An attempt to Spread Love by Cooking

Mingling with Mango

2008-05-23T15:27:00.006-04:00

What to make with Mango for breakfast ? :( , this question puzzled me since the day I heard WBB this month is having Mango theme.
I don't like sweet items in break fast. What else we make with mangoes? Mangoes are always sweet , unless I choose it raw.

But wait we take sugar in coffee and I can choose to make something form like mango juice....

Finally this idea came to my mind and why didn't I had it before. All these had to happen when I am actually rushing to pack for our vacation ? Well, since I think its too quick to make , it will be quick to post too :) .The fact is I just don't wanted to miss participation in WBB -Mango Madness :D.

Just today morning I made Mango thick Shake with little bit of banana too :L .
In a mixture bowl, add 1/2 cup of ripe mango cube, 1/4 of a banana, a tsp sugar and 1/2 cup of milk with 3-4 ice cubes. crush all together till it forms smooth paste, if its too thick add a little bit of milk and little sugar too and grind again. Pour it in to a glass and serve immediately .
Adding a little piece of banana not only helps to get rich thick consistency for this shake but it also gives a completely new taste to this thick shake . what did I think after I pour it in my glass? Just a single click of it ans let me drink it when sun is shining and before it starts raining, out of no where :r.

Well, its not over yet I am going to publish 2 more post which is in draft now. have fun till ,and enjoy these kinda drinks before today it changes from summer to Monsoon :O .

Refreshing Raspberry Cooler

2008-05-22T11:32:00.006-04:00

Weather being extremely unpredictable here.... one day we have extreme hot noon with temperature above 80 all the day, the other day its raining all over the day with 48-55 F temp all day around. Even what i see on weather channels is turning out to be incorrect :( . And I keep on switching on from chilling juices to piping hot soups...
ha ha ha....

On one such hot day ,I thought to treat myself with some nice cooling drink. Thinking on what to make I noticed I had some Raspberries in the fridge. Now a days I keep bringing mint from store every time I do grocery , just the presence of it makes me feel refreshing :). I took a spring of it ,

In a mixture bowl crushed raspberries , mint leaves and a tsp lemon juice with little bit sugar adding a glass of cool water. Strained it in a jug and after keeping it in fridge for another half an hour I had the most refreshing drink ever to enjoy ~~this summer~~ that summer day :D.

I enjoyed one glass of it, and kept another for D to welcome him with :).

Now the final stage is of naming it. Any ideas on what to call this colorful drink ?

Well , just for time being I call it Refreshing Raspberry Cooler. As that came straight from my heart after finishing it all in a single gulp :)) .

As Dee- a berry lover, is hosting AFAM-Raspberries this month, this is off to Dee to be a part of this lovely event :) .

A.W.E.D. - Mexican cutlets

2008-05-07T11:10:00.022-04:00

I posted this Mexican cutlets long back when I had Tomatoes as "Vegetable of the Week ". When Dhivya announced A.W.E.D- Mexican , I was puzzled with what should i cook, as I am not much into Mexican cooking yet. Later I thought to make some dip or salsa to be a part of her event , and then it reminded me of this already posted Mexican cutlets. I really don't have any good option than this to cook Mexican. As sweet Dhivya allowed to get already posted recipes , here is something for you Dhivya. .
Check out here original post and recipe.

While in India Me and hubby were great fan of a restaurant called "New Yorker" which was famous for its Mexican cuisines there. I guess the food they prepared was Mexican with little Indian touch( Just like Indo-Chinese cuisines). They make it little spicy and less cheesy. After I came here , I found that Mexican cuisine is the only good option to eat out for a vegetarian like me, and here I am - A great fan of all vegetarian dishes of Chipotle now , ha ha ha ....

These are some of the most visited Tomato dishes of My Creative Ideas :) .

	Sev Tameta nu Shaak
	Stuffed Tomatoes
	Potato-fenugreek balls in Tomato gravy
	Tomato Paratha
	Green tomatoes in Kidney beans gravy
	Cherry tomatoes and baby potatoes curry
	Mughlai Dal

MBP-One pot wonders & click entry

2008-04-23T14:45:00.013-04:00

Ever since I saw it on Trupti's blog I liked that idea very much , I made it once and now just like Aloo-Poha this another tasty version is a regular dish in my meals. I love it for its tastes and lovely yellow color :) . When I come to know about MBP theme of this month I knew what I am going to send to Pavani :) .

