Sangi's Food World

Cranberry Almond Brownie

2011-04-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

This is a yummy chocolaty dense brownie recipe. Each bite of the brownie is loaded with bits of almonds and cranberry making it taste great. The crunchiness from almonds and the slight bitterness from the craisins makes it all come together in a brownie. I got this basic recipe for brownie from Smitten Kitchen

Things needed
All purpose flour - 1/2 Cup
Craisins/Dried cranberry - 1/3 Cup
Almonds - 1/3 Cup ( Roughly chopped)
Egg - 2 large
Vanilla extract - 1 Tsp
Salt - 1/4 Tsp
Cocoa Powder - 3/4 Cup
Sugar - 1 1/4 cups
Melted butter - 10 Tbsp ( 1 + 1/4 Stick)

Pre heat oven to 350 F. Sieve flour, salt, cocoa powder in a bowl. Add the craisins and almonds to the flour mixture. Beat eggs slightly in a separate bowl. To this add vanilla, butter, sugar and mix until the sugar dissolves in the mixture. Add in the wet mixture to dry ingredients and mix until there is no streaks of flour and the mixture gets uniform brown color.

Pour the mixture into a baking pan lined with aluminium foil. Bake the brownies for 40 minutes or until the tooth pick inserted comes out almost clean. Let the brownies cool on wire rack for about 1 hour and the slice into squares of desired size. Brownies can be enjoyed with vanilla ice cream and they stay good for 3 days at room temperature. This goes to Divya's Best Brownie event

Eggless Banana Marble Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

2011-03-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

This is a simple, moist, delicious recipe for an egg less banana marble cake which I made yesterday for my friends and their family. I was really surprised to see how moist the cake even with no eggs. I just made a simple cream cheese frosting and decorated the cake with few chocolate chips and sprinkles. It was great to look and also to munch.

Things needed
All purpose flour - 1 1/4 Cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Baking soda -
Mashed banana - 1 Cup
Canola oil/ Melted butter - 1/4 + 1/8 cup
Vanilla essence - 1/4 Tsp
Pineapple essence - 1/4 Tsp
Buttermilk/whole milk - 3/4 Cup

Egg substitute used in this recipe ( This can be replaced with 2 large eggs if desired)
Cornstarch - 1 Tbsp
Water - 2 Tbsp
Vinegar - 1 Tbsp
Baking powder - 1 Tsp

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Sieve flour with baking soda in a bowl. To this add sugar and set aside. Mix in bananas, milk melted butter and essence into a separate bowl until well combined.

In a small cup mix cornstarch, vinegar with water and finally add in baking powder and let the mixture fizz.

Add the egg substitute along with the other wet ingredients to dry mixture and mix with wooden spoon until just combined and there is no streaks of flour.

Now take just 1 cup of the batter into a separate bowl and mix in 1 Tsp of cocoa powder to it. Mix in the cocoa powder until we achieve a uniform brown color.

Pour about 1/2 cup of white batter into the baking pan to start with. Then pour 1/4 cup of cocoa batter over the white batter and let it spread on its own weight. Repeat the same for alternating layers of white and brown batter to finish the cake. Use a tooth pick to make a mosaic effect on the top of the cake if desired. Bake for 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Let the cake cool for about 1 hour before frosting.

Things needed for Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese - 8 oz ( At room temperature)
Powdered/ Confectioner's sugar - 3/4 Cup
Pineapple extract - 1/2 Tsp

Beat cream cheese with vanilla using a hand mixer until smooth and creamy. Then add in powered sugar and beat the mixture until smooth and fluffy for about 3-5 minutes on medium speed. Frost the cooled cake and top with sprinkles or chocolate chips. This simple and yummy cake goes to Crazy for cakes event by Priya's Now serving and to Rumana's Treat to eyes event at Spice ur senses

Here is the cute little hand of my two year old naughty guy, grabing the icing as I was getting the pics..

Banana Oats Walnut Bread

2011-03-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

This is a simple and healthy quick bread I made few days back. I also shared it with few of my friends and happy to know that they enjoyed it. Its very easy to make and makes a perfect bread for breakfast or even with evening coffee. Oats added to it makes it really healthy and also gives a mild chewiness to the usual moist banana bread. I have added walnut, raisins and pecan to my bread. They can be substituted with any kind of nuts or dried fruits.

Things needed
All purpose flour - 1 1/4 Cups
Oats - 3/4 Cup
Baking powder - 1 Tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 Cup
Salt - 1/2 Tsp
Walnuts - 1/4 Cup ( Roughly chopped)
Raisins - 1/4 Cup ( Soaked in hot water for 10minutes and dried)
Mashed banana - 1 Cup
Yogurt - 1/4 Cup ( I used plain low fat yogurt)
Eggs - 2 large
Oil - 1/3 Cup ( I used canola oil. Can used melted butter for rich, moist bread)
Vanilla essence - 1 Tsp
Pecans - 1/8 Cup ( Finely chopped for topping)(Optional)

Sieve flour with baking soda, salt in a bowl. To this add oats, walnut and raisins. Mix in bananas, yogurt, eggs, oil and vanilla into a separate bowl until well combined. Add the wet ingredients to dry mixture and mix with wooden spoon until just combined and there is no streaks of flour. Transfer the contents to a greased loaf pan and top the bread batter with chopped pecans if desired. Bake for 45 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Let the bread cool for at least 1 hour and slice. Moist, healthy and yummy bread is ready to be enjoyed with honey or Nutella. The bread also tastes great by itself with no toppings.

This can also be made into individual muffins. This recipe will yield around 12 medium sized muffins. This goes to Helen's Breakfast Club # 9

Banana Coconut Chocolate chip cookies (Eggless)

2011-03-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

Here comes very simple and quick cookie recipe that I tried yesterday. It turned out to be really great. With just few ingredients and less fat, I was able to make soft and chewy cookies. Banana and chocolate flavors together made it a yummy combo and my kid enjoyed it for his snack.

Things needed
All purpose flour - 1/2 Cup
Cocoa powder - 1 Tbsp
Baking powder - 1/4 Tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/8 Cup
Mashed ripe Banana - 1/4 Cup
Brown sugar - 1/4 Cup
Milk - 1/8 Cup
Sweetened coconut flakes - 1/8 Cup
Chocolate/ Butterscotch chips - 1/8 Cup

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Sieve flour, cocoa powder and baking soda into a bowl. In a separate bowl mix in oil, mashed bananas, milk and sugar. Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together with a wooden spoon until everything is just combined. Finally add in the chocolate chips and coconut flakes. Now scoop the batter on to a greased baking sheet to form equal sized cookies. Make sure there is enough space between the cookies, to help them expand on baking. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies turn golden brown.

Soft, chewy cookies are ready to be enjoyed. The cookie can also be made by replacing chocolate chips and coconut flakes with nuts or any dried fruit of our choice.

These yummy cookies go to Akheela's Food Palette series- brown event

No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls

2011-03-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

It has been more than a week since I posted something in my blog. Also things here were really busy and I couldn't even drop by my fellow blogger and also seem to have missed a lot of recipes. Will try to stay connected with everyone as much as possible. Till May I think it will be like this because we have also planned for our vacation to India next month. After I get back from my vacation and settle down with things here I will get back to my blog regularly. Here I am with simple cinnamon rolls.

Today I have got a very simple and yummy recipe for cinnamon rolls, that calls for no yeast, no waiting time, can be made just in 15 minutes. This simple recipe is perfect to make quick cinnamon rolls when we are craving for something sweet and also make a perfect warm dessert for family get together . These rolls are really soft, moist filled with cinnamon flavor and have a slight flaky texture. They just miss the chewiness that we get from the original cinnamon rolls. But these are really worth for their taste and the simple process.

Things needed
All purpose flour - 1 Cup
Sugar - 1Tbsp
Baking powder - 2 Tsp
Salt - 1/4 Tsp
Butter - 1/8 Cup ( At room temperature)
Milk - 1/4 + 1/8 Cup

For filling
Butter - 1/6 Cup ( At room temperature)
Brown sugar - 1/2 Cup ( Firmly packed)
Cinnamon - 1 Tbsp

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter until the mixture gets a coarse sand like texture. Finally add in the milk and make it into a soft and slightly sticky dough. If the dough is too sticky we can add in few tbsp of flour, only if needed. Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead it for couple of times and let it rest for just 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling by mixing butter, cinnamon and sugar. Now roll the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Spread the filling evenly over the dough leaving the edges. Roll the dough into a log. Divide the log into 6 medium sized rolls. Place the rolls on to a baking pan with at least 1 inch space between each roll, so as to enable puffing up of rolls during baking.

Bake the rolls in a oven pre-heated to 350 F for 20 minutes or until the rolls become golden brown. As the rolls bake, entire home will be filled with yummy flavors of cinnamon and melting butter. Yummy delicious cinnamon rolls are ready to be enjoyed warm or cold.

We can also top the cinnamon rolls with simple icing. Icing can be made by mixing confectioner's sugar with milk/heavy cream until smooth. This goes Akheela's Food Palette series - brown event.

Spicy Plum Jam

2011-03-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

I got some red plums last week from the farmer's market. It was not that sweet. So I decided to make it into a jam. Then thought of adding some spiciness to it and it turned into a great spicy jam/ chutney. The preserve was really great and we enjoy it with bread or chapathi. Me enjoyed the jam with dosa and also used it as a dip for the pretzel sticks.. :) Just with simple ingredients we could make delicious preserve at our home with the fresh fruits.

Things needed
Plum puree - 2 Cup ( I pureed the fruit with skin)
Sugar - 1/2 Cup
Red Chilly powder - 1/4 Tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 Tsp

Chaat masala - 1/4 Tsp
Lemon juice - 1 Tbsp

Heat plum puree, sugar in a pan and cook the the mixture for about 20 minutes or until it starts to thicken.

Add chilly powder, cumin powder, chaat masala and lemon juice and cook the mixture for another 5 minutes. Yummy spicy plum preserve is ready to be enjoyed.

This goes to Smita's Cooking with fruits event.

Tres Leches Cake - Three milk Cake

2011-02-24T15:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday being our 3rd wedding anniversary, I decide to make the Tres Leches cake which my hubby has been asking me to make at home for a very long time. The cake turned out really great and my husband is enjoying it a lot.. :) Along with this I also made some rasmalai and gulab jamuns, which are his favorite sweets. They turned out perfect and more than my hubby my son is enjoying it.. :) Of course I am enjoying watching them eat it.. :D Here are few pics of the rasmalai and gulab jamuns I made for them.

Rasmalai Gulab jamuns

Coming to the cake, its a simple sponge cake that gets soaked in three kind of milks, namely condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream. In Spanish Tres Leches means 'Three milk'. This is a very popular cake in Mexico and Latin America. There are also of variations to this cake like few soak it in coconut milk, while others soak it in rum/brandy. Whatever may be the variation, the base cake remains the same simple sponge cake. The cake is usually served with heavy cream frosting and topped with fresh fruits of our choice.

I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman website, which is a great website loaded with many yummy cakes and other recipes. I followed here recipe exactly and the result was a soft, spongy, melt in mouth kind of cake. I also shared the cake with few of my friends and they too enjoyed it.

Things needed

1 cup All-purpose Flour
1-½ teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt
5 whole Eggs
1 cup Sugar, Divided
1 teaspoon Vanilla
⅓ cups Milk
1 can Evaporated Milk
1 can Sweetened, Condensed Milk
¼ cups Heavy Cream

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease the baking pan and set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Separate eggs.

Beat egg yolks with 3/4 cup sugar on high speed until yolks are pale yellow. Stir in milk and vanilla. Pour egg yolk mixture over the flour mixture and stir very gently until combined.

Beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks are formed. With the mixer on, pour in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until egg whites are stiff but not dry.

Fold egg white mixture into the batter very gently until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for around 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Turn cake out onto a rimmed platter and allow to cool.

Meanwhile combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and heavy cream in a measuring cup. When cake is cool, pierce the surface with a fork several times. Slowly drizzle the milk mixture evenly over the cake. Allow the cake to absorb the milk mixture for 30 minutes.

Refrigerated the cake and serve chilled. If desired the cake can be topped with heavy cream frosting. I topped my cake with heavy cream frosting and some chopped fresh strawberries.

Yummy, soft, moist cake is ready to be enjoyed. It was so good that we couldn't stop eating it.

Lima Beans and Spinach Pakoda Curry

2011-02-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

This is a simple and yummy including lot of nutritive values from spinach and legumes added to it. I tried this curry when I had some left over masala vadai/ bengal gram dal fritters batter. I tossed in some chopped spinach into the vadai batter and it turned into yummy pakodas. Later on added these crispy pakodas with the Lima beans curry and the combo tasted great. I made it like a dry curry. We can also make it with gravy to go with rice. This may sound something similar to vada curry with lot more veggies added to it..

