Today is a very very important day for me. Yes, you guessed it right. Aayisrecipes completes its one year today. So I thought of writing a few things about it in this post.
Aayisrecipes is a small way of saying thanks to my mother. Yes, I feel she is the best mother in the world. if anybody knows me personally, they would also know that my world revolves around my family. (Well, I do not want to continue talking about it, I would become too emotional). She is the master of innumerable mouth watering dishes. When I started cooking, though I could prepare few dishes properly, I was pathetic in the traditional cooking. I would add whatever came to my mind, whether it is necessary or not. Finally I would end up in a mess and still I would expect all to eat it quietly and if possible appreciate :D.
So we (meaning my brother and I) always thought of preserving those delicious recipes in some way. We thought a lot about opening a restaurant, but we both were very busy and there was no way we coculd get capital investment for our restaurant. I thought of publishing a book, but that too required a lot of work. Finally I asked my mom to write down all her recipes in a diary so that I would get them easily. Since she was always busy in one thing or other, she hardly found any time to write š
Last year, my interest in cooking reached its peak. I started watching all the Cooking shows on TV. My brother and hubby repeatedly told me to send my entry to a Kannada TV show, but I was all too hesitant. Mainly because, I thought people would say āwhat is this kid going to cook?ā, that was the thing my friends said when I told them about my culinary interests. Before my marriage, I never knew anything about blogging. It was my hubby who introduced me to the blogging world. But yet, I didnāt know about foodblogs. So when I refused to go to TV shows, hubby started telling me about starting a food blog. But I was never interested in a blog. I told him, I am fine with a recipe site, but not blog. One fine day, without my knowledge he started a blog for me. He casually asked about āsite nameā. I first thought naming it after my mom, then I thought it wouldnāt give that impression as āaayisrecipesā would give. It would be my tribute not only to my mom but to all moms in the world.
Though we had created a blog, I never knew what to write in a post. I started by posting some of the easy and very famous recipes (like cauliflower-carrot pickle , coriander gojju , pav bhaji , appe , potato dosa , ankre tambli , soyi polo , cabbage vada , egg pepper and many more) . I never had time to take pictures. Few friends were very happy to see this blog. Then, one fine day, I got a comment from Courtney of Naughty Curry and I felt on top of the world!!!. She was the first outsider (I mean a person who didnāt know me personally) to comment on the blog. Next was VKN from My Dhaba and it continued from there. I still donāt know how they came to my blog. VKN suggested to post pictures of the dishes. In my busy schedule, I couldnāt take even a minute to take pictures. So I continued posting without pictures until I came to US.
In US, I got much awaited break from my career. So I got all the time to develop my blog. I started reading other blogs too. When I started getting more and more visitors and a lot of mails from my readers, I thought of moving to my own domain (again it was a forcible move from my hubby, who had bought a domain and moved the entire contents to the new domain).
Thanks again.
Long back, Manoj had asked me to post this recipe. He had asked for ākarathe puddi sagleā, which looks like a dish from South Kanara(I am not sure though). One thing which came to my mind when I read his mail was the traditional dish with bittergourd called as Karathe sukke. (Karathe ā bittergourd, Sukke ā sidedish with coconut, where coconut masala is cooked till it becomes almost dry).
Since I had this hatred about bittergourd, I had never tried any dishes with it. Manojās mail inspired me to try it. I had seen bitter melons in chinese store, but had never tried them. Few days back, when I went to Indian store, I found some bittergourds there. I bought the smallest one. Can you beleive it? I prepared three dishes with it( karathe fry , karathe sukke and karathe pickle, which I am going to post soon) thinking I might have to waste them if we both dināt like it. BUTā¦.to my surprise, we just loved all the dishes. Now every time I go to Chinese store (Indian store is very far, so I am managing with the Chinese store which is easily accessible to me), I make sure to buy the bitter melons :D.
This dish has a sweetish, spicy taste to it. Give it a try, and I am sure you will start liking bittergourd.
Ingredients: Bittergourd(Karathe ā cut into small pieces) 1 cup Onion 1/2 cup Coconut 3/4 cup Jaggery 1 tea spn Red chillies 4-5 Coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn Urad daal 1/2 tea spn Tamarind 1/4 tea spn Oil 1 tea spn Salt
Method: Add salt to bittergourd pieces and keep it aside for 1/2 hour. Sqeeze out the water (this step is done to remove the bitterness). Heat oil and fry coriander seeds and urad daal. Grind with coconut, jaggery, chillies and tamarind (do not make the masala too watery). Heat oil and fry onion till they turn slightly brownish. Add bittergourd. Add 1/4 cup water, cover and cook for 7-8mins. Add the ground masala (since bittergourd retains some salt, check for salt and if required, add salt). Serve as a side dish with rice.
Serves : 3 Preparation time : 20mins
