Recipes and Random Musings!

Moist Chocolate Banana Bread/Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 17:14:00 +0000

Heya!

I have had this recipe done and pictures taken for over a month now. But because I got the attack of the lazies, I never got down to sharing it. This was made during one of my so called "tea parties" - a few of my friends, we get together and meet for tea once every week. We take turns hosting the tea. And so it happened that I made this chocolate banana bread the last time I hosted it. I am happy to say that it was well liked by them. It is a very easy recipe to put together and makes for a great tea snack. It can also be had as a breakfast item coz it tastes great with butter! It is a really moist type of bread because of adding the bananas as well as sour cream! If you have a couple of very ripe bananas that you would end up throwing, then dont! Make this or check out my other banana bread and banana muffins recipes, that can help in this scenario.

Ingredients
6 tbsp butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
3 very ripe bananas
2/3 cup sour cream
1.5 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup milk chocolate chips and chopped walnuts (optional)
3 tbsp milk

Steps

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer/whisk/spoon until fluffy. Add the sugar, and beat well. Add the egg, and beat that in.

Now add the bananas, sour cream, vanilla and the milk and mix well.

Add the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda, and stir them in. You can use an electric mixer if you like -- just make sure not to overmix, or the banana bread will get tough.

Stir in the chocolate chips. and walnuts. (You could leave out either one or both, it does not affect the recipe)

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the bread for atleast 20 minutes before you slice (or else it may break). Preferably have it warm and enjoy the feeling of a good comfort food!

Homemade Garlic Naan

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 23:55:00 +0000

Naan is a type of bread, which is very popular in India and other Asian countries. It is had along with spicy, thick gravies like paneer butter masala, ginger chicken, koftha curry etc. The dough is typically prepared using all purpose flour (maida) and yogurt. The dough has to ferment and acquire a natural sour taste. This will transform into fluffy, delicious Naan. We can either oven-bake these or like I prefer (and will detail below) cook on stove-top saucepan as well. So, without boring you with any further with unnecessary details, let me show you my recipe for this popular bread.

Below recipe can make about 12 medium sized Naans

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups of AP flour
1 1/4 cup of yogurt
1 1/4 Tsp of Active Rise Yeast
1 tbsp garlic powder (or even freshly minced garlic if you prefer)
Some warm water (for soaking yeast as well as kneading the dough)
Salt to taste

Steps

Kneading dough:

Soak the yeast in about 3 tbsp of lukewarm water for around 10 to 15 minutes (Stir the yeast lightly)
Put the flour in a large bowl, add the salt and garlic powder and stir to mix the dry ingredients. Now make a well in the centre. Add the yeast water and yogurt directly to the centre and gently start folding in the flour using clean hands
As required, add lukewarm water and knead into a loose and sort of sticky dough
Cover the bowl with a cling wrap or a lid that fully covers. Set aside preferably for 4 hours. It can be kept out for a maximum of 6 hours. The dough will rise to double the original size.

Making the Naans:

Take out a chunk of dough the size of a big lemon (yes, we need to roll it out thick unlike our usual rotis)
Roll it into an oval shape using ur rolling pin using dry flour as needed so that the dough does not stick to the rolling pin. The naan needs to be thick hence ensure at least a quarter inch thickness
Use a shallow wide saucepan with a lid. Lightly butter it and place the rolled out dough.
Drop very little butter on the Naan's topside as well. We can also drop some chopped coriander or poppy seeds, whatever one wishes). Now close the lid and let the Naan cook for about 2 to 3 minutes. The top of the Naan will start developing bubbles. Flip the Naan and again close lid and let cook for another 2 minutes or till you see that side is done (with intermittent brown patches, if you know what I mean all you Roti makers!)

Naan is ready, now just serve with some good North-Indian style gravy like Daal Makhani, or Paneer butter Masala or Chole or what you wish really! Make a side of chopped onions and green chillies and you have your favourite Indian restaurant on your very own dinner table ! Bon Appetit!

Egg Biriyani Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 00:52:00 +0000

Yet another rice recipe! Biriyani is a rice dish that is guaranteed to make a lot of people drool. It is one of the tastiest recipes ever invented if you ask me. Easy as well. Chicken, shrimp, vegetable - all these are the usual types of biriyani. Not to leave out, egg biriyani! This is one of my go-to recipes to get lunch ready on the table in less an hour. Let me share my version, adapted from the recipe of famous Indian chef, Sanjeev Kapoor.

Total time - 1 hour
Serves 4

Ingredients

7 or 8 eggs
2 1/4 cups Basmati Rice
1 medium onion, cut into long slices
2 medium onions finely chopped
3 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
6 or 7 green chillies, chopped
1 tbsp garlic paste (preferably fresh garlic)
1 tbsp ginger paste
About 1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp ghee
Whole Spices:
1 star anise
4 or 5 cloves
6 cardamom seeds
2 or 3 bay leaves
1 stick cinnamon (alternately about 1 Tsp cinnamon)
Ground spices:
1/2 Tsp turmeric powder
1 Tsp red chilly powder
1/2 Tsp ground garam masala (optional)
1 1/2 Tsp coriander powder
Salt to taste

Steps

Boil the eggs till they are hard boiled. Cut each into half, length-wise and set them aside.
Soak the rice for 20 minutes in water and then cook till 90 % done (add some salt and about 1 Tsp ghee). Once cooked, fluff it with a fork so that the rice does not stick together. Set aside
In a deep pan, add some ghee and caramelize the long cut onions. Set aside on a tissue paper
In same pan, add the oil and heat on medium low. Saute the whole spices for about a minute
Add chopped onions to this and caramelize. Then add the green chillies, saute for a minute, and secondly add the ginger and garlic paste. Fry till raw smell is gone
Add chopped tomatoes and stir. Now add all the ground spices including salt. Cover and simmer cook till oil separates from this masala
Add the boiled egg pieces, stir gently just till the masala covers the pieces and cover and simmer cook for about a minute
Finally add the cooked rice, top it with coriander leaves and caramelized onions. Gently stir.
Cover pan with aluminium foil, then place its lid. This ensures that no steam will come out
Finally, place the pan on another flat pan (dosa pan) placed on very low heat and dum-cook the biriyani for about 20 to 30 minutes (Dum cooking can also be done your oven, just place the lightly mixed biriyani in an oven-safe dish, cover with aluminium foil and bake in a pre-heated oven (350 degree F) for about 10 minutes.

Serve this hot with some raita. There is nothing better than a spicy biriyani as a tasty lunch option.

