Ashadhi Ekadashi (An Auspicious start to blogging again)

A very big Hello to all my dear readers. Yes, I am back with Food-n-More after a year long break . And boy what an year it's been. It's brought about  huge changes for me and my family. As I already mentioned in my previous post, Food-n-More now comes to you from India and you bet I am very excited about that. Blogging from my home in India is going to be great fun for me. There is so much more I can experiment with here. I have my mom close by from whom I can take live demos from for all those dishes that I find daunting and besides having access to all the brilliant  ingredients available at my local grocer , I am also very excited about all the loads of crockery I have in my cupboards that I can use in my pics. My crockery is one thing I used to miss very badly when I was away.So much so that hubby used to say that I miss it more than I miss my parents, but I think most of my culinary buddies will relate to that feeling we have about our precious possessions in the kitchen.

Let me tell you that I spent a lot of time thinking about what I could blog about in my first post after so long. I kept thinking it had to be something extraordinary , something that would blow everybody way but then I altered my thinking and felt that it was also so much nicer to share something that I love eating myself, which is basically what I have always done  . And it is this thought that made it so much easier for me to start off.

I started writing this post yesterday as it was Ashadhi Ekadashi .Although not a very religious person at heart I thought it was a  good auspicious day to restart blogging. That's the reason behind the picture above of Lord Vitthal and Rukmini.. Ashadhi ekadashi is a religious procession festival and is celebrated during the months of June- July.  People consider the two eleventh days, "Ekadashi", of every month to be of special importance. But the eleventh day (bright) of Ashadh is known as the great Ekadashi or Mahaekadashi. This Mahaekadashi is also known as Shayani Ekadashi, because on this day Vishnu falls asleep to wake up four months later on Prabodhini Ekadashi in the Kartik month. This period is known as Chaturmas and coincides with the rainy season.

Now Ashadhi Ekadashi is a day of fast and on this day people go walking in huge processions to Pandharpur singing the Abhangas (chanting hymns) of Saint Tukaram and Saint Dnyaneshwar to see their God Vitthal. The yatra starts in Allandi and ends on Guru Poornima day at Pandharpur.

For me and my family Ekadashi is a day on which we enjoy all the foodie treats that are allowed on a day of fasting. Not for us a fast which comprises of eating only fruit or having only liquids .... oh no we love our "fast" food too much :)) So I made a couple of things yesterday, out of which I managed to photograph only one and that is my favourite Dahi Sabudana.

Now inspite of being my favourite it's surprising how rarely I make this dish. I don't know why. But I made it a point to make it yesterday and we all loved it, even my 9 year old who had it for the first time. It's one of those things which prove the saying "The simplest things in life sometimes give you the most pleasure" Well Dahi Sabudana definitely ticks all the boxes for me. What you need is:

Ingredients:

1 cup sabudana (Sago seeds)

1/2 cup crushed roasted peanuts

3/4 to 1 cup plain  yogurt

1/4 cup milk

4 tblspns finely chopped coriander

2 tspns sugar 

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

3 tblspns oil

2 green chillies finely chopped

2 tspns Jeera (cumin)

Method:

• You need a bit of prepping the day before you make this dish or in the morning if you would like to serve it in the evening .
• As this is a dish eaten cold and the sabudana is not actually cooked we need to roast the sabudana well before leaving it to soak.
• So roast the sabudana on a low to moderate flame for at least 15 to 20  minutes.
• Let it cool off completely before soaking it
• Once it has cooled soak it in water (water level should be only 1/2 a cm above the sabudana) for at least 6 to 7 hrs or overnight.
• To prepare the dish first prepare the tempering and leave it to cool.
• In a large bowl mix all the items listed under Ingredients and then add the cooled tempering to it. It is very important to have cooled the tempering before mixing it with the sabudana.
• Garnish the dish with more chopped coriander and crushed peanuts
• And that's it really .Dahi sabudana is ready to eat .  

