Baked Fries with Hot Dog~My Toddlers Fav!

My son loves sausages, he could have it everyday for every meal. And everyday by default the morning question as I pack his mid morning snack "Mama what have you put in my tiffin? Sausage??!!". If the answer is 'No' then, the tantrums follow, which is a usual scene here - especially when your in a frantic hurry. I'm giving into his needs of  making Hot dogs and some baked fries to accompany for dinner. The day I give him sausages you can hear him sing the song from Mickey Mouse Club House,

Hot dog hot dog hot diggety dog

Its a brand new day 

Whatcha waiting for

Get up, stretch out, stomp on the floor

Hot dog hot dog hot diggety dog 

Baked Fries
Ingredients:
Potatoes - 500gms
Cayenne Powder - 1/4tsp
Olive Oil - 3-4tbs
Pepper - 1/2tsp
Salt  - 1tsp
Garlic minced - 6-7pods


Cut the potatoes into wedges and boil into a pan of water until almost done. Pat dry and keep aside.Into a bowl, combine pepper, salt and olive oil and the minced garlic. Toss the potatoes into the bowl coating it. Sprinkle in the cayenne powder and then again, toss the potatoes. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer into the prepared baking sheet. Bake into a preheated oven of 220C until the potatoes turn crispy golden brown.  That should take about 25-30minutes. The potatoes need to be turned once while baking.

Hot Dog Relish
Ingredients:
Ready made Horseradish Dressing - 1/2cup
Tomato ketchup - 3tbs
Yellow Mustard -3tbs
Worcestershire Sauce - 2tsp
Onion - 1 small finely chopped
Green Bell Pepper - half, finely chopped

Combine all the ingredients into a medium bowl and serve onto the hot-dog

Andhra Style Chili Chicken

Mid week visit to my in-laws and yet another demand of Ratish is Andhra Style Chili Chicken, he simply loves Andhra cuisine. If you take him to Nagarjuna (one of the authentic Andhra style restaurants in Bangalore) to explore the meals, then he wouldn't leave without doing some justice, as well as tire the waiters till they beg you to leave - simply because they'd be worn out of serving Ratish ample amount of hot rice, ghee and gun powder (chutney powder).....

Ingredients:
Chicken - 1kg, skinless cut into medium pieces
Green Chilies - 10-12
Onion - 2 finely chopped
Curry leaves - two sprigs
Spice powder - 2 cloves, 1 stick of cinnamon, 1/4tsp of jeera all ground to a dry powder
Ginger garlic paste - 1tbs
Button Onions - 1/4cup
Lemon juice - 2tbs
Pepper powder - 1tsp
Salt to taste

Pat dry the chicken and keep aside. Wet grind the green chillies, ginger garlic paste, button onions to a coarse paste. Into a pan, sauté the onions till brown, also add half the curry leaves and sauté till crisp. Then add the chicken and sauté the chicken for about 2-3minutes. Tip in the chilly paste and sauté till the chicken becomes white. Cover and cook the chicken till almost done, and the liquid has turned into a semi gravy. Add the lemon juice, salt and pepper, and mix well. Add the remaining curry leaves, continue to fry the chicken for a couple of more minutes and serve hot with rice.

Tip:If required add less than a quarter cup of warm water for more gravy (which is how we like it)

Apple Pie

Some like it plain, some like it with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, some with custard and some with a generous dollop of whipped cream. You cannot refuse somebody dessert, especially for someone just out of the hospital. Yeah! on our weekend over to my inlaws, my bro in law says "Chech don't come empty handed!" Asked him if an apple pie was alright, and he goes, "just bring it on chechi"....

Ingredients:
Short Crust Pastry
All Purpose Flour - 2 1/2cups
Salt - 1tsp
Granulated Sugar - 2tbs
Unsalted Butter - 1cup, cut into i inch pieces
Chilled water - 1/4cup
Apple Filling

Apples - 6 large, peeled, cored, sliced into 1/4inch pieces
Granulated Sugar  - 1/4cup
Brown Sugar - 1/4cup
Lemon Juice - 1tbs
Cinnamon Powder - 3/4tsp
Nutmeg Powder - 1/4tsp
Unsalted Butter - 2tbs
One egg with a couple of tablespoons of milk whisked - to brush the pastry

For the Short crust pastry (Pate Brisee) - Into a food processor, place the flour, salt and sugar and mix until well combined. Add in the cold butter and process the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Pour about 1/4cup water through the feed and the mixture holds together to form a dough. Do not process for more than 30-40seconds. Turn the mixture onto a floured surface and gather into a ball. Divide the dough into two halves, cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour. Grease a 9inch pie dish. Take out one half of the dough, roll and flatten the dough to cover the base of the pie dish. Roll the dough outwardly from the center to get uniform thickness. Brush off any excess flour and gently place pastry to fit the base of the dish.Cover with cling wrap and place back into the refrigerator.

