Goodbye 2016 and Welcome to 2017

         Wishing you all a Happy and Colourful New Year 2017!!!

2016!!! What a year, life went on super duper busy during this year though i have been enjoying some major changes happened in my personnal life and in my professional life. 2016, this year started with a Dilemma for me, i was like whether to write an exam to enter into a government job or to keep up the oldie goldie job in Child care. But nothing is predictable in life na, i finished brilliantly the entrance exam with writing and oral test in front of 8 juries. All happened very much quickly and i got a new full time job in a school. Obviously its been 5 months, my life was like roller coaster, i have been juggling between my work, home and blogging. However i have been constantly blogging. Thanking god for it, for giving me some force to cook and prepare the blogposts during weekends.

Am keeping myself busy in blogging either by posting thrice a week or atleast posting from 12-15 posts a month. Not to forget that i have blogged successfully two whole months of Mega marathon with two different themes during this year which was quite a challenge for me.

If you are interested to know what i cooked for Blogging Mega Marathon do check the links below:

April 2016 : Journey through the cuisine with 26 days of French cuisine in Alphabetical order as theme.

September 2016 : Cooking Carnival with 5 beans for 5 weeks as theme.

I kick started 2016 with a super healthy fingerlicking Gravy with Mixed Herbs, which i cooked up during my trip in India. I have posted 206 posts during this year and now my blog counts 3345 posts.

I have won few contests this year too especially from Better Butter.

Am so happy to say that i got an immense chance to meet two wonderful food bloggers Jeyashri and Raji who travelled all the way from Singaport to Paris to meet me. Whatelse a blogger need.

Let's take a glimpse of my top recipes with highest views i have posted during this whole year:

January: Deep Fried Snickers Bars

February: Paneer Biriyani 

March: Easter Special Hot Cross Buns 

April: Gai Mei Bao - Chinese Coconut Buns 

Mai: Key Shaped Yeast Bread

June: Paneer Kalimirch

July: Eggless Checkerboard Dinner Rolls

August: Pain d'Epi

September: Garlic & Cheese Black Bean Pull Apart Bread/Black Bean Monkey Bread

October: Chinese Pan Fried Baozi Buns/Chicken & Carrot Panfried Baozi & Boondi Pak

November: Tawa Noodles with Banana Stem

December : Chestnut Smoothie Bowl & Christmas Tree Patterned Swiss Roll Cake

Hope you enjoyed this post and am very thankful to each and everyone for being part of my blogging world, nothing is possible without you all.

Sending this post to Srivalli's Best of Year 2016.

My cooking resolution of 2017 is going to be blogging every week atleast twice a week, yes believe me am so skeptical about blogging nowadays as my professional life is very much busy.

Christmas Tree Patterned Swiss Roll Cake

Swiss roll or cream roll is a kind of sponge cake roll stuffed with either whipped cream,fruits or buttercream or sometimes simply with jam. A thin layer of batter prepared with flour,eggs and sugar baked in a sheet pan, spread with jam or buttercream, rolled up and served as round slices makes this roll. I have prepared this roll with usual measurements as christmas tree Patterned Swiss roll, filled with chocolate mascarpone cheese cream. This delicious vanilla swiss roll filled with a chocolate loaded mascarpone cream makes an excellent dessert after a meal. I carried this swiss roll cake to our Xmas dinner party and all our friends enjoyed thoroughly this incredible cake. I got so many appreciations for this cake, watelse we need na.

Christmas Candy Cane Cookies

Candy cane cookies, one of the popular festive cookies with a rich texture, a holiday favourite cookies for kids and adults. Always a must during Christmas season, this candycane cookies have their own place among the christmas cookies. Usually prepared with sugar dough, these cookies calls for two coloured dough. Those both colourful dough when twisted together, looks prefect as like the candy cane. These cookies are seriously very simple to bake. A prefect holiday cookies to bake and share with family and friends. If you want to bake some christmas friendly cookies then this cookies is a must to give a try. You can pack them very well as christmas gifts too.

