Apple Cake

          
     This is an incredibly juicy and moist Apple cake I made some times back. I got the recipe from Vediojug and it turned out great! The recipe had originally needed Green apples but I made it using Red and it was fine that way too. As red apples are sweeter than green ones I reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe. The removal of aluminium foil can be tricky but if you do it with care, you get a perfectly smooth and shining skin to your cake which has  quintessentially  the apple pie flavour with apples and cinnamon.

        Let us come to the recipe..

Apple Cake

Things you will need:

5 red Apples (peeled) and cored
2 Eggs
230 g Sugar (powdered)
100 ml Cream
120 g Butter
80 g  all purpose flour
15 g Baking powder
a pinch of Vanilla essence
1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder
Icing sugar (optional)

       

How to prepare:

• Preheat the oven to 160 degree C or Gas mark 2.
• Cut the apples to thin slices along length.
• Put Butter and Cream in a pan over medium heat and let them blend together. Stir in vanilla essence.
• Put the sugar into a bowl and add eggs. Whisk until it becomes a white fluffy mixture.
• Mix the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and set aside.
• Add the apples and using a strainer pour in the cream mixture. Add the flour mix and combine all the ingredients together gently, taking care not to break the apples.
• Transfer the mixture to a baking dish lined with aluminium foil and bake for about 45 minutes.
• Don't be alarmed if the top of the cake becomes a little over brown,because you are going to serve it upside down.
• 
  
  Remove the cake from oven and using a knife carefully separate the sides of the pie from the sides of the baking dish. Allow to cool for one hour or more.
• 
  
  Next loosen the foil from the sides of the pan. Now turn the cake over and very carefully separate the foil using a knife.
• 
  
  Cut and serve. You can sprinkle icing sugar over it or serve with whipped cream.

          Well,I think the pictures did more than justice to my cooking.They were taken by my hubby...A talent in him which I only recently discovered..When my attempt at photography proved to be a disaster,I promptly gave up my post to him..and look at the results!!ain't they stunning? 

Chicken Pepper Masala

         Chicken is a foodstuff with which you can prepare as many verities of dishes as there are chickens in the whole world.It is a dish you can tryout in anything from breakfast to dinner...

             And here comes another chicken side dish which is rich in flavours and delicious on its on.The fact that I like the hotness of black pepper more,than that of paprika makes me love this dish even better.When I run out of fish and eggs and have no option other than chicken,I always prepare this dish to go with rice and dal curry.When I prepare it,I check the taste often until all the flavours are equally blended and my two year old son always stretches his hand for his turn to test taste.

          CHICKEN PEPPER MASALA

                             
 Things you need:


           1.   800g   Chicken
         2.   1         big onion sliced
         3.   1         medium sized piece of ginger
         4.   5         cloves of garlic
         5.   1  tsp  red chilly powder
         6.   1/2 tsp black pepper
         7.   2 tsp coriander powder
         8.   1/2 tsp turmeric powder
         9.   Salt to taste
         10.  2   tomatoes(ground to fine paste)
         11. 1 twig curry leaves
         12.  1 cinnamon stick(of 2 inches length)
         13. 2-3 cloves
         14. 1 tsp coarsely powdered black pepper
         15. 2 tbsp  butter

                 

  Preparation:

      1. Wash the chicken properly,cut into small pieces and keep to drain.

      2.  Grind all the ingredients from 1 to 9 in a mixer to form a fine paste.

      3. Mix the chicken pieces well in this paste.If you have amble time, you can marinate  the chicken pieces for two hours.Otherwise, cook it in a pot or cooker until almost cooked.If you use a pressure cooker, make sure you heat it in high flame after opening so that the excess gravy can be evaporated out.

      4. Now take a pan and heat it in medium flame.Add butter to it.Now, add the cinnamon sticks and cloves.When the aroma of spices tickles your nostrils,add coarsely powdered black pepper and curry leaves to it.Then add ground tomato.Cook until  the water in the tomato paste almost dries up and the oil begins to surface.Add the cooked chicken pieces along with gravy and mix well.Cook for another two minutes, until done.

    5. Serve hot with rice or chapattis.

We Live to Eat

                             Food is all
                         Isn't pretty small
                    You cannot, do without at all

     This was the slogan, most of us followed when we were in college. The theory was in our systems right from our entrance coaching days, when we were in hostels then too. When somebody's family brought food from home sympathising with our plight, we used to make that our celebration day, and then was our 'grand feast' really! There was no inhibitions and embarrassments while helping ourselves to the end of it all.


     There was an open air indoor garden in the midst of our hostel, which was made in the traditional 'Nalukettu' architecture. If you stand here and look around, you can see each and every rooms of the hostel, spread in three vast floors. This was the place from where you would shout your lungs out to inform everybody that there is something to gulp down your throat in your room, most probably parcelled from home.


     No matter how scientifically you calculate the time taken by my sound to reach their ears and the velocity with which their legs carry them to my room, my pals always reached my room to fill it in seconds and the attendance would always be full whatsoever.


      What follows is the documentary "Hungry Somalians", when at the end of the chaos nobody coming from outside would get a hint of what actually the food was.(There where even 'bone eaters' in our gang :))  We enjoyed each and every seconds of our devouring and each jests and jokes we exchanged.

Paneer Mutter Masala(Paneer & Green peas in creamy sauce)

 

  
   I first tasted this dish from my sisters home. She had prepared it very rich with thick cream and spices. Those days I didn't even know the basics of cooking and had wondered "Wow! hats off to Indian cooks!! They have no difficulty even in taming a breakfast category pretty cheese into a spice laden dinner curry." Later, when I started cooking myself and was crawling towards each milestones, I thought of giving Paneer a try.

