Banana Bread

I ate this at Simi's place in my usual round of neighbourly chat, amongst the assortment of her bakes. Followed it word for word as given in her recipe except that I put in more chocolate chips, cause more the chocolate the merrier was the mantra for the day. I even had my son help me bake this, he was more excited about the whole thing than I was.

I even had my friend Jen walk in through my door just when I left the cake to cool on the dining table and was it candy to her eyes or what, she simply couldn't resist asking me to cut a portion for her...like it was left there to just dig into...the aroma of a fresh bake was irresistably wafting through my whole house.

Ingredients:
Flour - 1 3/4cup
Butter - 100gms
Egg - 1 beaten well
Castor Sugar - 1 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1tbsp
Chocolate Chips - 1/2cup
Baking Soda - 1tsp
Banana - 3 large (mashed to a smooth consistency)

Preheat the oven to 160 C. Grease a loaf tin and keep aside. Sift the flour and baking soda and set aside. Cream the butter, eggs and vanilla till smooth. Add in the mashed banana and mix well. Then add the sifted flour little by little and continue to mix well. Then fold in the chocolate chips. Bake for 35minutes or till done. Serve warm and this can be stored in an airtight container for about a week if it lasts that long.

The other happiness added to the joy of baking is that Madhuri Kumar of Cook- Curry Nook passed on this precious award and made my day even special.

Snake Gourd and Split Gram Dal Thoran

Gourds are high in fibre and commonly used in Ayurveda diets to help purify blood tissue, enhance digestion and stimulate the liver.

Ingredients:
Snake Gourd - 250gms
Split Gram Dal- 1/4cup
Coconut gratings - 3tbsp
Green chillies - 2 finely chopped
Shallots - 8-10 finely chopped
Garlic - 2pods
Turmeric Powder- 1/4tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/4tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2tsp
Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs
Dry Red Chilli - 1
Salt to taste

Cook dal in one cup of boiling water.Drain and keep aside. Scrape off the skin, remove the pith and seeds of the snake gourd and cut into tiny cubes. Grind coconut, chillies, a couple of shallots, garlic, cumin powder to a coarse wet paste. Place the snake gourd into a non stick pan with the masala in the middle. Pour about 1/4cup water, cover and cook till the gourd is tender and the mixture is dry. Mix the reserved dal into it. Temper the mustard seeds, curry leaves and shallots. Add the dry red chilli and fry for a couple of seconds and pour over the thoran.

Coconut Stuffed Dumpling (Kozhukotta)

An easy to make tea time snack. Something that appeals to the young and old alike.

Ingredients:
Fine rice flour - 250gms
Boiling water - 500ml
Salt - 1/2tsp
Grated coconut - 250gms
Jaggery - 250gms
Water - 50ml

Boil and the jaggery till it melts with the water and strain this onto the coconut and cook till almost dry. Pour boiling water into the rice flour and make a soft dough. Make lime sized balls with the rice dough. Fill each ball with a teaspoon of the coconut filling close and seal. Steam all the dumplings for about 15-20minutes and serve warm with tea.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Succulent meatballs in a nice sauce to make your dinner as relishing as possible. 

Ingredients:

Minced Chicken or lean beef mince - 400gms (uncooked)

Breadcrumbs - 1/2cup

Onion chopped - 6tbs

Ginger garlic paste - 1/2tsp

Worcestershire Sauce - 1tsp

Pepper and salt to taste

Oil for frying.
For the Sweet and Sour Sauce

Brown Sugar - 1/2cup

Vinegar - 1/4cup

Soya Sauce - 1tbsp

Cornflour - 1tbsp

Tomato sauce - 1/4cup

Green Capsicum - to garnish

Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs. Make about 20 meatballs and deep fry in moderate hot oil till golden brown and cooked. Drain onto absorbent paper and keep warm.

Into a small pan, combine the ingredients for the sauce and bring to a boil and simmer till the sauce becomes thick. Arrange the meatballs onto a serving plate and pour the bubbling sweet sauce over and garnish with capsicum.

