Cooking with Koki

Meeska Mooska MICKEY MOUSE!!!

Koki — Sat, 15 May 2010 04:29:15 +0000

Quite a lonnnnnnnnnng time since I blogged ! Even before I start with my reasons let me , thank every one of you who called or mailed to enquire if everything was fine. To be honest life got very busy and then we had two vicious cycles of cold virus attack in our family to handle.

Anyway I some how dragged myself to the blogging world today.If you are still wondering about the blog post title and seriously thinking if my brains are in the right place after the virus attack, well I assure you yes somehow my brain stands unaffected. Thanks to the Force above. Stop your mind if its wandering off thinking this post is about Chooha fry or paratha..yikes that sounds gross.

Walt Disney, Oh GOD I am big fan of this guy, what a magic he has spread over this world. Any child on this earth who is fortunate enough to enjoy his childhood would have been touched by his magic. This magic is kinda overdone in our lil home. For my toddler what matters most in his life are his mickey mouse clubhouse pals and trucks!!!

So when it came to selecting the theme for this little guyz birthday celebrations, we selected “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”, that was a no-brainer!

This birthday was couple weeks before, but unfortunately both my son and I were sick then… sounds so unfair doesn’t it. Well then life decided to work that way…who am I to change it. Ok now to the birthday story…

Almost a month before I started thinking on what cake to bake and how to decorate it, believe me Google would have gotten DOG -TIRED because of my search queries.

Finally I thought a lot and I decided it has to be the French Opera Cake. I had been longing to bake this since the Daring bakers baked it 2 years back, I just did not find the right occasion and time.

Opera cake is an elegant French dessert made up of five elements:

a jaconde – which is the cake layer
a syrup to be drizzled over the cake
a buttercream that fills the cake layers adding additional layers to the cake
a ganache or a mousse
a glaze to cover the top layer

Thanks to Meeta of “Whats for Lunch honey” fame for her wonderful instructions really helped me get it right at the very first attempt. I just could not and did not follow the recipe exactly as

I wanted to change the flavour and adapt it to suit my lil ones taste buds… After all it was his Big day:D I decided on Orange and Chocolate as the flavours… a match made in heaven.
I was lazy enough to change the buttercream and syrup recipes completely to simple ones and not the Daring baker kind …
I avoided the glaze as my son is not a very big fan of Chocolate he can manage a little of that flavour but not so much.
I reduced the sugar a lot….by a lot I reallllly mean a lot

I think the french would feel offended if I called this Opera Cake ,… probably I should rename it to “KOpera cake ” (Kokiz Opera cake ) hihihi

Here is the recipe:

OPERA CAKE SIMPLIFIED

(35-40 servings)

What’s needed:-

For joconde

12 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
4 cups ground almond meal (blanched almonds)
1 cup icing sugar
12 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
6 tbsp.unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the Orange Syrup

About 1.25 cup of Freshly squeezed Orange juice
2 Tbsp of Sugar (add more if you want it sweeter)
1 to 2 tsp of Organic Orange zest

For the Orange buttercream

15 Oz of Cream cheese
4 oz of Butter (Organic)
2 to 3 tbsp of Fresh orange juice
2 to 3 tsp of Organic Orange zest
2 to 3 tbsp of Icing sugar( adjust to your taste)

For Chocolate Mousse

14 Oz Milk chocolate
2 cups of heavy whipping cream

How To’s and How not To’s :-

For Joconde

Preheat the oven to 425◦F. (220◦C).
The recipe calls for Jelly roll pans, I dint have them so alternatively I used cookie sheets which were 1 inch high Line two 12½ x 15½- inch cookie sheets with parchment paper and brush with melted butter.
Using a handheld mixer, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add the granulated sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy.
In another bowl using the handheld mixer beat the almonds, icing sugar and eggs on medium speed until pale and volume increases.
Add the flour and beat on low speed until the flour is just combined.. NO OVERMIXING
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the meringue into the almond mixture and then fold in the melted butter.
Divide the batter between the pans and spread it evenly to cover the entire surface of each pan.
Bake the cake layers until they are lightly browned approximately 5 to 9 minutes depending on your oven.
Put the pans on racks and run a sharp knife along the edges and unmold on parchment paper.
Cool to room temperature.

For the Syrup

In a saucepan, mix all the ingredients for the syrup and bring to boil and switch off
Cool the syrup

For the buttercream

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients and beat on low to medium speed using handheld mixer until light and voluminous

For the Mousse

In a saucepan, melt the chocolate with 1/4 cup of whipping cream
Stir and ensure the chocolate is smooth.
Do not get tensed if the chocolate is grainy instead of smooth. Adding a couple of spoons of water and mixing will save the melted chocolate and make it smooth.
Let this mixture cool completely
In the bowl using a handheld mixer, whip the remaining heavy cream until soft peaks form.
In a bowl add the heavy chocolate first, followed by the whipped cream. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate to form a mousse.
If it’s too thin, refrigerate it for a bit until it’s spreadable.
Refrigerate until you’re ready to use

Assembling the cake

Take a baking sheet and line with parchment paper
Place one sheet of joconde, moisten it with 1/3 of the Orange syrup
Now apply half of the butter cream on this layer.
For the second layer, I cut the smaller cookie sheets layers to fit the size of the bottommost layer
Put the second layer of joconde on top of the first layer, moisten with Orange syrup and coat with the rest of the buttercream
Place the last layer of joconde on top and moisten with the rest of the orange syrup
Stick this in the refrigerator for atleast half an hour to firm up
Next spread the mousse layer on the firmed up cake and ensure its smooth. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
This cake should be served chill.

