Wholemeal Okonomiyaki

This is not the best okonomiyaki but definately something healthier as I followed this guy using wholemeal flour for the recipe. It's quite flavourful with all the vegatables added. Perhaps using plain flour would be nicer. Anyway, I've gained some extra fiber this time :P

Parikkai (Bittergourd) Pitla

Past one week, we have had fare amount of sweets and savories in the name of Diwali and proportionately the calories have increased. The routine cooking had taken a backseat in the name of Diwali preparations. Sambhar is one of the staple of palakkad iyers cooking. And slight changes in the spices roasted and vegetables used will result in another dish. One such is Parikkai Pitla. Piltai is not much favored because of the bitter gourd in it, especially kids. I know many homes that make it only for the annual ritual for the departed soul is performed (Shraddam/Devasom). The preparation is almost similar to Sambhar.My MIL adds kabuli chana in place of tuvar dal in the recipe. I have seen when chana is added, kids takes an instant liking to the dish though will not touch the bitter gourd pieces in it. I usually cook with a light green variety of the BG which we get in my place. This is less bitter than the dark green variety. Infact, you can't taste the bitterness in the dish at all. When made as a stir fry with the addition of onions and tomato, you can easily pass it on as any other vegetable with the absence of the distinct bitter taste.

Bitter gourd - 1 medium sized

Tamarind - lemon sized

Kabuli Chana / Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup

Turmeric

Salt


To roast and grind


Urad dal - 1 tspn
Chana dal- 1tspn
Red chilli- 3 nos
Pepper corn - 4 nos
Hing - few shakes

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup


Seasoning

Oil - 1 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Curry leaves - few

Grated coconut - 1 tblspn

Pressure cook kabuli chana /tuvar dal till it is soft. If using kabuli chana, it has to be soaked for 5 hours. I soak them overnight.



Wash the bitter gourd. Slit it open and discard the seeds. Chop into bite sized pieces. Extract the tamarind juice. Take tamarind extract, salt and turmeric. in a cooking bowl. Add 1/2 cup of water. When the tamarind extract starts to boil, add the chopped bitter gourd pieces. When the vegetable is cooked tender, add the mashed dal/chana. Reserve the cooked dal water.

Roast the spices except coconut in a little oil, till they are light brown. Grind the spices along with grated coconut to a smooth paste. Add water while grinding. Dilute the ground paste with the reserved water and stir into the cooking pot. Adjust the salt and consistency of the gravy by adding water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for few minutes.

Season with mustard seeds, curry leaves and a tablespoon of coconut. The coconut should be roasted till brown.

When preparing for Shradham, moong dal is used and red chilly is fully replaced with pepper corns.

SnapIt - A plugin product review

SnapIt is a customized version of the standard print screen function. It’s a small plug in that can be downloaded in less than a minute even on a slow connection.  SnapIt makes the screen capture job lot easier and organized too. Once the program is started, a camera icon sits pretty on the status bar. To capture screen shots, you can continue using the print scr key. Once pressed, the mouse pointer changes to a plus sign and you can mark the area on the screen to be copied. Click on the icon to save the marked image to the desired location.

The image capturing be configured to different key options, other than the Prnt Scr key,  given by the program. Also the saving can be automated by defining the storage location, image formats (jpeg,png,gif,tiff & bmp) and starting name for the files and if it is to be incremental or random. Once these parameters are set, then capturing screen shots is super easy. All you do is just press the assigned key and go about with your work. The screen shots will be automatically saved in the designated folder.  This saves the time of opening software to paste the selected image, save and later crop to get the desired results. This plugin will be particularly useful for those creating tutorials or presentations.

(The above two images are captured with SnapIt)

A fully functional, trial version is available for 14 days. Thanks Katherine Poll for giving me the opportunity.