2 No NAME dishes for Lunch

There are days when I have zero idea on what to cook/bake or just not in the mood. I guess we all have those days & On those days I just scan the kitchen like a hawk and find things that are quick and easy to make. Mostly I like having left overs but..meh !!! most of the time I am not that lucky. But, always I have my way with food. One thing I found helpful while lazying around is… it’s always best to have a rice that cooks super fast and doesn’t need to wait for hours raw,boiled,sticky,brown,black it doesn’t matter. Then always keep some eggs, they are such life savers, sincerely thank the hens for it. Now back to the dishes I made a couple of days back and today for lunch. I was not really looking forward to cook but was way too hungry. So a rice dish was born a couple of days ago and a pasta dish at noon today. I really liked how both turned out and yeah here I am sharing those with you. It’s so quick and easy just a handful of ingredients and you are ready have your lunch. Here’s what you need for the Rice dish

Rice- 1 cup ( cooked with some salt)

Onion- 1 medium

Ginger – 1 inch

Garlic – 3 big cloves

Egg – 1 large

Chilly powder- 1 tsp

Coriander powder – 1tsp

Garam masala – 3/4 tsp

Sunflower Oil – 2 tbsp

Method :

Cook the rice you chose with some salt and set aside. In a frying pan Add oil and saute the ginger,garlic, onion for a couple of minutes. Once the rawness is gone add in the powders and combine them well. Then add in the Egg and rice. Let the egg coat well in rice and cook for 4 minutes. Serve warm.

For the Second Recipe we need

Macaroni – 100 gms

Mung Bean – 100 gms

Onion- 1 large

Egg – 1 large

Carrot – 1 small

Ginger Garlic paste – 1tsp

Garam Masala – 1/2 tsp

Salt – 1.5 tsp

Sunflower Oil – 1tbsp

Method :

Boil the pasta with some salt and a bit of oil, drain and set aside. Cook the mung bean the same way and set aside. Heat a frying pan and saute the Onion,ginger garlic paste, carrot for a couple of minutes. Add in 1/2 tsp of salt and garam masala then the egg. Coat them well then mix the Mung bean and Pasta in it. Serve warm with any sauce of your choice or you can have them as it is.

Both dishes can be cooked well within 30 minutes and are mouth watering too. You can change the ingredients of your choice which can be cooked faster. Sometimes these comfort food are all we need for a lazy day. I haven’t really given a name to it. May be egg rice and Pasta Salad will do? what do you think? Please do let me know how it turned out for you and if you have a fancy name for it too.

Plan with Pumpkin

There aren’t many food that I don’t like. But there is one I fight my nail and tooth with and that is pumpkin. I don’t know why exactly I don’t like it and can’t stand it. Whenever I see a dish that has pumpkin in it I just close my eyes and move on. We are not meant for each other I guess. Sigh !!! As always there comes a but after the long sigh!. But,……. Somehow I found a way to put that pumpkin in my mouth and gulp it all the way to my stomach. Yes! I am surprised myself. Anyway the one and only way I can even look at pumpkin is when I am ready to make ‘the soup’. I made it last night and here I am sharing the goodness with you. It’s so easy and doesn’t need too much ingredients, just a handful of them and you are good to go. So shall we? Here is what you need

Ripe Pumpkin – half of a medium sized one.

Onion – 1 medium

Green chilly – 3 ( mine was reaaaallly spicy)

Ginger paste – 1.5 tsp

Garlic paste – 1.5 tsp

Unsalted Butter – 1 tbsp

Milk – 1.5 cup ( half cup milk with 1 cup water added)

Salt – 2 tsp

Coriander leaves – to garnish

Method :

Grind the onion and green chilly into a fine paste. Add the butter in frying pan and add the onion paste. Add the ginger and garlic paste with a pinch of salt. Let it cook till the rawness of the onion and chilly goes and it starts to brown a little. Cut the pumpkin thin and boil with 1 tsp of salt till it becomes mushy. ( Mine was really ripe. It only took around 5-6 minutes.) Make the cooked pumpkin into puree and add in with the onion mix. Let it cook for 4 minutes in simmer and add in the salt and the milk. Mix well and cover it for another 2 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve warm.

* You can add anything fit for your choice as the garnish.

