Happy Pongal

Wishing all a very happy and prosperous Pongal,

Pongal recipes:
Rich Sarkarai pongal
Sarkarai pongal
Pongal avial
Pongal puLi curry
Venn pongal 
Ketti paruppu 
Easy cooker Pongal



May this Pongal festival brings peace, good health, success, cheer, prosperity and every happiness
Happy Pongal! 
Love, 
Viki Xavier 

Mango custard fruit salad

Here is a very easy recipe to start the new year ....a new dessert !

Mango custard fruit salad is my newest innovation and I love it as a substitute for the original fruit custard salad.

Mango custard fruit salad

Ingredients:  (makes 8 - 10 servings)
Mango puree - 1 cup
Custard powder - 2 tbsp
milk - 1 cup
condensed milk - 2 tbsp (optional)
powdered sugar  or sugar - 4 tbsp (to taste)
mixed fruits - 2 cup 
(apple - 1/2 , pear - 1/2, banana - 1, seedless grapes - 10, pomegranate - 1/2 cup, dates - few)
cardamom powder - 3/4 tsp

Method:
Peel the apple, pears, pomegranate. Chop the apple, banana and pear into bite size cubes and keep aside. chop dates, grapes and keep aside.  Keep aside in fridge.
Bring milk  to boil  
Dissolve the custard powder in few tbsp of cold milk and add to the boiled milk. Start heating and cook for 2-3 minutes or till the custard gets thickened. Now add mango puree.
Add required sugar, condensed milk , cardamom powder.
Let cool completely.
Add chopped fruits and pomegranate arils. 
Keep refrigerated for 2-3 hours or till chilled.
Mango Fruit custard is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve chilled as dessert.

Note:
I am suggesting condensed milk, as we generally have fat-free milk only at home,  and adding condensed milk makes it rich.
Instead of fresh fruits, we can use canned fruits too, to save time.
Using a vegetable chopper to chop fruits will minimize the prep time.
This salad can stay  fresh for 3 days inside fridge.

Happy New year 2018

Wishing all a beautiful, happy , healthy, wealthy , Prosperous and peaceful , blessed New Year , May  God bless and protect us all.  
May goodness prevail all over.


Love,
Viki Xavier.

Christmas recipes

Hi friends,
I am sure everyone has great plans for Christmas. Along with the Christmas decorations, Church schedules,  and shopping comes the cooking plan. We all wonder and think of many many recipes, but still the family's vote goes for our usual successful recipes ☺ That too native recipes stay in our menu forever. As we both are from Tirunelveli, our town's recipes comes to our minds first. Every year Xavier gives me a long wish list ☺ Here is that list ! Enjoy !

Merry Christmas !

Christmas plum cake (Indian style)

Plain vanilla cake

 Butter biscuit (Sooji berry biscuit / benne biscuit) :

Gingerbread cookies:

Orange butter cookies:

Susiyam:

Athirasam:

 Munthiri kothu

Porikadalai laddu:

Pineapple Kesari

Spicy snacks:
Butter Murukku

Coconut milk murukku

Thattai

Oma podi (sev)

Kara sev:

Ulunthu vadai

Paruppu vadai

Breakfast:
Aappam (rice pancake)

Lunch:
Turkey biriyani

whole fried chicken

Dindigul chicken biriyani (in cooker)

Tirunelveli mutton varuval

Egg kuruma (Tirunelveli style)

Stuffed egg (keeru muttai)

Dessert : (Paruppu Payasam)

Merry Christmas !

How to make Roti dough in kitchenaid mixer ?

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - 3 cups
oil - 2 tbsp
salt - 1/2 tsp
water - almost 1 1/2 cup

Method:
Put flour and salt to the bowl of mixer.
Fix the bowl to the stand mixer.
Attach the dough hook to stand mixer.
My mixer is pro 600, so I lifted up the bowl and fixed it.
Now start in lowest speed to mix well for less than 30 seconds.
Add 1 cup water.
Slowly increase to 2 and 3 speeds.
Then I always set it in speed 4 or 5 for making the dough.
Add required water and let it run for 2  more minutes.
Almost within 3 minutes and 30 secs the dough will be ready.
The dough should be stiff enough to roll roti / chapati but soft and pliable (not sticky),
Then add oil and run for few seconds more.
The dough will be ready .
Switch off, take out and keep inside an airtight container. (or) we can start preparing roti right away.

