Kodubale

Just passed the festival of Krishna Janmashtami, very soon many more festivals are queued up for the year. Coming next is Ganesh Chaturthi. India is a land of festivals, no wonder in that as it is a Secular Country housing main four religions with each religion having sets of festivals throughout the year and are celebrated with immense fervor. Not only in India even abroad the Indians try their best to celebrate these festivals. Well as promised I had to put up the recipe of Kodubale today.
Kodubale as the name goes is a savory snack from the state of Karnataka. As the name suggests 'Kodu' means Horn and 'bale' means Bangle. Though not sure why the dish is named so. This recipe calls for patience and effort. Here goes the recipe.

Maida Burfi

Janmashtami was celebrated yesterday throughout. I had kept all you readers in suspense by asking you all to stay tuned for my maida burfi and Kodubale recipe.
My daughter's nakshatra or star is 'Rohini'. It is believed to be Krishna's nakshatra. So whenever she does any mischief I call her telling 'looti krishna' as in our local language meaning naughty Krishna. She loves specific sweets only. This is something which she will like I felt and hence on the Janmashtami night,after offering to God, I offered them to my sweet cute Krishna, Shreeya my daughter, and she was like wow, 'one more amma'. I was happy. Even my better half said 'This is something very delicious and I'm loving it'. Wow, what more do I need? Both gave me good compliments. I was happy.  As promised today I'm sharing maida burfi recipe. Kodubale recipe will be up tomorrow is up. Until you wait try out these mouth melting burfi.

Mosaravalakki

Experience cold or heat, pleasure or pain. These experiences are fleeting; they come and go. Bear them patiently. This is what Shree Krishna says as per the Bhagavad Gita. It is believed that God gives pain more to those whom He believes to be the strongest. I wish all my readers a very happy Krishna Janmashtami and may the coming year be a blessed one. My offerings to God today were very simple yet I believe that God will give me enough strength to overcome all the difficulties that come in my path. I offered Mosaravalakki, Maida burfi and Kodubale to Shree Krishna today. The reason behind Mosaravalakki is a small story that relates ShreeKrishna and Sudama, his best friend.

Bread Potato Roll/ Aloo Bread Roll

The continuous change in weather here with alternate cold and hot days is badly affecting our health. My kid who started to go to daycare, plays everyday and comes sweating at times. So she is getting cold and throat pain very often. Now that she has got it is very obvious that a mom who spends whole day with the kid will also get flu from her. I was getting cautious and took all medication little well in advance when I feared of catching flu from her. Even she is getting better.
Yesterday I enjoyed my dinner as it was my better half special with sambar and rice. He prepares awesome sambar I must say. He used ghee to give tadka/seasoning and mind blowing it was to enjoy that spicy hot sambar with hot rice. He is not ready to reveal his secret recipe to me it seems. Well no matter whenever I wish to have them I would expect him to do that. My one job will be less, isn't it? I was so happy to get a platter full of hot rice and steaming sambar with roasted raw jackfruit papads. Well I'm happy that he obliged when I asked if I could take a pic of that cute plate and put it up here in my space. So thought would share a recipe which I had written 2 days back, on Sunday we and friends enjoyed at tea time this savory bread potato roll. Here I take you all straight to the recipe.

Butter Sweet Corn with pepper and lime

This preparation yesterday made me feel nostalgic. It is a very famous snack. I still remember eating them when I was doing my BE. Engineering was fun in total with many bunch of friends. The hostel days I still remember which were filled with so much of fun. We (I meant me and my 2 friends) were residing in the top floor of the hostel. And that way we were not safe. Always we hostellers on top floor were eyed or targeted. We almost saw 3-4 wardens being changed as we were there for 4 years. We enjoyed our stay together with night outs for some crucial assignments, some semester exams and much more than that was we enjoyed preparing maggi with Iron box. We took around half an hour to 45-mins to get the maggi done properly. We managed preparing it late in the night when we were very much sure that warden has already slept. We used to pay frequent visit to college canteen in our breaks. And when we were done with college hours we used to sit back with few friends and talk for a while if we had no worries of submitting an assignment the very next day or any exams were scheduled for. Sometime we used to take a stroll outside and before going back to the hostel and we used to enjoy hot summers with milkshakes, juices, cornettos, candy or even an icecream. That way we used to enjoy our time before going to hostel where we were not having much freedom. I do agree that we are in hostels to learn discipline but somehow we used to feel it like a prison as we had to go through study hours and so on. But we sailed throughout the 4 years without much worries and pain as we friends were there for each other to support when we were in most need of it.
When season was around we used to buy the butter corn with either lime flavor or pepper or plain as it is and enjoy. It was 'Kakunje' brand if I remember it right which used to sell the small paper cups full of steaming hot butter corn kernels with desired flavor. We used to enjoy almost everyday when it was in season. Even after my marriage when I was placed in Bangalore without fail I would expect my better half to help me get a cup full of butter corn with pepper or lime when we were outside.
Now here I missed having them from long 1 and half year. But to my surprise I saw recently fresh corn cobs being sold in supermarket. I was so very happy and I had already listed delicacies in my mind as what all I need to try. Let me not blabber and bore you, I take you straight to my recipe:

