Cauliflower roti pacchadi

Cauliflower is one of my fave vegetables. I love cauliflower in any form - simple curry, khurma, in pulav or biryani, manchuria etc. A few weeks ago my mom made roti pacchadi with cauliflower stalks that were left over after making curry. Today I attempted the same under her expert supervision :)

Here are the ingredients:
Cauliflower stalks
Red chilli
Peanuts
Urad dal (minapa pappu)
Chana dal (shenaga pappu)
Dhaniya seeds
Jeera
Mustard seeds
Tamarind (soaked in water)
Salt
Turmeric

Take one tea spoon of oil in a pan, add urad, chana dal & peanuts (don't add much oil in this step). As they become golden brown add dhaniya, jeera, mustard seeds. At the end add red chili. Cool this mixture and then grind to fine powder. Add salt and turmeric powder in this step. This will be painful if you add a lot of oil to fry! Learnt from personal experience :)

Shallow fry stalks till they are semi cooked. Doesn't have to get completely cooked. Fry until raw smell goes away and set aside. To the ground powder, add stalks and soaked tamarind. Don't grind too much, pacchadi tastes better when it's a lil chunky.

Add tadka to this for extra flavor. Take a few teaspoons of oil in a pan and add Urad dal, chana dal, jeera, mustard seeds and add curry leaves at the end. Tadka add a lil more oil to the pacchadi and gives it extra flavor.

Variations: Adding garlic in the first step will give a different flavor. This pacchadi can also be made with other vegetables like beerakaya (or it's skin), sorakaya (or it's skin), vankaya, etc.

Half Saree (Langa voni)

Half saree, aka Langa Voni (in Telugu), is a traditional south Indian outfit typically worn by teenage girls. It's called a 'half' saree cuz it's, well, just half a saree :) It's synonymous with a Lehenga Choli or Chaniya Choli from north India.

Young girls would wear half-sarees and gradually as they grow, transition to wearing sarees. I remember wearing my first half-saree when I was 12 years old. It was such a big deal for me, getting a 'semi-grown-up' feeling for the first time.

The trend sorta faded away, taken over by really grand n expensive salwars, but they are back with a bang! They're not just for young girls anymore. This fashion trend has boomed so overwhelmingly that they're almost as popular as sarees. And it's not just exclusive to south India anymore, girls n women all over the country are wearing them. And wearing them with style!

I'm gonna use this post to showcase a few trends that I like and also show off my collection ;)

I designed this one by myself, yep!!! I do that too, sometimes! I had a beautiful orange blouse with intricate zari work that came with a white saree. I wore the saree a couple of times and was done with it. So I wanted to re-use the blouse and this was a great way to do it. I got a contrast cream net langa (skirt) and cream satin lining. For the border I chose orange raw silk fabric and added gold thread border on it to make it stand out. I decided to keep the voni simple, georgette fabric with matching gold thread border that is on the langa. And this is the end result. Simple, two-tone langa voni.

Here is another one, store bought, but modified per my choice. It was my cousin's wedding and I bought this one for his reception. I just LOOOVEEE yellow, anything in yellow!! It did not take me long to decide I wanted to buy it. I really like the contrasting colors - Yellow langa and a bright pink blouse. The voni that came with it was a georgette pink one so I decided to swap it with blue net. More colors, more contrast, much better....was my mantra for this one :) My husband thinks it's a lil flashy, but, em well, that doesn't stop me from wearing it and enjoying all the attention I get. LOL.

Here's a super cool one. Trendy to the core with basic black n white colors. The blouse is what stands out, gorgeous print....star of the outfit. The boat neck blouse accentuates the print even more. And keeping everything else simple was a good choice.


Floral prints are in!! Here's a few with different variations.

I'll keep adding on to this post as I find more interesting ones. Stay tuned!

Back again....hope I'm here to stay this time!

Wow! It's been close to 4 years since I blogged! I've been MIA for way too long 😄
Why did this happen? Well, I have lotsa excuses!! Crazy work schedule, house hunting, settling into a new house, parents n in laws visiting, hyper active social life, health issues n lots more!!! I'm back now, with hopes of resuming my lost blogging art! Quite a few interesting things going on in my life that I could share. Will see how long I keep this up 😜