Gooseberries steeped in spiced curd - Mor nellikkai

Indian gooseberries(amla/awla in Hindi, nellikka in Malayalam, nellikkai in Tamil) are power packed with  anti-oxidants and Vitamin C. Believed by many to help in slowing down the aging process, this fruit is used extensively in the Indian sub continent for hair and skin care.
The fruit, aside from its appealingly fresh and soothing green colour, is sharply acidic and slightly bitter to taste. When it is marinated in curd and a select blend of spices, its sourness is toned down by the salt and the chilli powder and it turns into a flavourful treat for the palate. The characteristic aroma of fenugreek and mustard tease the taste buds as soon as you open the jar of this pickle, making you want to dig in.


What you need:
(Recipe source : Chitra amma's kitchen)
Gooseberry - 500 gms (for me, 17 large gooseberries weighed 500 gms)
Thick curd/yoghurt - 3 cups, whipped until smooth (Use fresh curd that is not sour)
Oil - 2 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a generous sprinkling

Powder together : 2 tbsp of mustard and 2 tbsp of fenugreek seeds (both raw)

Wash and wipe the gooseberries dry. Make incisions on the berries across the segments, without cutting through completely.
Heat oil. Add the mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, add asafoetida, immediately followed by the gooseberries and salt. Mix well, cover and cook on low heat, stirring every now and then, until the gooseberries appear to be almost done. Add the red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Heat for a minute or two more until the raw smell of the chilli powder is gone. Leave it in the pan to cool completely.  When cooled, add the whipped curd and the powdered spices. Mix well. At this point, taste for salt and add more if needed. Allow the mixture to marinate for 24 hours. I didn't want the pickle to end up too sour. So I transferred it to a clean, dry jar and let it marinate in the refrigerator for a day. This can be stored, refrigerated, for up to a month(I had eaten my way through mine by then).

This tastes great with some cooked rice and a dollop of ghee/sesame oil, with dosas and idlis and also with rotis.

Ragi Adai for a Virtual Bridal Shower

Blogging brings us close to so many people. People that we have never met face to face become virtual friends.....we share our joys and sorrows with them.
Aarthi of Yummy Tummy is one such blogger buddy who has an amazing collection of recipes with detailed step-by-step instructions and pictures. She is getting married later this month and the Blogging Marathon team is holding a virtual bridal shower for her. What better way to show her how much we appreciate her than by cooking a dish from her blog? I have followed her recipe almost to the T, except for a few small changes.
Aarthi, this is for you......Wish you a very happy married life.



Ragi Adai - What you need:
Ragi(finger millet in English) flour - 1 cup
Water - 1.5 cups
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Broken urad dal - 1 tsp
Green chilli - 2, finely chopped
Onion - 1, finely chopped
Carrot - 1, grated
Curry leaves - a few, chopped

Heat oil in a pan. Add the urad dal and mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, add curry leaves, green chilli and onion. Saute on a low flame till the onions turn translucent. Add carrot and saute till soft. Now add water and salt and bring it to a boil. Reduce the flame and add the ragi flour little by little, stirring continuously to ensure that no lumps are formed. Keep stirring until it comes together to form a firm, soft dough.
Set aside to cool.
Oil a plastic cover.
Take a  small ball of the dough and pat it into a circle on the oiled plastic sheet. Heat a tawa. Transfer the patted adai on to the tawa. Cook on medium flame until the under side turns a dark, glossy brown. This takes about a minute. Turn over and cook the other side too until dark brown.

Serve hot with any tangy, spicy chutney.
 

Tomato-peanut chutney

For the final day of Blogging Marathon #6, I was paired with Pavani of Cook's Hideout, to cook something from her blog. The marathon finished a while back, but it is only now that I am getting down to posting what I made from her blog. This chutney is quick and easy to make, tastes good as soon as it is made and tastes even better the next day. Thank you, Pavani for the recipe.

What you need:
Tomato - 2
Peanuts - 1/2 cup
Red chillies - 3
Tamarind extract - from a gooseberry sized ball of tamarind
Salt
For tempering:
Oil - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 3/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 3/4 tsp
Curry leaves - a few

Take the tomatoes in a microwave safe bowl. Add 1/4 cup of water, cover and microwave for 3-4 minutes until the tomatoes turn mushy. Let it cool.
Toss the peanuts and red chillies in 1/4 tsp of oil and microwave for 2 minutes. Let it cool.
Add salt,tamarind extract and grind the tomatoes, peanuts and red chillies to a smooth.
Heat the tempering ingredients. Once the mustard seeds pop, pour it over the chutney.
Serve with idli/dosa.
Don't forget to leave your comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of Cooking at home with Pedatha, an award winning cookbook.

