Ragi Chapati

Planning healthy meal for family takes no much time if you have the passion for cooking, eating usual chapati everyday can be a very boring thing at times. So, I have combined ragi with atta flour to make Ragi Chapati today. My first attempt didn't fail me, it turned out to be a very tasty chapati and most importantly healthy.

Now let us look at how I made this;

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup of atta flour

1/2 cup of ragi flour

1 cup of water

2 tbsp of oil + 1 tsp oil

A pinch of salt

Take a bowl, add salt, butter, ragi  and atta flour with half cup of water, knead the dough well incorporating all the ingredients. Then add the balance half cup of water, knead well until the dough is soft and smooth. Adding ragi to atta flour knead a little more water compared to atta flour alone, you must knead the dough well so that when you toast the chapati it wouldn't be so hard. Apply around 1 tsp oil to the well kneaded dough and cover with cloth.

Roll dough into small balls and roll with a chapati 

roller to spread out the dough like chapati

Toast both side of the chapati on a pan over medium flame

Now our Ragi Chapati is ready to be served with your preferred curry, keema or kurma

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Canned Mackerel Peratal

Ingredients:

1 canned mackerel in tomato sauce
1 onion sliced
3 cloves of garlic sliced
1 tomato sliced
2 red bird eye chili (slit)
2 tbsp of fish curry powder
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp tamarind paste
1/4 cup of water
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Mix fish curry powder and chili powder with little water to form a paste.

In a pan, heat oil and add garlic, onion, tomato and chili saute for a minute. Now add in the above paste and stir fry for 3 minutes, constantly stir to avoid burning the paste. 

Then add mackerel with the sauce and let it simmer for 5 minutes, add the tamarind paste with the 1/4 cup of water. Let the gravy thicken, adjust salt and turn off the flame.

Now our Mackerel Peratal is ready to be served.

Egg-less Strawberry Yogurt Custard Cake

I was planning to bake a cake, but I don't know what cake to bake, so I went roaming into my kitchen to see what are the ingredients I can use to bake this cake. I found a pack of custard powder unused for two weeks now, then I saw strawberry filling and strawberry flavored yogurt. I have never baked a custard cake before but I'm going to do it today.

This is a lovely cake, very simple and easy to bake. Now let us see how I baked this;

Ingredients:

1 cup of wheat flour

1/2 cup of custard powder

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2cup of strawberry yogurt

1/2 cup of strawberry filling

1/2 cup of melted butter

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

1/2 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 150 degree for 10 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, add in sugar and butter and mix together until sugar is almost dissolved. Then add in yogurt and custard powder, mix everything now add flour, baking soda and baking powder. 

When all the ingredients come together add in strawberry yogurt and filling, incorporate the mixture and finally add the milk little by little until you get the right consistency of a cake mixture. 

Pour the cake mixture in a cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes at 150 degree or adjusting to your oven.

I have use ramekins to bake mine. Cool the cake before serving, you can serve with strawberry sauce or custard sauce depending on your preference.

Do try and let me know how it turned out. It tastes awesome and you just 

have to follow the exact measurement I have used for this cake.

Chapati

Chapati is one of our favorite dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it is much more healthier to eat chapati to rice which is very high in carbohydrate. Every family and every cook have their own recipe for soft chapati, now let me share my version of it.

Ingredients:

2 cups of whole wheat flour/ atta
2 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp of oil
Water

In a bowl, add flour and butter then mix well, now add in water and knead the flour to form a soft textured chapati dough. It takes approximately 1 cup of water for to get the perfect consistency of the dough. I do not add any salt to the dough because I have added butter. Once done apply the oil to the dough so that it doesn't dry and cover with cloth.

Divide dough into equal small balls and roll into nice round shaped chapati

Toast the rolled dough on a griddle

Flip to the other side and make sure both sides are toasted well, press the 

chapati with a clean cloth so that the chapati will be puffed

Now our chapati is ready to be served, I have served my chapati with sardine peratal

Eggless Brandy Prune Cake

Lately I have been so tempted to bake cakes, today's cake I baked for our potluck party at office tomorrow, which have been requested by my best friend Hanan. He asked me to add Brandy to the cake, I have never tried baking any cake with rum or brandy before. So for that I have altered my previous Egg-less Prune Cake accordingly, click here for step by step pictorial.

