Curry leaves Chicken

Hiii there!!

On one of those Sundays, while thinking of trying some non-veg recipe, I came across this in one of the supplements received along with 'Aval Vikatan' in 2013. Prepared this along with mom and it came out very well. We liked this very much and below is the recipe.


Ingredients:

1. Chicken pieces (250 gms - cleaned)
2. Curry leaves (100 gms)
3. Ginger and Garlic paste (2 teaspoons)
4. Chopped Onion (1 - medium size, for so much of onion flavor is not preferred for this)
5. Lemon juice (2-3 teaspoons)
6. Powdered cumin seeds - 1-2 teaspoons
7. Green chillies
8. Dry red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
9. Coriander powder - 1.5 tablespoons
10. Salt as per taste and 
11. Oil - for sauting

Method of Preparation:

1. Add the ginger garlic paste along with salt to the chicken pieces
2. Clean and wash the green chillies and curry leaves. Grind them together and make a fine paste.
3. Add this paste to the chicken and add the cumin seeds powder as well
4. Add 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice, mix well and leave it covered for 30 minutes
5. Now, fry 1-2 tablespoons of oil in a kadai or pan, add onion and saute well
6. Add the chicken mixture and saute it for few minutes
7. Add the dry red chilli powder as required
8. Add the coriander powder and required salt. Mix well
9. Add few spoons of water, if required and let it cook well
10. Once the chicken is cooked well, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, mix well. Close the vessel and let the food stay in the warmth for a while so that everything gets set.
11. Add coriander leaves for garnishing and serve hot

The taste was so awesome and the usual sense of non-veg was not felt even 1 % since curry leaves are so flavorful enough. 😊 Try it out and let me know.

Oh!! Did you notice that this is also a 11 step recipe with 11 ingredients. 😊😊😊😊

Healthy & Easy Breakfast - 3

Good morning all!!

I am back with the easiest and flameless breakfast recipe.

Ingredients:

• Red Flattened Rice( Aval/ Poha) - 1 cup
• Palm sugar or Jaggery powder - 1/5 cup
• Water - 2 cups
• Fruits of your choice

Method of Preparation:

• Take the flattened rice in a bowl, rinse it once or twice slightly with clean water.
• Add 1.5 cup of water to this and let it soak well for 15 minutes. This allows the rice to get softened and moistened well.
• Add the sugar and mix it with a spatula or spoon.
• Add cut fruits and/ or dry fruits of your choice. Serve fresh for a delightful morning! 😊

Here is the picture. 😇

Egg Fried Rice with Beetroot

Hiii there!!

Here is a recipe of a small innovative 'Fried Rice' prepared with left over rice and beetroot stirfry.
I choose to use the coconut chutney and tapioca chips as accompaniments.

Well, my dinner turned out to be a very yummy one for the rainy night.

Ingredients:

1. Cooked rice - 2 cups
2. Vegetable of your choice - 1/5 cup
3. Oil for sauting
4. Green chillies - slit in the middle - 2
5. Onion - peeled and sliced (I used a 2 tablespoons of sliced onions considering the price in India)
6. Egg - 1
7. Salt as per taste
8. Pepper powder - 2-3 tablespoons
9. Jeera(cumin) - 1 tablespoon

Method of Preparation:

1. Take a kadai or pan and add oil
2. Add in the chillies and onions followed by salt, saute well
3. Add the jeera and saute for a minute
4. Break in the egg and mix it slightly allowing it to form slightly bigger lumps
5. Now add rice to this and followed by the beetroot stirfry (in case of using fresh vegetables, you need to add the sliced vegetables after step 3 and get it cooked well).
6. Mix this well until the ingredients get mixed well.
7. Add the pepper powder; check the salt and adjust as required.
8. Mix well and turn the flame off.
9. Close the vessel and let the food stay in the warmth for a while so that everything gets set together well.

Here are my plating (😇😊😊) pictures:

The Job Affair

Well, who can resist someone who is always there for you whenever you need him or even if you do not need him. This blog is dedicated to that special someone who is kind of becoming my everything (though I honestly do not want him to be my everything).

-----

2006 December:
Despite my father's warnings about the idea of meeting him and living in Chennai, I am in Chennai to meet him for my financial needs as I always stood up firm in my beliefs though few gave few biggg learnings and experiences...
Our first meeting was a 😍 moment for me. 😊😊
He accepted my profile easily and I was trying to settle in with him too. I didn't have any other better choice during that time.

