Rice, Coconut, Jaggery Dumpling aka Kozhukatta for Lazarus Saturday

This nostalgic snack seems to be connected to the Eastern Church origins of Kerala christianity.  The native name in Malayalam seems to have originated from the shape and content of the snack  which is stuffed with a coconut and jaggery mix. Here 'kozhu/kozhi' is for hen and 'katta' could be for the egg shape. This is my conjecture upon finding that the Saturday before palm Sunday has no commonly used name in Roman catholicism while it is celebrated as Lazarus Saturday in Eastern Christianity. A sweet snack named lazarkia is made in Greece and Cyprus to celebrate Lazarus Saturday. That day is simply known as 'kozhukatta sani' in our families and 'sani' of course is Saturday.

In The Mix

rice powder - 1 cup

hot water - 1 cup or more

olive oil - 1 1/5 tbsp

salt to taste

grated coconut - 2 cups

jaggery/'sarkkara' - 200 grams

water - 3/4 cup

cumin powder - 1 tsp

cardamom powder - 1 1/2 tsp

ginger powder - 1/4 tsp

How To Do

Boil water in a pan and add oil and salt to taste. Remove from heat and set aside. Add rice powder in and keep stirring with a spoon until cool enough. Then knead by hand for a minute or so. Make into a loose ball shape and set aside.

Heat water and add the jaggery in. Keep stirring until all jaggery melts. Add cumin, cardamom and ginger powders. Check salt and add as needed. Once the syrup thickens, add coconut and keep stirring until all the water evaporates. The mix should stay soft and pliable.

Take dough in the shape of a small lime and flatten out with your hands. Fill with the jaggery mix and close all back together to form a ball or 'katta'. Add some oil to your hand if the dough sticks. Repeat until dough and mix are done. Be sure to ward off hands that reach for the jaggery mix if you have any hopes of yielding a decent number of these snacks. Be aware that this hand might as well be yours too:-)

                   

Steam cook for 15-20 minutes, let cool and enjoy!

Flattened Rice Flakes with Brown Sugar aka Aval Vilayichathu

 It will soon be a year since full time working from home started for us!  This snack was made and in the drafts folder since the start of #coronatime. And I am posting it today to wish every woman a happy day on this International Women's Day.

This was a snack that mom used to send with us for our hostel days since it keeps without spoiling for a while. I have a weak spot for jaggery over sugar and this one was a favorite. Can't believe it took Covid for me to recreate this quick magic of the nostalgic old times.

In The Mix

'aval'/flattened rice flakes - 1 cup

jaggery syrup -  2 1/2 cups

fresh grated coconut - 2 cup

cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

How To Do

Heat jaggery in 3 cups of water to make the syrup in a pan till you get about two and half cups. Now add the coconut to it, reduce heat and keep on stirring until it gets sticky and remove from heat.

Let cool a little, add the 'aval'  and cardamom powder and mix well together. Enjoy!

Easy Uzhunnu/Methu Vada with Tomato Chutney #coronatime

Unlike the ever popular parippu vada, making its cousin the uzhunnu vada takes some planning especially if this is your first time. So I conducted a thorough research mostly limited to you-tube food channels featuring vada recipes. The ingredients were common among the channels with some variations. But each had a trick or tip to make the process a bit easier, all of which I embraced wholeheartedly. VahChef, Mias's kitchen, Veena's curry world, Salu kitchen  and mrudula's cookbook were some of these channels. One thing I realized was that since I have a wet grinder I am better equipped to make the uzhunnu vada than most! With a wet grinder the batter gets naturally aerated and needs no hand beating.

Tips:

1. Soaking urad dal overnight is ideal but soaking for 2-3 hours is sufficient to get a good vada. 

2. Vada batter needs the least amount of water and a wet grinder is best to make this happen. Food processors are ok but the batter may need aeration by hand.

3. If using a mixer/blender, grind in small quantities and add water by the tablespoon. The batter should be more coarse than fine in all cases.

4. Batter consistency is achieved when a dollop of batter dropped into a bowl of water stays afloat. If it doesn't, then beat the batter with hands to add more air and check again.

5. Adding 1-2 tbsp of rice flour makes the vada more crispy and helps to reduce water content in the batter 

6. Do not add salt to the batter until the very end

7. To make vada on the same day, you can add a pinch of baking soda to the batter without having to cover and wait for it to rise for 1-2 hours.

