Onion Bhaji

Tea time snack is a thing that we cannot resist making. Usually I go for sweet snacks but the idea of savory snack came from my husband as usual.

Ingredients

• 4 onions thinly sliced by cutting into halves
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 1/2 cup chickpea flour or besan
• 2 Tbsp rice flour
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• a pinch of cumin seeds
• some chopped coriander leaves
• oil for frying

Method

1. Mix all ingredients except onions and coriander leaves. 
2. Pour water into the ingredients to make a thick paste and then add coriander leaves followed by onions.
3. Heat about 1 inch oil in a skillet on high heat.
4. Pour a tablespoon of the onion batter into the oil and fry until it turns brown.
5. Turn over the other side and fry

Happy Cooking!

Stuffed Chicken / Kozhi Nirachathu

When I first saw this recipe in couple of blogs, thought its too complicated. It is but you won't regret for it. Now this is one of my favorite recipe.

Ingredients

• Whole Chicken around 2kg (you can use a small one)

For marinating

• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 Tbsp olive oil ( any cooking oil will do)
• salt to taste

For stuffing

• 1 or 2 eggs 
• 3 big onions
• 1/2 tsp garlic paste
• 1/4 tsp ginger paste
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• oil 
• salt to taste
• kitchen twine for tying the chicken's legs and wings

Veggies used (optional) I recommend 

• potato - 1 or 2 cut into big chunks
• carrot - 1 cut into big chunks
• sweet potato - 1 cut into chunks

For gravy

• 4 big onions
• 1/2 tsp ginger and garlic paste
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 1/2 tsp corainder powder
• 1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• curry leaves
• oil as needed
• salt to taste

Method

1. Marinating

Remove the skin of the chicken and clean it thoroughly with some lemon juice. Make small slits on the chicken. Prepare the marinade and apply it all over the chicken. Keep it aside for 2 hours or overnight in fridge.

  2. Prepare stuffing

Boil the eggs till it is cooked fully. Peel it and keep it aside. Heat oil in a  frying pan and saute onion, ginger garlic paste and curry leaves until the it is brown in color. Mix all the spices and saute for couple of minutes. Mix the eggs to this mixture and put some salt. Keep it aside.

  3. Stuff the egg mixture into the cavity of chicken. Don't over stuff it.Tie both its hands and legs together with kitchen twine.

  4. Preheat the oven to 150 degree.

  5. Heat a big pan and pour enough oil to fit the whole chicken. Once it oil is heated, carefully place the chicken into the oil and just fry for 5 to 10 minutes on each side depending upon the size of the chicken.

  6. Drain the chicken and arrange in an oven proof dish with veggies on all sides. Pour half of the oil used for frying on the chicken and veggies. Season with pepper and salt if you want.

  7. Bake for 40 minutes, 20 minutes on each side.

  8. Prepare the gravy

     Take the same pan with oil that we used to fry the chicken, saute onion, curry leaves, ginger and garlic paste till it turns brown. Mix all the spice powders and saute until its raw smell is gone.Add salt and taste it.

  9. After the initial baking, take out the chicken and pour the gravy over it. Mix all veggies well.

  10. Bake for 30 more minutes. Don't forget to pour the oil on chicken that is coming out of the chicken in between.

  11. Remove once the onion is caramelized in dark color. Remove the twine and carve!

Berry Birthday Cake

This was the cake I made for my husband's birthday. Thanks to JoyTheBaker for this wonderful recipe. I really wanted to use fresh berries, but as it is winter here, I couldn't get it , have to be satisfied with the thawed frozen berries.

Vanilla cake batter..

Batter is ready to go in the oven..

Think I put a little bit more batter, cake got burnt at the edges..

Frosting for cake, at this point I was over the moon as it tasted really yumm...

Forgot some shots of layering the cake...

This recipe makes a 2 layer ,8-inch cake and some cupcakes..

Ingredients

• 225gm unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Cream butter and sugar in a hand mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula in between.
2. Add eggs one by one, beating for one minute after each addition.
3. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl, combine milk with vanilla paste and vanilla extract.
4. Whisk in flour and milk mixture into the butter and sugar mixture in 3 batches.
5. Once it is combined ,stop mixing.
6. Pour into the greased cake tins about less than half of the pan.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the cake is pale golden color or a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Let it cool down in the pan for 5-10 minutes and take it out.
9. Frost the cake only when it is cooled completely.

