Idiyappam Biriyani with Prawns

Idiyappam Biriyani is a complete dish, but definitely not a simple one. If you are looking for a variety in both cooking and in taste, You can try this. and I assure you the satisfaction. It’s worth all the efforts. I don’t usually like to spend hours on the kitchen, I always make something that’s easy, simple and tasty. But once in a while its fun to try some variety food, try something that’s completely new.   This was something different from my everyday cooking. I am a huge fan of Idiyappam, Idiyappam is a Kerala food mainly served for breakfast, made of rice flour,  or as my kids call it ‘Kerala noodles’, due to its appearance. It is steamed to cook. And I love Biryani also. So the combination of both… complete pleasure..:))

As I always do, I break the whole process into small small tasks and then assemble it together to get the dish done, Easy to explain..  :)

First step is to prepare the idiyappam. Then the Biryani masala. Mixing it together to get your Idiyappam Biriyani with ‘Prawns’.  Prawns add a special flavor to the dish. You can try the same with chicken also.

Let’s start with Idiyappam..

Ingredients:

Roasted rice flour - 2 cups

Water -3 cups

Salt -  to taste

Oil/ ghee - 1 tsp (optional)

Method

In a cooking bowl, add water, salt and a tsp of ghee or oil and allow to boil

Once it starts boiling, turn off flame and add the rice flour little by little with continuous stirring.  Add flour, until the mixture turns to smooth soft dough. 

Allow the dough to cool a bit, Knead the dough while its warm, with your hands to make it smooth.

Put some dough into the idiyappam press, squeeze the dough in a circular motion , Transfer it into a steamer and steam cook it until done. 

Allow it to cool and remove the idiyappams gently from the plate . Keep aside. 

Next step is to prepare the masala for the biriyani. 

Ingredients:

Onion-4, sliced

Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbspn 

Tomato-2 medium, chopped

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Garam-masala powder- 1 tsp

Black pepper powder- 1 tsp

Chilli powder- 1 tsp

crushed chilli-2

Coriander leaves (chopped) ½ cup

Mint Leaves (Chopped) – ¼ cup

Lime- 1/2

Ghee- 2 tsp

Coconut milk- thin- 1/2 cup

Salt 

Method

Marinate the prawns with ¼ tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder,1 tb spn ginger garlic paste and salt for around 15-20 mins. 

Heat oil in a pan. And shallow fry the marinated prawns, Keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add whole spices. When it splutters, add onion, crushed chilli, ginger garlic paste and sauté well.

Once onion turns brown add tomatoes, mash them. Add mint leaves and coriander leaves and mix well.

While oil starts appearing, add turmeric powder and garam-masala powder. Black pepper powder; allow to cook for another 2-3 mins. Add the fried prawns and mix well.  Squeeze lime and turn off the flame.

Now the assembling part.

Divide the idiyappam into two portions.

In a deep bottomed pan, heat ghee on low flame. lay the Idiyappams. Sprinkle a little coconut milk over the Idiyappams to soak lightly, Add the prawn masala over the Idiyappams , add the remaining portion of idiappam on top of the masala , Pour 1 table spoon of ghee on top. Now cover the pan with a lid and let it sit for 3 more minutes on low heat. Turn off heat and let the biriyani sit for another 5-10 minutes, covered.

 Heat the ghee or vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the raisins and cashews and cook, stirring, until the raisins are plump and the cashews are toasted. garnish your biriyani and serve hot. 

Pakkavada/ Ribbon Pakoda

Ribon pakoda , (commonly known as Pakkavada in Kerala) is a very simple snack. It is easy to prepare, crisp and delicious.  Perfect for tea time. I am sure you will also enjoy it the way I did.

Ingredients

Chickpea flour (Besan)- 1/2 cup

White Rice flour - 1 1/2 cups

Red Chillie Powder - 2 tsp

Asafoetida / Hing - 1/4 tsp

Sesame seeds (white)- 2 tsp( optional)

Salt - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

Water

Curry leaves

Oil - enough for frying

Directions

In a mixing bowl combine together Besan flour, rice flour , Chilli powder, Asafoetida, Sesame seeds  and salt, add water slowly and mix well. Knead to form a  soft dough. Adding sesame seeds is completely optional; here I added it as I like the look that it gives to pakoda.

Place the dough in an idiappam maker /string hopper maker and press it into the hot oil in a circular motion. Fry till the color changes to golden brown.

Drain the excess oil and cool completely.

Finally fry the curry leaves and add on to the top for a nice aroma.

