Coconut Treat :)

South Indian Kitchens are incomplete without coconut making it's presence felt in some form or the other. I am one pakka South Indian who loves to relish coconut in the innumereable dishes be it savoury or sweet. Oh yeah..there was a phase when I was petrified by the huge "give up eating coconut or else you'll land up being obese, develop high cholestrol or heart problems" and eating coconut based dishes seemed no less than paticipating in 'Fear Factor':(

As you all know that when one is afraid of something..that is the time when you see more of it around u...lol, so rightly there were articles in newspapers, health shows with doctors and dieticians blowing it out of proportion. I gave up eating coconut almost completely :)

I got over this phase gradually for the museum piece that I am ;), moral of the story Moderation is the key! Eating what you like is fine but knowing what quantity is right for you works like the magic words ABRACADABRA!!!

Chalo now let's get back to the purpose of this post :)Today's recipes are:

1. Coconut chutney - Recipe from my Amma.

2. Coconut Kadhi- Recipe by Tarla Dalal, book: Curries and Kadhis

Recipe for Coconut chutney:

Ingredients:
1 tbsp- Udad dal

1 small bowl- Grated coconut

1 pinch- Hing

2-Red chillies

1 small piece- Tamarind

Salt to taste

Tempering:

1tsp- Mustard seeds

5-6 Curry leaves

1tsp oil

Method:

1. Dry fry the udad dal, red chillies till it gives out nice aroma. Put the flame off and add hing.

2. Once the ingredients cool, grind it along with coconut, tamarind and salt adding water to get desired consitency.

3. Transfer it to a serving bowl.

4. Heat oil in a tempering pan add mustard seeds and curry leaves, when they begin to pop put off the flame, and pour it over the chutney and mix well.

5. The tasty coconut-udad dal chutney is ready to be served.

Coconut Kadhi:

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups coconut milk

2 tbsp besan (Bengal gram flour)

3/4 cup fresh curds

2 cardamoms

2 cloves

1" stick cinnamon

1 bay leaf

6 curry leaves

1 tsp grated ginger

1/2 tsp chopped green chillies

1/2 tsp red chilli powder ( my addition)

1tsp sugar ( my addition)

salt to taste

Method:
1. Add the besan to the curds beat well and set it aside.

2. Heat the oil in a pan and add the cardamom, cloves, bay leaf and curry leaves.

3. When the curry leaves splutter, add the ginger and green chilli and stir for a few seconds.

4. Add the coconut milk and 1 cup of water and bring it to boil, while stirring continuously.

5. Add the besan -curd mixture , salt and mix well. Simmer on a low flame till the kadhi thickens while stirring continuoulsy.

6. Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves.

Time to be Honest! :)

Hi Lovely Ladies, all of you have been so kind and encouraging to me in my journey of blogging. I fall short of words to thanks each of one you to have been there and as a moral support and praying for me and my family. There's a good news that I would like to share with you all. S has got a Promotion n transfer to Bangalore :) and I am so glad that I'll be back to where I belong.

We have to relocate within a very short period of time. I am very nervous, there's so much to do in so less time.

I would take some time off sometime towards the end of this month and will keep you informed about it. I will def. keep posting recipes in the meantime.Please stay in touch and do forgive me for my vanishing acts ...lol I feel like am advertising for some vanishing cream :)

Let's talk of awards now:

1. Pavithra Kodical has shared Kreative blogger award with me, big hug and heart felt thanks dear. (I've done the meme for the same in my ealier post)
2. Sushma Mallya has generously passed on The honest scrap award and the Scrumptious blog award Thanks a ton dear am so humbled :)
3. Lata Raja, Shri,Parita sweet heart of friends too have shared the honest scrap award with me. Thanks a lot dearies.

THE SCRUMPTIOUS BLOG AWARD...

It is the Scrumptious Blog Award -a blog award given to sites who:
Inspire you Encourage You
May give Fabulous information
A great read
Has Scrumptious recipes
Any other reasons you can think of that make them Scrumptious!

Thanks again Sushma, you are a sweetheart :) I would love to share this award with all my blogger friends who have been so warm and encouraging! Please feel free to pick it up ladies, I get my inspiration from you all and each one of you deserves it ....:)

The Honest Scrap Award:

This award comes with the following rules:

I must thank the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link it

I must list 10 honest things about myself

I must put a copy of The Honest Scrap Logo on my blog.

I must select at least 7 other worthy bloggers and list their links

I must notify the bloggers of the award and hopefully they will follow the above three requirements also.

Here are 10 honest things about me..

1. I connect well with kids, I am good at teaching little kids. Thanks to my elder sister for recognising this ability in me, she says am very creative in teaching the little ones :)

2. I apply God's Kumkum everynight, if I happen to forget I'm sure to get a scary dream and wake up screaming ;)

3. I am a very spiritual person and have conversations with God, I strongly believe that he listens and answers in his own way :)

4. I've recently given up non-vegetarian food.

5. I dont like deep fried eats :) :) No, not for diet purpose and stuff! from my childhood I dont like things like chips, bhajjis, bondas, samosas :) I dont like them just like that ;)

6. I am a very patriotic person. I love my country and get tears in my eyes when I watch any programmes about soldiers and their bravery , like Lata Raja I too get very emotional each time the national anthem is sung.

7. I truly believe in conserving water, electricity and recycling.

8. I enjoy anything connected to art from music, dance, painting, theatre ...

9. I love to cook. Simple food pleases me the most

10. I wouldnt have tried my hands in baking if I had'nt been doing my rounds in the blogsphere.

It would be extemely difficult to name just a few of them for this award. Please feel free to pick your awards lovely ladies. Sparing a few minutes to read the posts in the blogsphere and leaving a line or two in the food blog itself show how honestly you all ...rather we all have become a close knit group or rather like a family. Do take your award and write 10 things about yourselves.

Thanks

Keep the inspiration on!

TC