Rajma Chawal

Rajma Chawal
Rajma is a popular Indian vegetarian dish consisting of red kidney beans in a thick gravy with lots of Indian whole spices and usually served with rice and roti.
Ingredients
1\2 Cup Red Kidney Beans ( Rajma), soaked overnight then pressure cooked with salt and 1- 2 pinch of Soda- bi- carb.
Make a coarse paste of . .. 
[1 Onion chopped 
A small piece of Ginger,chopped 
1- 2 Cloves of Garlic,
1\ 2 Green chilly.]
1 Tomato puree.
2 Tbsp Oil,
1\4 Tsp Cumin seeds,
1 Pinch Asafoetida,
1 Pinch of Ajwain seeds,
1\8 Tsp Turmeric powder,
1\2 Tsp Red Chilly powder,
1 Tsp Coriander powder,
1\4 Tsp Cumin powder,
1\2 Tsp Garam masala,
Salt to taste.
Method
Pressure cook rajma with water, salt n soda bi carb till five- six whistles or until totally cooked and soft.
Heat oil in a pan add oil, cumin seeds, ajwain seeds and asafoetida.
Also add the onion paste and cook on low flame, add
the dry masalas, stir.
Cook until the onion paste turns brown.
Now add the tomato puree and further cook for few minutes.
This is the time to add cooked rajma and some of it
water.
Check salt.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with steaming rice..

did u know . . . Celsius

did u know . . .
Celsius, also known as centigrade is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who developed a similar temperature scale. The degree Celsius (°C) can refer to a specific temperature on the Celsius scale as well as a unit to indicate a temperature interval, a difference between two temperatures or an uncertainty. The unit was known until 1948 as "centigrade".
From 1743 until 1954, 0 °C was defined as the freezing point of water and 100 °C was defined as the boiling point of water.
The degree Celsius is a special name for the kelvin for use in expressing Celsius temperatures.
Fahrenheit (symbol °F) is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736), after whom the scale is named.[1] The scale is defined by two fixed points, i.e the temperature at which water freezes into ice is defined as 32 degrees, and the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees.

did u know . . .. History of Ovens . . .

did u know . . .. History of Ovens . . .
The first written historical record of an oven being built, refers to an oven built in 1490, in Alsace, France. This oven was made entirely of brick and tile, including the flue.
Around 1728, cast iron ovens really began to be made in quantity. These first ovens of German design were called Five-plate or Jamb stoves.
Around 1800, Count Rumford invented a working iron kitchen stove called the Rumford stove that was designed for very large working kitchens. The Rumford had one fire source that could heat several cooking pots, the heating level for each pot could be regulated individually. Cast iron stoves continued to evolve.
Jordan Mott invented the first practical coal oven in 1833. Mott's oven was called the baseburner. The oven had ventilation to burn the coal efficiently.
British inventor, James Sharp patented a gas oven in 1826.
It was not until the late 1920's and early 1930's that electric ovens began to compete with gas ovens, however, electric ovens were available as early as the 1890's.
Some historians credit, Canadian Thomas Ahearn with inventing the first electric oven in 1882.
The microwave oven was a by-product of another technology. It was during a radar-related research project around 1946 that Dr. Percy Spencer, an engineer with the Raytheon Corporation, noticed something very unusual.

"meals in a minute"

"meals in a minute" 
T­he microwave oven could be one of the great inventions of the 20th century. Today hundreds of millions of homes worldwide have one. In 1947, Raytheon built the first microwave oven, the Radarange. As you know that microwave ovens are popular because they cook food in an amazingly short amount of time.
Microwave Cooking ....
You often hear that microwave ovens cook food "from the inside out." What does that mean? Here's a gr8 answer about microwave cooking. In microwave cooking, the radio waves penetrate the food and excite water and fat molecules pretty much evenly throughout the food. No heat has to migrate toward the interior by conduction. There's heat everywhere all at once because the molecules are all excited together.
While in a conventional oven, the heat has to migrate by conduction from the outside of the food toward the middle.

How a Microwave works . . .

How a Microwave works . . .
The heating efficiency of a microwave oven is due to the fact that water strongly absorbs microwaves.
Most food contains considerable liquid water, and that explains why the microwaves bouncing around inside a microwave oven are quickly absorbed by any food inside. The energy in the microwaves is then converted into heat. 
Really is it?
In 1946 Dr. Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon Laboratories was working with a magnetron tube which produces microwaves. He had a candy bar in his pocket and when he went to eat it he discovered that it had melted. But there was no heat source that could have melted the candy bar. The only thing he could think of was the magnetron tube. He tried placing a few kernels of popping corn near the tube and a few seconds later it started popping. Can you say WOW!!!
He then aimed the tube at an egg and a few minutes later the egg exploded. The result of this was the first microwave oven called the Amana Radar Range. It was introduced in 1977.
And the rest is history.

Dodol |Dhodal A favourite Goan sweet . . . What is dodol?

Dodol |Dhodal A favourite Goan sweet . . .
What is dodol? 
Dodol or dhodal is a rich, jelly like sweetmeat of Malay origins.
Dodol is a sweet toffee-like confection, popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Burma, where it is called mont kalama. 
It is made with coconut milk, jaggery, and rice flour, and is sticky, thick and sweet. It is also popular among the Roman Catholics from the west coastal Indian state of Goa. It is common fare on the streets of Zanzibar, sold as halva. Dodol has also made its way to some Middle Eastern countries, including Iran.
Many feel that Dodol is so soft, sweet in texture like a pudding that
it melts in the mouth.

Barbecue sauce (also abbreviated BBQ sauce)

Barbecue sauce (also abbreviated BBQ sauce) is a flavoring sauce used as a marinade, basting (cooking) or topping for meat cooked
in the barbecue cooking style, including pork or beef ribs and chicken. It is a ubiquitous condiment and is used on many other foods as well. But most Barbecue sauce include vinegar and/or tomato paste as a base, as well as liquid smoke, spices such as mustard and black pepper, and sweeteners such as sugar or molasses.
Barbacoa is a form of cooking meat that originated in the Caribbean from which the term “barbecue” was derived.
Brown sauce is a traditional condiment served with food in the United Kingdom and Ireland, normally brown or dark orange in color. The best known brown sauce is HP Sauce, a spicy and tangy variety.
few terms meanings . . .
Basting is a cooking technique that involves cooking meat with either its own juices or some type of preparation such as a sauce or marinade. The meat is left to cook, then periodically coated with the juice.
Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above or below.
Rotisserie is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit - a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This method is generally used for cooking large joints of meat or entire animals, such as pigs, turkeys, goats.
Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat, whether an open flame, oven, or other heat source. Roasting can enhance flavor through caramelization and Maillard browning on the surface of the food. Roasting uses indirect, diffused heat (as in an oven), and is suitable for slower cooking of meat.
The Maillard reaction results from a chemical reaction between an amino acid and a reducing sugar, usually requiring heat.
Caramelisation is the browning of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting nutty flavor and brown color.
In cooking, a sauce is liquid, creaming or semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods.
Marination is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking.