Sweet Corn Halwa for Krishna Janmashtami

I wish all Neivedyam visitors a very happy Krishna Janmashtami!!
I am posting this in advance as I will be very busy decorating my kids as little Krishnas:)

Ingredients

1 cup sweet corn (frozen or fresh- Boiled and pureed)
3-4 tbsp ghee
dry fruits for garnish
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Khoya
3-4 tbsp milk (optional)
1/2 tsp cardamom powder

Preparation

Heat a pan and add 1tsp ghee. To this add raisins, cashew nuts and almonds. Saute well and set aside. In the same pan add 2 tbsp ghee and sweet corn puree. Let it cook for a minute. To this add sugar, milk, khoya, cardamom powder and 1 tbsp ghee. If you do not get good khoya, you can add plain sweet pedas and reduce the sugar content. When the mixture cooks and leaves the sides of the pan, remove from heat and garnish with dry fruits and serve. This halwa is very healthy for kids.

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Baby corn-mint soup

Ingredients
1 cup peas fresh or frozen (Boiled and pureed)
1-2 garlic cloves finely sliced
2-3 baby corn sliced
1-2 mint sprig
2 tsp butter
salt to taste
1/2 tsp pepper powder




Preparation

Heat a pan. To this add butter and garlic to saute well.Add corn slices and saute for 2-3 minutes.Add the peas puree and bring to boil. If the mixture is thick, add some water to bring a soup like consistency. Add salt and pepper.
Add chopped mint leaves and bring to boil.
If you wish you can add fresh cream to garnish.(optional)
Serve hot.

Crispy Baby-corn stir fry..


This recipe is the same as Mushroom stir fry. My kids are big fan of baby corn and mushrooms. These two are a must have in my fridge. I use both mushrooms and babycorn as toppings on dosas.
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Hand-made edible sweet rakhis and a lovely Onam Sadhya!!

Little Diya (2 yrs) and Jai (6 Yrs) were curiuos to eat up the rakhis....

Ingredients

2 or 3 store bought pedas or sweet khoya
1 pkt Gems (candy)
1 pkt sweet mouth freshining Jeera candies
1 pkt gummy stretchy candies
some pumpkin seeds
4-5 Cherries



Preparation
Lay the stretchy candies for making the strap. Make flat shapes of the pedas and decorate as you wish.
I felt happy making them for my kids, but could not post them in time as my net was down



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Our Neighbours had invited us for a wonderful Onam Meal....

Varalakshmi Vratham with Oats Halwa

On the occation of Varalakshmi Pooja today, I made oats halwa, sago payasam and many more...

Ingredients

1 cup oats
1/2 cup sugar
2 cup water
4-6 tsp Ghee
2-3 cardamoms powdered
Cashew nuts and risins fried in ghee
amonds to garnish
3 tbsp khoya/mawa (optional)

Preparation

In a non-stick pan heat 2-3 tsp ghee and fry oats on low heat till they just change colour.
To this add water and sugar. Stir continously. Also add cardamom powder and the remaining ghee. Stir until the mixture leaves sides of the pan. If you want to make the halwa more rich, add khoya to it. Remove from fire and add dryfruits. Serve warm.


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and my Neivedyam was something like this...

Palak Besan ki subzi

Ingredients

2 cups freshly chopped palak (spinach leaves)
3-4 tbsp Gram flour (Besan)
1 onion finely chopped
1/2 tsp garlic paste or 1 clove of garlic
2-4 dry red chillies
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
a dash of asafoetida
salt to taste
2-3 tbsp oil

Preparation

In a pan, dry roast the gram flour for few minutes till aroma raises and set aside.
In another pan, add oil, mustard seeds, cumin, asafoetida, dry chillies, garlic paste and onions to fry well till it cooks. To this add spinach leaves, turmeric and salt and cook for 3-5 minutes till spinach gets soft. To this add the gram flour and mix well. Let it cook for another 3-6 minutes till the flavors blend together. Serve hot with rotis.

A beautiful temple in the outskirts of Hyderabad


While performing a pooja at our home, almost all the coconuts were like this.


One beautiful morning outside my house in Ooty..

Stir fried-crispy mushroom

I wanted to make a crispy , crunchy mushroom at snack time, without deep frying it. The experiment turned out yum!

