Cheenachatti

Awards And Anniversaries!

2012-01-22T11:55:00.000-08:00

Er.. There is only one award and one anniversary. I went for the plural because it sounded way better than 'an award and an anniversary':-))) The anniversary is of my blogs. Yes, they've been in existence now for four years! I am happy that I have them ready to oblige when the need hits me. Yet they are pliant and waiting when I run dry. Maybe I should get a dog. eh? My daughter and I have discussed this many times and we even got rejected in a puppy adoption interview because H and I work full time. So now we are thinking of a compromise and maybe thinking of getting a cat. They are such independent creatures yet so cuddly! It is still a big commitment and so we have not yet wet our feet on that one.

And...now for the award. Reflections in her kindness has given me the versatile blogger award. I am truly honored and am hoping to fulfill the tag that came with it though I am not very sure if I will succeed. Thanks Nance!

The rules of this tag:

 Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your Blog Post
 Thank the Blogger who nominated you
 Share 7 Random things about yourself
 Nominate 15 fellow Bloggers
 Inform the Bloggers of their nomination

Instead of 15 I bestow this award to all my readers who blog and urge them to put this up and follow the rules as necessary including the random tag.

As for 7 random things about myself, here we go in no particular order:

1. I am a woman.

2. I am a mother.

3. I am a sister.

4. I am a wife.

5. I am a daughter.

6. I am an aunt.

7. I am a niece.

Hey, I am getting the hang of this and loving it. I want to add more!

8. I am a granddaughter.

9. I am not a grandmother yet and hope it will stay that way for a reasonable time for all involved:-)

10. I am a grand niece.

11. I am a daughter-in-law.

12. I am a sister-in-law.

13. I am a niece-in-law.

14. I am an aunt-in-law.

15. Changing the tone a bit now: I am a friend.

16. I am a blogger.

17. I am an employee.

18. I am a citizen.

19. I used to be a student. Wish I could be again...

20. I love to read. Bet you couldn't have seen that coming!

21. I love to cook/experiment new things.

22. I am remodeling our kitchen.

OK. time to stop and take stock of what we have here. See number 22? Yup that is what is going on in our kitchen as we speak. Only, instead of the promised 4 days it is now into the 3rd week that we have been doing without a kitchen. So then how are we surviving? The kids subsist on butter chicken and naan lovingly cooked by the nearby Indian store cooks, I on brioche bread from Whole Foods topped with honey and H on the brown rice we had cooked before all this started but which is now finished. If the contractors won't get off their lovely bottoms and speed things up we might be heading towards marital disharmony with all the juggling that's been going on... It is not all that bad though. We steam/bake our way into most that we can and do cook some food outside. If only it wasn't winter though... I am having some fun on the side doing kitchen decor shopping. It is supposed to be all done by this Thursday and I have fingers crossed left and right so wish me luck.

Thanks nance, I guess I got a little carried away but I had fun doing the tag.

Yet Another Yellow Cake Recipe

2011-12-19T13:30:00.000-08:00

As I have posted before, I am a total sucker for the holidays. Something in the air just gets to ya! Maybe it is the falling leaves sprinkled on the grass like stars of the sky, or a world in clear focus right after the October showers (if there is such a thing) or it could be the rainbow of trees lining the streets in full boom with the myriad colors of fall. Er.. bear with me while I am trying to wax poetic here. A body has to do what a body has to do! Now that it is out of the system I'll get down to business:-)

This is not a real recipe by the way. It does have some steps that are in addition to the standard box instructions and thus makes it worthwhile to post. I get good reviews every time I remember to make it. Came across this cake sometime back at my previous work place. From the admin (secretary) to our then CEO ."To be precise", said Thomson and Thompson:-) She was this fashionable old lady that took pride in doing things well. So when she baked the cake and brought it for us, I got the recipe from her right away. It is simple enough and when I made it after a long time for my son's robotics team who used to meet at our home for a while, all of it was gone in no time! This is almost like the Christmas Rum cake but with a subtler taste.

In The Mix

Any yellow cake mix - 1 Box (Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines will do)
Jello Vanilla - 1 box 3 oz. (cook & serve, not the instant
canola oil - 3/4 cup
dry sherry (white not dark) - 3/4 cup
eggs - 4

How To Do

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large bowl blend all the ingredients together. The secret to this cake is to beat, beat and beat until the mixture becomes smooth. 5 to 6 minutes appear to do the work.

I love to use the bundt cake pan for everything these days because the cake fluffs up very nicely in it. Grease the pan with shortening. I find it easier to put a tsp of butter or shortening to the pan and place it in the preheating oven. Once shortening melts I take the pan out and coat everywhere with a paper napkin. Do take care not to burn your hand though if doing this.

Pour batter into the pan and place it in the oven. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a fork inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool down for 15 minutes and enjoy!

Here is the missing piece that I managed to capture before being driven into oblivion!

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Fabulous New Year. Happy Holidays!!

Turkey Stir Fry!

2011-12-03T08:04:00.001-08:00

Time to bring up the bird again. It is not gone until the fat turkey sings:-) We ate leftover turkey the next day but then it was time to change the format a little. This stir fry came out really well!!

In The Mix

leftover turkey - 3 cups sliced to small pieces
big red onion - 1/2 medium size, sliced thin
curry leaves - a sprig or 2

garlic - 2 cloves crushed and minced
turmeric - 1/4 tsp
chili powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
pepper powder - 1/4 tsp

dry red chili - 8 - 10 pieces or more

olive oil - 1/2 tbsp
mustard 1/4 tsp

No additional salt is needed for the brined turkey

How To Do

Heat oil and fry mustard. Add curry leaves and onion and saute till onion turns light brown. Add in garlic, sprinkle the turmeric, chili, pepper powders and mix together for some time. Now add the dry red chilies torn in the middle. Saute well together and add turkey pieces. Stir until pieces are well coated. Cover and cook for 2 min or so for all aromas blend. Remove from heat and serve over hot rice or fresh bread. Good!

After Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T20:58:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a good dinner, turkey or not. I was just going to chill out this four day weekend but decided to go the turkey route on a whim. My son's wistful questioning of whether we will be having turkey was the catalyst. This time we went with a fresh turkey (diestel heidi) from Whole Foods. Whether it is the 'natural' part or PW's brine, the meat was much flavorful and tasted almost like chicken this time! Almost is the word. Another family brought their turkey and my son proved the point by going for seconds on ours:-))) Their gravy was way better than mine though...I am not going to write the whole turkey process again here but will add some notes. I see these notes are helping me to repeat the good results.

Basted the turkey with canola oil instead of butter and kept the windows open so going to 500F did not activate the smoke alarm. Next time I will bast a little more conservatively or use canola butter as the skin got a little more charred than desired. Inserting the thermometer after the 500 F step and poking until I found a reading in the breast area which was closer to 100F helped. I think another meter for the thighs may be needed for a larger turkey. It was a thirteen pounder this time. Alton Brown's video is good as always. I'll note down PW's brine recipe here with small changes I made since it was a last minute decision to go with it. I also used a new gravy recipe which, while better than my last one is still not there yet. It is not the recipe's fault methinks. I just need to try small adjustments until we find our own taste because the better gravy from our friends followed similar steps as my last try. They also added chilies while cooking and removed after wards. Having a fat separator for next time may be a good idea.

One thing about the meat thermometer you can do if you don't use it more than once or twice a year is to take the battery out when you store it so it will not get damaged. We had loved the stuffing from last year and it came through again. Bought some sliced brioche loaves which went amazingly well with the turkey dinner! PW's mashed potato is as awesome as it was last time. Our cranberry sauce came out as good as last time as well. A colleague talked about a tandoori turkey recipe that they used which came out good. I might try that next time (need not be next year) and will let you know if I do. Everyone got busy eating and so didn't get much time to take more pictures. The split Turk was all I could manage:-)

Turkey Brine (from PW)
In The Mix
turkey - 1 washed, pat dried and emptied of neck and giblets (13 lbs is what we had this time)
kosher salt - 1 1/2 cups
brown sugar - 2 cups
vegetable stock - 2 quartz
water - 2 quartz
fresh squeezed orange juice - from 1 orange
garlic - 1 cloves, crushed and minced
dried bay leaves -4 to 5
rosemary - 2 to 3 sprigs
orange peel - from 2 tangerines ( this is an awesome ingredient for the brine)

ice - 30 cubes
water - 1 gallon

How To Do
Boil all ingredients except the 1 gallon of water and ice in a large pan and completely cool down. Pour into brining bag placed in a 5 gal. bucket. Add the 1 gallon of water and half the ice. Put the turkey breast-first into the brine and add the rest of the ice. Zip up the brining bag and place all in the refrigerator. Add weights if the bird floats up. Take out and completely wash in cold water after about 16 hours.

This Year's Gravy (from food.com)
In The Mix
vegetable oil - 1 tbsp
turkey necks - 2 cut into 2-3 pieces ( got an extra neck from the meat dept. as there were no wings)
red onion - 1 large diced
carrots - 2 large, cut into 4 pieces
celery - 2 stalks, cut into 4 pieces
garlic - 2 cloves sliced in half
dry white wine - 1/2 cup
chicken broth - 4 1/2 cups ( my gravy got too thick and so i added more)
dried thyme - 1/4 tsp
all purpose flour - 1/2 cup
water - 3 cups

How To Do
In a stir fry pan, heat oil and shallow fry the turkey pieces for 10-15 minutes until they turn color.
Add onions, carrots, celery, garlic and cook for another 10 minutes till veggies and turkey get browned. Move all to a large bowl.

Add wine to the pan, stir to loosen brown bits, and put turkey and veggies back. Add water, thyme, broth and boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. The stock is extremely tasty at this point. I wanted to give up the gravy idea and just wanted to keep it as a soup instead!

Things didn't go as smooth once I added the flour because the meat I had didn't have enough fat. I added the flour without thinking about it which made clumps and took a few sieves to clean-up. I am just getting the hang of it. With two gravy experiences under my belt I might be luckier next time making it more tasty...
Anyway once done simmering, strain into a fat separator or measuring cup and let the liquid sit for a few minutes. Once fat gathers at the top, skim it to get a 1/4 cup and discard remaining fat if any. Add this to the pan and add the flour slowly. Maybe a fresh pan may not have clumped the mixture. Fry the flour mix till golden brown and add the strained gravy. Mix well, let boil and reduce to gravy consistency. Once cooled it is ready to go with the meal or into the refrigerator to be heated when needed. I had to add more broth when I took it our for reheating since it had gotten too thick.

Once all got done, the house was cleaned up and we got time to rest a little and enjoy the view before guests arrived. Just forgot to click more pictures at this time..... Baking the bird is lots of fun and I love how the house feels when all of this is going on along with H and the kiddos. Until next time then and no, I didn't go shopping today. I am waiting until those shoes I want go on sale. I'll take a pair in the dark brown please:-)

Banana Nut Bread

2011-11-21T18:50:00.000-08:00

Holidays are kicked off here at home with Halloween. I am just about now finished with my job of identifying and eliminating candy wrappers stashed in unknown locations. My girl the sweet connoisseur has found her home in this celebration of candies. This year the kiddos mixed and matched available stuff to become a fashionable bunny and Harry Potter cum Death Eater.

Bananas are one thing we keep eating and it's gotten out of hand lately since now my husband (H) has totally joined the banana bandwagon. He finds it the best kind of snack in the current state of affairs. Luckily H does not take much shine to the baby bananas that I adore. Plantains (nenthrapazham) are more his thing. This week we had a bunch too many of the regular Chiquita bananas and some of them got overripe. I cannot eat an overripe banana if my life depended on it. I like'em just ripe. Any black spots and they are off my edible food chart. H loves them in this stage but he can only do so much by himself. Enter banana nut bread! I have made it before for my cake-in-a-jar attempts but that was a while ago. Searched and found this recipe at allrecipes.com which had hundreds of reviews and several suggestions. I followed most of those and got a here-this-minute-gone-the-next kind of recipe! You can assume that I had to struggle to get even this last piece to take a picture! Kick off your holiday season with this very comforting bread. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Happy Thanksgiving!

In The Mix
white sugar - 1 1/2 cups (add 1/2 cup more if you prefer it more sweet)
brown sugar - 2 cups
shortening - 1 cup
eggs - 3
ripe bananas - 2 mashed (over ripe gives the best results)
all purpose flour - 3 cups
buttermilk - 1 1/4 cups
baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp
baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
vanilla extract - 1 tsp
chopped walnuts - 1/2 cup or less (optional )

How To Do
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Take the sugars and shortening in a bowl and beat for 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and beat well after each. Instead of mashing beforehand I just added the bananas at this time in small pieces and gave it a good beat to mix it all together. This won't work if the bananas are not over ripe. Then you do have to mash. Add buttermilk and vanilla and use a whisk from this point to combine. Add in flour, baking powder and soda. Stir in nuts now. I didn't because none of us like nuts in the soft texture. I liked one idea that said to sprinkle some on the top of the bread along with sugar to give it a twist. Didn't try it this time though. Pour the batter into 2 greased 9x5 inch pans. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a fork inserted into the middle returns clean.

Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes. Dump out onto a platter and try to get at least one piece before all that soft moist goodness disappears while you watch!

Meat Ball Curry

2011-11-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

"What in the world?" you might say. Could it be that our recently turned health advocate is posting this obviously loaded recipe, trying to pass it off as healthy? I get it, I get it. Still, what I am about to tell you just might boggle the mind. Or not! as my son says to most anything lately:-) By the way, middle school can be tricky and I am glad he is managing well so far.

There is no concrete evidence, but based on the different cuisines I have tried after coming here I would say the Indian curry evolved into its current state through a path that is more medicinal than culinary. If we search long enough there should be many articles attesting to this. Who else in their right mind would dig for a turmeric or ginger root under the ground, then clean, dry and pulverize it just to put a 1/4 tsp or so into what you are cooking unless it's been prescribed as necessary? In most other cuisines the main food itself is the star. Its taste not made obsolete by the presence of overpowering spices. When done in moderation even outsiders will be able to enjoy Indian food. When we go out for lunch from work no one votes for Indian food. The consensus is that the food is so heavy that once you have it you have to go home to sleep instead of going back to work:-) It is slowly changing with all the new awareness on Indian food here through blogs and cooking shows. Those who grew up on Indian food don't really realize this comparative heaviness because from childhood our tastebuds and psyche have been conditioned to acknowledge these flavors as "the food". The whole enchilada of Indian cooking with spices must have originated from the rich and ancient ayruvedic/medicinal traditions that India has which first trickled into and later flooded mainstream cooking. I can proselytize all I want but when the taste bud is looking for authentic Indian taste it will not bow down to the milder versions that easily.

So how does this help? Since I have established that it is medicinal rather than culinary, spicy really means healthy and therefore good for you:-) Good. eh? It is the chili, oil and salt that you need to be careful about and everything else is fair game unless you have specific allergies. So when my son's friend's Mom from Tamilnadu talked about her awesome meatball curry I didn't have to put the thought aside with regret because of this enlightenment.. This meatball curry also appears in a cookbook (Veettammakkoru Kaithoozhi) by Sr. Dolores Kannampuzha that my HMom had sent long ago. I followed my friend's recipe as well as the book to get where we are. The red meat in question falls into the eat in moderation category and keeping it there is what enabled us to go for this with glee.

In The Mix

For The Meatballs
ground beef - 1 lb.
red onion - 1 medium sized
ginger - 1 " piece
green chili - 5
cinnammon, cardamom, cloves powder mixed in equal measures - 1/2 tsp
egg - 1
bread crumbs - little less than 1/2 cup

For the Gravy

medium red onion - 1 sliced
ginger - 1" piece sliced thin
green chili sliced in rounds - 2 or more as needed
curry leaves - 1 sprig
coriander powder - 4 to 5 tbsp
turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp (what did i say?)
black pepper powder - 1 tsptomato - 1 medium diced
potatoes - 1 big cubed small
coconut milk - 1 cup from can diluted with 1.5 to 2 cups of water
warm milk - 3/4 cup
salt - as needed (1 tsp is all it took!)

How To do
Chop the ginger, chili and onion for meatball finely in a chopper or by hand. Add to the ground meat in a bowl. Break the egg into this and mix all together. Add in the powders, bread crumbs, salt and combine. Now roll into small balls the size of gooseberries and keep aside.

For the gravy, heat oil in a pan and add onion, ginger, green chili, curry leaves and saute well. Add curry powders and 1/4 cup water to mix all together. Add diced tomatoes and saute for a while. Now add potatoes and saute together in medium to low heat.

Once the aroma starts rising add diluted coconut milk and salt as needed. Remember to be done with all your stirring needs by now as we don't want to upset the applecart once those delicate balls are added. Add more hot water at this stage if needed and boil everything. Once you are ready for the deed and identified enough space in the gravy to add meatball, start doing just that. Add the balls gently and one by one. If you need to combine the balls don't use a spoon. Rotate the pan on its handles as needed. Cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until meat balls and potatoes are cooked. Now add the warm milk and gently boil before removing from heat. Of course give it a small whirl to get all mixed up well. Pour over hot soft rice and dig in! I haven't tried it but it must be good company for our Appam. Hmm.. Yum..Maybe next time.

Unsolicited Advice And A Rice Dish

2011-10-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

Hiya folks! It is time for some recipe posts instead of excuses. But first things first...

Salt is slowly re-entering our diet which of course is a welcome situation as I was sharing the 100% no-salt diet in solidarity with my BP sufferer of a husband. It was an eye-opener in many ways. Without the all-encompassing taste of salt we tasted food in its natural form. The main diff was when tasting roasted unsalted nuts and unsalted canned items. Once when we had visitors I made salted and unsalted canned tuna cutlets. After they left, the salted version sat with no takers for a while because we were busy devouring the unsalted beauties! Only caveat is that the unsalted version is a tad bit more expensive. Papadams are the one vice I can't do without and I hear it is loaded with salt. My husband's weakness fortunately is the mackerel which is endowed with ample salt in its natural form! Sure enough we baked quite a few mackerels and now have graduated to frying them gently. Always after marinating them salt free.

We also developed a habit of reading the fine-print for sodium intake and measuring our salt carefully when cooking. It does make a world of difference both in taste and health. As we get older our taste buds need
a burst of flavor to feel anything (see our parents for living examples) and if we are already using a fair amount of salt, this will only go up as time passes since our tongue is aspiring for the same taste as before. So from now on instead of 'salt to taste' I am going for 'only as needed':-) Always use sea salt if available since that contains less amount of sodium. Potatoes are a good source of potassium which gets lowered when sodium levels skyrocket. If possible do not take any vitamin supplements in tablet form, natural or not. Natural fish oil tablets could be an exception but then it has to be low in Mercury. All of these are big concerns here in the US because people have been consuming processed food for a long time now. It is slowly changing but healthier means more expensive and could be a while till the good old habits take root again.

Our dish today is very similar to this vermicelly pulau and way easier since you can turn plain leftover rice into a bonafide dinner in no time. Having exhausted our tasty but loaded biriyani dinners I was looking for an alternative lately. That is when the thought bubbled up. Why not fancy up our simple mixed veggie with rice concoction to a pulau/fried rice format? From then on it was smooth sail. Small cooked shrimp and eggs are effortless and well used additions to give taste and flavor.

The real beauty is that you don't have to watch out for exact measurements in this dish and you will still achieve fairly good results. Except of course for the salt, which you better watch out and don't say I didn't tell you when you or a family member succumbs to BP, diabets or cholesterol. They are all connected in a way and when you battle one you are battling all. In my brother's words "you have to treat the whole body and mind of the patient regardless of the disease". Did you know that some BP meds can cause sugar levels to go high? How many of you knew that sugar gets converted to triglycerides, spiking up those cholesterol levels? Keep away from refined sugar and go back to the good old brown sugar if you dare:-) I have dared and now can't really tolerate the pure white refined sugar in my coffee or tea.

Once you start watching out for one thing the rest will follow and life will be good. Of course I am not a doc and the only advice I can give that is worth its salt is to do whatever it is that you need to keep stress levels down in your life. Regardless of what it is that you do, be content with it. This is the secret to true happiness
and a healthier life. Think Sidhartha and what he discovered at the end.

Before you raise eyebrows at all the unsolicited dictum that I am churning out today, let us safely ride back to today's recipe. Remember Galileo Galilee who muttered under his breath "but it is really round", after confessing loudly that the earth is flat to avoid excommunication from the Church? I stop here but I hope you hear me muttering "if not for the sake of health, then for the sake of taste start watching what you eat". OKKK? Now here is the dish on the dish in the picture.

In The Mix

cooked rice - from 5 cups of raw rice
green beans - cut into small circles (1 or 2 cups)
              why is this easy? because i got fresh cut beans from the nearby indian store!
cauliflower - 1 small head, peeled of leaves, separated and sliced to smaller pieces
carrots     - 2 or 3, peeled and sliced into thin pieces similar to the thickness of the beans.
serano chillies - 3 or 4 or less - cut into thin discs
red onion - 1 medium sized, peeled and diced into small pieces
egg - 2 beaten mildly
small cooked shrimp - 1 cup
curry leaves - 1 or 2 sprigs (this one you can splurge without any worries)

How To Do
Cook the rice as you would cook for biriyani. If you have a japanese rice cooker then just follow
the directions as that always seem to get us the correct state of rice for biriyani. If you have leftover rice, that will do just fine.

In a sauce pan add 1 tsp of oil and add beans, cauliflower and carrots. Sprinkle less than 1/4 tsp of
salt or no salt at all and mix together. Now turn stove to high heat, close the lid and cook for 5-6 minutes. Check once in between and add a tbsp of water or less if it looks like it might burn. Shaking the lifted pan with lid closed is a good way to prevent burning and not to lose the built-up steam inside. Once cooked and still crisp, remove from heat and set aside.

Heat oil in another pan, add rice and urad dal making sure nothing gets burnt. Add green chillies and saute well, and then add the marinated shrimp and saute to a good color. Now add onion and curry leaves and mix all together for a while.

Add in the veggies and mix well. Clear a space in the middle of the pan, add the beaten eggs and cook it scrambled right there. You can do this in a separate pan instead and add back once rice is added if you prefer that. Again mix well together, add the cooked rice and add salt only if you must. Cover and cook on medium heat for 2 minutes so all the flavors combine into the dish. Serve warm with the aforementioned goodiesand you will never know what hit you! Depending on your refrigeration, this dish will stay tasty for quite a few days esp if served with a smacking good raita which we had. I'll elaborate on our raita dish in another post as I think it has its own place. So next time you make a dish and reach for that salt container give it a pause, will ya? Replace salt by adding flavors is what will help you to make the change. Add lemon drops, tomato, cilantro etc to bring out the flavor.

Serve with the awesomely flavorful fish pappas and to the accompaniment of raita and papad and voila, you have a winner! Add some flowers to the table and you are all set. Gerbera daisies rule the world as far as I am concerned and when a beam of the evening sun fell straight on to the vase through our windows I just couldn't resist clicking. Enjoy!

Prologue

2011-09-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

I'd like to use the old adage much water has flown under the bridge for this post of mine. It is still a good one to use for such a case. Our food habits changed drastically and not sure when it will be back or if it ever will. When the number one consumer of my food, my husband, opted not to take salty, spicy, greasy food anymore it did not take me much to join the bandwagon. High BP is the issue and while many have told us low sodium diet does not mean salt free diet we feel prudent in staying without salt due to the BP ridden ancestors on his side of the family. And what a bargain! We cook almost everyday now. The taste of unadulterated fresh prepared food is an experience in itself. Low sodium is probably better than salt free, but in true Gandhari fashion I refuse to touch salt except for sprinkling a little on my rice some of the days. My husband is amazed at my compliance especially since a recent checkup prior to all this gave me a clean bill of health from the usual culprits of BP, cholesterol, sugar and the likes. Since this state of affairs is not sustainable I'll wait a bit more before a food post to see how far we will keep this up and how it will evolve over time.

