Tomato Kurma, Dill-Dabeli Masala Parathas, Chutney Pudi-Aloo fries with Strawberry Lassi!

Happy Holi to all of you! :)

Yes!! Spring..err.. Summer like weather is here at last! It was sunny 80+F the last weekend and hot rest of this week too! But ground is still not warm enough, I will have to wait until May to start planting in my veggie patch.

In other news, if you remember my little experiments from last week's post of not shopping for 14 days and to go on liquid detox for one day a week, here are the updates!
I did not shop last Saturday as I usually do but ran out of milk, OJ and bread 2 days later. With two teenagers around, I had to shop on the 10th day! I fell 4 days short of my goal, mission NOT accomplished!

But I did successfully complete one whole day of liquid diet on last Thursday though! It wasn't bad at all, lived on 7 cups of liquid for the whole day. Body surely protested by giving me headache and nausea but my mind is lot stronger even though it felt like the longest day of my life!! Next day, hubby says I needed to drink about 10-12 glasses (8oz each) of liquid per day to avoid dehydration and headache if we are not eating solids! Well..too late now, will keep that in mind in future! :P

Btw, we have two birthdays to celebrate this weekend, very busy days for us parents as well! My boy is 14 and my girl is 18 on Saturday and Monday respectively! Finally, one is an adult. YES!! Oh wait, she gets her own bank account and a credit card next week! OH NO! HELP!! :D
Details in my next post.

Okie dokie!! Now let's get on with it without too much yakking from me, shall we? I have spicy Tomato Kurma, festive masaledar Lachcha Parathas, my mom's Chutney pudi, Dabeli masala smothered Aloo fries and a delicious Strawberry lassi for this week. Sounds good, huh?
I will be sending these to few events, logos and links are at the bottom of the post. You can click on all the photos to enlarge them.

Tomato Kurma:
Tomato Kurma is adapted from one of the Mallika Badrinath's books. It's delicious and down to earth as most of her recipes are. Tomato is a fruit but mostly used as vegetable in our kitchen. It is also high in Vitamin A and C, which are good source for us, specially for kids. Since kids usually like Tomatoey Spaghetti sauce, using Tomatoes in Kurma is another way to utilize the goodness. With antioxidant benefits, Tomatoes are excellent for reducing the risk of Cancer too.

You need:
4-5 Tomatoes, Cilantro to garnish, 1 tsp Jaggary or sugar, enough salt.
Seasoning:
2 tsp oil and 1 tsp ghee, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 garlic,chopped,1 large onion chopped, 1-2 green chillies, sliced.
Grind all these to a smooth paste with enough warm water and keep aside:
1/3 cup fresh coconut, 5-6 Cashew nuts, 1 tbsp Poppy seeds, 1 tbsp Coriander seeds, 1/4 tsp chilli pd or 2 red dry chillies, 1 tsp Garam masala. (no need to roast the spices before grinding)
To make Kurma:
1. Heat oil and ghee, add cumin seeds, garlic, chillies, stir for a minute and add onion and fry until soft.
2. Add Tomatoes, salt, sugar, cook until Tomatoes are soft. Turn down the heat.
3. Add the ground coconut masala to this dish and simmer for 30 mins or until you get a delicious aroma. Adjust the salt and spices, add cilantro.
4. Serve with Dill masala Parathas or Dosas or idlies.

Festive Parathas for Holi! Dill and Dabeli masala stuffed Parathas:
Since Holi is not one of the well celebrated festival in South India unlike in North India, I am not very familiar with the traditional Holi festival foods. After reading the choices at Purva's blog about Parathas as one of the foods for Holi, I made these masaledar colorful Parathas for her Holi event. They are colorful with Dill (Ashwini's idea to add Dill) and flavorful with the Dabeli masala added to the dough. Enjoy! :)

You need:
2 cups of Wheat flour, 1/2 cup Dill leaves chopped, (optional), 1 tbsp oil, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp Fennel seeds powder, 1 tsp coriander seeds pd, 1/2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp Dabeli masala (store bought or home made), 1/4 cup yogurt and enough warm water to make a firm dough.

