Egg puffs / South indian snack

 

 EGG - PUFFS 

Crispy Spicy Egg puffs with hot Tea 😋

College time nostalgia.

Things Needed:

Boiled Eggs - 6

Red Onions sliced - 2 cup

Ginger garlic finely chopped - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp 

Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp 

Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp

Fennel seeds, slightly crushed - 1/2 tsp

Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp

Oil

Salt 

one extra Egg 

Puff pastry sheets

Wheat flour 

Preparation Method:

Heat oil in a nonstick pan. Saute chopped ginger-garlic in it. As the rawness goes add sliced onions to it.

Saut till transparent. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder, garam masala, fennel seeds. Saute for 3 min.

Add tomato ketchup. Cook for further 5 min. 

Onion masala  mix is ready. 

Cut the boiled eggs into halves.

Roll out the puff pastry sheets using a rolling pin . Dust with wheat flour when necessary .

Cut the puff pastry sheets into squares. 

Place one spoon of onion mix in the middle and one egg half . Fold it from 4 sides into middle.

Beat one egg and brush over the folded puffs . This will add a glaze and crispiness to the egg puffs.

When all pieces are done. Bake it in over for 180 degrees till done.

Happy Vishu - Kerala Parippu Payasam

 

KERALA  CHERUPAYAR PARIPPU PAYASAM - DAL GHEER - Vishu Special

The first thing comes to mind thinking of Vishu is the memoy of fully bloomed Vishu konna Trees on the sideroads of my hometown. Don't know when I get to see them again 🌼🌼🌼

THINGS NEEDED:

Split mung bean (Green Gram Dal) - 250 gm

Coconut milk   - that from a coconut , 1 can ( 2 cup)

Jaggery/ Sarkkara -  1 & 1/2 cup grated  

Cardamom  - 1 tsp powdered

Sliced coconut  - 3 sp

Cashew nuts  - 3 sp

Dried grapes - 3sp

Dried ginger powder - 1/4 tsp

Ghee  - 4 sp

Utensils Needed: Deep Nonstick Pan to cook payasam, 

relative small vessel to cook payasam, Sieve.

PREPARATION METHOD:

Heat Ghee in a bottom deep nonstick pan, roast sliced coconut pieces in it 

by sauting continously and till they turn light brown.

  Set aside. 

Roast Cashews in it till they turn light brown. Set aside.

Fry dry grapes in it. Till they are balloon like, set aside.

Add mung dal to the pan. 

Roast them in the rest Ghee by sauting continiously.

Pour some water to cover it and cook by closing the lid.

Cook it in medium heat for 15 min. Then turn of the heat, mix it well, close with the lid and let it cook. 

Take a bottom deep Vessel. Pour some water to Jaggery and let it boil. When Jaggery is completely dissolved sieve it to remove impurities and set aside.

Pour melt Jaggery and half of the coconut milk to the broken wheat.

Add 1/2 tsp ground Cardamom & 1/4 tsp dried ginger powder.

Mix well. Close lid and cook in medium heat till done. 

Add rest of the coconut milk. Check for sweetness. 

In case if you need more sweetness melt more Jaggery and add into it.

Add rest 1/2 tsp ground Cardamom.

Toss in roasted Cashews, dry grapes, coconut pieces .

Mix well. 

Payasam is ready to be served.

 Serve with Banana, Boli and Pappadam.

Fruit Cheese Cake

 

OBST-KÄSE KUCHEN

Happy Easter to everyone. 😊 

This time we made fruit cheese cake. 

Its really easy to bake. Hope u all like it 😀

Things Needed: 

for the base layer: 😊

 Eggs - 2 

Sugar- 130gm 

Oil - 100 ml 

Orange juice - 100 ml 

Cacao powder - 2 tbsp 

All purpose flour - 150 gm 

Backing powder - 1 tsp 

cheese layer in the middle :  ;) 

Eggs -3

Sugar -100 gm 

Vanilla sugar - 1 pack 

Quark -500 gm 

Lemon juice - 1 tbsp 

Whipping cream -100ml 

Grieß - 1 1/2 tbsp 

3rd layer :  (fruit layer)

Fruits (Strawberry, Green & Red Grapes, Mandarines) 

Lemon juice - 1 tbsp 

Glaze (Tortenguss klar )- 1 packet 

Sugar - 2 tbsp 

some butter to grease the baking pan

Spring baking form - 28 cm 

Preparation Method: 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Apply butter to the sides of the spring form. Cover the base with backing paper. 

