CHICKEN CUTLETS

Some foods remind us of some good memories and good peoples right? This chicken cutlets is that kind of one which is very much related to one lovely person Suja aunti,my ammas friend and colleague in Rubber board . Suja aunti had  resigned the job long time back and went abroad to join with her husband. The last time I met her was around 25 years back, such a long time. Though I was  too small to memorize things, I clearly remember her smiling face and the cutlets she used to pack for us via amma.She makes the best cutlets in the world. I believe it is her love she puts in makes her cutlets yummy. My amma is not good in keeping the contacts  ,so we do not have any idea where suja aunti is now. But whenever we have cutlets me and amma used to have long talk about her. Regardless of distance and time, good peoples stay close to our heart forever.

cutlets are one of the most demanded bakery item in kerala.it is a family favorite.it is one snack that can be made easily and is able to please everyone. Do try and win applause J

ingredients

1.    Chicken -10 small boneless pieces

2.    Potato- 3 medium,peeled and squared

3.    Ginger- 1medium size piece,roughly chopped

4.    Garlic-5 or 6 pods,chopped

5.    Green chilly-3 or 4 nos,finely chopped

6.    Onion-1 big,roghly chopped

7.    Bread crumbs-1 n ½ cup or as required

8.    Bread slices- 1 or 2 (optional)

9.    Garam masala -1 tsp

10.  Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp

11.    Pepper powder-1/2 tsp

12.     Salt

13   Oil- for deep frying

14.   Egg- 2 ,lightly beaten

Method of preparation

1.    Cook chicken pieces by adding turmeric powder, pepper powder and salt.

2.    Boil potatoes. Mash it and keep it aside.

3.    Heat 1 tbsp. of oil in pan. Sauté onion, ginger garlic and green chilly till onion turns soft.no need to be browned.

4.    Take cooked chicken, sautéed onion mix in a mixie jar. Grind all this. Just one or two pulse is enough. This is to mince the chicken and blend well with other ingredients.

5.    Transfer chicken mix, mashed potatoes in mixing bowl. Add salt,garam masala and bread slices soaked in water. Mix well. the mix should not be too thick and too thin. You should be able to make balls out of this. Adding bread pieces makes the mix thick and prevent from breaking while frying.

6.    Take lemon sized ball out of it and flatten slightly. Dip in beaten egg, roll in bread crumbs.

7.    Heat oil in a deep bottomed pan. When the oil is really hot, reduce the flame to medium and fry the cutlets for few minutes until both sides turn brown in color.

Serve hot with tomatosauce.

GOBI 65

Though it is one of my favorite vegetable, I do not experiment with it. I always end up adding this along with other vegetable in Kuruma or pulav. Since I have been following vegetarian diet, I wanted to make something which resembles a non veg dish ;) .yea I am a hardcore Non vegetarian. To suppress my non vegetarian urge I made this and it did fulfill its  work J. If you have all ingredients on hand, it can be made within minutes. It is an excellent starter or can be served as a snack.

Ingredients

1.    Cauliflower – 1small,florets separated

2.    Turmeric powder- a pinch

3.    Onion-1 small,chopped

4.    Garlic-5 pods,chopped

5.    Green chilly-3 nos,cut diagonally

6.    Curry leaves- a handful

7.    Oil- for deep frying

For the batter

1.    Maida -1/2 cup

2.    Corn flour-1/4 cup

3.    Rice flour-3tbsp

4.    Garlic-4or 5

5.    Ginger- 1 small piece

6.    Chilly powder-1tsp

7.    Salt-as needed

8.    Water- as required to make thick batter

Method of preparation

1.    Wash the florets thoroughly. Cook it by adding plenty of water, little turmeric powder and salt.it should not be over cooked. Drain it in a strainer .

2.    Grind together garlic and ginger. (a tsp od ginger garlic paste can be used) Make thick batter with the ingredients mentioned under for the batter. Put all the florets into this and mix well in order to coat it well with the batter.

3.    Heat oil in a deep pan. When the oil is really hot, fry the florets till brown.

4.    In the same oil fry onions,  garlic,green chilly and curry leaves till onions turns slightly brown .put it over the fried gobi .Give a gentle mix. Serve hot as a starter or as a snack.

