THALI WITH FISH ...

Hello friends

Today the Thali which I share with you is a fusion and shows how diverse our culture and food habits are

The menu is…

Chole or chickpea curry which is a north Indian dish which is very commonly cooked all over India

Karela or bitter gourd stir fried with a little spicy masala powder

Surmai and prawn fry . Here fish is fried in a typical Gaon way by applying chilli, haldi, garlic paste got together with a little tamarind water.

you have to then shallow fry the fish.

Roti, I had also made Rice and dal which is not in the picture as I serve it when the Rotis are eaten. Like Rice is the second course in the main course..

DAILY THALI .. with clams

Today my lunch Thali which I am sharing with you has a classic meal which I make when I get clams at the fish market. We at home and also in most of our Hindu Goan homes , clams are made in a dry and wet curry form and they are made with one shell called (ek shipi) the other shell is discarded.

As I said earlier I plan my meal in such a way that if I have a spicy curry I will have a very lightly spiced second dish to go along with it.

My meal today has.

Teesryo or clam sukha (dry clams curry)

Simple cabbage vegetable

A cup of sol kadi or coconut milk curry which is not cooked

Roti and rice (not in the picture)

LUNCH THALI

I have been clicking lots of pictures with my mobile and I wish to share them with you .
I do not have a high end mobile so the pictures are not very impressive , but never the less they help me share my daily food , my daily foody activities with you instantly.
I would love it if you comment and tell me what you feel about this and if it helps you with your meal planning  and if you would like to see me post my food thali most of the days of the week.
A feed back is awaited .. I know that there are many out their who read my blog but please comment so I know what you feel about the posts that I do 
I have not been doing a lot of post as I do not get the much awaited feed back , each one of my friends who are regular readers of this blog , Please put it a sentence each time you read and tell me your views , let their be a conversation regarding food, health and other menu plannings.
We bloggers love the interaction and like to know what you feel after the efforts that we put in.
Here is my food thali that I clicked a couple of days back.

This picture is taken on my dining table which is not set up for the picture its natural and taken when I served the meal to my husband.
Here in the next picture you see the addition of the drumstick goan dal which I forgot to add and so had to run in before taking the next picture.
Normally dal is not served in a vati in my house . After finishing the roti and vegetable I serve the rice and pour the dal over it.. Here I put it in a bowl for you all to see.

MENU FOR THE DAY

CAULIFLOWER BATATA RASSA BHAJI (cauliflower, potato ,tomato , onion wet vegetable)
KAKADI-TOMATO SALAD(cucumber-tomato salad)
SURMAI FRY (king fish fry--goan style)
DRUMSTICK DAL WITH COCONUT GRAVY (goan style)
RICE AND CHAPATI OR ROTI.

TODAY IS GANESH ANGARIKA CHATURTI

It is believed that those who observe Shri Ganesha Angarika Chaturthi fast get all their wishes fulfilled. He gets relief from all kind of mental and physical problems.




It is considered to be very auspicious if Chaturthi falls on a Tuesday. A person is blessed if he keeps a fast on this day. Keeping a fast on Angarki Chaturthi gives results which are equivalent to fasting on all Chaturthi during a year. Such a person is able to overcome all kinds of problems. He is blessed by Lord Ganesha throughout his life and lives happily.

People fast on this day..But at my house we eat pure veg meals the whole day meals which do not contain onions , garlic or meat.

So here is what I cooked on this day 




BREAKFAST OF SABUDANA KHICHDI.


FOR LUNCH I MADE

MOONGACHYO GATTI
SALAD
BATATA PHODI
VARAN 
BHAT
CHAPATI 
AND UKADICHE MODAK
photos are not yet uploaded will do so as soon as possible and share them with you..
I will love to know how you celebrate or cook at home on such fasting days.

LUNCH OF THE DAY...

Here I share with you my meal of the day or lunch of the day..

