Bittergourd & Urad Dal Pappu

Bittergourds are wonderful vegetables and its one the most hated vegetable in the world especially by kids, even i dont like this better bittergourd before,but after going through its nutritional value and health benefits, i started adding them in different dishes. Am trying my best to feed this bittergourds to feed my entrie family eventhough they hate it to the core. Coming to this dish, its one of my recent invention, as dals are our family comforting food.Watever cooked with vegetables and dals or with simply dals goes directly to our comforting food list.

Bittergourd cooked with urad dal and moongdal makes seriously a wonderful dal dish and eventhough this dal have a slight bitter taste its doesnt matter, however i tried my best to feed my family with this healthy vegetable.Served with simple potato fry, we had this bitter dal for our lunch. You can feed easily this dal to diabetic peoples who lives around you and am sure this dish will definitely makes a difference when compared to other dishes prepared with bittergourd.Sending to my own event CWS-Urad Dal guest hosted by Sowmya of Nivedhanam and to my event Healthy Diet-Diabetic Friendly Recipes.

1/4cup Urad dal (deskinned & split)
1/4cup Yellow Moongdal
2nos Bittergourd (chopped)
1no Onion(chopped)
1no Tomato (chopped)
2nos Green Chillies (slit opened)
1tsp Mustard seeds
1/2tspUrad dal
1/2tsp Cumin seeds
2nos Dry red chillies
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
Few curry leaves
Salt
Oil
Chopped coriander leaves

Pressure cook the urad dal,moong dal,chopped bittergourd with turmeric powder and salt with enough water upto 3 hisses.

Keep aside until the steam gets released

Heat enough oil, lets splutters the mustard seeds,urad dal,cumin seeds,asafoetida powder, add the red chillies and fry until they turns brown.

Now add the onions,chopped tomatoes,slit opened green chillies,curry leaves and saute until the veggies gets well cooked.

Add the cooked dal-bittergourd mixture to the tempered spices,cook everything for few minutes,put off the stove.

Add the chopped coriander leaves to dal,give a stir.

Serve hot with papads along with rice or simply with rotis.

Eggless Jam Swirled Muffins

Have you ever tried jam swirled muffins?? if not dont forget to make some if you are planning to bake muffins. Seriously these tiny cakes aka muffins are just divine, and while baking needless to say how the home smells. This eggless jam swirled muffins are our this month's challenge for Baking Eggless, owned by Gayathri and the host of the month is none other than me, yep i suggested this easy breezy but yet a delicious muffins to my fellow partners of this challenge from Patricia's space.I love jam tarts or cookies with jams,obviously if you love jam in your baking, am sure you will definitely enjoy this wonderful bake.

Since the original recipe went for 2 eggs and butter, i replaced both egg and butter with a cup of yogurt,quarter cup of milk along with half cup of oil  and used store bought strawberry jam. Seriously you wont miss eggs in this muffins and they turned out extremely super spongy, when served with masala chai these muffins tastes extremely divine and we loved it.Sending this cuppies to Guru's Giveaway - Kid's Special.

2cups All purpose flour
1/2cup Sugar
2tsp Baking powder
1/2tsp Baking soda
1cup Yogurt
1/2cup Oil
1/4cup Milk
1tsp Vanilla extract
1/4cup Strawberry jam

Preheat the oven to 350F, line the muffin tray with muffin papers.

In a bowl, sift the flour,baking powder,baking soda and salt.

Add the sugar and mix, meanwhile in a small bowl whisk the yogurt,milk,oil,vanilla extract.

Pour the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, whisk lightly. Dont overmix the batter.

Add the jam and whisk lightly, to keep the marble effect.

Spoon the batter evenly to the already prepared pan and bake for 15-20minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Transfer to wire rack and cool it.

Carefully remove the muffins from the pan, cool completely and enjoy.

Foxtail Millet & Mixed Dals Dumplings /Thinai Paruppu Paniyaram

Am trying to reduce adding rice in most of my dishes especially when it comes to our dinner dishes like dosas or pongal. Yep nowadays am making pongal or non fermentation dosas with healthy grains like different millets,oats and cracked wheat. Trust me, we dont miss the rice in our dishes. Few days back, i tried making an interesting dumpling with super healthy foxtail millet aka thinai with mixed dals. This dumplings are just amazing with many nutritional value, serve simply with a shallot chutney makes a wonderful dinner too.

This dumpling batter goes for easy preparation and no fermentation is needed. Just leave the batter in room temperature for an hour and make your dumplings with your paniyaram pan. You can have them either for snacks or for dinner if you dont feel like making your dinner with other stuffs. You can feed easily everyone at home with millets without their knowledge as some wont like to have foods prepared with millets.Sending to my own event CWS-Urad Dal guest hosted by Sowmya of Nivedhanam and to my event Healthy Diet-Diabetic Friendly Recipes.

1cup Foxtail Millet/Thinai arisi
1/2cup Channadal
1/2cup Toor dal
1/2cup Yellow moongdal
1/2cup Urad dal
4nos Dry red chillies
1tsp Fennel seeds
3nos Garlic cloves
Salt

Soak the foxtail millet along with all dals for atleast 3 hours.

Grind thesoaked millet and dal with dry red chillies, fennel seeds, garlic cloves with enough water and salt as bit coarse paste.

Keep aside the batter for an hour or two hours in room temperature.

Heat the kuzhi paniyaram pan in medium heat, pour few drops of oil n pour a ladle of the batter.

Put the flame in simmer n cook slowly, turn on both sides until they get well cooked.

Dont cook them in high flame.

Serve hot with spicy coconut chutney or onion chutney..

Carrot Walnut Halwa

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday, for the special day we had a feast and prepared her favourite carrot halwa with a twist. Trust me this carrot walnut halwa tastes seriously fantastic and the addition of walnuts makes this halwa more interesting and healthy as well. Actually i planned  to make some carrot halwa for dessert and prepared everything for it, while going through my pantry for cashewnuts i noticed that almost a quarter cup of walnuts were sitting since few months in a small bottle.Instead of adding them in bakes i tried adding them by soaking in hot water, grinding them as fine paste and used it while making halwa.

A simple carrot halwa with walnut paste turned out extremely rich,nutty and delicious, if you are planning to make some carrot halwa next time, do add few walnuts as paste to them and am sure you will see the difference.Sending to Viji's SYS-WS - Apple & Carrot.

2cups Carrot (finely grated)
1/4cup Walnuts

1/2cup Sugar

1/4cup Sweetened Condensed milk
1cup Milk

1/2tsp Cardamom powder

1tbsp Ghee
Sliced almonds

Soak the walnuts in hot water for an hour, drain the water and grind as fine paste.

Heat the ghee, fry the finely grated carrots until they gets half cooked.

Add the sugar and condensed milk,milk,walnut paste,cook everything together in medium high flame.

Add the cardamom powder to the cooking halwa and put off the stove once the halwa gets thickens.

Keep aside and let them cool.

Serve topped with nuts or icecream.

