Merry Christmas and have this Party Punch

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and festive cheers. Hope all of you are looking forward to get done with the year 2010 and surging with full energy into 2011. Hope there is much entertaining going on and there are cakes and cookies being baked and shared.

I have not baked anything for a while now. So I can share with you only my Party Punch.

Living in a tropical country, there seems to be no so called 'off season for mangoes' in Ghana and now in Nigeria also. We get excellent bananas and I am feasting my morning breakfast on papayas many days.

Having read the above, you may have guessed what fruits I have blended into this punch. To give it the citrus burst, I squeezed an orange and added some home-made pineapple juice too.

The pineapples had to be blended separately and strained.

Here is one musumbi that had beach ball like skin :)

For myself I can have without sugar and for my husband who wants the juice sweet, I could go really low on added sugar. Top it with rose syrup and add crushed ice, you have one delicious drink to serve.

Those who like, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the place of crushed ice, and you might have people asking for repeat helpings.

Have a fantastic Chirstmas friends and let me take an annouced break until the end of January 2011. I am spending some weeks with my daughter, parents and more members of the extended family too.

I might simply squeeze yet another post to wish you all a Happy new year 2011! If not, here's wishing all of you a wonderful start to the new year.

Signing off....
So long.....

Saying hello with some Thayir vadai

Hello everybody, it has been a real long two months that I have attended to this little space of mine. Neither have I been regular with my visits to other posts that you may have been sharing with all of us. As many of you might already know, we recently relocated. That has been keeping me away and otherwise busy.

So quickly, we have completed few days short of two calendar months in this new country. I have realised that I can cook survival food and not complain. No deep fries, no grinding spices.....and I missed all the fun yet tiresome cooking that accompanies every festival, three months in a row.

I hope all will be settled with the advent of the new year, by which time I will travel to see family back home and meet few blog buddies.

This thayir vadai was made few months ago as part of neivedhyam for some pooja. I flicked through one of my old cookbooks and came across this recipe. Though I did not entirely follow the recipe given in the book 'சமையற்கலை' by Smt. Ku. Pa. Sethu Ammal, it is a definite adaption from there.

I made the vadai and on a whim dunked them in spiced yoghurt.

Ingredients:

For the vadai:

1/3 rd cup karamani/ thattai payaru/ red chawli beans

1 table spoon urad dhal
1 teaspoon raw rice
Few green chillis according to spice requirement and heat

1/2" piece of ginger finely chopped

Few curry leaves

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

For the yoghurt:

1 cup of yoghurt, whisked smooth and brought to medium thickness

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh coconut grated very finely or run in the spice grinder to fine with little water

For tempering:

1 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

For Garnish:

Fresh coriander leaves chopped

Method:

Soak the red chawli beans overnight.

Drain and add the rice and urad dhal. Soak in fresh water for another 2o minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the yoghurt.

Drain the soaked ingredients and grind adding the chillis, ginger and salt to a very coarse paste.

Chop the curry leaves and add to the mix.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry small flattened portions of the dough.

Remove with slotted ladle once done on both sides and drain on absorbent tissue just to remove excess oil.

While still warm, drop them into the prepared yoghurt.

When the entire dough has been used up and the vadais have been soaked, add the tempering.

Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Serve as you wish. You may add some boondhis for the topping. Grated carrots can make colourful topping too.