3 flour murukku it is!

That day when I realised there are no munchies at home and me being me don’t like my family feeding on store bought munchies hence checked my grocery. And I remembered I had bought urad flour from the market last week, so just went on to exploring  making some crispy snack. If we check on to murukku recipe there is no dearth for it with the variety of combinations it has. Hence I thought of going my way.

Picked out rice flour , gram flour, and rice flour and mixed and kneaded  with some spices and extruded using using the chakkuli maker and used the thick seviya strand moulds.

Anyway the The recipe follows....

Ingredients

•   1 cup urad flour
•   1 cup gram flour
•   1 cup rice flour
•   Ghee – 2- 3  tsp.
•   Water – as required
•   Spices – (jeera, ajwain, asoafetida, turmeric powder, chilli powder, pepper powder, sesame seeds)
•   Salt

Method

In a huge bowl throw in all the flours, ghee and spices and mix well and then add water little by little and make a not so soft dough, dough will be sticky so use a fork to start mixing the dough and use your palm at a later stage. Let the dough rest for 10- 20 mins.

Heat the oil and fill the dough in the murukku press and then hold the press above the hot oil and squeeze out the dough in the hot oil. Turn the murukku over and remove it it to a kitchen towel once it stops bubbling.

Note :

The dough will be sticky use a little water to put out just enough dough to fill in the mould.

Fry in high flame

If the dough turns out to be watery add any of the flours  little more since wet dough will absorb oil.

Thanks you 

Chaithanya

Recipe for Chiwda - a dry roasted snack using beaten rice

A Marathi friend sent a box of delicious spicy chiwda last week and that’s what motivated me to try this amazing snack. I was unsure as to how authentic my chiwda would taste while I thought of trying it out. I googled for some recipes but I realised none of the recipes are the same so I thought of giving it a try in my way and yea no regrets about the taste.

So this recipe is what I did and will note what I could add or modify in my next trial.

Ingredients

Thin beaten rice (paper poha) – 500 gms

Cashew nuts – ½ cup

Peanuts – 1 cup

Roasted gram dal – ½ cup

Sliced garlic – 2 tbsp.

Curry leaves – 1 cup packed (yes!!)

Asafoetida – 2 big pinches

Sesame seeds – ½ cup

Salt

Powdered sugar

Red chillies

Coriander seeds – 1 tspn

Turmeric powder - ½ tsp.

Oil – ½ cup

Method

• Take a huge kadai and dry roast the poha (beaten rice) for about 10-15 mins ( when you snap it should break).
• Take another kadai and pour in the oil and heat up.
• Fry the cashew nuts, peanuts, garlic and curry leaves and keep aside.
• In the remaining oil fry the sesame seeds, red chillies, asafoetida, turmeric powder, coriander seeds and pour in this seasoning over the roasted poha along with the fried cashew nuts, peanuts, garlic slices and curry leaves.
• Add salt and powdered sugar and mix the whole mixture thoroughly until all the flavours and ingredients gets mixed up well.

Note: Fry finely chopped green chillies if you want to make it spicy

This is specially made for a guilt free evening snack for me and my selves (actually)...Lol

Try and let me know

Thank you!

Chaithanya

Wholewheat mini cupcakes sweetened with jaggery syrup

That day I was feeling  low for a reason and was craving to do something new or different and that usually gives me a high. So that day I just picked up my mini cupcakes pan and kept out all the staples for cake baking. After couple of hours while I was making dinner for the family I got into mixing the batter and then this recipe evolved.  Husband dear had just got back from the office and he loved the aroma filled in our home :)

Following is the recipe

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour -1.5 cups

Eggs – 3 no.s

Butter – 2/3 cup

Jaggery syrup – ¾ cup (refer notes)

Vanilla essence – 1 tsp.

Baking powder – 1 tsp.

Method

• Take a huge mixing bowl and throw in the softened butter, crack the 3 eggs, sieve in the flour and the baking powder, pour in the jaggery syrup, drop in the vanilla essence and mix well using a whisk until all the ingredients have just come together. Yes, you read it right. That’s exactly what I did.  Don’t over whisk. 
• Once the ingredients have come together gently scoop out the batter into the cupcake moulds and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when pierced.

Note: Jaggery syrup is made by melting one kg of jaggery with one cup of water, sieve and  and measure ¾ cup from it for this recipe. You can store the remaining syrup in the refrigerator and stays good for weeks.

