Jamaican Jerk chicken

Some months ago, hubby dear brought me a sample of jerk chicken seasoning, which his friend Mr. Raynor gave him. First I used a tsp of it to marinate just a piece of thigh while making tandoori and found the taste incredible. Then I searched the net on 'how to make homemade jerk seasoning mix' and arrived at this site. Thanks to the author, I could prepare a jerk seasoning from scratch, and prepared a whole batch of jerk seasoned chicken thighs. I made a dipping sauce also with the leftover marinade and everyone liked it.
Then he again presented us a whole bottle of jerk seasoning, which we enjoyed to the core. Even before the baked chicken made its way to the dining table, we started munching it, saying WOW...HOT....ssss...superb:) That is one yummy chicken recipe, every spice lover should try!Thanks Mr. Raynor, you have introduced us a new delicious chicken!

Jamaican Jerk chicken , my attempt to do from scratch:)

Homemade jerk chicken seasoning along with the sample seasoning I got.

The jerk seasoning Mr.Raynor presented us.

The fiery HOT Jamaican jerk chicken is ready!

Main ingredient:

Chicken - 2 lb.

Jerk Seasoning mix:

Ingredients:

Vinegar - 4 tbsp
green chillies - 8
Jalapeno - 2
Bell pepper - 1/2
red onion - 1
ginger powder - 1 tbsp
garlic powder - 1 tbsp
dry thyme - 1 tbsp
olive oil - 1 tbsp
salt - 1 tsp
Black pepper powder - 2 tsp
All spice powder - 2 tsp
brown sugar / molasses - 2 tsp

others:

lemon -1

Method:
Saute the sliced onion and chillies in 2 tbsp olive oil or butter.
Saute till it turns slightly brown.
Grind with all the above ingredients. Mix the lemon juice.
The seasoning mix is ready.

Clean the chicken and make some slits to facilitate marination.
Mix with the prepared jerk seasoning mix.

Place in an airtight container and keep refrigerated overnight.
The taste of the jerk chicken lies in the duration of marination also.

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Arrange the marinated chicken pieces and reserve the remaining marinade liquid. Bake one side for 25 minutes. Flip over, coat some butter and bake again for 20 minutes or till it is done.

Jamaican Jerk chicken is ready!

Serving sauce:

Pour the leftover marinade in a wok and heat for 10 minutes. Add soy sauce, tomato sauce and hot sauce to taste. Bring to a boil and switch off.
This sauce can be used as dipping sauce or kept refrigerated to be used as a marinade for next batch.

Using the ready-made seasoning mix:

Marinate overnight 1 lb chicken with 2 tbsp or little more of the seasoning mix and bake / grill as above.

Sweet paniyaram

Sweet paniyaram / Inippu kuzhi paniyaram is always welcome in our home like any other sweet.  I started making it often after seeing my MIL preparing it some years ago. I always encourage her over phone to make it for festivals, as this is her signature dish .

Ingredients:

Raw rice (pacharisi) - 1 cup
idly rice (puzhungal arisi) - 2 tbsp
black gram lentil (ulunthu paruppu) - 2 tbsp
water - 1/4 cup
coconut - 2 tbsp
salt - 1/4 tsp

baking soda - 1/2 tsp

jaggery (brown sugar) - 1/2 cup or little more.
water - 1/2 cup (for jaggery)
cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp

ghee / oil -  as per need

We may need :
kuzhi paniyara kal (puff pancake pan)
fork / skewer

Method:
Soak the rice and dhal together for 4 hours. Grind to a fine paste with 1/4 cup water, 1/4 tsp salt, coconut. It should be like idly batter.  Let it stand for 4-5 hours. No need to ferment like idly, but this duration gives soft paniyaram.

Mix jaggery with 1/2 cup water and bring it to a boil. Switch off, let it dissolve. Filter and remove any impurities. Let it cool.  Add it to the prepared batter with cardamom and mix  well.
(This batter can be kept refrigerated now for further use).