Things needed for pakoda

Bengal gram/ Kadalai paruppu - 1 Cup ( Soaked for 1-2hours)

Spinach - 1 Cup ( Finely chopped)Green chilly - 3 nos. ( Finely chopped, Can be adjusted according to taste)
Curry leaf - Few nos. ( Roughly chopped)
Coriander/ Kothamalli/ Cilantro - 1/8 Cup ( Roughly chopped)
Fennel seeds/ Saunf/ Sombu - 1 Tbsp
Ginger - 1 Tsp ( Finely grated)
Onions - 1 medium sized ( Roughly chopped)
Salt - To taste
Oil - For deep frying

To make pakodas

Grind Bengal gram with salt and very little water if needed into a coarse paste. Add onions, curry leaves, fennel seeds, coriander, green chilly, ginger, spinach to the ground paste and mix well. Drop the batter with a spoon into the hot oil and deep fry until golden brown. The pakodas can of be of any shape but of bite size. Its better to cook the pakodas just 3/4th so as to that they can easily absorb the gravy and get soft.

Things needed for Curry
Onions - 1 no. medium sized ( Finely chopped)
Tomato - 1 no small sized ( Finely chopped)
Lima beans - 1 Cup ( I used frozen)
Coconut - 1Tbsp ( Grated)
Fennel seeds - 1 Tsp
Ginger - 1 inch thick piece
Garlic pearls - 3 nos.
Green chilly - 3 nos.
Cardamon - 1 no.
Oil - 1 Tsp
Red chilly powder - 1/2 Tsp
Tumeric powder - a pinch
Curry leaf - Few nos.
Coriander/ Kothamalli - For garnishing
Cumin seeds - 1/2 Tsp
Cloves - 2 nos.
Cinnamon stick - Small piece
Salt - Taste

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, curry leaf ,cloves, cinnamon and let the seeds sizzle. Add onion, tomatoes and cook until the mixture turns mushy. Meanwhile grind coconut, ginger, garlic, fennel seeds, green chilly, cardamon into a smooth paste with water. Add the ground paste to the pan and fry mixture for 5 minutes or until the raw flavors of coconut leaves the mixture. Add tumeric, salt, red chilly powder, lima beans and pressure cook the curry for 2 whistles. Finally add in the pakodas and adjust for the consistency of the curry.

This will be a great side dish for chapathi, dosa and rice. This yummy curry goes to MLLA 32 event by Susan guest hosted by Sandhya and to Healing food - Ginger and Garlic event by Siri guest hosted by Sara's corner.

Surakkai Pachai paruppu kootu/ Bottlegourd Kootu

2011-02-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

Dals are usually part of our daily meal. In that way I keep adding some or the other vegetable to the dals and make them into kootu, so as to sneak some veggies into my kid's meal. So comes the simple and healthy bottle gourd kootu. This kootu is seasoned with grated coconut and ginger fried in little bit of ghee, which makes it really appetizing and rich in flavors.

Bottle gourd - 1 no. medium sized (chopped)
Pachai paruppu/Moong dal - 1/2Cup
Onion - 1 medium sized (chopped)
Tomato - 1 medium sized (chopped)
Garlic pearls - 3nos.
Tumeric powder - a pinch
Mustard seeds - 1/2 TspJeera/Cumin seeds - 1/2 Tsp
Grated Coconut - 2tbsp
Dry red chillies - 2nos.
Hing/ Perungayam - 1tbsp
Grated Ginger - 1/2 Tsp
Oil/ Ghee - 1 Tsp
Curry leaf - 3 nos.Salt - to taste

Soak pachai paruppu in warm water for about 15minutes. Add onions, tomatoes, garlic, bottle gourd, tumeric to the dal and pressure cook for 4 whistles or until the dal turns mushy. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, jeera, curry leaf, hing, red chilly, ginger, coconut and fry until the coconut turns golden brown. Finally add this to the cooked dal and adjust for salt. Yummy kootu is ready to be enjoyed with rice or chapathi.

This kootu can also be made with toor dal or bengal gram dal. This dal goes to MLLA 32 event by Susan guest hosted by Sandhya and to Healing food-ginger and garlic event by Siri guest hosted by Sara's Corner.

Avocado Muffin

2011-02-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

Here comes a yummy and simple muffin which I tried to make for my kid's breakfast and evening snack. My son though is just 22 months old, gets bored with the routine food menu. So I keep thinking something new and fancy that would encourage him to eat. So came these avocado muffins. Avocados have lot of health benefits and its sometimes called as nature's butter. This recipe uses no butter or oil and also calls for less sugar than the regular muffins. The muffins were really moist and soft because of the sour cream and mashed avocados added to them. They have the light green color from avocados added to them. I just topped them with few chocolate chips to make it attractive for my kid.

Things needed
All purpose flour - 1 Cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/4 Tsp
Baking powder - 1Tsp
Egg - 1 large
Sour cream - 1/3 Cup
Vanilla essence - 1/2 Tsp
Mashed avocado - 1/4 Cup
Chocolate chips - For topping ( Optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Combine egg, sour cream, vanilla, avocado into another bowl until completely mixed. Add the wet ingredients into dry mixture and mix until just combined, like 3-5 strokes. Do not over mix. Over mixing will tend to produce tougher muffins. Divide the batter equally among 6 cupcake moulds lined with cupcake liner. Bake until done or the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

This goes to Smita's Cooking with fruits event and Charitha's B for Breakfast event

Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream cheese Frosting - My 100th post!!!!

2011-02-20T00:02:00.000-08:00

Here comes a yummy, delicious, moist and cute looking red velvet cake recipe.. This is my hubby's favorite cake which I having been trying to make it right and please him. :) I at last got this wonderful recipe and my hubby really loved this cake.. To mention he almost ate 3 cupcakes out of 6 that were made.. :) I happened to make this cake for valentine's day. But sorry for the delayed posting.. Now a days I my kid is keeping me really busy and I feel that I couldn't make much about my blog. I have been missing many events recently and today's post also happens to be my 100th post and very happy to share this happy moment with you all.. From now on I would like to keep posting regularly and also stay connected with all my blogger friends by visiting their blogs..

I got this recipe for red velvet cake from Joy of Baking. This is one my favorite and best website where I find lots of recipes and in fact after finding this website only I have got lot more interest in baking. As a result now a days I keep baking something or the other everyday.. :)

Things needed for cake

Cake flour - 1 + 1/4 Cups

Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp

Salt - 1/4 Tsp

Sugar -3/4 Cup

Cocoa powder - 1 Tbsp

Butter - 1/4 cup ( At room temperature)

Egg - 1 large ( At room temperature)

Vanilla extract - 1/2 Tsp

Buttermilk - 1/2 Cup

Distilled Vinegar - 1/2 Tsp

Red food color - 1 Tbsp

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place the cupcake liners in the muffin tray and set aside.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt and set aside. With a hand mixer, beat the butter until soft for about 1-2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy for about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla and beat well.

In a measuring cup mix buttermilk with the red food coloring. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

In a small cup combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow the mixture to fizz and then quickly fold into the cake batter. Divide the batter equally among 12 cupcake molds. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Let the cakes cool on wire rack for about 30 minutes before frosting.

Things needed for Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese - 4 oz ( At room temperature)
Powdered/ Confectioner's sugar - 1/2 Cup
Butter - 1/8 Cup ( At room temperature)
Vanilla extract - 1/2 Tsp

Beat cream cheese, butter with vanilla using a hand mixer until smooth and creamy. Then add in powered sugar and beat the mixture until smooth and fluffy for about 3-5 minutes on medium speed. Frost the cooled cupcakes and top with sprinkles or the cake crumbles if desired.

Yummy, moist red velvet cake is ready to be enjoyed. This recipe yields 12 cupcakes and they stay good upto 3 days when refrigerated.

This goes to Champa's Bake off event

Spinach and Peas Pasta

2011-02-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

This is one of my kids favorite dish, into which I can sneak in a lot of spinach and peas. We can also try adding any kind of veggies to this pasta dish and it will taste great. With little bit of cheese added to it, it tasted great and my kid enjoyed it for his dinner.

Things needed
Any kind of Pasta - 2 Cup ( I used spiral pasta)
Peas - 1/4 Cup ( I used frozen peas)
Spinach - 1/2 Cup ( Finely chopped)
Tomato sauce - 1/4 Cup
Pepper - 1/4 Tsp
Salt - To taste
Butter - 1 Tsp
Onion - 1 no. small sized ( Finely chopped)
Cheese - 1/4 Cup ( I used shredded Colby jack cheese)
Heavy cream/ Milk - 1/4 Cup

Cook pasta as per package instructions and set aside. Heat butter in a pan, add onion and cook until they turn pink. Then add peas, spinach, pepper, salt and cook until they are 3/4 done and still retaining the color. Now add tomato sauce, cooked pasta and stir the mixture for few minutes. Finally add the heavy cream and turn off the heat.

Now place the pasta into a baking dish and top it with shredded cheese. Bake the pasta in the oven pre-heated to 375F until the cheese melts and forms a golden brown top. This took me 5-10 minutes. Simple and yummy pasta is ready to be enjoyed.

This goes to Food palette series-green event at Torview

Oats Almond White Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-02-05T16:09:00.000-08:00

Now a days, I am getting more interested to bake something or the other everyday. So came these cookies, which were really rich with buttery and nutty flavors from almonds. These were soft cookies and my hubby like the taste of it not these textures. Its because he likes just crispier and chewy cookies.

Things needed
Butter - 1/2 Cup or 1 stick (Room temperature)
Sugar - 1/2 Cup
Brown sugar - 1/4 Cup (Firmly packed)
Egg - 1
Vanilla extract - 1/2 Tsp
Quick cooking oats - 1 + 1/4 Cups
All purpose flour - 1 Cup
Baking powder - 1/2 Tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp
Salt - 1/4 Tsp
White chocolate chips - 1 Cup
Whole almond - 3/4 Cup ( Roughly chopped)

Pre-heat the oven to 350F. First grind oats into a fine powder. Add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder to the ground oats and stir in the dry ingredients together. Beat butter with sugar, brown sugar until light and fluffy. Then add egg, vanilla essence and beat for couple of minutes. Add the dry ingredients mixture to the butter mix and beat on low speed until just mixed. Make sure not to over mix it. Finally add in the chocolate chips, chopped almonds into the mixture.

Scoop 2 Tbsp of cookie mixture into foiled cookie sheet with atleast 3inches space between each cookie. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and crunchy. Yummy almond rich cookies are ready to be enjoyed.

Cabbage Koftas

2011-02-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

Thinking what to make for evening snack... Here comes the simple and yummy cabbage kofta that can be made in few minutes and enjoyed with tea or coffee.. I used a combo of cabbage, potatoes for this kofta. We can also trying making this with other veggies like carrots, peas, spinach, zucchini. Left over koftas can also be made into kofta curry or kofta Manchurian.

Things needed
Cabbage - 3 Cup ( Finely chopped)
Potato - 1 Large no. ( Peeled)
Red chilly powder - 1 Tsp
Tumeric powder - a pinch
Hing/Perungayam - a pinch
Garam masala powder - 1/2 Tsp
Salt - To taste
Corinader leaves - 1/4 ( Finely chopped)
Curry leaf - 10 no. ( Roughly chopped)
Ginger garlic paste - 1 Tsp
Onion - 1 Large no. ( Finely chopped)
Oil - For deep frying

Pressure cook potato and cabbage for 3 whistles or 10 minutes. Drain off the excess water from cooked cabbage. Now mash the boiled potato into cabbage. Add rest of the ingredients except for oil and make it into a soft dough. If the dough seems to be sticky try adding few teaspoons of corn starch or rice flour.

Divide the dough into small lime sized balls and deep until golden brown in color. Enjoy hot with chutney or ketchup. These yummy koftas goes to Radhika's Deep fried snacks event and to Charitha's A for Appetizers event

Kothavarangai Poriyal/ Long beans stir fry

2011-01-21T15:23:00.000-08:00

Another simple and yummy poriyal, great to be enjoyed with sambar, rasam or curd. For non-vegetarian version we can even try adding prawns or eggs.

Things needed
Long beans/Kothavaranga - 2 Cups ( Cleaned and chopped)
Onion - 1 no. medium sized ( Finely chopped)
Tomato - 1 no. small sized ( Finely chopped)Garlic ginger paste - 1 Tsp
Dry red chilly - 1 no.
Mustard seeds - 1/2 Tsp
Jeera/ Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp
Chilly powder - 1/2 Tsp
Tumeric powder - a pinch
Salt - To taste
Oil - 1 Tsp
Coriander leaves/ Cilantro - For garnishing

Boil the long beans until 3/4 done or pressure cook for just 2 whistles. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard, cumin seeds, red chilly, tumeric, ginger garlic paste and fry until the raw flavor of garlic vanishes. Add cooked long beans, salt, chilly powder and cook covered for 15 minutes. Finish off with coriander leaves. Simple and quick poriyal is ready to be enjoyed.

Oats Almond Pear Laddus

2011-01-19T09:27:00.000-08:00

This is a simple soft chewy laddu, that I make for my kid for his breakfast. Its a simple and healthy dish that can be made with the fruits of our choice. The sweetness for these laddus comes from the ripe fruit puree. The same dish can also be made using apple, banana or even carrots. If we wish to add little bit more sweetness, we can try adding a Tbsp of honey or grated jaggery. My kid enjoyed these soft laddus and I was happy that he was eating something healthy... :)

Things needed
Oats - 1/4 Cup
Almonds - 10-15 nos.
Ripe pear - 1 no. medium sized ( Peeled and pureed)
Milk - 1 Cup
Food color - a pinch ( If desired)

Grind oats and almonds into a fine powder. Boil milk in a pan, to this add the pear puree, food color and cook the mixture for 5 minutes on a medium flame. Finally add in the oats almond mixture and cook for 5 minutes or until the mixture tends to have the halwa consistency. Turn off the heat and let it cool. Divide the mixture into small balls and top them with sliced almonds. Yummy healthy oats almond laddus are ready.

