Yellu Podi Saadam/Sesame Rice - Day 6 Blogging Marathon

It has been a hectic day. My Son isn't well from yesterday night. Though everything was ready in the morning, i couldnt find time to sit and do the post. Atlast found some time to finish it before the day ends. Sesame Rice is another flavourful rice, very quick to make.

Ingredients
1 cup Rice,Cooked
2 tbsp White Sesame Seeds
3 -4 nos Red Chillies
1 tsp Urad Dal/Black Gram Dal
3-4nos Cashews
Salt to taste


Seasoning
2 tbsp Gingely Oil/Ghee
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp broken urad dal/Black Gram dal
Hing a pinch
Curry leaves a few

Sorry for a Bad Picture!!!!!!

Method

Heat a pna ad dry roast the seeds in a low flame till light brown in colour.  Heat half a tsp of oil and fry red chillies with black gram dal and Cashews.  Cool the ingredients and Powder them.  Heat rest of the Oil/Ghee Separately and splutter mustard seeds and fry curry leaves and hing. Add Broken urad dal and fry them until brown.  Add Cooked Rice with Salt and the grounded powder. Mix Well. Garnish with any Roasted Nuts or just coriander leaves.  

Check out the bloggers doing the Blogging Marathon, along with me.. 
Group 1 
30 Minutes Meals: Gayathri Anand
Baked Goods: Monika
For On Going Events: Gayathri Kumar, Usha
Kids Friendly: PJ, Savitha, Smitha, Veena Aravind, Srivalli
Rice Varieties: Champa, Divya, Padma 


Group 2
30 Minutes Meals:Priya Mahadavan, Pavani,
Seven Days of Salad: lla, Divya Vikram,
For Ongoing 7 Events: Priya Suresh, Suma Gandlur, Harini,
Kids Friendly: Vatsala, Jay, Kamalika
Seven Days of Rice: Veena Krishnakumar, Padma Rekha and myself

Spring Bean Salad with Apricot Orange Vinaigrette

It's salad time...I usually don't eat salads, it's not because I don't like it but I always try to get some salads from grocery store and keep it in fridge and let them get spoil and throw in trash. So now I decided to eat salads at least once in a week from today. So I decided to eat every Tuesday nights and called it as "Tuesday Salads" and with no meat in it.:-)

And my inspiration behind this bean salad recipe is from Manjula's kitchen website. She is doing a bean salad contest for this month and so thought of trying some bean salad with spring colors and make it tasty and healthy so that I really don't miss my usual dinner on the plate. :-)

After I ate this salad I bet you, I was more satisfied with lots of yummy flavors going on in my mouth and filled my stomach more than ever and accomplished the first day of my goal. Hurry!!

Ingredients:

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1. 1 can Black Beans rinsed and drained

2. 1 can Pineapple rings in pineapple juice - 5 pineapple rings chopped

3. 1 bag of Italian blend salad bag ( I used crunchy Romaine and zesty Red Cabbage, you can use any salad blend you like)

4. 1/4 cup Roasted Red Pepper chopped (I made this earlier at home just by putting the red bell pepper in a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper and put under the broiler in the oven and roast it for about 5 mins each side and remove it and place it in a freezer bag and zip it up and let it steam for about a 5 mins and remove and peel the charred skin and use it , you can get one from store) I am jut posting the picture for you.

5. 3 tbsp Cherry Pepper Slices chopped (optional or can reduce the quantity) (I used Bell-View brand which comes in a glass jar)

6. 1 medium size Shallots chopped
7. 1/4 tsp Chili powder
8. 1/2 tsp Cumin powder
9. Salt and Pepper to taste
10. 2 tbsp flat leaf Parsley chopped
11. Home made Apricot Orange Vinaigrette (recipe follows)
12. 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar (optional)


Method:
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APRICOT ORANGE VINEGRETTE RECIPE:

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• Ingredients:
• --------------
• 1/4 cup Apricot Preserves
• 2 tbsp Orange Juice
• 2 tbsp Rice Vinegar
• 2 tbsp Canola oil
• 1 tbsp Water
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• Dash of Black Pepper powder

Method:

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1. Place all ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid; shake well. Cover in a air-tight glass bottle in the fridge and use it as needed.

Assembling the Salad:

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1. Wash the Italian salad and place it on a paper towel so that the extra water is drained off.

2. In another bowl mix all the ingredients except the Italian salad (beans, pineapple, shallots, salt, pepper, roasted red pepper, chili powder, cumin powder, apricot orange vinaigrette and apple cider vinegar).

Note: you can use the apricot orange vinaigrette as much as you need - I didn't measure it but may be I used a 1/4 cup or little bit more :-)

3. Now in a serving bowl or plate (I used a bowl), arrange the Italian salad and spoon the bean salad and enjoy your salad as much as I did.

Re-posting this recipe to send to the event "Salad Spread" hosted by Taste Junction

Strawberry in two avatars - Milkshake and Shrikand

I am putting the strawberry season to full use. And this is the first time I have access to strawberries which doesn't cost a bomb. And we are nearing the end of the strawberry season here. I have frozen quite a few and made two bottles of jam. The easiest way to use them is to make milkshake for breakfast. Its made atleast twice in a week during the season. Occassionaly, I make strawberry flavored Shrikand too. That is also quite easy except that hung curd has to be made. Often I forget to reserve the curd to prepare hung curd and by the time I realise I would have churned the curd to make buttermilk. At home, we prefer buttermilk than curd. Though the plain Shrikand is not much favored by husband, he loves the strawberry flavored one. So here is two super easy recipes with strawberry. In fact, there isn't much to write about  in terms of the recipe. Here is I how I make it.

Strawberry Milkshake

You need

• Strawberries - 10 -12 nos
• Chilled milk - 2 cups
• Sugar - 2 tblspn (Or use honey)

 Method

Wash and hull the strawberries. Cut into halves. Blend the halved strawberries along with sugar to fine puree. Add the chilled milk and pulse for few second. Pour into glasses and chill it if you are not serving immediately.

 

Strawberry Shrikhand

You need

• Hung curd - 1 cup
• Strawberries - 8 to 10 nos
• Sugar - 2 tblspn
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn

Method

To get hund curd, take 4 cups of curd in a cheese cloth. Tie it and hang it to drain the whey or the liquid in the curd. What remains is the creamy curd. I usually hang it in inside the fridge so that the curd doesn't turn sour.

Puree the strawberries with sugar. Beat the curd till smooth. Add the sweetened strawberry puree. Mix well. Finally add cardamom powder. Chill and serve. Garnish with chopped pistachios/almonds/chiroli  while serving