Carrot Halwa and more..

Our little prince completed a year so, there were enough reasons for the older one to celebrate with his favorite carrot halwa. Both children seem to have contrasting taste. The older likes 'sweets' but the younger one does not like it..err..choclate is an exception!

Here is carrot halwa for you all:

Ingredients:

Carrots: 5 big (you can see in the picture above)

Ghee/clarified butter : 2tbsp

Plain Khova/Mava: 4tbsp

Non Fat Milk : 200ml

Sugar: 1/2 th the qty of grated carrots (1cup grated carrots=1/2 cup sugar)

Adjust sugar according to your taste

Dried nuts and fruits for garnishing

Method:

1. In a non stick pan fry carrots with a tbsp of ghee till water from carrots evaporate.

2. Add milk to the carrots and mix. Cover and cook for 2-3 mins till carrots are tender. Open the lid and cook till 3/4th of milk evaporates.  

3. Add sugar, remaining ghee and cook till sugar has dissolved well. You now have halva which starts coming together to the center of the pan. 

4. Add khova/mava and mix well. Cook for 1-2 mins till mava mixes completely with the rest of the mass.

5. Switch off the stove and remove to a serving bowl. Garnish with your desired nuts and serve.

6. Hot halva with cold vanilla icecream are a slurrrrrpy and  yummy combination :D

Above picture shows 3 different stages of carrot halwa. Frying, cooking with milk and adding mava...
And finally the finished product- Carrot Halwa...

With this sweet note, I would like to share a mantra which I believe, helps you to give some confidence while looking for a new job. Thanks to Sandhya for sharing it with me.

"Sreedevihi Amrutatbhuta Kamalchandra Shobhana Vishnu Patni Vaishnavi Swararohacha Saarangini Deva Devi Maha Lakshmi Sasindri”

Vegetable Akki Shavige/Vegetable Rice Noodles

We have great love for rice vermicilli (it's difficult to say what we don't love :p) and this dish has not failed a single time to impress our guests. I would have recited the recipe several times yesterday when I made this for my son's birthday party. Here is the recipe for all my friends who loved it and to those who would like to try it ..

Rice Vermicilli/Noodle Used : 1packet of Rice Vermicilli (Chilli Brand) available in all grocery stores in Singapore ..
Cut noodles into the desired length. Take care of your hands while you do this. Bring water to boil. Add salt. Pour in noodles into the water and continue to boil for next 1 or 2 mins. Switch off the stove and cover the container. After 5-10 mins, drain water from the vermicilli and let it stand for 10 mins. Sprinkle oil over the noodles and toss.

Vegetables : Carrot, french beans, green peas (cubed and cooked till fork tender)

To finish the dish you need :
Oil : 3-4tbsp (be little generous)
Green Chilli : as desired
Curry Leaf: few strands
Mustard : 1tsp
Turmeric : 1/2tsp
Ginger grated : 1tsp
Chanadal & Urid dal: 1/2 tbsp each
Peanuts or cashewnuts : generous amount
Freshly shredded coconut : 3-4tbsp
Coriander leaves chopped : 3-4tsp
Lemon Juice : as required
Salt: as required

Method:
1.Heat oil in a pan, add mustard. When mustard stops popping add turmeric, peanuts or cashewnuts till they are crisp and red. Add in dals and fry till they are golden brown.
2. Add in green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and give a good stirr. Finally add coconut, coriander leaves and salt. Mix and switch off the stove.
3. Take Vermicilli in a big plate, pour in the tadka you have prepared from above, cooked vegetables, lemon juice and mix well. Use hands to mix. Check salt and add more if required.
4. Transfer the noodles to a microwave safe box and microwave to make it warm. Serve warm to your guests.

Kuttundi ~ Sour n Sweet tamarind candy

Perhaps.... Kuttundi is Kuttida Unde which literally translates to 'pound and made laddu'

Saliva does not seem to stop once you pop this candy inside. It is a good exercise to facial muscles. If you don't know how to wink, this candy will teach you with ease!

Do not go by its looks, I know the picture is not so good, but the candy itself is slurrp!!!!!!!!

You need :

Cleaned and deseeded tamarind : 1 fistfull (break it down into smaller pieces for blending

Roasted Cumin Powder : 1tsp

Jaggery : as need***

Red Chilli powder: 1tsp

Salt: as needed

*** - Jaggery is to balance sour levels. You can add little more after you have balanced just to make it nice!

Method: 1

1.Take all the ingredients in a blender. Blender Jar- 'used to grind dry ingredients' so, choose the right jar from your collection.

2.Blend them together. Resulting product is a sticky mass. Scoop our and mix well. Let it rest for 4-5 hrs for the flavors to blend well. Knead this mixture again with oiled hands and cut it down into smaller pieces and wrap in a candy wraper. Store in refrigerator.

Method 2 : Take all the ingredients in a pessel and mortar. Pound them to mix the ingredients well. Rest of the process is same as above.

