If you love eating, you can surely be a good cook, but to be an excellent one, you should have good critics at home. For that I owe to my husband and my children.

I dedicate this blog to the young ladies - "the starters".

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Vattayappam



Ingredients

White raw rice - 2 cups
(sona masuri rice)
water to soak rice
Scoop out tender coconut - 1
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
Yeast - ¾ tsp
Sugar - 2 cups
Cardamom - 6
Sultanas -

Preparation

Wash rice twice and then
soak rice in warm water for 8 hrs.
After 8 hrs, grind the rice using the same water,
into a fine batter.

Scoop out tender coconut and blend it into a
fine paste separately.
Now pour the coconut paste into the rice batter and
run the grinder for 5 more minutes.

In a tumbler take ¼ glass of warm water and
mix in yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar. Keep in a warm
place to rise.
In a vessel pour 1 ½ glass of water and 2 tbsp rice flour.
Keep this on low flame and keep on stirring till the
mixture gets thick yet has a loose consistency.

Combine yeast, sugar, thickened rice flour with
the batter and keep it to rise for 8 hrs.
After the batter has doubled add salt, cardamom powder,
sultanas pour in the desired moulds and steam for 20 minutes.

Vattayappam is a sweet dish made on Christmas and Easter.
Though a sweet dish it goes well with spicy motton curry.

In olden days during christmas, in Kerala
all types of appams were made-
steamed, sweet, savoury, deep fried
vattayappam,vellayappam,achappam, kuzhalappam, chippappam,
avulosundda and many more regional recipes.
But cake baking was never part of home cooking.




Tandoori Chicken

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Veg Fritters




Ingredients

Grated bottle gourd - ½ kg
Chopped coriander leaves - 1 hand full
Green chillies - 2
Mint leaves - 5
Crushed pepper -1tsp
Chik pea flour (besan) - 1 cup
Egg - 1
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Salt --


Preparation

Mix all the ingredients together just before frying.
Do not keep the mix for long time .
Shallow fry it immediately.
Serve with tomato sauce.
Vegetables like carrots, spinach,
spring onions can be used.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Merry Christmas 2011





Sweet and happy christmas to all.
As always my christmas cake is ready in advance
to be couriered to our daughters.
This year Merin is at home for christmas and
Leah will be joining us in january.
Both with real precious gift from God.

This year's dry fruits used in the christmas cake
was soaked in home made wine rather than in rum or brandy.
The recipe is featured before.