Monday, October 31, 2016

Paneer Chocolate Burfi/Chocolate Kalakand

Diwali means loads of savouries and sweets, i cant imagine celebrating this popular Festival of lights without some sweets. Obviously i will look for easy sweets which need less time to whisk and enjoy. Burfi is one of quickest sweet we make with less efforts, i have already prepared varieties of burfis though my today's post is also one among a recent trial prepared with homemade paneer and dark chocolate powder.  This burfi tastes extremely delicious and stays absolutely prefect for a week if conserved properly in fridge. Paneer plays an important role in this fantastic sweet and this burfi takes hardly less than 15minutes to get ready.

Paneer chocolate Burfi, Chocolate Kalakand

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Parboiled Rice Cashew Murukku/Munthiri Puzhungal Arisi Murukku

Usually murukkus aka chaklis is prepared easily with less efforts with store bought rice flour, though they can prepared with soaked and grounded parboiled rice aka puzhungal arisi (parboiled rice is called as puzhungal arisi). Usually grounded thick, this parboiled rice is mixed with roasted gram flour, which is spiced and flavored with grated coconut, cumin seeds, butter and salt. I do this parboiled rice murukku quite often, but for a change, my today's recipe goes for an another rich ingredient. Yes i have opted for cashew nuts to make this incredible crispy beauties. Though the grinding part may call for time consuming, you can squeeze out this murukkus easily with less efforts.

Parboiled rice cashew murukku, Cashew murukku

Friday, October 28, 2016

Boondi Pak/Boondhi Pak/Sweet Boondi Squares

Boondi pak, sounds interesting rite. This sweet is quite different one from the usual Diwali sweets we make out traditionally. Actually to be honest, this boondi pak is quite a delicious sweet which sounds almost like both Mysore pak and Boondi laddoo. Yes its an excellent sweet to give a try if you dont have time or dont want to give a try to the usual Boondi laddoos. Am sure many of us have hardly tried laddoos with boondhi aka gram flour based deep fried pearls as this sweets are not that much easy to make if we dont know how to succeed the sugar syrup consistency. Trust me this Boondi pak doesnt need the sugar syrup consistency, yes you heard it rite. With tiny deep fried gram flour pearls aka boondis you can dish out this sweet boondi squares with less efforts than you can imagine.

Boondi Pak,Boondhi Pak,Sweet Boondi Squares.jpg

Goru Meetilu/Goru Mittai - Andhra'sTraditional Sweet

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous Diwali, the popular festival of lights. Am sure all will be busy in dishing out sweets and savouries to share with all your loved ones. Even am busy in preparing as well. Who will say no if you get a chance to try your hands with a Traditional sweet from Andhra,and not to forget Andhra cuisine is one of the richest cuisine of India where still so many traditional dishes have their important place. Am sharing an interesting sweet from this region of India which is delicious, dangerously addictive and very easy to make with simple ingredients. Actually i crossed this sweet two days back in one of my fellow blogger Padma's space and immediately this sweet dish tempted me to give a try. Since i was searching for a different sweets for my diwali sweets i couldnt resist to make this Goru Meetilu aka Goru Mitai. Padma says that this sweet gets its name from the way its is shaped. Yes Goru means Nail in Telugu, since this sweet is shaped completely with thumb finger, this sweet is named as though.

Goru Meetilu, Goru Mittai.jpg

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Surti Butter/Buttery Jeera Biscuits/Batasa

Surti Butter, its definitely an interesting baked goodies to give a try if you love something savoury. I never heard about this Surti butter before and i tried my hands for the first time. I baked this Surti butter for this month's We knead to Bake, a baking event by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and this dish is suggested by Madhuli Ajay.Do you know this Jeera Butter Biscuit are very popular tea time snack sold in most of the bakeries or in Irani tea houses in India. These biscuits are small, crisp,dried bread buns with a light texture. Trust me, this rich cookies are excellent munchies to enjoy as a fabulous accompaniment to enjoy with Indian masala chai or to go well with a bowl of soups. This recipe is from Crumbs! Bread Stories and Recipes for the Indian Kitchen by Saee Koranne-Khandekar, Madhuli Ajay pulled us to bake out these rich cookies.

Surti butter,Jeera butter biscuits

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Sago Vathal/Javvarisi Vadam/Sago Fryums/Javarisi Vadagam

Summer came to an end a month before but still we are having some hot afternoon and chilled morning. However this climate doesnt affect our routine life and we are enjoying thoroughly this hot and chilled weather. You may wonder why am talking about the weather,yes my today's post is something very special which we never forget to prepare once a year while the weather is too hot. I have spent my summer vacation in India for the past two years and everytime i come back to Paris,i never forget to pack some homemade vadams/vadagams aka fryums prepared either by my MiL or by my sister. But this year, since i didnt visited India, i planned to prepare myself some fryums at home as we had super hot summer days. Obviously i gathered all the ingredients as i get small sized sagos aka tapioca pearls from Chinese stores as these tiny tapioca pearls suits prefect for making excellent puffing and crispy fryums.