Beat the eggs & sugar in a vessel till thick cream . 

Add oil & orange juice. Mix. 

Mix together flour, backing powder & cacao powder seperately. Add this flour mix into the beaten egg-juice mix using a sieve in 2 batches. 

Pour this into the form. 

Bake for 15 min. 

For the 2nd layer, beat well 3 eggs with sugar & vanilla sugar. 

Add Quark & mix. Add lemon juice, cream & Grieß . Mix all together. 

Pour this mix over the baked cake. Bake again for another 25 min. until its done. 

After its cool down place the cut fruits on the cake. 

Make the glaze with lemonjuice, 2 tbsp sugar, water using the instructions written behind the glaze packet. Pour this over the strawberries .

Refrigerate it min. 2 hrs.

Nurukku Gothambu Pradhaman

 

 BROKEN WHEAT PRADHAMAN

Have a great Sunday Morning!

Payasam/Pradhaman is south indian delicacy. On weddings and ceremenies where Sadyas are served there will be atleast 3 Types of Pradhamans as dessert. Pradhaman with Jaggery is extremely time consuming to make.

Its sunday morning ... thought of sleeping a bit longer but I woke up to son's alarm, which was set at 7 O' clock 😕. He forgot to turn it off .. 

So I had a lot of time to make Upma, coconut chutney 

and this Pradhaman till the others wake up..😊

THINGS NEEDED:

Broken Wheat - 250 gm

Sago / Chowary - 1/2 cup

Coconut milk   - that from a coconut , 1 can ( 2 cup)

Jaggery/ Sarkkara -  1 & 1/2 cup grated  

Cardamom  - 1 tsp powdered

Sliced coconut  - 3 sp

Cashew nuts  - 3 sp

Dried grapes - 3sp

Dried ginger powder - 1/4 tsp

Ghee  - 4 sp

Utensils Needed: Deep Nonstick Pan to cook payasam, 

relative small vessel to cook payasam, Sieve.

PREPARATION METHOD:

Soak sago in water set aside.

Heat Ghee in a bottom deep nonstick pan, roast sliced coconut pieces in it 

by sauting continously and till they turn light brown.

  Set aside. 

Roast Cashews in it till they turn light brown. Set aside.

Fry dry grapes in it. Till they are balloon like, set aside.

Add broken wheat to the pan. 

Roast them in the rest Ghee by sauting continiously.

Pour some water to cover it and cook by closing the lid. Let it cook for 15 minutes.

Meantime cook Sago by adding lot of water and closing with a lid. 

Cook it in medium heat for 15 min. Then turn of the heat, mix it well, close with the lid and let it cook. 

Sago will be transparent when its done. Sieve and rinse the cooked sago pearls. Set aside.

Take a bottom deep Vessel. Pour some water to Jaggery and let it boil. When Jaggery is completely dissolved sieve it to remove impurities and set aside.

Pour melt Jaggery to the broken wheat.

Add half of the coconut milk. 

Add 1/2 tsp ground Cardamom & 1/4 tsp dried ginger powder.

Mix well. Close lid and cook in medium heat till done. 

Add rest of the coconut milk. Add cooked sago. Check for sweetness. 

In case if you need more sweetness melt more Jaggery and add into it.

Add rest 1/2 tsp ground Cardamom.

Toss in roasted Cashews, dry grapes, coconut pieces .

Mix well. 

Payasam is ready to be served.

 Serve with Banana.

Please check other Pradhaman Recipes from my Blog as well .. 

Palada Pradhaman 

Semiya/Vermicelli Pradhaman

Ada Pradhaman

Pazham Pradhaman

Dates Pradhaman

Mandarinen Käse Kuchen - Mandarin Cheesecake

Pretty easy to make . Tasty Dessert for the weekend ..Guten apetit!!

MANDARIN CHEESECAKE

THINGS NEEDED:

FOR BASE LAYER:

All purpose flour - 200gm

Backing powder - 1 tsp

Sugar - 75 gm

Soft butter - 75 gm

Egg - 1

FOR CREAM LAYER:

Quark/German cream cheese - 500 gm

Egg - 1

Sugar - 125 gm

Vanilla Pudding powder - 1 packet 

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Milk - 200 ml

Raps oil - 125 ml

Mandarins - 3 cans (drain the mandarins using a Sieb)

PREPARATION METHOD:

Knead the ingredients Flour, Backing powder, sugar, Egg, 

Soft butter for the base layer. 

