Curd Rice: Thayir Sadam

Honestly I never had curd rice before; it was a year ago when I first ever tried it. My office colleague who is from Chennai introduced me to curd rice and its goodness.  She explained me that curd rice is a solution to any problem-be it bad tummy days, after greasy food to just a lazy meal idea.

Yogurt or curd or dahi as we call it in hindi is one super healthy ingredient. Like all milk or dairy product curd is also rich in calcium which offers us healthy bones and teeth. Curd has ‘good bacteria’ present in it which strengthens your immune system by fighting against several microorganisms that are present in the body. Consuming curd can go a long way in maintaining a healthy heart, it reduces cholesterol levels. Lastly yogurt is great booster for healthy digestion.

Rice as we know when eaten in moderation can be a good source of carbohydrates. It also contains some amount of proteins, folic acid and phosphorus. What I like about rice the most that even little quantity of rice can make you feel full.

So, when these two ingredients curd and rice combines together to form this easy peasy south Indian dish called Curd Rice the outcome is just amazing. Every now then when I want my stomach lining to cool down from the spicy Indian food I only think about curd rice. From the time I have returned back from Dubai my health hasn’t been well, from stomach problems to toothache to headaches to feeling weak-everything is going on; it is only Curd Rice that comes to rescue.

Now, I am not from south India so may be my recipe is different. I would suggest all my non south Indian friends and followers to have curd rice once in their lifetime (if you haven’t, like me ;-). It is a perfect summer meal when you don’t want to slave yourself in the kitchen. Serve it with some pickle or chutney and a papad-just perfect.

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 cups yogurt/curd/dahi

2 cups boiled rice/chawal

5 tablespoons milk/doodh

2 tablespoon oil

1/4 teaspoon asafoetida/hing

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds/sarso/rai

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds/jeera

6 curry leaves/kadi patta

3 green chillies slit

2 tablespoons coriander leaves/dhaniya

Salt to taste

Method:

In a large bowl, add yogurt, milk and rice. With potato masher, mash the rice. Add salt and keep aise.

In a pan heat oil and add cumin seeds, mustard seeds and asafoetida. Let the seeds crackle.

Add in green chillies and curry leaves. Mix.

Pour the oil tempering on curd rice mixture. Give a nice stir.

Add in coriander leaves. Mix and serve.

Notes:

Never ever serve curd rice hot. It should be served at room temperature.

You can add chopped green chillies; I added whole chillies so that I can remove it easily.

You can add channa dal or urad daal in tempering as well. I kept it as simple as possible.

Some people add water instead of milk. Feel free to add water as well.

Beetroot Raita Withe Smoked Chilli : Beetroot Yogurt Dip

Summer: ah, synonymous with colors, brightness and freshness; the season that calls for cold salads, chilled beverages and quick cooking. This Beetroot Raita with Smoked Chili is one summery dip that sets up the complete sunshine mood – the tang of the yogurt, the sharp spike from charred chili and the beautiful pink color of beetroot.

Beetroot Raita can be paired with anything! Serve it as a side with Indian curries or parathas, or pair it up with rice dishes like pulav or briyani. Stuff it in pitta pockets with salads and kebabs, or just enjoy it like a dip for carrot sticks, crackers, nachos or chips.

It has everything that you need in a good dip- color, texture and just the right flavors. Bring it on, its summer time!

Ingredients:
1 cup yogurt
1 medium size beetroot
1 green chilli

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon chopped coriander leaves

1 cup water

Method:

Put 1 cup of water to boil. Add chopped beetroot in the water. Boil for 1 minute.

Drain the water and let beetroot cool.

Hold the green chilli with a pair of thongs and roast on open fire.

In a blender blend yogurt, beetroot, chili, sugar and salt until smooth.

Sieve the blended mix through sieve. This helps to give it that velvety texture.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Notes:

You may need to add more sugar depending on how sour the yogurt is.

This can be made one day in advance.

