October - Breast cancer awareness month

October a pink month, if we visit  grocery store, we are surrounder by all pink boxes from cereals to even baby diapers are pink. The pink ribbon means awareness and awareness is the key to survival. So  I thought I write about the article I  came across about  this breast cancer and want to be a part in spreading the awareness.

Ten facts about breast cancer

1. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among Indian women.


2. Approximately one lakh new cases of breast cancer are detected every year in the sub-continent.

3. The risk of a breast cancer is one in 30 in urban India and one in 65 in rural India. These figures are due to failure in detection in early stages.

4. Early detection can increase chances of cure in 80% cases.

5. In the last decade, breast cancer has overtaken cervical cancer as the most common cancer among women in major metropolitan cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi.

6. Approximately 90,000 breast cancer cases were detected in 2008 with over 48,000 deaths in the sub-continent. If this condition is not detected sooner, then it’s estimated that these figures could go up to 1,00,000 with over 55,000 deaths by 2010.

7. The number of new breast cancer patients annually at The Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai has risen from 1,800 to 3,200 in the past 10 years.

8. Goa has the highest number of breast cancer cases in the country.

9. According to the World Health Organisation, cancer is all set to outpace heart ailments as the biggest killer in the next two years. It also says that cancer diagnosis has been steadily rising and will soon touch the 12 million mark this year. By 2030, new cancer cases could rise to 27 million with up to 17 million deaths.

10. Breast cancer is on the rise largely due to changing lifestyle and dietary patterns among women in urban India. With fewer women opting for babies and lactating for lesser time than their mothers, they are at a higher risk of facing this condition.
(info Courtesy : iDiva.com and Women’s Cancer Initiative, Tata Memorial Hospital )

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, all women starting at age 40 should get a mammogram every one to two years, and if there is a history of breast cancer in your family, you may need to start getting mammograms earlier.
Most of the breast cancer cases are curable when detected earlier, thats why  it is so important to get tested regularly – mammograms can find cancer early when it’s most treatable.
Although there is no guaranteed way to prevent breast cancer, keeping up with a healthy lifestyle that includes good diet and exercise habits can help your mind and body stay strong.

Stuffed Omelette

A simple healthy omelette stuffed with vegetables. Adding mushroom to this tastes really wonderful and you can even add meat to this and make it more yummy. We first tasted this at Denny's restaurant and then we became a regular eater.
During weekends we prefer eating this for breakfast than other south Indian food. My hubby loves to prepares this omlette and I get a chance to just stay away from kitchen for a while. This is the recipe of what he did.

Ingredients
Egg - 2
Milk - 2 tsp
For Stuffing
Mushroom Chopped - 1/4 cup
Bell Pepper Chopped - 1/4 cup
Onion Chopped - 1/4 cup
Pepper and salt to taste
Any shredded Cheese
Oil - 1 tsp

Method
Heat oil in a skillet and  saute onion for few mins and add mushroom and bell pepper and add some fresh grinded pepper and salt and cook till its done and make it as dry as possible and set aside. Heat a little oil or use a non-stick spray in the egg pan, beat the egg with milk and little pepper and salt, pour the eggs to the centre of the heated pan, tilting the pan so that the eggs spread out evenly on the pan. When its done on one side, carefully flip to the other side and cook. Flip again and place the vegetables to one half side and top it with cheese and fold over with the other side and hold it till the cheese melts. Enjoy!!

Tomato Capsicum Uthappam

The first place I stayed in US is a small town called Peoria in Illinois and its at 3 hrs drive from Chicago. It is a very small place where there is only one Indian restaurant and couple of Indian stores. I have hardly visited that restaurant even though I stayed there for 3 yrs, the food there is not so tempting to visit again. Apart from that there is a beautiful Balaji temple in Aurora which is at 2 hours drive (1 hr from Chicago), the 2 hrs drive to the temple would be is so pleasant as we pass through lots of corn fields, much more smaller towns and whenever we get bored, we always love to visit this temple.
The temple is really very big and  beautiful and to add more to its greatness it has an awesome cafetaria which serves all mouth watering south Indian dishes. To enter into the main temple premises you have to cross through the cafeteria dinning place and you can watch people splurging  in the sambar, vadai, dosa and many more, I have to honestly accept that we can't pray peacefully as the sambar smell still lingers in our mind. One of the main  reason we visit that place quite often is for the food and we are not the only ones. Though we eat the same dosa almost three to four times in a week at home, eating again dosa outside in any restaurant is so fascinating. Dosa is one such  wonderful dish for me which I won't get bored even eating it 3 times a day.
After moving to North Carolina I really miss the Balaji temple as is, such a lovely place.
Well, coming to dosa, I prefer the plain dosa than this spiced up tomato dosa and in contrast my hubby likes with something on the dosa even he loves just sugar on it than just eating the plain one. 

