Soyabean paneer pulao

Not much time for blogging and bloghopping nowadays. I am having a great time with my family who have come for a holiday here.
I had a few posts in my drafts. So thought of posting them once in a while when I find a little time for blogging for the next few days.
I got a packet of frozen soya bean pods from supermarket. It is quite tasty and healthy to eat them as it is. But I thought to use it in the pulao and tasted good.

Ingredients-
Soyabean pods- 15
Paneer/cottage cheese- 1cup
Rice- 2cups
Cinnamon- 1'
Bayleaves- 1
Cloves- 3
Cardamom- 3
Cumin seeds- 1tsp
Turmeric powder- 1tsp
Salt to taste
Oil-1tsp

Method-
Put the pods in boiling water and remove the beans from them. Wash the rice and drain the water and keep it aside.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker pan. Add cumin seeds, bayleaves,cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Add the cottage cheese and soya beans. Add turmeric powder and salt and mix well. Add required water and pressure cook till the rice cooks well.
Serve hot with raitha or any subji.

There are some awards which I will be writing about in my next post.

Vegetable stew for idiyappam.

I always wanted to have this when I saw them in menu cards in the Indian restaurants. But my hubby used to dismiss the dish saying that I won't like it. So this way I had never tasted until my last trip to chennai when my sister in law ordered it for a breakfast. And I simply loved it. Since then I always wanted to try this combination at home. But I never managed to buy the press for idiyappam. But finally , I found a instant idiyappam packet at the Indian stores and bought it immediately.
So I made this combination for a sunday brunch. We all loved it. It was delicious and quite filling too.
The idiyappam had to be kept in a bowl containing boiling water(salt added) and closed with a lid for few minutes. The water has to be drained. And the idiyappam is ready.

For the vegetable stew-

Ingredients-
Mixed Vegetables - chopped in cubes- (potatoes,carrots,cauliflower,peas and french beans.)
coriander seeds- 1tbspn
Jeera- 1tsp
Cinnamon stick- 1inch
Bay leaves- 1
Cloves-2
Til-1tsp
poppy seeds-1tsp
Dried red chillies-4
Coconut milk- 100ml
Oil- 1tsp

Method-
Cook the vegetables in boiling water adding salt and turmeric powder, till it become soft. Meanwhile, add oil in a pan. Add jeera, red chillies,coriander seeds, spices. Fry till it turns to a slight brown colour. Grind it to a smooth powder. Add this mixture/ masala to the cooked vegetables and mix well. Cook for another 5 minutes. Then add the coconut milk and keep for another 2 minutes. Don't cook for a long time after adding coconut milk.

Dates cake - one of the best!!!

I think I was the only person left out in the blogging world to try out this cake. And now I know why it is so popular. It is certainly one of the best cakes I have tasted. It is so easy to make made almost with scratch, yet healthy. It involves just a little oil and that too can be avoided as Shilpa of Aayis recipe who was the first to make this one says.And the other thing is , the recipe requires only baking soda and is eggless. First I was a bit apprehensive, whether the cake will rise properly. Anyway , I decided to go ahead with the same recipe. And yes indeed, the cake rose so well and was very spongy and moist. I was amazed and yes, I am going to make the cake again. A winner recipe...Thanks to shilpa. I made it for snacks party and was a instant hit.

Ingredients-

Dates- 25

Milk- 1 cup

Sugar-1cup

Plain flour- 1 and 1/2cup

Oil- 1/2cup

Baking soda- 1tsp

Cashews- 4 broken into pieces.

Method-

Soak the dates in warm milk overnight. Remove the seeds. Add sugar and grind them into a smooth paste. Add the oil and mix well. Sieve flour and baking soda. Add the flour , 1tbspn at a time and keep mixing. Add the nuts and mix. Bake this in a preheated oven at 180c for 35 minutes. A very " Happy and Prosperous Deepavali" to all blogger friends and the readers of Creative Saga.

