Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well, when it comes to chocolate chip cookies, I am sure everyone will have their own favourite recipe. Some like it crispy and some like it chewy and some others chunky. Either way I think it is tasty as far as it got loads of chocolate in them:). But depending on the amount of butter, sugar and flour used, the texture of the cookie really changes. I got this recipe from the butter wrap and gave it a try. It came out good. But my favorite ones are fat and chunky chocolate chip cookie but the outcome of mine was a medium thick chewy cookie. Anyways it was over in few days...

Ingredients:
2 cups/300g plain flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda/baking soda (not baking powder)
150g butter at room temperature
1 cup (200g) Brown sugar (Demerara)
1/2 cup (100g) Castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 large eggs
200 gms chocolate chips/chocolate chunks (I used a mixture of dark and white chocolate)
1/4 cup Raisins(optional) OR 1 Cup chopped nuts (Hazelnuts, walnuts,pecans, brazilnuts or any of your choice).

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour along with baking soda. Reserve.
2. Cream butter and sugar, either by using a electric beater for around 3-4 minutes until fluffy. I do it using a wooden
spoon for sometime longer,to avoid washing up.
3. Add egg one by one to this butter-sugar mixture and beat well after adding each egg.whisk in vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture and mix well using spoon. Dont overmix .
5. Add the chocolate chips and raisins OR nuts (if using) and mix until just combined.
6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius And line 2 cookie sheets with baking paper.
7. Drop a tspful of the dough making sure to leave a distance of 2 inches after each drops so that the cookie can spread well in the oven. Dont have to flatten them as they will spread during baking.
8. Bake them for 12-14 minutes until they turn light golden colour. Leave them in the sheet for about 4 minutes before transferring them on to a wire rack to cool completely.
N.B: Dont attempt to take the cookie out of the sheet as soon as it comes out of oven, since it will be soft and will crumble. It will take few minutes to harden.
9. When they are cooled completely put them in an airtight container, but make sure they have really cooled, else the moisture escaped from the cookies will make them soaky.
Makes about 70 medium sized cookies.If you are using a tablespoonful of the dough, you will get around 3 dozen large cookies.

Crispy Fried Cauliflower

Crispy fried cauliflower is an amazingly crispy and tasty snack that can be served as a side dish or even as a snack. I make this usually as a side dish when I prepare dal or some other vegetable curries. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

200g cauliflower, cut into small florets

1/2 tsp pepper powder

1 medium egg

3 tbs cornflour

1 tsp plain flour

Bread crumbs as required

salt as reqd

1 1/2 litre water

oil to deep fry

Preparation:1. Wash the cauliflower and keep them aside.

2. Add salt to water in a large pot and bring it to boil. Add cauliflower into it. Boil for 3-4 minutes. It doesnt have to get cooked.

3. Drain them and wipe off any excess water.

4. Make a paste by whisking together an egg, both the flour, pepper powder and a pinch of salt.

5. Dip the half cooked cauliflower into this and then roll it in breadcrumbs. Keep them aside.

6. Heat a deep pan/kadai to medium and add oil. when the oil becomes hot enough add the breadcrumbs coated florets to this little by little and deep fry until golden brown.

7. Another yummy side dish to go with any mail meal or can be eaten just as a snack.

Fried yams (Chena Porichathu)

Chena porichathu/ Fried Yam is one of our favourite side dish and makes a good vegetarian replacement for the fried fish or and any other fried non-vegetarian dish. The only hard part is the cleaning. The skin has to be completely cleaned and should be done with a gloves if possible. Because raw yam is a skin irritant and can really be itchy. So don’t handle the raw yam without gloves unless you love scratching!!

Ingredients:
400g Yam (chena) (cleaned weight)
1 tbs Kashmiri Chilli Powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
¼ cup(4 tbs) water
¼ cup oil (4 tbs)
Salt- as required

Preparation:
1. Peel the yams and wash it. Slice it into 1/2 cm thickness. (you can fry it without further slicing also). And then slice it again keeping the same thickness into long juliennes. You can also cut them into cubes, if you prefer.
2. Heat a large frying pan, add oil and all the other ingredients and mix well.
3. COVER and cook on medium high heat stirring occasionally to avoid charring for about 25-30 minutes or when they start browning. Serve as a side dish for plain rice. As easy as that and Simple too, and taste.........You should know!!.