In the meantime, the apple filling can be made, by combining the apples, both the sugars, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg powder and butter into a medium saucepan. Then cook the apples for a medium to high flame for about 3-4minutes till the apples turn soft and the liquid reduces and becomes thick. The liquid will turn syrupy and caramelized. Place the apple filling into the base of the pastry filled pie dish.

Then take out the other half of the dough. Roll and flatten the dough to cover the apple filling. Moisten the edges of the base pastry with water so as to tuck and seal the top pastry. Crimp the top pastry as desired. Once the top of covered, trim off excess pastry. In the middle of the top pastry, make a slit so as to let the steam escape while the pie is being cooked. Lightly brush the top pastry with egg and milk mixture and bake into a preheated oven of 180C for 40-50minutes till the top is golden brown and juices are bubbling. Its tempting to cut the pie right away, (I did that to take my photo, plus we were heading out to my inlaws).Resist as much as you can and let the pie sit for a couple of hours so that they turn out to be perfect wedges.

Masala Shrimps

Mum in her visits here always brings me shrimps from Kuwait, they are cleaned and de-veined and zip-locked ready to be used.  So decided to use it up with Ramani Aunty's recipes from her Book on Series of Classic Recipes from Kerala....

Ingredients:
Shrimps - 300gms cleaned and de-veined
Garlic paste - 1tbs
Chili Powder - 3tbs
Turmeric Powder - 1/4tsp
Aniseed Powder - 1/2tsp
Ground Cinnamon - 1/4tsp

Ground Clove - 1/4tsp

Onion - 2medium finely sliced

Black pepper and salt to taste

Squeeze the water out from the shrimps, combine shrimps with chili, turmeric, aniseed, clove, cinnamon powders, salt and the garlic paste with 1/4cup water in a non-stick pan. Cover and cook the shrimps till the gravy coats. Heat oil in a frying pan, sauté the onions till lightly brown, stir fry the shrimps until browned. Sprinkle in the black pepper before serving.

Kheema Dosa

Looking for an easy way out to cook? at least for today I'm not wanting to slave it all out ..so had ready-made dosa batter, some beef mince equated all out to give me Kheema Dosa!!

Ingredients:
Ground Beef - 1/2kg
Onions - 2 medium finely chopped
Black Pepper - 1tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4tsp
Minced Garlic - 1tsp
Green Peas - 1/2cup
Salt to taste

Heat oil in a pan, add the chopped onions and minced garlic and sauté for till the onions have become transparent. Add the garam masala, turmeric powder and sauté for 2minutes. Then add in the minced beef, cover cook till the beef is cooked which should take about 7-10minutes. Remove the lid and add salt and pepper, mix well, and stir in the green peas and continue to sauté for another 3-4minutes.Incase the mixture becomes dry, add in a couple of tablespoons of warm water, to ensure the mixture is still moist. Make a thin dosa, and stuff the kheema into the dosa to make it look like a masala dosa.

A little cup of Hot Chocolate

Made a thermos full of hot chocolate and can't wait to give it to Him. Ratish (my bro in law) is right now just out of surgery, had to get his torn knee ligament done. Has been craving a something chocolaty ever since he landed at the hospital, I'm going over right now to do some justice...

Ingredients:

Whole milk - 21/4cups

Water - 1/4cup

Sugar - 1/4cup (suoerfine)

Unsweetened Cocoa - 1/4cup

Bittersweet Chocolate chips - 100gms 

Combine the milk and water and sugar in a medium saucepan.Heat mixture over medium heat until it reaches a rolling boil. Add the chocolate chips and cocoa powder. Whisk into milk mixture and return to boiling boil. Mixture will thicken. Reduce heat to very low. Blend using immersion blender until thick and foamy. If the cup of chocolate is too bitter/sweet/ strong stri in some cream or add in more milk.

