Choco-coconut tartlet

After making this I developed lots of confidence on making tartlets. Wanted to try a sweet one which is also very simple. The chocolate and coconut were wonderful friends and the crunch the desicated coconut rendered was really good. And I invite all who love tartlets to try them. With the savory and sweet tartlets together they make a nice evening snack or a good starter and dessert both together saving lot of time.

The chocolate fillling can be made a day before as well as the dough for the tarltets. Since the baking time is just 12 minutes in my OTG (might be lesser in other ovens) its so very easy to make.

Ingredients :

All purpose flour / Maida flour – 1/2 cup
Wheat flour – 1/2 cup
Salt – 1/4 tea spoon
Butter – 1/4 cup (cold)
Egg -1
Semi sweet chocolate – 100 gm
Dessicated coconut – 2 T spoon

How to make it?

Per-heat your oven.
Mix the maida and wheat flour along with the salt. Cut in the cold butter with your fingers in the flour mix and mix with your tip of your fingers till the mix resembles bread crumbs. Add 2 Table spoon of ice cold water and mix until the doung comes together. Add water if the mix is too dry 1 teaspoon at a time. Knead for 3-4 minutes and form 4 equal sized balls.

In the thick bottomed sauce pan add 1 teaspoon of butter and let it melt in slow flame. Chop the chocolate and add to the melted butter and switch off the stove. Mix well till the chocolate is glossy. Beat the egg until pale and doubled in volume and add to the chocolate mix and mix until incorporated. Keep aside.

Take one ball of the dough and pat it on a plastic sheet to a circle that could fit-in snugly inside your mini tart pan. Butter the mini tart pans and place the circle of dough inside it and with your fingers push it neatly inside to cover the shell till the top. Place a tea spoon full of the chocolate mix and sprinkle some dessicated coconut on the top. Repeat for the remaining dough. Thats it your tarts were ready to go into the oven. Bake the tarts for 10-12 minutes. My oven took this time. But please watch out and take them out when you see the edges start getting golden brown.

When cooled remove the tarts by onverting the shells on a serving plate. Serve warm with tea or your favorite drink

When I read about Dal Makhani by dear Bee, its hard to resist as I called amma and asked her to soak whole urad dal. And there I made it this morning and served with rotis. Its a treat to the taste buds yet very filling. One of my managers used to call this as “Dal Maharani” and I don’t know if it does bear such name but its truly a “Maharani” among the dal dishes I have tasted, rich, creamy and delicious. Thanks dear for the fool proof recipe.

 

 

And thanks a lot Divya and Kamala for this wonderful award. You too make my day by giving comments on every single post. I really adore it!

And I am passing this on to all my readers who leave a comment, or silently read my posts and every single click my blog gets!

 

Rose milk payasam

In my 100th post I had written about this but posting it only now. I made this payasam with vermicelli and a simple twist. Its so easy and the rosy aroma it gave was simply soothing.

I had made payasam with vermicelli umpteen number of times and is a fool proof method. The qualtities, timing were all perfect and if you follow this I bet there won’t be any problem with the end result. I was doing a pooja soon after my marriage for 45 days (1 manadalam) for which I need to prepare payasam for neivedyam. Making it everyday morning is not a problem but people at home cannot have i everyday. So I shrunk the qualtity and would make exactly 1 tea cup of this payasam so everybody would get just a spoon full

And here comes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Water – 3 cups

Vermicelli – 1 cup

Milk – 1 cup

Salt – 1 pinch

Sugar – 3-4 T spoon

Rose food color – 2 drops

Rose water – 1/4 cup or Rose essence 3 drops

Cashew and Raisins for garnish

Ghee – to fry the cashews and raisins

How to make it ?

In a wide skillet heat the ghee and fry the cashews and raisins until they turn golden brown. Take them out and keep aside. In the same vessel add the vermicelli and roast for half a minute stirring continously. In a thick bottomed vessel boil the water with the salt. Once it comes to a rolling boil add the roasted vermicelli and mix well. Simmer the stove, cover and cook for 3-4 minutes. Once you check and find its cooked (the vermiceli will turn pale in color but will remain separate still) add the sugar and mix well and switch off the stove. After 5 minutes add the milk. Milk should be boiled and cooled to room temperature. Add the rose color powder, the rose water/essence and mix well. Garnish with the fried cashews and raisins.

