Red velvet cake

Ingredients

All-purpose flour - 2 cups
Cocoa powder - 1 tablespoon (unsweetened)
Baking soda(bi-carb soda)-1 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Sieve all the dry ingredients at least 3 times

Wet Ingredients (at room temperature)

Unsalted butter - 1 1/2 cup (150g)
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup (powdered)
Eggs - 4nos
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Buttermilk - 1cup
vanilla essence - 2teaspoon
Red food colour - 2-3 teaspoons

For Frosting
Cream cheese - 1 packet(226g at room temperature)
Whipping cream - 1 pack (450ml)
Sugar powdered - 1/2 cup

Sugar syrup - 1 cup (I made sugar syrup adding strawberries to get a tangy taste)

Prepare two 8 inch cake pans with butter or nonstick oil spray.

In a bowl beat sugar and butter until creamy. Slowly add the eggs one by one to this and mix well. Now combine buttermilk, vegetable oil, essence and colour to the egg mix. You have to mix well until you get a creamy texture.

To this add dry ingredients in small qty and mix thoroughly folding it into the wet mix. If the batter is too thick you can loosen it by adding milk(room temperature)


Divide batter into equal measure among the 2 prepared pans and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, in 350 F/180 C. Let the cake cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

(Cream cheese at room temperature)

Beat together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth lighter in colour (about 3-4 minutes). In another bowl beat whipping cream separately until it turns fluffy. Now combine both and beat well till you get a thick creamy consistency.
Now the cake assembling and decorating part.

Transfer 1 cake onto a serving dish/plate, flat side down, trim the top off to create a flat bottom later.  Spread the strawberry sugar syrup evenly on the layer which makes the cakes juicy and flavourful.  Scoop about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of frosting onto the cake and spread evenly over the top.

Place second cake layer on top and do the same. Once done, use remaining frosting to cover the top and sides of the cake.
Crumble the trimmed cake pieces and sprinkle on top and sides. Decorate the cake according to your choice/idea.

NOTE - This is a very very soft and moist cake kinda melts-in-your mouth cake, so you need to be extra careful while assembling/frosting.

Corn - Pomegranate Salad

This is perfect and filling, colorful salad for those who're on a weight loss diet. It has a tangy, sweet flavor.

Ingredients

Corn - 1 cup (steamed corn)
Pomegranate - 1 no
Onion - 1 cup chopped
Tomato - 1 cup chopped
Lettuce - 1 cup finely chopped
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup chopped

For salad dressing ( whisk all the ingredients)

Lemon juice - 1 tbspn
Pepper
Salt
Olive oil - 1 tbspn

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients and toss with dressing, serve.

Apple-Ginger Juice

Healthy drink after a rigorous workout!

Recipe

Almost 5 apples
A small piece of ginger
A tablespoon of lemon juice

Just blend everything in a blender, filter it and enjoy !!!!!
😊😊

Baked urad dal Vada (Uzhunnu vada in Oven)

Method

Prepare vada batter , should be little loose than normal thick batter. Add finely chopped ginger, onion, green chilli, curry leaves, coriander leaves. Also, add 1 1/2 tbsp of coconut oil to the batter, mix very well and spoon into the donut tray.

Preheat oven, at 350 F bake 12 minutes and broil 1 minute to make it brown on top. Serve with chutney.

Parippu vada and tea ( Channa dal fritters)

Ingredients

Kadala parippu(Channa dal) - 1 cup
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Fennel Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Ginger - grated 2 tbsp
Garlic - 4 cloves finely chopped
Green Chilly - 4-6  chopped
Curry Leaves - 3 tbsp chopped
Coriander leaves - 1 cup chopped
Salt to taste
Oil for deep fry

Soak  channa dal for at least 2 hours. Drain the water completely. Now grind this coarsely without adding water, take care not to grind it to a fine paste.
To this add all the ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Meanwhile heat enough oil in a pan.
Take small amount of the dal mixture and make a ball.Place in the center of the palm,slightly press it with your palm and make patties and drop into the hot oil.
Cook until dark brown and crisp. Hot and crisp Parippu vada (Channa dal fritters) is ready to serve with hot tea

Pongala Payasam - Sweet rice pudding

Its basic ingredients are rice, jaggery and ghee. This has an unique taste as we add grated coconut, some chopped bananas, and finally for flavour cardamom powder.

