KHICHDI.....

For many, KHICHDI is comfort food. I wont say its comfort food for me ,for me its quick food something that I make when I am busy, just come home from a hectic shopping trip, or when I just don’t feel like cooking my everyday elaborate food of rice,dal,vegetable,salad and chapatti.

I learnt the art of making Khichdi from my mother who loves this food item and is always on her list of “to be made things” when she is alone with no one else to eat at home. She loves to have it with a dollop of ghee and a cup full of curd, but I have my Khichdi with papad.

Easy to put together and digest as well, it is also a commonly fed food to very young kids, so as to incorporate rice and dal at one go. Usually kids are given plain Khichdi sans the spices and chili.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Rice
½ cup moong dal (yellow)
Here you can vary the proportion of moong dal; some prefer to have more moong dal too.
I added vegetable to increase the nutritional value, which may not be always added.
I added one carrot grated and a few French beans..
1tbsp cumin-coriander powder.
1 tsp turmeric powder.
1 tsp sugar
1tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste
Finely chopped coriander and grated coconut for garnish

Tempering.

Oil
Mustard seeds,
Cumin seeds,
1 tsp asafetida
2 green chilies chopped
Curry leaves.

METHOD

Wash and keep the rice and moong dal mixture separately
In a kadai take oil and add the ingredients for tempering one at a time
Then add the vegetables and stir fry.
Add the rest of the ingredients and the rice and moong dal mixture
Add 31/2 cups water, water should be more than double the quantity of rice and moong dal together.
The final consistence should not be dry but a bit sticky.
Cook on medium flame for about 20 mins keeping an eye to see that it does not stick to the bottom.
Serve hot with ghee, papad or curds.

HAPPY EATING!!!!!!!!!

MY KITCHEN CUPBOARD....

A LITTLE PEEK INTO MY KITCHEN CABINET WHERE I STOCK MY STEEL DABBAS


I LOVE TO COLLECT DABBAS OF ALL SHAPES AND SIZES (and not all are used )

but whenever i see a dabba of a unusual shape i buy it and love to see all of them stalked in a neat pile.
If you notice you will see that except the 2 big ones on the lower shelf there is not a single dabba that is similar to the other, as i buy only one at a time (the larger ones where gifted by my mom to me)
These are not all that i have there are many more which are not shown in the picture.

Thanks for sharing a little bit of my life by reading this post....

DIWALI GOAN ISTYLE....

We stay in Mumbai but celebrate Diwali in a very traditional way as it is celebrated in Goa,
The first day of Diwali is very important for a goan , The lady of the house gets up early and after a bath prepares 5 different poha dishes each tasting different from the other.
An usal and ambada sasav is also prepared to accompany the poha.



BATATA POHA

DUDHATALE (MILK POHA)

BUTTERMILK OR CURD POHA

WHITE VATANA USAL

AMBADYACHE SASAV


POHA ARRANGED ON OUR DINING TABLE

ROSATLE POHA OR COCONUT MILK POHA

KALAYLLE POHA (POHA MIXED BY HAND NOT COOKED WITH JAGGERY ,GRATED COCONUT AND GREEN CHILLIES)

poha are prepared by my mother in law , she loves to prepare all these herself and that too as early as possible , it gives her great pleasure to serve them well before all the other members of the family and up and ready for the diwali celebration and the ' OVALANI'

SABUDANA WADA....

HI!!!! FRIENDS , I AM BACK .... I AM STILL QUITE BUSY , BUT WILL TRY TO PUT IN A RECIPE OR TWO AS AND WHEN I GET TIME... DID YOU MISS ME??? WILL BE GREAT TO HEAR FROM YOU ALL WHO REGULARLY READ MY BLOG

SABUDANA WADA, I am sure all Maharashtrian must be making this sometime time or the other especially during fasting days.

It’s my son’s favorite and usually a breakfast or snack item on his birthday.

INGREDIENTS

2 potatoes boiled and mashed
1 cup sago or sabudana soaked in just enough water to soak it.
¼ cup roasted and coarsely ground peanut powder
2 green chilies finely chopped
Finely chopped coriander
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp roasted and coarsely ground jeera or cumin powder (you can add whole jeera)
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

METHOD

Very easy to prepare!!!!!
Take a bowl and mix all the ingredients together.
Shape into round balls as shown in the picture.
Or you can flatten them
deep fry in hot oil.
Eat with green chutney or tomato ketchup.

HI FRIENDS....

It's been long since I have posted something new...
I have been very busy being a support and help to my son who is studying for his exams.
I have lots to write and lots to blog about and will be doing it in a few days time...
I would love to hear from all my friends who do come and visit my blogs and find that I am not writing something new..
Please leave a line; it makes me feel good....
I have clicked a lot of pictures and let me give you a sneak preview of things to come…. Hehe…

PROMFRET HUGHE....

My hubs says " THIS PHOTOGRAPH LOOKS LIKE A CROCODILE , SWIMMING IN MARSHY WATERS"
This comment .... for a dish which i so lovingly prepared for him and only him.."sniff--sniff"
But then thats okkkk.... as the finished product was fabulous , so the taste is what counts right...
He was full of appreciation too..." yeyyy "and ate two chapatis extra ...


So this is as we call it "papaletche hughe paplet meaning promfret"

papletche hughe is actually a promfret dry dish or sukhe which i make a little watery than required as my hubs likes to have it with chapatis or rotis...

INGREDIENTS

11/2 cup fresh grated coconut
1 cm ginger finely shredded
1 medium onion finely shredded.
1 tsp haldi powder
11/2 tsp chili powder
Marble size tamarind
Pieces of promfret (that’s the only fish done in this manner)
Salt to taste
Coconut oil
Coriander finely chopped for garnish.

