Super easy Cookies recipe

I have been trying to post this recipe for quite some time now. I love it cuz it serves as a great savior to my Lil one while traveling...homemade n super tasty! This cookies recipe is courtesy of a friend who hated my idea of feeding shop bought biscuits to my then nine months old. In fact so did I but cudn think of an option then. She then suggested this super easy to make cookies recipe(well I know I am only posting easy to make recipes but this is what you would do with a one year old bundle of trouble around;-)
Thereby let me share the gift of my friend to spread more joy around:-)

Ingredients
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Butter - 1 cup  or 180 gm
Caster Sugar - 3/4 cup. ( grind half cup sugar to get 3/4 cup caster sugar)

That's it!

Process:
Mix all the three ingredients n knead it into a dough.

Let it rest in the refrigerator for 15 mins

Now preheat the oven and grease the baking tray

Make small flattened pedas balls n place them on the plate leaving some gap.( else they wudn have the space to rise n spread)

Even this gap isn't sufficient... Check the done pic:-(

Prick them with a fork.

This pic is from the second batch;-)

Now bake them in the preheated oven for 15 - 20 mins @ 180°.

Don't serve immediately... Give it resting time of about 30 mins. If they are crunchy your super cookies are done else you can bake them for another five mins. Yeah this can be done!

As you can see they have spread n bumped into each other...leave gap accordingly

Tips:

You can add nuts..flavors etc of your choice at the time of kneading the dough.

chicken patties - Easy to make n great taste!

I have been getting those ready to eat chicken cutlets from shop and they taste everything but chicken... So thought of doing it myself. And given its process, now it's a weekly affair in my home. Easy to prepare..easy to store...healthy n fulfilling. Let me share it with you all too!


Ingredients

200 gms Chicken keema/grounded chicken (you can grind it in a food processor at home as well)
Onion+ginger+ garlic coarse paste - 1 tbsp
Bread crumbs - 2 tbsp
Freshly chopped coriander - 1 tbsp
Salt n pepper as per taste
Oil to fry/grill

Method:

Well mix all the ingredients except oil. Wet your hands slightly n make large flat patties.
Rest them in the refrigerator for 20 mins (if you have extra you can store them in the freezer in a zip lock bag).

Frying process:
Heat a griddle/tawa and put little oil and place the patties. Keep adding oil little by little and shallow fry them till they are golden brown on both sides on medium heat. This takes about 20-25 mins.

Grilling process:
This is what I like to do as it consumes less oil. Preheat the oven. Now oil the grilling plate n grill for 30 mins. Turning and basting it twice during the process.

Serving process:
I usually use them in burgers. You can have them plain with sauce of your choice. Or put it between breads or chapathi. They r great to eat..so use your creativity to satiate yourself:-)

Kulfi Recipe - Kuchch Thanda Ho Jaye

 
Well No, It's not winter yet. But does that stop me from eating icecreams...hmmm...no it doesn't;-)
N I m sure we share mutual feelings. So for people like you n me whipping up a kulfi is never a bad idea. What say! Take a look, in fact get the ingredients and get going...

Ingredients:

Full cream milk - 1 ltr (The pouch milk is also fine but don't use the one that reads 'Toned')
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Condensed milk (milkmaid) - 2 tbsp
Cornflour - 1 tbsp
Cardamom - 1
Vanilla essence - 2-3 drops
Fresh Cream - 2 tbsp
Almonds/Pista/Cashews - 2 tbsp (soaked in water)


Method:

Boil milk in a thick bottom saucepan (else it sticks to the bottom). Reduce the quantity to almost half (takes about half an hour). Keep stirring it every 2-3 mins as it can stick to the bottom and could give a burnt taste.

Now add sugar and keep stirring. Add cardamom seeds (discard the peel).  Boil it till sugar dissolves. Now dissolve the cornflour in half cup of cold water and ensure there are no lumps. Pour this into the boiling milk and stir it for another 5 mins. Now the milk would start to thicken. Switch off the gas oven and let it cool. At this point add the essence and fresh cream and mix it well.

Once it reaches the room temperature, place the milk mix in the freezer for two hours.

