Growing up my passion had always been baking, but slowly I developed an interest for cooking. It all began one fine winter of 1998 when I started to document the recipes of Mrs. Saraswathi Vishwanathan, affectionately known as "Mami" to me. She is a very caring, loving and gentle person, a talented veena artist, a mother, a grandmother and a passionate cook and reference guide to any traditional recipe. At the age of 76, she has a phenomenal memory, experiments with new recipes, is open to ideas and information and does not fail to appreciate another persons cooking. Her passion inspired me to cook, learn methods in traditional cooking, experiment with food and share recipes. Though she is my sister's mother-in-law, our relationship has grown many folds and I always enjoy conversations with her regarding people, her experiences, her childhood, food, movies, television, recipes and the world over a good cup of tea. She never fails to call me over when she prepares any delicious food or tries something new. Mami is a native of Cuddalore,Tamil Nadu, India and I would like to share her delicious kadala kolazmbu that is very popular to that area.

Gadgets:

Wok
Bowls
Ladle
Pressure Cooker
Colander
Cutting Board
Knife

Ingredients:

Peanuts (Raw)/ Kadalai- 1 cup
Brinjal/Egg Plant - 1 cup
Channa dhal - 1 tsp
Thoor Dhal - 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Sambar powder - 3 tsp (add more for spicy taste)
Methi Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a few shakes
Dry red chili - 1
Curry leaves - a few
Tamarind - size of a lemon
Water 4 cups
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tsp
Brown Sugar - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

1. Soak peanuts in 2 cups of water over night and cook them with some salt in a pressure cooker ( 3 whistles. Drain and keep the aside)

2. Soak the tamarind in 2 cups of water.

3. Add 2 tsp of oil to the Wok and heat it up. Add asafoetida, mustard seeds and allow them to pop.

4. Add channa dhal, toor dhal, dry chili, methi seeds and allow for them to get to golden brown color.

5. Add chopped Eggplant/ Brinjal and Sambar powder and cook for 2 minutes

6. Add the tamarind water and salt and cook until the egg plant is half cooked.Then add the cooked peanuts allow it to cook until the brinjal/egg plant cooks. There should be sufficient gravy. Add brown sugar and curry leaves.

7. Serve it hot with rice.

Every time we visit the strawberry fields at Carlsbad in San Diego,I am always singing in the back of my mind the song by the Beatles "Strawberry Fields Forever",because it is so beautiful out there. When you stand in front of the field you can really see that its for ever, don't know where it ends. The beauty of green with specks of red amazed me and its one relaxing activity to do with your family on a weekend.Click a Jugalbandi had an au naturel photo event for the month of April and I decided to send in this picture of a strawberry with its flower. This picture was taken when we went strawberry picking some time ago.Its my daughter's favourite fruit and I am so happy posting a picture of it.

A last minute go to preparation is rava upma. I am reminded of the mom and pop eat out that my cousin used to eat with his friends in Coimbatore. Whatever you order, they would serve you upma first like an appetizer that he named the place 'compulsory upma'. Upma though made when you had no time  is delicious and is a favorite for many people in my family. Here is a way that I love to make upma.

Gadgets:

Bowl
Wok
Spatula
Plate

Ingredients:

Rava or Cream of wheat - 1 1/3 cup
Green chilis (de-seeded)-2
Cilantro- a few stands
Curry leaves - a few
Lentils- Channa dal and Udal dal - 2 tbsp each
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Onions- 2 chopped finely
Mixed veggies - 1 cup
Salt
Asafoetida- a few shakes.
Water - 2 2/3 cups
Oil - 2 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Heat the Wok and in the kettle boil 2 2/3 cup water.

2. Heat oil and ghee in the wok.When that warms up well add asafoetida, mustard seeds. When the seeds start to pop add the lentil and green chili.

3. When the lentils start to turn golden add chilis, onions, curry leaves and cook with a little salt until the onions turn translucent. Add mixed vegetables.

4. Add water and bring it to a boil and then add rava little at a time and mix the rava well.. Turn the heat to medium.

5. Mix the upma well and then cover the wok and allow the upma to cook for 2 minutes.

10. After 2 minutes. Open and mix it once more and garnish with cilantro and a tsp of ghee. Serve hot.

This morning looking at the food events for the rest of the month, I came across Cooking 4 all season Srivalli having a MEC:Cakes for the month of April. I decided to experiment with a cake recipe I came across and had no clue as to how it was going to turn out. As for me personally, I am not a microwave person. I restrict it to warming food and liquids and so it was an adventure when I started out modifying Usha Srikumar's Eggless cake recipe. When I started out it looked just like a normal cake batter but when the cake came out of the oven it looked like a very pale cake.I got curious about the taste, it was chewy, pretty low on sugar,dry and had no flavor and to put it in the words of my mama Kittu it was"colorless, odorless, tasteless!" I was not too happy with the end result. Wondered if I must have stuck to the recipe. Since I used condensed milk in the base recipe I thought maybe by adding some evaporated milk could make it moist. The end result was something super moist and tasty. I was absolutely thrilled when my 4 year daughter said "Amma its yummy". I could not help but smile.

