♥Ria's Collection♥

HOMEMADE PANI PURI/ GOLGAPPA/ PUCHKAS/ GUPCHUP

2012-01-29T23:41:00.000-06:00

Iam happily getting used to this. Being lazy and not cooking elaborate!I would love to be like this forever but sometimes when I think of my bloggie and it's future, I get excited and plan on cooking something different.A lot of times, cooking happens but I won't get the time to photograph what I cook. Therefore,my blog was inactive for a good part of this month :-D

For the past few days, something was on my mind and I had to make it,as always, from scratch!It was our favourite Pani Puri! If you like Chaats, you will love Pani Puris! In India,it's usually sold by the plate (with a specific number of Puris on it) but when you make it at home, you are the one who decides how many puris should be on a plate! I should rather keep quite than blurt out the number of puris on my plate :-)

Of course, we shared it with our friends too! What's special in cooking something special and not sharing it with people you like? I must say, they all loved it.It was an instant hit with the two of us. The tangy spicy Pani (water) was so so good! This is a messy thing to eat and you have to eat it the messy way, with your fingers.

This time, when Amma and I went to Delhi, we stopped by the India Gate and the first thing we did there was to eat Pani Puris from a roadside vendor. It was YUM!They store the Pani in earthenware pots so it remains very very cool,making this wonderfully spicy tangy crunchy thing super duper delicious! This is so so simple to make at home and this recipe is just plain wonderful!

HOMEMADE PANI PURI/GOLGAPPA/PUCHKAS/GUPCHUP
Recipe Source: Manjula's Kitchen

Ingredients:
For Puris
1/4 c all purpose flour
3/4 c semolina/rava
About 1/4-1/2 c water

Method: Mix the dry ingredients together, in a bowl. Add enough water to it to form a smooth yet firm dough. Knead to make it soft,about a minute or so.Cover it with a damp towel and leave it aside for 10 mins. Form 60 tiny balls and roll out into small circles, around 2 inches in diameter. Keep these under a damp towel or else they will get dry.Fry them in hot oil. Add one circle at a time and press down with a slotted spoon till it puffs up, then turn it and let it continue frying while you add the next circle of dough.Remove when they turn golden brown in colour.Reserve.

For the Pani/Spicy Water
1c mint leaves
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp tamarind syrup
5 green chilies
1 tsp black salt
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry ginger powder
1/8 tsp asafoetida
1 tbsp roasted cumin powder
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 cups water

Method: Blend all the ingredients with just enough water. Check for seasonings, it should be spicy. Strain the mixture and add the remaining water. Chill overnight for best results.

Assembly: You can use boiled channa/boiled and mashed potatoes for stuffing. Drizzle some Khatta Meeta chutney and top with some diced red onions, cilantro and sev.Dip into the spicy water and enjoy!

I don't care whether it's summer or winter to have chaats! I am game for it anytime. How about you?

PARIPPU VADA / SPLIT PIGEON PEA CROQUETTES...it's time to snack!

2012-01-10T18:04:00.000-06:00

Back while I was working, every evening we would have some snack sponsored by someone in our office. I used to wait for that time of the day because it always used to be something hot like a Pazhampori/ Ethakkappam/Banana Fritters,Potato Bondas or Parippu Vadas. Babu Chetan was the one who brought us these snacks and Shyja Chechy would bring in the tea. Ah! Those were the days! :-)

A few days ago, I was thinking about those tiny parippu vadas I used to have at work. Babu Chetan bought it from a tea stall which is very popular for their parippu vadas. They were really small but very crisp and tasty. There's a widespread talk among people that parippu vada is shaped in armpits! I am sure people were kidding when they told me that but while I was shaping the vadas today, I was smiling over that. Whatever! I shaped them in my palm and made sure they don't look alike as I wanted them to look rustic !

PARIPPU VADA
My own recipe

Ingredients:
2 c Toor dal, washed and soaked for 2 hours
4 green chilies, chopped fine
5-6 pearl onions/shallots, chopped fine
1 sprig of curry leaves, torn up
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method: Drain the dal completely.Keep aside 1/2 cup of the soaked dal and grind the remaining soaked dal to a coarse paste without adding any water.Add the remaining ingredients and form small patties. Deep fry in hot oil.

It was crisp on the outside and soft inside, a perfect accompaniment for your chai! If you'd like, have a baby banana too, along with these...that's the way a lot of people prefer to eat.

HOMEMADE GULAB JAMUNS...from scratch!

2012-01-07T12:13:00.002-06:00

If you noticed the title, I have mentioned that these Gulab Jamuns are made from scratch. It's just to avoid any confusions that I had when I was searching online for gulab jamun recipes. Many claimed it to be homemade (in the literal sense) and when I reached the recipe part,it asked for xyz brand of Gulab Jamun mix. I can get away with a readymade mix and I have done that many times before but knowing the person that I am, I have to make things at home, if it's possible :) I have searched high and low for a reliable source for it's recipe and have tried quite a few and I must say all of them were disasters. The main problems were a super sticky/stiff/dry dough or gulab jamuns not soaking the syrup.

Ateast once a week, there would be these experiments in our kitchen and when Jobin comes back home, instead of saying a 'Hello' it used to be 'This is the last time I'm ever going to try this!'. Everything went wrong but I never gave up. So after that, when he opened the main door,he would sniff, smile and say,'I thought last time was the last time!'.

So after many a 'last' time, I got hold of a proportion which worked like a charm for me! You will have to be careful about the consistency of the dough or else it will break while frying.If that happens, add a little more flour to the dough and fry another one.

HOMEMADE GULAB JAMUNS
My own recipe

Ingredients:
For the dumplings
1 1/4 c milk powder (Use Everyday- It's available at Indian grocery stores)
1/2 c all purpose flour/ maida
A good pinch of baking soda
3 tbsp cold butter
A few drops of cold milk (not more than 3 tbsp)

Method:Mix together milk together, flour and baking soda. Add the cold butter and rub it well into the flour.It will change the texture of the flour. Add milk little by little( you may or maynot need all of it) and form a smooth yet firm dough. Divide into 25 smooth small balls and deep fry in hot oil.Add the fried dumplings into hot syrup (recipe below) and leave aside for 30 mins.

The oil should not be very hot or else the centre wouldn't be cooked completely. Add a ball of dough into the hot oil, it should settle at the bottom and rise slowly at the count of 10.That is the perfect temperature for frying the dumplings.

For the sugar syrup
1 1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 water
5 green cardamom pods, crushed

Method: Boil together for 5 mins and keep warm on low heat.
Serve warm or chilled.It's delicious when served with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream.

You can flavour the syrup with Rose water too.

The end result was melt-in-your-mouth Gulab Jamuns. The centres were perfectly cooked and the syrup was well absorbed making the dumplings pleasantly sweet. We really love these homemade Gulab Jamuns,especially Jobin! If at any point you feel that the dough is breaking during frying, add some more flour to the dough and knead it in. Your problem will be solved! :-)

KAPPA ERACHI/KAPPA BIRIYANI / YUCCA BIRIYANI/CASSAVA BIRIYANI... a true delight!

2012-01-02T19:43:00.000-06:00

Iabsolutely adore my Ammai's rather Mammai's Kappa Erachi. Mammai is my Appan's sister and they live in Kothamangalam,very close to Amma's twin sister.Whenever we go to Mammai's house,she will definately have this dish for one of our meals at their place and we gorge on it. It's so so yummy. I cannot describe better!I sometimes wonder how such simple & humble things when put together makes such a mouthwatering,fantastic dish!

Offlate, I've been thinking of making it at home and I've never made it before. Amma used to make it in Kannur and her's is maybe a 10% different from Mammai's Kappa Erachi.I love it both! Yesterday, as we got out of church, I made up my mind that we are going to have Kappa Erachi for dinner. I told Jobin 'Let's go to the Indian store on our way back to buy some Kappa and Beef.' He agreed instantly because even he loves it!

After a few minutes he asked me if I knew how to make it and he can help me in the kicthen because we would be getting back home pretty late. I had no concrete idea as to how to make it but still had a plan in my head because I wanted to eat it so badly. When I feel like that about food,no matter what, I want to do the cooking because I have to get the dish the way I have pictured it in my mind...tastewise,colourwise & in looks! :-)

After a quick call to Amma,I had some guidelines to follow and she also told me why Mammai's tasted different because she adds some spices while tempering the dish! :-) I did the same and the end result... was mindblowing! It hardly takes anytime to make this wonderful thing!

KAPPA ERACHI/KAPPA BIRIYANI
My own recipe

Ingredients:
For the beef curry
1 kg bone-in beef
2 medium onions,diced
1 large tomato,chopped
3 green chillies, slitted
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tbsp red chili powder
2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste

Method: Mix all the ingredients together, in a pressure cooker and cook till the beef is cooked completely. There should be some water remaining, if not add about 1 cup of water and keep aside.

For the Kappa/Yucca
2 large roots of yucca,cleaned and chopped to 3-4 inch pieces approx.
Plenty of water
Salt to taste

Method: Boil the chopped yucca in lots of water and enough salt till 3/4th cooked. Drain of the excess water. Add the yucca to the beef and mix.You can mash up some pieces of the yucca and add more water,in case you need the biriyani to be a little loose.Simmer for 5 mins.

For the tempering
1/2 c coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
10 pearl onions, chopped
1 inch ginger ,chopped fine
6-8 cloves garlic,chopped fine
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chili powder

Method: Heat oil, crackle the mustard seeds. Add onions, ginger and garlic and saute till onions are golden brown in colour. Switch of the heat and add the powders and saute for 30 seconds.Pour over the yucca and beef and mix well. Check for salt.

This dish will thicken as it cools, so make sure it's a little loose,like a thick porridge.

Now that I have mastered the art of making a very good Kappa Erachi, I'm a happy girl!! We had a fabulous dinner, last night! All you Kappa Biriyani lovers, do try this and if you do, let me know! :-)

Happy New Year!

QUICK ONE POT CHICKEN STIR FRY for 900,000 HITS!

2011-12-24T14:01:00.001-06:00

Let me quickly wish you all a Very Merry Chirstmas because we will be busy tomorrow and I am not sure when can I update this little space again :-) Now onto the wonderful dish...I would at any point cringe at the idea of making a Chinese dish with coconut Oil. Infact, one of my friend's mom used to make Fried Rice in coconut oil and to be honest, it was a cross between a very Malayali pulao and something which I couldn't recognise. It was tasty, I agree but I couldn't agree to the fact that it was a fried rice.All said and done, this chicken fry has the most weirdest combo of soy sauce,coconut oil and curry leaves!!!

This is the way Amma sometimes made a quick chicken fry for lunch and she always made it with bone-in chicken pieces.Today, I am making it with boneless skinless chicken thighs which is my favourite part of the chicken especially for boneless preparations. The meat,no matter what remains very soft till the end even if you overcook it. I hate chicken breasts to cook with because no matter how careful I am,it overcooks and no flavour gets into it.To be honest, I like dark meat :-D

Now that Christmas is just a blink away,we are invited over for appetizer and dinner parties. Everytime we go over to parties, we volunteer to get something so that it adds one more dish to the big table full of wonderful things.Therefore, I made this chicken stir fry for an appetizer party we are going to tonight. If you want it to be really dry, you can cook for a few more minutes .This is the perfect one pot dish!

QUICK ONE POT CHICKEN STIR FRY

Recipe: Amma

Ingredients:

1 kg boneless skinless chicken thighs (can use full chicken too), cut small

1 1/2 tbsp red chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/4 c dark soy sauce (can use regular soy too)
Salt to taste
2 tsp coconut oil
1 sprig of curry leaves
1/2 red onion,chopped fine
1 tomato,chopped fine
Black pepper powder, optional

Method:
Take a pressure cooker and marinate chicken pieces in it with red chili powder,turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste, soy sauce and salt to taste. Leave it aside for 10 mins. Pressure cook it for 1 whistle, exact and switch off the heat. Let the pressure go down on it's own.
Open the lid and if there's water in it, let it evaporate on high heat for 3-4 mins. Add the remaining ingredients and saute till the pieces are dry and coated well with sauce.
Add black pepper powder if you think is needed.
Enjoy!

We adore this chicken fry, especially Jobin. Also,once you transfer the pieces to a serving bowl no matter how much you scrape the pan you will still have some saucy bits stuck here and there. DO NOT throw that away instead use your fingers to enjoy that goodness! It's just so so so good!! :-) Also, I wouldn't dream of making this in any other oil other than coconut oil :-D If you are not like me, go ahead and use vegetable/canola oil.

PERFECT CARAMEL CUSTARD ...for any occasion!

2011-12-21T22:40:00.000-06:00

Ihave never ever come across anyone who doesn't like this delicious soft,melt-in-the-mouth pudding. I hope I don't, ever! I love this pudding and this would be my comfort dessert,anytime of the day, warm or cold.This is that pudding Amma makes when unannounced guests comes knocking on the door and I'm sure it's the same with many of you guys.Actually, do we need any excuse to make this deliciousness??

I've been thinking of making this pudding for sometime now because we both love it and therefore I don't need another reason to make it! I've seen many recipes which uses custard powder,cornstarch ,lots of eggs plus egg yolks but this one is just a basic recipe.I have added condensed milk in the custard which you can clearly substitute with white sugar,to taste.

The best part of making this pudding is when you turn it upside down which reminds of an incident which happened in Amma's twin ,Daisy mummy's house. Daisy mummy and Jose uncle runs a homestay in Kothamangalam and once I was there with them when they had about 150 guests for lunch.She made a variety of desserts and Caramel Custard Pudding was one amongst them. I was put in charge of turning the pudding upside down onto the serving platter and everything went fine except for the last one. No matter what I did,it never turned upside down and this being a delicate dessert I was worried about tossing it back and forth. She was in a hurry fixing other stuff and attending her guests but I had to call her. She came in and I told her the problem and she tried her hand at it. Nothing changed, it still fell the other way round, the caramel was at the bottom. Finally,we caught the culprit...the maid who was in charge of wiping the pudding moulds buttered that particular tin! So lesson learnt...never butter the mould for a Caramel Custard!

I was very careful to remember that,just in case ;-) The bowls you see in the photographs were sent to me by Wayfair for a product review. They are really good to bake with and it releases the baked goods very easily. They look pretty as is.

PERFECT CARAMEL CUSTARD
My own recipe

Ingredients:
2 c whole milk
1/2 c sweetened condensed milk
5 tbsp white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c sugar

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F/ 180C .
In a saucepan,add milk, condensed milk and 5 tbsp sugar and bring to a boil.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs till well blended. Drizzle hot milk into it while beating all the time.
Strain the mixture to avoid any egg white lumps in the custard.
In a pan, on medium heat, caramelise 1/2 c sugar till golden brown and pour it into the pudding mould. Swirl to coat the sides. Pour the milk-egg mixture into the moulds.
Place the moulds into a baking tin with tall sides and pour hot water just so that the bowl are immersed halfway. Bake for 40 mins or till the centres are still jiggly and when a knife inserted comes out smooth.Let it cool for half an hour.
Release from the sides and invert onto the serving platter.Serve warm or chilled.
Enjoy!

Did I convince you enough, for you to make some of these? Go and bake away! If you want it a bit more firm, bake it a little more, about 5-8 mins.

INSTANT EGGLESS CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE & giveaway winners!

2011-12-18T20:10:00.000-06:00

Iknow some of you must have been wondering about my absence here. Well, I gather that up from the e-mails and msgs I have been recieving for the last few weeks. Everything is alright,it's just that our personal computer is out for servicing so,I rarely get the time to sit with his computer to upload pics and blog about it.Now that I am back, it's time for some yummy Chocolate Mousse Cake! Don't you all know my love for a good Chocolate Mousse?

I just assembled 2 of my favourite components together to make this dessert. A sponge cake and some Instant Eggless Chocolate Mousse. Yes,it's that easy and hardly takes anytime! I made this for a potluck Chritmas party last night and the kids loved it, more than the adults :-)

Remember the Cake Recipes I was talking about to you guys,which was featured in Vanitha? I finally got hold of a copy,actually the folks at Malayala Manorama sent me a copy. When I blogged about it saying I haven't seen it yet,I get an e-mail from my reader Shani with an atttachement which was nothing but an entire e-copy of Vanitha! I am so grateful to you all,for such wonderful connect !

So after I won the Pachakarani title, I recieved a call from Vanitha Magazine's office asking if I could bake some cakes for their December issue and tihs was just a few days before I left to US after my long holiday in Kannur. Inspite of all the crazy packing and last minute things happening at home, I found sometime to bake and decorate these cakes: Old Fashioned Fruit Cake,Black & White Torte, Brown Butter Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting & Flourless Mocha Truffle Cake. Even though it might sound cliche, I have to say, each one of them tasted so good! Amma, the cake hater in my family & Appan loved the Black & White Torte the most. The remaining portion was carefully packed and taken for a small family get together we had that evening and the Mocha Truffle Cake was the star, there! My lil brother,Ritchie,dug into it rightaway! I'll be posting the recipes for each one here, in the coming days...so stay tuned!

INSTANT CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE
Recipe for the cake: Amma
Recipe for the mousse: Nigella Lawson

For an 8 inch cake,you need:

1 batch of Chocolate Sponge
1 batch of Instant Chocolate Mousse
1/2 batch of soaking syrup

Assembly:
Cut the sponge into 2 horizontally and place it on a springform tin.Soak it with the soaking syrup and top it off with the Chocolate Mousse. Let it set in the fridge for 1 hour and then top with remaining cake,crumbled up and drizzle some melted chocolate over it.
Serve chilled.

