Rendez Vous With A Foodie - Sireesha of Siris Food

Every 7th and 20th of the month i'll be introducing newly budding kids of this virtual blogworld.Previously two foodie bloggers have shown us two beautiful bakes and for today's guest post, am introducing one of the bubbly,very lively and sweet blogger, she is none other than Sireesha of Siris Food. If god comes in front of me and ask me 'tell me watever you want', i'll definitely ask good health for my family and will definitely ask for a whole year meet with all my fellow bloggers all around the world.Eventhough this huge virtual world is quite dangerous, i always amazed to see foodie bloggers i crossed during this  4 years of blogging are quite honest,caring and friendly till now.

Actually i met Sireesha during my last trip to London, she was one of the buddies i met in Food bloggers buzz held during the last week of the February. The instant we saw, we felt so close and started chitchatting immediately.Trust me, Siri looks like a schooling gal and you know wat she is working and blogging alternatively. Am amazed to see the way she manage both her pesronal life and blogger life. She was an another wonderful,caring,very bubbly,lively,honest,down to earth sister of mine, yep i can proudly say this bloggy world gave me a decent number of lovable sisters, each and everyone is special for me, they are very caring,honest,down to earth persons. Am thanking God everyday for giving me a chance to meet them all through this virtual world.

Lets meet my guest Sireesha of Siris Food...

Frankly, If there is any blogger that I would want to meet desperately she was none other than Priya Akka..I had spent hours and hours in the lazy afternoons browsing through her immense list of recipes. A kind of emotional feeling developed in me thinking how a lady with three grown up kids can do all this. Am not telling that blogging is one rocket science and difficult to achieve but for a lady with huge responsibilities it’s definitely a difficult job I believe.

 There are few persons from whom you get your daily dose of inspiration even though if they are not with you. One such kind of blogging inspiration in disguise is Priya Akka for me..I am a great fan of her writing style for not she uses a great vocabulary. But the way she starts up her posts is very pleasing and crisp. You can see a young lady in all her posts. It was proved 100% true when I met this super enthusiastic and energetic young girl..(Yes she is!!)..Such a humble and easy to go person.

 Never in my dreams I thought of meeting her in person but..Bloggers Buzz had given me that great opportunity to meet my biggest blogging inspiration –Priya Akka..I often get mesmerized to see the frequency at which she posts in her blog. Amazing is not a sufficient word to describe I would say..  She is my Baking Guru I would say. There are so many days where I used to go mad reading all her baking recipes thinking when I would bake one..Priya Akka..You are simply superb!!And appearing on your space is like an honour to me...Thanks a lot for being my inspiration and thanks again for giving me this good opportunity.

Tell us about your blog and you?

Am Sireesha Puppala a South Indian girl form Andhra Pradesh.. fondly called as Siri by my pals..I am full time software professional in London and happily living with my husband and dearest brother. I always want to be simple, enthusiastic, and upbeat. Give less preference to materialist things and enjoy each and every second of my life..SIRISFOOD.COM is my first baby I should say. It is a collection of good to eat simple recipes explained with neat step by step pictures. Rest you can find out from my blog.

Before and after blogging, tell us wat blogging changed your life?

Blogging has brought in more determination in me..The zeal to post more recipes and the dedication to present good photographs has made me a decent individual. But sometimes I will be very in- disciplinary spending more than required amount of time..

When and wat motivated you to blog about food?
I was jobless for few months when I moved to London. Was keep on browsing for recipes to please my husband..and thought to start my own blog to spend some quality time.

There are tons of blogs/pages on food these days,wat according to you is the speciality of your blog and the food that you cook?

If I want to find out any recipe I will refer 2-3 websites and choose the best among them..like good explanation,appealing pictures etc.So according to me, I find my blog helpful with neat step by step pictures so that readers can check how their dish looks like while cooking. Frankly,I cook food for my family and present them to my readers. But I need to improve my writing skills to make it even interesting. My motto is to make the reader to try my dish..

When its comes to cooking, who is your inspiration?

If I leave blogging world, there is no one..

