Rasmalai

Rasmalai is basically a Bengali Sweet. In my office almost once or twice in a week our gang used to order Rasmalai. Thatz how I got interest to know how to make that. When I gone through the recipe I felt itz pretty easy to make even though the cooking time may take 1 Hr.I am person who love to cook , eat as well as to share :) So I made it and is waiting to share and get the feedback from my colleagues. First review from my husband made me happy :)

Ingredients:

Full Fat Milk – 8 cups 

Lemon Juice – 2 Tbsp

Water – 5 cups 

Sugar – 1 cup

Saffron – pinch

Cashew Nuts-6 -8 Nos

Cardamom Powder – 1/4 tsp

Pistachios & Almonds – 2 Tbsp, roughly chopped
Method:

 Boil 4 cups milk in a steel pan and boil the remaining 4 cups   milk in a non-stick pan Once the milk in the steel pan comes to a rolling boil, slowly add lemon juice. When the milk turns to paneer  switch off the stove and strain the paneer in a cheese cloth. Pour a little cold water over the paneer and hang the cheese cloth  and strain all the liquid.

Grind the Paneer in processor to smooth dough. Make the paneer into 12 equal portions of small balls. Roll the portions in your hands until a smooth ball is formed. Lightly press the ball until it flattens out. In the pressure cooker with water, dissolve 1 cup sugar and add the flattened paneer. Close pressure cooker lid and cook until one whistle sounds.  Switch off the stove and set the timer for exactly 5 minutes.After 5 minutes, carefully take the pressure cooker to the sink and pour cold water over the lid to remove the pressure. Remove the paneer from syrup and allow to cool.

 Meantime, the milk in the non-stick pan should be boiled .When it starts boiling add powdered sugar and saffron. When milk starts getting thick add cashew nut paste , cardamom powder as well as sugar according to ur taste. Cook on low flame till the milk is reduced to half. Pour the prepared reduced milk over the paneer and chill in the refrigerator. Garnish with additional chopped nuts,saffron and pistachios.

Server it cool.

Fish Vazhayilayil Pollichathu n Palappam

This is a Recipe which I  have love n like....Alleppy and Kuttanad is famous for its fish Recipes.My dad is also from Kuttanad. My dad always says about  Meen Vzhayilayil Pollichathu his mother used to make  and that is one among the best thing he cherish about his mother as well as he miss too. And when ever my mother tries to do this he always says it cannot beat the Pollichathu which his mother used to make. I think my dad will have the same opinion even if he tastes mine. I hope my parents will be coming here next month. So as a trial I prepared this Recipe.One important note about this  recipe is "The fish should be very very Fresh" else it will spoil your entire recipe.


I hope all knows how to prepare Palappam. If not in some other post I will share the method.

Ingredients.

Step - 1

Fish- 1/2 kg ( I used white Pomfret)

Turmeric Powder - 1 Tspn

Pepper Powder- 1 Tspn

Salt

Vinegar.

Marinate the fish with above ingredients and keep aside for 1/2 hr. After that slightly fry fish with less oil..

Ingredients

Step -2

Shallots - 25 No's

Tomato  - 1 No

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 Tblspn

Turmeric - 1 Tspn

Coriander  - 1/2 Tspn

Red chilly Powder - 1 1/2 Tspn

Eastern Fish Masala - 11/2 Tspn

Tamarind Juice  - 3 Tspn

Fenugreek Powder - 1 1/2 Tspn

Coconut Milk - 1/2 Coconut

Oil

Curry Leaves

Plantain Leaves

Preparation

Add oil to pan the add ginger garlic paste , shallots, tomato, curry leaves once its half done add all the powders. Saute well and add the tamarind juice at end.