Sago Sun Dried Vadam, Sun dried Sago Fryums

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Garlic Chutney Powder/Garlic Idli Podi/Poondu Podi

Spice powders have a long shelf life if they are stored properly in a dry and clean jar. Every month, i prepare couple of spice powders myself at home as i dont like to buy spice powders from stores. Idly podis,rasam podi,kootu podi and sambar podi have their important place in my cooking. Obviously every first sunday of the month, i dont forget to prepare small batch of all these spice powders. Nothing can beat this freshly grounded spice powders and homemade is always the best. I have already blog about many interesting Idly podis/chutney powders but still i have few more to post and one among those flavourful idly podis is this super aromatic Garlic loaded idly podi. This podi tastes absolutely fabulous when served along with hot steaming idlis or crispy dosas. Trust me, one can happily have two more idlies/dosas if you serve those South Indian breakfast dishes along with this idly podi.

Garlic Chutney Powder, Poondu Idli Podi

Monday, October 24, 2016

Pulikachal/Tamarind Rice Paste/Puliyodharai Paste/Puliyogare Paste

Am not a big fan of store bought spice pastes or readymade rice mix, but i love to prepare myself those humble spice pastes at home whenever time permits. Pulikachal aka tamarind rice paste is a must if you are planning to make Puliyodharai at home. However making pulikachal at home is definitely easy and this spice paste is seriously very handy whenever you doesnt have enough time to dish some tamarind rice with less efforts. This paste calls for tamarind extract which is tempered later with usual tempering spices and cooked with a spice mix to make it more flavourful. This is one of most popular ready mix easily available everywhere (departemental stores, sweet stalls, grocery shops or else even in hotels) especially in South India. Not to forget that this rice paste mix is definitely an excellent travel friendly spice paste to carry with as they stay prefect for almost more than 3 days in room temperature if conserved properly.

Pulikachal, Tamarind Rice Paste, Puliyodharai paste

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Black Sesame Sticky Rice Balls/TangYuan

My today's post is going to be something sweet, healthy and definitely nutritious with an excellent aroma. Black sesame sticky rice balls aka Tang Yuan is a sweet, chewy dessert prepared with sticky rice flour and a simple black sesame sugar. Though preparing this sticky rice balls is bit time consuming,trust me these cute balls are almost like South Indian Paal kozhukattai aka small rice balls cooked in sweetened coconut milk or milk. If you love Paal kozhukattai, then am sure you will love this incredible rice balls. This is the first time i picked sticky glutinous rice flour from Chinese store as i never been tempted to prepare dishes with this sticky rice flour. As i told earlier, am living in Chinatown and i get chinese ingredients easily as there are couple of chinese stores around my place.

Black sesame sticky rice balls, Tang Yuan

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Chinese Vegetarian Rice Congee/Brown Rice & Gai Lan Jook/Xi Fan

Congee is a savoury rice porridge which exists in many versions around the world. This dish is known as Jook by it Cantonese name, while in Chinese provinces it is known as Xi fan which means literally watery rice. This rice porridge aka congee is quite popular especially in many Asian countries and the word Congee is derived from Tamil language. Though people around the world follow different style of preparation, the final result always end as a thick porridge of rice after a long cooking process.Usually white rice is used in Cantonese congee with large amount of water until the rice breaks down as small pieces and turns thick. Often served with salted duck eggs, lettuce,pickled tofu, century eggs, meats with condiments, this dish makes an excellent meal to kick start a day.

Chinese Rice Porridge, Xi fan, Rice & Gai lan Jook

Monday, October 17, 2016

Chinese Pan Fried Baozi Buns/Chicken & Carrot Panfried Baozi

Chinese foods are our family favourite and seriously i enjoy their varieties of foods served in chinese restaurants. Am living in Chinatown and obviously i dont need to run or search for chinese ingredients, just few minutes walk i have couple of chinese stores to hunt those specific ingredients to dish their dishes easily at home. And this week is going to be some delicious chinese foods i have dished out for this week's blogging marathon as this week's theme is 'Homemade Chinese Take Away Foods'. Srivalli gave this Buzzfeed link to try our hands to make out some incredible chinese foods at home. While going through this link, most of this take away friendly chinese foods tempted me a lot, obviously i couldnt resist to give a try to this ultimate baozi buns. As an ardent fan of Chinese foods, i was literally drooling over all those beautiful dishes and seriously i was struggling to pick three delicious dishes out of those 28 dishes the link shared.

