Stuffed Jumbo shell pasta..Dinner at it's best

This one kept me waiting for a long time. My pantry either had Pasta in stock or fridge had spinach in stock. And I was unable to find the right sized shell pasta for this dish. I could never buy both the items and dish this up. So I had been waiting for quite a while to cook this, it was utterly delicious in Marinara sauce.

This is absolutely veggie stuff. :-)

Swayed and taken away by the massive Black Friday shopping, I am posting this late. I had promised to post this for my friend during the TG holidays but I am late. Hope you will be able to cook this for your boys and gals this weekend.

All you need:
Tip : Use fresh ingredients as much as possible.

1. Fresh or frozen Spinach : 10 oz or 16 oz - more the spinach better your health! Thaw the frozen stuff before you use.
2. Marinara sauce :  2 small cups. I use Classico, roasted garlic. Its very flavorful. If you can make the sauce at home its much better.
3. Mozzarella cheese : As much as you want! Use grated to limit yourself. The fresh mozzarella in bulk slices would be too heavy.
4. Salt and pepper to taste ; Flakes of Red pepper if needed.
5. The USP - Jumbo shell pasta - they are HUGE in size. AFAIK there are 3 sizes, mini, normal, large and then jumbo. We are looking at the massive ones which can hold stuff in it.
6. Olive Oil - 2 tsp for cooking, 1 tsp for brushing the pan

Preheat the oven to 350 Deg F.

Cook the shell according to the package. Save 1/4th cup of pasta water. Drain the rest and run it under cold water to stop further cooking. Set aside.

In 1 cup of boiling water, add spinach. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain and cut the spinach coarsely.

In a pan, use 2 tsp olive oil, add Marinara sauce to it. Add 1/4 the cup of pasta water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let it boil for a minute and set aside the sauce.

Take a lasagna pan or any heavy bottomed cake pan (Wilton would do), brush it with 1 tsp olive oil. Spread half the Marinara sauce at the bottom of the pan.

Now make the stuffing for shells. Carefully open each jumbo shell pasta to stuff it with some spinach and then grated mozzarella cheese. Close it.  Stuff 20 shells. Place them slightly apart in the cake pan already filled with Marinara sauce. Now add the rest of the sauce onto the shells placed. Just pour the sauce all over. Add some more grated cheese on top.

Bake it at 350 Deg F for 15-20 minutes. Keep a watch on it. And broil it on top rack for 3 minutes to get that glaze on cheese. Here are the snaps...

As I composed this blog I made this dish yet again for dinner tonight!

Arrival of panini grill makes life easy

This holiday season I had tons to shop for but the basic necessity was for quick and delicious breakfast that's easy and healthy. I in fact wrote about slow cooker already. This time it's grill - panini grill. I always managed to grill veggies using old fashioned oven in broil mode. But never could archive the grill marks on either veggie or bread. I certainly went for a deal on black Friday and bought this $2 grill! Ever since I bought that it's been a 10 minute breakfast session every morning. I am glad I could dish up the very same tomato mozzarella panini for lunch, the grilled squash and egg and cheese for breakfast. Hold your breath I grilled egg too! Sounds crazy? Lol..... not necessarily raw egg. I made an omelette and then grilled the omelette with sprinkled cheese on top for just a minute to achieve that taste. It was worth while. Here is the snap of today's breakfast. 

Much awaited "Crock pot" slow cooker's arrival into my space

Oh Boy! It's been a while I am on the look out (I have been chasing) for a deal on slow cookers.. Especially the original "Crock pot" brand. Last year I missed the thanksgiving deal because of a trip to Chicago, IL. This year, I was looking for a deal but did not have the courage to queue up in front of stores all night long for just this. Luckily I could snatch one online (site to store) from Walmart who leaked few items on BF prices much before BF. I grabbed it for 10 bucks , a 6 quart manual crock pot slow cooker which can serve 7 happy eaters at once! Whoa... That's a sweet deal.

I could not pounce on making the dish right away as we picked up late night from the store. The very next day being Sunday - I used my new electric for making soup. This was kidney bean soup with veggies on a slight tomato base seasoned with oregano, salt and pepper.

I am still naive in the "hours to cook" assumption using slow cooker. I made the soup for 4 hours on high which over cooked the veggies - Thank God they did not lose their shape and size and get mashed but I learned that I had to cook it 1st hour on high and then 2nd hour on low. Then set it to warm.

This is such a versatile tool - it makes life easy when you wanna have good warm food when you are back home after a long day at either a hike or at office or just at shopping!

Easy bean and veggie soup :
1. Tomato sauce or Pasta sauce - 3 tsp
2. Boiled and Drained/Canned kidney beans - a handful
3. 1 Onion - roughly chopped
4. 1 Bell pepper - any color
5. 3 Carrots - cut into thick rounds
6. 1 potato - skinned and chopped into big cubes
7. Pasta - I used mini shells - 1 handful (Just raw)
8. 2 cloves garlic - chopped/smashed
9. Dried Oregano flakes, salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, garlic, bell pepper,potatoes, carrots in 2 tsp olive oil. Use oregano now. Save the beans for later.Use the pasta/tomato sauce and add 1 cup water. Saute for 2 minutes. Now pour the entire stuff into the crock pot. Add more water until 1/2 of the pot is filled. Add 1 tsp of flour to thicken the texture.Set it on high for 1 hour. And after an hour set it on low fro 1 more hour. Then add salt, pepper, pasta and beans at this stage. Let it be on low for 1 more hour. The soup should be done after 3 hours. Put it on warm if you need.

If you cannot attend to the pot every hour, its better to set it on high for the first 1 or almost an hour before you leave so the food cooks at a temperature at 300 Deg F which cooks any food completely and would be safe for consumption. And then set it to low for the rest of the day and leave.

Come home for an aroma filled kitchen and a warm soup for dinner.