Simple Brinjal/Eggplant Fry as snack or side dish!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:13:00 +0000

This post is about a very easy and quick snack which is eggplant (or brinjal) fry. This recipe has it all. Really really easy to prepare, a handful of ingredients and the tastiest result! What more could we ask? It can even be had as a side dish with rice and daal/rajma.chole. It adds just the right amount of spicy-ness. Here is the recipe -

Recipe customized from VahReVah.com

Ingredients

1 large Eggplant/Brinjal
For dry marinade:
1 1/2 Tsp Turmeric powder
2 Tsp Red Chilly Powder
Salt to taste
3 Tsp Rice Flour

Steps

Prepare a dry marinade by mixing all ingredients mentioned under 'For dry marinade' above. No need to add any water or oil
Cut the eggplant into thin round slices
Spread the dry marinade onto a plate with your hands. Now coat each eggplant slice on both sides with this. Since the eggplant has its own natural moisture, this will help the dry marinade to stick on both sides. Keep placing coated eggplant slices in a separate plate (to be fried at once)
In a wide low saucepan, pour about 2 tbsp oil, spread evenly and place as many eggplant slices as will fit. Fry each side for about 3 minutes or till done
Remove onto a wide plate with tissue paper. This helps remove excess oil

Thats it! So simple and quick. Plus eggplants are so easy to cut into slices. It is not required to peel them, but if you would rather peel them, then do go ahead. It tastes good any which way!

Vellarikka Vanpayaru Erissery Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:20:00 +0000

Vanpayaru erissery is my Mom's specialty. I guess, for me, nobody does it better. I remember getting excited and drooling on the days my mother was preparing this in kitchen. This curry has that quintessential Malayali taste, of coconut. And this is one taste I and my husband just love! This curry is perfect for a regular lunch meal or even a Sadhya (Kerala feast).
My mother almost always made this with Mathanga (or pumpkin). But, I tried this with Vellarikka (cucumber) and it came out just as good. Folks who want the sweet taste of pumpkin can just replace the cucumber in this recipe with pumpkin.
We usually eat this with cabbage thoran or kaya-chena mezhukkuperutti and rice. It always reminds me of home!

Here is the recipe-

Ingredients
1 whole Vellarikka (cucumber), cubed
1 cup Vanpayaru (red cow peas)
1/2 an onion, roughly chopped
3 long green chillies
1 cup grated coconut
1/2 Tsp Cumin seeds
1 Tsp Mustard seeds
3 or 4 dry red chillies
Curry leaves to season
1 Tsp turmeric powder (manjal podi)
1 Tsp red chilly powder (mulagu podi)
1/2 Tsp pepper
1/2 Tsp coriander powder (malli podi)
Salt to taste
About 1 Tbsp oil

Steps

Pressure cook the Vanpayaru (red cow peas) with turmeric powder, red chilly powder and 3 times water for about 10 whistles (One way to reduce the cooking time and water is to pre-soak the peas with salt for about 5 - 6 hours)
Now, open the cooker, add the Vellarikka (cucumber pieces) and some salt and pressure cook again for about 4 whistles. Once done, open cooker. If the peas and cucumber look very well cooked, this step is done
Next, grind together 1/2 cup grated coconut, green chillies, cumin seeds and chopped onion till we get a fine paste. The consistency is that of the coconut chutney made for dosa (not runny)
Add this paste into the cooker with the cooked payaru (peas) and cucumber and let the curry so far slowly come to boil
In a separate saucepan, spurt mustard seeds in the oil, roast the dry red chillies, lower the flame and add the remaining 1/2 cup grated coconut, pepper and coriander powder. Let the mixture roast on low flame till the coconut changes to brown colour
Then, add this mixture into the boiling curry, lower flame, let simmer cook for about 1 minute
Remove from heat and add curry leaves to season

Erissery is ready. Now all you need is some hot rice and pappad. Go a step ahead and have this with a Kerala dry side dish. It should pretty much be your best lunch ever!

Long Cucumber/Kakkarikka Pachadi

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 13:18:00 +0000

This one I learnt from my mother-in-law. Some days when she makes Sambar and Mezhukkuperatti (Kerala dry side dish usually made with Ghee), she also makes this simple pachadi.
Pachadi is an authentic Kerala side dish with a gravy made of coconut and yogurt. We can put the vegetable of our choice, and in this one we only put cucumber. We can literally prepare this in 20 minutes. So if you're planning on bringing up a Kerala feast and want a curry to go well with Sambar, believe you me, this is the one. It has a very fresh, crunchy taste.

Here goes-
Serves 4 - 5

Ingredients

1/2 of a long cucumber
2/3 cup grated coconut
2/3 cup of yogurt
3 green chillies
1 Tsp cumin seeds
1/2 Tsp pepper
3 dry red chillies
1 Tsp Mustard seeds
1 Tbsp oil
Some curry leaves
Some Salt to taste

Steps

Cut the cucumber into small pieces
In a blender, add grated coconut, yogurt, green chillies, cumin seeds, pepper and salt. Blend into a fine paste
Add the above paste to the cucumber and mix well
In a saucepan, roast the the mustard seeds and dry red chillies in oil. Add the curry leaves.
Add the cucumber-coconut-yogurt gravy to this and heat on low flame for about 5-8 minutes

Cucumber Pachadi is ready. See, how easy and quickly this can be made. Those days of the week when I prepare sambar and some Thoran/Mezhukkuperutti, if I have cucumber in the fridge I make this curry. The taste of yogurt and the crunch of fresh cucumber is a perfect counter-balance for Sambar-rice. Top this with Pappadams and you're good to go!

Tangy Tomato Rice - Ready in half an Hour!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 04:46:00 +0000

When I hear about tomato rice, I remember my school days. One of my Tamilian friends used to bring this frequently for lunch and we all used to lunge at it! Poor girl! But that is the thing with such types of rice preparations, be it tomato rice, lemon rice or spinach pulao. They are spicy and so fun to eat. They are also pretty filling I would say. No side dish needed for these if you ask me. Just get your plate-full and attack! Oh, and did I mention these are super easy to cook? Yep, it just takes 30 minutes to get this on your dining table. Lets get cracking!

Recipe customized from VahreVah.com

Ingredients

2 cups White Rice (such as Basmati/Sona Masoori)
2 large Tomatoes, chopped
Half an Onion, chopped
3 Green Chillies, chopped
1 Tsp Ginger Paste (or finely chopped ginger)
1 Tsp Cumin Seeds
1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
About 2 tbsps Chana Daal (optional)
About 2 tbsps chopped Cashew nuts
1 Tsp Urad daal (optional)
2-3 red chillies
1/2 Tsp Red Chilly Powder
1/2 Tsp Garam Masala
Salt to taste
Asafoetida (or Heeng) to taste
Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves for seasoning

Steps

Cook the rice (Microwave method - Add 4 cups of water and microwave for approximately 15 minutes)
In a wide enough saucepan, heat oil and spurt mustard seeds then cumin seeds
Add the red chillies, chana daal and urad daal. Saute till they slightly change colour
Reduce heat to low and add the cashewnuts and roast till they are light brown
Add the curry leaves, ginger paste, green chillies and onions and saute till onions are slightly cooked (not completely, as tomato rice needs to have a bit crunchy onion slices)
Now, add the chopped tomatoes, sprinkle salt and asafoetida, stir well and close the lid. Let cook for about 5 minutes
Open lid and add the chilly powder and garam masala. Again close lid and cook till the tomatoes are mushy and start leaving water.
If tomato masala is cooked well, we can add the rice. Mix the rice in well
Finally, season the top with coriander leaves and stir lightly

These steps took just 30 minutes for me overall. Supper was ready in a jiffy with no toiling in the kitchen at all. Perfect for those days when you know you are not upto being a "chef" in your kitchen but you (or your husband!) is craving something spicy!!

