YaaaHoooooo - My First Muffins !!

Dear Foodies,

( Click on the photo to enlarge )

I was sick and tired of sitting in front of the computer screen all day y'day and decided to make some muffins last night. I had laid my eyes on Saffron Hut's Banana Nut muffins and knew that I had to try them. The best part of the recipe was it dint call for eggs and Saffron assured us that the muffins turned out just as fluffy as any other. I avoid eggs as much as possible as I cant take their smell/texture. So this recipe was just perfect for me. But well.....I had also read Vaishali's Jam-in-the-hole muffins and could not resist making use of this idea.

And so a trip a to the grocery store followed, bought some banana's and along came a box of hard-to-resist strawberry's and raspberry's and no points for guessing where they ended up :-)

I am not going to add the recipe here as I hardly changed anything of significance in the original. I used a little more than 1 1/2 cups of flour and so I added some milk to get the desired dough consistency. I first half-filled the muffin cups and put in a dollop of jam in a few and a few others got the berry's. I was a bit over-confident with my batter and filled the muffin cups just 3/4 expecting them to explode out of the cups !! Well they thought otherwise & dint puff out as much ... as you can see. But they were nice and fluffy, so next time (which is tonight :D) I will probably fill them nearly upto the top so I can get the muffins to raise over the cups' edge. And also I should probably grease the paper cups a bit or add a lil more butter to the dough, as the muffins stuck to the cup at the base.

Well the other thing I did while making them was take a lot of photos, so instead of the recipe I am going to put in the pictures :-) and see if you can spot any of my soft toys :D

Muffin cups ready to take in the batter

Half full cups with the jam/berrys

The filling covered with some more batter and ready for the oven

Hot out of the oven :-) You can see the jam oozing out of a few.

Muffins ready to dig your teeth into :-)

Loads of hugs and Thank yous to Saffron and Vaishali for their recipes and ideas :-) This is a muffin recipe I am going to treasure.

I am going to parcel a few off to Anthony's Curry Mela and Nandita's Weekend Breakfast Blogging :-)

Lime-Ginger Rasam

Dear Foodies,


I'm back after vanishing for quite sometime and I guess this is going to go on until I get out of school ! :-( I havent been taking any pictures of the food I am cooking either and so I have been nagging my mother more than ever to send me photos and recipes :-)

Here is a wonderful rasam recipe from her.This rasam is refreshingly different from the rest, it does not call for any tamarind or rasam powder. Yes...NO rasam powder needed :-). So when you get bored of the sambar/pulusu/usual rasam recipes that use tamarind as the base, then do give this one a try. It is also one of my favourite rasams and soo all the more hype ;-)

Ingredients:

for rasam:

• 2 nos - Ripe Tomatoes, halved

• 4 nos - Green Chillies

• 2 nos - 1 inch piece of crushed Ginger

• 1 no - Lime or 2 Tbsp lime juice

• 1 sprig - Curry Leaves

• 1/2 cup - Coriander leaves
  

• 1 cup - Toor dal, boiled and mashed

• Salt to taste

for seasoning:

• 1 tsp - ghee

• 1 tsp - Mustard seeds

• 1 tsp - Jeera/Cumin seeds

Procedure:

1. Boil one cup of toor dal and mash it well once cooked.
2. In a vessel, add 3 cups of water and toss all the rasam ingredients except the dal and lime juice and curry leaves( i.e tomatoes, crushed ginger,coriander, chillies and salt)
3. Bring the rasam to a boil, the tomatoes would have lost shape by this time.
4. Add in the cooked dal now and mix well to get rid of lumps and bring the rasam to a boil again. You could add a lil rasam powder now if you want.
5. In a separate pan, heat the ghee and add in the mustard seeds and jeera and a few curry leaves. Once the seeds start popping add it to the rasam.Also add in the juice of one lime or its equivalent.
6. Serve hot with rice or enjoy it as a soup :-)

And now this hot rasam is off to Anthony's Curry Mela

A Meme...for Me ME

I am thinking about : Tweetyyyy...the best ever cartoon character !!

I said : isnt tweety cuteee...!!

