Straberry lollies

On a hot day, the children will enjoy nothing more than a lovely refreshing ice lolly but rather than spending a fortune on shop bought ones throughout the summer, why not make your own at home?  At least you know what's gone into them and can make sure that they are healthy.  You can buy the lolly sticks and moulds from any supermarket.

Strawberries are the special fruits with seeds exposing outside. 

Take about 250 gms of ripe strawberries, wash them and remove the stalks.

Blend the strawberries into smooth juice without any lumps. No need to remove the seeds, yet if you want, you can strain the juice before pouring it into the moulds.

To give the extra sweetness to the puree, melt the jaggery using little bit of water and blend along with the puree. This gives the extra dark colour. You can also substitute jaggery with sugar or honey.

Pour the puree into the moulds and freeze it.

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Strawberry lolly

Flower Arrangement

An elegant lavender........

I love the shape of this vase. A lovely oval shape, coated with glossy lavender colour.....
Matching flowers .......

Potlakaya bajji / Snake gourd fritters

This is my all time favourite bhaji. Especially the shape of the fritters. I call them as Golden rings. The snake gourd brings the unique taste to the fritters. Topping them with chat masala will add further taste.

Ingredients:

Potlakaya / snake gourd – 1 about 1 1/2 feet long

Besan / gram flour – 3/4^th cup

Rice flour – ¼ cup

Salt

Chili powder – ½ tsp

Baking powder – 1/8^th tsp

Oil for deep fry

Snake gourd

Method:

Cut the snake gourd into ¼ inch thin round slices, and remove the centre bit.

Place the pan with oil on medium high flame. By the time, oil becomes hot, we can prepare the batter.

Combine both the flours and sieve into a large mixing bowl. Now add the baking powder, salt, chili powder and water.

Mix the batter well. The consistency should be like beaten thick yoghurt. The batter should not be too thick as the batter will not cooked properly, or not too thin as it absorbs more oil.

When the oil is hot enough, take each slice and dip it in the batter and slowly slip in into the hot oil. Repeat the same with 4 to 6 slices.

Make sure that the centre part should be empty and it should resemble like a ring.

Turn them in between and remove them into a paper towel. Sprinkle some chili powder and chat masala and serve them warm with a hot tea or coffee.

Long shot.....

Note: Always fry these fritters under medium to medium high flame. As a result, the vegetable inside the batter will also get cooked well.

Bottle gourd with Sesame seeds powder / Sorakaaya nuvvula mudha koora

I know the name of this vegetable sounds funny, but we can make some interesting things with this along with some recipes. When I was a child, there used to be a beggar coming to our street with a musical instrument playing some melodious songs. When I observed keenly, it is made up of the dried bottle gourd. Not only that, we can also make some nice crafts with it and do some paintings on the dried bottle gourd.

Ingredients:

Bottle gourd pieces - 1 cup

Chana daal / Bengal gram / Senaga pappu - 1 tsp

Onion 1 chopped into small pieces

Green chili - 2-3 slit length wise

Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp

Chili powder - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Salt

Oil - 1 /12 tbsp

For Sesame powder - 

Roasted Sesame seeds -  1 tbsp

Roasted peanuts - 1 tbsp

Dry coconut - 1 tsp

Grind all the 3 ingredients into fine powder.

Method:

Heat a deep pan with 1 1/2 tbsp of oil. When it is warm enough, add chana daal and roast for few seconds. Add chopped onion and green chili. Fry them until the onion just gets transparent.

Add chopped bottle gourd and fry for a minute.

Add salt, chili powder, turmeric and coriander powder. Stir every thing and cover it with lid for a minute.

Now add about 1/4 cup of water and cook the vegetable until soft.

At the end add the sesame seeds powder, stir every thing, reduce the flame and cover  it with lid.

Cook it for 2-3 minutes and remove from the fire.

Serve it with roti

Tomato Rasam

Rasam is a cold weather favorite, tastes heavenly as well as warms the body and the taste buds. I always look forward to drinking rasam even though I prepare it almost every other day, well, at least 4 days a week. To me, its the best part of the meal. Yes, you read right. My meal would be incomplete without rasam. Even more so, today, since we had a cold, breezy and rainy morning. The aroma of tempered spices is enticing to say the least and as it sizzles its way into the boiling spiced broth, it gives a totally different flavor dimension to the rasam. Fresh coriander leaves improve and enhance the flavor.