Tuna Rissoles

I was searching for vanilla beans in my kitchen cupboard and 4 cans of tuna just stare at me. Instant flicker of the bulb in my head and I was all set to make rissoles for the day.

Ingredients:
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Green chillies - 2 finely chopped
Ginger - 4cm finely chopped
Curry leaves - a sprig
Canned Tuna - 400gms drained
Potato -  31/4 cup boiled, mashed
Salt and Pepper to taste
Egg yolk - 1
Egg white - 1
Breadcrumbs

Heat oil into a non stick pan and saute the onions, chillies, ginger and curry leaves until tender. Flake the tuna into a food processor and add to the pan and stir fry for about 10minutes. Mix in the potatoes, salt and pepper. Stir in well for 15minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Mix in egg yolk and make the rissoles. Dip in egg white and dust with breadcrumbs and deep fry in medium hot oil. Serve hot.

Tip: These rissoles dusted with breadcrumbs can be stored in the freezer bag for up to a month. Thaw before frying.

Watermelon Cooler

The current trend in our lifestyle is to scout for methods that would save time. Net result, we end up buying a tetra pack of whatever flavor of juice that is available without wasting time in preparing it. All this recipe requires is peeling, cutting the melon into pieces and switching on the blender to blitz everything in...try it out and see for yourself.....
Am sending this entry across for the event 'Serve me some' - Juices, Shakes and Smoothies hosted by Madhuri.

Ingredients:
Watermelon - 4cups de-seeded, without the rind and cut into small chunks
Cold Water - 11/2cups
Lemon Juice - juice of  1 whole lemon
Sugar to taste
Mint leaves a few

Blitz in all the ingredients except the mint leaves. Serve the juice immediately, with a lemon wedge and mint leaves.

Dense Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Glaze

Criss had already told me much in advance about wanting a cake for her daughter's (Michelle) b'day. I was not quite sure what to bake....when Simi updates her blog on 'Blast from the past'...and bang on the recipe was just there...just waiting to be tried. As dense and moist as it could get, I got the children to attack this irresistible chocolatey double delight not to mention the grown ups too had themselves licking their fingers!
I'm sending this across to Divya for her event 'The Best Chocolate cake'.

Ingredients:
Dark Chocolate - 380gms chopped
Butter - 240gms cubed
Eggs - 5
Sugar - 100gms
Vanilla - 1tbsp
Flour - 100gms
Baking Powder - 1tsp
For the Chocolate Glaze
Dark Chocolate - 200gms chopped
Cream - 200ml
 
Preheat the oven to 160 C. Into a saucepan about a third full with water brought to boil. Place a bowl over the saucepan, add the chocolate and butter and melt the mixture and set it aside. Then beat eggs, sugar, vanilla essence till volume rises to double from the original amount. Then add this egg mixture into the melted chocolate and fold. Next spoon in sifted flour and mix well. Pour batter into a greased 9 inch springform pan. Bake till done or wooden skewer comes clean.
To make the chocolate glaze, pour the cream into a saucepan and heat till close to boiling point, Remove from the heat and add to the chocolate to blend together. Glaze and cool at room temperature.

Fried Cheese Sandwich

She is totally vivacious, boisterous and she's got a heart of gold. She also has a humour that would totally crack you up. When two women get together, especially if its someone you love...it could just mean only one thing....plain and pure "Gurl Fun". Thats what Jen did to me..she took a day off at work and we spent time together like there's no tomorrow. 

And for an evening snack we had some bread and cheese with a twist ..devoured it all...we needed more energy to continue our non-stop yapping and non-stop laughing.
I'm also sending this across to Divya for the event Sunday Snacks: Healthy Snacks

Ingredients:
Brown bread - 10slices
Britannia Slimz Cheese Slices - 5
Gram flour - 125gms
Water to make the batter
Salt to taste

Sandwich each cheese slice between two slices of bread and halve them into triangles. Make a thick batter using the gram flour, salt and water. Dip each triangle, coat well with batter and deep fry till golden brown.

Honey Ginger Tea

I can have this anytime of the day, although I love the ambiance at Barista Creme located at the Leela Palace to enjoy this cuppa...my husband and I enjoyed this over a sunrise from our very own balcony today.

