FEBI'S COOK BOOK

Seems like its been ages, since I have been blogging. Absolutely missed it. Blogging, Cooking, photographing, everything. I was much busy and could spare very little time which I liked to spend alone with a cup of tea. This month has been very relaxed with only few cake orders and to keep myself occupied (though I am occupied in household chores) in my kind of time, I thought I will bounce back to blogging. When I cooked it seemed like I have not cooked properly since so long and photography and styling seemed like a forgotten passion. Everything seemed like I have lost touch in it, thanks to my caking. On post today is Quail roast. Hubby bought fresh Quails from market and he asked me to fry it and make thick gravy like curry. All that clicked me was to make something like this and I gave it a go to have it for dinner. Here goes the recipe: Ingredients: To marinate: Quail- 4 pcs Kashmiri chilli powder- 2 tsp turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp Ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp Salt ...

Now I feel lucky to be a house wife. When I was in school i was One girl with high ambitions in life. Scoring high in Grad school, then working and earning was my dream. But after I got married, the whole scenario changed. Even though my husband did not have any objection in me working, my priorities changed to being a good home maker. While I waited for kids to grow up and things to settle down, things got out of my calculations and I got confined inside the four walls. And it was late before I realised that being a house wife or home maker is no less than all other paid jobs plus I now feel lucky that I discovered a new passion which I would n't have discovered if I were a working person. I dont make money but I have plenty of time to execute my passion. Not that I have no work at home, of course i run in short of time and that is not rarely and that is the case always with three little kids but I feel atleast I am not bound by work or a boss which would have been otherwise...

 Nowadays my focus is shifting to something else. Not a vague obsession, This time I am investing most of my time for it too.... Its a cake thing.. Cake has always been my weakness, not in terms of taste but in baking it. But recently it has shifted to cake decorating and its only a while back I started getting it right without any mistakes. For months I had this problem of either not getting the cream rightly whipped or over whipping and yielding butter out of it. Now that I have started getting it right, my next look on was for different ways of cake decorating. Now that I have started doing it artistically, I started making it for friends and families. Also I started getting requests from some neighbors and friends in doing it for them. Thus my cake page on facebook   'The Cake Mistress'  was born. Click on the link to see some of my works. https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cake-Mistress/341317546074465?fref=ts .  If all you people...

Ever since I was introduced to this large group on fb, all my heart-bookmarked recipes has been coming to implementation which i delayed solely due to my busy schedule. The group demands bake along by every member of the group in which a recipe is posted every week. I always wanted to try a classic pancake, but with so many recipes on internet and failing to settle on one and also doubting if that would turn up good, I always hesitated to give it a try. But being part of the group left me with no choice other than giving it a try and fasting hubby meant I had to prepare breakfast only for kids who would love to have this even as lunch. And so did I tried and came out awesome. Recipe adapted from here Ingredients: All-purpose flour – 1 1/2 cups Baking powder – 1 tablespoon Salt – 1/2 teaspoon Sugar – 2 tablespoons Egg – 1 Pure vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon Milk – 1 1/4 cup Butter – 75 gms Honey – to serve, optional Method: 1. Add all the dry ingredients t...

Up on post today is one of my favorite veggie curry. Very less do I experiment veggie curries. I usually make any simple curry with veggies and repeat the same stuff when it is a vegetable meal day in my house. And so it turns out boring and is always a left over. Veggies do not excite me much and so I do not make much variety with it. This time also in a mission to make my family feed with more veggies, I decided to try something new and found this recipe. As the recipe mentions, I did not use fresh mushrooms, instead I used tinned ones and replaced the frozen green peas with fresh ones. This curry once tasted turned out to be my favorite and whenever now I find a chance to make Vegetable curry, I make this. Over to the recipe, Recipe adapted from here Ingredients: Oil- 2-3 tbsp Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp Green peas (fresh or frozen)- 1/2 cup Mushroom-1/2 cup chopped. (I used tinned mushrooms) Tomato- 3 Ginger- 1 inch piece Chilly- 3 Cream- 1/2 cup Asafetida- a pi...