The pictures are from a nature hike we did during a much wanted few days away from it all. We visited the absolutely beautiful Squaw Valley this summer. There was the clean and shining Lake Tahoe on one side and the beautiful expansive ski mountains (almost alpine) on the other!

Fajitas Anyone?

2011-04-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

First things first. I am glad India won the World Cup. Truth be told I didn't know about the whole thing until a Srilankan colleague sent a mail offering congratulations. "Congratulations on what?" I asked and he brought out the whole World Cup Cricket enchilada including the semifinals that India had won. Now the snippets of conversations I'd heard around the house and among other Indians began to fall into place! It's been so long but I used to be much interested in Cricket results when Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev ruled the roost. I even used to sing "one day cricket to the blues" because it sounded like a good replacement for this. Sure I'd heard of the then up and coming Tendulkar and so it gave me a jolt when I read that this will be his last game. And what a fitting end! Anyway just for old times sake I had told the colleague that we will cream his team and now I can be at work on Monday with a well placed smirk:-) Just kidding, of course he cares more about just watching a good game than who wins and was saying that the Indian team is really good this year and will most likely win. So Congratulations Indian Team! Now let us come back to the subject at hand. Our fajitas.

When the mouse does not go to the mountain, the mountain goes to the mouse! This is what got me to making chicken fajitas. My boy is a picky eater. I have to say his ultimate choices are somewhat healthy so I should not complain. It just makes life a little difficult when none of the existing choices seem to pass muster! Chicken fajitas sounded like something the kids might take to and so I found a few recipes. This recipe was picked based on reviews and I made some changes as always for our needs. The recipe called for a packaged fajita mix which I couldn't find in any stores and so I found another recipe online to make it from scratch. All in all the end result turned out very good and all of us have bought into fajita nights! My girl has not taken to fajitas as much but being a happy little soul she joins in with eating whatever she can from it. The recipe is good for chicken or beef but I have only tried chicken so far which is pretty good already!!

In The Mix

chicken breast - 1 1/2 lbs ( boneless/skinless. breast meat is the secret behind tender & juicy result)

red bell pepper - 1 sliced (julienned if you have time)
green bell pepper - 1 sliced
yellow bell pepper - 1 sliced. i added this for color
yellow sweet onion - 1 sliced
olive oil - 2 tbsp

flour tortillas - as many as needed (10)

toppings
sour cream or yogurt - 1 cup
diced tomato - 1
salsa - optional ( i buy this fresh and love it)
avocado - optional
cut lettuce - 2 cups

for the marinade
mc cormick fajita seasoning mix - 5 tsp ( since there was a recall on it none were available and so i used a recipe give below for this mix)
olive oil - 1/8 cup
vinegar - 2 tbsp
lime juice - 1 tbsp
mc cormicks spicy roasted garlic chicken seasoning - 1 1/2 tsp
(i found this seasoning at the store. i think you can use salted garlic powder mixed with crushed chili powder if you don't have this available. didn't use the peppers and since fajita seasoning mix had oregano, i added it there instead of here.)

fajita seasoning mix
cumin powder - 1 1/2 tsp
oregano - 1 tsp
salt - 1/4 tsp
salted garlic powder - 1/4 tsp
chili powder - 1 tsp or more
pepper powder - 1/2 tsp or more
didn't have onion powder. so used 2 shallots sliced circular which is a keeper for this.

How To Do

Preheat oven to 350. Cover the tortillas in aluminum foil and heat for 10 minutes. Turn oven off and keep tortillas in until needed.

Mix all the fajita seasoning ingredients and spoon out what is needed for the marinade. Add the sliced shallots to the marinade. Wash and drain the chicken. Make sure it is sliced into fajita sized pieces. Slice or butterfly to get the desired size. Mix all the marinade ingredients together with the meat. Check salt and sourness to taste and marinate overnight.

Take grill pan and heat very well so the meat won't stick to the bottom when you add it. You can grill outside if you are up for it. The grill pan works perfectly fine except it can smoke up the house if you need to use it for a second round. Do about 3-4 minutes at the most on each side, remove from heat and drain on paper towels. Mmmm. Yummmm. You will have little boys flying around in anticipation with all that yummy smell.

Once cooled, slice the chicken into smaller pieces and they are ready to be served. Now on to other accompaniments.

To make the peppers, heat oil in a pan and saute the onions on medium heat. Cook until wilted and add the peppers. Mix well and continue to cook till peppers are wilted and onions are crisp and lightly brown.

Put all the toppings in separate bowls and get out the warm soft tortillas. Take one tortilla, spread with peppers, chicken, yogurt, salsa or other toppings of your choice. Roll on both sides and dig in!! Be forewarned that you might need a napkin or two to keep the juices from getting away and to keep things clean..

Coconut Chutney for Dosa & Idly

2011-02-28T22:51:00.000-08:00

I like seeing a blog entry every month. But normal home life is almost at a standstill with both kids being attacked by the most vicious of the cold and cough bugs going around. Trying to keep work commitments while planning alternate care for 2 kids who got sick one after the other is not fun. Trust me! Things have quietened down a little and so this is a last minute attempt to fill in the blanks with a draft I had for some time.

During undergrad years most of us stayed on campus hostels but there were a few day-scholars living only a bus ride away. They used to graciously invite us to their homes once in a while to devour the delicious home made food which we were always happy to comply with. Having grown up in a dosa free household I was rather obsessed with dosa. Mainly with the eating of it:-) A lot of the credit for dosa's taste goes to the accompanying chutney in my opinion. Chutneys served in these friends' homes were always super yummy. Much as I tried I could never get a good chutney for my idly and dosa. But recently I did some adjustments to two of Mrs. KMMs chutney recipes and have achieved that taste closure. What is even better is that it is very repeatable. My husband even forgets the odd texture of the idlies - having been made with dosa batter in a hurry - and finishes away a decent bunch with aplomb all because of the power of the chutney. So here it is my beloved readers: a chutney worth making!

In The Mix
grated coconut - 1 cup
green chili - 2
ginger - 1/2" thin piece
shallots - 2 diced once or twice
fresh squeezed lemon juice - 3 tsp
yogurt - 2 tbsp
water - 1/4 cup or more as needed
salt - to taste

for seasoning
olive oil - 2-3 tsp
mustard - 1 tsp
shallot - 1 small thinly sliced
dry red chili - 3 or 4 torn and whole
curry leaves - a sprig or 2

How To Do
In a blender add together the water, yogurt and lemon juice. Add shallots, green chili and ginger and blend once. Add salt and add the coconut. Use ice crusher if using fresh frozen coconut. Grind well for a minute or two. Add salt and water as needed.

Heat oil in a pan and break the mustard seeds. Add sliced shallot, dry red chili and curry leaves. Saute for a minute or two. Add the chutney mix. Mix well, boil once and remove from heat. Eat with idly, dosa or both!

Brioche!

2011-01-16T01:23:00.000-08:00

How about a loaf of fresh baked brioche bread for the 3rd anniversary of this blog space? The time is already into the next day but only just got a chance to sit down here as class projects and recitals are in full swing.

Once the baking bug bites, even if you are not a gifted baker like spicyana, the desire to bake a loaf of bread starts to take root:-) This happened to me a while ago. I don’t have a bread machine and I had this feeling that making bread will take a lot of work. Confession time….I never make chapatis since I don’t know how to and so kneading is not a natural step for me. I will get to it some day because we do have a base and roller just for the purpose:-) For the moment COSTCO or Indian Grocery stores will do just fine.

There is one item I always beeline for in the bakery section. Mini Brioche buns. Ummm…Yummmm. So when I saw a recipe that said fast brioche, I printed it out to try whenever I have the time. That time finally came around and I am very pleased with the results. For cosmetics effect, next time I will take the bread out of the oven a little earlier and will not brush so deeply with beaten egg. But the taste of the light and fluffy Brioche is well present beneath the exterior and so it turned out fine..

I think practice make perfect is true especially when baking your loaf of fresh bread. Almost like Appam. Brioche does not need as much flour as regular bread. There is an interesting story about this in Wikipedia. Scroll towards the end of the page. Poor executed Queen Mary Antoinette is always attributed the heartless quip : "let them eat cake" when she was told that the people do not have enough bread to eat. It turns out the mindful lady said "let them eat brioche'. It takes less flour of course! Unfortunately having no equivalent for brioche the word got turned into cake and look how it changes one's perception of this historic figure…...So here is the recipe which I hope the original site and recipe author will be OK with to reprint here. Slight convenience adjustments as always are present.

In The Mix

all purpose flour - 1 and 2/3 cup

active dry yeast - 3 1/4 tsp

granulated sugar - 3 tbsp

salt - 1/4 tsp

warm milk - 1/3 cup

softened, unsalted butter - 2 3/4 (keep at room temp a few hours earlier to soften)

eggs - 2 beaten

to coat the risen dough

granulated sugar - 1 tbsp or less

egg - 1 beaten

How To Do

Mix the flour, yeast, 3 tbsp sugar and salt in a bowl. Gradually add in warm milk, butter and the 2 beaten eggs. Knead until the dough is smooth. This is where I am not sure if I did all that was needed. Read kneading disclaimer above..The dough did pull away from the sides after a while and so I hope that was right. The dough felt very flexible. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise. You can go to the Library or finish reading that book while waiting. About 2 hours later or until the dough doubles its size is when the next step starts. Having had no prior experience, I am not sure if my dough got as smooth as it should be. Here is a picture of the risen dough in the bowl.

Grease a 9"x5" pan with baking spray or shortening. I used baking spray due to lack of time but will use my trusty shortening to grease next time. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Coat a cutting board or the likes with flour and move the dough onto it. Punch it down a few times. I divided the dough into 2 equal sized balls instead of 3 to make it quick. Roll each ball into a 10 inch long rope and braid them together. This looked really good! Tuck the ends and place the braid in the greased pan. The dough can also be made into an oval instead of a braid. Looking at the eventual shape of my loaf I should have just done the oval! Cover the pan and let rise for an additional 1 hour. Should double in size again.

The next picture is of the risen dough after the second time. See how the braid lines are already blurring. Using 3 braids as suggested in the original recipe would have given me better definition..

So get the remaining beaten egg and sugar ready. Remove the cover and gently coat the dough with egg and sprinkle with some sugar. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 25 minutes or until brioche is golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes in pan and move to a cooling rack. Mine didn't stay much on the rack and was halfway finished in no time. The smell of course is wonderful. The feeling even more so! I have good mind to try the regular bread too but I am fascinated by the varieties of french bread for the time being....

Tea Ceremony & My Girl's Grape Juice Recipe

2010-12-29T09:49:00.000-08:00

It started out rather innocuously. From an inconvenience I felt once when making several cups of tea one at a time in the microwave. Making it the old fashioned way on the stove was just too slow for that day. I thought if I could get a teapot small enough to get in the microwave and large enough for a few cups of tea I could just pour it all out in one stretch. As with all such things, the idea stayed just that for a long time. Then something brought it back to the top and I made an impulsive buy of a teapot only to find it too tall for the microwave! That got returned and the whole plan got discarded. At least for the time being. Last week we drove to an outlet mall that we hadn't visited in the longest time and I spent some time in a favorite store of mine. The Corelle Outlet. You can find all sorts of cute kitchen stuff there. Many Indian parents shop there before their return trip to get some unbreakable everyday stuff for a good price. I bought some stuff that I liked and then I remembered the teapot. My son spotted this cutesy little guy and the decision to buy was immediate.

As luck would have it I spotted something else on the shelf. The glasses that reminded me of those roadside teashops where tea was always served hot with a flourish or thud in one of these! My dad depended on them to quench his thirst when going on long trips. So we came home, washed teapot and glasses with soapy warm water and our tea ceremony got started. It will last at least for the duration of the holidays when time and temperament seems inviting for such an act. I had planned on using my lovely teacups but once I got the glasses, they were the natural pick:-)

Here is how we do it. Around 4 to 5 in the evening, kids and Mom gather in the kitchen. Mom gets the teapot and kids get the glasses, help with pouring 2.5 glasses of milk plus 1.5 glasses of water. Add in 5 tea bags and 4 tbsp of sugar, close the lid and microwave for 4.30 or more. Now you can let it sit in there and steep or take out depending on your needs. Remove the teabags, stir the sugar and pour out carefully into glasses. Make sure eager hands touching their glasses "for the same amount of tea as parents" don't get spilled over. Call Dad and gather round the table to sit and sip the tea. All of us are enjoying this very much. Who would have thought? Bring on the holidays anytime I say.

My Girl's Grape Juice Recipe

She is always busy if she gets the board and the marker. This time when she was done this is what we saw. A recipe for grape juice. Thought I'll post it here.

Above picture is an illustration of the method. Recipe follows:

I did ask her what to do once you have all the listed ingredients to get the grape juice. She gave me a look that said, why ask about something so basic!! I'd say remove skin from the grapes and put all in the blender is what she meant:-)

Merry Christmas & A Happy 2011!

2010-12-24T23:12:00.000-08:00

Stars sent lovingly from India have been hung up with lights and all. See one of those above. Just ignore the dark wires:-) Nativity is setup, appam batter is ready, stew pieces are cut and duck roast is done. Fruit cake has been distributed and gifts are under the tree. Now all that is left is for Santa to visit and for us to attend Mass. Did I say that I love holidays especially guilt free ones with no pressure from work? Hope the holidays are going well for everyone and that Christmas is indeed Merry. Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year too . A picture of our roasted duck is below.

Oven Roasted Potatoes
I oven roasted the potatoes in the oven instead of frying in oil this time. A much better and easier way to do it. Here is how:

Preheat oven to 475F
Just peel and cube 1 or 2 potatoes. You could also cut them into circles as before.
Sprinkle some oil, mix and sprinkle some salt.
Spread on a cookie sheet and bake for 25-28 minutes.
If doing circles reduce the time to 12-15 minutes and check.
Let cool for potatoes to come off the sheet and add to the roasted duck curry. Done!

Crab Stir-Fry/Njandu Ularth and Crab Curry

2010-12-22T15:22:00.000-08:00

Crab in any form is yummy especially so for my husband. We bought a nice bunch of cooked crabs from Costco and it was up to me to make something out of it this time. I was a little weary due to the disastrous crab preparation I perpetrated upon the household the other day from two rather expensive cans of crab meat. But that is when Mrs. KMM can truly come to your rescue. She had a Njandu Ularth recipe in her Nadan Pachakarama and I followed mostly except for the quantities and one other change. I did not shell the crabs. Used them as they are which is preferred by the Main Crab Eater in the realm. My girl and I are used to this too. My boy stays clear of the whole thing at this time of his life. Maybe soon.. Here is the recipe

In The Mix
crabs -3 lbs (cleaned, cooked and separated into pieces)
mustard seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
curry leaves - 2 or 3 sprigs
big red onion - 2sliced
torn dry red chili - 2 tbsp(ran out of this so i added the powder form below)
dry red chili powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
garlic - 10-12 cloves crushed and then gently sliced if required
pepper powder - 2 to 2 1/2 tsp up to your spice tolerance (too lazy to crush whole pepper mentioned in recipe)
kudampuli - 2-3 pieces in 1 cup of water (cleaned and heated in a microwave with the water - my Mom)

How To Do
I am glad that cooked crabs are easy to find. Not sure if I'd be this willing to venture into crabland if I also need to deal with live crustaceans! To deal with the cooking, let us go with Mrs KMM. She says to put crabs, turmeric powder and salt into boiling water and cook for about 1 hour. Cook until the shells turn orange. Put cooked crab into cold water to keep the flesh firm. Then she suggests to shell the crabs which I didn't do.

Moving onto what to do once you have cooked, separated and unshelled crabs ready to roll -
Heat oil in a pan and break mustard. Add curry leaves and onions. Add salt to mix well with onions. Saute for a while until onions turn translucent and then add red chilies including powder. Keep on sauteing and add garlic and then pepper powder. Saute some more till they have a pleasing look all together.

Now add the kudampuli with its water and then add crab pieces. Mix well together, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes so the crab meat imbibes some of the flavors. Open and dry out well in the heat before taking out to enjoy with hot cooked rice. Yum! The shells are easy to break but make sure to keep an empty platter for all those shells to collect in. This can pile up before you have time to think!

Crab Curry
I had some leftover crab after taking what was needed for the Ularth. So went ahead and cooked it with the egg curry recipe and below is the result. With this ularth and curry any memories of the previous crabby incident has been erased forever:-) Just replace the eggs with about as much of cooked crab in shells (about 1/2 lbs?). Add a bit of vinegar to taste in the end and voila!

Hello

2010-12-08T23:58:00.000-08:00

Nope, no new food posts yet. Just saying a hello to say we are eating but just not anything new:-) I have some in mind but picture taking opportunities are hard to come by since the dark winter evenings are here. Hope Thanksgiving went well for those who celebrated. We made some yummy duck roast in honor of TG a week ahead and happily skipped the Turkey this year. Went to Grand Canyon via Las Vegas instead. Watched Cirque De Soleil's Ka while at Las Vegas. Not bad. Kids totally loved all of it. Moving vertical and horizontal stages were awesome! Grand Canyon was too cold by sunset watching time. We barely managed it. Yet, judging by the crowd I am not sure I want to do the trip when the weather is more pleasant. Too much crowd is not fun in the buses as well as with kids. GC indeed is a sight to see. I kept wondering about the people who had never heard or seen pictures of it blundering on to this brilliant brilliant beauty of a canyon carved by the Colorado River jumping at them. Awe inspiring. Next time maybe we will trek down a bit. We went to the south rim. Didn't drive to the west rim where the Skywalk Glassbridge is. The 12 hours driving was rather fun with us all together. Holidays are special to all I guess. Can't wait for the X-mas hols now. Nativity is set and the tree is up. X-mas here we are!! Well, almost. Must be the overworked employee in me getting excited:-) Projects have cooled down to a manageable level so shouldn't complain.

Come to think of it, I do have some food related stuff to relate. Did I tell you about the new Waffle Iron we got sometime back? I can't find the exact model but this one comes closest.

Better than reheating those frozen store bought waffles. Possibilities are endless with the toppings: honey, fruits, butter, jelly, sunny side up, bacon. All goes well with a crisp yummy waffle. I get this waffle mix and simply follow the recipe on the can.

Mrs. KMM's Fish Pappas

2010-10-08T21:17:00.000-07:00

I have a small set of fish recipes that I am happy with. But that doesn't mean one should cold shoulder new recipes. So it is that I took up my trusty old copy of Mrs KM Mathew's 'Nadan Pachakarama'. Leafing through a few recipes that I have and not tried, the word 'pappas' caught my eye. This was not a common preparation at my home but I knew it goes well with Thirutha/Kanampu (Mullet) or Karimeen (Pearl Spot). We love Bass in any form. Be it striped or black. My son's day is made when we fry a Bass. It didn't take long for me to connect the tasty Sea Bass to this awesome recipe. We buy it fresh from the local Chinese store. The first time I made it, taste was good but gravy looked watery and something felt absent. So when family (includes HAunt who is our top advisor on food matters here) came for a short visit I decided to give this one more concentrated effort and it was worth it. I tripled the recipe and made small updates to the original steps. Recipe follows:

In The Mix
fish - 2 striped bass : cleaned and cut into pieces (~1.5 kg)

coriander powder - 6 tsp
kashmiri powder - 1 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
fresh ground pepper - 1/2 tsp or more as needed

olive oil - 1 tbsp or more
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
methi (uluva) - a few

medium sized onion - 2 sliced
ginger - 1.5" piece peeled and sliced lengthwise

garlic cloves - ~25 thin cloves (slice/crush large cloves)
green Serrano chili - 4 to 5 halved lengthwise
curry leaves - a sprig and a half

water - 4.5 cup or more as needed

kudam puli (Garcinia cambogea ) - 8-9 petals washed thoroughly in warm water to remove any smokiness
canned coconut milk - 1/3cup or less

How To Do

Heat 1 tsp oil in a flat bottomed pan and gently fry the fish pieces on both sides. I didn't score the pieces. About 1 min to each side is more than enough. Use two spatulas if necessary so as to not break the fish. Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine the 4 curry powders including pepper in a bowl with some water and keep aside.

Heat remaining oil in a pan and break mustard seeds. Then saute onion, ginger, garlic, green chili and curry leaves by adding to the pan in that order. Onions should start to brown and chili should still have some color left. Add the masala powder mix and saute in low to medium heat. This will take a few minutes. Once the aroma start to rise, add water and mix well together. Add salt at this stage so it can be mixed well with the gravy. Now add the fish and kudam puli pieces. Gently mix taking care not to break up the fish. Boil once on hi and lower heat. After this, it is better to just lift up the pan and rotate once or twice to mix things up when needed. Check and add salt if needed to balance the puli/sourness. Let the gravy come to the desired consistancy at this rate on medium to low heat. Pieces should look well coated with gravy.

Add coconut milk and mix by rotating the pan. Use a fork gently to bring the milk everywhere and rotate again. Boils once and remove from heat. Remove some puli pieces if you are not big on that part of the flavor. I remove about 2/3rd of the pieces at the end and only keep 1 or 2 in the setting curry. Enjoy with hot rice, vegetable thoran and buttermilk curry/moru kachiyathu. Hmm... Yum....Bliss here I come!!

Pan Seared Chicken Legs

2010-08-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

I know I know. It's been a while and I have nothing but the same old excuse to put forward. But hey, to make things a little fun let me talk about something new. At least it created a lot of excitement in our little household. I am talking about the 'Next Food Network Star' from Food Networks. I had watched Season 1 long time back and then this season 6 is the next one I got to watch. Good timing since the final Star ended up being a cook with Indian background. Liked all the finalists but was extra glad to see Aarti win. Missed her first episode this last Sunday but won't be missing anymore since it is being recorded. I am looking forward to her American recipes with Indian flavor in the hopes of getting the kiddos back on track with homemade food. Little tummies are being monopolized by burgers, pizza, cold sandwiches and the likes lately. Keeping to this spirit I tried out a chicken recipe that was on the Food Network site by Cheryl Smith with a mild Indian update and it worked wonders and earned 4 fans right away!

I hope it is OK with Food n/w and Cheryl Smith for me to write it up here.

In The Mix

chicken drumsticks with skin on - 6 (recipe calls for chicken breasts. tried both & prefer drumsticks)
olive oil - 3 tbsp (to be used in halves)
kosher salt - to taste
freshly ground black pepper - enough to cover the pieces well
herbs - enough to sprinkle on (had no fresh herbs. dried rosemary and thyme worked well and dried basil and parsley equally good)
garam masala - 1/2 tbsp (from 1:1:1 mix of cardamom:cloves:cinnammon powders)
garlic cloves - 8-10 peeled and crushed

How To Do

Preheat oven to 400F.

Wash and drain the drumsticks well. If using chicken breasts, I found cutting into large pieces resulted in yummier fare. Cover the pieces with half of the oil. Make deep scores in the meat if needed. Now season each piece with a good amount of pepper and salt. This is very crucial. Don't be shy with the salt and pepper. Add in the garam masala too at this time.

Heat oil in a pan and add the pieces one by one with skin side down. Sprinkle on the herbs and add garlic to the oil.

