Chocolate Macarons with White chocolate ganache filling !

 

Finally I too went for it..it took a while for me to make up my mind to try this daring Baker's challenge. I have been admiring this little cuities in other blogs for a while,especially in Shabs cuisine ! Her wonderful clicks of these cuties gave me all the inspiration to try it out and I couldn't wait for a   better time  than this time of the year ! The recipe for Mac shell  is adapted from Shabs space and if you follow her blog word by word, I guess nothing could go wrong ! Do check out her space for a  collection of Macaron recipes.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

Egg whites(Aged) - 58g

Ground Almond - 65 g

Cocoa Powder- 20 g

Icing Sugar - 100g

Caster sugar - 20g

 

Method

 

1.In a squeaky clean bowl weigh the egg weights and age them on the kitchen counter for 24 hr-48 hr or upto 5 days in the fridge covering it with a cling film.

2.Weigh out Ground almonds,cocoa powder,icing sugar and mix them together in a bowl and powder them in a coffee grinder/ mixie until it is flour like.Seive them 1-2 times and discard any big lumps .

3.Start beating the egg whites starting with a medium speed and gradually increasing it to maximum.

4.When it starts to form Soft peaks add caster sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed and please make sure you dont over beat .

5.Now add the dry ingredients in 2-3 additons to the meringue mixture and fold in gently with a flexible spatula or wooden spoon  until it reaches a shiny batter consistency which falls of like a ribbon( I recommend watching some youtube videos before you try this out ).Donot over mix too !

6.Transfer it into a piping bag with a round tip placed on a tall glass to ease your filling job !

7. Line your baking tray with baking paper and pipe a 2cm diameter  circles leaving enough space between them.

8.Allow it to dry for 1- 2 hours maybe more if it is humid .

10.Bake them in a preheated oven at 150 degree celcius to 13 -14 minutes( Each oven is different,so adjust the timing according to your oven )

11.Allow it cool down for 30 mins - 1 hour and peel them from the baking paper.

12.Pipe the filling on to the shells and sandwich the  shells together and allow them to mature in the fridge for a day or  two !

 

To make white Ganache filling

 

Double cream - 100ml

White chocolate - 100gms

Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp

 

Method

In  a pan simmer the double cream and when it starts to bubble,turn of the heat and add the chocolate,once the chocolate has melted add vanilla extract and give it a good mix and allow it to cool down until it can be piped on to the Mac shells to sandwich them.

 

 

Princess Cake and pink cake pops and few tips on how I made it !

Making a girly cake especially a Princess one was a dream for me since a long time and finally I got lucky when my friend asked me whether I can bake one for her daughter who likes to be Princess :) The birthday girl was obssessed with Pink colour so she wanted every thing on the cake be pink and so I made everything pink and I even made the cake pops pink too.I went to the party too and everyone loved my cake which made my day.

 

 

 

Once I started decorating everything looked complicated and I didnt have any idea how the cake was going to come out so I didnt take any step by step clicks..but to give u all an idea I clicked the pictures of the bakewares which I used to get the shape of the Princess Dress.

 

 

 

 In the picture above can you all the intersection between  two bowls ??  I had to cut that portion from the cake which I baked in that bowl and  also  the from the  bowl above as well(which is not visible as the top bowl  is not transparent ) to place the cake layers .The cake was a 4 layered Red velvet cake with Cream cheese frosting which I have posted earlier .Once I decorated the Dress I covered the dolls body in fondant and inserted into the cake ,but if you dont have that you can actually insert a doll wrapped in some cling film and all you need to do is with a circle cutter cut a round cirlce from middle of each layer and insert the doll  inside the cake !

 

CAKE POPS

 

U will need..

 

Cake - 8 inch cake

Icing - 1 cup

Candymelts / Cooking chocolate

Lolly pop Sticks

 

1.To make cake pops bake  a single layer of  8 inch   fluffy cake,I reccomend my victorain sponge cake or you can use box mixes too.Once the cake has cool down break the cake into crumbs. Make sure there is no big lumps.