Ingredients:

Ripe tomato - 3-4

Tamarind - 1/2 lemon size

Salt - as per taste

Rasam powder - 2 tsp

For seasoning - 

Oil - 1 tbsp

Curry leaves - 1 string

Coriander leaves chopped - 1 tbsp

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Garlic pods - 1 or 2 pounded

Dry chili - 1 or 2

Method:

Chop into big chunks and boil the tomatoes and tamrind by adding 1 cup of water. You can also steam them in microwave with out adding any water for about 4-5 minutes.

Allow it to cool down and squeeze the mixture and remove the unwanted tamarind pulp. It's up to you, if you want to keep the tomato skin,  you can keep it, if not you can remove it. Add about 2 cups of water and keep it aside.

Heat a deep sauce pan, and add oil to it.

When the oil is warm enough, add crushed garlic pods, dry chili and then mustard, cumin and curry leaves. 

When the garlic gets slightly roasted, pour the tomato mixture. 

Add salt, rasam powder and bring it to boil.

Just before removing from the fire add chopped coriander.

Serve it with rice.

Rasam annam with omlette

Rasam Powder - 1

Rasam is an integral part of traditional south Indian meal. The meal would be incomplete with out the rasam. Each home has its own version of rasam. Rasam comprises of few to many spices. Each spice has got its own flavour and the concoction of spices, tamarind and tomato, will give the unique taste.

This rasam powder should last for about 2 months, if you prepare rasam at least 2-3 times a week for 4 people. Ensure you use fresh spices since the key to a good rasam is in its fresh spices.

There are lots of variations of rasam powders. I will be posting them in the near future.

Ingredients:

Coriander seeds - 1 cup

Cumin seeds - 1/4 cup
Fenugreek seeds / Menthulu - 1 tbsp

Black pepper - 1/4 cup

Raathi puvvu / Dagar na phool / Parmela Kamtschadalis - 1 fist full

Cloves - 6

Cinnamon - 2 inches stick
Dry chilli - about 20 or depending on your taste. 

Method:


Dry roast them separately until they spread the nice aroma and change their colour.


You can also roast them combining every thing except cumin due to their small size. When every thing is almost done, you can add cumin and roast for few minutes and remove them from fire.

Grind them into fine powder in a coffee blender or in any food processor.

Store the powder in a glass jar. 

Boondhi paayasam / Kheer

I call this as modification.com. I just changed the form of the sweet by adding milk. I had some boondhi laddus at home and the kids doesn't want to eat them. So, decided to do this experiment. Trust me, it came out very well. And guess who ate most of it., my little cheeky one.,

There are no standard measurements for this recipe as we are not preparing it right from the scratch.

Ingredients:

Boondhi laddu - 3-4

Milk - 250 ml to 400 ml depending on your choice of consistency

Almonds - 10 (Soaked and chopped into thin slices)

Method:

Bring the milk to boil.

Mash the laddu with fork and mix it with the milk and boil it again under low flame, until the boondhi absorbs the milk. 

When the mixture reaches the desired consistency, then turn off the heat. Garnish with chopped almonds and serve either warm or chilled.

Potato and Sago tikkis

This is a simple snack, easy to prepare. Kids will like them as they taste more or less like finger chips as the main ingredient is potato. Same as the fries,  you must eat them when they are warm. Unlike the other fritters like bhajis or vadas, these doesn't taste nice when they become stale

Ingredients:

Sago seeds - 1 cup

Potato - 2 medium

Green chili - 2-3 finely chopped

Curry leaves - Freshly chopped - 2-3 tbsp

Rice flour - 1 tbsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Grated potato, soaked sago, green chilli and curry leaves

Method:

Soak the sago pearls / Sabodhana, in enough water to cover it, for about two hours. Drain off excess water. 

Just before making the tikkis, grate the potato and remove the excess water.

Mix together sabudana, grated potato, green chillies, curry leaves, lemon juice, rice flour and salt. Mix thoroughly. Divide into sixteen lemon sized balls, flatten between palms of your hands. 

Heat sufficient oil in a kadai and deep fry vadas in hot oil till golden brown. 

Drain on absorbent paper and Serve hot.

Note - For variation, you can also add chopped coriander instead of curry leaves. You can also add coarsely ground roasted peanuts. 

Floor Lamp Decoration

When I bought this floor lamp, it was plain and looks bit dull.

Thought to decorate it a bit.

I have used some kundans and glitter paints and some glue to stick the kundans. It took less than 30 minutes to decorate this.  Look at the difference...