I want to : fill my bedroom with soft toys of all kinds..!!

I wish : I could get a life size Teddy :-)

I regret : not having a big enough apt to store my soft toys ;-) .....soon my room mates and I will have to find a new apt to live in :D

I hear : the radio playing songs ...non stop

I am : crazy about soft toys and anything that has chocolate and/or coffee

I dance : very very rarely....the party more often than not ends before I can convince myself to shake a leg .. :D

I sing : along with the song currently playing

I cry : at the slightest change/raise of tone of the ppl close to me !! And I have also been a expert in shedding crocodile tears when fighting with my brother :D

I am not : good at maintaining house accounts !!

I dream of : having a room filled with soft toys and owning a complete Enid Blyton book collection

I am with my hands: typing all the time or trying to whip up good food :-)

I write : with a pen pencil most of the time...I prefer them over pens..

I laugh : whenever I can ...with the side effect of making the others around me laugh too !

I confuse : myself and others ...and have gained some expertise there too :D

I value : my soft toys the mostttttttttt ..hehe

I need : more ...more ...and many more soft toys...

Well I did better put up the theme of this meme to be Me...Me and My Soft Toys ....!! ( and I hope everyone reading it got the hint and know what to send me )

RJ-The Ring Leader (My latest buy)

Thank you Annita for tagging me on this Meme :-) And now for me to tag someone with this Meme, its going to be Anita of A Mad Tea Party and Anthony of Anthony's Kitchen from the food blogosphere. I would also like to share it with my friends Aravind and Jaya

A Simple Dish - Aloo Fry

Dear Foodies,


When its raining, and I'm in no mood to cook, and looking for something simple and comforting to eat potatoes come to the rescue. Some aloo fry with steaming rasam or sambar is just heavenly. If you have the patience to make pulka's, there's nothing better.

Infact the first breakfast that I remember eating with relish was chapati and aloo fry. My mother had packed it for one of my Saturday tiffin boxes when in school. Saturdays are generally half days at school and we are back home at 1 with a lil 15 break at around 10. And to eat before I go to school was something I avoided. I just could'nt get myself to eat anything at 8 in the morning. But on that day, I saw chapati's and aloo fry in the tiffin box when I was placing it in the bag and they vanished even before I left home !!


Now to the recipe, it could'nt get any easier !! I use red potatoes or the white/pale yellow colored ones. I just hate the other huge brownish ones that we get at the stores. They are lumpy and dont taste very good either.


Ingredients:

• 5 -6 nos - Red potatoes

• 1 tbsp - Cummin seeds

• 2 tbsp - Red Chilli powder

• 1 tbsp - Urad dal

• 1 tbsp - Channa dal

• 4 tbsp - Oil
  

• Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Wash the potatoes in running water and peel them if you think it necessary. Cut them into small pieces, roughly 1/2 -1 inch. As you cut them, place the pieces in some salt water so that they dont discolor.
2. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in a wide pan. Add the cummin seeds and the dals. I add them for some crunch, so you can change the quantity according to your liking.
3. Once the dals turn a slight reddish color drain and toss in the cut potatoes and salt. Cover with a lid and cook. Stir every few minutes to see that the potatoes dont get burnt/charred. You can add extra oil if needed.
4. When the pieces are cooked i.e they feel soft when held, add in the chilli powdernd mix well.
   
5. Serve hot with rice or chapati's and enjoy your meal :-)

Wheat Rava Khichdi/Dahlia Upma

Dear Foodies,

My mother's entry to Pavani's WBB # 4 event this fortnight
and also to Anthony's Curry Mela :-)
( This pic is a bit blurred, will try putting up a better one soon)

Here comes another wonderful tiffin recipe from my mother. Its a really healthy and very tasty breakfast recipe. Though the recipe is very similar to the usual upma recipe, the taste is distinctly unique. I for one have always hated the normal upma made from rava/sooji. Whenever my mother made it, she had to make something else for me or I would'nt eat. But this was restricted to rava upma alone,I just love this wheat rava khichdi.

