Family day at Saravanaa

Family Day is observed in the Canadian province of Ontario on the third Monday of February. This holiday celebrates the importance of families and family life to people and their communities. The family day culture just started in Ontario a couple of years back, in 2009. One of the reasons for introducing Family Day was that there was a long period when there were no holidays from New Year's Day until Good Friday and to give working people the opportunity to spend more time with their families.


On Family Day, many people plan and take part in activities aimed at the whole family. These include visiting art exhibitions, watching movies, skating on outdoor ice rinks, playing board games and taking part in craft activities. Some communities plan special public events, and art galleries and museums may have reduced price or free entry. People use the long weekend as an opportunity for a short winter break or to travel to visit family members or friends

To celebrate the family day weekend, we went to an Indian restuarant Saravanaa Bhavan for brunch. Saravanaa Bhavan is a chain of Indian vegetarian restuarants. Serves the best Indian vegetarian food in Greater Toronto Area. The brunch normally starts around 10 am and ends at 12 noon. They have the wide range of Authentic/ traditional south Indian recipes. The aromatic flavours of the spices filled the room, making you feel at home. The taste and quality was excellent. The reception was great with a friendly smile. The ambience was great, clean and well maintained.

These are some of items served on the brunch apart from the freshly made puris and dosas  mm..mm... good....

                                                                                    Upma and Pongal

Pulihora and Alu puttu

Vada

                                                                                               Uttapam

                                                                                        Ravva kesari

Coconut chutney, green chutney, tomato chutney

 So delicious ! It's worth the visit !!

Strawberry sauce

This simple, easy to make strawberry sauce has multiple uses. It can be used on ice-creams, cakes, waffles, pan cakes, trifles, custards, puddings, crapes, fruit salads or any kind of desserts.  Make the sauce in thick consistency and use it as a pie filling. Makes a delicious addition to your dessert. This sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. Try substituting strawberries with blueberries, mango, cherries, cranberries or oranges to give a different dimension to your dessert.

Ingredients
Fresh / strawberries - 1 cup washed, stems trimmed, and chopped in peice
water - 1/4 cup
sugar - 1 cup
Corn starch - 2 tbsp
Red food colour

Method:
Take a clean pot and add the chopped strawberries, sugar and water. Put it on medium heat and allow it to simmer.
In a small bowl add 2 tbsp of water, corn starch and food colour, mix it well and keep it aside.
When the strawberries reaches the boiling point, add the corn starch, keep stirring until it becomes thick.
Take it off the stove and allow it to cool. Store it in a bottle and refrigerate.

Tip: The entire process should not take more than 10-15 mins. Don't let the strawberries cook till it is mushy. let the chunks of strawberries float in the sauce.

This is my contribution for the event: Veggie/ fruit a month - strawberry. My fellow blogger Pari is hosting this EVENT

Tomato bath

Ingredients:
Sooji/Rawa/ cream of wheat - 1 cup
Tomatoes - 3 chopped
Onion - 1 chopped
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Water - 2 cups ( the ratio is 1: 2)
Urad Dal - 1 tsp
Green chillies - 2 chopped
Ginger - 1"(chopped or grated)
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Cashew nuts - 8
Salt to taste

Method:
• Roast rawa in a dry skillet on low flame until it starts to give nice aroma. keep it in a seperate bowl.
• Heat ghee and add, mustard, urad dal and cashew nuts and curry leaves .
• Add chopped green chilli, ginger, onions and fry until onions turn light brown.
  Add tomotoes and cook until it is nice and soft.  Mash it with the back of the spoon
• Now add salt, add pre-measured water and let it boil
  Add roasted sooji, mix it well, making sure it doesn't make lumps.
• Cover and simmer it for another 5-10 mins.
• Serve hot with pickle / chutney.

Blueberry smoothie

Fruits are always a healthy choice either eaten fresh or taken  in the form of juice or smoothie.  It is better to make it at home than using the commercially made juices or smoothies, because we use the freshest of ingredients, nutrients are not destroyed and there are no added additives, preservatives,  food colour or flavours.

Health benefits:
Blueberries are naturally sweet and has great health benefits with a high level of antioxidants. Blueberries can help in anti-aging, cancer prevention, preventing urinary tract infection, vision health, and helping in the prevention or fighting of other diseases as well.

Ingredients:
Blueberries - 1 cup
Yogurt  - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 tbsp
chilled water/ ice cubes - 1 cup

Method:
Put all the ingredients in a blender. Blend it smooth and Serve chilled.

Tip:   Substitute yogurt with Vanilla ice-cream to make it rich.  Top it off with a scoop of ice-cream or whip cream.

Coconut chutney

This is the traditional south indian sauce/ chutney that goes with well with almost all the south Indian breakfast.  It can also be used with the snack items. Udipi hotels and kamat hotels serves the best coconut chutney.  The fresh milky flavour from the fresh coconut  is so good. It is a great accompaniment with Idli and sambar. 

