The first cake that I baked!!!

How does the picture above look? Nice, ok. bad..


anyway that was my first attempt at baking a cake. It was my mother's birthday..And i knew this time I had to bake a cake.. There were a lot of smirks that i heard in the background..but I put all that to rest when i baked this.. I think it is ok..It tasted yumm and my mother loved it! That is what matters the most to me!!

A bowl of Chicken Fried Rice served with a bowl of yummy Schezwan Chicken

I am at a loss of thoughts..have been staring at a tree with its rustling leaves for quite some time now...Having said that and still at a loss of thoughts, let me get down to posting my favourite dish> Chicken fried rice and schezwan chicken to go with it.

This is recipe that is a mix from several books and newspaper clippings,,But put together makes up for a nice fried rice..

For the fried rice

Oil-1 cup
Basmati Rice-2 cups
Water-enough to cook..I used about 4 cups..when it was half cooked, I transferred it to a colander to strain the remaining water..

Chopped vegetables-1/2 cup each (I used carrots, cabbage,capsicum,beans)
Celery-chopped-1/2 cup
Spring Onion- chopped-1/2 cup
Green Chillies-3 or 4,chopped
Soya sauce-5tsps
Ajinomoto-1tsp
Pepper Powder-1tsp
Salt-as per taste
Sugar-1 1/2 tsp

Cooked and Shredded Chicken-1 cup

Wash the rice and add the rice into water for cooking. Add a little oil and salt to the cooking water.The oil is to prevent the rice from sticking.Drain and leave the half-coked rice aside to cool.

In a pan, heat some oil and fry the chopped green chillies. Add the chopped vegetables and cook for 3-4 minutes. Then add the chicken shreds,salt,sugar,pepper, ajinomoto and soya sauce and mix well. Then add the rice and mix carefully without breaking the rice.

Finally sprinkle the spring onion and celery.

Serve hot. I served it with a saucy Schezwan chicken.

Saucy Schezwan Chicken




Recipe> Courtesy- My mother

Chicken pieces-500g

For Marination

Egg-2
Soya sauce-20 ml
Pepper Powder-1/2 tbsp
Salt-to taste
Cornflour-2 tbsp
Ginger Paste-10 g
Garlic Paste-10g
Ajinomoto-1/4 tsp

Cube the chicken pieces and marinate them with the ginger/garlic paste, salt, ajinomoto, pepper powder,and soya sauce. Then add cornflour and the eggs and mix well.

After a few minutes of marination, heat oil and in a medium heat, fry the marinated chicken cubes for 2 or 3 minutes (not any longer) because then they tend to get hard.

For the sauce
Chopped ginger/garlic-20 g
Chopped green chillies-3-4
Red chillies-halved-5 or 6
Soya sauce-40 ml
Oil-200ml in all..(for the frying of chicken and for the sauce)
Spring Onion-50g-julienned
Chicken stock-200 ml
Cornflour-2 tbsp


In the remaining oil from frying (or use fresh oil), add the spring onions, ginger/garlic past, green chillies, red chillies and cook until the raw smell escapes.. To this, add the soya sauce and cook for another minute. Mix in the chicken stock and when it starts boiling add cornflour and stir so that no lumps are formed and cook until a thick sauce is formed. Add the fried chicken in now. Garnish with the spring onion greens and serve.

happy cooking!

Chicken Biriyani

The myriad uses of spice and the varied spices set Indian cooking apart. Indian dishes are by far the most aromatic...atleast according to me..and i know that most of you out there would agree to it as well.. What I have discovered is although a lot of spices go into the making of an indian dish..they are not too hot for the palate..

Green chillies are lot less hot than red chillies and larger chillies are very mild in their hotness..To minimize the hotness, it is best to remove the seeds before use..

Always make sure you wash your hand after handling chillies, because you dont want your eyes burning...I have been through several instances of this..
Also, remove whole spices before serving, because you dont want end up being in tears at the dining table..

