Roma's Space

For the longest time Chefs have striven to make their food more appealing to the eyes. For if it looks good it tastes good. Yes, appearances are deceptive but did you know that they set a mood for appreciating what comes next?

We eat our food with all our senses without even realizing it. When you see something looking good you instantly want to sample it. Its like me drooling over all your blog pics! When you bake a cake and the aroma spreads all over, it makes your neighbors mouth water. Similarly, when you pick up a piece of cake or pie and it breaks before it reaches your mouth you decide its not that great. A more common example will be the roti or chappati. Have you noticed that when you cant break it with 2 fingers and labor over a stretchy piece you will most probably think its tasteless even before eating? When you buy a sizzler, you want to hear that sizzle else its not good, right? Here I have enumerated the use of your senses : eyes, nose, ear and touch that you have used to taste your food and we always feel its our tongue that doing all the job. Yes, finally the tongue decides, no doubt but what about the hidden senses?

Here is an event to make us look at our food in a different way. So pick up your carving tools and sculpt out your fruits & veggies. Some of the commonly used tools are shown in the picture. They are available in the market as a part of a ‘Garnish Kit’. Once you start using the kit its very addictive. You might not have time to make a dish but you will definitely squeeze out some time to dress it up!

1 : Pastry Bag
Different tips can be used to produce different shapes from mashed fruits/vegetables. Round tip for smooth shapes, star-shaped tips for ridged shapes and a flat tip for wide strips.

2 : Peeler
Is usually used to peel outer skin of vegetables but can also be used to create decorative strips to make bows and curls.

3 : Peel Stripper
Is used to pull off strips of peel or flesh. It allows you to make one long groove at a time. Lemon / Orange rind spirals used in cocktails are usually made using this tool.

4 : Zester
Tool used for removing the zest from lemons and other citrus fruits. You can also use it for making wavy stripes on the outer surface of vegetables.

5 : Melon Baller
To scoop out large or half spheres from melons,cucumbers, and carrots. Also used to scoop out seeds from tomatoes, kiwis, etc;

6 : Round Cutters
With smooth or ridged edges to cut out perfect circles of fruit or vegetable slices.

These are the commonly available tools however you dont need to have all of the above to create a great sculpture. Even a knife and peeler can work wonders!

Regulations :
1) This event focuses on making the food look creative. You can create it as a part of a recipe or just a stand alone sculpture.
2) Not necessary that the final result should look like a person, animal or object. It can just be anything that looks beautiful and creative.
3) Please feel free to use the ‘Melon Basket’ logo above.
4) Please link your post back to the event announcement
5) Mail in your entries by July 31st, 2008 to romaspace(at)gmail(dot)com with subject line ‘Vegetable Carving’
Non-Bloggers please dont hesitate to participate. Mail me your entries and I will post it on your behalf.

Entry Details required :

• Your Name
• Blog Name
• Name of Entry
• URL of post
• Picture of width 250 pixels

The round-up will be posted within a week after the deadline. Happy Carving!

For Ideas :
Funny Vegetable Carvings

Vegetable Carving Ideas

Vegetable Carving Event Round – up

I gained about 21 kgs during my pregnancy. After my daughter was born the weight-loss anxiety began. I couldnt go on a crash diet as the baby was feeding. My mom told me to start eating broken wheat or dalia instead of rice , especially at night. I totally substituted rice with broken wheat in my diet for about 2 months and lost 7 kgs flat! I also used to walk and exercise but the dalia worked wonders for me. I told a couple of friends about this routine and they also lost weight with this substitution.

I have selected Ranjini’s recipe for dalia upma for the Your recipe rocks event. Her style of preparing the upma is very similar to how my mom makes it except that mom roasts the dalia instead of blanching it. However, the final dish tastes just as good. Thanks Ranjini for sharing your recipe with us.

Dalia is a perfect substitute for rice in any pulao or biryani. It can even be eaten with dal and sabzi. Once its mixed with curries, it tastes exactly like rice. Interestingly the cooking procedure is also the same for dalia and rice. So whats the difference? The calories reduce and the fiber nutrition goes up. Its excellent for digestion as well and can be given to babies over the age of one year.

In this recipe I used ordinary broken wheat as I had a pack at home already. If you go shopping please pick up sprouted broken wheat rawa like Ranjini has used as that is more nutritious.
Thanks to Madhu for hosting this unique event – Your Recipe Rocks. Hope the rice shortage problem will soon be overcome.

