Ice Coffee

This is very yummy chilling coffee for all coffee lovers . I love to have this in hot summer whenever I have a feel to have coffee :) . usually Ice coffee is done with ice cream, but this recipe is without ice cream , its light and yummy. 

Ingredients:


Boiled Milk - One cup
Sugar- 1 teaspoon
Instant coffee powder - 1 teaspoon
Milk chocolate - 3 inch piece ( I prefer using galaxy choclate or diary milk)
Ice cubes - handful

Method:


Mix all the ingredients together and beat in the mixi for 3 minutes and serve cold .


Yummy chilled coffee :) for a hot day.

Ladys Finger Kara Kolambu

This is a yummy curry apt for plain white rice. I made this with ladys finger but also it tastes good adding brinjal or drumstick or potato .

Ingredients:

Ladys Finger - 250 gms  wash and cut into one inch pieces

Fresh coconut scrapped : 1/2 cup

Onion  - Slice onion roughly

Tomato - 2 ripe medium size tomatoes chopped roughly

Sambar powder- any good brand one tablespoon

Tumeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Hing -1/4 teaspoon

One lime size tamarind - make into a juice for 1/2 cup

Garlic- 6 cloves sliced

Jaggary or white sugar - 1/4 spoon

Mustard seeds - 1/4 spoon

Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 spoon

Whole red chillies- 3

Curry leaves

Salt to taste

Oil as required, I prefer gingelly oil for this curry as it enhances the taste

   

Method:

1. In a kadai heat 2 tablespoons oil and add the onions , garlic and fry well with a stream of curry leaves and once the onions are fried add the tomatoes and fry well till the raw smell goes off and then finally add the sambar powder , 1/4 teaspoon tumeric powder and fresh coconut and toss for 2 minutes and then grind to a fine paste.

2. In a kadai add little oil and fry the ladys finger in slow fire for 7 minutes and once done remove and keep aside.

3. In the same kadai, add oil  and once hot add mustard seeds, then fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and pinch  of hing powder, and then add the tamarind juice and cook it along with little water and once the raw smell of tamarind goes away, then add the fried ladys finger and then add the grinded gravy with little water, add salt and cook till the gravy becomes thick and then remove and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve it  with hot steaming rice.

Karela Salad

A quick and easy Yummy salad with karela , it is a must salad in Srilankan food. I learnt this from my Srilankan friends and it is worth trying.

Ingredients:

Karela  : 2 nos washed and thinly sliced in round shape

Tomato : 1 sliced thin

Onion : thinly sliced round

Lemon Juice : 4 tablespoons  

Black Pepper Powder : 1/2 teaspoon

Tumeric Powder  : 1/4 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Method:

Mix tumeric powder and salt with the sliced karela and marinate it for 10 minutes and then deep fry it in little oil until very crispy like chips, but to avoid oil , I microwaved the karela to a crispy texture with one teaspoon of oil.

Now mix the fried karela, onion rings, tomato, pepper powder, lemon juice and   salt and serve with hot white rice accompanied by vegetarian curries.  

Saucy Baked Chicken

Was wondering what to cook for dinner and once decided to make chicken, I grabbed the Fauzia's recipe which I had been longing to do and eyed for long time :) . I couldnt resist to eat it once I made it it looked fabulous and smelled superb and tasted the best and this is the best ever baked chicken  by me :), a big hug and thank you to Fauzia. A must try easy recipe.

Ingredients:

1 chicken, without skin, cut into 8 or 10 pieces
2 tbsp oil
3 tbsp tomato paste (if your tomato paste is of a good bright coloured type, then first use 2 tbsp and check how the colour looks when blended with the rest of the ingredients...if you find you need more you can then add as necessary)
1 medium red onion chopped
1 heaped tsp ginger garlic paste
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp whole cumin
2 tsp salt
2 TBsp tandoori masala
1 big mug plain yoghurt, full
2 green chillis (add more if you want it spicier)
1 bunch coriander, with sticks (not just the leaves)
Juice of 2 lemon (if ur lemons are very juicy then use just the juice of 1)

Method:

Clean and wash, then drain the chicken and set aside in a bowl.

Put ALL the other ingredients into a blender. Blend everything together until smooth. If you find the colour is not as vibrant as you would like, add a tsp of tandoori masala and a little more tomato paste, and blend again. Then pour over the chicken. Cover and refrigerate, let it marinate preferably for about 2-4 hours, but up to overnight is fine.

Pour everything into a glass pyrex baking dish, cover with foil. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Place your baking dish on the center rack and bake for 30-35mins. 