Indian cooking involves spice mixtures or better known as masalas..Spices release their flavour more when they are ground.. The traditional pestles are now replaced with mixers and the like..Whole spices are better than ready crushed ones because the former has more flavour..

Indian cooking also uses fat for its cooking..basically ghee ;.With the growing trend of healthy eating, fat has been replaced by vegetable oil, etc.

Hence, here I present a dish that makes use of a lot of spices the Biriyani - a chicken version with boiled eggs..

Mind you the biryani I present here is not for people who are health conscious..I used a lot of ghee..But there is no harm in indulging in it once in a while...


Basmati Rice-2 1/2 cups
Water-8 1/2 cups
Salt-to taste
Chicken-1 kg
Egg- 2 boiled (increase as per the number of people)
Curds-2 1/2 cups
Ghee-2 cups

For grinding
Onion- 3 medium (chopped)
Green chillies-5 or 6
Ginger-2"
Garlic-7 pods
Coriander Leaves-1 bunch
Pudina/Mint Leaves-1/2 bunch
Turmeric Powder-1 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon-1"
Mace-3
Clove-3
Cardamom-5
Saffron threads- A large pinch
Food colouring-Optional

Wash chicken pieces. I always dab some turmeric powder on the chicken pieces to remove any impurities.. This is a step that I always follow for any meat I cook.

Grind the above-mentioned ingredients and add the curds and salt. Mix well. Marinate the chicken pieces with the mixture and leave it in room temperature at least for 2 hours.

After this take the rice and wash it well and set aside. Meanwhile in 1/2 a cup of ghee fry sliced onions until brown along with a tsp of sugar and add to the marinated chicken including the ghee and mix in well.. (Optional). Meanwhile boil the eggs.

In a thicked bottomed kadai, add 1/2 a cup of ghee and fry the washed rice for some time. Remove the rice and set aside.

When the chicken has marinated, allow it cook on low heat until it becomes soft.After this, add in the rice, and cover and cook until the rice is done.

Soak saffron threads in boiling water and pour into the rice and mix using a fork (Using a fork prevents the rice from breaking).


For garnishing
Nuts- fried
raisins-dried and fried

or

Fried onions


Serve the biriyani and add in the boiled eggs.. Halve the eggs for a better appeal.

Quick fish fry!

Fish is a favourite seafood.. Fish when fried, curried , baked etc. is all fine.. I am not too fond of dried fish..The stench is too strong for my withstanding capacity...

A tips to follow while washing fish..preferably coat the fish pieces with salt and flour and let it remain for a period of time to remove the fishy odour and other deposits on it.. after this..wash the flour away..and wash them thoroughly..

The recipe below is a very simple one but the end result is delicious.


Fish- 1/2 kg (preferably seer fish, cut into cubes, with skin and bone removed and washed thoroughly)
Oil-for frying
Chilli Powder-1 tbsp
Pepper Powder-1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder- 1/4 tsp
Salt-as required


Mix the above ingredients excepting the fish and oil. Apply this paste to the fish pieces and let it stand for 10-15 minutes. If you place the marinated fish in the refrigerator..the marination tends to adhere much better.
Fry the fish in oil and place them on a kitchen tissue to drain the excess oil.

For extra flavour, add a sprig of curry leaves in the oil used for frying.

Serve them hot!

Try it and do let me know!

Grilled Buns!

Weekends are when I never want to get out of bed.. But on thinking of the amount of housechores bundled up..finally decide to get out of bed.. A and L are still asleep...So I am lost in the meanwhile contemplating on what I can churn Iout something little simple

I browse through the kitchen.. there is no bread..but I find Buns..There's butter, and other certain ingredients..

This is how i went about doing it..

A few buns
1 capsicum-chopped
1 onion-chopped finely
1 cup-sausages or salami/ finely chopped
2 tbsp butter
cheese-grated
Parsley-1tbsp
2 tbsp-tomato sauce
salt/pepper-to taste

In a pan, add a tbsp of butter follwed by the onion,. When the onion turns translucent, add the capsicum and cook for a while, add finely chopped sausages and fry until done.Add the tomato sauce,pepper powder, salt and mix well..
This is the filling..