I have'nt tried making this upma here, and when my mother sent me the recipe with the pictures, I knew it had to be sent to the WBB event. So here goes the recipe for wheat rava 'Khichdi',

Wheat rava khichdi(Dahlia)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups - Wheat rava (dahlia)

• 1 nos - Onion, sliced

• 1 nos - carrot, julienned/grated
  

• 5 nos - Green chilles, slit across the length

• 2 nos - Red chillies

• 1 sprig - Curry leaves

• 4 Tbsp - Oil

• 1 tsp - Mustard seeds and Channa Dal
  

• Salt to taste

• Coriander leaves for garnish
  

Procedure:

1. In a pan/cooker, heat the oil, and let the mustard seeds splutter, then add the channa dal, chillies, curry leaves and onions. Saute till the onions turn transparent.
   
2. Add the carrots, saute for a while and add 6 cups of water (rava-water ratio is 1:2).
   
3. As the water begins to boil, add the salt and then slowly stir in the Rava, avoiding any lumps.
4. Steam cook the upma for 5-8 mins if using the cooker or cover the pan with a lid and cook for the same amount of time.
   
5. Garnish with coriander and serve hot :-) I just love it with some ginger or tomato pickle and thick curd ;-)
   

Notes:

• You can add vegetables of your liking to the upma. Eg: peas, tomato, potato.

Here is another variation (with better photos).

Rava Ladoo

Dear Foodies,


I made Rava ladoo's this weekend. My brother was coming over to visit me, and rava laddoos are one of his favorite sweets. So I took the brave step of trying to make them for him. They tasted good, but lacked my mom's touch :-( A few of the laddo's were a bit hard and had to be microwaved for a couple of seconds to regain their softeness.

Here is the recipe I followed, making these ladoo's is a lot easier than I thought it was, so do try them out.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - Rava/Sooji (Upma rava)
  

• 2 cups - Sugar ( adjust depending on how sweet u want them, starting from 1:3/4)

• 5-6 nos - Cardamom/Elaichi

• 1/4 cup - Raisins

• 1/4 cup - Cashews/Almonds

• 1 cup - Ghee

Procedure:

• Heat 1 Tbsp of ghee in a wide saucepan and roast the rava in it for a few minutes. When you start getting the pleasant aroma of the rava, switch off the heat and let the rava cool. The rava will have turned a slight orange, do not let it brown though.
  
• Once the rava is cooled, transfer it to a blender along with the sugar and cardamom seeds. Blend them for a few minutes so as to mix the sugar and rava well. But see to it that the rava does not become too fine.
• Heat 1 tbsp of ghee and roast the raisins and cashews/almonds and allow to cool.
  
• Now in a small kadai melt the rest of the ghee, you can reduce the heat to the minimum amount so that the ghee remains in its liquid form until u are done with the laddoos.
  
• Take the rava+sugar mixture in a wide vessel or plate. Separate small portions of the mixture and add required amount of ghee to form small ladoo's. Initially I was placing the dry fruits in each laddoo individually while making them. But towards the end I lost interest and added the dry fruits to the whole mixture !! hehe

My Notes:

• When I was making the first few ladoo's my mind dint let me use just ghee to make the ladoo's and so I was adding a few drops of milk (read it in a website) This did make the process easier but the laddoo's turned out to be hard and were mistaken for Golf balls !!! So dont heisitate to add the required amount of ghee :-)
• You can add coconut pieces roasted in a litlle ghee to the ladoo's too.
• Another variation here, using a combination of roasted urad dal flour and rava.
  

Varalakshmi Vratam

Dear Foodies,

Here are a few photos my mother sent me last week after the Varalakshmi Vratam at our home on August 4th.

Goddess Lakshmi fully decked with jewels and flowers. The alankaram has been done this very same way every year.

The Goddess along with the naivedyam my mother prepared.

