Friday, December 31, 2010

Arai keerai Masiyal with Puli


Ingredients

Arai Keerai--One bunch
Green Chillies-1or 2 according to taste
Tomato-1
Tamarind-Lemon sized ball
Turmeric -a pinch
Salt-to taste

To splutter

Oil-1tsp
Red chilli-1 
Mustard-1tsp
Jeera-1tsp
Asafoetida-drizzle a few times from bottle

Method:

Wash and clean the greens thoroughly.Cut into bits,add water and boil the greens with a little turmeric powder, green chillies,tomatoes and a small ball of tamarind along with salt.Let this mixture cool.Mash nicely in a mixer.Finally splutter the required ingredients and add to this mixture.I love arai keerai with the tanginess of tamarind.My grand mom used to serve this with a dollop of butter.



Sending this to the only greens event and paris event

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Picnic@Tiger Caves

Rock Cut Shiva temple with linga

Nandi squatting in front of the temple

The tsunami unearthed this temple in 2004

The tiger cave highlights the Pallava architecture.

A cool boulder standing tall!

A Durga temple

A dried trunk a masterpiece by itself
We had a lovely little picnic at Tiger caves on ECR on Sunday.The place is well maintained with the sea and the casurinas in the backdrop.We packed mats and lots of food like puli saadham,thair saadham and molaga podi smeared idlis.I could finally eat the puli saadham,i was so glad.It was nice break from the usual grind. I was reminded of the movie "Picnic at hanging Rock" where a bunch of Australian school kids vanish after getting attracted to a mysterious rock formation .I just cannot get over this film.Maybe you should check out the movie and head out to the tiger caves for the effect! Incidentally it was also the 6th anniversary of the tsunami tragedy on Dec 26th.The fishermen stayed out of the sea as a mark of respect to the departed.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Tiruvadirai kali and kozhambu



Tiruvadirai kali and Kozhambu

Yesterday we celebrated Arudhra Darisanam.This festival essentially celebrates the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva.The microcosm derives all its energy from the macrocosm and the best way to celebrate this reverberation is through food.My mil makes kali and kozhmabu as prasad.We later hog this delightful combo of sweet and karam flavours..Now for the recipe.

Tiruvadirai Kozhambu

This Kozhambu calls for a whole lot of vegetables. Its usually in odd numbers.Even chillies are included in the count as a vegetable.So usually 3,5,7,9 etc are the number of vegetables used.We usually make a huge quantity of this and have it with vendiya dosai the next day.

Ingredients:Vegetables,roots and beans.

1.Potato-400 gms
2.colocasia-400gms.
3.sweet potato-1/2 kilo
4.Raw Plantain-2 big
5.pumpkin-400 gms
6.Ash gourd-300 gms
7.Broad Beans-200 gms
8.Hyacinth Bean or field bean-1/2 kilo
9.brinjal-2
10.Fresh pigeon peas-a handful
11.Green chillies-4(depends on your palate)

To soak

Tamarind-a huge ball the size of a wood apple to coat the vegetables with its tanginess.

To be pressure cooked
1.Toor dal or split pigeon peas-2 glasses
(For half a glass of toor dal put in two glasses of water.Add a pinch of turmeric and cook.)

2.Colocasia to be pressure cooked separately.

For the ground paste

Red chillies-5(depends on ur palate)
coconut-1 small grated
Asafoetida-a marble sized
4-tbsp channa dal(split chick pea)
4-tbsp-coriander

Take a little oil,add the asafoetida ball,chana dal,coriander seeds and red chillies.Fry all these ingredients.Keep aside and cool.After it is cooled add grated coconut and grind this mixture into a paste.