The winners for the giveaway are :

1. Fruit Cake : Divya Vikram
2. Gingerbread Man:Nina Matthew
3.IPad cover:Jayz

Congratulations!!!!Please send me your postal address as soon as possible to airmathew AT gmail DOT com.

So, are you all waiting for the Santa to come down the chimney? I sure am! :-)

MINI AUNTY'S CHOCOLATE CAKE...for A Sweet Punch!

2011-12-07T18:27:00.001-06:00

It doesn't usually happen this way...Jobin asking for a cake because there will be some cake at any point in our house,any time of the day. We ran out of cakes which means we were out of desserts after every meal! We don't need anything fancy, all the time but sometimes yes. When he asked me for a dessert the other day, I asked him what he wanted and he said that cake I made when newly-weds G &J came home for dinner. I knew it! He loves that cake and any cake made along that line.Finally we settled for a chocolate cake .

So Chocolate Cake, huh? Hmm,I have umpteen choices in that one thing. Which one do I bake? Which one is my all time favourite? Which recipe needs another try? Whose recipe should I try? Cookbook recipes or family recipes? Yes! Family recipe, it is!

Mini Aunty,Tia's mother,is one of my most favourite aunts! She is a fantastic cook! I love her cakes, savory pies,manga pacchadi,moru curry,meen curry,cheemmen fry ,beef olathiyathu and oh! how could I forget her paper thin ghee dosa's and thenga chammanthi! She made me a Dosa convert!

She is Amma's brother's wife and all their kids and we were of the similar age,so we all got along very very well! Infact all our vacations were spent together, we still do if we get a chance. This time, in September, right after her daughter's wedding,we went to visit Jobin's sister in Kashmir. That way, I'm so happy to have spent some quality time with her, after one and a half years!

While I was studying in college, they lived in Bangalore for almost 3 years and I lived with them even though I was paying rent elsewhere :-) The power of lovely people and yummy food attracted me to their house. Mini aunty used to bake cakes once in a while and her chocolate cakes were really tasty. I got this recipe from her, long ago and she is very generous in sharing recipes, unlike a lot of other people who I personally know of! :-)

Mini Aunty's Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c butter, at room temperature
1 c warm milk
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F and line a loaf tin.

Sieve flour, salt and baking soda together. Reserve.
In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 c warm milk with 4 tbsp cocoa.
In another big bowl, on high, beat together butter and sugar for a minute. Add the eggs and beat till light and fluffy.Add flour and 1/2 c milk alternately and beat until fluffy. Add the cocoa-milk mixture and vanilla and beat for a minute. Pour into the tin and bake for 45-50 mins or till done.

Enjoy!

So I'm finally back baking with our baking group : A Sweet Punch. I have been away for a long time now and I hope this cake bring me back to baking with the group regularly.

This is just a good old cocoa cake. I love it and infact I really think you all should try it sometime as it is going to be your favourite too! You can slice it horizonatlly into 2 or 3 and then sandwich it with some yummy chocolate fudge frosting and then cover it with some more. Sprinkle some sprinkles and then stick a candle or two to make it into a birthday cake! :-) Plus, if you are looking to give something exciting for your lil one this season, maybe you could take a look at these kids kitchen play sets!

SERRADURA- A no bake/no cook layered Portuguese dessert!

2011-12-01T08:32:00.002-06:00

There's more, much more to Christmas than candlelight and cheer.It's the spirit of sweet friendship that brightens all year.It's thoughfulness and kindness,it's hope reborn again,for peace,for understanding and for goodwill to men'.

~Author Unknown~

This is the World's most easiest dessert, to date, according to me! Really! I always always look out for things which are easy to cook yet looks and tastes delicious. This is one among them and this will top my list of the most easiest dessert ever! Not convinced yet? Read through rest of the post and see if what I'm saying is right or wrong :-) You hardly need 10 mins to whip up a bowl of this wonderful delicious dessert!

When I was in India for my vacation,we had a wedding to attend in Goa. My most favourite cousin, Tia, was getting married to her long time boyfriend, Nitish. I was one of the bridesmaids for her wedding. It was such a beautiful ceremony.So, on the previous night, we had a ceremony called 'Madhuramveppu' and this was the dessert for that night. We all loved it and was trying all ways possible to get the recipe for it.We asked Tia what the name of the dessert was. She said something which none of us could remember!

So the day after the wedding, before Amma and myself left for Delhi,my cousin Rosily found out that the caterers for Madhuramveppu had a restaurant closeby to where we were staying. That means, they will have the same dessert on the menu!! So without wasting another minute, we set out to finding Ernesto's.Making sure we saved some space for the much awaited dessert, we had a small lunch and then gorged on 2 full bowls of Serradura.Then we rushed back to the hotel to pack our bags and catch the next train to our respective destinations with one thought in our minds,'Get the recipe for this dessert!'.

SERRADURA

My own recipe

Ingredients:

20 marie biscuits

1c cream

6 tbsp condensed milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Method:

Powder the biscuits until super fine. Whip the cream to soft peaks, add condensed milk & vanilla and whip till firm peaks form.Layer them in individual bowl and refrigerate overnight *.

*The Serradura I had was frozen.If you want to do that, freeze the dessert and then leave it outside 20 mins before serving time.It is absolutely delicious this way! It melts in your mouth. I also sprinkled some cocoa powder over the last layer of biscuit,for an effect :-)

Serradurra means 'sawdust' in Portuguese.I think this is becasue of the texture of the finely ground biscuits. You really have to powder it very fine to get the real texture for this dessert.Use your mixie for this purpose.I searched high and low on the web for this recipe and they all looked similar and very easy! So I thought of coming up with my own proportions.Adjust the sweetness to your taste.You just cannot go wrong with this dessert.This is one of our favourite desserts and one cannot eat a large quantity because it's rich and heavy.So when you serve, serve it in small portions. I sincerely hope you all try this because it's worth it! :-)

Have you entered the giveaway yet? If not, please do!

Thanks for all emails asking me about my absence here...lots are happening on the personal front! Don't worry, it's nothing bad, it's everything happy but I just cannot find the energy to blog like before! :-) I have a happy news to share! I am featured on VANITHA December 2011 with my 4 Christmas special cakes, so when you get the time, grab a copy and have a look. I haven't seen it for myself but I heard the cakes look good :)

MILLIONAIRE'S SHORTBREAD BARS...for 800,000 hits!

2011-11-14T11:38:00.001-06:00

So, this little space of mine crossed 800,000 hits and I want to celebrate it with something sweet,something simple yet something simply delicious. If it has chocolate in it, it's an added bonus!I have a special liking towards shortbreads,especially these Ultimate Shortbreads! I love the fact that they are super easy to bake and it tastes like a piece of heaven! These 3 tier bars are another version of my favourite shortbreads and they are an instant hit whenever and wherever I have served them.It's quite a complicated looking one but trust me, you can pull it off in less than 30 mins (cooking time)!

Now that we both (Jobin & myself) are back to our regular routine,we are enjoying looking at our new home from different angles,keeping things straight , moving the furniture a bit that side just to see if it looks better being closer to the wall, we painted together. Oh yes, we painted 2 walls in our condo, together. One in our bedroom and one in our living room. The bedroom has an olive green paint with white bold stripes and the living room one has a nice ocean blue colour. I hope to stencil my kitchen wall, very soon. I have a pot of mint growing steadily even now and it keeps me company while I roll the chapathi's for Jobin, for his lunch.I always thought I never had a green thumb but the truth is every living plant need some water, every now and then ;-)

This recipe has been mentioned here before but I thought it needed more attention just like my Chocolate Biscuit Pudding, as it is something you all should try, atleast once in a lifetime. OK, so what if you are on a diet? Atleast, make this for someone else so that you can experience what I experienced when I cut into the layers. It's such a monochormatically (?) perfect dessert/snack which is equally heavy on the stomach as it has quite a lot of butter in it :-) Hmmm, that reminds me of the days in Kannur when there was a butter shortage and I how I used to miss baking then! :-)

MILLIONAIRE'S SHORTBREAD BARS
Ingredients
Base:
120g butter
60g sugar
175 g flour

Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C and line an 8x8inch square tin with foil with some extra foil hanging over the sides.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.Add the flour and mix to form a dough.Pat the dough into the tin and prick with the tines of a fork.Bake for 20 mins or until pale golden brown in colour. Keep it aside.

Caramel filling:
120 g butter
60g sugar
2 tbsp caramel syrup (melt some sugar till golden brown)
200ml condensed milk

On medium high,boil all the ingredients together till it starts to leave the sides of the pan. Pour over the baked base.

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Melt and pour 150 g of dark chocolate over the caramel layer. Let it set in the fridge till the chocolate firms up. Cut into bars and enjoy!

I demonstrated these bars for a class of mine in Kannur, a month ago and all of them loved it. Go on, try this immensely satisfying goodie and let me know how you liked them! This is perfect for birthday parties, lunch boxes or even as a midnight snack, which is what I would chose this to be :-)

ULLI THEEYAL / PEARL ONIONS IN TANGY ROASTED COCONUT SAUCE

2011-11-10T12:10:00.002-06:00

Till I was in 5th standard, Perappan & Peramma (Amma's elder sister)used to live just 100 m away from our school which in simple words meant, I get to eat piping hot lunch everyday! Their youngest daughter, Prinu ,who was in 10th then would wait for me with her friend, Fairooz by the school gate, after the lunch bell. We three would walk together talking , actually they would be talking and I would be listening to the big girl's talks. As we approached their house,I could tell what we were having for lunch because it used to smell so good! If it was fish fry then it's easy to tell :-)

Peramma makes the most awesome sauce fish fry (esp.Sardines/Mathi/Chala)! She had this little pan, maybe a 6 inch fry pan which had some dents and no handle. She used that only for fish fry and I used to tell her I wanted that pan when she was planning to throw it away because I believed that that pan gave the fish fry some extra taste. I think and still thinks, it did!

So fish fry was a regular at their house and another thing was a regular too! A Theeyal! It could be a 'pavakka'/bittergourd theeyal or someother theeyal. If that was there, I wouldn't even need a fish fry because the theeyal was delicious on it's own! I would finish up my rice and curry very soon and lick my fingers and every last bit of the curry left on the plate.Then I would go wash my hands (without soap!) and wait for Prinu to wash her's so that we can go to her room and tie our plaits once again :-) Peramma used to tie our plaits after lunch. I had just shoulder length hair (even now!) and Prinu had a little more longer hair. So,the two things I envied in her then, was the length of her hair and height. I used to stand on my toes to reach her height and I used to bend my head back so that my hair touched my waist! :-)
On our way back to school, I would cover my nose with my right palm and smell it, so that I could get the 'Theeyal' smell, till it lasted! Now you know why I didn't wash my hands with soap :-)

Now, when I look back, it feel so funny to realise that I am 5'10" tall...3 " more than Prinu but my hair is still shorter than hers. She lives in Kenya and the last time I saw her was before our wedding. Peramma still makes the best theeyal and fish fry. When I was home this time, I asked Amma to make a Theeyal for me and she said she will but ,Peramma's is still the best :-) Yesterday,when I spoke to Amma, I asked her for the recipe because for the last 2 days I so badly wanted to have Theeyal and therefore thought of trying it at home and compare the taste of mine with Peramma's. The method of cooking was exchanged and I made a mental note of it. After we hung up, I went straight to the kicthen and started cooking.I knew it's a simple recipe and all I wanted was that exact taste,like the original.

ULLI THEEYAL
My own recipe

Ingredients:
1c pearl onions/kunjulli/chommanulli
5 green chilies/serrano
11/2 c freshly grated coconut
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
Salt
Tamarind, lime size soaked in 1/2 c water.
Water

Method:
Cook the pearl onions, green chilies & salt in 1 cup water till the onions are soft .I don't chop the onions, I use them as whole.
In another wide pan, on medium heat, fry the grated coconut till they turn dark brown in colour. This decides the colour of the curry. Make sure you don't burn it but it should be dark brown. Take it off the flame and add the spices. Keep mixing for a minute or two so that the spices don't burn from the heat of the coconut and the pan.Let it cool.
Grind the roasted coconut to a smooth paste with just enough water to aid in the process.
Add the ground coconut to the pearl onions and cook till it boils.
Extract the pulp from the tamarind and add it to the curry.Check for salt.
Let the curry boil to a consistency you like. I like it thick.This curry will thicken as it cools. You will see a thin layer of oil floating on top, which comes from the coconut that was used.I would say, that's the way a perfect Theeyal would look like :-)

* We don't temper anything to pour over this curry but if you want you can temper some mustard, dry red chillies and onions in coconut oil and pour over.

I'm so happy that it tasted just like the original. When I say original here,I am not saying it's the original recipe for a theeyal but it's the taste I grew up with. Do try this with Pavakka but when you do that you will have to add more tamarind to compensate for the bitterness of the gourd.This is just too perfect with a bowl of hot Kanji/Gruel and Motta porichathu/Indian Omlette.This is my comfort meal :-)

I just hung up my daily call home and when we were talking Amma asked me,'So did you make the Theeyal?' and I said,'Yes! Nallathayirunnu!' . How can I say otherwise when I'm gobbling up a childhood favourite curry of mine like soup! :-)

We are back to our regular routine now, so you should be seeing some activity here, more often! :-)

GIVEAWAY(S) !! CAKE, COOKIES & some more!

2011-11-03T11:47:00.001-05:00

Those of you who have been reading this blog of mine, for a while, will clearly know my favourite month of any year! It's December! Even though we are just in November and when people are gearing up for Thankgiving, I'm waiting for the day after Thanksgiving so that the FM stations starts playing Christmas Carols 24/7 ! I am waiting for it to snow when I listen to 'I'm dreaming of a White Christmas' since I've always pictured Christmas to be full of snow on evergreens and sloping roofs of houses. Cannot blame me, blame the Christmas cards we get in India ;-)

Anyway, I'm back ,after almost a one month break. So much happened in between. I got back to Minneapolis on 19th October and the very next day we got the keys to our own Condo in Downtown Minneapolis :-) Then the remaining days of October was busy spent packing up, teaching a class of 25 at the same place where I taught before I left for India in July & finally moving to our new place on 28th October. From 28th till yesterday, it was just unpacking and days without internet. I must say, I never missed being online, catching up with my friends because I was so busy planning where to place our new furniture, crockery etc in our brand new home! The only thing that was giving me company was F.R.I.E.N.D.S. I love that show! I really wish they ran forever! :)

Now, let's get back to the topic, shall we? Well, some of you have baked it at home beofre and I have baked it many many times including last month for a Magazine shoot. That's the best thing to bake during Christmas.Any guesses what that thing could be? No? It's my Christmas Fruit cake, people! Yes, I am giving away a 6 inch Ria-baked Christmas Fruit Cake for ONE lucky reader of mine! Don't forget to make a claim for it because I can honestly say, that's the best Fruit Cake you will ever ever eat! My Amma, a hater of Fruit Cakes claims it to be the best :-) So that's going to be Giveaway no.1 :-)

Hmmm, now since it's gonna be Christmas time and ~~we all~~ since atleast some of us love Gingerbread Man, I'm giving away a dozen of Ria-baked Gingerbread Man, yes with full decor on them to another ONE lucky reader of mine. That's Giveaway no.2 :-)

(Photo courtesy -Anu Menon)
So a few months back, Anu and I were chatting away on Twitter and as we discussed life and other things, she asked me if she could join me in my monthly giveaways (which I have not been doing for a while!).I was so happy about the offer and I instantly agreed! As you all know, I am a big fan of everything handmade and all things homemade! Anu knew that and therefore offered me an IPad Crochet cover which she stitched to be given away for my dear readers! How cool is that? Very cool! So that's going to be the Giveaway no. 3 :-)

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For entering the giveaway :
1. Tell me your best memories of Christmas or even the month of December! Is it your wedding anniversary? Is it your birthday? My Grandmother's birthday was on December 25 th! :) Whatever it is, tell me...don't worry, your chances of winning the above mentioned 3 things does NOT depend on the length of your stories, but definitely it's content :) So write away!

2. Like my page on Facebook and leave another comment saying so, which gives you an extra chance to win! :-) [ I have to get something cleared out here after reading a comment below.This is just for pure fun, this option! You can totally skip it. I had double thoughts while putting this up but went again just to see how many of you actually do that! If it were for me, I wouldn't like a page just because I want to win a cake or a cookie but only if I really like that page's extension on Facebook. For me, in many cases, I never realised that my favourite blogs had a page on Facebook until they mentioned it on their blogs mostly during giveaways! It did help me at many instances because I get to interact with the author directly over their pages on FB :-)So please decide how you want things to be :-)No hard feelings and no way are you gonna lose your chance to win something I am giving away! I am doing this for you and it will always always always be for you, I am not expecting anything in return :-) This is not a camouflage to get more followers :-) I did think of taking off this option after reading the comment but decided not to do so because I didn't want to sit back and pretend as if I never wrote a thing like that! I hate pretense! :-)]

3. Now,tell me, what would you really like to win! I have to pick 3 winners and I'm hoping that it would help me :-)

This giveaway is only for the US residents (rather for an address in US, so you can win it for a cousin, friend or even a pet!) :-) This giveaway ends on December 10th.

ALL THE BEST!

MIXED FRUIT SWISS ROLL...for 3 years of Blogging!