This can be served either as the laddus to the kids or in the form of porridge.

Simple Kozhukattai/ Steamed rice flour dumplings

2011-01-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

Kozhukattais are very simple and elegant sweet that form a versatile part in offerings made to Lord Ganesh during Pillayar chathurthi. Apart from that kozhukattai are also made during karthigai deepam, maattu pongal and also during Sankatahara Chathurthi.

Chathurthi is a day of importance for Lord Ganesh and is considered auspicious to initiate with any new endeavour on that day. This occurs twice every month during growing moon period and waning moon period. The Sadhurthi which falls during the growing moon period is considered as Sankatahara Chathurthi. Its a normal practise to fast on that day and perform pooja to Pillayar with some offerings and flowers. For last month's Chathurthi I have made these yummy kozhukattais and took it to temple. I was happy that they were offered to God and enjoyed by many others as part of prasadam.

Things needed
Rice flour - 1 Cup
Jaggery - 1/2 Cup ( Grated)
Cardamon powder - 1/2 Tsp
Coconut - 1/4 Cup (Grated)
Water - 2 Tbsp

Melt jaggery with water on a medium heat. Add cardamon, coconut to rice flour and make a soft dough with the jaggery water. Let the dough sit covered for 5-10 minutes. Then divide the dough into small balls and make smooth kozhukattai without applying more pressure.

Once the entire dough is made into small dumplings, steam the kozhukattais in cooker for 10 minutes on a medium flame. Kozhukattai can be steamed by placing them in idli plates topped with thin kitchen towel.

Use of kitchen towel over the idli plate will help to absorb the water drops from cooker lid during steaming and hence prevent the dumplings from getting sticky.This goes to Celebrate sweets - Sugarless event by Nivedita

Sesame Brittle

2011-01-04T16:19:00.000-08:00

This is a very simple and yummy sweet that can be made in few minutes and will be great for munching. There is a slight difference between sesame laddu and brittle. Laddu is made by using a soft jaggery syrup whereas these brittle are made by using a thicker jaggery syrup, resulting in a crispy and crunchy brittle.
Things needed
Sesame seeds - 1/4 Cup ( Dry roasted until golden brown)
Jaggery - 1/4 Cup ( Grated)
Cardamon powder - 1/4 Tsp
Ginger powder/ Sukku powder - 1/4 Tsp ( Optional)
Water - 1 Tbsp

Melt jaggery with water in a pan and let it boil to form a one string consistency syrup(kambi patham). Now add sesame seeds, cardamon, ginger powder and cook the mixture for couple of minutes. Grease a plate with ghee and spread the sesame mixture into a thin sheet. Let it cool for 30 minutes and break it into desired sizes. Yummy brittle are ready to be enjoyed.

This goes to Celebrate sweets - Sugarless event hosted by Sara's corner event by Nivedita

Happy New Year/ Won Manjula's Kitchen December event and 13th Mediterranean event

2011-01-03T11:48:00.000-08:00

Wish you all a very Happy, Healthy, Wealthy n Prosperous new year... :):)

At this moment I am very happy to share with u few awards I have won during the month of December.. I have won the second place in Manjula's Kitchen December contest with a 25 $ Amazon gift card. Its a great pleasure to have won this award from such an amazing and wonderful blogger. Here is my recipe for Almond poli with Walnut khoya filling posted in Manjula's blog.

Next is the Julia child's Mastering the art of French cooking book which I have won from the 13th Mediterranean cooking event from Tobias cooks blog. Tobias Cooks is a wonderful blog filled with simple and yummy Mediterranean dishes. I am loving this Julia Child book which provides a detailed step by step figures for baking and useful for a armature baker like me.

Ribbon Pakoda

2010-12-24T15:51:00.000-08:00

It has been raining here for the past few days... My mind was thinking about something to munch.. Crunchy and spicy.. Then came the idea of ribbon pakodas that are very simple to make and taste really great. Its a very easy snack to make at home in just few minutes. But the only requirement is to have the mould to get the desired ribbon shape for the snack as its name suggests.

Things needed
Gram flour/Kadalai maavu - 1 Cup
Rice flour/Pachai arisi maavu - 2 Tbsp
Hot oil/ Butter - 1 Tbsp
Salt - to taste
Red chilly powder - 1 Tsp
Red chilly flakes - 1/4 Tsp (Optional)
Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1/4 Tsp
Carmon seeds/ Ajwani/Omam - 1/4 Tsp ( Optional)
Tumeric - a pinch
Water - to make a smooth, sticky dough ( Roughly i needed about 1/4 Cup of water)

Mix in all the above ingredients to make a smooth dough with no lumps. This dough will be sticky. Divide the dough into small portions and place it in the mould. Press the pakodas directly into hot oil and fry until crispy golden brown.

Crunchy ribbon pakodas are ready to be enjoyed. This goes to MLLA - 30 event by Susan guest hosted by Priya

Com Sot Ca Chua - Vietnamese Red Rice

2010-12-22T16:18:00.000-08:00

Bored with the usual fried rice.. Then here comes the red fried rice with a mild tomato flavor added to the usual fried rice. It is said that this rice tastes better with leftover refrigerated rice. Here I am presenting the recipe for vegetarian red fried rice. To the same recipe we can add in any non vegetaran flavors of our choice, like egg, chicken, shrimp or even crab.

Things needed
Rice - 1 Cup
Mixed vegetables( Beans, Cabbage, Carrot, Peas,Capsicum) - 1 Cup (Finely chopped)
Tomato paste - 2 TbspSoy sauce - 2 tsp
Black pepper powder - 2 tbsp
Garlic - 1 Tbsp ( Finely chopped)Salt - to taste
Oil - 1 tbsp
Spring onions - 1/4 Cup (Chopped)

First cook rice by adding salt and 1tsp of oil to the boiling water. Adding oil will prevent rice from sticking to each other. While cooking the rice make sure that its not cooked completely. Just cook it to 80%, since rice texture should be crunchier for fried rice and not soft. Transfer the cooked rice to a large plate and let it cool.

Now heat 1/2 tbsp of oil in a pan, add the vegetables to it. Fry the veggies on high flame by adding salt, pepper,1 tsp of soy sauce and tomato paste. Frying should be done on very high flame, so as to get the light smoky flavor like fast food fried rice. Cook the vegetables, still maintaining their crunchiness and color. Transfer the vegetables to a plate.

Now heat the remaining oil in a pan, add garlic, cooked rice to it. Fry the rice on high flame by adding 1tsp of soy sauce, pepper. Then add the cooked vegetables and fry the mixture for 2 minutes. Add chopped spring onions and turn off the heat.

Yummy red rice is ready to be served. This goes to AWED-Vietnam event by DK guest hosted by Priya

Suzhiyzam

2010-12-21T16:22:00.000-08:00

These little sweet dumplings are made with bengal gram/kadalai paruppu mashed with coconut and grated jaggery. They are commonly referred to as suzhiyam or suzhiyan in Tamil. There are one of the traditional dishes that are made during Diwali nombu as part of offerings to God. But never mind to enjoy them with warm with a hot cup of tea, that too when its raining and cold outside.. :)

Things needed for filling
Bengal gram/Kadalai paruppu - 1/2 Cup ( Rinsed and soaked for 2hrs)
Jaggery - 1/2 Cup ( Grated)
Coconut - 1/4 Cup ( Grated)
Cardamon powder - 1 Tsp

Things needed for outer covering
All purpose flour - 1 Cup
Rice flour - 1 Tbsp
Salt - a pinch
Water - 1 Cup

Pressure cook Bengal gram with just 2 Tbsp of water for 2 whistles or until its just 3/4th cook. Make sure not to let the dal turn mushy. When the dal is still hot add in the grated jaggery, coconut, cardamon and mix together to form a soft dough. Divide the dough into small balls and set aside.

For outer covering, mix in flour, salt and water to form a loose batter similar to dosa batter. Dip the prepared dal balls into the batter to form a thin covering and immediately drop them into hot oil. Fry until the balls to get a light golden brown color. Repeat the same with rest of the balls. Yummy, sweet suzhiyams are ready to be enjoyed warm.

Note

This recipe makes about 12- 15 small suzhyiams
For healthier version instead of deep frying, suzhiyams can be made using the kuzhi paniyaram pan with no difference in taste.
If the dal filling turn mushy or loose, try adding little bit of rice flour or cornstarch to make it dry.

This goes to Celebrate sweets - Sugarless event by Nivedita and to MLLA 30 event by Susan hosted by Priya

Tofu Spinach Cutlet

2010-12-11T16:05:00.000-08:00

Now a days cooking has to been based on what my picky 20 month old son will eat. So came this recipe of tofu spinach cutlet. I know he will like tofu, so just wanted to pack lot more nutrition to it I add spinach and made it into a yummy cutlet which he really liked. I just shallow fried these cutlets with some bread crumbs on them. For lot more richness, the cutlets can be deep fried.

Things needed
Tofu - 2 Cups ( Cut into bite size pieces)
Spinach - 2 Cups ( Finely chopped)
Onion - 1 no. medium sized ( Finely chopped)
Cilantro - 1/4 Cup ( Finely chopped)
Tumeric powder - 1/2 Tsp
Potato - 1 no. large sized ( Peeled and roughly chopped)
Chilly powder - 1 Tbsp
Garam masala powder - 1 Tsp
Salt - To taste
Ginger garlic paste - 1 Tsp
Bread crumbs - For coating the cutlets

Pressure cook tofu, spinach, potato with salt for 3 whistles or around 10 minutes. Let it cool and drain off the excess water from cooked mixture. Now add onions, cilantro, masala powders, ginger garlic paste to the tofu mixture and smash the potatoes to get a soft dough. Divide the mixture into small balls and make patties. Coat the patties with bread crumbs and fry in a hot pan with few drops of oil.

Enjoy warm with ketchup. Healthy, creamy tofu spinach cutlet are ready to be enjoyed with meal or for snack or even these cutlets can be used as veggie patties to make a veggie burger. These yummy cutlets go to Only greens event guest hosted by Sara's corner started by Pari

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate chips Cupcake with Peanut butter frosting( Eggless version)

2010-12-08T14:42:00.000-08:00

Here comes a simple and yummy cake that can be made with the ripe bananas sitting in our freezers waiting to be used in some way. I have been looking for various recipes with ripe bananas recently. Though there were many banana bread recipes, this yummy cake recipe caught my eyes. These turned out really soft, moist and tasted great with the simple peanut butter frosting. I was happy to share these cuties with one of my friend on her birthday and was happy to know that their 18 month old daughter, my son's playmate enjoyed it... :)

Its a very easy to make cake. We just need two bowls and a wooden spoon. Mix in all the ingredients and bake them either a single cake or individual cupcakes, yummy cupcake filled with banana flavors and molten choco chips are ready in less than 20 minutes.

Things needed for cake
All purpose flour - 1/2 Cup
Baking powder - 1/4 Tsp
Baking soda - 1/8 Tsp
Sugar - 1/4 Cup
Salt - 1/8 Tsp
Vanilla extract - 1/4 Tsp
Peanut butter - 1 Tbsp ( Heaped) ( I used crunchy peanut butter)
Oil - 1/8 Cup
Chocolate chips - 1/4 Cup
Bananas - 1 no. large sized ( Smashed)
Egg substitute - 1/2 Tsp Baking powder + 1/2 Tbsp water + 3/4 Tsp oil ( This can be replaced with 1/2 Large egg when baking with egg)
Milk - 1/8 Cup

Things needed for frosting
Peanut butter - 2 Tbsp
Butter - 1/2 Tbsp
Confectioner's sugar - 1/4 Cup

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda into a bowl. In another bowl, add peanut butter, bananas, egg substitute, oil, sugar, milk and mix until well combined.
Now add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet ingredients bowl and fold until everything is uniformly mixed. Don't over mix the mixture.
Line the cupcake mold with paper cups and divide the batter evenly among 6-7 cups.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the toothpick inserted into the cake come out clean. Transfer the cupcakes to wire rack and let them cool for at least 30minutes before frosting.

For frosting combine peanut butter, butter into a bowl and beat the mixture with a electric beater for about 10 minutes on a medium speed until light and creamy. Finally add the sugar and beat for few more minutes until the sugar is well blender with the mixture without any lumps.

Spread the frosting on the cupcakes evenly and finish it with few chocolate sprinkles if desired. Refrigerate the cake for few minutes before serving for the frosting to set. Yummy banana cake filled with chocolate chips and mild peanut butter frosting is ready to be enjoyed.

Note
The cake was really light and moist and tastes sweet enough even without the frosting.

The egg substitute I have used here made the cake soft and as of now this seems to be a better egg replacement to me compared to others.

The same recipe can be modified for same amount of any mashed fruit. This recipe yields about 6 cupcakes.

