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.

Christmas Fruit Cake

Before the year  comes to an end I wanted to have at least one entry in my blog for 2017.  There is no special reason for not having any entry so far… This is going to change in the coming year …:) 

Christmas is almost here and it’s the season to bake. Fruit cakes are my all-time favorite. My kids love all my cakes. I bake for them customizing it to their taste buds.

This simple but yummy fruit cake is egg-less and I used the normal whole wheat flour. In that way this could be considered as a healthy option of Fruitcake.  Unlike other fruitcake there is no waiting time for consumption. you can serve this cake the day it's made, But If you store it for a day or two, the crust will soften and it allows time for the flavors to mingle. 

I did not soak the dried fruits in alcohol instead I boiled the raisins and cherries in sugar syrup to make it soft. The batter contain buttermilk which makes the cake tender and moist. 

Merry Christmas!! 

Ingredients

Wheat flour – 1 ½ cups
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Salt- ¼  tsp
Grounded Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves – 1  ½ tsp
Butter – 75gm
Buttermilk – 1 cup
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
Brown sugar -3/4 cup
Red & green  candied cherries- 50g
Dried fruits- 50g
Raisins &Cherries- 50g

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees 
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, vanilla extract, and sugar.
In another bowl, stir together wheat flour, spices, baking powder, dried fruits, and salt .
Fold in the buttermilk mixture into the flour and mix well.
Pour into the baking pan and level the top
Bake for 55-60 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. And the cake turns golden brown

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely

Apple - Strawberry Tart

My first post of 2016.  A very Happy new year to all .

Let's start the year with something sweet ... A Tart.  This Tart fills the house with a delicious aroma. It has a short bread crust and a cream cheese filling and topped with the fruit mix. The garnishing is done with sliced almonds to give the tart a finished look.  

Every bite is filled with the flavor of apples and the special taste of strawberries.

This recipe is very simple. This is my first attempt with tart.  You can use almost any fruit and spice combo that you want. Here I used slices of cinnamon-sugared apples and strawberries, The combination is amazing.

Ingredients

Crust:
All-purpose flour -1 cup
Salt- ¼ teaspoon
Confectionery sugar 1/3 cup
Cold unsalted butter -1/2 cup

Filling:
Cream cheese – 200gms
Granulated white sugar- ¼ cup
Egg-1
vanilla extract-1/2 teaspoon

Topping:
Granulated white sugar- ¼ cups
Ground cinnamon- ½  teaspoon
Apples -3 ( peeled and cut into thin slices)
Strawberries- ½ cup sliced.
Sliced almonds- ½ cup

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C)
For the crust:-
Mix together the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the butter and mix it until dough just begins to come together.
Spread the dough onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
Cover and place in refrigerator for around 15 minutes.

For the Filling:-
Using a hand mixer or a food processor, beat the cream cheese until smooth.
Add the sugar and mix well.
Blend in the egg and vanilla extract and process until smooth.
Remove the crust from the fridge and pour in the filling.
Return to refrigerator again for another 10 mins.

For the topping:-
Combine the sugar and cinnamon. Mix it with the apple and strawberry slices. Spread evenly on top of the cheese filling.  Sprinkle the top with almond slices.

Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).  Then Reduce heat to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) and bake for another 30 to 35 minutes or until the crust is brown.
Remove from oven and keep in wire rack to cool completely.

Crispy Chicken Fingers

Crispy chicken fingers are an easy and perfect way to impress your kids. Chicken fingers are prepared by marinating the chicken first and then covering it with bread crumbs before being cooked. Deep frying produces a crispy coating on the chicken. 

Ingredients 

Boneless chicken – 400gm

Egg-1 beaten  

Ginger garlic paste- 1 tb spn

Black pepper powder- ½ tspn

Corn flour – 1 tbspn

Chilli powder- ¼  tspn 

Salt

Bread crumbs - 2 cups

Oil 

Method

In a bowl combine all purpose flour, Corn flour , Chilli powder, Black pepper, Ginger garlic paste and egg.  Marinate the chicken in the mixture for 15-30 mins.
Place the bread crumbs in a wide bowl or plate, Dip chicken strips in the bread crumbs individually.
Heat oil in a pan over medium heat.
Fry in the chicken fingers in  hot oil for 6 to 8 minutes, until golden brown.
Drain on paper towels.