Dahi vada - lentil dumplings in yogurt.

I made this snack for some guests few weeks ago and it was a huge success. Its so very easy to make and less time consuming too. So it can be easily prepared for a dinner party as a side dish when you have a large number of guests . This snack is especially divine during the hot summers.I referred for the recipe here.
One can even make the vadas/dumplings and store it in refrigerator for a week. Just before use, they have to be immersed in hot water and then added to the yogurt. I used a combination of udid dal and mung dal. But it can be made using just udid dal. But addition of mung dal reduces the absorption of oil, as told by one of my friends. But I am not too sure whether that is the reason. If someone knows , you can share it with us.

Ingredients-
Udid dal/black gram - 1 cup
Mung dal- 1 cup
Salt to taste
Green chillies- 2
Asafoetida- a pinch
Oil for deep frying
Yogurt- 4 cups

Spices to add before you serve -(measurement just enough to sprinkle on the vadas)
Salt
Red chilly powder
Chaat masala
roasted cumin seed powder
Tamarind chutney

Method-
Soak both the dals overnight. Next day, add green chillies and grind them to a smooth paste. Then whip the batter with a spoon for sometime. To check whether you can start with the frying, just drop a spoon of batter in a cup of water. If its is intact, you are ready for the next step. Otherwise, whip for sometime. Add little salt and asafoetida. Heat oil in a pan. Drop a spoonful of batter in the oil and fry till golden brown. Repeat the process with rest of the batter.
Take the yogurt in a large vessel and whip till it is a uniform.
Immerse the vada in water for sometime and then squueze and put them in the yogurt.
While serving, keep around 4 to 5 vadas on the serving plate. Sprinkle salt ,red chilly , cumin powder and chaat masala. Add a little tamarind chutney on the top for better taste.

Some info on commercially available yogurt for those who are not aware. I found this information in Diana shaw's "The essential vegeterain cookbook, so thought of sharing with you all.

Yogurt is a type of milk which is infused with a culture of two types of bacteria,heated , then left in an incubator to curdle. When the non fat milk is used, the manufacturer may add non fat milk solids to thicken the final product, which also increases the calcium and protein content of the yogurt.

Another thing is in case you are lactose intolerant, you can still eat the yogurt because the bacteria that curdles the milk create lactase, the enzyme that help in digestion of milk solids.

Also the bacteria in yogurts labelled "with active culture"helps maintain a healthful balance of good bacteria in your intestines, which is good for your digestion overall. Check the yogurt cartons as per your requirement.

I am sending this to easycraft's Wyf party food event.

Rasgulla

Wow, I made them at last. First time, I saw in Dhivya's blog and was amazed. Could they be really made at home? It sounded so easy ,and I thought it involved some difficult process. Then I saw many bloggers attempt rasgulla,rasmalais and chamchams. I wanted to do them from a very long time. And finally I made them for a dessert one weekend. Everyone liked it . Though it wasn't the best rasgullas I had eaten, but it was really good than I had expected. I referred this before I made them. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients-
Milk- 1litre
Vinegar -1tbspn
Sugar- 1cup
Cardamom powder- 1tsp
saffron strands- few

Method-
Boil the milk. Add the vinegar. The milk starts curdling. Collect this chenna(curdled portion) in a strainer and wash it well. Tie it in a cheesecloth and keep it for a few hours till no water remains. Knead the chenna into a smooth dough. Now break it and shape them into small balls.
Add sugar in 3 cups water in a big vessel(as the chenna balls double in size) and boil for 10 to 15 minutes. Add cardamom powder and saffron strands. Put the balls in it. I pressured cooked for 7 minutes and then reduced the flame and cooked for another 10 minutes. Chill them and serve.

