Happy Diwali!

Wish all my friends, readers and co-bloggers a very happy Diwali! :D

Oops I just realized that it has been a year and a half since I wrote my last blog post! My sincere apology to you all for have been missing for quite sometime. I have been cooking, eating out, trying new stuff, learning each day, taking orders and going through much more and so on. I was alive and kicking but sorry for have not been active with this blogging passion of mine. With this post on an auspicious day I would like to get back to my identity, my blog again :)  Not sure or not promising anything but the eagerness to get in touch with 4th Sense Cooking is back :)

Wishing you all again with a visual treat of my Diwali cupcake hampers that I made this year for a client! :)

Pongal Celebration 2014 - Oats & Soy Milk Pongal

 

Wish all my readers a very happy Pongal :)

Pongal went on great with celebrations at home with rich version of pongal with milk by my mom (Check pongal post 2010 and 2011 here)

This year there was one additional recipe which I made. Came up with a healthy version with Oats and Soy Milk :) It came out really well and we all enjoyed :) Please excuse the pic, since my cam took a break and has gone for service, this is a quick version of pic with my iphone :)

Ingredients:

Oats - 3/4 cup
Soy milk - 400 ml
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 1 tblsp
Dried figs - 3
Almonds - 5
Cashews - 5

Method:

Chop the nuts into small pieces and fry them in ghee and keep it aside. 

Cut the dried figs into small pieces. Take it in a microwave safe bowl and add few drops of water to it and microwave for 30 seconds. This will make the figs soft. 

Take a tsp of ghee in a pan and fry the oats too for few minutes and keep it aside. 

Take the soy milk in a thick bottomed vessel and allow it boil in low flame until it boils and raises. 

Reduce the flame and add the oats to the soy milk. Now simmer the flame and allow the oats to get completely cooked. Once the oats gets cooked and thickens, add the jaggery to it and mix well. In a few minutes the entire jaggery will melt and blend well with the oats. Finally add the nuts and the figs to the pongal and mix well. 

Serve hot and enjoy :) 

Wish you a very happy pongal again :) 

Written by: Nithya

Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Halloweeeeeeeeeen!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Spooky Halloween Wishes to all!!!!

I have attended a lot of parties ranging from birthday to baby shower but this Halloween party and the scary food that we made was one of the best I ever enjoyed :)

Yes! I was yet again a student back to college but this time truly the lessons that I loved to learn and not a day of class was boring :)

I finally did a certified course in baking and cake art at Lavonne Institute, Bangalore. Had a great two months of time learning loads of pastries and baked goodies each day. 

I take this opportunity to thank my three favorite chefs Vinesh, Avin and Joonie for teaching me loads of new techniques in my favorite subject - Baking :) They are best at what they do! 

As a final touch to the course we as teams had to organize a tea party on a specific theme and what did we do????? 

HALLOWEEN!!! The Ghost Party :)

We totally enjoyed making all these cute yet scary props to decorate for the party :)

Our menu included various scary looking delicious bakes!

The first was called the Spooky fingers - Ginger cookies which the kids at the party loved :)

Next was the Mud Mousse - Oh yes you read it right. This one was for sure one of my most favorite :)

Mummy Sausages were gone in first half an hour!!! The best seller for the non vegetarian lovers :) 

Graveyard Cakes - The delicious Sacher Torte dressed up like a edible graveyard. One of the most pretty looking set up of the show :)

Eye Ball Canapes - The dill bread covered with garlic cream and olive eyes were one of my creations for the show :) Ofcourse I loved it :P

Headless cookies - The headless men were yummy orange cookies with a super zesty flavor :)

The show stopper was this Blood bath - the drink behind the deadly name was a mix of cranberry, orange and lime :)

Posing time for the little chefs with the big Chef Vinesh :) Miss you all buddies, will see you all soon as big pastry chefs with success stories!! :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Ganesh Chathurthi 2013

Wish you a very happy Ganesh Chathurthi :)

Ganesha is my most favorite God!! A versatile handsome god who disguises himself is so many forms and styles. He is the most friendly god seen almost in every streets in India and the first god who is prayed during all festivals. Today being his day, we of course had to celebrate it with pomp and joy :) 

We bought a new clay Ganesha this morning from the nearby market. I just loved the market space today, it was filled with people and vendors selling Ganesha idols of all sizes and decorations, loads of flowers, fruits and other products specific to the occasion. 

I enjoyed draping my Ganesha with new clothes and jewels. Doesn't he look smart!!???

Then comes the delicious prasadams that he loves. I made lots of Kolukattai / Modak with sesame filling and cashew filling this time. We also made a grand lunch feast for god today and offered it to him :)

Click on the following links to see my previous year celebrations and recipes. 

Vinayagar chathurthi celebration 2009 with recipes. 

Vinayagar chathurthi celebrations 2010 with recipes.

Hope you all had a great festival too. After a long weekend here in India, wish you all a great week ahead too :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Krishna Jayanthi 2013

Happy Birthday Lord Krishna :)

Wish you all a very happy Krishna Jayanthi!!