Chicken Carrot Baozi, Panfried Chinese Buns

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Rajma Ola Pakoda/Rajma Ribbon Pakoda/Red Kidney Beans Ribbon Murukku

Deepavali is celebrated all over India either during the month of october or in November, but this time this festival falls on 30th ocotober, we just have two more weeks to celebrate the festival of lights.Fortunately this year, Diwali falls during weekend and obviously am so excited to prepare many savouries and sweets to celebrate this festival of lights. Though am bit tighted up with my full time job, am trying to plan to make some during the week end.and waiting eagerly for wednesday as its going to be here holidays. As like every year, i miss terribly celebrating Deepavali in India, its been almost 23years now, i always miss the fun and celebration of this festival as like every year. However its better to celebrate in our own way with some homemade savouries and sweets for the occasion.

Rajma Ola Pakoda,Rajma Ribbon Pakoda

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Moroccan Msemen/Moroccan Square Shaped Rghaif Pancakes

Hope you all enjoyed some dangerously addictive Filipino flatbread aka Piaya virtually, my today's post goes to Morocco. Moroccan Msemen is well known as a square shaped pancakes or crepes which is made with fine quality of semolina and plain flour. Msemen, this flaky pancakes are eaten for breakfast and also during the evening snacks with Moroccan mint tea. Do you know, the word Msemen means Oiled in Arabic, as this flaky pancakes calls for oil while preparing and also for cooking.This oil riched Msemen resembles as much as like our South Indian flabread, especially Roti parata in Singapore and Roti canai in Malaysia. This moroccan pancakes if rolled in square shape, this pancakes are called as Msemen, if its rolled round then its called as Meloui, sounds interesting na. However this Moroccan flatbread tastes fabulous when served along with honey or else simply with butter,sugar or cream cheese.

Moroccan Msemen, Square Shaped Msemen

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Piyaya/Piaya/Muscovado Flatbreads

After Yemeni flatbreads, am taking you all to Philippines, yes Piyaya or piaya is a sweet unleavened flatbreads which is quite popular in Filipino Cuisine. This flatbreads are filled with muscovado sugar aka unrefined cane sugar. This flat bread is one of the most well known street food in Philippines, especially in Bacolod in Negros where most of the sugar from Philippines comes from. This Piaya makes an excellent evening snacks to serve along with a cup of tea or coffee. This Filipino unleavened flatbreads calls for a super soft crust with a fantastic syrup from the sugar which gives a distinct texture to every bite of this flatbread. Sesame seeds are sprinkled while rolling this flatbreads, which gives a nuttiness to this delicious flatbreads.

Piaya, Muscovado Flatbread

Monday, October 10, 2016

Saluf/Salouf - Yemenite Traditional Flatbread

Saluf/Saloof is a traditional Yemenite flat bread which is baked in Taboun oven. This incredible flatbread is definitely an excellent dish to give a try, if you feel like having a different flatbread. When i went through this post, i completely fallen in love with this interesting flatbread. Actually a wet dough of saluf is slapped against taboun wall, once its gets cooked this bread will fell down off. To prepare this flatbread, two techniques pf preparing the doughs do exists. Either prepare a sticky batter of this bread to do or else use less water to get a stiff dough and shape. If you are planning to make a wet dough, your salufs will definitely turns soft and puffy,though the stiff dough works awesome as well.


Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Kentucky Butter Cake/Kentucky Butter Bundt Cake

Kentucky Butter cake, if you are looking for a highly rich and super spongy pound cake like cake, then you should give a look at this fantastic cake. As the name says, this cake calls for butter as main ingredient. Obviously butter cake is baked with basic ingredients: Butter, sugar, eggs, flour and leavening agents (baking powder or baking soda). This cake is considered as one of the quintessential cakes from the list of cakes do exists in American baking. Butter cake sounds like the popular English pound cake which calls for equal amount of butter, flour, sugar and eggs. The spongy texture of the cake will definitely please anyone's tastebuds. Yes this cakes calls for creaming method in which the butter and sugar are beaten until they turns pale and fluffy to incorporate air into the butter.

Kentucky Butter Cake, American Butter Cake

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Cottage Pudding with Vanilla Sauce

If you a regular reader of my blog, you might have noticed that am posting some delicious American desserts as i picked 'Do either US states sweets or Indian states sweets' as theme for this week's blogging marathon. After some dangerously addictive Carnival funnel cake, am posting an another lipsmacking traditional American dessert. If you are looking for a different pudding, then you have to give a try to this fantastic American pudding. This pudding calls for a plain, dense cake served with a sauce or a sweet glaze.  Usually the glaze is prepared with cornstarch and flavored with sugar, vanilla,chocolate or else with a variety of fruit flavors like strawberry, lemon etc.

