Saturday, April 2, 2011

Awards

HERE COMES SOME AWARDS



Friends Raksha and Kaveri Venkatesh remembered my budding blog and awarded me with these 4 awards. I take this oppurtunity to thank them for their lovely comments and frequent visit to my site. Both of them have a beautiful blogs with awesome collection of recipes.


I also take this opportunity to thank all my blogger friends for visiting my blog and encouraging me with their lovely comments.










I would love to share these wonderful awards to 10 of my Blogger friends, if you have already received these awards please pass them on to our other bloggers friends and keep them rolling.


1) Callmeasviju


2) Love2Cook


3) Swarnavalli suresh


4) Aruna Manikandan


5) Satya Chaitanya


6) Vidhya


7) Shirley


8) Eat Hearty


9) Nava-k


10) Reshmi Mahesh



Also Ammu Mohan shared the following awards to me which I would like to pass it to 10 of the blogger friends mentioned above and all others who visit my blog. Thanks a lot Ammu for being so kind!!!





Also I would like to give this following "Thank you Award" to both Kaveri Venkatesh and Raksha, please collect them..









Friday, April 1, 2011

Paneer/Tofu Mutter Masala


Paneer or Indian Tofu are usually prepared by curdling heated milk with lemon juice. The separarted whey forms Paneer or Indian Tofu/Cheese. Paneer is as rich source of protein and is ideal for pure vegetarian diet. This gravy goes well with Indian breads(Roti's and Naan).


Ingredients:


1. Paneer – 1 cup(cubed)
2. Green Peas - ½ cup
3. Garam Masala powder – 3 tsp
4. Chilli Powder – 2 tsp
5. Onion – 2(chopped)
6. Tomato – 2(chopped)
7. Cinnamon stick – 1
8. Cardamom – 3
9. Cloves – 3
10. Cashewnuts – 4nos.
11. Butter – 1tbsp
12. Oil – 3 tbsp
13. Salt – to taste




Direction:


1. Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a pan, to that add cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom and fry them then add onions, tomato and cashewnuts saute them until they turn light golden brown in color.
2. Now grind the sauteed mixture in to a paste form.
3. Heat oil in a non stick pan and now add the ground paste to it.
4. Allow them to cook for sometime and add Paneer/tofu, green peas, garam masala, chilli powder and salt.
5. Close the lid and allow it to cook for about 10 minutes.
6. Transfer them in to bowl and add butter on them.
7. Serve them hot with Roti's.









Thursday, March 31, 2011

Creamy And Lemony Shrimp Macaroni




Pasta is one of my favorite Italian dish. Adding rich creamy flavor to pasta makes them more special. Shrimp on the other hand goes very well with pasta's, pepper gives a very good flavor to shrimps hence I have used pepper to marinate the shrimp in this recipe. A perfect candlelight dinner recipe..


Ingredients:

Shrimp - ½ lb
Macaroni – 1 ½ cups
Cheddar cheese – 1 cup grated
All purpose flour/Maida – 1 tbsp
Milk – 1 cup
Butter – 1 tbsp
Pepper – 4-5 tsp
Salt – to taste
Oil - 2tbsp

Direction:

Pasta(Macaroni) Preparation:

  1. Boil water in a pan add about a tbsp of oil.
  2. Now add the macaroni to the boiling water and also salt according to taste.
  3. Allow the macaroni to cook for about 15- minutes.
  4. Strain them and keep them aside in a big bowl.

Pasta sauce preparation:

  1. Heat butter in a non-stick pan, add milk to it and allow them to boil. Lower the flame and add all purpose flour mix them well so that they dont form clumps.
  2. Now add in the cheese and mix them well until the cheese melts to form a creamy sauce, to this add about 2 tsp of pepper and salt according to taste.

Shrimp Preparation:

  1. Devein your shrimp and clean them properly.
  2. Add the remaining oil, pepper and salt according to the taste and marinate the cleaned shrimp.
  3. Place them in a baking sheet and keep it in oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Creamy and Lemony Shrimp Macaroni Preparation:

  1. To the boiled and strained Macaroni placed in the large bowl add the prepared pasta sauce and the baked shrimp mix them uniformly.
  2. Now Squeeze the lemon in to the creamy pasta mixture.
  3. Add some grated cheese on top of them and keep them in oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes(optionally step).
  4. Remove them out of the oven and serve them hot!!






Wednesday, March 30, 2011


MY FIRST AWARD



Friend Sheena babu has been so sweet in recognizing my blog by passing "Sisterhood of the world bloggers award" to me. Sheena  has a lovely blog with vast collection of  recipes accompanied by wonderful photos!!!


Now I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my blogger friends for visiting my blog and supporting me with their lovely comments.





I would love to share this wonderful award to 10 of my Blogger friends.


