An Eggless Indulgence!
If u r ready for a choco attack this is the best remedy!
Butter-50 g, softened
Chocolate- 250 g
Hot water-60 ml
Cream-284 ml
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the marshmallows,butter,chocolate and water together, stirring every now and then.
Meanwhile, whip the cream with vanilla until thick.
Fold it into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth mixture.
Pour into individual ramekins and let it set in the fridge for about 1 hour.
THE GOOEY CHOCOLATE LAVA!
This months challenge from the sweet punch team is “Molten Lava Chocolate Cake”.When I got my monthly recipe I was very much looking forth to try it out at the earliest…and there bingo!… we had a family get together.My parents and brother where comin over to our place for lunch.I have earlier made this drooling cake as cupcakes…the secret is that I couldnt actually find a nice set of ramekins here.Its hard to get these in Munnar…so I had to limit myself to glass bowls!The smell when u bake these gooey beauties..ahh..i still cant resist them.I’m glad that I chose this as a dessert with vanilla scoops for the get together.. i could see chocolaty smiles..the best smile was my little one’s..he simply loved it 🙂
Here’s the recipe..I’m sure you will all enjoy…:)
113gms of Semi sweet baking chocolate
113gm of butter
2 eggs
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of all purpose flour
Butter for greasing the ramekins
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler.
- In a bowl ,beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Once chocolate melts,remove pan from heat and add in the butter and mix well till the butter melts and mixes well.
- Add the chocolate butter mix into the eggs and add all purpose flour and mix well till it is well incorporated.
- Butter bottom and sides of the ramekins and pour in the mix to about 3/4 full.
- Place the ramekins on a baking tray and bake them for 10 -15 minutes.
- If you dont like the gooey texture you can increase the baking time.
- Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Five Dal Curry a Health Star!
I think I have been a bit too lazy to do my posts in my last days.After my battle in household chores ..I feel like lazin out.Last day I came across a recipe in a local magazine for the diet conscious people.I tried out this recipe as a curry with chapathis for dinner.The mixture of 5 dals gives us the protein content as a bonus.A person gets about 93 calories.Hope you’ll find this recipe helpful..
15 gms of Green gram split
15 gms of Split gram
15 gms of Black gram split
15 gms of Bengal gram split
15 gms of Lentil
1/4 tsp Cumin seeds
1 Large onion chopped finely
1 tsp of Red chilli powder
1/2 tsp of Turmeric powder
1/4 cup of curd(made from skimmed milk)
1 tomato diced into small pieces
1 tbsp of coriander leaves chopped
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
Salt to taste
- Mix all the dals together in a bowl,pour water and let it soak for 1 hour.Wash and seive them out.
- In a heavy bottomed vessel lightly fry the cumin seeds without oil.Stir in the diced large onions and fry them till they turn pink .
- Pour 1 litre of water and add the dals into the vessel.Cover it with a lid and let it cook.
- When the dal is cooked add in the chilli powder,turmeric powder,tomato and salt.
- Add in the curd and let it simmer till the tomatoes have been cooked.
- Stir in the garam masala powder and garnish with coriander leaves.
MANOHARAM -the crispy jaggery balls!
These crispy balls although a bit time consuming are worth trying out because they are sweet ,crispy and worth drooling.This blogpost of mine goes to the ICC.
- Wash and soak rice for 15 minutes.Drain and let the rice dry for 30-40 minutes.Powder the rice finely.
- Slightly heat and powder the moong dal into a fine powder.
- Measure 2 cups of rice flour with 1 cup of moong dal flour and mix in a bowl.Rub in the ghee so that it gets incorporated well.Add water and knead the flours to make a smooth dough.
- Heat oil in a kadai.
- Fill the idiyappam presser or potato ricer to press out the dough into the oil.In the idiyappam presser you can use the disc with 3 holes.
- Fry out the murukku and place them on absorbent tissues to soak out the excess oil.
