Banana chips

I remember making banana chips years back in my mom's kitchen and had totally forgotten about it, mom never encouraged me to make it after one trial and that speaks everything about it :) . Anyway I never bothered to try this at home until my little girl asked me to make at home. So I thought of giving it a try and I was happy with the result and so my kids when they saw the chips in their snacks box, love the delight on their faces. 

So this is how I made it 

Ingredients
Raw bananas - 2 - 3 long ones
Oil to fry ( I use coconut oil)
Salt - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
water 2 - 3 tbsp

Method
Wash the bananas and make a thin  vertical slit which makes it easier to peel the skin of the banana and then keep it aside.
Now you mix the salt and turmeric powder in water and keep aside, also keep a spoon handy.
Now keep the kadai on the stove and pour in the oil.
Once you realize that oil is hot enough take a slicer , if you have an adjustable slicer, adjust it to make sure you don't slice it too thin or too thick, slice the banana to the hot oil, the slices starts to fry and once the sizzling sound stops  add the salt and turmeric mixture with a spoon to the hot oil. It starts to sizzle again and once the sizzling stops, remove the chips from oil to drain it to a tissue paper.
Repeat!!
Let the chips cool and store it in an airtight container as long as it lasts! :)

Carrot jam using jaggery

Few weeks back made carrot halwa using red carrots in season,  this time I bought one kg of red carrots again, but dint feel like making the heavy creamy sweet carrot halwa again, and hence thought of experimenting with it, something healthy and which can be stored for a couple of days.

This jam is very simple to make, delicious and of course healthy, also has shelf life for few days. This is how I made it.

Ingredients
Red carrots - 1 kg
Jaggery syrup - 1 cup (take one cup jaggery syrup when you melt 500 gms jaggery with 1 cup of water)
Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method
Wash, peel and finely chop the carrots in a food processor  or in the mixie jar ( make sure you dont make a juice of it  :)  ).
Keep a big thick bottomed vessel on the stove, put the chopped carrots and sprinkle some water and cook the carrots, once half cooked pour in the jaggery syrup and keep stirring until the mixture thickens and leaves the sides of the pan. Sprinkle some cardamom powder and mix well.
Remove from heat and transfer into sterilized glass jars. Enjoy with dosas, rotis or enjoy it as it is :)

Cucumber and pomegranate salad in hazelnut oil and orange juice dressing

This is a very fresh, healthy and tasty salad which is made in no time. You could watch this video to  learn a new technique of de-seeding a pomegranate, and if you already know and use the technique, very good  for you.

Ingredients for the salad
Cucumber - 3 medium size ones
Pomegranate- 1 large
Herbs (Mint leaves or coriander leaves) - 1/4 cup
Lemon juice - 3 tbspn
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
Paprika - a pinch
Tobasco sauce - 2 tspns
Hazelnut oil - 2 tbspns
Salt and pepper - for seasoning

Arrange the vegetables and fruits in a plate.
Whisk together the rest of the ingredients and oil until emulsified. Pour over the salad just before serving. 
Enjoy!!

Jowar idiyappam/ sorgum flour stringhoppers

What you see in the picture is idiyappam or string hopper, its usually made with fine rice flour but I have tried  with ragi flour ( finger millet flour) before, the recipe you will find in my previous posts. This time I tried with jowar flour  and I was surprised with the result, Hey it came out good and infact my family dint realise it was jowar, and as it is jowar  has a very subtle taste. I combined the idiyappam with quail eggs curry.

Ingredients
Jowar flour - 1 cup ( dry roasted)
Rice flour  - 1 1/2 cup ( dry roasted)
Oil - 1 tspn
Salt - as required
Hot water - 2 - 2 1/2 cups

Method :
Dry roast the flours separately and put it in a wide bowl and add in the salt and oil and mix well. Pour in the hot water and mix the flour till you get  a dough consistency. I used the hand held dough blades for this since it will be easy to handle hot water and mix it simultaneously to form the dough. Once your dough is ready keep the steamer on the stove with required amount of water. Use the chakli maker with the string hopper nozzle and pipe the noddles , you can also sprinkle some grated coconut over the noodles and steam for about 10 - 15 mins.

Serve hot with a spicy curry of your choice or even stew.
Enjoy!!!

Tiramisu cake

This cake has been there in my mind for quite sometime, or probably months, but never been able to do it, I thought its a difficult one to do and then it was my dear husband's b'day the last week and since we were travelling I couldn't bake a cake. Only because I dint bake a cake for their father's b'day the kids thought their father's b'day is not over yet.. How sweet and innocent of them :) So I thought of venturing out baking this cake, thoroughly enjoyed baking it and of course my family and friends loved it. And I bet it is not that difficult, or probably I choose an easy path(recipe)for the cake. I did Google search for recipes for the same and there seem to loads of recipes too as usual. I zeroed of some factors of few recipes and derived this product :)
I made the mascarpone cheese at home, and I bet it very easy to make at home, all you need is fresh cream and a lemon.

For mascarpone cheese adapted from baking obsession
Ingredients:

• 500 ml fresh cream
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Preparation:

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. It will cover the back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.

For the cake

4 eggs separated

2 tbspns cold water

1 cup sugar ( powdered)

1/2 cup boiling water

1 and half cups cake flour, sfifted 

1/2 tspn cream of tartar

1  tspn vanilla essence

1/2 tspn almond essence

Method

Prepare two 8 inch pans or one 9 inch pan ( I used the latter) If you want four layers and more height for the cake use two 8 inch pans. Prepare the pans and keep aside.

Sift the flour and measure. I used white flour for this cake, dint use wheat flour as usual. For one and half cup of cake flour you can take 1 and half cup of wheat flour, remove two tablespoons of flour and measure you cake flour and keep aside.

Put the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and add 2 tbpsns of cold water into it. Start beating and sowly add the powdered sugar into the egg yolks while you continue beating it and beat until the egg yolks are pale yellow and then now add boiling water while you still beat the mixture. Add salt to the sifted flour and then sift the flour to the egg mixture. Gently fold in the flour with the batter, make sure you don't loose the aeration in the batter. 

Next you put the egg whites in a bowl and then add the cream f tartar abd beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Again gently fold in the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture. at this point add the vanilla essence and the almond essence and and the remaining egg whites and fold in the mixture with a rubber spatula. Divide the batter into pans and bake at 180 degrees preheated oven. Bake the cake for 30 mins or till a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Let it cool.

Now you have the cake ready and also the mascaropone cream ready. Now lets move on the filling and frosting.

For the espresso extract
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder ( I used Nescafe Select)
2 tablespoons boiling water
> Stir the coffee powder in hot water and keep aside
For the espresso syrup: 
1 cup water 
3 tablespoons sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 tbspn espresso extract
>Boil the water with the rest of the ingredients and keep aside.

For the filling and frosting:
232 grams of mascarpone
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar, 
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon espresso extract
1 cup cold sweetened whipping cream 
1/2 cup grated chocolate

>Whisk the mascarpone cream, sugar, vanilla extract, espresso extract and keep  aside
>Whip the whipping cream will stiff, slowly fold in the whisked mascarpone mixture carefully and keep aside.

Assembling the cake
Now that your syrup and the cream mixture is ready get ready to assembling the cake and frosting it.
Slice the cake and place one layer on the assembling board, brush the syrup until the cake is coated and soaked in the syrup. Now give a coat of the cream and also sprinkle some grated chocolate over it. Repeat with the rest of the layers and finally frost the outside of the cake and decorate the cake as you wish . You can even decorate the cake in the simplest way by simply sifting some cocoa powder over the cake.

Simple right.. bake and enjoy it!!!