The theme bi-color even though can kindle all the creative juices in everybody’s mind it didn’t do much to me. Not to blame the theme but the work overload had made my mind less creative. I could finally click the below photo. Hope the humble couple would accept this.
As we are shifting to a new house I am not going to be connected with the net for another month and hence will be missing my favorite events too. One among is the Indian Cooking challenge! Sigh!
And here is the click for July!
So remember my earlier post on the Koutralam visit ? We came back came all worn out after some 10 hrs of train travel. To be honest the travel and the tiredness did very little to the dullness but the feel of getting away from mother nature’s lap and coming back to a all noisy, scorching hot, dusty etc city that made us feel down. But thats life Sight !
Amma and her kitchen has medicines and treats to every single time we feel down. This time she made a kulambu to drive away the body pain and tiredness and bring me back to form as my vacation is going to end and I have to be back to work! A wonder woman she is, she used unusual herbs to make this kulambu atleast as far as I know. She used Jaadhikaai (jaiphal) and Kandanthippili (Indian pepper/Long pepper or Jaborandi pepper) to make this kuzhambu.
It turned to be exotic and after a quick nap in the morning we were all back to form in the evening. Try this when you have cold or body pain. Such a treaty dish but a medicine too 
The pic of Kandanthippili and Jaadhikai
Ingredients:
To be dry roasted and ground to a paste with very little water :
Jaadhikai (of the size shown in pic or 1 inch wide) – 1/4 of it
Kandanthippili (broken into 1 inch pieces) – 2 sticks
Black pepper – 1/2 tea spoon
Jeera – 1 tea spoon
Corainder seeds – 1 tea spoon
Chana dal – 1 tea spoon
Other ingredients:
Tamarind – 1 small lime sized ball
Water – 3 Cups
Salt – as per taste
Gingelly oil – 3 T spoon
Small shallots (peeled and sliced in to two) – 15
Vadagam – 1 T spoon
(or) mustard seeds seeds – 1/4 tea spoon
How to make it ?
In a vessel take 3 cups of water and soak the tamarind for 10 mins. Squeeze it well and extract the pulp. Filter it in a colander and reserve it.
In a thick bottomed vessel dry roast all the ingredients specified list until you get a nice aroma. Let it cool and grind it to a fine paste with 1 or 2 tea spoons.
In the same skillet heat the gingelly oil and once hot add the mustard seeds or vadagam. When the seeds splutter or vadagam gives out a nice aroma add the sliced shallots. Saute till the onions turn pinkish. Add the tamarind extract and mix well. Let it come to boil and let it boil for 5 mins. Now add the paste and mix well. The entire mass will become like a thick paste. Mix well and add salt. Keep stirring (Kai vidamal kilaranum) until the oil separates. I think this will keep well in fridge but we licked the bowl clean the same day.
Serve with piping hot rice to drive away the evils in you 
Last week I was blessed with a week long vacation by my boss and out we flew to Koutralam. Koutralam is a famous place for water falls which originates from hill ranges that were rich in medicinal herbs. Bathing and drinking this water if very good for health but we all wanted to place to escape from Chennai’s scorching heat.
The wonderful season for this place is between June to early September when the monsoon just starts. Th falls will become wild or lean in other parts of the year. This year the season started almost by end of June but we are lucky to visit the place when there were not much crowd. Yeah, you won’t believe that people around that part of Koutralam religiously visit this place and in peak times you need to stand in long queues to lend your head to the roaring falls for few minutes. When we visited there is less water but we bathed peacefully for hours together.
This season created a weather where there are very small droplet like showers the whole day. You will never get wet but every minute enjoy the chill droplets on you. The entire place and surrounding village enjoys this kind of climate during this season.
And to relish our taste buds mother nature showers with season’s best fruits Sendhatti Palaapazham ( A red tinted jackfruit with no threads inside but just the seed spurted with the juice when split into for eating. Pure indulgence ), Rambuttan, Mangoes, plums, jumbu fruit, Mangusthan etc were to delight to munch upon with wet dresses and growling stomachs soon after an hours bathing and again getting charged for the next dip.
Fruits in the near by shop
Another view showing pears and plums
Nungu artistically shelled out of the panangai and stacked in a Palm leaf…
Papanasam dam
Papanasam falls
another view…
We also visited Manimutharu dam and falls but the camera charge went down and hence could not take pics.
I literally lived on these fruits and ate very little cooked food as the bath in the falls and its serenity should not be spoiled (somehow I ot this feelin) ! And I never wanted to come back! The shots might look very dark but the cloudy weather just allowed me those kind of clicks
I am late by a day. This was one of my dream events and I am so happy that Srivalli took this up! The first item scheduled was a relatively simpler dish the humble Rava Ladoo. Read more here about the events and participants.
After a short weeklong vacation (visited Koutralam and near by places. Will update in another post sooner) I missed Srivalli’s mails and hurriedly made the ladoos yesterday and managed to post it today. I took up the ground rava method as at home kids like soft and smooth ladoos. Her recipe is perfect and all the ladoos disappeared within an hour. Thats the proof indeed
Here is the recipe I followed:
Rava – 1 cup
Sugar -1 cup
Ghee – 4 tspn
Milk – 2 tblspn
Powdered cardamom – a big pinch
Cashew nuts and raisins – few
Grated coconut – 2 tblspn
Take a kadai. Heat 2 tspn of ghee. Roast cashews and raisins. Remove and add the grated coconut. Roast till it is light brown. Remove the coconut and add the remaining ghee. Roast rava till you can smell the aroma of roasted rava. Switch off the flame. Let it cool and grind it to a fine powder. To the kadai, add sugar, powdered cardamom, roasted cashews,raisins and coconut. mix everything well. Slowly add warm milk to the mixture. Mix and switch on the flame and cook for two minutes. Remove from fire and stir for two minutes and transfer to a bowl. While warm make small balls and keep for 10 minutes for it to set well. If needed, you can sprinkle some milk for binding, while making the ladoos.
This made up a great treat for myself as a belated 2nd B’day for Amma’s Special! Thanks Valli. These ladoos made the celebration even more special.
