Eggless vanilla cupcakes - a new beginning

Another area where I did not wanna showcase are my cupcakes. Yes I do a lot of cooking, but baking somehow I dont feel that it can be mastered. Yet, this year, have decided to try many experiments in this area and conquer it also. So this is a batch of egg less vanilla cupcakes with a chocolate ganache frosting and silver balls to decorate them. This was for a little party and the kids loved em. So this little space of mine is gonna have a lot of baked goods starting from this year. Keep watching.

Baking cakes for near and dear ones

I started baking cakes for near and dear ones about a year ago, but have never dared to take a picture and showcase it... Seeing creations from various bakers at different forums, I dont even want to put up a picture anywhere. So this year I want to harness my baking skills and make sure that I share the pictures of the bakes that I recently did. After all everybody starts somewhere right. 

First among these, is a cake that I baked for a kuti darling niece of mine. It is an egg less butterscotch flavored cake with vanilla fresh cream frosting. Went ahead an tried to make a very amateur two tier cake. It was decent to look and tasted good. Should really appreciate my friends for having giving me the chance to bake a cake for their kid. She was excited to see the cake and made my day for sure

Second on the list is am egg less pineapple cake, with fresh cream frosting layered between finely chopped pineapple. This was a big cake which weighed about 3 kg. Had to bake two tiers separately and then used generous portions of fresh cream mixed with pineapple as the filling between them.

Last on the list but never the least, an egg less chocolate cake with ganache filling and sprinkles on top. This cake is special in many ways. I baked this for my mother on her birthday, baked it with my niece ( who is barely 4 years old) and sister and the icing was done by her using a spoon. The time I took from baking to cutting of the cake was flat 2 hours 10 minutes. My family relished the cake a lot. It was moist and chocolaty. Had fun making this cake

Chocolate mousse

One of the challenges, I set for myself in 2016, is to be regular on the blog and to try something out new, along with the day to day cooking dishes. I wanted to start of with a simple dish, A Chocolate Mousse. I have been reading a lot of blogs and see a lot of versions of this simple chocolate mousse.. 

Everybody, literally everybody likes chocolate in some or the other form. And when offered no one says no. Who can say no to silken, smooth, chocolate, that slides through you throat and cools your tummy.

This dish is a party pleaser. It can be made ahead of time, Very easy to make and only three ingredients...Fresh cream, Melted chocolate, silver sprinkles.

Ingredients 

Fresh Cream - 1 pack

Melted Chocolates - 1 1/2 cups

Silver Sprinkles for decoration

Method 

Whip fresh cream until it forms stiff peaks 

Store it in the refrigerator until you use it.

Melt chocolate in a microwave or on a double boiler .

Allow the chocolate to cool well, 

Mix it with the fresh cream in batches and chill it.

Pipe them into small cups and top it with a fresh cream blob.

Sprinkle silver balls for a classy finish

Put them back into the fridge and serve after dinner.

Enjoy the praises, as you enjoy a cup of the dessert

Viratha Prasadam

Ok today I have successfully completed one week in the monthly blogging marathon. It feels so good. Really a space that I was not able to give attention to and for which I made a resolution to work on religiously. Am proud of myself. A treat awaits me when I finish the other three weeks as well.

  Any viratham pooja we do at our home. This is the regular offering that is done. Its a platter to God, comprising of paal payasam , some vareity rice and crispy vadai. 

This was a platter i made for last year varalakshmi viratham poojai. Easy to make and put together. Though the recipes are already there on my blog I wish to write them again here. 

 Let me start of with lemon rice

Ingredients

Cooked rice - 1 cup

Juice of one lemon

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Salt to taste

Mustard seeds, Channa dal, Curry Leaves for tempering

Method

In a small bowl, take the juice of a lemon

Add a pinch of turmeric powder and salt to it

Keep aside

Cut green chilies into very small pieces

In a wok, add a little oil and saute some peanuts and cashew nuts.

In the same wok, add a little oil, 

When I mean little, its like one tablespoon, not more than that

When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, channa dal

Allow the mustard to sputter and channa dal to roast well

Switch of the heat

Add the lemon juice mixture

One should not heat the lime juice, as it will turn the tangy taste into a bad one 

Mix the cooked rice and fluff it a bit. 

Garnish with curry leaves and it is ready to serve

Masala Vadai 

Ingredients 

Channa dal - 1 cup ( soaked for 2 hours in warm water )

Finely chopped onions - 1/2 cup

Finely chopped chilies - 1 tbsp

Finely chopped curry leaves - 1 tbsp

Oil - for deep fry

Salt to taste 

Method 

Blend the soaked channa into a coarse paste

In a bowl mix the paste, onions and greenchillies along with required salt

Make small balls out of the batter and flatten them 

Heat oil in a deep wok, and drop the flat channa patties in the oil and fry them till golden brown

You can eat it as such or with coconut chutney

Pal Payasam

This is the most simple and easy dish that you can do.

There is no actual measurement to be used.

And no matter the measurement, it turns out to be a delicacy

Measurements I used

Cooked rice - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 cups

Milk - 4 cups

Cardamo powder a pinch

Roasted cashew and raisins ( optional )

Method

In a heavy bottomed vessel. mix the cooked rice and sugar

Bring it to a boil until the sugar dissolves

Add milk and let it boil well

Make sure the whole thing is done on low flame

This is to ensure that the condensation of milk happens as the flavor enhances

Dust in some cardamom powder and roasted nuts if you need to.

Else you can have it just like that.

