Orange and semolina mini muffins recipe

Orange and semolina mini muffins

I don’t even remember when I have blogged last time, was so tied up by couple of family tasks.  Today thought of trying something without following any recipe as I love such brainstorming

Thus this recipe emerged. Used couple of ingredients I have at home to make these mini muffins, its super easy and the muffins turned out delicious too

Coming to the recipe

Ingredients

Fine semolina (chirooti rava) - 1.5 cups

Brown sugar – 2/3 cup (not powdered)

Fresh juice of two oranges – about 2/3 cup

Eggs – 2

Butter – 1/3 cup

Baking powder – ½ tsp.

Vanilla essence ( optional)

Method

• Throw in all the ingredients into a huge bowl and whisk well with a hand whisk. Yes trust me I did exactly this.
• Once the ingredients have come together simply scoop out and pour in muffin pans.
• Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes.
• Remove the tray and let it cool for about 5-10 minutes before removing the muffins from the pan.

Tip: I was thinking it will be nice if I soak these mini muffins in orange syrup, what say? . Will try :)

Bake and enjoy ..

Thanks

Chaithanya 

Pressure cooker palpayasam recipe

Pressure cooker palpayasam recipe

Palpayasam is one of famous south indian delicacy and in north it’s called as kheer. Traditionally it is cooked on stove top, adding rice, sugar and milk and stirred for long time so that rice is well cooked in milk and the sweet and delicious dessert is made

My family loves palpayasam and its one of the kid’s favourites too... Over the years I have started to make it in the pressure cooker. I have many friends who do the same.

Ingredients

Rice – ¼ cup

Milk – 3 cups

Sugar - 1/3 cup

Saffron – few stands (optional)

Cardamom powder – a pinch (optional)

Method

• In a pressure cooker (I use a 2 litre stainless steel pressure cooker) add the rice, 2 cups of milk and sugar and  keep it on gas stove on low flame. Wait until you hear the first whistle and switch off the stove after 5 minutes.
• Open the lid once the pressure is released automatically.
• Use a potato masher and mash the rice randomly.
• Add the saffron and cardamom powder at this stage and mix well, also add a cup of hot milk to this. Mix well again.

Note: I sometimes grind few almonds (about 5-10) in the payasam.

you coudl also increase the sugar quantity depending on your taste.

Thanks and regards

Chaithanya

Cinnamon bread sticks recipe

Cinnamon bread sticks

I have never tried any bakes with cinnamon yet, I guess mainly because my dear husband dislikes the flavor of cinnamon. But the other day when he got the cinnamon stick from some dish I made he said the cinnamon is very sweet and full of flavor and suggested me to try something with it.

From then I have been thinking of baking something with cinnamon, for once I thought will bake cinnamon rolls then I changed it to breads sticks.

I must say if you like cinnamon it’s difficult to stop munching on these, This recipe is quick and easy too

The recipe follows

Ingredient

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

Butter – 1/3 cup

Egg – 1 no.

Milk – few spoons

Sugar -1 tbsp.

Salt – a pinch

For cinnamon sugar

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon powder

Vanilla powder – a very tiny pinch

Method

• Bring together the flour, butter, sugar; egg and salt and gently knead with your fingers. Add few spoons of milk to bring the ingredients together. Once the dough is formed refrigerate it for an hour.
• After an hour remove the dough and leave it outside for 30 minutes.
• Mix the sugar, cinnamon powder and vanilla powder well and keep aside. (Add vanilla essence if u don’t have vanilla powder)
• Take a grocery packet (plastic packet of atta or any other grocery). Put the dough in the packet and then fatten the dough, roll it flat. You should be able to roll the dough into a perfect square/rectangle as the dough is concealed in the cover. Once the dough is rolled gently cut open two sides of the cover and lift one side of the cover. You see rolled dough in square/rectangle shape.
• Now sprinkle the cinnamon sugar well around
• Now fold the dough sheet into half. and sprinkle some cinnamon sugar yet again on top of it.
• Now using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife cut the folded sheet  into couple of strips.
• Now grab a strip at the folded end and twist as though you are wringing a wash cloth. 
• Place each strips on a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining dough.
• Bake the sticks at 180 degrees Celsius for about 15- 20 minute until the top is browned.
• Remove and place each stick on a wire rack to cool.

Serve with milk, tea or coffee and enjoy !

Regards

Chaithanya

Kerala uniyappam recipe

Kerala uniyappam recipe

Kerala uniyappam is a very famous sweet snack of Kerala, it’s also an auspicious snack as it is prepared in temples and also on auspicious family occasions or just any other day too. I personally was not a fan of uniyappam though my mother makes it well during Vishu. But my darling son loves most of the traditional food and one is uniyappam. Usually my mother makes it whenever we visit her and it’s been a long desire of mine to make it by my selves. 