SPONGE CAKE

I always wanted to make sponge cake which is simple, light and airy, that could be used as a base for frosting cakes. I have tried many recipes, all of them was good on its own but didn’t give a satisfactory result when layered. At last I zeroed on this recipe. I got it the same way I wanted it to be. So happy with the result. Also it is butter free so that you will be fee from extra calories. Since the recipe doesn’t call for any raising agent, success of the cake completely lies on the beating of eggs. So make sure the eggs are beaten well for 10 minutes. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

1.    Eggs- 3large or 4 medium

2.    Flour-3/4 cup

3.    Sugar-1/2 cup

4.    Vanilla essence- 1 tsp

Method of preparation

1.    Preheat an oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes. Prepare an 8” inch round cake tin.

2.    Take a wide and deep bowl. Preferably a glass bowl. Break open all eggs into this. Beat for 5 minutes till it turns frothy. Add sugar and vanilla essence. Beat again for 5 minutes until sugar dissolves and egg mix tripled in volume.

3.    Add in flour little by little. Fold in gently using a spatula.

4.    Pour in to prepared cake tin and bake for 25 minutes or until inserted knife comes out clean

MILK PEDA

Milk peda is one of the most famous Indian sweets. When I searched its recipe I could find many easy recipes using milk powder and condensed milk. Since I did not have condensed milk on hand I decided to try this version. The ingredients for this recipe is really simple and are easily available in every kitchen. The two essentials for this recipe are time and patience (many of us including me lacks those two J) but the end result totally worth of all the efforts. This is a foolproof recipe when you can put a little time and patience…hope everyone will give a try.

Ingredients

1.    Milk- 1litre

2.    Sugar-1/2 cup

3.    Curd- 4 tbsp

4.    Cardamom powder- ½ tsp

5.    Any nuts- a few(optional)

Method of preparation

1.    Take a thick bottomed vessel. Heat milk. Once it comes to boil, add sugar and cardamom powder.

2.    Reduce the flame to medium and keep stirring the milk. Once the milk reduced to half (it may take nearly 20 minutes) add curd.

3.    Now the milk starts to curdle. Keep on stirring until the entire water content evaporates and the mix thickened enough .Turn off the gas. Let this cool a bit.

4.    Grind this mix in a mixer grinder into smooth paste.

5.    Grease your hands. Shape the peda mix into balls or any desired shapes. If you want, you can keep few nuts on the top and serve.

ONION BONDA

Ullivada is my most favorite snack.It always brings some sweet childhood memories for me.When I was school kid ,my amma used to bring ullivada from her office canteen. But the sad thing is that we couldn’t get enough of that since they supply only limited numbers just for their employees. That was the best ullivada I ever had. Unlike ullivadas from other places, it was loaded with onions with less flour. Sadly the one which is available in Kerala with the name of ullivada is merely maida vada with very less or no onion at all! When I moved to Chennai I started getting onion bonda instead of ullivada.I totally fell in love with those. The main difference of onion bonda from ullivada is that the bonda is made with gramflour instead of maida also it is not flattened and sphere in shape.But all other ingredients are same. I always wanted to try it at home. On one evening when my husband requested to make some snack I prepared it.It turned out truly good. I had to struggle to get a few for photoshoot. It was vanished within minutes J.here goes the recipe

Ingredients

1.    Onion-4 medium sized, thinly sliced

2.    Ginger -2 tbsp,chopped

3.    Green chilly-4 nos,chopped

4.    Curry leaves-one handful, tear into small pieces

5.    Gram flour /kadalamavu-200gms

6.    Rice flour-2tbsp

7.    Oil- 1tbsp

8.    Salt –as required

9.    Water- around ¼ cup

10. Oil- for deep frying

Method of preparation

1.    Mix ingredients 1 to 8 in a wide mixing bowl. Rub everything well with the hands for few minutes. This process releases water from the onions.so we don’t need to add more water further. Add water little by little and stop adding it once the mix can be shaped in to balls.

2.    Heat oil.when the oil is really hot, wet the palms take small balls from  the mix. Put it into the oil and fry in medium flame for about 5 minutes or until it is cooked through.

Serve hot..