This goes to Veggi/Fruit- Banana event hosted by Aipi started by Priya

Kung Pao Chicken

2010-11-29T16:10:00.000-08:00

Hi all.. Its long since I posted my recipes here. My kid is keeping me really busy these days and just trying to get back to the blogging routine. Also I was unable to visit any of your blogs and I looking at my dashboard its like I have so many yummy recipes.. Hope to catch up with you all sooner. Today I am here with the recipe for Kung Pao chicken. This is one our favorite Chinese chicken dish.. Whenever we go to Panda express, one of our entree will be kung pao chicken. I wanted to try this recipe at home and did a google search. I landed up with this blogchef.net site and it said that the recipe is almost a copy cat of Panda express recipe.

The picture was really great and tempting and I immediately tried it out. But my hubby was not happy with the results, because it was not spicier enough and also he said that the sauce I made was not like Panda express. Later on I read from few other sites and made some changes in the sauce proportions and landed up with this perfect and simple kung pao chicken which my hubby says is very near to the Panda express dish. I was really happy to hear it from him. It took me about 5 trials to get with this yummy recipe.

I usually use chicken breast for this recipe. But use of chicken thighs will also make the dish taste great, with adding further more fat to it.. :D

Things needed
Chicken breast pieces - 1/2 lbs ( Cut into bite size pieces)
Onion - 1no. medium sized ( Roughly chopped)
Capsicum - 1 no. medium sized ( Roughly chopped)
Zucchini - 1 no. medium sized ( Roughly chopped)Garlic pearls - 3 nos. ( Finely chopped)
Spring onions - 1 Tbsp ( Finely chopped)
Dry red chilly - 3 nos.
Red chilly flakes - 1/2 Tsp
Peanuts - 1/8 Cup
Oil - 2 Tbsp

For marinade
Corn flour - 1/8 Cup
Soy sauce - 1/2 Tbsp
Salt - 1 Tsp

For sauce
Oyster sauce - 1 Tbsp
Rice vinegar - 1 Tsp
Soy sauce - 1 Tsp
Water - 2 Tbsp

Mix all the ingredients listed under 'For marinade' to the chicken and let it stand for 1-2 hours. Heat oil in a pan and fry the chicken pieces on a high flame until cooked and slightly browned. Remove the chicken and let them drain on paper towel.

Heat 1 Tbsp of oil in the same pan. Add spring onions, red chilly, chilly flakes, peanuts, garlic and fry until garlic turns into golden brown. Add onions, capsicum, zucchini and fry until they are cooked still staying crunchy.

Finally mix all the ingredients listed under 'for sauce' and add to the veggies in the pan. Let the sauce boil for 5 minutes or until it thicken. Now add the fried chicken and mix it with the sauce. Turn off the heat.

Serve hot topped with more roasted peanuts and spring onions if needed. Its a prefect combo for fried rice or noodles.

This yummy chicken goes to Sameena's Chicken recipe event along with

Simple Spicy Chicken kuzhambhu

Simple Spicy chilly chicken

Chicken Puttu

Hyderabadi Chicken briyani

Crispy Murukku

2010-11-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

This is another snack I made during Diwali. Was unable to post the recipe then. This is a very simple, crispy snack that can be made in just few minutes even in large batches. With little butter added to it, these yummy murukku will melt in mouth and will a great snack for coffee. This recipe can also be made with store brought rice flour.

Things needed
Raw rice flour/ Pachai arisi maavu - 1 Cup
Urad dal flour/ Ulutham paruppu maavu - 1 Tbsp
Jeera/ Cumin seeds - 1 Tbsp
Hing/ Perungayam - 1/4 Tsp
Sesame seeds - 1 Tsp ( I used white seeds)
Salt - To taste
Butter - 1 Tbsp
Water - To make a stiff, smooth dough

Combine all the above ingredients with required water into a smooth, stiff dough. Divide the dough into 3 balls. Place the dough balls into the murukku achhu/ Murukku mould with star shaped plate.

Heat oil in a pan and let it stay on high flame. Drop a small amount of dough into the oil for testing. When the dough bubbles up immediately when dropped, oil is ready for frying. Press the murukku directly into oil and fry it until crispy and make sure not to let the murukku turn into brown color. Frying the murukku on a high flame just for a couple of minutes will make crispy, light colored murukku.

Crispy, light murukku are ready to be enjoyed. This goes to Lavi's Diwali Sweets and snacks event

Chilli Tofu

2010-11-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

Here comes the recipe for the simple and yummy chilli tofu I made for our lunch yesterday with fried rice. Thinking what to do with the pack of tofu I was having my fridge, I landed up with this dish. Tofu fried with few veggies like onions, bell peppers along with a touch of tomato ketchup results in a great side dish for noodles or fried rice. It goes well with chapathi also and can be fixed in less than 15 minutes. Extra firm or firm tofu will work great for this dish.

Things needed
Tofu - 1 Cup ( Cubed into bite size pieces. I have used firm tofu)
Bell peppers - 1 nos. ( Cubed)
Onion - 1 no. medium sized ( Cubed)
Ginger - 1 Tbsp ( Finely chopped)
Garlic - 1/2 Tbsp ( Finely chopped)
Green chilly - 2 nos. ( Roughly chopped)
Spring onions - 1/4 Cup ( Finely chopped)
Tomato ketchup - 1/8 Cup
Spicy Banana sauce - 1 Tbsp ( Can be replaced with hot sauce)
Sugar - 1 Tsp
Black pepper powder - 1 Tsp
Soy sauce - 1 Tsp
Corn starch - 1 Tsp ( Mixed with 1 Tbsp of water)
Oil - 2Tbsp

Heat a Tbsp of oil in a pan, add the tofu bites, soy sauce and fry until golden brown. Drain the tofu pieces on a tissue paper. In the same pan, add remaining oil, ginger, garlic, spring onions, pepper powder, sugar and fry few couple of minutes.
Now add onions, bell peppers, green chilly and fry until they get 3/4th cooked. Make sure not to turn them mushy.
Finally add in ketchup, banana sauce, corn starch and cook until the sauce turns thick and shiny. This will take just 2-3 minutes. For more sauce we can add little bit of water if needed. The salt present in the sauces will be sufficient for the dish.

Yummy, spicy and slightly sweet chilly tofu is ready to be served. This yummy dish goes to PJ's Tasty Tofu Treats and to Akila's DNSW - C event

Thattai

2010-11-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

Thattai is one of my favorite snacks that I love to munch for evening snack. Its long since I had those crispy thattais made by my mom. So wanted to make them myself for Diwali and they turned out perfect with little spiciness from chillies, crunchy and with flavors from curry leaves. These are very easy to make when all the flour is ready or if we use the store brought ones. Those were the days when me and my sister used to sit with my mom pressing those thattais for her when she makes them in large batches...

Things needed
Raw Rice flour - 1 Cup
Steamed All purpose flour - 1/4 Cup
Bengal gram/ Kadalai paruppu - 1/8 Cup ( Soaked in hot water for about 15 minutes)
Curry leaves - 6 nos. ( Roughly thorn)
Hing/ Perungayam - 1/2 Tsp
Red chilly powder - 1 Tsp
Jeera/ Cumin seeds - 1/2 Tsp
Butter/ Oil - 1 Tbsp
Water - As needed to make a soft dough
Salt - To taste
Oil - For deep frying

First prepare the flours. Wash and soak rice for about 2hours. Dry it in shade until its 3/4th dried. Grind it into a smooth powder and sieve it to remove any lumps. This powder can be allowed to dry for about an hour and stored in an air tight container for about 4 days.

Next steam the all purpose flour in a cooker without whistle for about 15 minutes on a medium flame. Once done let the flour cool down and store in air tight box. This will stay fresh for about one week. The all purpose flour is steamed so as to make it loosed its stickiness. Once steamed it will resemble rice flour in its texture. Use of all purpose flour will make the thattais softer.

Once all the flours are prepared, mix in all the ingredients listed above with required amount of water into a smooth dough.

Divide the dough into medium sized balls. Place a drop of oil on a Ziploc bag and press the dough balls into thin circles by applying pressure evenly and also not letting the edges to crack. This work can be easily done, if we have the chapathi maker or the chapathi presser.

Once done place the thattais on a clean kitchen towel and finish making thattais with all the remaining dough.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the thattai on medium-high heat until golden brown and crispy. Yummy, light, crispy thattai is ready to be enjoyed. This goes to Lavi's Diwali sweets and snacks event

Profiterole - Simple French Dessert

2010-11-10T14:13:00.000-08:00

Profiteroles are French pastry shells that are quiet easy to make and can be served with many variations. In France they are often filled with whipped cream or ice cream or even served plain sprinkled with powdered sugar or a drizzle of chocolate sauce. These are popularly known as cream puffs in the US. The dough that's used for this dish forms the base for the other most famous dessert Eclairs. These yummy little puffs are made from Choux pastry (warm pastry). Profiteroles first appeared in France in the 16th century and are thought to have been created for Catherine De Medici's.

I made these profiteroles for 13th Mediterranean cooking event-France and they turned out great. They were soft, light, fluffy with rich buttery flavors and I served them with ready made chocolate sauce.

Things needed
All purpose flour - 1/4 Cup
Milk - 1/4 Cup
Butter - 1/8 Cup
Salt - a pinch
Egg - 1 large

Pre-heat the oven to 400F. Heat milk, butter, salt in a pan until the butter melts. To this mixture add the flour and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon until it all comes together as a dough. Cook the dough for 2 minutes on a low heat . Turn off the heat and move the pan to the counter top. Now add the beaten egg to the hot dough and mix well until it forms a smooth batter with no lumps.

Drop spoonfuls of batter on to the cookie sheet spaced well apart and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Once done remove the puffs from cookies sheet and make a small slit on its sides, so as to release in the steam built inside the puff during baking. Cool them for about 15 minutes and serve with chocolate sauce or any ice cream. This recipe yielded about 8 small profiteroles. The recipe can be easily doubled or even tripled as needed.

Jelabi

2010-11-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here comes one my favorite sweets which I love to eat anytime and how much ever I want.. :D This is one of the few stuffs which me and my hubby love to enjoy together. It's his favorite sweet too.. Anytime he goes to the Indian sweets he will buy a few pieces for us to enjoy it. I was searching for a simple recipe to try at home. Then came the posting of Jelabi recipe in Show me the curry. It sounded very simple and it was the instant version of jelabi recipe making use of yeast. So with no more time to wait I mixed in all the ingredients and squeezed the bubbly batter into the oil to get my yummy jelabis soaked in sweet syrup. This recipe was great hit and we liked it. I am sure to try this again and next time will try improving on the shape of my jelabis.

Things needed for Jelabi
All purpose flour - 1/2 Cup
Cardamon powder - a pinch
Rapid rise yeast - 1/2 Tsp
Corn starch - 1 Tsp
Oil - 1/2 Tsp
Yogurt - 1/2 Tbsp
Warm water - 1/4 + 1/8 Cup

Things needed for Sugar syrup
Sugar - 1/2 + 1/8 Cup
Water - 1/2 Cup
Lemon juice - 1/2 Tsp
Saffaron - Few starnds ( Optional)
Yellow food color - 1/8 Tsp ( Optional)
Cardamon powder - 1/4 Tsp

Mix flour, corn starch, yeast, cardamon powder throughly. Now add oil, yogurt, water to the flour and mix until there are no lumps to form the jelabi batter. Let this batter rest for atleast 30 minutes for it to ferment.
Meanwhile start preparing the syrup by heating sugar with water until it reaches one string consistency. That's when the syrup is dropped into a glass of water it should stay in without getting dissolved. Once the syrup has reached the desired consistency turn the heat to very low flame.

Heat oil in a pan for frying the jelabis. Pour the jelabi batter into a ziploc bag with very thin hole or a squeeze bottle like ketchup bottle. Press the batter over hot oil in circles until the desired size is achieved. To get proper shape, the batter should be pressed with uniform pressure and the oil should be just medium hot.

If the oil is too hot, the batter will not form jelabi shape instead it will get disintegrated in oil. Also if the oil is not hot enough, the jelabis won't puff up and we won't get the desired texture and crispiness. All this is learned from many trials and errors.. :D

Once the jelabis turn golden brown, shake off the excess oil and drop them into the sugar syrup. Let them get soaked in the syrup for couple of minutes. Once done transfer them to a plate and enjoy warm or cold.
These yummy jelabis go to CMT - Mithai event guest hosted by Mina, started by Jagruthi

Pakoda Potato Kuruma

2010-10-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

A simple yet delicious curry that will make a great combo with pulav, chapathi, dosa or rice. Potatoes and soft pakodas or Bengal gram fritters soaked in the curry filled with flavors of spices and coconut makes it a great dish. My mom usually makes this kuruma with pakodas by grind the kadalai paruppu. I also made it the same way, but for a simpler version, we can also make the pakodas with just Bengal gram flour/kadalai maavu when we are lazy for elaborated cooking.

