Rounding up the reposts

After the high of announcing an event you go through the low of waiting the first few days, checking your email for the 10th time, wondering if there will be any entrees at all. Half way through the deadline the entrees start trickling in and you get excited. More so because they are from bloggers you look up to and read regularly.
It is even more exciting to discover some wonderful, new bloggers that slipped under your radar but you found them through your event. There are some who in their haste to send in an entry forget to read the rules but are gracious enough to redo their posts.
Here is a big thank you from the heart to all of you who took the time to go over your old posts and reposted them with anecdotes, nutritional information and amazing photos.                     

What are the chances that the very first entry you receive is also one of your favorite meals? Ruchika's very first post, which she kept updating to add tips and tricks to make the softest, fluffiest idlis, did not receive a single comment. Just goes to show, good things don't always get their due desserts err... sambhar.

The sweet sakkarai  pongal was sent with a smacking new photo from Dil Se by Divya. Made by following her mother's original recipe, it was her maiden post two years ago. 

 

A witty writer who knows her words and her food, Sra reposted her nutty beginnings, almost four years later,  and it is as "Nutty" as the rest of her blog, When My Soup Came Alive. 

        

When Sig sent me a repost of her Caramelized Catfish, I did a double take, not only because the recipe was totally new to me, the photo looks like a tenderly cooked piece of meat instead of seafood. And that is the magic of this vivacious girl's foodie blog, Live to eat.

Nivedita's Cornflakes Chiwda was reposted a couple of days after I gave away my unused but perfectly good box of cornflakes to the neighbor. She came up with the recipe while living in UAE and it even got picked up to be featured in Radio 4 FM! Naturally, it was her very first post when she started her blog, Nivedita's Kitchen, in March of last year.          

Devi reposted her Coca Burfi which incidentally was not only her first attempt at making sweets but also her first post on her two year old Devi's Blog.         

An expat living in China, PJ's blog has a unique touch of the orient. But when it came to blogging, one of her first few posts was that of a traditional family recipe, Bisi Bele Huli Anna, passed down from her great grandma. PJ tried her mom's version of the recipe just for the repost event and in the process wrote the confessions of a sore thumb.

                         

What started almost four years ago as a simple chicken curry has evolved into an almost foolproof one for Indhu's gorgeous blog, Daily Musings. Besides, you have to love a delicious chicken curry that cooks in one pot (pressure cooker) and is open to change based on the mood or the weather.   

Nivedita's second entry did not make it to the radio but she assures us that the flavor of burnt jeera (cumin seeds) in this dal is tooo good to resist. And I believe her even though she points out her original post did not get any response. 

Shama reposted her Arisi Paruppu Sadam or dal rice with red carrot fry, with a slight variation on the original recipe and better photos of the delectable meal. Her blog is worthy of its name Easy2Cook Recipes.

Deepa started her blog Hamaree Rasoi (Our Kitchen) not six months ago and she started the New Year with a resolve to not only post more recipes from her kitchen but also learn from her fellow bloggers. She reposted this easy-to-appease-your-hunger recipe for semolina cheela which she modified by adding veggies to. However, her original recipe sounds as good as the new one.

She is the essential garnish for almost every savory Indian fare and possibly for all the Indie bloggers out there. Her very first recipe, Boondi Ladoo, on her beautiful blog, Cilantro, is one of mine and possibly every kid and adult's favorite sweet to eat for festive occasions and during weddings.  

Jyoti of two month old Veggie Hut  dressed up her original post and reposted the Gujjia Vada, a gourmet take on the regular dahi vada. Laced with cashews and raisins, no wonder this delectable recipe is an all time favorite of her spouse. 

It started as a carrot kheer recipe for a friend in Nithus's Kitchen but somewhere along the way she decided to turn the boring beets to a delicious and healthy beetroot kheer. And if you thought the buck with beets stops at kheer, check out her original post. She was planning to make halwa with it! 

Deepa's second entry, bread keema in egg, was inspired at a train station when the vendor passed it hastily through the compartment window. This delicious mash of eggs and bread was posted originally five months ago.

From Preethi's Dreamy Delights come two delightful reposts. One for eggless tiramisu and one for almond cranberry biscotti.  The eggless tiramisu was made using eggless sponge cake in the absence of eggless lady fingers and was her very first post. The repost also included the recipe for the sponge cake.

