CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

Love this Dessert - The Chocolate Mousse...........never tried it though. I had to push myself to do it, i have a fair idea how to go about it, but could never go around it.Anyways, when pantry clearing was imminent, I tried it like this.


Ingredients: 

• Baking chocolate one bar - about 200 gms
• 3 tbsps water
• 1/4 cup Icing sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 4 egg whites
• 1.5 cups whipping cream

Step 1: chop chocolate into small chunks, add water & melt it on a double boiler. Stir and see that there are no bits left and chocolate is smooth.Remove from heat. Add icing sugar and mix well.
Step 2: Add egg yolks one at a time and stir well .
Step 3: Whip cream in a stand mixer to soft peaks and set aside
Step 4: Beat egg whites to stiff peaks
Step 5: Add egg white to the chocolate mixture and fold in slowly.Once they are well blended add a portion of the whipped cream. The cream and egg whites should be added & folded in alternately.Pour into glasses and pipe a dollop of whipped cream on it.
Step 6: Allow it to set in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

Once set the Mousse is ready to serve .....................

CHICKEN CUTLETS

This lazy evening I was wondering what to make for dinner.............and peeped into the fridge and found this small pack of chicken breasts. Well............all I could think of at that moment was the chicken cutlets.And this is how I made them :)

Ingredients:
Chicken Breasts - 250 gms
2 Medium sized onions finely chopped
2 green chillies finely chopped
2 tsps finely chopped garlic
2 tsps finely chopped ginger
3 medium sized potatoes - boiled & grated
Salt as appropriate
3/4 tsp Ground pepper
A pinch of garam masala
A pinch of MSG or Ajinomoto as commonly known -
Oil for Frying.
1 Cup of Bread Crumbs
1 Egg beaten

Step1: Boil chicken breasts with a little salt and turmeric.Let it cool and shred it to bits in a food processor or any other convenient manner.
Step 2: Heat oil & fry onions,green chilly,ginger & garlic until they are pale and about to brown.
Step 3: To this add the shredded chicken and fry well on high heat. Once the water content in the chicken evaporates, add salt,pepper, garam masala and the MSG. Mix well.
Please note, use of MSG is optional & not an essential ingredient here, I use it because I love the flavor it adds to the cutlets.
Step 4: Take off heat and add the mashed potatoes, ensure it has mixed well with the rest of the ingredients.Let it cool.Adjust salt at this point.
Step 5: Make a ball with the mixture, flatten it out. Dip it first into the egg mixture , then into the bread crumbs. Coat the crumbs well and shape the cutlets. Shape the rest of them in the same manner.
Step 6: Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry these cutlets on medium heat  till they brown on either sides. When done they would be crispy  like this....

Makes about 14 - 15 cutlets ........they are nice as snacks ....am happy that made my dinner for the day with buns. I have tried the veg version of the same recipe - substituting the chicken with finely chopped carrots, beans  and cauliflower & green peas. To coat the cutlet use cornflour or all purpose flour dissolved in water instead of the beaten egg.

BANANA FRITTERS

I had two very ripe Kerala yellow bananas in my fruit basket just staring back at me. I had to find a way to use it up , else would have to toss it away in a day.Pazhampori  was the most available option. Now that we have all tasted it the traditional way , thought I shall add a twist to this & here we go.................
Ingredients:

2 Large ripe yellow bananas - mashed or grated.
3/4 Cup All purpose flour
2 Tbsps Corn flour
3 Tbsps Sugar
1 1/2 tsps Coconut Milk Powder
A Pinch of Salt
Grated Nutmeg - for mild flavour
Oil for frying

Step 1:  Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl so that the powders blend well with the grated banana.
 Never add water - if the mixture is too thick - let it rest for about 15 minutes and mix again.The mixture would look like this ....

Step 2: Heat oil and drop a teaspoonful one by one. Deep fry them in batches, till they turn golden brown. So when it is done, it looks like this............

