Chana Pindi (Chickpeas - Rawalpindi style)

Chana prepared in the simplest way without much of labour & don't use any bhuna masala, tomato, coriander leaves.

Ingredients :-

1. Chickpea - 1 Cup
2. Cardamom - 1 No.
3. Clove - 2 Nos
4. Cinnamon - 1/2" stick
5. Water - 2 Cups
6. Green Chillies - 2 nos (or as you prefer) - chop finely
7. Ginger - 1" piece  (chop finely)
8. Pomegranate seeds powder - 1tbsp (anardhana powder)
9. Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
10. Coriander powder - 1.5 tsp
11. Pepper Powder - 1 tsp
12. Garam Masala powder - 1 tsp
13. Amchur powder - 1 tsp (dry mango powder)
14. Ghee - 2 tbsp
15. Onion - 1 No. (finely chopped)
16. Salt to taste

Note : 

1. If you don't get anardhana powder then you can grind some fresh pomegranate seeds & use in the recipe. You can also prepare without pomegranate seeds but adding them will add to the taste of the pindi chana.

Procedure :-

• Soak chickpeas overnight. [or for 7 hours. If you forgot then don't worry, fill in a flask with hot water, put the chick peas in it and leave it for 3 hours]

• In a pressure cooker, put the chickpeas with 2 cups water, salt, cinnamon stick, Cloves and cardamom. When pressure builds up, simmer the flame & cook for 15 minutes (in hawkins cooker). Otherwise pressure cook till 3 whistles.
• If you use dry pomegranate seed

• Let the cooker cool down and strain the water, preserve it for later use.

• To the cooked chickpeas (chana) add Cumin powder, Coriander powder, Pomegranate seed powder (or freshly ground ones), Pepper powder, Garam masala and Dried mango powder (amchur), mix well.
• In a small wok heat the ghee & add it to the chana mixture, cook it for 1 minute by stirring continously

• Add the saved water in which chana is boiled

• Adjust the salt if required

• Bring to boil till it becomes semi solid consistency and ghee separates  (say 10 minutes) - stir occasionally.

• switch off the flame. Add the chopped onions (raw), mix well and serve hot with rice or rotis.

If freshly ground masalas are used, they add to the flavour of the dish. So I roast and crush them nicely in my mortar & pestle.

Jewellery Chest - Popsicle / ice stick craft

Got boosted by the reward yesterday. So sat up and made this beautiful jewellery chest to treat myself.... :-)

Easy fun project for kids.

 

This is how I made it

Materials :

1.  Popsicle sticks
2. Fevicol
3. Velvette cloth
4. Embellishments using pearls, chamkis etc
5. Glass colours
6. Gold glitter glue
7. Zari border

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Step :1 :  For the base, arrange sticks like this :- (make - 2) one for base and other for lid

Step 2 : Place one stick on top and one at the bottom as shown in the pic (do this for both pieces)

One piece keep for lid (that is over. only decoration need to be done)

The other piece use for base & proceed as shown in the following pictures.

similarly arrange sticks two vertical over lapping the end place two horizontal - alternatively by applying glue on the ends till you get the desired height.

Once the box is ready, decorate it with the decoration materials.

 

 

Chest is ready to hold your treasures :-)

Awesome Blogger Award from Usha Srikumar

Received a sweet surpirse to day. Another boost to keep me hooked here! 

"Awesome Blogger" award from Usha Srikumar of "Usha Srikumar's Musings"

Thank you Ushaben :D

Sharing some of my favourites

1. Favourite City : Pune
2. Favourite Food : I am foodie so difficult to point out one dish
3. Favourite Humorist : Innocent
4. Favourite Season : Monsoon - which turns everything green & full of life
5. Favourite Flower : Love them all
6. Favourite Colour : All cool colours 
7. Favourite quote : Love n respect should be earned.

Now comes the joy of sharing. With a passing this award to my blogpals.

