Spring Blooms

Spring blooms - Ranunculus in Carlsbad,California

Happy NewYear and Happy Sri RamaNavami.

Sunburst Pattypan Squash Pickle

Sunburst Pattypan Squash pridely looks with a vibrant color.Good for Dal,Sambar,mixed veggie gravies.I thought of making Dal again but I switched to some another veggie to finish my afternoon cooking.While playing with my lil one with his ball,I just remembered the vegetable "dosakaya" which looks in yellow color ,easily grown creaper in backyard and gives a delicious taste to dal ,sambar.No one can say "na...." to spicy instant pachadi and pickle(aavakaya) made with dosakaya.I decided to make pickle with Sunburst Pattypan Squash like dosakaya avakaya method.It is quite simple and It tasted good.


Making Pickle :
1. Sunburst Pattypan Squash - 2 no washed,wiped of the water with dry cloth
2.Mustard seeds - 3tbspn
3.Fenugreek seeds - 6 no
4.Red chilli pwd - 3 tbspn
5.Turmeric - ½ tspn
6.Salt to taste
7.Sesame Oil for mixing.

Required :
Earthenware/Ceramic jar/ jaadi
wodden ladle

Fry the mustard seeds in a dry pan(no oil) for 2 to 3 minutes in low flame.Add fenugreek seeds and fry for golden brown color.Remove from fire and allow it to cool by transfering to a plate.Grind to a fine powder.Add red chilli powder ,turmeric to it and Blend well .Thats it, pickle mix is ready.

chop squash into ½" size pieces.Add squash pieces,pickle mix,salt,oil and combine evenly with wooden ladle.Shift to the ceramic jar and store in a dark ,dry place(kitchen shelf).Always use dry spoon to take pickle.
Pickle will be good to taste after 24 hrs.


Pickle can be served with Upma,hot rice or curd rice.
Well written post on "Dosa Avakai" by Sailu.

www.veggiegardeningtips.com
This is my entry to WHB Event started by wonderful Kalyn of Kalyns Kitchen and WHB#128 hosts are wonderful Jai and Bee of Jugalbandi.

Bandhakopir Ghanto

RCI concept is good to know about various delicacies from India.I always tried sweets from bengal and I know great writers like late Ravindranath Tagore and Saratchandra Chatterjee.My grandmom had a collection of novels like nauka doobi(one of my favourite),Kabuliwala,Gitanjali written by Tagore and from Saratchandra Chatterjee written devdoss and Munshi Premchand though he is not a bengali writer but she had his lots of books like godaan(my grannys favourite),kaffan .She had her own collection hindi literature books in her bookshelf.Summer afternoons are the best time for story telling.But there is a lot to say about the books and my granny.
Coming back to Bengali cuisine,Once i tried using "panchphoron".I used brinjal,potato together as a dry subzi by using this spice mixture and it came out well.We enjoyed the dish with chapathi along with hot rice.(recipe got from internet and website name is out of my mind.)
Later my panchphoron box went into the shadow.Happend some changes in life but no idea where i dropped the little packet.Recently I got a delicious recipe on search.
Tried and decided to make again and again in future.Good to go with chapathis and rice.Yum Yum
Ghonto :
Ghonto is a dish of cultivated plants such as potatoes and eggplant mixed with uncultivated shak. It cannot be made up of cultivated or uncultivated plants alone as it is by definition the mixing of unrelated plants or unrelated parts of plants in the medium of water. The use of spices in Ghonto is minimal, focusing instead on using water to extract and make available nutritional and medicinal properties. The mixing of unrelated items is needed to manage tastes in the dish as many valuable plants or parts of plants are very bitter or tasteless when cooked alone. Ghonto is consequently a kind of cooking method used for plants that are otherwise not so edible but can add to the culinary repetoire.
coutesy:idrc

Ghonto: Different complementary vegtables (e.g., cabbage, green peas, potatoes or banana blossom, coconut, chickpeas) are chopped or finely grated and cooked with both a phoron and ground spices. Dried pellets of dal (boris) are often added to the ghanto. Ghee is commonly added at the end. Non-vegitarian ghantos are also made, with fish or fish heads added to vegetables. The famous murighanto is made with fish heads cooked in a fine variety of rice. Some ghantos are very dry while others a thick and juicy.
Courtesy:Experience festival.com