Notes- 1. You can also add rose water.
2. Instead of pressure cooking, you can just cook them for a longer time around 25 minutes till they increase in size, become spongy and lighter and float on the sugar syrup.
3. The chenna dough balls doubles in size, so use a appropriate vessel for cooking.
4. The clear watery portion called whey left after the milk curdles can be stored and used next time you make chenna or paneer. You can use this instead of vinegar or lime to curdle the milk.

These rasgullas are on their way to-
Priti's festive food- Diwali
Srivalli's JFI-Festival treats.
Pallavi's yummy festival feast
Mythreyee's sweet series- sweets with spongy texture

Arundhati and priti have passed me the butterfly award which says "the coolest blog I know". Thanks a lot. See picture in the "awards" link above.

My 100th post with strawberry muffins!!!

I just can't believe it that I have reached my 1ooth post. It all began when I got a new microwave last year. I used to browse the net for some easy microwave recipes. After going through some blogs and trying out some recipes from them, I gradually developed interest in experimenting new dishes and learning new cusines.My hubby who has always been my greatest critic tried his best to give his suggestions and ideas on my cooking and how to improve on it. Then one fine day, I decided to blog about my cooking. Lakshmi gave me lot of ideas and tips about it. And then later , I had people visiting my blog regularly giving their sweetest comments and suggestions. I felt so happy when I saw bloggers try out my dishes. Now blogging has become an important activity along with the other chores. And my family has always supported me in their own way by giving me tips and ideas on blogging, new recipes, how to click pictures. Not only that, I have also got so many new friends because of blogging. I want to thank each and everyone for visiting my blog and leaving your kind comments and hope to get your love and support always.
I made this healthy strawberry cake recently and thought it apt for my 100th post. Here's the recipe for it.
Ingredients-
All purpose flour- 1 cup
Wheat flour- 1 cup
Brown sugar- 1 cup
Baking powder- 1tsp
baking soda- 1/2tsp
Non fat buttermilk- 1 cup
Strawberries- 10
Egg- 3

Method-
Chop the strawberries and mix it with buttermilk and blend it to a paste.
Beat the eggs. Add sugar and mix well. Then add the strawberry mixture.
Mix the flours with baking powder and soda. Add this flour mixture to the above strawberry egg mixture. Add slowly stirring in between.
Preheat oven to 180c. Add the batter in muffin cup placed in muffin pan. I also added the remaining batter in a cake tin. Bake at 180c. Bake muffins for 20 minutes or the knife comes out clean. Cake might take a little longer time, 30 minutes or so till the knife comes out clean.
Keep visiting creative saga for delicious recipes.

Oats halwa

So today, I am posting the recipe for oats halwa and with this, I have posted all the navratri prasadams. I had also made kesari which you must have seen in the collage. You can refer the recipe of fruit kesari which I had posted few days ago.
I had been seeing this oats halwa in many of the blogs and always thought of making it. It was in my mind for sometime. And so I prepared this for navratri. I really enjoyed navratri this time. I celeberated all the nine days by making this wonderful prasadams and following the tradition of inviting and visiting friends for haldi kum kum/tamboolam..

Ingredients-
Rolled oats- 1cup
Sugar- 1/2 cup
Milk- 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1tbspn

Method-
Grind the oats to a coarse powder. Heat ghee in a pan. Add the oats and saute till it becomes a light brown in colour. Add sugar and milk, water if required till everything mixes to a thick mass. Roast cashews in ghee. Mix it into the halwa.

Broken wheat halwa.

This was another prasadam I made for navratri. I usually make kheer or payasam with broken wheat. But this time , I decided to make halwa/sheera with it. And it was another hit during navaratri. It tasted great, easy to make and is prepared in no time. My son loved it too.

Ingredients-
Broken wheat- 1cup
Milk- 1cup
Sugar- 1cup
Ghee- 1tbsp
Cashews- 4

Method-
Wash the wheat and add milk and a little water if required. Pressure cook for few minutes. Heat ghee in a pan. Roast the cashews. Add the cooked wheat and sugar and keep stirring till it becomes a thick mass.
Serve hot.
Mahimaa's kitchen has passed the "Arte Y Pico award" to creative saga. Thanks a lot.It means a lot to me. See picture here.

