Homemade Chocolate Brownies

As most of you know I’m not that fond of baking, but I love to treat myself at the bakery once in a while. However, some baking recipes can be so easy that you really don’t need to be a top chef with restaurant insurance to make them, and they are also crowd pleasing. One of these is homemade chocolate brownies, which can be nicer than bought in the shop as you get the delicious smell around your house, the warmth and satisfaction of baking it yourself. Your kids will also enjoy baking (and eating) them too! If you are interested in making these, then read on.



The ingredients you’ll need to make between 6-8 chocolate brownies are –
100g plain flower
100g butter
175g caster sugar
75g muscovado sugar or brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
125g chocolate
½ tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoon cocoa powder

How I prepared it -
1. Preheat the oven to gas 4/180c/fan 160ci and grease and line a 20cm cake tin/baking tray.
2. Place the golden syrup, chocolate, brown sugar, butter and caster sugar in the pan and melt on a low heat until its lump free and smooth.
3. Once smooth, remove the pan off the heat.
4. Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk until frothy and light.
5. Next, add the vanilla extract, eggs, baking powder, flour and cocoa powder to the chocolate mixture and mix thoroughly.
6. Put the mixture into the greased cake tin/baking tray and place in the middle of the oven for about 25-30 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 15-20 minutes before cutting into 6/8 portions (be careful of little hands that are eager to eat them!).
8. Your brownies are now ready to serve!i
You could serve the yummy brownies with cream or ice cream and lots of fresh fruit!
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Thalassery Chicken Biryani

While writing this post I thought about a song, which we used to sing in the childhood.. biryani vekkalalla perunnalu... :) Yeah, that is true, but I was waiting to give you all my special Eid gift, this Thalassery Biryani. This one is easy to prepare, not much worries about the cooking time of rice, but the amount of ghee used is much higher than the other biryani recipes I have posted here. Try out, enjoy with your family and don't forget to leave your valuable opinions... Eid Mubarak!



Ingredients used,
chicken 1/2 kg
onion 4 medium size
tomato 2 medium
garlic cloves 7 big
ginger 1 1/2" piece
green chillies 2
coriander leaves 1/2 cup chopped
mint leaves 2 Tbsp chopped
pepper powder 3 tsp
turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
garam masala powder 2 tsp
curd 3 Tbsp
lemon 1
essence or rose water as desired
salt
ghee

For marinating chicken,
turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
chilli powder 1 tsp
garlic ginger and green chilly paste 2 tsp from the ground paste
garam masala powder 1/4 tsp
salt

For making ghee rice,
basmati or biryani rice 3 cups
onion 1 medium
cinnamon sticks 3 each 1/2 "
cardamoms 3
cloves 3
water 5 cups
salt
ghee

For garnishing,
onion 1
cashews few
raisins few



How I Prepared,
Heat little oil or ghee,roast cashews and raisins and remove from the pan.
Fry the finely chopped onions in the same oil, until golden brown.
Remove and keep aside.

Grind together garlic cloves, ginger and green chillies.
Take the juice of lemon and remove seeds.
Heat 2 Tbsp ghee in a non stick frying pan, shallow fry the chicken.
Fry until the outer part turns slightly golden, no need to cook the chicken well.
Remove and keep aside.

Heat 3 Tb of ghee in a heavy bottomed vessel, saute chopped onions until semi transparent.
Add remaining garlic, ginger and green chilly paste, saute well, until the mixture turns light brown.
Add chopped tomatoes and salt, cook until the tomatoes are mashed well.
Add chopped leaves, pepper powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, curd and chicken pieces.
Pour the melted ghee too that remained after frying chicken.
Mix and cook on a low flame covering the vessel.
Stir occasionally to avoid the masala stick to the bottom of the vessel.
When cooked well, switch off fire, keep the lid closed.

