Soft Idli

Idli have been my favorite dish I love since young, to be precise I used to have Idli as a substitute to rice. I can have idli for breakfast, lunch or dinner especially if I have spicy chutney or curry to go with it, chicken curry or mutton peratal which mom makes are the best combo for Idli. Now coming back to the recipe, nowadays people have the luxury of getting ready made Idli or Dosa powder in the grocery shop but nothing can beat home made stuffs.

Now let us check how I made this;

Ingredients:

4 cups of rice(soaked)

1 cup of white Urad dhall (soaked)

1 tbsp of fenugreek (soaked)

Salt to taste

Water to grind 

Clean and soak rice, white urad dhall and fenugreek for at least 6 hours,you can combine urad dhall and fenugreek together. After soaking blend rice, then urad dhall and fenugreek to a smooth batter, pour the batter into a big vessel or pot. Add enough water to get thick consistency of the batter not too watery. Then add salt and make sure you mix  the salt and batter using a clean hand. Cover the vessel or pot with a lid and let it ferment overnight.

The next day mix the batter well with a spoon, grease Idli pan and pour the batter to the whole and steam for 10-15 minutes or until its completely cooked. Now our Idlis are ready to be served.

My mom's recipe doesn't call for yeast or baking soda as some of my family member used to have stomach discomfort after having Idli with yeast or baking soda. So mom said to make sure the batter ferment perfectly, you have to let the batter to sit and ferment overnight at least for 10 hours.

Do try this easy peasy steps and let me know how it turned out!

Chicken in Spicy Soy Sauce

I love cooking for my family, because they love my cooking. Every time I go back to my parent's house they request me to cook especially my cousin, she loves almost all the dishes cooked with soy sauce so I cooked for her this dish. Compared to my previous Chicken in Soy Sauce this is a spicier version and people who love spicy dishes would definitely love this.

Usually she only have one helping but with dish she took second helping and said this dish is yummy and I don't mind having this dish every day. Now let us check how I made this dish;

Ingredients:

3 pcs of chicken whole leg (cut into small pcs)

1 tbsp of dry chilli paste

1 tbsp of oyster sauce

1 tbsp of light soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

5 pcs of bird eye chilli (slit)

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

2 tbsp of minced garlic

1 tbsp of corn starch slurry(optional)

1 large onion (sliced)

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

2 cups of water

Oil to fry

In a pan, heat oil and add cinnamon stick, star anise, onions, bird eye chilli, minced garlic and ginger garlic paste stir all this until fragrant. Now add chilli paste and chicken, mix well all the ingredient then pour water, let the ingredients boil and chicken almost cooked.

Now add in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and oyster sauce  and let the gravy reduce. Then add in the corn slurry if the gravy is not thick enough. Now our Chicken in Spicy Soy Sauce is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how was it!

Home-made Sambal

As you all know I do share many recipes on Malaysian Favorite Sambal dishes, this time I'm sharing with you how to make Plain Home-Made Sambal which you can add anything like eggs, prawns, chicken, fish, squid, tofu and anything you wish. This is a very simple recipe but its quite time consuming and needs a lot of patience to get the right consistency.

Now let's check how to make this;

Ingredients:

20 pcs of dried red chilli

1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste

2 large onions sliced

1 tbsp of chilli sauce

2 tsp shrimp paste

2 tsp of soft brown sugar

3 cups of water

2 tbsp of oil

Salt to taste

Blend together red chilli, 1 onion, shrimp paste and water until fine and smooth, keep aside.

In a pan, heat oil and fry onion until translucent then add ginger garlic paste, pour the blended items and let it boil until it reduces to half the quantity. Now add soft brown sugar, chili sauce, salt and let it completely thicken. The sambal should be thick and oil separated from the sambal, check for seasoning if you are happy with the taste then dish it out.

Now our simple Home-made sambal is ready to be served. Do try and et me know how was it!

Peppermint Chutney/ Pudina Chammanthi

This chammanthi is another favorite of mine, the taste of it I can't describe in words. I prefer to have this as a side for rice and dosa, the tangy, spicy and minty taste is just awesome. I learnt to make this from my mom and aunt, they usually grind this using ammi kallu (grinding stone). Now let's get to the recipe;

Ingredients:

2 cups of peppermint leaves

1 cup of grated coconut

A small piece of ginger

5 pcs of dried red chili

1 tbsp of tamarind paste

4 garlic pods
3 shallots
Salt to taste

Dry roast peppermint leaves, grated coconut, ginger, garlic, red chili and shallot until fragrant DO NOT BURN and let it cool for a while.