Ingredients

Kerala matta rice(brown rice) or raw rice - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3 balls (grated)
Ghee - 1 cup(be generous adding ghee)
Grated coconut - 1 cup ( i used coconut flakes)
Banana - 3-4 sliced into small rounds
Cardamom pods/powder
Water to cook rice.

Soak rice , boil water in a big pot/pan, add rice. When rice is almost cooked add jaggery , mix well and cook for 5 minutes. Keep stirring and add ghee spoon after  spoon until the payasam  gets thickened. Lastly add sliced bananas, coconut and cardamom pods or powder mix well. Sweet rice pudding(Pongala payasam) is ready.

This is very similar to Chakkara Pongal/Sweet Pongal!

Meen Mulakittathu (Red chilli fish curry) and Chakka puzhukku (Mashed tender Jackfruit) - Kerala's delicacies

This is a typical Kottayam style fish curry prepared using red chillies and other spices,      mainly flavoured with cocum(tamarind). This curry tastes better next day, tastes  like pickle .
It goes well with rice, rotis, appam.  Main combination is Kappa (Tapioca)and meen mulakittathu. Here i have taken mashed jack fruit as a combo for this curry.
For this curry you could use king fish, tuna, seer fish, salmon, travelly, mackerel and sardine. I have taken Sardine this time.

Ingredients

Sardine - 1/2 kg (marinated with turmeric and salt)
Onion/Shallots - 1 cup thinly sliced
Fenugreek Seeds -1/4 Tspn
Garlic sliced - 4-5 cloves
Ginger sliced - 1 tbspn
curry leaves- 1-2 stems
turmeric Powder 1/2 -tspn
Red chilli -  5-6 nos
Coriander powder - 1 tbspn
Cocum (Kudam Puli)-2-3 pieces
water - as required
salt to taste
coconut oil 2 1/2 tbspn

Soak cocum (kudampuli) in luke warm water.
Grind red chillies,coriander powder , 2-3 shallots and fenugreek seeds to a fine paste.

Heat oil in a pan add chopped onion, ginger, garlic and few curry leaves. Cook on medium heat till it turns brown.Now pour in  chilli paste. Stir to combine with the oil and let the masala cooks well keep sauteing till it turns dark and you see oil on top.
This is a very spicy curry. So adjust chilli powder according to your spice tolerance level, you could also add kashmiri chilli powder for more color and neutralize spiciness.

Now add soaked cocum (kudampuli), you can add its water also. Add salt, bring this to boil and then add fish. Add  water, make  sure that fish is fully covered in the gravy. Cook until you get a thick gravy. Once cooked,switch off the flame , add coconut oil over the fish curry and curry leaves to get that  typical aroma and taste of kerala's fish curry.

Mashed Jack fruit (chakka puzhukku/chakka vevichathu)

Ingredients

Unripe jackfruit (I bought 2 pkts cleaned and cut jackfruit from indian store)
Grated coconut – 1.5 cup
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Garlic sliced –  2 – 3 nos
Green chillies – 2 – 3 nos
Curry leaves – 1 – 2 stems
Red chilli - 2 nos
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Coconut oil – 1 tbsp
Salt – To taste

Cook jackfruit adding turmeric powder, salt and sliced garlic. Cover and cook until done. Meanwhile grind coconut and green chillies to a coarse mixture. When jackfruit is cooked add coconut-chilli mix, coconut oil and curry leaves to it and combine well. Mash it with wooden ladle or with back of spoon. Season it with red chillies and mustard seeds.

Serve  hot with mulaku chammanthi(Red chilli chutney),thenga chammanthi (coconut chutney),mango pickle or fish curry.

