A new member in our family & some Homemade Chocolates

My brother was blessed with a baby girl last week & immediately the thought of some homemade chocolates came to me…Though each one of us miss our mom extremely on this happy occasion, we knew her blessings and prayers will be there for the new born. May the new born bring happiness & joy to our family..Hearty Congrats Bro & SIL, these chocolates are for you!!

Ingredients

• Marie Biscuits – 10-15
• Cocoa powder – 2 tbsp
• Butter – 2 tbsp
• Vanilla essence – lil
• Condensed milk – around 7 tbsp
• Powder marie biscuits and sieve it. Beat  butter till creamy and add the biscuit powder, cocoa pwd, vanilla essence and  condensed milk  to it. Mix well to form a soft dough. Grease your hands with melted butter and roll into small balls.  You may eat it as it is or roll the balls in sprinkles or dessicated coconut or any other topping.

You can add nuts for some crunch or decorate with gems.

This is my entry for

China grass (Agar Agar) pudding

Agar Agar is a vegetarian gelatin substitute produced from a variety of seaweed vegetation. This is a very simple pudding using China grass (Agar Agar) & milk and is often made during Ramadhan to quench the body heat produced by fasting. Moroever, it makes a great light and tasty dessert.  China grass can be found in any Asian store – It looks like colorless hay and is also sold as flakes.

Ingredients:

• 10 gms China grass / dried agar agar / Ceylon moss
• warm water to soak china grass
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4- 6 drops green food color (or color of your choice)

Preparation:

• Soak the china grass in warm water.
• Transfer to a non stick pan and bring china grass and the water to a boil. Reduce heat and keep stirring till the China grass dissolves completely.
• Add the milk , sugar, vanilla and food color , mix well and bring to a boil.
• Remove from heat immediately and pour into a flat dish or into individual moulds.
• Let it set at room temperature and then chill.
• Cut into square or diamond shapes and serve. If using a mould, carefully invert the pudding onto a serving plate and serve.

Bread Pudding (from leftover bread sides)

Whenever I(we) make sandwiches, I(we) cut off every sides of the bread. I cannot stand sandwiches with the brown edges still intact. But at the same time, i don’t like the sides to be thrown into the dust bin…so what do you do with them?? Sometimes, I powder them to make bread crumbs and while thinking to do something different with them…. there came this dessert idea…So next time you make sandwiches, pls don’t throw away those sides…do save them in the refrigerator to come up with this tasty pudding!!

Ingredients:

• Leftover bread sides or 6 slices of bread teared into big pieces
• 1 tbsp Amul butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp chopped nuts (cashews/almonds)
• 3/4 lt milk
• 1 egg
• 5-6 tbsps sugar (adjust)
• 1/4 tsp grated lemon rind or cinnamon pwd
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• raisins and cashews for garnish

Method :

1. Add milk and chopped nuts to the bread pieces such that they are well soaked and keep aside for 5 mts.
2. Beat egg in a bowl, add sugar, vanilla essence and lemon rind and combine well.
3. Pour this mixture to the bread-milk mixture and combine.
4. Grease a pan, pour the bread mixture into it, top with raisins and cashew nuts. Seal with aluminium foil.
5. Place in a steamer or pressure cooker that is filled with 1 1/2″ of water. Steam on high flame for 15 mts.
6. Turn off flame and allow to rest for 5 mts. Remove foil and cool.  Cut into pieces and serve.

Kinnathappam – A pick from my mom’s best recipes

Being my first post after a break due to my dear Mom’s demise, i thought of publishing a dish that i learnt from my late mom.  Lot of memories about mom lingers on my mind while writing her recipe for “Kinnathappam“…….

Kinnathappam is our famous traditional sweet and it’s a must on Eid and all other occasions in our house. It’s again a tamil / mallu duo cuisine… Kinnathappam, which can be translated to english as ‘kinnam’ which means ‘plate’ and ‘appam’ means ‘cake’. This traditional dessert still exist even after the advent of other fancy desserts and this has to be made with utmost care and attention to achieve the perfect taste and look.

