Pizza

My love for corn can never die. Here is one more recipe with corn.

Ingredients

Pizza base – 1
Corn – ¼ Cup
Tomatoes – 1 no. chopped
Tomato Ketchup – 1 tbsp
Cheese grated – 2 cubes / ¼ cup
Paparika/ Italian seasoning / chilli flakes – 1 tbsp
Sandwich spread (optional)


Procedure:

Take the pizza base and apply sandwich spread throughout. Over the spread, apply a layer of tomato ketchup. Another layer of tomatoes and corn over that. Put the grated cheese .


Microwave this for 2 minutes on high or bake for 10 minutes in oven.


Sprinkle the seasoning before you eat.

Corn Upma

I love corn so much that I invented corn upma. Believe me now I make it quite frequently :).

Ingredients

Rava/ Bombay Rava – 1 Cup
Corn – ¼ cup
Onion – 1 medium size finely chopped
Green chillies – 3 no.
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Lemon juice – 2 tsp
Oil and ghee – 3 tbsp

Procedure:

I cook corn with little water in microwave for 10 minutes as I use frozen corn. If the corn is soft you need not cook it.

In a thick bottom wok, heat oil and add curry leaves, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, green chillies; sauté for few minutes. Add onions and fry till transparent. Add 2 cups of water, corn, salt and lemon juice; bring it to boil. Now add rava little at a time and keep stirring till the whole of rava is finished. Once it starts thickening, simmer the stove and cover with a lid; leave it for 5 minutes.



Note: I don’t fry rava before making corn upma. It saves LOT of my time and also you cannot make out the difference.

Pepper Mutton

Again, one more simple mutton recipe without too many ingredients. It is also quick to make and tasty as well. I usually make it when I have to pack lunch for Amith (my husband and my reason behind cooking non-veg), which mean quick fix lunch.

Ingredients

Mutton – ¼ kg
Pepper Powder – 3 to 4 tbsp (I use Catch pepper powder)
Potato – 1 big no. boiled and chopped lengthwise
Onion – 1 big no. chopped lengthwise
Tomatoes – 3 big no. finely chopped
Green chilles – 3
Coriander leaves
Oil – 4 tbsp

Procedure:

In a pressure cooker, cook mutton with pepper powder in a cup of water till tender. I boil the potato unpeeled in the cooker with mutton. Later, I peel and chopped it lengthwise.

In a kadai, pour oil and fry onions till transparent. Add chopped tomatoes and sauté till soft. Add mutton (with the pepper water), potatoes and salt. Leave it until thickens. Garnish with green chillies and coriander leaves.

NOTE: You can make it tastier by baking it in oven for 20 minutes or grill in microwave for 10 minutes.

Plain Cake

I wanted to bake a special cake for Kyra’s 7-month birthday but I landed up making a plain cake. I was glad that it came out very well. So here goes that recipe.

Ingredients

All-purpose flour – 1 cup
White butter/ unsalted butter – 1 cup (melted butter)
Sugar (powdered) – 1 Cup
3 eggs
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Cooking Soda – 1/2 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tspChopped Cashewnuts (Optional)

Procedure:

Grease and flour a cake pans.

In a bowl, sieve together flour and baking soda; set aside. Using a mixer, blend eggs till fluffy. Add butter and sugar to the bowl and mix till light and frothy. Mix in vanilla essence. Add flour mixture, mix until combined. Stir in nuts. Pour into greased cake pan.

Bake for 45 minutes at 200 Deg C. Or Bake for few more minutes and check by inserting a skewer / knife in the center of the cake, which should come out clean. Let it cool on the oven rack for 10 more minutes.

Note: I cover the pan with a lid (as I love the golden brown color of the cake) after 30 minutes to avoid burning and then bake for another 15 minutes.