** Instead of low fat milk you can use cream.

Greenish Dinner

Hello Everyone most of you have forgotten about me as it’s been ages since I’ve updated and come up with a new recipe. I am so sorry for that and yeah the pandemic hit me hard, I know it did the same to many of you as well. Yeah! I kind of went into a dark place not feeling like doing anything or have the energy to. Even I stopped writing which I love the most. Though I’ve been a bit active on the fan fiction part, there wasn’t any travel or food trial blog from my side. I only baked a few times or tried new recipes. But I was so lethargic and cooped up in my dark place that I didn’t feel like sharing it. Now now.. enough with my tragic sob story or whatever, the good news is I am back to writing I guess ? or at least I am trying. And as a starter we have two recipes ready for you. So without further delay let’s get started with one now yeah ?

We couldn’t get so many things we wanted as there was no door delivery for a while. Which resulted in limiting our experiments with food. So recently there were a couple of grocery stores/supermarket who were ready to deliver and Voila ! we started experimenting again. Last night our dinner was a special one. I made spaghetti ( let’s call it noodles for the children s sake ) with white sauce and greeny greeny paste. It’s one of the best tricks to make your kids eat green peas, coriander leaves and mint leaves, which they tend to avoid saying it’s stingy or smelly. Also there are no chilly or peppers or anything that’s spicy. And here is what you need for a family of 5.

Spaghetti Noodle – 400 gm ( 1 whole pack)

Potato – 2 large

Carrots- 2 large

Green beans – 14- 16 ( a handful)

Onion – 2 large

Green peace- 1 cup ( raw/frozen)

Milk – 1.5 cups

Clarified Butter – 3 tbsp

Sunflower Oil – 2 tbsp

Coriander leaves – 12 stems

Mint leaves – 12 stems

Garlic – 5 to 8 cloves

All purpose flour – 3tsp

Salt – 2 tsp

Method :

First thing we are going to do is grind all the greens except the Onion, Carrot, Green beans and Potato. Meaning we will grind the green peace, Coriander leaves, Mint leaves and garlic. The consistency of the paste is not too gooey or not so coarse. Then we will saute the onions and the rest of the veggies in 2tbsp of clarified butter/ 1.5tbsp of Sunflower oil. Once it’s sauted cover it up and keep warm. Try not to overcook and let the vegetables be crisp. Boil the spaghetti with a teaspoon of salt and after a couple of minutes drain the water and wash the spaghetti in in cold water. Pour some oil in it and keep it aside. Boil the milk with some butter, a pinch of salt, 2 cloves of garlic. Heat the remaining clarified butter in a pan and add the all purpose flour. When the raw smell evaporates add in the milk and continue to stir till it has a thick consistency. Then add in the green paste and let it cook for about 3-5 minutes. Add in the spaghetti and mix well. Once the paste is well combined add in the vegetables. Serve warm with some fruit juice for kids and some wine for the adults. Trust me it’s delicious : -). Please do try and let me know how it turned out for you.

** You can add any meat or anchovy when you saute your veggies.

*** I am sorry for not having any images as I didn’t think of updating till now.

Something new for NEW YEAR😊

Happy new year to you all…hope you all had a wonderful start and pray that you all get to fulfill your dreams and be happy throughout the year … 😀 . How did you start new year ?? you all had fun with your family ??? I was so excited that i almost knocked my husband off while wishing him :-), luckily he didn’t get hurt. Now we started our new year with something sweet and it was so easy to make and everyone in my family loved it. so what did i make for new year ??? a simple chocolate cake. Soooo easy ( thanks and credits to the authors of the book cake making and cake decorating ). They inspire me a lot and help me find my own recipes and experiment with it. I just love that book. So this time i didn’t experiment , just made the simple cake recipe as it is in the book. It turned out so well that i didn’t even bother to decorate or doing anything fancy.  Now let’s get into the recipe and you all make it ASAP. Here goes the recipe

Ingredients

Plain bittersweet chocolate – 115 gm ( dark)

Butter- 150 gm ( room temperature)

Light brown sugar – 150 gm

Self raising flour- 200 gm ( use all purpose flour + 3/4 tsp baking powder+ 1/4 tsp baking soda)

Egg – 3 large (room temperature)

Milk – 45 ml

Unsweetened cocoa powder – 15 gm

Vanilla essence – 5ml

Method

• Melt the chocolate with the milk in double boiler and let it cool.
• Beat butter and brown sugar for 5 minutes, until it turns light and fluffy.
• Add eggs one by one beating well after each addition, add vanilla essence along with the eggs.
• Stir in the chocolate mixture and mix it thoroughly.
• Add the flour and fold it well with a metal spoon.
• Scoop the cake mixture out into a 7- 8 inch cake pan and bake on a pre heated oven at 180 degree C for about 50 – 55 minutes. ( i made it on a convection oven)
• Once done remove into wire rack and let it cool completely .
• Dust icing sugar on top and serve it with a bit of red wine.

