Daily Archives: April 2, 2015

Vanilla cookies

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 15- 20 minutes

Serving : 4 members

Description

Biscuits and cookies don’t fancy me much but it’s just the vies – ver -sa with my boy. I used to give both my kids just two biscuits at a time when they were little. My gal being a fussy eater would take them with no complaints but my smart fellow would roll on the ground , cry out loud and do a lot more drama just to get the entire packet of biscuits from me. Being the cliche mumma… I would end up giving him the entire packet as boys are always mummas sweet hearts right ?? My boy would have finished the whole packet in a few minutes where my gal would have finished just half a biscuit of the two given to her. My boy would grab the remaining one and half biscuit as well from her. This was a regular scene at home back then. Now that my boy is back home with me for a long break after he’s finished his under graduation. I did bake a huge batch of vanilla cookies for him. He did relish a few and the rest were stored in an air tight container for later. The next day, having guests drop in for evening tea, I opened the cookie container and found it to be empty ??? I immediately knew this cleanly wiped out job was done none other than my darling smart fellow. With a motherly heart full of joy .. I did think … Some habits are born to stay for ever and ever.

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Flour / maida	2 cups
Butter	1/2 cup
Sugar	1/2 cup
Baking powder	1/2 teaspoon
Salt	a pinch
Vanilla essence	8-10 drops

Method

1.Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.mix butter, sugar, flour, salt, baking powder and vanilla essence together.
3. Knead to a soft dough . Roll the dough to a one inch thick rectangle of even thickness all over.
4.Cut into desired shape with a cookie cutter . ( I used a moon shape cookie cutter and pressed with a fork on top to get the lined pattern )
5. place the cut cookies at a gap of one inch distance each over a greased butter paper / foil paper lined baking tray.
6.bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes until done.
7. Remove from the oven and cool over a wire rack. Serve after one hour so that the cookies get a bit crisp and crumbly.
8. store in an air tight container at room temperature. Keeps well for a week.

Notes

1. make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature.
2.Let your imagination rule and experiment with the Desing of the cookies .
3. I cut the cookies to rounds and stick jems color cookies , or cut to a flower shape with a cookie cutter and stick one jems in the middle and press with a fork to get the flower petals to look good .

Goan style chicken suke

Preparation Time : 20 minutes + one hour marination time

Cooking Time : 15 -20 minutes

Serving : 6 -8 members

Description

Goa is one place that always reminds me of happy care free days with good food, sun kissed beaches with laid back attitude people around. My first visit was as a little one with my parents and brother. All my brother and myself did was soak ourselves in the pool and beach alternatively.. Followed with eating meals and brunches non- stop .Till date it’s the best holiday for me. My next visit was a few years back, again with my parents and two kids. This time it was more of exploring the place, food and culture .Its kind of hard to impress my gal but she fell in love with goa and ended up saying get me married to a guy here please. She still is crazy about vindaloo , xacuti and bibenca. ( all these are Goan dishes not guy’s names ) so for the love towards goa, every now and then I keep trying out Goan recipes to cosy up. This recipe was taken note from the telly which was made with mutton. I have used chicken instead and no complaints at all as it was deliciously warming endowed with a lovely meaty texture. The aroma of fried ground spices with the chicken hits you at the right spot. This dish can be served any time of the day with anything and everything. I serve it as a side with rice, chapathis, idli , dosa , rotis, bread …..

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Chicken / mutton	1 kg
Potatoes-	6 cubed
Bay leaf	2
Coriander seeds	1 teaspoon
Cloves	2
Onions	4 chopped + 2 sliced
Coconut grated	1 cup
Black pepper corns	1/4 teaspoon
Cinnamon	2 one inch pieces
Dry red chillies	2 broken to 2
Oil	4 tablespoons + 4 tablespoons

Ingredients to marinate

Ingredients	Quantity
Turmeric powder	1 1/2 teaspoon
Red chilly powder	4 teaspoons
Garam masala power	4 teaspoons
Lime juice	1 lime

Ingredients to grind

Ingredients	Quantity
Garlic-	10 flakes
Green chillies	6
Ginger	2 inch piece

To garnish

Coriander leaves- chopped few to garnish

Method

Grind the ingredients below the to grind ingredients list together to a smooth paste .Add with the marinating ingredients and mix well with the cleaned chicken pieces and cubed potatoes.
Marinate for one hour .Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan . Add pepper corns , coriander seeds , cloves , cinnamon, dry red chillies and sliced onions . Sauté for 2-4 minutes until s good aroma arises .
Top with the grated coconut and fry until crunchy and gets to deep gold color. Remove from heat and cool completely. Grind to a coarse paste .Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in another pan .
Top with the Bay leaves and chopped onions . Fry to pink in color. Add the marinated chicken and potatoes with half cup water . Bring to boil adding salt to taste .
cook until the color of the chicken and potatoes change . Takes about 6-8 minutes . Add the ground coarse paste .
Mix well and cook until the chicken and potatoes are cooked and oil separates .
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot .

Notes

The same recipe can be done with mutton as well

pineapple peel wine

Preparation Time : 20 minutes + 21 days

Cooking Time : nil

Serving : 4 members

Description

Wine has always mesmerised me as a kid wondering what it would taste like to the colour and smell of it. Studying in a Christian boarding school, I used to attend the mass every Sunday as I was in the school choir. Seeing others have round corn chips dipped in to wine, made me wonder even more. I used to ask all my fellow Christian mates about the taste. Our head mistress mrs. Elsama Thomas would make wine at home and have seen her serve it to some staffs as well. All I knew was wine was made from grapes and has a deep redish thick purple colour. Later when my class mate Liju told me he had pineapple wine in Germany on a holiday which was deep golden yellow in colour. I just fell for the way he described it to me. My crazy little mind just stored this for keeps.. Not sure why ? A few months Back I came across a recipe of home made pineapple wine in Nisahomy.com – cooking is easy. A blog that I have been following for quite some time. I jumped up with joy and gave a try to the recipe. Waited for nearly a month to see the results and as Liju had described to me it had a deep golden yellow colour . As we are not supposed to have wine for religious reasons , I packed the wine for my moms friend suganthi aunties family. As I was packing it, gave 1/4 glass to my live in help to taste and let me know about the wine . She happily drank it and said it had a fruity flavour and was sweet. As she was finishing the wine she told me she was feeling a bit dizzy. I laughed it off thinking a home made wine can’t get you toxic and that too .. one made by me . Poor thing she really did mean it as she dozed off to sleep in a few minutes and woke up late night by eleven . I still have my doubts if she played a prank over me for some extra rest :-)). The wine did reach suganthi aunty and their entire family enjoyed the wine. Aunty did let me know that it was quite toxic but the flavours and colour was addictive. Well the golden oldie drink did make a mark. From playing an integral part in religious rituals to being hailed as an elixir, wine has enjoyed its glory days from a thousand years before. But is it really as virtuous as its touted to be ?? Still keeps me questioned about ??

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Pineapple skin	of 2 pineapples
Pineapple slices	2-4 chopped
Water	1 1/2 cup
Sugar	1 3/4 cup
Beaten egg white	1
Dry Ginger / chukku-	1 tablespoon crushed
Cloves	6
Cinnamon	2 sticks
Yeast	1/2 teaspoon

Method

In a ceramic jar, put all the ingredients one after the other . Mix with a wooden spatula.
close with the lid. Cover the lid with a piece of cloth and tie it tightly with a string.
place the jar in a dark place for 10 days . The next 11 th day , strain the wine.
pour into a clean sun dried bottles and place in a dark place for another 21 days to mature.
In case you can’t wait, have it after five days of bottling.

Sweet corn savoury pudding

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes + 30 minutes to bake .

Serving : 6 – 8 members

Description

The excitement of getting any thing free= awesome and when it comes with a heavy price tag it’s= even more awesome . Sounds cheap I know… but that’s the reality internationally with no caste, creed , colour or region. Like wise I got an opportunity for a two day stay at the “ITC GRAND CHOLA” hotel in chennai for a friends daughters wedding. The two days were spent in real luxury with good food, friends and fun. What more do you need. But the good food part was the ultimate for me as at each meal we had a grand spread of all courses with international standard. I went crazy from tasting each dish to digging my mind with what ingredients and technic was used for the dishes to storing in mind about platting technics and food display. My mind was over loaded with different ideas, recipes, fusion dishes …. Uff I can go on and on . Like wise the most appealing dish that really shook me was a savoury carrot pudding that was Devine. It was served in small mini portions and before I could get a second helping it was wiped out clean with no more on the table. Back home to reality… My mind was stuck to the carrot savoury pudding. I googled for the recipe and found just one recipe. I followed the recipe religiously but with substituting carrots with boiled sweet corn kernels. Made it when I had a school senior visit me and it was relished by all in style. Not bad… The free heavy price tag stay did lend me so many other things in free as well :-)).

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Butter	25 grams
Polenta	1/2 cup ( can replace with semolina )
Grated cheddar cheese	1/2 cup ( I used amul cubes )
Eggs	3 separated
Boiled Sweet corn kernels	500 grams
Milk	1 1/2 cups
Parmesan cheese	grated 1/4 cup
Dried herbs	1 teaspoon ( basil , oregano , thyme , rose Mary )
Salt + Pepper + chilly flakes	to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius . Melt butter in a heavy bottomed non – stick sauce pan over medium heat . Add corn kernels , polenta / semolina and milk.
Mix well with no lumps . Bring to boil stirring continuously . Reduce heat to low , simmer and stir all the way until the mix thickens to form one lump together.
Remove from heat ( be careful with salt as both the cheese have a lot of salt ) and add both the grated cheeses.
Season with salt , pepper , chilly flakes and dried herbs . Mix well and cool for ten minutes . Stir in egg yolks and mix well.
Beat the egg whites to stiff with the help of an electric egg beater in a clean bowl that’s not wet or greasy to stiff peaks . Using a metal spoon , gently fold half of the egg white into sweet corn mix.
Fold the remaining egg white as well into the sweet corn mix . Pour into a greased oven proof serving casserole dish about 7.5 cm deep , 6 cups capacity.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the top gets to a golden brown crust . Serve hot.

