Bread Pudding

Yet another year is passing off the lane of life and  we all are getting ready to welcome a new year with mixed emotions.  A New year always brings in nostalgic memories of the bygone days, sadness of losing a portion of your life...on one hand...,excitement and anticipations about the coming days..on the other.

All home-cooks out there must be busy planning for the new-year eve dinner. Usually when making a feast I confront with a problem..and I'm sure , if not all ..at least a few  others too go through the same situation. I spend enormous time planning and preparing starters and main course dishes..and end up in making very simple dessert.  And most likely the guests also hardly enjoy an elaborate dessert after a heavy dinner. 
Here I'm with simple bread pudding recipe which u can prepare without much effort. And usually bread puddings impress me for a special reason . You don't have to ransack the store shelves reading names that look like Greek for the ingredients. Instead just  pull them out of your refrigerator.


Ingredients
1.  White Bread slices- 5

2. Whole milk- 2 cups

3. Butter-  1/2 cup

4 eggs -three

5 vanilla extract- 1 tea spoon

6. cinnamon powder - 1 teaspoon
7 raisins- 1/2 cup.
8.sugar- 3/4 cup
9. salt- a pinch






Method:
1. remove the crust of the bread slices and keep aside.
2. heat milk in a pan over low flame. need not boil.
3. add butter to it and stir slowly until the butter melts.
4. take it off the stove top and put aside to cool.

5. heat the oven at 300 dg and prepare a baking dish by brushing some butter or oil at the bottom.
6. mix well the eggs, sugar ,salt and vanilla using an electric mixer or beating thoroughly.
7. when the milk is luke warm add the beaten egg in to it and stir well.
8. cut the bread slices in to medium squares and arrange them at the bottom of the baking dish.

9. sprinkle 1/2teaspoon of cinnamon powder over the bread pieces.
10. now evenly distribute the raisins over the bread pieces.

11. pour down the milk- mixture neatly over the bread.
12. make sure all the bread pieces are fully immersed in the  milk sauce.

13. sprinkle the remaining cinnamon powder.
14. bake for 40- 50 minutes or until the fork inserted in the middle comes out neatly.

Now the bread pudding is ready. Serve it hot...very apt for a chilly winter night.
A very HAPPY NEWYEAR to all!!!

Oatmeal cookies

 These days we are realizing more and ,more of the health benefits of oats. A bowl of oats along with a portion of blueberries is said to be the perfect way to begin a day with. Many of us might have already taken up the "Quaker oats challenge" to keep your heart healthy. Oats are a significant source of both soluble and insoluble fiber. Its not only good for your heart but also possess cancer-fighting properties. Oatmeal is also a friend of those who are into losing weight. Oatmeal is rich in vitamin B which is significant for the brain and nervous system to function properly. If that is the case shouldn't we  include oats in our daily diet?

Now you guessed it right, I"m her with an Oatmeal recipe, to make it clear an oatmeal-cookies recipe. Children are lovers of cookies. Not only children we grown-ups also don't mind having cookies regularly or at least occasionally.  And the store shelves are glutted with wide variety of cookies in all shapes and flavours to attract the customers. But always its much healthier and also highly gratifying to make your own cookies for your kids and guests. In a way I'm sorry that my little girl doesn't want a bite of it, otherwise I could have made more and more cookies and cakes for the sheer fun of baking. On the other hand I"m happy that she doesn't have a sweet tooth, that she simply rejects ice-creams and chocolates and asks for green peas or broccoli.

Usually most cookies are made of white flour(all purpose flower or maida) Even in oats cookies we add a little bit of white flour to hold the oatmeal together. I would say this recipe is much healthier because It is made with oats and whole-wheat flour or Atta.  I think our Indian Atta would make mixing easier than whole-wheat flour that u get in Canadian stores. And yet another surprise is the adding of jaggary.

Ingredients

1. Quaker oats- 3 cups
2. Walnut- 1/2 cup.
3. Raisin- 1/2 cup.
4.  Atta- 3/4 cup.
5. Baking soda- 1 tea.sp.
6. Sugar- 1/2 cup.
7. Jaggary(crushed and lightly packed)- 1 cup
8. Butter- 1/2 cup.
9. Egg- one large
10. Vanilla essence- 2 tea.sp.
11. Cinnamon powder- 1 tea.sp.
12. Water- 1/4 cup.

Method.

