Ghee-fried Banana (very easy & quick)

Amma had send me 2 jar of home-made ghee made from our own cow's milk. So I use lot of ghee in my recipes. This is a snack dish that is very easy to make. You can give them to your kids when they come from school. When I was a kid, I used to love it has an afternoon snack. Day before yesterday my youngest son ( 18 month old) was really fussy with food. He didn't eat lunch and he refused the fruits I gave him. So I made this for a change and he ate it. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients: 
1) Banana -1 ( cut into 6 pieces)
2) Ghee
3) Sugar

Method:

• Heat Ghee in a frying pan. Add  sliced banana. Fry it until it is golden brown or slight blackish.
• Sprinkle with sugar and serve hot.

Recipe Source: My mother

Kachi Moru

This is a very easy recipe for Kachi Moru. It is an excellent combination with prawns pattichu ullathiyathu, beef ullathiyathu , Red Fish curry etc. I use lot of ginger and garlic in this recipe because both are good for stomach.

Ingredients:

1) Big Onion - 1

2) Ginger (Sliced)- 4 tbsp

3) Garlic (Sliced) - 3-4 tbsp

4) Red Chilly -2-3

5) Pepper Powder - 1 tsp

6) Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

7) Ground Fenugreek - 2 pinch

8) Ground Cumin - 3/4-1 tsp

9) Curd- 3 cups

10) Water - 1/2 cup

10) Curry leaves

11) Salt

12)Oil

Method:

• Add Ground Cumin,water and salt to curd and beat well. 
• Heat oil and sputter mustard seeds. Add Onion, Ginger, Garlic, Red Chilly and Curry leaves. Saute well. When the onion starts turning brown add pepper powder, turmeric powder and ground fenugreek. Saute. 
• Add curd. Saute continuously. When it becomes warm, remove it from the heat source. Add some curry leaves.

Recipe source: Alinachechi

Prawns Pattichu ullathiyathu

Last Saturday while I was doing my week-end grocery shopping I found some prawns on sale. It is being a long time since I tried some prawn dish. Besides my eldest son likes "Lobster"  which he calls "konchu meen" . I brought some uncleaned prawns because it didn't look like the frozen ones we always get it here. Anyway I wont buy anymore uncleaned prawns  till my sons grew up. It took me hours to clean 4 Lb prawns alone. Any way here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:
1)Prawns (uncleaned) - 4 Lb  (after cleaning approx 3 Lb)
2)Pepper Powder - 3/4 tbsp
3)Small Onions (Chopped) - 4
4)Crushed Red Chilly - 1 tbsp
5)Garlic- 3-4
6)Ginger - 1 piece
7)Kudompuli - 3-4 ( take 1/4 cup hot water and put washed kudompuli into it.)
8)Sliced coconut- 1/4-1/2 cup
9)Turmeric powder - 1 tsp (in this recipe I put less. so color didn't come as I wished)
10) Red chilly powder (optional) - 1/2 tsp
11)Curry Leaves
12) Salt


Method:

• In a sauce pan, cook all these ingredients with some water. When the water dries out and the prawns are cooked, off the flame.
• In a large pan heat oil and add curry leaves. Add the cooked prawns and saute really well.

Recipe Source: my mother


Note for beginners:

How to clean prawns:

Peel of head and tail with your fingers. Make a small cut and take the black thread like thing out. Rinse well with water.

This dish goes well with rice and kachi moru.

Prawns Pattichu Ulathiyathu

APPLE GHEE CAKE

This is the first cake I tried in my life. It was during the first X'mas season after my wedding. I remember that I didn't have a beater at that time. So I made the cake batter using my mixie and it got overloaded and it stopped working. I had to reset it again. I didn't have a baking dish so I baked it on a Pyrex glass dish.Anyway cake came out well.And I baked 4-5 cakes and gave it to my family members, friends and neighbors. One day I had a craving for that cake again and that night I made it again using a beater and baked it on a regular baking dish . Here goes the picture of that. It is really a yummy soft cake. I got lot of compliments for this cake from my friends and neighbors. Many were asking for the recipe. Some of them have tried this recipe and told me that it came out pretty well.

Ingredients:
Sugar - 1-11/4 cup
Apple chopped with its skin - 3 cup
All purpose flour (Maida) - 2 cup
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Cinnamon powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Egg - 3
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Chopped cashew nut - 1 cup

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 325 F.
• Grease a 9" baking pan.
• In a saucepan, take half cup of sugar. Stir continuously. Add apple when the sugar become golden in color. Stir continuously in low flame till the sugar melts. Remove from flame and let it cool.
• Sieve Maida, Baking Soda and Cinnamon powder.
• Mix the remaining sugar, vegetable oil and ghee. Beat well. Add egg one by one, beating after each egg. Add vanilla essence. Beating in between, add the dry ingredients slowly. Stir in apple and cashew nuts.
• Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 40 min.

