Crispy Fried Colocasia/ Taro/ Arvi

This is simple food for any day any time meal, made by my sis's MIL and I took all the pics for the recipe

So let's start with Fried Arvi/Colocasia

Ingredients:

Arvi/Colocasia - 1 cup (boiled and peeled)

Onion - 2 large

Red chilli powder - 1 tps

Coriander powder - 1/2 tps

Cinnamom powder - 1/2 tps

Salt - to taste

Oil -

Method:

1. Boil arvi and remove the skin.

2. In a pan heat oil and fry the arvi & keep aside ( You can deep fry or shallow fry them)

3. Peel the onion and make a fine paste of them.

4. In a pan heat oil and fry the onion paste until the oil leaves edges, add all the masala powders and salt mix well and cook for 2-3 mins.

5. Now add the arvi and mix well. Cook for 5-7 mins or until the masala get cooked properly.

Simple and yummy arvi fry is ready.

.....

Happy Diwali

Wish you all Happy & Prosperous Diwali. Here in Singapore and most part of Southern India has celebrated Diwali yesterday but in North India Diwali is celebrated today as the main Lakshmi Puja. Check here for more Diwali informations. This year has been really special and wonderful we have celebrated Diwali on both the days with much enjoy, fun, glitters & ofcourse yummy food.

Let's start our party with Ganesh naman

Let's welcome the new year with simple Rangoli, made by my Sis

On the entrance she has also done some rangoli using flowers petals ....

Diwali light up....

Kedar busy placing the Diyas


Isn't it very cute pic ;) [candid moment :) ]

We have decorated some of the diyas ourself, just get some plain diyas use colours, some gliter glue, brush and make decorative and beautiful diyas with any design. All this are done by Kedar.

And the colourful diyas are ready


Let's pray to God and get the blessing for the new year.

Ofcourse Sweet is there in the list, Gulab Jamun made by my BIL for diwali and it's delicious I can't describe, here the bowl for all of you :) Here gulab jamun recipe

Wish you all Happy Diwali again, and thank U all for your wishes.

And post is for the FestiveFood: Diwali event hosted by me. Rush in your entries by 6th Nov 08.

.......

Gongura Pachadi (Chutney) | Khatta Bhaji Chatni

Gongura Pachadi or Chutney is popular Andhra recipe made of gongura or sorrel leaves or khatta bhaji as it's called in Hindi.  It's very easy and taste really delicious it goes best with steamed rice but we can eat it with anything it taste wonderful with just anything for me. I learnt this recipe from my sis's MIL whom makes this pachadi so well and from then whenever I get sorrel leaves I made this chatni for sure.  This time I made this at my in-law place as now is khatta bhaji (sorrel leaves) season and we can find it everywhere so for a change.

Mix Veggie Curry with Sambar and a Award

Now a days am tied up with work so much that it's getting difficult to blog :-( so made something gud for a change one of these day and that was..longbeans, potato, drumstick together in onion and tomato gravy and that's make yummy Mix Veggie Curry. Along with it made brinjal and drumstick sambar, cucumber & carrot salad for full meals :)

For Mix Veggie we need:

Drumsticks - 1-2
Potato - 1 large
Longbean - 8-10
Onion - 2 large
Tomato - 1 large
Green Chili - 3-4 ( I used red chili)
Redchili powder - 1 tps
Turmeric - 1 tps
Garam masala powder - 1/2 tps
Curry leaves - few
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1 tbs
Water - 1 cup

Method:

1. Cut the potato in cubes, longbeans in small pieces and drumstick too.
2. I have pressure cook drumsticks.
3. Cook the longbeans & potato in microwave for 5mins.
4. Chop the onion, green chilli and tomato.
5. In a pan heat oil, add chopped onion, green chilli and saute them for 2-3 mins.
6. Add curry leaves and all the masala powder and mix well, cook for 2 mins.
7. Add potato, long beans and drumstick mix well and cook for 3-4 mins with lid on.
8. Now add the chopped tomato and cook with lid on for 2-3 mins.
9. Add salt and water and mix well.
10. Cook for 5-6mins with lid on or everything is done and the water due to half.