Peas Rice: Matar Ke Chawal: Peas Pulav

So it was the hottest day of the year in London yesterday. People were freaking out, no one was happy with the sunshine. What do people want, I asked myself? When it is raining they sulk about it; when it is cold and windy they complain about it and yesterday they had problems with sunny weather too. No one seemed happy and everyone was just frowning-boy oh boy it is sooo hot!. Another funny thing, my Indian friends were going crazy too. Don’t you come from a place where it is more 40 degrees? How can they not tolerate 30C? Anyways moving on, I totally loved crisp clear sky, lots of sunshine and cold water shower for a change :)

Those of you follow me on instagram would know, I treated myself with some beautiful lilies and these lilies are now blooming, giving amazing fragrance in my hall. That fresh aroma, pink beauties and lots of sunshine helped me to complete this book. By the end of the day I was totally relaxed but was in no mood to slave myself in the kitchen cooking some elaborate meal. It had to be something quick and not spicy or hot.

Yeah yeah, pasta was my choice too, but Mr. Husband had pasta in lunch so I knew he wouldn’t eat it. So I did some quick search on my blog and decided to do something with rice. Rice and lentils. Daal Chawal. Simple yellow daal (no onion or garlic) just pressure cooked. For rice I made Matar Pulav. Green Peas Rice. Ah the comfort food!

What to pair with Peas Rice? Check these out:

Panchmel Dal

Simple Kadhi

Lehsuni Daal

Daal Makhani

Green Peas Rice or Matar Ke Chawal is one step ahead from the very basic jeera rice. I would say it is one beautiful rice dish but with least efforts. Just throw in some frozen peas, cooked rice, some spices and you are done. It is like a quick makeover or leftover rice magic too, infact leftover rice works perfectly fine :). I tried to keep it simple with fragrant whole spices.

There are many variations you can do in this recipe. You can add other veggies such as potatoes, capsicum, carrots, beans, onion and what not. In that case it will be very much like veg pulav which is a meal in itself, just pair it up with any riata. Then, you can also use Indian spices like turmeric (for colour) or red chilli powder. Some people also like to add nuts such as cashews (kaju) or raisins (kismis). As mentioned already, I crafted it real simple.

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice

1/2 cup green peas/matar

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

4 cloves/laung

2 black peppercorns/kali mirch

2 bay leaf/tej patta

1 teaspoon cumin seeds/jeera

1 tablespoons ghee or oil

Method:

Heat oil in wok or a pan. When oil gets hot, add bay leaf, cloves and peppercorns. Roast for 5 seconds.

Add cumin seeds. Let it crackle. Reduce heat to low.

Add ginger garlic paste. Sauté it for 1 minute.

To it add frozen peas. Cook till peas get soft.

Mix in rice. Stir properly. Do not apply pressure, else rice will get mushy.

Cover and let it sit for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot.

Notes:

You can omit ginger garlic paste.

If using fresh peas, boil it before using.

See all instructions on how to cook rice here.

Use a good quality indian basmati rice for best results. I used Tilda Basmati Rice.

Serving suggestion:

Serve as side with any indian curries.

Serve with lentils and dry curries.

Mix with salad, chutneys and stuff in tacos or burritos.

Jeera Rice: Basmati Rice With Cumin Seeds: Indian Rice

Some one the other day asked me for the recipe of Jeera Rice and I was so shocked to know that the recipe is not on my blog. I mean you aren’t an Indian food blogger if you don't have jeera rice recipe on your blog. No seriously, I was so ashamed. Jeera Rice is like run in the mill in most of the Indian homes. Anyways, that day itself I made jeera rice clicked the pics and here I am posting it without any further delay.

Jeera as we call in Hindi is cumin seeds and is THE most important ingredient in Indian Punjabi cooking. Personally I cant do without this spice, be it paneer curries, kofta curries or homemade spice mix like chaat massala or garam massala. The ancient Ayurveda and age old wisdom of grandmothers insist on having cumin seeds because of its medicinal values.