Eggless Funfetti Sugar Cookies

I have been looking for a chance to bake some sugar cookies with colourful sprinkles and finally i baked some few days back. Adding colourful sugar sprinkles to a simple sugar cookie dough turns this eggless cookies more catchy and extremely addictive. You can pack these cookies very well in your kid's snack box or else to pack and carry for a celebration. Not to forget that this dangerously addictive buttery cookies suits prefectly to enjoy during your Christmas party as well. However this cookies are kid's friendly munchies and trust me kids will go crazy if they tastes this super delicious buttery cookies.

Chestnut Chocolate Smoothie Bowl

Once the autumn starts here in Paris, you wont miss street vendors selling freshly roasted chestnuts which is quite common in every street corners. Freshly roasted chestnuts are our favourite street food obviously we never miss to get them. Then later i came to know how to roast and steam cook chestnuts at home which is quite similar to roasting/steam cooking peanuts but it will take more time to get roast/steam cook. Roasted chestnuts tastes fabulous while the weather is too nasty. When i picked Seasonal Special as theme for this week's blogging marathon, i seriously want to give a try to a different dish with chestnuts. Hence i want to give a trial with a smoothie bowl with steam cooked chestnuts and this smoothie came out extremely delicious. Trust me, we enjoyed thoroughly our smoothie bowl for our sunday brunch.

Leek Pakoda/Leek Fritters/Leek Medhu Pakoda

Leeks belong to the onion family, its usually used in dishing soups or quiches. But trust me, you can dish out some incredible Indian style dishes too. Its peak season of leeks here and this vegetable shows its heads during Autumn season. I just love this super flavourful leek especially in soups. However i dont want to dish out a soup when i picked Seasonal Special as this week's theme for this third week of blogging marathon. As usual, my brain worked awesome and i couldnt stop myself dishing out some fritters aka pakodas with this incredible vegetable. If you love loads of onions in pakodas, am sure you will definitely love this leeks loaded fritters. Once i finished frying, we went on munching this fritters as they were dangerously addictive.

Kiwi & Clementine Upside Down Cake

Its peak season of both Kiwi and clementine here, both these fruits are my favourite though i cant eat kiwi raw to enjoy their goodness. However i dont miss eating kiwis, i usually bake or dish out apple sauce with kiwi, else a simple kiwi compote or jam to please my tastebuds. Obviously am posting one of those incredible kiwi based cake today which i baked recently with clementines. I have a reason for it, yes this week's blogging marathon's theme is going to be Seasonal produce. Since its going to be Winter very soon, we are trying to keep ourselves fit to overcome the upcoming nasty winter by enjoying these fruits. Kiwi and clementines, both these fruits are loaded with loads of vitamins especially vitamin C. Trust me we are literally overloaded with these fruits but still if you check my fruit baskets, you can still able to see some kiwis and clementines sitting silently.

Vánočka/Vanocka - Czech Christmas Bread

Vanocka/Vánočka is a Czech Republic and Slovakia Christmas bread which is often baked during Christmas time. This bread calls for a rich bread dough prepared with eggs, butter and this bread dough sounds almost like Brioche. Usually this bread have raisins and almonds though sometime you can add some lemon rind or orange rinds just to give some flavor. Braided like Challa, this bread calls for three progressively braids stacked on top of each other. This is sometimes interpreted as a rough sculpture of Baby Jesus wrapped in cloth laying in a manger (manger is a structure used to hold food to feed animals). Manger is also a Christian symbol. Earlier people felt like saying that this bread is very difficult to prepare at home and so many superstitions and special customs are followed while baking this bread. When making Vánočka some says that the person who bakes this bread should jump up and down while the dough rises, another custom says that to avoid touching silver or metal to the Vánočka.

