Meeting a fellow blogger

Even though its quite sometime since I have started blogging, I have been active since 5 months or so. In that period, I had come across Aparna's blog and knowing she has her ancestral roots to my place, caught my attention. She even mentioned that she visits my place occasionally. I looked forward to her visiting Palakkad.

I received a mail informing her visit to Palakkad during the Easter weekend. I was more than happy to meet Aparna and her family and we decided to meet at my place. It was a nice experience to meet a faceless friend. When she called to find if the time was convenient for me, she asked about a landmark very near my house. I thought her relatives whom she was visiting must given that info. But still I was puzzled about her asking that particular one since she did not have my address. Later I got to know from her that wikimapia has helped her and I have my house marked in it. She did not call me, even once, to help locate my house. Reminds me, world is small. With friends, we used to discuss, there will be a time (which is not too far), when we will be giving links from wikimapia for our address.
We chatted for a couple of hours as though we know each other for a long time. She has a very lovely and bubbly daughter, Akshaya. She is smart when she says she has met 3 bloggers (includes her mom too), while her mom's count is only 2.

I got a chance to devour Aparna's cookies. Incidentally, I had tried the same cookies from her blog. Tasting hers, helped me evaluate mine.

When her husband joined in, I thought we will end up as relatives. Anyway,no relation was arrived at, which usually happens among Palakkad Iyers. But we will remain as friends for ever.

Sorry Everyone

Hi everyone.
I have been caring for my husband, who is a disabled Vietnam veteran, for the last eight months while he has fought an infection stemming from a 39 year old bullet lodged near his spine.
He has been hospitalized for the last ten days.
If you pray to a God...pray for us.
If not, have good thoughts.
I'll be back when I can.

Thank you,

Peggy

Aloo Paneer,Jeera Rice contd from last post.

This is a much delayed continuation of the previous post. I was thinking of posting it the next day of the first one, but I couldn't. That was last working day of the week and had so much to complete, since was taking a break for the Easter weekend. Once back, was caught up between work at both office and personal front. Sorry for this delay.

Now coming back to the recipe, let me start with Aloo Paneer'96. This is Mallika Badrinath's recipe. Not much changes made to the original one. I have no idea why that 96 attached to the name.



Ingredients
Onions - 3 nos
Tomatoes - 2 nos
Paneer made from 1 ltr milk
Potatoes - 1/4 kg
Dhaniya pwdr - 2tbspn
Red chilli pwdr- 1 tspn
Salt to taste
Sugar - 1 tspn
Pav bhaji masala - 1/2 tspn (can use garam masala as in original)
oil for frying
For marinade
tomato ketchup - 3 tblspn
dhania pwdr - 1 1/2 tspn
jeera pwdr - 1/2 tspn
salt - 1/2 tspn
black pepper powder - 1/2 tspn
Method
Cut onions and tomatoes finely.
Peel off the skin from potatoes and cut it length wise as for finger chips. Slice paneer also lengthwise
Mix all the ingredients under marinade and add paneer and potato pieces to it.Keep it aside for half an hour.
Removes the peices alone and keep under hot grill with little butter on top till it turns brown.I did not have the option of grill, so took to the tawa method. It came out very well.
Heat oil in a kadai and fry onions till crisp.
Add dhania powder, chilli powder, pav bhaji masala (or any masala u like ).
Stir for a minute and add tomatoes. Cook till it turns pulpy. Add salt and little sugar.
Stir in the left over marinade and cook for few minutes.
Add grilled potatoes and paneer pieces. Mix gently. Remove from fire.

Jeera rice

Basmati rice -1 cup
Ginger paste- 1/2 tspn
Slit green chilly- 3 nos
Jeera - 2 tspn
Ghee/Oil - 2 tblspn

Onion - 1 no (Optional)

Method
Wash and soak the rice in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes.
Take a microwave safe bowl, Add oil and MW for 30 seconds.
Add jeera and MW for another 30 seconds.
Stir in ginger paste, slit green chillies and MW for 30 seconds.

Chop the onion lengthwise and add to the bowl. MW for 1 or 2 minutes till it is sauted.
Add the soaked rice along with water and add salt as required.
Stir once and MW for 15 minutes.
Mix the rice using a fork at every 5 minutes interval. During the last 5 minutes, you can adjust the timings, depending on your MW and the variety of rice used.

Garnish with coriander and fried cashews if you to make it rich.

Thanks Srivalli, for making me try cooking rice in MW. This is my first attempt. I had doubts if I should try when I was cooking for guests. But I was happy with the result.This is going to Srivalli's monthly MW event. Current month's theme is Rice.

Curd rice is always welcome when we have had some spicy dishes as part of the meal.