Tamil heroes

Impressive video and I hope the right message reaches all...

That complete south Indian...

What triggered this post is the below song Jagadoddharana by Bombay Jaysahri in Carnatic-fusion form.



Yesterday being Janmashtamai, I took to hearing some krithis on Krsna. A friend on facebook had posted this Jagadodharan by B'bay Jayashri, as I heard her "Madhukara Manikyana.." in the anupallavi - the thought struck me. It is actually "Magugala Manikyana" meaning "gem among children" [Manikyam = Gem, Magu = child in Kannada]. What I do not understand is, when they render such a wonderful composition of Sri Purandara Dasa, wouldn't they take that extra care to not to alter the meaning/essence of the song. On the other hand Madhukara is honey bee in Sanskrit. It is still an excellent rendition by her, if only the pronunciation, meaning were taken care of. I'm still biased - when it comes to devotional songs, it is MS Subbulakshmi or M L Vasantha Kumari or Bala Murali Krishna who bring in the correct pronunciation, there by the meaning, their understanding of the composition helps them in bringing out the correct emotion.

As I had these running through my mind - there was an other parallel track of thoughts - if I should say,

1. I'm Lucky
2. I'm blessed
3. Or just thank my parents
for having given me the opportunity to learn to read/write/speak all the Carnatic languages - Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada apart from Tamil and Malayalam that flows in the blood and six years of music from the land of  Annamayya and Purandara Dasa. Not only am I able to appreciate the music and the meaning of the compositions by our saints but today am in a position to even point out such linguistic mistakes (!!!)

Photoscape

While I searched for a suitable tool to get the copyright signature on our photographs, came across a many including the very simple water mark by Picasa up-loader. One such free tool that served the purpose is the Photoscape. Not very complicated, easy to edit and draw signatures on images. Even though I'm yet to figure out the font which provides the copyright symbol, for now, I am quite satisfied by drawing it using Lucida calligraphy font. For a free download, try http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/download.php

Bitter gourd Kosumbari

On the way back from Coorg, we pit-stopped at Kamat Lokaruchi (on Mysore road) for lunch. We are all fans of bitter gourds at home and any new dish made out of it, we welcome with open hands/mouth :-) Here's one I learnt from them - a kosumbari (pachadi) made with bitter gourd.

1 long or 2 small bitter gourds, chopped into lean, equally sized pieces.

(some senior citizens at home say that we should not cook bitter gourds in odd numbers, one of those "dont know why?" facts)

small and equal quanities of mustard, urad and channa dhal, pinch of Asafoetida for the seasoning.

pinch of turmeric

3 tsp of your favorite sambhar powder (home made/mom made/ MTR or 777)

salt to taste.

pinch of red chilli powder.

1 bowl of curd/yogurt or thick buttermilk

1 large onion, chopped.

some Coriander and curry leaves, chopped.

In a pan or kadai, heat some oil, add the seasoning essentials. To this, add the chopped bitter gourd. To make the dish even faster - just before adding it to the pan, one can steam cook the chopped vegetable (make sure it doesn't get soggy) for 5 mins like idli or toss it in boiling water for 5 mins and drain it well or even cook in the microwave for 10 minutes. You need to wait till it gets deeply fried and becomes crunchy chunks. Add the salt, turmeric and sambhar powder and mix well. Allow it to cool.

In the meantime, take a bowl of thick buttermilk or curd, add the chopped onions and the greens. To this curd, add a pinch of salt and a pinch of red chilli powder. Once the fried bitter-gourd comes to room temperature, add to the curd and mix well.

This is a great substitute for Raita and a yummy side dish for Methi parathas or even plain roti. I have a feeling it will go well with coconut rice aka thengai sadam.

End of Mango season, so what ?

We still have these yummilicious ones...

a Melony-stalactite

Jordan makes a debut in Bollywood

One week after landing here, for the first time I get control of the remote and switched to something other than Cartoon Network. 2 channels up, it is Channel [V] and guess what ? I am greeted by the lovely videos/photographs of Jordan through this recent Pooja Bhat's movie, Kajraare starring Himesh and a Pak girl, Mona Liza. Who cares about the star cast, but at least for the sake of nostalgia of our Jordan trip, i think I'll try to watch this movie.

