Bottle Gourd Gravy

Ingredients :

• Bottle Gourd - one long one, prick it all over the skin with a fork and then cut it into cubes without removing the skin.
• Onions - 2 medium-sized, cut into thin long pieces.
• Green chillies - 2-3 slit along the length, you can avoid the green chillies if you want to cut down on heat.
• Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon.
• Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon.
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tablespoon.
• Garam masala - half teaspoon.
• Turmeric powder, red chilly powder, salt - each 1 teaspoon. Add salt as per your taste.
• Yogurt - 3 tablespoons, beat the yogurt and mix water and make it into buttermilk.
• Spices like cardamom, clove, bay leaf and cinnamon - 2 each.
• Oil - 3 tablespoons.
• Coriander leaves for garnishing.
• Tamarind juice about half a cup of thin consistency.

Procedure :

• Heat oil in a pan and to it add the spices - cardamom, clove, bay leaf and cinnamom and once the spices turn colour, add chopped onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste in that order and let the onions turn pink.
• Now add the bottle gourd cubes to it and stir it once.
• Now add turmeric, salt, chilly powder, coriander and cumin powder and also garam masala powder and mix all the ingredients and then add tamarind juice to it and let the whole mixture boil till the bottle gourd pieces are cooked soft.
• Add water if the water level comes down.
• Finally once the bottle gourd is cooked soft, add the buttermilk and again let the mixture cook for 5 more minutes and take it off the heat and garnish it with coriander leaves.

Tell me how you like the dish.

Take care....................Love

R

Candles & Celebrations

The 100th post definitely calls for celebration.......... and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate this occasion than with a few candles. Today making candles and buying candles has become easy. Candles come in different shapes, sizes, fragrances, colours, etc. I love candles, simply because of the way they make me feel!! They inject romance and magic into the ambience. I am one of those people who do not need an occasion to light candles around the house......... What about you?????

My dining tabel always has candles on it............. whimsical and elegant..........

Now that you know how important candles are to me........it won't be a surprise if I told you that candle holders are an integral part of my household.

I hunt for anything that remotely looks like a candleholder... and then attempt at transforming it.... to make it look artistic or just simple gorgeous. This is a real simple experience for me..... Using lace, beads, ribbon or simply paint creates the magic in my home.....

Here are my champagne glasses.

Didn't I say........... anything converts into a candle holder.............

Here are my chutney or dip containers.......

Knowing my love for canldes and candle holders, my brother gifted me this book - Creative Candleholders by Deborah Morgenthal....I absolutely adore this book....and would like to share the following with you.......( the below four images are from this book ).

The book is magical..............A few vegetables in your kitchen turn into candle holders..........

A few apples with embedded tea lights, makes a cheerful centrepiece..............

A few wires and simple use of wires can make your work of art from silly to sophisticated.........

Just about any container can transform into a candleholder..........

This is how you trasnform ordinary objects into extraordinary candleholders.......

Do leave your comments and let me know what you think or if you have any other amazing candleholder ideas.........

P.S: This is a post by my dear friend Patricia Torres from Colours Dekor............ I apologise to her for not posting this for so long........... She kept her word and gave me the honor of having this post in my blog as my 100th post............... Thank you for this wonderful post Pat. Nothing could have been more perfect than this for the 100th post in my blog...............