The biscotti, on the other hand, was a lesson in writing down the correct oven temperature. After a burnt first batch, the second one turned out prefect and was the fourth post on her blog. 

She is everyones favorite blogger not only because of her delicious recipes and even more appetizing photos but because almost all of us rely on her blog aggregator to get visitors to our blogs. Only in Supriya's world can the bitter gourd turn out crunchy and delicious with a photo you want to take a bite out of. But if you want to know how she arrived at the recipe, check out her hilarious initial post conversation with her better half.

As Vaishali Bhutani got more involved with her blog, Adding Zest to Your Life, she graduated from pictures taken with her cell phone to a proper camera. The above photo was taken when she made her easy to make microwave double layered chocolate burfi for some friends who were coming over for dinner. 

When your kids come back from school and ask if you got any comments on the blog, you are in the presence of a dedicated blogger mom who names her blog The Joy Of Cooking. Her Indianized take on the  falafel is versatile for kids as well as to be frozen and later heated up and served as  quick appetizer for guests.

When Aqua serves you bread pudding with love you don't say no, especially when she turns the humble pudding into something out of a gourmet restaurant. Check out her very first foray into the dessert world and the world of blogging. Aqua, before you correct me I did read your post word to word and know you were an expert at the pudding at the tender age of eight, which was long before you started blogging.

She thought she was tardy for my party but little did this fellow Texan know there were others to come after her. If you haven't met Ann's Split Pear Personality you are missing out on some of the most adventurous, varied recipes a girl can blog about and have a sense of humor about it. Her curried couscous has gone through a lot of changes since the first time she made it and she presents it proudly with a new photo and an extra garnish "that grew out of the side of the dish like a tumor and took up most of the money shot."

With a name like Foodielicious you can expect finger licking recipes not unlike this Dhabba Style Palak Paneer. At the age of 20 Pari cooked this smoky dish for a party of 45 and not only got praise for her cooking skills but her cleanliness as well. No wonder this recipe is close to her heart and one of the first posts on her blog.

The World according to Rujuta has a Varan Phal recipe that brought back nostalgia of a comfort food that had almost slipped out of my culinary consciousness. Rujuta decided to repost this one with links to other versions of this recipe also known as dal dokhali and a salute to her father and his roots in the orange city of India, Nagpur.

True to her name, Cool Lassie decided her initial two posts were perfect the way they were. But honoring the rules of the event she decided to repost the two recipes with new photos which more than do justice to her Navrattan Korma and Turkey Meatballs with raisins.

We are what we eat and no one practices that philosophy more passionately than Vaishali of Holy Cow. If you think vegan and vegetarian is the same thing, Vaishali will not only set the record right for you, she will give you one delicious vegan recipe after another before you can say, "Holy Cow!" (my weak attempt at pun). Head on over to her blog for a lesson in compassionate cooking and healthy choices for the mind and the body.

Adhering to the Indian tradition of the host eating after the guests have had their fill, here's my humble contribution to my own event, Sabudana Khichdi 101 and Indori Kanda Poha.

Since this is my first event I decided to do the roundup in the order of the entry received. I have tried to be as precise as possible making sure all the entrees are included and hall the links work. If you spot any glitches, you know where to find me.

And she did. Just as I was starting to get a big head from all the compliments Champa brought me down to earth. I looked and found her email hiding in the spam folder along with another entry from Nithu Bala. So with my apologies to the two lovely ladies here goes their entrees at the tail end of the roundup.

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Nithu Bala's second entry was Milagu Kuzhambu which is a favorite of her dad's when he is down with a cold. After learning its medicinal properties, Nithu too started loving this previously hated nutritious soup.

Champa's vegan almond cookies evolved from a recipe a friend's mom had given and a recipe scribbleed down so long time ago she didn't remember where. But the recipe was a keeper and she reposted it in  Stories from an Indian kitchen by prettying up the cookies with an almond placed in the center. 

Grace period for the Repost Event

Feb 6 was supposed to be the last day to submit your entrees for the repost event. As promised in the original announcement post, I was strict about participants following my rules. As a result, I sent back a couple of entrees. For those who were gracious enough to accept my rejection of their posts, it was only fair that I give them a grace period of six days to redo their reposts.
For those of you who are still unclear on the rules, here they go again. If you don’t feel like going through the list of rules, just remember one cardinal rule: Do not just repost but redo, either in what you write or add a spanking new, preferably better photo, not more than two of your earliest posts.