- When cooled,break the murukkus into tiny bits.
- In a pan pour some water and add the powdered jaggery.Bring it to boil so that the jaggery has been dissolved.Pass the jaggery syrup through a strainer to seperate the scum.
- Bring this syrup again to boil till the syrurp thickens.Drop a few drops of the syrup into a cup of water and if the syrup can be easily rolled in to a ball,the consistency is correct.
- Remove syrup from fire and add the bits of murukku briskly stirring to coat the jaggery evenly on the murukku bits,
- When the heat is manageable grease your palms and roll the mix into small balls.
Manoharam is ready to be served!
A late GOLDEN ONION QUICHE!
Hi foodies..its my late post for the “sweet punch” team.I have missed my blogging for the last two months.I couldn’t update mostly anything as I was quite packed with issues.Now the house maintenance is almost over and guess i can take a deep breath.But theres loads to be organised…
Heres the recipe for the Golden Onion Quiche!
For the pastry
200g Flour
100g(frozen) Butter
1/4tsp baking powder
salt to taste
1 beaten egg
a few drops ice cold water
Sieve the flour,salt and baking powder together.Grate in the butter and mix it with flour and mix well with your fingertips till it resembles coarse sand.Add in the beaten egg and water and gather it into a soft dough.Roll it out on a lightly floured surface and lift it up carefully and line the tin(u can use a tart pan or a round pan)tht you will be baking it in.Mak up sure the dough comes a little way up the sides,so that it can fold the filling.
For the filling:
1/2 cup of boiled and shredded chicken / paneer(i used paneer)
250g chopped onions
1 cup milk
100g cheese
3 beaten eggs
salt and pepper to taste
oil
Heat oil and fry the chicken/paneer till it is golden brown.Add onions and fry till it is carmelised.Switch off the flame,add milk,cheese , beaten eggs, salt and pepper and mix well.Pour in to pastry case and bake for 25 minutes till golden brown.
KARA SEVA the crispy noodles!
I’m so excited with this post of mine coz this is my first post for the ICC!
Kara Seva reminds me of my college days at Coimbatore .I was a frequent visitor to the Sree Krishna Sweets and Nellai Lala Sweets shop.I used to check out the wide array of sweets..ahh those days seem like yesterday!
The recipe posted is not very spicy .If you want it spicier please increase the amount of chilli powder.
2 1/2 cups of Gram flour
1 cup rice flour
1/4tsp Chilli powder
1tsp coarsely powdered Black pepper
2 1/2 tsp Ghee
a pinch of Cooking Soda
salt to taste
2 pods of garlic crushed
Oil for frying
- Sieve both gram flour and rice flour into a bowl.
- Mix chilli powder,pepper powder,salt,crushed garlic ,ghee and cooking soda to make a paste.
- Make a pit in the seived gram rice flour and mix in the paste with your hands.
- Adding water mix it into a dough form.
- Heat oil in a kadai.
- Take a portion of the dough and fill it in the idiyappam presser or potato ricer(Thank you Frank for your note!) . Select the disc having large holes for pressing it through an idiyappam presser.
- Now press the mix into the oil and fry them out when they are golden and crispy.
- When cooled store them in an airtight container.
- Tea time is going to be crispier with these crispy noodles!
FOOD BUZZ AT MONSOON MAZAA!
On the 30th of last month I had yet another wonderful experience with the HRS team!I was invited to put up a food stall for the classes VI to XII.The best part of the whole show was that this was a fundraiser for arranging scholarship for the kids.
The foodies on my food stall were..Black Forest Gateau,Ice cone surprises,Rainbow cake,Avocado banana smoothie,Chicken Pathiri ,Tapioca n Fish cutlets and Velvet cupcakes with butter icing..
It was a lovely day that I spend with the wonderful kids.With the kids in action ,I really missed my school days.The staff of Hrs also had a wonderful array of games and food stalls!
