A- Arakeerai masiyal

The month of April is always time for marathon of cooking and blogging. This month we have chosen one cuisine to blog about and and at the same time follow a pattern of A-Z. I am super excited because this is the very first time that I was ready with all my dishes before the D-Day.

Throughout this month I will present to you simple day to day dishes, that has been in my household for a long time. All these dishes are very special since I have learnt them from my grandmother and mother. Cooking at my home is dominated by the flavors and aroma from Tirunelveli District. This is a small district towards the south most tip of India. I have my roots from this place, It is a place where my grandparents lived and my parents grew up. 

Today I bring to your plates, a very simple side dish made from the greens available near our homes. It is called Arakeerai Masiyal. Very simple to make and at the same time, loaded with Vitamin A. This can be mixed with rice or eaten along with sambhar rice. This masiyal tastes the best with kara Kulambu. Ooh.. delicious. 

Now on to the recipe, of the very easy Arakeerai Masiyal 

Ingredients 

Arakeerai - 2 cups

Garlic pods - 2

Green Chillies - 2 

For tempering - oil, mustard seeds and red chilies

Salt to taste

Method

Clean the greens and boil them along with garlic pods and green chillies

Let it cool down completely

Take the cooked greens in a blender and add salt to it

Make a smooth paste from the greens 

In a seperate pan, add a little oil and mustard seeds

Add the red chillies and wait till they sputter.

Pour this tempered mixture over the smooth paste of greens 

Serve this with sambhar or eat it as such with rice.

I had it with pepper potato and papad with steamed rice. 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63


Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63

An InLinkz Link-up

Salades santé from Park Hyatt

Its the "Healthy Week" at The Dining Area in Park Hyatt, Velachery. They bring on to the plate, five healthy salads, made from seasonal produce, minimal dressing and in a deconstructed format.

In the sense that they are served in the regular salad bowls, instead in plates in which you can actually see what are the ingredients in each salad.

Each salad has a different method in which they are made. Each salad is cooked in a particular way. Tossed, Blanched, Grilled, Mashed and Roasted.

These salads are the brainchild of Chef Megha, who comes up with very unique and beautiful plating for the salads as well as yummy purees ( fruit and vegetable )

First to be served was nice bread, crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. Tasted good along with butter.

Roasted Salad : Baby Beetroot, with fennel, stripes of apple, wedges of juicy orange, celery, roasted walnuts and goat cheese melt. Walnuts were mounted on a tasty beetroot puree. What I liked about this salad was the blend of flavors along with the puree and the walnut of course.

For the meat lovers, meat is served on the side, you have choice of Smoked Salmon, Seered Japanese Tuna, Poached Egg and Chicken Breast to choose

Tossed Salad : Quinoa along with cherry tomatoes, avocado, parsley , mint and sunflower crese.

This salad has a generous portion of toasted Pumpkin seeds.

Smashed Salad : A salad which had Edamame, Broccoli, Pumpernickel toast, along with cucumber and a garlic lemon ricotta. The presentation was very tempting with long strips of cucumber on a bed of lemon ricotta. The Rye bread garnish was very crispy and added color to the whole salad.

Blanched Salad: Springs of Carrot, along with big slices of seasonal mangoes, asparagus, snow peas and toasted hazelnuts were layered over passion fruit dressing, which is sweet and sour. It was a vibrant salad, with lovely colors and tasted yummy. The dressing especially was too good.

Grilled Salad: A spicy combination of Grilled eggplant, chickpeas, glazed dates, with pearls of pomegranate, cubes of feta cheese along with roasted pine nuts and fresh herbs. This is a very different combination that reminded me of baba ganoush.

One distinct factor across their salads was the addition of nuts in all of them. Nuts is a very important part of nutrition, which many of us tend to ignore. And yes, there is a myth that they are fattening. Taken in the right quantities and in the right way, they give you great energy levels and feeds your body with the essential proteins. If you notice, all the nuts are toasted or roasted not deep fried.

Watermelon Smoothie: Made from fresh deseeded watermelon, honey and yogurt.

Energiser: A refreshing combo of Kiwi, Apple, Spinach, Lime , Celery and honey.

Skin Tonic: Refreshing one again . Good for the skin, made from Romaine Lettuce, Cilantro, Lime and Pineapple.

Bello: A whole meal in itself made from banana, coconut cream, cashew and spinach

Spark : Banana, Vanilla, Spinach smoothie in Almond Milk.

The Healthy Week is on from April 24th 2015 to April 28th 2015 at Park Hyatt

A meal for two would cost approximately Rs 1600/-