Kerala Kadala Curry

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 05:27:00 +0000

Kerala kadala curry is black chickpeas cooked in authentic Kerala style. Its no surprise that Malayalees love coconuts. We come from the land of coconuts! That is why we like some curries with the taste of coconut mixed with pepper and coriander powder. Hence this way of cooking chickpeas involves a coconut milk based gravy, spiced up with pepper and coriander powder.
I made this for a breakfast get-together with our friends here with Vellayappams. The North Indians among them liked it as well!

Here goes -

Ingredients

Pressure cooking chickpeas:
2 cups kadala (black chickpeas)
2 Tsp Turmeric powder
2 Tsp Red chilly powder
Gravy:
Coconut Milk - 1/2 cup
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
5 green chillies, chopped
1 Tsp ginger paste
1 Tsp garlic paste
1 Tsp Turmeric powder
1 Tsp Red chilly powder
1 Tbsp coriander powder
2 Tsp ground pepper
Salt to taste
1/2 Tsp cinnamon
some curry leaves
3 Tbsp oil
Coconut paste:
3/4 cup scraped coconut
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves
2 cardomom pods
1 Tsp ground pepper
1 Tsp coriander powder

Soak kadala (black chickpeas) overnight in some salted water
Pressure cook kadala with enough water and spices under 'Pressure cooking chickpeas', till about 7 whistles. Set aside.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a saucepan and roast cloves, cardomom and chopped onion mentioned under 'Coconut paste'
After color of onions changes, add coconut. Once coconut is roasted to a light brown, add spices mentioned here, roast for some more minutes and set aside to cool.
In same saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and spurt mustard seeds. Add chopped onions. When it starts to change colour, add ginger-garlic paste and chopped green chillies
When the above is cooked, add chopped tomatoes. Then add the spices mentioned under 'gravy'
When tomatoes are tender, add the cooked chickpeas along with the water. Let this come to boil on low heat
Mean while, grind the roasted coconut mixture to a fine paste adding very minimum water
Add this paste and the coconut milk to the kadala gravy and let this boil for about 2 minutes
Season with curry leaves

Kerala kadala curry is ready! This delicious and spicy gravy is best had with appams, puttu or noolappam. Yummy!

Very Quick and Easy Chole Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:54:00 +0000

This is my quickest chole recipe yet. I use just one vessel which is my pressure cooker for the whole cooking process. And it all comes together in around 30 minutes! It is slightly like the Punjabi way of making chole or rajma, where all the indgredients are put into the pressure cooker with the ghee and just simply cooked for some number of whistles. I make a slight variation as in frying the veggies slightly in the pressure cooker itself and then adding the soaked chana and pressure cooking everything together (If you are not comfortable about using just your pressure cooker for the tadka part, you could do it in a sauce pan, taking care not to fry as much as we usually do. Then simply add the half-done tadka along with the chana in pressure cooker before cooking.
I find this way of making very easy, quick and double as flavor-full because of cooking everything together in a closed way (pressure cooking). I urge you to try this quick method!

Total Cooking Time: 30 minutes (does not include time for soaking chana)

Ingredients

2 cups of white chana/white chickpeas
1 large onion (or 2 medium)
1 large tomato (or 2 medium)
1 Tbsp of ginger paste
1 Tbsp of garlic paste
4 or 5 green chillies
1 Tsp cumin seeds2 Tbsp of oil
1 Tbsp of curd
Some coriander leaves for seasoning
Ground spices:
1 Tsp of turmeric powder
1 Tsp of Red chilly powder
2 Tsp of Garam masala
1 Tsp of coriander powder
Salt to taste

Steps

Soak the chana in some salted warm water for at least 6 hours
Finely chop onions, tomatoes and green chillies
In your pressure cooker itself, add the oil and saute cumin seeds. Then add the onions and once they caramelize slightly (not much, since we are going to pressure cook everything with the Chana anyway), add the ginger-garlic paste and green chillies
Once the raw smell is gone from the above, add the tomatoes and all the ground spices and saute till the tomatoes are slightly tender
Add the soaked chana (straining out the water used for soaking first), then add sufficient water so that it comes to about 2 inches above the level of the chana.
Add 1 Tsp of ghee. Stir this in well. Close the cooker with weight. Pressure cook on medium high till about 6 - 7 whistles
After opening, add about 1 Tbsp of curd and the coriander leaves, stir and let boil for about 2 minutes

The chole are now ready to serve! Serve this hot with some rotis, pooris or even rice and sabzi. Its superbly homely and a real comfort food!

Banana Crumb Muffins for Breakfast!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 05:44:00 +0000

Muffins, muffins and more muffins! This is my latest mantra. I just love muffins and quick breads. They just make your breakfast meal that much more special. Muffins especially. Fluffy and moist, these go perfectly well with your morning coffee or milk. They just make you feel so good all morning! Here is my banana muffin recipe.

This recipe cistomized from www.tasteandflavours.com

Ingredients

2 cups of All Purpose flour
1 cup of packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 Tsp baking powder
1 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
6 Tbsp sour cream
2 Tsp vanilla extract
4 medium/3 large ripe bananas mashed

Crumb topping (optional):
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp AP flour
1/8 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp cold butter (I used a butter substitute)

Steps

Pre-heat oven to 350 F (176 C) and line a 12-cup muffin tray with paper liner/or grease each cup.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, and the salt and set that aside
Secondly, to the mashed bananas just add the 1 cup of brown sugar, vegetable oil and the egg and whisk until well combined
Add the vanilla and sour cream and give the wet batter a good whisk till well combined
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold the dry stuff into batter. TRY NOT TO OVER_MIX the batter. Just use a flat spoon/spatula/ladle and simply ensure there are no obvious dry flour. The batter should be a bit lumpy and thick.
Fill each cup of muffin tray with the batter until 3/4th way full.
Crumb topping (optional) - Mix the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon (mentioned under crumb topping). Now add the cold butter and mix into this (either with hands or fork) until a coarse texture is obtained. Sprinkle evenly on the batter in each muffin cup.
Bake this for about 25 mintues. Toothpick inserted must come out clean

Note - I was able to make about 16 muffins with these measurements.So if you have a 12-cup muffin tray, while the 12 muffins are baking, you could set aside the remaining batter, covered. Just bake them after these 12 are done. Trust me they will turn out fine as well!