8 ingredients Ribbon Pakoda - Diwali special

This is just a simple, no tactics involved snack recipe. Please sieve the gram flour to remove lumps. I do not personally like doing this dish by substituting gram flour with Besan - chickpea flour. Add cold/normal water to mix the below ingredients except oil, into a thick dough. The dough should be of either pita bread or chapathi consistency. Heat oil in a deep sauce pan, (Tip: Oil should be hot enough to sizzle as soon as you press the dough into it, so that the ribbon pakoda doesn't absorb oil too much).Go ahead dump some dough and press it straight into hot oil. Let it brown and then drain it in batches to remove excess oil.

Tools Needed:
I have no idea how to say this , as it has no English name.
Just take a look at the picture.

P.S: If you do not have this tool, go buy yourself some Ribbon Pakoda from the neighboring Indian store!

Ingredients Needed:
1. Rice flour - 2 cups
2. Powdered Roasted gram (Pottukadalai) - 1/2 cup (Seive it to avoid lumps)
3. Butter - 1 inch slice
4. Sesame seeds - 3 tsp
5. Asafoetida - 4 pinches
6. Red pepper flakes or powder - 1 tsp
7. Oil for frying
8. Salt to taste

I packed some for my hubby's colleagues... This was a super hit!

Kale chips - Green leaf baked into crispy snack

Kale is good for your health. Eat your greens. Ah, how many times have we heard of this and we hated hearing this? I used to make Kale not so often, in my own way - pressure cook it because of its hard leafy nature. I was never able to eat Kale by just sauteing. It was hard for me to chew it down.

I have heard people make Kale chips using a dehydrator. I don't have any such tool and I made up my mind to cook this one in the ubiquitous oven. Bake it until crisp.

There are possibilities that you might end up with just ashes in your tray if you are not gonna have an eye on the baking Kale every now and then. So make at least 2 batches in order to taste some real chips and not ashes.

1. Kale - 1 bunch (Tear the leaves into bite sized approx 2 inches pieces and discard the stem). Wash and dry them on a paper towel for at least half an hour. For a quicker way, press them against the paper towel several times to squeeze out any water. Idea is to have them as dry as possible in order to be crispy.
2. Bread crumbs - Italian style or plain
3. Pepper Jack cheese - Grated - 5 pinches (I hate Parmesan these days)
4. Salt to taste
5. Olive oil - a dash

Heat oven to 450 Deg F. Lay the baking sheet on the tray. Spread the kale pieces on the baking sheet in a single layer. Add a dash of olive oil and make sure every leaf has some on it. Shake some salt over the leaves. Also spread the cheese. Now, be generous with the bread crumbs and spread them on the leaves.

Bake the batch for 10 minutes, peeping into the oven every 4 minutes to make sure they don't burn. 

I am on a soupathon - many thanks to the sick hubby

I am not the one who is fond of baby food : all these understated recipes come into baby food category
1. Soup
2. Kootu
3. Dal
4. Mashed potatoes
5. Rice ; ah ah "Mashed" rice
6. Honey tea
7. Cinnamon tea
8. Vendhaya kanji aka thengai kanji (Fenugreek poridge aka Coconut poridge)
9. Bread with milk
10. Bread and jelly
11. Chicken soup - Hey this is one exception - I can have chicken soup anytime of the year.

Since 2 weeks, I have been busy taking care of my husband who is hosting bacteria in his body! Oh God, itchy throat, running nose, cough and cold keep me on my toes. At the same time, I feel so exhausted - physically and recipeally! Yes I ran out of baby food varieties. Though he is unable to taste & enjoy anything that I serve, he demands varieties. He is just so bored eating the same old conjee and mashed potatoes.

So all I could do was to reach my mom-in-law and find out what she had to offer in terms of recipes. She came up with tons of soups! Oh God, I had never even imagined that I could whip up so many varieties of them without adding spice to any. Thus this post in my blog was born.

To kick start here is the Okra soup.

1. Okra - 10 chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
2. Onion, Tomato - each 5 tsp, roughly chopped
3. yellow lentil - I used Mung beans - 5 tsp boiled and whisked later to mash them.
4. Curry leaves
5. 1 green chilly - slit
6. Salt, pepper and cumin for seasoning

Heat oil in a wok, season it with cumin. Saute onion and tomatoes in it. Add green chilly, curry leaves. After a couple of minutes add the okra. I know it is sticky. But the idea here is to get rid of the stickiness by sauteing. Medium heat, stir, saute without taking off your attention from this. After about 20 minutes you might get an idea of when to drop the boiled lentils in. The stickiness should be completely gone before you add lentils. Add salt and pepper. Let it boil for 10 more minutes.

Remove the green chilly if you think its gonna make it hot. I prefer less lentils, boiled thoroughly in just the right amount of water and then mashed (Tip : Use whisk to turn it into a pulp). After you add the lentils into the sauteed veggie, you can add water to decrease the viscosity - Oh meaning make it soupy. Many more soups to follow. I am trying to collect as many simple coup recipes as possible and put together so next time someone is sick and you are attending, you don't need to run out of recipes or make the same dish time and again.

The quick 5 ingredient Chicken Tandoori - updated version!

I recently went on a 10 mile hike during this fall season. After a tiring hike,we had to go through a 2 hour freaking traffic jam and get home so very tired that we wanted to eat Chicken Tandoori. Yes, we wanted to hog them! So, I planned to quickly broil some leg quarters/drumsticks and have a delicious home made dinner than spend $30 in an Indian restaurant for the limited 4 piece tandoori and Naan.

This is a quick, yet delicious version. But I am going to follow this hence forward even if I happen to have a hell lot of time and energy! It is that fantastic in taste and easy on me/my effort.

the 5 ingredients are
1. Lemon - 1/2 sueezed
2. Ginger - 1 inch - finely chopped
3. Garlic - 4 cloves - finely chopped
4. Turmeric - 1 tsp
5. Hung yogurt/curd - 5 scoops

The other 3 ingredients without which you can never proceed are
1. Chicken drumstick - 6 to 8 pieces
2. Salt to taste
3. Pepper to taste

Making of Hung curd : Scoop out the yogurt into a muslin/cotton cloth that is big enough to hold the yogurt and has some more cloth on all sides to cover the yogurt without being squeezed out. Now, hold onto the edge where the yogurt ends and just the cloth is found. twist it very very cautiously bcos I squeezed the yogurt out by twisting vigorously! And lo, a splash on my face!!!

