Traditional Brownie

With holiday season around the corner, I have been busy baking edible gifts for friends. This year I tried out few new recipes making my own tweaks and this brownie is one among them. It was a great hit and I think I can confidently say this is the best brownie I have baked so far. Before I go to the recipe let me wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

Recipe adapted from Humming bird bakery book

Ingredients

Plain flour – 130 gm

Dark chocolate – 100 gm ( 70 % cocoa)

Milk chocolate – 100 gm( 30 % cocoa)

Unsalted butter – 175 gm

Caster sugar – 350 gm

Eggs – 3 large

Method

Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of boiling water

Remove from fire and add sugar. Mix well.

Add flour and mix.

Finally break 3 eggs and combine well until smooth.

The batter should fall like a ribbon.

Pour the batter into a  prepared 8 inch square pan and bake in preheated oven at 170 degree for 30-35 minutes.It should be flaky on top and soft in the centre.

Cut into square pieces and enjoy !

Koorka Thoran/Chines potato thoran/ Chinese potato stir fry

 Do you  know anyone who doesn’t like koorka/Chinese potato ? I haven’t met any.. Even my son who tried it sceptically for the first time yesterday said it’s quite yumm ! Unfortunately we don’t get it that easily here, so when my friend got me some from an Indian shop I was doing a happy feet dance ! It’s a tedious job to clean those beauties and a bit time consuming. With a baby who needs my constant attention, it wasn’t easy at all. I had to do the cleaning bit in three sittings during his cat naps. I aimed to cook it for lunch but in the end only got it ready for dinner. Do I need to say more about my dinner, I was in Koorka heaven which made all the effort in prepping them worthwhile!

Ingredients

Koorka – 500 gm

Kunjulli /Shallots – 7-8 no

Red chilli flakes – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Curry leaves – few

Mustard seeds

Grated coconut – 2 tbs

Coconut oil

Salt

water

Method

Wash the mud off from  koorka and scrape off the skin with a knife.

Wash again and cut them into small pieces, mix it with turmeric powder and set side.

In a pan/cheenachatti add coconut  oil and sputter mustard seeds.

Add thinly sliced shallots and fry until its soft.

Add red chilli flakes,curry leaves and stir for a minute.

Add  koorka, salt and very little water and cook the koorka until soft and cooked.

Finally add grated coconut, give it a mix and cook for a minute or so.

Remove from fire and add a tsp of coconut oil .

  

Moong dal ladoo

Wishing everyone a very Happy Diwali !

For a change this year I am posting a recipe nice and early for you all to try before Diwali. I made this over the weekend for sharing it with some of my friends. For a foodie like me Diwali is all about making, eating and sharing sweets =D

This is such an easy recipe and you can make this in a jiffy, so do give it a try and don’t forget to share too :)

Ingredients

Moong dal – 1 cup/200 gm

Powdered sugar – 85 gm/ 1/3 cup

Cardamom pods -5 no

Ghee – ¼ cup/ 55 gm

Method

Roast Moong dal for 8-10 minutes in a pan, stirring continuously until its golden brown.

Powder the dal in a mixie

Powder 85 gm of sugar with cardamom and keep it aside

In a pan add hot ghee and add the moong dal powder. Heat it on a low flame and roast for about 5 minutes stirring continuously, making sure that it doesn’t stick to the bottom or sides

Remove from fire and add powdered sugar and mix.

Let the mixture cool down a bit for you to handle it to make balls/ladoos.

Once it has cool down a bit make equal sized ball and roll it into ladoos

Achinga payar mezhukkupuratti/ Long beans stir fry

Here I am again just to say a quick hello. To be honest, I didn’t expect that I would be coming back again this soon. Life has been busy, hectic and tiring but time is flying and my baby is 4 months now ! He is a light sleeper and a serial cat napper, so  doing household chores and cooking itself is hardwork, let alone photographing and blogging. 

Slowly things are getting better, he has started to play on his own for a while which gives me some extra time to do my stuffs while he keeps himself busy. If he continues to be a good boy like this I will be back often :)

My most active days of blogging was when my elder one was a 1 year old. I wasn’t working then so all his nap times used to be my free time and thankfully there were no smart phones then and it got me into blogging.

Anyway coming back to today’s post, it’s a simple mazhukkuperattty which we make often at home.

