January 17, 2013

Friday Chat With Bloggers - Viji From VIRUNTHU UNNA VAANGA

Happy Friday Friends !!! 

Happy to start my first event today with a special sweet blogger Vijalakshmi Dharmaraj from Virunthu Unna Vaanga. I must also say that she is a big time sweet loving person :) Her speciality recipe is also sweet !! Do check her blog to find more sweet recipes and lots of yummy yummy vegetarian recipes.
I love all her recipes and the first recipe that I tried from her blog is "Custard powder cake". Very yummy n soft cake!! Later tried her wheat cookies for my kid and he just loved it :) Personally I love the way she explains the values n benefits of veggies clearly..
Thank you viji so much to be my first guest :)

Lets see what viji shares with us this week....

Hi friends, am very pleasure to be here as a blogger in Priya’s FOOD LOVERS. Yeah! I too love
her space… It’s a great surprise for me when Priya asked me to do a guest post on her space. I am
very proud to do my first guest post for her. She is one of my best blogger friend, we often chat in mail and I like the way, she is using good and rare combo of ingredients in her recipes. She is very humble, humor girl and active mom to her son…. I would like to thank Divya Pramil who is conducting the South Vs North Challenge, coz through this group only I got many lovable friends, in this group only I and priya got introduced by each other and now we are good friends.

Priya: Few words about you and your blog

I completed my master’s and philosophy in Biotechnology and currently at home with my parents. Basically I am a poor eater but I like to cook new recipes n love to have my favorites. I love sweets much better. VIRUNTHU UNNA VAANGA is the name of my blog; the  meaning is INVITING U ALL FOR A FEAST!!!...
You can see simply vegetarian recipes here though desserts and baking will be occupied more space… Yes! I love to cook desserts and baking more than any other recipes. I prepared various recipes on my own idea and it was great thump in my family and the blog as well…


Priya: When and why did u start blogging?

My blog is 9 months old… Actually I started the blogger account 2 years back but started giving life to my
VIRUNTHU UNNA VAANGA only from May’12… And I am not familiar with ABC's of cooking till I completed my studies, only after that I got trained little by little and at one point I was appreciated as a Good Cook by my parents and others. Nowadays my mom started asking me to prepare some special gravies, desserts and all... Earlier I used to surf in net for interesting n innovative recipes and visited many of the bloggers space and found out many innovative recipes and tried some recipes at my level best. At particular stage, I started making good delectable recipes and I tried some innovative recipes on my own for my family. Then my brainpower asked me, why can u initiate a food blog? So my mind insisted me to create this food blog and now I am here with some recipes and it’s very handy for myself too, So that I can refer my own recipes (  coz most of the times I won’t keep the measurement in mind J ).  Now I have adequate time to do blogging so am very blissful to be part of the blogging world… Now cooking and blogging turned into my passion… Nowadays cooking and blogging alone comes in my dreams too J. by the comments of friends; I wish to let it keep in future as well…


Priya: What is the first thing you learned after started cooking?

Mostly I was helping my mom in the kitchen to cut vegetables and seasoning the recipes… My mom is very smart to get work from me that’s the way she have been teaching me more recipes, cooking methods, tips and etc still. So first I learnt many fundamental cooking techniques like kneading dough, seasonings, boiling milk etc…

Priya: Tell us about your first cooking experience and your first recipe.

Without any help from my mom I cooked Vegetable biryani, which came out really very delicious and got lots of appreciatation from my family. But I have to say to u one tragedy, that was my first  rice cooking experience, I measured the rice, soaked and added in the pressure cooker with all the needs and kept it on the flame. After 10-15 minutes I felt the burnt smell from somewhere else n then I found out it was from the Pressure cooker so without delay I turn off the flame and open the hot pressure cooker with an alert, and I was stunned to see inside. Tapped on my head and was telling myself, “No one in the world such an idiotic fellow like u”…. coz I forgot to pour water in the rice cooker L. How idiotic thing I did!!!

Priya: Share some of your favorite recipes that you like to cook for your family or hubby.

I like all the traditional sweet recipes and by luck my family also sweet loving persons… So no worry to try sweet items and specially milk sweets… I love to cook traditional sweets like Poli, Kozhukattai, Sakkara Pongal etc…for my family.

Priya: Who is your favorite celebrity chef?

Mmm… my favorite celebrity chefs are Chef.Damodharan, Chef.Sanjeev Kapoor and Chef.Harpal Sokhi (Turban Tadka Chef from Food food Channel)… I well-liked their cooking method and more delicious recipes coz we can able to prepare their splendid recipes from our regular pantry stuffs…

Priya: Tell us about your favorite cookery book or magazine.

I love to read books or magazine at any time especially cookery books… But my bad luck still I don’t have any cookery books or magazine on my bookshelf...

Priya: What do you like in my blog and pls share your suggestions to improve mine.

