Ginger Candy and Injithair

It has been a couple of blog years since I took part in JFI. I know I know they have been missing my entry :-). RP reminded me of JFI and this time the ingredient is JFI-Ginger. How can a ginger girl from ‘Ginger and Mango’ not take part in that?

So, I thought of all complicated dishes and ended up on this very complicated dish called Injithair in South Kerala. This I have seen only served during Onam festival sadya.

Grate some ginger 1 cup, 3 green chilies, crush them together, add 1 cup of curd.
That’s it. Injithair is ready.

Then I remembered how long back Sarah wanted the recipe for injimuttai or ginger candy. This candy is sold especially in bus stops by small vendors, for this can alleviate the nausea and discomfort during the bus journeys. This was the only candy that passed the test of parents and you could eat them lot.
I didn’t get the recipe for injimuttai. I searched for ginger candy and ended up with lot of recipes. I am unable to remember whether the ginger candy we used to eat was made from whole ginger or ginger juice? Anyway I made with ginger pieces. Boil 1 cup of diced ginger pieces in water for 15 minutes and strain. This makes the ginger pieces softer.

For 1 cup of ginger, add ½ cup of sugar and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil and then simmer until the sugary water evaporates completely. Make sure ginger pieces do not start to stick to the pan. Take off from heat, arrange the ginger pieces on a wax paper and dry them. (I used brown sugar and the candy resembled garnet)
I am not sure whether the ginger candy or the nostalgia tasted great.

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.

Kadala Curry or black channa dal curry

Everybody makes channa dal and then my aunt makes channa dal…

Usually in Kerala households, black channa is made with ground fried coconut or coconut milk. Kerala has a special liking for black channa, but even then I don’t think our coconut version of channa dal curry or kadala curry is impressive.
Though this big secret of non-impressive kadala curry has been hushed up by many mothers and grandmothers, the rebel that I am had to come out with the truth one day.
“Actually, you know, err…I am not really found of our Kerala style kadala curry. Channa and coconut do not blend together and all the curries I have tasted of channa, the adamant black channa refuses to get infused with the delicate coconut”

There was absolute silence as I blurted this out during an unofficial family gathering and then my lovely aunt, held my hand, looked into my confused eyes and told me…
”I know what you are saying. I have been there. Come, I will teach you the secrets of this harsh World…err…sorry I got carried away…I will show you how to make proper kadala curry”

She then taught me how to make the best kadala curry I have tasted and how to ditch the coconut.

Black channa dal – 2 cups washed and soaked for more than 12 hours.

Pressure cook 1/2 cup onion, 2 tsp of chili powder, 1 tsp of garam masala powder, ¼ cup garlic crushed, 1 tsp ginger diced, 3 green chilies and ¼ cup tomato diced with the soaked black channa adding enough salt and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and add ½ cup water. Pressure cook well. Black channa needs a lot of time to get cooked.

Heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, sauté 1 spring curry leaf. To this add a little salt and a pinch of turmeric. Then add the cooked channa mixture. Now is the trick. Add ¼ cup of ordinary tomato sauce, mix well in the curry and then let it simmer for 5 minutes.Serve it with rice, roti, or puttu.

Guess?

After a long time, I am blogging again. Was itching to blog, but I had to cook something, for this is a food blog. Couldn’t put pictures of food someone else cooked (hehehe).
Anyway will be cooking again and back to blogging and sharing recipes. Hurray! (What? You didn’t feel the same hurray?) hehehe… I am just silly!

Okay, before all that…ahem…let me see whether you can guess these two. (Or in other words, while I start to cook, just to keep you entertained)

Below are pictures of two spices we use regularly. Guess them. (Note: a pretty little baking fairy is not allowed to guess!) ;-)

When the blogs turned green!

This was orginally posted on October 1, 2006. I lost this post on my old blog. So posting this again from Google cache.

Sunday, October 01, 2006

There were days when food bloggers innocuously cooked recipes handed down by moms and recipe books. They did not bother about where the ingredients came from.

But one bright and sunny day, a little future blogger asked his mama blogger.

“Ma, from where do you get this snake shaped vegetable?”

His mama however was busy typing away on her blog and gave a quick reply.

“From the Indian store near the run down Movie Theatre dear, shoo...I got a comment on my blog, don’t disturb me for sometime”, said the mama blogger.

“But, grandpa told me, it came from a plant”, our future blogger was persistent.

“Oh! plant?”Mama blogger stopped typing, looked at the kiddo, took him outside, let him play with the dirt and the water can. They sowed seeds together and reaped. Bountiful!