Besan Laddoo

Festival is around the corner, Janmashtami is coming up and in almost many Indian households, sweets and savories are getting ready. If you ask me for my favorite sweet, I may end up telling many and they are countless. But my kid is very choosy, not all sweets does she like. Yesterday I thought to prepare this very famous besan laddoo. I love them. Was shocked to see my kid gobbling around 3 laddoos yesterday. But I must say they were extremely mouth melting and delicious. So why not try these and make your family experience this sinful dessert? I followed perfect measurements.Very simple to make with minimum ingredients readily available in Indian households.You will never go wrong and will yield perfect results. Here I share my simple recipe with you all.

Sweet Corn Masala/Sweet Corn Palya

Had farm fresh sweet corn cobs in my pantry. Wanted badly a side dish to accompany my chapathis in the noon for lunch. Quickly decided to prepare a side dish in jiffy and guess what, I enjoyed it to the core. I had tried out the dish to finish off my corn cobs but now I'm going to get them again to prepare this and enjoy all over again. It is a very simple recipe and just cant stop myself from eating that. I rather ate it as such like a meal than like a side dish. This side dish is bit tangy due to use of tomatoes and lemon, spicy due to the added Indian spices like Sabji masala, green chillies and sweet due to the very nature of sweet corn. Here I share the recipe.

Vegetable Makhanwala

A day of festival just stops me from using onion and garlic by default. Was just thinking what to prepare and I got a call from Mr. S telling prepare me something delicious tonight. Was bewildered when I heard this from him as I always carry a belief that adding onion and garlic brings great flavors to any curry. But with the addition of onion and garlic we often fail to get hold of the real vegetable flavor used in a dish. Well I plunged into the sea of world wide web and began a wild search for a good recipe without onion and garlic. And yes I got a very good solid recipe for vegetable makhanwala from Tarla Dalal that too without onion and garlic as it was a Jain Recipe. Checked my pantry and was happy to see that I had all what were required. With minor tweaks to original recipe I got a splendid vegetable makhanwala ready up in the serving platter for the dinner to go along with chapathis.Here goes the recipe.

No bake Eggless Gelatin free Mango Cheese Cake

Mango is almost everyone's favorite. I know, I'm very late. Mangoes are almost getting over and they will soon be out of season. May be this is my last mango recipe for this year. Recently I happened to see strawberry cheese cake in a bakery when we had gone for an outing. I was very eager to try them out ,but I had no strawberries with me. Had last batch of mango carton in my pantry. Don't you feel my brain would have tucked some great idea when I saw them? Yes I planned to try out mango cheese cake. 
I was always apprehensive to try them. Now that my confidence has gone little up, I thought to give a try. I must say, it was a wonderful, lip-smacking dessert. I used agar-agar or china grass instead of gelatin. Being vegetarian, I say a big NO to gelatin. So the best option was agar-agar/kanten. Usually it has 2 versions either baked or unbaked. I wanted an unbaked eggless version. Also I wanted to have as individual cheese cake, that way I could see the beauties filled in each bowl. I don't like thick mango jelly on top, just a thin layer of mango jelly on top is all I wanted. I didn't use spring form pan instead prepared them in small cute serving glass bowls. Digestive plain butter biscuits( butterkeks as called in Germany) I used to prepare the crust. My simple way of preparing these cute cheesecake is as below.

Vegetable Biryani

From few days I got so busy with my life that I don't get enough time to update my blog. I have many clicks waiting in queue to get up and live in my space. My little one started going to a day care near by and I get so occupied that I try utilizing my left over time for my daily chores like setting up the disordered house, cleaning utensils which get piled up every now and then in my pantry sink, laundry work and so on but how can I let go my blog baby? I have to give time to her too. So I try updating every other day without fail. I get so tired as walking to leave her and pick her up takes up all my energy. Sometimes I end up eating bread and cheese even for my lunch. Well, it was last week that I prepared vegetable biryani and was longing to see it up here. I just feel bad when I'm unable to concentrate here.
I followed a very simple recipe.  I used basmati rice for the preparation as the smell of the rice itself is awesome and they are apt for biryanis.
I made use of biryani powder that are available in grocery shops in the preparation. I prefer mild version. So mine won't be a hot and spicy biryani recipe. It would be a mild version which even kids would enjoy eating.

