CHITRANNA: 2018

Sunday, 16 December 2018

lachha paratha recipe | lachha parantha recipe

baby corn masala recipe | baby corn gravy | baby corn curry | baby corn mixed veg curry

chitrannaa.blogspot.com

The fried baby corns and capsicum taste absolutely delicious in any north Indian dishes. So I have incorporated both these to make very very tasty and delicious sabji that goes very well with parthas, rotis naans and kulchas. I am sure you would also like this lip smacking curry. I have first hand experience. Believe me, you have to set aside something for yourself because no matter how much quantity you make, there will be shortage because it would be so delicious and not just with parathas, I had my family going on eating it as if it is the main course!

Preparation Time 30 minutes

Cooking Time 45 minutes

Ingredients :

Baby corns 1 packet (12-15 numbers)
15 Beans
2-3 Carrot
2 Potatoes
2 Capsicum
3 Onions
4 Tomatoes
Coriander leaves
Curry leaves
Slit chillies 6
Garlic ginger paste 1 tablespoon

1 tablespoon red chilli powder (depends on your taste)
1 tablespoon garam masala powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon kasoori methi powder

3 tablespoon cashew nuts
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

You may also like our other delicious breakfast recipes here :

Instant Raagi Gundpongal / Paddu / Paniyaram

Rava Dosa

Sabudana Khichdi - Sabbakki Uppittu

Rava Pongal

PESARATTU

Preparation :

Soak the cashews and poppy seeds into water for half an hour.
Blanch the tomatoes and make tomato puree.

How to blanch tomatoes :

Take the tomatoes and with a knife cut the four sides only skin deep. It should just mark a plus sign on the tomatoes. Don't cut deep. You should just cut the skin so that it's easy to remove the skin when they are blanched.

In a thick bottomed kadai boil tomatoes for five minutes and let them cool.
Once the tomatoes are cool, remove the skin.
Grind the tomatoes in the mixie jar to a fine puree.

Cut all the vegetables into 2 inch long pieces.
Cook to two whistles the cut beans, potatoes and carrots.
Heat groundnut oil in a thick bottomed kadai.
Deep fry the baby corns, capsicum and onion till golden brown and set aside.
Now adjust the oil in the kadai to three tablespoon.
Add garlic ginger paste and fry for two minutes.
Now add the tomato puree and cook it till the oil separates.
Now add coriander powder, garam masala powder, red chilli powder, curry leaves and cook for five minutes.
Then add the cashew poppy seeds paste and adjust water and let it come to a boil.
Now add all the cooked vegetables, salt and a pinch of sugar, mix well and let it simmer for a minute or two.
Finally add the fried baby corn and capsicum pieces and let us simmer for a minute more.
Garnish with coriander leaves, add a dollop of butter and serve hot with lachha parathas.
This tastes awesome with rotis, chapatis and pooris.

Tuesday, 11 December 2018

O....My.... Dawg.......

chitrannaa.blogspot.com

"Gandananna oorige kalisi" - After packing my husband for a sojourn, I had thought I will have some me time today. But this fella had some other plans.

He had not eaten since morning. He kept coming to the kitchen every hour and every time I take out his bowl, he vanishes.
Then at 10 o'clock in the night he comes to the kitchen with wide pleading eyes. I give him food, he eats. I give him milk, he drinks. Then again comes to the kitchen. I follow him and he demands chewstick. Fine. Everything over and I settle to watch Bigg Boss.

Within 10 minutes, there is some odd sound in the room. Alarmed, I look down and he has vomited everywhere. I clean it for 15 minutes and sit to watch TV.

After 10 minutes, he runs out of the room and I run after him. He is nowhere to be seen. After peeping into the darkness below the staircase, I see him hiding, making faces. I grab a newspaper and drag him out. After coaxing for 10 minutes, he throws up on the newspaper.

Again I clean, wash my hands and come to the room. Lo! He is missing again.
I rush to the staircase and no, he is not there. I search in the room, no luck. I call him and there is no sound.

I go upstairs and he is sleeping in a suitcase. I call him and he refuses to come. OK. I come down, enough of TV, I open the mobile and within five minutes he comes and sits on the cot and starts staring at me. I ask him to sleep. No. I pull him to get him sleep and he pulls back. I try to ignore him and he keeps staring till I give him full attention.

OK. Some tummy rub, some coaxing and cajoling and he acts as if he is sleeping. I also decide to sleep and now he wants to come inside my blanket. Ok.
No now he wants to go out of it.
Grrrrrrr....

And now again he has run out of the room and there is some sound coming from below the staircase...

There is some action replay. Sleepy eyed, I clean up everything and come to my room. Thank God he is in the room. Now I stare at him and he stares back. An indication that it is over and he is feeling confident.

