Diwali

We had a Diwali potluck at work. Here is the Rangoli I made at work. We used drawing sheets and sand colors.

Avial

Avial can be prepared with any combination of boiled veggies. We generally eat it with plain dal and rice. Here is my version of avial. Here I am giving the veggies I used

Ingredients for Avial

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Fresh Curd - 3 cups

Fresh grated coconut

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Green chillies - 5

Budida Gummadikaya (white pumpkin) - 1 small piece

Tindora - 10

Egg plant/Brinjal small - 2

Carrots small - 2

Potato medium -1

Beans - 5

Curry leaves - few

mustard and cumin seeds

red chillies

coconut oil for tempering

Prepartion

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Cut all the vegetables into medium pieces. Boil them with salt and turmeric until they are soft but not mushy.

Meanwhile dry roast cumin seeds and set aside

Grate fresh coconut. Grind grated coconut with roasted cumin seeds and cut green chillies into a smooth paste adding little water. The quantity of chillies can bevaried depending on how spicy you want.

Beat the curds and mix the blended coconut paste.

After veggies are cooked mix the curd and coconut mixture and let it boil on low flame.

In a pan heat coconut oil, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and red chillies. Wait until mustard splutters and add curry leaves. Add this tempering to the cooked avial.

Arati Puvvu Patoli

This dish is prepared with arati puvvu(Banana blossom). This dish is bit tedious to prepare but the taste is well worth the effort. Serve with hot rice.

Ingredients

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Arati Puvvu -1

Kandipappu(Toor dal) - 1 cup

senaga pappu(chana dal) - 1 cup

Red chillies - 5

Asafoetida - pinch

oil for frying

turmeric

tamarind juice - 2 tsp

mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves for tempering

Method of Preparation

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Soak both the dals and red chillies for 4-6 hrs

Remove stalks from banana blossom. Cut it fine and put in buttermilk mixed with a pinch of turmeric.

Grind the dals adding salt and asafoetida with very little water possible

Pressure cook cut arati puvvu with some turmeric and tamarind juice

Heat oil in a non stick pan and add all the tempering ingredients. Once mustard seeds splutter add cooked arati puvvu and also the dal batter to the pan. Fry on a medium flame until you see dal batter cooked.

Banana Halwa

Ingredients ========= Rava/sooji - 1 cup Ripe bananas - 2 Sugar - 1 1/2 cup Ghee Milk - 2 1/2 cup Dry fuits for garnishing Preparation ========= Fry sooji in ghee until it turns golden. Meanwhile cut the bananas in bite size pieces and mash them slightly with 1/2 cup milk. Add remaining 2 cups milk and sugar to the pan with sooji. Added the mashed bananas to it. Add more ghee if needed and cook until done Garnish with dry fruits fried in ghee.

Blackeyed peas(Alasandalu) vada

These vadas can be deep fried or shallow fried. I am giving the shallow fried version here(low fat :-). Ingredients ======== Black eyed peas(Bobbarlu) - 2 cups green chillies - 4 ginger - small piece curry leaves Small onion -1 Procedure ======== Soak the black eyed peas for 6-8 hrs or overnight Chop onions into small peices Grind the peas adding ginger, chillies, salt into a smooth batter Mix onions and curry leaves to the batter Pressure cook the batter for a while until you get 2 whistles(This step can be skipped if deep frying) Make vadas with batter and shallow fry them

Chilled Orange Soup

This soup is a good refresher during summer. Large oranges - 6 Lemon -1 Orange zest 1/4 tsp lemon zest 1/4 tsp cornflour 2 tbsp Sugar - 10-12 tbsp Fresh cream for garnish Method 1. Extract orange and lemon juice 2. Mix the juices, sugar, lemon and orange zest and cornflour 3 add 4 teacups of water. 4. Boil for 10 minutes. 5. Cool the soup for a while and chill the soup 6. Just before serving garnish the soup with fresh sweetened cream

Bhindi Masala / Stuffed Okra

This is my first ever food blog. I love cooking and entertaining guests. This is the recipe i learnt from a friend of mine in Bombay.

Ingredients:

Okra/bhindi - 2 lbs Onions (big) -2 Peanuts - 1 small cup Oil for frying Masalas

====== dhaniya powder -2 tsp

jeera powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

salt - according to taste

amchur - 1/2 tsp

garam masala - 1/4 tsp

oil - 1tsp

Mix all the masala ingredients together with 1 tsp of oil. Slit bhindi length wise and stuff the bhindis with sufficient amount of masala.

. Cut onions lengthwise. Heat oil in a wok/kadai and fry onions till golden brown. Add peanuts to onions and fry for a while. Remove onions and peanuts into a bowl and keep them aside. Now add stuffed bhindis to the remaining oil. Stir bhindis occassionally until they are almost done. Take care not to break bhindis while stirring. When bhindis are cooked add fried peanuts and onions to this and sprinkle any left over masala powder on it. fry for 3-4 minutes. Garnish it with cilantro/coriander leaves.

This curry goes well with both roti and rice.