Here is the original recipe of Trupti's Corn Poha.

I just skipped peanuts in it this time to make a little lighter version of it. . I had this with a glass full of fresh buttermilk :) .Finally I started enjoying spring :D.

This lovely yellowish dish goes to Pavani for her MBP-One pot wonders this month. Thank you for choosing such nice theme Pavani. Eager to see the roundup . One pot meals saves a lot much time in kitchen ;) .

Finally the picture -3 goes to click- Au Naturel .
Thank you all who helped me to resolve my confusion .

This is a picture of Yam & Tomato (Suran aur Tamatar) Salad. You can check out the recipe here.

Note:
VoW for next month is going to tie up with JFI for the month of May - which I am going to host. Will announce the choice for that on the 3rd of May . This month JFI is hosted by loving Jigyasa and Pratibha for which the theme is Jhiva for Love. Don't miss participating that. Keep rocking with your cooking. Meanwhile I sincerely hope to publish my due posts for Arusuai Ingrdients :) .

P.S. -Today is the last day to vote for VoW-bittergourd entries. Drop in your vote for the entries you like so that we can choose a deserving dish for each category :)

Entry for RCI-Bengal And VoW Bitter Gourd.

2008-04-11T11:56:00.017-04:00

This blogging things are really funny sometimes . Not funny as we cook and publish something , the funny things happens even before we start cooking . With lovely blog events going on around & searching appropriate recipe to be a part of that is little amusing for me lately :D .

I tried searching for some Bengali recipe until I get very convincing recipe that made me feel sure that it’s a sure shot Bengali not any modified version when I check the header part of that post I found that it is of Sandeepa herself ( For whose event I was searching for that recipe :D ) :O.

And recently when I tried to see if something very different than usual I can find to cook with bitter gourd the results I got was even more funny than previous case. As what I see those were the posts of food bloggers participating in VoW-bittergourd . I literally had fun seeing this and I laughed out loud alone in home , and that was another height of fun for me and afterwards feeling that I was laughing alone in the home that time it sounded even more funny to me….…

Well , that day I did really a nice favor to Google by browsing for almost 1 hour more with different search keywords to just see who is listed where :O .

Someday if you are getting bored looking at just the programming screen with green and orange colors of errors and keywords of programming language , try it to entertain yourself . Fun guaranteed 100 % , ha ha ha.

Just Imagine , that you are searching for some recipe with little perfection and up to your liking , you are trying to search it on Google first, then may be on blogsearch of google and then may be by images and finally you are landing on your own blog post which you posted far ago :O . I mean what more funny than this can be ,he he he .

But a serious thought about it that it is really a good thing that we have achieved a milestone for something at least where we are famous in virtual cooking world for our recipes. Isn’t it feels satisfactory?

I believe all food bloggers would like this. So funny and yet satisfactory what else one want from life… life is all about having fun in the things we do and feel immensely satisfied by our hard work and achievements , isn’t it ? Then you all buddies around be happy coz your life is having this good quality and no matter how new blogger you are you can achieve this one day . Slow and steady always wins : )

Now without taking much time here is the Dal with Bitter gourd , as they call it Tetor Dal in Bengal region of India. I have adapted the recipe from Sandeepa’s blog. With little modifications here is my recipe to it. Easy to make and not bitter at all.So if you don't love bitter gourd it would be a good recipe to include in your menu to get benefits of eating bitter gourd.

Tetor Dal Ingredients:
1 cup Mung Dal (Split green gram without skin) .
1 cup chopped bottle gourd
½ cup chopped bitter gourd.
1 tsp mustard seeds ,
1 tsp ginger paste,
1 tsp Ghee,
Pinch of asafoetida ,
½ tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp cooking oil.

Method :

Cook Mung dal until it is soft and mushy. Keep it aside , roughly shred and cut bitter gourd in to medium cube like pieces and peel and cut bottle gourd in long pieces. Check out Sandeepa’s post for the way it should be cut in for this dish mostly.

