LETZ COOK/CRAFT/MAKE

I meant to post this yesterday but was busy cooking from 11 in the morning, as I had friends coming home for dinner. It was a very white christmas in Denver and looked pretty. Few pics from the dinner. Clockwise from top: Tomato-mint raita, Curd rice, Vegetable kurma , Egg masala, Chicken fry, Vegetable biriyani, Chicken biriyani, Gobi 65 For desert it was Black Forest cake that I make every year for Christmas. I will try to post the recipe as soon as possible.

Having to stay indoors because of the snow, I decided to make more Christmas goodies today. Diamond cuts are a tradition back home and my mom would make kilos of these to distribute to our neighbors. Since I had taken out some oil to fry the diamond cuts, I decided to use the remaining oil to make ribbon pakoda. I had to call my aunt back home to get the recipe as I've never made these before. Both the treats came out well and I've already started distributing these to my friends. I will be baking my special black forest cake on Sunday and will try to post the recipe as soon as possible. Diamond cuts Ingredients: Wheat flour - 2 cups (all purpose flour can also be used or half of each can be used) Salt - 1 tsp Water - enough to make a dough Sugar (powdered) - enough to coat the fried diamond cuts Oil - for deep frying Method: Add the flour, salt and enough water to make a soft dough. Make small balls and roll out each ball into thin circles. Cut diamond shape by diagonally maki...

I've been in the US for about 6yrs now and have never seen so much snow. It started early yesterday morning and continued for more than a day. Everything is now covered with snow here, in Colorado. My car got stuck in the driveway yesterday and leaving it out was a big mistake. This morning I woke up to find my car completely buried in snow. It took about 4hrs of shoveling and finally my fiance and I managed to pull the car out and clear part of the driveway. As a result of the drifting snow we saw about 3 to 4 feet of snow in some places and it was very difficult clearing it. The amount of snow that most of Colorado received was about 25 inches and in some places, upto 50 inches. That is a lot of snow for one day. The Denver International Airport closed yesterday and will remain closed till about noon tomorrow. There are about 5000 people stuck at the airport and are waiting to reach their destination in time for Christmas. All news channels have been covering this and have also n...

Lately I've been very busy as I am going to India for 5 weeks in Jan and so have to finish up a lot of stuff at work. I still try to visit all my favorite blogs and keep myself updated but don't have the time to comment. Will try to be more proactive. I am getting married to the love of my life in Jan, so am very excited about this India trip and that also means there might be a big blogging break. I am trying to write up some additional entries so that I can post those in Jan but don't know if I will have the extra time to do that amidst my crazy shopping and wedding preparation schedule. Christmas is a time when I get the most home sick and miss my family a lot. No matter how much I decorate the house with trees & stars or cook, it is not the same as celebrating it with my family back home. Its my 6th Christmas away from family. I always play some Christmas music in the house in Dec, start baking from the middle of Dec, start wrapping gifts early and invite friends fo...

Ive been trying to experiment with differnt types of dal and so bought whole moong dal (the green colored dal with skin on). My first attempt with this dal was vada which came out pretty well. Ingredients: Moongdal(soaked for 2 hrs) - 1 cup Channa dalia (powdered) - 1/2 cup Ginger - 1/2 inch Green chillies - 2 Onion (finely chopped) - 1/2 Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp Curry leaves - 1 tbsp Salt - as needed Oil - for frying Method: Gring the moondal with ginger and green chillies and without adding any water. If you are using an Indian mixer this should grind fine, else you need to sprinkle little water to grind this into a coarse paste. Add chopped onions, coriander leaves, curry leaves and enough channa dalia powder to get the consistency of a stiff dough. Make lemon sized balls out of this, pat it into flat patties in your palm and deep fry it till golden brown. Serve as an evening snack or appetizer with chutney or sambar of your choice.

