Hot from my oven

Skinny Red Velvet Cupcake

2013-02-12T18:39:00.001+08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Happy Chinese new year to all! We celebrated the long 4 day weekend with lots food and moviesJ

With Valentine’s day around the corner let me share a skinny version of the all time favorite Red velvet cupcake with a hint of chocolate flavour You can always cheat a bit and add the classic cream cheese frosting which is the classic combo. The recipe is adapted from the Cookbook Sweet and skinny by Marisa Churchill, so far I tried about 4 of her recipes and came out splendid! Most of the recipes are low fat and whole wheat and you can toss down it down with no guilt feelings.

So wait no more..lets whip up some red velvet cupcakes for the Valentine’s day!

Skinny Red Velvet Cupcake

Recipe from: Sweet and Skinny by Marisa Churchill

Ingredients

¾ Cup AP Flour

1 tbspn Cocoa powder

¾ tspn Baking powder

Pinch of salt

¾ Cup Low fat Yoghurt or buttermilk

3 tbspn Oil

1 tbspn Finely grated beet

½ tspn Red food colouring

1 egg+1 egg white

1/3-½ Cup Caster Sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees.

Sift together the dry ingredients- flour ,baking powder, cocoa powder and salt.

In another bowl mix together the buttermilk, oil, beet root, and food coloring.

In a large bowl beat together the egg and egg white, once it is foamy add the sugar and continue to beat for another 5 minutes until it is pale yellow.

Using a spatula fold in the flour alternating with buttermilk mix.

Scoop the batter to the cupcake moulds and beat it in preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Coconut Cake

2013-02-09T08:25:00.000+08:00

It’s a pretty long weekend for us here as the Chinese new year is around the corner. As always I have a big to-do list..and the item on top was to update my discarded blog..!

So here is a Coconut cake from my all time favourite Chef Donna Hay. Now when I follow cook book recipes many a times I end up with a totally different stuff from the lovely picture they put up to make u drool ! But never with Donna Hay, her recipes are just fool proof. I bet you just follow her recipes blind folded and you will be amazed with the results!

Coconut Cake

Recipe Soure: Donna Hay

Ingredients

50g butter

¼ Cup Caster sugar

1 tspn Vanilla essence

1 egg

½ Cup desiccated coconut

½ Cup Flour

¼ Cup regular Milk [I used Condensed Milk]

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees.

Combine the butter ,Sugar and Vanilla and beat together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs and condensed milk continue to beat well.

Now fold in the flour and coconut to the wet ingredients

Pour to a loaf pan and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Ginger Glazed Walnuts

2013-01-26T09:49:00.000+08:00

Let me warn you..you are going to see a lot more of Pecan and walnut recipes in coming days!

What can I say..I am surrounded by a bunch of generous people, I mean literally very generous ! My parents recently went to US to spend the holidays with my sis and I asked them to get me some Pecans and walnuts back as they r pretty expensive in Singapore.[Please note the word someJ]And a month later I go back home for Christmas holidays . My mom is happily flaunting all the stuff they shopped from US and there comes the gifts and things for me! Two big bags of stuff..I am like what ???you got me two bag full of pecans and walnuts!! Yeah just 2.5 KG each of Pecans and walnuts!!! Seeing my expression my mom asks me..Ops so is this not enough for you? should I have brought more:-) So thatz the extend of my mom’s generosity!

Bottom line I am going nuts over the 5 KG nuts starring at me in my pantry!

To kick start the getting rid of nuts project, I made a batch of walnut loaf, banana walnut loaf and still the size of the walnut bag doesn't seem to reduce a teeny tiny bit..So I finally decided to make some real walnut centric snacks and made this Sweet and Spicy roasted walnuts. Its crunchy, sugary and spicy ..a perfect snack to munch onJ

Ginger Glazed Walnuts

Ingredients

1 Cup walnuts

2 tbspn Ginger Syrup

1 tbspn Brown Sugar or Caster gar

Pinch of salt

¼-1/2 tspn Black Pepper powder

Directions

In a large bowl mix together the Ginger syrup, sugar, salt and pepper and stir well.

Add the walnuts and stir well until the nuts are coated well with the syrup.

Bake in a 175 Degrees oven for 10 -12 minutes, until the glaze is dry . Give it a quick mix in between.

Note: Keep a close watch and don’t let the sugar burn

Poppy seed Cake

2013-01-20T21:39:00.001+08:00

No sneaking around for low fat .. no guilt this time around.. its poppy seed cake for the weekend! Was planning to treat myself with a rich cake with succulent cream cheese icing before I get back to my routine. Unfortunately it raining cats and dogs here in Singapore for last two days . So the laziness got the best of me and I chose to keep it simple. Nevertheless it’s a fluffy soft cake with the wicked poppy seeds. I am loving it.

Poppy seed Cake

Ingredients

½ Cup Milk

¼ Cup Poppy Seeds

1 Cup Flour

1 tspn Baking powder

Pinch of salt

½ Cup + 2 tbspn Sugar

Juice and Zest of half orange

2 large egg whites

Directions

Bring the milk to a boil in a sauce pan. Remove from heat and add the poppy seeds and let it cool.