BLACK FOREST GATEAU WITH A TWIST
These days its been raining cats and dogs !For the past two days I guess there’s been a twist in the weather.Its sunny(at least till afternoon)..so I thought I’ll go on for a Black forest gateau.Whenever I opt for an icing cake I usually have to be all eyes on my younger one coz he’s always there to tamper with the baked cake.Last day after baking a chocolate cake I was busy whipping cream…when I checked out my cake for spreading the cream my cake was dug up with a hole in the centre and he was laughing at me with the cake in his mouth..!!
For my black gateau I have used homemade strawberry wine instead of Kirsch .I had to do my topping with canned cherries..sigh..didn’t get fresh ones!
Black Forest Cake
For the cake
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1cup of icing sugar
6 eggs
100g of butter
1tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp baking powder
For filling
Tinned cherries
Chocolate curls
2 cups of whipping cream
1/2 cup sifted icing sugar
For cake syrup
1/2 cup of water
7tbsp of sugar
2tbsp of strawberry wine or kirsch
- Sieve cocoa powder and flour together.
- In a bowl beat the eggs and sugar till it becomes creamy.Add vanilla essence to it and beat it again.
- To this beat in the cocoa-flour mix slowly till all the flour is well incorporated.
- Add the melted butter to it and mix well.
- Grease and lightly flour the baking tin .Now pour in the cake mixture.
- Preheat the oven at 180degree Celsius for 15 minutes.
- Bake the cake for about 45 minutes and let it cool on a wire rack.
- Cut the cake into three partitions carefully.
- Prick all the three cake partitions with a fork.
- In a saucepan on flame add in the ingredients for the cake syrup and bring it to boil stirring for about 10 minutes .
- Let the syrup cool and slowly pour the syrup over the partitions.
- Whip the whipping cream with sifted icing sugar to get soft peaks using a blender.
- Deseed the canned cherries as per requirement .
- Place the first part of the cake on a large plate and spread the whipping cream on to the cake.Now arrange the cherries on the cream .Now place the second partition on it and lightly press it.Repeat the filling process in the same manner and place the third partition on it.
- You can use the leftover whipping cream to cream the cakes outer part.Decorate it with chocolate curls and cherries.After decoration cool the cake in a refrigerator so that the icing sets.
Cooking with Tiny Tots!
For me the 8th of June was a profound day that unfolded an enchanting experience with the kids of The High range School ,Munnar.I must say I was a bit nervous on how I was to share my culinary skills with the kindergarten kiddos.
The faculty of HRS gave me a warm welcome..in words it was splendid!As my workshop students were kg students I made a colorful cake for them to inaugrate the workshop “Kids delight time 2010”.
CHICKEN ULARTHU
- Marinate the chicken pieces with chilli powder,turmeric powder,coriander powder,fenugreek powder,garam masala along with salt and vinegar.Keep it aside for 1/2 an hour.
- Coarsely grind the scraped coconut,large onions,ginger,garlic,black turmeric, fennel seeds , red chilli powder,turmeric powder, garam masala all together.
- After the time span mix the ground mixture well with the marinated chicken pieces.
- In a heavy bottomed wok on flame,pour 3 tbsp oil and add in the chicken mix.Stir and cover the vessel with a vessel keeping it on low flame.
- After 5 minutes you can see the water coming out from the chicken.Stir the chicken and close the lid again.Take care that the chicken doesnt stick to the wok.
- Repeat the procedure till the chicken is well cooked.If you feel that the chicken is sticking to your pan too much ..drizzle oil lightly on the sides of the wok and stir well.
- Stir till the chicken mix becomes dark brown.It took me an hour and half.
- Add the curry leaves and 1 tbsp of coconut oil over the chicken ularthu.
- Mix well and remove from flame.
Hi! I am Nimi Sunilkumar…an award winning cookbook author /culinary demonstrator/freelance writer / food photographer/food blogger …spiced with the flavors of food..