Oatmeal Banana Muffins

Oatmeal muffins are rich in fiber, high in minerals and it’s an absolute healthy snack. These muffins use lots of healthy ingredients like oatmeal, wheat, bananas, raisins, nuts so you can feel good about eating them. The combination is also really delicious.These muffins are moist, with a little crunch from the nuts. I used sugar; you can substitute sugar with honey for a healthier version, This can be eaten for breakfast, an evening snack, packed in for kids lunchbox.

Muffins are simple to make. It will only take few minutes to get the muffins into the oven. Prepare the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately mix them together and you batter is ready.  

Enjoy Baking..:)

Ingredients

1.5 cups oats 

1/2 cup wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

½ cup Raisins and Mixed Nuts

2 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt

2 ripe bananas

¼ cup vegetable oil.

chocolate chips, Chocolate flakes {optional}

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

In a bowl ,whisk together the eggs, yogurt, vanilla extract and mashed bananas

In another mixing bowl, stir together  the Oats, wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt .

Stir in the chocolate chips 

Fold the egg-banana mixture, along with the oil, into the dry ingredients and stir slowly until the ingredients are moistened and combined. The important thing is not to over mix the batter or you will end up with muffins that are a little tough.

Fill muffin cups about ⅔ of the way full. Sprinkle a little topping( Here I used Chocolate chips and little amount chocolate flakes) on each muffin. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely

Kerala style Mixture

Crisp and spicy Mixture is undoubtedly the most favorite south indian snack at my home.   Mixture has different variations in different states of India. Various ingredients can be assembled and flavored according to your taste. Here I am sharing the simple Kerala style mixture.  A little time consuming as it includes various stages of frying and then assembling everything together. But its worth all the effort.

Ingredients

Kadalamavu / Besan flour /- 4 cups
Rice flour – 1¼ Cup
Peanuts-( with skin)-  3/4 cup
Chana Dal-  1/2 cup
Curry leaves- 2 sprigs
Red chili powder- 3/4 tsp
Asafoetida- 1 or 2 pinch
Oil- For deep frying
Water- as required
Salt- to taste

Directions

In a mixing bowl combine together 3 cups of Besan flour, 1 cup of rice flour and salt, add water slowly and mix well. Knead to form a  soft dough.

Place the dough in an idiappam maker /string hopper maker and press it into the hot oil in a circular motion. Fry till the color changes to golden brown.

Drain the excess oil and cool completely. gently crush with hand to make the sev

To make the boondi, mix 1 cup of Besan flour, ¼ cup of rice flour and salt, add enough water to make a thin consistency batter. Hold a perforated spoon over hot oil and gently pour the prepared batter, so that the batter drips into the oil. Fry them until the boondies are light golden in color. Drain the excess oil and cool completely.

Fry peanuts and curry leaves until crisp, drain in a tissue and set aside.

Mix everything in a large bowl, Seva, Boondi, fried peanuts, curryleaves and chana daal. Add chillipowder, a pinch of asafoetida and salt and mix well. Transfer to an airtight container and shake it to mix evenly.

Mixture is perfect with a cup of hot Tea or coffee..

Gobi 65

Gobi 65  is absolutely crispy, tongue tickling appetizer.  you can have it as a starter or as a side dish. 

I searched for the story behind the name  ‘65’ for the dish and found many interesting versions, that is mainly for its parent dish “chicken 65”, Gobi 65 is the vegetarian version of the same. The dish is said to require 65 days to prepare the marinade, the dish emerged as a simple meal solution for Indian soldiers in 1965 and so on… 

You can make Gobi 65 many ways, cooking method can vary, but the taste is in the spices. Curry leaves play an important role in the flavor. You can customize it according to your taste buds and here is how I prepare this dish.

Ingredients

Cauliflower - medium size

Garam masala- ½  tea spoon

Ginger garlic paste ½  table spoon

Red chilli powder- 1 tea spoon

Pepper powder ½  teaspoon

Coriander leaves chopped – 1 ½ table spoon

Curry leaves chopped - 2 springs

All purpose flour (Maida) - 3 tsp

Corn starch - 4 tsp

Salt 

Oil for deep fry 

For the sauce

Chopped Ginger- 1 tspn

Chopped Garlic - 1 tspn

Curry leaves - 2 springs

Green chilli- 2

Soya sauce - 1 tspn

Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon

yogurt- 1 table spoon

Directions

Take cauliflower florets blanch them in hot water for 1 minute.

In a mixing bowl, add salt, ginger garlic paste, garam masala powder, chopped curry leaves, chopped coriander leaves, red chilli powder, pepper powder, maida and corn flour. Add water and make a smooth batter.