Beat well with hands to make a soft dough.

Grease the backing pan with soft butter.

Spread over the base and sides of the backing pan with fingers.

Set aside. 

Beat well Quark(German cream cheese), Egg, sugar with a beating machine.

Add Vanilla pudding pulver, vanilla essence, Milk and Raps oil.

Beat till everything is well mixed uniformly..

Set aside half of the mandarins which are well in shape for later use.

Place the other half of the mandarins over the base layer. 

Pour the cream cheese over the mandarins and spread uniformly using a spatula.

Place rest of the mandarins which are set aside over the cream cheese.

You can arrange it to form like a butter fly. 

Bake over medium heat, 150 degrees for 45 minutes or till done.

After cooling down refrigerate the cake. 

Enjoy your weekend!!

Butter Chicken

BUTTER CHICKEN

North Indian Butter chicken is one of our favourite Indian side dish. Children loves it ... and it taste really good even without chilly powder...or you can use cashmiri chilly powder which is extremely red in color but don't have any spicy taste like the usual ones.

Butter chicken goes well with Basmati Reis, Naan, Salad & pappad.

Here goes my recipe,

THINGS NEEDED:

2 cup boneless chicken breasts, cut into cubes

1 medium onion finely chopped

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste 

1 cup tomato paste 

1 tablespoon garam masala

1 teaspoon paprika, adjust to taste

2 sp chopped Fenugreek leaves

10 cashew nuts / Almonds

1/2 cup heavy cream 

Salt

Butter

PREPARATION METHOD:

Marinate a day before : 

Take Chicken pieces in a bowl. Marinate adding 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste, 1 tsp garam masala, 5 tbsp Joghurt . Refreigerate overnight or 4 hours.

So start Cooking: 😊

Soak Cashew nuts in water.  Grind to make a paste

Heat a medium saucepan. Add 2 tbsp butter . After melting toss in the chopped onions and saute until lightly golden, about 3-4 minutes.

Add 1 tbsp ginger -garlic paste. Saute and cook till rawness goes.

Add the chicken and fry till the  chicken is half cooked & water is almost gone and start turning brown on sides.

Add tomato paste, Cashew nut paste and spices ( 1tsp Garam masala, fenugreek leaves). 

Close the lid & cook covered in medium heat for 15 min.

Before finishing add 1/2 cup cream and cook 5 more min.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves & serve with Basmati reis or Naan.

Happy First Advent!

 

The Xmas season has began. The first candle has been lit.. 💗

After a long time of stress & struggle hoping that this holiday season may be relaxing time for everyone, hopefully the year ahead may bring more luck and Happiness to all of us. 

I wish that there won't be much flight restrictions next year and hopefully i can visit my homeland..    let's see. 

So like every year we did a Christmas give away this week. 

Cooking for a mass could be really fun if you organise properly ..I got some help also this time so got everything done very fast.

Somehow giving away food this time was not so easy even when the food was packed properly, due to Covid restrictions. 

We were just about to give up. By God's grace it worked out.. 😊 

Its the same Recipe I use always... used this time mushrooms, Bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, 2 types of cheeses, Salami etc.

Kerala Special Chakka Ilayappam

Kerala Special Ilayappam

Ilayappam is a traditional South Indian Delicacy.  Its made with rice flour with a sweet filling steamed wrapped in leaves. Mostly Jaggery, coconut, cardamom & Jackfruit  are used to make fillings. And leaves with medicinal vaues are used for wrapping the ilayappam...we use Banana leaves, Jackfruit leaves, Indian Bay leaves (Therali), Poriyani ila (Macaranga peltata), Seelanthi leaf (Pacific rosewood) to make ilayappam. All these leaves have medicinal values & a unique aroma which makes this dish much special.

For my ilayappam I used Walnuttree leaves & turmeric leaves. Turmeric leaves are already used in Asian Cuisine, if cooked they smell just like Turmeric. Walnuts leaves has got a special aroma resembling that of Indian Bay leaves. Its been used for making Tea here. I used them for a couple of times by now...happy that I found them😊

There is one more alternative to the recipe. Instead of using Rice flour you can use whole wheat flour (Gothambu maavu). The appam will be more softer than the normal ones.