I avoided the Chocolate glaze, as said before. Instead just half an hour before the party I added the Rolled Fondant decorations that I had made the day before. Fondant does not like the fridge, so I added them just at the end to ensure mousse and fondant do not end up with a messy fight in front of the guests.

Well it was time well spent (especially with the sickness it was hard for sure). The smile on my Lil ones face was enough to take away all the tiredness.

Everyone who ate the cake loved it… It was a big hit Thank GOD for giving me strength to pull through everything and end up with a good cake for the party.

I am sending this to Nupur’s Blog bites #3:Adaptation event.

Cheers

Koki

Home remedies from mine to yours!

Koki — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 04:07:00 +0000

My Dad hails from a little village in Ramanathapuram district of Tamilnadu called “Chitrangudi”. Its a remote village with electicity, bus services, cable TV but no doctors Yup people still go to nearby towns for medical facilities. It is a government recognized Bird sanctuary … We have lots of birds if monsoons don’t fail us. Here is a click on a bright and wonderful morning of my lil village

The serenity and peace of mind that this place offers is unbelievable and any amount of meditation in a buzzing city can never compete with it. Oh GOD how I miss the place. We used to visit this place for every summer vacation. I have wonderful and treasured childhood memories associated with my village. The farm visits, watching birds from the tower, playing Pallankuzhi with my cousins, eating fresh mangoes, fresh from farm veggies, those naps on the cot under the neem tree… the list never ends. Small things that gave bigger satisfaction than things that money could buy.

My curious ( n stupid hihihi) cousin brothers even formulated some mixed veggies juice and injected it into a few plants in the yard. Those plants wilted… GOD knows what their formula was.

We used to have competition, it might sound super stupid but don’t say that ok, we loved it when we were kids. We will each get an empty bril ink bottle ( my aunts and uncles were all teachers so no shortage for such stationeries) and then start hunting for gums from tree barks. At the end of a week who ever collects the maximum and has the greatest amount of glue in the bottle from these gums is the winner. We used to find secret places to hide our bottles so that no one else steals

Ok now back to the main post, my Dad being born and brought up in this Doctor less village hates going to Doctors. I am glad atleast now he goes for regular check ups to keep his BP and blood sugar in control. He usually opted for “PAATTI VAITHIYAM” over the allopathic pills. “PAATTI VAITHIYAM” translates to Grandmas treatment in general because you know such remedies are tried, tested and passed along generations after generations.

For me the first ingredient to any remedy is common sense. Yes because we should not try a home remedy for Heat attack or try to use an ingredient that we are allergic to kill ourself instead. Hey hey wait I did not mean to scare you away from home remedies. The point is to know when to use a remedy or when to go see your doc that’s it.

Infact for certain ailments Paati vaithiyam wins hands down. No side effects unlike the chemical filled capsules and pills we swallow.

Ruchika announced her Home remedies round 2 and I really wanted to send in an entry.. So here I am trying hard to meet the deadline…

Here are few such tried and tested remedies

Home remedy for Cold & Cough

Freshly extracted Ginger juice one teaspoon added to two teaspoons for honey can really help the cold and cough in kids, for grown ups reduce the honey to 1 teaspoon. ( Seriously cold has no treatment, any remedy is just to make u feel better and fight the virus)
After your regular bath, pour a cup of warm water mixed with a couple of drops of Eucalyptus oil over the chest to ease nasal congestion. This is particularly effective in kids.
A cup of milk boiled with 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper powder, is another wonderful remedy for cold.

Home remedy for Gastric trouble

Take say 3 to 4 pods of garlic, roast them in direct flame of your stove till they have some brown spots on them. Eat them and drink a cup of warm water.
Take a couple of pods of garlic, cook them in say 1/4 cup of milk and then eat the garlic and drink the milk .

( Dont forget to brush your teeth )

Home Remedy for Indigestion or Stomach upset

Angayapodi is my first choice. Its absolutely a wonderful powder that works wonders equally for toddlers, kids and adults. You need not wait for your tummy to get upset to use it, adding it to your regular menu can help maintain a wonderfully healthy digestive system. Infact this is highly recommended for moms who JUST DELIVERED. I always buy my stock of it from “AMBIKA APPALAM DEPOT” in Chennai. You can find the recipe here

Home remedy for menstrual cramps

A teaspoon or more of fenugreek seeds swallowed with a glass of buttermilk can give a good relief.

Home remedy for Sore nipples/ engorged breasts for breastfeeding moms

Cabbage leaves really can help with sore, engorged breasts. Now dont ask me how
After baby is done with a nursing session, express a few drops of milk and massage it into the nipples . Let this natural healer air-dry, this is better than the icky lanolin stuff. Lanolin is the sebum or grease from sheep’s wool is probably not the best choice as it may contain pesticides too.
When breastfeeding, don’t use soap on the nipples as they have special ducts that secrete naturally lubricating, bacteria fighting oil.

