Deepavali, TUSAL

Belated Deepavali wishes to all. Deepavali is a festival that we all look forward to right from the start of the year. When the annual holiday calendar is announced each year, first thing we look for is Deepavali.
Here's a brief background on the significance of Deepavali. Deepavali is known as the festival of lights. 'Deep' means light. There are many stories associated with Deepavali. One is that this is the day Lord Rama returned to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile and winning over Ravana.
Another story is that this is the day when Lord Krishna killed the evil demon king Narakasura. Hence this is also called Naraka Chaturdasi
Also, this is the day when Goddess Lakshmi is said to have wed Lord Vishnu

In our region, TamilNadu, we wake up and have the traditional oil bath (known as Ganga snaanam) before the crack of dawn. Then we proceed to burst crackers till about 7 or 8am. This is the day when the entire neighborhood is able to meet and greet each other. We share each other's crackers - there is no sense of 'I, you, me, mine' on this day. There is total sense of joy and peace in the air

In North India, the festivities are normally held in the evening to invite Goddess Lakshmi home. There is a Lakshmi pooja conducted at dusk in almost all households and even shops.

As is the norm, V and I celebrated in our apartment along with friends and neighbors. In the evening our entire family gathered at my aunt's place. It was an evening filled with bursting crackers, fun, food. This year we had a time restriction imposed by the Supreme Court for bursting crackers - only 2 hours!! Despite this we had loads of fun

This year we asked our cook to make the sweets and savories. I only tried my hand at Chocolate Peda which turned out absolutely yummy.

 I am a part of this FB group called OPOS, where the only utensil required for cooking is a pressure cooker. This recipe was shared in that group and it turned out very good:

110 gms Sugar 
60 ml water 
A Tsp ghee 
Cook On high for 5 Whistles 
Mixed in 140 gms Everyday milk powder 
10 gms Hershey's Cocoa powder 
Allowed it to cool for 10 to 15 minutes if it is gooey (resting time depends on the texture you get soon after mixing and needs self assessment; if you feel you can shape it immediately do not rest as it tends to dry on resting ), Shape it.

Beading:

I have promised myself that after each stitchy finish, I will do some beading. This way I get to work on all crafts. I am sticking to this promise as much as possible and here are my most recent beading expeditions

I bought this pendant a few years back from 'Jew Street' in Cochin. I found the perfect beads to go along with it, which I think my brother bought from Michael's 

All the beads are imported - the pink beads are ones that my brother got from Michael's. The pendant and the elongated stone beads are from a site called 'Fire N Mountain Gems'

TUSAL Update:
Wow, the months just seem to whizz by!! It feels like just a few days ago that I posted my ORTs update and it's already a month

What with festival season, stitching has taken a back seat. But I managed to start off on Blue Lotus. All Orts for the month are from finishing off Pink lotus and start of Blue Lotus

Orts in the glass jar are year-to-date and on the right are for the month

That's all from me today folks. Till next time.. Take care.. Be Happy.. Keep Stitching.. Au Revoir

More Cooking.. err OPOSing!!

I tell you OPOS  method of cooking is totally addictive!! Though I have not started using this method for my daily cooking, I follow this during weekends. Once I am more confident, I plan to start implementing this daily as well. This is not only quick, but also healthy as there is very little or no oil used. I am now on the lookout to buy that 'perfect' pressure pan(s). Now each new skill requires the necessary tools right ;)

Here are the new trials from the OPOS card
Semiya (Vermicelli) Dum Biryani

Here's the method:

Mix 1/4C Ch (carrot, beans, paneer), 1/4C yogurt.
Wash & drain 2C roasted vermicelli (100g).
Mix vermicelli with 1/2 tsp biriyani masala, 1tsp (ghee, salt, chili pwdr). In a PC, layer 3tsp (oil, water), 1/2C Ch onion, 1 bay leaf, veggies, vermicelli & 1/4C Ch (mint, cilantro). Cook on high for 1Wh (5min).
Cook layered & sealed, spiced vermicelli

REPLACE/ SUPPLEMENT Vermicelli noodles/ pasta Biriyani masala with your favourite spice mix Carrot/ beans with your favourite vegetables Paneer with soaked soya chunks/ marinated minced meat/ mushrooms Yogurt with coconut milk.