An awesome way to start your day. A muffin and a glass of fruit shake. Wow!
Give my blueberry muffins a peek as well!!

Spicy Shrimp Biriyani, Our Sunday lunch!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:26:00 +0000

I learnt the art of making basic biriyani from my good friend here, Veena. She is my Guru and a brilliant Biriyani maker! I made my first chicken biriyani here in the USA and gave her Gurudakshina, which was a plate-full of that same biriyani!
Building on that basic knowledge I gained from here, I tried the Prawns/Shrimp Biryani. Since both I and my husband are prawn lovers, I just had to try this one out. Try, I did. And now this is a regular one on a lot of weekends. So here's my take on the authentic prawns biriyani. It is a simple recipe.

Serves 4
Cooking Time: About 2 hours

Ingredients

1/2 pound (a little more than quarter kg) of medium sized prawns (tail-off, peeled, deveined and washed)
2 1/2 cups of Basmati Rice
2 medium onions
2 medium tomatoes
1 Tbsp gingerpaste (either home-made or store-bought)
1 Tbsp garlic paste (either home-made or store-bought)
5 medium sized green chillies
1 Tbsp of raisins
1 Tbsp of cashewnuts
2 Tbsp of oil
2 Tsp ghee

Main biriyani masala:
1 Tsp Turmeric Powder
1 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 Tbsp Garam Masala
1 Tsp Cinnamon
Salt to taste

For Marinade:
1 Tbsp gingerpaste (either home-made or store-bought)
1 Tbsp garlic paste (either home-made or store-bought)
1 Tsp Turmeric Powder
1 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
3 Tbsp of Curd
Salt to taste

Extra spices:
7 - 10 cloves
1 Tsp whole cardomom seeds
Some Bay leaves
Some Cilantro leaves for seasoning

Steps

Wash and soak rice in water for about 30 minutes
Mix ingredients mentioned under 'Marinade'. Cover the prawns with this. Let sit for about 20 - 30 minutes.
Cut one half of an onion into long thin slices. Cut the rest of onions, tomatoes and green chillies into fine pieces
Grind the cardomom seeds and cloves together to form a fine powder
Cook rice with two times its measure of water, some salt, half of the fine powder prepared in previous step and bay leaves until 90% done. Set aside.
Meanwhile, heat about 2 tbsps of oil in a saucepan, and caramelize the long slices of onions until a deep brown. Set aside. In same oil, roast the raisins and cashewnuts. Set aside
In the same oil, caramelize the finely cut onions (add more oil if required). Add green chillies, ginger and garlic paste and fry till raw smell goes
Add the tomatoes and all spices listed under 'main biriyani masala'. Mix well and let cook till mushy.
Now, add the marinated prawns along with marinade to this, cover and cook for about 5 - 8 minutes, taking care not to overcook the prawns
Time for final 'dum' cooking - In a large baking pan (akin to a 9 X 13), add 2 teaspoons of ghee. Spread it around. Add a layer of prawns masala, then a layer of the rice, some of the fried onions, raisins and cashew, layer of prawns masala and finally the last layer of rice and remaining onions, cashew and raisins. Top with cilantro leaves
Seal tightly with oven-safe aluminium foil. Bake at 350 F (176 C) for about 30 minutes
Ready to serve

This biriyani tastes awesome with some vegetable raitha and dates chutney. Perfect for a Sunday lunch!

Peach and Pineapple Cobbler

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 02:21:00 +0000

Well, in school, the only cobbler I knew was the guy who fixed our broken sandals. But here in the USA, this is also the word for a very delicious dessert, made with a layer of syrupy fruits with a cakey topping. Talk about poles apart!!

I have an earlier blog for a similar dessert - apple crisp. But the difference is that, a 'crisp' as I understand is almost always made with an oats topping, giving it a crunchy crust. Whereas a cobbler has a more cakey topping, made basically using all purpose flour and milk. Since I am so big into fruits, I have decided this dessert is going into my frequent recipes book (a purely hypothetical book that I have never written and never intend to!!)

Here, I have tried the authentic peach cobbler, as is usually made by Americans, but I also added pineapples! And the result was truly delicious, complete with the gooey-ness and good-ness of both the fruits!

Here goes -

Ingredients

Fruit Filling

2 1/2 cups of cut and diced pineapple
2 1/2 cups of cut and diced peaches
1/4 Tsp cinnamon
2 Tsp lemon juice
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar

Crust part

1/2 cup of butter
1 1/2 cup of AP flour
2 1/2 Tsp baking powder
3/4 Tsp salt
1 cup of white sugar
1 1/2 cup of milk

Steps

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Melt the butter in a 13 X 9 pan and set aside to cool.
Add all the ingredients listed under 'Fruit Filling' in a saucepan and stir well. Heat the fruit mixture on medium flame till juices come out and start boiling. Set aside
In a separate large bowl, mix the ingredients listed under 'Crust Part' except butter (the butter must remain in the baking dish after melting). First mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Then mix in the butter and milk. Stir the batter well, but do not over-whisk/mix
Finally, pour the wet batter into the baking dish containing melted butter. DO NOT STIR (the butter will move to the side which is how it should be). Plop chunks of the fruit mixture over the wet batter, spreading all around. Again, do not mix.
Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes, until the top is golden brown.
Let it cool down a bit. But serve when warm. With vanilla ice-cream! Or leave the ice-cream out. Its good any which way!

Do give this one a try. It is very very easy but very very tasty!

Cauliflower and Pasta casserole with Tomato sauce and Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 06:30:00 +0000

Pasta it is!! I was shopping at Walmart one day when I came across this jar of blended tomatoes. It was tomato pasta sauce. Of course I wanted to try it! Geez! And of course it does make perfect sense to also buy pasta :) And so I did.
I had seen a recipe in LauraInTheKitchen describing cauliflower with pasta. So that gave me the idea for this recipe, which is basically the same but I actually baked the whole thing together along with cauliflower. So here is the recipe, if you need a relatively quick dinner and just want to get the ingredients together and let the oven do its thing!!

Ingredients
1 cauliflower head, cut onto florets
2 cups pasta (any kind will work)
2 large eggs
1 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup of tomato pasta sauce(any kind of canned tomato sauce will work)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Fresh parsley (optional)
About 2 tbsp of bread crumbs and Cheddar Cheese (shredded or chunks) for topping

Steps

Pre-heat oven to 350 F (176 C)
Spray a casserole dish (about 13 X 9) with cooking spray (or grease with oil/butter)
Whisk the eggs with melted butter. Mix in the flour and make a batter
Mix the batter into the cauliflower florets. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder and toss the mixture. Set aside
Boil the pasta in some salted boiling water for about 10 minutes
Drain the water and season pasta with pepper
Final step is arranging the casserole - First spread the cauliflower mixture as bottom layer. Add the boiled pasta next and spread it out. Next layer is the pasta sauce
Finally garnish with some cheese, chopped parsley and bread crumbs
Bake for about 50 minutes to an hour till top is light brown, cauliflowers are tender and cheese is melted
Attack with a fork!