Take plantain leaves place it one flame so that it will be come soft. Place some portion of masala , then  keep the fried fish and then place the rest of masala on top of fish. Then add 1 or 2 table spoon of coconut milk and the some fresh curry leaves fold in a way which I have shown in the picture. Take a big pan. Add some oil place this pack in to the pan. And keep on low flame. Place a vessel containing water on top of the Packed Fish so it will be cooked nicely. Cook for fifteen minutes .In between turn both sides. Fish Vazhayilayil Pollichathu ready. Recipe is not that very easy. It need time and patience.

This is 4 U

Now a day’s I update my blog with Recipes which I tried.  Even though there is a Recipe in this post too, still it stays apart from all my other Recipe. Because this is a Cake which I baked with great Love & Passion. There is a saying like “For every successful man there is a woman behind” but in my case I have to say “For Every Happy Woman there will be a man behind”. Yes I am saying about my best half. There is no need of a show-off to say how much you love your husband.  Even though,I baked this as a gesture of love , gratitude towards him for being such a loving and supporting husband.

I can proudly say that whatever I missed before marriage right from the style of dressing till my passions, he only made that happen for me or opened/showed me the way to accomplish that. Thank you so much for being supportive and being so motivating, love is a default factor even though he may not express it in words as his expressions are through actions. It was a complete makeover for me from head to toe as well in my perspective towards life. He only taught me to do things which I like in my own way without much bothering how others may think. He only taught me to live my life to the fullest in the way I want it to be.

On your Birthday I wanna tell you.

You are the best thing that could have happened to me, giving me so much laughter, joy , support and so much love. So on your birthday, I would just like to say thank u, and remind you of how much I love you.

Many more Happy Returns of the Day Dipzzz 


Recipe

Ingredients

Pound Cake Mix - 300 gm

Butter - 50 gm

Water - 150 Ml

Eggs - 2 Nos


Preparation

Mix all the above ingredients in a blender .

Take a baking pan place one oil paper greased with butter in to it. Pour the mixture into it.

Preheat oven in 180 degree Celsius temp for min.

Then place the baking pan in to it and initially put the baking temperature for  40 minutes.By 25 minutes you stop the baking for a minute and spread the cashews on top and restart.

For some cakes that time will be enough but some time it may take up to 1hr depending up on change in the cake mix or the oven .
You can check whether the cake is completly baked with the help of a tooth pick. When toothpick is inserted at the center part
of the cake and no mixture is stick on the tooth pick it means cake is baked properly don't over bake too.

For Icing

Whipped Cream 

Caster Sugar/ Icing Sugar.

Cherries

Colour.

It purely depends on aesthetic sense. Just Blend all together and spread it over the cake evenly there are so many kitchen mates available in market to do the icing .For this part the cooking skill won't merely help you ,the artist in you also have to work :) And this is my fist Hands on experience on Decorating a Cake :)Even though there are flaws and not perfect ,still I am glad that I did it for the first time for the best person in my life!!!!!!

Chicken Rice Noodles

Now a days people are health holic. So they are very much cautious about what they eat . But there are always some of our favorites which we eat even though it has health alerts due to its intake . One among that is noodles. The first and foremost issue which health experts find in noodles is that its made of All purpose flour and its intake is not good for our health.
Here I can suggest a Noodles which is very healthy one and you can eat at any ages. Chicken Rice Noodles.

Recipe Inspired from one of my friends photograph and got the idea how to cook from one of friend Meeran who had that food from South Indian Restaurant.

Original Pic

Ingredients for making Rice Noodles (Idiyappam)
I am sure all the south Indian's will know how to make an Idiyappam ( Rice Noodles ). But this is for people who doesn't know how to make it.

Rice Flour - 3 cups

Water boiled - As much as to make a dough like that which we make to prepare Roti or Poori.

Oil - 1 Tspn

Salt - As per you taste and requirement

Preparation of Rice Noodles (Idiyappam)

Make the dough by mixing all ingredients and you can make noodles in  Idiappam Maker which is avalable in markets. After that cook the Noodles in steam by keeping it inside a Idly Vessel.