Date Muhalabiyeh/ muhalabiya

Muhalabiya is one of the most common Arabic desserts even though the name might sound a bit unfamiliar. This was one of the desserts that used to be served in our university food court during lunch. But I never bought them and never tasted them from the university simply because it was served in a small tray without any garnishing on them and for me, it looked so plain and bland and never appealed to my eye. One more thing, whenever I feel hungry first thing that will come to my mind will be something that is sweet based. So, during my university days I went to one of the supermarkets nearby and headed off to the bakery section. Saw a piece of chocolate cake well garnished and looked very appealing. Bought it and took a bite just to realise how bad that cake tasted. I couldn’t have it at all. That would be the only chocolate cake I ever discarded in my life after having a single bit. So you can imagine how bad it would have tasted. The cake was too dry and almost tasted like a stale bread. Just imagine what impact the garnishing gives a dish. It doesn’t mean that the dish would taste bad if the garnishing isn’t that great. Learnt a lesson from that experience. The other day I had serious craving for some dessert and there was nothing at home that would please my palette. Then I started flipping over my bundle of recipe books looking for an easy dessert that can be made in minutes Then I came across this Muhalabiyeh/muhalabiya in my little nestle cookery book and went for it. And It tasted really yum and it was so easy that you can prepare for your guests if you are making so many dishes. Atleast dessert part would be less painful.
Funny part was that the recipe also calls for rose water which is an ingredients I have never used in any of my dishes. My rose water bottle has been sitting in the cupboard for few years actually and sometimes use it on my face just for a fresh feeling. God knows…read somewhere about rose water being used on face for some reason I don’t even remember. I have had a few Arabic sweets before with overpowering aroma of the rose water that sometimes just put me off. But if u add a little just in right proportion, it really boost up the flavour of the dish with a subtle taste of the rose essence. Please don’t Omit the rose water while making this dish because the sweet will be flavourless and bland.　

Ingredients:
I can 397g sweetened condensed milk+1 litre water
½ cup rice flour
2 tbs corn flour
¾ tbs rose water
1 cup chopped dates seeded
Pistachios for garnishing

Preparation:1. Empty the condensed milk can in water and stir well.
2. Stir in the rice flour and corn flour to this condensed milk and water.
3. Mix thoroughly using a wire whisk to avoid any lumps.
4. Place on low heat while continuously stirring until mixture thickens. This will take around 25 minutes on low flame. It will have a thick custard like consistency.
5. Add rose water, stir and remove from heat.
6. And chopped dates and mix.
7. Pour in serving bowls and leave to cool.
8. Garnish with dates and serve cold.

Chilli Garlic Fried Rice

I have had this recipe in my archives for very long time and just recently tried it out. The recipe is very simple, and delicious. You just need very few vegetables, or you cam make with out any vegetables at all since garlic and chillies are used for main flavour. Since I love garlicky flavour, I love this rice. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups basmati rice
Water
Salt
6 large cloves of garlic
2-3 dried red chilli (seed them if you like it less spicy)
1 tbs Soya sauce
¼ cup frozen green peas (optional)
¼ piece capsicum diced (Optional)
½ medium onion chopped (½ cup)
3 tbs vegetable oil
1tsp sesame oil
A knob of butter

Preparation:
1. Wash rice and cook it in plenty of salted water by keeping the lid OPEN ,until the rice is just soft. Drain and run cold water over the rice to cool the rice completely. Keep the rice in a colander to drain off the excess water.
2. Grind/grate garlic in a grinder and keep it aside.
3. Heat a large saucepan, add the vegetable oil and sesame oil. Add the chopped onions and the garlic chilli paste to this and sauté until onion becomes translucent.
4. Add soya sauce and sauté for few seconds.
5. Add peas and capsicum (if using) and sauté just until the capsicum goes soft.
6. Add rice and mix well and adjust salt. When it is heated through completely add a knob of butter and close the lid. Serve hot with any chinese curry.

Salad with Caeser Dressing

After a quite long break, I’m back with this wonderful Salad. But I may go on a break again I guess. Don’t know when. Guess what happened? Few days back our compueter fell down and broke crashing the hard disk completely along with all my recipes, pictures and all other stuffs. Thankfully just couple of days before the crash, we saved some of our old pictures, So at least that is saved. But it is so sad that I lost all my recipes. The only ones left are the ones in my little blog :(. I wont be able to blog regularly until the laptop get fixed;this is my husband's friend's notebook that my husband brought from him to do some paper works.
Well, this is an easy to prepare salad and delicious too. I’m not a great fan of salads but this is one of mine and my family’s favourites. I sometimes have it for my dinner. Here I have used the vegetables that I had in my fridge. You can also use a chicken breast boiled in salted water and then cut into chunks. It’s all up to you.
Ingredients:
½ cup tomato diced (1 medium size)
1cupful cucumber diced
1 carrot diced (1 large one)
Few lettuce leaves torn roughly
2 slice bread (50 gm) (for making croutons)
Olive oil-just a few dashes(to sprinkle on bread)
For the Caeser Dressing:
4 tbs Good quality Mayonnaise (1/4 cup)
1 tbs Olive oil
1 tsp Lemon juice
1 clove of Garlic, finely chopped
½ tsp Dijon Mustard paste
1/8 tsp pepper powder(that is half of a quarter tsp)
Salt to taste

Preparation:
1. In a small bowl, Mix all the ingredients of the dressing using the spoon until well combined.
2. For making croutons, remove the crust from the bread and rub or sprinkle some olive oil on the slices. Toast them in the toaster until golden and crisp. Cut them into cubes of 1 ½ cm. Adding oil really makes them crisp.
3.Just before serving, add the dressing to the vegetables and add the bread cubes and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.

Tips and notes:
For making the croutons, instead of toasting the bread in toaster, you can cut them into cubes and bake them in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius until golden and crispy. You can also fry them by cutting into cubes and then frying in few dashes of olive oil in frying pan until golden. But I always go for the toaster method..Cos that’s the easiest. But you have to be careful. Since the bread is drizzled with oil, it can really get hot.