Fish Scramble with peas - Sora Pittu

Dishes made with sora or shark meat are a delicacy. Even in coastal city like visakhaptnam, the shark meat is rare to find. Certain fish taste good only when cooked in a particular way. Ammamma always made fish fry with "vanjaram" and Pittu(or Puttu) with sora. I was told by my aunt Catfish closely resembles vanjaram. However, I am yet to do my analysis on the types of fish. I made pulusu with salmon once - was not bad but not as great as koramenu pulusu. So coming back to pittu, I happen to find shark meat at the market place - the last two pounds. I knew the recipe was easy, but called ammamma for confirmation.

Variation: A fish and rice casserole can be prepared by mixing sora pittu with rice, shredded carrots and cheese of your liking (I like mozarella) and baking in the oven for about 10 minutes at 300F until the cheese melts.

Chocolate Bruschetta and Jodha-Akbar

Wow! A post finally after two weeks. So me and my hero went to the matinee show of “Jodha Akbar” today. I am a bit disappointed with the director! I mean Gowariker could have made a terrific movie with gorgeous actors like ash and hrithik and heart warming love story. What could be more intriguing than a hindu princess being married to a mughal king and the love story happening after marriage. Truly, I expected a lot more sparks of love and development of trust between the lead pair but they gave into love too early just after clearing a simple misunderstanding. However on the other hand, V thought the movie was boring to death and there is no story at all! I don’t quite agree with him and we had an hour long discussion munching over the roasted peanuts, chocolate bruschetta and the hot herbal Chamomile tea.

Chocolate Bruschetta:
Slice day old French baguette and place them on a baking sheet. Apply some butter to the bread or use a non-stick spray and place hershely chocolate kisses on the slices. They can be placed in microwave for 2 minutes on low power or in the oven for 6-8 minutes at 250F or until the chocolate has melted. Spread the chocolate and top it with berries and or nuts. The Chamomile tea goes perfectly in sync with these delights.

The main thing for the food lovers, the movie has an elaborate food sequence where Jodha serves Rajput khana to Akbar - and she names 5 dishes! I wish I could have paid more attention to the names of those dishes. Of the 5, only words I remember is Panchmali sabzi - I am assuming its a 5 veggie dish. Correct me if I am wrong. If you are gonna watch the movie after reading this post, can you leave a comment with the names of the other dishes.

So getting back to the discussion on how love develops in an arranged marriage considering a case like jodha and akbar - Its universal, be it either an arranged or love marriage “TRUST and RESPECT” are the basis for love to develop. The story doesn’t show that. Akbar tries to woo jodha because she is beautiful. Akbar doesn’t trust Jodha and vice versa. The director had many scenes that showed Akbar/jodha do respect their spouses. But does having respect mean trusting someone as well? Well it’s too much for a discussion – so lets leave it here.

Ash’s performance is OK! She was artificial (as usual) in the introduction scene. There is a brilliant scene where is she supposed to say her husband’s name – aah! it was such a disappointment – she totally blew that scene:( But her dresses and especially the long hair extension was amazing! Hrithik was excellent in that particular scene (Oh! I didn’t know Akbar was illiterate until I saw this scene). Other scenes where hrithik excelled:
1. The first time he looks at his wife - the expression was – “Oh my god! My wife is damn beautiful” – he got it perfect.
2. The last scene where akbar pardons his brother in law.

Scenes where hrithik was in his krish or kaho na pyaar hai mode (click on the links to watch the video)
1. Pleading his wife to return to Agra – he missed the boat – he couldn’t maintain the Aura of a king in that scene. The gestures and everything were like Raj of kaho naa pyaar hai. Ash was better in this scene.
2. The disguise scene where in he says – “fateh karne mai aur raaj karne mai faraq hota hai” - its so hrithik being himself!
3. The dialog “Mallika-e-Hinudstan” Yeh mat bhuliye ki hum aapke Suhaag hai” - I love him in this scene but he is in the “raaj (KNPH)” mode

And the much hyped war scenes were so pathetic! I love the songs, the top being “Kehneko Jashn-e-Bahaar” – wonderful lyrics and melodious. Jewelry, costumes and the film sets were amazing – one can easily say that lots of effort went into that department.