In a Kadhai or non stick pan take oil and fry the bitter gourd pieces till they are slightly crispy. Remove it and in the same oil add mustard seeds and asafoetida powder then add bottle gourd pieces along with ginger paste. Cook it for a while, it will not take much for bottle gourd to get half cooked . Then Add turmeric powder and mashed boiled moong dal too it. Along with 2-3 cups of water . Let this cook on medium heat till it gets little thick consistency and mix thoroughly. Next add fried bitter gourd to it and cook for another 2-3 mins. Finally add 1 tsp of ghee to it mix well and turn off the heat . Adding ghee to it gives it a nice fragrance, and it’s the traditional way to cook it with ghee only. I have just changed it to suit my taste.

This dal turn out to be not bitter at all ( I guess it's due to ghee added in it was tasting heavenly very good), just slight bitterness you will feel when you really get the bitter gourd piece to eat. As this was my first attempt with it, I cooked it along with aloo-bhindi to serve with roti and rice . Next time onwards I don’t think that I will need to prepare any other veg main course dish to make my meal perfect. Both of us really liked it. Goes well with rice or roti too.

This goes to as my entry to RCI-Bengal as well as to VoW-Bittergourd too : ) .

My other bitter gourd post is on its way to appear soon , Stay tuned to both the blogs as I have each day full with posts now. You have still 5 full days left to send your entries for RCI-Bengal , Dosa mela & VoW-Bitter gourd .

Also our ever enthusiastic Jai and Bee are hosting WHB this week , you can send in your entry by Sunday 3 p.m. to them . So keep on sharing your love by cooking to all of us :) .

And if you haven't checked it yet, Check out my Mystery masala of Arusuvai here .

Ghaaroda - A Pancake for Dosa Mela.

2008-04-07T10:55:00.009-04:00

A very good morning to all of you :) Here I am with this lovely breakfast dish for you all :) . Drop in to enjoy it.
Here is one of the best dish I can make(this is so easy that anyone can make it ;) ) and a big hit in my house :~. Also whenever I shared the idea of this pancake to others, they always liked it . You know why ? Coz it is the best way to use left over rice. Take some cooked rice and Besan(chick peas flour) and some other Ingredients and thats it. It is easy to make and delicious in taste. try it for yourself ... We call it "Ghaaroda " .

We often make this when we have some left over rice . It is a Gujarati recipe. My mom used to make it for snack time, and we all together used to enjoy it hot . It makes a perfect breakfast/ brunch in hurry. I posted this in initial days of my blogging, so its very dear to me in that way too :) .

Srivalli's Dosa mela is a perfect chance to share it with you again , in case you missed to check this dish . Check out its recipe Here .
Srivalli , even if I think of making something today there is nothing better than this I have for pancake/dosa.

I will be back with some bitter gourds for RCI and secret ingredient's answers . I didn't mean to keep you waiting for the real answers, its just that I am much occupied with some ongoing things . Till then stay tuned and keep sending your entries for VoW-Bittergourd :L .

Garlic Pickle

2008-04-04T14:09:00.004-04:00

Back in India We once purchased Garlic pickle ,as both of us like Garlic too much . But some how the taste of that that ready made pickle was such that it made me dislike Garlic for a while :( , at least when ever I saw that jar it didn't tempted me to try it again :v . When I come to hear about JFI-Garlic, immediately I thought to make this :D .
I googled for its recipe :f , but somehow I found none of them up to my liking . As I had pickle masala on hand I thought to make my own version of pickle with garlic . I added the fragrant ingredients of my liking and it turned out the best Pickle I ever had. Here is my recipe of Garlic pickle.

Ingredients:
1 cup garlic cloves( if too big then cut into half)
1/2 cup mustard oil. ( or anyone you like - traditionally we use mustard seeds oil for making pickles)
1/2 cup pickle masala( if you dont have this ready made then follow this simple process . Take coarsly grounded fenugreek seeds(methi na kuriya) ,coarsly grounded mustard seeds( Rai na kuriya) and red chilli powder in the proportion of 1:2:2 . Mix all together with slight hing(asafoetida powder ) and little turmeric powder - pickle masala is ready to use. )
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp fennel seeds(saunf )
salt to taste
Lime juice to preserve .