2011-10-09T21:14:00.000-05:00

Please don't go away reading the title,pretty please!I promise you ,there will not be any speeches given on this special day. Even then, I do have to say that I'm very happy about it and I owe a big thanks to you , dear readers! I haven't been participating in any group baking that I used to for the last 2 months, I promise you, I shall return to it very soon! :-)

Jam rolls/ Swiss rolls has been something which my aunts used to bake. We never rolled anything sweet at home except for these yummilicious Coffee Cream Wheel .This was the time when I never quite liked anything with jam in it, so I stayed away from any such rolls. Later, when my taste buds developed I had a liking towards all these jammy treats especially My Favourite Jam Tarts , Jam Filled Cookies and also Bakewell Tart .

When I think of it , all the veggies that I disliked when young is my favourite, now! Bittergourd was something I disliked terribly and I love it with all my heart,now! Have you observed such stuff about yourselves? I bet there are plenty for you to tell me! :-)

MIXED FRUIT SWISS ROLL
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c -1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp cornflour
5 tbsp mixed fruit jam, stirred well

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line a 9x13 inch/ swiss roll tin.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs & sugar for 12 mins, non stop.Add the vanilla and beat for another 1 minute.Add the dry ingredients and fold it in.Pour into a prepared tin and bake for 10-15 mins or until the top is golden and is springy to touch.Pull it out of the oven and unmould it onto a tea towel sprinkled with sugar.Roll it away from you, along with the towel. Hold it there for 10-15 second.Open the roll and let it cool completely.Spread the jam and roll once again.
Slice and serve!

Verdict: I have lost the number of times I have used this basic sponge recipe given to me by Amma. It's so versatile.You can roll it, layer it,mould it or better still, eat it plain! This roll was very very soft and we really liked it!

FROSTED OREO COOKIE CAKE SLICES ...delicious!

2011-10-05T13:10:00.001-05:00

Are you all Oreo lovers? I bet many of you just shook your head and said, No! I was one among you all till I tasted the ones we get in US. It is very delicious and just cannot be compared with the ones we get in India. I have no idea how can you make it so tasteless, it really taste like chalk to me, not that I've eaten chalk before, you know,just for you to get an idea! :)

I baked this cake 2 months ago and it was photographed with an intention of making an appearance here which it never did until today. It's a very basic cake recipe where in the cookie crumbs are added. When I took a bite of it, I thought to myself that it would have been 1000 times better if I had made with the REAL Oreos, the ones which tastes like a piece of heaven in your mouth. I love the double stuff! Nevertheless this cake and the yummy icing tasted fabulous!

Look at how grainy the cake is! I absolutely loved the colour the cookies gave to the cake and the icing. I got this recipe from Amma's twin sister Daisy a.k.a Daisy Mummy . She got it from someone whom I've never met so cannot give you the exact source of it. Now you must be wondering why do I go in detail to tell you the source of each recipe. It's just because I've been taught to give credit where and when it's due ;) I always write the name of the person from whom I got a recipe, next to the recipe. It's a habit that I cultivated from a very long time, even before these food blogs came into existence! :)

FROSTED OREO COOKIE CAKE SLICES
Ingredients:
For the cake:
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 c milk
7 Oreo's crushed with hands

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line a 9x9 inch square tin.

Sift together the flour & baking powder.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar till creamy. Add the eggs and Vanilla and beat till fluffy.Add the dry ingredients and milk alternately ,starting and ending with flour. Fold in the crushed cookies.Pour this batter into the prepared tin and bake for 25-30 mins or till done.

For the Oreo butter frosting:
1 c sugar, powdered
1 c butter
4 Oreos, crushed with hands

Method:
In a small bowl, beat together sugar and butter till fluffy and pale. Stir in the cookie crumbs and spread it evenly over the cake. Cover the sides too, if you'd like .

Verdict: A very good cake with an equally good easy icing! Try it, dear Oreo lovers and be Oreo happy!

So as I mentioned in my previous post , there was a Cook-Out with me, planned by the YWCA,Kannur. It was a fund raising event and I am so happy that I could contribute. There were 51 attendees for my class (my biggest number till date!) and I was very happy to cook for all of them!! :) This time around, Amma was my assistant! :-D

Menu: Mini Cheese Pasta Rolls ,Easy Rice Roti's,Murgh Methi Malai ,Coffee-Chocolate Triangle Cake & Vanilla Pannacotta with Pomegranate Sauce .

Tomorrow would be my last session of classes in Kannur and I am ending it on a sweet note with a luscious Cheesecake,layered and filled Shortbreads,some Scones and a creamy Pudding with a fruit sauce! A reader of mine, Maya, will be joining us tomorrow to learn from me :) I sincerely hope she finds what she came looking for :)

MEDIA MENTION & A COOK OUT!

2011-10-01T04:44:00.001-05:00

Ibelieve that a photograph can speak volumes more than words do. Do you agree? Even if you don't,please agree this time as I am quite lazy to type out today :) You would have read about it here before and it was always been a dream of mine to be featured on Vanitha as that was one magazine I grew up reading, even though it was Amma who subscribed for it :)

This article appeared on the current issue of Vanitha and I was so excited about it. Amma saw it first and she soaked it all in before Appan could see or else they both would have been having a tug of war with the magazine. Later Appan decided to surprise me and he shuffled up the pages. But it was long before I woke up. They both waited thinking I would come down soon and since that didn't happen,Appan decided to come up and wake me :-)

He just whispered something to me and I ran downstairs to see it! :) It was such a happy day for Amma and myself as we both were featured in it along with our recipes.All our phones have been ringing non-stop for the last 3 days with relatives and friends ringing up to congratulate us.Our family friend and fellow food blogger,Rinku Naveen , surprised me with her Kalathappam that evening. She came home and rang up to tell me that she is waiting outside :) It is one of my favourite tea time snack.

As you can see above, there's a Cookery Class hosted by yours truly arranged by the YWCA ,Kannur on 3 October.These posters have been stuck on walls here and it's so funny when people recognise you after that! I have no idea how many people are going to be there but I know one thing for sure, you will get to see a snap of my class :-) The menu has been fixed and sent to the organisers. So, now all I have to do is go take the class :-)

Have a good weekend!

COFFEE- CHOCOLATE TRIANGLE CAKE...for an 18th BIRTHDAY!

2011-09-27T07:39:00.002-05:00

It's my little brother's birthday and he turned 18 today. He's grown up so much from the last time I saw him. He is 6'3" now but is still the same soft hearted little boy we know. He still irritates me the same way every time I bake a cake or every time he wants me to bake a pizza for him. I was doing the swirls on his birthday cake very calmly and there he comes asking for a big piece of the cake. I told him 'NO!, you can't today!' and he goes,'I want that cake today and not tomorrow, so give it to me!'. Argh! That irritating little brother! ;) He even warned me that he will be attacking the cake while I am fast asleep dreaming of all things possible. That ended my hope of sleeping peacefully last night :-D

Oh yes, in our house we all know what cake we are getting for our birthdays because we cannot hide it from each other as we have just one fridge which is raided by all of us for some goodies or the other every now and then!
This is a technique I've been waiting to try from atleast 13-14 years now and today was that day! It's a very very simple technique and I'm up for these things anytime! You would have seen that in my Checkerboard Cake & Honeycomb Cake . Call me crazy but I love standing near the cake analyzing how to slice it so that I can get the design I have in mind. You will find me walking around the cake, bending down to get it to eye level, standing up scratching my head...as if it's an experiment. Oh yes! all these are my little experiments :)

I saw this cake many many moons ago for the first time in my favourite little town called Panjim, Goa. It was in my dream store called 'Pastry Cottage'. Me and my cousin,Tia, the newly-wed now, went there together and I was in a complete paradise. I must have stood there and gazed at all the different varieties it had to offer and the one thing which caught my complete attention was the 'Chocolate Pyramid' cake. I stood there and wondered how on earth did the baker manage to get those vertical stripes when Amma make horizontal ones.

I got out of the store with a vision in my mind...If I ever open up a Cake shop, this is how it would be. Really, it was my wonderland. I wanted to go there this time when we went to Goa but we were so hard pressed for time with all the wedding preparations, rehearsals and above all, meeting all my family on Amma's side. We all stayed at the Panjim Inn and had a gala time. We are quite large with 75 members and still counting so you can imagine what fun it would have been to get together and stay under the same roof. I pity the neighbours! ;-)

The beautiful crockery you see in the photographs are my Grandmother's .Appan came up with this brilliant idea of searching through her crockery collection to match the cake for today :-) She has this amazing collection of the best crockery possible and this is just 1/5th of it. I inherited her craze for crockery and cooking :-) The one you see above is handpainted and Made in England and they were bought by her in late 60's early 70's.There are plenty more in her collection and some of them are so exquisite that we can never find such pieces now.I'm sure she would have been gleaming if she was alive to see this here. I bet she is the one who is pushing me into all these things that lead me to winning the title,'Pachakarani '. Even Amma believes the same :)

This cake was made in a jiffy with a sponge cake & a ganache recipe which is engraved on my brain. Wake me up at whatever time of the night you want and ask me to bake a cake for you, I'll bake you this one :-) I must have baked this sponge some 100 times and it's worked for me always! Just make sure you beat the batter on high continuously for 12 mins...no breaks for phone calls please ;-)Let me not try and explain and then confuse you with the how-to for the 'triangular' part of the cake. I learnt this by reading a lot of material from the library all this while and finally found a link online which will make things a LOT easier for you :) I should have checked for it online instead of all the work I made my brain do :-)

COFFEE - CHOCOLATE TRIANGLE CAKE
You will need:
1 large Coffee sponge cake (Recipe source -Amma)
1 large portion of Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:
For the Coffee sponge cake:
6 large eggs
1 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour/maida
2 tbsp cornstarch/cornflour
1 tsp instant coffee powder

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180C .
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar on high for 12 minutes resulting in a very thick mousse like batter. Sift the dry ingredients over it and fold it in.
Pour the batter into a prepared rectangular cake tin and bake for 30-35 mins or till the skewer inserted comes out clean. Let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then flip it over onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Once cooled, cut the cake into half horizontally and then into 3 which will give you 6 small rectangular pieces of cake.

Ingredients
For the Chocolate Ganache:
250 ml fresh cream/heavy whipping cream
250 g dark chocolate

Method:
Chop the chocolate into equal sized pieces and reserve them in a heatproof bowl.
Bring the cream to a boil and then pour it over the chocolate pieces. Let stand for 3-4 mins.
Stir till you get a nice chocolate-y cream. You can chill it for 15-20 mins to get a thicker consistency which is what I prefer.

Verdict: This cake was superb! I know it's just a plain coffee sponge and a good ganache, but it was really really good. That's because the cake layers were super thin and every layer was sandwiched with a thick layer of ganache which resulted in the melt-in-your-mouth texture. I will not recommend soaking the layers for this kind of a cake because it will be super messy to cut to form a triangle. Therefore use a cake which is not dry.

We loved it! Appan said,'This cake is awesome!How did you make it so good?'. Amma asked for a second piece and knowing the cake-hater that she is, it sure must have been good. Ritchie, the birthday boy, a man of very few words stood there and gobbled up 2 pieces in a row. I had my share of this cake after the photo session was over and Ritchie found me smiling and he asked me why :-) The entire cake was cut and devoured in less than 20 mins!

I'm pleased with the photographs here because none of them were edited! :-)

POSTCARD FROM KASHMIR - LAKE NAGEEN

2011-09-23T07:29:00.000-05:00

Iam back home,in Kannur. Got here late last night and I still feel that I am moving even if I sit on a chair :) The whole trip of ours (Amma & myself) was so much fun! We had a wedding to attend in Goa and then the reception in Delhi, so we thought of visiting our relatives and family who lived in between :) So for the last 2 weeks we travelled from Kannur to Goa to Delhi to Haryana to Agra to Gwalior to Kashmir back to Delhi and finally back to Kannur.

It definately feels good to be back home, to stretch your legs and to sleep on the same bed you have been sleeping for years together.I didn't know we missed our home much until Amma started making lunch this afternoon. She was sauteeing Tindoora/Kovakka for a Mezhukkupuratti and our home was filled with the aroma of coconut oil! Seriously, there's no place like home!

So here's a photograph I took from Lake Nageen. Please do not mistake it for the Dal lake which is the most popular one among the Indian tourists. Lake Nageen is less crowded and therefore is preferred more amongst the foreign tourists.We decided to go there because of it being less crowded. Actually we were the only tourists who were there at that time therefore it was a very pleasant experience.The 'shikara' (the boat you see in the photograph)is very comfortably done up that we can actually sleep in it :)

I shall be back with some more photographs for all those who haven't been to the 'Paradise On Earth' - Kashmir.

Till then,

THE 'TITLE' I EARNED...PACHAKARANI 2011

2011-09-15T22:30:00.001-05:00

There's so much to tell you all, so very much! Sadly that will have to wait as I'm travelling right now covering 3-4 states in a day's time, in India.I'm off to Kashmir tomorrow to spend sometime with my family, Jobin's sisters family. So when I return, I shall update you with some pictures that I took from here and there during my small trip. Also, I must tell you that I am so badly tanned by the Goa sun! It seems it was raining there all this while but the days we were there, the sun was shining gloriously and I feared I would look like a pakora in my bestest cousin's bridesmaid dress, which I did in the end :-)

Okay, now about the picture you just saw above. Some of you must have read it on newspaper or read about it on Facebook There was a competition that me and Amma had enrolled for and we were lucky enough to be selected together. It was such a happy moment for the two of us ! There was a preliminary round where I baked a Triple Veggie Quiche & BBQ Chicken Meat balls. I came first in the 'Malabar' zone and was qualified for the finals at the State level. Amma came second. Then the finals were held in Kottayam on Sept. 6th at Windsor Castle. I made my forever favourite Chatti Pathiri & Mocha Chocolate Mascarpone Verrine. Those were my winning dishes. I never thought I'd win. I just wanted to participate along with Amma as it's very rare for a mother-daughter duo to reach finals together. All these dishes were made on the spot so we really have to prove it to them that we can do it :)

The title I earned is 'Pachakarani 2011' which means I'm the Queen of Cooking for 2011 at the Kerala state level. It was conducted by a very popular Malayalam magazine 'Vanitha' in collaboration with Whirlpool.It's such a huge honor for me as there were so many seasoned cooks competing along with me for that title. We were judged by the Executive Chefs of Taj & Dietitians. I've been to the finals of the same 4 years ago in 2008 where I came 5th. This time, I was able to prove better :-) I am so happy for Amma too since she bagged the 2nd place :) We were the most happiest souls on earth that day.

When this photograph came on the newspaper, we were travelling so Appan had to scan and send it to me yesterday once he reached home :)

Will be back with more updates,shortly! I hope all of you are doing well! Thanks to all who wrote to me after seeing this article on the newspaper :-) You guys make me feel so loved & special!! Thank you :)

LIFE IS WORTH LIVING!

2011-08-29T09:40:00.001-05:00

We were busy for the past 2 days. What did we do, you may ask?They ate and enjoyed shopping around my little town, Kannur. I enjoyed seeing them eat and driving them around this little town.I got to meet these 'komali's'/clowns almost after 2 years. They couldn't come for our wedding but we made up for all that now! :)

We are the hostel friends. None of us studied in the same class or even the same college.Some of them are my juniors but as friends, we are one good gang. We've met each others friends and some of them are our good friends now. We know each others family and now we feel like we all are part of one big family.

No matter how far away we are from each other or how rare we speak or write a note to each other, we know we are in each others thoughts.It's amazing to realise that nothing's changed between us even though some of us are married! We are still the laughing bunch of crazy girls, who still don't care about who's looking at us except for when I remind them that people may recognise me who lived all her life in Kannur! :-) I am so blessed to have such a great bunch of real real, real good girlfriends!

Life is worth living

Wherever you are,

Deep down in dungeon

Or high on a star.

Life is worth living

It all has a plan

When God knows

you're giving

The best that you can.

The saint and the sinner,

The great and the small,

We all are God's children

And He loves us all.

So pray when you're happy

And pray when you're blue,

For life is worth living

When God lives with you.

CONVERSATIONS

2011-08-25T09:28:00.001-05:00

This is the kind of casual conversations we have at home :Different cuts of meat and how to ~~eat~~ use them!

The book Appan is refering to, is from my Grandmother's cookbook collection. It is such an amazing book,The Cookery Year by Reader's Digest.

GUESS WHO?

2011-08-23T01:00:00.002-05:00

Any guesses as to who this lady could be? I've mentioned her in my Kannur Meen Curry post...she is Janu Chechy, our help at home for the last 30 plus years. She's been in our household even before my parents got married so obviously long before I was born.A lady with a big big heart. A lady who is the only support for her family.She cooks one of the best 'Kannur Meen Curry','Pachhadi' & 'Puliyum Molakum' ever!

The dish she is holding is her popular 'Puliyum Molakum'. There's no cooking involved in it actually. It's just a combination of some of my favourite things...Tamarind & Coconut Oil.She has been making this for me from the time I can remember. I eat it straight from the bowl but she tells me that I should eat it with some rice or else, it will affect my stomach.

When I was young,like really young I used to ask her every single day as to what she had for breakfast,lunch & dinner. She used to tell me various things she had and one of those days she mentioned about the 'curry' she used to take along with her for work while she worked in the paddy fields long back...very many years ago, when she was young. She called it 'Puliyum Molakum'.

