American pancakes - featuring banana & honey | Kukskitchen

A quick-fix yet yummy breakfast? Here is an answer- banana pancakes. Your kids would luv it and it is for grown-ups too.

Sticky toffee pudding | featuring dates | Kukskitchen

Recently something happened in my dear friends' life which left her with sad but fond memories of sticky toffee pudding. I would like to dedicate this post to her and her memories.


Sticky toffee pudding is a British steamed dessert consisting of a very moist sponge cake, made with finely chopped dates or prunes, covered in a toffee sauce and often served with a vanilla custard or vanilla ice-cream. It is considered a modern British ‘classic’, alongside Jam Roly-Poly and Spotted Dick puddings. (wikipedia)


This recipe is based on a Marco Pierre White recipe from his Mirabelle restaurant book. It calls for baking and not steaming and still produces a moist soft base ready to soak all that toffee sauce. Yum!



Before you start:

- Make the sauce in advance and store refrigerated. Heat it up before serving.

Try it and let me know how it turned out. :)

Chicken kadai - featuring capsicum / bell pepper | Kukskitchen

Kadhai / Karahi chicken is a north Indian / pakistani recipe which is usually cooked in kadhai/ karahi /skillet. Kadhai is a wok-type utensil used in Indian cooking. The speciality of kadhai chicken is, it is not only cooked in kadhai/skillet but also is served in kadhai/skillet.







The original recipe asks for fresh capsicum, but much of the recipes on the web does not feature that. So readers, its ur choice. Let me know if you decided to go with the capsicum or not. The recipe presented is inspired from Sanjeev Kapoor.

Keralan egg puffs | Spiced eggs in puff pastry | Kukskitchen

Ingredients

How to make the perfect crispy dosa ( rice & lentil pancake) | step-by-step visual guide | Kukskitchen

Dosa is a south indian staple breakfast. With its umpteen number of variations, it always shines in the breakfast table. The variations include plain dosa, masala dosa, ghee roast, rocket dosa and some of the uk favourites like kids dosa, egg dosa, chicken dosa, beef dosa, fish dosa and many many many more.






Plain dosa itself can be made thin and crispy or thick and melty soft. During our most recent annul trip to India our extended family trip was to Gavi of ordinary movie-fame. En-route Gavi, we stayed in Thekkady resort where they made the softest meltiest perfect katti dosa of all times. Me and my sis-in-law R persuaded the chef to give out his secret recipe for it, but he didn't say anything that me and R didn't know. We were sure he was holding some top-secret information from us.

Keralan mixed vegetable spicy soup with lentils - nammude sambar | Kukskitchen

My dad's first line when mum starts cooking sambar is ' sambar inge ukkarungo' :) He is the biggest sambar fan in the planet. He appreciates me trying new versions of the classic like palakkadan, kozhikkodan etc etc. My son has taken to his appappan's palate and luvs sambar esp if it's with dosa. I can virtually eat it with anything at all - rice, dosa, idli, upma, idiyappam and chapati.


A variety of vegetables can be used in an avial, which includes drumsticks, yam, raw banana, ash gourd (kumbalanga), aubergine (vazhuthananga) and more recently carrots, potato and cucumber.


Ideally sambar needs to be cooked in an open pot which takes a lot of time. I go for the quick pressure cooker version when I have less time. I know daddy this version is not ur favourite. :(

Kaya ularthu - Plantain stir fry | Kukskitchen

Syrian Christian cuisine is gaining a lot of popularity these days. I was so surprised to see a uk celebrity chef do a syrian christian beef curry. I will post that in here soon. Watch this space.

A step-by-step visual guide about how to clean mussels | Kukskitchen

Kallumekka is a household favourite. It is my hubbie's one of top-liked-foods. The mussels I get in UK donot taste anyway close to the kerala-born ones, but I do try to make them as yummy as possible. Today I intend to give a step-by-step visual guide to preparing them.


Here u go!

How to prepare mussels

I frequently buy frozen mussels as they store better. Again, I don't then have to click open the hard shell.

What u need

Frozen mussels

Hot water from kettle

Kitchen scissors

A bit about its anatomy!

Step 1

Slip ur frozen mussels in to a pot with hot boiled water from a kettle. Leave them for 5-10 minutes.

Step 2

Pick up mussels one by one and start cleaning them.

Step 3

Aim of this step is to remove the byssal threads. On one side of the mussel it opens up like a book. Look there to find a mustache- like part which is its byssal thread. Pull it with medium strength till it comes out.

Step 4

Aim of this step is to remove the intestines. At the joint of the 'book' on one end of the mussel are the intestines. They look a grey-black colour under the thin body of mussel. Use a pair of scissors or if u r brave enough use ur nails to flick it out.

Step 5

Give them a wash and ur mussels are ready to go in the pan.



Watch this space for yummy mussel fry!

Cheers

Sherin 

Pineapple sago payassam /sabudana | Kukskitchen

Pineapple sago payasam by aunty L and chocolate brownies by aunty P were the star attractions of 'mathrujyothis' sunday sale in Nirmala Bhavan church on of the yester years, this was before my med school days. If you are wondering what is mathrujyothis, I will tell u. It is a church and diocese linked organisation by the mums in church through which the church did many charitable works. The sunday sale was a yearly event when each mum would make something, food or otherwise, and sell it, with the profit to go to the above said charitable activities.

