Wedding anniversary cake for my friend

Recently I prepared this wedding anniversary cake for my friend Paaru. I really appreciate her effort, love and dedication for her husband, to make this occasion a very sweet one.
We both enjoyed this whole baking and icing process like a girl's party and had so much fun. Thanks for this beautiful opportunity Paaru,
Please click the below links to see the recipes.
1. Plain vanilla cake.
2. Butter cream icing.
3. Rose icing video.

Many more happy returns of the day Paaru. May God bless you both always and may all your wishes come true. Live in love and prosper dear.

My handwritten notes for baking the cake.

Paaru did this cup cake icing for me as a sweet way to say thanks, while I was clicking the cake photos. Thanks Paaru, its the sweetest !

Happy Anniversary,
Best wishes and congrats both of you !
Cheers,
Viki and Xavier

Vaazhai thandu koottu (plantain tree trunk stir fry)

I have a long list of favorite veggies. One among them is the banana tree trunk (Vaalai thandu) , which we used to consume in many forms in my father's place. As we had many plantain trees and small kitchen garden in our backyard at that time,  we used to get our regular supply of few produce from our own garden :) This is a rare vegetable in anywhere other than South India, it seems.

Luckily I saw this vegetable in a nearby Indian grocery store in NJ recently and I grabbed a small piece for $1.12 . I prepared a koottu with this banana stem and we both enjoyed every scoop of this:)

Banana stem koottu in a pretty bowl presented by my precious friend. She is the one who inspires me to photograph more beautifully and I'm working on it  :) Hugs Paaru, thanks !

vaazhai thandu in  a package

After removing the loose barks.

slice the vaazhai thandu and keep immersed in buttermilk.

cook paasi paruppu separately.

Stir the chopped banana stem using a wooden stick and we will see all the fibers sticking to the stick.

Repeat for 3-4 times and remove all big size fibers.

Cook the chopped banana stem with cooked pasiparuppu for 10 minutes and do the tempering.

Vaazhai thandu koottu is ready !

Ingredients:
Banana stem (vaazhai thandu) - 1/2 ft length.
green gram lentil (paasi paruppu) - 2 tbsp
coconut oil - 1 tbsp
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
cumin - 1/2 tsp
mustard - 1/2 tsp
urid dal - 1/2 tsp
chopped onion - 3 tbsp
chopped green chilly - 1
curry leaf - 1 sprig
salt - as per need

How to clean vaazhai thandu ?
Peel off the loose skin of banana stick (vaazhai mattai).
Cut it into thin rounds (see picture above). Mean time, remove the fibers that spring out.
Prepare thin buttermilk by adding enough water to 2 tsp curd.
Then chop it into squares and keep them immersed in buttermilk (to prevent oxidation).
Using a skewer or curry leaf stick, stir this chopped pieces and you will notice some fibers sticking to the skewer.Remove that.
Now our banana stem is perfectly cleaned and good enough for cooking.

Method:
In a cooking pan, add 1  cup water and cook the rinsed greengram lentil until 3/4 th done.
Then add the chopped cleaned plantain stem and cook covered for 10 minutes.
Add enough salt.
Finely chop onion, green chilly, curry leaf.
Heat oil in another pan. Add mustard and urid dal.
Let mustard splutter, then add chopped onion, green chilly, curry leaf.
Fry till onion turns soft.
Pour over cooked vegetable.
Cook till the curry gets thicker. Add shredded coconut and cumin.
Mix well and switch off.
Vaazhai thandu koottu is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve along with sambar rice or any rice.

A homely Tamilnadu style vegetarian meals

Snow days are for enjoying nice food , movies together and happiness in family. I wanted to create some lovely platter for our lunch that would resemble a vegetarian restaurant meal. I had this beetroot dessert on hand, which we (yes, my hubby dear helped me by shredding the beets) prepared the previous night, as we wish for something sweet on weekends:) So the cooking got easier for me :)
Have a look and tell me if you enjoy my version of a simple the South Indian vegetarian meals platter I prepared for us.

Tamilnadu vegetarian meals

Valentine's day gifts from hubby: A 16 cup rice cooker with steamer basket from Aldi. I love this very much !

White Rice (I cooked using my rice cooker, which I got as Valentine's day gift from my hubby dear), mullangi sambar or Radish sambar, broccoli usili, cabbage poriyal, tomato / thakkali koottu, homemade curd, beetroot halwa, Appalam, vadagam vathal that we brought from our home town Tirunelveli (Palayamkottai market).

