A journal of my recipes that i have experimented myself, adapted from my family, friends and different blogs with little changes and ideas of y friends.
Diwali is my favorite festival and also the festival am afraid of.
I just love the way we celebrate.
But am afraid of the Fireworks which are involved with lot of sounds like "Lakshmi bombs", "10000 wala" Patakas etc.
We forget the world around playing with fireworks enjoying till late night 12 and till 1.
I was missing my diwali celebrations since 2 yrs.
I would have missed diwali this time too.
I had a longer stay in India than expected because of "Chuken Gunea" and took part in celebration with my parents.
I decorated my house with rangoli.
It took me 3 hours to complete the design.
My mom's personal assistant helped me to make it fast.
This time, the rangoli colors we brought were so colorful.
Earlier we used to get the powdered ones which is difficuilt to spread.
It would spread chunky that spoils the whole rangoli.
This time we got the colored sand to color the rangoli.
This was so greateasy to spread and in 10's of colors.
I used the lord krishna, and small elephants to decorate the rangoli.
At last i flowered the rangoli with mums and plastic flowers.
They look beautiful.
Isn't it?
A single chocolate chip provides enough energy for a human to walk 150ft.
Adding french fries and a large cola brings the total calories to an amazing 1,500 calories (2/3 of an adult man’s recommended daily caloric intake). A man would need to walk for about nine miles to burn it off.
The CDC estimates that 248,000 Americans die prematurely due to obesity and considers obesity as the number two cause of preventable death in the US (the #1 cause is smoking)
If you decide to avoid fast foods which contain HFCS, then you have to avoid 95% of Mc Donalds menu.
Even subway which is famous for Healthy Fat free Diet, contains HFCS in its wheat bread and sour dough bread.
When it was revealed in 1990 that McDonald's used beef tallow to flavor its french fries, Hindu vegetarian customers in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India, ransacked a McDonald’s restaurant and smeared cow dung on a statue of Ronald MacDonald.
A man would need to walk for about nine miles to burn it off. Adding french fries and a large cola brings the total calories to an amazing 1,500 calories (2/3 of an adult man’s recommended daily caloric intake).
Coca-Cola originally included coca derivatives such as cocaine in their sodas, which at the time was not illegal. It was originally served as a “brain tonic and intellectual soda fountain beverage
When McDonald's opened an outlet in Kuwait shortly after the end of the Gulf War, the line of cars waiting to eat there was seven miles long
Today, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products are sold in every country in the world, except North Korea.
In the U.S., we eat more than 1,000,000 animals an hour
Left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America
McDonald's distributes more toys per year than Toys-R-Us
Coco-cola can be used as car oil imagine how much harm it does to the body
Have you ever wondered why we act crazy for a pizza? Is it the cheese, or the dough or the spices and flavors?
The secret is the HFCS
Fast foods contain "HFCS" which means high fructose corn syrup.
This tricks your body craving to eat more and more.
High fructose corn syrup is simply a kind of corn sugar which is composed of 55 percent fructose.
This is worse more than sugar.
When we eat most carbohydrate foods, the blood sugar level increases and insulin is secreted to transport the sugar into the body's cells. Besides helping to transport blood sugar, insulin also triggers the release of a hormone called leptin. Leptin helps control hunger by signaling the brain that the body is full and therefore to stop eating.
Unlike regular carbs, HFCS does not stimulate or require insulin for transportation to the cells. Since there is no need for insulin release, there is also no secretion of leptin.
Fructose doesn't trip our sense of satisfaction as sugar would, we are, perhaps, eating more sugars to compensate, and upping overall caloric intake in the process
Then what is HFCS?
HFCS is not the corn syrup you buy in a bottle at the supermarket to use for "baking". It's an artificial additive that's cheaper and easier for manufacturers of sodas and fruit juices to use. This is used as an additive in pizzas, baked beans, candies, yeast breads, sweetened yogurt, baby food, ketchup, cookies, beer, sodas, juices and alarmingly in most brands of manufactured foods. The consumption of HFCS had increased 1000 times in 2009 when compared to 1970's
An average american consumes 63 pounds of HFCS a year.
So when you think of a strict Carb diet, avoid the HFCS foods. Stop going for fast foods. You can easily chopp 55% pressure of food c ravings.