I also know of a friend who absolutely loves this tea...couldn't help think of him as we consumed this soothing rather invigorating beverage. BJ this is to you!

Ingredients: 
[Serves - 2]
Ginger - a whole piece, cleaned and sliced into thin slices with the skin
Honey - 2tbs
Hot water - 2cups
Black tea - 1/3rd cup (I used Lipton Yellow label)

Into two cups, pour the honey and then put the sliced up ginger and let it sit for about 5minutes. In the meantime boil water. Pour the hot water into the cups about three fourth full. Then spoon in black tea to fill the cups, stir and enjoy!

Rava Dosa and Red Chilli Chutney

It had to be a different type of dosa this time...tried a version of rava dosa ~ simple and satisfying with chutney.

Ingredients:

Plain Flour - 1cup

Semolina - 1cup

Yogurt - 1cup

Rice Flour - 1cup

Jeera powder - 2 tsp

Green chilies - 3-4 nos chopped

Coriander leaves little chopped

Curry leaves a few

Water for the batter

Oil for cooking

Salt to taste

Mix maida, rava and flour together. Add jeera, green chilies, curd, coriander leaves, curry leaves and salt mix with enough water to make dosa batter. Keep it aside for 2 hrs. And onto a hot tava, spread the batter to make dosa, and serve hot with chilli coconut chutney.  

Red Chilli Chutney

Ingredients:

Dry Red Chillies - 4

Coconut grated - 1cup

Shallots - 2 chopped

Salt to taste

Water

Mustard seeds - 1/2tsp

Curry leaves a few

Shallots - 1/2tsp sliced

Roast the chillies into a frying pan till light brown colour. Grind the chillies, coconut in a dry grinder to a smooth paste and then liquidise it with shallots and water. Temper the mustard seeds, curry leaves and shallots and pour over the chutney.

Pancakes with Maple Syrup

It's easy to whip up, no effort involved and yet filling enough for a Valentine day breakfast.

Ingredients:
All purpose Flour - 2cups
Baking Powder - 2 1/2 tsp
Milk - 1 1/2 to 1 3/4cups
Granulated Sugar - 3tbs
Salt - 1/2tsp
Eggs - 2 large
Vegetable Oil - 2tbs

Mix all the ingredients to make a smooth batter. If the batter seems to be too thick add in little more milk. Pour scant 1/4cup batter onto a hot griddle and cook until the bubbles break on the surface and the edges turn dry. Turn and cook on the other side for a minute till golden brown. Serve warm with maple syrup, honey, jam,whipped cream, butter and some sliced up fruits.

My Cuppy cake~Chocolate Cupcakes

A sweet makeover for Valentines day. This was a treat strictly reserved for my family.

Am sending these muddles of love to Divya for her event the 'Best Chocolate Cake'

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour - 1 1/4cup
Granulated Sugar - 3/4cup
Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 1/4cup
Baking soda - 1tsp
Salt - 1/8tsp
Water - 1/2cup
Plain Yogurt - 1/2cup
Vegetable Oil - 1/4cup
Apple Sauce - 1/4cup
Egg white - 1
Instant Coffee - 1/2tsp dissolved in 2tbs hot water
Vanilla Extract - 1 1/2tsp

Preheat oven to 175 C.Line 8 cups of standard muffin mould and spray with oil. Mix the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl with a fork. Combine water, apple sauce, oil, egg white, coffee and the vanilla extract in a large bowl and beat till well combined and smooth. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until smooth. Fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake till wooden pick inserted comes clean, which should take about 25-30minutes. Cool completely and serve.

Brown Sugar Meatloaf

I waited till my mum tried this dish and said that it worked well with Appa. Thus took the steps to proceed on this same recipe trusting it would do the same wonders to the husband and brother. And it very well did!!