2.Make 1 cup of ur favourite frosting or use readymade frosting.

3.Mix the cake with frosting and mix well until u can roll into cake balls like the picture below.

 

 

4.Melt the candymelts as per package instructions or melt the chocolate and keep aside.

5.Dip the lolly pop stick in the melted chocolate /candymelts and insert it to the cake balls.

6.Dip the cake ball  stick into the melted candy melts and please  be careful not to drop the ball into the candymelts..

7.Finally  decorate the cake pops as u like.



 



Chocolate Crinkles ( Snow Caps )

 

How is the Christmas preparation going on ?? Well at  my side, I am super busy baking these days...I have to gift  my friends and teachers of  lil A nursery something and I couldnt think of anything other than home baked goodies...I wanted to gift something which looked beautiful and thats why I choose this Chocolate crinkles  which I had bookmarked from Nisha's space long time ago. Baked 2 batches of it yesterday and already  gifted two bags of it, one bag for a friend who is flying away for Christmas and one  for my neighbour who is  expecting a baby for Christmas ! I did save some for us before giving away everything and we all loved it :) Thanks to Nisha for sharing this fools proof recipe !

 

Ingredients (makes around 25 cookies)

 

Plain flour - 1/2 cup

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Dark Chocolate(good quality ) -1/2 cup

Brown sugar tightly packed - 1/2 cup (if u add less sugar  cookies  will be bitter )

Egg -1

Oil - 2 1/2 tbs

Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp

Icing sugar - As required

Method

 

1.In a heatproof bowl add chocolate and melt it over a hot simmering pan of water.

2.Remove from heat and add sugar and stir it until it is dissolved slightly.

3.Add oil,egg,vanilla extract and give it a good mix.

4.Finally add flour - baking powder and mix again.

5.Cover it with a ling film and chill it fir 2 hours.

6.Take 1/2 tbs of cookie dough and roll into small  balls.

7.In a plate take  icing sugar and roll the cookie bals to give  a nice coating of icing sugar.Once u finish coating the balls give a quick coating to the balls which u coated first as they might have absorbed the icing sugar u coated earlier.

8.Place them in baking tray few inches apart and bake at 175 degree celcius for 13 minutes.

Korean Sushi (kimbap)

Two of my close friends here are from Korea and one of my friend's hubby is  chef in a Korean Restaurant  ! I was very lucky to have a friend whose hubby is a chef, many times when  her hubby used come back from work he always brought  the  restaurant food  for their dinner and if I am with her during that time he gives a share of the food to me too and I was lucky several times ! Thats how my love for  Korean food started :)

Korean Sushi was one of my favourite among them and my friends tought me how to make that at home, my friend even bought me a roasted sea weed sheets for me to try sushi at home,she even offered to come home and show me how to make it, but before she could comeover I decided to try it myself and I was very happy with the result. So here is a recipe from my friend Mijong :)

Ingredients

Cooked sushi rice - 2 cup
Korean Fish cake - 2
Carrot - 2 nos
Cucumber - 1/2 of a cucumber
Egg - 1
Sesame seeds - 2 tbs
Sesamae oil - 2 tbs
Roasted seaweed sheets - 3-5

Method

 

1. Cut carrot and cucmber to long thin  slices.

2.Make and omlette in a pan adding little salt and pepper and cut into stripes.

3.Fry the fish cake according to package instructions and make into  stripes .

4.Mix the cooked rice with little salt,sesame seeds and seasame oil.

5.Place the seaweed sheets on a bamboo mat ( I didn't have that,so I used kitchen foil) and spread the cooked rice as shown in the picture and make sure you leave some space in the other end of the seaweed sheet.

6.Place the fillings on top of the cooked rice as shown in the picture.