Cabbage is very good for salads .Usually i will always have in my fridge.Easy and quick side dish for rice or can be used as a stuffing for sandwiches too.My mom always reserve shredded cabbage especially for me atleast one tablespoon because no one likes fresh uncooked cabbage in our house.
Iam very much impressed about the recipe ghonto and quite easy to make this dishes too when you dont have much time to prepare food for lunch.
Never added cabbage with potato .I usually make cabby pea and potpea subzis seperately.But 3 items in one kadai with spicy panchphoron mix.Ohh got the real experience when we had this last week with hot chapathi.
Ingredients:
Cabbage - 3 cups,shredded /Bandhgobi in hindi
Potatoes - 2 medium size,cubed
Fresh Green Peas - 1 cup
Crushed ginger garlic paste - ½ tspn
Paanch phoron mix - 1 tspn,ground
Red chilli pwd - 1 tspn
Turmeric - a pinch
Cumin seeds - ½ tspn
Dhaniya pwd - 1 tspn
Green chillies - 2 no
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking.(Add ½ tspn of Ghee in oil to get the flavor if you are non weight watchers)
Though recipe calls for tomato i ommitted that .
Pressure cooked potatoes and fryed in littel bit of oil until golden brown.Remove from kadai and keep it aside.
Add crushed ginger garlic and fry until raw smell goes.Add green chillies and fry .Add shredded cabbage ,peas ,turmeric and sprinkle some water,close lid and cook in medium flame until cabbage becomes tender,stirring occasionally.Add red chilli pwd,dhaniya pwd,salt and stir well.Add fried Potatoes,Paanch phoron pwd and stir well.Cook for another 4 to 5 minutes and remove from fire.Serve hot with rice and chapathi.
Recipe courtesy:indobase.com
I tried mochar ghonto/banana blossom subzi too.Post the recipe on another day.
Must try recipe:
lau ghonto/Bottlegourd Ghonto.
Came to know what boris is from this blog Homemade Boris and Saar er ghanto .

This is my entry for event RCI - Bengal hosting by Sandeepa.

Garlic Chutney/వెల్లుల్లి పాయ పచ్చడి

Herbal remedies of Garlic
Ingredients:
Garlic pods /తెల్ల గడ్డ /వెల్లుల్లి పాయలు- 9 or 10
Red chillies - 15 no
Dhaniya/ధనియాలు - 2 tspn
Chanadal/పచ్చిశెనగ పప్పు - 2 tspn
Curry leaves/కరివేపాకు - 10 or 11 leaves - 1 sprig
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
Enough water to grind.

Making:
Heat the oil and fry garlic pods to slightly golden brown and keep it aside.
Fry Dhaniya until the aroma comes out make sure to fry in low flame.
Fry Chanadal to light golden brown color and at the end add red chillies and curry leaves.While frying,Curry leaves spread a delightful aroma in kitchen.Remove from fire and allow to cool.
Transfer all the ingredients to a blender and grind to a fine /coarse paste .
Serve with idly,dosa,upma, acts like a pickle for white rice and curd rice and with vadas or with Mysore Bonda(my all time favourite bonda and my mom makes as instant evening snack).
I served with garlic chutney along with a cup of coffee.
This recipe goes as my entry to "Jihva" - Garlic hosting by Mathy Kandasamy of Virundu .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ వెల్లుల్లి పాయ పచ్చడి ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Enoki mushrooms Banana blossom Fried Rice

Ingredients:
Enoki mushrooms - 1 packet {pronounced as "eh-NO-kee".}
How to use enoki mushrooms
Banana bud /blossom (అరటి పువ్వు)- 1 cup ,chopped
How to seperate flowers from banana blossom
Capsicum - 1 no,medium size ,juliened
Green chilies - 3 no,chopped
Onion - ½, chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tspn
Cloves - 3 no,crushed
Steamed rice - 3 cups
Salt to taste
crushed pepper - ½ tspn
Parsley chopped - 2tspn
Oil for cooking

Preperation:
Heat Oil in pan and add garlic ginger paste,thinly sliced onions,green chillies and saute for a while.Add chopped banana bud and fry for golden brown color.Add capsicum pieces and cook for 5 minutes.Once capsicum pieces become soft add Enoki mushrooms and stir for 5 minutes.Add salt and crushed pepper to adjust according to the taste.Add steamed rice and combine well.Sprinkle chopped Parsley leaves.Ready to serve with carrot raita and with lotus chips.
Carrot Raita: Grated Carrot+Crushed ginger+chopped green chillies+Beaten curd+Salt+chopped coriander leaves
Deep Fried lotus root chips
Baked lotus root chips
Never tried lotus root before but chips tasted delicious.
Thanks for the recipe Alan and BEE.
Beauty That Hides Beneath the Lotus Blossom

Miso Soup.
Korean enoki Pancakes