Ingredients:

Packed brown sugar - 1/2 cup
Ketchup - 1/2cup
Lean ground beef - 1 1/2pounds
Milk - 3/4 cup
Eggs - 2
Salt - 1 1/2tsp
Black pepper - 1/4tsp ground
Onion - 1 small, chopped
Ground ginger - 1/4tsp
Ground garlic - 1/4tsp
Finely powdered Marie biscuits

Press the brown sugar in the bottom of the prepared loaf pan and spread the ketchup over the sugar. In a mixing bowl, mix thoroughly all remaining ingredients and shape into a loaf. Place on top of the ketchup. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour at 160 C or until juices are clear.(Although I reserved about a quarter cup).

Chocolate Mousse~ a chocoholic Fav

I have been wanting to make this dessert for quite some time, initially I had freez-ed on Sunitha's recipe which required cream cheese, which still remains a quest for me in Bangalore city. I resorted to this specific recipe from Purple foodies~Shaheen as the muddle of chocolate looked so tempting in her little heart ramekins. I banged on it more than anything as the ingredients were easier to procure. I still haven't given up on Sunitha's recipe. But for now its this version of it. I do not have ramekins and thought of wine glasses of presenting my mousse, because that's how exactly I was served a chocolate mousse at Nithya's (good friend and ex-classmate) place for lunch hosted many a time. The mousse in the wine glass gives it a totally elegant appeal to a perfect dinner party that I'm hosting too.

Ingredients:

Semi sweet chocolate - 225gms chopped

Unsalted Butter - 75gms, cut into 6 pieces

Eggs - 3 large separated

Sugar - 1/4cup

Whipping cream - 1 cup

White chocolate shavings

In a large bowl, set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter and stir until smooth. Beat egg yolks and sugar with your electric mixer until thick enough to form a ribbon that takes a few seconds to dissolve — this will take about two to four minutes to achieve. Whisk yolks into chocolate mixture. Into a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they just hold soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream and beaten whites into the chocolate mixture, gently but thoroughly. Transfer to 8 (4 ounce) ramekins and sprinkle with the white chocolate shavings. Let the mousse set in the fridge for about an hour before serving.

Tip: The mousse will keep for upto two days in the refrigerator.

Coffee Chocolate Chip Cake

8 year old Faham was to come to my house for a sleep over, why? because he so fell in love with my three year old hyper active son. He pleaded and begged that he come over. I was instantly touched and delighted at the request and thus baked this cake for adorable little Faham.

[adapted from Deeba's Blog Passionate about baking]
Ingredients: 
Butter - 200gms room temperature 
Eggs - 4 large
Granular sugar  - 1 cup (or vanilla sugar)
Plain flour -
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
2 tbs instant coffee
1 tsp pure vanilla extract 

Grease and flour a 10" bundt pan. Sift together the two flours flours, baking powder and salt. Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one by one beating well after each addition. Beat in essence and coffee, and continue beating till the coffee dissolves which would take about 1-2 minutes. On low speed, beat in the flour, bit by bit, till well incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips. Turn into prepared pan and bake into a preheated oven for approximately 1 hour / till done.at 170 C. Leave in pan for 10 minutes, and then turn it out on rack to cool completely.  

Creme Caramel

For a hot afternoon, there's nothing like the caramelly smoothness of this custard to do you some good. I baked this in the morning before I left for church and then refrigerated it so that we can enjoy a cold dessert right for the afternoon! And by evening the rest of the cream caramel was wasted away because the plate just dropped from the fridge..all over the floor....shattered. Call it a major slip of fingers. But we still had dessert looking at the brighter side of the story....

Ingredients:

For the caramel:

Sugar - 1/4 cup

For the custard

Eggs - 3medium

Sugar - 1/4cup

A pinch of salt

Milk - 1 1/2 cups

Vanilla Essence - 1tsp

Grease 4 ramekins (I didn't have ramekins instead used an oven proof dish for my custard). Heat the sugar until it becomes a brown caramel and pour this into the prepared dish/ ramekins. Using a beater beat the eggs  and sugar till lemon colored. Add the milk, vanilla and combine well and pour into the dish/ ramekin. Pour hot water into a pan and immerse the baking dish / ramekin and bake in a preheated oven at 150C for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool and then refrigerate. Loosen the custard from the mould/ dish and invert just before serving.