I give him a hug and since the entire bed is free and also since it is a winter night, I put him on the bed, kiss him good night, cover him snugly in the sheets, and pull my blanket over my head. God, let me catch at least a few hours' sleep...

Barely have I dozed off, I feel a wet nose over my nose......

.
.
.
.
If you want someone to love you unconditionally forever, then buy a dog. No matter how you are feeling, a little dog is gonna love you.
.
I have a biggest regret after having a dog...
.
Dogs' lives are too short...
Their only fault. Really.
.
.
.

Saturday, 8 December 2018

Amla Murabba recipe | Nellikai Gulamba | Indian Gooseberry Murabba | nellikayi morabba recipe

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

Sajjige holige | sajjaka obbattu recipe | Sheera - sweet flat bread | pooran poli recipe

Saturday, 1 December 2018

How to grow Sweet Corn at home in containers - Organic gardening tips | gardening guide to grow sweet corn

The pleasure of growing different varieties of vegetables, fruits and flowers in our garden organically is unparalleled. The more the merrier.

From our kitchen, we can take seeds to our garden and bring many a vegetables from our garden to our kitchen. It's a beautiful cycle. While cutting the vegetables, eating fruits, I always keep an open eye and think whether the seed needs to go to the garden. It's a most thrilling experience. A most beautiful and fulfilling creative art.

Today I am going to explain how to grow sweet corn in containers at home. You would be surprised to know how simple it is to grow sweet corns in pots.

Please read my other interesting posts about gardening tips and tricks :

1. Organic gardening method - How to grow veggies in a very very small place
2. Organic gardening medium - How to grow easily without soil and with less water

3. Organic gardening plants - What all the vegetables we can grow in 10x10 area
4. Organic Manure composting - How to use your kitchen waste directly in your pots to compost and prepare organic manure

5. How to grow and harvest cabbages in containers

You need to take a pot which it at least 12 inch wide and 12 inch deep. You can sow the seeds procured from the market.
I, on the other hand sowed a matured corn I had at home. In fact I didn't bother even to take out the seeds. I just sowed an entire corn cob into my pot.
It is actually advantageous to sow the entire cob because I will get many plants grown closely side by side and getting more and more male and female flowers side by side gives more yield.

I am growing my corns in organic manure which holds water. So I take care to water it regularly to keep the manure moist. And as explained in many of the gardening posts here, I add my kitchen waste which act as a most nourishing manure. Other than this I don't use any other outside manure.

The plant starts flowering after about 2-3 weeks and gives the yield after about two months. Another interesting fact about growing corn is the pollination. As is well known, every plant gives male and female flowers and bears fruits and vegetables after pollination. The pollination usually happens with the help of air, bees, birds and butterflies. At times we need to do hand pollination. Especially so in case of corn.

chitrannaa.blogspot.com

Look at this corn plant. The long one on the right side is a male flower and the flower with the silk threads is the female flower. Where as it is generally easy for the pollination to happen in other vegetables, in case of corn we need to do hand pollination especially when we are growing them in containers. Even in the vast fields the general practice is to do hand pollination because of the number of silks and the fact that each of these silks is connected to individual corn kernel. In case of other fruits and vegetables it involves one male and one female flower, here the pollens from the male flowers need to get connected to not just one flower but to each of the hundreds of silks.

One can't depend on the air or bees for pollination. So each male flower is covered with a paper cover and the pollens connected so would be sprinkled on the female silks. This generally needs to be done in the morning between 9 to 11 AM. Taking the pollens so collected need to be touched to the silks. These silks actually contain a very thin tube inside which is connected to a kernel each.
When we do the pollination, the pollens travel to the base of the silk and the pollination happens within next twenty four hours. This pollination needs to be done at least for five to six days for each ear. The white silky threads turn brown which is the indication of the completion of the pollination of all the silks.

Corn is ready to be harvested as soon as the ears have completely filled out. We can tell when this happens by feeling the end of an ear. If it's rounded or blunt rather than pointed, the ears are ready. The silks also dry up when the ears are almost ready to be picked. Now we can break the corn ear from the corn stalk.

Watch the video I have shared here to understand more about the hand pollination of the corns.

Friday, 23 November 2018

How to grow and harvest cabbages in containers at home - Organic gardening tips | organic gardening tips

Mark Twain once said, “Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.” This antioxidant and nutrient-rich vegetable is a great addition to any garden!

Cabbage is a nutritious vegetable, very rich in fibre and vitamins and low in calories. Growing cabbage in containers is easy for gardeners with little sunny garden space. However the cabbage doesn't like summer heat. So it needs to be planted in early spring or early autumn. Cabbage thrives in cool weather.

