Tomato Chutney

There are many ways of doing tomatoes chutneys.  This is my version - it has a slight taste of sweet, sour and spice added to it....You can add a little sugar if you wish.....

It's an excellent dish with thosei (dosa), idlis and chapatis......

What you need:
5- 6 ripe tomatoes
2 big onions
2-3 garlic
small ginger
1 red chilly
1 -2 dry chilly
/2 tsp of tumeric powder
1 tsp of mustard seeds
1 tsp of urad dhall
a sprig of curry leaves
salt to taste
Coconut oil

How to do:

1. Chopped the tomatoes and onions.  Slice ginger and garlic. 
2. Cut the dry chillies in small pieces.
3. Slit and remove the seeds of the red chilly.
4. Heat coconut oil on a pan.  Once it is hot, add in the mustard and urad dhall.
5. When it starts to crackle, saute the onions till they are soft. 
6. Add in the chillies and curry leaves and saute for a few more minutes
7. Lastly add in the chopped tomatoes,tumeric and salt, mix well and cover the pan.
8. By covering the pan, more water will come out from the tomatoes.  Keep stirring to avoid the tomotoes from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
9. You can add water if the mixture is dry.
10. Once the tomatoes are soft and cooked, remove from the heat.  Let it cool for a short while and then blend to a fine puree.
11. Ready to serve....

Apricot (Orange) Sesame Cookies

The original recipes calls for apricot jam - i changed it to orange jam instead.

Apricot (Orange) Sesame Cookies..
courtesy of Wan Noor Baya of http://www.resipinet.com/

Ingredients
1 cup of butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of almond extract (I use vanilla essence)
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of salt
7 tbs of sesame seeds
6 tbs of apricot jam

Method

1. Cream butter, sugar and almond extract till fluffy.
2. Add flour, salt and mix together further.
3. Roll into 1 inch ball, roll over sesame seeds and make an indent to fill the jam.
4. Bake at 10-12mins or till slightly brown.

Note : Place apart the cookies as they tend to expand graciously.....

Sugee (Semolina) Cookies

This is another biscuit or cookies usually we entrusted to bake for divali when we were kids......another version of quick and easy baking....

Sugee (Semolina) Cookies

What you need
2 cups of semolina
1 cup of sugar castor
a pinch of cardamon
a pinch of salt
ghee, melted - enough to make a dough.

How to do

1. Preheat oven at 180C
2. Grind both semolina and sugar to a fine powder
3. Mix all the dry ingredients and gradually add the melted ghee till a soft dough is formed.

4. Roll into a small ball, indent slightly, place on baking tray and bake for 12-15mins.

Peanut & Almond Cookies

Ok the long awaited cookies that I made for Divali. 

This is one of the cookies which we do diligently every year when we were kids.  Remember sitting around to make balls of the dough.  It is quite easy and can be quite additive once we starts to snack on them.  Original recipes calls for only peanuts, however I decided to add on almond powder.  No regrets as it turned out very well indeed.....

Lets see the what you require for Peanuts & Almond Cookies.

PEANUTS & ALMOND COOKIES

2 cups of ground almonds
2.5 cups of ground peanuts - slight roasted and powdered
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp of baking powder
a pinch of salt
soya oil, sunflower oil or mazola oil enough to bind the flour

Method

1. Preheat oven at 180C for 10mins.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. Gradually add the oil and mix well till they form a dough.
4. Take a small amount of dough and roll into a ball and slightly flatten with a fork.
5. Brush with egg yolk onto the cookie and if you wish to decorate can place a small groundnut on it.
6. Bake at 180C for 15mins or till it is golden in color.
7. Remove from oven, leave it for a few minutes before removing from pan.

Happy 16th Birthday Varsha.....

I have been missing from the scene for sometime....loads of work and plenty to upload.....

My lovely princess turned 16 last.....Happy birthday darling....May God bless you with the best of everything....Love Amma and Appa and also Kirenraj.........

For her birthday she decided to bake own cake and obviously a chocolate one too....She baked one of the same which did for her gathering at home with her friends....It turned out superb.....only she had a go on it without the topping............. Since she likes MnM's very much, I decided to decorate the car with it...so the colorful cake....

The first one she did was rather dark in color although moist and so today we decided to alter here and there.  Lets look at the recipes..............

Recipe courtesy of http://www.resipi.net/  This is one of those recipes that are simple and direct and plus you do not need a cake mixer...Ideal for beginners...

MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup of cooking oil ( I used corn oil)
1 cup of castor sugar
1 cup of brown sugar

Ingredient (A)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup of fresh chocolate milk
1/2 cup of water mixed with 2tsb of nescafe

Ingredient (B)
2tsb sodium bicarbonate
1tsb baking powder
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
2 cups of self raising flour

Topping
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1/2 cup of condensed milk
1 tbs of oil

Method

1. Preheat oven at 170C
2. Grease the sides of the bottom and sides of the pan or lined it.
3. Sieve ingredients (B), set aside.
4. Mix all of ingredients (A) and set aside.
5. Whisk egg till it is fluffy.
6. Add sugar and whisk further.
7. Gradually add oil and whisk.
8. Add the dry ingredients (B) little by little alternating with the wet ingredients (A). Mix well
9. Bake for 1 hour or till done.
10. For the topping - add all the ingredients in a non stick pan, cook over slow fire till it looks glossy and ok.  Glaze over the cooled cake.

For the second cake, I omitted the brown sugar and use instead 2 cups of fine sugar, omited the choclate milk and nescafe - used 2 cups of fresh milk.

Divali - A Time to Rejoice.....

Have been busy lately and not able to post many dishes.....have to plan better.

Divali or Deepavali is just a few days away ~ November 5....This is our second time celebrating away from our homeland....

Being away does not means no celebration, as usual what is Divali without the many indian tradional snacks, cookies and cakes.....and more food on the divali day itself.

Wishing all a joyous and prosperous Divali ~ Inniya Deepavali Valzthukal, Divali Mubarak Ho.

I prepared muruku and acchi muruku with my mother's help.  Will share them with you later...I made a few types of cookies ~ Smarties Cookies (I have posted previously), Orange Sesame Cookies, Groundnuts & Almonds Cookies, Sujee Cookies & Honey Cornflakes (another one which I have posted earlier).

Signing off till we meet with the recipe updates/post in a few days - Divali Mubarak Ho...........Looking forward to nice time with friends and family...

p/s: picture greetings is Varsha's photography work....