Macha Ghanta and Happy Dusshera

 In Orissa, we celebrate Dusshera with a lot of fan fare. There are lots of pandals setup with Durga mata in different poses and each pandal tries to outdo the other one in size and grandeur. In most households, the celebrations starts from the 6th or 7th day of Navratri and ends with a big feast on Dusshera day. In my grandma's house everyone fasts on Asthami day and then has a grand feast in the evening after puja. Fish is offered as offering and is a must on that day.

Macha Ghanta is a typical Oriya dish again. While I don't think it is a main dish for asthami, it is one of the fish dishes made on that day. Ghanta in oriya means 'mixed' and each specific ghanta has a typical set of vegetables to be added. Macha ghanta has the additional fish pieces in it. In Orissa mom makes it with the head of the fish - oh it is delicious...

Ingredients
Fried fish - few pieces
1 large onion - thinly sliced
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
1-2 pieces - bay leaves
1-2 cardamom
1 big cinamon stick
2-3 tablespoon of Oil
Salt to taste
1 tea spoon of turmeric powder
1 tea spoon of chili powder
1 tea spoon of garam masala
1 handful of channa dal (washed and soaked for 4-5 hours)

Vegetables of your choice (what works well is mentioned below)
1 large potato diced
few string beans - cut into small pieces
1/4th of a large white radish
1 egg plant - diced
1-2 tomatoes (optional)
few pieces of red pumpkin or white pumpkin



How To
Heat Oil in a Pan and add a large Bay Leaf, cardamom, cinnamon stick.

Add the thinly sliced onions and fry till the onion turns golden brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and turmeric powder and chili powder and mix well for 2-3 minutes and then add the vegetables and the Dal. In this process you don't have to cook the ginger-garlic paste through completely, since it gets cooked with the vegetables.

Cover and cook the vegetables until cooked through. Add any tomatoes if you like and the garam masala and then the fried fish. Mix well. Adjust seasoning and serve hot with rice and salad.

Also if you want, you can make the vegetarian version where you don't add the fish. That's the version my Mom had. Since you add fried fish at the end, you can easily make both the vegetarian and non-vegetarian version at the same time...

In Orissa it is usually made with fried head of the fish and tastes awesome. It is a regular in Oriya weddings too...

Happy Dusshera everyone.

Yin and Yang kadhi

Well, no I didn't make a special Chinese version of the kadhi. But we make 2 versions of the kadhis at home, especially if my mom or MIL is around. I like mine with vegetables, is that the Oriya version (?) - not sure, while my hubby likes the ones with the pakoras. The kids love the pakoras version too. So usually if I am cooking, I go with the majority vote. Knowing my love for the vegetable version, my mom made both versions.

The yin is the healthy version and the yang is the not-so healthy version of dahi kadhi. Both are alike, mine has boiled vegetables added to the sour yogurt curry, while the other favorite has deep fried pakoras added to it. So if you want to choose the healthy one - you know what to try!

Ingredients

For the gravy

Yogurt - 1 cup

2 cups water

Besan - 1 tablespoon

Turmeric powder - pinch

Chili powder - 1 tea spoon

Salt to taste

For seasoning

Oil - 1 tea spoon

Panch Phutan - 1 table spoon

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Couple of whole red chilies

Garam Masala - 1/2 tea spoon (optional)

For Pakoras
Besan - 1/2 cup
Baking powder - 1 big pinch
Chili powder - 1 tea spoon
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

For Boiled vegetables
1 small egg plant sliced lengthwise
few small pearl onions
few Okras
Add any other vegetables you fancy (these are what I like in my kadhi)
Salt to taste

How To

Take the curd and beat well.

Add water and salt and besan and turmeric powder and chili powder. Mix well until there are no lumps left.

Take a pan and add oil for seasonings.

Once the oil gets hot, add the punch phutan and the curry leaves and whole red chilies. Add the seasonings to the curd gravy above. Add some garam masala if you want and mix well and keep aside. Also boil the gravy if you want a thicker consistency.

Take a pan; boil the vegetables with salt and turmeric powder. Keep an eye on it, that it doesn't get overcooked. Usually we add the okra 1/2 way through when the vegetables are cooked. Add the vegetables to 1/2 the yogurt mixture and boil again with the yogurt gravy.

For the pakoras, mix the besan and baking powder and chili powder and salt with water. Make sure the consistency of the besan paste is thick.

Heat oil, add these pakoras and deep fry them.

Add the pakoras to the yogurt mixture just before serving, no boiling here...