Wait until the water drips or until your wrists hurt :P I would say 10 minutes. Now when you open this up you will find dry, cottage cheese kind of yogurt which will peel off without any hassle.

Mix the first 5 ingredients (use hung yogurt now)set aside.
Clean and make plenty of slits on the chicken drumstick. Not to mention, the flesh should still hold onto the bones. So do not rip it apart. Okay?

Dip the chicken one after the other into the above yogurt mixture. Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste.
refrigerate them for (??????) 15 minutes if you are in a hurry or else take your own time. I sometimes refrigerate for 24 hours! That makes it buttery and delicious.

Now heat the oven to 450 Deg F for 10 minutes, then place these marinated drumsticks one by one on the oven tray. Push them into the 2nd rack and BROIL it for 10 minutes. Turn them slightly and BROIL it for the next 10 minutes. One more turn and there it goes into oven for 10 more minutes. That's all........ Rush and hog all the CHICKEN TANDOORI pieces before someone else takes a bigger share! :D

Roasted Red pepper sauce sauted with Pea pods + veggies pasta

Hey this one is close to my heart as I found this extraordinarily simple sauce on my favo food website. She used Shell pasta and I used colorful Rotini pasta. This was a simple recipe with fresh pea pods and some herbs, but I changed by adding a little more assorted veggies, cause I am one of those who doesn't like wasting food/veggies.. So I found these bits and pieces of veggies sitting in my fridge and I used them here. Otherwise they would have ended up rotting in a couple of days.

Ok here is the STAR of the evening : The Roasted Red Pepper sauce. It just tasted so awesome. This is not an exact copy from the food website I am talking about but I went onto modify according to my taste.

Sauce :
1. 1 Red color bell Pepper
2. Pine nuts - half of a fist
3. Onion - just a little. May be 7-8 finely chopped pieces
4. Salt and Pepper to taste
5. Olive oil

You make just few slits on the fresh bell pepper and place it in the oven for 450 deg F until it chars down. But I had no time to wait for an hour for this process to happen. So I broiled the pepper on middle rack for 10 minutes and then turned it upside down to char the other half for 5 more minutes. If you like go ahead and slow roast the bell pepper for an hour at 450 Deg F. And pick this charred stuff out, let it cool. Meanwhile dry roast the pine nuts and then the onion. I dry roasted the onion just for 1 minute to remove the raw flavor. As it is try and avoid onion. I don't encourage onion in Pasta. But since the original recipe had, I had to give in. :(

After the pepper cools down, peel the skin off, seed it and use only the flesh. Add pine nuts, onion and pepper into your blender. Add some olive oil ( 2 tsp) and salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. Now the best part : Dip your fingers and lick!!! That's amazing isn't it? This is one of the best dips I have ever tasted. You can use this as a dip for 1. Chicken tandoori, 2. Nachos, 3. Just plain potato chips, 4.Cutlet, 5. Pakoda, 6. Bajji, 7. chapati, 8. Sandwich Oh God... what not?

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Now pasta: Boil Rotini, shell whatever you have in your pantry to al-dente (I used 3 hand full of Rotini, salted water). Preserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Drain the rest and DON'T rinse under cold water.

1. Garlic - 2 cloves chopped
2. Broccoli : 6 florets
3. Pea - a handful (I had only frozen stuff)
4. Green bell pepper - 1 hand full chopped

In 4 tsp Olive oil, saute the above veggies, Add the red sauce that you just ( licked? ) oops - made! and saute for a minute, add pasta water. Let it cook for a minute. Now add pasta to it. Sprinkle some fresh herbs like basil or parsley. Also sprinkle grated cheese (Parmesan?). Cook for few seconds and it's ready to be gorged on! Go for it....


Time for pictures :D

Vathal kuzhambu - my style

I dunno if this will match up to what people make back home in chettinadu but I am trying my best to reach the Karaikudi taste. Anyway, this one came up all of a sudden a midst the Pasta craze because of my friend. She always wanted the recipe for this. And I promised this in exchange of Rasam and Sambhar - the Brahmin way. Hope I get both of them ("PV" - do you hear me aloud?).

This goes well with a baby food as side and rice. Baby food : anything that's bland in spice. eg: Keerai poriyal or any koottu. And (papad) appalam is a must!

Collect :
1. Pearl onion - 20 halved or 1 big onion into random cubes
2. Garlic - 10 cloves , peeled and halved. Don't chop them any further.
3. Curry leaves - plenty
4. Corn flour or rice flour - dissolve 2 tsp in 1 cup cold water(no warm water - you might end up with lumps)
5. Sambhar powder - 3 tsp - or mix coriander powder, chilli powder ( 2 : 1)
6. Tomato - 1 chopped coarsely
7. Vathal - Ah the main ingredients - Milagai vathal, Mangai vathal, Melagu thakkali vathal.
8. For seasoning - Mustard, Asafoetida, Fenugreek seeds, Fennel seeds
9. ONLY Sesame oil (nallennai)- do not try to even attempt this dish in any other vegetable/canola oil. It never works. You might end up with a very unflavored stuff as the result.
10. Tamarind paste/pulp - 4 tsp. Dissolve it in a cup of water
11. Some green chillies - slit (extra spice)

Heat 1 -2 tsp sesame oil in a wok. Fry all the vathal and drain them before you burn it. :D Heat (7-8 tsp!!!) sesame oil in the same wok(or a deep sauce pan), season it, add garlic, onion and fry until they are translucent. Add some salt to moisturize at this point. Add tomatoes and give them a couple of minutes to become mushy. Add a pinch of turmeric, sambhar powder and fry for a minute. Add the tamarind pulp. Bring it to boil. Now add the corn flour dissolved in water. Let it boil for 10 minutes. Add the fried vathal at this point. Allow it to soak up for about 5 minutes. Simmer until desired consistency. I always like it not too soupy and not too pulpy.