Cottage pudding with Vanilla sauce

Monday, October 3, 2016

Funnel Cake/Carnival Funnel Cake

After a month of blogging marathon, we are back to our routine three day's of blogging. Hope you all enjoyed thoroughly the last month protein rich foods. And this week's blogging marathon goes for 'Do either US states sweets or Indian states sweets. Though i want to make some Indian regional sweets, i couldnt stop myself to dish out some interesting US states sweets. When i was googling to know some regional American desserts, this funnel cake caught immediately my attention. While going through the recipe, i found that this cake calls for frying and the gadget used for making this dangerously addictive funnel cake is Funnel. Funnel is a tube or a pipe with a wide top and narrow bottom which is usually used to pour liquid or powder into a small opening.

American Funnel Cake,Carnival Funnel Cake

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Recap - 26 days of Cooking Carnival

If you are a reader or a follower of my blog, you might have noticed that am running a month of blogging for the whole month of september. We marathoners run a month of blogging twice a year and it happens during the month of April and September. This whole month blogging have specific theme and this time's theme was Cooking Carnival for 26 days with sundays off. Srivalli suggested to Pick an ingredient or a theme for a month or else an ingredient or theme for a week. Obviously i went with an ingredient for every week and i picked Dry Beans/Legumes as my star ingredient. I showcased a dry bean a week with different dishes out of them.

Initially i was very much interested to pick a theme for a month but later, my busy personnal life pulled me not to go with a theme. A month of blogging needs some pre planning, obviously i started preparing dishes very much earlier this time as i am working full time now. Yes my personnal life is getting very much busy hence my bloggy world took a back seat now. However blogging marathon helps me a lot to keep myself and my blog baby bit active, have to say a big thanks to Srivalli, the brain child of blogging marathon. Coming to this long blogging marathon, i showcased dry green peas, black-eyed peas, black beans, chickpeas and red kidney beans. Obviously if you want to try your hands with this protein rich and nutritious dry beans, dont forget to give a look to my 26 different recipes i cooked out of different dry beans.

Here comes the recap of 26 days of Cooking carnival.

Dry Green Peas:

1) Baked Dry Green Peas Kebab/Mutter Kebab


2)Green Peas,Paneer & Mint Biriyani/ Pudina,Paneer & Peas Biryani


3)Green Peas Masala Chaat/Peas Chaat/Pacha Pattani Masala Chaat


Black - eyed Peas:

4)Vegan Hoppin' John/Meatless Hoppin' John


5)Vegan Black-eyed Peas Fritters


6) Vegan Black-eyed Peas Cakes/Black-eyed Peas Cornmeal Cakes


7)Black-eyed Peas & Watermelon Rind Kootu


8)Black-eyed Peas & Vermicelli Pakoda


9)Vegan Black-eyed Peas & Rice Cutlet/Lobia Tikki


Black Beans:

10)Vegan Black Bean & Potato Empanadas


11)Black Bean 'Meatless' Balls/Vegan Black Bean Balls


12)Black Bean Cheese Burger/Vegetarian Cheese Burger


13)Cheesy Black Bean Soup


14) Garlic & Cheese Black Bean Pull Apart Bread/Black Bean Monkey Bread


15)Black Bean Cilantro Lime Rice/Vegan Black Bean Lime Rice


Chickpeas:

16)Chickpeas Quinoa Tabbouleh/Vegan Chickpeas Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad


17)Chickpeas Pesto Thin Crust Pizza


18)Tuscan Mashed Chickpeas/Cheesy Chickpeas Mash


19)Chickpeas Couscous Paella/Vegan Chickpeas Paella with Couscous


20)Chickpeas Shami Kebab/Vegetarian Channa Shaami Kebab


21)Halabessa/Halabisa/Egyptian Chickpeas Spicy Soup


Rajma/Red Kidney Beans:

22)Rajma Sundakkai Vathal Kuzhambu/Kidney Beans Dry Turkey Berries Gravy


23)Rajma Rasmisa/Red Kidney Beans In Onion-Tomato Masala


24)Arroz Congri/Vegan Cuban Red Kidney Beans Rice


25)Rajma Soya Keema/Vegan Rajma Soya Kheema/Minced Soya & Kidney Beans Curry


26)Rajma Masala Sundal/Red Kidney Beans Masala Sundal


Hope you all enjoyed virtually 26days of Cooking Carnival, dont forget to bookmark and start cooking with these nutritious beans.