Things needed for Kuruma
Onions - 1 no. medium sized ( Finely chopped)
Tomato - 1 no small sized ( Finely chopped)
Potato - 1 large sized ( Chopped)
Coconut - 1/2 Cup ( Grated)
Fennel seeds - 1 Tsp
Poppy seeds - 1 Tsp ( Soaked in 1 Tbsp of warm milk)
Ginger - 1 inch thick piece
Garlic pearls - 3 nos.
Green chilly - 3 nos.
Cardamon - 1 no.
Oil - 1 Tsp
Red chilly powder - 1/2 Tsp
Tumeric powder - a pinch
Curry leaf - Few nos.
Coriander/ Kothamalli - For garnishing
Cumin seeds - 1/2 Tsp
Cloves - 2 nos.
Cinnamon stick - Small piece
Salt - Taste

Things needed for pakoda
Bengal gram/ Kadalai paruppu - 1 Cup ( Soaked for 1-2hours)
Green chilly - 3 nos. ( Finely chopped, Can be adjusted according to taste)
Curry leaf - Few nos. ( Roughly chopped)
Coriander/ Kothamalli/ Cilantro - 1/8 Cup ( Roughly chopped)
Fennel seeds/ Saunf/ Sombu - 1 Tbsp
Ginger - 1 Tsp ( Finely grated)
Onions - 1 medium sized ( Roughly chopped)
Salt - To taste
Oil - For deep frying

To make pakodas

Grind Bengal gram with salt and very little water if needed into a coarse paste. Add onions, curry leaves, fennel seeds, coriander, green chilly, ginger to the ground paste and mix well. Drop the batter with a spoon into the hot oil and deep fry until golden brown. The pakodas can of be of any shape but of bite size. Its better to cook the pakodas just 3/4th so as to ensure easier soaking of them in the kuruma.

To make Kuruma

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, curry leaf ,cloves, cinnamon and let the seeds sizzle. Add onion, tomatoes and cook until the mixture turns mushy. Add the potatoes to the mixture and fry it for few minutes until its 1/2 cooked. Meanwhile grind coconut, poppy seeds, ginger, garlic, fennel seeds, green chilly, cardamon into a smooth paste with water. Add the ground paste to the pan and cook covered for 5 minutes or until the raw flavors of coconut leaves the mixture. Add tumeric, salt, red chilly powder, cilantor and let the curry boil for couple of minutes and turn of the heat. Now add the pakodas and cover the kuruma. Let the pakodas get soaked in the curry for atleast 15 minutes before serving.

This yummy curry goes to CWS - Poppy seeds event by Priya guest hosted by Cook like a Bong and to MLLA 28 event by Susan hosted by Divya

Poppy seed Almond Basundi and Won MLLA 26

2010-10-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

Basundi is one of my favorite sweets which I love to enjoy with chapathi and pooris.. This used to be my favorite combo for my lunchbox during my school days.. How can we forget those days.. :) My mom used to make this yummy, rich, simple dessert often. This sweet is simple to make and needs not much of work, that you can fix it up easily for the guests. And there is no way that we could go wrong with this recipe. Just for a twist, I tried adding some poppy seeds and almond to the usual basundi and it turned out really rich and delicious. Poppy seed and almonds added more flavors and a rich body to the milk making it a yummy dessert.

With this yummy dessert I am happy to let you all know that I have won the MLLA 26 event by Susan of The well seasoned cook and received a great book with recipes for ice creams and variety of legumes from HurstBean. Thanks to Susan for the great gifts.. :)

Things needed
Milk - 2 Cup ( I used low fat milk)
Sugar - 1 Cup
Cardamon powder - 1/2 Tsp
Almonds - 1 Tbsp ( Finely chopped)
Almonds - 10 nos.
Poppy seed - 1 Tbsp

Dry roast poppy seeds and almonds until lightly golden brown. Let it cool and grind it into a smooth paste by adding milk. Now heat milk in a pan and let it boil. Add in sugar, ground poppy seed-almond paste, cardamon powder and let the mixture cook on a medium flame. Stir in the mixture once in a while to prevent burning of milk. The mixture needs to be cooked until it reduces to about 1/2 of its original volume and also color of the mixture will turn into light brownish orange. This took me about 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat, garnish with chopped almonds and serve warm or cold. Basundi usually taste good when chilled.

This goes to CWS Poppy seed event by Priya guest hosted by Cook Like a Bong,
to CFK - Festive foods event by Sharmi guest hosted by Suma and
to Only festive food event by Pari

Star Gooseberry Pickle/ Nellikkai Urukkai

2010-10-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Me and hubby are not a great fan of pickles. Rather we don't even have any pickles at our home. But I planned to make some pickle for CMT - Pickle event guest hosted by Nivedita started by Jagruthi. In that process, I had a chance to find some star gooseberries in my near by Chinese store. Its very rare to find such stuff here..

This star gooseberry or commonly know as Chinna nellikkai in Tamil can be easily found in my place in India. I used to love it for it tanginess and its mild sweetness. It will taste great by itself with some salt and chllily powder or it can be made into pickes or jams. This kind of gooseberry is different from the usual gooseberry both in appearance and taste. Usual gooseberry has the inbuilt bitter taste and hence pickling of it will take more time than star gooseberry.

Things needed for Pickle
Star gooseberry - 1 Cup ( Washed and dried)
Salt - To taste
Oil - 3 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 Tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 Tsp
Amchur powder - 1 Tbsp (Dried mango powder)
Red chilly powder - 1 Tsp
Tumeric powder - 1/4 Tsp
Dry pickle masala powder - 2 Tbsp

Things needed for pickle masala powder
Mustard seeds/ Kadugu - 1 Tbsp
Methi seeds/ Fenugreek/ Venthayam - 1 Tbsp
Dry red chilly - 2 nos.
Hing/ Perungayam - 1/2 Tsp ( Powdered)

First make the pickle masala by dry roasting all the ingredients listed under 'for masala powder' until golden brown and grind it into a fine powder. Some many prefer coarser texture of this masala powder in the pickles. So fine or coarse powder is our choice.

Now heat oil in a pan and let it turn fuming hot. At this stage add in all the ingredients listed under 'for pickle' except gooseberry and turn off the heat. Once all the masala powder are well mixed, add in the gooseberry and adjust for salt. Yummy, tangy, simple pickle is ready to be enjoyed with rice or chapathi. It tasted great with curd rice...

I have used amchur powder for extra tanginess. It can also be relaced with some lime juice or vinegar if needed. I got this idea of amchur powder from Priya of Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes in one of her recent pickle recipes.

Happy Saraswathi pooja - Sakkarai pongal/Sundal/Vadai

2010-10-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Saraswathi Pooja/ Ayudha pooja to everyone. Today being the pooja, I was busy making all the food that have to be offered to God as prasadam. This list includes the Sakkarai ponga, a sweet dish make with rice and jaggery, sundal and vadai. Its a custom in my MIL's place to make only masala vadai for pooja and not the usual Urud dal vadai. I too followed the same tradition. Apart from this prasadams, we also offer rice, paruppu(cooked toor dal), ghee and vegetables of our choice.This pooja is specially referred to as 'Sakthi poojai' in our place and usually performed in the evenings after the sunset.

Along with Goddess Saraswathi we also worship tools and equipments as part of the pooja. Hence the name Ayudha pooja, Ayudha/Ayudham meaning tools. Also children tend to keep their books in pooja and pray for knowledge on this special day. We clean our home, vehicles and almost all the tools in our house and decorate them with sandanam(Sandal) and Kum kum. I could still remember those full fledged poojas that used to happen in India. Here I was able to follow most of the traditions and perform a miniature version of the same pooja.. :)

Now going on to the recipes...

Things needed for Sakkari pongal/Sweet pongal
Raw rice - 1 Cup
Milk - 2 Cups
Cardamon powder - 1 Tbsp
Cashews, Raisins, Almonds - 1/8 Cup ( Chopped)
Ghee - 1 Tbsp
Water - 1/2 Cup
Jaggery - 1/2 Cup (Grated)

Wash and soak rice for 15 minutes. Pressure cook rice with 2 Cups of milk and 1/2 Cup of water for 5 whistles or until the rice will turn slightly mushy. Fry the nuts and raisins in ghee until golden brown. Heat the grated jaggery with a few table spoons of water just enough to dissolve it. Once the jaggery melts, add the cooked rice and fried nuts to it. Mix in all the ingredients until well incorporated and turn off the heat.

Yummy and rich sakkarai pongal is ready to be served.

Things needed for mukkadalai sundal/ Chickpeas sundal
Chickpeas - 1 Cup ( Pressure cooked with salt)
Coconut - 1/8 Cup ( Grated)
Mustard seeds - 1/2 Tsp
Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1/2 Tsp
Dry red chilly - 1 no.
Hing/ Perungayam - a pinch
Onions - 1/8 Cup (Chopped)
Curry leaf - Few leaves
Oil - 1 Tsp

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, mustard, dry red chilly, hing, curry leaf and let the seeds sizzle. Then add onions, coconut and fry it until the onions turn translucent. Add the cooked chickpeas and saute the mixture for few minutes. Simple and healthy sundal is ready for pooja.

Things needed for Masala Vadai
Bengal gram/ Kadalai paruppu - 1 Cup ( Soaked for 1-2hours)
Green chilly - 3 nos. ( Finely chopped, Can be adjusted according to taste)
Curry leaf - Few nos. ( Roughly chopped)
Coriander/ Kothamalli/ Cilantro - 1/8 Cup ( Roughly chopped)
Fennel seeds/ Saunf/ Sombu - 1 Tbsp
Rice flour - 1 Tbsp
Ginger - 1 Tsp ( Finely grated)
Onions - 1 medium sized ( Roughly chopped)
Salt - To taste
Oil - For deep frying

Grind Bengal gram with salt and very little water if needed into a coarse paste. Add onions, curry leaves, fennel seeds, coriander, green chilly, ginger, rice four to the ground paste and mix well. Make medium sized patties with the vada batter and deep fry until golden brown. For crispier vadas, make the patties thinner. Some many like their vadas soft, in such cases thick patties will do the job.

Crispy vadas are ready to be offered to God and enjoyed with chutney of our choice.

Once again Happy Saraswathi pooja to all!!! This yummy plate of prasadams goes to Only festive food event by Pari and to CFK - Festive foods event by Sharmi guest hosted by Suma.

Mushroom and Potatoes in Spicy Minty Almond Curry

2010-10-12T22:55:00.000-07:00

Here comes a spicy, rich delicious curry with mushroom and potatoes loaded with flavors from almonds and mint. I usually make use of peanuts, almonds, cashews in my gravy to make it rich. But today just for a change, added few mint leaves along with almonds and got this yummy curry filled with minty flavors. It tasted great with rice or chapathi.

Things needed
Mushrooms - 1 Cup ( Sliced)
Potatoes - 1/2 Cup ( Peeled and chopped to bite size pieces)
Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1/2 Tsp
Oil - 1 Tsp

For Onion paste
Onion - 1 Medium sized ( Roughly chopped)
Green chilly - 3 no.
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic pearls - 4 nos.
Cardamon - 2 nos.
Fennel seeds/ Sombu - 1 Tsp
Water - 1/4 Cup

For Almond mint paste
Almonds - 15 nos.
Milk - 1/4 Cup
Mint - 1 Tbsp ( Finely chopped)

Boil all the ingredients listed under 'for onion paste' with water for about 10 minutes. Let the mixture cool and then grind it into a fine paste. Soak almond, mint with milk for about 15 minutes. Then grind it into a smooth paste and set it aside.

Now heat 1/2 Tsp oil in a pan, add mushroom and fry it for few minutes or until it half done. Remove the mushrooms and add the potatoes to the same pan and fry it till its half cooked. Remove the fried potatoes and add the remaining oil to the pan.

Add cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Now add the onion paste and let it cook for 5 minutes on a medium flame. Then add the fried mushrooms, potatoes and salt to the mixture and cook covered for 5-10 minutes. Finally add the almond-mint paste and cook the curry for few minutes and turn off the heat. Adjust for consistency of the gravy by adding water if needed.

Flavorful, rich curry is ready to be served. This curry goes to In the bag event at Julia's A Slice of Cherry Pie

Chickpeas and Spinach Stew

2010-10-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

This is a simple and light curry or stew made with chickpeas and spinach. This stew could be made in just few minutes if we have cooked up chickpeas or canned garbanzo beans ready in hand. It goes good with idli, dosa, chapathi or as a side for spicy kuzhambu rice. This is my entry to CWF - Chickpeas event by Kiran guest hosted by Nithu.

Things needed
Chickpeas/ Garbanzo beans - 2 Cups ( Soaked overnight)
Spinach - 1/4 Cup ( Finely chopped)Coconut - 1/4 Cup ( Grated)
Jeera - 1 Tsp
Green chilly - 2 nos.
Whole Pepper - 1/4 Tsp
Salt - To taste
Ghee - 1 Tsp
Yogurt - 1/4 Cup
Mustard seeds - 1/4 Tsp
Dry red chilly - 1 no.
Coriander leaves - For garnishing

Pressure cook the chickpeas for 2 whistles or until done without letting it turn mushy. Boil the spinach in water with a pinch of salt until done. Drain the spinach and let it cool. Meanwhile blend coconut, jeera, green chilly and pepper into a smooth paste by adding little water if needed. Heat ghee in a pan, add mustard seeds, dry chilly and let the seeds sizzle.

Add the ground coconut mixture and cook for few minutes. Now add boiled chickpeas, spinach and cook covered for 5 minutes. Finally adjust for salt and finish off with coriander leaves. Turn off the heat and pour in the yogurt and cover the pan.

Light, healthy chickpeas and spinach stew is ready to be served.

