Bhomma dosa/ Tiny dosa roundels - (FUN FOOD -1)

    It was  during one of our vacations that my aunty made  these great mini dosas  for varsha.  She was soo delighted to find a new variation, in entirely kiddy style and ate more than she could have.  From that day onwards till now, she always says, ' ma, i want bomma dosa plz'

 The only requirement for the dosa here, is that batter is expected to be slightly thicker consistency so that desirable shape is met.  I often make them with idly batter.  Making this is very simple too, with more practise and patience you can try out various shapes, and at the sametime try many toppings, most of which may be healthy too.  So let us take an quick glance.....

If you could closely follow collage in zigzag form, the idly batter is spooned over very little, circular form over hot tawa.  Afterwhich,  some colourful vegetable topping is spooned (I used grated carrots and spring onions green part).  Some  pressing  with back of spoon is also done so that the topping is strongly bonded.  Later they are covered by a lid and cooked till the dosas are done. 

•  You can change the filling, replacing any vegetable like mushroom/paneer/dry fruits/fresh fruits/nuts etc.  
• You can also sandwich one dosa into another with a bit of grated cheese on middle to satisfy cheesy demand of your kids.
• This savoury version can be served with tomato sauce/green chutney/mayo

And the second sweet version is the real 'fun part' of this dosa. I tried an teddy bear shape on tawa and garnished them with gems cookies.  

• This way you can also try different shapes like clouds, sun, pokeman etc, depending upon ur kid's preference
• Some yummy goodies like tutti-fruitty, jujube, orange candy can also be used for decoration, more colourful they look more appetizing look for kids
• Best served with chocolate sauce/Nutella
• You can also prepare Malpua on tawa, drizzling more oil than it would take for mini dosa, follow garnish and soak in hot sugar syrup n serve.

They can also be packed on lunch-box.  I am sure that ur kids would luv to have this 'n' number of dosa platters.  I, also hope that this can be an tricky treat for lazy week-end.  And also  for kids bored with regular dosas.  Do try and I also welcome any suggestions to the same.  

Vegetables in garlic sauce

   I dont know why, but recent times i have grown addicted to chinese  cooking  a lot.  Hence comes this preparation.  Personally speaking I am an garlic-luver, for I can be the only person who visits to ' THE CHUTNEYS' (Authentic vegetarian restaurent at Hyderabad which has an wide range of idly and dosa platter) and order an 'garlic dosa'   :)  :)  So this luv for garlic had even more triggered the 'chinese' part in me!

 When I read about this preparation in one of cookery books, I cannot wait to try hands on them.  But, at the sametime I was soo worried about addition of 'n' number of sauces into it.  So, I restricted them to chilli sauce alone.  Tried replacing tomato sauce with home-made tomato puree, and yes the magic worked.  The final preparation tasted entirely chinese!

Ajwain paratha

    Me and my hubby were visiting newly opened Ratnadeep supermarket, my hubby gazed through  refrigerator.  He was longing for frozen parathas, especially ajwain parathas which were cooked in lachhaa paratha style.  Though he dropped off their sight, I knew that he needed them the most.  I, bought smallest packet of ajwain  and came home .  And yes, tried simplest form of paratha and served with garlic vegetables, they were awesome.  This roti was layered, very aromatic and soft too.

On the other hand, ajwain has an lot of medical properties... it is known to cure digestive problems and can also aid on  problomatic conditions of liver, kidney, spleen etc.  I kneaded these dough with whey water which I had due to rasagulla preparation I made day before.  This can be substituted with warm water too

Chilly kabuli chana

     Yes, as the tittle goes this is an Indo-chinese fusion gravy.  Imagine our favourite chana masala, replacing regular gravy base by  chinese sauces and an touch of tofu pieces...  The result was awesome.  My husband luved to have it with roti, the gravy was somewhat dry type and melted in our mouth.  Is an definite try for roti luvers.

Milagu kaarakozhumbu

    Hyderabad is found rainy these days, hunger peeps in quite randomly due to the season.  My mind carves for more hot n spicy food.  It was during one such moment that I recalled this dish.

This dish, milagu karakozhumbu is often made by my mom due to my dad's insistence.  Milagu kaarakozhumbu is an good cold- releiver and also heats up your body to prevent winter chill.  This is done so due to presence of wonderful n healthy indian spices like peppercorns, garlic, jeera combo.  Just imagine to have them with hot rice on a rainy day....  :) hm... wow.... No pizza's or no burgers can compensate for such an powerful Indian dose :)

I served this with cabbage-carrot poriyal and hot rice.  The entire combo felt great on stomach and my heart too!

Tutti- fruitti cookies

      I am so delighted to find Savaadhjevana FB page hitting more than hundred likes.  To dedicate this success, I made tutti-fruitti cookies.

