Carrots and cherries

Warm Wishes for the NEW YEAR ......

2012-01-01T16:39:00.000+01:00

Lots of work going on here in the kitchen ;)

Heartfelt wishes for a very happy and prosperous new year and best wishes for the years to come !!

Here is a glance of what all was going on in my kitchen here :)

Eggless chocolate sponge with strawberries and vanilla cream

Eggless Blackforest gateau

Fresh fenugreek leaves (methi) paratha (Home grown methi)

A glance of my soon coming mini lunch series (An attempt to blog regularly a balanced lunch recipe )

Spinach (palak) paratha, okra stir fry and onion-fresh corriander raita

Bisi bela huli and onion-tomato raita

Vegetarian fried rice-noodles and soya chunks in a spicy sauce

I wish you all a sweet and savoury year ahead ..... indulge and enjoy keeping in check your waistline ....... ^_^

CHEERS for the new year !!

Thanks for stopping by, all your comments and mails mean a lot to me........they make my day :)

Thanks
Abhi

Moist and eggless chocolate marble cake

2011-10-12T17:30:00.000+02:00

I welcome all you readers to a world of eggless bakes that tries to compete neck to neck with the "real deal", yes I try and bake without any eggs trying to achieve the same kind if texture, moistness and the quality of the baked goodies with added eggs. I have got a taste of both the versions. Of late I have been baking lot of bread, almost once a week and now I have the bread formula in my head !!

Lot can be done to create a recipe from a base recipe

- tweaking it here and there but mostly trying to keep it as it was

- trying to understand the purpose of each element in the recipe and trying to substitute some in some cases like nut allergy, gluten intolerance, egg allergy etc...,

- trying to add some more elements into the recipe to make it more suitable to your tastes

Whatever you try to do to an original recipe, the basic thing will be to understand the purpose of each and every element of the recipe. Not only what the recipe contains but understanding the method is also very important. I have been trying to do a so called "research" on how to make eggless bakes as tasty and trying to imitate the quality of the baked goods with eggs in it. Difficult as it is, I decided in making my experimenting more exciting by trying to avoid using the saturated solid fat like butter.

The bread experimenting had started some months back, after many partially cooked, ok and good bread later, I got my recipe for a basic bread loaf. After some accidental experimenting, yes I say accidental because I had never intended to add those things into the recipe until after I started making it. Well after an accidental experiment SUCCESS !! in baking a chocolate marble cake with khoa and I was on cloud nine after hubby dear rated it a 9 on 10 (he told a 9 because he found it a bit salty, well no arguments he is the best critic when it comes to my food :)......). I thought why not try making it with ricotta cheese. Hence, this recipe

For a 21 x 12 x 8 cm loaf you need, all the measurements are in cups and spoons for ease.

Milk - 1 cup (I used whole milk, you can even use skimmed milk)

Rice vinegar - 2 tsps (I used this since the vinegar available here are either with herbs or strong tasting for a cake)

Semi-white wheat flour (farine mi-blanche) - 3/4 cup + 4 tbsps

Fine semolina - 1/2 cup

Raw cane sugar - 1 cup + 4 tbsps

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Baking soda - 2/3 tsp

Sunflower oil - 1/3 cup

Ricotta cheese - 1 cup

Vanilla essence - 4 tsps

Cocoa powder - 4 tbsps

1. Preheat the oven at 180 deg C. Line the loaf tin with baking paper.

2. Mix the vinegar into the milk and keep aside. (If you are using rice vinegar like me the milk wont curdle like with other vinegars, dont bother the cake will turn out well !)

3. Put in the measured flour (3/4 cup), semolina (1/2 cup), sugar (1 cup), baking powder and baking soda mix them well so that the leavening agents are homogenously distributed.

4. Mix into the milk-vinegar mixture the oil and vanilla extract.

5. Mix the milk mixture and the flour mixture into a smooth batter. The batter will be slightly thin at this stage.

6. In a separate bowl beat and smoothen out the ricotta cheese that has already been measured.

7. Add this to the cake batter in step 5 and fold it in nicely to obtain a homogenous mixture.

8. Take around 1/3 rd of the prepared cake batter and to it add the cocoa powder and mix till you get a uniformly coloured batter.

9. To the rest of the cake batter add the flour (4tbsps) and sugar (4 tbsps) and mix well.

10. Now following this method for marbling the cake (excellent video!! with the method and results), fill in the prepared loaf tin or any tin of your desire with all the cake batter.

11. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 60 mins or till the cake tester comes out clean. Cool it, slice and serve as it is or with berries or icecream.

Verdict:

This is one experiment that turned out to be a success !

The ricotta version was good though I find myself partial to the khoa one.The chocolate marble cake with khoa tasted out of this world ! It was utterly delicious and one of the most addictive cakes that I have ever made.

It is very important to handle the cake with care and let it cool completely before you try and cut it.

I will be posting the khoa version soon, so wait up you guys for an absolute treat !!

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Amazingly soft butterless & eggless milk buns

2011-08-29T17:32:00.000+02:00

Back into the blogosphere after a really long break !!!

I have been continually trying and experimenting with new recipes or improvising on the old ones during these months of absence. Many new recipes were born out of sheer need for palate pleasing food without many gadgets and many ingredients. I was out of the baking zone for a long long time.......happy to be back and enjoying the joy of baking bread at home, with amazing results :)

Several recipes, trials, not so-so and so-so results later I finally got "THE" recipe for really soft home made milk buns. The trick to getting these soft is the amount of liquid and kneading of the dough.

I got this video when I was searching for bread on youtube, it was this recipe that worked for me. I tweaked the recipe a bit, most of it is exactly as in the video.

So here goes the recipe, for 6 small buns you will need,

Whole wheat flour - 250 gms
Whole Milk - 200 gms
Sugar - 30 gms
Active dried yeast - 4 gms
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Olive oil - 25 gms + more while kneading

1. Take 1 1/2 tsps of sugar from the already measured amount place it in a glass or porcelain bowl pour some of the luke warm milk on to it, mix well and then sprinkle the yeast over it. Cover it and leave it aside to ferment and bubble up for 10 - 12 mins.

2. Mix into the rest of the luke warm milk the left out sugar and salt.

3. Place the mixing bowl over a measuring scale and measure the flour and oil. Mix the oil well into the flour.

4. Mix the yeast mixture well with a wooden spoon. Make a well in the center of the flour-oil mixture and pour the yeast mixture and the milk-sugar-salt mixture (IMP: reserve 1/3rd of the milk-sugar-salt mixture for brushing the rolls later).

5. Mix all the above nicely with a wooden spoon and then, take some oil on to your hand and start kneading the dough. Knead till the dough is soft and does not stick to your hand. It took around 12- 13 mins for me to achieve this by hand.

6. In a big greased plastic / glass / porcelain bowl transfer the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 90 mins or till doubled in size.

7. When the dough is doubled, remove the dough and gently form it into a tube and cut 6 equal pieces. Shape them into a ball and place them on a prepared (greased & floured) baking tray and lightly flatten them.

8. Brush the rolls with the left out milk-sugar-salt mixture and cover them with greased plastic wrap for the final rising of 45 mins.

9. During the last 10 mins of the final rising, preheat the oven to 220 deg C.

10. Now, uncover the risen rolls, sprinkle with toppings of your choice.(I had sprinkled some with white sesame seeds.). Place the trays in the oven and bake for 10-12 mins.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

An almost museli - fruit and nut granola

2011-04-20T19:14:00.000+02:00

Breakfast is one of the most important meal to kick start a day packed with energy. Here, we both prefer a nutrient rich and light breakfast. I used to buy this breakfast cereal to eat in the morning with milk, we used to always find it very sticky and too soft once you pour milk over it. Then I saw many recipes for something called granola, I did know what museli was and I loved it for breakfast with some cut apples in it. It was just a "perfect" way to start a day for me !

I just felt that most of the granola recipes had too much sugar and oil (may be butter also) in it. I got this really good recipe for a granola here, from Meeta at What's for lunch, honey?.

Oh yea, I did tweak the recipe here and there to suit our tastes. I am giving here the final version of the recipe that I usually make when we want a good museli at home.

These are what you need to make a hearty granola,

5 cereal mix, rolled - 400 gms

Cranberries, raisins, apricots and dates - 145 gms

Figs, almonds, pistachios and walnuts - 140 gms

Sunflower seeds - 90 gms

Cinnamon, ground - 2/3 tsp

Raw cane sugar - 90 gms

Molasses - 20 gms (1 Tbsp)

Water - 25 gms

Oil - 1/3 tsp (I used rape seed oil)

1. Preheat the oven at 160 deg C. Line a sheet tray with baking paper.

2. In a big pan mix the sugar, molasses, water and oil. Heat it and keep stirring it to make it a homogeneous mixture and to help the sugar dissolve. Remove from the heat as soon as the sugar has dissolved.

3. To the sugar mixture add the 5 rolled cereal mix, chopped figs (only it they are too wet), chopped almonds, pistachios and walnuts, sunflower seeds and ground cinnamon. Mix well to nicely coat all the cereal and nuts as much as possible.

4. Spread this mixture on the lined baking tray. Bake for 30 mins or till the cereal starts looking lightly browned. Mix the baking mixture 2 - 3 times, so that they are all equally browned.

5. As soon as the baked cereal mixture is removed from the oven, tip in rest of the dry fruits (chopped if needed like the apricots). Mix well and let it cool completely before storing it in a container.

Serving suggestions: Eat as a morning cereal, sprinkle over milkshakes, use to layer parfaits, you can even add some to your home made icecream, oh! I can go on..... :P

Have fun baking :)

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Some teasing and a delectable Beetroot halwa

2011-04-13T12:29:00.000+02:00

There are times in your life where you feel so elated at such simple things life throws at you. You have so much fun doing somethings so silly !!!! little you realise that if someone sees what you were upto, you would look quite stupid. Well.... as long as there you have fun and find joy in somethings, nothing really bothers you ! (right ?).