Dulce de leche brownies

Remember the dulce de leche I made in this post??? While eating spoonfuls of it, I've also been thinking of other ways in which to use it up. That is when I saw this eggless brownie recipe of Divya's. I decided to make it with one major change.....a whole cup of dulce de leche went into my brownie.....and I must say this is one of the best brownies I have ever made. It turned out soft, chewy and just right.....even a non-chocoholic like me cannot stop eating it.

What you need:
Maida/all purpose flour - 1 cup
Fresh curd - 1 cup
Milk - a ladleful (if needed)
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Dulce de leche - 1 cup
Baking powder - 1.5 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Cashew - a handful

Take curd in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar, baking powder and baking soda to it. Let it bubble for a minute or two. Now add vanilla essence and oil to this. Mix well. Slowly stir in the maida and cocoa powder little by little to make a smooth, lumpless batter. Add the dulce de leche and mix well, breaking lumps if any with the back of a spoon. If you find that the mix is too thick, add milk. I had to add a ladleful of milk at this point. Stir in the cashew nuts.
Bake at 200 degree centigrade for 10 minutes....then reduce the temperature to 150 degrees and bake for another 25 minutes or till done.
Grease a square Let the brownies cool completely.
Slice and dig in.

This goes to Divya who is hosting the Best Brownie event to celebrate her third blog anniversary.

Dulce De Leche

I just made dulce de leche(pronounced duel-say-day-lay-che)......and ate quite a few spoonfuls before sitting down to do this post. I can't believe that something that tastes so good is so easy to make. When I saw Divya's post on Dulce de leche, I knew that this is something I would try out. Only thing is, her statement about the possible danger of can burst had me scared. So I did some googling and found that the principles of physics say that there is absolutely no way for an air tight can to burst under pressure. Armed with this knowledge, I ventured to make this.

What you need:
Condensed milk - 1 tin (I used Nestle Milkmaid)
Pressure cooker
Water - enough to cover the condensed milk tin and then some more

This is so simple, I feel silly typing out a recipe. Just immerse the can in plenty of water. Close the pressure cooker. When you see steam escaping from the vent, put on the weight. Wait till one whistle. Then turn the heat to low and let it cook for 30-35 minutes. Switch off heat. Once the steam has escaped, remove the tin from the cooker. It will still be very, very hot.....so be careful. Now comes the T.O.U.G.H.E.S.T part......you have to wait until it cools down to room temperature and that is a lo..........ng wait.

Once it cools down, open the can.....and enjoy by the spoonfuls.

From your blog to my kitchen - Strawberry sorbet

For the last 31 days, me and my fellow marathoners have posted one recipe a day. There were a few days in between that I missed, but on the whole it has been a good experience. The recipe that marks the end of this marathon is fittingly, a light, refreshing and beautifully colored sorbet. The recipe is from Rachel's blog. The only change I made is omitting the black pepper. The rest of it is the same.

What you need:
1 box of strawberries - about 15 in number
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice - 3 tsp

Combine sugar and water. Boil until the sugar dissolves completely. Let it cool.
Puree the strawberries and lemon juice in a blender, adding the sugar syrup in batches.
Freeze until firm.
Scoop out and enjoy!!!
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Gayatri,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Usha, Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.

From Her Diverse Kitchen to mine

Aparna's Diverse Kitchen is a blog that needs no introduction. It is a ready reckoner for those looking for traditional Palakkad Iyer fare or for cakes and other bakes. When Valli announced that her blog is being featured in this month's Tried & Tasted, an event started by Zlamushka and now taken over by Lakshmi, I went through her recipe index to see what I could make. There were quite a few dishes that looked and sounded wonderful, but the name Mujadara appealed to me the most. I love saying it....mujadara....doesn't that sound exotic? The fact that there were only three major ingredients was a further plus. For the recipe, please go to this post of Aparna's.

What I think of the dish:
This is a hearty, filling dish with a delicious creaminess from the masoor dal and a slight sweetness from the caramelised onions. Even though the ingredient list and the procedure look simple, do this when you have lots of time on hand, as caramelising the onions takes quite a bit of time. All said and done, the effort you put in is definitely worth it. This is one recipe that I am sure to make again.