I used coarse chakki ground atta for this recipe.

Thanks and regards

Chaithanya

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 

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

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 

Makhana chikki | Puffed lotus seed brittles recipe

It’s been few months that I have introduced makhana in our diet; it’s a very light and healthy snack which is mostly consumed during fasting days in various parts of our country. Today tried making brittles or chikki with makhana. Usually chikkis are made using sugar syrup or jaggery syrup. I used palm jaggery syrup for making chikkis. Was a little apprehensive about my experiment though the result was good. The consistency of the sweet syrup is very important to have good crunchy chikkis.

Alright let me get into the recipe 

Ingredients

Makhana/ puffed lotus seeds - 3 cups

Palm jaggery syrup - 1 cup

Cardamom powder - a pinch

Method

Take a kadai/wok and dry roast the makhana until it turns crisp and crunchy.

In the kadai/wok pour in the jaggery syrup and stir until it becomes thick, ideally when u feel its thick enough drop the syrup in a bowl of water  and it will turn solid which is the correct consistency of the syrup.

Once you get that consistency remove the kadai from the flame and mix in the roasted makhanas and mix well. Remove the contents and place on a greased plate. If possible spread it even and give it a shape. Else leave it and once it gets dried remove the chikkis from the plate and break it coarsely into pieces. 

Once cooled store in an airtight jar.

Notes: I melt 500 gms of palm jaggery in one cup of water, strain and use. Have used one cup of the strained liquid for this recipe.

You may use any other jaggery or sugar for the recipe.

Instant poha and makhana sweet snack

Just realized that its been a month that I have updated the blog.. yea been busy with kids and few health issues of parents. Now hopefully my brain will start working and would be able to develop some quick, nice and healthy recipes :)

Today I tried making this easy instant snack for the kids which got certified as 'epic; by dear son .. I guess its the way of saying very nice by their generation.

Its quite easy to make it easy to eat too.I used organic red poha ( beaten rice) and puffed fox nut seeds, both are quite rich in minerals and nutrients. 

Ingredients

Thin organic red beaten rice ( poha) - 1 cup

Puffed foxnut seeds ( makhana) - 1 cup

Coconut (grated)- 1/3 cup

Sugar/ grated jaggery - as needed

Method
In a mixer throw in all the ingredients and churn for a while to bring it together. Sprinkle few drops of milk if necessary.

Serve!!

Yes, As I said its just as simple as this and I found it yummy too :P
Enjoy!
Thanks
Chaithanya

Recipe for hundred percent whole wheat buns in mud pot

When I thought about baking something today it was just a simple focaccia with olives and sun dried tomatoes. Slowly it changed to simple buns and then I just happened to use organic whole wheat flour for kneading the dough and finally when I arranged the bun to bake in the tray I changed my mind and baked in a mud pot... Ha! As they say sometimes, some days are like that... we just need to initiate the thoughts rest follows. I am certainly happy with the output, the buns are very soft and tasty, yes!

Coming to the recipe 

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour ( I used organic) - 2 cups

Water - 1cup

Yeast (dried instant) - 2 tsp.

Salt - 1 tsp.

Sugar - 1 -2 tbsp.

Olive oil - 2-3 tbsp.

Method

When it comes to bread the recipe always says to mix the yeast in luke warm water.  I always used to confuse this 'luke warm' water temperature and the short cut or easier way I used to describe it is to heat the water in the microwave high for exactly a minute. I never go wrong with this temperature for the water when I have to make breads. This assumption is based on the availability of the microwave in most houses.

• Warm the water as mentioned above.
• Dissolve the sugar and yeast and let it froth; ideally leave it for about 10- 15 minutes.
• Sieve in the flour and add the salt.
• I use the dough hook attachment of my egg beater to knead the dough for not having messy hands :)
• Knead the dough using the hook and gradually keep adding the olive oil little until you get nice soft and elastic dough. Ideally once you see that the dough has come together you can knead with your hands smearing the olive oil when you feel the dough sticks to your hand. The dough will be good and will not stick to your palm anymore. Leave the dough to rest for about an hour or two until you see the dough has risen.
• Once the dough has risen, punch it down and make small balls and arrange in the baking pan (here, the mud pot or the chatti) 
• Smear it with an egg wash (mix well one egg with one tablespoon water) 
• Sprinkle some white sesame seeds.
•  Meantime preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes
•  Bake the bread for about 20- 25 minutes or until you see a golden crust on the top and you hear a hollow sound when the bread is tapped with the back of your knuckle. Yea that the test :)
• And that done :)

Bake and enjoy

Thanks 

Chaithanya

Easy aval kuzhachathu recipe ( sweet poha)

Easy aval kuzhachathu recipe ( sweet poha)

It was one of those days when I was confused as to what to make for kids snacks, I had a packet of organic beaten rice so thought of making something quick with it. There is a typical Kerala snack of beaten rice cooked in jaggery and coconut and flavoured with cardamom powder. I took a shortcut since I already had melted jaggery. 

