Bhadang ~ Tried and Tasted

Nupur's One hot Stove is one of the blogs that I love a lot. I love her simplified recipes. I have already tried pav bhaji from her blog and have been making it regularly now. This bhadang too is adapted from her blog. My family loves this a lot and I always have a container filled with delicious snack. When in mood for some quick snack in the evening I just add some chopped onions, chopped tomato, chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice as mentioned by Nupur. My little boy and my mother in law loves this snack a lot.
I have copied the same recipe with my changes marked in red.

Here's what we need:

6 cups puffed rice
4 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 cup peanuts
5-6 garlic cloves
8-10 curry leaves
1/4 cup raisins (I do not add this)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red chilli powder (I use 1/2 tsp as I use Everest tikha lal. I also add a tsp of paprika for the beautiful colour)

Procedure:
1.I powder salt and sugar in mixer in its smallest jar available. I prefer doing this because in he last step when we mix sugar and salt it coats the puffed rice nicely. Heat oil in a large pot. Add cumin and mustard seeds and let them pop.
2. Add peanuts, garlic, curry leaves and saute till the garlic is lightly browned.
3. Add salt, sugar, turmeric and chilli powder and saute for a few seconds.
4. Add the puffed rice and raisins and saute on low-medium heat, stirring often till all the puffed rice is coated. Turn off heat after 3-5 minutes.
Thank you so much Nupur For this wonderful snack.

Capsicum-Cumin Rice with Saffron

I love the variation in rice dishes.They are so easy to make plus, healthy and most of the times require no side dishes and can be made in jiffy with minimum utensils to be cleaned. This is one such dish that I was recommended by my SIL. I love Shilpa's site for the simple dishes and clear instructions. This is one such no fail recipe that tastes great on its own or even good with some spicy side dish. I had made this on my mom's birthday as she loves capsicum but never got time to post it until today. This has been in my drafts for really long time.
I almost followed the recipe but made very minor negligible changes. Click here to view the original recipe from Aayi's recipes.

 What's needed:
2 cups basmati rice washed and soaked for 30 mins
2 tsp cumin seeds/Jeera
few strands saffron soaked in 1 tblsp  milk
2 capsicum chopped (I used green as I had that it hand)
A pinch turmeric (I forgot to add it)
4-5 cloves of garlic chopped
2 onions sliced
5-6 cloves
5-6 green cardamom
1" cinnamon
2 bay leaves ( Not in the original recipe)
6 green chillies slit
Oil
Salt to taste

Procedure:
1) Heat oil add jeera when it splutters add the spices and onion, garlic and fry until golden.
2) Add capsicum and fry for a while. Add rice and green chillies. Fry and add 4 cups of water and salt to taste. After one boil lower the flame and cook covered.
3) When 3/4th done open and add the saffron milk and cook further till done. Fluff with fork and serve hot.

We had with Dal fry.

Diwali Special

I am sure everyone must have enjoyed a lot this Diwali. I wanted to make this post right before Diwali but due to some issue with connectivity and lack of time I was unable to do so. Anyways my warm wishes to everyone.

We had a good time this Diwali. Visiting friends, bursting fire crackers everything made it so special.

Thanks to the wonderful bloggers I tried my hand at making Chakkuli's (Murukku), Sev etc. It seemed so simple and tasty that I will not have to look out for store brought one's here after.

From Surpiya's Home spices blog I tried Kashi halwa (Wintermelon/Ash gourd halwa) and Chakkuli. Both were a big hit. Thank you Supriya :). I made Sev using Chakali blog. I have bookmarked a lot of dishes from this site. Do visit the sites for the original recipe. Sorry for the poor picture of halwa as we clicked it at the last moment before leaving for the party :)

Tried and Tasted ~ Simple Vanilla Tea Cake

With lot of minor hiccups I had kept my baby steps in baking. After taking help from most of the wonderful bloggers I was finally able to bake a neat cake. All the while I was making a big mistake with the size of the cake tin. Now that has been resolved and I am looking forward to bake more.

I had few of hubby's friends coming over for tea. Along with Tea and some hot pakoda I decided to serve some simple cake. When I was looking for a small and simple cake I reached Divya's blog. Her Vanilla cake attracted me. I had all the ingredients at hand so went about with it. It came out really good and everyone loved it. Than you Divya for sharing your tried and tested recipe :)

Aps has been really sweet and is showering me with awards constantly. Thank you Aps for making my day.

Requirements:

I must thank the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link it.

I must list 10 honest things about myselfI must put a copy of The Honest Scrap Logo on my blog.

I must select at least 7 other worthy bloggers & list their links

I must notify the bloggers of the award and hopefully they will follow the above three requirements also.

Ten honest things about me:

1) I am very emotional and family means the world to me. I cannot bear the fact that someone hates me.

2) I love chocolates and Ice creams. If not for the calories I would have had them for breakfast,Lunch and dinner!

3) I love travelling a lot.

4) I am a chatter box. As a kid every aunt in my neighborhood knew me! And Aps my dad used to also say the same thing that I could talk to street lamp too!!

5) I love to shop veggies from fresh market. The sight of fresh and green veggies makes me buy them. I often buy them without having any particular dish or item in mind.

6) I hate milk and its products like Curds, Butter, Ghee. I can eat Paneer but not over a certain limit. I prefer sweets made with coconut milk than with milk. I drink milk only if it is flavoured.

7) I love to listen to music and read books. I prefer slow classic melodies with good lyrics than heavy metal music. I prefer reading books to watching TV.

8) I easily mingle with people but I also enjoy spending time alone.

9) I am particular about cleanliness. I cannot cook without washing my hands n number of items. I do not like my kitchen messed up and my dress dirty.

10) The best way to lift up my mood is to either talk to my mom/ hubby / my friends or take a walk or play with kids. I enjoy playing with kids than participating in a gossip.

Well, that's about me girls now I am tagging few of my friends for the same:

1) Parita

2) Suma

3) Happy Cook

4) Divya

5) Archana Pritish

6) Curry Leaf

7) Raaga

Tried and Tasted ~ Chirote Payasa/ Appi Payasa

Appi payasa/ Chirote payasa is one of the dish served at Udupi Brahmin's wedding. This was never made at our house but we had tasted this in a lot of wedding's. I made this long time back but never got around posting it. 

Near our house back in Mangalore there is a small sweet shop. The owner of the shop makes sweets and snacks at home and has a very huge demand. One of the speciality is "Phenori". It is a maida based layered roti kind of which is deep fried and dunked in sugar syrup. Tastes best when had warm. I was never a fan of sweets until I came here. Since the availability is very very limited I started missing eating sweet. It was then that I decided to try learning to make most of the sweet dishes at home. While searching for the recipe to make Phenori I landed at Bhaatukli's blog. Her recipe of chirote was similar to our Phenori and with step by step instructions it made my job easy. 

When I first made Phenori all of them were polished off and I did not get time to click snaps. When I made the second batch I decided not to dunk them in sugar syrup but make Appey payasa as she has suggested in her blog. Both were a hit with us and our friend's. I am going to keep making this often. Thank you Tee for this wonderful recipe. Please click here for the recipe.