Happy Diwali!

Happy Diwali!

What is happening in my world!

The past month was a very busy one, with guests coming in from different places. First i had my hubby's high school friends for a get together, then my close friend and her husband visiting California South to North and then our friends from Germany for 10 days. Inbetween this there was Navarathri and for the first time i kept Golu, a surprise baby shower had to be organized and attend some new born baby functions. All in all i enjoyed every bit of what i did, be it alone or together with family or friends. I cooked a few dishes and took my guests to various ethinic resturants too.

A few pictures from the places around the bay i took my guests and my golu:

First Golu.

Old Faithful Geyser, Calistoga.

Grapes hanging in Napa Vineyards.

Tallest Redwood tree in Big Basin State Park(329 ft).

Ariel view of bay area atop Mt.Diablo.

Carmel-by-sea.

Promise to you all with some recipes soon.

Microwave Kaju Halwa

This is a sweet which is made by me atleast once a month. My husband likes this better than the kathlis available at the famous Grand Sweets and Snacks, Chennai. I came across this in Mallika Badrinath's Microwave recipes under Kaju Kathli. Since it looked very easy, i gave a shot at it and found out it was easy to make and tasted very much like the tradional one.It does not take a lot of ghee/butter when cooked in microwave. When i make this, i do not allow it to get to the Kathli stage, but take it out few minutes before it when it is halwa form.

Recipe:-

Cashewnuts - 2 Cup
Sugar or Powdered - 2 Cup
Milk - 4 Tsp
Butter/Ghee - 2 Tsp
Cardamom Powder - 1 Tsp

Method :-

~ Soak cashewnuts for 3-4 hours.
~ Powder Sugar first in a mixie/blender, if using regular sugar.
~ Grind Cashewnuts, sugar, milk, ghee/butter to a liquid consistency.
~ Transfer to a microwave safe bowl, preferably a glass one(you can see what is happening).
~ Microwave for 14-18 minutes with 4 minute interval. Mix the liquid every 4 minutes.
~ Add cardamom powder after 12 minutes, mix well.
~ After 12 minutes, you may want to reduce the interval to check for the desired consistency.


Notes :
~ It took me 18 minutes to get to the halwa stage. I would not say my microwave is powerful(it comes with the apartment and does not revolve).
~ If left for too long, it gets burnt, so be careful after 12 minutes.
~ Instead of sugar, condensed milk can be used. For one cup of cashewnuts, 3/4 of condensed milk is used.
~ My photos are not great, got to work on it :-)

Rosemary Infused Olive Oil

Olive oil is considered an important ingredient in Italian cooking. So also the herb Rosemary. Olive oil is very good for health when consumed raw. Olive oil loses its properties once the oil is heated to a certain temperature for deep frying, tempering etc. Olive oil's monounstaturated fat is very good for health when compared to other oils like vegetable oil, corn oil etc.

Infusing Rosemary in Olive oil caught my attention when i saw one of Paula Deen's episode in Food network. Unfortnately i saw the ending of the show when she spoke of infusing rosemary into olive oil which i could not locate in the www.foodnetwork.com. When i did a search about this i found out that i can infuse other herbs like basil, tyhme, oregano, clintaro etc and spices like caradmom, cinnamon, cumin etc.


Infusing is very very simple to do. All you need is Olive oil, herbs and a container to store them.

Procedure for Infusing :

Place few springs of rosemary in the container and pour olive oil till the rosemary is soaked. Leave it aside for 2 -3 weeks and enjoy them in your salads, sandwitches etc.

Notes : Olive oil can be heated in medium heat and poured over the rosemary springs for few weeks before using them.

Baby idlis in sambar

Mini idlis or kutti idlis or as i call them baby idlis floating in sambar are very popular in lot of south indian resturants. They are called "14 Idlis". Their entry was late, since i never had them as a child like many children do so now. Maybe my liking towards idli would be better if i had these babies eariler than now.I think they are called mini idlis and not baby idlis, because it is not justified to be called "Baby" with its entry so late. We grow from babies to adults or small people to bigger peope ;-)(samma kadi - rite). Anyways, these idlis are best served afloat in sambar(maybe rasam too, like rasam vada) along with chuntneys. Personally both my husband and i are not great fans of idlis/dosas and i make them say once in 3-4 months. This gap makes us relish these to a great extent.

Receipe :

Rice - 2 cups
Urad Dhal - 1/2 cup
Methi seeds - 1 tsp.
Salt as per taste.

Soak the above separately and grind the rice first and dhall later. Mix them and ferment it overnite. Use kutti idli stand to make these baby idlis. When hot put it in sambar and enjoy with chutney.

Checkout foodies hopes idli cocktail http://foodieshope.blogspot.com/2006/08/idli-fair-besan-laddu-for-ganesha.html

This is my entry for Weekend Breakfast Blogging hosted by Pavani of CooksHideout.

Some pictures from San Diego Wildlife Park

Merkeets playing

I am feeding a Lorikeet

Asian Elephants from India.

In the Lion Camp. We heard the lion roar couple of times, it was amazing, guess she was it a nice mood to allow us to click some great pics.

From the train ride, we saw few gorillas.

African Elephants. All african elephants have trunks.

Off to LA/San Diego

It is going to be a hectic trip for us. Driving to LA in couple of hours, stay there for the nite and reach San Diego sometime in the morning. Return back by Sunday nite. Oh, lot of time on the road, but just thought we would see off my inlaws who are leaving in few days.

So long.....