Coconut Yogurt Battenberg Cake

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Two more day left .Rush in

 

It is celebration time in London, first this month they celebrated Queen’s Royal Jubilee and next month they are going to celebrate Olympics 2012. This daring baker’s challenge by  Mandy of What the Fruitcake?! to make a Battenberg cake, which is almond flavored two colored sponge cake covered with marzipan. This cake was originally invented by the chefs of the British Royal household to celebrate the marriage of Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine and Prince Louis of Battenberg.

When you cut open the cake you will see two different colors, traditional ones with pink representing princess and yellow for Prince.  When I looked at the challenge, same old thought came into mind, yes it is difficult and I am not going to make it. Then when I read the history of Battenberg cake here and here and watching video of famous cook Mary Berry recipe cooked by Mike in you tube, I got hooked, and decided to give it try. Recipe given in challenge contains self rising flour plus a lot of baking powder. I made sponge cake with yogurt and coconut cake with red and green colors. I am afraid of using uncooked egg in the marzipan, as it won’t be wise idea to give to my little princess. I used a cashew marzipan instead of traditional almond marzipan; in other words India’s famous Kaju katli. 

I told my hubby I am going to make cake; he thought okay I will be babysitting the kids. Then when I started baking he realized that it is going to a long business, poor guy. Even though he was a little irritated, he patiently looked after both kids. Looking after my boy is easy, he is happy to look at you and smile when you talk to him. But my daughter needs constant vigil, and you don’t what will happen in the next second. Lots of pulling, throwing and accidents will happen. 

First I made the cake, and then I made the marzipan akka kaju ki Katli. Assembled the cake in the night, and   thought I can take a better picture in morning. Next the morning when the sun came up, I decided to take picture.  I clicked several pictures, next moment want to take another angle and realized that one part of marzipan/covering of cake is gone. I asked hubby, I don’t know what happened to one side of cake covering, it is not there. May be I didn’t do it properly in night. Then my hubby told me, look at your daughter, she has taken it and eating the cover now. I turned back and looked at her. Yes she is eating. When I gave her the slice of cake also, she likes to eat the cover and not the cake. That means cake doesn’t have any appealing to her. 

I liked the cake; my hubby thought it is an overdose of sugar. However when his friend’s kids sampled it, told him that cake is good, but it needs more sugar. So if you want to make this cake increase sugar. I reduced the sugar.  I like the bite which coconut gives, if you don’t like it  use almond meal/flour. Here goes the recipe. 

What you need

Print recipe here 

 For cake

 All purpose flour: 1 ¼ cups

Sugar: ¾ cup

Butter: 2 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoon for pan

Greek yogurt: 1 cup

Olive oil: ½ cup

Salt: ¼ teaspoon

Desiccated coconut: 1/3 cup

Vanilla extract: ½ teaspoon

Green food color: 8 drops

Red food color: 8 drops

For Glue

Pineapple jam: 1 tablespoon + ¼ teaspoon water

Eggless Cashew Marzipan : One Kaju Katli recipe follows

How I made

Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4.

Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil) .

Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside. In bowl of kitchen-aid stand mixer add, butter, sugar,  and beat well to mix together  then add egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla extract combine everything.

Then gradually add dry ingredients with wet ingredients and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter into two and add one red food color and other  add green food color and stir until colors is thoroughly mixed and color is distributed, add more color if need.

Spoon the red batter into the one half and other with green color batter of the prepared baking  pan.Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner.

(Make a  pan divider using  parchment paper and foil. First f old over a sheet of foil several times to help reinforce the divide. Then fold the parchment in half and put the foil into the crease. Butter the bottom of the cake pan, this will help "glue" the parchment to it. Make sure the divide is in the middle of the pan and stick the excess parchment onto the bottom.)

Bake for 35 minutes until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan).

 Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack.

Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife.

Cut each colored sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge

Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible

Gently heat the pineapple jam and pass through a small sieve.

 Brush warmed jam onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern (one green next to one red. On top of that, one red next to one green) - Tip: See photos for detailed instructions

Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan in an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake

Brush the top of the cake with pineapple jam

Place the cake on the marzipan, jam side down

- Tip: Either in the middle or to the one side of the marzipan

Brush the remaining three sides with jam

 Press the marzipan around the cake, making sure the join is either neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned over

- Tip: If you put the sponge to the one side of the marzipan, It easiest to "roll" the sponge over and over onto the marzipan instead of lifting the marzipan up onto the sponge.

Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top corners with your fingers to decorate. 

Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess marzipan by trimming off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern.

Enjoy with the  tea.

Preparation time:

Preparation: 15-20mins

Baking & Cooling Time: 45-60mins

Assembly: 15-20mins

Yield:8 serving

Verdict: Taste good.

