Last year, when we had new neighbors move in and we had a get together, we had a chance to taste Gatte Ki Subzi. At first, I was wondering what vegetable could be in that gravy till I found out it was not a vegetable at all, but a dumpling made of gram flour(besan/chick pea flour/garbanzo bean flour). This is quite easy to prepare, takes about 15-20 minutes and guess what, you do not need any vegetable to make this gravy!

This recipe is adapted from my neighbor, from here and here.

Ingredients: (Serves-2)

For the Gattes:

Gram flour – 1 cup
Salt- to taste
Yogurt- 1 tbsp
Red chili powder- 3/4 tsp
Coriander seed powder- 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala powder- 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1 pinch
Oil- few drops
Water- just enough to knead

For the sauce:

Thick Yogurt (preferably sour)-1 cup
Water- 1 cup
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Whole red chilies- 3
Red chili powder- 3/4 tsp
Gram flour(Besan)- 3/4 cup
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Oil- 1 tsp

Method:

To make the Gattes:

Add salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, coriander seed powder to the gram flour and mix well. Add yogurt and water and knead the gram flour to a thick and firm dough.

Take a lemon size ball of the dough, using your palms and fingers, elongate it to a thin, long, cylindrical rod. Repeat the same for the remaining dough.

Boil about 3 cups of water (it should be bubbling), add a drop of oil and carefully drop the gattes(cylindrical rods) into the boiling water. Once the gattes are cooked, they will float on top (5-6 minutes). Adding oil will prevent them from sticking to each other. Remove the gattes from the water, drain on a paper towel. Either use them as whole or chop the gattes to 1″ pieces.

Making the sauce:

Whisk yogurt and water together, then add turmeric powder, salt and gram flour and whisk well to avoid any lumps.

Heat oil in a saucepan and add cumin seeds, red chilies and red chili powder. Once the chilies sizzle, pour in the yogurt- gram flour mixture into the hot pan and let it simmer for 10 minutes. You can see a shiny layer forming on top while the gravy thickens, and this is the indication that the gravy is done.

Gently drop the chopped gattes into the gravy, let it absorb the yogurt sauce. Garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot, with pooris or chapatis or khichdi. The gattes are quite tasty on their own too, and half the time I munch on the boiled gattes even before adding it to the gravy.

I got some awards from my blogger buddies last week.

First:

Sunshine Award from Nayna of Simply Sensational Food and Rupali of Recipegrabbag and Priya who can give you authentic Rajasthan recipes. Thanks Nayna, Rupali and Priya.

Second comes the Honest Scrap Award from Priya: Thanks Priya.

For this award, I have to share 10 honest things about me. I have shared a lot of honest things about me here.

Now comes the tough part. I have to keep the award cycle going by nominating 12 people for the awards. I guess in blogosphere, we all are connected and these awards have been shared with people I know/whose blogs I read and enjoy. And it won’t do justice if I just pick 12 people who came to my mind first. I read/follow a lot of blogs and I do not want to hurt anyone by missing out their name in the hurry. So, anyone who reads this post, please feel free to accept these awards and post it at your place. Then I can see how many friends I have got through blogging and I can know a lot about dozens of friends instead of just one dozen

I thought moving south will make us feel warm. But we have already had two days of snow in December. Moving into February I thought all the freezing conditions would move on and we can show off the 100F and Hurricane stories. I guess our minds are set for the warm weather that even if it is snowing we pretend not to bother and still walk around in T’s and slippers(shivering ofcourse)

Last week, when visiting a friend in Dallas, I was in for a surprise. With a cup of coffee in hand early morning, I wanted to check out the sunshine but I saw that the entire place was looking like the NorthPole. We had about 12″ of snow!!

Here are some photos of the snow. The stairs one is my favorite so far. Once I read somewhere that stairs can take people up or down. Looking at this one I was sure that anyone trying to go up will surely come down! And I did not step out till the snow was cleared from the staircase as it was too slippery.

Ashlatha shared some awards with me this Valentine Weekend. Thanks for the “Tofas” Ash didi. Your creative card making activity is making me want to join the activity too.

(A couple of blogger buddies were about to hit me with a rolling pin for making avocado pooris last week, I got this one on time to defend myself)

After a lot of promises on posting recipes I tried out from other blogs,I still have not finished posting all of them. This one is a special gojju from Ashaka. She gave me the recipe for Daikon Chutney to try with Ragi Mudde. I made it according to her recipe and it was fantastic. I never thought plain daikon with yogurt and coconut can be so tasty. The best part is that there is no cooking involved. The tempering with garlic is the only part you need the stove for and it is a topper. This one is a keeper for sure. N loved it as well and we had it with dosas for dinner.

