½ Marathon and sweet treat Sandesh

Gopi ran the Sanjose
Rock'n'Roll ½ marathon in 2hr 11mins on Sunday October4th ,2009.

Happy Independenance Day

COURTESY:Youtube

Idly and Sambar

Idly:
Wash and Soak 3 cups of rice and 1 cup of urad dal in two seperate bowls.
After 5 to 6 hrs grind into a fine paste and transfer to steel vessel.
Keep oven in warm for 10 minutes and switch off the oven.
Close the vessel with lid and place the vessel in oven and leave to ferment for 8hrs.
Stir in sufficient salt and now the batter is ready for dosa or idly.
Apply oil to the idly plates and pour the batter.Stack the idly plates in pressure cooker and steam for 10 minutes.

Sambar:
Vegetables - 1 cup(Cho cho,sunburst pattypan squash)
green chilli - 1no
Tomato - ½ no
Tamarind paste - 1 tspn
Boiled toor dal - 2 cups
Curry leaves - 4 or 5 leaves
Oil for seasoning.
Water for cooking.
Salt to taste
Cho Cho and Sunburstpattypan Squash Sambar:
Put oil in a pressure cooker and add mustard seeds,red chillies,curryleaves,asafoetida for seasoning.
Add chopped onions,green chillies and fry for a while.Add chopped tomato pieces and chopped vegetables .
Stir for a while and add sambar powder,turmeric,tamarind paste ,salt according to taste.Pour water and close the lid.When steam starts coming add boiled toor dal to the mixture and close the lid and put the pressure.
Switch off the stove after 3 whistles.
Allow to cool the cooker and add coriander leaves to the sambar and serve in a bowl.
Look here for one more idly recipe:
Idly with Vadaicurry
This recipe goes to EFM Theme - Breakfast Series hosted by hostess Sri of Me and My kitchen .

Strawberry Icecream(Eggless)

Ingredients:
Strawberries - 2 lbs
Whole milk - 6 cups
Sugar - ¼ cup
Cinnamon pwd - ½ tspn
Vanilla essence - 1tspn
Whipped topping - 8oz container
chopped strawberries - ½ cup

Making:
Boil whole milk ,Vanilla essence ,cinnamon pwd,sugar and keep stirring continuously in medium flame until it reduces to 4 cups.
Remove from fire and leave the vessel to cool.Meanwhile ,Puree the strawberries.
Pour the chilled milk into the strawberry puree and mix well.Fold whipped topping into the strawberry puree,chopped strawberries.Transfer to the container with a lid and freeze for 3 to 4 hours .

This icecream goes to Happycook who is hosting an event called "Strawberry Feast".

Strawberry and Cherry Picking

Last weekend we planned to visit farms near to our place along with our friends and their kids.We reached the farms after 1½ hours.

My kid was happy to see lot of strawberries at one place.He enjoyed running in and around fields.Strawberries are so juicy and sweet.While picking I can't resist myself tasting tiny red strawberries.Wow enjoyed the taste and picking too.
We did our lunch at near by park and again started ahead to pick cherries.
Here are the pictures of Strawberry Farms:

~~~~~ Strawberry plants ~~~~~