Pics : coming soon. (I am making it now!)

Spaghetti with traditional pesto and baby tomatoes

The warm bread and the pesto served by Bone fish Grill restaurant chain changed my life. Should I say this or my addiction to the recent Korean drama PASTA which casts "Lee Sun Gyun" and "Gong Hyo Jin" as the leads with an Italian restaurant in the background changed my life? I am unable to decide between the two but all I am sure about is my life is changed. I am so addicted to pasta now. Pasta by using fresh ingredients, traditional methods. I want to try different types of pasta with different sauces. Until now I have eaten Spaghetti  Rotini, Penne, Ravioli, Fusilli, Conchiglle, Pappardelle. But I have cooked all of these without knowing which one goes well with what sauce. My husband likes every pasta with a tomato sauce. I am bored of tomato sauce. I love pasta with BROCCOLI in it. Any pasta, any sauce but add broccoli! Hows that now. Boring? I don't think so ;)

So, I decided I shall start from scratch. The popular 2010 K drama gave me insights to learn the tricks of making pasta. And over the years of trial and error I learnt some from authentic Chef's videos posted in You tube. Nevertheless, I was cooking bad pasta!

The pesto that I made was out of fresh ingredients. No frozen food at all. I went well with Spaghetti and also some toasted bread.

Requirements:
1. Fresh basil - 1 handful ; blanched in boiling water for 2 minutes and run under cold water
2. Pine nuts - dry roasted - 1/2 handful
3. Lemon - 1/2
4. Garlic - 1 clove
5. Olive oil - 2-3 Tablespoon
6. Parmesan cheese grated - 3 tablespoon (I opted out of it at this point; You can use it on pasta later)

7.Spaghetti - pasta
8. Red pepper flakes
9. Baby tomatoes - 10
10. Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the clove of garlic and roast it just until its raw flavor is out but make sure not to burn it.
Add all the ingredients to your food processor, give it a pulse or two. Then grind it into a paste. Do not worry if you have some pine nut chunks. They will be great to bite on while eating pasta.

This pesto served fresh with warm bread is food from heaven. You can't beat that.

But use this pesto as a sauce for Spaghetti. That's even better. Boil pasta in salted water to al dente. Reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water and drain the pasta. Do not run it under cold water. Heat olive oil, add some halved baby tomatoes, roast them for a minute then add pesto. The aroma arising out of this now is heavenly! Add you pasta water and red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to season. Just as the pesto boils, dump the spaghetti. Turn the spaghetti to coat well all over, add grated Parmesan cheese. Give it a slight toss. All set to gobble them up?

Ah, I wish i could eat pasta all day long and every meal!

Cheesy Spinach Rolls

These spinach rolls will make your mouth water. The aroma, the crunch, the cheese, the goodness it brings when baked will carry you far away from the everyday boring lunch/dinner menu.

They are absolutely simple and nutritious. Except for the cheese! But I have been hearing from too many people lately that cheese in the right amount doesn't contribute to your weight gain like red meat, butter and oil. Anyway, I used Pepperidge Farm pastry rolls. If you can make the dough from scratch well and good for you!

Chop 2 cloves of garlic, 3 stems of scallion/french onion, 1 big bunch of washed and cleaned spinach. Chop them coarsely. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a wok, add garlic, onion and spinach in the same order and saute them for 3-5 minutes. The spinach will shrink to 1/3rd of its original volume. Add pepper and salt for seasoning. Add red pepper flakes if you like it spicy. Let all the water dry - keep the mixture as dry as possible. Keep some grated Parmesan cheese handy.

Thaw 1 sheet of the puff pastry and spread the cooked mixture onto the sheet. Sprinkle a handful of grated cheese on top of the mixture. Roll the pastry sheet length wise which is a little logical :O You can use one beaten egg (Used to brush the sides)  as a glue to stick the two edges. But i skipped it.

Roll the sheet in lengthwise cut into pin wheels. I was not great at cutting them into pinwheels of 1/2 inch width cause I did not use egg to brush the sides. The sheet was falling apart when I tried to cut it. I managed to cut them into 1 inch wide pieces. Bake them at 400 degree F for 15 -18 minutes occasionally peeping through the oven door to make sure you are not gonna over bake it or blacken them.

Some snaps - here they come!

Come winter, hot crispy snack is a must - Broccoli fritters will fit in

I was one specimen who hated broccoli. I did not dare to touch this veggie since one of friends (long long ago) said it is awful in taste. Finally after much coaxing I got to eat these. Ever since I have been a fan of this veggie for it's simple taste, abundant vitamin and fiber content and ease of use. I like it crunchy. Steamed and run under cold water to the right crunchiness. Add these florets as sides to anything - bread, rice, pasta, couscous , they go well together.

I collected whatever ingredients I had in my pantry to cook this one. The easy version and the elaborate one are listed below. I went ahead adding whatever I thought would enhance the flavor and crunchiness of the dish.

Easy version :
1. Broccoli florets - 2 1/2 cups (cut them into tiny florets but beware - don't chop/bruise them off their true flower shape)
2. Egg - 1 (MUST)
3. Baking Flour - All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
4. Salt and pepper to taste


Elaborate version :
1. All the 4 above ingredients
2. Corn flour - 2 teaspoons
3. Bread crumbs - 1/4 cup
4. Red pepper flakes
5. Chickpea flour (If you like it!) - Replace the baking flour with this.
6. Parmesan cheese - grated - 1/2 cup

Cut the florets, prepare boiling water, dump the florets and let it boil for 2-3 minutes, strain and run the florets under cold water to retain it's crunchiness. Set aside but make sure u drain the water off completely else u will make a mess out the mixture you are off to prepare next. WARNING given!