It's a simple curry with lot of nutrition due to the veggie and also I used only 1tbs of oil to cook.

Next is Brinjal & Drumstick Sambar

For that we need:

Tuar Dal - 1 cup (cooked)
Drumstick - 1
Brinjal/Egg plant - 4-5 ( I used the small ones)
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato - 1 medium
Green Chili - 2-3
Curry Leaves - few
Tamarind - small lemon size
Redchili powder - 2 tps
Sambar powder - 1 tps (optional, if using sambar powder use red chilli only 1 tsp)
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tps
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tps
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbs
Coriander leaves - 2 tps (chopped)
Oil - 2-3 tps
Ghee - 2-3 tps (optional)
Water

Method:

1. Wash tuar dal and pressure cook with 1/2 turmeric powder.
2. Cut the brinjal and drumstick, either boil them or pressure cook then too.
3. Slice onion, chopped green chili, tomato and coriander leaves.
4. Soak the tamarind in water for 10-15mins and squeeze the puree out of it.
4. Heat oil in a pan, add half of the mustard, cumin seeds and allow them to splutter.
5. Add onion slices and saute them. Add ginger-garlic paste, green chili and curry leaves and mix.
6. Add the chopped tomato and and cook for 2mins. Now add chili powder and mix.
7. Add the brinjal and drumsticks (add any other vegetable as wish) and cook them together for 2mins.
8. Now add the tamarind puree and bring it to boil.
9. Add the cooked dal and and water as required, mix everything and bring it to boil again. Add the sambar powdeer and boil for 5mins.
10. Serve the sambar as it or use other half of mustard and cumin seeds, dry red chilli, and temper them in Ghee. Pour over the sambar and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve the thali with mix veggie curry, sambar, cumcumber & carrot salad with rice.

Carrot Soup

So let's come to the carrot soup, I used:

Carrots - 2 large (chopped finely)
Onion - 1/2 small (chopped)
Garlic - 2-3 pods (chopped)
Olive Oil - 1tps (You can use butter or any other oil too)
Bay Leaf - 1
Sambar powder - 1/2 tps
Pepper and Salt - to taste
Water - 2-3 cups

Method:

1. Chopped the onion and carrot finely.
2. In a pan heat oil, add the bay leaf, add garlic, onion and saute them.
3. Now add the chopped carrot and saute for 5mins.
4. Add sambar powder mix well and cook for 2 more mins ( Laavanya has added water now but I have forgotten to do that !! )
5. When the carrot comes to room temp, make puree of them adding 2-3 cups of water.
6. I cooked the puree again for 5-6 mins, adding salt and pepper to taste.

After tasting the soup I thought it's too thick and it's better to filter them. So, after boiling the soup I filter it !! (If you think there is a need to filter the soup then you can do it before boiling it).

I did not add any corn flour as I didn't find that neccsary. Soup was simple, yummy and filling.



And ya check out the Festive Food: Diwali Celebration details too.

Festive Food: Diwali Celebration

After Rakhi, Krishna and Ganesh Chaturthi, Onam and Navaratri celebrations, here Festive Food is back with Diwali Celebrations.


Diwali, or Deepavali, (also called Tihar and Swanti in Nepal) is a major Indian and Nepalese festival, and a significant festival in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism. Many legends are associated with Diwali. Today it is celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs across the globe as the "Festival of Light," where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within every human being.

The festival marks the victory of good over evil, and uplifting of spiritual darkness. Symbolically it marks the homecoming of goodwill and faith after an absence, as suggested by the Ramayana.

In many parts of India, it is the homecoming of King Rama of Ayodhya after a 14-year exile in the forest. The people of Ayodhya (the capital of his kingdom) welcomed Rama by lighting rows (avali) of lamps (deepa), thus its name, Deepawali, or simply shortened as Diwali. Southern India marks it as the day Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura. In western India it is also in honor of the day King Bali went to rule the nether-world by the order of Vishnu.