~~~~~ Strawberry flowers ~~~~~

~~~~~ Blackberrys{Red berries are unripe ,when they turn Black its time to pick } ~~~~~








Brentwood Region,Contra Coasta county,California :
Chan's Fruit stand Strawberries,Blackberries
2500b Walnut Blvd. Brentwood, CA 94513 (Corner of Walnut and Payne).
925-325-0640
Per pound - 1$
Maggiore Cherry Ranch
Walnut Blvd., 1/2 mile south of Balfour Road, Brentwood
925-634-4176
Picked & U-Pick Cherries: Bing, Brooks & Corral Champagne.
Per pound - 2.50 $

Wedding Anniversary - Lake Tahoe

Anniversary Cake White sponge cake with strawberry filling Whipped cream frosting



Lake Tahoe from Heavenly gondola

Idly and Sambar

Idly:
Wash and Soak 3 cups of rice and 1 cup of urad dal in two seperate bowls.
After 5 to 6 hrs grind into a fine paste and transfer to steel vessel.
Keep oven in warm for 10 minutes and switch off the oven.
Close the vessel with lid and place the vessel in oven and leave to ferment for 8hrs.
Stir in sufficient salt and now the batter is ready for dosa or idly.
Apply oil to the idly plates and pour the batter.Stack the idly plates in pressure cooker and steam for 10 minutes.

Sambar:
Vegetables - 1 cup(Cho cho,sunburst pattypan squash)
green chilli - 1no
Tomato - ½ no
Tamarind paste - 1 tspn
Boiled toor dal - 2 cups
Curry leaves - 4 or 5 leaves
Oil for seasoning.
Salt to taste
Cho Cho Sunburstpattypan Squash Sambar:
Put oil in a pressure cooker and add mustard seeds,red chillies,curryleaves,asafoetida for seasoning.
Add chopped onions,green chillies and fry for a while.Add chopped tomatoe and chopped vegetables .
Stir for a while and add sambar powder,turmeric,tamarind paste ,salt according to taste.Pour water and close the lid.When steam starts coming add boiled toor dal to the mixture and close the lid and put the pressure.
Switch off the stove after 3 whistles.
Allow to cool the cooker and add coriander leaves to the sambar and serve in a bowl.
Look here for one more idly recipe:
Idly with Vadaicurry
This recipe goes to EFM Theme - Breakfast Series hosted by hostess Sri of Me and My kitchen .

Whole Wheat Gojiberry Cookies(Egg less)

Goji berries are lying in my kitchen shelf for the past 2 months.Actually Goji berries can be added in granola,cakes,muffins and cookies too.Tea was good with the gojiberries decotion on a rainy day.I made cookies with whole wheat flour,mixed nuts and dry fruits along with pre soaked goji berries.
Info about goji berries .


Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - 2 ½ cup
Rolled oats - 1 ½ cup
Brown sugar - ¾ cup
Maple syrup - ¼ cup
Baking soda - 1 tspn
Vanilla essence - 1tspn
Butter - 1½ stick
Salt - a pinch
Nuts- Almonds,Pistachio
Dry fruit - chopped Apricot
Gojiberries - 1 cup,pre soaked in hot water
poppy seeds - 2 tbspn
clementine rind - 4 tspn

Making:
Grind Rolled oats along with brown sugar to a fine powder in a blender.Add oats mixture,vanilla essence to Whole wheat flour along with all the dry ingredients except Butter.Bring butter to room temperature and add to the whole wheat mixture.
Pre heat oven to 375 deg. Whisk until the mixture comes together.Add a 1 to 2 tbspn of milk to make it a dough.Divide into a 1½ " size balls. Grease the palms and press each ball into a flat disc and place it on a lined cookie sheet. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes until edges are slightly brown.
Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack after 5 minutes.
Store in an airtight container lined with a parchment paper .
Shelf life - 15 days.

Birthday Party

My little one - " Akshay " turned 2 last week.We were bit busy with arrangements for the birthday party.
We invited our friends and G's colleagues for the party.
Akshay enjoyed his day playing with colorful baloons and staying together with his dad.We enjoyed the evening with all our friends and their little ones at our place.s
I prepared Shahi Paneer,Aloo Capsicum Brinjal curry,Chana masala ,Jeera Rice,Sambar,Majjiga pulusu,Carrot Halwa,Fruit Salad,Pickle.We got the cake from our near by grocery store.

Sree Rama Navami Prasadam - Vadapappu,Paanakam

Since my childhood ,i have seen Sri ram navami is celebrated big in India.My grandmom used to do puja on this day and offer vadapappu (వడపప్పు) ,paanakam (పానకం) as prasadam.
In India ,summer is on its peak by this time.Paanakam along with vadapappu is a tasty and healthy combo.Prasadam and brand new visari/visana karra is given to relatives and neighbours, who used to visit our home on this auspicious day.Tuning to Sree SitaRamula vari Kalyanam in Radio and enjoying the commentary by Sri Ushasri on akasavani is really unforgettable moments in life.
Now lets share the prasadam recipes which i learnt from my grandmom ...
Vadapappu:
Moong Dal - 2 cups,soaked for 3 hours
Green chillies - 2 no,chopped
Grated Coconut - ½ cup
Grated Carrot - ¼ cup ,optional
Salt to taste
Mix all together in a bowl and serve.


Paanakam:
Jaggery - 2 cups
Water - 5 cups
Black pepper - 2 tspn ,crushed
Cardamom - 6 no,crushed
Dissolve jaggery in water and add pepper pwd,cardamom pwd .Stir well to mix all the ingredients.

Jam Spirtz Cookies

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Butter - unsalted - 1 stick
Flax seed meal - ¼ cup
Milk - 3tspn
Salt - a pinch
Granulated sugar - ½ cup
Vanilla essence - ½ tspn
Filling :
Raspberry jam - 3 tspn
Making:
Preheat oven to 400º.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together all the above ingredients except the jam, until they come together to form a stiff dough.Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.Fit the disposable piping bag with star tip and scoop the cokkie batter
into the bag.Make sure to press the batter towards by removing air bubbles.Pipe the dough into a star shape.Place jam in the middle of the cookie with the spoon tip.Bake the Spritz cokies for 6-8 minutes until the bottom is slightly brown.Transfer to wire rack . Store in an airtight container with lined parchment paper.

Happy Ugadi