7. Roll it tightly with a bamboo mat and stick the end with some cooked rice.

8. With a sharp knife cut the rolls and serve it with some soy sauce.

Pirate Pizza

Lil A's nursery has a lots of cooking activities for children every term and this term they were learning all about Pirates. To make the topic more interesting they planned to do some cooking activities with the same theme too.Pirate boat sandwiches and Pirate pizza was the two things they choose.The teachers then asked the parents who are keen to cook to come forward.I have done cooking with them before and loved it,so decided to go this time too..but this time the things they choose was not easy as I did before. There are 20 kids in his class and making them roll the dough spread the pizza sauce ,sprinkle cheese and keep the toppings like this and then baking  20 pizzas in was impossible in 3 hours,so I decided to buy the readymade mini tomato pizzas and then just make them  do the toppings and then bake it. I did spend 2 hours in my kitchen that morning getting all the toppings chopped and ready for them,thinking that i will finish it way before the 3 hour target,oh boy I was wrong. I carried the pizzas and toppings to nursery that day and started calling the kids one by one .Initially they were all so eager to do the toppings but after a while some of them got bored,they wanted to go and play and some of them were fussy about the toppings ,they said they dont want tomatoes  or olives in their pizza !! Somehow convinced them that if they dont put those their pizza wont look like pirate.By the time i finished toppings and baking them it was nearly 3 and had only 30 minutes to pack the pizzas for them to take home and then to clean the mess ...phew it was quite hectic ! I cant imagine what would have happened if I took the pizza dough and sauce and made them roll their pizzas too..then only half of them would have got their pizzas on time :)

 

Ingredients

 

Cheese and toamto Pizza - 1

Cherry tomatoes - 6 nos(sliced into half )

Red pepper

Beetroot

Parnsnip

Olives

 

Method

 

1.Make the scarf  of the pirate with cherry tomatoes.

2.For eyes I used  Parnsnip and olives

3.For eye patch I used beetroot

4.For nose I used Cheery tomato

5.For moustache and mouth  I used beetroot .

6. For Beard I used olives

7.Finally for the scarfs tie I used redpepper/Capsicum

8. Baked them at a prehaeted oven at 200 degrre centigrade for 10 minutes !

 

Thomas Train Birthday Cake with few step by step click pics !

 

It was my lil boy's dear friend's birthday party this weekend and I was asked to make the birthday cake. Birthday boy was always into Thomas train so choosing a theme for the cake was easy,but the biggest challenge was making Thomas with fondant. I was not sure how it would turn out ,but still I clicked   step by step pics to share with u all ,but unfortunately  I could only  click the first few stages of it. By the time I finished 3/4 th of it , it was time for me to pick lil A from nursery and after that I was busy with other things and could finish the rest only in the night ,but its not that complicated  ,only the face was a bit of a challenge, especially when u make a small figurine getting the face right is  bit tough, I tried it 2 times and got satisfied only at my 3 rd ttempt, still not completely happy with the face though !

  I wanted to create a Spring time look on the cake with greenery and flowers. In Thomas and his friends series ,Thomas the tank engine always goes through scenic routes resembling a  typical english country side,thats how  sheep came on the cake and then  tunnels was always an obvious thing for train sets .So with all these things in mind I drew a sketch. In the sketch I had few extra things which I didnt put on the cake. Since it was spring I wanted a baby lamb  and a mummy sheep as the babies are born during spring time. The other thing was  a fence to divide the track and field. I even made the mummy sheep and fence but the cake was looking a bot overcrowded with all those things so I decided not to use it .

 

The train, small tree and the sheep were  made with  fondant with pinch of CMC and the tunnel was made with rice krispy treats.The cake was again a Vanilla cake with Swiss meringnue buutercream which was a hit in the party !

Birthday Cake with Edible Handmade Wine Bottle, Books and Cheese !