Serve the kadhi warm or cold.

Fleeting summer fruits - Watermelon

I love summer - especially here in US where it is a mere 2 months with bursts of rain in between. It also reminds me of the summer vacations in India. Growing up I loved the long summer vacations lazing around at my grandma's house. She had huge mangoes, custard apple, lichi and guava trees and we cousins would have a feast on different fruits everyday. Oh I wish for those days... Mango was a high-light of the season. Well mangoes are gone here... But we still do get watermelon. Between cousins, a huge water melon would vanish in seconds...

Now a days when I get watermelon, sometimes it goes bad and gets thrown out. I love eating it, but there is barely any time to enjoy this simple delight. Also I feel its fun to have it with friends/family, with the juice rolling down ones hand.... My kids are not big watermelon fans, but I religiously bring it and try it on them every year... I am sure they will develop some taste for it sometime.

This watermelon juice was a favorite in summer for the adults. While we chomped on the full melon, the elders sipped elegantly on this simple juice.

Both these simple juice and sorbet are going to " Soup N Juice "event hosted by Sreesha of Mom's Recipes.

How To

There is not much to the recipe, cut some water melon flesh, add some sugar or honey and a little salt and lemon juice and there you have it. Serve cold with crushed ice...

Watermelon Sorbet

This sorbet is nothing but frozen watermelon balls. This reminds me of those hot summer days when we used to quietly eat ice cubes while our moms were napping or busy chatting...

How To

Take some water melon pulp, sugar and freeze for an hour. Break it up with your fork and refreeze for an hour again. Scoop out with your ice cream scooper and serve in a tall glass or in a plate (as I did...) It tastes yum either way! Slurp it down before it melts and drink it if it does....

Awards time

I have recieved few awards from friends.

The 1st one is the participation award from Shanthi for participating in her State's Special event. Thanks a lot Shanthi. It means a lot to me. It was a nice event to participate in and showcase different cusines from different states.





Hema has showered me with the following awards. Thanks a lot for thinking of me. The lovely awards and the encouraging comments keep me going. So here is the list of awards






Scrumptious Blog Award





Yum Yum Blog Award


One Lovely Blog Award



Beautiful Site Award



Inspiration Award

Brilliante Weblog Award

A Giant Bear Hug Award

Best Blog Darts Award


I would like to pass these awards to all my blogger friends. You all have been true inspiration to me....

I am happy to receive the Honest Scrap award from Padma. Thank you so much for your encouragement.

1. I love to sleep.
2. I work diligently, given any task I take it seriously.
3. I love good food decorated nicely. I will try anything well presented.
4. I love shopping, window shopping more so...
5. I love chatpata food...
6. I love fresh herbs - mint, cilantro...
7. I love the food channel.
8. I love get togethers, I just sit and watch the fun around me.
9. I am a very quiet person and it takes me a long time to open up and make friends
10. I am trying to teach honesty to my 8 year old daughter. Any help/tips on that will be a life saver.

I would like to pass this award to all my blogger friends.

Eggless Blueberry muffins

Parita this muffin is inspired by your blueberry muffins! When I saw her muffins, I knew I had to try it. What attracted me to the recipe was the egg less, low fat healthy version of this muffin. Mine is not low fat really, since I can't seem to enjoy muffins made in Oil. So I replaced the Oil with butter and made some minor tweaks to her recipe... The muffins came out really well. They were a little dense, but still much better than the blueberry muffins from the store. My kids had fun time packing in the blueberries into the batter and we ended up putting more blueberries than intended into the batter. That made the muffins even more flavorful... Its a simple one and takes about 20 minutes to put together, including the time for a 3 year old trying to help...

Ingredients
1 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup of oats
1/2 cut of whole wheat flour
pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup of butter (melted to room temperature)
1 and 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

How To:

Preheat the oven to 375F, line 12 muffin molds with paper liners.
Mix the wheat flour and baking powder and salt and oats by hand.
In a separate bowl mix butter (at room temperature), sugar, milk.
Slowly add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and mix carefully.
Fold in the blueberries.
Spoon the batter into the muffin pans, filling up to 3/4 full. Bake them for 20-25 min, until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.



We all sat down and enjoyed it warm off the oven. And the rest of the muffins were gone the next day by the time I was back from work...

