Apple Dal!

I'm back.. Missed you all for 2 weeks and I'm sure I would have missed reading some fabulous recipes too! We came back last weekend from our 10 day cruise trip to the Carribean Islands. We were a group of 17 people and we had a blast! Friends, I have to tell you.. If you have not done a cruise vacation, do it! Its worth. A very different experience and we all had a great time! It was a mega-ship and we got a room with a balcony. The ocean views and sunset views were just fabulous! What's more appealing is that unlimited top-notch cuisine that was served all day (included in your fare). The food was exceptional and we also were lucky enough to have some fabulous Indian dinner every night due to our speical request.

It was a REAL vacation as we didn't' have to worry about anything and the cruise ship had it all - comfy rooms, plenty of food, pools, casino, movie theater, spa, gym, disco, shopping, library - you name it. Its just like a floating 5 star hotel. Life on the ship is all about being pampered, entertained, fed by culinary yummers at all hours with spectacular desserts. Those were the best desserts I've ever tasted! We docked at a few islands like Bermudas, Peurtorico and enjoyed swimming and snorkeling in those beautiful beaches too! The weather was hot and sunny in every port- but getting into the water made it better, water was perfect! I can't think of anything that I disliked about the cruise except my lousy Rammi playing.. ha ha.. But overall, we had a great time!

Well, its hard to get back to the same old routine after a good break.. But you know what? I'm re-charged completely after reading all your wonderful comments, a few tags and awards waiting in my blog while I was gone and I can't wait to get back to my blogging as well as read thru all your posts. Thank you all for your wishes and great words. Alright, here I am with another of my favorite recipe. After we came back, we sure did have the craving for some home-made comfort food. Nothing can beat that! After doing some basic grocery shopping, I decided to make some quick comfort food yesterday. Apple dal is one of our favorite dal recipes and a very simple recipe too. I make this whenever I need a simple but different dal recipe or whenever I have some extra apples. I like the taste of the sweet and tangy apple mixed with spices. Goes well with rice as well as rotis. Hope you all like it too.

Ingredients:

• Green Apple - 1
• Cooked Toor Dal - 1.5 cup
• Onion - 1 medium
• G.Chillies - 2
• Tomato - 1 medium
• Sambar Powder - 1 tbsp
• Mustard and Cumin seeds - 1 tsp each
• Asaefotida/Hing - 2 pinches
• Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp
• Corriander and Curry leaves - a few.

Procedure:

• Peel and dice the apples into 1 inch cubes and soak in water and the lemon juice atleast for 15 mins.
• Puree the tomatoes. Set aside.
• Heat oil in a kadai, season with mustard, cumin seeds and asafoetida. Add the chopped onions, curry leaves and g.chillies and fry for a few mins.
• Add sambar powder and tomato puree and let it boil for 5 mins in medium heat.
• Then add the apples, cooked tuvar dal and salt with some water and simmer for 10 more mins or until the apples are soft. Mash the mixture slightly.
• Add corriander leaves, mix and remove from heat.

We enjoy it with plain rice. I make it a little spicier since we always have it with rice.

Thai Basil Curry with Tofu... and a short break

Wow, I can't believe its August already! Just a few more summer weeks left! Ever had that experience of waiting and waiting for the July 4th weekend, and after that everything just works so fast and time just flies by?! It happens to me every year. To me, summer starts only from July 4th holiday weekend. Until then, the weather is so unpredictable in my region that we can't have any major plans outdoors. Then, after the July holiday weekend, everything just clicks together and time flies off! And here we are in August already.

Well, one good thing thats coming up in August is my long waited vacation! This will be my last post before my 2 week vacation starting tomorrow. We will be sailing on a cruise ship for the next two weeks to Carribean islands. Before I go on vacation, I wanted to post a recipe from many of my blogging friends' favorite cuisine - Thai! I thank you all so much who took time to participate in my poll that was going on for a couple of months in my blog. The poll was to figure out your favorite cuisine other than Indian. Once again, fabulous response from you all and I was overwhelmed to see more than 75 votes recorded in just a few weeks! Its exhilarating to see the interest and enthusiasm expressed in many such ways by you all. Thanks again!