TEESRYACHE TONAK

RED BHOPLA BHAJI

DRUMSTICK DAL OR SANGANCHO ROSS

MUDASHI FRY 

CHAPATI AND RICE(not pictured)

EVERYDAY MEAL...

I love posting what I cook on a day to day basis.. If it was possible I would have posted one daily .
But with our day to day routine its just impossible to click pictures and make a new post everyday, but I will try to post as many thali's or meals that I can and I hope this will help you plan your meals too..
My intention of sharing my daily meals with you is that those who also have to make a whole meal everyday might get inspired or get some tips and ideas as to their meal planning..
I normally plan in such a way that if there is a spicy vegetable on the plate I will make something light i.e non spicy with the rice .. 
We eat rice and rotis every morning and hence I have to have one or two vegetables for my lunch and also something with  the rice ..which is Dal or fish curry.. 
When I make a fish curry , I make very simple vegetables which are only simply tempered with mustard and chillies ..
Here I share with you one such thali or meal on a plate.

                                                         DRUMSTICK CURRY

                                   
                                                FRENCH BEANS AND BABY CORN

MENU...

DRUMSTICK CURRY WITH ROTI
DRY FRENCH BEAN AND BABY CORN VEGETABLE
FRIED MACKEREL
TOMATO SAR WITH RICE (not pictured )

A FISHY THALI

I love to share what I cook for lunch most of the days at home..
Although its not possible to post one everyday, I do click pictures of the daily meal quite often.
I will share with you a meal which has lots of fish and hence fishy..

Here above is one of my favorite non-veg but thali exclusively made of fish.. There are many homes that I know of do not need anything extra other than fish fry or fish curry when they plan their menu..but in our home we need one vegetable to go along with the fried fish or fish curry ..
I normally don't do both on the same day.. i.e when I fry fish I do not make a curry and vice versa ..
But it sometimes happens that I get into a mood of cooking both..
This is what you see on the thali or plate and also some things that you do not see.
1.kalva* and potato tonak
2.radish or mooli leaves vegetable
3.fried king fish and mackeral 
4. chapati or roti
what you do not see or which I haven't taken a picture of is ,what is served once you finish eating the roti.
 Dal and rice or fish curry and rice are served .. sometimes I make to two dishes to go with the rice and the second being coconut milk kadi or sol kadi or curds

* kalva are like small oysters which you get cleaned in water, you have to only removed a rocky hard portion at the tip of the oyster..
will write the recipe in a separate post.

RUSTIC MEAL...

I had this for lunch yesterday .. It was a nice traditional rustic meal .
This type of meal is normally seen in village homes where Bhakri is made instead of roti...
The meal on the plate is...

CAULIFLOWER VEGETABLE
WHITE VATANA USAL OR CURRY
NACHNI BHAKRI 
UKADICHE MODAK (white dumpling made with rice flour and stuffed with a sweet mixture of coconut and jaggery)
This is a festival sweet which is done only on special occasions.

FESTIVE THALI...

This is the meal that was cooked on  Ganesha Janma i.e Birthdate of Lord Ganesha. We are ardent followers of Siddhivinayak and with my parents being here for a couple of days I though of making or cooking a complete vegeterian meal which is  normally made during the first day of Ganesh Chaturti.

Let me share with you what is the normal festive day menu at our home.

This meal comprises of ...

In the center : Mungachyo gathi or whole moong bean curry 

Moong beans which are sprouted for 24 hours and there covering removed..( I dont like to remove the cover as its unnecessary loss of fiber but thats how it is traditionally done and I do so for special occasions but when I do it on normal days I just retain the cover and hence have to soak for about 8 hours and keep for another couple of hours , after being washed and rinsed thoroughly. you can see tiny sprouts come up which is what we are looking for.)

cauliflower vegetable with potato sticks :

This is a simple vegetable made by tempering both cauliflower and potatoes with Mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing, green chillies and curry leaves add salt, pinch of sugar and coriander leaves to garnish. In Goa it is garnished with finely grated coconut too.
Another option to this vegetable is french beans made in a similar fashion.