PULIYUM MOLAKUM

You will need:
Tamarind
Water
One small red onion, diced
Green Chilies,chopped
Red Chili powder
Ginger
Salt
Sugar
Coconut Oil

Method:
Soak the tamarind in some water and squeeze out it's pulp.To that, add rest of the ingredients to taste.
I love a big fat drizzle of coconut oil over it.This is an awesome dip for Bhajji's or you can eat it straight out of the bowl.

So when she made Puliyum Molakum for me as soon as I reached home last month, I asked her to pose for me, for a photograph which she did very happily! Today, I saw her searching for onions so that she could make another bowl full for me...just for me :-)

COFFEE CREAM WHEEL...time to roll!

2011-08-17T14:13:00.001-05:00

We are on a roll these days.Rolling from one part of the country to another.It's just the beginning of our journey. When we booked the tickets, Amma & I insisted that we go in a train so that we get to rest atleast for that many hours!To be at home, is the best thing to ever happen to many of us and that's even more awesome if you can lose some weight, even though you are gorging on endless yummy Amma-made food!

This recipe is sensational. It is such an easy one and something you just cannot go wrong with! Did it seem that easy to you? If you just look at it, you wouldn't think so but when you actually make it, you would wonder how something so simple to make can turn out to be so tasty! Amma got this recipe from Amma's twin sister, Daisy.

Yes,my Amma,Susy, has a twin.They are identical twins, in almost everything.Sharing recipes is one of their favourite hobbies which is also passed down to me.I recently started writing another diary with just homemade recipes...mostly passed down from my aunt's and cousins. I hope to fill it by the time this vacation of mine, is over.

I have been itching to put this recipe here for a long time while I was in Minneapolis but it never happened. Today, finally it is here for you all. This is an excellent make-ahead snack/dessert and it freezes very very well! The only thing that you need to remember here is that, you have to refrigerate it. Don't leave it outside for too long or else the filling will become soft yet the taste won't be compromised :-)

You can make these really small, like a candy or big like a summer sausage. It's totally upto you as to how big or small you want these to be. Whatever size it maybe, make sure you wrap it well so that once you store it in the fridge, it doesn't get any 'fridge' taste. I always feel if desserts are not covered when left in the fridge,it get's a fridge taste and I don't like it. So whatever you keep in the fridge, cover it well. You don't want all the flavours to be mixed up or do you? ;-)

So are you all ready to make this easy peasy snack/dessert with some biscuits, butter and sugar? Say YES! please! :-)

COFFEE CREAM WHEEL
Recipe source: Amma via Daisy Mummy

Ingredients:
250 g Marie biscuits/ Graham crackers, powdered superfine
150 Sugar, powdered fine
1/2 c Warm water plus 1 or 2 (if needed)
1 tbsp Instant coffee granules
100g Salted butter,softened
1/4 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:
In a large bowl, dump in the powdered biscuits.Dissolve the coffee powder in warm water and add it to the biscuits and knead to form a smooth dough. It should not be too dry nor too wet. You should be able to kind of knead it. It will be smooth and soft, almost like a Chapathi dough.Divide it into 4.
Cream the butter and sugar. Add vanilla and beat to mix. Reserve.
Take a rectangular sheet of foil and roll out one ball of dough. It should be about 1/4" thick,as seen in the photographs above.
Spread some buttercream over it making sure it's spread all over. It need not be very thick,just a good coating would do.
Now, start rolling from the shorter side. You should roll it away from you, with out the foil. Take the help of the foil to lift the dough and to aid in rolling.
The dough will crack at the first roll but it's OK, it won't be seen in the end. Keep rolling and it will come off the foil easily.
With the seam side down, wrap the assembly in the same foil and secure the ends tight. Refrigerate till firm.
Cut into thin circles with a serrated knife, carefully with the seam side down.
Enjoy!!

Verdict: Dee-li-cious! If you like, you can serve it with an ice cream of your choice. This is something I've grown up eating and it's still one of my favourites!

CHOCOLATE - the star!

2011-08-15T23:56:00.001-05:00

For me, Chocolate is the star ingredient in Desserts. How about you? Even though I'm not a Chocoholic, I'd love to have a full slab of Cadbury's Dairy Milk all by myself. Whenever we got any 'foreign' chocolates, it was my job to divide it equally amongst the four of us. My brother, Ritchie would eat his share as fast as possible because he doesn't know to chew but to gobble. Later, he would come and try to get a good portion out of my little share of chocolates. In the beginning, I would fight with him, later I give in :-) Off late, we have been having some bars of Chocolate that our Uncle got for us. Amma saved some for me so that I could have it while I come to India for my holiday, which is what I'm enjoying now much more than that saved bar of Chocolate :-)

To see all my Chocolate Recipes, go here !

MANGALORIAN CHICKEN GHEE ROAST & NEER DOSA...simple yet classy!

2011-08-09T05:30:00.004-05:00

There are certain killer combos in food, just like made for each other couples!This is one such made for each other combination, in food. The very plain Neer Dosa is made to taste exquiste when paired with a delicious Chicken Ghee Roast.This was one of my most favourite items to order from Coast to Coast,a chain of restaurants in Bangalore which served Mangalorian food.

Being a true Malayali,I love Mangalorian cuisine as we have a lot in common, coconut being the main ingredient.So keeping all the common things aside, let's get into talking about how simple this dish is yet how fantastic it is to taste!

Neer Dosa is made out of soaked and ground rice which is then diluted with water to a very thin consistency, just like water. Neer in Kannada means water and I think it's the consistency of the batter that gave this Dosa it's name :-) Once you cook this dosa, it resembles a very soft lacy pancake! It's pure white and absolutely beautiful!

Chicken Ghee Roast as the name suggests is laden with pure Ghee. Do not even try to substitute maybe you can reduce the amount of Ghee given in the recipe otherwise the taste will be compromised. Therefore, this is not a dish you can eat on a day to day basis but only when the craving strikes or only when you feel like indulging ! That is my way of thinking and yours could be a lot different, so do according to what your heart says! :-) Nevertheless, the end product is finger licking good! Really! You'd be surprised to know how easy it is to make these two yummy items!This is originally from Kundapur, a small town close to Mangalore.

When Isha Narang from Deccan Chronicle interviewed me over the phone , she asked me about my approach to cooking. For me, cooking is pure fun but I do not consider it to be fun if it takes me one whole day to make a curry! It could be a bit of exxageration when I said 'a whole day to make a curry' but trust me, I have seen such recipes! By the end of the day,you would have just made one curry and a sink full of dishes!!According to me, simple is classy!

MANGALORIAN CHICKEN GHEE ROAST
Recipe source: Daijiworld

Ingredients:
1 kg/ 2lbs full chicken, cut into 18-20 pieces

To be ground:
15 dry red chillies soaked in water for an hour (see the picture of the curry to get an idea about the chilies used), drained
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1" stick cinnamon
4 cloves
Lime juice to taste
Salt to taste
Ghee for frying

Method:
Grind together all the ingredients for the marinade using a little water to get a thick, red paste. The colour solely depends of the kind of red chilies used. We call it 'Piriyan Molaku' in Malayalam. It is scrunched up slightly curly dry red chilies.Marinate the chicken pieces in the ground paste for 2-3 hours in the fridge, covered.
Heat about 1/4 c of ghee to start with.Add the chicken pieces and fry on high heat for 3-4 mins. Reduce the heat and then cook covered till done.
There should be some thick gravy left on the pieces and not completely dry. If it has become a bit too dry, adjust by adding some water. Check for the lime juice and salt.

NEER DOSA ( Gluten free)
Recipe source : Amma
Makes about 24 nos.

Ingredients:
1 c short grain rice (Sona Masuri)
Water as needed
Salt to taste

Method:
Soak the rice in water for 3 hours. Grind it to a very smooth and fine paste with water.It should not be grainy.
Transfer it to another vessel and add more water to make a batter of very thin consistency (think water!). Add salt to taste.Leave the batter aside for 2 hours.
Take a non stick pan with sides and heat till you can hold your palm over it comfortably.
Pour a ladle of batter on it and swirl the pan to get a nice round dosa. Since the batter is very watery, you do not have to spread it with a spoon instead you need to swirl the pan around. The dosa will have holes here and there and that's OK!
Cover and cook to fasten the process. Once you see that it's cooked,fold into half to get a semi circle. Fold again to get a triangle. Transfer it to a hot pot/casserole and keep it covered.
If you want, you can oil the pan and repeat the process.
You can make this ahead of time.

Verdict: I won't miss the Coast to Coast Neer Dosa & Ghee Roast anymore! This recipe is perfect! We all loved it and I can't wait to cook this for Jobin :-) Do try this at home, it's very very simple!

Our postman had a big box to carry and deliver today. It had multiple copies of the Sunday Chronicle on which I was featured last Sunday plus a homemade delicious cake by a very sweet reader of mine, Preetha Suju! Gosh, you guys are awesome! I always tell everyone that I have the most awesome sauce readers!! Thank you so much, Preetha! That cake was fantastic!! I mean it :-)

FEATURED ONCE AGAIN BACK TO BACK on 4 editions! :-)

2011-08-07T05:11:00.004-05:00

This morning as I woke up to Facebook ;-) I saw a post by my blogger friend Ambika Venkat on my profile page saying that my recipe for the NUTELLA- COCONUT MILK BREAD PUDDING is featured on Deccan Chronicle 's (Hyderabad Edition) Sunday Chronicle.Can you imagine how excited I was? Very very much! It feels so great to be acknowledged for what I am doing even though I had no idea what I was getting into when this little blog started!

Later, a sweet reader, Preetha Suju mentioned that it is present in the Chennai Edition too! Maybe now you can imagine how excited I would have been then! :) I would like to mention that the photograph they have on the blog is not mine but theirs. I sincerely wish they had taken mine :-) It would have been so perfect! Oh, this OCD-ic woman likes everything to be perfect, if you must know ;-)

This is a delicious bread pudding made with Coconut milk & Nutella. The coconut milk flavors the pudding very lightly and it does not overpower the taste of Nutella. Try it if you are looking for a change or simply try it just to see why it was featured on Deccan Chronicle :) I am sure you are going to like it no matter what! :-)

You can read the article here . Make sure you read it as they have given some additions that may take this pudding to another level! :-)

This article is present on Hyderabad, Bangalore,Chennai & Kochi edition! What a way to start a week! :)

Have an awesome week ahead, wonderful people!

ON MEDIA ONCE AGAIN :-) and 700,000 hits!!

2011-08-05T03:44:00.003-05:00

Yes, it's me on Deccan Chronicle today, Kochi edition! :-) You guys made it possible! Thank you all so much! :-) It's come in the perfect time as this little space just touched 700,000 hits!

If you would like to read the article, just click on the picture and it will take you to my Flickr account. There you can enlarge it and read. Enjoy!

My niece's comment on seeing this article : Riammayis photo came in the paper because she is a famous cooker. Ask her to make a chocolate cake with sprinkles and send it to me - Mira.

FROM THE LAND OF LOOMS & LORES - Koda

2011-08-04T04:36:00.001-05:00

My hand embroidered purple umbrella. No doubt,it's my handiwork :-) I have to have a monogram on my stuffs and this was one of them :-)

FROM THE LAND OF LOOMS & LORES - Meenkaaran

2011-08-03T03:19:00.001-05:00

This is our Fisherman who comes on a moped. I love the fact that he still uses that old balance which is such a rare sight these days. He's been coming to our house from a very long time but I've never felt the need to ask him his name 'cos we simply call him 'Meenkaran /Fisherman' :-)

GIVEAWAY : FROM ME TO YOU -3

2011-08-01T05:22:00.002-05:00

Where did July go?! Do you all feel time flies fast these days or is it just me and Amma? Remember our school days when we longed for the Summer holidays to arrive? It would take forever!Now, it's just the opposite! Well, the last month was quite a busy one for me with the packing and re-packing and then flying half way across the globe to come to my nest :-)

I am enjoying every bit here. So while I get busy conducting the Let's Bake (baking class) , let me give you all a chance to win some awesome CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES . These cookies will be baked by me and will be sent to any Indian address! Just in case you live in another country but know of someone who would love to get some cookies in their mailbox, leave a comment for a chance to win! I'll be picking up a winner on 31 August :-)

The winner for the last month's giveaway CINNAMON ROLLS is Divya Kudua. Congratulations!!! Please send me your postal addy to airmathew AT gmail DOT com and the rolls will be on it's way!! :)

FROM THE LAND OF LOOMS & LORES - POOVANKOZHI

2011-07-31T04:46:00.001-05:00

We have a Poovankozhi /Rooster and a Pedakozhi/Hen as our pets at home.The Poovan is really dumb and can be fooled (by me) easily. Whereas the Peda is really cunning. I can never get her to get into it's cage without bribing it with rice grains :-) They are the tamest birds I have seen till date, they follow us wherever we go!

FROM THE LAND OF LOOMS & LORES - Kaapi

2011-07-29T06:32:00.001-05:00

No coffee can beat Amma's Bru Kaapi! Period.
Taken on Day 1 at home. I really hope the time doesn't fly!

I AM GOING HOME TODAY!

2011-07-19T09:04:00.001-05:00

Yes, you read it right! I am going home. I will be in my dear dear Kannur very soon! I'll get to be in my room, my bed, my bathroom and oh! my cupboard with my old soft clothes :) Will see you all in a few days with treats from Amma's kitchen! :) That is if Appan lets Amma do the cooking and not ME as planned, by him! :-) Life of a food blogger! Sigh! ;-)

This pic was taken on 28 Feb 2010 when we flew together to the US for the very first time after our wedding. I was so excited to see the new country...experience everything what I have been dreaming of. Now, I am going home...after a year and a half, almost! So you can see how excited I am! :)

So everything is packed and I am doing the last minute cooking to stock up whatever little I can. Oh wait, the meat is done, let me go and check on that! :)

See you all soon!

WHEN A DREAM COMES TRUE.

2011-07-11T10:14:00.001-05:00

Idream a L.O.T! There are no boundaries to that, for me. I don't remember which birthday it was but I once received a coffee mug from Chandini Aunty which said 'Dream. Only you can make your dreams come true'. It is insanely true. You have to work on it if you want it to happen. You have to be persistent Fortunately for some, it just happens :-)
There is a store here in Minneapolis called the Kitchen Window. They are the biggest in the US (that's what I am told) with 14,000 items. I should say, it's a magical store. It is my wonderland. Everytime we go there, I end up spending so much time just browsing through all the books, gadgets, salts, spices,utensils...everything! They really have some amazing stuff. If you are in town, don't forget to go there. It's an awesome store.
So they have a cooking school where they conduct some real fancy classes. It is beautiful. You can see it from far away because it's doors are made of glass so everything is transparent. You can see what's happening inside. It's just beautiful. Every single time I have passed by it I have wished to have been the one behind that beautiful countertop.

And it was my turn.A very nice turn. A turn which lead me to a room full of wonderful utensils and cookware. I was like a little girl in a ~~candy~~ Dora store! I could use anything I wished to. No questions asked. No answers needed. I could use the most expensive cookware, the best ever oven/stove/ refrigerator...all of it wearing my Chef's coat and while being addressed as Chef Ria! Now that last bit doesn't happen everyday! I had 3 Culinary Assistants to help me with each and everything. They were so efficient. They chopped,prepped,arranged, helped me while cooking and in the end cleaned up the entire kitchen!It was insanley magical! During the class, a man walked in thinking it was a restaurant! The entire building was smelling of Curry when we left, no wonder he walked in! :-)

The Menu : Gobi Manchurian (with minor changes), Poori, Badami Chicken , Jeera Pulao, Kadai Vegetable & Royal Falooda. As soon as I was done with cooking each item, they were plated in the most beautiful manner by my Assistants and served.Everything came out really really well and they were an instant success. It's so nice to see people enjoying what you cook, especially right in front of you. I am usually never pleased with myself but this time , I really am! The last time was when I made this Baby Shower Cake.

Everything happened so fast that I couldn't believe it until I came out after the class. I couldn't stop beaming. Jobin was waiting for me outside the class and I think he got the idea of how I excited I was and even he couldn't stop beaming! It's so nice to have a partner who can share your happiness equally, without even having the slightest tinge of jealousy in them. I am blessed. It was a wonderful evening, for the two of us. I shouldn't forget to mention how tired I was after the class. Tired to the bones. I couldn't feel my knees, they were like jelly! :-) Also, let me tell you how wonderful it is to have a dream come true. It is awesome! Really really awesome! You fly around and it takes you many days to come back to have your feet back on the ground :-)

I am going back, in Fall. Will keep you posted on that!

Hope you all have a great week ahead! Some of the pics were taken from my camera, the rest are from Emilia.Thanks Emilia, for sending me the (90) pictures :-)

LIME POUND CAKE for Sweet Punch - Season 2

2011-07-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

Do you know how this cake got it's name? In the olden days the main ingredients used for baking this cake measured a pound each in weight. So one pound flour, one pound butter,one pound eggs,one pound sugar plus the other teeny-weeny bit of leavening agents made the original cake. Amma's Marble Cake is a perfect example for the 'real' pound cake. But these days, ~~things~~ recipes are way too different from the original but the name remains the same.

No complaints whatsoever because this cake was a decadent one. Soft, buttery, lime-y with the perfect crumb! Our apartment was filled with the aroma of citrus when the cake was baking. I would never trade it for something else. Do you like naturally- flavoured cakes or do you like it plain? I like both depending on what mood I am in, mostly. I know one thing for sure, I love cakes, be it simple or decorated.

