Monday, August 23, 2010

My rendezvous with Aparna's Diverse Kitchen

It was such a wonderful surprise to me that Srivalli chose My Diverse Kitchen for Tried and Tasted Event, a brainchild of Zlamushka, currently taken over by Lakshmi. I have been following Aparna's space ever since I registered myself to Blogger.com, which is much before I attempted posting anything!

I cannot define the exact reason why I find her posts very attractive, it is every aspect, her introduction, the recipe and the pictures all of them put together, I must confess. Many a times I have been inspired to try my hand on baking reading these posts.

I decided I would use Srivalli's invitation to give myself a bit of indulgence this August. I tried few recipes from Aparna's kitchen...some adjusting just a bit and some following to the letter.

This post is an whole day's cooking of only dishes from her blog. I chose a weekend as it is easier to have a heavy breakfast, a lighter lunch ( I can afford to carry the stuff over, if they were excess), tea with snacks and an indulging dinner and the added advantage of having husband around to click pictures!

I spare you my drone and writing up recipes again. That is just a click away, taking you to Aparna's pages. I do this with a purpose, that I want readers of this post to enjoy her write-ups.
I am one who will not throw even the daily sheet torn off the calender without reading the contents therein. So, I can assertively state that if you want some good reading along side some good food, hop there right away.

My breakfast was Vellayaappam and mixed vegetable stew. I make my aapams regularly, this was a bit saving the soaking and grinding time. The result was aapams with truly lace-like fringe to the spongy fat porous centres.


Lunch was a Palakkad Iyer recipes. Though there isn't much of a difference from a Tambrahm menu, subtle changes to the recipe make a difference in taste.

I made vendakkai vathakkinathu, keerai mulagootal in the microwave, varatharaitcha sambhar ( she had used vendaikkai, I had to replace it with murungaikkai for obvious reasons) and tomato rasam.


The keerai mulagootal, she mentioned having pressure cooked thuvar dhal and having added to the keerai. I simply substituted thuvar dahl with masoor dhal which cooks easily in the microwave.
That was lunch friends with the usual rice and curds!




Tea time was funtime with her vanilla yo-yo biscuits. I did my tweak to the filling. I used some Tang orange juice powder to the ingredients and made orange cream! I prefer black tea and these were perfect after tea.






Dinner, my husband was looking forward to most! The house was filled with aroma of freshly baking pav. I reduced the recipe to half the ingredients she had listed. But I had to bake them in my bread tins which would hold three in a row, dividing the dough further would have given me bite-size pavs, I feared. So I got six slightly bigger pavs.



Now, they no longer qualify as laadi pav ( a friend told me that laadi pav is made sixteen numbers in all usually in the tin) but I can safely list them as pav bhaji. We could have only three pavs between the two of us and saved the rest for the next day with a different curry.
I was very thrilled to watch my husband wipe the bowl of bhaji with a last tiny piece of the pav.
I enjoyed the menu, both cooking and relishing the food thoroughly.

I have tried few more from Aparna's recipes, which will need to be featured in future posts. Await them in the next few days.

Srivalli is also currently celebrating the third anniversary of her ever popular MEC event and is calling for dishes cooked in microwave to feature in the la-carte of the Potluck party. Look out for the Keerai Mulagootal there too.
Have a good day!

23 comments:

  1. I am gonna try those aapams,looks great! Its long time since I had! And all the other recipes from the fellow blogger friend's sounds amazing,pav bhahji! Yumm :)

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  2. Thanks Raji, I have book marked your garlic filled buns...would love to try them soon.

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  3. Lovely post Lata. Aapams looks great and spongy. @ Lata, the gravy which I posted today was the one I made when you came home

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  4. Thanks Shanthi, in fact I addeda line about having tasted that at your place and erased it just in case it were another:)

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  5. wow...super array of dishes...everything looks super yummy

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  6. wonderful menu Lataji. Nice one. Aparna's recipe are always good.

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  7. What a spread! Aparna would be so proud of you!! :)

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  8. I was planning something on the same lines..but you beat me to it Lataji!!I agree,Aparna's blog is a treasure tove,I can't decide which one is good-her recipes,her pics,her presentation or her way of writing!!

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  9. Great idea to spend a day to try these wonderful dishes! Its worth when you enjoy all these.
    Great work.
    Book marked it for my future one day pgm
    Thanks

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  10. OMG, this is just tooo good..I knew there are so many who are in love with Aparna's beautiful blog..you know I read each of her post yet when I checked her neatly stacked index I was so surprised again..thank you Lataji you are a gem as I know..

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  11. What a lovely array of goodies...Would love to try that vanilla yo yo biscuits :-)Aparna would be so proud :-)

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  12. lovely recipes you made....Looks Delicious!!!

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  13. Wow, that is one lovely and delicious treat !!!!

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  14. everything looks so yummy ,,,,wonderful post

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  15. Wow..Latakka, you have done full justice to Aparna's blog. Each one of the recipes who u have tried looks mouthwatering. You have laods of patience, akka.

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  16. Woww wonderful spread...makes me hungry..

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  17. looks good Lataji and love those cookies.

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  18. Hey latha, you have done just like me hahahha!!, I love trying out something like this, if I want to try out from somebody's blog!, That's a Glamourous delight to the eyes, beautiful spread out!, Your clicks on the yo-yo's are better than Aparna's :), I love her blog she is my mentor for baking, she is a delight to have as a friend!, I am big fan of her blog!.

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  19. what a treat for the eyes! everything looks delicious...!

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  20. Hi Lata,
    The spread looks delicious.
    I have a query for you: this is regarding a particular kind of eegplant/baingan that is grown in Africa. Our local Indian grocer who had it, said that they grow in Kenya/South Africa for a window of a month or so. apaprently many Indians wait for this seasonal vegetable!
    These are small round eggplants, the size of large marbles and full of fairly large seeds.
    Have not been able to get more information about it. Would you know more about this variety?
    I have a picture of in my blog. Somehow am unable to email from my computer, hence this query here. :-)
    Thanks!

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  21. @?, I am sure I have seen them around too. I shall enquire with my green grocer for details. I have a friend who has been living here quite a while. I might ask her for details and let you know??

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  22. You've had a busy weekend, haven't you,Lata??? Everything looks delicious.

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Hello,
Welcome and thank you for taking time to drop by.
I appreciate your valuable comments and tips.
I sincerely hope to improve with them.
Hope we shall interact often.
Thanks once again,
Lata Raja.