June special - Beetroot Vadai

I am Madhavi. My husband and I love to eat and hence to cook. I recently discovered India has so many amazing cuisines to offer beyond Tamil Nadu (at home) and Punjab (at restaurants in the US). So we started our journey of cooking different cuisines from India. We have covered Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan so far. But my favourite would still be close to home - and that is Chettinad food. Chettinad is famous for its art and architecture,huge mansions and also its food - especially non-vegetarian food. In the recent days, we have seen many Chettinad restaurants that gained popularity like Karaikudi, Anjappar, Ponnuswamy etc. I always end up at Solai's blog if I am looking for a Chettinad recipe. She has one of the best collection of recipes for Chettinad food. My all time favourites are Chettinad pepper chicken, Kuli paniyaram, Kandarappam etc. You should try it out too. Many recipes are simple to make after a long work day, healthy and tasty - for example, Kosamalli, Pachadi, Kootu etc.

For this month, lets try one of the well-kept secrets of the tastiest way to eat beetroot - Beetroot Vadai. You can find the recipe at
http://solaiachiskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/05/beetroot-vadai.html

-- Madhavi

Thulli Payasam - The final Day

Many of you would have tried the payasam and there might be some happy faces !!

I made the payasam for a dinner party. Everyone there loved it(luckily noone had aversion to Bananas like Madhu ;) ). Below are some pictures, though i have to improve on the photographs.

The recipe can be found here.One thing to be noted here the Payasam was better when had fresh. It looked better and tasted better as well. So try to make it the same day you want to have it. I added more ghee than specified in the recipe.

Whoever tried the recipe, do add comments. And lets await Madhavi's recipe of the month. :)

Logo

Finally, here is the logo for us - We are the Desi super cooks. Please paste this in your food blog

Madhavi - super cook of June

A few words about Madhavi - what she thinks about herself

I am Madhavi. My husband and I love to eat and hence to cook. I recently discovered India has so many amazing cuisines to offer beyond Tamil Nadu (at home) and Punjab (at restaurants in the US). So we started our journey of cooking different cuisines from India. We have covered Kashmir, Punjab and Rajasthan so far. But my favorite would still be close to home - and that is Chettinad food. Chettinad is famous for its art and architecture,huge mansions and also its food - especially non-vegetarian food.

Looking forward to something interesting next month from Madhavi ....

Yay!!! Am making it

Last week for a lunch party i planned to make Thulli payasam , but the pineapple upside down cake that a friend made took over the party. Tomorrow there is a dinner party at a friend's place. And yes ! this time for sure i am making it. I am so curious about how the banana drops are going to turn out. Hope i dont screw it up. :)

But another trick is to find out Ripen Bananas :( Usually in the stores i see almost raw ones. Let me try my luck. I will update how it come and what was the response.

Recipe for May : Thulli Payasam

Its the second month and we see so many members already!!!Exciting...

As Madhu mentioned , I am currently trying out the Kerala food and i have been finding a better occasion to try out this dish. I got a perfect chance now.
This is one of the Keralite delicacy that they make for Onam. I have heard of it before but not tasted it till now.

Before we get to the recipe,for those who dont know what we are talking about : Thulli payasam(Kheer made of banana drops) is made of Banana and coconut milk. It is a sweet dish which is usually served warm.

Here is the recipe that I am going to follow.
http://arcthomas.blogspot.com/
Ane below is the recipe that i copied from the blog:

Rice flour - ¾ cup
Bananas, ripe – 3nos
Ghee – 2 tsp
Brown sugar/jaggery – 2 cups
Coconut milk – thick and thin a cup each
Ghee toasted Cashew nuts and raisins or chopped coconut – to garnish
Dried ginger powder ( Chukku) – 3 pinches

In a blender puree 2 bananas with ¼ cup of water, add ghee and rice flour, blend till a thick batter is formed, adding more water if necessary. Keep it for 10 minutes. Boil water in a large sauce pan and drop the prepared batter in to it through a slotted spoon to make drops ( thulli, hence the name ) When the batter drops are cooked it will raise to the top. Whisk the cooked drops with a slotted spoon and spread on a plate. Repeat till all the batter is over.

Finely chop a banana. Heat ¼ cup water in a thick bottomed vessel and add banana. Cook till the pieces are tender, adding more water if necessary. When the pieces are completely cooked, add brown sugar, 1 tsp ghee, cooked thulli, and cook for another 5 minutes with constant stirring. Add thin coconut milk (mix canned coconut milk with equal quantity of water to make thin C milk), ½ cup of water and cook for 5 minutes. Add thick coconut milk and cook for 2 more minutes. Turn off the heat. Keep the vessel covered for the next five minutes. Add ginger powder, ghee toasted cashew nuts and raisins or toasted silvers of coconut. Payasam is now ready to serve.


