Nursery and Playroom Learn Cooking Recipe

This is a very flavorful murukku which is my kiddo's favorite and whenever I ask him for any snack his reply will be murukku(mukkuru thats how he pronounces).As murukku is a favorite for kids thought it would be a good choice for kids back to hostel food. This one is made with roasted gram dhal(pottukadalai) powder or  gram flour(kadalamaavu/besan) along with rice flour.Garlic and red chilly paste is the highlight of this murukku which gives a very nice flavor.My mom uses curry leaves along with the garlic and red chilly but I didn't have fresh curry leaves I avoided.Here is the recipe.............................. Ingredients Ingredient Quantity Rice flour/arisimaavu 3cups Kadalamaavu/besan 1cup Butter/vennai 2tbs Hot oil 1tbs Garlic/poondu 4-5cloves Redchilly/varamilagai 5nos. Salt 2tsp Oil for frying Method  Grind the garlic and red chilly to a fine paste and keep it aside.Heat a pan with oil and keep it in a medium flame. Sieve the flours an

This is one of my childhood favorite and used to buy this one from the local shop for my evening snack. For the day 2 of Blogging Marathon#25 I made neikadalai,this is a very simple recipe and needs only few ingredients.Now off to the recipe..................... Ingredients Ingredient Quantity Channa dhal/split chickpeas/kadala paruppu/ 11/2cups Red chilly powder/milagi podi 1/4tsp Turmeric powder 1/4tsp Salt 1/2tsp Oil for frying Curry leaves/karivepillai 1 sprig(optional) Method Soak the dhal in the water for 4-5 hours,drain the water completely and spread it on a towel for 10 minutes. Mix the red chilly powder,turmeric powder and salt,keep it aside. When it is damp enough fry it in the oil in a medium flame till it becomes crispy. Remove it from the oil and drain it on a paper towel. Sprinkle the red chilly powder and mix it well. Neikadalai is ready. Enjoy.......................................... The dhal needs to be soaked completely

Back to hostel food for kids is the theme I chose for the final week of Blogging Marathon #25.As theme is kids based I wanted to share some kid's friendly snacks which has a longer shelf life. Aloo bhujia is a crunchy snack which is almost like the omapodi(thin sev) in which cooked and mashed potato is added to the besan flour and deep fried.I also added some fried peanuts and cashews for extra rich taste and mint juice for added flavor.Here goes the recipe for crunchy aloo bhujia.................................. Ingredients Ingredient Quantity Potato 2nos.(medium size) Besan/split chickpea flour/kadalamaavu 2cups Red chilly powder 11/4tsp Turmeric powder/manjal podi 1/2tsp Garam masala powder 1/8tsp Mint leaves(optional) 10-15 leaves Peanuts/verkadalai 2tbs Cashews 2tbs Salt to taste Oil for frying Method  Pressure cook the potato for 2 whistles,mash or grate the potato and set it aside.  Crush the mint leaves with a tsp of water in a mortar and s

As mushrooms are good source of protein I include in our diet atleast once in a week and never forget to get a pack of mushrooms while doing grocery. Most of dinner would be either roti and some curry or idly and chutney,my son loves to have some gravies for roti rather than dhal so I prefer to make curry. Last week got a pack of mushrooms and fresh green peas and made this delicious curry which goes very well with roti and paratha.Lets get into the recipe........................ Ingredients Ingredient Quantity Button Mushroom 1lb(450 gms) Fresh Green peas/pattani/matar 3/4cup Onion 1no.(medium size) Tomato 2nos.(medium size) Ginger/inji 1 inch piece Garlic/poondu 4 cloves Green Chilly(chopped) 2nos.(optional) Red chilly powder/milagai podi 11/4tsp Coriander powder/dhania podi 1tsp Garam masaal powder 1/4tsp Turmeric powder/Manjal podi 1/4tsp Thick Coconut milk 1/4cup Coriander leaves(chopped) 2tbs Cumin seeds/jeeragam 1/2tsp Salt 11/4tsp Oil 11/2tbs