In Jainism it marks the nirvana of Lord Mahavira, which occurred on October 15, 527 BCE. The Sikhs celebrate Diwali for a different reason; on this day, the Sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind Ji, was freed from imprisonment along with 52 Hindu Kings (political prisoners) whom he had arranged to be released as well. after his release he went to Darbar Sahib (golden temple) in the holy city of Amritsar. There, he was greeted by Sikhs and many other people. In happiness they lit candles and diyas to greet the Guru. In India, Diwali is now considered to be a national festival, and the aesthetic aspect of the festival is enjoyed by most Indians regardless of faith.

Diwali is celebrated on the first day of the lunar Kartika month, which comes in the month of October or November.

The six days

Diwali celebrations are spread over six days in some of North India and Nepal. All the days except Diwali are named according to their designation in the Hindu calendar.

1. Vasu Baras: Baras means 12th day and vasu means cow. On this day cow and calf is worshipped. Since it is believed that cow is symbol of God, Diwali is begun by worshipping cow and calf.

2. Dhanatrayodashi or Dhan teras: Dhan means "wealth" and Trayodashi means "13th day". Thus, as the name implies, this day falls on the 13th day of the second half of the lunar month. It is an auspicious day for shopping of utensils and gold.This day is also regarded as the Jayanti of God Dhanvantri who came out during the churning of the great ocean by the gods and the demons. Dhanvantri Jayanti.

3. Naraka Chaturdashi: Chaturdashi is the fourteenth day on which demon Narakasura was killed. It signifies the victory of good over evil and light over darkness (Gujarati: Kali Chaudas).

In south India, this is the actual day of festivities. Hindus wake up way before dawn as early as 2:00 in the morning, have a fragrant oil bath and wear new clothes. They light small lamps all around the house and draw elaborate kolams /rangolis outside their homes. They perform a special puja with offerings to Lord Sri Krishna or Lord Sri Vishnu, as he liberated the world from the demon Narakasura on this day. It is believed that taking a bath before sunrise, when the stars are still visible in the sky is equivalent to taking a bath in the holy Ganges.

After the puja, children burst firecrackers heralding the defeat of the demon. As this is a day of rejoicing, many will have very elaborate breakfasts and lunches and meet family and friends. In the evening, lamps are again lit and Goddess Lakshmi is worshipped and offered special dishes. This being a no moon day, many will offer special tarpana (offerings of water and sesame seeds) to their ancestors. This day is also called as Roop Chaturdashi.

4. Lakshmi Puja: Lakshmi Puja marks the most important day of Diwali celebrations. Hindu homes worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and Ganesh, the God of auspicious beginnings, and then light lamps all across the streets and homes to welcome prosperity and wellbeing.

5. Govardhan Puja: Also called Annakut, is celebrated as the day Krishna defeated Indra. Lord Krishna taught people to worship nature, as mountains bring rains to earth. That was the reason to stop worshiping Indra. His was the message that we should take care of our nature. For Annakut a mountain of food is decorated symbolizing Govardhan mountain lifted by Lord Krishna. In Maharashtra it is celebrated as Padva or BaliPratipada. The day commemorates King Bali. Men present gifts to their wives on this day.In Gujarat, it is celebrated as New Year, as Vikram Samvat starts on this day.

6. Bhaiduj: on this day, brothers and sisters meet to express their love and affection for each other (Gujarati: Bhai Bij, Bengali: Bhai Phota). Most Indian festivals bring together families, Bhaiduj brings together married sisters and brothers, and is a significant festive day for them. This festival is ancient, and pre-dates 'Raksha Bandhan' another brother-sister festival celebrated in the present day.

Fireworks

To enhance the joy of Diwali both the young and the old light firecrackers and fireworks at night. Nowadays there is a significant growth in campaigns on creating awareness over the adverse impacts of noise and air pollution. Some Governments drive to keep the festival less noisy and pollution-free. The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has banned production of crackers with noise levels of over 125 decibels. In survey of UP Pollution Control Board, it was revealed that the emission of smoke was found more in the light illuminating fire crackers. Levels of SO2 (Sulfur dioxide) found marginally higher on Diwali day.

