This is a Looong post and i suggest only people with both time and patience read it, else you could end up hating me or worse hating my photo blog.
Ive been cooking as I had holidays (and exams in between, like u already know) and decided to post some of it here, ive also included recipes that are easy to make and some Onam memories as well.
Let me begin with this exotic dish I made for lunch today, late to learn it but yes totally latest in taste, it’s a Muslim rice dish and I fell in love with it after tasting it at some of my Muslim friends places however, it never occurred to me that I could make it at home till I saw it on
Blog complete with an awesome looking picture and recipe so I made it today with help from Amma of course
We await any kind of celebrations and Onam being number two, Number one being Diwali, this year too we had onam celebrations at our Nair association, and other malaylee associations here, the picture of the Pookalam you see below this is of the Pookalam at the Thiruvanmyur Kerala Samajam’s Onam celebration, I dint go for it, but my mom did and put this pooklam,(with other people)
This is the small Pookalam my mom put at the entrance of our flat, i couldnt help her as i had to rush to college, but managed to look at it through my View finder.
Puliinjim, Authentic Kerala style, made by my Ammuma a day before Onam itself.
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I made this really easy to make Chicken Biriyani and because it is easy I thought I should put up the recipe here
Things you need
Eight big pieces of chicken
2 tbsp curd
I onion – made into a paste
Ginger paste- 2 tsps
½ tsp Red chilli powder
2 cups Basmati rice, washed and soaked for 30 mins
4 cardamoms
2 pieces of cinnamon- crushed
¼ tsp mace (Jathika)
Salt
½ tsp sugar
2 tbsp Cooking oil
2 tsp ghee
Water to boil rice
Some cashew nuts
And eggs for garnishing
Method
Marinate the chicken in the curd along with Ginger paste, red chilli powder and half of crushed cardamom and cinnamon for ½ hour.
Heat oil in a pan and stir fry the onion paste for 5 minutes. Add the marinated chicken into it and fry in medium heat till oil starts coming out.
Add a little water and boil till tender and dry.
Heat ghee in a cooker and add mace powder, nutmeg powder, salt, sugar and the remaining cardamom and cinnamon. Fry for a minute.
Then add rice and stir for 3 minutes. Add 2 cups water and cook till rice is 75% done
Mi the cooked chicken in layers and add saffron (we dint have any so we dint) keep in under pressure till its cooked, garnish with fried cashews and boiled Eggs,
I found this recipe online a long time back and it was there on my computer for an even longer time before I made it, however we made a few changes to the original recipe. I do not remember from which website I found this so iam not giving any credits but I hope this is not a copyright infringement, I am ready to give credit to the website, and moreover we have made quite a few changes.
You should try this;
make this when you don’t want to stress yourself out by making a difficult Biriyani but a simpler one. The result looks like this,
Chicken Biriyani
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My grandmother makes the best Mutton cutlets ever, ive tried mutton cutlets at various places and yet nothing could match ammumas version.
It may not be the best looking cutlet but it defnitely is the best tasting cutlet.
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Cookies
These chocolate cookies are something i make whenever iam bored and need a snack, i usually bake at night and many a time ive enjoyed these cookies hot, at two in the night, they are easy to make and melt in your mouth. This is a Vidya lakshmi original.
look at the picture above carefully, has three 'Parts'
1. Thats how the cookies look like before they are baked
2. One silly thing i made with Avil that my mom was going to throw away
3. The cookies cooling after they are baked.
You can make smaller cookies,but i like my cookies big, just like the ones at subway and my friends love it this way too.
To make these cookies you need-
Butter 3/4 cup (you can also use vanaspati, or use half-half)
Powdered Sugar 3/4 cup
Vannila essence 3/4 tsp
Maida 1 1/2 cups
Baking Powder 3/4 tsp
Milk 1/2 cup (you might not need the whole of it)
Cocoa powder 2 tbsp, or more depending on how 'dark' you want your cookie
How you make it -
First Grease the cooking tray
Then beat together butter, sugar and essence till light and fluffy
Add flour, baking powder, cocoa and mix with milk to make soft dough, mix thoroughly
Divide the dough into equal pieces, shape into balls, and press lightly
Place this onto your baking tray and bake at 160 degree C for 12 minutes
Cookies are ready!
With this recipe you will have more than one batch.
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I love pizza, who doesnt
There is no recpie for this one, just a story of an angry girl who came home from college upset, hungry and angry at myself, I had done an exam really badly (yea it was Indian constitution) I wanted to punch someone, throw someone down from the Eiffel tower, break someone’s head or phone, act like they do in the movies when they angry or upset, (break TVs and the like) but instead I picked up my phone and called up this person who would calm me, he was home in half an hour and with him he had a pizza, of yea I was talking about Pizza corner. A slice of pizza and a bite of garlic bread later I was serine, happy and ohhh la la ing.! And I looked at the pizza through my viewfinder as well.
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Water melon juice
Of all fruits my favourite is water melon, i made this water melon juice even though they werent in season and priced like gold. Cut a watermelon into pieces, remove all seeds, (remove means remove them, dont leave the seeds in there to remove later), put it into the juicer jar of your mixie with sugar and ice cubes and beat till its a thick juice, use the whip button (if it has one) for one minute, the frothy thick watermelon juice is ready.
ps- dont forget to put the ice cubes in, while making this)
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My Mom's Chicken curry, goes well with Mishmash's Neichoru.
I know this post is long, lol, let me end it on a sweet note.
Corn flour halwa.
Its really easy to make
You need
Corn flour 5 Tbsps
Milk 1/4 litre
Sugar 4 Tbsps
Colur a pinch
Two drops vanilla essence
Ghee 3 Tbps
First take corn flour in a bowl and add water to it, stir so that there are no lumps.
Boil milk for a while and add the corn flour paste to it and stir well so that there are no lumps, add sugar, colour and ghee and let it cook for 8 minutes. remove place on a greased plate and cut into pieces after 10 minutes.
You can add any colour, i wanted to add green colour but then i was scared that my parents would tease me sayign it was poison so i dint. lol
You ve come to the end of my Marathon post, hope you enjoyed your stay here, lol, if you ever try out anything from this post, please do let me know.
Toodles......
Man bends the pole which is stuck on the ground; he is trying to pull it out.
Man tilts the pole to make the cycle hold it.
Man rides away!