Eat it at breakfast, as an evening snack or even as a light supper on the day of fasting. Or better still don't wait for a day of fasting enjoy it anyway. :))

Mango Bread-n-Butter Pudding

Although one day late , here I am as promised with the recipe for Mango Bread and Butter Pudding.The Mango flavour is just a twist on the classic Bread and Butter Pud which is a favourite in the UK. It's quick to prepare and delicious to taste. I made mine with Brioche rather than ordinary bread because I had some leftover Brioche, but ordinary white bread is fine too. Butter both sides of the bread slice if using plain bread. For Brioche you do not need to butter it as it already has a  lot of butter in it. As a variety Croissants can be used too .


Ingredients:
8 slices of Brioche/ or plain white bread
2 cups whole milk
3 eggs
handful of raisins
1 cup and a little more mango pulp (use canned or fresh) .If using fresh just blend the pulp to a smooth consistency  before using
2/3 tspns sugar (more if using plain bread)
2 tspns vanilla essense
Ground nutmeg to sprinkle on top (optional)


Method:
Preheat oven to 175deg C
Mix well together the milk ,eggs, sugar, vanilla, and mango pulp
Grease a baking dish and lay out the first layer of brioche slices. Sprinkle the raisins over the brioche.
Now lay out the second layer of brioche, and make sure all the raisins are covered under this layer, so they don't burn when you bake the pudding.
Pour the custard mixture over  the top now making sure to cover all the bread slices thoroughly.
Press down gently so the lower layer also soaks up the custard.
Bake for 25 to 30 mins or until the pudding is golden and puffed up.
Serve with fresh mango slices, warm custard, or  cream

ENJOY!!

P.S. For those of you who haven't yet read the round-up of Mango Moods just scroll down to the next post.

Layers of Chocolate Delight (For a sweet Christmas)

A very warm Hello after a long time. I believe we all need all the warmth we can get in this cold cold weather. My long break this time is due to the fact that my broadband connection was cut off and I could not access the internet for quite some time. But all is fixed now I am back. While I was away from blogging I did do a couple interesting things that I would love to share with you all.

I sold my first cake ever . Yesss ! I did. It was at the Christmas Bazaar in my son's school that I got the opportunity to do so. They had a cake stall at the bazaar and I made a Banana Cake. I was very happy .

And secondly I gave my first ever cooking lesson. OK maybe calling it a cooking lesson will be an exaggeration, as it involved only showing a friend how to prepare some Indian dishes. But all the same I did prepare for it very thoroughly. I showed her Chana Bhatura and Paneer Tikka . The Paneer Tikka will soon feature on Food-n-more. I really enjoyed doing it.

So doing these two things in the last 2 weeks has given me great joy. Today I am going to share with you another dish that I tried out a couple of days back for the first time.It's a very quick Chocolate Pudding. I saw this one on TV . It's a dessert that has maximum flavour with minimum efforts and ingredients. It's simply delicious and with the Christmas holidays coming up, it's the thing to make.

Ingredients:

200 gms dark chocolate,

200 gms double cream,

250 gms ready to eat custard,

one small plain sponge cake coarsely crumbled (or any other plain cake),

Method:

• Place a heat proof glass bowl over a saucepan with simmering water, break the chocolate into small pieces, place these in the bowl and melt the chocolate slowly. Take care that the water in the saucepan is just simmering and not boiling. Also the base of the glass bowl should not touch the water.
• After the chocolate has melted set it aside and let it cool down.


• In another bowl whip the double cream until it has soft peaks,


• When the chocolate cools add the chocolate to the whipped cream and fold it in gently.


• Next add to this the custard and again mix it in gently. This mixture has the same consistency as that of a mousse. And it's delicious to eat even at this stage. But let's take it a step further .


• I used ordinary glasses to serve this pudding. In the bottom of the glass first put a layer a layer of the chocolate mousse, then a layer of crumbled cake and then again a layer of mousse and continue alternating these layers till you come to the top. at this stage chill the pudding well . When serving decorate the top with a big dollop of whipped cream and grate a bit of chocolate for a special touch.