Toddler Snack - Banana Fritters aka Ethakappam

Who doesn't like the these fritters. It's a dish that is popular in every Keralite household. Crispy crunchy on the outside and yet soft and sweet on the inside...

Ingredients:

Plantains - 3 ripe cut lengthwise and then halved

Flour - 1cup

Sugar - 2tbs

Salt a pinch

Soda bi carb - a pinch

Oil for frying.

Make the batter with all the ingredients. The consistency shouldn't be too watery, yet thick, Dip the bananas and deep fry in hot oil till golden brown and serve hot

Papaya Surprise

Again its me and the fruit vendor this time, I eye them and they give me the looks that spell 'do you want something, make up your mind'. I just ended up picking up this nice orangey pink papaya. Blitzed the whole thing into the blender with some cold milk and consumed it all!!
Am sending this across to Madhuri for her event 'Serve me some - Juices, Shakes and Smoothies'

Ingredients:
Ripe Papaya - 500gms
Cold Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - only if required ( I used just about a 1tbs for the extra sweetness)
Chocolate Powder to sprinkle

Peel and dice the papaya and chuck it all into a blender, pour the milk and add sugar and blitz away. Serve immediately with a sprinkle of chocolate powder.

Chicken in Spicy Coconut Curry and Awards

Who can resist an appam and chicken curry combination....I mean atleast my husband and I totally love the duet, you serve it to us morning, noon and night we would never ever complain. Also, today is the day I can rejoice, and be glad at the fact my blogger friends have passed me on these awards - I am on cloud nine ladies....

Ingredients:
Chicken - 1kg cut into medium pieces
Coriander Powder -2tbs
Chilly Pwder - 1tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4tsp
Garam masala - 1/2tsp
Garlic paste - 1tsp
Onions - 2 medium finely sliced
Mustard seeds  - 1tsp
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Potatoes - 2 peeled, boiled and quartered.
Peas - 1/4cup
Green chillies - 2 finely chopped
Ginger - 1tsp julienned
Coconut milk - 2cups (1/2 cup thick and 1 1/2 cup light)
Lemon juice - 1tsp
Salt to taste

Mix the masala powders and garlic paste and make it into a thick paste along with water. Heat oil into a large pan, splutter the mustard seeds and and then fry the curry leaves. Saute the onions, green chilly and ginger till nice and tender and then fry the masala for about three minutes. Pour in the light coconut milk, lemon juice and salt and bring to a boil. Then add the chicken and simmer for about 25minutes. When the chicken is almost done, add the potatoes, peas and thick coconut milk and simmer for about 5minutes. Do not allow the curry to boil. Serve hot with appams.

Once again thankyou Sarah Naveen from Vaazhayila and Maria from Maria's Menu for the awards. I'd like pass these on to Tina, Faiza Ali, Latha Biju, Divya Kudua, and Padhu.

Sponge Layer Cake

While me and my little one went on an adventure trip in search of cream cheese, my husband waited for us till we were done at a bookstore and bought me a book with some nice cake recipes. In return for what he got me, I baked the very first recipe that he liked as per the first photo in the book. And did I achieve the same...? I indeed did..at least I think I did..

Ingredients:
Unsalted Butter - 3/4cup plus extra for greasing
Castor sugar - 1cup
Eggs - 3
Flour - 1 1/2cups
Baking Powder - 1tsp
Strawberry Jam/ Raspberry Jam - 3tbs
Icing sugar to sprinkle

Grease a 20cm cake pan. Cream the sugar and butter together for 5-6minutes till light pale yellow and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one and beat well after each addition. Sift the flour and baking powder and carefully add it to the creamed butter and sugar.  Fold the flour in using a spatula. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth with a spatula. Bake for 25-30minutes in a preheated at 325F/ 180C. Test the cake with a skewer and if it comes out clean, remove the cake from the oven and using a spatula loosen the sides of the cake from the edge and turn over to a rack to cool. Leave to cool completely and then halve the cake across. Sandwich the cake with the jam. Sprinkle icing sugar on top and serve.