Ende Kushini

I had selected this rhubarb tea cake for R. But then found out that rhubarb is not available anywhere near my place. Rhubarb is a herbaceous perennial growing from short, thick rhizomes and is found in plenty in the scandinavian region. Most commonly, the stalks are cooked with sugar and used in pies, crumbles and other desserts

So I had to do some research. I found out that strawberries can be added instead of Rhubarb but then it would not serve the purpose of a recipe with 'R'. And I didn't have time to search for another recipe with 'R'. Of course I was lazy too.. Finally settled on replacing the rhubarb with Rose. I took some Rose leaves and ground them and added to the cake mix. Also added little bit of rose essence. The cake was awesome; a perfect accompaniment for evening tea.

Recipe Source: lucywaverman

Country: Finland

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2 cups

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Rose petals - few

Rose essence - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Butter - 1/4 cup

Eggs - 2

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
Place parchment paper in base of a loaf pan. Butter the sides of the pan and sprinkle sugar to coat sides.
Grind the rose petals and make it into a paste.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir in butter, sugar, eggs. rose petals paste and rose essence.
Beat with an electric mixer for 3 minutes or until mixture is smooth and some air has been incorporated. Scrape into loaf pan.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool. Cut the cake after an hour or so.

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I didn't have to do much research for 'Q', this being the difficult alphabet. In Gayathri's space I found a wonderful recipe the Iraqi Qlecha or Kleicha. Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a western Asian country. Its capital is Baghdad. It shares its boundaries with Turkey in the north, Iran in the east, Kuwait in the south east, Saudi Arabia in the south, Jordan in the south west and Syria in the west. Source: Wikipedia

It seems this cookie is made during EID and shared with friends and relatives. H thoroughly enjoyed these sweets. It is also very easy to make. This is very similar to the Andhra sweet recipe - Kajjikayalu, except that the qlechas are baked, so less of oil.

I had to make this recipe twice. Initially I made these qlechas, took snaps. But while editing the blog post I found the snaps to be missing and by that time the qlechas got over. So I made the qlechas again, the second time less in number and took snaps again. The qlechas ran away in a day.

Recipe Source: Gayathriscookspot
Country: Iraq

Ingredients:

For The Outer Dough:

Flour/ Maida-1 1/2 cups
Milk-1/2 cup
Butter-1/2 cup, melted
Salt-a pinch
Cardamom Powder-1/2 tsp
Instant Yeast-1 tsp
Sugar-1/2 tsp

For The Filling:

Grated Coconut-2/3 cup
Sugar-1/3 cup
Cardamom Powder-a pinch
Curd-1 1/2 tbs
Rose Essence-1/2 tsp

Method:

In a bowl mix together flour, salt, cardamom powder, sugar and yeast.
Add melted butter and mix well.
Now add milk and mix until it is well incorporated and you get a soft and non sticky dough.
Cover with cling wrap and set aside for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 175°C.
Now mix the coconut, cardamom powder, sugar, curd and rose essence.
Roll out the dough into a large thick disc.
Cut out small rounds with a cookie cutter.
Place some filling in the centre.
Fold the circle into a crescent and seal the edges. Use a fork to make some designs along the edge.
Place on a baking tray.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is golden.
Cool on wire rack.
Store in an airtight jar.

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Sekerpare is a much loved Turkish dessert, made in Turkish homes, which means "a piece of sweetness." Mainly prepared by baking some soft balls of almond based pastry dipped in thick flavored sugar syrup.

When I first read about this recipe, I was so much skeptical to try it out. I have never poured sugar syrup on cookies and didn’t know how they would turn. But still the recipe interested me. The cookie dough has semolina in it and this remins me of the Basboussa I have made earlier. Basboussa is bakes as a cake while sekerpare is baked as a cookie. But they taste similar. The cookies while coming out of oven are crispy. Cool syrup is poured over hot cookies and let to soak. After some time the cookies take up all the syrup and become soft. When you take a bite, you will get the crispy nut on top and soft sugar syrup soaked cookie and together it was fantastic.

Each cookie has a pistachio on top. But when I baked the cookie, I didn't have pistas in hand. After baking, I poured the sugar syrup and that time I got the pistas. I just placed the pistas on top of these cookies and they stuck there because of the sugar syrup. Lovely cookies I say.

Recipe Source: Gayathriscookspot
Country: Turkey

Ingredients:

For The Cookies:

Flour-1 cup
Sooji/ Semolina-1/4 cup
Sugar-1/4 cup
Curd-1/8 cup
Butter-1/3 cup
Baking Powder-1/2 tsp
Pistachios for topping

For The Syrup:

Sugar-1/3 cup
Water- 1/2 cup

Method:

First make the sugar syrup and allow it to cool completely before baking the cookies.
Add water to sugar and bring it to boil.
Simmer and let it boil for 10 minutes until thick and syrupy.
Set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 180°C.
In a bowl cream together butter and sugar.
Add the curd and beat until fluffy.
Add the flour, sooji and baking powder.
Make small balls out of the dough and press to make a cookie.
Arrange on a greased baking tray.
Top each cookie with a pistachio nut.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.
Arrange the baked cookies on a plate and pour cool syrup on top of each cookie.
After some time the cookie would have absorbed all the syrup.
Serve along with a cup of coffee.