Just before preparing the paniyaram, add the baking soda, mix well and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Heat a paniyarakkal (paniyaram pan / puff pancake pan). Add oil/ ghee till 1/2 of the depth of each hole (first time only, then 1 tsp in each hole will do). Let it get hot.

Then pour paniyaram mix in each hole till 3/4. Put a lid and cook covered. It takes about a minute.
Reduce heat to the minimum and wait till its cooked on one side.
Click to see 'how to make paniyaram' in my unniappam post.
Then with the help of a wooden skewer (vadai kambi) or fork, gently flip the paniyaram.
Let them cook the other side too.

Then take them out and drain the excess oil using a kitchen towel.

Sweet Paniyaram is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve as snack..
Makes 21 paniyaram
(7 hole paniyaram pan X 3 times)

Note:

This sweet paniyaram can be  prepared  by deep frying instead of using a pan also.
Ghee or butter should be used instead of oil to get the most delicious sweet paniyaram.

Icing.

Usually I buy a pack of icing for most of my cakes. But from this moment I have decided to make my own. So for this Easter I made cream cheese frosting and butter cream icing. I wanted a low calorie cream cheese frosting for my cupcakes and an 'icing tool friendly' butter cream icing. While doing this only I realized how easy and healthy it is to make icings at home. The following recipes may not be for a professional but works out the best for me.

 Easter cake with basket-weave icing and fondant flowers.

Butter cream icing:

In mass production they would add vegetable shortening to buttercream icing, to get smooth flowing cream for cake professionals. But I didn't add shortening, as I wanted to share it with some adorable kids too. The finish was very good and it tasted extremely good, except for the fact that this buttercream icing will dry-out in few days. So it is better to finish the cake within 3 days after icing. Other than that I didn't face any challenges in doing the basket-weave icing. It was as flowy as the store-bought. Also we can keep the excess icing in air-tight container for a month in fridge. Before icing keep in room temperature till it is smooth ,add a tbsp milk if it is dry.

Primary crumb coating before real icing.

After this crumb coating allow it to dry for 1 hour. Then do a more polished outer cover icing. After that start with the favorite design. I made a basket weave pattern.

Click to see tutorial. Basketweave tip # 48 is used here.

For rope icing, Star tip 18 is used.  Click to see tutorial.

Cutting the cake on Easter eve, after attending the mass.

Ingredients:

Butter - 1/2 cup (1 stick)
confectioner's sugar - 4 cup
(for rose and decorations use 3 cups of powders sugar)
milk - 1 tbsp
vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
salt - a pinch
food color - if needed

Bring butter to room temperature by leaving it in counter top. First beat the butter to fluffy. (I did manually using a fork, but a mixer is good for this). SIFT the sugar and add to butter. Again mix well with other ingredients to fluffy. Butter cream icing is ready!

Cream cheese frosting:

For the cupcakes I prepared cream cheese frosting. I wanted it to be on the tart side. so halved the prescribed sugar level and still it tasted yummy. 1:1 sugar with zero calorie sweetener is also possible, I hope. We can refrigerate this icing for nearly 2 weeks, keep out for 1 hour to get the texture and pipe-out before serving.

Prepared this icing few days earlier and kept refrigerated.

Carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients:
Cream cheese - 8 oz (1 pack)
unsalted butter - 8 tbsp (1 stick)
confectioner's sugar - 4 cup
vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Bring cheese and butter to room temperature by leaving them in counter top not any means (this is important). Mash together the cheese and butter. Sift the sugar and add it along with vanilla essence. Mix well. Enough to frost 2 to 3 dozen cupcakes (1 tbsp icing per cake). Makes one tub (US) frosting.

Fondant flowers:

I bought Wilton's readymade rolled fondant. Then got some videos in Youtube to learn fondant rose and calla lily.
The white daisy flowers are my own creation:)
Next time I should try some homemade fondant.
Click to see for video on rose flower making by icing / frosting.

Carrot apple cake

Carrot cake is the most favorite for my hubby. This Easter also I wanted to bake some for all of us. I was a little intimidated to apply my recipe for making fluffy cupcakes. So I combined two recipes 1 and 2 to get the below one. This will yield one 6 inch round cake and 12 cupcakes or 24 cupcakes. Thanks to the authors, this is the most successful fluffy carrot cake I have ever baked.

