After my world turned out to be confined within a cubicle, there was not much fun in life. I like my work but still miss my adventurous indulgences. Mostly deep fried snacks were store bought and had no attachment to our heart.  The ‘homemade’ pride  was missing apparently.

As diwali fell on a weekend this year and all the more as we did not have the time to make a trip to Devon markets,….I was browsing  for some daring (??) cooking idea on Friday night . My favourite sweet is Jangiri and had never seen a good one in the market so long.

Back home, whenever there is a marriage in our family,in our native village, we used hire cooks who used to bring in bada bada vessels and cook food for the crowd in the backyard.  Mostly the sweets used to be jangiri, badusha or Mysore pak.  The Jangiri when prepared so, at our backyard..my mom used to  feed me  the warm..’just out of stove’   jangiris…..Wow  they would be out of the world tasty.  I used to even complaint about my mom and grandma for making me  a sophisticated picky taster. The result  being  anything less than the perfect can never satisfy me.:)

All being said and thought upon, I wanted to dare  making jangiri with no further ado. I knew it would not be perfect and was not willing to buy out  the crunchy jilebi like jangiri in the market.  Googled for a few versions , and soaked the urad.  Here goes my next steps…..

1. 7.00 pm- Soaked  1 cup of Urad  (whole )

2. Googled further for detail videos and blogs.

3.9.15 pm- started grinding the dall after filtering out the water in it- Ran good for about 35- 40 min. sprinkled water in between when needed. The consistency was asked to be like medhu vada dough.

4. Measured out 1.5 cups of sugar to a thick pan and made a syrup by adding 3/4 cup of water. Switched off the stove when it reached about 1/2 string consistency.

5.10.00 pm -  Heated 1 inch of oil in a flat non stick pan .Mixed  the batter  with 1 tsp of rice flour and food color. Scooped this into a ziploc  and made a hole in it after sealing.

6. Practiced the pressing in a bowl of water a couple of times. The batter whne in right consistency does float in water as ‘vada maavu’ and that can be added back to your stock.

7. Kept the flame medium  and pressed out the jangiris. The heat is a key factor . If the heat is high, you get crunchy jilebis, if too low , you end up wiht undercooked soggy jangiris.

8.  Soaked the jangiris in the sugar syrup and enjoy them as they are warm.

9. 11.00pm – Take a photo shoot  to show case my mom and bros  what I did finally for the diwali:))

If it had been in India, we would have bought Ananda Bahavan Jangiris in no time and sat all day in television without a single thought of the effort that went into making  the sweet. But  today I realized the true joy of  being meditative in cooking and smile  when others enjoyed it.  A joy which my grandma  taught me throughout her living . Cook food , Serve love.

Thanks to my dear friends, Isabella and David,  for  helping me acheive my long time dream come true. Bread making was always foriegn to me and I came to a conclusion that breads are commercial products which need a lot of skill and perfection. My conclusion was rewritten when  I tasted David’s homemade sourdough pizza at Liam’s (their precious lil one’s)  birthday party.

One beautiful day , David  gave me the starter and the cookbook to learn bread making.(Classic Sourdoughs by Ed Wood). I could not wait to finish reading the book. I made a thorough reading, felt confident and started experimenting   The first one I tried was not edible :-< and was immediately dumped  in trash. The second one was too sour. Isabella kept saying me “patience is the key for a good bread”. One 100 % true.

So….

This is the first success I had in sourdough bread making!

The flavor  was more satisfying than normal yeasted bread and taste of a warm bread was so heavenly.If you love to bake , you must give sourdough a try. I wasted almost 5 cups of flour but now I bake almost twice, thrice a  week and get fresh , perfect results all the times.

Thank you Isabella and David for opening the doors of wonderful world of bread making!

Ingredients

2 cups  cold liquid  culture

4 cups all purpose flour

½ cup water

½ cup milk

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp butter, melted

1 egg, beaten

Mix the liquid culture with 1 cup of the flour and 1/4 cuo of the water in a large mixing bowl. This is the working culture. Proof for 12 hours at room temperature (68 to 72 deg F ) .

Add 1 cup of the flour and the remaining 1/4 cup of water. Mix and knead until smooth. Proof 8 hours at room temperature. After  proofing this is the fully active culture.

