Ice Apple/ Munjalu Ice Cream (No Churn)

Tags

Ice creams

Ice Apple/Munjalu is a native of Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The top portion of the fruit must be cut off to get to the sweet jelly seed sockets which are translucent similar to lychee but milder flavour. We get them in May-June months.

I love the taste of tender coconut ice cream and was thinking how an Ice Apple Ice cream would taste. I made it exactly like how I make tender coconut Ice cream and it turned out delicious. It’s a no churn simple to make Ice cream.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Freeze Time : 6 – 8 hours

Makes : 500 grams

Ingredients:

Ice Apple/Munjalu : 7 large

Whipping cream : 1 cup

Condensed milk : 1/2 cup

Milk : 1/4 cup

Method:

Clean the Munjalu, cut them into bite size pieces.

Take half of the pieces, milk in a blend till smooth paste.

Take a medium size bowl, add the whipping cream and whip till stiff peaks form.

Gently fold in the condensed milk, pieces, the paste into the whipping cream.

Transfer the Ice cream to a freezer safe container and freeze for 6-8 hours.

Take it out of the freezer 5-10 minutes before serving.

Saggubiyyam Vadiyalu/ Sago papad

Tags

Andhra Recipes, side dishes

Saggubiyyam Vadiyalu are South Indian accompaniment that goes well with dal rice or sambar rice. Summer months are apt to make these vadiyalu as they should dry nicely in the sun to cook well when deep fried.

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 15 minutes

Drying time : 6-8 hours in hot sun

Makes: 50-60 vadiyalu

Ingredients:

Sago : 1 cup

Water : 5 cups

Dry red chillies : 3

Jeera/Cumin seeds : 1 teaspoon

Salt : 1 teaspoon

Instructions:

Wash and soak sago for 30-40 minutes. In a mortar, add red chillies, jeera and roughly smash them.

Heat water in a vessel and add soaked sago, red chilli paste, salt and bring it to a boil. Cook for 5 more minutes.

Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes before making the vadiyalu.

Take a plastic sheet or cotton fabric, take a spoonful of mixture and drop it.

Let the vadiyalu dry in the hot sun until they turn transparent.

Store in a airtight container.

When ready to serve, heat oil for deep frying and fry the vadiyalu.

 

Chicken Coins

Tags

30 minutes or less, Chicken Recipes

These Chicken coins are made with Minced Chicken blended with lots of flavours. These little cakes are pan fried and served with lettuce, tomatoes with a hot and sweet sauce.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Rest Time : 10 minutes

Cook Time : 20 minutes

Serves : 4

Ingredients:

To marinate:

Minced Chicken : 500 grams

Egg : 1 beaten

Sriracha sauce : 1 tablespoon

Fish sauce : 1 teaspoon

Red chilli powder : 1 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Bread crumbs : 1/2 cup

Cilantro : 2 teaspoons minced

To Serve:

Lettuce leaves

Sliced Tomato

Carrot Jullien

Hot and sweet sauce

Instructions:

In a medium sized bowl, add all listed under to marinate and mix well. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Heat oil in a frying pan, make small coins from the meat mixture and fry them till they turn golden brown on both sides. This should take about 8 minutes per batch.

In a serving plate, place the lettuce leaves, sliced tomato, carrots and place the chicken coins on them.

Serve immediately or make the coins ahead and reheat them in the oven at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.

 

 

Chocolate Banana Cake

Tags

Baked Foods, cakes

Whenever I have overripe bananas, first thing that comes to my mind is to bake a Banana Nut Bread as it’s perfect for breakfast and kids love it. Very few times I bake a cake even though the process is pretty simple.

This Chocolate Banana Cake has been my goto for a long time now. I got this recipe from Joy of baking book. That’s one of the books I absolutely love.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes

Bake Time : 37 minutes

Makes : 13X9 cake pan

Ingredients:

All purpose flour : 1 3/4 cups

Unsweetened cocoa powder : 3/4 cup

Baking powder: 1 1/2 teaspoons

Baking Soda : 1 1/2 teaspoons

Salt : 1/2 teaspoon

Granulated sugar : 1 3/4 cups

Ripe bananas : 1 cup mashed (2-3 depending on the size of the banana)

Eggs : 2 at room temperature

Coffee : 1 cup at room temperature

Milk : 1/2 cup at room temperature

Canola or Vegetable oil : 1/2 cup

Vanilla Extract : 1 teaspoon

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl, mash the bananas. Add beaten egg and mix well.

In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients, mix well.

Add the banana mixture, coffee, milk, oil, vanilla and whisk until combined. The batter is thin but that’s perfect.

Grease a 13×9 cake pan, dust with some flour and pour the batter. Bake for 37 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Let it cool for 20-30 minutes before slicing and serving.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tags

Baked Foods, cookies

This is a simple and basic Chocolate Chip Cookie. The cookies are chewy yet fully baked and delicious. I already posted Chocolate Chunk cookies which are a little crunchy compared to these cookies.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Bake Time : 9 minutes

Makes : 36 cookies

Ingredients:

Salted butter : 1 cup/ 2 sticks at room temperature

White sugar : 1 cup

Light brown sugar : 1 cup packed

Vanilla extract : 2 teaspoons

Eggs : 2 large

All purpose flour : 3 cups

Baking Soda : 1 teaspoon

Baking powder : 1/2 teaspoon

Salt : 1 teaspoon

Chocolate chips : 2 cups

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

In an another bowl, add all the dry ingredients and mix well.

Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture and mix to combine.

Add the chocolate chips and mix well with a spatula.

Take 2 tablespoons of dough, roll them into balls and place them on a parchment paper line cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies for 9 minutes. The cookies will be light brown. Let them sit on the sheet for 2-3 minutes before moving to the cooling rack.

Pink Herbal Tea

Tags

tea

This Herbal tea is made with Sappan wood or Pathimugam which is a popular thirst quencher in Kerala. Bark of the tree has a lot of medicinal benefits, antioxidants and once it’s brewed, it gives a beautiful pink color.

Preparation Time: 2 minutes

Cook Time : 8 minutes

Serves : 4

Ingredients:

Sappan wood/ Pathimugam : 1 tablespoons

Vattiveru : few strands

Water : 1 litre

Instructions:

Add ingredients to a saucepan and bring it to a boil.

Turn off the stove and strain the tea.

Serve immediately.

 

 

Mango Marble Cake

Tags

Baked Foods, cakes, eggless

This Mango Marble cake has the goodness of both mango and chocolate. I made muffins with this combination several years ago but didn’t bake with mango in the last few years even though I have an abundance of fresh mangoes every season.

I was walking with a couple of friends and one of the friends mentioned that she wanted to taste the Mango Chocolate combo.

I looked out for recipes and found a Mango Chocolate Marble Cake recipe on posted by friend Usha on Myspicykitchen. I made few modifications to suit my kids tastebuds and the cake turned out delicious.

Preparation Time: 15 Minutes

Baking Time : 55 minutes

Makes : 8 1/2″ loaf

Ingredients:

Butter : 5 tablespoons softened

Mango pulp : 1 cup (I used fresh pulp)

Vanilla extract : 1 teaspoon

Milk : 1/4 cup

Buttermilk : 1/4 cup

All Purpose Flour : 2 cups

Baking Powder : 1 1/2 teaspoons

Baking Soda : 1/2 teaspoon

Salt : 1/4 teaspoon

Sugar : 1 1/4 cup

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder : 1/4 cup

Warm water : 4 tablespoons

Instructions:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, add butter, sugar and mix well. Add mango pulp, yogurt, buttermilk, vanilla and mix well.

Add all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt in another bowl and whisk.

Add the dry ingredients mixture to the wet ingredients slowly and whisk to combine.

Transfer half of the batter to another bowl.

Take cocoa powder in a small bowl and add warm water. Stir well to combine.

Mix this cocoa paste to one of the batter bowls and mix well to combine.

Line a loaf pan with parchment paper.

Add a layer of mango batter then a layer of chocolate batter. Repeat this 3 times. Take a knife and draw 3 lines to make the swirls.

Bake the cake for 55-57 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake.

Let it cool for 30 minutes before taking the cake and slicing it.

 

 

Mango Salsa

Tags

30 minutes or less, Mexican Dishes, side dishes

Mango Salsa is a refreshing side dish that has a burst of sweet, spicy and sour flavours. It’s serves as a perfect side dish with any Mexican meal or seafood dishes.

Jalapeno is normally used in this dish but I used green chilli as I couldn’t find jalapeno’s.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Serves : 2-4

Ingredients:

Ripe Mango : 1 cut into small pieces

Cilantro/coriander leaves: 2 teaspoons chopped

Onion : 1 small chopped finely

Jalapeno : 1 chopped finely

Lemon juice : 1 teaspoon

Instructions:

In a bowl, add ingredients and mix to combine.

This salsa can be refrigerated for a day. Fresh salsa tastes the best.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream (No Churn)

Tags

Ice creams

My daughter is a big fan of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. It’s hard to find in India so I tried making it at home. After few tries, this version came out perfect. I used both peppermint extract and fresh extract taken from mint leaves. This is a no churn simple to make ice cream.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Freeze Time : 6-8 hours

Ingredients:

Whipping Cream : 2 cups

Condensed milk : 1 3/4 cups

Peppermint Extract : 1/2 teaspoon

Fresh mint leaves : 1/2 teaspoon minced

Chopped chocolate bar : 1 cup

Green food colour : 1/2 teaspoon

Instructions:

In a bowl, add condensed milk, peppermint extract, minced leaves, chocolate chips, green food colour and mix well.

In another bowl, add whipping cream and beat till stiff peaks form.

Fold the whipping cream into the condensed milk mixture and pour into a freezer safe container.

Freeze it for 6-8 hours.

Homemade Sour Cream

Tags

dips

Sour Cream is a very important ingredient in baking and Mexican dishes. Making it at home is really easy. It tastes much better than the store bought one.

Both creams should be chilled.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Setting Time : 14 hours

Makes : 2 cups

Ingredients:

Amul Fresh Cream : 250 ml

Cream collected from boiling Full Fat milk : 50 ml

Homemade curd : 1 teaspoon

Instructions:

Mix both creams in a bowl and heat it to lukewarm temperature.

Take curd and mix well with the creams. Close lid and keep the bowl in a warm place.

Let it set for 14 hours. Then keep it in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

The sour cream is ready to use.