Every newbie blogger faces tons of challenges when it comes to blogging,tell me about one of the challenges you face and how did you overcome it?? please specify with facts and details.

Frankly, the biggest challenge is to come out of the thought of copying recipes from others. In the initial days of my blogging (for two posts which I have deleted after started enjoying the real joy of blogging). I cooked few dishes but copied the recipe as it is from the original author. I agree making bread toast is almost similar with everyone but write the recipe in your own words..

What is your best recipe and your favourite recipes you have blogged till now?

Each and every recipe is special for me and a great chance to improve further. Few of my heart throbs are Green Peas Kachori,Kolhapuri Chicken,Valentine Vanilla Cookies,Tandoori Baby Potato and Andhra Chepala Pulusu.

 Few tips about food photography?

Am learning it..and few of my learning’s are
Visualise how your picture want to look like rather than randomly clicking
Make natural back grounds like fresh veggies, spices and use less props
Present in eye catchy tableware(doesn’t need to be expensive and gaudy)
Check yourself whether the picture is appealing for you or not.

What is your budget for the props, do you have any or else manage with household stuffs?

Recently I have seen a change in my shopping experience. I directly go to the home section rather than stopping at clothing. I will not spend more than 3£ per item. Most of my props are less than a pound (£) which I will pick up at charity shops or local markets.

How do you plan your blogposts? Do you post rarely,regularly or once a week?

It depends on my workload at office. But I plan to post at least once a week.

Do you have any other passions apart from food blogging?

I am also passionate about blogging on general topics those touch my heart, singing, reading books and recently photography. I have a photo blog Siris Clicks wherein I record all my learning. Am also a forum moderator at famous Indian women website indusladies.com for Fashion and Jewellery section but I had to move out of that role very recently due to heavy workload at my work place and home. Wish to re-join the team soon. You can find my blogs at Indus Ladies.


Being a native of Andhra Pradesh(located in South India),I couldn’t resist myself in presenting some simple and core Telugu dishes. Hope you will enjoy this simple meal as much as we did..This simple Andhra meal consists of one  pachadi made wih fresh roasted vegetbles,a simple and comforting rasam and one mouth-watering side dish..So you ready to dig in???Common with me..to enjoy this special Andhra meal..

Bendakaya Pesara Chaaru-A simple rasam made with lady’s finger and cooked moon dal water.The speciality in this rasam is we are not using any tamarind and also one other interesting thing is we are going to use the water that is left after over while cooking the dal. The left over water when tempered and boiled gives excellent taste. Try it out and you will agree with me..

No..This is not Lady’s finger Sambar..:)

Bendakaya -Lady's Finger

Pesara-Moongdal

Chaaru - Rasam

Ingredients:

Okra or Lady’s Finger – 5(cut into 1 inch pieces)

Moon Dal /Pesara Pappu – 5 tbsp

Green Chilly slit – 4

Tomato chopped – 1

Curry Leaves – 1 spring

Crushed garlic – 3 pods

Mustard – ½ tbsp.

Split Bengal Gram – ½ tbsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tbsp.

Dried Red Chillies -2

Coriander Leaves- 1 spring

Coarsely grounded pepper and coriander seeds – 1 ½ tbsp.

Salt to tastes

Oil/ghee – 2 tbsp

Method:

Pressure cook the moong dal with 5 cups of water (yes you read it right) until three whistles come. Allow it to cool down or until the pressure goes off. Then you will get the  water that is infused with nice aroma of moon dal.We are going to use this water for making rasam.

You can discard the dal if there is anything settled down at the bottom. Please use the water only to get that taste.

 Heat oil or ghee in a heavy bottomed vessel. Crackle mustard, cumin and Bengal gram and curry leaves. Add slit green chillies and garlic pods and dried red chillies.

 Fry for 30 secs and then add in the okra. Sauté for 10 min until they turn little tender yet firm. They should be crunchy enough. 

Then add in the chopped tomatoes and cook for another 5 min.Pour in the moong dal cooked water and mix enough salt. 

Boil on medium flame for 15 min.Add in the coarsely grounded pepper and coriander seeds and then boil again for 10 min or until nice froth forms on the top. Garnish with fresh coriander.

