Banana & nuts cookie

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1½ cup
Butter - 1 stick 
Egg - 1
Sugar - ½ cup

Vanilla essence -½ tsp

Baking powder - ¼ tsp

Banana - 1 large
Nuts - ½ cup ( I used walnut and cashew)

Preparation:

Take a bowl, beat butter and sugar nicely then add egg and mix well. Mash the banana  nicely and mix with it. Now add all purpose flour, baking powder, and mix  until combined. Add vanilla essence and knead gentle to smooth. Finally take the chopped nuts and fold them gently . Take a baking tray and line it with parchment paper. Take a cookie scoop and drop them onto the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Preheat the oven at 350 degree.  Bake it for about  20 minutes, until its light brown color. Allow it to cool and store them in a container.

Kids will love this....

                                              Look at my lil one grabbing from the plate

Rice flour Jam Biscut

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 1 ½  cup

Butter - 1 stick bring it to room temperature

Sugar - ½  cup

Egg - 1

Baking powder  -¼ tsp

Vanilla essence- 1tsp
Salt a pinch
Jam of your choice - I used Raspberry jam

Preparation:

Take a bowl, beat butter and sugar nicely then add egg and mix well. Now add rice flour, baking powder, salt and mix  until combined. Add vanilla essence and knead gentle to smooth. Take a baking tray and line it with parchment paper. Mean while preheat the oven at 180 degree F. Take small portion of the dough, make small balls  and make a impression in the center with your finger on each cookie. Fill it with little jam.  Bake it for about 15 to 20 minutes, until its slight brown color. Allow it to cool and store them in a container.

Idli batter vada

Ingredients:
Idli batter - 1 cup
Onion - 1 small
Chilli powder -  ¼ tsp
Green chili - 2 or 3
Fennel - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Salt as required
Oil for frying

Preparation:

Take a bowl, pour idli batter into it. Finely chop onion and green chili and add to to batter, followed by all other ingredients and mix well. Heat oil in a pan, take a spoonful of batter and pour in the oil or use your hand- take batter in you hand and drop them in oil. Fry them nicely on both side until its brown, when done remove and serve with chutney or sambar.

Beetroot Wine

This was lying in my draft folder for 1 year, I made this for last Christmas, finally got time to post.

Ingredients:

Beetroot  -  3 cups

Sugar -  1 to ½ cup

Lemon juice  - juice of 1 large lemon

Yeast  -  1tsp

Cinnamon stick - 5

Cloves -  5 to 7

Water  5 to 6 cups

Preparation:

Wash the beetroot nicely, peel off the skin and grate them.  Take a wide pan, add water into it and bring it to boil, when it starts boiling, add grated beetroot and cook. Meanwhile dissolve yeast in lukewarm water by adding ½ tsp of sugar.  When the beetroot is cooked turn off the heat and allow it cool, then strain it, now add sugar and dilute/dissolve well using a wooden spatula, then add dissolved yeast, and lemon juice, mix well and transfer into a glass jar or earthern   pot. (I used glass jar). Now add cinnamon sticks  and cloves. Close the container tightly, it has to be air tight. Keep it in a dark place for fermentation, for a bout 15 to 20 days. After a week open the container, stir well with a wooden spatula, close it and wait till 15^th or 20^th  day to enjoy……..

 Cheers to all..............

Spicy Andhra Mutton Gravy

Source: Cooking book


Ingredients:
Goat/Lamb Meat - 1lb
Onion - 2  nos
Tomato - 1 large
Ginger garlic paste - 2tbs
Coconut grated - 1/4 cup
Cilantro - few
Curry leaves - 1 twig
Green chilli - 3 nos
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder -   1/2 tsp
Cumin - 1/4 tsp
Fennel - 1 tsp
Black pepper - 1tsp
Red chilli - 5 to 6 nos
Cardamom - 3
bay leaves - 2
Cinnamon stick - 2
Cloves - 3
Salt to taste
Oil as required

Preparation:

Pressure cook mutton with turmeric powder,  salt and water. Separate the mutton pieces and stock and keep aside.

Heat a pan and dry roast (Cumin, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, black pepper, cloves, red chilli) and grind to fine powder and keep aside.

Heat oil in the same pan  add some chopped onions and saute till it turns translucent, switch off the heat and allow it to cool. Grind the sauteed  onion along with the ground spice powder, grated coconut, cilantro and coriander powder to form a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a pan and saute the remaining onion till it turns translucent.Now add the ginger garlic paste, green chilli  and saute for few minutes, then add chopped tomato,curry leaves turmeric powder saute for few minutes. Add the cooked meat pieces, mix well  cover with lid and cook on low heat for approx 5 minutes, now add the ground masala paste and cook until oil separates.  Remove from heat and garnish with some chopped cilantro. Serve with Naan, Roti, Parotta.

Beet stem Rasam

Ingredients:
Beet Stem - few
Channa dal - 1/2 cup
Garlic - 4 to 5 flakes
Ginger - small piece
Green chili -  4 slit length wise
Cilantro - handful
Cumin - 1/4 tsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Rasam Powder - 1tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tbs
Oil/Ghee - 2 tbs
Salt to taste

Preparation:

Soak dal in water for half an hour and pressure cook by adding 2 cups of water. Wash to beet root stem nicely and cut into  pieces. Heat ghee in a pan/kadai, add mustard, cumin when it splutters  add asafoetida, then garlic, ginger and green chili and saute it for few minutes. Add lemon juice (you can use tamarind pulp instead of lemon juice). Mash dal nicely and add to this followed by beetroot stem and bring it to boil, this stage you can add rasam powder and salt.   When its done remove from heat and serve with rice

Kozhy curry

Ingredients:
Chicken - 1/2 kg
Onion -2 small
Tomato -1 small
Ginger - small piece
Garlic - 10
Green chili -3
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Fennel - 1tbs
Black pepper - 1tbs
Milk - 1/2 cup (I used cow's milk)
Curry leaves - few
Salt to taste
Oil as required

Preparation:

Fry fennel and pepper corns in a pan, allow it to cool and grind it to fine powder. Wash the chicken and cut into pieces. Marinate the chicken pieces with the ground spice powder and turmeric powder for 20 minutes. Slice the onion and heat  oil in a pan, add curry leaves when it splutters, add the sliced onion and tomatoes and saute for a while, the add the ground paste of ginger, garlic and green chili, and saute until raw smell goes away. Now add the marinated chicken pieces cover with a lid and let it cook. When its done add milk,mix well and remove from heat.

Mango Payasam

Ingredients:
Milk - 3 cups
Rice - ¼  cup
Mango pulp - 1cup

Sugar - ½cup

Cardamom - few
Cashew - few
Ghee - 2tbs

Preparation:

Soak rice in water for 1 hour. Meanwhile fry the cashews in ghee and keep aside.

Take a blender add ¼ cup of milk and give 1 whisk. Then take a  pan add milk into in and bring it to boil, when it starts boiling add rice to the boiling milk and let it cook, reduce the heat and stir occasionally. When it starts to thicken add sugar and cardamom and keep stirring. Finally add the mango pulp mix well, remove from heat and garnish with cashew. Allow it to cool and serve.