Then make ghee rice according the instructions in the ghee rice recipe, but use the amount of water used here.
When the ghee rice is cooked, spread it over the masala, evenly without breaking the rice.
Pour some ghee over this, as desired.
Sprinkle little garam masala, very less, over the rice.
Sprinkle lemon juice, and place some pudina stems (with leaf) over the rice.
Cover with an aluminium foil, then place the lid over it.
Place a tea pot or another pan with hot water over this.
Place the vessel on a very low flame for 15 minutes, then switch off fire.
Open after 1/2 hours at least, then remove pudina stems, mix carefully.
Garnish with fried onions, cashews and raisins and serve hot with raita and pudina chammanthi!

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Macaroni Payasam / Kheer

Was very busy since few days, thats why couldn't meet you all... And this is the blessed month,so there are many things to do, hope you all are busy with prayers and reciting Quran.. Did any one of you invited few for iftar? I love to do but this time haven't done much... :)
Here you have a simple macaroni / pasta kheer from me, it will be a great addition to the iftar party insha Allah, try out and let me know.. :-)



Ingredients used,
macaroni 2 cups
milk 4 cups
milk maid 1 cup
sugar 1 cup or as desired
cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
rice powder 1 Tbsp
water 1/2 cup
butter 1 Tbsp
cashews and raisins few
ghee



Method,
Cook macaroni according to packet instructions.
Drain and keep aside.
I did pressure cook macaronis up to 3 whistles and cut each into two pieces.
Heat butter in a vessel, saute macaronis in it for 2 minutes.
Add milk, sugar and milk maid and continue stirring.
Allow to boil.
Mix rice powder in water and pour this to the boiling payasam.
Continue stirring and let thicken the kheer.
Add cardamom powder and switch off fire.
Heat ghee, fry cashews and raisins and garnish payasam with it.

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Spicy Brinjal Curry

You might have heard a lot about BT Brinjal from the various news sources. Nowadays nothing much is heard about it, it seems that all the commotions have died down and people started forgetting the issue. Bt brinjals are really very much dangerous to our health, it can destroy our internal organs. How could we make sure such crops are not reaching us.. Recently read some where the issue is only about brinjal, but other crops like wheat and pulses are approaching us silently.. God knows ....



Ingredients needed,
round purple brinjal 4
green chillies 2
tomato 1 ripe
tamarind 1 small gooseberry size
salt
Grind together,
small onions / shallots 6
garlic cloves 6 small size
ginger 1/2 " piece
Kashmiri chilli powder 2 tsp
coriander powder 1 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
fennel seeds 1/4 tsp

For Garnishing,
mustard seeds 1 tsp
cumin seeds 1 pinch
fenugreek 1 pinch
asafoetida / kayam 1 pinch
curry leaves
oil



How I Prepared It,
Wash and chop brinjals into medium size pieces.
Soak in salty water.
Squeeze it after 1/2 hour and mix with the ground paste.
Add chopped green chillies, tomato and tamarind water etc and cook.
Cook covered on a low flame.
When done, heat oil, roast the items below 'for garnishing'.
Add to the curry.
Serve hot!

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Stuffed Buns

Am not much fond of baking. I don't feel it as easy as the normal stove top cooking. Here is the stuffed bun recipe that I tried out recently.I think the bun was not much good as the one we get from the bakeries. Didn't have much patience to wait until I get a good result. I used the beef masala mixture for stuffing buns, that can be used as samosa filling. Anyway this would be an healthier option than taking the deep fried samosas. Hope you all baking experts can make this very well, try out and let me know.

Ingredients,
maida 3 cups

egg 3

sugar 1 tsp

yeast 2 tsp

milk 1 cup or as needed

butter 1/4 cup

salt

Preparing bun dough,
Beat 2 eggs.

Mix flour with butter.

Add yeast(mixed in little warm water), sugar and salt.

Mix and add beaten eggs.

Add enough milk to make a dough.

Place a clean wet cloth on the dough and keep for some time.

Allow the dough to be doubled.