Over the years I have tried many recipes, various combinations and with various rice and flours. I tried with wheat, rava...all those came out good but I wasn’t satisfied with the taste, texture and authenticity.

One of my good friends is an expert in making uniyappam, few years back I tried her recipe too, that was yet another disaster and I just left it there.

Last week I gave another attempt with the same recipe. The taste was very close to what I wanted but the texture was close to a disaster.

So yet another trial with all the courage and prayers and it came out successful.  The taste and texture was just the exact way I wanted.

Uniyappam is generally made using rice flour but here I have soaked and ground the rice to make the appams. Small well ripe banana is an essentially ingredient for making delicious apam. And a few spices mixed in the batter makes beautiful and tasty uniyappams

The recipe follows

Ingredients  

Ponny raw rice or Dosa rice – 1 cup ( note below)

Small well ripe bananas ( elakki )- 3

Jaggery syrup – one cup ( note below)

Water - ½ cup

Cardamom powder – a pinch

Jeera powder – a pinch

Dry ginger powder – a pinch

Coconut pieces - few

White/black sesame seeds – 1 tbspn

Ghee – 2 tsp

Oil for deep frying ( to your preference)

Method

• Wash and Soak the rice for a minimum of 2 hours.
• Grind the rice using sufficient jaggery syrup and water alternatively so that the rice is well ground. Add the bananas and grind again until the rice and banana is blended well. Make sure the batter is finely ground and well mixed. That’s a very important step to get the batter right.
• Add the spices and fry the coconut pieces in ghee and add to the batter. Mix the batter well with remaining jaggery pieces and water, cover and let it rest for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Take and appam pan and keep on flame and add oil (we use coconut oil) once the oil is hot enough reduce the flame and bring it to medium flame.
• If the flame is too high the appam will burn and the centre will remain uncooked and the flame is too low the appam will soak a lot of oil, hence medium flame is advised.
• So when the batter is poured, ideally the appam will rise over, and after few minutes flip the appam once and then drain from oil to a kitchen towel.
• Repeat the same process with the remaining batter and once cooled store in an airtight container.

This quantity will yield about 20 – 25 med sized appams.

Note:

Regarding jaggery syrup, I usually melt one kg jaggery in one cup of water, sieve and store. Used one cup from this syrup.

Regarding appam chatti , you need paniyaram pan/appam chatti for deep frying the appam

I use a cast iron appam pan hence make sure the pan is well seasoned, else chances of the batter sticking to the bottom pf the pan is high and it will spoil the show

Tip: smear the oil and leave the pan for few days before you plan to make appams or if your pan is already seasoned well and good

Regarding rice: Raw rice preferred

If by chance you find the batter is too water add a tbpsn of chirooti rava to the batter.

Thanks regards

Chaithanya

Egg biriyani recipe

Egg biriyani

Biriyani is one dish which the majority of the population look forward for, for its taste simplicity, variance and a bag full of flavours.Each region has a recipe of its own with various combinations of spices. Also its one dish which is one pot and yet full of flavors due to the various spices used in its preparation. For some, preparing biriyani is very easy and quick but I confess its not so for me. I have to concentrate a lot while making biryani than other regular dishes. More than effort biriyani has a sequence of process to be followed else the taste gets altered. You have to be careful from the right level of cooking of the rice, mixing and flavouring of the dish at every possible level.

I have been doing this recipe for quite some time but every time i make I forget to click a pic... So today decided to click and blog it.

The recipe follows

Ingredients

Onions – 3-4 med ones

Saffron – a pinch

Milk – ¼ cup

Eggs – 4-6 no.s (I use small country eggs)

Ginger, garlic, green chilli – 2-3 tsp. (crushed)

Mint leaves and coriander leaves – 2-3 tbsp. (chopped

Pepper powder – ½ tsp.

Chilli powder – 1 tsp.

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp.

Coriander powder – 1 tbsp.

Whole cumin (jeera) - ½ tsp.

Fennel seeds (saunf) – ½ tsp.

Cloves – 2-3 no.s

Cinnamon - 1 small stick

Cardamom – 2-3 no.s

Bay leaves – 2

Curd – 1 cup

Salt - as required.

