Long time no Post!

Dear Blog followers, 
 

Thanks for following my blog posts, recipes, comments and feedback.Your comments and feedback makes me enthusiastic and creative to try out new dishes and new ingredients in old recipes. This has been a tradition that we follow what our grand mother and mother teach us. Just a tinge of different flavors in same dish gives it a different name. And why not!! when we need new varieties and new names in our recipe list in our own kitchen. 
Being traveler, I traveled US, South Africa and many states in India that gave me different flavors. I met Italian, Russian, Belgian, German, and many other nation friends who taught me to cook some special food in their own style. It was my pleasure to teach them Indian food and share with them my recipes too. In the modren day life, writing blog, reading and experimenting them by myself is best way to keep social interactions through food. As some one said, to win a heart, make their stomach happy :)
Beleive me or not, whenever I have to make my husband happy I cook. I also cook when I am in stress or in work load. This brings happiness and peace in my life. It could be true in everyone's life. Cook for someone, for yourself, for loved ones and for happiness. 
Long time no blog!!! I could not write any blogs since 3-4 months. This was because of my traveling and learning new food these days. I spent time with my Mom and Mom-in law who taught me the basic cooking, which is not available in restaurants. we were experimenting my type of cooking at in-laws place. My in-laws in Tamil Nadu were introduced to Karnataka style of cooking which they relished the most.
I will be introducing very new recipes, some old traditional recipes which our grand grand parents used to cook, could be of medicinal value, using endemic herbs, dietary use and for new babies. Thanks again for following this blog. 
Keep following and keep cooking :)

MALVA PUDDING

I appreciate Sarien for introducing me to such a wonderful sweet dessert of South Africa. Never leave South Africa without tasting traditional pudding. Its rich with milk and sugar. If you are a good Gulab jamoon eater, then you definitely have to try this.
Something about Malva pudding
It is a dutch origin usually served with ice cream, cream or custard. The main ingredients being apricot jam, it caramelizes and gives a spongy texture to pudding.
My family loves malva pudding so much that I feel South African now.

Here is the recipe!
INGREDIENTS
Sugar - 125ml
Egg- 1
Apricot Jam - 25ml
Cake Flour - 250ml
Baking powder - 5ml
Baking soda (Bicarbonate soda) - 5ml
Milk - 250ml

SAUCE
Sugar - 125ml
Butter - 25ml
Vanilla essence - 5ml
Boiling water - 125ml
Milk - 250ml

DO LIKE THIS
Preheat oven to 180 C
Beat Sugar and Egg until creamy
Stir Apricot Jam, Mix well
Sift flour, Baking powder and salt, add it to egg mixture, mix well.
Add milk and baking soda (give it a stir) to egg mixture.
Make sure you add milk-soda mixture and flour one after the other making it a good consistency with no lumps formation.

Transfer to butter lined tray and bake it for 40-45 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.
Mix all ingredients under 'Sauce' and boil it for 5 minutes.
As soon as the pudding is taken out from oven, pour sauce all over it.
Allow it to soak and serve hot.

Preparation time - 25 minutes
Baking time - 45 minutes
Serves- 5-6 people

HAPPY COOKING :) :)

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

This recipe was shared by Jacinda -Lincke, very beautiful and adorable mother-daughter I have ever met. This is one of my favorite recipes that I collected in recipe hunt month- June 2013
Please try it and share your experience.
Peanut butter cookies- Peanut-butter is not new to anyone, neither to Indians. Peanut butter includes roasted peanuts and butter. It is basically a paste which is used as spread for bread. This recipe uses very healthy ingredients like oats, cornflakes and peanuts.

INGREDIENTS
Peanut butter - 125ml
Butter - 200 gms
Milk- 25 ml
Cake flour/ Wheat flour - 500 gms (Sifted)
Oats - 500 gms
Coconut flakes or freshly grated coconuts - 500 gms
Corn flakes - 500 gms
Vanilla essence - 5 ml
Eggs - 2 (Whisked)
Baking soda - 10 ml
Sugar- 500 gms

DO LIKE THIS
Preheat oven to 180 C
Beat Butter and sugar until creamy
Add whisked egg and peanut butter, mix well.
Dissolve baking soda in milk, add this to peanut butter mixture along with vanilla essence.  Mix well to blend it with peanut butter.
Add rest of the ingredients to peanut butter. Mix well.
Make tennis ball sized balls. small the size easy to flatten it.
Place balls on the greased baking tray and press slightly with a fork.
Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown color.
Transfer onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
It can be stored in air tight containers for a month.

Preparation time - 20 minutes
Oven time- 10-15 minutes
Serves - can make 100 cookies

HAPPY COOKING :) :)

CINNAMON ROLLS a la ERIKA

A Swedish, fun, joyful girl – Erika taught me and made cinnamon rolls for me. She is one of my favourite people I ever met. Whenever I make anything from cinnamon ‘either a curry or a cake’, I remember Erika. I am happy to share it in my Blog

A small note on Cinnamon rolls (CR) – It’s a Finnish origin, also called as Cinnamon bun, swirl or cinnamon snails (it looks like a snail). CR is a sweet roll with dough, cinnamon and sugar as main ingredients. Though another ingredient is yeast, using fresh yeast makes it all. One can use sugar sauce/ icing/ sugar syrup to pour on to roll to make it more beautiful (I call it sexy) and romantic. It varies in size from as small as snails to big as a pumpkin.

Baking time – 2 hours

Quantity – 25– 34 (depending on the size)

 

INGREDIENTS

Yeast (fresh) – 25 grams

Butter – 75 grams

Milk – 250 ml

Sugar – 100 grams

Salt – 1 pinch

Flour – 700 grams (perhaps more)

For stuffing:

Butter – 50 grams

Sugar – 40 grams

Cinnamon – 2 table spoon

DO LIKE THIS

Put the oven on to 225 ^oC.

Crumble the yeast in a bowl

Melt the butter in a pan and mix it with milk. Heat it under very low flame not more or less than 37^oC.

Mix milk with the crumbled yeast. Make the yeast to melt and add salt and sugar to that.

Use an electric mixer (if u has) or a hand whisker to mix flour gradually in the yeast-milk mix. The dough should be nice and smooth with appropriate consistency (similar to roti/pizza dough, but smoother than that). Let it rest for 30 minutes, cover it with a towel.

Make the stuffing: Stir butter (which is already at room temperature, so that it easily melts). Mix cinnamon and sugar with it.

Now the dough is ready. Spread out the dough to a rectangle shape, ~0.5 cm thin.

Smear out the stuffing on the rectangle sheet.

Roll in the dough. Cut the roll into pieces, as small or as big you like.

Put them in a cupcake paper or directly on an oven metal and let them rest for 30 minutes under a towel.

Bake them in the middle rack for 30-35 minutes or maximum to 45 minutes with constant checking.

After baking it is ready to eat directly or by adding a sugar or caramel sauce on it.

HURNADA HOLIGE/ PURAN POLI/ Flat sweetbread/ ಹೂರ್ಣದ ಹೋಳಿಗೆ (Kannada language)

Flat sweetbread, Hurnada holige is sweet dish in most parts of India, mainly in states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. This sweet main ingredients are jaggery (uncentrifuged sugar), lentils (tur dal) and Maida. This sweet is identified during the festival Ugadi, the most precious, new year day every year. I made the same last week on Ugadi day and enjoyed eating with all my friends in South Africa.

INGREDIENTS
Maida/ All purpose flour - 1 cup
Turmeric- pinch
Jaggery- 2 cup
Cardamon - 4 
Lentil/ dal - 2 1/2 cup
Ghee- 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup

COOKING
Cook lentils in pressure cooker. When it get cooled, add Jaggery, Cardamon and boil it for 20-25 minutes with constant stirring. This is called as hurna
Once water is completely evaporated, keep this mixture aside for cooling.
On the other side, take maida, turmeric and 2 tb oil, make it soft dough with addition of water and knead it constantly for next 10 minutes. This is called as kanaka
Keep it aside for 3 hours, just to allow it to become soft, with regular kneading
After 3 hours, make small rounds with dough


and roll it flat as shown in picture. Stuff it with jaggery mixture and make it flat as shown in picture.
Cook it on a hot tawa/pan by flipping both sides and smearing ghee on each side until its cooked as like that of rotis.
Eat this with one more spoon of ghee and hot milk.

Serves = only 2 (because its very tasty)

Can make 15 of them

Optional
Lentils and jaggery can also be grind in blender and then cooked on stove.


ENJOY COOKING

KODUBALE / ಕೋಡುಬಳೆ (Kannada language)

Kodubale, is a very popular snacks in south India which can also be called as Spicy rings in English because of their spicy taste and the ring structure. Taste of red chilli, rawa/sooji/semolina and rice flour makes it more delicious and attracts people of any age. Kodubale can also be known as grand mother's recipe. Grand mother used to prepare lots of kodubales during summer school vacation. It was time for all cousins to meet at grandma's house, spend time with each other, relax and eat snacks like kodubale. Its called as muruku in Tamil Nadu.There are many variates of muruku, this is one among them. 

INGREDIENTS

(same cup should be used for measuring all ingredients)

Rawa/sooji/samolina - 1 cup (small grains)

Rice flour - 1/2 cup

Chick peas/ channa flour/ putani pudi/ Hurgadle - 1/2 cup

Dry coconut powder - 1/2 cup (grated)

Red chillies - 4

Cumin seeds- 3 tb sp.

Salt to taste

Lukewarm water - 2 cups

Oil - 1 ltr for deep frying

COOKING

Fry rawa, rice flour, chickpeas and dry coconut separately under low heat. Mix all along with red chillies and salt, and grind dry in a blender until it becomes fine grains. 

Use this mixed flour along with cumin seeds and 4-5 tb sp. of hot oil for making kodubale dough. Add required amount of Luke warm water.

Knead this dough for 10-15 minutes. 

Cover the dough with a thin cloth for 20 more minutes. 

After 20 minutes, make small round balls and roll it to thick sticks shape. Join both ends to make it circle/rings. 

Heat oil in a pot/ pan, Deep fry these rings/ kodubale until it turns golden brown color. 

Enjoy them with mint chutney or simply as snacks with tea/coffee.

HAPPY COOKING

RICE UPMA/ AVAL UPMA/ ಒಗ್ಗರಣೆ ಅವಲಕ್ಕಿ (Kannada language)

Flattened rice (beaten rice) is also known as aval, avalakki, atukulu in south India and is available in every Indian stores outside India. It is not other than Pohe, Pauwa or Baji in North part of India. This rice flakes, aval, will be swollen when added into water. This recipe can also be prepared, replacing poha/ flattened rice with Cuscus also. But flattened rice is more healthier and easy to cook, it is said as one of the convenient foods than bread. 

INGREDIENTS

Flattened rice (medium sized) - 2 cup

Ground nuts/ peanuts - 1/2 cup

Green chilli - 2 long slit

Coconut flakes - 3 tb sp.

Onions - 1 chopped

Tomatoes - 1 chopped

Coriander leaves 

Mustard seeds - 1 tb sp.

Turmeric - pinch

salt to taste

Oil- 4 tb sp. 

COOKING

Soak aval in water for 5 minutes.

Heat oil, fry mustard seeds, turmeric, green chillies, peanuts, onions until it turns brown.

Continue adding tomatoes and cook it until soft.

Now add soaked aval and mix is softly, without smashing aval. Salt the dish as per taste. 

Add coconut flakes and garnish with coriander leaves. 

Once aval is cooked, keep it on low heat for 3-4 minutes to allow aval to spread out. 

Here, green chillies are the only source of hotness or spiciness in dish and coconut in the only source of sweetness. So add more coconuts.

Lime can be added to get a bit tangy taste if you like to.

You can also sprinkle pieces of muruku on top and serve it while hot.

Serves = 3 people

Cooking time = 15 minutes

HAPPY COOKING

POTATO SALAD

INGREDIENTS

Baby Potatoes - 6-7

Plain yogurt / curd- 1 cup

Red chilli- 2

Curry leaves- 3-4

Pepper powder and salt to taste

Mustard seeds - 1 tb sp. 

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tb sp.

Oil- 4-5 tb sp,

COOKING

Boil whole potatoes in water for 20 minutes. Cool it, peel off the skin and mash it crudely.

Add plain yogurt and salt to this and mix nicely, add pepper powder and salt as per required taste.

In a pan heat oil, sputter mustard seeds, add red chillies, curry leaves and turmeric.

Add the sauted oil content on top of potatoes and yogurt. 

Mix thoroughly and cool it for 10 min in refrigerator. 

This could be served with palav, biryani or tomato rice.

HAPPY COOKING

LONG BEANS MASALA GRAVY

INGREDIENTS

Long green beans - 1/2 kg

Baby potatoes - 5-7 Whole

Onions - 2

Tomatoes - 2

Green chilli- 2 long slit

Ginger garlic paste - 2 tb sp. (optional)

Cumin seeds - 2 tb sp.

Mixture of :

Chilli powder, coriander powder, 

pepper powder, sambar powder (optional) and turmeric - 1 tb sp. each

Coconut - 1/2 cup grated

Jaggery/ sugar - 1 tb sp.

Curry leaves, coriander leaves - to garnish

COOKING

In a pan cook tomatoes, ginger garlic paste, coconut with a tb sp of olive oil. Fry masalas separately and then add to this pan. 

Now, grind this to paste and set aside.

Cook beans and potates whole (can be cut into half) in hot boiling water until it is cooked. A pinch of salt can also be added while cooking vegetables.

In  a fresh pan, add oil, fry cumin seeds, green chilli, curry leaves and onions until it turns slight brown. 

Add grinded paste and cook it until its soft and oil separates out. 

Add jaggery and cooked vegetables. 

Adjust salt as per requirement. 

Water can be added to sufficient quantity to bring to a good consistency. Cook this content for approximately 10 minutes on low flame/ heat with constant stirring.

Serves = 3 (with chapatis and rice)

Cooking time = 40 minutes (along with vegetable cooking time)

HAPPY COOKING

ANDHRA SPECIAL BRINJAL PACHCHADI

INGREDIENTS

Brinjal- 4 cut into cubes

Tomatoes- 2 (medium sized)

Coriander leaves- 2/3 cup 

Chilli powder - 1 tb sp.

Cumin seeds - 3 tb sp. 

Red chillies - 2 long

Garlic pods - 5

Green chillies -3

Curry leaves - 1 stem

COOKING

In a pan, put some oil, add jeera, garlic pods, red chillies, green chillies and curry leaves. Fry properly till the aroma comes out. 

Add tomatoes and fry that as well with pinch of salt, chilli powder and let the tomatoes cook nicely.

add Brinjal cubes and fry until soft and add coriander leaves.

Let this entire mixture cool down a bit prior to grinding (its difficult to grind hot stuff). adjust salt as per taste.

Now, grind it. Do NOT grind it into a fine paste.. it should be just a bit grinded, so that you can taste brinjal bits while eating with rice, rotis or especially curd rice. 

OPTIONAL

You can do the same dish with ridge guard and with only tomatoes.  

Brinjal can be cooked in oven for 4-5 min prior to frying

Coconut could be good to add, if you are not a spice eater.

Serves= 3 

Cooking time = 15 minutes

HAPPY COOKING

CAPCICUM KURMA/ ದೊಣ್ಣ ಮೆಣಸಿನಕಾಯಿ ಗೊಜ್ಜು (Kannada language)

INGREDIENTS

Capsicum - 2 large (sliced into thin pieces)

Paneer cubes- 1/2 cup

Green chilies- 2 long slit

Curry leaves- 3-4

Sesame seeds and Coriander leaves - to garnish

Ghee/ clarified butter - 3 tb sp.

Tomato- 2 sliced into big pieces

Onions- 1-2 sliced into big pieces

Ginger-garlic paste- 1/2 tb sp.

Red chilli powder/ paprika- 2 tb sp.

Coriander powder- 2 tb sp.

All spices powder- 1 tb sp. (optional)

Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

Slat to taste

Mustard seeds, turmeric and cumin seeds- to saute

COOKING

• Fry onions and tomatoes in a pan with 1 tb oil, along with ginger garlic paste, for 2 min on a low heat. Grind it to paste and keep aside.
• In a large pan, heat ghee, sputter mustard seeds, turmeric and cumin seeds. Add curry leaves, green chilies and capsicum. Fry until capsicum is cooked.
• Now, add grind paste, allow it to boil with very little quantiy of water. Once its cooked, red chilli powder, coriander powder, all spices powder and coconut milk. Salt it to required taste.
• Once the coconut milk smell leaves, add paneer cubes at end and allow it to boil on low heat for next 10 minutes.
• Garnish with either coriander leaves or sesame seeds and serve hot with rotis, chapatis or rice.

OPTIONAL

• Coconut milk can also be included in "to grind list".
• Half lemon juice/ lime can give a very good taste.
• Only tomatoes could be added "to grind" and onions can be added along with capsicum.
• Sesame seeds can be fried in ghee as well separately and can be used to garnish. I have also tried this. You should follow this if you are a ghee lover.
• All spices powder is just the powder of cumin, cardamon, cinnamon, pepper and bay leaves.

Serves= 10 chapatis/ 2 people

Cooking time = 30 minutes

HAPPY COOKING

SPICY TOMATO RICE/ ಟೋಮಾಟೋ ಅನ್ನ (Kannada language)/ தக்காளி சோறு (tamil language)

INGREDIENTS

Biryani masala powder – 2-4 tb sp.

Chilli powder- 1 tb sp.

Onions- 2 cut into slices

Tomatoes- 4-5 cut into slices (for 1/100g cup rice)

Green peas- ½ cup

Coconut milk- ½ cup

Basmati rice (long grain rice) - 1 cup

Oil

Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves– 4-5 each

Cumin seeds - 2 tb sp.

Bay leaves – 2 leaves

Green chilies- 2, long slit

Salt to taste

Coriander/cilantro –to garnish

COOKING

• Add oil in a pan and let it heat for a minute. Add all spices (Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, bay leaves) followed by green chilies. Sauté for 2-3 minutes or until species are fried.
• Add onions fry nicely to golden brown color; add chilli powder, biryani masala powder and mix.
• Add tomatoes and peas, pour coconut milk. fry for next 5 minutes until raw smell vanishes.
• At end, add rice and salt. Make sure rice is fried for few minutes and then add double the amount of water. Check salt taste and adjust as per requirement. Allow for 3 whistles in pressure cooker.
• Garnish with coriander leaves (optional) while you serve hot.

Serves- 3

Cooking time- 25 minutes

P.S. If you do not want to use Biryani masala powder, it can be substituted with the "To grind" given below

To Grind

Bay leaves (2), Cinnamon (4-5 sticks), coriander leaves (1/2 cup), funnel seeds (1/4 cup), cumin, pepper, cloves (2 tb sp.) Cardamom (5-6), red chilli powder (3 tb sp.) 

Fry all the ingredients in warm pan and cool it, grind it in a blender under dry conditions and store in cool place, out of moisture.

ENJOY COOKING