Recap Thru 2017....

Nearly 8 years into blogging and publishing a new recipe still gives me the tingles. This blog is, in fact, my stress reliever. I got many friends through blogging and got to know about many new recipes and ingredients and cooking methods. I like when some of my friends tell me that they read the whole post and tried my recipes, which to me, means my efforts are not going waste. I will be eagerly waiting for all the lovely comments after each post.

As 2017 is going to end, I am really thankful to each one of you. Thank you for all your support and suggestions and encouragement. This year I have tried so many different varieties of dishes some of which I shared with my dear friends. Their responses give me immense pleasure, joy, and encouragement.

Every single recipe that I tried and posted on my blog in the year 2017 is dear to me, but I have selected one recipe from each month which is popular and easy to make...


January- Kerala Style Deep Fried Masala Papad/ Pappada Boli
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/01/kerala-style-deep-fried-masala-papad.html
This is my childhood favorite snack. When we visited our native Kerala, we used to eat this a lot. We can see these boli, in almost all the tea shops. Our family favorite snack.

February- Ferrero Rocher Cake
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/02/ferrero-rocher-cake-with-chocolate.html
This cake is our anniversary cake. I tried baking this for the first time and which came out super moist and soft. This is a perfect cake which can be made for any occasion.

March- Lamingtons
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/03/lamingtons-special-Australian-dessert.html
Lamingtons are an Australian dessert. I made this for my daughter's school project, where she choose Australia and she has to bring one delicacy of that country. I loved making them and enjoyed eating them.

April- Peas Kachori
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/04/peas-Matar-kachori.html
April is the month where I have posted all snack items and among them, this pea Kachori is the snack which I tried for the first time. This is a perfect snack as well as a breakfast item.

May- Lego Cake
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/05/6-layer-chocolate-vanilla-layers-of.html
This month is one of the favorite months as it's my daughter's birthday. 5 months before her birthday there will be lots of planning about her cake, then the decorations. This time everything was handmade by yours truly. The wall decorations, the cake even the legos on he cake are handmade.

June- Orange Marmalade
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/06/orange-marmalade-post-on-fathers-day.html
Orange marmalade is mine and my dad's favorite jam. As a father's day post, I posted the recipe of orange marmalade. This is my favorite post in the month of June.

July- Swedish Chokladbollar
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/07/swedish-chokladbollar-chocolate-balls.html
I fell in love with this Swedish delicacy when I went to IKEA. This chokladbollar is everywhere in IKEA and I searched for the recipe and tried this amazing dessert. Kids will love this coconut covered chocolate balls.

August- Homemade Ghee
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/08/homemade-clarified-butter-homemade-ghee.html
I grew up watching my mom cook different cuisines which were so tasty and the flavors are still lingering on my tongue. One of the main things mom used to make at home is this clarified butter. Daily she used to take out the cream from the boiled milk and stored in the refrigerator. Once the vessel fills with milk cream she would blend it well till it forms butter and which she melts till it becomes ghee/ clarified butter. The aroma of the fried butter is to die for. As I am a very lazy person, I started making clarified butter using store bought butter packets. They don't taste like mom's handmade, but not bad.

September- Nalli Nihari
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/09/nalli-nihari-slow-cooked-mutton-in.html
I tasted this dish when I was in Bangalore. This dish is cooked exactly for about 24 hours and the mutton pieces are mixed well with the spices and cooked to perfection. I made this in a pressure cooker with all the spices and masala which came out delicious.

October- Shahi Falooda
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/10/shahi-falooda-using-homemade-rose-syrup.html
Falooda is a cold dessert popular in India. It is made from mixing rose syrup, falooda sev, basil seeds and ice cream in between filled with chopped nuts. I made the rose syrup at home and after some days I made the falooda which I was longing for. A must-have during summer.

November- Fish Biryani
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/11/fish-biryani-exquisite-dish.html
November was my blog's 8 th anniversary and the best way to celebrate is with a biryani. I ate fish biryani before but never got a chance to post it on my blog and this was the best time to post the recipe.