Kudos to Pooja Bhat. Its a beautiful country - must see! Indian passport holders do not require a visa to Jordan. It is visa on entry since November 2009. So, if you are looking for an exotic/historic/adventure filled vacation - Jordan is also an option :-)

Locations in the order of appearance -

0:00 Mt. Nebo near Madaba, the Moses memorial from where Moses spotted the promised land, Israel.

0:10 - Amphitheatre in Jarash

0:20 - Red Sea, Aqaba

0:28 - the Siq in Petra

0:48 - Jarash, Roman remains, main street columns

1:25 - Deserts of Wadi Rum

0:00 - Wadi rum, red colored sand in the deserts

0:25 - Karak Castle

0:40 - Jarash, the amphitheatre

0:45 - Petra , The treasury

1:22 - The Siq in Petra

Quick Carrot Halwa

3pm to 4pm in the afternoons is when the snack alarm in his tummy usually rings. And today it had a special desserty appetite. He was 18 months old, when the word "Mi Mi" came into existence. We used to give him fruits, sweets and cakes and some exotic cookies saying "yummy yummy". And even more was the influence of the famous Wiggles number "Fruits salad, yummy yummy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB4MNu6W9sg

So, he comes to me saying, "Amma, edanum Mi Mi venum", meaning he wants something yummy yummy. I ask him if he wanted to eat sliced carrots dipping them in honey or sugar. He suggests back to me, "that Mi Mi you make with carrots, can you make that now ?" So 20 minutes and he had it in his hands. At the time when there are emails floating around asking people not to make use of a microwave, I'm putting up a quick recipe for a microwaved carrot halwa. This recipe comes from a cook book. I gifted a microwave to my MIL in 2005 and she mentioned to me about this recipe that she discovered in the cook book that came with it. Never had i had the chance to try it and have always been doing the traditional grating carrots and cook on stove method. It has taken me 5 long years to try it :-).

8-10 large carrots

100 ml milk

1 cup sugar

1 tsp ghee or melted butter

To garnish : 10 black currants (or) golden raisins (and) 10 almonds (or/and) Cashews, pinch of Cardamom powder or sprinkle some of their seeds.

Cut the carrots in random order, we need not grate them. Transfer the pieces into a blender/mixer, add the sugar on top and add the milk at one go or depending on the efficiency of the blender you could add little by little. Blend well. Transfer this carrot juice into a thick microwave safe container. Place the bowl in the microwave and let it cook for 15 minutes. Bring it out, add the ghee and all the items that you wish to garnish with, mix well and put it in for 5 more minutes.

Zeh Hakol, yummy yummy warm carrot halwa is ready to be served. If you have the habit of stocking ice creams, relish the warm carrot halwa with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

For the love of baking...

Fruit and Nut Loaf - No added Sucre

In the midst of cleaning and clearing the kitchen before we vacate the house I get carried away by these left over chunks of walnuts, almonds, black currants, dates, apricots and dried plums. I wanted to get rid of them so I can claim I cleared a shelf in the kitchen today! But how ? It is impossible for me to just eat all of those dry fruits at at that very moment in order to get rid of those bottles. A also calls out, "amma pashikaradu, edanum snack kudu" meaning "mom am hungry, give me a snack". I didn't want to do anything elaborate. So tried something like a fruit and nut bread with no sugar, no eggs, no vanilla extract, no butter, no milk. Just simplified plain whole wheat bread with dry fruits and nuts in it.

I used,

2 tsp instant yeast

50 ml lukewarm water

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

less than 1 tsp of cinnamon powder

a bowl or 2 full cups of mixed dry fruits and nuts (i used walnuts, almonds, black currants, dates, apricots and dried plums)

Preheat oven to 175 deg C.