Combine the dry ingredients- flour, baking powder and salt and sieve together

In a large bowl, cream the butter and ½ Cup sugar.

Add in the Orange zest and juice and beat well.

Add the flour and milk mixture alternating to the creamed butter.

In a dry bowl, add the egg whites and beat until frothy

Add the remaining 2 tbspn sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks are formed.

Fold in the egg whites to the batter in two batches

Bake in a 180 degrees pre heated oven for 30 minutes.

Nutella Cupcake with Caramel sauce topping

2013-01-12T22:16:00.001+08:00

Its 12 days into 2013..Better later than never !!.Let me wish all my dear readers a very happy new year.

December of 2012 was mad..Sleepless nights , a trip to US followed by 5 days neck deep work and to close it all a 2 week vacation in my hometown!

I got back to Singapore few days back and still struggling hard to get back to routine.I missed hell lot of posts from you all and almost forgot about my blog. Mostly because I haven’t been doing much cooking in the last couple of months. Things are a bit settled now and I hope to get back to ride soonJ .

Last time I left this space with a promise that more Nutella recipes was on the way using the Home made Nutella I last posted. So here is a finger licking Nutella cupcake with Caramel sauce topping

Nutella Cupcake with Caramel sauce topping

Recipe Adapted from: Taste of Home

Ingredients

3 tbspn butter

1/4 cup Nutella

1/2 +2 tbspn brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cups Flour

1/2 tspn baking powder

1/4 tspn baking soda

Pinch of salt

1/3 Cup Milk

Directions

Combine the dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, Nutella and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and vanilla and continue to mix well.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mix alternately with milk and beat well

Fill the cupcake moulds 3 /4 full and bake in a 350 degrees preheated oven for 15 minutes

For the sauce, I put some home-made caramels in microwave for 30 seconds and drizzled over the cupcake.

Homemade Nutella/ Hazelnut Spread

2012-12-23T16:08:00.000+08:00

Phewwwwww..I am back, after a month loonng break.

I am soo sorry to have left this place without a wordL in fact I didn’t even intent to take a break from blogging you know…just that there were soo many things happening in life that I just had to put this off to later, later and ended up with this loonng break …

Now the last few months has been a roller coaster ride..Ups and downs and up again. Letz now go flash back into the last few months Arrghhhh.

Bottom line I am at a very happy space now..enjoying my long break..little over 2 long weeks. First few days I just slept it all off, just getting in time to eat.And now busy shopping Christmas gifts and packing my bags for my 10 day break in my Hometown, yippppieeee.

Coming to today’s recipe, it a homemade nutella… A lighter and healthier version . You are going to love this with a slice of toast..A perfect way to start your dayJ

More recipes with Nutella on the wayJ

Home-made Nutella/ Hazelnut Spread

Ingredients

½ Cup Hazelnut

3 tbpsn Dark Chocolate Chips

2-3 tbspn Maple syrup

1 tspn Vanila extract

Pinch of salt

Directions

First step is to de-skin the Hazelnuts.

For that place the Hazelnuts in one layer in a baking sheet .

Transfer the tray to a 275 Degrees preheated oven to 15 -25 minutes, until the skin start to crack.

While the nuts are still hot, place the nuts on a kitchen towel, wrap and rub vigorously b/w hands until you are tired and Viola the nuts are de-skinned.

Blend the hazelnuts until it forms a paste. Add the remaining ingredients , continue blending until smooth paste is formed.[You can add more maple syrup or coconut Oil or even milk to achieve the desired consistency. If adding milk, try to finish off the spread in 4-5 days as shelf life may not be high]

Transfer into a jar and store in refrigerator for 2-3 weeks

Lamingtons

2012-11-25T09:30:00.000+08:00

Lately blogging and even cooking have become an weekend affair for me.After my last post, I don’t think I have visited this space more than twiceL That too not more than few minutes..

I am caught up in the midst of a whirlpool at work and I can say that I am virtually living in my office and coming home just for sleeping. Needless to say my kitchen and oven have been idle for weeks..The craziest part is I am even dreaming of work, slides, and even colleagues..to be specific bossesL. Every morning when I wake up, I feel like I just came out of a long exhausting meeting.

To keep myself sane, I am making some time for some fun activities as well. DH and I have started going to mandarin classes..which turned out to be 2 hrs of sit-up comedy. 4 classes down and I can’t even remember 4 phrases. And even those 4 , when I tried on my colleagues, I got weird looks, stares and one even said never ever say that loud again. So I am absolutely sure I haven’t even nailed down a single phrase yet.The most difficult part for me is the tones..Oo man , no wonder why Chinese people are way smarter. If they can master such a difficult language they ought to be smart !

And yes, we started Salsa classes too, thatz was weird at start ..but turning out just like the mandarin classes...Two classes down and our dance doesn’t look even look a teeny tiny bit close to Real salsa dance.

Before you get bored of activity calendar, let me bring you back to today’s recipe. Lamingtons!