Coconut truffle

I think my readers know how much I like quick versions in cooking. Truffles come under such classification. Though there are many lengthy variations, I tailored my recipe so that I can accomplish it without much effort.
Last weekend we invited our friend Raynor for lunch and I started making dessert a day ahead. While making the dessert (what dessert? I will tell you all in another post), I had some left over sugar syrup and I wanted to incorporate it in something else. Then I remembered this easy dessert I have seen in food-network TV sometime ago.
I didn't note the exact ingredients, so I made my own. Here is the recipe for  a dessert which we can prepare very quickly and effortlessly,  but I am sure it will be liked by all.

coconut and nuts in sugar syrup

everything got ready to be rolled into balls

balls to be kept refrigerated

After dipping in white chocolate.

White chocolate coconut truffles are ready !

Ingredients:
unsweetened shredded dry coconut - 1 cup
chopped nuts (almond, cashew) - 2 tbsp each
chopped dry fruits - 1 tbsp (optional)
sugar - 1/2 cup (or) little more
salt - a pinch
cardamom - a pinch
rose essence - 2 drops'
coconut oil - 1 tbsp (I used Aldi's simply nature brand)
For dipping:
White chocolate - 3/4 cup

Method:
Put the sugar in a saucepan and add 2 tbsp water. Bring it to boil and let it thicken a little for 1 more minute (one string consistency). Switch off.
 Run the chopped nuts, dry fruits and coconut in a mixer / blender to get a semi smooth powder. (We can  use fresh or dessicated coconut. I used dried coconut).
Put this powder, salt, cardamom, coconut oil into the prepared sugar syrup. Mix well , start heating and keep in low heat. Stir continuously for 1 - 2 minutes till it gets thick. Then add rose essence and switch off.
Spread wax paper over a plate. Grease it with 2 drops of coconut oil.
Make gooseberry size small balls ( 1 inch diameter). Keep them on wax paper and chill them in fridge (not freezer) for at least 1 hour.
Before taking out, prepare the white chocolate dipping.
Put the white chocolate in microwavable bowl, heat for exactly 1 minute. Take out and mash with fork. If needed microwave for 10 seconds or another seconds more. It should be runny now.
Take one coconut ball in fork, dip it in white chocolate, roll well and take out. keep it in same wax paper. Likewise do for all the coconut balls. Immediately drizzle a few strings of dessicated coconut over all the truffles (optional). Place the truffle plate inside fridge for 1 or more hours. Coconut truffle is ready !

Serving suggestion:
Serve as snack or dessert or party favor.
Try to keep these truffles inside fridge for more crispy taste. But it holds good in room temperature for 3-4 hours.
Makes 20 truffles.

Brown rice paruppu saatham

Dal rice or thuvaram paruppu saatham made with brown rice . Cooking with white rice and red rice of Kerala is always easy for me. Then I tried to make something delicious with brown rice and I am successful many times. Try my Brown rice spinach pongal, Green gram kichdi, and adai to fall in love with brown rice.
While growing up, mom used to make dal separately and mix it with rice and ghee and we would call it as paruppu saatham. But afterwards I learnt from my friend Malar , that  there exists one more version called arisi paruppu saatham, in which rice and dal gets cooked together. This is a one pot meal from Coimbatore. The authentic thuvaram paruppu saatham should be made with white rice and not mushy like mine. I got this recipe from my neighborhood friends and I have tweaked that recipe to fit into our diet days. A few scoops of this rice will be very much satisfying.

Our menu of the day : Brown rice paruppu saatham,baked potato chips and  horse gram chutney.

 

It may look a little watery now, but the brown rice will absorb the water.

Bring everything together to rolling boil in pressure cooker and add salt. Then cook with weight valve on.

Add tomato, chilly and saute till tomato gets mushy.

Saute onion and garlic till they get soft.

Bring rice and dal to a boil.

I used shallots and cherry tomatoes, as I bought them on a sale , but regular ones are just fine.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
To pressure cook:
brown rice - 1 1/2 cup
thoor dal - 3/4 cup
turmeric - 1/4 tsp
hing - tiny piece (1/8 tsp powdered)
salt - to taste
sambar powder - 1 tbsp

To temper:
coconut oil / ghee - 1 tbsp
mustard - 1 tsp
cumin - 1 tsp
curry leaves - few
onion (shallot or red onion) - 1 cup (chopped)
tomato - 3 (I used 20 cherry tomatoes)
green chilly - 3
garlic - 1 (whole)


To garnish:
cilantro (chopped) - few
ghee - 1 tsp

Method:
Wash the brown rice and dal. Soak together for 30 minutes. They totally measure 2 1/4 cups.

