BANANA RAITA....

This must be one of the easiest dish that has found entry in this event, but so tasty i would love to know if my fellow blogger would love something like this.

Here is the recipe simple , easy and tasty....

METHOD
you have to slice the banana’s ,mix them with some fresh hung curd ,add a little cardamom powder and a little sugar depending on the sweetness of the curds.
EASY!!! and its ready to be eaten.

This is my entry to the wonderful event JFI- DETAILS YOU WILL FIND HERE

IDOLS I PAID MY RESPECT TO...

We visited some of our friends houses for GANESH CHATURTI and here are some of the pictures i would love to share with you of my favorite god....


GANAPATY AT AMITA'S HOUSE

THALI READY FOR AARTI

MODAKS READY TO BE SERVED

GANAPATY AT SEEMA'S HOUSE

GANAPATY AT VINAY'S HOUSE

you can see the yellow flowers on the top these are made of wool and so is the mat on which our ganapati bappa is sitting on.

SHOW ME YOUR COOKBOOK.....

This is my entry for the fun event hosted by Nags of cookingandme


MY FAVORITE COOK BOOK
My love for cook- books is well known in my family, it’s not only love but an obsession with me, for me no visit to a book store is complete till I purchase something related to food. There is so much I would like to write about my love for cookbooks and how I enjoy visiting places only for being able to get a glimpse of some new cook book but, I think I will tell you just this for today…. Along with recipe books, I love to read memoirs with recipes too. but unfortunately there are a very few found in India. I have 3 great books which are such memoirs.

Now to my favorite book it’s called TRADITIONAL TASTE OF GOA by Ms Kumudini Usgaonkar and Ms Shama Sardesai. I will tell you why it’s my favorite, no 1 it’s a goan cook book and I am a goan, secondly the way I managed to get it was according to me an outstanding effort and also that it would be the first book on goan cooking that I would own..
This book is written by an author who resides in Goa; this is an English version of the original book in Konkani, SUWADIK. I happened to come across this book at a relatives house in Mumbai which was gifted to her by a friend in Goa, as soon as I saw this book I knew that I wanted to have it in my collection . I was scheduled to visit goa in a couple of month’s time and so the first priority on my visit would be to buy this book (I forgot to say that this book is not available in Mumbai).
I was to stay in goa only for about 5 days and that gave me very little time to search for the book and not being too familiar with the place especially where I could go for good books I was a bit confused as to where I could find it. Finally I visited about 3 book shops and was dejected that it was not in stock.
Finally my last respite was a dear cousin who is very helpful and I knew would see to it that I got the book before I left for Mumbai, one phone call and she was with me for my great treasure hunt, she made a call to the person known to her, who knew a relative of the author of the book whew!!!! The third person than contacted the author’s office to check if there was a copy left in the office. Now the telephones went back in the same way they were made and that there was a copy which I could get in an hours time, WOW!!! I was so thrilled that I hugged my cousin on the road.
My cousin took me to the place where I was supposed to meet the person who would get the book for me and so finally I got my copy…
Isn’t it an amazing story?? So do you blame me for making this my favorite book?

SOME OF MY OTHER FAVORITES

MEMOIRS WITH RECIPES

Along with recipe books, I love to read memoirs with recipes too. but unfortunately there are a very few found in India. I have 3 great books which are such memoirs.
I love Marathi books and magazines too and collect them with full enthusiasm as would the English ones. I have almost all the famous Marathi cookbooks like RUCHIRA, ANNAPOURNA and the latest PERFECT RECIPES but I must add that these are a very small part of the collection that I have. I haven’t counted my cookbooks or magazines (which I should do one day, before I lose track of how many I own) but I am sure that they will surely exceed the 300 mark.I have never ever followed a recipe as it is from any cookbook I do my own changes before I cook it. I love reading about food more than the recipes as that’s what makes me more knowledgeable about the food culture and food habits of other peopleI have subscribed to a quarterly magazine called UPPERCRUST which is superb and satisfies my thirst for knowing the other food cultures to the utmost.

TANDOOL OR RICE ROTI....