Lamingtons

Recipe adapted From Joy of baking

Ingredients

1 Cup Flour

1 tspn Baking powder

Pinch of salt

¼ Cup butter

1/3 Cup sugar

1 Egg

2 tbspn Orange Juice

1 tnspn Orange Zest

¼ Cup Milk

For Chocolate Coating:

2 Cup icing Sugar

3 tbspn Cocoa powder

2 tbspn Butter

¼ Cup Milk

1 Cup desiccated coconut for coating

Directions

Sift together the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

In a bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg , orange juice and zest and continue to beat well.

Slowly add the flour and milk alternately and mix well until the batter the smooth

Pour the batter into a pan and bake in a 180 degrees pre-heated oven for 25 minutes

Let it cool on a wire rack , wrap it in a cling wrap and keep it in refrigerator for few hours. This makes it easier to slice it without crumbling.

Slice the cake into 1 inch cubes.

To prepare the icing, mix all ingredients in a bowl, place it over a pan of simmering water and stir until smooth .

Now roll up the sleeves and dip the cake in the icing , roll it in coconut and place it in wire rack. Repeat the same for rest of the cake slices.

I ran out of icing..so made some..not so lamingtons..!

Homemade Salted Caramels

2012-11-17T08:58:00.000+08:00

Weekend is here..Oo lalalala.Let’s start it with something sweet. Homemade salted Caramels!

I have been wanting to make some homemade caramels recipe ever since I have the most yummiest cheesecake ever..Salted Caramel Cheesecake.Also I badly needed to use the candy thermometer which I have used only twice in last 3 years, if not I may not even remember that ever existed!

I blindly followed the recipe from Joy of Baking and worked like a charm. It makes a perfect gift item if you can manage to spare a few.

Home-made Salted Caramels

Recipe From Joy of baking

Ingredients

¾ Cup Heavy Cream

½ Cup White Sugar

½ Cup Brown Sugar

1 tspn Sea Salt

1 tspn Vanilla extract

Directions

In a pan, add the cream, sugar and salt.

On medium low heat, bring it to boil and stir continuously until the sugar is melted completely.

Clamp a candy thermometer to the side of the pan.

Boil the mixture over medium high heat (do not stir) until the temperature reaches 245 degrees F

Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Pour the caramel into a greased pan and let cool overnight.

Following day, with a greased knife cut the caramels into squares and wrap it in a candy wrappers and njoy the salted sugary caramels.

Happy Diwali..And a Ribbon Pakoda recipe

2012-11-13T07:15:00.000+08:00

Happy Diwali /Deepavali to all my lovely readers!!Hope you are enjoying this festival of lights with your dear ones and with lots and lots of diwali sweets and snacksJ

For this Deepavali I made a simple savory snack which reminds me of a very very special person who is very close to my heart.

Back in my hometown in Kerala, it’s a very closely knit society and our neighbours are more like our family.So the Ammumma next door is more like my own grandmother.

I must admit that I spend a veee bit more time with her than my real grandparents. As both my parents were working I can say that I was practically living at their place.My clumsy description can't do justice to a person like our Ammumma…Infact all of us called her Ammumma including the kids gang ,my parents, other uncles and aunts in our colony.Such a pious, serene, loving person she was..The fondest memory I have of her is me lying down by her side in a straw mat in afternoons and she reading out stories from “Urumbum Pravum”.

How I wish I got a chance to relive all those precious moments..I wish I could go back and hold her hands once more and tell her how much we all adored her…

Even though she is not with us anymore..her memories are soo vivid and I still can feel the her love and warmth..Love u always Ammuma..

This Ribbon Pakoda is one of her masterpiece..I wonder how big of a batch she must have made and how many hours she must have stood there making it.One thing was for sure ,most houses around would get a box of Pakoda when she ever she was making it! It was crispy, thin, light and with a hint of garlic flavor.

Let me confess my Pakodas are nowhere near that. It’s just another pakoda, but it reminds me of her and that makes all the difference

Ribbon Pakoda

Ingredients

1 Cup rice flour

½ Cup Gram flour

2 tbspn Oil

½ tspn Salt

Oil for deep frying

To grind:

3 Dried red chillies

2 Cloves Garlic

½ tspn Jeera/Cumin seeds

Directions

In a blender, grind the ingredients chillies, garlic, cumin seeds with 2 tbspn water.

Mix together rice flour, gram flour and salt.

Heat 2 tbspn oil and add to the dry ingredients and stir well using a fork.

Sieve and add the ground mix to the flour mix and knead well.

Add warm water and for a stiff but smooth dough.

Heat the oil for deep frying in a wok

Using a seva press, press the dough directly to hot oil and fry until golden brown.

Vegan Sticky Dates Cake

2012-11-11T20:40:00.001+08:00

I am in a total hibernation mode…After a very long and nerve-racking week at work, I took a day off and am enjoying my 4 day weekendJ Now who can beat that!

Cant believed that two days of my precious 4 day weekend end is already over and all I did was go moo-moo and eat. Both of which I hardly did in last one week.

Sigh sigh..Diwali is round the corner and I haven’t made a single festive snack.Let alone snack, I haven’t made a meal in almost a week now. I rarely switched on my stove and when I did it , it was just to make some tea or coffee.