This is super easy to bring together on your dinner table. Trust me the one hour wait is totally worth it. Because in the end you have a beautiful, healthy casserole on your table. Go a step ahead and add a layer of sauted spinach as well! Bon Appetit!

Easy and Tasty Breakfast with Cornmeal and Rava Idlis

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:28:00 +0000

Well, I guess Idlis are a favorite with a lot of Indian folks. Soft and much healthier than dosas, these just need you to have them steam cooking in your cooker while you do something else. No standing at the furnace like for dosas. But what if we forgot to soak Urad dal or rice and really needed these soft creations for breakfast?
Well, here is a super quick fix for that, using cornmeal and rava. (If cornmeal is not available, just replace that as well with rava)

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

Yep! This will be ready in less than half an hour!!
Recipe customized from simpleindianrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 cup Cornmeal
1 cup Rava (Semolina)
1 cup Curd
some grated carrots
some chopped coriander leaves, curry leaves and green chillies
Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds
Chana dal
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tsp Baking soda
Salt

Steps

In a saucepan, fry the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and chana dal
Now add the cornmeal and rava and saute till lightly browned. This will give a nutty flavor. Add the salt at this point and mix.
Switch off the heat and add the coriander, curry leaves, chillies and carrots
Now add the curd and enough water to male a thick batter
Let sit for about 15 minutes
Add about half teaspoon of baking soda and mix well
Now its ready to be made into idlis. We can use any method we are comfortable with. Either stovetop in a pressure cooker or in microwave

I served this hot with coconut chutney once and the next time with sambar. In my opinion, these idlis are even good enough to snack for tea. Very easy and very healthy!

Blueberry Muffins Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:10:00 +0000

Ok, so I had been wanting to add this one to my recipe list for a long time now. This is the easiest and the most fun recipe I have tried so far and the result was soooo gooood!!! While I was making them, my husband's response to my little chit-chats from the kitchen were restricted to just uh-huh's and hmmmm's. But, the moment I took these little rockstars out of the oven and lined them on a rack to cool, I could hear somebody jump from the couch and rush into the kitchen and utter just one word.. "wow"! Yay! Score for me!

But, seriously I'm not kidding. I was surprised at how easy this was to put together. Apart from the blueberries, the other ingredients are most probably in most every gal's fridge. Please try these out. They are so fluffy, moist and tender. They are just so cuuuute!

Recipe customized from hilahcooking.com (this lady is super funny and has a lot of easy recipes, perfect for the goofy and lazy cooks like me!)

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 18 - 22 minutes
Makes - 12 - 15 muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 Tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Crumb Topping (optional):

2 tablespoons oats
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil

Steps

Line a 12 mould muffin pan with paper liners (or grease with butter)
Pre-heat oven to 400 F (200 C approx.)
In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt
Take about 2 tbsps of flour from the above mentioned mixture and cover the blueberries
In a separate bowl, whisk the wet ingredients with sugar, starting with oil and sugar, followed by the eggs, vanilla and milk
Now add the dry ingredients to the wet and gently fold. Its ok if we have a lumpy batter, we just want to ensure all are combined. Do not stir, otherwise the muffins will be dense instead of light and fluffy
Second last step, gently fold in the blueberries and divide the batter between the twelve muffin moulds
Crumb topping (optional)- mix together all ingredients mentioned under crumb topping till we get a lumpy mixture
Just add little blobs of the crumb topping over each of the muffin batter in the mould
Bake for about 18 to 22 minutes. A tooth-pick inserted must come out clean. (I took mine out at 19 minutes and they were perfectly moist and fluffy)

Let cool for about 15-20 minutes before removing. Serve warm. For longer storage, it is best to refrigerate them. Whenever we need one, we need to just microwave it before popping into our mouth! A superb breakfast addition!

Aloo Palak Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 02:59:00 +0000

Of late I have become a spinach buff. Healthy, fibrous, these are one of those veggies which are tasty and nutritious at the same time. I mean, it cannot get better than that. So much so that, whenever I go to IHOP (my favorite restaurant here), I end up ordering the spinach and tomato omlette!

We Indians have quite a lot of recipes with spinach and aloo palak curry is a very famous one. I had made this around a week back. The pictures taken in the process were just resting in the camera long forgotten in the midst of my recent week long visit to my sister's in LA. Now that I'm back and slowly back to blogging, this recipe becomes the first to see the light of day in the Internet. Here goes,

Ingredients

Spinach - 2 bunches (about 500 gms), washed and blend to paste
Potatoes - 2 medium, cut into cubes
Onion - 1 large or 2 medium, finely chopped
Ginger garlic paste (either home-made or store-bought) - 2 tbsps
Green chillies - 3 long, finely chopped
coriander leaves to season
Oil - 2 Tbsp
Ghee - 2 Tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp
turmeric powder - 1 Tsp
Red chilly powder - 1 Tsp
Garam masala - 3 Tsps
coriander powder - 2 Tsps
Ground cinnamon - 1 Tsp

Steps

Blend the spinach leaves into a coarse paste
Fry potatoes in 1 tbsp oil and set aside (preferably on a tissue paper to remove excess oil)
In same saucepan, fry the cumin seeds and onions till caramelized
Add ginger-garlic paste and green chillies, fry till raw smell goes
Add all the dry spices and saute for about a minute
Add in the blend spinach paste. Cover with lid and cook for around 10 to 15 minutes on medium heat, till the raw smell of spinach vanishes and you get the smell of the spices. Add some ghee to the curry at this point. This gives a rich taste and smell.
Finally add the dried potato cubes and season with coriander leaves

This curry is super nutritious, easy and best had with phulkas or chapathys.

Chocolate Lava Cake.. A Valentine's Day Indulgence

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:20:00 +0000

It is Valentine's Day, the season of love. I wanted to make it special for my valentine. My husband is a chocolate lover. Of late, he had been asking me to try at baking something with chocolate (Not that he is not fond of all my "healthy" baking, but a good, decadent chocolate cake takes him back to the days in his hometown Kannur and its famous bakeries). So, what better way to make my Valentine happy than bake him one! I decided to go all out and make this wonderful mini cake which is full of, hold on, gooey chocolate oozing out!

And good news! My husband loved it. So much so that we both almost got drunk on chocolate, it was so deadly good! What makes this one for keeps is that it uses very few ingredients that we usually have in our fridge and bakes in no time! Here is the recipe, all you chocolate lovers.