I am sending this cake to Alea and April's Gallery of Favorites

Apple Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Please note the my blog's new URL is www.zestysouthindiankitchen.com

Did you notice a change in my blog, yes my blog became dot.com. For a long time I wanted to have zestysouthindiankitchen.com. My hubby got it for me as one of my birthday gifts. He also bought me a Cuisine Art digital kitchen scale, as without a scale I feel my bread baking world will end. I had one in my hand earlier, which my daughter used to weigh her water bottle and finally it stopped working for few days after Nidhi’s experiments, but now it has started working again. So I have two digital kitchen scales. 

Last week I won Red Star yeast giveaway hosted by Kristi of Veggie Converter.Com. I got lots of goodies from Red Star yeast: a loaf pan, apron, few packets of active dry yeast, recipe book The Kneaded Loaf: A guide to contemporary bread making, kneading board and coupons.

 I was looking for a new loaf pan for some time now. I already have two in hand, but felt a third one will come in handy. I love to buy baking pans and other items and my hubby says you are buying a lot, without seeing them being put to use.  

After looking through the recipes in the Red Star book I decided to give try the Apple cinnamon raisin bread. Only thing I don’t like in it recipes are that they doesn’t have gram measurements. I have learn from experience that while bread baking it is better to weigh the ingredients rather than using cup measurements. 

I liked this recipe because it uses apple juice and raisins. Since I am trying this recipe for the first time, I didn’t want to change the recipe and followed it exactly (Normally I won’t follow that rule, but here I did it). I did end up using more water than given in the recipe. I baked the bread at 350 ° F rather 375 °F as needed in the recipe since I use 350 °F for my sandwich bread.  However I should have listened to Red Star yeast, as I ended up baking the bread for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Next time I will use 375 °F and follow recipe instructions. 

Bread turned out to be soft with sweetness of raisins and is similar to cinnamon raisin bread that we buy from the store. I think apple juice made the yeast happy; however no apple taste was there in the bread or maybe because the yeast got drunk on the entire apple juice and converted the sugar into CO₂. 

Bread got finished within two days. My hubby wanted to try Hearty rye bread recipe from that book as it has beer. I think both men and yeast will like booze as well. I am going make that in future. 

Thank you Kristi and Red star yeast to give a wonderful opportunity to make this delicious bread. Here goes the recipe. 

One year ago: Khara Buns/savory buns with herbs and spices

Two year ago: Sago in Coconut milk/Thai Malay Burmese Dessert

What you need

 Recipe adapted from The Kneaded Loaf: A guide to contemporary bread making

Print recipe from here 

 Bread flour: 3 cup/ 489g

Red Star Active Dry yeast: 2 ¼ teaspoon/ 7g

Raisins: ¾ cup/95g

Apple juice: ¾ cup / 183 g (I used mots apple juice)

Salt: 1 teaspoon/4 g

Brown sugar: 1 tablespoon/ 12g

Ground cinnamon: 1 tablespoon/ 8g

Olive oil:  1 tablespoon

Water:  ¾ cup / 165g

For Egg wash

Egg: 1 no

Water : 1 tablespoon

How I made

In a medium sauce pan add raisins, water, and apple juice and bring to boil for about 2 minutes and switch off the flame and set aside for cooling.

Once the apple juice raisin water is Luke warm strain and removes the raisins and set aside. 

Add 1 cup of flour, yeast to apple juice water and set aside for 20 minutes or until the yeast get proofed. 

In the bowl of kitchen aid stand mixer attached with paddle attachment add yeast flour mixture and rest of ingredients and mix everything for 3 minutes. Then add soaked raisin and mix very well to incorporate into the dough. Then change to dough hook and knead the dough for about 8 minutes or until the dough starts leaves from the sides and form a ball. Then transfer the dough to well floured area and knead for another 5 minutes or until they become shiny, supple, non sticky dough. The dough should pass the window pane test and register 77 to 81 F. If you are kneading by hand it takes about 15 minutes of kneading. 

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl, and allow it to rise till it's expanded and looks somewhat puffy, about 90 minutes. 

 

Lightly grease a  9" x 4" x 3", 1.5 lb. commercial loaf pan   Transfer the dough into a board and gently shape the dough into a smooth log, and settle it into the pan, smooth side up.

 

Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the loaf to rise till it's crowned over the rim of the pan by about 3/4", about 60 minutes. Don't let it rise too high; it'll continue to rise as it bakes. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F. When you are ready for baking the bread lightly apply the egg wash on the loaf so that you get shiny color after baking.

Bake the bread for 60 minutes. Lightly tent it with aluminum foil, and bake for an additional15 minutes, or until the center registers 190°F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove it from the oven, and turn it out of the pan onto a rack.

Slice and serve when the bread cools down  to  room temperature.

