Ingredients
Buttermilk/beaten yogurt
Besan (kadalai maavu/sena pindi) 1-2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds
Red chillies
Broken urad dal
Asafoetida
Curry leaves
oil for sautéing

Get Cooking!
1. Beat the besan, salt, turmeric powder into the watery buttermilk & keep aside.
2. In a pan, season the mustard seeds, chillies, urad dal, curry leaves & asafoetida.
3. Pour in the buttermilk mixture.
4. Switch off the heat when the mixture just about comes to a boil.

Get Cooking!
1. Make a sugar syrup with the sugar and a little water in a heavy bottomed vessel. The final consistency should be such that if u lift the ladle and pour it, it appears like a single string (kambi paagu).
2. Pour in a ladle of ghee.
3. Put in the mashed potato little by little stirring constantly with a flat ladle such that lumps are not formed.
4. Once the potatoes and the syrup combine well, add ghee little by little stirring constantly.
5. When the mixture separates out from the sides of the vessel, add cardamom powder and stir in
6. Take it off the heat and serve.

Tips
Add chopped nuts to make the halwa crunchy now and then. I added cucumber seeds, “sara paruppu” & cashew nuts roasted in ghee just before adding the cardamom powder & stirred them in well.

Ingredients
Tuvar dal – 1 cup
Asafoetida powder – 1/4 tsp
Red chilli – 4-6
Salt – to taste
Oil

Get Cooking!
1. Sauté the dal till it turns golden brown.
2. Soak the dal in water to soften it.
3.  Sauté the red chilli
4. Add to the dal, grind  slightly coarsely with some salt.
5. Serve with hot rice & ghee

Tips
You may saute some tomatoes or chayote & add to the mixer to add some nutrition/flavour. You may also reduce the red chillies, add some black peppercorns instead.

Get Cooking!
1. Grind onions, tomatoes, green chillies, pods of garlic and ginger into a fine paste
2. Heat 1 tsp of oil and ghee fry paneer cubes and keep aside.
3. Heat oil and ghee , add the ground paste and fry on  low flame till the paste is cooked well with no raw smell.
4. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder, white pepper powder , garam masala, salt and fry for 1 minute.
5. Add the milk and allow it to boil.
6. Add the fresh cream and finally add paneer  cubes . Mix well for 2 minutes.
7. Garnish with a dollop of fresh cream on the top

That shows how terrible I have been with this the whole of last year! Do I resolve to correct it? No..don’t want promise something that I probably can’t keep up. I have added a guest author. Hopefully she will maintain the health of the blog

Though I don’t know whether to laugh or to scratch my head in disbelief as I did think this blog was dead! Thanks stats helper monkeys , especially for the abstract painting…love it!!

So…readers…thank you for keeping the blog alive! …don’t think it is awesome in health as stated…still…

Happy New Year!

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The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 8,300 times in 2010. That’s about 20 full 747s.

In 2010, there was 1 new post, growing the total archive of this blog to 152 posts. There were 8 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 402kb.

The busiest day of the year was December 21st with 71 views. The most popular post that day was Eggless Dates Cake.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were shakaharisapadu.blogspot.com, authentic-food-treasures.blogspot.com, google.co.in, google.com, and networkedblogs.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for bisibelabath, rosogolla, palak paneer rice, mysore bonda, and alu bath.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Eggless Dates Cake February 2007

Thattai March 2007

Bisibelabath April 2007

Alu Bath December 2008
6 comments

Chilli Paratha November 2006
3 comments

Ingredients
Wheat flour
Rice flour
Jaggery
Cardamom powder
Water
Ghee

Get Cooking!
1. Crush the jaggery . Pour some boiling water to dissolve the jaggery completely. Filter and keep the jaggery water aside.
2. Take a mixture of wheat flour & rice flour (approximately in the ratio 4:1).
3. Mix the flour with the jaggery water taking care not to form lumps. The resulting batter must be a little more watery than dosa batter but not too watery
4. Add in the cardamom powder & mix well.
5. Heat the griddle. Pour a ladleful of the batter onto it like you would do when making a pancake. Do not spread the batter like you would for a normal dosa.
6. Cook till it is golden brown flipping it on both sides (like you would for a pancake), adding ghee if required.