Method:
In a small pan heat the oil, when little hot first add the garlic cloves, remember to cut them in halves if they are too big. in a medium to slow flame let it fry till it turn yellow to slightly brown next add pickel masala and fennel seeds, salt and coriander seeds to it.
Mix all together very well and turn off the heat. Add 2 tsp lime juice to it. Let it cool and store in a air tight container. You can serve it fresh though this tastes best after 2 days . while storing it check that the proportion of oil should not be less i.e. oil level should be such that garlic cloves should be dip into oil.This way it can be store for a long time at room temperature.
Its simple , easy to make and full of wonderful flavor of fennel and coriander . With all such qualities in a tiny spoon of this pickle I feel it impossible to ignore it :D .

This flavorful spicy pickle goes to Mathy for JFI-Garlic this month. Thank you Mathy for choosing Garlic :) .

Its all about how I started loving Pears :)

2008-03-31T13:42:00.001-04:00

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 .
And I always wonder why others like it so much :O , so when it comes to eat some fresh Pears I see this chart of its nutrient value and prepare my mind to love it so that I can happily eat it :D. Till now I never tried anything with Pears :x , I normally eat it as it is. And I believed that fruits are to eat as it is , anything more I ever do with any fruit then it is to make some Smoothies/Juices from it. My cooking experiments with fruits are really limited , this time for a little change I think to give this Pears Salsa recipe a try . And I am glad that I tried it. Trying a recipe is like searching for a Gem , if you will try you can get one some day.

Here is the recipe :

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped pears(any variety )
1 cup chopped tomatoes (any variety )
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 tsp lime juice
1/4 cup chopped coriander
salt & pepper to taste .

Wash and cut pears into cubes. In a bowl take all other ingredients mix in pear cubes with that. Sprinkle lime juice over it and serve fresh. It was tasting better than I expected . Sweet pears , tangy cherry tomatoes , onion and lime juice all together creates a wonderful taste to this salsa as if all tasty things packed together in each spoon . It goes along together with anything as side dish , I had this as salad dish though , on side with my regular meal. I was not sure how it will do so I mixed a small amount of it together and kept the rest of it as it is , as this dish was new to hubby too , I left it to him if he wants to have it as Salsa or just a raw salad. And my final verdict is it was tasting much better as salsa than raw Pears salad.

This dish really made me like Pears now a little bit more :z . Thank you Raaga , this credit goes to you :k. If you haven't chosen Pears then I might not have discovered this dish ever . If not anything more with pears then at least I am sure I gonna make this dish many times again now.
If you are someone like me , then you still have one more day to discover your Magic dish with pears , make something and send to her soon .The last date is 1st April , it is not April fool :r .

This also goes to Abby for her MM-Spring fruit sensations.

MBP-Drinks

2008-03-24T15:10:00.001-04:00

After searching for a while in different blogs , my search for MBP-Mixed Drinks ended lastly with the Seema's Rose Ice cream Soda.
Though her drink was in my mind ever since she posted it on her blog, I didn't had rose syrup on my hand and which was restricting me to try it, finally I choose to make it from Roohafza syrup. If you are not aware of "Roohafza" check it out by clicking on it there , even if you are aware of what it is - check it , cause it has something nice shared about that drink , which we might not be knowing earlier. .

You can check out Seema's original recipe for this lovely drink here. Here is my version of it.

Ingredients :
2 tsp of rooh-afza ,
3/4 cup of milk , I used plain milk ,and no cream .
little water about 1/4 cup,
2 Vannila ice cream scoop .

In a small mixture bowl, take all the ingredients together except ice cream and mix it well for a while ,it may take a minute or 2 . In a serving drink ware pour it and then add 2 scoop of vanilla ice cream, serve all chilled a great drink to go along in summer days :).

Summer summer where are you ?...... :(

Other healthy Juices & mocktails I posted Earlier :
(Click on Image to see the drink recipe . )

Note :
If you haven't voted yet , cast your vote to Brinjal dishes in a comment section here. Today is the last day to send your vote. Don't forget to mention the category for which you are voting . Results will be published tomorrow with awards for winners in each category on My creative Ideas :) . See you all after this one day break, Till then stay tuned .... , tin tin tinin :O

Balanced breakfast & unplanned click.

