When it comes to cooking, I am more of a follower. I prefer the recipes scribbled on the diary, with words of wisdom doled out by my mother in law and mother, to experiments. I also love the colorful cookery books, exact proportions and a few culinary websites I frequent; so like I term it, I am a bookish-cook. Going by the norm, I found the perfect bagara baingan recipe suiting our taste buds and N and I slurped it clean with home-made parathas yesterday for lunch. You can find the recipe here. I vouch it is foolproof! =)
A few other websites I love and frequent are -
Solai chidambaram for chettinad cooking (especially chicken varieties)
Mahanandi for the andhra veggie fix
Most evidently, my second favorite cuisine (first being kerala, of course!) is the andhra bone, hyderabadi to be specific!
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So, I make my entry to the bake-a-thon by following sush's simple recipe of vanilla flavor cake. For my first ever bake it turned out pretty yum and believe it or not, there is just one-eighth of the loaf (as seen in the picture) left. Saiz and sandhya were also party to the cake-eating.
The whole nuts peeping out is N's doing! He plopped them into the batter before I could break them! So as we let the soft cake melt in the mouth, we were rudely awakened by a huge almond to crunch into, from time to time.
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Before you wonder if this section is about a 'block of lard', let me clarify that it is about me feeling like one!
I am a deep-fry-hater. Other than the waist-watch perspective, it is the oil clinging to the carpets rendering the house into a greasy rancor that is a put off. Hence, I stick to the frying bit only on special occasions like N's birthday when I cannot veto the idea. This year, it seems I have become more lenient and ventured for the second time deep frying bajjis and paruppu vadais last evening. Company for the evening coffee made up for the incentive. Knowing fried items are a delicacy; N often makes the best of the deep-fry-occasions to fry anything he can lay hands on, until the oil turns a savage red and retching slick.
I bet two molaga bajjis (green waxy chilly bajjis), few handfuls onion pakodas, couple of paruppu vadais were more than unwelcome to the stomach that hadn't feasted to oil in a long time. Gone are the days when in the name of group-studies, I would wolf down desi french-fries and onion bajjis, which my mother would make for the "hard-working" students.
I was an acidic mess by the time I retired to bed feeling like a completely useless piece of lard swearing to never deep fry ever again! Until next time….
Hope everyone else had a healthy weekend! =)
Questions –
How do you balance deep frying and healthy eating?
What are the options for making deep frying healthy?(now that's an oxymoron! :D )
2 comments:
You wont believe, I was planning on trying Bagara Baingan this weekend :). should think of a new one now.
Did the cake have good texture coz I made banana bread and the texture came out so different than that I made at ur place.. so I was thinking its the flour.. am planning on making apple cake for the weekend :D
About the frying:
1. Avoid deep fries. But if you absolutely must have to then try shallow frying instead... less oil and more batches, it would be easy to discard the oil as well
2. Try baking in the oven.. its a great alternative.. like samosas, springrolls etc.. they crisp up well in the oven too. This definitely is a healthy alternative for deep frying.
I would vote for Oven baking/ Microwaving.. I make Gobi 65's often in the microwave, and prefer it to the fried oily mess. I first precook the gobi a little in the mirowave for 2 mins with a sprinking of water. Then mix with rice flour, salt, gobi 65 masala, 2-3 tablespoons of oil & mix suck that the blend coats the gobi but is never watery.. another 4 mins makes for a crunchy snack!
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