Pour the batter over the cauliflower and marinate it for 15-20 mins until the cauliflower is coated well with the batter. Deep fry the cauliflower pieces.

For the sauce.

Heat oil in a pan Add finely chopped ginger and chopped garlic, add curry leaves, finely chopped onion, add little salt and fry till the color of onion starts to change, add soya sauce, red chilli powder and yoghurt, one after the other. Sauté till the mixture is dry, Add the fried cauliflower pieces to this mixture and mix well , turn off the flame. 

Gobi 65 is ready.  You can garnish it with fried curry leaves and green chillies. 

Chocolate chip Muffins

I won the heart of my kids again with this new recipe… Muffins!!… they LOVED it. 

I never thought that muffins are so simple and easy.  All you need are two bowls; one for the wet ingredients, and one for the dry. Combine the two and your batter is ready. It is that simple. And less time for baking also. 

Here I used chocolate chips. instead of chocolate chips, you can add dried fruits or even chopped nuts.

Ingredients:

Butter, melted and cooled - 1/2 cup

Eggs-2 large

Milk -2/3 cup

Vanilla extract -1 1/2 teaspoons

All-purposeflour -2 cups

Sugar- 2/3 cup

Baking powder 2 1/2 teaspoons

salt 1/4 teaspoon

Chocolate chips - 1 cup

Topping:
Granulated white sugar-1 tablespoon
Ground cinnamon- 1/2 teaspoon

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

In a bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla extract.  

In another large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Stir in the chocolate chips 

Fold the egg-milk mixture, along with the melted butter, into the dry ingredients and stir  until the ingredients are moistened and combined. The important thing is not to over mix the batter or you will end up with muffins that are a little tough.

Fill muffin cups about ⅔ of the way full. sprinkle a little topping on each muffin. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely

Burfi

Diwali also known as Deepavali is the "festival of lights". The festival spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair.

A Very Happy Diwali to all.

No celebration is complete without a sweet  and my special recipe for this Diwali is a Burfi. My son named it as a 'double decker burfi'. Yes it is… one layer of chocolate and the other Milk. I added some crushed nuts to give that crunchy taste also. Chocolate is favorite to everyone specially kids like it more. You can count this as an easy recipes as it has only few ingredients and easy to prepare also.

You could garnish your  Barfi with silver foil too if you wish to make it look more festive.  I did not do this here. 

Ingredients:

For white layer:-

Maida/ All purpose flour - 1/2 cup 

Milk powder- ½ cup

Milk – 3 table spoon

Ghee  - 2 table spoon

Sugar  - 1/2 cup 

Vanilla essense - 3 drops 

Crushed nuts- 2 table spoon

For Chocolate layer:-

Maida/ All purpose flour - 1/2 cup 

Milk powder- ½ cup

Chocolate powder- 2 table spoon

Milk – 3 table spoon

Ghee  - 2 table spoon

Sugar  - 1/2 cup 

Directions

Grease plate with some ghee and keep it ready.
Heat Ghee in a pan until hot, add milk
Combine all-purpose flour and milk powder and add it to the ghee , Stir constantly and cook on low-medium flame
In another pan, add sugar and 1/2 cup water. Boil until it reach the one string consistency. Add vannila essence
Combine both the roasted flour and the sugar syrup and stir well.
Add the crushed nuts and stir continuously . Continue till the mixture gets thick. If your sugar syrup is in the correct consistency, the mixture gets thick fast, so the time depends on the syrup consistency.
Pour mixture over the greased plate. Spread evenly.

Add coco powder also to the maida- milk powder mixture. Repeat the same procedure for the next layer also.
Spread the next layer evenly on top of the first layer.
Within 2 hours burfi will get set. Now cut this mixture in square pieces. Burfi is ready. Store it in air tight container and place it refrigerator.

Cake (Chai Masala Cake)

Smell does to discover and enjoy food as much as taste. The sense of smell explores our food before we eat it. The Chai (Tea) masala in the ingredients gives a lovely aroma to the cake and to the house.  Chai masala is a combination of various spices like cardamom, cloves and all. which makes the tea special, here the same chai masala is used to make the cake much more special. 

This cake is really more simple  to make than it looks, I was immediately attracted to this recipe for its simplicity. Recipe source is showmethecurry, with some changes from my side.  

The distinctive smell of cake delivered a feel-good factor as well. :)

The cake is not that sweet, but you can adjust the sweetness by adding more sugar. 