Punch down. Mix together  the milk , salt , sugar, 2 tablespoons of the butter and the egg. Add to the dough and mix well. Reserve 1 cup of the flour for flouring the board.Mix and spoon knead the remaining 1 cup into the dough. Transfer to the floured board and knead in the remaining flour.

Divide the dough into 16 to 20 balls. Place them side by side in an 8 inch baking pan.Proof for two hours or until they risee above the sides of the pan.

Bake  in a preheated oven at  375 deg for 20 to 25  minutes, or until browned. Remove the rolls from the pan and cool on wire racks or serve hot.

You can get the starter by capturing the wild yeast from the air. Visit here for a  good intro! Remember, practice makes everything perfect! Good Luck!

Our Grandma ,Lakshmiammal is one great personality known for selflessness, love and  generosity. Even when she was young she had made several sacrifices that no other normal girl would do in her personal life. Many days she used to feed the food she had for her to the  poor begging at her door.

When we moved to Chennai, to a highly compact apartment, she made many new friends. When the young ladies return from their work , they got to  pass by our apartment. So they will stand by to say ‘Hai’ and ‘Bye’. My Grandma knowing how tired they will be and will make/ share her tea with them. Such was her thoughtfullness. She never had a selfish motive or desire. All her life was spent  in the  kitchen making delicious food  and her happiness was in making people happy  through her ‘kaipaagam’. She  is more than Grandma to me and my three brothers for she brought us up  since our primary school.

It is now 10 full years  since she left the world (April, 8, 1998) but  memories of her love has not faded even a bit. To any women who know her , she  was a great inspiration and an ideal women.

 I started this blog to honor her and her unique recipes. At this point of time of remembrance, here is another classical chutney recipe of my grandma.

URAD DALL CHUTNEY

 INGREDIENTS

Urad Dall/ ulutham paruppu- 1/2 cup

Medium onion- 1 no

Medium tomato- 1 no

Red chilli- 3 /4  no

Coconut- 4 long slices

Tamarind- amla size

Salt to taste

Heat a skillet , add a tablespoon of oil, roast the dall, keep it aside.

Simlarly roast the chillies. Slice the onion and tomato and fry them till they are cooked well.

Grind all with tamarind , coconut and salt to a grainy/smooth texture.

For those who like crunchy bits, (My mother does  this)  fry another 1/8 cup of urad dall till golden and add to the mix at last . Do the tallipu and add it too. Pulse the mixer for once or twice.

Yummy chutney is ready to be served with Idly or rice as thogaiyal.

Neverfading chutney like my Grandma’s love

             In my childhood , our village often suffered powercuts. On those occasions, my mom used to compensate the ‘Edison’less nights  with her moonlight dinner(Nila Choru). My brothers and me sit around her in the moon lit hall , speaking about all good times .The menu would be rice with either this kuzhambhu or our other favourite, Varutha paruppu kuzhambhu with arisi vathal. The simplest menu though , will taste like heaven when she gives us those balls in our palms. Just wait for your turn for a big rice ball in your palm and eat till she finishes a round. No calorie calculations, just keep chatting and eating till your heart and stomach is filled with joy and food.

Ingredients

Toor dall- 1/3 cup

Medium yellow onion-1

Medium tomato- 1

Tamarind- amla size

Dry red chillies- 4/5 nos

         Cut the onion and tomato into wedges and cook the dall , onion, tomato and chilies in a pressure cooker till the lentils are cooked soft. My mom usually adds a few drops of oil when cooking for some good reason.  Add tamarind/ tamarind extract and salt  to the dall and grind it to smooth paste. Back home, my mom always uses a  chatti and maththu  to mash the dall. If you are lucky to have those ,  you may prefer to use them for better taste.  Dilute it to the consistency of rasam. 

           Do the thalippu with vadagam , add and heat . When the kuzhambhu is about to start boiling , turn off the heat. 

           The trick is to balance the heat , salt and sour . If you can hit the correct balance, this will be a great hit in your home. To me, this is my ULTIMATE COMFORT FOOD. 

Thank you all for your caring inquiries and  power boosting comments!

The blog had been dormant for  a long time. I should admit that my interests take different directions and I was thrilled by this new hobby. Even the tiny bit of free time gets eaten away by this(?!). My broken camera is another reason to hold me back from blogging.