It is kind of related and unrelated to me having a good time teasing a neighbour's cat..... :) It is one of the most good looking cats I have seen here ! It is a very naught cat too. The other day when it was raining I noticed something sitting on my bathroom window, it was this naughty cat sitting there. Our neighbour has two cats, and both of them are really naughty and very very good looking ones !

Every evening, she whistles for the cats calling their names and they slowly reluctantly come back home, exactly like how we used to be when we were kids (but mom never used to whistle for us obviously ! ..... :P).

Ok now back to the recipe story. Once when I had asked my dear hubby whether he had tasted beetroot halwa, he told me "Oh yes ! mom used to make it so many times, I used to really like it." Contrary to him, I had tasted the halwa only once till now. It was so good !!.

The next day I got hands on really fresh beetroot in the supermarket, asked mom whether anything different has to be done to prepare beetroot halwa or is it the same as the one we prepare with carrots. She told me to try out the same way that we prepare carrot halwa. I did try and succeed :) yay !

I pretty much followed the same method and mesurement ratios as for carrot halwa.

We need,

Beetroot, grated (with a big grating slot) - 220 gms

Milk - 11/2 cups

Cashews, pistachios and almonds - 5 each, chopped

Raw cane sugar (or you can use the regular white one) - 41/2 Tbsps (I would suggest you to reduce the sugar or increase depending on the sweetness of the beetroot)

Green cardamom pods, powdered - 2

Ghee / clarified butter - 1/3 tsp

1. Heat the ghee in a pan, add the cashews and saute them till they turn light golden brown.

2. Tip in all the grated beetroot and fry for 6-7 mins (till the raw smell goes and it starts to change colour.

3. Pour the milk and bring it to a boil and keep stirring it, you do not want the bottom to burn !

4. Once the milk starts boiling add in the chopped pistachios and almonds. Keep stirring.

5. Once the beetroot has absorbed almost all of the milk poured, add the sugar and cardamom powder and stir well. The mixture will get little thinner in consistency due to the addition of sugar.

6. Cook the halwa for another 8-9 mins. Just take care not to cook the halwa till it is too dry because it will get really sticky. So remove it from the heat when the halwa is soft just take care that you do not see any watering liquid.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Loads of recipes coming soon....

2011-03-25T18:30:00.000+01:00

The windows os has crashed. I am using Linux now. Just waiting impatiently for Hubby dear to fix it, for me to post on my blog....

I will be soon posting some of my recipes....

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Daring cooks March 2011 : Papas Rellenas

2011-03-15T08:54:00.000+01:00

This month the daring cooks challenge was hosted by Kathlyn of bakelikeaninja. She had challenged us to prepare some peruvian food.

I chose to make the papas rellenas tweaking the recipe a bit to suit our taste. This is how they looked (I pan fried them :P ).

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Pal payasam - Indian rice pudding

2011-03-07T19:26:00.001+01:00

I am being quite a lazy girl now a days. I love reading and writing, and of late I am doing neither of it. In these "no posting on the blog" days, I have learnt quite some things, like I can now independently do a water colour painting (I will be showing off, some of my paintings soon......**giggles**) trying hard to learn Beethoven's very popular piano piece Moonlight sonata (movement 1).

I am making more of traditional home cooking than before, but I still try out new recipes to learn different techniques, combinations. Lots of experimenting in kitchen to go on. I do not know how much my husband realises but, he does play a major role. Yes, he is the guinea pig and he has a set a very sensitive taste buds which sense even the minutest ingredient (sometimes, I think they are on a break or strike rather so they refuse to detect the obvious flavours....quite a paradox huh ! The most puzzling mystery !!), also I very much appreciate the patience with which he asks me to make some changes in the dish that I have prepared when I plan to make it the next time. Most of the time, he actually tells me the particular ingredients that I must add to enhance the flavour.

My hubby dear does treat me with restaurant food (both of us do not have an inclination to eat out regularly), sometimes just to take a break from the regular cooking. Well there are somethings I just love preparing, like some traditional sweets / desserts from back home. Most preferred by me are the simple ones, not needing too much of ghee (clarified butter). This is just one of them and need I say mom used to prepare this especially for me :D (well you can see me grinning .....). This is more like riz au lait, but a little thinner in consistency and with all the Indian flavours.

I had prepared this dish and even took the photos to post in on the blog, and I have been postponing it again and again. Finally, coming out of the laziness I decided to post it and voila !

Here is the recipe to make some pal payasam to relish on a chilly winter or really will make just as wonderful a dessert in any other season.

You will need,

Milk - 3 cups + 1/4 cup (whole or skimmed milk can be used, I used 2.5% fat milk)
Almonds & Cashews - 10 each (soaked overnight)
Basmati rice - 1 tbsp (soaked for 1 hour)
Pistachios, minced - 10
Almonds, sliced - 1/4 cup
Raw cane sugar - 3/4 cup (The amount can be adjusted according to the preference of sweetness, I made the payasam just sweet enough. Also raw cane sugar is healthier so I used it instead of the regular crystallied white sugar. Using raw cane sugar gave the payasam a light brown shade.)
Green cardamom pods, powdered - 4

1. Make a smooth paste out of the soaked almonds, cashews and 1/4 cup milk. Keep aside.

2. In a deep (deep enough so that the milk does not over flow when it starts boiling) bottomed thick pan heat the milk, keep stirring it when it is heating. Once the milk starts boiling, continue boiling the milk for 15 mins stirring in continuosly so that the milk does not stick to the botom of the pan and burn.

3. At the end of the first 15 mins, add the basmati rice and sugar. Keep cooking the milk with the rice and sugar for 15 more mins, while stirring it continuously.

4. At the end of the second 15 mins, add in the prepared paste and sliced almonds and keep cooking the payasam for 15 more mins. At the end of 45 minutes, test the rice it must be cooked and the pal payasam will be thickening.

5. At this stage, mix in the powdered cardamom into the payasam. Take of the heat. Serve warm, at room temperature or cold sprinkled with the minced pistachios.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Daring bakers Feb 2011 : Vanilla Blanc battu panna cotta (vegetarian) with passion fruit gelee and Five cereal florentines

2011-02-27T23:24:00.008+01:00

Quite a simple baking challenge but a tricky panna cotta challenge !

This month's daring baker's challenge was hosted by Mallory of asofainthekitchen. After much thinking, I tried to give it a go. Since I am trying to avoid baking (regularly) as all that is showing of on the waistline !!!!! I tried making a really low fat vegetarian version of panna cotta (a trial which did not work so well as in the texture) and I also reduced the amount of butter and sugar in the florentines.

So here is a quick post on the ridiculously low fat panna cotta and perfectly sweet and lacy five cereal florentines.

Vanilla Blanc battu panna cotta (vegetarian)

Milk (2.5 % fat) - 250 gms

Blanc battu (0.2 % fat) - 200 gms

Agar agar powder - 8 gms

Sugar - 50 gms

Vanilla sugar - 20 gms

1. In a pan pour in the milk, the sugar both varieties and the agar agar powder. Stir well till there are no lumps.

2. On Low heat bring this mixture to a boil and let it boil for 2 mins.

3. Take of the heat, let it cool to room temperature. Keep stirring in between. When cool add in the blanc battu (I mixed it into the hot milk mixture and it split, let me just hope that it still tastes good.... ). Mix well. Pour into two (or more) serving glasses / ramekins / moulds. Let it cool completely at room temperature before refrigerating it.

Passion fruit gelée

Passion fruits - 2

Sugar - 1 tsp

Water - 1 tbsp

Agar agar powder - 1/3 tsp

1. Dissolve the sugar into the scraped out passion fruit pulp.

2. In a pan dissolve the agar agar powder in the water and heat it for 10 - 15 secs. Remove from heat.

3. Immediately pour in the fruits mixture into the pan and stir well to combine.

4. Pour this mixture over the already firming up panna cotta. Let this also cool to room temperature and then refrigerate till you serve.

Five cereal florentines

Butter - 25 gms

Rolled five cereal mix - 40 gms

Raw cane sugar - 40 gms

Molases - 10 gms

Plain flour - 20 gms

Vanilla extract - 1/4 tsp

Milk - 15 gms

Salt - a tiny pinch

1. Preheat the oven at 190 deg C.

2. Melt the butter in a pan, once the butter has melted tip in rest of the ingredients and mix to combine.

3. Line a baking tray with baking paper, using a spoon drop on the prepared tray 8 equal discs of the mixture. Flatten it a bit. Bake for 8-10 mins at 190 deg C.

4. Allow the florentines to cool before you try to handle them.

This recipe makes 8 big florentines (unsandwiched). They were just sweet enough.

I did this at the real last minute and posted it......phew !!!!! (I had fun, was really not much of the usual pressure you have while baking a new dish). Thanks for having hosted a cool challenge Mallory :)

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Daring cooks Feb 2011 : Cold soba salad and tempura

2011-02-14T15:16:00.000+01:00

WOW..........yumm !!

We really liked the combinations. I found it very easy to make and I made a vegan version of tempura which came out well and tasted as good.

I will definitely make this again !

I thank Lisa for challenging us with this Noodle dish from Japan. I simply loved this challenge. The best and the most enjoyable part of the challenge was eating it :P

I just followed the recipe given here, scaled it down and made it vegan (egg free) and vegetarian for us. I also did not find any soba noodles, so I used the regular noodles that is easily available in the Asian food section here.