Kadala parappu payasam

This is another favourite at my home ,recently made it as a prasad/offering for navratri. I love this payasam as this is bit different from the other payasam varieties. The taste is quite delicious and is different as we use jaggery and coconut mik. So here's the recipe.

Ingredients-
Chana dal/kadala parappu - 1/2 cup
Jaggery- 1cup
Coconut milk- 1cup
cashews roasted in ghee for garnishing.

Method-
Cook the chana dal in pressure cooker till it becomes soft, but take care it does not get mashed.
Heat half cup of water. Add jaggery. Cook till it dissolves.Then add the cooked channa dal and keep stirring till it mixes well. Then add the coconut milk. And stir for another 3-4 minutes. Do not let it boil. Garnish with roasted cashews.Chill and serve.

Semiya payasam

I have been quite irregular in blogging and bloghopping for the last few days. First , busy with navratri and then some other commitments kept me quite engaged till yesterday. Now I feel so relieved and hope to spend more time in blogging.

So,today I am posting the recipe for semiya payasam, another prasad/offering which I made during navratri. Semiya payasam is an all time favourite at my place and make this quite frequently. I made it for some friends who visited during navratri and it was simply delicious.

Ingredients-

Bambino vermicilli- 1cup

Milk- 1litre

Sugar- 1cup

Dried fruits/nuts - Cashews and almond- 1tbspn

Ghee- 1tsp

Method-

Heat ghee in a pan. Add semiya and roast till they start to turn a little brown. Boil the milk. Add sugar and roasted semiya. Keep stirring till it becomes a little thick. Roast the nuts in little ghee and add it to the payasam.

You can serve it hot. You can also chill and serve.I love it that way.

Uma and Sireesha have passed me an Butterfly award which says "coolest blog I know". Thanks a lot.

The rules of the award -

The rules of the award are:
Put the logo on your blog.
Add a link to the person who awarded you.
Nominate 10 other blogs.
Add links to those blogs on yours, and leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I would like to nominate the following blogs-

Priyanka, Priti,Lg, Vanisri,Shreya,Usha,Sukanya,Divya kudua,Jayasree,Jayashree.

Chundal/sundal recipes for navaratri.

As you must have seen in my last post about navratri, I said I will be posting the recipes for them. So today , I will posting the recipe for chundal.
Chundal is a popular prasadam/offering for navratri in the south. Any kind of pulses can be used. The basic recipe is the same. You can make with chick peas, bengal gram, green gram, groundnuts. This time during navaratri , I made with chana dal, Black chick peas, kabuli chana and green peas.

Ingredients-
Any pulses/lentils- 1 cup
Grated coconut- 1/2cup
Coriander - finely chopped

Seasoning-
Mustard- 1tsp
udid dal-1tsp
channa dal- 1tsp
Red chillies- 4 to 5
Gingelly oil- 2tsp
Salt to taste

Method-
Soak the pulses in hot water for 4 to 5 hours. Then cook them in pressure cooker till it becomes soft.Take care it does not get mashed.
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard, udid dal , channa dal and red chillies. Then add the cooked pulses and salt and mix well. Add grated coconut.Mix well.Garnish with coriander.

For channa dal /kadala parappu chundal, I did not add grated coconut. I just squeezed in some lemon juice for a different taste. Will be posting Semiya payasam in my next post. Keep visiting.

Navratri prasadams.

"Happy Vijaydashmi to all blogger friends and the readers of Creative saga." Navratri, a very popular hindu festival, is celebrated for nine nights, the 10th day being Vijaydashmi or dusshera. Therefore its a ten day festival. All the states have their own way of celebrating this festival of "Shakti" in her nine forms. You can read it in detail here.

