Groceries week!!

Nothing left in my refrigerator from couple of days..And besides I was too tired to post a recipe.Even my husband is not feeling good as he caught cold and the city is wet through..phew..not a good weekend for me.
But finally we managed to drive to grocery market and got some.

Hope to post any recipe soon.

Goodies from India

The last two days went very busy for me from unpacking and packing things,helping my in-laws,food and journey to my sister-in-law's house.
Just came back and as promised am showing a pic of my list of goodies that I got from India.
My parents send me some dresses,sleep wear,tops,home made sweets , pickles and powders,story books that I love to read,some groceries,health care products and of course my most favorite chocolate Dairy Milk.

Happy Moments!!

After a prolong delay,my in-laws finally landed to America.Especially my father-in-law,this was his first visit.We were so excited to receive them.Prepared normal veg curries and stuck up myself cleaning and organizing things around.Got loads of goodies.Will get a picture tomorrow once settled down.

Mushroom Curry

We are in the mid of the week and here am running out of veggies.Found mushrooms after a long search.I don't really like to have them but my husband does.Hence they are always added in the list whenever I go to market.

The recipe as follows :

Ingredients :

250gms  finely chopped mushrooms

1 onion,grounded to paste

1 tomato grounded to paste

1 tsp gingergarlic paste

5 curry leaves

1 tsp chilli powder(or 2 tsp if you like spicy)

1/2 tsp Cumin powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

Salt as required

2tsp+2tsp vegetable oil

Bunch of corinader leaves

Method :

1.Heat 2tsp oil in a pan and add chopped mushrooms.  Sprinkle some salt and cook for 2-3 minutes.Water oozes out so no need to add water. Remove them and keep aside

2. Heat 2tsp oil in the same pan and add onion paste. Sauté it until it changes to light brown color or till the time you feel it lost raw smell. Add ginger garlic paste and curry leaves. Let it fry for few seconds.

3. Add mushrooms and adjust some salt. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes covered.

4. Mix well with all powders and let it cook for 2-3 min. Sprinkle some water if it is too dry.

Add tomato paste. Mix well and cook for 2-3 min and finally garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rice or chapathis.

Monday

The week started off very busy as my hubby got a call from office at early hours and started working.I simply woke up ,had breakfast and started to prepare lunch.Had our lunch and just passing time browsing things over internet.
Then came my niece and nephew,Havilah and Jesse.Time started moving off without a pause.Jesse started kicking helium balloons ,those I got for V-Day.(He's in a mood of doing karate as he seen the karate kid movie)
Went to some Indian restaurant and ordered Pav bhaji,just craving for some chat kinda stuff.
Not impressed with the chat.Thinking of preparing pav bhaji at home.
Wish me luck in doing the same..Below are some pics of the kids.

jesse

Havilah

Sweety Birthday!

my sissy

My sister Sweety is celebrating her birthday.

And I am taking an opportunity from my blog to wish and bless her.

She is one of my best friend.

She is lovable pal,who always waits for my presence to celebrate every moment.
She is  so caring who always supported me.

She is beautiful,awesome friend who always shares whether it is her toys or food or time.

She is my charming buddy,sharer of secrets;)

Happy Birthday!!

 I just want to say,”I am the luckiest girl to get a darling sister like you ,Sweety!!Happy Returns of the Day!!"

Sleepy Saturday!

It is still!! Day's not moving at all .Munch time came in. No snacks present in my pantry except for the stale bread. Made sweet bread crumbs from it.

An easy which makes a good snack for tea time.

My maternal granny, who was the best chef  I have ever known, used to prepare this.

Ingredients :

3 Bread slices torn up into pieces

1 tsp ghee

1 tsp powdered sugar(adjust according to your taste)

Cashews or cherries

Method :

Heat ghee in a pan at low flame. Add the bread pieces and sauté until light brown. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp sugar on them and flip them around and sprinkle the other half tsp sugar. Make sure the bread crumbs are coated well with sugar. If not you can add some more sugar. Stir them for few seconds and serve with cherries or cashews.

Be careful after adding sugar. The sugar melts and may catch heat quickly and bread changes to black.

Lazy Evening!!

Spent whole day very lazily...and my hubby got busy with his work as usual..huh!
Captured some photos for blip.
You can watch my blips @ http://www.blipfoto.com/malini
Went out for some shopping..got chicken.will try out some chicken recipe tomorrow.
Had ravva dosa at a restaurant.I love that from the time I was in bangalore.Used to have dosa every sunday @Shiva sagar,jayanagar.
Anyways,you all have a nice weekend.Shall meet on monday ,hopefully with some recipes  ;)

Kheer

Today's recipe is about the one which is pampered for the sweet toothed."Kheer"

I learned that every part of India has its own version of preparing Kheer.And no wedding or any festival is complete without a kheer...so was our first valentine day. I made it with vermicelli and sago(sabudana).

