Thumbprint cookies

Thumbprint cookies!!! Doesn't the name itself sound magical? The first time I tried it, it was a bit of a disaster, but I think I have evolved along the cookie making line since then, and I wanted to try it out again. Worked this time.

100 gms granulated sugar

100 gms butter
50 gms rice flour
100 gms maida

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp jam

Method:

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees for 10 minutes

Cream together the sugar and butter till well incorporated. 

Sieve the flour and baking powder a few times. 

Add the flour gradually to the butter, mixing continuously, till you get a smooth dough. 

Divide into 16 or 24 pieces. Roll into a ball, press down with the back of a sketch pen to make a deep depression. 

Place on a greased baking tray and bake for 10 minutes

Meanwhile, place the jam in a double boiler and stir continuously till it melts. 

Take the cookies out of the oven. Put the molten jam in the depression, and bake for an additional 5 minutes. 

Cool on a wire rack, before storing. 

Butter cookies

I love experimenting with cookie recipes, but eventually I fall back on my old faithful recipes. This is my mother's butter cookies recipe, made even more special because for the first time ever, I used cooking butter. 

Tuttie fruity cake

There is nothing special about this cake. But in its very simplicity is it's charm. And it's also the first cake I've baked at the new place.

A basic sponge cake, to which I added tutti-fruity rolled in flour.

Cabbage bake

My mother used to make this dish quite often during the winters, but given hoe easy it is, I don't make it as often as I could. But when I do make it, I spread it over a few days, because it tastes much nicer after one day.

1 cup cabbage, chopped fine

2 cup onion, cut lengthwise

1 cup besan

Salt to taste

1 tsp red chill powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

2 tsp oil

For tempering:

2 tsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

Method:

Mix the cabbage and onions well. Sprinkle the besan, salt, chilli powder and haram masala, mix well, adding water if necessary, so the whole thing sticks together. 

Heat the oil, splutter the mustard seeds, and pour over a baking dish. Spread the oil across the surface, sprinkle sesame seeds. 

Pour the batter over the tempering, and bake at 250 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Allow it to cool before serving. 

Bisi bele bhaat- revisited

I make bisi bele bhaat quite often, but most of the time, I just use my instincts while cooking. Today, I followed the recipe perfectly, and loved the result.
The only diveation from the original recipe was the fact that I fried the small onions with the peanuts and added them to the dish while cooking.

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Butter Cookies, with a bite

With exams around the corner, the older one keeps demanding something to munch while studying. Since anything healthy will not quite meet his requirements, I whipped up a batch of butter cookies by adapting my mother's recipe, and improvising by adding nigella seeds.

100 gms sugar
100 gms salted butter
50 gms rice flour
100 gms maida
1 tsp nigella seeds

Method:Preheat the oven at 175 degrees for about 10 minutes
Cream together sugar and butter
Add rice flour and beat well
Add maida and knead to a soft dough (without adding any water). Wheb done, add the nigella seeds and mix well.
Roll it into balls, place on a baking tray taking care to leave space for them to spread, and bake for 12-15 minutes till golden brown on top.

Stuffed karela

The first time I visited her after marriage, my mother in law made stuffed karelas for dinner. More out of politeness than anything else, I told her it was lovely, and after that, she insisted on sending me karelas everytime anyone was coming to Bombay. To stop that, I asked her for the recipe, and even though I haven't made it too often, the recipe is inked in my mind.

Karela- 250 gms

Onions - 250 gms, I picked really small ones

Dhania pwd- 1/2 tsp

Red chilli pwd- 1/2 tsp

Haldi pwd- 1/2 tsp

Amchur pwd- 1/2 tsp

Salt, to taste

Cooking oil- 3 to 4 tbsp

Method:
Scrape the skin of the karela, slit lengthwise and remove the seeds. Cover with salt, and let it stand for 10 minutes. Squeeze the excess water out, and remove the salt.
Mix all the dry spices and salt.
Stuff the karela with the mixture.
Cut each onion in a cross (making sure to ensure you do not cut right through), and stuff with the spice mix.
Heat the oil, slide the onions and karela in, and fry for 5 minutes. Turn off the flame, cover with a lid, and let it cook in its own steam for another 10 minutes.

Aloo subji- Mum style

At our place, Sunday Lunch was always Puri-Aloo subji. My father and I would be sitting at the table, and my mother would make puris for us, garam-garam. We'd vie with each other to grab the plumpest one- a fruitless endeavour because they were all really plump. And finally, she'd join us and have the last few puris that she made for herself.