Now to those strict rules that caused the deadline to be extended from Feb 6 to Feb 12 are:
Rule No. 1: Choose not more than two food related posts out of the first 10 posts on your blog.
Rule No. 2: Do not just repost but rewrite your old posts. Add, subtract or edit to the post. In short dress it up or down. For ex tell your readers why you decided on that particular post. Or what made you learn or make that dish and post it. I am looking for posts similar to this one and this one.
Rule No. 3: To get around Rule No. 2. If you think your post is perfect and the text does not need any editing, at least take the effort and put up a different, if possible better photo. For example, add value by talking about some interesting/ funny comments you received on that post or the reaction of your friends and family on reading your initial posts.
Rule No. 4: Link back to the original post so readers can compare. Lines similar to: “This was my original post” or "This is what I posted before" should do the trick.
Rule No. 5: Repost the edited post and send with a 300px wide photo to jayawagle(at)gmail.com by Feb 12. Add a link to this post and write ‘The Repost Event’ in the subject line.

Here's my lame attempt at creating the logo which you may or may not use:

In return for following my rules, I swear to follow these rules (sarcasm intended):
Rule No. 1: I will post the roundup in a timely fashion, by second week of Feb, barring any unfortunate circumstances.
Rule No. 2: I will not solicit on your comment form for participation in my event.
Rule No. 3: I will not insist that you be a follower of my blog to participate.

Happy reposting foodies.

Indori Kanda Poha and battle of the sexes

Indori: Born and bought up in Indore, MP, India; a foodie to the core; has aloo kachori, bhutte ka keese, garadu and kanda poha in the blood; one with a laid back attitude; easy going; likes to eat namkeen and laung sev with everything.

I have been late for my own event. But if you are an Indori (ref above) like me you would know it is nothing personal. We are a laid back lot, who do nothing in a hurry and take their time getting things done. (Just read the repetitious sentence to know what I mean!).
Which is a problem if you are married to a go getter, “hate lounging in bed”, up at the crack of dawn kind of fellow. There is no clause that makes it mandatory to disclose ‘sleeping in’ preferences before couples get hitched in an arranged marriage.
As a result, the first few months of our marriage were tumultuous, with me struggling to get used to the “leave in half an hour” to mean “leave in half an hour” concept of time. Him on the other hand had to get used to my, shall we say, easy as it goes attitude, in which half an hour could mean anything between 45 minutes to an hour and a half.

On a normal weekend morning I like nothing better than to get up at a godly hour (around 9 AM), make a nice cup of ginger tea and talk about the plans for the day, which may or may not get done by the end of the day. In my world it is perfectly acceptable as long as the meal that you planned on eating turned out right. He, on the other hand will be up at 6.30 AM (an ungodly hour, according to me), paying bills, catching up on emails and exercising. For him, the taste of food is secondary to the act of consuming it.
Nine years later, I still like my weekend breakfast to be poha, Indori style, with lots of onions, fennel seeds, peas and potatoes (the only thing missing are hot jalebis from the neighborhood halwai). He, who has grown up on upma and idli sambhar for breakfast, thought adding veggies to poha was tantamount to sacrilege. “That’s not poha, that’s vegetables cooked with poha!”
But what he didn’t bargain for was the “persistent foodie” that is inherent in every Indori. We may be laidback but we know our food and eventually we will convert you. By the end of our first year, T was making better poha than I and adding the ‘vegetables’ to them with restrained relish.

So here’s our recipe for Indori Kanda Poha that I first posted here, sans any photos. Another Indori Kanda Poha recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:
2 cups thick poha (flattened rice)
1 cup onion, chopped 
1 small potato, chopped in thin, bite size pieces
¼ cup peas, frozen or fresh

For Tadka:
1 tsp Rai/ black mustard seeds
1 tsp Haldi/ turmeric
2-3 green chilies, sliced in small pieces
4-5 curry leaves/ kari patta
1 tsp fennel seeds/ saunf (necessary)
1/2 tsp sugar (necessary)

For Garnish:
When the list of garnish ingredients is as long as that of the main ingredients you know it is an Indori recipe. The following are optional but recomended (either one or two or all) to enjoy the Indori experience.

