Onion bajjii & flavoured potato sticks

A lovely snack /appetizer pallette for the guests, the onion bhajji with flavoured and baked  potato sticks. I have used the normal store brought frozen potato sticks here. Served with herbal dip on the side....perfect! Its sure to be liked by kids and adults alike.

Off to the recipe...

For Herbal Mayo dip/spread (mint-coriander chutney mixed with light mayonnaise) Makes a lovely dip and a spead for sandwiches as well. You need to take...

½ cup coriander leaves
¼ cup mint leaves
1 cloves of garlic
3 tbsp coconut
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 green chillie
Salt to taste
Light mayonnaise

Blend all the ingredients adding little water to a smooth consistency.Mix with mayonnaise.
For onion Bhajji
2 onions sliced
4-5 curry leaves finely chopped
2 tbsp coriander leaves (chopped)
Salt to taste
4 tbsp Gram Flour
2 green chilly finely chopped
Little water to bind them

Mix all listed ingredient s and add little water to make it crisp and take one spoon of the batter, deep fry in oil in small batches. Drain and keep aside.

  

Flavored Potato Sticks

Store bought frozen potato sticks
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp pepper powder
1 tsp mixed herbs
2 tsp olive oil
Salt to taste

Marinate the potato sticks with all the above ingredients
Set aside for 15 mins and then bake in pre-heated oven at 180 deg C till crisp. That it. Serve hot.

Got any leftovers? You can very well make the dip as a spead, the bhajji and the potatoes as the filling and wrap it round with a tortilla or chapathi to make a healthy sandwich.

Procedure
Heat the tortilla on a tawa for 1-2 mins on either side. I have here used the "cilantro flavored low fat healthy" variety of  tortillas.
Take it on a plate and spread the herbal mayo evenly.
Then place the fried onion bhajjis and a layer of baked potato sticks in the centre.
A lovely wrap is ready !

 Recipe adapted from http://authenticfooddelights.blogspot.com/ by Sushma Mallya. She has some beautifulll wraps and snacks out there.

Kiss n Hearts Combo and a Valentine's day sale

What more do you need for the Valentine's day than a heart full of love and if with a kiss......oh well ! all the more perfect. I know this has come after the V day, sorry was busy making these for others. 

A super easy  and super cute gift for the day.
Hershey's Kiss chocolate topped with heart shaped stickers inserted in with a half tooth pick. In pretty little boxes, off it goes.

Below are some of the items that I made (or assembled out, to be precise) for a Valentine's day sale.

 

                                             Scented rose flowers in a coloured crystal bed

 Cute little teddy's with a rose flower(artificial) with a Hershley kiss chocolate as a bud inside the flower.
 

The full platter.
 

Hope all of you have a great loving life ahead. God bless !!!

 

 

 

Hearty poke cake specially for Valentines

Heart shaped Thai Coconut Poke Cake

You need:

Eggs (white and yolk separate)  -    6 nos

Coconut milk  -    1.5 cups

Shredded coconut  -    7 tbsp

Sugar  -    1 cup

Salt  -    1/8 cup

Butter / oil  (melted)   -    1 cup

All purpose flour (maida)  -    2 cups

Baking Powder  -   4 tsp

Poking syrup

Condensed milk  -    1/2 can

Coconut milk -    1 cup

How to:
*  - Stir the shredded coconut with the coconut milk. Set aside to soak.
*  - Separate the egg whites from yolk. Place the white in small bowl. Yolks in a larger bowl.
*  - Beat egg whites with electric mixer until stiff (like whipped cream). Set aside.
*  - To the yolks add melted butter / oil, sugar and salt. Beat to smooth consistency.
*  - Stir baking powder with the flour (maida) and add this to the yolk mixture. Also add the coconut milk with the shredded coconut. Beat 1-2 minutes or till combined.
*  - Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter or use your electric mixer on low speed. (about 20 secs)
*  - Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C. Pour batter into a heart shaped pan and bake for 35 - 45 mins or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean off.
*  - Cool the cake and slice it horizontally into half.

Now thats my way to slicing a cake through the middle. Insert tooth picks all round and half height and cut right above it all thorough.

*  - Apply a layer of whipped cream and any fruit filling and top back with the cut layer.(optional)
*  - Using bamboo skewers, poke the cake at 1/2 inch distance through the entire depth.
*  - Pour the poking syrup over the cake, letting it to soak in. Leave it for few minutes.

To decorate, I have first coated the cake roughly with whipped cream and then sprinkled desicated coconut all over. Plain coconut for one half and red food coloured coconut towards one side to get a blended effect. Over it, I have places few heart shaped jelly gums and a love-teddy pair motif.

Cover the sides with ladys finger cookies and tie around with a red ribbon.

  

This was actually prepared for a cookery competition (cakes) organised by my husband's college allumini and that was my full arrangement. Did win the third prize in the category....but look what the judges have done....

Stabbed my heart right at the middles !!!! ooppssss....  :)

off it goes to Valentines day special events by Anzz Cafe

 Teena's Yummy Delights

 Srav's culinary concepts

 Zesty Palette

A very healty chocolate.

