A post full of Hope

First I saw it on Meeta’s blog. Then it was on Nupur’s blog and I can’t resist cooking it. This simple and healthy dish is are testy too , which made me its fan in just first cooking.

Though I Couldn’t get pearl couscous and cranberries too :(, so I tried it with broken one and added some soaked golden Raisins in place of Cranberries. Added some red chili and 2-3 cloves to make it little spicy and it turn out to be perfect to my taste.

Vegetable of the Week is -

Bottle Gourd.
Sadly no one guessed it correct and here I am to announce it.
Call it Dudhi(in Gujarati ) , dudhi bhopla(in Marathi ) , lauki( in Hindi) Sorakaya( in Telugu??? ) , or simply bottle gourd .
This light to digest veggie has many benefits to consume it . I am going to try making something this month which might help the haters of it to convert into its lover .

And the Award for Bell Pepper dishes goes to....

The Most Authentic Recipe - Alka keshwani for Sindhi style Dhaas Shimla Mirch

VoW- JFI "Bell Pepper " Round up

First of all apology to all whom I kept waiting for this Round Up to appear. And a big thank you dear Indira , for providing me this opportunity to host JFI and allowing me to combine it with VoW. Blogging and specially these events and round ups are something I just love to do , knowing that LOVE of mine I made some resolutions myself to follow it silently ( you know now, why I am not blogging that much now ) and surprisingly I followed it too :z . Last week was one such time where again I set up a resolution for myself to complete a certain task first before I publish this round up. And my "eager to publish this" heart made me complete that task too even faster, so I am a happy girl now while publishing this to all of you :).

One Post 2 Guests- for VoW-JFI Bell Peppers...

Mumbai girl Supriya Natu lives in Seattle with husband and 5 year old cute daughter. She sent me this on 27th to be a part of "VoW-JFI- Bell Peppers "

Here is her recipe of Quesadilla in her own words...

Tawa Vegetables, clicking Beans n lentils & Mango Manthram :D

I loved "Tawa vegetables" in restaurants , and we had enough of that in Pune at a restaurant names"Atithya"( which literally mean the warm way to welcome guests). I loved the name ,service, cleanliness and food of that restaurant. Now ever since I moved out of NJ , I try those restaurant styled curries at home mainly. It is not easy to rush to nearest Indian restaurant now, as the nearest one is also not so near :)). But I must accept that it prompts me to try many innovative thing in my kitchen now. And over all my mind is working much on how to make such curries... and likely thoughts... to make it perfect with colors and tastes too. Here is something which I tried recently.
Tawa vegetable means vegetables cooked on flat styled pan (Tawa) adding some spices to it. They normally fry (shallow/deep ) each veggies and paneer.Then together cook it for a while adding all the spices and paneer cubes for a while. Tastes always too good, and who count the amount of fat you deposit when you eat out :)).

Capsicum Rice -A Guest Post

Our guest this month is Ujwal Prashanth Rao , who choose to share recipe of "Capsicum rice " to be a part of "VoW-JFI " this month . Here is the recipe in his own words.

Ingredients:
1 cup chopped mixed bell peppers (I used red, yellow and green)
1.5 cups of cooked Basmati rice (Ensure that rice grains are well separated and not over cooked)
1 tbsp Oil
1 big Onion chopped
3 Garlic pods chopped fine
0.5 tsp red chilli powder, Garam masala powder/Kitchen King (Increase/decrease as per taste)
2 tsp Lemon juice
Few Coriander leaves chopped fine
Salt as per taste

Daal Bati

With so many food blog events going on , If you are making any dish at home I think it will suit to one or many of the ongoing events :) . Thats what exactly happened to me, while I was planning to make Daal bati.
The idea of making it started with movie" Jodha-Akbar" , it reminded me of how much we used to enjoy Daal bati dish in India at "Sanjha Chulha " restaurant ,which was famous for its Daal bati . Now here , no luck so far to have such delightful dish to enjoy ready made from some restaurant. So I thought to give it a try . And there was RCI-Rajasthan announced then , not only that , it perfectly suits to the idea behind this book makes me cook event of bhags :) .



This Daal Bati is one of some dishes which Maalika-E- Hindustand Jodha made for Jalaluddin Mohammed Akbar in movie " Jodha-Akbar".

Lets celebrate completion of 2 brilliant year of JFI together....

It's been exactly 2 years since we had first round up of JFI .Completing 2 successful years on May 1^st , Jihva for Ingredients is now landing on "My creative Ideas" for the month of May. Last year when Indira herself hosted it with the beautiful theme of "Mother earth" (JFI-Greens) for the 1^st anniversary of JFI. This year Jigyasa and Pratibha did a wonderful job at Jihva for Love round up.

To celebrate the completion of dazzling 2 years of this food event, JFI and VoW is coming together this spring to invite you to cook colorful dishes with ”Bell Peppers “ .

(Bell pepper image courtesy - http://www.producepedia.com)

Bell Peppers/Sweet peppers/Capsicum/ Shimla Mirch/Tondali Mirch – call it by any name it is always a good option to cook a healthy dish . And who don’t love the colors they have ? So put your thinking cap on and send in something nice soon .... :) .

VoW-Bitter gourd awards goes to...

Cham for her Pavakai Kozhambu ( Bitter gourd curry ) .