Garlic Noodles for Taste and create

For this month’s edition of taste and create I am paired with Marthe of Culinary delights.

If you are new to taste and create,here is a small intro.Taste and create is a monthly blogging event started by Nicole of For the love of food.In this, each month bloggers are paired and have to prepare dishes from the partner’s blog.In this way we get to create,taste and appreciate recipes from fellow bloggers.If you want to join our fun,sign up for next month.The details are here

As I was telling you earlier,this month I am paired with Marthe.She writes a blog called culinary Delights.True to the name,her blog has so make baked delights that made me drool.

I tried her Garlic Noodles

The original recipes,calls for oyster sauce but I have omitted it. I have stuck on to the other ingredients on the list.

Here is what you need:

Chinese noodles-1 pack
Garlic-4 cloves,minced
Red onion-1,chopped
Salted butter-2 teaspoons
Soy sauce-2 teaspoon
Light brown sugar-2 teaspoons

1. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the pack and keep aside.
2. In a bowl,mix soy sauce and light brown sugar.I added a little water to make a thin paste.
3. Heat a pan with butter and when it melts,put in onion and garlic.
4. Fry for a minute and add the noodles and soy mixture.
5. Stir well to mix and serve.

This is really an easy breezy dish.Sure to try it again when I need a quick breakfast but I think I will reduce the quantity of light brown sugar.Lil angel loved it though!

Recipe ideas for toddlers and kids

Some recipes from my blog that are nutritious and are pleasing to the kids…

Breakfast ideas –

1. Uthappam-Thick crepes with vegetable toppings
2. Ragi porridge- Finger millet porridge, one of the best weaning food that can also be given to older children.
3. Nutri chapathi – Chapathi with oats
4. Aval upma -Iron rich preparation of pressed rice/poha
5. Ragi Sevai – Finger millet noodles
6. Buckwheat noodles with vegetables -Colorful noodles with vegetables
7. Vegetable chapathi – A nice way to sneak vegetables into the meal.
8. Sesame vegetable noodles-Calcium and nutrient rich noodles
9. Bread upma -Bread upma for a change with vegetables
10. Coriander parathas-Tasty parathas with a mild coriander flavor.

Rice – Apart from the regular rice preparations, try these, for they are rich in Iron and Calcium.
1. Curry leaf flavored rice
2. Sesame seed flavored rice

Snacks-
1. Bhel puri -A snack that all kids will love and they won’t mind eating veggies in this.
2. Tit bits -Crunchy wheat snacks
3. Bread pizza sandwich-Make your own pizza
4. Bread thayir vadai-Another delicious way to include curd in the meal
5. Ulundhu vadai-Lentil fritters

Milk and milk products -

1. Banana milkshake
2. Apple milkshake
3. Strawberry banana milkshake
4. Strawberry milkshake
5. Kiwi banana milkshake
6. Cheesy pasta
7. Fruity yoghurt
8. Curd aval-Pressed rice in seasoned curd.
9. Curd rice
10. Colorful beetroot raita

Desserts –

1. Ell urundai-An iron and calcium rich preparation
2. Instant oats halwa
3. Coconut payasa
4. Instant milk halwa

Fruits -

1. Water melon slush
2. Herb lemonade
3. Banana in rich coconut sauce-A Vietnamese dessert
4. Apple sauce for toddlers
5. Mashed sapota with milk for the little one.

You can also look up for more ideas here where my blogger friends have given their ideas on tasty bites for toddlers.

BEETROOT RAITA

If you have been reading my blog regularly ,you might well be aware about my love for Yoghurt.So,when mom and me were discussing about new recipes,the topic turned to raita and she asked,’You have posted Beetroot Raita ,right?’ and thats when I remembered I had forgotten all about it .

So off dad went to get Beetroot and here is the simple raita..It can be used as side-dish with pulao or any rice varities and also goes well with Sambar sadham[Sambar rice] and Ennai Kathirikkai[Baby brinjal in tangy sauce].

You need:

Beetroot-1,small,Peeled and grated

Curd-1 soupbowl full

Salt to taste

Seasoning:

Mustard-1 teaspoon

Urad dhal-1/2 a teaspoon

Curry leaves-a few

Green chillies -2 slit

Oil-1 teaspoon

1.Heat oil a pan and put in the mustard and urad dhal.

2.When the dhal turns brown add the green chillies and curry leaves.

3.When the curry leaves turn crisp,put in the grated beetroot andsaute for a few seconds.

4.Sprinkle a little water and cook covered till soft.

5.Meanwhile beat curds well with salt.

6.When the beetroot is done,pout into the curd.

7.Mix well and serve as such/chilled.

You can also microwave the grated beetroot [sprinkle a little water and cover] for 5 minutes or till cooked and then add it to the pan after the seasoning are done,Saute for a few seconds and pour over the curd.Mix and serve.

This raita ‘looks’ like pink to me so off it goes to Sunshinemom’s FIC event,which is hosted this month by Priya. Priya has choosen lovely pink/Rose for the theme and if you cooking aything in pink don’t forget to send it to her…

LET US TRAVEL TO……AWED event announcement

This month AWED is starting its culinary journey from my blog.If you are wondering what AWED is ,it is to be inspired by the sheer beauty of what you see and an acronym for “A Worldly Epicurean’s Delight”.

