Doddapatre Tambuli/ Cuban Oregano Spiced Yogurt

Hope you all had a wonderful Diwali. We had a wonderful time with many of our friends making this Diwali a memorable one for us. Things have been pretty hectic at home and work and so I was not able to update posts at regular intervals. In fact I have been working on this post for the past 2 weeks and was able to post it only today. This recipe called Tambuli/Tambli is a specialty of Karnataka/Konkani. It is a refreshing yogurt/buttermilk drink which aids in digestion and forms a good cooling agent. Usually spices, vegetables or green leaves are…

Blueberry Lemonade

Hope you are all having a good weekend. This week has been better for me compared to the last one. Even though it was a stressful week at work, the cold from last week has subsided making me feel normal and not so grumpy J Weather wise, it continues to be hot here in our neck of the woods. By hot I mean really scorching hot; temperature continues to be in the range of 102 – 108 0F for the past month or so. This drives us to be creative and come up with ways of beating the heat. Drinks…

Light Berry Parfait

What is it about summer that you like the most? Is it the outdoor gardening, picnics, longer days, out door grilling, fresh bounty of fruits and vegetables? For me the first pick would be the longer days and close second would be the fresh bounty of fruits specifically the beautiful berries. The grocery is usually flooded with fruits and vegetables; not only are they fresh but they are cheaper as well. Did somebody say “what about the summer heat”? Well, let’s not go there shall we? If you live in some place like Texas, then the lesser talk about the…

Blueberry Syrup and Blueberry Tea

In our house DH is a huge fan of tea and has a wide range of tea collection. One of his weekend activities during summer is to brew a big pot of one variety and then refrigerate it. While serving he tops it off with ice, fruit juices, lime, mint etc.  This is a cool and refreshing way to beat the summer heat.  Speaking of summer here in Texas it is at its peak and that means temperatures in the range of 100-110 F. It is hot and sultry both inside out with the feeling of thirst all the time.…

Blueberry Picking an experience and Blueberry Smoothie

We had been to a berry farm last weekend to do our own blueberry picking and I wanted to share some of my thoughts here.  We had done berry picking almost 4 years ago when DS was still an infant.  So we decided to do it again this year so that he could have a first hand experience about the trees, farm, berry picking right off of the grove etc. Coming from a concrete jungle it is easy to loose touch with nature and forget where the produce came from. We started off very early in the morning toward the…

Watermelon Agua Fresca

Hope you all had a good weekend. We had a good one that included our usual weekend chores; cleaning, laundry, grocery and along with that we threw in a mix of Blueberry picking fare. We had been planning for the blueberry picking for a long time now, but it materialized only last week. We went there with another friend of ours and it was fun time both for kids and adults as well. Fresh, luscious blueberries hand picked right off of the farm; close to the nature as we could get and it was a wonderful experience. In the two…

Sol Kadi/ Konkani Style kokum Kadi –II

Kokum is the dried skin of a fruit related to mangosteens.The outer cover of fruit is dried in the sun to get Aamsul or Kokam/Kokum. It is used as a slightly sour spice in recipes that yields peculiar taste and dark red colour. It is a preferred substitute for tamarind in curries and other dishes from Konkan. It is very abundant in the west coast region of India and hence an integral part of Konkani cuisine. These are called ‘bhirnda sol’ in Konkani.  At home I use the Kokum to make Kokum kadi.  I have already posted one version here…