Mom had promised that she will give the Son chocolates while back from school, but the healthier variety. He was a bit sceptic at first, coz his school reader says chocolates are junk food and not healthy. But Mom was like...."you wait and see"....

Anyways, he was really happy to see this arrangement but had just one question the whole afternoon.

"But how did the strawberry get inside this chocolate ??

Mom : aabra kababra..hokus pokus...gili gili gilieee....

The answer never appealed to him anyways, and finally comes up with his own reasoning.

"I know how..its just how a toy gets inside a kinder" !!! ... and off he went.

 (you just cant beat kids thoughts at times.)

Strawberries dipped in melted chocolate. Sure, its something that every single foodie has tried out. The easiest n quickest means to make a lovely edible centrepiece.

and for a change....

.... thats our family, the chocolate-strawberry version.

Drew faces with the edible icing pen, and was not my little ones super excited! The three of them were around me while editing the picture, selecting the specs overlay for Dad n Mom, but a bit upset too, that I never gave them any hat. :)

 Off it goes to Valentines Special by Anzz Cafe, Chocolate Mela and  Anyone can cook event by Ayesha.

Eat the cake, and the cover too!

 

Edible wafer paper ! that too is new now to the Kuwait market, so straight it came home. But , was not exactly sure what to make out of it, except trying out the butterfly cutouts as shown on the package cover. But, it never stayed the same way as shown in the picture. Was just falling off to the sides.

 

 

So, thats when I thought of making wraps for cupcakes, so thats its 100 % edible, including the covers.

Its just soo simple, just cut the wafer paper in a slight arch shape, decorate with Dr. Oetker icing pen , wrap round the cupacke and stick it together with "edible glue". And what is that ??

Well...something that works perfectly well for me in sticking edible things together - just mix icing sugar with a few drops of water (just like you do to make a decorative glaze) to a semi thick consistency. Thats it..it does stick things!

 

Corn meal Idiyappam with Egg Roast & Kuruma

 Corn Meal Idiyappam (string hoppers)

 Saw this pack of "Nirapara" Corn Idiyappam podi and straight it went to my shopping cart. Not sure how its in other parts of the globe, but here, in Kuwait, belive its new to the market. So, definitely went in for a try.

To make:

Corn meal idiyappam:

Idiyappam flour : 3 cups

Boiling water : 4 cups

Salt to taste

How to:

Mix 3 cups of the flour to 4 cups of boiling hot water with added salt to tasts and mix it with a wooden spoon.

Once , less hot, work with your hands to make a fine dough.

Pass it through the idiyappam press and steam till cooked. You can find more about this Keralite breakfast dish out here

 For the kerala style Egg Roast :

You need:

Eggs - 6 nos
Onion - 4 nos
Garlic pods - 5 nos
Ginger - 1 small piece
Green chillies - 2nos (chopped)
Egg Roast Masala - 1 tbsp

Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Red chilly powder - 1/2 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tbsp
Pepper Powder - 1/4 tbsp
Tomato(medium) - 1 nos
Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp
Salt - As required

Boil eggs, remove the shells and keep it aside.
Heat oil in the pan and add onions, green chillies, ginger and garlic.
Fry onions till it turns yellowish brown.
Add tomatoes and fry it properly.
Add the egg roast masala, red chilly powder, turmeric powder, coriander, pepper powder and salt .

Once the masala is cooked, add in the boiled eggs.
Stir it, cover the pan and let it cook for 15 minutes. Add just a bit of water to not let the masala burn. This makes a thick dry egg roast.

For the kuruma, just add some coconut milk to loosen the roast and you get a different version of the same curry.

 

Teddy-on-the beach Cake, a makeover

This post is meant to demonstrate a simple cake makeover in just about 20 minutes. So, definitely not going in for details on making a cake, i just use a normal store brought plum cake in here.

You need:

Round shaped cake

Whipping Cream

Teddy bear crackers, flat wafer crackers

Licorice belts / sheets, ring shaped jelly gums

Coctail umbrellas

Kit-kat or any other similar ones

Corn flakes / crackers - crushed to fine powder

Blue food colour

How to: 

Beat the whipping cream till peaks appear, as per package instructions. (little things are best when done with little fingers...my lill assistant.)

Seperate the whipped cream to two batches and add in blue food colour. Little in one, and a bit more in the other to get two diffrent tones - dark and light.

Apply white whipping cream to the sides and top half of the cake and cover it with the crushed corn flakes to resemble sand.

Cover the remaining top portion with the blue coloured cream, blending in dark and light tones. To the edges, touch the white cream for the waves. Note that you keep few cut pieces of paper below the cake while applying the cream to keep the base plate neat. To be removed once the docoration is done.

 Slightly push up and then pull back the whipped cream white a knife / spatula as shown to resemble waves.

 Cut the licorice belts into a small rectangle and place a teddy cracker on top. Now, they are ready for a sun - tan on the beach, shaded by a coctail umbrella.

Place ring shaped jelly gums in the waters with teddy's inside..

 Cover the edges alternating with kit-kat and thin ice-cream flat wafers, and secure with a ribbon.

There you go !! remake in just about 20 minutes!