Bruschetta

One of the easiest appetizers and tasty too.

French bread - 1 loaf sliced diagonally about 1 inch thick

Tomatoes chopped and deseeded

Curly Parsley leaved chopped

Garlic cloves - 1- 2 chopped very fineley

Salt

Pepper

Vinegar

Parmesan cheese and Mozzarella cheese

Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix together the deseeded, chopped tomatoes, parsley leaves , garlic, salt, pepper and a drizzle of vinegar. Brush the sliced french bread pieces with olive oil and let it stay in the oven for 3 minutes . Take out and spread the mixed topping and sprinkle with parmesan and mozzarella cheese and let bake for another 5- 8 minutes till the bottom is toasted and the cheese melts on the top. Serve hot.

Trifle Cake

Yesterday was my husband's birthday and I decided to prepare the cake by myself. This recipe is inspired by one of the cakes that we all love from Tunnel BBQ. It is really easy to prepare and semi home made.

Ingredients

French Vanila cake mix - 1 (Makes 2 - 9 inch round cakes)

Custard - 1 cup (You can prepare by yourself with milk and custard powder or use the Jello cook and serve custard)

Fruits - I used peaches and pineapples. YOu can use strawberries, kiwis etc to make it more colorful.

Cool whip - 1 big tub

Prepare the cakes one day ahead so that it is set and cool to assemble. Also prepare the custard and let cool down. To arange the cake , trim the tops of the cakes so that it is even and flat. Drizzle the syrup from the canned fruits on top of the first cake which forms the bottom layer so that it is moist. Dont drizzle too much. Spread a layer of cooled custard on top of this, not too thin nor too thick. next layer with cut up fruits on top and a thin layer of cool whip. Place the next cake on top and repeat the process. Finally cover the sides and top with the cool whip and smoothen it. Decorate with fruits. If you like alminds, cover the sides of the cake with slivered almonds all over. Strawberries and Kiwis on top will add color and taste. Let the trifle cool for atleast 5 hours before serving. You will love it. ( I used the lite canned fruits and lite cool whip, so the cake wasn't that sweet at all, so you can make your preferences).

Chicken Biriyani

At my home, my mom usually prepares 2 versions of biriyani, one is more toward the malabar side and the other southern type. I always like the malabar style as it is more pleasing to see to me and less of masala too. So I always prepare my version of the malabar style. I have pictures taken at various stages before baking, with the chicken masala part and the layering. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures just before serving...........

Ingredients for the Chicken Masala:
Chicken pieces – 3 lbs
Onion sliced – 1
Ginger – 2 inch piece
Garlic pods – 10
Green chillies – 10
Shallots – a few
Yogurt – 2 tbsp
Lemon juice – 1 medium lime
Tomatoes – 2 small
Garam masala – 1 tsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Cilantro and mint leaves chopped
Salt

Rice
Basmati rice – 4 cups
Cardamom – 2
Cinnamon stick
Cloves -4
Whole black pepper – 5
Hot water – 6 cups
Oil – 2 tbsp
Salt

Decoration and layering
Fried onions
Cashew nuts and raisins
Cilantro leaves and mint leaves
Yellow color mixed in ¼ cup of rose water

Method:
Chicken Masala
Grind the ginger, garlic, green chillies and shallots in a chopper. Sauté the sliced onions and add the ground ginger, garlic, green chillies and shallots. Add the cubed tomatoes. Mix in the yogurt and lemon juice and salt. Mix in the chicken pieces and garam masala. If required add some hot water, just enough for the chicken to get cooked. Once the chicken is cooked, add some chopped cilantro leaves and mint leaves.
Rice
Prepare ghee rice in another pan, pour 2 tbsp oil and when hot add the whole spices (Cardamom, cinnamon stick and cloves). Add the cleaned and drained rice and sauté for 2 minutes and then add the hot water and salt to taste. Cook the rice till all the water is absorbed.