Some pics (taken in a real hurry !!) of our Japanese lunch.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Mushroom biriyani, onion raita and couscous halwa

2011-02-08T17:35:00.001+01:00

It is quite sometime since I blogged :)

Yesterday I got hands on some very fresh white button mushrooms here and I prepared a lightly spiced rice using them as the main ingredient.

No one can beat mom in preparing mushroom biriyani. The taste is simply WOW !........Whenever she prepares this dish, the whole house retains the utterly mouth watering aromas of the spiced basmati rice. I have tried this dish several times, to my delight only today was it tasting a little like the one mom used to prepare. Do not get discouraged by me saying this, I had an ingredient missing !!!! It was Garam masala powder. This powdered spice mix enhances the flavour of a dish immensely and caution has to be taken to not add too much of this spice powder to a dish.

I had recently bought a pack of couscous. I prepared it with some veggies, just like the Indian vegetable upma. I had cooked the couscous separately before adding it to the veggies. As soon as the couscous was cooked, I had a taste of it and at that moment I immediately developed a strong liking for it. The taste was very familiar to my taste buds I felt and was thinking what all I can do with it. Today I tried a very popular sweet dish, Rava kesari. But instead of semolina I made it with couscous. It tasted nice. Simple and sweet :)

I had quickly noted down what I had done when I was taking my lunch. So here is what I did and you will need the ingredients given below to try out my recipes !

Mushroom Biriyani

To be (pressure) cooked with 2 cups of water separately

White button mushrooms - 250 gms - each quatered

Red onion, big - 1 - finely chopped

Ginger - 1"x1" piece - finely chopped

Garlic, big cloves - 5 - finely chopped

Cloves - 2

Cardamom - 1

Cinnamon - 2"x1" piece

Star anise - 1/2

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Other ingredients

Basmati rice - 1 cup

Red onion, big - 1 - thinly sliced

Ginger-garlic paste - 1 1/2 tsp

Mint leaves, small - 15

Cinnamon - 1"x0.5" piece

Cloves - 4

Shah jeera - a pinch

Asafoetida - a pinch

Oil - 1 tbsp

Ghee / Clarified butter - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

I assume that as told the ingredients to be separately cooked are cooked and kept ready. The cooked mushroom and spice mixture must be strained and separated from the water. Reserve this stock for adding later.

1. Heat the oil and ghee in a thick bottomed vessel / pan. Add in the whole spices and asafoetida, fry for 10 secs. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for almost a minute.

2. Add the sliced onions and fry till they are transluscent. Now add the chopped mint leaves to it and fry for a minute.

3. Now add the cooked mushroom spice mixture and rice, mix well. Add in the reserved stock (I used 1 1/2 cups of stock for 1 cup rice). Add salt, bring it to a boil and then reduce the flame and cook it on low heat till done or else, if you have electric stove like me you can pressure cook the rice mixture by transferring it to a container that can be put inside the cooker and cooked (There lot of ways to cook the rice). Sprinkle some chopped corriander leaves and serve.

Serve hot with raita or kuruma.

This recipe serves 4 persons with one another maincourse dish (like roti and a dry sabji). For 2 people it might get a bit monotonus.

Onion raita

Red onion, small - 1 - finely chopped

Corriander - 3 sprigs - chopped

Curd / Yoghurt - 3/4 cup

Water - 1/4 cup (I added water since the curd was too thick)

salt - 1/3 tsp (always taste before adding)

1. In a bowl mix in all the ingredients and serve as an accompaniment with spiced rice or parathas.

Couscous halwa

Couscous - 1/2 cup

Raw cane sugar or any other sugar - 3/8 cup (the raw cane sugar is not the Indian jaggery)

Milk - 3/8 cup

Water - 1/4 cup

Almonds - 4 - chopped

Cashews - 4 -broken

Dry grapes (kismis) - 10

Ghee / Clarified butter - 1 tsp

Cardamom - 3 pods - powdered

Salt - a pinch

1. Heat a pan with ghee, fry the cahews till golden and the dry grapes till they puff up. Immediately add the couscous and fry for 2 minutes.

2. Add the sugar, salt, chopped almonds, milk, water and powdered cardamom. Mix well. Bring to boil and close with the lid and cook till done.

Serve the couscous halwa warm or cold.

Some glimpses of my today's lunch :)

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Daring bakers Jan 2011 :Chocolate jaconde entremet with saffron rosewater coconut mousse

2011-01-27T19:06:00.000+01:00

This is going to be a real tiny post, to say I did try making but did not give it enough time though.

This time at Daring bakers we were challenged to make the Biscuit jaconde imprime entremet by Astheroshe of accro. It was quite not a breeze. I had tried to make an eggless jaconde earlier and it was not quite to our taste. So I tried making the one with eggs at the last minute (Really not a good thing to do when you got to make a really good looking dessert like this !)

Well I did try and I made a chocolate jaconde with a saffron rosewater coconut mousse (Sad because it had not set, I really need to learn how to use agar-agar in the place of gelatin).

Well, I am being brave and putting up a snap of the dessert (no fancy designs, sorry Astheroshe. I will definitely try making this and let you know :) ).

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Pistachio macarons with strawberry quark

2011-01-25T23:24:00.001+01:00

Every time I post a recipe on my blog, I would like it to be unique, original in its own sense. That is why I am struggling right now to post truly original to my home recipes !!

This time at Mactweets, Jamie and Deeba had challenged us to make a macaron inspired by a favourite dessert. I was planning to flavour the macarons depending on how they turn out. Well they were not so great. I followed all that I read, still no success. I had a different kind of problem this time. My macarons had BIG feet but they slid out very neatly like the nice ones. But still it did not have that kind of texture inside, I felt they were rather chewy. Since the macarons were not a great success I decided to make a simple strawberry quark filling to sandwich them.

I gues no one can deny that strawberries and cream are unbeatably the simple yet very delicious dessert. I tried to mimick the same strawberry and cream, but instead of cream I used low fat bio quark :). All the more good for us, Low fat and really tasty !

Ahem ..... Ok...... now going on to the recipe !

Pistachio macarons

1 Egg white (36 gms) from a small egg, aged for a little over 24 hours
Fine granulated sugar - 12 gms
Icing sugar - 80 gms
Almonds - 22 gms
Pistachios - 22 gms

1. In a clean bowl start beating the egg white at low speed, slowly increase the speed.

2. When it starts getting foamy, add slowly the granulated sugar and beat till it turns into a glossy meringue having a shaving foam consistency.

3. Pulse the nuts and icing sugar in a mixer. Sift to break the lumps.

4. Tip in the nut-sugar mixture into the meringue, break the air in the meringue and fold in the ingredients, first swiftly and then slowly to achieve a consistency of magma.

5. Pipe out the batter onto baking paper, let it rest for 30 mins to form skin.

6. Preheat the oven at 160 degrees C, bake the macarons for 10 mins or till done.

7. Cool and slide the shells of the baking paper.

Strawberry quark

Quark, hung for 3 hours - 200 gms
Icing sugar - 4 tsps
Vanilla sugar - 2 tsps
Strawberry, 1 big - 25 gms

1. Take the hung quark in a bowl, mix it few times to make it soft. I used a spatula to mix it.

2. Add the vanilla sugar and the icing sugar, and keep mixing till you get a smooth mixture.

3. Now, add finely chopped strawberry and mix well so that the strawberry juices mix into the quark to give it that nice strawberry flavour.

To complete, match the macaron shells and keep aside. Fill the piping bag with the strawberry quark. Pipe onto one macaron shell and sandwich it with its pair.

et Voila !

I just cross over my fingers for some good luck the next time I bake macarons and write.....

A macaron ode for GOOD LUCK

Macarons oh beautiful macarons....
why do you have to be so tricky to make my dear macarons,
would you just give me a chance to master you,
would you just make me dance with happy feet,
would you just melt in my mouth with all your sweetness,
this time wish me GOOD LUCK to make you oh you glamorous sweetie !!!!

I really hope I get lucky the next time.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Carrot kuruma / Kuruma de carottes / Karotten kuruma

2011-01-17T13:22:00.000+01:00

Back after a long break !!!!

Like everyone or everything has ups and downs, I am having my share of difficulties in the kitchen. Everyone definitely has a passion, that is the main driving force in the person's life. Cooking is my passion and I just love preparing sweets, baking, trying to prepare new dishes and experimenting with flavours. I try to prepare everything at home. It does take time to understand and master the dishes !!

Sometimes there are series of flops ! Several attempts to conquer "THE" fear, achieve "PERFECTION" and master the dish seem to go vain. It is something that I am going through now. I really do prefer vegan food and I am trying to find the perfect recipe for an eggless sponge cake. I have tried several. They seem to have some missing instruction in it !!

There is some pleasure in knowing that I still can prepare decent tasting dishes three times a day !

Everyone loves to be different, irrespective of whether one wants to be known for that or not. I lie somewhere in between. I am trying to get known in the food blog world and trying to give original recipes, simply with a "MADE AT HOME" tag :)

From time to time, I try recipes from cook books. This is one of the recipes that can never go wrong, just stick to the proportions. Moreover, it is so simple to make, not many ingredients and goes very well with rotis.

From this post onwards, I am going to try and write the recipes in French and German also. Please let me know if there are any mistakes in my language. Will be good practice for me.

Ingredients:

Carrots - 500 gms, cut in to 2 inch long thick sticks

Onions, big - 1, sliced - 130 gms

Tomato, medium - 1, sliced - 120 gms

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

For the kuruma paste:

Dry grated coconut - 3 tbsps (It must not smell of coconut oil)

Green chilli, small - 1

Poppy seeds - 1/2 tsp

For the seasoning:

Cloves - 2

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Green cardamom - 1

Asafoetida - a big pinch

Oil - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Make a close to smooth paste using all the kuruma paste ingredients. Keep aside.

