Knitted Baby Set

I knitted this sweater set for my little sister's baby daughter Mome. It took quite long as I was busy with my school annual exams and corrections but still managed to deliver it just before winter set in here at Kolkata .Here is the sweater at first. I fixed a little teddy bear applique on it.

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Now the booties in the same design:



Here is the cap :


And finally the full set:
 
I am now thinking of a new project, this time I am thinking of sewing a bag. Let me think it out. Will post my niece's pic with the sweater on the next time perhaps. Bye, Moushumi.
8.2.14: Here's a pic of my little niece wearing the sweater:

This is all my sister could manage as she was not in the mood of wearing the either the booties or the cap at that point of time!  

Mutton Vindaloo

Cooked this last Sunday. Basically an easy one and tastes rather good. I cooked arond 750 grams of mutton. Other ingredients:
Haldi /  turmeric Powder: 1 tsp
Zeera /Cumin , Dhania /Coriander, Poppy seeds, Mustard Seeds : 2 tsp each these are to be slightly roasted and ground to powder. One may use powdered packets too.
 Cloves: 4,Green Cardamom  : 4( To be powdered). One may use powdered garam masala too.
Onions: 3-4 medium
Garlic: 5-6  flakes
Ginger: 2 inch
Oil: ( I used mustard) : 3 tbs
Salt: to taste
Vinegar: 1 tbs
All The powdered spices including the powdered Cloves and cardamom are mixed along with the vinegar . Marinade the mutton using a little of this spice mixture and keep aside for a couple of hours. Keep the remaining part aside.
Grind the onion ginger and garlic to paste. The ginger may be julienned if you so like.
Heat oil in a pan. Fry the onion garlic ginger paste for sometime. Use the remaining amount of spices and fry till oil separates. Now add the marinated mutton. Cook for sometime.Add a little warm water if you want. then transfer to a pressure cooker and let it cook till tender. This may be served with steamed rice or chapatis.

Frocks for toddlers

I grew up in a big joint family with lots of little brothers and sisters around me. I was the eldest and all my young  brothers and sisters wore dresses sown by me. How swiftly time flies! All my kid brothers and sisters now have kids of their own. And I am happy to stitch frocks and dresses for all their little ones too! Here are some of them:

Frocks for my grand daughter Gia

I have been sewing frocks for many years now. I have sewed frocks for all my sisters when they were kids and have made dresses for their babies too. Right now its my little grand daughter Gia for whom I keep 

sewing  several frocks and dresses. Here are some of them:

Crochet Bag ( Crocodile Stitch)

For a couple of days I had been thinking about how to use up all the extra yarn that has piled up . Thought about several stuff but the projects did not quite excite me. Then I came across this u tube video on crocodile stitch bag. So I felt like trying this out . I used one color for each row and thus could use up at least some of the extra yarn that I had. I hope you like the bag although I am not very sure about its color combination. Well I will make another one later this time with a couple of sober colors. For now here is the picture:

 

Till our next post, wishing all lots of happiness! Moushumi

Knitted Toys (Zebra , Parrot)

My friend Asima Di once taught me to knit a doll. I learnt how to follow the pattern charts from her and since then have found a great pleasure in knitting dolls and toys. Found the pattern of this zebra  and worked it out.

Hope you like this work as much as I enjoyed making it. Bye for now. Till our next post , wishing all lots of happiness, Moushumi.

18th June 2014: Now these summer holidays I Knitted a parrot. Here is the pic:

Dimer Chop ( Egg Chop)

I had egg chops at my sister in law Bubundidi's place. Myself and my husband loved it and so I made these the following weekend. I found them very easy but equally delicious. Here's how :
Eggs : 2 (for 4 chops), hard boiled
Potatoes: 4 medium, Boiled and mashed
Tomato Ketchup:2 tbs
Salt: to taste
Red chilly powder: 1/2 tsp
Roasted Cumin powder: 1/2 tsp
Bread Crumbs: 1 cup approx
Corn Flour: 2Tbs
Oil: 4 tbs
First cut the boiled eggs into halves. Next mix the mashed potatoes with tomato Ketchup , salt, cumin powder, red chilly powder and a little of the  bread crumbs. Cover the eggs with this and form chops.Now make a batter of cornflour and dip the chops first  into cornflour and next into bread crumbs.Repeat this step again.Now the chops are ready to be fried.
Heat oil in a wok and deep fry them. Serve with hot with tomato or mustard sauce.This makes a very good evening snack.
Hope you liked the chops. Till our next post, bye and have a nice time. Moushumi.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Chinese Food is very often improvised to suit the Indian taste in many parts of India. In Bengal too Chinese food is very popular and cooked up even in the roadside kiosks as it is very popular among the people. I too used one of my mom in laws recipes of sweet and sour chicken . For this the boneless chicken pieces were first fried in a batter and the sauce prepared separately before they were amalgamated .