Anyways tomorrow I have a big todo list ,hopefully I can break out of my laziness shell and make some festive snacks. Meantime here is a veganised recipe of my favourite sticky dates cake.

Vegan Sticky Dates Cake

Ingredients

3 tbpsn brown sugar

2 tbspn oil

1tspn Molasses

¼ Cup Soy Milk+1/2 tspn Apple cider vinegar

1/2 Cup date puree.(method below)

½ Cup flour

½ tspn baking powder

Pinch of Baking soda

Directions

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Deseed about 10-12 dates, add about 3 tbspn water and microwave in high for 30 seconds until all water is absorbed. Once cooled, puree the dates in a blender.

Mix together, sugar, oil, molasses, dates puree and soy milk

Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined

Pour into a cake tin and bake in a 180 degrees preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.

Vegan Orange Drizzle cake

2012-11-06T22:20:00.000+08:00

Oo my..I have been ignoring my bloggy for more than 10 days.Its almost dead..let me quickly give it some CPR!

DH was sick..This time it was big-time !May b the virus was visiting him after 3 long years, it stuck him ,world class this time.DH as a rule is a hyperactive adult who absolutely hates sleeping and when he is down and asked by doctor to sleep until cows comes home..it’s like asking for the moon!Sigh sigh

I have been missing all those lip-smacking dishes from my dear blog buddies ,especially the early diwali sweets.. Soo much to catch upL

Coming to today’s recipe it’s an egg less orange cake with a simple chocolate icing. This cake has been in my drafts for over a month now.. I adapted the recipe from Vaishali’s awesome blog Holy cow. Just halved the recipe and made some changes in the flavourings.

Vegan Orange Drizzle cake

Recipe source: Holy cow

Ingredients

¼ Cup Flour+ ¼ Cup whole wheat flour

1/4 Cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 Cup + 2tbspn Orange juice

2 tbspn Oil

1 tspn Apple cider vinegar

1 tspn Orange zest

Direction

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Mix together the wet ingredients and add to dry ingredients,mix until just combined.

Bake in 180 degree preheated oven for 20-25 minutes

Once out of the oven, drizzle 2 tbspn orange juice and let it cool.

I just did some simple icing using some melted dark chocolate.

Jalebi/Jangri/Jilebi

2012-10-23T20:47:00.000+08:00

Jalebi..Jangri..Jilebi..Or even JilaybeeeJ I honestly don’t know the right name.In my place we call is Jilaybee .After all what’s in a name.

It’s basically a yummy Indian sweet. As like most Indian sweet its superb sweet and not for light hearted folks. Its deep fried , doesn’t stop there and then we go ahead and soak it in a sugar syrup.

Now don’t count calories during this festive season , just indulge in this yummy sweet and bounce to the seventh heaven due to the sugar rush.

I saw this recipe in Taste of Kerala a popular cookery show in Kerala. I was soo inspired by the way the Aunty shaped the Jilebi.The way she shape it looks like a cake walk..But I failed miserably for first two batches, didn't go beyond a line or circle. But finally managed to get it right after a few revision of geometry!

Jalebi/Jangri/Jilebi

Recipe Source: Taste of Kerala

Makes about 25-20 Mini Jilebis

Ingredients

½ Cup Urad Dhal

½ Cup Sugar

¾ Cup water

A drop of Orange color- I used Wilton Color

Few pods of Cardamom

Oil for deep frying

Directions

Soak urad dal for 2 hours

Grind into a smooth batter with very little water. I had to add 2 tbspn water.

Meanwhile prepare the Syrup-Mix, sugar and water and crushed cardamom in a pot and simmer until a sticky syrup is formed. Would take roughly about 10-15 min

Transfer the Urad batter to a pastry bag or a normal Zip lock bag

Now heat the oil in low flame, once small bubbles start to form on top of the oil gently squeeze the batter onto oil for about 1 inch diameter. Check the video for how to shape it.

On low heat let it cook on one side until it start to brown lightly, turn and cook other side.

Remove from oil and let it soak in warm syrup for 2-3 minutes and arrange in a tray

Matcha White Chocolate Fudge with Red Bean filling

2012-10-18T21:15:00.000+08:00

Match or Green tea is an acquired taste. At least that was the case for me! I absolutely hated it about 5 yrs back ,used to wonder how people can eat this weird green colour tea, that too flavor your cakes and bakes with that!! My liking started with Green tea ice creams and mochi, slowly moved on to cakes, cheese cakes, chocolates and now I am absolutely addicted!

I am soo glad I am born after Green tea was discovered..how would I have lived without it!!!

Due to my green tea syndrome I have been making anything and everything with Matcha Green tea..From chiffon cakes to cupcakes to ice creams to jelly and now to Fudge.Now this one is going to be sweet, probably you will end up in a sugar coma! So stick to one at a time!

Matcha White Chocolate Fudge with Red Bean Filling

Ingredients

100 gms White chocolate

1 tspn Matcha Powder

2 tbspn Red bean paste for filling

Directions

Melt the white chocolate on a double boiler.

