Liebster Award

Today - January 26th is the Republic Day in INDIA. In India, Republic Day honours the date on which the Constitution of India came into force on 26 January 1950.

The main Republic Day celebration is held in the national capital, New Delhi, at the Rajpath before the President of India. On this day, ceremonious parades take place at the Rajpath, which are performed as a tribute to India.

Another important part of the Republic Day celebrations is that various awards are given away to the Indians honouring their service and exceptional achievements/service in all fields of activities/disciplines, such as Art, Literature and Education, Sports, Medicine, Social Work, Science and Engineering, Public Affairs, Civil Service, Trade and Industry etc.

What a good day to share that I have received the LIEBSTER AWARD from Sathya Priya of http://mykitchenodyssey.blogspot.in/. Thanks a lot Sathya!!!!!

Now this is the first time I am hearing about this award and I did a bot of research to find out what is this all about and how it started. Well I couldn't get the exact answer to the second question as to how it started since I lost my patience searching for the answers. :-) Anyways the earliest I could find was in 2010. Now LIEBSTER is a german word meaning "Dearest". So obviously this system should have started in Germany.

Anyways the rules have changed over time. The current rules when I received this award is that:

1) This is an award passed on to bloggers who have less than 200 followers. A means to identify new blogs and create more friends.
2) Thank the blogger who have passed on this award to you.
3) Answer the questions that the blogger has posted for you.
4) Identify some other new bloggers to whom you would like to pass on this award.
5) Identify some questions that you would like your fellow bloggers to answer.

So Here goes my answers to Sathya's Questions.

What brought you to blogging? your passion or passtime?
                My Passion in cooking brought me into this blogging world.

Give a little introduction about your family?
                 Little - Its just the two of us :-)

What is your favourite food ?
                 Noodles - That reminds me - I haven't yet posted a noodle recipe.

 Apart from indian food what is your most favorite food?
                 I like Pizzas - So Italian

Are you open to try other cusines ?
                Yes

Who is your inspiration ?
                 That goes without saying - My Mom and my Mom-In-Law

You like blogging or cook and click?
                  Basically I like to note down my recipes so that I don't forget in the future and of-course to share with others. So blogging...

Your signature dish ?
                  Biriyani - http://endekushini.blogspot.in/2013/02/malabar-chicken-biriyani.html and http://endekushini.blogspot.in/2012/12/egg-biriyani.html

Favourite recipe in your blog?
                  Kushka - http://endekushini.blogspot.in/2013/02/khushka-biriyani.html

Your cooking guru?
                 No such guru as such.

How well you know your kitchen ? If you lose electricity can you take everything from the right place?
                 Kitchen - Yes , Store room - No


I would like to pass this award to the below mentioned bloggers.

Asiya of http://asiyama.blogspot.in
Supriya Nair of http://mykookbook.blogspot.in
Smita Kalluraya of http://smithakalluraya.blogspot.in
Bhawya Sankar of http://bhawishkitchen.blogspot.in/
Sundari Nathan of http://mymagicpan.com/

My Questions to Nominees are

1) Few words about yourself and your blog
2) Which is your favourite food
3) Any dish which you haven't yet prepared but would love to prepare
4) Do you have any obstacles to blogging? How did you overcome them?
5) Your inspiration?
6) What was the first dish you prepared by yourself.
7) The dish which you love to cook and why?
8) Your signature dish?
9) Any two recipes which you would like to try from my blog (provide link)
10) some words to budding bloggers.

Phew!!!! Haven't written such a long post in recent times...

Pudhina Rice

Pudhina is a very easy to grow plant at our homes. I started in one pot and now they are growing in 3 pots. Every week I get a bunch of Pudhina leaves and now I am hunting for recipes with Pudhina. Here is my first one.

Actually in my childhood days I used to Hate Pudhina - never liked the smell of it. Might be also because my mom bever used pudhina in her cooking. I started using it once I started making pulav/biriyani etc... Now I am a fan of Pudhina.

Ingredients:
Pudina or Mint Leaves – 1 small bunches
Basmathi Rice/Raw Rice– 1 cups (125 grams)
Onions – 2 Sliced (100 grams)
Green Chillies – 2 to 3 (10 grams)
Grated Fresh Coconut – 3 Tblsps (10 grams)
Jeera – 1 tsp
Cashewnuts – a few
Oil – 2 tsps
Ghee – 2 tsps
10.Salt to Taste

Method:

• Wash and drain basmathi rice/raw rice. Keep aside. 
• Wash and clean the mint leaves. 
• Now, grind the mint leaves, grated coconut, and green chillies into a paste without adding any water. 
• Heat a pressure cooker, add the oil and ghee, and then add the jeera and cashews. 
• Once cashews turn golden, add the sliced onions and fry till translucent. 
• Next add the ground pudina paste and sauté for 2 mins. Next add the rice, sauté for another minute. Now add 2 cups water, salt to taste and mix well. Cook till 1 whistle.

Sweet smelling Pudina rice is ready to be served with a raita/papad of your choice and some nice fried vegetables.

Home made Sambar Powder

This is a long pending post in my drafts. Sambar powder is very useful and handy for the preparation of everyday sambar, we use it for making kootu, poriyal, sometimes for specific rasams too, what not? I also add this to roast potatoes and brinjal fry. Some may find it weird, but it lends a great flavour to these. After all this is nothing but mainly dhaniya (coriander seeds) and red chillies, which we use separately in other recipes, so I replace those with sambar powder. Many of us don’t know the multi purpose use of it, but I find it very useful to me.

My mom used to make sambar powder at home earlier but now she uses store bought ones as well as her preparation. I have actually combined MIL's and mom's sambar powder and made one. 

Sambar powder is kerala and Tamil nadu are made different. And the difference is coconut. Yes roast coconut is added to sambar powder in Kerala but not so in Tamil Nadu.

Ingredients:
Red chillies (long red variety) 35 grams
Coriander seeds (Dhaniya) 50 grams
Channa dal 10 grams
Toor dal 5 grams
Pepper (black,whole) 5 grams
Jeera 5 grams
Fenugreek seeds (vendhayam) 5 grams
Asafoetida - 10 grams
Coconut - 15 grams

Method:

• Roast all ingredients individually until nice aroma comes. Roast the coconut until it turns brown. Let them cool.
• I powder all the ingredients except coconut and then at the end add coconut and powder.
• The powder resulting from the above mentioned quantity lasts for about 50-60 days for me. So I prepare in small batches.
• If you want to prepare huge batches (like 1KG) then I would recommend to sun-dry the ingredients and powder them in a mill.
• We can also add turmeric to this powder but I generally have fresh home-made turmeric powder separately. 
• After powdering allow the powder to cool and store in air tight containers. I usually store in  One big and one small container in which I transfer weekly for everyday use. By that way, even if we touch it with wet hands, it will get over soon and the big container sambar powder is saved.
• Just add 2 spoons of this powder to make sambar for serving 4.

Notes:
Do not use wet hands while handling the sambar powder, always use clean spoons.
Adding channa dal more in the above recipe will make the sambar overflow while boiling and also the sambar will turn too thick after some time.