A little break from Blogging

Hi dear friends,

Thank you for your concern,dearest Trupti and Supriya!This was a forced break for me.Lots of things happening around.Most important of all,Mrs.Sinusitis decided to give us a visit with her two most famous assistants, cough and fever.What more can I say except she literally pushed me to the side and took over the whole household.I have absolutely no idea what we ate all these days.Most of the time it was hot pepper rasam mixed into mashed rice.We were on baby food for a week almost!(all mashed,and soft).

Secondly, Ananya started going to the nursery last week.So, a few hiccups there and my online life was completely disrupted due to these two main incidents in recent weeks.Thankfully she is doing fine now.I can take a breather as Mrs.Sinusitis decided to leave us finally.Her assistant cough is still around but we are doing much better now.

I will start blogging by next monday at the most as I need to fill up my draft folder now with great recipes and photos.See you all soon then friends!Cheers!

PAV BHAJI

Friday night dinners are always special for us.It is our little celebration:That we can sleep a little late the following morning,and that I don't have to wake up early to pack Hubby V's lunch.Normally Ananya does not sleep long after I have woken up so Saturday and Sunday mornings are tension free for me because then I do not have to worry about having to cook with her in my hands (yes,she is 3 yrs old now and still wants to be picked up and cuddled for at least 10 mins after she wakes up) .So as usual this last Friday I was worrying over what to make:Worrying because I had been busy all day with different chores,went to visit friends because Ananya insisted on playing with her friends, and had little time left to actually plan what to make.Then came the final blow(well,sort of):Hubby V wanted Pav Bhaji!Now I do make bread and pavs often but using active dry yeast would push our dinner time to 10 pm!Then memory came to my rescue:I remembered having bought a pack of instant yeast,so the only thing to do was to search for a recipe which would make a good pav/bun.

I found it HERE

The only thing I did was to to shape the buns as usual,not the way mentioned in the recipe.The result was an incredibly soft bun.Very tasty when eaten warm from the oven.

Added on 9th March:I did not use the egg glaze suggested in the recipe.Instead,I just brushed the buns with some soft butter.Ghee can also be used.Only thing is to brush it with ghee/butter as soon as you take it out of the oven.




The Bhaji was not a difficult task.I had chopped some carrots and tomatoes earlier in the week.I looked into my freezer and found frozen peas,and viola!the bhaji came together:

Ingredients:1 cup chopped carrots

1 cup green peas(frozen or fresh)

1 cup chopped potato

1 big onion(about 3/4 cup)chopped

1 cup chopped tomato

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 tsp grated fresh garlic

3-4 green chillies

2 tsp Pav Bhaji masala

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:Boil the vegetables in a pressure cooker.If you have a microwave steamer,all the better and faster.

Heat oil in a pan and add the ginger and garlic.Fry till they turn light brown.Add onions and chopped green chillies.Let fry till onion is pinkish in colour, and turns translucent.Add the chopped tomatoes.mix well,cover and cook till tomatoes are soft.

Add the pav bhaji masala to the tomatoes and mix well.Now add the boiled vegetables to the mix and keep mashing the vegetables using a ladle.The mix should be nice and mushy.If you have steamed your veggies in the microwave,you will need to add 1 cup water to the bhaji to make it to a thick gravy type consistency.

Once you have mashed the veggies,you do not need to cook the curry for long-just about 5 mins.Take it off the heat and add juice of half a lemon and chopped coriander,mix well and cover till ready to serve.

Preparing the Pavs:Slice the pavs into to using a bread knife or any serrated knife.Apply a thin layer of margarine(better than butter health wise)and toast the buns on a hot griddle until the pavs turn light brown.Serve the buns with the hot pav.

FIGHT PLAGIARISM

Photo courtesy:Sandeepa of Bong Cook Book

I respect the printed word.More than that,I respect the brain behind it.and by that I mean the one who has actually created it,not the one who copies it.That is why I was so shocked when
I read about Yahoo's content theft from Suryagayathri's blog.I also applaud Inji pennu for organising this protest.I am also active on another forum where me and a few other members were victims of plagiarism.Fortunately,the technical staff over there immediately took note of our complaints and the plagiarising member was barred from the forums.When small websites can do that,why not Yahoo?Why should they not apologise for a mistake committed?

Plagiarism is indeed a very annoying plague that eats away at creativity.Yahoo,you being the big corporation here,why don't you set an example by apologising?You will only gain more respect from us if you do that.

We bloggers blog our of our own interests, but that does not mean that you can just lift content from us without so much as an acknowledgement of the source!We put in a lot of effort to write up our posts and put on pictures.Ours is a labour of love.Please respect that.and acknowledge us.That is all we ask,apart from an apology to Suryagayathri and other bloggers from whom content has been stolen.

MARBLED MINTY KOFTAS IN A TOMATO GRAVY

Life does tend to become monotonous at times,but blog events are such a wonderful inspiration to cook and experiment when everything else fails to excite.For the JFI potato which is being hosted by Vaishali,today I wanted to create something very exciting and new with the humble potato.This is what I came up with:Marbled koftas.Marbled,you ask?Well,read on to find out!

Ingredients:2 big potatoes(Boiled and mashed)

1 cup of peas(boiled and mashed)

1 big onion(about 3/4 cup,chopped)

5-6 medium sized tomatoes

1 clove of garlic

1 inch piece of ginger

3-4 green chillies

1 tbsp garam masala

2 tbsp mint paste(Grind mint leaves in the processor till fine)

1 teaspoon amchur

Coriander to garnish

1/4 cup Yogurt,beaten till smooth

1 tbps each cashews and raisins

Method:First,boil the potatoes and peas.Mash the potatoes along with 1/2 tsp of salt and keep aside.

Now,mix the peas with the mint paste,1/2 tsp salt, and mash ,doesn't matter whether it is a coarse mash or a fine one.

Now spread the mashed potato on a piece of waxed paper or cling wrap/plastic wrap.spread the peas paste over it evenly and sprinkle with chopped cashews and raisins.

Pick up one end of the wax paper and roll slowly.The potato will break,so don't worry.This is how it is going to get the marbled effect.Roll roughly into a thick roll,then break off small pieces and make smooth balls out if this mixture.Coat in a thin batter of cornflour and water and deep fry till golden brown.

In a deep pan,heat 2 tbsp oil and fry the chopped onions,garlic,ginger and green chillies till brown.Add chopped tomatoes, and cook till they are softened.

Cool for 5 mins,then grind into a smooth paste in the blender,adding 1 cup water.

Now put this paste into the pan again with amchur,garam masala,salt and chilli powder,if needed.

Let it come to a boil.Reduce heat and let it simmer for 10 mins.

Mix in 2 tablespoons of smooth yogurt.


In a deep dish,pour the gravy,then arrange the koftas in the gravy.Garnish with chopped coriander and yogurt and serve immediately with hot parathas.

My Notes:You can bake your koftas instead of frying,though I must admit,frying it gives it a very good taste.

Potato being the versatile vegetable it is,you can even spice this potato mixture a bit and make bondas out of it.Enjoy!We had it for dinner today and we all liked it.Ananya even had some plain koftas with sauce!

Update:It has been a long time since I contributed to VKN's FAHC cook book.So I decided to send in this one for FAHC.