2008-03-20T15:42:00.000-04:00

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

2008-03-14T19:19:00.000-04:00

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 " :) .

2008-03-10T13:05:00.001-04:00

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 :) .

Triangular Garlic Paratha and spicy suki bhaji .

2008-02-29T16:20:00.001-05:00

When I come to know about event for "flat breads" hosted by Chili und Cibabatta , I was sure that i will participate with My triangular Paratha, here just to make it even more tasty I have added Garlic flavor to it. Just a tablespoon of Garlic and whole taste gets wonderful flavor of it. Although if you don't like garlic you can make it simple way without adding garlic to it.

Garlic Paratha( Indian Flat bread):

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour ,
salt to taste,
2-3 tsp oil,
1 tsp garlic paste,

Mix all the ingredients and Knead smooth dough like we make for roti/chapati.
It should be soft enough to make paratha fluffy and soft . While making dough first ass oil and then add some amount of warm water sufficient to make dough soft enough.
Make lemon size balls of it, use dry flour if it is sticking while rolling out, then roll out a little circle of it, spread little oil on half of it and fold it , the n again spread a little bit (just about a single drop or two ) and then fold it again, like it is shown in the pics above.
Next to make a perfect triangle of it just give it a little straight shape from open side of folded triangle ( as shown in first pic below ).

Starting from center to each corner roll out maintaining the same thickness for the whole paratha. one hot iron skillet or tava place this rolled paratha , half cook on one side and then turn it to other side , spread little oil on half cooked side and then turn it again and spread little oil on other side too , cook on medium flam till golden brown on each side . serve hot . It tastes best when accompanied with chutney , spicy curry and Dal.
It is a Regular part of our dinner and it goes well with any of other Indian gravy (check out more of it's recipes on my regular blog here ) .
This garlic flavored Indian flat bread goes to Chili and ciabatta for flat breads this month.
Being an Indian I have many options to participate with , I choose my all time favorite this one to share because of the softness and yet crispiness it has with lovely color of it.
Also check out Cumin Flat bread , which has got a great fan of it through blogging :) .

Here is One Spicy Potato curry which goes very well with it .
Call it Spicy dry curry of Potato , aloo bhaji or Bateka ni suki bhaji . It tastes so nice all the time , in earlier days I used to make it for travel purpose mainly , which is normally a little less spicy version of it. this is my little spicier version of it which I make normally while carving for some tangy food . It is such a quick dish , that it hardly takes 3-4 minutes one potatoes are boiled .
While running out of time , I choose mashed potato option of microwave and get it done in even less time .

Ingredients:
3-4 meduim sized potatoes bolied and roughly mashed ,
2-3 green chilies chopped finely,
a pinch of ginger paste ,
few curry leaves,
1 small tomato chopped finely,
1/4 tsp turmeric powder,
2-3 tsp oil.
1 tsp lemon juice and 1.2 tsp sugar (optional)

Method:
Heat oil in deep kadai or pan and while little hot add chopped chilies and curry leaves along with ginger paste to it. Add turmeric powder and immediately add roughly mashed boiled potato to it. sprinkle salt , sugar and lemon juice (optional) over it and mix it well ,cook for a minute turn of the heat. Garnish with fresh and chopped coriander leaves.
This makes a good dish for fasting days too . I just add 2 tsp of curd to it and ahhhhhhhhhh.... , for me its the best ever dish to enjoy :)) .

Now this, my all time favorite, "Bateka ni spicy suki bhaji" goes to Sia and Dk for their events An ode to Potato and Potato Fe(a)st.
Both the dish above also goes to EC for her Travel Food festival , this is the real combo we choose to take along while traveling with no worry to spoil anything with another curry with liquid gravies.. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting the events I enjoyed making me favorite food and participating with it :) .

Pineapple Lemonade & Strawberry Slush

2008-02-20T13:38:00.000-05:00

As you might be knowing ,that the owner of lovely blog and a dear blog friend Coffee is organizing JFI-Lime & lemon this month . With sure to get many tasty entries with sour taste I thought to send this along to her with sweet and sour taste .

