Coriander Chutney

This chutney is ammas special and we like it with dosas/ idlis and today I had it with rava idly should I have to tell the combo.........:) Its a simple recipe yet tastes soo gud.

Ingredients :

Tomato - 1 medium size

Small onions - 6

Curry leaves - few

Green chilli - 1

Coriander leaves - 1/2 bunch

Hing - 2 pinches

Mustard seeds - few

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Add oil, mustard seeds leave it to splutter

2.Add all the above ingredients except coriander and fry for few minutes till tomato turns soft and raw smell is slightly off. Add salt

3. Finally add coriander leaves and fry not more than 2 mins

4. Cool it and grind it with little water, ur chutney is ready!

Say NO to Plagiarisms

It was really annoying to read the plagiarisms among bloggers. I really dont understand how one can copy paste others creation and claim that its theirs. Lets try to prevent such people from doing it in future atleast.

Even disabling rightclick on the page will help only to a certain extent, still they can take a print screen and do the cropping so my suggested solution is watermarking. I searched the web and there were numerous watermarking methods, still confused whether this wud help us so enquired one of my designer collegue at office the right and easy way of watermarking images and got this method finally: Trust me its so easy if you can do it for the first time....

Open the image to be watermarked in photoshop (I use Photoshop CS3) but this can be done even in earlier versions too.

Easy way to watermark ur creations in 5 steps:

1.Now click 'T' from the tool bar on the leftside(which is hidden in the belw pic) and type the text on the image say for eg: "@Sharmis-Passions". And this text will be created in a new layer as shown in highlighted blue:

Position the text where ever u want it to be (preferably in the middle)

2.Right click on the text layer > then click blending options

NOTE : The effects can be changed according to each ones choice, I hve used Emboss effect,try experimenting with other effects too. Make the settings as shown below:

Click on Bevel & Emboss and change the style, leave others as default settings.

3. Then reduce the opacity to 56%(this can be + or - according to transparency level one needs)

4.Now holding shift and the 2 layers (1 is background layer where u have ur picture & 2 is the text layer). Right click and select merge layers. This merging layers prevents one from editing the image and changing it to their need so all is done.

5.Now both the layers are merged and as a result only 1 layer will be shown as below:



Tats it, ur creation is watermarked and cant be edited hereafter. Here is the final result!

Tired of doing these steps everytime for all ur images, you need not worry, have a solution for this repetition also...You can record the above actions and save it once, when played next time it will automatically do these steps for you...Isnt that cool? Absolutely yes for lazy creatures like me ;) Tat will be my next tutorial for u.

I was so much involved in this post yesterday that I missed Airtel Super Singer also(the only show I am addicted to currently) and by the time Amma enjoyed Kolangal(am sure for those who are in India knw abt this Kolangal fever) .

Hope this was atleast some use to you....Can I hear a yes?! :)

Melagu Poondu Kolambu (Pepper Garlic Kolambu)

Ingredients:

Black Pepper - 1/2 tbsp

Jeera - 1/2 tbsp

Garlic - 6-7 pods

Tamarind - Small lemon size

Sambar Powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder - a pinch

Onion - 1 big size finely chopped

Curry Leaves - few

Oil - 2 tbsp

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Salt - as per taste

Method:

1. Soak tamarind in water and extract the juice. Add sambar and turmeric powder to the tamarind water, stir well and keep it aside.

2. In a kadai put a tsp of oil and fry the pepper first. When it starts popping up, remove. Add jeera , leave it to splutter, remove and add garlic. Fry the garlic till it turns light brown. Remove and cool it.

3. Grind fried pepper, jeera and garlic together to a fine paste and add little water.

4. In a tawa, pour the remaining oil, add mustard. When it pops up, add chopped onion, curry leaves and fry just for second.

5. Then add tamarind water and stir well. Add salt and bring to boil. When it starts boiling, add the pepper paste and mix well.

6. Allow to boil just for 5-10 seconds.

This is best suited for cold, Its is a bit spicy and goes well with rice / idly.

Shahi Tukda / Shahi Tukra - A Bread Saffron pudding

This was a dessert they do occassionally in our office, and we used to ask for one more and once when I enquired the recipe it was so simple but believe me its soo tasty!

Ingredients :

• Milk - 2 cups
• Bread - 4 slices
• Saffron - 2 to 3 strands
• Sugar - 3 to 4 tbsp
• Water - 1/4 cup
• Ghee - to toast
• Nuts - 1 tbsp (Pista & Badams chopped finely)

Method:

1. Prepare sugar syrup by heating sugar and water in a pan until a syrup like consistency is formed.It should be slightly sticky thats all, dont need to check for string consistency etc.Keep aside

2. Boil the 2 cups of milk, crush saffron strands and add it to the milk. Simmer and thicken it , till it becomes 1 cup (like condensed milk consistency).The rabri is ready now.

3. Toast the bread in ghee in a tawa such that it becomes crisp . You can use ur oven or toaster too.It can deep fried in ghee too.

4. Cut the toasted bread into small triangles.Dip a slice in sugar syrup on both sides, then arrange it in a serving plate and pour the milk/rabri over it to soak well. Fry the chopped nuts in ghee and garnish it.

5.Refrigerate for 30mins and serve chilled!

My Notes:

• Either deep fry them in ghee or toast them. Dont deep fry/toast in oil as it will spoil the taste.
• The bread slices should be crispy else when soaked in milk it will become soggy.
• If you wish you can cut the sides of the bread. I didnt find any difference after soaking so usually I dont remove the sides of the bread.
• You can use either white or brown bread. I used white here.

For a recipe to attract you....

Have you ever thought of what 5 things that a recipe needs to attract you that you immediately want to try it out? Now its the time....think and write in ur comments....!