Common benefits of cumin seeds are:

Improves digestion

Increases concentration

Reduces cholesterol

Weight loss

Relieve stress

Deceases bloating and gas

Detoxifies liver

Reduces menstrual cramps

Increases lactation in new mothers

Coming back to the post, Jeera Rice is basmati rice (chawal) which is flavored with cumin seeds. Cumin seeds are roasted in ghee or butter to release the aroma, later cooked rice is mixed in it. Now here is one modification that take place, some use cooked rice (boiled rice) while some cook the rice with cumin like how you would do for biryani or pulav. No method is right or wrong, you do what you prefer. Things that remains the same is ghee (clarified butter), some cloves (laung), bay leaf (tej patta) and lots of cumin seeds.

Use a good quality long grain basmati rice for best results. You can read a complete post on how to cook rice perfectly for moretips and clear idea. I always cook rice in microwave to save time and then just pour the cumin seeds tempering on the rice, mix and cover it for 1 minute so that flavoures remain intact. This is the Plain Jeera Rice recipe, which is more like day-to day rice; to give it more elegant restaurant feel then you must add cashews and raisins (kaju and kismis).

What to pair with jeera rice? Check these out:

Panchmel Dal

Simple Kadhi

Lehsuni Daal

Daal Makhani

Matar Paneer

In simple words, jeera rice is a step further both in looks and taste from the regular plain boiled white rice. The little golden coloured cumin seeds mixed with pure white boiled rice gives a uplifting colour combination. 

Author: Shweta Agrawal
Cuisine: Indian: Punjabi: Bangladeshi: Pakistani
Serves:2-3

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups basmati rice

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 teaspoon cumin/jeera

1 bay leaf/tej patta

2-3 cloves/laung

3 cups water

2 tablespoon butter/ghee

Salt to taste

Method:

Wash basmati rice two three times. Soak the basmati rice in water for 30-40 minutes. Drain the rice and keep aside.

Put rice in microwave safe bowl. Add 3 cups of water, lemon juice and salt. Cook on high power for 12 minutes. Cover the bowl with plate and cook again for 8 minutes.

Heat a pan. Add ghee or butter. Reduce the heat to low.

Add in cloves, bay leaf and cumin seeds. Let cumin seeds turn golden. Heat a pan.

Add cooked rice and stir with softly. Make sure not to apply lot of pressure else rice will become mushy.

Let it sit covered. Fluff the rice and serve jeera rice hot.

Notes:

You can also use cardamom (elyachi) or cinnamon (dal chini) in the recipe. However I don’t like sweet aroma in rice so I avoid it.

You can use vegetable oil or sunflower instead of ghee or butter.

Lemon juice helps to separate the rice grains and gives nice white colour.

Use good quality long grain basmati rice. I recommend Tilda Basmati Rice.

Serving suggestion:

Serve as side with any indian curries.

Serve with lentils and dry curries.

Mix with salad, chutneys and stuff in tacos or burritos.

Panchmel Daal: Panchpuran Dal: Panchtatra Daal: Rajasthani Marwadi Dal: For Bati

There is always one man who will never hurt a woman and that is her dad, her father, her papa. A daughters first love is her father and I truly stand by this. I love my dad, he is my lifeline, I don't know what would I do without him. Even though we speak daily, I miss having morning tea with him, discussing about horoscopes in the newspaper. Telling him this that, having lunch together and then seeing him again for dinner. I don't need any special day to thank him, but since its father’s day, I decided to dedicate this post to him. 

