Tamalapaku

S and the kids being very fond of Alu, I end up making some kind of Alu curry  2-3 times in a week. I fall into the 'not so keen about Alu' category. So in trying to keep it healthy I added Chana to Alu and Cauliflower and made this gravy. Needless to say S and the kids had a feast!! And I found adding walnuts and almonds to the gravy imparted a very rich taste to the curry. We enjoyed this along with Vegetable rice and Raita.

Here I am with the 200th Post of our blog!! We sincerely thank all our readers who take a peek into our kitchens and make our time worthwhile!  Be sure to look out for healthier recipes in our space and continue to visit us ..Thanks to everyone once again! 


I am constantly on the lookout for healthy, whole grain options for breakfast. Thats when I saw this post by Umm Mymoonah and thought it was a great idea to use quinoa in instant idlis. So wasting no time I made these idlis for breakfast the very next day and it was a super hit with the kids as well. I made two batches of idlis with the batter and the second batch (which was made after 10 hrs) tasted much better than the first. It sounded logical to me as the second batch soaked up lot of yogurt and turned out very fluffy and soft too. So I guess a better idea would be to make the batter much ahead for better results. But then they wouldn't be instant idlis, would they??? Anyway the choice it yours..Try these healthy idlis and decide for yourself..

Sometime back, my parents and parents-in-law were used to eating 'amrutaaharam' for dinner as part of a special diet. It is basically all raw vegetables with a little honey and a little Jaggery. It is supposed to be a cleanser for our body when combined with a particular regimen. Anyways, this vegetable salad is made on similar lines but a savory version and much more palatable to many folks!


This salad was introduced to us by Jaya on her husband's insistence. Since then, we have been hooked on it. I should say addicted to it. This can be prepared with any vegetables on hand and tastes just as interesting! Here is how we eat it as an accompaniment to rotis.

Christmas parties in my kids' schools have inspired me to bake some cookies for the holiday season and I had ambitious plans of taking these cute cookies to school. I looked all over the internet for sugarless cookies. I was inspired by eggless and sugarless cookies from ifood.tv and Zesty South Indian Kitchen and improvised by adding tofu and made them vegan too. These cookies were not too sweet and had a slight hint of pepper. I was surprised when my kids cleaned out the baking trays not even allowing the cookies to cool down. So taking these cookies to school didn't happen. Anyway the kids had lot of fun eating those. My little one loved the star shaped ones and was grabbing some from the plate which I used to take pictures!

I didn't have the need to store them as they were none left in less than an hour of baking them.


Packing these cute cookies to 


Celebrate Sweets - Sugarless at Sara's Corner initiated by Nivedita ,
 Champa's Bake Off , 'Cookies and Cakes For Xmas' by Dr Sameena Prathap and
 Suma's Baking event which comes along with an interesting and exciting giveaway.





Preparation Time 80 min (Baking time 20 + 30 min of resting time + 20 min cookie cutting)
Makes 2 baking sheets of mini cookies

It has been a while since I prepared cranberry dal at home. I bought a huge bag of cranberries and so thought I should use up all of them before they go bad. So made cranberry chutney and now this cranberry dal. Since cranberries have a tart taste, it mixes well with dal and it tastes like mango dal with a mild 'cranberrish' after taste. We loved this dal and I was gently reminded by S that I should freeze some fresh cranberries for later use!

This month's edition of Indian Cooking Challenge was this delicious 'Kashmiri Dum Aloo'. Thanks to Srivalli and Lataji for having chosen this recipe for this month's challenge. I made a few changes to the method because of some dietary limitations of our family right now. I chose not to deep fry the potatoes like in a typical dum aloo. Instead I sauteed them to a crispy texture and the curry was still very flavorful and filling at that! However, I served this curry after a couple of hours of making it and by then the gravy had dried up. I did cook up a little more gravy (with sauteed onion and tomato puree) later which in fact enhanced the flavor and we enjoyed it.


This recipe is from Indian Food.

When we eat out in any Indian restaurant here, 99% of the time we order Naan and relish the heavenly taste of the buttery Naan with any gravy curry. Naan is basically a kind of leavened Indian bread made with all purpose flour, yeast and curd (yogurt) traditionally cooked in a clay oven. Since we don't have clay ovens, I always thought that Naan making is best left to the restaurant chefs. But I had to change my mind when I saw this recipe in Aipi's USmasala. This is a keeper of a recipe and surely it had to be my next experiment!

So here I am, beaming with pride after a successful attempt at making Naan at home. Barring a couple of them which got over cooked owing to my little one's crankiness, I am pleased with the results. I admit I was a little nervous when I was kneading the sticky dough and also when the dough didn't rise enough even after 1 hour. I forgot that cold weather has already set in and that I need to keep the oven warm for the dough to rise well. Anyway I will be more confident and careful the next time (and sure it will be made often in my kitchen!).

Take them out and brush some butter generously and serve with any gravy curry..yumm yumm..


Linking these Naans to Aipi and Priya Mitharwal's Bookmarked event.

Preparation Time 40 min (excl the dough rising time)
Makes 9 Naans