2. Heat a pan with oil, add in all the whole masalas and asafoetida to it. Fry for 10 secs. Now, add in the sliced onions and fry till they turn transluscent.

3. When the onions turn transluscent, add the carrots and turmeric, fry for 4 - 5 mins.

4. Now, add the prepared paste, tomatoes and salt. Mix well, close with a lid and cook for 2-3 mins till the tomatoes cook.

5. At this stage the carrots are still raw, you can either add the required amount of water and cook in outside else you can just tip in all that in there in the pan into a vessel and cook it in the pressure cooker (I cook it for 3 whistles and remove it off the heat. After it gets cooled, open and serve.)

Serve this dish with rotis.

Je vais essayer d'écrire en Français. C'est mon premier essai :)

Ingrédients:

Carottes - 500 gms, coupée en bâtons de 2 pouces

Oignons, gros - 1, coupée en lamelles (pas très fine) - 130 gms

Tomates, moyen - 1, coupée en lamelles (pas très fine) - 120 gms

Curcuma (poudre) - 1/4 cuillères à café

Pour la pâte de kuruma:

Noix de coco râpée (seche) - 3 cuillère à soupe (Il ne doit pas sentir l'huile de noix de coco)

Piment vert, petit - 1

Graines de pavot - 1/2 cuillères à café

Pour l'assaisonnement:

Clou de grifoles - 2

Cannelles - pièce d'un pouce

Cumin - 1/2 cuillères à café

Cardamon vert - 1

Asafoetida (Ferule Asafoetida) - une grosse pincée

Huile - 1 cuillères à café

Méthode:

1. Faire une pâte presque fine avec tous les ingrédients de la pâte de kuruma. La mettez à l'écart.

2. Chauffez une poêle avec l'huile, mettez les épices d'assaisonnement. Les faire sauter pour 10 secs. Ajoutez les oignons et les faire sauter jusqu'ils sont presque transparent.

3. Maintenant, ajoutez des carottes et curcuma, les faire sauter pour 4 - 5 mins.

4. Ajoutez la pâte, tomates et sel. Mélanger bien et les cuire fermer avec un couvercle pour 2-3 mins jusqu'a quand les tomates sont cuite.

5. En cette phase les carottes sont presque cru. Vous pouvez ajouter de l'eau et faire cuire jusqu'a quand les carottes sont cuit. Autrement vous pouvez les aussi faire cuire dans une cocotte (minute).

Servir ce plat avec les pain Indiennes (rotis).

Ich probiere zu schreiben im Deutsch. Mein erst versuch :)

Zutaten:

Karotten - 500 gms, 2 inch langen dick stọ̈cken geschnitten

Zwiebel, große - 1, in scheiben geschnitten - 130 gms

Tomaten, mittel groß - 1, in scheiben geschnitten - 120 gms

Kurkuma (pulver) - 1/4 teelöffel

Für die kuruma paste:

Kokosraspel - 3 Servierlöffel (Es mußt keinen duft von kokosöl haben)

Grünem chilli, klein - 1

Mohnsamen - 1/2 teelöffel

Für die würze:

Geürznelken - 2

Zimt - 1 inch stück

Kreuzkümmel - 1/2 teelöffel

Grüne Kardamom - 1

Asafoetida (Stinkendes steckenkraut) - eine große prise

Öl - 1 teelöffel

Methode:

1. Zermahlen die kuruma zutaten.

2. Machen eine Pfanne heiß mit Öl, fügen Sie die Würze zutaten. Braten für 10 secs. Jetzt, fügen Sie die Zwiebel und braten bis wann das ist fast durchsichtig.

3. Fügen Sie die karotten und kurkuma, braten sie für 4-5 minuten.

4. Jetzt, fügen Sie die kuruma paste, tomaten und salz. Verrühren gut, schließen mit ein deckel und kochen für 2-3 minuten bis wann die tomaten sind gekocht.

5. In diesem stadium die karotten sind noch roh, Sie können fügen wasser und kochen die kuruma oder Sie können kochen die kuruma in einem Schnellkochtopf.

Serviren diesem gericht mit Indisches brot (rotis).

Thanks for visiting my blog :)
Merci pour votre visite :)
Danke für Ihrem besuch :)

Happy New Year !!!!!

2011-01-02T10:53:00.002+01:00

I wish all of you a very lovely year filled with happiness, health, joy and tasty food :)

Good Luck to all those whose are starting something new !

Only after a year ends, you look back and realise so many things have passed by in your life. Somethings astonish you as to, I really don't understand how I could have completed that or oh yea ! I really did something exciting last year :P

I don't believe in taking "oaths" because it is like a rule that is meant to be broken ........giggle **

I do believe that, if you make up your mind to do something you do it anytime of the year.

With every year there are always somethings new, surprising, exciting, happy, sad, confusing and yet so many nice and enjoyable things that come.

I end this post, by saying that I look forward to every new year that comes......

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Daring bakers challenge Dec 2010 - Stollen

2010-12-26T22:42:00.000+01:00

After lot of thinking, I finally finished my second daring bakers challenge. I was thinking whether to do this month's challenge or not, because there was already lot of baking that was going on here at home. Mostly for the Christmas gifts :)

(I really hope that they enjoyed it .......)

Two days back I finished baking the stollen late after we had finished eating dinner. I made it eggless, shaped it in the traditional shape and I made only 1/6 th of the original recipe....yes I did scale down all the ingredients !

I wasnt so happy about the result, the bread was eatable, a bit dry and it looked like I should have shaped it into a loaf.

So below are the ingredients that I used to make the stollen,

All purpose flour - 130 gms

Luke warm water - 10 ml + 30 ml

Active dry yeast - 4 gms

Milk - 40 ml

Mascarpone cheese - 25 gms (I used this in place of butter)

Raw cane sugar (brown sugar) - 20 gms

Salt - 1/8 tsp

Cinnamon powder - 1/8 tsp

Orange zest - 2 pinches

Vanilla extract - 2/3 tsp

Mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds & cashewnuts) - 35 gms

Cranberries, dry - 10 gms

Kirsch wasser (cherry liqueur) - 1/2 tbsp

Method :

1. Sprinkle the yeast over the luke warm water and let it stand for 5 mins and then stir to dissolve the yeast.

2. Soak the cranberries in the kirsch wasser, keep aside.

3. Heat the milk and 30 ml water in a pan, and stir in the mascarpone cheese to dissolve in it. Once all the mascarpone dissolves remove the pan from heat and let the temperature of the mixture reduce to luke warm.

4. Mix in flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon powder and orange zest in a big bowl.

5. Mix in the vanilla extract and dissolved yeast into the milk-water-mascarpone cheese mixture, mix well.

6. Mix in the above liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and mix into a soft dough. It should not be sticky. Knead the dough for 6-8 mins, till the nuts or cranberries fall off the dough.

7. Apply oil to the dough and let it rest for 2 hours in a bowl covered with moist cloth or cling film.

8. Punch the dough down and the roll it into a rectangle and then start rolling from one side and make a wreath by joining the ends. Make cuts using a pair of scissors.

9. Let this dough rest for another 2 hours loosely covered with plastic wrap.

10. Preheat the oven at 180°C and bake for 12 minutes and then turn the tray 180 degrees and bake it for another 15 minutes till done.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Cumin Macarons - Raspberry rosewater cardamom chocolate ganache

2010-12-25T12:33:00.001+01:00

Cheers !!!! to all the people who never give up in spite of facing several failures :)

This is so apt for someone trying to make macarons :P

One day, I found these "glamorous" looking photos of a dessert on one of the food blogs, it was neither a cookie nor a cake. Something so different, that tempted me to give it a try (to make it !).

I say glamorous because, it looks so attractive with the colour combinations of the shell and the filling / ganache. It tempts you to just come and have a little bite...... I will melt away in you mouth it says.....hehe

The more and more I read about it, the more I was lured to making it. I have made it for 3 times till now. The first time I made it I had not read so much, I did not realise that I had to age the egg whites (very stupid of me indeed !!!!). I used the fresh ones and even thought the taste was fine, they were flat and it had a shell but the bottom were like spread and basically flat big feet !

My husband and myself had named it flop-a-rons :P (to get rid of the disappointment and have some fun).

I then did read quite a lot about macarons and how to prepare them from different blogs and websites. It was so very helpful to me. There is a whole lot of people out there making macarons and posting it every month at the mactweets. The blog was started by Jamie and Deeba. They come up with different themes every month for the macarons.

Here is my partially successful 3rd attempt at preparing macarons. I came up with my own proportions. With these proportions, it is not necessary for the macarons to dry for more than 10 mins it looked like. More than that and the macarons had big flat feet.

This is what I used,

Egg whites - from 2 large eggs, aged for 5 days in the refrigerator and 24 hours at room temperature - 76 gms

Almonds, peeled - 110 gms

Powdered sugar - 170 gms

Granulated sugar - 30 gms

1. Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl, till thick & frothy.

2. Gradually add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture turns into a thick glossy meringue (like a shaving foam).

3. Pulse together the powdered sugar and almonds. Sift thr powder to remove any lumps.

4. Fold in the powdered ingredients into the meringue in three parts. Fold till the mixture flattens after falling and till it flows back in thick ribbons.

5. Pipe out the macarons on the baking sheets and leave them to dry for around 15 - 20 mins till the top does not stick to your finger.

6. Preheat the oven at 140 degrees C and bake the macarons for 10 - 15 mins depending on their size.

Raspberry rosewater cardamom chocolate ganache

Looks like too many things in a one ganache, but I had an idea how it might taste at the end. It did taste like that (I knew that I will not exactly prefer having so many things in one ganache, But hey unless you try out how does one learn !)

