Daily Archives: March 2, 2016

Thai mushroom coconut soup

Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 15 minutes
Serves : 4 – 6 members

Description

Thailand always relate’s to sun, light green sea, crowded, hot and traffic to me. It was one among the few countries I got to visit as a newly married 14 year old innocent girl. Days of being nothing, not knowing your likes, passion and mainly your own self. I remember eating Indian food through out the trip. So my knowledge of Thai food was nil until recent when I first got to try Thai red curry at a restaurant. I did try making Thai green curry at home later and that was it. My previous trip to London, my brother did take us out for dinner to a Thai restaurant named champor champor at Weston street. A cozy small eat out that served authentic Thai food. Everything we ordered was excellent. The soup sure did pop in my mind every now and then. So this recipe is just my interpretation of the soup I had there. Pretty close but yet to perfect the soup though. Tangy with the scent of lemon grass and the flavor of coconut milk sure makes you want to have more soup. Now the crazy part of how the world connects from a Thai dish had in London that is being tried out in a South Indian home and finally being shared to the world at large. Amazing isn’t it?

Ingredients	Quantity
Water	7 cups
Maggi stock cube	1
Lemon grass	1 stalk crushed
Lime leaves	2 thinly sliced ( leaves from the lemon plant )
Ginger	1/2 inch piece crushed to small bits
Red chilly	1 sliced
Mushrooms	10 sliced
Thick Coconut milk	1 cup
Salt	to taste
Fish sauce	1/4 teaspoon
Lime juice	1 tablespoon
Coriander leaves	few to garnish

Method

Boil water, stock cube, lemon grass, ginger and chilly together for five minutes.
Add sliced mushrooms and cook further until cooked.
Stir in thick coconut milk, fish sauce and lime juice. Continue cooking for another 3 minutes.
Taste and adjust seasoning and lime juice. Remove the lemon grass stalk.
Serve hot with a garnish of red chilly slices and chopped coriander leaves.

Notes

I used dried lemon grass stalks as fresh ones are not available at my home town. At times I do substitute with lemon rind as well but the flavor does differ.

Apple jelebi

Preparation time : 15 minutes + soaking of batter for 50 minutes
Cooking time : 10 minutes
Serves : 4 – 6 members

Description

As a kid Jelebi was one sweet that I used to wonder, how on earth do they knot this sweet up together. Each one has its own pattern which was something like magic to me. But my doubt was put to an end when there was a wedding in the family. We had people who make authentic sweets like laddo, jelebi and Mysore pak in large quantities at the back yard of my grand mothers place. The entire house used to be festive with the aroma of pure ghee being heated up for the sweets. The scent of the sweets did automatically drive me to the back yard and there I was amazed with the procedure of how these sweets were made. To much happening at the back yard as I was confused where and what to take note of. And then I saw a man with a cloth piping bag which he beautifully moved over hot boiling ghee. I didn’t know why or what was happening but loved every second of watching him do that. After some time there were some things popping out of the hot ghee and that is when I realised that all this is done to get the knot of the jelebes. The million dollar mystery was broken with the jelebi knot along with a free update of laddos as well. I remember my aunt’s chasing me away from there as the huge kadai of boiling ghee was not safe for me to be around. I would go then but my mind would always stay in the backyard resulting in me being there in a few minutes time. Me and my crazy breed nostalgic memories of food. Now coming to this dish, it was just a try done at home for an evening high tea spread which was a super hit. I was confused to name this dish. As I was like these look like doughnuts and how can I name them jelebi. Then I settled down with jelebi as fusion dishes are so in. I hope this dish is a fusion with out confusion ..

Ingredients	Quantity
Apples	2 peeled , cored in the centre and cut into rings of 1/4 inch thick and immerse in a bowl of water
Oil	to deep fry

Batter ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Flour	1 cup
Instant yeast	1/2 teaspoon
Sugar	1 teaspoon
Melted ghee	1 tablespoon
Baking powder	1/4 teaspoon
Warm water	as needed
Salt	to taste

Sugar syrup ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Sugar	1 cup
Water	3/4 cup
Saffron strands	1/2 teaspoon
Rose water	2 teaspoons
Milk	1 tablespoon

Ingredients to garnish

Pistachio silvers
Almond silvers
Rose petals

Method

Combine all ingredients mentioned for the batter together to get a thick flowing consistency batter with no lumps. Set aside for 50 minutes.
Boil sugar and water for five minutes until it gets to one thread consistency. Add milk, saffron and rose water. Mix and remove from heat. Set aside.
Heat oil to deep fry in a heavy bottomed pan. Dip Apple rings into the batter and drop into medium hot oil.
Deep fry to golden and crisp on both sides. Drain. Dip into sugar syrup and Remove. Garnish with nuts and rose petals.
Serve warm immediately.

