sunday special

An uneventful Sunday and now its dinner time. Had a batch of shredded lettuce so asked Srinath to cut some "salad" veggies and srinath was proactive this time around and did not ask me for the list. lol. So the chopping board witnessed slaughter of sweet red and yellow peppers ( a costco staple), white onions, tomatoes and of course the leaves. I put in a few black olives. For the dressing, I mixed up a cup of curd, lemon juice, and a tsp of puli inji whipped it up with a few drops of olive oil and a dash of dried herbs (rosemary, oregano, basil). Added salt and molagu jeeram podi and finally coriander leaves. The Salad is waiting !...see you later...before i go ..here is the pic!...enjoy

My HOT favourite - raw mango pickle

i could go on and on about how much i like this dish. My amma could lure me into eating thayir sadam with just a mention of this pickle. My kollu paati in tiruchy makes it with "kili mooku manga" - thothapuri variety...what ever the mango type is..i simply love this pickle...It is instant and doesn't have to be used in minimal quantities...unlike the avakkaya version of the long term mango pickle.

I am not going to give you the recipe but wanted to share the fact that i drool when i see my mom slicing up a raw mango to make this pickle. I get fascinated by the number of ways i incorporate this pickle into my food until the jar my mom stores it in is empty. My hot favourite being eating it with "pazhe sadam" and gingely oil, salt and hing. ...yum...it is a perfect cooler on a hot summer afternoon. Add a spoonful to a cup of curd and lo u have wonderful thayir pacchadi, raita or a dip..what ever you call it...it is going to be wonderful. Drizzle it on top of your favorite salad recipe and lo...you have that tangy yummy dash to your salad. i like to put it on anything and everything i eat...crazy as it may sound..but that's how i love it. The pic is the batch i made with the precious "one" mango i bought at a local Indian store!...

Recipe:
1 Raw green mango
Salt
fenugreek seds - 1/4 tsp
Hing/asafoetida
Turmeric powder
mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
red chilli powder - 1tbsp (or lesser)
oil - for tempering
Process:

• Wash and pat dry the mango and chop it finely (with the skin)
• Add salt, asafoetida, chillipowder and turmeric powder and mix well
• Heat oil and ad mustard seeds and let them crackle.
• Add to the mango mix and let it rest for a while before serving
  

Whole wheat dessert - for my hubby dearest

My health kept me busy for all wrong reasons and I could not get myself to write my musings on saapaadu. It is the first time that I am writing about a recipe on this blog...couldn't keep way from doing it I guess. Cooking is an art form. A mish mash of flavor, a base ingredient and fat make a dish.

I like making whole wheat ladoo for srinath. He wouldn't mind eating sweets. I brought him to reduce the amount of sugar intake in his daily diet. Any case, an occasional indulgence of sugar and fat would not hurt.

This time around i gave a slight spin to the usual wheat ladoo I usually make. I added a few tablespoons of unsweetened chocolate to the recipe. It is a wholesome breakfast if washed down with a glass of plain milk (no sugar or any malted drink for me.)

I basically learnt about this laddo from Sowmya...a very dear friend of mine . More such discoveries confirmed my staunch belief that any starch/carb form with a hint of sugar and fat (butter or ghee) would make a sweet dish... that statement might have made you smile. But it is true. So to speak no food is very complicated. It is all about one basic carb or starch, a flavor ingredient, salt or sugar or a hint of both with some fat (optional in my case) and a final tempering or garnish.

Now to the recipe:

Whole wheat badam laddo with a choco twist"

3 cups whole wheat atta
2 cups sugar (i used white this time ..but use brown generally)
1 tbsp elachi powder
1 cup almonds
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 sticks of butter (roughly one cup and a spoon)
1 tsp dry ginger powder
3 tbsp unsweetened chocolate powder

process:
I cant stand so i used the oven for 16 minutes at 350 F (preheat and the usual bake time 8 + 8) to roast the whole wheat atta and the almonds.

let the atta and almonds cool. Coarse grind the almonds with elaichi powder and ginger powder.
Add sugar, raisins, chocolate powder and the almond mix and fold it into the atta
Melt butter (room temperature) in the microwave (takes three minutes )

and now pour in the melted butter into the atta mix

the final step takes a bit of your effort as you roll the flour into ladoo. Enjoy!