Topping:

Caramelized syrup - 2 tbsp

Butter- 75 gm

Condensed Milk- 1/2 tin

Mix all these ingredients and heat it on low flame until it thickness. Pour it over the cake when the cake cools.

Note:

I made the topping syrup only the first time I baked. After that I made plain cake. Because most of people seems to prefer plain cakes.

Source: Vanitha

Shahi Tukre

This dessert is something I have made 5-6 times. It really melts in our mouth. I have tasted "baked" version of "Shahi Tukre" in some restaurants. That doesn't come near the taste of ghee fired bread dipped in sugar syrup and topped with milkmaid and nuts. Try out this recipe and you will understand what I meant. Weight watchers better watch out. This contains lots of calories.

Preparation time:10 min   Cooking Time: 15 min         To serve: 10-12

Ingredients:
Milkmaid ( Condensed Milk) - 1/2 tin
Bread - 8 slices
Milk - 1 cup
Cornflour - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Almonds and Pistachios (chopped) - 1 tbsp
Ghee to fry
Syrup:
Sugar - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup

Method:

• Make a paste of cornflour with some milk. Mix rest of the milk with milkmaid and bring it to boil. Add cornflour paste. Stir continuously until it is thick. Add cardamom powder.Keep it aside.
• Prepare syrup by boiling water and sugar together.
• Cut bread slices into 2 and deep fry it in ghee till golden brown.
• Immediately dip it in sugar syrup. Dip for one minute and arrange it on a serving dish
• Top each piece with 1 tbsp mixture of milkmaid and nuts. Chill and serve.

Source: Taste the wonders of milkmaid
Note: Condensed Milk and evaporated Milk are different

Double Almond Cookies

This recipe I found on the back of my Almond extract.  Since this recipe seemed to be very easy I decided to give it a try.

Prep Time: 15 min    
Cook Time:12 min

Ingredients:
All purpose flour (Maida) - 2 cups
Finely chopped almonds - 1/2 cup ( I chopped in a chopper)
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Softened butter- 1 cup
Sugar- 1 cup
Egg- 1
Pure almond extract- 2 tsp

Method:

• Heat oven to 350 F. 
• Mix flour, almonds and salt.
• In a large bowl,beat butter and sugar until creamy. Blend in egg and extract. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Drop by rounded tablespoon or small ice-cream scoop onto cookie sheet. 
• Bake 10-12 min or until golden brown

Makes 3 dozen

Source: McCormick Pure Almond Extract

MINT- PESTO LAMB CHOPS

One day while I was going through my American recipe collections to try out something new I came across this recipe. I usually make Indian stuff at home. For me it is really easy to try out Indian dishes since ingredients are known to me and most of the ingredients are in my kitchen shelf. But when I browse through foreign recipes what happens is that I will be having one or 2 ingredients rest I have to search through shop shelves. There will be cheeses, sauces  and spices I have never heard of . This recipe seemed to be simple and easy to make without much searching for ingredients.

Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

LAMB:

lamb rib chops- 1 rack 

Olive oil- 1 tbsp

SAUCE:

Pomegranate juice - 2 cups

Balsamic Vinegar - 1 cup

PESTO:

 Mint leaves- 1/4 cup

Coriander leaves- 1/4 cup

Garlic cloves- 8

Salt - 1 tsp

Pepper- 1 tsp

Olive oil - 1/4 cup

Method:

• In a large saucepan, boil pomegranate juice and balsamic vinegar. On medium heat cook until it is reduced to half cup.
• For pesto, Place  mint, coriander, garlic, salt and pepper  in a small food processor or mixie bowl. grind well. While processing, gradually add olive oil in a steady stream.
• Coat chops with pesto. In a large ovenproof skillet, brown lamb in oil on all sides.
• Bake uncovered , at 450 O oven for 15-20 min or until meat reaches desired doneness. (for medium-rare, a meat thermometer should read 145 0 ; medium 160 ; well-done 170)
• Drizzle with pomegranate sauce.

Note:  When I made it second time I didn't make the pomegranate sauce. But it tastes good without sauce too. You can serve it with salad, mashed potato etc.

Serve: 8

Recipe adapted from "Taste of home contest winners"