Thank You Series - 2

Blogging is so much fun but it turns a little sour when an anonymous leaves a nasty comment. But then I shouldn’t generalize about anonymous since there are a lot of sweet anonymous(es) out there who leave absolutely wonderful comments like these.

My darling husband bought a bag full of cranberries thinking it was cherries (don’t roll your eyes please; it happens a lot in our home). The same day chanced upon Krishna Arjun’s post on cranberries and was curious about this cranberry thokku recipe left as a comment by ‘ash’.
Thokku is pickle, where the main ingredient is used in a mashed form. There is mango thokku, gooseberry thokku, tomato thokku etc.

Cranberries – 4 cups, cook with a ¼ cup water until soft.

Heat ½ cup gingelly oil, splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, lower heat and add fenugreek seeds and 1 tsp asafotedia. When the fenugreek turns a slight brown, add 2 tsp chili powder and 1.5 tsp salt. Sauté well and let the water evaporate completely until the cranberry turns a thick paste with no water. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pan.It tastes so delicious. Serve with rice or roti.

I am not sure of the shelf life so I have refrigerated the pickle. Thank you once again ‘ash’.

Dont laugh at the picture please, but I too made vettu cake. I think I am serious competition to Archana in cooking and photography. Poor girl! :-) . Had never even heard of such a thing until she wrote about it.

Then, I made Hyderabad Biryani following Nabeelas recipe and it turned out just great. This is as she says is 'Dum Biryani' where the meat and rice is cooked together.
Made cranberry salsa, following Krishna Arjuna's recipe

Thank you all once again.

Thank You Series - I

Once upon a time, I googled for 'Moong Dal Sprouts' and was awe struck by what I saw.It was Open Sesame for me. An array of golden recipes made at home by a wonderful lady. Oh, Food Blogs? How come I, who thought of myself, as tech trend savvy, never ever, heard about this?

Then, I looked to the right side of her blog and discovered a whole new World, a welcome peek at a lot of fantastic kitchens! I am still awestruck by many of the creations by my dear blog buddies (Some of them have gone on to become my twin, my fairy, my sister, my dear friends)!

If one thing my husband approves of me doing is browsing food blogs, he is happy and excited like a kid at all the new dishes his wife is making. He has declared, "Now you have started to learn cooking"! Ah! Men! (rhymes with Amen! ;0)

The best part of food blogs is that you can ask the blogger your doubts about a particular recipe, which is like catching upon the basic training I missed with my mom and grandmom.

These are a few of those recipes I tried. There are many in my folder. But to start with…I used to make idlis and dosas before, but lovely Kitchenmate taught me to make the perfect idlis and dosas I have tasted, just like those I have had in Tamilnadu.
Idli Recipe : 4:1 (boiled rice: uraddal). Soak them overnight, grind urad dal first and rice separately. Her tip: Sprinkle water to the urad dal while it is grinding,which makes the dough very fluffy and the idlis soft like a flower.
Dosas
Darling RP's Salsa was finished off by my guests at the same speed of a salsa.
Strawberry Salsa

Saffron Hut's spectacular food pictures make any simple recipe look like an exclusive affair.Besan Burfi

And last from the Queen's blog:) .I have made so many dishes from Indira's blog I surely can't list them all, this one I remembered to take a picture.
Aloo Chole
Once again, thank you my dear buddies for being there with me in my culinary journey.