You need,

White chocolate - 100 gms

Dark chocolate (80% cocoa) - 60 gms

Raspberries - 150 gms

(I know I used too much, the amount used can be reduced if you are daring to try this recipe :P )

Powdered sugar - 2 tbsps

Cardamom, powdered - 2
Rose water - 1 tbsp

Heavy cream (35% fat) - 5 tbsps

Sea salt - a pinch

1. In a pan pour the cream and heat it till you start seeing the vapours at this stage switch off the heat and add the cardamom powder. Stir well.

2. Remove the pan of the heat and add the chocolate, raspberries, powdered sugar and sea salt. Stir all well, let the mixture cool. Refrigerate it overnight and use it the next day.

We did like the taste of the complete sandwiched macarons.

I still am on the quest to preparing the perfect macarons, Wish me Good Luck !

Thanks for visiting my bog :)

Pizza - Baked aubergine and onion pizza

2010-12-23T19:26:00.005+01:00

Pizza .......hmmm I have made it from scratch for like 3 times in my life. This time the pizza came out well ...yaay !!!! ahem ..... excuse me, just got a bit excited.
Bread is a bit tricky to make. Baking is new to me, I will not say completely but it is. I wanted to prepare pizza exactly for 2 persons and voila !..I had it,
- I scaled down all the ingredients
- Changed the steps of baking, because I do not have a pizza stone and the pizza was not quite having the taste.
and I did get a decent pizza. Finally !!!!

I did everything by hand, no machine !
Basic pizza dough - For 2 pizzas(thin crust) - 27 x 18 cm

All purpose flour - 200 gms plus dusting
Salt - 1/3 plus 1/4 tsp (we will use it together, easier for measurement)
Active dry yeast - 1/3 tsp
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Water, chilled - 140 ml
Sugar - 1 tsp

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together and then pour in the oil-water mixture and combine to a sticky dough.

2. Knead till the dough is smooth, it leaves the sides and sticks only to the bottom of the bowl. The resulting dough should be springy, elastic and sticky.

3. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts with oiled hands and pat it into 1/2 inch thick discs. Place the dough in a plate or bowl and cover the dish with a plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 2 hours.

4. Prepare the cake form or brownie form (this is what I used) oil it and flour it lightly, just like you would prepare for a cake.

5. Take one of the discs and place it at the center of the brownie form and start flattening the disc from the middle and slowly fill the mould uniformly with a thin layer of the pizza dough. Dont worry if it tears just try to combine it with the thicker part of the spread pizza dough and correct it.

6. After flattening the pizza dough, poke it with a fork all over, helps the crust not bubble up all over.

7. Preheat the oven at 260°C for 45 minutes before baking.

8. Mine is a 23 lt oven with air circulation. So I baked the pizza in the following way,

- 4 minutes lowest rack
- 4 minutes last but one rack
- 20 minutes with the topping in the last but one rack

Pizza sauce - for 4 pizzas (27 x 18 cm)

Tomatoes, ripe and red, chopped - 400 gms
Red onion, finely chopped - 130 gms (2 medium sized)
Garlic, finely chopped - 20 gms (5 cloves)
Cinnamon stick - 1.5 inch
Bay leaf - 1
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Mint leaves - 10
Water - 1/2 cup
Pepper powder (coarse) - 1/4 tsp
Chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp

1. Heat oil in a pan, add the cinnamon, bay leaf and garlic fry till you start seeing few specks of golden brown garlic pieces.

2. Now, add the onions and fry till they are transluscent. At this stage add the tomatoes, mint leaves, salt, pepper powder, chilli flakes. Close the pan and cook till the tomatoes get mashed by the back of the spatula. Now, add the water and simmer the sauce on slow heat till you achieve the spreadable pizza sauce consistency, this takes around 15 - 20 minutes.

Baked Aubergine

Aubergine - 400 gms (1 big)
Olive oil - 2 tbsps
Sea salt - 3 pinches
Pepper powder (coarse) - 1/3 tsp
Italian dried herb mix - 1/4 tsp

1. Preheat the oven at 220°C.

2. Cut the aubergine into 1/2 inch thick roundels, drizzle the oil, sprinkle the sea salt, pepper powder and Italian dried herb mix and mix well to coat all the roundels.

3. Place each of the discs on a baking tray covered with aluminium foil. Bake for 13-16 minutes till they turn a deep golden colour.

Assembling the pizza for final baking,

1. Spread the required amount of sauce on the partially cooked pizza base, sprinkle some cheese (I used only mozzarella) over the sauce and then place the baked aubergine discs and then sprinkle the thinly sliced onions and finally sprinkle some black olives and some more of the cheese.

2. Bake for 20 minutes at the last but one rack.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Colocasia fry - sembu poriyal - arbi fry

2010-12-23T18:16:00.000+01:00

This is a continuation of the last blog (Daring cooks challenge). This is one of those very simple tasty dishes.

This is what we need,

Colocasia / arbi / sembu - 300 gms
dry coconut - 1/8 cup
shelled, peeled and dry roasted peanuts - 1/4 cup
green chillies - 2 (dont get scared ..... they were not at all spicy, I could just eat them directly !!)
onion, medium size, finely chopped - 1
garlic - 1 big clove, finely grated or even paste will be good (I was lazy :P)
Cumin seeds - 1/3 tsp
Corriander powder - 1/3 tsp
oil - 1 1/2 tsp
salt - to taste

method:

1. Cook the colocasia, peel it, slice in into roundels and let them dry. Dont try to use them immediately because the dish will become slimy.

2. Coarse grind the peanuts and dry coconut.

3. Heat oil in a pan, add the cumin, garlic and slit green chillies; fry for 10 seconds. Add in the onions and fry till the onions are well cooked.

4. Add the corriander powder and mix. Then add the colocasia mix well, add the ground peanut-coconut mixture. Mix well to coat each of the roundels.

5. Sprinkle the required amount of salt mix well and serve hot.

This dish goes well with rotis and rasam rice.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

The Daring cooks - poach to perfection !

2010-12-14T06:31:00.004+01:00

This is my first daring cooks challenge and this is a very quick post.

I made the simple poached egg using the recipe given here .

I served it for dinner with herbed garlic-dal rasam (South Indian soup) and colocasia fry.

Here is how it looked,

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Chocolate Pot au creme with mixed berries (melange de baies)

2010-12-05T17:00:00.000+01:00

It is snowing, freezing and raining and...... it looks like mother nature is a bit confused......... :P

The temperatures are ranging anything between -4 to 2°C here. The wind is chilly, but not quite like last year. I have become so lazy because of all this and I don't even feel like stepping out of the house. Winter is one season that makes every person feel lazy, tired (hey, I am becoming downright lazy now a days ! too bad.....)

Enough of that lazy talk :P.... I have been dreaming food ! (now that is something different ........I mean not so normal in my life). Even though I admit that I am a big time foodie, that is not something I have ever dreamt about, I mean different sorts of combinations just whizzing away like crazy in your head. And you looking for opportunities to test them. Well, I am still in the process of testing those combinations.

While all this was going on, there were two egg yolks chilling out in the refrigerator. Now I had to do something with them and what a matter of coincidence....... Fanny from Food beam had just posted her recipe of pot au creme de chocolat. Now, I had to try that recipe !

The recipe required heavy cream and milk, I had only low fat cream. I was thinking let me try out and see whether it works. It was good. There is something about baking that has fascinated me since I was a child. I had always wanted to own an oven in which I could bake different sorts of dishes, be it sweet or savoury. Here it my first try and my own recipe for pot au creme, It makes 2 portions.

Cream 25% - 160 ml

Egg yolks from 2 large eggs - 2 (37 gms)

Powdered sugar - 1 tbsp (10gms)

Mixed berries (I used the frozen ones) - 40 gms

Bitter sweet chocolate, finely chopped - 65 gms (can be reduced according to taste)

This is the procedure that I followed,

1. Preheat the oven at 150°C and simultaneously also heat some water in a vessel/pan up to when the water starts simmering. Make the two ramekins ready by placing 20 gms of mixed berries in each of it.

2. Pour the cream in a pan and whisk the egg yolk with the powdered sugar in bowl.

3. When the cream starts steaming, remove from heat. Now, slowly increase the temperature of the egg and sugar mixture by adding the hto cream in parts and then mixing everything in. (you do not want to scramble of the egg yolks, take care !)

4. Now add in the chocolate and mix nicely to dissolve it in the mixture.

5. Place the ramekins in a deep oven proof dish and pour the simmering water upto halfway outside the ramekins. Place the dish in the preheated oven and bake at 150°C for 30 minutes.

6. After removing from the oven, allow the ramekins to cool completely before refrigerating them atleast for 3-4 hours or overnight before serving them.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

My first DB challenge - Daring Baker's Nov 2010 challenge - Crostata or Pasta frolla - With dates and nut filling

2010-11-27T13:46:00.004+01:00

This is my "Premier défi or Prima sfida" : My first Daring Bakers challenge :)

All went well (Thank God for that !!!!)

I registered in the daring kitchen for both daring bakers and for the daring cooks challenges............FUN ! that is what I thought :) so it was.

I was super excited with being accepted in to the daring kitchen for both the challenges.

