with sihi kahi chandru and Roopashree

With sihi kahi chandru the Nalamaharaja of Karnataka

I have been watching sihi kahi chandru's cookery shows  viz.BOMBATT BHOJANA &  BHOJANA PRIYA.

with Nalamaharaja of karnataka

Needless to say just like most of us, I am also a big fan of  these cookery shows.I guess mr.Chandru is the best cook of all the cookery shows telecasted  on kannada channels.As such I would like to bestow this title NALAMAHARAJA OF KARNATAKA on him.

I happened to meet Mr. Chandru today. I am very much delighted to share my photograph taken with Mr.Chandru today.


Just while writing for this post I suddenly remembered that I had participated in the Kannada cookery show SAVIRUCHI in the month  of march 2011.My daughter Prachi who was 4 years then inspired me to participate in the show.She thought she will get to participate. However she did not get a chance .I shared my recipes  SAKKARE HOLIGE AND CANTALOUPE SMOOTHIE with actress and host of the show Roopashree.My daughter gave my husband a tough time while I was shooting in the studios.She cried and cried as she was not allowed to cook.I guess she is definitely going for a cookery show when she grows.
I am thankful to my husband Ganesh for taking me to the Abhiman studios and encouraging me in pursuing my hobbies and interests.
Here are a few photographs taken om the sets of SAVIRUCHI at Abhiman studios.

with Roopashree on the sets of Saviruchi

Prachi gets makeup done by the professionals :)

Thalipittu/thalipeeth

Thalipittu/thalipeeth

My elder daughter Prachi is not a rice person. She prefers any roti item in lunch box, be it chapati phulka, parathas,puri or thalipittu. In Kannada it is thalipittu where as in Marathi it is called thalipeeth.
Today I made this simple onion thalipittu for her lunch box as the only veggie I needed to cut was a medium sized onion.making this roti is not at all time consuming and very healthy on the stomach.

The ingredients required are:

1. cooking oil to grease the pan
2. jowar flour 1 +1/4 cups
3. besan 1 tbsp
4. 1 mediun sized red oinon finely chopped
5. coriander.. 1 tbsp finely chopped
6. carom seeds 1/2 tsp (om kalu or ajwain)
7. asafoetida a pinch
8. turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
9. red chili powder 1/2 tsp(you can also add chopped green chillies for zing)
10. salt as per your taste

Method:

mix all the ingredients well.

knead the dough adding little water at a time to make soft dough.Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes.

divide the dough into 2 portions to make 2 large thalipittu.

take 1 portion n pat on a greased tava.

spread gently outwards with finger tips to form a round roti. make a few holes on the patted roti which helps to cook evenly.

cook covered till you see light golden colour around the holes and flip on the other side.

cook the other side for a minute.Remove from the tava and serve with curds and pickle.

Hot thalipittu tastes equally delicious along with butter or some ghee.

notes:

for softer thalipittu spread a thick roti on the tava and cook covered.

for a crispier thalipittu spread it thinly on the tava and cook uncovered over medium flame .

this thalipittu is usually prepared at my home for dinner.This is one of the trade mark recipes of uttara karnataka.

you can also try the same recipe adding some freshly grated coconut,seseme seeds,groundnut powder.

akki rotti,ragi rotti,sauthe kai thalipittu,tausoli are other varieties of thalipittu which I am going to publish in the coming days.

How to stitch a letter holder / D I Y letter holder

Make your own letter holder

In my previous posts about the letter holders, I have just shown the letter holders I made patching the left over scraps.

In this post I am going to show, how to stitch the wall hanging letter holder all by yourselves.

You can call it a Do It Yourself project.(DIY letter holder)

materials required are..

1. canvas
2. cloth double the size of the canvas....(this is going to be back portion)
3. patch worked pieces, 2 numbers
4. cloth to cover the 2 patch worked pieces
5. lace or binding
6. thread to stitch

method:

1. Attach  the canvas to the cloth you have chosen to form the back portion of the letter holder.
2.   
3.  Attach cloth to the 2 patch worked pieces. joined along the red dotted line.
4. 
5. keep the bottom part of the front piece or to say the 1st patch worked piece on the bottom part of the back piece ,pin it and place a mark...as pointed by the index finger.
6.  
7. take the 2nd patched piece ,place it 1 inch below the marked line and flip it down towards the 1st piece.
8. 
9. stitch it .Flip it back . put a turning seam after flipping.
10. 
11. stitch along the long sides of the front and back pieces put together.
12. 
13. fold it into half ,cut 3- 4 inches above the top patched piece to get any shape u desire.straight,domed etc.
14. 
15. using the lace or binding stitch along the edges.
16. 
17. attach a ring or lace to hang it on to the wall.
18. 
19. The ready letter holder looks like this

If any of the instructions are not clear or easy to understand do leave a comment so that I can improvise.
I am always ready to learn from  :)

Enjoy making your own letter holder!