New Year Lunch

New Year Day always calls for celebration at my place. Two reasons, one being my mother's birthday and two it is a time that the whole family comes together and spends the whole day. What is more better than kickoff the new year with your loved ones. Paati always says only if you spend less time in the kitchen can you spend time talking with our family and relatives, hence lunch during such days are always simple and tasty ones. 

This year was no different. We had the whole family gathered for New Year and the lunch was as follows.

Vendakkai Sambhar

Kerala Style Avial

Potato peas curry

Pudhina Thogaiyal

Tomato Rasam

Kerala Adai Payasam 

Appalam

My cooking has a heavy influence from the neighboring state of Kerala. Paati was born and brought up in Nagercoil, which is mini Kerala in TamilNadu. Hence the influence. 

Kerala Adai Payasam is a regular at home , so is the Avial as well. It is not a festival food alone, we make it atleast thrice  a month, when the fridge needs to be cleared of the excess vegetables that I have stocked up. 

Here in this post, we are gonna see two recipes. Vendakai Sambhar and Pudhina Thogaiyal

Vendakai Sambhar ( Lady's Finger dunked in spicy and tangy lentil soup )

Ingredients

Toor Dal - 1 cup
Red Chilli powder - 3 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Lady s Finger (chopped into 1 inch pieces) - 1 cup
Tamarind Pulp - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Curry leaves and Coriander leaves
Onion - 1/2 cut into thin slices
Oil and mustard seeds for tempering
Hing - a pinch

Method

Pressure cook the Toor Dal with Curry leaves, Coriander leaves and a pinch of Turmeric Powder
Slice the Lady s finger into 1 inch pieces and saute it in a little oil separately
Soak tamarind in half cup of water
In a heavy bottomed kadai, take some oil and heat it
When it is hot enough add the mustard seeds followed by curry leaves
After mustard seeds have sputtered add the sliced onions and saute well
Add the tamarind pulp, sauteed Lady's Finger, red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt
Mix well and let this mixture boil well till the raw flavor of red chili powder is gone
After about 15 minutes, add the boiled Toor Dal and adjust salt
At this stage add hing for flavoring. Be careful not to add more
Let the sambhar boil well, you will now be able to get the flavor of sambhar.
Went it is done, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.
                  

Pudhina Thogaiyal

Let me throw some light on the difference between thogaiyal and chutney. A little dry consistency of a chutney is thogaiyal. When we make a chutney, you need not worry about the amount of water that goes into it. As chutney is supposed to be in a runny consistency. But thogaiyal is to be a like a paste, It should be wet but not runny.

My mom would instruct me umpteen times, when I make a thogaiyal to make sure that I add very little water while grinding it in the blender.

This pudhina thogaiyal is a good combination to rasam sadham and thayir sadham. 

Ingredients 

Pudhina - 1 cup

Cilantro - 1 cup

Green chillies - 4 to 5 nos

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Salt - as per taste

     For tempering - Mustard seeds, Urad Dal and little oil

Method:
Wash thoroughly Cilantro and pudhina, let the water drip off. In a blender add all the ingredients except the ones for tempering and blend well.

Urundai kolambu

Wishing all my readers a very happy new year.. Its the year 2016 hence have a sweet sixteen year.. Age height weight are all numbers so let us loose all those and have a wonderful year ahead. 

Im blogging nearly after an year I guess. 2015 did have its share of ups and downs. A lot of changes in my life and relationships.. everything aside I look forward to a wonderful year ahead. 

New Year is all about a new outlook a new regime, new goals and a new hope for a better tomorrow. One of my goals for the year was to give more attention to the space that helped me grow in terms of my knowledge of cooking and the network that I got. It has been a great help. Its time I show gratitude to this space which gave me a platform to grow in the field of my dream and passion. 

To kick of the new year, I am penning about a dish that was taught by my grandmother. I always always cherish the time I spent with her. She was my mentor, in more than many ways. A child that enjoys the warmth, affection and care of grandparents are the most lucky ones. I was abundantly blessed in this. I owe all my cooking skills to my grandmothers. 

On to the recipe, this is a traditional parupu urundai kulambu, which my grandmother used to make. Most often when the whole family is bored of sambhar , rasam and poriyal type lunches. 

The taste of deep fried balls of dal and onion dunked in a spicy and tangy sauce, is just too enticing. These days we make the urundai batter in the mixie. My grandmother used to make it using a ammi kal. Which was much more tasty. Though time consuming the taste is definitely worth the effort..

Ingredients

Chana dal ( kadalai parupu ) - 1 cup

Finely chopped onions - 1/2 cup

Green Chilli - 2 nos

Red Chilli powder - 2 tbsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Oil to deep fry

Tamarind paste - 2tbsp

Mustard seeds and curry leaves for tempering

Method 

Soak the channa dal for about two hours in water.

Wash them well before soaking

After two hours, drain the water and coarsely blend it in a mixie or on an ammi kal.

In a bowl mix together the coarsely blend dal, onions, greenchillies and salt.

Mix well and make small rounds

In the meanwhile, heat a kadai with oil.

Deep fry the urundais in the hot oil and set it aside.

In another deep kadai, heat some oil 

Add mustard seeds and curry leaves for tempering.

When the seeds sputter add the tamarind paste, followed by red chilli and coriander powders

Adjust salt and let this come to a boil

Add the deep fried urundais when the sauce is done.

Serve hot with steamed rice and appalam. It is a perfect rainy day lunch. spicy , crunchy and tangy.