GREEN CHILI PICKLE AND A POST ON A SPICE/HERB CHILI/HOT PEPPER

GREEN CHILI PICKLE AND A POST ON A SPICE/HERB CHILI/HOT PEPPER

Chili is the most valuable spice of the world and is gaining its popularity throughout the world, and now it is used in more and more cuisines of the world. India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of chilies, which is 40% of the total world production. Chili production requires sunny, tropical, humid conditions with a good amount of rainfall. We have grown a lot of chilies in our kitchen garden when I was in Kenya. We had around 25 plants of 3-4 feet high and were producing a lot of green chilies, being small as a family we were not able to consume a lot, so were leaving the chilies on the plants itself to ripen. When their colour turned red, I used to collect and dry them in the hot sunny area of my garden, and later was grinding in my dry grinder to make red chili powder, which I used in my kitchen.

There are many different types, colors, shapes and mild to a very hot pungent taste of the chilies are available in the world. This spice - chili and chili powder are used in many cuisines of the world. Raw chilies are normally green in colour, but ripened chilies are yellow, orange and red in colour. Since it is impossible to tell how spicy a chili is just by looking at it, you will have to taste it to get an idea. Once you know how spicy it is then you can use it according to your taste.

In Indian cuisine, chili powder is used from ages, some chili powders are giving only a red colour to the recipe and are not very spicy like Kashmiri chili powder, it is more or less like paprika. But some chili powders are very hot, and people use it depending on their taste and the requirement of the recipe. In Southern states of India, whole red dried chili is used a lot in tempering many recipes. Red chili flakes/crushed chili is also used a lot in the Indian cuisine throughout India. Some people have the misconception that Indian food is very spicy, but that is not the case, yes, we do use different types of chilies in its different forms but how spicy the food absolutely depends on individuals choice. Green chilies are a good source of vitamin C; so many people eat raw green chilies with their food.

Some people think that chili pepper is consumed only to put fire on your tongue or to get tears in your eyes but the surprising fact is that chilies do have a lot of health benefits like natural pain relief, boosting immunity, clearing congestion, preventing stomach ulcers, and reducing weight. Check this website for detailed study of all this and a lot of useful information about chilies.

According to Ayurveda, there are six tastes by which all food can be categorized: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Pungent taste is hot and spicy as found in chili pepper and astringent is dry and light as found in popcorn. Ayurveda suggests that all these tastes should be included in every meal for optimum health and to get initial spark to the digestive system. These six tastes satisfy each of the major dietary building blocks and these six tastes also guide our body to accomplish its nutritional needs. Each taste feeds our body, mind, senses and spirit in its own unique way. Ayurveda is a traditional healing system of India, which gave us yoga and breathing exercises and still successfully practiced in India. Check this website-

Chili powder is eaten by one-quarter of world population every day, in all countries all over the globe. But chili powder was completely unknown to the most of the world until Christopher Columbus discovered America. Check this website which explains very nicely that of course, Columbus was not looking for chilies, but was looking for a trade route. This website further explained that, until well after the middle ages, almost all through the world, pepper travelled from the Malabar coast, India to Europe and then to America.

Coming to the recipe, this is my mom's recipe as it is in which she used mustard oil. I get mustard oil from the local Indian grocery store, so I have also used mustard oil, but you can use any other oil instead if you prefer. Mustard oil is used for cooking in Punjab and many other Northern States of India. This is a simple and quick recipe which can be enjoyed using mild to hot chilies basing on your taste.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• 200 grams long green chilies (around 25-30)
• 20 grams of black mustard seeds (rai)
• 20 grams of fennel seeds (saunf)
• 10 grams of fenugreek seeds (methi )
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons oil (I used mustard oil)
• 10 grams chili powder (optional) *

* Normally these green chilies are not spicy/hot at all, so if you need some spice in this pickle you can add some additional chilli powder

METHOD

• Mix the fennel, mustard and fenugreek seeds and grind it coarsely in a dry spice grinder.
• Wash and dry the chilies or wipe with a kitchen towel.
• Slit the chilies in the middle lengthwise.
• In the already ground spices, mix salt and chili powder and fill ( stuff) through the slit in all the chilies and leave aside.
• Heat oil in a pan, when hot add all the chilies, mix slowly and cover it after 5 minutes add the remaining spice mixture on top of the chilies.
• Cook for 8-10 minutes till the chilies are cooked and changed in colour.
• Cool it and serve with meals as a condiments/pickle/chutney

I am sharing my recipe as my blog post entry for Cook once and eat Twice and with Hearth and soul blog party and with Fiesta Friday and the  Sweet Inspiration link party and with Cook blog share  and with Meatless Monday and with Full plate Thursday

MADDUR VADA , A SNACK FROM THE STATE OF KARNATAKA,INDIA

MADDUR VADA

A SNACK FROM THE STATE OF KARNATAKA, INDIA

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU

The New Year, 2018, has already started. I am glad to write this new post in this New Year, in a new season and in a new month of 2018. This year I am planning to bring lots of new recipes on the blog, which my readers are really going to enjoy. Normally people ask what your resolution is for the New Year, so my resolution for the New Year is to learn many new recipes from different cuisines. Some of my readers might think, yes, of course, what can be the resolution of a food blogger. But yes, I mean it, and I am serious about it because life never stops teaching us new things and we should never stop learning new things. What is your resolution for the New Year?