Azhagar Kovil Dosai/Black Urad Dal Dosa

Azhagar kovil is a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu and this temple is situated 21km from the city of Madurai which is in Tamil Nadu. Black urad dal dosa aka Azhagar kovil dosai is a prasadham offered to God and then distributed to the devotees of Lord Vishnu. Actually this dosai prepared with whole urad dal,rice, whole pepper,dry ginger powder, curry leaves and cumin seeds. Actually this dosa batter doesnt need to be fermented and this dosas will looks very dark coz of black urad dal. In Azhagar temple, this dosa will be cooked completely in ghee and this dosa stays prefect for 2-3days in room temperature, but seriously this dosa wont stay long as they tastes fabulous.

I tasted this famous Azhagar kovil dosai long back and this dosa is in my to do  list since a long. Finally i prepared some few days back at home itself. Instead of cooking in ghee as like the usual Azhagar kovil dosai, i cooked my dosais simply with oil obviously with less quantity of oil.Usually this dosas looks very thick as like pancakes, but i prepared mine bit thicker and all at home enjoyed thoroughly this dosas with coconut chutney.Coming to this dosas, am posting this vegan dosas today as am a member of Vegan Thursdays, an vegan event running twice a month started by me. Do you want to join us, please send me a mail or leave a comment in this post.Sending to my own event CWS-Urad Dal guest hosted by Sowmya of Nivedhanam.

2cup Par boiled rice
1cup Black urad dal
2tsp Black pepper (crushed coarsely
1/2tsp Dry ginger powder
1tsp Cumin seeds
Few curry leaves
Salt
Oil for cooking

Soak the rice for 4hous, drain the water and grind in mixie as bit coarse paste.

At the same time soak the black urad dal apart for 4 hours too. Wash and grind it as smooth thick paste with curry leaves,cumin seeds.

Now mix the already grounded rice paste and urad dal paste with crushed pepper powder, dry ginger powder and salt. Keep aside for 3-4hours in room temperature.

The batter should be neither like dosa batter nor like vada batter.

Heat a tawa, pour a ladle of this black urad dal dosa batter to the hot tawa,spread as thick pancakes, drizzle oil and cook in simmer.

Cook on both sides and serve with chutney.

Chettinad Masala Kuzhambu

If you have abundantly village side vegetables like brinjals,drumsticks at home, you have to give a try to this Chettinad Masala Kuzhambu.This fingerlicking kuzhambu goes for a super quick cooking process and this gravy goes for an easy breezy freshly grounded masala paste too.Most of the chettinad gravies always have few common ingredients like coriander seeds,coconut,fennel seeds,dry red chillies,cashew nuts or roasted channadal, shallots in their masala paste. Obviously those ingredients have their important role in this gravy too and they gives a wonderful taste,flavour,spiciness and thickness to this gravy.

Chettinad masala kuzhambu makes a prefect pair when served along with rice as well as with dosas or idlies, we call this masala kuzhambu as two in one kuzhambu coz this gravy suits prefectly for both lunch and dinner. I prepared this masala kuzhambu with brinjal and potatoes, you can makes this gravy with any vegetable but somehow my personall preference goes to brinjals,potatoes and drumsticks.This is my third and last post of this 4th week of blogging marathon as i chosed Course wise meal from any state, as my choice is gravy served during lunch from Chettinad cuisine.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.

1/2kg Brinjal (cut as small pieces)

2nos Potato (cut as small pieces)

15nos Small onions /Shallots

5nos Garlic cloves

1no Bay leaf

1/2inch Cinnamon stick

1/2tsp Fennel seeds

1/2tsp Chilly powder

Few curry leaves

Oil

Salt

Chopped coriander leaves

To grind:

1/4cup Coconut

1tsp Fennel seeds

3nos Dry red chillies

1tbsp Coriander seeds

1no Onion (sliced roughly)

1no Tomato (sliced roughly)

5nos Cashews

Heat a teaspoon of oil, saute the roughly sliced onion,sliced tomato given under the list 'to grind' until they turn soft.

Transfer it to the mixie jar, add the remaining spices given under the list 'to grind' and grind everything as fine paste with enough water.

Now heat enough oil in a kadai, add the bayleaf,fennel seeds, cinnamon stick and fry until they turns brown.

Add immediately the curry leaves, shallots and garlic, saute for few minutes until they turns brown.

Now add the brinjal pieces, potato pieces, saute everything for few more minutes.

Now add a cup of water,chilly powder and salt, bring it to boil.

Add the already grounded masala paste to the cooking veggies and allow it to boil (adjust the thickness of gravy by adding enough water now)

Cook the gravy with lid closed in simmer until the oil gets separates.

Put off the stove and add the chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rice and spicy potato fry.

Chettinad Milagu Kuzhambu/Chettinad Pepper Gravy

Do you love to have a fingerlicking,peppery,tangy and delicious kuzhambu for your lunch,then you have to give a try to this tonguetickling peppery gravy from Chettinad cuisine. As i told earlier, this week's blogging marathon is going to be gravies served for lunch  cooked from Chettinad cuisine as my theme of this week's is Course wise meal from any State.After Authentic Vendaikkai Mandi,here comes an another traditional pepper gravy from chettinad cuisine, the most important part of this gravy is the freshly grounded masala paste.

In most of the Chettinad dishes, black peppers have their important place and this cuisine is incomplete with these wonderful medicinal value rich spice.Obviously most of the South Indian pantry will definitely have whole black peppers. Freshly grounded pepper will definitely enhance the flavour of any dishes.Coming to this gravy, i prepared this gravy as per my grandma's recipe. She makes quite often this gravy .This gravy stays prefect  for almost a week if they are conserved properly in fridge and tastes super delicious always after a day.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.

20nos Shallots or 2nos Onions (diced)
10nos Garlic cloves
2cups Tamarind extract
1/4cup Gingelly oil
Salt
1/2tsp Cumin seeds
1tsp Fennel seeds
Few curry leaves

To roast & grind:
1tbsp Black pepper
2tbsp Coriander seeds
1tsp Fennel seeds
1tsp Cumin seeds
1/4cup Grated coconut
5nos Dry red chillies
5nos Garlic pods
1no Onion
1/2inch Cinnamon stick
1tbsp Roasted channadal/pottukadalai

Heat a teaspoon oil in a pan, dry roast all the ingredients given under the list 'to roast & grind', grind as smooth paste with enough water.

Heat gingelly oil, add the cumin seeds,fennel seeds and curry leaves, fry until they turns brown.

Add immediately the diced onions or shallots, garlic pods, saute everything for few minutes.

Now add the tamarind extract,salt to the cooking veggies, bring it to boil.

Add now the freshly grounded masala to the boiling tamarind water, add half a cup of water and cook everything in medium flame.

Cook the gravy with lid closed until the oil gets separates from the gravy.

This gravy will be bit thick, serve this pepper gravy with rice and papads.

Baked Doughnuts with Lemon Cream Cheese Glaze ~~We Knead To Bake#6

Do you know National Doughnut Day is celebrated in United States on every first friday of June. As per Wikipedia,A doughnut or donut is a type of fried dough confectionery or dessert food. The doughnut is popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty outlets. They are usually deep-fried from a flour dough, and typically either ring-shaped or without a hole and often filled. Other types of batters can also be used, and various toppings and flavorings are used for different types, such as sugar glazing, chocolate glazing, or maple glazing.