Reference: Wiki

So join us and celebrate Diwali with Festive Food. Let’s enjoy the joy and fun of Diwali together.


Guidelines for Celebrating Festive Food: Diwali Celebration

1. Diwali is celebrated in all parts of India in different ways and by preparing special goodies on this occasion. Here’s a chance to revive olden days.
Prepare a dish, which as a custom is prepared in your house. It can be anything sweet dish, any main dish, savoury snack……list goes on. Share with us how Diwali is celebrated in your region or house and also any special memories you have associated with Diwali. One can post hand made Diya/lamp, Rangoli or even any special decorative items you have purchased/made.

2. The last date for sending your entry is 6th November 2008. We don’t want participants to prepare dishes for this event specially. Our idea is participants should send entries with the dishes, which they have actually prepared on Diwali and share with us their experience and enjoy the festival to the fullest.

3. Bloggers please add a link back to this event announcement. We would be glad if you can include Diwali colourful Logo. There are no restrictions on the number of entries.

4. Send in your entries at Indian.festivefood@gmail.com with below mentioned information with subject FF: Diwali or FF: Diwali Celebration.

* Name:

* Dish Name:

* Blog’s Name:

* Blog URL:

* Post URL:

*Picture: Please attach the picture(s)

5. Non Bloggers no need to get upset, email your recipe along with the picture. We will post it on your name and include it in the round up.

6. Old post are accepted, provided they are republished by linking back this event announcement along with the logo.

Wish you all Happy and Prosperous Diwali.

50th Post with Aloo Tari - Revisited

This is my 50th post...I have completed half-century! Man it feels gud, it took me almost 5 months to reach here ;). I never thought I will come this far with blogging but to my amusement I have made it.
Thanks a ton to all the regular visitors of my blog whom always showered me with their sweet & encouraging comments, and Big Thanks to the people whom visits my blog.

Along this 5 months I have made so many friends that I never thought I'll be able to make. Few of them has become real close one and I'm so happy for that fact. (It looks like some award thanks giving speach ;) )

So how to celebrate the 50th post? Well, I thought to revise one of my own entry for that :-). So here is the Aloo Tari with carrot and peas.

Remember my Aloo Tari post? No? Never mind here is the link, check that out ;) So I made the Aloo Tari again but this time added carrot and peas too and it was just yummy. Followed the same procedure as written in the previous post just added 1/2 cup chopped carrot and 1/4 cup frozen peas after step 3 and the result was delicious.

And serve it with parata

50th post celebration and no sweet? Na, I do have one sweet dish to share with. This is call Methi Roti.

Make regular flour dough and roll them. Now add 1 tbl of jaggery pieces close the edges and roll them again. Be careful while rolling this time if not it will start breaking. Cook it both the sides on a hot tawa and apply oil/ghee. After the roti gets cooked it will become stick due to jaggery. Do not eat is very hot or the you will end up burning your tongue. Let it cool down a bit and then enjoy this simple but yummy methi roti.

Happy Dusshera - Puffed Rice Upma and Mix jelly

Hello everyone, Wish you all Happy Dusshera. Hope everyone enjoy the festive session with fun and joy.

So how you guys are celebrating the festivals? I'm kinda busy now a days so not able to blog much :-(. But never mind I'm back with simple recipes of Puffed Rice Upma and some fruity jelly. These are simple and fast recipes to prepare and taste yummy.

For puffed rice upma we need:

Puffed rice - 1 cup

Peanuts - 3 tbs

Onion - 2 large (chopped)

Green chilli - 3-4 (chopped)

Curry leaves - few

Coriander Leaves - 5 tbs (chopped)

Turmeric - 1/2 tps

Dry red chili - 2-3

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tps

Oil - 2-3 tps

Salt - to taste

Method:

1. In a pan heat oil, add mustard seeds and allow it to splutters.

2. Add dry red chilli, half portion of chopped onion, chopped green chilli, peanuts and saute until onion turns light golden brown.

