Karthik Blogs

Tomatoes are one of my favorite red cherries. However whenever i see the vegetable, I feel bad as well seeing it being wasted during the Tomatina festival in Spain. Rather would use it in making Tomato Rice and feed it to a few hundred poor and needy. Chinni decided to make Tomato Rice and slurpppp!!! Was it delicious. Sure it was Yummm!!!. Step 1: Use only Basmati Rice in the preperation of Basmati Rice. Cook Basmati Rice in a Pressure Cooker. Step 2: Cut Tomatoes and Onions into uniform sizes. They need to be ground seperately in a Mixer Grinder. Step 3: Fry Cashew Nuts in Cooking Oil Step 4: Grind Onion, Ginger,Dhaniya,Jeera and Garlic. Those who do not like the taste of Garlic may want to avoid it.  Add it to the Frying pan containing the Cashew Nuts Step 5: Add Turmeric Powder,Red Chilly Powder and a little bit of Sugar to the contents. Stir Well. Step 6: Grind Tomatoes in a Blender till you get a puree like consistency. Step 7: Add...

I simply love this dish because it is so much of about freshly boiled vegetables. More the merrier and so this dish is all about a healthy assortment of vegetables: Tomatoes,Cucumber,Pumpkin,Potatoes, Capsicum, Carrot, Green Peas, Beans, Raw Plantain, Ash Gourd. Step 1:Wash/Peel/Cut the vegetables into pieces of uniform shape Step 2: Empty all the cut vegetables into a Pressure Cooker, replace with the cooker lid and allow to cook for 10 minutes: If you ask your mother she will say wait for two whistles of the Pressure Cooker. Step 3: Vegetables are now cooked. Take off the Cooker Lid and see if the vegetables are uniformly boiled/cooked Step 4: Grind shredded coconut and green chilly in a Mixer Grinder to a fine consistency/paste Step 5: Add the ground coconut/green chilly paste to the already boiled vegetables. Add 1/2 cup water to the contents. Step 6 : Stir all the contents well with a ladle and add salt to taste Step 7: Stir once again with a ladle an...

Wishing everyone a Happy Pongal, Happy Makar Sankranthi, Happy Bihu to all my friends the world over. Significance of Pongal People celebrating Pongal should be aware of the meaning & significance of the important rituals associated with this harvest festival. Pongal or Thai Pongal is also called Makara Sankaranthi, since it is celebrated on the first day of Thai when the Sun enters the Makara Rasi (Capricornus). This signals the end of winter and the onset of spring throughout the northern hemisphere. For the next six months, the days are longer and warmer. One of the reasons why i love the festivals are the gastronomical delights that get churned out from Chinni's Corner. For those of you who are first time reader Chinni is the nickname for my mom Vijaya who cooks up some lovely food. I capture the essence of it all in the form of photographs and words, weaving together simple recipes that you can all try at home. Todays Recipe is the Mixed Vegetable Sambar. It i...

I keep coming back to my favorite pastime which is to write and highlight issues that we face in our everyday life. Hope is that my blogs would make an impact and bring about social awareness at the same time bring about a positive change. Today morning i woke up to the beating of drums, of course i knew that there is festivity in the air. I however did not want to smoke in pollutants into my healthy lungs and that was one of the main reasons i did not want to step out initially, but then the call of duty and a responsible citizen does propel me to capture those hazy moments. Celebration, Yes. Health hazard , Definitely a big no. Why would people even want to pollute the entire environment to create a health hazard. There is enough disease around that we need to contend with. We do not need more. Not only that the kind of smoke that gets created by burning plastics and tyres causes visibility issues, delaying flights, throwing normal life out of gear and  causing hardship...