Geetha
-
Posts
201 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Geetha
-
-
There are somany recipes with besan or chick pea flour ( Ithink)
1. Poli ( sweet paratha) stuffed with semi cooked chick peas mashed to perfection on low heat with ghee lots, with cardomom grind with sugar, and jaggery syrup.
2. Mysoorpa is something like besan mithai, I think, It is made with ghee besan flour and sugar, will need a lot of roasing like a halwa on low flame though.
These are two of my favoutite .... sweets. So much that I wouldn't want to call them sweets but include them to my savoury favourite list.
-
My self I am an avid fan of bagels for err mornings well I 've not known bagels before but since I got here in NY I've never stopped liking it for most of my morning breakfasts. FAsts are a fascination to me and ever since I've tried to come up with a reason to do it and always ended being called names by any number of friends and people including my parents. Obviously I've not grown up in a fasting friendly environment .. what are the reasons seems to elude me but when ever I speak of fasting others are there rolling their sleeves to convince me not to, may be because I looked t osome very undernourished or whatever, they undertook personal reaponsibility for brainwashing me against it. Till today I have never had faith on not-fasting attitudes.
But also I seem underequipped to answer all above queries, so I will ask my humble passive presence in here.. never really used to do a fast but I have heard from many others through word of mouth to fast is to... many give up non-veg in India for a fast. So it is really a varied and very personal fact and difficult to zero in on.
I'd love add my snippets if I get to know about the exact time when fasts are observed for diwali I know it is not on the day of diwali though, it must be before it. mmm
On a personal note here I am only used to eating fruits on day of breaking fasts.
-
Think I must excuse myself. I had a feeling it must be a fast then I turned to think it wasn't because there was not a mention of it in he thread.. I know why there is no mention of it I think.
Pan And thank you for clarifying.. I will wait for a better thread and appropriate moment time and place
Love
-
In addition to it I would like to add the rice preparation to go with it
http://bawarchi.com/cookbook/kashmir1.html
I would also like to add mixed nuts like pistachio, almond, walnut, and raisin. Among fruits that get added to kasmiri pulao are chiefly, pineapple apples grapes..
Choose your favourit fruits I'd rather say or use the frozed fruits from the store bought ones stowed away in your fridge for ages 
Great I need to try this one here
YEs I have eaten it but not made it yet but it seems to me a promising recipe. -
May be a good performance of incorporating of these flavours is by placing the tava or pan of the ingredients in side of a charcoal oven from time to time shifting the pieces of lamb to coat well and smoke too.
I think is that to use a patient method of stoking this piece of meat every 5 to 10 minutes, according to the temperature of the charcoals in the grill too, would greatly flvour the meat inside.
-
http://www.curryhouse.co.uk/catw/brent8.htm
A nice way form is acheived by this recipe and is a good blend of house cooking, instead if your cooking is on charcoal grill instead of stove top, it might give the resulting smoky
flavours too. -
I haven't made a breakfast for a long time now since no wants it in my house
may be I would like to serve rice-lentils pancakes called dosas by some, and other south indians called them ada or uthappams all depending the ratio of rice and lentils in them, sprinkled with lots of onions, saute-ed or browned either on side separately or added along with the dosas during its preparation.There are other preparations like fried lentils called vadas by some others may also call them doughnuts, but it is on heavier side so I'd prefer to avoid them..
Now for the side dishes
so many ingredients are there to play here with that they are really many who would laugh at my sheer tipsy------feeling..Okay I used to have a crazy liking for peanut chutneys with all of these above and especially with rice cakes
idlies.., there are also other things like sambar which is a soup of lentils and spices with some haphazard selection of vegetables like carrot or raw mango thrown in to make a match of distinct flavours of the soup with vegetables. Many first time lovers of Sambar are known to like to drink it too. And there are a veriety of chutney you can make coconut is my favourite it goes with any other preparation like uthappam, dosas or idlies or vadas too. yummOkay one think that even prompted me to make this post was the uppama made of couscous or a form of what Indians call rava. It goes well with all of the above side dishes of chutney and sambar too.