♥♥ Sticky Date Cake for the Binny's ♥♥

Jason, Jon and Judah...adorabable boys and yes they are triplets....are they manageable??Hmmm?? Well?? they are boys, and they are three?? sometimes they go on a spree of wanting to cry, or sometimes they just decide to turn the house upside down. It had been a pending visit to Binny's and Sheena'a place. And we did over the long eid-weekend. For a family favorite, I took them home -a moi baked chocolate cake and a sticky date cake.....

Ingredients:
Plain flour - 1 1/2cups
Butter - 1/2cup softened
Caster Sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 3 beaten
Dates - 1 1/3cup pitted and chopped
Boiling water - 1 1/4cups
Ground Cinnamon - 1/2tsp
Baking soda - 1tsp
Baking powder - 1tbs
Topping
Brown sugar - 1/2cup
Butter - 4tbs
Cream - 3tbs

Place the dates in a bowl and cover them with the boiling water. Preheat the oven to 180C. Then grease a 9inch springform pan. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, then fold in the flour and cinnamon. Add the baking soda, to the dates and water, pour onto the creamed mixture. Stir until well mixed. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for an hour or until well risen, firm to touch.
To make the topping, place the sugar, butter and cream in a pan. Set the pan over low heat and stir until the sugar has all melted, then bring to a boil and let it simmer for 3minutes. Pour over cake and let it cool in the pan. Then transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

A Sweet Punch~ Chicken Quiche

The best quiche I have ever had is the one Freeda Aunty used to make. It was on my list of bakes to try out a quiche, and the sweet punch roll out their dish for September, making it all savoury with a quiche. An excellent choice!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

Maida -200g

Butter (frozen) -100g (preferably unsalted)

Baking powder-1/4 tsp

Salt-to taste

Beaten egg-1

Ice cold water-as required ( which will be a few drops)

Sieve maida ,salt and baking powder together. Grate in the butter and mix it with the flour with your fingertips till it resembles coarse sand. Add in the beaten egg and water and gather it into a soft dough. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface and lift it up carefully and line the tin that you will be baking it in.If it breaks up and you need to do a patch work, big deal! It wouldn't be seen outside.Which ever tin you are using, make sure the dough comes a little way up the sides, so that it can hold the filling in. 

Filling:

Boiled and shredded chicken-1/2 c ( you can substitute it for paneer or other veggies of your choice)

Onion-250 g ,chopped

Milk-1 c

Cheese-100g (cheddar will work fine)

Beaten eggs-3

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil- as needed.

Heat oil and slightly fry the chicken/paneer til it is golden brown. Add in the onions and fry till onions have caramelized. Switch off the flame. Add milk, cheese, beaten eggs, salt and pepper and mix well. Pour into the pastry case and bake for 25 mins or till golden brown. Let it cool in the tin completely . Serve it in wedges.

Even better Banana Walnut Muffins!

Why even better? because this has fewer calories, more fibre and less sugar....

As suggested, I'm sending this across for the event "Only low oil, or low calorie" hosted by Priya Mitharwal

Ingredients:

Plain Flour - 1 1/2cups

Brown sugar - 1/2cup

Baking powder - 1tsp

Baking soda - 1/2tsp

Salt - 1/4tsp

Mashed ripe banana - 1 cup which is about 2-3 bananas

Egg - 1 large one

Olive oil - 2tbs

Buttermilk - 1/4cup

Canola oil/ Vegetable oil - 3tbs

Vanilla Extract - 1tsp

Walnuts - 1/3cup chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C. Coat 8 of a standard size muffin pan with oil. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl..Mix banana, olive oil, canola oil, egg, vanilla extract, buttermilk in a large bowl and mix until smooth. Gradually add in the flour and stir till well blended. Add the walnuts and mix through. Fill each of the muffin cups about three-fourths full. Bake until skewer comes out clean which is approximately 15-20minutes.

Chicken Fajitas wrapped in Tortillas

Bored of the normal roti, daal and chaawal at home....so had to think of something not too much out of the genre of food liked by all at home, but a wrap is definitely acceptable....

