Kheema Mattar Pulao on your Christmas Table

It's been a month without a post so here's quickie to add on to your Christmas menu.
Kheema Mattar Pulao will be an excellent accompaniment on your christmas table. It also is another dish that can stand by itself when served with raita, papad and pickle. This recipe is adapted from the good housekeeping magazine.

Kheema Matar Pulao:

1. Tomato Puree - 11/2 tbsp
2. oil - 4 tbsp
3. cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
4. coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
5. turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
6. chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
7. garam masala - 1tsp
8. salt - to taste
9. ginger garlic paste - 1 1/2 tsp
10. onion - 1 chopped
11. mutton/beef kheema - 2 cups (par- cooked, I used beef)
12. green peas - 3/4 cup
13. Basmati rice - 2 cups
14. coriander leaves - a handful
15. mint leaves - a handful
16. curd - 4 tbsp

method:

- Cook the rice as per the instructions.

-Mix tomato puree, cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli, and garam masala powders with 1 tbsp oil and salt to form a thick paste and keep aside.

-Heat remaining oil in a large pan and saute onions and ginger garlic paste.

-Add the spice paste and curd cook for 2- 3 minutes. Stir in the peas and cook.

-Add the kheema and cook on high heat until fully cooked.

-Add the coriander and mint leaves.

- Stir in the cooked rice and keep covered for a few minutes on low flame.

- Garnish with mint leaves.

Merry Christmas everybody !!!
Gita

Passion Fruit Cake

This is a recipe I've been wanting to try for a looong time. My mum grows Passion Fruit on her terrace and this year she had a rocking yield. So she scooped out the pulp and stored them in containers in the freezer. Not a bad idea actually if you want to use them later on. So I brought back one box of the frozen pulp. And finally got to making this last week....

The cake has a slight tang and great aroma. You can just dust with some icing sugar and serve or for those (like me) who like the flavour of the passion fruit can pour some passion fruit glaze...see below. I added the pulp with seeds into the batter as straining it was too much of a bother. I knew it turned out well when I saw my chocoholic husband reach out for the second helping. ;);)

Passion Fruit Cake

1 1/4 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

sprinkle of salt

1/2 cup butter, melted

4tblsp fresh passion fruit pulp ( I added the seeds too...)

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together dry ingredients in larger bowl and wet ingredients in another bowl.

Blend both of the above.

Put the batter into prepared pans and bake for 40-45 min.

Remove and when cool dust with icing sugar and glaze.

For glaze:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbs passion fruit pulp

To make glaze, sift powdered sugar into a blender. Add juice and blend until smooth. Strain and spoon glaze over cake, allowing glaze to soak into the cake.

It's different !!!

Gita

Cake Take - Rolling On!

Big Girl, RM turned 9 recently. As her birthday approached, I was again faced with the dilemma of what kind of cake to make for her....... especially after her own suggestion of a Selena Gomez cake! Yikes! No way! Well, of late, the girls have both been very much into roller skating and I thought that would be a much better theme for our birthday.

The cake was a Yellow Cake filled with her favorite dark chocolate pastry cream and Whipped cream frosting. The roller skate was made a couple of days ahead with royal icing using the Color Flow Technique and let to dry hard. It was placed on the cake just before it was cut.

I must say that Selena Gomez got no mention after Big Girl saw her cake ........ Guess she's a bigger fan of dark chocolate! Keep Rolling, Girl!

Mita.

p.s : Just wanted to share some of the t-shirt art some of our friends and us did at the party!

Panchranga Pulao

This was made for a quickie lunch and also another one dish meal. As the name suggests panchranga ( 5 coloured ) pulao, it has veggies of different colours. This recipe is adapted from Sanjeev Kapoors Panchranga pulao. I avoided the capsicum as that is a big no no for my DH and replaced it with corn. Carrots, corn, beans, peas and cauliflower provided the pretty colours.

Here's the recipe:

PanchRanga Pulao

Basmati Rice - 2 cups

Corn - 1/2 cob (after microwaving for 2 minutes )

French Beans - 8 ( cut in to 1/2" pcs )

Carrot - 1 medium sized ( cut into 1/2 "pcs )

Cauliflower - 1/2 medium sized (separate into small florets )

Green Peas - 1/4 cup

Onions - 2 sliced thinly

Green chillies - 1 slit lengthwise

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp

Ghee - 3 tblsp

cinnamon - 1 " stick

Cardamom - 4

Cloves - 4

Peppercorns - 8

Bay Leaves - 2

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

cashewnuts, coriander leaves for Garnish

method:

Wash and soak rice for half an hour.

Heat some oil and fry quarter of the onions and cashewnuts for the garnish and keep aside.

Heat the ghee in which you plan to cook the rice and add all the spices and fry.

Add the remaining onions and ginger garlic paste and saute till translucent.

Add all the vegetables and green chilly and cook for a minute.

Add the soaked and drained rice and stir gently for a minute.

Add in four cups of water and salt and cook covered in medium heat till all the water is absorbed.

Mix and garnish with fried onions, cashewnuts and corinader leaves.

Serve with Raita, Papad and any non-veg curry or paneer curry.

gita

New Beginning!