Thus, every blog on earth had its own tiny harvest festival.

(All of the above is from my fertile imagination and no blogger was harmed during the process)

Before I start with the entries, don’t you want to see something special, my garden loving friends? Come along, walk with me through a two acre plot of a friendly family in tropical Florida and they have every plant you have heard of or even didn’t hear about.
Sounds like “weeeee” “oooooo” “that too” “really” “oh my god!” “I think im dizzy” were heard during the walk. I warn you too.
Coconut tree
Which came first?
Hmm, I heard about your Green Blog Project
Jackfruit
Sugarcane
Tapioca
Kovakka

During a recent physician visit, a blogger to her doctor,

“Doc, I have a problem.”

Doc: “Yes.”Blogger: “I can’t find my green thumb!”

Doc: “You are not the first person to approach me with this complaint.”

“Let me explain. Actually scientists have proven in rats and pigs for the past 1000 years, that there is nothing called a green thumb.”

“But doc, I am not a pig or a rat.”

“Oh, I mistook you. But wait, this year we had a breakthrough! We even proved humans don’t have a green thumb and we pinpointed the origin of the myth to a grandmother’s tail...sorry tale.”

“So you mean, I can plant anything and it will grow?”

“Absolutely! It won’t grow if you keep on looking at and sighing at your neighbor’s plant. You require seeds, some soil, some water and some tender loving care.”

“Do you have scientific proof?”

“Of course!” The doctor pulled out his laptop, typed in injimanga.blogspot.com.The day was October 1st 2006.

(Well, I was trying to be funny. If you didn’t laugh, please ask someone near to tickle you)

Now that I have bored you to death with my comedy, finally the entries!Green Blog Project - Summer 2006

Lovely Karthi showed me and fellow bloggers, that you can grow drumstick in cold climate and that too in a pot. I actually fell out of my seat when I saw that. She grew it from tiny seeds and she cooks with the leaves.
Drumstick Leaves

Then, she grew tomatoes and made tomato rice.


Tomato Curry

I thought, oh tomatoes are easy!
No wait, she said. I have okra too…

Okra

Now a secret, I do think indosungod doesn’t actually exist and is my imagination. Why? She grows everything I love! Here, my theory on green thumb myth falters a little. But…I cannot grow keerai here, due to heavy pest attack and I saw her entry. Grr..
Keerai

I was so jealous; I hoped her plants would turn bitter…and Viola! She had another entry and this was indeed bitter!
Bittergourd

Then, she created little Ben Johnson’s with much difficulty. She has a story about it.



What do you think one fellow blogger did for this project? She played a nice and sweet sister to her brother and sneaked some vegetables out of his garden. Well done, my girl! That’s what I want to hear. Hope all our brothers had beautiful vegetable gardens like that so we can sit and blog while they grow vegetables.Special thanks to Tanuja’s brother.(No, the kid you see on the photograph didn’t grow on any of those plants)
Gongura


One day this mama heard a scream, while she was daydreaming about her vegetables. “mama birds eating your flowers”. But, she managed to get us some mint.
Mint

Did you know, the fall of the green thumb myth was heard all around the World and of course in beautiful Japan too. All the way from Japan, from a tiny balcony garden I got an entry from Obachan.
Basil


I have a complaint. This blogger misleads you by the name ‘Trial and Error’, all the while cooking and baking beautiful stuff everyday.She grew potatoes from thin air. Her home grown potatoes are very chic, since they were growing in Ikea pots. What more could a plant ask for?
She promptly finished off the dish before taking a picture. But we can at least see how they looked.

She then grew basil.
Basil

Forgive me fellas, but I want to sneak in an entry with no dish, but as far as I can see dirt on a picture I want to put it. Lovely Sarah grew three beans, yes, exactly three. She who strongly believed in the theory of green thumb now is a convert.She and her cute kids vouch that it was indeed a myth!