Let's look at the recipe now;

Ingredients:

1 cup of mashed prune

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of canola oil

1 tsp allspice powder

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tsp nutmeg powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup of Brandy

A pinch of salt

1 cup of water (save water from prune boiling)

Sift flour, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg powder and baking soda, set aside. Add 1 tbsp of Brandy to mashed prune and let it marinate for 30 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, pour oil add sugar mix well then fold in the dry ingredients. Add vanilla extract and salt, now add the mashed prune mix well. Finally add in the water with balance 1 tbsp of Brandy mix well and pour the batter in baking pan and bake at 150 degree for 40 minutes. 

The temperature and baking time depends on the size of your baking pan and most importantly your oven, I have used 8 inches baking pan. Revert the cake on a cooling rack and cut into desired size an d now our Egg-less Brandy prune Cake is ready to be served.

Do try this recipe and let me know if you like it.

Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

5 pcs chicken (cleaned)

1 onion sliced thinly

3 cloves of garlic

1 cu of chopped cabbage

1 tsp of pepper powder

1/4 tsp of turmeric powder

1/2 tsp of salt

3 cups of water

Mix all the ingredients above and bring to a boil until the chicken is completely cooked, I didn't use any oil because chicken will release oil, our chicken soup is ready to be served. 

This soup is very filling and healthy for everyone and most importantly its easy to be prepared.

Chicken Peratal Fried Rice

What a dish is this? You might be wondering, what actually this dish all about....nothing special but I made this dish with left over Chicken Peratal, click here for the recipe...just added cooked rice and stir fried it. You wouldn't want to waste delicious dishes right.....

Do try this dish, it's easy and extremely delicious!

Chicken Peratal

Chicken is something I will never get bored of, even if served with chicken everyday I would love to eat but not the same dish everyday. I love to try different recipes, it has been so long I have never cooked 'Rendang (it's a Malay Cuisine) but I have incorporated rendang and Indian style peratal for my dish today.

No much alteration done to the rendang or peratal, I have just added 'Kerisik' (coconut grated, toasted and ground to paste). 

Google Image

Now let's look at the recipe and how to cook this dish;

Ingredients:

500g of chicken (cut into small pieces)

2 onion sliced

1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste

1 sprig of curry leaves

2 bird eye chili (slit)

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

2 tbsp of kerisik

3 tbsp of meat masala

1 tbsp of dry chili powder

1 tsp of turmeric powder

1/2 cup of water

1 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Marinate chicken with turmeric powder and salt for 10 minutes, then fry the chicken until it's almost cooked and keep aside.

Mix meat masala, chili powder and some water to form the masala into paste and set aside to use later.

In a pan, pour oil add curry leaves and let it fry for a minute and add cinnamon stick, star anise, onion, ginger garlic paste and bird eye chili fry for until onion turns translucent. 

Add masala paste and fry for a minute before adding water, let this mixture simmer for 10 minutes. Add the fried chicken and let it cook further for about 5 minutes, now add the kerisik and let the gravy thickens.

Adding kerisik will give a wonderful aroma and taste, adding this to the gravy will thicken it. Adjust salt and sugar to your preference and turn off the flame and our Chicken Peratal is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out.

Egg Sandwich

My friend Rina and other colleagues planned for a potluck lunch today, we had Chicken Varuval, Sothy, Chutney, Idiappam, Brandy Prune Cake, Egg Sandwich and Vanilla Ice Cream. Rina brought Chicken Varuval and it tasted so delicious, I had two helpings of it since I was on protein diet. I will get the recipe from her and try it one day.