3. Meanwhile soak the puffed rice in water for a min and squeeze well to remove all the water, keep them aside.

4. Add curry leaves, turmeric in the onion and mix well, cook for a min.

5. Now add the puffed rice and mix well. Add salt as required. (do remember puffed rice do have salt in them to adjust the salt according to that)

6. Cook for a min & off the flame, sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves, other half of the onion and mix again.

Puffed rice upma is ready. This takes less than 10mins, onions and peanuts gives crunchy taste to it. It's very good for breakfast or snacks or exclude the onion to make it Prasad for pooja.

Now coming over to the jelly, this one was made for Kedar since he likes jelly very much. I just added few fruits to make the jelly more interesting.

I used one packet of jelly mix and follow the instructions in the pack ie boil water and mix the jelly powder and boil it for 5-7 mins.

Meanwhile chopped the fruits of your choice. I used 1 green and 1 red apple, 1 orange, 1/2 cup mango puree, few almonds and raisins and some food colour.

Pour the jelly liquid in separate blows depending on how many types you want. In the first one added orange pieces, next chopped apple, next was to mix apple and orange in one bowl. In another I added 1tps of food colour along with almonds and raisins. In the last bowl added 1/2 cup mango puree and 1/4 cup jelly liquid. Let all the liquid to set.

After the jelly gets sets it looks like this:


Cut them in cubes.



Store in box, this can be use upto a week or 10days (if anything is left by then ;) )


And Serve with more chopped fruits, ice cream or just like that.

Eid Mubarak & Dates Cake

Eid Mubarak to everyone. As usual I do not wish to write about Eid too as few of them have done so ;) (call it am plain lazy to do anything of that sort)

We have celebrated Eid yesterday here in Singapore and here in SG it called as 'Hari Raya' and we all went to Singapore Zoo ;) and had a gud day.

Eid is always associated with Seviya. During my schooling days my friend use to invite many of us to her place to celebrate Eid and we were happy to go to her home to eat all the goodies. Also there was huge tiffins of seviya, halwa, puri, sabji, biryani used to come from my Dad's staff house ;). Yes it always been purely eating pleasure.

For Eid I wanted to post something sweet but since I do have Seviya already mention here so thought of posting this simple but wonderful cake.I couldn't control but try right away the cake. This cake is the second recipe after my Dates Ladoo that I have make the dish immediately.

I have followed everything as per the recipe with minor changes and this one was the best cake so far from my baking experiment ;). Soft & delicious and no one guessed it's dates cake. Being eggless is also plus point in this cake, I have use almonds, cashews for garnishing that's all.

The original recipes is from Aayi's Recipes.

Here is my version:

Ingredients:

Dates - 3/4 cup (chopped)
Milk - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Oil - 4 tbs
Baking Soda - 1 tps
Cashews, Almonds - few

Method:

1. Soak dates in milk for 10-15mins, (this is optional) remove seeds if any.
2. Make fine paste of dates & sugar using milk used for soaking dates in small amounts. If there is any remaining milk of the 3/4 cup keep it aside. (I gave this task to Kedar and he did make very nice fine paste, I was happy with the end result ;) )
3. Sieve the baking soda and flour together and keep aside.
4. Place the dates paste in a big bowl, add oil and mix well. (The original recipes asks for 1/2 cup of oil but I used 4 tbs of oil, you may add more oil for better texture)
5. Mix the flour in small quantity in to the dates & oil paste. Add the remaining milk into the dough, if any.
6. Add half of the cashews and almonds and mix well.
7. Grease a baking dish and pour the mixture. Garnish it with remaining almonds, cashews.
8. Bake for 30-35mins in preheated oven on 200C.

The cake was very different and yummy, I give my thumbs up for the cake.

Have a closer look :)


Okie it seems like every post has to go to any one or other events :)