In Gujarat, the dandia (form of dance)is very popular during this festival. In the north of India, the ladies worship young girls(kanya, considered as devi). On the 8th or 9th day of navratri, the girls are invited and they are given prasads(offering) of puri and chole along with some goodies. Bengal celebrate this festival in a very grand manner as "Durga pooja".

Down south, "bomma golu" or doll house is the main attraction of the festival. Ladies are invited home and are given tamboolam or Haldi kumkum(manjal kumkumam). Chundal or sundal is the main offering during navratri. It is made with different pulses. Or any form of offering is made everyday for 9 days.
So here is a list and a collage photo of the prasadams I made during the last nine days.

Click on the name for detailed recipe..

1.Black chick pea chundal.

2.Broken wheat halwa.

3.Chickpeas/kabuli chana chundal.

4.Chana dal/bengal gram chundal

5.Oats halwa.

6.Semiya payasam.

7.Rava kesari.

8. Green peas chundal.

9. Kadalai parappu /chana dal payasam

I will be posting the detailed recipe in next posts. Keep visiting!I am sending this to LG of Taste of mysore 's festive food event- Navratri" .

Updated on 4 sep 2009

Other Prasadam ideas-

1. Rava Payasam

2. Sweet potato payasam

3. Chakkarai pongal

Check out more on the menu list on the sidebar - Indian sweet and desserts!!!

Pulikachal and puliyodharai

Puliyodharai is often made as prasadam/offering to god in most of the temples in Tamilnadu. I remember having hot puliyodharai after some pooja in a temple in my village. It tasted just superb in the cold midnight.
I have always loved puliyodharai but never tried making on my own as I thought it was a long process. I always used the readymade MTR puliyogarai packets or the grand sweets pulikachal mix.
But recently, I tried making it and found the process so easy that now this is a regular thing in my home. I made this on fourth day of navrathri along with sundal (will be posting later) when I had some guests at home. It tasted great. So this is how I made.

Ingredients-
Tamarind- lemon size soaked in warm water for 10 minutes and then squeezed to remove the juice.
Red chillies- 10
Groundnut- 2tbspn
Chana dal/bengal gram- 1tbspn
Jaggery- 1/2tbspn
Curry leaves- few
Mustard- 1tsp
turmeric powder- 1tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Salt- 2-3 tsp
Sesame oil- 2tsp

To grind- Coriander seeds- 1tbsp
Pepper- 1/2tsp
Channa dal- 1tsp
Red chillies- 6 to 7
Roast all the ingredients and grind them to a fine powder.

Rice - 2 cups
Sesame oil- 1tbsp

Method- Heat oil in a pan. Fry mustard seeds, groundnuts,channa dal,chillies ,asafoetida and curry leaves.Pour tamarind water carefully. Add the turmeric powder and jaggery. Cook in low flame for 15 minutes. Add the ground powder. Mix and allow to cook for few minutes. Stir till it forms a thick paste.
You can store it for even a week or two.

For Puliyodharai-
Cook rice in a pressure cooker. The grains should be seperate. Heat sesame oil. Fry the pulikachal for few minutes (if required). Mix with rice.
Serve with curd and appalams/papad. I love this combo.

Vanilla Apple cake-SSB challenge

When I saw that this month's challenge in sweet and simple bakes was a cake too, I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping it would be something different,other than cakes. Then I noticed that , I had all the ingredients and thought of baking it anyway. And I was glad that I did. I enjoyed placing the apple slices on the cake batter and sprinkling with lots of cinnamon and brown sugar. It was fun baking this one and was slightly different than the other cakes I had baked. And the taste was awesome. We loved the taste of cinnamon on it and biting into the softened apple pieces was simply superb.
Thanks Rosie and Maria for a beautiful recipe this time too!!!An absolute winner!!! I did not make major changes to the original recipe. I just used brown sugar in place of demerara sugar.

Events Round up

Click to see the round up

1. SWC- Cooking with greens part I
2. SWC- Cooking with greens part II