The Veggie Blog

Picture from www.madrasi.info

According to the South Asian Women’s Forum:

Kesari halwa and Kesari sweet rice are the favorites in North India. A dash of saffron is added to the sweetmeats to get a yellow tinge. Many people go to temple to offer halwa or sweet rice to the Gods.

I have tried several different ways to make Kesari over the last couple of years, some have failed miserably and some have been awesome eye-openers. I am going to share my best recipe adapted from my mom’s recipe.

Ingredients :

1 cup rava (semolina)

3-4 tbsps ghee (indian butter)

2.5 cups of sugar

1 tsp saffron powder

1 tsp Cardamom powder

5-7 Cashewnuts

5-7 Raisins

2.5 Cups of water

Preparation :

Heat a pan. Add 2 tbsps of ghee and add the rava. Roast the rava till it turns llight brown.Boil water in a separate vessel and add it to the rava till it gets fully cooked. Add 2 more tsps of ghee and sugar and stir it continously till it becomes thick. Add saffron powder, cardamom powder,raisins. Fry cashewnuts in a little ghee and add it to kesari. Serve hot.

Picture credit and copyright of www.hinduonnet.com

From my early childhood, I always remember how festive occasions in India were always marked by sweets and delicacies. My favorite among them, outright, was the king of south Indian sweets - The Pal Payasam. Pal in Tamil means “milk” and Payasam in Tamil means Pudding. So there you go, all it really stands for is “Milk Pudding”. But trust me, it is MUCH more than that, a lifestyle thing for south Indians, a 3000 year tradition that lives in every south Indian family to this date. So here’s how I do it:

Ingredients:

1 litre Milk

5 tsp Uncooked Rice

6-8 tsp Sugar

4-5 Almonds

5 Green Cardamoms (Wikipedia - Green Cardamoms)

6-8 tnds Saffron

4-5 almonds

Preparation:

Heat milk in a cooker .Wash the uncooked rice and add it to the milk.After 5 minutes reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.Then add sugar and stir it continously till it reduces to one third of the original quantity partially crushing the rice.Add saffron ,chopped almonds and cardamom powder.Serve hot or cold.

I thought it might be useful for some readers to know that this blog is based on wordpress, a free blogging tool available at http://www.wordpress.org. This theme for the blos is called Connection-Adsense and is provided by Dave SEO. You can read more about it here. The good thing about this theme is that it comes with Adsense ad modules installed by default. If you are not very familiar with internet marketing, then you might be surprised that you don’t have to do a lot of make some money on the internet. It takes less than a hour to install wordpress, the connections theme and start writing blog posts. I did it all this evening. And once you are done, every time a blog visitor clicks on a google ad, you get paid by Google! The more popular and more visitors that you get to your blog, the more money you can make. I write blogs for the pleasure of writing but, hey, if I can make a few bucks in the process, why not? Moreover, blogs are a great way to promote products, write reviews etc.

Click on the Above Link to Check out my Online Shopping Mall for Veggie Stuff…Everything that’s sold on this site is cruelty-free. I am really proud of this site. They always say - don’t just complain, do somthing about it. Well, here’s my way of promoting the movement against cruelty to animals, and in the process trying to make some money as well. I have always been a believer in the concept of Entrepreneurial Philanthropy. Some also call it “Philanthropreneur”…phoo..that’s a looooong word :). Read more about it in wikipedia here

Hello Veggie World! I have been wanting to write about my veggie life for a long time and finally got around to doing it today! I really hope that you will find my blog useful. I am a vegetarian and have been that way all my life. I would have never tasted meat, oh well, if it were’nt for taco bell’s employees that think beef is not meat or chinese restaurants where even the chef does’nt know what they put in their sauces :). Now, what part of ‘meat sauce’ did’nt they get?

I am an Indian by birth, been living in the US for the last 4 years. I work as a software engineer, take interest in Internet Marketing and also build websites. I play a lot of table tennis and recite ancient Hindu Hymns called Vedas. I have a beautiful wife - Disha, who makes the best Indian food in the world. I am going to have her write some of her recipes here as well.

I will also post interesting pictures, recipes, books, sites etc. that I find here. I recently started a veggie shopping mall called www.veggieplaza.com. Do check it out and let me know what you think. I believe against cruelty to animals. I am not a vegan today but hope to convert into a vegan eventually.

Bookmark this page or subscribe to my feed! Your comments, feedback or dialogue are MOST welcome!