Ingredients

Achinga payar/long beans – 250 gm ( cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces)

Shallots/kunjulli – 6-7 no(fistful)

Chilli powder – 3/4 tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Curry leaves – few

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Coconut oil

salt

Method

In a wok/cheenachatti/kadai add coconut oil and sputter mustard seeds

Add thinly sliced shallots and fry until soft

Add chilli powder, turmeric powder, curry leaves and fry for a minute

Add the chopped beans, little water( 2-3tbs), salt and stir.

Cover and cook until done.

Serve with rice and enjoy !

Pazham pori

Hello all,

This has been a long break and this time there is a good reason. Some of my friends in FB and Insagram already know why.. ..It was a surprise for many of them indeed J. After long 8 years gap I have become a mum again. We have blessed with another boy, my not so little boy is a proud big B and is enjoying his new role.  Time is already flying and baby is 21/2 months now. I had the luxury of parents helping me until now but they are going to fly back home in a week’s time, that means cooking and blogging might  take a back seat for the time being , but time to time I will pop in and say hello here J

Today’s recipe is Amma’s special pazham pori. She makes pazham pori every now and then, especially when friends visit us to see the baby and it has been a hit with everyone. She doesn’t have any measurements for any recipe, so she took the effort of measuring all the ingredients for me when I told her I want to blog it. I know if I keep it for another day I will forget all about it so this recipe is coming almost straight from the plate !

Ingredients

Ripe plantain/ etha pazham /nenthra pazham – 2 small

For batter

Plain flour/ Maida – 1 cup

Water – 1 cup (as required)

Sugar – 3-4 tsp

Salt – a pinch

Turmeric powder (optional) -  a pinch ( for colour)

Oil for frying)

Method 

•        Cut the plantain into two halves and slice each halves lengthwise into 3 pieces. You will be left with 6 pieces.  Do the same with the other plantain.
• ·      Make a batter by mixing all the ingredients mentioned under “for batter “. You might not need all of the water. Batter should not be too thick or too loose.
•        Dip the plantain slices in the batter and deep fry in hot oil for about 4 minutes flipping the sides until golden colour. 

Mango lassi

Mangoes are in season now and being a diehard mango fan I end up buying  box of mangoes whenever I see them. Usually mangoes goes straight into my  tummy and doesn’t get a chance to be experimented , but this time mangoes I picked up were  a bit fibrous and the vein like part was getting stuck in teeth, so it  wasn’t that good for eating so I decided to make lassi with it. I love mango lassi’s, the only drink I order from Indian restaurants. I know that the restaurant ones are not made from fresh  mangoes. It's made with mango pulp that comes out from  a tin and has tons of sugar in it, but still I order it as it's hard to resist the tempation of a mango drink ! But if you would like to make a healthy version I would suggest making your own lassi when mangoes are in season and enjoy this drink without the guilt.

Ingredients (Serves 4-5 )

Mangoes – 4 ( peeled and chopped)

Yogurt – 1 ¼ cup

Milk – 3/4 cup

Sugar -  4-5 tbs or according to your taste or sweetness of the mango

Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

Method

Blend everything together together in a blender and chill

Notes – I made mango puree first and sieved it to get rid of the insoluble fiber in the pulp and then blended the puree with rest of the ingredients.

Kerala parippu curry/ Kerala sadya parippu / Kerala dal curry

Wishing everyone a happy Vishu! I am glad that this year Vishu is falling on  a bank holiday weekend, so after ages we will get to celebrate Vishu the same day. We have a kerala sadya potluck  planned and I am looking forward to eat a scrumptious sadya tomorrow. 
 Today I am sharing a simple Kerala parippu curry/dal curry which is served as a part of Kerala sadya. It’s so easy to make and you can whip it up in less than 30 minutes.

Ingredients

Moong dal/cherupayar parippu – ¾ cup

To grind

Grated coconut – ¾ cup

Shallots /cheriya ulli – 3

Cumin seeds/ Jeerakam – ½ tsp

Green chillies – 4

For tadka/ thalikkal

Coconut oil /ghee

Mustard seeds – 1 ½ tsp

Shallots/ cheriya ulli – 2

Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Whole red chilli – 3

Method

• Soak the dal for ½ an hour
• Pressure cook the dal for 2 -3 whistles
•  Grind the grated coconut with ingredients mentioned above adding little water.
•  Add the paste to the dal and bring to boil
•   Finally in a small pan add oil/ghee sputter mustard seeds, add the finely chopped shallots.
•   Fry it for some time until slightly brown.
•   Finally add split whole red chilli and curry leaves and fry until red chillies get little dark    
• Add the tadka to the parippu/dal 
  

Kerala style varutharacha chicken curry

Can’t believe how time is flying. It’s already spring and the clock has changed here which means we get one hour extra sunlight in the evening! 