Sesame crumbed chicken

Preparation time : 20 minutes + 2 hours for marination
Cooking time : 2-3 minutes for each bath deep fried
Serves : 4 members

Description

Summer holiday days at my grand parents place in palakkad where there were country chicken with its chicks roaming all around the house. They were almost every where we kids went. All my nostalgic summer vacation memories has the rooster crowing on the back drop. It was amazing to see how much care the chicken would take by keeping her little ones always beside her. Gods way of creating things and amazing us .
Now why am I writing about this.. I seriously have no idea ( dumb me ). Sorry peeps. This chicken dish was made by my mom to impress her son – in – law on one of our visits. Took note of the recipe and like the chicken Saving its chicks my mom did save me with sharing this recipe that made things easy for me to try, test and share. Crispy flat succulent spicy chicken with traces of sesame seeds over was ultimate killer combo. A must try and I assure you this will be added to your regular’s at home. Happy chickening ..

Ingredients	Quantity
Boneless chicken	1/4 kg cut into 1/4 inch thick square pieces
Tomato sauce	1 teaspoon
Red chilly sauce	1 teaspoon
Light soya sauce	1 teaspoon
Vinegar	1/4 teaspoon
Lemon juice	just a squeeze
Ginger and garlic paste	1/4 teaspoon
Salt	to taste
Red chilly powder	1/2 teaspoon
Red food color	a pinch ( optional )
Ajinomoto	a pinch ( optional)
Cornflour	1 teaspoon
Egg	1 whole
White Sesame seeds	1 tablespoon
Bread crumbs	1 cup heaped
Oil	to deep fry

Method

Marinate chicken squares with tomato sauce, red chilly sauce, soya sauce, salt, red chilly powder, Ginger garlic paste, vinegar, lemon juice, red food color, ajinomoto, cornflour and egg for two hours or more.
Squeeze the chicken pieces out of the marination. Hammer each chicken piece with a meat hammer to flatten a bit making sure not to tear the chicken piece.
Sprinkle white sesame seeds over. Coat the chicken pieces over bread crumbs making sure it is coated very all around. Do the same to all the chicken pieces.
Heat oil to deep fry in a heavy bottomed deep wok. Drop six to eight pieces of chicken into medium hot oil. Deep fry to golden and crisp.
Drain and serve hot with dips of choice.

Thinai pongal

Preparation time : 15 minutes + soaking fox millet over night
Cooking time : 10-12 minutes
Serves : 3-4 members

Description

Pongal is a very Tamil thing as the word pong or pongu means boil over or spill over from which the word pongal derived. The word Pongal is used to represent the harvest festival or the dish made either as a sweet or savoury one. Oops.. This sounds like a text book paragraph. This dish was a try with the regular pongal recipe that I make at home but here I just substituted rice with fox millet. Having my doubts about the results of the out come kept my fingers crossed. I was surprised that I found no difference at all. It tasted exactly like the normal rice pongal. Now a healthy dish made the traditional way, that tastes nice. Isn’t that a banging bonus. I didn’t mention about the twist to any one as I wanted to know if any one would find the difference. No complaints with the vessel empty. I was happy that this recipe try didn’t end up like a dating service meaning as most of the recipes I try don’t end up like the picture I have in mind ..

Ingredients	Quantity
Fox millet / thinai arisi	1 cup
Moong dal	1/2 cup
Pepper corns	1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds	1 teaspoon
Salt	to taste
Ghee	2 tablespoons
Cashew nuts	1 teaspoon
Curry leaves	few

Method

Wash and soak fox millet in water over night. Dry roast the moong dal to light golden and remove from heat.
Heat ghee, temper with black pepper corns, cumin seeds, curry leaves and cashew nuts. Once they crackle and get to a light golden colour, remove from heat.
In a pressure cooker mix soaked and drained fox millet, washed fried moong dal and four and a half cups of water together.
Pour the tempered ingredients and add salt to taste. Mix well and pressure cook for three whistles or until cooked to a mushy mass of goodness.
Serve hot with chutney and sambar.

