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Archive for April, 2009

Mango Juice

April 30th, 2009

This is simple juice unlike milkshakes and smoothies. I have used honey instead of sugar. The taste was gud :)

Mango Juice

Mango Juice


Ingredients:

Mangoes
Honey (Depending on the sweetness of the fruit)
Yogurt: 1 tsp
Elachi (Cardamom) powder: a pinch (optional)
Saffron: few strands (optional)

Preparation Method:

  • Mix all the ingredients and blend it in a mixier adding water.
  • Garnish with mint leaves and serve chill.

Green Grape juice revisited :)

Green grapes juice

Green grapes juice

I am sending the Mango juice and the Green grape juice to Anu Sriram’s RD for summer event.

I totally forgot about the last date of this event. My entries make their way to this event just before closing :D Hope they qualify!

Anu's Kitchen , ,

Kaju Roll | Cashew Burfi | Kaju katli

April 29th, 2009

I very badly wanted to taste kaju katli. Its my hubby’s favorite too. I started off grinding Kaju (cashew) only then I realized that I dont have ghee and I had to buy it :D Nothing could stop me. I somehow ended up preparing the kaju burfi without ghee (believe me no ghee at all). The taste was too gud! Since I didnt have ghee I made kaju burfis and rolls instead of making katlis. Here is the kaju roll recipe.

Kaju Roll | Cashew Burfi

Kaju Roll | Cashew Burfi

Am sending this recipe to Poornima’s Let’s go Nuts event started by Aquadaze.

lets-go-nuts

Ingredients:

Cashews: 2.5 cups
Sugar:1 cup
Water: 1/2 cup
Elachi (Cardamom) powder:1/2 tsp

Preparation Method:

  • Roast the cashews without oil/ghee for just 2 mins.
  • Grind the cashews as coarse powder.
  • Mix sugar in water and allow it to boil.
  • Keep boiling till we get one string consistency.
  • Remove it from the stove top.
  • Add the powdered cashew and elachi to the sugar syrup.
  • Mix thoroughly.
  • Spread the mixture on a greased plate.
  • Cut it into pieces to enjoy the kaju katli.

    • Since I didnt have ghee/butter to grease the plate and spread the mixture, I prepared Kaju rolls by rolling the mixture (into cylindrical shape). I didnt apply ghee/butter to my hands before rolling them, still it came our very well without sticking to my hands :)

      Anu's Kitchen , , ,

Wheat flour Ladoo | Godhumai Laddoo | Godhi Laddu

April 27th, 2009

Wheat flour ladoo is easy to prepare snack. I feel happy to send this recipe to Mahima’s 15 min cooking event.

I wish I could finish the entire cooking within 15 mins :D I hate standing in kitchen for a long time! Well let me not digress, here is the jiffy godhumai ladoo recipe.

Wheat flour ladoo | Godhumai laddoo | Godhi laddu

Wheat flour ladoo | Godhumai laddoo | Godhi laddu

Ingredients:

Wheat flour: 1 cup
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Elachi (Cardamom) powder: 1/2 tsp
Ghee: 4 tsps
Milk: 1/2 cup

Preparation Method:

  • Melt the ghee and roast the wheat flour till it turns brownish in color.
  • Remove from the stove top.
  • Add elachi powder and sugar to the roasted flour.
  • Now add milk little by little and make small balls out of the wheat flour - sugar mixture.
  • Wheat flour ladoos are ready!

Time Required: Roasting wheat flour takes 4-5 mins. Preparing ladoos would take another 5-7 mins.

Tips:

We can use the kasandu (sediments that we get while preparing ghee from butter) for preparing this ladoo. Weight watchers pls avoid this as it has high content of fat :)

Anu's Kitchen , ,

Ayan in Sathyam Cinemas Chicago !

April 24th, 2009

A gud news for the Chicagoans! Sathyam cinemas is here :) Its a pity that the theaters in which the Indian films (especially south indian) are screened lacks the state of art technology. After being accustomed to the theaters like Inox, Sathyam, Mayajal etc in Chennai, the desi film theaters in Chicago seemed as booth bungalows :D For the past one year I didn’t watch any Tamil movie at all. To my surprise I came to know that Sathyam Cinemas is here at Downer’s Grove (West suburb Chicago land). As expected the theater was gud. Far better than the ones that I had already been to :D

Ayan - Starring Surya and Tamanna (Credits:tamilsuperhits.com)

Ayan - Starring Surya and Tamanna (Credits:tamilsuperhits.com)

Ayan is Surya’s latest hit (??!!) movie. Surya pairs with Tamanna. She looks beautiful and bubbly too. But the pair lack on screen chemistry! All the romantic scenes are so pathetic :(

Surya plays the role of a courier helping out the smuggler Dass (Prabhu). Kamalesh, the dedut villain tries to surpass Dass in the smuggling business. Surya helps Dass and eventually succors the government (customs) in finding out the smuggling Don Kamalesh.

