Camera cuisine

Nagalakshmi Viswanathan might come across as a regular, working professional, but this trainer and product specialist who works with Google’s various business products has something that makes her stand out — her food page, Edible Garden.

With close to 76,800 people following her and over 10,900 people “talking” about her page, she is one of the most popular food bloggers from this part of the country. A Telugu by her roots, Nagalakshmi’s family moved to Kerala. “I belong to a Reddiar family. They migrated and settled in Kerala via Tamil Nadu,” she says. Talking about how her food is different from the rest, she says, “Since we’ve been in Kerala for years, there’s a good amount of fusion food that happens.” Currently in Sydney, Nagalakshmi’s first memory of preparing something was when she was 10 years old. “That’s when I learnt how to light a gas stove and started using it unsupervised. The two things I mastered first were how to make dosa and biscuit pudding,” she beams.

“I started my blog a few years ago. The FB page was started in 2009, but gradually picked momentum,” she says. About her cooking inspiration, she adds, “My maternal grand mom will always be an inspiration. My mom too is a very experimental cook and continues to send me pics of new dishes she tries.”

You can always check out her Facebook page, Edible Garden, or can also visit her blog www.cookingandme.com. We bring you three of her most famous recipes here. Happy cooking!!

Bread Paneer Rolls

Ingredients:

• 1 cup crumbled paneer
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• ¼ tsp powdered cumin/jeera
• ½ tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp ginger garlic paste
• A small bunch of coriander, finely chopped
• 1 tsp or a bit more tomato sauce/ketchup
• 4 slices of bread
• Butter
• Salt to taste

Method:

Place the crumbled paneer in a bowl. Add red chilli powder, garam masala, salt, chopped coriander, chopped onion, and jeera powder to this. Mix lightly. Then add the tomato sauce and ginger garlic paste. Blend again.

Set aside while you prep the bread. Remove the crusts from the bread. Roll out each slice as thin as you can. Place a tsp or so of the filling on one end of the rolled out bread slice. Gently roll in from one end, making sure that the filling stays well within the first turn of the roll. Wrap up the tightly rolled bread slices with filling in a clean, damp kitchen towel. Now, butter up the rolls well on all sides. Lightly roast in a pan until all sides are browned. Cut up and serve with tomato sauce

Sabudana Dosa

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sago (sabudana)
• 1 cup rice
• 2 tbsp curd
• ½ cup onions, minced
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander
• ½” piece of ginger, Oil
• Salt

Method:

Soak the sago and rice separately for a minimum of 2 hours. Grind both separately until smooth by adding enough water. Grind the green chillies and ginger with 1 tbsp water to a smooth paste. Add this along with the onions, coriander, curd, ginger and salt to the ground sago-rice mixture. Mix it well. If the batter is too thick, you can add a little water. Heat a dosa tava and grease it well with oil. Add a small ladleful of the batter to the centre of the tawa and let it spread naturally (like pancakes). Bring down the heat to medium-low. Cover the dosa and let it cook for about 2 minutes or until the edges seem cooked.

Falafel

Ingredients:

• ?½ cup dry chickpeas, soaked overnight or at least 10 hours
• 1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
• ½ tsp coriander powder
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• ½ tsp minced or crushed garlic (about 4-5 cloves)
• A bunch of fresh coriander leaves/cilantro, chopped
• 1 small red onion, chopped fine
• 1-2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2-3 tbsp plain flour (or crumbs from 2 slices of stale bread)
• Salt to taste
• Oil to deep fry

?Method:

Drain the soaked chickpeas on kitchen towels. It’s important to drain out as much moisture as possible. Transfer the chickpeas with the rest of the ingredients to a food processor and grind until smooth and dry. You should be able to shape them easily into small discs. If the mixture is too moist or sticky at this stage, add more flour but don’t be liberal. Shape into small discs and deep fry on medium heat until dark brown on both sides. Make sure you regulate the flame, otherwise the outside will get burned or cooked too soon and the inside will be raw. Drain on kitchen towels and serve with some tahini lemon sauce or any other dip.