Black & White Wednesday Week# 44 Round-up!

Thank you all for your participation in Black & White Wednesday Week# 44. I am really excited to present the round-up (in the order I received them). Here are the lovely pictures from very talented bloggers alike. 

For those who don't know about this event, this is the BWW event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned cook, hosted by me this week. 

Nan Khatai With Dried Berries & Pistachios by Shruthi of Food & Clicks

Baby potatoes by Shruthi of Food & Clicks

Black Chick Peas by Nandita of PAAKA SHAALE

Bitter melon from the garden by Akheela of Torview

Freshly harvested garlic by Simona of Briciole

Sprinkles/Confetti Cookies by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen

Tomatoes in my garden by Cinzia of Cindystar

Basil Flowers by Cinzia of Cindystar

Somebody curious on the fig by Cinzia of Cindystar

Revival Of An Old Breadmaking Method by Rosa of Rosas's Yummy Yums

Fresh Green Peas by Jaya of Spice and Curry

Very Good Bread by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook

Biyappu rottelu - Rice flour roti

This is one the those recipes from my husband's side of the family. Obviously he loves it, so I had to get the recipe from my sis-in-law. All the ingredients together with the crunch of peanuts tastes really good. It is a simple, quick to make dinner.

Ingredients:

1. Rice flour - 1.5 cups
2. Onions - 1 - small
3. Green chillies - 2-4
4. Cilantro 4-6 sprigs
5. Peanuts - 1/4 cup
6. Salt - to taste
7. Water to make the dough

Method:

Grid the green chillies and cilantro with salt. Pulse the peanuts with it. 

Chop the onions. Mix all the ingredients along with flour adding water little by little until it makes a chappathi like dough. Here comes the tricky part, unlike chappathi dough, there is not much binding for rice flour so it cannot be rolled using a pin. You have to use a plastic sheet like may be a zip-loc bag, or wax paper. Apply oil to it and place a small round of dough on it. Pat it with fingers and make a roti as thin as you can go. Then transfer that onto the griddle/tawa. Roast both sides with oil. 

Serve hot with chutney of your choice.

Black and White Wednesday - Week# 44

One day as I was wandering around the web not looking for anything specific I came across the Susan's The Well-seasoned cook blog.  She has such a nice blog and lovely recipes that I am sure to try. Learning that she was hosting this Black and White and also accepting guest hosts for this event, I was excited.  Love the way she promptly responded and gladly accepted my request. So here I am hosting my first event :-) 


Did I say how excited I am? And that this is my first event? .. 

As Susan mentioned clearly:

 As usual, there are no restrictions. Your photo needn't be of food, but anything of a culinary nature, from a stack of dishes to a restaurant storefront. You can also submit more than one photo per week, but do ensure that the photos are distinct from each other so that the gallery will represent as much diversity as possible.

Make sure the pics are 600 x 400 px. Please mention the event and link to this announcement in your post.

So, all my talented fellow bloggers, click-away the pics in Black and White and send it to me at dkavip@gmail.com by the end of Monday, August 6th (I am in Central Time Zone). I will post the pics as early as I can on Wednesday, August 8th.

Note that I am hosting this event for the Week# 44 which is August 8th. If you want to participate earlier or later than Week# 44 check the Susan's host line-up.  

Perfect eggless pancakes

This recipe is from Madhuram's Eggless Cooking. I have tried pancakes at restaurants just to satisfy my occasional craving. Never really relished them for various reasons like, first there is egg in it which I don't cook or  prefer to eat, and then it is made in the same place where they cook other kind of meats which is a big no no for me...  Lets not get into that because we can now enjoy these nice pancakes at home :-)

Pancakes with blue berries

Pancakes for breakfast with fresh carrot juice..

Recipe source: Madhuram's Eggless Cooking

Indian mixture in 30 minutes

Some evenings after my coffee I crave some crispy Indian snack, like mixture, murukku, boondhi, something...  If you have those in the family who cannot stop eating unless you finish the whole thing, then you need to think before you make it :-) But for me, I just need to have small cup of mixture and I am good (of course, I should hide the box of mixture until next evening because I do have those in my family who cannot stop until they finish :-)

I never did this myself, and I was surprised at how easily this can be done. Yes, it did not take me more than 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

For Boondhi:

1. 1 cup of besan
2. 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder (or more if you want it spicy)
3. Salt
4. A pinch of baking soda
5. Oil for frying

For Sev:

1. 1 cup of besan
2. 1/2 cup of rice flour
3. 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder (or more if you want it spicy)
4. Salt
5. Oil for frying 

For the mixture:

1. 1 tsp cumin
2. 1 tsp of red chilli powder
3. 2 cups of thick poha
4. Few curry leaves
5. 1/2 cup of peanuts
6. Oil for frying 

Method:

Boondhi:

Mix all the ingredients for boondhi with water. The consistency should be a little more watery than dosa batter. Then using the boondhi ladle, make the boondhi. I hear people going, ahhh, like it is easy. Trust me, that is easy. Actually I don't have the boondhi ladle, look what I used, seems familiar?