To splutter

mustard-1/2tsp
fenugreek-1/2 a tsp
curry leaves-a few

Oil-For the paste and for spluttering
salt-to taste
jaggery-a small lump
turmeric powder-one tsp

Method:

Dice all the vegetables into bite sized pieces.The skin of the sweet potato and potato can be retained. Take a vessel.Add tamarind water,add vegetables and water till the veggies are immersed in water. Add salt,turmeric powder and a few curry leaves.Add the ground paste.You can also add a few spoons of sambar powder to this mixture.let the this mixture cook.Check to see if vegetables are well done.Add toor dal to this mixture.If the mixture is too watery.Add a little bit of rice flour and water in a small container mix well and add to the mixture for a thick consistency.Once this is done.Splutter the mustard,fenugreek and curry leaves.Add to this melange.You can add a small lump of jaggery for a sweet tangy aromatic sambar.

The aromatic melange of veggies and lentil ready to be consumed
This is the side dish for the kali.Will be making another post for the kali which is a sweet dish shortly.Till then enjoy is magical broth.This tastes gorgeous with rice, idlis and dosas.Sending this over to Paisley Passions












































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































           

Monday, December 20, 2010

Art imitates life

The orange Salt and pepper shaker
The painting of the original as rendered by Padmajaji
Jagannathji of Puri

I'm so happy I got this blog going.I'm so glad to have made friends with Padmajaji.She is an awesome person, a philanthropist, a painter,a healer and an extremely spiritual person.Her enthusiasm for life is infectious.I'm running short of adjectives to describe this incredible person..Her work is definitely blessed by the divine.I had posted this picture for the salt and pepper fest.I had no clue,that Padmajaji would paint this for me and send it to me.I must have done something right to have gotten this gift from her.Its really a blessing to have spoken to her.I felt like she was talking to me from a very enlightened plane.Very Buddha like,very peaceful and calm.God bless her hands with more energy to churn out more paintings.She even infuses prayers into her paintings.Where can you find another dedicated artist like her.Thank you so much Padmajaji for your gift and your kind words.Its such a fabulous way to end this year.Your gift is priceless,you have made a family happy and proven to the world that people like you still exist.When I take a look at the painting above her eye for detail simply astounds me.I promptly offered this painting to Jagannathji of Puri when I received this.I'm sending this to the weekend wrap up post conducted by Patty because this painting rocked my Friday and to Srivallis event because this is one of my favourite blogging moments. 

Chennai Food bloggers Meet Dec 18 2010


All the Chennai Food bloggers met up@ Citi Centre.We had a lovely time.Look at the goodies I got to bring home.Thank you so much for sharing home made delicacies and the wonderful gifts.It was an unforgettable event.I'm certainly looking forward to more.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Arty weekend

I'm so glad to be doing a post which is not related to the food we had on weekends.For a change we went to Poompuhar and the Dastkari haat.It was eye candy indeed.

@Poompuhar
The handicrafts development corporation of the Government of Tamil Nadu known as Poompuhar have an array of traditional brass lamps,tanjore paintings and rare bronze icons and much more.Worth a visit.
traditional deepams

 We picked up a brass icon of Sai baba from here.

The Dastkari Haat@kalakshetra was another interesting craft, calligraphy, textiles and arts festival.We picked up Panch dathu bells and patachitra bottle craft.This was a fun evening.

Bottle craft


Indian calligraphy the pic here has telugu script
 
terracotta exhibit
The other interesting things I saw there was the kavad and wooden block prints.Maybe I will pick these next time.This is going to the weekend wrap up@Patty

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Birthday Grub!

Farfalle

Beautiful Painting at Tuscana

Crunchy Starters
Chocolate Gelato

Chocolate Ganache topped sweet pizza,raspberries and mascarpone cream
Lasagna
Tuscana Pizzeria has been voted one of Asia's finest restaurants and will be featured in The Miele Guide 2010-2011.And so we thought this would be the best place to celebrate my birthday.I really loved the dessert,the sweet pizza which was on the house.They also gave us complementary Esprit gift coupons worth Rs 1000 .I really enjoyed my meal at Tuscana.I must thank M2 for the lovely treat.I'm sending this to Patty weekend wrap up 8.

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