I made this cake for my friends Pappa. My friend wanted a personalised cake for him to make his birthday really special, so she wanted a cake with  stuffs  that he loves ( Wine bottle,books and cheese ). I started doing home home work, thinking about the different options..First option  was to make 3 D cake,making all the those stuffs with cake which I knew was a big challenge and I was not even sure how it would turn out,other plan was to keep it simple by making a sheet cake and making fondant books,cheese and bottle .I told her the 2 options and she was happy with the seond one which was quite an easy one compared to the other one.

 

 

I made the wine bottle by colouring fondant with  green paste colour and then added a pinch of cmc, rolled it to log and made it thinner for the neck.Covered the neck with a kitchen foil which I previously wrapped on a original wine bottle neck for the neck effect.Making Books was easy, I made square shaped fondant and placed them inside  coloured fondants  which i rolled to sheets , I cut the excess off and then I ran a knife around the edges of book to show the papers.Cheese was the simplest, just make a rough traingle shape with yellow fondant and with a finger gently press on top and sides to make small wells !
 

The cake was a vanilla cake with swiss meringue buttercream which was her choice .

Meen Pollichathu (Fried Fish wrapped in banana leaf with masalas )

 

Ingredients

Pearl spot /Seabream or any firm fish of your choice - 1

Banana leaf -1

Cooking twine

Oil for frying

To marinate

Red chilli powder - 1 1/2 tbs

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbs

Fennel powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt

For masala

Shallots (sliced ) - 1 cup

Tomato -2 small

Redchilly powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Tumeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Corainder powder - 1tsp

Salt

 Ginger (minced ) - 1 tbs

Garlic minced - 1 1/2 tsp

Green chillies - 2 nos

Curry leaves - 2 strings

 

Method

1.Clean the fish and cut some gashes on both sides and marinate with ingredients under " to marinate " for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

2.In a saucepan add some oil and saute sliced shallots until brown.

3.Add green chillies, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and saute for 1-2 minutes.

4.Add all the spice powders  and saute until raw smell goes.

5.Add chopped tomatoes and salt. Cook until tomatoes are mushed and masala is a paste.

6.Meanwhile shallow fry the fish for 5 minutes on each sides.

7.Wilt a  banana leaf for few seconds on both sides on gas top (to avoid leaf tearing)

8.Spread the cooked masala paste  on banana leaf and place the fish on top, cover the top and sides of  the fish with masala and wrap the fish in banana leaf and tie the parcel with  a cooking twine.

9.Cook the fish parcel  in a frying fan for 10 -15 minutes !

 

Chettinadu Chicken Curry

S who is a good cook always claims that he cooks better than me,which I never agree.We always argue over this every now and then but at times when I am lazy and not in a mood to cook I take advantage of that and  make him to do  all the cooking by telling him that  he cooks better than me :) Poor S ,he always fall for that :)

 

 Last weekend he cooked a Malabar chicken curry and I gotto to agree it was delicious and one of the best chicken curry I had..he was pulling my legs ever since and challenged me to make a chicken curry better than that . I  wanted to somehow prove that I was  better, so I started looking for recipes and  finally found this chettinadu chicken curry in My Kitchen Experiments and it looked delicious.I went ahead and decided to cook this one for my  challenge..The curry was delicous and he too agreed that, but he still claims that his was the best.I guess I will have to wait for my boy to grow up and settle this fight between us :) 

 

Ingredients

 

Chicken - 750 gms

Shallots - 1 cup(sliced)

Tomato - 2 ( small)

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Coconut milk - 1 cup

Curry leaves - 2  string

Salt

Oil

 

For masala powder

 

Peppercorns - 1/2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

Corainder seeds  - 1 1 /2 tbs

Cardamom seeds - 2 no

Cinnamon stick - 1 "

Whole red chillly - 6 nos

Curry leaves - 1 string

Oil - 1/2 tsp

 

For Paste

 Poppy seeds - 1 tbs (saoked in little warm water for 10 mins)

Ginger - 1" piece

Garlic - 5  cloves

Green chillies - 2 nos

 

Method

1.In 1/2 tsp oil roast the masala powder ingredients for 2-3 minutes.Once its cool grind it to powder.