Cut each bun into halves..and scoop out from the lower half for the filling.
Add the above filling into the lower half..
Shred some cheese over the filling and replace the other half. Glaze the surface of the bun with a dollop of butter.

Grill in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes and serve hot.

Guess????

What am I?
I can be quite a stinky fruit!
The whole place explodes with my aroma when cut open.

Strawberry Tarts!

In the town that i spent my childhood days, my mother also grew strawberries in her garden. But the plant yeilded berries the size of a marble and the colour was always half red and half white..We still have not been able to figure out the reason behind it..Anyways whatever or however the result was...we loved eating them fresh from the plant..

Years later , a year ago, spent some of my days in Goa...happened to visit a restaurant by the name Britto's...the place is know for iths amzing food and ambience..If you visit Goa, do make it a point to visit Britto's at Baga beach..coming back to what i was talking about, they serve delicious desserts..among which their strawberry tart is my fav...

This is how it is made..

Boil 500 ml of milk, to which 400g of strawberry custard powder and 150 g of sugar are added. This mixture is then poured into the tart base and is baked for 45 minutes. Garnish with glazed strawberries.

Cheese dosa

Don't we all like nice crispy warm dosas? I do and so do most people i know..Imagine the feeling of dipping a piece of dosa in nice hot sambar or coconut chutney..yumm
I can eat dosas any time of the day..but it has to be the roast variety and not the thick ones..which i can't handle..
Anyways coming to the topic..instead of spooning oil on your dosa on the tava..sprinkle some shredded cheeses or just grate them on..allow the cheese to melt and then fold the dosa and serve.hot...
Remember to serve hot otherwise it can get dry..

Kids adore them too...

It does matter!

From all these years of reading magazines, I have come across a number of handy hints.. quite a few were very handy..some were not at all useful..
So I have since then had a list of handy hints.. and i thought it would be a nice gesture to share them..So here...

• Put just enough butter on the meal table..because otherwise it is difficult fighting off the temptation to have more!!!
• The freshness of an egg can be determined by its appearance..If it's surface is rough, then they are fresh...and if the surface is smooth..it is not fresh..
• Most of our cups, saucers have tea or coffee stains that are stubborn..To get rid of them, just soak them for a short period in a solution that contains water and bleaching powder..Rinse with soap solution for stainless cups....
• For fresher cheese, add a wee bit of sugar in the cheese container.
• To set curds, add 1 cup of warm milk to 1 tsp of curd.Mix well and reserve.
• Before you decide on slicing onions..store them ina refrgerator for a short span and then slice them...In doing so your eyes will not water.
• Do not throw away your baby's feeding bottle. I use them as a measuring jar..
• Bacon strips usually curl while frying..To prevent this, dip them in cold water before frying.
• After baking the most tiresome job is to wash the bowl of butter cream and sugar..Add boiling water and they remove easily..
• Fish or prawns caught froma river have a mud taste usually..To get rid of the taste,store them in salted water for some time.

There's more..Hope this list is handy for now...

Goan Appetite

Goan cuisine apart from its basic fishy curry and rice, has myriad tastes just like its land and culture. Apart from hindu and muslim influences, the Portuguese had left a marked influence on all aspects including their cuisine.

Goa is known for its siestas. All shops in town close by two and re-open only after four in the evening. This time is known as their siesta time. The importance to their siestas is also shared by their cuisine.
Another familiar site are the hawkers who go on bicycles honking to let people know of their arrival to sell hot, fresh from the clay oven pavs. Pav or bread is eaten with fish curry, chicken or any meat curry or vegetable curry..just like how chapati is served with the same gravies.. I had the fortune of having a small bakery right next door..so usually at dinner time..I just have to walk across and buy pav..instead of kneading chapatti doughs..

