Snake Gourd Kootu (புடலங்காய் கூட்டு)

Snake Gourd (புடலங்காய்) is one of our favorite veggies. However finding it in the US desi grocery stores is very rare. It is very seasonal and we are lucky if we get it here for a few months and getting good quality snake gourd .. we usually give up. 

So San comes back home from Indian store with a surprise for me. Great quality புடலங்காய்! Since pepper kootu is my eminent domain, she asked I make the kootu. Told her will do it on condition that it will be videoblogged.

The little one forced herself into the picture by being videographer. After some point mommy took over the camera..

Making the kootu is the easy part. Finding the vegetable is the hard part!

Hope the video is of help to folks who are trying to make milagu kootu with Pudalangaai..

Happy Pongal

It is the harvest festival.. Pongal and we did celebrate at home and went to the Livermore temple for a quick prayer!

To thank the Sun and to make the earth a little greener.. we also did something good to celebrate Pongal!

Introducing the newest member of our traveling family.. the Nissan Leaf!

Having a blast and wishing you all have a great 2013 ahead from all of us here!

Treats from around the globe

This post is about two treats.. 

The first one, was served to us as dessert at a Christmas party from work just before the holiday break..

San enjoyed it. I stayed away as Strawberries (most berries for that matter) create a violent reaction in my body. The presentation of these mini sweets was truly amazing. They got such detail into a 1 inch cube...

The second treat was something I happened to see at Walgreens. It was an alltime favorite snack in childhood days.  Pala Cholai Varuval (பலா சொளை வறுவல்) as we used to call it! My grandpa used to get us freshly fried Jackfruit chips from a store in Mylapore. It would still be hot when we ate it. Absolutely delicious. Grandpa was not a big fan of eating on roadside stalls. The one exception he made that I can remember is this. Jackfruit chips were extremely seasonal in Mylapore and we would devour it in no time.

With a lot of high hopes, picked up this packet only to find out that the fruit had gone stale. It was fried but it had a very bad smell and totally spoiled the experience and now the memory of those "freshly fried" Jackfruit chips from Mylapore is haunting me. 

Looks like we have to wait for the next India trip to get that tastebud gap filled!