My experience of the TV shoot for a cookery show

Sometime in February, my cousin Rajesh called to ask if I would be ready to shoot for cookery show. At first I couldn't believe what he asked me and thought that he is just trying to pull my leg. But when later he told me the details, I understood he wasn't joking. The reference had come through Soori Etta (elder brother in Malayalam) , who is very well known to Rajesh. He has already done a shoot for the channel. The channel people were to come again for another shoot and they had asked Soori Etta if he can arrange for a shoot of Brahmin special cuisine. And when consulted with Rajesh, he had me in his mind and agreed then and there. Rajesh told me, the channel will intimate at least a week before the shoot. I didn't give much thought to it thinking there is no guarantee that they will come and since it is not a direct call from channel, I wasn't sure if it will happen. And told myself that in case it happens, I will have time to think of the dish and other things.

Cut to 28th May, 9:00 PM. Rajesh called me to ask I will be ready for the shoot the next day. The shoot will be in my home town, which is an hour travel from my home and should be there by 10:00 A.M. The call came when it was least expected and I had to tell him what I will prepare. The first thing that came to my mind was Uppittu and he, after consulting with his friend and confirmed it.

No instructions or guidelines whatsoever. I was left to decide on my own. I wasn't very sure if the crew will wait for the whole cooking process. Since I didn't have any of their contact numbers, I decided to go by my instinct. I prepared the dough and the filling and made 4 Uppitu before hand. Reached my home town by 9:30 loaded with all the ingredients, bowls etc.



Soori etta came home to check if everything was ready. He suggested that this one dish alone may not take more than 15 minutes of telecast time, so I can prepare one more dish. The time was already 11:30 a.m. The shoot was expected to begin by 1:00 PM. After some discussion, decided on Pulingari, which was special to Puthucode village. The next hour went in getting things and doing the necessary cooking for that.

The shoot was organised in our ancestral house. I was very happy that the shoot was held there where I have lived my childhood. We had a joint family system and the house was full of people and activity. And now, my father’s youngest brother stays there. I am happy that at least the house is retained as such. The channel people came at 2:00 p.m. They just let me go ahead. No instructions from their side. The anchor, Vijay, who is to engage me with his questions, during my cooking, asked some basic questions about the recipe. Both the dishes were completely new to him. The first few minutes, I was very conscious. But later on, when I started to explain the recipe, I forgot all about the shoot and was so engrossed in cooking and the conversation with the anchor. Anchor, Vijay was very spontaneous and lively. During the course of the shoot, he asked me about my blog.

He was very much surprised to know food blogs are very active. All in the entire shoot took 2 hours. The experience was new and I very much enjoyed. I expected to be more nervous. But I could pull it off much better than I expected. And once it is telecasted, it’s for the viewers to decide how well I have done it. It will take more than a month to telecast. I have never imagined myself on a cookery show. All thanks to Soori Etta and my cousin who were instrumental in getting the opportunity for me. The shoot was for the cookery show titled, ‘Swad’, a weekly show in Jai Hind channel (Malayalam) on Sunday 12:00 PM.

Back From Hibernation

Hi all. I am back after a long time. This last semester was very tough. Had a lot of stress upon me. Living away from home is one of the major drawback. Personal interests cannot be carried out the way it has to be when you are living away from home. Blogging took a back-seat while I was at school last semester. Well!! I am happy that I am done with school for the next two months. Have to enjoy being at home and enjoy my trip to my home country-India this month. I am so very looking forward to the trip :)

Blogging came into being quite a few years back. I have many friends who have been very active bloggers ever since the inception of blogging. I have always looked at their blogs, enjoyed reading them and admired them for having been so creative and being able to dedicate much time into it. Then got busy with work and life took a new twist. When I got married and came into the US about 18 months back, I was just at home and idle. Blogging never occurred to me at that time when I was at home (I was just enjoying my newly married life and roaming places). If it had, Things would have definitely been different. Anyways!

Gradually I started school and got very busy with my studies. Had not time for any extra-curricular activities. One day, just browsing through the internet for some good recipes, I stumbled upon a very good Indian vegetarian food blog. That blog led me into another and another and the list went endless. It was then that I realized that the chain was so huge and the passion for cooking among various people was humongous. It was then that new ideas got into me..

 Of late I developed this interest in blogging. Creating this blog was not at all easy for me. I had to think much and put in a lot of time and gain good will power to create this blog. There were constant questions going on in my mind while creating this blog. Will I be able to do justice? Will I be able to dedicate the time I need to give this? My self-confidence was put to test. But then I decided that I will do what I am capable of. Cooking has been my passion and I will give it my best shot. It is something that I do to bust my stress. There have been a lot of bloggers lately who have been doing a remarkable job. Kudos to them all..

I have to get back to active blogging soon and I will do so shortly. Since I am a novice at this, I need some time to get started. Definitely!! I will keep trying and give my best to make this site a useful and an active one. I will keep my blog very simple and informative. Hope my readers will enjoy reading my blog and encourage me to perform well. Hope to be back soon with some good and new recipes. Happy Cooking!!

Mango Mania! Maha Mango Mela! The great mango festival!

MANGO MANIA!

MAHA MANGO MELA!