In a deep baking dish, layer the chicken mixture; sprinkle some cilantro, mint leaves, fried onions, cashew nuts and raisins on top. Then layer half of the cooked rice on top. Pour half the yellow color mixture in a marble fashion over the rice. Sprinkle some cilantro, mint leaves, fried onions, cashew nuts and raisins. Repeat the process with second layer of rice. Tightly cover with aluminum foil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake the biriyani for 15 – 20 minutes. Serve hot with Yogurt salad, mint chutney, pappad and sweet and sour green chilly curry.ps. If there is enough gravy in the chicken masala, you can keep aside a little from that and while layering the rice pour some gravy in between the layers

Pineapple Pachadi

This is one of my favourite recipes that I always include in my vegetarian sadyas. All the credit goes to my Grandma who taught me.

Ingredients:
Pineapple chunks – 1 cup
Tomato cubed into big pieces– 1
Red grapes – ¼ cup
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Red chilly powder – ¼ tsp
Shredded coconut – ½ cup
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp + ¼ tsp for seasoning
Green chilly – 2
Yogurt – 1 cup
Red chilly – 2
Curry leaves
Oil for seasoning

Salt to taste

Sugar a pinch
Method:
Cook the pineapple and tomato chunks with red chilly powder, turmeric powder and salt. Grind together the coconut, ½ tsp mustard seeds and green chillies to a fine paste and mix in the yogurt. To the warm and cooked pineapple-tomato pieces, add the grapes and the ground coconut-yogurt mixture too. Finally season with ¼ tsp of mustard seeds, dry red chillies and curry leaves. Add a pinch of sugar too.

Chicken Seekh Kabobs

This was another recipe that I prepared for the cooking class last week and this was the prize winning recipe for the Kalamazoo Gazatte's Holiday Cookbook Contest this year. Included is a picture taken during the contest and the other one is during the cooking class.

Ingredients:
Ground chicken – 1 pound
Cilantro leaves - ¼ cup
Jalapeno peppers – 2
Ginger paste/powder – ½ tea spoon
Garlic paste/powder – 1 tea spoon
Almonds / Cashew nuts – 8 – 10
Egg yolks - 1
Salt – to taste
Garam masala powder – 1 tea spoon
Black pepper powder – 1 tea spoon
Oil – 1 table spoon
Lemon juice – 1 table spoon
Method:
Soak the almonds/ cashew nuts in warm water for 10 minutes. Grind the cilantro, jalapeno peppers, ginger paste/powder, garlic paste/powder and soaked almonds/cashew nuts to a paste. Mix this with the ground chicken, egg yolk, salt, garam masala powder and white pepper powder. Let sit for half an hour in the refrigerator. Divide the mixture into six to eight equal portions. Moisten your palms with water and spread each portion onto a skewer and shape them into kabobs or rods of four to five inches length. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking tray with aluminum foil and grease the sheet. Bake the kabobs for about 10-15 minutes. Brush the kabobs with the oil and cook for two more minutes. Brush lemon juice on the kabobs and serve hot in a bed of cooked white rice and mint chutney.

Preparation time – 15 minutes
Servings – 6

Cream of rice pudding

Last week, I offered a cooking class at the Young Chef's Academy in our city. It was a great experience. This is one of the recipes that I presented that day. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
Milk – 2 cups
Cream of rice – ½ cup
Sugar – 1/3 cup
Salt – a pinch
Cardamom powder – a pinch
Rose water – 1 tbsp
Almonds/Pistachios for topping
Honey for topping
Method:
Boil the milk in slow fire. Add the cream of rice and keep stirring with a wire whisk. Add the sugar and let cook for 2-3 minutes till the milk thickens. If you feel it is too thick add little more milk. Add the cardamom powder, salt and rose water. Pour in individual serving dishes and decorate with almond and pistachio slices. Serve cold with a dash of honey.

Preparation time – 5 minutes
Servings – 6

Chicken 65

My mom used to run a restaurant back home in Kerala. One of our favourite recipes was the Chef’s Chicken 65. I would like to share this recipe with you with slight modifications.

To marinate:
Boneless chicken pieces - 8 boneless thigh pieces
Ginger – garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Black Pepper powder – ½ tsp
Red chilly powder – 1 tsp

Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Rice flour – 2 tbsp
Egg – 1

Oil for deep frying
Marinate the chicken pieces with the ingredients for 15 minutes and deep fry the chicken pieces.

