Classic, all-time favourite!

There are some dishes I can eat every day of my life, if I have to. Classics that never go off the 'favourites' list. One of them is this simple, really quick Balekai fry (sauteed cooking bananas, the green ones). An all time favourite and for me, best eaten with hot plain rice and ghee. Maybe some clear rasam (Indian lentil and tomato soup) as well...Just like it used to be at Amma's :)

Here's how I make it. Try it and chances are it'll creep into your 'favourites' list too, if it isn't already there :)

Get a couple of green cooking bananas. Pick fairly firm ones and avoid the ones that have a slight yellowish tinge to them (which means they're probably ripening). If you live in Aussie land, you can find them at most fresh fruit 'n' veggie stores or your local Indian store.
Then, wash and peel them. Try not to take off too much of the insides while you peel. Just lightly run your knife down the sides and get rid of the fibrous green skin.
Now slice each banana in half and then quarter. Next, slice into bite sized wedges, neither too thin nor thick. Make sure the pieces are somewhat similar sized to ensure even and fast cooking.
Then heat about a tablespoon of oil in a pan or wok (non-stick works really well). Once the oil is hot, add 1/2 a teaspoon of mustard seeds and let them crackle. Next add 1/4 teaspoon whole cumin, a pinch of hing (asafotieda) and a pinch of turmeric. Also add in some fresh curry leaves (yum!). 
Tip in the sliced banana and give it a good mix so that they are coated well with the tempering.
Saute, uncovered until the bananas are well cooked. Somewhere in between the cooking process, add salt and chilli powder to taste and mix well. You should be aiming for them to turn out sort of crispy, sort of tender, well cooked and well flavoured. This really shouldn't take very long, say about 10 - 15mins.
You could cover the pan to speed up the cooking process, but I don't like to do that as the whole dish tends to get a bit soggy.

Do make sure it is well cooked. Under cooked green bananas are notorious for not-so-pleasant tummy issues :)

This is a great dish to serve on the side if you're cooking a south Indian feast.
Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Fries (in the oven)

Hey there! Trust everyone's been cooking well and eating well :)
As you may already know, Pinterest.com can be a serious addiction! I may have to sign up for Pinterst-aholics Anonymous soon. (Of course, someone is bound to come up with that soon!) Meanwhile all is well at the inspiration land, so much to see, so much to admire and quite a bit to try as well. Like these super awesome sweet potato fries. KFC had them for a limited time and I was in love. And there was this one time we ate at a nice cafe-restaurant kind of place and we ordered their hand-cut sweet potato fries which were really delish. So it's small wonder that I tried them at home the same evening I saw it on Pinterest. Got to love Pinterest! They turned out so great! (Unfortunately, I don't have a record of the blog I found the recipe from).

It's super easy. All you have to do is get yourself a sweet potato (or two) and wash it thoroughly. You'll be leaving the skin on so it's important to clean it very well and get rid of any dirt on it. Then simply cut them into sort of chunky slices and place in a bowl. Drizzle a wee bit of olive oil all over it. In another little bowl, prepare your spice mix - now I used paprika, salt and cumin powder. You could use anything you like, although my spice mixture tasted really good in the end :-)

Now place the chips on an oven tray (you may want to line it with foil first) and put into a preheated oven at 180 deg. Leave to cook for about 20 minutes, but keep checking on them as oven temperatures and cooking times may vary. When you take them out after they're done, they should be kind of crispy, kind of soft, kind of sweet 'n' salty...mmmm, you get the idea!

We had ours with home-made pizza, yum!

An exciting medley of flavours!

Baby in bed - check
Movie to watch - check
Yummy dinner with minimum effort - check

That Friday night was a treat for us! 

It all began over coffee 'n' scone late that afternoon. Having just come back from India, husby and I were rambling about all the eating we had done there. Our (at least mine) taste buds hadn't yet accepted that the holiday was over, and the scone wasn't doing anything for me. I needed something tangy, something with that punch, you know? And husby was not willing to drive me all the way to Parramatta, 'just for a plate of chat', in his words. He tried reasoning it out, pointing out that the traffic would be mad that time of the day and most importantly the (tennis) match would begin at 7 something. Pah! Anyway, he did promise to take me there the next day though. But 'tomorrow' wasn't good enough for me, I wanted chat and that was it.
So then of course we stopped by at the Indian store, picked up a couple of things so I could make it all at home and headed back home with a happy and convinced husby. And that's how that Friday night was a treat :) I made bhel puri and papdi chat for dinner and we watched Nanban, while baby slept peacefully, oh bless her!

Not that it is a very elaborate procedure for me to actually blog about it...it's just a simple assembly once you have all the ingredients ready! Everything, you should be able to get easily at an Indian grocery store. Also, there is no set quantity/measurement or anything, just go by what you like. Easy peasy :) Here's what I used -

• store bought papdi
• store bought tamarind chutney (you could make your own)
• store bought green chilly chutney
• ok...so I'll stop saying 'store bought' :-)
• fine sev
• yogurt
• finely chopped onion
• finely chopped tomato
• grated carrot
• finely chopped fresh coriander
• finely chopped cucumber (optional)
• boiled and mashed potato

Method (like there is one, sheesh!)

