Gingerbread Cookies

Wishing all my friends a Merry Christmas !!!

During every Christmas, gingerbread cookies was in my wishlist, but ended up baking some different varieties of cakes or cookies. The main reason why I didn't try out preparing these is because I didn't have gingerbread man cutter. This time when my bro visited me, he bought so many different varieties of cutters and from that bunch, I got this gingerbread man cutter. Felt very happy and quickly googled on some recipes and got this amazing recipe which requires less ingredients those are easily available in our kitchen and also that this is less time consuming dish.

The dough needs to be kept in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or it will be sticky. This ginger and spice bread cookies make perfect Christmas goodies to munch on and to gift the near and dear ones. The amount of cinnamon, cloves and ginger can be adjusted according to individual taste.

To make the cookies soft, bake it for lesser time and if you like it harder, then bake for little more time. At present, my house is filled with the aroma of spices from my baking sessions. Enjoy this Christmas with these deliciously crunchy cookies.

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour- 3 Cups
2. Baking powder- 1 ½ tsp
3. Baking soda- ¼ tsp
4. Salt- a pinch
5. Cinnamon powder- 1 tsp
6. Cloves powder- ½ tsp
7. Ginger (grated)- 3 tbsp
8. Brown Sugar- 1 ½ Cup
9. Egg- 1 no
10. Butter- 6 tbsp

For Royal Icing:

1. Sugar- ½ Cup
2. Egg White- 1 no
3. Lemon juice- 1 tbsp

Method:

• Beat the egg whites till stiff peaks. In this add the lemon juice and icing sugar little by little and beat well using the blender till it forms smooth and shiny.
• Pour this in a piping bag and design on cookies.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Sieve the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon powder, cloves powder thrice. Keep this aside.
3. Beat the egg in a glass bowl, add sugar and butter. Beat till the sugar gets dissolved.
4. Add the sieved flour mixture and mix well till blended and forms a smooth dough. Keep this dough in refrigerator for about 2 hrs.
5. Place the dough on a floured surface and roll using a rolling pin. Cut the rolled dough into desired shapes using cutter.
6. Place the shapes on a greased baking tray and bake for about 10- 15 minutes.
7. When it is done remove the cookies and place on a wire rack. Let it cool.
8. After the cookies are cooled decorate them using royal icing.

Eggless Banana Almond Cake Loaf- 4th Blog Anniversary….

The festive season has begun and Christmas is around the corner. I think everyone will be busy in baking goodies, plum cakes, ginger breads and so on. In my busy schedule nowadays, my little one insisted me to bake a cake as its been a while I made something interesting. So one day I started my bake-athon and made egg less banana almond cake, chocolate cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes, salt cookies and corn flake cookies. By the end of the day, I was too tired but happy to see the end result.

I love banana flavored cakes and so whenever there are ripe bananas, I will try to make the delicious banana bread which I had posted earlier. I stumbled upon this egg less version, when I was searching for some other recipe. From so long I was thinking of trying something without egg and got this amazing recipe. My parents love this cake along with their evening tea.

One more thing, last month was my blogs 4th anniversary !!

I could not post anything at that time because of my busy days and nights with my new born.

So here I am, raising a toast on my blog’s birthday and to celebrate this festive season, posting this amazingly delicious, soft and moist cake. Read, try, and enjoy …

Excuse me for not uploading the sliced cake picture, as it got over  within minutes of  slicing.. :)

Ingredients:

1. Bananas- 2 nos
2. Wheat Flour- 1 ½ Cups
3. Baking powder- 1 tsp
4. Sugar- ¾ Cup
5. Oil- ⅔ Cup
6. Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp
7. Almonds (crushed)- ½ Cup

Method:

1. Mash the bananas using fork till smooth paste and keep this aside.
2. Sieve the wheat flour and baking powder.Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Mix sugar, oil and vanilla essence using a hand mixer till the sugar is dissolved.
3. In this add the sieved flour and fold gently little by little, till everything is mixed well. Add the crushed almonds into the cake batter. I have sprinkled chocolate pieces on top.
4. Pour this in a greased cake tin and bake in a preheated oven for about 20- 30 minutes till the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
5. When cooled slice the cake and serve.

Chicken Tikka

As my little one is keeping me busy all the time, I am unable to spend much time on my blog. Then too whenever I get time, I like to read my fellow bloggers posts’ and would try to write a new post. As my parents are here to take care of the baby, I got some time to try out my favourite chicken tikka which is served as a starter in almost all the restaurants.

Marinated chicken and vegetables

Chicken tikka is an easy to cook dish, in which boneless chicken pieces are marinated in yogurt and spice mix and then grilled in oven. Traditionally, this chicken tikka is made in clay oven.

When we visited UK, I was really surprised to see the packets of chicken tikka masala in almost all the supermarkets. I came to know later that Chicken Tikka is a hugely popular dish in the UK. It's there in the menu of almost all restaurants serving Asian food. Here is the amazing recipe of chicken tikka in which I have also added capsicum, onions and tomatoes. So sit back, relax and enjoy...

Ingredients:

1. Boneless Chicken- 250 gms
2. Capsicum (Cubed)- 2 nos
3. Onions (Cubed)- 2 nos
4. Tomatoes (Cubed)- 2 nos
5. Ginger and Garlic paste- 1 tbsp
6. Coriander powder- 1 tbsp
7. Red Chilli powder- 1 tbsp
8. Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
9. Cumin Powder- 1 tsp
10. Coriander Leaves- few
11. Garam Masala Powder- ½ tsp
12. Curd- 1Cup
13. Salt- as required
14. Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Wash and clean the chicken pieces. Keep this aside.
2. In a bowl, mix curd, red chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, cumin powder, lemon juice, coriander leaves, salt, ginger and garlic paste finely.
3. Add this mixture over the chicken, tomatoes, capsicum and onion pieces and mix well with hand, so that everything will be well incorporated.
4. Meanwhile soak the bamboo skewers in water for about 30 minutes. Thread the marinated chicken, capsicum, tomato and onions one after the other on the skewers. Repeat the process till all the pieces are threaded in the skewer.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and grill the chicken skewers for about 30- 40 minutes.(Place these skewers on the top most rack that is near to the coil). Smear oil and turn the skewers in between, so that it will get cooked evenly.
6. When it is done, remove them on a plate and enjoy this along with mint chutney.