  Initially I wanted to make them with wheat flour, but realized that these tutti-fruiti would be better with a white background than with a brown one.  That is with wheat flour, they can be hardly seen giving an less appetising look.  So,  I opted for tutti-fruiti with white or much lighter background.  As soon as I decided on white, the first three things that crossed my mind was Regular flour (of course, maida!), Cornflour and Rawa or semolina.  Hence with a mixture of abovesaid, I continued with addition of butter,  sugar and finally blended with delecious, colourful tutti-fruitti cookies.  After baking them, they were so crisp, light-coloured (though I browned a few  in my first batch!) and fell very less on stomach too!!

Vadakari (SouthIndian curry made with steamed dal dumplings)

    Vadakari is my all-time-favourite.  My mother used to prepare this dish atleast once a month and we used to rejoice it with idly, dosa and  pongal too!  I made it for first time and served it with mini-dosa (to come sooner) and my kid enjoyed it.  Here, Chana dal, which was first soaked, is later blended with selective spices, steamed and mixed with regular onion-tomato gravy base.  The spices usually added are red chilly and dhanya powder, here I added  chana masala which blended  soo well and gave an much richer aroma.  Do try guys and let me know.

Ingredients required

For dumplings

• 1/2 cup chana dal
• 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp jeera powder
• 1/2 tsp haldi/turmeric powder
• 4 tsp coriander leaves, finely chopped
• Pinch of hing/asoeftida

Tawa arbi masala

   
    Arbi, one of the Colocasia species is an underground(grown) vegetable.  It finds an easy place in south-indian cooking.   Found as an fry or curry, it is also supposed to be an healthy alternative for potatos for aged people because the starch content found in arbi is easily digestable one.  Arbi is also found to nourish with contents like fibre, protein, calcium, phosphorous etc.

 Arbi tawa fry done here is an easy preparation that can go yummy with hot rice, sambhar, rasam or any kozhumbu type.  This can also be served as an vegetarian starter and can go great with parathas too.  To top that arbi prepared in tawa ensures uniform cooking on all sides (which is not guarenteed on kadaai), saves time and ends up spending up little amount of oil.

Chocolate eclairs - Baking partners challenge

Baking partners is a group for new bakers, they enhance the baking skills by alloting monthly challenges, mailing all suggested recipes, tips etc This month's challenge was Chocolate eclairs.  

Thanks to Baking partners for suggesting the same as honestly speaking the topic was quite new to me, but after coming across the recipes and few videos, I understood that chocolate eclairs is a french pastry filled with choco-custard cream (and also any fruit custard cream) and topped  with choco glaze.  The very difference of this to other pastry form is that the basic dough is first cooked in stove first, mixed with flour, then added to beaten eggs to obtain a glazy form.   I followed the pastry recipe by www.joyofbaking.com

Summer spl event & giveaway - Winner announcement

   
  Hi guys, so we are meeting after quite a loooonnnggg time, isn't it??   Yes, I had a nice vacation at chennai and on return, my camera broke down.  Am sad, bcoz literally it has broken down the bloggy stuff, but tooo happy on other side, as shama has promised me a new one :)  So,  let us get back to my first summer spl giveaway and event, if you had asked me few months before, about organizing events I would have said that it should be an easy task, but no... preparing event pics, registering with linkedin, following linked up posts, visiting them and thanking for link-up were ofcourse on easier side.   But, deciding winners with stunning 94 posts is really, really tough though you go for an random numbering style.

     I would thank all of you for contributing such beautiful, delecious posts for my event, thank you all!!

So, now follows a series of certificates for culinery excellancy

Our first award goes to best baked dessert for Manjula bharath.  The name of the dish is Rasagulla blackforest cake,  kindly go through the link for an delecious yummy fusion cake

The next award is best (non-baked) dessert that goes to drool-worthy falooda by Aara.

The next category is best curry (or healthy summer curry) is to Pooja agrawal for her DanaMethi kairi subzi

Best salad goes to...... no guesses here anybody can point out beautiful stuffed cucumber  covering peanut & other veggies.  Again bagged by Pooja agrawal for her cucumber salad

Best summer drink also goes to same (I, just now realize that she is awarded thrice honestly)

Kiwi mint masala sharbat from Pooja agrawal

The maximum contributor award goes to Priya anandakumar with stunning 24 posts.  Thank you for your moral support Priya.

So, the ultimate winner of the event & giveaway is.....

 Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:21Powered by RAND

21st post is linked by Linsy patel for her Vegetable deewani handi, congrauts Linsy patel you are being awarded Sanjeev kapoor's 'zero oil cookery book'   Kindly mail your indian address to arthyshama7@gmail.com

Following is the participation certificates, thanks for your valuable presence in my event.