Home remedy for avoiding BPA in your drinking water and SAVING THE WORLD

To cut the long story short, we spend a lot of money over bottled water to slow poison ourselves. Believe me these packaged water travel long distances, undergo harsh temperature differences and the result BPA and dozen other chemicals leach into this water. BPA is a well known carcinogenic with various other hazardous effects on our body. Google BPA and you will be shocked. So why are we spending so much money to kill ourselves and the PLANET???

The story is the same with packaged nursery water ..its so sad.

Home remedy – Have a good BPA free filter like BRITA at home, filter your tap water and use it for your drinking, cooking, etc. This way you save your health, your money, and more importantly the PLANET. Tap water is more regulated in USA than the bottled water.

SAY NO TO BOTTLED/PACKAGED WATER

Watch this video for more information.http://www.youtube.com/storyofstuffproject

This post rushes to reach the deadline for Ruchika’s Home Remedies Event

Wishing DH a very happy b’day with a yummy cake!!!

Koki — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:04:47 +0000

Spring is in the air.. People are seen with thinner coats walking their pets around.. Squirrels, sparrows, ducks and lots of other birds are back to fascinate my toddler

It feels like GOD has decided to paint his white canvas after all these months… I am dying to see him use the lush greens and bright colors on his palatte.. Chicago is such a beautiful place during the spring and summer .. We have lovely golf courses, beautiful streams and bridges near our house .. Above all we are longing to keep our windows open to let fresh air in.. We are tired of the heaters and the house arrest..Ofcourse I want to take my son out for long walks and play with him in the parks

Let me get back to the actual blog post now.. It was Vicky’s bday yesterday so there were lots of thoughts on what cake to bake… Well as you all know I don’t have a significant sweet tooth but Vicky is a great lover of sweets and dairy..

Thought train went from one cake to another….Just then I remembered the cake we had once ordered for our nephew for his brithday… Wow it was delightful, light , creamy and delicious… The one that stole even my heart… that’s it no more thoughts on what to bake… I decided it has to be “PINEAPPLE N CREAM CAKE”. Vicky’s love for cream is kind of a fact that we would not miss to include in our Family Encyclopedia, if we ever created one.

Promptly I started with the baking as per my plan. I was a little panicky because I had never handled fresh cream for decoration before.. plus wanted the cake to be the best as I had called his friends for cake cutting and dinner.. I took extreme care in every step.

By the time I had finished having fun with cream, decorating the cake, the ones I had in the pastry cone started melting so the cake did not have DH’s name on it… Anyway the end result though was not perfectly professional to look at, but believe me it tasted absolutely divine…

I had a simple menu for the party as we had a toddler to be fed,cleaned and entertained plus the cooking and cleaning

Paneer Parathas
Pooris
Channa Masala
Steamed Basmati
Punjabi Kadi Pakodi
Ofcourse the beauty of the day, the CAKE

Surprisingly all the items on menu turned out great and the guests were very happy indeed, but the CAKE bagged the first prize, you see it was CAKEWALK for her

Find here is the recipe and some pictures that I could capture on the busy day

PINEAPPLE N CREAM CAKE

What’s needed:-

The Sponge cake

0.5 cup of AP flour
0.5 cup of Whole wheat flour
6 Eggs seperated ( I know you could call this an omelette instead of cake )
1 cup or less Powdered Sugar
1.4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder

For the cream part of it

400 ml heavy whipping cream ( It was his bday .. and ofcourse a wonderful excuse for indulgence )
4 TBsp of Icing sugar
Food colors of your choice ( I used yellow and green just a couple of drops
Chopped pineapple about 3/4 cup

Pineapple juice say 1/4 cup mixed with a few tbsps of water for moistening the cake

How To’s

The Sponge Cake

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease a 8 X 8 inch pan and line it with foil
Mix the flours, baking powder and salt in a small bowl
In another small bowl beat the egg yolks well, then add vanilla essence and mix well. Now add the Sugar and mix well again
In a big bowl take the egg whites and beat them really well ( you can imagine probably your boss while you do this ) . At the end the egg whites should hold peaks.
Now slowly fold in the egg yolk mixture into the Egg whites, followed by the dry mixture. DO NOT OVERMIX. Just fold in everything
Pour it into the greased pan, tap the pan on the counter edges and make sure you have almost even top
Bake it for 20 to 25 mins or until the tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

The Cream and assembly (the fun part of it)

Pour the whipping cream with the sugar in a big bowl and beat it really really well until it holds peaks and is thick
Cut the cake horizontally so that you have two layers of cake
Chop the pineapple bits into tiny pieces,and reserve some bigger bits for decorating the top
Take about 2 to 3 tbsp of the cream and colour it with yellow food colour.
Place the bottom most layer of the sponge cake on your serving platter, sprinkle half of the pineapple juice and water mixture over the sponge.
Now spread 1/2 of the whipped cream and pineapple bits over it.
Place the top layer over this, and sprinkle the rest of the juice.

