Cucumber Peanut Salad

Is it summer yet or winter???!! Chennai people would have this doubt every single day. One can never predict rains here. Even the weather forecast on the papers or news would go absolutely reverse. We can even expect days in December to be scorching in the morning. Uffff!!!

A chill salad at anytime of the day throughout the year would make your tummy smile and your body refreshing. Opt for it instead of any fried snacks and you can sure reach zero figure :P

The ground peanuts give a very crunchy texture to this salad and makes it all new and delicious :)

Ingredients:

Cucumber - 1
Peanuts - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Salt - for taste
Coconut scrapped - 1/2 tblsp
Coriander leaves

Method:

Grate cucumber and Squeeze out the excess water from it.

Dry roast the peanuts and powder it coarsely.

In a salad bowl, mix in the grated cucumber, peanuts, sugar, salt and coconut and mix well.

Finally add chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Delicious cucumber salad is ready :)

Written by: Nithya
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Happy Onam

Wish all my readers a very happy Onam :)

The words Onam, malayalam and Kerala gives me a very warm feeling. Though I'm not a mallu girl, I have had lot of lovely friends and neighbors from Kerala who have introduced me to the festival and to all their delicacies.

I have tried some of them in my kitchen and have relished their taste. Now they are here for you to make and celebrate :)

Click on the picture or the link to visit the respective posts -

Chakka Pradhaman

Delicious delight made with the sweetest jackfruit :)

Unni Appam

The sweet little dumplings made with wheat flour and jaggery.

Cashew Appam

Rich cashew flavored appam. Forget the calories for a while!!




Wheat Appam

Scrumptious appam made with wheat flour and jaggery.



Avial

Truly delicious mixed vegetable delight.

Written by: Nithya
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Cantaloupe Salads / Kirni Salad

Cantaloupe aka Kirni, the humble fruit from the musk melon family is either too sweet or too bland. This aspect actually makes it very versatile to make any kind of salads. Sweet salad or spicy one. I have tried both and love both of it.

Since the flesh is pretty firm its easy to scoop out balls using melon ballers and that makes it look more interesting. :)

Cantaloup Sweet salad:

Ingredients:

Cantaloupe - 1 fruit scooped into balls
Honey - 1 tblsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Brown sugar - 3 tsps

Method:

Scoop cantaloup into balls using melon baller.

Add some lime juice, honey and brown sugar to it. Toss it nicely until the ingredients are well spread.

Serve it chilled with a mint leaf on top.

Cantaloupe Spicy Salad:

Ingredients:

Cantaloupe - 1 fruit scooped into balls
Salt - for taste
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Chaat masala - 1/2 tsp

Method:

Scoop the fruit into balls using melon baller.

Toss it with some salt, lemon juice and chaat masala.

Serve it chill with a mint leaf on top :)

Written by: Nithya
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Ragi Poori / Finger millet Poori

Kids love Poori... Kids hate Ragi.. These two are real time facts. If both have to be addressed, the best way to do it is to make pooris with Ragi flour :)

Bet on me, it tastes damn delicious and has hardly a feeling of eating something with ragi. Your kids would surely love this version of brown pooris too :)

I had this poori for a the first time a month back when I visited a friend's place at Bangalore. Our buddy's wife Sharmila made this for me and I fell for it immediately. Asked her for the recipe and since then have been waiting for an occasion to make it. Last night we feasted on this healthy poori and couldnt resist posting it for you all :)

Ingredients:

Ragi flour (Finger millet flour) - 1 cup
Wheat flour - 1 cup
All purpose flour (maida) - 1/2 cup
Salt - for taste
Oil - for deep frying

Method:

Take all the three flours and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add water little by little and mix well until it rolls into a firm dough. Set aside for 15 mins.

Now apply oil in your palms and pinch lemon sized balls of dough and roll them into balls. Keep them aside.

Heat oil in a kadai. Press each ball using a poori press or roll them with the stick into a thin circle and transfer it slowly to the kadai and fry on both sides until well puffed and roast on both the sides.

Collect it on a tissue to remove excess oil.

Serve the healthy poori with Bombay Chutney.

Tips:

You can avoid using maida while making the dough. Ragi flour and wheat flour would make the pooris healthier. I tried both the versions and liked them both equally.

If you dont want to deep fry, you can make chapathis with the same dough too. :)

Written by: Nithya
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Tri-color Pasta Salad - Independence day Special

Happy Independence day to all my readers :)

Oh yes!! As a food blogger I have used food to wish you all :) Hope you are all enjoying the holiday with your family at home.

Independence day is celebrated by all Indians since 1947 but then I have yet another reason to celebrate this day, its 365 days since I got engaged to my man ;) He even comically says he lost his Independence on Independence day :P lol.

We both are celebrating our day with a delicious pasta salad, what are you all doing this day?

Ingredients:

Pasta (bow) - 1 cup

Cherry tomatoes - 10
Broccoli - 1/2
Olive oil - 2 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
Salt - for taste
Italian seasoning (mixed herbs) - 2 tsp
Ground flax seeds - 1 tsp

Method:

Cook Pasta in a large pot of water along with some salt and oil. Once it gets cooked strain the water and wash under cold water.

Chop the cherry tomatoes into halves.

Boil the broccoli for 3 mins in water.

Take pasta, tomatoes, broccoli in a mixing bowl, add olive oil, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and crushed flax seeds to it and toss well until well mixed.

Serve and enjoy eating :)

Tips:

You can add some Italian salad dressing as well to make it more delicious.

Add chilly flakes if you want it spicy.

Written by: Nithya
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Krishna Jayanthi Celebrations 2012

Happy Krishna Jayanthi to all my readers.

Hope you all celebrated Krishna's birthday well just as we did.