Cabbage can be grown in containers at home either using seeds or saplings, although procuring the saplings is not that easy. We need to know where we get good saplings grown organically. If you are growing the cabbages using the seeds, then they need to be spread over in the pot and covered with a layer of organic manure. This will facilitate germination as well as the early growth of seedlings. The seedlings would be ready for transplanting in about 4 to 6 weeks when they’ve grown 4 to 6 inches tall.

Please read my other interesting posts about gardening tips and tricks :

1. Organic gardening method - How to grow veggies in a very very small place
2. Organic gardening medium - How to grow easily without soil and with less water

3. Organic gardening plants - What all the vegetables we can grow in 10x10 area

4. Organic Manure composting - How to use your kitchen waste directly in your pots to compost and prepare organic manure

We can purchase a cabbage transplant at a garden center or nursery. I got the saplings from the nursery where I buy the organic manure. The gardeners there are so benevolent and helping natured that every time we go there to purchase the organic mixture, they give some 10 saplings each of whatever vegetables they are growing during that season, free of cost. So far I have got brinjal, chilli, tomato, cabbage and cauliflower saplings from them. And since these saplings are grown in healthy organic environment, the vegetables grow in healthy abundance from these plants.

We have to dig a hole in the center of the container and plant the cabbage plant in the hole, deep enough such that the second leaf is just above the surface of the soil. And then pat the soil firmly around the stem. We need to use a container with a drainage hole. The important care we need to take is placing the container where the cabbage is exposed to sunlight for at least six hours daily.

A container with a depth of 12 inches and a diameter of 18 inches is large enough for one cabbage plant. Admittedly I am a very greedy gardener and in each of the paint box I am having in my garden, I had already planted minimum 2-3 varieties of plants and they are snuggling with each other and growing without any complaints! Trust the nature to teach us about every aspect of life!!!

So as I had filled all my paint boxes with plants and there was absolutely no place for my cabbage seedlings. So I cut the plastic rice bag into half, filled it with organic manure and planted the saplings. I even have planted some in ordinary plastic bags and they are almost ready for harvest.

We need to check the cabbage daily, as the potting soil in the containers dries quickly, especially during warm weather. So we need to water the plant daily and see to it that the saplings and the soil never get dry.

Taking care of the Cabbage plants :

As I am growing the vegetables without any outside manures, I add the kitchen waste like vegetables' and fruits' peels, coffee and tea decoction powder and egg shells to the organic manure which are helping to get rich yield.

Cabbage is a delicacy for a variety of pests. Slugs, snails, cabbage worms are some of the pests that bother my cabbage plants. Foliage damaged with holes indicates that pests are present. To ward them off, I use neem oil. I mix one teaspoon of neem oil in one liter of water and spray on my cabbage plants once or twice a month depending upon the situation.

Harvesting the Cabbage :

When the outer leaves have fully opened up and the cabbage head becomes firm, it is an indication that the cabbage needs to be harvested. Harvesting of the cabbage from the plant is to be done when the head feels firm and solid. As shown in the video, using a sharp knife I cut the heads when they are firm. We have to trim the outermost leaves and leave inner stalks and roots in place to produce tasty little cabbages. And then we need to apply turmeric at the place we have cut the head and cover it with plastic in case it is raining. From here we get another set of baby cabbages which take another month or so to grow. We can eat them like Brussels sprouts or let them develop into a second crop of small heads.

Please don't miss to watch the video here where I have explained the tips of growing cabbages in containers in home garden.

Happy Gardening.....

Friday, 16 November 2018

Paan Mukhwas - Paan Mouth Freshener - Ready to eat Paan

Monday, 12 November 2018

Bisi Bele bath powder - Garam Masala powder

Saturday, 10 November 2018

How to make manure and composting at home | easy way of composting kitchen waste | gardening ideas tips and hacks

Organic Manure Composting at Home

Growing and cooking your own food is like printing your own money - Ron Finley

Yes. The urge and the passion to grow our own veggies and flowers, having our own garden is always there in all of us. There can be no human being whose eyes won't turn soft or whose heart doesn't sing whenever he or she looks at a beautifully grown garden.

The major deterrent for having our own garden, especially in cities, is the absence or the lack of adequate space. However where there is a will, there's a garden. With some smart alternative methods, we can grow our own veggies and flowers even in a very small place with bare minimum expenses and with limited time and energy.

I have given organic gardening tips about easy methods of growing varieties of healthy vegetables and flowers here in my blog :

1. Organic gardening method - How to grow veggies in a very very small place
2. Organic gardening medium - How to grow easily without soil and with less water
3. Organic gardening plants - What all the vegetables we can grow in 10x10 area

Please go through the above tips about the organic medium, where you will get tips about where to purchase the big paint boxes and the organic manure and how to plan your garden.

