Wish You All A Very Happy And Prosperous New Year

Kerala is located between north latitudes 8 degree 18' and 12 degree 48' and east longitudes 74 degree 52' and 72 degree 22', this land of eternal beauty encompasses 1.18 per cent of the India. The land area of kerala is about 38,863 sqkm, with a total population of 31,838,619. It is about 3 per cent of the country's population. The population density of the state is about 655 people per square kilometer, About 16 per cent of the people live in the cities. Most of the others live in large, semi-urban villages.
If there is one place in the riveting diversity of India where there is tangible beauty and a phenomenal thing like total literacy, it is in Kerala. Kerala is full of good things. This small State in the southern tip of the Indian peninsula is an easy winner owning to its great mind-blowing landscape and infinity of intriguing customs, high-intensity cultural life and educated public so often dressed in white. From Kasargode to Thiruvananthapuram Kerala is choc-a-bloc with places that attract tourists and travelers from all over the world.

Diverse Use of Ingredients:
A melange of aromas resulting from the free use of pepper, cardamom, cloves, turmeric, ginger, chillies, and mustard, used in most curries, fill the kitchens of the well-to-do, but generally the poorer folks content themselves with kanji (rice with water) and take fish with tapioca. Most dishes in Kerala are cooked in coconut oil and are incomplete without a mandatory use of coconut in some form or the other.


Kerala Snacks:
Kerala is equally famous for traditionally homemade snacks a variety of banana chips, and rice flour cookies, are served with evening coffee.

Hi friends, I know its been late but still its never too late and so i would like to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS. Hope you guys enjoy a lot and munch on plenty of cookies, chocolates and cakes this Christmas.

I had plans to bake to some cookies and cakes specially for this Christmas and wanted to share them and its recipes with you but unfortunately it didn't happen and i could make it out. Off late, i have been blogging less and am not able to make it up on my blog. I really make few good recipes and wanted to share them with you , even got them clicked and those pics and stored up in numbers counting above 100 in my PC but i haven't been able to manage to upload them and blog those recipes. My bad!!!

But I am definitely making myself sure that i get some time for blogging them. Blogging is something i really love now. I still can't believe that my baby (my blog) is going to be a year old in next 21 days. And i had more than 24 Lakhs visitors on my blog since the day i started blogging. It really makes me happy. I still cant believe that its going to be a year. Time really runs so fast.

When I started blogging, i wasn't that much interested though i was quite excited about blogging.
I read and heard many people blogging, so i too wanted to be one among them. I am really gadget crazy and net savvy girl and cant think about living with gadgets and internet. So i joined blogging. Then i learned that blogging needs a good subject to post. I merely didn't want any personal blog or something which would steal my privacy. I am very private person. So, i took some days to decide on a subject. It was then that i decided to get with food blog.

Though i had been very Academic , it was art which always interested me. I was always passionate about cooking, drawing, painting, rangolis, stiching, designing and creating something new. And the other thing besides this art which really interests me is history. I love history and keep surfing to learn things about history whenever i get time.

I am good at cooking, well i am not crediting myself but its what i have heard people saying about me. Yeah, i love cooking and simply love experimenting in kitchen. Usually girls learn cooking from their mothers. In my case, i never learned cooking from my Maa (I call her maa since i was a kid). When i was in my high school, my maa had a heart attack. She was asked to have a complete bed rest. I was in my 5th std then and never knew how to cook. It is a really astonishing for me at times when i think about it, i still can't make out the exact taste of salt in any dish but i eventually excelled myself in this art called cooking. When Maa was asked to bed rest, she had this tension about who would cook food for us. She wanted to get up and cook for up but was unable to do it. I read her worries looking at her face, and it was the day i grew up from a little playing girl to a understanding and supporting daughter for my family.

I went in to the kitchen and started with cooking. I had no idea nor any knowledge about cooking, whatever i knew was those little things i had seen my maa doing in the kitchen whenever she used to cook. So I prayed God( I believe a lot in almighty) and started with my cooking. And the first thing i cooked by myself was plain boiled rice and rasam. I must be strange to know how a girl who had no knowledge about cooking , cooked rasam at her first take. Well whenever i used to come back from school, I used to rush to maa and sit on the kitchen platform and would go on talking about my daily activities and all sorts of things. I was really very talkative those days. I still remember Maa smiling by herself whenever she used to hear me going blah blah and blah. At times, she used to ask me "Are you not tired of talking so much?". While I used to go on with my talks, she used to be engrossed in her cooking. I had a good memory and whatever i saw used to get stored in my brains . I have seen her doing cooking though i never saw them fully but only glimpses, it used to be stored in my mind. And it was those things which helped me make rasam.

