Sesame/Ellu Chikkis

Sesame seeds/Til/Ellu comes in white and black. While googling found it comes in a tan color too,but that is not popular. Anyways, I am used to white and black only. In my house, I have seen more of black than the white. Ellu has religious significance too for Hindus. On most of the poojas, laddus or other sweets made of ellu and jaggery is offered as Neivadyam.

Amma always makes ellu urundai (sesame balls). For a change instead of making balls, I tried making chikkis of it. Either black or white can be used. I had some black sesame seeds left after being purchased for a pooja. Using black makes the cleaning process a bit messy.

Some nutrient info on Sesame seeds

Sesame seeds are a very good source of copper and a good source of magnesium and calcium. Not only are sesame seeds a very good source of manganese and copper and calcium, but they are also a good source of iron, phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc and dietary fiber. In addition to these important nutrients, sesame seeds contain two unique substances: sesamin and sesamolin. Both of these substances belong to a group of special beneficial fibers called lignans, and have been shown to have a cholesterol-lowering effect in humans, and to prevent high blood pressure and increase vitamin E supplies in animals. Sesamin has also been found to protect the liver from oxidative damage. Rich In Beneficial Minerals.

(Source:WHFoods)

Before you get bored and stop reading this, I shall go the recipe now.

Sesame seeds/Ellu/Til - 1 cup

Powdered jaggery - 1/2 cup

Wash and soak the seeds in water for half an hour. Drain and let it dry on a kitchen towel for 10 minutes. When using black, the skin will come out on soaking. So you will need to wash 2/3 times to discard the skin that has come off. Dry roast the sesame seeds in a kadai till you can smell the flavor. Also as it gets roasted, the seeds will start crackling. When you hear more of the crackling sound, remove from fire.

Boil with jaggery with 1/2 cup of water. Strain to remove any impurities.

Take a kadai, add the strained jaggery liquid. Jaggery syrup should be thick and it is called 'thakkali paagam'. Thakkali/tomato is used to signify the color of the syrup. To test for the consistency drop a spoon of syrup in cold water. You should be able to roll into a ball and when dropped from a height, you should be hear the sound of it hitting the surface. With the amount of jaggery mentioned, this stage will be reached quickly.

Slowly add the roasted seeds to the jaggery syrup. Mix well and cook for few minutes, till it come together. Transfer to a greased plate and press down with a spatula. When warm, mark the pieces using a knife. Dip the knife in cold water as you mark to avoid sticking. I got 12 pieces with this measurement.

When cool, it will be crunchy. Store in an airtight container.

This goes to Mythrayee, who is celebrating the sweet series with chikkis and laddus for the current month.

and to Sangeeth, who has called for Calcium rich food

Great TOH Post on Finding a Contractor

There is a great new post by Sal Vaglica on This Old House Online called How to Use Contractor Referral Websites that is a perfect adjunct to my article on finding, interviewing and selecting contractors on my web site.

Sal's article details how to use the services such as Angie's List and Servicemagic to find a contractor when you don't have the usual resources like coworkers, friends and family to ask for referrals.

I tried a couple of the services myself (Servicemagic and its predecessor, ImproveNet), years ago, to market my services before I discovered the (wonderful) world-wide-web.

I found that paying for "leads", when the service was unwilling to include detailed budget questions in their questionnaire, was not very fruitful for me.

My clientele tends to be a small percentage of the overall population of consumers looking for kitchen design services. They are mostly middle class people with difficult kitchens that require a lot of remodeling and a designer with a "fresh eye". They also put more dollars into their projects than the average because of their complexity. Thank GOODNESS the web came along!

I think the referral sites work better for contractors though. It gives them a chance to connect with new potential clients who aren't friends of friends, or are new in town.

I also think Angie's List is well worth the cost because you get to read other consumers' thoughts on working with the individual or company AFTER they have had the experience...and the comments are unsolicited.

It is certainly de rigeur to ask a contractor, or anyone else you are contemplating hiring, for references; however you must understand that those references are going to be among their happiest clients.

I like to ask for a reference who had problems on the job as well. That way I'll learn how the individual performs under adverse conditions and problem-solves.

So, if you (and all your friends) are new to remodeling and looking for a contractor, try Angie's List. I bet you'll be glad you did.

Peggy

and we're back

We've been slightly more productive than it seems here on the blog. Sorry about the lack of posting; I was surprised to find out how many of you are checking back frequently. Thanks. We do have a good excuse - unfortunately, I don't think I can muster up the enthusiasm to talk about it here. Instead, I'll post this picture we got today.

Project Rowhouse has the porch light on.

Back to the renovation -

The brick-exposing is a multiple step job. We are now scrubbing the bits of plaster that were left clinging to the brick. This is the messy, labor intensive part. The original plan was to use variously sized wire brushes - imagine much stronger versions of the brush you use to clean your grill after making kabobs. The pros to using this brush is control and precision, the cons are that it sucks in many different ways. Speeding this up was imperative. I knew I could find a more productive tool.

This drill attachment did the job amazingly well. I was initially nervous that it would tear through the mortar. While I managed to gouge a few areas slightly, it's very easy to control once you get the hang of it.
A tip: as you switch arms, hands, kneeling positions - always keep in mind the direction the drill is spinning. Switch it up so that it's shooting the brick shrapnel away from you.
We're thrilled with the results - the portion on the left is before the scrubbing.

To keep the dust down as much as possible, I hung walls of dropcloth from ceiling to floor creating impressively thick dust clouds. I highly suggest this - along with well-fitting goggles and dust mask. Anyone familiar with this process knows I am not exaggerating here.

We also:
hung a new porch light (and allowed that hanging plant to barely hold onto life):


painted the doors (a darker blue than the back door... I like this one better); and removed the cover that used to be above the salleyway door:



Ta-Dah.