Hey everyone! Its good to be back after taking off for a mighty long time. During the absence, I did enjoy a 10-week trip to India where we had a great time with the family. Yeah Li'l Sis and I did spend some creative time together making Little girl SS a birthday cake. And of course, after a holiday comes the pain of getting back into the grind again! Now that we are settled in, I thought I should start over. So, since this is kind of a new beginning, I thought I should share something I made for a friend's new baby.



I had seen these "Cupcake Hats" around the internet and had been wanting to try these for a long time. Somehow, I didn't have anybody to make it for. Little girl SS refused it, saying it was for babies. (She's "Big" now!) Ahem! Anyway, recently a friend of mine had a baby girl and I immediately knew what I was going to give her. There are so many patterns out there for the "Cupcake Hat", but I went with this one because I liked the way the picots looked at the transition from the cupcake wrapper to the frosting . The pattern was simple enough for me, a novice at knitting, and I didn't have any trouble at all with the directions. I used DPNs for this project.

The booties were made from the ever so popular pattern, Saartje's Booties . My only modifications were that I went for the Mary Jane straps rather than the cross straps. These booties are knitted using straight needles, so there is quite a bit of seaming. I also added a row of crochet picots around the first round of pink knitting to match the hat. I was lucky enough to find a Cupcake layette set complete with a sweater, onesie and pants in the same color scheme as the hat and booties. I don't think I'm pro enough to knit a sweater yet!



Finally, just to go with the theme, I made this Cupcake tag to go on the giftbox. Of course, if its knitting, there has to be something of Julie Williams. I'm always in awe of her work! I omitted the cake color from the pattern and went on to use the frosting color after the case color just to keep with the color scheme.

I thought it all turned out pretty neat. Baby S must be looking "as cute as a Cupcake", don't you think?

Mita.

Lazy Mutton Curry after a Lazy Summer Break

I know it's been a long time since our last post. Well sis was here in India for the summer vacations and we went on a long and fun break which at the end got over all too quickly. Many of our fans have been checking in to find out why the sudden break and also prodding us for a new post. Sorry to keep you all waiting.

Well, about the Mutton curry - There have been many a times by 7:00 pm I am left wondering what do I make for dinner. This is specially for people who've had this same experience. It's a very easy one dish mutton curry, the ingredients of which will definitely be in any indian kitchen - unless of course you have mutton in the freezer. And the good thing about this is, it tastes really good and can go with Appam, Parathas, White Rice or anything else. Don't be fooled by the redness of the dish thinking that it may be spicy, it's just the Tomatoes. In fact I increased the chilly powder and added some pepper too when I adapted it from the original which is from Shabs cuisine. You can also increase the water if you want more gravy or keep it on the fire for longer if you want to decrease the gravy.

So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

500g Mutton cubed and washed

2 medium size onions chopped finely ( I used a a chopper)

2 (heaped) tsp ginger -garlic paste

2 medium tomatoes dices

2 Tsp Kashmiri Chilli powder

1 ½ Tsp Coriander powder

½ tsp Turmeric powder

½ tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp lightly crushed pepper

½ cup water

2 twigs curry leaves

Salt to taste

Method:

- Heat oil in a pressure pan and when hot add the chopped onions and saute till it starts to turn brown.

- Add the ginger garlic paster and saute for same time.

- Add all the masala powders including salt and few curry leaves and saute.

- Add in the chopped tomatoes and a little water and allow to cook till soft and oil separates.

- Add the meat and stir in high heat for some time.

- Add the water and pressure cook till done. (It took me 5 whistles and 5 min on low flame and it was just perfectly cooked).

- When the pressure is fully gone, open the pan and add the remaining curry leaves and adjust seasoning.

Now its ready to serve.

It was quite simple to prepare and used just one dish for the cooking, but the end of it all it was really worth it (we had it with parathas ;) ) !!! Am sure it will taste good with beef too.

gita

Karaikudi Chicken Curry

First of all...sorry for the looooong wait for the next post. Just saw that its been over a month since we posted. Since sis is on holiday I guess the onus in one me to keep the blog rolling. So here's a quickie post..... "Karaikudi Chicken Curry" recipe that I borrowed from my SIL's cookbook. It goes well with rotis and white rice.

KaraiKudi Chicken Curry

1. Chicken - 500g
2. Onions - 1 diced
3. Tomato - 1 diced
4. Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Coriander Powder - 11/2tsp
7. Mustard - 1/2 tsp
8. Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
9. Fenugreek - 1/2 tsp
10. Oil, salt as required.
11. Coriander Leaves - handful

To Roast and Grind:

dry red chillies - 5
coriander seeds - 2 tsp
ginger - 1"
garlic - 7 small
cinnamon - 2"
cardamom - 2
pepper - 1 tsp
clove - 5
grated coconut - 4 tsp
curry leaves - few

-- Marinate chicken in turmeric and salt.
-- Heat little oil and fry ingredients for roasting and grinding.
-- Add a little water and blend to a smooth paste.
-- Heat oil add mustard, cumin seeds, fenugreek and onions.
-- When the onions brown, add tomatoes and cook till soft.
-- Add chilly powder and coriander powder and saute for 5 min.
-- Add the ground paste and saute for 3 min.
-- Add chicken and little water and adjust salt. Cook for 20 min or till done.
-- Garnish with coriander leaves.

gita