This sums the sumptuous break-fast that used to be made at my home in India and still is
-
Would any of you like to comment on the flavours I've mentioned and how you develop it in one of your dishes. Any shared remedies please.. Suvir, Episure, I've not known you two other wise but seems like you are wise guys here ..
Anyone who knows of it let me know, I would like to know how to develop the deep pleasant smoked taste of smoked pepercorns into the lamb that we have described here to you.. anyhow.
edit: any of your well known implements or tools to do the work here, please add those either.
-
I mind if I may add in here, if you are having a sit-in version I'd like t oadd other dishes but if well it is more like a buffet where there are so many choices that people really do a lot of pick and choose at the same time like to have a lot of variety, visual delights included, then there can be an easier solution to you problem of inventing a good list for dining.
I'm suggesting a lot of south india like side of sets of dishes, chutney and idlies are more convenient to prepare, because chutneys are prepared by us here in US without much techniques much like dofferent pestos but with a lot of other flavours from India, you name it there are so many individualistic flavours in chutney. Like the peanut chutney or coconut chutney, coriander chutney.. a lot of others are there.. all of these are dippings, if you will, for our idlies (mini or medium sized).
Best part is of storage, if you can prepare them a day in advance of the event you can keep all of your chutney in cold storage, and they will keep fresh for the day if you add not tempering with hot oil to them, also idlies can be prepared in advance for the day and stored cold.
Just before the party all you need do is steam idlies and keep the chutneys out of cold storage to come to semi-room temp or cool.
More over the Indian dishes you described are all of North India these are more labour intensive than the dishes I've described here.
Ofcourse to a practiced Indian cooks all will seem like a flourish of hand and easy, but for really newcomers it is frazzling to match all the spices together, I do understand it there.
But I have enlisted those dishes only that are easy for any level of cook with ingredients on hand.
-
I remember having it some time in some dish and also as a medicine but I chose to wipe out its memory entirely, so I don't have it readily. I think I had to eat it when I got one of those mumps or something anyway I've forgotten all about it but I can't bear to eat it now..
I can manage to eat karela though so I respect the acquired tastes of my Bengali friends who have put upon this brave frontier to adopt as usual customs to people of Indian subcontinent.. hmm
Can't say no to any one who'd let me try a neem based dish though I'd love to try it really..
-
I like it too much I want to try out authentic parisi
food now..Geetha
-
I know of one thing I like to say about this post above that it is initiated to clear any misconceptions of my intensions, I did not have any political thing on mind here. I've merrely stated that it is the wish of an individual to describe the dish as he wishes to and not to oppose other tradions that use the same in a revered manner different to them.
Got that
Please do not interpret this in any other fashion.
Geetha
-
Okay for you Monica I'm giving it ..
I know I'm trying to shake off someone trying to help me here (WARNIG to people of other cultures there might be a culturally differing opinion take it with salt only ;>)
Okay this is from someone who has tasted through me (just to be very clear) I don't know that other some one trying to help us..
So ther goes: This lamb preparation is similar to the taste after eating madras lamb I think or rather the Lamb I prepare at my home using the garam masala of my MIL from chennai..
I don't know its contents (can't ask my MIL she will send it all the way here to US nad not give me recipe ;) )
Okay it has this predominan flavour of smoked flavour of peppercorns roasted to perfection allmost to the point of it becoming amber red and smokes coming from its stokes and kept into your nostrils(ayurved remedy for closed nostrils of cold for children), and it goes deep to you lungs and does a warming and te warmth of this cleanses you too from inside. It is almost like a medicine but also tasted good then too.
Okay are you you thinking how will I make it then I think you will need to have something like the KAngri too for the smoking part in on coals lighting up for flavouring the smoking of the LAmb placed on it..
If KAngri is a revered part of kashmiris and some one doesn't like this use please forgive my bring it up but it is up to an individual to use it which ever way they seem agreeable to their life style and no one should really oppose their views then. I feel free oppose those who oppose for their reasons only
Thanks
-
http://www.kanger.crosswinds.net/kangri.html
I've found this interesting and very unsettling for other current news nature that it depicts..
I have a feeling I have a taste of this dish in my mind but I don't feel right up to it now.. I am home sick I've never been to see Kashmir. But I've a strong urge to to so now.. what with the songs of fiza playing in my mind now..