CHOCOLATE CAKE



Though this cake is not picture perfect. This is the best chocolate cake I ever make. Rich, moist and not overly sweet. Also the preparation is quite easy as no hard work required to make this cake. Please try your hands on it .I am sure all chocolate lovers will seriously fall in love with this dark rich chocolate cake J

Ingredients

1.    All purpose flour/maida-1/2 cup

2.    Cocoa powder-1/4 cup

3.    Butter -50gms

4.    Oil-30ml

5.    Baking soda-1/4 tsp

6.    Baking powder-3/4 tsp.

7.    Salt –a pinch

8.    Egg- lightly beaten,2 tbsp

9.    Sugar-1/2 cup

110     Milk-3/4 cup

11.    Vanilla essence-1tsp

Method of preparation

1.    Grease an 8” inch round cake tin. Keep it aside. Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.

2.    Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt well using a whisk.

3.    Heat milk and butter together till the butter melts. Let it cool to room temperature. Add sugar, vanilla essence, oil and cocoa powder into this and mix well until sugar dissolves.

4.    Add flour and egg into this. Mix again to incorporate all the ingredients

5.    Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 25 to 30 minutes or until the inserted knife comes out clean.

UZHUNNUVADA-KEY TO MAKE CRISPY VADA !!!!

Making this Vada was purely an experiment. I never thought that I could ever make perfect uzhunnuvada.My husband is  a huge lover of this .Upon his compulsion once I tried make it but ended up with soggy ones. I always wanted to make crispy vada which we used to get in shops but I had no idea of the key to make it perfect. But atlast I got it!!! Don’t ask me how J.I made it in my own style .By god’s grace I got it as perfect as those in tea shops, crispy outside and spongy inside.It was a huge hit.Uzhunnavada fan was totally impressed and satisfied. This recipe is going to be a keeper. Let’s impress and surprise your family by this yummy vada J

Shaping Uzhunnuvada is bit difficult. Once we get the batter with right consistency, it would be easy. So here goes the recipe

Ingredients

Urad dal (uzhunnu) – 2cups

Rice flour- 1tbsp and 1 tsp

Onion- 1 small,chopped

Ginger- 1 small piece,chopped

Curry leaves- 2 or 3 sprigs,chopped

Whole black pepper-1 tbsp

Salt- as needed

Oil for deep frying

Method of preparation

1.    soak urad dal for 2 or 3 hours. Keep soaked urad dal in a serrated vessel to drain off the water for sometime

2.    Grind urad dal in small batches in a mixie (mixer grinder) till we get smooth and fluffy batter. While grinding sprinkle very less water ( 1 tbsp. ).Scrape the batter from the sides of the jar and grind again till it well grinded.(see the below pic to know the consistency of the batter)

3.    Once the grinding completed, transfer the batter in to a mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients except oil. Mix well.

4.    Heat oil in a deep bottom pan.

5.    Wet your palm. Take a small portion of the batter. Shape into vadas.Put a hole with your thumb. Gently slip shaped vadas in to hot oil.

6.    Once we put the vada, reduce the flame to medium and cook it for 5 min till it turns crispy and slightly brown in color

Serve hot with chutney or sambar.

Notes : Do not soak the urad dal for more than the mentioned time as it will absorb more water which in turn makes the batter loose.

Add as little water as possible while grinding.

Do not skip adding the rice flour as it is the key ingredient to make the vada crispy

While frying,the flame should be medium.

STUFFED CHICKEN BUNS

Nowadays I am not very fond of cooking. So does the blogging. But I can never stay away from baking.I love sitting in front of the oven while the baking is going on and the sight of rising cakes,or buns gives me intense happiness. I have made this bun on a lazy dinner. Once I have tried this long before but was not happy with the outcome. But this time both the stuffing and bun texture turned out awesome. So I clicked the pics and couldn’t stop myself from sharing this wonderful recipe. I would say it is a must try for all bakery food lovers like me. I tried making it as healthy as possible. I have made Around 12 buns and one good sized cater pillar bread with this measurement. The bun was super soft and melts in mouth kind of texture. For the filling I have used both chicken and vegetables. The filling can be modified according to your imaginations. Here goes the recipe…

