Its time to Celebrate! - Some Anniversaries and My 100th Post !

Hot & Lovely Sooji Badam Halwa and Ferrero Rocher for the Celebrations!

Yippeeee! Its time to celebrate with sweets and chocolates. I am so excited and happy that I wanted to share all my joy with my blogger friends.I have so many reasons to Celebrate today. They are...


1) My Brother-in-law and Sweet Vadine (Co-sister) celeberate their 4th wedding anniversary today. And this year its more special as they are celebrating with their little bundle of joy. How much I miss being in India, and enjoying with them. Anyways, here I am celebrating their joy. Many Many Happy returns of the day Anna & Manni.






2)My cousin Brother Arvind and his wife Suja...celebrate their First wedding Anniversary today. When I spoke to them in the morning, they were all out having a party..... I feel so bad I got left out. So, this is for them..:) Happy First wedding Anniversary... Wishing you both many more happiness in life.









3) Today I complete 100th post in this blog .Yes, I complete my 100th post with this one today :) and its not even a year since I started blogging. I am So excited. I really cant believe that I have made and posted so many things. hehhehehe.. well I should ask my hubby what he feels. Well so I am so happy today I wanted to celebrate this ocassion with you all.

Thanking all my fellow bloggers for all the love and appreciation you showed towards my efforts by leaving your lovely comments. Encouraging me to do more and more. Really all those lovely comments have got to me to where I am now... on my milestone 100.:)

Thanking my sweet Hubby "R" For all his love, affection, help, advice and encouragement in my cooking. He used to help me in the kitchen whenever I used to try something new and messy. Really appreciate all that. Thank you and love u dear.

Thanking my lovely family for all their appreciation support. My dad for eating all my experimental food... when he was visiting US... for encouraging me and correcting me. Love all your criticism and advice Dad.

My sweet mom in law for all her advice and ideas to improve my cooking. How I used to blog her with my recipe ideas on phone and she used to listen to me patiently and advice on it. Love u Amma.

Now this day to celebrate my joy I just wanted to make some nice sweet item. No grand lunch and all.....just the normal Roti, Bhaji and Salad with some sweet. Here is my lunch platter for today......

Roti

Papad Tomata nu Shaak

Sooji ka Halwa

Clockwise : sliced onion salad, Papad Tomata nu Shaak, Sooji Halwa, Roti , and leftover aloo bhaji.

I want to share the Halwa and the Shaak recipe with all of you today. Sooji Halwa is one thing I love to eat when it comes to non diary sweets. I am not a great Lover of sweets and so is "R", so making sweets is very rare at our place, Unless I am experimenting with some baking. I like this dish coz its not very sweet yet smells awesome and tastes delicious. This recipe with some alterations (I guess they add bananas) is given as prasadam (offering to god) in temples. I stumbled upon this recipe in Manjula aunty's site and decided to try this as I was sure this is one sweet item which will not lie in the fridge for days.... which happens with almost all other sweet items at our place. I have made few alterations to original recipe.

Sooji ka Halwa

To make this Halwa You need : this recipe serves 3

Sooji Rava (semolina ) - 1/2 cup
White Sugar - 1/3 cup and 1 tbsp
Whole Milk - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Cardamom Powder - 1 small pinch
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Sliced Almonds and and cashews (roasted in ghee)











Method :

Heat a pan and take some the water and add sugar to it. Keep stirring constantly. Add the milk to this mixture now. Heat this mixture until the sugar dissolves completely. Do not boil the mixture. Keep aside.

You can alternatively heat the milk, sugar and water mixture in the microwave for 2 minutes. Keep aside.

Now in a seperate pan / Kadhai take the ghee and melt the ghee on medium flame for 4-5 minutes. Now add the sooji to it and roast it on medium flame stirring constantly. Keep mixing till the sooji turns golden brown in colour. Be careful while doing this. If you leave the sooji of gas for long without stirring, there are chances it may burn. Keep stirring the sooji.You get get a nice aroma of the sooji cooking.

The roasted sooji reaching it perfect stage.

Once the sooji is ready add the hot water-sugar mixture part by part into the Sooji and keep stirring while doing this. After adding all the water, mix once and cook covered for 6-7 minutes.

Halwa in its cooking stage

When the Halwa seems to have cooked and taken in almost all the water off the gas. Dont make the halwa to tight. Leave it a bit soggy. Sooji has the tendency to absorb water while cooling down, so off the gas a minute or so before reaching the exact consitency u desire.

Transfer into a serving down and garnish with ghee roasted almond and cashews. You may serve immidieately or allow it to cool and serve.

Adding the milk adds more flavour to the halwa...:)

My Halwa's Celebration pic with Chocolates.

Relish your Halwa Cold or hot. Garnished with nuts. Do we need a celebration to eat sweets.. Naah ! ;) Enjoy!






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Papad Tomata nu Shaak ( Papad Tomato ki subzi)

I dunno the origin of this dish....whether its Rajasthan or its Gujrat, But I know onething...I really relish this subzi. I remeber having this once at my gujju friends place when I was in college. Her mom was a great cook. I used really love anything she used to cook. Guess it had immense love in it. They were jain so they used to skip many vegetables, and had so many different varieties of dishes. All the dishes I had at her house have a special place in my memory and in my heart. This is one of those kinds. I dont know the exact recipe as I never asked aunty for one. Come on... I was in college... who cooks when in college.... I never did :P. So just with some memories and some ideas i came up with this recipe. Hope aunty reads this and send me her exact recipe soon...:)

Close up of the shaak....yummy!

For this you need :



Papad (I used Lijjat) - 3 fried and made into small pieces
Tomato(preferably roma tomatoes) - 2 small
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1tsp
Sour Curd (yoghurt) - 2 tbsp
Besan (gram flour) - 1/3 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup
Salt (optional)
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Green Chillies - 2 slit
Fresh coriander leaves for garnish
Sugar - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 2 tsp (only if yoghurt is not too sour ...mine wasnt)
Oil - 3 tsp











Method :

In a Kadhai or a pan take oil and add the jeera and green chillies. Let it splutter well. Now add the tomatoes and saute till tender. Add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder and mix well.

The shaak gravy cooking

Once the tomatoes are cooked well add the sour curd (yoghurt ) and mix well. Take water in a small bowl and add the besan to it and mix well. Now, add the besan water mix to the curds and let it cook for 2 minutes.

Papad Tamata nu Shaak ready and waiting to be transfered and garnished.

Now add the fried papad and sugar and mix well. See that the papad is soaked well in the gravy. cook till the curd starts boiling lightly and the gravy becomes a bit thick.Noe taste the gravy and see. Add salt if needed. U may not add salt as the papad already has salt in it. Remove from flame and add lemon juice and mix well. Transfer into a serving boil and garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves. This is a nice alternative when ur grocery shopping is pending.

Serve hot with Phulkas or Chapati...Enjoy!



So here goes my day today... with all celebrations and enjoyment. Too bad "R" couldnt come for lunch today and i enjoy my platter all alone. I hope to have a lovely evening with my sweetheart. Looking forward to it now.

Now for all my lovely fellow blogger friends... here is a sweet treat.... Dont hesitate to take one..:)








Enjoy your day and have a goodnight...:)