Vanilla Whipped Buttercream Frosting recipe..

Ingredients

• 225gm unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup All-purpose flour
• 1/2 Tbsp vanilla bean paste

Method

1. Take 1/4 cup of the milk in a saucepan and combine flour and vanilla paste. Whisk until no lumps are there. Add the remaining milk and cook in medium heat, whisking in between.
2. Reduce the heat once it starts boiling. Keep whisking until it thickens.
3. Remove from heat but keep whisking for couple of minutes. Allow the mixture to cool down completely. You can pop it in the freezer for sometime.
4. Cream the butter with hand mixture for one minute. Then add sugar and beat for around 10 minutes until it turns light and fluffy and the sugar is dissolved. Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl in between.
5. Add the flour milk mixture into butter and sugar mixture. Increase the speed to medium until the frosting is light and fluffy.

This is a perfect cake for a special occasion. Though it is time consuming, the end result is as sweet as butter cream frosting.

Crepes with Sweet Yogurt

In our place this sweet is called as 'muttachurul', and we had this at our home with shredded coconut fillings. As I didn't have the freshly grated coconut, I found out another healthy filling with less sugar :) , sweet yogurt..

Though I made this, I wanted coconut filling desperately. So I took out some frozen shredded coconut and microwaved it, added some sugar and crushed cardamom. 

This will do to taste my memories...

Recipe makes 10-12 crepes..

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup All Purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• a pinch of salt
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• 1 cup sweet yogurt ( or put some sugar in plain yogurt)
• 1 can strawberries or mixed fruits of your choice

Method

1. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with some milk until blended. Whisk in the flour until the batter is smooth.
2. Pour the remaining milk, salt and the melted butter.
3. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes.
4. Heat a pan and brush the pan with some butter.
5. Pour in enough batter to form a thin layer ,tilt the pan to spread it evenly.
6. Cook for couple of minutes until the bottom is golden brown.
7. Flip it ,cook for one more minute.
8. Place on a plate. Repeat this with the rest of the batter.
9. Stuff the crepes with sweet yogurt and strawberries.

Enjoy!

Prawns / Shrimp Olathiyathu Kerala Style

Two dishes I like, sorry love :) with prawns are prawns olathiyathu and prawns with chakkakuru (jackfruit seed) in coconut milk yumm...


Whatever we make, we always crave food that our mom makes. After having this dish, I became proud as it tastes exactly the same as my mom's, thanks to maria's recipe. 


I am including one more photo simply because it looks good.

The recipe ..


Ingredients

• 750gm Prawns peeled
• 4 medium onion thinely sliced
• 1 tsp ginger crushed
• 1 tsp garlic crushed
• 1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 pieces kokum (kudampuli) washed and soaked in water
• salt to taste
• 2 stalks curry leaves 
• oil

Method

1. Clean and wash the prawns. Mix half of the turmeric powder, half of ginger, half of garlic, kokum, curry leaves and salt with the prawns. Add 1/4 cup of water and cook. Be careful not to over cook it. It took only 10 minutes for me.
2. Fry sliced onion in a frying pan with oil until it becomes brown. Add the remaining chopped ginger and garlic. Saute for couple of minutes more then add chilli powder and turmeric powder. Saute until the oil starts coming out.
3. Add the cooked prawns discarding the water. Put salt to taste.Mix well and keep in reduced flame for 5 more minutes, stirring in between .

Happy cooking!

Tuna Pasta Bake

Though I have made pasta several times, I haven't tried pasta with tuna. So I was little confused to make tuna with tomato sauce as I don't want to use the thick tomato sauce that I use for the bolognese. Luckily I did't have the sauce too. This time I made the tomato sauce of my own for this recipe.

The recipes serves 5 - 6 people.

