blog love

It's always great receiving comments here on the blog.  Recently, some nice things have come from additional sources, so we figured we'd give a shout'back - mostly because we appreciate them, but a little because narcissism is a completely natural way to feel.  For me. 

Yesterday the people at Modwalls' design blog featured Project Rowhouse and said some really nice things.  You can check it out here.  

Also, a few weeks ago Urban Discoveries Living interviewed us about the renovation for a House Tour feature on their site.  UDL is a sweet little blog about Baltimore city livin';

Charles & Hudson liked our trim work;

and our friends at Rehab or Die always have nice things to say - and they do some good work!

Thanks!

Happy Ugadi with Bevu Bella (Neem Jaggery) and Mangai Pachadi(Mango Jam)

Happy Ugadi with Bevu Bella (Neem Jaggery) and Mangai Pachadi(Mango Jam)

It was long long ago. So long ago when the whole of south India was known as The Deccan or The Carnatik. Many families from the Tamizh speaking areas moved on foot in quest of their fortune to the Mysore Samasthanam –the erstwhile Mysore Kingdom. With its patronage the families were firmly rooted, and spread their branches far and wide, thus giving rise to a new clan which can be named as the Tamizh Kannadigas.

My siblings and me, were born in the seventh generation of one such family and grew up on the waters of the Cauvery and moulded in the Kannada soil. Though our family retains Tamizh and its culture, it has also imbibed the culture and traditions of the Kannadigas, and I am proud of our hybrid culture.

Today is UGADI – the Kannada New Year’s Day. We celebrate it with great festivity with the Mavu (mango) and Bevu (Neem garlands) thoranas, Bevu Bella (Neem and Jaggery preparation), Mavinakai Chitranna (mango rice), Obattu, and Mangai Pachadi (mango relish).

Bevu Bella

Tender neem leaves, neem flowers and jaggery are pounded in a pestle and made into tiny balls which are swallowed as the first thing in the morning on the Ugadi day. This is to remind us that life has to be taken easy, though it is a mixture of sweet and bitter experiences. The leaf should be dry, otherwise it will become watery - like mine, and cannot be rolled into balls!!

Neem cools down the system and helps in healing it. It also destroys worms.

Mangai Pachadi

INGREDIENTS:
Raw Mango – 1
Jaggery – 1 cup
Salt – ¼ tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch
Cooking oil – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Red chillies – 2
Neem flowers ( dried or fresh ) – 1 tsp

METHOD:
1. Peel the mango and dice it into pieces. (Save the peel which can be used in chutneys or in mango rice).
2. Boil one cup of water in a pan and add the mango pieces.
3. Add salt and turmeric powder and cover with a lid.
4. Cook till the mango pieces are tender.
5. Add jaggery and cook till it becomes like jelly.
6. To seasons, heat oil and add mustard seeds.
7. When it splutters add the neem flowers.
8. Add the broken red chillies and add this seasoning to the mangai pachadi.

Savour the pachadi which is sweet , sour, salty, spicy and bitter- all at the same time. It can be relished with rice, dosas and chapattis.

Cornflakes Mixture and Roasted Chickpeas - Snacks in MW

Cornflakes Mixture

Cornflakes mixture is my attempt to make a low fat version of the popular South Indian snack, Mixture. Mixure predominantly contains the omapodi and boondi, apart from poha, fried gram dal, peanuts. There isn't much of a recipe here. Just throw in what ever you have and as the name suggests you get a mixture.

Ingredients

Cornflakes - 2 cups

Beaten rice(avil/poha) - 1 cup

Puffed rice(murmura/mottapori) - 2 cups

Split roasted gram dal (dalia/porikadala)- 1/2 cup

Roasted peanut - 1/2 cup

Raisins - hand ful

Curry leaves

Fennel seeds/saunf- 1 teaspoon

Hing - few shakes

Salt

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn

Kitchen king masala powder -1/2 tspn

Turmeric - a pinch

Oil- 2 table spoon

Method
Heat oil in a MW safe bowl for 30 secs. Add saunf,curry leaves and raisins. MW for 30 seconds or untill the raisins puff up. Add hing, salt, red chilli powder,masala powder and mw for another 30 seconds. Add cornflakes and beaten rice and mw for 2 minutes. Since these takes more time to get roasted compared with the other ingredients. So we add that first. Both would have roasted well by now. Care to be taken that it doesn't get burnt. Adjust the timings according to your oven. Add rest of the ingredients and toss well that the masala gets coated uniformly. MW for 3 minutes. Toss them once in between. Leave one minute standing time. It will turn crisp. Store in airtight container and enjoy with your tea/coffee.

Roasted Chickpeas
This is inspired by Madhuram's post on oven roasted chickpeas. I like her 'My Notes' section. Took a note of what is mentioned there. But instead of oven, I tried it in MW. I felt with microwave oven, time taken could be less. Though I wasn't sure of the results, decided to go ahead. I got crunchy, fat free snack and took only 12 minutes.

Ingredients

Cooked chickpeas - 1 cup

Olive oil - 1 tspn

Red chilly powder

Fennel seeds

Salt

Few shakes of dried oregano and hing
Toss all the ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl. MW for 12 minutes. Keep tossing for every 3 minutes or so. Allow 2 minutes of standing time. If you keep for longer time, it tends to go hard. Adjust accordingly. It stays crunchy on storage too.

I am sending these two snacks to MEC-Savoury Snacks hosted by Priya, an event started by Srivalli.

and the roasted chickpeas to MBP-Snacks hosted by Ashwini, which originated at SpiceCafe