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It’s more than certain that nothing can top off a homemade pastry for breakfast. The smell only, increases your appetite and awakens all of your senses. From the time this baking marathon has started I have been baking something or the other for breakfast. Today I am sharing with you twisted snail buns and they look amazing on first sight.

The most interesting part is that the preparation of these snails is not complicated at all. Although it seems as though you’ll have to have some special skills in order to get them right, trust me you will make it on the first try. With a little patience and a little more persistence you will get perfectly home baked snails to treat your loved ones or to surprise your colleges at work.

We had this for breakfast along with a bowl of muesli and milk. And believe me it was a very heavy breakfast. Do try this out.

Recipe Source: soulkitchenrecipes

Country: Macedonia

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 2 cups

Milk - 1/4 cup

Wate2 - 1/4 cup

fresh yeast - 2 tsp

oil - 2 tbsp

salt - to taste

sugar - 1 tsp

olive oil

Milk (to glaze) - 2 tbsp

herb powders

Method:

In a bowl, whisk together water, sugar and yeast and let it sit for about 10 minutes. In large bowl add sifted flour, salt, milk, oil and add the yeast. Knead until you get smooth and elastic dough. Cover bowl with towel and let it rest until doubled in size, about one hour.
After dough has risen, divide in 8 equal parts of dough and roll out each part into a rectangle of about 25 cm x 15 cm. Brush the dough with olive oil.
Cut the dough into strips about 2 cm wide. Starting from the shortest end, diagonally roll the dough until you get a long roll, and then twist it around to shape it into a snail shell.
Lay them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and let the buns rest for about 30 minutes
glaze the buns with milk. Sprinkle a mix of herbs on the top and bake in the oven about 15 minutes at 230 degree C or until golden brown.

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Today I am presenting a recipe from tuscan part of Italy. Simplicity is central to the Tuscan cuisine. Legumes, bread, cheese, vegetables, mushrooms and fresh fruit are used. Tuscan cooks rely chiefly on the quality of the ingredients rather than on elaborate preparation. Today I am presenting a very simple recipe. I am not sure how it is spelled but it means Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce.

The most basic version of this recipe requires some form of tomato, be it fresh, canned, whole, chopped or pureed; some aromatics such as garlic or herbs; and, of course, eggs. But it is a dish that is easily adaptable and takes well to a number of extra additions.

Recipe Source: cookingchanneltv

Place: tuscan, Italy

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 3 big (finely chopped)

Onion - 1 big (finely chopped)

Garlic - 5 pods (minced)

Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Pepper - 1 tbsp

Red pepper flakes - 1/2 tsp

Eggs - 2

Handful of herbs (parsley, basil, oregano, thyme etc)

Method:

For the red sauce:

Puree the tomatoes to a smooth, creamy consistency.
Add the oil to a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until soft but not browned
Add the garlic and the red pepper flakes if using and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the pureed tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Strive for balance in the consistency of the sauce; it should be fluid but shouldn't look overly wet. A few minutes before taking the sauce off the heat, add half the amount of herbs.

For the uovo al pomodoro:

Preheat the oven to 230C.
Add a few ladlefuls of red sauce to one oven-safe skillet or a glass vessel.
Crack 2 eggs directly on top of the red sauce. Season with salt and pepper, and transfer to the oven until the whites are cooked completely but the yolks are still runny, 7 to 8 minutes.
Garnish with the chopped parsley, and serve hot with a slice of grilled Tuscan bread on the side.

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I am presenting an Indian recipe today. The mumbai famous Paav buns. As usual I picked up the recipe from Gayathri's space. I was skeptical about doing this recipe. I read 2-3 blogs and somehow thought that the procedure is complex and perhaps I would not be able to do it perfectly. So I made it in small quantity but it came out absolutely perfect.

Paav means a small loaf of bread. This word has been derived from pao - a Portuguese word for bread. It seems the Portuguese were the first one to bring yeast to India. Thus with this yeast we Indians learned to make bread and initially called these paavs as double roti or double bread.

Commercially, pavs are always made with maida or all purpose flour. I made these paav with whole wheat flour instead of using the all purpose flour. I have already posted the recipe of Paav-bhaji.

I made these paavs in the evening but unfortunately we were unable to eat it at that time. They stayed the same way till next day morning. I then made the bhaji and we relished paav - bhaji for breakfast.

Recipe Source: Gayathriscookspot

Country: India

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tbs
Instant Yeast - 1/2 tbs
Curd / Yogurt - 1/5 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1 tbs

Method:

In a bowl mix together flour, yeast, sugar, salt, gluten and yeast. Combine them well.
Add milk, curd and oil. Combine to make a slightly sticky dough.
Knead the dough on counter for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.
Place in an oiled bowl, apply some oil on the dough and cover with cling wrap and set aside.
Let it sit for one hour or until double in volume. Flip it on to counter and press it into a square.
Divide into 6 equal portions. Roll each into a tight ball.
Place inside a greased 8" square pan. Arrange all the rolls inside the pan.
Cover and set aside for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 200°C.
Apply milk wash on the buns and bake them for 30-40 minutes or until the top is golden.
Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack.
Once cool, store in air tight jar.