Chopped ginger – 1 tbsp
Chopped garlic – 1 tbsp
Red Chilly paste – 1 tbsp (Can substitute with chilli garlic sauce)
Red color – a pinch mixed in water
Black pepper powder – ½ tsp
Garam Masala – ½ tsp

Sauté the finely chopped ginger and garlic. Add the chilly paste, black pepper and salt. Add the red color mixed in water and another ¼ th of a cup of water and when boiling, add the fried chicken pieces and let the chicken get coated in the gravy and get dry. Decorate with green onions.

ps. Please adjust the spices according to your taste.

Chocolate Éclair Squares

I tried out this recipe from Nabisco’s website. It came out well and easy to prepare in less than 10 minutes with just 5 ingredients. The recipe used vanilla pudding mix, which I replaced with white chocolate pudding mix the second time and we liked it better.

Vanilla Wafers - 48 (I used the Nabisco brand – Nilla wafers; even store brands would be good)
Milk – 2 cups
White Chocolate pudding mix / Vanilla pudding mix – 2 packets
Cool Whip - 8 oz (1 tub )
Semi sweet chocolate chips – ½ cup

Beat the pudding mix with the milk for 2 minutes and mix in the cool whip. Divide this mixture into 3 parts for each layer of the wafers. In an 8 inch square dish, arrange 16 wafers at the bottom and spread 1/3 of the pudding mix and arrange 16 more wafers on top of the pudding mix. Repeat the procedure. So finally we will have 3 wafer layers and 3 pudding layers. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds and mash it with a spoon so that there aren’t any lumps. Fill this in a frosting bag and drizzle the top of the pudding with melted chocolate. Instead of a frosting bag we can use small zip lock bags, with the chocolate fillings filled to one of the corners of the bag and nipping the tip. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Malli-Mulaku aracha meen (fish) curry

For lunch back home in Kerala, mostly we have fish curry and rice. At my in-laws place it is very compulsory to have fish curry for lunch and even dinner. So the first thing at the kitchen at my in-laws place would be reheating the left over fish curry which are always made in the earthen pots or making preparations for new fish curry. I have never seen my mom-n-law keeping the leftover fish curry in the refrigerator. The last thing that she does at night and the first thing in the morning would be reheating the curry in the chatti. I always feel that the fish curry is at its best when prepared in the earthen pots and I have managed to bring these curry chattis here in US and always prepare the fish curries in it. There is something special in it. In central Kerala where I belong to, fish curry is popularly prepared with coconut, but this one that I prepared is without coconut usually good with big fish. Today I prepared the curry with fresh monk fish which is a mild flavored fish that I tired which came out well. This curry is equally good with marlin and mahi-mahi pieces. In Kerala we mostly prepare with king fish and other bigger fish.

Cleaned fish pieces – 1 lb
Chilly powder – 1 tbsp
Coriander powder – 2 tbsp
Turmeric – ½ tsp
Fennel powder – 1 tsp
Onion – 1/4th of a big one (If you have small onions/shallots – may be 3-4)
Green chilly -2
Curry leaves
Oil – 2-3 tbsp
Kudam Puli (Gamboge) – 1-2 small pieces soaked in water
Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp
In a small frying pan, dry roast the red chilly powder and coriander powder. Make sure it doesn’t burn. Grind the onions and the roasted powder with a little water to fine paste. Season the oil with fenugreek seeds and curry leaves. Add the onion/red chill/coriander powder paste and fry for sometime till the oil separates. Add turmeric and fennel powder and the cleaned fish pieces with kudam puli, salt and some water (1 cup) and let the fish cook and oil comes on top. Tastes best with rice.

Kale Thoran

We love leafy vegetables and therefore miss the spinach/cheera that we get back at Kerala both the red and green. the frozen spinach/palak that we get here is watery and good with daal but not for thoran. I tried making thorans with the fresh green and red kale leaves that is available in the the local stores and came out good and very simialar to our cheera thoran.

Red / Green Kale bunch- 1

Scrapped coconut - 1/4 cup

Garlic - 2 pods

Green chilly - 2

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Coarsely grind the coconut, garlic and green chillies. Season the oil with mustard seeds and add the finely chopped kale leaves and the ground coconut mixture with salt to taste. Cook in slow fire till the leaves get cooked. This goes well with rice or rotis.