Panettone/Mini Panettone with Chocolate chips - Italian Christmas Bread

Panettone is a sweet Italian bread loaf which have its origin from Milan, which is usually prepared during Christmas and New year in Italy. This bread is very much known in most other countries of the world and this bread is one of the symbols of Milan city. Recent times, this bread have their important place in many christmas table. This bread is prepared usually in a cylindical base mould and panettone weigh usually 1 kg. Traditionally, this bread dough calls for a long process, the proofing process take several days which gives an incredible fluffy character to this bread. And this bread contains candied orange, citron, lemon zest and loads of raisins which are added directly to the bread dough instead of soaking.My today's version is one of the easiest and simple version of panettone which turns extremely prefect as much as like the traditional panettone.

Jewish Apple Christmas Cake

When winter comes, apples shows their head in every fruit stall. And we get varieties of apples during this super chilled weather. Obviously i dont forget to bake some delicious bakes out this fantastic fruits. When i get a chance to bake with apples, i dont hesitate a second to bake with. I have couple of cakes to give a try and am trying to cook from my bookmark recipes.This Jewish apple cake was suggested as a christmas special recipes by Priya of Cook Like Priya long back for a baking event. Since i couldnt able to bake this cake for the baking event i have been looking for a chance to bake this cake and finally i baked this fabulous cake as i was running this week's blogging marathon with 'Christmas Special' as theme.

Quinoa Nei Payasam/Quinoa Sharkara Payasam

Nei Payasam is one of the popular payasam which is usually served as prasadam in Sabari Malai temple. Obviously many Kerala temples serves this very sweet thick consistency payasam during special occasions to the devotees. This payasam is simply prepared with rice, jaggery and ghee, hence the name comes from ghee which is known as Nei/Ney. If you give a try to this lipsmacking payasam, am sure you will definitely make this super delicious payasam quite often. Since i always want to give a twist to the traditional dishes, i couldnt stop myself to try this famous nei payasam with quinoa. Trust me, these tiny grains works out awesome to make this super delicious payasam.

Quinoa Mixed Dals Bhath

An another incredible dish which is quite a must to try if you want to prepare something different with the super humble grain aka Quinoa. Quinoa, this is my star ingredient of this week's blogging marathon as am running One ingredient,three main courses as theme. Prepared with loads of vegetables and three different dals, this lipsmacking healthy dal bhath is a must if you are searching for something healthy and easy to dish out. Trust me, this mixed dals bhath is a one pot meal and you can prepare this super comforting food in less time than you can imagine. Pressure cooker is a must if you want to dish out your meals in less time. Obviously this dish calls for pressure cooking.

Quinoa Chakli/Quinoa Murukku

Quinoa, this wholegrain is must in my pantry since i started cooking with these tiny grains. This wholegrains are seriously versatile and you can dish many ultimate dishes out of this grains from snacks to sweets. I have been experimenting different recipes with these grains and one of my recent trial is this crunchy munchy murukku. If you are searching for a different murukku,am sure my today's post will definitely help you to make your savoury snacks for any occasion. I have prepared quinoa flour myself at home after dry roasting those grains and grinded as flour out of it. This homemade quinoa flour makes excellent crunchy and dangerously addictive murukku.

Eggless Gingerbread Pancake

Pancake, this tiny cakes are must for us especially for our sunday brunch. I love ginger flavor in bakes, though none at home love this flavor in bakes, obviously i think twice before adding ginger powder in my baked goodies. When i got ginger and curd as secret ingredients for this month's Shh cooking secretly event, i couldnt think much than dishing out some pancakes with some store bought gingerbread spices. Trust me, this pancakes with some honey will definitely fill some hungry tummies easily with less efforts.

Vegan Apple & Chia Pudding

Last but not least, here comes an another excellent glass dessert to enjoy without any fuss. Chia seeds are very healthy and rich in protein, obviously if you are vegetarian and planning to take protein rich foods in your diet dont forget to include chia seeds. I have been looking for an opportunity to include this excellent super seeds in our diet since a while and tried my hands in making a simple rich looking pudding just with thick coconut milk, sugar with apple chunks. No cooking is needed hence this pudding is definitely a kid's friendly dessert to dish out with less efforts. Chia seeds are excellent for anyone, as they are very easy to digest if they are prepared properly. Not to forget that these seeds are seriously very versatile.

