Snake Gourd Milk Kootu

This in my 50th post and these day I am lazying around to post recipes. I have successfully completed six months in the blog sphere. During these six months I have earned so much of love and attention from all my talented and friendly fellow bloggers that I never realized how fast six months just passed by.

I couldn't make anything special but can assure you that the snake gourd kootu sure is a winner recipe. Snake gourd is called as podalankai in Tamil, Potlakaya in Telugu, Padavalanga in Malayalam, Padavalakai in Kannada and Chachinda in Hindi. I am making a podalankai pal kootu, a recipe of Tamilnadu.

Ingredients

2 cups snake gourd
1 cup gram dal (chana dal)
1 cup fresh coconut
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp pepper corns
4-5 green chillis
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp turmeric
Salt

For Tempering

1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp split urad dal
1-2 dry red chillies (torn in to tiny portions)
a dash of asafoetida
fresh curry leaves
2-3tsp oil

For garnish

fresh chopped cilantro

Preparation

Pressure cook the dal for just two whistles with water just enough to cook the dal. As snake gourd gets cooked very fast I prefer cooking it for few minutes on stove top with just 1-1/2 cup of water. The snake gourd should not be over cooked, cook until it is just soft.
Grind coconut, peppercorns, cumin seeds and green chillies together. You can reduce the amount of green chillies if you don't want it very spicy because the peppercorns and the red chillies give lot of heat too.
In a deep bottomed pan, add oil and temper with the given ingredients and let them splutter. To the tempering add the ground coconut mixture with the heat on medium low. We don't want the coconut to let out the oil. The kootu should be thick, so strain the water from the pressure cooked dal and add it to the coconut mix. Let the coconut mixture get cooked for about 5-6 minutes. Now add the dal, cooked snake gourd, turmeric and salt to the mixture. Let all the flavors marry in.
Once the kootu starts getting thick turn off the heat and add milk. Garnish with fresh cilantro and delicious Snake gourd milk kootu is ready.

Nut Cutlet and Farm Picking

Nut Cutlet is a crunchy cutlet made of nuts. I tried this recipe from a magazine and it is a great snack for tea time.

Ingredients

2 cups boiled and mashed potatoes
2 tbsp cashews
2 tbsp peanuts (groundnuts) with out skin
2 tbsp almonds (blanched /slivered)
1 slice of bread
2-3 green chillies
1/2 tsp Garam masala (found in the Indian store)
1tsp finely chopped ginger
1/2 cup cilantro
2-3 tbsp all purpose flour (maida)
1-2 cups of bread crumbs
Lemon juice (optional)
Salt
water
oil



Preparation

Chop the cashew nuts, peanuts and almonds with nut chopper or knife. They should be of medium size, not to small and not too big.
In a bowl add the mashed potatoes, salt, chillis, ginger, garam masala, the nuts, cilantro, and bread slice. Mix them all well.
In another bowl add very few drops of water to the all purpose flour to make a thin paste.
Make desired shape out of the cutlet mixture, dip them into the flour batter and then coat them with bread crumbs.
Either deep fry or just pan fry the cutlets. I pan fried the cutlets on medium heat by tossing them gently. This way less oil is used.

The whole process including the boiling of potatoes did not take more than 30 minutes. Frying takes about 3-4 minutes each side.
I am contributing this one to Express Cooking Event hosted by Shaheen of Malabar Spices.


Farm Picking Peaches
The farm had many peacocks. You can see one more sitting below.


luckily found some raspberries.
My Son playing Jack N Jill!!

Dad and son taking a long walk in the raspberry fields.

We had filled this basket.
It was so much fun going to this farm. In the middle of picking peaches it started raining and we were taking shelter under the trees. The rain showers were mild and didn't last for long. The fresh smell of soil and the greenery was a very beautiful weekend experience.

Jihva For Ingredients - Rice

Indira of Mahanandi started Jihva for ingredients in May 2006. Since then it has been one of the most popular events in the blog sphere. Every month one of the Indian Ingredient is celebrated with great enthusiasm by the food blogger's community . I am very honored to host this event and thank Indira for giving me this opportunity. I also thank Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi for having helped me out in designing the beautiful logo with red, brown and white rice.

Jihva for ingredients, for the month of September is the staple food of India -RICE. In Sanskrit rice is called as "Vrihi".

Rice is grown in many regions across India. It is the principal crop grown in India, and the country ranks second only to China in world rice production. Much of the crop is used to feed the domestic population, as rice is the dietary staple for many Indians.

The below picture shows the 'paddy fields'


Rice has potential in a wide range of food categories. Besides having nutritional and medicinal benefits, the by-products of rice are equally important and beneficial.
Rice By-Products

• Rice Husks
• Rice Bran
• Broken Rice
• Rice Flour
• Rice Milk
• Rice Pudding
• Rice Starch
• Rice Straw
• Rice used in Beverage Making
• Rice Paper
• Rice Glue
• Rice Cakes
  
• Rice Vinegar
• Rice Soy Milk
• Red Yeast Rice
• Rice based food products

For more good information on rice please click Here.

For this event all you have to do is prepare recipes out of Rice , may it be like Biryani, Pulao, Variety rice, Fried rice or you can also use the derivatives of rice like the rice batter, rice noodles, rice papers, cream of rice, puffed rice, flattened rice(rice flakes) . Use any kind of rice like long grain, short grain, Basmati rice, Brown rice, Rosemetta, Sona Masuri, Wild rice, Black rice. You can also make creamy desserts items like rice pudding, rice dumplings(modak in Hindi) and so on. Put your imaginations to work and get creative.

1. Prepare a dish with "Rice" as the main ingredient, and post it on your blog in the month of August. The choice of recipe is not restricted to Indian cuisine. You can send in multiple entries too.
2. Please send me an e-mail with your Name, a Picture of the dish, perma-link of The Recipe, and Name of your blog to Sharmikomal@gmail.com. Please use “JFI” to denote the subject matter.
3. If you are a non-blogger, please send your recipe and picture with your e-mail.
4. The deadline for this event is September 1, 2007. The round-up will be posted by September 3rd.
5. Please feel free to use the Logo

I look forward to your creative contributions.