Creamy fruity – veggie salad

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 10 minutes

Serving : 4-5 members

Description

There are times at home when hubby dear is out of station and it’s time for others to relish their favourite treats in his absence as he’s very dominating about his likes to be on the table always. In such an occasion, my gal always asks for a few starters, a salad and a soup to be served for lunch with no main course. This salad also was made on such a day where she was craving about a creamy based salad that she had in a restaurant in Coimbatore with fruits and veggies mixed together . As she was just describing to me about the salad beside me in the kitchen, I started prepping getting an approval at each stage from cutting the fruits and veggies to boiling the veggies to the creamy sauce put together to the finally mixed salad. We do make a great team as the salad was pitch perfect bringing in a lot of cool breeze to the hot summer table and tasted exactly like what she had at the restaurant. Now have to mention about many of my recipes being used in restaurants and leading chefs demonstrating my recipes on the telly…. I know , sounds wired… As I had to pinch myself to check if it was happening in reality. I feel humbled first but it’s a good sign to show that we home chefs are not bad at all isn’t it ???

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Boiled cubed potatoes	1 cup
Boiled chopped beans	1/4 cup
Boiled peas	1/2 cup
Tinned pineapple	1/2 cup chopped
Green Apple	1/4 cup chopped with skin
Red apple	1/4 cup chopped with skin
Green Grapes	6 cut into half
Boiled carrots cubes	1 cup
Red , green and yellow peppers / capsicum	1 cup together
Mayonnaise	1 cup
Thick Fresh cream	3 tablespoons
Garlic paste	1/2 teaspoon
Pepper + salt	to taste
Sugar	1 teaspoon
Chilly flakes	to taste ( optional)

Method

Mix mayonnaise, cream ,garlic paste, salt, pepper powder, sugar and chilly flakes together. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Mix all the fruits and vegetables together. Top with the mixed creamy dressing. Toss well .
place in the refrigerator to chill until needed to be served. Decorate as you wish and serve chilled.

Prawn Vadai

Preparation Time : 40 minutes

Cooking Time : 3-4 minutes for each batch shallow fried

Serving : 4 members

Description

Any thing done with prawns makes me salivate for so many reasons as its one among my favourite source of shell fish. The first time I had a prawn vada was at my sister- in- laws place which was made by hubby dears aunt. I vaguely remember the Ingredients she used but my biggest doubt was if she added raw prawns or cooked ones. So this experiment with prawns was always saved for later. A few months back, I did come across a recipe in a foodie group of prawn vadas. Took note and gave a try with a twist of my own. I was not sure if it would taste good as the recipe demanded for raw prawns to be ground, I felt it would result in a fishy fried affair. But to my surprise these vadas were far more better in all means compared to the first ones I had at my sister- in – laws place.A very simple , no fuss recipe with few ingredients but resulting with mind blowing taste and loads of flavours. I made this again to treat hubby dears niece zanofer for lunch and she went bonkers over the vadas. She could not believe that the vadas were made with prawns. Here at hubby dear’s place guest is God and this is taken very seriously. We are supposed to go out of the way to treat guests with a rich variety of a grand spread on the table. It is considered an insult if a guest has any left over food on the plate after a meal. Till date I have not had a problem as such, thank god…. touch wood.

Ingredients to be ground

Ingredients	Quantity
Cleaned prawns	1 cup
Small onions	5
Ginger	1/4 inch piece
Garlic clove	2
Grated coconut	1 cup
Curry leaves	4
Green chillies	2
Turmeric powder	1/4 teaspoon

Other ingredients

ingredients	Quantity
Prawns	1/4 cup cleaned
Red chilli powder	1/8 teaspoon
Turmeric powder	a pinch
Lime juice	1/2 just a squeeze
Salt	to taste
Coconut oil	to shallow fry

Method

Marinate the 1/4 cup prawns with red chilly powder, turmeric powder a pinch and salt to taste.
Coarsely grind all the ingredients together mentioned in the ingredients to grind column. The ground paste must be corse but smooth.
Add lime juice and salt to taste to the ground coarse mix . Mix well . Check seasoning and Keep aside for half an hour.
With the help of greased palms, take a small portion of the coarse mix and shape to round small vadais. Place two marinate prawns over the round , flat shaped vadais and press gently to insert the prawns in carefully.
Heat coconut oil to shallow fry . Drop the vadas in batches with the prawn inserted side facing down into the medium hot oil with out over crowding them. fry to a deep golden brown colour on both sides.
Drain and serve hot as it is. No dips needed as it tastes Devine by it self.

Notes

Make sure you use fresh prawns which helps to give a good taste to the dish.
The small variety prawns tastes best for this dish.
Do not turn the vadas more than twice as it tends to break easily. Cook on one side for a minute, turn over and cook again for another minute in medium low heat.