Cook over medium high heat. When the skin gets golden brown, turn over and repeat for a minute or 2. Now spread the pieces on a baking pan and bake for about 15 minutes or as needed. Remove from oven, drain on paper towels and get ready to eat the tenderest juiciest chicken ever. Perfect with yogurt and rice/vermicelly pulau. What makes it even easier is to do the frying part in an oven ready pan. Then we can just push the whole thing into the oven right after the frying step and baking time gets down to 8-10 minutes. Just great!

Waldorf Salad

2010-07-04T12:15:00.000-07:00

I first laid my tongue on a forkful of Waldorf Salad at the Cafeteria of my previous workplace. I know, not the best place to taste any cuisine the first time. But the Chef at that time was really good and there were many items that I liked for lunch. On days the Waldorf was offered if there was hot Panini to go with it they had a totally satisfied customer in me.

I guess it is common knowledge that Waldorf salad was developed by the maître d’ of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. I am glad it spread out of there. This saving grace for me among salads, has a special place in my tummy. The recipe has many variations and is easily available with an internet search. I'll just post what I did.

In The Mix
celery - 1 cup diced
granny smith apple - 1cored and diced
any red skinned apple - 1 cored and diced
mayonnaise - 3 tbsp or more
yogurt - 2 tbsp or more to sub for mayo (optional)
fresh squeezed lemon juice - 1 1/2 tbsp
salt - to taste
lettuce leaves - for decoration
seedless grapes - a bunch
raisins - a bunch to sub for fresh grapes (optional)

How To Do

Combine the diced apples with celery and toss with lemon juice. Mix grapes and raisins to this. Take the mayo in a separate bowl and merge all together. Add salt as needed. Serve on a bed of lettuce. Voila!

Stuffed/Baked Fish

2010-06-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

The baked fish is finally here and got some pics while it lasted. So enjoy! I used to make a decent fillet based baked fish some time back but for some reason or other it hasn't happened in a while. That is when we happened to sit through some food n/w shows involving baked fish in many ways. My husband decided it was time to take matters into his own hands and try out something. It was delicious from first go and we haven't stopped. Here is the recipe.

In The Mix

2 whole fish cleaned (we use striped sea bass. trout might be good too)

for the marinade
fish masala - enough to marinate the fish. (Shan seems to be a good brand for this)
vinegar - 4 tbsp or more as needed
salt - enough to taste
foil - to wrap the marinating fish

for the stuffing
turmeric - 1/4 tsp
kashmiri chili powder - 2 tsp
onion - 2 medium sized sliced
fish masala - 2 tsp
ginger - 1/4" piece
garlic - 4-5 crushed cloves
tomato - 1 diced
fresh squeezed lemon drops - optional, as needed
curry leaves - 2 sprigs
olive oil - 1 tbsp
salt to taste
olive oil - enough to lightly fry the whole fish

How To Do

Splice though the middle of the fish on one side of the bone making sure the tail end is closed. We just need an opening to put the stuffing in, not to be open wide. Score in horizontal lines on both sides as if for cutting large pieces. Marinate overnight in the fridge with the for the marinade ingredients. Wrap the fish in aluminum foil while doing this to haul in the flavors.

Preheat oven to 350F

Heat oil in a pan and start frying the marinated fish. 1 or 2 minutes on each side just to get the skin to hold in the juices while baking is enough. Set aside to drain.

Heat oil in another pan and add the onions. Saute for a short time and add in the turmeric, chili powders and fish masala. Combine all, add curry leaves and saute till onion browns lightly. Add salt at this time. Now add the ginger, garlic and tomato and saute till all are incorporated together for a good stuffing. We were out of tomatoes this time and so the fish in the pic is sans the tomato. It does make a difference in taste. Sprinkle in some fresh squeezed lemon drops to balance the taste as needed in this case.

Now cover and fill the fish with the prepared stuffing, Wrap in aluminum foil and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes first. Bake another 10 minutes while checking in between for doneness. No need to turn over. Once done, take out, wait for it to cool if you can and go for it with hot rice and yogurt, on top of a piece of artisan bread or as is. The aroma of fish baking in the oven is too tempting to resist!

Spaghetti and Sausage

2010-05-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

The baked fish is taking its time, so I thought I'd write up this favorite pasta recipe from my husband. As always it took a while to perfect and is now set for posterity. I don't care much for pasta but I am totally there for him when he makes this one. Simple and delicious, here it is:

In The Mix

thin spaghetti : 16 oz. (one pack)
water : enough to cook the spaghetti
salt to taste

to bake
sliced mushroom : 4 oz (1/2 cup)
red bell pepper : 1/2 julienned
green bell pepper : 1/2 julienned
zuchini : 2 sliced into thin circles with skin on
asparagus : 2 or 3 sticks. (cut into 2 to add the heads and slice the bottom half to add as optional)
red onion : 1/4 to 1/2 sliced
tomato : 1 diced into thin pieces (optional)
crushed garlic : 4-5 cloves
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil : 2 tbsp

to saute
hot sausage : 5 or 6 (we use hot italian sausage)
water : enough to cook the sausage
tomato : 1 diced to saute
spaghetti sauce : 3/4 of 32 oz. jar (we use Classico all natural triple mushroom sauce from Costco)
olive oil : 1/2 tbsp

How To Do

Preheat oven to 400F.

Boil water with salt, and add the spaghetti. Cover and cook for 10-12 minutes in boiling water. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.

Boil water and cook the sausage. Drain and slice into thin circles once cooled.

Cover a cookie sheet with foil and grease with half of the olive oil. Take all the properly cut 'to bake' ingredients and spread on the sheet. Now sprinkle/mix the salt, pepper and remaining olive oil on the veggie goodness. Bake for about 15 minutes. Take out, mix together and bunch up to combine the flavors well. Bake for 10-15 minutes more taking care not to burn any of the ingredients. Take out and set aside.

Heat oil in a pan and saute the tomato. Add the sausage and saute for 2-3 minutes. Now add the spaghetti sauce and simmer for 5-6 minutes. Add the roasted mixture. Don't over mix. Check for salt and add if needed. Pour over spaghetti in a plate and devour!

My husband has quite the green thumb when it comes to flowers. He takes after my brother! Really it is from his Dad:-) Enjoy this black beauty from our garden covered in rain drops.

Still Here..

2010-04-15T22:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't gone anywhere folks. Still pottering around! Hope Easter Holidays went well for those who observe it. Kitchen fires have been burning and yummy food devoured but mostly the good old trusted recipes. Visitors, work and Kid activities do not leave much time for blogging. The husband for his part has concocted a fantastic stuffed/baked fish inspired by a Food Network Show I think. It came out way better than my own baked fish for sure. I'll be posting this here as soon as we can get a decent pic. Till then here are a bunch of spring flowers from the backyard and some cupcakes I made for a fundraiser in my son's class.

Updated with Cupcake/Frosting Recipes on April 18, 2010
It looks like these are probably some recipes that my kids will want to look up later. I have made so many batches of cupcakes and frosting that I have lost count. I experimented with a bunch of recipes I found online and finally settled on the ones that appealed to all of us. So here they are with links as well as the actual recipes for easy reference:

You will need the following for cupcakes and frosting:

cupcake baking pan (available in target, grocery stores etc.)

cupcake liners (available in Michaels, grocery stores)

reusable piping bags with different tips for frosting (Found a nice set in a grocery store for $3.99)

sprinkles (Michaels, grocery stores)

always bring the butter called for in recipes to room temp before creaming.

if refrigerating the frosting, give a quick whip to bring it back to life for use.

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CUPCAKES
Vanilla Cupcakes from cupcakerecipes.com : The layout of this site is easy to follow and you feel like you can try things from it right away and will come out right. Well, it is true. The vanilla cupcakes came out just perfect every single time I made them!

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 egg whites from large eggs
2 large eggs
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
The first time I made ~ 12-15 cupcakes by halving all the measurements above. The full quantity makes about 25-26 cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line the pan with cupcake liners.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt with a whisk. Add shortening, milk and vanilla and combine together very well. Remember to scrape bowl always. I used the whisk for this step. Now beat in egg whites and the full eggs in two steps. Beat until fluffy and smooth. About 3 minutes did it for me.

Fill liners to a little less than 2/3 with the batter. Bake for about 19-20 minutes or until a fork inserted in the middle comes out clean.

I find that it is better for me to take out the cupcakes with liners from out of the pan within 2 minutes of coming out of the oven to prevent the cakes from sticking too close to the liners. Now let cool completely.
The cakes are ready for frosting!

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Chocolate Cupcakes from cupcakerecipes.com : I DID NOT make this cupcake but plan to soon and I have complete faith in the site that this will come out just fine too. So this is for future reference since this is what the kids would really love.

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup water
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla
4 oz melted unsweetened baking chocolate

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pan with liners.
Combine all ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
Mix at low speed for 30 secs and at high for 3 minutes after scraping bowl.
Fill liners to a little less than 2/3 with the batter. Bake for about 19-20 minutes or until a fork inserted in the middle comes out clean.

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Coffee Cupcake adapted from Martha Stewart's site : I didn't use the whiskey etc and the espresso powder was replaced with nescafe classic instant coffee powder I had at home. I am sure it will be even more tasty with espresso powder but this one came out wonderful and the kids too loved it! I also halved the recipe to get about 12-13 cupcakes.

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup boiling water
2 tbsp instant coffee/espresso powder
1/8 cup milk
1/2 stick (4tbsp) unsalted butter (room temp)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Pour the boiling water over coffee powder and stir well. Cool and combine with milk.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
Beat butter and the two sugars on medium speed until pale and fluffy. About 3 minutes.
Add the egg and beat well. For recipe using more than 1 egg, always beat in 1 at a time.
Beat in the flour mix in 3 steps alternating with the coffee mix, beginning and ending with flour.

Fill liners to a little less than 2/3 with the batter. Bake for about 19-20 minutes or until a fork inserted in the middle comes out clean.

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FROSTING
That ends the cupcake recipes from the web that worked out to our taste. Now for the frosting. The chocolate frosting is what took the most tries but the journey to get there was rather sweet:-)

Buttercream Icing from wilton.com : Easy to make and since Wilton is a major source for decorating supplies, it is only understandable that they have a very useful site. For decorating tips, start here and go from there..

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter (room temp) - the recipe for 1/2 cup butter & 1/2 cup shortening. I replaced
the shortening with butter for convenience.
1 tsp clear vanilla extract ( I used regular color. clea is used for pure white color I think)
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk

Directions
Cream the butter (and shortening if following the org recipe) with an electric mixer.
Add vanilla and slowly add sugar, 1 cup at a time beating well at medium speed for about less than 3 min.
Add milk and beat at medium speed until fluffy.

Frosting is ready. Will keep in a closed container in the refrigerator upto 2 weeks.

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Best Frosting Ever Had by missydew, a contributor to PW's Tastykitchen. This one is a little intriguing as it uses flour. I had my doubts too but for reasons I cannot fathom, found it a very satisfying frosting. It went very well with the coffee cupcakes. It feels light and fluffy on tasting and is a bonafide dessert.

Ingredients
1 cup milk
5 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) butter (room temp)
1 cup granulated sugar

Directions
In a pan, whisk the flour completely into the milk and cook at medium heat. Keep whisking so no lumps will form. Continue till the mixture really thickens. Remove from heat and let cool. Now add the vanilla and combine together.

Meanwhile cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. About 3 minutes will do the trick.
Beat in the flour mixture to a whipped cream consistancy. This is best spread with a table knife or thin spatula.

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Chocolate Frosting from cdkitchen.com: This frosting has the right sweetness and the right chocolaty taste and we loved it.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter (room temp)

4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup Cocoa powder (I used a heaped 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
extra milk as needed

Directions
Beat butter until fluffy. Slowly add 2 cups of the powdered sugar.
Beat in 1/4 cup milk and vanilla. Add in the Cocoa and the remaining powdered sugar.
Since the powders can fly when beating, I folded them together with a spatula first and then
did the beating.

More milk by the tsp can be added for the desired consistency. Time to decorate!

Goes well with vanilla cupcakes.

That brings us to the end of the dessert saga. I know I will come back to this compiled post many a time if the young customers at home really mean what they eat!

Madakku San / Coconut Filled Crepe

2010-03-02T21:52:00.000-08:00

This scrumptious snack dislodged itself from the memory shelf when I came across Malabar Spice's loveletters. We called it 'madakku san' and my husband knew them as 'mutta kuzhalappam'. At malluspice's I came to know they were called loveletters!

For a long time I didn't get a chance to try making them as life kept intervening with its usual pace for things essential. An opportunity finally presented itself when I thawed a bit more fresh frozen grated coconut than necessary for the batch of idiappams . While scratching the head for a recycling idea, it dawned on me that the already sweetened coconut could be used for one thing and only one thing. Those lovingly made folded crepes of my Mom's! The 'kuzhal' in the name familiar to my husband dictated that I should role them up as at mspice's. Did it both ways and as expected they ended up delicious regardless of how the fold was. BTW, Mrs. KMM called these 'madakkappam'.

In The Mix

all purpose flour - 1 cup
salt - a pinch or two
whole milk - 1 1/4 cup
water - 1/4 cup
egg - 1
vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp
grated coconut - 1 cup (or whatever is leftover after making idiappams:-)
sugar - start with 2 tbsp. (unfortunately I didn't keep track of this but add enough to feel the
crunch of sugar among the coconut flakes when you surreptitiously
spoon some into your mouth.)
lemon juice - 1 tsp (little less)
oil - as needed

How To Do

Mix the milk, water and salt with all purpose flour and whisk well. It is a good idea to use a colander to filter out any remaining lumps. Then add beaten egg and vanilla essence. Mom told us that her latest venture, a vanilla plot next to our old garden is flourishing and that she even found a buyer for the venerable beans! I was incredulous when she first told me of this. Whoever heard of vanilla beans in their backyard? Don't they just appear in those expensive little bottles on the store shelves? Apparently not. Ask the people of Madagascar or Mexico. Granted most of the time they come from synthetic sources but whole natural bean extracts are equally popular albeit expensive.

Coming back to the recipe, mix the coconut, sugar and lemon juice together. Lemon juice is Mrs. KMM's idea as I don't remember Mom doing this. I would add a little less than 1 tsp for next time.

Heat a flat frying pan and brush with oil. Keep at medium heat just at first and then switch to low heat all the time since the crepe batter is rather flimsy and low heat will keep the spread under your control. Well sort of .... I had a tough time to get them into shape but since you can fold or roll them, the aesthetics are easily taken care of. Guess you can experiment a little with the batter consistency (only add warm milk) to get the perfect shape at one go. Pour the batter and stay where you are to transfer it to a paper lined platter as soon as the underside shows a familiar browning. Now comes the fun part.

Place a spoonful or as much as you want of the coconut mix right at the center like for a masala dosa and fold from both sides to get 'madakku san' as shown on the left side here.

Of course it is not fun to brush up just your own memories. Place the sweetened coconut on one end and roll away to get 'mutta kuzhalappam' as the husband remembers them. These 'loveletters' appear on the right side in the pciture. So here we are, enjoying a great snack because of idiappams! Who would've thought?

Royal Eggplants from Paytpooja

2010-02-06T10:40:00.000-08:00

While I was sitting there reading and drooling over Paytpooja's Stuffed Eggplants & Potatoes I didn't think I could ever make this complicated dish. That too a vegetable! But all that is water under the bridge. Now I just love those veggies. Slowing metabolism spawns wisdom:-) I happen to have a soft corner for eggplants which was not a regular item at our home. The thing with eggplant is you either like it or you hate it. There seems to be no middle ground.

Hope Geets will not mind me renaming them the Royal Eggplants because that is what they are. Like it says in her post, a dish fit for Kings! My eggplant hater of a husband couldn't remember hating them ever after the first delicious morsel was in...

I took few more shortcuts and the outcome was still fantastic. Reduced the masala ingredients to fasten the process as it was my first time. Got enough to make it twice! Hope I got the right proportions. I also combined masala 2 into the main ingredients list so the storable masala is separate. I am reproducing Geeta's recipe here with the small adaptations I did for convenience:

In The Mix

japanese eggplants - 6 (washed & dried)
red potatoes - 6 ( i love these. peeled regular potatoes are equally good too as tried that too)
red onion - 1 meduim sized
fresh grated coconut - 2 tbsp
chili powder - 1/2 tbsp or less ( change according to your heat tolerance)
garlic cloves - 6 or 7 peeled and crushed
salt to taste
olive oil - enough to fry

for masala - recipe needs >1 tbsp

mustard seed - 1 tbsp
whole cumin - 1 tbsp
split urad dal - 3 tsp
channa dal - 3 tsp
toor dal - 2 tsp
whole methi - 1/4 tsp or less
whole black pepper - 2 tsp
whole coriander seeds - 1/2 tsp (didn't use it since i didn't ave it at home)

How To Do

to make masala
Recipe calls to fry each separately. Being a little lazy and having clamoring kids around, I took a flat frying pan and fried the dals and cumin in separate clusters at the same time. Small quantities made this possible. Microwaved mustard, cumin and methi which is a great tip.First 10 seconds and then maybe 5 more taking care not to burn at any stage. Let everything cool.. Again small quantities helped me to grind it all together in our pepper mill.. Only a little more than 1 tbsp is needed for the recipe. Store the rest in an airtight bag/container. I had enough to make it twice. Once you have the masala, the second time is a breeze. Next time I will make more following the recipe measurements.

Preheat oven to 450F. This is the broil setting in my oven. Place the onion on a foil on the top shelf for 30 to 40 minutes. While onion is in the oven you can make the above masala if it is not already done. Roast the grated coconut till golden brown. Take the onion out at the end of designated time and peel off the black layers. Place the onion in a grinder along with the coconut. and grind to a smooth paste. Add about 1 tbsp of the prepared dry masala, chili powder and salt. Blend well.

Slit the eggplant with a sharp knife from the nose to the stalk taking care to keep shy off about 1" from the stalk so the slit pieces can be held together there. Now generously spread the masala onto each layer of the eggplants making sure to keep all layers together in shape. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F ( Open the door to bring down the temp from previous broiling step if necessary)

Time to tend to the potatoes. Cut in halves if using red potatoes. Peel and cut into 2-3 pieces if using regular potatoes. Heat oil in a pan and fry the potatoes on both sides till golden brown. Fry red potatoes cut side first. A few minutes on each side will do the trick. Take out, drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt on both sides when hot . Potatoes will complete cooking in the oven so no need to over fry. Covering up the potatoes with any remaining masala makes it tastier as the recipe suggests. I leave some masala free for my girl who loves potatoes.

Remove some of the \oil if necessary and place the eggplants into the pan one or two at a time depending on the space. Spread out the slit layers and fry onl all sides. Drain on paper towels.

Add the crushed garlic cloves to the oil for a few minutes and take out when soft.

Place the eggplants and potatoes in one or two baking dishes or cookie sheets lined with foil. Sprinkle with garlic cloves and bake for about 30 minutes. Wait! Hold your breath please. Out comes the most spenldid veggie dish I have seen in my entire life!!! Thanks paytpooja for this awesome recipe!

Potatoes will not keep for long but the eggplants can be frozen according to paytpooja. I have yet to do this because the egplants and potatoes vanish in no time. Perfect with hot rice or the breads.

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

2010-01-30T22:14:00.000-08:00

No more baking posts. I promise! This is the laaaaaast.... I had always turned away from cookies in general, especially sugar cookies when presented on the usual platter of snacks. I don't have a sweet tooth. Honestly. Then why oh why did I go and make these? One word. Kids! Yup, they were day dreaming as well as night dreaming about frosted cookies ever since Christmas came around. Since I haven't done cut-out cookies at all, I wasn't sure what or where to start. With work and some holiday activities going on I simply couldn't get to these until later.

Decided on this recipe from how2heroes mainly because of the video demo for both sugar cookies and royal icing. Denise's instructions are clear and filled with useful tips. Both kids diligently watched with me and on their own and were a big part in the process. If you remember those superbly made Christmas Cakes from Casino in Cochin with the yummiest icing (yes, even for my non-sweet tooth!) then you will know why I wanted hard (royal) icing. This one came out fine but nowhere close to that icing/cake combo. Maybe it was the combo of fruitcake/icing that made the taste so great. Wait a minute! I think I will check this out next time I make fruit cake.

I am repeating the recipe here for easy reference. I hope the video will stay forever as that helped the most.

For Sugar Cookies

In The Mix

unsalted butter - 24 tbsp (3 sticks brought to room temp)
ranulated sugar 1 1/3 cup
kosher salt - 2 tsp
egg yolks - from 3 eggs
pure vanilla extract - 2 tbsp
all purpose flour - 3 3/4 cups (I sift this)
parchment paper or silpat - to line cookie sheets

How To Do

Beat the butter and sugar until the color changes to a lighter shade and fluffy. I used a hand mixer but an electric stand mixer is bothering me in my dreams ever since I saw how much easier it is to use it. But the sheer idleness it will face once the cookie making is over prevents me from getting my hands on one. We'll see how long I can hold off:-) Add kosher salt and vanilla extract. Beat in the egg yolks one by one. Beat till well combined. Add in the flour in small quantities and beat till fully incorporated. Denise cautions that beating too much will move the cookie texture to that of short bread.

I loved the idea of using plastic wrap to spread the dough. So I made it in two batches as the recipe suggests. Just place the dough b/n two sheets of the wrap and roll away into a consistent thickness. This dough is totally flexible and my inexperienced hands found it to be an easy task. Repeat with the second part. Now keep the sheets in the refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour. This is to make the cookie cutting easier. The dough will obey the cutter and handling in general better when not too soft. I made the cookies the next day. Need to take it out a good 15 minutes before you start to cut so the dough will yield properly.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Remove the top plastic sheet, use cutters and other tools and have fun making all kinds of shapes like we did!

Line cookies sheets with parchment paper and place cut out cookies with a spatula about 1/2 inches apart. Cook for 12-15 minutes. I swapped the racks as well as turned the sheets around 8 minutes into the baking for even baking as suggested. Take out and cool on a rack before icing.

For Royal Icing
Denise gives a video demo for the icing too. We didn't prefer the tartness of the icing from the lemon so for the second batch I didn't use lemon but and substituted with water instead. I also added almond extract the second time which came out good too. Used meringue powder (egg white mix) instead of fresh eggs.When she tasted it before the icing hardened, my daughter said it tasted like sweet tart. Once it hardened the tartness blended in and couldn't be detected as overpowering but kids still preferred not adding the lime. I made the icing each time but there was enough left over from the first time and so just making the icing once and using economically might last it for the two sets of cookie dough.

In The Mix
confectioner's sugar - 1 lbs
meringue powder - 1/4 cup (Michael's has it)
water - start with 7 tbsp
vanilla or almond extract - 3 tsp
food coloring
parchment paper - to make piping cones

How To Do

Beat the sugar and meringue powder at low speed first for a minute or two. Add in water and vanilla extract and beat together. Add more water 1 tbsp at a time till the right consistency is achieved. Being able to make a figure of 8 as the video shows and seeing it well before it melts back into the mix is the right indicator. Divide into as many colors you want to do. Add a few drops of the food coloring and combine. Remember to keep aside some as is for white coloring.

We had a few colors and so I made as many cones as I needs with the parchment paper. Fold the paper from one end till it meets diagonally to make a triangle. Cut off the sheet and cut the diagonal. Fold together into a cone with the diagonal side forming the tip of the cone. Taping the cone and standing it in a glass for easy pouring are all wonderful/quite useful tips. Thanks Denise!

Cut off the end if needed and start the artwork. This is the bestest part of the entire thing!!! Total unadulterated fun since elementary school days:-)) Cookies were cut in many imaginable shapes and were colored as it pleased us.