This daring bakers Nov 2010 challenge was to make "CROSTATA" or "PASTA FROLLA" in Italian. It was hosted by Simona from Briciole

She had chosen the Italian dessert Crostata. I have seen these kind of tarts here in the pâtisseries and mostly in the supermarkets in the baked or ready to bake section. I have never done this at home and neither had I tasted a tart till the time I had baked one myself :)

I used the first recipe version1 of Pasta frolla that Simona had given,

We require,

Superfine sugar - 1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp (150 ml / 100 gms / 31/2 oz)

Powdered sugar - a scant 3/4 cup (180 ml / 90 gms / 3 oz)

Unbleached all purpose flour - 1 3/4 cup (420 ml / 235 gms / 81/4 oz)

Salt - a pinch

Cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces - 1 stick (8 tbsp / 4 oz / 115 gms)

Lemon zest, grated of 1/2 lemon (I used a bio lemon)

1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk lightly beaten in a small bowl

I made the Pasta frolla by hand ;

Method:

1. Whisk together Sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.

2. Rub the cut butter into the flour until it has the consistency of coarse crumbs. I did this in a big mixing bowl.

3. Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture, and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a tsp of the beaten egg mixture for glazing purpose later).

4. Add lemon zest to the flour+butter+egg mixture.

5. Use a fork to incorporate all the liquid into the solid ingredients and then use your fingertips to combine.

6. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.

7. Shape the dough into a flat disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator to chill at least for 2 hours, you can refrigerate the dough overnight (this is what I did ;) ).

For preparing the crostata crust, I had blind baked and then I had filled it with the dates and nut filling that I had made.

I followed the following instructions for blind baking, given for the Crostata di frutta fresca.

1. Preheat the oven to 175ºC / 350ºF.

2. Roll out the batch of pasta frolla and cover the base of the tart pan (I used a disposable cake pan).

3. Cut a piece of parchment paper / aluminium foil large enough to cover the bottom of the crust and extend out a bit over the edges of the pan.

4. You can use pie weights or dry beans to blind bake. Place whatever weights you are using directly over the parchment paper or the aluminium foil in an even layer.

5. Place the crostata shell in the oven and bake for 20 mins.

6. Remove the parchment paper or aluminium foil and continue baking for another 5 mins till the border is light golden.

7. Remove from the oven and cool the crostata shell completely before filling it.

Dates and nut filling

This is what I used to make the filling;

Dates, chopped - 3/4 cup

Peeled almonds, chopped - 1/2 cup + 1 tsp

Milk - 3-4 tbsps

Clarified butter / ghee - 1 tsp

Poppy seeds, dry roasted - 1 tbsp + 1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Blend the dates with the milk till you get a not so thick paste.

2. Heat a pan with 1 tsp of clarified butter / ghee.

3. Pour the dates and milk paste into the pan and add the chopped almonds. Cook the mixture for around 10 minutes.

4. The cooked mixture has a bit darker shade than the uncooked paste.

5. Remove the cooked dates and nut mixture from the pan. Cool it.

Now filling the crostata shell,

1. Spread the dates and nut mixture over the shell slowly and carefully, since the date and nut mixture is a bit thick and a little sticky even after it is cooked.

2. Sprinkle the dry roasted poppy seeds to cover the mixture.

VOILA !!!!

My first Daring bakers challenge completed successfully :)

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Kadai vegetables with a twist ....

2010-11-21T17:06:00.002+01:00

This is a simple way to mix different vegetables into the same dish.

I have adapted this recipe from a friend, (long story behind it !!!! :P )

So here's what we need,

Aubergine (Eggplant/brinjal) - 1 big

Green Capsicum - 1 small (Any colour should be good)

Zucchini - 1 medium

Onion - 1 big

Ginger-garlic paste - 1 1/2 tsp

Cherry tomatoes - 6 (can be substituted by 2 small ordinary tomatoes)

Corriander powder - 2/3 tsp

Chilli powder - 1/3 tsp

Garam masala - 1/3 tsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Salt to taste

The following spices are to be dry roasted and coarsely ground,

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp

Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

(Kalonji - 1/4 tsp can also be added)

Method:

1. Slice the brinjal, zucchini and capsicum longitudinally into thin slices as shown below

2. Slice the onions, chop the tomatoes and make the ginger-garlic paste ready. I have taken a photo of this also :)

3. Heat oil and sauté each of the sliced vegetables separately till they are three-fourth cooked. They look like below,

4. Now, heat a tsp of oil in a pan. Toss in the onions and fry for 3 mins and then add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for 4-5 more minutes till the onions are almost done.

5. Now, add the tomatoes, all the masala powders (the dry roasted masala powder also) and pour 1/4 cup of water if it is too dry. Fry for 2 mins.

6. At this stage add the salt, and the pre-fried vegetables. Mix well cook for another 6 mins till all the vegetables are well cooked.

This dish goes well with phulkas/rotis.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Simple Mango milk shake

2010-11-09T10:05:00.001+01:00

This is a quick morning post on the blog. We just had some yummy mango milkshake ;)

Here is what we need,

Mango - 3/4th of a big one pureed and filtered

Chilled Milk - 375 ml

Powdered sugar - 8 to 10 tsps

1. Pour the chilled milk in the blender, add in the mango puree. Use the pulse mode to blend it once.

2. Now add the powdered sugar and blend it using the pulse mode and the 1st speed.

3. Milkshake is ready to be enjoyed !

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Low fat, tangy and spicy Tomato pesto and a beautiful napkin from Greece

2010-11-07T14:57:00.001+01:00

I was bored !!!! (of cooking ???? Oh my GOD !!!!...............)

It happens if I have been in the kitchen for really long stretches (3hrs or more) deep frying something. This Diwali season I made 5 types of savories and 2 sweets. Recently, we had this Diwali get-together at my house (It was so much FUN !!!!), and I had served these savories and sweets that I had made. I was feeling like a blushing kid who had won a prize, when our friends were complimenting me for the snacks :) (Thanks guys !).

Ok now back to where we were. The day on which I had fried so many things, I wanted to prepare something that can tingle my tastebuds. Something simple to put together. I already had some fresh salad, and I had to prepare something complementing that. Pasta ! that was the immediate thing that came to my mind which will go along well with a salad.

Now, I was thinking of how to make a different type of pesto for the spaghetti that I was going to make for dinner. The basic ingredients had to be tomatoes and a BIG NO to table spoons and table spoons of oil !

And also I wanted to make something original and unique to my recipe book. OK ! I have an idea as to what I can prepare. I used the following to prepare the pesto for two servings of sphagetti;

Tomatoes - medium sized & ripe - 2, diced

Pearl onions - 6, whole and peeled

Garlic (big cloves) - 6, flattened and peeled

Basil leaves, dry - 3 pinches

Walnuts - 5

Cashew nuts - 5

Extra virgin olive oil - 1 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp

Chilli powder - 2/3 tsp

Corriander leaves - 6 sprigs, finely chopped

salt - to taste

This is what I did,

1. Preheat the oven at 220°C for 15 mins.

2. During this dice the tomatoes, peel the onions (this takes some time), flatten the garlic with the blade of your knife and peel them.

3. Put all these in a bowl sprinkle some dry basil leaves, pepper powder, salt and the olive oil. Toss all these and spread them on a oven resistant plate or you can use a disposable aluminium cake pan like I did.

4. Put this in the middle rack of the oven and bake it at 190°C for 40 mins. During the last 10 mins of the baking you can start smelling the tomato, basil and pepper.

5. Cool it, blend this with the nuts to a coarse paste (not too coarse also).

6. Heat a pan, heat the pesto adding the chilli powder and around 2- 3 tbsps water. Once hot, switch off the heat and immediately add the cooked spaghetti (cooked as per the instructions on the pack). Mix so as to coat each of the spaghetti with the sauce. Now, add the chopped corriander leaves. Serve the spaghetti immediately.

I had bought myself a beautiful Greek napkin on a trip to Hersonissos :)

Here are some pics.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Carrot halwa for the most special little brother :)

2010-09-22T18:33:00.001+02:00

It was Rakshabandhan, there was something utterly important missing...... My BROTHER :P . His exams are on, we could not even speak properly over phone ! (He is always occupied with some or the other test, quiz, assignment....... I wonder many times how does he juggle all this ??.............I did not so many things when I was studying ). He manages all this and has time for fun also !!!!!

I wanted to dedicate something to my brother that day, something simple and special. Back home mom usually used to prepare a sweet, we than used to pray and then I tied the rakhi on my brother's hand and then all of us are indulging ourselves on the sweet that mom prepared. She mostly used to prepare a simple and tasty sweet on every Rakshabandhan. This is one of the sweets that my brother and myself relish.

Well without any more delay, here is what we need to prepare Carrot Halwa, good amount for 2 persons.

Carrots - 500 gms, grated with the big grater

milk - 500 ml

cashewnuts - 10

almonds - 10

raisins - 2 tsps

sugar - 4 tbsps

ghee / clarified butter - 2 tbsps

Preparation:

1. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a thick bottomed pan, add the cashewnuts and raisins and fry them till the cashewnuts get a golden colour and the raisins puff up. Now add the grated carrots and fry for around 6-7 mins till the raw smell of the carrots starts reducing.

2. Now add the milk (You can directly use the packed pasteurised milk) cook, reduce it to a consistency where only little liquid is seen.

3. In this stage add the sugar, and cook it further till you get a smooth, creamy consistency. Most importantly no liquid should be seen everthing must be absorbed by the carrots, nuts and reduced.

It took around a hour and 15 minutes for me from scratch to finish for the carrot halwa. This includes grating the carrots, cutting the nuts and the whole cooking process. Just a little patience is required to prepare this really down to earth tasty sweet dish.

Some pictures for my brother :)

Thankyou for visiting my blog :)

Whole wheat bolis

2010-08-20T20:21:00.004+02:00

It is Varalakshmi Vratham tomorrow said mom, yesterday. Brain starting generating all sorts of choices for sweets the ones that I either never tried like this one and the ones which were a flop in the consistency.

hmmm..........I thought, I asked mom "What kind of sweets and savouries must I make tomorrow?". She told me to make a sweet with jaggery and any savoury like vada. Since quite some days I was contemplating to try out the "Boliyal" as it is called in sourashtra, bobbatlu in telugu, boli in tamil. Well whatever it is called I really miss the boliyal that mom used to make at home. The stuffing is made of simple ingredients, easy to combine and moreover tastes so good !!