Enjoy

Preparation time:  4.5 hours

Yield: 1 loaf

Verdict: Delicious loaf

Will you make it again: Yes I will

I am sending this to Hearth and Soul blog hop Hosted here.
Yeastspotting

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop#106 6/26/12

Please Note that  My blog's new URL is www.zestysouthindiankitchen.com

Hearty Welcome to another edition of Hearth and Soul blog hop. I am happy to be part of this wonderful blog hop.  We are looking forward to a delicious, healthy, recipes as all as health related information which helps to energize our body.

We welcome posts that are shared in other events.Recipes should include healthy ingredients and can be old or new recipes or posts. Articles on real food, slow food, foraging, herbal remedies, local food, sustainable food, organics, gardening or any healthy eating information written in a positive and loving light are also welcome.

All the hosts at Hearth and Soul care very deeply about this blog hop, and make an group effort to be sure that every post is commented on. We also Pin and Tweet many of the entries. You don't find this with every blog hop, and in exchange for our efforts, we respectfully request that you include a link in the actual blog post you are sharing back to one of the hosts, either by worded link or using our badge. It is not enough to link using a communal blog party page. People rarely click on these links and it is unlikely they will find the Hearth and Soul hop using these sort of pages.

Among last week Hearth and Soul hop, few recipes got my attention and  are

Auntie Anne's Pretzel from DeserveDesserts

Mango Crepes with Coconut sauce from Food Mazaa

Strawberry cake from Food and Thrift

Grilled Eggplant pasta from Hun what's for Dinner 

Orange ginger chicken salad from MJ's Kitchen

Follow   Hearth and soul blog hop at 

Facebook

Pinterest

and Twitter

Please link  to any one of the host sites,

Alea of Premeditated Leftovers

April of 21st Century Housewife

Penny of Penniless Parenting
Elsa of  Elsa Cooks
Judy of   Savoring Today

and me

Swathi of Zesty south Indian Kitchen

One link per week, please-Must include a link back to one/any of the host sites (through worded link or badge) in individual post, not on sidebar…although we love having links on your page, as well (this benefits all of us). You will be sent a gentle reminder if no link is added to your post, we understand that sometimes people forget…but if it becomes a regular occurrence, (even though we don’t like to do it) your post may be removed. It’s just not fair to those who do take the time and show the grace to link back.-Try to link a post that you think fits into the mission. You don’t have to link up every week,link up when you can.

Please feel free to grab the Hearth and soul blog hop badge, that will help to spread the word.

<center><a href="http://kitchenswathi.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt=" Hearth and Soul blog hop at Zesty South Indian Kitchen" src=" http://premeditatedleftovers.com/hearthnsoul150.jpg "/></a></center>

Thai Style Banana fritters/ Kluay Kaek: A Street Snack, Gluten and Vegan Free

Banana fritters are not a new dish to me. I grown up in the southern part of India, Kerala where banana fritters/Pazham pori/ Ethakaappam are a common tea time snack and also available in most the small tea shop we call it chayakada. I make it so often in home as there is no availability of tea shop here in US.  Then you will think why I made Thai banana fritters. As you know I am a street food freak, and try to make some of the exciting street foods

I would love to visit Thailand because of its similarities to Kerala with luscious coconut trees, elephants (my weakness), its cuisine and its street food culture. When I saw a YouTube video where they were making Thai banana fritters I was interested in learning more about this dish.

From Leela’s blog I came to know that for Thai banana fritter’s they use Namwah banana similar one to lady finger bananas which we call it Kadali and lime stone. However in Kerala  we add kadali / lady finger varieties of banana in  sweet dishes like pudding. Not used for fried bananas. 

So when I decide to make Thai banana fritters I used my sweet plantains. In my house you can find plantains as we always love to eat them. My hubby is afraid to bring home unripe plantains, as I will convert them into chips. He thinks I will make it even if I have no time for it. Yes that is correct, when I see the raw; I will get some an itch to convert them into chips thinking my baby loves it. My hubby and my daughter loves banana chips and also the plantains when they almost ripe but not too ripe. If they become too ripe then they have black spotted skin and nobody wants (may be you need them to be beautiful to even take look at) them and to save them I will always convert into Plantain fritters, Fudge (Plantain halwa) etc. 

One fine day I thought, instead of making them into the usual fritters from my hometown, Kerala, why don’t I make Thai fritters for a change?  In Kerala style fritters, batter is made of All-Purpose flour, rice flour, a teaspoon or tablespoon of sugar and yellow food color or turmeric with ripe plantains. While in the Thai banana fritters they use Rice flour, Tapioca starch, white sesame seeds and grated coconut and medium ripe Namwah banana.  I fell in love at the first bit, it is crunchier with the coconut and sesame seeds, compared to flour alone version of my home town. From that day onwards I am using Thai style batter for plantain fritters.