Here are the results from the poll, starting from top to bottom - Thai, Chinese, Italian, Mediterranean, Mexican. I was extra thrilled to watch my favorite cuisine continuously stay on top for all 8 weeks :) Yes, Thai is my favorite food next to Indian and I am so glad to know its a favorite to many of you as well. There's such an exuberance in Thai food that offers those unique vibrant flavors. I love the special aroma from those basil leaves and peanut sauce! Yummmm.. Being a south Indian, I do have a special liking for coconuts and no wonder the zest of coconut milk in Thai food brings that dribble in me :)

I made this Thai Red curry with Tofu and basil leaves today. It came out scrumptious and we enjoyed with fried rice as well as plain rice. The best part is, its startlingly simple to make! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Yellow Pepper - 1 (small sized)
• Red Pepper - 1 (small sized)
• Tofu - 12 - 15 cubes (your choice)
• Thai Red curry paste - 2 tbsp (You will find it in all grocery stores)
• Basil leaves - 10 - 12
• Olive oil - 1 tbsp
• Coconut milk - 1 can ( or 2 cups)

Procedure:

• Chop the peppers in 2 inch long stripes and set aside.
• Chop the basil leaves and set aside.
• Heat olive oil in a pan, and add the peppers. Stir fry for 3 - 5 mins.
• Add the curry paste and fry on medium heat for 5 - 8 mins so that the peppers are almost cooked.
• Add chopped basil leaves and fry for a min.
• Add salt, coconut milk and 1 cup of water and bring it to boil (you can adjust water according to your required consistency).
• When it begins to boil, add tofu cubes and let it boil for 3 - 5 mins.

Yummy Thai red curry is ready! Serve hot with Fried rice or Plain rice.

I am sending this recipe for:

Ammalu's "Herb Mania - Basil " ,

Sri's "Curry Mela",

Sia's "JFI-Soya",

Sunshinemom's "Food in color" which is RED this month and

EC's "WYF - Color in Food" which is also RED this month.

I also want to write a few lines about my awards that are long waiting to be posted and shared. I thank my good new friend Rashmi for passing me the "Blogging Friends Forever" award. Thanks so much for remembering me, Rashmi!

The following rules apply to this award:
1. Only 5 people are allowed to receive this award
2. 4 of them followers of your blog.
3. One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to who ever gave you the award.

I would like to pass this on to my dear friends:

Cham

JZ

Ramya

Sireesha

Pallavi (newest visitor to my blog)

I also want to thank Sukanya for passing me the rocking gal award! Thank you so much Sukanya! Its very exciting to recieve this :) Sorry but I am so late in posting this award.. I'll soon pass this award.

Next I want to thank my sweet friend JZ for passing me little luck through the Magic lamp! Thanks JZ ! I would like to pass the luck to Laavanya, Ramya, Cham and Suma.

Enjoy the awards friends!

Baby Corn Pakoras with Ginger coffee

I love lunch time. To me it's more than just about food. I usually skip breakfast in working days and tend to take an early lunch... and so, I always wait for lunch hour. Also its a great excuse for me to take an extended break from work and chit-chat with friends, while getting recharged with some great food. In summer it gets extra special for me as I take a leisure walk around my office building enjoying some fresh air right after my lunch. It greatly refreshes me to handle the rest of the day. So, I never skip lunch hours even if I'm extremely busy at work. While getting the work done is important, I feel that certainly there should be some break time to just refuel myself, so that I am more productive for the rest of the day. While writing this, I remember a friend of mine who used to work with me in my previous office. During lunch time he would grab his lunch box and drive to the airport which is about 10 mins drive from our office. He then finds a spot outside the airport from where he can watch the planes take-off and land while having lunch! It used to be his favorite time of the day! He wouldn't miss it no matter how busy he is at work. He said he enjoys that a lot as his own private time. I used to admire his habit and was quite impressed the way he was creating a "mini-vacation" time everyday just for himself.