Rava Idli

Usually at my home, we make idlis with urad daal and rice soaked and grinded to a batter and let to ferment overnight. We first tasted rava idlis at Pondicherry from one of our professor's place. We liked it and it is so easy to make, more or less instant, no worries of soaking, grinding or fermenting, especially, here in US at different times of the year with different seasons. And more over it tastes good by itself even without chutneys or sambar. Go ahead and try it.

Rava (Semolina) – 2 cups
Butter milk / Yogurt – 2 cups
Ginger chopped – 1 tsp
Green chilly chopped – 1 tsp
Salt
Baking Soda – a pinch
Oil – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Urad daal – ½ tsp
Asafoetida – a pinch
Curry leaves chopped

Mix together rava, buttermilk/yogurt, ginger and green chillies chopped and add salt to taste. Season the oil with mustard seeds, urad daal, asafoetida and chopped curry leaves and pour to the idli batter. Add a pinch of baking soda to the mixture and set aside for ½ - 1 hr. Grease the idli dishes and pour the batter and steam the idlis. Serve hot with chutney. Makes 16 idlis.

Crab Rangoon

This is an easy appetizer to make which is semi-home made. I usually buy the wonton wrappers available at the local grocery store.
Wonton wrappers – 12
Crab meat – 1 small tin
Cream cheese – ½ tub (4oz)
Pepper powder – ½ tsp (Or even red chilly flakes are good too)
Egg - 1
Mix together the crab meat cream cheese and pepper powder for the filling. Beat one egg and keep aside. Take a spoonful of the filling and place it in the middle of the wonton. Brush the sides with the egg wash and seal the sides with the diagonal corners touching each other so that it makes a triangle. Once all the wontons are prepared, deep fry them and serve hot with sweet and sour sauce.

Salmon Bake

My son is a fish freak and so we always have fish at home. Initially I used to buy the frozen fish that we get at the Indian stores but we got fed up with that as it didn’t taste good at all. So started trying the fish available at the local grocery store. To our surprise, Meijer close to us has a lot of variety of fish which we can even order as steaks, fillets or whole fish which they clean the scales and skin and cut according to our requirement. Our favorites are the Marlin and Mahi-mahi. The fish biriyani from marlin is excellent.I will include the fish biriyani recipe some time soon. Once in a while we buy Salmon fillets which I just use for baking, some how I don’t like it for making curries especially if there are left over’s it is horrible.
To Marinate
Salmon Fillet – 1 piece
Salmon rub – 4tbsp (I use the Sweet Citrus & spice rub by McCormick)
Black Pepper powder – 1tsp
Chilli garlic sauce – 2 tsp
Combine the above ingredients together to a paste and rub the fish with this and keep aside for 15 minutes. Bake the marinated fish at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
Sauce
Ginger finely chopped – 2 tsp
Garlic finely chopped – 2 tsp
Chilli garlic sauce – 1 tbsp
Pepper powder – ½ tsp
Meanwhile sauté finely chopped ginger and garlic in a tbsp of oil and when slightly brown add the chilli garlic sauce, pepper and 2 tbsp of water and turn it off when it changes to a thick sauce. Mix in some chopped green onions . Before serving the fish pour this sauce over the fish and decorate with few more green onions.

Coconut Milk Pudding

This is one of my friend’s recipe which I modified a bit. Her recipe had coconut milk taken from fresh coconut scraped with fresh milk. Instead of that I now use the coconut milk available in tins. My husband likes this dessert a lot.

Coconut Milk – 1 tin (400 ml). (The lite coconut milk works good as well)
Milk – same quantity as that of coconut milk (400 ml, I measure in the same tin and use 2%)
Condensed Milk – 1 tin (Fat free is good enough)
Gelatin – 3 tsp (I usually use the halal gelatin)
Cornflakes for topping

Mix together the coconut milk, 2% milk and condensed milk. In slow fire warm the mixture, no need to boil. Turn off the heat. Meanwhile warm 3tbsp of water and melt the gelatin in it. Add the gelatin to the milk mixture and mix nicely. Pour the mixture to a dish and cool the pudding. While serving, top it with crushed cornflakes. This time since I didn’t have any cornflakes, I tried it with the Kashi Go lean crunch cereal which we felt better than the cornflakes as it was little bit more crunchier and had roasted almond pieces too.