Recently I joined the South Vs North Challenge started by Divya Pramil of You too can cook blog. Let me tell you about the event. There are 2 teams - Southern Team consisting of bloggers from Southern states of India and the Northern Team consisting of members from remaining states of India. Each month the teams challenge each other with different recipes. For example the Northern team has to prepare the dish given by the Southern team and vice vera. I am sooo excited to be part of this challenge. It will give me opportunities to learn new recipes from different parts of India as well. For this month's challenge, Hetal of Gujarathi Zaika, challenged the Southern Team with the famous Gujarathi Farsan Khandvi, a dish made from gram flour (Besan).
Unfortunately, I am going to be the last person to post the challenge recipe I think :(. I joined the challenge quite late and then completely got involved in personal affairs and didnt get a chance to post the recipe earlier. but I guess its better to be late than never. So here goes the recipe.
The day turned out to be unusually dim. Only bright spot proved to be what I cooked today. I made Chena Erissery (Yam in Coconut gravy) and Vazhakka Mezhukkupuratti (Raw Banana Fry) for lunch today. It was yummy and I was reminded of my home so much... Unfortunately I didnt get time to take pictures before serving lunch. And for night, I made Ragi dosa which usually comes out well for me. But today of all days, my iron Tawa refused to co-operate with me and then I decided to use my new Non stick Tawa which I hadnt had the opportunity so far to inaguarate. Result? Best Ragi Dosas that I ever made!!! Crispy and Delicious!! Again no opportunity for pictures. All these recipes will have to wait till the next time I cook them.
When I went grocery shopping on the week end, all of a sudden I found Banana Leaf in the rack. As soon as I saw them, I started insisting on buying them. My hubby was skeptic as to their usage. But due to my insistence, yielded to buying them. Only condition - I should not waste them out.
So dear friends, all this week you will see items made in Banana Leaf. The dish that I making today is Ela Appam or Ela Ada ( Ela stands for Leaf in Malayalam). It is made very commonly on our household as a 4pm evening snack. I called up my mom today morning just to get the recipe correctly and made them and they turned out awesome!!!
This has been one of those weeks when my determination and will power has been questioned. Having made the decision to post continuously for 5 days a week, I had to fight past all sorts of temptations. But the satisfaction or a feeling of achievement that you get after sticking firm to a resolution(achieving a goal) cant be expressed. Keeping that in sight, I hope to adhere to the resolution as much as I can. Today I am posting the recipe for Parippu Payasam or Parippu Pradhaman or Dal Payasam or Lentil Payasam.
Last night after blogging late into the night, I decided to plan my next day so that I utilize it quite efficiently. I know, I am a housewife with only a hubby to manage. So there is not much I had to juggle around. But still I felt that I was rushing through the day finding myself without time even to cook or relax. So, I set some targets for the day. One was to cook fish curry for the afternoon lunch and blog about it before evening and glad to say that I have accomplished that by this blog post of Kerala Fish Curry. Quite pleased about it that I have decided to break my other targets of the day to celebrate :)
I have to say Hats off to the bloggers who blog daily with out fail. When I decided to blog continuously for a month with the exception of Saturday/Sundays, little did I know that it will be so hard!! All of a sudden unexpected activities are keeping me too much busy that I am hardly finding time to cook!! but still I am gonna try my best not to break my so called resolution :) Today I am posting a very simple recipe of Kerala Style Coconut Chutney.
Every day my hubby comes home for lunch at noon and I usually prepare Rice, curry and one or two side dish. This week he has some continuous meetings that makes it difficult for him to come home for lunch. After all the usual arguments/inquiries resulting in arguments about why you are not coming for lunch and all, I was left wondering now that I dont have to prepare elaborate lunches, what the hell should I prepare for just myself. Then I remembered that there were lots of rice dishes or one pot meals that I wanted to try but havent got a chance till now since my hubby do not like much varieties in the usual rice and curry. Today I decided to make one such rice dish which is Palak Chawal with Palak Kofta. (Spinach rice with Spinach Kofta).
I have been thinking of making some koftas from a long time. But since I dont like deep frying, I have been wanting to steam / bake some of them. And steaming is what I opted for the Palak Koftas.
I havent posted anything in the blog for a week. Thats the longest I have gone without posting so far. Reasons were many of course. We had a feast at our home last sunday on account of our new year with a few friends as guests and left overs lasted us for almost 3 days!! Ha!! That meant Kitchen was closed for almost 2 days!! Then I did cook some dishes wanting to blog them. but pictures did not come out well, so postponed the dishes to some other time... But I am back more inspired than ever seeing my fellow bloggers posting every day and hope to post something new every day continuously for a month. Nope, I havent had the courage to join a blogging marathon officially. but hoping to stick to my resolution and if I could carry it out, I may join any blogging marathon from June.