So, as long as you're active, and burning of calories, calories shouldn't have too much of a chance to turn into fat. You burn more calories when sleeping than watching television.
Then how many calories do you need a day?
The calorie requirement differs with your age and sex.
Age: Male female
1 to 3 yrs 1300Kal 1300Ca
4 to 6 yrs 1700 cal 1700 cal
7 to 10 yrs 2400 cal 2400 ca
11 to 14 yrs 2700 cal 2200 cal
15 to 18 yrs 2800 cal 2100 cal
19 to 22 yrs 2900 cal 2100 cal
23 to 50 yrs 2700 cal 2000 cal
11 to 14 yrs 2400 cal 1800 cal
So think before you are feasting and fasting. Keeping away from fast foods will let you strain yourself 30% less
Its hard to find gongura or sorrel greens/leaves in United States.
Once or twice a year you might get sour leaves in an Indian store, and that too expensive.
1lb costs anywhere from $5.
During my visit to India, i collected bunches of Sorrel leaves, washed them and dried for a day.
Then i roasted these chopped leaves in oil, added salt for extra storage life.
This is the basis for Gongura pacchadi or "Sorrel Relish".
It stays for 6 months in normal temperature and 3 times sitting in the freezer.
I used this sour leaf "pickled in salt" for my gongura pulusu.
You can use the a store brought Sorrel Pickle and use instead.
3 tbs is enough to make soup for 2 persons.
For koora powder/All spice powder, i make it the following way and use it in fries.
Recipe for Koora Powder:
Cumin and Cilantro and mustard-1spn each
Red chillies - 3 to 4
Chana daal - 3 tblspn
Roast them and grind them in to coarse powder.
Now the original recipe for pulusu/Soup:
Fry the tempering ingredients in order that was given above in oil.
Now add sour leaf pickle 3 tblspn and fry for 1 min.
Add chana daal onions, tomatoes and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil.
Now add All spice powder, Red chilli powder, Mustard and Fenugrek powder
Bring it to boil for another 10 min untill it thickens and serve hot.
The chana daal in koora powder will thicken the sauce.
The more garlic cloves you add in tempering, the more extraordinary is the taste of gongura pulusu.
Frying garlic cloves whole in oil and boiling them with sour leaves gives a pungent smell and taste.
This goes great with Rice.
Gongura has lots of Iron and if you are anemic eat 3tblspn of gongura every week.
Serving tips:
Gongura pulusu tastes great with "Mudda pappu" or 100% boiled toor daal.
This combination tastes excellent with combination of Hot rice, Muddapappu and Ghee.
After my Hottest Pepper article today, craving for "Mirchi bajji" started a lot.
What is famous for Mirchi? Ask any andhra wala he will tell u
"Guntur" is famous for Hot red chilli peppers and Hot Mirchi bajji.
It has the Asia's Largest "Chilli Pepper" Mirchi Market yard.
A couple of years ago, a fire accident destroyed the Mirchi yard completely.
Mirchi bajji is a dumpling prepared with Hot chilli green peppers dipped in "Garbanzo flour batter"
Stuffings inside the Bajji vary according to region.
There are 4 types of stuffing i tried and each stuffing has its own taste.
The different stuffings vary according to region.
Andhra style:
The stuffing includes Tamrind sauce, Vaamu/Caraway seeds, onions and Pepper seeds.
This is a typical Street food. Rayalaseema style stuffing:
Rayalaseema is famous for "Phalli" or peanuts.
Bajji stuffing is made with phalli and coconut mixture. Telangana style:
Stuffing is prepared with just caraway seeds and tamrind and deep fried.
The deep fried bajji is cut in to pieces and deep fried again.
This is also called cut mirchi.
This is a crispy bajji which goes well with sweet sauce, Phalli chutney.
Go to gokul chat restaurant in hyderabad to enjoy this Bajji.
The road side typical "Mirchi bajji" has more and more stuffings.
Bajji is stuffed with coconut, and tamrind sauce with caraway seeds.
This mirchi is slit horizontally and stuffed again with onions, tomatoes, lemon sqeeze, Coriander leaves/cilantro and topped with Jeera and black pepper powder.
