Appam & Vegetable Stew

Appam is a south Indian breakfast item. It is eaten with either stew, egg curry or chicken curry or else coconut chutney.

It reminds me of my childhood days in Kerala.  Anyways (deep sigh), lets get back to business.

I had this misconception that appam is very difficult to make and so, I never even cared to find out about the process until one day I saw my sister-in-law making it. Realized it is doable.


Well, like everything else, I make it from scratch. No store brought rice flour for me.

Ingredients:

Pachari, (white raw rice) – 2 cups (I use idli rice)

Coconut – 1 cup

Yeast – 1 tsp

Sugar – 1 tbsp

Cooked rice – ½ cup

Salt - as required

Warm water

Preparation:

Clean rice and soak it for 5 hours.

Now drain and transfer to a mixer.

Add the coconut, cooked rice, sugar, yeast and little warm water and grind to a paste.

Transfer to a big vessel and allow to ferment for 8 hours.

When the batter is ready, add a little bit of salt.  Mix well.

Warm the appam chatti (appam maker)

Pour a ladleful of batter into the appam chatti and rotate it.

Cover and cook.

Fluffy, tasty appam is ready.

Appam goes very well with vegetable stew. Very easy to make and nutritious. Here goes.

Ingredients for Stew:

Potatoes (cut in small cubes) – 2 nos. 

Beans (cut in 1" long piece) – 10-12
Green peas – ½ cup
Carrot (cut into small pieces) – 2 nos.

Cinnamon – a small stick
Cloves – 2 nos
Cardamon - 4 (remove the skin)
Onion (chopped) - 1 medium size
Ginger (cut into thin long piece) - 1" piece
Garlic (chopped) - 1 clove
Green chillies (sliced) - 2 nos.
All Purpose Flour - 1 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Black Pepper powder- 1/4 tsp
Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.
Curry Leaves - a few

Preparation:

In a non stick pan, add oil. When the oil is hot, add cinnamon, cloves and cardamom.

Now add ginger, garlic and curry leaves. Then add green chillies.

After a few seconds, add onion and saute till it becomes transcluscent.

Now add the potato cubes, carrot and green peas. Add salt and water. Mix, cover and cook till    vegetables are well cooked.

Mash some potatoes so to thicken the gravy.

In a bowl mix the flour and milk together until all the lumps disappear.

Pour this to the vegetables.

Add garam masala and black pepper powder. Mix and simmer in low flame for 5 min.

Vegetable Stew ready.  Happy eating!

Idiyappam- A Traditional South Indian Breakfast Item

Idiyappam is something that I make more often for breakfast. It is very easy to make and requires only few ingredients.

Idiyappam is made with rice flour. You can make your own rice flour or else it is available in any Indian store. My mother is a great believer in home made stuff. She makes things like pickle, rice flour, masala mix etc. herself.  It tastes different and is much more delicious than the store brought stuff.

So,  to make your own rice flour, you need to wash and soak white rice 'pachari' overnight. Drain completely.  Then grind it into a fine powder in a grinder. Roast it for a few minutes till you get the aroma, cool and store in an air tight container. Quite a lot of work,  right? Go for the store brought and be happy :)

Idiyappam is a traditional South Indian breakfast and goes well with chicken curry, egg curry, green peas etc. I prefer either egg curry or green peas curry. It is delicious, healthy and extremely easy to make. What else can you ask for, right? So lets get straight to the recipe. Shall we?


Ingredients:

For Idiyappam (this makes 10-12 medium size idiyappams)

1 cup rice flour
warm water as needed
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup grated coconut

For Green Peas:

1 cup green peas (soak overnight)
1/2 of a medium size onion
Ginger 1"
Garlic - 1-2 cloves
Vegetable oil 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
2-3 Green chillies
1/2 tsp coriander powder

Preparation:

Idiyappam:

Boil 1 cup water. Take the flour in a bowl. Add the salt and sugar. Mix. Now add the warm water little by little and mix it with a spoon.  Keep adding the water till a dough is formed. Now knead it with your fingers. It doesnt need lot of kneading. Cover and keep it aside for 10 min.

Slightly oil the idli plates and keep aside.

Transfer the dough into a 'seva nazhi' and press it onto the idli plates. Top it with grated coconut.

Boil some water in an idli maker. When it starts boiling, put the idli plates back and steam for 10 min.

Idiyappam ready!

Green Peas curry:

Soak the green peas overnight. Add some salt and cook them in a pressure cooker.

Once cooked, slightly mash the green peas and keep aside.

Slice the onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies.

 

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When it splutter, add ginger, garlic, onion, green chillies and curry leaves. Saute till onion changes color and becomes transcluscent. Add turmeric powder. Mix.

Now add the cooked green peas. Add water if needed. Add salt if needed. Cover and cook for 10 min in low flame.

Serve hot with a cup of tea :) Have a great morning!!

Carrot Cake

Today is a beautiful day. A magnificent sunny day..very romantic. So decided to bake something for my lovely husband, something which is his favorite. The first thing that comes to mind is Carrot Cake.