Note: Adding milk once taking the cooked vermicelli off the stove ensures the vermicelli not to turn mushy.

Serve warm.

As this has less than 6 ingredients but gorgeous enough for a party and takes less than 15 mins to prepare I am submitting this for Anita’s Express Indian Cooking party! Thanks a ton for accepting this late entry Anita!

A Bean Pond – CLICK May 2008

        Beans and Lentils were this month’s CLICK event’s theme.The gassy event as described by the hosts turns out to be colorful and wonderful as enthusiastic participants post their entries. Every day I visit the image gallery for new arrivals and its a treat to my eyes to see the several CLICKs for the event. Much awaited ones were yet to come I suppose

After dreaming, thinking and finally screwing up with my imagination and creativity (huh ?? ) I settled down with the following CLICK. I floated few yellow soya beans on tiny leaves in a porcelain plate filled with water. Also floated few flowers to create the “pond” effect. I tried floating small jasmine flowers but they refused to stand up right instead started swimming in the little pond. But these flowers (they were called “sangu pushpam” as their shape resembles shells) floated nicely on the surface. I actually dreamed a pond CLICK in the moon light but my poor photgraphic intelligence refused to cooperate with my humble camera settings. So did the same in daylight!

This is my entry for the monthly food photgraphy event CLICK hosted by dear Jai and Bee.

Jewelled Mango – Food Art Mango Manthram

When dear Indira called for this event I am really exceited for 2 reasons. The first one the theme being my favorite fruit. And the second one is my interest in these kind of arts. During childhood whenever I do not have any work my mind starts its work.

Myself and my sister would cut this, paste that and create lots and lots of junk a.k.a articrafts. My sis is an ardent collector of articles that are useful for this. She had a box which got transported in every single house-shifting (almost 30 to 40 times) full of these “goodies”. She would have broken bangles, chains and beads that were broken, color papers that come as gift wrappers, broken pieces of plastic articles and what not ?

She has that weird habit of collecting these. Once she was about 2 years old when walking in the street with a piece of cake in her right hand and amma holding her left hand, on seeing a bright colored piece of paper on the pathway, she is more than happy to drop the cake and pick it as she could not get her left hand from amma’s stubborn hold So much is her passion.
So what do we do with these “goodies” ? Whenever there is a b’day or an anniversary in the family myself and my sis would get ourselves locked in a room with the “box of treasure” open and start ticking our “creative minds”. As soon as an idea is formed we would start cutting, pasting painting etc and finally our own gift for the occasion would be ready. This is how we saved money on gifts for our family members and friends.

So Indira’s call for an event kindled all these sweet memories and I made a soft toy in the shape of a mango and studded it with artificial stones. The shape did not come quiet as a mango as my sister was busy with her kid I could not take her help. She is the draftsman for all our gift ideas as she would do perfect measurements and cuts. So Indira please forgive if its not looking like a mango

This is my entry for Mango manthram the food art event.
I made this with the smallest piece of cloth just 6 inch x 6 inch size. You can scale it up to big cushions and make artistic furnishings with this idea. Else a bunch of such mangoes can be made and hung in a string on the ceiling as a decorative piece.

Sorakkai thithipu and a pound cake – Summer cooking 4

Many a times I have drooled on the bottle gourd recipes that were posted by my blogging buddies. I love that vegetable but amma doesn’t. So it was years since I have tasted them at home but still amma could make this curry after years remembering my grandma’s recipe.

There is nothing to make it sweet and I don’t know why that word “thithipu” has come. Might be due to the sweetness that the vegetable has !

Here comes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Sorakkai/bottle gourd (peeled and cut into bite sized cubes) – 2 cups

Grated coconut – 1/2 cup

Green chillies – 2

Onion – 1 medium sized

Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon

Peanut oil - 1 T

Turmeric powder – 1 pinch

Salt to taste

 

How to make it?