Once it starts to melt, whisk until the chocolate is melted completely.

Add the matcha powder and whisk well

Pour ½ tbspn of white chocolate to a cupcake mold, pipe in some red paste followed by another tbspn of white chocolate.

Refrigerate for few hours.

Now bite into heavenly sweetness!

Healthy Rice Krispie Treats with Dates

2012-10-14T16:44:00.000+08:00

Traditionally the yummy rice krispie treats are made from Rice cereal , Marshmallows and oodles of butter. But this one is not your regular rice Krispy treats with Marshmallows. It’s a lighter and healthier version with Dates Puree and peanut butter. Isn’t it great to hear that your favorite snack can be made so healthy and wholesome.. now you can munch on this non-stop without worrying about growing horizontally!!

Healthy Rice Krispie Treats with Dates

Ingredients

½ Cup Dates

½ Cup water

1 tbspn Peanut butter

1 ½ Cup Rice Krispies

Directions

Mix together the dates and water in a pot and cook in low flame until all liquid has been absorbed

Once cooled, puree the dates with peanut butter in a blender

Mix with rice Krispies and press into cupcake moulds and let it set in refrigerator for 30 minutes

Once set you can easily take it out. Enjoy the healthy treats

Banana Chocolate Breakfast Muffins

2012-10-10T19:40:00.000+08:00

I guess my quest for the perfect breakfast bakes has come to an end with this perfect Dark chocolate Banana Muffins. There are awfully chocolatey ,fruity and nutty and not too sweet to drag you to a sugar comma in the morning! I made a batch of this on Sunday and am enjoying this Muffins for breakfast. You have to trust me blindly here when I say that you have a bite of this Dark and divine muffins for your breakfast and your day is suddenly all brighterJ

Eat Muffins and Live long..and here goes the recipe!

Banana Chocolate Breakfast Cupcakes

Ingredients

½ Cup flour

½ tspn Baking powder

2 tbspn Cocoa powder

2 bananas

1 tbspn Oil

2 tbspon Peanut butter

3 tbspn Brown sugar

2 tbspn Milk+1/4 tspn Apple Cider vinegar

Directions

Mix the vinegar and milk and set aside for 5 minutes

Sift together the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, Cocoa powder .

Mash the bananas lightly. Add the Oil, peanut butter, milk and sugar to the mashed banana and mix well.

Mix the wet ingredients to dry mix and stir until just moistened.

Pour into cupcake moulds and bake in a 180 C preheated oven for 15-20 minutes

Pumpkin Seed Candy

2012-10-08T19:34:00.000+08:00

If you have been to Hong Kong Airport, I bet you never missed the famous Kee Wah bakery. If you haven’t visited the place yet, please please do go there. Their best seller Pineapple shortcake is fabulously awesome. I tasted some of the best candies I ever had from here as well..Dates Candy , Pumpkin candy. I bought back a big pack of Pumpkin seed candy and my friends loved it.

It has been in my to-do list for a long time and I finally managed to clear that off from my list this weekendJ.

I have started to use Raw Sugar or Candy sugar in many of my recent recipes. I got a few comments on what exactly is Raw sugar. So here is some info ,the difference between refined white sugar and Raw sugar is that that rock sugar is not as “sweet” like white sugar and is naturally slow crystallized and much less processed. It’s a widely used as sweetener in Ayurvedic cooking and it is easy to digest. Back in India we also use it to sweeten infant/baby food like home porridge or purees .You can easily find this in most Asian grocery shops

So gear up, get that candy thermometer and lets go Candilicious and make some light and healthy candy to munch on.

Pumpkin Seed Candy

Ingredients

½ Cup roasted pumpkin seeds

1/3 Cup Raw Sugar

¼ Cup water

Pinch of salt

Directions

Dry roast the pumpkin seeds for 5 minutes until it start to brown lightly.

In a small pot add the sugar and water and attach the candy thermometer to the side.

Simmer until the all sugar is dissolved and the syrup starts to thicken.

Switch off the heat once the candy thermometer reads 280 Degrees.

Add the pumpkin seeds and salt, give it a good mix and spread on a lightly greased parchment paper

Let it set for 30 minutes and cut it into 1 inch squares and enjoy

Note: The sugar syrup will be really hot so be extra careful. Spray little oil in the parchment paper so that the candy don’t stick to the paper.

Blueberry Lemonade

2012-10-06T08:20:00.000+08:00

Honestly I have no clue what the hell is seasonal cooking. How will I get a chance when I am in Singapore where there is only one season..Summer.. we get most veggies and fruits round the year. We get mangoes, berries, apples, oranges, plums, melon round the year. The only way I am in sync with the seasonal fruits is via the blogs and food porn sites J When I see a flood of blueberry recipes…probably it is blueberry season in rest of the world. Anyways I am seeing lot of blueberries in supermarket these days. Since I am giving some rest to my oven I chose to make a simple lemonade and add some blueberry syrup to that. I must say the sweet blueberries and tarty lemon is an awesome combination.

