Heerekai Huli towe/ Chinese Okra Dal

"Heerekai Huli towe" is one of favourite towe's and my mom makes it perfect and tasty.Here I have tried to reach her level, but can never match Mom's cooking. For this the Heerekai/Chinese Okra should be fresh and tender, so it gives a nice taste. It can be substituted with any other vegetable, I even do it with Cabbage. Its a thick Dal, so it goes well with Chapati/ Rice. If eating with Rice add a spoon of peanut oil and it tastes yummy! but if you are dieting you can skip that, simple.

This post is to one of my Good, First and Family friend in USA. She always calls me and prepares this recipe when she wants to make it. On her demand I am putting this Recipe, Here you go Shilpa.

Ingredients:

1/2cup Toor Dal
1 big Heerekai/Chinese Okra
1tsp Tamarind paste
1tsp Rasam Powder
a little jaggery

For Tempering:
1tsp Oil
1/2tsp Mustard seeds
1/2tsp Urad dal
3-4 curry leaves
a pinch hing
Method:

Pressure cook the Dal for 3 whistles. Peel the Chinese okra and cut into cubes and cook in a boiling water for couple of minutes till its cooked.[It can be pressure cooked but it melts by the time the Dal is done]. With a little water add the cooked Dal, rasam powder, salt to taste, tamarind paste, jaggery and boil for few minutes and add the tempering and serve hot.

Minestrone soup

Minestrone soup is one of my families favorite soup.Its so delicious, healthy and filling on a chilly evening. Whenever we go to Olive Garden restaurant, this is a must order. I wanted to try this at home to make it more healthy and enjoy it whenever we need it.So i found a perfect recipe almost similar to the restaurant taste. Only thing I came to know was they add Red wine to the soup, which is bad news for a non-alcoholic person like me. But Red wine is very good for health and a similar drink is used in Ayurveda so I am kinda o.k with it once in a while. Since it requires lot of ingredients it needs a little preparation before hand. Its good for kids as its filled with vegetables and pasta.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp Olive oil
1 cup minced white onion (about 1 small onion)
1/2 cup Zuchhini chopped
1/2 cup Italian Green beans (frozen)
1/4 cup Celery minced (about 1/2 stalk)
4 tsp Garlic minced(about 4 cloves)
4 cups Vegetable Broth
2 (15 ounce) cans/soaked Red Kidney beans
2 (15 ounce) cans small white beans, drained
1 can(14 ounce) diced tomato or fresh tomato diced
1/2 cup carrots shredded
2 tbsp Parsley fresh minced
1 1/2 tsp Dried Oregano
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp Dried Basil
1/4 tsp Dried thyme
3 cups Hot water
4 cups fresh baby spinach
1/2 cup Small Shell Pasta

Method:

Heat three tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot.Saute onion, celery, garlic, green beans, and zucchini in the oil for 5 minutes or until onions begin to turn translucent.Add vegetable broth to pot, plus drained tomatoes, beans, carrot, hot water, and spices.Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.Add spinach leaves and pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes or until desired consistency.Makes about eight 1 1/2 cup servings. Finally add Parmesan cheese on top and serve with Garlic bread.

Note: Make a pot full so it last for a week, as it stays good in fridge .

Wilton course III final cake

This is my final cake the Wilton Cake decoration course III,I enjoyed it so much and was happy that I took it by jumping course II(as they had to cancel because of less no. of students in the class).We had a option to make a stacked cake or a 2 tiered cake, I chose stacked cake.Now am planning to do the course II all by myself without a class, as some of them have done it a and says its not that hard if you follow the book.May be now i have an idea will give it a try and if it doesn't work out then will take up a course. In this final class there was nothing to learn but to put everything that we learn in the previous 3 classes together. It was fun and i was so happy that it turned out more than I expected. I still remember the day I put my hands of doing the fondant and rolling them...guff that was a hard day.
I had lot of fondant left out from my previous cake so had refrigerated and reused for this class. It was much easy. So I learnt something that always make fondant way ahead you make a cake so it saves lot of your time and energy. I colored the fondant yellow for a change, made lots of Petunia flowers in peach color and some white Butter cream icing for the decorations like the Rossete, dots and strings.

Happy New Year 2010!

I wish all my blogger friends a very Happy, Safe and Blessed New year 2010!