Three Long years have went just like that, in between so much happened including a new addition to my family. I have been tied up with so many commitments and from all that I have taken a small break to enjoy myself as a housewife with my 2 kids. I was thinking for a longtime to comeback to my blog, but always found reasons for not stepping in. Even I have forgotten the password of this email linked. Its today, the ice broke and I am here now. Though I am away from my blog, I can never never keep myself away from the blogger world.  I have been a regular visitor for many blogs and have been trying new recipes from them quite often. With all that flashback I will shoot back again with my recipes. Watch this space......

I can assure you, this recipe will surely be a treat to your senses. I prepared it so many times and it has come out well all the times. I can mention it as my signature recipe even. My inspiration for this recipe is my fiends mom, who is the expert in preparing non veg dishes. I usually get a hint from her for all the non veg preparations.

Ingredients

Sankara Meen/Red Snapper - 1/2 kg

Tamarind - lemon sized ball

Pearl Onion - 15 nos

Tomato - 1 small

Green Chillies - 2 nos

Chilly Powder - 2 tbsp

Corainder Powder - 2 tbsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - as required

For Tempering

Gingelly Oil - 2 tbsp

Fenugreek - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves - few

Aesfoetida - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Clean the fish three times. Here we get it cut as a whole fish, with head and tail removed. Otherwise you can cut it in bigger sizes.

Soak the tamarind in water and get a thick extract out of it.

Marinate the fish with chilly powder and salt for 2 hrs.

In a kadai, add the oil and items for seasoning. I usually use the mansatty for this kulambu.

Then add the onions and tomato. Saute them till they become soft. Then add the tamarind extract, turmeric powder, salt, chilly and coriander powder.

When the gravy starts boiling, add the whole green chillies. You dont have to cut these chillies. People love this as a sidedish with curd rice.

Close it with a lid and cook it in medium flame for about 10 mins.

Once the raw smell goes off and the consistency become slightly thick(it should not be too thick) put the marinated fishand close with a lid

It takes only 5 mins for the fish to get cooked.

Be gentle while stirring, so that fish dont get broken after it gets cooked.

Serve hot with Rice and Vanjaram(King Fish) Fry.

After a very long time I am back again. Really it took a lot of time for me to settle down in our own city after spending 5 yrs in bangalore. My kid started with his playschool...and after 4 months now only he started going to school without much toruble. I found, getting him ready for the school is the toughest job in this world and am also mastering in that recently. Ok Stories apart, here's the recipe for today Vegetable Biryani

I have already posted few other version of the same before.

Ingredients

Basmati Rice - 3 cups

Veggies altogether - 3 cups(I used beans, carrot, potato, cauliflower, paneer and frozen Peas)

Bay Leaf - 1

Cinnamon - 1 inch stick

Cumin Seeds - 1/ tsp

clove - 1

Curd - 2 tbsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp(optional)

Onion - 1

Green Chillies - 3 nos slit

Grind and Extract:

Coconut - 1

Green Chillies - 10 nos(this depends on how hot you want it)

Green cardamom - 3

Method

Soak the Basmati Rice for 20 mins.

Grind the things mentioned in the "Grind and Extract" section and the get the extract. You can add water and get it in three rounds.

In a kadai add a tsp of ghee and add the whole garam masala items. Then add the basmati rice and fry it for few minutes.

Then add this extract, salt and mix well. Close it with a lid and cook until done. Dont stir often. I used 1-1.5 ratio for cooking the rice and i cooked it in a heavy bottomed non stick kadai with a glass lid. The rice should be seperate.

In another kadai, add a tsp of oil and then a bay leaf. Add the onion and fry it till done. Then add the cut veggies (except paneer) and saute well. Add half a cup of water, salt, curd and garam masala. cook them till soft, still they shoudl be rigid.

Grease a pressure cooker with ghee/oil and add the rice layer first and then with veggie masala, then with rice like that. Close it with a hot tawa at the top. Cook it in a low flame for 10 mins.

Gently mix the rice and masala together. Serve hot with Raitha.