In this New Year, I am bringing in the first recipe of a starter. I have seen in many parties, whether they were organized by my friends or relatives that sometimes there is a lot of variety of appetizers or starters served in those parties, sometimes too much and some of the snacks were quite heavy because they were either fried or has a lot of cheese in them. In those cases, there was a problem for both guests and host, for guests, even though they can enjoy the starters but then there will be no room left for them to enjoy the main course meal. Even for the host, a lot of food will be left at the end of the party, which people will not be able to finish. I had also experienced that if the starters are too heavy, some people, serve the main course too late but again that is not solving the problem because if you serve the main course too late, then there is no appetite or mood left for the food.

I have personally experienced that problem once when I served four-five starters and learned a lesson for the future. Now in my house, whenever there is any party or gathering, I prepare only two starters, so that people can enjoy the starters and the main meal. And if one starter is a fried one, I make them bite-size portions so that people can still enjoy the starters and later the main course meal.

This recipe of a snack is from the state of Karnataka, India. This is a very tasty snack which can be served as a starter or can be enjoyed with evening tea or coffee. This famous snack is named after the town of Maddur. Maddur is a town from Mandya district in the state of Karnataka, in South India. This is an instant snack which can be made in 15-20 minutes with very simple ingredients; normally we have the stock of these ingredients in our kitchen/pantry. This snack is too tasty, I am very sure, if you make it once, you will love to make it again and again.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup semolina
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (white bread flour)
• 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• 1 big onion
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• a small piece of ginger
• 3-4 green chili (optional)
• few leaves of curry leaves
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying

METHOD

• Finely chop onion, garlic, ginger, green chili and curry leaves
• Mix well all the flours and add salt to it.
• Now add all chopped onion, garlic, ginger, chili and curry leaves and mix well.
• If the mixture is too dry sprinkle little water over it and mix well, make small balls and flatten them on your palm as shown in the picture.
• Heat oil in a frying pan; fry them in batches of 6-7 in hot oil till the colour is brown.
• Serve hot with any chutney of your taste.

I am sending this recipe as my blog post entry with Fiesta Friday and Sweet Inspiration link party and  with Hearth and Soul link party and cook once eat Twice and Meatless Monday
and Cook blog share

REVIEW OF 2017 RECIPES

REVIEW OF 2017 RECIPES

HAPPY NEW YEAR

First of all, I would like to wish all my readers, a very happy and healthy New Year 2018. If I go back over the year 2017, it was a good year, in which I posted 26 posts, out of which 24 were recipes and two were MLLA hosting and round-up posts. Things were not very conducive in the beginning of the year because my health was not that good and I was in India, where I was recovering and trying to settle down in the new climate. But still, in the first two months of the year, I managed to post 5 recipes. Working on my posts was always helping me recover my health, as I was inspired to write. I traveled back to Canada in March and was a bit busy again settling back, so could post only 6 recipes from March to June. But two important and favorite posts were there during that time, the first was the edible fruit arrangement when I was very excited being my 100th post and the second one was strawberry parfait, which was the third blog anniversary post.

But the second half of 2017 was even better than the first half, I was back in a good mood and spirit to post a lot of new recipes on the blog, some of them were my favourite which I wanted to post earlier in the year but couldn’t because of so many reasons, like mango mousse, rice pudding, cherry tart and orange peel pickle. June onwards the weather this in Calgary was also very nice when we get all fresh summer fruits like cherries, mangoes etc. Then from July up to including December, I managed to post 15 posts. In the month of October, I enjoyed hosting the MLLA which is a monthly blog party that is going on for the last 9 years, in which many food bloggers took part. I would like to give special thanks to my son-in-law for his awesome photographs for my blog throughout 2017. Last but not the least, thanks to all my readers who take the time to read my blog, and return again and again since the last three years, I am looking forward to your support in 2018, which is going to be an exciting year for my blog, when I am planning to share lots of new and exciting recipes.

I am sharing this recipe as my blog post entry for Cook blog share and with Cook once eat Twice
Sweet Inspiration link party and Fiesta Friday and Full plate Thursday and Hearth and Soul link party