2007 May:

Initial few months, I was totally clueless on how to go about him. Though I was so wanting to have a hold of him and go high, he was somehow un-understandable. I did not have much people who can help me with ideas, tricks, etc. to sort this issue out. It was becoming dreary on me. Yet, I am not someone who quit easily. 💪

2008 January:
There were times, when I wanted to go out of his sight and just vanish into some natural breeze forever. 😔 I even started to think of marrying someone of human nature so that I could get away from him forever to live in what I thought as an eternal happy place.

2008 June:
I was getting so frustrated and even more desperate to give my every bit of soul to him. I started spending hours and hours of time in the day and even more at the night to be with him, understand him and everything. 😕

2010 April:

And yeah, finally after years of my non-stop pursuing, he started to recognize me and acknowledge me. He started coming up to me in different forms which I embraced with all open arms. 😀😁 We were getting into excited mode from a challenging mode; I was enjoying every bit of the time we spent together. 😊

2011 January:

I started to pick up the nuances of loving him or making him love me. I do not even realize who proposed first.💕💕

But it seemed to be an unending journey that kept unfolding with every step we took together further.😂

2019 December:

To think of all these years, I realise that he loves me more than I love him, for he finds me very sincere towards him. In fact, I doubt if I even love him one bit - except for what I receive through him. There have been times when I had to face his never ending demands that drain me out and has started to get on my nerves at times!!

By now, I could not think of any other better option as a resort as I had tried every possible option available for me and was left to find my way back to this guy who was always waiting for me - whether I want or not. Irony of life!!

Atlast, at every single dejection I have faced, I find himself waiting for me with wide open arms to hug me tight, that sweet smile that just melts your heart at an instant, the eyes that just captivate yours and hold the gaze for long hours with no/ very less blinks in between and the way he consumes me makes me forget the entire world outside of us/ our relationship. 😊😊 He has helped me gain respect in the society and go after my dreams. He is now successful in getting me hooked onto him!

Afterall, isn't this what women mostly look for in a relationship??

I feel blessed to have him by my side. 👼

For without him, I might have gotten lost in this world.

--------------

P.S.:
==> The invisible lover is my job which becomes a saviour during heartaches, provides a place to socialise when I feel gloomy, becomes my dad in terms of providing $$, becomes my mother by providing some kind of warmth when I embrace it, etc.

==> I am a hard working, sincere and workaholic IT professional, by the way.

Random Thoughts - 1

• "Sometimes all you can wish is to stop wishing."

• "I do what I want to do. Wearing false faces and shouting out lies to save those face is definitely not in the plan.!"

• "It is easy to cry alone, however it is not so easy to laugh; you need genuine people around to laugh with."

• "Sometimes... good food = good day! 😇"

• "There is no better therapy than a good sleep or a good laugh."

Healthy & Easy Breakfast - 2

Good morning everyone!!

Here is a lil secret for a healthy and hearty breakfast on a lazy Sunday.

Scrambled Eggs:

1. Heat butter in a kadai or a pan
2. Break the eggs into it
3. Give a stir
4. Add required salt  (I added 1/4 teaspoon for 2 eggs as I dont prefer salt much)
5. Add pepper powder or freshly crushed peppers - 1 tablespoon
6. Stir occasionally making sure it is not getting burnt at the bottom
7. Garnish with mint leaves while it is hot and have it with a hot drink (coffee, tea, bournvita, etc. of your choice - my suggestion is to go with a chocolaty flavored one to suit your main dish here).

I made my cappuccino with Bru instant coffee powder. :)

Simple & delicious One Pot Dhal rice - Arusimparupu :)

Hello all,

Here I am with a recipe for one of the simplest yet delicious and good food for both stomach and tongue. :)


Ingredients:

1. Boiled Rice - 2 cups - washed
2. Toor dhal - 0.5 cup - washed
3. Dry Red chillies - 2
4. Tomato - 1 medium sized - washed and cut into pieces
5. Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
6. Curry leaves - 1 sprig
7. Garlic - 6 pods, peeled
8. Small onions - 4-5 - peeled
9. Pepper & Jeera - 1 teaspoon each - crushed in mortar & pestle
10. Salt - as per taste
11. Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
12. Mustard seeds for tempering

Method of Preparation:

1. Turn on the stove, place a cooker and add the oil
2. Add the mustard seeds and let it splutter
3. Add the onions and dry red chillies
4. Saute till onions turn transparent
5. Add the tomatoes and saute for a minute or two till they turn mushy
6. Now add the turmeric powder and mix well
7. Add the garlic pods, jeera and pepper
8. Add the curry leaves and leave for half a minute
9. Add the rice, dhal and required quantity of water for cooking.
10. Add the salt and mix well - you can adjust salt quantity as required.
11. Close the lid and leave until 3-4 whistles
12. Serve once the pressure has gone off.

