Its all about how I started loving Pears :)

I admit I am not a big fan of pears but I love to include all fresh fruits in my meal or daily diets. There is no best reason than ongoing food blog events to practice that :) .

Specially when the choice is such good and healthy too. Charming lady Raaga is hosting AFAM this month with the nice choice of lovley pears. Pears - many people like it for its tastes , some for its texture and juiciness and many others love it all reasons :p .

MBP-Drinks

After searching for a while in different blogs , my search for MBP-Mixed Drinks ended lastly with the Seema's Rose Ice cream Soda.

Balanced breakfast & unplanned click.

I just don't wanted to miss participating in WBB "balanced Breakfast" for this month . Mansi of Fun and Food is having this nice theme this month , which actually is easy to participate too. Balanced good nutritious food for breakfast is easy to manage when you cook less for it , instead choose to have raw items , as cooking will lessen its nutritious values . For a beans lover like me it was not a problem, but balancing it took few mins to decide what exactly I should have. And here I am , with Vitamin C enriched Orange Juice, Brown Rye Bread with little bit of pineapple jam and over night soaked Mung (green grams) with little salt and pepper sprinkled over it. Combining all these is enough to get me going till 1-2 p.m., without craving for anything more tasty. Anda perfect combination of vitamins , proteins & carbohydrates with little sugar for balanced diet too.Well I am such a huge fan of green gram that I can eat it whole day in different forms without complaining for anything :D .


Not only this, while trying to take picture for the above dish , I got this lovely pic and suddenly clicked few more shots of it , to see the result. I loved the way orange color of Jam reflects in the metal butter spoon. So here it goes to Bee& Jai for Click-Metal this month . If you are planning to click something with Metal , Don't forget that the last date for this is 30th not 31st :) .


Don't forget to vote for your favorite entry among VoW-Brinjal roundup for 3 different categories. Your vote is important to choose a well deserving candidate. Keep voting till 24th , I will publish all the vote comments on 24th March when declaring the winner, If there is no tie between 2 or more. If there is tie between 2 or more we shall keep another round of voting for that tie only. So please keep voting & also cook some Bitter gourd ;) to be a part of VoW-Bittergourd which we will celebrate up to 15th April.
Have fun around with cooking for different ongoing events , will see you in my next post ,till then be happy and keep cooking :~

Potatoes in Yogurt Sauce

A quick spicy dish for yogurt lover Sia for her event Ode to potatoes .

Ingredients:
4-5 small potatoes boiled.
1 cup yogurt.
2 tsp oil .
1/2 tsp kitchen king masala.
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds .
1/2 tsp turmeric powder.
salt to taste
2 tsp cumin- coriander seeds powder.

Recipe:
Remove skin from boiled potatoes and keep it aside.Let it cool then prick the potatoes with a fork . In a separate bowl mix the turmeric powder , salt yogurt and 1 cup water .beat it untill there is no lumps in the mixture. In a pan heat the oil to medium add cumin seeds to it , then carefully place the potatoes into the pan and then pour the yogurt mixture to it , while adding this turn heat to low keep it cooking on low tomedium heat for a while . Add kitchen king Masala and red chillo powder to it . cook it for a while as yougert thickens the oil portion will start floating over the curry . at this stage add cumin coriander powder and little salt if needed.Cover and cook until potatoes become tender and gravy becomes half to original size. Turn off the heat .

This curry need time to get its real taste.As you will keep it aside for 1 hour or so , the potatoes absorbs more of the tastes of gravy and tastes better. I like it better even the next day. This goes well with rice and Paratha.
Thanks Sia for lovely event , Hope you will have fun rounding it up with another plenty of lovely entry. I really enjoyed making this much forgotten dish . What better can be the time of cooking this than for you :)

Mingling of "yellow" and "one dish dinner " :) .

Let me think how to explain Khaman to someone , who has never seen and tested it.
Its a steam cooked pancake made using chickpeas flour .The final result of which is a very spongy cake , which we serve by cutting in dimond like pieces and then do a Tadka with Green chillies ,mustard seeds , curry leaves and asafoetida. Now if you dont know what the word "Tadka " means , then go through the recipe and I hope It will clear all your doubts :).
There is a nice traditional way to make this "Khaman" ( I will share it here sometime later, and then link this back to that too). Although the instant way to make it is highly recommended for novice cooks, also it make a great dish in hurry for experienced people too.
I use Gits Instant Khaman Pack to make it quickly for Zorra's event . Weekend was weird with blogger problems and my schedule too .Thanks to Zorra as she agreed to accept it if posted by today.

Ingredients :
1 pack of Gits Instant Khaman Mix.
2 tsp oil,
240 ml of water
little oil for greasing

For Tadka :
2 tsp oil,
3-4 green chillies cut into thin rings,
8-10 curry leaves (optional)
pinch of asafoetida powder
1 tsp mustard seeds ,
1 tsp sesame seeds(optional ) ,
1 tsp shredded fresh coconut (optional)

Method:
In a big bowl take 2 tsp oil, the instant khaman material and exactly 240 ml or 8 Oz. water .
Mix in all together well such as there are no lumps left in the mixture.
To make the Khaman more spongy take care to mix these all with minimum possible stirring. As this will left the bubble in the mixture which helps great to make it more spongy. Stirring too much will reduce the bubbles .
Pour this batter into a well greased backing trays. Steam cook it on high flame for 15 minutes.
I used pressure cooker and cooked it using 2 cooker pan. While using pressure cooker , remove whistle from it.
After 15 minutes low the flame and check it is cooked well to check this , insert a clean knife into it, if it comes out clear, nothing sticked to it , consider it cooked. Now take these pans out of cooker, let it cool for five minutes and cut them into diamond shapes.

Now for Tadka ,
Heat 2 tsp oil and , while hot add 1 tsp of mustard seeds and curry leaves to it , turn of the heat. add asafoetida powder mix well, If using sesame seeds and coconut then add those too and mix well together. Spread it evenly on the cut Khaman pieces and sever hot .Khaman meant to be eat as this only , still if you like try it with some chutney , it goes well that way too.
I was glad to see this final result of it , when my Khaman turned out to be more fluffy / spongy than it is shown in the picture of Gits package . This goes straight to Zorra for the celebration of Women's Day .
I bet Zorra , you can't get yellower than this :) . Thanks a lot for organizing event to celebrate womanhood , Its a great pleasure to be part of this event .

Not only this, A slight addition to this dish and a lovely dish is ready to enjoy.
Sev khamani is a famous dish originated from Surat city of Gujarat state in India.Now almost the same popular with all part of state and a very tasty dish to enjoy at any time of day. For me it goes well as light dinner dish or sometimes as a brunch .


To make Sev Khamani,
Take the Khaman, made crumbs of it and add fine Besan sev to it ,add a tsp of lime juice and garnish with coriander leaves and if you like add a little bit of spicy chutney and pomegranate seeds . While eating mix well all together.
A perfect combination of sweet , sour and spicy dish .

This favorite dish of mine now goes straight to Gorgeous Meeta for her One dish Dinner theme this month.
Thank you Meeta for hosting this, Its been pleasure to be a part of your event.

Reminder:

If you Haven't cooked anything with Brinjal /eggplant yet then still there is days left to submit it, cook it soon and submit it, and as you know you can submit something already posted too .

The last date to submit the entries for VoW - Brinjal is 15th March 2008.

For more details and rules click on the logo in the side bar. And have Happy time in your kitchen cooking eggplant :) .