Magic Cookies

Home made cookies !!! Don't they sound great?? They taste awesome. Here is the recipe from my friend Soumya.



Ingredients:
1) 1.5 cup graham cracker crumbs
2) 0.5 cup all purpose flour
3) 2 tsp baking powder
4) 1 cup chopped walnuts
5) 3/4th cup grated dry coconut
6) 3 tsp butter
7) 0.5 cup chocolate chips (I used the white ones)
8) 1 can sweetened condensed milk



Preparation:

1) Mix all ingredients together.
2) Preheat oven to 375 F,
3) Drop cookie sized mixture into cookie sheets.
4) Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the dough is brown

Fish Salad

If you are trying to turn towards the healthy side of eating with minimal cooking, here you go,



Ingredients:
Lettuce leaves - handful
Grape tomatoes - 5
Cucumber - 10 slices
baby carrots - 5
Salmon - 5 pieces
ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
chilly powder - 1 tsp
cummin powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
salt

Preparation:

1. Mix ginger garlic paste, chilly powder, cummin powder, turmeric powder, salt into a smooth paste and marinate the fish pieces with the paste for 1 hour
2. Bake the fish at 375 F in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes
3. Arrange the lettuce leaves, cucumber, carrots, grape tomato in a salad bowl and the bakes fish. Enjoy your salad with your favorite salad dressing

Pongal Special

Our pongal celebrations started with offering of ven pongal/sambar and sakara pongal to god.





Ven Pongal:

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal -1/4 cup
Cummin seeds - 1 tsp
peppercorn - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 10 leaves
casews - handful
ghee - 1 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Cook the rice and dal together until it mashes.
2. In a pan heat ghee and add curry leaves and the coarsely ground cummin and pepper
3. Fry casews separately in ghee
4. Add the cooked rice to the pan and mix well and decorate it with casews


Sakara Pongal:

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
vellam - 1 medium sized
coconut grated - 2 tbsp
caswes - handful
ghee - 2 tbsp
elachi - 4

Preparation:
1. Fry casews separately in ghee and keep aside
2. Cook rice separate and keep it aside
3. Add very little water to vellam and heat it in low flame
4. Let the vellam completely dissolve in water and keep stirring until it reaches the string consistency
5. Grind the coconut and elachi in the mixie without adding any water so that the coconut gets grated
6. Heat the ghee in a pan and add the cooked rice, the vellam from step 4 and the ground stuff from step 5.
7. Add the casews and turn off the stove when the required consistency is reached

Chicken and Egg Fried Rice

After many tries found this recipe for chicken egg fried rice exactly like the ones we get in the restaurants in India. Everybody at home loved this.




Ingredients:

Chopped carrots - 1/4 cup
chopped beans - 1/4 cup
peas - 1/4 cup
chopped spring onions - 1/4 cup
chopped onions - 1/4 cups
pepper - 1 tsp
Basmati Rice - 2 cups
eggs - 4
finely chopped chicken - 1/2 cup
chopped ginger and garlic - 2 tbsp


Preparation:

1. Marinate the chicken with turmeric, salt and yogurt for 1 hour
2. Wash the basmathi rice in hot water. Heat 6 times water in a thick bottom open pan and add the washed rice. Let it cook for 10 minutes or until its almost done. Turn off the stove, drain the water, spread the 3/4th cooked rice in a board vessel and let it dry.
3. Add the chopped vegetables (carrots, beans and peas) in a bowl and add water just to cover the vegetables and microwave it for 5 minutes.
4. Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions, ginger and garlic.
5. Once the onions turn golden brown, add the chicken.
6. Fry til the chicken cooks completely and then add the eggs, adding pepper and salt fry until the eggs are cooked along with the chicken.
7. Once the eggs are done, add the boiled vegetables from the microwave.
8. Now add the spring onions and in medium flame mix the cooked rice and serve.

Stuffed Mushrooms

This is a very simple and healthy appetizer or a snack. This surely is a great treat for the mushroom lovers. Enjoy.