Gadgets:
Glass rectangle bowl
Mixing bowl
Egg Beater
Measuring cups
Measuring Spoons
Plate
Microwave

Ingredients:
APF (All Purpose flour) - 1 cup
Baking soda- 1/2 tsp
Baking powder- 1 tsp
Butter - 2 Tbsp
Water - 1/3 cup
Condensed Milk - 1 tin (1 cup for cake)
Vanilla essence - 1tsp
Honey - 1tsp
Evaporated Milk - 1 tin
Chocolate Syrup - 1 tsp
White Chocolate chip - 3

Preparation:

1. In a bowl, add 1 cup condensed milk, water, butter,essence,honey and beat to blend well with an egg beater.

2. Mix all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and mix well to make a cake batter.

3. Pour into prepared glass microwave safe bowl and bake on high power for 4 minutes.

4. Add another 4 minutes on high and bake again.

5. Remove the cake from the bowl, it will come off easily.

6. Place a wax paper in the bowl and put the cake back.

7. Mix evaporated milk and the remaining condensed milk and pour it evenly over the cake.


8. I would like to mention that the corners of the cake are more chewy than the center, so add more of the milk in the 4 corners.

9. Cover the glass bowl and place it in the fridge for sometime.

10. I placed it for 3 hours and by that time most of the milk had been absorbed.

11. To me it tasted like any Indian sweet made with condensed milk and was to my surprise pretty moist and tasty.

12. Cut a cube of the cake and drizzle with chocolate syrup and voila, I am so happy that I came up with something very moist and delicious in the end.

It was one summer afternoon when I was at UTC Mall in San Diego, and we were trying to get something to eat from the food court. I went for some Mexican food and was walking out when I saw this colorful fruit salad in the French cafe and a lady was carrying it out ahead of me. I took a peek at her salad and saw watermelon and orange with some mint on it. The image of the dark pink and yellow with bits of green here and there stuck in my head and I tried to recreate the salad to my taste and served it on a skewer with Indian food. This salad was spicy, salty and sweet.My entry to

1. Fun N'Sun Event hosted by Simple Indian Food.

2. Click Citrus event hosted by Jugalbandhi. (The first photo goes to this event)

Gadgets:

Cutting Board
Knife
Skewers
Plate

Ingredients:

Watermelon - 3 cubes per person
Orange - 1/4 of an Orange
Cilantro - 1 tsp chopped
Sea Salt
Honey - a few drizzles
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Preparation:

1. Cut the watermelon into 2 inch cubes

2. Remove the Orange peal with the knife and then cut the orange into the size of the cube.

3. Take the skewers and alternate between watermelon cube and orange and ending with the watermelon.

4. Sprinkle sea salt, honey, chilli powder and cilantro.

5. Serve on the side with any kind of food.

Came upon a Dosa Mela at Cooking For All Seasons by Srivalli and I decided to send in my grandmother Babu Ma's Oats Dosai that my father fondly remembers his mother preparing for him when he was a child.My father has been asking me to try it out for a few months and I decided to do just that and add it to my recipe collection. Since I have never seen my grandmother its my fathers recollection of the ingredients and I decided to play and experiment with it. If you are looking for crisp dosai, please add more rice flour or rava. 

Gadgets:

Blender
Bowl
Dosa Making Tava
Dosa Spatula
Plate

Ingredients:

Oats (rolled or quick ) - 2 cup
Rice - 2 Tbsp
Buttermilk/Yogurt - enough to soak and cover the Oats.
Green Chillis - 2
Salt
Asafoetida- a few shakes
Water
Cilantro
Jeera( optional)

Preparation:

1. Add the rice and oats into a bowl carefully seeing to it that all the husk if any is removed. To this add the buttermilk or yogurt which can be a little sour ( if you like the sour taste)  and allow it to soak for 20 minutes.

2. When soaked pour it into a blender and grind well.

3. Add salt, asafoetida, chopped green chillis,cilantro and a little water to get the dosa batter consistency.

4. Heat the Dosa Tava and start making dosa.

5. End result will be a delicious, nutritious dosa.

Note: This dosa will not be crisp. It will be a little soft and very tasty. Chopped Onions etc can be added too.

Made this for my husbands birthday party and it was a big hit. This was the first time I had even experimented with any form of cutlets. Looked at so many recipes on the web and decided to come up with my own version of it. The result was something delicious on the inside and very crunchy and crispy on the out side. I made ragada, hot chutney and sweet chutney to go with it. For those who find it intimidating please do try it. It was easier than I expected.

Gadgets

Wok
Bowl
Pressure cooker
Plates
Serving Spoons
Shredder

Ingredients:

Paneer shredded - 1 cup
Potato's Boiled - 2 (medium size)
Ginger - grated 1/2 tsp
Onions chopped into very small pieces - 1/2 cup
Cilantro minced- 1/4 cup
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Salt
Chilli Powder - 1/4 tsp
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
Bread slices - 2
Water
Maida/APF - 1/2 cup
Oil for frying ( I used Olive oil)
Bread Crumbs - 1 cup (Italian seasoned bread crumbs)

Preparation:

1. Heat the wok/kaadai with oil on medium heat.

NOTE:Keep maybe 1 cup oil to cook each of them one at a time because they cook well then and you save on oil too.

2. In a plate place the bread and add water until the bread sucks up all the water and there is some remaining in the bottom and leave it for 10 minutes.Then remove the excess water and add it to the bowl with the other ingredients below.

3.In a bowl add boiled potatoes and mash them, add chopped onions, grated paneer,cilantro,green chillis,turmeric, chilli powder,salt, lemon juice and the bread slices that has been soaked and mix well so as to incorporate all the ingredients evenly.

4. Take the APF and mix it with a little water so as to form a batter that is like idli dough.

5. Place the bread crumbs in another plate.

6. Take the potato and paneer mixture and make a patty like a burger and then coat it with the APF batter and then coat it with the bread crumbs and place it on a plate.

7. Make some of this and fry the patties in the oil and allow them to turn golden brown on both sides.

8. Remove it and place it on a paper towel to remove excess oil.

9. Serve it hot with Ragada, hot and sweet chutney, Maggie hot and sweet ketchup.