Ingredients:

1 cup Vermicelli, lightly roasted in 1tsp ghee

1/2 cup sago, soaked in water for 1hr

1 1/2 cup sugar (adjust according to your taste)

Roasted cashews and raisins

1 tsp paste of roasted cashews(optional, as it enhances the flavor and taste)

pinch of cardamom powder

3 cups of milk

water required around 2+4 cups

Method:

Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a bowl. Add sago to it and let it boil until it looks translucent. Add another 4 cups of water and bring to boil. When you find the bubbles in it, add vermicelli. Let it cook for 4-5 min or till you feel that vermicelli is being almost cooked. Add sugar to it and mix well. Make sure that sugar gets completely dissolved.

Add the paste, cashews and raisins and mix well. Finally, add milk and cardamom powder and stir until it thickens. Serve hot or cold.

Kheer can be dense or much more fluid. Some people prefer to keep cooking on low heat until the milk thickens. The proportion of water will determine the thickness of the Kheer.

Many love to boil the ingredients with milk and then add sugar. Since , I don’t like the milk curdles forming when we add cashews or nuts, I prefer the above method which my mom prepare especially for me.

Happy Birthday Amol!

My friend Amol is celebrating his birthday.So,all of you please join in wishing him.

Happy Birthday and many happy returns of the day,Amol!!

Egg Biryani

Todays' recipe comes from Sailus food blog.As to prepare specials with the items in home,i searched her blog and found out biryani with egg.Adjusting the ingredients according to my taste,i tried the recipe for the first time.
It did not disappoint me.
Thanks for sailus website.(www.sailusfood.com)


Ingredients :
5 hard boiled eggs, peeled and make long slits along each egg
3 medium onions( 2 sliced and 1 grounded to paste)
1 small tomato chopped(it is optional but i added)
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp chopped pudina leaves
2 tbsps ghee
1 1/2 tbsps oil
3/4 cup thick curd/yogurt
4 green chillis, make a small slit in them
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp red chilli pwd (adjust)
1/2 tbsp coriander pwd
1/2 tsb cumin powder,1/2 tsp dry cocunut,pinch of garam masala(these three are optional)
2 tbsps lemon juice
salt as required
pinch of food colour
Biryani Masala:
8 cloves
1″ cinnamon stick
4 elaichi/cardamom
1 star anise
1/4 tsp shah jeera
9 pepper corns
Ingredients to cook rice:
2 1/2 cups Basmati rice(my cup measures 160gm)
5 cloves
5 cardamoms
1/2″ cinnamon stick
1 marathi mogga
2 bay leaves
5-6 mint leaves
1/2 tbsp oil
3/4 tbsp salt
water as required
1 Cook basmati rice in lots of water along with bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, marathi mogga, elaichi, mint leaves, oil and salt till its half cooked. Strain the water and spread the rice on a large wide plate. Allow to cool.
2 Heat 1 1/2 tbsps oil + 1 1/2 tbsps ghee in a vessel, add sliced onions, saute for 8-10 mts till caramelized. keep aside.
3 To the same vessel add onion paste,saute for few secs.Once fried add half of the caramelized onions and add gingergarlic paste,add green chillis, mint leaves, coriander leaves and saute for 3 mts. Add red chilli pwd, coriander pwd ,cumin poowder,grated dry coconut,pinch of garam masala and biryani masala pwd and salt (just enough for the egg masala) and combine well. Add chopped tomatoes and saute for 3 mts. Add the eggs and saute till well coated with the masala. (You can also halve the eggs and place carefully and saute in the masala).I sprinkled some water in between.
4 Add the yogurt and combine. Cook for 5 mts till oil separates. Turn off heat . Add lemon juice and combine.
5 Take a wide deep vessel(cooker) to prepare the biryani. Add drizzle some oil all over, add half the rice as a first layer followed by the egg masala and spread out in the vessel.(make sure that the rice layer should be very thin enough for the masala to get into.I made a mistake in that)
6 Spread the remaining rice over the egg masala layer, pour 1/2 tbsp of ghee all over the rice, add the caramelized onions. Next sprinkle coriander leaves and add pinch of food color to 1/4 cup of water and sprinkle over.
7 Place lid without whistle and place another vessel over the lid(i placed milk vessel and over it an large cup). Cook on medium high flame for 5 mts. Remove the vessel from fire and place a iron tawa over low flame. Place back the vessel on the iron tawa and cook on low flame and cook biryani for 25 mts. Turn off heat and do not remove lid for 5 mts.( i dont have any iron tawa,so i placed a large tawa and placed cooker on it.I dont know whther it is right way,but it worked out for me)
8 Remove lid, combine gently and serve hot with raita.

visit North Dakota State University: http://www.ndsu.edu

Valentines Day!