1. Take out your favourite plate (how big or small is up to you)
2. Arrange (whole, undamaged) papdis in one layer, all over the plate
3. Top with rest of the ingredients, starting with onion, boiled potatoes, carrot, tomato, some tamarind chutney, green chutney and yogurt. 
4. Finally sprinkle chopped coriander and a generous amount of sev.
5. Enjoy!

And the best part is, all the stuff you bought will last for at least a couple of more chat episodes :)

I found time to bake!

Hello hello! I'm still cooking, so I'm alive :-)
With Little Miss' arrival I have hardly been in the kitchen for more than 15 minutes at a stretch, during which I manage to cook some one pot wonder to keep the hard working husband (and myself) well fed.
So the other day I was mighty pleased with myself 'cause I baked this yummy fruit cake/bread. With Little Miss napping peacefully, I was surfing the Internet and generally looking at some recipe videos when I stumbled upon this. So easy! And I had all the ingredients at home, yay! So I baked it right away and when husby darling called out 'Honey, I'm home' that evening, I was super excited to serve him a nice big slice with some hot coffee. Of course, saving a couple of slices was quite a challenge as I'd already started gobbling up pieces of the hot bread, straight out of the oven! I say pieces because I had no patience to let it cool before I could make, how shall I say...civilised slices of it. So I just literally tore it off and popped the still hot pieces into my mouth. A serrated knife works best, by the way and wait it cools down before you slice it. If you want it to look pretty, that is. If you can't be bothered then just do what I did. I'm pretty sure you will :-) Okay, enough said. Here's the recipe. You don't really need to have a degree in aeronautical engineering or something to figure out that this recipe has five cups of something, duh! So here's what you need, a cup of each -

1. self raising flour (I only had plain flour, so I just added 2 tspns of baking powder to it)
2. sugar
3. milk
4. chopped fruits 'n' nuts (I used sultanas, cashews, almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds)
5. dessicated coconut

Actually, you only need about 1/2 a cup of sugar or so, but you know, '5 cups recipe' sounds too cute. I mean '4.5 cups fruit cake' would only sound silly :-)

So then, you sift the flour (and baking powder if you're using plain flour) into a large bowl and add all other ingredients. Mix well with a wooden spoon and pour the (rather thick) mixture into a loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180deg (oven settings may vary) for about 40-45 minutes. That's it, really :-)

So go on, bake this super easy cake, cut a nice chunky slice for yourself, make a nice cuppa and sit back and enjoy! Ah, a blissful moment for me indeed!

I'm here!

Considering that I baked these cookies during Christmas last year, this post is long overdue...way too long! Well, what can I say? I've been so preoccupied lately that my dear little cooking blog has been totally neglected :(
I have been cooking though, more so now that I haven't blogged here for a while - what an irony! I wish I had had the patience and the enthusiasm to take pictures and journal all those recipes I tried and that turned out well. Well...I didn't, so nothing much I can do about it now. So I thought I'd slowly get back to blogging and decided to post about these cookies :)

Recipe Source: Nicko's Kitchen

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 200gms butter
• icing sugar + water + food colour (as desired)

Simply mix the first three ingredients to form a soft dough. Roll out into medium thick sheets and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a cookie tray and bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for about 20mins (check to see they don't over bake and burn).
Have fun decorating them!

It's 2011!!

Hello there! 2011 is here and I don't have any new posts on my blog!! Appalling! I need to focus and manage my time better...
Anyway, hope the new year has started off well with all of you.
I will be back soon!

Baked on Christmas

Christmas came and went on the calendar, but this quote sums up its true essence -

 "Christmas is forever, not for just one day,

for loving, sharing and giving are not to put away

like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.

The good you do for others is good you do yourself."

-Norman Wesley Brooks

 I baked a very simple cake-mix vanilla sponge cake at teatime. I have never baked with a cake-mix before (yeah!) and I really liked the way the cake turned out. I simply followed the instructions on the packet and 45 minutes later pulled out a very light, spongy and perfectly risen cake from the oven. I'm sure it would've tasted just great as it was with tea. (the words 'selling like hot cakes' kept ringing in my head and I could imagine why!) But when I turned the cake tin over my wire rack, gently tapped the base and lifted the tin away, my heart did a little dance :) The cake was perfect! It easily slid off the tin, it had just the right amount of browning and was well baked. I had to make a topping of some kind, it was too hard to resist. I decided to keep it simple, so I skipped the rich creamy frosting. Instead, I just melted some white chocolate buttons (with a teeny bit of milk) in a saucepan over hot water and spread a thin layer of it over the cake. Then to the same sauce I added some drinking chocolate in order to get a darker shade of brown and drizzled it over the white. That's it! Delicious vanilla sponge cake with a simple white chocolate sauce.

I think I have learnt that the joy of cooking is doubled when the people you cook for enjoy eating. I find happiness in these simple pleasures of life :) I often say this, and couldn't mean it more - 'Good friends, good food, good times!'