My Random Life

What is it about these sweet brown syrupy balls from heaven that I can't stop enjoying them? Hey, hey hold on....I'm talking about Gulab Jamun of course 😜 This popular Indian sweet dish has been my favorite since childhood. Every time mom would make them, that would be the only thing I'd eat for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Was never such a big fan of sweets, this was an exception! After moving to the US, I attempted to eat them at multiple Indian restaurants including anna's - but never liked them anywhere. They were either too hard, not soft enough or too spongy! I tried making them at home with MTR Gulab Jamun mix - nah, the goodness was till missing. I almost gave up hope of eating yummy GJ 😔Until.....I visited by BFF and her friend's husband made them while we were chatting. First of all it was surprising that he made them in the time that it took the girls to chat, and second of all they were DELICIOUS!! I mean REALLY DELICIOUS! That was it, my hope cam...

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 awa...

Ingredients: Raw chicken - 2 pounds Yogurt lime juice basmati rice - 2 cups ginger garlic paste whole spices for marination - cloves, bay leaves, shajeera, elaichi, whole pepper corn Spices for marination - Red chilli powder, salt, pepper powder, cumin powder, garam masala, turmeric powder, jeera powder  Fresh corriander & mint leaves Onions Food color Method of preparation: 1. Marinate chicken with oil, yogurt, lime juice, ginger garlic paste, all the ground and whole spices. Leave this marinade overnight in the refrigerator . Use a lot of yogurt and oil, this is the base for the biryani. 2. Soak basmati rice in water for half an hour. Half-boil rice in about 4 cups of water with a few whole spices, salt and oil. Make sure rice is not too over boiled, each rice grain should be a little hard. Drain out all the water. 3. Fry onions, mint and coriander leaves in a lot of oil.  4. Take a tray and line it with oil. Arrange chicken in the bottom layer, then a ...

Since summer's right around the corner, here's a nice way to cool off in the 100 degree Dallas heat. I got this recipe from a few friends, I mixed n matched what I heard & here is how I made my version of the Kulfi. Ingredients (serves 4-6): 1 cup Mango pulp (canned or mango puree) 1 cup sweetened condensed milk 1 cup evaporated milk 1 cup heavy cream, I prefer Cool Whip 1 white bread slice Sugar (optional) Method of preparation: Mix mango pulp, sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk till all the ingredients consistently blend in. I use a spoon to mix them all together, a blender can be used too. Add sugar in this mixture if you prefer to. In another bowl (a round one) put heavy cream, using a spatula whip the cream till it's smooth. Use more cream if you want the ice cream - creamier. After the cream is whipped, pour the blended mixture and mix till everything blends in. Cut out the corners of the bread slice and toast it - make sure it doesn...

Here are some recipes I like, I'm being lazy now....not taking the pains to write them out myself :) Egg pulusu http://www.sailusfood.com/2006/01/07/kodi-gudu-pulusu-boiled-eggs-in-tamarind-gravy/ Veg curry puffs http://sailurecipes.blogspot.com/2008/03/curry-puff.html

Here's my first blog post about recipes. I'm working from home today, which is boring....and to top it off we don't have much work! Just imagine how bored I was to experiment a recipe and then blog about it immediately :) Well, this is a pretty simple recipe - so no worries, did not take much time and effort. Since this my first post about recipes, I'm going to play around with the format a little. For now I plan to list the ingredients and the preparation method, will list the amount of each ingredient if necessary. If not, just follow your heart and throw in how much ever you feel like! Ingredients: Mango Pulp Plain Yogurt Milk Sugar Preparation method: Blend all the ingredients into a puree - I used 'Magic Bullet' for this, really easy and simple to use. Serve chilled. Variations: If you want your Lassi to be a little sweet, add more sugar. Add more mango pulp if you want it a little sour. You can also use fresh mangoes if they're availabl...