Things were different in India though. Back in India, my favorite time used to be coffee break instead of lunch time! May be perhaps, I used to have home-made breakfast before leaving to work, so I wouldn't starve until lunch. Mine would be a quick lunch most of the time. I worked in India for a few years before moving to the U.S, and we all friends at office used to enjoy going out for a short coffee break! There were plenty of snack shops/coffee shops around our office, and we used to enjoy hot and fresh onion pakoras, samosas, veg. puffs etc with coffee. To me that was a good fun time with friends. I miss those good old days.

Well, about this recipe now.. I made this over the weekend while we were mostly in a mood to munch. A very quick snack if you happen to have some baby corns in your fridge. It came out great and was a perfect snack for the evening. We enjoyed the pakoras with "Sukku Malli Coffee" - coffee spiced with ginger and corriander. I love this coffee and I used to have in India on road-side coffee shops. A very healthy drink made of dried ginger powder, corriander seeds powder and jaggery. Its known to help digestion.

The recipe goes for the Rushina's Pakora Event and this picture of Sukku Malli Coffee goes for Jai & Bee's Click Event.

Ingredients

• Baby Corns - 20
• Ginger/garlic paste - 2 tsp
• G.chillies - 1 (optional)
• Maida/All purpose flour - 1 tbsp
• Corn flour - 1 tbsp
• Besan - 1 tbsp
• Chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
• Salt

Procedure

• Mix all ingredients in a bowl by sprinkling water little by little. Mixture should be thick and stiff. Should NOT be watery like bajji batter.
• Deep fry in oil.

Serve hot with chutney or ketchup.

Cornflakes Kheer - Kids favorite

Whenever we're not having friends over the weekend, our weekends usually turn out to be lethargic.. rolling out from bed late, late breakfast or brunch, a few movies enjoyed with some mini treats etc. This weekend was once such kind - a calm and relaxed weekend. With nothing much to do, we were glued to our couches watching a few of our long pending movies, munching some snacks now and then, and stayed away from the kitchen for most of the part. Well, I did prepare a mini meal for my daughter for lunch, but nothing elaborate. In the evening we went out for dinner and did some shopping for our vacation that's coming up next week. It was indeed relaxing. Sometimes I do need this kind of time once in a while, just for me and my family. Sure it does feel good.

But don't know why, I often do get into a mood for making desserts during this kind of a weekend :) May be when we are idle, we are in a mood for munching more often and my dessert bells start to ring suddenly! I'm not a big snack lover, but I do love desserts and I can have them during any time of the day. For some odd reason, I consistently seem to have some space in my tummy reserved for dessert, even after feasting occassionally on a heavy dinner. I had made some baby corn pakoras for snack time today (will soon post the recipe), but I felt like having a dessert right after that and my taste-buds were all ready to taste something sweet! Obviously we were taking it easy this weekend, so didn't want to spend more time in the kitchen. Therefore I decided to make a quick and easy kheer and moreover I haven't made kheer in a looong time too. This is a kheer I learnt from a cookbook long back and it's my daughter's favorite.

This entry goes for Mythreyee's Cool Sweet Series.

Ingredients

• Plain Cornflakes - 1 cup
• Whole milk - 3 cups
• Sugar - 1.5 cups (or your choice, depending on how sweet you need)
• Cardamom pods - 3
• Cashews - a hand full
• Ghee - 2 tsps

Procedure

• Roast the cornflakes in a tsp of ghee and set aside. Let it cool for sometime then grind it to a coarse powder (not too fine).
• Heat milk and sugar in a pan and bring to boil. Add the cornflakes powder, crushed cardamoms and simmer for 15 mins. Adjust sugar to your taste. You can also add a pinch of salt to enhance the sweet flavor.
• Heat 1 tsp ghee in a separate pan, roast the cashews and add it to the kheer. Mix and remove from heat after 2 mins.

Serve chilled.

Chilli Paneer

With my sister's family visiting us the past weekend, last few days were busy, but fun! It was great to take off from work and relax for a couple of days by rambling outside, eating in restaurants and enjoying with her 9 month old adorable baby. But the most difficult question of the day is always "What do you want to have for dinner?". I really love to have home-made food atleast once a day even though we're outside most of the time. Simple food is what we all wanted, but just coming up with what to cook is always hard. Sometimes we start talking about it right after we have coffee in the morning, and the discussion continues throughout the day. Its like that tricky topic that no one wants to decide :) Then I came to know that my sister's mother-in-law (who had also visited us this time), makes this awesome paneer recipe that becomes anyone's favorite right at the first time. I knew right away that I wanted to learn the recipe for sure because I really enjoy all kinds of indo-chinese food and then again I do love anything made with paneer too. So this is a 2-in-1 jackpot for me!