I incorporated Thai style batter and Kerala style sweet plantains to make this delicious fritters.  However I have not used limestone, but used baking soda on and off. I found that with or without baking soda not much difference is noticeable.  I have also tried this batter for apples too, and apple fritters taste great too. 

So I you are in a mood to try to an exciting dish with burro bananas/ plantains you should think of making this dish. Here goes the recipe.

What you need

 Print recipe from here

 Rice flour:  ¾ cup

Tapioca starch: ¼ cup

 Grated Coconut:  1/3 cup (I used desiccated coconut, you can use fresh grated coconut)

Plantains: 4 ½ no (For traditional try Namwah banana/ lady finger banana)

Water:  1 cup

Sesame seeds: 2 tablespoon

Baking soda: ¼ teaspoon

Sugar: 1 tablespoon

Salt: 1/8 teaspoon

Canola oil: 4 cups

How I made

Peel and slice plantains into 4 inch slices and keep aside. First make a cut in the horizontal and then make another two cut longitudinally on a plantain.

In a bowl mix all rice flour, tapioca starch, sugar, salt, sesame seeds, coconut and water to make loose batter similar to dosa /crepe batter.

Heat oil in a thick bottom pan and it become hot or about 375 F, add plantain dipped in batter and  cook them for 3 minutes one side and flip the other side and cook for another 3 minutes until it cooked well or golden brown. You can fry 3-4 depending upon the vessel.  Remove them from oil using a slotted spoon. And strain extra oil using a kitchen tissue. 

Enjoy these crispy beauties with coffee or tea.

Preparation time: 60 minutes

Yield: 27 no

Verdict: yummy

Will you make it yes I will

I am sending this April and Alea's Gallery of Favorites

Chef Mireille's Taste of Tropics: Plantain

Forbidden Rice/ Black Rice with Spilt Mung Beans Pudding with touch of Cardamom: South Indian Style Gluten and Vegan free

Hope everybody celebrated Father’s day with great fun. We celebrated father’s day with a decent lunch and dinner menu, but we didn’t go out or grill anything. But we had a wonderful food and watched group finals in Euro-cup Soccer/Football game between Portugal and Holland and in the end Portugal won the game and advanced to quarter finals with Czech Republic.  My hubby likes American Foot ball, Cricket and Soccer (which is his favorite games). We watch Golf (meaning TV will be on all through the game) but nobody sits and watch. I usually ask hubby if Tiger (Tiger Woods) is winning. He will say he is there but not playing well. That is the end of game.  We both like the greenery of grass in Golf field, may be that is the reason TV is ON in spite of nobody watching it. 

Comeback to Dads: I meet two dads’ in my life, one is my Dad and other is my hubby. My Dad was strict, but loving and always making sure that I and sister had everything for school, clothes etc. He loves movies that were his only entertainment. In my child hood, every few days we are going to movies. Going to movies is always fun, but coming back, me and sister would be sleepy and would not want to eat anything. Then we will get scolding from him for not eating the food. He always makes sure that we have to eat before we go to bed. He gave both me and sister good higher education and made us better individuals. 

While back from his work, he will not fail to bring us something to eat. We always check his bag whether any goodies is there.  Last time when we visited India, he even bought parippu vada for his daughters and son’s in-laws. He like gadgets especially a camera, now he has become expert in Mobile phone.  He is learning Hindi at his old age from his grandson and granddaughter as they speak only Hindi in Delhi. 

Then my hubby Dad, who loves his daughter like crazy, even when I scold her for something, he will say don’t scold her, she is too young to understand. She is my baby and so on. Both she and her brother won’t take a nap on weekends when their dad is around. Both of them think that they will miss some action, so not to sleep when dad is at home. I can understand 3 year olds enthusiasms, but 5 month old is hard to fathom, I guess he also does the same as his sister.

My hubby loves gadgets too and, he is crazy about photography; he clicks in split seconds mode taking several pictures in a minute and gets all sorts of facial expression. I will tell you one secret; he is the one who took my photo very nicely for the first time.  He took such photos of mine that I felt I can be photogenic too. Now both Dad and daughter are mastering I-Pad, which I am lagging behind.  May be I will learn with my Son one day. My princess is model for his photography. She knows how to stand; Dad knows how to take pictures.  She joins in him in cleaning the house, vacuuming even with her own mop and small walker which she has turned into her vacuum cleaner. When wakes up in the morning she asks where is papa? On weekdays I will tell her that he gone to work. When my hubby comes for lunch, while she is at school, he will say, house is so quiet, if Nidhi is not around; this does not looks like house. He will always wait for Nidhi to wake up from the bed to go for shopping during weekends. 

When I am driving, I will switch off the music, radio and so on. But when she is with my hubby, they will both likes to play music and even she is dancing and enjoying the song while in the back seat.  So they are always fun team. 

