Beetroot Pachadi

I love beetroot and I can have it raw as salad or as a delicious poriyal. My daughter likes poriyal and the pink poori I make with beet juice. But hubby dear hates beetroot and whenever I prepare a dish with it, he never touches it. Sometimes, I have to make another extra side dish just for him. So when I made this pachadi from nandoo's kitchen, I thought he would not touch it. But to my utter surprise, he liked it very much. I made dal palak  and for the side I made this delicious beetroot pachadi. When mixed with curd it turned to a lovely pink and I just loved it. It was quite spicy with ginger and green chillies and DH has asked me to make it again. So thanks to Lisha for this yum recipe. This for the second day of Blogging Marathon #34, week 4 in which I am preparing from Nandoo's Kitchen. This is also one of Kerala Sadya recipes and I am extremely happy to have tried this. If you are making it hours before serving, then do not add curd to the pachadi. Add it at the time of serving else it will become sour.

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Paneer Sandwich

For the third week of Blogging Marathon#34, I chose the theme evening snacks. When my daughter returns from school, the very first question she asks after entering home is "Mom, What is for snacks today?" So I make sure that she gets her favourite snack every day. Some times, when I feel lazy, I buy a biscuit packet or murukku packet. As many of you have noticed, I don't have a sandwich recipe in my blog because I didn't have a sandwich maker. But recently I got a sandwich maker as a free gift when I got another kitchen appliance and I was very happy to make this sandwich for my daughter.  My mom used to make delicious sandwiches and my brother's friends in Pondicherry were great fans of her sandwiches. She used to apply a generous amount of vanaspathi on all the sides of the bread slice and she used to make a delicious potato stuffing for the sandwich. She had a sandwich maker which has to be used on a stove and I still remember it after all these years. She used to buy 3-4 packs of large Modern bread for my brother's friends and finally we would end up with no sandwich for myself and mom. They used to devour the sandwiches and I am sure they will remember it even now. Now as I am little concerned about my health, I used butter for my daughter and I made it oil and butter free for myself and hubby. It can never beat the taste of mom's sandwich but it is guilt free. I also used wheat bread instead of white bread. But do try it with white bread and vanaspathi for a delicious treat. My daughter loved these sandwiches and I think one day she will say that nothing could beat her mom's sandwiches....

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Inji Puli/ Puli Inji

Today starts the final week of Blogging  Marathon #34 and I have chosen to blog from a fellow blogger as a special theme. The blogger I am paired with is Lisha of Nandoo's Kitchen. She has a nice collection of recipes and what interested me the most are the Kerala Sadya recipes. So I selected three recipes from her blog and prepared them. I will be blogging about them for the three days. The first recipe I made is the spicy pickle made for sadya. Pairing ginger and tamarind makes the pickle super tangy and super spicy. It was absolutely delicious with curd rice. This is an important part of the Sadya menu and I have heard a lot about it through fellow bloggers. But this is the first time I am trying this and I just loved it...

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Vendakka Theeyal

We all love tamarind based gravies and when I saw this at nandoo's kitchen, I was tempted to try it right away. This is a recipe from Kerala. This is similar to the puli kulambu in Tamilnadu. And there are so many varieties in it such as ulli theeyal, vendakka theeyal, pavakka theeyal, muringakka theeyal and there is even a fish theeyal when I was browsing through blogs. As puli klambu is always welcome at my place, I made this vendakka theeyal using okra/ ladies finger and served it along with rice and cabbage poriyal. It was a wonderful combination and we had a filling lunch today. This is my final post for the Blogging Marathon #34. 

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Green Gram/ Paasipayaru Sundal

For the second day of Blogging Marathon #34, it is a simple yet delicious sundal under evening snacks. My mom used to make sundal often for evening snacks. And I used to love this sundal. It is quite easy to make and I don't add onions in sundal. But if you like you can add a finely chopped onion while tempering. The boiling of the gram is the most important point while making this sundal. I usually cook it in a pan so that I will be able to see how much it has cooked. I stay away from pressure cooking as this sundal goes mushy very easily. During my hostel days, they used to give us this sundal on Thursday evening and they would serve some sugar along with it. At first I used to hate this combination but after some days started loving it. And even today when I prepare this sundal, I add generous helping of sugar along with the sundal and PK gives me a weird look. But who cares???

