Sweet and Sour Chicken Drumsticks

Here's one recipe to simply wolf down, with some steamed rice, or some plain noodles. The sweetness of the sugar and the sourness of the vinegar, humbly satisfies you.

Ingredients:
Chicken Drumsticks - 6
Egg - 1
Cornflour - 4tbs
Salt and Pepper to taste
For the sauce
Onion- 1 small
Green Pepper - 1
Carrot - 1
Chicken stock - 2cups
Vinegar- 4tbs
Brown sugar - 4tbs
Sherry - 1tbs
Soya sauce - 1tbs
Oil for deep frying

Trim the drumsticks if  necessary. Beat the egg with 1tbs of water. Mix the cornflour with salt and pepper. Dip the drumsticks in egg, then in cornstarch and out to one side. Cut the onion into eights and the pepper and carrot into wedges. Drop these into a small pot of boiling water and cook for 5minutes. Drain well.
Mix together in a small saucepan the chicken stock, vinegar, sherry, soya sauce, brown sugar, corn flour. Bring to a boil and stirring constantly, simmer for 2-3minutes.
Heat oil in a skillet, fry the chicken drumsticks until golden and tender. Drain onto absorbent paper. Add the vegetables to the sauce and then the chicken, reheat for about 3minutes and serve hot.

Chocolate Banana Loaf for the Lil Get-together

I get an sms from Prerna, the following day after my birthday
"Are you at home tomorrow @5:30pm?"
I sms back saying "Yes I am, wassup?"
Prerna's sms reads "V are all coming tomorrow"

Surely enough, I knew the 'v' (we) meant much more than just her and her little son. The 'we' meant, Asma and her two daughters Rafa and Sidra, Sunehra with adorable Dhruv (my son calls him Dhrufee), Soumya with her little Princess Avni (my son is her Prince), Megha with her lil one Anya, Priyanka with adorable baby Hridaan. And of course, the sms sender Prerna, sadly her son Veer was asleep.
So with cups of coffee and slices of cakes, there was singing and chatting and lots more merry making.
The good thing from it all for me was that I was in the company of women who understand, women who are humbly grounded and women who are there to give you a shoulder hug when you need one......

Ingedients:
Butter - 1/2cup softened
Brown sugar - 1 1/3cup
Bananas - 3
Eggs - 2
All purpose flour - 2cups
Bicarbonate of Soda - 1tsp
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder - 1tbsp
All spice - 1tsp
Yogurt - 1/3cup
Chocolate Chips - 85gms

Grease a 9 x 5 x 3inch loaf pan. Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the butter, sugar and eggs into a bowl and beat well. Peel and mash the bananas, then add to the mixture. Stir it well. Sift the flour, soda, all spice, cocoa powder into a separate bowl and then add the banana mixture to it. Stir in the yogurt and chocolate chips. Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and level the surface. Bake for an hour until done. Cut into thick slices and serve warm.

My gift from them are these precious pair of earrings, which I simply loved. Thank YOU Girls!!

Going BananaS~ With Banana Jam

At boarding school, Remaniammama (one of mum's elder sisters) had sent across a bottle of banana jam. Frankly I'm not a fan of mashed banana's but, at boarding school anything and everything home-made was Good to Go. That bottle of jam was like manna from heaven. I remember having it for breakfast, tea, dinner and as a late night out of the bottle snack with anything we had in our stock. Since my stock of bananas right now is over ripe, and having baked three banana cakes, the option I had was to make bottles of jam. I referred to the recipe given in Joy of Desserts, tweaked it a bit to suit my preference.

Ingredients:
Bananas - 1 1/2kg
Brown Sugar - 3 1/2cups
Lime - 5
Water - 1 1/2cups
Vanilla Essence - 3tbs
Cinnamon Powder - 1tsp
Brandy - 1/4cup

Into a large pot, mix in water, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon powder, and the juice of the limes. In a moderate heat, bring the mixture to a syrupy consistency. Add the mashed bananas and cook for about 25-35minutes over low to medium heat. Just before taking it off the flame add the brandy, let it cook off. Put into jam bottles, cover and seal once cooled.

Banana, Blueberry and Orange Loaf

I actually forgot, about this month's sweet punch bake, when my mobile beeped a 'priority reminder' - Bake for Sweet Punch. Then started my madness of dashing back and forth, frantically searching of what to bake, what do I have, so little time....it so reminded me of one these songs I have seen Elijah watch "got to hurry, got to worry blues". With that as my background music, I fancied up this bake only because this month was 'our choice of the bake'- phew!!....the blueberries again I had stock thanks to my Lesa Gurl! Fresh garden produce of bananas from Shaicha's home (my dad's youngest brother) .and there you have have it...

Ingredients:
Self Rising flour - 2cups
Baking powder - 2tsps
Butter - 85gms softened
Caster Sugar - 115gms
Egg - 1 large lightly beaten
Pinch of salt
Medium sized ripe Bananas - 5
Blueberries - 125gms
Rind of 2 oranges, finely grated

Preheat the oven to 180C. Beat the softened butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Gradually add the egg and beat it into the butter and sugar mixture until smooth and well combined. Sift the flour, baking powder into a mixing bowl and set side. In a separate bowl, mash four bananas (reserving one for decoration).
Divide the banana mash into two equal portions and add half of it to the creamed butter mixture along with the blueberries and the orange rind. Gradually fold in the flour with the remaining mashed bananas until well amalgamated but not over mixed.
Pour the cake mixture into a lightly buttered loosed 3-pt/ 7 1/2cup French loaf tin lined with parchment paper,pressing the mixture lightly into the corners and smoothing the top with a back of the the spoon. Peel and slice the reserved banana and cut into pieces. Dust them lightly with icing sugar (cut side up) and lightly press into the surface of the cake mixture. Bake for 45minutes until a cake skewer comes out clean. Dust lightly with icing sugar and cut into thick slices when cold. Spread lightly with butter and enjoy with a glass of milk.