In a huge bowl, prepare the yeast by beating it well with lukewarm water for approx 5 minutes. Add the flour and baking powder, cinnamon powder and salt - make a dough by adding water occasionally. Keep it aside by covering it with a damp cloth of about 1 hour. The dough would have risen to a certain level. Now add the bowl of dry fruits and nuts and mix well into the dough. This can be allowed to rise too by leaving aside for few hours. But i was running out of time and so placed the dough in two 10in*4in aluminium baking sheets. Just grease the sheets with butter before placing the dough in order to get that non-stick feel.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the usual tooth prick coming out dry test succeeds. Cool the loaves for a while before cutting. This is a yummy tea time loaf or a healthy morning breakfast since it has no added fat like butter or milk or oil or eggs and no sugar - the dry fruits act as the sweeteners.

Broccoli Dosa

This belongs to the subset of the evil mom's recipes. Thankfully we are in a stage - point of life where I still get to decide and dictate what he should be eating. And I do not think this will go on forever, but as long as I'm in power why not utilize the chances.

After making some stir fried vegetables salad for us,I had some broccoli shoots left behind. I used only the florets in the salad and had a major portion of the stem/stalk left behind. I had not thought of anything for little one's dinner that night. If I was to show him a full bowl of vegetables like ours, no way he was going to oblige and his tumbly would still remain rumbly. Just when i thought I would make him a couple of dosas, i hit upon the idea of broccoli dosa.

Quickly microwaved the broccoli shoots, put them in the blender they turned into a fine paste. Added it to equal portion of the dosa batter and a little salt and voila - brocolli dosa mix was ready.

To start from scratch - (makes approx. 15 dosas)

Soak 1 & 1/2 cup rice and 1/4 cup urad dhal for 3 hours in water

2 cups of finely washed broccoli shoots or florets or the stalk cut into pieces

salt to taste

1 small green chilli (optional)

When it is about time to grind the soaked items, microwave the broccoli for about 7-8 minutes. Add water periodically and grind the rice and the lentil first for a couple of seconds and when the rice is all almost half broken, add the broccoli and grind well until the batter consistency is reached. If you wish to add a little flavor, toss a chilli into the blender.

Heat a pan, pour a ladle of batter at a time to get thin crispy dosas or a little more than that to make thick Adai like dosas which can be enjoyed with butter or ghee + sugar combo by your little ones.

Whole Wheat Bread - II

Just realized this note did not get posted since i had typed "<" for less than and it had failed saying invalid html.

This is a continuation of Whole wheat bread - I

I wanted to bake only 1 loaf of bread for starters. I reduced the quantities of the ingredients to nearly half of what was on the video.

2 tsp instant yeast

1 inch square butter, melt and allow to cool

4 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup luke warm water

less than 1/2 cup milk

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 towel

bread knife

wooden board

bread pan or aluminium container

2 bowls , 1 small and 1 large, [large to the extent that when u put the flour in, it should be half the bowl. A larger bowl than this will let the dough lose its moisture quickly and the dough might not rise properly. I did this mistake of leaving the dough in an extra large container.]

Coming back to the procedure, as mentioned earlier, i do not have a table top mixer, but aren't we all Indian women champs in making the chapati/roti dough by hand ?

First step, to activate the yeast, i pretty much followed from the the video. In the smaller bowl put the 2 tsp of yeast and add the about 50 ml lukewarm water and stir well with a spoon/spatula for about 5 mins until and a little after you get the fermenting yeast smell. Leave this undisturbed for about 10 minutes. Add the milk and butter and stir well for 5 minutes.

In the larger bowl, take the 4 cups of flour and add salt and sugar. You may want to go happily sit down on the floor and let the hands do some hard work, if not do it your own way. Pour in the yeast+milk+butter mixture. Start playing with the dough, knead it well. People with tendinitis watch out, you do not want to strain your wrists or other arm joints. Add water occasionally, you may want to keep doing this for at least 20 minutes of it is by hand and get it to a consistency where the dough is really really soft and does not stick to the sides of the container and even to your palm. An easier way is to make a ball out of the dough and keep throwing it into the vessel with forcefully. It is a great stress buster if you are thinking of someone you wish to smack ;-). Again check if the dough is exactly half the level of the bowl, if not you may want to move to such a container. Wet a kitchen towel and cover the bowl slightly touching the dough. You are on your own for the next 2 hours for this has to remain undisturbed for the yeast to act and let it rise.