1. Sift well flour and baking soda using a sieve.

2. In a heated pan dry roast the walnuts for a minute stirring continuously. Now chop them in to small pieces.

3. In a mixing bowl add butter, sugar, jaggary, egg one by one and thoroughly mix using an electric mixer.

4. Now add up the flavourings and mix well.

   

5.  When all wet ingredients are blended smoothly now its the turn of the flour mix. Add the sieved flour little by little.

6. Mix in Oatmeal  using your hand by sprinkling water as needed.

7.  Combine nuts and  raisins in to the mixture.

8. Roll the oatmeal mix in to equal sized balls in the size of a large lemon.

9. Prepare a baking tray by brushing oil and dusting with flour.

10. Arrange the balls on the tray with space between each ball.

11. Bake as it is, if u need moist cookies. Flat the balls with fork for crunchy cookies. I prefer crunchy ones:)

12. Bake the cookies in a pre-heated oven in 350 deg for 20-25 minutes

Now its time to surprise your family!!!

Green Pepper Chicken

I have to say what I said in the earlier post, ( that I am  the only cook in my house )  is only partially true. These days I get not many chance to cook chicken, especially Kerala's very own chicken curry. Because Sterly has taken up the task of making  chicken curry. This practice all got started to pamper his pregnant wife...but don't misunderstand ..here pampering does not mean making dishes  which I was craving for but sympathetically sparing me from the toil of cooking something that I wouldn't eat.. He cooks chicken and only chicken because he is a die hard fan of chicken.Once upon a time  I  too had been but gave up eating poultry and meat many years back. So I haven't got a chance to taste his recipe ..yes..of course he had fried fishes n made omelets occasionally in the past ...but nowdays i don't get any. How ever if chicken has to take a form other than usual chicken curry I am sure to lay my hands on it.

Thus last week I decided to surprise my hubby by making something different than usual and pulled out the single boneless thigh of chicken that was left in the freezer. I had some green peppers also which i had to use somewhere . But I didn't want to go for Chinese since we have had enough of it the previous week. Hence this green pepper chicken recipe was cooked up in my mind instantly  and chicken was made accordingly. For this chicken is cooked and striped off in to long thin strands. When a small girl I loved to watch Amma tearing  off cooked chicken so as to add up with the mixed  fried rice and I used to even plead to do it myself. When ever she let me do  I simply felt so happy thinking I have made a significant contribution in the making of fried rice. 

My hubby loved my Green pepper chicken but I have no idea how other chicken lovers would count it.

please try this out and let me know how you liked it.

Ingredients 

1. onion- 1 small  thinly  sliced
2. green pepper - 1( medium) cut in to long thin slices
3. ginger chopped- 1 tb.sp 
4. garlic chopped- 1 tb.sp
5. black pepper powder- 1 tb.sp
6. green chilli- 2
7. coriander powder- 1.1/2 tb.sp
8. vinegar- 1 tb.sp
9. curry leaves- 10
10. salt- as required

11. boneless chicken  cooked and striped in to long strands - 2 cups. (if u are using chicken  with bones simply discard the bones)

oil- as required

Method

1. Heat a thick bottomed pan on the stove. pour some oil and when sufficiently hot  stir fry onions, ginger and garlic until they turn golden brown.

2.  Add  coriander powder, pepper powder, salt and vinegar one by one.

3. As the spices gets cooked up add green pepper and chicken. stir well. close the lid for 5 minutes.

4. Now add chillies and curry leaves....stir fry on high flame until the chicken is dry.

5. Garnish with tomatoes.

Green pepper chicken

note-  while cooking the chicken add some salt and pepper. if u have any gravy  left pour it in to the pan along with the green peppers n chicken strands, ie, during the 3rd step.

Tomato Aviyal and Chutney

Green Tomato Aviyal

A couple of weeks ago, got some fresh green tomatoes straight from a friend's garden. I was totally new to the idea of cooking green tomatoes. So it lay there in my fridge unattended for days. Finally I made up my mind to do something about it as it  would be unpardonable and even disgraceful to let those close to spotless garden fresh tomatoes to spoil. As I took them out of the refrigerator several ideas flashed in to my mind. Why not I add the raw tomatoes to fish curry instead of green mangoes? Making a "Thakkali Thiyyal" is also a good thought. But preparing  thiyyal demands a lot of time. It involves roasting and grinding of coconut scrapes..for which I was not ready, not that I was pressed for time but out of sheer laziness. After a long thought I decided upon Pachathakkali Aviyal, an aviyal with raw tomatoes.