First batch is ready!

Cupcakes and round cake I baked.

Fluffy carrot cupcake.

Ingredients:

Carrot - 2
Apple (small) - 1
All purpose flour - 2 cup
egg - 4
sugar - 2 cup
oil / butter - 1 1/4 cup
shredded coconut (dry) - 2 tbsp
vanilla extract - 2 tsp
orange peel - 1 tbsp
cinnamon powder - 1 tsp
baking soda - 2 tsp
baking powder - 2 tsp
salt - 1/2 tsp
walnut - 1/2 cup
raisin - 2 tbsp

Method:

Shred the carrot. Core, peel and shred the apple.
Preheat oven to 350 deg (175 deg C) for at least 30 minutes before we start baking.
Grease and flour the cake tin. Keep aside.
Beat the eggs in a mixer or using a fork till fluffy. Then add vanilla essence, sugar, oil and beat till its fluffy.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt TWICE.
Put it in a mixing bowl and add the liquids from mixer.
Mix well
Add the shredded carrot, coconut, orange peel, cinnamon, coarsely chopped walnut and mix slightly.
Now the batter is ready!

Fill the cupcake cups to halfway and bake for 20 to 22 minutes.
6 inch round cake may need 40 - 50 minutes.

6 inch round carrot cake before icing.

Carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting.

Note:

Take out and cool completely before frosting / icing.
Makes one 6 inch cake and 12 cupcakes.

Serving suggestion:

Tastes great with or without icing.
Approximate energy from 1 cupcake without frosting is 150 K cal.
1 tbsp cream cheese frosting will be 70 K cal.

Potato masala

On the other day my neighborhood aunty from Gujarat brought me this aloo masala wrapped in dosa, just like Madras masal dosa.  The potato subzi was very spicy and delicious. While talking I learned a few recipes from her and I too prepared this like her's. Though it is a very simple recipe, I find this curry a good alternative and makes me love chapati:)

potato masala with chapati.

Ingredients:

Potato - 4 (300 gms)
onion - 1
tomato - 2
lemon - 1/4
green chilli - 4
ginger - 2 inch
cilantro - a handful
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
garam masala powder - 1 tsp
oil- 2 tbsp
salt - to taste

Method:

Wash and Pressure cook the potatoes . Peel the skin and mash coarsely into small pieces.
Chop the onion, green chillies, cilantro and ginger finely.
Heat oil in a vessel and add mustard seeds, 2 tbsp channa dhal.
After the mustard seeds starts splutter, add the chopped onion, green chilli, cilantro and ginger. Saute them a while till onion gets slightly cooked.
Add the chopped tomato and cook covered with salt, garam masala, turmeric, chilly powder.
After the tomato is well cooked and oil shows up, put the potato.
Check for salt. Add 1/2 cup water and cook covered.
Switch off.
Before serving add lemon juice and chopped cilantro.

Spicy aloo masala is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Fold inside  paper roast dosa like masal dosa and serve hot with sambar, chutney.
Also makes a good side dish with chapathi or poori.

Its awards time!

Divya Pramil of 'You too can cook Indian food' has shared this beautiful Sunflower with me. She runs a delicious blog and I like her interest on blogging, pets and pious nature.
Expecting many more recipes from you dear....keep rocking!

Thanks Divya!.

Also, Alagu Chitra Ganesh of 'A desperate housewife's diary' has passed me this 'Inspirational award'. I like the way she presents her yummy recipes along with her enthusiastic approach. Expecting more recipes from you Chitra. Keep rocking dear!

Thanks Chitra!

                                                                      -*-*-*-*-

The rules for the awards are

1.Create a post with the following details;
2.(Thank the person who nominated you for this Sunshine Award and link them back.
Then tell something about you.
3.Spread the joy by nominating your fellow bloggers and friends, its a way of appreciation.
4. Finally convey the bloggers about the nomination.

                                                                          -*-*-*-*-

As per the rules here are something about me.

