American pancakes - featuring banana & honey

A quick-fix yet yummy breakfast? Here is an answer- banana pancakes. Your kids would luv it and it is for grown-ups too.





Here is how I made it

Ingredients

Plain flour - 1 cup

Bananas - mashed and very ripe - 2

Egg - 1 beaten

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 tbsp

Baking powder - 2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Honey to drizzle over

Method

- Combine all the ingredients well. The batter will be a bit lumpy coz of the bananas.

- Heat a lightly oiled pan over medium heat.

- Pour or scoop the batter on to the pan, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake.

- Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides

- Serve hot with honey.


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"An International Celebration - Desserts/Sweets/Bakes for the U.S.A." owned by Jagruti's Event Announcementhttp://www.jagrutidhanecha.com/2012/08/announcing-series-event-international.html

Feast of sacrifice

Sticky toffee pudding - featuring dates

Recently something happened in one of my friends' life which left her with sad but fond memories of sticky toffee pudding. I would like to dedicate this post to her and her memories.


Sticky toffee pudding is a British steamed dessert consisting of a very moist sponge cake, made with finely chopped dates or prunes, covered in a toffee sauce and often served with a vanilla custard or vanilla ice-cream. It is considered a modern British ‘classic’, alongside Jam Roly-Poly and Spotted Dick puddings. (wikipedia)


This recipe is based on a Marco Pierre White recipe from his Mirabelle restaurant book. It calls for baking and not steaming and still produces a moist soft base ready to soak all that toffee sauce. Yum!

Ingredients

150g of Dates, pitted
150ml of water
1 teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda
60g of softened unsalted butter
150 g of Dark Muscavado Sugar
2 eggs
180g flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder

For the sauce:

200 g of caster sugar
200g of unsalted butter
juice of 1/2 lemon
200 ml of cream

Method

Pit and chop the dates. Put them in a bowl, cover them with the water and sprinkle over them the teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda. Let the mixture soak and soften for at least 1/2 hour.
Put the date and water mixture in a pan on the stove and heat till boiling point. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let the mixture cool then puree it.
Preheat the oven at 160 degrees.
In another bowl mix and cream together the butter and dark muscavado sugar. Add the eggs and date puree and mix. Sieve the flour and baking powder into to the wet mixture.
If using individual molds, butter and flour 6 of them and fill them 3/4 up with batter. If using a square tin, butter it and using a long piece of wax paper the width of the tin, make it stick on one side of the tin, the bottom of it and the other side in a U shape, then fill it with the batter and smooth the top.
Place either the separate molds or the square tin in the oven and bake for around 10 to 12 minutes or more till a tester knife comes out clean.

For the sauce:

In a pan on the stove put the butter and caster sugar, let it melt. Bring to boiling point whisking continuously, the mixture will start to caramelize. Do not stop whisking, the mixture will go from a white gold color to a nutty brown one.
Take it off the heat and pour in the lemon juice. Do be careful as the whole thing will swish up and splatter. Calm it down by pouring the cream over it, whisking all along.
Sieve the sauce to remove any possible sugar chucks from it. How to serve: If using the square tin, turn the cake out on a plate that is at least 3 cm deep.
Prick the top of the cake with a fork and pour the hot sauce all over it, saturating it. If using the individual molds, turn them on individual plates, and spoon over them a generous amount of toffee sauce.
This pudding can be served with cream, but works best with a good quality vanilla ice cream as it is the mixture of hot and cold that one is after.


Try it and let me know how it turned out. :)

Tips:

Make the sauce in advance and store refrigerated. Heat it up before serving.


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I luv baking by Radhika of tickling palates

Feast of sacrifice

Chicken kadai - featuring capsicum / bell pepper

Kadhai / Karahi chicken is a north Indian / pakistani recipe which is usually cooked in kadhai/ karahi /skillet. Kadhai is a wok-type utensil used in Indian cooking. The speciality of kadhai chicken is, it is not only cooked in kadhai/skillet but also is served in kadhai/skillet.







The original recipe asks for fresh capsicum, but mich of the recipes on the web does not feature that. So readers, its ur choice. Let me know if you decided to go with the capsicum or not. The recipe presented is inspired from Sanjeev Kapoor.

Ingredients

1 - Chicken - 1 kg

2 - Coriander seeds - 2 tsp

Cumin seeds - 2 tsp

Black pepper corns - 6

Whole dry red chilli - 6

3 - Ginger - 2 tsp

Garlic - 2 tsp

4 - Ghee - 2 tbsp

5 - Oil - 2 tbsp

6 - Onion - 1 large chopped

7 - Tomatoes - 4 large chopped

8 - Salt to taste

9 - Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp

10 - Capsicum - 1/2 squared

Method

- Dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns and red chilli and grind to a coarse powder.

- Heat ghee and oil in a kadai, add onion and sauté till lightly browned.

