Tri - coloured Cookies

Coming to think of it, this should have been the very first recipe on my blog! That's because this takes me down memory lane, to the days when I was a kid and my mum would bake this on special occassions :) I loved it so much that I would end up eating almost all the cookies ;)

 Also, I have to say that my inspiration for cooking is my mum. She is such a wonderful and versatile cook. She has a deep knowledge of a lot of ingredients and treats all food with respect and love. She would always learn and experiment and that's how she has stumbled upon so many great and uncommon combinations. And the most amazing thing about her is she mostly never uses recipes, it's all in her head and she goes with her feelings!

So here's one dedicated to mum!

For this you will need -

Cup - Any cup that you desire, I generally use a regualr sized tea cup
Parchment paper/Butter paper
Rolling pin
Knife

For the white part of the cookie -
1 1/2cup - Sugar (Powdered)
1 1/2 cup - Refined Oil (Any oil that has no odour like Sunflower, Rice Bran etc)
1 tspn - Vanilla Essence
A pinch of Baking Soda (optional)
2 1/2 - 3 cups - Plain Flour

For the red part of the cookie -

1/2 cup - Sugar (Powdered)
1/2 cup - Refined Oil (Any oil that has no odour like Sunflower, Rice Bran etc)
1 tspn - Vanilla Essence
A pinch of Baking Soda (optional)
1 - 1 1/2 cups - Plain Flour
Food Colour - Red - 4-5 drops

For the green part of the cookie -

1/2cup - Sugar (Powdered)
1/2 cup - Refined Oil (Any oil that has no odour like Sunflower, Rice Bran etc)
1 tspn - Vanilla Essence
A pinch of Baking Soda (optional)
1 - 1 1/2 cups - Plain Flour
Food Colour - Green - 4-5 drops

Method -

Take three bowls. In the first one, add the sugar and oil for the white cookie dough. Mix well and to this add the vanilla essence and the baking soda. Give it another mix and keep adding flour little by little till you can make a dough that looks like this.

Now repeat the same for the red and green doughs as well. Add the food colour to the sugar and oil mixture and the rest of the steps are the same. They should look like these.

 

The next step is to roll them. For this, take a sheet of butter paper or natural parchment paper. Roll the white dough into a circle to a thicknes of about 3/4th of an inch. Now, roll the red and the green doughs to form a vertical roll and place them on top of the white dough as shown below.

I realized later that it probably makes more sense to roll the white dough into a square so that even along the two edges, you will end up getting even cookies. With this what happens is at the tails, you get smaller, uneven cookies. Yeah, but they are cookies all the same :)

Once you do this, cover the red and green with the white dough but rolling the white over them, with the help of the parchment paper. Roll it as tight as you can. Refridgerate the ROLL (one big one) for atleast 30 mins, preferably upto an hour (knowing how hot it is in India generally :))

After an hour, take the dough out. Pre heat the oven to a 180 deg C now. Then start slicing the dough from one end.

 

Make the slices as even as possible, about 5cms thickness.

 

 

Arrange them in a baking tray and put it in the oven for 25 -30 mins.

 



 You will know they are baked when they turn colour and slightly swell.

This is what I meant by uneven cookies, my first batch :) Each consecutive batch should take about 15-20 mins as the oven is already hot.

You should get about 35 - 40 cookies in all. Happy baking and happy eating :)



 

Appams and egg curry

When I first got married, I was only interetsed in learning Avial (a vegetable curry from Kerala, India) However, on my first visit to my in-laws, I fell in love with these soft, white pillowy appams and egg curry alongside :)

Foreword - It may take you a couple of tries, to get it right as I don't actually measure the quantities, it's more of a feel than anything else! But this time, I did measure, so I can post here.