Its always raining here, this entire month and am finding it difficult to dry all the clothes. This is the best season to get cold, cough etc. Manja Paal is the one, we often prepare at home as one or the other one will have some throat problem. This drink will be very soothing to the throat and you can get good sleep after drinking this without any dry coughs. When i came to know about the event Think spice - Think Turmeric, this one flashed my thought immediately. My FIL is having a slight cold and he drinks it for the past two days.

Here are few medicinal values of turmeric

It is a natural antiseptic, antibacterial, anti inflammatory, stomach soothing agent

Is a natural liver detoxifier.

Reduces the risk of childhood leukemia.

Used to heal any cuts on skin

It plays a mjor role in anti cancer activities

Ingredients

Milk - 1 cup

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Pepper crushed or powdered - 1/2-1 tsp

Palm Sugar - 1 tsp

Method

No specific preparation done here.

In a cup of hot milk, add all the ingredients and mix well.

Drink before going to bed. Thats all.

I am sending this to Think Spice - Think Turmeric hosted by Sudhesna

and also to Healing Foods hosted by Yasmeen

This halwa reminds me of my childhood times. when i was doing my schooling, we had a petty shop near our school and there we get so much of kids cookies, chocos, biscuits and this one. I love this halwa a lot. I never knew this can be made at home. I didnt even know that this one is made out of maida. when i was browsing through net, I found this recipe from Srivalli's blog. It was so simple, that made me to try it at home on the same day.

Ingredients

Maida - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Kesari powder a pinch

Cashew - few

Ghee - as required.

Method:

Make the sugar syrup till one thred consistency

Prepare a batter with maida, kesari powder and water.

Pour this batter into the boiling sugar syrup and keep on stirring.

Keep adding the ghee till you get a well formed halwa.

Once it is ready, pour it on a greased plate and decorate it with roasted cashews.

I followed the exact recipe from hers and found it very tasty. My kid too loved it.

Being a parent, whenever they plan for a trip, my only concern would be my kids convenience. Here is a great site which has good information about Baby friendly Travel. They also have a list of products for baby travel like sleep gear, strollers etc.

I am back to the blogosphere. It was really a tough time to settle down and get things done. I really faced a very tough time as there were continuous doctors visits one after other in the family. I don't know what would have went wrong. Even now there are few more packed boxes, yet to be unpacked...and god only knows when it can be done.

Coming to the Indian Cooking Challenge, already I missed one (Murukku) last time. So I didn't want to miss this time too. I was planning this for almost one half month, got print outs of this recipe at least five times...got delayed....delayed and at the end I made it on sat evening.

Appah how many hurdles I should cross. I was grinding batter for Sunday breakfast and preparing the khova. All of a sudden my husband peeped into the kitchen and asked whether I will be able to prepare bajjis for him. It was raining outside and its a perfect time for a bajji too. It was really shock for me, as he is not a fan of bajji and he asked me for the first time in 3 years of my married life. What else...I got things ready for a bread bajji, the easier one. Finished off with the bajji session and I was very happy that my husband and kutty had a great time with the bajji.

Then started off with the jamuns, by that time the khova got ready and made the batter with the ingredients mentioned. Closed it and kept it. Kept the sugar syrup boiling. Used all the buffer time to finish off with my batter mixing. Once everything got ready, I fried the gulab jamuns and put it in the sugar syrup.

And then the comedy session started...I waited for half an hour....1 hr....8hrs....the next day morning too came....but jamun still remained hard enough.....ooops then only I realised on seeing the unopened cooking soda packet. :'( wat to do....Mission Failure. But the taste was good...but hard.

Please do read the comments from my husband and in laws

Husband - "I have sent one to Dr APJ, to try it as a new weapon and one more NASA to do a research on it"

BIL 1 - When my kid had a jamun in hand "Pappu hold it safe otherwise u may harm ur legs when it falls down"

BIL 2 - "Oh my god, you tried it a wrong time....we are done with the remodelling of our house and we don't need stones any more"

Its my fault and I am really scared of trying it anymore...as i was boiling 2 litres of milk on a LPG.

But anyway am posting this as I tried it. I am eager to see all your comments.