Prawn Moilee | Kerala Prawn Stew | Chemmeen Ishtew

I was trying to test a new method of cooking with prawns. The recipe for this is the same as the recipe for a Fish Moilee . This tastes good with bread, idiyappam, palappam or even chappathi and Kerala parotta.

Palappam / Velleppam

Rosemary & Garlic Bread

Idiyappam

Kerala Wheat Parotta

Stuffed Vegetable Paratha

Fish Wrapped in Curry leaf chutney | a substitute for Puliyila Chammanthi

This recipe is the outcome of a long wait and search to find some tender tamarind leaves. I couldn't find any tamarind leaves, so i made a chutney using tender curry leaves. In addition to the taste, this dish is also good for your hair. Eating plain curry leaf may not be very appetizing for many, but if you add some fish or prawns or even some paneer, it becomes exotic and inviting. Try to find curry leaves from your backyard so that you can find the tender ones.

recipe
25 sprigs of curry leaves
1/2 inch piece ginger
rock salt or common salt to taste
1 small tomato for the tangy taste or juice of 1/2 a lime
1 clove of garlic
4 tbsp  grated coconut
bird chilly or kanthari mulaku - 5 or just use green chilly
small onion - 4 or half of an onion

20 - 25 small fish - anchiovies / kozhuva or white sardine / veloori (Marinate it with salt and chilly powder)

method

place all the ingredients other than fish in a mixer jar and grind it coarsely as seen in the image.

Use a banana leaf (softened in fire) or a silver foil.

If you are using a banana leaf, spread half of the chutney on the leaf and then place the fish evenly on it and then spread the remaining chutney on the fish. Wrap the leaf and place it in a wide pan or uruli and follow the steps in this Karimeen Pollichathu recipe. Need not use oil though.

If you are using a silver foil, place the foil in a baking tray and  spread half of the chutney and place the fish evenly on it and then spread the remaining chutney. Wrap the foil and place the baking tray in a preheated oven at 200 C for 25 - minutes.

Serve hot with rice or just snack on it.

Black Forest Ice Cream Cupcake - Eggless recipe

Hello All,

This is another sinful indulgence, you may like to prepare at home. A very easy recipe with home made iced cream rather than ice cream layered in a soft spongy eggless chocolate cup cake.

the recipe

maida / flour - 75 gms
powdered sugar - 75 gms
cocoa powder - 1 tbsp
baking soda - 1/3 tsp
baking powder - 1/3 tsp

yoghurt - 60 ml
vegetable oil - 30 ml
vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

paper cupcake moulds - 12 (optional)

ingredients to assemble the cake

whipping cream - 100 ml
powdered sugar - 5 tbsp
vanilla essence - a drop
few chopped cherries
cooking chocolate or chocolate shavings

method

assembling the dry ingredients

Place a sieve on a bowl and sift together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder.

assembling the wet ingredients

Place the yoghurt (beaten), oil and vanilla essence in a bowl.

Preheat oven at 200C. Place paper moulds into muffin tins.

Add the dry ingredient mix into the wet ingredient bowl in 2 portions. Gently stir with a spoon till fully combined.

Pour 1 tbsp of the batter into the prepared moulds or into prepared muffin tins. The batter should be only half of the mould. Bake in the preheated oven at 200C for 10 to 12 minutes. You will get soft and spongy cupcakes as seen below.

Once the cake has cooled down to room temperature, place it in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

To assemble the cake, keep the whipping cream in the refrigerator (dont keep in the freezer). Once cold, use a chilled bowl, chilled balloon whisk to beat the cream. Pour the cream in the bowl and whisk it till soft peaks forms. Drop the one drop of essence and gradually add the powdered sugar. Freeze the mix for about 1 to 2 hours. I could wait only for one hour so the ice cream started running when i placed it on the chilled cake.

Cut the cupcake into 2 as seen above. I had added some apricots and almonds, because  initially i had no plans to ice this cake.

Place a dollop of ice cream on the lower half of the cake and  place the upper half on top and sprinkle the chopped cherries and then place a big dollop of ice cream on top. Once this is done for all the cupcakes, place it in the freezer for about ten minutes or else it will melt away. Take the cake out and use a peeler to shave the chocolate directly on the black forest ice cream cupcakes. Serve it immediately.

If you like to serve as seen in the first picture above, follow these steps.

Take a serving bowl and place a dollop of ice cream and then place the prepared black forest cupcakes. This would be more interesting because you can get to eat a lot of ice cream along with the cake.

Cheers!

Roasted Pumpkin & Kashmiri Chilly Soup

Roasted pumpkin soup is a very popular one. The twist in this recipe is the addition of red chillies to make it easy for the Indian kitchen. The second reason is the use of thinly sliced pumpkin to speed up the roasting process and thereby save time and power.

ingredients

pumpkin - 500 gm

veg oil or olive oil - 1 tbsp

salt - 1/2 tsp

parmesan or any other meltable cheese - few shavings as seen in the image above

sage leaves or curry leave for garnish

serves - 3

water - 150 ml

whole Kashmiri chillies - 4

Preheat oven at 200C and then place the thinly cut pumpkin placed in a baking pan into the oven. Sprinkle oil and salt.  Pour the water into the tray. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes. Once done, take the pan out of the oven and let it cool down. Scoop the flesh from the skin and place it in a blender. Meanwhile, cut the chillies lengthwise and remove the seed. Cut into more thinner strips. Add half of the chillies into the blender and blend it into a smooth paste. Add water while blending, until you get  a smooth pouring consistency.

Take 3 ramekins or other oven proof soup bowl and pour the soup equally into the three bowls. Grate the cheese on top and place few strips of the chillies. Garnish with sage leaves or curry leaves and place it in the oven at 200C for 3 minutes or until the cheese melts. Serve warm with bread or as such. 

Enjoy.

Orange Caramel Custard | Make in advance Christmas Dessert

ingredients

Milk - 500 ml
Cream - 200 ml
Egg - 4
Sugar - 10 tbsp or to taste - taste after the eggs are added and just before pouring into the mould
Vanilla - 1 tsp

ingredients for the syrup

10 - 14 tbsp depending on the size of the mould to coat it thoroughly, otherwise the custard wont leave the pan after chilling
Orange juice - 4 tbsp

method 

Place the sugar and orange in a sauce pan over low to medium heat. Do not stir. Let the sugar gently caramelize. When the sugar has caramelized, pour it into a pan or mould of your choice and swirl it to coat the bottom of the pan and the sides. Keep it aside.

In the mean time boil milk and reserve. In another pan, heat the cream in a double boiler. When you see bubbles on the side turn off heat and mix it with the milk. Stir till it comes down to room temperature.

In another bowl, whist the eggs with sugar. Add vanilla extract and give a quick whisk.  Add the egg mix into the milk and strain it into another pan.

Pour this into the caramel coated pan and cover it with an aluminium foil or a thin steel or aluminium lid.

There are two ways of making the custard: Steaming or Baking.

Steaming: Prepare a double boiler and place the custard filled pan into it. The water level should be atleast half the height of the pan. Steam for 40 minutes.

Baking: Follow the same method as steaming to prepare the double boiler and place it in the oven at 160C for 45 to 50 minutes.

Once the custard is cooked, let it cool. Then place in a refrigerator for 6 hours or overnight. Invert the custard to see something which looks like the above.

Cut it and serve with the excess syrup.