While making this, I felt my mom’s presence all the time and was missing her a lot.. Her tasty kinnathappam cannot beat anyone’s how much ever the effort is…and may her triumph as the queen of our house remain forever and may her soul rest in peace………

Ingredients:

• Raw Rice – 1cup, soaked in water for 3-4 hrs (You may also use a combination of Idli Rice and Raw Rice)
• Egg-1 or 2
• Sugar- 1/2cup – 1 cups( depends on your taste)
• Coconut milk, from fresh grated coconut -1 3/4 cups
• Cumins seeds – lil
• Cardamom whole – 2
• Ghee- 1-2 tbsp

Preparation:

• Soak 1 cup of rice in water overnight.
• Strain the soaked rice and grind it very smooth.
• Beat egg well and gradually mix in sugar and beat well.
• Add in the coconut milk and beat well.
• Finally add the grinded batter to the egg mixture and beat it.
• Strain this batter through a muslin cloth or a strainer with tiny holes. This would help to remove any coarse particles in the batter.
• Add Cardamom powder and cumin seeds to the batter.
• The batter constituency should not be too thick or too watery; it should have in between constituency.
• If you feel that the batter is thick, use more of the thin coconut milk or water to thin it down.
• Grease the stainless steel or cake pan with ghee.
• Pour the batter on to a stainless steel plate which usually comes with the steamer or a cake pan would work.
• Steam cook it for 15-20 minutes in medium heat, until a fork inserted into it comes out clean.

This can be served either cold or warm.

This is my entry for

Black Forest Cake

Typically, Black Forest cake consists of several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with additional whipped cream, cherries and chocolate shavings..

Yummy, it’s enough just to imagine a creamy, delicious black forest cake and you can already feel your mouth water! Now, stop dreaming and drooling over your cake fantasies and make them reality by trying this black forest cake….

I did have a big fan group for my black forest cake in UAE, hope you will like it too..

For the Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 1/2 tin condensed milk
• 2 3/4 cups plain flour
• 40 gm cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda (soda bicarb)
• 2 tsp icing sugar
• 1/2 cup butter melted (60gms)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 100 ml milk
• 100 ml Coke or Thums Up

Method

• Sieve flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cocoa all together 2 to 3 times.
• Keep aside.
• Pour condensed milk in a bowl. Add the butter, and beat well till smooth. Add the flour spoon by spoon, mixing into the condensed milk mixture. In between, add milk as required if the butter begins to get too stiff. [Stir the mixture in one direction only all the while. This will incorporate more air and make the cake lighter].
• Once all the flour is used up, beat the batter as above till light (5-7 minutes). Add the coke or Thums Up and mix gently till smooth.
• Pour into a greased cake tin. Do not smooth with a spoon etc. If the consistency is right this will not be needed.
• Pre-heat over to 300 c. Place tin inside. Bake at 200o c for 5-7 minutes and 150o c till done. (35 to 40 minutes).

To make Black Forest Cake

Ingredients

Chocolate cake
1/2 tin canned cherries and syrup
1 cup fresh whipped cream
3 tbsp powdered sugar
4 tbsp grated dark or plain chocolate (and chilled)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method

• Beat the cream over a tray of ice cubes with a hand beater. Do not over beat. It should form soft peaks. Fold in the sugar and essence. Mix gently. Put some icing in an icing gun leave the rest in the bowl. Keep both in the refrigerator.
• Slice the cake into 2 horizontal halves. Place on a tray on a mesh. Sprinkle 2-3tbsp syrup of cherries on each half. Allow to soak for 10 minutes.
• Spread the cream icing on lower half. Transfer to a cake plate. Place the cherries on the cream. Save a few for topping.
• Place the other half on top. Spread the chocolate flakes all over and decorate with cherries.