- Add half the coarsely ground spice powder and ginger-garlic paste and continue to sauté for three to four minutes.

- Add tomatoes and salt and continue to sauté till the tomatoes become soft.

- Add chicken and stir.

- Add coriander leaves and the remaining coarsely ground spice powder and mix.

- Add half a cup of water and stir.

- Cover and cook on medium heat till the chicken is done.

- Add capsicum squares and stir for 1-2 minutes.

- Serve hot.


Now, I tried to make it look rich by drizzling some double cream left over from my toffee sauce ( recipe soon to come). Not sure if it did the job though. What's the verdict? Did the cream do justice to the kadai chicken?








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Feast of sacrifice

Keralan egg puffs

Ingredients

Eggs - 2 hard boiled


Onion - 1 medium sized, thinly sliced


Tomato - 1 chopped


Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp or to taste


Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp


Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp


Mustard seeds - 1 tsp


Salt to taste


Oil - 1 tbsp


Rolled puff pastry sheets - 320g


'How to make home-made puff pastry' to feature soon on kukskitchen. Watch this space guys :)

Method

 - Pre heat the oven to 220 C/ gas 7 ( 200 c for fan assisted ovens)
 - Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. They will start to splutter. It might be a good idea to open your kitchen door during this step since some fire alarms are sensitive to this.
 - Turn the hob to medium heat and add sliced onions and saute them till soft.
 - Add chopped tomatoes to this and saute till they are soft.
 - Lower the heat again, add the dry powders and saute till they release their oils and you can smell a wonderful aroma. Remove from heat. Your masala mix is ready.
 - Prepare the puff pastry sheets by first cutting the roll in half, straightening each roll and dividing each rectangular sheet of pastry in to three squares, so you get 6 squares in total. You are going to use only 4 of those sheets for this recipe.
 - Spoon the masala mix to the centre of the pastry square and place one half of a hard boiled egg on top. Fold one corner of the pastry square to the centre on top of the egg; repeat this on all four of the corners. Brush oil on top of each parcel. Repeat till you have prepared all four pastry sheets. Your egg puffs are ready to go in the oven.
 - Place your egg puffs on a baking sheet in the centre of the oven and bake for 25 - 30 minutes. Don't forget to check in between, since ovens vary and you dont want to burn your yummy puffs.
 - Your puffs are ready to eat. Serve with a hot cup of milky tea and a napkin to catch crumbs.


A few months back I added the same recipe with a different picture , to bbc good food website. Check it out here.







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Mustard seeds event in My Spicy Kitchen

How to make the perfect crispy dosa ( rice & lentil pancake) - a step-by-step visual guide

Dosa is a south indian staple breakfast. With its umpteen number of variations, it always shines in the breakfast table. The variations include plain dosa, masala dosa, ghee roast, rocket dosa and some of the uk favourites like kids dosa, egg dosa, chicken dosa, beef dosa, fish dosa and many many many more.






Plain dosa itself can be made thin and crispy or thick and melty soft. During our most recent annul trip to India our extended family trip was to Gavi of ordinary movie-fame. En-route Gavi, we stayed in Thekkady resort where they made the softest meltiest perfect katti dosa of all times. Me and my sis-in-law R persuaded the chef to give out his secret recipe for it, but he didn't say anything that me and R didn't know. We were sure he was holding some top-secret information from us. :( .


Any ways, presented here is how I make my crispy dosa, which is how my hubby D likes it.

Ingredients

Dosa skillet - preferably non-stick

Dosa chattukam - or any flat spoon

Flat based ladel

And of course dosa batter - a bit thick is how I like it.

Step 1

Get ur skillet on medium to low heat. Too much heat can make ur batter cook too soon and stick to ur ladle and u won't get ur perfect hole-resistant dosa. Pour a ladle -full of batter at the centre of the skillet.

Step 2

Spread it with circular motion going outwards to make a flat circle.

Step 3

Finish off the circle with gentle circular movements of ur hand.

Step 4

For a crispy and authentic taste use a tsp of oil. Pour it at one end and tilt the skillet till oil reaches the opposite end of ur circle. U can get a perfect crisp on ur dosa without the oil, but the taste is ever so slightly less heart-filling and the crispiness tend to disappear quickly leaving a soggy dosa from time-to-time.

Step 5

When u see the edges of the circle ever so slightly lift themselves up from the skillet, use the dosa chattukam to gently lift it off all the circumference of ur dosa.

Step 6

Flip ur dosa over, again carefully

Step 7

The most difficult part - serve it and eat it hot :) Yummmm

Step 8

Before the next dosa, make sure ur skillet is not too hot. Many techniques can be adopted for the perfect temperature. U can wash ur skillet, sprinkle a little water on ur skillet and let it evaporate, use a damp cloth to wipe the cooking surface etc etc. I keep the heat medium at all times and take my skillet off the hob and do the spreading of batter away from heat. It works perfect for me. Try all methods and find what suits u best.