I've slowly started realizing the fact that fusion food does work indeed, even though you have a feeling of losing the authenticity. Its all about the demand and the liking of food by people. This recipe is no exception. In this recipe, paneer sounded like a substitute for tofu and the term indo-chinese made literal sense to me. I've tasted this recipe back in India, but never tried it on my own. Its really fabulous to have a chance to help and watch the step-by-step preparation for any new dish, instead of reading and trying to follow the instructions from a book. The dish came out so flavorful and spicy and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. Aunty, if you are reading this.. thanks!

Paneer is a classic ingredient that many of us are familiar with and enjoy eating! When I heard about Vandana's Paneer event, I was all geared up to make quite a few of my favorite paneer dishes for the event. Well, apparently I hadn't kept up to my plans until yesterday and don't know if I would be making any more paneer dishes in the next week too. Somehow I managed to atleast watch and learn this awesome paneer dish yesterday. So, here goes my entry for the event.

Ingredients:

• Paneer cubes - 25
• Capsicum - 1 medium
• Onions - 1 medium
• G.chilly - 2
• Ginger - 2 inches
• Garlic - 6 pods
• Chopped Spring Onions - 1 cup
• Corriander leaves - 1/2 cup
• Chilli Sauce, Tomato Ketchup, Soy Sauce - 1 tbsp each
• Corn Flour - 1 tbsp
• Red Chilli flakes - 2 tsp
• Vinegar - 2 tsp

Procedure:

• Shallow fry the paneer cubes on all sides in 2 tsp oil and place it on a paper towel. (You can also use the store bought fried cubed paneer).
• Chop the capsicum into 1 inch long strips and set aside.
• Chop the onions, ginger, garlic very finely. Set aside.
• Chop the g.chillies in round shapes and set aside.
• Save 2 tsps of onions, capsicums and spring onions for later use.
• In a large wide wok, heat oil and first add the chopped ginger and garlic and fry for a min.
• Next add the onions and fry for a few mins. Then add capsicums and fry for a few more mins.
• Add the chopped green onions and fry for a few mins.
• Now add the corn flour, all the sauces one by one, along with vinegar and chilli flakes and fry well.
• Finally add the paneer and mix well. Fry for a few more mins.
• Garnish with the remaining onions, spring onions, capsicums and corriander leaves.

Serve hot with Fried rice or Noodles

YRR - Eggplant Stir Fry

Its that time of the week again, and I can't be more happier. Every thursday is Farmer's market day in our town! To me, summer just wouldn't be summer without visiting farmers market and gazing at those fresh colorful vegetables and fruits. Moreover, I just love to have that freshly squeezed lemonade prepared right in front of me! Even if I don't end up buying vegetables sometimes, I make sure I enjoy the lemonade everytime :) I get fascinated by the way its made by squeezing fresh lemon juice and shaking it together with ice-cubes, water and sugar in a stainless steel shaker jar! Mmm, it tastes divine in that hot sunny afternoon.

On my way back from work today, I stopped at the farmers market as usual and was pleasantly surprised to see fresh Indian eggplants this time. I've never seen Indian eggplants in the farmers market before. Fresh from the yard and cheaper than the regular grocery stores - who wouldn't want to buy there?! I don't know where I got my fascination for eggplants, but lately eggplants and me are best friends! I love them anyway they are made - any traditional Indian way or just even plain roasted eggplants. I'd just had roasted eggplants for lunch during a training session at my office today, but I was perfectly fine to have it for dinner too.