Here is myrecipe for a typical roadside mirchi bajji:
For batter:
2 tblspn Rice flour
1 cup besan flour
caraway seeds roasted and powdered - 3 tblspn
Baking soda - 1 tblspn.
For stuffing:
Thick Sqeezed Tamrind sauce - 1/4th cup
Coconut grated - 1/4th cup
Caraway seeds - 1/4th cup roasted
Pepper seeds seperated from the slitted Peppers before deep frying
Salt as per taste.
Mirchi Toppings:
Finely chopped Onions
Finely chopped Tomatoes
Cilantro
Lemon sqeezed
salt
Cumin and chilli powder
Recipe is as follows:
Slit peppers horizontally and remove seeds from inside.
Reserve these seeds for stuffing.
Mix squeezed tamrind sauce, grated coconut, celery seeds, Cumin seed powdered and salt in to a paste.
Fill the coconut stuffing in to the slitted bajjis.
Dip them in the batter and deep fry them till golden brown.
Let them Cool down on a rack.
Slit the mirchi again where it was slit earlier.
Now stuff the mirchi again with Chopped Onions, minced green peppers, tomatoes, cumin powder and chopped cilantro and serve with squeezed lemon juice.
You can even add "Potato curry" fried with onions and spices to the filling.
I have tried a different stuffing for my Cut mirchi bajji.
Instead of following the traditional method, i used heavy stuffing for my bajjis.
It came out so great that my husband completed all the bajjis.
Here is my stuffing:
Potatoes boiled - handfull
Onions - handfull
Chat masala - 3 tblspn
mirchi seeds removed from mirchi earlier
roasted chana daal - 4tblspn
Peanuts roasted - 3tblspn
salt to taste
Chana daal is of two types.
One is Pacchi senaga pappu which is used in tempering tamrind rice.
Gulla senagapappu is pre roasted chana daal. You can eat this chanadaal for timepass without roasting.
This pappu is grinded in to besan flour.
Make sure you use roasted pacchi senagapappu.
Roast peanuts and chana daal seperately and grind coarsly.
Fry the onions, till tender and add boiled potatoes, chat masala, chilli seeds, green chillies if required.
Mash the fried curry and stuff inside the mirchi and dip in the batter and fry them.
After slitting the fried peppers top with the onions and tomatoes with lemon and cilantro.
Try this stuffing and post your comments.
This bajji goes great with PKP(Pidatha Kandi Pappu)
When you go to an American restaurant, you order "Extra hot".
But when you go to an Indian Restaurant you say "Extra spicy"
What is the difference between "Extra hot and Spicy"?
People commonly use the words “hot” and “spicy” interchangeably. However, is that these two words represent two different taste sensations in our palate.
When we talk about a food being “hot” in taste, we really mean that it produces a burning sensation in one’s mouth. On the other hand, “spicy” traditionally describes savory and flavorful foods.
For example, we all know that Tabasco sauce is “hot”. Right!!!!
Add a tablespoon of Tabasco sauce to scrambled eggs. It would inevitably produce a strong burning sensation in one’s mouth. However, one would not call that scrambled egg spicy. By the same token, you can eat some well-seasoned "Chilli paneer", that may have all kinds of seasonings and flavor, but you would not necessarily call it “Extra hot”. You would call it "Extra spicy".
Hottest Peppers in the world
Then what is the hottest peppers and hottest recipe of the world?
And how is the "hottness" calculated?
Hottnes of a food is calculated on a "Scoville" scale which was developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, was created to measure the heat level in chillies and is used world-wide today. To have an idea on peppers Hottness scale, see the following list:
0 - Bell Pepper
100-500 - Pepperoncini
1000-1500 - Poblano
2500-10,000 - Jalapenos and Chipolte
5000-23,000 - Serrano
30,000-50,000 - Cayenne
80,000 & up - Habenero, Scotch Bonnet
The most Hottest chilli pepper acknowledged by "Guinness Book of World records" is "BHUT JOLOKIA" which weights at 1,001,304 Scoville heat units, the Bhut Jolokia chili from India has been named the world's hottest pepper by the Guinness Book of World Records. It is found in the northern part of India in Nagaland, Assam and Manipal.Just to put that into perspective, the jalapeno sits at a meager 10,000 SHU.