1. I am a cheerful housewife and can stay here in the house without feeling boredom. People often wonder how I manage being a housewife. The answer is simple. I always keep myself entertained with something like cooking, arts, reading, exercise or gardening. Above all I believe in God and HIS love.

2. Hubby and me start our weekends with a nice English movie, popcorn and coke:)

3. I do my best to celebrate the festivals with much planning and enthusiasm, just like our moms :)
                                                                      
                                                                           -*-*-*-*-

I would like to share the above awards with the following friends: (I wanted to pass these beautiful awards to all my friends, but couldn't type all your names...don't mistake me),

Seetha of Seetha's kitchen.
Maha of Honey cooking Experiment
Girija of En samayal pakkam

Enjoy!

Happy Tamil New year,

Wishing all a very happy and prosperous Tamil New Year.

(click to see image source.Thanks.)

Love,
Viki

Easter cookies

For this Easter I made some cookies and cakes in 'spring theme' to share with some wonderful kids, neighbors and friends. I chose bunny, doggy, tulip and butterfly shapes from the wilton's cookie cutter set that hubby presented me recently.

Flower bouquet cookies.

While googling I learned that glazed icing work the best with sugar cookies for stacking (not sticky). Thanks to the sugar cookie recipe and cookie icing recipe authors, I got a bunch of successfully made soft sugar cookies. I was amazed at the glossy finish after icing these cookies. These icings dry within 3 hours (or overnight in humid weather) and can be conveniently stacked up. Our friends too appreciated the outcome along with my hubby:) This recipe is surely a keeper for me and I will be doing it again and again:)

I love these flower cookies very much, so I made them in more number:)

Easter bunny is the main attraction for kids:)

Cookies for  a garden party.

Kids love these cute bunny cookies:)

Doggies for my hubby dear along with a cute bunny:)

I simply rolled these cookies on my roti maker. Prepared them after supper on Thursday.

Cookie before baking.

Ingredients: (5 dozen)
sugar - 2 cups
All purpose flour (maida)- 5 cups
unsalted butter - 1 1/2 cup
vanilla essence - 1 tsp
egg - 4
baking powder- 2 tsp
salt - 1 tsp

Method:

Bring butter to room temperature by keeping it out of fridge.
Mix the butter and sugar using a fork.
Beat together egg and vanilla essence.
Sift together AP flour, salt, baking powder.
In a large bowl combine sugar, butter with the beaten egg mixture. Blend well.
Add flour, baking powder and salt to the mixture and make it into a dough.
Manual kneading is the best here.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour for easier handling.
We can prepare the dough and refrigerate overnight for better cookies.
The dough can sit in fridge for a week.
Preheat oven to 350 - 375 deg F (175 deg C) for at least 30 minutes .
Make small balls and roll them into 1/2 to 1/4 inch sheet and cut into desired shapes.
(I did on a chapati rolling base with lot of flouring).
 Place each cookie 1 inch apart on the baking sheet.
Bake at 350 F for 6 - 7 minutes or until edges are light golden brown.
Immediately remove from cookie sheets and let cool completely.
Decorate as desired.

Note:

While baking one batch, keep the dough in fridge. Stiff dough is the best for rolling.
Cool them on wire rack overnight or at least for 4 hours before storing in air tight containers.
It can be refrigerated before icing.
Makes 5 dozen cookies.

Sugar cookie icing recipe

Tools for icing.

Ingredients:

confectioners sugar - 1 cup
milk - 2 tsp
light corn syrup -  2 tsp
almond extract (or) vanilla - 1 tsp
water - 1 tbsp
food color - pink, lilac, blue, yellow, green

Method:

Sift the sugar and remove the lumps. Mix everything except color.
Divide into required portion and add a drop of color to each bowl.

Note:

Prepare this just before icing. If hardened, add a tsp of milk and mix well.
If we want more shine, add tbsp of more corn syrup.
Stir before each coating to get the shine.
Use a (new and separate) paint brush for icing.
Dipping the cookies in icing also works fine.
Never refrigerate the cookies after this type of icing, as it will not be this much shiny again.
Enough to decorate 30 cookies.