Mutton used to be my favorite in India and also readily available. Here in Colorado, I have to drive 1hr one way to get goat meat, so its becoming an exotic dish lately. Also because of this I end up buying it in bulk and hence will be relishing on mutton for a whole week. So this week I will be posting a few goat meat recipes. This is a very dry dish which is a bit spicy but can be served with rice or just as an appetizer. Ingredients: Mutton (1 inch cubes) - 200gms Onion (finely chopped) - 1 Green chillies (slit) - 2 Curry leaves - a sprig Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tsp Saunf (fennel seeds) - 1 tsp Pepper powder - 1 tbsp Jeera (cumin) powder - 1 tbsp Coriander powder - 1 tbsp Garam masala - 1 tsp Turmeric - a pinch Oil - 3 tbsp Salt - as needed Method: Pressure cook the mutton with jeera, saunf and a pinch of turmeric with just enough water to cover the meat, for about 8 whistles. Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onions. Once the onions turn translucent add ...

Honestly I was not happy with the JFI-jaggery announcement by Kay of Towards a Better Tomorrow , as I use jaggery only for chakara pongal (sweet rice) and dont experiment with it at all. But after days of thinking I decided to make beetroot halwa with jaggery. Ive only made carrot halwa in the past so decided to try something new as suggested by kay. I was sure that the method was almost the same, but decided to replace sugar with jaggery. The end result was very tasty and different. Some more useful information about the goodness of jaggery that I obtained from the net. Jaggery is often used for ayurvedic medicinal purposes.It is very useful for dry cough, cough with sputum, indigestion and constipation. Jaggery has potassium, which conserves the acid balance in cells and combats acids and acetone. It is also rich in iron, and especially recommended for expectant and lac­tating mothers. I am thinking that from now on I will be using more of jaggery in my dishes, thanks Kay. Ingredien...

It feels like forever since I posted an entry. Ive been crazily busy at work and my brother visited me for Thanksgiving, so was busy showing him around and cooking for him. I did take pictures of dishes that I made but did not have the time to post. I hope to post more regulary now. This is one easy instant recipe that I make a lot when I am too tired to cook after a long day at work. You can either start it from scratch or use already made tomato thokku . I store 2 bottles of tomato thokku in the fridge and use it whenever necessary. Ingredients: Basmati rice (cooked with a little salt) - 2 cups Green peas - 1/2 cup Tomato thokku - 4 tbsp Onion (finely chopped) - 1 Cashews (roasted) - about 10 pieces Salt - as needed Oil - 2 tbsp Coriander leaves - for garnishing Seasoning ingredients: Mustard seeds Split urad dal Curry leaves Method: Heat oil is a big pan and add the seasoning ingredients. Once the mustard starts to splutter add chopped onions. Fry the onions till they turn transluce...

Last Friday was my dad's birthday and I decided to cook one of his favorites. It took me a long time to decide what to make and finally chose to make pichu pota kozhi fry (shredded chicken fry). My dad took us often to a restuarant called Ponnuswamy in chennai. Most of the times he would order this dish and so I thought why not try this dish out. I did not have a recipe for this but just went with my instincts and came up with this dish. It did come out well and I am sure I will be making it often in the future. So this one is exclusively for my dad. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD Ingredients: Chicken (cut into small pieces) - 200gms Turmeric - a pinch Onions (finely chopped) - 1 Curry leaves - 1 sprig Green chillies - 3 Cumin (Jeera) powder - 1 tsp Coriander powder - 1 tsp Pepper powder - 1 tsp Salt - as needed Oil - 4 tbsp Method: Boil 2 cups of water and add salt, turmeric and the chicken pieces and let cook for 15 min. Remove chicken from water, let it cool and then shred into small pieces...

I never used to like eating kootu back in India. I always had to choose betweek kootu or chicken fry, mutton fry, fish fry, aloo masala, bindi masala. So naturally I opted for one of those and my mom would forcefully put a spoonfull of kootu in my plate and make me eat it. Now living here for about 6 years I crave for anything Indian. So I do make kootu atleast once a week with different vegetables. Cabbage, Spinach, Snake gourd and actually most vegetables can be used to made kootu. I used chow chow, also called bengaloor kathirikai (bangalore brinjal) in tamil. The first time I saw it in walmart, I was really surprised but then realised that its used in mexican cuisine too. Kootu can be served as a side dish (cooked a little dry) or as a main curry dish to go with rice. I prefer the dry variety. Ingredients: Chow chow - 2 Moong dal - 1/2 cup Green chillies - 3 Tomato (chopped) - 1 Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1tsp Coconut - 3 tsp Turmeric - a pinch Salt - as needed For seasoning: Oil - 1 ts...