Whisk/Beat an egg into a large bowl. Add the baking flour, corn flour, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, Red pepper flakes and Parmesan grated cheese. Mix well. Add the well drained broccoli florets. Mix well. This mix should neither be too tough to press into fritters nor should be soupy. The right consistency would only allow you to scoop a spoon full of this mix and place(flatten) it onto the well greased frying pan. Grease the frying pan with olive or sesame oil and go ahead and shallow fry the fritters. They take about 5 minutes each side for complete browning.

All set to have them for a snack. They go well with any dip or ketchup. The dip that I would like to use is "Charred Red Bell pepper and cheese dip". Will post it once I try.

Mutton Kheema / Mutton podimas - Chettinadu style

Nothing can beat the taste of my Chettinadu style cooking/recipes. It is very true for special meat items like this one. Mutton Podimas - I had long forgotten the name Podimas and also the taste associated with it; Thanks to my mom who never once cooked meat and thanks to my family for migrating from my native place to another state and forget all these little tasty dishes which otherwise would have found a constant place in our Sunday meal or rather festive/special family meals. I am fortunate to have found in laws with a penchant for cooking our style food - when I say our style it is CHETTINADU'S GRAND OLD RECIPES, families like mine have taken to serving the ubiquitous Gobi Manchurian and Chaat items in weddings whereas my in laws are still in touch (addicted to) with the age old recipes and consistencies. One such example is this. I decided I shall follow every bit of what my mother in law advises me to do in terms of ingredients, substitutes, exact usage of dishes and the proportion. Thus, the labor day lunch turned into a festive meal.

Here is the step by step recipe for you - all authentic. No modification.

Ingredients:
1. Goat - Minced meat - 1/2 lb (1/4kg)
2. Channa dal - 4 teaspoons (soaked in water for 30 mins)
3. Onion - 1 finely chopped
4. Tomato - 1 finely chopped
5. Garlic - 4 cloves
6. Ginger - 1 inch cut into thin strips
7. curry leaves
8. To grind into a smooth paste - Coconut - 3 teaspoons, Pottukadalai (I wonder what it is called in common) - 2 teaspoon, Fennel seeds - 1 teaspoon, Jeera - 1 teaspoon.
9. Whole Spices - 1 inch cinnamon, 1 bayleaf, 1 cardamom.
10. Fennel seeds - 1 teaspoon for seasoning
11. Sesame oil for frying (that tastes perfect)
12. Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
13. Green chillies - 3 slit
14. Sambar powder (If you do not have, mix 1:2 - Red chilli powder:Coriander powder) - 1 1/2 teaspoon
15. Salt and Pepper (1 teaspoon) to taste

Method/Steps:
1. Clean the minced meat, by adding some turmeric and set aside.
2.In a pressure pan (cooker), heat a couple of teaspoons oil, add half of fennel seeds, all the whole spices, saute and then add the cleaned meat with no water. Saute until the meat is just turned brown. Add a pinch of turmeric, half the amount of salt and 1/4 cup of water. Cook it for 5 minutes or 1 whistle until it is just done. Strain the water. You may wanna use the water later in the cooking process.
3. Before grinding the paste, dry roast all the ingredients on # 8. Add water and grind.Set aside the smooth paste.
4. Microwave the soaked channa dal for 5 minutes (Do not attempt it at one go, but give it a break between the long 5 minute cooking). This should help the channa dal to be 3/4 th cooked. Neither hard nor soft in texture. This is a very important step for the entire dish to work right.
5. In a wide mouthed pan (kadai or wok will do better), heat oil, add rest of the fennel seeds, add onion, garlic, ginger, green chillies, curry leaves and fry until soft and pink.Add the tomatoes now. Fry till its mushy. Add turmeric, sambar powder, salt, pepper. Saute for 30 seconds, get going by adding the coconut paste into it. Fry until everything is mixed. Now add the minced, cooked meat to this. Saute for a couple for minutes; add the channa dal. A little ( 4 teaspoons) of the strained mutton stock can be added now. Let the mixture cook for 5 minutes or until the oil seeps form the sides of the kadai/wok. You are all set to serve this with Chapathi/Roti/Rice and Rasam/mouthwatering Curd rice.

Good luck.

Momos/Wontons/Dumplings whatever they are called, I got them right this time

Very long pause between my last post on cooking a dish and this one. I am writing/logging it here so as to not forget what and how I made these mouth watering dumplings this evening.

I found the below YouTube video so helpful that this time I got the dish right, in taste and in texture. I have always ended up having a hard time chewing the ever rubbery dumplings that I made. The answer to this lies in the amount of dough that you use for the wrap.
Use just a bit and roll it into a 3" diameter round as shown in the video with enough flour to help you get out of sticky situation while rolling.

I used the only veggie that was left in the crisper - broccoli. My favorite veggie. I added a dash of garlic, ginger and onion to the blanched and chopped broccoli to enhance the flavor. Stir fry all the aforesaid items in steaming hot sesame oil with salt and pepper. Fry them until you are left with no water in the mixture. Reserve them to be filled later.

Make the wraps, fill them with the mixture. Now, you can either boil them in water as shown in the video or steam them in a steamer if you have one. I chose to be different. I shallow fried them in a pan. They take about 7 minutes to be fried/done on both the sides.

They go extremely well with the sauces as shown.
Dip 1 :Heat sesame oil, add 4 red chillies. Turn off the heat and let it cool for a while. Now use a pestle and mortar to grind the chilli into a flakes. Put the flakes back into the oil and use them as 1 dip.

Dip 2: Chop 2 cloves of garlic finely, add 2 spoons of soy sauce to it; stir.Leave it for a couple of minutes. Use this as dip 2.

Please use both the dips side by side for the dumplings. They certainly keep your appetite high as you reach for the next dumpling even before you have chewed/swallowed the first one!