Ingredients

• 500gm pack of pasta of any kind
• 2 , 175gm tinned tuna in oil
• 3 big tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp garlic paste
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• shredded cheese for topping
• 3 Tbsp Olive oil

Method

1. Cook pasta in water with some salt until tender, then drain the water and keep aside.
2. Making tomato sauce :  Heat olive oil in a pan, put the garlic paste, saute it until it starts brown in colour. Then put chopped tomatoes. Fry until it becomes soft. Season it with crushed pepper and salt. Then sieve tomatoes pressing down with wooden spoon. Keep the tomato sauce aside.
3. In another pan, put tuna along with the oil. If  you are using tuna in water, drain the water. Stir for 5 minutes then add the tomato sauce. Mix together and stir for 5 more minutes. Season it if you want more.
4. Put the cooked pasta into the tuna mixture and mix well. After couple of minutes transfer the pasta tuna mixture into oven proof dish and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake in preheated oven for 5-10 minutes until the cheese melted nicely. You can have this without baking too, if you want.

I liked this recipe very much and this is one of my new favorite.

Happy cooking!

Banana Balls Recipe

The credit of this recipe goes to my husband. One day we both bought bananas without knowing the other one already had it.So the bananas started to ripe a bit too much for our liking.Then he suggested trying out some recipe with banana and flour..

This is the best recipe for over riped bananas..

Ingredients

• 5 bananas, mashed
• 1 cup All purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• Oil for frying

Method

1. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar together. Mix well this with mashed bananas into a soft batter.
2. Heat oil in a wok until hot and drop a tablespoon of batter into it.
3. Remove when both sides turn golden brown.
4. Drain on absorbent paper.

Perfect snack!

Red Kidney Beans Curry

I was not a great fan of beans back in India. I make beans curries only for my husband but then I had a chance to taste some of the north Indian curries and wonder how they make the curries so tasty. The only thing I identified in the curries are butter and the beans as they grind all ingredients. Then to my surprise I learned it is yogurt or curd that make it different.

The recipe ..

Ingredients

• 1 cup Red kidney beans
• 2 tsp Ghee
• 1 tsp Butter (optional)
• 1 big Onion
• 1/2 tsp ginger paste
• 1/2 tsp garlic paste
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 1 Tomato
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
• 3 Tbsp plain Yogurt or Curd 
• some coriander leaves
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Method

1. Cook the beans with water and some salt. And keep it aside.
2. Saute onion in some oil and ghee in a frying pan. Once it is translucent add ginger/garlic paste and saute for 1 mnt. Then add tomatoes and saute.
3. After 2 mnts, add the tomato paste and saute again for couple of minutes.
4. Then add coriander powder and both the chilli powders and saute until the the oil starts come out. At this stage you can blend this mixture if you want. Make sure the mixture is cold before blending.
5. If you are blending, bring it back to the frying pan.
6. Add the cooked beans into the mixture and stir it. If want, you can add some more water and cook for 5 minutes.
7. Add yogurt make sure its not sour. Check the salt and add sugar. 
8. Once its start boiling ,remove from the heat and add butter and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. If its fresh then its great ,I only had dried ones.
9. Serve!

Enjoy!

Pasta With Mushroom Sauce

Its good to have some change sometime for dinner. If I feel like this, I just grab some mushrooms from the super market and make sure there is pasta at home. 

Ingredients

• 1 pack pasta of any kind
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 onion
• 1/2 tsp ginger paste
• 1/2 tsp garlic paste
• 1 tomato
• salt as needed
• pepper as needed
• oil as required
• 1 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp flour
• chopped fresh or dried parsley leaves for garnish

Method

1. Cook pasta in water with salt and 2 tsp oil. Drain once its cooked.
2. Saute onion in a frying pan with oil. Once its translucent add ginger garlic paste and saute for couple of minutes. Add chopped tomatoes and saute.
3. Once its sauted well add the mushrooms and fry it until it turns slightly black in colour.
4. Now add the milk and mix enough salt and pepper to taste. Put the flour and stir. After sometime the mixture starts to become thick.
5. Mix the pasta with the milk mixture. If it looks dry, add a little more milk. Check the salt and pepper
6. Garnish with parsley and grated cheese (optional).

Serve!

Bolognese

My husband and my elder son are fans of bolognese , one of the reasons I make this often.

This recipe serves for 5 - 6 people.