Coming back to today’s recipe.  When I called my dad today and told him that I am going to make Payasam or pudding with forbidden rice/black rice which I bought from latest trip to Whole Foods. I like to shop there as I get lot of new varieties of flours and grains. Even though I am from 3 time rice eating part of India, I haven’t seen forbidden rice there. I have seen recipe with them in Internet. So always curious to buy  and bought a little about a cup so that if I don’t like then I won’t cry so much that I wasted so much money.  My dad told me why you don’t add some spilt mung beans and some fried cashew nuts, then it will make more delicious. I decide to add that. Then while making my hubby dear told me can you add some toasted coconut pieces, it will give some nice crunch while having the pudding. So I decided to add that one too. So this recipe has contribution from both dads. After tasting, my princess gives me thumbs up; she does say way when my hubby does a taste test. With two finger touched and a nod with a head that this is really good. 

Forbidden rice/Black rice /purple rice is kind of heirloom variety of   rice rich in nutrients, amino acids, fiber etc. Chinese people believed that it is good for kidney, stomach and liver. At first I thought that it is originated in China, by reading Wikipedia, I came to know that it is originated in North-east part of India, Manipur, read more from here. It is called Forbidden rice, according one story, as Emperor’s of ancient China has only access to this rice and it is not available for the common man at that time. 

When I typed black rice pudding, almost tons of Thai style black rice pudding comes up in Google with mango or other fruits on the side. Then I found another variation, as Burmese black rice, which is sweetened black rice with toasted sesame seeds and grated coconuts. I want to give an   home style touch to this black rice pudding, so included spilt moong beans cooked both very well. Then added Jaggery and cooked further and added coconut milk.  Finally spiced up with cardamom and garnished with fried cashew nuts and toasted coconut pieces. These turned out to nutty delicious dish, for my hubby it reminded him of arrowroot Payasam/pudding he had while grow up with.  You need to soak the black rice overnight to get an easy cooking time. Otherwise it will take about 45 minutes to cook. Here goes the recipe.

One year ago: Lobia curry/ Black Eyed Peas Cooked in Spicy Gravy

Two year ago: Honey Wheat Bread

What you need

Print recipe from here 

  Forbidden rice/Black rice/ Purple rice: ½ cup ( Soaked in 4 cups of water for about 8 hours or overnight) 

Spilt mung beans/Cheruparippu/Pasiparippu: 1/5 cup

Jaggery/Unrefined sugar: 3/4cup + 1 tablespoon (Substitute with palm sugar or brown sugar)

Water : 4 cups( cooking rice) + ¼  cup water for melting jaggery.

Cashew nuts: 12 no

Coconut oil or Ghee: 1 tablespoon

Chopped coconut pieces: 2 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon

Cardamom: 2 nos

Coconut milk: ½ cup ( I used thick one)

How I made

Soak the forbidden rice/ black rice for about 8 hours or overnight in 4 cups of water.

Next morning in a small skillet dry roast the spilt mung beans for about for 3-4 minutes or until they become golden brown color and release a nice aroma. Set aside.

Clean the rice along with spilt mung beans in running water and add 4 cups of water and pressure cook for about 11 minutes or 4 whistles and set aside. In a stove top you may need to cook about 30-45 minutes or until the grains become soft but retain it shape. 

While rice and moong beans are cooking in a small pan heat jaggery with ¼ cup water and bring it to boil so that jaggery get melted completely. Strain and remove the impurities and set aside Jaggery water.

When pressure is removed from the cooker, remove the lid and jaggery water and cook for about 6 minutes.

To rice- jaggery- mixture add 1/2cup coconut milk switch off the flame.  Then add crushed cardamom.

In a small pan heat coconut oil or ghee and fry chopped coconut pieces and cashew nuts until they become golden brown, remove from the fire and add it to cooked rice mung beans pudding.

Enjoy warm.

Preparation time: 8 hours for soaking rice+ 25 minutes if using pressure cooker otherwise 1 hour

Yield: 6 serving

Verdict: yum

Will you make it again: Yes I will

I am linking this to Hearth and Soul blog hop #105 hosted here.

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop # 105 6/19/2012

Hearty Welcome to another edition of Hearth and Soul blog hop. I am happy to be part of this wonderful blog hop.  We are looking forward to a delicious, healthy, recipes as all as health related information which helps to energize our body.

We welcome posts that are shared in other events.Recipes should include healthy ingredients and can be old or new recipes or posts. Articles on real food, slow food, foraging, herbal remedies, local food, sustainable food, organics, gardening or any healthy eating information written in a positive and loving light are also welcome.