(At this point your whole house will have the most appetising aroma. So be warned, tummies will growl!) :D

Remove dish, open the foil and turn the pieces over. Baste them with some of the liquid, just scoop with a spoon n drizzle over the pieces to keep them moist. Replace foil and put the dish back in the oven. Bake for another 30-35mins.

Finally remove the dish from the oven and discard the foil. Turn the pieces over once more and baste again with the sauce just to retain moisture, then put the tray back into the oven (without the foil this time) for about 10 mins or so just to give the pieces a nice colour. (If you have a grill in the oven, turn it on at this point to give the chicken a fantastic finish).

Once ready, remove and cover loosely with the foil until time of serving so the heat is retained.

Serving options: This dish can be served  with many different things in the past, but the best accompaniment in my opinion is fries, some sort of bread like naan or pita or parathas, chappatis and a fresh salad and an icy cold drink.


Enjoy cooking and eating this fabulous Chicken:) 

Rava Laddo

This is the recipe of my sweetest grandma who is an excellent cook and this is the most frequently wanted and made sweet in my house which I learnt to master it from her. This is very easy to make in less than 20 minutes .

Ingredients:

White Rava (Sooji ) : One cup

Cashew nuts : broken a handful

Raisins: Handful

Almonds and pistachios Crused handful (Optional)

Hot Milk : 1/4 cup

Sugar : 3/4 cup

Cardamon Powder : 1/4 teaspoon

Fresh coconut Grated : 1/4 cup

Ghee : 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons

Method:

1. In a kadai add ghee when hot add cashew nuts, raisins and other nuts you prefer and once light brown add the fresh coconut and fry in very slow heat for 5 minutes and then add the rava and roast it in very slow fire for 7 minutes  and be careful not to brown the rava and once the rava is roasted, add sugar and mix well for 5 minutes in slow fire , add cardamon powder and then add the milk and mix well and immediately switch off from fire .

2. Start making ladoos when warm itself, if you feel too dry to make ladoos add little milk, grease hands with ghee and make the ladoos in the sizes you wish.

Note: if you wish you can add a pinch of food colour of your choice to make it more colourful and add it in little water or milk and add to the mixture while mixing on heat. 

Quick & Easy Coconut Rice

This is a quick and easy recipe which I always prefer for a lunch box and very yummy when accompanied by potato fry or cauliflower fry. 

Ingredients:

Rice: two cups boiled and dont make it soggy and should be in the tempo for friedrice

Fresh Coconut scraped : one cup

Mustard seeds: 1/4 teaspoon

Split channa dhal: 1 teaspoon

Split Urad dhal:  1 teaspoon

Garlic: 6 cloves chopped or sliced

Cashew nuts : 6 nos broken into two (Optional)

Whole red chilies: 5 nos broken into two

Asafoetida powder: 1/4 spoon

Curry leaves

Salt to taste 

Cooking Oil: 2 tablespoons

Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

1. Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and then urad dhal, channa dhal, chashew and when it changes colour, add the garlic and fry for a minute and add the red chilies and curry leaves and asafoetida powder  and coconut and fry well for 2 minutes and dont burn the coconut to brown colour and add enough salt and rice and mix well.

2. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Enjoy yummy yummy coconut rice with potato fry:)

Puli Vada

This a really simple and simply superb recipe taught to me by my friends mom Jalajaka , it really tastes awesome and has a big advantage where we can keep the vada dough for at least one week in fridge  and still it turns out  awesome. A must try snack.

Ingredients:

One cup rice ( Ponni or basmathi or raw rice) : wash and soak it for 2 hours

Tamarind : one big lemon size

Whole Red chillies : 6 nos

Curry leaves a few

Fresh Coconut scrapped : Two handful or half coconut

Salt to taste and oil for frying

Method:

1. Remove all the water from thee soaked rice and dry grind the rice without adding water to a course powder and dont make it very fine and keep aside.

2. Grind in the mixi with little water , coconut, redchillies, curry leaves and tamarind like chutney and salt keep aside.

3. Now add the chutney to the rice powder and mix well with hand so that you get a thick dough like muruku dough even thicker than that and now make small balls and take a plastic bag and rub oil on it and make the ball flat with hands and the vada should be thick and deep fry it in hot oil in medium heat . It will swel up like pooris.

Serve hot with plain coconut chutney and even it tastes great when eaten with no side dips.

Bhindi Pepper Fry

While doing Bhindi fry in the same style, I tried using pepper powder instead of chilli powder and turned awesome . Sure for a change from the normal poriyals :). It tastes good and tangy with the fresh pepper and mango powder or lemon juice added.

