Itz festival time 2011

Diwali is nearing ... For us Diwali is new dress, lots of sweets and savories to eat and crackers for fun.When it somes to preparing sweet dish it's is like an adventure for me.I wanted to experient some of the Indian sweet recipe a little earlier so that I will not do any mistakes while  preparing for Diwali. For this Diwali my husband want something new.... So, I was introduced to an simple but tasty dessert by my dear husband.He is a great cook :) and its soley because of him I am cooking variety of dishes.See here what he cooked for me...

I was only his assistant and he was the chef.Guess what it is?
Linking it to

http://liventhingsup.blogspot.com/2011/10/itz-festival-time-2011.html

Weekend Lunch

This weekend we had guests for lunch.So I prepared biryani, thayir pachadi,Pappadam :-), Cauliflower manchurian, coconut rice and curd rice.In that, I was able to take the picture of biriyani alone.

;

Linking this post to Weekend wrap up at colour dekor here.

All contents images and text, unless otherwise mentioned  are copyright of ©My world of euphoria.  A lot of effort is put in this blog, so do not copy and paste without permission.

Paneer butter masala

Paneer butter masala, this post was in my draft for a long time.Couple of days back,  I visited Aparna's blog http://www.mydiversekitchen.com/ and read the kashmiri cusine, I was inspired to post my panneer dish.Thank you Aprana!
This dish, I tried after watching a cookery show in the TV.
Recently, I am trying different varieties of paneer recepies after becoming aware of  the benefits of paneer.
I have modified the orginal dish a little bit for reducing the calories.


Ingredients
Paneer-5-7 cubes
Ghee -2 tsps
Chopped Onion(big)-1
Tomato chopped -1cup
Green chillies -2(according to taste)
Garlic-3 cloves
Fennel seeds-1tsp
Jeera-1tsp
Chilli powder-1tsp
Jeera powder-1tsp
Garam masala powder-1/4tsp
Corriander powder-1 1/2tsp
Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
Salt-to taste
Corriander leaves-to garnish

Prepration

If you have stored the paneer in freezer, take the paneer and soak it in luke warm water for half an hour.Pour 1tsp of  ghee in a hot pan and fry fennels seeds .Add onion and saute it until its transparent.After the onions are cooked .Saute the garlic and green chillies also.Allow this to cool and grind in a blender.


                                                                          Procedure
 Add 1tsp of ghee in a pan and add jeera.When it splutter add  the chopped tomatoe and saute until its cooked, then pour the masala that you have grinded.
Now its the time to add all the powders and salt.
Add water and allow it to boil.Once the bubble starts to add the paneer.
Mix well and cook for a while.Check if salt and other spices are according to your taste.
Garnish it with corriander leaves and serve with love.
This dish goes well with chapathi and poori.


Note
You can add more amount of ghee or butter, I have reduced it.
Also cinnamon, cloves and cardomam can be added along with Jeera while seasoning.
If you want the dish to appear red in color, use red chillies instead of green chilles.
Cashew nut was fried along with onion and grinded in the orginal dish.






All contents images and text, unless otherwise mentioned  are copyright of ©My world of euphoria.  A lot of effort is put in this blog, so do not copy and paste without permission.

Thakkaaya burfi/Thengai burfi/Coconut burfi

Coconut has been used by our ancestors and they lived a healthy life.Coconut has a lot of benefits.Its is rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals.Coconut oil has medicinal properties,you can find in many of the Ayurveda medicines.My mother says that when we are seasoning the dish with coconut oil it destroys the germs present in the food and is good for the stomach.Coconut oil is good for the skin and helps for the growth of hair.Drinking coconut water is good for kidney problems and intestinal disease like dysentery.It also gives instant energy.Coconut oil has disappeared from most of the kitchens because people have false perception that including coconut in any form will cause heart diseases etc,(my husband is a victim of it).I did a google research and explained him the benefits.Now he is slowly including the dishes prepared out of coconut oil or coconut in his diet.

Tengaya or Kobbari is the name of coconut in Telugu my mother tongue.I am a lover of coconut in any form.My mother being from Palakkad uses coconut in almost all of her dishes.For my birthday my mother prepares coconut burfi sweet.

For this Deepavali, I planned to prepare coconut burfi and searched for the recipe, I wouldn't call my mother as my Internet phone was out of order. I was a silent follower of a blog- mydiversekitchen by Aparna. Since Aparna and my mother hails from the same place most of her traditional recipes are similar to how my mother makes it, so kept following this blog for one and half years.In fact she is  my inspiration to start my blog.I have tried most of the traditional dishes in her blog and most of the recipes came out well in the first shot itself.This is mainly because of her detailed explanations.If we watch the cookery shows in  TV  we forget something but in Aparna's blog she describes beautifully, even a person who have not tired cooking yet will end up cooking good dishes.

I google searched the coconut burfi and couldn't find the recipes for coconut burfi as my mother makes, then I realised I have to check out in my diverse kitchen.There it was with great explanations. I went into the kitchen and prepared coconut burfi, the results was amazing!.The only change I made to Aparna's recipe was, I used cashew nuts to garnish coconut burfi and cut it in diamond shapes.

 



A closer shot of coconut burfi



Check out Aparna's blog here http://www.mydiversekitchen.com/2009/09/thengai-barfi-cardamom-flavoured-sweet.html for the recipe.I am sure you will become a follower of  this blog.In her blog she has Useful links, I learnt a lot from those links. Through this post I would like to say my heartfelt thanks to Aparna for sharing her knowledge!