Cannelloni Savoury Cake

Preparation time : 40 minutes
Cooking time : 1 hour
Serves : 8-10 members

Description

Comfort food is what I needed. As mentioned earlier to me Italian cuisine some how relate’s a lot to romance. So it’s going to be an Italian dish celebration said my mind. How can I say no to it. Now the next big thing in mind.. Simple and quick or elaborate and long dish. Well simple and easy always seems a cheat’s way to me so of course it’s got be elaborate and long dish to make. Next what do I sizzle up ?? Just went through my picture gallery for ideas and there it was an image of a cannelloni made in a different way. I started with great enthusiasm and went on and on with too many things to be done but once I started to assemble the dish.. The warmth of the dish was felt and the elaborate long process just melted away. Placed it in the oven to bake. I could not wait to see and taste the dish. The longest forty minutes of my life I can say. Removed it from the oven and had to wait for it to cool down a bit. The dish looked deep and cozy oozing out comfortableness as I wanted. Served it and hubby dear goes on to ask me what is this? My mind went blank as I didn’t think of a name for this dish. With the knife in my hand all ready to cut and serve, the first thing that came to my mind was a cake. So I just told its cannelloni savoury cake. Wow I just named my dish and cut her as well to celebrate it. Ate her too.. All I needed now was a big warm hug for the efforts put in to create her. That’s a pretty cool way to celebrate with warmth and coziness .. Right ??

Step 1 – cheese sauce

Ingredients for cheese sauce

Ingredients	Quantity
Milk	2 cups
Refined flour	2 tablespoons
1 tbsp butter	1 tablespoon
Salt	to taste
Cheese slice	4 slices
Chilli flakes	to taste
White pepper	to taste
Mixed dried herbs( oregano , thyme ,rosemary , dill , basil )	a pinch of each

Method for the white sauce

Heat and Melt butter, add refined flour, saute a little and add the milk very gradually, stirring vigorously all the time.
Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 1-2 minutes, add the salt, white pepper, chilly flakes dried herbs and cheese slice.
Mix well and boil till a thick gooey saucy consistency is obtained.
Add a little more milk if the sauce gets too thick.

Step 2 – Marinara Sauce

Ingredients for Marinara sauce

Ingredients	Quantity
Chopped onion	3/4 cup
Garlic minced	5 flakes
Olive oil	4 tablespoons
Whole peeled tomatoes	3/4 kg , ( blanch whole tomatoes in hot water and peel the skins ) , ( I blitzed the peeled tomatoes to a corse pulp )
Salt	to taste
Sugar	1 teaspoon
Bay leaf	1
Tomato paste / tomato sauce	1 tablespoon
Dried basil	3/4 teaspoon
Ground black pepper	1/2 teaspoon
Red chilli powder	1 teaspoon ( for the Indian pallet )

Method

Heat a large sauce pan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is translucent.
Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar and bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer.
Stir in tomato paste, basil and 1/2 teaspoon pepper powder.
Cook until sauce is thick and gooey. Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove from heat.

Step 3 – Chicken filling

Ingredients for Chicken filling

Ingredients	Quantity
Boneless chicken	1/4 kg
Garlic paste	1/4 teaspoon
Salt	to taste
Onions	5 big chopped
Green chillies	4 chopped
Mixed vegetables	carrots , beans , cabbage , green peas chopped and boiled in water with salt
Dried basil + oregano	1/4 teaspoon
Pepper powder	to taste
Oil	2 tablespoons

Method for chicken filling

Pressure cook cleaned chicken, salt and garlic paste for one whistle. Bring to boil and Reduce the water. Cool completely and shred the chicken to treads ( I run it in the food processor for a second ).
Heat oil in a non stick pan. Add onions and fry to translucent. Add green chilies, boiled chopped mixed vegetables, shredded chicken, dry basil and oregano, salt and pepper to taste.
Mix well and lower the flame and keep stirring for 3 minutes letting all the flavours infuse together. Remove from heat, cool and set aside.

Step 4 – Cannelloni

Ingredients for Cannelloni

Ingredients	Quantity
Cannelloni shells	1 packet store bought

Method

Cook the cannelloni shells according to packet instructions and keep aside.

Step 5 – how to proceed

Other ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Egg	1 whole
Salt + pepper + red chili flakes	to taste
Coriander leaves	few chopped
Grated cheese	1/4 cup

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Grease a spring form generously with butter.
Beat egg with pepper, salt, chilly flakes, chopped coriander leaves and 2 teaspoon of grated cheese.
Fill each cooked cannelloni shell with the chicken filling.
Spread two ladles of white cheese sauce over the greased spring form tin. Top it with two ladles of marinara sauce and spread evenly.
Pour the egg mix and spread evenly.
Stack the filled cannelloni shells in a horizontal manner tightly.
Top with two ladles or more of marinara and spread evenly. Pour two ladles or more of white cheese sauce and spread evenly.
Sprinkle with the remaining cheese on top.
Bake in the preheated oven for forty minutes. Remove and bring cool for five minutes. Cut and Serve hot.