Now coming to what I made, Brandy Prune Cake and Egg Sandwich. I know you might be thinking why I made cake and sandwich for lunch, simply because I don't really adhere to rules, do I? Actually lunch was stretched to Tea....so cake and sandwich was for tea, now let us look at the recipe;

Ingredients:

Few slices of bread 

3 hard boiled eggs

3 tbsp of mayonnaise

A pinch of pepper

A pinch of salt

Butter to spread on the bread

Cut off all the brown edges of the bread

Spread a thin layer of butter on one side of the bread

In a bowl mash the boiled egg with mayo, salt and pepper and spread the filling 

on the bread, I have cut the bread into two and spread the filling, 

you can even cut into triangle or any other shape that you prefer.

Now our egg sandwich is ready to be served

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Simple Fish Fry

Fish is a very healthy source of protein, my mom does a very simple fish fry and this is very suitable to have with rasam, sambar, fish curry or even on its own. It must be eaten while its still hot and juicy. Let us look at the recipe and how to make this.

Ingredients:

250g of fish chunks

2 tbsp of fish masala powder

1 tsp of ginger garlic paste

1 tsp of black pepper powder

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Marinate fish chunks with ginger garlic paste, salt, fish masala,

pepper powder, and sprinkle some water

Fry fish in hot oil until it turn golden brown, fish need not to be 

fried for very long as it cooks very fast

Remove the fried fish from oil and drain on a kitchen towel,

Ta da our simple fried fish is ready to be served

Do try and let me know how was it!!

Pan Seared Lamb Burger

Hello everyone how are you doing today? I'm sure all of you are in pink of health and happiness, this  is simply because it's Friday. Wooo Hooo...who doesn't like Friday, almost 90% of us wait eagerly for it.The next whole week would be a boring one for me because my husband went on an overseas business trip and that's nothing I would love about this weekend. 

I'm just trying to make the next few days a busy one by keeping myself fully occupied so that I wouldn't be sad thinking about being far apart from my husband. Luckily I have my brother here to accompany me even though he's very busy with his studies and part time jobs. Okay let's move on, I don't want to be carried away with my feelings. 

I have made Lamb Burger patties for dinner, since I don't take any carbohydrate based food now I have to find ways and means to make my daily meals as interesting as possible. I bought minced lamb and made burger patties for dinner, this is a basic and simple patty.

Come let us look at the recipe and how I made this burger....

Ingredients:

250g minced lamb

1 onion chopped finely

1 tsp black pepper powder

A handful of cheese powder

A pinch of salt

Take minced lamb in a bowl

Add the cheese powder to the minced lamb

Now add in chopped onion

Add in pepper powder and salt, mix all the ingredients added and form patties,

you can add egg and corn flour to bind the meat but I didn't want 

any extra calories from it so I didn't add

Pan sear the burger patties on a pan, I did not add any additional oil/ butter

Cook both sides of the patties evenly for about 5 minutes on every side,

I even pour off the excess oil released by the meat

I have added cheese slices on top of the patties, serve with mayonnaise and mustard 

sauce or you can serve with any other sauce of your choice,can you see the juice
oozing from the patties that shows how juicy and succulent the meat was

Do try and let me know how it turned out for you, happy trying!!!

Parupu Sambar/ Dhall Curry

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of mysore dhall (soaked)
1/2 cup of bombay dhall (soaked)
1 white marrow chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 tomato chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp meat curry powder
1/4 cup of coconut milk
Salt to taste

Tempering:
1 onion chopped
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp mixed tempering seeds
2 dried chili

Pressure cook both the dhall with a cup of water so that you won't be wasting so much of time getting it soft by cooking it in a conventional pots. Once soft, add marrow and carrot, let it cook for another 5 minutes, now add garlic, tomato and let it simmer in medium flame.

When the all the above are simmering add meat curry powder and boil until all the gravy comes together forming thick consistency. Pour in coconut milk into the gravy, adjust salt to individual taste and remove the cooker from flame.

So for tempering, pour oil in a small frying pan add the tempering seeds let it crackle, now add dry chili, curry leaves. Then add the chopped onion and saute until onion turns slightly brown. Now add this tempering to the above sambar.

