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.

Fish Masala

Fish Masala, a very simple and tasty dish,  packed with many flavours. This  fish masala recipe uses only basic ingredients.  and is a perfect with any meaty fish, the best is king fish. Here I have used Indian Halibut / Ayiram palli. it makes a finger-licking combo with rice, dosa or rotis.

Ingredients

Fish- 600 gms (cleaned and cut into medium pieces) 
Turmeric Powder - ½  tsp
Red Chili Powder -1 tsp
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp
Onions – 2(chopped) 
Green Chilies - 3-4(halved lengthwise)
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
Tomato -1(chopped) 
Garam Masala Powder -1 tspn
Coriander Powder -1 tsp
Oil 
Coriander Leaves  
Salt to taste 

Method

Marinate the cleaned fish pieces with turmeric powder, red chili powder , lemon juice and a pinch of salt. keep aside for one hour.
Heat oil in a pan over medium flame, add onions and fry till golden brown.
Add green chilies and ginger-garlic paste to the onions. Sauté for 2-3 minutes.
Add tomato pieces and saute till the oil starts appearing
Add garam masala, coriander powder, salt and a cup of water.
Add marinated fish pieces and cook till fish is done. cook in low flame for about 8–10 minutes or until the fish pieces are covered in the gravy.
Put off the flame. Garnish the dish with coriander leaves.

Parippuvada (Lentil Fritters)

Parippuvada is a favorite tea time snack in Kerala. Nothing tastes better than a hot cup of tea and paripuvada especially on a rainy day . The combination makes you nostalgic and homesick.  out of words to explain that feeling.  

Paripuvada is crisp on the outside and soft inside. I love the smell you get when you fry these ,. Easy to make…  and this is how my mother makes it… 

Ingredients

Chana dal (kadala parippu) –  1 ½  cups
Onion – 1 big, finely chopped
Green chilli – 2-3, finely chopped
Ginger – 1 ½  tsp, finely chopped
Curry leaves – 3-4 stems, finely chopped
Kayam (asafetida) – ⅛ tsp
Salt
Oil

Method

Soak Dal for 2-3 hours.
Drain well and coarsely grind it without adding water
Add the chopped onions, green chillies, ginger, curry leaves, asafetida and salt to the dal, and combine it gently with hand.
Make small small balls, wet your hands and flatten each ball within your palms.
Heat oil in a deep pan.  When the oil is hot enough add the flattened balls.
Fry the vadas on low-medium heat, till it becomes crispy and brown.
Drain it on tissue paper, and serve with Hot tea.

Mathi Peera Pattichathu (Fish in Grated Coconut)

Mathi or sardine is a very special fish for us keralities..  and mathi peera pattichathu is lot more special for me for many reasons. :)  this is the one of my master piece. Simple and tasty dish for the ones who likes fish. This is a very healthy and easy recipe. There is no oil in this recipe.

Dedicating this recipe to an ardent fan of my 'pattichathu'. This is for you Anichetta ( Kochus)  and we miss you…

 

Ingredients

Sardines(Mathi) - 600gm
Kudampuli –  3 – 4 nos or as reqd
Small onions(shallots) – 6 nos
Ginger – small piece
Garlic pods – 4 nos
Green chillies -3 nos
Turmeric powder – ½   tea spoon
Red chillipowder- 1 tea spoon
Curry leaves – Plenty
Grated coconut – 1 cup
Salt 

Method

Wash kudampuli properly and soak it in a little water for sometime.
Crush (pound) the onions, ginger, garlic and green chillies.
In a clay pot or pan, mix the above crushed mixture, coconut, turmeric powder, chilli powder, curry leaves and salt with your hands. Add kudampuli , add 1 cup water (or  water enough to cook the fish). Add the fish.  Close the lid and bring to boil,when it starts boiling reduce the heat. Remove the cover and cook till the water has dried up. Serve with rice.

Butter Chicken

Butter chicken, the common dish to order in an Indian restaurant. The word ‘butter‘ in the name might be misleading, I believe it stands for the creamy texture of the dish than the  fact that its loaded with butter. The recipe here did not use much butter and trust me, you’ll not miss it… 

Usually the chicken is grilled in tandoor or fried then mixing it with the rich creamy curry.  For a change instead of grilling or frying I cooked it directly with the curry and it taste equally good.  What you miss here is the Smokey flavor, For those who needs that smokey flavor,when the butter chicken is cooked Place hot charcoal in an aluminum foil floating above the curry and cover the dish, remove the cover just before serving. Discard the foil and charcoal and serve. The curry will be infused with a smokey flavor!, This tip I got from a friend. :)

Ingredients

700gm chicken (you can use bone or boneless pieces, skin should be removed)

Juice of 1 lime

Red chilli powder-1 tea spoon

4 cloves

1 tea spoon peppercorns

Cinnamon- small stick

Almonds- 8-10

Cardamom- 3 pods

Fresh yoghurt – 1 cup

Vegetable oil

Onions- 3

Garlic- 1 inch piece

Ginger- 3-4 cloves

Coriander powder- 2 tea spoon

Cumin powder-1 tea spoon

Turmeric powder- ¼ tea spoon

Tomato- 1 (ground into a smooth paste in a food processor)

Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)- 1 table spoon

Butter- 1 table spoon

Salt to taste

Coriander leaves to garnish

Method

Mix the chicken with lime juice, chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt, cover and keep for 20 min.
Dry roast the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, cardamom and almonds, grind into a coarse powder.
Mix yogurt, the spices powder, turmeric,  cumin and coriander powder and add the mixture to the chicken and keep it marinated for 30-45 min.
Heat oil in a big sauce pan; add 2 onions, ginger, garlic and green chillies and sauté on low/medium heat until it releases a nice aroma, remove from fire, allow to cool , add 1 ½ cups of water and make a paste of the mixture.
Heat oil in a pan, add one chopped onion, and sauté on medium heat until it turns golden brown, add tomato paste, kasthuri methi and add the chicken mix, sauté for a while. Add the onion paste and bring to boil , cover the pan and Cook till the chicken is tender and the gravy is reduced to half its original volume. Melt the butter and then pour it over the chicken. Garnish with coriander leaves.