Easter Greetings !

Wishing all my readers, friends and family a Joyful Easter, beautiful spring season and happiness always.

Homemade Easter cake with basket-weave icing and fondant flowers. Recipe ...coming soon...

Click for icing recipe.
Click for cake recipe

May all our prayers be answered,
Kindness and understanding flourish,
Love, Faith and Hope increase
and everyone feels the Lord's presence
on Easter and always
Wishing all a Peaceful and Blessed Easter.
Happy Easter !

Love,
Viki

Collard greens stir fry

From the start of March month, we can see a whole green look in USA because of St.Patrick day (Mar, 17). Its a tradition to wear a lucky green T-shirt or a shamrock logo for this festival. I can see everything green here in TV and streets ranging from T-Shirts, shamrocks, beads, hats, scarfs, face painting, hair colors, cakes, green thinking, green ads etc:) While we both are also getting green, I wanted my blog to have a green dish in its menu card too:) Here goes my collard greens stir fry with peanuts.

Happy St.Patrick day!

Ingredients:
collard greens - 15 leaves.

To temper:

Mustard - 1/2 tsp
onion - 2 tbsp
garlic - 3 cloves
sesame / coconut oil - 1 tbsp

To grind:

grated coconut - 2 tbsp
ground nut - 20 numbers
rice - 1 tsp
fennel seed - 1/2 tsp
dry red chilly - 2

Method:

Rinse the collard greens and remove the mid stem. Chop finely.

Dry roast the peanut and remove the skin by rubbing. Crush it to very-coarse pieces (using a mixie or chopper).
Dry roast the rice, fennel seed, red chilly, till rice puffs. Coarsely powder it.
Keep the powders aside.

Heat oil and add mustard seeds. Add the chopped onion, garlic and fry for few seconds. Then put the chopped greens and cook covered in low heat along with a few tbsp of water. After it gets cooked add required salt. Before switching off put the prepared powders, coconut and stir in high heat for a minute.

Collard green peanut stir fry is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve as side dish with roti or chapati or rice.

Kara Paniyaram

Kara paniyaram - Spicy puff pancake.

This is a popular tiffin / snack / breakfast in chettinadu region of Tamilnadu. The batter is similar to idly batter with slight variation in proportion. The urad dhal should be much lesser for the paniyaram, so that the paniyaram comes off the hole easily.

Ingredients:

Idly rice (parboiled rice / puzhungal arisi) - 1 cup
black gram lentil (ulunthu paruppu) - 2 tbsp
channa dhal (kadala paruppu) - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste ( 1tsp)
baking soda - 1/8 tsp
ghee /butter/  sesame oil - as per need

To temper:

mustard seed - 1/2 tsp
urad dhal - 1 tsp
sesame oil - 1 tsp
onion - 1/4 (small)
green chilly - 2
cilantro - few leaves.
asafoetida (hing) - a pinch

Method:

Rinse and soak the rice, urad dhal and channa dhal together for 6 hours.
Grind it to a fine to medium coarse batter with very little water.
The batter should be thick like a pancake batter / idly batter.
Mix salt and keep it to ferment overnight (cold weather) or 6 hours (in hotter weather).
The batter will ferment well only if the room temperature is above 85 deg F. Otherwise maintain the temperature using an oven.

10 minutes before starting to prepare the paniyaram, add the baking soda and mix well.
In the mean time prepare the tempering.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a small wok and add mustard seeds. Once they start splutter, add the urad dhal, asafoetida and finely chopped onion, cilantro, curry leaf, chilly and let it get slightly tender. Add it to the batter and mix well.

Now heat a paniyaram pan and brush some oil in all the holes. Then add 1 tsp sesame oil / butter in each hole. Reduce the flame to minimum and pour the batter to halfway in each hole. Click to see the picture. Cook covered or in open. (I prefer putting a lid to ensure uniform cooking). We can see the paniyaram getting cooked. Flip using a skewer or fork. Take out once done.

Serving suggestion:
Makes almost 21 paniyaram .
Serve with coconut chutney.