Hence this recipe :)

My kids were new to this so I was not sure how they would take it. But convinced the younger one saying about Sudama- aval- krishna story which she is familiar with since she is an avid reader of mythological stories and yes she gave a thumbs up for the dish ..happy meee :)

Ingredients

Brown beaten rice - 2 cups
Jaggery syrup - 1/2 cup
Grated coconut - 3/4 cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Milk - few spoons
Cashew bits
Ghee

Method
Pick the beaten rice for any foreign particles and spread out in a large bowl.
Sprinkle the milk and gently mix the poha with the milk.
Grind the coconut and jaggery syrup together coarsely.
Mix the coconut jaggery mixture into the beaten rice 
Sprinkle the cardamom powder and mix well.
Heat the ghee and fry the cashews and garnish the poha.

Serve with some tea or warm milk.
No cook and enjoy.. yes its a no cooking recipe :)
Thanks
Chaithanya

Poppy seeds and white chocolate chips cookies

Poppy seeds and white chocolate chips cookies

These days I want to explore a lot on recipes but I feel a little lazy in blogging and I am not happy about it. Nevertheless I want to record my experiments and share it with my readers. So here goes the recipe before I miss it from my mind :)

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 1 1/3 cup

Poppy seeds =- 2 tbspn

Butter- 1/2 cup

Sugar- 1/2 cup ( powdered)

Baking powder - a pinch

Egg - one ( optional)

Milk - few tspns

Vanilla essence- 1 tspn

Method

Preheat the oven  at 150 degrees Celsius

In a huge bowl mix the flour, poppy seeds, softened butter, baking powder, vanilla essence and egg. Use few spoons of milk just to bring the soft dough together.Please dont knead the dough hard! it will spoil the texture of the cookies.

Make small balls from the dough, slightly flatten it and keep on the greased baking tray and bake for about 15 mins or until the sides turn slightly brown. If you prefer to have a golden brown top turn the knob of the oven to grill mode for few minutes. Once done quickly remove the cookies with a spatula and let it cool on a wire rack.

Once cool the cookies will turn crispy and crunchy.

Bake and enjoy :)

Thanks!

Rice (unpolished) dumplings in coconut milk

Just while I started typing this recipe and wrote 'rice dumplings' my dear husband barged in and said these are kozhakattas :) Yes that's how it is called back in Kerala which is soaked in thengapal( coconut milk) and sugar while eating. Not sure why this is a breakfast item ..for me this is more like a dessert or sweet. and we totally relish eating this !

Anyway coming to the recipe I used unpolished rice flour for this recipe and mind you its not ragi, though my ragi loving darling daughter thought its ragi( finger millet ) and I had to correct her :)

Ingredients 

Rice flour - 2 cups

Hot water - as required

Salt - 1.5 tspns ( or as per taste)

Oil - one tspn

Cardamom powder - a pinch (optional)

For the coconut milk

One med sized coconut 

warm water

Method

Dry roast well the rice flour in a huge thick bottom vessel/ kadai.
Remove from heat and place the flour in a huge flat bowl.
Add the dalt and oil to the flour.
Slowly add the hot water stirring the flour with a fork slowly. Keep pouring until the dough is soft.
The flour keeps absorbing water so dont worry if you find the dough a little sticky in the begining. Once the dough is cool enough to handle work on it , knead it thoroughly to make  soft dough.
Make small balls from this dough and steam the dumpings for about 20 - 25 mins or until cooked.

For making coconut milk, scrape /grate the coconut and grind it  with warm water in the mixer and strain. Repeat it until all the milk is removed from the coconut.

So while serving place the dumplings in a bowl, pour the coconut milk, add sugar and cardomom powder and enjoy it warm :)

Cook and enjoy!
Thanks!