Oats n Wheat Pancake

Pancakes - you can make pancakes in many ways- with or without eggs, fruits, oats, wheat flour, all purpose flour etc etc. Here I have made this pancake with oats and wheat , served with banana and strawberry jam. When you want to fix a quick breakfast I would say this is the easiest, healthiest for both kids and grown-ups! You can even make bite size pancakes for your little one's . It doesn't stop here, you can use your imagination and mix fruits, chocolates etc into this batter, and yes! its yummy :)
Here is how you can make this.

Ingredients

Wheat flour - 1/2 cup

Rolled Oats - 3/4 cup

Baking Powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Milk - 1 cup (1/2 cup milk and another 1/2 cup you can also use water instead of milk, but I prefer milk)

Egg-1

Vanilla - 1 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Butter - 15 grams

Method

1. Grind the rolled oats into a powder

2. Add this to a bowl along with wheat flour, baking powder and salt

3. Warm 1/2 cup milk and add the butter into it to melt.
4.When the milk cools down, add in egg and mix well.
5. Add this into the wheat flour mix(step 2)
6. Mix well and add the remaining 1/2 cup milk or water little by little until you get the consistency of a pan cake batter (like dosa batter-neither thin nor thick)
7.Add vanilla and give a mix
8. Heat a pan and apply some butter or oil
9.Pour 1/4 cup batter on to the pan and let it cook on both sides(you will see nice brown color)
10. Serve hot with fruits topped with jam/fresh cream

Hope you and your family enjoy this :)

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Smash Cake for baby

Smash cake - they are exactly what they sounds like- yes! Smash cake is prepared for your little one to dig into it and have all the cream and cake all over him/her on their very first birthday:) I was not familiar with the smash cake 'tradition' until I stumbled upon this on a website. So I also decided to make a small smash cake for 'my little boy :) and I was sure there will be lots of photo-op's! There are many options to go by, whether you want a healthier, yummy, super cute cake etc. I decided to go with a simple apple cake topped with butter cream frosting. And as we anticipated he was very curious to play with the cream than the cake !

Here you go!

Ingredients

For Apple cake

Apple - 1 large

Cinnamon Powder - 1 tsp

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Egg - 1 large

Vegetable oil - 1/4 cup

For butter cream frosting

Butter - 125 g (at room temperature)

Powdered sugar - 2 cups

Method

1. Peel and slice the apple into 1/2 inch chunks into a bowl

2. Add cinnamon powder and mix evenly

3. Take another bowl and add flour, baking powder, vanilla essence, egg and vegetable oil and stir well until a batter just forms. (just use a spatula/spoon here - no need of electric mixer)

4. To this add the apple mix and mix evenly.

5. Pour this into a buttered pan.

6. Bake at 180 degree for 35 minutes or until the top turns golden brown color.

7. Let it cool it in the pan before you apply frosting.

8. To make frosting, place the softened butter into a bowl and give it a mix (mix for 1 minute if you are using a electric mixer)

9. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat well in each addition.

10. Beat until frosting is smooth.

11. Apply this on the cake and your smash cake is ready.

Hope your little one enjoy special buttery treat :P

 

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Tomato Fish Curry

Fish Curry - A day never passes without having fish either for lunch or for dinner at my home. My dad says, his meal is not complete without fish. My mom's fish curry is the best I ever tasted and it always look rich in its color and texture :) (whoever compliments her, she says her mother-in-law's fish curry was the best!!- we miss you grandma) There were days when myself and my sister(luckily my brother kept a safe distance from fish ) used to fight for the earthen pot in which fish curry was prepared. Nothing can beat the taste of it when we mix the rice in it and eat - scrumptious!!