I have a tough time keeping up with fellow bloggers and their recipes. There are so many Indian cuisine related blogs that its not fun anymore to go check out each of them for new recipes. Add to that the need to keep yourself updated with all sorts of news and current events, so that you dont feel like an ignorant idiot during those lunch discussions and arguments with co-workers. NewsGulp.com is a new aggregation site focussing on the content that would interest the Indian community on the web. NewsGulp provides news from a varity of sources and also features blogs, videos and podcasts. In the blogs section, they have sections featuring popular tech,personal and food blogs. I was amazed to see recipes from my blog listed with other popular Indian cooking blogs. :-). The Food blogs section, though currently limited to recipes from only 12 blogs, is very useful. I am hoping that more food blogs would be added once they realise that a lot of users are interested in food related blogs. ...

I have a friend who loves gobi manchurian. So I make this often with fried rice or vegetable noodles. I tend to make mine with a little gravy so that I goes well with the rice. If needed, it can be made dry and served as an appetizer or an evening snack. Ingredients: Cauliflower (cut into small florets) - 1 big Chilli powder - 1 tsp Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp Corn flour - 4 tbsp Maida (All purpose flour) - 2 tbsp Rice flour - 2 tbsp Soy sauce - 2 tsp Ajinomoto - a pinch Chilli sauce - 2 tsp Tomato ketchup - 2 tsp Spring onions (chopped) - 1 bunch Onion (sliced) - 1/2 Capsicum (sliced) - 1 Garlic (chopped) - 2 cloves Salt - as needed Oil - for deep frying Method: Heat water till its boiling point and add cauliflower florets. Reduce heat and let it cook for 10min and then drain on a kitchen towel. Mix 3 tbsp corn flour, rice flour, maida, chilli powder, ginger-garli paste and salt with the cooked cauliflower florets. Just sprinkle enough water to coat the florets evenly. Heat oil and de...

I used to love shrimps back in India but the ones that I get here dont have the same flavor. But still once in a while I cook shrimp with a lot of Indian masala to compensate for the lack of flavor. Shrimp also cooks fast hence this recipe is a definite time saver. Ingredients: Shrimp (de-veined and tail off) - 1 cup Chilli powder - 3 tsp Turmeric - 1 tsp Coriander powder - 1 tsp Lemon juice or vinegar - 2 tsp Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tsp Saunf (fennel seeds) - 1 tsp Onion (chopped) - 1 Curry leaves - 1 sprig Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Oil - 3 tbsp Salt - as needed Method: Wash shrimp and marinate for an hr with chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric, ginger-garlic paste and lime juice or vinegar. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard, jeera and saunf. Once the jeera starts turning color add chopped onions and fry till they turn golden brown. Add curry leaves, the marinated shrimp and salt and fry in medium heat till the dish turns a little dry (about 15min). Remov...

Again a weird combination. These are recipes that I borrowed from other blogs. Almond squares from Priya's sugar and spice . Moghlai egg curry from Lera's myriad tastes . Bread Halwa from from sailu's kitchen .

I had some leftover mango pulp and decided to make mango icecream. I dont have an icecream maker but this method always gives creamy delicious icecream. A friend of mine gave me an easy kulfi recipe and I made a few changes to it and made this icecream. I will post the kulfi recipe soon Ingredients: Condensed milk - 1 cup Whipping cream - 1 cup Mango pulp - 1 cup (can be increased or decreased) Method: Beat all the ingredients for 5 min till they mix well. I used swad ready made mango pulp but I am sure fresh mango pulp will taste much better. Freeze for atleast 3 hrs and serve. It tastes out of the world.