Aviyal has always been my favorite except for a short span of time, that was when my mom decided to stick her ever sick child to naturopathic cure system . At  Balya hospital lunch was always the same, the unpalatable brown rice that almost looked like a pudding and an Aviyal which was always a cold  lump of vegetables devoid of all flavors. How could someone ever cook Aviyal that way?

All other Aviyals I have had, Amma's delicious Aviyal, and those unbelievably dry Aviyal served   during feasts , have satisfied my palate.

To my relief the raw tomato aviyal came out well. Unlike the real Aviyal this one is sour, hence adding up of yogurt or tamarind at the final stage is totally avoidable.

                                                          Ingredients

1. Green tomatoes- 3-4 (cut in to cubes)

2. onion  - 1/2 (sliced)
3. Green chillies- 4
4. ginger - 1 small piece
 5. grated coconut - 3\4 cup
6. cumin seeds- 1 teaspoon
6. curry leaves - 7-8
 7. turmeric powder- 1/2 teaspoon
8.coconut oil- 1 1/2 tb.sp
9. salt- as required

Method

1. In a cooking vessel mix tomatoes and onion with salt and turmeric powder. Add some water that is required to cook the vegetables. place on the stove covering with a lid.

2. Coarsely grind grated coconut, cumin seeds, green chillies and ginger using a grinder.

3. When tomatoes are cooked well add the ground coconut in to it. Mix well with a spatula. Again cover it with the lid for five minutes at medium heat.

4. Once the aviyal is cooked put off the flame and add coconut oil and curry leaves. close the lid for two minutes...and now you open to breath in the mouth watering aroma of Aviyal

Tomato Chutney

This Thakkali Chutney was introduced to our breakfast table by Valli many years back. Valli,our long time house maid  and now the house manager is from Madurai, Tamilnadu. Valli's real name is Saundravalli and for some reason she is ashamed of the fact and insists on calling her Valli. Years back when she came in to assist Amma with house hold chores she was almost ignorant of cooking still she had the recipe of this bewitching thakkali chutney in her pocket. The old story has changed remarkably. Valli is now popular as a wonderful cook and when I fly back on holidays to a mother-less home with the yearning to take a break from my cooking( if you are the sole member in your family who would cook you would be for certain craving to relax and eat what somebody else' cooks in spite of  how good you are at cooking) I can simply sit back enjoying valli's dishes all made according to our family's tradition.

Since Valli presented her tomato chutney it has been a must with dosa. I even loved it with steaming rice and hence Amma many a time put it in to my lunch box during  college days.


 Ingredients

1. Ripe Tomatoes - 2 large

2. Shallots- 4 small

3.Garlic - 4-5

4. Green chilli- 4 ( if not a fan of hot chutney reduce the quantity)

5.Corriander leaves chopped- 1/2 cup.

6. Chilly powder( preferably Kashmiri chilly powder to  give  it  the red hue)- 1 tb sp

7. Turmeric powder- 1/2 teaspoon.

8. Salt - as required

9.Fennel seeds- 1 tea spoon

10. Mustard seeds- I tea spoon

11. Dry red chilly- 2 cut in to halves

12. Curry leaves-  5-6

13. Oil - 2 tb.sp

Method

Pour 1 tb.sp of oil in to a heated pan. Put fennel seeds in to it.  When the fennel seeds pop up add  those ingredients from 1 to5 one by one and fry for a minute. Now add salt, turmeric powder and chilly powder. Close the pan with a lid until tomatoes and spices are cooked well.  Remove the pan from the stove and let it cool. When cooled grind it smoothly in to a paste.

set aside to cool

Place a small pan on the stove. Heat 1 tb.sp of oil. Add mustard seeds and as it splutters add dry chillies and curry leaves. Fry until they are crispy. Pour this on to the chutney.



Tomato Chutney



AVOCADO SHAKE AND CHUTNEY

As a  little girl, and even after growing up I hated milk by all means. My dislike for milk even went to the extend of disliking  "pal payasam"  for which most of the children would   fall head over heels. Ice creams were okay..because too much of cold can take away that milky milky taste. I ate  vanilla ice creams when ever my Amma made them at home..though I preferred chocolate flavours. How ever me and my sister never feasted over ice creams and chocolates like other kids did.  Later on ice creams and any thing and everything cold became a big 'NO NO' in my life owing  to some health issues. But I could easily give them up without much regret.