There are so many stories behind the origin of doughnuts, Wiki says that Hanson Gregory, an American, claimed to have invented the ring-shaped doughnut in 1847 aboard a lime-trading ship when he was only 16 years old. Gregory was dissatisfied with the greasiness of doughnuts twisted into various shapes and with the raw center of regular doughnuts. He claimed to have punched a hole in the center of dough with the ship's tin pepper box, and later taught the technique to his mother.

For this month's We Knead to Bake, an incredible baking event by Aparna challenged us with baked doughts, if you are health nut and wanna a give a try to baked version of doughnuts, you will definitely love this beauties.Butter in this doughnuts turned them simply flavourful,spongy and extremely prefect as almost like the fried ones. These baked doughnuts are quite addictive and since its baked you wont feel guilty to have one more.

Adapated from  Lara Ferroni's Doughnuts
3+1/2cups Cake flour or all purpose flour
3/4tbsp Instant yeast or 1tbsp Active dry yeast
1/2tsp Salt
1cup Warm milk
1/4cup Superfine sugar
2tsp Vanilla extract
100grms Butter (cut into cubes)

Lemon Cream cheese glaze:
1/2cup Cream cheese
1tsp Lemon juice
1/2tsp Lemon zest
1cup Confectioner's sugar
A pinch Yellow food colour

Take the sugar,milk,yeast,salt and vanilla in a food processor and pulse it well.

Add 3cups of flour and process, add the butter pieces gradually and process, now add the remaining half a cup of flour to knead a soft,pliable and elastic dough, if the dough is sticky add few more flours.

Transfer the dough a floured surface and knead gently until the dough turns super soft.

Shape as ball and place it in a greased mixing bowl and ocover with a damp towel.

The dough will take an hour to double in volume.

Punch down the dough and roll out as 1/2inch thick circle.

Cut out the doughnuts with a doughnut cutter or else use a medium sized bottle lid and a super small bottle lid.

Place the doughnuts over a lightly greased baking sheets,leaving enough spaces between them.

Re-roll the dough and continue the same process until the dough gets finished.

Let the unbaked doughnuts rise for about half an hour or till almost double in size.

Bake at 400F, for about 7-10minutes till the crust turns golden brown,dont overbake them.

While they are baking, time to make the lemon cream cheese glaze..

Take the cream cheese,lemon juice,lemon zest,yellow food colour,confectioner's sugar in a bowl,mix well to make a lemon glaze and keep aside.

Let the baked doughnuts gets cool completely, then dip one side of the doughnuts in the lemon cream cheese glaze and let it set.

Enjoy with ur favourite drink or for snacks.

Chettinad Vendakkai Mandi/Chettinad Ladies Finger Curry

Today am running again my 4th week of blogging marathon with an another interesting theme, yes my this week's theme is course wise meal from any state. Obviously i chosed Tamilnadu particularly Chettinad cuisine. Chettinad cuisine is my favourite cuisine, i do cook quite often dishes from this cuisine. Been pampered almost everyday by chettinad dishes b my mom, this cuisine is something close to my heart.So this week's blogging marathon's posts are going to be authentic chettinad gravies served during lunch.Chettinad cuisine doesnt need any introduction and this cuisine is well known for its simplicity, flavours and authenticity.

Coming to this Vendakkai mandi, this is an authentic dish prepared usually with ladies finger or else simply with onions. Rice washed water is called 'Mandi' which is the main ingredient for making this curry, and this curry goes for an easy breezy cooking process. A wonderful curry to relish with rice and papads. You can add dried legumes like field beans or sundried mangoes aka manga vathal in this simple curry which is completely optional.

For Mandi aka rice washed water, wash the rice once and soak the rice for 5minutes, then drain the water and keep aside.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.

10nos Ladies finger (chopped as medium piece)
2nos Onions (chopped)
1no Tomato (chopped)
6nos Garlic pods
2nos Green chillies (slit opened)
3cups Mandi/Rice washed water
1/2cup Tamarind extract
3nos Sundried mangoes or manga vathal (optional)
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp Mustard seeds
1/2tsp Urad dal
2nos Dry red chillies
Few curry leaves
Salt
Oil

Soak the sundried mangoes in hot water for an hour.

Heat oil, let fry the mustard seeds,urad dal, dry red chillies.

Once the mustard seeds spluttering, add the chopped onions,garlic,chopped tomatoes, saute for few minutes.

Now add the ladies finger pieces, saute again everything for few more minutes.

Finally add the chopped tomaotes,curry leaves,chopped green chillies,turmeric powder and cook everything again for few more minutes.

Add the rice washed water,soaked dry mango pieces,salt and bring it boil.

Now add the tamarind water, cook everything in medium flame until the veggies gets well cooked.

Curry will be neither watery nor too thick.

Serve hot with rice and papads.

Eggless Apple Cinnamon Icecream

How about an eggless apple,cinnamon icecream without cream for our dessert after a heavy meal. This apple icecream doesnt need cream and its completely egg free. The full fat milk reduced to three fourth of their quantity and the milk powder with the cornflour  mixture makes the magic. Tastewise, the addition of cinnamon powder brings a zing while having this fabulous icecream.We know that apple and cinnamon combination works wonder together in anything and obviously this combination in an ice cream tastes equally great.

Since this icecream dont have any fats,you can have two more scoops of this fruity icecream, and a prefect dessert to serve while its super hot outside. A very light icecream to relish and you can use very well this apple cinnamon icecream for making shakes. They tastes fabulous in shakes too.Sending to Viji's SYS-WS - Apple & Carrot.

1/2litre Full fat milk
2nos Red apples (peeled and grated)
1tbsp Milk powder
1tsp Corn flour
1/4cup Sugar
1/4tsp Cinnamon powder

Cook the grate apples in a cup of water until they turns soft, drain the cooked water (if any ) and keep aside.

Meanwhile bring boil the full fat milk, sugar together and cook in simmer until they reduced three fourth of the quantity.

Combine the milk powder and cornflour with enough milk and keep aside.

Add this milk powder-cornflour mixture to the boiling milk, stir continously until the milk thickens.

Let the milk gets cool completely, add the cooked apples, cinnamon powder,mix well.

Pour this mixture into a stainless steel vessel and place it in a freezer for 4 hours.

Once the mixture starts setting, remove it from the freezer and blend in a mixer till its turns smooth.

Pour this mixture again to the same vessel and place it in freezer again till it sets well.

Scoop this icecream while serving.

Dates & Nuts Momos~~A Virtual Birthday Party For Shama

We all know that we cant chose our parents but we can chose our friends, bloggy world was quite kind enough with me until now and this virtual world showered me with many wonderful,humble and honest friends aka sisters. One among those is Shama Nagarajan who blogs at Shama's Easy2Cook Recipes, she blogs since 2008 and recently i started chitchating with her eventhough we know each other mutually since a long. She celebrates her birthday today and with a few of my blogger friends we planned to celebrate Shama's birthday virtually by cooking sweets or making drinks from her space.

Happy Birthday to You Shama.. May God bless You..

Shama shares many interesting, variety and easy foods in her space.For her virtual birthday celebration, i wanted to make something as sweet but healthy, so i picked this healthy,nutty momos from her space. I prepared them yesterday for our snacks, trust me they were just fantabulous, delicious and seriously very healthy. Shama used sugar in her momos which i completely skipped in mine.Whoever hates dates will definitely love this healthy steamed foods, wat an incredible way to sneak the famous healthy dates. My kids enjoyed this momos with honey,seriously their yesterday's snack was tremendous and completely guilt free.

