Masala Chai / Spiced Tea…

Nowadays, in Namma Bengaluru, the weather is getting colder and is causing cold and allergies. So I thought of sharing a recipe for a healthy masala tea to replace the regular tea. I made this masala tea which is a very good antioxidant and will help to build and strengthen the immune system.

Masala tea is in fact, an anytime beverage. A cup of this masala tea gives a wonderful sense of warmth and has a soothing effect. Ginger makes us so refreshing and it is so good for digestion.

You can actually skip the milk and prepare this as a plain masala tea which tastes even better !!

Ingredients:

1. Milk- ¾ Cup
2. water- ¼ Cup
3. Sugar- adjust to taste
4. Ginger- a small piece
5. Tea Powder- 2 tbsp
6. Cloves- 3- 4 nos
7. Cinnamon- 1 inch stick
8. Green Cardamom- 3
9. Grated Nutmeg- a pinch

Method:

1. Combine the milk, required amount of sugar and water along with tea powder and bring this to boil keep this in a low flame.
2. Crush all the spices in a mortar and pestle and add this to the above mixture and let this boil for a couple of minutes.
3. Strain and serve this piping hot.

Chicken Jalfrezi

Chicken Jalfrezi happens to be one of the simplest and fastest curries which can be made within minutes. This is a spicy dish and can be had along with rotis or pilaf. It is a perfect dish for lazy days when you are in no mood to cook.

In this dish the chicken should be juicy and the capsicum should be crispy. This jalfrezi can be made with vegetables as well as prawns.

Ingredients:

1. Boneless Chicken- 250 gms
2. Onions- 2 nos
3. Tomatoes- 2 no
4. Capsicum- 1 no
5. Garlic (crushed)- 3 clove
6. Red Chilli Powder- 2 tsp
7. Coriander Powder- 2 tsp
8. Turmeric Powder-1 tsp
9. Cumin Powder- 1 tsp
10. Garam Masala Powder- 1 tsp
11. Lemon Juice- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Heat oil in a kadai, add the cubed onions and fry till translucent and slightly brown in colour.
2. Add the tomatoes, capsicum with little salt. Stir for some time till the tomatoes turn mushy.
3. Toss in the red chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and cumin powder. Mix well.
4. Add the chicken pieces and little water. Cover and cook till the chicken gets cooked well.
5. Mix in between. At last add the garam masala powder and lemon juice. Stir well and serve hot with chapatis or pulao.

Kerala Olan- Onam Special..

Happy Onam…..

Sadhya is an essential part of Onam. But having an Onam sadhya in a Bangalore restaurant is a very tedious procedure like reservations, queues, waiting and so on … Once for an Onam, we went to have sadhya in a Kerala restaurant, but after seeing the long queue, all our excitement was lost and on that day, finally we ended up having an italian lunch. Can you imagine italian food on a Onam day... :)

From that time on, we decided not to venture out on Onam days and I try to prepare atleast 8- 9 dishes at home. This time I was not sure how many dishes I will be able to manage and so I started off preparing from the day before Onam, cutting vegetables, cooking, cooling and storing them in refrigerator for the next day so that it will easy for me to prepare the dishes on Onam day. Finally I managed to prepare 7 main dishes … not bad huh ? ..:-)

One of the main dishes in sadhya is this Olan, which is quite easy to make and can be prepared within minutes and is extremely tasty. Olan is one of the main dishes in Kerala sadhya which tastes delicious with the nice fragrance of coconut oil.

Ingredients:

1. Ash Gourd- 1 Cup (cubed)
2. Yellow pumpkin- 1 Cup (cubed)
3. Coconut Milk- ¾ Cup (thin Milk) and ¼ Cup (thick Milk)
4. Cow pea Beans- ¼ Cup
5. Green Chillies-2 nos
6. Curry Leaves- few
7. Coconut oil- 2 tbsp
8. Salt- as per taste

Method:

1. Pressure cook the cowpea beans till they get cooked properly.
2. Boil the ash gourd, yellow pumpkin, slit green chillies in little water. Add required amount of salt.
3. When this gets cooked well add the pressure cooked beans,thin coconut milk and salt. Let it boil for few minutes.
4. Lower the flame and add the thick coconut milk. Switch off the flame and add the coconut oil and curry leaves.

Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes using Condensed Milk

I have always been baking cupcakes or cakes using egg, so this time I decided to bake an egg less version of chocolate cupcakes using condensed milk.The end product was quite cool and we got some perfectly baked cupcakes, which my little one, husband and his colleagues liked.

Whenever I feel like baking, I will be baking either cupcakes or cakes and so one day when I was thinking about ideas for my little one’s snack box, I decided to make these by adding chocolate chips and those tasted simply yumm. She finished off all of them within two days.

Since I had this condensed milk lying around, I thought of baking an egg less cake by adding milkmaid. These cupcakes are really soft and moist. There may be so many different varieties of recipes to make an egg less chocolate cake, this is one of them. Just try this out and let me know.

Ingredients:

1. All Purpose Flour- 1 ½ Cups
2. Cocoa Powder- ⅔ Cup
3. Condensed Milk - 1 tin (400 ml)
4. Baking Soda- 1 tsp
5. Baking powder- 2 tsp
6. Butter- ½ Cup
7. Water- ¾ Cup
8. White Chocolate Chips- ¾ Cup

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and place the liners in cupcake molds.
2. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder thrice and keep this aside. In this add the chocolate chips and mix well with hand. so that the chips wont settle in the bottom of the cupcakes while baking.
3. In a bowl mix the condensed milk, water and softened butter using a blender.
4. Fold the flour mixture little by little into the wet ingredients till the flour gets over and it will look like a pouring consistency.
5. Pour this in the prepared cupcake liners and bake for about 20- 25 minutes. Enjoy an amazingly delicious flavored cupcakes.