For the appam batter, you will need -

Rice - 100 gms
Note - I use Sona Masoori variety. Avoid using any form of sticky rice and Basmati (highly aromatic). Any other raw rice should be fine.
Fresh Coconut - 40 gms approx or 3-4 tbspns (grated)
Cooked Rice - 1 -2 tbspns
Sugar - 1/2 tspn
Coconut water (optional) - if you collect it when you break open the coconut, then use it
Dry yeast - 6-7 granules OR a pinch of baking soda
Salt - 1/4 tspn

Vessel to make  -
Appam chatti (low bottom wok)

Method -

Soak the rice for 3-4 hours. Drain the water and grind with the grated coconut, cooked rice, sugar and the coconut water. Cooked rice is added to give the soft texture to the appam. Also make sure to use only the white part of the coconut, so your appams are also white :) This batter has to be quite thin, so you can add ample water while grinding. It should look like this, once done. Err on the side of less water, as you can always add more. If it becomes too watery, it can't be saved! The idea is to be able to swirl the batter in the chatti ( low bottom wok)

Once you have the batter, add dry yeast, dissolved in warm water to this and let it ferment for 8-9 hours. Incase you don't have dry yeast, then let it ferment as such for 8-9 hours and just before making the appams, add a pinch, literally a pinch of baking soda to the batter. Add salt as well and you are ready to start making appams.

Start by heating the chatti and adding a tspn of ghee. Rub the ghee with a kitchen tissue, this helps in lubricating the vessel just a bit. Of course with non stick pans, you don't really need to, but no harm in doing it. When the chatti is slightly hot, reduce the flame and pour one ladle of batter in the centre.

 

 

 

Now, swirl the chatti so the batter moves all around and the excess, if at all, settles in the centre. This is why the consistency of the batter is crucial. Runny enough to be able to swirl but thick enough to be able to stick to the sides of the chatti :)

 

 

 

Close the chatti and cook on high heat for a couple of minutes and then sim for another 2-3 minutes. Open the lid to check that the centre has cooked, the sides will come off automatically. Remove and pour another ladle of batter to repeat the process.

 

Soft and fluffly appams are great with egg curry.

 

For the egg curry, you will need -

 

Oil - 2 tbspns

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Curry leaves - 4-5 nos, chopped

Onions - 1 large or 2 medium, fine chopped

Tomatoes - 1 medium, fine chopped

Salt - 1-2 tspn

Turmeric powder -1/2 tspn

Coriander powder - 2 tspns

Ready made egg masala - 3 tspns

Water - 50-60 ml

Eggs - 3 nos boiled

Coriander leaves - To garnish

 

Method -

 

Heat oil in a wok, add the mustard seeds when the oil is hot. Allow them to splutter, then add the curry leaves. Now add the chopped onions and fry till they are translucent. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute. Add salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder and the egg masala. Give it a good stir and cook for another couple of minutes. Now add water and close the lid. Let it simmer for 5 -8 minutes. In the mean time, boil your eggs, peel them and cut them in half. Once the gravy has come to the boil, add the eggs and allow the gravy to coat it. Now simmer for another 10 mins. Swicth off and garnish with fresh coriander, finely chopped.

 

 



 

 

Rice Cakes in Turmeric Leaf (Patholi)

Last weekend we went on a road trip to Kurnool. Since it was an "unplanned " trip, we really didn't know what to do there, so we decided to drive another 100kms to go see a temple. That, I must say was one of the best drives in my life :) Well, that's because we were surrounded by lush green paddy fields, banana plantations, mango orchards and most importantly turmeric farms!! I was so excited to find these and thanks to one of our friends who obliged to walk into the field and pluck some leaves for me. I couldn't wait to come back and try this recipe. We also got lots of yummy bananas and they will soon be turned into banana muffins, which will also be posted soon :)

This is a traditional recipe from Mangalore. I believe it is called "Patholi" in Konkani and yes I got the recipe from an authentic konkani herself!

The aroma of these leaves is intoxicating. When the patholis are steaming, this fragrance fills the entire kitchen and I could just float away in it :)

For this you will need -

Turmeric Leaves - 6-7 nos

For the batter -
Rice - 200 gms rice approx
Coconut - 2-3 tbspns
Avalakki ( Beaten Rice) - 1 tbspn
Salt - 1/4 tspn

For the filling -
Coconut - one half grated, approx 100 gms
Jaggery - Equal quantity as coconut
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tspn

Method -

Soak rice for 2 -3 hours and drain the water off. Now grind this with the coconut and beaten rice,with as little water as possible till you get a smooth paste. The consistency of the batter should be such that you can spread it on a leaf and not like it will flow all over the place :) Add 1/4 tspn salt and keep aside.

