Cooking Is Easy

I love homemade jam be it pineapple, banana, apple or any fruit. I had made this pineapple jam long time back, but it still looks fresh and yummy even now. Making jam at home without the preservatives or colour is a real treat for kids. If the jam is stored in an airtight container in fridge it will keep up to a year. I add a little bit of it while making cakes to get the flavor or top it up on tarts etc etc. I have not added any sort of preservative or colour to this jam, but I kept it in the fridge. It is easy to make if you have a juicer at home. Just deskin the pineapple and cut into stripes and put into juicer. Mix the juice with sugar and keep on fire till it reaches jam consistency then add 4 to 5 crushed cloves and homemade jam is ready. Ingredients: Pineapples: 2 medium  Sugar: 2 cups (you can increase or decrease it according to the sweetness of the pineapple). Cloves: 4 to 5. Lime juice: 1 to 2 tbsp. Method: Put the deskinned pineapple in the juicer and take the juice.

Dosa is one of the most popular breakfast and loved by almost everyone. All it need is to soak the rice and urad dal and ferment it for about 7 to 8 hours. So grinding at night is the most preferable option. Most people soak the rice and dal separately and grind it separately and then mix it; personally I find that a little bit troublesome so one day I just soaked everything together and grinded it and that came into a real nice crispy dosa. Well, to me the mantra is cooking should be easy and less time consuming at least for every day cooking. So here is how to make dosa the easy way. How I make dosa: Raw rice: 1 cup. Cooked rice: 1 handful. Urad dal: 1/2 cup. Fenugreek seeds or Uluva: 1/2 tsp. Salt to taste. Method: Soak all together except the salt for 2 hours at least. Grind it all together with the salt and transfer it into a bowel and keep to ferment overnight (at least 7 hours) To make dosa: Heat an iron tawa or a non stick one. Grease it with an oiled rolled

This is my 50th post wow!!! I am proud of myself and what better way to celebrate it. I take this moment to thank each and every one who has visited my virtual space.  Its been a while since I posted something as I was down with severe sinus infection and sore throat and in between achachen (my dad) gave a surprise visit. This recipe is from ammas elder sister, Lata whom I fondly call Renjumummy). I made exactly as she told me to and it was a huge hit with achachen and Homey. Luckily I was able to get a pic of it. Personally I don’t prefer duck but that did not alter me from trying out this one. Ingredients: Duck: ½ kg cleaned. Onion: 2.(or shallots about ¼ cup). Ginger garlic paste: 1 ½ tbsp. Green chilies: 2 or 3. Coriander powder: 3 tsp. Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp. Chilly powder: 2 tsp. Pepper powder: 1 tsp. Garam masala: 1 tsp. Vinegar: 1 tbsp. Curry leaves. Method: Preferably coconut oil.                                                                                        (  

Butter chicken recipe, learn to make restaurant style butter chicken with step by step pictures. A quick and easy way to make restaurant style butter chicken at home.. Just the other day I was chatting with Ponnu (my cousin) and she asked to take a break from baking and post some chicken recipes. So that made me throw off all the cookies, cakes etc from my mind at least for sometime and this butter chicken recipe took over. This has been handed down by my good friend Elsy from Mercara. Once during x’mas time she gave a party and that was the first time I tasted this. Now why I call it restaurant style is because Elsy got it from some chef in Mumbai and after I tried it I felt this has the same restaurant taste. Most of us are a little hesitant while ordering butter chicken at a restaurant because of the butter and cashew nuts and the best thing is that there is no cashew nuts in this. The chicken is so sooooooooo soft I mean super soft, so why is that it is soft….well

Hot chicken soup….hmmm….what better way to beat an awful cold. With both my kids down with cold I made their favorite chicken soup. This recipe for chicken soup was handed down by amma which can be made with ingredients which are available in the kitchen ie if you have chicken in the freezer. How to make soup: Put 4 to 5 pieces of chicken with bones into a cooker and pour 2 1/2 cups of water. Add 1 tsp soya sauce, 1 tsp pepper powder, and salt and put on fire. After 1 steam simmer for 15 min and switch off the fire and wait for another 10 minutes. Open the cooker and strain it into another vessel. Shred the chicken pieces and put it into the strained stock. Put 1 tsp of cornflour into the cooled stock. Mix well and bring it to boil and simmer it. Lightly beat an egg yolk and pour thinly into the soup mixing well with the other hand. Serve hot with more pepper powder. Tip: Can add or decrease cornflour, soya sauce, salt, and pepper powder to suit your taste.

Kerala palappm or appam or lace pancakes is a traditional Syrian Christian Breakfast of Kerala, traditionally toddy (kallu) is used to ferment the batter. It is best served with Chicken Stew .  Here is a quick and easy way to make palappams. Palappams or lace appams is usually served with Chicken Stew . The lace like fringe of appam gave it the nickname lace appams. This is made up of fermented batter of raw rice, coconut, and yeast. The traditional way of powdering the rice flour, making the kappi, etc etc might be a bit confusing to a person who has just started cooking; those new blushing brides, or those who stay away from home. Traditionally appam is made with rice flour, kappi, and coconut milk and after my marriage I tried the traditional way and it was time consuming and sometimes it flops too. So amma taught me to make appam the easy way. Yeast is the main factor, making the yeast rise up solves all the problem. So all you have to do is put the soaked rice and

Mother ....... When you're a child she walks before you, To set an example. When you're a teenager she walks behind you To be there should you need her. When you're an adult she walks beside you So that as two friends you can enjoy life together. Sometimes words fail us when we describe about our mothers. “Amma” as I call my mom is an angel, like every mother is. Today as she celebrates her birthday I wanted to reach out to her in my virtual space. There are so many things in my wish list today like I wished I was with her today making something special for her or just spending the day talking or shopping …….its endless. I made some simple butter cookies and it was Nidhi’s idea to decorate it with royal icing and to post it here so that it will be a virtual present for her “ammachi”. So Cheriyan also joined the fun and I only had one colour and some silver balls, coloured balls etc. I let the kids imagination go wild. Happy birthday amma and to a