I had plans of making a simple lime drizzle over this cake but later chose not to. I loved the way the cake looked when it came out of the oven. It had a lovely crack on the top, perfect for a Perfect Pound Cake. I sometimes like the natural designs cakes have on top, like this Sunflower patter on my One Bowl Vanilla Cake. A lot of you thought that it was a deliberate move from my side,no, it wasn't. The oven did it :-)

Coming back to the topic, our baking group, A Sweet Punch completed a year of it's existence and we are starting the Season 2 with this beautiful,decadent cake. This recipe is chosen from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbum. The cake had the perfect tight crumb and the texture was awesome! You/ve got to try this one. You will fall in love!

LIME POUND CAKE
Makes one loaf

Ingredients:
3 tbsp milk
3 large eggs
Juice & zest of 1 lime
13 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 c sifted cake flour
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F and prepare a loaf tin.

In a bowl, whisk together milk, eggs and lime juice. Reserve.
In another mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together (which includes the lime zest).
Add the butter and half the egg-milk mixture to it and mix till the dry ingredients are moistened.Beat on medium speed for a minute. This will help in aerating and developing the cake's structure. Scrape down the sides.
Add the remaining egg-milk mixture in 2 batches beating for 20 seconds in between each addition. Scrape down the sides again.
Pour the fluffy batter in your pan, smooth the surface and bake for 55 mins or till done. If you are using a fluted pan/bundt pan, keep a check on the baking time (from 35 mins onward).
Cool in the tin for 10 mins, turn out onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely.
Slice and devour!

Verdict: I made this over the weekend for the family who was visiting us. I cut them into thin slices and they vanished! On the Fourth of July, our friends came over and we grilled some Brats & Chicken Wings. I had saved some cake for the occasion, so this time, I served 2 slices each per person with Balsamic Roasted Strawberries, a drizzle of roasted strawberry syrup and a nice big scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream to beat the heat. It was yummy! Serve it any way you want, it will be delicious!

Later we walked along the river and watched the fireworks sitting on the stone arch bridge. It was breathtaking. I took this picture last year when we went to the Farmers Market nearby. It's a beautiful bridge with the Mississippi flowing beneath it.

GIVEAWAY : FROM ME TO YOU -2

2011-07-02T10:17:00.000-05:00

It's that time of the month again! I am giving away some goodies made by me :-) This time, it's for my Indian readers . After all the complaints I got last month here's your chance to win some yummy yummy Cinnamon Rolls. These rolls are so good and they will turn a cinnamon-hater to a cinnamon-lover! I was one such case!

You can read more about it on my Cinnamon Roll post. All you need to do is just leave a comment and you are automatically entered for the giveaway! So, go on! Comment away! If you win, you will be receiving 16 freshly baked yummy Cinnamon Rolls in your mailbox! I'll pick a winner on August 1.

Annnnnd the winner for June's Cookie giveaway is Reshmi Mahesh!! Congratulations Reshmi! All you need to do now is to e-mail me [ airmathew AT gmail DOT com ] your postal addy and the cookies will be on it's way :-)

This giveaway series is not sponsored by anyone, it's from me to you! So make use of it :-)

STRAWBERRY & VANILLA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU...for Summer!

2011-06-27T11:04:00.002-05:00

Not sure how many of you know about the Minnesotan weather. It's COLD...very very COLD here during winters with the temperature going as low as -40 C. Last winter was my first winter here in the US and from the Day 1 after I moved to Minnesota, whoever knew it was going to be my first winter here said,'It's long', 'It's COLD!', 'Ooooh! You have to experience it!'.

I was prepared for the worst, in my head. Therefore I expected everyday to be worse than the previous day but once it's cold, it's just COLD. It doesn't seem to get any cold-er to me until the wind blows! :-) Jobin made sure we never stayed indoors especially on the weekends, so we used to go sledging and playing in the snow. We always always had a sledge in our car so that if we ever spot a small hill covered with snow, we would stop the car there, pull the sledge out and go sledging! It was fun! I never hated those cold days...all because of him.

Last winter, my first winter lasted loooong. We skipped Spring. I was still wearing a sweater till the end of May and a few days in June. Everyday I'd wait for the sun to make an appearance. Finally we hit Summer and the days are still cloudy and rainy. Not sure whether I'll be around here to witness the Minnesota Summer this year since I'll be home sweet home! I'm trying my best to soak up the sun here...to make sure I get my dose of Vitamin D, naturally...from Mr. SUN.

I baked this cake over the weekend. To honour Summer, I used fresh berries. Strawberries, to be precise. You would have guessed that from the title :-) We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday so this cake was baked for them. I love serving cakes,not plain cakes but layered cakes for our guests,for dessert.

He had to come and touch that layer because he loves Bavarian Cream and you can see that in the picture, above! I have used it before in Jobin's Birthday Gateau & Mocha Bavarian Cream Gateau with Joconde Imprime. It's such an awesome filling for cakes and our guests love it as it is very smooth and not too sweet.It sets well and leaves a lasting impression!

STRAWBERRY & VANILLA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU
Serves:10

Ingredients:
For the sponge:
3 eggs
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla

For the Vanilla Bavarian Cream (Use only half the quantity)
22 g Gelatin
150 ml cold water
5 large egg yolks
125 g granulated sugar
500ml warm milk
8 ml Vanilla Extract
500 ml whipping cream

Soaking Syrup
1 c sugar and 1 c water boiled together for 2 mins or till sugar dissolves.

Strawberries for lining the cake tin

Method:
For the Vanilla Sponge:
Pre-heat the oven to 350F/ 180C.Prepare an 8" round cake tin.

Beat together the sugar,vanilla and eggs on high speed for 12 mins. Now, they would have tripled in volume.
Fold in the flour and pour into a prepared tin.
Bake for 30 mins or till done.
Cool in tin for 10 mins, turn it onto a cooling rack and cool completely. Cut into 2, horizontally, when cooled.

For the Bavarian Cream:
Soak the gelatin in water. Leave it aside to bloom.
Beat together the yolks and sugar. Pour in the milk while whisking constantly.
Using a double boiler,on medium, cook the milk-egg mixture till they thicken slightly, 4-5 mins.
Take it off the flame and add the melted gelatin into it and mix well.
Chill in the fridge, stirring every now and then till they thicken up.
Beat the whipping cream to soft peaks and fold into the custard.

Assembly:
On a plate or a cake stand, place one round of the cake and soak it with 1/2 c of Soaking Syrup.
Place a cake ring/Springform tin's ring and tighten it.
Place halved strawberries with their pointed tip facing up and the cut-surface facing the cake ring.
Fill in with Bavarian Cream and place the next round of cake and soak it with 1/2 c Soaking Syrup.
Let it set in the fridge overnight.
Dust with powdered sugar and serve in wedges.

Verdict: LOVED IT, like totally! :-) Jobin insists that I make something with Bavarian Cream everytime, now!

All the pictures are SOOC (Straight-out-of-the-camera)
Happy Monday, peeps! Also, don't forget to register for My Baking Class in Kannur!

WILL YOU BAKE WITH ME?

2011-06-21T14:02:00.007-05:00

After all the queries and requests from Amma's students and my wonderful readers & friends, especially in Kannur, I am finally giving into it. I will be using some of my precious days in Kannur to impart some simple baking skills for all those who are interested. It will be an informal session where we can chit chat over the silliest of doubts and at the same time learn something new, from each other. I can also tell you about 'sourcing ingredients' in Kerala :-)
I know that not all can afford to have sweets all the time, so I am having a session of savoury baking too!

Come, join me as I would love to share what I know,with you! Sweet & Savoury baking will be held on different days.

Tentative Date : 1st week of August
Venue:My home!
Time: 10 am onwards

There will be goodie bags!! :-)

If you like to participate in both, please let me know. Seats (for both) are limited .
For more details & registrations please e-mail me : airmathew AT gmail DOT com

Here's some more happy news: I am conducting an Indian Cooking Class at the Kicthen Window in Minneapolis on July 8 from 6pm-9pm. You can find more details here. If you can make it, it would be awesome!

How is your week so far?

A CAKE FOR A BABY SHOWER

2011-06-17T14:22:00.001-05:00

Iam mighty pleased with what I have done with this cake.This cake kept me awake for many nights and finally now that I am done with it, I can sleep in peace. Zzzzzz (not really!).This is for a couple here in Minneapolis and everything was left upto me to decide. All they wanted was a chocolate cake with a chocolate frosting. So after a few days of brainstorming session with Jobin &amp; myself, I was able to decide how I wanted the cake to look like in the end.

So what do you guys think about my cake? I really don't think my heart can bear to see that being cut :-)
And for your kind information, I'm not a Wilton Cake Decoration class product :-)

My blog is loading very slow for the past 2 weeks and that's why you are not able to see the comment section. Can I request you guys to please wait for the blog to load completely so that you can tell me how you like this cake? Pretty please? Thanks so much! I am working on getting it back to normal soon!

A reminder: I am giving away some cookies, so don't forget to claim it!

GIVEAWAY : FROM ME TO YOU - 1

2011-06-15T06:19:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! Are you thinking whether you read it right? You did! I am planning on some giveaway (s) on my blog. A giveaway of things made/baked/cooked or even bought by me. Every month someday, I will announce what I am planning to giveaway to my readers who have been so supportive & encouraging all throughout . It could be anything.It could be big. It could be small. It will depend on what my Gemini brain feels like in the end but let me assure you, it will be good :-)

This month,I am going to bake some cookies for you...a dozen of my favourite Wholewheat Fruit & Nut Cookies. I have been thinking about this for months together now. So did Jobin. Finally, today, I am letting you all into it :) So what are you waiting for? You guys definately deserve something for all the drooling that you have done here (that's what I am told!).This month it's open only for US residents.But if you have someone in US who would love to get some cookies in their mail, I can do that! (Thanks Nisha, for that comment!)
For all my wonderful readers in India, your time will come very soon! Real soon :-)

You have plenty of time...all the time you need till the 1st of July to comment. On the 1st of July, I'll pick a winner and the cookies will be baked fresh for you by me :-) I can't wait for that day! There's lots and lots of good stuff in that cookie so go on...make sure you atleast make an attempt to grab your share!

Also, have no worries of me vanishing into thin air (remember my speech?), I'll be around :-)

HOMEMADE CHIPOTLE SALSA & the winner!

2011-06-13T05:09:00.002-05:00

One of the best things I like to dip my chip into is Salsa. I must admit that I never liked it while I was in India but moving to US and trying it here made me a Salsa lover. I usually buy salsa and I have tried various flavours including smoked Chipotle Salsa from Trader Joes. They taste so good that I can just use a big straw and sip it while I watch a movie!

Last month I joined a club, a secret recipe club. Amanda being the wonderful host she is assigned me to another blog where I chose a recipe from without that blogger knowing and blog about it on the reveal date. Confused? Go over to Amanda's blog and read about it there.

Singing with Birds was the blog that was assigned to me.She had so many recipes that I had a hard time choosing what I wanted until I saw her recipe for Salsa. There was no looking back then! So here's the modified recipe with the things I had in my pantry.

HOMEMADE CHIPOTLE SALSA

Ingredients:
3 medium sized tomatoes,roughly chopped
2 green chili, roughly chopped
1/4 red onion,roughly chopped
1 clove garlic
1 tsp sugar
1/2 c packed cilantro
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp ground chipotle
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste

Method: Pulse all the ingredients together in a food processor or your blender.Taste and adjust the seasonings.Chill for an hour and serve with tortilla chips.

The winners for the Cookbook Giveaway are The Picky Eater & Ninu. Congratulations! Now send me your postal address :-) Please respond within a day's time, if not, I'll be picking another winner.

There were no right or wrong answers since I didn't know the correct one ! Really, you people are so innovative with your answers! Divya and Pooja, you girls are really funny! Pooja, you took me back to the wedding planning days and it was almost on the similar lines :-)
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This is probably one of my shortest posts ever. I have no time today to sit and type even though I'd love to...got lots of cleaning up to do after a fun weekend! We ate so much the last 3 days that I can go into a hibernation for a week ;-) We started the weekend grilling some yummy juicy patties that I made topped with some cheese and sandwiched between buns.Later we had some Juicy Honey Wings...that was just the start ;-) Oh yes, there was Jobin's Tiramisu involved. A new full batch!

Until next time ,

RITCHIE'S FAVOURITE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES

2011-06-10T09:28:00.004-05:00

Hmmm...what shall I begin this post with? Sometimes I feel I should have blogged anonymously and never let go of my identity here. I'm not a secretive person at all hence you know a lot of stuff about me including my real name and how I look to the colour I like the most and what keeps me up dreaming all night!

Now, the situation is if I want to write my heart out here...I cannot. That's because my entire family including my extended family and their relatives and their neighbours and my neighbours and all their friends and family reads this...reads whatever I write here. When people meet me at parties, they identify me saying 'Hey, you are that Ria of Ria's Collection!'.They discuss with me the things that I have written over this space. It is indeed a proud moment for me and I will never deny that fact! Infact my cousin Tia was telling me that she introduced my blog to her neighbour and whenever her neighbour meets her, she tells Tia that she is addicted to my blog and that she even browses my blog randomly before going to sleep! Now that is something...I mean if my blog is becoming a bed-time story book it does mean something to me. I have some cookbooks piled up on the floor next to my bed and I browse through it before I sleep...just simply flip through, see the photographs and get the idea of how things are done and how people manage to keep their spirits up even when the most beautiful thing turns into a disaster and how many pounds of butter goes into one small piece of cake etc.

I consider that to be a book's success. I am not sure how many of you think that way.So I am very happy if my blog is becoming a bed time story book! :) At the same time, everyone knows about what I think, what I do. It's part of being out in the public.I know it but I never knew what I was getting into when I got into this whole thing called blogging! So I don't know if people can tell me, 'You should've known!'.

There have been days when I wondered that I should just quit and stop everything. Yes, stop blogging. Stop dreaming about food. Stop thinking about food. Stop taking pictures of what I cook. Stop blogging, completely. If you noticed, I never said, stop cooking . That's not possible because I have to feed the two of us and it's me who has to do that.

Now, after writing all this, I feel I should just delete everything I just wrote but no, I won't do that. That's the problem with me.I don't like to delete and type sentences because it wouldn't be the way it comes from my heart...it would be my brain's work then :) I admire people who think with their brains first simply because I can never do that!

Okay,now that's enough of rambling for the day. So by now you all know that I have a sweet little brother and that he scored some awesome marks for his 12th board exams!He joined college today and he is leaving home. I was sad when I spoke to him because all my life when I think of him,I know he is at home...walking the way he walks ...swaying his arms and never smiling (especially when he sees me) even though he has a great smile ;-) Now he won't be at home but away in a hostel. Anyhow, he is joining college and I wanted to bake him his favourite Chocolate Cupcakes that he used to ask me to bake after I once baked it for him long long ago...almost 14 years ago. I found this recipe on Hindu (newspaper) and didn't know it would be this good. I was just 12 years old then so I cut that part out and stuck it onto Amma's recipe Diary and she still has that copy! When I grew up, I wrote it down in my own Diary . I don't know how he remembers it as he was just a 4 yr old but he used to ask me always 'to make those chocolate cupcakes' which I never did...until 2 days ago. So this is for you Ritchie Kutta, have a fun time in College! Study hard and not hardly ;-)

RITCHIE'S FAVOURITE CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
250 g all purpose flour
350g sugar
375 ml yogurt
75 g cocoa powder
100 g unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:
Pre heat the oven to 180C/350F. Line 2 regular sized (not mini)cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

In a bowl,beat all the ingredients together on medium-high speed for 2 mins. Pour 1/4 c of the batter into each cupcake liner and bake for 30 mins or till a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

Verdict: Delicious soft chocolate cupcakes which are super easy to make and please :-) I don't think there are many recipes which can give you 24 cupcakes with just 100g of butter! Isn't this recipe a winner??

He always asks me 'Did you try out anything new?' whenever we speak over the phone and I list out all what I tried and he just asks 'Hmm,Nallatha (did it taste good)?'. I know he misses my experiments at home( inspite all the wonderful goodies Amma makes ) which he used to gobble up once he gets back from school...Amma confirms it :-) So this time when I am home, I am baking this for him :-)
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The giveaway is extended till Monday as some of you wrote to me saying there is a problem commenting on my blog. Till then, go through the wonderful stories you all came up with! It's hilarious!

Happy Friday guys!

THE LEGENDARY CHICKEN 65 & 2 giveaways!

2011-06-06T13:12:00.000-05:00

What do you want first? The recipe or the details for the giveaway? :-) I am not going to give out both that easily rather torture you with my regular banter of this and that and me being a Gemini ;-) Being a Minnesotan (yes,I said it!) you cannot expect anyone to start any conversation without mentioning about the weather first.

'It's a bee-you-ti-full day' would be the most common phrase used to describe the weather here. By the way, can that be called a phrase? I hope my English teacher never reads this. Anyway, the other day we went for our regular weekend drives and this time I didn't forget to take the camera with me.Not sure why, but every time I carry my camera with me..the day ends up being gloomy and sad.This weekend, it was very different. It was sunny, hot , sweaty and the skies were blue! Since the skies were blue, the lakes (Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 lakes) were blue.

So I took some pictures of one of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota. People were out swimming & rowing and we both were out standing there clicking pictures and hoping we had brought our swim wear! So you might have an idea what we are aiming for next weekend :-)

Okay, enough of all that general knowledge session...let's move onto the recipe.After the small poll I had for you guys here, most people voted for 'we just need good food' and I got a couple of votes for 'Appetizers' and one vote was from none other than Mr. Jobin (he told me later!). So here is the 'Appetizer' that he loves!

