Diwali celebrations in india

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?

Interesting facts about fast foods

• 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

why are fast foods tempting and irresistable ?

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.

Calorie meter

It Takes 3500 Calories To make A Pound Of Fat!

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 

Gongura pulusu (Sour leaf pulusu)

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.

Recipe for my gongura pulusu or Sorrel soup.

Ingredients:

For the soup:

Salt pickled sour leaf - 3 tbsp

Onions and tomatoes diced - 1 cup

Chana daal - 1/4th cup

Koora powder All spice mix - 4 tbsp optional

Mustard seeds - 3 tbsp

methi/fenugreek seeds - 1 tbsp

Red chillis - 5-6

green chillies - 3-4

For tempering:

Garlic cloves - 1/4th cup

green chillies - 5-6
Powdered mustard -  2tblspn
Powdered Fenugreek . 1tblspn
Curry powder - 2 tblspn

Hing/Asefotida - optional

curry leaves- 1 stem

red chillies - 3

Method of preperation:

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.

Mirchi Bajji with potato stuffing

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)

Spicy and Hot food. What is the difference?

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.