When you are back, the dough should have risen, if not double the amount, at least 1/4th above the original height :-). This was what had happened to me, as mentioned earlier i made the mistake of leaving it in a larger bowl. The dampness of the cloth never reached the dough and it lost its own moisture too. Never mind, get the dough out and knead it on a wooden cutting board. I used my wooden chapathi rolling board for this purpose. Sprinkle some flour on the board in order that the dough doesn't stick.

If you have a bread pan, shape your dough into a similar shape and decorate it with a plait/braid. Refer to the videos in the earlier post for this. I didn't have a bread pan either, so used an aluminium container. Grease the container with a little butter before putting in the dough. Leave the dough again undisturbed for 2 more hours. Cover it with a damp cloth. This is when i achieved maximum rise. Since i had kept in an aluminium container, the corners weren't thick enough and it kind of lost its shape. Never mind, i still managed to bake it.

Set the oven to 175C. Leave the dough in for about 40 minutes. Check after 30 minutes, color matters, you do not want it to become dark brown already. I had to give it an extra 5 minutes, since my dough was still rising when i placed it in the oven. So it took a total 45 minutes for me. Bring it out and allow it to cool. Once cooled, cut it into loaves and enjoy. Else, giving a day to this wheat bread actually helped. The insides had become really soft due to the presence of butter and milk. I didn't use the toaster since it was too fragile, hence used the tava/non-stick pan to heat it, applied butter on either side and it was yumm! Total satisfaction guaranteed!

Whole Wheat Bread - I

Since the time i landed in this holy land i have been wanting to learn to make all varieties of bread that these folks make. The breads are amazing, best of all i have had in my life ! But very very rarely do people make breads at home these days. The ones who make, follow a long procedure of dealing with the flour and dough for over 24 hours. I usually do not prefer these overnight waiting preparations - simply because i forget to soak or refrigerate or should i say i lack patience to wait for that long. I feel like when i start a dish it should just be done in a few hours before i hit the sack. Pita breads were easy so i make them quite often. But my wish of baking a whole loaf of wheat bread remained unsatisfied.

I started googling, there were too many options :-). Spent a good amount of time in browsing through the Expert Village videos on YouTube. The irritating part was the videos had enough information but they were not numbered in chronological order. They were just randomly available. So i had to spend a considerable amount of time in putting them in order before i watched from the beginning - ingredients part to the end - slicing part.

Though the videos are informative, even more annoying part of the videos are that fellow, Brandon Sarkis introducing himself at the beginning of each of those not too long but extremely short clips (3 minutes maximum). But my aim was to make that whole wheat bread happen, so i tried maximum to ignore those introductions.

Here's the actual order of the videos by Expert village on how to make whole wheat bread at home :

Equipments - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bylG2Ro9BRE&NR=1

Ingredients - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md754oPwblQ&feature=related

Activating yeast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md754oPwblQ&feature=related

Adding Flour - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CokGSkEjDUo&feature=channel

Knead Dough - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXO4hpH8IFQ&NR=1

Grease bowl - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMTLbVyVUps&NR=1

Dough rising - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz1uIo4dBmU&NR=1

work with dough - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs3grZEyZac&feature=channel

Split the loaf - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoZHy-VsMJA&NR=1

shape the loaf - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RIUHVFvabQ&feature=related

braid the bread - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_AM_GRIaXk&feature=related

Baking - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ9gBFT_X6g&NR=1

Cool the bread - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIU2exNa-_4&feature=related

Slice - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyjWP21L934&feature=channel

I do not have a table top mixer, so altered the steps here and there to my convenience. My next post has the detailed method on how i made my whole wheat bread.

My braided beauty awaits...

Fresh home made whole wheat bread is happening...

Thats my son's neglected white board i tried to put to use in the kitchen.

To all those Tomato lovers (II)...

The tomato thokku or the pickle is the easiest pickle that could be made at home. As far as i have read and heard, no two women use the same mode of preparation of this thokku. I learnt this from my mom. I altered a few steps here and there to my convenience. My sister does it altogether differently with chat masala and more. My cousin, a die hard Hyderabadi does it by sun drying the tomatoes for a week.

