Saturday 20 August 2011

Verse of the Day

Behold! in the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of the ships through the ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah Sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth;- (Here) indeed are Signs for a people that are wise.

-[2.164]

Friday 19 August 2011

Sharing a Traditional Pakistani Street Food Recipe : LADOO PEETHIYAN WALAY

As funny as the name may sound, these ladoos are just so special and tasty that everytime i even think about them, I start drooling. There was a time a long ago in the streets of Lahore (Pakistan), seller would come on their bicycles carrying these laddos and their accessories.. Calling in the streets "Ladooooooo" and as soon as the poeple heard their voices they would come out to the street to enjoy these marvelously delicious Ladoos..
They are salted, made with ground channa daal (split lentils), topped with shredded reddish and sour tamarind sauce...
Nothing beats the joy of having these laddos as a snack .. YUMMMY!!!



They are divine... They take you back in time and just make you wanna stay there forever... I remember in my childhood my dad used to make these and i'd eat a lot of them. Those were the good times.




LADOO PEETHIYAN WALAY (lentil fritters, served with reddish and Tamarind sauce)

LADOO recipe

1 cup lentils washed and soaked for 4 hrs




1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp salt
Water as needed.
Oil for frying
Tamarind sauce (recipe Below)
Shredded reddish













First, wash and soak the lentils for sometime until they double in size



Drain well and put them in the blender, add 1/2 a cup of water. Blend.. If the water is too little and the lentils are not being blended, add just a dash more of water, push them in the blender to the blade. Try again. It'll be hard because of the amount of water but you dont want to add too much of water. Just keep trying and blending until your lentils are thoroughly blended and form a thick paste. Blend them really well(5-10mins), cuz if there are chunks left they'll be hard to cook. Your mix should resemble somewhat like a thick cake batter. Take that mix out of the blender in a bowl. Add salt and baking soda, mix well with the help of a spoon.

(TIP: if your mix is runny and splatter while frying, add some of the besan or powdered lentils to make it bind together)

Heat a frying pan filled half with oil. You can also deep fry them, but to give them a flat shape frying pan works better. With the help of a serving spoon or your hand take some amount of the batter, (2-3tbsp) and slide them in the hot oil. Fry them on one side for 5 mins at medium low heat, until they turn golden brown.



Turn them to the other side and fry for another 5 minutes.
Take them out on a kitchen towel, cover them with something so that they soften a little bit in their own steam and make another batch.


Tamarind Sauce

1/2 cup tamarind paste
1 tsp salt
4-5 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground red chilli
1 cup water
Combine everything in a pan, bring to boil and cook for 5 mins on low heat. It shouldnt be thick , you can add more water if you want.

To assemble
Break 2-3 Ladoos in a serving bowl,(DONT CRUMBLE THEM). Add a handful of shredded reddish.. Pour 3-4 tbsp of sauce on the top. Sprinkle some cilantro leaves and chopped green chilli, if desired)
ENJOY... :)


Saturday 13 August 2011

Starting a new blog!!

I have been using Internet for a long time now, the first connection we had was dial up. And that was really not common in Pakistan at that time, i dont have many memories of that time but I do remember that we need to boot thru the DOS. All of my siblings and I were so amazed to see it work, we went to Yahoo.com and found so much things over there, and the most interesting was chat ofcourse .. lol.. it was quite interesting, I made a lot of friends from all over the world. Then came the phase when i made email friends, we used to exchange such long email.. But to be honest nothing dirty, I always wanted to meet those who were from differnt countries and were interesting in knowing about mine. It was a good time.. after sometime I found this website with discussion forums, it was really interesting. I made a lot of friends there since 1999, many of whom I still talk to, although i dont go to that site anymore....
 
It was a good time, no tensions and no responsibilities. 

Then i joined the university, became busy with my studies... Right after the uni. got married and then got busy in my life with husband and kids.. Now that the kids are bigger I find a lot of time for myself and I dont plan to work for some time.. 

I try everything that I can.. I can cook, bake, sew, mend and teach.. So i will be posting about my daily cooking sharing recipes from my side of the world, and ofcourse trying new recipes from other sides of the world, which i totally love to do. Will be posting my Baking adventures, and sharing pics here.. 
Lets see I am totally new to this place I dont know how to categorize the blog.... I'll be first experimenting with the blog, then with other things... 
:)