Then what is the "Hottest curry" available on earth.
Then go to UK and try "Lamb Phall Curry"
As anyone who has tried Phall Curry will tell you, eating this dish is quite a challenge. It is known across the world as the hottest curry available, and some restaurants even provide customers who finish a whole bowl, with a certificate.
This dish is a regular indian curry adopted by Indian restaurants in UK.
This dish contains 12 different hot chili's including the worlds hottest peppers the habanero, scotch bonnet and Bhut Jolokia, the hottest chili pepper on Earth.
It contains spices like ginger and fennel seeds, but with your mouth on fire, you probably won’t even taste them. Just a side note:
you will not get the same punch as the dried chili's and the chef has to were a gas mask for protection or he can be overcome by the cooking fumes, 60 minutes of the recipe above will not kill you.
This recipe is dedicated to my friend Gita who inspired me for blogging.
Gita is one of my friends who always have a lovely smile and a passion for cooking.
She is also a Food Blogger with wonderful recipes of her own which inspires me more on trying new recipes.
Gita!!!! It would be a great idea if you get your recipes published in a book.
I wish you to write a book of your own unique recipes for publishing.
Believe me some of her recipes became a regular menu items.
Some of her recipes like Oatmeals Bisi Bele Bath, Oatmeal Pongal, Wheat rice pulao, Cranberry rasam joined in our daily menu.
Oatmeals Bisi Bele Bath is my hubby's Favorite. He is notorious for being "Choosy on foods".
Such a man is also a great fan for Gits'a recipes.
Here is the link for Gitas Blog with Oatmeals Recipe:
http://gitaskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/06/bisibelebath-with-oats.html
This cake recipe is dedicated to Gita for sharing lovely recipes with friends.
Gita!!!! Oh dear, me and my cake miss you a lot.
Chocolate chips - 1 cup
Sugar syrup - 1 cup
Canned Lite cherries - 1 can
Whipping cream - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/3 cup confectioners sugar + 3 tblspn sugar
1/4th cup milk
Preperation: Step 1:
Bake the cake as per the instructions on the package at 450 degrees F Step 2:
Chocolate whipping cream:
Mean while make chocolate Whipped cream
Mix 1 cup whipping cream and confectioners sugar.
Now double boil chocolate chips and add 1/4th cup milk and 4 tblspn sugar.
Let the chocolate sauce cool down.
Meanwhile whip the cream with sugar in cream blender.
If you don't have a blender,and have a Indian Mixer grinder, whip the cream using the Buttermilk whipping blade.
It takes not more than 10 seconds to whip the cream with Buttermilk blender.
Just fold the chocolate sauce in to the whipping cream with a spoon.
Do not whip cream much as it turns out to butter. Step 3: Fillngs for bottom and top layer
Let the cake cool down.
Remove the cake from the baking bowl and trim the upper part.
Cut the Cake in to 2 layers.
Moist the cake with sugar syrup spreading it with a spoon or ketchup bottle.
Top the layer with chocolate whipped cream.
Add 2 tbl spn of sugar to tinned cherry pie filling if you feel it is more tangy.
Spread half tin of cherry pie filling on the chocolate cream.
Place the top layer of cake above cherry filling.
Trim the ends of cake.
Use the chocolate whipped cream for icing the cake.
I used plain whipped cream with sugar and vanilla instead of chocolate icing.
Shave a chocolate bar with potato chip slicer and top it on the icing.
Decorate your cake with rest of cherry filling and chocolate chips.
Chill in the refridgerator for an hour and serve.
On this new year eve, we were expecting friends from virginia.
Suma and suman with charming daughter cherry from VA are a real great family you wanna hangout with.
I made preperations to make a princes cake for cherry, their daughter with Fondant of Marshmellows.
They couldnt make up to CT because of bad weather conditions with 2 ft snow in CT.
I have done all preperations for the New year celebrations by afternoon and started working on cake.
When i heard in this news in the morning, i was so disappointed and my excitement for the cake had gone.
I ended it up with a Regular Black forest cake.
This cake is for cherry, whom we miss the most. See how her princes cake turnout in to a black forest cake.
