India Trip in Dec - 2010

We went to Kerala last month. True to the name 'The paradise on earth' it is probably one of the greenest places you will ever see. Kerala has got a lot of unique reasons to be called a paradise. A pleasant climate, sun kissed beaches, backwaters, hill stations, exotic wildlife, breathtaking waterfalls, Ayurvedic health holidays, enchanting art forms, magical festivals lot more.Traveler's come to see Kerala's wildlife sanctuaries, historic cities and temples.A big stress relief journey to rejuvenate ourselves in Kerala.

These are from Alleppey.Alleppey is also known as Alappuzha is a land of immense natural beauty in Kerala. Today, Alappuzha has grown in importance as a Backwater Tourist Centre, attracting several thousands of foreign tourists each year.It is also famous for boat races, houseboat holidays, beaches, marine products and coir products. It ia also known as the Venice of The East. For a total Alappuzha experience traverse the canals on small vallams (Boats) or anchor in the middle of the backwater lakes on a Kettuvallam (rice boat converted to cozy house boats) - spend the night under the star lit sky, listening to the splash of water on to the boat.

Beautiful Backwaters

The Boat House with built-in bedrooms, bath, kitchen and dining

The chef in the kitchen cooking fresh food for our dinner

Interior of the boat house

One of the bedrooms in the boat house

A Beautiful and pleasant evening in Alleppey

Munnar is a small hill station set amongst the Kannan Devan hills. It is famous for its lush green surroundings, lakes, reservoirs, forests, and tea estates. The quiet environs of Munnar attract the traveler to relax in the lap of Mother Nature. It has some of the highest tea estates in the world.

 Tea Estate and the Black Pepper plant

 Paradise on earth

 Procession on Munnar roads

Thekkady is one of the important tourist destinations in India. Thekkady is located in Iddukki district of Kerala in a distance of 160 miles from Thiruvanandpuram. The place has gained utmost popularity and is well known for wildlife preservation. In Thekkady, one can watch wildlife in a close range. Thekkady wildlife sanctuary offers unique opportunity to watch and film the wildlife while they are in action

 A beautiful scene from the hotel room

 The chef preparing the hot breakfast

Elephant Ride

 A beautiful Sunrise in Kanyakumari

Swami Vivekanada Rock Memorial

A wonderful sunset at Kovalam beach , Trivendram

Another beautiful scene at Kovalam beach

Putnala Pappu / Roasted Chickpea Laddu

This is a very quick preparation. I call this as instant laddu as you don't need to cook.

Putnala pappu laddu

Ingredients:

Roasted chick pea – 1 cup
Jaggery – ½ cup
Elaichi / Cardamom powder – 2 pinches
Ghee – 2 tbsp

Roasted Chickpea, Jaggery

Method:

Break the jaggery into smaller pieces using hand (as it is soft) or even knife if you choose the hard variety.

Grind the roasted chick pea along with jaggery into fine powder. (if you choose soft variety of jaggery then just grind the roasted chickpeas only. Then mix the powder with jaggery, cardamom and ghee).

Spread the mixture in a wide plate and sprinkle cardamom powder, ghee and start making laddus.

Note: I have chosen soft variety of Jaggery, so that I do not need lots of ghee. Not only that, Jaggery adds the nice colour, flavour, taste and loads of medicinal values.

You can find more details about Jaggery here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaggery

 Instant laddu with roasted chickpea

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

Tomato – 6
Green chili - 6
Roasted Urad Daal – 1 tbsp
Roasted Peanuts – 2 tbsp
Onion – 1
Salt
Oil – 2 tsp

For Tampering:
Red chili – 1
Curry leaves – Hand full
Mustard + Cumin – 1 tsp
Urad daal – ½ tsp

Method:

Roast Urad daal and peanuts separately

Heat a pan with 2 tsp of oil. Fry Onion, green chili, tomato until tomato becomes mushy and the raw smell goes.

Allow them to cool and grind the tomato mixture along with salt, urad daal and peanuts into smooth paste.

For seasoning, heat a pan with 1 tsp of oil. Add all the ingredients mentioned above for tampering and add it to the chutney.

Dosa Roll with Cabbage Carrot fry

Want to try some thing new and get away from routine. Tried Dosa rolls with cabbage fry.

