One Lovely Blog Award

Cardamom Hills and eatgreek have given me this award. thank you so much. i love the way in which this close-knit community of foodies continue to inspire each other!



I in turn pass it on to blogs of my choice. what i choose is not offhand. i REALLY LIKE my choices!

Apricosa (I love your recipes, all right. and i love your pre-recipe jingles to bits. you have the flair and strength to tempt us to your delectable recipes.)

Art Food and Travel Chronicles (The one and only reason i have: break that diet vow and happy blogging!!)

bostonfoodrules (For some of the best photography skills i've come across; and for mixing black and white and looking at money)

bigfatbaker (For the pumpkin delights and more)

Cardamom Hills (I CANNOT help but roll it back to you. you deserve multiples of this award!)

eatgreek (There's nothing nobler than turning to roots!!)

everythingsherbed (Ela, i love the rustic feel that i miss even in my own blog!)

feishannie (For leaving behind your profession to housekeep and blog!)

Hopie (I've been quietly following your neat and warm entries. also for being buddies on Shelfari!)

IndoChine kitchen (For the excellent colourful recipes)

intotheflames (For the brilliant versatility and the richness of your blog. man, the napa valley entry!)

yesim (For introducing turkish recipes uninhibited!)

yin (For the balanced variety of dishes and the interesting gadgets strewn all over your blog!)

yearonthegrill (For the originality and the authentic love of food your entries exude!)

squirrelbakes (For being a compulsive baker like me and being therapied by it!)

You can accept it pass it on to fifteen other bloggers of your choice.

Pineapple Jam Squares

I picked this straight out of Vanitha Magazine. i should say this mag has given me some of my best recipes along with a rich roster of thoroughly informative articles. i highly recommend this mag to all south indians.
I know that pineapple and coconut and chocolate and coconut is a great combo for desserts. and i didn't hesitate in trying this out. it turned out great. it reminded me of the pastries available in the local bakers! well, the photograph sports a pineapple jam rectangle but that was the first piece i cut for the photograph. you have to trust me; the rest are/were all squares :)

margarine or vanaspathi-1/2 cup
powdered sugar-1/2 cup
egg-2
maida-11/2 cups
baking powder-3/4 tsp
pineapple jam-3-4 tbsp

powdered sugar-1/2 cup (again)
grated coconut-1 cup
milk-1-2 tbsp
vanilla essence-1 tsp

Beat the margarine and half cup powdered sugar till smooth. beat the eggs separately and pour into the sugar mix and stir for consistency. after sifting the maida and baking powder, hand-mix (you don't have a choice!) it with the egg-sugar mix. spread this into the bottom of a greased cake tin evenly. it's not a smooth job as the dough is quite tough. then apply the pineapple jam as one consistent layer atop this dough. mix the final set of ingredients (powdered sugar, grated coconut, milk and vanilla essence) separately in a small bowl. watch out when you add milk and ensure the mixture is not watery; it should be about a sprinkling consistency or like a paste but not beyond that. toss it on the surface layer of the batter and bake to perfection. you can let the sides turn really brown which gives those particular pieces a caramel taste (mine happened by mistake by the way but i loved it!!).

If the top layer mix is watery the baking time exceeds as the water has to be absorbed first for the baking process to start. so take care there as i already mentioned. do NOT opt for butter as you cannot follow the recipe: if you use butter the bottom layer becomes soft whereby you cannot spread the jam. this is an excellent dessert if topped with pineapple/vanilla ice cream. it got over in my house before i could try this combo but i can predict the taste.