My recipe for the stuffing is adapted from the one mom used to prepare. The dough for the boliyal was a spontaneous one.

I got six 4 to 4.5 inch dia boliyals for the measurements below,

We need,

For the stuffing:

Channa dal - 1/4 cup

Jaggery - 1/2 cup

Coconut chopped - 1/2 cup

Cashewnuts, nicely chopped - 1/6 cup

Green cardamom, nicely crushed - 2

Ghee (clarified butter) - 1/3 tbsp

For the boliyal dough:

Whole wheat flour (chapathi flour) - 3/4 cup

Water - 3/8 cup (3/4 th of 1/2 cup)

Ghee (clarified butter) - 1/4 tbsp

Salt - a pinch

1. First, cook (I pressure cooked, saves time) the channa dal till soft. I used around 1 1/2 cups water.

2. Coarse grind the coconut in a mixer (without water, because you are going to have enough when the jaggery melts).

4. Melt the jaggery with around 2/3 cups water in which the dal was cooked. Just let all the jaggery melt. Keep aside for any impurities to settle.

3. Now heat a pan with the ghee in it, fry the cashewnuts till nearing golden. Now pour in the jaggery syrup, add the dal, coconut and the cardamom. Keep stirring till the water dries out, and you are able to combine the mixture and make a nice ball.

4. Now, add a pinch of salt to the flour slowly mix in the water after you get a nicely soft dough, a little softer than that for the rotis. Incorporate the ghee into the dough and knead nicely till the dough has uniform distribution of ghee. (It will have a nice smooth and soft appearance.)

5. Divide the dough and the stuffing into equal number of balls. Roll out the dough a little fill the stuffing cover it up completely with the dough, roll out the boliyal. Cook it like a paratha but with little more care because the boliyal tends to tear easily. Apply Ghee while cooking the boliyal. Serve warm.

A lovely day at farmers Market :)

2010-08-18T13:38:00.001+02:00

Le Marché as it is called in French, the farmers market here has quite a few treasures in the summer.

The colours of the vegetables, berries, fruits ohhhh!!!!!!!!!!........you feel like trying out all the market has to offer you. The variety of tomatoes, their colour, shapes and sizes ....... and all the tomatoes have a distinctive taste of their own. Some are sweet, some sour, some just have a subtle taste and are best when eaten in a salad. Let me show some of them....

The Normal variety of tomatoes

Pearl tomatoes - Tomates perle

Cherry tomatoes - Tomates cerise (The above loose ones the below in bunches or en grappes)

San Marzano Tomatoes (I never tried them out)

Tomates Rosé de berne

I dont know the name, but they were quite sour these tomatoes

Yellow tomatoes (for quite obvious reasons :P) - Tomates jaune

The normal good looking variety of tomatoes in bunches - Tomates en grappe


True salad tomatoes - Tomates coeur du boeuf (heart of beef........just kidding !!!)

The tomatoes that go well with Indian and Italian cooking are the cherry tomatoes. The taste of the normal variety of tomatoes changes with the temperature I think coz once they were little sour and once they were so sweet, the tomatoes !!!!!!!

As soon as entering the market the first vendor has lots of veggies, fruits, berries, salad leaves, flowers, herbs, eggs and cheese. They are nice and friendly people with lots of good stuff to offer. Every time I go, the lady ask ça va ? I say ça va et vous ? (doing good ? yes and you?) and each time I give te bag of veggies that I bought, she tells aha ! les échalotes, well it is half the price of what I must pay at the supermarket if I buy them !. These onions are the bigger version of the shallots that is available in India.

These people have baby carrots and potatoes called les virgules(the commas). They had yellow zucchinis, sometime small pumpkins, and many more,

I had bought the whole carrot bunch to try out the leaves, they were quite nice and they had a very strong flavour.

In peak summer they have around 3 to 4 varieties of beans. There is a kind which resemble the Indian indigenous ones, They are a little broader and juicier than the other small variety which is usually available. By their side were the cucumbers or the gherkins (called Cornichons) and the peas; one type that is to be eaten whole (the complete pod can be cooked) and the other has juicy peas inside it that can be eaten. Here they are


I end this post with few photos that I took while strolling in the market. Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Small potato and chick peas pulao

2010-07-18T22:43:00.003+02:00

Small potato pulao is one of the favourites of my brother and me at home. The favourite has many steps in its preparation, but it is definitely worth the work !!!!

I wanted to make aloo dum actually but then, I thought it is nicer to prepare a variation of this rice for the afternoon. This is a recipe adapted from 100 Rice delights of Mallika badrinath.

I used the baby potatoes that I bought from the Thursday farmers market last week, they turned out to be little sweet in taste. I also used the "Tomates perle" (pearl tomatoes) from the market.

We need the following for 3 persons:-

Sona masuri / Basmati rice - 1 1/2 cups

Baby potatoes - 15

Tomatoes paste and water (I used the cooked chick peas water) - 2 1/2 cups (Has to be

adjusted on the amount of water required by the rice to cook nicely to the separate grain consistency)

Chick peas - 1/2 cup (soaked overnight)

Echalotes (Shallots) - 3 medium sized, finely sliced

Corriander - 6 sprigs

Curd - 2 tbsp

Garam masala - 1/4 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

For the masala paste:-

Corriander seeds - 1 1/3 tbsp

Cumin - 2/3 tbsp + a pinch

Red chillies - 2 big + 1 small

Dry coconut - 1 tbsp

Ginger - 1.5 inch piece

Procedure:

1. Wash and cook the rice with the tomato paste and water - to separate grains consistency. Spread on a plate and cool the rice.

2. Dry roast all the masala paste ingredients except ginger. Cool and make a coarse paste of the roasted ingredients and ginger with water.

3. Make a paste of corriander leaves and curd.

4. Now heat a pan with oil and fry the onions on slow heat till they turn brown.

5. Now the process is simple, add the masala paste fry for 4 mins and then add the corriander and curd paste and mix nicely.

6. Add the boiled and peeled potatoes, cooked chick peas and mix nicely. Now add salt and garam masala powder. Add the cooked rice and mix in nicely. Serve hot with raita.

Small potato and chick peas pulao, onion raita and cucumber - Today's lunch

Stuffed Capsicum

2010-07-16T16:54:00.006+02:00

It is so hot nowadays, believe me even gourmet food does not look so appetizing. I think the heat wave in Germany is having an effect on this place too....

Body finds solace in the simplest of foods now. "Curd rice" is THE saviour !!!!!

But only carbohydrates wont do good to the body, a good portion of vegetables is a must.

So the lunch menu was Curd rice and stuffed capsicum. I will be blogging the recipe for curd rice later.....

Now comes the stuffed capsicum. This recipe is an inspiration from a barbaque party that we had some days ago. I tried to make a taste bud satisfying potato stuffing for the capsicums that I had bought the day before.

The stuffing I prepared was for 3 medium sized capsicum.

Ingredients

Potatoes - 2 large (around 740 gms, boiled and mashed)

Red Onion - 1 large (chopped)

Oil - 1 tsp

Salt - 2/3 tsp

Masala powder for the stuffing:-

Corriander seeds - 3/4 tbsp

Cumin - 1/3 tbsp

Methi seeds - 5 nos.

Red chilli - 1 small

Method

1. Heat a pan, now dry roast the masala powder ingredients. Cool it and grind into coarse powder (I used a Mortar and pestle for this).

2. Heat a pan with 1 tsp oil, add the chopped onions and fry it on medium heat. It is always good to cook the onions before the mashed potato is added. If necessary little water can be sprinkled to help the onions cook.

3. Once the onions are cooked add the mashed potatoes, salt, masala powder and nicely mix to combine all the ingredients well. Once it is done remove it from heat to cool it before stuffing it into the capsicums.

4. Now clean the insides of the capsicum and stuff the capsicum with the potato stuffing leaving around 1.5 inch level unfilled. (Since the stuffing raises once the capsicum starts cooking.)

5. Preheat the oven at 220°C for 12 mins, place the capsicum on the grill rack in the 2nd row from bottom and bake for 30 mins. Serve hot.

This the dry version of the stuffed capsicum that I made for the curd rice.

Potato stuffed Capsicum

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Kozhakattai

2010-07-04T15:20:00.003+02:00

It is friday - time to prepare a special sweet for God :)

This time I wanted to keep the sweet simple, subtle and good to eat. The sweet that immediately came in to my mind was Kozhakkattai

The traditional version of the sweet is somewhat time taking, but I found a simple way to make it.

So here is what we need to make 12 kozhakattais (3.5" long);

Rice powder - 1 cup (I prefer to use the Nirapara brand)

Water (boiling) - 1 1/3 cup

Salt - 2 pinches

For the filling:

Fresh coconut chopped - 1 cup

Cardamom - 3

Sugar - 2/3 cup (I used the brown sugar of cane that we get here - it tastes similar to jaggery)

Water - 1/4 cup

1. Boil the water and pour this into a bowl containing the rice flour. Mix this nicely with a spoon. Allow it to cool enough for kneading it into a smooth dough.

2. While the above is cooling, grind the chopped coconut and cardamoms to a rough paste.

3. Heat a pan, pour in the sugar and water in it nicely stir it and then leave it for 3-4 minutes to boil to a nice consistency when the sugar syrup is not too watery add in the coconut and cardamom paste to it and mix it nicely till you reach a consistency where you can make balls out of the filling. Remove it from the heat, cool it.

4. Now knead the rice dough nicely, so that the dough is smooth.

5. Now heat the pressure cooker with 1 inch level water, make the idly plates ready by greasing them very lightly with oil.