Cilantro
Fresh pomegranate seeds
Grated, dry or fresh coconut
Chopped onion
Lemon wedges
Grapes (you better believe it)
Namkeen/ sev/ chavana
Jeeravan powder (like a chat masala but made just for sprinkling on poha)

Method:
Wash the poha twice in water, drain and keep it aside. The poha should be wet like a sponge but not soaking in water.
Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add curry leaves and chopped green chilli, fennel seeds and onion. Let the onions sweat on medium heat till they turn pink.
Add haldi and cook till the smell of raw haldi goes away.
Add the chopped potatoes and the peas and salt them. Cover and cook till the potatoes are fully cooked.
Add the poha and mix the onion-potato-peas together. Add salt and a pinch of sugar. Cover the poha with a lid and let it steam on low for 5 minutes.
Turn the heat off and garnish with chopped coriander and the above mentioned toppings of your choice.

And after that delectable feast of Indori poha and chai, I leave you with not one but two like minded fellow Indoris. Because we like nothing better than to talk about food before, during and after a meal.

The following was found here:
I think, Indore is one of the few places in the world where u can set up a small ’’thela’ serving poha -jalebi (Poha is a local dish, jalebi is a sweet dish) and if the taste is approved by the Indoriens, be assured u can earn enough for generations to come. When it comes to food, Indori chatoras stand a class apart. Poha, jalebi, garadu, sabudani ke kichrhi, somose-kachori, patis, khaman, pani puri - u name it and u have it. U come here with a new product and if its passed by the ’chotori jubaan’ of Indorians, don’t b surprised if u become a lakhpati in no time, a crorepati too is very much on cards - it happens only in Indore :-)

Excerpt from Rajat Jain's blog Useless Ramblings:
The other side-effects include missing the delicious Indian food. Being a foodie (and hence, a "bit" overweight) that I am, I obviously miss it. Especially when you order for a Daal Tadka, and get a layer of water above some half cooked and non-spicy cereals. Or when you have to contend with "maide ki roti."
Nah, whom am I kidding? An obsessed Indoree that I am, there was no chance on earth (or in heaven. I don't like hell.) that I could forget carrying Poha—Indoree Poha—with me. Two kilograms of Poha would be enough for 2 months. Or will they? Probably depending on how well I'd control my staple diet!


The poha with all the garnishes is off to Anita's Kitchen and to Sir's Corner who is hosting JFI: Fennel this month, started by Indira.

The repost event and another set of rules

My last post, confirmed what I had suspected for a while now. Initial posts on most blogs are like orphans. They sit in the first month, neglected and unread. Ironically, sometimes they are the ones close to the foodie’s heart, either because of the skill level involved in making them or because they are the ultimate comfort foods.

The first few posts are also the precursors to the more polished ones with better photographs and possibly more readers. Sometimes they (the posts not the readers) do get sent for events as reposts but I am not sure they receive the same treatment as the fresh posts.

It is not conventional to ask fellow bloggers, that too at the beginning of the New Year, to revisit their earliest posts. But I am anything but conventional and it has been pointed out to me that mine is not the usual cookery blog (thank you for that comment Radha). So, instead of waiting for my one year blog anniversary or my 100^th post to announce an event, I am going to do so with two more posts to the finish line and about four more months to go before Desi Soccer Mom turns one (yes, henceforth this blog will be called Desi Soccer Mom instead of JAYASPACE).

And here are the unconventional but strict rules to my event, which I have decided to call 'The Repost Event' that begins today and ends Feb 6:

Rule No. 1: Choose not more than two food related posts out of the first 10 posts on your blog.

Rule No. 2: Do not just repost but rewrite your old posts. Add, subtract or edit to the post. In short dress it up or down. For ex tell your readers why you decided on that particular post. Or what made you learn or make that dish and post it. I am looking for posts similar to this one.  

Rule No. 3: To get around Rule No. 2. If you think your post is perfect and the text does not need any editing, at least take the effort and put up a different, if possible better photo. Add value by talking about some interesting/ funny comments you received on that post. 

Rule No. 4: Link back to the original post so readers can compare. Lines similar to: “This was my original post” or "This is what I posted before" should do the trick. 

Rule No. 5: Repost the edited post and send with a 300px wide photo to jayawagle(at)gmail.com. Add a link to this post and write ‘The Repost Event’ in the subject line.

In return for following my rules, I swear to follow these rules (sarcasm intended):

Rule No. 1: I will post the roundup in a timely fashion, by second week of Feb, barring any unfortunate circumstances.

Rule No. 2: I will not solicit on your comment form for participation in my event.

Rule No. 3: I will not insist that you be a follower of my blog to participate.


Happy reposting foodies. 

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