We both love Chicken 65.That red, deep fried pieces of spicy yummy chicken.So it was a natural move for me to make it at home when I spotted that recipe in Monica's book. Seriously people, I love her recipes! You would have seen that in my Butter Chicken post.The recipe's are so accurate that you really don't even have to add an extra pinch of salt! That's how accurate she is and that's how precise I would love to be if I ever, ever write a cookbook.

I won my copy of her cookbook on her website a few months ago and I thank that day!This recipe is a winner! You have to have to try it the next time you want a new appetizer or a better version of Chicken 65. This recipe is so easy and hardly takes anytime! All you need is the 'reason' to try it and I'm sure when it comes to food, it's easy for us to find 'reasons' :-)

THE LEGENDARY CHICKEN 65
Recipe from Monica Bhide's Modern Spice

Ingredients:
1 c thick plain yogurt
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp red chile powder
1 tbsp lemon/lime juice
2 drops red food colouring
1/4 tsp salt to start
1 lb boneless chicken,cut into 2 in. pieces (Please avoid chicken breasts, use boneless skinless thighs or chicken tenders)
Oil for deep frying
1 tsp mustard seeds
4 small green chilies, finely chopped
20 fresh curry leaves

Method:
In a large bowl, combine yogurt, cornstarch,ginger garlic paste,chile powder,lemon juice, food colour & salt. Mix well.The marinade will look pink now which will turn into a luscious red when the chicken is fried. Add the chicken pieces and mix to combine. If you have the time, let it marinate in the fridge for 20 mins. It isn't mentioned in the original recipe, I just did it :-)

Heat about 2 cups of oil in a deep saucepan. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add a few pieces of chicken and fry till they are crisp on the outside and cooked on the inside, 2-3 mins. Remove the pieces using a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel. Continue until you are done with all the pieces.

Place chicken on a serving platter.

In a small pan/skillet, heat 2 tbsp oil and when it begins to shimmer, add the mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to sizzle, add the green chilies & curry leaves. Fry for about 30 secs. If you want you can add about 1/4 tsp more of red chilie powder to the oil just before removing it from heat.

Pour over the chicken and serve.

I made this ahead of time and they were still crisp when I served a couple of hours later. You can use a microwave to re-heat it.

When Monica read that I really liked her Chicken 65, she said she could give away 2 copies of Modern Spice to my readers! I would say you guys are really lucky, because she is giving away 2 copies, which are different from each other. Yes, the Indian version of the book is very different from the US/Canada version with respect to recipes and ingredients. See, she is so thoughtful, you don't have to hunt for substitutes anymore but still cook her wonderful recipes! :-) Also, I have to mention that there are many stories in that cookbook which will make automatically convert that into your bed time story book :-) All in all, it's a precious package! C'mon, earn this book now!

To enter the giveaway all you need to do is :

1. Tell me how many times I have mentioned the word 'Minnesota' in any form in this post :-)
2.Come up with a story on how this dish got it's name (for ideas, scroll down!)

The winners will be chosen on random on 10 June 2011. The copies will be shipped to anywhere in US/Canada & India.

Also, there are 100's of stories on how this finger licking -good dish got it's name. I really think this recipe got it 's name because it was a 65 year old grandma who first cooked this dish for her grandson. Oh no! Wait! It was Rs 65 for a plate of this dish. No, that can't be it! There were 65 pieces of chicken per plate!

See! I cannot tell a lie ;-) Now, it's you turn! :)

THE REAL TIRAMISU...for me from him!

2011-06-01T16:00:00.001-05:00

This time, it's me who is doing all the talking about the cake as opposed to last year when he did it all.So it was my birthday yesterday and as usual (the 2nd time) he asked me what I wanted him to bake for my birthday. He gave me about a month's time to decide because I need time to think always( because my mind wanders and I dream too much!). No prices for guessing, I changed my mind the last minute and chose my favourite dessert, Tiramisu. I have made a Tiramisu Cake before, but this time I wanted the real deal...The Real Tiramisu :-)

Whenever we dine out, if there's a Tiramisu on the dessert menu, I always always eat that. We once drove about 6-7 miles just to buy a small piece of Tiramisu just because I felt like eating it...from that particular restaurant! :-D I'm not sure how many of you have eaten at Bucca Di Beppo, they have one of the best Tiramisu's I've ever eaten so I end up comparing the one I'm eating to the one I ate at Bucaa ...always! :-)

We were away for the weekend and got back home just in time for my birthday. We knew this early (duh!) so Jobin and I made sure all the things we needed for making my Tiramisu were in place before we left home. As soon as we got back, we unpacked our suitcases, opened a bottle of wine and chose a 'Suresh Gopi's' 'edi padam' to play as he took breaks from the Tiramisu-making. Then we spent the rest of the day (oh it's bright outside till almost 9.15 pm) watching the movie and slurping on some homemade Bisi Bele Bath.

That was my birthday gift sent to me by my reader and a good friend Elvina . Those tiny cakes are actually fridge magnets .Don't they look cute?? I really liked it, El. The minute I opened the packet, I was walking towards my fridge to place them on it :-) How on earth did you know that I have a fetish for fridge magnets?

Also, I have Rose (btw, the chocolate buttons you see on top of the Tiramisu was sent to me by Rose, sometime ago) baking a cake to celebrate my birthday (She lives 1000's of miles away from me) and Dhanya cooking up my Chatti Pathiri to give me a surprise on my birthday! Gosh, you guys are just fantabulous!! Another reason for me to love food blogging!!

THE REAL TIRAMISU
Recipe source : Recipe behind the Alessi Savoiardi Cookie packet.

Ingredients:
For 1 portion Zabaglione
5 egg yolks
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c marsala (you can sub it with rum)

For the cheese layer:
1c whipping cream, chilled
4 tbsp sugar
450g Homemade Mascarpone cheese,at room temp.

2c freshly brewed strong coffee
1/2 c Rum or Marsala
1 tbsp Vanilla
24 nos. Savoiardi Cookies/Lady Fingers or as needed
3 tbsp Cocoa Powder

Extra Cocoa powder & Chocolate Curls for garnishing.
Method:
For the Zabaglione: In a small heatproof bowl, whisk together the egg yolks &sugar. Now, you need to set up a double boiler and let the water come to a full boil. Then reduce the flame to a simmer, place the bowl with the egg over it and whisk constantly and pour the marsala/rum into it. Keep whisking it till it forms into soft mounds. It won't take long. Transfer it to another bowl, wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.

For the Cheese layer: Meanwhile, whip the cream with 2 tbsp sugar to soft peaks.Fold in the mascarpone and Zabaglione and mix carefully till well blended.Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

In a separate bowl, mix coffee,2 tbsp sugar,Marsala & Vanilla.

Arrange one layer of cookies to fit the pan that you are using and pour 1 tbsp of coffee mixture over each cookie so that they are well saturated but not falling apart.Spoon 1/3 rd cheese mixture over cookies and sprinkle with 1tbsp cocoa powder. Repeat two more time ending with cocoa. (We didn't follow this method of layering as I wanted it in a cake form)

Cover and refrigerate overnight so that the flavours mature well plus the cookies gets to soak up all that liquid.

Dust with some more cocoa and decorate with chocolate curls. Serve chilled.

Verdict: I couldn't stop licking the cream as and when he was making it because I just wanted to make sure it's up to the Bucca standards ;-) The next day (on my birthday) which was yesterday (confusing??) as I cut the cake and had a slice, the first thing I said was,'Oh my goodness, this is so yummy! It tastes just like Bucca's! :-D

It is a very good one and is very very simple to make! Do try it at home. I'm sure you can substitute the lady's finger with a good pound cake and proceed with the recipe if you live no where close to a supermarket which sells those fingers ;-) After all once they are soaked in the syrup, their texture is similar to a cake!

So make sure you try this for your next party!

VIP FOOD BLOGGER MEET aka BIG BANANA NIGHT!

2011-05-27T14:08:00.000-05:00

It's time for the Minnesota Food Blogger's meet once again! The wonderful VIP Food Blogger meet was sponsored by DOLE Bananas and hosted by Caribe Caribbean Bistro & Shaina of Food For My Family. I knew I was going to have fun and I was not wrong! I mean, a group of food bloggers and good food, the room can never be quiet!

Since it was sponsored by DOLE bananas, everything had a touch of banana in it, starting from the Grilled Bananas to the Banana Spritzer below, which I have to mention was fantastic!

Here's the menu for you guys. Trust me, every single thing on that menu was just awesome!

It was such a wonderful evening! The food was so good...the dessert (Banana Coconut Rum Creme Brulee) blew our minds away! Some of us actually licked the bowl clean! Yes, really! It was that good!

Now I'm waiting for the next get together! :-)

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA SQUARES...delish!

2011-05-26T10:39:00.000-05:00

Oh, it's not that easy being a Gemini. I think that should talk enough for this whole post. You know what? We are a crazy bunch but I still will and forever fight back if people say we are double-faced. We all are, it's not just the May 22 - June 22 born fabulous people alone :-) I'm in a good mood today...to whine! I mean, I was so happy on Sunday when my little brother topped his school in Business Studies and grabbed a 'Distinction' for his board exams and till I decided to bake a cake to celebrate !

Why is it so difficult for me to chose one recipe and then stick onto it? Why do I want to experiment all the time? Why do I go to the kicthen with my mind fixed on one (I start with an Oreo Pie) but ends up making a 'totally different' something ( a Sorbet!!!) which has absolutely nothing to do the former idea(Am I being repetitive?)? Why do my mind wander so much? Why do I dream so much?Why am I whining so much on a Thursday when I'm usually very happy about the next day, Friday?

Ah! That word Friday just cheered me up, peeps! It's the day I look forward to from Sunday. What is so special you may ask? I have no answer to give you for that. It just like any other day, but there's something about Friday! Jobin tells me that I forget how to cook on weekends, maybe that's why! So it's Friday tomorrow and it's a long weekend this time! Yay! I'm super happy now! See how my mood changed from what you just read above? Life of a Gemini!

I baked these eggless cakes using Aparna's recipe a while back and since I didn't bake a cake to celebrate Ritchie's success, I thought I'd just use this instead...after all I promised you guys a cake! :)

CHOCOLATE CHIP BANANA SQUARES
Ingredients:
75g butter,softened at room temperature
3/4 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 large banana
2-3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cardamom powder (optional)
1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c semi sweet chocolate chips

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 350F and prepare your cake tin. You can use your regular square cake tin or use a tin like mine, if you have one.

Puree the banana with milk , vanilla and cardamom powder,if you are using.
In another bowl, beat together butter and sugar till it's creamy and fluffy, about 1 minute.
Add the pureed banana to it and beat on medium till well incorporated.
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the bowl and beat on medium speed till it is incorporated.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and sprinkle some extra chocolate chips if you'd like.Bake for 20-25 mins (for my kind of tin) or 30-40 mins for the bigger tin (8 inch square). Cool in the tin for 5 mins and then unmould it and cool on wire rack.
This cake keeps well for almost 4 days.

Verdict: You can never miss the eggs in this cake. It's really nice and soft with a subtle banana flavour. I'm sure you can eat this for breakfast too!

COCONUT OATMEAL SNACK BARS

2011-05-23T15:58:00.000-05:00

Idon't think I have told you that I love Coconut Oil or have I? It shouldn't come as a surprise since I come from the Land of Coconuts, Kerala.Given a chance I would cook everything in it,I mean, Kerala stuff. So when I was packing to move to the US one of the two things I held precious were my cookbooks and then 2 packets of Coconut Oil. Unfortunately, in the last minute hurry, I forgot to take the 2 precious packets and I realised that only after I landed here :-( You can guess it, I was definately not happy! So when Amma got a chance, she sent 2 packets with Jobin's bro when he got back after his visit to India.

That second packet out the 2 packets is almost over now and that's when Jen from Kelapo wrote to me asking if I wanted to review their product,Kelapo 100% Pure Virgin Coconut Oil. I jumped up with joy and grabbed the offer and she put it in the mail for me that day itself. As soon as I received the packet, I tore it open , unscrewed the bottle's cap and sniffed into it. It smelt so good but much more coconut-y almost like coconut cream. Maybe it's the difference in the processing that it smells different from the regular Indian Coconut Oil.

I have read a lot about using Coconut Oil in baking and since I love coconut oil and baking, I decided to combine the two and see how it works in Megan's recipe. The results were good and we loved it. I shared most of it with a friend of ours and she liked it too.

The folks at Kelapo has offered you readers a 20% discount if you want to try some of that wonderful oil,so at the checkout use the code Ria20 (It's case sensitive!) to get some bucks off!

Aaaannnd my little brother passed his board exams in super flying colours!! So watch out for the next post...there will be some cake in it :)

COCONUT OATMEAL SNACK BARS
Makes 12 bars
Ingredients:
1/4 c coconut oil (You can use regular vegetable/canola oil)
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp skim milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup oats ( I used Quaker)
1/2 c + 2/3 c wholewheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c dessicated coconut

3/4 c chocolate chips, melted
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 350F/180F

Beat together oil, sugars,milk,egg & vanilla for 2 mins or till the sugar dissolves.
Dump the dry ingredients into the wet and mix together until just combined with a rubber spatula.
Spread this in a lightly greased 8 x 8 in. square baking tin and bake for 20-25 mins or until golden( It will be soft to touch).
Take it out and spread the melted chocolate over it. Cool completely and cut into bars.
Store in an airtight tin.

Verdict: Delicious to the last bite! The coconut oil can be substituted for your vegetable/canola oil and still get perfect results! I know I am going to try many other recipes with Coconut Oil. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I really am falling for wholewheat in baking!

WHOLEWHEAT FRUIT & NUT COOKIES...a fabulous one!

2011-05-18T16:26:00.001-05:00

Ilove cookies and I'm just looking for an excuse to bake a batch of 'em.The Food Blogger Bake Sale gave me a reason to bake to my heart's content and I took these cookies along with my Indian Curried Puffs & Lamingtons. I saw this recipe on Swapna's wonderful blog and I knew I would be making it as soon as possible since she called it 'healthy' cookies!
I cannot tell you how good these cookies are, you will absolutely love it as they are tasty,chewy (in a good way) and butter-less! I made 4 batches in less than a week's time and they disappeared as soon as they were baked and hopefully they don't make an appearance on my waist! ;-)

The bake sale was so much fun! I got to meet many talented food bloggers that I haven't met before at other events and the highlight was meeting Amanda of I Am Baker. She is so wonderful and talented! Kate is a great organiser and she chose the perfect venue which was Kitchen in the Market. (It'sAmanda & Stephanie in the picture above, Kate in the picture below)

Now back to the cookies...the original recipe calls for a portion of flax seeds which makes it healthy but I didn't have any of it, so I substituted it with oatmeal and also used cashews & raisins ! These cookies are so so good,go bake a batch of 'em and fall in love with it!

WHOLEWHEAT FRUIT & NUT COOKIES
Recipe source: Eat Good 4 Life

Ingredients:
3/4 c wholewheat flour (I used Ashirvad Atta)
3/4 c oatmeal (I used Quaker oats)
1 c dry fruits (I used cashewnuts & raisins)
1/2 c chocolate chips
1tsp baking soda
1 egg
2/3 c packed brown sugar
1/4 c canola/vegetable oil
1 tsp Vanilla

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C and line your cookie sheet with baking parchemnt.
Whisk together eggs,sugar,oil and vanilla in another bowl.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix it in with a rubber spatula.
Drop level tablespoons of dough onto the cookie sheet and bake for 12-14 mins.
Cool on the tin for 2 mins and then on the wire rack till cooled completely.
Store in an airtight tin.

Verdict: Absolutely delicious! Jobin is not a cookie person but he said these cookies were 'Incredible'! I am addicted to it and I am sure this cookie is going to be a regular in our home,whenever the cookie craving hits me! It's so simple to make! I guess I'm starting to fall for wholewheat products,they are a lot more healthier than refined flour.

RE-VISITING CHOCOLATE BISCUIT PUDDING for 600,000 hits!

2011-05-11T09:56:00.000-05:00

Isomehow just cannot get enough of this pudding. This has been one of my firm favourites due to ease and taste. It's not that I have't blogged about it, it's just that I have improved in photography over the years and I wanted to give this pudding a better look and share it with you all so that this deliciousness wouldn't go unnoticed! It needs attention :-) I have plenty of time in my hands when it comes to dessert and I want it to look as pretty as it can even if I am standing on one leg in my messy kitchen :-)

This recipe comes from my Aunt Beeji. She is my dad's cousin and I remember asking her for some recipes a long time ago, easily 10 years ago. She said she has this yummy biscuit pudding recipe which she shall send me once she gets back home, which she did. I love recieveing letters especially in this world of everything electronic.There's something about fresh ink and paper, it's so personal, so touching that makes you want to treasure it.

I still have that copy she sent me. She sent me some fabulous icing recipes too, along with it. I have used her 'Fudge Frosting' recipe on my Mahogany Cake and it is a winner. You need to work fast with that icing because it might dry out otherwise and be a bit crackly.

So here's is the recipe (once again!) for my favourite easy pudding as I celebrate the success of my little blog having 600,000 hits!

MY FAVOURITE CHOCOLATE BISCUIT PUDDING
Recipe source: Beeji Aunty
Serves 6-8 depending on the size of your dish.