Enjoy paav-bhaji or the mumbai famous vada-paav.

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Vanilias Kifli is a very famour cookie from Hungary which is normally made during Christmas or New year time. They are dangerously addictive and extremely delicious. he word "vaníliás" refers to the vanilla flavor used while the world "kifli" stands for the crescent shape of the cookies.

While I was making a list of recipes for this mega marathon, I zeroed in on Vanilias kifli for 'V' and noted down the link. But while making this recipe, I only read the ingredients and instructions and didn't bother to read the introduction since I was running short of time. I have a new set of cookie shaper so all the more interest in making the cookies with this shaper. So as usual I made these cookies in my own way and shaped them into nice rounds. Later, while doing this write-up I read about this recipe and found out that kifli means crescent-shaped. Lessons learnt - read the complete post about a recipe. Hopefully my blogger friends would accept this round shaped crescents.

Recipe Source: Veggieplatter
Country: Hungary

Ingredients:

butter - 250g

Sugar - 100g

ground almonds - 160g

plain flour - 310g

Vanilla flavoured icing sugar - 2 tbsp

Method:

Cream the butter and the sugar. Blend in almonds and flour.
Mix the flour and make it into a nice round ball.
Roll the flour into a big rectangle of 4 cm height.
With a cookie shaper, cut the cookies.
Alternatively, Take small pieces of the mixture and roll between the palms of the hands, then form into crescents
Place on greased baking trays and bake in a moderately slow oven (160C), for 20 minutes. Cool until biscuits are barely warm then toss in icing sugar.

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In this mega marathon, I had no difficulty in finalizing the recipes for the difficult alphabets like Q, X, Z etc. Somehow these were the among the first ones to finalize. As soon as I saw the recipe for X-cookies in gayathri's space, I picked it up and finalized it for 'X'. I guess this is the first cookie I am preparing with chocolate. The cookies turned out fantastic. H said they actually looked like human beings.

X Cookies is a Sicilian cookie, also known as Cucidati. Whether you call them Cucidati, Sicilian X Cookies, or just plain Italian Fig Cookies, the end result is the same. Tender sweet dough, that’s wrapped around a very flavorful spiced fig filling. The cookie dough is so buttery and is prepared like a pie crust with cold butter so that the cookie turns out buttery and flaky. The filling has figs and apart from that it has lots of candied orange peel, chocolate, apricots and raisins. The cookie dough is so buttery and is prepared like a pie crust with cold butter so that the cookie turns out buttery and flaky. The filling has figs and apart from that it has lots of candied orange peel, chocolate, apricots and raisins.

Recipe Source: gayathriscookspot

Country: Sicily

Ingredients:

For The Filling:

Dried Figs-1 cup

Raisins-1/4 cup

Candied Orange Peel-1/6 cup

Dark Chocolate-45 gm

Almonds-1/6 cup

Apricots-1/6 cup

Instant Coffee Powder-1/2 tsp

Cinnamon-1/4 tsp

For The Pasta Flora:

Flour/ Maida-2 cups

Sugar-1/3 cup

Baking Powder-1/2 tsp

Salt-1/2 tsp

Cold Butter-1/2 cup

Curd/ Yogurt-1/2 cup

Method:

For The Pasta Frolla:

In a food processor add flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and butter.
Run the processor until the flour resembles bread crumbs.
Add curd and run until a crumbly dough is formed.
Transfer to a cling wrap, cover it tightly and refrigerate.

For The Filling:

Boil 1 cup of water and add figs.
Boil for 2-3 minutes until the figs are soft.
Drain water and allow it to cool.
In the same jar in which you made the pasta frolla, add all the ingredients for filling.
Run the processor until the filling forms a ball.
Remove from the jar, divide it into 6 equal portions and keep it covered.

Making The X-Cookies:

Remove dough from fridge.
Divide it into 6 equal portions.
Dust counter with flour.
Roll a single portion into a 6″ log.
Roll it into a rectangle of 2 1/2″ * 9″.
Now roll one portion of the filling into a 9″ log.
Place it in the rectangle.
Bring the sides of the dough and cover the filling.
Now holding the log tightly, roll it into 12″ log.
Divide into 4 equal portions.
Now make a slit mark on both sides of the smaller log leaving 1 1/2 cm intact.
Curve the slit edges on both sides to form the letter X.
Arrange on a greased baking tray.
Preheat oven to 180C.
Bake the cookies for 25-30 minutes or until golden.
Cool on wire rack.
Store in air tight jar and serve along with coffee.

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Here is an interesting bread made with vegetables and cheese. Yangpabbang is a savory Onion Bread native to Korea. This bread looked very simple with onions and red capsicum. Unfortunately I couldn't find red peppers in time to make this bread. So I replaced them with green bell peppers. I also added little oregano spice mix in the bread to make it more interesting.