After i extracted the puree yesterday, they got converted into this irresistible thokku. A great spread on quick spice sandwiches or for roti/puri/pita with raita, side dish for kichdies and obviously tastes best with the world's best satvik food - thayir sadam aka the curd rice.

Ingredients to make 400gm of thokku,

20 large tomatoes

20 small dry red chillies/ 15 if long

5 tsp fenugreek seeds powder

3 tsp mustard seeds

5 tsp salt

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tsp cumin powder

2 tsp coriander powder

2-3 pinches asafoetida

5 cloves garlic finely chopped (optional)

1 in ginger finely chopped (optional)

10 tsp cooking oil

Wash and clean the tomatoes in running water. Extract the tomato puree like this. Or alternatively, this is what my mom does - boil a pot of water, turn off flame and leave the tomatoes in the hot water for 10 mins. Remove them from water and peel their skin off. Now grind the skinless tomatoes into a fine paste. Few folks do not bother about the skin and would quickly grind tomatoes in to a paste soon after they wash it. Few skip the grinding part and would toss the tomatoes just by slicing them into 4-5 pieces each. Like i said earlier, no two women seem to follow the same method :-).

Heat 5 tsp of oil in a wok. Add the mustard seeds, let it splutter. Add the dry fenugreek seeds powder and toss them for a couple of seconds. Add the asafoetida and the dry red chillies and toss until the chillies turn from red to shiny brown. Now pour in the tomato puree and allow it to boil. This is a messy fluid that would paint your kitchen red. So bring the heat/flame to low to avoid that extra work of extra rubbing/cleaning of the counters. The puree from 20 tomatoes nearly took 2 hours on low flame to get reduced to the desired consistency i.e 1/4th of its original quantity. Occasionally keep stirring the mix. In between you could get a whole lot of chores done from laundry to clothes pressing to other dinner preparations or even a quick 30 min aerobics work out. Somewhere when it thickness to 1/2 the original quantity, add the salt and all the spice powder and 2 tsp of oil and stir.

When it comes closer to 1/4th, stay close, add the remaining oil and stir frequently. By now the color would have become closer to maroon and the consistency is more or less a thick shiny paste. Serve hot/warm if your meal is ready. Or allow to cool and store/refrigerate in glass or porcelain or plastic container avoid using stainless steel for pickles or for any dish that has high chilly+salt quotient.

Optional : At the end, fry the finely chopped garlic and ginger pieces to golden brown in oil and add to the thick paste/thokku and mix well.

To all those Tomato lovers (I)...

Do you see a grater there ? Oh, yes you do!

This is a great way of making tomato puree without the help of a blender. I learnt this from Vardit while i was teaching her some Indian recipes. This comes in very handy even for the simple south Indian rasam especially when you have a little imp at home who picks and complains, "amma, tholu (skin)". Clean the tomatoes, cut each of them into 2 halves, place the flesh side of the tomato on the grater and grate till you see the thin skin and all the pulp is gone underneath.

We could do the same for most dishes like dhal makhani, lentil soup, rasam, masal that we make for puri, chutney, thokku, pickles - the list is endless even when the tomatoes are skinless.

Stuffed Vine/Grape Leaves

Stuffed Vine Leaves or the Dolma is a total Mediterranean dish famous from Greece to Turkey to Israel. This is actually quite simple to make and has no standard recipe - at least that is what I figured out after asking many a women here and browsing through recipes on the net. This dish is mostly done with meat, without it a great veggie dish.

Main ingredients would be vine leaves, rice, lemon and some mint, rest is all extra and the more you add the more flavor you get.

Ingredients that I made use of,

1 cup rice

20 vine leaves soaked in salt water/ Fresh leave can also be made use of but they have to be boiled well before using.

2 lemons

2 onions, cut into tiny pieces

1 cup peas

1 cup corn

2 carrots - grated

3 cloves garlic, cut into tiny pieces

2 green chillies

some mint leaves

salt to taste

4 tsp olive oil

1. Allow the cup of rice to cook well.

2. Soak the vine leaves in hot water for 15-20 mins in order to get rid of the salt.

3. In a wok, heat olive oil and saute the onions & garlic until golden brown. This preparation was unplanned so i didn't think about any other vegetable and ended up using some frozen peas and frozen corn and added the grated carrots. When they are cooked, add salt and squeeze a full lemon's juice onto the vegetables.