Check out last year fathers day post- Kache/ Raw/ Green Tomato Chutney :)

My father is the one who holds me when I cry, scolds me when I am wrong, shines with pride when I succeed and have faith in me when I fall. He was a strict dad while we (me and brother) were growing up and we were really sacred of doing or telling something stupid in front of him. He never scolded us for bad results in exams or failing but he had his own rules like speak to everyone politely, don’t watch senseless Indian soaps (we were allowed to see KBC), don’t go outside home after 8 pm alone. He is the one who believes in society, social norms, god, and religion but is still cool. This I guess it is mostly the behavior of an Indian dad :)

Back then if my dad came to know that I take alcohol he would have been very angry and disappointed but now he is like a friend to me. I don’t hide things from him; I just know he will understand. Last year on my trip to India I had shared the drink with the three most important guys in my life-papa, bro and my husband; I still don’t believe I sipped alcohol in front of papa. But that’s about my papa he knows how to mold himself and understand his kids when time is right :) Simple living, high thinking :)

I am so unlike papa in terms of food choices, what he likes the best, I dislike the most. I am more like maa :) So growing up I never really liked the combination of daal roti (lentils and Indian flat bread or chapati) I was more daal chawal (lentils and rice) kind of a girl. Any daal in any form, just give him roti and he would be the happiest person on earth. Me and mom loved daal but just with rice. But something happened; I got married to a daal roti person, just like papa-huge sucker of daal roti combination. 

So every time we visit my home in India, my mom makes different kinds of daal for my husband and papa. This time she made Panchmel Daal or Panchpuran Daal or Panchtatra Daal which is the combination of five kinds of lentils. There is a Punjabi way to make it where you add lots of ghee and garlic but maa made it in authentic rajasthani style, a marwadi way. This daal is usually paired with baati (Rajasthani dish) and churma. 

To make the best panchmel daal you need:

• To soak the lentils for atleast half an hour.
• Pressure cook for 2 whistles. Grains must be visible, over mushy daal is not authentic marwadi daal.
• Mix of 5 lentils which is bengal gram dal (chana dal), black gram (urad dal),yellow gram dal (moong dal), green gram dal (moong chilka dal) pigeon peas spilt and skinned (arhar, tuvar, toor, tuar dal). But even white urad daal, red masoor dal or moth beans work fine.
• 5 whole spices- red chilli (sukhi lal mirch), bay leaf (tej patta), cumin seeds (jeera), fennel seeds (saunf) and mustard seeds (rai).
• Ginger is must but garlic isn’t. You can garlic too, but it is not must.
• And ghee, a good quality Indian ghee (clarified butter).

 This is a simple dal but the flavour values are truly amazing. You need basic indian spices and little time to cook this dal, cook slowly to have creamy and thick dal. I like to have with jeera rice and it is roti (as you know now) for Mr. Husband.

Author: Shweta Agrawal

Serves: 3-4

Cusine: Indian: Rajasthani: Marwadi

Ingredients:

2 cups of dal. Mix of equal quantities of:

bengal gram dal (chana dal), black gram (urad dal),yellow gram dal (moong dal), green gram dal (moong chilka dal) pigeon peas spilt and skinned (arhar, tuvar, toor, tuar dal).

4 cups of water

2 whole red chilli

1 bay leaf/tej pata

1 teaspoon cumin seeds/jeera

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds/saunf

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds/rai

1 teaspoon ginger minced or grated
2 green chillies slitted

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder/haldi

1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder

1/4 teaspoon garam massala

1/4 teaspoon aesofetida/hing

3 tablespoons ghee

1 tomato finely chopped

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves
1/2 teaspoon kasturi methi to garnish (optional)

Method:

Wash all the lentils. Soak in water for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes drain the water.

In a pressure cook add 4 cups of water, washed lentils, turmeric powder and little salt. Cook for 2 whistles.

In a wok or kadai heat 2 tablespoons ghee. When ghee gets hot add cumin, mustard seeds, fennel seeds and bay leaf. Break whole red chillies and add it too.

Add aseofetida, green chillies and minced ginger. Cook for 30 seconds.

Add chopped tomato. Mix in turmeric powder, garam massala, red chilli powder and salt. Cook covered for 1 minute or till tomato turn soft and mushy and you see oil appear on the edges.

Add pressure cooked lentils. Add lemon juice. Check salt. Cook covered on slow heat for 10-15 minutes. 

Just before serving add remaining 1 tablespoon of ghee.Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and kasturi methi.

Notes:

You can use other lentils as well, like white urad daal or red lentils.