This recipe adapted from ShowMeTheCurry (Hetal and Anuja)

Serves - 3 - 4
Preparation Time - 15 minutes
Baking Time - 13 - 18 minutes

Ingredients
4 Oz. (113 gms) of semi-sweet baking chocolate, cut into squares (I used Ghirardelli's)
1 Tbsps of Cocoa Powder
4 oz (113 gms, 1 stick, half cup or 8 tbsps) of butter, cut into cubes, room temperature
1/4 cup of all purpose flour
1/3 cup of granulated sugar
2 Tbsp of powdered sugar
2 large eggs
!/2 Tsp of Vanilla Essence

Note - The white bowls in the picture are ramekins. These are oven-safe bowls ideal for making lava cakes. Alternately, lava cakes can be made in muffin pans also. Then we would have to reduce the baking time.

Steps

Pre-heat oven to 350 F (180 C)
Grease the ramekins with some butter and line the bottom and sides with either some cocoa powder or powdered sugar

On a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter (A double boiler is made by placing a heatproof bowl such as a thick pyrex glass bowl or a steel/aluminium bowl over a saucepan containing boiling water, placed on medium-low heat; alternately this can be done in the microwave but we need to take care not to burn the chocolate)

In a large enough bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar and eggs until the batter turns fluffy and pale yellow. Now, mix in the vanilla essence
Pour some of the melted chocolate-butter and stir (at first we only add a little to avoid cooking the eggs!)
Now pour the rest of the melted chocolate-butter and mix the batter well
Finally, add the flour and gently mix to combine everything
Pour into your ramekins about 1/2 of the way up

Bake for anywhere from 15 to 18 minutes, until the sides are done but the center still looks wet. If we want the center runny, then we need to take them out at about15 minutes.

Just out of the oven

Served with powdered sugar

Here are a few pics to show how they look taken out of the oven at different times-

Runny center; taken out at 15 minutes

A little less gooey center; taken out at 18 minutes

Serve this hot with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar and a dollop of vanilla ice-cream. And enjoy the feeling of melting chocolate in your mouth

Voila! Creme Caramel!!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 03:35:00 +0000

I believe creme caramel is the easiest, quickest and the most perfect dessert ever to have been invented. A big thank you to the French! This is my go-to recipe when we have a dinner get-together because it is an easily liked dessert. The smooth caramel is a perfect foil for the custard. So without much ado, I present to you - Creme Caramel!!

This recipe customized from Titli Nihaan's creme caramel

Preparation Time - 30 minutes
Baking Time - 50 - 55 minutes

Serves 6

Ingredients

For caramel
Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 4 Tbsps

For the Creme (custard)
Whole milk - 3 cups
Eggs - 4 large
Vanila essence - 1 Tsp
Sugar - 2/3 cups

The baking pan used must be immersed in hot water before popping into the oven. So we will need - 9" round pan for the custard and a 13" X 9" rectangular pan for the water bath.

Steps

Making caramel

A few noteworthy points-

Its better to use stainless steel saucepan. Non-stick did not work for me.
Use filtered water
Stand a bit away from furnace. Melting sugar is not the most pleasant thing to have on your bare skin. It is scalding hot!
Caramel making needs baby-sitting. It can go from caramel to burnt caramel in a few seconds. So do keep a constant watch (Checking laundry, having coffee while the sugar melts, going for a sneak peak at your facebook page, non of that.. na-ah!.. This comes from my bitter experiences.. sob!)
I have moved away from the conventional method, which says to 'never stir' and 'let sugar slowly melt on low heat'. Somehow these methods did not work for me (maybe because my saucepan was not wide enough, I really don't know!). On the contrary, I did stir and I did make it on high heat and it came out just fine. This idea was from here - http://www.joepastry.com/category/pastry-components/caramel-and-caramel-sauce/

Well, here goes - Add sugar and water and lightly stir till sugar is wet. On medium-high heat, gently stir till sugar dissolves (about 10 minutes; you don't need to constantly stir, instead we can also swirl the pan on the heat).

If sugar is hardening on the sides of pan, just add droplets of water and gently scrape it back into the syrup. Once sugar is dissolved, turn heat to high, cover pan and cook for about 4 more minutes. When syrup starts to boil and bubble, just swirl the pan from time to time.

In about 4 minutes, the syrup will stop bubbling and start changing colour to light brown. Remove from heat and quickly pour into baking pan. Swirl pan to spread caramel evenly before it hardens.

Note - Caramel still cooks when removed from heat, so remove when it is light brown, otherwise it can get burnt.

Making Creme (custard)

For the water bath, boil enough water to half-fill a 13 X 9 pan. Pre-heat oven to 320 F (160 C).

Heat milk and vanilla till it comes to boil. Simmer for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool a bit. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Pour in 1/4 of the milk and whisk. Then pour rest of the milk while constantly stirring. Ok, custard is done!

Pour custard into the round pan with caramel. Place round pan into the larger rectangular pan and fill the rectangular pan with boiling water until it comes half-way up the round pan. Bake for about 50 - 55 minutes. We know its done when the top is firm but if you shake the pan the pudding will wobble.

Cool for about 25 - 30 minutes before refrigerating for at-least 2 hours (maximum over-night). When you're ready to serve, scrape the side of pan with a blunt knife, place a large plate on top and quickly invert holding the pan firmly. The caramel will drip down the sides. Its ready to serve! Delicious!!

Pottil.. A Rare Kerala curry

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 03:50:00 +0000

I first heard of this delicious curry when I was in college. My friend Aparna's mother used to make this quite often and I was fortunate to have tried it when I would pop into her home for combined studies. I fell in love with this curry! Its like a combination of sambar and theeyal, two famous south Indian curries. But, not many seem to have heard of it, including my family.

Now, its a regular at our home. My husband likes it too. We usually have this with rice and a dry side dish like beans thoran, cabbage thoran or beans-kaya mezhukkuperutti. Hmm, it doesnt get better for us Malayalees! So here is the recipe..

This recipe is from my friend Aparna. Thanks a ton to her for introducing me to this.
Disclaimer - I have moved away from the original recipe by replacing bittergourd with carrots and tomatoes. In my opinion, the usual vegetables we put in sambar will work perfectly well here.

Serves - 8

Ingredients

For roasting and grinding-

Grated coconut - 2/3 cup (I used ready-made coconut powder since that is what I can find around here as a substitue)
Dried red chillies - 3 or 4
Onion - 1/3 of one large, chopped (Traditionally, we are supposed to use small red onions, but regular onions work just fine)
Coriander powder - 4 Tsp
Oil - 2 Tbsp

For the main curry-

Tur dal - 1 1/4 cup
Onion - 2/3 of one large
Tomato - 1 medium
Carrot - 1 small
Turmeric powder - 1 Tsp
Red chilly powder - 1 Tsp
Tamarind - equivalent of 1 Tbsp
Salt - 2 Tsp
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 Tsp
Curry leaves - to season

Steps

Cut the 2/3rd onion, carrot and tomato into large cubes and soak the tamarind in some water

Pressure cook tur dal with the spices including salt upto around 3 whistles

When the cooker is ready to open again, put in the chopped vegetables and pressure cook again (with more water if required) upto about 6 whistles

Roast the grated coconut and onions in oil, in low heat, with intermittent stirring

When they turn a light brown, add the dried chillies and coriander powder. Switch off in around 45 seconds.