After two hours, take it out. In a grinder quickly grind the nuts (or you can finely scrape them and put it too) and the milk mix. Grind it well (it ensures smoothness). Now pour them into molds of your choice ( I prefer the actual kulfi  molds) and freeze it for 3-4 hours.

Once ready to serve, take the mold out of freezer, run it under water (it helps in loosening the kulfi) and take it out.

Tips:

1.You can add nuts of your choice or completely omit them.
2. Flavors can be changed or enhanced by removing cardamom, vanilla essence and adding rose    essence/rose water etc (Experiment and Enjoy!)

Easy Capsicum/Bell Peppers Recipe

My quick capsicum recipe will give your body the feeling of appreciating your long hours in gym physically n mentally both! Presenting an Easy to Make and Super Healthy dish for the health conscious zone. Capsicum is low in fat and has zero cholestrol!

Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time - 20 mins

Ingredients:

Capsicum/bell peppers - 3 big chopped and washed
Onion - 1 big chopped
Garlic - 10 flakes - chopped
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp (you can adjust it as per your taste or skip it altogether!)
Salt as per taste
Oil - 1 tbsp
Cumin Seed/jeera - 1 tsp
Mustard seed - 1 tsp

Besan/chickpea flour
Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Noodles omlette - Snack Recipe

Hey I am back with another snack recipe to satiate your greedy appetite! And this aint too healthy option but is a yummy one either for breakfast, snack or JLT!!

Well the recipe is called noodles omlette...

Ingredients:

Noodles - 100 gm
Onion - 1 chopped
Tomato - 1 chopped
Green chillies - 2-3 chopped
Fresh Coriander chopped - 2 tbsp
Besan - 1/2 cup
Eggs - 1
salt as per taste
oil - to fry and boil the noodles
water - 2-3 tbsp
Method:

Boil the noodles in water with 1 tsp oil (it prevents noodles from sticking to each other) for 5-7 mins. Once done, wash the boiled noodles with cold water to remove the starch. Use a colander for it. Now in the boiled noodles mix all the ingredients except oil with water to make a thick paste like batter.

Now on a non stick pan spread the batter like you would do for a dosa. Make it thick. Now add oil little by little till it is done on one side. Turn it and fry till the other side is also done. Serve it with sauce of your choice.

Coorg by Road - A trip to remember!

A long weekend holiday and Bangloreans want to run away from this maddening place. So did we...With limited greenery options in the GARDEN CITY, people want to make the most of the nearby scenic places. But with this summer, your options are limited. You need to strike off most of the places of your list given the scorching heat. The remaining ones being the hill stations....ooty, kodai...But with a ten month old....those options too don't work out(7-8 hours driving can be cumbersome for them n you) So we planned Coorg. Well it is supposed to be a hill station but the weather report said otherwise. Since it was better than Bangalore, we decided to go.

Then started the hunt for a place to stay. To our surprise, all properties were almost full, at least the ones that we wanted to go to. It then reaffirmed my belief that people are waiting to take a holiday be it any season.. any price...Well lifestyles are to be blamed.. with working couples finding time to meet and share time on these holidays.

Finally after hearing a 'NO' from almost everything that we liked (from high budget resorts to economical homestays), we were initially disappointed. But two days of sheer hard work;-) showed results and we booked this place called 'Natura Vista' for two nights.

Day 1: 18th April

We started early from bangalore at 5:45 in our Etios GD (diesel cars are still easy on pocket;-). It is always good to start early to avoid the traffic and get out of the city as soon as possible. Sherry was still asleep and it was a good thing for me. GPS suggested three routes. Mangalore - Bangalore highway via tumkur road, mysore road and malavalli road in the given order. Yet we wanted to take the Mysore road after reading the reviews on the net. It was a lovely morning and within 1 hour we crossed Ramnagarm and Mysore road is very well maintained except a few occasional bumps.