TIPS
Ensure vermicelli is soft nut non clumpy after washing & draining. Sprinkle 1/4C water if you fear burning. Release pressure if overcooked.

Pav Bhaji

Mix 1C Ch potato, 1/2tsp (GM, cumin, chili pwdrs),
1/4C Ch (capsicum, fresh peas). In a PC, layer 6tsp
butter, 1/2C Ch onion, 1C Ch tomato, mixed veggies.
Cook on high for 3Wh (5 Min). Mash all.
Cook spiced vegetables to a mush

REPLACE/ SUPPLEMENT
GM with your fav spice mix
Capsicum with your fav veggies

TIPS:
Skip mashing & serve as Kada Pav Bhaji
Stir fry with rice to make Tava pulao.

The academic year is coming to an end. This means that other than exams, kids want to celebrate finishing of a year. V wanted to bake something for her classmates and the obvious choice was - brownies of course!! Picture is in the collage above

As you know, I only bake eggless. Gayathri's cookspot has a whole lot of eggless recipes and the instructions are very simple and ingredients very easily available too. Here's the link to her recipe. I did a slight tweak - cut down 1/2 cup flour and replaced that with cocoa to make it brownies. V was in a big hurry to cut the pieces, hence the mis-shapen ones :) But her friends, and of course me, just loved it

Another recipe we tried was banana nut choco chip muffins. I have tried this several times and it is totally fail proof and very simple. Unfortunately I do not have a picture to share. The recipe is from here. We added roasted pine nuts and chocolate chips

Whooa, that's a whole lot of cooking and baking :) With this I will sign off today

Till next time..Take Care.. Be happy.. Happy crafting.. Au Revoir

It's OPOS all the way

OPOS.. This is the new word and technique I have learnt the last month. OPOS - read as One Pot One Shot, is a new cooking methodology that I learnt in the last 10 days. It might not be a totally new concept, but the idea of one pot cooking has been extended to almost all recipes

I was introduced to this facebook group called Unified by Food, where the basic idea is OPOS cooking, flash cooking etc. Though they do have other regular recipes, the main theme is one shot cooking. As it is evident from the name, we layer all the ingredients in the pressure cooker and cook for the recommended time. The time depends on the type of ingredients we use. Lentils and legumes for example need longer to cook, whereas spinach and other greens take hardly 5 minutes. 

The only thing that is time consuming in this method is chopping the vegetables. After that it's only minutes before the meal is ready. The main problem with this is, it's extremely addictive. Once we have OPOS'd a dish, we think of OPOS'ng all!! 

What we need for OPOS is pressure cooker, that's it!! Of course other than our ingredients. In the last 10 days I tried 4 dishes using this method - Ram Khichdi, Sambhar, Palak paneer and beetroot Halwa. Yesterday being sunday, we had palak paneer with Phulkas and beetroot halwa for dessert.

Here's the method to make palak paneer

In a pressure cooker (PC), layer 3tsp (butter, water) 1tsp GG (Ginger garlic) paste, 1/2C Ch onions, 1Ch tomato, 1/2tsp (salt, chili pwdr, GM, cumin pwdr), 2tsp dry kasuri methi, 1Ch chili, 250g Ch spinach (4C) & 1C paneer cubes. Cook on high for 2Wh (6min). Release pressure. Mash all except paneer.

And for Beetroot halwa:

Peel & grate 500g beetroots. Squeeze out moisture. Mix In 1C sugar, 1/4C crumbled paneer, 1/2tsp cardamom pwdr. In a PC, layer 1/4C ghee, carrots. Cook on high for 10Wh (8 min). Release pressure. Mix in 1/2C (nuts, dry fruits)

I made a mistake by not squeezing out the water from beetroot and it let out a lot of water. I had to drain out the excess

Another advantage in this method is, the vegetables retain their original color unlike other methods of cooking

Well, I have OPOS'd all through this post!! Hope you catch the OPOS fever too

Till next time.. Take care.. Be happy.. Keep stitching.. Au Revoir