Do check Sangee,Manjula and Divya who are celebrating this virtual birthday party with me..

1cup All purpose flour
1tbsp Oil

For stuffing:
1cup Chopped dates
5nos Almonds
10nos Pistachios
10nos Cashew nuts
1no Greeb cardamom
3tbsp Grated coconut
1tbsp Butter

Knead a soft and smooth dough with flour, oil and water, keep aside for 15minutes.

Heat the butter, add the chopped dates,coconut, nuts,cardamom together for few minutes,put off the stove.

Once they gets slightly cool, grind them as bit coarse paste.

Make out small balls from the dough.

Dust the dough with flour and roll it as medium size circles.

Place enough dates-nuts mixture in the center of the circle,bring the edges of the circle together towards the center.

Seal the edges tightly and keep aside.

Repeat the same process with the remaining dough and stuffing.

Steam cook the momos in idli pan for 5minutes.

Serve warm with honey.

Rendez Vous With A Foodie - Vijayalakshmi of Virunthu Unna Vanga

When its 7th and 20th of every month, i'll be introducing new budding food bloggers in my space.And i named this event as Rendez vous with a foodie, obviously this event is open to new bloggers who started food blogging before a year. Today am introducing my 6th guest aka newbie blogger who cooks at Virunthu Unna Vanga yep its none other than Vijayalakshmi Dharmaraj,a young chef and a creative blogger. Ask her to make sweets with anything, she can come up definitely with some innovative and unique sweets, we named her seriously as scientist as she never stop experimenting in her kitchen with different ingredients.

I can talk for hours and hours about Viji, she is such a sweet heart you will definitely miss her everyday if you dont chitchat with her.Eventhough i know her virtually, she is really a wonderful,very humble,modest and honest human who makes you laugh with her naughtiness and instant jokes. Thank god, i got to know her through this virtual world, else i would have missed a down to earth and super jovial sister. Even am planning to meet her during my next trip to India, especially at her hometown as she lives not far from Kodaikanal.Do visit her space and seriously you can learn many different,unique and creative dishes as she shares stepwise pictures for every dishes she blogs at her space.

Now its over to Vijayalakshmi Dharmaraj..

Hi dear friends, Yeah! I am flying at the same time am happy to present my guest post for one of my sweetest blogger friend  aka akka Priya Suresh. When she has announced about the Rendez Vous event, am voluntarily reserved my slot in her fantastic space. I am so energized and very blissfully am writing this post for her.

She is such a lovely, humble, humorous, down to earth sister, and I am so happy to get know her through this virtual world. I always admired her delectable, versatile recipes and her energy. When I first stepped into blogging I found very few regular bloggers who blogs frequently with zeal. She is the one passionate blogger who stood with her steady everyday blogging. I am great fan for her baking goodies, even I used to tell her if you have idea to open bakery then I will sponsor you so that I earn bigggg popularity and money.

Before I met her through group chat, I never thought that I will become a close friend of this great blogger but now I am. I got an opportunity to chat with her through some of our dearest friends in our group chat. Thanks to them for making possible to meet the pretty lady Child. We chat a lot and I got to know more about her and our bonding is growing healthy, wish to grow forever… If you give me a chance to about her, I can’t keep full stop to the speech about her. Am I Right?

Though the event ‘Rendez Vous with A Foodie’ itself evidence of her helping nature, the main motto of this event is to showcase the new food bloggers, their passion and their individual blogs.

I was thinking for some special recipes until i send my guest post for her.  And finally I have chosen a delicious and chocolate pancake. Other reason to choose the recipe is Priya akka is greatest chocoholic person and I hope its a best virtual treat for her from me… N hope u all loves this delicious chocolatey pan cake.

Tell us about you and your blog?

Hi am Vijayalakshmi as Viji, I write at VIRUNTHU UNNA VAANGA with Indian and Innovative recipes.  I have completed my studies and at present am being in home.

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

Before Blogging
I used to cook very simple and repeated recipes,sometimes i may forget the measurements and ingredients too. No idea about baking and new cuisines and feel quite alone in home with my lappy. And you know my lovely dad was telling to my relatives “she doesn’t even know to boil hot water”  see how nicely he was pulling my legs….;)

After Blogging
 Now I can do most of the recipes without knowing the measurements even  I forget, no problem that I have stored them in my space or else I can refer at friend’s blog.

 Now baking is  my favourite passion. Obviously my dad will ask me to bake cake for him and he shares with others to taste my cake, needless to say he is super happy about her daughter’s cooking and baking skills.

 I started capturing my foods  to learn food photography,which is my another new passion.

 My writing skills have improved very much and i love to write more.

 I can make different cuisines from different region to know about their taste too ,moreover I got so many true lovable friends and sisters through the blogosphere so am thoroughly enjoying and learning more n more from them.

When and what motivated you to blog about food?

Before started to blogging, I wanted to learn many varieties of cuisine and sometimes interested to do innovative dishes with my hands. I really wanted to make notes of the recipes in one place, first I have stored everything in my laptop as word document then only BLOGGING strikes=d my mind and immediately i creates one and started to share my cooking and baking goodies. Other reason was my friends asking me to write some recipes for them so I utilize the opportunity to create the blog. Sangee akka-Spicy Treats is the first person who indirectly motivated me to start the blog. Thank u Sangee akka.

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

My blog contains full of simple and easy Indian vegetarian recipes and egg-less baking with step-wise pictures which is very useful to novice bakers and beginners.  You can see recipes using leftovers and quick desserts or rice varieties which gets ready in a jiffy. Moreover I like to present my innovative dishes.

When its comes to cooking, who is your inspiration?

Of course my mom is my first inspiration. Wherever I learn recipes, all of them are my inspirations so i have a  quite long list of persons who inspired me.

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

Mmm… no big challenges but it will be here n there. But can manage everything with the help of our blogger friends and internet. But yet I need to learn some techniques to improve my blog…

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

I love most of my recipes, but I think my best recipes are Ras Malai, Molten Lava Cake, Whole Wheat Halwa, Gobi Fried Rice, Thinai/Foxtail Millet Payasam, Milk Powder Peda, Kaju Flower, Rose Flavoured Kaju Milk Roll and many more…

Few tips about food photography?

I am still a novice photographer, yet to learn many more things and learning every day. I followed these tips,
Day light is more important to the food photographs; nowadays I don’t prefer to take pictures during evening time.
Use simple props and good backgrounds for the pictures.
Simple food styling makes your pictures even better.
Click more n more in different angles to get good pictures.

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

Actually I don’t have any budgets for my props. I generally use what I have in home. But nowadays, while going to departmental stores i started hunting some props for me but at the same time my mom will stare at me. Still I spent  INR 100-200 thrice month or more for my props.

How do you plan your blog posts, do you post rarely,regularly or once a week?

Mostly I will post 3-4 recipes per week, but sometimes it may change.

Do you have any other passions apart from food blogging or blogs you own?

Yes, I have. I am very much interested to do glass painting, Jardosis work and crochet.  I love to do crochet works like purses, cell pouch, kid’s towel, scarf, shocks for my sister’s daughter as I learnt the crochet work for her. I love reading books but nowadays I  glued on lappy for my food blog, but sometimes I’ll read my subject book to gain good knowledge in my field.