~~~~~~Sri virodhinama samvatsara subhakanshalu.~~~~~~

Amma's Carrot halwa for Akshay

Cooking for kids event is a good idea to know the number of various foods can be given to the children.My mother is the guru for me in cooking.She has given us nutricious and healthy food.I am trying to follow her recipes in my culinary journey.My son Akshay, who is 21 months old ,liked my moms carrot halwa in india on our recent trip to our hometown.Since then iam trying to give him and he liked not only his grandmothers but accepted his mothers one too.
This is the perfect occasion for me to share the delicious carrot halwa recipe through my blog and happy to participate in the Cooking for kids with Love event in memory of Pedatha.
Cooking for kids with Love event is hosting by Dear Jigyasa giri and Prathibha jain .
Ingredients for Carrot Halwa / gajar ka halwa
Carrot - 3 cups,grated ,slightly fried in a tspn of butter / ghee
Mixed nuts - (Walnuts,Almonds)crushed - 1 cup
Dates - 8 no,pitted
Sugar - 4 tbspn
Cardamom - 4 no,crushed
Milk - ½ cup
Milk powder - 2 tspn
Raisins,Cashews (each 6 no chopped into half) fried in ghee/unsalted butter.
Ghee for frying.
Pistachios ,Saffron for garnishing.

Pressure cook the slightly fried carrot along with crushed nuts adding the sufficient water.Once pressure released, transfer the cooked carrot mixture to heavy bottomed vessel and start adding the milk ,sugar and cook in low flame stirring occasionally.
Add milk powder,fried cashews ,plumpy raisins,mashed dates,crushed cardamom to the pan.
Stir continuously and adjust sugar to your taste.
cook until the mixture comes together.
Switch off the stove and remove pan from the stove .
Serve into the bowls with pistachio halves and saffron strands.

Sugar cookies

Rolled Sugar cookies
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 3cups
salt - ½tspn
Unsalted butter - 2 sticks
Sugar - 1 cup
Egg - 1 no
Vanilla extract - 2tspns
yields - 2½" 30 cookies
Sift together the flour and salt in a medium bolw and set aside.

cream together the butter and sugar until the light and fluffy with hand mixer.
Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix well .
Add the flour to the butter mixture and blend in a low speed.But dont overmix.
Turn out the dough into work space and divide it into two equal discs .Place the discs in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F

Rolled the dough on a parchment paper to 1/4 inch thickness.
dip the cookie cutters in flour and cut cookies and reroll the dough until you have used all the dough.
place the cookies with offset spatula in a lined cookie sheet.
bake them for 10 to 12 minutes .If the cookies start to turn slightly golden around the edges.Remove from oven and cool the cookies completely on a wired rack.


Royal icing using by Egg whites:
2 large egg whites

3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

Beat the egg whites in a bowl with hand mixer.Add sifted powdered sugar and beat in low speed for 10 minutes until you get a stiff peak.Transfer to an airtight container.Add food colors as per your requirement to the royal icing.Fill the parchment cone with the desired color and pipe on the cookie.Decorate with jiggle mix decors.


This recipe goes to cookie baking event hosting by Sharmi of neivedyam .

Navrathri Bommala Koluvu

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