Note:

Do everything in low heat. It may take a little while but that is the only way to get whole fluffy paniyaram.
Non stick pans work the best. But I have used a pan similar to traditional thick paniyaram pan.
For the first round it may require more oil to fry, but it will take very lesser in the following.

16 bean soup

Preparing soup is a tradition associated with lent days. This multi bean soup is packed with loads of protein and will be very filling too. I found this pack in a local chain of grocery stores where they keep the dry nuts, rice etc. This soup recipe is inspired by  Yasmeen's sixteen bean soup recipe and did some slight variations for my taste. Thank you Yasmeen, I learned a very healthy recipe from you.

The Lent days are observed from Ash Wednesday (for this year, Feb 22) to Easter (April 8, 2012). During this time Christians try to reduce their preference for luxurious foods. The aim of simple meals during this season is to keep off from any expensive foods so that we can learn to share food or save that money and donate it for the needy. Also we participate in the stations of the cross prayer and mass on Lenten Fridays. All Fridays throughout the year are meatless days in some families like us, while many stay vegetarian for the whole fasting. The traditions are many but the focus is not just on fasting but mainly emphasized on compassion, understanding, sharing, charity, virtues and purity of heart.

Name of beans in a sixteen bean soup mix:

Pinto beans,  red cow peas, small white beans, great northern beans, large lima beans, baby lima beans, yellow split peas, green split peas, lentils, large kidney beans, small kidney beans, black eye cow peas, black turtle beans, garbanzo beans, pearl barley, whole green peas, and pink beans. To read more...click.

Dried beans before soaking. I used Jack rabbit brand without the flavoring sachet.

Preparing the beans:

Wash the dried beans and soak in water for 10 hours or overnight.
I use a pressure cooker. The soaked beans are kept in a pressure cooker with water to cover the beans and little standing above.
Wait to see the steam and put the pressure valve. After it whistles once, reduce the heat and cook it for 18 minutes. Switch off and open after the pressure reduces.
Otherwise we can cook it in slow cooker / stove top for 4-6 hours in low heat.

Ingredients:

16 grain lentil (dry) - 1 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
turmeric - 1/2 tsp
onion - 1
bay leaf - 2
cloves - 3
cinnamon - 1 inch
cardamom - 3
green chilly - 3
cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
hot sauce (or red chilly powder)- as per need.
tomato puree - 1/2 cup
salt - to taste
garlic - 6 cloves
black pepper - to taste

Method:

Saute the finely chopped onion, bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom in butter for a minute and add the finely chopped garlic, green chilly. Fry for 30 seconds.
Add tomato puree and cook for a minute.
Add the turmeric powder, cumin powder , pepper powder and simmer with 1 cup of water.
Pour the cooked lentil and bring to a boil. If required add more water.
The soup should be thick. Then put salt and hot sauce to taste.
Let it cook in low heat for 10 minutes.
Garnish with fresh cilantro or mint leaves.
Switch off.

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot as a whole meal with rolls or bread.
Serve as starter.

Note:

Reduce the green chilly and hot sauce for lesser spicy version.
Little lime juice can be squeezed at the end to get more flavor.
Some people add some shredded cheese as topping.
One cup of this mixed beans can make 6 small bowls of thick soup.
The 16 bean soup pack can be substituted with any lentils like, nava dhanyam (9 grain), red gram, toor dhal, bengal gram, channa, green gram , black gram, rice etc. The options are endless. Just a teaspoon of each kind will do the same job:)

Event entries and re-posts.

Event 1:

I am sending the following recipes for Teenz' Yummy delights' Valentine's day event.
Happy hosting dear!
1. Mango ice cream.

2. Badusha

3. Pistachio Kulfi Ice cream.

Event 2:

The following recipes goes to Sobha Shyam's Just4fun event.
The main rule is that there should a maximum of 4 ingredients. Here are my entries.

1. Parotta

2. Idiyappam.

Happy hosting dear!

Event 3:

The below entries goes to Srav's 'Dish for loved ones' event.
1. Boondhi

2.Aloo Channa chaat.

Happy hosting dear!