A closer look at the delicacies
Clockwise: Idli, Sundal,Pulihora,Rice,Coconut Burfi,Sweet Pongal,Vada,Dahi vada and dal in the center
You can also spot milk,coconut water and assorted fruits

Some neivedyam recipes - Paal payasam, Poli/Bobatlu, Sweet Pongal, Kozhkattai/Modagam,
Temple-style Tamarind Pulihora, Sundal (Sundal again), Rava Idli, Medu Vada & Dahi Vada, Savory Mixture,

Kozhakattai - Sweet Rice dumplings

Dear Foodies,

My mother's entry to JFI-Flour hosted by Santhi

Kozhakattai/Modak are a must during Vinayaka Chathurthi naivedyam spread in Andhra. At my home, it also finds a place in the menu on Varalakshmi Vratam and Garuda Panchami. For the Varalakshmi Vratam puja my mother makes them in a oval shape similar to that of Kajjikayalu and for Vinayaka Chavithi it is modak, a small pouch like shape.

Last Sunday was Naga Panchami (also known as Garuda Panchami in our house) and my mother made the kozhakattai as part of the naivedyam. She has sent me the recipe and the photos on time for the JFI-FLOUR event hosted by Santhi. Garuda Panchami is similar to the Rakhi festival in North India with a slight twist, the sister prays for the well being of her brothers and ties a thread dipped in turmeric on her wrist unlike the Rakhi which is tied on the wrist of her brother. There is also a short story narrating the signifincance of this vratam, I will ask my mother to blog about it soon.

Now to the recipe,

Ingredients:

Filling/Poornam # 1 : coconut poornam

• 1 cup - Coconut, grated

• 1 ½ cup -Jaggery (2 if you want it even sweeter)

• 4-5 nos - Elaichi/Cardamom

Filling/Poornam # 2 : nuvvula poornam

• ½ cup - -Til/Sesame seeds/nuvvulu

• ½ cup - Jaggery

For the dough:

• 1 cup -Rice flour

• 2 cups - Water

• pinch of salt

• ½ tsp - Oil ( preferably sesame seed/gingili oil)

Procedure:

1. Coconut Poornam:

Freshly grated coconut is the best for making the coconut filling. Take a wide pan and toss in the coconut and jaggery and stir till the mixture thickens and starts leaving the sides of the pan. Add the elaichi powder and stir for another half a minute. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and allow it to cool. Freshly grated coconut gives this filling its best taste.

2. Nuvvula Poornam:

Dry roast the sesame seeds till they turn a slight brown. the seeds let out a winderful aroma as you roast them. Cool the sesame and coarsely powder it in a blender. Add fine pieces of jaggery to this and powder.

3. Dough:

In a kadai/vessel bring two cups of water to a boil, add a pinch of salt and 3-4 drops of oil to the water. Once the water comes to a boil, gradually add the rice flour. Hold the ladle in the center of the vessel while adding the flour and then stir continuously for 3 mins on a low flame and then turn off the heat. When the dough is still hot, transfer it to a plate and cover with a wet cloth and knead well to remove any lumps. The wet cloth is to shield your palms from the heat.

4. Kozhakattai:

Have some oil in cup and grease your hands as you make the kozhakattai. Take a lime sized ball of the dough and shape it into a cup with your fingers. First slightly flatten the ball on your palm like a disk, place your thumbs at the center of the disk, and the fingers on the outside and shape like a cup by moving the dough between your fingers.

5. Put a spoon of the filling into the cups and seal it with the dough. You can either make them round or oval in shape.
6. Steam cook the dumplings and serve.

~ Sevai ~

The kozhakattai dough can also be used to make rice noodles or Sevai. Divide the dough into balls and steam cook it for 5-6 mins. When they are still hot, place them in a murukku maker with a fine holed mould and shape them like murukkus. Top them with the til poornam and some ghee.

You can also make lime and coconut sevai, recipe here. Follow the same method you use to make lime rice or coconut rice, but use the rice noodles instead. Sevai are a wonderful and very healthy breakfast/tiffin item. The variations you can try with them are clearly left to your imagination. Do try them out, I promise you will fall in love with them !!

For the Sevai, if you want to try them out with out getting into the dough making process you can look for rice noodles in the Indian grocery stores or in the pasta section in the stores. You just need to boil them in some water just like pasta, but for a shorter period of time. You can then flavor the noodles to your liking.

If you have extra filling, shape them into mini ladoo's for an additional neivedyam item.

This recipe is also my entry to Anthony's Curry Mela this week :-)