Malai Kofta

All the good times fly quickly and then I wonder where did the time go? My sister and family were here with me all these days and the house was filled with fun and laughter and when they left today it’s all quite again. I am in no mood do anything and was staring through my FB page going through all the updates which became boring after few minutes so just to keep my mind occupied I decided to scribble something here. Even as a child I used to hate when we leave our ancestral home after spending  summer holidays  back to the hustle and buzzle of city where my father used to work. We used to live in Kochi for a long time and many of our cousins and relatives from Kannur visit us often and when they go back I used to feel the same way but back then there was hopes that someone or the other is going to visit us soon, but now living so far from home we don’t have much family here and that’s what I miss the most here.

Coming back to the topic, I made this Malai kofta for my sister. I did pamper her with all the good foods and she liked this one in particular and she want to try this  herself in her kitchen, so I am sharing this recipe especially for her. Malai Kofta is a bit time consuming but sometimes to eat something really delicious we need to spend some extra time in kitchen and this  falls into that category. If not for the time I would have made this often as it’s a truly delicious and everyone who tasted this has loved it.

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients

For Kofta

Paneer – 250 gm (grated)

Potato – 3 medium

Carrot – 1 small (grated)

Cauliflower florets (grated) - ¼ cup

All-purpose flour/Maida – as required

salt

Oil for deep frying

For the gravy

Shahi Jeera ( Black  cumins) – 1 tsp

Tomato – 2 blanched and pureed

Onion – 3

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbs

Chilli powder – 1 ½ tsp

cumin powder - 1/4 tsp

coriander powder – 1 ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Garam masala- 1 tsp

Cashew nuts – 1 fistful ( soak and grind to paste)

Cream - 1/3 cup ( use  more if you like )

salt

Method

• Pressure cook the whole potatoes with skin on for 1-2 whistles , peel the skin and grate.
• In a tawa/pan add a little oil and stir the grated carrots and cauliflower tills its slightly cooked and all the moisture is gone. 
• Transfer  this to a mixing bowl and add grated paneer and grated potato.
• Add salt and mix again and roll them into balls. 
• In a plate take some flour/maida and rol the balls in it and deep fry the balls until golden brown.
• In a saucepan add some  oil and add the shahi jeera and when it gives a nice aroma add in chopped onions.
• Saute the onions till its slightly brown.
• Add ginger garlic paste and cook until the raw smells goes.
• Add chilli powder, turmeric powder, corainder powder,cumin powder, salt and cook until the raw smell of the masalas goes.
• Add the tomato puree and cook for a minute or so. 
• Finally add the cashewnut paste, fresh cream and  garam masala  and bring it to boil ane remove from fire.
• Add kofta balls and chopped corinader leaves and serve hot !

  

Enjoy with Roti/ chapathi/ Naan or even rice !

Note - Add Kofta balls to the gravy only while serving as it might loose its shape.

Chocolate cake with fresh cream frosting

It’s almost the end of our summer holidays and I am dreading the thought of morning rush and busy weekdays. The summer here has already ended and it almost feels like autumn with grey skies and rain, but I am glad that we had a good summer this year which helped me in not missing India badly as we usually go home during this time of the year. We went for a coastal holiday to Cornwall and had a good break there. It was a perfect holiday in every sense and then came my little sister and family from Ireland. We are busy taking them in and around London and days are flying. She is still here and I have few more days to enjoy before we all get back to our routine J. Onam ( Kerala’s festival) is around the corner and this time we are going to prepone it a little bit and have a family Onam before my sister leaves. I will try and post few recipes which I cook for our sadhya/feast before Onam.

I made this cake for a group of friends celebrating their friends birthday ( how sweet ) and it was a last minute request so even though I couldn’t do justice to the look of the  cake I got a good feedback for the taste which is what matters after all J.