I will post later about this dish if it does clarify in my imagination otherwise I will let other culinary experts make their stands on this.
Love
-
Sound a cool dish some would like to know about it in my forum Would anyone like to post any details as we go..
Thanks
Geetha
edited: You can see the Query to it in my creativechore groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/creativechore/message/2
Thanks
-
How about trial Indian cuisine like cutlets of vegetables with a hint of potatoes all steamed together.. recipe follows with your likingthe idea of course, how about steamed rice-lentil cakes called idlies, with chutneys galore from indian cooking chest of recipes.. ;> glad to help anytime you need it.
Regards
Geetha
I thought it would be better to give you the cutlet site so might be able to decide if you want it or not 
http://appetizer.allrecipes.com/az/71245.asp -
I have seen the term Tadka used to discribe a mixture of onions and spices added at the end of a dish. I've also seen it called tempering. Is it the same?
So..... what is it, what is the significance, are there some ingredients always included? Is it just a way to add more flavor at the end?
Hi Nessa,The tarka technique is something very special and unique to the cooking of India(Pakistan and Bangladesh too). In different languages and places it is also known as baghaar, chownk, phoron, sambhara, and talche to name a few. It is sometimes refered to as tempering.
It is the act of frying whole spices and other ingredients like garlic, ginger etc. in hot oil or ghee.
When onions are added after the spice seeds and cooked until they carmelize you then have a combination of techniques tarka and bhunao. Bhuna is a sort of slow pan roasting-browning with oil or without. Thats what it takes to brown the onions.
It's an important and often crucial technique in Indian cooking but does have counterparts elsewhere. Madhur Jaffrey refers to the cooking of garlic and onions in oil in many Italian dishes as their version of a tarka, for example. The basic idea of a tarka is that it flavors the oil or ghee and thus, flavors the dish in a way that can't be duplicated by simply putting the spices (or whatever) in a pot of dal or stew or something else (Edward also quite rightly pointed out that "this changes the flavor of the spices themselves"). Similarly, so many Italian dishes wouldn't taste the same if you put the tomatoes in right away and added wine, rather than starting by frying some fragrant ingredients in olive oil.I've been through this thread many times that set me think of a minor dirrerence in opinion that classical cooking folks hold here opposing the state ments that all is tadka literally put..
But I differ here to state that tadka is merely spices like mustart jeera and clove cardamon .. these on addition to hot oil or ghee comprise a tadka and similarly if you add teragon or oregano too would really be a same one if it is dry.
On the other hand if you add the tadka with semi-dried like raisins and fresh ingredients of basil ( added later to tomatoes), or if you'd add garlic into oil before starting your dish preparation, you'd call it bhunao then which is also called browning to release a certain flavour to full body of that vegetable or fruit to the dish in that case..
So to call tadka in terms of dried spices would be right in the Indian context and the later addition into the heated oil other co-flavouring like agents like onions or garlic singly, not together, to infuse their flavour only would be called bhunao but not tadka really
I know things get fascinating here that there a really a build up of levels of flavours that makes its taste unique.. as Edward also has mentioned
Thank you Pan for adding another perspective that is also very true about other cultures cooking with tadka and bhunao though it is unique to them but then when has any one really been unique in the sense it is all borrowed God know's when where or how..
I am suprised it has to be bengali style of cooking that is so very detailed and erudite that helps to know this art in a very scientific and practical perspectie all in one .. there..
-
I came in after signing out and having my deserved cup of tea just to add my bit here so I may be shedding alittle more light here on tadka don't want you to think it is my prerogative it is more of a science to me right now and also a source of flavourful delight and many memories .. there isa song in tamil in movie minsara kanavu and translated in to hindi into.. sapnay, this is a piece of the lyric saying vaguely that is nothing to match the smell of tadka for a hungry person..