6. Divide the dough into 12 equal balls and the filling also the same way.

7. Take a ball of dough start applying pressure in the middle part of the dough and slowly try to flatten it out into a curved semicircle. (The next time I prepare I will prepare a photo tutorial as to how to make a easy kozhakattai)

8. Now take a ball of the filling flatten it into a little oblong shape and place it inside the curved semicircular dough and close the open ends. In any of this process make sure that the dough does not stick to you hand, you can always keep a bowl of water beside.

9. Place each of the kozhakattais on the idli plate and steam them for 7-8 minutes. Serve them after it cools.

Kozhakattais for Lord Ganesha :)

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Simple pizza sauce and Echalotes & black olive pizza

2010-07-01T12:33:00.001+02:00

It was relaxing to prepare a simple pizza sauce yesterday. Just chop all the ingredients, fry them a little and the let them simmer on low heat for sometime, so that the sauce is infused will all the lovely flavours.

The sauce tops 3 - 20cm dia pizza perfectly.

Ingredients:

Cherry tomatoes - 16

Basil leaves - 4 (I used the fresh ones that a friend gave to me, since she grows them :). The fresh leaves gives a very nice flavour to the sauce)

Echalote (finely chopped) - 1

Red chilli garlic powder - 1/2 tsp

Pepper - 2 pinches

Bay leaf - 1

Cinnamon - 1 (1" stick)

Sugar - 1/3 tsp

Salt - 2/3 tsp (can be added according to the taste)

Olive oil - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Heat a pan with olive oil, when you start smelling the oil drop in the Echalotes and fry them for 3 mins.

2. Add the halved and sliced cherry tomatoes and the chopped Basil leaves and cook it till it becomes pulpy. At this point add bay leaf, cinnamon stick, red chilli garlic powder, sugar, salt and pepper and 1/2 cup of water to it and let it simmer on low heat for 15-20 mins till the sauce becomes thick enough to spread on the pizza.

Echalotes and black olive pizza

I used the aluminium 20 cm dia round mould for baking the pizzas.

1. For the first pizza I oiled the mould very lightly and sprinkled flour over it.

2. Divide the pizza dough into 3 or 4 equal parts.

3. Sprinkle flour on a dry surface flatten the ball of dough and then place it on the mould the spread it evenly over in the mould.

4. Now spread 1/3rd or 1/4th of the above prepared sauce depending on the number of parts of the dough.

5. Sprinkle over it some sliced echalotes, some black olives and some of grated / sliced desired cheese (I used to cheese for sandwiches).

6. Preheat the oven for 10 mins at 200 degrees C. Bake the pizza in the lowest rack of the oven for 40 - 45 minutes.

Voila ! Le Pizza est prêt à manger !!!! (The pizza is ready to eat.)

Echalotes and black olive pizza.........

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Basic Pizza dough

2010-07-01T12:01:00.004+02:00

I have followed the basic outline of the steps for the Basic pizza dough from Meeta of Whatsforlunchhoney it worked well for me.

I did not measure the temperature like Meeta, but the pizza was pretty decent. I also changed the flour that I used. I used Farine Bise as it is called here in Swiss. There are so many types of flour here. Well the experiment worked !

I used the following to make the basic pizza dough. It yielded me three 20 cm dia pizzas. (I think I could have managed to make 4 really thin crust pizzas out of it)

Farine bise - 2 1/4 cups

Yeast (Instant) - 1/2 tsp

Sugar - 1/2 tbsp

Olive oil - 1 tbsp

Water - 300 ml

1. Mix in the flour, yeast, sugar and oil in a big bowl.

2. Mix either using your hands or using a electric mixer. Mix well till no dry flour is seen in the bowl.

3. Now either knead with your hand or change the attachment of the electric mixer to the kneading one and knead the dough for around 5-6 minutes. The dough must stick to the bottom of the bowl and not to the sides. If the dough sticks to the sides, just sprinkle a little more dough and then get the required consistency after kneading it well.

4. Let the dough rest in the same bowl for 2 hours, if you are going to prepare the pizza 2 hours later else just plastic wrap the dough and save it in the fridge may be for 2 days ( I am not sure about this because I immediately used all the dough to make pizzas).

I do not have a photo of the dough to display it but I sure do have the finished pizza.

Please check out my next post on making a simple pizza sauce and Echalotes and black olives pizza.

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

"Accha telugu bhojanam" in Switzerland

2010-06-30T10:33:00.002+02:00

Now that my cooking is done for today's afternoon, I am now eagerly writing the post for the mouth watering delicious dal of Andhra pradesh. Simple to make, tasty and filling dal with rice; great to have in the afternoon !

My friend had a problem with the electric heater for cooking, and she was using her new rice cooker which wasnt so great to cook dals to the mushy consistency. While chatting with her she just told me that she is craving to eat dal and she offered me to make the dal at my place. I readily agreed since I had once tasted that yummy dal of hers. I was getting restless as evening approached, finally she came home with all the ingredients in the cooker ready to be cooked.

Now let me just give the recipie before I forget the steps .....hehe :P

My friend made a spinach dal, we can just about add any veggies like brinjal, turnip, the other leafy vegetables.

We need the following for three persons

Tuar dal - 1 cup

Spinach (frozen) - 2 cubes (2"x2"x2")

Onions (medium size) - 2

Tomato (big) - 1

Green chilli - 1 chopped (My friend reduced the number for us, I think this can be made the optional ingredient)

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Tamrind - 1 small gooseberry sized ball soaked in water

For seasoning

Garlic chopped - 4 cloves (the chinese garlic)

Mustard - 1/3 tsp

Cumin - 1/3 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp

1. Chop the onions, tomatoes coarsely, add them in the cooker along with the washed dal, turmeric powder, spinach (you can directly place the 2 frozen spinach cubes in the cooker) and chilly. This must be cooked to a mushy consistency and mashed nicely after opening the cooker.

2. Now heat oil in a pan for seasoning add the mustard, cumin and chopped garlic and fry for a minute then add this to the hot cooked dal.

4. Add also the tamarind juice to the dal mix well and heat the dal for around 5-6 mins. Serve hot with rice.

Spinach dal, rasam, rice and some panfried cumin papad

Wow what a dinner we had had that night !!!!!!!

I need to end this post, with the taste of the dal still lingering in my tastebuds...........

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

Simply Drumstick ......yummy ..........

2010-06-28T11:37:00.001+02:00

Sunday.........hmmmmmm........usually the day you dont want to cook something very difficult, but with the constraint of it being tasty.

Since some days I continually see a bunch of 5 drumsticks lying in my fridge along with the fresh coconut that I bought, sunday arrives and I dont want to cook something really difficult, something simple like rice, rasam and some veggie companion will do my mind tells me.

So I start preparing the drumsticks, coconut for the simple drumstick curry that my mil usually makes and all of us back home simply love it !!!!!!!!!!

Mom & my mil are like two different poles of a magnet. Mom cooks all the difficult and time consuming dishes with such ease, you wont even know how much effort and time has gone into preparing such lip smacking dishes. On the other hand my mil prepares such simple and yummy recipies...... my heart goes for both of them I miss their food many a time......

So I decided to whip up that drumstick recipe of my mil for the lazy sunday ......

Here are the ingredients that are needed for two persons

Here goes,.......

Drumsticks - 5 nos (all were my half arm length)
fresh coconut - 2 inch pieces 3-4 nos
cumin seeds - 1/3 tsp
shallots - 2-3 nos. (small size)
chilli powder - 1/4 tsp (can be varied, I add very less chilli powder in my dishes)
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
salt - to taste (I used 1/3 tsp)

1.Heat a pan with around 4 cups of water in it, ad to it the salt and turmeric powder.

2.Cut the ends of the drumstick, and using a peeler scrape the drumstick (the body of the drumstick must appear almost light green after this process). Cut the scraped drumstick into 2 inch pieces.

3.when the water in the pan starts boiling drop in the drumstick pieces.

4.Now a close to smooth paste must be made of the coconut, shallots and cumin seeds.

5.When the drumstick is almost done (it becomes little soft to touch) then the prepared paste must be added and mixed nicely. At this stage the chilli powder and if required some salt can be added after tasting. While adding the paste if the pan has some water already in it, it will help the coconut to not stick to the bottom of the pan and instead coat the drumsticks. In the paste adding stage the process is fast and mixing it continuously for 2-3 mins will be good.

6.When this curry cooks to a thicker consistency, the curry can be removed from the pan. It is ready to serve with rice, rasam rice.

Drumstick curry (sevakailo thelni in sourashtra)

It was a great success here !!!!!!

The thought of it still makes my mouth water..........

My husband loved it .!!!!!!!!!! now that is what I work in the kitchen for............!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehe... :)

Thanks for visiting my blog :)

My first food blog !!!!

2010-06-17T11:21:00.001+02:00

And finally I can rest…….. Now that my hands itching for baking a good cake have been satisfied. It smells good actually, and you know what I used the hand mixer for the first time today. I wanted to do a frosting for the cake but ooooppppps!!!!!! No time !!!!!! I need to prepare the dinner also before going to my painting class. Infact I am baking the cake for my teacher and my co-artists in the class ......hehe.

My first Carrot and walnut cake

My body seems restless all the time now days.........and I feel good cooking is like meditation to me and nothing can beat it. I really need to thank Ramya, my friend who introduced me to the first good food blog Mahanandi, then my journey started, I started trying out new recipies from her blog. Me and my husband really loved some dishes. I also found the kind of special tomato rice which is prepared in Madurai by my people (basically the cooks .....) in her blog. Now I need to make calculations for something else which is a secret now..shhhh!!!! ........oh my !!! what an overwhelming smell in my house I think my husband will react the same way as me :)

Thanks for visiting my blog :)