This year it has been a double celebration of Krishna Jayanthi at home for us. I literally meant double, yes!, we celebrated the festival twice this year :)

Our Krishna Jayanthi celebration was telecasted by Vasanth TV yesterday(Aug 28) at 1PM as part of their Sappida Vanga program in which I demonstrated three Krishna Jayanthi special recipes and with the pooja at home. Hence we did a mock krishna jayanthi a couple of days back for the shoot and again celebrated it in a grander scale last evening :)

It has sadly been almost a month since I posted :(  I had to do my educational trip followed by holiday trip which again was followed by devotional trip :) I am back home and settling down to square one again and will promise to post more often from now on starting with a good note on Krishna Jayanthi. 

This year we made Maida Sweet Seedai, Peanut Jaggery balls and Maida spicy shells for the festival :) Click on the link to follow the recipe of Maida sweet seedai and I will soon be posting the recipe for the maida spicy shells!! 

Hope you all had great celebrations at home too!

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Happy Pongal - Excited & Exhausted!

Wish you all a very happy Pongal! 

I am sure you all must be gearing up for the upcoming pongal festival. I am pretty much excited and getting ready too.Went for a shopping and got all the ingredients required for pongal etc. The house is getting cleaned and a new make over for the festival :) All at home already started enjoy the long weekend holidays.. Afterall we all enjoy and wait for festivals for these reasons isnt it?!!!

This year my pongal is getting a lot more of attention! I literally mean it. A couple of years back with all josh I set up a miniature pongal set and clicked pictures of the pongal with the traditional  background etc for my blog. The effort that I took to make it is getting its recognition now :)

I was surprised to see my Pongal photograph published in leading tamil dailies Dina Tandhi and Dinakaran yesterday!!!

It was indeed a pleasant surprise when my dad called me up and said my pongal picture has been published in news papers. I really felt proud of myself for the work and the recognition its getting but my happiness diminished when I saw that they have all been stolen without permission and have also been edited heavily to remove the water mark that I have posted on the picture :(  Plagiarism as ever.

I so really wish the editors of these papers get more ethical to ask and publish along with credits. I'm tired of fighting for credits. All I could do now is to put up the images and feel happy for the publication of the picture.

Anyways I am happy that my pongal is getting a lot more of viewers now, though they wont know its my work. 

Below is the image of Dina Malar edition last year with my Pongal pictures as cover page of their book. 

All thanks to more pirated links where my picture has been copied, edited, cropped and manipulated with their watermarks. I'm happy to be stolen for the first time :)

http://www.goodlightscraps.com/pongal-greetings.php

http://www.scrapdis.com/Orkut-Scraps/pongal_scraps/happy/Orkut_Pongal_Scraps_02.html

http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-cinema-celebrity-column/Pongal-meets-Padangal-18-04-12.html

http://www.uyirvani.com/forums/topic/55509-wish-u-happy-pongal/

http://blog.buzzintown.com/2013/01/makar-sankranti-pongal-sms-greetings-wishes-pictures/

http://www.punjabigraphics.com/pg/pongal/

http://hiox.org/32251-hiox-wishes.php

http://99tshirts.com/blog/pongal-shopping-gets-hotter-online

http://www.sarascorner.net/2011/01/happy-pongal-and-paruppudal-vadai.html

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/pongal/41064368-9bfc-41aa-bad7-70c8b9f84168

http://visitpenang.com.my/2013/01/10/pongal-festival-2013/

http://www.3dcolorboard.com/pongal_greetings.html

http://sivaniskitchen.blogspot.in/2012/01/makara-sankranti-festival-2012.html

http://kerala-delightfulartsandculture.blogspot.in/2012_01_01_archive.html

http://jkimperfect.blogspot.in/2012/01/pongalo-pongal-village-harvest-festival.html

http://besthomedecorators.com/pongal/pongal-2012-in-tamilnadu.html

http://sweetyprincess-chelas.blogspot.in/2011/01/blog-post.html

http://appavithangamani.blogspot.in/2011/01/100.html

http://ramasampathkumar.blogspot.in/

and more and more..

 

Wish you all a very happy Boghi pongal, Sankaranthi, Maatu pongal and Kaanum pongal :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Diwali Celebration - Almond Pudding

May millions of lamps illuminate your life
with endless joy, prosperity, health & wealth forever!!

Wish you all a very happy Diwali :)

My Diwali is being beautiful, delicious, happy and memorable :) I hope all of you are enjoying this joyous occasion at its best with your dear ones. Enjoy the day with fire crackers, sweets and loads of wishes :)

My house is loaded with sweets and savories this year and here is one for you all, may be the best of this year :) The rich creamy and sinfully delicious almond pudding :) 

Ingredients:

Almonds - 200 gms

Milk - 1/2 ltr

Whipped cream - 1 cup (200 ml)

Gelatine - 20 gms

Powdered Sugar - 200 gms

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Method:

Blanch almonds in warm water for an hour. Peel the skin and keep it aside. 

Grind the almonds into a smooth paste by adding few spoons of milk. 

Take the gelatine in a cup and add few spoons of water to it. Microwave it for a min for it to completely dissolve. 

Boil the milk and add sugar to it. Mix until well dissolved. Now completely simmer the stove and add the ground almond paste and mix well. Remove from flame. 

Allow it to come to room temperature. Add the gelatine mixture, vanilla esssence and mix well and let it cool completely. 

Finally fold in the whipped cream to it. 

Pour them into moulds or serving glasses and allow it to set in the fridge for 2 hours atlease. 

Serve cold topped with some crushed praline.

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.

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
Send in your queries by clicking here.

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
Send in your queries by clicking here.

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
Send in your queries by clicking here.