Mirch ka salan / Green chillies curry

A New year again..fresh chapter, new hopes, new resolutions.. Let’s hope this year is going to be a great one for all of us. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year once again.

“A curry with chillies! OMG ” Is that what you are thinking ? That's what I thought  when I saw this curry in other blogs.  Our spice tolerance level is really low now, so there was no way I was going to try this until I tasted this from S’s place. She served  Hydrebadi biriyani with this salan and it was a great combination indeed so it didn’t take long before I tried it myself. I made it several times with biriyani but when we smell biriyani we are always hungry and never wait to take any pictures before we eat. Wondering how I manged this time? This time I made the curry first so I had some time while biriyani was on Dum J

I still don’t dare to use green chillies for this salan instead always use milder versions of chillies but if you think you can handle hotter green chillies go ahead and use it !

Recipe source - Vahrehvah

Ingredients           

Onion – 1

Cinnamon stick – 1 inch stick

Cloves – 2

Cardamom – 3

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Whole red chillies - 1

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Coriander powder – 1 tbs

Tamarind paste – 1/4 tsp

Yogurt – ½ cup

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Sugar – 1 tsp

Green chillies/  milder green chillies – 100 gm

Curry leaves

Coriander leaves – finely chopped

Mint leaves- finely chopped

To roast

Sesame seeds – 1 tbs

Peanut – 1 tbs

Grated coconut/dessicated coconut – 1 tbs

Method

• In a small pan add oil and add peanuts roast for few minutes.
• Add sesame seeds until slightly golden
• Finally add coconut powder and roast for a minute or so. Let it cool down and then grind it to a smooth paste adding little water.
• Slit the chillies , remove seeds if you want and shallow fry it in little oil and keep it aside.
• In another pan add oil and add  mustard seeds when in sputters add  whole garam masala, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds until it releases a nice aroma.
• Add chopped onions and saute until it is brown.
• Add ginger garlic paste and curry leaves saute for a minute or so.
• Add chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and hing.
• Pour the ground paste, tamarind paste, some water and cook for 5 minutes.
• Add beaten yogurt and cook for another 25 minutes or  until the oil separates.
• Finally add the slit chillies, chopped coriander, mint and sugar and cook for another 5 minutes. 

Tres Leches cake

This season is all about indulging isn’t it? I have been baking non- stop for almost the whole of the December; making edible gifts for friends, baking workshop, cake orders and also baking for dinner parties. My oven baked many batches of fruits cakes, brownies, apple roses, peanut crunchy bars, vanilla cake, cupcakes etc. Some nights, I used to be up in the kitchen until midnight baking and my legs ached like hell. But I really enjoyed making home-made gifts. This year I took a plunge and also tried my hands on some non - edible DIY gifts which I am really pleased with and can’t wait to share it with you all soon.

Anyway coming back to topic, I always like to try out new dessert recipes when I have friends over and Tre leche cake has been on my list for some time. I made this dessert when we had friends the other day and it was enjoyed by all. To be honest I won’t call this phenomenal, especially when I compare it with my other desserts, but the good thing is, it is so easy to put together and it’s yummy.

Recipe source - here

Ingredients

Plain flour – 1 ½ cup

Butter – ½ cup/ 115 gm ( melted)

Sugar – ¾ cup

Eggs – 5 large

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Salt – pinch

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

For soaking

Condensed milk – 1 can /390 gm

Evaporated milk – 340 gm can

Milk – 1 cup

For whipping

Whipping cream/double cream – 2 cup

Icing sugar – 3 tbs/ as per taste

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Fresh fruits (optional)

Method

• Sift flour, baking powder, salt and keep it aside.
• Cream eggs and sugar in an electric mixer for few minutes. The mixture will increase the volume.
• Add vanilla extract and beat again.
• Add the dry ingredients and fold in.
• Finally add melted butter and fold in.
• Pour the batter in a greased 9 inch cake pan and bake for 30 -35 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Whisk condensed milk, evaporated milk and milk together in a bowl.
• Transfer the cake onto a plate and poke holes on the hot cake and pour/spread the milk mixture slowly  on top of the cake with a spoon.
• Let the cake cool for 1 hour.
• Whip the cream with icing sugar and vanilla extract and spread it on top of the cake.
• Decorate with fresh fruits or as you like. 