No Bake Eggless Chocolate Cheesecake in Glass

Cheesecake calls for loads of eggs, cheese and for baking, though many incredible eggless version of cheesecake do exists which calls for no baking. My today's recipe is one among those no bake cheesecake served very much elegantly in a tall glass. Easy to whisk, this delicious eggfree cheesecake is like a child play. With less efforts, anyone can dish out this interesting glass dessert. As much as like usual cheesecake, a biscuit base is much needed for this dessert. Hence i opted for a simple biscuit crust which is later topped with a hung curd based less fat chocolate topping. Whoever like to relish a delicious and chocolate loaded dessert will truly enjoy thoroughly this glass dessert.

Strawberry Coulis Topped Greek Yogurt Parfait

If you are searching for a delicious and very extremely easy dessert for an aftermeal, then you have to check this excellent yogurt parfait served along with strawberry coulis. Its not at all strawberry season here, but whenever i get sweet,succulent strawberries i dont forget to freeze them for later use. Obviously i had some delicious frozen strawberries in my freezer which i freezed while it was peak season for strawberries. Trust me this strawberries are quite handy to dish out some delicious coulis. When i was planning for a very simple glass dessert, i couldnt resist to prepare this seriously very quick dessert which calls for some greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is high in protein, an excellent choice for low carb dieters. A greek yogurt can replace very well cream cheese, mayonnaise and butter in many dishes. Because of their thicker texture, these yogurts suits absolutely prefect to make some delicious simple desserts out of it.

Cheesy Mushroom Burger

We are great fans of button mushroom, obviously this mushroom have their place in my fridge. Whenever i feel like eating something different, i dont forget to prepare different dishes out of mushroom and its been a while my younger one requested me to prepare some burger out of his favourite mushroom. When i picked Bring them on burger as theme for this week's blogging marathon's theme, i couldnt skip myself dishing out a super cheesy burger with mushroom. Easy to make, this burger will definitely please anyone's tastebuds.I felt personally its one of the easiest way to feed mushroom to everyone.

Spinach & Rice Meatless Burger/Palak Rice Burger

If you would have went through my previous post, you mind have noticed that i have been running this week's blogging marathon with Bring them on burger as theme. I couldnt resist to prepare a meatless burger with some blanched spinach leaves and mashed leftover rice. Both works awesome and this patties came out extremely delicious and super healthy. This gluten free patties are seriously very easy to make. Just blanched and chopped spinach leaves and nicely mashed rice spiced with garam masala powder, chopped green chillies and sauteed onions makes this fantastic patties, when served along with homemade burger buns trust me this meatless burger will definitely please everyone's hungry tummy.

Mini Kidney Bean Burger/Mini Rajma Burger

This week is going to be Burger, Burger, Burger. Yes i picked Bring them on burger as theme for this week's blogging marathon. Burger, this word itself makes everyone hungry at home. Obviously whenever i plan to make burger at home i dont hesitate a second to dish them from scratch. Yes from baking the burger buns to preparing the patties i do everything by myself to serve as burger to please my family's tastebuds. However meaty burgers are the most favourite for my younger one, but once a while he love to have some healthy vegetarian burgers as well. When i picked Bring the burger as theme, i immediately planned to prepare some mini burgers for our dinner to serve along with our bowl of soup. Trust me, we had a super filling dinner with this cute burgers and soup.

Tawa Machli Amritsari/Tawa Fried Amristari Fish

You might have noticed i have been posting Tawa friendly dishes for the past two days, today's recipe is definitely a delicious treat for Seafood lovers. Though am a great fan of fish fries, its been a long i prepared fish fries. However my today's recipe is quite a different dish from the usual fish fries. Amritsari style fried fish is an excellent starter when served for a get together or in a party. When i googled i saw varieties of Amritsari fried fish which calls for deep frying, but today's version goes for tawa frying. Tawa, this pan works awesome for frying fishes, hence i went with this tawa fried Amritsari fish. While watching a TV show, i got hooked to this delicious starter and i bookmarked this dish immediately. Finally i got a chance few days back to dish out this super delicious Punjabi style tawa fried fish for our Sunday lunch.

