Me and my World

If you have lived in Madras you have heard of Plum Cake in all the Kerala/Malayalee bakery shops. Its so tasty, available throughout the year.. and indescribably rich. It has tutty-fruity- mixed fruits cut into very very small cubes and either dried, or soaked in sugar syrup to retain its flavor. The advantage in Madras is that this tutty-fruity of mixed fruits is available in all seasons and in any grocery shop. In the U.S fruit cake is baked during Christmas, and the mixed fruits container is available fresh only during the Christmas season. In any other time, we just find one fruit per container. So taking this opportunity, I decided to bake a vegetarian eggless Fruit cake. There are 2 versions to this cake. 1. traditional method - were the fruits are soaked in brandy/sherry from a few hours to a few days before baking. 2. quick fix - no liquid soaking. I followed a recipe from a U.K vegan website but had to modify it quite a bit to get my desired fruit cake. Ingredients: ...

It's the winter break time and again I am here in Phoenix with my parents, brother, sister-in-law and my just eight month old niece! Yes.. seems like a family re-union, but I have been to Phoenix so many times this year that it feels home.. but it has always been my home in the U.S. I had a string of things I wanted to try when I came here, that included a bread. I don't have a cookie tray or a baking pan with me, and there was none of the family to taste my trials. This was a good opportunity. So to just please them, I brought a Dates cake when I came. But then again, the moment I mentioned baking a bread, my SIL and my brother enthusiastically accepted to help me. To that accord my SIL helped me pick the kind of bread she would like me to bake, and my brother helped with his KitchenAid! So here is the recipe from www.cookingbread.com that I modfified a little to accomodate for the ingredients that we had at home. Ingredients - 1 1/2 cups water 2 tablespoons oi...

My mother is a specialist is making storable, and ready to eat South Indian specialties. This is very good example of this. Back home Milagu Kozhambu is considered a simple but medicinal recipe. Amma usually makes the powder form of this Kozhambu, that would only need water and salt before eating. Here is the recipe. Ingredients for dry powder - * 1 1/2 Tbsp Milagu (whole Pepper) * Malli vedai (Coriander seeds) - 2 tbsp * Kadala Paruppu (channa dal) - 1 tbsp * Ullatam Paruppu (urad dal) - 1/2 tsp * Jeeragam (Cumin seeds) - 1 tsp * Mendayam (Fenugreek seeds)(methi seeds) - 1/2 tsp Preparation - * Dry roast all the ingredients * Powder the roasted ingredients into a smooth powder * store powder in an air tight container. When you are ready to make the Kozhambu follow this preparation - Ingredients - * Mustard seeds - 1Tsp * Tamarind paste - 2 tbsp * Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp * salt to taste * Perungayam powder(Asafoetida powder/ Hing) - a pinch * oil - 2 tsp ...

This cake is a recipe from my mother. She microwave bakes all her cakes, and this is one of her recipes. I used to bake this with her and now decided to try it in an oven. This cake has been loved by friends and family, and prepared quite a few times, my cousins and us helping my mother in the preparation. Ingredients: 3/4 Cup milk 18-20 dates, de-seeded and chopped to small pieces 1 Cup APF 1 Cup light brown sugar 1 Tsp baking soda 1/2 Cup oil Preparation: * Pre-heat oven at 350 F. Grease baking tray. * Add chopped dates to milk and microwave for 2 mins. This will soften the dates and it is easier to puree. Leave the microwaved dates to cool, and then puree in a blender, with the milk. * Mix flour, brown sugar and baking soda. To this mixture add oil. The final mixture should have a crumbling consistency. * Add the flour mixture, a Tbsp at a time to the dates puree. * Pour the mixture into the baking try. * Bake for 25-35 mins or until a toothpi...

My friend Karthik Babu seems to have captured the hearts of his roommates with his Kozhambu recipe. We were talking about it when we went to Noodles & Co for dinner. It had been a while since I cooked Kozhambu , but instead of the general paruppu Kozhambu, I wanted to cook Manathangali Kozhambu . Manathangali which is known as black nightshade in English, has antioxidant and anti inflammatory properties. It has lot of health benefits.The leaf of this plant when chewed helps to cure mouth ulcers. According to Wikipedia, traditionally this plant was used to cure tuberculosis. My grandmother used to grow this plant in our garden in Madras, India, and my mom did have her own for quite some time. But now Manathagali is available in the grocery stores (in the U.S too) in the dried and salted variety which can be stored in cool dry place for long years! There are 2 variations of this recipe, one which uses thoram paruppu ( Thuvar dal) and the other which doesn't. Here is ...

Finally One year of baking and blogging about it! To celebrate this milestone I decided to bake again!!! This might be my last banking session, since I will be holidaying with my parents and brothers family for the winter break. This time, 'am trying a new recipe from the scratch. By now you all know that I cook and bake with what's available in my kitchen on that day. So I changed some finer points to accommodate the ingredients availability and here is my new cake. Baking is such an awesome feeling. I can smell the lemon rind and cranberry when it bakes. This can be better called bread since the consistency of the final product is a little less softer than the cake and also the dough rises much mare than a cake normally would. But I bake everything in my cake pan and so call it all a cake. INGREDIENTS: 2 cups All Purpose Flour ( if you are looking to bake a bread, use self-raising flour and just 1/2 tsp of baking powder) 1/2 cup Sugar 2 Tbsp butter 1 tsp va...