Krithika Karthikeyan of Krithi's Kitchen

Rashmy of Ammaandbaby

aipi of   US Masala

Ammu mohan of Rasi's Veg bites


Srav's of Sravs culinary concept


raksha Kamat of Raksha's kitchen


divya of  divya's recipe


Two Friends of Adukalavishesham


Priya of Priya's Easy n tasty recipes


Priya Mahadevan of now serving







A Simple and Tangy Lemon Rice


Last saturday I went for shopping to get some veggies, there I picked up 6 lemon for a dollar. As we all know lemon is a rich source of vitamin c. I picked up lemon to make some lemon rice which my husband loves to have with fried potatoes.

Ingredients:

  1. Lemon – 2
  2. Basmathi rice – 1 cup
  3. Channa dal – 1 tbsp
  4. Turmeric powder – 2-3 tsp
  5. Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
  6. Ginger – 1 tsp(finely chopped)
  7. Cashewnuts – 6nos.
  8. Ground nuts - ¼ cup
  9. Urad dal – 2 tsp
  10. Curry leaves – 6nos.
  11. Green chillies – 3(cut open vertically)
  12. Salt – to taste
  13. Oil – 2 tbsp

Direction:

  1. Boil basmati rice and keep them aside in a big bowl/vessel.
  2. Heat oil in a non-stick pan add mustard seeds and wait till they crackle then add ural dal, channa dal, cashewnuts, curry leaves, ginger, green chillies and ground nuts one by one.
  3. Saute them until they get the golden brown color.
  4. Now add turmeric powder and little amount of salt as there would salt which you have already added to rice while boiling them.
  5. Tranfer the sauteed mixture from non-stick pan to the vessel containing boiled rice.
  6. Squeeze 2 lemons in to the rice and now mix them uniformly until the rice gets the yellow color of the turmeric from the mixture and also the tangy flavor from squeezed lemon.
  7. Serve them hot with fried potatoes!!!

Tips:

1. Always squeeze the lemon to the rice directly and not to the sauteed mixture as the essence of the lemon is lost while they are being cooked.




Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Pepper Fish Fry/Poricha Meen


Adding Pepper to food is not just to enhance the flavor of the food item but to promote proper digestion. Cooking is not just about adding right amount of ingredients but its all about adding healthy ingredients. Pepper also reduces the amount of gas in our intestinal tracts so adding pepper to any food prevents stomach upset. I usually used only chilli powder to marinate the fish but in this recipe I thought pepper along with its health benefits could add good flavor to the dish.

Ingredients:

1. Fish – 1lb(cut in to big chunks)
2. Pepper – 1tbsp
3. Dried red chillies – 4-5nos.
4. Curry leaves – 5-6nos.
5. Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
6. Garlic – 4 pods
7. Lemon - ½
8. Oil – 5-6 tbsp
9. Salt – to taste

Direction:

  1. Grind pepper, dried red chillies, curry leaves, cumin seeds and garlic pods with about 1 tbsp of water in to a thick paste form.
  2. Now marinate the Fish with the ground paste, add salt according to your taste and squeeze half lemon on them, leave them aside for about 2-3 hours.
  3. Heat oil in a non-stick pan and shallow fry the fish on both the sides until they get a smoky flavor with a golden brown color.
  4. Serve them hot!!

Tips:

  1. Spicy food lovers reduce the amount of chilli powder in your food and start adding pepper to promote digestion of your food.
  2. Garlic intake reduces the risk of heart diseases so try to add 1 or 2 pods of garlic to the food you cook.









Monday, March 28, 2011

Ladysfinger Poriyal/Okra Curry


Here it goes a simple okra curry recipe as requested by one of my friend. Ladysfinger is one of my favorite veggie from my childhood, some facts really fascinates me about these okra's from my young age. My mom inorder to make me eat this veggies says okra is good for your memory power and I will score centum in mathematics if I eat these okrs's(ladysfinger's). I dont know whether the fact is true but from then on I started loving this okra's a lot..

Ingredients:

Okra's/Ladysfinger – 1lb(cut)
Onion – 1 (finely chopped)
Mustartd seeds – 1 tsp
Urad dal split – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 5nos.
Sambar powder(this can be replaced with chilli powder) – 3-4tsp
Salt – to taste
Curd – 1 tsp
oil – 2 tbsp

Direction:

  1. Heat oil in a non-stick pan, add mustard seeds wait until they crackle. Then add urad dal, cumin seeds, curry leaves and onion fry them until they turn golden brown in color.
  2. Now add sambar powder and salt according to your taste.
  3. Add the cut okra's to the fried onions and a teaspoon of curd and fry them.
  4. Serve it hot with lemon rice and Tamarind rice!!!

Tips:

  1. Wash and dry the okra's before you cut them to avoid the gumminess(stickyness) of the okra.
  2. Adding curd to the okra while cooking reduces that gumminess(stickyness) of it.
  3. Adding cumin seeds to food is very good and reduces your body heat.