I have never heard of Carrot cake before I came to this country. In India,  we gorge on our carrot halwa in winters made with pistachios and raisins. Hmm.. hot hot carrot halwa in a chilly winter afternoon and a little bit of gossipping with your friends is all that one needs to make the day perfect.  Gossiping, by the way, is healthy for you.. OK..so lets not get into that..We are talking about carrot cake here.

Trying somehting new has always been my passion. But when it goes wrong, that ruins the entire day and what it does  to me is another story altogether. But this one is a success story. The ultimate Carrot cake you will ever have in your life. Forget about the store brought. This is easy to make and what else,  you can boast about it.. So ready..here it is..

Ingredients:

1 cup All purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
zest of an orange
pinch salt
1 1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp grated coconut
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tbsp dried chopped cranberries
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup yogurt
2 eggs

Frosting:
11/2  cup powdered sugar ( I had only granulated sugar. So I powdered it in a mixer)
4 tbsp butter
Two 8 oz cream cheese

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F. Butter and flour two  8" cake pans.

In a bowl mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, orange zest and salt. In another bowl mix grated carrot, grated coconut, walnuts, cranberries.

In another bowl, mix together the oil and sugar until sugar is well coated in oil. Add the yogurt and mix till the batter is smooth. Add the egg one at a time and mix thoroughly.  Now to this add the flour mixture and combine well. Fold in the nuts and coconuts.

 

Transfer this to the two pans evenly. Bake for 30 min until the cakes are firm. Cool.

Now mix together the ingredients for frosting until smooth. Spread this frosting on one layer and keep in the refrigerator for 30 min for the surface to set. Take it out and spread a little more of the frosting. Top it with the second layer and spread frosting evenly onto the sides and top.

Keep it in the refrigerator overnight.

Cheese Cake

Cheese Cake used to intimidate me. I stayed away from making this,  thinking it is complicated.  But cheese cake is my husband's favorite.  And I thought to myself, how can I say something is complicated until I try it? So began my search for the perfect cheese cake recipe. And as they say, if you desire for something with all your heart, you get it.

This almond crust cheese cake is the ultimate.    I don't remember, from where I got this recipe. But what is  the big deal,  right? Result is all that matters. I am sure you will love it and will thank me later for this recipe.  So Cheese Cake for desert today? What do you think?

Ingredients:

2/3 cup Graham Crackers                  
1/2 cup Toasted halved almonds       
3 tbsp Sugar + 3/4 cup extra for the filling                                     
1 tbsp Melted butter                          
8 oz Cream cheese                         
8 oz Mascarpone cheese                 
Lemon juice, 1/2 of a lemon
2 Eggs                                        
1 tsp Vanila Extract

(All the above ingredients should be at room temperature)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F
Butter the baking pans and keep it ready.

In a blender add the graham crackers, 3 tbsp sugar and almonds and pulse.

Add the melted butter. Pulse again.
Transfer to a buttered baking pan. Press with your finger tips. This is the base of your cheese cake.

Cover bottom and sides of the pan with aluminium foil. Bake the crust at 350 deg. F until the top is brown,  not more than 10 min. Cool.

Now reduce the temperature to 325 deg.F. In the same blender add the cream cheese and mascarpone, lemon juice, vanilla and rest of the sugar. Blend.

Now add the eggs one at a time. Blend thoroughly after adding each egg.

Transfer this to the cooled crust.

Place the pan in a roasting pan and fill hot water into the roasting pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the baking pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

To make it extra special, drizzle some chocolate sauce over and hmm..sit back, relax and enjoy every bit of heaven :)

Butter Cookies

Cookies are a must in my kitchen. If they are butter cookies, nothing like it. Not the store brought ones though. I don’t understand why people run to the store to buy stuff like this when they are so very easy to make.   The ingredients that we need are the basic stuff  we already have in our kitchen. And for those who says,  ‘where is the time?’ Let me tell you,  it takes less than half an hour and the end result…extremely gratifying.

I made two batches, in one batch I used orange zest and the other just plain and they both came out crunchy & delicious. One more thing you can do to make it extra special, is to dip them in melted cholocate. Hmmm..now who doesn’t like chocolate.. I will do that another day. For now, I am happy with my plain butter cookies.

Here is the recipe..

Ingredients:

Butter:   2 sticks (room temperature)
Sugar:  2/3 cup
Salt:  1/4 tsp
Pure Vanilla Extract:   1 tsp (I use Nielsen-Massey)
Cake Flour :  2  1/3 cup (or All Purpose Flour or else you can use 2 cup APF & 1/3 cup Corn Starch)
Ornage zest (optional) : ½ of an orange

How to:

In a food processor (or by hand..take a little longer), cream the butter. Now add the sugar, salt and vanilla. If you want to add orange zest or lemon zest, add this at this point. Blend.

Now add the flour slowly. Mix till a dough is formed. Take out the dough and cover it with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for atleast one hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F.

Take out the dough from refrigerator, roll it and cut it into desired shape with a cookie cutter. Arrange them on a baking sheet.

Bake for 12-14 min.  Take them out when the edges starts to brown.