Mom's fish curry is the most sought after by her son-in-law and daughter-in-law as well! I use mom's fish curry recipe every time but it never tasted the same like hers (of course I too use an earthen pot :))

There are many ways to cook fish, but this recipe is a simple tomato Kerala fish curry. This recipe calls for coconut milk instead of ground coconut paste which is commonly used in fish curry.
You can use any type of fish to make this. I have used an earthen pot to make this , if you have one, go for it :)

Ingredients

Fish - 500 g (cleaned and cut into pieces)

Oil -2 tbsp (coconut oil preferred, but you can use any cooking oil too)

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Fenugreek - 1/2 tsp

Ginger - 1/2 tsp (cut into small pieces)

Green chilly - 2 (cut into half)

Curry leaves - few

Onion - 2 medium (chopped in small pieces)
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
Tomato - 1
Coconut Milk - 2 tbsp
Salt - As required
Water -As required

Method

1. Clean and cut the fish into pieces

2. Heat oil in your earthen pot (or any other cooking vessel) and add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and saute for a minute

3. Add ginger, green chilly, curry leaves and saute until they become light brown color.

4. Next add onions and saute until it turns brown color

5. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder, salt and mix well.

6. Now add chopped tomato and saute until it becomes soft, 

7.Now add water (start with 1/2 cup water) and then add fish and mix gently. (you can add more water depending on what consistency you would have)

8. Allow it to boil. 

9. Once the fish is cooked add coconut milk and mix.

10. Fish curry is ready to serve with rice.

Hope you enjoy it! Pleasure to hear comments/suggestions :)

Kerala

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Butter Bun

Butter buns - They were my(many I would guess) favorite during my school days-indulged in the cream than the bun though :) Whenever, wherever, whoever says 'butter bun' it's this word which comes into my mind first always  - Best Bakery, yes! This bakery is right opposite to my school in Ernakulam and they used to sell this butter buns! Once in a week or so, my parents gave us the luxury of having these buttery, creamy buns...yumm! and we used to wait for that day.

Even after these many years, I still reach out for these butter buns whenever I go to best bakery and trust me you will love it too. My search for the recipe ended when I came across this simple recipe in a TV show. These buns can be made with few ingredients and you can fill the bun with butter cream or any other cream you like.

My little one was very interested to find out what the buns are filled with.

Here you go.

Ingredients

All purpose flour / Maida - 2 cups

Butter - 25 grams (at room temperature)

Yeast - 2 tsp

Sugar - 1 1/2 tbsp

Water - 1 cup

Salt - a pinch

For the butter cream

Butter - 40 grams

Icing Sugar - 1 cup

Vanilla essence - 1/4  tsp

Milk - optional

Method

1. Take a bowl and add flour, yeast and sugar and mix well

2. Next add butter and give a mix

3. Now add water little by little until you get a soft, little sticky dough. (sometimes you end up using less than 1 cup of water)

4. Cover with a plastic foil or a damp cloth and keep it aside for an hour.

5. It will be doubled after 1 hour.

6. Knead the dough a little and divide and shape into equal balls.

7. Cover it again and leave aside for 15 minutes.

8. Next, deep fry the balls until both sides turns brown
9. Drain into paper towel and let it cool.

Next we have to prepare the butter cream

Mix all the ingredients listed down under butter cream and whisk it until it turns creamy and fluffy . You can add a tsp of milk and whisk if the cream is very thick. Add more milk if necessary.

Butter bun - Cut the bun and fill it with the butter cream and cherish your good old school memories.

Do try this recipe and would love to hear your feedback.

Note: Butter cream will stay outside for 3 days and in refrigerator for 5 days.

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Red / Green / Chocolate Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake - first time I had this cake and have fallen in love with it :)
Baked this cake for our wedding anniversary, but without using red color instead used little amount of green (I couldn't find the red color on time in fact!)

You can watch out this space for the red velvet cake recipe very soon. Please bear with me and hope you like the pics from what I earlier baked without red color.

