Dear Readers!!

Welcome to my world of cuisine.  Here, i have posted my experimental recipes as well as the ones i learnt  from friends/relatives/media and all of them are tasted n tested. The pictures on this site are all my original ones straight from my camera and shall indicate the source if otherwise. Do explore my blog and please hit that “leave a comment” button and record your thoughts n feedback which would be highly encouraging and motivating for me to post more recipes.

Thanks for exploring Azee’s Kitchen and stay tuned for more recipes!!

Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting – 2nd Anniversary of Azee’s Kitchen Blog

On this occassion, i am glad to thank all the readers of this blog…yes…i could not concentrate much in my blog over the past 1 year but still i am overwhelmed by the fact that the visitors list to the blog is going to reach 50,000 pretty soon….i sincerely hope to contribute more in the coming year, InshaAllah.

Thank you!!

Note:  Will post the final pic and the recipe later.

Parippu Payasam – A Rapturous Dessert with Jaggery

This is our traditional dessert and ofcourse a keralite’s blissful dessert. This dish reminds me of my mom because she prepares this yummy payasam on all important occassions and it’s a must in our house whenever we (her children) visit our house. Hmm…now, in her place, i made this payasam for one such important occasions in our home and everyone loved it.

 

Ingredients :

• Green gram dal (Moongh Dal) – 3/4 cup
• Water – 1 1/2 cups
• Jaggery (powered) - 1- 1 1/2 cups
• Cardamoms – 4-5
• A few cashewnuts broken into pieces
• Milk – 1 1/2 cups
• A few raisons
• Small piece coconut, cut into tiny pieces – 1
• Ghee – 1 tbsp

Method :
1.  Boil dal to a light brown colour. Remove, cool : wash.
2.  Add water, set to boil. When Dal has cooked, mash thoroughly.
3.  Add jaggery and continue to cook till jaggery has dissolved.
4.  Add milk, boil further for 2-3 minutes, remove from fire.
5.  heat ghee, fry cashew nut pieces, coconut pieces and raisons, each separately. Add cardamom powder, along with camphor, mix all of it.

Variations :
1.  This payasam can be prepared with coconut milk also. For this, use gratings of half the coconut and if desired 1/2 cup milk as well.
2.  Take out first milk, then second, and third milk.
3.  Add to the dal the third milk (add some water if the quantity is not sufficient), set to boil, when done, mash thoroughly.
4.  Add second milk and jaggery, cook till done.
5.  Add first milk, boil just once and remove from fire.
6.  Add ordinary milk and garnish as before.

Tiramisu – A simple version

Tiramsu is an elegant and famous Italian dessert of sponge cake soaked with coffee and sandwiched with fresh mixture of mascorpone cheese and whipped cream. Traditional tiramisu recipe calls for ladyfingers, that have been soaked in coffee and spirits, and layers with a rich custard but i have used normal sponge cake which has been dipped in thick coffee decotion.

In a tall glass, arrange the sponge cake dipped in strong coffee decotion. For the cream, i used cream cheese whipped with fresh whipping cream and icing sugar. Take equal portion or vary the portions of each and whip it well. Pour the cream over the arranged cakes and again place some sponge cakes, pour the cream again and sprinkle cocoa powder on top. Thats it your yummy exotic italian dessert is ready.

Tender Coconut Souffle

This is an authentic dessert in so called God’s own country where the coconuts are grown in plenty.  This refreshing, healthy and cool dessert gives a great soothing feeling to the stomach. This dessert was made by my SIL(no.1) but the recipe provided here is from another source (http://www.kerala-recipe.com). I shall post the recipe from her later on.

I just took a portion of the souffle from her to capture the picture of it  in my own style to update in my blog ;-) as i really felt that this dish would be liked by all the viewers… Am i right???

Ingredients

•     Tender coconut 1 no
•     Sugar 80 gms
•     Milk 300 ml
•     Gelatine 10 gms
•     Egg – white 2 nos
•     Coconut extract 25 ml
•     Rose essence 2 drops
•     Milk cream 10 ml
•     Corn flour 10 gms

Method

•     Mix cream sugar with half the egg white and corn flour.
•     Add boiled milk gradually.
•     Cook in double boiler until its thick.
•     Add gelatine dissolved in warm water, strain & cool.
•     Add coconut extract, essence, cream, tender coconut and beaten egg whites.
•     Pour into a dish and refrigerate.

Choco Cup Cakes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• confectioner’s sugar
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

Method

• Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
• Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
• Combine flour,cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt.
• Beat the next six ingredients until combined, about 1 min.
• Stir in flour mixture alternately with milk until just combined. Pour batter into muffin cups.
• Bake 22 – 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
• Remove cupcakes from pan; cool on wire rack 30 min.

