Some Tips - 1

Jeera
Jeera is good for digestion. I am a fan of Jeera that is the reason. You can add it in most of the recipes except for sweets though :)

Mustard Seeds Powder
When you prepare mustard seeds powder, use it immediately otherwise the powder does not take much time to taste bitter. One of my friends suggested to store it along wiht salt, so that you dont get the bitter taste and no need to do it fresh everytime. Will try it and let you know....

More to come soon.....

Burrito or Tacos

One of our friends were making it so took a quick memory recap and made at home. Its fast to make it at home too, if you have all the ingredients. We dont like the rice in burrito or tacos so I did not add it in my recipe but it can be added if desired.

Ingredients
Tortillas
Black beans
Shredded Cheese (We bought the Mexican Shredded Cheese)
Red Onion - 1
Tomato - 1 and 1/2
Avacados - 2
Guacamole Mix
Salsa (can make fresh salsa at home or buy it from store)
Jalepenos (dipped in vinegar, from store)
Rice (Optional)
Sour Cream (Optional)




Guacamole Preparation
1. Chop 1/2 of the onion into very small pieces. Chop one Tomato into small pieces.

2. Peel the Avacados and cut into small pieces. Make sure you dont include the inside big nut.

3. Add the chopped onions, avacado pieces and guacamole mix into a bowl and try to mash them. If you have a pestel, I would recommend to use it. Your Guacamole is ready.



Note: Avacados are very sensitive to feel or see but when you try to crush it, its not that easy :) So I would recommend make it very small pieces so that your life becomes easy for crushing it.

Method of Preparation
1. Fry the Tortialla on a pan for a less than a minute.

2. Take the tortilla in hand and put a spoon of black beans, Guacamole, Jalepenos (1 or 2 depending upon your spice level required), Salsa, some onions and tomato's in the middle of the tortilla. Also add sour Cream, and at the end add the shredded cheese. Wrap it up and have a bite.....

Will post the Fresh Mild Salsa preparation soon.

Vada

I tried the normal vada this time. It came out very good. This is my husband's one of favourite. Easy to make and yummy to eat. Initially I was unable to make the round but by the time I reached end, I was fast and got the technique of how to make the shape of vada's. :)
The next things to try in my list are Masala Vada and Dahi Wada.

Ingredients
Urad Dal - Soaked overnight (or atleast 3 hours)
Baking Soda - a pinch
Salt to Taste
Oil - for frying

Method of Preparation
1. Grind the soaked urad dal with as much little water as possible. Add the salt and baking soda and keep aside.

2. Put Oil in kadai for deep frying and let me heat.

3. Take a platic cover or if you are good, you can make it on hand. I would suggest for first time/initial preparation use a plastic cover. Apply some oil on a side.

4. Take a small lump of the paste made in step 1. then put that on the plastic cover where you applied oil. Spread it with your hand so that it forms a round shape. Put a small hole in between, to make it totally of Vada shape.

5. Tilt the cover slowly and take the vada into your hand. Slowly put it in the heated oil. Careful not to touch the oil and should not drop it from long height too, as there is chance of spilling the oil.

6. Fry for a minute or two. Move the vadas to other side in between. When both sides turn golden red or brown, remove it. Your vada's are ready to serve.

Serve them with Peanut/Coconut Chutney and with Sambar.

Note: Shall post some pictures soon.

Happy Diwali

Wishing all a Very Happy and Prosperous Diwali....



Today I gave Niwali (Mangala Harathi) to my brothers. Wanted to share that special tradition with everyone. This might be famous in other places also, but we Manthani people do it for sure in the following way.

The day before or the same day of Diwali(depending on the moon sign day), Sisters show Mangala Harathi (aarthi) to their brothers. The tradition starts early morning, before taking shower. Sisters apply coconut oil on the head of the brother for 3 times. Then comes the nazar utaro section, where the girl will take two laddoo type things (made from either besan or wheat flour with pinch of turmeric added), and turns them in one direction around the whole family. Same thing is done again with different set of laddoo type in the reverse direction. Finally they show aarthi to brothers and then to rest of the family.