*** Its hard to get pure cake flour in my area so i always use all purpose flour for my baking. The temperature and timing varies on different oven, so please do check your cake time to time. You can choose the chocolate of your choice, i just used dark as i like it more than milk/ white.

An age r(a)isin(g) Cookie

Yup !!! I’m 31 now…it feels like yesterday that I finished college, got married and settled…but yeah time moves fast and birthdays are the best reminders. Birthdays are celebrated according to lunar calendar we have here, but when you are with close friends or immediate family you get to celebrate your DOB as well….as a surprise!!!!. This time for my birthday we all were pretty busy with one thing or the other. My niece was told that my birthday is around the corner and she was eagerly expecting of cutting happy ( cake) with me. She wanted me to bake a happy for my birthday but sadly I couldn’t, didn’t have enough time or the means for a cake. But my lovely sis in law surprised both me and our little one with a butterscotch cake and I surprised her by making an oats and raisin cookie for us. And you already know who had the lottery…She enjoyed my birthday more than me 😀 and that was the bestest gift I could ask for..  so without delay let’s get to this wonderful and easy oats cookie recipe

Ingredients

Butter – 200 gm

Light brown sugar- 180 gm

Sugar- 50 gm

All – purpose flour – 190 gm

Oats -200 gm

Raisin – 100 gm

Egg – 2 large

Vanilla- 1.5 tsp/7.5 ml

Baking soda- 1 tsp /5 gm

Cinnamon – 1 tsp/ 5 gm

Method

• Take out the butter and eggs from the refrigerator 30 minutes before beating , it should be at room temperature.
• Beat butter and sugar for about 3-5 minutes till it turns a pale brown, add eggs one by one and beat well after each addition, also add vanilla in one go with eggs.
• Sieve flour, baking soda, cinnamon together and mix with the egg mixture.
• Add oats in three addition and mix well with a spatula.
• Finally add the raisins, aged raisins in alcohol tastes better, but if you have kids at home mix with freshly bought raisins.
• Keep the cookie dough in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes before rolling.
• Roll 40 gm of the dough and press with your hand to make a disc, and bake at a pre heated oven at 180 degree C, for 20 minutes.
• Let the cookie cool down and sprinkle icing sugar or melted chocolate on top.
• Enjoy it on your tea time or just munch over it when you are in out in your kitchen. Those broken pieces tastes way better when eaten like that.

Please do try this out and let me know how you liked it.

Thumb print cookies with a dollop of fruits ( Niece Cookies)

My niece loves three things the most in this world Macoons (Macaroons), Happy ( Cakes) and Cookies. You  can imagine how a three year old demands and request for a cookie in the most cutest way right ? well, she has her own personal choices of chefs under her arms for each desserts. Macoons she loves to eat from her aunt from her mother’s side. Cookies from me from her father’s side and Happy from both of us. Though sometimes she asks me to make macoons as the other aunt lives in another state.

She goes to her grandparent’s place every weekend. And when she returns  she shows us her toys for the 1000th time and the 100 things she saw on her way back and she in her cuckoo voice ask ‘ are there any cookies left ?. ” Sometimes i only make a few and i literally hate to see her sad face when we reply” no there is nothing left”. She cheers up faster than lightning and the obvious question comes up ” su…. can you make me some ? ” and as always i do make her some cookies and someone else is waiting too, my husband (he and my niece are the biggest sweet tooths in our family) . So yup i did make a thumb print cookie for both of them, with a spoonful of mixed fruit jam as cherry on top. Mine had a crumbly texture as my butter was pretty softer than it should’ve been.So please be careful while you make this cookies, the butter should be of room temperature. Well… here goes the recipe

