Renovation dilemmas...

Our home in Chennai is ready for a big renovation, so all creative energies are being channeled into doing up Our dream home. It is not easy to go with just one thing, given the endless varieties of fixtures, fittings, tiles, paints, furnishings etc available in the market today...

Anyway, more than the fact that I cannot make up my mind about even something as basic as flooring... I would love to do up each room with a separate tile, while experts opine that it is better to stick with one so that the space looks bigger and more open.

And something in me balks at just buying stuff off the rack and fixing it here and there, since for me, bland never works as well as blend.

One thing I am absolutely in favour of, are things and colours that exude warmth and look timeless... not for me, the absolute modern and cutting edge ..(rather reminds me of sharp blades !!)

Gosh..so many choices to be made...

For someone who hates shopping, i absolutely adore visiting endless shops and showrooms for that perfect accessory for our home...

And I find that for someone who has an artistic outlook, I adore if something that appeals to me has a practical use as well...!!!!

I never realised that putting together a home would reveal more of myself too...!!!!

The type of rooms I would love to be in ....warm, cozy and I absolutely love the flooring..taken from this site.

A fresh look for Krishna

This is the Idol of Krishna at our home in Kerala... we picked it up nearly 16 years ago in Guruvayoor... the serene eyes drew all of us in ..and it had pride of place in the drawing room for all these years..but after all these years of leaving the house closed, the paint had become flecked and faded in lots of places... so this time when I visited, I thought that it was high time it was given a fresh look. Since my mom is there full-time, she would make sure that it wouldn't be neglected.

The paint is not exact... but I have done my best to make it look even atleast in the face !! after 2 coats each of paint, I just used a spray to fix the paint..so hopefully, it would stay fresh and easy to wipe off cobwebs and dust that seems to be attracted to the idol as quickly as we can wipe it off.

I painted the chains and the crown with gold paint and highlighted with bronze powder.

Kozhuva thoran - Kerala style anchovies

The picture of the fish is from net search.

Have been enjoying mom's cooking for a while now, with just a few of my own dishes for a change now and again. One fish that is used often in our diet is Kozhuva. It was only when I saw a picture, I realised that the (in)famous anchovies in pizza are the same fish !!!

We get them absolutely fresh , silver-coloured and glistening from the backwaters.....and the, smaller they are, the tastier the dishes. So here is my mom's famous kozhuva thoran.

Clean the anchovies by cutting off the head and the tail. they are very tiny and the bones dont matter.

Soak two pieces of tamarind (one used in fish curries/ kudampuli) in 1 cup of warm water.

Kozhuva / anchovies - 250 gms cleaned

Tamarind / kudam puli - 2 pieces

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Grated coconut - 1 cup

Small onions/shallots - 3 nos

Green chillies - 2

Jeera/cumin - a pinch

Ginger - 1/4 inch piece (peeled)

In a kadai, add the fish, chilly powder, turmeric powder, the tamarind with the soaked water, salt to taste, keep on low fire and cook till all the water evaporates.

Lightly crush or pulse twice in a grinder - the grated coconut, small onions, ginger, cumin, and the green chillies. Add this to the fish.

For tempering

Oil - 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 2 tsp

Boiled rice - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - a handful

Dried red chillies - 2 (broken in half)

Heat the oil, put in the mustard seeds, dried red chillies, boiled rice , curry leaves and wait till the mustard seeds burst and the boiled rice turn light brown. Add the prepared fish and slowly mix till the tempering is mixed in well.

The taste is simply superb....

Vaishnava Ganapati - Charcoal on paper

This is one of my creations done about 12 years back and has pride of place in the drawing room at my parent's home. There are a couple more of my works here.

This painting was done with charcoal powder and I had initially thought of doing some charcoal stumping when I came across picture of entitled Vaishnava Ganapati... I just thought I would try drawing it, and since I had the charcoal powder at hand, I used that.