Brother's give gifts to their sisters on two occasions for sure. One is Rakhi and other is Niwali, which I mentioned above. After the above thing is done, then we enjoy the special snacks prepared by mom. Peni, Madugulu (also called Jantikalu in andhra side), Chakkilaalu with Ghee and Tamarind Pickle. But the taste that we have on the food after niwali is total different from normal times.

Then the Diwali season comes, which everybody know that we all will have blasts.... new clothes, Special food, Crackers, Fire works .... Earthware Diya's.

Lot of unforgettable memories. As soon as the evening happens we wait to lite the earth ware diya's and decorate it around the home. Before the dinner have lot of fun with fireworks. and then finally the day ends with Laxmi Puja before having dinner. It is considered auspicious to do Laxmi puja on Diwali.

The following is a mangal aarthi which I am copying from another site, thoda modified so that we can sing it like OM JAI JAGADEESH HARE song:

Link: http://festivals.iloveindia.com/diwali/maa-lakshmi-aarti.html
GODDESS LAKSHMI AARTI

Jai lakshmi maataa, maiyaa jai lakshmi maataa
tumko nishadin dhyaavta, hara vishnu vidhaataa
brahmaani, rudraani, kamlaa, tu hi hai jaga maataa
Om Jai lakshmi maataa

surya chandramaa dhyaavata, naarada rishi gaataa
durgaa rupa nirantara, sukha sampati daataa
Om Jai lakshmi maataa

jo koi tumko dhyaavata, riddhi siddhi dhan paataa
tu hi hai paatala basanti, tu hi shubha daataa
Om Jai lakshmi maataa

karma prabhaava prakaashaka, jaganidhi ke traataa
jis ghar mein tum rahati, sada sadguna aataa
Om Jai lakshmi maataa

kara sake koii kara le, mann nahin ghabaraataa
tuma bina yagya na hove, vastra na koii paataa
Om Jai lakshmi maataa

khaana paana ka vaibhava, sab tumse hi aataa
shubha guna mandira sundara, kshirodadhi jaataa
ratana chaturdasha tuma hi, koii nahin paataa
Jai lakshmi maataa, maiyaa jai lakshmi maataa

aartii lakshmii ji ki, jo koii nar gaataa
ura aananda umanga ati, paap utar jaataa
Om Jai lakshmi maataa

Hope you all will also have blast on Diwali.....

My Items on Diwali:

Sweets we got from outside:


Cucumber Raita


Peel the cucumber and grate it. Squeeze the juice out of it. Add salt, green chillies, Dahivada raita powder(my fav), and ofcourse curd to it. Mix it well. Add tadka with oil, 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, curry leaves and 1 tea spoon urad dal on top.
Traditionally, we dont add the Dahivada raita powder, we use 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds powder. Try it..


Vegetable baath recipe from Asha's blog


Our Dinner:
Cucumber Raita, Mango and Amaranth leaves Lentil, Spicy Potato Curry, Vegetable Baath with white rice.

Tuvar and Turai Curry

I bought this turai(Beerakaya, Ridge Gourd) fresh from indian store. But problem was the curry becomes very less unless combined with something else, or if you have large quantity. This was one of recipes tried in the potluck. I liked the taste and wish to share it with everybody.

Ingredients
Turai - 1 long
Tuvar - 1-2 cups (I used one packet of frozen)
Mustard seeds - 1 table spoon
Cumin seeds - 1 table spoon
Chilli Powder - according to taste
Oil
Salt to Taste

Method of Preparation

1. Clean, Peel the skin and chop the turai. For tuvar you can either chop it or make small pieces by hand(if fresh).

2. Take a kadai, add mustard seeds. let them splutter and then cumin seeds.

3. Add Turai and tuvar cleaned to the kadai. Add chilli powder and Salt also.

4. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until both the vegetables are cooked. The curry is ready.

You can serve this curry with either hot rice or roti.

Terms
Tuvar - Goru chikkudu kaya (Telugu)
Turai - Beerakaya (Telugu), Ridge Gourd