Coming back to Goan cuisine, sea food is a must on their menu excepting during lent or fasting seasons.

Some of the famous delicacies are chicken cafreal, xacuti, balchao, sorpotel..All these taste good with rice, bread and sannas.

Sannas resemble fluffy idlis..
For Sannas what you need to do is to soak a cup of rice overnight. Grind this soaked rice to a paste the next day. Mix this paste with grated coconut of 1 coconut with 500 ml of sweetened goan toddy (if unavailable use 2 tsps of yeast with sugar and a lil water just like you do for appam). Reserve this aside for it to rise. Like how you make idlis, pour the mixture into the moulds and steam.

Will be back with more updates...until then keep checking my blog :)

Another goan treat for your palate!

Traditional Goan Fish Curry
A trip to goa is incomplete without having savoured rice and fish curry...Every restaurant serves this meal in the aftenoons..This meal comprises of plain white rice, fish curry, a fish fry, a dish of clam and coconut mix..and cocum juice for digestion..

Below is the recipe for fish curry without measurements because this was narrated to me by my maid.

For the fish curry..the fish slices are mixed with salt, green chillies sliced onion.Blend grated coconut, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, garlic,dried red chillies,ginger, turmeric powder adding enough water. Fry this mixture along with a few cups of warm water in a pan on medium heat for atlaest 20 mins. Cook until the desired thickness of gravy is obtained. Now add the fish and tamarind pulp. Remove when the curry is done.
Serve hot with white rice.

A Chutney

A different kind of dip for pakoras, bhajjis, french fries and the like..
1 cup of coriander leaves
1/2 cup of grated coconut
2 Green Chillies
1 shallot, chopped
1 1/2 tsp ginger/garlic paste
sugar
salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Blend all of the above adding enough water.
Coriander leaves can be substituted by mint leaves also. I used a bit of both.
It could probably taste nice as a sandwhich spread too..

Asparagus!

How many of us are fans of the vegetable>Asparagus..Very few i guess..
It is a vegetable that has a delicate flavour. Only the shoot of the vegetable is edible. It is a rich source of fiber and other nutrients..
They are usually stemed or boiled and are served with oil, or a salad dressing..
When buying asparagus from the market..look for plump instead of shriveled stalks.It is usually not very commonly available in Indian markets. Canned asparagus is widely available.

Store fresh asparagus stalks in a glass filled with little water. Place it in a refrigerator otherwise it could lose its freshness.

Goan times! Bebinca

Lived in goa for more than a year..and more than the land, people and its beaches and so on...it was their food that awed me the most..Since I am not much of a halwa person, the goan sweet bebinca did not fascinate me..I did not even want to try it..But after having it as a dessert at a restaurant in Panjim..it crawled itself into being one among my favourite desserts..
Bebinca is a traditional Goan dessert.. It is a must in any goan festival..It is a layered dessert..A lot of patience and hardwork is needed..but ultimately it is worth the task..

Here goes the recipe for bebinca
Rice Flour - 100 g
Sugar- 250 g
Egg yolks-5
Coconut juice-1/2 cup
Powdered Nutmeg- 1/4
Ghee- 100g
Mix Rice flour with the sugar and egg yolks while adding the coconut juice. Keep mixing until the sugar is well dissolved. Add the powdered nutmeg and keep this mixture aside. Grease a baking pan with ghee and pour some of the batter to form a layer. Bake this till it turns a golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven, add some more ghee and then another cup of the batter. Do so until the entire quantity of batter is used but the final layer has to be ghee..
After being done with the baking, let it cool..turn the bebinca over.

* Tastes best (i like it this way) when it is a lil warm with a scoop of vanilla icecream.


More goan recipes to come...