Ingredients ( for cake)

Maida / All Purpose flour - 225 gm /  roughly 2 cups

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup

Boiling water - 250 ml

Unsalted butter (softened )- 125 gm 

Vanilla extract - 2 tsp

Dark muscuvado sugar - 100 gm ( tighly packed 1/2 cup) 

Caster sugar - 150 gm ( 1 1/2 cup )

Eggs - 2 large (at room temperature )

Method

• Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and keep it aside.
• In a bowl measure cocoa powder, dark brown muscuvado sugar, boiling water and whisk. Keep it aside.
• Cream butter and sugar until soft and creamy.
• Beat one egg at a time and beat well ,add a  tbs of  sifted flour and beat for few seconds, break the second egg  and beat well.
• Add vanilla extract and  beat.
• Add  the rest of the sifted flour and beat.
• Finally add the cocoa mixture and fold in.
• Pour the batter into two 8 inch greased cake tins and bake them in a preheated oven at 180 degree celcius for 30 minutes.

Ingredients for frosting

Whipping cream/ Fresh cream – 600ml

Icing Sugar – 4tbs or as per your sweetness

Vanilla extract – 1tsp

Method

Whip everything together in a bowl until soft peaks are formed.

Assembling the cake

Place the first layer of cake on cake board and spread the frosting on top, place the second layer on top of it and repeat the same and also on the sides and then decorate it with fruits of your choice.

Garlic Naan

Since last few days I have been missing blogging very badly and when I looked in drafts I was disappointed as  there was no recipe to post and thats the reason why I posted  some random summer pictures last time...but I must say that it  wasn’t satisfying as doing a recipe post so I had to cook something specially for blogging. So after quick brainstorming   here I am back to business with my tried and tested Naan recipe !  I have been making this for a long long time now, and it’s very much appreciated by my friends and our small family especially my lil boy. As soon as it comes out of the oven it goes straight into our tummy and that’s why this recipe never found its way to my blog. The trick for a good Naan is a very sticky dough which I learnt from Vahreh Vah chef. This weekend we have been lazing around at home so I managed to take a video with hubby’s help (though its not a prefect one ).

I should tell you that photographing the pictures was  quite challenging as my lil boy was behind my lens waiting impatiently to grab one Naan, he even threatened me that if he is not getting his share quicky he will eat my camera ! I hardly got few seconds to shoot it, so pictures might not be appealing as it tasted but I assure you this recipe is a keeper.

Recipe adapted from here and here

Ingredients

Maida/ Plain flour – 3 cups

Milk – 1 cup

Instant Yeast – 1 ½ tsp

Sugar – 1 1/2 tsp

Yogurt -3 tbs

Oil – 3 tbs

Salt – 1 tsp

Gralic cloves - 6 (crushed)

Butter - 3 tsp (optional)

Method

• Dissolve 1 ½ tsp yeast and 1 ½ tsp sugar in a cup of warm milk and let it sit for 5 minutes.
• Measure 3 cups of flour in a bowl.
• Add yogurt, oil , salt, yeast – milk mixture and knead with a spoon or with your hands roughly.
• Cover it with a damn cloth or with a cling film  and let it sit for 2 hours or until its double in size.
• Divide the dough into six equal balls ( use flour to dust if required)
• Apply little oil on your hands and stretch the dough between your palms as shown in the video or roll it into oval shapes .                                                                                  
• Sprinkle the garlic on top. Let it si for 15 minutes.
• Place the Naan into a a preheated oven( maximum tempetarure) for 6 minutes or until its slightly brown on top.
• Spread butter on top and serve hot with curry of your choice !

Glimpse of our summer !

It has been a busy summer holiday for us and so far this is one of the brightest and hottest summer here. We are out in the sun most of the time getting  our annual vitamin D  dose and getting super tanned too ! I do cook amidst of all the outings but hardly take out the camera, so until I find some time to post a recipe here is a glimpse of our summer life captured in my mobile !!

Rasberry picking

Pond dipping