Ranjka/Thecha ~ A Chilli Preserve

Ranjka/Thecha ~ A Chilli Preserve

In Karnataka it’s traditional to make Ranjka also known as Thecha in Maharashtra. This was true as long as Amma could manage it. There used to be pickles, jams and sauces made according to the season. So in the season when red chilles were available ranjka was made.

Not that I was keen to eat it but the pounding of ranjka in the mortar and pestle, in kannada mortar is vallu and pestle is harikol was our job. I used to start with enthusiasm and Chetana my sister, used to finish always grumbling that I never finish what I start.

Ranjka is made of red chillies and many a times garlic is not added. I had too many green chillies (never tell all the family members going out to get chillies) so I made this with green chillies. The flavours were just as hot!

Lemon Bars

Lemon Bars

May 2014 Baking Partners challenge Swathi raised the bar by choosing bar recipes. So this time around we are baking  Lemon bars. 

This month challenge is suggested by Suja of Kitchen corner try it.  You can use any fruit, and any topping since this was my first time I decided to stick to the recipe. Is it possible? Well I changed my pan. Instead of the 9’ square pan I used the loaf pan which is 9 x 4 inches. That will account for my thick bars. Also my bars fell in love with my tin so much they refused to come out for  a pic. So you see my lemon muffins here. Guess I should have greased the tin a bit more.

Cranberry Sangria`A mocktail

Cranberry Sangria

Just when I was wondering if I should take up one more blogging marathon (I had out of curiosity seen the themes) as I know May is the month were things go totally out of hand. Thanks to holidays and visitors. I saw this delicious Cranberry Sangria on 365 days of cooking! I loved it so much that I copied her style of the picture too but mine is nowhere close to hers!

The fact that it’s hot and the girls prefer juices to food had me bookmarking it. Once they had this Apple Sangria they kept asking for more.  In no time we had not just 3 but 4-5 mocktails.

Orange Mist

When Valli announced mocktails it was kismet. It was hot and we were having a lot of liquids. I had not thought of clicking pictures or noting down what we mixed.

Most of what we mixed we went on adjusting to suit individual tastes.  These were what we repeated and enjoyed.

To see what a mocktail is check here.