Ingredients:
200g Marie biscuits,crushed
100gSalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 c milk
1 c sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp Vanilla/Rum

1 c heavy cream, whipped

Method:
Mix together crushed biscuits and butter till they are soft and sand-like. Spoon in half of it into wine glasses and press it with a spoon and level it.Reserve the remaining biscuit crumbs aside.
Make a thick sauce by boiling together milk,sugar, cocoa powder & cornflour.Whisk constantly to obtain a smooth sauce .When cooled, add vanilla/rum. Divide this among the wine glasses.
Top it with the remaining biscuit crumbs and then put a blob or two of whipped cream in each glass.
Let it set in the fridge for 4 hours. Serve cold.
You can decorate with a cube/square of chocolate like I did :-)

Verdict: I can eat this for brekky, lunch, tea time and dinner! I love this pudding so much that I convinced Amma to add it to her 'Cookery Class Menu'. There is nothing to go wrong with this recipe, so it's simply fool proof! Go ahead and try it for yourself and if you do, please let me know how you liked it :-)

CHOCOLATE & VANILLA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU

2011-05-09T12:34:00.000-05:00

Ihave no idea what took me so long to update this little space of mine after his birthday. Anyways it's better late than never : D The weather here is changing everyday. Finally we got to see some greenery on the otherwise skeletons of trees. But this morning I woke up to see a gloomy sky giving way to heavy lightning and thunder and I was as happy as a peacock! Every time the sky gets gloomy, I see myself longing for heavy thunderstorms and rain.I'm just like a peacock, who does a rain dance with it's beautiful feathers (not that I have any) every time it's about to rain :)

This was Jobin's 2nd cake for his birthday. I thought of mixing up 4 of my favourite components while making a gateau : Simple Sponge, Soaking Syrup, Bavarian Cream & Ganache. You can never go wrong with this combo. The cake & filling was very light and the soaking syrup moistened the cake beautifully. I set the cake in a loaf tin as I didn't want the same old rectangular/square/round birthday cake this time. I'm sure I'll return to my favourite round very soon :-)

'A Sweet Punch' is completing a year this month, so we thought of asking our members to bake whatever they like. So this is what I am sending in as my entry for this month! I still cannot believe that our little group has turned one! :-)

CHOCOLATE & VANILLA BAVARIAN CREAM GATEAU

You will need:
Simple Chocolate Sponge (Recipe given below)
Vanilla Bavarian Cream ( I made only half the quantity and omitted coffee powder from the recipe)
Soaking syrup
Chocolate Ganache

Recipe & Method for the sponge:
Beat 1/2 c granulate sugar and 3 large eggs together for 10-12 mins on high speed. I used my hand held beater. Fold in 1/4c all purpose flour,1/4 c cocoa powder & 1 tbsp cornflour. Pour into a loaf tin and bake at 350F/180C for 25 mins or till it is springy to touch. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, demould and cool completely. Slice it horizontally into 3.

Assembly:
Line your loaf tin with plastic wrap and put one layer of sponge, moisten it with the syrup and pour half the bavarian cream over it. Repeat. The last layer should be a layer of sponge.
Let it set in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours.

De-mould it and drizzle ganache over the sides and top. I didn't level the top completely as I wanted a bit of an 'old fashioned' look for the cake.Decorate with slivered almonds.Chill till needed.

Verdict: I took this cake to my relative's house that evening as we were having a get together there. Everybody was intrigued by the texture of the cake as you can see that the bavarian cream was pushed out of the cake layers that it coated the sides too. It was very moist and equally delicious! Bavarian cream is one of the easiest and tastiest filling you can make for your layered cake. I'm so hooked onto it now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

2011-05-04T08:55:00.000-05:00

I made his childhood favourite, Lamingtons as his 1st cake for the day. The 2nd cake for the day will follow :)

For the recipe,click here

BUTTER CHICKEN/ Murgh Makhani ...easy and delicious!

2011-04-29T12:06:00.000-05:00

After the lecture I gave you in my last post as to comparing homemade to restaurant made, this is such a contradiction. The first time I ever ate a Butter Chicken was in a restaurant and so whenever I make it at home, I compare it with the restaurant made. It usually doesn't even come close to that but I used to think that's the maximum I could do. But I was proved wrong. Very very wrong.

When we went to Chicago last July, I read Monica's article in a magazine/newspaper,cannot remember which one it was now...getting old, I suppose! I jumped up with joy because she is a food blogger and I get excited everytime I see 'one of us' in the media. I told everyone there that I knew her and how good she is with with her stuff. That recipe was stuck in my mind.But month's flew by and then I won a copy of her lovely book, Modern Spice. I cooked my way through it,mostly for parties and whatever I cook for parties ~~never~~ rarely appear on this space as I want to serve them all hot to our guests :-)

So last week, we went to a popular Nepali/Tibetian restaurant in St.Paul and ordered Butter Chicken. It smelt so good and tasted even better but towards the end, we kind of felt sick and heavy because of the enormous amount of butter in it.As we walked towards the car, I rubbed on my belly and was thinking, 'I could have done without that'. That's something I hate...eat happily and then feeling guilty about it as soon as it goes down your throat! So I was determined to make this at home, in a healthier way...less butter and less cream. I have made a Murgh Makani before and thought it was 'the best' then, but I would say this one wins hands down over the other one :-)

BUTTER CHICKEN
Recipe courtesy : Monica Bhide

Ingredients:

1c thick yogurt

1 tbsp peeled ,grated ginger

1 tbsp peeled, grated garlic

2 tbsp Homemade Tandoori Masala

1/4 canned tomato puree (I used tomato paste)

2 tbsp lemon/lime juice

2 tbsp melted butter/ghee

1 whole chicken, cut into 14 pcs. Slit the pieces to allow the marinade to penetrate.

For the sauce:

4 tbsp butter ( I used only 2)

1 tbsp peeled, grated ginger

1 tbsp peeled, minced garlic

2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

Salt to taste

1 green chilli, snipped fine using a kitchen shear

1 tsp Kasuri Methi

1/2 c cream

Method:

Marinade: Mix together all the ingredients including the chicken .Cover and let it marinate in the fridge for 1.5 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 F and bake the chicken (along with the left over marinade)for 30 mins or until the juices run clear.

During the last 15 mins of baking, you can start with the sauce.

In a large pan,on medium heat, melt the butter.Add the ginger & garlic and saute for 30 secs.

Add in the chopped tomato and cook for 10 mins mashing it up with the back of your spoon as you go. By the end of 10 mins, it will be an orange sauce with hardly any pieces of tomatoes to be seen.

By now the chicken would have been baked to perfection.

Add the chicken, the remaining marinade, salt, chili & fenugreek leaves. Simmer covered for 10 mins

Add the cream and simmer for a minute.

Serve hot!

Verdict: I cannot describe in words as to how much we loved this curry. It's just PERFECT! When you make this and taste it, you will thanks heavens! This is actually Monica's father's recipe and I have to say a big Thank You to him for coming up with such an incredible recipe!!

HOMEMADE TANDOORI MASALA...unbeatable!

2011-04-27T12:11:00.001-05:00

Ilove anything 'Tandoori'. It has a unique flavour and is so Indian. Whichever Indian restaurant you go to(atleast to the ones I've been), you will always find a Tandoori Chicken/Butter Chicken/Chicken Tikka Masala on the menu. It is so Indian. I think we should have a 'National Masala' and there will be a tough competition between 'Tandoori & 'Garam' masala for that title:-) I really wouldn't know which one to choose because I love both!

There are some thoughts which bother me when I try to find the 'perfect' recipe. For me, if I have tasted anything homemade first and then go to a restaurant, I always compare it 'homemade' to 'restaurant'. But if I have eaten anything in a restaurant for the first time and I try to make it at home, then it's restaurant to homemade comparison. Whatever it is, I think it should be the former first as I feel that is the real cooking with real ingredients! It's not that the restaurants are serving anything plastic, but a lot of unhealthy amounts of butter,cream & oil goes into it. Some people feel that if you add lumps of butter, your dish can go from poor to rich and taste exceptional and I've been a victim of that, a sad victim. It was like I was drinking butter in the form of a curry :-D

It's all about the freshness of ingredients, how much you add and where you add it makes all the difference. Again, this is my personal opinion .Now what does all this have to do with a simple Tandoori Masala, you may ask! I just shared what was in my mind, that's all :-) I made the BEST EVER Butter Chicken for dinner last night with this homemade masala and that is for another post. So till then , find some time to make this masala and keep it ready! When I post the butter chicken recipe, if you feel like it, you can make it for dinner that night or else you can use it for other recipes :-)

HOMEMADE TANDOORI MASALA
Recipe source : My very good friend Sadhana Ginde

Ingredients:
2 tbsp garam masala
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp coriander powder
4 tsp paprika (you can use Kashmiri Mirch)
2 tsp Kasuri Methi /Dried Fenugreek Leaves
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder

Method:
Combine all the ingredients above using a whisk/spoon/coffee grinder and store it in an airtight container. It stays fresh for 4-6 weeks.

Verdict: It tastes exceptionally good!! Jobin found me reaching for the bottle this morning to have a whiff of it :) It smells so nice!

EXPRESS INDIAN RICE PUDDING ... with 3 ingredients!

2011-04-25T12:11:00.003-05:00

This Easter was very special for us. Even though it's our second Easter together, it's my first one where I am cooking everything.I was in charge of the kitchen and like to be in charge of my kitchen, only mine though :-) Planning was in progress from weeks ago and I knew I would never stick to it, but surprisingly I did :-) I wanted to do a very nadan meal so kept everything to the bare minimum without much deco or anything 'jing bang'.
So we had a small get together on Easter Eve as it would be convenient for all of us. The party went well and my 'Ice Cream Cake' was a mega hit! There was nothing left of the dessert for me to take pictures :-/ On the Easter Sunday,we had an Egg Hunt and spent the whole day eating and then to take the guilt feeling out of our lives even if it's just for a day...we went cycling for a good 2.5 miles :-) Once we got back home, we sipped wine and watched a movie as we ate 'Appam' and 'Chicken Curry'.

Now, back to the payasam. This is my favourite payasam not only because it's super delicious but also because it's super easy to make. The prep time is almost none so this is a very handy recipe for all your 'express' cooking days. I really like such recipes and I'm lucky to have such recipes, I would say. That's exactly how I like my cooking to be...express way!

Unless it's for some special occasion, you will never ever see me spending more than just a few mins on any dish. I like things to happen fast, I'm really impatient! One of my blog readers and a good friend, C, must have told me a hundred times over our 'almost every week chat over the phone' that 'no one will believe you when you say that you are impatient!'. But I really am! :-) I cannot imagine myself slogging in the kitchen for hours to produce a mean chicken curry or a veggie side dish. I have to do it the express way and if you were to stand next to me in the kitchen, you will see me stretching out like there's no tomorrow to grab hold of ingredients while I stand in one place and drop them one by one into the pot that I am ~~watching~~ stirring then.

Usually when I work (of course, it's the only work that I do) in the kitchen, I like to cook everything at the same time. I like the 'cling' and the 'clang' of the lids as I move myself from one pot to the other on my 4 burner stove. Sometimes the food does get stuck to the bottom of the pan and that's why I recommend using 'non-stick' pans ;) And if it sticks, scrape it , reduce the flame a bit or check on the oil and then continue the 'cling-clang' dance! :-)

Well, this payasam hardly needs any dancing! When you read the recipe you will notice that it's a huge quantity with a 1: 4: 16 ratio but you can easily halve or even quarter it. So whatever maybe your next big day, make a batch of this yummy payasam and end your meal with a happy-burp!

PAL PAYASAM /INDIAN RICE PUDDING
Recipe source : Amma (We call this 'Cooker Payasam')
Makes 30 servings

Ingredients:
1 c basmathi rice (no washing, just pulse it twice in a food processor to break it up)
4 c sugar
16 c milk
1/2 tsp cardamom powder (optional, I never use it)

Garnishing:
Cashews and raisins
Ghee

Method:
In a pressure cooker (yes,this makes it express!) mix together broken basmathi rice, sugar and milk and stir to dissolve the sugar completely.
Close it with the lid, place the weight and cook on high for 1 whistle.
Lower the flame to medium-low and cook for 45 mins (yes with the weight on).
Let go the steam, open the lid and stir. If you like it thicker (remembering that the payasam will thicken as it cools) you can boil it for another 5 mins without the lid.

Garnishing: Heat 3 tbsp ghee and fry the raisins till they are plump and the nuts till golden brown . Pour over the paysam and serve hot/ cold.

I prefer the payasam cold as it tastes better, for me :)
*Update (4/27): If you are halving or quartering the recipe, cooking time may or maynot vary. Let the steam go and open the cooker to peep in if it's done, if not, you can continue cooking it.

Verdict: Creamy smooth pal payasam for all occassions would be the best way to describe it!

I am sending this Payasam to 'The Kerala Kitchen' hosted by myself :D

EASTER SPECIAL - A Menu

2011-04-22T10:42:00.001-05:00

This post is just a 'blast from the past' sorts and not a new recipe post. I know, most of you are gearing towards breaking the fast and gorging on non-veg curries and desserts so I thought I could put two and two together and create a small menu for you, just in case you are here looking for 'Easter Special' recipes :)

Appetizer:
Chicken Cutlets
Honey Roasted Almonds
Mini Chicken and Bell Pepper Spring Rolls
Chicken Samosa
Mini Cheese Pasta Rolls
Chicken Gold Coins

Beverage:
Pink Surprise
Purple Granita

Main Course:
Kashmiri Chicken & Tomato Coconut Pulao
Kuttanadan Chicken Roast
Kappa Kuzhachathu
Meen Vevichathu
Beef Fry/ Erachi Ularthiyathu
Chicken Biriyani
12- layered Chatti Pathiri
Kothu Parota
Prawn/Shrimp Biriyani

Desserts:
Vermicelli & Sago Payasam
Chocolate Marble Pudding
Chocolate Biscuit Pudding
Chocolate Truffles
Mocha Chocolate Mascarpone Verrine

Haven't found what you are looking for, yet? Check out my ever growing Recipe Index!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!

PAVAKKA MEZHUKKUPURATTI/ BITTERGOURD STIR FRY...with 3 ingredients!

2011-04-18T16:35:00.001-05:00

If it wasn't for Appan telling me that my blog has become boring because I haven't updated for a few days now, I would have really enjoyed being in my cocoon. Once something comes up between me and blogging it takes a big effort for me to get back to it. I like to be lazy and not type so many words and arrange pictures in between each paragraph and then 'publish' the post only to realise that there's a mistake in the recipe that I need to correct and so I 'edit' the post and 'publish' again. Sometimes after that I realise that my favourite picture of the dish is not even there in the final post! Anyway, that pretty much sums up my day when I get back to blogging after a few days :-)

Pavakka/ Bittergourd is one of my favourite nutritious veggie (very good source of Iron). I love it's bitterness balanced with other ingredients that we add to it. This is a very simple dish that you can make, but you will need some time as it takes a good 30 mins to crisp up from it former bitter and green state to the beautiful mouthwatering crunchy brown stage. You can stop the cooking process in between and be happy or sad (mostly sad actually ) as it will be bitter and don't blame me ;-)

I'm not in a great mood to talk (rather write) much today as I am kind of busy (in my head) planning all my chores for this week. We are having a party at home this weekend and I am so looking forward to all the cooking and entertaining that comes along with it. I really am. I know some of you must be thinking whether I am crazy, but what to do, I love to cook and entertain! I always wanted my home to be a home full of eatables, always! My home was like that. It was always stocked with food. The minute some one walks in , they will be fed with everything homemade. We hardly had any bakery snacks except for 'kadala muttai'/ Chikki, 'Paper-il pothinja cake/ Sponge cake in candy wrapper', 'Motta puffs/ Egg Puffs' etc.

So when I got married and moved to US, I used to plan of stocking my freezer with ready-to-fry 'cutlets', 'spring rolls', 'fish packets' 'chicken samosa' etc so that I just have to thaw and fry when guests come home. Sadly, it doesn't work like how it works in India. No, no, not that I am lazy to make them, but we don't have guests like how we have in India unless we call them for supper or a meal together. Yeah, life here is quite boring when you think that way. So whoever comes home, I make sure they are well fed...till their nose!

So now, how many of you want to come home?? :-)

PAVAKKA MEZHUKKUPURATTI
My own recipe (Just love the way it sounds!)
Serves 2

Ingredients:
4 medium sized bittergourd,sliced fine
1 large red onion, sliced fine
1 1/2 tsp red chilli powder or to your spice level
Salt to taste
Oil as needed

Method:
As mentioned, slice the bittergourd as fine as you can. I used my mandoline to slice them both (the onions).
In a large pan, mix all of the ingredients together and cook on medium-high heat till you get them as crispy as you see in the picture. It will take about 30 mins maximum and some amount of oil which needs to be drizzled in as and when needed. You will know when to add the extra oil when you are cooking this.

Verdict: Trust me, it tastes really good! Especially with rice and yogurt.

I am sending this yummy side dish as an entry to The Kerala Kitchen hosted by yours truly!

ORIENTAL PIZZA PINWHEELS ...on a stick!

2011-04-11T13:16:00.002-05:00

Where does the time go when we have to do something for a particular date? It just flies for me and I'm sure it's the same with you. A Sweet Punch is a baking group that I'm a part of and for this month, we were supposed to bake a pizza.The toppings were left to our choice and if I'm given a choice, I can go really wild thinking about the possibilities which in the end will confused the already confused Gemini. So that happened once again, that morning as I set forth to make the pizza. The dough was made the previous day and was put to rise slowly in the refrigerator.