Ingredients

 All – purpose Flour – 160 gm

Butter -100 gm

Icing sugar- 60 gm

Egg yolk – 2

Toasted almonds- 40 gm

Mixed fruit jam – 3 tbsp

Vanilla essence- 1.5 tsp

 

Method

• Beat butter and icing sugar for about 4 mins (my place have tropical climate so i don’t usually take out the butter long before just about 20 mins before beating ).
• Add the egg yolk and vanilla essence and beat well till the mixture become pale in colour and has silky texture.
• Add flour in two additions and combine well ( i would prefer mixing with hands as the mixture will be super soft. ( i do keep that in fridge for 30 mins before rolling).
• Toast the almonds and let it cool and chop it into crumbs.
• Take 14-16 gms of the dough and make a small ball with your hand, press the middle with your thumb, egg wash and dip the almond crumbs around it.
• Add a small spoonful of mixed fruit jam on the top where the print of our thumb is visible .
• Pre heat the oven at 160 degrees and bake for about 10- 12 mins.
• Remove from the oven, let it cool completely and enjoy it with your tea or an espresso shot. 

My niece loves to carry that around in our lawn and throw the crumbs there like Hansel and Gretel : -), and the ants love her for that… may be more than us. Please do try and let the kids enjoy it.

** sorry i couldn’t take pics of the preparing methods as that was a sudden demand.

 

 

10 Minute Fusilli

There are days when me and my husband go out for something and have dinner from a restaurant and there are days we comeback home real hungry not wanting to eat  out or eat anything that we usually make for dinner. The cracking point is even we are out in the town, hungry like never been eaten in this life..we still want to reach home and make something from the things we purchased( those are actually tagged as for later purposes).

This weekend when we got back home after the purchasing, we were real hungry and wanted make something quick. At first the idea of instant noodles came, but we both were not that interested about it and were thinking what to cook.. luckily i did buy some fusilli  again ‘for later’ and all i could think was boiling the fusilli as fast as i can. Then with a few ingredients literally a few, we made the gorgeous fusilli and ate our tummy full and slept soundly. In short we made fusilli and grabbed whatever came in handy for cooking from the grocery bag and made one hell of a dinner within no time. and here goes the recipe.

Ingredients :

 

 

Ingredients

Ingredients

Ingredients

Fusilli – 250 gm

Onion – 1 large

Roasted / Masala peanuts – 100 gm

Egg – 2 

Ginger Garlic paste – 1 1/2 tsp

Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp

Red chilli sauce – 1tbsp

Soy Sauce – 1tsp

Mayonnaise –  2tbsp

Salt – 1 tsp 

Pepper- 2 tsp

Olive oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

 

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• Boil fusilli for about 5 Minutes with some salt and turn off the stove and let it cook itself in the hot water.
• By the time the pasta boils fry the eggs (one didn’t come out well so i scrambled it and mixed it with pasta ) with some pepper and salt.
• Slice the onion and saute it in some olive oil, add ginger garlic paste and the roasted peanuts (i like to keep the skin on) and let the paste coat on both onions and peanuts.
• Add the sauces and pepper and the scrambled eggs together then drain the pasta and add that into the mixture.
• Lastly add mayonnaise and mix it well till it coats on everything.
• Place the fried egg on top and eat it till your tummy can’t take it anymore 🙂

Its just as simple as winking. The only effort …i can’t even say its an effort, is the cutting of onion,the rest is just mixing everything . So easy Please do try it and you will know how heaven looks up close

Let things go

Let go of the pencil that was never supposed to sketch

Let go of the colors that was never supposed to paint

Let go of the paper that was never supposed to write

Let go of the dreams that was never supposed to seen

Let go of the voice that was never supposed to scream

Let go of the thought that was never supposed to  come out

Let go of the mind that was never supposed to  smile

Let go of yourself that was never supposed to own

 

Up up and up in Munnar

When we started from Kodai we didn’t know our ride to Munnar would be so delightful and refreshing that there was no ” You are getting bored” voice inside my head. It was a crowd free drive till Kambam and the roads were in good condition too. Sometimes just a ride like this will give you immense calm and purify your mind from all the troubling thoughts that you’ve been carrying inside you. It’s like the most beautiful dialogue from the movie ‘ The Lord of the Rings’ -” That there is something good in this world Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting (seeing) for”. Well my Samwise Gamgee was sitting next to me and he knows what to do to lift my spirit,  more than me. Listening the birds chirping, watching the green forests, we  spent sometime on the noise free, vehicle free ghat road, and it really worked like an energy booster.

