kitchen – Two Pearls and an Oyster

Summer Cooler – Blend, Strain, Drink !

Vidhya — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 05:29:55 +0000

The tartness of this fermented drink caused by the action of lactic acid bacteria and the health benefits due to the probiotic microbes in it make it a favourite for the summer season. Btw, this drink is known as buttermilk, in simpler terms! Effect of writing a post after reading too many “3-idiots” jokes

Since the “flavour” of the season seems to be “go green”, I decided to add a dash of green to the standard buttermilk. Blend together a handful of mint leaves, curry leaves, coriander leaves, pieces of raw mango, ginger, gooseberry along with some curd,salt and asafoetida. Strain the blended mixture by adding lot of water to get the thin desired consistency.
Sip away your drink and have a cool day !

Art for Heart’s sake !

Vidhya — Wed, 12 Feb 2014 16:55:29 +0000

I scream U scream which flavour do U want? “dulce de leche” !
Do you need a reason to have chocolates and ice creams ? I eat them whenever I feel happy , want to feel happy and of course, when I am hungry This week, as a treat to all the happy hearts I decided to bring together chocolate and ice cream in this yummy creation, which i have proudly christened “choccupice”- vanilla ice cream served in edible chocolate cups.

I have used cooking chocolate (white & dark) to make the chocolate cups. The method is quite simple ..
1. Heat together white and dark chocolate at a low flame until it melts and comes to a pourable consistency. Note: Use double boiling technique and do not heat the chocolate directly.
2. Allow the mixture to cool a bit and then pour it into the paper cups. The mixture should be thick enough that it will coat the paper cups with a thick layer of chocolate. Note: To get designs on your cup just play around with white and dark chocolate.
3. Refrigerate the cups coated with chocolate.
4. Once set, tear open the paper part of the cup.You should get a clean mould.
Now the chocolate cup is ready to hold your ice cream.

The hearts jutting out of the chopsticks are purely made of marie biscuit powder, milk powder and milkmaid. The choccupice came out so well that even the “hearts” wanted to have a bite of them! Akshara & Rajaram were totally delighted seeing the outcome of this dessert and I had to safeguard it before I could picture it for this post

Karthigai celebration at home

Vidhya — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 12:32:16 +0000

With the Diwali effect still settling down, we had the karthigai festival. In the south, this is actually the festival of lights (much more than Diwali). Lamps are lit all over the house and just outside. I reused all the lamps made during diwali and also made a diya-styled Rangoli.

As always with our festivals, it just isn’t complete without an array of sweets and savouries. But, karthigai has its special kind, the pori urundai (Puffed Rice Balls!!) and the Paal Poli (Milk Poli)

A quick recipe for the Pori urundai that i made:

Four cups of puffed rice (called pori in Tamil) to be lightly roasted.
One cup of jaggery to be heated with little water until it starts boiling to a sticky lava-like consistency.
A quarter cup of sugar is to be heated in a separate pan. As it just liquifies, add it to the boiling jaggery mixture.
Add dry ginger (Sukku in Tamil), cardamom powder and bits of coconut to the mixture
Continue boiling it until it thickens a bit and you get the required consistency (a small ball should form when a spoon of this mixture is poured into a bowl of water)
Once this consistency is reached, take it off heating. Start rolling it into balls and that’s it, the pori urundai is ready.