Pav Bhajji

Ingredients

Pav – 1 pack (has 6 buns)
Potatoes – 2 no. Scrapped and chopped
Onions – 1 big no. finely chopped
Tomatoes – 2 no. finely chopped
Carrot – 1 no.
French beans – 6 no. Chopped
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Chilli powder – 2 tsp
Lemon juice – 1 tsp
Chat masala - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure

Boil potatoes, carrot and beans. Keep them a side.

In a thick bottom kadai, heat oil and add onions. Fry till transparent. Mix in ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, turmeric powder and coriander powder and allow them to fry for 2 minutes. Immediately add tomatoes to prevent the masala from getting burnt. Once the tomatoes become tender, add all the boiled veggies and smash them with a spoon. Cook till oil separates. Just before removing from the stove, add lemon juice and chat masala and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves and onions.

Fry Pav with little butter/ghee and have it with bhajji

Kheema Fry ~ Minced Meat fry

Ingredients

Kheema / Minced meat – 250 gms
Ginger Garlic paste – 3 tbsp
Coriander and Cumin powder – 1 tbsp
Chilli Powder – 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tbsp
Soya Sauce – 1 tbsp
Rum - 2 tbsp (optional)
Salt for taste
Oil

For Paste

Onion – 1 big no.
Shah jeera – 1 tsp
Cardamom / Elachi – 3 no.
Cinnamon / Dalchini – 1 inch two sticks
Clove / Laung – 5 no.

Make a paste of these ingredients and keep it aside.


Procedure:

In a thick bottom kadai (I prefer not to use a non-stick one), heat ¼ cup or little less of oil and add the cleaned, water stained kheema. Allow it to fry till the color changes or 5 minutes. Add ginger garlic paste and keep stirring occasionally till paste is fried. (It leaves a nice spicy smell). Add the onion paste and keep stirring till the oil separates.

Finally, add all the powders and soya sauce- fry for few minutes. Just before removing it from the stove add rum and garnish with mint leaves.

Malaysian Chicken Fry

Ingredients

Chicken – ¼ kg
Onion paste – 3 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbsp
Gram Masala – 1 tbsp
Cumin and coriander powder – 1 tbsp each
Lemon juice – 2 tbsp
Chilli powder – 3 tbsp
Pepper Powder – 1 tbsp
Salt as required
Potato – 1 big no. chopped like finger chips

For frying:
Oil (as required for deep fry)
All purpose flour – ¼ Cup
Corn flour – ¼ cup

Procedure:

Clean, dry and prick the chicken using a fork. Marinate it using all ingredients except potato. Leave it at lease for 30 minutes.

In a bowl, mix corn and all purpose flour. Keep it aside.

Heat the oil in a thick bottom wok; take a chicken piece and dust it/ roll it in the flour mixture and fry. Repeat it till you finish all the pieces. To the left over marinate, add the chopped potatoes and leave it for 2 minutes. Fry the potatoes as well.

It is a good evening snack.

Simple Tomato Rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind pulp (thick) – ¼ Cup
Ripe Tomatoes – 2 no. medium size
Garlic Pods – 4 no.
Bunch of coriander leaves
Curry leaves, Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, red chillies, Asafetida/hing – for seasoning.

If you have VADAVAM, use that for seasoning.

Now that I mentioned Vadavam I want to add few words about it. Vadavam is made of 19 ingredients, which are used in seasoning. All these ingredients are mixed with castor oil and are allowed to dry for few days. The dried vadvam is made into small ball and stored in dry jar to be used for rest of the year.

Vadavam rasam is one of the best I ever tasted. But unfortunately it is not very easy to make. I was lucky to get it from my husband’s aunt who is from Tirchy. I use it occasionally.

I heard it is available at few stores in Chennai.

Procedure:

Mix the tamarind pulp, finely chopped tomatoes, coriander leaves and½ tsp of turmeric to 2 cups of water. Allow it to boil for 5 minutes. Crush 2 pods of garlic and leave it for 5 more minutes. Season the rasam with the Curry leaves, Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, red chillies, Asafetida and garlic pods in little oil .