Invisible paw prints in my blog!(plagarism ofcourse)

Asha has visible paw prints of hungry bears visiting her site everyday! Can I lag behind!? 😀 I have invisible paw prints of copy cats visiting my blog! Just two days back I discovered someone starting a blog with recipe copied (read as cut and paste) from my blog and menutodays blog. I left a note and she deleted the whole blog! Today first thing in the morning I got a mail from one of my regular visitors Lathabalu, saying that she found my recipe and picture of Maddur vada, in a respectable site ( I do not wish to tarnish the site for a mistake committed by a useless member). I notified to the admin of the site and they took immediate action. My request to all copycats is that please understand it takes less time and effort to prepare a dish and post than to copy from someone! It is always easy to do the right thing and be happy than to do a wrong and suffer the guilt! You can tell lies to the whole world but not to your self!

My hubby says keep two drafts ready, one mild letter and one threatening letter to post to these copy cats so that you need not spend time typing this again and again! 😀

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Cinnamon Chocolate Pudding

No prizes for guessing that this post is going to Sunita for Think Spice, Think Cinnamon.

Cinnamon and I have so far never been on talking terms – as a spice it usually remains safely tucked away in an unreachable dark corner of my rack only to be grudgingly removed for an occasional Bisi Bele Bhaath or Ghee Rice.

Chocolate and Cinnamon, however, I have discovered are another story altogether. Cinnamon added a rather interesting note to the standard chocolate pudding, making it smell warm and luxurious.

Adapted from this recipe at Epicurious

Ingredients

• Dark Chocolate – 125 gms
• Fresh Cream – 3/4 cup (can be replaced with Milk+1tbsp of cornflour)
• Milk – 1/2 cup
• Sugar – 1/3 cup (adjust as per taste)
• Corn flour – 1 tbsp
• Honey – 1 tbsp (gives the pudding a sheen, original recipe uses butter)
• Cinnamon – 1 tsp (powdered) (can be replaced with flavouring of choice)
• Nuts or Chocolate shavings or whipped cream (for topping)

Method

1. Chop chocolate into small pieces. Mix the milk and cornflour and set aside. Mix the honey and cinnamon and set aside. Set aside 4 to 6 cups with plastic wraps to cover them.
2. Whisk the cream and sugar well and bring to a boil over medium heat in a heavy saucepan. Add chocolate pieces and whisk well till its melted, blended and shiny. Keep on a low to medium flame.
3. Stir the milk-cornflour and add to the saucepan. Add the honey-cinnamon to the saucepan.
4. Keep whisking and bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Keep for an additional 30 seconds to a minute till the mixture reaches custard consistency.
5. Remove from heat and pour into individual portions in cups. Place a plastic wrap over each cup and freeze until set about 45 minutes to an hour.

Garnish with nuts, chocolate shavings or whipped cream before serving.

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Puzhungal Arisi vadai – Par Boiled Rice vadas

Rice vadas made by soaking par boiled rice in sour curds is a very famous dish among Tamils. Unlike bhajjis and pakoras, this is not prepared often by many as it involves grinding the par boiled rice, which requires some time. But once you try this dish, you will not mind the hard work involved. Now with grinder and mixie I do not think we have any reason to keep away from preparing this traditional vadas. One most important fact I noted about the rice vadas is that I have never seen it served in any of the hotels. So if you want to taste it make it ! 🙂

 

Ingredients

• Par Boiled rice – 1 cup
• Redchillies – 3 nos
• Urad dal – 1 tablespoon
• Grated coconut – 2 tablespoons
• Curry leaves – 1 twig
• Hing – 1/2 teaspoon
• Sour Curds – 1 cup
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – 1 cup (for deep frying)

Method

1. Wash and drain the par boiled rice and urad dal well. Add to the curds and soak for 4 to 6 hours.
2. Grind to a smooth paste adding grated coconut, redchillies, salt and hing. The dough must be very thick and smooth. Do not add water.
3. To remove excess water from the dough, transfer it on to a white cotton cloth. Roll well to remove excess water.
4. Heat oil in a kadai on a medium flame. Smear oil on to a plastic sheet and your fingers. Take 1 inch balls out of the dough and press on the sheet to form round vadas. make a hole in center.
5. Drop the vada into the oil and fry till the sound subsides. You can fry three vadas at a time.

These vadas taste good by themselves and don’t need any side dish. You can serve with pickle or chutney.

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Announcing AFAM theme for December and Awards for our blog

A Fruit a Month (AFAM) Event started by Maheshwari of Beyond the Usual will be hosted by us this month. This month being the month of Christmas, we thought it would be nice to have Dry Fruits as the theme. Any fruit that has been dried either naturally by sun drying or artificially would qualify. The only rule to be followed for the event is dry fruits must be the central ingredient of the recipe – they must simply play the lead role in the recipe. Just post a recipe using any dry fruits, with a link back to this post and email it to me at naralatha@gmail.com . The last day for sending the entries is 31st December. Hoping to get a great response from all food bloggers.

AFAM dates for the month of November was hosted by Chandrika of Akshayapathra. She will be posting the roundup around 10th December.

I received the award from Padma of Padma’s kitchen almost a month back. It is such a great feeling when some one gives a pat on your back. My heartfelt thanks to Padma for this wonderful award.

There are a lot of lovely girls around the blogosphere who call me Lathamma. My daughter Lakshmi is a little jealous about this – 😀 . But Siri is an exception to this. Lakshmi says “Oh Siri is such a darling! She can call you Amma! ” This lovable girl Siri has been trying hard for a few months to find an appropriate award for me. Finally she found this nice award! The award was accompanied by a sweet letter, which is much more valuable for me than the award itself! I have no words but only tears of joy for this loving gesture from Siri!

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