Thenga maanga sundal

A visit to Marina beach is incomplete without munching the sundal or enjoying the tangy theekka milaga bajji.  I used to admire the young lads mostly in their early teens selling sundal with full vigor.  I personally feel that certain eats would have the fullest satisfaction if had in a small quantity like this sundal which is given in a small paper cone, 4 to 5 mango pieces dipped in red chilly and salt in front of Nallis in T'Nagar etc etc,  But, since I had to wait for another couple of months to visit Chennai and the Marina beach, I prepared at home and it was a huge success and all of us at home had this sundal sitting  in the Corniche which is quite similar to the Marina.

Ingredients:

Chenna - 1/2 kg
Green chillies - 2 tsp finely chopped
Curry leaves - 2 tsp
Coriander leaves - 4 tsp finely chopped
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Mango - 1/2 mango finely chopped
Grated fresh coconut- 4 tbsp
Ginger - 1 tsp finely chopped
Salt
Lemon - 2
Oil

Boil the chenna with salt and strain in a colander.  In a heavy pan, add oil and then the mustard seeds, when it splutters add the green chillies, curry leaves and add the cooked chenna. Stir it till it is dry and devoid of any water content.  Now, add the coriander leaves, finely chopped mango pieces, finely chopped ginger, grated coconut  and the juice of two lemon.  Mix well and the spicy 'chat pata' sundal is ready to eat.

'If the divine Creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite thing to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony' - Fernand Point

Janmashtami wishes to all my blogger friends

This is one of my favourite pic of Lord Krishna and may all of us seek His Blessings  this Janmashtami.

Usli sevai - Sevai with a twist

All of us are familiar with sevai or idiyappam as it is commonly called as it is quite easy to dish out with readymades available now.  But, I still prefer the traditional method of making the sevai with the 'sevai naazhi' or the 'sevai machine' and especially the taste is too good if it is prepared with boiled rice.  Here, I come with usli sevai which is quite filling and tasty too.

Ingredients for Sevai:

Boiled rice - 3 cups
Salt
Oil

Soak boiled rice for about 5 to 6 hours and grind it fine, add salt.  In a thick bottom pan, pour two tablespoon of oil and pour the ground mixture.  Keep it in low flame and let the rice paste cook and turn color from white to grey.  When the mixture does not stick to your wet fingers you know that  the rice paste is cooked.   While hot, dip hands in cold water and make balls of the same and keep it in idli cooker for about 7 to 8 minutes.  Once it is done, the balls to be inserted into the sevai machine and made into sevai.

Ingredients for Usli

Urad dal - 1 cup
Green chillies -4 to 5 (according to your taste)
Hing/Perungayam
Mustard seeds - 1/2tsp
Salt
Red chillies- 4 to 5
Curry leaves

Soak urad dal for 20 minutes and grind it coarsely with green chillies,hing and salt.  Place the ground mix in an idli plate and steam it for 10 minutes.  Take out these urad dal idlis and allow it to cool completely.  Fragment these idlis and keep aside.  In a kadai, pour two tablespoons of oil, add a teaspoon of urad dal, half a teaspoon of mustard seeds, red chillies, curry leaves and put the usli and keep stirring.  Now, add the sevai to this usli and very gently mix it so that the sevai retains its shape.

A very interesting version of the regular sevai and very filling too.

International passengers carry interesting baggages, I do, do you?????

Hey friends, there was an interesting write-up in Times Of India where they found out that Indian passengers carry very interesting baggages from their homeland, some even mangoes and noodles too.

Middle east is the place where we get all the Indian products at Indian stores.  But, again if one is on the look out for a particular brand, then I am not sure if it is available.  I have known people carrying fresh jasmine flowers too as the travel time is only three hours from India.  On the personal front,  I find the spices are much more aromatic in India and feel that if I prepare Sambar powder with Indian stuff, the flavour is so authentic.  This stands first in my list of packages from Chennai.  Mustard seeds of that minute size is not available here,so I carry enough to last a few months.  Of course, goodies from Grand sweets or Adyar Ananda Bhavan is a must and my friends wait for those too.  Being a grandmom,  my mind is always on the look out for something unique that I can carry to US for my daughters and grand children especially the typical cotton clothes.

Back to my problem of what to carry and what not, as I visit US quite often, but annoyed by the recent restriction of the baggage weight. These airlines have become smart over the period. Earlier days, we were permitted to carry 2 baggages of 35 kgs each, and now only one baggage of 23 kg. Imagine 68% reduction in carrying capacity. This is very hard on us who wish to carry the entire world to our children and grand children. This family unfriendly decision by the Airlines industries is a great hurdle in promoting family values !!!. Here goes the list from Abu Dhabi to US. My relatives, friends and neighbours love to have the choco dates. It is a unique combination of dates stuffed with roasted almonds and dipped in milk chocolates packed attractively and provides the royal touch. Fresh motichooooor laddoo, how can I forget, at least a couple of kg from Chappanbogh is a must item. I prefer to carry plenty of Saggeei dates, nuts and Arabic sweets to give them the Middle east touch. So, having stuffed my suitcase with Chennai and Abu Dhabi purchases (remember 23 kgs), where is the scope for my personal items. Most of them goes into hand baggage and my husband will carry out inventory balancing and adjust the weights as if he would be in a position to hoodwink the checkin counter staff.

In reality,  to walk through with  hand bag  3 to 4 kgs above the limit,  brings out my hidden natural artist in me  every  time I check in at the airport.

At the airport, the check in bag cleared with 26 kgs  mmmmmm  great relief.  ‘Ma’m how about your hand baggage?’  My highly expressive enactment satisfied the counter staff  that it is not much beyond the permissible limit and here I gooooooooo.   What an effort to avoid few kgs of excess baggage. In spite of all this, I end up paying excess baggage most of the time, as I cannot forego some of the above items en route.

In my opinion, the body weight and the luggage weight  of the person should be a combined limit, so that sleek person like me can gain advantage !!!!!!!!!!