batter into the slotted spoon and rub the batter in to make it fall like tiny droplets into the oil. You can use either a rounded spoon/cup/your hand to do this. Be very careful though.
   

   
   
4. Fry the boondi on a medium flame. Dont wait till they get crisp, remove when 3/4th done and dunk them into the reserved sugar syrup.
5. When all the boondi is done toss in the lavang and kalkand pieces in too and make small laddu's of the mixture. This is easiest when the mixture is hot. If it has already cooled down you can re-heat till the sugar melts a little bit or you can use a little milk to moisten your hands while making the laddus. The use of milk will reduce the shelf life of the laddus though !
6. The next is to wait until the naivedyam is done to pounce on the laddus :-)