This year my location of celebration has changed and the change was beautiful. We decorated the huge krishna & Radha idols beautifully and did pooja for the lord. :)

We made four prasadams for the lord this time. Sweet poha, Parsi peni, Spicy seedai and peanut balls. The gods would have enjoyed and yes, I enjoyed too :)

Spicy Seedai version 2

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 4 cups
Roasted gram flour (Pottu Kadalai / Senigapappu) - 1 cup
Butter - 1/4 cup
Green chillies - 3
Lemon juice - 2 tblsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Salt - for taste
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Oil - for deep frying

Method:

Take freshly ground rice flour (Wet flour) and dry roast it in a pan for 10 mins on low flame. Test it by taking a pinch of the flour and drawing a line on the flour. The line should fall clean and clearly. Keep this aside until it comes to room temperature.

Grind the roasted gram to make roasted gram flour. Grind the chillies into paste.

Take a mixing bowl and beat butter. Add both the flours, ground chilly paste and lemon juice, asafoetida and salt to the bowl. Take a tsp of oil in another pan and crackle mustard seeds and add it to the mixing bowl as well. Mix all this together by sprinkling some water to make a pliable dough.

Now pinch small portions of the dough and make balls or small cylindrical shape as I have done and place on a greased plate or lotus leaf.

Once you finish rolling all the dough, fry them in oil until it turns light brown and crispy.

Enjoying popping the tangy and spicy seedai into your mouth :)

Peanut Balls (Store style)

Ingredients:

Peanuts - 2 cups
Jaggery - 1 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 2 tsp

Method:

Dry roast the peanuts for five mins on medium flame and allow it to cool.

Take a heavy bottomed vessel and drop in the jaggery and water. Cook it on medium flame until the jaggery melts and becomes a thick syrup. Check by pouring one drop of syrup in a bowl of water, the drop shouldn't dissolve, it should form a ball.

Once it reaches that consistency, mix in the peanuts and mix well until all the peanuts are coated well.

Grease a large plate with some ghee and transfer the peanuts to the plate. Grease your hands with ghee and make balls quickly. Allow it to come to room temperature and store in air tight box.

Enjoy eating the peanut balls :)

Written by: Nithya
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Banana Walnut Bread - Eggless

A humble fruit that is delicious. A humble fruit that look beautiful. A humble fruit that fills your tummy. A humble fruit that cures your body from constipation. A humble fruit that is available throughout the year. The humble fruit that most of you love.

Oh yeah I know you guessed it right. The banana is the hero of today's recipe. :)

I so much love banana that I can have it 365 days a year for the next 75 years if I survive 100 like some one blessed :P

Incorporating banana's or rather replacing eggs with bananas in baking is a boon I say. It adds taste, aroma and incredibly tempting flavor.

I had a dozen of super ripen bananas at home and couldnt stop day dreaming about banana bread. Hence shook off my laziness and whipped up the batter within 10 mins. Put it in the oven and sat with satisfaction. It was 10 mins up and the kitchen was already smelling heavily of banana.. Ummmmmm.. thats when disaster struck in the form of power cut. Oh the dare devil against baking was there. :( Waited patiently for the next 1 hour until it came back and with so much of prayers I switch the oven on again. My prayers got answered and was blessed to get a pretty soft, dense, delicious banana bread out of the oven.

Everyone liked it, so did I :)

Recipe inspired from my buddy blogger Jeyashri - here.

Ingredients:

Banana - 3 small (or 2 large)
Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
Maida - 3/4 cup
Brown sugar - 3/4 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1/4 cup
Curd - 2 tblsp
Cooking soda - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Walnuts - 10

Method:

Sieve maida, wheat flour and cooking soda together and keep it aside.

Chop bananas into small pieces and grind it along with sugar and milk into a smooth paste.

Now take the ground mixture in a large mixing bowl. Add oil, vanilla essence and curd to it and mix well. Finally fold in the sifted flour mixture into it.

Chop the walnuts and mix them into the batter.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Grease a bread tin with butter and dust all purpose flour evenly. Pour in the batter into the bread tin and bake at 180°C for 40-50 mins.

Remove from oven and allow the bread to cool on wire rack for a while before cutting out slices.

Written by: Nithya
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Banana Chips Rice Mix

I really cant have sambhar, rasam and curd for lunch all 7 days of a week. It makes the though of lunch so boring and exhaustive. I am a person who craves for variety and wouldn't mind anything to break the monotony. oops I can hear my MIL saying "as if you eat so much". Yup I am a quality food person and not a quantity food person. aahaa which just means that I love variety but eat just too less.

On one such occasion last week, I opted to have some podi rice to make the cooking and eating simple. Mom went through her super large diary of recipes to pick this one for me so that I can easily make it and blog about it too :P Oh yeah, it has become that way these days. Cooking is just not for eating but for blogging too ;) Quickly made this podi and trust me it tasted very interesting with a crunchy texture :)

If you too have been tired with long cooking sessions, opt for this one and finish the magic in a jiffy :)

Ingredients:

Plantain chips - 1/2 cup
Moong dhall - 1 tblsp
Channa dhall - 1/2 tblsp
Thoor dhall - 1/2 tblsp
Red chillies - 4
Garlic - 4 pods
Salt - for taste
Jeera - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 10

Method:

In a dry pan roast the 3 dhalls, jeera, red chillies and the curry leaves separately, one followed by the other.

Take a tsp of oil in pan and fry the garlic pods.

Now add all this to the mixie along with the banana chips and salt and powder it coarsely.

Add this to rice and mix well. Serve hot :)

Try to make the podi just before use. The chips gives a crispy texture to the podi which will not be the same if stored and used.

Written by: Nithya
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