Now our Parupu Sambar is ready to be served, enjoy!

This is the tempering seeds that I have used which consist of 

mustard seeds, fennel, cumin, ulunthu and fenugreek seeds.

Modhagam/ Modhak

This year Vinayagar Chaturthi is a special one for me because, I have made Modhagam on my own. The shape wasn't as good but the taste was nice, my husband said appearance is not important but your intention is more than anything. Okay let me take you through with what I have done, I'm sure you all have your own recipes inherited from your family.

Ingredients:

For Pastry:

250g rice flour (dry roast)
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp of oil
Water as needed

Mix all the ingredients above and knead the dough to a soft, smooth and pliable texture. Make lemon sized balls and keep aside to fill with the dhall filling later.


Filling:

200g of dhall/lentils (soaked)
100g of grated coconut
1 cup of jaggery/ palm sugar
1/4 cup of water
A pinch of salt

Boil the soaked dhall until soft and drain the water, set aside.

Dry roast the grated coconut

Add the boiled dhall and mix well with the grated coconut

Mix jaggery/ palm sugar and salt with water and pour into the dhall-coconut mixture

Let the filling simmer and water evaporates thus become dry, 

make into small lime sized balls

Now take a lemon size pastry, flatten it and place in the balled filling,

cover and shape like mothagam

Steam the mothagam for 10- 15 minutes and its ready to be served

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Vinayagar Chaturthi

HAPPY VINAYAGAR CHATURTHI EVERYONE

OM GAM GANAPATHAYE NAMAHA

Eggless Prune Cake

I love prune so much, I still remember of my schooling days when mom buys prune, I will be the first person to open the package and eat it. Even before others realize mom bought prunes, I would have finished quarter of its content. I'm a notty girl....

I had a box of pitted prunes unopened from last week and wanted to try something new, prune cake would be the best dish to try. Today the moment I woke up, I began searching for the recipe and found Ree Drummond's blog The Pioneer Woman Cooks. OMG, I just love what I saw there, she shared her great grandmother Iny's Prune Cake recipe.

Ree, I'm very sorry for making some alterations to your recipe, as I made changes according to my family's taste.  I baked an eggless Prune Cake, but all the credit goes to you and not forgetting your great grandmother Iny. My husband loves the cake and asked me to bake this cake again soon.

We just love the taste of the spices added in this cake and not forgetting the prune.Thank you so much for sharing it with everyone, Ree. For those of you whose looking for the original recipe from Ree please click here. Okay without wasting anymore time let us look at how I have baked Ree's Great Grandma Iny's Prune Cake.

Ingredients:

1 cup of prunes
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of canola oil
11/2 cup of flour*
1 tsp baking soda*
1 tsp nutmeg powder*
1 tsp allspice powder*
1 tsp cinnamon powder*
1 cup of prune flavored yogurt
1 cup of hot boiling water
1 tsp vanilla essence

Boil the prunes for about 10 minutes to soften the prunes

for easy mashing moment

Drain the water and mash the cooked prunes with a fork, you don't have to 

mash everything too smooth, do leave some chunks for better texture

In a separate mixing bowl pour oil, sugar and mix well, you don't have to use a mixer to incorporate this cake mixture, using wooden spatula is sufficient. The recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar but I have reduced to half a cup because the prune is sweet and I have added flavored yogurt.

Then sift all the dry ingredients marked * and stir into the sugar and oil mixture

Add mashed prune, prune flavored yogurt and hot boiling water to the cake mixture,
Ree have used buttermilk but I substituted with yogurt and water.

Pour the cake mixture in a 8' buttered cake pan and bake at 150- 170 degree for 30-40 minutes depending on your own oven. Mine I baked at 150 degree for 35 minutes

Our Egg-less Prune Cake is now cooling and can be served once you remove it 

from the mould. Ree  iced the cake with icing which I didn't do as this cake 

is so delicious and so nice to eat even without the icing.