Prawns and potato

Lots of things happening right now..

A shift to Chennai, hometown of my husband ...and ensuing chaos with getting late admission for our daughter, getting a flat for rent while renovating our home, meeting with contractors, visiting a lot of tile shops, showrooms, surfing the net for ideas, etc etc ...

And right now, both my daughter and I are in Kerala, with my folks while, hubby is winding up his stuff in the Delhi office..

So am having a lot of amazing dishes and a few experiments of my own also are going on... especially with a few more guinea pigs that usual, I am having a great time making new stuff...

This is a very easy dish and really foolproof... even beginners can make it.

Potatoes - 2 (medium ones cut in to cubes)

Prawns - 500 gms, (shelled and deveined)

Onion - 1 large

Tamarind - 2 pieces

dried red chillies - 2 or 3/4 sp chilly flakes

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Red chilly powder or even paprika for colour (1/2 tsp)

Soy sauce - 1/2 tsp

Oregano - 1/2 tsp

Boil the potato pieces with the turmeric powder and red chilly powder. When the water is nearly gone, add the prawns and the tamarind and cook for about 10 minutes till the prawns are done. take off the heat. throw away the tamarind pieces.

Now in a kadai/wok, add some oil - about 2 tsp, add the onions and saute till golden brown. Add the prawns, the soy sauce and stir at times till the oil shows. Sprinkle with oregano and serve hot.

Easy plum jam

I saw some great plums and could not resist buying them... I bought two kilos, and we managed to consume quite a few, but still there were just two days before we left for Kerala and i did not want to waste it.. so I searched for a recipe online and found lot of different versions... as usual, I adapted one that was the easiest and thus appealed to me ..especially due to the time constraint...

many of them were not ripened well, so the result was a bit sour. that said, I have to tell you that I absolutely adored it and my daughter also had a great time sampling the jam... in fact, I had to hide it away so she wouldn't keep 'testing' it ..!!!

Plums have natural pectin in them, which is a vital ingredient for making jams. So if you are using this recipe, please make sure that the fruit is either plums, or some other fruit that is as high in pectin.

Plums - 1 kg (ensure they are ripe and add a couple or so of unripe ones to add a slight tang to the taste)

Sugar - 1 and 1/2 cups (add more according to taste. I used less sugar , so as not to overpower the taste of the fruit.

Honey - 1/2 cup

Cloves - 6 (optional - please count the cloves before adding them so they can be easy to remove. This is my own addition to the recipe)

Water - 1 tbsp

Wash the plums well. Slit once lengthwise to the stone. In a thick bottom vessel, put the plums and the water and keep it on a low flame.

Add the sugar and the cloves after about 5 minutes. Stir well. After about 20 more minutes, the stones will separate .

Remove the cloves and the stones.

the plums will become a smooth paste consistency. Add the honey and let the liquid reduce and thicken.

Once the jam becomes the stage where it will coat a spoon easily, but won't run off of it, switch of the stove.

While it cools, it will thicken again. So if the jam is too thick , it will solidify and won't be easy to spread. Likewise, a runny jam won't be nice either.

This recipe yields a sweet and tang jam with a rich and fruity taste. It is easy to spread, but does not turn the bread soggy.

Try it and let me know how it turns out.

Mural work - 2

This is the second one of the three mural pieces that I had taken classes for. Though the earlier Jharokha had been done with a lot of help from my instructor, this has been done almost by myself. I just got the instructions and then I started work on my own.

Of course, it is a bit different from what my teacher would have envisioned, but I think for a first effort it is not too bad.

I was asked by a few of my friends for the instructions on how to do it . and I will be making the tutorials when I have some free time..

right now, life is a little busy with shopping and such for going to Chennai as well as Kerala ..... Not to mention the fact that my little one is at home and keeping her from being bored is taking all my time and energy..!!!!

So I would really like to know your opinion on this particular piece.