Sagu for puri

sagu for puri/ sagu/kurma

Today  I had decided to do puri,sagu,rice,Rasam for lunch.For sweet portion of the meals, a pack of shrikhand  is readily waiting in the fridge.(Being lazy, did not make at home).Puri goes well with shrikhand and sagu .sagu is also called 'kurma'

sagu today I made, turned out to be super tasty.My daughter refused to eat rice or shrikhand, and happily relished the puri sagu which was a big  compliment enough to make me get going and post this recipe to the  blog.

here are the ingredients I used:

1. potatoes 2 no.s (medium sized).peeled and finely diced.
2. french beans 10-12. no. finely chopped
3. cauliflower florets, 1/4 cup finely cut
4. green capsicum, finely chopped 1/4 cup
5. carrots,small sized, 2. no.s,  finely chopped
6. onion 1 medium sized roughly chopped
7. tomato 1 medium sized
8. coriander ,handful
9. freshly grated coconut 1/4 cup
10. 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
11. 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
12. oil 1 1/2 tbsp
13. curry leaves , just a few
14. mustard
15. asafoetida
16. turmeric
17. red chili powder 1 1/2 tsp
18. salt as per taste
19. fried gram powder 1- 2 tbsp
20. milk 2 tbsp

Method:

• wash the ingredients from 1 to 5 and boil or pressure cook for 3 whistles.
• grind the ingredients from 6 to 11 in a mixer jar.
• heat oil in a kadhai
• add mustard seeds to splutter,add hing,turmeric powder,curry leaves.
• add the ground mixture of onion,tomato .etc.
• fry the mixture till the oil separates and there is no raw smell.
• add the cooked vegetables.
• add chili powder,salt and mix well. cook for about 3-4 minutes.
• add fried gram powder to thicken the gravy.
• add 2 table spoons of milk.Bring to boil and remove the kadhai from the flame 

Delicious sagu is ready.Light on the spices.. as ginger,garlic, and green chillies are not used.Give this sagu a try and let me know how you all liked this recipe!

sweet shankarpali

sweet shankarpali

Happy diwali to all!
Here is my sweet recipe for Diwali this year.Very simple and easy recipe to make.

The ingredients required are,

1. ghee or clarified butter 1 measure
2. sugar 1 measure
3. milk 1 measure
4. maida or All purpose flour.(APP)(just enough to form a soft dough ..not too much. I lost the measurement of how much I exactly used this time.. but will check and post back later)
5. Oil to deep fry

Preperation:

• In a vessel  warm the milk .
• add sughar to dissolve
• add melted ghee or clarified butter
• Let the mixture cool for some time.Add maida(APP) to the mixture and keep on adding till a soft dough is formed.Note that too much of maida or excess maida is going to make the shankarpali hard and not very crisp.
• Let the dough of maida,sugar,milk and ghee rest for about 4 hours.

method :

• make medium sized  balls of the dough.Roll with the help of rolling pin. You will not need any maida for dusting,to roll out the roti ,out of the dough as it has lot of ghee in it.
• cut diamonds out of the roti rolled.
• deep fry in batches till light golden in colour.

Enjoy crisp shankarpali on Diwali

Store in air tight container for about a week on the shelf.

sharing...

Learn to share

 My younger daughter is 15 months now and just like all babies her age, she is very fond of watching dogs n cows passing by.Today morning around 10. A.M.. we happened to see a cow and a dog in the street.

They just did not pass the street.. they left  a message which I  would love to share with you all in this blog.

There were some corn husks and Indian bread( chapati)left on the street to feed the cows passing by. This is very common in here.

The cow and the dog come at the same time.Cow reaches the stuff left first... the dog waits on the side patiently...

Cow is eating the corn husk,while dog is looking at her...then the cow turns to dog.. which looks like they r communicating..

Cow eats only the corn husk ..leaving the chapati...  left the street.

Then dog came picked the chapati..and ate it.

Even the animals share food , why not us?

Please do not waste food.. many are hungry.

This of course is my perspective.

The other thoughts are:

•  The cow might just be herbivorous
•  It may not have liked the chapati 
• It might be avoiding junk!

these are my random thoughts.what are yours?... Please leave a comment.

Letter holder

 Inspired from the traditional patchwork quilts from karnataka called ... kavadi or kavudi..

As mentioned in my previous post about the letter holder(,letter holder)  I was very much inspired by the kavadi lying in the sun to dry... I picked the needle ... scraps.. thick one strand thread and did two small pieces of patch work by hand. While working on these patches what I found out was, this method of patch work is extremely flexible as we can use any size of scraps to make a big  quilt!

Here is the picture of the hand sewn patch work piece.

While working on the pieces itself I had already decided to make a  letter holder out of these. The hand stitched patch work has its own beauty .The colourful thread used in the kantha work( running stitch) to hold the patches together makes it very attractive. Without  delaying  further today I finished putting the quilted pieces together to convert into this beautiful letter holder  to adorn my home.

Here is the picture of the two letter holders hanginging together.

 Yes I call them twins!

The twin letter holders!

I liked the hand patched more than the machine patched where as my daughter liked the latter!

Which one do you like the most?