Chocolate Pancakes - Eggless
Preparation Time – 2 Minutes
Cooking Time – 5 Minutes

INGREDIENTS:
All Purpose Flour – ½ Cup
Baking Powder – ½ Tsp
Baking Soda – ¼ Tsp
Sugar – 2 Tbsp
Coco powder – 1 ½ Tbsp
Salt – A pinch
Milk – ¾ Cup or more
Choco chips – 1 Tbsp (Optional)

METHOD:
Take wide mixing bowl, add all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, coco powder and salt and mix it well.
Pour milk to the dry ingredients and stir it well till you get the semi liquid consistency.
Spread choco chips to it and stir it once.
Heat dosa pan, add one ladle of choco batter on medium flame but don’t spread it.
Flip it to cook other side and switch off the flame.
Serve it hot with honey or melted choco chips with fruits as breakfast.

NOTE
You can adjust sugar level according to your taste.
Batter should be semi liquid not too runny or watery.

Hope you all enjoyed this fantastic eggless pancakes, seriously i would like to start my day with this delicious pancakes drizzled with some honey..

Will be back with an another guest post on 7th July until then stay tuned friends.

Bread & Sesame Seeds Pakodas

Give a second life to stale breads, just soak them in water and makes wonderful pakodas with it.For the last day of this week's blogging marathon, i prepared this crispy,addictive pakodas with bread slices, sesame seeds. Have you ever tried adding sesame seeds in bread pakodas, do make some and you will know the difference. Sesame seeds gives a wonderful nuttiness to this easy breezy pakodas, apart from it  this pakoda is definitely a fabulous finger foods, a big hit among kids.

Obviously you can serve this cute crispy balls as starter for a kid's party with some ketchup and watch out how quickly these pakodas will gets vanish.This pakodas will take hardly less than 15minutes to get ready,with simple ingredients this pakodas makes an interesting fritters.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.Sending to Kid's Delight - Finger Foods for Kid's Party hosted by Kalyani,event by Srivalli..

4nos Stale bread slices(soaked in water & squeezed well)
2tbsp Rice flour
2tbsp Gram flour
1tsp Corn flour
3tbsp Sesame seeds
2nos Onions( chopped)
2nos Green chillies (chopped)
1/2tsp Ginger (crushed)
Few curry leaves
1tsp Fennel seed powder
Chopped coriander leaves
Salt
Oil for frying

Take the sesame seeds,soaked bread slices, gram flour,rice flour,crushed ginger,chopped onions,chopped green chillies,curry leaves,fennel seed powder,chopped coriander leaves in a bowl.

Turn them as thick batter, sprinkle water if needed.

Heat enough oil for deep frying, make small balls from the mixture.

Drop gently to the hot oil, fry until they turns golden brown..

Enjoy hot as snacks or as a starter with ketchup.

Aloo Kachori

Cant imagine a kid's party menu without some deep fried beauties, somehow kids love deep fried foods very much. Obviously if am planning a kid's party, i'll definitely make some deep fried foods. As i told earlier, this week's theme of blogging marathon is Finger foods for kid's party. Instead of samosas which we usually plan for a kid's party, make some aloo kachoris, am sure these crispy beauties will definitely suits for the party.

This aloo kachoris turned out super crispy with a wonderful,spicy potato filling. We couldnt stop ourselves having these kachoris, i prepared almost 15 kachoris, for my surprise they just vanished very quickly. You doesnt even need any side dish to have them, the spiciness of the filling itself suits prefectly to enjoy with a cup of tea. Just imagine having this kachori with a cup of masala chai while its raining outside,makes a wonderful evening snacks na. My kids enjoyed this kachoris with sweet chilly sauce and ketchup.This aloo kachori will definitely satisfy everyone's tastebuds.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.Sending to Kid's Delight - Finger Foods for Kid's Party hosted by Kalyani,event by Srivalli..

2cups All purpose flour/Maida
2tbsp Oil
Salt
Oil for deepfrying

For filling:
3nos Potatoes (big & cooked)
1tsp Coriander powder
2nos Green chillies (chopped)
1/4tsp Red chilly powder
1/2tsp Amchur powder
1/2tsp Cumin powder
Few coriander leaves (chopped)
1/2tsp Garam masala powder
Salt

Take the cooked potatoes,coriander powder,chopped green chillies,red chilly powder, amchur powder,cumin powder,garam masala powder,chopped coriander leaves, salt together in a bowl.

Mash and mix everything well.

Make small balls from the potato mixture and keep aside.

Meanwhile knead a soft and stiff dough with maida,oil and water and keep aside for half an hour.

Make medium sized rolls from the dough and roll gently with the rolling pin.

Now place the prepared potato filling balls in the center of the rolled dough.

Cover the filling with the dough by slowly stretching it over the filling.

Seal the ends and remove excess dough,roll gently again with rolling pin.

Meanwhile heat some oil for deep frying,fry the kachoris in batch in medium high flame.

Cook for about 6 to 10 minutes till they gets a golden brown.

Serve and enjoy warm.

Magdalenas - A Spanish Cupcake

Magdalenas are cupcakes like mini cakes served traditionallyduring breakfast with cup of coffee at most of the Spanish houses.Magdalenas are small sponge cakes made with eggs, flour and olive oil but some many modern versions use butter instead of olive oil. Although these small cakes have been made for special holidays since the Middle Ages, they are now so popular that they are an everyday pleasure. Magdalenas have a super moist texture and shiny, a beautiful golden brown tops. They come in three basic shapes, they can be a classic, high domed round, a flat topped round and an oblong shape.

Am running my third week of blogging marathon with Kid's delight-Finger foods for kid's party, these magdalenas aka Spanish cupcakes are definitely a crowd pleaser,very prefect finger foods for a kid's party.Kids will be definitely pleased by this super spongy cupcakes with a sugar crust, do bake some am sure this cupcakes will definitely suits prefectly for a kid's party.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.Sending to Flavours of Spain guest hosted by me, an event by Nayna.

3nos Eggs
1cup Sugar
1+1/4cup All purpose flour
1tbsp Baking powder
Zest from a Lemon
1tbsp Milk
1cup Melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375F,keep aside quarter cup of sugar .

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs,3/4th of sugar, beat the mixture until they turns light.

Now add the melted butter (slightly cooled) to the egg-sugar mixture, add the lemon zest,milk and mix well.

Sieve together the flour and baking powder, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well, the batter will be very thick.

Place the paper liners into the cupcake pan, spoon the batter into the pan, just fill the pan half full.

Batter will double in size when baked.

Now with a teaspon,sprinkle the sugar (we kept aside) on the top of the each magdalna/

Bake for 18-20minutes until the top turn golden brown.

Remove from the oven and all it to cool.

Gujarati Dapka Kadhi~~IC Challenge

For some personnal reason, i couldnt able to participate in our last month's Indian cooking Challenge, but this time i dont want to miss this and today's post is my 39th post for Indian cooking challenge.Do you know what is the main motto of this challenge??, this challenge is a monthly challenge where the members of this group cooks different dishes from different regions of India.Been born and brought up in South India, its truly an immense chance for me to try and taste the foods cooked in other parts of India. Today's post is from Gujarat region and this recipe is called as Dapka Kadhi, gujaratis makes different kadhis and its quite a staple food for them. Kadhis sounds almost like the younger sister of our South Indian Mor Kuzhambu which is basically prepared with sour curd and a spice paste. But Kadhi is quite easier and simple to prepare when compared to our mor kuzhambu.