When the cookies comes out of the oven, they are soft and looks as if it is not done. But don’t worry.  Allow them to cool on a rack and it will harden.

Note:  you can add some nuts like pistachios to make them extra special. If you are adding nuts add it after you add flour and with a spatula gently fold them into the dough.

Enjoy with a glass of cold milk, the way I do or if you are lactose intolerant, have it with your coffee/tea :)

Bagels for breakfast today!

You must be thinking.. what?  She doesn’t have anything better to do? But my friend, there is nothing like waking up to the aroma of fresh home baked bagels. If you have not experienced yet, I would suggest,  you go ahead and try it this weekend because I am going to give you a no-fail recipe for New York style bagel. Hmm..now we are talking!

I found this recipe from a wonderful website that I am totally in love with.  I tried few things from this website and the result…awesome!!  So let us began, shall we?

I made plain bagels, since this was my first time and  so I didn’t want to mess up.

Recipe courtesy:  www.sophisticatedgourmet.com

Ingredients:

3 ½ cups bread flour

2 tsp active dry yeast
1 ½ tbsp. sugar
1 ½ cups warm water
1 tsp salt

That’s all. How simple is that?

The process:

In a small bowl, pour the yeast, sugar and warm water (warm not hot. Hot water kills the yeast). Don’t stir. Let it sit for some time, say 5 min. or so. Then stir and check if the yeast is active. You will see a froth and a thin film on top which means yeast is working its magicJ

In another bowl, combine the salt and flour. Form a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture and half of the water. Slowly start mixing with your hands and add more water as and when required. What we are looking for is a firm and stiff dough. Don’t worry about the mess J

Now dump the dough onto  a floured surface and knead for 10 min. (this is a good workout for your arms. Don’t shy away from this Tiger J. Knead the dough with lots of love. It will return the favor later, believe me). Add more flour if needed.

Grease a bowl and transfer the dough into this bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and top it with a damp kitchen towel and keep it in a warm place. (for me, warm place is my oven. I preheat the oven to 170deg. F and switch it off.) When it has doubled in size, punch it down and let it sit for another 10 min.

Now, make 8 round balls out of this dough. Insert a finger into the center to form a hole.  (Make sure you stretch the hole, otherwise when the dough rises, the hole will disappear).  Let these balls rest for 10 min. cover them with a plastic wrap

Preheat the oven to 425 deg.F

Boil some water in a large pot. When it starts boiling, reduce the heat. Transfer these dough balls into the water making sure not to crowd the pot. When it is done, it floats to the surface. Let them sit in the water for 2 min. each side.  When done, take them out and repeat with the second batch, if any. Drain.

Final step, transfer them to a lightly  greased baking sheet and bake for 20 min.

Done!! Huh!!! Have it with cream cheese like I did..Hmm…pure bliss…this makes me forget all about what I did to get them in my hands.

Long process but every single step is worth it. I am not going back to the store brought bagels anymore. Thanks Kamran!

Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake

I have been wanting to make this for some time now after I saw Ina making this in one of her shows. I had all the ingredients except for sour cream. Now that the much needed ingredient has finally found its way to my refrigerator, I am absolutely ready and excited.  So buckle up, here we go. J Though the name is coffee cake, there is no coffee in it.

Recipe courtesy:  Ina Garten (Barefoot contessa), www.Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

For cake:

1 ½ sticks butter (room temperature)

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 ½ cup cake flour (I used 1 ¼ cup All Purpose Flour and ¼ cup Corn Starch)

2 tsp Baking Powder

½ tsp Baking Soda

½ tsp salt

3 eggs

1 ½ tsp. Vanilla Extract (good vanilla J)

1 ¼ cup sour cream

For Streusel:

¼ cup dark brown sugar

½ cup flour

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

3tbsp. butter

½ cup sliced, toasted almonds

The process:

Preheat the oven to 350 deg.F Grease and flour 7 ½ inch. Bundt pan. (I used a small pan since I also wanted some muffins out of the same batter. You can use a 10" pan)

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Keep it aside.

In another bowl, take the ingredients for streusel, mentioned above and combine with your fingers. Keep aside.

In a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time while the mixer is still running making sure each egg is combined well before adding the next egg. Add vanilla and sourcream. Mix well. Now add the flour mixture slowly, mixing in between. Don’t overbeat the batter after flour is added.

Transfer some of the batter onto the bundt pan. Smooth it out and sprinkle the streusel on top and pour more batter, smooth it out and sprinkle more streusel on top.

Bake for 60 min.

I used the remaining batter for muffins.

Note:  

Let me  remind you that all the ingredients should be at room temperature, I mean the eggs, butter and sour cream.

I used sliced almonds instead of walnuts, next time I will use walnuts.

I skipped the glaze part, since the cake is already sweat.

I am so happy I made this.  It is fluffy, soft and airy and top part is crunchy because of  the streusel, a perfect partner for my cup of tea (No, I am not having it with coffee. I shifted my loyalty from coffee to tea long time back)

Now go ahead,  enjoy your slice with a cup of coffee (or tea J)