4. Check if the rice is cooked, if so, add the rice on top of the vegetables and mix well. This forms the filling. This is a great vegetable pulav or a veggie lemon rice (whatever you want to name it) for the little ones since there is no chilli factor in it. Especially for the kids who love the tangy lemon taste, this is a great meal.

5. Pull out the vine leaves from the water, just dry them for a couple of seconds in order that the water drips off and spread them out on a sheet or a plate.

6. Take a spoon full of the mixed rice and place it in the middle of the leaf. Cover it from the bottom and the 2 sides and start rolling it upwards till the tip of the leaf. Watch this video for an alternate preparation with meat and on how to roll the leaves too.

7. When all the leaves are stuffed, place then a sauce pan and cover the leaves with a plate that goes into the vessel. This is done to prevent the leaves from expanding/get unrolled when they get cooked. Fill the sauce pan with water until above the plate.

8. Cut a lemon into 4 pieces and the chillies into 2 halves each and some mint leaves -> drop them into the sauce pan. Add a tsp of salt too.

9. Place a lid on the sauce pan and allow it to cook for 15 mins.

10. Open up and serve hot or cool and store with the syrup in the refrigerator and use as a snack on a later day.

Folks who possess idli plates can skip steps 7 through 9 and can steam cook the stuffed leaves for 30-40 minutes. Make the syrup separately and soak the cooked leaves in the syrup for 30 minutes.

Tangy Tomato Dosa

In a land where there is no Urad dhal, this dosa comes in handy. Not that we are surviving without urad dhal at all. We managed to bring a kilo or 2 during our last home trip and i'm just being a little thrifty in using since we have couple of months to go before we return. I found this recipe on a friend's blog and altered it a little.

The below quantity of ingredients make 15 dosas of 6 inch diameter each.

1 & 1/2 cup rice

1/4 cup urad dhal

1/4 cup red lentils

2 tsp fenugreek seeds

Wash them well and soak them separately for 2-3 hours.

1 long green chilli

1 inch tamarind or 1 tsp of tamarind juice

2 tsp salt

2 small tomatoes

Grind the above with the well soaked rice and lentils and fenugreek to the usual batter consistency.

One would easily mistake the batter to thick strawberry milk shake;). Heat a pan, pour the batter one ladle at a time - use butter or ghee or oil of your choice around the dosa. Best had with chutney or sambhar, but we had an appetite for milagai podi and the little one enjoyed his tangy tomato dosa by dipping it in yogurt.

Minty minty spaghetti

Yes, I'm obsessed with mint.

Little A wanted spaghetti for dinner last night. So while he assisted me in cooking the spaghetti, I worked on making the sauce. His way of assisting me is to count the spaghetti sticks and drop them into the boiling water in the saucepan at his own pace.

Cook the spaghetti noodles al dente.

1 cup fresh mint leaves

1 green chilli

salt to taste ( i added 2 tsp for the given quantity)

1 garlic clove

1/4 cup of water

Grind the above and keep aside.

(portions for 300 gm noodles, good enough for 3 people)

1 big onion

1 big tomato

1/2 red pepper

1/2 green pepper

1/2 yellow pepper

Chop the above vegetables into not so tiny - not too big pieces. Heat 2 tsp of olive oil and toss all the vegetables together. Keep stirring on low flame. Remember not to give too much heat else the tomatoes get soggy with their juice. The vegetables should just taste lightly grilled. In the meantime, heat pan or wok with 3 tsp of olive oil, add the cooked spaghetti noodles and mix well until all the oil is taken by noodles. Add the grilled vegetables and pour the mint paste. Mix well, serve hot and enjoy the minty minty spaghetti.

Poppy seed filling for Oznei Haman

Ingredients to make the poppy seed filling for the Oznei Haman or Hamantashchen -

1 cup poppy seeds
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. butter

less than 1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Dry saute the poppy seeds a little and powder them. In a sauce pan, add all the above ingredients and keep stirring them occasionally until you get a thick paste that does not stick to the sides of the pan. Allow to cool and start filling.