Let me start first....To me :
1. The click of the picture ofcourse comes first in place
2. Ingredients - It should be easy to get or already there in my kitchen and how healthy the ingredients are....
3. The labour and time needed to prepare the dish....but if the pic is too tempting I wudnt mind doing it even if its a lengthy process :)
4. Innovativeness - If I've not heard of the dish and its tempting then I wud go for it.
5. And finally the presentation and color of the dish.

Would luv to hear urs too...Come on, Pour in!

A Bday wish and my rasamalai experiment ;)

Hmm first I admit that this pista cke was from Mcrennet and not from my kitchen...I havent tried my hands yet in baking and stuff. When I was wondering what cake to order for hubbys bday.....I made up my mind not to stick with choc as I am bored of having choc cake everytime....also my cam wanted to click something other than brown......;) so opted for pista . I wasnt much satisfied with the write up on the cake...the girl was in such a hurry that she scribbled like this....forget it... but the taste was yum yum!

Yup....today is hubbys bday....Here is me wishing him a very happy bday and this post is esp for him! Have you ever wondered why we celebrate bdays??!! Does it mean only new dresses, gifts, partying with friends, chocs n cakes? I feel Birthdays remind us that the gift of life is the most precious and important one! And to me birthdays are more special than any other festival....its the special time to celebrate the gift of 'you' to the world.

Hmm...now coming to my rasamalai experiment....I was in a thought of making a sweet that I hvent tried yet so my choice was Rasamalai, went through 4-5 random recipes....mostly of them had the same method. So yesterday after a tiring day at office... came home and started to prepare this sweet. After the cottage cheese was ready I couldnt shape it into balls.....so where to flatten it....:( But followed the same steps and the result was like therati paal.....it was yummy though it didnt taste and look like rasamalai ha ha...So what to name my sweet, any suggestions?

But was pretty much pleased with this click of mine....As there was no enough light ,I had to use flash.....The sweet was cream color n so the flash was over harsh n the picture seemed to look washed out with white. And here is where the I used ISO setting and it worked out too...I used ISO 800 for this click though a lil grainy I cud see some blur at the back....heya I m atleast 25% achieved the blurring effect...!

NOTE:Check my photography basic elements post for more details.

Here is the method I followed:
1. To make cottage cheese - I boiled the milk, Added few drops of lemon juice till the milk curdled
2. Transfered the curdled milk into a muslin cloth to drain out the water. After sometime I tried to divide and shape into small balls........but here is where the pain started I cudnt roll it at all...:(
3. Made a thick sugar syrup , dropped the semi balls into the syrup and they started to seperate.....as the balls were not strong enough
4. Then added these scrambled rasamalai's to the thickened milk(done seperately)
5. Added cardamom powder and garnished with pistachios and almonds

Have any of you faced the same pblm? Do let me knw where I went wrong.....And I m sure to try it again with pleasure....:)

Photography - The Basic Elements, a deeper view....

When I first opted to learn online photography the often 3 words I read everywhere in basic elements were

• ISO,
  
• Aperture
  
• Shutter speed and I am adding one more to it
  
• Angles

Wait wait dont run away....... hearing these very technical terms, I swear I'l explain in my simplest terms. Even I was very much aversed hearing such terms for the 1st time but then learnt these are the most useful when professional photography is considered. Now first lets start with ISO...

ISO denotes how sensitive the image sensor is exposed to the amount of light present.

It is usually in numbers from lower say 100 - higher may be 2600(it depends on ur camera). This can be manually changed in settings.

Shooting at a lower ISO number requires more light - Refer 1st pic. So if you are at a place where light is less you can increase to higher ISO settings but remember higher the ISO the picture looks like washed off with sand or to be simple a grainy picture - Refer 2nd pic it automatically has given more light. I do cooking mostly during ngt times and there is no way other than to use flash till I learnt about ISO and now I can take pictures without flash by setting higher no ISO say 400 or 800.

ISO : 200 ISO: 1600

RULE :

Lower ISO number is used when there is more light

Higher ISO number is used when there is low light

Aperture

The aperture on a camera, which is measured in f-stops, controls the amount of light. Lower f-stop numbers (for e.g. in mine its 2.8) widens the aperture and allow more light to get in. The larger the hole the more light that gets in - the smaller the hole the less light. But only in some cameras you have control over to manually change the fstop settings , otherwise its automatic.

Note : This blur in 2nd pic was actually faked using photoshop ;) but to show how the blurring looks....I have used this pic...becos I have a a long way to go to learn blurring backgrounds using my digi cam....:) When we take living objects we usually get annoyed when our pictures blur....I was also with you till I discovered the beauty of blurring....I can say I am craving to take background blur pictures....Blur isn’t always a bad thing, especially when it captures the movement or the subject with a background.

Shutter speed

Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the shutters of the window are open. A fast shutter speed will freeze the subject and a slow shutter speed will make it look blurred as the subject moves. When we use flash option there is a fast shutter speed and thats the reason why we have less option for the images to shake. I usually use this in interiors where there is no enough light.

Freezing is if you check the 1st pic will u believe the fan was rotating while I clicked the pic....but yes tats the truth....It just freezes the moving objects when shutterspeed is fast.

RULE :

Fast Shutter speed - Freeze as in 1st pic

Slow shutter speed - Blur as in 2nd pic

Angles:

Till I started this space I was not aware that angles make so much of difference. In the 1st pic I took from top, so the lighting was not gud enough and pic seems to be dull too. The 2nd was taken from one side, see how much difference the lighting with angles has made and the pic looks more appealing. As I say always taking 4-5 pictures in different angles definitely makes a difference in your perspective to photography.

Having known the basics.....Lets get on to the next in my upcoming article but I'l make sure thats not boring as this :) So keep coming and do drop in ur comments !