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Puttu Cups

This is one of mom's speciality. Nobody else makes puttu in the form of cups in our home except mom. Usually we steam cook the flour and then add all the other ingredients to get fluffy puttu but this is bit different. Mom adds all the ingredients before steam cooking and shapes cups out of the flour. Then she steam cooks it and we get delicious puttu cups. This is one of my favourite recipes from mom's kitchen. After nearly 3 months of her leaving us, I still feel that she is in Coimbatore and she is just a phone call away. Just remembering her with one of her lovely recipes. This came out beautiful. PK is not a great fan of fluffy puttu but if I make puttu urundai, he just polishes them off the plate. This is some what similar to puttu urundai and so loved it. Sruti has not yet accepted this as a snack and may be some day in the future, she may like it. But as we both liked it I didn't bother much. This is for the Blogging Marathon #34, week 3 and day 3 and I am posting under Evening snacks theme.

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Capsicum Rava Upma

If you are a capsicum lover cum upma lover like me, then this recipe is just for you. I have already narrated how much hubby dear hated upma but now the scene is changing. He has accepted the fact that his wife loves upma and is trying to enjoy it nowadays. Even Sruti has changed her taste and eats it with out increasing my blood pressure. So for the second day of Blogging Marathon #34, under Cooking With Capsicum, I selected my favourite upma. Usually I add so many vegetables but as this is capsicum special, I didn't want to add other veggies. The flavour of capsicum is prominent and it tasted delicious!!! Sruti had it with sugar and DH had it with coconut chutney. I had it as it is because didn't want to suppress the taste of upma with accompaniments. Do give it a try to know how yummy it is... 

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Capsicum Chutney

Today we are beginning the second week of Blogging Marathon #34. I will be posting under Cooking With Capsicum for the three days. Whenever I see capsicum in store, I buy it. I add it in all my recipes as it adds a nice colour and taste to the final dish. I love the mild taste it gives to the dishes. This chutney is one of the dishes I make with capsicum. It goes well with idlis and dosas.  I have used only two green chillies so that even my daughter can enjoy this chutney. Feel free to use as many chillies you want.  I paired with solam / Jowar dosai and it was very tasty. It is quite easy to make. Today is the first Sunday of the month and I am also linking this post to Lets Brunch on Sundays

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Nutty Pear and Carrot Salad

For today's Blogging Marathon with the theme Cooking with Fruits - I made this simple yet satisfying sald pairing the pears with carrot and nuts. When you crave for some snacks in the evening but do not want to stack up calories, this salad would be a wonderful choice. It takes just 5 minutes to make this salad and is very light on your tummy. If you want you can also chill it and serve it with a scoop of ice cream for a rich dessert. The addition of honey gives the sweetness and the black pepper and cumin powder give the punch. My hubby liked it very much and I was happy to have served it...

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Eggless Pear Upside Down Cake

After a month long gap I am back in the Blogging Marathon. This is the Blogging Marathon #34 and I will be doing all the four weeks. For the first week, it is cooking with fruits. I chose Pear as the fruit and I am posting the very first recipe made with pear. As mentioned in my earlier post, I celebrated my birthday before two days. And for that I made this soft delicious cake with a nice caramel soaked pear topping. It has been my dream to try out upside down cake and it came true with this cake. Upside down cake is one in which the fruit layer is arranged at the bottom of the cake tin and the batter is poured on top. After baking the cake is flipped up side down and the fruits will become the topping. Caramel is added at the fruit layer and it gives a nice finish to the cake. I saw so many pear upside down cake recipes but finally went with my usual cake recipe. This recipe is best when done in a 9" or 10" pan. As I didn't have one I made it in an 8" pan and I was so nervous while it was in oven. But due to luck, the batter didn't over flow and it saved my day. The cake turned out so soft, moist and delicious. The caramel soaked pears were so soft and just melted in the mouth. We all loved the cake so much and Sruti was double happy as I made this for my birthday. 