Will I repeat this exercise? But of course! Remember the adage, "It is the participation that counts"? No, I am not talking about when India comes up with zeroes or close in the Olympic Gold tallies but about real applicable situations:-) Well, this was one such situation. Once the cookies were done and the colorful icing was prepared and coned even the reluctant Dad jumped into the fray.

I told you we went to town with the icing and shapes. Didn't I?

Frosted cookies were left overnight for the icing to harden and while I won't advice the sweet fest for the health conscious or the slow metabolism crowd, the young citizens were happily devouring one crazy design after another. Enough said!

Melting Moments from spicyana/joyofbaking

2010-01-15T23:43:00.000-08:00

Exactly to the day today, it's been two years since I started my food and book blogs. These are important spaces for me and I am glad that they still give me something fun and meaningful to do when I have the urge.

Reflections has given me the sweet blog award. The little ice cream cake with a mint on top is mine. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate this anniversary. Thanks Nancy! She is not just sweet but also very witty and intuitive and deserved it best.

I had wanted to try making coffee cookies. Had a recipe and ingredients all set to go. Unfortunately they didn't come out well most likely because of the coffee powder (not instant) I used. Next time I'll try dissolving instant coffee granules in hot water before adding.

Since that experiment went south I started on this with some trepidation. spicyana is an awesome baker and always has easy to follow instructions. The recipe from joyofbaking looked good and here I am with yet another attempt at making cookies. Luckily for me this time it turned out well and these melt in the mouth cookies are keepers. It didn't go well with the kids though and as good parents we did our duty by finishing it for them!

In The Mix
all purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
corn starch (corn flour in UK) - 1/2 cup
salt - 1/4 tsp
powdered sugar - 1/4 cup
unsalted butter - 1 cup (bring to room temp )
pure vanilla extract - 1 tsp

powdered sugar for sifting/placing - 1 cup
you will need parchment paper to bake the cookies in.

How To Do

Whisk together corn starch, flour and salt and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (2 minutes) Add vanilla extract and beat together. Add the flour mix in small amounts while beating. Beat till all blends well. Do not over beat. The corn starch is apparently what makes these guys melt in the mouth by making the dough lighter. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Line three cookie sheets with parchment paper. Take dough out from the fridge and form 1 inch balls. Place these 1 inch apart on 2 of the cookie sheets. 12-14 minutes of baking will do just as the recipe says when cookie edges start to brown. Cool for a few minutes on a rack. Sprinkle half of the powdered sugar onto the remaining cookie sheet and place the cookies on it. Now comes the fun part! Sift the remaining sugar powder on top of the cookies and voila! You have picture perfect cookies calling out your names:-) If little ones made tiny cookies, those will come out fine too. 6-8 minutes might be enough for those.

To be honest, when I tried it right after baking, I didn't think it melted anywhere. But the story changed next day when I tried the tempting rounds again. Not only did it melt in the mouth but once you take up one, your hands keep reaching for more rather involuntarily!!

Out Of The World Ribs

2010-01-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

Hope the year so far is going well for everyone.

We had the usual cold/cough/fever cycles but it was not too bad. We weathered it with a quick trip to Disneyland, one to the theater for The Princess And The Frog and watching Iron Chef episodes galore at home. Santa's visit was a success as expected and now we are all back on the hamster wheel.

Today's recipe is not of the ribs that came from Adam for Eve, but the pork rib appetizers that my husband prepares occasionally. They can pass for dinner when accompanied by rolls or artisan bread or any other carb of your choice. H has developed a surefire method that yields the same delicious results every time. So please follow the steps exactly even if it is not that exact or else....

Kids and adults love this alike and each time we make this for a party they vanish in seconds. So he makes it just for us once in a while.

In The Mix

pork baby back ribs - 2 lbs (mostly from Costco)
Bull's Eye BBQ Sauce Original - as needed to coverall the meat (we love this particular brand)
freshly ground black pepper - to taste (start with 1 tbsp)
salt - to taste

How To Do

Cover meat with pepper and salt and marinate in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
Now take out the meat, spread BBQ sauce, cover in an aluminum foil and marinate for 4 hours cold.
Take out and add more sauce, cover and marinate cold overnight.
Optionally put the whole thing in a sealable food grade bag to get better results. It tastes great even if you don't do this part.

Preheat oven to 350C.

Fill a medium oven safe pan with water and place all the way at the bottom of the oven.
Place marinated ribs on regular cooling racks and keep on top rack of the oven.
Place cookie sheets covered with aluminum foil under the rib racks to catch drips if any.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or till cooked.

Take out and let cool for 5 minutes. Slice gently following the rib lines and bite into tender juicy meat for hours of satisfaction! Ketchup is an easy dip for this.Finger lick cleaning is allowed during a satisfying session:-)

Cake In A Jar - Bacardi Rum Cake

2009-12-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays & A Wonderful Year Ahead Everyone!

This is the last on jar cakes. I promise!

It came about because I also wanted a cake with easier ingredients to make in bulk and guess what turned up in the search? Bacardi Rum Cake! So that was the second cake that went into my jars. This site also has many helpful baking tips. I changed the glaze from the original recipe a little as it was too heavy for us.

Apparently this is a very popular cake and came out in an Ad for Bacardi Rum in the late 1970's. From the reviews it looks like different versions can be made by adding to the recipe or changing the type of the rum used. But for this classic cake, use only the dark/gold rum. It looks best when made in the classic bundt shape as shown in the ref picture. I didn't add chopped pecans for the jar version. Hope to make the bundt version with the chopped nuts for one of our gatherings provided there is time. It is a good looking cake I think.

In The Mix

pint sized canning jars/lids - 6 (used wide mouthed for this cake)
shortening - 2 tbsp or melted as needed

classic yellow cake mix - 1 box (18.5 oz)
jell-o vanilla cook & serve - 1.5 oz (only used half of the 3 oz. package)
eggs - 4
water - 1/2 cup (did not use the cold milk)
vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
bacardi gold/dark rum - 1/2 cup

for the glaze
butter - 1/4 cup (4 tbsp)
water - 1/2 cup
sugar - 2/3 cup
fresh orange juice - 1/2 cup (pulp removed)
bacardi gold/dark rum - 1/4 cup

How To Do
Follow steps as before for the jars.
Sterilize by boiling in water for about 15 minutes. Take out only the jars and let dry.
Spread melted shortening to cover all the inside areas making sure to leave the lip clean.
Keep the lids in the warm water till you are ready to put them onto the jars.

Preheat oven to 325C.

Beat together the cake mix, jell-o vanilla, eggs, water, oil and rum on high for 2 minutes. The batter is ready!
Pour batter to a little less than half of the jar. Place on a cookie sheet to balance the jars and keep in the oven. Bake for 45-48 minutes.

While the jars are baking, prepare the glaze.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add water, sugar, orange juice and stir till all the sugar is melted. Boil for 5 minutes while stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add the rum. The rum could cause steam to rush out so be a tad careful here. Let sit while waiting.

Insert a skewer in the center of the jar to see if done. Turn off the oven, but keep the jars inside.

As before, take out the lids and screw tops and keep on a plate. No need for this to dry out.

Take the jars out one at a time from the oven, gently insert a skewer to make deep holes and pour 2-3 tbsp or more of the glaze into each jar. Place the lid onto the jar and screw on with reasonable tightness. Set aside for the jars to self seal. The heat and moisture will help with the sealing process. When the jars are completely cooled, press the center of the lids. If they don't move up or down, they are vacuum sealed. You will most likely hear a gentle popping sound when this happens. If they move up and down then there is no seal and use as you would a regular cake. Once completely cooled, decorate as you please. See previous post for ideas.

The original glaze when I made it was really rich and we felt the rum content was too much for us. The glaze we used was lighter and more pleasing to us. I think the gentlemen in the family will prefer this cake and the ladies will prefer the one in the previous post. I plan to make a yellow cake mix from scratch when I try to tackle this another time. The cake apparently stores well whether sealed or not. But for the jar version, it is safer to make sure that they are sealed.

When you are ready to eat, open the lids and slide out the cake and cut into circles or just spoon out of the jars or make long cuts using a knife and slide out the pieces to enjoy!

Here is the lowdown on jar cakes compiled from the many sites and from trying out:

* buy 1 pint sized jars. these can be wide mouthed or not. the wide mouthed ones are easier to slide out of but the other looks better.

* only use shortening to grease the jars prior to baking

* any quick bread type of recipe (recipes with baking powder) can be baked in the shortest time and the baking time is similar to that of the actual recipe.

* a regular cake recipe will take longer with the jar baking time about 15 min less than the actual baking time.

*quick bread types can be filled up to half or slightly more of the jar as they will not rise out of the jar too much at that level.

* regular cake recipes should be filled less than half of the jar to avoid overflow

* even if the cake overflows, it can be pushed back into the jar while closing the lid but this is not much fun to do.

* for each recipe you try, it is good to make one jar at first to get an idea of the amount of batter needed and the baking time.

* they are all time great gifts with a home made touch for friends, family, teachers, work.. you name it.

* it may sound like a lot to do but once you make the jars in a cake a first time, it will not feel so and there is no parallel to it for a personalized gift

Cake In A Jar - Yogurt And Brown Sugar Cake from Cannelle et Vanille

2009-12-20T23:01:00.000-08:00

The Manger is up and lighted.

So is the tree with the ornaments.

Even the ginger bread house is made and devoured!

The dangling roof lights from last year were never taken out and so turning those on was easy as usual:-) Hey, you do what you can to make life easier.

Now it is time to bake some gifts and goodies, mainly the cake. Unfortunately having a crazy time at work with projects moving at the speed of light does not conduce to relaxed planning at home for the holidays. Instead you develop brain fatigue at the prospect of working through the holidays leading to inertia and apathy. OK it is not that bad only pretty close. Luckily squeals of laughter from the little ones jumping in joy at the thought of the upcoming holidays (already here) and of getting gifts from Santa and everyone else can just perk you up. Why the activities can even help to relax and restart the overworked brain! Since the fruits were not bought they didn't get macerated and the fruit cake simply cannot be made this year. That is when I remembered the cakes in a jar that we had sent out as gifts to family in the early years of our marriage. They were apparently a success unless the recipients were being polite out of love:-).

Those were the early years of food blogging. Google had not made its appearance, yet the truly initiated were already making their mark on the net. When my search for Christmas gifts yielded these pages (I am so glad I was able to find them intact again now, years later!) I was energized. Had a hard time finding the canning jars (also called mason jars) then but now I see them everywhere. In grocery stores as well as in Target. I made brownies and banana nut bread then but wanted to try something different and more Christmassy this time.

Yogurt And Brown Sugar Sponge Cake from cannelle et vanille

When one of my colleagues came back from a trip to France, we were all given the delightful French Macarons. Now, they are not the thick heavy macaroons that we are used to but melt in your mouth angelic textured pieces of sheer delight! cannelle et vanille was brought to my attention by the colleague as a good site for homemade french macarons with detailed instructions. The recipe index at the home page makes it very easy to navigate. The pictures are so awesome that I couldn't take my eyes off of the site for the longest time. I hope I will get to make those macarons some day (I hear Starbucks sells some in their stores) but didn't want to try this for the Christmas baking. The name of this recipe is what caught me and the 'yogurt and brown sugar cake' sans the ice cream from there is what I made as it sounded yummy and doable. I just had to get muscavado sugar from amazon. Other than that I had all the ingredients. So made them in the jars and they were delicious and light as hoped.

In The Mix
pint sized canning jars/lids - 5 (used narrow mouthed for this cake)
shortening - 2 tbsp or as needed
check here for gram conversion

butter - 170 grams/11.942 tbsp ( keep at room temp for some time before making the batter)
brown sugar - 150 grams/10.537 tbsp (to soften this, keep covered with a wet paper towel for a while)
granulated white sugar - 85 grams/5.971 tbsp
muscavado sugar - 50 grams / 3.512 tbsp
vanilla extract - 1 tsp
eggs - 2
yogurt - 180 grams/12.645 tbsp
all purpose flour - 180 grams/12.645 tbsp
baking powder - 4 grams/0.843 tsp
zest from 1 lemon

How To Do

Sterilize the jars and lids by boiling in water for about 15 minutes.
Take out the jars and let dry.

Spread melted shortening to cover the insides making sure to keep the lip clean.
Keep the lids in the warm water till you are ready to put them onto the jars.

Preheat oven to 350C.

Beat the butter, brown sugar, white sugar and muscavado sugar together for about 2 minutes. If you find that the muscavado sugar does not completely get broken, this is just fine and even desired. Makes for a crunchy bite in the cake as the site suggests. Add lemon zest and vanilla extract and mix well together. Add the eggs one at a time and then add the yogurt. Time to add the flour and baking powder. Both can be sifted together for a good mix.

Checkout my new digital scale. I had bought this for my HMom before she left last year and meant to get one for myself based on all the awesome reviews. Got it at last and it is all that and more. Love it.

Pour the batter to a little over half of the jars. Place on a cookie sheet to balance the jars and keep in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Insert a skewer in the center to see if done. Turn off the oven, but keep the jars inside.

Now that the jars are ready, take out the lids and screw tops and keep on a plate. No need for this to dry out. Take the jars out one at a time from the oven, place the lid onto the jar and screw on with reasonable tightness. Set aside for the jars to self seal. The heat and moisture will help with the sealing process. When the jars are completely cooled, press the center of the lids. If they don't move up or down, they are vacuum sealed. You will most likely hear a gentle popping sound when this happens. If the lid moves up and down, then there is no seal and just use as you would a regular cake. The sealed cakes are perfect for mailing and have been known to keep fresh and moist for up to 6 months when stored in a cool, dark place. They never last this long anyway so I have not experienced the longevity personally. Can vouch for 3-4 weeks for sure.

Once cooled, decorate to your heart's content. You can make little notes and thread on a ribbon tied to the jar. Little pieces of fabric cut as 10" squares or circles will add to the festive look. This time we printed out little index cards and punched holes on them to thread. We had greetings from the 4 of us as well as a link to the original recipe site and the name of the cake on it. Lovingly homemade yet with a nice professional touch I'd say. If that is too much, just put a little circular festive label on the top with the cake's name handwritten on it. We tasted some ourselves a few days later and the cake stayed as fresh and moist as the day it was made!

For these type of narrow jars, use a knife to slice inside and slide out the pieces.

Apple Car....t A Fun Kitchen Activity With Kids

2009-12-18T23:30:00.000-08:00

"Mom, Mom I want you to do the cutting." says my girl. She's been at it from the morning. I wave her away impatiently. "Later Molu, Mommy is busy". She is persistent yet yielding so Mom gets away without cutting anything. Later, when the two of us were all dressed to go out but waiting so we can open the door for the cleaning service, I could still see the unspoken request in her face. I give up and say, "Now is the time to do this cutting. Where and what do you want me to cut?" Little did I know that this oh so patient requester had a very specific task at heart and knew exactly how to go about it!! The above picture is the result of our few minutes together in the kitchen. A lovely fruit snack that she observed in their baking class by volunteering Moms.

To make it, I was assigned to peel and cut carrots. Not to be cut long but as discs K? We don't have pear? No problem. Let us use those apples sitting in the fruit bowl. Now we need some cream cheese and with some colorful fruit loop cereal pieces we are all set. I still had no clue what it is all about. So I went about focused on following the deftly thrown instructions from up there on the high stool.

Finally the apples were cut as specified and we glued the carrot discs to each side with cream cheese. Then it dawned on me that we are trying to make a fruit car here. Call me clueless, though I prefer guileless:-) Now I am totally on board and dutifully pasted on the carrots as well as the fruit loops. Let me put it into a recipe format here.

In The Mix

apple or pear - 1
carrots - 1
cream cheese - 2 tbsp or as needed
fruit loops or cheerios - 8 - 12 (fruit loops add color)
whipped cream - (optional)

How To Do

Most of it is as mentioned above. Cut 2 slices from the apple as seen in the picture. Dice the carrots into tire shapes. Glue 2 of these on to each side of the apple pieces. Glue the fruit loops over the carrots. If you glued some of those fruit loops to the top it will look like this.

Or try whipped cream AND fruit loop!

When we took that first bite of this quick snack I was taken aback to find it crunchy and tasty! I know, I know. It is all the cream cheese. Yet all the additions went very well together! This is so simple, many of you probably are in on this but I am glad that my little one got me to see the possibilities by keeping after me. She made another set just for Dada & bro since they had gone out earlier.

Thanksgiving - Cranberry Sauce

2009-12-05T08:12:00.000-08:00

When it first dawned on me that cranberry sauce is one of the sides on the Thanksgiving table and that I would need to see to it, I wasn't very enthusiastic. Especially after visualizing that store bought can of cranberry sauce. Finally we picked up a good looking fresh sauce at Trader Joe's and that was that.

When I invited one of our relatives - a distant cousin - staying nearby for the Thanksgiving dinner, she generously offered to make the cranberry sauce. Didn't give it much thought as it was sort of taken care of by then and didn't want her to dwell more on this unfamiliar sauce. As luck would have it, my eyes fell on a fresh bag of cranberries while shopping and I picked it up just in case.

Well, the turkey was done and while the mashed potatoes were heating up and the gravy was cooking I decided to bring out the sauce. At the mention of cranberry our cousin's eyes lit up and she again offered to make the dish. When I said that I have some fresh cranberries, her enthusiasm knew no bounds. Gave her complete freedom and she was busy looking for things. I heard pan, sugar, water etc and the next thing I know there she is, standing next to a shimmering mix of dark pink on the stove. One of the kids had tagged on as a temporary associate. My daughter is a constant companion in all cooking activities but this time it was my son. The color was irresistible and in the white dish it literally sparkled! Only when I tasted it along with the turkey and all the sides that I understood its purpose. The tangy taste is a perfect accompaniment with all the food. And very easy to make.

I asked for the recipe which she generously recited. It is reproduced here.

In The Mix

Fresh cranberries - 1 bag ( 12 oz.)
water - 1 cup
sugar - a little less than 1 cup
orange peel - 1 tbsp or less.
cardamom - optional

How To Do

Wash the cranberries and remove remaining stems etc. Dissolve sugar with water in a sauce pan and start heating. Add the cranberries and boil. After a while the cranberries will start popping. This is a contained activity so no worries there. Stir once in a while and add more sugar if preferred. Can cover and cook or leave it uncovered which is what she did.

Remove from heat, cool to room temp and refrigerate if time permits. We were a little rushed and so I cooled it down by holding afloat in a larger bowl full of water and stirring. The first spoonful made all of us say aha!. A permanent addition to our Thanksgiving table has been born. She apparently makes it all the time for her mom who loves to snack on it, Thanksgiving or not!

We tasted the Trader Joe version afterward and as the cousin had stated, it is a good substitute if you are pressed for time.

Missing Dessert

Didn't make any dessert this time and we had ice cream and an Indian sweet. Made this pound cake from a Box next day to compensate:-).

When we were having leftovers the next day - 'leftover feast' according to my girl - I realized I didn't make fresh dinner rolls like I had wanted to. The guests didn't seem to mind. It was great fun planning the dinner together with my husband and pulling it off -thanks mainly to word wide web resources - with fairly minor mishaps. Our thanks to all resources. I hope to repeat this in the coming years and add new sides that we discover....

It gives a good feeling to have finished off the TG dinner chronicling while it is still fresh in our memories. I can hear my girl waking up. Time to press the post button. Holiday season is always one of joy and I wish all my readers a wonderful time ahead.

Thanksgiving - Corn Bread

2009-12-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

Corn Bread is a favorite of yours truly and it was with pleasure that I started the process. An arduous process that included a trip to the store, buying a box with instructions and following it. Seriously, it turned out to be a little longer than I intended simply because I didn't follow the last step of adding only two cups instead of the entire bag of corn bread mix. I should have known this would be the case because it was a different brand and I wasn't familiar with "the" ways. Mixing it thoroughly like for appam batter also probably didn't help:-)

Sooooo, the next time around I brought home with me two familiar brands. The always dependable - our sole pound cake source - Betty Crocker and that worthy maker of delicious pies, Marie Callender's. Betty Crocker had good instructions and Marie Callender just needed to add water. The key in both cases was to contain the number of strokes while combining the mix with the liquid. Too much and the resulting bread will be flat.

Verdict: Betty Crocker's looked and tasted like the traditional version and are shown sliced inside the glass pan in the pic above. Marie Callendar's was more moist, ate like a cake and is in the first pic as well as the at the end. Both were good but I guess for corn bread it will be MC from now on.

For leftover cornbread:
If you like 'avalose podi' a Kerala snack (made of fried powdered rice/coconut) with honey, then trains cannot stop you from enjoying cornbread with a generous drizzle of pure golden honey. But then, what can you expect from a honey lover?

Last Up : Cranberry Sauce and the Missing Dessert

Thanksgiving - Mashed Potatoes

2009-12-03T20:07:00.000-08:00

I had always loved mashed potatoes. From Boston Market and KFC, I mean. Never knew how to make them although I have mashed quite a few for our regular dishes. This mashing seemed different. And so it was! It also has turned from a healthy side selection to a guilty pleasure once I found out the ingredients.

The recipe came straight from pioneerwoman and I would like to reproduce it here for reference and notes. Thanks PW for this delicious recipe!

In The Mix
potatoes - 5 lbs (Use only Russet or Yukon Gold for the fluffy texture. I used Russet)
butter - 3/4 cup (keep at room temp)
cream cheese - 8 oz. (1 package, keep at room temp)
half and half milk - 1/2 cup
seasoned salt - 1/2 tsp
freshly ground black pepper - 1/2 tsp or more
regular salt - 1/2 tsp
fresh chives - 1 tbsp minced

How To Do
Peel and halve potatoes before cooking. I always cooked potatoes with skin on. So it was liberating and easy to do this. No messy stuff remaining while trying to peel hot potatoes! Boil water in a large pot and add potatoes. Cook for about 35 minutes while boiling. I covered with a lid just for the last 5-10 minutes. Make sure the potatoes don't fall apart but are pretty close to it.

Drain the cooked potatoes and put back into the same pot. Mash over low heat. This step from PW is just great as it helps to make the mashed potatoes not too ....mushy. Do this for about 6-8 minutes. Occasionally getting distracted with other things is allowed.

Turn off the stove but keep the pot there depending on your moisture confidence. Add 1 1/2 sticks of butter, the cream cheese and milk (1/2 & 1/2) and mash well to mix through. Now add the seasoned salt and ground pepper. I kept adding more black pepper since the husband favors pepper. Then I added 1/2 tsp of regular salt and that was the end of the salty road for us.

Mix all together and keep in a baking dish. I made it the previous day as suggested and this helped a lot with the time. Sprinkle in some herbs and serve hot or cover with foil in the refrigerator to heat up the next day.

The next day right after the Turk came out I lowered the temp to 350C and baked the potatoes covered for about 45 minutes. Had kept at room temp for about 3-4 hours before that. Sprinkle chives on top and use a new foil to cover before baking. Add 2-3 slices of butter spread along the top to complete the experience. The potatoes were so unbelievably fluffy when mashed that both us found it hard to keep our hands off of it. The reheated version was good but next time I'll serve it fresh made which just melts in your mouth!

Coming Up: Corn Bread

Thanksgiving - The Stuffing

2009-11-30T19:09:00.000-08:00

Traditionally, stuffing used to be stuffed inside the Roasting Turk. Lately it is baked apart from the poultry and me thinks this is a good change. AB of course has specific reasons not to put the stuffing inside. Read here for further enlightenment. We were planning on having it baked separate anyway and this went well with our humble plans. I liked many stuffing ideas but the one that appealed most was found on a Williams-Sonoma leaflet/holiday guide that my husband picked up when he went there to get the brining bag. It is named sausage, chestnut and mushroom dressing in the leaflet.