Any way that is another thing.. I know that it is customary to either add tadka to beginning only in case of dry porial or sabji's, and and at the end of the preparation in case of koorai(in my language of telegu) or curry as is usually the case, but also in two cases at both times, in case rasam since I learnt from my MIL.. (well not really I just mix spice mixture into rasam before boiling it to foam and then use same powder to tadka mix it) that is how she makes it and it is divine. Anothercase of two time use is if only your partner is a fan of end tadka and insists on it, if I prep a chicken curry insia style then I add the curry spice to give the full curry body the taste of distict spice so I add to semi-heated oil that helps disperse the spice flavour, then in the end I also add the tadka that my partner always wants to since his mom makes it like that
So I end up making both ways to his and my liking..
I can't stop to describe it because it is so good really and so many ways to do it but at the same time I urge all of you there to experiment and do your findings and taste likings.In the end
I'd like to say the one 
thing that is to add in the beginning means to use in a porial or dry dish or stir fry which means that the spices at the end of the dish's prep will still be in pristin form of crispyness intact because you will use a moderate amount of water for cooking of the dish like a spinach porial..But if you intend it to be soaky spiced form too as many don't mind the satate of spices.. it doesn't bother them so they may add water or do what ever they wish with it to cook it..
A cooked in a water or steamed manner dish would mean to add tadka at last so as the crispyness of spices and their aroma remains intact in the end product is late tadka methos..
hope it wasn't fuzzy any blurring or marring of your interes in tadka oops sorry really -
I thank Monica for bringingthis up, buttermilk is really so much of versatile ingredient I didn't so much as realize it 's use in upamma, now I know buttermilk has no limits.. ofcourse it is nice to have a cultured one of your own, I guess since we all are together for a while we might manage to start up a culture too, I guess a good lot of culture comes from a careful selection and ultimately is passed on to others.. rather difficult to duplicate home.
-
however new you are , are you permitted to take up a smitten topic once again I hope to try in my bit here..
I love herbal teas of
edited: http://www.traditionalmedicinals.com, and www.yogitea.com
I've tried bedtime tea and winter tea from yogitea,gives me a really good feeling of relaxation etc. though it was my first time trial here into herbal.
Other one s are lipton any green or black, and taj mahal from india(hope you've had a chance to make the chai version of this variety)
Since tajmahal teas are black and strong may be they should be cobrewed with water mixed with milk and may be cardomom sugar to taste..
edited to add the correct web addresses
-
oops not uppama, although it would be like then too no doubt buttermilk is a really versatile one there it fits almost all descriptions for an additive , but I meant I used it as a side or rather like a chutney to touch with my dry uppama it tastes delicious as a combination I don't know why it soes but it does. I call it fondly my curd chutney..
edit : okay I think no one mistook my answer you 're all right
-
I know that buttermilk here is different but it is also because it is industrially cultured since the culture must be different from home made ones as is ususlly the case the buttermilk or dilute curd is so different. Although this answer doesn't satisfy my interest either, since I'd be really happy to prepare my own culture.. I saw a feature on TV the other day telling about how the buttermilk culture is preserved and maintained to a high degree of quality they also adviced us not to prepare it at home sincethe rigorous monitoring wouldn't be possible .. well they had definitely fallen of deaf ears..
I still want to make it at home I know there s a definite satisfaction to it and also you will have less acidic one at home.
-
I do like lassi's sweetened and otherwise salty too, but there is one good recipe I can hardly call it that too but it works fine.. for idlis only since I've been too satisfied with this combination I've never gone any bit further:
okay its dilute the regular butermilk a little bit kindof water runny.., then add salt to i, then the tadka of mustard urad dal and curry leaves, you'll be really surprised how well it goes with idli or idli uppama (oops not here right!) any way it is uppama made of idlies
and pre-seasoned with tadka ofcourse of zeera,mustard and green chillies.. -
Moka is some what similar to the rustic cup I guess, but I will be upgrading to a better machinery sooner or later..
I will keep options open here though, I liked the filter method( or percolation) at home so I think ..
Will be a hard one to decide, you see why I stick to one moka comfort I have already..
Kola-kattai
in India: Cooking & Baking
Posted
Only those who haven't tasted see this: Kola-kattai is the favourite of us little kids from back home when we used to ask of Lord Ganeshs favours by offering his sweet at his (birthday) on Ganesh chathurty coming on saturday this week.
Please tell me all other recipes there are.. I want Ganesh ji to know I care now.. and give him his best sweet in all its other variations too. Guess he will be happy then..