CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR TREAT

Year 2008 passed soo soon and also its the year I started my own food blog through which I got lots and lots of lovely sweet blogger friends. I appreciate your visits to my blog , your comments , ideas and that made me inspired to prepare varieties of recipes. I am really honoured to have you all. Hey guys, one more good news is in these forecoming days its gonna be long weekend, also my younger brother is visiting my place from Boston. So very excited to see him after long and also we are planning to enjoy these holidays going for a short trip. So this would be most probably my last post in this year and I would like to present you all with some delicious treat :)

CHOCO BREAD

I was carving for chocolatly dish when I got an idea of making this choco bread using hershely's

chocolate syrup. I know my previous post was also based on chocolate syrup. But the only difference is that was drink and this is sweet bread . Just wanted to give it a try for the first time. It worked up well and my little gal too loved it.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 Cup Maida.

2 Egg.

1 tsp Baking soda.

2 tsp Vanilla Essence.

1 Cup Sugar.

1 Stick of butter.

1/4 Cup Hershey's chocolate syrup.

Chocolate chips. (optional)

METHOD

Preheat the oven for 350 degree.

Combine maida and baking soda together. Keep aside.

In an bowl beat the eggs well till its becomes fluffy. Then add sugar, vanilla essence, oil and chocolate syrup. Mix well.

To this add maida baking soda mixture slowly. Stir and make sure no lumps are formed.

Pour the batter in the greased vessel nd bake them for 45 min or until it turns brown all over and well cooked.

UPSIDE DOWN APPLE CAKE

Heard of pineapple upside down cake, but never with apples until I browsed net. There were few leftover  apples and apple juice in my fridge so thaught of jumping into making an apple cake. With a touch of cinnamon powder , I loved the flavour of caramalised sugar with apples. That was great. 

INGREDIENTS

1 Apple.

2 Eggs.

1 3/4 Cup All purpose flour.

1/4 Cup Oil or butter.

3/4 Cup Sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

2 tsp Baking powder.

1/4 Cup Apple juice.

Few chunks of apples.

FOR CARAMALISATION.

5 tsp Sugar.

1 tsp Cinnaman powder.

Drop of water.

METHOD

Preheat oven to 325.

Peel the apple skin and cut into semicircle slices and arrange them on a baking bowl.

Heat a pan and add sugar,cinnamon powder and drop of water on medium heat till sugar starts to melt. Make sure not to stir. Its enough to shake the pan to spread the heat. Later when the sugar starts melting into brown colour, immediately pout it on the arranged sliced apples evenly. Take care not to let the syrup boil or burnt else it will taste bitter.

Meanwhile whisk the eggs in a bowl. Add sugar and baking powder and give a cont stir till its light and fluffy. Add oil and apple juice and the chunks of apples followed by adding the flour little by little making sure not to form any lumps. Gently pour the mixture evently on the caramalised apple slices. Bake them for 1 hour or until the cake is done. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for half an hour. Now the fun part comes. Carefully turn them over on a platter and lift up the bowl. Serve just as it is.

Sending this to ''CHRISTMAS FEAST EVENT HOSTED BY PURVA''.

Also sending this to ''BAKING FOR BEGINNERS HOSTED BY VANDANA RAJESH''.

A short note for the baking beginners.

Baking is just a simple easy process that everyone would prefer to bake food thesedays rather than standing infront of stove. Just mix all the ingredients , set time and the oven makes the rest of all. Makes life easier and the taste is just healthy and perfect.

MAIDA HALWA

This is the recipe which I adopted from 'Roopa' but basically she tryed from 'Easy craft'. This the such an easy recipe with less ingredients that I thaught it would be perfect to post them at the end of this year. Watch out for the ingredients here. Thank u Easycraft for this wonderful recipe and thanks to 'Roopa' because I would have missed this awesome recipe if you would have not posted it in your blog.

''WISHING U ALL A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS , HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A VERY HAPPY PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.''

ENJOY AND LETS ALL WELCOME 2009.

HOT CHOCOLATE

Hot chocolate is something that makes me feel warm and comfortable on a cold weather. I drink adding extra rich ingredient nothing but whipped cream with tiny spread of coco powder on top. This tastes awesome when the cool cream is mixed with hot one. Now thats the one you all have to dive on it. Check out my simple version of hot chocolate.

INGREDIENTS.

1 Cup Milk.

1/2 tsp Sugar

.

1 tsp Hersheys chocolate syrup.

FOR TOPPING.

Whipped cream.

Coco powder.

METHOD.

In a cup add milk and mix sugar and chocolate syrup and micro high for 2 min.

Top them with whipped cream and coco powder.

Serve hot.

I am sending this post to ''WINTER TREAT EVENT HOSTED  BY TRUPTI''

DIFFERENT NOTE.

I would like to share my daughter SMERA'S creative work that was taught at her school last week. I really enjoyed this movement. Its nothing but a candle stand that is kept on the dough and is decorated with some dried and  colourful things. The plant that is seen is ROSEMARY. It smells really gud. Hope you too loved it :)

Enjoy!!