This year I had a few friends staying with me and a few friends who came for dinner. So the day was filled with good food, good company and lots of joy and happiness. I made mysore pak , rawa ladoo , ras malai , thattai , kara sev and dinner was bisibele bath , masala vada , curd rice, potato podi fry , cabbage poriyal and appalam. Some pictures from the day.

No festival is complete without some crunchies. So decided to make thattai and kara sev. Thattai Ingredients: Rice flour - 500gm Grated coconut - 1 cup (I use the frozen shredded coconut) Urad dal powder - 1/2 cup (dry roast ural dal and powder in spice grinder) Red chilli powder - 2 tsp (can be increased or reduced as per taste) Bengal gram dal - 4 tsp Ghee - 2 tsp Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp Sesame seeds - 3 tsp Salt - as needed Oil for deep frying Method: Soak bengal gram dal in enough water for one hour. Mix all the ingredients except the oil for frying with enough water and make a dough. This should almost have the same consistency as chapathi dough. Take a small ball of this dough and pat it on a plastic sheet of paper (ziplock is fine) or if your making smaller thattai's, you can just pat in in your palm and deep fry these in hot oil. Keep turning until it turns golden brown and is fully cooked and crisp. Note: After cooling these if you notice that they are not crisp enough you ca...

Second on my diwali list was mysore pak. Ive attempted to make this thrice (this being my third attempt) and succeeded only now. It came out well, was soft and tasted exactly like the Krishna sweets mysore pak. The only difference this time was I added ghee very slowly and kept stirring it continuously so that the ghee mixes evenly. It actually took me about 25-30 min of continues stirring (yes I dint do much after that as my hands were hurting). Also note the first time I asked someone about this sweet they said its too complicated and difficult to make. With practice and patience (read attempting many times) it can be mastered. This is my entry to this month's JFI - Diwali treats hosted by Vee of Past, Present and Me . Ingredients: Bengal gram flour - 1cup Sugar - 1cup Water - 1/2 cup Ghee - 1.5 cups Method: Heat sugar and water in a heavy bottomed vessel (a normal sauce pan is good enough) till one-string consistency is reached. This is not a complicated term, all you have to d...

Last weekend was spent mostly on cleaning as I have a few friends staying with me for a few days for diwali. Sunday afternoon I found sometime to start making my diwali treats. First on the list was rawa ladoo. The only sweet I would make for Christmas back home was rawa ladoo and that too only the making balls part, out of the already made rawa mixture. My aunt always made the right mixture and she was the one who taught me how to make these. Ingredients: Fine Rawa - 1.5 cups Sugar (powdered) - 1.5 cups Ghee (melted) - 1/2 cup (can be increased upto 3/4 cup) Cashews (chopped finely) - 2 tbsp Raisins (chopped in half) - 2 tbsp Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Method: Dry roast rawa in a pan till the raw smell disappears. Be careful to not let it turn brown. Heat 1 tsp of ghee in a seperate pan and fry cashews and raisins till they turn golden brown. Add this to the rawa mixture. Finally add the ground sugar to the mixture and mix well. Since I used fine rawa I did not grind it else both rawa ...

This is very easy to make especially if you have frozen shredded coconut. It tastes best with fresh coconut though. Ingredients: Coconut scrapings - 1 cup Channa dalia - 1/4 cup (also called pottu kadalai in tamil) Red chillies - 2 (can be subtituted with green chillies) Salt - as needed For seasoning: Oil - 1 tsp Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Split urad dal - 1 tsp Red chilly - 1 Method: Grind coconut, channa dalia, red chillies and salt. Heat oil in a small pan and add the seasoning ingredients. Once the mustard starts to splutter add to the ground coconut mixture and serve with dosa or idli or vada.