 Yet, I don’t want to let my blog  fade away.. So, here am I, with a resolution of atleast  updating very special recipes. See you all  after the holidays.Happy New Year!

That was a long time I turned the pages of my food blog. There are many reasons not to  update with my beloved hobby. Visit of In-laws, Gone to work part time, Toddler becoming more demanding……

But there is atleast one relief that it is just a summer job and will be ending  when school resumes. I look forward for more leisure personal time , when you do what you love!

Meanwhile you may want to look at my paintings that I consider my life time acheivements.

Tanjore painting

Reverse glass painting

Beetroots stain your hands, knife, cutting board and where ever you  drop them. I find the beets in US are more juicier  that I end up with a pink kitchen.Ha Ha. My first grade daughter , an avid lover of pink color loves this veggie, not just for its color but also for the sweet taste of it. I was cooking the beets till I attended the Isha Yoga  class. After attending Isha, I learnt this healthier way of consuming beets. In that class we had a full meal on the final day of our programme which had only uncooked recipes. All the cooking they did was the tadka/talimpu/thallipu.  I came to know a variety of salads made of solely positve pranic foods (energy giving foods). I learnt the fact the more closer we are to the nature, the more healthier and happier we are. See here for another variety of salad. 

Ingredients

Beetroot- 1 number

Cucumber- 1/2

Iceberg lettuce- 1/4

Roasted peanuts-  1 fistful

Lime juice- as needed

Cilantro for garnishing

For tadka

Mustard seeds, cumin seeds- 1 tsp each

Curry leaves- 6-7 number

Tadka: Heat 1 tsp oil in a small pan,  sputter mustard and cumin seeds.  Add curry leaves and turn off the heat.

Grate the beetroot ,cucumber. Finely chop the lettuce. Add all the veggies in a bowl, add salt and lime juice, mix well , let it stand for a while. Using the hands, squeeze out all the juice  into another container. Now add chopped cilantro, roasted peanuts and tadka. 

 Cocktail: To the squeezed juice, add the juice extracted from 1 lime. See the salt level and adjust to taste.

My lunch – Roti , Beet salad and Beet root cocktail

Just like the rain on a sunny day leaves a sweet smell of the earth behind, my journey to India had left many memories to ponder upon. I had many things to part with , including my hand works which I could not carry along. Yet, I clicked them away to remember and show case  in my blog. Here is the first set of my memories.

Soap carving

Anchor stitch kit- First roses I  gave to my husband.

M-seal pillaiyar

As long as you have something you never realize the value of it. Once it is no more , you want it more and more. You heart yearns for it, starves for it …This is true not only for the worldly possesions, but also for silliest things like the pickle your mom made for you. Yes, my mom’s pickle which I brought from India got over. Don’t ask me how. Though I had the recipe scribbled in some notebook, I never thought of it so long. Now, once the pickle jar is empty, I searched for the book all over the house atleast to blog the recipe and refer back in leisure to make some by myself. What a selfish motive for blogging?Thats ok. I know the recipe I gonna blog here is worth  sharing with my friends though it is on selfish motive. Here is  my treasured recipe. …          

 Rice mixed with tomato pickle.

Ingredients

Tomato- 1 kilogram

Tamarind- 50 gram

Dry red chilli- 50 gram

Salt- 2 tsp

For tempering

Oil- 100 grams

Garlic- 100 gram

Mustard seeds- 1/2 tbsp 

For grinding

Mustard seeds, cumin seeds,fenugreek seeds -each  1 tsp

Method

 Day1

Chop the tomato into big cubes.

Add salt, tamarind, dry chilli and let it stand in the bowl for 1 day (in shade).

Day 2-3 

Spoon out the tomatoes alone in a wide plate and dry them in sun  for 2 days. Let the other  ingredients be in the bowl.

Day 4

Grind the tomatoes and the rest of the mixed ingredients (salt ,tamarind, chilli) in a blender or grinder. My mom used a grinder.

Heat the oil in skillet and  temper mustard seeds in it.

Add garlic and saute well.

Add the ground tomato mix and  turn off the heat.

Dry roast mustard seeds, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds and  powder them separately.

Add this to the pickle when it is completely cool.

                #######

Preserve the pickle in a dry bottle and place it in a cool dry place.  Serve with idly, rice, dosa or simply eat in a spoon whenever  you feel like. Now you know the reason why the pickle got over so soon…!