Monday, September 30, 2013

Eggless Coconut Custard Buns - A Guest Post from Priya Suresh of Priya's Versatile Recipes

Hello all, This week is going to be a very exciting one. From this Tuesday to the next one, I have lined up a few guest posts from some of my favorite bloggers. The idea of presenting a few guest posts was something that I had been thinking about for a long time. But I started approaching bloggers a month back when I realized that I had to neglect my blog for a few months while being on a vacation to India. Approached a few of my favorite bloggers whose blogs I have been following from the start and I must confess, all  of them were too enthusiastic and good to me and were sweet enough to send the guest post as quickly as they could. Presenting them on my blog is absolutely an honor
During the initial days of my blogging, I came upon a very beautiful blog which have thousands of recipes on it. From Veg to Non Veg to cakes and other baked items, name any thing and most were on the blog!! While I struggle to post weekly, the beautiful lady of the blog posts almost daily. By then, I had became a fan of her and a follower of her blog. So far in 2013, she has posted more than 300 recipes !! She keeps participating in many events like blogging marathons and other baking challenges to keep learning more and more. When I first joined the event SNC, I was astonished to find that she will be the first person to complete the challenge every time!! You see, most times the challenge gets posted just before I sleep (US Time) and by the time, I awake, she would have completed the challenge and posted it as well :)  You need no more guesses, the awesome blogger who has agreed to do a guest post for me is none other than Priya Suresh of Priya's Versatile Recipes. She is a very simple, warm, humble and enthusiastic person and from whom I should learn time management for sure :) An experienced blogger, she encourages new bloggers whose blogs are less than 2 years old by featuring them on her blog through "Rendezvous with a Foodie" on every 7th and 20 th of the month. When I approached her for for a guest post, she immediately agreed and asked me whether I need something in particular for my blog. Since my blog do not have much baked items, I asked Priya Akka if she can do any baked item and just scroll down to see what she came up with :) Its soooo good :) Moving over to Priya Akka....

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Kerala Unniyappam

Hello every one, How are you all doing? Unfortunately I am not getting time to visit other fellow blogger's posts and participate in many events as much as I like to do . Do be patient with me. I am not going out of touch. Just having a bit of problem with time management I guess ... Thank you every one for your kind and warm birthday wishes sent to me yesterday. Birthdays are always special. And when friends and family are with you wholeheartedly on the occasion, it does become very very special. Thought a lot about what dish should I make specially for my birthday.. I mean its the first time I am getting such kind of opportunity to cook in detail. Till last year, either I was pampered at home or I was at work and hardly had any time to cook. Should it be a cake? or a traditional Payasam? Wondered a lot.. but then I decided against making anything special, thinking to go traditional on my star birthday. Ha ! Another occasion to celebrate:)  Then I chanced upon some Bananas (Palayam Thodan) in a Kerala Store here last week end and decided to make Unniyappam on a whim. Oh yes, I think, most dishes are made depending on our moods/whim, rather than the necessity :). 
Unniyappam is a delicacy from Kerala prepared mainly with Rice, Jaggery and Bananas and loved by one and all :) The name Unniyappam means "Small Appam or Small pancake". It is typically made with a Unniyappa Chatti (Paniyaram Pan - kind of Aebleskiver Pan) which gives small appams. Unniyappams are made using Palayam Thodan Bananas which are quite small in size and not the regular ones. When we are outside Kerala and do not find the usual Palayam Thodan Bananas, we use the regular Bananas to make Unniyappams. Ofcourse, a little taste difference will be there. but still tasty :) Now, Unniyappam is different from Neyappam (another Kerala delicacy).  Neyyappam which means Ghee Appam, is made with Rice, Bananas and Palm Jaggery and fried in oil in a regular pan. Yes, Even though it is named as Neyyappam, Ghee is used very sparingly or sometimes not at all used for making it and always fried in oil and not ghee. Hope this has been helpful. 





Friday, September 6, 2013

Round up of WTML - August

Hello every one, I hosted Gayathri's Walking through the memory lane - WTML event for August and am glad to say that I received more than 100 entries for the event. Thank you Gayathri for providing me the wonderful opportunity to host WTML and Thank you my dear friends for making my first guest hosting event a great success. Gayathri has selected a random winner for August and the giveway winner is entry 135 - Dry Fruit balls in mango cream sauce sent by Poornima of Cooking with Poorni blog. Congrats Poornima!! Gayathri will be mailing you the giveway  cookbook Tarla Dalal's Mithai !! The event announcement for September and the winner announcement for August can be found on Gayathri's blog. WTML for September is hosted by Priya of Yummy foods - Priya Virundhu!! Please check out her blog for the event details and do participate in the event and make it a huge success.