Last few weeks has been very hectic for me. We moved house last month and with 40 plus boxes to unpack, settling in took a while. This move has been eye opener for me to realise how much junk I have accumulated in the name of blogging. S was shocked to see all the things that came out of boxes and was getting into fight with me for that. So I am trying to prove to him that I will be using all of that and will be getting back to blogging soon. I get plenty of daylight in this house so I am hoping that inspires me to blog and take pictures for my blog.

Today’s recipe is a Kerala special varutharacha chicken curry which I made long time back. I am not a big fan of varutharacha curry/ roasted coconut based gravy but once in a while I enjoy  this and love to pair it with ghee rice.

Ingredients

To marinate

Chicken – 1 kilo

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp

Salt

To roast and grind

Grated coconut – ¾ cup

Cinnamon – 1 stick

Cloves – 5

Cardamom – 4 number

Fennel seeds – 1 tbs

Star anise – 1

Peppercorns – 1 tbs

Coriander seeds – 2  tbs

Poppy seeds – 1 tbs

Whole red chilli – 4 number

Curry leaves – 2 sprigs

Other ingredients

Onion – 4 number

Tomato small – 2

Green chilli – 3 number

Coriander leaves

Mint leaves

Water – ¼ cup or as required

Method

•   Marinate the chicken with ingredients mentioned for 30 minutes.
•  In a non- stick pan add a tbs oil and roast grated coconut for  few  minutes, when it starts to change colour add the rest of ingredients  mentioned and roast until the coconut is brown in colour and nice  aroma come out.
•    Let it cool down and then grind it to a smooth paste adding little water.
•   In a saucepan add coconut oil and saute the chopped onions until soft  and light brown in colour.
•   Add tomato and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.
•    Add marinated chicken and stir for a few minutes.
•    Add the ground  paste and water let eh chicken cook in the gravy until  its done.
•   Finally add chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves and remove from fire.

Sticky Toffee pudding

I can’t let this month go without a post. My first post for this year. This post has been in my drafts since Christmas, I was going to post it as a holiday indulgence but it took me 6 weeks to finally sit down and publish it. Anyway better late than never ! I know this is the month of  New Year’s resolution and maybe some of you maybe trying  to eat healthy and stay away from Indulging, but once in a while cheating is okay. To ward off the winter blues we need some indulgence and this is a perfect recipe for it. 

         I made this dessert for a dinner party and this was a big hit and usually crowd pleasing recipes like this, especially desserts makes it's way to the blog for my own reference.

           I have posted  a sticky toffee pudding recipe as a guest post for Manju’s blog long time back but this is a different recipe. It’s so easy to make and tastes divine !

Recipe source –here

Ingredients

•          Unsalted butter – 55 gm
•         Eggs – 2 large
•          Demara sugar – 200 gm
•          Self -raising flour – 200 gm
•          Black Treacle – 2 tbs
•          Dates(  pitted) – 200gm Black treacle – 2 tbs
•          Golden syrup – 1 tbs
•          Vanilla extract – ½ tsp
•          Baking soda – ½ tsp
•          Boiling water – 1 ½ cup /300 ml          

·         For the sauce

•          Light muscuvado sugar – 125 gm
•          Unsalted butter – 125 gm
•          Double cream – 190 ml

·          Method

•          In a bowl place the dates and add boiling water and baking soda to it. Keep it aside for few minutes and then blend it to a smooth puree.
•       Meanwhile cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add in eggs and beat in slowly.
•         Add treacle, golden syrup, vanilla and beat until mixed.
•        Add the flour and  fold in.
•          Add the dates puree to the batter and fold in.
•         Pour the batter into a greased 8 inch cake tin or 6 individual pudding bowls.
•          Bake it in a preheated oven at 200 degree C for 20- 25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Let it cool down for sometime.

·         Toffee Sauce

•         Place  light muscuvado sugar, butter and cream in a saucepan on a low heat until the sugar dissolves and the sauce gets a toffee flavour.
•          Serve the warm  pudding with sauce and a scoop of vanilla  ice -cream !