Tawa Noodles with Banana Stem/Vazhaithandu Noodles

Noodles, this word itself makes my kids happy, almost like pasta they just love noodles. Needless to say, my pantry will always have egg noodles as they are seriously very easy to dish out. As i told earlier, am in living in China town obviously noodles are very much cheaper than pastas, however i try to make atleast twice a month noodles to serve especially for dinner. Yes we dont eat noodles or any other breakfast dishes for our breakfast as i dont have enough time to make breakfast dishes. Most of our breakfast goes for cereals and bread toast, since they are easy and filling breakfast we dont hesitate a second to fill our tummy with them. Obviously breakfast dishes took a back seat and i make them often for our dinner to enjoy happily without hurry. Noodles are simple to make if you have all the ingredients in your pantry or in your fridge.

I have tried my hands in making a simple, though a delicious and super healthy tawa noodles recently using Banana stem aka Vazhaithandu, yes you read it rite. I love to include this banana stem in most of our dishes, though sometimes its really hard to feed everyone at home easily, hence i opted to feed this incredible stem this way by adding in their favourite noodles. This noodles was a big hit and none noticed the addition of the banana stem as they turned out crunchy after sauteeing. Everyone at home enjoyed this noodles happily with loads of vegetables as noodles are my kids favourite dish. Now i know how to feed them easily with healthy stuffs in their meal. Am running this week's blogging marathon with 'Make in Tawa' as theme, hence am posting this tawa noodles which calls for quick and easy cooking process.

3cups Cooked noodles
1cup Mixed veggies (sliced lengthwise)
1cup Tender Banana stem (cleaned & sliced lengthwise)
1no Onion (sliced)
2nos Green chillies (slit opened)
1tsp Ginger garlic paste
1no Tomato (chopped)
1/2tsp Garam masala powder
Few coriander leaves
2nos Bayleaves
1tsp Fennel seeds
Oil
Salt

Heat enough oil, fry the bay leaves and fennel seeds until they turns brown.

Sauté the onions, slit opened green chillies until the onions turns transculent, add the ginger garlic paste, chopped tomatoes, cook until the tomatoes turns mushy.

Add the veggies, sliced banana stem and sauté with enough salt until they get half cooked (dont over cook, veggies should be crunchy).

Add immediately the garam masala powder and cook until everything get well mixed.

Finally add the cooked noodles, toss everything well until the noodles gets well coated with the spices.

Put off the stove, garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Enjoy hot.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#70

Tawa Vegetable Fried Rice/Desi Fried Rice

Tawa, this pan is a must in Indian cuisine, most of the Indian dishes are cooked in it, hence this utensil have their important place in every Indian's home. You may wonder why am talking about this pan, i have a reason for it and am running this week's blogging marathon with an interesting theme. My theme is Make in Tawa, obviously the three dishes for this week's marathon is going to be Tawa friendly dishes. For the first day of this week's theme, i couldnt resist to post a delicious and lunch box friendly rice dish with couple of vegetables. Very simple to make this tawa fried rice is definitely an easy breezy rice dish to give a try if you dont have enough time to cook an elaborate meal to pack in your kid's lunch box. If you have cooked rice in your fridge, then this rice gets ready very much quick than you imagine.

2minutes Microwave Idli

Idli, this savoury cake is every's South Indian's favourite especially for their breakfast, its quite a staple food for Tamilians. Been born and brought up in Tamil Nadu, i have been pampered with this healthy and nutritious gluten free savoury cakes almost everyday in our menu. Obviously i do prepare idlis often at home though the climate in Paris doesnt help much for the fermentation. However it never stopped us to prepare this gluten free cakes at home. I have been posting different dishes since two days with idli batter in different ways. After a super filling sandwich and baked idli muffins, my today's post goes to aneasy breezy microwave cooking. A prefect dish to make if you are living alone or bored to cook just for you as this dish calls for just 2 minutes to get ready.

