Sunday, May 29, 2011

Onion Vatha Kuzhambu (Onion cooked in spicy tamarind gravy)



This is a tangy and spicy gravy that goes well with rice and curry. Vegetables like ladies finger, capsicum, sweet potato, drumstick, brinjal can be used instead of onions. Some call it Kaara kuzhambu.

Ingredients:
1 medium sized onion sliced
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp thur dal or channa dal
A few curry leaves
3 tsp sambar powder
Salt
1/4 tsp hing
3.5 cups tamarind extract from small lime size tamarind
1/2 tsp jaggery
1 tsp rice flour

Method:
Heat oil. Add mustard seeds, fenugreek, channa dal or thur dal, curry leaves.
When mustard seeds crackle and dal turns brown, add sliced onion and fry till it turns soft.
Soak tamarind in warm water for 10 minutes and extract 3.5 cups of juice from the same.
Add this juice to the cooked onion.
Add salt, sambar powder, hing and allow the mixture to boil for 20 minutes or until oil starts to float on top.
Add jaggery if you like the gravy to be slightly sweet.
Mix rice flour in 1 tsp water and make a thick paste.
Add this paste to the tamarind gravy and stir continuously until the mixture becomes little thick.
Serve with rice, ghee and curry.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Conway SC Historic Renovations Benefitting from Spray Foam Insulation

Historic Home Renovations in the Carolina's

Conway, SC is a historic River Town located right outside of Myrtle Beach, SC. A perfect city in the Carolina's for an example of how Retro-Solutions Energy Saving Home Improvements can save Historic Homeowners in North Carolina & South Carolina money on power bills. If you don't know where Conway, South Carolina is, it is a Historic River town located right outside of the popular tourist destination of Myrtle Beach, SC.  Conway SC is in the same county as Myrtle Beach, Horry County, and offers a more historic look into coastal living in Colonial times. There are more Historic Homes in Conway, then Myrtle Beach, as most of Myrtle Beach was farming land, developed into what it is today, but ultimately newer homes, as farms take a tremendous amount of land space, not offering much space for development during colonial times. Therefore, if your into Historic Homes, or Historic Home Renovation, Conway is a better choice to look in Horry County.  Conway is also about 10 degrees hotter in the summer on average than Myrtle Beach, SC, giving it the perfect environment for maximum benefit from energy saving products.

So what makes Conway,SC a different experience from Myrtle Beach, SC is the Historic Homes & thriving Historic Downtown of Conway, SC.  Retro-Solutions Construction Co. of Horry County, is proud to announce that 3 homeowners in the Conway, SC area are now saving money on utility bills, in historic homes, due to Spray Foam Insulation & Energy Efficient Roofing.  At Retro-Solutions Construction Co. we know the value of having homeowners preserve & revitalize the architecture & history of the past by renovating historic homes.  That's why we are proud to announce the 3 homeowners taking advantage of "green" building materials, that are becoming increasingly popular in Historic Home Renovations across the country, to reduce utility bills.  Anyone that is or knows a historic homeowner anywhere in the United States, and the number one complaint about their historic home is the high energy bills, with power bills being #1 on the list.  Retro-Solutions Construction is here to let Historic Homeowners all across North & South Carolina that there is help for utility bills in older homes. Our Spray Foam Insulation Services, Wall Foam Insulation, Crawl Space Encapsulation, Standing Seam Metal Roofing, Tile Roofing, Tin Roofing, Solar Energy Products, & other "green" building products all pass requirements for historic homeowners committees.

The main reason that Historic Homes cost so much to heat & cool, taking out the larger floor plans, is due to poor insulation.  Exterior Walls are impossible to insulate with traditional fiberglass insulation, without incurring major renovation cost.  In the past their wasn't an affordable option to insulate exterior walls.  Even though foam insulation has been around since the late 1950's, early 1960's, It was mostly regulated to industrial construction & commercial construction due to high cost of material.  The development of foam technology, and more chemical manufacturers of foam products targeting specific markets like Historic Home Renovation Projects, has increased competition & lowered cost to homeowners tremendously.  Although new construction is increasingly going to SPF products, we can't discount homeowners 3-5 years into a new home purchase, just looking to improve overall comfort ability of their home. Historic Homeowners in South Carolina, because of the beautiful weather, and heat in the summers, experience both ends of the spectrum.  Where as a new homeowner will see 33% savings on utility bills, Historic Homeowners in South Carolina can see over 60% in really poor insulated historic homes.  The major advantage, taking out energy savings, that foam insulation has over traditional fiberglass is that it offers historic homeowner new building technology, with spray foam insulation unique "building envelope" system.  That new HVAC system you got last year will operate at a much more energy efficient level.