Topping:

Reserve a little cream for decoration and spread the remaining cream over the top and sides of the cake.
Fill your pastry cone with the cream and pipe a decoration with the coloured yellow cream or white cream as per your choice( You can use a zipbag with the corner snipped too)
Chill well before serving.

How Not To’s

Do not have even a single drop of egg yolk in the egg whites, you will never be able to whip it to the right consistency with yolk in it
Do not overmix the cake batter, aeration is highly important
Do not keep the cake out for long as it is fresh cream cake

This is a melt-in-the-mouth kinda dessert you can die for … yummm… Everyone licked their bowls and forks clean

Here are few snaps of the runners up in the contest

Cheers

Koki

Sneaky Moms and Picky Eaters!!!

Koki — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:34:44 +0000

Have you heard of Avena sativa?

Ok Let me give you clues… It is a cereal. Humans have been consuming it for ages. Well Horses seem to love them too.. Some brands of Dog and Chicken food also use them.. ya its a great cattle feed.

Well ask me how to make some one feel not so good about a food item … sorry guys that was not the intention.

Ok breaking the suspense .. Its nothing but our dearmost OATS which we consume as either Oatmeal or Rolled Oats.

Oats has great health benefits as we all know.. It can lower LDL the bad cholesterol, you know the one that seems to hurt hearts a lot. Oats contain more soluble fiber than any other grain, resulting in slower digestion and an extended sensation of fullness (courtesy Wiki). Now you know why people on Diet almost worship Oats like a GOD sent blessing.

Well you can read about the Cancer protecting properties of Oats here.

Eating Oatmeal or Oats porridge everyday …Phew that doesn’t sound fun . If its not easy for us to eat it everyday in the same form forget my toddler eating it everyday.Thats when Sneaky mom avatar comes out to rescue.

Truly speaking, I actually started experimenting with Oats couple of years back to sneak it into my husbands diet and now my son joined the Guinea Pig league �

This Oats Uthappam recipe I tried it first with leftover dosa batter it came out well.

Later had it at one of my friends place where she used oats with rice flour instead of dosa batter. It tasted great too. So even if you dont have Dosa batter you can still make these uthappams. Well you see I try to make it impossible to give excuses huh ya thats a qualification you will start to earn as a parent. Ok no more stories… here is the recipe for a QUICK FIX HEALTHY BREAKFAST and its TODDLER FRIENDLY TOO.

OATS UTHAPPAM

What’s needed:-

3/4 cup of Oats flour
3/4 cup of Rice flour or Dosa batter
1 medium sized onion chopped fine
2 green chillies chopped fine ( I skipped it for my lil ones sake)
a handful of Chopped corriander leaves
salt to taste
1 cup of butter milk if using Rice flour skip it for dosa batter
Water for the batter
Oil for shallow frying the Uthappams

How to’s

Mix all the Ingredients well
If you are using rice flour, add buttermilk and then water to make the batter,
If using dosa batter just add water if needed. Resulting batter should be thick and not runny in either cases.
Heat your tava or iron skillet, when its hot enough make thick dosas or Uthappams on a MEDIUM FLAME. When its cooked on one side (golden brown), flip it and cook the other side
Serve with your favourite chutney or sambar.

Thats it… You are ready with a healthy breakfast

Cheers,

Koki

Instant Raagi & Oats Idli

Koki — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 05:02:40 +0000

How can you include calcium in your daily diet? I am sure without wasting a second we will say Milk, Cheese and all dairy products that flashes in our mind. Of course this thought found its way into our brains, with every sip of milk we were made to drink right from our childhood.

Yes its a pretty good source of calcium, but there are studies which say that its not really the best source of calcium as it has high proteins and animal proteins interfere with calcium absorption.

No stop.. Do not panic.. you can still drink your milk (preferably organic and low fat ) and also eat proteins, but make sure you get plenty of plant based proteins and calcium.

You can find the list of plant based protein sources here and for most nutrients here

These list do not include Raagi , what a pity… Raagi is a wonderful source of calcium too and you can eat it wihtout being guilty of harming any other animal or its bones

I am trying to incorporate Raagi into our weekly food menu regularly.. When I try to make something with Raagi I will be kind of tensed about the reactions I would get on the big kid’s face (hihihi I mean DH) rather than the little boss. Little boss is used to eating raagi right from his baby food stage so he is not so fussy about Raagi if its soft and doesnt make his jaws work very hard . I added broken cashew nuts… you see there should be something of DH’s choice to make a deal.

This recipe sans Cashewnuts will definitely be a wonderful DIET RECIPE and a blessing for Diabetics too. BUT YOU NEED NOT BE ON DIET OR HAVE DIABETES TO EAT THIS …NO LAME EXCUSES either… Its so quick and healthy… You can make it faster than the Pizza delivery guys speed of delivering your ordered pizza. and I promise its 1000 times healthier than that Pizza you order

I should thank Usha for her wonderful Raagi idli recipe …It was amazing and the best part is all three of us liked it… I just altered the recipe slightly.