That's how I cooked Rasam. I took this rasam and went to Maa and asked her to have her meal. Maa was completely taken aback. She kepting asking me how did you make this. But she was at the same time proud of me and kept kissing me with teary eyes. That rasam wasn't that good but she still loved it and appreciated me a lot. And on the other hand, my brother (the closest person to me) couldn't believe that his kid sister cooked the meal for everyone. He even inspected the kitchen to see if I had turned off the stove properly. We used to have a higher kitchen platform those days so my bro questioned me about how i managed to cook since i wasn't that good in my height to cook on a high platform. I showed him that i used a small stool to match with the height of platform and he gave a hug. He felt proud to see me being so responsible and ate what i cooked without any complaints. He is a perfectionist when it comes to food. He is big foodie and wants everything perfect when it comes to food. The first time, when i cooked (i really didn't cook that well), he didn't frown and appreciated saying that I was good. He is my biggest critic when it comes to cooking, I had improved my cooking skills and till improving all due to his views and critics.

Since that day, there has no looking back, and i started learning and cooking all by myself. I read papers, books, surfed internet , watched cook shows and it all helped me cook better. Years passed by and I became more and more interested in cooking as a art and loved experimenting.
Today i can cook good though not excellent. Today, I have enough knowledge in cooking be it Indian styles like South Indian, North Indian, Bengali, Maharashtrian, Konkani, Goan, Oriya, Punjab, Gujrati, Rajasthani, Kashmiri , Moghlai etc and also in international Cooking styles and cuisines like Italian, Lebanese, Chinese, Arabian, American, Mexican etc. I have eagerly learnt baking cakes, cookies to making ice creams and salad dressing. And I wish to learn more and more and excel myself in this Art as much as I can. Also I hope to share my cooking with everyone through blogging and would love to get the feedbacks. I know I had really disappointed few people pastly through blogging and I apologise for the same. This blogging has not only helped me get better as a cook but also helped me get better in writing skills. I would love to keep blogging and I need support and love from everyone who reads my Blog.

Many South Indians must have heard about this salty evening snack called sundal. This is especially popular in the beaches of TamilNadu and Andhra. Considered a healthy and good evening snack, this is simply easy to prepare. Sundal is also prepared on the special occassion of Navrathri, where it is a ritual in India to offer Naivaidya to the goddess during the 9 days of the festival. This sundal is highly recommended by many tamilians who practice this ritual and also keep the traditon of Gollu at home ( a preparation where idols of gods and goddess is decorated in a staircase like structure and prayed during the navrathri). In southern coastal areas, coconut is basic ingredient in most of the cuisines be it daily food, snacks or breakfast. It is consumed in all ways be it coconut, milk, grated coconut or as paste.

A interesting fact is that coconut is though considered hard to digest by many people, it is highly good for skin and hair. Keralities swear by coconut and its evident of its benefits from their good skin and dark long thick hairs.
Ingredients:
Chick peas - 2 cups
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds (optional) - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida (hing) - 1 pinch or 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves - 10-12 nos
Dry red chillies - 2-3 nos
Grated coconut or dessicated coconut - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste.


Method:

1. Soak the yellow peas the previous night for about 6-8 hours. If you plan to make it for an evening snack, it is enough if you soak it that morning.
2. Drain all the water and pressure cook with a little salt and just enough water that they just reach the top of the peas.
3. Do not add too much that the peas drown in the water. This will render them mushy.
4. Switch off after 2 whistles and open after pressure is released.
5. In a kadai, add a spoon of coconut oil and when it is hot, add mustard, curry leaves and a dash of hing.
6. Immediately add the cooked yellow peas and a little salt.
7. Garnish with coconut and stir well for a minute.
8. Remove and serve hot as a evening snack or as neivaidyam on festive occassions.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes (excluding soaking time)
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4 persons
Shelflife: 1 day
Serving Suggestions: Serve hot with evening tea or coffee.


Variation:
A small variation can be done in sundal as it can noticed in marina beach where during the mango season, hawkers add finely chopped pieces of raw mango (kachchi ambi/ manga) to this sundal for a tangy taste.



