Saturday, October 15, 2011

Karva chauth and Traditional recipe....

Being an Indian wife I am celebrating  important day of my married life and cheerfully fasting all day for well being  of my husband.Its different and gives you immense pleasure for selflessly praying to God for best wishes.
I am excited and would end my day after moon shines in the sky and blesses us for another year.So festive mood and food go together.I would be sharing a traditional recipe to mark the day.
The recipe is common in Northen Indian households and is simple yet special.I am sharing a potato curry recipe which goes well with poori(deep fried wheat flour)The recipe goes for non garlic and non onion fasting ones!!!
Ingredients:
1)4 potato  boiled and peeled
2)2 Tomatoes finely chopped
3)1inch of Ginger scrapped and finely chopped
4)Green chillies sliced
5)Green coriander for garnishing
6)Dry masala powders-Hing(asafoetida 1 pinch),Turmericpowder,Jeera seeds for tempering,Dry Coriander tablespoon,Jeera powder 1/2 tablespoon,Red chilli as per taste,saunf(fennel)powder1/2 tablespoon,Amchur powder(dry mango)as per taste
7)Salt to taste
8)Desi ghee/Butter is preferred for cooking
9)Curd for thickening the gravy 1/2 cup

We begin with tempering in a kadhai  (pan).Add ghee and once hot add hing and jeera.Add all dry masala powders except amchur and into add tomatoes chopped,further add ginger,green chillies and roast the mixture till oil leaves onto the surface.Now we will add potates which we have peeled and break with our hands in kadhai.Mix the additions and then put salt.We would add water mixed with curd and let the  gravy boil for 10 minutes. For final touches add amchur powder and green coriander.
This goes very well with kaddu (pumpkin)ki sabzi , poori and kachori.This recipe serves two adults.
Traditional north Indian platter is incomplete without this recipe.So have a great day and remember good olden days of our grandmother cooking....

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Food and hair fall control!!!

Being a mom I am sure lot of us face issue of hair fall and I am no far from it.After birth of my daughter I realised after few months that hair were going in bunch.Well how to fight hair fall in todays time,I am one of those who has got a cure after loosing precious tresses of mine.Few things would just fix all of us who are suffering from problem.A change in food and extra vitamins for hair would let us catch up with less fall.
1)Incorporate more greens like eating spinach and fenugreek,soaking fenugreek overnight  in water and drinking the extract helps a lot.

2)Eating egg whites and  even topical application on hair helps hair follicles.

3)Eating nuts like almonds,cashewnuts ,walnut also help get essential oils.
4)Drinking carrot juice and even eating raw carrots works.
5)Fish eaters are the happiest,baked fish dish a week is one of the best ways.
6)I have tried taking fish oil capsules daily as omega-3 fatty acids are the ones to be incorporated in diet

7)Any supplements with zinc and biotin has to be taken every day so mushrooms and oats help u with that.

8)Wheat germ juice and sesame seeds also are growth boost.
9) Applying curd into hair roots helps
10)Drink honey and tulsi water.






Hope this helps you all and even shampoos with fenugreek extract(himalaya)and repair damage serums are  good (dove).Have a healthy diet and good sleep......good hair are byproducts!!!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

500 views!!!! Time to celebrate with shopping ideas..

I am a new blogger and with this new step of 500 views I want to share my dream places for shopping in Bangalore or anywhere,as lots of online portals for finding great deals.I think any young person on earth is on Facebook and that is another medium for new enterpreneurs to look for.I would list few of my personal favourites for shopping indian traditional crafts or apparels.

1)Fabindia-A great place to shop for lovely kurtas,stoles,home furnishings and even nice cotton kids wear which is my personal favourite.I love the blockprints and you find them on kurtas,curtains and dining sets.This time I did find lots of jewellery pieces which were to die for.Cute bangles for your daughter and even organic eatables are making their presence felt there.So make a visit if looking for ethnic classy stuff.

2)Anokhi-A brand which is rajasthani in origin but very cosmopolitan,I feel every piece of stuff is worth looking at.Gorgeous collection of homedecor and smart garments.Colour coded store attracts you to shop till u drop.
They do have kids cotton stuff and mini salwarsuits for girls are cutest in their place.Silk stoles and silk quilted jackets are their brand special,Do drop in and enjoy India going International.

3)Mother earth-The store which works on handicrafts of Varanasi and Puducherry .A collection of jute and silk bordered stuff dominates the range.Earthen touch and colours are attractive and pottery and lots of other home decor things make u go shopping.

4)Karigari jewellery from hyderabad-Every piece is unique and I personally love the pieces of their collection,designed for todays young lady its modern and contemporary.You can shop at yebhi.com for this brand.

5)Anek designs-The brand owned by husband and wife can be shopped for online at shopo and etsy and their personal website.Its different and unique in its own way,a new outlook to textile and colour use.

6)Mish mash designs-A place for kitsch,find the quirkiest and dark colours imbibed in things for complete bohemian designs.find bags,cushions in old world charm meeting todays world.
Lot more fun to catch at Matsya,Happilyunmarried,the Color caravan,India kitsch,Pitaara,Zilpika,Morataara..