If you admire and adore hrithik roshan, go watch it in a theater – it’s quite a treat for women audience and inspiration for the men – hahaha. Otherwise one can watch it at leisure once the DVD is out.

Getting back with Garlic-Pea Soup

Hello folks, I am back after 10 days of hectic work schedule. I took pictures of what I cooked these 10 days. Most of them were "clean up the refrigerator" salad/soup type recipes. The frozen peas were hanging in the freezer, I dont know for how long! Made this quick healthy soup. I missed many events - I have to catch up with the food blog world. Oh and by the way, the boule (bread) in the picture was baked by me :) from scratch :).

Bendakaya-Endu royyalu Pulusu (Okra and Dried shrimp)

This curry / pulusu is amongst the favourite dishes for those who hail from vizag, East and West Godavari districts. Its heavenly and so delicious. The basic ingredients of a "pulusu" are onion and tamarind juice. You can make this dish just with Okra (bendakaya in telugu) but the dried shrimp makes this pulusu totally a top level delicacy. Mom in law also makes this curry with eggplant/brinjal. She also adds hard boiled eggs to the curry, but I like them on the side. Any andhrites out there craving for this dish?

Delicious Prawn curry with coconut and cashew paste

Hello Everyone, I am posting a recipe after a long time. I was busy with work. I will have to come up with some plan to regularly post even during the crunch times. Today I made this delicious prawn curry - its rich and spicy and is heavenly when eaten with white steamed rice.

I am also making "printable pages" so that the recipes can be printed and cataloged in your recipe books. Hope you like it.

Broccoflower with garlic crumbs

The recipe I present here is low fat version of the deep fried cauliflower. I used broccoflower (a hybrid of broccoli and cauliflower) - for its color and also for its nutritional value. Additionally you would need garlic pods (about 6-7 sliced thin) and bread crumbs. Garlic flavored bread crumbs can also be used, though nothing can beat the aroma of fresh garlic being sauted (I think Sunita will agree with me and this recipe would be a nice entry to her "Think Garlic" Event).



Cook the broccoflower florets in salted boiling water. Drain the water and run the florets under cold water or place them in ice bowl to stop the cooking process (thanks to the food network shows). Wipe the cooked florests gently with a tissue/kitchen cloth to remove excess moisture. In a pan saute garlic slices in 2 tbsp of oil until they turn to golden brown color. Add the florets to the pan and saute until the florets are a bit crispy (about 5-6 minutes). Season with salt and pepper and any other herbs you like. For additional crunch add the bread crumbs and saute for 3-4 minutes and serve hot with ketchup or vegetable side dish. As I was finishing this writeup, I just realized - why did I go through such a pain of boiling florets, wiping them, saute them - I could have just placed the florets with garlic, bread crumbs and olive oil and bake the dish in an oven and get done with! :)

Have a nice day you all!

Satsuma mandarins and click

In telugu, "narinja" would refer to mandarin oranges that could be easily peeled and eaten versus "battayi" is something like navel oranges but with green skin and yellow flesh. I like mandarin oranges because they are sweet and tart at the same time. I bought a few "Satsuma mandarin" oranges - easy to peel, seedless variety. They are small in size, so can be put into the power juice without the use of a knife. I dont need to emphasize on how deliciously refreshing "freshly squeezed" orange juice can be. One thing to keep up with fresh juices is they need to be consumed within 10 minutes after preparing them, else they loose the nutritional value. One more thing we cannot get with a bottled juice - the froth over the fresh juice!Simply tasty.

A juicy way to spice up orange juice is to mix with carrot juice and sprinkle of rose water to give a blend that is out of the world tasty. Just clicked the pictures in time - sending them to CLICK "liquids" event hosted by jugalbandi.

Here's another drink - strawberry margarita, and it didnt make it to the contest. I will do the writeup for this soon :) Until then here's a quick look