Let the roasted mixture cool a bit and then grind to a paste with about a cup of water

By now, it is time to open the pressure cooker. Add the tamarind water to the cooked dal and veggies and bring it to a boil. Check the salt at this stage and add as required

Now add the ground coconut-coriander powder paste to this and simmer-cook for about 3 minutes

Finally season with some spurted mustard seeds and curry leaves

I would say this curry is like sambar but instead of sambar powder, the main spice here is coriander powder. And I am sure all Malayalees would agree to the ground coconut paste! Yes, we all just love it! Try this, I guarantee you, this will become a favourite!

Apple Crisp! A delightful dessert!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:19:00 +0000

Lately, I have been dead serious on the case of finding fruit-filled desserts or cakes (wow, I made that sound like a crime novel!) But, really, I am on the look-out. You know, those sort of treats that you can relish and not feel so guilty like you have just eaten a ton of butter or chocolate? And this time around, I got the help I needed from the amazing you-tube chef Laura Vitale's cooking channel. Do check it out on you-tube - LauraVitalesKitchen. She has a lot of recipes with apples, apple pie, apple bread, apple crisp, you name it she's got it. Well, I decided to try the apple crisp.

Apple crisp or crumble, is an American delicacy apparently with British origin. Now I don't know if apple crisp and crumble are two different things. To me they seem the same. You start out making either, in the end, you have a warm mushy apple base, covered with a crumbly oats topping. Makes for a perfect dessert. But I do feel this is one for apple lovers. Others may not be so fond of it. However, doubling it with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream is surely going to make this one appealing to all, be it apple-lovers or not!

This recipe customized from Laura in the Kitchen.

Serves - 6

Ingredients

For the filling-

4 large apples, peeled and cut into medium-sized cubes
zest and juice of half a lemon
zest and juice of quarter of an orange
6 Tbsp of granulated white sugar
1 Tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp All purpose flour

For crisp topping-

1 cup All purpose flour
3/4 cup of Oats
1/3 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup or 1 stick unsalted butter, cold
1/2 Tsp cinnamon (optional, if cinnamon flavour is not your cup-o-tea)
1/4 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp of baking powder

Steps

Pre-heat oven to 375 F (190 C)
Mix together all the ingredients mentioned under 'filling' in a large bowl. Move the apple filling mixture to your baking dish

In same bowl, mix all ingredients except cold butter, mentioned under 'crisp topping'
Cut the butter into small cubes
Mix the butter into the crisp topping mixture using your hands until a coarse texture is obtained. Here is how it looks -

Finally, sprinkle the crisp topping onto the apple filling until completely covered.
Place the baking dish in larger baking tray (to avoid any bubbling apple sauce spilling into the oven) and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, till the top is a golden -brown colour, like so -

Allow to cool a little. This treat is best served warm, with ice-cream. Give it a try. You'll definitely love it!

Spicy Prawns Curry!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:08:00 +0000

Prawns are easily my favourite sea food. Be it in prawns gravy, prawns fry or prawns biriyani (*drooool*), they are the most divine things God created. When I need to make a quick-fix lunch or dinner I just make some jeera or ghee rice and accompany that with this easy-peasy prawns gravy. It's spicy, tangy and most of all super-easy. Here goes!

Serves 4

Ingredients

Prawns - 1 to 1-1/2cup (I used medium-sized shrimp, tail-off, peeled and deveined)
Onions - 2 medium
Tomatoes - 2 medium
Green Chillies - 2 Tbsp, chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 4 Tbsp
Curd - 2 Tbsps
Turmeric powder - 1 Tsp
Red chilly powder - 1 Tsp
Garam masala - 2 Tsp
Cinnamon - 1/2 Tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 Tsp
Salt
Coriander leaves to season
Oil - 2 Tbsp
water - 1/4 cup

Steps

Marinate prawns with turmeric powder, red chilly powder, 2 Tbsp of ginger-garlic paste and salt. Set aside covered for at least 20 minutes.
In a saucepan, heat oil, put mustard seeds and onions. Let onions caramelize slightly
Add the green chillies and remaining 1 Tbsp of ginger-garlic paste. Stir and let cook on medium-low till raw smell of garlic goes
Add the tomatoes, garam masala, cinnamon and salt. Let cook on medium-low till the tomatoes are tender.
Now add the prawns along with marinade, stir and cook for about 5-10 minutes (take care not to over-cook as that makes the prawns rubbery and hard, not a very delightful thing to eat!)
While the prawns are cooking, add curd and water. Curd is optional. I like the tangy taste curd gives. You can omit this and add some more water, instead.

And we are done! That's it, its that easy but oh-so-tasty. Season with coriander leaves at the end. Ready to serve!!

A healthy rice variety.. Spinach Pulao!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 05:17:00 +0000

Spinach, as all know, is a very nutritious veggie, high in iron and Vitamin A. So, I was looking at ways of making this more, other than the usual spinach side dish. I came across this variety rice, a combination of spinach and basmati rice. I tried to cook it in a dum style and surprisingly, that turned out quite good. For those who aren't so fond of the taste of spinach, cooking this way really does not give out its real taste. It rather tasted like a spicy biriyani. This goes very well with a raitha or gravies like aloo mattar, prawns/chicken gravy etc. Do give it a try.

Serves 8

Ingredients

Rice (Basmati or Sona masoori) - 6 cups
Spinach - 6 oz (176 gms)
Onion - 2 medium, finely chopped
Tomato -2 medium, finely chopped
Potato - 2 medium, cut into square cubes
Ginger, finely chopped - 1 Tbsp
Garlic, finely chopped - 1 Tbsp
Green chillies, finely chopped - 2 Tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1 Tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 Tsp
Garam masala/Biriyani masala- 2 Tbsp
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 Tsp
Some bay leaves, 5 or 6 cloves and 4 or 5 cardomom seeds
Salt
Oil - 3 Tbsp

Steps

Cook the rice, with some salt, bay leaves, cloves and cardomom until 90% done and set aside
Blend the washed spinach into a paste (I try not to add water, if you really have to, add very little)

A pic of the main ingredients, until now -

In a saucepan, pour the 3 Tbsps of oil and fry the potatoes for about 5-8 minutes until tender

Remove (after squeezing out oil) and set aside on a tissue paper

In same oil, pop in the cumin seeds and chopped onions. Fry till they caramelize

Add the ginger, garlic and green chillies, let stand on medium heat for about 2 mnts

Now add the chopped tomato and season with all the ground spices (including salt). Stir fry and let cook for about 2 minutes

Now add the spinach paste and stir. Let cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes till the raw smell goes.

