I was intoduced to Pumpkin, through Cindrella's Carriage. Every Girl would have dreamed to have a Carriage, Glassy Shoes, and ofcourse Prince Charming. Anyway in reality we get all in little size or some compromise have to be done.  coming to the topic, i cook pumpkins only during Pongal, and thats Sundu Curry. After looking at all your Pumpkin Soup's, i could'nt resist more in trying it. here it is..

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My Recipe is so simple, i just sauted the pumpkin cubes in two spoons of oil and grinded them by adding little water. then i made them boil and added little pepper and salt.
Yes, you guessed it right, such a lazy recipe. no onion's, no cream, nothing. yet it was so delicious and iam going to try next time with little addition's.


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Here are some versatile sides of Pumpkin-

Courtesy-Wiki
Canadian and American:
When ripe, the pumpkin can be boiled, baked, steamed, or roasted. Often, it is made into pie, various kinds of which are a traditional staple of the Canadian and American Thanksgiving holiday.
Middle East:
Pumpkin is used for sweet dishes; a well-known sweet delicacy is called halawa yaqtin.
In South Asian countries such as India:
Pumpkin is cooked with butter, sugar, and spices in a dish called kadu ka halwa.
China:
The leaves of the pumpkin plant are consumed as a cooked vegetable or in soups.
Australia:
Pumpkin is often roasted in conjunction with other vegetables.
Japan:
Small pumpkins are served in savory dishes, including tempura.
Thailand:
Small pumpkins are steamed with custard inside and served as a dessert.
Italy:
Pumpkin can be used with cheeses as a savory stuffing for ravioli.
If you havent tried Pumpkin Soup, Give a shot this Winter.

When i was in hostel during my childhood, we will wait for Friday's Lunch as we will be served Mochai Kuzhambhu/curry. I used to put the Mochai's alone in a small box and take it back to school for my classmates. we loved eating mochai's a lot those days. I prepared along with Raw Banana, which certainly made a good pair to these mochai's.


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Now Iam happily sharing with you all my Spicy Tangy Mochai Curry. Actually the recipe was inspired from Fish Curry. So those who are craving for non-veg gravy, but still a veg, i can assure you this will please you definitely.

Ingredients:

  • Mochai-1 cup(soaked for 12 hours and pressure cooked up to 7 whistles)
  • Raw Banana- 1/2(cutted in round shape)
  • Onion-1(finely chopped)
  • Tomato-1(finely Chopped)

For Grinding:

yyu Ginger-1/2 inch size

yyu Garlic- 4 cloves

yyu Green Chili- 1

yyu Dhania/Corriander Seeds- 1tsp

yyu Grated Coconut- 3 tbsp

yyu Cumin- 1 tsp

Grind the above in to a thick coarse paste and keep it aside. the aroma it arises is definitely not forgettable.

Preparing Tamarind Water:

In Half a cup of warm water soak a small lemon sized tamarind for about 10 minutes. then add the following list of powder's to it.

yyu Turmeric Powder- 1/4 tsp

yyu Chilly Powder- 3 tsp's

yyu Pepper Powder- 2 tsp's

Mix all the above powders to the tamarind water and keep it aside.

For Tadka:

yyu Mustard-1 tsp

yyu Fenugreek seeds- 1/4 tsp

yyu Curry Leaves- 8

yyu Dry Red Chilli-3

yyu Oil -1/4 cup( you can reduce, if you are not using Raw Banana)

Method:

arrow_42 In a kadai, add oil and heat it, now add mustard and Wait till it crackles. now add fenugreek and let it turn brown in color, now add red chilli's, curry leaves and roast them.

arrow_42 Now add finely chopped onions and fry them till they get reduced in size and come along together. now add finely chopped tomatoes and fry well.

arrow_42 Now add turmeric powder a pinch and salt a pinch and fry them well.

arrow_42 Add the Raw Banana to it and mix well. let the raw banana cooked in slow flame for about 7-10 minutes.

arrow_42 Then add the Grounded Paste and Mochai and allow it to boil.

arrow_42 Now add the tamarind water and allow it to boil.

arrow_42 Add salt and water accordingly.