Strawberry slush and Pineapple lemonade – two simple and refreshing drinks are my entry to JFI this month .

Pineapple Lemonade :

Ingredients :
1 cup pineapple cubes(tastes best with fresh cut pineapple ),
2 tsp lime/lemon juice ,
2 tsp Sugar(use according to the sweetness you like) ,
1 glass fresh water

Method:

In a mixture bowl , grind pineapple cubes to fine paste adding little water needed to grind it all smoothly. Strain it using juice strainer, in a separate bowl, take water add sugar to it , mix it till sugar dissolves and then add lime juice with pineapple juice mic well and serve , in hot days serve along with some ice.

Strawberry Slush :

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh strawberry ,
1 tsp lemon juice ,
2 tsp honey,
4-5 mint leaves (optional- it will not change the color , but will add a nice flavor to drink).

Method:

Wash and cut strawberries in to halves, take all the ingredients in to a mixture bowl, and grind them all adding a glass of water to make it juice like consistency .

When crushed to fine thin paste like, strain it using a juice strainer to a glass and serve it as you like.

With both these drinks around in summer days, I bet you will have heaven on earth :) )

Both of these drinks are the result behind the thought of creating something different for coffee’s JFI this month . See this is what blog events do to us :) , a lovely side effect of blog events Isn't it ? :)

Thank you Coffee , for choosing Lime/Lemon for JFI this month . I enjoyed making and drinking this lovely drinks, you made my summer a party now : ) ).

Keerai as Side Dish- RCI & JFI-WBB -Leafy vegetables

2007-04-26T03:56:00.000-04:00

Keerai is Spinach called in Tamil ( I have googled it out.. :D, I hope I am not wrong :)) . )
When Lakshmi announced Tamil cuisine theme for this month of RCI, it was a real confusion for me, as normally I get messed up a lot with all the south Indian region recipes , so I took up it as a small challenge and thought to make something for this event. Also how can I forget JFI ? so suitable to both, I am presenting here a Tamil cuisine , made up with Leafy vegetable. :)
Ingredients :
Fresh Spinach -1 bunch,
2-3 greenchillies,
Shredded coconut-1 tsp, (i used dried one)
cumin seeds -1/2 tsp,
3 dry red chillies,
1 tsp urad dhal( I used my all favorite Moong dal instead of this) ,
1/2 tsp ghee,
1 tsp rice flour,
1 tsp curd
1/2 tsp sugar,
salt to taste.
Method:
Cut spinach into small pieces. Cook it in an open vessel with salt and a tablespoon of water. After the spinach gets cooked completely, add the cumin seeds(raw). Grind together green chillies and coconut. Add this to the mixture. Saute urad dhal and red pepper in ghee and garnish the spinach with it. Dissolve a spoon of rice flour in a spoon of water and mix well. This will give it the required thickness. Add a spoon of curds and sugar to the gravy.
I had this with chapati. Though I am very much sure that this is being eaten different way in real tamil style, I am sure many of my tamil buddies around here will have real idea of it.share it with me , so that I can know more about it. Also can anyone around there tell me the name ofthis dish, the source from where I got this recipe said this as a side dish, so I left with no option but to post it with that name only :P .

This recipe I googled out( but forgot the real source URL... :( ) , so that I can participate in RCI , started by Lakshmi.: ) . Thank you Lakshmi it’s a great experience making this. And I love it , as it contains no oil in it. Just loving the Zero oil recipes. That’s why this become my special choice for this event. Not only this, this Keerai goes straight to Indira of Mahanandi for JFI-WBB -Greens . Thank you Indira for choosing the Green leafy vegetable theme , this kinda veggies been my favorite all the time :D .
and hey, Don't miss to check out the real beauty of India on my regular blog - CreativePooja , also if you are intrested in cooking and liked dishes around here then go visit here, this blog is just like a trailer... movies is on other side :D

Stay tuned and Have fun :) .