Banana Split Ice cream

Ingredients

Ice cream - Vanilla/chocolate/strawberry. Any ice cream of your choice(I used home made vanilla and chocolate ice creams)

Banana - as required
Some chocolate chips,chopped nuts

Strawberry jam - To prepare jam, take 1 cup chopped strawberries,  mix chopped strawberries with 2 tbsp sugar, keep it aside for half an hour. This will help strawberries to release its juice, now transfer to a pan and cook for 15-20 minutes stirring continuously until the juice is reduced and forms a thick sticky consistency.let  this cool

Melted chocolate

Take a long serving bowl, scoop ice creams in the middle, put slit bananas on either side, spoon strawberry jam/melted chocolate on top of the ice cream,decorate it with some nuts and choco  chips. Tasty banana split ice cream is ready to serve :)

Chicken - Mushroom rice

Ingredients
Cooked rice - 1 bowl(I used left over rice)
chicken - 1 breast piece( marinated with coriander pwd - 2 tbspn, turmeric pwd-1/2tsp, pepper pwd - 1 tspn, lemon juice-1 tsp, chopped garlic-2 cloves and salt)
Mushroom - 1 bowl
Green onion(spring onion)-1 bowl, spinach - 1 bowl
Chopped ginger - 1 spn, Red chillies -2 nos, coconut oil - 1 tbspn, ghee-1 tbspn, lemon juice-1 tspn, Salt -as required.

Heat coconut oil , put ginger and red chillies. To this add chicken and when chicken is half cooked, add in mushroom. Stir well and with lid on cook for 5 minutes. No need to add water as mushroom itself contains water. Add salt and spinach to this. Spinach takes very less time to cook. Give a good stir and cook for 2 minutes. Now time to add rice. Mix all the ingredients and cook for at least 2 minutes until rice absorbs all the flavors and masala.
Lastly add green onions, ghee and lemon juice. Mix well. Lemon juice gives a little tanginess to rice and ghee enhances the taste.

I didn't add coriander leaves , as such it contains lot of greens.

Sausage Pizza

Recipe

Pizza dough - its just a basic pizza dough. All purpose flour 3 cups, instant yeast 1pack, 1 teaspoon each of sugar and salt, 1/2 cup olive/vegetable oil, 1 cup milk. Mix all together and prepare dough. Leave this to rise for at least 2 hrs.

For topping

Tomato salsa - I like to use tomato salsa as it already has tomatoes/chilli/garlic/onion/coriander leaves and also gives a smoky flavor,moist texture and spiciness to pizza. You can use tomato ketchup/sauce.

Chicken sausage - cut into round pieces. I had cooked sausages adding chilli, turmeric powders, salt and pepper before spreading onto pizza.
Grated cheese (Parmesan cheese) as required
Bell peppers(capsicum) 1-2 cut into round shapes

Preheat oven to 350 F(USA)

Divide dough, roll onto pizza pan. Spread tomato salsa, cooked sausages and capsicum evenly on the dough, sprinkle enough cheese. Bake 15-20 minutes, season it with oregano.

Ice cream

Recipe

Milk 1 cup, condensed milk(milkmaid) 1 cup, Heavy cream 2 cups, vanilla essence 2 tspn, food color -green color and for strawberry flavour  i used nesquik. This is optional, you can prepare without adding food color. I didn't add sugar, if you need more sweetness add powdered sugar.

In a bowl put all the ingredients , except food color. Using a hand mixer beat it for 1 minute, divide the mix into two. To one bowl i added nesquik strawberry flavour, and to the other one added green food color.
Now beat them until it becomes double, atleast for 2-3 minutes. Pour this mix to air tight containers and keep in freezer for min 5 hrs.
Once set, you can serve with toppings of your choice. I added chocolate chips and some strawberry jam as topping.

This came out perfect, exactly like store bought, not at all flaky. Enjoy!

Prawns/shrimp/konju Masala - Kerala style!

This is a very spicy dish, you can adjust the spiciness according to your tolerance :))


prawns - 250gms, ginger:garlic-finely chopped 1 tsp each, chopped onion -1 cup,slited green chillies 2-3,  chilli powder- 1tbsp, pepper powder -1 tsp, turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp, Kudampuli(kokum/malabar tamarind)- 1-2 pieces,coconut oil, curry leaves, coriander leaves, salt to taste.