This is the veggie steamer that you get with most of pots and pans set, or even the rice cooker. I just held it on top of my oil pan and poured the batter on it and let the boondhi drops drip. Let it fry nicely on medium heat until golden brown. If you take it out of oil too soon, the boondhi will be soggy.

Sev:

Mix all the ingredients for sev by adding water little by little like how do chappathi flour. Put the flour into murukku maker with the smallest hole. Squeeze it over hot oil and deep fry.

Mixture:

1. Fry the curry leaves - I deep fried it in the same oil, but you can shallow fry too.
2. Fry the peanuts - I deep fried this one too.
3. Deep fry the thick poha in a few batches.
4. Fry the cumin in a pan with a spoon of oil
4. Mix everything, boondhi, sev, peanuts, curry leaves, poha, cumin, red chilli powder and salt.

Notes: The best way to test boondhi batter, is to immerse a spoon in the batter and as you lift the spoon, the batter should drip on its own without having to shake. Also if you see that the boondhi comes out with a tail after deep frying that means it is watery and you should add besan one teaspoon at a time until you get the right shape. Be careful not to keep the ladle too far above hot oil as the oil may spill when the boondhi drops fall.

Rasam Powder

Rasam is one of the important items for me and my husband. Sometimes, just rice with hot rasam and a papad is more than enough. Some of you may be making fresh rasam powder as you cook rasam. For me, my mother's rasam powder is a must have at all times. Not sure how different the recipe from others, but this works for me perfectly. Of all the things my mother made before going back to India, this is one of them. Gosh... now even the rasam powder makes me miss her :-(

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup Coriander seeds
2. 1/4 cup Cumin seeds
3. 1/4 cup Pepper corns
4. 1/2 cup Red chillies
5. 2 tbsp Toor dal
6. 1 tsp Hing (Asafoetida)

Method:

1. Dry roast all the ingredients separately except hing
2. Grind them all together in a coffee grinder/mixie smoothly
3. Sift it to remote any large chunks left from coriander or redchilli tops
4. Repeat the sifting and grind until you get a good smooth power (need not be very smooth like flour, somewhat course like fine rava is ok)

Rasam powder

Vegetable Pulao

I have not been able to do a post in a long time. With my parents visiting me, I hardly do anything around the house :-) Today, I asked my mother to make the veggie pulao she made a few weeks ago for my sis-in-law who is also visiting us this week. It was so fresh, fluffy, with the masala not overpowering, I loved it. I assigned the photography task to my lovely sis-in-law. They did a great job.
Gosh, what will I do when everyone goes back to their lives :-( Atleast this lovely recipe is for me to keep....

Here is the step-by-step recipe for Vegetable Pulao.

Ingredients:

1.   2 cups Basmati rice
2.   2 carrots - diced (Looks like my mom used my Ninja though)
3.   1 cup of cut beans
4.   1 cup of peas
5.   1 handful of mint, chopped
6.   1 onion - sliced
7.   6-8 green chillies - nicely chopped
8.   1 inch piece of ginger - grated
9.   Few bay leaves
10. 5 cardamons
11. 4  cloves
12. 2 tsp ghee
13. 1/4 cup oil
14. Salt to taste

Method:

1. Cook the rice with 4 cups of water, one tsp of oil and little salt. Don't overcook it, when you see it is done, strain it in a strainer like this or put in a wide plate. Mom says it will let air flow on all sides which will help the rice not to stick to each other and stay fluffy. Keep it aside.

2. Head oil in a pan and fry the masala - Bay leaves, cardomons, cloves

3. Add the onions and fry them lightly

4. Then add the green chillies and fry them a little.

5. Add ginger paste and fry it until the raw smell is gone...

6. Now add the veggies one by one - beans, carrots, peas

7. After they are all fried nicely, add salt now and mix well. Remember that a little salt was already added to rice while cooking it.

8. Add mint and fry a little.

9. Add the pulao mix to the rice and slowly mix eveything.

Enjoy with onion or cucumber raitha....

Healthy juice

This is something I found in my quest for healthy and nutritious food, a smoothie. Hand picked fresh organic ingredients, no sugars added, home made with just the things you like, ahhh... it was great. For those who are going, yikes :-( , reading spinach as an ingredient in the smoothie, please don't, atleast give it a try for all the hype I am giving. I am sure you'll like it.

Ingredients:

1. One orangle or two cutie mandarin oranges
2. One pomegranate
3. One cup of spinach
4. 1/2 cup of orange juice
5. 1/2 cup of cranberry juice
I used all organic...

Method:

Just grind them all. I had to filter it in my mesh vegetable strainer to filter out the pomegranate seeds. Then add some ice and blend it again with a cup of ice. Its ready. Very filling, naturally sweet and very delicious smoothie.... You can pretty much try endless combinations of fruits and veggies until you find the ones you love.