Lauki-Chana Dal(Bottle gourd- bengal gram) Curry

2007-04-12T07:33:00.001-04:00

This authentic Gujarati vegetable main course is a regular dish prepared at my home. As I am at mom’s place right now , I rarely think to enter kitchen even . Though when “L” of Nupur ‘s A-Z of vegetables event came to my mind, I couldn’t resist myself making this beloved Gujarati dish or mine. We call it Dudhi chana nu Shaak in Gujarati.
This is a good option for those who don’t love bottle gourd directly. At my place too hubby likes it though he don’t like Luaki much. According to him this makes a good combination and the taste of final dish is totally different than lauki curry : ) .oh…., I miss Deepak’s compliments the most when I make something here these days.

Ingredients :
1 bottle gourd(lauki) , medium sized,
1 ½ cup of Bengal gram (chana Dal)
1 tsp garlic chopped width wise,
½ tsp mustard seeds,
1 tsp cumin seeds,
½ tsp turmeric powder,
1 tsp red chili powder,
1 tsp cumin-coriander seeds powder,
2-3 tsp oil,
Salt to taste,
Coriander leaves to garnish .

Method:
Soak chana dal(Bengal gram) into water 1 hour prior to cooking.
Peel, wash and chop lauki (bottle gourd) into medium sized cubes.
In a separate vessel boil the chana dal until it is soft.
Remove the excess water from it and keep aside.
Peel the garlic cloves and cut it width wise. (you can use the garlic paste too ) .
In a frying pan heat the oil, when bit hot add mustard seeds and cumin seeds to it, as it start to pop up add turmeric powder and immediately add the Lauki cubes to it.
Mix it well and let it cook , stirring occasionally ,until lauki is cooked fully.
If bottle gourd (lauki) you are using is not much soft then it takes little water added to this to cook it well, in such case cook it until bottle gourd cubes are soft and all water part is evaporated from it.
Next add boiled chana dal(Bengal gram) , red chilli powder and salt to it. Mix it well and finally add cumin –coriander powder to it. mix well, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati.

This is my entry for A-Z of vegetables of Nupur.
Thanks Nupur :D , for giving me a chance to present this dish.

Beet Treat

2007-02-19T08:06:00.000-05:00

My Second entry to Maheswari for her AFAM-Strawberry .

Refreshing Drink ,Beet treat

Ingredients:

1 small beet root , peeled , washed and cut in to cubes
3 carrot, peeled , washed and cut in to pieces
10-12 straberries , cut into half.
2 tsp lemon juice.

Method:
Using grinder make juice of the above ingredients adding 1 glass of water to it, and strain it using strainer. Serve with crushed ice , very good for the hot summer days, as summer is arriving her slowly, it is a nice drink for the afternoon time.
Used in small amount still beet root is dominating factor in the juice, that’s why I named it as “Beet treat” . tastes good and it is rich source of iron ,folic acid, vitamin C and calcium .

My second entry to Maheswari-for her AFAM-Strawberry .
Check out my first entry strawberry ice cream here.

Carrot Halwa -entry for Monthly Mingle

2007-02-13T05:25:00.001-05:00

Ingredients:
500 gms carrot shredded,
2 cups milk,
1 cup fresh cream,
Sugar ½ cup or upto taste.
Cardamon powder ,
Raisins .
3-4 tsp ghee.

Method:
Wash and peel the carrot thoroughly and shred it.
In a big pan add ghee and place it on heat, when it is little hot add shredded carrot to it and cook it on high flame stirring continuously . this will burn the water part from shredded carrot and it will turn little more dark in its color. When it is cooked this way, add milk to it and let it again cook on high flame until milk turns in to thick , add sugar, fresh cream and soaked raisin to it and let it cook until all the water part from milk evaporates and it makes small white particles of cream there. Consider it cooked when it is thick enough and all things are mixed well with shredded carrot. Add caramon powder and mix well, turn of the heat and serve it either hot or cold. Tastes best in both ways.
As Me and hubby both don’t like much sweet items , this is a rare case in our home that we make anything sweet like this for us. Since Meeta announced to make something sweet for this month’s monthly mingle, I thought to make this from the fresh carrot available in the market here. And I think was a good idea indeed. Once it turn cool I store it in a air tight jar in refrigerator and hubby like to have just 1-2 spoons of it as desert for him . : )