I didn't use the brandname La Brea stuffing which the recipe was centered around and just used a regular bag. Also made variations based on availability and personal taste. Let me tell you... it came out splendid! The accurate and organized timings/steps in the recipe helped big time in the crazy rush to finish dishes on time without burning things.

In The Mix

butter - 4 tbsp
hot Italian sausage - 1 lbs (casings removed)
regular white mushrooms - 7 oz. (half of a regular packaged box)
stuffing - 1 lbs (any herbalized or regular mixed croutons package will do)
low sodium free range chicken stock/broth - ~750ml (warmed)
cooked turkey giblets - from 1 turkey bag (minced, not in org recipe)

garlic cloves - 3 (crushed and minced)
yellow onions - 2 diced
celery - 4-5 sticks diced (org recipe used a fennel bulb instead)
fresh Italian parsley - 1 tbsp minced
fresh thyme - 1 tsp minced
fresh sage - 1 tsp minced
fresh rosemary - 1 tsp minced (not in org recipe)
kosher salt - 2 tsp
freshly ground pepper - to taste
dry sherry - 1/4 cup

chestnuts - 1/2 cup (roasted, peeled and halved)
fresh curly parsley - 1 tbsp minced (not in org recipe)

How To Do

Preheat oven first to 425C to roast the chestnuts.

Grease a baking pan with 1 tbsp of the butter.

Rinse and slice the mushrooms to include the stem at the center.

Cook the Italian sausage in a pan over medium heat. Remove lumps by stirring well. Set this aside once fully cooked. About 7 minutes.

Melt remaining butter in the same pan. Mix onions, celery and Italian parsley together and saute well. Do not brown the onion mix. 10-12 minutes seem about right. Now add the garlic, mushrooms, thyme, sage, rosemary, salt, pepper and cook again for about 12 minutes. I did all the cooking uncovered.

Add the sherry and mix gently. Set aside.

to roast chestnuts

Use a sharp knife and make X's on the flat side. This allows steam to escape while in the oven and keep from exploding. Arrange chestnuts with flat side up in a cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 min. Cover with foil once out of the oven to keep them warm in case you get distracted with other stuff. This also gives time to cool down a bit before you can start peeling. It will be difficult to peel if you wait too long so get to it as soon as you can. Peel them off and cut in halves. It is completely okay if at anytime here you feel like a song is coming because that is exactly what happened to my husband when he saw the chestnuts roasting on an open fire, er... in the oven :-)

Looks like salted mango pickle 'uppumanga' from Kerala. But looks ARE deceiving. Chestnuts taste more like any steamed dense carbs. I picked them up at the local grocery store and rumor has it that they are readily available in any Asian grocery store. Roasted, peeled version that is. But then, be forewarned that no songs will be forthcoming with that option:-)

Change the oven temp to 375C.

In a large bowl, combine the cooked sausage, prepared mushroom mix, chestnuts and curly parsley. If you had saved the cooked giblets that came inside the turkey, now would be the time to add it after mincing. Then add the store bought stuffing and mix all together.

The time has come to add chicken stock. Since we don't want to end up with a mushy texture for the croutons, extra care need to be taken in adding the stock. I found that about 650ml did the trick for me. The dry bread (croutons) should be moist but not...mushy. Pour this mixture into the baking pan, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for about 30-32 minutes to get crispy delicious stuffing. Ready to serve after 10-15 minutes.

When dinner was over and conversation kept going around the dinner table, hands continued reaching out to the stuffing for small portions again and again. Yum indeed!

Next Up : Mashed Potatoes

Thanksgiving - The Fresh Herbs

2009-11-28T21:40:00.000-08:00

Apart from the Turkey, what got me excited about Thanksgiving cooking was the generous usage of herbs in all the recipes. Having a cabinet full of Indian spices had kept me content for a long time but the chance encounters with fresh herbs here (read thyme, sage etc) had always left me intrigued. Thanksgiving gave me a chance to be acquainted with them on a personal basis. I am a much happier cook for this encounter.

The first thing was to make a list of the things I would need. Many are not in our regular list and I had some bad experiences looking for just one or two of even the dried items in regular grocery chains. Most likely because although the associates tried to help, I just didn't know what I was looking for:-) On your own, you can spend hours and hours looking for that one thing and still not find it. I had been to Wholefoods before for something and was quite enamored of it. there are no Wholefood stores that close to us but there is one next to where my son goes for Piano. So I made a list of all possible things we would need and not have and set off on this journey. Came back quite a satisfied customer with every single item checked off!! The staff was incredibly helpful and you know their customer service policy when you see 3 or 4 associates in each aisle helping people in need. I even saw oven bags there within $4.00. I won't need it to use in the oven since the Turkey is already brined but am planning to check it out as brining bag next time.

All the fresh herbs were together as if waiting for me right next to the entrance. If it were not for the labels I wouldn't know one from the other. Have taken snaps of the ones that I got this time and hope to add to it later on.

Before I forget: If you get a bunch of fresh herbs and won't be using it all at one time, then here is a trick to make them last longer. As soon as you come home, wash the leaves under water and drain in a colander. Then wrap them in paper towels and keep in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag or in a closed paper bag. They will keep fresh for a good while. I always keep curry leaves this way.

Here they are in no particular order:

Tarragon

Thyme

Curly Parsley

Italian Parsley

Bayleaves

Rosemary

Chive

Sage

Of course I will not recognize any of them in the dried form either! Since that can be found in nicely labeled containers, this will not be a problem.

Stuffing/Dressing is next.

Thanksgiving - The Gravy

2009-11-28T10:33:00.000-08:00

A good gravy is the life of a Thanksgiving dinner. Of course the bird is the King. I didn't mean to put it down. But with a good gravy you can make up for shortcomings of the meat and the sides. We followed Alton Brown's (who else?) gravy recipe for this.

Remember the roaster with drippings we set aside? This is the gravy starter. So time to bring that around.

In the Mix
Roaster pan with turkey drippings after the turkey is done - 1
low sodium chicken broth - 24oz ( have to use the organic version)
red wine - 8 oz ( used merlot)
all purpose flour - 1/3 cup
fresh herb - 1 tbsp (used tarragon this time)
giblets/neck - from 1 turkey
kosher salt - as needed
freshly ground black pepper - as needed

How To Do
This part can be done while the turkey is resting waiting to be carved. Cook the giblets and neck in water. Don't add salt. Take the solids out once cooked and keep that water handy. Keep the giblet. We will use it in the stuffing.

Turn on two burners and place the roaster on low heat. Add the wine and the chicken broth and whisk to combine. Scrape off everything. Ran out of the organic broth and so used regular canned broth. I have a feeling that the organic version would have added more to the taste. My stuffing used the organic version and it was oh! so yummy!!

Cook for 2-3 minutes and transfer the stuff into a fat separator. (note to self : buy a fat separator next year as it is really handy) In the absence of a fat separator we can just pour the stuff into a large clear measuring cup using a colander. Let sit for a few minutes and separate the fat using a spoon or the spout.

Measure out 2/3 cup of the fat or as much as you have short of this quantity. Place the roaster back on the stove and add the fat. Add flour and whisk at medium to high heat for about 3-4 minutes as the mixture thickens. Add the separated liquid (not the fat) back into the pan in small amounts. Whisk until smooth. Check salt and if too much, add in some of the giblet water. That is what it was for! Cook for 5-6 minutes. The mixture will thicken even more while waiting to be served. Keep this in mind.

Add any herbs you have. Tarragon was not bad but I will try a mix of herbs next year. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a gravy boat to serve. A picture post on herbs is up next.

Thanksgiving - Hello Mr. Turkey!!

2009-11-27T13:32:00.000-08:00

The Turkey is finally in the bag! Yes, literally. I had been planning on making that turkey dinner ever since my son started Kindergarten and now that my little girl has started Kinder, it is simply written that we should do this. I had it in the back of my mind and a chance discussion about Butterball Turkeys to one of my kid's daycare teachers sort of started the train.

Once we decided that we are going to do the whole enchilada, both us were heavily invested in the process. We selected a fresh Butterball Turkey from our local grocery store and read up on recipes that we liked. Truth be told, I only meant to look up one website which is simply fabulous in every way. I had tried Pioneer Woman's Lasagna and it came out well and since she had put out an array of Thanksgiving dishes, it was going to be my one stop shop. But my enterprising husband convinced me to go with the one and only Alton Brown of Food Networks.

So, we used Brown's recipe for the brine, turkey and gravy, and referred to PW's recipes for sensible instructions and tips on preparation etc. The step by step pictures are simply awesome. Made the mashed potatoes from there. Stuffing was based on a mix of recipes and corn bread from a Box. Cranberry sauce was homemade. To keep the posts short I plan to make each item into a post although the recipes were pretty much faithfully followed. The little variations and notes will help us in the coming years. With all the hurry, we couldn't get to dessert. Secretly, I can't imagine a pie that tastes of pumpkin. Never liked it. However, seeing this recipe presented by Ivoryhut at the pioneerwomancooks page has changed my mind. I'd certainly like to try it out next year.

Things you really need before starting.
vertical pot/ bucket - 1
brining bag - 1
turkey roaster with rack - 1
meat thermometer with external alarm -1

The Turkey Brine

Let us begin at the very beginning, a very good place to start. The Brine!
After a short research we found that regardless of what is in the brine mix, the very act of keeping the fresh/thawed turkey in the brine helps keep meat juicy, moist and tender. This helps when you overcook by mistake because even then the turkey will not dry up. For this reason it won't need to baked in an oven bag either.

Alton Brown's brine recipe calls for allspice berries and candied ginger. I didn't add candied ginger simply because we couldn't fancy it. Took me some time to figure out that allspice berries are simply whole allspice which is available in the spice aisle.

In The Mix

Turkey - 12 lbs (We got the Butterball. This is available in all local grocery stores)
kosher salt - 1 cup (available in the baking aisle)
brown sugar - 1/2 cup
vegetable stock/broth - 1 gallon (Wholefoods, Trader Joe's)
black peppercorns - 1 tbsp
allspice berries/whole - 1 1/2 tsp
cold water - 1 gallon
ice - 30 cubes

How To Do

Getting a vertical pot or a bucket if you don't have it, is worth it. My husband went and got a paint bucket from OSH in a splash of inspiration and it was just great to keep the brining bird. We also used a brining bag which is great to keep things clean and compact. If you plan early, you can get these from Amazon but we were late and Williams-Sonoma came through. Only two of the 4 were large enough for the turkey, the other two were sized for a chicken. I think XL storage bags from Ziplock are also a good substitute.

Fresh Turkey was our choice because we didn't want to deal with the thawing time. If you get a frozen one, thaw it in the fridge before brining. Do not wait till the last minute to get the birdie. The good ones will be long gone.

Boil all brining ingredients except cold water and ice 2 days before D-day. I did this in the evening after coming back from work. Stir well so the salt and the sugar melts. Peppercorn and allspice didn't melt. I might crush them once next year but it seemed to work OK as is. Boil for 5 minutes while stirring. Remove from heat and let cool. Then keep it in the refrigerator.

On the eve of D-day, line up the bucket or any large enough vertical pot with the brining bag. Add 1 gallon of water and the cold brine from previous day to the bucket. Add the ice cubes. I might have added more ice than needed but the results were satisfactory.

Prepping The Turkey
Empty the sink of any dirty dishes and get ready for turkey cleaning. Place the rack in the sink as it helps much with the cleaning process. We got the roaster and the rack from Target. The V shaped rack helps in carrying the turkey back and forth without it slipping from your hands. Open the turkey bag and place the turkey on the rack under cold water. Take out the bag of giblets and neck from inside. Wash them well in cold water and keep in the refrigerator for later use. Discard all bags that came with the turkey. Clean the empty bird thoroughly in cold water and let drain on the rack inside the sink.

Put the waiting turkey breast first into the bucket and make sure that it is fully immersed.

Can you find the inner turkey in here?

Seal off the bag and keep in a cool place or in the refrigerator which is what I did. Our party was at dinner time and so this timing worked fine. We brined for about 18 hours. If you are planning for lunch, you have to plan accordingly. Brining for longer up to 24 hours will not harm so long as it is safely kept below room temp.

Now for the Guest of Honor!

The Roasted Turkey

Our guest list was not large. We didn't want to add more pressure to ourselves this first time. We also didn't want to deal with a large and difficult to handle bird. So the 12 pounder did very well by us.

In The Mix

Brined (12 lbs) Turkey - 1 (see above for how to brine a turkey)
aluminum foil - folded into a triangle for breastplate.

for stuffing the bird

red apple - 1, halved
big red onion - 1/2
cinnamon stick - 1
water - 1 cup
fresh rosemary - 4 sprigs
sage - 1 or 2 sprigs

for coating the skin
butter - 1 stick (8 tbsp solid)

How To Do

Remove all racks except the last one from the oven. This helps with handling logistics as well as to get good heat for the cooking process.

Preheat oven to 500C.

Bring out the turkey that was brining and wash completely with cold water. No need to worry about salt being lost since it is already absorbed into the meat. Pat dry and keep on the rack. Place the rack into the roaster. Check that the legs are tied and the wings are folded back under the body following Brown's video instructions. Buy a meat thermometer if you haven't already as it is totally justified. Ours didn't have a pop in thermo and so this was doubly needed. Target is a good source.

Microwave the apple halves, onion half and cinnamon in water for 5 minutes.

I brushed the Turkey with melted butter instead of canola oil as I didn't want oil on my turkey. Adding 1 -2 cups of water or broth to the roaster will help prevent smoking from the butter/oil drops in the pan in the initial high heat stage. If not, be ready to turn off the smoke alarm:-) Put a rosemary sprig all the way inside and add the sage and the remaining rosemary sprigs. Then place microwave heated apple, onion and cinnamon stick inside. Now place the turkey (ideally legs first) into the 500C preheated oven. Our roaster was too long to go in like how Alton Brown's video shows and so it was placed horizontally. Make sure not to get burnt as the oven is really hot.

Bake for 30 minutes at 500C.

Pull out the turkey and lower the oven temp to 350C. It s already looking good!

Place the bi folded triangular breast plate as shown in Brown's video. This prevents the breast/white meat from over cooking while at the same time helps to cook the exposed legs/dark meat properly.

Please insert the thermometer probe into the meatiest part at this time. I could not find any thermometer that is specified for more than 400C. So this step needs to be done after the 500C bake. When the probe is inserted, make sure the reading is below or around 100C. If it reads close to 160C then the probe is not at the right place as we found out. Watch AB's carving video to understand which part of the meat you should insert the probe into and how it should go in. It is into the breast - the first piece that he carves out - that the probe should be inserted. The video is also a great source to learn how to carve that bird.

Put the turkey back and bake at 350C till the temp on the meter gets to 165C. AB says a 14-16 pounder will take about 2 1/2 hours and so I went to take a shower after about an hour but was called out since the alarm went off in the middle. We debated about the time and what the meter said and it got to 165 while debating. Finally decided to go with the thermometer and got the bird out. The 2-4 lbs difference is probably why it was done early, but based on the results we will keep the 165C next time. Do get that alarming thermometer even if your turkey comes with a pop up version. Saved the day for us.

Bring a cookie sheet and place the turkey rack on it. Set to cool for half an hour before serving. Use the half hour to make the gravy as now we have the turkey drippings in the roaster pan.
This will be posted next.

For a first timer my husband skillfully carved the turkey and when we say we ourselves enjoyed this normally bland meat of a turkey, that is saying a lot! We were planning to recycle the leftovers into soup and a curried duck version but will not be doing that as we would like to eat the delish meat as is.

The part that I enjoyed most as is the case for most cooking holidays was all the hustle and bustle around the house. Thanksgiving is a lot more fun when the Turkey is home:-)

added on 12/01/09
Happened to talk to a colleague on Alton Brown's Turkey. They've been making it for the past few years. It is the butter basting that caused the smoke. Adding water will prevent it but I agree with him that it will add a steamed effect to the expected crispiness of the skin. They also set the temp to 165C in the 350C baking step. Even with the oil, canola oil is the only brand that should be used apparently. Should just go with AB's well tested recipe I guess.

Shrimp/Chemmeen Pickle

2009-11-22T09:02:00.000-08:00

This awesome recipe belongs to my husband's paternal Aunt. After polishing off the last bit from the shrimp pickle bottle that she had sent us with someone returning from India, we had to call her for the recipe. Of course after thanking her properly for this delicious gesture in the early years of our marriage. It meant a lot to us and to our collective tummies. Like my HMom, this Aunt is an accomplished cook. At that time the word 'cooking' had barely taken root in my vocabulary. In contrast, now I can say with great assurance that 1 tbsp of chili powder means exactly that and it will not be 'just fine' to use 1 tbsp of coriander instead just because the measurements are the same:-)

In The Mix

Shrimp - 2lbs (~1kg) de-veined and shelled.
ground black pepper - 1 tsp
salt to taste
oil - enough to submerge one layer of shrimp

to grind
chili powder - 2 tbsp
garlic powder - 1 tbsp
ginger powder - 1/2 tbsp
jeera/cumin powder - 1 tsp
mustard powder - 1/2 tsp
methi/uluva/fenugreek - 1/2 tsp

vinegar - 1/4 cup
mustard - 1/2 tsp
ginger - 1 1/2 " sliced long
chopped onion - 1 cup

vinegar - 1/8 cup or as needed to taste
sugar - 1/2 tsp (optional)

How To Do

Marinate the shrimp with pepper and salt for 2-3 hours. Deep fry in oil and remove. Drain the oil from the pan and set aside that too.

Grind all the 'to grind' ingredients in the blender and soak in 1/4 cup vinegar. Break mustard using some of the oil remaining after frying the shrimp. Saute the long sliced ginger to half fry. Add the chopped onion and fry till light brown. Now add the ground, soaked mix from above and roast well. Add the remaining vinegar and check salt.

Can add sugar at this stage. Remember, this is pickle and so even if it tastes a little vinegary and salty when fresh, that will subside into a yummadoos pickle taste as it sits for a day or two. Add the fried shrimp and mix gently. Do not boil after adding the shrimp. Can add hot water, salt, vinegar or sugar as needed at this stage for a consistency that appeals to you. Add in some or all of the remaining oil if needed. Enjoy with anything carb and hot. This 'pickle' does not last long in our house. Keep that in mind when you make it:-)

Roasted Chicken Legs - from Mishmash

2009-11-08T08:49:00.000-08:00

Mishmash's is another blog I appreciate for its presentation and nostalgic write ups. So when I had some chicken legs and wasn't sure what to do, I decided to try this out from there. It turned out well and I have made it many times since then. The pics are from one of those time. I was waiting to take a better picture but looks like this is as far as my clicking abilities can go with night light. Not that it is any better with day light but the excuse sounds good. Right? It is all Nancy's fault really as she thinks I am not cooking!! Kidding aside she keeps this blog going at times when I find it difficult to come back to it.

I am adding the recipe here for future reference. (My kids might want to make it?) I hope so. It is mostly verbatim from Mishmash.

In The Mix

chicken legs/drumsticks - 14-16 or as many as that comes in a pack. (multiply or divide from
mishsmash's ingredients based on quantity) medium cut chicken
breast pieces also come out very well and are more suited for
our everyday cooking needs.

for the marinade
chili powder - 2 1/2 tbsp (the kids like it less hot)
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
garam masala - 3 tsp ( I use the homemade version from my Hmom. an easy version
is equal amounts of cardamom, cinnamon, clove powders)
freshly ground black pepper - 1 1/2 tsp
ginger - 2" piece
garlic - 8 to 10 cloves
lemon juice - 5 tsp fresh squeezed
salt to taste

to fry
curry leaves - 2-3 sprigs or as many as you want
olive oil - enough for half the height of the pieces to be submerged depending
on the size and shape of the pieces and the pan.

to saute
big red onion - 3 -4, thinly sliced
green chilies - 6-7, sliced once or twice at an angle
curry leaves - 2 sprigs
leftover marinade from the chicken. (neat idea!)
salt to taste

How To Do
Wash the chicken well and score it once or twice for the marinade to get inside. I don't pat dry anymore and like the resulting extra marinade. Crush and finely chop the ginger and garlic. I stopped using the pastes as I never had a good experience with the store bought version and I am not one to make that at home. The crushed chopped version seems to substitute very well. Marinate chicken overnight with the marinade ingredients as above.

Heat oil in a pan and fry curry leaves till crispy. Set aside. Place chicken pieces in oil and fry each side 2-3 minutes or until done on low to medium heat. Drumsticks will appear fried with shorter time but the insides might have red which simply isn't yum. Keep the leftover marinade for the next step.

Remove the fried chicken and drain on paper towels. We start the tasting process at this stage:-)) Remove some of the excess oil and add onion, chili and saute well. Add the marinade and curry leaves and saute till all blends well and appears cohesive. Remember to wash the marinade dish with a little warm water to increase the amount of marinade to add.

Now add the chicken pieces and mix everything together gently so as not to break the pieces. I also add the fried curry leaves at this time. Make sure chicken pieces are covered in the masala, cover and cook for a few minutes so all the flavors join together.

Serve alone or with the temporarily crowned King:-) More on the King er.. Queen later. Thanks Mishmash for this surefire recipe.

Easy, Breezy, Healthy Dessert

2009-09-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

Ha! I had you there for a minute. Didn't I? I knew the 'healthy dessert' will get to you if the 'easy breezy' didn't:-) And true to my word, it is easy, breezy aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnddd it is healthy. But only if you are a lover of banana like my Dad and honey like many in my family. Then we are in business. If not, why torture yourself? Just skip the post and go indulge yourself in a decadent sundae concoction since that is what you thought of when you heard 'dessert' anyway...

Every single day after a pleasant dinner, my Dad will wonder aloud at the table, "Do we have some small bananas around?" There always were a variety or two of the yummy little bananas at home and he was always a satisfied customer. I used to wonder at this habit and was not particularly fond of bananas after dinner. I do love them for other times as I have waxed high in previous posts. Don't worry. Although I feel some nostalgia trying to push through I'll keep a check on it today.

Needless to say I started to have the same craving as my Dad come dessert time. I think this goes hand in hand with the sweet tooth that I developed when having my babies. Anyway the lot fell to the omnipresent Chiquitas and once I hit on the art of slicing and eating them with a mouthful of honey, there was no looking back!

In the Mix

bananas - any variety will do. take as many as you want. 1/2 a banana is small fry if your spouse
is also a fan.
honey - enough to cover the bananas or to your tolerance

How To Do ( hey i am stickler to procedure and it does need some work:-))

Slice the bananas into little discs. Not too thin and not too thick. Gently pour the honey on top. Grab a fork. Find a comfy place to sit. Dig in!!

I think but not so sure that if you add some sugar or crystallized white sugar (kalkkand?) to this combo then it will become 'trimadhuram' or the tri-sweet 'prasadam' that you get in Hindu temples of course after going through the proper rites to make it so.

Kappa Biriyani - Tapioca (Cassava) with Beef

2009-08-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

Anything Kappa does not last for long in our house once made. So we always make this in large quantities. It can be had as a main meal or as a filling snack. Remember those hungry evenings when you get back from work ready to eat an elephant? Just roll the Kappa Biriyani into a large ball and take as big bites as you can and that will assuage the hunger right away. To heat or not to heat is totally up to you...

I didn't dare venture into making Tapioca here till later. But once I hit on the right way of doing things, cannonballs couldn't stop me. The easiest for Kappa is of course this drum cut version. That has its own charms but the version with beef is unparalleled in yumness and I can't keep my hands off of it once prepared.