METHOD

Take a pan and use a little coconut oil fry the finely chopped onion and finely chopped ginger (only half of the full amount), don’t make them brown
They should just turn colour and become translucent.
Grind together coconut, haldi, chilli, tamarind. And half of the ginger.
Don’t make the above paste too watery it should be thick as shown in the picture.
Pour the ground mixture into the translucent onions.
Let it boil, then gently slide the fish pieces into the mixture and let them cook
Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.
HUGHE IS READY TO EAT….

FRENCH TOAST....

My son and hubs wanted to have something eggy yesterday morning and they asked me to make a scrumptious French toast with a forewarning that I should make it just the way it should be made i.e. use all the ingredients in the right proportions.
You all will wonder why is it necessary to give such a warning, let me tell you why
I am a bit conscious about the ingredients that I use i.e. I am not very generous in my use of ingredients which tend to have lots of calories or empty calories , the ingredient in this recipe is the large amount of sugar required . I am not very comfortable making sweet dishes as I am not comfortable using large amount of sugar and also the amount of butter used for frying the fried toasts.

So I did make the French toast exactly the way it should be made- (according to me)
I added a little vanilla essence too.
I am sure each of you has a French toast recipe, and I would love to know how you make it.
I use the ingredients by the taste and add method i.e. 1 cup milk for 3 eggs sugar as per taste, butter for frying.

PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR RECIPES AND THE VARIATIONS IF YOU KNOW OF ANY
I WILL POST THEM IN ADDITION TO MINE.

This is what some of my friends say…………..
I do the same thing too. I rarely add things like butter, ghee, sugars etc in the amounts they are supposed to be added & then I complain that the taste is just not the same!My French toast is pretty much the same as yours; sometimes I add finely sliced onion, green chilies and some cilantro……..tbc

I usually add salt and pepper instead of sugar. Sometimes I add cinnamon powder instead of slat and pepper. Should try u're way. It looks delicious …… LATHA

I too am very stingy with oil/butter in my dishes. Hence most turn out dry... but I still go the less oil way for French toast: I add turmeric powder along with vanilla essence. Basically it gives it a more golden color and reduces the smell of the egg in the toast... Rest remains the same... also add a little salt. This is how my mom makes it… ASHU


I make French toast but my recipe is 2 eggs 2 tbsp milk salt and pepper.4-6 slices bread butter for cooking. Combine together egg, milk salt and pepper and dip bread in. Heat pan and melt a little butter then cook bread till golden then turn and cook second side.
forgot to say, Usually serve with banana, lightly cooked in the pan, and maple syrup but I find that a bit sweet so just use a hint of syrup…..JEAN FROM NEWZEALAND

I make mine with finely chopped onions, salt n pepper n makes it on a non-stick...So cut out on a lot of oil...Your sweet one looks nice...Like the browning! SUGARCRAFT

GANESH CHATURTI DAY THALI....

This is a long pending post...
I had posted about ganesh chaturti day some days back. Writing about the food i had on that day just slipped my mind.
so here are some of the photos that i clicked



KAKDI KOSHAMBIR

MOONGACHY GATHI

PAPAD KOSHAMBIR AND MANGO PICKLE

(THALI OF THE DAY)UKADECHE MODAK

HOT AND SWEET LIME PICKLE........

This is what was inside the bottle...
I MUST SAY THAT WE HAVE BRILLIANT AND BRIGHT BLOGGERS IN OUR BLOGOSPHERE ...
most of you or should i say all of you were right...
In some little way offcourse...

I KNOW ITS EASY TO GUESS , BUT NEVER THE LESS ITS FUN SO THE QUESTION...

GUESS WHAT I HAVE MADE...(IF YOU GIVE THE INGREDIENTS THE BETTER)

My mother in law was in Goa and she had this sweet and hot lime pickle at her sister in laws place i.e my husbands uncle i.e mama's place , she liked it a lot and told me about it, I called

up mami and got the recipe.

Its extremely simple but you have to have patience till you eat it as it tastes good only after a period of 1 month.

chopp 6 or 200 gms lemon into rough pieces as seen in the picture

take care to discard the seeds.

grate 250 gms jaggery

take a pan and heat a little or 2 tsp ghee

add the grated jaggery and add 1-2 tsp chilli powder , and asoefotida to it

stir and let it thicken for some time.

add a little water and then add the chopped lemon.

add a little salt and let it simmer for sometime , stir once or twice

dont let the jaggery mixture stick or get too thick

you can add a tsp of pickle masala to it too , for some variation in taste.

remove and cool.

You will find that it tastes a bit sour because of the taste of the lemon rind has come into the pickle. refrigerate for about a month before you eat it.(These were the instructions that i got, its not yet one month and i havent tasted the aftertaste about which i will definetly let you know)

This is my first experiment at making a hot and sweet lemon pickle so time will tell if i will be repeating the act.

{ a tip -- soak the lemon before cutting into a bowl of hotwater, this makes the sour taste from the rind dissapper and makes the juice give you more juice.--i havent tried this method as yet)

LUNCH ON 11TH OCT.....

This is what i had for lunch today it was a full plate lunch so i thought i would share it with you.
The menu of the day was...
1. Tendli batata bhaji
2. surmai sukhe or dry surmai masala
3.fried fish-promfret
4.promfret fish curry
5.for salad-boiled beet and cucumber
6. rice, chapati
7. buttermilk (not in the picture)

The yummy promfret fish curry (my husbands favorite)

SURMAI SUKHE(sorry the picture is not very clear)

TENDLI BATATA SUKHI BHAJI OR DRY VEGETABLE

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