I made this bread with a mix of wheat flour and all purpose flour. The outside is a little crunchy, while the inside is chewy and soft. We need to be careful that the bread has cooked properly. Since there is a stuffing inside, the flour surrounding the stuffing will take some time to get cooked.

This bread generally has onion, bacon, and cheese inside but I made the vegetarian variation. I guess non-veg would be more interesting. It can make a great meal with the addition of a salad or sides. With his mega marathon I learned many new breakfast items.

Recipe Source: Varada's Kitchen

Country: Korea

Ingredients:

For The Dough:

Butter – 2 tbs

Luke Warm Milk – 1 cup

Wheat Flour – 1 cup

Maida/ All Purpose Flour – 1 cup

Salt – 1 tsp

Instant Yeast – 1 tsp

For The Filling:

Green Bell Pepper – 1 small

Onion -2

Pepper and Salt – To Taste

Cumin Powder – 1/2 tsp

Mozarella cheese - 3 tbsp

Oregano seasoning - 1 tbsp

Method:

In a bowl mix together flours, salt, yeast and mix well.
Add butter and milk and mix to form a soft dough.
Knead the dough for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.
Cover with cling film and set aside until double.
By the time the dough is proving, make the filling.
Mix the onions, bell peppers, salt, pepper and cumin and set aside to sweat.
Remove the vegetables and discard the water.
Mix mozarella cheese with this mixture of vegetables.
Take the proved dough to counter, press to release gas.
Shape and roll it into a rectangle.
Place 3/4th of the filling in the middle and bring both the sides on the filling.
Pinch the sides and place it seam side down in a greased loaf pan
Top the bread with the remaining filling.
Cover and set aside for 20 minutes.
By the time it is proving for the second time, preheat oven to 200°C.
Bake the bread for 35 – 45 minutes. If you feel that the topping is going very dark, place an aluminium foil on top and bake.
Remove from oven and let it cool for five minutes.
Transfer the bread to wire rack and allow it to cool completely.
Slice it up, toast and enjoy!

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Finally I managed to complete all the recipes in this mega marathon. Better late than never right..
Zaatar is a middle eastern spice powder made with dried herbs such as oregano, thyme and marjoram, roasted sesame seeds, salt and sumac. I made this at home for a previous recipe. Find it here. I used the leftover spice to make this lovely pull apart bread.

Zaatar can be used as a condiment mixed with olive oil, or can be used to top breads or can be used as a coating spice for meats. It is so versatile and it tastes awesome. I am unable to explain the taste in detail as I am not at all familiar with the unique flavour. But it is tangy, tart and salty and it is so nice. You need to try to understand it.

I am happy that I was able to make the perfect bread dough for this recipe. Ofcourse I checked gayathri's video thoroughly. Since I didn't have a round tin, i tried to bring in the shape in small muffin cups and they turned out like beautiful lotuses. I loved the shape.

The filling is pretty easy as I just applied butter and sprinkled zaatar over it. As zaatar doesn’t have any type of chilly in it, I added some pepper powder while filling the bread. In one of the cups, I added some cooked potato to the filling.

Recipe Source: Gayathriscookspot
Country: Middle East

Ingredients:

For The Dough:
Flour – 1 3/4 cup
Salt – 1 tsp
Sugar – 2 tsp
Instant Yeast – 2 tsp
Butter – 2 tbs
Curd / Yoghurt – 2 tbs
Milk – 1/2 cup

For The Filling:
Zaatar Spice – 2 – 3 tbs
Butter – 2 tbs
Pepper Powder – 1 tsp
Boiled potato - 1

Method:

In a bowl mix together flour, salt, sugar, yeast, butter, curd and milk.
Mix to form a rough dough.
Turn it on to your work table, and knead the dough for 12 – 15 minutes.
Grease a bowl with butter and place the dough inside.
Brush the top with more butter, cover with cling film and set aside for 1 hour or until double in volume.
Preheat oven to 200°C once the proving is done.
Turn it on to the work table, press it, sprinkle with flour and roll into a thin square.
Apply butter on top and sprinkle zaatar and pepper powder.
Cut the square into smaller squares.
In some of the squares, mash and place the boiled potato as a very thin layer.

Grease an 8″ round tin or 3 muffin cups
Fold each square along the diagonal to form a small triangle.
Slightly fold the triangle along the longer side and place them in the bread/muffin tin. This will look like a petal of a flower.
Fill the tin with such petals. Start from the far end of the tin and then come to the center.
Brush the top of the bread with milk and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top is golden.
Remove from oven, allow it to sit for 5- 10 minutes.
Flip it on to a plate and flip it back to reveal the top.
Serve immediately.

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Though this is the second time I am participating in a marathon for baking, I enjoyed this a lot more and also learned from this marathon a lot more. Now I am confident of baking breads and buns. Next I should try cakes I guess.

