Rasam

Rasam is known by the same name in Malayalam and Tamil, while it is called ‘Chaaru’ in Telugu and ‘Saaru’ in Kannada. Rasam is in the lime light these days. The medicinal values of rasam is more in discussion now. Rasam is a classic example of traditional functional food with all its ingredients medicinally claimed for various ailments.

There are many types and variations of Rasam prepared in several households, the recipe i am sharing here is the simple rasam my mother makes at home.

you can either drink it or you can mix it and have with rice. In our home we like to drink as a soup.

Ingredients

Small Onion- 3-4
Green Chilli -1
Garlic - 3
Tomatoes- 2 chopped
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander seeds - 1/2 tspn
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tspn
Peppercorns -1/2 tspn
Chopped coriander leaves-1 handful
Tamarind - small lemon sized 
Water- 2 1/2 cups
Asafoetida- 1/4 tspn
Jaggery - 2tspn
Curry leaves
Salt

Directions

Soak tamarind in hot water for 20 mins and extract its juice and keep aside.
Crush garlic, small onions and  green chilli and keep aside.
Dry roast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, red chilies, and peppercorns, Cool and grind to a fine powder.

Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, When they splutter, Add the crushed garlic mixture,  and curry leaves ,fry it for few second.
Add Tomatoes, Cover and cook for 15 minutes, till the tomatoes are mushy and blended with the rest of the ingredients. add asafoetida, turmeric powder and the spice mixture. add jaggery and Salt to taste. 
Add tamarind water and bring to boil. simmer for 5 min after it comes to boil and switch off the flame
garnish with coriander leaves.

Dalgona Coffee

#DalgonaCoffee

The new viral food trend  'Dalgona Coffee', the Instagram is flooded with hashtags on Dalgona Coffee, Tik tock and Youtube with recipe videos. The latest trendy drink, so I decided to give it a try.

In this lockdown period, people are getting very creative with food.

Dalgona Coffee!! sounds fancy right.
It is basically whipped coffee, the taste resembles toffee like candy 'Dalgona' from south Korea, hence the name. The trend started from south Korea and  its storming the internet now.

Ingredients

Instant Coffee - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Hot water - 2 tbsp
Cold milk - 3/4 glass
Ice cubes as required
Chocolate powder - 1 tbsp

Directions

Instant coffee, hot water and sugar is combined and whisked together. 
whisk for sometime until u get a creamy frothy texture, the dark brown mixture slowly changes to caramel hue and fluffy peaks form. 
(Use an electric hand mixture that reduces the effort and time.)
The whipped mixture is then scooped on top of a glass of warm or cold milk with ice
Dalgona coffee is ready.
as simple as it is , equally delicious to taste.

Give it a good stir before you drink it and also if possible use the finest ground instant coffee you can find - ideally powdered. 

I made a variation by adding chocolate to the coffee mixture for the kids. they loved it.

Wheat Cookies with Chocolate chips

Another easy recipe for kids cooking. After yesterdays baking session, my young helper was very much active today also. This cookies are simple and easy to make with very less ingredients.

Unlike the traditional cookies there was no resting time for this. Kids never have that patience to wait, especially Boys!! so i avoided that part.

I used wheat flour here, the normal atta which you use for making rotis at home.

Ingredients

Wheat flour – 1 cup
Baking soda – 1/4 tsp
Baking powder- 1/4 tsp
Salt- a pinch
Butter – 75gm(room temperature)
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
Brown sugar -1/2 cup
granulated white sugar- 1/2 cup
egg-1 large
chocolate chips-1/2 cup

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In  another bowl  beat the butter until creamy with an electric hand mixer, slowly add granulated sugar and brown sugar beat until creamy, for about 2 minutes. 
Add the egg. Beat again for another 2 min.
add vanilla essence and  mix well.
Divide the flour mixture into two batches and gradually beat in to the above mixture one after the other. 
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Make small balls using a ice cream scoop , place it on a baking sheet 
Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

 After 15 min of cooling time, half of the cookies is finished. :). These can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4-5 days. 

You can increase the quantity of chocolate chips. its lock down time and i am reserving the chocolate chips for later baking sessions. 

Easy Bread Pudding

After a really long break , back to blogging..:) the lock down activity for me.

Its lock down time for the kids also, they cannot go out to play. The snack frequency  has also increased. 
The hardest job is to keep them busy, to take away their attention from Gadgets and bring them to the real world, make them do something that they really enjoy. So I decided to bake with my 12 year old son today. He enjoyed every bit of it.  He actually Love food, you can say a real foodie, always ready to volunteer in tasting. Today he was acting like a junior masterchef following my instruction  and making this yummy Bread pudding. :) 
so this is kids version, simple with limited ingredients.

Ingredients

Egg-2
Salt- pinch of salt
milk – 2 cup
Sugar-1/3 cup
Bread slices -6
Grounded Cinnamon - ½ tsp
Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp
Nuts (crushed)- 50g
Raisins - 1/4 cup

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees 

In a mixing bowl, add a pinch of salt and whisk the eggs and sugar. you can use a fork or a hand whisk will do. i did not use the electric mixer here 
once the sugar is mixed with the eggs, add the milk, make sure that the milk is not too hot, Hot milk curds the eggs.
Add Cinnamon powder and vanilla extract and mix well.
Cut your bread slices in small cubes, or you can tear them into any random shape.
In a glass bowl arrange the bread pieces and pour the egg milk mixture, the bread pieces has to soak completely in the mixture
Garnish with Raisins and nuts. 
Bake for 40-45 minutes in the preheated oven

cool completely and enjoy your pudding!

I actually wanted to take more pictures of the pudding , but they were so eager to taste, leaving me less option for better photos. Will update it when i make it next time.