In the thick bottomed tawa heat half of the oil and add the cubed sorakkai/bottle gourd along with the turmeric. Saute for 2 minutes and add 1/2 cup of water. Cover the vessel with a lid and let it cook till the vegetable turns fork tender. In the mean time grind the onion, green chillies and grated coconut with the cumin seeds to a fine paste. When the vegetable is cooked add this ground paste and add required salt and mix well. Let it cook for another 5 minutes or till the raw smell of onion disappear. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve with piping hot rice.

Its delicious with rice and would be good with rotis too!

Ad after a break I baked a pound cake from joyofbaking.com. I sprinkled some walnuts and its so very delicious. The recipe recommends a grilled toasted slice of the cake which I need to try anyway.

I hate bitter gourd; You love bitter gourd – Vadha Dhehi

The Vadham, Pitham and Kabham are called as thri doshas in Sidda Medicine. All human beings in this world has a body constitution made out of these three doshas. The composition varies as such but the basic qualities these doshas create in a human are determined too early. Yes it when the zygote is formed. Isn’t it surprising to know that you will be a moody person or a quirk who will catch a fight with any person in the corner of the street for odd reasons is determined on the second your first seed is created ?

But that’s the truth and Siddha conceptualizes this so beautifully and prescribes how one should have a lifestyle which could match his / her body constitution so that he can live a humble and not-harming his fellow beings both physically and mentally.

 

Vitiations in the doshas are created when our food and life style become excess or deficient. For example over eating, stressful work etc will increase the amount vatham/pitham/khabam in your body.

To start with I shall write about the Vadha dhehis (as they are called) in this post. 

• Vadha dominates the pitham and kabham doshas.
• These were tall and thin people.They have large thighs
• A knuckling sound is heard in there joints when they walk
• They have thick eyelashes and round and large eyes. The pupil will be whitish in color
• They have a black and white mixed up glowing complexion. To be more specific the shades will not have any tints of pink or red. Hope u got it J
• They have black split hair.
• Their words are of great clarity i.e., when they speak they put together apt words in apt places to convey the matter crisp and clear. But during anxiety their words will not be fluent.
• They have a cool sight. To explain more some people will show softness and kindness when they look at you.
• They have little affinity towards sweet, sour, salty and hot food. They dislike cold items.
• They over eat but have less vitality.
• They have less affinity towards the opposite sex.
• If male their semen production is less.
• They will have more wards. (The above statement and this one might sound contradictive but the meaning is good powerful siblings are created by people who have more vitality. Now you get it right ?)
• The manliness / femininity, common-sense, emotions will be unstable.
• They like sports, music. They love to laugh insolently at other. (Given a chance they are arrogant enough to laugh at people who suffer).
• They like body massage, hunting a lot.
• They were less efficient.
• Given a chance they will create enemies every day. (You would have seen people creating unnecessary arguments in shops provoking the shop owner with every single word till the person refuses to continue trading with them. From that moment they would make a point to skip that shop even though its just around the corner of their street but would walk a mile to the next shop).
• These people would never earn fame and reputation in their life but would crave for.
• They would never give away a penny to the needy
• They love to possess precious things
• They have shallow sleep with half closed eyes.
• Their dreams would show themselves walking on hills, forests and in the sky.
• They were poetic in nature.

 The above points were translated from Siddha literature. Hence I have added few examples to explain things more appropriately. My sister gave all the points and yours truly just translated them.

 Another important point to note is this post and the next two would explain the three dhehis (vatham, pitham and kabham). These characteristics were for the “purists” i.e. a “Vatha only” dhehi etc. But usually this won’t be the case as the constitution has one dominating dosha and another secondary dosha which could pull down some of the traits.

More on the combinations in this series.