Instead of using Jackfruit you can also use small bananas .

So here goes my Recipe

Things needed : (For 15 pieces)

Rice flour - 2 cups   

Jaggery - 1/2 cup + 1/2 cup or as per need  

Grated coconut -  1/2 cup

Jackfruit - 1 cup chopped small

Cardamom powder - 2 tsp

Ghee/Oil 

A pinch of salt 

Preparation Method:

1) Preparing Rice Dough:

Take Rice flour in a deep bowl. Add 1 tsp cardamom, a pinch of salt  and 1/2 cup grated Jaggery to it.

Boil water in a vessel. Mix in this water to the Rice mixture. Pay attension to add enough amount of water (not too much or not too less  :)  ). 

Mix uniformly.  Set aside the prepared dough and keep it covered. 

2) Jaggery filling:

Take a bowl. Combine chopped Jackfruits, 1/2 cup Jaggery, 1/2 cup grated coconut & 1 tsp cardamom powder .

3) Leaves : 

Wash & drain the leaves ..here in my case I used Walnutleaves & Turmeric leaves.

 Dry them with a towel. 

Apply some oil to inner greeny side of the leaves using hand

4) Preparing the Appam: 

Take a leaf. Place 2 spoonful dough on the leave and spread the dough evenly using your finger tips.

Place 2 tbsp filling mixture on the flattened dough and spread like in picture.

Fold the leaf  in the middle. Seal the edge sides by pressing the dough.

Do similarly also with other leaves.

Place the leaves on a Steam cooker and steam it for 20 min. until done.

                                                                                                                                                                

Rainbow Lava Cake

 

Rainbow Lava Cake

My younger son wished to have this cake again for his Birthday party just like the last year. 

I didn't had also much time to think of a new Recipe..

Always happy to bake something for the kids.. 😊  

This time made it with 6 colours & different decorations .

Click here for the Rainbow Cake Recipe

Eintracht Frankfurt Cake

EINTRACHT FRANKFURT TORTE

Hello all..!!

2020#!$$§$ hmm ... It’s been quite a challenging time for everyone… I wish if  there would be something like a time machine so we can travel back to the time & stop that silly Chinese from eating that poor Pangolin ... I wish everything would be normal one day when we wake up in the morning…just like that.

Elder son turned 12 ..atfirst I didn't want to do anything during this pandamic... But children should be happy as long as they can. The situation can change anytime and God knows whether I will get a chance to do anything for my Children again :( So I decided to do something to lift up their spirit so they can remember me later 😊

They were really lonely and bored during the lockdown time and they were missing their friends a lot. Their friend’s situation were not different. So I  invited some friends of my elder son on his birthday. His friends Parents were also very happy about the idea.

This time the Birthday cake from that of his favourite football team from Frankfurt…” Eintracht Frankfurt” …although I had to take a lot of effort the result was good.. he & his friends were mega happy.…

 This goes to my son for being such a helping child & a caring loving brother. 

THINGS NEEDED:

Have to bake 3 layers for this cake. If you notice there is only a slight difference in ingredients between each layer.

Cake Layer1: Normal

4 Eggs

4 Sp sugar

1 tsp Backing powder

4 Sp All purpose flour

Vanilla flavour

Cake Layer2: Chocolate Base

4 Eggs

4 Sp sugar

1 tsp Backing powder

3 Sp All purpose flour & 2 tbsp Cacao powder

Vanilla flavour

 

Cake Layer3: Red Base

4 Eggs

4 Sp sugar

1 tsp Backing powder

4 Sp All purpose flour

Vanilla flavour

Red food color

 

For the chocolate cream:

300 ml Cream

500 g Dark chocolate chopped

 

For the Almond-cheese Cream:

100-120 ml Cream

125 g Mascarpone

50 g Sugar

Vanilla flavour

50-70 g Almonds, powdered

2 tsp cream stiffener

 

 

PREPARATION METHOD:

 

Preparing Layer1: Normal layer

Beat Eggs with sugar and vanilla flavor till the mix turns white & creamy.

Dry mix all purpose flour & backing powder in a bowl.

Add the flour to egg mix using a sieve in batches and each time mix uniformly till smooth.

Pour in a backing pan and spread uniformly using spatula. Bake for 15- 20 min in 180 degrees till done. Set it aside to cool.