Before I let you know where we are going to travel to this month,I would like to say something about the wonderful person who started this awesome event.Dhivya Karthik or DK as she is fondly called,started this event as a culinary journey to the lands that have been explored and traveled .

Now coming to this months theme ..Ah ah,not so fast!!!You will have to guess but will give you a few clues though.

- A land which was once referred to as as “Rivers and Mountains Embroidered on Silk”,
- A country which has the world’s oldest surviving astronomical observatories.
- A cuisine famed for Kimchi , ramyeon

The last one gave away the theme, right!!! Yes,This month we are going to be AWED by the flavorsome KOREAN CUISINE.

Just a few points worth mentioning about the cuisine-

Spiciness is the distinguishing feature of the Korean food.The cuisine is enhanced by the use seasonings like red pepper,green onion,soy bean paste,ginger,garlic,sesame,mustard.

The koreans like meat dishes but vegetable dishes are equally popular. [So you can modify the meat dishes and send them across].They usually boil or blanch, broil, stir-fry, steam, or pan-fry the food with vegetable oil.

Though the times are changing,Korean food is considered to be very healthy and well-balanced.

Apart from the cooking style ,it is interesting to note that the Koreans pay particular attention to the arrangement of the food on the plates and the dishes on the table. Foods are supposed to be placed neatly in concentric circles or parallel linear columns and never in a disorderly fashion. The colors of the foods also alternate in a regular manner.

Here is the logo created by dear DK…

All this said and done, just a few guideline before you start off…..

1) Make any dish – be it Appetizer, Main Course , Snack or Dessert( do mention that in your blog) – Vegetarian/Vegan and post the same in your blog and link it back to this announcement and also to DK’s AWED Menu . Use of the logo is highly appreciated.

2) Multiple entries are more welcome than ever, since more the recipes, more the choices available to all of us.

3) Take a snap showcasing your creation and send it across with your “Name”, “Recipe”, “Recipe URL” and “Photo” to : seduceurtastebuds@gmail.com

4) Not having a blog is no excuse to let you get away with your tasty creations. So Non-Bloggers please do send me the same details as above to my mail.

5) Last date for the entries – April 4th 2009.

If you are wondering where to start from,here are a few inspirations…

Korean Delights 1

Korean delights 2

Korean Delights 3

I am honored to be the first hostess of this wonderful event and keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to carry-on the baton that is admired and renowned. So calling all bloggers [and non bloggers] to make this event a grand success.. I look forward to seeing a lot of delicious Korean food and now I am off to start a Korean creation in my kitchen…….

CAROTTES RÂPÉES-Grated carrot salad,French style…

I have been mulling over the past few days as to what I can be AWED about French cuisine coz got to send in something for DK’s AWED -French..I have been travelling around quite a bit and don’t feel like entering the kitchen!!Mom to the rescue-as usual..She cooks all what I want and so there is no reason why should enter the kitchen except to pop in when I need something extra for my blog..

When I thought of French cuisine,I was immediately reminded of one of the lessons we learnt,which was meant to introduce us to the words that we use while ordering food at a restaurant and in the menu was the character’s fav dish – Bouillabaisse which is dish of a fish stock containing different kinds of cooked fish and shellfish and vegetables, flavored with a variety of herds and spices ,an authentic dish from Marseilles…

I easily located my lesson book and here is a snapshot of that lesson.[I know the print is not good because we could not get the original book as it was out of stock and had to photocopy the whole book and bind it]For a few minutes I was transported to my college days.

There was also a menu card and I looked into it but almost nothing was vegetarian

I wished I could draw inspiration from that book but all found was a recipe for Bouillabaisse

So as usual I browsed the net for an easy dish as the deadline was close by and that’s when I came across ‘carottes râpées’. It did sound exotic,just as all the ‘foreign’ recipes do,and all I could guess was that it has something to do with carrots- thanks to my French language professor from college who made sure we used french words for common things to start with in the class ,so that we need not memorise the words when had to sit for the exams.We soon caught up this idea and started using French words in other places as well and between our friends who took french lessons,we would use french words,while our other ‘non french’ friends would wonder what we were talking!That was fun but soon this game wore off..But the memories of the french classes and our professor is still evergreen but this is not true for what we learnt.I can hardly recall the words now

Ok now back to the topic, ‘carottes râpées’ is an easy breezy affair and a healthy one too.

This really doesn’t have any fancy procedure .All you need is

Carrots – 2 ,finely shredded

and a dressing of

Olive oil-1 teaspoon,1/2 teaspoon sugar,salt to taste ,freshly ground pepper and a little parsley ,finely chopped as a garnish

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing

Put the finely shredded carrot in a bowl and add the dressing.Mix well.

Check the taste and adjust .

Serve garnished with finely chopped parsley.

As simple as that…Go ahead and prepare this ‘French salad’ and impress your family and friends!!!!