Blueberry Lemonade

Ingredients

½ Cup blueberries

3 tbspn Rock sugar

Juice of 1-2 lemons

2 ½ Cup water

Directions

In a large pot add ½ Cup water, rock sugar and blueberries and simmer for 15 minutes.

The berries will start to break and the syrup will thicken.

Mash the blueberries slightly and let the syrup cool down a bit

Add the remaining two cups of water and lemon jucie to the syrup amd stir well and chill.

Enjoy the sweet and tarty Blueberry lemonade with some ice cubes.

This is my entry to the event , Twist Up Tradition with Blueberries!

Home-made Ginger Candy

2012-10-03T21:37:00.001+08:00

I am falling in love with ginger, especially after reading Ayurveda Bible.Great book to know your body constitution or Prakruthi,how to balance your energy , the right food for your body type , the best way of making it and more.Ginger is universal medicine used soo widely in Ayurveda and that is the magic wand to my body type .You can check your body type here . I have heard my father saying that eating fresh ginger before lunch and dinner to enhance digestion and better absorption of nutrients by the body tissues. So say bye bye to bloating and try this soothing sweet n hot ginger candy.

Home-made Ginger Candy

Ingredients

½ Cup Sliced Ginger
1/3 Cup rock Sugar
1/3 Cup water
2-3 tbspn Sugar for coating.

Directions

In a large pot add the sliced ginger, sugar and water and simmer for 30-40 minutes.
Once the syrup has reduced and thickened, switch off the flame and let it cool down a bit.
Sieve the warm mix and let it drain for few minutes.
Add two table spoon sugar to the ginger and mix well and spread it on a baking tray
Place it in 120 degrees preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until the candy harden slightly
Spread the candy on a wire rack and let it cool.
Once it is cooled , it will harden more. Now you can enjoy the sweet and hot candy.

Barley and Vegetable Soup

2012-09-30T15:27:00.000+08:00

It’s a rain soaked weekend for us here so no special plans for Sunday evening other than making this souperlicious soupJ.What better way to enjoy your cozy weekend than this..the sound of rain outside your window, cool breeze, your favourite book in hand, hot coffee by the table and the smell of this hearty soups simmering in the stove.

This warm soup is packed with goodness from veggies and barley. You can add any vegetables of your choice and make the soup more flavourful and wholesome.

Barley and Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

¼ Cup Barley
1 Large Carrot diced
2 tomatoes puréed
1/3 Cup frozen peas
1 small Zucchini diced
1 large Onion diced
2 Cloves of Garlic
½ tspn Oregano
1 tspn Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

In a large pot or pressure cooker add oil, oregano, garlic and onions sauté until onions are transparent.
Add barley and vegetables and add enough water to cover the vegetables and simmer until barley is tender.
Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Heat for another 5-10 minutes and serve hot

Matcha / Green tea Ice cream (No cream No eggs)

2012-09-26T20:16:00.000+08:00

My notion about Ice creams was that its best to get from store. I have tried my luck at making homemade ice creams with the perfect creamy texture..didn’t have much luck there. Few years back I even lugged an ice cream maker from US, to tell the truth that is happily sitting in the top cupboards, hardly ever used it. Luckily I recently moved my Kitchen Aid up as well. Now ice cream maker have a companyJ. Both of them are blissfully hibernating. I see some eye rolling .. heard that right, I rarely use my kitchen aid. Mainly because I usually bake for just 2 of us and for that I always rely on my 10 dollar hand held mixer which come handy . I have been using it for 3+ years and still going strong. Love it!

Back to ice creams, I have tried a few ice cream recipes with heavy cream the results were sort of ok but was not great and lacked that Oooph factor.And I never met the my target of meeting the right combination of healthy and yummy Ice creams. Unfortunately many ice-cream recipes which look yummy call for egg yolks or raw egg white.. raw egg whites in ice cream?? That is a bit too weird for me. Recently I stumbled on this recipe when looking for ways to use up my matcha powder. This one calls for no eggs or cream. Just low fat carnation milk and the results awesome and the Ooph factor is right there!!!The perfect Matcha ice cream which is not too sweet ,strong matcha flavor and a teeny tiny hint of bitterness from the Matcha powder..

Matcha / Green tea Ice cream (No cream No eggs)

Recipe Courtesy : Food.com

Ingredients

1 Can Low fat evaporated Milk
3 tbpsn Sugar
2 tspn Matcha Powder dissolved in tbspn Milk
1 tspn Gelatin dissolved in 2 tbspn warm water.
3 tbspn water.

Directions

Chill the Evaporated milk for few hours.
Now beat it in medium speed until it fluffs up and double in volume.
Slowly add the sugar, matcha and gelatin mix and continue to beat until mixed well
Place in container and freeze for 2-3 hours , after which give it a quick mix in your blender
I did the above step two more times and left it overnight in freezer.
Next day move it to refrigerator 10 min before serving and scoop out and enjoy the matcha ice cream

Black Sesame Cookies

2012-09-23T21:43:00.000+08:00

Remember the emotional coma episode I went through after spotting my first grey hairL.I almost went into a panic mode for next few days doing treasure hunt in my head every morning! Ooopphh

Anyways I have decided to give that a stop for the time being coz I am pretty sure that I am gone find more if I am getting soo worked out by that one silver strand!