8. Vada will be flat on one side if made in a 12" pan as opposed to a wok shaped pan where it can float.

9. Always wet your hands before handling the batter for cooking so it won't stick to your hands

10. For convenience, place the rounded batter on a wet flat spatula and make a hole before dropping into hot oil.

In The Mix

urad dal - 2 cups (makes about 24 vadas)

water - 10 to 11 tbsp

rice four - 1 to 2 tbsp

baking soda - 1/4 tsp

shallots - 2 peeled and chopped

long green chili - 1 or 2 chopped

ginger - 1.5" medium sized piece, crushed and chopped

curry leaves - from 1or 2 small sprigs, chopped

cumin seeds - 1/4/ tsp

crushed pepper corns - 1/4 tsp 

salt - to taste

oil - enough to cover at least half of the vada in a flat pan or for the vada to float in a wok like pan. I used a flat pan this to make 8-9 vadas in one batch.

How To Do

Wash and soak the urad dal for 2-3 hours, drain and add to the wet grinder. Add 4-5 tbsp of water and start grinding. Add the remaining water and grind to a coarse consistency. Use a small portion and check to make sure the batter floats in water.

Add rice flour and baking soda to the batter and mix well. Now add all the remaining ingredients except salt and combine all together with hands. Add salt to taste.

Heat oil and a keep a bowl of water handy. Wet your hands and take a small ball of batter and place is it on the flat end of a metal spatula. Make a hole with wet fingers and drop gently into hot oil using the spatula.

Repeat to drop more vadas into the oil and turn over a few times to cook. Ideally 1-2 min on each side depending on the heat of your stove. Keep it on medium high heat. Remove with slotted spoon, drain on paper towels and enjoy with coconut chutney, tomato chutney or both.

For Tomato Chutney

tomatoes - 3 medium sized, quartered

shallot - 2 peeled and quartered

green chili - 1 or 2 halved

curry leaves - 4 or 5 leaves

chili powder - 1/4 tsp

turmeric - pinch

salt to taste

oil - 1-2 tbsp

Heat oil in a pan and saute all ingredients together. Cover and cook on medium heat for 5-6 minutes and set to cool. Grind all together and season with some mustard and curry leaves. Enjoy with piping hot uzhunnu vada.

Easy Banana Bonda #coronatime

I like to call it the banana nut bread of Kerala. Even the kids decided to give it a try when I called it by this name and liked it too! A perennial presence inside the glass cabinets of local tea shops in Kerala, this snack was my favorite over the equally good looking 'neyyappam'. Of course bonda cannot compete with the ever popular and crowd pleasing parippu vada or pazham pori. But every snack deserves its day and that day has finally arrived. And what unprecedented and trying days these are!

No matter who you talk to, where you look, the problems are the same. The entire world is on its knees because of a tiny organism.  Economies have ground to a halt and people are prisoners in their own homes. I pray that this shall soon pass from us.

On the good side of this global pandemic is the fact that all four of us are under the same roof again after my son leaving for college. Kids are schooling from home now and parents are working from home. Cooking for a full house with minimized options for buying out when also working full time is quite the challenge. I am sure this is not just my problem. I was like fish out for water the first 2-3 weeks. But now we have found our rhythm and I also find that one can be quite creative with minimum resources. And old habits shed easily in face of challenges. I no longer have any issues with bread kept in the fridge and small leftover pieces of ginger are plastic wrapped and saved for another time instead of just dumping it etc.

 Going out for groceries is akin to hunting for food where masks and sanitizer sprays are your weapons. The triumph you feel on scoring a carton of eggs or a gallon of milk before the hoarders find them is unparalleled. So also is that great feeling when at the dot of 12.00PM you are able to click into a grocery delivery slot at Amazon before it disappears in front of your eyes. Then comes the de-sanitizing regimen developed more for our peace of mind than anything else. Once the delivery person leaves the stuff at the door step, we wear gloves and bring it all inside the garage. Non-perishables are left in the garage where they stay until 24 hours for paper packaged items like snack boxes and 3 days for plastic covered items like bread and bagels. Milk, chicken and other packed perishables are sanitized with wipes and washed in cold water and dried before putting them in the fridge. Fresh vegetables are dropped contact free into a clean bag or container before refrigerating. Eggs go through their own special regimen where each gets sanitized, washed, dried and kept in clean used cartons. Peel-able fruits like oranges and bananas are just allowed to stay in a specific area in the garage for a while before bringing them in. Some bananas end up with those dreaded black spots all over with no one vying to consume them. These were used to make banana nut bread which is a favorite breakfast/snack around here.

With youtube vloggers picking up the slack during this global shutdown there is no dearth of good food vlogs. It is this vlog by Rani of salt & pepper that provided the inspiration and recipe for this bonda a.k.a undam pori. It seems very close to unniyappam which is better shaped I think.  So it was that the 2 over ripe bananas with no takers in the kitchen got transformed into these yummy snacks. I made some minor recipe changes based on what was available in the house.