Home made Dabeli Masala:
2 tsp cumin seeds pd, salt, 1/4 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp Kala namak (black salt), 1 tsp Mango powder, pinch of Nutmeg/Mace powder, 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 1/8 tsp clove powder, 1/4 tsp Turmeric. Mix all these and use as needed.

Layered Parathas:
Enlarge the collage if you want to see the details of folding the Parathas.

To make Parathas:
1. Add the above in a mixer or mix by hand and knead this to a firm non-sticky dough for 5 mins. Divide into equal portions. Cover the bowl and rest the dough for atleast 15mins or more.
2. Now, look at the collage. First roll one dough ball to 4", spray no-stick or brush some oil, fold the top 2/3rd way down. Fold the top again to a cigar style and stretch the dough to make it longer.
3. Now curl this elongated dough into a peda or snail like shape, flatten and roll out again gently without pressing too hard to keep the layers to a 5-6" circle. Repeat with others.
4. Heat a tava, cook these parathas both sides until golden, brushing with oil or ghee on top while it's still warm and sprinkle some Dabeli Masala on top.

Note:If you don't want to make layers, you can also just roll the dough balls to 5-6" circles' 1/8th thick and cook on Tava too.
Serve these with Tomato Kurma or just with plain yogurt or raita or Pickle.

Mom's Karnataka style Chutney Pudi:
This is one of the three Chutney pudis/powders my mother makes at home. This one has 2 kinds of dal and it's supposed to be very spicy to go with plain Yogurt and rice or dosas and idlies with some ghee. But I add a bit less chilli pd than usual. You can add as much as you like. Great with hot chapatis with a tsp of ghee drizzled on top of this chutney pudi as well.

You need:
1 cup Chana dal,
1/2 cup Urad dal,
1/4 cup dry grated coconut,
and 1 tsp coriander seeds.
enough dry red chillies to your taste.
or enough chill powder,(do not roast this but add it to the grinder)

enough salt to taste,
1 /4 tsp Turmeric,
1/2 tsp Sugar (Optional)
1 tsp or more Tamarind powder.
(or take a large marble sized tamarind (not tamarind paste), roast this until it's a bit dry and stiff. As it cools, it will be drier and easy to powder along with others.)

To make chutney pudi:
Roast first 4 of the above ingredients one by one in a hot pan until reddish, cool them and powder adding the other ingredients on the list coarsely. Do not powder this mixture very fine, it should grainy like Semolina/Rava. Adjust the salt, chilli and Tamarind as you like it. Crunchy Chutney pudi should be well balanced, spicy and tangy. You can add some sugar too, if you like the sweet, tangy and hot taste!

If you make a small amount of chutney pudi and use it quickly, store it in a jar with airtight lid on the counter or in the pantry. If not, it's better to keep it in the fridge, lasts longer there since this pudi has coconut in it.

Dabeli masala and Chutney Pudi laced Aloo fries with Strawberry Lassi for kids!
well...who doesn't like thick cut baked golden Potato fries? They are excellent to munch on for kids and adults. With masala sprinkled on the crispy baked Aloo, they are great for snacking on their own or on the side with a burger or few cutlets. You can use large Potatoes cut into fingers and fry or bake to make these masalaedar aloo fries.

To make masala Fries:
I used frozen crinkled cut Potatoes, baked them at 450F oven until golden. Took them out and sprinkled half the portion with above Dabelai masala, dry herbs and salt and sprinkled the other half portion with salt and my Chutney pudi which I have given recipe above. You can cut Potatoes into long 3-4" fingers and shallow fry and sprinkle with masalas if frozen is not Potato fries are not available to you. Serve this with delicious thick Strawberry Lassi!! Slurp!! :)

Strawberry Lassi:
When FIC event said Pink, I immediately thought Strawberry smoothies. After seeing many smoothies and milk shakes in other blogs, I thought of making it Indian fusion Lassi with Strawberries. It was delicious. If the strawberries are fresh and sweet, you need less sugar and few ice cubes. I used frozen Strawberries, so more sugar needed and no ice! How thick or thin you want the Lassi, it depends on how much water you add. Strawberry Lassi is a great source of Calcium, Fiber, Vitamins and Protein too. Enjoy.