Rajani of Vegetarian in Me has given me the Yummy Blog Award. Thanks so much Rajani for thinking my blog to be yummy. I am actually a huge fan of her recipes. Somehow, each recipe she selects seems to be exactly the thing I want to make.

The recipient of this award is expected to do the following :
1) Mention what the award stands for
“This award is given to the blog with most yummy recipes/photos”

2) The recipient should quote their favorite desserts which they have eaten or made themselves

1. Rasmalai
2. Creme caramel
3. Red carrot halwa
4. Malai Sandwich

Wow! I enjoyed this part but it has made me very hungry!

3) Finally, I should pass this award onto 4 other food bloggers. Well, its very difficult to choose 4 as there are so many blogs I really like. Anyway, here are the recipients of this award :

1) Divya of Dil se

2) Asha – foodie’s hope

3) Happy Cook of My Kitchen Treasures

4) Madhuram of Egglesscooking

Congratulations to all!

A few weeks ago my 6yr old niece visited me. I thought it to be a good opportunity to bake a chocolate cake, her favorite and almost every kids delight. I didnt go for a rich chocolate cake, instead I decided to bake an eggless, mildly sweet cake with Chocolate syrup. Ohh yes! I have this big squeezy bottle of Hershey’s chocolate syrup. Given that I dont eat too much icecream I wanted to use it in other ways. Well, this certainly was one delicious way to use up the syrup.
My niece was so excited about the whole procedure. While I was beating the cake , after about 5 mins she asked me , “Mausi, is your hand aching?”. I found it so sweet!
I instructed her not to touch the oven and other heating equipment. She couldnt wait for 30 mins to eat it. She would keep running back to the oven to check how the cake was doing.
After it came out of the oven she was excited. I had to make her understand that I needed to take some pictures before she could dig in. She looked so confused and cute!
Finally the most awaited moment came. We got to eat it ! I liked the mild sweetness. When cakes are hot out of the oven they are so delicious that one can eat an entire loaf (beware!).

Madhuram of Eggless Cooking has given me the Rocking Girl blogger award. Thanks so much for the encouragement. You have always been an active participant on my blog ever since I started off.

I would like to pass this award to Rajani of ‘Vegetarian In me“. She has an exquisite collection of mouth-watering recipes and equally good snaps to enhance the reading experience.

Ingredients :

• 1 cup maida
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1.5 tablespoons of chocolate syrup
• 3/4 cup milk

Procedure :

1. Mix the dry ingredients.
2. Mix the butter well into the dry flour mix. Let it rest for a few minutes.
3. Continue to rub in the butter till little particles of flour are formed evenly.
4. Pour in the milk little by little and continue to beat the batter in circles.
5. Add the chocolate syrup and mix well.
6. Grease a cake mould. Dust it with cocoa powder.
7. Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Bake cake for 30 mins at 200 deg C.
8. Cool and invert into a serving tray. Cut out your slices and enjoy!

Portugese food is becoming increasingly popular in India. In Mumbai there are these restaurants that exclusively serve Portugese delights. I came across this rare kind of salad on a tv show called “Cooking isnt rocket science” where Manju Malhi, a popular chef from Britain, shows us how to whisk up dishes from around the globe with utmost ease. Since we dont have the long grained rice that is used originally in Portugese dishes we can substitute it with Indian Basmati which works just as well.

I liked the flavor of this salad. It was somewhat like a fried rice just that its flavors are more raw and strong. This is my entry to mixed rice varieties event hosted by Easycrafts.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 cup Long grained Basmati rice
• 1 teaspoon Olive oil
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 1/2 cup finely chopped spring onions
• 5-6 black pepper corns
• 3-4 garlic pods
• salt

Procedure :

1. Cook the basmati rice with excess water. Drain out and let the rice cool. ( Be careful not to overcook)
2. Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a mixing bowl. Let it rest for a while so that the dressing seeps into the spring onions well.
3. Now mix the dressing into the rice.

Please click on the image above to view the comic strip better.

I must thank Lakshmi of Taste of Mysore for introducing me to the concept of making comics. I enjoyed making my own story, moreover the tool was user friendly making it easy to create my own comic strip. This is my entry to Comic Cooking with Brinjals hosted by Lakshmi.