If you don't like ghee, feel free to use oil. You can decrease the amount of ghee if you are a weight conscious person ;)

You can boil lentils in open pan as well, it will take more time. Pressure Cooker saves time and it is really worth investing in a good cooker if you like to cook Indian dishes.
Kasturi methi (dried fenugreek leaves) is easily available in any Indian grocery store. I used MDH one.

Serving suggestions:Serve with plain basmati rice, jeera rice or any indian bread.

Serve as a side with dry indian curries like gobi matar, gajar matar or bhindi pyaz.

Pair with bread sticks or bread and serve like a soup.

It will be a great combination if served with rajasthani baati.

Make a complete marwadi thali. Serve along marwadi aloo pyaz ki subji, marwadi lehsun chutney and bajre ka rotla.

Malabar Vegetable Biriyani: Guest Post By The Big Sweet Tooth

One of the charms of blogging is to make a new friend every day. How we live in different countires, come from different backgrounds but our passion for cooking and food brings us together. Todays guest is one such passionate food blogger. Rafeeda or Rafi as I call her is one the most supportive blogger you would come across-ever. She is a busy working mom and yet never forgets to comment on your blog and all social networking sites-if you know her, I am sure you must agree with me 100%.

When I asked her to be my guest she happily agreed. Rafi, you are one of THE most sweet person, there is something every postivite about you that I truly respect. Keep up the good work. Some recipes that I would love to try from her blog are Fluffy Biscuit Pudding, Elyanchi, Carrot Rice Kheer and ofcourse many more. Today, as a guest blogger she bring before us Malabar Vegetable Biriyani and I am so happy to announce Merry Tummy loves The Big Sweet Tooth.

Over to Rafi....

My interaction with Shweta started with my participation in the Saturday Snapshots. From then on, it has been a very cordial and warm relationship. I have always liked her frank comments for my photographs, whether positive or negative. She always would give ideas to improve on the overall blogging experience. I was very happy when she asked me for a guest post – especially when I love her pictures and I feel inferior as far as mine is concerned! I always feel that my pictures are very normal, especially knowing how lazy I am to improve on them. I know that if I put my heart in, I would be able to improve quite a bit but somehow my laziness and lack of time creeps in. So when she asked me for a guest post, I was determined to try to do the best I would be able to do!

A little introduction to myself – my name is Rafeeda and I blog at “The Big Sweet Tooth”. My blog name is synonymous to what I am actually – a big sweet tooth! I love sweet stuff in any form and love to whip them up, from smoothies to desserts! I am based in the multicultural UAE, very well known for the city of Dubai, and have been a part of this colorful city almost all my life. My foodie instincts have been boosted by the innumerable chai shops and shawarma outlets that are available in every nook and corner of this country! I love to cook and bake as it releases a lot of stress, thanks to my busy life as a working mother, to two beautiful girls. 

The first thing Shweta reminded me of while working on the guest post, was that it must be vegetarian! Actually, that was the first thing that had popped in my thought as well! At the moment, I had nothing in my mind apart from making some biriyani with loads of vegetables! In our household, like a typical non-vegetarian family, biriyani is never associated with vegetables or even eggs! It is quite disappointing that I have never cooked a biriyani with vegetables, apart from this Nawabi style biriyani and I was hell bent at making one for Shweta, for her post. 

Yes, I did have to make a non-vegetarian side, thereby increasing my work in the kitchen, but the satisfaction from having made this biriyani was amazing. I referred to the recipe from “Classic  Malabar Recipes” by Faiza Moosa and adapted it to our taste and my previous experience with other biriyanis. I must say that this was a really flavorful biriyani, which received a very good feedback from the folks at home and was wiped off, much more than my expectation! The list of ingredients may look scarily long, however it is a breeze to make, once all the chopping is done! Off to the way I made it…Malabar Vegetable Biriyani