They are now ready to serve. Am linking this post to the July 2011 Round up of The Kerala Kitchen as hosted by Magpie. This is my first entry to the group.........Good wishes  to Ria and Magpie.

TOMATO RASAM

With Pepper Chicken done , thought I should do this Rasam as well..This is a very very simple recipe and tastes as good too. Without much ado - here we go..

Ingredients:

• 2 Large Tomatoes Diced
• 1 Medium sized Onion chopped
• 1 Green Chilly Slit lengthwise
• Half tsp Turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp Red chilli powder
• Salt as appropriate
• 21/2 cups water
• 2 tsps Oil for seasoning
• A quarter tsp of Mustard seeds
• One pod Garlic crushed.
• 3-4 Curry leaves.

Step1: In a pot,toss in all ingredients from 1 to 7 and let it boil .Once the tomatoes and onions have cooked ,take off from fire and let it cool.
Step 2: Remove the green chilli and blend the rest to a puree and pour out into a strainer to take away sediments if any.
Step 3: Now for the seasoning, heat oil, add mustard seeds, while they splutter add the crushed garlic pod and curry leaves to it. Let the garlic turn brown a little, pour it into the rasam.

Well, the Tomato Rasam now looks like this.........

Easy to make and the taste is not so tangy,not so spicy - yet goes very well with rice and a combination of veg or non veg dishes.

PEPPER CHICKEN

Vacation is barely 10 days away & I am decluttering the wardrobe and my kitchen too. Last nite while browsing I came across this lovely recipe on this blog http://spicesnaroma.blogspot.com/2011/05/pepper-chicken-chicken-milagu-varuval.html . I had all the ingredients in my kitty and decided the menu for today. As am using up my available stuff - I have made slight variations...........however, this chicken is AWESOME!!!!! just as this picture.

Ingredients:

• Chicken Thighs - 375 gms
• Shallots chopped - 1 cup
• Garlic - 6 pods crushed
• Ginger - 1'' crushed
• Green Chilly - 3
• Curry Leaves - a few
• Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
• Coriander Powder - 2 tsp
• Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
• Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp
• Salt as appropriate
• Crushed pepper - as appropriate
• Oil for cooking.

 
Step 1: Marinade chicken with a little turmeric and salt and set aside.

Step 2:Heat oil and fry the chopped shallots until they become pale . Add crushed ginger, garlic and green chilli with a little  curry leaves. Saute them until the oil appears at the sides of the pan.
Step 3: Add turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder and mix well. Fry for a minute.
Step 4: Add marinated chicken and mix in onion garlic ginger and spice mixture.Reduce heat and keep it covered and let it cook in its own juices.
 Step 5: Stir occasionally until the chicken cooks well . Now add in crushed pepper.Mix well and fry until the chicken pieces get a brown tinge .Toss in a few more curry leaves .

Now that prompts me to make Tomato Rasam and rice for lunch :))

OAT COOKIES

This recipe was originally created by my BFF - Pavita - we have been friends from the boarding school days and the bonding has just grown by the day.She has a beautiful home in Coorg where she lives with her husband Ramesh and two lovely girls Malvika & Tarana.

Together they manage Home Stay services. http://www.jagalehomestay.com is their website.
She complained saying that I didn't mention anywhere that she inspired me to bake :)) so, this is my version of her Oat cookies.........dedicated only to her.

Ingredients :

• Two Cups - Oats
• Half Cup Wheat Bran
• One Cup All purpose flour
• Three Fourth Cup Sugar
• Half Cup Fresh coconut grated
• Two Tsp Baking Powder
• Two Medium sized Eggs ( Beaten)
• One Tsp Vanilla Sugar
• Half Cup Salted Butter

Step 1 :

Mix all the dry ingredients, mix in butter and make a dough adding the beaten egg either by hand or in a stand mixer at medium speed.
The mixture/ dough would look like this ........

