Healthy Chapathis, anyone?

How was today. Didn't study half as much as I should have.
My yoga instructor didn't let me do Surya Namaskar and says I can't do any for at least 10 days. Grrrrrrr.
I found a local "Wheat Flour Grinder" who is famous in the area. And my mom gave me a list of pulses/food grains that can be added to make really healthy chapathis - other than the wheat itself of course.
I learnt the English names of all those items:
Jowar: Sorghum/Milo.
Bajra : Millet.
Alasandalu : Black Eyed Peas.
Senegapappu : Bengal Gram Dal.
Raagulu : Finger Millet.
And Soya!
Mix all these into wheat get it grinded/powdered at the mill. And voila , you have amazingly healthy chapathis.

Turns out even stuff like Horlicks has wheat and stuff. I so did not know that.

Here's to learning things you don't know about ! And here's to healthy eating :)

Day 3 - Chocolate Mousse

Day 3 - Mango Cheese Cake

Day 3 - Fruit Cookies

Day 3 - Black Forest Cake

Day 3 - Pineapple Pastry

Day 2 at Baking Class

Khara(for tea time), Chocolate Chip Cookies, Viennese Finger Cookies, Butter Biscuits, Muffins with ChocoChips, Strawberry Muffins and Apple Pie !

Day 1 at Baking Class

White Bread, Broken Wheat Bread, Bread Roll, Egg&Veggie Puffs, BreadSticks and Chocolate Glazed Donuts !

Cooking special !

 

There's Pulao, Puliyogre, VangiBath, Pongal and yummmmmmmmmmmmmy Payasam!

An ode to the flame

Friday, January 2, 2009

It happened !!! It finally did, the cooker stopped after just one whistle and then died on us. Vc walked in to find that the cooking gas cylinder had finally run out.
It lasted 8 months almost. It gave us a scare a couple of times in its 5th month when the flame turned orange and all thought that it was finally time.
It stood by us when lots of people, parents, friends, the gas agency guy too all ridiculed us that it lasted way longer at our home than any other home they knew.
I will miss the first household appliance that Vc got.
Here's to it's memory !!

Myu tata

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Its about time isnt it ! I mean I am cooking every day and this blog doesnt get all the attention that it actually deserves. yeah yeah rub your hands in glee, coming up is my next 'mis'adventure with cooking :)


What I used :
Pillsbury vanilla cake mix.
Oil
Egg

What I did :
followed instructions on the back of the Pillsbury cover ! duh !!!

And for laughs:
Well, I didnt know that microwaveable bowls cant be used for cooking in the microwave!!
After putting in the batter into the bowl, I realised that my microwave doesnt have a temperature setter, ah well, cant do anything after having come so far, now can I?I put it in anyways and set the timer for 25 mins. I settle down comfortably with a novel waiting for the ting ting ting 'Your food is ready!!!'
I am not sure how much later but I get up to get a nibble since I was getting hungry, and I see smoke billowing out of the kitchen. There's no fire, thank God but the source is ,you guessed it, the hero of the story- my darling mirowave!
I turned off the switch and pull open the door, the plastic bowl's half gone, melted onto the glass floor, bursting as it died onto to walls of its confines changing the palette of heaven to that of hell.The cake was still there, it dint vaporise!!! darn!!! but it had turned into stone(the mister checked)

End Result :
The smoke caused far too much of coughing and brought about a mini-breathing issue not to mention burning eyes!
Its been 3 days and there's a faint burnt odour in my kitchen and not just when I open that darned door!
The inside of my brand new microwave oven has turned from white to a dirty brown(not on the outside though, its mishaps are its to hide ;))

Moral of the story: Dont get into cooking extra stuff just coz you got home early from work !!!

Peas Pulao

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

What I used:
Rice(Cooked)
Peas
Onions
Green Chillies
Oil
Salt
Cardamom
Cloves
Ginger-Garlic paste
Sugar

What I did:
Started with the rice cooker, got to have the rice ready before we start.

Chop up the onions and green chillies.Heat some oil in the kadai(and definitely do no add ginger-garlic paste now!!!) Add the cardamom and cloves, followed by onions and chillies. And now the ginger garlic paste. Wait till all looks fairly cooked and add the pretty peas :D. Give them some time (and don't let them get squishy!) and add the rice, some salt and a dash of sugar. Mix it all up properly and tadaaaaaaa......

and for laughs:
I got to move Vc away from the tv and come running into the kitchen ! All I had to do was heat the oil in the pan and add the ginger-garlic paste directly. It spewed it all out like there was no tomorrow, I had stand at the far end of the kitchen and watch all the oil spurt out all over the clean ledge and all the utensils kept around. We couldn't even reach the stove to turn it off, the brave knight tried to by shielding himself with a towel, but just as he reached out to turn the stove knob, a nice drop of boiling oil landed right on his wrist and he hopped back into the safe zone ! I ended up with a half burnt pan and it took me 15 mins to clean up the oil splattered all over the walls and the floor , not just the ledge ! and I did have an oil coated cucumber to contend with ;)
and of course,Vc says "Tv isnt as interesting as the kitchen ;) "
Made my day !!! uahahhahhahahaaaa ....

