Wednesday, July 14, 2010

POTATO 65

Potato can be roasted, fried and made as a gravy in so many ways! Every one likes to have this always as a side dish with the food! Especially the children always love to eat this! This is a very grand and delicious recipe to serve in a feast! The hung curd makes this potato 65 very special and tasty!


உருளைக்கிழங்கு 65

Ingredients:

Big potatoes-4
Chilli powder- 1 tbsp
Gram flour- 1 tbsp
Baking powder- 1 tsp
Enough oil to fry
Salt to taste
Onion-4
Slit green chillies-6
Fresh curd- 1 cup
Ajinomoto- 2 pinches
Garam masala powder- half sp
Curry leaves- a handful

Procedure:

Pour the curd on a thin white cloth and tie it tightly with a rubber band.
Hand it on the tap of the sink.
The water will drip in the sink and all the water will be drained out and we can get the fresh hung curd within half an hour.
Slice the onions finely.
Cut the potatoes in medium cubes and mix them with the powders and enough salt except the garam masala and ajinomoto.
Cook them in a micro oven in high for only 10 minutes.
Deep fry them in batches to golden brown.
Drain them in a kitchen paper towel.
Heat a kadai and pour 2 tbsp of oil.
Add the onions with the green chilles and curry leaves and fry them to golden brown.
Add the hung curd and fry it mixing well.
Sprinkle the garam masala and ajinomoto and mix well.
Add the cooked potato and cook them on medium fire for 10 minutes mixing in intervals.
Or it can be cooked again in the micro oven in High for 10 minutes.
The delicious potato 65 is now ready with its richness!

Monsoon Munches - Masal Vadae - spicy fried lentil and herbs patties...

MONSOON MUNCHES

MASAL VADAE
Three decades ago when my children were of school going age they eagerly looked forward to their father's return from the golf club. He always brought back a hot parcel of yummy snacks (bondas, bajjis, masala nuts, finger chips and many more) from the club after his game, which the children relished. The mini masal vadaes the size of a one rupee coin were my children's favourite. They greedily gobbled them up with coconut chutney or mint chutney which accompanied the vadaes in the parcel and a lot of tomato sauce from the refrigerator.
I had never tried preparing masal vadaes at home for a very long time , until Lakshmi arrived. She helped us in all our house hold chores and she prepared yummy 'Golf Club' masal vadaes as long as she stayed with us. Now a days Masal Vadaes have become a part of our party cooking. It is an addictive snack for a cloudy day.



INGREDIENTS
Bengal gram dal - 250 gms
Onion - 1 big (finely chopped)
Garlic - 5 pearls(Peeled)
Green chillies - 4
Fresh ginger - 2 inches( Cleaned and peeled)
Finely chopped fresh coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Finely chopped mint leaves - 1/2 cup
Finely chopped dill leaves - 1/2 cup
Cinnamon - 2 inch stick
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - for frying

METHOD
1. Soak bengal gram dal for one hour.
2. Chop onion and herbs and keep aside.
3. Grind 2 table spoons of the soaked dal with ginger, garlic, green chillies and cinnamon into a smooth paste.
4. Drain the remaining dal and add it to the paste and run the mixer for a minute to get a thick and coarse batter without adding water.
5. Mix the batter evenly with a spatula and run the mixer for a few more seconds if necessary. It is fine if some dal is still left uncrushed.
6. Scoop out the dal mixture in a bowl and mix in the chopped herbs and onion, salt and cumin seeds. (The batter can be stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator for two days, without adding salt. You can add the required amount of salt just before frying the vadaes.)
7. Heat oil in a kadai.
8. Make a small ball out of the batter and flatten it on your palm into a vadae, and slide it into the hot oil. Vadaes can be cooked in batches of six or eight depending on the size of the kadai.
9. Do not disturb until you see a colour change around the vadaes. Gently flip the vadaes and cook on the other side.
10. Cook until the vadaes become a golden reddish brown in colour on all sides.
11. Take them out using a perforated ladel and drain them on a paper towel.
Pop the crunchy munchy piping hot Masal Vadaes into your mouth as they are or after dipping them in mint or coconut chutney. Find yourself on cloud 9 on a gloomy cloudy day !

Tuesday, July 13, 2010


The last roof any home will ever need! The home shown is in the middle of having its 30-yr Architectural shingles replaced with a Gerard Canyon Shake Stone-Coated Metal Roof. The Gerard roof includes a warranty that is good for the lifetime of the owner and is transferable. This roofs warranty includes a 120 mph wind warranty and 2.5" hail storm warranty.