This marathon the following were the specialities

Did different varieties of breads, buns and cookies.
Tried recipes from 20 different places.
Tried shaping breads for the first time like snail, petals etc.
Used a lot of new spices like the zaatar spice mix, oregano spice mix, till/sesame seeds in breads etc
found many new varieties of stuffed bread which would be a good choice for picnics.

When this marathon started I was ready with only 3 posts. But somehow I had the courage and confidence to go ahead with the marathon since I had the list of recipes ready. I actually learned efficient time management and effective planning by doing this mega marathon. I planned my breakfast mostly around these recipes and the evening snacks also. For the last few recipes I missed buying few essential ingredients since they were not available near my place of stay. But that didn't affect the final product much. Overall I am very much satisfied with my performance in this mega marathon. The only flaw is I haven't commented on the posts of my fellow bloggers.

I should have suggested Valli to have some detox diet or something similar for the next month after devouring all these butter filled goodies..

A for Aghi Gesgoudz from Armenia

B for Bell Pepper and Paneer stuffed Lattice Bread from Britain

C for Crown Cookies from Lebanon

D for Dates Cookies from India

E for Eggless Japanese Sesame Cookies from Japan

F for Fougasse from France

G for Ghorayebah from Egypt

H for Herbed Butterflaps from Guyana

I for Irish Soda Bread Buns from Ireland

J for Julekake from Norway

K for Khaliat Al Nahal from Middle East

L for Lion House Rolls from Salt lake City

M for Manakish - Zaatar from Lebanon

N for Nazook from Armenia

O for Onion Bialys from Poland

P for Pide from Turkey

Q for Qlecha from Iraq

R for Rose Tea Cake from Finland

S for Sekerpare from Turkey

T for Twisted Snail Buns from Macedonia

U for Uovo Al Pomodoro from Italy

V for Vanilias Kifli from Hungary

W for Whole wheat Paav Buns from India

X for X-Cookies from Sicily

Y for Yangpabbang from Korea

Z for Zaatar - Pull apart Bread from Middle East

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This blogging marathon I am starting with some sweets to celebrate Mother's Day!! I don't think a particular day is needed to celebrate Mother or for that reason any other relation. You need to keep expressing your love for others in every deed that you do. Simple na.. But thinking deeply a mother's relation is different in the sense it is the first relation a human makes as soon as they are out in this world. All the rest of the relations including the father is made through the mother. Ah so much of philosophy .... doesn't feel like me. Over to today's recipe

Today I am posting a traditional Kerala sweet made with jaggery, rice flour and jackfruit. My mom is a huge fan of Jackfruit, so this sweet is definitely her favorite and a little of diabetes-friendly too since this is made of jaggery.

The name 'Kumbil Appam' of this dish is because of the shape of the Appam. Kumbu meant for the 'cone' shape of this appam. This Kumbilappam is totally flavoured by the wrap used in this appam vazhana Ila/ Therali Ila/ Indian Bay leaf. The strong smell of the leaves enter into the appam while steaming and gives a amazing flavour to this dish. I found this tree standing tall in the land we bought recently. It is easy to make this dish in a jiffy if you have appam podi/ roasted rice flour at your home. One can keep this appam for 2 days if you prepare with fresh coconut. If you planned to used it more than that roast the coconut and use it for 5-6 days.

Ingredients:

Chakka Varatti/ Jack fruit Preserve - 1/2 cup

Jaggery- 1/2 cup

Water- 1/4 cup

Coconut- 1/2 cup

Roasted Rice flour/ Appam Podi- 1 cup

Cumin seeds/ Jeera, crushed- 1/4 teaspoon

Dried ginger/ chukku, powdered- 1/2 teaspoon

Cardamom- 1/4 teaspoon

Vazhana Ila/ Edana Ila/ Indian Bay leaves- 7-8

Method:

Take Jaggery in a pan and add quarter cup of water and heat it and make syrupy consistency. (string consistency- If you drop the syrup from spoon last drop has to form string. If you touch the syrup in between fingers it should form a string)
In a bowl take chakka varatti and add the warm syrup over the chakka varatti and mix well to combine without any lumps.
Powder the jeera and cardamom seeds. Roast the coconut till light golden colour. (To avoid spoilage. If you are consuming on the same day rosting is not necessary).
In another bowl add the rice flour, jeera and cardamom powder, dried ginger/ chukku powder and roasted coconut and mix evenly.
Now add a tablespoon at a time rice flour mixture to the chakka varatti jaggery mixture and mix well.
Likewise add the whole lot. Finally the mixture should not stick to your hands if you touch with fingers. If it is sticky add a tablespoon or two of roasted rice flour and mix well.
Wash the Bay leaves and wipe them. Make a cone shape out of the leaves and pin it using coconut picks (Eerkil) or tooth picks.
Fill the cones with chakka mixture till top.
Heat water inside Idli steamer and allow to boil. Keep the Idli base plate and spread the filled cones.
Close with the lid and steam for about 15 minutes. Cooking time varies depends on the sizes of the cones.

Serve hot!! Enjoy kumbil appam when it is pouring outside !!

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The second sweet recipe for this weeks marathon is rasgulla - the spongy white balls famous from our very own Kolkatta. Of course this one is also favourite with my mother.