Carrot Macaroni Kheer

2010-10-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

Here comes a simple and delicious dessert that will be ready in few minutes and with the simple ingredients available. I was having a pack of baby carrots that needs to be used sooner. So thought of making some carrot kheer. Just for a change tried adding few boiled macaroni to it and turned out to be great. My 18 month old son loves macaroni. That too macaroni in a sweet.. he just loved it and enjoyed eating it by himself... :)

Things needed
Carrot - 1 Cup ( Finely grated)
Evaporated milk - 1/2 Cup
Macaroni - 1/8 Cup
Milk - 1 Cup
Sugar - 1/2 Cup
Cardamon powder - 1/2 Tsp
Almonds - 1 Tbsp ( Roughly chopped)
Pistachios - For garnishing

First boil macaroni until 1/2 cooked. Drain them and roughly chop them into smaller pieces. Heat evaporated milk, milk, sugar, grated carrot in a pan. Let the mixture boil on a medium flame for about 10 minutes or until the raw flavor of carrot leaves the milk mixture. Now add the cooked macaroni, almonds, cardamon powder and let the mixture cook for another 10 minutes. If the mixture tends to get little thicker add in extra milk. We usually like our kheer bit thicker. Finally adjust for sugar, garnish with chopped pistachios and turn off the heat.

Yummy kheer is ready to be enjoyed hot or cold. Bright color from the carrots, together with the chunky macaroni and almonds in each bite makes the kheer delicious. This rich kheer goes to the following events.

Akheela's Food palette series
Celebrate sweets-kheer event by Nivedita guest hosted by Ayeesha and to
Sanyukta's Visual treat event along with Mango carrot badam halwa

Tangy Tomato Chutney/ Thakkali Thokku

2010-10-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

This is a simple chutney that can be made in few minutes to be a good combo with idli or dosa. Few people make this chutney just with tomatoes. But I have also added some onions to give in extra flavors.

Things needed
Tomato - 1 no. Large sized ( Coarsely ground)
Onion - 1 no. Medium sized ( Finely chopped)
Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1 Tsp
Mustard seeds/ Kadugu - 1/2 Tsp
Hing - a pinch
Lemon juice - 1/2 Tsp ( Optional, for extra tanginess)
Dry red chilly - 2 nos.
Red chilly powder - 1/2 Tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 Tsp
Tumeric powder - a pinch
Garlic pearls - 3 nos. ( Roughly chopped)
Oil - 1 Tsp
Cilantro - For garnishing

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, mustard, hing, dry red chilly, tumeric and let the seeds sizzle. Add garlic and fry till golden brown. Then add in onions, tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes turn mushy. Add chilly powder, coriander powder and cook until oil oozes out the mixture. Finally finish with lemon juice and cilantro leaves.

Hot and tangy tomato chutney is ready to be served. This tangy goes to Jagruti's Complete my Thali event

Chocolate Oats Walnut Laddu

2010-10-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

Here comes another simple laddu recipe I tried for Celebrate sweets- Laddu event started by Nivedita and guest hosted by Nithu. This is a simple and chocolaty laddu made with oats and filled with nutty flavors of walnuts. Chocolate in any form is always good. Same goes with this laddu too.. It was really yummy and rich with chocolate that we could hardly taste the oats in it.

Things needed
Oats - 1/2 Cup
Milk - 1/8 Cup
Sugar - 1/4 Cup
Cardamon powder - 1/4 Tsp
Cocoa powder - 1 Tbsp
Walnuts - 1/8 Cup ( Chopped)

Dry roast oats, until they turn slightly golden brown in color. Now place milk, cocoa powder, sugar in a pan and let it boil. Add cardamon powder, walnuts to the chocolate milk and let the mixture start thickening. Now add the roasted oats and cook the mixture until it comes together as a ball.

Turn off the heat and let it cool for some time. Now make laddus of desired size when the mixture is still warm. Else the chocolate will harden and we won't be able to mould the mixture. Let the laddu dry for about 30 minutes and then store them in a airtight container.

Yummy, simple and chocolaty laddus are ready to be enjoyed. These will stay good for about 3 days when refrigerated. This also goes to Shabitha's Virtual party- Chocolaty dreams

Badam Oats Khoya Laddu

2010-10-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

Here comes a yummy and new kind of laddu that I tried yesterday. I was having some leftover khoya I used for gulab jamuns sitting in my fridge. To finish it off, I was thinking of making some sweet. Then came the idea of this laddu. Just oats wouldn't give much flavor to the sweet, so decided to add almonds too. This combo of almonds, khoya and oats resulted in a really delicious laddu.

The laddu had its chewy texture from oats, richness form almonds and the strong flavors from khoya. Pinch of added cardamon brings in the traditional flavors into the laddu. With no ghee added and made from oats this sweet turns out to be healthy and also can be enjoyed without any guilty feeling.. :)

Things needed
Oats - 1/2 Cup
Khoya - 1/4 Cup
Almonds - 1/8 Cup
Sugar - 1/4 Cup
Cardamon powder - 1/4 Tsp
Milk - 2 Tbsp

Dry roast oats and almonds until they turn slightly golden brown in color. Let it cool and grind it into a coarse powder. Now place the khoya and sugar in a pan and cook until the sugar is completed dissolved into khoya. Add cardamon powder, ground oats-almond mixture to the pan and cook for just few minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool.

Now make laddus from the cooled mixture by sprinkling little milk as needed. Let the laddu dry for about 30 minutes and then store them in a airtight container. Yummy, healthy and simple laddus are ready to be enjoyed. These will stay good for about 3 days at room temperature.

These laddus go to Celebrate sweets - Ladoo event started by Nivedita and guest hosted by Nithu and to Akila's Dish name starts with - B event

Stir fried Okra and Sweet corn Salad

2010-09-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is a very simple and healthy salad that can be made in just few minutes. It's a great, light snack or the same can be converted into a yummy raita by adding some yogurt to it. I have the used the traditional seasonings for this salad to give it that Indian touch.

Things needed
Okra - 1/2 Cup
Sweet corn - 1/4 Cup
Dry red chilly - 1 no.
Pepper powder - 1 Tsp
Lime juice - 1 Tsp
Salt - To taste
Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1/4 Tsp
Oil - 1/4 Tsp
Chaat masala - To taste

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, dry chilly and let the seeds sizzle. Add okra and fry until they loose their stickiness and get 3/4th cooked. Add the boiled sweet corn to this and turn off the heat. Now finish the salad with pepper, salt, lime juice and chaat masala.

Light, crunchy and healthy salad is ready in few minutes. This goes to Veggie/Fruit a month - Okra event by Priya guest hosted by Kiran and to Only - Low oil/ Low Calorie event guest hosted by Priya, started by Pari

Farsi Puris

2010-09-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

This is the dish I made for Nayna's Flavors of Gujarat event. I got this yummy snack recipe from Kajal's Recipes. Her beautiful presentation and the tempting pics made me try this recipe. My farsi puris turned out really great. These are mini, crispy, spicy puris filled with flavors from cumin and ajwani seeds.

Things needed
All purpose flour - 5 Tbsp
Semolina/ Rava - 1 Tbsp
Oil - 2 Tbsp
Salt - To taste
Oil - For deep frying
Water - To make dough

For masala powder
Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1 Tsp
Pepper - 1 Tbsp
Ajwani seeds/ Omam/ Carom seeds - 1 Tsp

Make a fine powder of the ingredients listed under 'for masala powder'. Mix flour, semolina, oil, salt, masala powder and knead it into a smooth, soft dough using water. Let the dough rest for about an hour.

Divide the dough into small balls and roll it into thick chapathis. Roll this chapathi into a log.

Cut the log into small pieces. Roll these pieces into a small puri by pressing with your hand.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the puris on medium flame until golden brown and crispy. These can also be made into different shapes like squares. These mini puris will be a perfect tea time snack.

Hyderabadi Chicken Briyani

2010-09-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

I usually make briyani in pressure cooker and follow my mom's recipe. My hubby also likes my briyani recipe and we make briyani once in a month usually on Sunday. But this time he wanted me to make the Hyderabadi style of briyani. So I made the Hyderabadi chicken briyani for our Sunday lunch. I have made this briyani many times and few times it has turned out perfect. That's because it sometimes made mistakes by overcooking rice. So this time I didn't want to repeat the same flaws and to my surprise.. It was a happy plate of steaming hot Hyderabadi briyani which we enjoyed with spicy prawn curry.

My hubby was really happy with the briyani and said its perfect. Its quiet very difficult to get that word 'perfect' from. I was really happy.. :)

Things needed
Basmathi rice - 2 Cups
Chicken - 2 lbs
Onion - 1 no. Large sized ( Sliced)
Saffron - 1 Tsp
Warm milk - 2 Tbsp
Oil - 1/8 Cup

Marinade for chicken
Yogurt - 1/4 Cup
Red chilly powder - 3 Tsp
Coriander powder - 3 Tsp
Green chilly - 5 nos.
Salt - To taste
Tumeric powder - 1/2 Tsp
Coriander / Cilantro - 1/2 Cup ( Chopped)
Mint - 1/2 Cup ( Chopped)
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 Tbsp
Lime juice - 2 Tbsp
Briyani masala powder - 1 1/2 Tbsp ( I have used Everest briyani masala powder)

Spices for preparing rice
Cloves - 3 nos.
Cardamon - 3 nos.
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 Tbsp
Bay leaf - 2 nos.
Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp
Aniseed/ Annachi moggu - 1 no.
Salt - To taste
Oil - 1 Tbsp

First marinate the chicken with all the ingredients listed under 'to marinade' for at least 1 hour. Meanwhile soak the basmathi rice for about 30 minutes. Then deep fry the sliced onions until they turn slightly brown in color. Soak the saffron threads in warm milk and set it aside.

Next step is to cook the rice with all the ingredients listed under 'spices for rice' with water sufficient enough to cook the rice. This is the most important step in making Hyderabadi briyani. The rice has to be cooked just 60-70%, else the briyani will turn mushy. When the water comes to rolling boil, let it stand for just 2 minutes and turn off the heat. Drain water from the rice immediately and blanch it with cold water. Spread the rice on a large plate and let it cool.

Once the rice is ready, we must immediately start layering and cook the briyani. Take a heavy bottom vessel with a tight fitting lid. Pour oil into the vessel. Arrange the marinaded chicken into the bottom of the vessel over the oil layer. Place half of the cooked rice over this chicken layer. Then place half of the fried onions over the rice layer. Sprinkle little bit of saffron soaked in milk over the rice layer.

Repeat the same layering with remaining rice. Close the vessel tightly with the lid. I first covered the vessel with aluminium foil and then placed the lid over it so as to ensure that no steam escapes during cooking and proper 'dum' is achieved. Place some heavy vessel or tub filled with water over the cooking vessel.

Now turn on the heat. Cook the briyani on the high flame for 10 minutes. Then on the lowest flame for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the briyani stand on for about 15 minutes. After 45 minutes of cooking, the entire house will be filled with flavors from the briyani. Warm, delicious briyani with soft, juicy chicken pieces is ready to be enjoyed with raita or salna or any curry. Slightly mix in the layers before serving.

Though this process may seem quiet lengthy, its worth for the taste of the briyani and the words of appreciation we get finally.. :) This briyani goes to Akheela's Festive rice event

Bread and vegetables stir fry

2010-09-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

Thinking what to make for breakfast or evening snack.. Here is a simple and healthy dish using bread and mixed vegetables. Just with a pack of mixed veggies and few bread slice, our plate will be filled with colorful and delicious dish.
Things needed
Bread slices - 5 nos.
Mixed vegetables - 1 Cup ( I used frozen beans, carrot, broccoli, peas, mushrooms)
Mozzarella cheese - 1/8 Cup ( Shredded)
Soy sauce - 1 Tsp
Hot sauce - 1 Tsp
Pepper - 1/4 Tsp
Salt - To taste

Heat a pan, add the vegetables and stir fry it with salt, soy sauce, hot sauce until its 3/4th cooked. Meanwhile toast the bread slices in the toaster and cut them into bite size pieces. When the veggies are cooked, add the bread, cheese and pepper to it. Mix the veggies and bread for few minutes and turn off the heat. Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

This goes to Akila's Dish name starts with - B event and Only - Low oil/Low Calorie event started by Pari and guest hosted by Priya

Pineapple Kiwi Preserve

2010-09-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

We bought lot of fruits last weekend, as we went to the near by farmers market. We got some kiwis and pineapples too. But unfortunately the pineapple was not sweet enough. So I just combined the kiwis and pineapple to make a preserve. The preserve was really great and we enjoy it with bread or chapathi. Just with simple ingredients we could make delicious preserve at our home with the fresh fruits.

Things needed
Pineapple puree - 1 Cup
Kiwi - 1 Cup ( Finely chopped)
Sugar - 1/2 Cup
Cardamon powder - 1/4 Tsp
Lemon juice - 1 Tbsp

Heat pineapple puree, kiwi, sugar in a pan and cook the the mixture for about 20 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Add cardamon powder and lemon juice and cook the mixture for another 5 minutes. Yummy healthy pineapple kiwi preserve is ready to be enjoyed. The mild cardamon flavor gives that Indian touch to the preserve.

The tiny little seeds from kiwis blended into the bright yellow pineapple puree makes the jam look really attractive. This goes to Yasmeen's Tropical Temptations event.