Now I would share with you how to grow healthy plants with kitchen waste as manure.

I have been growing variety of flowers and vegetables through organic method since last two years and I haven't spent a single rupee on manure but my plants are growing as if they are on steroids.

When we are growing the plants in organic manure without using soil, adding the kitchen waste is very easy as the growing medium is extremely light and very easy to maintain.

People generally compost the kitchen waste to prepare the compost manure. No doubt it's very useful for our plants, but the method involved can be tedious and time consuming. Then there are problems of having separate space, the menace of flies, mosquitoes and other insects and also the time required to keep monitoring the process.

Instead what I do is whatever kitchen waste like peels of flowers and vegetables, tea and coffee decoction powder, egg shells and other kitchen waste is available at home, I go on putting it in a covered bucket near kitchen which gets filled up within three to four days.

The organic manure I use to grow plants is very light, easily separable and the biggest advantage is no weed grows on it so it's always very neat and clean.
So I separate the manure with my bare hands or using a garden tool and take out half of the manure outside from the pot. Then pour all the kitchen waste in the pot and spread it evenly. And I put back the manure I have taken out from the pot and press it lightly. Lo and behold, the process of making healthy organic manure has started!

I have more than 50 pots at home and generally I fill the pots with kitchen waste once a week. So by the time the turn comes for the first pot to get the kitchen waste, whatever waste I have filled previously would have turned into black gold - pure organic manure. The happiness of the plants on receiving the healthy manure is seen to be believed. Within a week they would be well nurtured and the growth of the plants, flowers and vegetables is more than doubled!

The biggest advantage here is since the kitchen waste in the pot is fully covered with my growing mix and lightly pressed, there is absolutely no problem of insects or bad odour. Only thing we have to take care of is never add the onions and garlic into this kitchen waste. It's not that we can't use it absolutely, but there are certain dos and don'ts - pros and cons - of using the onion and garlic. That's for another class!

Suppose your kitchen doesn't generate as much waste for whatever reason, there is no need to worry. During the dry season, trees shed lots and lots of dry leaves which make ideal material for manure. I generally visit a park in the morning during this season. The sweepers would be more than happy to fill your bags with the dry leaves!

And then there are temples where priests would be taking out the flowers from the idols and would happily hand over them to you for your garden.
Or else the vegetable vendors would be left with many dry, rotten vegetables with them everyday and instead of throwing them, they would be more than willing to share them with you for a nominal price. Not just a smiling flower in your garden, you will see a smiling thanking face here too! See there is a solution for every problem. Otherwise it won't be called a problem!

I have shared here the video about how I go about adding the kitchen waste to my plants. Please watch the video to get a clear picture and you would find it very very easy to follow.

And please don't forget to share this post so that many more gardeners would be benefitted and they would be happy to learn and implement these tips. Not just growing our own veggies and flowers and fruits, let's make our mother Earth blissful!!!

CHITRANNA

Pages

Labels

amazon-affiliate-banner1

Sunday, 16 December 2018

lachha paratha recipe | lachha parantha recipe

baby corn masala recipe | baby corn gravy | baby corn curry | baby corn mixed veg curry

Tuesday, 11 December 2018

O....My.... Dawg.......

Saturday, 8 December 2018

Amla Murabba recipe | Nellikai Gulamba | Indian Gooseberry Murabba | nellikayi morabba recipe

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

Sajjige holige | sajjaka obbattu recipe | Sheera - sweet flat bread | pooran poli recipe

Saturday, 1 December 2018

How to grow Sweet Corn at home in containers - Organic gardening tips | gardening guide to grow sweet corn

Friday, 23 November 2018

How to grow and harvest cabbages in containers at home - Organic gardening tips | organic gardening tips

Friday, 16 November 2018

Paan Mukhwas - Paan Mouth Freshener - Ready to eat Paan

Monday, 12 November 2018

Bisi Bele bath powder - Garam Masala powder

Saturday, 10 November 2018

How to make manure and composting at home | easy way of composting kitchen waste | gardening ideas tips and hacks

Pages

Labels

amazon-affiliate-banner1

Sunday, 16 December 2018

Ingredients :

Preparation :

Ingredients :

Preparation :

Tuesday, 11 December 2018

Saturday, 8 December 2018

RECIPE VIDEO :

Ingredients :

Procedure :

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

Ingredients :

Procedure :

Saturday, 1 December 2018

Friday, 23 November 2018

Friday, 16 November 2018

Monday, 12 November 2018

Saturday, 10 November 2018