Besan Toast is one such dish has so many avatars in my kitchen for a healthy breakfast,weekend brunch,lunch on a lazy afternoon or a good snack for a rainy evening. To make it more healthier I add veggies such as grated carrot,chopped spinach or cabbage depending on the availability.Off to the recipe............................. Ingredients Ingredient Quantity Bread 4 slices Gram flour/besan/kadala maavu 1/4cup Onion(finely chopped) 1/4cup Tomato(finely chopped) 1tbs Spinach(finely chopped) 2tbs(optional) Green Chilly(chopped) 1nos Coriander leaves(chopped) 1tbs Red chilly powder/milagai podi 1/2tsp Chaat masala powder 1/4tsp Cumin/jeeragam powder 1/4tsp Salt 1/4tsp+a pinch Oil 1tbs Method  Mix everything together except oil and bread in a bowl with 1/4cup of water.  Heat a griddle  or pan and toast the bread both sides till it is crispy.Keep it on a plate. Now spread the mixture on one side,add oil on the griddle and place the bread wi

Nutella the name itself makes drool,these days nutella has become our family favorite especially my kiddo loves it a lot.Today's recipe for the Blogging Marathon#25 is Banana Nutella sandwich,though I have sweet tooth I don't like to have anything sweet for breakfast but this one is exceptional.There is no specific recipe for this sandwich,it can be made with 2 or 3 slices of bread with generous nutella.Now on to my version of sandwich recipe which is for single serving........................ Ingredients Ingredient Quantity Wheat/White bread 3 slices Butter 2tsp Granulated sugar/brown sugar 2tsp Banana(sliced) 1no.(medium size) Nutella 1tbs or as needed Maple syrup as needed Method Heat a griddle in a medium flame,once it becomes hot drop a tsp of butter and place the bread slices. Flip it to the other side when it becomes golden,apply the remaining butter to the bread slices and cook it till golden.  Now sprinkle some sugar to both sides of the

This month is the silver jubilee edition of Blogging marathon...yes its 25th edition and I am so happy to participate in it.Since the time I started blogging I participate in BM with few months break due to my lil one's arrival.For this edition I chose breakfast on the run theme and today's recipe is an easy and simple to make dish with rice flakes,flattened rice/aval. Usually my mom makes aval upma for breakfast when she is ran out of idly and dosa batter but I totally forgot that dish after I move to U.S.Here most of the days our breakfast would be either cereal, bread or oatmeal.But when my parents were here we had the South Indian breakfast such as idly and dosa as they are comfortable with that. One day when we ran out the batter mom immediately made the aval upma in 10 minutes and it tasted out of the world.She made the aval upma like regular upma but I wanted to try it in a different way with black pepper as we make the milagu sevai with rice noodle and one of my fri

E gg roll is a life saver for me whenever I have to cook lunch only for myself or feel very lazy to cook.This is a healthy and filling roll which is a popular street food of Kolkata and learned this from one of my Bengali neighbor.My son is also an ardent fan of this egg roll and love to have with  generous tomato ketchup.All you need is some plain wheat parathas or rotis and egg,if some frozen parathas are there then work will be done in minutes.Off to the recipe................................. Ingredients Ingredient Quantity Whole Wheat Paratha /roti/ 2nos. Egg 2nos. Onion(thinly sliced) 1no.(medium size) Black pepper powder 1/2tsp Red chilly powder 1/8tsp Green Chilly(chopped) 2nos. Coriander leaves(chopped) 2tbs Tomato ketchup/sweet&sour sauce 4tsp Salt to taste Oil 2tsp Method Whisk the egg along with salt,black pepper powder,red chilly powder and keep it aside. Heat a griddle and meanwhile take the onion,green chilly,coriander leaves and a pinch o

I am so happy to share a guest post by my blogger friend sangeetha who is the first friend after starting my blog,initially our conversation started via email and FB then over the phone.Really I am very lucky to get a friend like Sangeetha,when I started the blogging I didn't know so many things and asked her help for so many things like a kid.Without any hesitation and lots of patientce she clarifies the doubts clearly.We used to talk over the phone almost every other day atleast for an hour regarding the kids,blog,photography as we both bought the DSLR same time and same model.These days I am busy with the lil one couldn't talk as much as before but once in a week we talk over the phone and chat in the FB. When I asked her to do a guest for my blog,she immediately agreed without any second thought and asked me What type of recipe you want? Though she has 500+ recipes I love the way and efforts she takes to bake cookies,breads and cake.So I wanted some baked recipe and