Cooking Is Easy

Paneer / Cottage Cheese Crescents , .a few days ago while pouring milk to boil ....I accidently poured one packet of curd instead of milk into the pan.....two packets of milk plus one packet of curd....all this happened in the morning rush hour... and when my loud oh! nooooo! exclamations came from the kitchen hubby dear looked into the matter....when he heard what happened....you should have seen his face....all smiles.....because he loves paneer more than anything else.....my mom-in-law used to say that as a young boy...whenever she makes paneer and leave it to set.....Homey used to sneak and have his full of raw paneer....by the time she comes to cook dinner....there will be only the cloth without the paneer!!!. So you can imagine his happiness when I told him that I poured curd accidently into the milk...I could see the twinkle in his eyes....when I started to turn them into paneer. Now both my kids don't like paneer....so when I saw these at Roxana's spac...

Chocolatechip Shortbread The best thing about shortbread is that it takes less time to make compared to making cookies.....(no rolling the dough into a cookie)....cream butter and sugar... add flour...... press into a pan and bake it....yes, thats it!!!...this is one of my kids favorite shortbread ..... and the easiest!!. I love the chocolatechips on top....It gives enough chocolatey flavour....though Nidhi likes to top it with chocolate sauce....either way it is yummy!!! I came  across  this while surfing the net and thought I will share it...it is a brief history of shortbread cookies.........."They started in Scotland way back when cooking, compared to today's standards, was crude.                                         Of course they have evolved over time to what we know today.  The original shortbread cookie recipe probably included ...

Remember that cookie book which I got from the roadside vendor and from which I made whole wheat chocolate chip cookies ...well that cookie book is indeed a treasure house of cookies....this peanut butter cookie is a traditional recipe and I made it last week.....peanut butter cookies are instantly recognizable by their criss cross marks (made by the tines of fork). This one is easy to make and not much effort if using an egg beater.

This week was rather hectic...kids not well...Homey on tour.....and before I knew it was Thursday!!! .....I had made palak paratha a few days ago...I love making parathas with greens...kids love them in their lunch box...today its methi paratha in their lunch box.....the best part is that you can saute the greens and keep in fridge for 2 or 3 days...I usually do this and mix them with wheat flour in the morning ...usually for kids lunch box.

Kozhukattai is a traditional snack of South India...amma used to prepare it as an after soon snack.....It is one of the healthiest snack with rice flour, jaggery, coconut. Hot water is poured into the rice powder, salt, and mixed with a spoon. When it is warm enough to handle, roll into small balls and put a tsp of scarped coconut and jaggery mix into it and again roll it into a ball and steam it. Ingredients: Rice flour: 2 cup.(easily available in Indian Stores). Water: 1 1/2 cups-2 cups. Salt: 1/2 tsp. Grated coconut: 1/2-1 cup. Palm jaggery/jaggery: Grated or crushed, about 1/2 cup. 1 or 2 drops of oil to grease your hand. Cardamom: 1 or 2, crushed. Method: 1. Mix coconut, jaggery, cardamom and keep aside. 2. Boil water with salt in a pan...add 1 or 2 drops of oil...when it is boiled and pour it little by little over the rice flour mixing with a spoon and make it into a soft dough...the water is just enough to make it into a dough. 2. A llow it to cool and...

The moment I saw these brownies here I had to forget about the healthy resolution that I made a couple of weeks back.....I mean I was practically living chocolate-less for more than 20 days....and I needed a reward for enduring 20 loooooong chocolate-less days. Also, I saw a newspaper article about cocoa powder, I quote, " Chocoholics, you can now gorge on your favorite treat without a sense of guilt, for scientists have claimed that it's actually healthier than many fruit. Not only that, but chocolate is being heralded as the latest "super food" by the scientist who carried out a study. They have proved that it is packed with more healthy plant compounds and antioxidants gram-for gram than fruit juice and provides far more nutrition than food experts previously thought. This is based on a comparison of cocoa powder with powders made from fruit"....yay!!! that's good news for all the chocoholics...(so indulge in chocolate guilt free!!) Also,...

Most houses in Kerala has atleast one irumban puli tree in the backyard. Kids love to have fresh puli with salt and chilly powder. A visit to a friend's house resulted in picking up the fresh ones (I forgot to take my cam) right from the tree.... Irumban puli is used to make squash, jams, pickles, and in fish curries....my mom even makes a thoran....After coming home I chopped them and sprinkled salt lavishly on top of it and tossed them and added salt till I felt it is right....and since I was a bit lazy to make pickle (I hate peeling garlics!!!) I left it in salt for almost a week....I  tossed or stirred it every day..infact my kids loved having them.....salty!! Chop the puli into small pieces....thats my pretty puli getting a bit of the evening sun!!! And this is how it looked after almost one week in salt....you can see the water has oozed out and it is slightly pale....kids loved them. Ingredients: Irumban puli: 1/2 kg, chopped. (Can also put in salt and mak...