Recently I started craving for the 'famous' pineapple sago payasam. I did whip up mango-sago pudding with mango pulp a while ago but it was no where near the payasam I had in mind. I will post the recipe another day.

Presented here is my version of pineapple-sago payasam.  It tasted yummm.

Cabbage stir fry and a tip to dieting ;) | Kukskitchen

A quick and easy healthy veggie side dish in Keralan style. It tastes lovely with rice or even roti. Ever since I heard about and tried the cabbage soup diet, I try to include cabbage in my weekly menu in one way or other.

Ultimate chocolate cream cheese cookies | Kukskitchen

This is my first month and first entry on the Baking Partners challenge. Baking partners is a group created and run by Swathi of Zest south indian kitchen. There were three recipes for cookies and I chose ultimate chocolate cream cheese cookies.

Recipe by Tina of pinay cooking corner

Ultimate Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies from Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups (255g) all purpose flour

¼ cup (32g) unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. (8g) baking soda
½ tsp. (3g) salt
2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened slightly
4 oz (113g) Cream Cheese at room temperature
1 cup (201g) granulated sugar
½ cup (110g) dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. (30ml) heavy cream
1 tsp. (5ml) pure vanilla extract
3 oz. (85g) bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
8 oz. (225g) of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Carrot stir fry | Keralan style & a tip for weight loss :) | Kukskitchen

Eating carrots will not make you fat. This a fact. It contains beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A, is especially important for eye health. It’s also of great benefit to the skin, and the immune and digestive systems. Carrots are also loaded with fibre and water, which cleanse the liver, boost oxidation and plump out skin to stave off wrinkles.

Avial - Keralan mixed vegetable l Kukskitchen

When ever I go to Kerala, avial is top in the list of things I ask my mum to cook for me. Her avial is 'world-famous' and she makes it with such precision.

Avial being the king dish of vegetables takes its place quite high up in an onasadya. Avial is a perfect accompaniment in a sadya, but in my house avial gets made especially during good friday for lunch which is the only meal that day and it has to be vegetarian.

Spanish omelette | Tortilla | Kukskitchen

Before I start the recipe, I should say this is definitely not a classic recipe for spanish tortilla. This is so much adapted to suit my little son's palate -  hence sausages :)

Pathiri | No-rise rice pan cake | Kukskitchen

I started making pathiri only a few years back. I have fallen in love with it ever since. It is not only quicker to make than most breakfasts and requires no preparation what so ever. Presented is what I do to make my pathiris.


The method might seem long because it includes all fail safe mechanisms too. Real time cooking takes not more than a minute or two per pathiri.

- I usually get 6-7 pathiri's from this recipe.

Curried kashmiri chicken | Kukskitchen

Chicken is kind of a staple ingredient in my kitchen. It is easy and quicker to cook than other meat and with a touch of innovation one can create a yummy curry any day, with no complaints from my hubby :). I get help from dear blogger friends and facebook page friends from time to time. One such friend is priya of priya's recipes who I borrowed this recipe from. Thanks priya.

Hey I've joined the Baking Partners. Thanks Swathi

Baking Partners: A new Baking Group

A group of home bakers helping each other to achieve perfection.

Pulisseri without coconut - featuring marrow - Ammachi's pulissery

"Oru nalla pulisseri undengil pinne kari onnum venda". I have heard  ammachi say that a million times. Her speciality was kaya (plaintain) pulisseri though. I didnt get the raw plantain, instead I thought of making use of an English vegetable - Marrow. I tastes superb and eating it u feel like marrow should have been a keralan vegetable.

There are many varieties of pulisseri each with its own recipe. Presented is the easiest and quickest of them all. 

Vegetable kurma l kukskitchen

Ingredients:


1 - Vegetables - 250 g (Carrot, beans, potato, cauliflower, green peas)
     Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
     Salt to taste
2 - Ghee – 1 tbsp
3 - Cinnamon stick – 2 pieces
     Green cardamom – 4

     Cloves -4
     Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
4 - Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped
     Green chilly - 5 slit
5 - Cashew nuts – 10, soak and grind to a smooth paste
6 - Coconut milk - 200ml

Utthappam - featuring semolina, plain flour & yogurt

If you are looking for a quick breakfast recipe, here is one of the quickest of them all.

I saw this recipe in Food Mazaa hosted by Shobha. I made no major changes to it.

Ingredients:

1 - Semolina - 1/2 cup
     Plain flour - 1/2 cup
     Yogurt - 1/2 cup
     Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup finely chopped
     Salt to taste

2 - Onion - 1 finely chopped

3 - Mustard seeds - 1 tsp.
     Dry red chillies - 2
    Asafoetida - a pinch
    Curry leaves - 5-6
    Turmeric - a pinch

Method:

- Mix (1) adding a little water to make a thick batter. Add salt and coriander leaves.

- Heat oil in a pan, fry (3) and add the chopped onion.Stir fry for a minute.- Add a pinch of turmeric powder in the end and mix this into the batter.
- Spread a ladle of mixture on the griddle, cover with a lid. After 1-2 minutes turn it over and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
- Serve hot with coconut chutney.

Chicken fry - featuring egg l Kukskitchen

Chicken fry is something that I whip up quickly and my toddler son luvs it. Here is one recipe that I use quite frequently.