Add double the quantity of water + 2 cups. (this ratio is lesser for white rice).  Add 6 1/2 cups water.
Add water to pressure cooker along with rice, dal , sambar powder and start heating. Put turmeric, hing.
In a separate wok, heat oil or ghee. (we can do the entire process in cooker also).
Add mustard , cumin and let it splutter. Then add curry leaves, chopped onion and fry till it gets soft. Then add chopped garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add chopped tomato, green chilly and cook till tomato gets soft.
Pour this to the boiling items in pressure cooker. Add some salt ( 2 tsp) and check if it seems good.
Put the lid , weight valve and cook for 3 whistles. Then reduce heat to minimum and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Switch off.
Open after pressure is relieved, add cilantro and ghee.
Serve hot.

Serving suggestion:
Serve as main course meal with fried appalam, potato chips.
On that day , I prepared horse-gram chutney and baked potato chips as sides. I will post my very own baked potato chips recipe soon.

Chocolate dipped strawberry (microwave method)

I guess chocolate dipped strawberry has become the official dessert of Valentine's day :) There are a lot of ads in TV and newspapers globally to promote rose and strawberries and I am sure it is worth the penny to celebrate this beautiful day which is common to all.
There are many traditional (aka lengthy) processes for preparing chocolate dipping. So buying a pack of chocolate berries is the easiest choice. Then I came to know of this microwave chocolate melting method through food network and it works like a charm. I am sure this easy dessert will make your valentine happy :)

white and brown choco chips with strawberry.

Chocolate starting to melt.

molten chocolate.

Before keeping in fridge

My friends Suchi and Paaru are decorating the strawberries for our little party.

Our lunch get together.  Bisibelebath, enchilada, pizza, chocolate strawberry .

Have a close look.

Ingredients:
Strawberry - 15
Any variety chocolate - 1 cup (chopped or chips or morsels)
(I have used semi sweet brown chocolates and white chocolates)

Method:
Choose small size strawberries with heart shape. They should be well ripe and firm.
If washing the strawberry, then do it previous night and let it dry completely.
Wipe off the water completely before dipping in chocolate, because chocolate will not stick with the fruit, if there is moisture. (This is very very important).

Take the white chocolate and regular chocolate in different microwavable bowls.
One by one keep the bowls in microwave and do as below.
Start reheating for 30 seconds at first. Then take out, check if they starts melting.
Though they may seem like not melting, but they will do after few seconds in outside.
Then again reheat (express cook) for 20 seconds .
Now the chocolates would have started melting visibly now.
Using a fork, try to mash the chocolates.
Then again reheat for 10 seconds and repeat by 10 seconds one or two times.
Chocolates may tend to char, due to overheating. So carefully check every 10 seconds.
I got my semi sweet chocolate done after 1 minute 20 seconds and white chocolate took nearly 1 minute 30 seconds.
In a clean plate, spread a wax paper.
Now hold the calyx (leaves) of strawberry gently and roll over the chocolate, so that it is half dipped.
Place the strawberries on plate and keep refrigerated for 30 minutes.
Take out and decorate with white chocolate or any other icings using a fork or icing cones. Keep in fridge and they hold good in room temperature for up to 3 hours.
Chocolate strawberry is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Have these cuties at any time of day, as snack, dessert or gift them to your loving ones:)

Valentine's day ...recap !

In USA, Valentine's day is a day to celebrate love and affection. We give greetings and chocolates to our friends, gifts to pets and every store will display decors in red and pink.  Also the lovers and couple's will celebrate this day with lot of excitement, romantic candlelight dinners, roses, gifts and I totally love the way love is celebrated here.

Here is a visual treat of some of the desserts I had made for Valentine's day in the previous years.  Lets start creating our own happy moments and enjoy :)

Gulabjamun:

2014 : Gulabjamun I made as gift for hubby dear

Kesari with kulfi icecream:

2014: kesari with kulfi icecream

 Ladoo:

2013: Ladoo, my gift for hubby dear

Boondhi:

2012 valentines day special !

Bathusha:

2012 Valentine's day special treat for hubby dear !

Ponegranate ice cream:

2011 Valentines day celebration !

Happy St.Valentine's day!

Happy Valentine's day !