All the hosts at Hearth and Soul care very deeply about this blog hop, and make an group effort to be sure that every post is commented on. We also Pin and Tweet many of the entries. You don't find this with every blog hop, and in exchange for our efforts, we respectfully request that you include a link in the actual blog post you are sharing back to one of the hosts, either by worded link or using our badge. It is not enough to link using a communal blog party page. People rarely click on these links and it is unlikely they will find the Hearth and Soul hop using these sort of pages.

Among last week Hearth and Soul hop, few recipes got my attention and  are


Homemade Ground Vanilla from Penniless parenting
Chicken and Walnut Cutlet from Food Mazaa 
Grilled Thai Chili Sesame Shrimp from Savoring Today  
Topsy  Tuvy Cake from Trilogyedibles
Clabacitas Enchiladas from MJ's Kitchen 
Chocolate_Cranberry LARA bars from  Tessadomestic Diva

Follow   Hearth and soul blog hop at 

Facebook

Pinterest

and Twitter

Please link  to any one of the host sites,

Alea of Premeditated Leftovers

April of 21st Century Housewife

Penny of Penniless Parenting
Elsa of  Elsa Cooks
Judy of   Savoring Today

and me

Swathi of Zesty south Indian Kitchen

One link per week, please-Must include a link back to one/any of the host sites (through worded link or badge) in individual post, not on sidebar…although we love having links on your page, as well (this benefits all of us). You will be sent a gentle reminder if no link is added to your post, we understand that sometimes people forget…but if it becomes a regular occurrence, (even though we don’t like to do it) your post may be removed. It’s just not fair to those who do take the time and show the grace to link back.-Try to link a post that you think fits into the mission. You don’t have to link up every week,link up when you can.

Please feel free to grab the Hearth and soul blog hop badge, that will help to spread the word.

<center><a href="http://kitchenswathi.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt=" Hearth and Soul blog hop at Zesty South Indian Kitchen" src=" http://premeditatedleftovers.com/hearthnsoul150.jpg "/></a></center>

Munthirikothu/ Roasted and Fried Moong Bean Sweet Balls: Gluten and Vegan free Snack

Munthirikothu is tea time snack common in southern part of Kerala, India. If you have been reading my blogs you will know that I am fan of these kind of snack especially we call it Nalumani palaharam in Malayalam. Meaning 4 O clock tea snacks, usually tea is served at four ‘o’ clock. However it never happened during my childhood. While growing up amma used to make tea around 5-5.30 P.M when appa came back from work. Now I am making Tea around 6.30 P.M as my hubby comes back from work during that time. 

Munthirikothu is   usually made in home and sweet shop which makes other sweets and snacks and rarely available in Tea shop. It is made during   Onam (our harvest festival) and also for baby showers. It is custom of giving this sweet while visiting ones daughter when she is pregnant, usually during 5^th month or 7^th month. If they are visiting in the 5^th month parents will bring 5 different types of snacks both sweet and savory or it 7^th then 7 different types of snacks.  This sweet is also brought back by ones daughter in laws after she visits her parents first time after marriage.  I read somewhere there is funny folk story related to this sweet. One prospective bridegroom visit bride’s house, he was served with munthrikothu, he was happy and had few of them. Next day he visited again, that time also they served this sweet he devoured all of them. This visit continues every day for some days, until the future mother-in-law decides to do something to stop this visit. She made munthirikothu  so hard so that it was difficult for him to eat  a single one. So he said  ammayi (Aunt)  made this  balls very hard resulting in the  name ammayi unda.

If you want to test the condition of one’s tooth, you can give this sweet. However, this sweet is not really as hard as Pourlvilangai. It is really hard sweet, you need a hammer to break it and eat them. My grandma used to make them, and I miss them too. I will try some time later to make that sweet. Why all of sudden munthrikothu, you may be wondering.  Few months ago, Malayalam cookery shows on all channels were showing how to make munthirikothu. If you see them in one channel, next week it is on another channel. It was like they were fighting each other to show them. After seeing them on two -three channels, I lost my control and decide to try them. 

If you ask me what is the difference between munthirikothu and sukhiyan as both are made with sweetened moong beans and also fried.  The differences are few. In munthrikothu, moong beans are roasted and then fried, while in the later one, it is cooked and fried. In munthirkothu, outer covering is made of only rice flour where as in the later one, it usually made with mix of all purpose flour and rice flour. Taste wise both are different as one is roasted and other is cooked. Munthirikothu is slighter harder while Sukhiyan is soft. 

My munthirikothu turned out to be great, and not as hard as mentioned in the story.  Even my princess was able to take a bite of it. This sweet contains a filling a made of roasted moong beans/moong dal with coconut, cardamom and jaggery. This is made into balls and then covered with rice batter and fried in oil. As rice flour is used as cover it is hard compared to other flour.  She likes the filling too much, so she was trying to eat them while I was making. Try to make them; it is really nice if you had sukhiyan earlier, then you will find an entirely different taste and texture. If you ever had it in your childhood, then try it for sure they will reminded you some of the moments in your childhood. Here is the recipe. I have found that my coffee grinder is the best to grind the roasted moong beans.

