carrotsandcherries

It was Rakshabandhan, there was something utterly important missing...... My BROTHER :P . His exams are on, we could not even speak properly over phone ! (He is always occupied with some or the other test, quiz, assignment....... I wonder many times how does he juggle all this ??.............I did not so many things when I was studying ). He manages all this and has time for fun also !!!!! I wanted to dedicate something to my brother that day, something simple and special. Back home mom usually used to prepare a sweet, we than used to pray and then I tied the rakhi on my brother's hand and then all of us are indulging ourselves on the sweet that mom prepared. She mostly used to prepare a simple and tasty sweet on every Rakshabandhan. This is one of the sweets that my brother and myself relish. Well without any more delay, here is what we need to prepare Carrot Halwa, good amount for 2 persons. Carrots - 500 gms, grated with the big grater milk - 500 ml cashewnuts - 10 almonds - ...

It is Varalakshmi Vratham tomorrow said mom, yesterday. Brain starting generating all sorts of choices for sweets the ones that I either never tried like this one and the ones which were a flop in the consistency. hmmm..........I thought, I asked mom "What kind of sweets and savouries must I make tomorrow?". She told me to make a sweet with jaggery and any savoury like vada. Since quite some days I was contemplating to try out the "Boliyal" as it is called in sourashtra, bobbatlu in telugu, boli in tamil. Well whatever it is called I really miss the boliyal that mom used to make at home. The stuffing is made of simple ingredients, easy to combine and moreover tastes so good !! My recipe for the stuffing is adapted from the one mom used to prepare. The dough for the boliyal was a spontaneous one. I got six 4 to 4.5 inch dia boliyals for the measurements below, We need, For the stuffing : Channa dal - 1/4 cup Jaggery - 1/2 cup Coconut chopped - 1/2 cup Cashe...

Le Marché as it is called in French, the farmers market here has quite a few treasures in the summer. The colours of the vegetables, berries, fruits ohhhh!!!!!!!!!!........you feel like trying out all the market has to offer you. The variety of tomatoes, their colour, shapes and sizes ....... and all the tomatoes have a distinctive taste of their own. Some are sweet, some sour, some just have a subtle taste and are best when eaten in a salad. Let me show some of them.... The Normal variety of tomatoes Pearl tomatoes - Tomates perle Cherry tomatoes - Tomates cerise (The above loose ones the below in bunches or en grappes) San Marzano Tomatoes (I never tried them out) Tomates Rosé de berne I dont know the name, but they were quite sour these tomatoes Yellow tomatoes (for quite obvious reasons :P) - Tomates jaune The normal good looking variety of tomatoes in bunches - Tomates en grappe True salad tomatoes - Tomates coeur du boeuf (heart ...

Small potato pulao is one of the favourites of my brother and me at home. The favourite has many steps in its preparation, but it is definitely worth the work !!!! I wanted to make aloo dum actually but then, I thought it is nicer to prepare a variation of this rice for the afternoon. This is a recipe adapted from 100 Rice delights of Mallika badrinath. I used the baby potatoes that I bought from the Thursday farmers market last week, they turned out to be little sweet in taste. I also used the "Tomates perle" (pearl tomatoes) from the market. We need the following for 3 persons:- Sona masuri / Basmati rice - 1 1/2 cups Baby potatoes - 15 Tomatoes paste and water (I used the cooked chick peas water) - 2 1/2 cups (Has to be  adjusted on the amount of water required by the rice to cook nicely to the separate grain consistency) Chick peas - 1/2 cup (soaked overnight) Echalotes (Shallots) - 3 medium sized, finely sliced Corriander - 6 sprigs Curd - 2 tbsp Garam masala - 1/4 ...

It is so hot nowadays, believe me even gourmet food does not look so appetizing. I think the heat wave in Germany is having an effect on this place too.... Body finds solace in the simplest of foods now. "Curd rice" is THE saviour !!!!! But only carbohydrates wont do good to the body, a good portion of vegetables is a must. So the lunch menu was Curd rice and stuffed capsicum. I will be blogging the recipe for curd rice later..... Now comes the stuffed capsicum. This recipe is an inspiration from a barbaque party that we had some days ago. I tried to make a taste bud satisfying potato stuffing for the capsicums that I had bought the day before. The stuffing I prepared was for 3 medium sized capsicum. Ingredients Potatoes - 2 large (around 740 gms, boiled and mashed) Red Onion - 1 large (chopped) Oil - 1 tsp Salt - 2/3 tsp Masala powder for the stuffing:- Corriander seeds - 3/4 tbsp Cumin - 1/3 tbsp Methi seeds - 5 nos. Red chilli - 1 small Method 1. Heat a pan, now ...

It is friday - time to prepare a special sweet for God :) This time I wanted to keep the sweet simple, subtle and good to eat. The sweet that immediately came in to my mind was Kozhakkattai The traditional version of the sweet is somewhat time taking, but I found a simple way to make it. So here is what we need to make 12 kozhakattais (3.5" long); Rice powder - 1 cup (I prefer to use the Nirapara brand) Water (boiling) - 1 1/3 cup Salt - 2 pinches For the filling: Fresh coconut chopped - 1 cup Cardamom - 3 Sugar - 2/3 cup (I used the brown sugar of cane that we get here - it tastes similar to jaggery) Water - 1/4 cup 1. Boil the water and pour this into a bowl containing the rice flour. Mix this nicely with a spoon. Allow it to cool enough for kneading it into a smooth dough. 2. While the above is cooling, grind the chopped coconut and cardamoms to a rough paste. 3. Heat a pan, pour in the sugar and water in it nicely stir it and then leave it for 3-4 minutes to boil t...

It was relaxing to prepare a simple pizza sauce yesterday. Just chop all the ingredients, fry them a little and the let them simmer on low heat for sometime, so that the sauce is infused will all the lovely flavours. The sauce tops 3 - 20cm dia pizza perfectly. Ingredients: Cherry tomatoes - 16 Basil leaves - 4 (I used the fresh ones that a friend gave to me, since she grows them :). The fresh leaves gives a very nice flavour to the sauce) Echalote (finely chopped) - 1 Red chilli garlic powder - 1/2 tsp Pepper - 2 pinches Bay leaf - 1 Cinnamon - 1 (1" stick) Sugar - 1/3 tsp Salt - 2/3 tsp (can be added according to the taste) Olive oil - 1 tsp Method: 1. Heat a pan with olive oil, when you start smelling the oil drop in the Echalotes and fry them for 3 mins. 2. Add the halved and sliced cherry tomatoes and the chopped Basil leaves and cook it till it becomes pulpy. At this point add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, red chilli garlic powder, sugar, salt and pepper and 1/2 cup of ...