Strawberry cake

Can a host be late for the party? No way!!! Well, technically, I am not late....I still have an hour before the deadline. What am I talking about??? Read on to find out!!!
Indira's strawberry-oats cake has been on my mind since I saw it because I love strawberries. But ever since I saw her cake, those little boxes of strawberries that are sold here did a disappearing act. I didn't find a single box of strawberries. Today, as luck would have it, I found that strawberries had made a comeback, and proceeded to buy two boxes. However, these strawberries are not as sweet or as juicy as the ones that were available earlier. These are larger, more sour than sweet, and a darker red. But hey, I am not complaining.
I followed her recipe almost exactly. The only thing I did differently is omit the lime juice as the strawberries themselves were tart. I also substituted walnuts for pecans. I then proceeded to make the cake entirely in the microwave.
I preheated the microwave for 8 minutes, to 175 degrees centigrade and then baked the cake for 45 minutes at 175 degrees. At this point, the sides of the cake and the top browned beautifully and looked perfectly done, but when I checked the middle, there was still a lot of batter left. So, in went the cake, on microwave high for another 3 minutes. This gave me the result that I wanted.
Take a look at the cake.....

It tastes as good as it looks....and I love biting into bits of strawberry while eating the cake.

This is my entry to MEC-Celebrating bloggers, an event started by Srivalli, which is being hosted here this month.

Microwave chocolate cake for MEC-Celebrating bloggers

Ever since I saw this eggless chocolate cake on Sowmya's blog,it has been on my must-make list. Finally, MEC-Celebrating bloggers which is being hosted here this month gave me just the nudge that I needed to get into baking mode. I made a few minor changes to Sowmya's recipe. The cake is moist, soft and really,really good. It fills the house with the wonderful aroma of warm cinnamon and oh...... did I tell you just how easy and quick it is to make????

What you need:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Dried fruits and nuts - 1 cup (I used almond,cashew,raisins,and candied fruits)
Milk - 1.5 cups
Overripe bananas - 2
Cocoa powder - 3 heaped tsps
Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Chopped walnuts - a handful

Soak the dry fruits and nuts in hot milk for 30 minutes. Grind this in a blender till smooth. Add the bananas, oil and sugar and blend again.
Transfer this mixture to a large bowl. Add baking powder and cocoa. Mix well. Add the flour little by little and beat until well mixed. Mix in the chopped walnuts.
Pour this into a greased microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 6 minutes. Timing will vary depending on the wattage of your microwave. So keep checking to make sure it doesn't get burned.
Let it rest for a minute in the microwave. Let it cool completely. Ease it out of the bowl, slice and dig in!!!

Reminder : Do send in you entries for MEC-Celebrating bloggers before the 31st of this month.

This is my entry to MEC-Celebrating bloggers, an event started by Srivalli and hosted by me this month.

Announcing MEC - Celebrating bloggers

Some time back, I wrote a post asking people what made them blog? The reasons, as some blogger friends commented, ranged from sheer love for blogging to the happiness that comments bring. Whatever the reason maybe, the one common thread that ran through all the comments is the dedication of the bloggers and their absolute love for connecting with like minded people through their weblog.
We bloggers deserve a pat on the back for managing home, career, kids and still finding time to blog about the food that we put on our family's table and umpteen other things.
What does all this have to do with MEC- The microwave easy cooking event conceptualized by Srivalli and hosted by me this month? Well, we are going to celebrate our fellow bloggers this month. There's no better way to do it than by cooking something from their blogs and telling them how much we love it.
Here's what you have to do - Choose a vegetarian recipe from another blog. It could be something that the other blogger has made using the stove top or microwave. Adapt it so that it can be cooked completely in the microwave. Cook, click and post.

The rules are pretty simple:
1. Cook anything from another blog and write about it on your blog between now and March 31st. Please stick to vegetarian recipes (no eggs).
2. Remember, the entire cooking must be done in the microwave, though a blender/food processor can be used for grinding.
3. Please link back to this announcement and also to Srivalli's event link.
4. I will accept older entries as long as you repost and link back to this announcement and to Valli's rules.
5. Multiple entries are welcome.
6. Don't let not having a blog stop you from participating. E-mail your recipe to me with a photo and I'll include it in the round-up.
7. Send in your entries, with your name, recipe URL and picture of the dish (300x300) to luvgoodfood@gmail.com
Please mention MEC-Celebrating bloggers in the subject line
8. Feel free to use the logo