End Result:
Not happy with the result :(

Good 'ol Indian Pizzzzzzzza ...

Saturday, March 8, 2008

What I used:
Mozarella cheese
Pizza base
Veggies:-
Beans
Carrots
Cabbage
Capsicum(I know, Its not there in the snap)
Onions
Green Chillies
Tomato sauce
Garam Masala
Oil
Salt
Microwave Oven

What I did:
Chop up the vegetables.Heat some oil in the kadai, chillies go in first, followed by the onions until they are a light brown. The veggies go in next. Add salt as per taste and a sprinkling of garam masala. Toss it around for a while till properly cooked.
Spread tomato sauce on the base, the vegetable fry goes on top of that. And grated cheese right on top, generously please.
Set the microwave oven in convection mode at 190 deg C, pizza on a microwaveable plate for 4 minutes.
and tat-ta-daaaaaa.

and for laughs:
Well me cooks and you don't get a laugh or I don't get scolded, nah, not possible!!
I had put one in the microwave and was getting the second one ready and I smell smoke.I was worried the pizza was burning, but nah it wasn't that.There was smoke coming out of the electrical socket.The poor thing had fused.And yours truly decided to do it the old fashioned way. Put on the dosa tava on low heat and put pizza2 on that.And 5 minutes later the base had fried out, charred black.
I had dad's lecture about not being patient enough to wait till he got another adapter.Mom saying she was trying to make it while waiting (scores a point).HeHeHe

End Result:
All still standing and it was rather good, if I may so.

Desserts galore

Monday, August 11, 2008

Will you believe it ?? I actually made Gulab Jamoons and Coconut burfi last week !
I am so happy I could do a somersault :D not really no, all my 'colleagues' would be scandalised.

Gulab Jamoon was rather simple. Of course it always is when you have a ready mix packet in hand ;)
I used 100gms of the GulabJamoon mix, a dash of water to make it into dough, Sugar and water to make a sugar syrup. It took me just half an hour to make it.

Mix sugar:water at 1:2 ,set it to boil. Mix the dough, it takes verrry little water . Keep aside for 5 minutes.
Make small balls of the dough (the size of marbles is good enough) . I made them the size of the jamoons that are ready to be eaten. I was sort of heartbroken that 100gms of powder yields only 5 Jamoons. I mean, when my mom made them , I could eat 5 each day for a week and they would still be some left for others too ;)
On a medium flame, 'fry' the batter-balls in oil till they get to a honey-ish brown colour.
And then the fun part, dunk the roasted balls into the hot sugar syrup. They semi-sink with a hiss (I did jump back a bit not sure what woould happen, but other than the fizzing , nothing else did) .
I left them in the syrup and by the time I was done cleaning up, I saw them becoming big, soaking in the sugar and looked like they were trying to escape from the vessel. Had to put them into two seperate vessels.
We finally ended up with Gulab Jamoons the size of Ragi mudde uahahahahahahaa .....

The coconut burfi was right out of a recipe on the net. Grate a coconut, fry it slightly.Add elaichi powder to it. Make sugar syrup , make sure its 'tight'/ and put the fried copra into the syrup.
Voila ! Its done!
But how can we leave at peace, what will happen to us adding a touch of individuality to it??
Vc saunters in, adds badam powder (to change the color), he tilts his head left and then right,(he's not too happy about the color). He (hold your breath) peels badam and adds it on top.
I was almost going to wait for it to harden so I could make squares and then cut it(like in the shops duh!) , but turns out the syrup was more than the coconut could handle.
We had the sweet today morning . Sort of had to drink it like a soup ;)
uahahahahahhaaaa

gimme more

I come home last night tired from another monotonous day and surprise myself by whipping up rice, rasam and a curry in less than 40 mins. And while I was washing up to set the table for dinner, Vc goes 'You didn't make chapathis? I thought I saw the belan in your hands.'
Grrrrrrrrrrrr .
P.S. Luckily I didn't have it then, otherwise it would have caused a nice bump on his head.