Blogging has so many advantages - it is exciting, it
gives us an identity, it is so much fun, but above all it is the platform where
people with same passion that is cooking come together. One such person who has
become my very good blogger friend is Manju of Desi Fiesta.
She participated in one of my events and send in some
very innovative recipes. She won the competition for her wonderful Masala Cone recipe. Her blog as the name suggests is loaded with desi dishes with
international twists. Some my favourite ones are Chocolate paan, Heart Beet Whoopie Pie Cake and of course
Ghevar
We both always chat with each other and always have
something new to talk about. I love the way she always adds the word DEAR after
or before any conversation. I am glad that she agreed to guest post for me and
it is my pleasure to bring before you’ll Manju.
Off to Our
little chit-chat
Shweta- What made you start blogging? How long have you
been blogging? Is there any particular etiquette that you like to maintain
while blogging?
Manju-Hi everyone !! First of all,
I am so glad to be here at Shweta's space. Thank you- Shweta for giving me this
lovely opportunity of bring my recipe to your space :). Now coming to you
question. I used to share my food pictures on Facebook and my friends where
very curious in knowing all the recipes .. So this is what made me start a blog
so that I can have my recipe collections in a place where all my friends can
enjoy reading them :). I started this blog as I am passionate in
cooking and explore my kitchen a lot. And by blogging now I have earned so many
lovely like minded people who are so supportive and encouraging. I blog and
that makes me feel so happy when my blogger buddies encourage me!! And I feel
so excited and have fun while blogging that I never follow any etiquette and I
don't even want to, because I want my blog to stay as my stress buster and not
a stress producer :).
Shweta- That is so interesting. Which is your favourite ingredient in the kitchen and why?
Manju-My favourite ingredient in my kitchen which like to use frequently is - Cardamom. I add
cardamom in all gravy and rice recipes a lot as my H likes the flavour of
cardamom in any gravy /sabzi/pulav.. It adds an extra flavour to any
dish and makes the dish so aromatic. The aroma really tempts the people to have
any dish in which we add cardamom.
Shweta- Hmmmm! Cardamom I am sure is any Indian’s
beloved spice. Which ingredient scares you the most and why?
Manju-I love to
explore with all new ingredients. So till now no ingredient scares me :) But my
h is scared of having cauliflower a lot. He never even wants to taste it as he
saw some worms coming when he went for grocery shopping. - So he hates it. But I
have all veggies and no such veggie or ingredient which I have explored
and experimented with scares me .If you ask me should be some ingredients which
scare me which don't even want see is any Non-vegetarian ingredients
including Egg. As I am a pure vegetarian I hate to see Non-vegetarian
ingredients.
Shweta- He he! My hubby to
hates cauliflower and the reason is same “Worms”. How do you spend your time
other than cooking and blogging?
Manju-Oh that’s a good
question! :) I have 2 year old kidoo at
my home and she always has some work for me to do :P So I always do those work
as my routine. I like to watch new movies either it may be Tamil/Hindi/English/any foreign
language with English subtitles, Other than that I love to play with
my daughter a lot :) That’s how I spend my whole day.
Shweta- Oh! So you are a
movie fan. Like any other profession, I am sure cooking also has its share of
difficult instances. Any such awkward moment?
Manju-As everyone know I did
my Home science with computer science when I was in school. So we were
introduced to use new terms and equipments. I have never even used mixer
grinder, as I was scared to use it and had no idea how to operate it. Thus when
my mom told me grind for chutney it came out as a green juice: P And Yes this
was an awkward moment in my cooking.
Shweta- That was very funny! I can see some real wonderful food pictures
in your blog. It is said that one eats with his/her eyes before actually
tasting the food. Do you believe so-your comments?
Manju-It is surely true if your
food looks good it will taste delicious for sure :). Every foodie eat the dish with his/her eye
first and then comes to the taste. So presentation is so important while doing
food photography. I am still a beginner when it comes to photography. I am
learning so much from my senior bloggers ‘and my very good buddies :) Who have
been a great help in improving my blog and now they are helping me to improve
my photography. So glad that I found such true friends in this virtual world
:).
Shweta- So you totally love
blogging. Which is one thing that you do not like about blogging?
Manju-It’s so much fun and I
feel so happy to share my recipes in my blog .It is a very good thing to share
is thoughts while sharing our recipes. Till now I have been enjoying blogging
and no such thing has made me think any dislikes in blogging. I am excited
every day to share recipes and even learn new recipes from our blogger buddies.
So I don't have any particular thing which I don't like in blogging :)
Shweta-So, Which is your most
proud moment in the blogging?
Manju-Till now I have so many
proud moments that I am going to treasure my whole life :) I have won so many
giveaways and so happy to get recognition from all my readers :). When I posted
"Ghevar" ,which is the most popular dessert in my blog. I did it for
SNC challenge conducted by Divya. I got an huge response for that post and
still people are appreciating me as they tired and tasted my recipe. So ghevar
brought me to limelight :) It was my happiest moment in my blogging world :)
With warm welcome over to Manju.
I am so glad and they were
very lovely questions which made me to think a lot :) Shweta has been so kind
and I love her collection of recipes a lot :) I like here bakes and innovative
recipes. One such recipe is “cake churma “with leftover cake crumbs that was
really a very innovative recipe.
Now, I have got a seasonal
recipe for you Shweta. Hope you will like :)
I love mangoes and I am hunting
for mangoes every week: P . So, I have come with this delicious recipe with my
favourite fruit to share with you all. This is an yummy combo of mango and
chocolate. They are so very moist and both mango and chocolate compliments each
other so well. These muffins make perfect snack for tea time. I saw this recipe
in a cooking show long back and made a note on my recipe to do list . Thought
is will be the perfect treat to share with all the readers and Shweta :)
Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour (maida)
1/2 tsp baking powder
A pinch soda bicarbonate/baking
soda
8 tbsp condensed milk
5 tsp chocolate chips
4 tbsp mango pulp
4 tbsp melted butter
A few drops of vanilla
essence
Cupcake liners - 8-10
Method:
Sieve the flour, baking
powder and soda and baking powder in a bowl. Keep aside.
Combine the condensed milk,
mango pulp, butter (melt the butter before adding) and vanilla essence in
another bowl, mix well and keep aside.
Add the flour mixture and mix
gently using a wooden spoon or spatula.
Add enough water (approx. 2
tbsp) to get a batter of dropping consistency.
Pour 1 tbsp of the mixture
into each of the 10 line muffin moulds with the cupcakes liner or you can even
grease and dust them with some flour .
Sprinkle ½ tsp chocolate
chips evenly on it and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 F for 15 to 20 minutes
or until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.
Tips:
Combine dry ingredients with
wet ingredients in batches and don't add them in one go to avoid lump
formation.
Don't over mix the muffin
batter just fold the dry ingredient till well combined.
Cool slightly, unmold and
wrap in an aluminium and foil or cling film or pack in a Tiffin box.
Instead of condensed milk you
can substitute with 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup milk (you can adjust this to make
the batter dropping consistency)
Thank you from Merry Tummy