In The Mix

over ripe bananas - 2 or 3
all purpose flour - 1 cup plus 1 or 2 tbsp

jaggery/sarkara or dark brown sugar - enough to make about 1 cup syrup
water - 1/4 cup
cardamom - 3
cumin - a pinch
ginger - 1/4" or less
salt - a pinch
grated coconut/coconut flakes or powder - 1-2 tbsp

option 1 rising agent

rapid rise yeast - 1 tsp
warm water - 2 or 3 tsp
sugar - 1/4 tsp

option 2 rising agent

baking soda - 1 tsp

oil -  1/2 cup or as needed

How To Do

Crush jaggery to 1/2" sized pieces for easy dissolving, add to 1/4 cup water and set on medium heat to make a syrup.

Crush cardamom, cumin and ginger and add in and stir all together. Once liquified, reduce a bit, drain and set aside to cool.

Add yeast and sugar to warm water and mix well together if using this option. No need for it to rise. 

Peel the bananas and mash all together and add the syrup. Now add in all purpose flour and mix together for a bit thicker than banana nut bread like consistency. Add in the yeast mix or baking soda. Add or reduce flour as needed.  Add a pinch of salt and coconut flakes and gently fold all together. The best feature of this recipe is that it can be made right away.

Heat oil in a pan on medium high heat. Take some batter in a spoon shape/fold it in with another spoon and gently drop into the oil once it is hot. There should be enough oil to cover more than half of the batter ball. Turn over once when sides brown and set aside to drain on paper towels. Yum😋

Triple Hazelnut Truffle

This is an easy dessert or shall I say, snack? After all that work they do taste like glorified milk chocolate which is perfectly fine with me. The crunch gives it a healthy snack persona:-) And beware, if you hope to taste some you might as well do that right away since there may not be any left if you wait. So here is the scoop which is actually available all over the net with a search for 'triple hazelnut truffle'. I found this recipe in a magazine while waiting - can you guess? - in the dentist's office!

In The Mix

Nutella Hazelnut Spread - 3 tbsp
Hazelnut flavored liqueur - 2 1/2 tbsp
Light colored corn syrup - 1 tbsp
Milk Chocolate - 5oz
Hazelnuts - 1/3 cup (salted, toasted)

How To Do

The 'triple' in the name comes from the three forms of hazelnut in the recipe. Since my girl and I spent most of the time hunting for the liqueur, we substituted hazelnuts with walnuts which were easily found that day. The liqueur maybe difficult to find. Frangelico is the recommended brand. Can be substituted with any fancy sounding hazelnut syrup as we did.

Once you are setup with all the ingredients, you need an expert chopper like my girl. Chop away the walnuts and chocolate to as small as you have time for. She does this job very well.

Now mix all the ingredients together and boil in a double boiler. I just boil water in a larger pan, place the ingredients in a smaller pan and place it over the boiling water. Keep on stirring while all ingredients mix together. Remove from heat and set to cool after pouring into a flat pan. You can refrigerate it to satisfy little people who cannot wait that long.

Once cooled, make them into little balls and start enjoying right away. I had some biscotti at home that I dipped into the still pliant mix and results were extremely satisfying as you can see below. Gives it a nice twist. I loved these too. But kiddos preferred the truffles. Easy activity, tremendous returns!

The Great Outdoors & Parippu Vada (Lentil Cakes)

We finally did that thing that an average family aspires to do at least once. Yup, we went camping this weekend and spent an entire night in a tent nestled among tall redwoods! We went hiking, made s'mores, parippu vadas and tea and really just chilled.

Managed to watch a Malayalam movie on our fully charged laptop before retiring for the night! There was no cell phone access and even the mosquitoes decided to give us some space.

Boy was it fun.. Needless to say, the kids and H loved it. What was surprising was how much fun I had! I love the outdoors but not to the extent where I want to sleep in it. The buck stops at sleeptime. This camp site however had everything I could wish for. Full car access so we don't have to haul camping supplies along a long hike to the actual site. Bathrooms with
flushing toilets and hot showers not too far off and mild and relaxing hikes so my 8 year old won't tire so fast. Happy kids, happy mommy!

The weather last weekend was just perfect too. As the evening set we made s'mores in the warm comfort of the campfire.

We were also lucky to get a site that was hidden enough but close to the amenities. The stars just conspired to make me thoroughly enjoy this first trip. Let us hope it will continue. H and son had gone camping one time before with another father-son pair and that experience helped us to prepare for this one. As we are putting away the supplies I hope to do at least one more camping trip this year. When you are at camp and if you are not hiking or relaxing then you are probably engaged in cooking. We wanted to eat some parippu vadas for snacking and this is what led me to bring along ground parippu mix on the trip. It was worth the trouble of making patties and frying them when we dropped them into our mouths washed in with some freshly prepared tea!

