Doskaya Pachadi(yellow cucumber chutney )

I know I made a resolution and it seems like I have forgotten about it. Per my resolution, I should have written 6 posts but it's just 3.

Here comes one more recipe from Andhra - Dosakayya Pachadi. Dosakayya (yellow cucumber or lemon cucumber) comes from the family of cucumber and tastes somewhat like cucumber and musk melon.

Ingredients - 

1 small Dosakayya (cut into cubes)

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Urad Dal

2 dry red chilli

Curry leaves

5-6 cloves garlic

1 tsp oil(preferably mustard oil)

Hing(asafoetida)

1 tsp tamarind paste 

Heat oil in the pan, add the tadka stuff - mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing, urad dal and let it crackle. Add garlic, curry leaves, red chilli. Once they are done and add Dosakayya cubes and sauté then for 5 min. Cool the mixture, add tamarind paste and grind to make fine paste.

Dosakayya pachadi goes well with rice. 

What else you guys have made with Dosakayya ?

Mushroom sabji

I am not sure when I started loving mushrooms but these days they are one of my favorite among veg. Last week my cousin has visited us and I asked him if he likes mushroom ki sabji. He said he likes mushroom in toppings and do not know how it's sabji will taste, so I decided to make it. Just when I had started my daughter woke up and we were already late for lunch so the only option I left with was asking my cousin to make it and he made his first sabji under my guidance ;)

Ingredients

1 packet button mushroom sliced

1 medium size onion

1 medium size tomato

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

1/2 tsp Corriander powder

1/2 tsp to 1 tsp red chilli powder (per taste)

Pinch of turmeric powder

Salt 

Oil

Pinch of cumin seeds / cumin powder

Corriander to garnish

1. Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds

2. Add finely chopped onions and ginger garlic paste and fry till it runs red.

3. Add coriander powder, red chill powder, turmeric and salt, mix it well and add finely chopped tomatoes

4. Once the tomatoes start leaving oil , add mushrooms and let it cook for minimum 5 mins. If you want semi gravy, then small amount of water can be added(I generally avoid it as it tastes best without water)

5. Once the mushrooms are cooked, garnish it with Corriander leaves.

My cousin loved this mushroom sabji :) 

This gravy recipe I use for other veggies as well like - baby corn, aloo - gobi, etc and to whatever new veggies I want to try but not sure of how to make it. Also, I add capsicum some time to this sabji.

Dal in Konkani style

Once when I was surfing through the channels(usually I watch star plus serials, movies or music channels), I came across one of the show - Mummy ka magic on Food Food channel and watched the recipe that was shown. I found it very simple and easy to try, though it's another story that I did not actually try it out. But surely I got addicted to this channel :D 

These days I am full time mom and hence, I am using some time to try out with my culinary skills :) and yesterday when I again stopped at Food Food channel, it was showing recipe for toor dal in Konkani style in the show 'Ma ki dal'. Looking at the ingredients, I felt I am surely going to love this dal and tried it today. You know what even my hubby liked it a lot. So, the recipe is as follows - 

Ingredients

1 cup boiled toor(arahal) daal

2 tsp oil

4-5 thinly sliced garlic

1 small tomato finely chopped

1/4 tsp cumin powder(jeera powder)

1/4 tsp black pepper power

Chilli powder as per taste 

 Turmeric

Salt

1 tsp Tamarind paste

-Heat oil in a pan, add garlic and fry till it turns brown

- add tomatoes and fry it till it cooks

- Add cumin powder, black pepper powder, turmeric powder , chilli powder, salt and mix it well.

- Add cooked dal , water and tamarind paste and simmer it for 5 min

I had this dal with rice and it tastes very nice :)

Methi Moong Dal Subzi - Tribute to Tarla Dalal

RIP Tarla Dalal - Today while browsing through the news, came across news on Tarla Dalal's death. Hence wanted to do a post on the recipe learnt from her. I had modified this recipe per my taste and ingredients available at home during that time and noting the same here.

Ingredients -
1/2 cup Yellow moong dal soaked 30 mins
1 cup Kasturi Methi(Original one was made from fresh methi)
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 small onion - Chopped
4 cloves garlic - grated
1 green chilli - Chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp flax seeds powder (used instead of Besan)
2 tsp Oil
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil and add cumin seeds. Once cumin seeds crackle, add onion, garlic, green chillies and sauté them.
2. Add Kasturi methi and sauté it nicely
3. Add turmeric powder and salt and soaked moong dal and stir
4. Add 2 cups water and bring it to boil.
5. Add flax seeds powder and simmer it till moong dal is cooked.

Had this with rotis and left over as snack in the evening :)

Quick Mushroom Soup

Soups are my all time favorites..I remember how I used to enjoy hot and spicy tomato soups made my mummy during cold winter nights .. I always relished on having soups at restaurants and Knor ready to make soups. Whenever I had planned to make soup at home, I was short of one or two main ingredients and hence, always discarded the idea. Finally I came across this soup recipe by Tarla Dalal - http://www.tarladalal.com/Quick-Mushroom-Soup-1723r and looking at recipe I knew I have to try it.

I am noting down the recipe I tried which is slight modification of original recipe.

Ingredients for 2 servings

4 medium sized button mushroom - finely chopped

1/2 onion finely chopped

1/4 capsicum finely chopped

Salted butter

1/2 cup milk

Salt & pepper as per taste

1. Boil 1 cup water along with milk.

2. Heat butter and sauté onions, mushrooms and capsicum till onions turns pink.

3. Add boiling milk + water mixture and simmer it till the required thickness has formed. Add salt & pepper.

My Fav Author - Sophie Kinsella

I cannot describe myself as an avid reader, but can definitely say that I love to read stuff that interests me like Fiction novels, blogs, short stories, magazines are to name few. If I love the novel in hand then definitely I will get time to read and finish it unless I would not be able to sleep 😜 else it would be lying in my shelf and I would be reading 2-3 pages once a while.