Grated carrot salad:

Grated carrot with tempering and garnished with coriander and freshly grated coconut.

Patolio :

Special sweet made with a covering of rice flour and stuffed with a mixture of freshly grated coconut, jaggery and cardamom.

Shrikhand :

Sweet made with hung curd to which sugar, saffron and cardamom powder is added.

Aloo wadi

rolls made with colocasia leaves and stuffed with spicy mixture of chickpea flour (this was store bought)

Puri

Deep fried wheat flour rotis..

Rice and yellow lentil dal are not in the picture .. The salad is sometimes made with curds .too.

Typical Daily food...

 

This is very typical plate that you will find whenever there is fish on the menu

On the plate there is

surmai or king fish fry

dal or ambat varan

matki usal

methi bhaji

YUMMY VEGE MEAL......

Here is a vegetarian meal which i love to have on my plate , all the components are right I have tried to have a nice balanced meal here with a leafy vege, a pulse and a green vegetable with the regular rice , chapati or roti and Dal or curds..

                                  
                                   PAPDI DRY BHAJI AND LAL- MATHACHI BHAJI

                                 LAL-MATHACHI BHAJI AND CHAWLI OR BLACK EYES PEA VEGE

                                              PAPDI (FLAT BEANS )WITH SHRIKHAND..

Normally I cook the lal-math or the red leafty vegetable as a dry dish but here you will find that it has a bit of a gravy and that is because I added finely ground coconut .

DAILY MEAL

A very simple vege meal consisting of only vegetables  .. In my thali you will find...

CAULIFLOWER and POTATO VEGETABLE WITH COCONUT GRAVY

DRY TENDLI ( Indian Ivy gourd) BHAJI OR VEGETABLE you can read about this vege here

BOILED BEET

CHAPATI

whats not in the picture....
RICE IS A IMPORTANT PART OF OUR LUNCH WHICH WAS MADE WITH DAL OR ANY OTHER PREPARATION MADE WITH COCONUT GRAVY  BUT AS ITS NORMALLY TAKEN AFTER FINISHING OFF WITH THE CHAPATI  OR ROTI ...you wont find it in many of my pictures

you can see the gravy I made for the rice with raw mango in the last picture called as KAIRICHI UDAD METHI...

                                              DRY TENDLI (Indian Ivy gourd ) VEGETABLE

DAILY MEAL SHARING....

When we blog we normally blog about a new dish prepared or something special that we do in our house....

But its not that everyday we make something special , most of the days its simple home cooked meal sometimes with a little twist and sometimes just a traditional meal which your mom makes or something that you are habituated in making...

Whenever someone invites me for lunch or dinner especially when its only me who is going I insist that they make dishes which are cooked at their home on daily basis and not something special . I feel the special dishes are always elaborate and good for parties and special occasions but the home food is what is healthy, tasty and has lots of simplicity and love in it and as its something that you cook regularly it comes out really really tasty.

I always feel that bloggers should come out and share with all of us the food that goes on their plate everyday and which is without any frills  " A SIMPLE PLATE OF HOME COOKED MEAL " so pure and heartwarming .

I am planning to share my day to day meals whenever possible as I cook three meals a day and they are all home-cooked and from scratch... please don't expect them to be beautifully laid out but they will be the way we eat everyday at home ...

I would love to hear from you if you agree to what I have written in this post and if you all would love to share my daily meal with me if not in person but virtually.

The above meal was made last week when my mother in law was here to spend a couple of days with us, normally when there is someone over for a meal I have more of fish in my plate , like you see on today's thali or plate I have two fish dishes one dry fish curry (its not dried fish but the gravy is less or dry ) or also called as fish sukha where I have used a small silver fish which we call as "verli" and I also have a fish curry made with surmai or king fish which is eaten with rice...

When I share my daily meal I will not write the recipes but will give them to you on demand.. so please ask for them if you want to try it out....