Sakkarai Pongal/Sweet Pongal

Sakkarai pongal meaning sweet pongal is generally prepared in temples as a prasadam, (an offering made to a deity, as a thanksgiving). This type of pongal is prevalent in pongal festivals such as Thai Pongal in Tamil Nadu, India. Ingredients can include rice, coconut and moong bean. Sakarai pongal is traditionally sweetened with jaggery, which gives the pongal a brown colour, though it can be sweetened with white sugar instead. This is what I got form Wikipedia.
Recently my better half was literally forcing me to prepare this dish and I was like why he had developed this craving for sweet pongal. He also was very much particular about the recipe I followed. He didn't want me to use sugar instead of jaggery and also he told me that he will get from Indian stores edible camphor. He wanted that flavor too in his sakkarai pongal. I was telling him that camphor doesn't alone play any great role, it is all fine to prepare it with the flavor of cardamom alone in it. His search was in vain for edible camphor though. He finally relied on my statement and asked me to add more of cardamom and prepare this dessert. He loves to eat sweets and also particular that the sweets should have good quantity of sweetness in them. When he eats savory items he would not like any kind of sweetness in them. Phew, at times it is real tough time for me making him feel satisfied.
So I followed my own recipe with good amount of sweetness using both jaggery and sugar to get it right moreover as desired by him. Here goes the recipe.

Avocado Parathas/Avocado Flatbread

As all know avocado is a very healthy fruit, but eating an avocado as such is little boring, I won't say not possible but as it does not have any taste, eating them as such isn't much preferred. It blends well when milkshake is prepared, goes well in any salad, a very basic ingredient in Guacamole and what not. You may check out my avocado milkshake, guacamole recipe. I always wanted to try out parathas/Indian flat bread out of them. An easy to prepare flat bread it is. Avocado parathas are very soft and delicious. Softness is offered by the fruit, it gives a subtle effect to the parathas. Rotis and parathas are very common in Indian household. With the addition of avocado, it gives a different and unique flavor to the parathas. Also the colour turns mild green due to addition of avocado and that is again soothing to eyes.  We enjoyed eating these with chilled yogurt/curd with a dash of black salt/kala namak. With 1 avocado around 8 parathas can be made. Here I share my avocado paratha recipe.

Sun Dried Tender Cucumber Pickle

Around 2 years back I got a chance to eat sun dried tender cucumber pickle by my grand mom. The best part of it is it is without any preservatives and also oil less. It is so crunchy and they tickled in fact all my taste buds. I was lucky enough to have just a small spoonful of them with a bowl full of boiled red rice and little curd when I was at my mother's place. My better half took the entire bottle all the way to Bangalore where he was staying alone as I was at native with my small angel who had just landed then in our beautiful world. He gave a lame excuse too. Told me that he was going to stay all alone there and would find it difficult daily to cook after coming from office and this pickle would be just enough for him with a bowl of curd rice. Well my mom is always more generous when it comes to son in law, and I feel jealous about that. She prepares his favorite whenever we are at my parent's place. This year when we happened to visit India, Mr. S was insisting me to ask my mom get the pickle ready for him, but I was like let me try here this time as I was sure I'll be getting enough sunlight to dry my salted tender cucumber bits with our return at the right time from India. Few days back I got a cucumber from a supermarket nearby and thought to give a try. Just a medium sized cucumber I used to get a small bowl full of pickle. It was my first try and didn't want to regret if anything went wrong. But I must say it was a super duper hit and Mr. S was so much into praising me telling that it was in fact equally or more better. You can imagine where would I be when he told so. Here I share the recipe which my mom gave and it is perfect I must say.

Garlic Naan without Tandoor on Stove top

Naan, a very famous Indian flat bread which gets prepared usually in a tandoor. But recently I got to know that it could be prepared on a stove top too using our normal skillet. Though there are many ways to prepare like making use of oven, using pressure cooker and so on. But for me this is a very easy and best way to prepare. They taste as similar as the ones we get in restaurants. I made use of yeast because of my instant need to prepare naan. If planned, we could very well avoid yeast and prepare by getting the dough ready 7-8 hours well before preparing naan. Very soft in texture it was and the flavor of garlic is something which just raised the level of Hcl in my tummy and for me it was a suffering when I prepared them as the smell of garlic in my kitchen was so much that I felt like eating them as soon as they were removed off the skillet. But what stopped me from eating was my desire to get the pictures clicked before finishing off those flavorful, flat breads. It was our dinner the other day accompanied with Dill leaves and cucumber raita and creamy spinach curry. Do check the Dill leaves and cucumber raita recipe and creamy spinach recipe. It was a very good combination though it was the first time we tried that combo. Here I share my recipe for garlic naan on stove top.

Dill leaves and Cucumber Raita

A perfect dinner it was the other day with Garlic Naan and Dill leaves and Cucumber Raita and a Creamy Spinach Curry to go with. Few days back I had brought dill leaves and had plans in my mind to try a raita out of it. Had a small piece of left over cucumber too. I found that ideal way of finishing them too by adding to this raita.