Believe me your guests will be asking for seconds. I am now going over with this delicious treat to Tasty Treats where JZ of Tasty Treats is hosting Santa's Holiday Challenge, a fabulous Christmas Event which will showcase all kinds of delicious Christmas Sweet Treats.

Announcing The Sandwich Festival 2008

Yes I am finally ready to host my second food event . The last food event I hosted Fun in the Sun was a great hit and I had many of you ask me when I would host the next one. Well it's taken me almost a year to announce the next one but I am very happy to say that it's going to be a celebration of a food item that I love the most.


Yes it's The Sandwich . I love bread and am constantly looking for ideas to make different kinds of sandwich creations. They are great in lunch boxes and perfect food when you are on the go. They are also a healthy option when you are too tired to cook and whatsmore a sandwich is something that even husbands can make on their own without grumbling too much. So would you all like to share your sandwich ideas with me?



Use any kind of bread of your choice (white, wholemeal, granary, oatmeal, best of both, farmhouse, wholemeal baps, soft white rolls, subway rolls ,hotdog rolls or any kind of wraps). All breads are welcome. Let your imagination run wild with the filling be it vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Your sandwich could be toasted or untoasted, open or closed, single,double or triple decker. Be as creative as you can.



Festival is open to Bloggers and Non-bloggers. Send me your entries with photographs by 24th of May 2008 at anupama.puranik@gmail.com . Non-bloggers please do not hesitate to participate. Mail me your entries with or without photographs and each and every entry will be included . Please also include your name, name of your sandwich, your blogname and bloglink. In your posts feel free to use the picture above and link your post to this post on Food-n-More so that more and more people can participate.



I am waiting for your entries. Get slicing!!

My Food-Stall (A Fantastic Experience)

About 130 Surali Wadis that I made for the Event

Since my school days I have had one belief firm in my mind and that is if you really really work hard at something it always pays . Be it an exam, a talent contest or a sports event if you pour your heart and soul into preparing for it ,it has to give you positive results and my belief was once again proved right this last weekend.

It was a Family Picnic cum Cricket Match event organised by the Marathi Association in my city. One of the chief highlights of this event was the food stalls. Anyone interested could book themselves a food stall and sell some food items there. You had to make enough for about 50 to 60 people. The task was a bit daunting because I have never cooked on such a large scale and initially I was really not sure whether I wanted to get into it . But with a lot of encouragement and support from my husband I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Going ahead meant I was cooking food for two days and constantly worrying whether it would be enough .

But before the actual cooking the difficult task was to identify what I would like to sell. We were not allowed any kind of heating facilities at the venue, so the item/s had to be such that would taste good even when eaten cold. So after a lot of brain-racking we decided on Suralichi Wadi (which is an authentic Marathi dish) and Mango Flavored Sheera(or Suji Halwa as it is called in Hindi).

Boxes packed with the goodies all ready for sale

Along with the food we had to carry a portable table to arrange all the stuff on, disposable plates,spoons ,paper napkins,bin bags, the signs advertising what we were selling and for how much,a tablecloth, some old newspapers and some plastic carry bags. It was quite a lot of stuff to carry .

At the venue after we set up our little stall the only thing to do was wait for people to come up and buy something from us. Initially very few people came to our stall. There were 2 main reasons for that . Firstly the event started at 2.30 p.m so everybody had had lunch at home and them come and secondly the stall next to me sold Wada-pav which is a very popular item so most people were obviously attracted there first.

But slowly people started approaching my stall too and die-hard marathi food lovers can never say no to suralchi wadi which is made very rarely now a days even at home. So once the word got around that I was selling Suralichi Wadi and Mango Sheera and that they tasted awesome my sales picked up. Everyone loved the two items and I even had a few ladies ask me how I had prepared the two and so on. Boy did I enjoy all the attention.

Our Little Helper who disappeared as soon as he found a play area close by.

Well to cut a long story short at the end of 5 hours we had SOLD OUT. Yes , we sold everything. I was so thrilled. We also made a profit which we are going to spend by treating ourselves to something special .

I am so looking forward to the next event now