Srivalli challenged this dapka kadhi for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge and this dish is suggested by Vaishali.Thanks to both, seriously i loved this fingerlicking nutritious kadhi and relished it with a bowl of rice. With simple ingredients and quick cooking process, this kadhi makes a wonderful pair even with rotis.If you are planning to make kadhis, i'll definitely suggest you to give a try to this quick dapka kadhi.I followed the original as per letter but i couldnt resist to add some turmeric powder, coz for me kadhis looks mild yellow in colour.Sending to  Rafeeda's Mission Explore Foods: Lentils event by Sheelu and Pallavi.

Recipe Source: Tarla Dalal
For Dapkas:
1cup Yellow moongdal
1tbsp Oil
1tsp Ginger-green chilly paste
1/2tsp Sugar
A pinch Baking soda
Salt

For Kadhi:
2cups Curd
3tbsp Gram flour
1tsp Ginger-chilly paste
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
Few curry leaves
1tbsp Sugar
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Cumin seeds
2nos Dry red chillies
Few coriander leaves (chopped)
Ghee for tempering

Soak the yellow moongdal in water for 2hours.

Drain the water completely and grind it as smooth paste, transfer the paste to a bowl and add the ginger-chilly paste,sugar,baking soda,salt,oil and mix well.

Combine the curd,gram flour and add 2cup of water,whisk well to avoid the lumps.

Add the ginger-chilly paste,turmeric powder,sugar and salt,mix well and cook in medium flame.

Once the mixture starts boiling, make small balls from the moongdal aka dapka batter and drop them gently to the boiling kadhi.

Cook in simmer until the dapkas starts floating on the top.

Heat the ghee for tempering, let splutters the mustard seeds,add the cumin seeds, dry red chillies,curry leaves and fry until they turns brown.

Add this tempering immediately to the dapka kadhi, finally add the chopped coriander leaves and put off the stove.

Serve hot with rice,rotis.

Notes:
While adding the dapkas, first add one dapka to check whether the batter consistency is correct, if the dapka doesnt float the batter is too thin.

Add some gramfloour to the dapka batter and try again.

Else you can make small balls from dapka batter and cook them in microwave oven for few seconds and then add it to the kadhi.

Ragi Paruppu Dosai/Finger Millet & Dals Crepes

Some dosas doesnt need fermentation and gets ready immediately.I tried out making non fermentation dosas with ragi aka finger millet and mixed dals for our dinner yesterday which ressembles quite like paruppu adais.This dosas turned out super delicious,healthy,definitely guilt free coz they doesnt even need a single drop of oil if you make your dosas in a non stick tawa.Serve this dosas with some spicy chutney for your dinner or breakfast,am sure you will completely fallen in love with this healthy dosas.We loved this healthy dosas and am gonna make quite often with different variations in future.

When i was planning to make out this paruppu adai sterday, i really want to make them more healthier so i skipped completely the addition of rice. My mom's paruppu dosas always goes for rice , but i want to change it and tried making this nutritious paruppu adai with finger millet aka ragi. An excellent dosas suits prefectly for diabetic peoples.Sending this diabetic friendly paruppu dosais to my event Healthy Diet-Diabetic Friendly Recipes .

1cup Ragi/Finger millet
1/2cup Channadal
1/4cup Toor dal
1/2up Yellow split moongdal
1/4cup Urad dal
3nos Dry red chillies
1/2tsp Fennel seeds
Salt

Soak the ragi along with all dals for atleast 4 hours.

Grind the soaked dals and ragi with dry red chillies, fennel seeds with enough water and salt with bit coarse paste.

Heat a nonstick pan.

Pour a ladle of this ragi paruppu adai batter, drizzle the oil and cook on both sides until the adai get well cooked.

Serve this nutritious paruppu dosai with coconut chutney.

Announcing Healthy Diet-Diabetic Friendly Recipes

Time to think about diabetic friendly dishes, yep this month's Healthy diet is going to be diabetic friendly recipes. If you have diabetes or are cooking for someone with diabetic, dont forget to send your entries.Any dishes from breakfast,lunch and dinner that suits prefect for diabetic peoples are welcome for this event.Living with diabetes is a challenge but still we can make food easily with many healthy stuffs in it. Finding a delicious diabetic recipe doesnt need to be difficult. We can make thousands of recipes for diabetic peoples which also includes numerous dessert recipes for diabetics to satisfy their sweet tooth too.

You can eat well with diabetes,so dont forget to send diabetic friendly recipes from today onwards, so that it may be very useful for peoples who are all searching for diabetic friendly recipes. They could  learn and enjoy the foods you share for this event.

You need to do:

1)Cook anything as diabetic friendly dishes, both vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes are accepted from today to 12th July 2103..

2)Post as many dishes as you can in your blog from today onwards..many entries per person are allowed..

3)Link back your entry to this Healthy Diet event  announcement page..

4)I'll accept the old entries, if they are reposted with this page link..

5)Using Logo is very much appreciated..

6)Please take care to send all your delicious entries before 12th July 2013.

Kiwi, Carrot & Nectarine Smoothie

Thick smoothie suits prefect for breakfast, obviously i love to kick start my day mostly with fruity smoothies. Since i had some kiwi and nectarine in my fruit basket, i combined those both fruits with few leftover grated carrots to prepare this wonderful looking,healthy and super filling smoothie.Nectarine are a variety of peaches and its believed that nectarines are crossbreed between peaches and plums.Nectarines are sweeter than peaches and they can be either white or yellow inner with red outer skin.We do get necatarines and peaches abundantly in summer and this weekend i got some nectarines from our usual farmer's market.

Apart from having nectarines in fruit salads, i never tried them in juices or smoothies. But finally thank god, i tried this smoothie and everyone at home enjoyed thoroughly this healthy,vitamin packed smoothie for their breakfast.Sending to Viji's SYS-WS - Apple & Carrot and to my event Healthy Diet-Diabetic Friendly Recipes.

1/4cup Kiwi (peeld & chopped)
1/4cup Grated carrot
1/2cup Nectarine (peeled & chopped)
1cup Yogurt
Honey as per need

Take the chopped kiwi,grated carrot, chopped nectarines,yogurt and honey in a blender.

Blend everything well as a smooth paste.

Serve immediately.

Arroz Con Leche/Spanish Rice Pudding

Arroz con leche aka Spanish rice pudding is a traditional and very popular dessert quite often served in most of the Spanish's houses. This pudding sounds bit similar like Indian rice kheer eventhough the cooking process doesnt go as rice kheer. Arroz con leche is quite a rict desserr with a mild lemon and cinnamon flavour. This pudding can be served both warm or cold and obviously this pudding goes for an easy cooking method, you cant stop yourself with a single serving of this pudding,yep this rice pudding is quite addictive.

