Bhindi Fry (Okra/Lady's finger Fry)

When I was a kid, I hated my vegetables like all other kids do. I'd always tried to get away from the veggies my mom used to pack for lunch. It was like eating something which isn't meant for human beings ;). I never ever thought I'll have to come across a person who loves the veggies and without them will not survive. Yes! That's my hubby.. He doesn't care if I haven't cooked any curry for rice. Instead he needs a large portion of poriyal/veg side dish for his rice/roti.
I started liking subzi /vegetables after going to the beautiful city "Surat" in Gujarat. I have been there for almost 5 years and I hope that changed our palate. I can proudly say Surat food changed my perspective on food. The way they cook their food and feed the guests with lots of passion is  never forgottable and will always remain with us.
My passion towards food and cooking is all started from there. And now it's never ending journey..
From wide vegetarian dishes served in Gujarat, we love our Bhindi ki subzi (Okra/Lady's finger). Lady's finger is unique in taste and texture. I have posted Bhindi fry recipe with Gujarati touch, which I usually prepare to accompany roti (Indian wheat bread) 

Sunday Breakfast 3

Hi friends!!
This Sunday was very beautiful. After so many days being cloudy, we got to see our bright sun. Anyways we had no plans to go out since we'd been BBQ partying the whole evening of Saturday.
I remember when we were staying in North China, our friends would invite us for a get-together event. We'd be around 7-8 people from different countries. Collection of breads, sausages, sauces, cheese were the dinner themes. We loved the slices of brown bread layered with cheese and sausages of our taste topped with mustard sauce. Yummy!!
After we moved to Guangzhou, We missed all of that.. Our friend Martin is from Germany. Few days back he went to Germany for holidays.We requested him to bring us German brown bread. We were excited when Martin brought us the bread. But we had no sausages or cheese with us. So I made some mashed potato salad and fried egg to go with the bread. And some fresh pineapple juice We loved the potato salad.. I added pickled gherkins and olive to it for extra kick..

Vishu 2012!!

I took a while to post our "Vishu" feast since I thought to post the menu recipes at first. Our menu had few of traditional dishes. It's been always difficult to plan whole meal for two persons. So I selected few main dishes to serve along with rice. For those who haven't read my past posts about "Vishu" here goes a brief description 

"Vishu" is the New year in accordance with Malayalam Calender. It falls on the next day of Tamil New year. The most important event in Vishu is the "Vishukkani" meaning "the first thing seen on the day of Vishu after waking up". Vishukkani consists of arrangement of various fruits, mirror, konna poo (Yellow flower), raw rice and urli in the pooja room of the house.

Another famous ritual is "VishuKaineettam" where elder people gift money to the young people.

This year I prepared Aviyal, Olan, Cabbage Thoran, Brinjal Sambar with rice and Ada prathaman served as dessert. It was almost like being in hometown. 

Ada Pradhaman

Here goes one of the mouth-watering dessert from Kerala "Ada pradhaman".  Ada pradhaman is cooked with Ada, Coconut milk and jaggery, in  the form of a thick liquid. Ada is the flakes of cooked rice. In olden days, Ada was made at home and used to make pradhaman. Nowadays we find readymade ada in almost every stores. I have used readymade ada from the brand "Nirapara". Pradhaman is similar to Payasam or Kheer but with more variety in terms of ingredients and the way it is made.

Olan

One another Side dish from Kerala. Very simple to cook yet tasty. Olan recipe has very few ingredients and less time taking dish to prepare. During any festivals in Kerala you can find "Aviyal" , Olan, Kalan, Thoran etc.. served as side dish for steamed brown rice. And most of the recipes including dessert will have coconut as an ingredient. I prepared this recipe for "Vishu".

"Vishu" is the New year in accordance with Malayalam Calender. It falls on the next day of Tamil New year. The most important event in Vishu is the "Vishukkani" meaning "the first thing seen on the day of Vishu after waking up". Vishukkani consists of arrangement of various fruits, mirror, konna poo (Yellow flower), raw rice and urli in the pooja room of the house.

Another famous ritual is "VishuKaineettam" where elder people gift money to the young people. We used to wait the whole year to get the gifts from our elder members from family ;).

 Olan is prepared with Ash gourd and coconut milk. In some places it is prepared with Ash gourd and black eyed bean as well. Here I have posted Olan recipe which uses only Ash gourd and coconut milk.

Aviyal

One of my favourite side dish is Aviyal which is from my motherland Kerala. I used to be very proud whenever I'd to say I am from Kerala. Mostly the reasons behind feeling that way are it's been my birthplace, as it got the title "God's own country"and undoubtedly the cuisine.

My family migrated from Kerala to Tamil nadu even before my birth. So I can say that the relationship between me and Kerala is just my birth and the summer vacation we have at our Grannies home during schooling.

Everytime when we visit Kerala I'd always have these jobs to do, jumping into the lake, walking by the sides of deep Canal (even if I feel nervous), collecting the fallen mangoes, having our meal served in banana leafs 3 times a day ;).. 

Picking the mangoes was always my routine job. We had 4 mango trees of different kind. Since we always go in summer which is the mango season, we would grab a basket half of our size and go to each tree, collect the mangoes and of course one in hand to bite.  

The good thing about their food is they grow vegetables at their garden. And most of the days they cook with their garden vegetables. Hardly few times I see them buying from markets.

So Aviyal is a side dish for rice, prepared with many vegetables whatever available at your garden cooked with Kerala's identity "Coconut" and a touch of sourness from curd.

Only recipe you need not worry about unavailability of any vegetables I mentioned in here.. But you definitely require coconut and curd. I got this recipe from my mom. Hope you guys find it easy to cook. Traditionally, vegetables like Yam, Drumstick, Raw Banana, Raw Mangoes Carrot, Ash gourd, Pumpkin, Bitter gourd, Cucumber, Green beans and Cow beans are used. Here I don't get Yam, Drumstick, Raw banana. So it's all upto you to add or omit any vegetable.