Idly Muffins/Rajma Masala Stuffed Idli/Dosa Muffins/Desi Muffins with Rajma Masala

You may wonder while reading the name of my today's post, yes you read it rite, my today's recipe is a baked version of Idli. If you would have went through my earlier post, you might have noticed that am posting with a super interesting theme calls Pick a breakfast and do it in 3 different ways for this week's blogging marathon. After a lipsmacking sandwich, i want to dish out a different dish with Idli/dosa batter, hence i opted for a baking dish with the same usual idly batter. To make this idli muffins more interesting i opted for a lipsmacking and nutritious rajma masala. Adding rajma masala to this idli muffins makes this dish more delicious with more interesting nutritional values.

Potato Masala Stuffed Dosa Sandwich/Dosa Sandwich with Potato Masala

Today its going to be Potato masala stuffed in a sandwich which is later coated with a simple onion loaded dosa batter, sounds interesting rite. Yes my today's post calls for a different breakfast dish prepared in a interesting way. Though Idli and dosas are all time favourite of South Indians, sometimes its quite interesting to dish out those usual idlies or dosas in a different way. I picked a tremendous theme for this week's blogging marathon 'Take one breakfast and make it in 3 different ways'.Obviously i picked idli/dosa batter to make dosa/idli in three different ways, obviously my today's post goes for an ultimate dosa sandwich stuffed with a simple potato masala. Trust me this sandwich is definitely a super filling one, you can pack them very well in anyone's lunch box. Yes this sandwich makes an excellent lunch or dinner.

Paneer Chocolate Burfi/Chocolate Kalakand

Diwali means loads of savouries and sweets, i cant imagine celebrating this popular Festival of lights without some sweets. Obviously i will look for easy sweets which need less time to whisk and enjoy. Burfi is one of quickest sweet we make with less efforts, i have already prepared varieties of burfis though my today's post is also one among a recent trial prepared with homemade paneer and dark chocolate powder.  This burfi tastes extremely delicious and stays absolutely prefect for a week if conserved properly in fridge. Paneer plays an important role in this fantastic sweet and this burfi takes hardly less than 15minutes to get ready.

Parboiled Rice Cashew Murukku/Munthiri Puzhungal Arisi Murukku

Usually murukkus aka chaklis is prepared easily with less efforts with store bought rice flour, though they can prepared with soaked and grounded parboiled rice aka puzhungal arisi (parboiled rice is called as puzhungal arisi). Usually grounded thick, this parboiled rice is mixed with roasted gram flour, which is spiced and flavored with grated coconut, cumin seeds, butter and salt. I do this parboiled rice murukku quite often, but for a change, my today's recipe goes for an another rich ingredient. Yes i have opted for cashew nuts to make this incredible crispy beauties. Though the grinding part may call for time consuming, you can squeeze out this murukkus easily with less efforts.

Boondi Pak/Boondhi Pak/Sweet Boondi Squares

Boondi pak, sounds interesting rite. This sweet is quite different one from the usual Diwali sweets we make out traditionally. Actually to be honest, this boondi pak is quite a delicious sweet which sounds almost like both Mysore pak and Boondi laddoo. Yes its an excellent sweet to give a try if you dont have time or dont want to give a try to the usual Boondi laddoos. Am sure many of us have hardly tried laddoos with boondhi aka gram flour based deep fried pearls as this sweets are not that much easy to make if we dont know how to succeed the sugar syrup consistency. Trust me this Boondi pak doesnt need the sugar syrup consistency, yes you heard it rite. With tiny deep fried gram flour pearls aka boondis you can dish out this sweet boondi squares with less efforts than you can imagine.