Ingredients

• 1 pack spaghetti
• minced meat 500g
• 1 onion
• 1/2 tsp ginger paste
• 1/2 tsp garlic paste
• salt
• pepper powder
• 1 can tomato based pasta paste or tomato puree
• shredded cheese for topping

Method

1. Cook spaghetti in water with salt and a little bit of oil. Once its cooked ,drain it and keep aside.
2. Saute onion in a frying pan with oil. Once its transculent add ginger, garlic paste.
3. After couple of minutes add minced meat and fry until its cooked.
4. Add tomato puree to it , taste so that it wont become sweet. Cook for a while adding salt and pepper.
5. Reduce the water content if you want to.
6. Transfer the spaghetti into a bowl and pour the minced meat sauce over it and put grated cheese.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie

Everyone like cookies, so do I. But the first batch of my cookies got burnt due to my over anticipation to eat it. But for the rest of the cookies, I was really careful and the result was crisp outside and soft inside cookies..

The recipe makes big 18 cookies..

Ingredients

• 2 cups All purpose flour
• 1 cup Chocolate chips
• 200 gm butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Mix white sugar and brown sugar with melted butter. Add vanilla extract followed by egg. Beat the mixture.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture. Don't worry if the mixture is stiff.
3. Fold in the chocolate chips and cover dough with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for 1 hour.
4. Cut the dough into equal sizes and make into balls and bake in preheated oven at 150C for 10-15 mnts until it turns brown.
5. Let the cookies cool for a minute then remove from the cookie sheet and place in wire rack to cool completely.
6. Serve!

Happy Baking!

Pizza

This is my first recipe that I learned ,to make my husband and my elder son happy. Usually I make pizza with cheddar cheese, I thought any cheese will do. But last time , I tried with parmesan ,its a little bit costly but it smells and tastes really good.

After making this, I am sure you won't go for ready made pizza.

The recipe goes below..

This yields 2 pizza.

Ingredients

    Pizza dough

• 3 1/2 cups All purpose flour
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp oil

    Pizza toppings

• 1/4 cup tomato sauce
• grated parmesan cheese
• diced bacon
• diced bell peppers (capsicum), it will be colourful if you choose different colour ones
• cherry tomatoes or diced tomatoes

Method

1. Put warm water into a bowl. Add salt and honey and mix with a spoon. Add yeast, mix and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
2. Gradually add flour and oil and start mixing.
3. When the mixture gets too heavy to mix, start kneading the dough with your hands.
4. Knead the dough until you have a smooth ball. If the dough cracks it is too dry. Add water bit by bit until if forms a nice coherent ball. If your dough feels more like batter, it is too wet and you need to add flour bit by bit. If you need to add water or flour, do it by small amounts.
5. Coat the dough with oil, place it in a large bowl and cover it with kitchen wrap or a grocery bag. Let the dough rise for about an hour at room temperature, then push it down again so it deflates. Let it sit for about another hour. If you want to use it the next day, put it in a refrigerator.
6. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface, put a bit of flour on top and make it into the shape of a pie by stretching it out from the center outwards. Use a rolling pin until the dough is about 1/4" thick. Punch some holes in the dough with a fork to let the air escape while the pizza is in the oven.
7. Spread tomato sauce over the dough half inch away from the edges.
8. Sprinkle with grated cheese and put your toppings and finally sprinkle with a little grated cheese.
9. Bake the pizza in the preheated oven at 200C for about 20-25 mnts until the crust is light brown.

Cheers!

Sultana Cake

I really wanted to stop making cake for sometime to cut down on sugar. But I couldn't resist myself from making this cake as I love sultanas and also it does not have sugar , ahh I mean white sugar ;) ..

This is a perfect tea cake with less sugar. Here is the recipe below..

Ingredients

• 250 gm Sultanas
• 1 lemon juice and zest
• 1 orange juice and zest
• 150 gm chopped butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 All purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Method

1. Grease the cake pan with butter and preheat the oven to 150C.
2. Place the sultanas and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes then remove from the heat and drain well. Add the butter, orange and lemon zest and stir until the butter melts and ingredients are combined.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and brown sugar and then add this to the sultanas mixture.
4. Sift together the flour and the baking powder and the sultanas mixture and stir just until combined.
5. Pour into cake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until the toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Perfect combination for your tea, Enjoy!

Palmiers!

It took me sometime to learn this name. I was searching for a recipe with puff pastry that calls for no other special ingredients.

The recipe goes here...