In The Mix

Tapioca - 4 to 5 roots or pieces.
Shredded Coconut - 2/3 cup
Red onion - 1 full - thinly sliced (can use 5-8 large shallots also)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Green chili - 2 or 3
Salt to taste

For The Beef

Beef - 1/2 to 1 lbs or what comes in a small pack
Red onion - 1 large thinly sliced
garam masala - 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
coriander powder- 2 to 3 tbsp
chili powder - 3 tsp
ginger - 1" pelled and thinly sliced
garlic - 2 or 3 pods, crushed & then sliced across
curry leaves - as many as makes you happy or 1 sprig
salt to taste
oil to season
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

How To Do

This method of preparation was considered labor intensive and I wasn't going to try anything regardless of how good it tasted. Then I figured out an easy way - sans some elegance - and now Kappa Biriyani is a regular feature whenever we come across a healthy bunch of tapioca roots in the Chinese store. Drum cut the 'kappa' like you would for the 'chendamuriayan' and peel off the skin. Normally the next laborious step is to chip away into smaller pieces till only the central vein remains. This step is not a must and you can just go on and cook with salt and water. The only drawback is you might have to pull out veins from the final dish. If an ardent eater like me thinks it is not a big problem then you can can plunge along with me and have an easy life with Kappa Biriyani to keep you company:-) It is easier to just remove the vein gently from the cooked tapioca whenever you come across one. There you have it. I have divulged the secret! Anyway, do cook the tapioca please and drain the water. Be careful not to get burnt while doing this.

Add The Gravy
Prepare the gravy mix while tapioca is being cooked. Take the coconut, tumeric, salt, onion and green chilies and grind together in a blender with enough water. As soon as the water is drained from the cooked tapioca, make a hole and add half of the mix towards the bottom. Add the rest to the top and cover over with tapioca. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes on low heat. Be nearby to prevent any burning up. Then remove from heat and mash with a wooden spoon like there is no tomorrow. As mentioned above, do remove any veins that you come across. I will not be responsible for any vein damage. Mix well so that the gravy is well spread and the tapioca is mashed nicely. Not too mashed up but mashed enough to keep it all sticking together.

Add The Beef

The beef can be prepared at this stage as I have done many times or while tapioca is on the stove. Either way it will be OK.

Break mustard in heated oil and add onion and curry leaves. Add salt and saute well. Add ginger and garlic and saute on low heat. Once everything mixes together nicely and begins to brown, add all the powders together. Add a little water to help all blend together in the pan. Roast till the familar scent of the spices fill the air and add the meat. Fry on medium heat for a few minutes. Cover and cook. No need to add water at this stage.

Add this beef to the prepared tapioca and mix gently but surely together till the biriyani of your dream emerges. Sit down and enjoy with a cup of coffee and some pickle or yogurt if you are into those. Will keep in fridge for almost a week and watch your hungry evenings fly by like a dream...

KaLLappam - Traditional Appam with Toddy (7-UP)

2009-08-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

What I remember when I hear "KaLLappam" is the sizzle from the pan as the batter hits it. Unlike regular breakfast items KaLLappam was made in the evening. That is, one evening in particular which is the day before the feast of St. George (Gevarghese in the vernacular) . The very finest (creme' la creme') appams made from the top of the batter were set aside to be sent to the nearby famous church holding the Saint's name. It used to be, this stack contained 21 appams plus one for each of the animals of the farm since St.George is the protector of all animals as well as offers protection from the not so nice ones. These saintly appams also had the most perfect shape.

The best combo is with fresh chicken and potato curry. It is good on its own too. I enjoy them with honey. But then I enjoy anything with honey.

Speaking of honey, Mom used to have these wooden boxes supported on single stocky posts placed here and there. Honey bees setup their homes in these boxes on their own and through forced settlement. The box was shaped like a house and inside it had rows and rows wooden rectangular frames that the bees filled with honey combs. Pure white, fluffy combs filled with golden honey .....Yumm...... The vast yard lined with mango trees and flower plants spilling over from our garden on the west side of the house had many such homes. I was a little afraid of the bees in the beginning but curiosity got the better of me and gradually I was a regular visitor. I discovered that if I pretty much stand still in a strategic place then they won't worry about me and I can happily observe the goings on at the tiny entrance to their home. It was interesting to identify the ones who came back with a stash of honey drunk pollen on their backs. In the heat of summer we set small bowls of water next to the entrance so they'll have some relief. We also had to put pesticide around the post to keep bugs and insects away from their neat homes.

There were locals with expertise in these things. They knew how to separate out a queen so another hive can develop around her. It was mostly during the mango/cashew season that wild bees setup their homes on the land, I mean on trees. Once the queen was found, her wings were cut so she will stay and keep the hive with her. This little lady had such powers! I remember when I first set eyes on a queen bee. They are darker and a little bigger than your average worker bee. In all my years with them I never got stung except when finally I poked a finger into their home just to have that experience:-) My son on the other hand got stung by a bee on his bare feet while playing on the grass at the Y. It is an event that he speaks of with much remembrance.

Oh My! I should never talk about the good old days I guess. Keeps me going like the energizer bunny. Let us move on. KaLLappam got its name from the rising agent used in it which is a natural form of local liquor ("kaLLu" or toddy) harvested from coconut/palm trees. This obviously is in short supply here and my sister-in-law is owed credit for disclosing to me how 7 UP can be used as a pretty good sub. I also add some yeast for good measure. If you have the real toddy then that is all we need for the batter to rise. We made it after a long time since Mom and I had a craving for it.

In The Mix

rice flour - 4 cups
finely shredded coconut - 3 cups
yeast - 1/2 tsp (I use Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast which can be mixed as is)
sugar - 2 tbsp (optional)
7-UP - 3 cups
cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
salt & water - as needed

How To Do

Mix flour and coconut powder with all the other ingredients. Add water only for the sake of consistency. The batter should be thick set and not runny but should be so it can be ladled with ease. Because the coconut is added in the shredded form the batter will be thick to begin with so care must be taken if water is needed. Set aside in warm oven at least 5 hours or till the batter starts to rise. It is very critical that you start making the appams as soon as it rises for the appams to stay soft long term.

Slowly pour the batter on to a medium heated pan. Slighly flatten to round out the shape only if needed.

The appams are sized like pancakes and can be made in groups of 4 or more in a 12" pan. Turn them over once. A minute or 2 on each side should do.

If we made KaLLappams in the evening that meant it it served for breakfast next day too. A break from early morning breakfast preparations before going for the Sunday Mass. Me, I am OK with them any time of the day! These will keep for as long as a week in the fridge and is a filling evening snack.

Note: Bee pics from our backyard added on August 19, 2009.

Koon Thoran - A Mushroom Coconut Preparation

2009-08-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

When Mom is in residence, old recipes pop up like mushrooms. Pun intended:-) Mushroom is a favorite of my Mom's and also my husband's. Wouldn't you say the planets are just aligned for this one? Just what I thought too. So we'd been eating these lovey-dovey little umbrellas with a generous addition of coconut under the guise of a thoran and no one is complaining.

Back in the farm, you know rainy season has taken root when mushrooms appear as if overnight. They range from large sprawling ones to dainty little beauties. The poisonous genre never looked great and so were easily distinguishable, says Mom. I used to find them everywhere. Under the fallen tree, on the side of a little walkway, on the stone fence separating one part of the land from another, next to the stream filled with tiny water creatures that flowed only during the rainy season and even under that moss filled rock jutting out of place anywhere. They also remind me of the lilies that used to sprout in abundance with brilliance and beauty all over our upper land. Both in white and pretty peach. Mom used to say that the lilies sprout to commemorate a special event and I used to look at them and ponder on that. It is said that when St. Joseph went to seek Mother Mary's hand, she wasn't quite sure of it as he was rather old compared to others with similar intentions and prayed for a sign. Then these lilies sprouted on his walking stick and that clinched the deal. Sweet. eh? What are lilies doing in a mushroom recipe? I don't know either:-) Here comes the recipe.

In The Mix

Mushroom - 1 lbs (can be brown or white)
turmeric - 1/2 tsp

coconut powder/grated coconut - 3/4 cup
shallot - 2 or 3
green chili - 4 to 5
turmeric - 1/4 tsp

How To Do

Prepare the mushrooms first by removing the skin on the umbrella part. It will peel off easily from the edge of the umbrella to top center. Break off the stem, peel off skin and dice along with the cleaned tops. Now wash and drain with water and 1/2 tsp or more turmeric. This is necessary to remove any unwanted flavors. I think this step is probably because mushrooms grow close to ground and are subjected to all kinds of things going over, under or on them...

Now mix with salt and curry leaves and set to cook after adding a few table spoons of water.
If you add more water, it will take forever to dry up since mushroom's own water will show up too while being cooked. Cover and after a minute or two of high heat, cook on low for a few minutes. Prepare the coconut gravy now.

Coarsely grate the coconut, 1/4 tsp turmeric, green chilies with enough salt and water. Add this to the top of the mushroom and cover and cook again for 5-10 minutes. Do not stir at this time. Dry to your preference, stir towards the end and consume with hot white rice!

Mom does not like any other curry with mushroom. No non-veg I mean. Says they won't go with the mushrooms. Just your good old rice and mushrooms. Works for me! She also talks of these "doll mushrooms" that are supposed to be even more delicious. Not sure how to get a hold of those here.

Ariyunda - A Powdered Rice Snack

2009-07-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

I always used to ask Mom for this snack when coming home for the breaks. Consuming it in numbers had the power to quench my thirst for home made food. Not surprising since it is made up of powdered rice, freshly grated coconut and jaggery/brown sugar for sweetness. The most difficult part is preparing the rice. We had a cutely shaped pot - kudam- made of clay for this purpose. It was not your run of the mill clay pot but a special type with very thin walls and a most beautiful shape optimized for dry frying the rice. She always had preferences as to who among her help should do this particular task because of the patient frying involved.

Once the powder is fried, ground and sieved, it is stored away and will keep for up to a year according to Mom. My Grandma was a contender for this snack while growing up. Most of the time the two of us can finish all the prepared stuff in a jiffy. So...... Mom has brought a bag full of this powder and armed with fresh grated coconut and jaggery, what is there to stop me from snacking on it for the rest of the year? Nothing really except for the very end of the powder which would be rather sorrowful. Till then it is me and my rice balls because as fortune has it, the husband does not like it and nor do the kids. Sad indeed. NOT!

In The Mix

Fried powdered boiled rice - 1 cup
Fresh grated coconut - 1/2 cup
jaggery/brown sugar - 1/2 cup

How To do

Never having done or really witnessed the rice frying part I cannot describe it here in detail. But you use boiled rice for this purpose and keep frying on low fire till the rice turns brownish and shows sings of puffing up. It is important to get it of off the fire at the right time. Now grind it to a fine powder form and the rice part is all set.

When you feel like snacking, all you need to do is mix all of the above together.

The method and consistency is as that of puttu. Of course there is no need to add water. The natural water content in the freshly grated coconut and jaggery are enough. You can use a pestle and pound gently for a while to make sure that all blend together.

Now squeeze together into yummy balls. I was so impatient after all this time that I finished most of it in the pestled form before the mix could fulfill its destiny into being delicious balls:-) Yum... can't wait to make the next batch.

Mango Delight - A Mango 'Thira' Preparation

2009-06-28T17:56:00.000-07:00

This is a delicacy of my childhood made from dried ripe mango sheets that I wasn't too keen on. Yet age and distance had the power to make it such and I was happy when my Mom remembered to bring some this time around on her visit. Yes, my 83 year old Mom is visiting. Yay! Age has made her fragile yet have mercifully kept her healthy in every way that I thank God for this. At this moment in my life with my Mom here I feel like I am home. Looking into her sweet gentle face I see my childhood come full circle.

I didn't ask for anything from home as most of the things are available here yet my Mom instinctively brought the things I had craved the most and had given up on. The ''Thira' used to be made from Mailappoo' mangoes that fell plentiful in our lower farm land where the much beloved tree stood laden with fruits. Mangoes will fall all the time but some windless days in the afternoons they stayed put. I used to sit on the large stone steps leading down to the tree waiting for the telltale movement of the leaves and the all familiar sound of mangoes touching base. There was even a song for the wind to come so mangoes can fall. Mailappoo was just one variety in the land but it was special because of its ease of access for us kids and the sheer number of fruits making for an easy snack whenever. 'Moovandan', 'Komanga', 'Nadan', 'Neelam', and the list goes on. In the front yard there was a large mango tree that was treated special and was my Grandfather's favorite. The fruits from it could only be eaten if we picked it at the right time and made to ripe in the house. The taste once it ripened was out of this world and if there was only one ripe mango on a day it went Grandpa of course. I use to check them out surreptitiously and knew ahead of time if we will get a mouthful of the delicious slices or not. Mom informs that the tree had to be cut down last year or so as it had grown too old and dead branches were falling onto the roof. It must have been a bud grafted tree because Mom had planted many of its seeds, but none of the fruits came close to the original in taste.

There is something about seeing a mango tree break into flowers in anticipation of the rich harvest ahead. There is a smell in the air and the mango season almost always coincided with long 'mid summer vacations'. My older sister the botanist loved eating ripe mangoes sliced and mixed with dried red chili powder, onion and salt. 'Mailappoo' fruits were especially suited for this. She would prepare and I would eat. Later in undergrad years my best friend and I would beg/pilfer raw mangoes from our hostel kitchen and bring to the room to mix with previously stashed salt and chili powder. We have spent many such afternoons getting 'high' on the mangoes. Mangoes are so intertwined with one's life in India that they have a special place in the heart and tummy for many people. Look here for some good mango memories.

Coming to the point, I mean recipe, there is not much to add. You have to have some 'Thira' made from mangoes to begin with. This is made usually in an abundant mango season when there are too many mangoes even after the whole neighborhood had their fill and it just does not feel right to throw them away. A new sheet or 'paya' is spread out and the ripe mangoes are squeezed and rubbed onto it and set out in the sun to dry. The process is repeated everyday for as long as mangoes keep coming. Other matching fruits can be added to enhance the flavor. Once done the resulting sheet or 'Thira' is cut and stored in a cool dry place. This will keep for a long time and longer still with refrigeration. Mom said this set she brought was made from a daughter tree of the original Mailapoo since that one had long gone. Following measurements are approximate so proceed at your own risk:-)

In The Mix

Mango 'Thira' - a 8"x8" piece cut into small pieces
Fresh grated coconut - from 1/2 a shell
jaggery or brown sugar - to taste

How To Do

Put all together in a pan on low heat. Mix for a few minutes till all blend well together. Remove from heat and enjoy!

A good friend got me some fresh grated coconut from a Vietnamese store near her place but I think dried coconut can be used instead after hydrating beforehand. Dried mango might be available in Asian stores though not the same as the home made variety mentioned here. The snack was a delicious treat to nostalgic taste buds. Look below for a snap of the 'Thira' in its original form.

Note added on August 16, 2009
My Mom specifies that the other ingredients in her Thira include rice flour with a little jaggery mashed up with some jackfruit (the soft version) along with the ripe mango pulp to keep it sturdy and flavorful. This could explain the darker color that mishmash was wondering about.

Stir Fry Noodles

2009-06-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

What do you do when life gets too busy and days seem to roll into one? Drop everything and go on a trip which becomes all the more fun if there is a family wedding also to attend. So that is exactly what we did. Visited the nation's glorious capital, attended an awesome wedding and visited some dear relatives and all was well when we got back:-) Washington DC is not to be done in a short trip though and we will be back. One could spend a full day in just the National Gallery of Art which houses a Da Vinci original not to mention the array of Manet, Monet, Rembrandt, Raphael and the likes!! I have visited many Art Museums but what sets the one in DC apart is the amazing collection of originals that can be viewed with no admission fees and the excellent but barely noticeable security that lets you enjoy the paintings in all abandon.

We also enjoyed eating out with the kids. One place that caught my fancy was Silver Diner which I came to know is a chain found in and around Maryland. The experience was new, service friendly and food choices many for adults and kids. This was the first choice from the concierge at the Hotel that we stayed at when queried about a local place to dine with kids. The building looked like a giant silver bus especially once you are inside. I think it is a relic or a mimic of truck stops. Marylanders might know more.

Nothing much has been cooking except my attempt to make the previous beef recipe with chicken. It is pretty good I tell you. But this time I am going to introduce what has become a family favorite that my husband perfected over the years. Quite often he silently gathers his ingredients and whips up this amazing treat that the kids and I enjoy to no end. It gives you a good feeling with all the veggies and a good taste with the touch of non vegs. Thus goes the recipe as given by the Chef himself:

In The Mix
Egg Noodles : 1 pack ( we get this from the local chinese store. these are not dry but rather soggy to the touch)
Vegetables : 1 cup each of diced cabbage, mushroom, bell pepper, thinly sliced carrots and anything else that you want to add to the medley.
Scallion : two stalks sliced to small pieces.
Stir Fry Sauce : 3 tbsp or as needed. we use Kikkoman's
Red Onion : 1/4 sliced large
Beef : 1/4 lbs thinly sliced ( can add cooked shrimp too)
sesame oil : 1 tbsp or as needed
olive oil : 1 tbsp or as needed
green chilies : 2 or 3 sliced in circles (optional)
or chili garlic paste : 1 tsp (optional)
salt : to taste

How To Do
Saute the onion first and then beef together for a while. Once beef is cooked, add carrots and bell pepper. No need to cover. Cook on high heat. Add mushrooms and scallions. Saute well till cooked. Now pour the Stir Fry Sauce and mix together. Add cabbage at the end to preserve crunchiness. Don't forget to add salt as needed at any stage.

Meanwhile cook the noodles by adding to boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Keep under cold water and drain. Add sesame oil to keep the noodles from sticking together. Add drained noodles to the prepared mix and cook on high heat for 3-4 minutes. Toss the pan as needed for a professional touch:-) Remember, high heat is a key factor. Add green chilies or garlic chili paste depending on your heat tolerance at this time. voila! Delicious dinner is ready. Garnish with fried egg strips if you have the time. Enjoy with homemade vinegar-soysauce mix.

For Vinegar-Soysauce Dressing
This is something that both my husband and his Mom needs if they are to eat noodles at home. I have come to sort of like it but he just relishes it.

Green chilies - 2 or 3 cut in circles
soy sauce - 4 tbsp
vinegar - 1 tbsp
water - 3 tbsp
salt - to taste

First add water to a small pan. Once it boils then add vinegar, salt, soy sauce and finally the chillies. Let boil for a minute or so and the dressing is ready to go.

For Fried Egg Strips
Beat one or two eggs together with salt. Make a thin omlette and cut into long strips. I saw this first when my HMom had this with a biriyani she had made for my birthday sometime back. It looks quite good on anything I'd say.

Beef Coconut Fry

2009-05-03T17:46:00.001-07:00

Time to immortalize this recipe that seems to have captured many a heart er.. tummy here. The basic recipe is from a friend, the method from my Mom and the addition of coconut is my husband's suggestion. He is the one who painstakingly broke the coconut, shelled it out and cut into nice thin pieces all for the sake of having it included. I used to make this sans the coconut but since it has added exponentially to the taste, will forever remain a part of the recipe. The major trick for this to come out fabulous is the slow frying at the end. The longer you can do this, the better. All measurements for this one are mostly approximate as I forgot to keep up with it...

In The Mix

beef - 2 lbs (diced, washed & drained)
coconut - fresh diced from a half shell
onion - 2 medium sized, sliced
tomato - 2 medium sized, diced
chili powder - 1 to 2 heaped tsp
coriander powder - 5 to 6 tbsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp (2X)
vinegar - 1 tbsp
garam masala - 1 to 1 1/2 tsp (made of equal measures of cloves, cardamom & cinnamon powders)
oil - 1 to 3 tbsp
mustard - 1/2 tsp
shallot - 1 sliced thin
curry leaves - as many sprigs as you want:-)
salt to taste

How To Do
Marinate the beef overnight with the vinegar, 1/2 tsp garam masala, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1 tbsp coriander powder and 1/2 tsp chili powder.

Heat some of the oil and saute onion till brown. Add all the remaining curry powders and roast well. Add tomato, mix well and saute. Add diced beef and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add coconut pieces to this mix and saute for some more time. Add 1 cup of water if the beef does not have a lot of it. Cover and cook in medium heat. 15 to 20 minutes should do.

Heat remaining oil in a thick bottomed pan and break mustards. Add shallots, curry leaves and saute well. Add the prepared beef to this and mix very well. Boil at high heat to remove water if in excess. From now keep it low heat and slow fry till dry. Stir occasionally so it won't stick to the pan. May take as long as 30 -45 minutes for this last step depending on the amount of water you started out the step with. So long as you remember to check back you can actually do other pending stuff like finishing off that book or playing with the kids. The resulting beef fry is one to die for! Enjoy it with Kerala porotta, rice & buttermilk curry, tapioca or just by itself. Any way you consume, it is a winner:-)

Besan Ladoo. Or is it Laddu?

2009-04-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

I used to be known as the 'girl who loved ladoos'. I am talking about the sweet yellow boondhi ladoos that one can get from the restaurants in Kerala. I don't have a sweet tooth. Really! But this was a weakness along with 'pazham pori' . Our college cafeteria used to make the best of both and of course 'those were the days':-) So how did I grow a little out of it? Why when the lovingly bought 100 or so ladoos from BTH in Kochi turned bland and fungified on arrival from the stressful journey. I just lost it looking at all those lackluster ladoos and learned again the importance of having it fresh.

But...an end is always a beginning. When we bought our home and I visited the local Indian store, who was waiting for me there with a sunny face? Besan Ladoos!!!! The texture is what attracted me at first and the famous last name. I mean, who wouldn't want to be acquainted with the 'Ladoo' family? It was love at first bite. To make things smooth, the kids and the husband unhesitatingly jumped on the bandwagon. From then on it was Besan Ladoo fest whenever for us. As luck would have it, our neighborhood store makes the best version of it I think. I love the matte finish over glossy and the non oily texture.

So what better recipe to go chastily to as the Lent season is here and the urge to make a meat dish hits me, than a protein filled snack? I found recipes galore for this sweet on the net but none that gave me satisfaction. Finally I opted to try a combo of what I found and hit it on the second try. How do I know I got it? The taste of course, but also my sonny boy and other big and little besan aficionados declaring it to be oh so yummmm. My son's exact words on first bite were , "Ok Mom, better than last time". Then on second bite..."Wooow, Mom..... Totally...." the rest is history. So here it is, our family approved recipe for besan ladoo. Do add more sugar if you are inclined that way. And this one is for you Geeta.

In The Mix

1 3/4 cup besan flour
2 tbsp fine sooji
3/4 cup sugar (regular sugar in the US is fine enough for this. no need to powder)
1/2 cup melted ghee (not a drop more or less)
1/2 tsp powdered cardamom (can add 1/4 tsp more if u r a cardamom fan)

How To Do

Take a large non-stick pan and mix the besan flour, sooji and ghee together.
Keep out of reach of prying little hands.

Turn on medium heat and keep stirring for 8-10 minutes.
Once the mix rolls like it is loaded with ghee, or when your busily occupied husband jumps up and walks toward the kitchen exclaiming ' hmm.. that smells so good", it is time to remove from heat. See picture.

Wait a minute or two and add the sugar and cardamom powder. Mix well. Wait another 5 minutes or so or till the mix is cool enough to handle. Don't let it cool to room temp. Start rolling into tennis ball sized rounds. I think I am getting the hang of this rolling thing. Don't they look a decent shape now? Anyway, the trick is to keep faith in your rolling abilities. First do a few thick squeezes, and then give very gentle shaping squeezes and believe me they will come out looking decent. This will make about 15-16 ladoos. Enjoy! Next to try is geeta's rawa ladoos. I have got the sooji already...