Broccoli Paruppu Usuli

Banana flower paruppu usuli is said to be the mother of all paruppu usuli. This lentil paste side dish has become a mandatory item in the menu of most weddings these days. My mom used to make paruppu usili during our summer breaks or when ever we had our relatives come over - long list from paati to cousins and we had a crowd of about 10+ at home. My grandma used to say that earlier days, they used to buy vegetables just enough for the family, when unexpected guests arrive in order to bring the vegetable/curry to required extra quantity during lunch they used to make paruppu usuli. Paruppu usulies are traditionally done with any vegetable from the beans family like green beans, avarakkai (broad), kotha varangai (cluster) etc. They are everyone's favorite as far as i know, i have never heard someone disliking it. Kids love it too, especially little A loves it too for the reason that it tastes like Vada.

Broccoli has been a vegetable that i mostly use in our stir fried salads or mushroom-broccoli salad. I have never made or cooked (should i say) an indian curry or side dish out of it. When AA's aunt and family visited us last month, we made a little snack with broccoli. Just microwave the shoots for 5 minutes and dip it a little in olive oil and simultaneously in (idli) milagai podi. Its a nice crunchy-karam desi appetizer for all. When the talk was about broccoli, AA's aunt happened to mention that she makes paruppu usuli with them. I had been wanting to try it since we all love brocolli and we all love paruppu usuli too.

To make the lentil mix (usuli) we need,

1/2 cup of channa dhal

1/2 cup of toor dhal or Masoor dhal (red lentil)

Soak them both separately for 30 minutes.

Drain well and grind them both by adding,

4 red chillies

some curry leaves

pinch of turmeric powder

pinch of asafoetida (hing)

salt to taste

Add very little water only if required, the paste should be thick just the way we grind for paruppu vada. Once the paste is ready, steam cook it for 10-15 minutes just the way we steam cook idli. It should cook till the time when you put in a tooth prick it should come out clean. Once done, allow it to cool.

Cut the Broccoli into tiny shoots and wash them well. Microwave them for not more than 10 mins or just steam them over boiling water for 10 minutes. We do not have to essentially cook them soft. The broccoli shoots should stay a little hard and crunchy.

When the lentil paste and shoots are ready, heat a wok or tava. Add,

2 tsp oil

Saute some mustard seeds, urad dhal and pinch of hing for tadka

3 red chillies

curry leaves

Stir fry briefly and add the broccoli shoots and crumble the lentil paste over it. Mix them well and leave the wok closed with a lid on low flame for a couple of minutes so the crumbs and broccoli blend well. Voila, broccoli paruppu usuli is ready to be had with rasam rice or the world famous satvik food - yummy bagala bath/curd rice/dadhyonnam. I fry it for a little bit longer since we love eating it as a starter or appetizer :-).

Oznei Haman

Oznei Haman (meaning Haman's ears) or Haman Taschen are the triangular shaped Purim delicacy of Israel. Purim is celebrated on a full moon day according to the lunar calendar followed by the Jews. It occurs any time between mid Feb to mid March. Surprisingly it coincides with Masi Magam of Tamil Calendar and Holi. Anyways, Purim marks the celebration of the victory over the enemy, Haman. Its a kid's affair like the Halloween in the US.

Thanks to Ora who gave me the method of preparation.

We require,

2 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 & 1/2 cup of sugar

a pinch of salt

vanilla or rose essence

2 spoons baking powder

any filling - chocolate/dates spread/poppy seeds/marmalade/strawberry jam. I used chocolate in some and dates spread in a few. Traditionally it is made with poppy seed filling.

Preheat the oven to 180 degress.

Beat the eggs. Pour in the sugar, baking powder, the essence, pinch of salt and mix well. Add the flour and mix well. Spread the dough out and use a cookie cutter to make small circles or alternately just use your palm (grease your palm with olive oil or melted butter for it may stick) to spread out a lemon sized dough. Fill a small amount of chocolate and fold it in the form of a triangle.

That's it, make as many as you can. With the above quantity of ingredients I made 25 of the sizes in the picture. Place them on a cookie sheet or aluminium foil and bake for not more than 10 minutes.

Best had with a cup of chai :-)