Daikon(Radish) Chutney:

Ingredients (Serves-2)

White Daikon(Radish)- Medium size-1
Dahlia (Pottu kadalai)- 4 tsp
Coconut- 1/4 cup
Green chilies-4
Salt- to taste
Cilantro leaves- a handful
Curry leaves- few
Yogurt- 1/4 cup

For tempering:
Oil- 1 tsp
Urad Dal- 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida- 1 pinch
Broken Red Chili-1
Finely smashed garlic(chopped)- 1 clove

Method:

Wash the daikon, peel the skin and grate it.

Blend the coconut, dahlia, curry leaves, green chilies, cilantro and salt into a fine powder. Add the grated daikon to the blender and give it a quick blend to mix all ingredients together. Add the yogurt and blend till the chutney is smooth.

Heat oil in a tadka pan and add asafoetida and cumin seeds. When the seeds start sizzling, add urad dal, red chili and smashed garlic. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes till garlic is slightly golden brown in color. Pour it over the chutney and serve with Ragi Mudde or Idlis or Dosas.

Garden Update:

Cilantro and Mint are growing very well in the cold conditions and I also made a Idicha Thokku (Dry Relish) with cilantro this weekend. It is my favorite from childhood and I would often pester mom to make it.

Ingredients for Cilantro Relish (Kothamalli Thokku)

Cilantro- atleast 2 bunches
Salt- to taste
Red Chilies-3
Chana Dal – 1 tsp

Method:

Wash the cilantro couple of times with water to remove any soil or weeds. Spread a cotton towel or paper towel in a cool dry place inside the house and spread the cilantro in it. Let it dry in air for 3-4 hours. You will need lots of cilantro to start with because when you grind for the thokku, the quality will be 1/4th of what you started with.

Once all the moisture is removed from cilantro, chop them roughly. Toast chana dal and red chilies till golden brown in color. Grind to a fine powder without adding water. Add salt to taste, the chopped cilantro and blend them again. Though the water has been removed from cilantro, while grinding it will give off some water so at any stage, do not add water.

Once all the cilantro is blended with the powders and comes together like a thick mass, scoop it out of the blender. This can be stored in the fridge for a week. It tastes good with hot rice and a dollop of ghee. For quick cilantro dip, take a tea spoon of the relish and mix with half a cup of water and serve with samosas or vadas.

You can also add a peppercorn size of tamarind while roasting and grind it along with other ingredients to give a tangy taste.

This cilantro relish is my entry for weekend Herb blogging hosted by Cindy .

When I first saw the Master Card ad with the caption,”There are things in the world that money can’t buy, for everything else there is MC”, I thought the ad was too sentimental even for the 1990′s. But thinking about it, there are a lot of things that cannot be measured with a scale. Like amma’s patience, her love for her kids, the eagerness of a baby to experience the mother’s face, her smell and touch especially if the mom is a working woman(super woman if you ask me), the first time pedaling a cycle without crashing (;)) and friendship.

Having some one who cares about you and keeps you in mind is quite special, and sharing with friends is always a joy. The minute you get an email from a friend, even a one liner- it can lift the mood up and it will put a smile on your face. Though I have not seen my readers or blogger buddies in person, the minute I get a feedback or a mail from them, it feels like I have known them for ages and  it happens every time I see their name.

This morning when I saw a mail from dear Sara, I felt happy and started my day with a smile. Thanks for giving me the Beautiful Blogger award and the Sweet Friends award.

Thanks for the awards and for your encouragement Sara

See you all on Monday! I am off blogging this weekend.

Every time I cook seppen-kizhangu(taro-root), I think of my 3 year old nephew A. He loves this taro root curry and his eyes will be as big as saucers and he’ll say “Seppi Kari”. And I am sure he got that seppi gene from all of us in our family. Sis, BIL,me, N, amma we all like roasted taro root kari. When I was visiting Sis last year, I took charge of kitchen for a few days as both Sis and BIL work and I was baby sitting A as well. I had a lovely, memorable time together with him and I wish I could run along and play with him now. He’d be throwing his toys from the balcony and I’ll be running behind him to collect them, he will be giving me his explanations of how things work around us at home and most of all he’ll lead the way setting good example for this chitti.