The dessert is known as Rosogolla or Roshogolla in Bengali and Rasagola in Odia. Rasgulla is derived from the words ras ("juice") and gulla ("ball").Other names for the dish include Roshgulla (Sylheti), Rasagulla, Rossogolla, Roshogolla, Rasagola, Rasagolla, and Rasbhari or Rasbari (source: wikipedia)

The spongy white rasgulla is believed to have been introduced in present-day West Bengal in 1868 by a Kolkata-based confectioner named Nobin Chandra Das. Das started making rasgulla by processing the mixture of chhena and semolina in boiling sugar syrup in contrast to the mixture sans semolina in the original rasgulla in his sweet shop located at Sutanuti (present-day Baghbazar). His descendants claim that his recipe was an original, but according to another theory, he modified the traditional Odisha rasgulla recipe to produce this less perishable variant.

I am not a big fan of rasgullas but everyone at home likes it. I just read some blogs and tried it out. The result was awesome…

Ingredients

Milk (full cream) - 1 Litre

Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 2 cups

Water - 3 &1/2 cups

Elachi powder- 1 pinch

Ice cubes - 12

Nuts (optional) - For garnish

Method:

Heat the milk,when it start to boil,simmer the flame, add the lemon juice slowly as you stir.
Switch off the flame once the whey water clearly separates.
Add the Ice cubes and mix well.
Take a metal strainer,lined with a cheese cloth/muslin cloth (I used my dupatta). Pour the curdled milk in it.
Wash it well in the running water under the tap to remove the lemon smell and sourness.
Let the water drain and hang this chenna for 30 minutes. I just slightly squeezed the excess water.
After 1/2 hour,take out the chenna in a bowl.I will be now more like a crumble look wise.
Now knead this for 7-10 minutes gently to make it like a soft and smooth dough.
Make smooth equal sized small balls. I made some 20 balls.
Take sugar,cardamom powder and water in a pressure cooker and boil it.
After the sugar gets dissolved completely and the syrup boils, add the balls made carefully one by one.
Cover the pressure cooker and cook it till you get one whistle in medium flame. After a whistle, keep for another 5 minutes in low flame.
Put off the flame and let the pressure gets released by itself,then open the lid to see the rasgullas – by now it would have doubled in size. If you think the sugar syrup is too thin and not sweet enough, boil again in low flame until you get desired thickness of the syrup.

Note:

ice cubes are added to stop the curdling at that instant. It prevents the chenna to become hard and helps for soft texture.
The kneading part is very important,knead smooth and soft with patience.
Do not squeeze the water manually forcefully, you can do little gently but not more.
Do not cook in high flame in pressure cooker. It will break the rasgullas.

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Another sweet for the mother's day special is the layered banana custard. Since we always have a stock of bananas at home, I keep trying to find out some sweets or alternate recipes to finish off the bananas. I am not sure if this recipe is my own invention or if I found this out in any blog. Anyways I have been making this recipe often now.

I guess this recipe can be made with other fruits also. I usually make this recipe in batches of 6 to 10 cups and refrigerate it. It stays good for about a week. This will be an ideal dessert for parties also and easy to make. Do try it out.

Ingredients:

Banana - 10
Honey - 3 tbsp
Custard powder - 50 grams
Milk - 500 ml
Sugar - 30 grams
Vanilla essence - 2 tbsp
Condensed Milk - 50 ml
Grated Coconut - 5 tbsp
Dry fruits - 5 tbsp

Method:

Chop the bananas finely. Soak them in honey and keep it aside.
Mix the custard powder, sugar and milk. Stir well such that the sugar and custard powder is dissolved. Add the vanilla essence also.
Boil the milk mixture until it thickens and forms a nice custard.
Takes glass bowls. First add a layer of the prepared custard.
Next layer add the soaked bananas.
Next layer add a spoon of condensed milk.
Top it up with grated coconut and dry fruits.

Rich banana custard is ready!! Refrigerate and serve chilled!!

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This week for the Blogging Marathon I have selected Picnic hampers. I love to go on one-day picnics. Who doesn't love right? That too I love to go on a long drive, park the car somewhere and have packed snacks or packed lunches... yummmm. And of course we do this often. Travelling to our hometown has become one such picnic hobby for me.

The first recipe I would like to present as a picnic hamper is these uzhundhu kozhakkattai. These are steamed rice dumplings which have urad dal as the filling. Very healthy snack item since these are steamed and urad dal gives a lot of strength. So all the more ideal for picnic. Yeah these kozhukkattais are usually made during vinayaka or ganesh chathurthi in southern India.