Dosa roll with cabbage fry

Ingredients:

Dosa batter
Carrot cabbage fry

For cabbage fry

Cabbage – grated finely – 1 cup
Carrot – grated finely – ½ cup

Salt

Cumin powder – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – ½ tsp

Heat a pan with 1 tbsp of oil and add cabbage and carrot. Fry them for few minutes untill they just become transparent. Sprinkle cumin powder and corrinader powder and fry for another two minutes and turn off the heat.

Now heat the dosa pan and spread the dosa batter. When the dosa turns crispier, then add the cabbage fry and roll it.

Dosa with cabbage fry

I made dosa bit crispier, you can also make smooth dosas and roll with cabbage fry or any other vegitable filling.

Atukula prasadam / Rice flakes sweet

I have tasted this in a temple as prasadam. I liked the taste very much and got tempted to prepare this at home. Interesting thing is there is no need to cook this recipe. So easy to make.

Atukula Prasadam for Lord Krishna

Ingredients:

Rice flakes – 1 cup
Jaggery, grated – ½ cup
Fresh coconut, grated – ¼ cup
Cashews - 10

Rice Flakes, Coconut, Jaggery, Cashews

Method:

Soak cashews in water for 30 minutes.

Place the colander with rice flakes under running water and mix the rice flakes well, so that all of them will get wet. Immediately add the grated jaggery to the wet rice flakes. By doing this the jaggery gets melted slightly and get sucked into rice flakes and gives nice dark colour. Finally add the grated coconut and soaked cashews into the riceflakes.

Soya Granules with Green peas

Soya is called as vegetarians’ meat. Soya granules cooked along with green peas with added spices.

Soya granules curry with green peas

Ingredients:

Soya granules – 1 cup
Green peas – ½ cup
Onion – 1, chopped finely
Tomato – 2, chopped finely
Garam masala – 1 tsp
Coriander Powder – 1
Chilli Powder – 1 ½ tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Method:

Soya Granules

Soak the soya granules in hot water for 20 minutes. Squeeze the water and keep them aside.

               Soya granules Soaked in water                                     After 20 minutes squeezed out of water

Heat a deep pan with oil. Add chopped onion and sauté for a minute. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté until onion becomes translucent. Add chopped tomatoes and fry until they become mushy. Add the spices and fry for a minute or so. Add soya granules and green peas mix every thing, add ¼ cup of water and cover the lid until peas get cooked. Check in between for the moisture. Wait until all the water gets evaporated. At the end add chopped coriander and remove from fire.

 Chapathi / Roti with soyagranules curry

Alasanda vada / Bobbarlu / Blackeye Pea itters

 Alasanda vada / Blackeye pea fritters

These are the famous vadas prepared at Rayalaseema especially during Sankranthi festival. In  Raayalaseema they are usually served with chicken curry. They are eaten dunked in Chicken gravy. You can also eat them with vegetable gravy curries like potato kurma or Mushroom curry. You can also eat with rasam.

Ingredients:
Split black-eye peas - 2 cups
Green Chillies - 6-8
Onion - 1 large - Chopped into small pieces
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Salt
Corriander - Chopped
Oil - to deep fry

 Blach eye split peas

Soak 2 cups of black-eyed peas (Alasandalu) in water for overnight. They will get doubled after few hours, so choose a big vessel for soaking. In the morning, drain the water and pat the peas to get dry using a cotton cloth.

Grind the blackeye peas, ginger, and green chillies into coarse batter in a food processor or mixer without adding water. Remove the batter to a vessel and just before preparing the vadas add salt and onion pieces. If you add salt and onion in the begining itself, then the batter will become watery and absorbs more oil. The batter must be solid enough to hold the vada shape. You can use your hands or small cotton cloth or even plastic bag to make vadas. 

I normal prepare them using plastic bag. Take small amount of batter in a ball shape, put that ball on the plastic bag and flatten it lightly using your fingers and make a hole in the middle. Take into the hand and drop gently into hot oil from the side of kadai / pan.

In batches, deep fry them in hot oil, turning them until they are golden-brown on both sides. Takes approximately 5 to 10 minutes, each batch.

Serve them hot with  chicken curry or any veg curry.

Alasanda vada with chicken gravy