Note:

• Sundal can be prepared with Dark Kabuli channa too.
• Sundal preparation vary from place to place as per taste. Like some people add chopped ginger to this and some avoid coconut since they find it hard to digest. This one is basic sundal prepared the same way by almost many people.

Click here to know all about Tamil Nadu cuisines- Introduction To Tamil Nadu Cuisines And Recipes

Indian vermicelli is delicacy which is quiet tasty and delicious. Vermicelli is widely used in many indian recipes like kheer, pulao and upmas. I had already posted few recipes with vermicelli as its main ingredient.
Many people tend to have a opinion on vermicelli that it might not be intresting stuff to eat especially childrens. Even i was one of them. As a child i always used to find vermicelli also called semiya as a boring food and would run away at the mention of it. I still remember how maa used to run after me asking to atleast taste it and i would give her a good chase making her angry and tired. Now that i am grown up girl who is incharge of kitchen and everyone's health at home, its now that i realise the pain she would to take while cooking in the kitchen. Love you maa.

This food which i used to find damn boring as a kid is one of my favourite as a grown up girl. And now though i am grown up and cook them very well yet when it comes to my favourite food, i ask my maa to cook for me instead , i simply love the cook when she cooks for me. It is rightly said in hindi that "maa ke haath ke khane mein jaadu hota hai", i completely agree with it.

This recipe is a south Indian (Tamil Nadu) recipe and is a healthy breakfast . Adding vegetable adds a good taste to this recipe and makes it look delightful to the eyes of kids who run away from food. As such this recipe doest need any side dish and can be served alone which adds a good factor. It is quiet interesting to cook and more interesting to serve them. Also this can be counted as a good evening snack and also for a good party menu .

The vegetables which can be added to vegetable upma are similar to those of Pulav. And the amount of vegetables can be adjusted as per one's choice and love for veggies. I prefer more veggies since i believe in having more veggies to my diet for a good health and balance. So the vegetables that can be added are carrots, peas, potatoes and cauliflower . Even cashewnuts can be added to make it intresting . Besides that a good thadka gives a excellent taste to vegetable Upma.


Ingredients:
Vermicelli - 1 packet ( available ready made in market)
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - 1 string or 10-12 leaves
Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped.
Carrots - 2 carrots, cut into thick jullinne or big strips
Peas - 1/2 cup (soaked overnight for atleast 6 hours)
Potatoes - 2 potatoes, cut into thick jullinne or big strips
Cauliflower - 1/2 cup (optional), cut into tiny florets
Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoons.
Vanaspati or desi ghee - 1 tablespoon
Salt - to taste.



Method:

1. Take a kadai and roast the vermicelli till it changes its colour to light pink . Dont allow it to turn brown, just roast it enough that it changes the colour. Roasting makes the vermicelli softer and tastier. These days readymade roasted vermicellis are easily available in market, even those can be used instead of roasting them also it costs just 2 rupees more then the ordinary ones.
2. Remove the roasted Vermicelli is a plate and allow it to cool.
3. Take a deep bottomed kadai and keep it on flame.
4. Add a tablespoon of oil to it . Add the mustard seeds and allow it to crackle.
5. Once the mustard seeds crackle, add the chopped onions and saute them till it turn translucent or pinkish in colour.
6. Now add the curry leaves and saute it for a minute.
7. Once this initial thadka is ready, add 3 cups of water in the kadai and allow it to boil.
8. When it boils, add the chopped vegetables and salt and stir well. Close the kadai with a lid and allow it to cook for sometime till the vegetable become tender soft and gets cooked well.
9. After some 10 minutes, check the vegetables, they must be ready by now.
10. Add vanaspati or ghee and stir once again. Add the vanaspati or ghee at this stage since, it gives a fresh taste and aroma to the upma and thus making it delicious.
11. Now add the roasted vermicelli to the kadai and keep stiring it nicely till the vermicelli gets cooked and turns soft. Also see that the water gets absorbed as the upma gets ready.
12. When the water gets absorbed completely and the vermicelli is soft and cooked, remove it and keep aside.
13. Vegetable Vermicelli Upma is ready to serve.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes.
Cooking Time: 20 minutes.
Serves: 4 persons.
Shelflife: Best fresh.
Serving Suggestion: Serve hot as breakfast or as evening snack.



Note:

• Vegeables can be added as per choice and likings.
• Even cashewnuts can be added in this upma along with the veggies and allow them to get cooked in the water along with it.

Click here to know all about Tamil Nadu cuisines- Introduction To Tamil Nadu Cuisines And Recipes.