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 cups chopped french beans

1 cup frozen green peas 

1 tbsp ghee

2 cardamom

1 bay leaf

1 pc cinnamon

6-10 peppercorns

1 star anise

2 cloves

1 large onion, sliced

4 green chillies, slit

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

2 meduim tomatoes, chopped

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1/2 tsp fennel powder

3 tbsp yogurt

Salt to taste

2 cups basmati rice

A pinch of turmeric

For dum:

3 tbsp ghee

2 small onions, sliced

8-10 cashew nuts

10-15 raisins

3 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

3 tbsp chopped mint leaves

2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp pineapple essence (optional)

1 tbsp rosewater

Method:

1. In a saucepan, boil lot of water. Add the potatoes, carrots and bean and boil till the vegetables
2. are 50% done. Add the frozen green peas and cook further till they are cooked up to 80%, ie. When you bite in, there would be a slight rawness. Drain the vegetables and set aside.
3. In a large saucepan, heat ghee. Fry the whole masalas for a couple of minutes. Add in the onion and green chillies and sauté till it becomes soft. 
4. Add the ginger-garlic paste and cook till the raw smell is gone. Add the tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes get totally mashed up. 
5. Add in the masala powders and sauté till it gets a nice dark color. Add in the cooked vegetables and yogurt and mix well till incorporated. 
6. Add in the salt and cook for a couple of minutes. Switch off. 
7. Meanwhile, wash the basmati rice several times till clean. Boil water in a large pan with a pinch of turmeric and salt. 
8. Add the rice and cook for around 10 minutes or till the rice is 80% cooked –when you bite a grain, there would be a little grainy taste. Immediately drain the rice and wash in cold water. Set aside. Let us do the dum ingredients. 
9. Heat ghee in a fry pan and fry the onions till crisp. Drain and set aside. Fry the cashew nuts and puff up the raisins. Drain and keep along with the fried onion. Heat a tawa for doing the dum. For a detailed step-by-step of how to do your dum, you can refer to this post of mine! 
10. On top of the prepared vegetable masala, sprinkle in half of the fried items, along with half the coriander and mint leaves, as well as the garam masala. Put the rice on top of the masala. Sprinkle in the rest of the remaining dum ingredients. 
11. Drizzle the ghee used to fry the onion, along with the rose water and pineapple essence, if using. Cover the saucepan tightly and close the lid. 
12. Keep on dum for 15-20 minutes on medium-low flame. Switch off and leave undisturbed for another 15 minutes. Take off the foil cover and give in a nice mix with a spatula, ensuring that the rice doesn’t break and the vegetables are intact.
13. Serve hot with some pickle, chammanthi and raita.

Thank you from Merry Tummy :)

If you wish to be my guest please send me an email at agrawal.shweta.n@gmail.com

An Iberian Experience :) Spain And Portugal. Indian Vegetarian Experience

Yes yes! I am back. Where was I? I went for a holiday. I and my hubby went to Spain (Barcelona) and Portugal (Lisbon) for a week. I must say both the cities were poles apart from each other. Barcelona on one hand is bigger and crowded; Lisbon on the other is smaller with large hearted people.

Barcelona is a city for everyone. It has something for kids, thrill seekers, beach lovers, architecture enthusiastic or people in search of peace and calmness. I just enjoyed walking around the city. We walked around old city, small lanes to huge squares, saw famous buildings, churches and also the ones where tourist do not go. Barcelona is all about walking and then stopping and gazing around. Gaudi’s buildings are the famous ones in Barcelona and one can’t miss them. All his work is inspired from nature; he liked the mosaic tiles work, the wavy buildings, tree like churches and many more. Being a food lover, I must say Barcelona does not disappoint vegetarians. We had Tapas (small portions of food) and Paella (Sticky kerala rice biryani); both these dishes are very famous and tasty and you will find most of the restaurants selling them. In drinks, people love to have Sangria –it is fruit wine punch with hint of brandy and is served in 2 litre glass jug with some ice cubes; it is very yummy and even if you do not like wine, I am sure you will enjoy this drink. For Barcelona-Colourful is the word- a perfect blend of nature and culture.