Spicy Prawns in Coconut Curry

2010-09-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a spicy prawn curry which is an intermediate between kuzhambhu and kuruma recipe. This recipe uses less coconut but still is a rich gravy with almonds added to it. This gravy will taste great with briyani, pulav, rice or chapathi. Same recipe can be used for chicken, mutton or even potato curry.

Things needed
Shrimp/Prawns - Medium sized 15 to 20 count ( Peeled and cleaned)
Onions - 1no. large sized
Tomatoes - 1no. small sized

Cinnamon stick - 1 no.

Cloves - 2 nos.Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Green chilly - 2nos.Kashmiri Chilly powder - 2 tbsp
Tumeric powder - 1 tsp
Dhaniya powder - 1 tbsp
Garam masala powder - 1 tbsp
Curry leaf powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 1tbsp
Mint and coriander - 1/4 Cup (Chopped)

To grind
Ginger - 1 medium sized piece
Cardamon - 1 no.

Green chilly - 1 no.Saunf/Fennel seeds/sombu - 1 tbsp
Coconut - 1/8 Cup

Almonds - 1/8 Cup

Tomato paste - 1 Tsp

Heat oil in a pan, add cinnamon, cloves, green chilly, tumeric powder, jeera and saute for 2 minutes. Add onions, tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes turn mushy. Meanwhile grind all the ingredients listed under 'to grind' into a fine paste. Add this paste to the pan and fry for 5 minutes.
Then add the chilly powder, dhaniya powder, curry leaf powder and cook the mixture for about 10 minutes on open fire. Then add the garam masala powder, salt, prawns and cook covered for another 5 minutes. Adjust the salt and consistency of gravy and finish with mint, cilantro leaves. This is a bit spicier gravy, adjust for chilly powder and green chilly as per your needs.

This curry goes to Divya's Show me your curry event.

Gulab Jamuns

2010-09-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday being my hubby's birthday, I made some of his favorite foods including mutton briyani, chicken kuruma, fish fry, gulab jamuns and also baked his birthday cake myself... :D I made him a black forest cake and it turned out to be great and he liked it a lot. My hubby loves gulab jamuns, but not the ones made using mix. He likes only if I make them from scratch. So I having being trying harder for past few weeks to perfect my gulab jamun recipe and at last it was a great hit with him. After my three bad failures I got this perfect and easy gulab jamun recipe. If you have khoya at hand, yummy, soft gulab jamuns will be ready in few minutes.

For my three previous attempts I found that, the khoya needs to be soft and not too hard. Also right amount of baking soda is needed for gulab jamuns to stay intact when added to the syrup. Cooking the jamuns on a medium flame slowly is important to avoid the solid uncooked center.

Things needed
For jamuns
Home made khoya - 1 Cup
Butter - 1/8 Cup
All purpose flour - 1/8 Cup
Baking soda - 1/8 Tsp
Oil - For deep frying

For sugar syrup
Sugar - 3 Cups
Water - 3 Cups
Cardamon powder - 1 Tsp
Rose extract - 1 Tsp

First make the sugar syrup by dissolving the sugar in water along with cardamon powder and rose extract. Let this mixture boil for about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and sugar syrup is ready.

Mix all the ingredients for jamuns except oil into a smooth, soft dough. Divide the dough into small balls and roll them between the palms to make smooth balls. Heat oil and fry the balls on a medium flame until golden brow to bit darker brown in color. Put the hot jamuns immediately into the sugar syrup. Let it soak for 2-3 hours.

Soft and delicious gulab jamuns are ready to enjoyed warm or cold.

These yummy gulab jamuns go to SHF- Bite size desserts started by Jennifer guest hosted by Aparna along with the Butterscotch peda.

Steamed Chocolate Cake

2010-09-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about making my own chocolate cake for a long time. When I was searching for a simple and decent chocolate cake recipe, I was attracted towards a pic of a chocolate cake slice, which looked really moist, soft and delicious. I immediately wanted to try it and to my surprise it was a steamed cake!! I got much more interested and made this cake. The cake was really moist, yummy and was too simple to make. I we just have a pressure cooker and want to make a rich yummy chocolate cake, then this recipe is sure to help. Its a dense rich chocolaty cake which was enjoyed by us with coffee.

The original recipe is from Sweets for my sweet tooth blog. I made few changes like, I increased the sugar by little bit and also replaced the condensed milk with evaporated milk.

Things needed
Wet ingredients
Evaporated milk - 3/4 Cup
Sugar - 3/4 Cup
Cocoa powder - 1/2 Cup
Butter - 1/2 Cup
Instant coffee powder - 1/4 Tsp
Vanilla extract - 1/2 Tsp
Egg - 2 nos. ( Slightly beaten)

Dry ingredients
All purpose flour - 1/2 Cup + 1/8 Cup
Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp
Baking powder - 1/2 Tsp

Mix all the ingredients listed under 'wet ingredients' except for eggs and cook over low flame until the sugar and butter get melted. When the cocoa mixture cools down, add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Sift the dry ingredients and add it to the wet mixture. Mix well until there is no lumps of flour.

Grease a pan with little butter and pour the cake batter into it. Steam cook the cake in a pressure cooker for 25 minutes on a medium flame or until the cake is cooked. Check the doneness of cake by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake.

I made a small loaf cake and few mini cup cakes using the stainless steel cups that are safe for steaming in a cooker. The cake tasted great on it own or with Nutella as topping. It also tasted great with whipped cream and few cup cakes were soaked in chocolate syrup and they tasted really delicious and chocolaty.

This easy steamed cake goes to Apy's No bake cake event and Indrani's Spotlight-Baking without oven along with the Steamed eggless banana cake

Mava Cake - Tried and Tasted from My Diverse Kitchen..

2010-09-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

While I was browsing through Aparna's My Diverse kitchen, this cake recipe caught my eyes. It was quiet a simple cake recipe, incorporating unique Indian flavors into it. I am a person who loves cashews and flavors of cardamon in anything. So I wanted to try this cake and it turned out to be really great. Mava cake turned out to be really delicious, soft, filled with flavors of cardamon and khoya. My hubby liked this cake and enjoys it with his coffee. But next time he wanted me to add more cashews into the cake.

I followed Aparna's recipe exactly with no changes and my cake turned out to be great. Aparna's blog has so make great baked goods and every time I browse through here site, I am motivated to bake some cake or cookie. I have also bookmarked her macrons and will try them sooner. This simple yummy rich mava cake goes to Lakshmi's Tried and Tasted event guest hosted by Srivalli.

This also goes to Champa's Bake-off and to EFM - Cakes and Bakes series

Happy Vinayagar Chathurthi - Puranam Kozhukattai/ Rice flour dumplings with Coconut filling

2010-09-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Vinayagar Chathurthi to everyone!!! Today we celebrated Pillayar chathurthi with the traditional menu including plain kozhukattais, puranam kozhukattais, sundal, venn pongal, vadai and payasam. Also this year I made pillayar idol myself with the modelling clay and it turned out great.. And I was really happy to celebrate pillay chathurthi with our home made pillayar idol.. :)

Here I am sharing the recipe of puranam kozhukattai. Kozhukattai is the steamed sweet dumplings made from rice flour which is a must for Pillayar chathurthi. Puranam kozhukattais are the rice dumplings filled with some sweet filling like coconut or sesame. Puranam in Tamil refers to the fillings used inside the dumplings. I made the filling using coconut and sesame seeds. Usually in India my mom and my MIL both used to make their own rice flour at home, but I didn't have much time and used the store bought rice flour.

Things needed
Rice flour - 1 Cup
Salt - a pinch
Grated coconut - 1/2 Cup
Sesame seeds - 2 Tbsp ( Dry roasted and coarsely ground)
Jaggery - 1/4 Cup
Cardamon powder - 1 Tsp
Water - 1/2 Cup to 3/4 Cup

Place rice flour with salt in a blow. Add required amount of warm water so as to make a soft, non-sticky dough. To make the filling, heat jaggery in a pan along with a Tbsp of water. As the jaggery melts add the coconut and ground sesame seeds and cook until the mixture thickens. Filling is ready when the mixture could be made into balls without getting crumbled.

Now divide the rice dough into small balls. Shape the balls into small cups, if required use little oil to shape the dough. Fill the rice cups with coconut-sesame filling and finish them into desired shapes like round balls, crescent shaped or like that of a coconut.

Steam the prepared kozhukattais by placing them in the idly plate for 5 minutes on medium flame or until the outer covering gets cooked. Sweet kozhukattais are ready to be part of offerings to Pillayar.

Pineapple Raisin Egg Fried rice

2010-09-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

This is a simple fried rice recipe with slight twist from the usual egg fried rice. I got this idea from the Thai pineapple rice and modified the recipe to suite our taste. Add pineapples and raisins to the rice really enhanced the flavors, also the mild sweetness from pineapples and chewy raisins in each bite made the fried rice great.

Things needed
Rice - 1 Cup
Mixed vegetables( Beans, Cabbage, Carrot, Peas) - 1/4 Cup (Finely chopped)
Eggs - 3 nos.
Pineapple - 1/4 Cup ( Chopped)
Raisins - 1 TbspSoy sauce - 2 Tbsp
Black pepper powder - 1 TspGreen chilly - 3 nos. ( Finely chopped)
Garlic pearls - 3nos. ( Finely chopped) Salt - to taste
Oil - 1 tbsp
Spring onions - 1/4 Cup (Chopped)

First cook rice by adding salt and 1tsp of oil to the boiling water. Adding oil will prevent rice from sticking to each other. While cooking the rice make sure that its not cooked completely. Just cook it to 80%, since rice texture should be crunchier for fried rice and not soft. Transfer the cooked rice to a large plate and let it cool.

Now heat 1/2 tbsp of oil in a pan, add garlic and vegetables to it. Fry the veggies on high flame by adding salt and 1 tsp of soy sauce. Frying should be done on very high flame, so as to get the light smoky flavor like fast food fried rice. Cook the vegetables, still maintaining their crunchiness and color. Transfer the vegetables to a plate.

In the same pan add, eggs, salt and pepper and prepare scrambled eggs. Now heat the remaining oil in a pan, add cooked rice to it. Fry the rice on high flame by adding 1tsp of soy sauce, green chillies and salt. Then add the cooked vegetable, scrambled eggs, pineapple and raisins to it. Fry the mixture for 2 minutes and adjust for salt and pepper at this point. Add chopped spring onions and turn off the heat.

Spicy pineapple raisin egg fried rice is ready to be served. The spiciness from the green chillies is compensated by the sweetness from raisins and the tanginess from pineapples. This fried rice goes to Yasmeen's Tropical Temptations

Egyptian Semolina Syrup Cake - Basboosa

2010-09-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

Basboosa is a traditional Egyptian semolina cake, made with few ingredients but tastes great. Its a soft, moist cake that soaked in honey sugar syrup. Its very simple to make and tastes good with tea. My recipe made quiet sweeter cakes. So next time I will reduce the sugar used for syrup a little bit.

Things needed for Cake

Semolina/ Rava/ Cream of wheat - 1/2 Cup
All purpose flour - 1/3 Cup
Sugar - 1/4 Cup

Yogurt - 1/4 Cup
Water - 1/3 Cup
Butter - 1/4 Cup
Baking powder - 1/2 Tsp

Almonds - 10 nos.

Things needed for syrup

Sugar - 1/3 Cup

Honey - 1 Tbsp

Lemon juice - 1 Tbsp

Water - 1/3 Cup

First prepare the sugar syrup by boiling sugar, water, lemon juice and honey in a pan. The syrup is ready when it has reduces to about half of its original volume. Turn off the heat and let it cool. Adding honey gives lot more flavors to the cake. Few recipes also call for adding lemon zest, which I didn't use.

Mix semolina, flour and baking powder in a blow. Beat yogurt with butter and sugar until all the sugar is dissolved and a creamy texture is obtained. Now add the dry ingredients to the yogurt mixture and mix until there are no lumps. This cake batter will not be like usual cake batter. It will be quiet thicker.

Grease a baking pan with butter and spread the cake batter over it using a spatula. Now lightly mark the diamond or square shapes into the batter using a knife. Place the almonds in the center of each square marked.

Bake the cake in the oven pre-heated to 350F for about 20 minutes or until the cake is done.

Remove the cake from oven and let it cool for couple of minutes. Now pour the cooled sugar syrup on to the hot cake and it absorb all the syrup. Cut the cake along the pre-cut slots and serve with tea or coffee.

This moist, soft and simple cake goes to Tobias's 11th Mediterranean cooking event-Egypt

Reposting for Letz Relishh Paneer event and My first award

2010-09-05T23:05:00.000-07:00

Here is my Rasmalai and Rasgulla for Jay's Letz relishh event- Paneer.

Rasmalai

Rasgullas

I am very happy to let you all know that I have won the 9th Mediterranean cooking event Tunisia started by http://www.tobiascooks.com/. I received the book titled 'North African Cookery' by Arto der Haroutinian. Its a nice book with huge collection of various recipes from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya explained in simple words with very few ingredients and without much complicated techniques. I would like to thank Tobias the author of Tobias Cooks for such a wonderful book.. :)

I will soon start trying out the recipes from this book and share with you all.