Apple Date Cake

It seems i've only been baking and it's actually true. i'm off the run-of-the-mill dishes for the next two months more! isn't it lovely to have a cook who takes care of your daily humdrum in the kitchen wherein you focus on the cakes and bakes and grills and dandy cooking! well i find it lovely. anyway the following recipe is a sure-fire success as it's the famous tried-and-tested Nita Mehta recipe. to this i added a dash of my daring trial and the outcome was fabulous. my mum couldn't stop eating it and she's generally not generous with compliments. she said it was fantastic. here i go

Nita Mehta recipe

2 large apples-cored, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup or 85 gms softened butter (unsalted)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
13/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup stoned and chopped dates

Blend apples to a puree with 4 tbsp water. Sift flour and baking powder and keep aside. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Alternately add eggs and sieved flour to the butter. Add the apple puree and mix. Keeping aside 1 tbsp of walnuts and dates for the top, add the rest to the cake mixture. Grease a 11” X 9” cake tin and pour the batter in it. Bake at 180 degree C for 45 min to 1 hour. Cool, cut and serve.



You can religiously follow this recipe and can come off with a beauty. to add some zest to it and as i'm into cake-recipe-skewing i had to do the following gimmick.

2 tbsp condensed milk
3 tbsp gooseberry wine sweetened with jaggery (i happened to have only this. any liquor will do; if it's rum or brandy stick to the 1 cup sugar)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence



I used only 3/4 cup powdered sugar as my wine was too sweet. instead of walnuts i used chopped cashewnuts as usual but added some chopped red cherries and chopped orange peel to fill half the cup cashewnut. i soaked the dates and nuts and cherries in the wine for just one day at room temperature with half a tsp of soda bicarb to soften the dates. i added the condense milk and essence in the final mix and baked to delight! i recommend nambisans unsalted butter for south indians. it adds a distinct unforgettable flavour to the cake.

Easy Fruit Cake

Christmas is bobbing in and it's only a month away...no two months away! the first image that pops in our mind when we picture our Christmas table is the fruit cake-with those generous amounts of delicious noble fruits steeped in the volatile liquor. i've been baking the traditional sherry-sozzled Christmas cake for the past two years and i wanted a change. i'm almost always giddy with my family responsibilities and personal career moves and i almost know that i'm biting more than i can chew. but i'm gonna chew for a while more. and i cannot sham on my fruit cake. and i suddenly remember variety is the spice of life. so i begin this daring move of fruit-cake-recipe-skewing and glide in with this easy yum yum fruit cake! my mum-in-law says the basic go-go for a fruit cake is a 2:1 ratio for the fruits:maida, i. e., 500 gm fruits for 250 gm maida and i decide to believe her!

maida-250 gm
sugar-200 gm (powdered)
butter-200 gm
eggs-5
vanilla essence-1/2 tsp
tonovin or grape essence-1/2 tsp
powdered nutmeg and cinnamon-1 tsp each
baking powder-11/2 tsp
soda bicarb-1 tsp

The dry fruits and wine proportion was totally a by-default decision based on the random availability of stuff. i fortunately fulfilled the required ratio.

currants-60 gm
cherries-50 gm
almonds and cashewnuts-100 gm (together)
dates-100 gm
orange peel-20 gm
fresh apple-1/2-1
homemade grape wine-11/4 cups

All the dry fruits were chopped fine and soaked together in one cup wine in a glass container for a week at room temperature. a day before i baked the apple was chopped fine and soaked in 1/4 cup wine and left outside.

Sift maida, baking powder and soda bicarb. beat the butter and sugar till soft. add the eggs one by one (i think i added two by two!!) and continue beating. mix in the flour till well-blended. add the essence and the soaked fruits and hand-mix nicely. place the batter in a cake tin and bake till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. cool, cut and hog away...

It's better to use a spring form pan with a removable bottom or oil your butter paper and place in the cake tin and bake. use rum or brandy if wine not available but reduce the quantity to half cup.