Another Kind of Thoran - A Beans Coconut Combo

2009-03-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

Thought I had got it with this 'thoran' thing since the results were satisfactory. Looked like I had done pretty much what I could do here. Not sure why it never occurred me to ask my Mom. Maybe because I couldn't take it if I made it 'exaaactly' like Mom and didn't get the effect from memories. So anyway, it did come up in a conversation and Mom chuckled to herself when her previously veggie hating - make that kitchen phobic - daughter dutifully asked for this simplest of recipes. I couldn't help chuckling with her, remembering my own younger self in those carefree days. Memories... Memories....., what will I do with them? What will I do without them? I followed her instructions to the letter and I have to say that I absolutely loved the results. This could be because it looked, smelled and tasted 'exaaactly' like the 'payar thoran' of old. Well except of course for the central characters - the beans themselves - who just couldn't be fresh picked from the ginger fields. But I had taken that into account and had already adjusted the memory comparator input accordingly:-) So here follows my Mom's own original, special 'thoran' recipe.The secret is in the sequence. So pay attention to every word. K?

In The Mix

beans - 1/2 lbs (about 1 kg)
coconut flakes - 1/2 cup (hydrate with water prior to use to resemble the fresh grated feel. i hear that there is a vietnamese store around which sells fresh grated coconut. haven't had time to check that out yet)
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
shallots - 2 or 3
green indian chilies - 4 to 5
salt to taste
curry leaves - a sprig or two

How To Do

Slightly grind coconut, turmeric, shallots and green chilies together. The results should be a largely coarse mix.

Take the beans in a cooking pot. Add salt and curry leaves. Cook covered on high heat for 5-6 minutes at the most.

Now add the ground mix to the top. Do not stir.

Cover and cook some more till all the water is gone.

Remove from heat and stir. Voila!

Peanut Butter Blossoms - Cookies

2009-03-01T08:56:00.000-08:00

Just because you have never made a cookie in your life does not mean that you should never try it. Welcome yourself into the cookie making business with this easiest, best looking and kid approved cookie recipe. I chanced upon it in a magazine - I believe it is Martha Stewart Living - while waiting in the doctor's office. I think it was part of a Hershey's chocolate ad and quickly scribbled it down on a little piece of paper. This is a good one to get kids involved. Later I found that it is indeed a popular recipe and you will come across it all over the net while searching with 'peanut butter blossoms'. Now, to the recipe:

In The Mix

You will need about 48 Hershey's kisses. I find that M&Ms are also an easy substitute or any other cute looking chocolate piece. But Hershey's kisses look the best on top!

1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1/4 or 1/2 cup sugar to roll cookies at the end

How To Do

Heat oven to 375 C.

Remove foil from Hershey's. Get the kids to do this. Mine enjoyed all of the activity so much and were very good about not eating the kisses. I was impressed. Ask them first to count how many there are, how many we might need, and then get them to unwrap from one bowl to keep in another etc..

Beat shortening and peanut butter together for less than a minute.
Add 1/2 cup sugar & the brown sugar to the mix. Beat until fluffy.
Break the egg into the mix, add milk and vanilla extract and beat together for under a minute.
Kids can share doing this activity. I use a large plastic bowl so things stay clean.

Stir together the flour, baking soda and salt in another bowl. You can sieve them together to blend well.

Now gradually beat the flour mix into the peanut butter mix. You can do this in 5-6 steps. Once all the flour is added in, beat for 3-4 minutes. I use an electric hand mixer to beat.

Shape into 1" size balls. My Achilles Heel:-) Can never get them ball shapes... Roll gently in the sugar for a nice coat. Do not flatten. The cookie balls will expand into a nice circle once in the oven. Place the balls on a cookie sheet 2" apart. This is very important as otherwise the cookies will stick to each other for lack of space while being baked. You should have about 48 balls. Bake 8-10 minutes until light brown. I have added a picture here of cookies ready to go into the oven for Nancy.

Get the little helpers and chocolates ready to go as soon as the cookies are out. Place a kiss each on the top of the hot cookies. The cookies might break a little but don't worry. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes or so. The chocolate and the hot melted butter inside would have set together by now. Don't press down on the chocolate after the first placement. Store in a cool place and enjoy.

These cookies are very photogenic. Didn't get time to do justice to them in the aftermath. A good single cookie pic will look fantastic.

Added Later:
My daughter took this single cookie picture.

pic added 11/08/2009
I just found that this is a kid approved version of recycling all that Halloween that seems to stay on and on even after downloading stashes of it at work. We usually only trick or treat at the neighboring blocks and the candy is mostly good and I hate to trash them. So I take it to distribute it at work but the kids still get to keep a reasonable amount. I decided to to use them in cookies after countless candy wrapper picking up sessions around the living room:-) Just cut the longer bars and as you can see M&M's are fine as they are.

Dessert Time - Gulab Jamun

2009-02-20T21:03:00.000-08:00

I shouldn't really be calling this a recipe. I am trying to talk here about the instant version. Who needs a recipe for that? Anyone can follow the instructions. But hey, once you made these golden balls, they are so picturesque that you just have to click and well, once you click, you post!

The Details

Buy any Gulab Jamun Mix with 3-4 step instructions from any Indian store. Follow instructions to the letter and voila! you have a good looking dessert.

I use milk instead of water to knead the dough and oil instead of ghee to deep fry. The only expertise needed here I think is the art of making even sized balls prior to frying. My lack of it shows:-) The other thing is to know how hot the oil is when you start frying. If the pan and the oil are too hot the jamuns can get burned and turn an ugly dark color. Learned this the hard way. So once the oil is hot, lower the heat to medium. I like doing this in a non-stick pan as opposed to a stainless steel pan. The steel pan can heat up fast in my impatience to get the oil hot enough and my carefully shaped jamuns go to naught in an instant.

I should mention that these jamuns while totally yummy, are not exactly good for the body if not taken in moderation. We make this very rarely and that too in cases where a homemade dessert is appropriate but time is in short supply. Since it is so rarely made, I do gobble them up without guilt if I see them in the fridge after the fact. They keep well in the fridge for a few days. They can be eaten cold or microwave warmed for 20 sec or so.

Sambhar _ Vegetable Lentil Stew

2009-02-01T19:08:00.000-08:00

Along with Dosa, sambhar also didn't make it into our house when I was growing up. Now that I am all grown up (I think:-)) I have to say this is a pretty easy way to get all that veggie goodness into one's body. Of course the resident veggie exponent who loves sambhar had a good part in this realization. Together we have arrived at a pretty good sambhar recipe that pleases us.

In The Mix

toor dal - 1 cup (this lentil is available in all indian grocery stores)
water 4 - cups

potato - 1 large, cut into medium sized pieces
carrots - 2 peeled and quartered into 3/4 " pieces
tindora - 1 cup worth of fresh or frozen sliced (use any other veggie of your choice)
beans - 1 cup diced 3/4" pieces
pearl onion - 15-18 fresh or frozen ( can substitute with any onion of your choice. we just love the little white balls bubbling up and down in the finished sambhar)
green chilies - 3 sliced slanted lengthwise and once across. (this is a good way to slice chilies for any preparation as it looks good and will bring out more of the chili into the recipe.)
okra - 1 cup diced fresh or frozen
tomato - 1 diced
water - 8 cups

tamarind paste - 1 1/2 to 2 tsp
sambhar powder - 5 tsp (brands may have some effect. not sure. have heard the homemade ones are unbeatable, but then i have no access to this particular abundance)

to season

mustard - 1 tsp
thinly sliced shallots - 1 pinch or 2 (optional, i love it)
curry leaves - as many sprigs as you want. 1 or 2 should do
long dry red chilies - 4 or 5 torn into reasonable pieces
sambhar powder - 1/2 tsp ( HMom's tip)
oil - 2 tsp
salt to taste

How To Do

Boil 4 cups of water, cover and cook the dal till soft. Mash really well. No need to add salt. Check and stir occasionally to make sure that nothing sticks to the bottom. My daughter used to love eating cooked dal with a little salt but is slacking these days. Hopefully she will pick it up again some day.

While the dal is cooking away, start boiling the 8 cups of water in a large pan. Add onions and all aforementioned veggies except okra and tomato to the boiling water. Wait for the water to boil again after adding the veggies. Now turn the heat down medium to low, cover and cook.

After 5 minutes, add tomato and okra. (These two can be added earlier too but might really dissolve away with too much cooking. Depends on how you like the end result to be.) Add salt to taste, boil once, cover and cook for another 10 minutes on medium to low heat.

Add the mashed dal, sambhar powder and tamarind paste and stir well slowly and gently. For those who only like a subtle taste of tamarind like me and my husband (who will do away with tamarind altogether if he could), it is a good idea to add the tamarind in steps. Add the first 1 tsp without hesitation. After that add every 1/2 tsp based on your personal preference. We have discovered 1 1/2 tsp of the paste aligns our tastebuds well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or less on low for the flavors to blend.

Seasoning: Break mustards in oil, saute onions & curry leaves. Add the torn chilies and sambhar powder. Saute some more till fried sambhar aroma fills the air. Add this to the prepared sambhar. Stir together or let stay on top till serving with Dosa or Rice.

Rule of thumb from HMom : If sourness is at the top when tasting, add salt. Conversely, if you put too much salt by mistake and the recipe calls for tamarind, then you are saved! Just add more tamarind as these two balance each other out. I have discovered this to be quite true. You do know the other way to balance salt esp for a non-tamarind recipe is to add potatoes provided the recipe can sustain it. Right? If none of these apply and you still added more salt, I am sorry, but there is nothing more to do other than dumping it out and starting again! Of course I am sure there might be ways but I have just no clue at the moment:-)

Beef Stew for Appam

2009-01-16T18:15:00.000-08:00

Let's say you have finally managed to arrive at that magic recipe catered to your needs which brings out somewhat decent if not superb Appams. Now what? Sure, people have been known to eat them as is without any issues but you definitely need an accompaniment to fully realize the taste. Nothing serves this better than the 'Stew'. Be it veg or non-veg version. Oddly enough while here I am willing to opt for the veg version, my usually veggie conscious husband wouldn't budge if it does not have some beef - not chicken, mind you - with it. So we have always prepared the 'beef stew' which essentially is the veggie stew, only with beef added.

Think I have mentioned elsewhere about the Stew getting into Kerala homes from the English. Meat indeed is a main ingredient of 'that' stew. Looks like an 'Irish Stew' is more like it? Anyway I had also heard that milk was used in stew for its gravy and was adapted with coconut milk in the land of coconuts (Kerala). True or not this is why I almost always use warm milk as a substitute for coconut milk in any recipe calling for it. I also derived courage from the fact that my HMom commonly uses milk as a substitute. This recipe is adapted from Mrs. KMMathews's cookbook and is kind of similar to Fish Moli.

In The Mix

beef - 1/2 lbs cut into small pieces (can substitute with boned chicken pieces)
lemon drops - 6 or 7 (optional)
chili powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
coriander powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
salt to taste (optional)

potatoes - 2 medium sized, peeled and cubed into medium sized pieces
carrot - 1 peeled and sliced into 1/4" round or quartered 1/2" long pieces as you please
beans - 15-20 cut into 3/4" pieces.
cauliflower - 5-6 florets (optional)

cinnammon - 1 or 2 sticks broken into medium pieces
cardamom - 5 or 6 crushed so pod is slightly open
cloves - 12
freshly ground pepper - 1/2 or 1 tsp

red onion - 1 or 1/2 sliced thin depending on your love for onion
green chilies - 5 sliced long into two
ginger - 1 1/2 " piece sliced long and thin
garlic - 4 large cloves crushed and sliced. Crushing garlic always bring in the flavor as opposed to cutting it.
curry leaves - 1 or 2 sprigs

vinegar - 1 1/2 to 2 tsp
salt - to taste
oil - 1 tbsp

warm milk - 2 cups or more as needed for gravy
water - 1 cup or more as needed for gravy
ground pepper - 1/4 tsp

How To Do

Marinating the beef is optional for this recipe but if you do, it works wonders for the general taste. If you are so inclined, marinate with the optional lemon drops, salt, chili, coriander overnight or at least for half an hour:-) You can even marinate with just the lemon and salt.
I do the whole enchilada.

Heat oil in a pan. Add cardamom, cloves, cinnammon, pepper and fry shortly. Take good care so it won't burn. Add onion, green chilies, ginger, garlic and curry leaves preferably in that order. Add salt, mix well and saute till onion browns and curry leaves look appetizing. Now remove the mix from the pan and set aside.

Add beef to the remaining oil, stir and saute gently. Don't skip this step no matter which meat you use. (If you are not adding meat then go to the next step and follow all but instead of cooking 5 minutes add the veggies etc)

Add 1 cup warm milk and 1 cup water to this. Boil once and cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in between. Don't worry if the milk separates. Stir well whenever you can and eventually the whole dish will come out fine. Add potatoes, beans and carrot at this point. Boil once, add the set aside masala, add more water and 3/4 cup warm milk and cover and cook. It is better if the veggies are not overcooked. Check salt and stir occasionally. Once done add the remaining milk and remove from heat. Immediately add the vinegar, stir well and and add the remaining pepper powder and serve hot with 'hot' appams or idiappams.

This time with Real Hunted Meat

2009-01-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

Around New Year, my brother sent some venison ( hunted deer meat) from a young deer that he had caught. I had just the recipe for it!

Original/Nadan Duck Roast

2009-01-08T19:56:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone is enjoying the infant 2009. This recipe belongs to Mrs KMM with ever so slight adaptations. If the recipe sounds daunting, don't let that fool you. This is a winner and will always come out right regardless of your personal mood. What better you need from a recipe especially when you want to fill the table top with exotic sounding dishes for invited guests? The duck in this story comes fresh, undressed and with skin from the local Chinese grocery store. I leave the skin on.

In The Mix
Duck - 1 whole duck cut in medium to large sized pieces and each scored deep

large potatoes - 2 or 3 peeled and cut into concentric circles
big red onion - 1 large sliced thin (for greater taste, strain the onion with salt and squeeze to wilt before use)
warm milk - 2 cups
coconut milk - 1/4 or 1/2 cup (optional)
water - as needed
oil - as needed

To Marinate
coriander powder - 5 tsp
chili powder - 2 tsp
turmeric - 1/4 tsp
pepper powder - 1/2 to 1 tsp
cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
garam masala - 1 1/2 tsp (mix of equal amnts of cinnammon,cloves & cardamom powders)
garlic - 6 or 7 large cloves
ginger - 1 1/2" piece
vinegar - 1 1/2 tbsp (or 1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon)
salt - to taste

How To Do

Wash and pat dry the duck pieces. Chop ginger and garlic together and mix with rest of the marinade items including salt. Add in the duck pieces and marinate overnight or for 3-4 hours in the refrigerator.

Cook covered with 1 cup milk and enough water to almost cover the pieces. When done, separate the pieces and gravy. When you are pressed for time to prepare everything in a day, you can just follow the recipe up to this point a day or two ahead and keep refrigerated till D-day.

Heat oil in a pan to fry the potato pieces and drain on paper towels. Add the cooked duck pieces and fry all sides. Add oil as needed. Drain on paper towels.

Add onion to the remaining oil and saute well to brown. Now add the set aside gravy to the onions and add the remaining 1 cup milk. Boil the mixture, add the duck pieces and reduce to desired gravy consistancy. Stir occasionally so the milk won't separate too much. Thicker gravy is better for the dish but more gravy might be in order if going with porotta/chapathi or the likes. Either way, taste will be preserved. Check for salt. Add the optional coconut milk at this stage if you prefer, mix well and immediately remove from heat.

Pour into a serving dish and arrange with the fried potato pieces for oohs and aahs around the dinner table:-)

Pazham Pori – Fried Ripe Plantains

2008-12-29T14:30:00.000-08:00

The very mention of this snack brings the waterworks out of a Malayalee mouth, yet this is a universal snack enjoyed by people in the African and Asian continents and may be other places I am not aware of. The Keralite will content that this snack epitomizes the taste only when made with home grown Plantains aka, 'etha pazham' or 'nenthrakkaya'. I'd have to agree and yes of course my judgment is clouded:-)

My maternal Grandfather and then my Mom are the green thumbs in the family. I think the only one in my generation with such a thumb is my oldest brother. My Mom always had an enterprise of hers going on in parallel with our normal farm activities. First she eyes unused patches of land and decides which crop will grow there the best. Then she gathers moral, financial and labor support from my Grandfather, Dad and our Laborers in that order. It was always a pleasure to see the results of her enterprises. At times this could be a small but lushly grown peppercorn orchard, a fruitful garden of cocoa trees, a field of all varieties of plantain/banana plants etc. The best part always was taking a walk with her in the evenings for a visual enjoyment of the fruits of her labor both literally and figuratively! The way she talked of bringing it about always made for a sensible tale. She enjoyed talking about it and I loved hearing it. The most visually pleasing of course were the pepper vines as they grew entwined onto the Murikku trees which made for a very lush green background that one cannot resist but give in and drink up on. But most pleasing to the tummy was the bananas/plantains. I refer here to the small varieties of bananas as bananas and the large ones used for frying/steaming as plantains.

In her garden she had almost all varieties available commonly in Kerala. There were the 'njalipoovans', 'palayamkodans', 'kadalis', 'robustas' and many more. Don't know them by any other name. Robusta is the least favorite and palayamkodan used to be the most favorite to eat with 'puttu'. Now I seem to prefer 'njalipoovan' as that has a neutral pleasant flavor that appeals to all palates. When I visited the grocery stores here for the first time I gaped at the bountiful array of richly colored fruits and vegetables with awe. The amazement slowly gave way to disbelief when I found out that there is only “one” type of banana -yellow chiquitas- among all that variety. I even resigned myself to this sad fact. The odd plantains that sometimes showed up in grocery stores including Indian stores never were good enough to steam or fry. In recent years things have changed for the better. The local Indian store has chiquita – yes chiquita - plantains that come very close to the real thing and even the regular grocery stores sport them these days making it more convenient. Much to my delight the Indian store also has at least two varieties of the small bananas that tastes almost like the 'njalipoovan' of yore. Guess who makes a quick run to the Indian store to collect these bananas and gobble them up in no time? Isn't it great that yours truly is the only one with such a fancy for these small delights in the house and therefore the sole executor of the satisfying mission?

Once we discovered the large plantains I set about making the 'pazham pori'. We used to refer to it also as 'boli' back home which confused my husband to no end and which I changed as soon as I saw the 'real boli' from Trivandrum at a friend's place. I hope to get a recipe for that some day.

My Mom used to make 'pazham pori' often and she used to even have them prepared from a whole ripe bunch from her garden during the mid-summer vacations. They were cut into two lengthwise and kept in a bamboo basket after frying. The taste goes up exponentially the next day and didn't last much more than that. My HMom figured out this craving of mine and always take care to make this when we visit. My husband adores these too and when I make it here we have no difficulty polishing off platefuls between us. The kids blessedly are no big fans. While I sincerely regret that they find this not as delightful as I do, it also means Mom & Dad can enjoy all of it guilt free:-)

Now that you know I am crazy about bananas big or small, let us get back to business.

Here I make it a little different from how Mom used to make it.

In The Mix

large ripe plantains - 6

all purpose flour – 1 cup

milk – 1 cup

water – 1 cup

vanilla essence – 2-3 drops or 1/8 tsp

salt to taste

sugar – 4 tsp

oil – enough so the banana pieces are half submerged in it when frying

How To Do

Peel and cut the plantains in half and then each half into three pieces.

Mix all of the above except the oil together with a whisk. The amount of vanilla essence, salt and sugar can be modified according to your taste as the main intention is just to have all these flavors in there. Amount of flour can be added or removed depending on how much of it you want around the bananas. My husband prefers it covered in flour like in the 'chayakkada'/tea stall style and I prefer them leaner. This is the leaner version but if you add ½ cup more flour and keep the water and milk content the same then you get the other version.

Dip the cut plantains into the prepared mix.

Heat oil in a pan and when hot enough, add the dipped plantains one by one. Fry on each side for 1 min or so and drain on paper towels. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea and you are all set!

It's That Time of The Year Again! Fruitcake ( from Spicyana)

2008-12-13T12:17:00.001-08:00

I had never liked fruitcakes much and this didn't change when I tasted the fruit loaded brick of a fruitcake here too. But you can never underestimate the power of memories. The tangy taste of the fruitcakes I had with the little goblet of wine at wedding receptions apparently stayed with me. The whole memory was reawakened and became a forceful nostalgic quest for more when one of my friend's Mom made it here on a US visit and gave me a quite generous portion to take home. By the time the quest became insufferable – my logical mind could not believe that I actually wanted to make and eat this cake – her Mom had already gone back. So in a moment of courage – I am a follow the instructions on the cake mix box and make a pound cake once in a while girl - I set out on my always fruitful food blog searches for a recipe. After going through many excellent recipes, decided to try spicyana's fruitcake. I had always been fascinated by all those baked cakes.

I stayed true to the recipe with due exceptions made for what I could find and what I assumed. The Indian store I went to for shajeera said it is the same as kala jeera and so that is what I used. I made the caramel a little early in the day and it kinda hardened by the time it was to be added and I heated it up in the microwave to liquefy again. This did not seem to have affected the taste much. It was quite a success and by the time a week came around the cake was barely there! Every time I took the cake out for basting with Rum it went back in a little less:-)

The recipe is pretty much the same as at spicyana's. For some reason, I am not able to link to the single recipe but to a whole page which contains it and you will need to scroll down a bit to Dec 13 to find the recipe. I am reproducing it here with how I went about it so it is easier for me the next time. This is the second year I made it and intend to make it a regular feature of our X-mas activities. Family and friends who have tasted it love it and I myself have heavily fallen for it. Must be all that rum:-)

Dry Fruits

golden raisins - ¾ cup

black raisins - ¾ cup

dried apricots – 12 chopped

dried tart cherries - ¼ cup

orange juice (no pulp) – 1 cup

nutmeg powder – ¼ tsp

cloves – 3

honey – 2 tsp

rum – 4 tbsp (I used Bacardi Select original premium crafted rum. I am sure any rum is fine but being completely lost in that aisle, wanted to note what I finally picked)

grated orange rind – 2 tsp

Warm the orange juice, add all the dried fruits and the other ingredients together and keep for 2-3 days in an air tight container.

Caramel

sugar – 1 cup

water – 5 tbsp

butter - ½ tsp

Take 1 cup sugar in a pan and add 1 tbsp water to it. Heat till you see a color change and stir continuously from this point. Keep on stirring till all the sugar melts into a nice golden brown. Add butter and stir. Add the remaining water. Take care to add the water very slowly so it won't splash up onto you. The solution will bubble up and all that but don't worry and keep on stirring and remove from heat to cool. Try to make the cake before the caramel hardens, but if it does, then carefully microwave it or melt again.

In The Cake Mix

all purpose flour – 2 ¾ cup

baking powder – 2 tsp

confectioner's sugar – 1 cup

butter – 1 cup

eggs – 5

cinnamon – a pinch

ground kala jeera (shajeera?) - ¾ tsp

vanilla essence – 1 tsp

soaked fruits and caramel from above

Did not use 1/4 cup chopped flour coated cashew nuts as we don't prefer it in the cakes but add if you do.

How To Do

Preheat oven to 300F.

This will make two round shallow pans of cake.

Grease the cake pans with butter or shortening. I do this by keeping the pan with the butter in the oven while heating up, then taking it out and spreading the melted butter around. Did not use parchment paper and did not flour the pans. Just lazy!

Sift the flour with baking powder and all the spice powders.