Here is the recipe for my records

INSTANT RAAGI & OATS IDLI

What’s needed:-

Dry ingredients-

1/2 cup cracked wheat powdered to rava consistency or wheat rava
1/2 cup quick oats powdered coarsely
1/2 cup ragi flour (finger millet flour)
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
3/4 tsp baking soda

For the seasoning

1 tsp oil
1 tsp chana dhal
1 tsp urad dhal
1 tsp mustard seeds
4 Indian or Thai variety green chillies cut fine (or to taste)
4 tsp broken cashew nuts
1 tsp chopped curry leaves

Wet ingredients

1.5 cups of low fat plain yogurt (curd/ dahi)

Other ingredients (optional)

handful cilantro cut fine
Grated carrots

How To’s:

Coarsely powder the cracked wheat to semolina or rava consistency
Mix all the dry ingredients together
Heat oil in a small pan, add the mustard and chana dal and fry for a few seconds.
Next add urad dal and after a few seconds add the green chillies, cashews and curry leaves. Once the cashews are toasty add this entire mixture to the flour mixture
Just before steaming the idlis add yogurt (almost 1:1 ratio with the flour mixture), carrots and cilantro.
Grease the idli plates and steam them in the Idli cooker for 7 to 8 minutes. Alternatively you can steam it in pressure cooker without the weight for the same time.
Cool for a few minutes and then take them out and serve with the chutney of your choice. We had ours with Onion chutney

How Not To’s :-

Do not make the oats and wheat into fine powder, it needs to be coarse
Do not burn the dals in the seasoning, just fry them in exactly the order mentioned.
Finally do not run away because its a RAGI RECIPE, even if you hate Ragi I bet you will love this recipe

As I always say eating healthy is not difficult if you have your heart in it. That Cashew peeking out of the Idli isn’t she inviting you to take a bite?

Cheers

Koki

Aapam & Coconut milk – The delicious duo

Koki — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:42:36 +0000

Can memories be delicious? Can memories be fragrant? I will always say (even if you wake me up in the middle of night) the answer is a big YES.

One such delicious, fragrant and nostalgic memory attacks me whenever I see that whole coconut in the grocery store.

My Mom has a special way to shower us with love… no not hugs or kisses or even words but through actions. She believed actions spoke more than words..She was remarkably good at it … Infact she had wheezing problems, joint pains and other pains that womenhood brings along but she still would wake up at 3 or 4 am in the morning and cook us delicious breakfast and lunch. Lunch would have atleast 2 or 3 vegetable curries. Weekends would be culinary treats.

When I left home for my graduation and stayed in the hostel …naturally I craved for home food. When I came home for a vacation, the menu will be filled with my favourites the topper in that list will be “AAPAM THENGAI PAAL” Oh GOD those spongy centers with crispy edges soaked in fresh coconut milk. It was a combination to die for…. Now when I am a mom I realise, more than what I did before, how difficult it is to be like my mom She was a super mom I love you amma
ok now back to the grocery store .. as the craving for AAPAM THENGAI PAAL sets its foot on my brain, one of the coconuts will travel home for sure. It will stay in the fridge till the planets and stars fall into the perfect position ..I mean the day comes when I don’t forget to soak the rice for aapam Bless my memory power

Next will be the battle between Vicky and the coconut. It’s quite a challenge you know staying here in an apartment.. He does not have the equipment required to break the coconut, so the rubber mallet is used alternatively. He cannot hit it on the floor or make lots of noise either. Anyway somehow he manages to break it every time .

Then comes the turn of the extracting the milk out of the coconut, make aapams ..soak them in the milk and eat them … Its HEAVEN on plate for me

Vicky loves to eat Aapams with Chicken curry, its good too.

Actually next to my mom I guess Nalas Aapa Kadai in Chennai make wonderful Aapams. When we were in Chennai we used to visit them regularly

hmm ok now to the recipe

AAPAM & COCONUT MILK

What’s needed:-

Aapam

1.5 Cups of Raw rice
0.5 cup of Parboiled rice
0.5 cup of Urad dal
1 Tbsp of Fenugreek seeds
a Pinch of baking soda
Salt to taste

Coconut milk

3/4 th of a fresh coconut – Grated or dice the flesh into small pieces ( have some mercy on the blender or the mixer grinder)
Water
a pinch of salt
Sugar to taste
2 cardamoms

How To’s

The Batter-

Wash and soak all the ingredients together for 2 to 3 hours.
Grind to a smooth batter, not very watery as we will add coconut milk to it later.
Take batter in a large bowl. Add 1 tsp salt and beat together.
Let it rest and ferment overnight or atleast for 8 hours

The Coconut Milk

Place the coconut flesh and equal amounts of water in a blender jar ( I use Preethi)… Add cardomoms and puree well
Pour the mixture into a strainer and press the pulp through the strainer, catching the milk in a bowl below.
Squeeze the leftover pulp to extract any leftover milk.
Reserve about 1/2 to 1 cup of the milk to add to the Aapam batter before cooking
Add sugar and salt to the rest of the milk.

