On our last visit to India more than 2 months ago, my mother had prepared very delicious and fragrant Tomato Rice with mint. That along with a yogurt raita made a quick fix and light tasting dinner. Quite frankly I am not a huge fan of Tomato Rice and when she proceeded to make the Tomato Rice I was not pleased and had that smirk on my face. But she nudged along and asked me to try it as it was a new recipe and the others in the family just loved it. Quite grudgingly I tried it, but was…
Panaka (Indian Lemonade)
Panaka(Kannada) is usually prepared on Sri Rama Navami a Hindu festival, celebrating of the birth of Lord Rama. Panaka or Panakam (Telugu) is a sweet drink prepared with jaggery, lemon and pepper. This is an Indian version of lemonade and uses jaggery instead of sugar. Jaggery is a rich source of iron due to the process involved, using iron utensils. It is considered by some to be a particularly wholesome sugar and, unlike refined sugar, it retains more mineral salts. Moreover, the process does not involve chemical agents. Indian Ayurvedic medicine considers jaggery to be beneficial in treating throat…
Masala Upma
OK, OK I know I have already posted 2 other recipes for Uppittu/Upma here and here. But bear with me, the taste is different from the earlier ones, aromatic and flavorful. This is different because the recipe uses Rasam powder and aromatic garam masala to enhance the flavor of this Upma. Yet again, I learnt this variation of Upma of adding the masala while I was in India. All the 3 of us, my mother, MIL and me were chatting away to glory in the kitchen while making Upma for breakfast. Half way through my mother reached for…