Vegetable Manchow Soup

A yet another popular Indo Chinese soup is Vegetable Manchow Soup. All love Chinese no doubt in that. This is a dark brown hot and spicy soup. Usually served with scallions and fried noodles. Apt for a rainy weather, don't you think? I wanted to spice up my mood in this cloudy dull weather here. So thought to prepare this yummy soup in the evening. A very easy to prepare soup it is. here I share the recipe.

Akki Unde Kadubu/Steamed Rice Dumplings

An authentic breakfast item in Dakshina Kannada is unde kadubu. Simple basic kadubu which in our community is known popularly as unde/akki unde is prepared as breakfast along with red onion coconut chutney or some good sambar or even with honey kids enjoy this very much. I loved seeing my kid sitting in her high chair and eating these unde with honey.
I had a small cup of cooked parboiled rice. Was thinking as how to use them. Yesterday was over chat in the late evening with one of my close to heart sister,(Shri Kripa akka as I call) and I was like what to do with that one cup of cooked parboiled red rice, she suggested me to add while making dosa, idli. But I had not soaked rice and dal ahead and also didn't have enough dal with me . So asked if I could use them in making of unde/steamed rice dumplings. I already had the recipe from my amma/mom, I checked with akka and she also told me the same recipe as my mom's and outcome was superb. I didn't have enough time to prepare red onion coconut chutney, but you could very well check my red onion coconut chutney recipe. So I had to rely on a chutney powder that I had with me and made instant hot chutney for accompanying these dumplings. But my kiddo enjoyed them with honey very much.My better half enjoys them with sambar made out of basale/Malabar spinach, but I don't get Malabar spinach here, hence I make spinach sambar for him, but yesterday we wanted to try with chutney.  Here I share the recipe of akki unde kadubu.

Dry Fruits Shrikhand

I always adore the Gujarati food. They tend to be little sweet though, but as I'm a having a huge sweet tooth, I don't mind my meal on a little sweeter side. My stay in Gujarat in my childhood has made me so addicted to their delicacies that I still end up cooking something which is having its origin somewhere in Gujarat. Shrikhand is made mainly in regions of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Well, all will be knowing what Shrikhand is and how it is made. I'm eating this mouth melting, divine delicacy as I'm writing this blogpost for shrikhand. Here I share my version of shrikhand in a very simple and easy way.

Hung Curd

A simple dairy product is hung curd. Also known as quark in Germany. I have seen them in all supermarkets yet to make shrikhand, which is a mind-blowing sinful dessert, I would always prefer a home made hung curd. Since it is very simple I don't mind taking an extra step to prepare shrikhand as they taste more delicious when I have the feeling in mind that it is fully home made. I have heard from many friends here that we could buy quark and prepare them. But some how the final verdict my mind has made is to prepare this divine dessert just with home made hung curd. Here I share the recipe of preparing hung curd at home.

Kashmiri Dum Aloo

Dum aloo is a very famous Kashmiri cuisine. It usually involves frying the peeled pricked normally small potatoes and then cooking them in a very low flame in a blend of spices. But to avoid little more of oil content, I steam cooked the potatoes, peeled and cut them into halves  and then pricked them and using fork all over. Then followed the normal process of cooking in low flame till the potatoes absorb the spices well. It goes well with Indian flat breads or even plain rice. We enjoyed Dum aloo with rumali rotis. Here I share the simple yet tasty recipe of Dum aloo.

Rumali Roti

As the name suggests, 'rumal' in Hindi is a word used for handkerchief, so rumali roti means, roti which is as thin and soft as a handkerchief. I always loved the way it gets prepared. I still remember a day when I had gone with my friends to visit Infosys during college days. There was some kind of workshop organized by them and there were many competitions like technical quiz, coding and many more. We were thrilled as it was a kind of outing. And the best part was we got the most excellent lunch ever. And the food items that were spread infront of us were rumali roti, dal makhani, some paneer curry and many more followed by rice delicacies and dessert, hot gulab jamoons with ice cream. Just wondered how the cooks were turning and twisting the rotis while rolling the dough ball right in front of us. They were so very experienced. And it is usually is cooked by placing it on a big inverted iron pan. Since I donot have an Indian stove working on gas, I was apprehensive to try rumali roti. But recently I happened to go through internet in a video where vahchef, Sanjay Thumma explains very well as how to prepare it in an alternative way without having to cook on an inverted iron pan and all. Just by using our normal tawa/skillet used for preparing rotis or any Indian flat breads. I was excited to know this method, but was still having a negative feeling that I may not get the real and actual rumali rotis. But, voila, I prepared perfect rumali rotis and enjoyed them with dum aloo. Here I share the rumali roti recipe with you all.