Monday, April 25, 2011

Guest Post : 54 - Today's Guest : Padhu


Today, we have Padhu from Padhu's Kitchen. She works from home and manages her family and job well. She is a mother of two lovely kids. Now, let us hear from her...

Nithu's Kitchen : Tell us about you.
Padhu : I am a very creative person, healthy conscious with lot of interest in yoga and a mother of 2 adorable children.

Nithu's Kitchen : What are your hobbies and interest?
Padhu : I am a person with varied interests, which made me venture into various fields like waste management, art & crafts, Beauty, cooking, Yoga, blogging, web designing etc. I started my first website healthbeautytips.net in early 2007 which focuses on how to look gorgeous from head to toe using natural ingredients. I love to do embroidery, painting and gardening in my leisure hours. I have conducted hobby classes for women and children and summer camps for kids. In the below picture, you can see one of my paintings and few soft toys I made.




I am into vermi composting in a small way and have my own composting unit at home. I never use chemical fertilizers or pesticides in my small garden but convert my kitchen waste into manure .I have even published a post on how to change kitchen waste into manure in my website here. I love listening to movie songs and reading self development books. My favourite book is Dale Carnegie “How to influence people and win friends”. I like ethnic Indian clothes and jewelry and love dressing up and going out with my family.

Nithu's Kitchen : How you balance your job and blogging.
Padhu : As I am working from home, I am able to adjust the timings to suit my needs. I always make it a point to spend time with my children when they are back from school.

Nithu's Kitchen : How do you relax yourself?
Padhu : I am an early riser and enjoy my long morning walk. That keeps me fresh and active the whole day. I enjoy listening to melodious movie songs.

Nithu's Kitchen : When did you start to cook? Who taught you the cooking?
Padhu : I started to learn cooking after my engagement from my mom and Perima. I learnt all North Indian dishes from my aunty who has spent a major part of her life in North India.

Nithu's Kitchen : What made you to start a blog and when did you start it? What inspired you to start a blog?
Padhu : I started my blog Padhu's kitchen on July 2009. The whole credit of starting this blog goes to my children. They enjoyed my dishes and appreciated me so much, that in order to please them I stared cooking a variety of dishes. I wanted to maintain an online diary of my recipes, so that it will be useful not only for them but also to others who want to learn cooking and try out new dishes .

Nithu's Kitchen : Who is your best critic?
Padhu : My daughter is my best critic. Only if she gives a thumbs up, will I publish that recipe in the blog.

Nithu's Kitchen : What is your family's favorite food?
Padhu : My family loves all vegetarian Indian food.

Nithu's Kitchen : What cuisine does your blog focus?
Padhu : My blog focuses on Indian Vegetarian food .It also has traditional recipes, festival recipes and cooking basics. I have a special series called “How to” which focuses on cooking basics.

Nithu's Kitchen : What do you have today to share with us and why did you choose this specific recipe?
Padhu : Today, I am going to share Mango rice with all your readers. I chose to share this recipe, as mango is in season now and also it can be done in a jiffy. You can use left over rice also for this.

Ingredients needed :

1. Mango finely chopped – ½ cup
2. Cooked rice -1 ¼ cup
3. Oil -2 tsp
4. Salt as required

For the seasoning

1. Mustard -1/2 tsp
2. Bengal gram -1/2 tsp
3. Urad dal -1/2 tsp
4. Turmeric powder –a pinch
5. Hing – a pinch
6. Green chilli -1
7. Red chilli -1
8. Curry leaves - little
9. Roasted peanuts or cashew nuts – 2 tbsp




Preparation :

1. Cook rice in such a way that each grain is separate. Add a tsp of sesame seed oil and spread it on a plate to cool.

2. Cut mangoes finely or grate them with the skin.

3. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add hing, bengal gram, urad dal, red chilli, green chilli, turmeric powder and curry leaves.

4. Then add finely chopped mango and sauté till it becomes soft. Add needed salt .

5. Mix rice gently to the above. Add roasted peanuts and mix well

6. Serve with papads or chips.

Serves 1

Nithu's Kitchen : Thank you so much Padhu. Enjoyed talking to you.
Padhu : Thank you Nithu for giving me the opportunity to be your guest.

Friends, If you are interested to be featured as Nithu's Kitchen's Guest, please drop a mail to nithuskitchen[at]gmail[dot]com.

13 comments:

Jaleela Kamal said...

nice heard about pathu,nice mouthwatering recipe.
pathu's recipes are very colourful and creative

Aruna Manikandan said...

nice to know about her...
A woman with lots of talents, Gr8 Padhu :)

GEETHA ACHAL said...

Nice to know more about padhu..

Love the fish in the rice...

Padhu Sankar said...

Thank you for sharing your lovely space with me Nithu .

Swarnavalli Suresh said...

Thank you nitu so nice to hear about Padu a women with lot of energy to do things... and a mango rice recipe is awesome...

Nitha said...

Nice to know abt Padhu.. And I love that mango fish :)

divya said...

nice to know about her...
A woman with lots of talents, Gr8 Padhu..

Priya Suresh said...

Love that mango fish,nice to know more about Padhu..

Mina Joshi said...

I have always loved Padhu's blog. He is really creative and always displays her dishes in style. It's good to know a bit more about her.

Unknown said...

Missed you Nithu, it has been a while since I saw your posts. Love the creativity of Padhu in her fish carving specially :)

Preety said...

Love her blog..and love to read about fellow bloggers too..she has so many talents..love the painting made by her..

Unknown said...

nice to read more about you, Padhu. Mango rice looks A class yum :)

Latha said...

Nice to know more about the very talented Padhu. Delicious mango rice too.