This lovely doctor grew a plant which is hard to pronounce. Well, doctors always do that, don’t they? Write prescriptions which you can hardly pronounce.
(Look at those lovely babies peeping out of their blankets)

When I got her entry, I first thought this blogger is angry with someone. Look at all her chili plants…she is keen on growing all those peppers! Well, she sends me an entry with a mild pepper, so I know I am not her target.
Bell Pepper

No idea what this disease of mine is called, but when I see dirt on a vegetable, my knees become weak. Since I know it is freshly cultivated and the smell of it would be heavenly. Gini somehow knew about my weakness and she sends me pictures like that on purpose to torture me.
Radish

Then, she bathes a fish with her home grown herbs.
Fenugreek

By this time, we all know how to grow simple tomatoes. But what do you do with those extra tomatoes? Well, Kalyn has a solution and I loved that!
Tomato

Let me also mention, she has a great event “Weekend Herb Blogging”

We all know this popular blogger can cook and mesmerize us. I was very anxious of her popularity and wanted to trick her. “Okay, I know you can cook and all, but can you grow, eh?”, I challenged her. Hmm…what to say my dear friends? She can grow, she can paint, she can write, she can knit and I do suspect she is not one person.

(Hurray! We get to see her hands...sorry...plants)
Methi

As usual she gives you more, friends.
Basil

She was my inspiration to start this project. Thank you my dear Indira.
Cherry Tomato

Shaheen who started out recently writes so well and takes excellent pictures. Well she can grow too. She says she is cool as a cucumber with her first entry.
Cucumber

Okay, I get it that she is cool. But will she stop? No, she sends me another cool vegetable.
Malabar spinach

Okay baba? Nah! She says can grow tomatoes too!


Tomato
(Even after all this, she even tells me she has couple more entries too! Ah! The deadline is over. I got her! Phew! I am the only one cool here, okay!)


If you stay near this blogger, watch out. She will squeeze and take the pulp out of you. This lovely girl send me a healthy drink.
Tomato Juice

She can string some beans too, but did anyone see a Jack climbing that beanpole?

Beans

African Blue, Dark Opal, and Genovese – Do you think they are some kind of exquisite jewllery? Ha!They are different basils. Mel sends me an entry with three basils.
Three Basils

Gardener Christa had a hard time growing Squashes. But when they started to grow, they grew crooked!
Squash

Luv2cook had a single tomato plant in a 20 inch pot. A plant like that, I suspect might have some psychological problems growing up in nuclear families like those. So next time, I recommend her grow more plants.Tomato

I like Revathi. No, it is not because she said, I am Guardian of Tropical Plantation or because she remembers me when she water her plants. I am not that kind of person who falls for flattery. You think so? I like her ONLY because she grew something. ;)
Mint

Every time spicyana creates something and posts on her blog, I feel like dating the dish. They are so pretty. She whips up beautiful stuff and tugs at my heart strings. Good for her, that I am not in Portland. Only if she had helped God, when God was creating me.
Basil
Grape Tomatoes


I couldn’t believe I got this wonderful entry from Madhuli. I actually did a little dance.(No, we dont believe in videos in our house). This is a spectacular entry


Mandira lives in Buffalo, NY. It is a warm tropical haven where you can grow anything. You just need to sow your seed on the ground. Just kidding! It is as cold as Canada….brrr… I need a blanket even thinking of the snow there. But, did she think she can’t grow? No! In fact, she grew both the ingredients for this dish. I am so proud of her!
Tomato and Cayenne


My dear friend, RP in her workshop took the word 'Project' to her heart and she made cute little display cards with her plant pictures.
Herbs


No, she didn’t grow the waffle, but grew mint.
Mint


She, in this entry did a great marketing for the Green Blog Project. I am sure lots of people were inspired by her easy instructions on planting the easiest thing on earth which you can grow in just two weeks. If you can’t grow methi leaves, I can only say shame, shame puppy shame.


You know I like to sneak in plants without dishes too. So let me sneak in one more.

Sudha too grew something, but forgot to make a dish.

(This is only for this time, Next time any plants showing up for the event without your companion dish is a big No!) :)


Oh! I missed this when I posted the round-up. Guess the entry was not sent thru email or as a comment? But saw chocolate and remembered about this. It would have been a shame, if I had missed lovely Vineela’s creativity.She grew mint and then she dipped it in chocolate after making rice. Bliss!



Let us all drink to the Green Blog Project. Ah! We have a right entry for that.
(Dear Anita, Could you serve that without alcohol for me, please?) :)


Finally, these are my entries for the Green Blog Project.
May - Roma Tomatoes
June - Yellow Banana Pepper
July - Snakegourd
August - Hyacinth bean

This wouldn’t have happened if not for some friendly lovely cutie sweetie bloggers who advertised on their popular blogs about this project. I really thank them all from the bottom of my heart for spreading the word. Thank you! Thank you all for the great participation!

Request: Is someone interested in hosting the next GBP? No, it is not because I am lazy, but I believe in sharing :) . Please leave a comment if you are interested.