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Enjoy the curry along with Rice. It goes well with Curd Rice. Now this Curry is on its way to my-legume-love-affair hosted by Sra. the legume affair event started by Dear Susan. A real last minute entry.



                     deepam

Happy Deepavali to You and Your Family!

Light the Deepam's and so you enlight your Happiness, Prosperity....

Have a Sweet Deepavali...

After Having a Look at Bharathy's Karakuzhambhu-The Chettinaad way, I could'nt postpone more in trying it. Today we had this vathakuzhambhu/Karakuzhambhu for our lunch.

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Thank You Bharathy, for sharing the recipe, This really gave me confidence, that i can also cook better.
For Recipe you can check here.

Slight Changes i made to this recipe are, instead of adding Aachi Kuzhambhu Milagaai thool, i added sambhar powder which she suggested. Thou i had aachi kuzhabhu milagaai thool, i wanted to find the difference in taste with sambhar powder. Her idea of using sambhar powder for Poriyal is working a lot for me. and now for vathakuzhambhu, it works still more..and i added very little tamarind, as we prefer in that way.

If you have tasted Grand sweets vathakuzhambhu, it was much of like that. dont miss it up.

For this winter season, you can prepare this Vathakuzhambhu, to warm up you.

Fried Egg with Onions / Poricha Muttai Poriyal:
Egg Curry/ Muttai Kuzhambhu:
Spicy Egg Curry/ Muttai Thokku:

Simple Boiled Egg's/ Vegavaitha Muttai:
The above dishes are tried by my hubby, when he was managing alone at Paris.
Before photographing these plates, sure he should have scolded me, because i was torturing him to photograph his dishes.
Hope i should get headache once in a week atleast, to make him cook....

I had two bunch of corriander leaves, and as the herb mania-corriander event, hosted by siri, is ending today, i prepared this corriander/kothamalli thokku yesterday for dinner, to serve along with my Rava idli's. It was so tasty, with little tanginess, worth of trying it. It suit's best with Idli, Dosa. I got this recipe from Aval Vikatan's supplement- 30 Thokku Varieties.

Kothamalli / Corriander Leaves

Ingredients:

Corriander Leaves - 2 bunch(4 cups)
Round Red Chilli - 5 (this will be of medium spice)
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 3 tsp
Mustard - 1/4 spoon
Tamarind - a small lemon size / or a pinch of tamarind

Kothamalli Thokku

Method:

yyu Wash the Corrainder Leaves.

yyu In a pan, heat a spoon of oil, add the red chilli, fenugreek and roast them till they get croasted. now add asafoetida powder, roasted fenugreek and red chilli's to the mixer grinder.

yyu Add the washed corriader leaves, tamarind, salt and 1/4 cup water to the mixer grinder and grind them along with dry red chilli's fenugreek seeds and asafoetida powder very smoothly.

yyu Now in the Kadaai or Thick Bottomed pan heat the remaining oil, add mustard, when it cracks, add the grinded paste and let it boil for 5 minutes.

yyu After that reduce the flame and stir them till they start sticking to pan. it should go dark green in colour, thats the end point.

It should be like our home ground mehendi mix. Refer the pic above.

Note:
i used just 3 red chilli's in place of 10 chilli's, as we don't prefer very spicy thokku.

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Serve with Hot Idli's. I served it with Rava Idli's.

This corriander chutney is on its way to Herb Mania created by Dee, now hosted by Siri.

Pondicherry is my Home Town. I always feel that no where in India could be even compared to Pondicherry. It's really a French Flavoured Town, with beautifull french architect houses, street's, statues and etc., You can reach to the other end of the town with a maximum of 30 minutes, even thru bi-cycle if you are riding little fast. It also have a name of bi-cycle town.


I was missing my camera for the past 3 month's, since it flewed away with my hubby to France. Just wanted to share some French beauties with you all.


"When the scene is beautifull.. there should not be any dialogues".. (To read Tamil Dialogues between Nature..click here)
Here comes the beautifull scenes...


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Hope you all enjoyed these beautie's..