Tips
You may add some grated coconut to the batter. If you find it difficult to take the dosa off the griddle, mix in a little more rice flour. I have added even soybean flour to the batter a few times, just find that it makes the dosa a wee bit bitter ( health vs taste? ) The amount of jaggery you use is again based on taste, sweeter you want the dosa, the more you add.

Get grinding!

1. Clean the ingredients.
2. Grind all ingredients except lime.
3. Squeeze some lime juice, mix it up and enjoy

Note:
This is also called Mother-in-law’s chutney as it has all the different flavours. Some even add a bit of sugar in this

Fenugreek seeds ½ tsp
Coriander seeds 3 tsp
Chenna dal 1 tsp
Urad dal ½ tsp
Black pepper seeds ½ tsp
Red chillies 3-4
Asafoetida ¼ tsp

Get Grinding!
1. Dry roast the fenugreek seeds till they turn brown. Set aside.
2. Then dry roast all the ingredients except asafoetida separately.
3. Mix all the ingredients together and finally add the asafoetida, twirl it around in heat for a few seconds. Cool
4. Grind it to a powder.
5. This can be mixed in with tomato, lemon, mango or tamarind rice to give that extra zing

Ingredients

Moong Dal – 1 cup boiled & mashed
Coconut gratings from 1½ coconuts
Vegetables like carrot, beans, peas, eggplant, drumstick (cut into long pieces)
Potatoes boiled, peeled and cut into long pieces.
Pearl onions – 100 gms
Garlic pods – 2-4 (optional)
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Green chillies
Ginger
Lemon – 1

Get Cooking!
1. Extract coconut milk from the gratings of 3 consistencies – 1st, 2nd & 3rd extracts.
2. Boil all the veggies in the 3rd extract (the thinnest milk)
3. Meanwhile, fry the peeled pearl onions & garlic pods. Add to the boiling mixture.
4. Add in the mashed moong dal & the 2nd (medium consistency) extract.
5. Grind the green chillies & ginger into a paste.
6. Add the turmeric powder, salt & green chillies- ginger paste. Bring to a boil.
7. Add the 1st extract (thick coconut milk). Switch the heat off immediately.
8. Squeeze the juice out of one lemon and mix it up.
9. Serve with rice & ginger thogayal, potatoes cooked like french fries

Tips

There are many variations to the above dish. Some could add spices like somph, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom to the sodhi as whole spices or powdered or ground to a paste. Some even temper the dish with mustard seeds, broken urad dal. One other variation to the dish is to use black peper seeds instead of green chillies.

Ingredients
cooked long grained rice – 1 cup
sprouted legumes, parboiled – 1 cup
cloves -2
Asafoetida powder – 1/4 tsp
Green chilli – 1 chopped
grated ginger – 1 tsp
Capsicum – 1/2 chopped
Spring Onions – 4 to 6 chopped
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder -1 tsp
Dhania powder – 1 tsp
Oil/ghee – 1 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Tomato – 1 chopped
Chopped cilantro – 2 tbsp

Get Cooking!
1. Heat the oil/ghee; add the cloves, asafoetida and sauté for a few seconds.
2. Add the green chilli, ginger, capsicum and spring onions. Sauté for 2 or 3 minutes
3. Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, dhania powder and the sprouts and mix well
4. Add 1/4 cup water, salt and simmer over a slow flame till the sprouts are cooked.
5. Add the rice and toss well.
6. Serve hot, garnished with chopped tomato and cilantro

Tips

I added in roasted cashews, raisins & grated carrots – extra nutrition? Tried it with even some paneer cubes.