Onion Kheer (Payasam)

Very happy to type a blog after 2 1/2 years gap. I know it is a long period, but things have changed a lot, so I needed the break. You friends were too good, though I was not active, many of you visited my blog frequently and dropped some comments. Thanks a lot for that. This happiness kindled me to kick start my blog once again.

Let start with something sweet today by making ONION KHEER.
I come to know about this kheer aka pudding from my neighbor who had this in a restaurant in a 5 star hotel for dessert. I was surprised when I heard this, and was itching to try the recipe. Finally found an occasion to try it last week.

Good thing Google  didn't disappoint me when I searched for the recipe. Found the recipe in couple of sites. I tried this from a cookery blog My Dhaba, If you like to give it a try like me, click here to go to  the recipe .
Note : To get rid of the pungent smell, I boiled the cut onions in water and drained it, repeated the process again.

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Enjoy the onion kheer hot or cold, either way it is tasted yummy.

Dates Bread

Another bread in series. I bookmarked this recipe long back and tried this few days before. Wonderful healthy recipe.

I am a chocoholic, used to have a packet of chocolate in the fridge. Some months ago, I replaced them with  dates. More concern about my health, wanted to stay healthy, so only... I was eating regularly, after few days I stopped it, since it was too sweet.

Since we didn't eat, the whole 2 lb box was kept untouched. Long long ago, I found this recipe in "Parita's World" and bookmarked it and waited for a loaf pan. Last month, when I was shopping with my in-laws , I was telling the same above story and they bought me the loaf pan.
From that day, it has been raining breads in my kitchen.

Nanaimo Bars

At last I did it...

Hope you didn't forget my earlier post ' Cocoa burfi' and my experiment with Nanaimo bars. And also I promised that Hit or Flop I will share with you all.

I tried Nanaimo bars yesterday and here is the result. My first two layers were perfect, had a little difficulty in the third layer. Yet it was a big hit.

Nanaimo bars are rich in taste. No simple words can fully describe the taste of it, unless you try one. Nutty bottom layer filled with lots of Walnuts, Coconut, wafers, sweet and cocoa. Middle layer with soft custard Icing and the Top layer with rich chocolaty taste. Want to try this recipe at once, pls click here for the recipe with clear steps and photos from Chef in You.

Thus comes to frutition, one of my long pending chocolate dreams.

Fresh Plum bread

 I baked bread last week for the first time. Baking bread has been my desire for long time. As once DK said, even I used to think baking bread is only possible in the bakery and big oven. From what I gathered from many cookery blog I realised that this might be possible even at my home. So I tried a recipe from my favorite site, Chef in you

I tried this recipe using Sour cream instead of Butter milk. Also I topped this bread with lots of walnuts and oats. After an hour the aroma filled the whole house. After waiting for few more minutes, delicately took the bread from the pan.

This is again one more sweet surprise to my in-laws. It tasted little sour, sweet with each bite leaving a rich and delightful taste of plum and nuts. If you like to try this bread, pls click here .

Savory Muffin

My husband always asks me to try any savory type baking. I will tell some reasons to escape from him and from savory baking. Few days ago, before arrival of my in-laws I bought a packet of Corn meal, searched  and found many recipes. In that, I tried the one for which I had all the ingredients ready at home . Tadaan..... It is savory cheese corn muffins.

Its a easy and a wonderful recipe. Main ingredients needed are 

2 measures of self raising flour,

1 measure corn meal

More than a cup of cheese.

Milk used as binding agent. As per taste salt and pepper should be added. If we wish we can also add some fresh herbs for the color and taste. Also add 2 tsp of Olive oil.

Mix all the dry ingredients first and then add milk and slowly fold the flour with milk and form a thick batter. Now pour the batter in the muffin plate and bake  in  a preheated oven at 350 F for 15 - 20 minutes until the muffins become golden colour.  

I tried this recipe from Priya's Easy and Tasty recipes.  

Tried and Tasted - The week that was

Its exactly a week since my in-laws came here. To showcase my newfound culinary talent I am doing different dishes in the evening. We usually do normal South Indian food for our meal. Since they haven't fully recovered from jet lag ,while they are asleep during the afternoon, I silently sneak into the kitchen and finish up everything before they get up.
So everyday its a sweet surprise for them.

One day I did 'Coconut Raisin Oats Cookies'. Its my husband's all time favorite. My cookie box will never go empty. This cookie is a must item when we go for a long drive. I tried this recipe from the Madhuram's eggless cooking . For our PA trip, I did oats cookies - 4 times of original measure.

Whenever I see any stew recipe in Food network channel I like to try it once without the meat. I was waiting for an opportunity to do a colorful vegetable stew. The time has come to try it. Oh yes, I did last week for dinner. It was so colorful and rich in taste, here and there the stew had the Indian touch.

Aren't these cut vegetables looking cute ? Similarly, my stew looked very colorful. Since I was in over excitement I didn't take the picture of my stew :(

Tuesday morning, I received my new Mandolin Slicer from Amazon. Can't wait to try that, wanted to slice something to know how it works. My husband warned me before leaving to office not to play with that. I wanted to surprise him also. Without making any noise, took some potatoes, did a thin slice and baked it in the oven for 400 Fahrenheit for 20 - 25 mins. That's it my Potato Chips were ready. I tried this baked chips from Divya Vikram's 'Dil Se'... This is again a recipe where I was waiting for a nice slicer to try it.
Unfortunately I didn't click this too, this all because of my husband. He didn't gave the chips bowl to take a snap :))

Yesterday, I did a very new recipe, which I didn't heard before at all. Want to know what ???

