Fruit Juice and Nostalgia

Orange juice
My dad's favorite question "Why not just peel and enjoy the natural fruit? "

Pachadi - பச்சடி
One of the childhood adventures was to climb on the branches of the mango trees and jump off them where the altitude was very low. As we didn’t have steps to the open terrace, I used to climb on the ladder and reach the terrace pick the mangoes straight from the tree. There were 4 varieties of mango trees in my garden. I just remember one name ---…neelam. Others I don’t remember. One variety was meant for pickles. I was really scared of the weaver ants (முசுடு - 'musudu' in my language) roaming on the tree branches and building nests with mango leaves. Nowadays whenever I see the mango trees I always remember my childhood and mischievous acts. Let’s see the recipe: For this pachadi, mango should be sweet and sour. But I made this pachadi with whatever type of mango I got in the store.

Ingredients:
Mango – 1
Red chilli powder – ½ teaspoon
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch
Mustard seeds – 1/2 teaspoon
Fenugreek seeds – 5 seeds (I didn’t add)
Salt
Oil, Jaggery – small piece (crush into powder),Curry leaves few

Method:
Cut the mangoes into small piece (some may like to add the seed also).
Heat the oil in the kadai.
Add mustard seeds and allow it to crackle.
Then add the mango pieces and sauté.
Then add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt.
Add ½ cup of water.
When the pieces become tender add the jaggery powder and mix.

Buttermilk (மோர்) :I remember thanneer pandhal which has both water and neer morr in earthen pots. Whenever I return back from school in a bicycle, I used to count by how many houses have kept thanneer pandhal. In some houses people will sit beside to give the drinks with a warm smile. Other places, no persons to attend. In some places, there won’t be any pots but only the pandhals are available. At my house, when relatives arrive, the first thing they get is morr. As we lived in tropical climate, only experience can tell how the one feels after having morr. No ice is added. It is just the earthen pot made from the pottery wheel. The magic is that the teeny tiny pores of the pot let some moisture of the contents to escape and in turn making it cool on the outside part protecting the morr from heat. This is a natural cooling process. Ah, science…
The way to make மோர் as I know is, to crush green chillies, curry leaves, ginger and add to butter milk with salt.

Buttermilk sent off to the 15-minute event.

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Veg. Fried Rice and Chilli Chicken

I deleted the original post accidently. Re-Posting the fried rice and chilli chicken. Many of you posted your comments. I am sorry, your comments are lost.

Many of us do have occasional urge to try Chinese food. In my home (country), the Chinese food is customized to our local taste. When I was newly married, my husband held a party for his colleagues in Bombay. There were quite noisy discussions about what dish to order. Many of them opted for Chinese food. When the food arrived, everyone got busy immediately with Chinese food. I could not tolerate more than 2 spoons of that fried rice because the rice was half-boiled and vegetables were crunchy (UGH!). I could just drink my favorite pomegranate juice. At that time, the Indo-Chinese was a strange food to me. All of them gobbled the food with complete satisfaction and I could see that their little satisfied faces. My husband wanted to order food of some other cuisine and I objected to it. And I was shy at that time. After I reached home, I had to gulp the warm milk. My husband’s intrigue in this food prompted me learn those Indo-Chinese recipes. Rice should be 50% or 75% boiled (Some people may have some digestion problems. The rice should be fully boiled in order NOT to be sticky for those who have digestion problems). After experimenting with recipes from Sanjeev Kapoor, Yan can cook, and other TV shows, I have built up this recipe. The real food tasters (kids) liked it.

Vegetable Fried Rice

Ingredients:

Rice – 2 cups

White Onion (chopped finely) - ¼

Or

Use the white onion bulb of the spring onion (chopped) – 5

Spring Onion (chopped) – 3

Carrot, Beans – ½ cup finely chopped

Ginger (grated) – 1 teaspoon

Garlic (grated) – 1 teaspoon

Soy Sauce – 2 tablespoon

White pepper powder – ¼ teaspoon

MSG (ajinomoto) - 2 pinches *optional*

Salt – required quantity.

Sesame oil

Method:

Boil the rice up to 50% to 75%.

Let the rice cool.

Add the oil in a cooking wok (heat – very high, work fast!)

Then toss in the ginger and garlic and sauté them.

Immediately include the onions and continue stirring.

After that, add the vegetables and fry.

Add the rice quickly into the wok and sauté them too.

Then pour the soy sauce, salt, msg (if needed), white pepper powder and mix well.

All the morsels (each and every one of them) of rice should be covered with the mixture. Remove from the stove.

Garnish them with spring onions.

Note: I didn’t add too much soy sauce.

Chilli Chicken

Ingredients:
Skinless Boneless Chicken – 1 lb.

White Onion – ½ diced

Ginger (grated) – 1 ½ teaspoon

Garlic – 1 teaspoon

Green Chillies (fresh) – 6 (slit lengthwise)

Spring onions (chopped) – 3

Red chilli sauce – 3 tablespoon

Soy sauce – 4 tablespoon

Red capsicum – diced half

Cooking Vinegar – 1 teaspoon

Corn flour – 2 tablespoon

Aji no moto – 2 pinches *optional*

Oil for sautéing and deep-frying

Salt as required.

Marinating ingredients:

White Pepper -1/2 teaspoon

Corn flour – 1.5 tablespoon

All purpose flour/maida – 1/2 tablespoon

Salt – You know how much

Soy sauce – ½ teaspoon

(Some chefs recommend egg here. I did not use eggs.)

Method:

In a mixing bowl, add the corn flour, all purpose flour, salt, soy sauce, white pepper, chicken (cut into bite-sized pieces) and mix well.

Cover the bowl and keep it aside for 30 minutes.

