Cooking Is Easy

I hope everybody had a wonderful Easter with family and friends. If someone asks me which fish I like most, I would shout out karimeen/pearspot at the top of my voice....it is that one fish we the people of Kottayam relish.

how to make indari appam - indri appam - pesaha appam for maundy thursday Easter is just around the corner and since we are observing Lent ....which makes Easter extra special. Indri appam is a bread made only on Maundy Thursday. It is made with urad dal, rice flour, coconut, jeera, onion or shallots, garlic, and salt. Appam is steamed in a steamer or appachembu. Paal is made with jaggery and coconut milk spiced with dry ginger, black sesame seeds, and jeera. Appam is had dipped in Paal. In our Knanaya community, the making of this bread is a special ceremony and is prepared with much respect and care. The palm leaf, which we get from church on Palm Sunday is placed on the bread in the form of cross before steaming it. This bread/appam and the paal is only made on Maundy Thursday. This is cut by the head of the family on Maundy Thursday evening and distributed among other family members to commemorate the Last Supper. This appam is not fermented. This appam and paal is only ...

With Easter just around the corner, seasonal sweets are filling up the bakeries.....I actually made this addictive cappuccino muffins half a dozen times already.....it is quick and easy to mix.....no need to powder sugar or bring butter to room temperature.....and just one egg!!! and the surprise!!  it is filled with ooey gooey chocolate chips....hmm coffee and chocolate.....HEAVEN!!!...you will be gifted with 12 pillow-soft coffee flavored-melted chocolate filled muffins....perfect for your Easter weekend. Now why did I picture it beside Goofy......my son, Cheriyan was so addicted to these kids channels: Pogo, Cartoon Network, Jetix etc etc....since school closed for summer vacations he has been hooked on TV....so one night without anyone knowing I fine tuned all the kids channel into the place of other channels.....so, the next day when Cherry came to watch his fav programs he could'nt find any...and he blamed it on satellite error :)....anyways after that I could...

I love Rajma and this is my favorite curry with roti ..... when I cook for my family, it's often a little of this, a dash of that, a taste test, test again, add some salt, taste again, oh yeah! needs another splash of this etc etc.....this is how I do my everyday cooking....of course with Baking I am very strict... I follow the recipe down to the last detail. Summer is at its peak and we had gone to Wayanad  to escape from this heat.....kids enjoyed the short break and we all had a great time...the weather was pleasant...I mean perfect weather!!! Now back to cooking!! Rajma curry is a typical Punjabi dish...and needs plenty of oil to bring out its taste....Since I am trying to reduce oil intake....I prepared this with the minimum oil and still could bring out thick spicy gravy....so starting today, check out for low-oil curries!! Some of the red beans/rajma that I had soaked to make this curry. I soaked it for about 6 to 7 hours. I tried to reduce the oil to 2 dsp a...

Nidhi, my daughter loves tomato sauce...she needs sauce for bread rolls , cullets , samosas , puffs, pizzas etc etc.....and that's how I started  making homemade sauce....I think it was way back in 2000 that I got the book, "Pickles, Chutneys, And Preserves" and got hooked to simple homemade Tomato Sauce recipe (Chinese). Since Nidhi, cannot do without sauce and I did not want to pump her with store brought sauce with all the preservatives, colours, emulsifiers, God only knows what else??.... Whenever I see nice red plump tomatoes I give in......red ones weakens me!!!....I got these gorgeous babes for just Rs 5/kg.. I follow the recipe completely and Nidhi always says this taste better than store brought ones.....Infact when she was 5 years old I used to pour this sauce into her favorite tomato sauce bottle and she never used to think otherwise. The recipe calls for a spice bag....its nothing just tie up the spices in a cloth and dunk into the tom...

World cup fever is almost down....I still remember the first time when the Indian team won the world cup....it was way back in 1983....I was 11 at that time..... fast-forward to 2011, I watched World cup match with my kids and hubby.....how time flies..... As soon as summer vacation set in my brothers kids gave a surprise visit....they were here for almost a week....so with 5 kids in and around the house....made me completely busy.....and the reason for my absence from blogging. I made this cake and was totally impressed with its texture and how quick and easy it was to make. Infact I made this cake thrice in a row now....I stumbled upon this Betty Crocker recipe here . Now, why did I title the cake as The Never Fail Cake and not The Yellow Cake or The Sponge Cake.....because it came out perfect each time I made it....it did not sink...did not crumble...had the most perfect texture....too perfect....well you can see it for yourself....and lets get baking!!!. Ingre...