Enjoy this candy!!! Till the next post, take care and have a happy weekend :)

Home made cough medicine

Ever since I started blogging, I treat this place equivalent to any other religious places I visit. When in difficult situation, most of us or a generation before us usually pray to god and bribe him. We call it 'harake' (Kannada)/Mannat (Urdu, but also used in Hindi)/mokku (telugu). You can use any language but the meaning and devotion is same. You must be wondering, what has this got to do with my cough medicine and blog ? I have developed this habbit of taking oath that if "this works" I will blog it!!!! ....

Couple of days ago, my younger one got sick and his cough medicine prescribed by our GP refused to work I was terribly upset. It is a great pain to see children suffer. I sat thinking of some home remedy and scratched my head till it went red! Oh yaa....I have hippali I screamed, atlast my brain worked after subjecting it to a stressfull condition. I went and searched nook and corners even scolded our helper if she threw it. I remembered once she asked me "what is this madam? looks like hula hula" My M-I-L was successfull in teacheing her few words in Kannada and hula (worm) was one among them. The way she pronounces it, makes it more funnier to hear.

I was on a major combing operation of kitchen cubicles and my helper was staring at me imagining the post-combing operations work load. Finally the plastic bag was found behind few boxes which was forgotten for eternity. I took it out and inspected it carefully. Haa..it was in good condition (well, it was only 6 months old!) and I also saw a small tube of Srikara Kasturi Tablet of Sadvaidyasla.

I offered a silent prayer to my blog and made a harake "If this medicine works, I will blog and share with the rest of the world". Blogdevathaya namaha I recited. We gave him the mixture and he seems to be responding well. Itt has been 3rd day today and he looks fine and has not coughed since today morning. Here I go fulfilling the harake by sharing the cough medicine which was home made.

What you need :
Hippali - 2 tbslespoons
Srikara Kasturi tablets : 8- 10 (they are very tiny pills)
Dry ginger powder: 1 tsp

I warmed up hippali in a pan. I don't know the rationale behind warming the hippali. But I did it as it was kept in a plastic bag for long time. Took this hippali, added kasturi tablets and dry ginger powder in a blender and made powder of it. Stored it in a dry and tightly closed container.

How did I administer : Mixed half or 1/4th tsp (depends on the severity of the cough, age and body weight) powder with honey. I fed him this paste. We religiously did this for 2 days. He slept well at night without coughing, the next day the cough started to come down.
P.S. His paediatrist had given us some medicine which had dried ivy leaf extract which was given twice. However this medicine alone was not effective though.

NOTE : The proportion of the ingredients is not written in any pharmacy books nor am I a practitioner. I followed my 'pharmacy instinctins' (aah..yes I am a pharmacist by education) to prepare this. Use it at your own risk.
Thank you for reading it and making my harake come true....... :D Till next post, take care. Health is Wealth.

MYSORE PAK - Celebrating Ugadi and World Cup Vicotry

ಶ್ರೀ ಖಾರ ನಾಮ ಸಂವತ್ಸರದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು, ಯುಗಾದಿ ನಿಮ್ಮೆಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಸಂತೋಷವನ್ನೇ ತರಲಿ ಎಂದು ಹಾರೈಸುತ್ತೇವೆ 
                                        Wishing one and all a very Happy Ugadi




MYSORE PAK

Perhaps, this has been one of the most awaited posts on this blog. I have received many emails from readers about Taste of Mysore minus Mysore Pak post. Presenting hero of the city of Mysore.....Mysore Pak. This post comes from a Mysore Pak fan, Nandita Srinath. She had emailed me the recipe but when I requested her for a picture, she took out some time to make them and send me the yummy click too.. Thank you Nandita.

Here is how Nandita makes Mysore Pak :

Ingredients:

1 small tea cup bengalgram flour roasted (Kadalehittu)
2 cups of ghee (Tuppa)
2 cups of sugar (Sakkare)

Method :

1. Mix the gram flour in half a cup of ghee
2. Dissolve sugar in 2 cups of water.Use a heavy bottomed pan. Wait till all the sugar is dissolves completely with no residue sugar or else the whole gram flour will become a lump.
3. Pour all ghee into the syrrup and keep stirring untill it blends with the syrrup then add gram flour into the syrup stirring it occationally avoiding lumps
4. Keep on stirring and turning the mixture constantly or else it will get burnt.
5. Continue stirring it till it starts leaving the sides of the vessel and attains honey comb shape and then pour it into a ghee smeared plate.
6. Cut into desired shape when it is still hot.  Eat and Enjoy.

If you have still not decided what to make for Ugadi, Nandita's Mysore Pak is tempting enough to keep it as an option.

Cricket World Cup 2011
I am sure, none of you missed that fantastic World Cup match, nor did we miss it nor did any Indian living in Singapore missed it. Some followed it on Internet, some gathered at friend's place to watch. Many organisations had arranged for a big screen watch of live telecast. Global Indian International School was kind enough to arrange for a Stadium like Screening of World Cup match for its students, staff and parents. Thank You GIIS. Around 1500 plus crowd watched the match with loud cheer and euphoria. Drums, trumpets and whistels blew, cheering never stopped! It was an amazing evening. Dhoni's dare devils made every Indian proud. Few pictures from Singapore...

We enjoying the match.....

3 Big Screens to watch from all angles :D

Victory from  our screen......