Our Newest Family Member

I would like to introduce you all to the newest member of our family - Smokey...

This pintsize is a handful of trouble and keeps us all on our toes. The whole house's routine now revolves around her - feeding and taking her out.

But she is just so adorable.... Don't you agree?

Maangai Saadam - Mango season is fast approaching

At the risk of giving out a hint of how old I am, I have to say that back in the day, everything but everything was seasonal. When it was oranges time, then the market would get flooded with oranges. And just as suddenly, it would go off the market and one had to wait a whole year for oranges to reappear. Ditto with grapes and sapotas and water melons and many other types of fruit. But now things have changed so much. What with globalisation, it is season for the fruit you like in some part of the world or the other. Therefore you get unseasonal oranges and grapes round the year.

Somehow mangoes always managed to keep their exclusivity. There will be mangoes in the market come May and not a day before that. Thank goodness that has not changed. But even so I have to say, raw mangoes are available throughout the year nowadays. This is definitely a new thing. Anyway it is a good thing. We have the opportunity to make wonderful dishes with raw mangoes through the year but still enjoy the anticipation of waiting for THE season.

Seeing mangoes in the market, I decided to make Maangai Saadam. It is very similar to Pulihara (Puliyodarai) and just as tasty, the only difference being that the tang in Pulihara comes from tamarind and here it comes from tart mangoes.

Now for the recipe...

2 cups raw rice

2 large raw mangoes grated

2 tablespoons roasted peanuts

2 tablespoons ghee

salt to taste

Paste:

1/2 cup grated raw mango

1 tablespoon roasted peanuts

1/4 cup grated coconut

4 red chillies

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

Tadka:

1.2 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon Jeera

1/2 teaspoon hing ( asafoetida)

8-10 curry leaves

3 tablespoons Oil

Cook the rice in4 1/2 cups of water. ( Ensure each grain is separate)

Make a smooth paste with paste ingredients.

Heat oil and add mustard. Fry till it crackles. Add the remaining tadka ingredients.

Add peanuts and fry for a few minutes till peanuts turn golden brown.

Add the paste and stir well till it becomes a little thick.

Add the rest of the mango, ghee and salt and cook till raw mango smell disappears.

Add the rice and mix well.

Serve hot along with vadams or papadams.

HEAVEN IN A GLASS- A Very Last Minute Entry To CLICK

I know I know... I just hope I have enough time to get this through to B&J. My computer has been really troubling me and my half baked knowledge is not really helping.

So I am quickly sending off this to their photography event CLICK: LIQUID COMFORT. There is no time to waste at all...

Water is a real saviour and the only drink we need in the hot summer months that we face here in Chennai. And water with a slice of lemon and lots of ice cubes clinking in the glass? HEAVEN IN A GLASS!!! Don't you agree?

Now I have to make sure I email this off to Click pronto....

Aloo Sabji With The Most Awesome Parathas

All of last week, I was away at Bangalore on work. It was a wonderful break and I enjoyed myself. Its been a while since I had been anywhere and this was most welcome.

There we were put up at this service apartment. Basic place and basic amenities but the food was superb. There were two Nepali boys working there, and they would churn out this amzing food. Unforunately, my meals were restricted to breakfast and one dinner but what to do.... As I reached the apartment, I asked him for parathas for breakfast everyday. So the first day was this amazing aloo parathas with thick and delicious curd and pickles and on the second day, he brought forth gobi parathas. On the third day, I did not want to push, so I left him to decide what he would make. Only one instruction - no South Indian breakfast. He made these amzing awesome, superb flaky parathas along with Aloo Sabji. It was so so nice. I had to immediately take pictures and thought it will be perfect for the blog. Got him to give me the recipe. In fact I made it for dinner the moment I got home but no camera to take pictures. So I am posting the pictures here taken of the food made by Tinku along with his picture too.

The Aloo Sabji recipe is posted here and the Flaky parathas recipe here.

4 potatoes boiled and diced finely
4 tomatoes chopped really finely
2 inch piece ginger finely chopped
2 tablespoons Oil

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
salt to taste
3 tablespoons kasooti methi
3 tablespoons curd

Heat oil in a kadai.
Add the tomoates and ginger. Cook till it gets totally mushy and and the oil comes out.
Add the dry powders like coriander powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder and garam masala powder. Cook for a few more minutes.

Add the potatoes and fry for a few minutes. Add the curd, the kasooti methi and 1 glass water and cook till potato gets nice and cooked and infused with all the flavors of tomato and kasooti methi.
It needs to have a very watery gravy.

Serve hot with Flaky Parathas(Recipe here).

Poondu Kozhambu

When I first moved to Chennai, there were a lot of new cuisines we tried out. My husband and I love eating out and we would do a lot of it then ( particularly as he was a carnivore then). We once went out on a busy Saturday night with friends without a reservation. Not a table to be had anywhere. After trying about 4 or 5 places, someone suggested that we try a Chettinad restaurant. Not having ever tried that particular cuisine, and having heard that it is predominantly non-vegetarian I was a little nervous going in. But no choice by then, so we bravely marched in for my first taste of Chettinad food.



Well, I have to be honest here and own up that I was very boring and ordered just appams. Someone else ordered a bunch of things one of which was Poondu Kozhumbu. When it came to the table and was served to me, I cannot even begin to describe the aromas wafting out of it. It just looked so delicious and with browned garlic peeking out of this spicy tangy gravy. Then with the first mouthful, this bunch of incredible tastes just burst on my tongue and tickled my tastebuds. It was " HOT ". "Spicy HOT". But still left me craving for more. Amazing is the only word I can use to describe the memory of eating that. I am very partial to garlic but that was only icing on the cake.


Everytime I wanted to eat this, I would send someone out for it to buy it at the restaurant. Then I saw this months Think Spice hosted by Sunita was focusing on garlic. Immediately said " why not try out Poondu Kozhumbu?" I like the dish and want to eat it often, so why not learn it. Right?


Googled the title and got bunch of recipes. But I knew what I wanted out of it. So chopped and changed and combined and deleted and came up with this recipe. It turned out great ( even if I have to say so myself).

Now for the recipe...


1 cup Garlic cloves peeled
2 medium sized onions diced finely
2 tomatos diced finely
10 curry leaves
Lemon sized ball of tamarind soaked in 1 cup hot water


1/2 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
1/4 teaspoon hing powder ( asafoetida)
1/2 teaspoon jaggery
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urad dal
3-4 tablespoons Oil to fry



Paste ingredients:


2 tablespoons Coriander seeds ( dhania)
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds ( jeera)
1 teaspoon poppy seeds ( Khuskhus)
1/2 teaspoon peppercorn
4 red chillies
2 inch piece ginger
1 teaspoon oil.

Heat 1 teapoon of oil. Lightly fry the garlic till light brown. Keep aside

Extract the tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind discarding the seeds and the skin of the tamarind.

Heat another teaspoon of oil in the same kadai and lightly fry the paste ingredients. Then grind to a smooth paste using about 2 tablespoons of water.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves and urad dal. Fry till they crackle.
Then add the chopped onions and fry well till translucent.
Add tomatos and cook the whole thing till very mushy.
Ad chilli powder, haldi, hing and mix well for a few minutes.
Add the paste and cook really well.
Now add the tamarind juice along with half cup of water and cook till the oil separates.

Add the fried garlic and serve hot as an accompaniment to a meal.






This is my entry for Think Spice Think Garlic hosted by Sunita of Sunitas World