Here it is:
Add 1 cup frozen or fresh Strawberries, 1 cup plain Yogurt, 1/2 cup milk and 1/4 cup ice cubes, 1/8 cup or enough sugar powder into a blender and make a smooth thickish drink. If you like to add flavor, add few drops Vanilla essence or few Pistachios while blending. But natural flavor of Strawberries is good enough for me. I like my Lassi little thicker, add more water if you want thinner Lassi. Chill Lassi for an hour to serve. Makes about 3-4 servings.

Here are logos of each event, link to their announcement pages and list of my dishes I am sending to these events, please click on the collage to enlarge. Thanks to all the event hosts, enjoy! :)

Tomato Kurma, goes to Sanghi of "Sanghi's Tasty Bites" blog's new event "Fall in Love-Tomato".

Chutney Pudi, goes to Smitha of "Kadumanga" and to her "Colors of taste-Podis" event.

Masala Potato fries, goes to Deepa of "Simple Home cooking" blog's event "Cooking for kids-Potato" and this event is started by Sharmi.

Wheat flour Dill-masala Parathas, go to Roma of "Roma's space", who is guest hosting "JFI-Wheat" this month, an event started by Indira.

Colorful and festive Dabeli Masala Parathas, also go to Purva of "Purva's Dawat" blog's event "Festive Food-Holi".

Delicious Strawberry Lassi, goes to Priya of "Priya's easy and tasty recipes" who is guest hosting "Food in Color-Pink", an event started by Harini.

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My tried and tasted dishes from other blogs, thanks for posting these, girls! :)

Kathirikkai Mor-Kuzhambu, from Malar.
(Cubed the Eggplants since I only had the US style huge purple ones. Finger licking recipe, different from the usual Mor kolzhambu!)
Moogachi Hirwi Amti, from Meera.
(Was delicious and nutritious, skipped the optional coconut milk but added everything else)
Keerai Molagutal, from Super chef.
(Added a bit of tamarind, can't go wrong with this yummy Spinach and dal Molagotal!)

Book I am reading now:
"The quilt and other stories" by Ismat Chughtai. (1915-1991)
Born in 1915 and growing up in a very conservative Muslim family in India, Ismat Chugtai started writing in Urdu when she was in her 20s. Her short story "The Quilt or Lihaaf" was about a young girl who was temporarily staying with her female relative remembering an incident where two women were having a sexual relationship, which was frowned upon at that time. She was charged with "indecent writing" in 1944 for this story by the British Imperial court and she won that case too! How about that?! Happy International Women's day to her! :)
Her stories have been sufficiently well-translated into English by two women; Tahira and Syeda, other stories are very interesting too although it's not easy to translate from poetic Urdu to English. Her other stories are equally endearing in this book. It must be excellent to read them in Ismat's own words in Urdu but unfortunately most of us can't. Thank God for English translation!

Movies I saw:
"Flashbacks of a Fool"
Daniel Craig, "MR. BOND" himself! 'Nuff said!! ;D
But seriously this movie makes you see how and why some "rich" people are such sad souls and every sad soul has a sadder story to tell! Great "R" rated movie to watch )

"I've Loved You So Long"
Loved this French movie with English subtitles. Kristen Scott Thomas, a British actress, keeps you glued to the movie until the last minute to know what happened in her past and why she killed her 6yr old son!

At last, I won a "Drool Worthy" award from Rathna of "Asvadha" blog when we sent in the entries for her "Made for each other" event. I have never ever won anything in my life, so I am deliriously happy, didn't even know I even get a surprise gift! WOO HOO! Thanks Rathna! :)

Lastly, thank you so much to all the bloggers who shower me with many cute awards week after week. I appreciate each one of them, cherish it and they are all listed on the sidebar with your names in it. Hugs to all of you, I am lucky to have all of your support. All of my blog buddies are welcome to grab these awards, you all deserve them. Have a great weekend my friends, have fun!