P.S.:

This dish can be eaten as is or with the below accompaniments based on preference.

• Egg omelette
• Egg burji
• Boiled egg
• Papads
• Pickle
• Plain Curd

This is very famous and much liked in the households of 'Kongu' mandalam. :)

Potato & Keerai poriyal

Hello all,

Here I am with a recipe post on a combo that I ever tried and tasted for the first time in life.

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes - 3 medium sized
2. Keerai - 1 cup - washed and cut into small pieces
3. Oil for sauteing
4. Dry red chillies - 2
5. Shallots - 8 - cut into small pieces
6. Mustard seeds, Urad dal, Channa dal - 1 tea spoon each for tempering
7. Jeera - 1 teaspoon
8. Turmeric powder - a pinch
9. Salt as per taste

Method of Preparation:

1. Wash the potatoes, boil them, peel off the skin and cut into small cubes
2. Take a pot/ kadai, add oil for tempering. Add the mustard seeds and let it splutter
3. Add the urad dal and channa dal, and let them turn into light brown
4. Add the jeera followed by the dry red chillies after a minute
5. Add the shallots after a minute and saute till they burn transparent.
6. Add the potato cubes now and saute for few minutes.
7. Add the green leaves now and saute for a minute or two. Add the turmeric powder.
8. Add salt as required for taste, stir a little and keep the vessel closed.
9. Water from the green leaves will be sufficient in most cases and you can just splash a spoon of water if required in between.

P.S.:

• Add grated coconut as the final touch before turning the stove off - this step is optional.
• Serve this dish with rice for lunch. This goes well with simple dhal, sambar and rasam with papad.

Mastering the Art of Influencing People

Hello everyone,

I accidentally came across this free course of 1.5 hours on "7 Scientifically Proven Steps to Increase Your Influence" at Udemy and found this to be really amazing!!

Key take aways for me from this course are as below:

1. Always have killer conversation starters
• Turn people on with interesting topics to get the dopamine flowing in them so that they start liking your presence.
• Make people talk about themselves and be genuinely interested in what they talk
• make them feel valued
• add your opinion with open ended statements using "Yes, and...." or "No, but...."
2. Use high power body language
• High power body language is the one where you kind of expand and occupy space confirming your territory
• Avoid contracting your body in any way.
• Keep shoulders at the back, head up, body relaxed, chest out, etc.. 
3. Use stories from your own story toolbox
• end your story with a thought provoking question to get people talking on the same line.
• avoid complaining/ criticizing/ gossipy stories to avoid getting remembered for the same.
4. Embrace your weirdness and imperfection
• Be vulnerable to allow people to associate themselves with you
• This makes them realise you are human too and establish an empathetic connection.
5. Ask for favor and advice.
• This often ends up developing a bond or a friendship.
6. Mood is contagious.
• Charisma is spread non-verbally (Tilt, torso, toes).
• Tilt your head slightly, keep the torse and toes facing the audience to show that you are really listening and engaged in.
• Think of 5 things that you are grateful for in your life right now.
7. Color psychology
• Various colors vis-a-vis mood is explained in this.
• Color cheat sheet is also provided that you can take print out of and stick on to your wardrobe so that you can decide the color of your attire appropriate to the occasion.
8. Exit gracefully from the conversation.
• Always start with non-verbal clues
• Use verbal notes like 'Thank you, I would stay in touch through LinkedIn./ Facebook/ whatsoever", etc...

Reviews/ Thoughts on this course:

• The way the course is presented is so charismatic and it draws you into it.
• Very useful resource for self-improvement and personality development.
• You also get a Certificate upon completion and you can share this certificate in LinkedIn or Twitter.👍
• Thanks to the course instructor (Vanessa Van Edwards) who is so adept at what she does. :) :) She gives examples for each of the principles. She even shares ideas on how you can use her scripts in case if you run out of thoughts on your own. Truly inspiring, isn't it? 😊
• Visual representations used in each of the topics enhances the learning experience.

I recommend everyone to enroll and take this up. 👍

Tater Tots - SouthIndian version

Hello everyone,

Here I am with a post on one of the yummiest recipes of potato.

This is called 'Tater Tots' and I stumbled upon this at https://damndelicious.net/2015/04/10/homemade-tater-tots/ when I was googling for an interesting recipe using potato as main ingredient.

I adopted the recipe in the above given link and made few changes to make it a South-Indian version. Below are the details.