I love the unusual combination of ingredients that you tried… All are very delicious and healthy recipes. According to me nothing to state improve dear, all is good, keep going on dear, God Bless U…

Now coming to the recipe for guest post, I would like to start Priya’s “Friday chat with bloggers” event with a sweet. I prepared special milk sweet which is a virtual feast for her and all my friends. I love paneer recipes too, and I tried this paneer payasam for the first time and it came out truly very delicious and the smoothness of the paneer with milk n the flavor of cardamom flavor enhanced the taste. You try this once and you will like it very much. The taste is similar to Rasmalai but rasmalai takes much time and this is easy to prepare in quick time and its all time favorite for kids and guests…





INGREDIENTS :
  • Homemade Paneer or Store bought Paneer – ½ Cup (60-70 grams) (I used Milky Mist Paneer)
  • Milk – 1 ½ Cup
  • Condensed Milk – 2 Tbsp
  • Cardamom seeds – ¼ Tsp
  • Sugar – 2 Tbsp or adjust according to your taste
  • Corn Flour - 2 Tsp dissolved in 2 Tbsp of water (Optional)
  • Badam nuts – 5-10 chopped
  • Pistachios – 5-10 chopped



METHOD :
  • First grate the paneer and keep it aside.
  • Boil milk in a wide pan and add condensed milk to it and stir well.
  • Now add cardamom seeds and let it boil till it reduces quarter quantity (cream float stage) from original.

  • Put in sugar to it and stir well and boil for 1 minute and then add grated paneer to it and allow cooking well for 15-20 minutes.
  • Pour corn flour solution to the paneer mixture stir once and let it cook for 1 minute and switchoff  the flame.
  • Garnish with badam and pistachios or your favorite nuts and keep it for refrigeration for  1hour and serve it cold.


NOTES :

1. If you are using homemade paneer just crumble it before preparing the payasam. Fresh made
paneer will provide extra delicious, I don’t have time to make paneer so I used store bought.
2. Full cream milk also can use to prepare the kheer it will give very rich and creamy texture to the
payasam.
3. If you are using normal milk do not add water to the milk to boiling, else the payasam will
become more watery.
4. Adjust milk level to getting the kheer consistency coz after it cools it will become bit thick.

5. You can add saffron strands by dissolved in milk instead of cardamom flavor.

6. Skip adding of corn flour solution if you are using full cream milk.

7. You can serve it hot but it will be more delicious when it is chilled.



Hope you all liked my recipe with the chat… Thanks for spending your precious time to hear my words and THANK U SO MUCH PRIYA FOR THIS AMAZING OPPORTUNITY WITH YOU AND ALL OUR FRIENDS!!!

Thank You viji... Really enjoyed your chat with your yummy delicious sweet... And am sure that our friends will love this :)

Hope you all enjoyed today's lovely chat with viji with her speciality sweet... Next week, same day....interesting chat n recipe is waiting from an amazing blogger.... Stay tuned :)


19 comments:

  1. yummy.lovely chat.know more details about viji sis.wonderful.mouthwatering recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice work Priya..Loved reading and such a yummy recipe as well..Cheers to your efforts !

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice to know more about Viji.. She is really a sweet person.. Love the yummy payasam..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Viji! I have not tasted payasam yet. However, yours look pretty good and I love the chopped nuts topping :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice sharing Viji.Payasam looks delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well done with ur first FRIDAY chat, thnks Priya n Viji for this wonderful post!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. oops i thought i did comment here when i read

    i think its captcha which makes me forget where i commented last

    viji is awesome cook and the first disaster hehe no laughing matter i do tht many times still
    keep sabzi on gas and forget about it hehe


    this dish looks really good

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lovely post. Awsome paneer payasam.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I make paneer payasam too loved your version Viji, btw interesting chit-chat with Viji, love her enthusiasm and such a friendly blogger she is. Hey I never thought you will mention my name here :) so honored Viji..Yeah even am glad I started SNC , I got lovely friends like you all... Thanks Priya for the wonderful sweet recipe from a sweet specialist Viji :) All the best hope to see more such posts from you!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice to know more about Viji...Delicious paneer kheer

    ReplyDelete
  11. lovely guest post priya and viji :) N yummy looking paneer kheer :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Nice post and yummy payasam...Nice to know more about viji...

    ReplyDelete
  13. nice hear about viji
    paneer payasam looks yum

    http://cookbookjaleela.blogspot.com/2013/01/bachelors-feast-winners.html

    http://cookbookjaleela.blogspot.com/2013/01/award-for-all-pariticipants-bachelors.html

    ReplyDelete
  14. Delicious paneer payasam, Love the chat .well done both Viji and Priya.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Loved the chat,also glad to know about a friendly blogger Viji, paneer payasam looks fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Lovely chat. Nice to hear more about Viji. Good work Priya

    ReplyDelete