December- Quinoa and Egg Salad
http://myexperimentswithfood.blogspot.com/2017/12/quinoa-egg-salad.html
After all the festive delicacies, a healthy salad is what everybody needs and here is a healthy salad using quinoa and egg. A perfect way to induce all proteins and nutrients.

Hope you all will enjoy my today's quick recap of 2017...

Tutti Frutti Shortbread Cookies

Tutti frutti refers to candied raw papaya, which is brightly colored small cubicle pieces. These are generally
used in cakes, cookies and even in ice creams.

The dough can be prepared ahead and kept refrigerated when needed thaw the dough and bake. These cookies are a feast for the eyes because of the colorful candied fruits. The bright red and green colored candied fruits add an extra shine to the holiday treats. Kids will love these colorful treats. as the festive season started, these cookies are perfect for gift family and friends. It is optional to add chocolate chips.

We can also make Karachi biscuits using tutti frutti, which is a popular dessert in India. After seeing many
blogs with Christmas treats, I baked Christmas fruit cake/ plum cake and these shortbread cookies which
are my kid's favorite.

.

These shortbread cookies are filled with lots of tutti frutti and chocolate chips which are very easy to make.
My daughter enjoys helping me with baking these cookies. She loves to add all the ingredients especially tutti frutti and to cut them into desired shapes. She loves everything about cookies. Hope you will also try
and enjoy these.
Ingredients:

1. All Purpose Flour- 2 ¼ Cups
2. Sugar- 1 Cup
3. Butter- 1 Cup
4. Vanilla Essence- 2 tsp
5. Tutti Frutti/ Candied Raw Papaya- 1 Cup
6. Chocolate Chips- ½ Cup
7. Baking Powder- 1 ½ tsp
8. Eggs- 2 nos

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat egg till they turn creamy and fluffy using a blender. Beat the butter and sugar in a separate mixing bowl till everything gets well blended.
3. Add the beaten eggs in the butter- sugar mixture, along with vanilla essence.
4. Sieve the all purpose flour along with baking soda and add little by little in the above mixture. Mix well.
5. Add the tutti frutti and chocolate chips in the above made cookie dough and mix well.Shape them into logs and wrap them in clingsheep tightly and refrigerate for 2- 3 hours.
6. Take out the dough logs and cut into desired shapes. Place them on greased cookie tray and bake for about 9 minutes.
7. Enjoy the delicious tutti frutti slices and store in airtight container.

Kerala Unniappam

Unniappam is a popular traditional snack in Kerala. Unni means “small” and appam means “rice cake”. This dish is made of almost all the houses in Kerala. These unniappams will be liked by all. I like to call these “cuteness overloaded” appams. They are so soft and scrumptious that you will end up eating a whole lot.

This is prepared using rice, jaggery, and banana. Traditionally this is made using clarified butter.

We can also add some roasted coconut pieces in the batter but I like it this way.

From so long I badly wanted to try this dish, but without the pan it was impossible. This time when

my in-laws came from India they bought the pan and I made them for the first time, which came out super yummy and soft.

These unniappams can be made using raw rice, but as I didn’t have so much of patience to soak the rice, I used rice flour. This is an oily dish, but once in awhile, it is fine to have these delicious and traditional snacks. Hope you will also try this dish and let me know.

Ingredients:

1. Banana- 1 no
2. Rice Flour- 2 Cups
3. Jaggery- 1 ½ Cups
4. Cardamom powder - 1 Tsp
5. Dry Ginger Powder- 1 Tsp
6. Baking Soda- ½ tsp
7. Oil- for frying
8. Water- ¼ Cup

Method:

1. Grind the bananas to a nice paste. Melt the jaggery using little water over a medium heat. When the jaggery completely melts, strain and keep this aside.
2. Drop the rice flour along with the melted jaggery into the ground banana and give it a nice blend.
3. Add little water till they form a pouring consistency.
4. Transfer this to a bowl. In this add the cardamom powder, dry ginger powder, and baking soda. Give it a nice stir. Keep this batter for about 3- 4 hours.
5. If you find the batter too runny just add little rice flour and if the batter is thick add little water.
6. Heat the non-stick unniappam pan. Pour 1 tbsp of oil in all the rounds. Drop a small ladle full of batter into each round and let it fry for sometime. After about 5-7 minutes, flip it to the other side and let it fry until golden brown.
7. Once they are done, remove them using fork onto a kitchen towel. Repeat with the remaining batter and enjoy delicious unniappams.