Eggless Plantain Muffins/Cake

Fantastic is the word for it and honestly this is no self-promotion. my gran too loved these muffins. it's much more appealing than the photographs!! sorry for those. i bake under a modicum of pressure which means i have my little girl pulling me from behind; i run to feed my alice; phone calls to attend; guests turning up. so i don't stand like anna olson in that beautiful joint of hers and bake like she shoots for the asian food channel. what i'm driving at is i made the batter quickly but then the interruptions started. and by the time i finished baking the muffins in the individual muffin moulds in my mum's oven it was dinner time! i had to click these sad-looking photos quickly before rushing to put aby to bed.

maida-11/2 cups
butter (softened)-1 cup
castor sugar-1 cup (or a little less than a cup)
ripe plantains (big)-2
walnuts or cashewnuts-1/2 cup
vanilla essence-1 tsp
baking powder-1 tsp
soda bicarb-1/2 tsp
salt-1/4 tsp
milk-3 tbsp
condensed milk (sweetened)-2-3 tbsp

Sieve the maida, baking powder, soda bicarb and salt. keep it aside. deseed the plantains and run them in the grinder to get a non-bumpy mass. crush the nuts using a mortar-pestle. beat the butter and castor sugar till soft. add the mass of plantain and beat again. dump the maida in moderate quantities and keep beating. add the milk, condensed milk, vanilla essence and crushed nuts and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon or hand-mix it. pour in the muffin moulds or the cake tin and bake till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. enjoy with a hot cup of frothy coffee! my...i can have it right away!!! these muffins don't rise much.

Plantain-Beef Stew

The plantain fest is on in my home. we've been excited about the bunch of farm-fresh plantains we got and have been honestly trying various interesting recipes. my mum goes beserk in the kitchen when her son-in-law (my husband thomas) turns up for one or two days. she has to make every meal special. i guess it's a mum-in-law-son-in-law connection. i don't care about the equation as long as it's good. i focus on WHAT'S ON THE PLATTER! she got hold of the recipe below from her cookery guru and icon Lakshmi Nair. i like her too for the accuracy of her measurements and variety and originality. i suggest her books strongly to Kerala cooks.

beef-1/2 kg
raw plantain (yethakai)-3 peeled and cut in big pieces
green chilli-2 slit lengthwise
ginger-1 tbsp chopped fine
onion-2 diced
tomato-1 soaked in hot water, peeled and cut
pepper powder-11/2 tsp
coconut milk-2 cups



Pressure cook the beef, cut plantain, salt and one tsp pepper with two cups water. retain the stock. heat 11/2 tbsp oil in a pan and saute onion, ginger and chilli. add the tomato and fry it well. add the pressure cooked beef. to this add two cups coconut milk and keep it covered on medium flame and let it boil for ten mins. take it off the flame. spice it up with more pepper powder if required and garnish with curry leaves.



You can add diced veggies for nutrition but not potato to retain the taste of the original recipe. this is an excellent accompaniment to steam-baked rice flour cakes (oh well, puttu (in regional language) is simpler!; see photograph).

Courtesy: Lakshmi Nair

Plantain Balls

Plantains are a huge culinary asset for Keralites. our sunday breakfast, especially in Christian homes, is mostly steam-baked ripe plantains and poached eggs. we have our austere church-going and we save time by this quick breakfast package which is so nutritious and energy-giving. yeah, plantains are rich in carb and moms regularly insist on the ripe-uncooked-plantain-and-a-glass-of-milk combo. those banana fritters with a dash of cinnamon is our fave tea time snack. plantain balls are a derivative of the steamed plantain. we had three of them left over from our morning breakfast and i decided on this for my little girl to snack on.

This is from my mum-in-law's stack of recipes. she has the entire range of traditional Kerala recipes!

plantain-3
grated coconut-1/2 cup
sugar-2 tbsp
crushed cashewnuts-1-2 tbsp
cardamom powder to flavour
ghee
rice flour-a little
oil to fry

Deseed the steamed fruit and mash it nicely and evenly without any lumps. fry the coconut and sugar lightly in a pan in the ghee to cook the coconut. you can use fresh coconut also but the balls then have shorter shelf life. add this to the mashed plantain along with crushed cashew. flavour with cardamom powder. mix it well and make a reasonable-looking dough. roll into small balls and coat the balls with the flour. fry in oil and eat it hot with a huge mug of chai!



The plantain should not be over-ripe. or else the balls become gooey within. in case it happens toughen the batter with rice flour or maida. the fruit need not be completely steam-baked if you exclusively set out to make the balls. this avoids the probable stickiness of the dough.