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Tuna fish cutlet

Fish in a can ? It was difficult to believe when I heard this for the first time 5-6 years ago :) Moreover I was very sure I am not going to like/eat it! But my perception of canned fish changed when one of my friends prepared a simple yet delicious food for dinner using canned tuna. It was during those days when I stayed with my friends, we always got together on Fridays and cooked dinner together and eat at 12 or 1 AM :)We discussed (gossip) everything from politics, climate, work, food, sales in shops, dress, perfumes, movies... you name it! Sweet memories :)

As these canned fish are ready to eat, and are minced, cutlet was the first thing came to my mind - by giving it a spicy aroma. Happy to add yet another easy recipe here. Please do try and let me know how you like it :)

Ingredients

Canned Tuna - 175 g

Potato - 2 medium

Onion - 1 medium size finely chopped

Ginger - One inch chopped

Garlic - 2 chopped

Green chilly - 1

Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Black pepper - 1/2 tsp

Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp

Chilly Powder - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

(If you have meat powder , you can use 1 tsp of it instead of the above Garam masala, chilly powder and turmeric powder)

Egg - 1

Breadcrumbs as required

Salt as required

Oil for frying (deep or shallow)

Method

1. Drain the water from the canned tuna as much as possible and keep tuna aside.(Refer Note)

2. Boil the potato and mash it.

3. Crush or grind together ginger, garlic, green chilly, fennel seeds, black pepper.

4. Heat oil in a pan and add onions, curry leaves and saute until onions become soft,
5. Now add crushed ingredients (step 3) into the pan and saute until raw smell goes.
6. Add all the powders - garam masala, chilly powder and turmeric powder and  saute for a minute.
7. Now its time to add tuna and fry until it is dry .
8. Remove from fire and let it cool.
9. Add mashed potatoes and salt to the tuna mixture and mix well until you get a smooth dough.
10. Take some mixture and shape it in the form you like- here I shaped it round balls.
11. Meanwhile beat the egg in a bowl.
12. Dip the tuna balls in the beaten egg first and then roll it in breadcrumbs.
13. Deep fry these until you get a nice brown color.

Note:
1. If you are using fresh fish, just cook the fish with turmeric and salt and shred it.

2. I used unniappam chatti / paniyaram chatti to make these tuna fish cutlet.
You can as well use a normal pan and shallow fry these cutlets.

tuna

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Hara Bhara Kabab

A healthy vegetarian kabab prepared with spinach, green peas and potato. This makes a great snack with the evening tea as well as with your meal. It's a nutritious snack for kids and they will love to enjoy it with any dips. My little one loves to have it with his meal :)

I usually use a cup of spinach leaves along with dal and by the time I want to use it again, may be after a week or so, the leaves would have got rotten and it's painful to throw the most nutritious thing.
I stumbled upon this recipe in the internet and decided to make this. It's quite an easy recipe and you will enjoy having this hot hot :P

Here is how you can make this.

Ingredients

Potato - 1 big or 2 medium (Boiled and smashed)
Green peas - 1/2 cup (boiled)
Spinach - 2 cups
Green chilly - 1
Ginger (crushed) - 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Chat Masala - 1 tsp
Dry Mango Powder - 1 tsp
Gram Flour (Besan) - 2-3 tbsp
Salt - As required
Oil for shallow fry

Method:

1. First we need to blanch the spinach. For this, add washed and cleaned spinach into a bowl of hot water and let it for 2 minutes and then plunge into a bowl of cold water for 1 minute.  

2, Finely chop the spinach.

3.Take a bowl and add smashed potato, boiled peas chopped spinach and mash it well.

4. To this mixture add salt, green chilly chopped, Ginger, turmeric powder, chat masala, dry mango powder and gradually add gramflour. If you feel the mixture is sticking too much, add some more gram flour. I used almost 3 tbsp gram flour.

5. Shape the mixture into round.

6. Take a pan and add 1 tbsp oil and shallow fry the kababs until brown on both sides.

Serve hot!

Note: You can add pinch of salt when you blanch the spinach to retain the color of the veggies. But this is optional.

spinach

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Poori - Valentine's Day

Yet another Valentine's day is here :) Wanted to do something simple and different from regular cakes that I usually end up doing every year. A heart shape cutter was winking at me when I opened the kitchen shelf...tada...yes, a heart shaped poori :) and it's family favorite too!

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 3 cups

Salt - a pinch

Semolina /Rava - 1 1/2 tsp

Water - 2 cups

Oil  for deep frying

Method:

1. Take wheat flour in a bowl and add salt and semolina
2. Add water little by little to make a smooth dough (May be you end up using less than 2 cups of water)
3. Cover the dough
4. Heat the oil in a deep pot
4. Make small lemon sized balls of the dough and flatten them using a rolling pin
5. Once the oil is hot slowly slide the flattened poori into it and slowly press them with the back of the spoon/spatula. You can see them puff up.
6. Deep fry until golden brown on sides.