Cheese Balls

 

Ingredients

For the dough:

•     1/2 cup mashed potato(boiled)
•     3 tbsp breadcrumbs
•     1 tbsp corn flour
•     1 tbsp maida flour
•     1 tsp salt
•     3tbsp Mozzarella Cheese(grated)

For the stuffing:

•     3 tbsp Mozzarella Cheese(grated)
•     1 tbsp mashed potato
•     1 green chilli-finely chopped
•     1/2 tsp garam masala powder
•     1/2 tsp cumin seeds
•     few coriander seeds
•     1/4 tsp salt
•     Oil for deep-frying

Directions

1. Mix the ingredients mentioned in dough part well and knead this into a dough for 6-7 mins. Spread that into thick and small puris of round shape. U will get 6-8 puris depending upon the size of the puris.
2. Mix the ingredients in the stuffing part well and place 2 tsp cheese-potato stuffing on the spread puri and seal the edges and shape them into round balls.
3. Heat oil in a kadai and deep-fry the potato-cheese balls till it turns golden brown in colour.
4. Serve this potato-cheeseballs hot with ketchup of ur choice.

Hummus – A healthy dip

The recipe can be found in my other blog here Hummus

Cheese Cake

Cheesecake is a dessert consisting of a topping made of soft, fresh cream cheese, usually on a crust or base made from biscuit. They may be baked or unbaked.

This rich dessert will not go missed among the list of favorite dessert of many. My friends and family are a great fan of this creamy dessert and so are my all relatives to whomsoever i had served this. Try it for yourself and i am sure it will become a favorite in your home too

Ingredients

• Biscuits – 250 g, crumbled
• Butter – 100 g, melted
• Cream cheese – 200 g
• Sweetened Condensed Milk – 397 g
• Cream – 170 g
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon gelatine powder -10 g, dissolved in 60 ml of hot water.

Method

• Combine biscuit and butter. Press mixture into a bottom loose cake tin. Place in fridge for 10 minutes.
• Using a food processor, beat cream cheese,Sweetened Condensed Milk ,Cream , vanilla powder and lemon juice until smooth.
• Stir the melted gelatin into the cream cheese mixture and spoon over the biscuit then place in fridge for 2-3 hours until completely set.

Puttu – A Keralite’s Ecstatic Breakfast

Puttu  is a South Indian and Sri Lankan breakfast dish of steamed cylinders (or coconut shells) of ground rice layered with coconut. It is popular in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as in areas of Sri Lanka, where it is also known as pittu. Puttu is served with side dishes such as chickpea curry or banana. Apart from this, our traditional way of serving puttu includes steamed green gram and fried papads.

You could use either the readymade puttu powder (available in all supermarkets) or you can make the powder at home as below.

Ingredients

* 2 cups of raw rice
* 1 cup of grated coconut
* salt to taste

Method:

Soak the rice for 2- 3 hours and drain the water. Spread the rice in a paper and allow it to dry for 3-4 minutes see that it is a little wet and not fully dry. Grind the dried raw rice to a fine powder in a mixie.

Fry the rice flour in a pan, stir it continuously until you get the aroma of the rice, remove the flour, bring down to cool. Mix salt in water and sprinke water little by little to the rice flour and mix it throughly. The rice flour should be wet enough, keep stirring it with your fingers as it should remain in a powdered form and do not mould it in to a dough.

If you are using a puttu maker, then add 1 ½ cup of water in the puttu pot and bring it to boil. Now take the cylindrical vessel and add a handful of coconut, then 3- 4 handfuls of rice flour, repeat it until you fill the puttu vessel. Now fit the cylilndrical vessel on the pot. Steam cook it for 4-5 minutes.

Remove the cylinder, use a spatula to push out the puttu to a plate. Serve as desired

Note:I have used a coconut shell type puttu maker and i steamed it on top of a pressure cooker without putting on the whistle for 10 mts.

Carrot Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar ground
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup walnuts chopped
• 2 cups grated carrot
• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla essence

Method

1. Grease a 9” square or rectangular cake tin, dust liberally with flour.
2. Sift baking powder, cocoa and soda with flour.
3. Add flour, sugars, and beat till well blended.
4. Fold in walnuts, carrot, etc., pour into a prepared tin.
5. Bake in preheat oven at 200C for 10 minutes.
6. Reduce to 160C for further 25-30 minutes, till done.
7. Check if done by inserting a skewer. It should come out clean.
8. Remove allow to cool for 10 minutes.
9. Invert and tap out gently.
10. Let it cool and serve