1. Sonia of Cards, Crafts and Kids Projects - who has already got many laurels and this is another feather in her cap. Most deserving blog. The beauty &  finish of her projects are so charming adding to crystal clear tutorials.
2. Sudha of Sudha Out of the Box - a multi talented crafter. Her blog speaks more than my words.
3. Anitha of "Working Mom's Endeavor to domestic success"   my new creative blogpal.
4. Riya of Colourful Butterfly - she is a colourful butterfly letting her magical fingers run all through her house which reflects in her blog. A young blood among my blogpals.
5. Aruljothi Karikalan of Creative Hall - a versatile blogger on various interests, enthusiastic crochetter, who does things with a neat finish

Congratulations Sonia, Sudha, Anitha, Riya, Jothi, wish you many more laurels & best wishes and more beaming sweet moments in your life.

Happy Blogging to all !  :-)

Keerai Molagootal / Greens Gravy for Rice

Green leafy vegetables are packed with vital nutrients. They have dietary fibre, flavonoids, vitamins and minerals. Helps building immunity, improves vision, lower blood pressure, etc

Tamil Nadu is famous for the green leafy vegetables boasting proudly the varitey of them in its Nature's basket. My bird's brain could remember only 21 of them now. The part of India I am in now has only palak & methi are found in abundant. But this season luckily i could find some molakeerai so making the traidional dish called 'molagootal' & 'masiyal' as much as possible as palak & methi will not suit this purpose. Arai keerai, molakeerai, siru keerai are the main varities which suits the dish best, however you can use palak too for it. But folks, I am forced to make you dependant on google search engine to get their names in different languages. (some food for brain!) :-)

Molagootal is a preparation without tamarind & strong masalas. So a sathvik food. It uses coconut & lentil which adds to its nutritional value. Goes well with white rice. Since it is a mild gravy, usually the accompaniment dish would be a Pachadi or Arachukalaki which are either tamarind or curd based dishes.

Video Recipe is available in Mira's Akshaya Patram

Arachukalaki video recipe is here :-

How to clean & use the leaves? :-

Clean the spinach & wash them (if you wash after cutting, it looses its nutrients) cut till the stem turns out to be tender. discard hard stem portion.

chop them into two & keep ready. This dish uses coconut.

Ingredients :-

1. Green leafy vegetable - 1 bundle
2. Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
3. White urad - 1 tbsp
4. Red chillies - 3 to 4 nos (or as you prefer)
5. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Toor dal - 1/4 cup
7. salt to taste
8. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
9. oil for tempering
10. mustard seeds

Turmeric powder : Why I had mentioned it optional is because some don't add it as they want the gravy to be in lovely green colour. Turmeric will leave an yellowish tinge. So if you want you can add else omit it.

Procedure :-

• Prepare the leaves as mentioned above

• In a vessel put the leaves, add 3 cups water & when starts boiling, cook for 15 minutes in low flame.See to that you retain the green colour.

• In the meantime, pressure cook the lentil (toor dal)

• Filter the water & preserve it.

• The leaves, spread on a plate & let it cool

• Roast the white urad & red chilli applying few drops of oil till they turn golden in colour

• In a mixer add the grated coconut, cumin seeds, red chillies, white urad & adding little water, make a nice paste.

• Grind the boiled leaves & stems coarsely.

• To the ground paste, add dal & the filtered water you preserved (in which the leaves are boiled) and bring to boil in a low flame by stirring in between.

• To this add the ground coconut masala, salt to taste, Turmeric powder , required water - check the gravy consistency & bring to boil. When the foam forms on stop, remove from flame.

• Heat oil for tempering, add mustard seeds. after they crackle, add it to the gravy, mix.

• Greens gravy AKA keerai Molagootal - our main dish is ready. 

Side dish suggestions :-

For this gravy, the side dish that suits best are puli inji / pulikachal (or) Puli / Thayir Pachadi (or) Pickle (or) salad (or. ) raitas / Vazhathandu pachadi (a variety of spicy sweet sour and salty gravy)

Now comes the most important part of serving :

To the hot white rice, add 1/4 tsp melted ghee, serve the molagootal on top........ and enjoy with the side dish of your choice.