For deep-frying, oil should be medium hot.

Add the chicken pieces and fry the both sides of the pieces by turning them.

DON’T OVERCROWD THE PAN WITH SO MANY CHICKEN PIECES!!!

Remove when color changes to light golden brown (Don’t fry so crisply).

In a wok, heat the oil, and add the onion, ginger, garlic and fry them (on a high heat).

Add the green chillies, capsicum, spring onions and sauté.

Add the chicken pieces and fry.

Add the soy sauce, red chilli sauce and sauté.

Then add the vinegar, aji no moto (optional!), salt, and fry.

Add one cup of water, and mix well.

Meanwhile mix the corn flour with half cup of water without any lumps.

Add this to the wok and mix well for 2 minutes.

Enjoy with fried rice!

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Falooda

Ingredients:
Falooda sev – ½ cup
Basil seeds – 1 tablespoon
Milk – 5 cups
Sugar – ¼ cup (or as per taste)
Rose syrup – 6 tablespoons
Vanilla ice cream – 4 scoops

Garnishing:
Pistachios chopped
Almonds chopped

Method:Boil the milk and keep aside. Take one cup of milk and add one tablespoon of basil seeds to it .
Soak the seeds more than 30 minutes and chill
To the remaining boiled milk add ¼ cup of sugar and dissolve it. Chill it in the refrigerator.
Cut the sevs with kitchen scissors to about 1 ½ inch length.
Boil the water and add the sevs.
Sevs will take 3 to 4 minutes to be cooked.
Drain it in the strainer and show the strainer in the cold running water. Keep covered in the refrigerator till the serving time.

Serving time:
Take the soaking seeds in the milk (1 cup milk + seeds), pour it in the milk with sugar (4 cups milk+sugar) and mix all well.
Now add 6 tablespoons of rose syrup and mix well.
In a glass first add 1 tablespoon of cooked sev, then pour the milk mixture on the sev.
Add one scoop of vanilla ice cream on the top.
Garnish it with chopped pistachios and almonds.

Note:
Falooda sev is made of corn flour. It's like spaghetti but unlike spaghetti, it is formed in circles. It's thin and yellow. If you want to use vermicelli, then there is no need to cut as they're already cut.

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Sandesh

Ingredients:
Whole milk – ½ gallon
Lime /lemon juice – 1 to 2 tablespoons
Powdered sugar – 1/2 cup or according to your taste
Cardamom powder – ¼ teaspoon
Rose essence – 2 to 3 drops
Pink colour – 2 to 4 drops
Milk - ½ teaspoon (to mix the food colour)
Saffron strands for garnishing.
Cheese cloth.
Strainer.



Method:
In a thick sauce pan add the milk.
Bring the milk to boil.
Add the lime /lemon juice in the middle.
Remove from heat when milk curdles.
Spread the cheese cloth in a strainer. Use a coarse woven cheese cloth and a strainer to get the malai (indian cottage cheese) .
To soften the cheese and to subdue the lime taste, hold the cheese on running water for a few seconds. Allow all the water to drip away.
Make a soft dough of the cheese by kneading it for 3-4 minutes or until soft.
Add the powdered sugar, rose essence, cardamom powder to the dough and knead.
Mix the food colour in ½ teaspoon of milk, sprinkle it on the cheese dough and knead.
In a pan add the cheese and cook in very low flame for 4 to 5 minutes.
Mix continuously with flat spatula.
When the cheese starts to leave the sides of pan, remove and shape into desired.
Garnish if you like.
Reference : http://keeptrying.wordpress.com/2006/05/04/kesar-sandeshlessons-learnt/

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White Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin is a squashy vegetable and also for carving Halloween faces. Of course, you can recognize those funny faces in Halloween ….. In my memory, I had seen many people use pumpkins for dhrishti and mess up the road. I don’t know if they still continue to do these activities nowadays. But white pumpkin…….grown in India, China, New England. They’re like the common yellow/orange pumpkins. Sometimes, they’re called ghost pumpkins. Their seeds are roasted and used in salads for diet.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/295698hound.chow.com/topics/295698

Ingredients:
White pumpkin – 1 medium sized (cut into cubes)
Onion – ¼ (diced)
Ginger – 1 inch (grated)
Carrot – 1 (diced)
Red capsicum – ½ (diced)
Olive oil as required for sautéing
Coconut milk – 1 cup
Chicken /vegetable broth or water – 2 cups
White pepper
Salt – little
Cream to garnish

Method:
Boil the pumpkins till tender, and puree them.
Add oil to the kadai. Toss in onions and sauté. Then throw ginger and again sauté.
Throw in the carrot and capsicum and pour little water.
When the carrot and capsicum are tender, puree them.
Mix (Kalakkunga, Kalakkunga, Kalakiktae Irunga!) all the pumpkin, carrot, capsicum purees and 2 cups of broth, stir well.
Add salt.
Include the coconut milk and remove from fire.
Spinkle the white pepper and garnish with cream.
Note: As we have added coconut milk, it should not be reheated and it's good to be consumed immediately.
You can also add equal parts of diced celery, carrot and little of capsicum.

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Strawberry Smoothie

I had plenty of strawberries in my back yard (in the last night's dream........hmmm!!! deep breath). I love the color of strawberry with green leaves combo.

Ingredients:
Strawberry – 10
Banana (frozen) – 1
Fresh orange juice – squeezed from one fruit
Vanilla flavored low fat yogurt – 2 tablespoon
Ice as required.

Method:
Toss the strawberries and frozen banana in a blender and blend.
Then add the orange juice, vanilla yogurt and ice.
Blend till smooth.
Pour it in a tall glass and have a healthy drink!

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