Melt the butter and add sugar. Beat with an electric hand mixer for a minute.

Beat the eggs and add to the butter-sugar mix. Add vanilla essence and caramel. Beat for 4 minutes.

Add the prepared flour now little by little and mix well with a whisk.

Add soaked fruits and whisk it in or stir in with a spoon.

Pour into pans and place it in the preheated oven for 60 minutes.

Since these pans are shallow, they don't need more than 60 minutes, but a deeper pan needed about 1 hr and 15 minutes.

Cake is done when a fork inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for 15 minutes and unmold.

Bast with rum all around and cover in foil.

Repeat rum basting once a day for as many days as you are patient up to a week.

Not sure how long it will keep as every time it gets over within a week. I have mailed them across the US and reports indicate they were in perfect shape to be enjoyed on reception.

I can't believe I am making these cakes with gusto and would like to thank spicyana's winner of a recipe for making it possible.

Fish Cutlet - With Canned Tuna

2008-11-30T17:50:00.000-08:00

New pic above was added Sep 25, 2009 since I had always wanted to add a better picture. Granted this is not as best as it could be but I realize it is the best I could do before the whole set is gobbled up each time I make them now that my little girl also has joined the fish cutlet bandwagon.

Some years back when I came here as a student there was nary a kitchen bone in my body. Luckily my room mate was a business undergrad from Srilanka with at least a few of those bones if not many. She also was up to experimenting in the kitchen. This is based mostly on the canned tuna cutlet that she made successfully in our student kitchen. It was rather a welcome change from the calcium fortified orange juice which stood in for a meal many times for lack of time and inclination. She also had a toffee recipe that I diligently wrote down in my Mrs KMM cookbook then. That will come later.

My husband the resident 'beef cutlet' expert (yummy ones too!) kind of looked down on these 'fish cutlets' and they never got made. Finally he has turned his attention to fish as a possibility and this got me to look back on the forgotten recipe. The final version is mostly the old recipe with some cookbook references and some advice from the expert especially on techniques.

In The Mix

canned tuna - 500g (18oz)
green chili - 3
ginger - 3/4" piece
red onion - 1/4"
eggs - 2
potatoes - 2 medium sized
cinnamon stick - 1 piece ground (or 1/4 tsp powder)
cloves - 4 ground (or 1/4 tsp powder)
salt and pepper powder - to taste (can add chili powder instead of pepper)
oil - 1 tbsp + enough for frying
bread crumbs - enough to cover the cutlets

How To Do

Boil the potatoes, remove skin and mash very well.
Chop or thinly dice the onion, ginger and green chilies together.
Heat oil and saute onion, ginger, chili mix with salt.
Add cinnamon and cloves. This is optional but will add to the taste.
Mix together and add the tuna. Add pepper and more salt if needed.
Saute for a while and add the mashed potato.
Stir together in medium heat for 5-8 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Make into nice oval shapes by rolling and then flattening with your finger. I am obviously not an expert in this as witnessed in the pictures:-)

Beat the egg, dip the cutlets into this and roll in bread crumbs one by one. My husband has a very convenient system where he dips the cutlet with one hand, drops into the bed of crumbs and roll with the other hand which prevents your rolling hand from lumping up. This is indeed useful.

Now fill a pan with enough oil to cover more than half of the cutlet's sides and fry each side for a minute or two. Drain on paper towels and enjoy with old fashioned onion/vinegar/chili salad or with rice and papad. Had leftover oil? Fry those papads in it. Fishy papads are pretty good!

For Onion Salad
Slice one red onion. Squeeze together with vinegar, water and salt in a large strainer. Check for salt and a touch of vinegary taste. Mix with thinly sliced green chilies and onion salad is ready.

The pic below was the original top picture when I first published the post. Don't want to get rid of it...

Thoran - A Veggie-Coconut Preparation

2008-10-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

I received an award from Geeta of paytpooja. Geeta's blog is very informative and I love browsing there. It was a wonderful way to start an otherwise ordinary weekend. Thanks Geeta! I pass it on to all my readers and bloggers.

Thoran does not need an introduction for Malayalees. Nostalgia at its height is the smell of fresh grated coconut cooking with vegetables in coconut oil. I was not too much into any form of veggies when I was home but realized my folly when the smell hit me here and I felt this pang in my heart for the long lost days. Like mallugirl once said I guess it is better to try to recreate memories rather than abandoning them altogether. As usual once I hit the stride I just couldn't be stopped:-) So here I am with Thoran made of two veggies!! The recipes are alike, only the veggie changed. I used beans and tindora in these pictures and we ate it like treasured items. You know, when you finish most of the rice and curries but keep the yummiest portion to the end for a lasting taste.

Reminds me of an old forgotten story. My sister and I used to daringly pick 'champakka' from the rose apple trees in our yard and eat them with relish. I always kept the largest almost red fruits to the last for maximum enjoyment and most of the time ended up having no space for them:-) So it is not always a good idea to keep the best for the last...

Coming back to the Thoran, which nancy reminded me of, let me go over the short details of this delightful soul filling recipe below:

In The Mix
beans - 2 fresh bunches or 1 frozen packet (any veggies ex: tindora, cabbage etc can be prepared like this)
mustard - 1/4 tsp
urad dal - 1/4 tsp
onion - 1/2 sliced
green chili - 3 diced into circular shapes
curry leaves - as much as you want or 1 sprig
coconut powder - 1/2 cup (optionally can be hydrated in water a half hour or so before)
salt to taste
oil - 1/2 tbsp

How To Do
Cut the veggies or shell them as applicable if you are using fresh veggies. I had fun shelling some of the well grown beans which of course brought back memories of sitting with my mom and grandmother to shell them whenever they would let me. It was a kitchen duty grandmother enjoyed and therefore was her main responsibility just like shelling boiled eggs. If you can shell some beans, that will make it extra tasty. I couldn't get as much as I hoped and had to cut the rest but what I had still made a difference.

Cook the veggie with little or no water. Add salt to taste. Cook covered in high heat for 6 to 7 minutes. Dry out any remaining water. Since you are cooking on high heat, be sure to be somewhere close by so you won't have to be jolted back into reality by a burning smell..

Heat oil in a separate pan. Break mustard and urad dal. Add thinly sliced onions, green chilies and curry leaves in that order. Mix well and saute for a while. Add the coconut, mix and saute well. Now add the cooked veggie, blend all together and remove from heat. Enjoy with hot rice and butter milk curry. If the rice, thoran and butter milk are rolled into 'bally balls' as my kids would call it, you will keep on eating without realizing one's tummy getting to burst levels:-)

The appearance of the end result will slightly differ depending on how long you were willing to saute the coconut/onion mix as evidenced by the two preparations above.

Fried Chicken - From Vanitha

2008-10-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

Vanitha Magazine has this series where they write up on small local restaurants made famous through word of mouth. I find that I am becoming a fan of the one recipe that they usually give out from one of the popular items. So far everything I have tried have come out well. This is no exception.

The smell of the marinade is appetizing even before you start cooking. So I don't have to elaborate much on the aftermath. Guys and gals, get out your pans and aprons and get ready for a short and rewarding cooking experience.

In The Mix

Boned Chicken - 2 lbs (cut into medium pieces)
lemon drops - squeezed from 1/2 a lemon
salt to taste
oil - 1 cup or as needed

to crush
crushed red chili - 1 1/2 tbsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
cumin powder - 2 tsp
ginger - 2" piece (cut into 2 or 3 pieces)
garlic - 10 lean cloves

How To Do

Crush the 'to crush' items by adding one at a time to the mix. Add salt and lemon drops to this and mix well.

Marinate the chicken in the mix for 1/2 to 1 hour.

Heat oil and fry/cook the chicken on both sides. Drain on paper towels and enjoy as is or with rice and veggies. It is as easy as it sounds and yummy to boot. Want to try? Go for it!

Three-In-One

2008-10-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

I don't have a recipe today. Wanted to post about something which probably is well known among the initiated. This is best done when making fried chicken curry. I had almost forgotten the way my Mom used to do this and how I used to just wait for it. Well, the picture says it all. How to get three items with the labor of one!

Make sure some cooked rice is on hand.

Start making your favorite chicken curry. On its way to the finish line, stop right before where you reduce the gravy so it forms a thick coat. Scoop some up into a bowl with enough light gravy so it can accompany appam, porotta or chapathi. Item 1 is ready:-)

Now reduce the gravy to your end and Item 2 is ready as intended. Remove to serving dish.

But wait! Don't wash of the wok/pan/cheenachatti that you used to make the dish. I hope you left some small chicken crumbs and stuff in the pan. Bring out the rice and add to the pan. Mix all together with some salt and your instant fried rice and thus Item 3 is ready!

Enjoy the fried rice with yogurt, papad and if you must, the chicken dish you prepared.

Enjoy the earlier gravied dish another day with suitable accompaniments.

My Grandmother and I were opponents when the rice was prepared in this manner. No one else I guess even knew this was available since the two of us saw to it immediately! Then of course we won't be 'that hungry' for the subsequent lunch or dinner:-) Mom always did this in a special cheenachatti made of bronze that shone like gold on the inside and like onyx on the outside. Another household favorite here.

Chicken Vindaloo

2008-09-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

Not long after I got married, my Hmom lovingly sent us a cookbook and a bunch of handwritten notes with her own recipes. Little did she know the impoverished nature of my relationship with the kitchen then! I used the cookbook in addition to my KMM's book but didn't dare go near the handwritten recipes as they were written by an expert for an expert. It is only recently that I have come to believe that I could try out stuff from it to good results.

Vindaloo is not a favorite of me or my husband but he loves it when it is done in pork. Since I am not a fan of that particular meat, I had long wanted to try the recipe with chicken instead. This is exactly what I did this weekend and it came out very well if my husband the vindaloo connoisseur is to be believed. I made a discovery alongside the process and it is that this vindaloo could be the meat version of 'meen pattichathu'. Also the resulting dish tastes a hundred times better if you realize it to be meat pickle akin to shrimp pickle. Do try it and let me know if this is true or not. That is, if you happen to catch a vindaloo bug while reading this:-)

In The Mix

chicken - 2 lbs cut into medium to small pieces ( boneless chicken is best for this recipe)
water - as needed (not more than 1 cup)
vinegar - 8 to 10 tbsp depending on yout tolerance to its taste
sugar - 1 tsp (decrease or increase sugar content based on resulting taste)

to grind
red chili powder - 4 tbsp
kashmiri chili powder - 2 tbsp
dry red chili powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
cumin powder - 1 tsp
ginger - 1" piece
garlic - 6to7 small to medium cloves
mustard - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste

to season
mustard - 1/4 tsp
shallot - 1/2sliced
curry leaves - 1 sprig or less
oil - 1 tbsp

How To Do

Grind all the 'to grind' ingredients together in a blender with 2-3 tbsp of vinegar and some water.

Heat oil, break mustard and add sliced shallots and curry leaves and saute for a while. Add the ground mixture and saute well till the mix is roasted. Now add the remaining vinegar, sugar, salt if needed to the mix and add the chicken pieces. Mix well together and cover and cook in low heat. Should not take more than 15 minutes.

Dilute with water if needed or add more vinegar for personal taste. If there is more liquid, heat on high to reduce as this is better to taste with minimal gravy. Enjoy with rice and vegetables. Since this is rather new to me I have not yet perfected this recipe but have noted here all the adjustments I made while making this as reference.

Kadala/Channa Curry for Puttu

2008-09-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

Obviously cooking's been going on in Cheenachatti. No one can survive that long without food! OK, maybe some:-) Puttu was one of the stars that made many appearances and I remembered that I had not blogged about Kadala Curry which almost unfailingly accompanies Puttu in its journeys to the netherworld, er.., I mean tummy. I usually make it with canned garbanzo beans which is the best kind of kadala for this kind of curry. Since it is already cooked, soaking and cooking times are pretty much taken care of. But today is when I got blogging time and feeling a little nostalgic, I had made the curry with black kadala. So this post is on that.

In The Mix

Channa/Kadala - 2 cups of black kadala (or 2-3 cans of garbanzo beans)
mustard - 1/2 tsp
curry leaves - a sprig or two
green chili - 3 each cut to 3-4 pieces lengthwise
red onion - 1/2 sliced
ginger - 1/2" piece sliced to splinters
coriander powder - 4 1/2 tbsp
chili powder -2 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
garam masala - 1/4 tsp (made from equal measure mix of cardamom/cloves/cinnamon powder)
warm milk - 2 cups
water - 1 or 2 cups
salt to taste

How To Do

Soak kadala in water for 4-5 hours. This step is not needed when using canned garbanzo beans. Need to take care to drain the water out if using garbanzo.

Heat oil in a pan, break mustard and add curry leaves. Then saute onion, green chili and ginger in that order and mix well with salt. Add all the curry powders. Add 1-2 tbsp of water so everything mixes well together. Roast the mix till everyone at home get the scent of spice powders in the air and can't wait to taste the curry that goes with it:-)

Add the milk and water and boil. Add kadala, let boil once, lower heat to medium and cook covered for 12-15 minutes. (If you are adding garbanzo the cooking time is 2-3 minutes just so everything blends well.) Stir once or twice during this time so the milk won't get separated out too much. Channa curry is ready to be mixed in with puttu and devoured. Some eat this with flat appams and even rice and while I found it all not too bad, I must admit that for me kadala is made for puttu and puttu only.....

The seasoning part of breaking mustard with curry leaves can be done in the end too. Just do that in another small pan and add to the curry at the very end. The latter looks a lot better while taste remains pretty much the same in either case.

Smoothie - Smooth and Easy!

2008-08-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

Smoothie shops are all abound. Yet there is only one shop that I care to have smoothie from and for this one I am willing to go the extra mile - the shop being at the other end of the mall :-) - just for my pine-orange-banana fix.

As always when a craving hits I have to get to work I guess. This was before food blogs. I had yet to discover them. But I could still search for a recipe couldn't I? I found a whole bunch and after many a try, public opinion settled on my current and final adaptation. Be forewarned that you will need a blender with ice crushing option for this.

In The Mix

ice cubes - 12
milk - 1 cup
ripe banana - 1
sugar - 4 tsp
frozen fruit concentrate - about 4 oz. or 120 ml.

How To Do

Put all the ingredients and blend using the 'ice crusher' button. Blend till all the ice is crushed but not so it turns into water. A smoothie needs the crunchiness of the 'yet to melt snow cone' ice texture to give it credit. Should not take more than a minute. Do the crushing in bursts to make sure the smoothie is retaining the desired texture. When it comes to a smoothie, it is all about texture, texture, texture. At least for me:-) Pour into glasses and settle down for a lazy afternoon. The above will make four cups.

Any fruit concentrate will do but pineapple-orange is the best with banana. Orange-mango is the next best and this is what I used here. I usually buy a 12 oz can and use 1/3rd of it each time. Also don't add more sugar than what is given no matter how much you are tempted as that will take away the subtle sweetness of the smoothie and render it rather common. I am sure using other fresh fruits instead of the fruit concentrate will also work but I just have not tried it, having found 'the one' already!

Vermicelli Pulau

2008-07-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

Remember the vermicelli package that enticed me? I had two of those and this is what I did with the other one:-) The package had a recipe for pulau on it and that was just what I needed as a start. Lately my husband had been complaining a little more than usual about the successful marginalization of veggies on our dining table.

I am always open to veggies so long as they are not alone. So this turned out to be the perfect idea for a Sunday brunch. All steps except the veggie cooking details are as in the recipe. Since the experiment was successful, I followed the same steps albeit with the readily available cooked rice for many days till my husband went from pleasant surprise to shock to acceptance. And that was my cue to forget about veggies till next time:-))

In The Mix

vermicelli – 200gm

vegetables – any in the fridge. fresh or frozen. no need to thaw.

raw rice - 1/4 tsp

urad dal - 1/4 tsp

chopped onion - ¼ red red onion chopped

green chili – 3 sliced in thin circles

curry leaves - 1 sprig

water - 1 1/2 cup

salt to taste

oil - 3 tsp

How To Do

Cook veggies as follows: Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. Stir in the veggies. Sprinkle salt and mix together. Cook by covering in high heat for 5 min. I had available frozen kovakka(tindora), beans, fresh carrots, and frozen cauliflower. They were languishing since I had good intentions but never got around to them. I put a handful of each in for the cooking. 5 or 6 minutes of covered cooking is more than enough. Don't add water.

Heat 1 tsp oil in another pan and fry the vermicelli for a minute or so or till golden brown. Remove the vermicelli and add remaining oil to the pan. Add rice and urad dal and saute lightly. Add the sliced chili and fry. Add curry leaves too and the cooked vegetables. Add the water to boil all together. Check salt and add as needed. Now mix in the fried vermicelli and cook covered for 5 minutes in medium heat. Stir occasionally to prevent clustering. Serve on its own or with yummy chicken masala .

The same process can be used with rice instead of vermicelli. I use cooked rice and so after the veggies are added no need to add water. Maybe 1 or 2 tbsp of water. Mix well and cover and cook for 1-2 minutes and you are all done!

Chicken Masala - from Live To Eat

2008-07-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

When I have a chicken urge I take refuge in Malluspice's pages and had always been a satisfied customer. Armed with this confidence I tried out a chicken recipe from another blog - Live To Eat. The recipe was a little different from what I am used to and reminded me of a pork vindaloo recipe that we have tried sometimes. It came out very well with nicely blended flavors in an appealing color and goes totally with any kind of carb you have at home!!. I can see this will be a keeper. I am repeating the recipe here for my own reference. I scaled the measures up to go with the quantity I had.

In The Mix
chicken : 3 lbs cut into pieces
red onion - 2 chopped
tomatoes - 2 diced
cloves - 12
cardamom pods - 6
cinnammon stick - 3" thin stick broken to pieces
curry leaves - 1 sprig or 2
salt to taste
oil - 3 to 4 tbsp
water - 3 to 4 cups
To Grind: dry red chilies - 22
garlic pods - 12
ginger - 4" piece
mustard seeds - 2 tsp

How To Do
Grind the 'to grind' ingredients in a blender with little water. I was hesitant about using so much chili but the result was wonderful. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan to brown the onions and set aside. Heat 2 tbsp in the same pan, add cloves, cardamom and cinnamon and saute. After a minute add the ground mix and slow roast till oil separates. Add chopped tomatoes and stir till tomatoes are cooked. I added salt at this stage.

Add cut chicken pieces and mix well so the pieces are coated. Fry to brown. Now add onions and curry leaves and stir for another minute. Add 3 cups of hot water to the pan, mix well and cook covered in medium heat.

Goes with anything. Thanks to Live To Eat for a yummy recipe .

Fish Fry & Fresh Caught Trout

2008-07-19T21:47:00.000-07:00

You don't always have to go fishing like my brother to eat fresh caught fish. But you need good neighbors who do and graciously share their bounty. This is how we came to get a foot and half long fresh trout the other day. Since my son complained that we haven't been making fried fish - his favorite form of fish - I decided to do just that. Fried fish will always turn out to be tasty if you follow a few simple rules regardless of what is in the marinade.

1. Never freeze fish after you buy it. If you have to then always thaw in the fridge.
2. Add enough salt to the marinade. This is usually a little more than your usual salt to taste.
3. Marinate overnight in the fridge after scoring the pieces well.
4. Fry to crisp.

In The Mix

Fish cut into pieces and scored with a sharp knife on both sides- I had about 8-9 pieces from the trout
oil - 1 1/2 cups or enough to cover half of the fish pieces

For Marinade

fish masala powder - 1 tbsp (any brand will be fine)
chili powder - 1 tsp
kashmiri chili powder - 1 tbsp
powder mix of equal amounts of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom - 1/4 tsp
shallots - 1 chopped
vinegar - 2 or 3 tbsp
salt to taste

How To Do

Mix the marinade items together and marinate the fish overnight in the fridge. The cinnamon, cloves, cardamom powder is optional. If you don't have it, just add 1/2 tsp of coriander powder. Heat oil in a flat bottomed pan in high heat. Put the fish pieces in and lower the heat to between medium and high. After 3-4 minutes turn over to the other side. Again after 3-4 minutes remove from oil and drain on paper towels. You can leave the fish till your desired crispiness is achieved. This can be done by waiting long enough or by sprinkling some salt water on both sides right before you remove from the oil. The latter is a tip from my husband that I was quite amazed to see work well.

Enjoy with plain rice, yogurt and papadam or enjoy on its own fresh off the fire.

Semiya Payasam - Vermicelli Pudding

2008-07-13T11:14:00.001-07:00

Guess it is time for a dessert. I have pretty much come to the end of my humble recipe arsenal anyway:-) The ones that I make the most often I mean. Semiya Payasam is actually being made the first time. It all started when my eyes fell on the colorful package of vermicelli during one of our Indian store trips. I have had the payasam quite often in Kerala as well as here and knew it was rather easy to make. Only problem was when the mood struck me, there were no cashews or raisins at home and so I went with almonds instead. Not a bad choice for a substitute. Wished I had the raisins though as I have a soft corner for those in any food, be it biriyani or dessert.

Speaking of almonds, I remember this almond tree on the way to the church that had great fascination for us kids. Especially on the way back when we were all hungry for lunch. It had really large leaves akin to oak trees but what attracted us were the green/purple fruits that dropped on the ground when birds were trying to chip off the outer shell. I don't know how the birds could break that shell and maybe they were just eating the soft outer layer, but we could collect 2 or 3 per person as a result of their efforts. Then the hard work of finding good stones to be the breaker and the breakee so we could pop the heavenly delicious almonds into our starved mouths. It was never enough and always left a thirst for more..Sorry to go on but my kids love a childhood story and let me continue for them. The tree had long since been cut down and I didn't know what we knew as 'badam' is what is called tropical almond till much later. If my older sister who was then a botany student was with me then she would name the botanical names of the trees and plants on the way. I was fascinated by botanical names and russian full names and some of them stay with me till now. I don't remember the plant alongside the botanical name though and searching on an impulse I find that 'terminalia cattappa' is this almond. Read all about the almonds here. Some of the other names I remember are 'mimosa pudica', 'lucas aspera' and of course 'hibiscus rosa-sinensis'. These names stay with you not for any reason but they are there as part of your memory. Maybe like Kunta Kinte's 'gambi bolongo' this may evolve over time and morph into similar sounding but different names.

Recipe for Semiya Payasam sans cashew and raisins.

In the Mix

vermcelli - 200gms (cut into shorter pieces if long)
almonds - 5 or 6 diced and fried
sugar - 1 cup
milk - 6 cups (i use 2% )
water - 6 cups (could be more or less depending on how thick you want the payasam to be)
vanilla essence - 1 or 2 drops
cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
oil or ghee - 2 tsp

How To Do

Heat oil or ghee and fry the vermicelli till golden brown. Set aside.
Boil milk and water together. As always when heating milk be nearby to avoid boil overs and keep stirring. Add vermicelli and cook for 10-12 minutes. Keep the above caution about milk in mind. Add sugar, almonds, cardamom powder, vanilla essence and mix together for a few minutes. Remove from heat. Add more water or reduce as you like. This can be done at any stage so long as the payasam has not gone to room temp. Slurp on warm or cold depending on the mood.

I didn't have cardamom powder either. Before you wonder if I have anything at all of use in the kitchen let me disclose I indeed had regular cardamoms:-) Hmom to the rescue! Seeing our fashionably modern but quite useless pestle and mortar set from Williams-Sonoma, she packed off a "real" one that can do the deed with some friends as soon as she reached home.

So when you find you don't have a certain item in powdered form you can always go to the mortar. This worked out nicely and I even have extra for another time. Remember of course that with cardamom we need to remove the husks.