Stunts are gud! Must appreciate Kanal Kannan for the mind blowing heroic stunts. But one gets bored to see the “Elongated” fight sequences (especially the stunt scenes in Congo). Innocent people are used to smuggle drugs to Malaysia. Most of the smuggling scenes are total gross and makes us puke :(

Cinematography is gud. We get to see lots of new places in the Songs. They are really a treat to our eyes. Most of the songs are unnecessarily included in the film! Its shocking to hear that the music is composed by Harris. (Avasarathula tune potaru pole!!) All the songs carry almost the same beat and I felt I have heard the tunes before!

I liked Jagan as Surya’s friend. One can easily make out that he is the spy sent by Kamalesh to dig the secrets of the smuggler Dass. But the director throws the suspicion on hearing impaired Karunas (Dass’s gangmen). This film has given a new villain Akashdeep! He irritates us to the core. (Well that is what a villain is supposed to do :D ) He is the same “Ansh Gujral” from the famous Hindi soap “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi”. Anyone who had watched this serial would promptly make out who the new villain is :D

Ayan Villain - Akashdeep Saigal (Credits:tamil.galatta.com)

Ayan Villain - Akashdeep Saigal (Credits:tamil.galatta.com)

During the shoot, an interesting event took place involving Akashdeep. When he entered the sets, initially nobody recognized him and he was mistaken to be a character artist. But on the fourth day of the shoot, when it was shot in Sowcarpet, he was mobbed by people living in that locality and traffic came to a standstill the moment he stepped out of his car! All the North Indians in that area are very familiar with the actor’s TV serials; they wanted only his autograph, not Suriya’s. Perhaps this was the first time Suriya had to face such a situation in Chennai. It was only after this incident that the entire crew realized how popular Akashdeep is. K.V. Anand was finally convinced that he had selected the right person for the villain’s role. [Source: tamil.galatta.com]

Heard that Ayan is gonna be dubbed in Telugu as “Veedokkade” and is scheduled to be released on 1st week of May. On the whole Surya in Ayan, couldnt remind us “Anbu Selvan” (Kakka Kakka) or “Sanjay Ramasamy” (Ghajini)! This film can be watched for its cinematography and super duper stunts!

PS: The poster of Ayan featuring Surya has been put up in New Jersey metro railway station. Commuters have been attracted by this. This is the first in Tamil cinema history; a Tamil film poster is displayed in America :) [Source: tamilwire.com]

General , , ,

Kozhukattai | Modakam

April 21st, 2009

Kozhukattai or Modakams are rice dumplings filled with sweet coconut mix called pooranam. Modakams are offered to Lord Ganesha during the Vinayaka chaturthi pooja. All of us in our house love this sweet treat. Here am posting the Kozhukattai recipe (followed exact measurements that amma gave :D )

Kozhukattai | Modakam

Kozhukattai | Modakam

Ingredients:

Raw rice: 1 cup
Coconut (Grated): 1 cup
Jaggery: 1 cup
Elachi (Cardamom) powder: 2 tsps
Sugar: 2 tsps
Milk: 1/4 cup

Preparation Method:

  • Wash rice and soak it in water for about 5 mins.
  • Drain the water completely and dry it in shade for couple of hrs.
  • Grind the dried rice into fine powder.
  • Slightly fry the rice flour for 1-2 mins.
  • Heat 1 cup of water.
  • Add milk and sugar to the water and allow it to boil.
  • As it boils, change the flame to low and then slowly add rice flour.
  • Keep stirring.
  • Rice flour and water should mix very well.
  • Remove the dough from the stove and keep it aside.
  • Meanwhile prepare the pooranam.
    • Add 2 tsps of water and heat the jaggery.
    • Once the jaggery gets completed dissolved and starts boiling add the grated coconut.
    • Keep stirring for few 2-3 mins.
    • Remove the mixture from the stove and add elachi powder to it.
  • Make small balls out of the rice flour dough.
  • Press it in your palm and flatten it or make it as a cup.
  • Make small ball out of the pooranam that we had prepared.
  • Place the pooranam in the dough and close it.
  • While stuffing the pooranam, seal it completely.
  • The pooranam placed within the rice flour dough should not be visible.
  • Place the sweet dumplings on a idly plate and steam cook it for 7-10 mins.
  • Kozhukattais are ready to relish!

Blogging pals Priya Sriram, Pooja and Kavitha have passed me “I love ur blog” award.

Love ur blog award

Love ur blog award

Thanks a lot dearies :) As per the rules, I need to share this only with 7 friends. Mmmm… thats really hard. Am gonna break the rules (he he). Here am passing this lovely award to all my blogging buddies.

Anu Sriram
Divya
EC
Kavitha
Mahima
Meenal
Pooja
Priya Sriram
Purnima
Rajani
Sripriya
Usha
Varunavi
Vicky Xavier

Congratulations friends :)

Anu's Kitchen , ,