South Indian Rasam (The one served at weddings)

That’s one weird title I agree 😄! Hey but guess who loves slurping the rasam at south Indian weddings? Me! I am that person who skips sambar to directly have rasam. No wonder I tried learning what magic spices do thay add that it tastes this heavenly!! After a hell lot of surfing multiple cookery books and websites I finally came across that secret recipe from Anitha Pushpavanam Kuppuswamy’s youtube video.

Believe me, that was it! I tried it right away and to my surprise it came out extraordinarily awesome!

Rasam powder: (This is the key! Don’t mess up the proportions)

Tur dal - 200 gm
Black pepper corns - 75 gm
Fennel seeds - 75 gm
Coriander seeds - 30 gm
Asafoetida powder - 10 gm
Turmeric powder - 10 gm
Dry red chillies- 15 - 20
Curry leaves - a hand full

Dry roast them all individually except turmeric powder for 2-3 minutes with continuous stirring. Roast the asafoetida powder also so that it gives the aroma. Dry roast the fresh curry leaves such that they loose the water content and becomes dry. Make sure you dont dry roast the pepper corns way too much else it will start tasting bitter. Once all of them are dry roasted, grind them into fine powder and store them in an air tight container to lock the aroma :)

Rasam:

To pressure cook for 6 whistles:
Big ripen tomatoes finely chopped  - 2
Garlic pearls - 4
Coriander leaves - 1/4th of a hand full
Curry leaves - 6
Green chilli- 1
Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
Tamarind- 1/2 of gooseberry in size
Water - 300 ml

Once the pressure subsidies, open the cooker and mash the tomatoes in case if you didnt chop it finely. Add 5 more semi crushed garlic pearls to it and add 3 tablespoons of the prepared rasam powder without lumps. Let it boil in high flame for 10 minutes. Add 1/4th teaspoon of sugar or jaggery. Temper mustard seeds in 2 tablespoons of oil and add to it. Garnish with a 1/4th hand full of fresh coriander on top of it.

Serve hot with boiled rice (basmati my fav) and spicy potato fry (use chicken 65 masala and pepper powder instead of chilli powder) as sides.

You are welcome! :)

I was so keen in trying that I forgot to take pictures. Will upload them when I prepare again :)

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Chicken Pasta

This recipe actually goes in four parts -  the chicken stock, the pasta, the vegetables and the white sauce. We'll go one by one. Following recipe serves 2.

1st part - Chicken Stock

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts - 150 gm
Carrot - 1 (Peeled and sliced)
Garlic - 12 cloves chopped
Maggi Chicken stock powder - 1 cube
Water - 750 ml

Heat a pressure cooker and let the water boil. Add the chicken breasts pieces, Maggi stock powder, garlic, carrot and pressure cook it for 10 minutes. Once the pressure is down, open the lid and filter the stock water. Store the chicken pieces for later use. Discard the carrot and garlic pieces. The stock is ready! :)

2nd part - Pasta

Ingredients:
Pasta - 150 gm ( I used the Penne pasta, the tube shaped one)
Oil - 2 tablespoon
Salt - 1 teaspoon

Boil water in a deep pan and add oil and salt to it. Stir until the salt dissolves and add pasta to it. Let it cook until the pasta gets cooked 3/4th. Usually that would take 10 minutes if you close cook it. Once you feel it soft, drain it and let it cool. Discard the water. Pasta is ready! :)

3rd part - White sauce

Ingredients:
Butter - 1 tablespoon
Milk - 100 ml
All purpose flour/ Maida - 2 tablespoon
Parsley (dried) - 1 tablespoon
Onion - 1/4th
Clove - 1

Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour in low flame. Stir it until no lumps and add some milk to it. On stirring you'll see the mixture getting thickening. Add in rest of the milk, the parsley and the onion with the clove pierced in it. It adds onion flavor to the sauce. Let the mixture boil for 2 minutes. Now remove the onion and clove and keep the sauce aside. The white sauce is ready! :)

4th part - Vegetables

Even though its chicken pasta, adding vegetables don't hurt do they?

Ingredients:
Carrots - 2 finely cubed
Garlic - 15 cloves finely chopped
Beans/ French beans - 3 finely chopped
Broccoli - 50 gm finely chopped
Butter - 5 tablespoons
Italian seasoning - 1 tablespoon
Coriander/ Parmesan cheese - to garnish
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste

Add butter to a pan, and saute the garlic, carrot, beans, broccoli. Close cook it for 10 minutes. Stir it often so that we don;t burnt them or make it crispy. Add pepper, Italian reasoning and stir again. Once its completely cooked, shred the chicken pieces that we store from the chicken stock and add it to the vegetables. Let them blend by stirring for 2 minutes. Now add the chicken stock to the vegetables and let the contents boil for 5 minutes in high flame. Close cook it as we don't want the chicken stock to evaporate. Once its well cooked, add in the pasta. Pasta should be immersed int the water content.  Since the pasta is already cooked 3/4th, close cook the contents for 5 minutes. Stir it so that the contents mix well with one another. Now add the white sauce and stir the pasta well so that the contents gets thickened. Keep stirring for 2 minutes. Check salt and add if necessary. We will need to check salt at last as the chicken stock powder we added earlier and the paste itself will contain salt. Make sure its saucy while you finish cooking it. Garnish with coriander or grate some Parmesan cheese on the top while serving. Finally, the chicken pasta is ready! :)