Quinoa & Egg Salad

A healthy and nutritious salad a day keeps the guilt away, that is what I believe. Most of the days I like to have salad and I will be searching for a different variety of salads. Till now I have made salads using grilled chicken, fish but never made an egg salad.

This simple and healthy salad is made out of very fewer ingredients. This salad consists of all of my favorite ingredients which are boiled and mixed together.

These salads are filling, low- cal and a great way to satisfy your daily requirements. We can have this salad any time of the day. The nutty quinoa goes very well with soft eggs. I hope you all would like this.

Ingredients:

1. Eggs- 3-4 nos
2. Quinoa- ¼ Cup
3. Broccoli- 1 Cup
4. Spinach- ½ Cup
5. Capsicum- ½ no
6. Olives- 6- 7 nos (optional)
7. Salt- as required
8. Pepper- 1 Tsp
9. Avocados- 1 no
10. Boiled Corn- ½ Cup

Method:

1. Boil the eggs till done. Remove the shell and 2 eggs cut in half and the remaining eggs remove the yolks and cut into quarters.
2. Cook the quinoa till done. Boil the broccoli and capsicum by adding little water. Wash, drain and slice the spinach to pieces.
3. In a bowl mix everything together slowly, add the sliced avocados and enjoy a healthy salad.

Oats Lace Cookies

Who wouldn’t like a crispy, lacy, scrumptious cookies? These oats lace cookies are one of our favorite cookies which will get over within minutes of baking. These thin, crispy oatmeal cookies will be the star among all the other delicacies in parties.

Just melt the butter and sugar, then once cooled add all the other ingredients and bake for less than 10 minutes. Simple and easy cookies can be made within no time and with very fewer ingredients.

The cookies, while baking, will spread so bake them in batches. This quantity will make about a whole lot of cookies, which can be gifted to friends and also can be enjoyed on cold evenings. Just try this one and I guarantee that you just cannot stop on one as they are buttery and so addictive.

Ingredients:

1. Rolled oats- 1 ½ Cups
2. Sugar- 1 Cup
3. All-Purpose Flour- 2 tbsp
4. Butter- ½ Cup
5. Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp
6. Eggs- 1 no

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. Heat butter and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stirring frequently until the butter and sugar have melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the flour and mix well.
3. Remove the pan from heat and drop in the vanilla essence and let it cool for 10 minutes.
4. When the mixture is warm, add the egg and stir till it combines. Drop the oats stir until well distributed.
5. Spoon 1 tbsp of the batter on to the parchment paper, leaving about some space between each one.
6. Spread using the back of a spoon into a single layer. Bake for about 6-8 minutes, watching closely from over baking. They will turn golden brown. Bake the cookies in batches as they spread.
7. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the parchment paper. Store in airtight container when cool.

Fish Biryani- An exquisite dish to celebrate the 8th blogiversary...

Happy to announce my blog's 8th anniversary
A classic fish biryani which can be devoured at all times. Fish biryani is a perfect combination of the spices, rice along with marinated fried fish. Rather than weekdays, I prefer weekends for preparing elaborate meals like the biryani, which everyone in the house can enjoy comfortably. Usually, I will be making chicken or mutton biryani, this is the first time I tried preparing fish biryani. I tasted the fish biriyani first when I visited my brother’s place. My SIL who is a great cook prepared this within no time and instantly I fell in love with this biryani but I never dared to make biryani at home. I have had a few disasters at first like the rice was undercooked or overcooked! But now I have perfected the art of making biryani and there is nothing like a good home cooked version.