2.Make a paste of the ingredients under "for paste "

3.In a saucepan add some oil and add sliced shallots and saute till its light brown.

4.Add the grinded  paste and saute till raw smell goes.

5.Add the Chicken and cook it on a medium flame uncovered for 3-4 minutes.

6.Add salt,turmeric powder,salt and half of the coconut milk,curry leaves  and cook for  20-25 minutes.

7.Add the ground masala powders and rest of the coconut milk and cook for 2-3 minutes.

 

Serve with Rice,chapathy or Malabar paratha !

 

Cheese Bread Rolls

Yesterday while I was with my friend in a cafe,she mentioned me about a website by Annabel Karmel where we can find many easy quick fix meals for kids and some lunch box ideas.I have one more year before my boy takes packed lunch,but still I went to explore the website to find whats in there  and look what I  stumbled across ,Easy  cheese bread rolls !! I had all the ingredients in handy and the cheeses were almost nearing their use by date,so I went ahead and baked this lil bread rolls ! Eventhough everybody says fresh bread smells heavenly,to be honest with you I couldnt get such heavenly smell as everyone describe whenever I baked bread  and  this time when I baked it too there was some nice smell but nothing divine or heavenly  but while the rolls were cooling down I went out to drop off my son for a play date and when I came back and opened the door I could smell the so called heavenly/divine  freshly baked bread !! Finally I could smell it too :)

Ingredients

Bread flour  - 1 3/4 cup
Yeast - 11/2 tsp
Sugar - 1tsp
Salt -1/4 tsp
Luke warm water - 3/4 cup
Oil - 1 tbs
Grated cheddar cheese - 55 gm
Grated Paramesan cheese - 30 gm
Egg -1
Sesame seeds or Sunflower seeds - to sprinkle

Method

1.Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/4 cup cup of lukewarm water and set aside for 5-10 minutes.

2.Add flour in mixing bowl and add yeast solution,salt,oil ,remaining water and knead for 5-10 minutes until you get a smooth dough.

3.Allow the dough to rise for 1 1/2 hour.

4.Now roll the dough to a circle and sprinkle the cheese and fold it into half to enclose cheese and then fold one more time.Knead for 1-2 minutes.

5.Divide the dough into 8 balls and brush them with some beaten egg.

6.Bake them in a preheated oven at 200 degree centigrade for 15-20 minutes.

 

 

 

Halloween Cake(Red velvet Cake with Cream cheese frosting ) and our Halloween Party !!

 

One day lil A came from Nursery and said " Amma I have called my friends for a Halloween party ". I couldnt stop laughing when I heard that. I wasnt ready for throwing another party after his birthday party but  since this week is a half term break for schools here  I decided to  call just few of my friends and  kids and have a kids dressing up party.Last weekend when we went for shopping we  bought a big pumkin to carve .Lil A was very enthuthiastic when we went for halloween shopping, he himself selected a big pumkin  ,but when we went to  the costumes section his face began to change,he got really scared seeing all the spooky costumes,he said  " I dont want a party  and I dont want to dress up"  ! Kids are unbelievable arent they ? I asked him again " But you only wanted to have party " ,and he replied" but I changed my mind now " I somehow convinced him that its too late to change your mind now and all ur friends are excited about it  and he too seemed o.k with that.