Goru Meetilu/Goru Mittai - Andhra'sTraditional Sweet

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous Diwali, the popular festival of lights. Am sure all will be busy in dishing out sweets and savouries to share with all your loved ones. Even am busy in preparing as well. Who will say no if you get a chance to try your hands with a Traditional sweet from Andhra,and not to forget Andhra cuisine is one of the richest cuisine of India where still so many traditional dishes have their important place. Am sharing an interesting sweet from this region of India which is delicious, dangerously addictive and very easy to make with simple ingredients. Actually i crossed this sweet two days back in one of my fellow blogger Padma's space and immediately this sweet dish tempted me to give a try. Since i was searching for a different sweets for my diwali sweets i couldnt resist to make this Goru Meetilu aka Goru Mitai. Padma says that this sweet gets its name from the way its is shaped. Yes Goru means Nail in Telugu, since this sweet is shaped completely with thumb finger, this sweet is named as though.

Surti Butter/Buttery Jeera Biscuits/Batasa

Surti Butter, its definitely an interesting baked goodies to give a try if you love something savoury. I never heard about this Surti butter before and i tried my hands for the first time. I baked this Surti butter for this month's We knead to Bake, a baking event by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and this dish is suggested by Madhuli Ajay.Do you know this Jeera Butter Biscuit are very popular tea time snack sold in most of the bakeries or in Irani tea houses in India. These biscuits are small, crisp,dried bread buns with a light texture. Trust me, this rich cookies are excellent munchies to enjoy as a fabulous accompaniment to enjoy with Indian masala chai or to go well with a bowl of soups. This recipe is from Crumbs! Bread Stories and Recipes for the Indian Kitchen by Saee Koranne-Khandekar, Madhuli Ajay pulled us to bake out these rich cookies.

Sago Vathal/Javvarisi Vadam/Sago Fryums/Javarisi Vadagam

Summer came to an end a month before but still we are having some hot afternoon and chilled morning. However this climate doesnt affect our routine life and we are enjoying thoroughly this hot and chilled weather. You may wonder why am talking about the weather,yes my today's post is something very special which we never forget to prepare once a year while the weather is too hot. I have spent my summer vacation in India for the past two years and everytime i come back to Paris,i never forget to pack some homemade vadams/vadagams aka fryums prepared either by my MiL or by my sister. But this year, since i didnt visited India, i planned to prepare myself some fryums at home as we had super hot summer days. Obviously i gathered all the ingredients as i get small sized sagos aka tapioca pearls from Chinese stores as these tiny tapioca pearls suits prefect for making excellent puffing and crispy fryums.

Garlic Chutney Powder/Garlic Idli Podi/Poondu Podi

Spice powders have a long shelf life if they are stored properly in a dry and clean jar. Every month, i prepare couple of spice powders myself at home as i dont like to buy spice powders from stores. Idly podis,rasam podi,kootu podi and sambar podi have their important place in my cooking. Obviously every first sunday of the month, i dont forget to prepare small batch of all these spice powders. Nothing can beat this freshly grounded spice powders and homemade is always the best. I have already blog about many interesting Idly podis/chutney powders but still i have few more to post and one among those flavourful idly podis is this super aromatic Garlic loaded idly podi. This podi tastes absolutely fabulous when served along with hot steaming idlis or crispy dosas. Trust me, one can happily have two more idlies/dosas if you serve those South Indian breakfast dishes along with this idly podi.

Pulikachal/Tamarind Rice Paste/Puliyodharai Paste/Puliyogare Paste

Am not a big fan of store bought spice pastes or readymade rice mix, but i love to prepare myself those humble spice pastes at home whenever time permits. Pulikachal aka tamarind rice paste is a must if you are planning to make Puliyodharai at home. However making pulikachal at home is definitely easy and this spice paste is seriously very handy whenever you doesnt have enough time to dish some tamarind rice with less efforts. This paste calls for tamarind extract which is tempered later with usual tempering spices and cooked with a spice mix to make it more flavourful. This is one of most popular ready mix easily available everywhere (departemental stores, sweet stalls, grocery shops or else even in hotels) especially in South India. Not to forget that this rice paste mix is definitely an excellent travel friendly spice paste to carry with as they stay prefect for almost more than 3 days in room temperature if conserved properly.