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.

Favourite Indian Handicraft

This tanjore painting depicting Goddess Durga with her oh so cute tiger, is one of favourite Indian Handicraft.I love this piece because I made it myself with a lot of help from my tutor.He used to come home everyday and teach me how to do it.I love the teak wood frame and most of all I love her vahanam.I made this specially for my MIL.She is into Lalitha Sahasranamam chanting.On Sunday she held the pooja at her home.See the pic below.This piece is close to my heart because it made my MIL happy.

So this post is going to Preethi Prabhu's lovely Giveaway. Congrats on your 101.

wHOOL-“to empty and renew the mind”



At the November Fest



Outside the Lady Andal auditorium

Its been a long time since I went to a play or a music fest,hence settled on November Fest.I chose to watch wHOOL a Korean band. wHOOL means  'empty and renew the mind' ... to dust yourself off and fill with something new'.The show was truly splendid.They use traditional Korean instruments along with the contemporary music instruments.Their rendition of our National anthem was simply the best that I have heard till date.Really loved each and every artist's performance.The flautist did a fabulous job,with his wind instrument the Piri.And so did the vocalist with his Buk(drum) and Jang-gu: Double headed Drum .Their energy was infectious.They even came down to the audience and performed.The audience loved their performance so much that we asked for an encore.They even used the conch just like in India.When they blew into it I was reminded of the Mahabharata serial.It was a solemn moment when the entire audience stood up when they played our National anthem.They traversed all genres of rock,jazz,and bollywood awesome.Language was not a barrier at all.Truly their music broke all the barriers.Do catch up whenever they play in a venue near you.Worth every moment.I watched this show on the 17th Nov.

My husband's Pori Urundai for karthigai!

Nel Pori,Aval Pori and Fried gram urundai

Since I got my wisdom tooth removed.I wasn't in any position to do anything for the festival.My husband came to the rescue.He made Nel pori, Aval pori and Fried gram urundai all by himself. He did it with a dexterity of a seasoned cook.The urundai's tasted awesome.It was one of the best I have eaten so far.Thank you M2 for making our Karthigai and the weekend so sweet.My husband sure is an instinctive cook.He did everything in a jiffy.He can even make wheat halwa!!.This is going to patty's party.Please check here for detailed ingredients.

Ingredients
Pori-i/4 kg,black jaggery-400gms,finecut coconut pieces-1 cup,dry ginger a pinch, cardamom 6.

Method:

In a separate vessel make syrup out of jaggery +ding water until it just gets immersed. Start heating the syrup.The syrup shud become thick enuf , so that when you add a drop of it in a vessel of water it shud solidify immediately.When syrup reaches this stage remove from fire.Clean puffed flakes and take it in a large bowl.Roast coconut separately without oil and add it to the flakes.Add cardamom powder and dry ginger powder.Add jaggery syrup and mix for about two mins,untill the temp cools down to a state when the hand can withstand heat.Do not cool it too much, then the urundai will not come out properly. Grease hands with rice flour or ghee. Make the mix into medium sized balls using hand.

Easier said than done it is sort of tough for novices. Especially when you have to make the urundai.Thats where the black jaggery plays its part it acts as a good binding agent. Also jaggery is very good for health its called medicinal sugar. Its a good source of iron and minerals.Jaggery also prevents lung lesions very beneficial for people who work in smoky environs.Pls use organic jagerry as white commercially available jaggery is loaded with chemicals.  The method is the same for both the varieties.

Now for the step by step recipe.


1.My only contribution in the recipe.Cutting coconut into bits.

2.Cleaning the Nel pori
                              

                                    
3.Dissolving the paghu vellam in water.Very important to buy paghu vellam

                                  
4.Filter the jaggery for impurities and put the mixture in a thick bottomed kadai.


                                

  

Add coconut pieces

Check for this consistency

Mix aval with jaggery

Make balls out of it

Aval pori with dried ginger and elaichi powder

Add Jaggery

Aval Pori ready for consumption

Art by Arohi-An exhibition

Really glad to be informing to all my readers that, Aarohi Singh is holding an exhibition of her hand painted products in Bangalore.I simply love her desi kitsch theme.Do check out her Nimboo-Mirchi series of paintings,kettles,baltis,thalis,chairs,trunks and boxes .Wish I could visit Bangalore to pick up one of her creations. The venue and the date is printed on the image above.