Ingredients:

Button mushrooms - 1 pack (From Sams Club)
Organic baby spinach - 1 pack (From Sams Club)
Butter - 1 tbsp
Garlic and herb seasoning (I use the Tone's with no salt and no msg from Sams club) - 1 tsp
Grated cheese - 1 tbsp (any kind will do)


Preparation:

1. Heat butter in a pan and add the spinach. Cook for 5 minutes until the spinach is done.
2. Add the garlic and herb seasoning and the grated cheese in low flame and let the stuffing become little sticky.
3. Wash and clean the button mushrooms. Remove the stems and use only the caps.
4. Stuff the mushrooms caps with the spinach stuffing from step 2
5. Line up the mushrooms with the stuffing in a tray and put it inside the oven and cook in 350F for 15 to 20 minutes until the mushrooms are done.

Spicy Chicken gravy and masala

This gravy turned out awesome and I referred the Spicy Chicken Masala Curry from Sailu's food and changed the recipe to my liking. The best part of the gravy is that it does not need coconut at all and still gives a thick, tasty kurma style flavor and consistency. It was great with dosa/iddli/chappatti/white rice.

The chicken masala is really spicy and has a great aroma of the Indian spices. So its a great food for the spice lovers. It tastes great with white rice and rasam.



Ingredients for the spicy chicken gravy:

Chicken breasts - 1 pound
onions chopped - 1/2 cup
tomatoes chopped - 1/2 cup
chilly powder - 1 tsp
cummin powder - 1/2 tsp
corriander powder - 1 tsp
pepper powder - 3/4 tsp
turmeric - 1/2 tsp
curd - 2 tbsp
casews - 6
curry leaves - 10
garlic - 3 pieces
ginger - same quantity as garlic
cloves - 4
cinnamon - 2 small sticks

Preparation of the gravy:

1. Marinate the cut chicken with curd, chilly powder, turmeric and salt
2. In a pan heat the cloves, cinnamon, curry leaves and casews and grind it into a fine powder
3. Grind ginger and garlic and make a paste
4. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions, paste from 3, tomatoes.
5. Add cummin powder, corriander powder, pepper powder and cook until it lets out the oil.
6. Turn off the stove and cool the contents and grind it into a paste.
7. Now heat oil again in the same pan and add the marinated chicken and let the chicken cook in it own water that it lets out.
8. When the chicken is almost done, add the paste from 6 and the powder from 2
9. Add water as much as you need and cook until the desired consistency is reached.



Ingredients for the spicy chicken masala:

chicken breasts - 1 pound
onion chopped - 1/2 cup
garlic - 2 pieces
ginger - same quantity as garlic
peppercorn - 10
cummin seeds - 1 tsp
cloves - 5
cinnamon - 2 small sticks
elachi - 3
poppy seeds - 2 tsp
red chillies - 5
curd - 2 tbsp
turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

1. Marinate the cut chicken with curd, turmeric and salt
2. Grind ginger and garlic and make a paste
3. In a pan heat cloves, cinnamon, elachi, cummin seeds, peppercorns, red chillies, poppy seeds ad grind it to a fine powder
4. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions.
5. Then add the paste from 2
6. Turn off the stove and cool the contents and grind it into a paste.
7. Now heat oil again in the same pan and add the marinated chicken and let the chicken cook in it own water that it lets out.
8. When the chicken is almost done add the paste from 6 and the powder from 3
9. Cook until the oil separates.

Tomato Rice

A very simple dish that can be prepared in no time. The tomato rice with chips or papad is a good combination.



Ingredients:

Basmathi Rice - 1 cup
onions cut thin long - 1/2 cup
tomatoes chopped - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 4
garlic chopped - 2 tbsp
chilly powder - 1 tsp
cummin powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
curry leaves - 5
mustard and urad for seasoning - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Wash the basmathi rice in hot water and cook it in the rice cooker.
2. In a pan heat oil, add mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves
3. Add onions and garlic and let it turn brown
4. Now add the tomatoes and the masala powders and salt.
5. Add little water and cook until it lets the oil out. Turn off the stove. You can use this curry as a gravy for dosa/iddli as well.
6. Mix the cooked rice and the curry gently