Ingredients
Dosa Batter
Tomato - 1 sliced to a round shape
Capsicum Chopped - 1/2 cup
Cilantro Chopped - 1 cup
Pepper powder to taste
oil

Method
Heat the dosa pan or griddle and pour 1/4th cup of dosa batter and spread to a small and thick circle, place the tomato and capsicum on the top of the dosa batter and spread the cilantro on top of tomato and sprinkle some pepper powder and pour 1 tsp of oil on top and cook till brown and flip over the dosa to cook the other side until the tomato and capsicum is cooked. Serve hot with coconut chutney.   

  

Crunchy Fish Fingers

Simple and very easy to prepare this chruncy, tasty fish fingers. My one year old girl grabbed one from the plate as soon it was ready and started munching and she soon took another one before the plate was empty and even my picky boy loved it. This crunchy fish finger is a big hit with my kids. I use tilapia fillets fearing cooking other fish like salmon would leaves a strong fishy odor lingering in the house even after couple of days which makes my boy really grossed, so I choose tilapia which is comparatively less odor but you can use any fish fillets of your choice.   

Ingredients
Tilapia fillets - 2 Cut into 1 and 1/2 to 2  inch long strips 
Bread Crumbs - 1/2 cup 
All Purpose Flour - 1/4 cup
Ginger Garlic Paste - 3/4 tsp
Chili Powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp
Pepper Powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste 
Oil to fry

Method 
In a medium bowl, combine flour, ginger garlic paste, chili powder, coriander powder, pepper powder, baking powder, salt with some water to a nice thick batter. Take the fish and dip in flour batter and dredge in the breadcrumbs and set aside for 5 mins and deep fry in the oil and serve with ketchup. Enjoy!!

Birthday Lunch Special - Chole Bhatura and Jalapeno Chicken

One great thing about my hubby is he never insists on what cook, and whatever and however I cook he appreciates it. Sometimes this makes me  annoyed when I run out of ideas and I dont get any help on it from him. Its always easy for me to cook rather than deciding what to cook.
Unlike me he does not have too many favorites in food, and anything I cook he used to enjoy as if he is eating for the first time but whenever we go to vegetarian restaurant most of the time he orders chole bhatura and in non-veg buffet, I have seen him  hogging a plate full of chicken 65 couple of times so I concluded those two should be his favorite and I decided  to prepare chole bhatura and chicken 65  for lunch on his birthday. I thought to do some variation in these dishes  and I added jalapeno to chicken guessing it would give a nice spicy kick to the chicken  and for chole bhatura I retained the same, nothing to modify in it. I hope as usual he enjoyed this special dish I made for him with love. In my previous post he left few comments in the name VJ and I felt little encouraging and I hope he does same for this too and  waiting for it. 

Bhatura

This tasted really good and loved it, only disappointment is it never came fully puffed up, mistake may be I kneaded the dough too soft and after resting for 3 hrs it became more soft, so make sure you dont do the same mistake.  

Ingredients
All Purpose flour/maida - 2 cups
Sugar - 1tsp
Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Baking Powder - 1tsp

Salt to taste 

Water as needed
Oil to fry

Method
Combine all the ingredients  in a bowl and knead the dough with enogh water and make it to a  soft dough(not too soft) and rest this dough coved for 2 to 3 hrs and this gonna make even  more soft.

After 2 to 3 hrs, take a small ball of dough and roll them. Heat oil in a pan and fry them in hot oil.  Serve with chole.

Simple Chole 

I call it as simple chole b'coz I never grinded any masalas and also did not use any store bought chole masala, I made it my own way and it tasted good.

Ingredients

Chole/chick peas - 2 cups 
Onion - 1/2 of a onion chopped
Tomato - 1 chopped

Ginger chopped - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1tsp

Coriander Powder - 2tsp

Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

Amchur Powder - 1 tsp

Kasoori methi - 1 tsp

Garam masala - 1 tsp 

Salt to taste

Oil - 2tsp

Method

Soak chick peas overnight and pressure cook them and set aside or simple use canned like I did.

In a skillet heat and when it heats up add the cumin seed and when it splutter add onion and ginger and saute for few mins and add tomato and cook till is fully cooked and juicy and start adding all the powders one by one and mix and if needed add water to avoid burning of the powders. Add the boiled or canned chickpeas and add some water and cook until it reaches a thick consistency. Garnish with cilantro. Serve with bhatura.

Jalapeno Chicken

This one stole the show, I saved some without adding the jalapenos for my kids and they really enjoyed it.

