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Showing posts from 2014

MANGO PHIRNI

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First of all, let me apologise for the extra number of pictures I have uploaded. Although this is not the first such post, I think I should have reduced my number of recipe images. The reason being, I was extremely confused in deciding which picture looked best, I uploaded all that looked quite good to me.  This time on post is an Indian dessert named, Mango Phirni. Even though Mangoes has gone out of season now, I decided to post this recipe as this recipe was sleeping in my drafts since months and I no longer wanted to make it wait to be posted.  Even though most of you might be familiar with this dessert, let me make a small introduction of this dessert to all those aren't familiar. Phirni is a dessert basically of Punjabi origin, almost like kheer, thickened till a creamy consistency is reached by the addition of coarsely ground rice or  fine rice flour, seasoned with cardamom and saffron.  Its so easy to make this, all you have to do is boil milk, add rice flour and

RED VELVET CAKE

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I am very happy to announce that we, my hubby and me, just completed 6 years of wonderful happy marriage, Masha allah. Unsure of whether I'll be able to bake a cake or not, being busy with kids at home, some how I managed to do it. To celebrate, I chose to bake Red velvet cake... This super trendy cake never really impressed me even in a least possible way, as it was just a cake with deep red color attained by adding food color, despite that I opted to try it at home for at-least once and thanks to all those drool-worthy pictures floating over the internet that succeeded to push me to try at home. And guess what happened! I made it three times in 10 days... It wasn't just different in appearance, but also unique in taste. The cream cheese frosting really goes very well the chocolate tasting cake and its the frosting that plays a major role in the unique taste of the cake. Perfect for my kind of taste buds... As I was running in short of frosting, I had some already

CHETTINAD PEPPER CHICKEN

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Isn't it amazing how versatile Chicken is? There is no other thing that offers you thousands of variety and tasty dishes to be experimented. I, maximum  make it a point to experiment and make every chicken dish a different one. And so there is very least possibility that once made chicken curry is prepared in my kitchen for the second time.  This time I am up with a spicy chicken curry, Chettinad Pepper Chicken, a spicy chicken dish... This chicken dish is more like a roast or fry rather than a curry. And, therefore, the best combo is with Chappati or Appams. For all those who love to taste spicy chcken dish, this one would definitely serve your taste buds... Now off to the recipe: Ingredients: Chicken- 1 kg Onion- 5, chopped finely Tomato- 3 chopped, finely Ginger-Garlic paste- 1 tbsp Green chilly- 3, split length wise Lemon juice- 2 tsp Kashmiri chilly powder- 4 tsp Coriander powder- 1 1/2 tbsp Garam masala powder- 1 tsp Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp Pepper powde

STRAWBERRY BANANA SMOOTHIE

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This time when I am typing this post, I am pretty excited, for I got featured on an Indian website for women. They found me on FB, discovered me as a blogger and wanted to interview me for a category on their site, which specifically writes about successful blogger women. Here is the  link to the interview . To celebrate , lets go for a smoothie. I have lost count of  recipe bookmarks from a recently discovered, awesome food site named Sally's baking addiction... I found out that the author also had wonderful collection of smoothies, which was very good enough to serve your breakfasts... This is a very healthy one, with no added sugar in it. After being heard about unhealthy aspects of sugar, I am trying to cut down sugar from my diet. Being a sweet tooth to completely cut down sugar is impossible for me. Anyway, I will try to make my humble effort a success. What makes this smoothie look beautiful is its bright red and beautiful yellow colors, standing apart to form layers

GRANOLA

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When I first heard the word granola, it sounded completely alien to me. However with further researching on what it is and how it looked and tasted, it started sounding interesting. When majority of them were crunchy, I opted to try this chewy and fudgy ones. Granolas are make-ahead, healthy, baked breakfast option. To add the crunchiness, nuts, oats and other ingredients are baked until lightly toasted. My granolas are non-baked ones with coconut oil added to add softness to the bars.The chocolate makes it fudgy and cornflakes added makes it crunchy too.. While I used regular milk chocolate, you can use dark chocolate as it is definitely 'the healthier option'. As coconut oil is liquid at room temperature, be sure to place the bars back in the fridge as soon as you take it out, so that the coconut oil doesn't melt. If you think coconut oil is going to ruin the granolas, please be sure read the benefits of it anywhere from the internet. When I found this recipe,