Thinking about  blessed holy month of Ramadan already fills me with chills when people are so much around, mosques crowded, streets busy, everything seems so special. Especially being in an Islamic country like UAE, I enjoy the benefit of husband returning from work early, due to short working hours for all companies and then roads during night time is so lit up and busy, anybody can roam around safely no matter even if you are alone. Its definitely a month of devotion and religious commitment, which is only why you can still fast in full spirit no matter how long the fasting hours are and that too when summer is at its peak. Its a month when Quran was sent to our Messenger Muhammad S.A. and we give so much importance in spending our time in recitation of Quran and that is mostly how I spend my time of worship or Ibaadah apart from obligatory prayers during Ramadan. Ofcourse apart from religious commitment, we are supposed to cook for the Iftar (fast breaking time) but t...

This might sound long and difficult. But it isn't. I love the buttery flaky texture of puff pastry sheets and I always felt that making those at home are really not worth when lots of them are available in stores. But after having tried and failed a few times those store bought sheets, which I found hard to separate and did not puff up in the oven, I decided to give it a try at home. But it took me ages to find the courage to really give it a try. The steps are simple. U just to have fold it three or four times but keeping intervals and refrigerated between each folds which was the real annoying thing for me as I couldn't finish the work when my kids were fast asleep. But I was happy with the out come. It was really easy to make. Far better than I imagined. Tasted exactly like the bakery ones. Over to the recipe Ingredients: All purpose flour- 3 1/2 cups + 1/2 cup Butter- 450 gms+ 100 gms Cold water salt  Chicken filling of your choice Method: First mix 3...

Oh berries! How much I love them. But  here in desert, we hardly get berries.. Now that's a false statement. You get berries here throughout the year but you need to pay twice as much as its quantity. I mean it. I am not boasting. Its about 15 Aed for a small pack of blueberry with only 10 or 15 of them. Every time I admiringly gaze at those beauties in super market, take them in my hand and then return them to fridge. This is the case with all the berries so buying a berry and having them is like my distant dream except for strawberries which are affordable at least during winter. And to take my cravings to extreme, my fellow bloggers in west have their blogs loaded with lots of berry recipes and without able to try them, I put my cravings to sleep. This one I found for pretty good deal. When i found those, though they were still quite expensive, there was no second thought and i bought those, calculating to try loads of berry recipes when i was still aware that i had on...

This is a life saver and also saves your left over idlis. In my home, my daughter and me are great fans of Idli, but my hubby and son are the opposite. Usually I make Idlis for my daughter and me and with some batter, I prepare Dosas for Hubby and son. But when Idlis are left over, they are hardly used up just because I am lazy to prepare chutney to be eaten with, just for a few idlis or warming or heating it up. I'd rather stay hungry, so much is my laziness. But when it comes to feeding the family, its actually worth making something, if they are sure to enjoy it. So I transform the left over idlis this way and hubby happily eats all of it when served this way. Its quite easy to make and makes a good tea time snack or even breakfast Over to the recipe. Ingredients: Idli- 5 or 6 cut into 4 Butter- 2 tbsp Garlic minced- 2 cloves Onion chopped finely- 1 Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp Tomato ketchup- 1 tsp Pav Bhaji Masala - 1 tsp Lemon juice- 1/2 ...

Up on post today is a chicken roast. There are already many chicken roast on the blog.You can check it here and here . Its my kind of curry and also my hubby loves anything of that sort. Its best with Chapati, Nans etc. Or it is best accompanied as side dish with any other curry along with rice varieties as well. As the name, Kerala Roast chicken, it depicts Kerala's own taste with the coconut oil flavor and smell. Over to the recipe. Ingredients: Chicken- 1 cut to medium peices Lime juice- 1 tbsp Pepper powder- 1/2 tsp Chilli powder- 1 tbsp Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp Onion chopped-7 medium Ginger chopped-2 1/2 tbsp Garlic chopped- 2 1/2 tbsp Garam masala powder- 1 tsp Turmeric powder- 1 tsp Kashmiri Chilli powder- 1 tbsp Coriander powder- 1 tsp Tomato- 3 cut into slices Tomato ketchup- 2 tbsp Curry leaves- a stem Coconut oil for deep frying Method: Marinate chicken in pepper powder, lime juice and salt. Keep aside. In a small bowl, mix Chil...