Note: It's optional to add semolina. This will help to retain the shape of the puffed poori.
I usually use the dough immediately to make poori without resting it for a while.
Here, I used a heart shapped cutter to shape the poori's  , you can roll out the poori's in any shape as you wish :) Hope you enjoy!

valentine

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Anchovy / Netholi fry

Anchovy / Netholi is a small fish and it has many health benefits. It's great to fry as well as to make fish curry. I prefer fried crispy one's. They are so yummy!

I use very simple ingredients to fry this fish and it is super easy!

Ingredients:

Anchovy/Netholi - 15
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp or as per your taste
Oil - 1 tsp and 1 1/2 tbsp

Method:

1. Wash and clean the fish well.

2. Take a small bowl and add Turmeric Powder, Chilly Powder, Ginger garlic paste and salt and give a quick mix.

3. Add 1 tsp oil little by little to make it a paste of the above mix.

4. Apply this to the cleaned fish and keep it aside preferably 20-25 minutes.

4. In a frying pan add the remaining 1 1/2 tbsp oil and add the marinated fish . Add some curry leaves for an added flavor.

5. Turn the fish when one side is cooked and turned light brown color and cook the other side the same way.

6. Enjoy with rice and curry :)

Netholi

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Beans Biscuits

I am not sure why the name 'Beans' for this biscuit, maybe it resemble beans during baking process.

Many out there would have indulged with a pack of these biscuits in your childhood or maybe even now. No wonder as it is melting, soft, crispy and you will go on having more n more :)

To make this at home, you will need very few ingredients and time. Kids and grown up's enjoy this tiny biscuits a lot. 

Sorry, I don't have good pictures before baking :(

Ingredients:

All purpose flour /Maida - 6 tbsp

Eggs - 2

Sugar - 2/3 cup

Baking Powder - a pinch

Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 120 degree celcius

2. Prepare the baking tray with a baking sheet

3. First sieve the flour with baking powder 4 times and keep aside

4. Beat the egg using a elctric / hand mixer well. (Make sure eggs are at room temperature)

5. Add sugar and vanilla essence to it and beat it well until its soft , creamy and double in volume.

6. Add the flour and give it a nice fold. (Do not beat the mixture)

7. After it is well combined transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip.

8. Drop by drop add the batter to the baking sheet leaving some space in between.

9. Bake it for around 15 minutes or until the side of the biscuits turns light brown.

10. Let it cool (it will be soft immediately out from oven, but will become crisp and hard very soon) and you can store it in air tight containers.

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Vanilla Sponge Cake

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Eggs - 5 small/medium

Vanilla essence - 1 1/2 tsp

Oil - 3 tbsp

Method

Pre-heat oven in 180 degree and keep a 6 inch tray lined with parchment paper /baking sheet ready

1. Firstly, sift flour three times and keep aside.

2. In an electric mixer or in a bowl beat egg one by one.

3. Add sugar gradually and beat in every addition .

4. Beat until the mixture becomes light and creamy, around 7-10 minutes on high speed

5. Then add vanilla essence and whisk for few minutes in high speed until it it well combined.

6. Add half of the flour and fold the batter.

7. Add oil

8.Add rest of the flour and add fold the batter until well combined. Do not over mix.

9. Add the batter to the prepared tin and bake it for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes clean.

Note: The sugar and egg should be mixed very well until it is very light and creamy (it took me almost 30 minutes with my basic electric mixer)and this will decide how soft and fluffy the cake be!

Good luck!

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First Birthday Cake - Chhota Bheem

First Birthday Cake - Chhota Bheem 

The long waited day! Our little naughty cutie pie turned ONE in December and it was very exciting to make his big ONEderful day very special :) 

He was very fond of Chhota Bheem soft toys when he was around 6 months old and always curious to look at it's stickers, pictures etc! And the love to it grew with him :) It was easy for us to chose the theme of his first birthday cake but I was a bundle of nerves!! I never did a cake with many shapes , fondant, cream, different layers etc, but 'his' support gave me the confidence to go for it and yes we believe our efforts paid off without much heavy issues.