Little Tapas, Fruity Sangria and Colourful Paella

Wavy Casa Mila La Pedrera, On its roof and Wavy Balconies

The Chruch-Sagrada Familia, Looks like tree branches from inside and beautiful mirror work

Talking about Lisbon; it is a very cute city on hills. We stayed there for 2 days and totally enjoyed every bit of it. One thing that I will never ever forget about Lisbon is the Tram 28. A bright yellow train making its way through curvy tree-lined streets, hilly areas, the old quarters- What an historical sight it was!!.. We hopped off and on where we wanted and enjoyed the ride. On the hill we saw an Indian Restaurant named Agra and we jumped in. We had delicious chana masala, jeera rice, garlic naan, palak paneer-I still can’t forget the taste. Yes! Portuguese food is like Goan food (fish and rice) so we being vegetarians were very happy finding an Indian place to eat. During our walking tour, our guides took us to Alfama which is tiny city (more like village) with really very narrow paths and streets. There we tasted Ginjinha- a sweet alcoholic drink infused with the flavour of cherries. It was a good and different drink served as tiny shots :-) Next day we went to tourist attractions like Belam Tower, Abril Bridge and Jerónimos Monastery. Just across the Belam Tower is Belam Pastries Shop who sells these amazing Custard Tarts, which is famous all over the world. And you will be shocked to know that on Christmas they sell 40,000 pieces of it. It is more like puff pastry as the base with slightly warm custard, hmmmm delightful :). So, if you are a non vegetarian do go there, you will love the food, the music, and the city :). For me it was about hills, trams and the people :)

The famous Pasties De Belum and its Custard Tarts

US With The Lady Who Sells Ginjinha

Lisbon Top View and Hubby @ Belum Towers

My Favourite- Tram 28

I hope you all will like the post. Comments please :) :) :)

Tuesday's Tip- How To Keep Pests Out Of Rice

My Tuesday’s tip section is getting very good response from my readers. I received some very good comments on how to cook rice perfectly, thus today I thought of catering to another problem- Rice Pests.

I know it is not rare to find rice bugs or pests inside the rice packet. Sometimes the bugs are already inside the new packet as the bugs lay eggs in the crops, and when these are harvested, the eggs end up in the package. Eggs are so tiny that they are not visible to the naked eye, only when the eggs hatches you can see the pests. There is also a possibility of bugs sneaking into the package after you open it and store it at home.

There are some tricks that you can try and stop pests invading your rice grains.

Methods to Keep Pests Out Of Rice:

Freeze the rice:  Yes! This may sound stupid but it helps. As and when, you bring the new packet of rice; simply freeze the bag in the freezer for 1 week. Doing so stops the eggs from hatching. In fact if you have room in the freezer consider storing the rice in there, this will absolutely keep pests away from rice. Show sun:  One of the main reasons of bugs to multiply is the moisture. When you find insects in the rice grains; spread the rice on newspaper and keep it under the sunlight. Sunlight heats up the rice slowly and removes the moisture. Once the rice has been thoroughly dried, store in clean, sealed glass or plastic containers. Add leaves:  This is easiest and commonly used method. People from centuries are adding strong flavoured leaves to their rice containers. Depending where you live different kinds of leaves can be used to stop insects multiplying in the rice. For example in India neem leaves are used. If you cannot find neem leaves, add in bay leaves and store the rice. Just remember to use dry leaves and not the fresh ones. Store properly:  It is very important that you use good quality food plastic containers for storing the rice. Plastic container must be strong and must have very good gripped lid. A proper air tight container not only helps to keep the air out, it will also help prevent pests from getting into your rice. If not plastic, then the next alternative is the use of glass containers, again the ones with tight lid.

Do try these methods, so when the next time when you scoop out rice to prepare the meal you don’t discover some creepy crawlies. Yuck!

* Disclaimer :::: Not all the information mentioned above is my own and some of it are taken from various books and online sources like Google including the pics. My pics will have my logo on them , rest all are taken randomly from Google