Prawn Tempura

Hello all,

Hope you all are enjoying the festive time. It’s all about good food and catching up with friends for us this time. I have been looking forward to relax this holiday but bizarrely holidays are busier than usual and time is flying.

We spent our Christmas at G's place and it was an amazing one this year. I feel stuffed even when I think about it.  G did most of the cooking; in fact she cooked up a storm. The only thing I made was this prawn tempura and a banoffee pie.

It was during one of my skype conversation with mother in law that she mentioned about this cookery show she has been watching and about the tempura recipe she was impressed with. I was in luck when I searched for the programme in youtube and got the recipe here.  The tempura tasted great when served hot. Before I took them to the party I quickly took few pictures for the blog just to break the silence. I have many food pictures in my drafts and some of them are really keepers, perhaps my New Year resolution this year should be to update the blog as much as I can. More than anyone I think I refer back to my blog for recipes so it would really help me to save the time when trying to recreate the recipe!

Before I sign off let me wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Ingredients

Prawns (large) -20

For batter

Corn flour – 3 tbs

Plain flour – 5 tbsp

Egg white– from 1 egg

Salt

Pepper – ½ tsp

Water – as required

Bread crumbs to coat (optional)

Toothpicks (optional)

Oil  for deep frying

Method

1. Deshell the prawn leaving the tails and keep it aside.
2. Insert a toothpick inside the prawn ( this is to keep the prawns straight after  frying as prawns tends to curl when they cook)
3. Make the batter with the ingredients mentioned under batter and dip the prawns in it and coat them in bread crumbs.
4. Deep fry the prawns in a low flame for 3-4 minutes or until done.
5. Remove the toothpicks from the prawns and serve hot with some dipping sauce.

Enjoy !

Pesarattu/ Cherupayar dosa /Moong dosa

Hope you all are doing good. It has been a while  since I disapperaed isn’t it ? More than 2 months to be precise. My past two months have been really the best two months ever. I was holidaying in  Dubai and India for almost 6 weeks. It was an amazing one this year, catching up with friends and family, fun outings, Onam festival, get togethers … Infact after this years holiday we haven’t  recovered yet. The longer you go probably longer it takes to get back to routine, but gradually things are getting back to normal.

Coming to todays recipe, Its Pesarattu, it was something new to me until  I got to taste it from my friend  next door who is from Andhra. This recipe is from her and we all love this protein packed dosa at home. I pair it up coconut chutney and onion chutney and it works as a  treat for  us usually  on  weekends.

 Ingredients

Whole green Moong/ cherupayar – 1 cup

Rice – ½ cup

Ginger -  2 inch piece

Green chillies – 2-3

For topping

Onion – 1

Coriander leaves – finely chopped few

Oil

Method

Soak Moong and rice overnight.

Grind it with green chillies and ginger to a smooth batter.

Batter shouldn’t be too loose.

In a griddle or pan pour the batter and spread it as thinly as possible.

Sprinkle some finely chopped onions and coriander leaves on top.

Cook for a minute or so and flip it over and cook the other side.

Serve hot with peanut chutney, onion chutney or coconut chutney.

Curd rice/ thayir sadham

It has been only cakes recipes in my blog lately so I had to take an extra effort to post something different before another cake recipe and this Thayyir sadham which I prepare quite often these days  perfectly fitted the bill. The weather in this part of the world has been super hot and at home I don’t feel like eating  cooking any dinner on a hot day and  this curd rice is a life saver on such days...  a perfect comfort food for a hot day ! 

Ingredients

Rice - 1 1/4 cup 

Carrot - 2 grated

Cucumber - 1/2 of cucumber ( finely chopped)

Ginger minced - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves - finely chopped 

Yogurt - 1 cup

water - 1/4 cup

salt

for tempering/tadka
oil

Mustard seeds -  1 1/2 tsp

Peanuts -2 tbs ( optional)

Urad dal - 2 tsp

Whole red chilli - 2

Asoefitida/hing/ kayam - a pinch

Curry leaves

Method

• Cook the rice and drain. Mash it with a spoon.
• Transfer the mashed rice into a saucepan and add yogurt/curd and water and place it on a low flame until yogurt is warm.
•  Add grated carrot, chopped cucumber, ginger, coriander leaves and salt and remove from fire.
• For tadka take a small pan and add oil and when its hot add mustard seeds when it sputters add urad dal , peanuts  and when it becomes light brown add  whole red chillies, curry leaves and hing and heat for few seconds and remove from fire. 
• Add tadka to the rice and serve hot !

