Fada Lapsi| Broken Wheat Pongal

This festive season, try out this relatively guilt-free dessert called Fada Lapsi!

Fada Lapsi is a heritage Gujarati dessert made using broken wheat (dalia) and jaggery, considered highly auspicious. It is prepared to celebrate engagements, weddings and other festive occasions like Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami and Diwali.

I make the Fada Lapsi the way a Gujarati family friend taught me years ago, an easy-peasy recipe that doesn’t require too much of expertise or effort. The end result, though, is supremely delicious and hearty.

Do try out the recipe and share your feedback!

Mawa Gulab Jamun Recipe| How To Make Gulab Jamun With Khoya

Eid is just around the corner!

 

How about making some gulab jamun from scratch for the occasion? My latest blog post talks about just that – how you can make the perfect gulab jamuns using khoya or mawa. I have included precise, detailed notes to help you along the journey.

 

I’m sure most of us love gulab jamuns, so let’s get cooking away! Check out the recipe on my other blog, here!

Pasi Parippu Kosumalli|Simple South Indian Lentil Salad

Best wishes for Sri Rama Navami!

Today, I present to you the recipe for Pasi Parippu Kosumalli, a simple South Indian-style lentil salad. This mildly spiced salad is extremely delicious and healthy, and is a breeze to put together. A dish that is traditionally prepared in Tamilian households on the occasion of Sri Rama Navami, this cooling salad is just perfect to beat the summer heat that is soaring by the day.

Check out the recipe, just in on my other blog!

Neer More With A Difference| Spiced Buttermilk Recipe

It is Sri Rama Navami this weekend, the birthday of God Rama. In Tamilian households, this occasion is marked by the preparation of Neer More (literally, ‘watered-down buttermilk’ in Tamil), Panakam (a mildly spiced beverage prepared with jaggery water), and Kosumalli (a salad made using split moong daal).

Today, I present to you a recipe for Neer More that is different from the usual. This is not your regular South Indian-style spiced buttermilk, but one infused with kaffir lime and chilli. This version is just as delicious, just as cooling as the traditional one, and is equally simple to prepare. Do try out this new Spiced Buttermilk Recipe this summer!

Check out the recipe for Neer More with a difference, just in on my photo blog.

Postcards From The 75th Ayappan Festival, Tattamangalam, Kerala

The village of Tattamangalam, near Palakkad in Kerala, is where my mother-in-law grew up. For the last 74 years, Tattamangalam has been conducting festivities to commemorate ‘Ayappan season’, the period between Diwali (October-November) till Pongal (January 14), which is when the maximum number of pilgrims visit the holy temple of Lord Ayappa at Sabarimala. These festivities in Tattamangalam, typically held towards the end of every December, are quite grand, I have always been told, including parades by elephants, performances by music artistes, large-scale community meals, frenzied beats of drums and cymbals, and the blowing of trumpets.

In December 2018, Tattamangalam celebrated the 75th edition of the Ayappan Festival Celebrations, and my extended family and I figured it was time to pay a visit. I am glad we booked our tickets at the very last minute (we were lucky to even get them, indeed!) and visited, for the festival was bigger and better than ever.

Check out some glimpses from the celebrations we were witness to, just in on my photo blog!

Classic Sakkarai Pongal| Traditional Sweet Pongal Recipe

Hola, guys and girls!

Warm wishes from our family to you for Pongal, Lohri, Makar Sankranti and Magh Bihu! I hope all of you are enjoying the festivities in your part of the world.

Today, I’m sharing with you all the recipe for Classic Sakkarai Pongal or sweet pongal made the traditional way. Made with rice and moong daal, jaggery, loads of dry fruits and ghee, this sweet pongal surely is a lovely treat for kids and adults alike. We make the Sakkarai Pongal in a pressure cooker, and not in a pan as is done traditionally, which ensures that it gets done in a jiffy and is still every bit just as delicious!

Check out our family recipe, just in on my photo blog!

 

Ezhu Thaan Kootu| Pongal Kootu| Thiruvathirai Kootu

Pongal is just around the corner!