We planned to bake three cakes with two cakes as the base for the chhota bheem cake at the top. It was indeed nerve racking to place the top layer chhota bheem cake without any distortion to it! And here is how it looked at the end.

I baked three vanilla sponge cake and filled with vanilla butter cream frosting. A crumb coat followed by another layer of frosting and covered with yellow colored fondant. Did the same with the top layer and used a chhota bheem picture to cut out the shape. Other little things like balloons, laddoo, roses, elephant are made using fondant.

You can find the sponge cake recipe here!

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Ruffle Green Velvet Cake - Wedding Anniversary Special !

Ruffle Green Velvet Cake - Wedding Anniversary Special !

3285 days of togetherness! Time runs :)

Always wanted to try bake a red velvet cake with ombre ruffle decor , and no great day than this to try this out. I didn't have red color in handy so used green color to give it a twist to the Red Velvet Cake. Quite satisfied with the first time ruffle and absolutely loved doing this cake! (couldn't do the ombre way though...soon may be? )

Will post the recipe soon!

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Banana and oats cookies/bites - No sugar/flour/egg

Banana and oats cookies/bites - No sugar/flour/egg

Firstly, I am not sure if this can be called as cookies, or bites! Maybe should simply call it a snack.This is a super easy recipe and if you have your little one at home, involve him/her to help you roll out the cookies for you, yes, it's's that easy. Moreover, it's a healthy recipe as this is minus egg, sugar and flour, isn't sounds healthy and wow?

 I am not a big fan of oats,but knowing its nutritional benefits, I wanted to try if I can fall in love with oats :P and yes, it did! Before baking this cookie my Mr.Perfect told that it will end up on him to finish the cookies as he was sure I will not even taste the oats cookie. But on the contrary, he had to tell me to save 3 pieces of cookies for him :P

Ok! here goes the super easy recipe you have even seen :)

Ingredients

Ripe Banana -2

Oats - 1 cup

Method:

1. Mash banana in a bowl

2. Add oats and mix well

3. Roll into ball shaped or circle shape cookies and place them on a baking sheet

4. Bake at 350 F or 175 C in oven for 15 minutes 

5. Cool it on a wire rack and enjoy!

Oats

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Sweet Corn and Rice Bites

Sweet Corn and Rice Bites

Sweet corn and rice bites makes a great side dish for rice or a starter or a tea time snack. Its crispy
outside and soft inside. very easy to make and am sure you will find all the ingredients for this anytime in the kitchen. There are no fancy ingredients going in here :P

Sweet corn and Rice bites Recipe
Sweet corn mashed - 2 cups (I used canned sweet corn)
All purpose flour / Maida - 8 tbsp
Butter - 4 tbsp
Milk - 2 cups
Rice - 2 cups (boiled)
Green Chilli - 1 (or 2 according to your taste)
Pepper powder - 3 tsp
Coriander leaves/ Cilantro - 1 cup chopped
Salt - to taste

To shallow fry
Oil - 3 tbsp
water - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour / Maida - 1 tbsp
Breadcrumbs - as required

Instructions
1. Heat butter in a pan
2. Add all purpose flour and give a nice mix
3, Add 1/2 cup milk at a time and give a good mix and do the same with rest of the milk. Stop adding milk when you get a medium consistency.(should be like a mashed potato)
4. Remove from heat and transfer it into a bowl.
5. Add green chilli, pepper powder, coriander leaves, rice and salt to the mashed sweet corn.
6. Mix them well until soft to make small balls or squares (any shape you wish).
7. In another bowl make a batter of water and all purpose flour with the ingredients mentioned under 'To shallow fry'
8. Dip the prepared sweetcorn balls first in the batter and then roll them in breadcrumbs.
9. Now it is ready to shallow fry in oil


Note: You can also deep fry or use a unniappam pan / Paniyaram pan to fry these.

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