Loved this recipe? Let me know in comments below. :)

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Crab Masala

I generally don't touch crabs and manage from cleaning to cooking with a serving tong. Reason? Its the moving limbs that freak me out :P But I don't mind eating it later. Reason again? Food or fear - food forever :P

Ingredients 
Crab - 1 Kg
Pearl Onions - 15
Pepper - 10 to 15 corns
Turmeric - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Green chilly - 4 to 5
Cumin seeds - 1 tablespoon
Garlic - 10 cloves
Ginger - 1 inch peeled
Gingelly oil - 4 table spoon

Clean the crabs and cut into half so that the flesh can get soaked in masala. Grid the pearl onions, pepper corns, green chilly, ginger, garlic, cumin seeds, turmeric and salt to a fine paste. Don't add too much water as crab itself will give out the water. Once ground, heat a heavy kadai with 2 tablespoons of oil. Saute the fine ground paste for a minute or two. Add crabs to it. Stir it well so that the masala doesn't get burnt and also the crab gets coated evenly. Close cook it for 5 minutes. Open the lid and watch for the consistency of the masala, if it doesn't look like the one in the picture above, add 2 table spoons of gingelly oil, stir and close cook it in high flame. The watery nature changes and ends up as a lip smacking, finger licking crab masala! :)

Grab a nut cracker and break the heavenly flesh out of it. Don't forget to lick the shells as well. :)

Oh did I mention that I got this recipe right the first time itself? This is to assure you that so will you :)

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Rosa's Pizza

On Jan 2016, we waited on a pizza shop's corridor in Philadelphia to escape the spine chilling wind. Thanks to the guy who went in before us, the aroma urged to me to peep through the half open glassdoor. The first thing that got my attention is the color blocks on the wall.

I ll never remember the color of the walls but not the smiles in the vibrant sticky notes. At least, thats how I recall Rosa’s Pizza. (http://www.rosasfreshpizza.com/). Their one dollar pizza slices are highly welcomed for the cause they serve. Cant help clicking all around. On that cold day, I couldn’t realize whether its the warmth of the pizza or the writings that put a smile on my lips. Yes, love is in the air :)

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Asking for it - Book Review

'Asking for it' is so realistic that you will want to quit reading it every now and then as it rips your heart apart. But what will keep you going is when you realize Emma is more than just a character, she is real, she exists, she is everywhere and she could be anyone and you have heard about her in news often. Yes the world out there is cruel. We don't get to make choices always. But when we can, let innocence and humanity flow through our veins.

#LifeAfterRape

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The Undelivered Letters - Book Review

The title was so catchy that it immediately made me start reading. I loved the way how the plot rolled and picked up momentum. Weirdly I couldn't stop running the scenes as a movie in my mind and it felt so good.  Personally one thing that bothered me was that, the story line was so good could have been narrated little elaborately. There are very some beautiful parts (I loved the Kara Bookstore part <3) in this book where the narration kind of rushes through. I wish the author could have given the reader a little more time to take it in slowly and feel it before the moment passes away. Altogether its a good work and I would rate it 3/5 :)

Thanks for the ARC copy of Kindle version Priyanka. To my surprise this wasn't the full book as it contained only a half of the story. Looking forward to read the full book which would be coming out as a paperback edition. :)

Will update my bunch of fav quotes soon :) 

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The Selection Series - Book Review

Its been a very long time since I read a Utopian teen novel as such and then from nowhere happened to pick this - The Selection Series. I have to be honest here. Of course its the dreamy cover that made me pick the series in first place. Seriously, can a cover get any better? It didn't let me down though.

On a one liner I could put it this way - Hunger Games minus the violent fights! That way its too much of a spoiler I guess. But for sure you will enjoy the dreamy ride and especially the parts where they describe the ball gowns ♥♥!! ( Yes I felt my eyes literally popping out ).

So, go for it if you want a glimpse of not so perfect dream that's memorable. Its OK to go back in age for a while to cherish all the teen dramas. *winks*!!

The order of the series is:

1. The Selection
2. The Elite
3. The One

The series extends beyond 3 parts, but I stopped at 'The One'. I couldn't imagine a second generation following the trio with the same continuity of the story line. May be I wanted some time to let all these three parts sink in. :)

My rating - 4/5

PS: Looks like Universal Studios has bought the rights over the series. So get ready to see America Singer and her beautiful gowns on screens someday soon. 

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