Now, to the topping. Bacon?Sausage?Veggies?Plain cheese? Ahem! NO way! All the 'Suryanamaskar's ' that I have been doing will go for a toss. Okay, so no cheese. Then what? I didn't want to go with the usual pizza sauce/meat filling topped with cheese kinda pizza, instead wanted something totally totally different. That's when I remembered what I baked for my nephew and niece long time ago...pinwheels on stick!

I had some smoked Italian Sausage with me in the freezer, freezing for the last 6 months. I bought it at our Farmer's Market and they are homemade sausages.Back when we bought that, I had made some filling with it for our Saturday Brunch Sandwich and it was a hit! So I just put 2 and 2 together and made the pizza :)

This dough is a breeze to make, thanks Divya for choosing this recipe.The filling is just a matter of sauteeing some red onions & sausages with soya sauce, salt and pepper.

ORIENTAL PIZZA PINWHEELS

Recipe for pizza dough : Pioneer Woman

Recipe for the filling: My own

Ingredients:

Pizza dough (I halved the recipe and got 15 pinwheels)
1 tsp yeast
4 c all purpose flour/maida
1 tsp salt
1/3 c EVOO (I used canola oil)

Sausage filling:

2 large smoked Italian sausage,chopped up into tiny bits (I used my mezzaluna for this)

Half of a large red onion, sliced fine

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

3 tbsp soy sauce or to taste ( I always use Dark Soy Sauce)

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Pizza dough:

Dissolve the yeast in 1 1/2 c warm water and set aside for 10 mins till it foams up.

Mix the flour and salt together.Drizzle in the oil and mix well.
Add in the yeast + water and mix well to form a ball of dough.

Oil a large bowl and dump the dough into it and rotate to coat the dough with the oil.

Cover it tight with a plastic wrap and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight.

Filling:

Heat oil and saute the onions. When it is soft, add in the ginger garlic paste and saute for another 1 min.

Add in the chopped sausage and mix well.

Add the soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. In most cases you will not need the salt. So check and then add.

Switch of the stove & let it cool completely.

Assembly:

Pre-heat the oven to the maximum temperature for 10 mins. Dust your baking sheet /stone with cornmeal/semolina.

On a floured surface, roll out the pizza dough into a rectangle.

Spread the filling over it leaving a 1 " gap from the edges and roll it away from you, starting from the longer side parallel to the edge of the counter top. Seal the edges with water, put the seam -side down and cut into 15 slices.

Place the pinwheels cut-side down and insert skewers into them (parallel to the sheet).

Bake for 15 mins. You can serve it hot/warm.

Verdict: That evening Jobin came back home hungry and asked me if there was something to eat. I 'offered' him these pinwheels and he just couldn't stop with one,instead he ate around 7 and skipped the dinner! The fillling is really delicious and since there was no cheese involved, it tasted more of a bread roll and less pizza, which is exactly what I wanted.

Living in the US has given me a new insight to cheese, to stay away from it atleast when I cook at home. Where ever you go out to eat, you will be eating some sort of deep-fried food or cheese/butter filled food until you want to live on salad's alone without any dressing. And I'm not a salad person until it's some chicken salad with pasta...I mean that's just an example.

So this one is without cheese, but if you want to add in some cheese, you can sprinkle it on once the pinwheels are cut and placed on the baking sheet and bake till the cheese melts and bubbles (I doubt any cheese that we get in India bubbles, though).

I have made other pizza's before -Cheese &Chilli Chicken Pizza & Tandoori Sausage,Roasted Bell Pepper & Corn Pizza. You can have a look there if you need more ideas for toppings.

With a sprained neck,

BADUSHA...for the two of us :)

2011-04-06T17:07:00.002-05:00

When I was young,that is when I was in school, I was a huge fan of Indian Sweets. Not the 'payasam' types but Kaju Burfi, Mysore Pak, Jalebi types. Luckily whenever I tried it at home, they were a big success. Oh, actually no! The first time I tried making Rasgulla, it was terrible...but later when I tried it , it came out spongy and juicy. One thing I learnt from that was, you need a real good recipe. What I know and have heard of is, there are millions of recipes floating around, but not all are good. Some are just OK but some are terrible that you might never even try thinking about it!

Somehow when I read through a recipe, I visualise it in my mind and give a quick check on the combination and proportion of ingredients just to make sure it's worth the time and effort in trying them.The other day we were at the Indian grocery store. I usually stop by the 'Sweets' section, drool looking at it and then walk away.I have this habit...I want to eat what I see but I don't want to eat store made, instead I want to make it at home. So I showed the Badusha there and told Jobin how much I like it .'Even I like it', came the reply. So that's how I ended up making it at home and I'm so glad I did!

A lot of my readers ask me my 'secret' in getting consistent results everytime (Ahem!). My answer has always been ' I just attack a recipe & I don't think about the difficulty level. I just go with the flow and I somehow reach wherever I am supposed to reach'. So next time, don't think twice, just go for it and I am sure you will get it right! If you are making it for the first time, try to follow the recipe to the dot and then the next time on, you can add or substitute whatever you like/dislike. Atleast that way, if you have a failure you will know where you could have gone wrong because you got it right the first time.In baking, especially, you need to be careful about what you add and how much you add. Too little or too much can give you disasters. So if you are new to baking or you are baking your first cake, follow the recipe blindly.I really hope this helps! :)

I had bookmarked this particular recipe for a long time now and I think the perfect time to try it out was 2 days ago. It's been a year since we moved into our first home and I wanted to make something sweet because it was celebration time!! :)
Also, nominations are open for the Best Food Blog on Saveur.com, so if you think Ria's Collection's deserves it, please do nominate my blog under the 'Best Cooking Blog' catergory here. Thanks in advance!

BADUSHA
Recipe source: Raks Anand
Makes 8 nos.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c All purpose flour/Maida
1/4 c unsalted butter
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp yogurt
2 pinches of baking soda
1/4 c (approx) water
Oil fr deep frying

For the syrup:
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c water
5 strands of saffron (optional)
1 tsp lemon juice

Method:
Melt the butter in microwave. Add oil, sugar,yogurt,baking soda and whisk well.
Add the flour and mix well to make it crumbly.Add water to mix and form a dough.
Knead it till it becomes smooth, appox 2-3 mins or till the dough releases oil
Divide them into small balls and shape them (I got 8). You can shape them the way I did or just poke a finger into the centre of the balls of dough so that it has a depression in the centre.Cover it with a towel.

Heat oil, add a pinch of dough to it and if it floats to the top immediately, you are good to go.Do not let the oil heat up any more but if you did so, just add some cold oil to it and it should be good.
Add in 3-4 badushas at a time and take the pan off the heat,let the badhusha's cook in the pre-heated oil for 5 mins.By this time, badusha's will float.
After 5 mins, keep the pan back on the flame on medium -low heat and cook till golden brown. It took me around 8-10 mins.

In the meantime, prepare the syrup by boiling together all the ingredients. As soon as you get it to a one-thread consistency (110 C), remove from flame and let it cool.
Once the badhusha's are fried, drain on kitchen towels and drop them into the sugar syrup immediately. Leave it for 1 mins. Remove and let it come to room temperature.
Store in airtight tin for upto 1 week. Do not store in refrigerator.

Verdict: These were excellent!! The recipe is almost fool proof and you can make it in no time! Everything comes together like a charm.A must try! It tastes the best on the 2nd day onwards (in my observation).

We loved it!

Plus, this month's Kerala Kicthen will be hosted by 'yours truly'. So please send in your entries with a picture to airmathew AT gmail DOT com by the 30th of April. Thank you!

ONE- BOWL VANILLA CAKE... for the winners!

2011-04-04T14:21:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, we Indians, the cricket crazy people waited with baited breath to see who would win the Finals of the Cricket World Cup. And we WON! Yeayy! So as usual my Facebook news feed was filled with Cricket updates and I thought of asking my friends how do they want to celebrate? 'Something sweet' was the most common answer , so we decided to cook/bake something sweet to celebrate the 'massive' victory.

The minute I saw this cake on her blog, I knew I would try it that day itself and I did. I couldn't help but lick the batter just to see how it tasted with custard powder as an ingredient. It tasted like a box cake to me...I mean in a good way as I really like the Betty Crocker boxed vanilla cake. The city where we live, Minneapolis, is the 'home' of Betty Crocker. I don't know how many of you know that 'she' is just a fiction. There is no real 'Betty Crocker' , sadly! How I wish there she was real and she lived even today...maybe I could have gone and met her :-)

Also, it's exactly a year since we moved to Minneapolis, our first home. It's been an incredible year! Coming back to the cake, it's a very easy one-bowl cake as the name suggests. It has nice vanilla flavour and is a very light cake with a good crumb. A perfect cake for tea time or any other time you feel like snacking on a piece of cake ;-)

ONE-BOWL VANILLA CAKE
Original recipe: Betty Crocker Cookbook
I found this recipe on Aparna's blog.

Ingredients:
1/2 c unsalted butter,room temperature
1 1/4 c sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 c custard powder
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 c milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C .Line and dust an 8" round cake tin.

Using a whisk cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add in the egg and whisk till incorporated and fluffy.
Add in the remaining ingredients one by one and whisk together for 2 mins.
Pour into the tin and bake for 55-60 mins or till done.
Cool in the tin for 10 mins, remove and cool completely.

* The design on the cake is natural , that's why I left it plain :)

Verdict: As I said before, this is an easy cake which is so full of vanilla flavour. Anytime you are pressed for time or otherwise, just use this recipe to get fabulous soft cake.

If you read through the recipe, you should have noticed that this recipe doesn't even call for an electric hand beater...it just needs a 'whisk'! Looks like I am in a 'Vanilla' mood...did you see the Vanilla Cupcakes with Glossy Frosting that I made a few days ago?

You can serve this cake plain , dusted with confectioner's sugar or even fruit sauces. I'm sure you will like it!

BARBECUE CHICKEN MEATBALLS... Chak De India!

2011-04-02T00:00:00.019-05:00

Last Wednesday was a fantastic day for all the Cricket lover's from India. I didn't wake up early to watch the match but followed it closely after I woke up. All thanks to Namitha for sending me the link to watch it online. It was fun watching the match and it was great fun to see the live updates on Facebook about it. That's when it all began...

A simple innocent question of mine 'Who was Vivek Oberoi with?' just to find out who he really was with then, in the stadium lead to a 'wild' discussion ranging from Bollywood to Cricket to The Royal Wedding (William & Kate) to Bollywood (about John Abraham & Arjun Rampal this time) to Dr.Ria ( ahem! ME!!) prescribing medicines . That simple question of mine currently has 427 comments (and it's still counting)! I didn't even realise that until someone along the way pointed it out to us. I don't think I have the energy to go back and see who it was because I'm sure I'll get lost in between all that discussions once again!

Later, in the cricket spirit, I thought of asking my fellow Indian Food Bloggers if they wanted to join me in cooking something to add to the spirit of cricket as we watch the World Cup Cricket 2011 Finals today (India Vs Sri Lanka). So now, 'we' are cooking together to munch on and will be posting one by one in our respective food blogs. No rules, nothing...it's just for the fun of it! So here am I...with my Barbecue Chicken Meatballs...perfect for a game day!

BARBECUE CHICKEN MEATBALLS
My own recipe

Ingredients:
1 lb/500g ground chicken
1/4 medium onion, grated or ground to a smooth paste (It makes the meatballs moist,so go for it!)
1 pod garlic, grated ( You can sub it with 1 tbsp garlic powder)
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp lime/lemon juice
Salt to taste

1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 c Barbecue Sauce ( I used Famous Dave's)

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 450F and oil a cookie sheet, lightly.

In a large bowl,mix together the ground chicken,onion,garlic, cumin,lemon juice and salt.
Divide it into 18 balls (you can wet your hands to make it easier) and bake for 12 mins (Do not over bake it, it will become hard).
Melt butter in a pan on high,add the barbecue sauce and mix.
Add the meatballs to it and mix well for 2-3 mins until they are well coated.
Serve hot*!

*You can serve it with a dip but I chose not to.

Verdict: Very succulent meat balls!The cumin flavours the meatballs really well, you don't need any other spice/herb in it. I always imagined how restaurants got it so soft and nice...the trick is to bake it only for a short time . You might get tempted to bake for some more time to get a nice crusty meat ball but that will just ruin them. It will turn out dry.

We love anything with BBQ flavour so this was a hit with us!I can't wait for it to be Summer so that we can grill to our heart's content. If you get a chance, do try this. It's a perfect party appetizer as it tastes and looks like your fingers have some sort of a magical touch :)

Go India, go! Wishing you all the luck!

PUTTU & KANNUR MEEN CURRY /STEAMED RICE FLOUR CAKES WITH FISH CURRY

2011-03-31T12:51:00.001-05:00

Icannot tell you how much I love Kannur Style Meen Curry/Fish Curry.It is such a simple recipe that even a child can make with adult supervision.I have to say, this is my first attempt at making this curry because Janu Chechy was an expert at it and it was her speciality. When I was growing up, I used to eat this at my childhood friend, Babitha's house. Asha aunty is an excellent cook! This curry was there, always at their house. So when I was cooking this curry, I couldn't help but think of all the fun we had as kids at Babitha's house.

We were a gang of 3 girls. Rechana, Babitha and myself. Rechana was elder to the two of us by 6 years or so but that didn't matter. We still enjoyed pretend play as any other kids would do. I used to be the cook flipping out dosas from my pan with a small 'chattugam'/flat steel spoon.Once in a while we used to fight and since we were 3, one of us were 'outside' the group during the fight as 2 of us paired against the other.

I clearly remember we 3 were enrolled for Indian Classical Dance classes which was held at a school very close by to our house in Talap. Finally we got our uniforms for the class which was a 'salwar kameez'. The kameez was off white and the salwar and dupatta were baby pink. We were super excited to have the uniform but myself and Babitha didn't go for the class after that...just being lazy, you know! :-D

So, one day, we had a fight...this time it was me and Babitha against Rechana. We were so angry with her (and I don't even remember why!) and we decided to pour water at her over my boundary wall when she went for the dance class. But it never happened as she was smarter than us :D

When I look back at it, we were just being stupid and silly! I have such good memories with my childhood friends and the best part is we are still connected. Rechana got married 2 days before our wedding and Babitha was one of my bridesmaid. We live continents away but we are still in each other's thoughts!

Do you have such memories of how stupid and silly you were, when you were young? I have plenty of them. I was a single child till I was 8 years old, so I never liked sharing anything , mostly with my cousins (no idea why!). When my cousins used to visit us and if there were chocolates in the fridge, I used to run and hug the fridge so they they wouldn't open it, also thinking that they wouldn't know they were chocolates in it! Imagine how stupid I was!! :-D

That reminds me...I haven't told you how we 3 became friends right? It's funny, atleast how Babitha and I became friends. That's for another post...I hope I haven't bored you . Now let's move to the recipe :-)

PUTTU with KANNUR STYLE MEEN CURRY
My own recipe

Ingredients:
For Puttu:
Roasted Rice Flour* or Store bought Puttu Podi (Taste Buds, Avis,Nirapara, Double Horse are good brands)
Salt to taste
Water as needed
Freshly grated coconut as need

For the Meen Curry:
1 lbs/ 0.5 kg King fish (can use sardines, mackerel, shrimp etc)
1c freshly grated coconut
1 tsp turmeric powder
6 green chillies
1 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 lime sized ball of tamarind
1/2 c warm water
Salt to taste
3 tbsp coconut oil

Method:
For Puttu:
In a large bowl, mix together the salt and rice flour. Sprinle water to it and mix well.Start with half the qty of flour that you are taking.
When you press a ball of flour, it should hold it's shape and not crumble down. If you have reached that consistency, stop adding water. Pass this mixture through a sieve to remove the lumps.Leave it aside for 15 mins.
Take your puttu maker *, add some grated coconut followed by the rice flour mixture. Never ever press the puttu podi into the puttu maker, it just needs to be spooned in.
Bring to boil some water in a pressure cooker. When the steam comes, insert the puttu maker into the nozzle where the steam comes out. Let it steam till you can see steam passing through the puttu maker which will happen in less than 2 mins.
De-mould it and serve hot with Fish Curry.

Fish Curry:
Grind the coconut and turmeric powder. Add water to aid it in grinding.
Add the warm water to the tamarind and set it aside for 5 mins. Squeeze out the pulp and strain.
Add the red chilli powder, green chillies and salt to the tamarind pulp and mix.
Heat oil, add the ground masala and the tamarind pulp.
Once it comes to a boil, add the fish and let it cook.
If you think you need to add more water,add it and give it a boil.
Check for salt .

Notes:
*The rice flour used for Puttu is not super fine, it has to be coarse. The super fine variety is used for Idiappam/String Hoppers. So make sure you have the right one.If you are in doubt, go for the store bought powder made specially for Puttu.
* Puttu maker usually comes in a cylindrical form but Amma always made it in 'Cheratta'/Coconut shells and her shells are as old as I am :) I wanted to get one here but in the last minute hurry all I could manage was this commercially made 'Aluminium' Cheratta. If you are using any other kind of puttu maker, please follow the manufacturers instructions.

* If you do not own a puttu maker, you can still make it by steaming it in a plate . Simple! But this time, you will keep it inside the cooker/steamer and not over it as I did :)

Verdict: It goes without saying how much I love this curry rather the combo! Try it and you will know why I like it :)

I am sending the deliciousness to The Kerala Kitchen.