Then take all the above ingredients and grind using a ammi kallu or dry blend without adding any water, only if necessary just sprinkle some water while grinding. For step by step pictorial on chammanthi click here.

Now our Pudina Chammanthi is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Spicy Crab Masala

Crab is so delicious if cooked in the right technique, for me my mom is the best cook who cooks the crabs so deliciously. Mom makes it spicy and the aroma of crab masala travels throughout the house, just the gravy is enough to be eaten with piping hot plain rice. Every time my husband and me go back to my parents house he will definitely request my mom to cook Spicy Crab Masala.

Come let's join me to check this recipe;

Ingredients:

2 kg of crab (cut into small pieces)

2 large onions (sliced)

2 large tomatoes (chopped)

1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste

2 tbsp of fish curry masala

1/2 cup of coconut milk

1 sprig of curry leaves

1 tbsp of chilli paste

1 tbsp of tamarind paste

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

2 tbsp of oil

Salt to taste

Water as needed

Heat oil and fry cinnamon stick, star anise, curry leaves, ginger garlic paste and onion. Stir all these ingredients until onion turns translucent, then add tomatoes and fry until tomato turns mushy. Now add in the cleaned crab, fish curry masala, chilli paste, water and salt, let everything boil make sure you cook this covered.

Crab cooks very fast so do not cook for too long as it will be rubbery, we need soft and fresh crab meat which gives a sweet taste. Now add coconut milk, let it simmer for 2 minutes then add tamarind paste, simmer again for another 2 minutes then turn off the flame.

Now our Spicy Crab Masala is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how it tasted!

Mutton Pepper Fry

I cooked this dish so specially for Diwali for my mom as she don't eat chicken and loves mutton dishes a lot. I cooked this twice in a week during Diwali as the first time mom said she couldn't get enough of the dish as we served for visitors also. This dish is so spicy and delicious, the thick gravy best eaten as it is or with pepper rasam.

Now off to the recipe;

Ingredients:

1kg of boneless mutton

3 large onions (sliced)

1 tomato chopped small

2 sprigs of curry leaves

1 tsp of cumin seed

2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste

2 tbsp of meat curry masala

1 tbsp of coarse pepper powder

1 tbsp of chilli paste

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp of roasted coconut paste (kerisik)

1 cinnamon stick

3 star anise

3 cloves

1 tbsp of oil

Salt to taste

3 cups of water

A bunch of coriander leaves

I have used pressure cooker to cook mutton, clean mutton add turmeric powder, water and salt then pressure cook until 5 or 6 whistle depending on the tenderness needed. Once done drain the mutton and take out the excess fat on the meat, keep aside the mutton and save the water for later use.

In a pan, pour oil then add cinnamon stick, star anise, clove, curry leaves, cumin and fry for a minute. Then add ginger garlic paste, onion, tomato and let the tomato turn mushy. Now add mutton, meat curry masala, chilli paste, pepper powder and salt then pour 2 cups of water from boiling the mutton let all the ingredients incorporate well and the gravy reduces to half.

Once gravy reduced, add coconut paste and let gravy completely thicken. Adjust seasoning if needed and our Mutton Pepper Fry is ready to be served with a bunch of coriander leaves.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Chilli Coconut Chutney/ Chammanthi

I know that every family have their own style of making chammanthi/chutney, my family's favorite will be the thicker version that my mom and aunt grind using grinding stone. The taste of the chammanthi is so delicious, I can eat more than one dosa at a time. Okay without wasting any time let me bring you to the step by step pictorial on how to make Chilli Coconut Chammanthi;

Ingredients:

9 dried red chilli (depending on invididual preference)

1 cup of grated coconut

A small piece of ginger

4 garlic pods

3 pcs of shallots

Sugar to taste

Salt to taste

Dry roast dried chilli, ginger, garlic, shallots and let it cool for a while.

Firstly take grated coconut and grind coarsely

Now add all the dry roasted ingredients until fine

Now add sugar and salt

See perfectly ground chammanthi is ready

Collect the ground chammanthi to a ball

Now our Chilli Coconut Chammanthi is ready to be served, best eaten with hot idli and dosa

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

Spicy Cauliflower Pakoda

It has been a very tiring day working and driving back home because the traffic was so heavy, I just hate heavy traffic especially on the way back home. Today I have made very simple dishes Tilapia Fish  Deep Fried with Lip Smacking Sambal, Egg Sambal and Cauliflower Pakoda. I love Cauliflower cooked in any style, be it Chinese, Indian, Western or Malay.