Now comes the fun part – Making Aapams

Take the amount of batter that you will like to use and add the reserved coconut milk and baking soda to the batter and mix well. (The amount of batter can serve 4 to 5 people so decide accordingly, always add the milk and soda only when you are going to use the batter immediately)
Now heat the aapam kadai ( or even a normal one should do) just that the aapam take the shape of the kadai.
Slightly grease it if its not non-stick.
Pour a ladle of batter into center of the kadai, pick the kadai in your hands promptly, holding to the handles and give the whole kadai and good nice swirl
This will make the aapam batter spread, but newtons law plays the wonderful part..the batter on the sides tend to flow to the center.
The result you have crispy edges and a spongy center. Close the kadai and let the aapam cook. Now hats off to our ancestor for this wonderful recipe
You can be little creative and make Flower shaped or candy wrapper shape aapams tooo

I used to watch the aapam chef at NALAS AAPA KADAI with my eyes wide open in amazement, my GOD he makes aapam in 4 to 5 kadais simultaneously ..I am quite challenged when it comes to multitasking so no wonder my eyes open so wide

How to eat the aapam

Style 1 – Serve the coconut milk in a bowl , tear the aapam into small pieces dip in the milk and eat

Style 2- Pour the coconut milk on the aapam, while the spongy center soaks eat the crispy edges first and then eat the soaked center

Hope you will love this delicous duo too…Take a bite if you want

I am sending this terrific combo to “THE COMBO EVENT” at Pari’s Foodelicious blog

Cheers

Koki

Semiya Paayasam – Vermicelli Payasam

Koki — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:38:03 +0000

It was MAHASHIVARATRI yesterday. This day brings back fond memories of my late maternal Grandma.

I have seen and learnt about this wonderful day from her, she was an ardent devotee and very sincere with everyday pooja rituals and fasting. Let me share with you whatever my Grandma taught me

How is MAHASHIVARATRI celebrated:

MahaShivaratri or the Night of Shiva is celebrated with great fervour to honour Lord Shiva. Shiva temples have ritual worship and abhisekham every few hours on this day where LORD Shiva in Lingam form is bathed with milk,honey,yogurt,sugar and water. It is pure bliss to watch these abhisekams.

Devotees observed a day and night fast. A few fast with consumption of milk and fruits while I remember my Grandmother used to fast even without drinking water. They do not sleep on the night of MahaShivaratri, instead they keep chanting “OM NAMAHA SHIVAYA” throughout the night and singing in praise of the LORD, only early in the morning they break their fast with the prasadam offered. Observance of this fast and keeping awake during the night is believed to liberate us from this sinful cycle of birth and death as mortals.

Legends behind the Celebration:

( source http://www.mahashivratri.org/)

According to one of the most popular legends, Shivaratri marks the wedding day of Lord Shiva and Parvati.

According to another version of the legend, Goddess Parvati performed tapas and prayers on the auspicious moonless night of Shivaratri to ward off any evil that may befall her husband. Since then, womenfolk began the custom of praying for the well being of their husbands and sons on Shivaratri day. Unmarried women pray for a husband like Shiva, who is considered to be the ideal husband.

The legend of Shiva Linga or Lingodbhavamurthy is deeply related to Mahashivaratri. The legend narrates the story of vain search by Brahma and Vishnu to discover the Aadi (beginning) and the Antha (end) of Lord Shiva. The legend thus proves the supremacy of Lord Mahadeva over other Hindu Gods and explains why the lingam is believed to be one of the most potent emblems in Hindu ideals. Since it was on the 14th day in the dark fortnight of the month of Phalguna that Shiva first manifested himself in the form of a Linga, the day is extremely auspicious and is celebrated as Mahashivaratri - the grand night of Shiva.

Ok now to my story.. My husband’s work has been crazy for a long time now. Yesterday he had to work late (he is the reason behind this posts delay ) , nothing surprising..hmm So I just had to make a simple offering to Lord Shiva – Semiya Payasam. For me Shiva is always the most forgiving and wonderful. Legends say he accepted even wild boar a hunter offered him with pure devotion , so I am sure he accepted my payasam too He sure was double pleased with the way my 21 month old did pooja to him and offered him the Paayasam .. so pure and so innocent …

Now to the recipe

SEMIYA PAYASAM

What’s needed :-

A fistful of vermicelli
4 cups of milk
Sugar to taste
1/2 tsp of Cardamom powder (I used 2 cardamom pods roughly smashed as I didn’t have the powder)
2 tbsp Ghee
A fistful of cashewnuts n raisins

How To’s:-

Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a thick bottomed pan. Fry cashews in the ghee to a golden color, remove.
Add the raisins fry them until they are fluffy, remove.
Add the remaining ghee and fry the vermicelli to a golden brown. Add ½ of milk and boil, stir occasionally so that the milk doesnt get burnt a the bottom.
When the vermicelli has absorbed all the milk, add some more milk and allow the vermicelli to cook well.
When the vermicelli is fully cooked , add the sugar and remaining milk. Boil for some more time until the payasam reaches the desired consistency(thich but not too thick )
Add the cardamom powder. Remove from heat. Garnish with fried cashew nuts and raisins

How Not to’s

Do not be generous with adding the vermicelli, lesser the better as it literally drink the milk as it cools. If you add a lot then you will have to be more generous in adding milk to make it thinner everytime.
Do not forget to stir frequently else milk might burn.
Do not add the sugar before the vermicelli is cooked well as sugar retard its cooking.

How simple is that ?

