Maa Vatral Kulambu - Announcing March WTML and February Winner

For this month's Walk Through Memory Lane, the host, due to some unexpected reasons couldn't guest host it. So I had to jump in. And so this month, WTML will be hosted here at Gayathri's Cook Spot and I request all my friends and readers to support the event by sending in your entries. If you are a regular reader of my blog then you will be familiar with the event I have been conducting for the past two years. This event is about recreating your childhood favourite recipes. Every month a blogger guest hosts the event at her space which has increased the popularity of this event. I am really thankful to all my friends for making this event a great success. 

Today I will share with you a speciality of mom - Maa Vatral Kulambu as the first entry of the event. Every summer, my mom prepares vatral and vadagam which lasts the whole year. One vatral is the maa vatral made with raw mangoes. The mangoes are sliced and soaked in slaine water. Then they are sun dried. This process is repeated for 3-5 days until a salty crust is formed on the mangoes. Then they are completely dried and stored in airtight jars. The gravy made with this vatral tastes delicious. Even when I am typing this post, I am feeling hungry. Just serve this gravy with rice and papad and it will surely make you crave for more. This when prepared in manchatti ( pan made out of terracotta) tastes fantastic.

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Rainbow Cake With Ombre Frosting

Yesterday it was my daughter Sruti's birthday. For this day my daughter has been planning since 6 August. One fine day on August 2013, she came to me with i pad and asked me to look at a video clip on how to make a rainbow cake. And after I finished watching, she told me that I have to bake this cake for her birthday. I said OK and have been looking for different frosting techniques since then for the perfect birthday cake. I came upon so many techniques but every technique seemed either so easy or so tough. Finally I settled on Ombre technique. Ombre means shaded in French. This is used everywhere nowadays. A colour along with many shades of the same colour applied in a certain way makes it ombre. Even there is ombre hair colouring. So I decided to do Ombre Frosting with my daughter's favourite colours purple and pink.

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Litti Choka

Littli Choka is a famous snack from Bihar. Served along with dhal, it can also be served as breakfast, lunch or dinner. I have made a version of Litti and Aloo Choka, but they were not the authentic recipes. Litti is made with wheat flour. Wheat flour dough is stuffed with sattu filling known as the Pitthi and is roasted either in oven or tandoor or deep fried. The traditional method involves cooking them on Upla (dried cow dung) or hot sand but nowadays they are baked in oven. When litti choka was announced as the challenge for the southern group in the South Vs North challenge this month, I went through the recipe at Nupur's (host of this month's challenge) page thoroughly. It was completely different from what I made. She even gave the preparation of sattu flour which is used to stuff the littis. As sattu is not available here, I made sattu at home as per her directions and made litti and choka yesterday for our evening snacks. I served them along with green chutney and it was a perfect combination. I loved the texture of litti and the flavourful stuffuing with sattu. As sattu was home made it had a nice aroma and we just loved the combination. You need to try this to know about the taste. I even had it for breakfast today. 

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Eggless Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Icing

Wishing All My Readers A Merry Christmas!!

Yesterday I planned on making these cookies but couldn't finish it with so many other works. I made the dough yesterday and refrigerated the slabs for a whole day. Today I made a batch of two dozen cookies in the morning but couldn't find time to frost as I had some guests. I had the recipe of buttercream icing pinned on my Pinterest Board and finally after lunch, I decided to make a small quantity of the icing to frost the two dozen cookies. My BIL visited us with his family and this made a nice after lunch treat for them. I frosted the cookies and hurriedly took some snaps and then served them for the guests. The whole plate vanished within 1/2 an hour and I was so so happy. Hubby dear didn't even get a cookie to taste. As I have one more batch of dough in the fridge, I am planning to make it tomorrow. 

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Perfect French Fry

I have tasted French Fry once in a restaurant and then I never ever wanted to taste it again. It was soft, soggy and there was so much oil in it. My mom used to make the most delicious potato fries and I have never ever done it perfect. So I usually stay away from chips making. Last week one of my readers wanted the French Fry recipe. So I started searching for the perfect French Fry recipe which doesn't turn soft and soggy as soon as it cools down. I have read about double frying and triple frying and I have tried them both and never got my fries crispy. But anyhow it turns, my daughter finishes it off as she is a great fan. But if I want to post it in my blog, then it must be perfected as many of you will be trying it. I saw the recipe at Serious Eats. I was surprised how the author had experimented with the recipe and obtained one which makes perfect crispy fries. There was lot of techniques involved and every technique had a reason. If you want to learn about the details please check this page. It is amazing.

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Jigarthanda/ Jil Jil Jigarthanda - Madurai Famous Cool Drink

I am living in Madurai and even after 3 years of blogging, I haven't blogged about the famous Madurai drink Jigarthanda. You can see a Jigarthanda stall at every nook and corner of Madurai. They also sell it in push carts. Though I have been in Madurai for nearly 7 years, I got to taste this drink only few months back. And then whenever I see a jigarthanda stall, I never miss it. As it is available everywhere, I never thought of making this at home. My favourite Jigarthanda is available at Murugan Idli Shop near Meenakshi Amman Temple and opposite Pothy's. When I posted Falooda recipe, one of my friends suggested that I post Jigarthanda also. These two drinks are quite similar but completely different in taste. While falooda has noodles in it, jigarthanda has badam gum/ pisin instead. Both have flavoured milk and served with icecream on top. But jigarthanda is plain without any garnishes. As you all know Madurai is extremely hot and people are always on look out for quenching their thirst and cooling thier body. This drink serves both. Badam pisin and nannari sharbat, both ingredients of jigarthanda, have nice cooling properties. The home made icecream served along with this makes it an exotic drink. 

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Walk Through Memory Lane - January Round Up , Winners and February Announcement

I am thankful to all my readers and blogger friends for the continuous support you are giving me for this event. The entries keep on increasing and I am yet to figure a way to file it all. At present here is a page dedicated to the event which has all the round up links. Srivalli has been very generous in creating a space for WTML round ups at Events and Roundups Blog. I thank her for this great help. This month Amritha of Motions and Emotions is guest hosting Walk Through Memory Lane. Please visit her space for details and linking your entries.

And thank you all for participating in January Walk Through Memory Lane event. I received 135 entries including one from my reader Ravitha. Here is a huge collection of childhood favourite recipes. Please go through it and have a good time.




And now for the winners of January. I selected three entries through random number generator. The winners are Entry number 51 - Prachi- Matar Methi Korma, Entry number 63 - Beulah Arun - Drumstick Leaves Stir Fry and Entry number 135 - Ravitha Pai - Tomato Masiyal.