Tamalapaku

One afternoon, I hadn't planned anything for dinner and was skimming through the book 'Fast Foods Made Healthy' by Tarla Dalal. (I received this book as part of the gift from Nupur  for my 'Jaangri' recipe). I saw this recipe and thought it would be a nice accompaniment to rotis. The most impressive thing for me in this recipe was the addition of pumpkin puree as part of the gravy. A couple changes to the original recipe and the Palak Tofu Koftas were just as delectable ! I substituted Paneer with Tofu and also Milk with Low Fat Cottage Cheese (Please note that the cottage cheese I am referring to here is not the same as Paneer as is referred to in many places).


The only change I would make for the next time I make this curry is to make the koftas in a paniyaram (Ponganala penam) instead of steaming them. After steaming the koftas, they turned out very soft as opposed to being a little crispy when deep fried the conventional way.

We first tasted this Sooji Biryani about 3-4 years back at a friend's place and instantly fell in love with it. The traditional upma no longer figures on our menu card! This surely qualifies as a one-pot meal, quick breakfast or a light dinner. 


The other day we had this for dinner along with my sister's family and they too relished it. Though the look and feel is the same as the regular upma, the addition of spices makes a distinct difference and is sure to tickle your taste buds.

Tomato pickle is probably the most sought after pickles in Andhra households. And needless to say, each family has a different version of this. My MIL, who is an expert at making different kinds of pickles, was leaving for India after a long vacation. Since we wanted some fresh tomato pickle, who better to ask for! As always, she was more than willing to oblige. My only concern was the amount of oil she used for it but she says that is what keeps the pickle fresh for a longer period of time. When it was ready to be devoured, we threw all concerns into the air and enjoyed the richness of tomato with steaming hot rice and ghee.

My sister, Jaya, who is currently visiting us, is a great supporter of honey. She always urges me to make some sweet using just honey and no artificial sweetener. I appreciate her idea of using just honey, but never got to make, up until now! I saw this recipe here and remember Jaya's nudges and so here it is..what greater opportunity than this when she is visiting us and gets to tastes the honey flavored kheer!! This is the first time I prepared kher with honey and was a little apprehensive but my fears proved unnecessary as this kheer was just so flavorful that we plan to make it fairly regular (S says whenever the bananas are over ripe this is the one to make!) So this aptly makes its way to Priya Mitharwal and Aipi's 'Bookmarked Event'.

For this month's edition of 'Indian Cooking Challenge', we have a very simple, yet a very difficult recipe here. I say simple because it is a different form of chikki we are used to eating since childhood and difficult because the consistency of the sugar syrup is the key to the recipe and that is kind of tricky, to say the least! This is apparently a typical Sindhi sweet usually made for Diwali. Thanks to Srivalli who has picked up a recipe from Simply Sindhi Recipes for this very interesting and delicious sweet we all enjoyed making and eating too!! 


Whenever I make anything with sugar syrup, I am always a little nervous about the consistency of sugar syrup. Same feelings here too..I feel that the sugar consistency could have been a little thicker because I had to refrigerate it for sometime before the mixture solidified (Or is it normal?). But I added a little water to the sugar and that delayed the process too..Also I would reduce the sugar by atleast couple of tablespoons because S doesn't like sweets which are too sweet. Nevertheless the taste was just divine! My sister, Jaya, who is with us on a vacation and I, couldn't keep our hands off this sweet until it cooled down. We couldn't help but scrape some corners to get the taste of it! (Of course, we left most of it intact for the pictures and for the rest of the family!)

This was a freak experiment which was well received at home. If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know that we are great fans of Tofu, specially the kids. So to get them to eat a yet another some healthy dinner, I tried this combo of mixed veggies and tofu. Anyway, to be frank, I had something else planned for the evening, but changed my mind in the last minute. I had marinated tofu to bake them and offer the Baked Tofu for a snack. Since that didn't work out (as they weren't interested in a snack that evening), I had to use up the marinated tofu and so here's how ..

Yet another successful experiment with Quinoa. Anyway, I can't take credit for this experiment as I read about Nippattu made with quinoa flour in Priya's blog. I just happen to use a different set of ingredients. These nippattus were very crispy and enjoyable and no one could trace the presence of quinoa. I am just amazed at how quinoa just blends into our Indian cuisine. A hot cup of tea/coffee for an evening snack - a perfect combo!! But we munched these crisps as and when we had a craving and finished them in less than 2 days!! I used very little mirchi powder and so the little one munched these heartily to our pleasant surprise!