Foodie Workz

Celery is one such vegetable which I came to know of only after coming to the US.    Having pretty much used in salads or soups,  my first attempt to include in regular Indian cooking was in the sambar.    In recent times though, I have tried to come up with dishes like Celery Coriander Thokku , Celery and Potato Podimas , and more recently the Celery  Tomato Rice .   Today, I have attempted to camouflage this vegetable in yet another way......   1 cup finely chopped celery 1/2 cup peanuts 1 red chilli 1 tea spoon tamarind paste salt to taste Take a spoon of oil and saute the celery with little salt for 2 minutes. Add the red chillies and the roasted peanuts and saute this again. Add the tamarind paste and little more salt.  Let this mix well.  Grind this to a paste adding little water. Season with mustard seeds

A very simple and common preparation enhanced by these lovely blue berries giving the dish a nice color and flavor... 1/2 cup rawa 1/2 cup sugar little less than 1/2 cup blueberries few broken cashewnuts for garnish 1/8th tsp of elaichi powder 1/4 cup of ghee Roast the rawa in about 2 tsp of ghee till you get the aroma.  In the meanwhile, heat up about 2 cups of water in the microwave.  Slowly add this hot water to the rawa keeping the flame at low.  Turn up the heat and cook the rawa nicely without any lumps.  Once this is done, add the sugar, elaichi powder and half of the ghee.  Let this cook until the sugar is melted completely.  Again, microwave the blueberries quickly to soften them and add this to the rawa cooking in the sugar.  Add the rest of the ghee and cook until it comes together and does not remain sticky to the touch.  Garnish with some cashews roasted in ghee...

Celery was one such vegetable where I was always tempted to add it my grocery cart but was at loss of ideas as to how to use it in the kitchen.   I  used to see that it was a staple in soups American restaurants and served quite often on salad platters in parties.  I have also used the celery for such dishes.   But how many kids would ever go for the celery given its fibrous and stringy texture?  But over the years I have learnt to use it abundantly in my traditional dishes as well.  I have been using it in sambars and oflate used it in these recipes Celery Paratha(to be posted),  Celery Coriander Thokku  and Celery and Peanut Chutney(to be posted). Thus was born the idea of a nice tangy Celery Rice combined with some ground tomatoes.  It can also be made into pulao by including onions and whole garam masala. 3/4 cup finely chopped celery 1 big tomato 1 long green chilli 1 inch ginger piece 1 cup basmati rice 1/4 tsp turmeric powder salt to taste oil mustard and urad

How about a tasty treat which is relatively guilt free compared to the ones which need lot of  fat and sugar?  This is my second attempt at this,  having made it earlier for my daughter's girl scout event.... Dates 30 nos Milk about 1/2 cup a couple of generous pinches of cardamom powder sugar abt 2 tblsps ghee(not melted) in semi solid state 5 tsp sliced almonds 1/4 cup toasted pista coarsely ground for garnish almond slices for garnish Cook the dates and milk in the pressure cooker.   Once it cools off, remove and grind into a paste. To begin with add a spoon of ghee into the pan and start cooking the paste.  After few minutes of stirring, add the sugar and some  more ghee. Slowly the mixture will begin to change color and also thicken a bit.  At this stage, you can add the coarsely ground roasted almonds and also the cardamom powder.   The mixture is done, once it comes together like a ball and is not sticky to the touch.  It should also look a bit shiny because of a

I decided to prepare this poha for lunch one day for myself as I usually never get to make this.  My kids are not a big fan of the Poha dishes, though this can be a good snack when they get home hungry.  However, as this poha alone would not quite keep me filled up, I decided to add some cooked lobiya to it.   This was quite delicious and enjoyed it thoroughly with some usual seasonings. 1 cup thick poha - washed and soaked in abt 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup of cooked lobiya water drained(I soaked 1/4 cup of lobiya just for this purpose and got a 1/2 cup heaped amount of lobiya -cooked with little salt) 1 tsp mustard seeds 1.5 tsp urad dal hing powder 1 red chilli curry leaves salt to taste 1 tblsp oil grated coconut to taste crushed black pepper to taste Take the oil, splutter the mustard, urad, red chilli, hing and curryleaves, add the poha and salt needed and stir till it combines well.  Add the lobiya, crushed pepper and stir once again.  Add the grated coconut and

Podimas is a very well known dish in any typical Tamil Brahmin household.   I decided to try this out differently by adding celery to it.   The addition of celery gave a nice added flavor to the potaotes.  3 medium potatoes 4 long stalks of celery trimmed 2 long green chillies 1/2 tsp mustard 3/4 tsp of urad dal and chana dal ginger small piece  few curry leaves salt to taste lemon juice to taste Boil the potatoes, peel and coarsely crumble them.   Chop the celery into medium size pieces and steam cook them for 2-3 minutes.  Process this in a food processor. Heat up the oil, add the mustard, dals, green chili, ginger and curry leaves and stir the celery first.  Add the potatoes and salt and keep stirring it on medium flame till it combines well with the celery. Squeeze some lemon juice in the end and give a good mix.