 One year ago: Rava Laddo/Sweetened Semolina balls

Two year ago: Pani puri: A street snack from Mumbai India

What you need

Recipe can be print from here 

  For Filling

 Roasted Moong dal/ Moong beans/Whole Green gram/Cheruparippu: 1 cup/ 215g

Jaggery/unrefined sugar: ½ cup/ 105g
Water: 2 tablespoon

Coconut: ¼ cup (I used desiccated coconut, if you are using fresh one toast until it becomes brown color)

Ground ginger: 1/8 teaspoon

Cardamom: 2 no

  

For Covering

Rice flour: ¼ cup (I used un-roasted flour)

Salt: 1/8^th teaspoon

Yellow food color: 2 drops

Water: ¼ cup + 1teaspoon

Frying

Canola oil: 4 cups

 How I made

 

Wash and dry the whole moong dal in kitchen tissue paper for 30 minutes. Then roast moong dal in a medium skillet for about 8 minutes or until all the color changes and releases a nice aroma. 

When roasted dal become cool enough to touch, grind them using coffee grinder into a coarse powder and set aside. 

In a sauce pan heat jaggery with 2tablespoon of water until jaggery melts remove from the fire and strain to remove the impurities and set aside. 

In the same sauce pan bring the jaggery to heat and when water is reduced or about 3 minutes add coconut and mix everything well. Switch off the flame and add powder roasted moong dal and cardamom powder to jaggery coconut mix. Mix everything to combine well and set aside. 

When jaggery-dal mixture is cool enough to touch make small balls about the size tennis ball and set aside.

In medium bowl mix rice flour, salt, yellow food color and water to form a loose batter and set aside. 

In deep bottom pan heat oil and when it reaches 370 F or hot, dip each stuffing ball into the batter and carefully add to oil. Flip few times to get uniform crispiness. It will take about 4-5 minutes to get fully cooked. You can fry 3 at a stretch. Once it is crispy strain them using a slotted spoon and drain extra oil using a kitchen tissue. 

You want to see inside?

Enjoy with hot tea.

Preparation time:

Yield: 10 no

Verdict: Yummy
will you make it again: Yes I will

I am sending this April and Alea's Gallery of favorites

Julie's Kerala Kitchen

EP series : Herbs & Spices: Basil or Cardamom  event by Julie guest hosted by Prathiba.

Pajeon/ Korean Green Onion Pancake

Years ago, when I was living in Japan, I had an opportunity to eat Korean food from a restaurant in  Nagasaki, Japan. I ate stir-fried Korean noodles/ Japchae and Kimchi, both of which I immensely loved.   Two years ago I had a Korean Neighbor, and I asked her about the noodles, she told it is Japchae and I asked her for the recipe. She told she will give me, but then one fine day she moved out without giving me the recipe. So my love for Korean food came to a temporary end. Latter I came to know that she doesn’t like to cook that much.   Of course going to a Korean restaurant would be a way to eat Korean food, but with two crying babies that is out of the question. 

One day while browsing the internet about pancakes, I came to know about Pajeon. I liked it immediately as it contains green onions/Scallion, all purpose flour, rice flour, chilies, and is eaten by dipping in a thick vinegar soy sauce (Cho Ganjang).  I also borrowed a cook book Eating Korean by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee from the local library. This book doesn’t have not breathtaking photos, but every recipe is described well. I also found a great Korean cooking blogs like this and this. 

This pancake doesn’t look like a   pancake that we are used to making for breakfast; and it doesn’t have any leavening agent just like dosa (south Indian crepe/pancake). However compared to dosa the time needed to make pajeon is much less.  Dosa needs some planning, as batter needs to ferment for about 8 hours whereas pajeon can be made in jiffy.  I read that it is eaten as a snack or side dish along with meal, and is sold by street vendors. It is also served with Makgeolli rice wine. My proverb is “anything you can get from street vendors will be tasty; otherwise they won’t able to make a living out of it”.   

We watch a lot of foreign movies, and what I have seen from Korean movies is that their food is elaborate with lot of dishes and rice. In one movie the lead couple ate almost 3-4 times in 1 and half hour movie. I could also see from the movies, that South Korea is beautiful, with greeneries and nice beaches. May be some time I will visit there. 

Pajeon/Korean green onion pancake is different from Chinese green onion pancake which similar to Indian latcha paratha.  Next in my list is to try that Chinese green onion pancake. 