Preparing Layer2: Chocolate base

The same preparation method as for Layer1, the only difference is the Cacao powder 😊

So I copy paste,

Beat Eggs with sugar and vanilla flavor till the mix turns white & creamy.

Dry mix all purpose flour, Cacao powder & backing powder in a bowl.

Add the flour to egg mix using a sieve in batches and each time mix uniformly till smooth.

Pour in a backing pan and spread uniformly using spatula. Bake for 15- 20 min in 180 degrees till done. Set it aside to cool.

Preparing Layer3: Red layer

The same preparation method as for Layer1, the only difference is the red food color😊

So I copy paste again 😊,

Beat Eggs with sugar and vanilla flavor till the mix turns white & creamy.

Dry mix all purpose flour & backing powder in a bowl.

Add the flour to egg mix using a sieve in batches & the red food color and each time mix uniformly till smooth.

Pour in a backing pan and spread uniformly using spatula. Bake for 15- 20 min in 180 degrees till done. Set it aside to cool.

 

Preparing Chocolate Cream:

Heat the Cream in a bowl till boil. Remove from heat and mix in the chopped chocolates. Mix till uniform.

Preparing the Almond Cheese Cream:

Beat the cream adding the cream stiffener. Mix in sugar & vanilla flavour .

Mix Mascarpone & Almond powder separately in a bowl.

Finally mix both mascarpone mix & beaten cream together & evenly mix with a spatula.

Refrigerate it.

  

Preparing the Cake :

Take each cake base ….Normal cake base, chocolate cake, red cake….and cut the cake in circles. 

Please refer the picture…From each cake you have to cut 2 circles. You can use Plates or bowls for measurement. Use the same Plate and bowl to cut all the cake layers.

Once you are done, make 3 different color combinations placing one layer from each color cake. 

When you combine cake layers like this, apply chocolate cream in between each circled layer in round..

Once a combination is done apply ½ of the Almond mascarpone cream on top of the layer. And place the next color combination on top of this Almond cream layer. Again apply next ½ of the mascarpone cream, place the third color combination. Apply Chocolate cream on the top & sides of the cake. Refrigerate the cake for atleast 4 hours.

For decoration I thinly rolled out a black fondant and spread over the cake. Used some water so that the fondant may stick to the cake. Cut the white fondant in circle and glue it to the black fondant with water. I cut the Eintracht Frankfurt’s symbol on a rolled out red fondant and glued it over the white fondant. I also used some other decorations.   

Ok ...cutting the Frankfurt symbol was bit challenging ...but it turned out to be ok...

Indian Trip

One of the good things which happened last year was my visit to India.

Mom recieved me.

Like always  she got me a plateful of banana fritters with a warm cup of tea as i reached home.

I love banana fritters made by mom. This type of banana is rare to find at the place where i am settled. So whenever i goes back my home in india i used to have it as my breakfast, after lunch snack, evening snack and dessert after dinner :)

No matter how many cakes you bake and eat

 nothing can beat the taste of sadya served on banana leaf.

 Even if i make it sometimes of my own, i won't get banana leaves like in India. 

we both made steamed Jackfruit ilayappam at home. 

We used this time Banana leaf, Poriyani leaves, Cashew leaves and Bay leaves.

Got some Jasmin and lotus flowers like always 😍

Sesame Laddu

SESAME LADDU

Its a very healthy recipe and yet really easy to make.

Mom used to make it often at home.

THINGS NEEDED

Sesame seeds - atleast 2 cup 

Jaggery

peanuts or cashew nuts chopped

PREPARATION METHOD

Roast the Sesame seeds in a pan by sauting continously in medium flame. 

The sesame seeds will start to splutter . Continue for 2 min. 

Set aside to cool down. 

Grind well in a mixer adding enough Jaggery.

Make balls adding choped peanuts or cashew nuts. 

Happy Holidays

Had a very peaceful time at home this holiday season. 

Spent most of the time hanging at home, doing all the odd chores, cleaning, doing laundry, 

cooking favourite dishes, playing with kids and sometimes enjoying the silent moments ... 

This is what I missed the most the whole year.

Holiday Snacks Recipe 1 : 

SESAME LADDU

Holiday Snacks Recipe 2 : 

ULLI VADA - ONION PAKORA

 Holiday Snacks Recipe 3 :

BREAD BONDA