Happy New Year!!

Wishing all of you a very Happy New Year 2011!!! May this year bring you all lot of happiness, peace and joy.  Do post your Resolutions for this New Year :-)

Christmas Season!!!! Kuswar!! Kuswar!! and Kuswar!!

Christmas is here!! I am back again with something for Christmas!!

For us Mangalorean's Christmas reminds of KUSWAR!! I am just done with a little bit of Kuswar and thought of sharing the pics and recipes... Will be enclosing the recipe links at the bottom.

Here are the Gulios or Rice Marbles.. and you need strong teeth to bite those :-)

Recipe Link:
http://monitaferns.blogspot.com/2010/12/gulio-or-rice-marbles.html

Gulios/ Rice Marbles

Then comes the Tukdi's which is also known as Shankerpalli.. Thanks to my aunt who gave me tips to make it crispier and yummy.. It came out real good..

Here is the link to the recipe
http://monitaferns.blogspot.com/2010/12/tukdi-shankerpalli-recipe.html

Tukdi

There are very few Kidyo or Kulkulls that came for the photo session, LOL, so you can find only few shy Kulkuls in the plate..

Kulkul / Kidyo

Gulio or Rice Marbles

Ingredients


Idli Rice - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Method


1. Soak the rice in water for 2 hours
2. Grind it dry with very little or no water
3. Add jaggery, cardamom powder and salt as per taste
4. Make small balls or marbles out of this batter
5. Heat oil and fry on high flame until it turns brown

Tukdi / Shankerpalli Recipe

Ingredients

All purpose Flour - 2 cups
Rava or Semolina - 2 tbsp
Jeera / Cumin seeds -  2 tsp
Oma - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Water as required
Oil for frying

Method
1. Dry roast Jeera and Oma until slightly brown
2. Mix the flour (maida), Rava and roasted ingredients
3. Add salt to taste and knead the dough well adding water as required
(Let the dough be thick enough to roll chapathis)
4. Make medium sized balls out of the dough and roll it into chapathis
5. Cut the chapathi into shankarpalli shapes
6. Heat oil and fry the tukdi's on medium flame until slightly brown.
7. Put in a air tight container and enjoy whenever you want.

My Crochet Projects

Few of the Crochet Projects that I have been making... Thanks to Teresa Richardson for all the help!!

1. Baby Beanie Cap
    Materials Used
    Baby Soft Yarn
    5.0mm Crochet Hook

2. Small Handbag/Pouch

    Materials Used

    Chunky Yarn

    4.0mm Crochet Hook

3. Square Mat

4. Cap with Brim

    Materials Used

    4 ply Yarn

    5.0mm Crochet Hook

5. Hand Bag

    Materials Used

    Chunky Yarn

    4.25mm Crochet Hook

Dosa, Dosa and DOSAS!!!

Here are the different variations of Dosas that I made.. :)

Masala Dosa on the way...

Masala Dosa Done!!

Huge Cone Dosa

Rava Dosa getting ready

Rava Dosa

For all those who love FOOD!!

Here are some of the yummy food pics.. Enjoy!!

DH loves to eat on banana leaf, doesn't miss a chance whenever he finds it in the Indian Supermarkets here 

Monthi Fest (Harvest Festival)

Egg Roast with Rice!

Yummy Appam with Chicken Jirem Mirim (Mangalorean)

Now we move on from Indian food to some Chinese....

DH made these Chinese noodles...hmmm ..yummy..

Getting ready with the ingredients..

Chopped Veggies..

 Noodles cooked n drained..

Here we go....

And the Chinese Stir Fry Noodles are ready....!!

Dessert of the Day - Halwa

Ingredients

Semolina or Rava – 100 gm

Jaggery powdered

50 gm mixed nuts

Few almonds

Cardamom powder

2 tbsp desi ghee

Milk

Water

Soak Rava in water for 20 minutes. Boil water and add jaggery powder, allow it to melt.  Fry the rava in ghee until it becomes brown.  Now add milk and boil until most of the liquid evaporates.  Add the jaggery water, cardamom powder, sliced nuts and continue stirring till it reaches the desired consistency.  Garnish with chopped almonds. Dessert of the day is ready.

Japanese Fish Tempura

Ingredients

Fresh Fish Fillet – 500gm

Tempura Mix – ½ cup

All purpose flour (Maida) – as required

Oil for frying

Wash the fish and dry it with a kitchen tissue.  Keep aside.  Prepare the thick tempura batter by mixing little water for the tempura mix.  Heat oil for frying. Roll the fish fillets in the maida and dip in the tempura batter. Put the fish fillets into the skewer and deep fry on medium heat until done. Your yummy Japanese Fish Tempura is ready.

Note: You can also use Prawns  or different Vegetables instead of fish.

25/10/2010 [WEEKEND- Cooking and Outing]

Finally, after a long time, I have decided to start blogging. Thanks to the encouragement from my friends! Will be sharing some of my crochet works, some thoughts, cooking experiments and photos J.

Just coming back from a lovely fun filled weekend of 2 days.  DH made lovely Malabar Paratha, an experiment which worked well.  Thanks to "Master Chef-India", which inspired DH to get into the kitchen after a quite long break :P.  It was fun trying these parathas, which are done on the marble by beating, rolling, folding… Sorry, I don’t have the preparation pics, may be will try it again soon and post the pics here. I have got the end product pic J. 

After the paratha DH and I continued with the Japanese Fish Tempura, which turned out yummy.. just like the “London Fish n Chips”.  I have posted the recipes under the Recipes category.

Finally coming to the dessert, Gud ka halwa, a simple halwa which can be made anytime to tickle your taste buds. 

After all the experiments in the kitchen, DH took me on a looooooooonggg drive.. Winter is just dawning in this part of the world, wonderful weather to go for a long drive, enjoying the cool breeze, instead of the Air conditioning.  Shopped some interiors for our home, DH’s favourite stuff for a beautiful house.