Chippi/ Green Gram Cookie

Wow there's only two more weeks for Diwali, I'm sure many of you are very busy preparing for the celebration. From shopping for new clothes, painting house, cleaning house, preparing cookies especially traditional ones. Okay, I have started mine by making cookies that have been order by my friends and other customers, to name a few Chippi, Almond London, Sooji cookies, Pineapple tarts, Chocolate chips cookies, Peanut cookies and a few others.

Today I made Chippi, this is my mom's signature cookie many relatives of mine loves this, usually this is the one which finishes within a week. This doesn't take much of your time if anyone assist you in making but I have done it alone and it took me around 45 minutes for four small bottles.

Let me share how did I make this Chippi;

Ingredients:

4 cups of rice flour

2 cups of green gram flour

1/4 cup of white sesame seeds

1 cup of coconut milk (thin)

2 tbsp of butter

2 tbsp of oil

5 cups of oil to fry the Chippi

Salt to taste

Dry roast rice flour and green gram flour, constantly stir it do not burn. Keep aside. Simmer coconut milk with salt, do not boil it. 

In a bowl add, dry roasted flour, white sesame seeds, and butter, mix well then slowly add the coconut milk. Knead the dough well by adding the coconut milk little by little until a well mixed dough is formed. Apply oil to the dough and cover and leave for 5 minutes while preparing hot oil.

Take some dough according to your cookie press

Insert in cookie press and cover

Line some news paper and press the dough on it, like the picture above

Using a knife cut the dough into diamond shape

Collect all the cut dough and transfer into a plate

Now deep fry the dough in hot oil for 5 minutes or until the chippi turn golden brown, 

drain the chippi and let it cool before serving or storing in a container

Now our Chippi is ready to be served

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

I'm sending this recipe to Love2Cook Malaysia's Event Deepavali Delights 2012

                                      

Spicy Prawn and Potato Masala

Ingredients:

500g of prawns (peeled and deveined)

2 large potatoes (cubed)

2 onions sliced

1 tomato cubed

3 pcs of bird eye chili

1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste

1 sprig of curry leaves

1 tbsp of fish curry masala

1 tbsp of red chili powder

1/2 tsp of turmeric powder

1 tbsp of chili sauce

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp of oil

Salt to taste

1 cup of water

A bunch of coriander leaves 

Shallow fry the cubed potatoes until golden.

In a pan, heat oil add cumin seeds, curry leaves, ginger garlic paste and onion, stir until onion turns translucent. Pour water and add bird eye chili, fish curry masala, turmeric and chili powder and let it simmer and thicken. 

Once thicken add prawn, tomato and salt mix well with masala. Finally add fried potatoes and chili sauce. Now gravy will thicken further, then garnish with coriander leaves.

Our Spicy Prawn and Potato Masala is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how it turned out for you.

Chicken in Soy Sauce/ Ayam Kicap

Ingredients:

2 pcs chicken thigh (cut small)
1 tbsp of sweet soy sauce
1 tsp of thick soy sauce
1 tsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of chili sauce
1 onion diced
1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
5 bird eye chili (slit)
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1/4 cup of water
Oil to fry

Lightly fry chicken to golden color, keep aside.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil add cinnamon stick, star anise, ginger garlic paste and onion fry for a while. Now add chili fry for a minute and add chicken with all three soy sauce and chili sauce. Mix everything well and pour water and let the gravy simmer and thickens.

Taste for seasoning, adjust if needed and now our Chicken in Soy Sauce is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Nasi Lemak/ Coconut Rice with Prawn Sambal

One food Malaysians can't live without is Nasi Lemak or Coconut Rice. Nasi Lemak is usually served with variety of dishes Chicken Sambal, Squid Sambal, Prawn Sambal, Anchovies Sambal, Hard Boiled Eggs, Fried Groundnuts, Fried Anchovies, Fried Eggs, Clams Rendang, Beef Rendang and many more to list down.

I have served my Nasi Lemak with prawn sambal, hard boiled eggs, fried groundnuts and fried chicken nuggets. Okay now let us look at how to prepare the rice for Nasi Lemak first;

Ingredients:

2 cups of rice (soaked and drained)
3 shallots finely diced
1 lemon grass sliced thinly
1 pc of ginger sliced thinly
1/2 cup of coconut milk
2 1/2 cup of water
5 pcs of cloves
1 tbsp of ghee
Salt to taste

I have used rice cooker to cook this. In a rice cooker, heat ghee and add all the aromatics (lemon grass, shallots, ginger, cloves) and fry for a minute. Add in rice, water and coconut milk with some salt to taste and cover until rice completely cooked. 

The rice should be fluffy and not too moist nor grainy. Let rice to cool and use chopstick or fork to separate the grains, let it cool down before using a spoon to serve the rice. Now our Nasi Lemak rice is ready to be served.

Prawn Sambal;

250g of prawns (soaked and drained)
3 large onions sliced
1 small piece of belacan/shrimp paste
30 pcs dried red chili (depending on preference)
1 tbsp of chili sauce
1 tsp of brown sugar
2 cups of water
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Blend shrimp paste, dried red chili and 1 onion with 2 cups of water until fine and set aside. I'm making a watery chili paste so that I don't have to add water later while cooking the sambal.