Part 1 :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_jSnVGHcA0

Part 2 :http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=sy2ZaEOAOBs

- Good times eating dumpling!

Move from WI to GA Memorable Drive of 16 hours

It was a stressful month for both of us. Being on vacation to celebrate my birthday on the much desired island and getting back home to find that you have just a week more to go in the current job is a painstakingly frustrating feeling. It was. Almost at the same time, the Manager at the leasing office lets out the apartment to another tenant. Oh boy... It's 4 days to be the end of the month!!! We had to pack, sell furniture ( no more shifting huge furniture for a price that costs higher than the furniture itself!), find another short term lease in an apartment, clean the apartment and finally move. All these in 4 days. Ah, most importantly with the tiredness and headache of driving 7 hours back home.

The move seemed unachievable to me. But finding another suitable job seemed the most difficult to him. He brushed aside all these small things and concentrated on looking for a new job. I went roaming on Craigslist to jot down a few probable apartment /homes for short term lease, especially in month- month terms. This too did not take good shape as I found just a handful of people letting their house for month-month. Most of them never did anything other than eating/working/sleeping during the bitter cold winter months ( Oct - April) in WI, let alone moving from one apt to the other.

Finally we met 3 people, saw their places in 2 days. Nothing worked out. We booked for the move with a local mover not knowing where are we moving!!! On the day before, we found a place in a decent community according to our terms and booked it right away. I cannot ignore the fortune and luck we had in selling our furniture. By HIS grace, all of a sudden on the day of move, I get a call from a guy asking if we still had the furniture that was listed on CL. Oh boy, things could never have been better than this one. He waited patiently for an hour for me to get back from work, just the same time as movers came in. We put the movers on hold ; gave him sometime to decide on the price. He came to pick up one stuff and he ended up picking Sofa, fridge, Mattress, Dining table at a very decent price. Though we knew we sold it for 50% of the actual price after using it for a year, we were glad that we got rid of all the big stuff forever!

And then our move happened. We knew we will live there for not more than 5 days and lo, we did outlive those many days! yeah, we lived there for 2 weeks.
Meanwhile, he had to find a job, wrap the old one properly. I had to find another state-state mover for my kitchen and daily use things which was unbelievably hard to find. At some point we wished we could discard everything and just move with our clothes. But we found a way out - UPS!

Last 4 days:
Day 1: It was the last day of his job. He was overwhelmed by the affection that WI people is known for. They showered him with blessings through emails and gave away cookies and sweets on his behalf. Some were so disappointed to see him go. He was on cloud nine for the affection shown but sad to be off job.
Day 2: Yay, my smarty found a job. He is a smart fella.... We did all the UPS research, inquired about the cost of shipping, storing etc. Packed all the stuff yet again in new moving boxes from Walmart which seemed to be JUNK! Better buy the strong Uline boxes which are meant to go through UPS standards.
Day 3: Shipped boxes, discarded quite a few items like Microwave, fan, table, chair and small things that did not fit in boxes or car. Left all my plants (Cilantro, Fenugreek greens, Basil, yellow Rose which was to bloom in 2 days and an unknown flowering plant)
Day 4 and 5: Since early morning we tried dumping all possible stuff in car - dumped - i mean it. We could just see the rear view mirror and side mirrors. That was it. Trashed a huge amount of stuff as I had no time to give it away to friends, charity, etc. (I did this when I moved the first time) cause we were already late. 9.30 am: We left the city in WI. Had a sumptuous breakfast at 10.30am in IHOP. And drove for 4 hours... Chicago was where we saw immovable traffic. That was half an hour. Luckily we crossed that and now, I took turn to drive. We moved from WI to Illinois to Indiana. It was the first drive for me in consecutive interstate freeway. Indiana had the best roads. The sun was blazing. The drive was smooth being a weekday with just a few trucks. We made a stop at 3.00 pm at Indianapolis in a subway to grab a bowl of salad and a  sub to quench our thirst for fresh, juicy, crunchy stuff in that heat. 3.00 pm was indeed too late and we still had to drive to Nashville where our next stay was due.

The sight from Indianapolis/Indiana to Louisville/Tennessee was in fact a feast to the eyes. It was just green all over. And the freeway was more of a country side road! This hindered our schedule. My husband enjoyed his drive through this greenery and we were reminded of the very flourishing Indian sub continent. On reaching Louisville, we were taken aback by the infrastructure this city had to offer. The university was so much bigger than what I have seen in WI. Well laid roads, well lit streets. Thank God for summer, we saw the sun set at 9.30 pm. Our next break was at Louisville - KFC. We have always dreamed of the southern delicacy - Fried chicken, baked bean, corn cob and pop soda (Coca cola).
At 7.00pm we had a tasty (much better than any KFC ) fried chicken, baked bean and buttermilk biscuit here for dinner. By now, the accent had changed. It was very different from the ones that we were used to. Was certainly difficult to understand at once!

Then yet again I took turn to drive from Louisville to Nashville. Believe me, after an hour of crossing Louisville I was surrounded by trucks. Massive, monstrous creatures who were driving like they were in a motor race! Oh my! I was scared... There was this truck who was competing with me insanely. By now, we saw the sun set. All of a sudden the truck which was competing with me was chased by a cop and he was given a speeding ticket and guess what - the rest of all the trucks slowed down to their normal speed and I heaved a sigh of relief ! All was well until the darkness took toll on me with too many road works at Tennessee. I lost my way and went into a tunnel :O

And then I quit - I could not take the confusion anymore. Poor hubby took care of it and drove the rest of 3 hours to get to Nashville, TN. It was 12.30 am and we reached our destination. As you know, we were warned not to leave any stuff outside in our car. Since we could no way unpack and repack the things in car, we parked it overnight and kept worrying over it all through the night. True to my nature, I fell deep asleep and my hubby took turns to see if things were alright. The next morning, after a cup of coffee , egg and cheese sandwich, we left Nashville/TN. 6 longs hours to go before we reach our actual place. But driving out of Nashville was a challenge in it's own way. There was a traffic jam at peak office hour and fortunately we took the highway that was not popular among office goers! :D
Hold your breath. We saw a sight of jammed cars and trucks in a stretch of 5 miles which were crawling inch by inch. Can you visualize it? I shall upload the insane picture very soon. The roads were downhill and we were zooming at the maximum possible speed. Took a water/Restroom break at a park on the way with too many dogs as compared to human beings.LOL