Puli Inji

The Puli Inji is basically a kerala dish coming under the pickle category. No Sadya can be complete without Puli Inji. I always feel that Puli Inji is to balances the flavors in the sadya. It has a bit of tartness, spiciness and the sweetness also, a mixed flavor. The recipe differs from region to region.  Here is my mother’s version.

Ingredients: 

Ginger- 1 cup of finely chopped 

Green chillies - 3-4 chopped 

Mustard seeds- ¼ tsp 

Curry leaves

Turmeric powder- ¼  tsp 

Asafoetida 

Tamarind – lemon sized 

Jaggery- 1 inch cube

Coconut oil

Salt to taste

Method

Soak the tamarind in 1 ½ cup of water for 15 minutes.  Extract the juice and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, once it crackles, add the curry leaves,  add the chopped ginger, and green chillies, and fry it on medium flame. Keep frying till the ginger turns golden brown, add turmeric powder, asafoetida, and salt to taste.

In a separate kadai, add the tamarind juice and bring to boil. Add the jaggery, once its completely melted, add the fried ginger and mix well.  Allow to boil till it reaches a thick consistency, remove from heat. 

Puli Inji is  ready. 

Coconut Ladoo

Navratri wishes to all celebrating this festival. The festival is celebrated with different rituals and names all over India. In Kerala the last three days of the Navaratri festival is celebrated as Saraswati Puja. The celebrations start with the Puja Vypu. It consists of placing the books for puja. The books will be taken out for reading, after worship, only on the morning of the third day. Children are happy, since they are not expected to study on these days. :)..

The best part of any festivals is the sweets that comes along with it.  

This year I made a very simple, quick and easy sweet Coconut Ladoo. You don’t need any expertise to try this recipe. There are different methods to make this ladoos. Sharing the most simple version with condensed milk and desiccated coconut, flavored with some cardamom (elachi). 

Coconut Ladoo

Ingredients:-

Desiccated coconut - 2cups + 1/4cup for rolling 

Sweetened condensed milk-1cup

Cardamom powder-1tbsp

Mixed Nuts crushed – ¼ cup

Dates pieces – ¼ cup (finely chopped)

Directions

Dry roast the desiccated coconut to about 3-4 mins or till the color starts changing. 

Add condensed milk to the roasted coconut mix well. Add the mixed nuts and dates pieces also. Add cardamom powder and mix well. Allow to cool a bit. When the mixture is still warm, Start making small balls of the mixture.

In a plate or bowl take some desiccated coconut for coating. immediately roll the ladoos in desiccated coconut. 

Your coconut ladoo is ready. 

Chocolate and Coconut Ladoo

For my chocolate lovers at home, I prepared the chocolate version also, with some modifications to blend chocolate into it.

Ingredients

Desiccated coconut - 2cups +1/4cup desiccated coconut for rolling 

Sweetened condensed milk-1cup

chocolate pieces- grated ½ cup

Cardamom powder-1tbsp

Crushed cashews – 2 tbl spn

Directions

Dry roast the desiccated coconut in a pan for 2 mins, now add the melted chocolate, cardamom powder, cashews and sweetened condensed milk. Stir continuously until this mixture turns as a dough and get off from the bottom of the vessel. When the mixture is still warm, Start making small balls of mixture.

In a plate or bowl take some desiccated coconut for coating. immediately roll the ladoos in desiccated coconut. 

Oven Baked Fish

We are great fans of fish, especially my husband and daughter. They love the way I cook fish for them, whether its fry or curry or any kind of preparation, That is my inspiration to try varieties in cooking. 

Oven Baked fish is an excellent way to prepare fish in a healthy way. It's a simple dish with simple ingredients. This dish is prepared with a lot of vegetables. So you are getting the goodness of both fish and vegetables in a single dish.  I followed the recipe on the cookery show ‘Khana khazana’ by Sanjeev kapoor, with some variations according to our taste buds, but the basics is the same. It turns out perfect in taste, texture and flavor. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

The fish I used is pomfret pieces. You can use any fleshy fish of your choice.

Ingredients
Fish (pomfret fish) - 400 gms
Carrot-1
Capsicum- yellow/green/red – ½ each
Onion-1
Beans -10 Nos  
Lemon-1
Garlic -6 pods 
Red chilli - 4 (soaked in water)
Coriander seeds- 1 tbl spn. 
Cumin seeds -1 tspn
Salt
Water- ¼ cup
Olive oil- 2 tsp

Directions

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Combine soaked red chilies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, ½ chopped onion, 3 pods of Garlic and  salt, add little water and grind it to make a thick paste.
Marinate the fish for 10 min with the 3/4th of the masala paste.
Cut the vegetables into small cubes. Spread the vegetables on the baking tray.  Cut the lemon into thick slices and place above the vegetables. Add 2-3 pods of Garlic.
Spread the remaining masala on the vegetables. Sprinkle olive oil also on top of the vegetables.
Place the marinated fish on top of the vegetables. Squeeze lemon juice on top. Brush the fish pieces with olive oil. Aluminum foil can be used to keep food moist and cook it evenly. Cover with Aluminum foil.
Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven.

Bhindi Masala

Bhindi Masala is a very popular Indian dish, It is a most commonly ordered dish during our eat outs. This is mainly served as side dish with chapathis and rotis. Easy to prepare and delicious also. 

It is essential to dry the okra by wiping it with kitchen towel before chopping , this helps in reducing the sliminess. Sliminess is the problem we usually face while cooking bhindi. Do not add water to the dish while cooking as this will increase the sliminess of the dish and Do not close the lid while cooking. Few things here and there, u can avoid it... and make your dish perfect.. :)

Enjoy Cooking!

Ingredients:-
Bhindi / Lady Finger - 400 grams

Onion-1  (chopped)
Tomato -1 (chopped)
Ginger – small piece

Green Chillies-2
cumin seeds-1 tsp
Coriander Powder-1 tsp
Red chilli powder-1/2 tsp
Garam Masala powder-1/4 tsp
Amchur / Dry Mango powder-1/4 tsp
Salt
Coriander leaves
Oil

Method

Heat oil in a pan and add chopped bhindi and saute for 2-3 minutes on medium heat or you can shallow fry the bhindi also,  keep aside.

Now add oil in the pan and add cumin seeds, then add finely chopped ginger, chopped green chilis and stir. Add onions and sauté till slightly golden brown, add chopped tomatoes and salt then cover and cook. When tomato become soft, add redchilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala. Stir for a minute then add bhindi and mix well. Cook for 2-3 min. Now add amchur ( dry mango powder) and mix well. Cook for another one or two min and then switch off the flame.

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Serve hot with roti or chappathi.

Masala Oats Paratha

Paratha is a stuffed Indian bread. There are Different types of parathas , aloo paratha, pudina paratha, gobi paratha, methi paratha  and so on , it differs with the stuffing inside.  I decided to make a healthier parathas by adding oats. Its prepared with spicy mixture of oats along with wheat flour. Traditionally parathas are made  as a breakfast dish. But I do make this as a dinner. This is very healthy and easy to make. With Pickle, pudina chutney or plain Yogurt, they are absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour -2 cup 

Oats - 1 cup

Onion - 1/2 cup finely chopped

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp

Garam masala powder- ¼ tsp 

Curry leaves

Coriander leaves- ½ cup 

Salt - to taste 

Oil 

Directions

In a bowl take wheat flour, salt, mix with water and kneed  into soft dough let it rest for 15 mins. 

In another bowl add Oats (You can roast the oats , that gives a spl taste, its fine otherwise also), finely chopped onions, chopped curry leaves and coriander leaves, mix well. Add chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and salt, mix well by adding little by little water . Oats masala stuffing is ready.

Take a portion of a dough , roll it and make a small circle, take required amount of stuffing,  Now place the stuffing mixture in between of the dough, seal it and roll into flat roti. 

Heat a pan/tawa and cook the paratha. You can use oil, ghee or butter as you like. Flip the paratha and cook it on both the sides till golden brown in color

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.