In a pan, heat oil, add balance 2 onions and fry for until onions turn translucent, now add the chili paste and let it boil and water almost evaporates. Now add the prawns and let it simmer, finally add salt, brown sugar, chili sauce and let the sambal thickens.

I have added 30 pcs of dried red chili because I prefer it spicy, you can reduce if you can't consume very spicy sambal.

Now our prawn sambal is ready to be served with Nasi Lemak, garnish with hard boiled egg, fried groundnuts and what ever you prefer to go with Nasi Lemak..

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Pumpkin Puree

Halloween is a festival full of fun, not that I know or have celebrated before but that's what I can see when watching movies about it. Children in creative costumes and 'trick or treat' activity, carving pumpkin into Jack 'O' Lantern, playing pranks and watching horror movies. So I'm celebrating this year virtually by cooking some Halloween dishes, let me start with Pumpkin Puree.

It's very easy to make Pumpkin Puree...most of us do it often for others dishes. I have cut one medium pumpkin into two and pressure cooked with 2 cups of water for 5 whistle. You don't have to remove the skin as once you pressure cook the pumpkin the skin will scald off. Drain and let it cool.

Let pumpkin cool down, then pulse it in blender without adding any water until you get smooth puree. You can freeze this puree until usage or make immediately for baking or cooking. It takes less than 30 minutes the whole preparation of this puree.

Very easy isn't it. Now our Pumpkin Puree is ready to be included in baking.

Fish Roe Varuval

Fish Roe is my favorite, those days my dad used to buy fish roe every week, mom will add to fish curry and cook. It will be very soft and yummy but after some time it was so difficult to get, the moment I saw fish roe in supermarket today I never think twice and bought a few pieces. I made varuval with this fish roe, the steps are simple but requires three types of cooking-boiling, frying and stir fry with masala. 

Ingredients:

500g of fish roe

1 onion sliced

1 tsp cumin seed

1 tsp fennel seed

1/4 cup of grated coconut

1 1/2 tbsp of fish curry powder

1 1/2 tbsp of dry chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 sprig of curry leaves

1/2 tsp tamarind paste

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp of soft brown sugar

1 tsp of chili sauce

1 cup of water

5 bird eye chili

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Boil fish roe until its firm, drain and cut into smaller pieces

Shallow fry the boiled roe

Use the same oil that have been used to fry the roe, now fry ginger garlic paste,

onion, curry leaves, bird eye chili, fennel and cumin seed

Add in fried roe and pour water, let it boil

Add curry powder, chili powder, turmeric, tamarind paste, salt let simmer

Add brown sugar, chili sauce and let gravy thickens

Dry roast grated coconut and keep aside

Add roasted coconut and let gravy completely thicken 

Now our varuval have dried up and ready to be serve

Now our Fish Roe Varuval is ready to be served

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

Do join my event Halloween 2012

Brown Sugar Kesari

This is the last dish I made for Navrathri, Brown Sugar Kesari. I always prefer to use soft brown sugar for cooking as it gives better taste compared to white sugar. Brown sugar is less sweet compared to white sugar meaning 1 cup of white sugar is equal to 2 cups of brown sugar, that's how I would compare the sweetness of both these sugar. So I usually use only half cup or 1 cup of brown sugar to substitute for white sugar to bring down the sweetness.

Okay now let's go to the recipe now;

Ingredients:

1 cup of sooji/ semolina
10 pcs cashewnuts
10 pcs yellow raisin
1/2 cup of coconut milk (thick)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
Few drops of yellow coloring
1 cup of water
2 tbsp of ghee

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of ghee and fry cashews and raisin then add water and let it boil, then add brown sugar and salt. Turn flame to low and pour in coconut milk and let it simmer for about 2 minutes don't let it over boil as it will give oily taste.

Now add in  yellow coloring and sooji slowly, constantly stirring  to avoid clumping. Mix everything well, finally add in balance ghee and mix well. Place Kesari mixture in any mould or tray then cut into desired shapes and serve.

Now our Brown Sugar Kesari is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how was it.

Do join my event Halloween Recipes 2012

My 100th Post and a Give Away

Its a happy day for me as I'm celebrating my 100th Post, 100th likes and 10000 views of my blog, very nice numbers for my blog and me. Come let's celebrate together with me, by sending in your recipe for Halloween 2012, it could be any dish you wish to link to this page. Rules are very simple, you can cook;

1.Any vegetarian or non- vegetarian  Halloween dishes.

2.Usage of Logo is a must and do link the post to my blog.

3.This event is open to everyone but give away is only for friends who are staying in Malaysia,
   Singapore and India.

4.ONE winner for each country will be randomly chosen and their gifts will be sent out by courier,
   don't worry you are ensured of gifts that you can use for your cooking.

5.You have to like my page in Facebook, be my follower and leave your comment when you are done
    by stating which country you are from.

6.You can send as many recipes as you wish and winners will be announced on 24th November 2012.

