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It’s been a while since I’ve last updated this blog. But fear not ! I am back and cooking again. Just trying to get my life together. Picking up the pieces of the old life to serve my new life. So here is to something new. A piece of banana bread with some indulging vanilla ice-cream.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Ripe bananas – 5-7
  • Eggs – 3
  • Oil – ½ cup
  • Sugar – ½ cup
  • Cinnamon – 1 Tbs
  • Flour – 2 cups
  • Butter – ½ cup
  • Brown sugar – 1 cup

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Smash 4 bananas in a bowl. Add the eggs, oil, sugar and cinnamon and mix it together.
  2. Pour the flour and combine everything together.
  3. To make the caramel, in a pan heat up the butter until melted. Add the sugar and bring to boil.
  4. On a baking dish, pour the caramel in first. Slice two bananas in pieces and assemble them up on top of the caramel filling in the baking dish.
  5. Add the flour mixture and bake it for 350 degree Fahrenheit / 175 degree Celsius for about 40-50 minutes.
  6. It is optional to serve with some Vanilla Ice – cream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNcHNtadhK4

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Cream Puffs

What can be more sweeter to make for your mother on mother’s day than balushai ? This is my way of adding more sweetness to mother’s day. A sweet little thing for a sweet little person. And of course some chocolate coated strawberries. But that’s a recipe for another day. For today this is an accomplished surprise from me .

INGREDIENTS :

  • Flour/Maida – 1 cup
  • Baking Soda – ½ tsp
  • Salt –  ½ tsp
  • Ghee –  ¼ cup
  • Chilled Yoghurt –  ¼ cup
  • Oil – For deep frying

For the sugar syrup :

  • Sugar –  1 cup
  • Water –  ¼ cup
  • Cardamom powder –  ¼ tsp
  • Pistachios –  For garnishing

INSTRUCTIONS :

  1. To make the dough , in a large bowl add the flour, salt and baking soda.
  2. Stir to combine the dry ingredients.
  3. Add the ghee to the dry mixture, use your fingers to form coarse crumbs.
  4. Add the yoghurt and mix everything until it forms a dough.
  5. Cover the dough with a wet cloth. Allow it to rest for 30 minutes.
  6. After which form the shape of a ball and press down on the dough with your thumb very slightly. Do not press too much to shape them as this can cause cracks in the balushai.
  7. Cover the made dough shapes with a wet cloth for 15 minutes.
  8. Deep fry the dough on medium heat to cook evenly.
  9. In a saucepan add the sugar and the water and stir the mixture until the sugar dissolve in the water. Once it is dissolved allow the mixture to come to a boil.
  10. Add the cardamom powder, turn the heat to low and let the mixture simmer until you reach the single thread consistency. You will know that it has reached a single thread consistency when you touch the sugar syrup between your two fingers you will find that it is sticky.
  11. Drop each of the fried dough in the syrup until it gets well coated all around.
  12. Drip the excess and lay it on your serving dish. Garnish with some crushed pistachios.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PrQpXSnmO0

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Be deliriously happy when you are in love. Now love here is a reference to anything and everything in life from places, people, stories, things and most importantly food. The love of food which exists in every country, community, race and religion . The art of food runs deep within all of us all the way down to our stomach and in to our souls. Hence, the term soul food ? Here is a concoction I came up with on my own. I am sure there is a thorough recipe for this somewhere. But this is my version of “ Tok Begun”

INGREDIENTS :

  • Eggplants – 2 cups Diced
  • Tomato – 1 cup finely chopped
  • Tamarind – 1 tbs
  • Paanch Phoron – 1/8 tsp
  • Onion – 1 finely chopped
  • Garlic – 1 tbs
  • Dry Chillies – 2 tbs crushed
  • Turmeric –  1 tsp
  • Red Chilli Powder – 1 tsp
  • Cumin Powder –  1 tsp
  • Coriander Powder –  1 tsp
  • Sugar to taste
  • Salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Grab a saucepan and warm up some oil. Sauté the onions and garlic till it softens and becomes slightly browned. Put in paanch phoron and fry it for 30 seconds.
  2. Add the spices- turmeric, red chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder. Stirring it for 30 seconds. Add the tomato and cover the lid till the tomatoes breaks down.
  3. Include the eggplants and the crushed chillies in to the saucepan covering the lid to let it soften up to better soak in all the spices.
  4. Put in the tamarind and cook the mix for a few minutes. Add salt and sugar to your taste.

 

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I am back with some more sweetness to share with you all. I had a lot of oranges (mandarins) lying around the house. At first, I felt like making some kind of cake but then I came across this recipe.  I am used to making chocolate (white and dark) brownies. This is the first time I attempted to make fruit flavoured brownies. Honestly, I don’t need anything to make me satisfied after this sweet little addition to my kitchen right now. Needless to say they were all gone in a jiffy.

INGREDIENTS :

  • All purpose-flour – 1 ½ cup
  • Sugar – 2 cups
  • Salt – 1 tsp
  • Butter (Softened) – 1 cup or 2 sticks
  • Eggs – 4
  • Orange extract ( pure)- 2 tsps
  • Grated Orange -1 tsp

For the glaze

  • Confectioners’ sugar – 1 cup
  • Orange juice – 2 tbsps
  • Grated Orange – 1 tsp

INSTRUCTIONS :

  1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.
  2. Grease well, a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan and set aside.
  3. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and salt.  Add butter, eggs, orange extract and orange zest, and beat with a handheld electric mixer until well blended.
  4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until light golden brown and set. Remove from oven and pierce entire top of cake with a fork.

To make the glaze:

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stirring with whisk until smooth.
  2. Pour glaze over warm cake.  Cool cake and cut into squares.

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Orange-Brownies-771885

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Sometimes you don’t realize how little you can live with and be happy with till you lose everything. I’ve come to that realization now. Sure, we all have things that we want, desire and lust over. But are those really the things that we need all the time? Happiness seems temporarily at hand for all of us with the achievement of little to big things. But to create happiness for our own self is quiet the challenge. I am struggling to fulfil that part of my life and YES I do accept the challenge. 😀 I always wanted to bake chicken and here I am creating my happiness for today by giving it a go. It is as simple as it can get. I substituted the sherry with normal red wine and a little bit of brown sugar. I used coriander leaves instead of parsley and omitted olives since I did not have any at the time.

INGREDIENTS :

  • Chicken breast fillets, trimmed – 4
  • Plain flour – 1/3 cup
  • Butter chopped – 50 grams
  • Medium brown onion, finely chopped – 1
  • Dry sherry – ½ cup
  • Canned diced tomatoes – 400 grams
  • Kalamata Olives – ¼ cup
  • Chopped fresh flat – leaf parsley leaves – 2 tbs

INSTRUCTIONS :

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Place flour in a snap-lock bag. Season with salt and pepper. Add chicken breasts, 2 at a time, shaking to coat. Shake off excess. Place on a plate.
  1. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes each side or until golden. Transfer to a 5cm-deep, 20cm x 30cm (base) baking dish.
  1. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add onion to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until softened. Increase heat to medium-high. Add sherry. Bring to the boil. Boil for 1 minute. Add tomatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 6 minutes or until boiling. Spoon tomato mixture over chicken. Cover.
  1. Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, adding olives for the last 5 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with potatoes and broccolini.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/23414/chicken+provencale