https://youtu.be/GwJL3heHj_Y recipe for prawns rice

Marinate prawns with pepper, turmeric powder and salt.
Heat  coconut oil, put  mustard seeds and curry leaves. Saute onion,ginger,garlic,green chilli until it turns brown.  When this is half done add chilli powder,kudampuli(kokum) and salt.
To this add marinated prawns and mix well. Now cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes, no need to add water as prawns itselt has water in it.  Once cooked, open the lid and put the flame to high and saute until you get the desired consistency. Lastly sprinkle coriander leaves and 1 tsp of coconut oil and mix well. Serve it with rice/chappathi

Chocolate love

Chocolate lava cake


Ingredients

1 stick  unsalted butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate
3 whole eggs
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tbspns all-purpose flour(Maida)
1 tspn vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 450 F, and grease the ramekins with butter/oil

In a bowl beat egg and sugar until sugar completely dissolves(i used whisker to mix all the ingredients no need to use hand mixer).

Using double boiling method melt chocolate and butter, whisk until smooth. 

Now add this chocolate mixture to egg and sugar mix along with maida , salt and essence. Mix thoroughly, spoon this batter into ramekins and bake 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes take it out and cool for few seconds,say for a minute. Edges would be hard and center portion will be soft. Now carefully turn it over to dessert plate, top with whipped cream or ice cream. I don't have both in stock, so just dusted with powdered sugar. Serve immediately then only you can see the warm chocolate flowing out like lava. 

Fruit/Plum cake

Fruit Cake

1/4 cup each red and green candied cherries (you can use tutti-frutti also)
1/4 cup black raisins
1/4 cup yellow raisins
1/4 cup apricot
Rum or brandy to soak. *** IF you don't like adding alcohol you could soak dry fruits in orange juice as well.

In a glass bottle put all the above ingredients, pour rum/brandy to cover dry fruits. Let this sit for atleast 2 days.

Also - take 1/4 cup each of cashew nuts, pista,walnuts - chop these and dust it with flour to prevent sinking to the bottom while baking.

Dry ingredients

All- purpose flour - 1 3/4 cup, baking powder - 1 tsp, salt- 1/2 tsp. Mix all these well.

Wet ingredients

Whole eggs -3, brown sugar - 1 cup, butter - 1 stick/cup, v.essence- 1 tsp, 1/4 cup-orange juice

Powder brown sugar, add butter and beat using a hand mixer until it is fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and continue beating until you get a soft and creamy mixture. Add vanilla essence and orange juice, combine well.

Once the wet ingredients are combined very well, slowly add flour and mix. Do not use hand mixer. Folding it gently, mix all the ingredients well.

Now the last part- empty the dry fruits bottle into the batter (need not strain, as the rum/orange juice gives all the flavours a fruit cake is expected to have) Again mix it very well.
Lastly add in the chopped nuts and stir once more. That's it.

Preheat the oven at 300 f(USA)/ 180 C and bake this for atleast 45 minutes. Always keep an eye on it as the oven temperature may vary . You can google for temperature conversions.

If sugar is high, always good to bake in lower temperature as it may turn brown faster and you get a burning smell.

Vattayappam (Steamed Rice Cake) - Kerala's traditional tea time snack !

You need

1 1/2 cups of soaked raw rice/idli rice
1 1/2 cups grated coconut
A handful cooked rice
1 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 tbsp sugar
4 to 5 cardamom seeds
Roasted nuts and raisins
water as required
coconut oil/ghee to grease

Soak raw rice for atleast 3 hours. Into a blender or mixie put  rice, coconut, cooked rice, sugar,salt,cardamom seeds and instant yeast. Add water, just to cover the ingredients. Take care not to add more water, we need thick batter like that of idli batter. Grind this well. Now pour this to a bowl and let it sit for 2-3 hours to ferment/rise.
Grease a round/flattened pan with coconut oil/ghee.

Pour batter into the greased pan, almost 3/4th full.Sprinkle the roasted nuts and raisins on top. Now place this pan into steamer/pressure/idli cooker and steam for 15- 20 mins.I used Idli steamer .

After 20 mins insert a tooth pick or fork to see if it is cooked. If it comes out clean switch off the flame and allow it to cool. Once cooled, run a knife around the edges and invert the pan. Your delicious Vattayappam or Steamed rice cake is ready. 

You can prepare this without adding sugar, nuts and raisins too. Sometimes i preapre this for breakfast without adding sugar and serve it along with Chicken curry or vegetable stew. Enjoy!!!