As a Spray Foam Insulation provider in the North Carolina & South Carolina area, keeping up with new technologies & continuing education on energy saving products, and new energy saving technology; we can save historic homeowners money on utility bills.  The fun thing about our industry incorporating Historic Home Renovation into our business model, is that many of the roofing materials used in Historic Homes in North Carolina & South Carolina are now proven to save on Energy Consumption.  Examples being metal roofing & tile roofing, with both having Energy Star rating products, proven to lower energy bills by up to 20% in homes in the Carolina's. All of our products are approved by Historic Home preservation committee's & boards because insulation is not atheistic & we have roof tile matching capabilities to match the time era, colors, & styles of most homes in the North Carolina & South Carolina areas. Solar Energy is also being incorporated into Historic Home Renovations, as solar panel technology is developing, smaller panels can store as much energy as larger panels 10 years ago.  The development of solar energy powered appliances is also another unique way Historic Homeowners are saving money on utility bills as well.  Most of our customers who are renovating a Historic Home are unaware of all of the utility saving, "green" building materials available for Historic Home Renovations. So call us today or contact us thru our website for more information on how to save money on heating and cooling your Historic Home in North Carolina or South Carolina.  We guarantee we can save you 33%  or more on Energy Savings.

Call: 706-951-0158 (Dan) or 843-424-7180 (Glenn)
Website: Retro-Solutions Construction Company Website


Retro-Solutions Construction Company Myrtle Beach, SC 29577 706-951-0158 http://www.scroofingcontractors.com Energy Efficient Roofing Systems | Spray Foam Insulation | Wall Foam Insulation | Crawl Space Encapsulations | Solar Energy Powered Hot Water Heaters | Solar Energy | Energy Monitoring | Standing Seam Metal Roofs | Tile Roofs | Slate Roofs | Historic Home Retrofits |

Carrot Halwa


















One word to say about Carrot Halwa is "Yummy". Well it is one of the yummiest dishes I have prepared. Carrot as such is rich in Vitamin C and good for eyes and Carrot Halwa is good for your taste buds. The bright rich colour of this halwa makes this as a tempting dish that every connoisseur would appreciate. Here I present you the method for preparing simple, tasty and delicious Carrot Halwa.








Ingredients:



Carrot - 2 cups grated

Milk - 1.5 cups

Sugar - 1 cup

Butter - 2 tablespoon

Cashew nuts - 10

Raisins - 10

Cardamon - 3 crushed

Ghee - 1 teaspoon



Method:



1) In a heavy bottomed kadai / frying pan, add 2 tablespoon of butter.

2) Once butter melts down, add cashew nuts and raisins.

3) Make sure the flame is in medium level.

4) Fry them till cashews become golden brown and raisins start to blow up.

5) Add grated carrots, cardamon and stir them well. Don't add water.

6) You would notice water content oozing out from the carrots after sometime. Don't worry, continue to stir well.

7) When the water content from the carrot gets evaporated, add milk and stir well.

8) Stir continuously till the milk reduces to half the added quantity.

9) Now taste the carrot and according to the carrot's sweetness , add sugar. It is not necessary to use the whole 1 cup of sugar as mentioned above in the ingredients.

10) Keep stirring the contents well and make sure the kadai doesn't get burnt.

11) When the milk gets absorbed and carrots get the texture of halwa, add ghee to it.

12) Remove from heat and allow it to cool.

13) Serve warm or chill it and serve as it suits your taste.



Note:

You can add cashew, raisins in the final step (step 11) along with the ghee instead of adding it in the beginning. Also you can not add cardamon directly to butter as they have a tendency to burst wide. Use crushed cardamon if you are going to use with hot butter/ghee/oil.