I am of the type who loves the article(relationship, life & style, health , etc) in extra paper in the newspaper more than the news articles. 

Coming to the point, I wanted to write this blog on my favorite author these days - Sophie Kinsella. I came across Sophie's  books while browsing through the fiction shelf of public library. Then I had just heard of Shopaloholic series but never read one. Because of short of time, I just picked one without checking much - Shopaloholic & sister. And since then got addicted to Sophie's writing whether it's Becky Bloomwood or Samantha or Lara. I read her almost all books that I got hold of in library. These days I have started with the novels written under the name - Madeleine Wickham and hope I enjoy reading those too.

East Coast Getaway - New York & Niagara Falls

Its been more than a year [Memorial Day Weekend - 2012] since we went to New York & Niagara falls.. I wanted to blog on the trip since long but lazy part of me was stopping me with one or the other excuse, One of them being I don't have the pics in my laptop.. Now, I have decided to blog the content first and then keep on updating with the pics.. So, below is the itinerary from our trip..

Day 1 - Reached New York, Our friend has picked up from airport and we headed straight to Brooklyn Bridge State park and followed by walk on the bridge, coffee & my fav paneni at starbucks.. Followed by Indian Lunch at Bombay Masala.. Then we headed to take the ferry for Statue of Liberty & Elise Island.. went to Financial District passing NYSE .. Bull, WTC, Evening was spent at Times Square.. Dinner was roadside Biryani :)

Day 2 - Went to Roosevelt Island.. took a ropeway from and to the Roosevelt island along Queensboro Bridge... Then we went to Manhattan and entered the Central Park to realize that vehicles are banned inside because of Long weekend. Had Thai Lunch and headed towards New Jersey for Pole Position Raceway Jersey City and I was last in the race while Hubby dear was first :)

Again headed towards the times square as we had not been to Empire State Building.. Special tickets made our life easy as we had to skip the long queue and got the direct entrance..

Day 3 - Took a flight to Niagara.. Rented a car and went to Niagara Falls National Park.. Headed straight for the Maid of the Mist ferry.. followed by Cave of the winds.. enjoyed a lot at cave of winds.. followed by Lunch and spent some time near Horse Shoe Point.

Day 4 - It was time for us to go back to San Jose but spent the time with friends - exploring Buffalo University followed by Lunch at Duffs and took our flight back..

Vizag & Araku Valley

My friend has recently visited us for 3 days and below was our travel itinerary for 2 days with the last day spent at home relaxing..

Rishikonda Beach

Day 1 - We headed straight to Rishikonda Beach[ I have already blogged here about the beach] spent the evening doing photo shots, enjoying water.. 

Around 6 o clock we took an auto and headed towards Kailashgiri.. This time we thought of taking a ropeway to the hill and it was awesome ride with the night views of RK Beach and Vizag city.  

After walking around the hills and taking some pics at Shiva Parvati idol we headed for dinner at Daspalla, Jagdamba Center.

Araku Valley from view point

Day 2 - Our day started early with the breakfast at home and journey towards Arakku Valley.. We had hired a cab for this day.  After starting, our first stopover was at Coffee Plantation on the way to Araku valley view point. There were lots of vendor selling fresh coffee powder and spices.. We had coffee there, though skipped the hot pakodas :) 
Next stop was Araku valley view point - we got some very beautiful clicks of the valley from here.
We headed to Araku and had light snacks at Coffee House which is newly built in front of the Tribal Museum. 

Araku Valley

Next destination was Araku Tribal Museum which takes us through the life of Tribals in the area.. Its nice one although I dont have any pics from there as photography is not allowed :(

Limestone formation inside the caves

Just outside the museum there was stall and a hut were they were selling Bamboo chicken and how can we miss them..
Next was our stop for Lunch in a village near Borra Caves - which has lots of huts serving hot meals :) We were late for the Lunch - 3 pm but the food was nice. After having our food, we headed towards the last destination of the day - Borra Caves [ Borra = Hole in Oriya ] .. This cave has lot of Limestone formation [& Bats inside]. There are few waterfalls near the cave but we skipped them as we were exhausted for the day..

More pics from Borra Caves

Limestone formation - Looks like melted wax

Sun light through the Borra

Day out at Rishikonda beach...

Vast Bay of Bengal at Rishikonda Beach

On a Sunny afternoon in December, we had made a plan for outing, for which beach was a perfect day out destination. Also, it was one month since we moved to Vizag, India and surprisingly had not been to beach...


After having our lunch at Sea Inn, a small hut with delicious non-veg delicacies near Rishikonda Beach, we headed towards the beach.

To our surprise, normally calm and deserted beach was so crowded because of Sunday in Karthik. I came to know then that the Karthik month [eighth month of Lunar calendar which Hindus follow] is also Picnic time :)

We were welcomed by small merry go round, lots of corn stalls, and other vendors selling street food. Again this was not expected as last time when I have been to this place [ which was before 2 yrs], it was always calm and serene and not at all commercialized.

While walking on the beach, we went on the other side which is usually less crowded. This side of beach is rocky and not safe for swimming but a nice place to enjoy the walk along side beach. We spotted many of the below blue jelly fishes along the coast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpita_porpita

A movie @ Varun Beach Inox was a refreshing end to our wonderful day :)

PS- I am not good at taking pictures all the above pics are taken by my Husband...