May LORD SHIVA bless all of us.

Cheers,

Koki

Pressure Cooker Chicken Biriyani- Served with Love

Koki — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:32:05 +0000

My dear vegan and vegetarian friends /readers, sorry that this post is not for you. Couple of my friends and relatives have been requesting for Chicken recipes and somehow I kept delaying it… Reason I am not a big meat lover … Any given day I would prefer fruits and veggies over meat.

DH Vicky is a Chickenitarian…He will come to the kitchen all of a sudden and tell me ” You know what I smell the E-seth biryani .. and its so tempting”. Now this single sentence has a lot of inbuilt meaning to it… Yes it actually indicates that Chicken has not entered my kitchen for weeks… (This is the treatment that food items receive when they are not of high interest to the chef at home )Then I promise and console him that the coming weekend he will get his biriyani.

Well as promised I make the briyani and a couple of weeks later he will again come back with the same dialogue but probably a different chicken dish… his brain has an amazing capacity to store the flavours and smell of Chicken recipes and electronic gadgets.. names of people and other stuff don’t have space there.. space crunch in grey cells

Now if you are wondering what is E-seth briyani… In Chennai there is a place called “Tambaram” where I grew up and this place has a small briyani stall called E-seth. You must taste the briyani they serve, it is absolutely amazing.. My husband got hooked to the taste the day he tasted ..as if its a big thing for a Chicken lover hihihi

The briyanis we get in the Indian restaurants here oops they are not even half as good as the ones we get back home. India has countless number of briyani recipes… I keep telling my western friends that Indian restaurants here can never to do justice in representing the Indian cuisine..I don’t blame the restaurants because that’s an impossible task. For those of you who are wondering why I say so here is a geographical fact that could help you understand better and of course help me tell you how much we Indians are proud of MOTHER INDIA

“India – 31 states, 1618 languages, 6,400 castes, 6 religions, 6 ethnic groups, 29 major festivals, and One Country-INDIA ..As Mark Twain said India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most artistic materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only and as said by Albert Einstein “We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!” India is the best place one can be born to.”

I am and I will always be proud to be an Indian. Ok now back to our discussion on cuisine, each state has multiple regions and each region has different cuisines … So I can see you nodding your head in agreement with me. Perfect, now I can peacefully go back to our E-seth briyani.. I tried recreating their magic here with my pressure cooker style briyani. After several attempts I got one that is close to that taste and I stick to it because Vicky loves it His opinion matters to me the most when it comes to Chicken recipes

All those chefs out there who define briyani as rice and meat/veggie cooked in layers in dum, please forgive this lazy gal and her short cut pressure cooker biriyani. It saves fuel, time and effort and of course it tastes great so no worries ….Here is my recipe :-

PRESSURE COOKER CHICKEN BRIYANI ESETH STYLE

What’s needed :-

2 Lb Chicken
3 cups Basmati Rice
2 Cups Onion chopped
2 to 3 Cups chopped Tomatoes(depending on how tart your tomatoes are)
6 Thai green chillies Slit open into two
1/2 cup of mint leaves loosely packed
1/2 cup of cilantro chopped
2 Tsp of Ginger garlic paste
2.5 Tsp of Chilli powder
5 to 6 Tsp of Corriander powder
3 Tsp of salt
3 to 4 Tbsp of Oil
2 inches of cinnamon
4 Cloves
5 cardomom pods
1 bay leaf
1 cup of yogurt

For Marination

5 Tsp of lemon juice
1/2 Tsp of turmeric powder
1 Tsp chilli powder
1 Tsp Corriander powder
1 Tsp Ginger garlic paste
1/4 tsp Salt

How to’s:-

Wash and cut chicken(with or without bones) into small pieces and marinate for atleast half an hour using all ingredients listed for marination
In a Pressure cooker heat oil and fry bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves and cardomom
Now add onions and saute really well because fried onions really add to the taste of this dish.
When onions turn slightly brown and crispy add ginger garlic paste, along with chopped green chilli, chopped corrainder and mint leaves.
When the raw smell of the ginger garlic paste is gone, add tomatoes , marinated chicken along with turmeric powder, red chilli powder, corriander powder and salt.
Saute till you get a nice thick gravy.
Rinse 3 cups of Basmati rice and drain all water from it add this to the gravy to the rice. Also add 4 cups of water and 2 cups of diluted yogurt and mix well.
Allow 2 whistles and swtich off.
Now you can add little corrainder/cilantro leaves and mix carefully without breaking the rice.
I usually serve it hot with boiled eggs and cucumber raita. E-seth serves it with bhagara baingan which Vicky doesn’t like so why take pains

How NOT to’s:

Generally for dum biriyanis or layered biriyanis you should rinse and soak the rice for half an hour, for pressure cooker biriyanis skip the soaking else you will not have the grains separate in the end result. We dont like mushy pongal briyani.. I bet you would not either.
Always use the measuring cups for measuring rice and water for your biriyanis, eyeballing does not work all the time.