So basically I have decided to eat healthy ,stay fit and seriously thinking about coloring my hairJ.

All my resolutions start with a shopping! So obviously my healthy eating resolution also started with one round of shopping. The first thing I got was a bottle of Black Sesame powder

Black sesame is a natural nutrient rich in calcium ,vitamin, dietary fiber, amino acids and unsaturated fatty acids. You can use it as a topping for your cereal or salads, add it to your milk, even make cakes and cookies out of it! You should seriously try the black sesame with Soy milk. It’s awesome.

Now coming to today’s recipe its Black sesame cookies to peace your sweet tooth!

Black Sesame Cookies

Ingredients

½ Cup All purpose flour

½ Tspn Baking powder

¼ Cup Black Sesame powder

¼ Cup +1 tbspn Icing Sugar

3 tbspn Oil

2-3 tbspn Regular Milk or Almond or Soy Milk

Directions

Sieve together the dry ingredients ,flour, baking powder, sesame powder, icing sugar

Add the oil and run in oil to the dry ingredients until the texture resembles bread crumbs

Slowly add in the milk and mix well until the dough can hold together

Take about 1tbspn dough, shape it into a ball and roll it in white sesame seeds, flatten it lightly and place it in a parchment paper

Bake in 180 Degrees preheated oven for 15-20minutes until the base of the cookies start to lightly brown.

Rose Pudding with Soy milk-A simple vegan dessert

2012-09-18T19:29:00.000+08:00

Tuesdays..Pilates class .. rigorous hour long exercise(or should I call tortureJ?)..and I am almost dying..

So nothing to write..no stories to share..my brain has shutdown and soon my hands will stop working too.Lemme quickly share the recipe before my body shutdown completely

Wait wait I told you here that I am keeping the best for later..remember?

So ladies and gentle man..let me present to you my pilates teacher, May. And yeah thatz her in the picture.

Take your time , go to her site..open your mouth wide open..let your eye pop out..Its all absolutely normal and expected and I have seen that many many times.

And yes she is an excellent trainer..the best I have had so farJ

No pressure..take your time,relax, take some deep breaths and come back to the recipe at your own pace!

So today’s featured recipe is a Vegan pudding, a guild free dessert. The best thing about this recipe is that you can pay around ,be creative and add flavorings of your taste, you can make mango pudding, orange, chocolate, Black sesame, virtually anything under the sun which is edibleJ

Rose Pudding with Soy milk..A simple vegan dessert

Ingredients

500 ml soy milk (2 cups)

10 gms China grass

2 tbspn Rose syrup

Sugar to taste(2 tbspn)

Directions

Soak the chine grass in 1/2 cup water for 15 minutes.

Melt the china grass over low heat until it is dissolved completely.

Add the soy milk and sugar to the pot and heat it for a minute or two

Strain it and pour in to pudding moulds

Chill in refrigerator for 3-4 hours until well set.

Top with some Maple syrup or Brown rice syrup and enjoy the guild free delight.

Vegan Banana Chocolate Layer cake

2012-09-15T14:58:00.000+08:00

Yesterday morning I received a message from a friend that a photo from my blog is being shared by another guy in facebook.

It’s not soo simple. Firstly this guy have copied my photo, secondly he have taken the time and effort to come to my blog, copy my recipe, translate it in Malayalam and post it in his facebook and happily share it and not even a single mention of the source of the image or recipe.Grrrr. Plagiarism at its peak.Whoever did this shameless task should at least have the bare minimum courtesy to leave a link or even a mention of the source of the image and recipe.

And what did I do : Politely dropped him a personal message, left a comment on his blog. Nothing rude. Just mentioned that it is a copyrighted image/recipe and appreciate if he removed it (See..how nice I am? I myself am impressed by my politenessJ)

Luckily my politeness and patience wasn’t tested for long and peace was restored .The person apologized and provided a link of my blog as the source for the pic and recipe!

Honestly I never bothered to watermark my photos , I thought Cyber copy cats will go behind goeey ooey food photos and who will be bothered to copy my average food photos! Anyways I have learned my lesson and started to watermark my clicks, fully aware that this is not going to put an end to plagiarism but at least I can sleep in peace.

Now coming to today’s special..It’s a luscious vegan cake. See you don’t really need pounds of butter or eggs to make a lip smacking cake. Vegan cake can be yummy too!

Vegan Banana Chocolate Layer cake

Ingredients

2 Over ripe bananas

¼ Cup Flour

¼ Cup Oats flour

½ tspn baking powder

3 tbspn brown sugar

2 tbspn oil

½ tspn cinnamon powder

About 2 tbpsn baking chocolate or 1 tbspn Cocoa powder

Directions

Preheat the oven to 175 Degrees

In a wide bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Add oil and brown sugar and mix well.

Sift together the dry ingredients and add it to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined

Pour half the batter to a loaf pan. To the remaining half add the melted chocolate and give it a stir and pour over the banana batter.