We drove above 150 Kms, through Kambam -Theni- Devikulam – Munnar Route. Ravenously reached at Theni near break fast time and had our Pongal and coffee. You really should taste the Tamilian style filter coffee. It’s so rich in flavor and keeps you refreshed for a long time. The only thing which I slightly don’t like in it is the tremendous amount of sugar. Either you can order sugar free or don’t stir your coffee if you have the same sugary problem.

But don’t forget to order your coffee if you are anywhere inside Tamil Nadu. Stretching our spine a bit we continued.  Forest gave way to buildings and then again our vehicle came across to tall woody areas, cardamom estates and slowly to the vast tea hills.

Husband got down in places to take pics, and we were literally awestruck and wished to take 360 degree shots of these tea estates. Paths were cut between giant rocks. Some of these rocks were wonderfully self designed, and were worth watching for. One thing I forgot to mention, There was this restaurant at Kerala – Tamil Nadu border, which served fresh and hot food. Won’t say its super tasty but yea its okay as you are getting freshly cooked something to eat, right?.

Our stay at Munnar was at a serene place where you could enjoy the soft mist gliding through thick and big trees. Our host was not present when we reached there. The helper boy or assistant welcomed us with a cup of hot coffee and I got immersed in the swing with the ‘ Calligrapher’s daughter’ for sometime. Host came in by twilight and he was so welcoming that Husband and him started bonding so well. Dinner was served at different hut or small home like area and it was delicious. It was not like homely food and you get continental homely. They served typical Malayali christian style food ( yup ! I do like and notice different styles of Malayali cooking).While I was waiting for my Coffee, husband and another guy near us started talking which after sometime got my attention too. He was from Kannur, a cab driver by profession and was accompanying some ladies in their Kerala tour. Citing some incredible trip stories he mentioned he and a guest of his covered many Indian States in some 45 days or so. He also mentioned and invited us for One of the folk art from North Kerala, which I was dying to watch for long. Husband and I decided our next planned trip will be to Kannur, obviously for watching theyyam. That guy went to Ladak  with the same guest, a few days back. He did mentioned about Ladak too when we were in chat. Feeling excited about Theyyam and full tummy, I slept soundly.

Next morning we went for walk in the tea estate near by came back had our break fast and drove to Iravikualm national park. unfortunately it was closed as it was the breeding season of Nilgiri Tahr, an endangered mountain goat. Riding up and up we passed through more and more teas estates, factories, small villages etc. Then came to a halt at a waterfall, which almost dry but people were taking shower in it. The way to it was paved with stunning big rocks and I sat on one, dipping my legs in the ice cold water. Spending sometime in there made us realize that, there won’t be much to eat where we are headed. The forest department was running a tea stall there. So we bought some instant cup noodles and filled our thermal flask with some hot water.

Marayoor Jaggery is very famous in here. I wanted to know the making of it (the natural process). Saw a small jaggery making hut and we spend more than an hour watching the process. The makers were friendly and were happily agreed to take pics and cleared all my doubts. The whole process takes 3 hrs, more than an hour goes in boiling the sugar cane juice and reducing it into a gravy like thing. Then the whole boiling liquid is poured into a big rectangular wooden box. They wait till it hardens a bit. After dipping their bear hands in water they start rolling the hot jaggery. While the makers were waiting for the Jaggery to harden. Husband and I went up again till the road ended.  Came down saw all the finishing process ,bought some jaggery and drove back to Munnar. Had our cup noodle lunch around 3 pm. Reached back to our place, spent some time talking to our host, the driver guy and some guests. We had to start early next morning to our home, so we headed to our room soon afer our dinner.

Sun was up already by the time we were ready. The helper boy filled our flask with black coffee and we headed home with full of memories of the places we visited, the people we met.

 

 

A cloudy Mind

Saw a cloud above me, so big and dark

It moved  along with me

Then I realized it was my mind

wandering in search of a smile that bright.

It was so white and fluffy whole day

Then came a storm, horrific and scary it was

Which tore the cloud into pieces and

Made it dark, even the night was pretty bright to see.

Looking at the moon and stars from my window

I stayed awake searching a light inside me

Then a ray of hope made crack on my mind

and the smiling sun was seen searching me.