So here is the scoop on the vadas. I know many of you are parippu vada experts. Since the first recipe I tried from spicyana came out well, I had always relied on it to reproduce the magic. She has combined it with a 'rasam' recipe for 'rasavadas'. I just follow the vada part of it. Thanks spicyana for this wonderful recipe with easy to follow steps.

In The Mix

lentils/parippu - 2 cups (i used toor dal. chana dal is also good)
ginger - 2tbsp (finely chopped)
onions - 1/2 cup finely chopped (spicyana's recipe asks for 1 cup)
green chilies - 1 tbsp chopped
curryleaves - 5 -10 leaf petals (i forgot to add it this time)
salt to taste

How To Do

Wash, drain and soak the parippu in water for 2-3 hours. Chop ginger, onions and green chilies finely. Now is the time to make that tea. Drain the parippu well and grind coarsley while adding salt to taste.
It is good to see a full sized parippu disc once in a while in the mix. Add the chopped mix to the ground parippu and keep covered for 10 minutes or so for flavors to blend. In our case it sat in the cooler for a few hours. All for the better!

Make flat round patties from the mix and set aside. Make sure the patties are not too thick in the middle even if the rounds are large. Light the stove and heat oil in a wide, flat bottomed pan. Add the patties one by one to the oil and fry on both sides till golden brown and crunchy if you like'em crisp. Drain on paper towels.

Sit down with tea cup in hand and finish it all off while still warm!

Chef Viviani's Sugar Cookies

I have to get this off my chest. I've been bad, very.. very.. bad. Yup, I'd been rolling in materialism. In the pursuit of acquiring things, in the process of placing them at various places in the kitchen and admiring them shamelessly. Kitchen possessions never meant much to me as it is sort of a work place if you think about it. Now, a reading nook with ample sunlight is something to talk about. But, but...redoing our kitchen awoke something in me and I find myself constantly on the lookout for things for the kitchen. Thankfully I can feel it coming to an end. Till then I will be enjoying my worldly kitchen possessions with pride and glee:-)

On the other hand Chef Fabio Viviani's cooking show is all about making good Italian food and not at all about materialism. Most recipes seem loaded but he is very engaging and we end up wanting to try a few of those seemingly simple recipes. One such recipe was for this sugar cookie. The perfect opportunity presented itself when one of my daughter's friends came over for a playdate during the much relaxing Easter break.

What is good about the sugar cookies is how easy they are to make. Their uses are many fold! For bowling over your friendly neighbor's grandkids, as a warm welcome gift to our new neighbor lady on the other side and to get the most important customers in your own household jumping with joy. Don't let the simple appearance fool you. These old fashioned treats are indeed a treat. You find yourself reaching for another one after telling yourself the first one tasting sooo good must be a fluke. Recipe follows from Chef Viviani's site. They are called Mama's Sugar Cookies. Yields 4 dozen. In the comments there was a discussion about the quantity of baking powder and soda being swapped. So I swapped when I made them as it made more sense to have more baking powder than soda and is listed here as I made.

In The Mix
Almost exact copy from the Yahoo Shine site except pics which are mine.

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1/3 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

How To Do

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a small bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder with a whisk and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth with a hand or stand mixer.
Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients in two parts, mixing thoroughly between each addition. I am finding that adding ingredients is a piece of cake with a stand mixer. Hands free!
Mix the dough until the dough pulls away from the edges of the bowl.
Place dough on on a floored surface.

Roll dough into one large log and wrap in plastic wrap and chill to firm for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes slice into ½ inch cookies.

Place sliced cookies on baking sheet.
Bake 8 minutes, and rotate the pan, then bake another 8 min. in the preheated oven, or until golden.
Let stand for a few minutes to make it easier to handle before removing to fully cool.

Store in a an air-tight cookie jar and enjoy whenever you feel like having a good relaxed time. I dip'em in coffee sometimes to honor an old habit from childhood and they taste oh so delicious and homey!

Still Here..

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!

Added 5/19/2012:

Found an even better chocolate frosting at joyofbaking and have to add it here for later.
unsweetened chocolate - 3 oz chopped coarsely
unsalted butter - 1/2 cup softened
confectioners powder - 1 cup
vanilla extract - 1 tsp

 Melt the chocolate in a stainless steel  bowl over boiling water and cool to room temp.
Cream butter with a mixer for about one minute and add sugar slowly and beat until light and fluffy. About 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla extract  and add chocolate on low speed to mix well. Then beat on medium speed to the right consistency (2-3 min)

Madakku San / Coconut Filled Crepe

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?

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

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

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!!

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

"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.

Ariyunda - A Powdered Rice Snack

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.