Plum pudding

Ingredients:

(For pudding mix )

Refined flour and bread crumbs: 25 gm each

Sugar: Five gm

Butter: 100 gm

Orange juice: Five ml

Egg: One

Spice: A pinch

Lemon juice: Five ml

Mix jam:20 gm

Caramel: Two ml

Fruit mix (almonds, walnuts, cherries, fruit peel, cashew nuts): 300 gm

Curd: 20 gm

(For royal icing):

Egg white: One

Icing sugar: 125 gm

Lemon juice: Five ml

Method:

Take clean mixing bowl and beat the sugar, butter and egg together.

Add the curd, juices, jam to it and mix it. Add the flour, spice, and bread crumbs and finally add the fruit mix and caramel.

Pour it on butter glazed baking bowl and double boil it for almost two hours. Make royal icing with egg white, icing sugar and lemon juice.

Once the pudding is done pour the icing on top it.

This pudding can be tried with brandy sauce.

Oshaka chicken

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken: 250 gm

Corn flour and oil: 150 gm each

Maida: 200 gm

Butter: 50 gm

Egg: One

Onion: 100 gm

Spring onions: 50 gm

Green chillies: Five

Ginger and garlic: 25 gm each

Salt and pepper: One Tsp each

Sugar: Two Tsp

8 to 9 sauce: One Tsp

Method:

Mix maida and corn flour with water to prepare batter. Dip chicken pieces in batter and fry in oil.

Heat oil in a frying pan and sauté chopped onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies. Add sugar, white pepper, sauce and salt. Keep stirring, add chicken and toss till contents are well mixed. Serve hot. Garnish with spring onions.

Quick fix: Chicken tex-mex

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken breast: Two

Vegetable oil: 10 ml

Lime juice: Five ml

Chopped cilantro: 10 gm

Minced garlic:Five gm

Minced jalapenos: 10 gm

Chilli powder:10 gm

Cumin seed powder: Five gm

Salt and pepper: To taste

For chilli butter:

Saltless butter: 50gm

Cumin seed and chilli powder: Five gm each

Paprika and chopped garlic: Five gm each

Chopped oregano: Two gm

Tobacco and Worcestershire sauce: Five ml each

METHOD:

Work on the butter with the hand or with a paddle attachment until it gets soft. Add the remaining ingredients and blend well. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

The compound butter is ready for use now. It may be rolled into a log or piped into shapes and chilled for use later.

Trim the chicken and remove bone and skins, if desired. Combine the marinade ingredients and pour over the chicken evenly. Marinate in a refrigerator for four hours or overnight. Remove the chicken from the marinade before grilling and allow any excess to drain away before placing.

Place the chicken presentation side down first on the grill. Grill undisturbed for three minutes. Turn the chicken over and complete cooking until done, about 3 to 4 min (170 degree F / 75 degree F for breast meat). Top each portion with a slice of the chilli butter, heat under a boiler or salamander until the butter begins to melt. Serve at once.

Yakhni Pathan

Ingredients

500g mutton

1/2 cup oil

Salt

Water

3 large onions, chopped fine

20 cloves garlic, peeled

2-3 dry red chillies, whole, stems intact

Bouquet garni (tied loosely in a square of muslin)

2 tbsp whole coriander

1 tsp saunf

Method:

In pressure cooker, sauté mutton in hot oil until colour changes. Add salt and enough water – about 2 ladles – to submerge bouquet garni. Place bouquet garni in cooker and pressure cook until almost done (about 10 minutes of simmering on low heat after the full pressure whistle.)

When pressure drops, open lid, squeeze and remove bouquet garni. Remove chillies, pound, strain out seeds and plastic-like outer skin. Return clean red pulp to curry.

Simmer, mashing any visible bits of onion or garlic with the back of a ladle against sides of pan. The aim is to get smooth, thick gravy. Cook, uncovered, only till excess moisture evaporates; the onions etc shouldn't “brown”. Then add a couple of spoons of water and simmer, covered, to get “roghan”, the oily red film, on top.

Tori with Coconut and saunf

Ingredients

1 kg kali tori (or any similar variety of gourd)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp mustard (sarson) seeds

To be ground together

1 cup grated coconut

2-3 green chillies

1 tsp saunf

2 whole dried red chillies, broken into two

1 tsp chana dal

Salt

Method: 

Wash and peel tori. Slice into discs. Heat 1 tbsp oil and sauté mustard seeds till they splutter. Add tori and cook, covered, till tender. While tori is cooking, prepare coconut paste. In a blender, grind coconut, green chilli and saunf to a coarse paste. Place the ground coconut mixture in the centre of the cooked tori, covering it with the tori. Cover the pan with a lid. The steam from the tori will cook the coconut paste. Add salt and mix the coconut with the tori. In a small frying pan, heat the remaining oil. When it becomes very hot, sauté red chillies and chana dal. Pour the seasoning over the beans. Stir well to mix.

Cheese quesadilla

INGREDIENTS:

(For filling):

Cheese: 300 gm

Chopped onion: 100 gm

Chopped coriander leaves and chillies : 50 gm each

(For Tortilla dough):

Maida and wheat flour: 100 gm each

Egg: One

Olive oil: 25 ml

Salt: To taste

((For Salsa sauce):

Onion: 50 gm

Tomato: 100 gm

Chilli: 25 gm

Coriander leaves: 50 gm

Vinegar: Five ml

Olive oil or salad oil: 10 ml

Tomato ketchup: 10 gm

Salt: To taste

METHOD:

Prepare Tortilla dough and keep it aside for 30 minutes for proofing. Mix all the ingredients to make a filling.

To prepare the salsa sauce, chop the onion, tomato, chilli and coriander and mix all the ingredients.

Make mini chappatis of the dough and roast them in the grill. Stuff the filling inside the Tortilla and make it in a crescent moon shape.

Vazhaipoo puttu

Vazhaipoo puttu is a dish that has been part of our family's cooking tradition for decades.

What you need

Chick peas (Channa dal) – 100 gm

Banana flower (Vazhaipoo) – 150 gm

Ginger, finely chopped – a little

Garlic, finely chopped – a little

Green chillies - 2

Onion - 2

Oil - 2 tsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Asafoetida (optional) - 1/4 tsp

For garnishing

Coconut, grated – a little

Curry leaves – a few

Cooking instructions 

 

Soak the channa dal for 20 minutes and grind it coarsely without adding water. Steam this for about ten minutes in a steamer and cool at room temperature. Clean the vazhaipoo and chop finely.

Heat two tablespoons of cooking oil in a kadai and add half a teaspoon of asafoetida, finely chopped curry leaves, two slit green chillies, finely chopped ginger and garlic and sauté for a few minutes.

To this add finely chopped onions and fry until golden brown. Now add the vazhaipoo, along with half a teaspoon of turmeric powder and salt. Add the steamed channa dal to the mixture without lumps. Sprinkle some water and keep aside for five minutes.

For garnishing, add grated coconut and curry leaves and serve hot.

This tastes best with ghee rice, rasam or plain rice.