Never ending list of todays market found online..genext shopping just a click away at portals which offer the best and one of a kind experience....

Friday, October 7, 2011

Simplest cheese cake recipe!!!

Few things bring smile on my daughters face and she finishes the whole slice with happiness,thats cheese cake
I love to experiment with flavours but our favourite is lemon.The lemon cheese cake is near to my heart as it has history to it,that was something my in laws enjoyed when we met first.My experiments with  food go way back as I started browsing new thing to be cooked each day with my mother.I donot like montony and hence new thing for new day,just a little bit difference makes me go excited.The recipe is simple and yet very nice to be done in a quickfix situation.So check out the ingredients and start cooking:
1)Lemon juice of three good ones 
2)Milkmaid tin(condensed milk)
3)A gelatin or jelly lemon flavoured or plain one
4)Marie biscuits packet
5)Butter 50 gms
6)Lemon rinds to be decorated and garnished
7)Cherry on top
So the recipe begins with crust formation of cheese cake.We take Marie biscuits and crush them in gritty texture and simultaneously melt butter in a pot.The crushed biscuits are  mixed with melted butter.Now we take  the service dish (ususally round glass dish) in which we set our cheese cake and put the mixture on the base.We press the mixture and  level it to a height uniformly and make a biscuit base.Keep it to refrigerate.This helps in setting butter and biscuit to good thick crustly thing.
Next we begin for upper creamier lemony topping ,We take our gelatin and dissolve it in warm water directly or indirect double boiler method (here we put gelatin in water in one pan and this pan is put in other larger pan with boiling water).Now once gelatin dissolved we add milkmaid , gelatin and lemon juice in mixer.Our aim is to nicely mix the three ingredients to good thick creamy mix.Now pour all this on biscuit  base and level it.
Finally all this goes in refrigerator for few hours, good if at least six hours.Decorate with lemon yellow rind or cherry and enjoy cold yummy soft cheese cake .....
Tips
  • We could use mango puree for flavour too
  • We could decorate with mint sprigs
  • We are making no bake cheese cake
  • Milkmaid makes easy go recipe as all sugar and milk incorporated there

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Tandoori fruits with tangy sauce

I love fruits as their freshness and colouful presence adds an extra touch to daily dose.I try bringing all  seasonal ones as scientists say its right to include seasonal veggies and fruits in your diet, it equalises the needs like watermelon fulfills the need of water diet in summers and fights dehydration.So these days we do get anything and everything all year round but natural ones of particular times are essential to incorporate.Tandoori food is healthy be it veggies or chicken as least use of oil and right cooking technique turns it healthiest options to go for.So why not try fruits this way.Collect all your favourite ones but not banana and papaya.
Ingredients:
1)Pineapple chunks
2)Cantaloupe chunks
3)Apple chunks
4)Black grapes and Kiwi
5)Strawberries
6)Bellpepper all colours
7)Lemon juice
8)Honey
9)Green chilli and Mint paste
10)Salt(preferably blacksalt)
11)Tamarind extract
First we marinate the chunks of fruits with tamarindpaste ,honey,chilli and mint paste and salt.Honey's sweetness and tamarind's tangyness adds great flavours to evening snack time.
Then dipped marinated fruits are put on skewer and put in oven for roasting or grill.
We do that till they are golden shrunken  with blackened edges.
Serve hot with any tangy chutney and lemon juice over it.
Children would love it for its taste and colour,I' m sure mummies are happy too!!!!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Navratri-I am a Happy Puppy!!!

Puppies love to play, snuggle, eat and take nap...and I am one of those kinds on weekend.Weekend means soul food and enjoying the time to gear up for the week ahead.Since its Navratri time I take special care of being total Vegeterian and live pure eight days.I tell you this time is really different from other festive times as it brings lots of fresh and pious renewal to life.

My navratri days remind me of 'pooja' and 'havan' performed in celebrating the mightiness and strength of 'goddess Durga'..I being fond of Prasad use to wait for mornings to start my day with yummy God food.Some delicacies are specially meant for this time and are hearty ones.Use of Sabudana(pearl sago) ,potato, kuttu(buck wheat), peanut, fruits and Sendha namak(rocksalt) is more during these auspicious eight days.The idea is to have no use of cereals and pulses and have different flavours cooked particularly.The fasting time ends with feeding 8 girls in number and worship them as goddess.
So I would be sharing a Sabudana Vada recipe which can be consumed in vrat.
Ingredients:
1)Sabudana 250 gm
2)Potato boiled and mashed
3)Green coriander finely chopped
4)Green chillies two in number chopped
5)Sendha namak to taste
6)Singhara(Indian water chestnut fruit that is dried and powdered) flour for binding few tablespoons
7)Oil for frying
So we start with soaking sabudana in water after washing and let it go plump and translucent.Then we add boiled and mashed potatoes to it and mix well.We add chillies,coriander and salt .Adding singhara flour makes the mix bind properly.Check the consistency and would make balls out of it.Heat the oil and put balls one by one.Golden brown balls are taken out on serving plate.Great to enjoy with coriander chutney.
tips:
-Making balls clingwrapping them and storing in fridge for one hour turns then crispier while frying.
-Adding roasted peanuts to vada dough adds nuttiness