So, on her last night at our place, I wanted to return the compliment, and serve her garam-garam Puri-Aloo. But since it was a surprise, I had to invent the recipe myself, and I did a fairly good job, I think. Based partially on my recipe for aloo palya.

5 large potatoes boiled
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 green chillie
1 inch piece ginger, chopped fine

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp channa dal
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp haldi powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

Method:

Heat the oil, and temper mustard seeds, ginger, channa dal, green chillies and curry leaves.
Once the mustard stops spluttering, add chopped onions and saute till they turn transparent. Add salt and haldi and stir for about a minute.
In the meantime, cut half the potatoes into eighth's and mash the rest of the potatoes.
Add the potatoes, and about 1/2 cup water. Once the water boils, lower the heat, cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes.
Serve with piping hot puris.

Marble Cake

One of the first cakes I baked was a chocolate-vanilla marble cake. I was in my early teens, and I still remember mixing the batter in my mother's ceramic mixing bowls (where did they go, I wonder), and drawing marbling patterns with a knitting needle. Though I've made double flavour cakes several times in the past few months, I didn't really get down to making a proper marble cake. This is my attempt to change that!

Batter for making Sponge Cake- this is a good recipe
Food coloring and flavouring of choice.

Divide the cake batter into two halves. Put in a few drops of colouring and essence in both parts, and mix well (I used lemon and yellow in one and strawberry and pink in the other).
Line the baking dish with butter paper.
Put three tablespoon size globs of batter on the dish.
Pour three tablespoons of batter of the other colour in the empty spaces, taking care to cover the surface entirely.
Drop three tablespoons of batter over the blobs in the other colour. Fill up the empty spaces with the other colour.
The batter should get over in two layers, but if it doesn't, repeat with a third layer.
Smoothen the level, then dip a knitting needle in the batter, and draw swirl patterns.
Bake as per recommended settings.

Aloo dum, without onions or garlic

This is my mother's tried and tested aloo dum, using tomato purée. I think she learnt it in Calcutta, but I really cannot be sure. All I know is it is super easy to prepare, and packs a lot of taste.

500 gm baby potatoes

1 pack tomato purée 

1 bay leaf

1 tsp jeera

1 tsp dhania

1 inch piece ginger

1 red chilli

1/2 tsp haldi powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

Oil

Method

Boil and peel the potatoes, and sauté lightly in oil till golden

Grind bay leaf, jeera, ginger, dhania and red chilli to paste with a little water

Fry the ground masala, once the oil releases, add tomato purée, salt and haldi powder. Sauté for a minute, then add potatoes and garam masala, mix, cover and cook for 5 mins. Add sugar if required.

Serve hot with parathas or puri.

Vendekai mor kozumbu

Vendekai mor kozumbu is one of my favourite Tam Bram dishes, and I like it to be just the way my grandmother and mother made it. Unfortunately, when I asked my mother for the recipe, she could not give me detailed quantities, so while making it, I had to wing it. It came out just the way I wanted it to, so not complaining at all.

200 gms ladyfinger/ bhindi
Gingerly oil

2 tbsp rice
2 tbsp chana dal
2 tbsp grated coconut
1 tsp dhania
1 tsp jeera
1 green chilli (or to taste)

2 cups sour buttermilk
Salt to taste

For tempering
1 tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp methi seeds
1 red chillli
1 sprig curry leaves
Gingerly oil

Method
Soak the rice and chana dal for about 30 minutes
Grind to paste soaked rice and dal, coconut, green chillli, dhania and jeera
Mix the ground masala with the buttermilk, add salt to taste
Meanwhile, cut the ladyfinger into halfs, and sauté till cooked. Remove and keep aside.
In the same pan, add some more oil, if required, and temper mustard seeds. Once it stops spluttering, add the methi seeds, red chilli and curry leaves and fry on low heat till the raw smell goes (do not over fry, or the methi seeds will turn black). Add the ladyfingers and remove from the flame.
Add the buttermilk with ground masala, mix well, return to the flame and gradually bring to a boil.
Serve hot with rice

Butter cookies- and back to school!!!

For the last seven days, I have been inquiring every day for icing sugar, because I have this lovely recipe for thumbprint cookies that I want to try out. But it is out of stock, and continues to remain out of stock. Finally, my craving for cookies got the better of me, and I decided to whip up a batch of butter cookies, using my mother's tried and tested recipe.
Unfortunately, however, I got over ambitious and tried to make thumbprint cookies out of them. The cookies that looked so professional when they went into the oven, lost their shape completely during the process of baking, and I ended up with cookies that were more than just slightly oddly shaped. But they tasted great, and that's all I really care about.