I love spicy food so I made this pakoda slightly spicy, its best eaten just as it is that's how I have eaten. Now let me bring you to the recipe;

Ingredients:

1 whole cauliflower (cut into florets)

5 tbsp of wheat flour

2 tbsp of cornflour

1 tbsp of chilli powder

1/4 tsp of turmeric powder

1 tsp of cumin seed

Water to mix the batter

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Blanch cauliflower for a couple of minutes not until too soft, drain and set aside.

In a bowl mix wheat flour, cornflour, chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin seed, salt and mix with little water, we need not too diluted and not too thick batter. Marinate the blanched cauliflower in the above batter for at least 20 minutes.

Fry the marinated cauliflower until it turn golden brown and drain the oil. The fried cauliflower will be very crispy and delicious, now our spicy Cauliflower Pakoda is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it was!

Orange Flavored Chocolate Moist Cake

I have been planning to bake a cake for my colleagues today as I couldn't bring any of Diwali cookies, not because I don't want t share with them but I had only empty containers. We had given out cookies for relatives and neighbors who came to visit us. So for my colleagues I have baked an Orange flavored Chocolate Moist Cake, this is a very moist cake and it just melts in your mouth.

I have got this recipe from sis Love2Cook's blog, actually I planned to bake moist chocolate cake but while mixing the batter I saw Oranges in my fridge I thought of adding it to my cake, Orange and chocolate is a very good combo to go together. Now let us take a look at how to bake this cake;

Ingredients:

100 g of all purpose flour

50 g of dark cocoa powder

200 ml evaporated milk

50 ml of freshly squeezed orange juice

180 g of granulated sugar (I have used brown sugar)

1 tbsp of orange zest

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

180 g of butter

2 eggs

In a bowl sift all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder and set aside.

In another bowl, whisk butter and sugar until fluffy then add egg one by one and mix everything well. Then add vanilla extract, orange juice, evaporated milk and orange zest, mix everything thoroughly.

Finally add the dry ingredients that have been sifted little by little and mix well without any lumps. Grease a baking pan and pour the cake mixture into the pan and bake at 170 degrees for 45 minutes  (My oven calls for 150 degrees 30 minutes only).

Once baked cool the cake completely before applying any toppings to the cake. 

For Chocolate Ganache topping:

100 g of cooking chocolate
5o ml condensed milk

2 tbsp of butter

Double boil the cooking chocolate once melted add the butter for a glossy shine.

Prawn Masala (Less Spicy)

Prawn Masala is a very tempting dish, I would like to share my version of Prawn Masala which is thick and so delicious, not very spicy dish. Let us check how I made this;

Ingredients:

1 kg of large prawns (de-shelled and de-veined)
3 potatoes (diced)
1 large onion (sliced)
1 large tomato (diced)
1 tbsp kerisik (coconut paste)
1 tsp of turmeric powder
1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
2 tbsp of fish curry masala
1 tsp of dried chilli paste
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of fennel seed
1 cup of water
Salt to taste

Marinate prawn with turmeric powder and keep aside for later use.

In a pan, heat oil add cumin, fennel, curry leaves, ginger garlic paste and stir for a minute then add sliced onion, potato and tomato and  stir well, at this point add a pinch of salt.

Now add water and let the potato half cooked then add marinated prawns fry for a minute. Then add dried chilli paste, fish curry masala and kerisik, let the masala cook well and raw smell goes off. 

Let the gravy thicken and adjust seasoning, now our Prawn Masala is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Jam Roll Guest Post by Faseela Noushad

This is the third guest post by my fellow blogger friends, this post was by Faseela Noushad from Good Food Ends With Good Talk. I have requested her to do a guest post for me and she never said NO and said she was so glad to a post for me, despite being busy with many things she still managed to send me this recipe within a few days.

Faseela have been active in blogging world since 2011 and her recipes are very unique and tempting. I drool a lot looking at her clicks and thought it would be nice if she could share her wonderful recipe here in my blog. Okay now let us look how she made Jam Roll in her own word;

Thank you so much dear for letting me do a guest post for you. I was really confused which recipe will be good to send you at last stuck on jam roll. Hope you also liked the one which I am sharing with you. This is my first guest that is the reason I am so thrilled. 