Halloween Recipes 2012

Now let's go to my dish today Pottukadalai Urundai/ Roasted Gram Sweet Balls

This is a very simple sweet I made for Navratri but didn't have time to post it, so I'm sharing with you all today. I have tasted this many years back when my mom made it and after that I didn't make or try it anywhere else. Let's see how I made this;

Ingredients:

1 cup of roasted gram/ pottukadalai

1/4 cup of jaggery/ palm sugar

1 cup of water

A pinch of salt

Bring to a boil jaggery, water and salt

Wait until the mixture bubbles

Let the mixture thickens and form 1 string concentration

Add pottukadalai and mix well

See how the jaggery coating the pottukadalai

Let the mixture cool for few minutes and roll into small bite size balls

Now our Pottukadalai Urundai is ready to be served, do try and let me know how it turned out!

Sabudana Vada Guest Post by Vimitha

Ever since I have started blogging, I have got so many blogger friends who support me by faithfully visiting my blog every time I post a new recipe. One of the dearest blogger is Vimitha from My Culinary Trial Room, I love her blog because she has wonderful pictures with different varieties of delicious recipes. When I have requested her to do a guest post for my blog, she whole heartedly said yes and told me will message to me the recipe very soon.

I was so happy when I received her recipe today and told her will post this recipe as soon as possible. It's a wonderful recipe and I would love to try the recipe very soon, I looks so delicious and mouth watering. Now let's read what she has to say about this guest post and recipe in her own words. Thank you so much dear for this recipe, I'm loving it.

Vimitha@ My Culinary Trial Room

To those who do not know me, I am Vimitha and I blog @My Culinary Trial Room. A software engineer by profession, I never knew that even I would have cooking genes in me and I didn't even think about giving it a go until I got married and moved in with my in-laws. Even then I dared to take up the job of my MIL's sous-chef only. When we moved out and I got my very own kitchen, cooking became a chore rather than a hobby and I starting taking baby steps in the art of culinary with the advise from my MIL and amma. I started trying different recipes to impress my huss. Recipes scattered around the house instigated me to make a journal out of them but then writing is my weakness and I didn't have the patience to jot down every ingredients in a diary. Then I got introduced to the world of blogging and I got hooked to it. Inspired by many, I started my own blog and here I am doing my very first guest post in a lovely space.

When Sumanarthy asked me to do a guest blog at her space, I did not have any reason to tell no. And when she said that the theme was navratri special, I was super excited since I had wanted to try the sabudana vada that is traditionally made for navrathri vrat / fasting season and what better time than this. The recipe is simple to put together but be sure to use good and fresh sago pearls or else the vada tends to burst when put in hot oil.

This makes a super crunchy snack for your tea-time. Crispy outside and soft inside, you can never say no to this. I would suggest eating this fresh out off the kadai as they tend to lose their crunchiness after some time.

~*What U Need*~ Sabudana / Javvarisi / Sago / Tapioca pearls - 1/2 cup Potato - 1, medium Roasted peanuts - 1/4 cup Rice flour - 1 tbsp Green chillies - 2 nos, finely chopped Chopped coriander leaves - 1 tbsp Curry leaves - 1 sprig Cumin seeds - 1/4 teaspoon Salt - to taste Oil - to deep fry

How I Made it:

Wash sago pearls and soak in water for 4 to 6 hours. Drain and set aside. Pressure cook the potato for 2 whistles. Cool, peel the skin and mash well. Peel the skin off the peanuts and blend to a coarse powder. 

Take the soaked sago pearls in a mixing bowl along with mashed potato and peanuts. Add rice flour, green chillies, curry leaves, coriander leaves, cumin seeds and salt. Mix well. Make small round patties from the mixture and arrange them in a plate. 

Heat oil in a kadai and fry the vadas till golden brown. Drain the excess oil using paper towel.

Serve hot with tea / coffee.

** My Notes:
If the mixture is not binding together, add extra rice flour and mix.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

Soy Sauce Tofu/ Tauhu Kicap

Ingredients:

3 firm white tofu (cubed)
1 tbsp of sweet soy sauce
1 tsp of thick soy sauce
1 tsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of chili sauce
5 bird eye chili (slit)
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1/4 cup of water
Oil to fry

Lightly fry tofu to golden color, keep aside.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil add cinnamon stick and star anise fry for a while. Now add chili fry for a minute and add tofu with all three soy sauce and chili sauce. Mix everything well and pour water and let the gravy simmer and thickens.

Taste for seasoning, adjust if needed and now our Soy Sauce Tofu is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Beetroot Stir Fry

Ingredients:

1 large beet root (cleaned and grated)

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 sprig curry leaves

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp coconut grated

1 tsp mushroom sauce

1 green chili (slit)

1 tsp oil to fry

Salt to taste

In a pan, heat oil fry mustard seed and let it splutter. Then add curry leaves, green chili, grated beetroot and stir well. Now add turmeric powder, salt and mushroom sauce mix everything together. 

Cook the beetroot until completely soft and add grated coconut, incorporate coconut with beetroot and our Beetroot Stir Fry is now ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!