Ingredients I used:

1. Large potatoes - 3
2. Finely shopped Garlic cloves - 1 tablespoon
3. Finely chopped large Onion - 3 tablespoons
4. Finely chopped Ginger - 1 tablespoon
5. Asafoetida - a pinch
6. All-purpose flour - 1 tablespoon
7. Rice flour - 1 tablespoon
8. Dill - 1/4 teaspoon
9. Chopped fresh Coriander and Curry leaves - 2 tablespoons
10. Black pepper powder - 1.5 teaspoons
11. Salt - as per taste
12. Oil for frying

Method of Preparation:

1. Wash and peel the potatoes.
2. Cut them into halves, place them in a large pan and cover with cold water by 1 inch. Bring this to boil for about 5 minutes.
3. Drain the water and let the potatoes cool.
4. Grate the potatoes using a grater.
5. Squeeze the grated potatoes in a clean cloth to remove as much water as possible.
6. Add the items from 2 to 11 in the Ingredients list and mix well.
7. Make the mixture into smaller portions and shape each portion into tots (small oval shaped).
8. Heat oil in a kadai or a post over medium heat.
9. Add the tots, 5 or 6 at a time; Cook until it is golden and crispy.
10. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate/ container.
11. Serve immediately.
12. Optional - Use tomato sauce or ketch-up for accompaniment.

We loved this recipe and it was a big hit at home. Do try and post in your comments on how it was. :)

Healthy & Easy breakfast - 1

Well, the Sunday mornings are the ones that often call out for our lazy selves..

Last Sunday was no exception. So we opted to an easy make breakfast - Varieties of puttu along with slices of nendhiran pazham, which was also very healthy and less time consuming in terms of preparation.

Puttu is very easy to make and you wouldn't need much of ingredients apart from the regular staples in your kitchen.

We often have make puttu with ragi flour(brown ones in the picture above) and the rice flour (white one in the picture).

My personal experience is that natural brown sugar or palm sugar along with shredded coconut goes well with puttu than refined sugar.

The family also enjoyed this food compared to the ritual of having idlis for breakfast on most days. 😊

Craft - 1 - Recycled Jewellery

This is a bracelet I had created for my niece who is only 2 years old. All the beads are reused out of the broken beaded necklace to create this and she loved it.

Isn't this very adorable for kids?? :)

Rangoli - 1

This is a picture of the Rangoli I had drawn with the limited colors available in our home for this Deepavali (Diwali).

Talking about festivals and rangolis, we have this habit to doing rangolis or kolams after dinner the previous day of the festival so that when you wake up and come out on the festival morning, the color patterns will welcome you. :) :)

This year, the ritual was slightly altered as we were too lazy to bend down and do this after eating/ tasting too much of murukku. So I did this as the first thing in the morning. I also ended up in doing a good deed by contributing to blood donation for mosquitoes as I was doing this patiently for almost an hour single handedly.

Do let me know your feedback in the comments. :)

Grilled Paneer

Helllo everyone,

I came across this recipe in one of the youtube videos and tried it on the same day for dinner.

It was yummy in every bit and byte.

Ingredients:

1. 200gms of Paneer cut into slices/ cubes (in any shape or form as  you like)
2. 1 table spoon of olive oil
3. Salt as required
4. 1 tea spoon of red chilli powder
5. 1 tea spoon of garam masala powder

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix salt, olive oil, red chilli powder and garam masala powder well.
2. Coat the Paneer with the mixture on all sides and let it sit for 15 minutes.
3. Take a pan or sandwich grill and coat it with olive oil.
4. Place the paneer on the pan and let it cook for 2 mins if medium flame or 3-4 mins if low flame.
5. Tilt the paneer and let the other side cook for a minute.

Tada, the tasty tasty paneer grill is ready!! :)

P.S.:

No pictures available as the grill was all gobbled up hot before I could click pictures. 

:facepalm:

To all the Coffee lovers

Quite often, finding the perfect blend of Coffee looks more difficult and equally more critical than finding the perfect partner for life or finding the perfect equation if you have a partner already. 😉

Image source:

https://www.maxpixel.net/Cappuccino-Mug-Espresso-Drink-Caffeine-Cup-Coffee-1845314

Into the ocean of love

This poem is the result of gushing thought waves during a hushing time in December 2017 resulting in me pouring it out in this form using art and text. 😊

An attempt to translate this to English for the benefit of non-Tamil readers (have tried to retain the essence):

Mighty Ocean is thy heart
The waves are thy love
Droplets of the waves are thy kisses
The ship that dances in it is my heart! :)

The last line of this poem has 2 ways of association - When you are happy in your love relationship, your heart dances out of joy. When you are in pain, your heart gets pulled and distorted by the waves.

P.S.: Image was created using an online mobile application using stickers and text features.