Method

• Finely chop onions and fry and keep aside (you could deep fry or shallow fry to your preference).
• Soak the saffron in ¼ cup of warm milk and keep aside.
• Boil eggs and keep aside, for boiling eggs you can wash and put the eggs in a pressure cooker, add water until the eggs are half emerged, switch off the stove after one whistle, and open the cooker once the pressure is released on its own.
• Using a knife make slits on the eggs or you could simply cut each egg to half, add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and pepper powder and mix well. 
• Add the crushed ginger garlic and green chilli to it. Make a powder of cumin, fennel, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and add to the egg mixture, add salt too… finally add the curd and the coriander and mint leaves and also half of the fried onion. Mix all this well and keep aside for 30 minutes.

For cooking rice

Basmati Rice – 2 cups

Hot water – 4 cups

Ghee – 2 tbsp.

Cinnamon – 1 stick

Cardamom – 2-3

Clove – 2-3

Bay leaves - 2

Cashews and raisins – as per your preference.

Salt.

Method

• Take a pan and add the ghee, fry the cashews and raisins and remove from the pan.
•  Add the rice to the pan and sauté well for about 5 mins (this is to keep the rice separate and not leaving it sticky once cooked). 
• Once the rice is well sautéed add the whole spices and salt. 
• Slowly add the hot water to the rice and close the pan with a lid and let it cook in med flame. Open and check after few minutes and let it cook until the water is absorbed by the rice and rice is almost cooked.  
• Remove the pan from the flame.

Assembling

• Keep another pan (I used a wide cast iron pan/skillet) on the flame and add a teaspoon or two of ghee/oil. 
• Bring your egg mixture and remove the eggs and keep it upside down (the yolks touching the base of the pan. 
• Once all the eggs are arranged along with a bit of masala mixture spread half a portion of the cooked rice. Spread the remaining masalas on top along with a quarter portions of the fried onions and also the saffron and milk mixture. 
• Spread the remaining rice and level the rice out and sprinkle the left over fried onions.

Let it sit covered on the low flame for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes sprinkle the fried cashews and raisins on top and gently mix well. You don’t want to make a mess of the biriyani, mix gently so that the colour stands out yet there is a mix of flavours J

Serve hot with raita, pickle and papad.

Note: You could any other deep thick bottom pan for assembling the rice and egg mixture.

Enjoy!!

Whole wheat Cranberry Orange Scones with Dulce de leche coffee recipe

When u have a lot of tangy cranberries and sweet oranges at home think of some whole wheat scones and enjoy them with a nice dulce de luche coffee :)

The cranberries I have at home was super tangy, some may like it but my family kept ignoring those. Finally thought of baking scones with those, also had some sweet oranges handy at home.

Came across this recipe from taste of home, while browsing the internet and used organic whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour and baked it. 

The recipe is as follows

Ingredients

·         2 cups whole wheat flour

·         10 teaspoons sugar, divided

·         1 tablespoon grated orange peel

·         2 teaspoons baking powder

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         1/4 teaspoon baking soda

·         1/3 cup cold butter

·         1 cup dried cranberries

·         1/4 cup orange juice

·         1/4 cup half-and-half cream

·         1 egg

·         1 tablespoon milk

Method

1.       In a large bowl, combine the flour, 7 teaspoons sugar, orange peel, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside.

2.      In a small bowl, combine the cranberries, orange juice, cream and egg. Add to flour mixture and stir until a soft dough forms.

3.      Gently knead the dough for minute and pat dough into a circle. Cut into 10 wedges. Separate wedges and place on an ungreased baking sheet, alternately on a silicon sheet. Brush with milk; sprinkle with remaining sugar.

4.      Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack.

Dulce de leche coffee

Blend together 100 ml fresh cream, 100 ml milk, 1-2 tspn instant coffee and 2-3 tsp. Dulce de leche until frothy and serve!

Bake and enjoy! 

Regards

Chaithanya 

Apple, oats and haxelnut bars recipe

This is something which I tried sometime back, but totally missed publishing it. Dint realise until a very good friend asked for the recipe seeing the pic I posted in the Facebook page.

Anyway better late than never they say!