With Love to Sahil& Siddharth - Coriander Stars

2007-02-13T01:46:00.000-05:00

This has been my all time favorite snack item, which my mom made when I was a little child. Ever since I love this , I love this for its color and taste , it has every taste in it – sour, sweet and fragrance of coriander with crispiness. What else one want for a perfect snack. When Trupti announced her theme of Little chefs in Kitchen , I had this in my mind. Just to make it more attractive I give it Star shapes. So here is a dish full of coriander stars goes to Sahil and Siddharth with lots of love from Me.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup of wheat flour
¾ cup of rawa ,
1 bunch coriander leaves crushed ,
2-3 tsp Sesame seeds ,
3-4 tsp oil for dough ,
2 tsp lemon juice,
Sugar to taste,
Salt to taste,
Oil for deep frying .

Method :

Mix all the ingredients to make dough, and prepare the little hard(not as soft as we make for Roti or Paratha) by adding water to it.

Make 2 inch size balls of it, and roll out like roti with the thickness of 1/8 inch .
Make the shape using shaper you have.(or in a simple way by making small balls one can make small puri sized i.e. 2 inch diameter sized, round puri of it. ) make slits in it using sharp knife. ( this will help to make it more crispy , as without slits it will get puffed while frying. ) heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry these stars when oil is hot. Let it fry on low flame, and fry it until golden brown from both sides. Take care to keep flame on low once the oil get hot , as on the high flame this will not cook well and also the good taste of coriander from this will vanish.
Place it on a brown paper after removing from oil, to absorb excess of oil from it.
Serve to kids any time they are starved. I completed the whole dish in a single day : )) .
Now this goes straight to dear Trupti for her theme –Little chefs in Kitchen , Hope this will be appropriate for kids friendly recipe category : ) .

Thank you Trupti for a nice theme , I am glad I am able to participate in this.

Ginger Amla(Indian gooseberry) Drink

2007-01-31T23:10:00.001-05:00

Ingredients:
1 inch long Ginger root,
2 no. of Amla( Indian gooseberry ).
2 tsp Honey.

Method:
Wash and peel Ginger , and cut it into small pieces. Cut Amla and crush this together with ginger pieces in a grinder. make smooth pulp of it, and add half glass water to it. Strain into Glass using strainer. Add 2 tsp honey to it, and add some crush black pepper to it, a healthy drink is ready to make yourself feel rejuvenating this winter. It is easy to make and much beneficial to health . Drink it fresh only. do not store it after making it. as it is easy to make one can make anytime within 2 minutes. Also tastes too good with taste of Amla and Flavour of Ginger init. :)

This is a traditional drink which many people in Gujarat drink, specially in Winter to keep ealth upto date all the year through. It is said that it helps in keeping cold away , and good for tose who have respiratory system Problems. In Saurashtra region of Gujarat I have seen this kind of drinks sold by people, standing on roadline in the early morning like 6a.m. or so, and most of the peole enjoy it while having morning walk. What a lovely way to keep one's self happy.

There are many many benefits related to Amla and Ginger, specially when taken in its fresh form in the winter . Amla is a rich source of vitamin C, and a good tonic for hair too - Remember the famous advertisement wiht tag - "Dabur amla kesh tel !" :)) . For Indian Gooseberray - Amla Benefits Check out Here.

Ginger ,as we all know is very helpful in cold and cough , along with that it also help in respiratory disorders and do you know, It is an excellent Painkiller ! yes, its true, check out its more information Here.

So now waiting for what ? Still winter is in its full form, get just these 3 ingredients and do a favour to yourself.

Now this goes Straight to Rosie, who is host this month for JFI -Ginger. Thank you Rosie, for choosing Ginger as the Theme for this month , you reminded me of this healthy drink :) .

Republic Day!

2007-01-27T23:11:00.000-05:00

Welcome!

2007-01-24T05:51:00.000-05:00

Inspired from Idea of Asha to have another blog to post recipes here to participate with lovely blog events going around.
I thought to try it this way , lets see how I could manage to have another blog to participate with differetn events around here n food blog world .
till then stay tuned to my oringinal blog - Creative Pooja.