Khoba roti from Tarladalal – RCI Rajasthan

RCI Rajasthan – When I read about the announcement I was really happy as I could get my hands in atleast one their cuisines for particiaption. My first search is with Tarladalal and the picture of this roti fascinated me. As the recipe is for priviged users I thought of registering. Their server had a problem and it neither allowed me to buy the book for Rajathani cuisine online as it was reporting odd figures for shipping and handling charges.
Finally when Sra blogged on a Rajasthani recipe from the same book I requested ehr for the roti recipe. She is kind enough to send it across. I made few changes to the recipe as the amount of ghee was more. I added few spices which made the roti so very wonderfully tasting but easy to digest.

Khoba roti (Adapted from Tarladalal’s Rajasthani cuisine)

Ingredients: (for 4 rotis)
Whole wheat flour – 2 cups
Enough water to make the dough (same as chapati dough)
Salt to taste
Ghee – 2 tea spoon

Spice powder :
Kalonji seeds – 1/4 tea spoon
Black pepper – 1/4 tea spoon
Ajwain – 2 pinches

How to make it ?
For the spice pwoder dry roast all of them for 1/2 to 1 minute to get out the aroma and make a coarse powder.
For the roti mix flour and salt the ingredients along with spice powder except water thoroughly. Add water 1 Table spoon at a time to make a soft and pliable dough. Knead it for few minutes by adding the ghee little at a time. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and make balls. Roll them into chapathis. Then comes the fun part. Pinch them in circles to make a pattern shown in the picture. Make some 3 to four inner circles to have the indentations all around.
Cook the chapathis with ghee in a griddle and serve with side dish of your choice. Due to the sipce powder mix it tasted good on its own or with plain curds.

This is my entry for RCI Rajasthan hosted by lovel Padmaja. Hope she will accept this late entry!

 

My first award and Bee’s Nutty Roast!

I have been blogging since a year and have seen awards pouring everywhere. But never knew how would you feel if you get one and thanks to lovely Shriya to pass on this wonderful award to me!
Thanks dear for thinking of me!

Rules for the ‘Yummy Blog’ award Receiver: The person who receives the award should display the “Yummy Blog !” logo on their blog and also the meaning of the award which is “Yummy blog award is the award given to the blog with most yummy recipes/photos”. The receiver should also quote their favorite yummy-licious dessert(s) that they have ever prepared/eaten.

My favorite desserts:

1. Amma’s Vennai puttu

2. David’s Dulce de leche Chocolate brownies

3. Jangiri

4. Adhirasam from The Grand sweets, Adyar, Chennai

5. Sonpapdi

I am passing on the award to my fellow buddies!

Lavi ( I am in love with her rasogullas)
Sunita
Arundhathi (after tasting her Mango kalan)
Sra  (lovely paneer dish dear)
Raaga (my lovely singing chef)
Kamala
 
And I made Bee’s nut roast (can’t wait anymore) with few variations (Don’t give that look bee on seeing my substitutions. What else can this poor thing do ? Cannot simply drool on the pictures u post. Have to make over with the available things ).

Sauted all the items for blending in little oil to take away the raw onion smell, added just coriander and curry leaves for the fresh herbs, substitued bread crumbs for nutritional yeast and skipped the nut powder. The sundried tomatoes are substituted with chopped fresh tomatoes (Bee:Sigh! who wanted her to make this at all ?) Also I baked it as a whole in a pan and sliced them into wedges. Having them with a tomato ketchup was simply superb. Amma made a lemon tea to accompany it. Thats a wonderful keeper recipe Bee!

Amma’s special turns 1 and my 100th Post

It all began in a google search (sigh! the same old story) and I stumbled upon Mahanandi some one and half years back. I was sick at that time for months which made my taste buds numb. I started trying out recipes from Mahanandi and the first one is “Baby potatoes in chilli tamarind sauce”. It made my tastebuds back to life and the interest in searching for recipes and trying out them at home brought me out of my sick mood. Slowly my health came back to normal as I started eating well. From Indira’s food blog list I got in to Sia, Sra, Jai and Bee, Ammupatti’s thoughts, Asha, Mathy, Sailu, Archana (Spicyana), Sandeepa, Inji Pennu, Anjali, Jyothsna, Meeta, Raaga, Sig, Neivedyam, LivetoCook etc. These were the people whose blogs were visited regularly. I never seen the comment link (dumbo me) for the first six months as even though I used to read their posts never bothered to comment. Once I accidentally clicked on the comment link in Mahanandi and thenI started posting comment.