Ingredients:

Ladys finger : 1/2 Kg cleaned and cut diagonally in small peices

Mustard seeds: 1/4 teaspoon

Slit Urad Dhal: 1 teaspoon

Fresh crushed Pepper powder : 1 teaspoon

Garlic: 5 pieces thinly sliced

Onion : One thinly sliced

Yogurt : 1 tablespoon

Dry Mango Powder  : 1/4 teaspoon (Optional or use a few drops of lime juice instead of mango powder)

Salt to taste

A few curry leaves

Oil as required.

Method:

1. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a non stick kadai and when hot add mustard seeds and then add urad dhall and once light brown add the onions, sliced garlic  and fry for one minute adding curry leaves and then add the ladys finger and yogurt and fry well for 10 minutes in very slow fire, dont close the lid .

2. when the ladies finger is fried well add enough salt , dont make it too dark add the  freshly crushed pepper powder and 1/4 spoon mango powder or a few drops of lemon juice and give a toss and remove from fire.

Serve hot as a accompaniment with any curry and white rice or hot chappatis and pulkas.

Fruit Trifle

A yummy fruit trifle which is my all time favorite, it is very quick and easy to make as we can even do even  with only one fruit .

Ingredients:

Milk : 1/2 liter

Vennila custard  Powder : 3 tablespoons

Sugar : 1/4 cup

Fruits : cut into small peices( Apple, Orange, whole seedless grapes,  banana, mangoes , pineapple and anything of your choice)

Jelly : Make jelly with strawberry flavour and lime flavour ( I used this for red and green colour)

Method:

1. Boil milk with sugar and then dilute the custard powder with milk and add add to the boiling mik and mix well till it becomes thick and then remove from fire and cool .

2. keep blending the custard mixture with a hand whip as it will form thick crumps otherwise but see that it is very thick like yogurt.

3. Now mix in the fruits and garnish with jellys of your choice to make it more colourful chill and serve cold :)

Note:

If you are adding Pineapple, add it only before you serve as it might become bitter if kept for long in the custard mixture.

Make sure the mixture is very cold before garnishing with jelly or it start blotting as happened to mine  as shown in the pictures.

Dhal Rice ( Pappu Biyam Rice)

It was a lazy friday and blinked myself in FB and read the posts of this dhal rice traditionally known as Pappu Biyam Koodu in our Naidus community and was craving to immediately cook the same for lunch , infact this is the National Food of Coimbatore Naidus :) . This is my version of Dhal rice which I learnt from my grandma, event hough I dont get the same taste as her magic fingers do still tried to perfect it to some extent.  

Ingredients:

Rice  one cup and (Toor Dhal + channa dhal 1/2 cup) : Washed and soak it together for 2 hours

Onion : 1 big no sliced thin ( or use one cup of chopped shallots (small onion )

Green Chillies: 5 nos slit lengthwise

Tomato : 1 big No sliced

Garlic : 5 cloves of garlic chopped roughly

Mustard Seeds : 1 teaspoon

Tumeric Powder : 1 /2 teaspoon

Channa Dhal : 1 teaspoon

Split Urad Dhal : 1 teaspoon

Curry leaves a few

Coriander leaves chopped 2 tablespoon

Oil : 3 spoons

Salt to taste.

Method:

1.  Take a cooker and heat 3 spoons of oil in it and when hot add mustard seeds and then urad dhal and channa dhal and when it slighlty turns colour , add the onions, greenchillies, curry leaves  and garlic and fry well till onions become pink in colour and add tumeric powder & tomatoes and add enough salt and fry till tomatoes starts mushing and then add the soaked rice with dhal without water and fry it in the oil for 2 minutes and then add  2 cups of water in the same cup in which the rice was measured and pressure cook till 3 whistles or according to your normal rice cooking mode.

2. When the steam is off, add the chopped coriander leaves and mix well and serve hot with desi ghee and papadam , pickle, pudina leaves chutney, coriander leaves chutney :)

It is a quick and easy yummy recipe.

Slimming Tea

I recently found this fabulous slimming tea recipe and it really works, minimum 3 cups a day is a must to reduce weight gradually along with low calorie food. 

This tea not only reduces weight but also good for reducing cholesterol as we use cinnamon in it . 

Ingredients:

Green Tea Bag : 1 No
Cinnamon Stick : 2" inch
Fresh ginger : 1" inch
Lime : 1 slice 


Method:


To a cup of hot boiling water , add one green tea bag , one slice of lime, 1 peice of ginger and 1 piece of cinnamon stick and leave it for 5 minutes and immediately remove the added tea bag, cinnamon, lime , ginger as it might become bitter if you keep it for long. 

Happy Slimming :) .