Dumplings (Luqaimat)

Dumplings are crispy little balls made of fermented batter that is deep fried in oil and then served with sugar syrup. This is another recipe that I used to have during Ramadan in my hostel. My flatmates used to make this but at that time, again, I never bothered to learn the recipe cause I was not into cooking at all. But I have seen them making it and used to give a hand. So I know what consistency the batter has and how it is done. So this recipe that got from here, was altered accordingly to bring that consistency and crispiness that last quite long.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoons yeast
1 tsp sugar
salt as required
1/3 cup yogurt
3/4 cup warm water
oil for deep frying

Preparation:
1. In ¾ cup of lukewarm water, add sugar and yeast and stir well. Keep aside for around half an hour until a thick layer of froth forms over the yeast mixture.

2. Take a large bowl, Add flour, salt and mix well. Then add yogurt and yeast mixture and stir well until you get a sticky batter. You can mix the batter in the food processor if difficult to mix them by hand. I usually use hand for mixing the batter, but it takes quite longer time. Keep it in a warm area for about 4-6 hours.
3. At this stage you can see bubbles formed in the batter. Knock down the bubbles and stir well again.

4. Heat oil (to deep fry) in a pan or wok until it really gets hot.
5. Dip the fingers in water and take a good size pinch of batter(a teaspoon size) and drop in oil slowly. Since the batter is sticky and has dropping consistency, it will be difficult to handle the batter without dabbing the fingers with water. Add few more pinches of batter in oil by dabbing finger in water every time you take the batter.

6.Once they fall in oil they will puff up and take round shapes or almost round shapes. DOesnt matter if it doesnt come into exact round shapes. Deep fry them until they turn golden on all sides. It is very important not to make it golden brown cause it will be hard rather than crispy. Strain them using slotted spoon and place them on kitchen towel to drain out excess oil.
7. Repeat the process until all the batter is fried into dumplings.
8. Transfer into serving dish and pour syrup all over.

For syrup:
Ingredients:
1 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon lime/lemon juice

Preparation:

Put the water in a pan with the sugar and place over a medium heat; bring to boil and allow to boil for ten minutes, removing the froth as it appears. Add the lemon juice and leave to simmer for ten minutes. Pour it over the fried dumplings and serve warm or cold.

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

I got this delicious pudding recipe from here. Since then, it has been one of my family favorites. Apart from the things suggested in the recipe, I Also added 4 tbs of raisins along with chocolate chips and 1 large orange's rind in the custard . I mixed the orange rind along with milk and eggs. I always thought the orange rind gave a lovely and mild taste to the desert and always added them to most of my desert including pineapple souffle. Orange flavor and chocolate works very well together. It enhances the taste of the desert and doesnt stand out at all. I also reduced the amount of vanilla essence to 1 tsp since I found it a bit over powering for my taste. The original recipe accounts for 2 tsp. Im going to make it for the party this weekend.

Mutton Stew

The very best combination of Appam is stew of any kind. May it be vegetable or meat. Here is the recipe of meat stew.

Ingredients:

½ kg Mutton/chicken/beef
2 1/2 cups Onions - Finely chopped
2 -4 Green chillies cut slit open length-wise
2 tsp / 4 large cloves-Garlic grated
2 tsp Freshly grated Ginger
1 cup - Thick coconut milk
1 cup - Thin coconut milk
2 medium Tomatoes
8-10 cashew nuts
2 small pieces Cinnamon sticks
2 Cloves
3 cardamoms
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Oil - 2-3 tbs

Preparation:

1. Soak cashewnuts in water for about half an hour.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add cinnamon sticks, cloves, and cardamoms.When the aroma of the spices starts coming off, Add onions and green chillies and stir till onion turns pink.
3. Add ginger and garlic and stir until the raw smell goes and onion starts to turn golden brown.
4. Add the meat pieces and tomatoes and stir further until tomatoes are cooked and soft.
5. Add the thin coconut milk and salt. Cover and cook until the meat is tender.If it's mutton, pressure cooking will be easier so that the meat gets cooked quickly.
6. Grind cashews well along with thick milk.
7. When the meat is cooked and water is almost dried up, add the thick milk of coconut with cashew and just boil for a minute. Dont boil for long time because the coconut milk will get curdled.
8.Add garam masala and stir well and close lid to infuse the flavor in.
serve hot with Appam.