       Well, I have changed the recipe a little bit, I mean less rich ... because I have always hated the taste of milk, my mom says, even from the infant days. So to avoid the milky taste from seeping into the dish, I replaced the thick cream with low fat milk.

Paneer Mutter Masala 

   Serves 4 to 6

You will need:

2 cups paneer or cottage cheese (Cut into small cubes)

1 cup green peas

1 cup water

2 medium sized onions

1 tsp red chilly powder

1 tsp minced ginger

1 tsp minced garlic

3 tbsp tomato paste

half cup low fat milk

25 grams cashew nuts (soaked for an hour)

3/4 tsp garam masala powder

1/4 tsp fennel seeds powdered

1/4 tsp kaasoori methi powder (dried fenugreek leaves)

2 tbsp butter

salt to taste

coriander leaves for garnishing

1 tbsp cooking oil

1 tsp sugar

Method of Preparation

1) Heat oil in a pan and add the sliced onions and saute, until they become tender. Remove from pan and grind it well with soaked cashew nuts to form a fine paste.

2) Add butter to a wok and heat. Add minced ginger and garlic to it. When the aroma of ginger and garlic comes out, lower the flame and add  red chilly powder. Then add tomato paste or tomato puree and saute.

3) Then add one cup of water and green peas (cook it in a medium flame by covering the wok).

4) When it is cooked well, add the ground onion-cashew paste, fennel seed powder, garam masala powder, kasoori methi powder, salt and paneer cubes to it. And cook for 5 minutes. You can add paneer cubes either fried in little oil or as such.

5) Finally add milk and sugar to it and switch off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves.

6) Serve hot with bread or chapattis.

Chicken Majboos

      
          Before coming and settling in Kuwait with my hubby, I had the faintest idea about Arab dishes.All I had heard off and had some acquaintance with was the S-dishes namely,Shavarma and Shavaya.That too,the Indian version.The little knowledge I had about Arab dishes was too much shadowed by hear says such as"They are dishes where neither taste makers nor spices are added.You could not even say if it is sweet or sour."Imagine you being given a whole chicken,simply boiled in water with out adding anything else and cheerfully asked to eat...Well, I had serious doubts about my chances of survival while flying to Kuwait.

       But the story was different when I started shaking hands with these dishes.At first they felt so plain and bland to my spice drenched Indian tongue.But later, when I had more chances to make friends with them,I slowly began finding sense in them.It was like old times,when a newly released Bollywood song would seem a nuisance to your ear,when you first listen to it,but later on when time and again you hear it, you start sensing the beauty in its tone...

           That was how,I too became a Majboos lover.Coming to the recipe,I have tried a lot of varieties and this is what I formulated after much researches and feed backs from my friends and family. This is a recipe I perfected out after a lot of help from my cousin sister in law Sajitha, who is a great researcher but doesn't have a blog yet. You could try differently by adding more oil and more spices if you like,according to your taste.

   Chicken Majboos

     

Ingredients :

              Serves 4-6

                    3 cups Basmathi rice(soaked for at least 3 hrs)

                    1 whole chicken with skin (1 kg)

                    2 medium sized onions-sliced

                    2 tablespoon black pepper seeds

                    4 cardamom

                    6-8 cloves

                    2-3 cinnamon sticks(of 2" length)

                    2-3 bay leaves

                    1 dried black lemon

                    2 pinches of saffron colour(optional)

                    4 1/2 cups of water

                    salt to taste
For garnishing:
                  Chana dal/ split chick peas  -  2 tbsp
                  white raisins , soaked for 2 min and drained - 2 tbsp

                  Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

             1.  Wash the chicken properly and cut them into halves or quarter pieces without removing the skin.Allow it to drain.

             2. Heat 4 1/2 cups of water in a vessel and when it starts to boil add sliced onions,black pepper seeds and all the spices into it.Add the dried lemon piercing a hole in it using a knife. Add salt to taste.

             3. Finally add the drained chicken to it.

             4. Cower the vessel and allow to cook for at least one hour in medium to low heat until the chicken is tender and well cooked.

            5. Now, take the chicken out from the spicy broth and keep aside. Sieve the broth into another larger vessel kept on medium heat and put the cinnamon sticks back to the broth

            6. Add the soaked and drained basmathi rice to the boiling broth and cook in low flame covering the vessel.Stir the rice occasionally taking care   not to break the rice. When the water starts to dry pour 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil over the rice and cover it up.When the rice is well cooked and all the water has dried up, carefully stir the rice once more and remove the vessel from heat.
          Transfer one fourth of the cooked rice to a bowl and add the saffron colour dissolved in one table spoon of water. Mix well with a spoon and keep aside
          Cook the chana dal in a pressure cooker with a little water, a pinch of salt and a pinch of saffron colour until tender. keep it aside.
          Heat a frying pan and add a tablespoon of oil to it. Add the raisins and fry until they are brown and puffed up. Remove from the pan and add this to the coloured rice.Now add the cooked chana dal to the same pan and saute for a few seconds adding garam masala powder.Add this also to the colored rice mixture

              7. Now grill the cooked chicken halves in the oven keeping it at the top rack,until the skin is brown and crispy.

                                  Or

            You can fry the chicken by adding some oil to a big pan and frying in medium flame.Make sure all the sides are evenly fried and crispy by turning it around.After taking the chicken out you can pour the remaining oil over the cooked rice so that it gets a nice flavour.

            8. Serve:

              Pour the cooked rice into a wide plate and keep the grilled chicken pieces on top of it.Garnish with the coloured rice mixture with raisins and chana dal. Serve hot with dakkoos and salad.