Ingredients:

For the filling:

Urad dal - 1/2 cup

Green chillies - 4

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Salt - as needed

Mustard - 1 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

For the outer covering:

Idiyappam flour - 1 cup

Water - 1 &1/3 cup,or as needed

Sesame oil - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Method:

Boil water with oil and salt. Take the flour in a broad vessel. Add the boiling water little by little and mix with the help of a ladle.
Let it cool for about 5 min, it may be warm, still knead with your hands to make a smooth dough.The consistency should be like our chapatti dough...non sticky. Keep covered till you use to prevent drying. Make equal size balls out of it.
Soak the urad dal for an hour. In a mixer, grind green chilies with salt and half the asafoetida and lastly add well drained urad dal and run the mixer only twice or thrice (Use juice/inch option) to a coarse consistency. Take care that Urad dal should not be ground smooth.
In a greased idly plate, steam this mixture in idly pot for 5-8 minutes. Cool down and crumble it.
In a broad pan/kadai, heat the oil and season with mustard, asafoetida and curry leaves. Then add the steamed mixture and fry in medium flame till the mixture becomes dry..(3 min)
Lastly add grated coconut and fry for a minute.This mixture should be fluffy..
Take each rice flour ball. Flatten it into a small round shape.
Place 1 spoon of filling in the centre. Fold the dough and seal it. You can make any shape as you like.
Steam the kozhukkatais in a idli cooker for about 10 minutes until the rice flour dough is well cooked and looks shiny.

Notes:

Adding coconut is optional, but it enhances the taste very well
Keep the dough always closed and try to finish making the kozhukattais as soon as possible as keeping for long time may lead to cracking/dry kozhukattais
Grease your hands generously with oil each time you make kozhukattai, to get it smooth.

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The second recipe for picnic hampers is beef cutlet. This is a little sinful snack fried in oil and made with meat and potatoes. But for people who like meat and fried items, this would be ideal for picnics. This crunchy and crispy meat treat is a specialty from kerala. It is a good finger food or starter or snack for Indian parties and festivals. In christian marriages in kerala, Appam or Bread and Stew with cutlets is a popular combination.

Ingredients:

Beef - 250 grams

Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Big onion - 1

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Pepper powder - 1 tsp

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp

Potato (boiled) - 1

Garam masala powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Bread crumbs - to roll the cutlets

Egg white - 2 eggs

Oil - for deep frying

Method:

Chop the beef into small pieces. Wash and clean well.
Mix salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, chilly powder with the cleaned beef and marinate it for 30 minutes.
Cook the beef in pressure cooker for about 3 whistles or until they are softly cooked.
Once cool, take only the beef pieces (without the water) and add them to a mixer. Just pulse the beef pieces. Be careful not to grind them.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a non-stick pan, add ginger and garlic paste. Saute for 1 minute.
Add chopped onion saute until golden brown.
Add pepper powder and garam masala powder. Saute for another 1 minute.
Add the minced beef. Switch off the stove.
Once cool, add the mashed potatoes. Check for salt and mix everything together and evenly. The beef mixture is ready.
In a plate spread the bread crumbs and keep it ready.
Beat the egg whites and keep it ready.
Take a small portion of cutlet mix in your palm; make a small flat round shape.
Dip it into beaten egg white.
When egg whites well coated, place it into bread crumbs and cover/roll well.keep aside.
Do the processes until all cutlets mix complete.
Heat oil in a frying pan. When it’s hot enough for frying, place the shaped cutlets one by one.

Fry until crispy and golden. Remove from heat.
Serve hot and crispy with some tomato sauce or pudina chutney!!

Notes:

You can alternately buy and use minced beef. Directly add these to the sauted onions and cook in low heat. Do not add water. The water from the minced beef would be enough for cooking.

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Next in picnic hampers is a rice based recipe. As I said I love to go on long drives and sometimes I pack some mixed rice for lunch or dinner. I do this mainly because it is easy to eat with a spoon and we don't have to think of washing our hands and so on. If it is rotis or some other snacks, then we have to use our hands and I would be very uncomfortable to use my hands without washing / cleaning them because most of the times I would be driving.

This coriander rice or kothamalli chadham can also be packed for kids lunch boxes. Just add some fried cashews or fried groundnuts to make it more interesting. This is an easy no onion no garlic recipe. I often make this rice when there is a bunch of coriander leaves ready to go bad (rot). I usually make this rice with normal raw rice, but if made with basmati rice or jeera rice, then this might qualify for a rich pulao also!

Ingredients:

Raw rice – 1 cup

Coriander leaves – 1 bunch

Green chilli – 4

Thin coconut milk – 1 & 1/4 cup

Salt - as needed

To temper:

Ghee / Oil – 1 tbsp

Cardamom – 2

Cinnamon – 2 small pieces

Bay leaf - 1

Cumin seeds / Jeera – 1 tsp

Method:

Cut off the root part of coriander leaves and wash it. Grind it with green chillies with little water to a smooth paste.. I used 4 small chillies, so if its big reduce to 3.
Heat a small pressure cooker with ghee. Temper with the items given under “To temper” table in order.
Add the ground coriander, chilli paste. Fry in medium flame until water evaporates. Add the thin coconut milk.
Wash the rice and add to this. Add salt, mix well and boil until the rice is half done.
Keep the flame in low and cook for 12-14 minutes. Or you can give 2 whistles in medium flame. Once the pressure releases by itself, open to fluff the rice.

Enjoy with raita ans fryums!!!