THE KING OF FRUITS

Mango has been woven into the very fabric of our Indian society. The epics, the puranas, Indian mythology, history, legends and folk lores are all infused with mango stories. Litrature, poems, devotional songs, folk songs and film songs have incorporated the mango fruit in various contexts.
Mango motifs are extensively used in temple architecture and sculptures. Mango motifs in combination with other designs lend an ethnic charm to dress materials. The traditional "Manga border" in sarees is still in vogue. Rows of mango motifs strung together to form a necklace called the Manga Malai is a traditional jewellary which caters to ones aesthetic sense.

GANESHA SCULPTURE CARVED IN MANGO WOOD

MANGA MALAI ON A MANGA BORDER SAREE A BRASS VIBUDHI SAMBADAM ( SACRED ASH HOLDER) IN THE SHAPE OF A MANGO

Mangoes have a great medicinal value as well as nutritional value. Mango leaves play an important part during festivals and poojas.The leaves which are supposed to spread possitive vibrations, are used for decorating the entrance doors of homes on auspicious days.The mango and mango leaf motifs are also used in 'kolams' (Designs made with rice paste on the floor as decoration). WELCOME TO MAHA MANGO MELA!
Now that the season is on and the king has arrived,we thought it would be befitting to celebrate the king of fruits.Thus was born the idea for a " MAHA MANGO MELA -THE GREAT MANGO FESTIVEL! - A tribute to the King of Fruits.

We decided to have a family get together and have all the mango based dishes for dinner. My little grand daughter was highly thrilled by the idea and she prepared herself to stage a puppet show with an 'Akbar,Birbal and mango' story.
The entrance door was decorated with mango leaves. A kolam was drawn at the entrance floor. The fragrance of raw mangoes and ripe mangoes emanated from the kithen. Dish after dish was getting ready and my husband and grand children were flitting in and out of the kitchen in spite of their various chores for,'sampling' the dishes!

WELCOME DRINK
Finally the guests were there.They settled down with the welcome drink MANGO PANAKAM/PANNA and watched the puppet show with enthusiasm.The little one gave a grand performance with great involvement.The sound effects were taken care of by my grand son and his tabala.

STORY TIME
Birbal presents the great emperor Akbar with a basket of home grown mangoes.The queen nearly faints with excitement at the sight of the delicious fruits.Akbar decides to tease his queen by playing a practical joke on her.He sends her to fetch some cold milk to go with the sweet mangoes, and in the meanwhile eats up all the mangoes and leaves the peels and the seeds in the queen's plate.The queen returns eagerly with the milk and is horrified when the emperor admonishes her of being greedy, and hogging away all the fruits, leaving only the peels and seeds on her plate.The desperate queen looks up to Birbal for help.Birbal immediately flashes a question at the emperor - If the queen who has at least left the seeds and the peels on her plate is termed greedy, what should the emperor who has polished up his plate without even leaving the seeds and peels behind, be labelled as?
The emperor and the queen are pleased with Birbal's wit,and they gift the wise and witty Birbal with gold and silver nuggets.
The show was a grand success and the hall thundered with applause! A BADSHAH WITH HIS FAVOURITE KINGS
Dinner time! We were little apprehensive if the guests would be overwhelmed with the all- mango dinner. TIME FOR DINNER THE FIRST COURSE

(Check my last few posts for all the recipes of all these dishes!)

The main course was MANGO RICE with cucumber raitha. Another side dish was TAENGA MANGA BATANI SUNDAL. Roasted masala papads topped with a salad of finely minced carrots,onion,cucumber,tomatoes and raw mangoes was another crunchy side dish (planned and prepared by my grand daughter).We also had MAVINA HANNINA SASIVAE which was a great hit.The next course was the most unavoidable rasam and rice. Finally we had curd rice with AVAKA MANGO PICKLE.
MAMBAZHA HALVA prepared with sweet ripe mangoes was the sweet for the event.We enjoyed a double dessert of vanilla ice cream with ripe mango cubes, and MANGO MOOSE which was a surprise additional dish prepared and presented by my sister's daughter-in-law.

SURPRISE MANGO DESSERT
Every one enjoyed the unforgettable event and the all- mango dinner.
Here I would like to share the MAMBAZHA HALWA recipe with all of you.

MAMBAZHA HALWA

INGREDIENTS

Pulp of sweet mango fruit without fibre - 500ml or two glasses
Sugar - 2 two glasses(same volume as fruit)
Unsweetened condensed milk - 1 tin (I used Milk Maid)
Ghee - 1 glass ( Only the required amount will be used)
Besan ( Bangal gram dal flour) - 3tbsps
Cardamom powder - 1 pinch

METHOD

1.Dry roast besan till it gives out a pleasant aroma.
2.Combine the roasted besan and the fruit pulp smoothly using mixer.
3.Take a heavy bottomed vessel and add the fruit and besan mixture(besan gives'body' and a distinct flavour to the halwa),milk maid and sugar.
4.Place the vessel on the flame and keep stirring.
5.Keep adding ghee little by little as the halwa thickens and starts to leave the sides of the vessel.
6.When the halwa becomes a mass and starts to develop 'craters',add some more ghee and switch off flame.
7.Mix in the cardamom powder and pour the halwa on a plate.
Scoop out the warm flavoursome halwa on a serving plate and enjoy as it melts away in your mouth.