Tadaan, Its Mango kesari. When I was looking for a sweet recipe in Mango, I got this Mango kesari recipe from Priya's 'Easy N Tasty' recipes.  The original recipe had a pinch of food coloring, but I didn't add any, since the natural colour itself looked nice. Bright warm yellow !!!

I am rocking in my kitchen. Thanks to all food bloggers.

Sweet Surprise

After the food mela event, I was bit busy in other work, so took a break for a week from my blogs and was doing some cleaning and clearing work to welcome my in-laws. Oh yes, they are here with us now. I am so happy :))

The chocolate cake which I made last week for the Food mela tasted good. It melted like ice cream in the mouth, everybody enjoyed it and appreciated me a lot. End of the day nothing left for us. I decided to do the same to give a sweet surprise to my in-laws when they come home.

 Instead of chocolate cake I tried cup cakes. The recipe was exactly the same, instead of baking in 8" pan I baked them in a muffin tray with reduced timing. With the store bought frosting I decorated them.

After a tedious 24 hour journey, as soon as they entered I gave them a good coffee and surprised them with these cupcakes.

Say NO to Deep fry !

Nowadays all of us are more health (fat) conscious. The moment we think of eating fatty items we immediately think about the health, our intake calories, daily workouts, blah, blah, blah....

I like to eat deep fried snacks like hot spicy pakoras, bajjis, Home made chips etc, occasionally, when I am enjoying the good weather like a rainy day, breezy evening, or bone chilling cold. Before marriage my mom used to make delicious evening snacks . If I talk about fat, high calories to her, she would laugh at me and  say that once in a while if you eat nothing will happen. She is my role model in cooking and in eating.

After marriage, I am also little concerned about the health. Not cooking deep fry items. (This because of my hubby). But I was surprised when I come to know about baking instead of deep frying.  Thanks to all, whoever did this research and shared your healthy recipe to us.

Some of the items I regularly do at home for nice yummy, spicy crunchy snacks.

Pakodas

When I saw this recipe first, felt as if I got a treasure pot from nowhere. I couldn't believe that we can bake pakodas instead of deep frying.
I tried two different kinds of pakodas - crunchy one and a bit chewy one.

Procedure : For Crunchy type
All the steps are same except frying. Final step, line up on the baking sheet and bake it @ 400 F for about 20 min. I tried this recipe from 'Trendy Relish'.
Procedure : For Chewy type
Add equal measure of Besan flour with Whole wheat flour and little Rice flour. Add onions and Cilantro (optional). Without fail add chilly powder or green chillies and salt as per your taste. Mix it with little more water (Like Roti dough consistency).  Baking procedure same as above.
PS: I forgot the site from where I got the recipe from.

Paruppu vadai

A must recipe in all our festive menu.
Procedure : All the steps are same as we do at home except frying. Instead of putting in to the oil, line up on the cookie, sheet brush little oil on batter and bake it @ 400 F for about 15 min on each side. That's it ! the taste is similar to how we deep fry it. This recipe is from Chef in you . Hm...one more information our vadai is called as 'Falafel' here. For more details check here

Baked Nippattu

Nippattu, the name itself is so fascinating, isn't it !!! It is a savory cookie. The main Ingredient is Maida, like other cookies 'Baking powder' is an important ingredient, rest all other ingredients like spices, onions etc. are optional and as per our taste.
It is a Karnataka recipe, I tried from website called ' Red Chillies '. You can see the ingredients and the procedures of this baked Nippattu here .

Say NO to deep fry and enjoy eating healthy food.

Recipes,Tried and Tasted - Muffins

Apple Raisin Muffins, today's Special in our Menu

Whenever I bake cookies or cakes here, next day I will call home (India) and tell everybody what I did and how it tasted. My sweet manni (Sister-in-law) once asked why I hadn't try Muffins yet.
The very next day I went and got my Muffin tray.

Then I sat down and searched for recipe in 'Google', the first hit was 'Madhuram's Eggless Cooking'. In her recipe I chose Apple raisin mini Muffin. Why I selected this is because, I had many apples at home :)) LOL. Also the procedure was pretty simple.

First time I was baking muffins, read her notes and updates for couple of times and carefully followed all the steps of Madhuram's. This is the first recipe I tried from her site and liked the way she writes; especially her warm and personal tone.

My hard work got answered... The muffins tasted great. The grated apple gave a nice texture and taste to the muffins. For the original recipe pls click here. From then I started doing lot of different muffins.

Recipes, Tried and tasted (tested) - Thattai

The one nice thing which I am doing now-a-days is cooking. Cooking good and healthy food. If I am bored at home, immediately I will check for new recipe and give it a try instantly, No, i m not joking, that's how I learnt lot about cooking.

Thanks a ton, to all food blogger for sharing wonderful healty recipes.
Here, I am going to post all the recipes which I tried, tasted and tested, of course it is a test for my hubby :)). I m sure he likes it.

Diwali Special : Thattai

This is my very, very special recipe in many aspects... This is the first recipe which I tried from for my first Diwali from a site called "Chef in You" . When I wanted to try this, I had so many silly doubts. Immediately I wrote to DK and got it clarified. Thattai was a big hit in my Diwali bakshanam. It lasted only for a day. My hubby and his friend finished it on a day.
This recipe introduced me to a new blogger friend, DK. To see her recipe, please click here.
Hey, one more thing, after somedays my "Thattai" photo along with the thanking notes got published in the  'Chef in you' site. If you want to see that, you can check it out here

I was so happy, felt like flying in the air.

Its always nice isn't it, when our little work got appreciation !!!