Notes:

You can add ginger garlic paste along with the coriander paste. Or grind 2 garlic and one small piece of ginger along with the coriander leaves.
You can skip coconut milk, but it gives rich flavour and taste to this simple recipe.

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Starting with the next blogging marathon this week. I have opted for festival dishes for this week. Guru poornima is just around the corner and I Thought of posting some recipes connected to this festival.

I have never celebrated this festival and honestly I don't know the importance of festival. A Guru is a person who removes darkness (ignorance), holds our hand and shows us the light (knowledge) at the end of the tunnel. It is a blessing to get the grace of a guru, who guides us through the ups and downs in life.

I am starting this guru poornima celebration with a sweet - Basundi. It is a very delicious milk based dessert very popular in the north of India and is the closest cousin to condensed milk. Very rich and flavorful with the addition of elegant spices like saffron and cardamom. It will take you about an hour, but the end product would be something worth the effort.

Ingredients:

Whole Milk or 2% - 3 liters
Sugar - 3/4 to 1 cup sugar ( add more if you like it sweeter)
Saffron - a few threads
Cardamom - 5 pods powdered finely
Cashew nut or Pistachios or Almonds - a few sliced

Method:

Place the wide mouth pan on medium high. Add the milk and allow it to come to a boil. Turn to low and allow for the cream layer ( pal aadai) to form.
When it starts to form remove it and place in a bowl. Remember to stir so that the milk does not scotch.
Keep adding more of the cream to the bowl and soon the bowl will be filled with thick cream.
The milk would have reduced, thickened and the color of the thickened milk will appear to be an ivory color with a pinkish ting.
Then add the collected cream to the reduced milk. Add sugar, cardamom and saffron. Garnish with nuts of your choice. Allow to cool, place in the fridge until it is chilled and serve it cold on a hot summers day.

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Well last month I couldn't blog my recipes due to personal problems. I had opted for 4th of July dishes in the last marathon and had prepared some recipes for the same. But unfortunately could not post it. So I am making use of some of the recipes for this week's theme - No Bake Desserts!

On July 4, 1776, the thirteen colonies claimed their independence from England, an event which eventually led to the formation of the United States. So basically the way we make tri-color dishes for our independence or republic day, we have to make dishes which represents the colors in the US flag. Now the US flag has many stars, and the prominent colors are white, red and blue. In our cuisine, we can easily make recipes with natural colors for red and white. But its very difficult to find a natural color source for blue. So the recipe here I have is with artificial coloring agent.

I adapted the recipe from here.

Ingredients:

Coconut Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 6 tbsp

Powdered gelatin - 2 tsp

Water - 6 cups

Coloring agent - Red, blue

Method:

In a small cup sprinkle powdered gelatin over the cold water and let it stand until absorbed.
Combine the coconut milk and 2 tbsp sugar in a saucepan. Heat the mixture until just boiling.
Combine the remaining water and the remaining sugar. Heat the mixture until just boiling.
Split the water mixture into 2. Add red color in one half and blue color in the other half. Mix well and keep aside.
Microwave the gelatin mixture for 10-15 seconds, until melted and liquid.
Add this melted gelatin in all the 3 liquids - red water mixture, blue water mixture and coconut milk mixture. Allow the mixtures to cool to room temperature.
Arrange 6 glasses. Add 1/4th with the blue mixture. Freeze this for about 1 hour.
After 1 hour, remove the glasses. Now add the coconut milk mixture until the glass is filled 3/4th.
Refrigerate the glasses until the panna cotta mixture is set (another 1 hour).
Now add the red water mixture as the top layer.

Easy and interesting dessert is ready.

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The second recipe in line for "No bake recipes" is this layered custard. Custard preparation these days is no big deal. We get ready-made custard powder packets. We just have to boil milk with this custard powder and in minutes custard is ready. This would be a very good dessert for kids and also can be made quickly. I just made a little twist to this by adding some coloring agent and layering it.

Ingredients:

Custard powder ( Vanilla flavor) - 100 grams

Milk - 1 litre

Sugar - 350 grams

Coloring agent - Green, red

Decorative sugar crystals - few

Method:

Mix the custard powder in about one glass of milk and keep it aside.
Boil the remaining milk in a thick bottomed vessel.
Once the milk starts to raise in the vessel, lower the flame. Add sugar and mix well.
Now add the custard mixture and mix well. Keep stirring till the mixture thickens for about 5 minutes and then switch off the stove.
Divide the custard into 3 portions. In one portion add a little green color and in another portion add a bit of red color.
Now in glass cups, layer this custard and refrigerate it for about an hour.
Decorate it with sugar crystals just before serving.

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Rose Tea Cake

Qlecha

Sekerpare

Twisted Snail Buns

Uovo al Pomodoro

Whole Wheat Paav Buns

Vanilias Kifli

X - cookies

Yangpabbang

Zaatar - Pull Apart Bread

26 days of baking around the world

Kumbhil Appam

Rasgulla

Layered Banana Custard

Uzhundhu Kozhukattai

Beef Cutlet

Kothamalli Chadham

Basundi

Panna Cotta Shooters

Layered Custard