We were about to enter Georgia.On the way we found the most beautiful city - Chattanooga!!! Chattanooga was on the border of TN and GA.We had not heard about either the river Chattahoochee or the city on the river so appropriately named after the river. The sight of this city was breathtaking. We stopped by to have fresh fish in a posh IT park area in a restaurant named "The blue water grill" http://www.bluewatergrill.com/. The food was as high in taste as the check was in dollars.Placed an order for Mahi Mahi - beer battered and charcoal grilled with Rice pilaf and bread. It came with a portion of squash (Zucchini and butternut squash) stir fry. We thoroughly enjoyed every morsel of it. But I would certainly not recommend this restaurant for a happy couple like us who were greeted  and served by sober waitresses. As if they were mourning some loss.

After that lunch stop, we were determined to reach Atlanta. The first unexpected sight after we crossed the border was the number of trees. We surely did not expect it to be crowded with trees forming a canopy. The condition of roads as we moved in to Atlanta started worsening! LOL...
Infrastructure offered is directly proportional to the money collected from common man in the form of Tax. The last 1 hour of drive was strenuous as we were becoming impatient. Crazy irresponsible driving added to the woes. At last we found the place we booked to stay and we went in to check - in.

We met the receptionist who was so observant - she instantly noticed that we were dead tired of travelling. She asked us if we were directly coming from India!!! After an exchange of few talks, we were happy to meet someone from WI who moved in here before 18 years! She was so excited to see/meet us. After all, lots to discuss about the snow - that snow which we wanted to escape from - that snow which is found not more than an inch in Georgia and that too once in 10 years!

The rest of the story is all filled with finding a place to live. We live next to the same "CHATTAHOOCHEE" river. How nice is that?!

These are such memories that we shall hold them in us forever. The pictures that we have taken with our eyes are one step ahead of those that came out of the camera lens. They are a treasure to us.

Started the journey after IHop Bfast :-)

Indiana welcomes us

Entering Louisville in Kentucky

The chaos in Nashville Tennessee the next morning

The traffic jam stretched for miles together

Thank God, not on our side of the highway!

River Chattahoochee at Chattanooga with the Sun blazing at 2pm

Cake decorating @ Michaels Store - So much fun!

I am in love with this art - Leaps and Bounds! It can never be more exciting when a group of like minded mixed age people come together. It certainly was fascinating to bake and decorate a cake before I took the step into Michaels. No wonder why the local people are so fond of it and filled with enthusiasm about it. Wisconsin is known as Dairy land of America. So, it is obvious that this land churns out the best products of cheese, dairy and bakery.

My experience was nothing less and nothing different when compared to my counterparts who have taken the class along with me and prior to me in so many other states/stores. Wilton baking products are the finest ones I have seen yet and pricey too. We 6 of us thoroughly enjoyed every session ( 4 sessions for 1 course) and here are the pictures. I wanna post the tips and techniques for making the right icing consistency in all 3 stages of decorating.

Icing consistencies : (Simple buttercream icing)
1. Stiff : Used for decorations such as flowers with upright petals (Rose)
             1 cup solid white veggie shortening
             1 teaspoon essence/flavor (this can be changed - vanilla, butter, almond)
             7-8 teaspoons water
             1 lb pure cane confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)
             1 tablespoon Meringue powder (It is nothing but dried egg white) - optional.

2. Medium : Used to create stars, borders, flowers with petals that lie flat
             Follow the measure of ingredients for stiff icing but add an extra 2 1/2 (2.5) teaspoons water. It means add 8 teaspoons + 2.5 teaspoons of water for Medium consistency.

3. Thin : Used for writing, leaves and icing a cake(masking the bread with the icing)      
             Follow the stiff consistency measure and add an extra of 5 teaspoons of water to it. Which is 8 teaspoons + 5 teaspoons of water to obtain thin icing.

If your icing is way too soupy then you might find difficulty in achieving the flawless/bruiseless looks by using the butter paper method. So stick to the measurements (unlike me!) , invest in the right measuring spoons, cups and achieve the right looks and stability of the cake. I was gifted the right measuring cups and spoons by one of my friends after this cake class, cause I never even thought of investing in one set and all the time I borrowed hers! Ha ha ha.... Thanks to her that I have a good set of tools for cake making.

The icing is one of the 3 key factors. The other two being position of the icing bag and the pressure applied to decorate. It takes enough number of trials to bring out the best in you as always. There is one video that I would like to promote (oops - No way I am being paid for it ;-) ) which will help many in acquiring the tactics. She has been decorating for over 25 years - ouch !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghtvnp7_vPo&feature=related

The photos are the outcome of 3 sessions, the first session did not require any snaps because we just started with store bought icing and some cookies along with a 30 minute boring lecture! So wasn't exciting enough for a photograph.

Session 2: Vanilla cake with simple vanilla flavored Icing

Session 3: Chocolate and Vanilla cup cakes with simple vanilla flavored Icing 

Session 3: Strawberry and Chocolate cake with butter flavored Icing 

I was very satisfied after decorating the final cake. I tried my best to churn out the roses perfect. I did struggle a lot to achieve it. In fact there was a mass production of roses on my table of about 35 and I chose just 7 to put on my cake! I had to simply try making roses to achieve perfection.

Could no attend the next course (Course 3) Gum paste and Fondant, as I was on a vacation. This technique has become more promising in the baking industry cause you can achieve perfection in your icing and roses without any prominent streaks, cuts or bruises on the decoration. Hope I enroll for course 3 and write about it here.