 

I’m here with a Pongal-special recipe today – one for Ezhu Thaan Kootu or Pongal Kootu, a traditional recipe from Tamilnadu.

 

Ezhu Thaan Kootu is Tamil for ‘a curry with seven vegetables’. This preparation uses at least seven local, seasonal vegetables – largely raw banana, pumpkin, cluster beans, potatoes, elephant yam, sweet potato, broad beans and the like. One can add in more than seven vegetables too, but using them in odd numbers (seven, nine or eleven vegetables) is the norm.

 

This Ezhu Thaan Kootu is a thing of beauty. It is a blend of sweet, salty, tangy and spicy flavours, a great thing to prepare on festive occasions and ordinary days alike.

 

It makes for a wonderful accompaniment to Sakkarai Pongal, typically served on the day of the Pongal festival – the savoury Ezhu Thaan Kootu and the sweet Sakkarai Pongal perfect complements to each other.

 

Check out the recipe, just in on my blog!

 

 

Thumbprint Coconut & Jam Mini Tarts

Just before New Year’s eve, I won an Instagram contest by Bhuira Jams, a brand I have come to trust and love. The good folks at Bhuira sent me a bottle of their Black Cherry Preserve, made with black cherries grown on their plant in Himachal Pradesh, with no artificial colouring or flavouring agents or preservatives. It tastes just awesome, I must say! I just had to use it immediately, and did so in some Thumbprint Coconut & Jam Mini Tarts.

 

These tarts are super easy to make, taking bare minutes to get ready. They have a certain rustic charm to them, thumbprint and all. Use good-quality jam in them, and they become delectable little treats that you can serve for parties and get-togethers. I made the base for these tarts using Unibic’s new Oatmeal Daily Digestive Cookies, adding some dried coconut in, which went beautifully with the flavours of the black cherry jam. The tarts turned out so delicious, they disappeared within minutes of the making!

 

Check out the recipe for these Thumbprint Coconut & Jam Mini Tarts, just in on my photo blog!

 

 

Gongura Pulihora| Sorrel Green Rice

Hola guys! How has the end of the year been treating you? I hope you have been having fun this holiday season!

This year, I’m using Paperless Post, a USA-based website, to send out my holiday greetings. Paperless Post believes in making online communication so much fun that you don’t miss hand-written greeting cards, flyers, invitations and other notes. They have some really lovely designs by established artists, beautiful options to choose from for various types of communication needs. You can customise the design you opt for, for your cards, as well as the envelope front and backing and the message. I’ve been enjoying creating customised cards for my friends and family, and plan to use Paperless Posts for upcoming events as well. Do check out the website, folks!

Moving on to food now, all of us at home love gongura – aka pulichakeerai, sorrel, roselle, kenaf or aambadi – the greens with a sour taste to them. Sadly, though, they are one of the least used greens in our household. We use them only occasionally to make Gongura Thokku, a spicy Andhra Pradesh-style pickle. Considering that these leaves are very rich in iron, folic acid, antioxidants and various vitamins, I wanted to use more of them in our daily diets. So, a Gongura Pulihora or sorrel-flavoured rice was made recently, which turned out to be much loved.

Today, I’m sharing the recipe for this delicious Gongura Pulihora, for you all to check out and try.

Eggless Steamed Christmas Pudding

It’s almost Christmas! I absolutely have to share this Christmas-sy recipe with you – one for a Eggless Steamed Christmas Pudding!

 

As the name suggests, this is a delicious eggless dessert, a steamed one made in a pressure cooker, just perfect for the holiday season. It contains loads of fruit and nuts, cinnamon and cloves, like a Christmas fruit cake. Texture-wise, this is less dense than a fruit cake, a bit softer. Taste-wise, this is an almost-fruit cake.

 

If you are looking for something different, yet awesome to make for the Christmas season, do try this recipe out. The process is a bit time-consuming, but I wouldn’t call it laborious. The end result is totally, totally worth it, I can assure you of that.

 

Check out the recipe, just in on my blog!