LETZ COOK/CRAFT/MAKE

This is a reminder for all you fellow bloggers to send in your entries for the Green Blog Project by Oct 1, 2007 to letzcook@gmail.com . You can find more details about this event here . I have sent an acknowledgment to bloggers, if I have already received their entries. So please let me know if you have not received my acknowledgement.

Usually when I get home from work I start preparing dinner and then go for my walk. So there is no time for an evening snack but yesterday I decided to make something for my husband who was very hungry when he got home. I wanted to make something easy, fast and healthy. I had soaked some black channa to make subzi and decided to use that for my evening snack. Ingredients: Black channa dal – 1 cup Onion (chopped) – ½ cup Coconut (shredded) – 1 tbsp Chilli powder – ¼ tsp (optional) Salt – as needed Oil – 1 tbsp Lime juice Seasoning: Mustard seeds – ½ tsp Split urad dal – ½ tsp Channal dal – ½ tsp Red chillies – 2 Curry leaves – 1 sprig Method: Soak kala channa overnight with enough water. Pressure cook the soaked channa with 2 cups of water for about 3 whistles till well cooked. Heat oil in pan and add the seasoning ingredients. When the mustard starts to splutter add the chopped onions and fry till it turns translucent. Add the cooked channa, chilli powder and salt and fry in low heat f...

This year we harvested a couple of melons and before I could make something out of it we ended up eating it as it is. But this week I harvested 2 melons and decided to make sorbet out of one half of the melon. After a lot of searching on the net I decided with the following recipe. Some of the online recipes called for egg whites but I didn't like the idea of eating raw egg whites. It was very easy to prepare and tasted real fresh. This will be my fourth entry to GBP - Summer 2007 event . Ingredients: Watermelon (seeds removed & chopped) - 3 cups Sugar - 1/2 cup (can be increased if needed) water - 1/4 cup Corn syrup - 1 tsp (optional) Lemonade or lemon juice - 1/2 cup Mint - for garnish Method: Heat the sugar and water in a pan till it starts to boil. Remove from heat and add the corn syrup and let it cool. Add the sugar mixture, lemonade and water melon to a blender and blend till smooth. I used minute maid lemonade and left a few lumps of watermelon in my mix. Also depend...

Looking at the entries that have already piled up, I am very excited to host the Green Blog Project – Summer 2007 event . I am sure like me, others are also keeping busy with their gardening. If you live in northern america remember to bring in your summer veggies and tropical plants now or when the low temp is below 50F. In Colorado, thankfully it is mostly in the 50's till the end of September, so I have a few more days to harvest my veggies. Here are a few pics from my garden. Since I've been harvesting too many tomatoes than needed for just the two of us, Ive been trying to save some for the winter months. I made thakkali thokku with half of the tomatoes. This can be used to make tomato rice or as a chutney with idli, dosa and chapathi. I froze some to be used in curry and gravy dishes. I dice them into small cubes and fill ice cube trays with the chopped tomatoes. I grind a few tomatoes and fill the tray with the puree so that the cubes are formed easily. When needed I jus...

We usually dont celebrate vinayagar chathurthi at home, but this year I decided to prepare something for it. After searching all over the net I found the recipe for kozhukattai here and tried it. The only change I made to the recipe is I added only 3/4 cup of jaggery for the filling and it was sweet enough for me. It turned out really good and wanted to share some pics with you guys. Coconut-Jaggery Pooranam (filling) Dough for outer cover Making the Kozhukattai's The first batch after steaming Ready to eat Wishing you all a happy Vinayagar Chathurthi

After thinking a lot about something innovative for the JFI-rice event hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam , I decided to make this carrot-mint rice. This dish is made from the second batch of carrots that I planted and also uses mint that I grow in pots. It is a very easy and healthy recipe. This rice can be had with raitha and pickle or stuffed into a tortilla along with freshly chopped tomatoes, onions, lettuce and salsa for an Indianized burrito. This is also my third entry for GBP – Summer 2007 . It turned out to be colorful and tasty. Ingredients: Carrots (shredded) – 2 cups Rice (cooked) – 4 cups Mint – ½ cup Onions (sliced) – 1 cup Roasted cashews – 2 tbsp Green chillies (slit) - 4 Garam masala – 1 tsp Turmeric – a pinch Curry leaves – 2 sprigs Coriander leaves – for garnishing Salt – as needed Oil – 2 tbsp Mustard – ½ tsp Cumin seeds (jeera) – 1 tsp The mix before adding rice Method: Heat oil in a wide pan and add mustard seeds. When it starts to splutter add jeera, onions and green...