Bake for 30 minutes until a cake tester inserted comes out clean

Homemade Ginger Syrup for Ginger Ale or Ginger Beer

2012-09-12T07:37:00.001+08:00

Had a fun weekend?For me the highlight was a lovely nostalgic movie, Manjadikuru. Kudos to Anjali menon for taking us for a ride through the colourful childhood. I am sure many Keralites can absolutely relate to this, the summer vacations in the late 80’s and 90’s, appuppan and ammuma waiting eagerly for you in front of the big ancestral house ,the pond, mango trees,lots and lots of ppl, fun fun and more fun. I personally enjoyed every second of the movie. It was like I was reliving my childhood. Only difference was that there was no pond in our Tharavadu instead our ancestral house was on the shore of the serene Bharathapuzha and the population is slightly higherJ. Yeah I have a total of 24 cousins!

Let me fast forward few years and come to present and share today’s recipe. Homemade Ginger beer. You are not going to buy that crappy ginger beer from store anymore once you get a taste of the home made one! I bet you on thatJ. And its soo simple, just three ingredients and there you have a refreshing summer drink

Home-made Ginger Syrup for Ginger Ale or Ginger Beer

Ingredients

1 Cup ginger

1 Cup Raw Sugar

1 lemon

21/2 Cup water

Directions

Clean the ginger well, peel it and in a food processor chop it until it is very fine.

Add the finely chopped ginger, sugar ,juice of one lemon , 3 one inch slices of lemon peels and water to a pot and simmer for 15 minutes. Once it is cooled down, you can sieve using a cheese cloth.

Bring the liquid back to stove and simmer for another 20-30 minutes until it has reduced to half and become a thick syrup.There you have the home-made ginger syrup.

Ginger Ale or Ginger Beer

1 Can soda

1-2 tbspn Syrup as per taste

1 wedge of lime or lemon

Pour the syrup, some ice cubes, lime wedge to a big glass. Top with soda and there you have the cooling, refreshing drink.

Super Moist Carrot cake with Butterscotch Icing

2012-09-06T13:57:00.000+08:00

Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those people I had to kill because they pissed me off!

I am pissed off!!Let me tell you why! Remember I joined Pilates class in our office clubhouse during lunch time? I am happily doing Pilates , partly because I like doing stretches and partly because the teacher is totally absolutely motivating! More about my pilates teacher later. [Yeah I am keeping the best for last, you will know soon why J]So I got changed and rushed to the studio and see the studio is locked down! My teacher and few other colleagues were waiting in front of the studio. Apparently the cleaner misplaced the key, the teacher told us that the lady was looking for the keys. Meantime I saw the cleaner lady coming down few times and frantically looking for the keys everywhere. After 5 minuets she said , if we mind using the next room, which did not have mirrors. We said, sure why not!

Then enters the Lady Violent, let’s call her Mrs.V. She come down and ask us what is going on, teacher briefs what’s happening and suddenly she started fuming. “Why why why? Tell me your boss number? Let me call and complain right now. You people are damn careless. We paid soo much for the lass you see Blah blah #!%!” The poor lady who was new was almost in verge of tears..

I looked around and most of them were as shocked as me. We tried to calm Mrs.V.”Calm down,. It was an honest mistake. let’s use next room”. She started yelling at us as well!”Mistake? What the hell..these people must be taught a lesson “.Finally the teacher asked the cleaner to go upstairs and tried to calm the violent lady! She kept muttering for next 10 minutes.

Seriously do you have to be this harsh to a person just because we missed 5 minutes of a class? Don’t we all make mistakes? Was our 100 dollars worth a poor cleaners job?

How I wished Dexter Morgan lived in Singapore so that I could get a personnel training from himJ

Coming back to Baking from butchery. Ladies ,presenting to you, THE very moist Carrot cake. I usually make small portions of cake as its for just two of this.

This time, I doubled the recipe and made large batch to share with my dear childhood friend who stay close by and my colleagues.

Excuse me. It’s time for little self praise now. Everyone loved the cake ,even my official Makansutra reviewer friend gave 5 stars, one friend even said it was “Love at first bite“. Ok ok I am stopping the brag here

Super Moist Carrot cake with Butterscotch Icing

Ingredients

1 ½ Cup grated carrot

1 Cup All purpose flour

1 tspn Baking soda

1 tspn Baking powder

1 tspn All spice powder

Pinch of salt

¾ Cup sugar

½ Cup Oil

2 Whole eggs+1 egg white

½ cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Pre heat the oven to 175 degrees

Sieve together the dry ingredients-Flour, baking powder, baking soda, Spice powder and salt

In another bowl mix together eggs, oil, sugar and beat well .Add in the carrot and give it a good mix.

Now add the dry ingredients and mix until combined well. Add in the nuts and give it a quick stir.

Bake in a pre heated oven for 45 minutes until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

For Icing: ¼ Cup butter scotch chips, +1 tbspn Milk.

Melt the butter scotch chips, milk in microwave bowl for 20-30 seconds , give it a good mix until it comes smooth.Pour the icing over cooled cake and refrigerate for 30 minutes.Slice and enjoy the soft, fluffy cake