Ingredients

Apples- 2 cored, and roughly chopped

Butter - 150 gms

Brown sugar - 150 gms

Oats - 50 gms

Eggs - 2 

Baking powder- 1.5 tsp

Whole wheat flour- 200 gms

Hazelnuts/pecan nuts to decorate

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
• Grease and prepare a flat tin or preferable Swiss roll tin and keep aside
• Mix the butter and sugar and whisk until they blend well and look creamy.  Add all the remaining ingredients and mix until the ingredients just comes together.
• Tip the mixture into a prepared tin and place the hazelnuts on top
• Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until risen and looks golden, remove from the oven and leave in the tin to cool down completely.
• When cool, cut into bars

Easy , when u have loads of apples lying around :)

thanks

Chaithanya

Cabbage thoran ( cabbage stiry fry in Kerala style )

One of my good north Indian friends was curious about our cabbage thoran (in other words cabbage stir fry in Kerala style) recipe a couple of days backs, from then I have been thinking of blogging about it. Cabbage thoran is a must have dish in the menu of kerala sadya as well.

and also one of the favourite dishes of my family too

Ingredients

Cabbage – 250 gms

Onion (chopped) – one medium sized

Green chillies (finely chopped) – 2

Turmeric powder - ½ tsp

Salt – as required

Grated coconut – ¼ cup

For seasoning

Oil - 1- 2 tbsp.

Mustard - 1/2 tsp.

Urad dal - 1 tsp.

Curry leaves – one or two sprigs

Dried red chilies – one or two

Ginger (optional) – ½ inch ( finely chopped)

Method

• Chop the cabbage fine (cut the cabbage vertically and slice using an adjustable slicer, I find this way easier).
• Please make sure the cabbage is not very wet (that will make the thoran soggy).
• Mix the chopped onion, cabbage, ginger and green chilies in a big bowl.
• Add the turmeric powder and salt to the above vegs and mix gently.
• Now keep a kadai/wok/pan on the stove, add oil and when the oil is hot add the mustard seeds, and wait to splutter, add the urad dal, dried red chillies and curry leaves, once it’s all crackled well add the chopped and mixed vegetable mixture into the seasoning. 
• Mix well again and let it cook.
• So at this stage if you find your vegetable mixture have very less moisture cover and cook and if you feel the vegetable has more moisture let the lid be open. We don’t want a sogy thoran anyway.
• Stir once in a while, it won’t take much time to cook (also depends on how fine or thick you have chopped the cabbage)
• Once cooked, sprinkle the grated coconut on top and mix well again (or you can mix just before serving)
• Serve hot with a bowl of rice, sambhar and curd.

My husband and kids loves this with plain rotis ;)

Thanks

Chaithanya

Appam and Kadala curry recipe

Thought of enjoying the long weekend with a typical Kerala breakfast of appam and kadala curry, its been long that I have made this. 

I have another  recipe  of appam in my blog which has no yeast this one is a recipe with yeast and then of course the recipe of the kadala curry in the pic will also be posted.

Ingredients for appam

Rice (good quality – sona masuri, basmati) – 2 cups

Grated coconut – 1 cup

Paper poha (thin beaten rice) – ¾ cup

Yeast – a pinch (yes, just a pinch)

Sugar – 2 tbsp.

Method

• Soak the rice for about 3 hours.
• Grind all the ingredients for the appam together well, smoother the better; the batter has to be slightly thinner than dosa batter.
• Keep the batter to ferment for few hours or overnight.
• After fermentation add salt and mix well and leave it to rest for another 15 mins. The batter will puff up again, yes and that very important for good appams.
• Meanwhile take the appa chatti (I use the cast iron chatti) on the stove and heat on lower medium flame.
• Sprinkle few drops of sesame oil and then sprinkle little water so that the oil is dispersed and also the heat of the chatti is maintained. (My personal trick and suggestion)
• Take a ladle of batter and pour in the centre of the chatti and without waiting or wasting time hold the handle of the pan and swirl so that the batter spreads around the edges of the pan and the excess batter accumulates at the centre, cover the appam with a lid.
• Open the lid after few seconds .
• Wait for few seconds before you remove the appam for the pan. You needn’t flip the appam.

Recipe for kadala curry

Ingredients

Brown chana – ½ cup

Onion- one med sized

Green chillies – one or two

Ginger – about an inch

Grated coconut - half a cup

Jeera (cumin)- ½ tsp

Saunf ( fennel seeds) – ½ tsp

Pepper powder – ½ tsp

Chilli powder – ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – 2 tsp

Cardamom – 1 or 2

Cloves – 1-2

For seasoning

Oil

Mustard

Dried red chillies

Curry leaves.

Method

• Soak chana overnight.
• Cook the chana with sufficient water, onions, ginger and green chillies.
• Take a pan, add little oil and add the grated coconut, sauté until golden brown and then add all the remaining spices and spice powders.
• Once cooled grind the coconut mixture to a fine paste (as fine as possible).
• Add the ground coconut spice mixture and salt into the chana and mix well and bring it to boil.
• Season with mustard, dried red chillies, curry leaves

Notes

I used one cup of unpolished red rice and one cup of ordinary sona masuri rice.

I used thin red poha instead of white poha.