Ingredients:

Flour (Maida) – 1 ½  cup

Baking Soda – ½  tsp

Baking Powder – 1 tsp

Unsalted Butter – 6 tbsp, softened

Sugar – ½  cup

Large Eggs – 2

Thick Yogurt – ¾ th cup

Vanilla Essence – ½  tsp

Mixed dry fruits – ½ cup, chopped

Chai (Tea) Masala – 2 tsp 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour cake pan.
In a bowl combine flour, salt and baking powder with a wire whisk.
In a shallow dish, combine Butter, 3 tbsp of Sugar, 1 ½ tbsp. of Flour (Maida), mixed dry fruits and Chai (Tea) Masala.  With a fork mix till it is crumbly and set aside for later.
Take the sugar and butter and beat together until the mixture reaches a fluffy consistency , this can be done either by hand, otherwise use an electric whisk.
Break in the Eggs into the batter and incorporate well into the above mixture. Add in the Vanilla Essence and mix.  Add in the flour mixture and the Yogurt alternately in the batter. Beat till it is all done and incorporated well into a smooth batter.
Add the dry fruit mixture to the batter and incorporate well. 
Pour the batter to the greased cake pan and tap the bottom to ensure that there aren't any air bubbles. 
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 mins, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan, and on a wire rack, for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan, and cool completely.

Chicken marinade for Barbecue

A wonderful Barbecue experience this weekend gave me a very good energy to come back and compose a new entry here. Barbecuing with family and friends was an awesome experience. The day complimented very well with the session by presenting us the perfect weather to be cooking outdoors.
Everyone likes chicken, it’s pretty easy to prepare on the grill if you've got an easy-to-make marinade too. The best way to add flavor to your chicken is by mixing up a quick marinade and letting the chicken bathe in all the fabulous flavors.  I was searching for a good marinade and the options are endless. Finally from some of the  interesting recipes  I created my version of marinade  and I am so happy with the result thought of sharing it here.

Sharing my version of the marinade and the tips that I learned from this wonderful experience.

Ingredients 

1 kg of chicken parts (legs, thighs, wings, breasts),  I used thighs with skin-on

Soya sauce- ¼  cup

Lemon juice – ½ cup

Chilli paste- 1 tbsp

Paparika – 1 tbspn 

Turmeric -2 tsp

Crushed black pepper- 1 tbsp

5-6 large cloves of garlic, smashed

I used  this marinade for dark meat, preferably thighs, advantages of using thighs is that they take up the marinade better and don’t get dried out on the grill. Even if you do not plan on eating the chicken skin, it's best to barbecue it with it on. The skin will protect the chicken pieces from drying out.

When cooking skinless chicken always make sure you put something on the chicken to keep it from drying out. This can be a thin coat of cooking oil

Directions

Prepare marinade:
 In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients and marinate the chicken overnight When you are marinating chicken, cut small slits crosswise down the chicken which helps the marinade to penetrate. I think it also gives a finished look to the cooked chicken, especially with a dark-colored marinade.

Grill the chicken:
  Remove chicken from marinade, Place chicken on grill.  Here a charcoal grill is being used. You’ll notice as you cook that some areas on your grill brown the food faster than others. You have to move the chicken around and turn it until the pieces are cooked evenly. This is a pretty focused process, so stay in front of the grill brushing, turning, and moving the pieces all over to get them equally cooked.
chicken needs to cook until it's completely cooked, but cooking too long will make it dry and tough. The outside of the chicken should be well-browned on both sides.
Cooking time will depend on the chicken, how hot the grill is, the thickness of the chicken and even weather conditions if you're cooking outside.

Go, get your grill on!!!  Enjoy!  

Rava Laddu

Rava Laddu or Suji ka Laddu is a sweet Indian dessert made using semolina.  Simple and easy to make.  Cook in low flame with a little patience to get the perfect laddu. you can adjust the sugar according to your taste buds. This is my sister's recipe, i made this for the first time and it came out really good and tasted so delicious also.

Ingredients

Rava / Semolina-1 cup
Sugar- ¾ cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp .
Grated coconut- 1/2 cup
Cashews, raisins 
Cardamom powder- 1 tsp
Warm Milk- ¼ cup

Method

Heat little ghee in a  pan, reduce the flame and roast the cashew nuts and raisins
Add grated coconut and fry them along with the dry fruits for 2 mins.
Add rava (semolina) to the above mixture and stir continuously for 10 min, or till the rava releases a nice aroma
Add sugar and cardamom powder and mix well.
Add milk and switch off the flame.  mix the milk by stirring continuously.
Gather some mixture and form to a laddu shape. When gathering the balls, try to press the balls as tight as you can, so that they don't fall apart later. Let them cool down before serving.