MENU FOR THE DAY.....

cabbage and green peas

verli sukha

surmai fish curry

rice

chapati

FOOD MADE FOR MY SISTER..

I made this on one of the days that my sister was here in India

There is much more that I cooked this was one of the simple menus for the day.. (she was with me for about a week) ..But being busy cooking and serving I did not take enough photos to share with you ..

But one of the days I did manage to take some photos and so here they are....

I love the colours on the dish they are so sunny and so good that you feel like just diving into the plate... or initially just looking at them...

 I made chicken do-pyaza or chicken with lots of onions and gravy which has a little cashew for thickness..

The tandoori chicken that you see in the picture is a restaurant takeaway...

A simple potato bhaji with onions and garlic..and a very very simple dal with the simplest of tempering

Rice(not in the picture ) and chapati...

This is a very quick meal which one can make in half hour .. I had to plan this meal as we had very little time to plan and eat and so I made the simplest things that i could bought something from out and made a yummy full meal in no time ( I love making such meals which combines your effort with a little outside help to create something that is tasty and yummy...}

EGG SUKHA*****

EGG SUKHA..

I am not writing the ingredients and proportions because they are all optional as the taste of this vegetable does not change with a little more of this or that , for those who cook at home its a simple dish which can be done at a moments notice ( the time taken for boiling the eggs is what counts)

 

Slice onion thick as seen in the picture, slice tomatoes also in the same manner , boil eggs in a separate pan , you should have hard boiled eggs.

 

Take a pan add oil, add the sliced onions and stir till they change colour but do not become brown, add finely sliced garlic cloves, stir for some more time add the tomatoes and salt stir and cook covered for sometime till the tomatoes leave a little water or become a bit soft (They don't have to be very soft again it depends on ones taste). Add capsicum (optional) and let them cook for sometime or you can directly add the red chilli powder, haldi powder and dhania-jeera powder add a little garam masala (optional).add curry leaves at this stage to retain the fresh flavour . Then add the eggs and garnish with finely chopped coriander. Dish is ready to be eaten with hot hot rotis or chapatis....

SIMPLE AND EASY THALI.....

Yesterday was in a real dilemma as to what I should prepare for lunch.

It happens many times after a series of routine meals and planning you just don't feel like cooking and still you have to ... My Hubby does not enjoy eating out much and prefers to eat home food... But I love to eat out as its a respite or you can say a little change from daily grind, which can make one feel rejuvenated and ready for the next week.

The problem was my son was busy the whole day and my hubby was not feeling well enough to drive out and go for lunch so I planned this meal and can be made within an hour... you should try it once...

In the above photograph you can see a EGG- SUKHA  made in the keralite style ( I do not know if its a typical keralite preparation but my neighbour who is a keralite makes it in this way and it is liked by my family ,so I made it  using her recipe I feel the difference in the Punjabi and this version is the use of curry leaves  ).

The second dish is moong dal where i have used the combination of whole moong and moong dal to make a filling and nutritious preparation which is tasty for all ages for kids its a very good dal full of proteins and also light on the tummy...

I will be posting the Egg sukha recipe and the dal recipes in my following posts....I do not have a good picture for the dal and so my dear blogger friends you have to wait till the next time I make this dal at home, click pictures and post the recipe so please please bear with me... I know you all are very very considerate....

GANESH CHATURTI IN PUNE....

As I had mentioned I was in Pune for Ganesh Chaturti last week end...

Let me take you through a visual tour of the pictures I took at my cousins home where I celebrated Ganeshchaturti with their family...

 I love the decoration that is done around the Ganapati Murti or Idol.

you can find lots of modak normally a sweet made with milk which is supposed to be a favorite food of Ganapati Bappa but you will see in the pictures that there are many silver modaks on the side which are normally presented by someone in the family for the Lord.