I am going to try the payasam this month and going to post my experiences on May 27th.

Kofta Noor Jahani

The recipe of the Month April was Kofta Noor Jahani. It is a Sanjeev Kapoor Recipe ( of Khana Khazana fame).

You can find the recipe here

The host of the month was Madhumita and you can find her post here

Super Cook of May - Sabitha

So the super cook of this month is Sabitha. She is currently in love with Kerala food. She is the only lady pilot i know personally...

She blogs at

http://sabiscooking.blogspot.com/

Here is her picture followed by a small introduction of herself ...

I am Sabitha, just another soul exploring the world of fun. I love fun and I love being adventurous. I love food, I love travelling, I love sleeping, I love pondering, and I love doing nothing… Yeah , I love everything around me and fun is what I see in everything. That’s all about me.. a fun loving , friendly and active girl who wants to enjoy life…

Food Photography

As you would have seen from my previous blog... my photography skills are pretty limited.. I use a Nikon D40X with some basic lens in automatic mode. I never ever get to the manual mode...

Have been reading a lot of food photography and these are couple of tips

1. Food should be photographed in natural light
2. It should be photographed in a minute or two before the look fades off
3. You can mimic smoke by placing a cotton ball dipped in water microwaved for a minute.
4. Food can be made to look glossy by putting some vegetable oil, glycerin or corn syrup on it
5. Grilled food can be made to look better by burning it using a torch
6. Styling food is really important for pictures...

I am yet to try all the above tips ...

This was an interesting blog - http://stilllifewith.com/

So do you style your food? Share your tips in this post..

Challenge of the Month - Kofta Noor Jahani

I decided i will be the host for the first month... Just to get all the pieces in the blog together before you people try it out.
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I see that lot of Indians love Malai Kofta... Though i am not a big fan of it, i am fond of a particular kind of kofta curry with a cashew nut base.

There was an awesome place in Hyderabad called Ginger. They had a dish called Kofta Bahar. It was a combination of two kofta curries - one Green curry which was a little sweet and sour and the other Koftas in a cashew Gravy.

I could not find anything to fit the Green kofta curry, but i did find this cashew nut based curry in Sanjeev Kapoor's website. Yeah i grew up watching his cooking series - Khana Khazana

http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe.aspx?RecipeId=1565&Header=Searched Recipe&MenuId=0

I know its rich, buts its okay to indulge once in a while :)

Let me know if you have any suggestions :)

Welcome to Desi Super Cooks!!

I love food... I love cooking...

Many of you share my passion. Many times i find a recipe online and try cooking from it. But as with anything else, not every time i get five stars...

Couple of days back i was searching for a Chocolate Crepe cake recipe and i found this awesome blog - Daring Bakers.

I realised there is so much potential in Community cooking. In olden days women met each other, cooked together and shared tips. Thanks to technology , we dont even have to step out of our homes :)

I have been experimenting with a lot of other cuisines. After trying out many things, i realised my strength lies in cooking Indian food. After eating spicy food for my entire life, i am really not able to appreciate the subtle flavours in many other cuisines. I will be able to cook well if i am able to appreciate the food.

So why don't you and I cook some awesome Indian food from this month?

So how does this blog work??

1. We will cook 1 Recipe every month.

2. Every Month we will have a Host. The host will decide the Recipe of the month. Host selection is going to be in the order in which i receive mails

3. There are three kinds of recipes the host can suggest

Mom's Recipe - I don't even have to say anything. Please please post it in the blog :)

Recipe Picked up from Internet - the host should point to the recipe

Picked up from a book - the host "should" not write the recipe on the blog. The host should just mention the book, the name and the section where the recipe can be found. However the host should ensure that the recipe can be found else where too.

4. The recipe is suggested by the host by 1st of every month. If you have any comments or insights, you can comment on the blog post.

5. On 27Th of every month, the host will submit a new post on the experience of cooking the item with some beautiful pictures.

6. All the people who have tried the item, can comment on the blog post that the host has posted. Also if you have a blog post which describes you experience in cooking this, please include it in the comments.

7. You can skip the recipe if you have some dietary restrictions

How do you become the member of Desi Super Cooks?

Send me a mail(desisupercooks@gmail.com ) with the following details - Name, a Photo and blog address(if you are going to blog about your cooking adventures).