Once I started making biryanis, I prepared this fish biryani and everyone in my house liked it.

We can use sear fish, or any fish fillet to prepare this biryani. This is easy to make and an extremely flavorful dish and will be loved by all seafood lovers.

This time for the MFB Challenge, we can prepare a dish which we repeated before as this month is the anniversary month of MFB Challenge. We started this MFB Challenge exactly a year ago. I choose this fish biryani for the anniversary special and also to celebrate my blog's 8th birthday. It's been 8 years since I started my little space and today I have more than 500 recipes and a lot of friends all over the world. Thank you, one and all for the wonderful encouragement.

Ingredients:

For Biryani Masala:

1. Cardamom pods- 3 nos
2. Cinnamon - 1 Stick
3. Cloves- 3 nos
4. Nutmeg Powder- ¼ tsp
5. Fennel Seeds- 1 tsp

Method:

• Roast the ingredients for the masala. When a nice aroma comes switch off the flame and when cooled grind to a fine powder.

For the Marinade:

1. King Fish Slices- 6-8 nos
2. Turmeric Powder- 2 Tsp
3. Red Chilli Powder- 2 tbsp
4. Pepper powder- 1 tbsp
5. Ginger- Garlic Paste- 1 tbsp
6. Lemon juice- 2 tbsp
7. Salt- as required
8. Oil- 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Heat oil. Meanwhile mix together all the ingredients in marinade except fish. Marinate the fish and set aside.
2. When the oil becomes hot, fry the marinated fish till it gets cooked and drain on a kitchen towel.

For the Masala:

1. Onions( Sliced)- 3 nos
2. Slited Green chilies- 4 nos
3. Tomatoes(sliced)- 2 nos
4. Ginger- garlic paste- 1 tbsp
5. Curd- 1 Cup
6. Coriander and Mint Leaves- a handful
7. Red Chilli powder- 1tsp
8. Turmeric Powder- ½ tsp
9. Biryani Masala- 2 tbsp
10. Lemon Juice- 2 tbsp
11. Oil- 1 tbsp
12. Ghee- 1 tbsp

Method for biryani masala:

1. Heat the fried fish oil and ghee in a pan. Add the sliced onions, fry till it turns golden brown in color. Add the slitted green chilies and ginger- garlic paste.
2. When the raw smell disappears, add the sliced tomatoes, lemon juice and stir till it turns mushy.
3. Add the red chili powder, turmeric powder, and the above-made biryani masala powder.
4. Throw the chopped mint and coriander leaves in the above masala. Add the curd and mix till everything gets well blended with the ingredients. Cook till the mixture thickens. Keep this aside.

For the Rice:

1. Small Jeera Rice- 3 Cups
2. Bay leaves- 1 no
3. Cloves- 2 nos
4. Cinnamon- a small stick
5. Cardamom- 2 nos
6. Clarified Butter- 1 tbsp
7. Oil- 1 tbsp
8. Water- 6 Cups
9. Salt- as required

Method for rice:

1. Wash and soak the jeera rice for about half an hour. Drain and keep this aside.
2. Heat oil and ghee in a deep bottomed vessel. Add the cloves, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, and cardamom.
3. Add water and enough amount of salt, on a low flame close with a lid. When the water starts boiling add the drained rice and stir well.
4. Close with a lid and let it cook on a low flame for exactly about 20 minutes. Switch off the flame and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
5. Open the lid and fluff it up using a fork. Keep this aside.

For layering:

1. Spread half of the cooked rice and sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves and spread a half tbsp of ghee on top.
2. Spread the biryani masala gravy and layer the fried fish. Repeat with the cooked rice, chopped coriander leaves, ghee, biryani masala gravy and at last with the fried fish and the last layer it with rice.
3. Seal the top with a wet cloth and a lid. Place this on a tawa over a low flame for about 10- 15 minutes so that all the masala flavors will be incorporated well into the rice.
4. Switch off the flame and serve this delicious biryani along with raita.

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