Yesterday I drew a face on Pumkin and waited till evening for S to get back and carve it .Lil A was also eager to see the carving ,he stood by the table as S carved it,once the carving was done we lighted it and turned off the light. We were pretty happy with our first Pumkin but somebody was not happy,it was lil A ! He was not happy to see the dark room with lighted pumpkin,he asked us to blow the candle and turn on the light :)

You can see our Pumkin below :)

We did our Halloween party today,a day ahead and it was good fun .Lil A's mask scared two of his friends and they cried :( So he took of his mask and said " Dont worry ,its only me ".I was wondering whether its the same boy who was scared about   dressing up  2 days before  :)

 

Party food was contribued by all of the mums, and my plan was to bake some cupcakes and make some onion vada's but since the party was at  my place I had so many other things to do and so I decided to make a cake rather than cupcakes as baking and decorating the cupcakes will take more time than  a cake.I didnt have any intention to cover the cake with fondant too,but my icing was not quite enough to crumb coat the cake and then to decorate it.I started panicking and then decided to cover it with fondant .I didnt have any decorating ideas  as everything was last minute,so just tried a simple cobweb with some melted chocolate. The cake was a redvelvet cake with a cream cheese frosting and it tasted delicious !

 

 

In the picture below you can see the yummy party food ,Kids were already on the table when we got the food out and before we could click it they were taking their shares :) If you look closer you can see two tiny finger prints on the cake too :)They coudnt wait to eat the cake !



Yummy Party food ! Onion Vada,Halloween cookies,Halloween cake,Korean Sushi,African salad and Bread Pakoda :)





My boy with his mask !



Ingredients
Recipe adapted from Joy Of Baking

Flour - 2 cup
Corn Flour - 1/2 cup
Cocoa Powder - 2 tbs
Butter - 1/2 cup (softened)
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup
Eggs - 2 large
Butter milk - 1 cup
Vanilla extract - 1tsp
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Distilled white Vinegar - 1tsp
Red Liquid food colour  - 2 tbs

Method

1.Sift the flour,corn flour and keep it aside.

2.Beat butter for 1-2 minutes .

3.Add sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes until its fluffy .

4.Break 2 eggs in a separate bowl and beat it lighly with fork.

5.Add the beaten egg slowly to the Butter-sugar mixture ,beating with mixer running or add little by little and beat after each addition.

6.Add vanilla extract and red food colour to the buttermilk.

7.To the Butter-Sugar-Egg mixture add flour and buttermilk alternatively and finish it in 3 additions.

8.In a bowl mix baking soda and vinegar and immediately add this to batter and fold in.

9.Spread the batter into two 8 inch cake tin and bake in preheated oven at 175 degree centigarde for 35-40 minutes or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

10.Cool the cake completely

Ingredients (for Cream cheese frosting)

Cream cheese - 220 gm
Mascaporne cheese- 220gm
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Double cream - 1 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract - 1tsp

 

Method

1.In a bowl add cream cheese,mascaporne and beat until soft.

2.Add sugar,vanilla and beat again.

3.Finally add double cream and whisk until its a spreadable consitancy.

 

Assembling

1.Cut both the  cake into 2 layers.

2.Spread the cheese frosting on to 3 layers and finally spread on  the sides of the cakes too.

3.Cover it with fondant if you like.



Kallummakkai Achar (Mom's special)/ Pickled Mussel's

Everytime when I come back after a  vacation from home, I will be carrying a  lot of goodies that my amma has packed for me .I never thought how much work is going onto all of this preperation until this time when I got to see her doing all the preps.I always bring all the spice powder which would last for a year and this year too I packed up a whole lot of  chilly powder,corainder powder,turmeric powder,Puttu podi(rice flour) ,pickles etc .But now that I know how much work is behind it ,they are precious to me.

Kallummakai Achar is one thing that I would die for  and always bring back and this time since  amma was busy with few other things I was in charge of cleaning it.Oh God,I thought I never will ask amma to make this again for me.We bought 100 of them and I was standing in the kitchen for nearly 2 hours cleaning it and removing the poo from inside..phew! With just the cleaning done I handed over it to  amma and she did another 1 hour work to make this one jar of pickle. Eventhough that day I thought I am not going to make it again,every time I take a spoon full of it, it makes all our effort so worthwhile,what can I say more about it...