The food served is so yummy that I just love eating a lot on that day , followed by a long nap in the afternoon its so satisfying to feel full and have a nap that day (for no reason at all......)

food served was

varan bhat (dal rice)

chapati or roti

apple and pomegranate salad in yogurt

boiled potato vegetable

whole moong curry (goan style) not seen (its in the katori on the right)

Most important Ukadiche modak..

cucumber , black vatana bhaji

GANAPATI BAPPA MORYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

THALI TIME.....

My thali for the day has the following things......

CHOLE

FRENCH BEANS AND PEAS VEGETABLE

PALAK DAL

CHAPATI OR ROTI

RICE (not in the picture)
I would love all the bloggers who read this blog comment on how they felt the combination was and if they had suggestions regarding what more or less could be made to make the thali complete or whether this is good enough...
I want you to send your suggestions or comments which will be of help to other homemakers too who want to feed their family healthy nutritious meals , when we all come together as a family and help others I feel the family meals will be really something we will be proud of .. and hence I share my meals with you so please comment and tell me what you made for your dinner or lunch today..

FOOD FOR THE DAY...

I spent a lovely weekend at Pune a place which is about 3 hours drive from the place I live (Mumbai).

Its Ganesh chaturti now , its a Hindu festival , for details you can read here.

I have my aunt staying in Pune whose new House I havent visited and so we felt that this was the best time for us  to visit her and also enjoy the festivities of that place.

This food thali was what I cooked the day before I left for Pune, I wanted it to be simple as I did not have much time as lots of things had to be done and things had to be packed.

Mumbai being a big metro city everything that we need to cook a certain type of meal is always available which is not so in Pune. So my aunt had her list of things that she would like to get and so I had a lot of shopping to be done and so...this above meal

white vatana tonak or wet curry vegetable 

varan or toovar dal

chapati, rice , curds etc....

I will make a separate post for the recipes as and when I get the time...

THALI

I have managed to click a lot of my day to day food thalis over the last couple of weeks and I would love to share them with you.

When I read blogs I always like to know more about what people have on their plates for their regular meals , For me regular everyday meals are not something that are rich in taste or something that are good to look at (although both the things are necessary  to make our plate a bit appetizing), But its the love with which a homemaker makes a complete meal for her family taking into account the nutritional value of the food is what is of utmost importance.

I am a homemaker and I cook 3 fresh meals everyday at home, and I know the efforts I put into planning the daily meal so as to balance the nutrition in each meal.So that there are the necessary components in every meal ( I know that its not always possible to have absolutely great and healthy meal when you plan a menu. as things which have a lot of oil are a bit tastier than the ones which are bland) . So I make such a dish probably once a fortnight or sometimes even a month , if I can slyly stretch it that much  shhhhh......

The above thali which you see is made for lunch , I have a wholesome thali for lunch for dinner I plan something that is filling but not in the thali form it can be something like dosa, paratha, or sandwiches. I am planning to share at least 4 thalis of that week with you ( I would not mind clicking pictures everyday but it so happens that many a times something is left for the last minute touch-up and enters my hubby from his work, to eat his hot afternoon meal, which he does not much appreciate waiting for , so in the rush bushhh of getting everything hot on his plate before he lands at the table after his quick wash I forget to get the camera out and click the photos and sometimes it so happens that i do click the photos but they are not appealing enough for you to look at sooo...

But I promise to be more regular BUT BUT... I WANT ALL THOSE READING THE POST TO PROMISE ME ONE THING .... PLEASE DO COMMENT , I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW YOUR REACTION... AND TO KNOW THAT YOU HAVE READ MY POST .. ONLY WHEN I GET PROMISES OF COMMENTING WILL I POST (just joking... but please do comment folks..) 

SORRY!!!!

I did not even mention the items on this thali .

Roasted corn salad (my favorite)

Beetroot pachadi 

Tomato sar

gourd bhaji or vegetable with onions and tomato

rice and chapati.

LOOKING AT THE PHOTOS I SEE THAT THE THALI IS QUITE COLORFUL DO YOU ALL AGREE????