Step 2 :
Oat cookies need not necessarily have a shape - they can just be dropped with a ice cream scoop. I have just shaped them round . This dough makes about 30 cookies.

Step 3:
Bake them in a preheated oven at 160 degrees ( in a gas oven) for about 45 minutes. Once done , let it cool on a wire rack.

Once cool - they are not just a crunchy bunch of cookies but healthy too.

I rename them - PAULA'S OAT COOKIES :))

DAL PAKODA

Its been a while that made some pakodas & thought i should make some for tea this evening. This is a very balanced,easy to make recipe. You could even make it well in advance & store it in the fridge and use it when needed. Just make sure no salt is added if the batter is going to be stored for a day or two. Salt could be added when the batter is kept out of the fridge.  well, lets move on to the ingredients.

Step 1: Wash and soak the three ingredients below for about an hour, drain & grind to a coarse thick batter. Less water the better.

•  Half cup -  Raw rice
• One Fourth cup   - Toor Dal ( Split Gram)
• One Fourth cup - Urad Dal ( Split Black Gram)

Step 2: Mix in the following to the batter.

• One fourth cup - Fresh coconut grated
• 4 Green chillies ( or as appropriate)
• 1'' Ginger - Finely chopped
• Curry leaves - a few finely chopped
• Coriander leaves - a few finely chopped
• Hing ( Asafoetida) - Less than a quarter tsp  or 2 pinches
• Jeera( Cumin) powder - Less than a quarter tsp  or 2 pinches
• Salt to taste

  Step 3: Heat Oil for frying till moderately hot. The batter will now look like this ....

Step 4 : Deep fry the batter a tsp at a time until golden brown. Serve hot.
             You could compliment it  with Mint chutney or tomato ketchup.

PERFECT POUND CAKE

As part of the Sweet Punch baking team............JULY PUNCH - PERFECT POUND CAKE is the recipe for the month........



Lets start  with the ingredients all at room temperature:

Step 1 : Whisk lightly the following wet ingredients - Milk -Eggs - Vanilla.Set aside.

3 tbsp Milk

3 Eggs

1.5 tsp Vanilla Essence

Step 2 : Dry Ingredients -
i. Prepare cake flour - measure 1.5 cups of all purpose flour and remove 3 tbsps of flour from it. Replace it with 3 tbsps of Cornflour - sieve 3 - 4 times.
ii. Add 3/4 cup sugar to the flour.
iii. Add 3/4 tsp baking powder.
iv. Add 1/4 tsp salt

1.5 Cups sifted Cake Flour

3/4 cup Sugar

3/4 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

Step 3 : Scale butter to 184 gms.

i. In a stand mixer at low speed beat the dry ingredients for about 30 seconds.

ii.Add 184 gms butter to this and beat until it combines well with the dry ingredients.

iii.To this add half the egg- milk - vanilla mixture . Beat on high for 20 seconds to aerate the mixture.

iv.Scrape down , add the remaining mixture and beat well  for another 20 seconds. The batter will now look like this.............

Step 4: 

i.Preheat Oven to 170 degrees ( i use a gas oven and this is a safest temperature for cakes)

ii. I have used a Bundform pan here, prepare the pan with a coat of butter and dust with flour.

iii.Pour batter evenly into the prepared pan, and bake for about 45 minutes. Insert skewer , if it comes out clean remove from oven. Allow it to stand for about 10 minutes. Turn over and let it cool on a wire rack.

I have heard of Pound cakes , have eaten them too ..........but baking one for the first time, am absolutely delighted with the results. Now for the slice of the cake ........

The Slice..........

 This is my first entry to the Sweet Punch group. ...thank u Ria for taking me in...... i have learnt that baking a perfect pound cake is no rocket science:)... the look, the texture and the taste are all PERFECT just as the name goes .
Tip : If you could resist temptation, save some slices for the next day. After all the resting time - the cake is pure bliss the next day.

CHEERS TO THE SWEET PUNCH GIRLS !!!!