Chicken: 500 grams boneless
Green Bell pepper: 2 medium, roughly chopped
Pineapple: 1 can
Onions: 2 medium roughly chopped
Spring Onions: A few strands
Vegetable oil

For the batter:
Flour: 3/4 cup
Cornstarch: 1/4 cup
Egg:1
Water:3/4 Th cup
 Salt
Pepper

For the Sauce:
Vinegar: 1/2 cup
Salt: to taste
Pepper: 1/2 tsp
Tomato ketchup: 4 tbs
Soy Sauce: 1tbs
Garlic Paste: 1 tsp
Sugar: 1 Tbs/ to taste
Cornflour: 1Tbs approx

 Cube the chicken pieces. Now make a batter of Flour, cornstarch, salt, egg , pepper and a little water. Coat the chicken pieces with them and deep fry till golden.
Now add a little oil in a wok and lightly toss the onion pieces. Add a little garlic paste and saute for a minute. Add onion pieces and saute till transparent. Add the  tomato and capsicum pieces,  and the diced carrots and fry for a couple of minutes.Now add water, Vinegar,Soy Sauce, Tomato Ketchup, Sugar, Salt, Pepper and bring the mixture to a boil.Add the fried pieces of chicken at this stage. Now mix the cornflour with water so that there are no lumps. Add this to the wok stirring continuously. The mixture will thicken . Now in a serving bowl place pieces of pineapple and cucumber and pour the hot mixture over it. Sprinkle spring onions. The sweet and sour chicken is now ready to be served.
Hope you liked the recipe. Happy cooking. I also have a post on Minced meat Manchurian. Do have a look.  Bye till we meet. Moushumi.

Knits and crochets for Gia

I have a little grand daughter and all my projects now revolve round her. I keep knitting frocks, jumpers and sweaters for this little one. Recently I knitted a top for her in raspberry stitch. I personally collected the yarn and the buttons of my choice:

I also crocheted a little baby beanie cap for her:

Right now I am knitting her a hairband and she is loving it already!

Meat Ball ( Keema Ball) Manchurian

Well its holiday time and I am cooking up every other day. Made these Chinese Manchurian with minced meat ( keema). For this at first keema balls are to be made. Here are the ingredients for meat ball:

Minced chicken meat ( Chicken Keema) : 250 gms

Vinegar: 1 tbs

Finely chopped onions: 3 medium

Ginger paste: 1tsp 

Garlic Paste:1 tsp

Salt : to taste

pepper : 1 tsp

Breads: 3 slices for binding

Mix all the above ingredients. Make small balls. I made 22 balls out of 250 grams keema. Now dip the balls in the batter of:

Cornflour: 3 -4 tbs

Water: 4 tbs. One may use eggs too to form the batter.Now deep fry the balls in white oil.

Keep aside on a paper napkin for absorbing the excess oil.

Now for the gravy we need:

Onion : 2 medium , roughly chopped

Ginger: 1' shredded finely

Garlic: 6-8 chopped finely

Ginger garlic paste: 1 tsp

Spring onions: 6-8 chopped finely

Capsicum : 2 medium, roughly sliced.

Salt : to taste

Sugar: 2tsp

Black pepper powder: 1 tsp

Chicken Stock :around  2 cups 

Vinegar: 1Tbs

Soy sauce: 2 Tbs

Tomato Sauce: 2 Tbs

Chilly sauce: 2 tsp

cornflour: 1 Tbs

White oil

Heat oil and fry the onion pieces till translucent. Add the Ginger garlic paste and cook for a couple of minutes. Now add the sauces and vinegar and saute a little more..Add salt, pepper ,sugar and cook again for 1min. Now add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the capsicum and gently drop the fried meatballs.Now make a paste of 2 tbs of cornflour and stir constantly till you get the desired consistency of gravy. Sprinkle shredded spring onions. Serve with Chinese fried rice or noodles.Well here's a picture of my fried rice:

Hope you like the recipe. Till our next post, bye and take care.