I have been relishing  this pickle for almost 2 months now, only taking it when I crave for it badly, just to save it for later. But now the pickle jar is almost empty and I thought I should blog about it before finish it off. All that I have got now is in the pic,weather was too gloomy today but I m sure if I wait for a sunny day to click it then there wont be any pickle in the jar :)

Here is my amma's recipe

Ingredients

Mussels/Kallummakkai - 100 nos
Dates - 10 no
Ginger - finely chopped ( 1 1/2 tbs)
Garlic - chopped ( 3 tbs)
Green chillies - 3-4
Curry leaves - few
Vinegar- as required
Pickle Powder - 1-2 tsp
Redchilly powder - 1 1/2 tbs
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt
Sugar - 1 tsp
Sesame oil

Method

1. Clean the mussels outer shell and steam them in a saucepan for few minutes until all the shells have opened.

2.Remove the mussels from the shell and discard  the shell.

3.Take out the poo and vein  from each mussel and clean.(quite tedious)

4.Marinte the mussels with redchilly,turmeric and salt and shallow fry them in sesame oil.

5.In another  pan add some sesame oil and saute ginger,garlic ,curry leaves and green chillies for 1-2 minutes.switch off the flame.

6.In a bowl mix mussels and  the sauted ingredients.

7.Make a puree of dates with little vinegar and add this too.

8.Finally add pickle powder,sugar,salt and vinegar if required.

Uthappam

 

After our vacation in India  this time, we kind of got used to a  habit of eating an elaborate breakfast daily.Since my mum in law  also came with us this time, we  continued  doing that here too . After spending nearly 40 days here  she went back to India  last  weekend. I am finding it a bit depressing especially the loneliness after a busy 2-3 months :( Now we are back to our cereals in the morining and finding it a bit boring ! Uthappam was a one breakfast menu we had when she was here, I like it a lot and love to have it with a little coconut chutney.

Here goes the recipe..

 Ingredients

For Dosha batter

Raw rice/idly rice - 1 1/4 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 cup
Cooked rice - fistful
Fenigreek  seeds- 1 tbs


For toppings

Onion - 1 finely chopped
Tomato - 1 finely chopped
Green chillies - 2
Carrot - 1 (grated)
Coriander leaves - finely chopped

Method

1.Soak and grind all the ingridients for dosha batter and ferment it overnight .
2.Add salt to the batter.
3.Heat a nonstick pan and pour and ladle of batter and spread it .Immediately sprinkle th veggies on top and cook it covered for 2-3 minutes.

Serve with coconut chutney !

Notes
1.If you are in cold country its better to place the batter in a preheated oven at 50- 60 degree centigrade,I  repeat heating it 2-3 times .
2.Its always  better not to flip the uthappam,you will not get a good looking uthappam .

Birthday cake !



Hope u all are doing great..I was thinking about  updating  my space since  many days,but  something or the other kept me busy. As I told before, we went to India for an amazing vacation and got back in the mid week of september and  this time when we came back my mother in law also came with us .It took few days for all us to setlle down  and adjust with chilly weather which welcomed us.Then next came lil A's birthday,I had only few days to organise everything and then the biggest  job ofcourse was baking the birthday cake ! He wanted a Mc Queen cake from Cars movie,Initially my plan was to try out a 3D mc queen cake,but then I was not confident enough to go for it,so I decided to go for sheet cake with fondant figurines of his favourite characters from the movie.

 

 I had to bake a cake for 20 kids and 20 adults ,so I baked 3 sheets of vanilla cake and filled it with swiss meringnue butter cream and vanilla buttercream and covered it with fondant .I made figurines of his favourite charcaters Mc queen and Mater from fondant too ! I made the figurines two days before the party and did all the baking and most of the decoration a day before the party.The whole process was quite laborious but when lil A said" thanks amma for making this cake " all my efforts became so worthwhile ! The cake tasted good too, everybody loved it !

You wont believe me when I say I didnt even get the time to click the pictures of the cake ,luckily a friend of us who  took the  party pictures  clicked the  picture of  the cake too ! Thanks to him :)

So see u all again with another post soon :)

Chicken Vindaloo ....and a break !