Ingredients

• 1 sheet puff pastry
• lots and lots of sugar :)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150C.
2. Sprinkle the workplace with sugar and place the thawed pastry sheet over it.
3. Sprinkle more sugar over the pastry sheet.
4. Roll up the left vertical side inward till the middle of the sheet. Roll up the right vertical side inward till the middle of the sheet. Both the rolls should meet in the middle and touching.
5. Cut the log into pieces of 1/2 inch thickness.
6. Place on baking tray with space around each cookie as it will increase in size.
7. Bake in the middle of the rack until the sugar starts caramelize.
8. Allow them to cool.

Enjoy!

Mini Quiche

Its really fun to try out new different recipes with puff pastry.

This one is easy to make and easy to eat :) . In our home it won't last an hour..

Ingredients

• 2 sheets of puff pastry 
• 2 eggs
• some chopped bacon or ham 
• sweet chilli sauce
• 1 chopped bell pepper (capsicum)
• some grated cheese (optional)

Method

1. Cut the thawed puff pastry sheet into square that fit into muffin cup in the muffin tray.
2. Place each square sheet into the muffin cups and put 1 or 2 tsp of beaten egg in each cups followed by other ingredients.
3. Put cheese toppings and bake in the preheated oven until the quiches turn light brown in colour.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Puffs

Thoughts about vegetable puffs brings back memories of my college days. Going to bakery after college hours with friends to have vegetable puffs with lime juice.... 

All you need is go below...

Ingredients

• 2 sheets of puff pastry (available in your supermarket in frozen section)
• 1 egg

    For filling

• 2 Potatoes
• 2 Carrots
• 1 Onion
• 1/2 Ginger paste
• 1/2 Garlic paste
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 1 tsp Chilli powder
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp Garam masala
• salt to taste

Method

      Thaw the puff pastry

   Make filling

1. Cook diced potatoes and carrots in water with some salt. Drain it and keep it aside.
2. Saute onion with oil in a frying pan. Once transculent add ginger garlic paste. Fry for 1 minute and add all powders.
3. Saute the mixture for couple of minutes in low flame.
4. Add drained potatoes and carrots into the mixture and mix it well.
5. Let the mixture get dry, frying couple of minutes more.

   Make puffs

1. Sprinkle some flour on the work area and keep puff pastry sheet.
2. Cut the sheet into square pieces.
3. Stuff each square sheet piece with the filling and close the edges with some water.
4. Brush the stuffed puffs with egg wash (beaten egg).
5. Bake the puffs in preheated oven of temperature 150C for 20-25 mnts.

Enjoy!

Butter Chicken

I tried to make this only because my mom wanted to try it, but to my surprise it came out well.

This goes well with any bread.

The recipe goes below...

Ingredients

• 1 kg Chicken (boneless) 

    For marinating

• 2 Tbsp Plain thick yogurt
• 1 Tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tsp Garam masala
• 1 tsp Ginger paste
• 1 tsp Garlic paste
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• salt to taste
• Butter (for frying)

    For Gravy

• 1 Onion (finely chopped)
• 1 1/2 tsp Ginger paste
• 1 1/2 tsp Garlic paste
• 2 Tomatoes (finely chopped)
• 1 Tbsp Kashmiri Chilli powder
• 2 Tbsp Tomato paste or sauce
• 1/4 cup fresh cream (you can add more or less depending on your taste)
• Honey or sugar ( depending on your sweetness level)
• Few Coriander leaves (chopped)
• Salt (to taste)

Method

1. Combine the ingredients for marinade and put in the chicken pieces.
2. Mix well and leave it to marinade in a fridge for at least for an hour (Its good to keep it for more hrs).
3. Melt butter in a pan on medium flame and fry the chicken pieces.(We grilled it instead)
4. Don’t fry it for long, make it a little brown. Later it will cook in the gravy.
5. In the pan, add little butter and oil and fry onions, ginger and garlic paste. 
6. When it turns brown add chilly powder and add tomatoes. Continue frying at low heat till the tomatoes are mashed up and oil comes out.
7. When the gravy is cool, grind in a blender.
8. Pour the gravy back to the pan and allow to cook on low flame.
9. Slide in the fried chicken pieces. Allow it to simmer till the chicken is well cooked. If u want, add more water.
10. Add tomato sauce, fresh cream, in the gravy.
11. Serve on a plate and add chopped coriander leaves and remaining cream.

Don't be afraid of the ingredients and preparation. Go for it!

Happy Cooking!