Ingredients: Fresh coconut - 1 cup grated
Putana dal/ Roasted chana dal - 2 tbsp
Yogurt - 2 tbsp
Ginger  - 1 inch,  washed,peeled and grated
Green Chillies - 2 ( adjust accordingly)
Coriander - 1 tsp chopped
Salt 

for seasoning:
Red chillies - 2
curry leaves - 1 sprig
Mustard seeds - 1/2  tsp
Cumin - 1/2 tsp
Black gram - 1 tsp
oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

Blend coconut, putana dal, ginger, green chillies, coriander, yogurt and salt to a fine paste. Add  little water if necessary.
Heat oil, add Red chillies, mustard,  Cumin, curry leaves and black gram. When the mustard starts spluttering, take it off the stove and pour it over the  blended coconut paste.
Serve with  idli, dosa, upma, vada, uttappa etc

Beef Stir fry

Ingredients:
Beef -  1 lb cut in thin strips
Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
Chilli pwd - 1 tsp
Coriander pwd - 1 tsp
Salt
Green chillies - 4 ( adjust accordingly)
Coriander - 1 bunch, washed and finely chopped
Fresh garlic - 2 tbsp finely chopped
Soy sauce - 2 tbsp
Oil - 3 tbsp

Method:
Cut beef in thin strips. Marinate with chilli pwd, coriander pwd, salt and ginger garlic paste for half an hour.  Add 1/4 cup of water and Pressure cook it in a cooker.  Keep it until 2 whistles.  In a wok, pour oil and add green chillies, chopped garlic and fry.  Add the cooked beef and stir fry on medium  high flame. Add soysauce and fry until all the water is evoporated.  Add the chopped coriander and mix well.  Serve hot with roti or rice.

Serving the kids:  when serving the kids, Do no add green chillies and reduce the heat content in the marination.

Cucumber garnish

My culinary approach is based on using simple ingredients and simple methods to make it into exceptionally good  meals.   You don't need elaborate list of ingredients or fancy kitchen gadgets to make an outstanding meal. You need a bit creativity and bit of culinary knowledge to put things together to turn it into a great meal !   Here's the  little secret I would like to share... sh..  sh.. don't tell anyone... dress up your food with  the garnishes.  Guala...! Your food is now going to look like a take out from 5 star hotel !  Here's a lovely way to garnish your food.

  Take a cucumber log and scoop out the seeds.  Take a thin long piece of cucumber and cut it length wise and tuck the alternate wings inside. Put Chocolate syrup dots and ketchup dots on the plate and drag it in the middle with a tooth pick, touching all the dots, to make it look like a heart shape.

Thin cucumber slices fanned out.

Ravva kesari - sooji ka halwa

This is a special Indian dessert made with cream of wheat.  When you think of quick and easy Indian dessert, sooji ka halwa comes to mind.  It is easy to prepare, takes only few minutes to make with the basic and standard ingredients like milk, sugar and ghee.

Ingredients:
Cream of wheat/ Bombai ravva/ sooji  - 1 cup
Ghee or butter  - 5 tbsp
Milk - 3 cups
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Cashewnuts - 6-8
Chironji - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Saffron strands - few 
Food colour - optional

Method:
Heat butter or ghee in a pan. Fry dry fruits and nuts till golden brown.  Add Cream of wheat/sooji and fry till it turns light brown in colour. Remove from heat and keep a aside.

In a separate pan Boil 3 cups of milk, when the milk reaches boiling point add sugar and keep stirring until it dissolves.  Add the saffron strands, cardamom powder.   Now add the fried cream of wheat/ sooji slowly and gradually, keep stirring to avoid lumps. Cook till it becomes dry and slightly firm.

Grease a pan and pour the contents and smoothen it out.  Cut into bite size pieces and serve or serve hot  just like that.

Hara alu tikki

The Tikki/ Discs / Cutlets are quite  popular in Indian homes. This recipe is not a conventional or regular style of tikkiya that we find. It is made with a variation by adding spinach and peas to get the green colour and added flavour. Makes a great starter or an evening snack. Some people deep fry it , but I prefer shallow frying for health concerns.

Ingredients:
Potatoes - 3 boiled, peeled and mashed
Green peas - 1/2 cup boiled and mashed
Spinach - 2 cups, washed, chopped and blended to paste with no added water
Green chili - 1 finely chopped
Ginger - 2 inches piece, peeled and grated
Cumin - 1/4 tsp
Chaat masala - 1 tsp
Cornflour - 2 tbsp for binding
Oil -3 tbsp
Salt

Method:
In a mixing bowl add mashed potatoes,mashed peas and spinach paste. Add chopped green chilies, cumin, grated ginger, chaat masala and salt. Add cornflour for binding and mix Divide the mixture into equal portions. Shape them into a ball and flatten between your palms.  Heat oil in a frying pan, shallow fry the tikkis for 3-4 minutes.  Sprinkle a pinch of  chat masala on top and Serve hot with ketchup/ sweet and sour sauce / mint chutney.

Carrot Cucumber Cart Wheel Salad

I like what the Celebrity Chef, Michael smith( Chef at home) says about recipes....
"A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise. It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook. For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into a dish. When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit. Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don't like. Try substituting one ingredient for another. Remember words have no flavour, you have to add your own!"

Carrot cucumber salad is the  most commonest salad placed on dinner tables. Present the same dish in your own style with variation in cutting the same vegetables, use different dressings each time, and play around with arrangement, get ideas and use different techniques in presenting and garnishing. 

Here, I made Carrot and Cucumber cart wheels using the simple kitchen tool, a vegetable peeler.  Arranged them alternately on plate to give variation of colour, which is pleasing to the eyes. 

Vegetable peeler          

Preparation Method:  Pick  fresh, brightly coloured and firm carrot and cucumbers. Wash and Peel it using the curvy edge or crinkled side of the vegetable peeler and slice it thin. Arrange them on plate. Cut the tomato in the shape of petals.  Take a tooth pick and bead the Carrot, Cucumber cart wheels and the tomato petals as shown in the pic and place it in the middle of the plate to make it a focal point.