Usually I am not a last minute person when it comes to packing and shopping especially if it is for a vacation,but this time I was shopping even today and still a few more last minute shopping to do,Suitcases are still empty and I have a pile of clothes to iron, and finally cleaning the house before I leave ! phew its a long list,You might be wondering am I crazy to sit and blog when I have so much things to do ? But this time its going to be long break thats another reason for me to update the blog at this last moment. I will be back only on sep 11 th and after coming back I have my lil boys birthday party to organise.So far I have only booked a hall and an entertainer ,so its going to be hectic when I come back.So hopefully after all that I might be able to get back to blogging. So my friends enjoy the rest of the summer and Eid mubaraak to all in advance !

Todays recipe is adapted from Anjum Anand's Pork vindallo recipe from I love curry , I just replaced pork with chicken and I warn you all,its really spicy ,reduce the chillies according to your spice levels.I felt it was spicy the first day but got a little milder and tasted much better the next day !

Ingredients
Chicken - 500 gms
Onion - 3

for grinding

cumin seeds - 1tsp
Coriander seeds- 1 tsp
Kashmiri redchillies (seeds shaken )- 5-10
Peppercorns - 6
Green cardamom pods - 3
Cloves -4
Cinnamon - 1 stick

Ginger -garlic paste - 1 tbs
Salt

Method
1.Grind all the whole spices and chillies to a fine powder.
2.Marinate the chicken with the spice powders ,ginger garlic paste , salt and keep aside for few hours or overnight.
3.In a saucepan add oil and saute the chopped onions till brown.
4.Add the marinated chicken and fry till brown on a medium flame for about 3-4 minutes.
5.Reduce the heat and cook it covered it until cooked.

Rice Krispy treats and a small carving attempt !

This is one of the easiest treat that you can fix for ur lil ones in a jiffy..My boy used to get this from nursery sometimes on some special days when they cook in the nursery and he brings his share home and after that always used to ask for more,so I have been thinking to try this at home for sometime now and today finally I got some time and made this.Lil A loved it and as the quantity I made was quite a lot for him , I thought to be creative with the rest ! And this is what I came up with,his favoutite Mc Queen Car from Disney cars movie :) I carved the rice krispy treats with a sharp knife and then coated it with a little buttercream icing and covered it with fondant.Its nothing great but it bought a big smile on his face !

Ingredients

Rice krispies - 1 1/2 cup

Mini marshmallows - 1 cup

Butter - 1 1/2 tbs

Method

1. Melt butter in a pan and add marshmallows.

2.Stir until marshmallows are completely melted.Switch off the flame.

3.Add rice Krispies and mix until well coated.

4.Transfer this into a greased dish and press it .

5.Allow it to set and cut them to desired shapes.

Beetroot Thoran/ Beetroot stir fry

Eventhough I love betroot I hate the mess it makes to my kitchen tiles and my fingers after I grate it.This time when I got betroot I forgot to put them in the fridge and left it among my onions and potatoes outside.So after 2-3 days when I saw it lying outside ,the skin was really soft and it was impossible to grate it . Eventhough chopped betroots taste much better than grated one I always preferd later as it is easier ,but this time since I didnt have a choice I had to chop and I found that its much easier to chop soft betroots and the mess is also less(didnt make my tiles red) ! Normally I wouldnt post this here,but since chopped version is a special one for a lazy person like me I thought I should post it here !

Ingredients

Betroot - 4 medium ones

Onion - 1

Grated coconut /Dessicated coconut - 2 tbs

Curry leaves - few

Redchilly powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Oil

Method

1. In a saucepan add little oil and sputter mustard seeds.

2.Add chopped onions and saute till soft.

3.Add chopped betroot ,chilly powder,turmeric and salt and cook it covered.

4.When it is almost done add grated coconut ,curry leaves and cook for 1 minute .