Sunday, January 23, 2011

Mushroom Chettinad



Chettinad cuisine is one of the popular cuisines of Tamilnadu.

This recipe is adapted from Indobase website.I made some changes according to my taste.

Ingredients:

Button Mushroom - 2 lbs.Wipe the mushrooms with a wet paper towel.Cut the stalks and quarter the mushrooms.

Onion - 1 medium,chopped finely.

Tomato - 1 chopped

Tamarind paste - 1tsp

Mustard seeds - 2tsp

Curry leaves - a sprig

Turmeric powder - 1tsp

Dry red chillies - 2

Oil - 2tbsp

Salt to taste

Water - 1/2 cup

For the spice powder :

Channa Dal/Split Bengal Gram Dal - 1Tbsp

Whole Black pepper - 1Tbsp

Garam Masala - 1tsp

Dry roast the Dal and pepper and grind with garam masala into a fine powder.

Method:

Heat the oil in a pan.When hot add the mustard seeds.When they splutter,add the dry red chillies and curry leaves.

Then add the mushrooms,turmeric powder.

Saute till the mushrooms start to sweat.Close the lid and cook for about 5 minutes.

Then add the tamarind paste along with a half a cup of water and allow to boil for 5 minutes.

Add the required amount of salt.

Finally add the spice powder,mix and cook for 2 minutes.

Serve with roti or rice.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate chocolate chip muffins


I love her recipes because they are always never-let-you- down recipes

Its been a while since I baked  something.I was planning to bake something with nutella ,since a jar is just in my pantry being consumed by me a spoonful a day :)which is definitely not good for me but ended up making these.These muffins were moist and fluffy and chocolatey.

Ingredients:


All purpose muffins - 1 3/4 cups

Baking Powder - 2 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Cocoa powder - 2Tbsp

Semi sweet chocolate chips - 3/4 cup and few for sprinkling on top

Vegetable oil - 1/3 cup

Egg - 1

Milk - 1 cup

Vanilla essence - 2 tsp

Method :


Preheat the oven to 400 deg F.

Line the muffin tin with liners or spray with a nonstick spray.

In a medium bowl mix the all purpose flour,baking powder,baking soda,cocoa powder,semisweet chocolate chips.

In the 2 cup measuring jar,measure the milk,then oil.Add the egg and vanilla essence.

Mix everything thoroughly.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold.The mixture will be lumpy.

Fill the muffin liners up to 3/4 th.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the tester when inserted into the muffin comes out clean.

Store in airtight container when completely cool.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Cashew Mysore Pak


Wishing you a very happy and prosperous 2011!!

Since this is my first post of 2011,I wanted to start with a sweet note.I tried this sweet and came out very well.Ive made Mysore pak before.But this is the first time I tried cashew Mysore pak.This is a recipe of Mrs Chitra Viswanathan of Indusladies.Iam amazed by her cooking skills ranging from the traditional Tamil Brahmin recipes to International recipes.She is an inspiration to amateur cooks like me.

When my mom was here last year,she made this mysorepak and it came out perfect.So I mustered my courage to try out this new Mysore pak recipe.

Ingredients:


Powdered Cashew - 1 cup

Besan/Gram flour - 1/3 cup

Sugar - 1 3/4 cup

Ghee - 1 cup melted

Water - 2 cups


Method:


Fry the besan in 2 tsp of ghee .Mix the cashew powder and besan in melted ghee and stir till no lumps are found.

Boil the sugar and water to 1 string consistency.That is if you pour the syrup from a ladle,a string appears from the tip of the ladle.

Add the cashew-besan-ghee mixture into the sugar syrup.

Keep on stirring till it becomes a solid mass and it leaves the sides of the pan.



Pour the contents into a greased plate.When slightly cool,cut into desired shapes.

Store in airtight containers.