Here goes the recipe dear,

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour: 1 ½ cups

Yeast: 1 tsp

Sugar: 1 ½ tbsp

Egg: 1

Warm water: as needed

Olive oil: 3 tbsp

Salt: as needed

Jam: to spread (I used Pomegranate Jam)

Method Of Preparation:

Separate the egg yolk and white. Use egg yolk while kneading and egg white to brush on top.

In a cup add yeast, sugar and ¼ cup warm water. Let it rest for 5-10 minutes or till it ferments.

In a bowl add wheat flour and salt. Add fermented yeast, 3 tbsp olive oil, egg yolk and warm water to it.

Knead to very smooth n sticky dough. Keep covered to about 1 hour or 

till it doubles the size.Take the dough and punch down the air.

Take the fermented dough to an oiled or floured counter and roll it flat to rectangle shape.

Then spread jam over it evenly.

Roll from one end to the other. Cut it into equal 5 or 6 parts.

Arrange in a greased baking tray by placing the cut end up.Brush the top 

with egg white. Keep it covered for another 30 minutes. Pre heat the oven 

and bake at 180⁰C to about 30-35 minute or till you get it done.

Cool on a wire rack. Delicious Bread Jam roll is ready to serve.

I have also attached a click of my son who was too busy taking 

photos of the roll while I am doing the same :)

Thank you so much Faseela for sharing this recipe with us, Jam Roll looks awesome!

Non-Dairy PanaCotta Guest Post by Sherin Deepu

I have been admiring Sherin Deepu @ Kuk's Kitchen ever since I got to know her through her blog a few months back, despite being a busy doctor she still seem to find time to cook for her family and most importantly maintain a wonderful blog of hers. Her blog is so well managed with mouth-watering and healthy recipes and her clicks will make you drool to have the dish on your plate.

When I contacted her to do a guest post for my blog she agreed right away and emailed me the recipe very quick. Sherin thank you so much for sharing this recipe with us. Now let us check what she has in store for us.

Let's read this recipe with her own words;

My son went through a phase of milk protein intolerance and I was trying to make his favorite desserts milk protein-free. I present here one such effort.

Ingredients for one layer:

Plain almond milk - 2 cups

Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1/4 cup

1 envelope powdered gelatin

Water - 4 tbsp

Method:

In a saucepan, combine the almond milk, vanilla and sugar. Turn the heat on and cook on medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer, stirring frequently.

Pour the gelatin into a small bowl and then pour the 4 tablespoons of water over the gelatin. Let sit until spongy, about 5 minutes or less.

When the almond milk mixture gives the first bubble, remove from heat.

Pour a small amount of the almond milk mixture in with the spongy gelatin, let sit for a minute and then stir. Pour the gelatin mixture back in to the saucepan containing the almond milk and stir until the gelatin is dissolved.

Pour the pannacotta mixture to a mould, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight to set up.

Serve with slices of peach and orange rind for that bite.

To get the layered effect.

Strawberry essence - 2 drops + Edible pink colour - 1 drop (or use strawberry dairy free powder)

Chocolate chips / powder dairy free - 1 tbsp

Mix the above portion with chocolate chips (or powder), pour in a mould and leave in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare a second portion of the panacotta following the above recipe again and mix in strawberry powder (or essence +colour) and mix well to combine. Pour this carefully over the set chocolate panacotta making sure not to disturb the bottom layer. Leave in fridge for another 10 minutes.

Now is the time to prepare a third portion of panacotta using the above recipe again, leave it plain and pour this over the second layer, carefully again. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in fridge for 8 hours or overnight.

Chocolate Jelly Pudding

Ingredients:

1 pack of jelly powder

2 tbsp of chocolate powder

1 cup of brown sugar

1 liter of water

500ml of milk

Add chocolate powder with milk and mix well, then in a pan boil milk and water then add jelly powder. Make sure the mixture is completely dissolved and no lumps in it. Add sugar and let it simmer until the mixture reduce a little.

Now pour the pudding mixture in preferred mould and let it cool before refrigerating it. Best eaten while its chilled.

Now our Chocolate Jelly Pudding is ready to be served. Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Healthy Chinese Style Mix Vege

Ingredients:

2 cups of Cauliflower (cut into florets)
1 pack of Holland Peas (cut into 2)
1 carrot (cut thinly into semicircle)
10 pcs of cashew nuts (optional)
1 tbsp of diced garlic
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of corn slurry
1 onion (sliced thinly)
1/4 cup of water
1 tbsp of oil
Salt to taste

In a pan heat oil and fry cashew nuts until golden and keep aside.