Ingredients

1 cup button mushrooms cut into two halves
2-3 tbsp gram flour
2 tbsp corn flour
1 capsicum
1 onion
1tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste
3-4 tbsp oil
fresh chopped mint and coriander to garnish

Preparation

In a pan add 2 tbsp oil, to this add the mushrooms, corn flour and gram flour. Stir fry on high flame for few minutes till it becomes golden and crispy. Add salt and chilli powder, toss well and set aside. In another pan add 2 tbsp oil. To this add ginger-garlic paste, onions, capsicum, very little salt and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add this mixture to the crispy mushrooms and toss. Garnish with coriander and mint and serve hot. If you want it more spicy, you can add green chillies also. I wanted my kids to enjoy it so I made it less spicy, no colours, no deep fry and it is a perfect snack:)
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Thses are some of my travel clicks while in northern India:)

Soya chunks and cauliflower pakodi kadhi

This is a Rajastani thali meal which we enjoyed at a resort in Hyderabad. It was served hot along with background Rajastani folk music!!



Ingredients
1/2 cup Soya chunks

For Pakodis

1 cup cauliflower
1 cup cup gram flour
salt to taste
1/2 tsp chilli powder
oil for frying

For Kadhi
1 1/2 cup yogurt
2 tbsp gram flour
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ginger garlic paste

For tempering and garnish
2 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Cumin seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
7-8 curry leaves
2 dry red chillies
1 tbsp fresh chopped coriander for garnish

Preparation

In a bowl prepare batter for making pakodis by adding gramflour, salt, chilli powder and water. Dip cauliflower in the batter and make pakodis. Set aside.
Soak soya chunks in water till it becomes soft. Drain the water and keep aside.
To prepare Kadhi, in a bowl mix yogurt, 2 cups of water, ginger garlic paste, salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder and gramflour. Mix well and set aside.
In a pan add 2 tbsp oil and temper with the given ingredients. Add the yogurt mixture and stir. Cook till the kadhi thickens, stirring continously.
Add the cauliflower pakodis and soya chunks and bring the kadhi to boil.
Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot.

My Little one turns "2" today and Roti making

No Picture pleaseeeee...... I am not ready yet :)

She is down with a fever and I feel terrible.... Hope she feels better by evening for cutting her cake!!!

Time flies and we never know when kids grow up... I feel that it was just yesterday when the nurse brought her to me for the first time and she was cuddling into my hands, she had not even opened her eyes fully.... and now......

She wants to have what ever her big brother has, she want to be taught what ever he learns, she gets angry and possessive when her brother is paid attention, she slowly learns the poems, alphabets and even Hindi alphabets all by herself looking at her brother, she wants to eat by herself. She snatches the remote to watch cartoon, she slowly takes away his stuff and runs into the other room to get him annoyed:) and they both start fighting like two little lambs and finally she lands up crying as the survival of the fitest happens!!

The story does not end here though..... Will catch up later on this.

The Art of Roti Making

While in Mount Abu, I was lucky to get into the Brahma Kumaris Kitchen, where a big hall is just alloted for making " Rotis". During special events the Rotis are made for about 15,ooo to 20,000 people in the huge kitchen. Right from preparing the dough to the packing of the rotis, take a beautiful tour through this kitchen.

Dough making

There are about 5 to 6 rows and in each row there are about 80 to 100 people helping to shape the rotis. I even spotted some kids who were helping take the rotis to the tava (hot pan) .


Rotis on the Tava!!

Not just a Tava...

and from the tawa to the alignment table which lay side to side..





The Ghee rotis are kept separately and the dry ones separate.

Packing and delivery...

While I was back home from US, I found some friends who made themselves very comfortable at my balcony.

Coriander Rice - A southern delicacy

A very delicious and aromatic rice made in no time.

Ingredients

1 cup rice
2-3 tsp oil
Salt to taste

For grinding:

1 cup coriander leaves
1" piece ginger
1 onion
2-3 green chillies

For Tempering:

1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp Chana dal (Bengal gram dal)
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp cashew nuts
1 tsp raisins
curry leaves- a hand full
Asafoetida- a dash

Preparation

Pressure cook the rice with 2 1/2 cups of water and let it cool. Grind the coriander leaves along with other ingredients. In a pan heat oil and temper with the given ingredients. To that add the coriander paste and salt. Let it cook for few minutes until the raw smell of the onion and coriander is gone. Add the cooked rice and fold gently until all the ingredients mix well and the rice takes up the flavours. Serve hot with pappad.