100 gms sugar
100 gms butter
50 gms rice flour

100 gms maida
a pinch of salt
red colouring and rasberry essence (optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven at 175 degrees for about 10 minutes
Cream together sugar and butter
Add rice flour and beat well
Add maida, salt, essence and colouring and knead to a soft dough (without adding any water)
Roll it into balls, place on a baking tray taking care to leave space for them to spread, and bake for 12-15 minutes till golden brown on top.
Remove from oven, and cool before digging in!

Orange infused chocolate cake

I had measured most of the stuff for a regular chocolate cake, when the Younger One asked me if I could make an orange-chocolate cake instead. Had he asked a little earlier, I had a recipe that I could have used, but since most of the preparatory work had been done, I just winged it.
The combination of orange and chocolate is lovely, and next time I bake, I am making the "real" ones.

100 gms maida
1 tsp baking powder
100 gms sugar
2 eggs
100 gms butter
2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
juice of 1 orange
4 tsp icing sugar

Line a cake tin with butter paper, and keep aside.
Sift together the maida, baking powder and cocoa three or four times till well aerated and keep aside.
Whisk 2 eggs till frothy and keep aside.
In a mixing bowl, mix the butter and sugar taking care that you always stir the spoon in the same direction. Do it till the two are well mixed and creamy.
Add a bit of the flour and some beaten egg to the mixture, and mix till creamy. Keep doing it till all the flour and eggs are mixed. Mix the batter a bit more- the more you mix, the fluffier your cake will be.
Pour the batter in the tin, taking care to push the batter towards the ourside (to prevent doming and cracking)
Preheat the over to 200 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes, or till a knitting needle pushed into the batter comes out clean.
Meanwhile, mix the orange juice and icing sugar together in a bowl. Carefully pour the orange juice mixture over the warm cakes and set aside to cool completely.
I was a little skeptical about the combination, but it was quite amazing.

Added a small bit of orange peel in the tea while brewing it, which helped me savour the cake even more.

Vengaya Sambar

If you ask me to choose one dish that I can never have enough of, I would probably choose Vengaya Sambar. Both my grandmothers were experts at making it, as was my mother, so my expectations from the dish are very, very high. But when you take your mother's recipe, and follow it to the letter, it is hard to go wrong. No, I will not say my vengaya sambar compares to their's, but it definitely comes close. And someday, I guess I will get it just right!





1 measure tur dal (soaked overnight)
1/2 tsp haldi powder

250 gms small onions
1 marble sized ball of tamarind

For ground masala:
6 red chillies (I use 2)
1 1/2 tsp dhania
1 tsp chana dal
2 tbsp grated coconut

For tempering: 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp methi seeds
2 red chillis
1 sprig curry leaves
Hing to taste
Til oil- about 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method:
Cook the tur dal with haldi powder and salt till soft. Mash, and keep aside.
Peel the small onions*
Dry roast the ingredients listed under 'ground masala', and grind to a paste with minimal water
Heat the oil, add the ingredients under 'tempering'. Once the mustard seeds stop spluttering, add the small onions and saute till translucent.
Make a paste with the tamarind ball, dilute it. Add tamarind juice along with salt to the fried onions, and bring to a boil.
Add cooked dal, and bring to a boil.
Add ground masala, bring to a boil, and let it cook on a low flame for 3-5 minutes

Though it can be had hot, I prefer to have it the next day, so the flavours seep into the onions.

* rubbing oil on the onions 15 minutes before peeling makes it easier to peel. I prefer to peel the previous night, and keep in an airtight container in the fridge

Green tomato chutney

I got this traditional Lingayat recipe from my mother who got it from her friend last year, and made it immediately. But after that first batch, whenever I went looking for green tomatoes, all I found were tindas! 
After the passage of a few seasons, I chanced upon green tomatoes the other day, and immediately picked up a bunch to make green tomato chutney. Since the fridge is fully of chutneys right now, I've frozen it for the time being. Looking forward to pairing it with my paniyarams in a couple of weeks! 

1 onion chopped
6 to 8 pods of garlic (I add a bit more)
2 green chillies (I use one large)
250 gms green tomatos (chopped)
1 sprig curry leaves
Handful of roasted chana dal (pottukadalai)
Cooking oil
Salt to taste

Method:
Fry onion, garlic and green chili till the raw smell goes.

Add chopped green tomatoes and curry leaves,and keep frying on a low flame for 2- 3 minutes.
Add a handful of channa dal and salt to taste to the mixture, and blend till it attains a "chutney" consistancy.
Can be stored under refridgeration for upto 2 weeks.