We had our friends Ram kumar, and Tej family for new year celebrations at my place.
The cake came out so great that the cake was consumed in 15 min.
I was lazy to include my music video performance in my blog.
At last my music performance is in my blog.
My neighbor Saritha introduced me to a Music composer and his Orchestra group in Middle town.
Maran and his team is searching for a Telugu singer.
Mr Maran and team is a Tamil orchestra who are giving a Telugu Music performance forst time for Telugu association of CT. They want a Telugu singer to help them in Lyrics.
Sarita friend Mr. Vishwanath is one of the singers in the Maran's Orchestra and thats how i was introduced..
He is such a lovely singer that Solo performance for "Jayaho" song in the movie "slum dog millionaire" became a highlight. Every one was excited that you can see their excitement in their dances and guys shouting for the song second time. See the excitement............
My performance was a solo and a duet.
Solo performance is the theme song from the movie "Anjali".
Duet is my favorite song from "Bommani geesthe".
I enjoyed singing my solo song but not with "bommani geesthe"
Dr Pandian, a Primary care physician from Middle town, was my song partner.
He is a pure tamilian and he has no idea of Telugu songs.
"Santosh subrahmanyiam" is the Tamil remake of Telugu movie "bommarillu" and so he has an idea of the song.
But he is so poor in adopting to the Lyrics. See this
Since i went for practice for just 3 times and Pandianwas on a tour to India during the second Practice session, he had a little time to adopt Telugu lyrics.
See him singing the song and my inconvenience when he was having flaws in the song, it would have been nice if i was in the practice session at-least 5 to 6 times.
Even though he was not adaptable to lyrics because of shot practice sessions, he was quite great in his voice.
He sang an another song from Mutthu
And the most lovely performance in our orchestra is "Oh sona vennela sona"
I will attach that video too in my next post with the details.
Day before performance
I was all set for the stage performance.
My brother minu joined us the weekend we had the performance.
He drove all the way from Cleaveland, Ohio to Manchester which is 650 miles which is a 9 hour drive.
He started at 9 in morning and 2 hours later, pouring rain started till the end of his journey.
He is an expert driver who learnt driving when he was 9 yrs.
He loves a long drive and is a car freak.
Being an expert, he was afraid of the heavy rain and traffic with highway patroling officers.
He was caught by a Police officer with "slow driving" on a "speed lane".
Since he is on an international license and heavy rain, he was not given a ticket.
Ooooooooooooooooooooofh Thanks god.
This is my brother minu
His name is Naumene. My dad named him after a German Liberal Revolutionist Friedrich Naumann (March 25, 1860 – August 24, 1919).
My dad is a communist.
Tej, Ram kumar and our family headed to Mohegon Sun Casino with Ramesh's Office Auditor for a Casino hangout who came for an audit from NY for a week.
This auditor is a Item and a Nerd and he is from PWCA.
He is from Delhi.
He came all the way to Mohegan Sun Casino with 10 dollars to play Poker.
I will tell about this guy later. He has a separate post.
We went to Springfield ice skating rink. When i was a kid i learnt skating and i went in to the rink with great Over confidence. I skate here in Manchester but not ice skating.
The first 10 min it went smooth.
Once i started to earn a pace, i slipped on floor and bumped my Head and had a twisted ankle.
I became worried about my performance would be an upset if i couldn't set myself prepared.
Even though i was hurt we were in the casino playing poker and wheel of fortune till Late night 4.
I never compromise with Sleep. But my winning spree didnt let me sleep.
The greatest thing is i won $412 with 32 dollars of investment and my friend "Shilpa" had a jackpot of $600.
We thought of leaving town at 6 in morning and dressed up in Indian Attire and leave for the show.
But we couldn't make it as we were late.We were all excited and slept at 4 30 and headed back directly to middle town for my performance.
I was getting ready for the show and ramesh went home and got my dress to the venue where i had my makeup and set for the show.
There was an another surprise, my uncle from Stamford also joined us unexpectedly.
His daughter is giving a dance performance.
The most amazing thing in the Maran and his team is his "Daughter Diana who plays the Piano great.
His son works on both Piano and Drums.
Really this is a great experience with great team and unforgettable experience with Skates.