When the rasam is a bit cooled squeeze in half a lemon to get the tanginess to the chaaru aka rasam..

Simple comforting healthy Bendakaya Pesara Chaaru is ready now!!

Now let us taste a typical Andhra Sorakaya Tomato Pachadi aka Bottlegourd Tomato Chutney.Telugu people will not complete their meal without a freshly prepared chutney..Also these chutneys are very healthy way of consuming fresh vegetables with less oil.

Chutney with bottle gourd and tomato..I have already discussed the health benefits of consuming bottle gourd in my posts..I reiterate now. It is a very healthy water vegetable!

Sorakaya-Bottlegourd

Tomato - Tomato

Pachadi - Chutney

Ingredients:

Bottle Gourd – ½

Tomato – 1 big

Tamarind – ½ lemon size

Cumin seeds – 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves – 2 springs

Green chillies – 3

Oil – 2tbsp

Garlic pods – 3

Salt 

For tempering:

Oil – 1 tbsp

Mustard-1/2 tbsp

Garlic pods crushed – 2

Curry Leaves – 1 spring

Dried red chilli -1

Hinge – ½ tbsp

Peel the bottle gourd and grate it finely. You could also cut it into small pieces.

Heat oil in a kadai and add tamarind and green chillies. Sauté them for a min and add the bottle gourd. Fry it until the raw smell goes off. Add a pinch a salt and turmeric and add tomatoes.

Cook until the tomatoes and bottle gourd leave their raw smell. Allow it to cool down. Take it into a blender and add in cumin seeds, salt and coriander leaves. 

Grind it to coarse chutney. It is very important not to make the chutney into a fine paste.It is should be very corase.Also you should not add any water else the taste will go off. If required add very few drops of water.

Heat another tbsp of oil and crackle cumin, mustard and Bengal gram. Add in curry leaves and garlic pods, fry for a min and sprinkle hinge which will give a nice aroma to the chutney. 

Pour this hot tempering over the chutney and serve it with hot white rice and a dollop of ghee.

Tasty Sorakaya Tomato Pachadi is now ready!!

So there should be some tempting side dish to accompany with this chutney and rasam..Isn’t it??Andhra homes are very famous for their spicy cuisine. I am going to introduce one spicy and rich side dish called Dondakaya Ullikaram aka Spicy whole Ivy Gourd with stuffed onion masala..It is a perfect side dish with rasam and rice..Are you ready??

Dondakaya - Tindora/Whole Ivy Gourd

Ullikaram - Onion masala

Ingredients:

Tindoora – ½ kg

Onion big -2

Dried red chillies – 10

Coriander chopped – 3 tbsp

Green chillies slit -3

Garlic chopped – 5 pods

Curry Leaves – 2 springs

Mustard and Bengal gram – 1 tbsp

Oil – 5 tbsp

Salt to taste

Water and turmeric for boiling ivy gourd

Wash the vegetables thoroughly and dry them with a paper towel. Make a fine slit in the tindoora by making sure not to cut them into half.

The slit should go till the ¾ length of the vegetable and then stop. Boil water in a vessel and add salt, turmeric.

Add in the tindoora and cook them till they turn little tender and make sure not to over boil else they will break into pieces. Keep them aside.

Chop onion into small pieces. Combine coriander leaves and dried red chillies.

Grind into fine paste by adding little water. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and cook the paste till the raw smell goes off. 

No need to any water as the onion paste will release some water. Keep it aside and we are going to stuff into Ivy gourd.

Carefully stuff thepaste into each ivy gourd without breaking them.

Heat oil in a wide non-stick kadai and crackle mustard,Bengal gram and curry leaves.Add in the garlic pieces and fry for few seconds and carefully drop in the ivy gourds.

Cook them covered on a low flame for 20 min by turning them in between.

The onion paste will get roasted nicely so as the tindoora.

Andhra famous Dondakaya Ullikaram is now ready !!

Thanks a ton Priya akka for making my presence possible in your lovely space!!

Stay tuned for the next guest post on 20th April friends..