In the same pan, fry onion and diced garlic until fragrant, add Cauliflower, Carrot and Holland Peas and fry for a minute. Pour water, add in oyster sauce and salt, cover to cook for a couple of minutes. Finally add in corn slurry and stir well to incorporate with the veges to thicken the gravy.

Garnish with fried cashew nuts and our Healthy Chinese Style Mix Vege is ready to be served.

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

Simple Fried Sausage Salad

Diwali have been a huge celebration in my house, all sort of delicious dishes have been prepared for the past few days so to ease down our intestines my cousin made this dish. Its a very easy and simple dish and kids would definitely love it. Now let's check the recipe;

Ingredients:

5 pcs of chicken sausages (cut to small pieces)

3 tbsp of thousand island sauce (whisk well)

Oil to fry

Shallow fry the sausages and drain on a kitchen towel. Once excess oil is completely absorbed mix with thousand island sauce. 

Now our Simple Fried Sausage Salad is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how was it!

Ennailappam/ Nei appam

This is a dish loved by all my family members and also people who visit us during this day. I would like to share our family recipe with you all today. Lets check out the recipe;

Ingredients:

3 cups uncooked rice (soaked 4 to 6 hours)

600g of palm sugar (mix with water and strain)

Half coconut flesh (cut small)

Enough water to mix the batter

Salt to taste

Drain the soaked rice and dry blend and strain to get fine flour, keep the coarse grains for use later. Mix the palm sugar that have been soaked and strained with the rice flour and 2 tbsp of coarse grains. Add salt to the above mixture with some water to get thick batter consistency. Keep this mixture overnight covered.

This is how the coconut flesh supposed to be cut

The next day add coconut flesh to the mixture and fry in deep hot oil to get appam like this.

Keralan Briyani

The moment I saw this recipe in Sherin's Kuk's Kitchen, I told myself I'm definitely going to try this but I have made some changes to it. But no much changes but I didn't add chicken to this dish as the recipe calls for as we get a lot of vegetarians guests for Diwali. Sherin, thank you so much for sharing this recipe with everyone, the taste was awesome.

Okay now let's check the recipe;

Ingredients:

4 cups of rice 
6 pcs cardamom 
6 pcs cinnamon 
6 pcs cloves
1/4 cup of ghee 
4 large onions (sliced)

2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste

5 green chilli paste

15 pcs of cashewnuts

30 pcs of raisins

1/2 cup of yoghurt

5 cups of water

1 lemon (squeezed)

1 small can of crushed pineapple

A few drops of rosewater

Salt to taste

Coriander and mint (garnishing)

Dry blend masala:
1pc cinnamon 
6 pcs clove

1 tsp nutmeg

6 pcs cardamom 
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp fennel
10 pcs peppercones 

Dry roast and blend all the ingredients for masala and keep aside.

Fry raisins ans cashew nuts in ghee and keep aside. Fry sliced onion until crispy golden brown and keep aside.

I have used rice cooker to cook this dish, pour ghee and fry cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger garlic paste, green chili paste fry for a minute then add washed rice and fry together in the ghee. 

Pour water, yoghurt, lemon juice, rose water, crushed pineapple and let rice completely cook until fluffy. 

Finally add a few drops of saffron with milk and garnish with fried onions, cashews, raisins, coriander and mint leaves.

Now our Keralan Briyani is ready to be served, do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Muruku

It has been 10 days since I have updated my blog, I have been extremely busy with work,business and Diwali preparations. Today I found a few minutes to write a post early in the morning, nothing much to say so let me bring you direct to the recipe; 

Ingredients:

6 cups of rice flour

3 cups of ulunthu flour (urad dal)

1/4 cup of white sesame seeds

1/4 cup of cumin seeds

1/4 cup of ajwain seeds

4 cups of coconut milk

1 tbsp of salt

2 tbsp of butter

Oil to fry

Dry roast rice flour and ulunthu flour and keep aside. Simmer coconut milk with salt, until warm do not boil it.

Mix butter to rice flour,ulunthu flour, butter and add 1 cup of coconut milk

Add sesame seeds, cumin seeds and ajwain seeds to flour

Now add the rest of the coconut milk and knead dough well and apply some oil to the dough

Press dough into a close coil like design and keep aside

Arrange all the pressed dough on a tray to fry

Heat oil and fry the coils in hot oil and fry until golden

Strain the muruku and keep aside to remove excess oil

Now our muruku is ready to be served

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Im sending this recipe to Love2Cook's Event Deepavali Delights 2012