As every child is supposed to take at the least a glass  of milk daily ( I still wonder if that is true) my Amma worked hard to spring up in my mind  a little liking for milk by flavoring it with different things. Complan or Horlics could do the magic for a while. But again familiarity breeds contempt. Banana shakes and mango shakes were the major hits. Once Acha bought me a bottle of rose essence and for days I drank rose milk without much whining.


My little girl until now has no dislike for milk, even though it is not one of her favorites. Might be she is too small for an attitude, of course i know these little things carry an attitude from the very first day they are born...., the chances  are not remote that she might change her preferences sooner or  later. For now she can drink milk with no flavorings and added sugar with a little singing or a story or a YouTube video for encouragement. She takes plain milk in the night before bed...and a milk shake as a snack sandwiched between breakfast and lunch. 

In her case, this is not to make the milk tastier but to include  variety of  fruits  in her diet because  mostly I run out of patience when I make her eat  tiny pieces of fruits by herself.  Most of them go on the table, floor, on her frock ..anywhere and everywhere other than her mouth making 'modern arts " in variety of colours. I know all toddlers do this and all the mothers go mad too.


The most common shakes I make for her are with strawberries, blackberries and avocados. I know there are many kids out there who dislike milk and who make milk time a battle.  My sister's little girl is one of the strongest opposers of milk .There are also others  who just won't take any fruit. nevertheless  we moms have to continue to find out new recipes  that would finally appeal to the little tongues.  Unfortunately some mothers  easily fall prey to kids tantrums and let them eat only what they want..mostly junk foods. Motherhood is of course an art by itself. My Amma was always there experimenting on food to make non-appealing ones appealing . She made it a point that we ate more of veggies and fruits, cereals and dry beans  than junk stuff. So we grew up with an appetite different from most of our contemporaries.A lifetime of healthy eating habits  can be established in early childhood..provided we  mamas put in  a little effort. Pls check out  my avocado shake recipe, the richest of all, for all those  stubborn little milk-haters.

 What are Avocados?

 Before going to the recipe  let me share with you something about avocados, probably most of which you already know.

I came across this wonderful fruit for the first time in a Canadian shop. I don't know if avocados are cultivated and eaten in any part of India. May be you could pick them up from city supermarkets that sell imported fruits.



avocado



The taste of green and buttery avocados always reminds me of raw cashew nuts with which my granny used to make curry. I preferred the uncooked cashews than the cooked ones in the  curry.  Unlike avocados they were tender and crunchy. But both of them tastes the same. Avocado's buttery texture can be compared to Malayalis' all time favorite 'ATHA CHAKKA'(custard apple) .Avocados, even when ripe are not sugary. Its more like a vegetable than a fruit.

Avocado, otherwise called an alligator pear, is a very healthy food choice for kids. Avocado is the second fattiest fruit ,the  first being olives. But there is no room for worry ,adults also can have them in plenty because they are very rich in monounsaturated fat.  Experts  say it has the ability to lower bad cholesterol, and also can control blood sugar level.  Avocados are very high in minerals and vitamins.Avocados are rich in fiber and folic acid. They contains a lot of potassium, much more than in bananas. They are also good source of anti-oxidants. Consuming avocados give a feeling of fullness which is very good to control over eating.

AVOCADO SHAKE

Now grab an avocado and shake it with milk for your little ones

                                          Ingredients

 

1.avocado- 1/2 sliced in to small pieces

2..cold milk- 3/4  to 1 cup

honey - 1 table spoon ( if you are not scared of allergic reactions)



avocado shake



 How to make



 blend it all in a blender. pour it out to a glass

 drink sip by sip.

AVOCADO CHUTNEY

if you are bored with the same mint chutney try out this green chutney

Ingredients

avocado- 1/2  sliced

green chillies- 1-2

sugar -  3/4 teaspoon

salt- as per taste

lemon juice- a squeeze or

amjur( dried mango powder)-  1teaspoon

Preparation

grind all the ingredients well in to a smooth paste . You can either  use it as a chutney with Indian snacks or a dip for potato fries.

avocado chutney

There is no love sincerer than the love of food.  ~George Bernard Shaw