Ragi or Finger Millet is a flour that became known to me only last year. My room mates used to prepare Ragi dosa very frequently at our home. And when ever I come upon a new dish or flour, I try to read upon them to know better. And once I read the immense benefits of Ragi, I was like, I am going to include Ragi in my diet for sure!!! I bought Ragi some time back when I went shopping and when my hubby saw me buying Ragi, what he told was please dont force me to eat this stuff now!! Naturally I ignored him and went on to make many dishes with Ragi as much as I can. And now my hubby enjoys the Ragi dosas that I prepare and have called them yummy!!! I believe it is quite a success in my part in getting my hubby to tolerate the Ragi dishes. Today I am sharing the recipe of a Ragi health drink which is quite filling. As you may know, Ragi is a gluten free, high calcium, high protein, cooling food and should definitely be part of your daily diet especially during summer.
Today I am going to share the recipe of Sambaram or Spiced buttermilk. I am sure spiced buttermilk is something made in every home very often. In Kerala, during the humid and hot days, when ever some one comes home during the day time, Sambaram is the first thing that may be offered to them. A very light and refreshing drink that perks up one instantly.
Its spring season here and where ever you look you can see only flowers... Climate is not too hot not too cold. In between we have random showers in a week and sometimes the temperatures soaring to 80's (Fahrenheit)... I guess the temperatures are going to rise even more in the coming few months. But still may not match the India summer weather! And speaking of summer, any summer is incomplete without Mangoes definitely!!!
Last week end when we went grocery shopping, saw that more than a dozen mangoes were being sold on a cardboard box!!! Became so enthusiastic and started persuading my hubby to buy such a box. Hubby was skeptic of course.. Was 100 % sure that mangoes were gonna spoil before I decide to make any dish :) Of course he is speaking from experience after seeing so many vegetables being thrown away because I got so enthusiastic and bought more than what I could make in a week :) Any way finally we ended up buying it. I have been making Mango lassi and milkshakes every day since then!!!
Today I made Vellarika Puliserry or Cucumber in coconut yoghurt gravy. Puliserry is one of the items that will be served during our sadhya or feast. Puliserry is a very light dish filled with all the goodness of cucumbers and tangy yoghurt. By the way, the word 'Puli' in Malayalam means Tanginess.
Today I am sharing the recipe of Veg Momos along with Sesame chutney. Momos are dumplings popular in Nepal, Tibet, the bordering regions of Bhutan, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Last year I used to visit a particular mall near our home very frequently with friends. After shopping to our hearts fill, we used to take the much needed rest in the food court and order our favorite food. Every time we used to go to the food court, I used to notice that there used to be lots of people waiting to eat a particular white color weirdly shaped stuff which was being served hot. And I used to pass by that shop staring at the food but never ordered it as I was unfamiliar with it. But I always wanted to taste it!! One fine day I waved aside all my fears and ordered the stuff and I must say it turned out to be a very good decision because the weirdly shaped dish tasted delicious. Absolutely lip smacking!! I finished off one plate completely ( Mainly because my friend was fasting :P ) and had to skip dinner that night as I was feeling too full :) I watched how to prepare them in a cookery show on our local channel and adapted the recipe to my taste. Try it out and let me know if you enjoyed the dish :)
I have tried various methods to prepare Chana Masala. The typical Kerala style versions (Recipes coming soon) worked out very well for me. But none of the North Indian recipes turned out satisfactory to my taste. May be I was doing some thing wrong in those recipes. After talking to one of my friends, Today I started trying out the chana masala again. This time adding the various masalas that I thought should be there and skipping or substituting the ones that I didnt have. It turned out perfect and I am storing the recipe in my blog for keeps :).
Today I did a lot of cooking... Phew.. very tired at the end of the day... Thought of posting the recipe before sleeping... I havent been cooking much due to being ill since the last two weeks... Thanks to God's grace, I am getting better day by day... Hopefully will make full recovery soon... but I must say that didnt stop cooking in my mind!!! Seeing a very new recipe, reading the ingredients, doing the mix and match in my mind and ultimately seeing the beautiful end result in the mind... Envisioning things before doing them :) I think it is a very positive attitude, that encourages people to work ahead towards their goal :)