Fresh dill and potato soup

Fresh dill and potato was one of my favourite dishes during my teen years. In fact, if you press me, I'd probably say it was my most favourite dish of all. My mother had seen the recipe in a magazine, and saved it even though she never even knew what dill was. Then on a chance trip to the market, she sighted these different looking greens, and couldn't believe her luck when the vendor told her it was dill. What made the dish extra wonderful was the fact that one could never predict when one would get it, because even in season, you didn't always find dill!
Here then it is- the dish I had when I came home after taking my Maths Board Exams- a wholesome meal in a bowl- Dill Soup.

5 large potatoes, peeled and diced
2 medium onions , chopped
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
3tbs chopped dil
3tbs curds
2 tbs butter

Method
Cook potatoes and onions in 4 cups water with salt till just tender
Add milk,caraway seeds,diland salt and pepper to taste
Simmer for 15 mins till potatoes crumble a bit
Add curds and butter. Heat well. Do not boil
Serve hot.

Alphabet soup

I loved alphabet soup as a child, and my kids love it just as much as I did. I make it pretty often, because the recipe is so easy.
This time, for no particular reason, I felt like taking a photograph of the much loved dish. Why not, this blog is not just for new recipes, is it?
Original recipe here.

Pepper chicken

I had heard so much about my mother-in-law's pepper chicken, that I was petrified when she told me "Today, I will teach you to make pepper chicken", when we visited her the first time after our marriage. Me, who had never cooked non-veg food in my life. How was I worthy of possessing the Family Heirloom? What if I ended up poisoning the entire family? What if....
She brushed my fears aside, and told me that all pepper chicken required was five ingredients- vinegar, soya sauce, peppercorns, oil and salt. Though I don't think of either oil or salt as ingredients, I can "see" her counting the ingredients out everytime I get down to making pepper chicken.

1 kg chicken, cleaned
4 tbsps vinegar
2 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp peppercorns
cooking oil
salt to taste

Method
Coarsely grind the peppercorns, so some of them are ground well, some are merely broken and some remain intact.
Clean the chicken pieces, make a few slits in the flesh (if required) and keep aside
In a thick bottomed kadhai, mix all the ingredients together, and marinate the chicken for 30 minutes (you can skip this process if you don't have time, but it helps).
Turn on the fire, and when the mixture comes to a boil, turn the heat to the lowest, cover the vessel and let it cook in it's own steam. Turn the chicken pieces over every 15 minutes or so.
After 45 minutes, lift up the lid, let the gravy thicken (if required), and serve.

Gajar ka halwa- Xmas is here

The first gajar ka halwa of the season. Photograph banta hai!!!!

I bought the carrots intending to make halwa, but it languished in the fridge for two days, because I was too lazy to actually make it. I had a really long run today (one kilometer short of 25 miles), and decided we were having Mc Donalds because I was too tired to cook. And then, at 7 pm, I started grating the carrots, and gave my arm muscles a great workout. After dinner, in a fit of madness, I started on the gajar halwa, and it was done by about 11:30.  After all that, don't you think it deserves a picture at least?

Recipe here

Mor kuzhu

When I was a kid, I associated mor kuzhu with summer holidays at my favourite grandmother's place. No matter which city she was in, Patti would always make this family favourite for breakfast at least a few times during every holiday.
After I grew up and moved out of home, my mother started the tradition. Knowing I loved mor kuzhu, she started making it for breakfast at least once during every visit. That however, only lasted as long as I was her daughter and not the mother of her grandchildren. Once the kids came along, the menu became what she assumed the kids would like, and mor kuzhu was resigned to spend the rest of its life in the recesses of my memory.
And then, very hesitatingly, I asked her for the recipe, and she offered to teach me how to make it. Her attempt, unfortunately, didn't come out well, but since it passed the taste test, I was embolded to try it for myself.
Call it beginner's luck, if you will, but not only did the mor kuzhu set perfectly, it allowed me to cut it into (near) perfect squares.

2 tbsp rice atta
1 cup sour curds, diluted with 1 cup water
Salt (a little less than usual)

For tempering
5 tsps cooking oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
5-6 mor molahai* broken into pieces
hing, optional

Method
Mix the rice flour with the buttermilk and salt and keep aside
Heat the oil, add the ingredients listed under "tempering", and fry till the mor molahai gets done.
Add the buttermilk- rice flour mix, and keep stirring on a low flame, till it changes colour and starts pulling away from the sides of the pan
Pour onto a greased plate and cut into squares after cooled.


* mor molahai will be available in any store that stocks Tamilian stuff. To me, the taste of mor kuzhu is in the mor molahai, but you can substitute it with a regular tempering of urad dal and green chillis.