Here goes my first valentines day after marriage..
The day started with paleness as i was not feeling well.My hubby left office without disturbing me.
But i was excited in celebrating the day.As I couldnt go alone by myself to get him a gift,thought of cooking specials to him.
Then my list started with kheer and then egg biryani followed by raita and garelu followed by coconut chutney.Wow!!
In between,just crafted chinese fortune cookies with paper and left some valentines messages for him.
I completed my list of food items and waited for him to return from office.
Time got delayed, delayed and delayed and here i was still waiting for him.
After a long time,when i lost my patience..there he came..with an expression as if to say 'sorry' for being late.As soon as i was about to burst out ,he suggested that we shall go out for dinner.I pointed at the dining table showing him the list of items i prepared.
Finally he asked me to just come out to show me something.
I followed and to my surprise our car was filled with Russell Stover assorted heart shaped choclate box,a teddy,two boxes of choclate cup cakes,flower bouquet,shiny red helium filled ballons and air filled red and pearl white balloons(air filled by him for ten balloons)
So many gifts!!!...ofcourse they all cheered me up :)
This is OUR first cheerful valentines day !!!!

Pics of our gifts below.Shall give the recipes of the items soon in my  blog.

My gift to my husband.All items spread over the table with candles in between and lights around the table hanging down.

Egg Biryani,raita,chinese cookies,garelu with coconut chutney,payasam (clockwise from bottom)

My hubby's gift to me.You can see all the balloons,flowers,chocolate box behind the teddy bear,cake boxes

Hope you all had a wonderful day!!

Vegetable kichdi

Couldn't decide which vegetable should go on my table,so I took many of them and prepared vegetable kichdi.
This recipe too comes from my mom's school of cooking(as my husband names it),I really relish on this whenever am at home for holidays.
Ingredients :
1 Onion sliced
1 chopped tomato
1 finely cubed potato
1/2 cup grated cauliflower
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup chopped beans

2 cups rice.washed,drained and kept aside.
2 sp chillie powder
1 sp cumin powder
1 sp corinader powder
1/2 teasp turmeric
1/4 sp ajinomato
1 tbl sp moong dal,
1 tbl sp toor dal,
1 tbl sp chana dal,
 1sp ginger garlic paste
2tbl oil
cloves 2,
cinnamon 1''
bay leaf 1

Method :

Heat oil in a deep bottomed vessel then add cloves,cinnamon and bay leaf.saute for few secs.
Add toor dal,moong dal,chana dal and fry till light brown.
Add onion and stir until it becomes soft.Add ginger garlic paste and curry leaves.Saute for 1-2 min.
Add all the vegetables and saute for few secs.Add salt as required and pour 1/4 cup of water.Cover it and boit for 3-4 min.Add chillie powder,cumin powder,coriander powder,pinch of turmeric.Stir for 2 min.
add tomatoes and pour 3.5 cups of water.
Once bubbles appear,add  rice and adjust the salt.(check whether it tastes accordingly,if not add some more.)
After 4min,lower the heat and check in between till rice is cooked properly.
once done garnish with coriander leaves and serve with raita or pickle.

Kichdi with raita

French Toast variety..

spend the day cleaning up in the kitchen.Paid lot of attention to my gas stove.phewww..
no time for cooking.ended up making french toast in the morning.
it came out quite well.could not take up pictures,but will surely make out some, the next time.
One of the recipes from my mom. My dad,sissy and myself love to eat them once in a while.But granny simply loves varieties like bread,bun,cakes..
6 bread slices(trim out the edges if u want)
2 eggs
6 table spoons sugar.(2-3 tablespoon of sugar for each egg according to your taste)
1/2 cup milk
pinch of cardamom powder.
mix the above ingredients and dip the slices in to the mixture and keep aside for some time.
shallow fry the bread slices and serve along with the fruit of your choice.

Happy Weekend to you All!!!

Cooking spare time..

thought of cooking different things but sat simply..lazily.
watched NOKJ..the movie was simple and touching..
searching short and easy recipes for bread as i have heaps of them..
wish me luck!!

Welcome to Shilpa's Crazy World...

This is just me jotting down whatever and whenever I feel like..