I tasted this arroz con leche few years back in a spanish friend's place, immediately i asked her to share the recipe, without any fail she gave me her mom's traditional arroz con leche recipe. Whenever we make Spanish foods at home, this arroz con leche will be served definitely for dessert and its one of our most favourite pudding.This is my third post for this week's blogging marathon as am cooking under the theme 'cooking with colours'.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.Sending to Flavours of Spain guest hosted by me, an event by Nayna.

2cups Milk
1cup Rice (long grain or basmati)
1/2cup Sugar
2tbsp Butter
1no Lemon peel
1no Cinnamon stick
1tsp Cinnamon powder

Bring boil 3cups of water in a large vessel, add the rice and put the flame in simmer and cook for 10minutes.

Now put off the stove and allow the rice to sit,dont drain the water.

Meanwhile take the milk and sugar in an another vessel, heat in medium flame.

Stir until the sugar gets dissolved.

Now drain the water from the rice.

Once the milk starts boiling, add the drained rice,butter,cinnamon stick,lemon peel,bring boil everything,cook in simmer for 15-20minutes.

Remove the cinnamon stick and lemon peel.

Transfer the rice pudding warm topped with cinnamon powder.

Allow to cool completely and serve warm or cold.

Mixed Veggies & Black Urad Dal Medhu Vada

Today for this week's blogging marathon, i chosed black urad dal to make this super crispy,healthy medhu vadas as my theme for this week is 'cooking with colours'. Trust me, these black urad dal medhu vada makes a prefect evening snack when served along with sambar or coconut chutney. While making this black urad dal medhu vada, i tried adding some finely grated mixed veggies this time to make these crispy beauties much more healthier.

Personally for me, the best way to feed  veggies to picky eaters is to add veggies in their favourite fritters, this way they wont ever notice the addition of veggies.I used grated carrot,zucchini,potatoes and broccolis for making medhu vadas, you can very well add any sort of veggies for making this medhu vadas. The addition of these veggies turned out this medhu vadas very delicious and healthy at the same time.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.Sending to Viji's SYS-WS - Apple & Carrot, Rafeeda's Mission Explore Foods: Lentils event by Sheelu and Pallavi and to my own event CWS-Urad Dal guest hosted by Sowmya of Nivedhanam and to Vardhini's Dish Out It - Lentils and Vegetables.

2cups Black Whole Urad dal
Salt to taste
1no Onion ( finely chopped)
3nos Green chillies(chopped finely)
1cup Grated Veggies (carrot,zucchini,potato and broccoli)
1tsp Ginger (chopped)
Few Curry leaves (chopped)
3tsp Coriander leaves (finely chopped)
1tsp Fennel seeds (crushed)
Oil for Deepfrying

Soak the whole urad dal overnite, the next day grind the urad dal bit coarsely,add the salt to the dal.

Sprinkle some water and grind well.

Now add the chopped onion, chopped green chillies, chopped veggies,chopped ginger pieces,chopped coriander leaves, chopped curry leaves,crushed fennel seeds.

Mix everything well with your fingers.

Heat oil for deepfrying, take a small ball from the medhu vada batter  and flatten them with your fingers,make a hole in the center.

Drop gently one by one to the medium hot oil.

Deep fry the vadas until they turn brown, fry everything as small batches.

Drain the excess of oil with a paper towel.

Serve hot with spicy chutney or as side dish.

Eggless Butterless Mini Mango Chocolate Marble Cake~~ Home Baker's Challenge#2

After making pizza, for this month's Home Baker's Challenge we landing towards a sweet bake aka marble cake with the king of fruits ' The Majestic Mango'. This month's host Sangee Vijay challenged the members of this wonderful baking group to bake two versions of mango chocolate marble cake,one is with eggs and butter and the another one is as eggless and butterless version. Without any hesitation, i baked mine as eggless and butterless version. I used store bought kesar mango pulp instead of fresh mango pulp for making this mini marble cake, i have already baked twice this mango chocolate marble cake and everytime this marble cake was a big hit among my kids since this cake have both our favourite ingredients mango and chocolates in it. Thanks to Sangee for this incredible challenge and we loved it.

Also from today onwards, am running my second week of blogging marathon with a beautiful theme called cooking with colours,obviously my next two day's posts will be very colourful and definitely delicious. As this marble cake sounds prefect for this week's of blogging marathon, am posting this spongy,super moist and very catchy marble cake today. As i told earlier, if you love mango and chocolate in your bakes, this marble cake is for you, needless to say that since this cake is eggless and butterless you can have two more pieces of this cake without an guilt. Bake this marble cake and am sure you will love it. Honestly mango and chocolate makes a wonderful pair in cakes. Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 29th edition.

2cups All purpose flour
1+1/2tsp Baking powder
1/2tsp Baking soda
1/4tsp Salt
3/4cup Sugar
1/4cup Cocoa powder (mix with 2tbsp of warm water)
5tbsp Oil
1tsp Vanilla extract
1cup Mango pulp
1/4cup Milk
1/4cup Yogurt

Preheat the oven to 350F, grease your mould and line it with baking paper if needed.

In a mixing bowl, take the sugar, oil, mix it.

Now add the mango pulp,milk,yogurt,vanilla and whisk well.

Meanwhile in an another bowl combine the flour,baking soda,baking powder, salt and mix well,keep aside.

Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well until everything combine well.

Transfer half of the mango batter to a bowl.

Now take the cocoa powder, warm water in a bowl,mix it and make a thick chocolate syrup.

Add this to another half mango paste, mix it to make chocolate cake batter.

Now pour the mango and cocoa batter alternatively to the already prepared pan, make a swirl with a tooth pick.

Bake it in middle rack for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Notes:
You can use fresh homemade mango pulp for making this cake.

You can also add chocolate chips or nuts to make this cake more delicious.

You can make zebra pattern, a simple swirl cake with this cake batter.

Carrot and Walnut Salad

Most of our dinners are salads and soups, obviously i make variety of salads coz everyone at home like to have different salads. Sometime i will break my head to feed them. Few days back, for our dinner i prepared this healthy,nutty and easy breezy salad with grated carrot and walnuts.

This salad may sound very simple but tastewise they are just mindblowing, the addition of walnuts makes this usual carrot salad very interesting. I served this salad with a vinegar dressing prepared simply with white vinegar, green chillies,olive oil and salt. If you are planning to make a carrot salad, dont forget to add a handful of walnuts. Am sure you will see the difference between the usual carrot salad and this walnut carrot salad.Sending to Viji's SYS-WS - Apple & Carrot and to my own event Healthy Diet-Healthy Salads by Archana of The Mad Scientist's Kitchen.

3nos Carrots (grated)
Handful of Walnuts
2nos Green chillies (chopped)
2tbsp Olive oil
2tbsp White vinegar
Salt as per need

Take the green chillies,olive oil,white vinegar,salt in a bowl,mix and keep aside.

Now take the grated carrots, walnuts in a bowl,mix.

While serving, add the dressing as per need.

Give a stir and serve.

Watermelon & Black Urad Dal Kootu

After sambhar, kootu have their important place in our menu. If i feel lazy to make any other gravies, i'll prepare immediately kootus as they need less to time to get ready. Pressure cooker makes this kind of gravies easier, obviously i'll prepare kootus with my small pressure cookerwhich i carried all the way from India. Without pressure cooker am lost and pressure cooking veggies and dals tends to keep their nutrients while cooking.Coming to this kootu, i prepared two days back with the white rind of watermelon and soaked urad dal with some toor dal.