Happy dosa making girls.

Dosa batter

There are more than a handful of ratios to go after. Believe me, I've tried them all. The most consistently reproducible ratio is one that my dear friend S shared with me. Presented is the ratio I used to make the dosa featured above.


Idli rice (which looks a bit like risotto rice, I am yet to try it) - 2 cups

Urad dal / uzhunnu - 1/2 cup

Fenugreek / Methi / Uluva seeds - a pinch

Salt


Blender/ Grinder - I use the medium bowl on my kenwood.

Method

Soak ingredients in water over night till no raw whiteness remains at the centre of rice. Grind rice first in blender for 5-6 minutes on high speed. Pour blended rice to a storage container. Follow on with urad dal. Use as little water as is possible. Pour blended uzhunnu on top of the rice. Mix gently with hand. Add a tsp of salt or more to taste. Leave in dosa muri over night for a perfectly puffed up batter. Mix the salt in and use as required. If using for more than 2 days, I would advice storing in two containers, so that one is unstirred which can be used later.


Happy eating !


Dearies, pls share ur tips for a perfect dosa too.


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Keralan mixed vegetable spicy soup with lentils - nammude sambar :)

My dad's first line when mum starts cooking sambar is ' sambar inge ukkarungo' :) He is the biggest sambar fan in the planet. He appreciates me trying new versions of the classic like palakkadan, kozhikkodan etc etc. My son has taken to his appappan's palate and luvs sambar esp if it's with dosa. I can virtually eat it with anything at all - rice, dosa, idli, upma, idiyappam and chapati.


A variety of vegetables can be used in an avial, which includes drumsticks, yam, raw banana, ash gourd (kumbalanga), aubergine (vazhuthananga) and more recently carrots, potato and cucumber.


Ideally sambar needs to be cooked in an open pot which takes a lot of time. I go for the quick pressure cooker version when I have less time. I know daddy this version is not ur favourite. :(









Presented here is a simple lazy version of sambar featuring Ann's kerala sambar powder. For more recipes about how to prepare home-made sambar spice mix, watch this space.

Ingredients

Vegetables - 250 g

Tomato - 1 large cubed

Shallots - 5 - 6 whole

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Daal/ lentils - 1/2 cup, sambar parippu is ideal but any daal would do

Tamarind paste - 1 tsp if india-made or 2-3 tsp of uk-made

Sambar powder - 3 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp if recently bought or 1 -2 tsp if old :)

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Dried red chilli - 2

Oil - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Method

- Cook daal in about a litre of water with turmeric and salt in a pressure cooker. Turn off heat at the first whistle. Wait till pressure reduces and open the cooker.

- Add the veggies with tomatos and shallots to it, turn on heat and again switch off heat at the first whistle. Wait till pressure reduces and open the cooker.

- Heat sambar powder with asafoetida in a small pan till aroma of oils hit ur nose. Remove, mix it in a little water with tamarind and add it to the cooked veggie-lentil mix.

- Heat oil in a small pan and splutter mustard seeds and dried red chilli. Pout this on top of ur sambar.


Yummmmmm!







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Mustard seeds event in MyspicyKitchen

Kaya ularthu - Plantain stir fry

Syrian Christian cuisine is gaining a lot of popularity these days. I was so surprised to see a uk celebrity chef do a syrian christian beef curry. I will post that in here soon. Watch this space.

Ularthu, a syrian christain dish, is a family favourite in the payyappilly ( dad's ) and thottappilly (mum's) household. It had a prominent place in my house when we were growing up too. My dad (and his dad) likes it very very spicy. Apparently ammamma kept a pot of 'varuthu podicha masala' next to appappan's plate so he could add extra spice to his ularthu. In thottappilly household we liked it with a generous sprinkling of freshly ammini-grated coconut on top.( :) my cousins would remember stealing some and running without getting caught by ammachi ).


Ularthu can be made with kaya(plaintain), pacha chakka (raw jackfruit segments), kappa (tapioca) and many many others.

Presented here is kaya ularthu ever so slightly modified for the uk life.

Ingredients

1- Kaya - 250 g cut in to squares
    Turmeric  - 1/2 tsp
    Salt to taste
2- Shallots - 3-4
    Garlic pods - 2-3
    Curry leaves - 1 sprig
3- Red chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp or less :)
    Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp
    Turmeric powder -  1/4 tsp
4- Oil 1 tbsp

Method

- Cook kaya pieces in enough water with rest of (1) till medium soft.
- Meanwhile crush shallots and garlic pods with a pestle and mortar. Slicing would do too.
- Heat oil in a pan and saute (2) till shallots turn light brown.
- Add (3) and saute till the aroma of oils hit ur nose.
- Add the cooked kaya pieces to it and mix well. Check salt at this point and add more if needed.
- Kaya ularthu is ready to be gobbled with rice or kanji :)

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