Ingredients:
[Serves 4]
Chicken - 4 skinless breasts

Maple syrup/ Honey - 3tbs
Red wine vinegar - 1tbs
Garlic - 5-6pods crushed
Red Peppers - 2 de-seeded and cut into 1inch strips
Oregano dried - 2tsp
Red Chilli Flakes - 1-2tsp
Olive oil - 3tbs plus extra for drizzling.

Place the oil, maple syrup, vinegar, garlic, oregano, pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste into a large bowl. Shallow dish and mix together. Slice the chicken into1inch strips and toss into the marinade. Mix well to coat. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours turning occasionally. Heat a pan until hot. Lift the chicken strips from the marinade with a slotted spoon, lay on the pan and cook on medium- high flame for 3-4minutes until cooked through. Remove the chicken to a serving plat and keep warm. Add the peppers, skin down to the pan and cook for 2minutes on each side. Transfer to serving plate. Place the chicken and peppers into a wrap, along with a salsa to dip and enjoy.

Tortillas
Ingredients:
[Makes 12]
Plain flour - 350gms
Salt  - 1tsp
Baking powder - 1/2tsp
Shortening - 75gms
Hot water - 75gms

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the shortening and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add enough water to form a soft dough. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and shape into a ball. Cover with a clean towel and let it rest for 15minutes. Roll out each ball keeping the remainder dough covered. Heat griddle or pan over a high heat for a minute and cook the tortillas for 1-2minutes on each side, or lightly browned in places and puffed up. Serve warm.

Coffee Walnut Ring

How often do you simply smile at the sweet moments you may have had, those little thrills, quixotic moments maybe?, a sense of achievement at doing something noble for a cause, a person, maybe a situation - simply inexplainable..well this was one of my moments of joy. And sometimes you cannot contain it within yourself, so I just put to baking for the day!!

Ingredients:
Plain flour - 175gms
Butter - 175gms

Castor Sugar - 175gms

Eggs - 3

Baking Powder - 1tbs

Coffee Extract - 1tsp

Walnuts - 70gms chopped roughly

Maple Syrup - 4tbs

Sieve the flour and baking powder and keep aside. Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy and add in the eggs one by one, and then the coffee and extract and beat well. Add in the sifted flour little by little and continue to beat well. Stir in the chopped walnuts. Spoon the mixture into a greased 10inch ring tin. Smoothen the top with a palette knife. Bake in a preheated oven for 40-50minutes at 160C. Leave to cool in the tin for 10minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish off cooling. While the cake is still warm, spoon in half of the maple syrup. Once completely cool, drizzle rest of the maple syrup.

Sausage Fried Rice Served with a Crispy Sunny Side Up

It's been pouring the whole day, the climate only lulls you to snuggle under your bed-covers, or maybe just do some cozying up by reading a book with a nice cup of coffee to be by your side. I was not wanting to cook anything at all, but you gotto you know especially with my toddler around, who could be finicky with what he'd like for the day. This is a recipe I had bookmarked in my usual routine of blog hopping by Sig with a little of my variation too. And it only lead to me making everyone happy for dinner..:)

Ingredients:
Long grain Basmati Rice - 1 1/2cups cooked and cooled
Sausages - 1/2 cup diced
French Beans - 1/2 cup cut into 1 inch pieces
Shallots - 1/4 cup thinly sliced
Light Soy Sauce - 2 tbs
Ground Pepper and Salt to taste
Eggs - 1  fried per person
Spice Paste
Shallots- 2
Garlic - 5-6
Dried Red Chilly - 2
Galangal/Ginger - 1 inch


Grind the shallots, garlic, red chillies and ginger with a little water to form a smooth paste. Into a wok, add vegetable oil swirl the wok and when hot, add the sausages, fry till brown, remove and keep aside. Fry the shallots till crispy brown, remove and keep aside. Then add the beans, fry till done, remove and keep aside. Add the ground spice paste and sauté till the liquid is evaporated. Tip in the cooked rice and coat well with the spice paste. Then add the soya/ tamari sauce and pepper and mix the rice well. Then add the beans and sausages to the rice, cook on medium heat for another 3-4minutes and serve onto a plate. Then into the same wok, add oil enough to fry the egg, break an egg to get a nice crispy sunny side up, season with pepper and salt and carefully mount onto the rice.