Eggless Vanilla cake

This has been the longest silence ever I guess….Life has been busy but I am not complaining about it. I like it this way rather than warding of boredom. I spend most of my weekends baking cakes these days, making peoples life sweeter! Not doing it professionally yet but with encouragement I get from friends I have a feeling that I am in the wrong profession ! 

My FB friends already know that recently I took part in two Bake off competitions and won prizes  in both and I have to say  it  has boosted my confidence a lot to try out new recipes and this eggless cake has been a result of that. So this recipe is for my future reference really. I have tried few eggless cakes before but was never happy with the results, but this cake has got a nice texture. It is soft, spongy and light. I don’t have a picture of cake slice to show you the texture as it was made for a friend for her hubbys birthday, but she saved a slice for me to taste and I was really happy with the outcome J

Ingredients

Cake flour -   1 ¼ cup /140gm (1 cup plain flour+ ¼ cup corn flour)

Baking powder – 1 ½ tsp

Baking soda – ½ tsp

Salt – pinch

Condensed milk – ½ tin/ 200 ml

Melted butter – ¼ cup /60 ml

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Boiling water – 75 ml

Method

• sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and keep it aside.
• In a separate bowl take condensed milk, melted butter, vanilla and beat until mixed.
• Add boiling water to it and beat until mixed.
• Add the dry ingredients to it and fold in gently.
• Pour the batter into two 8 inch cake pans and bake in an preheated oven at 180 degree C for about 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Cool the cake in the pan for few minutes and then invert them onto a wire rack and cool completely.
• Sandwich the cake with buttercream  or icing of your choice.

Pineapple Cream Cake

Hello all, Hope you are well. Apologies for the long silence, as much as I wanted to post something here I couldn’t get my hands over the camera to click even one single picture the whole two months!! At one point I even thought that was the end of my blog and I almost forgot my username and password!!  In winter I used to blame lights for not taking pictures and blogging but now there is no reason, just lack of motivation …sigh.

Today’s recipe is a Pineapple cake which I made for a friend this weekend. I am posting it here for my own benefit really as it was a total experiment and another friend who tasted it said it was so yummy and definitely blog worthy J  

Here goes the recipe

Ingredients - serves  8

For vanilla sponge ( I use 200 ml cup)

Cake flour- 125 g / 1cup

Caster Sugar – 120gm ( ¾ cup)

Butter – 50 gm /1/4 cup (melted)

Eggs – 4 large

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Pineapple extract/ vanilla extract – 11/2 tsp

Salt – pinch

For sugar syrup

Sugar - 2 tbs

Water – ¾ cup

Pineapple essence – 1 tsp

For filling

Finely chopped pineapple – 200 gm

Whipping cream – 600 ml

Icing sugar – 2 tbs

Pineapple extract – 1 ½ tsp

Method

Making the cake

•  Measure cake flour, baking powder, salt in a mixing bowl and keep it aside.
• Beat eggs with sugar and vanilla extract until its thick and trebled in volume for about 5-8 minutes.
• Sieve the dry ingredients from mixing bowl to the egg mixture and fold in gently.
• Add in the cooled melted butter and gently fold in.
• Divide and pour the batter into two 7 inch cake tins and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius for about 10-12 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
• Cut each layer horizontally into two and you will get 4 layers of cake.

Making the sugar syrup

In a pan add 2 tbs sugar, water and bring it to boil or until sugar is dissolved completely. Add pineapple essence and remove from fire. Let it cool down.

Making the cream

Beat the cream adding little icing sugar and pineapple extract until soft peaks are formed. Keep it aside.

Assembling the cake

Once the cake is cool enough take one layer and place it on a cake stand moisten it with sugar syrup. Spread the whipped cream on top followed by finely chopped pineapple pieces. Repeat the same on other layers and decorate it as per your wish. Chill it for some time for the flavours to mingle.