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A-Z Blogging Marathon #32 - A short Recap

When Srivalli announced this A-Z themed Mega Marathon, we had 4 months to prepare for it. The surprising fact is that even I started preparing for BM #32 4 months before and completed nearly 16 recipes. Then due to some personal reasons I couldn't continue the preparations. And finally when the day arrived I was not at all sure whther I could do this BM. But I needed to do it as I was in need of divertion from my problems. So with a brave heart, I started posting. Last month has been hectic, as I had guests and a function at home. But still I managed to post all the 26 recipes along with the other challenge recipes last month. If you have missed out my blog last month, then this is the post for you. This is a short recap of all the recipes I posted for the A-Z Blogging Marathon. There were 4 themes provided by Valli and each theme must have 6 posts. And only one theme i.e., street food theme needed 8 posts. I hope I did justice to the selected themes and the blogging marathon. I would like to thank Valli for setting up the bar higher so that we BMers can improve our cooking and blogging skills. I am very proud to be part of this wonderful group and I promise you that I will give better posts in the future...

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Zebra Cake (Eggless)

Zebra cake is a combination of vanilla and chocolate cakes and the pattern is got by pouring the batters in a pan alternately. I have been trying to get the perfect zebra pattern but I am very sad that I have not yet succeeded. Actually I wanted more of the vanilla batter and less of the chocolate batter so that the lines are clean and neat. So I divided the batter into 3 parts, one for the chocolate batter and 2 for the vanilla batter. Even then I ended up with this not so good looking zebra cake. Though I missed the pattern, the taste was awesome and my daughter fell for this cake. She was so happy that mom has finally made it. This is the final post for the Blogging Marathon # 32, under cooking with alphabets and bakes theme. Finally I am so happy that I have completed this marathon successfully and I need to thank Srivalli for this wonderful idea. The cake batter is my usual condensed milk vanilla cake batter. Once when I prepared this cake the chocolate was looking very dull. I couldn't understand why it was happening. And one day I tried a chocolate cake with instant coffee powder added to it and the cake came out so dark and chocolatey. And this time I added a teaspoon of Nescafe instant coffee powder and look at the colour of the chocolate portion. It is nice and dark and very very chocolatey..

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Yam Roast

During my school days my mom prepares this a lot and we were all a great fan of this simple side dish. When ever we had a simple lunch, just rasam and poriyal, mom made this to accompany rasam rice and it would be a satisfying meal. The only work in this side dish is to slice yam into tiny cubes. But nowadays with a knife and a board, that also has become very easy. And it has to be served straight from the pan otherwise the cubes will become soft. So usually mom starts cooking this only 15 minutes prior to serving time. You need to use a lot of oil to get a nice crispy roast and sometimes I bake it in oven too for a guilt free version. But this is what mom used to make and I am so happy to recreate it in my kitchen. I served it along with paruppu kootu, rasam and curd. What else do we need??? For the Blogging Marathon A-Z Series, today is the day for alphabet Y and this is what came to my mind for Y paired with regional dishes.

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X-Cookies/ Sicilian Cucidati

Yesterday it was so hectic. Apart from doing all the house works, I prepared two elaborate recipes which needed so much of preparations. I will talk about the other recipe later. Coming to this X Cookies, it is a Sicilian cookie, also known as Cucidati. It has a cookie dough and a tangy sweet filling made of dried figs. I bought all the ingredients but kept on postponing until the last day. Nowadays I am procrastinating a lot. Need to change that. The cookie dough is so buttery and is prepared like a pie crust with cold butter so that the cookie turns out buttery and flaky.  The filling has figs and apart from that it has lots of candied orange peel, chocolate, apricots and raisins. As I didn't have orange peel and raisins I added lots of apricots instead of the other two. The filling itself was very tasty and beware, you could finish it off before you roll out the cookie. So keep it away from kiddos until you finish baking. They turned out so delicious, though the shaping was quite a job. I am posting this for the alphabet X for Blogging Marathon #32.

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Wattakka Kalu Pol Maluwa

The very first time I heard of this curry was while watching Peter Kuruvita's Srilanka which airs on Fox Traveller. I usually watch all the cookery shows and in one episode, I saw this recipe. Seeing that the name starts with W, I at once noted it down for the Blogging Marathon A-Z theme. Wattakka is the yellow pumpkin and this is a curry with pumpkin and is coconut based. As Srilankan curry powder is not available here, I searched for the recipe and prepared the spice powder at home. It was very tasty and I served it with multigrain dosa for breakfast one day. I also served it for lunch with rice and both the combinations were good. The Srilankan curry powder was very flavourful and it gave a nice aroma to the dish.

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