Mutton Curry

Mutton Curry or Pathar Mangsho as the Bengalis call it is a very favourite of all the bengali household. We love to have this for any special occasion. Not only so even on sundays and holidays we love to have mutton curry! Well this is a very basic bengali mutton curry that I am talking about today. It is cooked with little improvisations in every household and there is no hard and fast rule as mutton cooked in any way tastes good.This is how I do it:
Mutton Curry cut: 500 grams
Tomatoes: 3-4 medium sized  ( one may use curd), pureed
Onions, chopped: 3-4 medium sized
Ginger paste:1 tbs
Garlic paste: 1 tbs
Red chilly powder: 1/2 tsp
Haldi/ Turmeric powder : 1/2 tsp
Jeera/Cumin powder : 1 tsp
Dhania/ Coriander powder: 1 tsp
Bay Leaves/ Tej patta: 1
Garam Masala powder : 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil : 4-5 Tbs
Heat oil.Add the bay leaf.Then Fry the chopped onions till brown and add the ginger - garlic paste. Now add the mutton pieces and cook for around 10 mins . After this add the pureed tomatoes and cook for around 12 to 15 minutes. Add turmeric, cumin, coriander red chilly and the garam masala  powder and cook for a couple of minutes. Add salt to taste.Now add a cup of hot water to this depending on the amount of gravy you want. Now, in a pressure cooker cook this till done. ( I usually go for 2 whistles and then reduce the flame till the next whistle is ready. Extinguish the flame at this stage and let the steam normalise on its own. ) . The curry is now ready to be served with steamed rice, Rotis/ Chappatis or parathas.

Crochet Poncho

My sister-in-law gave me a visit with her young daughter, Doyel. Doyel wanted me to knit her a poncho but she had her own specifications. She wanted something that was not a traditional poncho but something which is a bit different. I went around googling throughout the net to find something to please this teenaged niece. I finally zeroed in a crochet summer poncho tutored by Yolanda Soto Lopez. I followed this excellent tuitorial on You Tube and crocheted this one for her. Infact the design consists of 20 squares like the one below:

I joined 20 such squares into a " L- Shaped pattern":

Finally I scalloped the sides and added the tarsels:

I do hope that this poncho cum stole manages to catch the fancy of this youngster. I shall be visiting my sis- in-law as my summer recess is on and will hand this over to Doyel next tuesday(11 th June,2013) . Anyone interested in this design may look up Yolanda Soto Lopez's "All Crafts Channel" under the title "Crochet Summer Poncho".

Chicken Bharta

Chicken is a very favourite dish in my household. My family loves it but not the same old bengali curry every day. Hence I often try my hand out in different types of recipes and experiment with it. And chicken being our favourite my family members approve of it in all its forms. Last weekend I cooked up chicken bharta. There are many recipes on the net but here's how I did mine:

Boneless Chicken: 500 grams

Tomatoes: 3 small : chopped

Tomato Puree: 1 large

Onions: 4 medium chopped

Dhania seeds/ Coriander seeds: 2 tbsp

Chopped coriander leaves: 2 tbsp

Red Chilly : Dried: 2

Ginger chopped: 1 1/2 "

Garlic chopped: 10- 12 flakes

Garam Masala powder: 1 tsp

Dhania / Coriander Powder: 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Aamchoor powder: 1/2 tsp

Kasoori Methi/ Dry fenugreek seeds: 2 tsp

Green chillies:2

At first , the coriander seeds and red chillies are roasted on a tawa and partially crushed.

The boneless chicken pieces are then cut into small pieces. After that oil is heated in a kadai. Chopped onions are fried till brown. The roasted partially crushed dhania is then added along with ginger and garlic for 30 secs or so.

Now the chicken is added and cooked for 5 to 7 mins on a medium flame.

Add the tomato puree and chopped tomatoes and dried red chilly powder and cooked for about 5 more mins.

Now add the garam masala powder, aamchoor powder, dhania powder, salt and thereafter cook covered for around 7 to 8 mins on low heat. Add the green chillies and cook again on low heat till the chicken is done. Kasoori Methi leaves and chopped coriander leasves are used as garnish.

We had this with steamed rice. But it tastes better with parathas or rotis. Hope you like it. Bye for now.

Hand Embroidered Saree/ Embroidered Sari

I always wanted to embroider a sari. So did my colleague Sayani. We kept talking about it and finally one day we bought two identical sarees for ourselves in green with a red border. We also stencilled identical designs on the sari.Well here's a pic of the design:

I decided to give it a bright appearance and hence I bought red and yellow threads for the flowers. Herringbone stitch seemed fine and I used them for both the flowers and leaves:

In the middle of the flowers I used shisha or mirror. My sister Bandana taught me the mirror work. I alternated the branches with red and yellow flowers and also outlined them in contrast colours. For the stems I used stem stitch and chain stitch for the little buds.

Finally I completed the saree and wore it on Saraswati Puja( Saraswati is the goddess of learning and arts) and offered my prayers.I wore a red blouse. My colleague Sayani is also on the verge of finishing hers and she has used threads of pink and green in shaded hues. I will upload her work too after she completes. Right now here's a pic of mine: