Friday 29 April 2011

Pineapple Icecream


Luscious, sweet, juicy  fresh pineapple  stirred into a sweet concoction of lime zest , limejuice, condensed milk and folded into rich double cream before freezing.The result is a  burst of sensational tropical flavors in each and every  mouthful.Serve with a medley of juicy pineapple chunks and you will have a dessert that will leave you craving more and more.

Ingredients:

300 grams Sweetened condensed milk
300 ml double cream
Juice of one and a half  limes
1 teaspoon lime zest
240 grams fresh pineapple.
240 grams Pineapple chunks for serving.

Method:

1. Place 240 grams of fresh pine apple and blend it coarsely so that the pineapple has some texture.
2. Remove from blender and add to a large mixing bowl.
3.Add the Sweetended condensed milk to the blender and  add the lime juice and blend .
4. Add the blended condensed milk to the bowl with the pineapple and add the lemon zest.Mix well.
5. In a separate bowl whip the cream  and gently fold the whipped cream to the pineapple and condensed milk mixture,
6. Transfer the mixture to a tupperware container and place in freezer . Leave to set for 4 hours.
7. After 4 hours, remove from freezer and mix well with a fork to break any ice crystals. and return to freezer for another 4 hours. Repeat this process 3 times.
8. To serve the icecream , take out of the freezer and  leave for few minutes before scooping into ice cream bowls and serve with fresh pineapple chunks.



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Thursday 21 April 2011

Ragi Paratha (Indian Flatbreads)


Delicious and healthy paratha made from a blend of healthy flours.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons Koracan Flour (Ragi flour /finger millet)
3 tablespoons Whole wheat flour (Chappati flour)
2 tablespoons Chick pea flour (besan)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 green chillies finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh finely chopped fenugreek
1 tablespoon sunflower oil for dough
4 tablespoons sunflower oil for cooking the parthas
1/2 cup water for making dough

Method:

1. Mix all the flours, turmeric, salt, chillies, fenugreek and 1 tablespoon oil.
2. Add water a little at a time and make a dough, cover and leave for 30 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into 8 parts and roll a paratha approx 5mm thick  and 6 inches in diameter out of each ball.
4. Heat a shallow pan and when it is hot place the rolled paratha on it, after 30 seconds flip the partha and spead a little oil on it, flip it gain and let the oiled  underside cook.
5. Spread a little more oil on top side and flip to cook it.
6.Paratha is ready when brown spots appear on it.
7. Remove from pan and repeat for rest of dough.
Serve with curry and some yoghurt raita.
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Tuesday 19 April 2011

Mango and Nutella Pancakes


Delicious pancakes with  chocolate spread and tropical mango.

Ingredients:

120 grams / 4 oz plain flour
125 ml milk
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons oil for cooking pan cakes
2 tablespoons nutella
Mango slices from 1 large mango

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl sieve the flour and baking powder.
2. Add the milk and vanilla  and sugar to mix together to form a batter ,thr consistency should be so that it coats the back of a spoon.( Adjust the milk accordingly)
3.Leave to rest for 10 minutes.
4. Heat a non stick pan with a little oil and allow to heat, pour a ladle of pan cake mixture and swirl the pan to form a thin round pancake.


5. Wait for minute or until bubbles start to form and flip the pancake out to cook the other side.
6. Once pancake is golden brown,transfer the cooked pancake on to grease proof paper and repeat for rest of batter.
7. To serve,spread nuttella on to the pan cake and place some slices of mango on top. Fold the pancake and serve with  more mango slices and a dollop of nutella on the side.


Friday 15 April 2011

Vatteppam/Vattayappam – Kerala’s Queen of steamed rice cakes - ICC Cooking Challenge March 2011


A sweet and spongy steamed rice cake with fragrant  saffron, cardamom and  coconut .Finished with  a garnish of raisins and fried cashew nuts.

This post is for the Indian cooking challenge by Srivalli of Spicing your life, recipe supplied by Shn of Mishmash

Ingredients:

To Grind:

1 cup raw-rice/Pachari or Idli-Ponni rice, soaked for 6-8 hours
¾ cup freshly grated coconut
2 tbsp cooked rice
½ cup water or enough to grind the above ingredients to make a batter consistency similar to idli batter

To Proof yeast:

½ tsp active dry yeast ( I use Fleischmann’s active dry yeast)
1/3 cup water
2tsp sugar

To Make Thari Kurukku/Rice porridge: (Use only 4tbsp of this paste/porridge)

1 ½ to 2 tbsp coarse ground paste
Around 1/3 to ½ cup water

To sweeten and flavor:

½ cup sugar ( to taste)
10-12 cardamom/elakkaya crushed/powdered ( Add as per taste and pungency of the spice)
½ tbsp cashew nuts
1 ½ tbsp ghee
Few saffron strands

Method:

1. Grind rice in a blender, adding just enough water, to operate the mixer.
2.When ground rice reaches a coarse texture, remove the required quantity mentioned under, “To Make Thari Kurukku/Rice porridge” and keep aside.
3.Add coconut to the remaining ground rice in blender and grind thoroughly to a fine batter. Towards the end, add cooked rice and grind again.
4. Leave this mixture to cool till it reaches room tempearature in the blender.
5. Warm the water in a microwave for 15 seconds. Add sugar and yeast; dissolve both the ingredients in this warm water and keep the mixture in a warm place for 15-20 minutes, or until it inflates and foams, creating a
‘dome of foam’, on top of the mixture.
6. Prepare the Thari Kurukku/Rice porridge by heating a pan and adding the couple of spoonfuls of coarse ground rice, kept aside earlier and water; bring it to a boil and keep stirring in low-medium heat until it is fully cooked and reaches the consistency of a thick paste /porridge and turn off the stove and keep aside till it is completely cool.
7.Take about 4 tablespoons of Thari Kurukku/Rice porridge and add it to the rice and coconut batter in the blender.Blend one more time for one more time .
8.Add yeast mixture and pulse one or two times just to blend everything well.
9.Pour the entire batter to a steel/glass bowl and let it ferment in a warm place for about 4-6 hours or overnight, depending on the weather zone you are in. Pick a stainless steel or glass bowl big enough to hold double the quantity of batter as during the fermentation process, the batter rises well and it should not over flow from the bowl.
10.When batter is doubled and fermented, add sugar and stir gently and mix and again let it ferment for another 1 ½ to 2 hours.
11.Heat ghee in a small pan and roast cashew nuts till golden brown and raisins till they plump up fully.
12.Just before steaming, add crushed/powdered cardamom, ghee roasted nuts and raisins to the batter.
13.For steaming, heat some water in a pressure cooker; grease a 6 inch round pan/or cake tin with some ghee or oil.
14.Pour the prepared batter and fill till half of the pan/cake tin; when it starts to steam, place that flat plate with holes, which comes with the cooker and on top of it, gently drop the batter filled pan/cake tin and close the cooker tightly with lid and its rubber in place (do not keep the weight/whistle) and let it steam cook for about 20 -30 minutes in medium heat.
15.Remove the cooker from the heat and carefully open the lid and insert a knife or tail of the spoon and if it comes out clean .Lift the pan/cake tin from the cooker and leave it to completely cool
16.To remove from tin run knife by the side of the pan and gently separate the steamed cake/ vatteppam /Vattayappam from the edges of the pan.
17.Slowly try to lift off the cake with a spatula or anything that has a flat surface and it will come off easily; alternatively cut it into squares in the pan and gently lift of squares with a spatula and place on serving dish.
18. Garnish with remaining fried cashews , saffron strands and grated coconut.

NB- The red colouring on the vatteppam was from the red colouring that was from some coloured almond flakes I tossed on the cake and saffron.
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Tuesday 12 April 2011

Saboodana (Sago) Khichdi


Delicious spicy potatoes cooked with sago pearls in a  peanut gravy.

Ingredients:

250 grams boiled potatoes diced into 1 inch pieces
30 grams coarsely ground roasted peanuts
Few whole roasted peanuts for garnishing.
2 tablespoons saboodana (sago)
3 green chillies cut into this slices
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh finely chopped chopped coriander
1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
2 medium tomatoes chopped and blended to a puree

Method:

1. Soak the Saboodana in water for 2-3 hours till they swell up  and double in size.
2. In a large pan heat the oil when it is hot add the cumin seeds and wait for them to splutter.
3.Add the blended tomatoes, salt, black pepper, ginger paste, lemon juice and chillies and cook till tomatoes start to separate oil.
4. Drain the soaked saboodana and add to the tomato gravy also add  the ground peanuts  and  mix well. Add  100 ml water and simmer for 3-4 minutes
5. Add the diced potatoes and mix well to coat them with the gravy. Cover and cook for 5 more minutes.Add a little more water is needed
6. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with fresh chopped coriander and whole roasted peanuts.

Serve hot with natural  yoghurt
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Wednesday 6 April 2011

Coconut and Orange scented Cookies


Delicious coconut cookies with a subtle citrus twist.

Makes 30

Ingredients:

240 grams / 8oz butter
150 grams / 5 oz sugar
1 egg yolk
300 grams /10 oz plain flour
120 grams / 4oz desiccated coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 º C / 375 º F.
2. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
3. Cream the butter and sugar till light and creamy, add the egg yolk, orange juice and the orange zest , vanilla and mix well.
4. Sieve the flour; add the salt and add the desiccated coconut. Mix well.
5. Gently fold in the dry ingredients into the wet ones to form a dough. Cover and leave for 30 minutes.
6. After 30 minutes divide the dough into walnut size pieces and roll in to balls. Place them on parchment paper, well spaced out, to allow for the cookies to expand during baking.
7. Using a fork flatten out the cookies slightly.
8. Bake for 10 -15 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack.

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Tuesday 5 April 2011

Round up of Flavours of Maharasta.

The Flavours of Maharastra was  guest hosted by PJ of seduceyourtastebuds. It was an amazing success with an astounding 86 entries. All the dishes look superb and really delicious.To feast your eyes on these mouthwatering virtual dishes click here for the roundup.
Thankyou PJ for guest hosting this event.

Flavours of Bengal is the current event in the "Flavours of" series and is  being guest hosted by Priya of Mharo Rajasthan to participate click here.

Saturday 2 April 2011

The journey continues -Flavours of Bengal - 1st April - 31st May


Our culinary journey around India in the Flavours of series is progressing well, we started off in Gujarat with Flavours of Gujarat,  we than travelled on  to the lush green lands of Punjab for Flavours of Punjab . After sampling wonderful punjabi cuisine we travelled on wards to Goa to sample wonderful portugese influenced cuisine in our Flavours of Goa event. Our journey from Goa continued on to the state of Maharastra for some beautiful Maharastrian cuisine during Flavours of Maharastra event. Now we are once again back on our travels to Bengal  for the next two months to sample wonderful bengali cuisine.Flavours of Bengal is being hosted by Priya of Mhrro Rajasthan. A Bengali herself  with a wonderful array of recipes on her blog, she is the perfect person to host this event. To participate please click here for more details and to send your entries.
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