I love dosa's in any form be it rice dosa, wheat dosa or rawa dosa. This weekend I was craving for dosa and decided to make rawa dosa as it does not take a lot of time. Ingredients: Rawa (fine) - 2 cups Rice flour - 1/2 cup Maida - 1/4 cup Butter milk - 1 cup Salt - as needed Onions (chopped finely) - 1 Green chillies (chopped finely) - 2 Coriander leaves (chopped finely) - 2 tbsp Mustard seeds - tsp Split urad dal - 1 tsp Jeera - 1 tsp Oil - as needed to make dosa's the batter Method: Mix rawa, rice flour, maida, salt with buttermilk and add enough water to make a paste in the same consistency as dosa batter. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, split urad dal and jeera. Once the mustard starts to splutter add chopped onions and green chillies. Fry till the onions turn translucent and then remove from heat and let it cool. Once this has cooled add it to the batter along with the chopped coriander leaves and let it rest for 15-30min. Heat a dosa tawa (flat griddle) and mak...

Since the E-coli scare ive stopped buying spinach. When I looked into my pantry I found a can of collard greens that I had bought a while ago. So decided to make spinach dal with it. Also I like beetroots a lot but grating them usually messes my counter and my hands turn red too. So I dont buy it often but since its very healthy I decided to make it along with the dal. Spinach dal Ingredients: Spinach(chopped) - 1.5 cups Thur dal - 1 cup Green chillies(slit) - 2 Onion(chopped) - 1 Tomato(chopped) - 1 Tamraind extract - 2 tbsp (optional) Sambhar powder - 1 tbsp Turmeric - a pinch Chilli powder - 1 tsp Salt - as needed Oil - 2 tbsp For seasoning: Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Split urad dal - 1 tsp Red chillies - 1 tsp Asoefetida (hing) - a pinch Method: Heat oil in a pressure pan and add chopped onions and green chillies. Once the onions turn translucent add chopped tomatoes and wait till it starts to turn mushy. Then add spinach, thur dal, sambar powder, turmeric, chilli powder, tamarind extra...

Chicken is always a safe bet as you can never go wrong cooking it most of the times. If I am short of time I always make chicken as it cooks fast and tastes awesome. Ingredients: Chicken (cut into small pieces) - 1/2 lb Onions(thinly sliced) - 2 Tomato(chopped) - 1 (optional) Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp Saunf - 1 tsp Oil - 2 tbsp Curry leaves - 1 sprig Salt - as needed Pepper - as needed To Powder: Red chillies - 3 Pepper corns - 1 tsp Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tsp Saunf (fenugreek seeds) - 1 tsp Cloves - 4 Cinnamon - 1/2 stick Method: Dry roast all the to powder ingredients and grind. Heat oil in a pan and add saunf seeds, curry leaves and cut onions. Fry till the onions turn brown and add tomato and ginger garlic-paste. Once the tomatoes are cooked add the ground powder, chicken and half a cup of water. Cook on low heat till gravy reaches desired consistency. Add salt and pepper as needed and remove from flame and serve with both rice or roti.

Since Oct16 is world bread day I decided to post a recipe of my favorite Indian bread. The reason its my favorite is I always thought that it was too difficult to make but once I learnt the right way Ive been making it often. Batura Ingredients: Maida flour (All purpose flour) - 2 cups Wheat flour - 1/2 cup Salt - 1 tsp Curd - 3 tbsp Oil - for deep frying Method: Mix all the ingredients with enough water to make a soft dough. Wrap the dough in a moist cloth and let stand for anywhere between 3 - 4 hrs. The dough should have raised by then. Roll out big puris and deep fry till golden and serve with channa masala. Note: While rolling out the puri dust with litte wheat flour so that it does not stick to the rolling pin. Channa masala: Ingredients: White channa dal (garbanzo beans) - 2 cups (i use the canned variety) Potato (boiled and cubed) - 1 (optional) Onions (minced in a food processor) - 2 Tomatoes (minced in a food processor) - 3 Jeera - 1 tsp Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp Chilli po...

Most weekend evenings I try to make some light snack. I had some leftover idlis this weekend and hence decided to make masala idli snack. This tastes good as is or can be served with chutney or even just tomato ketchup. Ingredients: Idli (chopped into 1 inch cubes) - 10 Curry leaves - a sprig Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Split urad dal - 1 tsp Idli podi (powder) - 2 tbsp (can be increased for more spiciness) Salt - as needed Oil - 2 tbsp (can be substituted with ghee for additional flavor) Coriander - for garnishing Method: Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, split urad dal and curry leaves. Once the mustard seeds start spluttering add idli cubes, idli podi and salt and fry till the idli cubes turn golden brown. Remove from heat and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve. Note: Idli podi can be substituted with a tbsp of chilli powder and a pinch of turmeric.