Pizza

On certain days (most days) when I get lazy to cook dinner..i decide to serve my own version of a fabulous pizza...
I buy readymade pizza bases...the medium size is ideal for one person..I lay the base on a grill.. and the sauce that i use is a sauce that i make from two tomatoes of medium size..i blanche the tomatoes..deskin and deseed them..and run it in a blender to get a smooth paste..I then boil this paste in a pan along with some ginger/garlic paste, sugar and a piece of cinnamon. I use this as the sauce to pour on the base..I then add finely chopped capsicum, spring onions and corn..i then add the canned minced meat...(usually prefer d'costa's)...i then sprinkle cheese over it and bake it in a preheated oven..for about 5 minutes...sprinkle some chilli flakes and serve....

A refresher!

Have you ever had unexpected guests and not having any drink to serve them? Or felt lazy to make coffee or tea.. To avoid such a situation, i always stock on pineapple juice, orange juice and lime juice.
For the drink I boil water and sugar and allow to cool..I then add the above-mentioned juices to this mixture..For fizz, add soda..

Another option would be to add coconut milk to pineapple and lime juice in a blender .. This has to be served chilled..

Armed with amma’s handwritten cook book, I was sure I could cook to satisfy my husband’s taste buds.
Amma made sure to write down each stage at which each ingredient needs to be added.. In short she made sure every minute detail was written down for me…I am glad she did do it…because it has saved me from some very embarrassing situations..

Some of Amma’s recipes

Cabbage Thoran
Cabbage thoran familiar to anyone from the south.

Cabbage-250 g
Grated Coconut-1 cup
Green Chillies-2 nos
Garlic-1 pod
Turmeric Powder-1/4 tsp
Small onions/Shallots- 2 or 3-sliced thinly
Mustard seeds-1/4 tsp
Curry leaves-1 sprig

Chop the cabbage. Grind together coconut (If I am lazy I forgo the coconut), green chillies, garlic, and turmeric powder.
In a kadai, to the oil add some mustard seeds and when they crackle, add the sliced shallots. The ground mixture is added only when the shallots turn a sort of golden brown…I still have difficulty in figuring the ideal brown…The cabbage is also added now and the entire mixture is mixed well and salt is added at this stage.
1/8th cup of water is added and curry leaves are also added now..
When this is half done, it is mixed again and the flame is lowered and allowed to cook ..


Another yummy recipe of amma’s would be for mutton curry..

Mutton Curry
Mutton Pieces- ½ kg
Potato-2 cut into 4 pieces
1. Onion-1
2. Green Chillies-2
3. Curry Leaves-2 sprigs
Tomato-1 chopped
Salt-1 1/2tsp

For grinding
Garlic-3 cloves
Shallots-3 or 4
Ginger-1/4”
Coriander powder-1 ½ Tbsp
Chilli Powder-1tsp
Turmeric Powder-1/4 tsp
Cloves-4
Cinnamon-1/2”



Grind all the grinding ingredients adding enough water.
In a pressure cooker preferably sauté 1, 2, and 3 in oil. Then the ground masala is added along with the chopped tomatoes. When the oil separates mutton, potato pieces and salt is added and pressure cooked on a medium flame for 10 mins.

Quick recipes

Some quick recipes that have saved me in the nick of time….

Fried chicken A: Into a pressure cooker, add chicken pieces, chili powder, turmeric powder, ginger/garlic paste, soya sauce, and a little water and cook for a few minutes. All the water should have evaporated. To a little bit of oil in a pan, add sliced onions, when done, add the chicken pieces and fry.

Fried chicken B: Marinate chicken pieces with pepper powder, chili powder, ginger/garlic paste, and salt for some time. Heat oil and fry the chicken pieces until desired. In another pan to the same oil, add curry leaves, green chilies, and onion. Mix in the chicken and fry well.

Quick stir-fry veggies: Chop capsicum, carrot, onion, spring onions, or any veggies of your choice. Fry these in oil. Mix a little corn flour with water to make a paste and add to the vegs. Add chilli sauce, stir fry sauce, tomato sauce into the vegs and stir well. Tastes yumm with noodles and fried rice.