Butterscotch Peda

2010-09-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

This year I started my Krishna Jayanthi preparations with this peda. Its usual tradition to make milk sweets as part of offerings to Lord Krishna. So decided to make some pedas. Just add few butterscotch chips that was laying in my pantry to give some new flavor to the sweet. Peda is one of the easiest dessert to make. Mixing together milk, sugar, nuts and the extra flavors we need in right proportion will result in yummy pedas.

Things needed
Whole milk - 2 Cups
Sugar - 1 Cup
Butterscotch chips - 1/4 Cup
Cardamon powder/ Elakkai powder/ Elachi - 1 Tsp
Almond pieces - For topping the pedas

Heat milk, sugar, butterscotch chips along with cardamon powder in a pan. Bring it to boil and turn the heat to medium flame. Now keep stirring the mixture once in a while until the milk reduces to 3/4 of its original volume. This will take about 20 minutes. From now on the mixture needs to be stirred continuously, so as to avoid burning.

As we stir the mixture will reduce further and get solidified. Its something very similar to making of khoya. When the milk mixture comes together as a ball without sticking to the pan, its said to be done. Let it cool for sometime and then make pedas of desired shape, topping with few almonds. Delicious pedas are ready to be offered to God and enjoyed.

This goes to Nivedita's Celebrate sweets Pedha event guest hosted by Jagruti and to SHF- Bite size dessert event by Jennifer guest hosted by Aparna.

Simple Spicy Chicken Kuzhambhu/Chicken Curry

2010-08-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

This is one of my hubby's favorite non vegetarian side dish. Sunday morning breakfast will usually be either chicken curry with hot idlis or dosa and chicken soup combo.. :) The traditional way of making this chicken kuzhambu needs roasting of onions, grinding and stuff like that. But when I am lazy to do all that, I use this quick version of it... ;) Just a can of hot Mexican tomato sauce would do the magic. My hubby doesn't know about this secret and he still thinks that I make the kuzhambu in the traditional manner.. :D

Things needed
Chicken - 1 lb
Onion - 1 no. medium sized ( Chopped)
Tomato sauce - 1 Cup
Red chilly powder - 1 Tsp
Coriander powder - 1 Tsp
Tumeric powder - a pinch
Dry red chilly - 2 nos.
Jeera/ Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp
Salt - To taste
Cloves - 2 nos.
Cinnamon stick - 1 no.
Coriander leaves - For garnishing

To grind
Ginger - 2 inch piece
Garlic pearls - 5 nos.
Fennel seeds/Sombu - 1 Tbsp
Cardamon - 1 no.
Green chilly - 2 nos.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add dry red chilly, cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon and let the seeds sizzle. Add onions, tumeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder and cook until the onions turn pink. Meanwhile grind the ingredients listed under 'to grind' into a smooth paste by adding little water.

Add the ground paste to onions and fry until the raw flavor of ginger-garlic leaves the masala. Add tomato sauce, salt, chicken pieces and fry the mixture for few minutes. Now close the cooker and pressure cook the curry for 2 whistles. Once the pressure subsides, open the cooker and check for consistency of the curry and adjust for salt. Finish off with coriander leaves.

Hot spicy chicken kuzhambhu is ready to be enjoyed with rice, idli, chapathi or dosa. This curry goes to Priya's CWS-Fennel seeds event and to Divya's Show me your curry event

Turkish Rice pudding - Sutlac

2010-08-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

Every cuisine seems to have their version of rice pudding. One such Turkish version is the Sutlac, which is a light, creamy and easier pudding to make. This Turkish pudding has two versions, one is the normal stove top version called Sutlac and other is baked pudding called Firin Sutlac. I have made the stove top version and it was really yummy.

Things needed
Rice - 1/4 Cup
Water 1/2 Cup
Milk - 2 Cups
Cornstarch - 1 Tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1 Tsp
Sugar - 1/2 Cup

Wash rice and cook it with water until done. After all the water gets absorbed by rice, add milk, sugar,vanilla extract and get the mixture to boil. Now turn off the heat to medium and cook the mixture for 20 minutes. Mix the cornstarch with little water into a smooth paste and add this mixture to the pudding. Let the mixture boil for few minutes and creamy yummy rice pudding is ready to be enjoyed.

Sutlac can be enjoyed chilled topped with cinnamon or nuts. This pudding goes to DK's AWED-Turkey event guest hosted by Janet

My first muffin - Blueberry Muffins

2010-08-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

This is the first muffin, I baked at home. I have been wishing to make my own muffins for a longer time, but it just turned out right today.. :) I was really happy about, how my muffins turned out. I made blueberry muffins because those are my hubby's favorite. I made a very small batch of just 3 muffins, as I didn't want to take risk.. ;) But the muffins were so good that they were gone in few minutes. My 16 month old son really enjoyed it for his evening snack. I was fun watching him eat his muffin with those cite little hands.. :)

I have googled for the recipes and came with this recipe my self. I have used some cream cheese and yogurt in this recipe as an alternative to butter. The muffins were really spongy and light. Next time I would increase the sugar a little more.

Things needed
All purpose flour - 1/2 Cup
Egg - 1 no.
Sugar - 1/4 Cup + 1 Tbsp ( For Topping)
Vanilla extract - 1/4 Tsp
Oil - 1/8 Cup ( I used Canola oil)
Salt - 1/4 Tsp
Baking powder - 1/4 Tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 Tsp
Cream cheese - 1/8 Cup ( At room temperature)
Yogurt - 1/8 cup (At room temperature)
Blueberries - 1/4 Cup

Mix and sieve flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar in a bowl. Beat the egg together with oil, vanilla extract, cream cheese and yogurt. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until a even batter is formed. Make sure not to over mix the batter.

Now wash the blueberries and coat the berries with a Tbsp of sugar and flour mixture. This will help the berries to stay studded in the batter rather than making a whole lot of purple colored batter.

Line the muffin baking cups with paper liner and divide the batter evenly into three muffins. Sprinkle the muffins with sugar. Bake the muffins in the pre-heated oven at 450F for 15 to 20 minutes until the tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Warm, moist, light blueberry muffins are ready to be enjoyed with tea or for breakfast.

This goes to Pari's Only kids delight event

Carrot Lemon rice - Spinach Lima Beans rice - Coconut rice

2010-08-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

I had some left over rice cooked for yesterday's dinner. Didn't want to waste it and also I was not in a mood for long cooking hours. So thought of adding few veggies and some flavor to the left over rice and made it into a delicious colorful variety rice for our lunch. A plate of colorful variety rice will always be perfect with some raita, chips or appalam. I didn't want to make the usual lemon rice or puliyodharae. So just modified the usual stuff to add extra flavors and so came our lunch plate with Carrot lemon rice, spinach Lima bean rice, coconut rice. It was a perfect combo of tangy-spicy-rich rice dishes.

Things needed for Carrot lemon rice
Cooked rice - 1 Cup
Carrot puree - 2 Tbsp
Lemon juice - 1 Tbsp
Salt - To taste
For seasoning
Tumeric powder - a pinch
Dry red chilly - 2 nos.
Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1/2 Tsp
Mustard seeds/Kadugu - 1/4 Tsp
Peanuts - 1/2 Tbsp ( Crushed)
Bengal gram dal/ Kadalai paruppu - 1 Tsp
Oil - 1 Tsp

Heat oil in a pan, add all the items listed under 'for seasoning' and fry until the peanuts are golden brown. Add lemon juice, carrot pulp and let the mixture boil for few minutes. Now add the cooked rice adjust for salt and turn off the heat. Simple yummy tangy carrot lemon rice is ready to be served.

Things needed for Spinach Lima beans rice

Cooked rice - 1 Cup

Lima beans - 1/2 Cup ( I used frozen beans)

Spinach - 1/4 Cup ( Chopped)

Salt - To taste

For seasoning

Dry red chilly - 2 nos.

Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1/2 Tsp

Garam masala - 1 Tsp

Oil - 1 Tsp

Heat oil in a pan, add all the items listed under 'for seasoning' and let the seeds sizzle. Add Lima beans, spinach and cook the mixture till the veggies get cooked without letting them turn mushy. Now add the cooked rice adjust for salt and turn off the heat. Spicy healthy spinach Lima beans rice is ready to be served. The flavors of garam masala together with the beans makes the rice taste great.

Things needed for Coconut rice

Cooked rice - 1 Cup

Coconut - 1/4 Cup ( Grated)

Salt - To taste

For seasoning

Dry red chilly - 2 nos.

Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1/2 Tsp

Mustard seeds/Kadugu - 1/4 Tsp

Peanuts - 1/2 Tbsp ( Crushed)

Urd dal/ Ulutham paruppu - 1 Tsp

Oil - 1 Tsp

Heat oil in a pan, add all the items listed under 'for seasoning' and fry until the peanuts are golden brown. Add coconut and fry for few minutes. Now add the cooked rice adjust for salt and turn off the heat. Yummy light coconut rice is ready to enjoyed. This is the usual coconut rice, I haven't made any additions to this rice because its one of my son's favorite. Its the only rice which makes feeding easier with my 16 month old.. :)

All these three rices goes to PJ's Scrumptious delights from leftovers event.

Cucumber Mint Dosa

2010-08-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

Are you in mood for a different dosa.. Thinking what to make for dinner without dosa batter.. Then here comes the easy yummy dosa that can be made in a jiffy. When ever I am out of my usual dosa/idli batter, I keep experimenting by combining all the dals to make a new dosa/adai. In that process, came my cucumber mint dosa which tasted really good and is a great fix for breakfast and dinner when we are short of regular dosa batter.

Things needed
Rice - 2 Cups
Urad dal/ Ulutham paruppu - 1/4 Cup
Moong dal/ Pachai paruppu - 1/4 Cup
Bengal gram dal/ Kadalai paruppu - 1/4 Cup
Toor dal/ Thuvaram paruppu - 1/4 Cup
Dry red chilly - 2 nos.
Rava/Sooji/Semolina - 1/4 Cup
Asafoetida/ Perungayam powder - 1 tsp
Cucumber- 1 no. (Chopped)
Mint - 1 Cup ( Chopped)Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

Soak all the above ingredients except cucumber,mint,chilly powder for about 2-3 hours. Then grind the ingredients with cucumber, mint, salt and chilly powder. The juice from cucumber will be sufficient enough to make a smooth paste. If needed a little amount of water could be added and ensure that the batter consistency is that of dosa batter.

We can make dosas, using this batter instantly or by letting it ferment overnight. In both cases, the dosa, turned out to be soft and tastier. This batter can be stored in refrigerator for about 3 days.

The mild flavor of cucumber combined with the appetizing flavors from mint leaves makes the dosa taste great. This dosa recipe goes to Susan's MLLA 26 event guest hosted by Simona

Tomato Poori with Mushroom Potato Curry

2010-08-22T00:28:00.000-07:00

It has been very long since we had pooris. I guess we had it sometime back in India.. :D My hubby usually don't like fried stuff and so I avoid making deep fried stuff. But today there was something that was making me of pooris.. I don't know why.. So I decided to make poori and mushroom curry for our dinner. Just thought of adding some tomato paste, few spices and ginger garlic paste and made a spicy tomato poori.
Things needed for Tomato Poori

Wheat flour - 2 Cups

Tomato paste - 2 Tbsp

Ginger garlic paste - 1 Tsp

Red chilly powder - 1 Tsp

Coriander powder - 1 Tsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 Tsp

Butter - 1 Tsp

Water - As required to make the poori dough

Oil - For deep frying

Mix all the above ingredients except for oil to make a soft stiff dough just similar to usual chapathi dough. Keep the dough covered with a damp cloth and let it stand for 30 minutes. Divide the dough into small balls and roll them into pooris. Poori should usually be circular n shape. But my pooris always take a variety of shapes.. :D

Fry the poori in oil until golden brown on each side. To get puffed up pooris, the thickness of poori should be uniform through out. Also while frying the poori, splatter hot oil over it using the ladle. This will make the pooris to puff up. Hot poori is ready to be served with the mushroom potato curry.

Things needed for Mushroom Potato curry

Mushroom - 1 Cup ( Sliced)

Potato - 1 Cup ( Cubed)

Kasoori methi leaves - 1 Tsp

Cumin seeds/ Jeera - 1 Tsp

Salt - To taste

Oil - 1 Tbsp

To grind

Fennel seeds/ Sombu - 1Tbsp

Red chilly powder - 1 Tbsp

Coriander powder - 1 Tbsp
Garam masala powder - 1/2 Tbsp

Black pepper corns - 1 Tbsp

Almonds - 10 nos.

Tumeric powder - A pinch

Onion - 1 no. medium sized

Tomato - 2 no. medium sized

Heat half Tbsp of oil in a pan, add the ingredients listed under 'to grind' and fry until the tomatoes turn mushy. Let it cool and grind it into a smooth paste by adding little water if needed. Heat the remaining oil in the same pan, add cumin seeds, kasoori methi leaves and let it sizzle. Within few seconds the fine aroma from frying kasoori methi will fill the kitchen.

Add potatoes, mushrooms and fry until the potatoes turn golden brown. Now add the ground tomato paste to the pan and cook covered for 15 minutes. Add salt and adjust the consistency of the curry as needed. Hot and spicy mushroom curry is ready to be enjoyed with tomato pooris.

This combo goes to Siri's Healing foods-Tomato event guest hosted by PJ