Ingredients for the bun

1.    All purpose flour/ Maida- 4 cups

2.    Dry yeast- 1 n ½ tbsp

3.    Warm milk- as required to knead the dough ( I didn’t measure)

4.    Sugar-1/4 cup

5.    Salt-1tsp

6.    Oil-1/4 cup

7.    Curd-2 or 3 tbsp

8.    Egg- 1 lightly beaten ,for brushing the bun

9.    Sesame seeds-white or black for sprinkling over the top

For the filling

1.    Chicken – around 150 gms

2.    Green beans-10 nos,chopped

3.    Carrot-1 medium sized,grated

4.    Cabbage -1 cup,chopped

5.    Onion- 2 medium sized,chopped

6.    Ginger garlic paste-1 n ½ tbsp

7.    Chilly podwer-1/2 tsbp

8.    Coriander powder-1/2 tbsp

9.    Garam masala powder -1 tsp

10    Salt to taste

11    Oil-1 bor 2tbsp

12.   Water-1/4 cup

Method of preparation

1.    Mix yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar in ¼ cup of lukewarm water and keep it aside for 10 minutes for proofing. This is the most important step .If your yeast fails to proof then your bread or bun will become as hard as stone. So make sure the yeast mixture has well risen.

2.    Take the flour in a deep and big bowl. Add curd and salt into this and gently mix. Mix the risen yeast,oil.sugar, warm milk in another bowl.(keep some milk aside as iam not sure of the quantity of the milk needed to knead the dough.)Add this into the flour and knead into soft and smooth dough. Add more milk if required. The dough has to  be kneaded for at least eight minutes. Keep the kneaded dough covered in a warm place for 3 or 4 hours to rise and doubles the volume.

3.    For the filling- Cook chicken by adding ¼ cup of water, salt and little turmeric powder. Once chicken has cooked remove the pieces from the stock. Cook the chopped vegetables in the same chicken stock. (this gives some extra flavor for the filling).chop the cooked chicken and keep it aside.

4.    Heat oil in a pan. Add ginger garlic paste and onion and sauté until onion turns soft. Add the spice powders and sauté until the raw smell goes. Now add the cooked chicken and vegetable Add salt if required and mix everything well. Switch off the flame .Now the filling is ready.

5.    Lets get back to the dough. Punch the risen dough to release the air. Divide the dough into medium sized balls slightly bigger than that of chappathi balls. Flatten the balls into thick discs and shape it into cups. Keep a big spoon full of filling into this and punch the edges to shape them into buns. Grease a baking tray ,place buns with few centimeters gap as it will rise while baking. After shaping all the buns preheat the oven At 250◦c for 10 minutes. By this time the buns will have a second rise. Brush the top of the buns with beaten egg. Sprinkle sesame seeds and bake at 180◦c for 15 minutes or until it is cooked and turned slightly brown.

EGGLESS WHOLE WHEAT BANANA BREAD

Fruits are one thing which iam not interested in, particularly bananas. Once it gets dark spots poor bananas find its space in trash. But that was an old story. After making this banana bread iam waiting my banana to get spots  :).This banana bread is totally addictive. One can’t stop eating just a piece. It almost taste like ‘unniyappom’. Above all you don’t feel guilty while having an extra piece since it is made with healthy ingredients. The bread is soft and moist. It was as delicious as I was eating it continuously. It was hard for me to keep few pieces even for my Husband :).The whole loaf was finished within few hours. Do try this healthy delicious bread. It might satisfy even the banana haters!!

Ingredients

1.      Whole wheat  or Atta-1.5 cup

2.       Grated Jaggery or sugar-1/2 cup

3.      Ripe banana mashed-1 cup,(I used robusta variety, around 3 or 4 medium sized can yield 1 cup)

4.      Baking soda-1/2tsp

5.      Baking powder-1 n 1/2tsp

6.      Oil-3/4cup

7.      Cinnamon powder-1tsp

8.      Vanilla essence-1tsp

Method of preparation

1.      Preheat an oven at 180◦ c For 10 minutes. Prepare a loaf tin and keep it ready

2.      Mash bananas using a fork or mixie without any lumps.(use over ripened bananas).

3.      Mix wheat, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon powder using a whisk or swift all the dry ingredients.

4.      In a mixing bowl mix oil, vanilla and jaggery well.(Jaggery may tend to form clumps with oil. Do not worry, go head. It will dissolve upon adding flour).Add all the dry ingredients little by little and mix to incorporate everything. Do not over mix as it will make cake dense.

5.      Now bake at 180◦ for 50 minutes or until the inserted toothpick comes out clean.

6.      Allow it to cool .Slice and serve.