Mysore Highway

It was eight in the morning and we decided to have breakfast. We had already crossed our favorite option - Kamat lokaruchi in the wee hours. There were these boards of 'Up South' which follow you throughout till you reach that place. A lot of money spent on advertisement...Wish they had spent it on the food quality. The place looked clean and ambient. The food almost took our faith away from south indian dishes (we are quite fond of them). Horrible taste. Yet the good thing was Sherry was awake and also finished her breakfast:-)

Upsouth Restaurant

After a wasteful 45 mins we started again and this time got lost after Srirangapatna. GPS talks about a bypass of 15 kms which avoids the city traffic but it was closed and we ended up on some kachcha road for about 3 kms. And finally after trekking through the bumpy roads, we were connected to the highway. Google should upgrade its map facilities where one can choose from 'only highways' while travelling long distance. It takes you to some funny places in dsiguise of 'Shortcut'. A tip: Please see for yourself the highways and continue on them than blindly following the google map.

KRS Road

Finally we reached Kushalnagar around 11:30 pm and thought of taking a detour to the Tibetan Monastery. We didn't quite like it probably coz we have seen better and bigger ones. After quickly packing from there we reached our destination in Hooror. Here the GPS was very friendly. What a lovely property. Its not a homestay. Actually a small bungalow built only for guests. It is all surrounded by coffee plantation and all you hear is the chirping of birds. Even the hosts stay a few metres away from the bungalow. So literally no one to disturb you on the holiday. We had sumptous lunch prepared by the hosts and crashed on the bed. It rained while we were asleep and a lovely weather welcomed us when we woke up. It was quite cool and sherry needed some woollens which I had carried on host's advice. She was sweet enough to prepare all the meals for Sherry.

Tibetan Monastery

View from the balcony

They arranged a Barbeque and folks from the other cottage joined us. (Yes...there are two cottages). It was fun talking to them. Even Sherry was quite excited as the host's son and their dog had joined us too. After a long day and another round of sumptuous dinner we went back to our room for yet another peaceful sleep.

Day 2 : 19th April

We checked out a few touristy place on the net and almost everything looked dull except Dubare elephant camp. So we decided to go there. It was half an hour drive from where we stayed. Again Google had suggested some funny and kachcha road. But this time we were wise enough to take the highway and  our car thanked us enough for that.

Dubare Elephant camp

Dubare was like another fish market. Looked like the entire tourist lot had come in there. It is a very beautiful place sans the crowd and chained elephants. They offer elephant ride (the queue was longer than the tirupati ones)...elephant bathing and feeding. A sorrowful sight to see those chained elephants. It is across the river and one can take a boat ride which costs around Rs.30 per head (return fare). If you are an adventurous soul you can even cross the river  stepping on the rocks in between. We too wanted to do it but with Sherry hanging on to us it was a risky proposition. So boat ride was our call.

Spent about 3 hours there and went to Madikeri for lunch. Again browsed for good places to eat and found this place called 'Raintree'. Thought of having some good coorgi food but to our sheer disappointment they had everything else but coorgi food. Thankfully they also had kerela food and we both love appams. So we ordered appams, mutton stew and some chicken started. Overall average taste.

Raintree Restaurant in Madiketi

We were back to our cottage and again went to the bed. Peaceful sleep that too just in pure nature was fulfilling. We had again asked for a barbeque as we could not afford to go for a plantation walk with Sherry along with us. This time it was only three of us and still loved the experience under a clear sky and twinkling stars.My husband enjoyed his photography sessions thoroughly

cottage road

The next day we woke up early....went for walk on the road with dense plantation hugging us from both side. We were actually breathing pure oxygen which is rare to find here. Memorable Experience!

A walk in the plantation

 We left the cottage at about 11 AM and this time took the Mangalore -Bangalore highway as suggested by our neighbors in the other cottage. Oh What a mistake! The Hassan periyapatna road which is about 25 kms is painfully bad and it took us two hours to cross that road. On the way we stopped for a small break by the riverside which was quite relaxing. (after hassan-periyapatna road)

riverside on the way

 Finally reached the Blore- Mlore highway which is automatically good as it is a national highway. Surprisingly there are hardly any food joints on the highway. After a long drive for about 2 hours we found this place called 'Malgudi' and gulped the food down in no time.
We reached bangalore at about 7 pm in the evening with few breaks. Eight hours was too long for Sherry and she did become restless.

All in all a good trip with lots of memories.