PUMPKIN MOUSSE PARFAITS

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Parfaits are my most loved version of desserts. It simply makes the dessert look more inviting and awesome. I always love to make my desserts this way than assembling in a large pudding dish, although the latter is lot easier and time saving, you can have your own share in the form of parfaits untouched and undisturbed. This is the first time I bothered to take a challenge, unsure of how pumpkin would taste in a dessert. Sometimes to take risks is vital in life and this was something worth doing it. I attempted to give a slight coffee touch to the mousse and both the tastes managed to mingle well with each other. I can't tell you how wonderful this tasted, especially with crunch of pralines and biscuits, and cream, it tasted heavenly. For the biscuit layer, I used home-made ones,which tasted so good with this. But you don't have to bother making at home, just get a store-bought one. Ingredients: Pumpkin mousse filling: Pumpkin chunks boiled with 2 tbsp sugar

UNDAPPUTT- RICEBALLS STUFFED WITH PRAWNS FILLING

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 Undapputt is one of the hundreds of delectable Malabar dishes. Its juicy filling mainly with prawns, makes the inside juicy and steamed rice dough makes it healthy. This is one of the options we go  for during Ramadhan fasts, when we feel we are over loaded with oily stuffs. This can be eaten as a snack as well as a dinner meal... You can say its Pathiri and prawns curry evolved. Doesnt it look like the bite size version of Pathiri and chemmeen curry? So true... Malabar being part of Kerala, the land of coconut trees, this Malabari dish has coconut scraping in its inside and outside coating to enhance its taste. However, I omitted adding coconut scrapings to the filling, but did not fail to coat outside, fearing that, avoiding the coconut coating, may transform this dish from Undapputt to, not an Undapputt at all. And this was how I was always taught by my family and did not want to go against my family traditions. Do you think curry leaves was more apt in the above image th

CAULIFLOWER FRY

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This is one of the easiest things you can make. Either to make your tea time bit special or to serve with your main meal or as an after school snack, its one of the things you'll definitely want to try.  Even though I am not so fond of cauliflower , I never fail to have them once in a month, as I promised myself to include  veggies into my diet as much as possible. The second reason being cauliflower is versatile, you can try one of the tastiest veg curries using it. This recipe requires very few simple steps. All you need to do is boil cauliflower for a while, marinate with a few ingredients and then fry. And there it is, ready to gobble down these golden beauties. And do not forget to have tomato ketchup with it, it would be one of the best things to pair up with these florets. When served immediately you would love its crunchiness in every bite along with its soft inside. As cauliflower florets are boiled in the beginning, you will get this softness as m

CHOCOLATE SAUCE

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Chocolate madness is getting overpowered in me, either to have it in the form of big chunks, or to simply accompany the boring vanilla Ice creams, or by topping my favorite desserts, I never fail to eat chocolate. Neither do I stop myself from drooling over the chocolaty goodness floating through the internet, and to browse images, even at late nights, no matter in what form the chocolate is, solid, molten or completely transformed into cakes and desserts. Can you simply resist to drool over this pic, NO? Yes you can't. Vanilla Ice cream never tasted so good and was never such beautiful. Molten chocolate flowing down the pale, white scoops, brings life into it. And after you top it with some nuts of your choice, you'll meet Heaven on Earth. What motivated me to make this chocolate sauce is that I had tons of Ice creams in my freezer, and to eat it as it is was something not doing just to it. When I browsed over number of recipes, I was happy that most of the recipe s

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER AND CHEESE CRESCENT ROLLS- HOME MADE

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Last week something caught my attention on FB.. Home Bakers Challenge it was, a group in which members take up the challenge of baking different baked goodies. After having seen some of the pictures posted by different members of the group, floating on FB, I begged the admin to add me as well in the same group. She accepted my request and told me that , I can take up the challenge from next month on-wards. But I got very impatient with the chocolate bread rolls, which was the latest challenge. I browsed one of the member's recipe and made the dough accordingly but designed it in the form of a crescent roll. The filling was of chocolate in the recipe, but I tried with chocolate, peanut butter, a mix of both and mozarella cheese... The scent of the baked dough wafting through the house was amazing and I couldn't resist myself till it got baked. This dough served as an all-rounder in my kitchen that day... Made 16 crescent rolls.. With the remaining dough I made pizza l

RASPBERRY CHEESE CAKE

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Lately sweet  cravings have been binding me so badly. So much so that I cant resist myself, even at late nights, crawling into the kitchen silently and stealing a piece from the fridge... When I was pregnant, I wonder, how hatred towards sweets, over-flooded in me. My most favorite ice-creams and chocolates became my worst enemies... After 9 months of pregnancy, all the sweet cravings bounced back with double strength. Having ice-creams with chocolate sauce, stealing one extra scoop when all are asleep, browsing madly pages over pages to drool over those yummy flavors and sauces of ice-creams, really going mad these days... Recently I discovered a page  Sally's Baking Addiction , which was the most fantastic one I've ever found. Perfect for my cravings, the page is loaded with baked goodies and drool- worthy sweet treats... After having found a granola recipe on the page, I simply couldn't release myself from staring at it, and made it as soon as possible, to put down