Andu Paatti's cookbook by Andal Rangaswamy

Published by Thirumalai Charity Trust Publications, the book is a treasure house of authentic Tamil Iyengar cuisine. Although the book covers some north Indian recipes too, one can look forward to the entire list of South Indian vegetarian cuisine in the book. Apart from the foreword, translators preface, the author's experiences, there are also notes on glossary, pre-cooking stages and kitchen management.

The recipes are classified as

1. Pongals and payasams (Jaggery and sugar based)

2. Mixed rice varieties

3. Masala and spiced powder

4. Sambar and kuzhambu varieties

5. Rasam varieties

6. Koottu varieties with tamarind

7. Koottu varieties without tamarind

8. Masiyal varieties

9. Kottu varieties -North Indian

10. Dry vegetable curries

11. Leafy green vegetable varieties

12. Fried snacks -Vadai, bhajji, bonda etc

13. Thuvaiyal varieties

14. Chutney varieties

15. Pachadi varieties

16. Uncooked foods, sprouts and salads

17. Chapathi, paratha and poori varieties

18. Idli, dosai varieties

19. Uppuma, sevai, kozhukkattai varieties

20. Kesari, Okkorai, Poli, Puttu etc

21. Sugar based sweets- Mysore pak, burfi, laddoo, halwa etc

22. Jaggery based sweets- Manoharam, Kadalai urundai, suhian, sojji appam etc

23. Fried savoury snacks -Murukku, cheedai, thattai, thenkuzhal, omapodi etc

24. Chips - Potato, Banana, yam etc

25. Pickles - Mango, lime, gooseberry

26. Dehydrated wafers and other vathals

27. Home made remedies and deepavali lehiyam

An ideal gift for a newly wed South Indian bride and an amateur in cooking ......

Best of Indian Sweets and Desserts by Aroona Reejhsinghani

Author : Aroona Reejhsinghani

Publisher: Jaico publishing house

The book covers sweet varieties from various parts of India. Although there are no pictures of the dish, there are lot of recipes classified according to the states..

1. Explanation of cooking terms

2. Cooking glossary

3. Food colours

4. Helfpful hints

5. Uttar pradesh

6. Bihar

7. Rajasthan

8. Goa

9. Kashmir

10. Kerala

11. Tamilnadu

12. Kanara

13. Mangalore

14. Mysore

15. Andhra

16. Hyderabad

17. Punjab and Haryana

18. Orissa

19. Bengal

20. Maharashtra

21. Gujarat

22. Parsi

23. Sindhi

If homemade sweets are an integral part of your food, this book would definetely serve the purpose of exploring the sweet varieties prepared all over India.

100 Easy recipes with Oats by Mallika Badrinath

Author : Mrs Mallika Badrinath

Publisher: Pradeep Enterprises

The latest offering from the popular South Indian cookery book author, this book focuses on use of the healthy cereal oats in various Indian recipes. The recipes are all vegetarian and oats has been included as a variation in South Indian recipes.

The book starts with introduction to oats, health benefits and other general information about oats. The recipes have been classified as -

1. Breakfast recipes

2. Soups

3. Sweets

4. Luncheon recipes

5. Snacks

6. Other recipes

Almost all the recipes in the book require ingredients that are normally used in day to day cooking. If you have been one who thought that oats can be consumed only as porridge, this book is definetely one you should own.

Dals and Kadhi by Sanjeev Kapoor

Author :Sanjeev Kapoor

Publisher : Popular Prakasan Pvt ltd

The pictures in the book are the main attraction and one is sure to get lost in them as in every Sanjeev Kapoor's cook book..

There is a small one line introduction to each of the recipes. As the name suggests it covers only dals and kadhis as prepared in various parts of India.

The book would be useful to those for whom dals or kadhi are an essential part of the food each day.

100 Vegetarian gravies by Mallika Badrinath

Author : Mrs Mallika Badrinath

Publisher : Pradeep Enterprises

The book has a collection of 100 recipes that serve as a side dish for various Indian cuisines. The gravies includes South Indian as well as North Indian ones.

There are also a few baked recipes as side dishes. Apart from the recipes, there are a some tips for making gravy tastier, preparation tomato paste for preserving, making and deep frying paneer, caramelising sugar and preparation of garam masala as required for the recipes. Variations to the recipes have been mentioned wherever possible.

Cook and See (Samaithu par ) - 4 by Priya Ramkumar

The book is a continuation of the famous series Samaithu par by Meenakshi ammal. The collection of recipes in the book is completely different from its earlier books. The categories are :

1. Soup varieties

2. Salads, Shakes and Juices

3. Quick Big bites

4. Rotis

5. Side dishes

6. Yummy snacks

7. Rice varieties

8. Pickles, Chutneys and Raita

9. Sweets and Desserts

The book is a combination of traditional as well as modern recipes and lives up to the popularity of the earlier books.