In the same vessel in which rice was cooked, add about 1 tbsp of ghee

Add a layer of spinach masala, then half the rice, then the rest of the spinach and finally the remaining rice. Finally add the fried potatoes on top with some coriander leaves.

Cover and simmer-cook for about 10 minutes

In blueberry heaven.. Perfect blueberry crumble cake!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 06:16:00 +0000

The moment I heard of the superb creation called blueberry streusel cake, I knew I had to make it. The very idea of a layer of moist cake, followed by blueberries and a final layer of crumb topping had me hooked. The word 'streusel' in its name is nothing but a fancy name for the crumb topping. Well, this cake is the real deal guys. It goes well with your morning coffee, evening tea and is even superb enough to be served as dessert with a dollop of vanilla ice cream!!.. Yes, it is heavenly..

Well lets get down to the nitty gritty.. Here's the recipe..

Serves : 8
Preparation Time : 30 minutes
Baking Time : 35 - 40 minutes

Ingredients

For Cake:

All purpose flour - 2 1/3 cups
Sugar, granulated - 1 1/4 cups
Butter    - 3/4 cup, 1 1/2 stick, 5.5 oz
Milk    - 3/4 cup
Eggs    - 3
Vanilla essence - 1 Tsp
Baking powder - 1 1/4 Tsp
Baking soda - 1 1/4 Tsp
Salt    - 3/4 Tsp
Blueberries - 2 cups

For Crumble Topping (streusel):

All purpose flour - 1 cup
Brown sugar      - 1 cup
Cinnamon    - 1 Tsp
Cold unsalted butter, cut into very small cubes - 1/2 cup

Steps

First lets get the crumble topping or streusel done- In a bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon and brown sugar. Then with your fingers, crush the butter into this until you get a crumbly texture. Set this aside

Preheat oven to 350 F (176 C) and Grease a 13 X 9-inch rectangular pan or two 9-inch round pans

Dry Ingredients - Mix the flour, baking powder and soda and salt. Set aside

Wet Ingredients - Take a bowl and start by mixing the melted butter and sugar till creamy. Add the eggs one by one and vanilla essence while whisking.

Mixing the wet and dry - Add a portion of flour mixture into wet batter and gently mix. Now add a portion of the milk and mix. Repeat this till you're done adding both.

Fold the blueberries into batter, spreading them in evenly

Pour batter onto cake pan, spread it out evenly

Now, cover the whole batter with a layer of crumble topping (prepared in first step). This is what the end result looks like just before popping into the oven..

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes. At 35 m, Do a tooth-pick test (Try not to do a knife-insert test as that will leave a wide hole and can mess up the baking) If it comes out clean you're done!

And this is what the cake looks like just after popping out the oven..
Voila!

This delicious out-of-this-world cake will definitely take you to the seventh heaven of delight! Give this a try, you won't regret it!

Delicious Banana Nut Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:41:00 +0000

Well I already have a blog, my first one, about banana walnut cake. This one, for all practical purposes tastes the same. So why a specific blog for this? Well, this one will be in the shape of a loaf bread, so the measurements and timing differ. The good thing about banana cakes/bread is that ripe bananas lend their natural sweetness so you can reduce the amount of sugar considerably. The cake will still taste good. A really good option to include in your breakfast.

Here goes -

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cup
Sugar - 2/3 cup (weight watchers can reduce this to half a cup, just increase the banana content)
Baking powder - 1/2 Tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 Tsp
Cinnamon - 1/4 Tsp
Salt - 1/2 Tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 Tsp
Bananas, very ripe - 2 large
Butter - 4 Oz (1 stick, or 8 Tbsps)
Milk - 1/2 cup
Eggs - 2
Walnuts, chopped - about 1/2 cup
Some powdered almonds for bread topping

Steps

Pre-heat oven to 350 F (approx, 176 C) and grease a 9 X 5-inch loaf pan
Mixing dry ingredients - Mix together flour, baking soda and powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside
Mash the bananas till you get a paste-like texture
Mixing wet ingerdients - Take a bowl and start by mixing the melted butter and sugar till creamy. Add the eggs one by one with constant whisking. Complete the wet batter by adding vanilla essence and mashed bananas
Mixing the wet and dry - Add a portion of flour mixture into wet batter and gently mix. Now add a portion of the milk and mix. Repeat this till you're done adding both.
Finally add in the walnuts and give the batter a final stir, gently (we do not want to over-mix the batter, just ensure all ingredients are incorporated)
Pour the batter into greased pan. Sprinkle powdered almonds on top
Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour.

Since this is a deep pan, baking time is more than a normal cake. Do a tooth-pick test (Try not to do a knife-insert test as that will leave a wide hole and can mess up the baking - learnt from an unfortunate experience. Sob.)

Spiced up French Toast!

noreply@blogger.com (Dimps) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 01:37:00 +0000

French Toast is a simple recipe with its main ingredients being bread, eggs and milk. You make a batter with eggs and milk, soak your bread in them and fry them on a skillet. Thats it! It is basically a sweet dish, with the batter sweetened with honey/syrup. At times, it is taken up a level by stuffing cream or jam between two bread slices and then french-toasting this sandwich!!

Well, I wanted the same egg-soaked toasted bread thingy, but not sweet this time. So I came up with a very simply spiced up version of this. Its very easy and can make a great breakfast!..

So here goes my easy-peasy recipe -

Serves 2

Ingredients

Eggs - 3

Milk - 1/4 cup

Salt - 1 Tsp

Garlic powder - 2 Tsp

Pepper - 1 Tsp

Corn Flour - 3 Tbsp

Bread slices (any type) - 8

For the stuffing (you could go wild here adding ketchup and cheese as well) -

Tomatoes - 2 medium

Capsicum - 1/2

Butter - 1 Tbsp (I used a low fat alternative - 'I cant believe its not butter')

Steps

Prepare a batter with the eggs, milk, corn flour, garlic powder, pepper and salt
Slice the tomato and capsicum into thin rounds
Spread two slices of bread with the butter and stuff enough slices of tomatoes and capsicum (or the veggies you're using). Press the top slice bread down hard so that the stuffing is well in place. Repeat this to make the rest of the sandwiches
Grease a skillet with some butter or use a cooking spray
Dip the sandiwches into batter making sure all sides are covered well in batter.
Place the sandwich on the skillet and close the lid and cook on medium heat for a minute. Turn over with a spatula and cook the other side.
Serve hot! You could additionally season with other herbs and spices on top of each toast

Enjoy!