Thanks 

Chaithanya

Whole wheat and sorgum bread with black sesame seeds and sunflower seeds

Bread baking is the new found love and currently experimenting on millets. Its jowar again !! Let me pamper jowar enough before I handle the next millet flour.

Bread baking is therapeutic and the aroma is sensational, if you know what I mean :) Start baking your healthy breads right at home. 

Ingredients

Water – 1 cup

Yeast – 1.5 tsp

Sugar – 2 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp

Whole wheat flour – 1 .5 cup

Jowar flour (sorghum flour) 1 cup

Sesame seeds – 2- 3 tsp

Sunflower seeds (crushed) – 2-3 tsp

Olive oil – 2-3 tbsp.

Method

• Microwave the water in a heat proof glass bowl at high for one minute ( this is for one cup of water )
• Sprinkle the yeast and sugar and stir well.
• After 15 mins you will see a frothy yeast mixture (else repeat this step).
• At this stage keep a sieve over the bowl and sift in one cup of whole wheat flour and one cup of sorghum flour and salt into the dough.
• Use the dough hook attachment of your egg beater and knead the dough for about 10 mins.
• Add the olive oil and knead again for another 5 mins.
• Finally add the sesame seeds and crushed sunflower seeds in the dough and knead for a minute.
• Now using your fingers gently bring the dough together, use a little olive oil if you find the dough very sticky. Cover and leave the dough to rest in the bowl for about an hour or until it doubles in size.
• Once risen preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius and scoop out the dough into a loaf tin. Don’t forget to grease the tin before you dump the dough. Sprinkle sesame seeds and sunflower seeds on top (optional) and also sprinkle a little flour on top (optional). Score the bread with sharp knife (optional). And just leave the bread to proof for the second time (that’s about 20 mins approx.)
• Don't let the bread prove (rise) for a longer time for the second time. 
• By then oven would be hot, place the loaf tin in the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the top is brown and you hear a hollow sound when you tap the bread.

Notes:  

• It’s safer if you could get your frothy yeast mixture right in the beginning than proceeding ahead.
• Sifting is to make the flour airy and light before it falls into the yeast mixture.
• Dough hook attachment is the spiral attachment which we get along the egg beater set. This is helpful in not making our hands messy while making the bread dough.
• It’s safer not to go by the exact measurement in the recipe and make sure your dough is on a wet side (sticky dough). Initially put ¾ flour mentioned in the recipe and then proceed until you still get wet dough and not stiff dough.
• You could alter the measurements of seeds used according to your convenience.

Enjoy baking 

Thanks

Chaithanya

Quickie dosa | No fermentation crispy dosa | Rava dosa recipe

By now you all would have understood that I am not regular with keeping dosa batter stored for the simple reason that I forget soaking, grinding and the bulb in my brain only lights up just before I hit bed. So it was a similar night yesterday and I remember this recipe from a book I read and I thought of giving it a go! Just soaked a cup of urad dal and hit the bed. 

Next day I made this dosa as per the recipe, yea it’s not my recipe, no credits for me please... my dear husband couldn’t stop eating this dosa, kids loved it too.. I am so happy that another quickie dosa is added to the list, I can’t get happier. And no, I have never bought ready-made batters in my life. Ever! 

Excited to share this simple and yummy recipe, can’t wait. 

I picked  the recipe from my favourite book ' Banana goes to the heaven' , love the easy Indian recipes in the book. 

  

Ingredients

Urad dal - 1 cup

Chirtooti rava (fine rava, usually used for making sweets) - 1/2 kg

Water - as required

Salt

Method

• Soak the urad dal overnight or at least 3-4 hours.
• Grind it well into a smooth paste.
• Add the rava into the urad dal batter, add sufficient water and mix well.
• Add salt and leave it to rest for about 20-30 minutes
• Heat the cast iron tava (I don’t use non-stick) and then keep the sesame oil/gingelly oil ready and a small bowl of water too. (now that’s my way of making any dosa ) I love the theatre while cooking ;).
• Heat the tawa to maximum heat, drizzle the oil and sprinkle some water, now this is done to balance the heat of the tawa.
• Take a ladle of batter and keep spreading in circular motion.
• Close the dosa with a lid for about 30 seconds, open and drizzle a little more oil on top.
• Slowly and gently flip the dosa and let it crisp.
• Serve hot crispy dosa with sambar, chutney,  pickle, all or any or any of your preferred combinations 

Variations : You can add green chillies, coriander and spices into the batter 

You could use the usual semolina as well, but check the consistency of the batter before you start making dosa, or you could even grind it. 

Will try the normal rava next time.