In a wok, mix the coconut and jaggery together and allow the jaggery to melt. It will then combine with the coconut, cook this till all the water evaporates and you are left with a sticky sort of paste. Add the cardamom powder and give it a quick mix.

Keep your steamer ready on the stove top. Wash the leaves and trim the top and bottom. Since my leaves were bigger than my steamer, I cut them in half. Now, spread the batter in a thin layer on the leaf and put the filling along the centre.

Fold the leaf along the centre and arrange them one on top of another in your steamer. Let the open ends face upwards, so steam can escape.

 

Steam these for about 12- 15 minutes. You will know they are ready when the aroma fills your heart and hearth :) They should look like this.

Also, if they are cooked right, you will be able to peel the leaf off easily. Else, steam it for a couple more minutes.

Serve hot, with ghee and drizzle some honey to sweeten it some more !

 

 

Mushroom Fried Rice

 

A lot of my friends have asked for this recipe, sorry for the delay though!

 

 

 

For this you will need -

 

Refined Oil - 2 tbspn

Garlic - 5 pods, fine chopped/grated

Ginger - 3 inch long, grated

Bulb of spring onion - 5-6 nos, fine chopped

Mushroom -  about 100 gms, chopped

Carrots - 1 no, fine chopped 

Capsicum - 1/2, fine chopped

French Beans - 2 nos, fine chopped

Soy Sauce - 1 tbspn

Chilli Sauce - 1 tbspn

Ketchup - 1 tbspn

Salt - 2-3 tspns

Sugar - 1/4 tspn

Rice - 150- 200 gms, approx

Spring onion stalks for garnish

 

Method -

 

Cook rice separately in a cooker or open pot so that the grains are separate. Add 1 tbspn oil to this, mix well and keep aside.

 

In a wok, add the remaining oil and allow to heat. Then add the garlic and the ginger. Cook on medium heat till ginger turns dark brown, almost on the verge of getting burnt but obviously not burnt :) This will give that lovely dark brown colour to the rice and a fragrant ginger flavour! As the ginger turns brown, add the spring onion bulbs and turn them pink. Now add the mushrooms, capscicum, carrot and french beans. Keep on stirring till the veggies are half cooked. You can add salt to make them cook faster, also add the sugar to keep the colour of the veggies intact. Once they are cooked yet crunchy, add the soy, chilli sauces and the ketchup. Give it a quick stir and add the rice, little by little, so each grain gets coated with the sauce. This should be done on high heat and real quick. This is because, now the longer the veggies are on the pan, they will overcook and the rice also will start turning brittle and hard. So do it as fast as you can and turn off the gas. Garnish with green sprigs of the spring onion and serve!

 



 

Date and walnut pancakes

 

One evening, when I was racking my brains about what snack to give my two year old, I came up with this. Well, truth be told, I thought about good old pancakes and then I wanted to make it yummier and healthier. I scoured my refridgerator and saw I had some wonderful dates and walnuts.

 

My two year old loves anything sweet, just like his mom :) But nuts are mostly a no, unless powdered! Walnuts are especially great for everyone and I thought what better way than to slip it in with something sweet!

 

 

For this you will need -

Flour - 5 tbspns
Egg - 1
Dates - 4
Walnuts - 4
Sugar - 2 tspns
Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tspn
Baking soda - a pinch (optional)
Salt - a pinch
Milk as required

To make it -

Grind pitted dates with walnuts and a little bit of milk. Take the flour, sugar, cinnamon powder, salt and baking soda in a bowl. Add one beaten egg to this and mix well. Add the ground mixture to this and give it another mix. Now add milk, if required, to bring into a batter consistency.

Heat a pan, smear some oil and pour the batter to make small pancakes. Cook on both sides and serve hot by glazing it with honey.

To add another level of flavour, take a few more walnuts and dates, chop them up. In the pan, add some sugar and the nuts. Caramelize the sugar, so it gets coated on the nuts. Sprinle these on top of the pancake!