Peanut Brittle/ Chikki/ Kadala Muttai

Whenever I go to buy groceries, I would always sneek into the eatery section (ie. if my husband is not watching :-) and would grab these peanut chikkis. If I think about the calories, I would never have these and my husband doesn’t allow me to eat it either, especially after my C-section. But I just couldn’t resist the taste and flavor.

These brittles can be made using jaggery as well as sugar. I like it either way. Whole peanuts and ground peanuts are used to make these brittles. In my childhood, when my Mom used to prepared these, I would grab some 4-5 “slabs” at a time. She used to make it with jaggery.

Once when I was googling around Ria’s blog, I came across this brittle and fell in love with these.So when this time my mom was around, I bought a packet of peanuts and we tried this ground peanut chikki using sugar and trust me, it vanished in 2-3 days !!

Adapted from here

Ingredients:

1. Peanuts- 2 cups
2. Sugar- 1 Cup

Method:

1. Melt the sugar in a non stick pan without adding water till it dissolves completely. When it turns dark brown in colour and then switch off the flame.
2. Meanwhile coarsely ground the peanuts using a rolling pin. Add these ground peanuts and mix quickly in the above caramel mixture. Spread this using the back of a spoon over a greased plate and cut with a sharp knife in desired shape.
3. When it is cool completely, cut into pieces.

Chilli Mushroom Gravy

Chilli mushroom is a classic Chinese dish which will be loved by those who like mushrooms. This is a simple and easy dish which can be prepared very quick. Chilli mushroom tastes awesome along with fried rice, rotis, naan, bread or even with plain rice.

This is a spicy dish as we are adding red chilli paste and also green chillies. We can also make this dish dry, by not adding corn flour dissolved water.

In this recipe, the mushrooms are stir fried till dry and then sauteed along with onions, capsicum and green chillies. Whenever I have mushrooms, I like to try making different varieties of dishes and so this is one of them and I am sure this dish would get your taste buds craving for more…:-)

Ingredients:

1. Mushrooms- 250 gms
2. Capsicum (cubed)- 1 no
3. Onions (Cubed)- 2 nos
4. Ginger and Garlic paste- 1 tbsp
5. Green Chillies (Slit)- 3 nos
6. Soya Sauce- 1 tbsp
7. Red Chilli powder- ½ tbsp
8. Crushed pepper powder- ½ tbsp
9. Corn Flour- 1 tbsp
10. Oil- 1 tbsp
11. Salt- as required

Method:

1. Chop the mushrooms and clean them in turmeric and salt dissolved water. Keep it for some time.
2. Heat oil, add the cubed onions and stir fry on medium flame till they turn transparent.
3. Add the ginger and garlic paste, green chillies, cubed capsicum and stir for few minutes.
4. Add the cleaned mushrooms, stir till the water is absorbed and it should look dry.
5. In this add the soya sauce, red chilli powder and crushed pepper powder.
6. For the gravy, dissolve the corn flour in 2 tbsps of water. Now slowly pour this corn flour mixture in the above dry mushroom. Stir well so that it won’t form any lumps.
7. When the sauce is thick enough, remove from heat and serve hot along with fried rice, bread or even plain rice.

Egg Roll- Street Food in lunch box...

At the place where we are staying, there are so many street food shops nearby. You will find a whole range of varieties from rolls to chats to parathas.. you name it.. Among all these shops, the one which we all love, is those Kolkata roll shops. I love to have hot and spicy egg rolls and so my little one loves it a lot. But these shops for some reason does not compromise on the quantity of the oil they pour in it. Oil drips from those rotis !!! So we thought of making these at home in the way we want it and this also ended up being one option for my sweetie’s lunch box.

I prefer to make this with wheat instead of maida as wheat is more nutritious. For the stuffing, I used onions and green chillies. You can also use cabbage, capsicum, tomatoes and so on. You can make these egg rolls to pack in lunch boxes, to carry for picnics and as a quick dinner too.

This is simple, easy and takes very little time, especially when you have a stock of chapati dough :-)

Ingredients:

1. Wheat Flour- 2 Cups
2. Water- as needed to knead
3. salt- as required
4. Oil- 1 tbsp
5. Tomato Ketchup- 2 tbsp
6. Schezwan sauce (optional)- 1 tbsp
7. Eggs- 2 nos
8. Onions (sliced)- 2nos
9. Green Chillies (chopped)- 3nos
10. Lemon Juice- 1 no
11. Salt- as required

Method:

1. Knead the wheat flour, water, salt and oil in the form of dough for chapatis. Make small balls and roll out these balls with a rolling pin and cook them on a hot tawa and drizzle oil to cook evenly.
2. Meanwhile beat the egg with a pinch of salt and keep this aside.
3. Pour 2 tbsps of egg on one side of the half cooked chapati and spread using a spoon. Apply oil on it, flip the side and cook on low flame. Repeat the process with all the chapatis.
4. Now place one chapati with the egg on top on a plate. Spread the tomato ketchup then spread little schezwan sauce.
5. In a bowl mix the onions, green chillies, lemon juice and salt. Spread this mixture on top of the chapati and roll it. Cut and serve.