Ingredients for Noodles

Chicken Breast - 2 Pieces

Onion - 2 Nos

Capsicum - 1/2 portion if its big

Carrot - 1 No

Beans - 10 No's

Spring Onion - 1 Stem

Celery - 1/2 Stem

Black Pepper Powder - 1 Tspn

Soy Sauce - 1/2 Tbl Spn

Tomato Sauce - 2 Tbl Spn

Chilli Sauce - 1 1/2 Tspn

Ginger Garlic Paste.

Salt

Refined Oil - 3 Tbl Spn

Preparation of Chicken Rice Noodles

Cook the chicken with pepper powder and salt ( Shred it and keep aside)

Cut the veggies into small size .

Initially take a pan and cook beans carrot and onion with salt , but don't over cook that crispness and freshness of veggies should be there.

Take another pan add oil then add ginger garlic paste to it. Then add all the cooked veggies saute well after 5 minutes add the spring onion , celery and capsicum to it. Saute for 5 minutes then add soy sauce and tomato chilly sauce.Saute well and the add the cooked rice noodles into it.Then add the shredded chicken and finally add the pepper powder 1( Tspn). Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Chicken Rice Noodles is done.Add salt according to your taste as already salt is there for rice veggies n soy sauce.

This a complete food for your children and they will definitely like this. Even you don't have to prepare any side dishes for this :)

Thalassery Chicken Dum Biriyani

My earlier post was also regarding biriyani. I already mentioned in the post that I am a biriyani lover. The biriyani which I earlier made was lil spicy.There is always a conflict about biriyani in northern parts of Kerala regarding the best biriyani.Whether Kozhikode biriyani or Thalssery biriyani is the best. But the fact is that both has its own signature taste. This week I am going to make a Thalassery Chicken Dum Biriyani. This is not a very spicy biriyani but its very very tasty.

Ingredients

• Chicken cut into pieces – 1 Kg
• Onions- 4 big ( thinly sliced)
• Green Chilies – 8 to 10 depending on spice level
• Ginger – 1 big piece
• Garlic- 2 1/2 Tbsp crushed
• Tomato – 2 big chopped
• Coriander leaves- 1/4 cup chopped
• Mint Leaves - 1/4 cup chopped
• Garam Masala Powder –  11/2 Tbsp
• Turmeric Powder A pinch
• Lemon juice – juice of 1 lemon
• Ghee  - 2 Tbsp

For Rice

• Jeerakasala Rice –  2 cups( this rice gives the authentic n signature taste to Thalassery Biriyani)
• Water – 3 1/2 cups
• Cinnamon – 1 inch
• Cardamom – 4
• Cloves  - 5
• Pepper Corns -5 Nos
• Star Anise - 4 
• Fennel Seeds - 1/2 tbsp
• Ghee -1 1/2 tbsp
• Salt

Other Ingredients

• Cashew nuts - 100 gram
• Raisins – 100 gram

Preparation of Rice

We can prepare rice first. Cook the rice with the above mentioned qty of water with the spices and ghee added to it.Add salt as needed. Normally we strain water but here the rice is cooked in very adequate amount of water so that we don't have to strain the excess water.Keep the cooked rice aside. Use only the correct amount of water mentioned so that the rice will be properly cooked.

Preparation of Masala

Initially we have to fry all the thinly sliced onions in ghee and keep it aside. Take another vessel where we are gonna do the Dum, so it should be a lil big vessel with a lid. Add thinly sliced tomatoes , no need to add oil.After that add the half of the onions which we fried in ghee.Once cooked add the grinded ginger and garlic paste it to it. After some time add the grinded green chilies to it Saut well add some salt .Put the washed chicken pieces into it then add the chopped mint leaves. Add some amount of water just to cook the chicken. Cover the vessel with a lid. Once chicken is half cooked add the coriander leaves , garam masala and a pinch of turmeric powder(optional) .Then cover the vessel again the cook until the chicken is properly cooked. No need of much gravy. Ocne this chicken is done add the rice into it by layering again with raisins , cashew nuts and rest of the onion fried in ghee. For Thalassey Biriyani we won't fry raisins and cashew in ghee as we do for other biriyani. If you need some more smell you can add lil rose water and for color you can add saffron diluted in milk.Saffron was not in my store so I didn't add that.Saffrons are not only for color it add taste to ur biriyani. Once the layering part is over cover it with a wet clean cloth and close the vessel with a lid and keep another vessel filled with water on top of the lid to do the Dum.Basically Dum is to "Cook in Steam" Keep the vessel on low flame for 10-15 minutes. When we open the lid we can find the wet cloth almost dried.