Here watermelons started showing their heads and last week we bought a huge watermelon from farmer's market, after having them instead of trashing their rinds, i used them in this kootu. Dont ever trash the white rinds after having watermelon, they makes wonderful foods. Black urad dal in this kootu turned out this gravy  delicious eventhough the colour was bit dull,no matter about the colour of the dish but tastewise this kootu turned out simply awesome.Sending to my event CWS-Urad Dal guest hosted by Sowmya of Nivedhanam and  Rafeeda's Mission Explore Foods: Lentils event by Sheelu and Pallavi,to Vardhini's Dish Out It - Lentils and Vegetables.

1+1/2cups Watermelon (white part & chopped)
1/4cup Black Urad dal (soaked overnite)
1/4cup Toor dal
1no Onion (chopped)
1no Tomato (chopped)
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
Salt
Oil
1tsp Mustard seeds, urad dal & cumin seeds
3nos Dry red chillies
Few curry leaves
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
Chopped coriander leaves

To Grind:
2tbsp Grated coconut
3nos Green chillies
1tsp Cumin seeds
1tsp Peppercorns

Grind all the ingredients given under the list 'To Grind' as fine paste with some water.

Meanwhile wash the toor dal and keep aside for few minutes.

Heat a tsp of oil, add the chopped onions, chopped tomatoes and saute for until the onions turns transculent, add the chopped watermelon pieces, saute until the veggies get half cooked.

Now add the soaked dal,soaked black urad dal with turmeric powder, salt to the cooking veggies.

Add enough water and pressure cook everything upto 3 hisses.

Heat enough oil, fry the mustard seeds, urad dal, cumin seeds along with asafoetida powder and curry leaves keep aside.

Once the pressure get released, add this tempered spices, grounded paste and cook for few minutes,put off the stove.

Add the chopped coriander leaves and serve with rice.

Rendez Vous With A Foodie ~~ Arthy of Sumanarthy's Kitchen

Today is 7th june and am happy to introduce an another budding blogger today as am hosting Rendez Vous With a Foodie,an event where newbie bloggers share about them, their passion for foods,blogging and with a beautiful guest post. I started this event just to showcase new bloggers to this immense virtual blogging world and this event runs twice a month.For some personnal reason,i couldnt able to do this guest post last month itself, thanks to my hosts of this month for understanding my situation.

Coming to today's guest host, its none other than Arthy of Sumanarthy's Kitchen, Arthy is from Malaysia and her space is a treasure for Malay cuisine, you can cross variety foods there. I came to know Arthy few months back, one day she pinged me and asked a guest post, immediately i accepted her request for guest posting, then we started chatting rarely.Then an another day,i got to know more about her through an another blogger, now we are best buddies and she call me Ka with loads of love. She is very lovable,down to earth,honest,modest and very adorable person with a huge heart, ask her some tips for dieting she will immediately share A-Z about dieting.Thanks Arthy dear for sending me this beautiful guest post and am honoured.

Lets meet our this month's host Arthy..

Wow, blogging is an awesome experience getting to know many sisters all over the world, even without meeting face to face the chemistry is fantastic....hehehe, I got to know Priya Suresh ka of Priya's Versatile Recipes last year while blogging and she have even done a guest post for my blog.

1)Tell us about your blog and you?
Okay, now let me introduce myself for those who don't know me, I'm Arthy of Sumanarthy's Kitchen. I started blogging in the year 2011 but lost my older blog due to unforeseen circumstances and started this blog. I have been actively blogging ever since, I'm Biomedicine post grad who have been learning to cook since the age of 11.

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

Life before blogging was plain as I hardly mingle around with strangers but blogging made me a much more approachable person and I have been trying a lot of recipes out of what I have tasted and learnt from my mom.

3)When and what motivated you to blog about food?
I was so much motivated to start a blog on my own when I wanted to share those recipes I have learnt from my mom and aunt, blogging was the only way I could introduce wonderful family recipes which I love. Another must mention reason that motivated me to blog is my beloved hubby who loves home cooked food, I learnt cooking variety of dishes to impress him and all this while he inspires me to try out new recipes and not forgetting my other family members.

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

There are tons of blogs out there but what I can say about my blog is that, most of the recipes are from my mom and some I have created over these years of cooking.

5) Every newbie blogger faces ton of challenges when its comes to blogging,tell me about one of the challenges you faced?
The first challenge that I faced was when I have just started blogging, I didn't know anything bout blog but over time I have learnt a lot of things that improved my blogging not forgetting some of blogger sisters helped me to correct the mistakes that I made. The second will be food photography, when I started blogging I wanted to present the dish I prepared as it is but after visiting many other sisters, I got to know how important it is food styling and food photography to promote my recipes and blog.

6)Few  tips about food photography?
I'm still in learning process and I don't have much tips on food photography but what I can say is that you don't need expensive and exclusive props or camera but the interest and initiative to present the dish you cook is very much appreciated.

7)Wat is your budget for the props,do you have any or else do you manage with your household stuffs? How do you plan your blogspots?

I don't have any specific budget on props and I make use of what I have at home, previously when I was not working I post a new recipe almost everyday but now since I'm busy with business and work, my schedule is quite tight and I rarely post. I need sometime to adjust to the timing of taking pictures as by the time I reach home it would be evening and the lighting is not favorable for clicking.

8)Do you have any other passions apart from food blogging?
Apart from blogging I love reading novels and sewing but I hardly find time for both these hobbies. Best recipes that I would have blogged so far would be my varieties of Sambals as Malaysia is so famous for the it.

Anyway I would love to take this opportunity to thank Priya ka for the wonderful chance given to me to share about my blog and recipes. Love you ka!

Now let me bring you to the special recipe that I have prepared for my lovely Priya ka, Coriander Pepper Chicken. This is a very simple but delicious dish that you should taste, I'm sure people who don't fancy spicy food would definitely love this.

Coriander Pepper Chicken:

Ingredients:

500g of boneless chicken (cut into small pieces)

A bunch of coriander leaves

1 large tomato (sliced into wedges)

2 large onions (sliced thinly)

2 tbsp of coriander powder

1/2 tbsp of crushed black pepper

1 tsp of whole black pepper corns

1/4 tsp of turmeric powder

1/4 tsp of fennel powder

1/4 tsp of cumin powder

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

3 tbsp of oil

1 tsp of ghee

Salt to taste

In a pan, heat oil and fry cinnamon stick, star anise and onions until translucent, then add in the chicken pieces, turmeric and salt, this mixture should be fried without adding any water as the chicken will release enough water to cook it.

Now add in coriander powder, cumin powder, fennel powder and black pepper corns and let this cook together with the chicken.

Now add in ghee, tomato and chopped coriander to the chicken and let it cook until tomato is totally mushy and blends well with the chicken gravy.

Let the chicken fry in the oil and completely cooked, finally add in the crushed black pepper according to your spice tolerance.

Now our Coriander Pepper Chicken is ready to be served with roti, plain rice or anything you wish. I hope you will try this dish and let me know how it turned out for you!

Droolworthy coriander pepper chicken na, hope you guys have enjoyed this hot and spicy chicken fry, dont forget to visit Arthy's space.

Stay tuned friends, i'll be back with an another newbie blogger on 20th June for this event.