There were so many reasons for every foodie to start their own blog and mine should be the funniest one. I was so crazy about Indira and when I posted my first comment on her web page the link asked for a url and I immediately registered one (a random thought about the name and the title) and completed the comment.

The next day I entered into the settings page of my blog and slowly started setting it up with the theme I liked and wrote the About page. It all happened on May 9th and I posted two recipes on the same day. I did not have any photographs (even till now haven’t posted any). My first and second posts are still virgin as I did not have a single comment for it till date

Then in the month of June JFI Jackfruit was announced and I posted my entry. Bee was the first one to comment in my blog and Sia the next when I left a comment in the dining hall.

And then burst out my interest for baking. I bought my simple OTG and started trying out several recipes of cakes, cookies etc.

Now I am a regular reader of my favorite buddies along with the above list Srivalli, Suganya, Kamini, Lakshmi, Kamini, Jayashree, Arundhathi, Rachel, Lavi, Kamalika, Bharathy, Namratha, Nags, Sunita, Bhags, Arundhathi, Renuka, Kamala etc.

Every single comment, every little increase in the page hits, every reply to my mails (was not able to post my comment in few sites and hence used to send mails to them) had made great changes in my life. The food blog world has influenced my life by relieving my stress, making me to eat properly (none of my freinds would ever believe that I would be a foodie as I am such a fussy and poor eater). Apart from all of these my love to my Amma has increased several times as I started recording her recipes here. She was so happy when there is a place in which her siblings and coming generation could find her talents.

Bee turned to be truly inspirational for my amateur CLICKs. Thanks dear!

And the series I started “I hate Bitter gourd; You love Bitter gourd” is the only new thing from my side.

And Thanks to every single soul for making such a difference in my life. A simple celebration of my blog’s first anniversary with a rose milk payasam (recipe to be posted soon).

Last week I found I am nearing the 100 post count and thats the reason for my racing to reach the target on this day. And now Sra and Bhags u know the reason And this is my 100th post!
I will be blogging until I can!

Cardamom flavored Cream Puffs – For Think Spice

This is one among the must-try dishes in my list and finally I could make an entry for “Think Spice” event this moth. The recipe is very forgiving and because of the climate and the hurrying, messing-up me, I cannot make mounds of dough though the hot weather left the dough bit flowy.

When mixing up as I add the first egg the dough was still sticky and thick and I was wonderfg when will it turn to be “shiny and soft”. But the second egg made all the change.
Instead of Vannila I added cardamom just to peep in to this month’s Think Spice event but it made a wonderful change and the cream puffs were a hit among the kids. My fussy elder one galloped 2 at a stretch and was waiting near the oven for the next batch to get ready.

Adapted from David Lebovitz’s Creampuff

Ingredients:
All purpose flour / Maida – 1/2 cup
Sugar – 2 Table spoon (I increased the quantity for the kids)
Freshly ground cardamom – 1/2 tea spoon
Water – 1/2 cup
Butter – 3 T spoon
Salt – 1 pinch
Eggs – 2

How to make it?
In the saucepan boil the water, sugar, salt and butter until the butter is melted fully. Add the powdered cardamom and the flour all at once and mix thoroughly with a spoon. The dough will become a creamy thing coming into a ball without sticking to the pan. Add one egg at a time Now with an electric beater or a spoon beat after each addition until its thick and shiny.

Keep refrigerated for an hour. Pre-heat the oven and in a baking sheet place small mounds of the dough with 3 inches space in between. These tend to puff up nicely. And bake for 35 minutes. But here my OTG made a difference as the cream puffs turned to be puffy and golden just after 12 minutes. This might be due to the consistency of the dough (as there is a power cut and to my hurry I skipped the refrigerating part) as it spread into little pancakes rather than stand up in the mound shape as shown in the original recipe.
But all the way it turned to be yummy as it got finished off in minutes. I shall be making it again soon.

This is my entry for Think Spice – Cardamom hosted by lovelyEC.