Friday, March 27, 2009

Small break !!

I will be on vacation to India to attend my dearest sis's wedding, so will be taking a short break from blogging....Check out my blog again in May for more recipes.take care till then.....!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Stop Plagiarism!

I was soo shocked to know that some of the pictures from food blogs have been copied and claimed as theirs...one such stolen picture was Mahimaa's. As a fellow blogger, I would like to express my support to Mahimaa and all other bloggers affected by this and also would like to strongly condemn this kind of plagiarism...it takes a lot of time and effort to think of a recipe, cook it, take pictures, and then post it......it is such a shame to take credit for someone else's hard work and time!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Karadayan Nonbu Adai

Karadyan Nombu is observed in the last few hours of the tamil month of maasi before the birth of the month panguni. On this day married women observe fast and pray to Goddess for the long life & prosperity of their husband and young girls pray to be blessed with a good husband. It is believed that it is on this day that Savithri saved her husband Satyavan from Yama. The offering for Goddess on this day is called Nombu adai and there are two kinds of it - one is spicy Upu (meaning salt) adai and the other one is sweet adai made with jaggery called Velam(means jaggery) adai. These two adais are placed on a banana leaf with butter, fruits, beetel leaf and the sacred thread called 'nombu saradu'. After offering this to the Goddess by saying
"Urugatha Venayam oru Adayum naan Tharuven, Oru kaalum en kanavar enai piriyathu irukanum" which means I'm offering you unmelted butter and nombu adai, please bless me with a long married life with my dear husband and we should never part,after saying this the woman would tie the nombu saradu(sacred thread) around her neck.
Moving to the US has not changed my belief and liking for these rituals even a bit..infact I see all the more reason to do it here without fail, to remember our wonderful culture and try to continue the family tradition.
Luckily I got some fresh banana leaves from Food 4 less and I used canned black eye peas which saves some time in soaking and cooking the beans.....So here goes the recipe for Nombu Adai. BTW I usually call my mom to check with her for the recipe until I came across the very clear recipe by Menutoday. I followed her recipe step by step. I'm going to make a note of it here for my future reference.
Nombu Adai (salt)
Ingredients:
Rice flour- 1 cup
water- 1.5 cups
Boiled black eye peas-4-5 tbsp
coconut pieces or shredded- 2 tbsp
salt to taste
For tempering:
Oil- 2 tsp
curry leaves- few
Green chilly- 2or 3
red cilly-2
Hing
mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Urad dhal- 1 tsp
Ginger finely chopped-1 tsp
Method:
Temper the above items in oil and then add the water. when the water boils, add the coconut pieces, salt and black eye peas. Add the rice flour when the water boils nicely and mix without lumps. cover and cook for 2-3 mins. then transfer it to a bowl and let it cool.(cover it with a wet cloth to retain the moisture). After this cools down, knead it nicely and(if need be sprinkle water) and make small ball of it, flatten it, make a hole in the centre and steam it until it gets a nice shiny finish.
Serve with butter.
Nombu Adai(sweet)
Rice flour- 1 cup
Water- 1.75 cups
Jaggery- 1 cup
cardamom powder- a pinch
Boiled Black eye peas- 4-5 tbsp
coconut pieces or shredded- 2 tbsp
ghee-1 tbsp
Method:
Dry roast the rice flour to a slight brown colour
Mix the jaggery and water and let this boil well. Now add the coconut and black eye peas. Then add the roasted rice flour and mix without forming any lumps. cover and cook for 2-3 mins. Then turn off the stove, add the cardamom powder, ghee and mix well. Cover with a wet cloth and keep it. Once cooled, knead it well, take a small ball of it, flatten it, make a hole in the centre
and steam it until it looks shiny.
Serve with butter.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Carrot Halwa

This is a relatively healthier sweet than the others filled with ghee. I just used 2 tbsp of ghee, organic carrots, some milk, sugar and it took me only about 20 mins to make it. So here is the simple recipe for Carrot Halwa.
Ingredients:
Carrot- grated- 2 cups
Milk- 2 cups
Sugar- 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder- 1 tsp
Nuts- cashews/raisins- 2 tbsp
ghee- 2 tbsp
Method:
Heat ghee in a wide skillet or pan and roast the nuts slightly. Keep the nuts aside. In the same ghee, add the grated carrot. Saute it in medium flame till the carrots changes color and get cooked. In the meantime, take 2 cups of milk and boil it nicely. add this milk to the carrot and continue to cook the carrots in the milk. It will take 6-7 mins for all the milk to get absorbed and the carrot becomes thick. At this stage add the sugar. The sugar will ooze out more water now.. so continue to cook until the halwa gets thick and leaves the sides of the pan. Add the cardamom powder,mix well & add the nuts and serve.