LETZ COOK/CRAFT/MAKE

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 .