One day as I was in the kitchen and he was moving between kitchen and the living room watching his rhymes DVD. I’ll remember that day forever, I am sure about that. He casually came into the kitchen and told me ” Chitti, it is day time, light is unnecessary”. I was shocked and speechless for a minute. There he was, a 3 year old cutie pie telling me how to be energy efficient. He indicated me to lift him, which I always love to do and he happily switched off the lights and went back to his humpty dumpty like nothing happened!!

Dear Sis, let me take this opportunity to openly tell you, please don’t set high standards for mine to keep up

And every time I make this taro root kari, I think of him and I have to tell this “light bulb” story to anybody and everybody around me(including you, you and you).

Usually taro root kari is made with red chili powder and coriander seed powder, but I made it with achar masala for a spicy side dish.

Ingredients (Serves-2)

Taro root- 14-16 numbers
Salt to taste
Achar Masala(Pickle spice powder)- 1 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida- 1 pinch
Oil- 2 tsp (olive oil or sesame oil)
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves- few
Cilantro- few leaves

Method:

Pressure cook the taro root for 12 minutes(2 whistles). Cool and remove the outer skin. Chop them into cubes.

Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds, asafoetida , curry leaves and cumin seeds. When they splutter,add the chopped taro root, achar masala, salt and turmeric powder. Keep the flame to a medium-low and stir fry for 4-5 minutes. Cover and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the cover again and stir fry the kari till it is crispy.
Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice.

Updates: Couple of friends asked me a photo of taro root, or colocasia. Here is an article with photo of the plant.

This seppen-kizhangu roast is my entry for Arundhuti’s Served with love event. We cook for the people we love the most and wherever we go, when we taste some particular dish, it brings back memories of a relative or a friend. Does it not?

Sumi shared the kreative blogger award with me today. Thanks for sharing it with me Sumi, it means a lot to me. I have already shared 7 things about me and I guess you’d be OK with me sticking to them for now.

I thought I had shared enough when I wrote about 7 secret things, but Rachana shared this Sweet Friends award with me and she wants me to write 10 more..Yaar, kopdi mere empty ho jayege soch soch ke ..I’ll do 5, hope you’ll accept it, dus ka dum nahi hai mere paas..

I am gonna keep it short this time..

1) Sleeping as soon as I hit the sack is one of the things I can do without any mistakes May be I am a sleepoholic.

2) When Sis and I were kids, during summer we would make vadams(sago poppadams) and we’d be asked to guard it..Half the time, we would eat the half baked vadams instead of guarding it..But the vadams taste yum when it is sunbathing, I tell you.

3)Lady luck and me never get along very well. Murphy’s laws seems like they were written for me. I’d be standing in a queue for four hours and when my turn comes up, the printer or computer would give up..Need more proof?

4) During my first days as a student in Europe, I went to a desi shop to get some Toor dal to make sambar. There was this line of dals standing like royal guards waiting for the queen and I was so confused seeing so many different names and colors. I gathered courage and asked the sales guy, ” Sambar is made with toor dal, where is it?” ( I know, I am a disgrace to my entire sambar loving community but what to do, I needed it asap and no one knew who I was )

5) With number 5, I guess I am digging my own path downwards . Usually, when N is on a tour, I get a load of books from the library, that way I can read without getting disturbed. Sometimes I wish N would be near me because as soon as I finish the book I want to discuss it with him. Sometimes if I read a book like Da Vinci Code, I dig for the base of the book like the Holy grail just to get additional knowledge

Once, when N was on tour and me being too bored and lazy to do anything and having seen so much written about it……logged on to youtube…To see what hilarious jokes I can make about about Raki Ka Swayamwar. Big mistake of my life, could not even stand 10 minutes of watching it and all I could ask was, how on earth in a country of nearly a Billion people (and counting), there is such a tamasha? Were all of the viewers sitting ducks? It was way beyond words..

Because of that secret activity, I am afraid to log into youtube again. As soon as it recognizes me, it automatically gives me options like pati-patni aur woh, Perfect Bride (Are you kidding me, so I was not a perfect Indian bride?),Splitsvilla (where love is supposed to be war), Sach Ka Samna and so on and so forth.Whew!!

Every blog is unique in its own way. So, readers, blogging buddies, please feel free to accept the award from here. Selecting just 10 people won’t do justice