Cooking Is Easy

Whenever I make breadfruit  {kadachakka) chips it always brings back nostalgic memories of my childhood. Summer holidays spent at Kottayam at my late maternal grandmothers house. She was a  wonderful person, so full of life and I miss her so much. We cousins used to have such fun munching on this special chips which ammachi(grandmother ) used to make for us....Sethu if you are reading this....I am talking about lazying at the "mandapam" in the back of the house and our field treks....and the big "kadachakka maram" in the backyard.....ah! those were good old days....80's bring such wonderful memories.... With Ammachi-2007 Kadachakka as this fruit is called in malayalam is found in backyards of most of the houses in Kerala, nowadays it is also seen in markets. Ammachi used to make lots of varieties with this fruit....my personal favorite is this chips. Ingredients: Two or three breadfruit/kadachakka. Preferably coconut oil for frying. Salt: 2...

My cooking station or the place I cook food for my family is just 5/6 feet....it is small and airy. This is actually a work area which I converted into my small kitchen. Indian cooking has lots of splutters, frying, sauteing, smoking etc....so I opted for windows and not a built in expensive electric chimney.... I also wanted everything to be within my arms reach.....the counter space is small next to the gas stove...but I am quite satisfied with it.....the best part is easy cleaning.....I do not have a maid/cook to help....I do all my work on my own.....though the kitchen is small.....I enjoy working here.... If ever I need more counter space like kneading for pizza dough or rolling for garlic rolls or cookie making or cake baking....I just go to my pantry. ...there is plenty of counter space The masala jars on the facing windowsill..... makes cooking a lot easier for me....everything within my arms reach :) On the left windowsill I have kept the ...

So here is a peep into my kitchen, my regular readers know that I have shifted my residence to an apartment......we were house hunting for quite a long time and when we saw this apartment what I liked most was the kitchen; it has a workarea and a store plus lots of counter space... I had lots of fun putting together my kitchen...trying to make it as organised and functional as I can.... This is the place where the family have food, chat, and listen to radio. On the left side is the cabinets. Yes that's my good old oven and the cabinet on top has all my recipe books/cutouts and bake-wares. The middle cabinet has crockery.. There are cabinets and drawers below the counter.... The best part of this place is  the sunlight coming through the window. I know there is no cooking space in this part of my kitchen......you got it right I do not cook here.....stay tuned for my next post where I will take you to my cooking station.

Yesterday I was in a mood to bake a cake and was wondering which cake to bake, saw a printed recipe on the Cadbury cocoa powder packet......wondered why I didnt notice it before. I baked the cake and loved it....... it had a distinct rich Cadbury Cocoa flavor......plus the texture of the cake was perfect....a gem. The chocoholic in me fell in love with this cake.....taking away all the blues of this monsoon. I used DIY Hershey's chocolate syrup !! Recipe Source: Cadbury cocoa packet. Ingredients: Flour: 2 cups. Cocoa powder: 5 tbsp. Baking powder: 1 tsp. Butter: 100gm/1 stick/1/2 cup. Sugar: 1 cup. Eggs: 3. Vanilla essence: 1 tsp. Milk: 1/4 cup or as needed. Method: Wait! do not throw away the butter wrapper use it to grease your baking dish. Since this is a chocolate cake I dusted the baking dish with cocoa powder. Sieve 2 cups of flour with 5 tbsp of cocoa and 1 tsp of baking powder and keep aside. Cream butter and sugar with an electric...

Two days ago a young man bought a shawarma roll from Trivandrum, he was on his way to Bangalore and boarded the night train. After having the shawarma, he felt stomach pain and called his mother to inform, she advised him to visit a doctor as soon as he reach Bangalore. He died the next day afternoon. Eating out is okay; but please make sure the food you have paid for is of good quality, especially when buying for children. As a rule I try to include whole wheat as much as I can in my baking (except in cakes), pizzas top the list, then comes rolls . I use plain atta/whole wheat flour. The result is it does not rise as much as plain flour does and the texture is also not that spongy, but yes healthy. Remember my pizza post , sometime back I started playing  with the flour, sometimes I take 1:1 ie half plain flour: half whole wheat flour; sometimes 3/4 whole wheat flour and 1/4 plain flour; and most of the time I simply use just whole wheat flour. Note: Always put the d...

Hello everybody, I am finally back after a break of 2 months.....my much needed break. We shifted our residence to our own new apartment, so I was kinda busy with my new home and settling down in the new locality. I apologize for the delay in answering queries and acknowledging comments from my readers and friends.   I  have a confession to make.....this oh! so chocolatey pudding was made by my sis-in-law, vava. I just  supervised  helped her a little, like trying to take some pics with my nephews, nieces, and my kids hovering over it.  Yes I admit I did not make this pudding, but sometimes I like to see others cook and this time I let in my sister-in-law, who is a great cook and though she is younger than me...I have learned a lot from her....ya, you never know from where you learn :) Remember my eggless pineapple pudding  (which is the 3rd most popular recipe on this site..wow!), the sole owner of that pudding is my sis-in-law. So I hope you w...