Saving electricity on Air conditioner

This one is somewhat different from many of my posts. I am very ecological/environmental friendly, go green kinda person. I try to keep my carbon footprint as low as possible.

These are the usual things I follow to make my contribution to the society that I live in. You may want to adopt a few.
1. Save water - wherever on earth you are, Water is precious. My mom taught me this. Use just the right amount that's required.
eg : Take a quick shower at least 3-4 times a week and a relaxing one the rest of the days.
       Use completely loaded dishwasher. I never use it, however short of time.

2. Save gas.
eg : Make quick trips to run errands which will act as an exercise as well.

3. Don't use plastic
eg: Always carry few cloth/Reusable bags to the store. I keep a few handy in my car and at home.

4. Keep a watch on the electricity usage
eg : The blog is all about it.

5. Try to use eco friendly / plant based sprays to get rid of bugs

6. Stay away from chemicals even while using cleaning products.
eg: Use baking soda, Vinegar, Lemon juice for cleaning purposes.

The blog is gonna be all about saving money/electricity when using an air conditioner. I chose to experiment all by myself for a couple of months to know how would the electricity usage fluctuate when I always use AC and when I use AC only when needed.

I am at home 24 hours, except for a couple of hours running errands, in the gym, etc. My hubby is so obsessed with coolers/fridge/AC/fan and what not!

My experiment :
Month 1 Experiment 1 -
1. AC is switched off when my hubby leaves for office. 8 AM
2. I open the window/patio screen to let fresh air come in. It's usually below 80 until late afternoon.
3. Untill 4pm (which is an 8 hour gap) I choose to open the windows/screens. I switch on the AC at 4PM and set the thermostat anywhere between 75 and 78 deg F.
4. Shut the windows/screens and blinds too down to avoid the sunlight as my living room and bed room very well face the west.
5. AC runs from 4PM to the next day morning 8 AM ( 16 hours)

Month 2 Experiment 2 -
1. AC is always powered on and the thermostat is set to 73-75 deg F.
2. Occasionally I let in fresh air. (May be an hour)

The experiment was did for 2 months.  I did not sweat it out during the day without AC though.The bill for the 1st month was $65 and the 2nd month was $80.

What a difference it makes. Embrace the 1st method and save electricity. So you thought I am gonna end saying this? Nah....
There was sure a $15 difference, but my Air conditioner stopped running in the 1st experiment!!! Lol..
I had to call for emergency, but dint have a field tech come in that evening, So I decided to switch off Air conditioner and Run the fan associated with it. I did that without my knowledge, but fortunately it saved 4 hours of time of the maintenance man! He praised me so much for my act. :-)

Ultimately, I found out keeping the thermostat at 78-80 deg F if the temperature is not sultry at home is the KEY to this. This will keep the air conditioner running and put it at ease through out the day, rather than having to push itself hard enough and spend too much energy in the process to be up and running after an 8 hour power off.

Some more energy saving methods in the pipeline!

It feels great to have fixed an appliance all by myself :-)

We moved yet again and this time, during the move my dear and near (read that as "My hubby's dear & near") wet grinder was damaged. It came as a shock to both of us, in spite of having a 100 thousand Indian cuisine restaurants. Needless to say, we cried over it for a week. Though I cried over it just for the sake of it in his presence, I knew in my mind that I am gonna do something about it. Either fix it by myself or get it fixed at a bargain-able price.

I browsed the internet for a day to how to go about it and found NOTHING really helpful other than a few no volume videos running screen shots of the grinder (pathetic advertisements) . Also found a few ladies crying their heart out about their own machines/appliances being out of order and also about how expensive the fix is if you ask for a service from an Indian store. I was lucky enough to have come across an approximate price of a new wet grinder ( the one for 110V).

It certainly is expensive than what we pay for in our country. In fact it's twice the amount. A new one was affordable but I having worked a bit in hardware side, did not want to throw away without exploring it. I decided to open it up and fix it if possible.

One principal in life that comes into picture is "If you have failed/lost once, then there is nothing to fear about. So success is certainly on your way". The same applies here. The appliance is already dead. I had nothing to fear about breaking it down.

Here is what I did. This might help at least 1 person. You need a tool box - or just a screw driver. The IKEA tool box screw driver did not work for me 'cause the screws were etched deep. I used one arm of a strong pair of scissors.
I opened the bottom cover of the grinder. The electrical wires will hold on to the plastic cover and will not let you open it up completely. So you have to peep through a 2 inch gap and just put your fingers through to adjust/operate inside. First of all check for the alignment of the belt. This is the usual problem. My appliance was operating (the motor was operating well) but stopped turning the table or the actual grinder. All I did was to re arrange the belt on the 2 wheels and just pushed the belt to take a trip or two on both the wheels without flipping on either side. I kept the appliance open and carefully switched on the power to check if it worked - It DID NOT work. I was frustrated. Then i went on to shake the appliance to get rid of all the plastic chunks that broke from the bottom cover and got accumulated inside. I screwed the nails back and covered it upright. Plugged in to see if something had really changed and things worked. It DID NOT.

I was so angry on myself for having wasted 1 hour over it and kicked the grinder when the power was still on. Guess what - no marks for guessing it right - It WORKED. Hurray! So it wasn't just my hard work, it was luck too.

I am sorry I don't have a picture or video to demonstrate but I am sure the write up will at at least save some wet grinders from being tossed wrongly in to the bins.

Hope this helps,
Tc.

"The Crocheting Craze" off late

I have spent enough time without any aim/goal and have had lots of "my time" doing nothing constructive other than gardening in the past 1 year. But this winter, a bitter cold winter for me 'cos of my move to a snowy state, I learned the art of crocheting. I got hooked to it!

It's such an addicting art, I have never realized....

Will add the patterns, videos in a little while...

1. Afghan/Throw - Ladder pattern

2. Scarf

3. Hat with a rose

4. Place mats

5. Mobile pouch

6. Granny square handbag/Yoga bag

 7. Clutch