Plantain cake (serves 6-8)

If you got leftover or very ripe plantains, dont throw them away. Just bake them into plantain cakes. This is another easy recipe made with plantains. It's a flourless cake and is usually made for evening snacks and during Ramadan. Since this cake is so moist, it has a pudding kind of texture and so no icing or cream topping is necessary. It is best to store in refrigerator if not finishing on the same day. It doesnt stay out long. I got this recipe from my mom who bakes this cake in a non-stick sauce pan with lid,kept on a low flame- medium flame. Infact she bakes all her cakes so! And it always turned perfect! For the same reason, I baked this cake on the hob-top, in a non-stick saucepan with lid, rather than using oven. I think this cake could be baked in oven too at medium temperature. But never dared to do so. Next time I should try that way!

The recipe for plantain cake: This time I Made a bigger cake using the double amount of ingredients i normaly use since I had lot of plantains leftover. If you want a smaller one, just use exact half amount of ingredients.

Ingredients:

4 Ripe plantains

8 extra large eggs/ 10 medium eggs

14 tbs sugar

4 cardamom/1/2 tsp cardamom powder

Preparation:

1.In a blender add eggs, sugar and cardamom and blend well until sugar dissolves (1 minute).

2. When done, Add the peeled plantains and again blend for few seconds until you get a smooth batter.

3. Set the flame to low-medium. Dont set the flame to high, else the cake will get charred very soon. Grease a nonstick sauce pan with ghee (clarified butter/butter fat) and add the batter. Close the lid tightly, making sure that no steam escapes. I cover the lid using foil and cover the sauce pan so that the lid stays intact.

4. Check if the cake is done, by inserting a knife or tooth pick. If they come out clean with no batter sticking to it, Then the cake is done. It took me 45 minutes to cook. I used a heavy base sausepan of 30 cm diameter with lid.

N.B: The upper part of the cake wont be browned, But it will be cooked from steam inside. If you want upper side to be browned, You can turn the cake over, once it is completely cooked. I normaly dont go for this hassle just for the color.

Appam (vellayappam)

I was quite surprised to read in a travel magazine that Vellayappam and Stew is one of the best 15 breakfasts in the world. Appam was one of the dishes that I started making since the very beginning of my cooking. These are pancakes with thin laced edges and thick fluffy centre It is very light, airy and goes well with stew and many other curries. The recipe is my mother's and this is something that always came excellent for me. But again I use all fresh ingredients rather than powders and canned stuff so it myt take a bit of your time. Eventhough it takes time,its worth a try. And But again, the taste of Appam will vary depending on many factors like the fermentation of the batter and the weather. The colder the weather, the longer it will take to ferment. So always keep the batter in a warm place to rise. I usually keep the batter near the radiator and I leave it there for about 6-8 hours and thats perfect. By that time, the batter would rise very well and be fermented enough for making the perfect crisp and light Appams. If leaving it in a colder place it should take even more time.

Apart from that, vellappam is made in a special dish called"Appacchatti". I think its a miniature version of a wok with lid and its very important to have this "appacchatti" .This gives Appam or Vellapam a round shape having thin edges and sponge like centre. In flat frying pans, you may be able to do, but u will never get that texture and crispiness that you get in a appacchatti.

My Appacchatti

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Cooked rice
2 cups Long grain rice/basmati rice

1 cup grated coconut

salt- as required

water-as required to make a thick batter

1/2 tsp dry active yeast

Preparation:

1. Soak basmati rice in water for about 2-4 hours.

2. Drain water and put it blender along with little water and cooked rice and blend well until you get a thick and smooth batter of dropping consistency without rice grains. At this stage, add grated coconut and blend well again for few seconds until coconut is well ground . Add more water if you find difficulty to grind them. Dont make the batter too thin by adding lot of water.

3. Add yeast at the end and just pulse once till yeast is well incorporated. Add salt and mix well.

4. Pour the batter into a large vessel and keep it covered in a warm place for about 6-8 hours. Once the batter is fermented, you can see that the batter is risen well and has bubbles on top and there is a strong, pungent smell.

Batter - before fermentingBatter-after fermenting

5. At this stage, stir the batter well.

6. Place the appacchatti on medium-high flame.

7.Using a ladle pour a some batter into the centre of the pan. My ladle holds 1/2 cup of batter . See the figure.

Pour batter in the centre

8. Hold the handles of the appachatti and swirl the chatti once inorder to spread the batter all around the chatti. Excess batter should accumalate in the centre to get that spongy centre of appams.

Swirl the pan around to spread the batter to the side of the pan

9. Close the lid and cook for around 3 minutes or until the batter is completely cooked. By this time appam will come off the chatti easily if it is a non-stick chatti.

10. Serve hot with vegetable stew,mutton stew, sweet stew or any other curry. I will be posting them soon. Many curries very well goes with Appam.

Chilli Prawns

I got this fabulous and yummy recipe from Maria of Mariasmenu and followed the recipe as such according to the amount of the prawns used. It always came out delicious and we loved it! It can be used as a side dish with fried rice,noodles etc.