Tapioca - my mum's style

Tapioca has always been one of my favourite food item. Every time i make this dish it brings back all memories from my childhood when i had the luxury to eat out of my mom's hand.

This root known as Kappa in Southern India is also called the Tapioca / Cassava root.





It is a starch and is known as a poor man's diet in Kerala.So lets see how i made this simple dish.

1. First wash remove the brown skin and then the white thicker skin on the root, cut into irregular cubes and soak overnight





2. Next day drain the water, clean again and pressure cook [1 whistle] with very little water and salt. You may steam cook if the root is tender.


3. The ingredients needed for the tempering are mustard seeds, cut garlic, red chillies, turmeric and grated coconut.




4. Heat little coconut oil add all the ingredients except grated coconut for the tempering. Keep stirring till all mustard seeds splutter and the garlic is lightly roasted. Add the cooked tapioca root and mix well. Later turn the stove off and add the grated coconut.

Hope you enjoy this dish.

Microwaveable Semolina cake

The microwave Oven is not the best equipment to be used to get good cakes ..the convection oven is best. But nothing beats a microwave if we need to get something edible at a snap of our fingers. so i took the challenge to bake cakes in the Microwave.

The outcome has been disastrous ..from biscuit hard to burnt cakes to cakes that cooked better only on one side and those that were very dry.I slowly learnt through the hard way, obviously, that microwaves are not meant to bake and that it dries the food so fast that the food doesn't get time to rise as in case of a cake.

So i started trying all stunts such as reducing the time, keeping the batter as watery as possible and even adding more butter etc.
The best cake, though not as good as an oven baked, turned out to be the one that had the batter a little watery, less buttery, and baked for not more than 5 mins.Keeping a glass of water along with the cake tin kept the air a bit humid, slowing the drying process.

The semolina cake that i microwaved is eggless and has half the flour content replaced by semolina soaked in orange juice. The ingredients used are:
Whole wheat flour-1 cup
Semolina - 1 cup
Orange juice - 1 cup
Butter- 1/3 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence - 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Curd - 2 tbsp
Milk - 1 cup

Soak semolina in orange juice. In a bowl add milk, sugar and butter.Warm the mix to melt the sugar and cool the mix. Add baking soda to the curd and keep aside. To the sugar mix add wheat flour - a spoon a a time. Next add the semolina and mix well.Add more milk if need be.

Just before baking add the curd mix and microwave at high temperature for 5 mins. Check if a toothpick comes out clean to check if done. One has to keep in mind that the cake may not have a nice crust on top and keeps cooking once removed too. So keep it aside to cool before cutting.

Cut and enjoy this tea-time snack.

Horsegram Idlis

My healthy breakfast - horsegram idlis with sambhar ..



Since the time I heard of the benefits of horsegram i have been trying to google on how to make various dish using horsegram or known as Kudith dal in Southern India. It is one dal that is recommended for kidney stone patients who are advised to drink water in which the dal powder is boiled.



It has benefits such as:
1. keeps body warm during winter
2. aids in reducing excess body weight
3. used in treating kidney stones
4. treats peptic ulcer
5. ayurveda uses it in treatments of rheumatism, worms, piles and even menstrual problems in women

The one recipe i knew was to boil, mash and make a simple curry with onion and tomatoes. However i finally made idlis with the dal.

The batter is the usual idli batter which you can find on google very easily. The batter was fermented overnight and the horsegram [1/2 cup for 2 cups of rice used to make idli batter] was soaked in another container.In the morning the dal was drained and ground to a fine paste and added to the idli batter.

The batter was steamed in an idli stand and yummy idlis were the outcome.

Simple prawn fry

This is the most simple and fast prawn fry i have ever made.

Take few clean, deveined prawns and add red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, garlic pods, lemon juice and rava / cornflour.

Mix all and fry for 10 mins tossing in between.

Apple Peel Chutney

The other day i made apple sauce and had a lot of peels left which i just didn't have the heart to discard. I tried to find any apple peel recipes of my liking. I finally decided to make a chutney.

Simple cooking is my style and hence i decided to make a small batch first.

# Apple peels - 5 nos. apples

# Oil - 1 tsp

# Jaggery - 2 tbsp

# Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

# Jeera seeds - 1/2 tsp

# Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

# Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

# Water - 3 tbsp

# Salt - as per taste

Place the oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds. Once the spluttering of the seeds stop add jeera, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and the peels. Then add 3 tbsp of water, cover the pan with a lid and cook till the peels are soft.  Add jaggery at this stage and salt. Cook till the water evaporates completely leaving behind a sweet and pungent chutney. Please add few drops of lemon juice.

I love this recipe mainly because it is cooking without wasting.

Yummy simple apple sauce

Apples, my dear friends, have suddenly become the fruit of the season in my house. My husband seems to be bringing them in loads. The entire kitchen is flooded with apples and i have been allotted the job of fininshing them before they get rotten.

With Google being my lifesaver i bump on to a lovely apple sauce recipe.It is simple and yummy!
You shall need the following for a cup of sauce:

* Apples - 5 nos. small
* Sugar - 3 tbsp
* Cinnamon powder- 1tsp
* Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Peel, core and dice apples. Cook them over low flame for 20 mins. Cool and puree the cooked apples. Add all other ingredients and cook again till you get a required consistency. I have made mine very thick.

You may add butter/ghee which definitely enhances the taste but i decided to leave it out to reduce calories.This can be stored in the refrigerator and used on bread, rotis and had plain.

Hope you try this.

tasty sweet laddus

Hi lets cook something sweet and fast.

Ingredients:

Condensed milk

Grated coconut - 1 cup

Roasted and crushed cashews nuts -1cup

Roasted sesame seeds - 2tbsp

Khoya peda/barfi -1 piece

Dry roast the coconut , add roasted crushed cashewnuts, then the sesame seeds.

Keep stirring for some time till coconut turns dry.

Next crumble the peda or barfi [you mat khoya itself too]

Add condensed milk and stir till laddu consistency is achieved.

With little water wet your fingers and palm to make the laddus immediately.

Cool and serve.

This is an extremely fast dish to serve guests who give you surprise visits. Surprise them :)