Ingredients

Boneless chicken - 1 lb cut into a bite size piece

Lemon juice - 1tsp

yogurt - 3 tsp

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp

Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1tsp

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Corn Flour - 2tsp

Red food color

Soy sauce - 1 tsp

Jalapeno - 3 chopped to small pieces
Curry leaves - 10

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Method

In a bowl marinate chicken with all ingredients expect jalapeno, curry leaves and soy sauce and let rest for 1 hr. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the curry leaves and keep aside and fry the marinated chicken in the same oil and transfer to a kitchen towel to drain the excess oil. In a other pan, heat 1tsp of oil and fry the jalapeno with salt and little lemon juice till pepper is soft and before removing from the stove add the soy sauce and mix chicken to it and transfer to a serving plate and put the fried curry leaves on the top and serve with some onions.

Cilantro Chicken

Although coimbatore is my home town, I adore Bangalore more, reason may be I started my Bangalore life in college and got a lot of chance to explore Bangalore more with friends which I consider a pleasant memories to cherish.

Intailly when we  moved to Bangalore, my brother's office colleague Laksmi aunty's family  helped  us a lot.  I would say I got introduced to everything in Bangalore through them. She was such a lovely person and  I used to admire her a lot for what she was-a working woman, best cook and in free time she used to do lots of craft work and not to forget she had 2 small girls and a husband to care for and  that makes me  wonder how she could perfectly balance everything. She is my inspiration for lot of things . Her lovely girls, vanitha and anusha were my kannada tutors, they used to listern patiently to the worst kannada I speak and they have also corrected me which helped me to speak better. We had a wonderful time together with lots of family get togethers, trips and many more. All of a sudden there is been no contact between our two families for almost 10 yrs now, I have no idea what had happened in between and I feel that is an immature act.  I never got a chance to tell her that how much I admired her and she is my first inspiration for cooking and I actually owe her family a lot.
Today post the cilantro chicken , is the only simple chicken recipe I learnt from her and still is one of the  best chicken recipe for me. Unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to learn more of her mouth watering recipes.

I am writing this in my blog hopping one day accidentally she may read it. 
  

Ingredients:

whole cut Chicken - 1 lb

Onion - 1 chopped

Garlic - 5 cloves

Ginger - 1"

Cinnamon - 3/4" stick

Cloves - 4 

Cilantro - 1/2 bunch 

Black Pepper - 1tsp

Green Chilies - 3 

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander Powder - 2 tsp

Oil - 3 tsp
Salt to taste

Method
In a pan heat oil and when it heats up add onion and saute for few mins and add chicken and add turmeric powder, coriander powder and cook for 10 mins. In the mean time grind together garlic, ginger, chilies, pepper, cloves, cinnamon and cilantro to a fine paste. Now add this grinded paste to the chicken and cook untill the raw fragrance is gone and you get a nice gravy consistency. Serve with jeera rice or any pulao or even plain rice it would taste good. 

Creamy Dreamy Chicken Sauce on Angle Hair

This was a huge hit in my house, even my choosy boy liked it. He actually asked me to save some for next day so you can guess how hit was this dish. This is a  calorie rich food  so if you dont mind about calories then this is the great dish. Wonder why tasty foods are always not good for health?. I dont mind making this dish once in a while, more over I am gonna eat only little (dont ask me how much is that little). This creamy sauce is best served over any pasta shapes like spaghetti, fettuccine, cappellini or linguine pastas. I used angle hair b'coz no big secret that's what I had in my pantry. To make this dish more creamier I used heavy whip cream and if you feel its too much creamier you can go ahead and use only milk. This sauce can be made with any variation of your choice which contribute to your consistent and taste.

Ingredients

Chicken Breast - 2 halves
Italian flavoured breadcrumbs - 1/2 cup
Angle hair - 1/2 lb
Olive oil - 2tsp
Butter - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 5 cloves minced
Onion - 1 chopped
Chicken Bouillon cubes - 2 crumbled
Heavy whipped cream - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Dried parsley - 1/2 tsp
Parmesan cheese - 1/2 cup
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Cook the pasta according to the direction on package, drain. Mix breadcrumbs, 2tsp parmesan cheese, pepper powder in a wide bowl or plate. Coat the chicken breast with the breadcrumbs on both the side and set aside.
Heat oil in a pan and add 2 tsp of garlic and add the chicken and cook on a simmer flame until chicken is well cooked. Remove chicken from the pan and cool and slice diagonally into long strips.
Reheat the oil in the pan with butter and add remaining garlic and onion and saute until onion is soft. Add the chicken bouillon and add water and bring to a boil and cook in simmer for 10 mins. Add milk and cheese and cook for 5 more mins.
Place the cooked pasta on the plate, layer the chicken over the pasta and pour the sauce on top of the chicken. Garnish with fresh or dired parsley. Serve hot. I served with asian green beans salad - look for this recipe in my previous post.