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