Chapati / roti dough is ready !

Click to see chapati recipe.

Pizza with perfect crust

Though I have posted few pizza recipes earlier, getting a perfect crust recipe  was always in my 'to learn' list.  My hubby is a person who will  eat only the best of the best and so his reviews have made me improve my cooking skills since the day we got married :) So I try, try and try, till I get the best version in all my recipes. If he has approved it then it becomes my 'blog worthy' recipe :)

I prepared this pizza last Friday evening for dinner. It resulted in a 'large size pizza'.  In my view , it would be more than enough for 2 people. As always we shared our weekend special meal with our neighbor aunty and we all loved it very much.  After many of my pizza attempts, this is the one, my  hubby dear love the best :) So I am sure this is recipe is a keeper. Anyways, after finishing that he said that, "next time just make a cheese pizza  ...ok :) too much veggies :) ". 😀😀😀😀😀 

I love this recipe very much. So I am narrating this post as a best medium-thick crust pizza (not too thin and not too thick, just like the way we love it).
Here in this recipe I have made the crust like a bread dough (rising the dough twice) and I think that's the secret behind the uniformly successful ones.
I prepared the dough using a 'kitchenaid stand mixer' and I am sure hand kneading also would bring closer results.
Also , always be careful on  the 'lukewarm water'  temperature. The yeast should froth within 10 minutes.  Keep in mind to use the yeast within 2  months after purchase and keep it refrigerated always. If the 'proofing of yeast' is successful, then the baking would be definitely successful.

Homemade pizza slice

Vegetable toppings 

Ingredients

Sauce I made for pizza

Before the yeast rises

After 10 minutes of yeast proofing.

Kneading the dough

The pizza dough 

After 1 hour of rising

After second rising

Flatten the dough to pizza shape

Bake for 5 minutes

Apply sauce

Add toppings

Add cheese

Baked pizza

Pizza crust:
lukewarm water  - 1/2 cup
olive oil  - 3 tbsp
1 sachet active dry yeast (1.5 tablespoon approximately) 
salt - 1 tsp
sugar - 2 tsp
All purpose flour - 2 1/2 to 2 3/4  cups
garlic powder - 1 tsp

Method:
Microwave the water for 10 seconds (0r) just get the warm water from tap.
Add the  oil, yeast, salt, sugar and keep it for 10 minutes.
It will become frothy.
Mix this with flour and garlic powder.
Knead to make a soft dough. We can knead the dough in a kitchenaid mixer. Use the dough hook and keep the speed at 4 or 5.
Coat the dough with little oil and cover with a damp cloth. Keep it in a tight vessel and keep it for 1 hour inside a warm place (I preheat oven to 150 F for 5 minutes).
Let it raise for 1 hour. After 1 hour , the dough will triple in volume.
Punch and knead again. Keep it to raise again for one more hour.
Now also the dough will raise.
This is the perfect pizza dough. We can prepare the dough and keep it in fridge for 1 or 2 days or we can use it immediately.

Sauce:
tomato puree (from can) - 1/4 cup
sugar - 1 tbsp
hot sauce - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste
Italian seasoning - 1 tbsp
garlic powder - 1 tsp
crushed red pepper - a pinch
fresh basil leaf - handful (chopped)

Mix this in a bowl and keep aside. Or just use a 1/2  cup of store bought sauce. My neighbor aunty would add tomato ketchup + hot sauce + seasonings only. 

Pizza topping:
Shredded mozzarella cheese - 1 /2cup
Parmesan cheese - 2 tbsp
red onion - 1/2 (sliced thinly)
red capsicum - 1/4 cut in to small pieces
Jalapeno pepper - 1/2
pickled yellow pepper - 1
olives - few
  
Slice and keep the vegetables ready.

How to bake a pizza?
Preheat the oven to 375 F for 10 minutes before we start baking.
Pizza chefs know a lot of skills to prepare a flat bread. But I have only one trick. I just place the dough on a pizza baking tray and flatten it using a rolling pin or by hand.
Then apply a little oil over the flattened dough., spread it. Using a fork prick a few times all around.
Bake it at 375 F for 5 minutes.
Take it out.
Spread the prepared pizza sauce.
Spread the prepared toppings and cheese.
Bake at 375 F for 12 - 15 minutes, until fully cooked,

Take out. Slice and enjoy while it is hot.