Tandool bhakri or Rice roti is a very good roti in place of wheat roti for chicken or fish curries.
If you go to a malwani or goan restaurant you will find it on the menu, my son always prefers to take this rice roti at restaurants.
This was my first try at making a rice roti my the following method explain in this post and it did come out well , I made a rice roti a couple of years back but the method was different, I made it just like we do a wheat flour chapatti or roti.But I found that when done in the way I have done it in this recipe it turns out to be soft and succulent


INGREDIENTS

1 cup rice flour
1 cup water
1 tsp ghee
Salt to taste

METHOD

Boil one cup water
Add ghee and salt
Add the rice flour and stir
It will become dry, keep a lid and let it cook for about 2 mins
Take this mixture on a place and let it cool a little
Knead as you would knead the wheat flour dough, you can apply a little oil on your palms as the dough will be hot.
Roll these as you would for any other roti. Don’t use flour for dusting.
Cook them on a hot tawa.
Serve with some hot and spicy chicken or fish curry.
I had served it with a potato bhaji , but after eating it I felt that it suits best with non vegetarian gravies.

CUP CAKES...

I BAKED THESE VANILLA AND CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES FOR MY FATHERS BIRTHDAY AND THEY CAME OUT REALLY WELL



VANILLA AND CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

GUESS WHAT???

This is a typical goan dish can anyone guess what it is ? Pls write to me if you know what it looks like i am sure a goan will be able to give a right answer i will be writing about it tommorow so i will give all my friends one day...


AMBAADYACHE SAANSAV

Hi
I was overwhelmed to receive so many comments and replies, thanks friends for reading my blog regularly and commenting on my blog.
I am very happy to tell you that most of you were right or should I say partly right . The dish was indeed saansav but, it was not mango , ghotaa or ambya saansav but ambadyache saasav. I also know that it would be difficult to identify the mango or ambado from the photograph,so I give all my friends FULL POINTS!!!!!!

AMBAADE BEFORE THEY ARE COOKED
Hog plums or amaade as they are called in goa are used as a souring agent for veg or fish curries. I will name the common curries done.
Ammadyachi udadmethi
Amade ghalun sungtache human
Amadyacho ross
Amadyache sasav

And it’s the last one that I am going to post about today.
Amabade or hogplums are available seasonally in Mumbai usually during the months of August, September, and October. We make this chutney whenever we get some fleshy hog plums in the market .The main ingredient for the consistency is the pulp or the flesh of the hog plums.

AMBADYACHE SAANSAV OR CHUTNEY

INGREDIENTS

10 small hog plums
½ cup grated coconut
1 tsp red chili powder or 2 whole dry red chilies
1 tsp Jaggery
1 tsp mustard seeds roasted
½ tsp turmeric powder, which is optional.
Salt to taste.

METHOD

Cook the hog plums in a cooker for 2 whistles
Cool and press out the flesh of the plums
Grind together coconut, chilipowder, and gul
At the end add the roasted mustard seeds and give just one swirl for the mustard seeds to get crushed , but they should not mix completely with the coconut they should remain a bit grainy.
Add the above mix to the ambade and mix with your hands.
You get a thick consistency; if you feel it’s too dry add some water.
Your hog plum chutney is ready.

LUNCH ON RAKSHABANDHAN DAY....

THIS WAS WHAT LUNCH I HAD ON RAKSHA BANDHAN DAY..
ITS LATE NOW AND I WILL BE WRITING ABOUT THE MENU AND ALL ABOUT MY RAKSHA BANDHAN DAY...

RAKSHABANDHAN DAY....

RAKSHA BANDHAN it’s a special day for brothers and sisters. On this day sisters tie rakhi on their brothers wrist to cement their bond of love, and brothers in turn vow to protect and cherish their sisters for the rest of their life.


I had posted about my Raksha bandhan day last year in my post you can read about it here.

THE PUJA THALI RAKHI

GANAPATI RAKHI

This year RAKSHABANDHAN was on 28th August and my brother was working on Rakshabandhan day as usual. So, he came a day earlier, stayed overnight so that I could tie him a Rakhi before he left for office on the RAKSHA BANDHAN DAY. This is also what he did last year (Blogging helps you keep so many memories alive for ever).
I don’t like big Rakhi’s ,as I feel delicate ones look good on my brother’s hand, This time I wanted to get something different i.e. which looked a bit different but had to be nice too as he was going to wear them to office and hence it would be seen by many of his office colleagues. I tie two Rakhi’s one for my sister who is not in India.
You will see that there are two Rakhis, the ganapati Rakhi is mine and the other one is an interesting Rakhi with a puja thali on it. It has a coconut, a ladoo and haldi-kumkum on it.
I liked it as soon as I saw it and that was the first Rakhi I set my eyes on as I entered a Rakhi shop .