For making masala,

beef pieces - cooked 1 to 1 1/2 cups

onion 1

tomato 1

green chillies 2

pepper powder 2 tsp

garam masala 1 tsp

ginger chopped 2 tsp

coriander leaves chopped 2 Tbsp

boiled and peeled potato 1

curry leaves few

salt

oil

Make beef into small pieces using hands.

Heat oil, saute chopped onions.

When semi transparent, add ginger, green chillies chopped, curry leaves etc.

Saute well until the onions turn slighly brown, add tomatoes.

Then add powders, coriander leaves and cooked beef into this.

Saute well for some times, and add enough salt.

Crumble potato and mix with this.

Beef should be cooked with turmeric powder, coriander powder and chilli powder, garlic paste, garam masala and salt.

For stuffed bun,

Take one ball from the rised dough, flatten, place one Tbsp of masaa in this.

Join the sides together and make an onion shape.

Make all the dough like this.

Beat egg and add 1 tsp milk.

Brush this over the buns.

Bake in the oven until buns turns slightly brown.

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Spring Onion Soup

H was very excited to talk about the person who is managing a vegetable garden in Fujairah. He is an engineer from Holland, lucky enough to grow vegetables for own use.We too were lucky to get a bag of veggies from there! :) Lots of mint leaves, cabbage, carrots, onions and spring onions were there in the collection, and I was thinking what to do with this much of spring onions. There was a simple and delicious soup recipe of Martha Stewart's to save me, tried it out, and everyone really loved it!



Ingredients,
spring onions 6
water 3 cups
vegetable bouillons 2 cubes
olive oil 2 Tbsp
pepper powder as per taste
salt



How to prepare,
Chop the white bulbs of spring onions finely.
Heat oil in a pan, saute the onions.
When it begins to transparent,(do not brown) stop sauteing.
Add vegetable stock and water to this and allow to boil.
Switch off fire and allow to cool.
Puree in a blender until the soup is smooth.
Add salt if needed.
Sprinkle pepper powder on top if you love.
Serve warm.
Add or reduce the amount of water according to the thickness you like.

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Paneer Makhani / Butter Paneer Masala

I had no hope that my kids will eat paneer before making this dish. I didn't like paneer and so wouldn't buy it. When we were kids (me, sis and bro) mom had made paneer at home as per the instructions published in the news paper cooking column. I still remember that paneer preparation appeared under the title "paalirachi" (milk-meat) !.. :) At that time, we had a cow and therefore plenty of milk also ,which always turned to curd and butter milk. Mom was always thinking what to do with this much of milk, so the paneer recipe urged her to try it soon. She made a curry with home made paneer. Though it tasted like a meat curry, I didn't love the taste of paneer and felt like it is hard work. Any way after years, I thought to taste them once again only to provide a paneer recipe for my readers.. My effort was fruitful, kids loved them, the elder one asked for the curry, and the younger for the paneer cubes..! :)



Ingredients needed,
paneer cubes 200 g pack
onion 2
tomato 2
cashews 8
kashmiri chilli powder 2 tsp
butter
garlic paste 1/2 tsp
ginger paste 1/2 tsp
cream optional
garam masala powder 1/2 tsp
pepper powder 1/2 tsp
coriander leaves chopped for garnishing
salt
oil



How I prepared,
Soak paneer cubes in water according to the packet instructions.
Soak cashews in water.
Heat butter in a pan.
Saute chopped onion in that.
When begins to transparent, add chopped tomatoes too.
Let the tomatoes cook well.
Allow to cool, grind together with soaked cashews until you get a fine paste.
Heat little oil and fry the paneer cubes until slightly golden.
Transfer them to another pan,saute ginger and garlic paste for one minute in the remaining oil.
Combine, powders and ground paste in the same pan.
Add enough water and allow to boil.
Add paneer pieces, let the masala coat over it.
Add cream, sprinkle coriander leaves.
Serve hot!
You may get the curry with bright red color, I mistakenly added little turmeric, hence the yellow color! :)

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