100 Murukkus and Mixtures by Mallika Badrinath

Author : Mrs Mallika Badrinath

Publisher : Pradeep Enterprises

The book has a collection of 100 varieties of Murukkus (Chaklis ) and Mixtures..among the most popular savouries of Indians.

Apart from the recipes, there are points to remember in preparation of the dough and mistakes that should be avoided while making these savouries.

Also there is a pictorial representation of the discs and cooking implementsfor these savouries.

The book has a good collection of recipes for those who like savouries for tea time snacks and is specially useful during festivals.

Quick and easy Kids Cakes by Sara Lewis

Publisher : Hamlyn

Author : Sara Lewis

The book is a treasure house of ideas for cake decorations. There are about 50 cake ideas for kids of all ages. The book covers a lot of information and detailing on the icing and frosting part rather than cake recipes.

Segments :

1. Equipments - Information relating to all the basic equipments that one needs to bake all the different kinds of cakes given in the book and about lining the cake tins.

2. Cake recipes : About 6 basic recipes for cakes..all of them made with eggs.

3. Icings and fillings : Recipes to prepare different types of icing

4. Techniques : Focuses on using icings, basic methods to prepare cake boards and covering cakes with icings.

5. Finishing touches : Decorations with icing shapes and piping bags and other ideas for cake decorations

6. Tiny Tots : Cake decorations for little ones

7. Older kids : Decoration ideas for a bit elder kids

8. Animal magic : Creating different types of animals decorations of cakes

9. Seasonal treats : For special occassions

 If you like baking cakes and decorating them, this one is a sure buy. 

Awards again

Thanks Deepika of My Life and Spice for the lovely set of awards

Awards time

Thanks Jabeen for all the beautiful awards

Thanks Rohini for this award

Khazana of Healthy tasty recipes by Sanjeev Kapoor

A collection of vegetarian and non vegetarian recipes by Sanjeev Kapoor focussing on healthy food that can be tasty too..The book starts with Dietary and Health guidelines informing readers about how small changes in the routine will have better results.

The segments in the book are

1. Salads

2. Soups

3. Snacks

4. Vegetables

5. Seafood

6. Chicken

7. Accompaniments

8. Rice

9. Desserts

There is an introduction to each segment before the start of the segment.

There are special Chef's tips for some recipes and Nutritional Value information for every recipe.

Also the author provides some extra information relating to the ingredients used in the recipe at the end of each recipe.

Salads for all occassions by Vijaya Hiremath

Salads for all occassions published by Jaico Publishing House and authored by Vijaya Hiremath is a treasure for salad lovers. Bright pictures, simple to follow recipes with nutritive values for each dish compiled by a dietician are the highlights of the book..

The categories in the book are -

1. Salads -More than 50 varieties covering fruits, vegetables, legumes

2. Dressings

3. Curd sauces/Raitas

4. Chutneys

5. Dry Powders

6. Glossary with conversion of ingredient names from English to Hindi

The various combinations in ingredients and dressings would tempt anyone to try the salad right away..

Dakshin - Vegetarian cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan

Author : Chandra Padmanabhan

One of the most popular books in South Indian vegetarian cuisine, the book lives up the name with the traditional recipes published in the book.

The book starts with

1. Sambars

2. Rasams

3. Vegetables

4. Salads

5. Rice dishes and spice powders

6. Snacks

7. Sweet dishes

8. Chutneys and Pickles

9. Basic recipes

10. Suggested menus

The suggested menus section offers various combinations for a complete meal which would be really helpful when one has to plan the menu in a short notice..

The author's experience of more than 25 years in cooking is very much visible in her recipes and the book is definetely worth buying for those who enjoy the flavours in the South Indian recipes 

Awards time

Kaveri of Palakkad Chamayal and Shilpi Bose of Its tasty ma have passed these two beautiful awards ..I would like to share these awards with all my blogger friends

"Sukham ayu" by Jigyasa Giri and Pratibha Jain

pic courtesy: Pritya

Sukham Ayu - Jigyasa and Pratibha's second venture after Cooking with Pedatha won the second place as the Best health and Nutrition book in the world during 2009. It is a perfect book for a layman to incorporate ayurveda in the day to day food. There are more than 60 vegetarian recipes classified in different categories that are simple to make and nutritious at the same time. So the reader can look forward to Nutritious, tasty and simple recipes in the book.

Watermarking your pictures to reduce plagiarism

The instances of plagiarism is increasing very day and we must try to protect our content as far as possible. We cannt do anything with respect to our text content but we can definetely watermark our pictures. And we need to do this in such a way that if the plagiarist attempts to remove our watermark the picture gets spoilt to some extent...Have a look at the following pictures and the possible ways of watermarking them...

This is my picture without any watermarkings

Creating a Facebook page and adding a like button widget

This widget is one of the popular ones related to Facebook on blogs..To have one, you must first have a facebook id.

After logging in to FB, there are two ways to creating a page..

First method --

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