This time I wanted to try one of the eggplant recipes that I had bookmarked a long back. All of them looked utterly delicious and most importantly they are simple to make! I just couldn't make up my mind over which one I want to cook :) I was going back and forth and finally settled on this delicious recipe from Sailu's Kitchen. I keep seeing loads of people leaving great remarks about Sailu's recipes, but this is the first time I am trying her dish. I knew it would come out just perfect and I was not wrong. It was yummy and very flavorful! I would like to send this for Your Recipe Rocks event hosted by Madhuram. You can find the original recipe here. Thanks Sailu for sharing this great recipe! Your recipe really rocks!

I want to also thank my sweet friends JZ and Uma for passing me the Friendship Award! This is very exciting and I feel so good to receive it from you both. You are such good friends and I always love reading your sweet and encouraging comments. Thanks JZ and Uma!

Fish Rice Cakes

Apparently, we all socialize. Especially, after moving away from home, socializing becomes part of life. We meet people, hang out with friends, attend parties, mingle with people from different culture, which gives so much exposure about many things. Food is definitely one of them. I recently read this saying somewhere: Food is not about impressing people, Its about making them feel comfortable. How true! To me, the flavor and taste is what makes me comfortable. Obviously the presentation is what draws our attention towards it, but ultimately taste is what makes it a winner. Ofcourse there are people who are experts in both presentation and cooking as well. In fact, I do know someone like that in my close knit friends circle. I just admire her passion for cooking and also her presentation skills. You give her even a burnt Roti, she will give it an artistic look on the table. I wish I had those skills. Its still a dream for me and I'm hoping one day I'll become better in both! A big hope!

As part of our weekend socializing, I had a couple come in for a tea party today, and I had planned to offer them a few appetizers. Fish rice cake has been in my to-try list for a while. This is yet another recipe that I got from my sister! But this time its from my other sister who lives in India. I've been lately hearing a lot about her awesome fish recipes those she's been mastering for a while. Mom was praising about her fish cutlets and fish fingers that she had made when she recently visited my sister's place. Since then I was tempted to give it a shot and was all set after discussing the recipe with my sis over phone. Recipe sounded too enticing and I couldn't wait to try.

So, when I had invited a couple for a tea party, this fish cakes sounded like a perfect match for an evening tea. Not too heavy, yet not too light either. I had already tried this recipe last week in smaller quantities as I just wanted to get the hang of it and I didn't want to mess up in front of the guests. To be honest, Cutlets are very tricky for me. I have messed them up sometimes, well.. many times :) Somehow, they disintegrate or collapse when I fry them and I was almost about to give up making them. Then after reading a few cookbooks, I learnt that the binding ingredient has to be exactly in the right proportion, and that's the tricky part. Sometimes a complex thing sounds so simple after its explained! This recipe uses rice as the binding agent and I was very cautious in its proportion, and it came out perfectly fine during my trial version as well as during the actual party. Yummy and thanks dear sis for this great recipe, my friends just loved it!

This entry also goes for Eat healthy - Protein Rich hosted by Sangeeth.

Ingredients

• Tuna/Sardines in Oil - 2 cans (you get it in all grocery stores, the cans are flat and rectangled). Or you can also just steam cook a tuna steak (or any fish) and mince them finely. Make sure it comes to about a cup after mincing.
• Onions - minced - 1/2 cup
• Ginger - 1.5 inches
• Garlic - 2 medium cloves
• G.Chilly- 1
• Fresh dill leaves - minced - 1 tbsp
• Chilli powder, corriander powder, cumin powder - 1 tsp each
• Turmeric and Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp each
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp
• Cooked left over rice - 1 cup

Procedure

• If you have a food processor, toss in the onions, garlic, ginger and g.chilly and give it a run. This will perfectly mince the ingredients as required. Otherwise, you can chop all these ingredients very finely.
• Mash the cooked rice so that they are out of shape. I actually ran this also in food processor separately.
• Heat oil in a pan, add the minced ingredients and fry until onions turn golden brown.
• Add dill leaves and fry for a min. You will get a nice aroma. Now add all the spice powders along with salt and fry in medium heat for 4-5 mins.
• Then add the fish, some oil from the can and fry it in medium heat for 3 mins.
• Transfer the contents to a wide bowl. Add the rice and lemon juice and mix it well to a dough consistency. Add and adjust salt.
• Make your desired shapes for cutlets and shallow fry on a pan with oil.

Serve hot with chutney or ketchup.