Why is this emptiness..?? Mind is blank even with all beautiful things around. Life is going on perfect and nothing to complain about. Yet something wrong.  Having a healthy, happy mind is also an asset. Its not just a blessing but something someone should develop himself/herself. Feels like I have lost it, lost the skill to develop a happy mind. Life is full of ups and downs, yet most of us complain about the downs and never appreciate ups, just like now I complained about not having a happy nature. Its into my nature, digging into sadness with no reason. It must be some kind of unnecessary mentality or illness. I don't know, I really don't know. Feeling down and don't know why? Yet there is light of hope left, left in us by God. That's his love for us that He never leaves us in complete darkness. Sometimes, its his way of drawing us closer to him, by putting us in dark. And then gives us light of hope, again to draw closer to him. His ways ar...

The health benefits of Almonds are never ending. I love the versatility of Almonds and when infused into milk, it serves as best warm drinks that can be served. This drink is easy to make however the peeling part is so time consuming for me. Also it requires to be planned ahead as Almonds takes time to soak. If you want to make it immediately, you can still do it by soaking in hot water or simply by microwaving with little water, so the skin peels off easily. But I really do not like it that way as I feel the flavor somehow becomes a little vague by doing so. Over to the recipe, Ingredients: Almonds-20, soaked for about 2 hours and peeled Milk- 2 cups+ 1/4 cup Sugar- 3-4 tbsp ghee- 1 tbsp cardamom powder- 1/4 tsp saffron- 1/2 tsp Method: Soak the Almonds for two hours and peel the skin. Grind with 1/4 cup of milk to a smooth paste. Heat a pan on medium low heat and add ghee. Add the Almond paste to ...

I am never out of obsessions. Its always there in me. I am pretty obsessed with all the beautiful things around and it keeps changing with time. My recent obsession is this page . What wonderful photographs and recipes!!. Whats amazing is that author has wonderfully composed delicious recipes with awesome twists. Otherwise would you ever imagine of Carrot Halwa Ice cream ? And the best part is he is Indian. Indian recipes got a superb dimension and International status in his page. There are so many awesome recipes which I have already bookmarked to try in future. Also I have committed to go through all his recipes, not missing a single one, everyday or whenever I find time. Now that is called a sincere obsession. Speaking of his photographs there is something noticeably magic about it and it has some signature style. There is no need of adding any copyright watermarks as anyone familiar of that space can guess to whom those photographs belong. When I came across this recipe, I d...

Bavarian cream, a new name I came across just a few days back when my one of my blogger friends,  +Rafeeda AR   made a mention of it on her fb post. I was curious to know what it was and when the blog post on this wonderful dessert  appeared which was a combo of many desserts along with Bavarian cream, I decided to try Bavarian cream, alone which can be had as a dessert itself. Having said that, Rafee's blog is one of the wonderful blog with a wide range of recipes and Rafee is a consistent blogger and  Masha allah, she manages to do atleast 3 posts a week. I love reading her write-ups and every time her posts appear on blog, its like a new movie release for me. The recipe is made with egg yolks, basically its a kind of custard and it tasted so very delicious. I added some nuts on top and praline powder, which added more to the taste. Ingredients: 2 egg yolks 1 cup milk 2 tbsp sugar A pinch of salt 1/2 tsp vanilla essence 1 pack (10 ...

When Mangoes are in season, it cannot be a coincidence that I am posting second Mango recipe in a week. My favorite childhood fruit and still is, Mangoes, are so versatile. However, if it wasnt't for the awesome bake along by this wonderful group, Fondbites in which I joined recently, where every week the admin posts wonderful step by step recipe, I would not have given this recipe a try.  A Panna-cotta recipe always caught my attention, but never got an opportunity to try them. The dessert turned out to be super delicious and was incredibly easy to make too. The Mangoes gave a nice lift in taste to this dessert. After all, anything made of Mangoes is impossible to go wro ng. Ingredients: Mangoes – 2 Big & RipeFresh  Cream – 600 ml Coconut Milk – 400 ml Sugar – 1 cup Vanilla Extract – 1 teaspoon Gelatin – 2 tablespoon Warm water – 1/4 cup Jelly Top - Mangoes – 1 ripe Sugar  1/3 cup Water – 1/2 cup Gelatin  1 tablespoon W...