Note:

I have tried this biryani in Electric Rice cooker and turned out equally good

When Arundhuti of Gourmetaffairs announced the event “Serve with Love” the only dish that won in the running race between various favourite dishes of my sweetheart Vicky is the Chicken Biriyani. So this clear winner races off to “Serve with Love”

Cheers

Koki

Crispy crunchy Orange Almond cookies

Koki — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:11:02 +0000

There is an animation series “The super sleuths” which has my son’s favourite POOH and Tigger in it. There is an episode which is about “COOKIE TREE”. Finally they conclude there is no such thing as Cookie tree…..Pooh was correct it would be a great idea to have a cookie tree in the backyard … Silly old bear got me into this cookie craving:)

Reality hit me hard when there were no cookies left in the cookie jar. Living in an apartment I had no backyard first of all and of course no cookie tree. What is the option left …bake some cookies.

I was staring at my pantry and fridge alternatively thinking of what cookie to bake. I found a couple of organic oranges which had almost 3 to 4 stickers on them saying or should I say screaming that they were organic..as if one was not enough to convince me. Then I saw a packet of almonds and my brain suggested ” Orange Almond cookies” … my heart immediately fell in love with the idea.

When the cookies were baking my GOD the smell was heavenly and at last when we tasted it wow they were delicious… It was a midnight baking episode as usual.That’s the ideal time when I can be assured that I don’t have my toddler tugging my pajamas or running inside the kitchen to see how an oven works..

Coming back to the recipe Oranges add heavenly flavour to cookies…almonds are too good for your health and in addition I made the cookies with light whole wheat flour from King arthur brand…I guess it is made with spring wheat instead of regular wheat.. so its light. I am sure the recipe will work just fine even with the regular wheat flour or atta. I promise you that these cookies are totally guilt free..

Here is the recipe

CRISPY ORANGE ALMOND COOKIES

What’s needed:

1 cups blanched sliced almonds + a few more to top the cookies
2 cups light whole wheat flour (King Arthur brand)
1 tbsp flax seed meal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 tbsp oil
5 tbsp of sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
7 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt

How to’s:-

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Grind the remaining almonds to a coarse powder in a food processor or in small batches in a coffee grinder. (You can toast them slightly before grinding if you want to ..)
Transfer to a mixing bowl and sift in the flour,flaxseed meal, baking soda, and baking powder.
In another bowl, mix the oil and sugar well.
Add the egg next and beat well, then beat in the orange zest, juice, vanilla, and salt.
Stir in the flour-almond mixture.
Line the baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease them.
Pinch off a little dough at a time, roll into a ball and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
Flatten the balls to form cookies ( I made square cookies too ).
Press a sliced almond into the center of each cookie.
Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, or until deep golden brown. Please start watching them like a hawk after the first 15 minutes.
Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pans, then cool on a rack.

These cookies became very crunchy as they cooled off… so I thought they are the best tea time cookies. My son loves to dunk them in milk and munch them away to glory

It’s no more our tea time cookies its ALL TIME COOKIE… We eat it after meals as dessert too .. and eat one whenever we go to the kitchen

This is my entry for Sugar High Friday : Sweet comfort hosted by Kate at A Merrier World

I am all set to make my next batch of Orange Almond cookies..

Happy baking you all,

Koki

Kaanum Pongal and a feast

Koki — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:20:24 +0000

This is a post without any recipes but I promise a virtual feast for your eyes

Well as I told in my previous post that Kaanum Pongal is all about meeting and greeting people. Now how do you manage to meet and greet when you are stuck with bone chilling cold outside and snow covered upto the horizon??? Only way we could think was to invite people home.

After all it was not a bad idea. We decided to invite my husband’s co-workers, a selected few. How did we select a few? Well the criterion was simple “bachelor guys who will definitely miss Pongal or Sankranthi being far away from home“.

We decided we will give them a nice treat ..a PONGAL FEAST..Bachelors rejecting an invitation for homemade food is near to impossible.. so we received acceptance from all of them promptly.

As the theme was Pongal, we kept the menu strictly vegetarian and South Indian. The menu that we finalized was

Medhu vadai(appetizer)
Idli
Dosa
Uthappam
Arachu vitta sambar
Tomato Chutney
Coconut Chutney
Ven Pongal
Sakkari Pongal (Dessert)

My friend Krithika called up and said that the menu sounded like “MURUGAN IDLI KADAI” menu…now that is for sure a wonderful compliment… thanks gal:D

She said she wanted to come to Chicago from Dallas immediately… its not practical I know… That is the reason I decided to post the pictures ” a virtual treat for my best friend and other blogger friends ”

Enjoy the feast…

We cut the veggies the night before and packed them up neatly in the fridge.

I spent the next day in front of the stove happily…

All the cooking (except dosa) and the cleaning was complete before the guests arrived

That was quite an achievement for us with a toddler challenging us throughout…

Finally when the feast was declared open you should have seen the big grins on those faces..that’s the magic that idlis and dosas can do to tamilians away from home They were asking us we made our idli and dosa batter at home with such astonishment as if it were some rocket science…

Anyway it was a feast with a very happy ending … the guests and hosts were equally happy and satisfied.

After all we Indians believe in

“Athithi Devo Bhava” (Guests should be treated like GOD)…

I also want to request all my readers that if you can please donate for Haiti …

You can find more information at

Redcross

Jugalbandhi

Cheers,

Koki