MIXED VEGETABLE FRY

Mixed vegetable fry are the combination of veggies of their choice thats perfect as a sidedish with any non veg starters or can be takn as it is. Its healthy because its half fried and its much more colourful that would invites kids to have some. I make them whenever we buy brocolli when my little one insist me to buy that veggie.


INGREDIENTS.

1 Cup Brocolli florets.

1 Cup Bell peppers (I used yellow, red and orange)

1/2 Cup Sliced Mushroom.

1 tbsp Italian seasoning.

3 Cloves of Garlic.

1 tbsp Onion powder.

Small cube of Butter.

Cheese for garnish.

1 tsp Lime juice.

Salt and pepper to taste.

METHOD.

In a pan heat butter and add all the ingredients. Cover for 2 min.


Drop them in plate and garnish with pepper and grated cheese. Squeeze lime juice at the time of having.

Sending this recipe to ''EAT HEALTHY - DURING PREGNANCY'' HOSTED BY SANGEETH'' . Logo pic is sooo adorable sangeeth. I loved it.

Its an event based on pregancy. So would love to share one point that I have browsed in net mentioning cooked enriched spaghetti is an excellent source of protein and folic acid , and a good source of iron, vitamin B and fiber. So I think this mixed veggie fry can be topped on the cooked spaghetti to make much more healthier. Hope this would be helpful.

Enjoy!!

BITTER GOURD CURRY

Most of the people are not very fond of bittergourd. Me too not very much. I buy it very rarely because my hubby likes it. This time I brought few extra thinking I can try somthing different so that I too can also be much more comfortable with it. So started my recipe hunt when I came across CHAM'S BLOG. Shez soo sweet, excellent blogger and I really really admire all her wonderful yummy recipes and also her profile pic with different styles :). U rock cham.

I have been waiting for long to prepare one of her recipe and finally got the one which I was searching for. I followed her tips for removing the bitterness of the veggie by sprinkling salt on the cut piece of bittergourd , marinated and squeezed out the excess water. It really works. And the curry was very delicious and authentic tasting that we truly enjoyed having with rice. Thank you so much Cham for this fabulous recipe. Click here for the recipe.

Changes I made is instead of coriander seeds, I added corinder- cumin powder. And for seasoning I added one more extra ingredient ie 2 tsp urad dal.

Enjoy!!

UZHUNNU VADA

Uzhunnu vada is also called as ''Medhu vada''. Its the most popular snack or breakfast item in South Indian recipes which is taken along with idli and sambhar. We have them as an evening snack with a cup of hot coffee. The combination of chopped onions and curry leaves makes the taste unique. It goes well with coconut chutney. But we love them to have with pickles specially mango thokku.

INGREDIENTS.

1 1/2 cup Urad dal.

1 Onion.

2 Green chillies.

1 tbs Jeera.

2 Sprigs Curry leaves.

1 tbsp Peppercorns.

2 tbsp Coriander leaves.

Salt to taste.

Oil for deep fry.

METHOD.

Soak urad dal for 6 hours. Grind the dal smoothly using very less water. The consistency must be very thick. Only then its possible to make a perfect shape. In case if the batter is less thick then its better to add urad flour to make the batter more thicker. Transfer the mixture into the bowl.

In a plate add chopped curry leaves, jeera, green chillies and peppercorns. Rub them with salt using fingers.

Then transfer this to urad dal mixture long with chopped onions and corinander leaves.

Heat oil in a pan. Meanwhile wet the palm of your hand with water and place the batter on it. Press it down slightly with the fingers of your other hand. Now using one finger make a hole in the middle of it. Drop it carefully into the hot oil. Fry them under medium heat till it becomes brown.

Drain them on tissue and serve hot with coconut chutney.

Enjoy!!

KHASHAY

Khashay is the medicinal and traditional drink, which is prepared at the time when one suffers from cold or fever. Its the best home remedy to get a quick relief. Its good to have 3 to 4 times a day. I prepare khashay thesedays as all we 3 are suffering from bad cold and cough:(. One thing I would like to share and also very interesting is my motheinlaw will add a new ingredient and that is a piece of coconut shell. It is said that the coconut shell too contains some medicinal effects. If anyone adding new extra ingredients, then please let me know so that it will be useful for all of us.

INGREDIENTS.

4 Cubes Jaggery.

1 Cup Water.

5 to 6 Crushed Peppercons.

3 1 inch pieces Crushed fresh ginger.

2 Cloves.

1 tsp Jeera.

1/4 cup Coriander seeds.

Pinch of Turmeric.

Small piece of Coconut shell.

Few Basil leaves (Optional).

METHOD.

In a pan dissolve the jaggery with water. Add all the ingredients and bring to boil.(Instead of jaggery, honey can also be used.)

Simmer for 5 min. Using the filter, pour the drink into the glass and serve warm.

Enjoy!!