I made this pancake twice; the first day photo session was really bad. My hubby says he will conduct a blog event and give $1000 if somebody can take a picture with one toddler who is pulling your food while the other one is crying because he has been not held for some time. Conditions will be you have to click the picture within 5 seconds and almost no possibility of arranging the props. My hubby is my photographer most of the time, but he gets irritated if I asking him to take a picture of two foods in a day. So I admire all the food bloggers who takes stunning pictures with nice props and so on.

I made Paejon using all purpose flour , rice flour, green onion, carrot ,  green chili, and soy sauce.  While in this blog she used cake flour and egg which give extra crispiness. I will try that version next.  

When I made second time it turned out to be better looking (according to me) and tasting great. Original Vinegarsoy sauce has too much roasted sesame seeds according to me. So I reduced the amount of sesame seeds the second time. My little one was so happy and she enjoyed the pancake a lot. If she tells you it tastes good, then it is good no doubt. So when you buy green onion/scallions next time keep a bunch aside and try this pancake. You are going to love them. Here goes the recipe.

 One year ago: Watermelon Juice

Two year ago:Egg Bhurji from him

Print recipe from here.

Recipe adapted from Eating Korean by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee and Mangachi 

What you need

All-Purpose Flour: ½ cup
Rice Flour: 1/8 Cup
Cold Water: ½ cup
Green Onions (Scallions), cut into 2-inch pieces: 5 no

Carrot cut into 2 inch pieces: 1 no
Green Chili: 1 no
 Salt: ¼ teaspoon

Soya sauce: ¼ teaspoon

Canola Oil: 2 tablespoon

 

 

Vinegar Soy Sauce (Cho Ganjang)

Soy Sauce: 1 tablespoon
Rice Vinegar:  1 tablespoon
Sesame Oil: 1 tablespoon
Toasted Sesame Seeds: 11/2 teaspoon
Black Pepper: ½ teaspoon

How I made

In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients for the  vinegar soy  sauce and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix the flours and cold water, adding water a little at a time and mixing until the mixture is the consistency of thin pancake. 

In a separate bowl add the green onions, carrot, green chili and sea salt and mix until just combined.

Heat a skillet and add 1 tablespoon oil then line the green onions, carrot and green chili in two rows.  When it start soften turn the heat on medium high and add ½ the batter onto the pan in a large flat circle. Shake the pan around to distribute it, and continue cooking over medium-high heat. The batter will slightly brown on the bottom and begin to set. Then add the rest of the batter on the top.  Cook on one side until golden brown. Flip and brown the other side, pressing down with a spatula to make sure all surfaces contact the skillet.

Remove the pancake to a plate. Wipe the skillet with the oily paper towel and repeat with the rest of the batter, laying the pancakes on top of each other as they finish and holding them warm. Remove the pancake and cut into wedges or make smaller pancakes. Serve the pancakes hot with vinegar soy sauce.

jal meokkesseumnida ! Enjoy 

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Serving: 3 serving

Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will

I am linking this  Hearth and Soul blog hop# 104  hosted here. 

Also This Week’s Cravings theme is INTERNATIONAL FOODS

hosted by Kristy of Veggie converter.com

Hearth and Soul Blog Hop # 104:6/12/12

Hearty Welcome to another edition of Hearth and Soul blog hop. I am happy to be part of this wonderful blog hop.  We are looking forward to a delicious, healthy, recipes as all as health related information which helps to energize our body.

Today is  second anniversary of Hearth and Soul blog hop. Please hop of  

Alea of Premeditated Leftovers

April of 21st Century Housewife 

to win 50 dollar giveaway  for US residents and 40 pounds UK residents.

  

We welcome posts that are shared in other events.Recipes should include healthy ingredients and can be old or new recipes or posts. Articles on real food, slow food, foraging, herbal remedies, local food, sustainable food, organics, gardening or any healthy eating information written in a positive and loving light are also welcome.

All the hosts at Hearth and Soul care very deeply about this blog hop, and make an group effort to be sure that every post is commented on. We also Pin and Tweet many of the entries. You don't find this with every blog hop, and in exchange for our efforts, we respectfully request that you include a link in the actual blog post you are sharing back to one of the hosts, either by worded link or using our badge. It is not enough to link using a communal blog party page. People rarely click on these links and it is unlikely they will find the Hearth and Soul hop using these sort of pages.

Among last week Hearth and Soul hop, few recipes got my attention and  are


Strawberry Salsa from Traditional Foods

Tangy carrot apple Salad from Easy Naturals

Green chile tomatillo Salsa from Mjs Kitchen

Oats and Gram flour Pancakes from Aromatic Cooking

Jalapeno poppers stuffed Mushrooms from Elsa cooks 

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Alea of Premeditated Leftovers

April of 21st Century Housewife

Penny of Penniless Parenting
Elsa of  Elsa Cooks
Judy of   Savoring Today

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Swathi of Zesty south Indian Kitchen

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