This dish is a great recipe for potlucks and also tastes good with any kind of rice dish. Spiciness can be increased as needed. Ingredients: Potato (boiled and chopped into cubes) - 5 Onions (thinly sliced) - 2 Salt - as needed Oil - 4 tbsp To Powder: Channal dal - 2 tbsp Thur dal - 2 tbsp Red chillies - 4 Dhania (coriander seeds) - 2 tbsp Methi (fenugreek seeds) - 1 tsp Jeera (cumin seeds) - 2 tbsp Method: Dry roast the "to powder" ingredients and grind into a coarse powder. Heat oil in a pan and add sliced onions. Once the onions turn golden brown add the ground powder, salt and chopped potato cubes. Fry in low heat till the potato turns color and absorbs the masala. Serve with rice and sambar.

Kesari is a very easy dish that can be prepared quickly. Kesari can also be made with fruits just to add extra flavor. I chose pineapple, as its tanginess contradicts the sweetness of the kesari. Sometimes I also make this with mango pulp. This will be my dish for JFI-ghee event. Ingredients: Fine rawa - 1 cup Sugar - 1.25 cup water - 1.25 cup crushed pineapple - 1/2 cup pineapple syrup (from tin) - 1 cup ghee - 2 tbsp lemon yellow color - little cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp cashews & raisins - to taste Method: Heat one table spoom ghee in a deep frying pan. Fry cashews, raisins and remove from ghee. Remove it and keep it aside. Fry rawa in that ghee itself for one minute till it turns color and the raw smell goes. Remove from the pan and keep seperately. Heat water, pineapple syrup, sugar together in that pan. Add color and when sugar is dissolved completely and it starts boiling add fried rawa. Keep stirring constantly till it forms a thick mass. Add the remaining ghee and crushed p...

Iam sure the title of this blog seems weird as the combination doesnt match. I didn't make all of this together but these dishes are from recipes from my fellow bloggers. I usually experiment my dishes on my friends and they all loved these dishes. Rasmalai The only modification is that I didnt have a muffin pan handy to bake the ricotta cheese. So used a cake pan instead and then cut the cheese into squares before dropping it into the ras from priya b's dailygirlblog Onion Pakoda These are very common in chennai where they sell these in sweet shops and even in some tea shops. I used to love these back home. Have always tried to perfect this but was never succesful until now. The trick was to add the besan, all the masala stuff and sprinkle very less water to mix. It came out crispy and crunchy just like in chennai sweet shops. from sailusfood Red Bell Pepper Chutney This was a very innovative recipe. The minute I saw it I knew I had to try it. It tasted good with idli and dosa...

Most exciting news of the weekend is I bought a stainless steel cooking set. After much research on the net decided that this 100$ was a good investment. I used to love prawns in India. Coming from a coastal city we always got fresh prawns in the market. Somehow the shrimp that we get here dont have the same taste and flavor as the Indian ones. Decided to make a spicy shrimp fry with my new stainless steel set. Shrimp fry Ingredients: Shrimp (shell and tail removed and de-veined) – 1 cup Onions (chopped) – 2 Tomatoes (chopped) – 2 Ginger/garlic paste – 2 tsp Chilli powder – 1 tbsp Coriander powder – 1 tbsp Turmeric – 1 tsp Lime – ½ Cinnamon (broken into smaller pieces) – ¼ stick Clove – 4 Saunf (fennel) – 1 tsp Jeera (cumin) – 1 tsp Coriander leaves – for garnishing Oil – 2 tbsp Salt – as needed Method: Heat oil in a pan and add clove, cinnamon, jeera and saunf. Once the jeera turns color add chopped onions. Fry the onions till they turn translucent and then add tomatoes and ginger/ga...