Pudina Pulao and ABC tag

We were having some guests over at short notice - well they called to say they would stop by and say hi but Mom wouldn't have any of it. They said they would in 1/2 hour and she had a simple menu of pulao, paneer and raita nearly ready before they got in. I thought she would make Jeera rice but instead she surprised us with this flavorful yummy rice. She probably put the whole menu together in 1/2 hr... I was amazed at the speed she can whip a whole meal together while I picked toys around the house. The rice was amazingly flavorful and simple which I am posting here. She doesn't measure anything of course and I was not really paying attention while she made this, so the measurements are approximates...

Ingredients

1 bunch of mint - cleaned
1/2 cup of yogurt
1/2 cup of small cut carrots
1/2 cup of cut beans (you can use frozen ones , if needed)
2 cups of cooked Basmati rice
2 green chillies
1 onion - sliced thinly
1 tea spoon of ginger garlic paste

2 cloves
2 cardamom
2 small cinnamon pieces
1-2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon - ghee
salt to taste

How To


Take mint leaves and salt and grind in a mixer. Add a pinch of salt and blend to fine consistency without adding any water. Mix well with the curd and keep aside.

Heat ghee on medium heat in large pan. When it is hot, add the spices (cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves) and saute them.

Then add the green chillies and onions, saute until onions turn translucent.

Now add the ginger-garlic paste and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Now add the vegetables and cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the cooked rice and pureed mint paste. Fry for 1-2 minutes and turn off the stove.

The combination of the mint with the curd and the whole garam masalas is amazing.



My son loved it and calls it the green rice... He just ate the plain rice by himself and made a big mess, but I am not complaining... We had a very nice evening chatting and enjoying the simple delicious meal....




Also Lone Acorn has tagged me. Thanks dearie for thinking of me...

1. A – Available/Single? Nope

2. B – Best friend? Gang of 7

3. C – Cake or Pie? Cake

4. D – Drink of choice? Hot chocolate

5. E – Essential item you use every day? Laptop

6. F – Favorite color? Pink

7. G – Gummy Bears Or Worms? Gummy Bear

8. H – Hometown? Cuttack

9. I – Indulgence? Blogging and chocolates

10. J – January or February? None - both are too cold

11. K – Kids & their names? 2 , A and A (Princess and Prince)

12. L – Life is incomplete without? My Family

13. M – Marriage date? A Memorable Date

14. N – Number of siblings? None

15. O – Oranges or Apples? Oranges

16. P – Phobias/Fears? Cockroaches

17. Q – Quote for today? Have to think of one...

18. R – Reason to smile? Seeing my kids in the evening when I get back from work

19. S – Season? Summer - miss it a lot here

20. T – Tag 3 People? Shubha , Rekha , Chitra

21. U – Unknown fact about me? Hmmm, wont be so unknown then

22. V – Vegetable you don't like? Spinach

23. W – Worst habit? Procastination

24. X – X-rays you've had? Dental X-rays 5 year back

25. Y – Your favorite food? Goat Biryani

26. Z – Zodiac sign? Taurus

The Rules

1. Link the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share the ABCs of you.
4. Tag 3 people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let the 3 tagged people know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so that there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag.

Baked Samosas

One of the favorite snacks for my kids is Samosas. We had my husband's cousin N coming over in the evening and of course the vote was for making samosas as an evening snack. But I knew N's hubby didn't like fried food, so I tried to make my healthy version of samosas. If you want to see the fried version, follow this link. But this is a short cut version and the kids and the guests loved it.

Ingredients

For the filling
3 large potatoes cut into small pieces
Salt to taste
1 small Onion cut into small pieces
1 tea spoon coriander powder
1/4 tea spoon garam masala (skip if you don't want)
minced mint leaves
handful of peas
Oil (1 table spoon)

For the Outer layer
Mini pastry shells (I used 3 boxes)

How to

In a large pan, heat 1 table spoon of oil over medium-high heat.
Add the onion and cook for about 2 minutes, until the onion turns golden brown.
Add the salt and then the potatoes and fry for a few more minutes.
Then add the green peas and coriander powder and garam masala powder.
Add the minced mint leaves and remove from heat.
Stir to combine, then adjust the seasoning, to taste.
Let it cool until it is easy enough to handle. (You can prepare this ahead of time and put away in the refrigerator, when needed warm and use).


Take the mini shells and get them to room temperature, if frozen (as per instructions).
Spray a little olive oil on the shell.
Scoop 1 tea spoon of filling into the shell and bake the shell at 350 for 12-15 min, until the shell turns golden brown.

Enjoy it warm off the oven... We had ours with mint chutney... It was a big hit with the guests and N called me that weekend to get the recipe... So this post is dedicated to her!