Thalassery Chicken Dum Biriyani is ready. Serve it with Dates pickle and Onion-Vinegar Salad.That is the best and traditional combination of Thalassery Dum Biriyani.

Bread Gulab Jamun

Its as simple as that to prepare a gulab jamun since the Ready mix for Gulab Jamun is available in market. But it is not necessary that we keep it in our store all the time. But here is one simple way to prepare Gulab Jamun in case you have a un expected guest or even suddenly if your kids need something sweet. This is Bread Gulab Jamun.

Ingredients

Bread Slices - 8 nos ( I used Almarai Breads since it is the best I found in super markets)

Almarai Full Fat Milk

Sugar

Cardamom

Oil

Ghee

Water

Salt

Preparation

Cut the brown edges of bread. Then add a pinch of salt some cardamom powder and milk. But don't add too much of milk .Add milk accordingly so that the dough can be made in to small balls.Then make small balls and keep aside.

Take 11/2 Glass water then half glass of sugar. Keep it on flame . Add some cardamoms to it. Stir well till the sugar syrup is ready. You can add more sugar if you need it more sweet.I add lil ghee to the syrup since I am going to fry the jamun in refined oil.

Fry the balls which we made in refined oil or ghee.I fried in refined oil. Fry till the ball turns slight brown as you see in the picture. Then take it out and transfer it to the Sugar syrup which is already made.

Easy Bread Gulab Jamun is ready. You will take hardly 20 Mins to do the complete step.

Egg Biriyani

There is very less people who doesn't like Biriyani. There may be more than hundred varieties of biriyani. It differs from place to place. I being a biriyani lover planned to make biriyani for my weekend. But thought like   y Chicken , Mutton or Beef. Y should not I go for a simple Biriyani which is not that heavy. So I made a simple Egg Biriyani with very less ghee.

Ingredients

Basmati Rice - 2 Cups

Egg - 2 Nos

Onions - 4

Tomato - 1 Big

Green Chilly - 3

Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 Table Spoon

Garam Masala - 1 1/2 Tbl Spn

Turmeric Powder - 1 tspn

Coriander Powder - 1 Tbl Spn

Chilly Powder - 1 Tspn

Mint Leaves - 10 - 15 Nos

Coriander Leaves - 6 Stems

Yogurt

Star Anise -3

Cloves - 4

Cinnamon - 1 stick

Pepper Corn - 5 Nos

Fennel Seeds - 1/2 Tspn

Oil

Ghee 

Raisin - 50 gm

Cashew - 50 gm


Preparation of Rice

First cook rice by adding Star Anise , Cloves , Cinnamon ,Pepper Corns and salt. But don't over cook rice. Strain and keep aside.

Preparation of Masala.

Take a Pan add oil then add ginger garlic paste then add fenugreek seed onions tomato and grinded green chilly. When half done add all other powder , then mint leaves and coriander leaves .When it is almost well cooked add Yogurt. Now masala is ready.

Take another pan add some ghee then add some onions cashew nuts and raisins fry it till it becomes slightly brown. This can be used for garnishing. This is the only part where i used ghee. Rest all was done in refined oil so that biriyani wont be that heavy

Then you can layer the Rice and Masala in another vessel.  Then finally garnish with the fried onions cashew and raisins.

Keep a boiled Egg on top since it is Egg Biriyani.

Serve with Raita