Merry Christmas Wishes with Cake, Red Wine & White Wine

Wish you all a Merry Christmas!!

the recipe for cake & wine shall be posted later...

cheers

roshan

Fish Cutlet - - - - -lightly spiced

This is a recipe which you can prepare and freeze and fry it whenever you need. The Fish Cutlet is slightly different from the usual ones (which I came across the web) bcause I have not added garam masala. I prefer to taste the taste of fish rather than lot of masala and the addition of ginger, garlic and coriander simply enhances the flavor.

The usually egg dip to coat is replaced with a rice flour dip to get a very crunchy texture. Try it and you’ll like it.

Use these fish cutlets as a starter or simply prepare a fish burger for lunch.

…enjoy!!


the recipe
Fish keema – 500 gms
Potato – 500 gms (boiled and finely mashed)

Oil – 2 tbsp
Onion – 1 large, finely chopped
Green chilly, finely chopped – 2 (deseeded would be better)
Garlic – 8 medium cloves, finely chopped or grated
Ginger – 1/3rd inch piece, finely chopped
Corianders leaves – leaves with only tender stem – 6 sprigs
Chilly powder – ½ tsp
Pepper powder – ½ tsp
Lemon juice / Vinegar – 1 tsp
Salt to taste

ingredients to coat the cutlet

Rice flour – 2 -3 tbsp - Coarse rice flour (the one used to make puttu)
Water – ½ cup
Bread Crumbs – as much as you need
Oil to shallow fry
Salt to taste
Pepper powder – ¼ tsp

Note: I have used fish keema to prepare this recipe. If you are preparing with fresh fish, clean the fish and boil it with ¼ inch ginger, 4 garlic cloves, turmeric and salt and just adequate water to immerse the fish. Separate the flesh from the skin and bones and mash it with a fork and then follow the method below.

the method

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a heavy bottom or non-stick pan. Stir in the onions and sauté till translucent. Add the green chilly, ginger and garlic and stir for few seconds. Add the chilly, turmeric and pepper powder. Sauté for a while and add the fish keema / mashed fish. Stir well in low flame till the fish turns dry. Pour the lemon juice and sprinkle the coriander. Sauté for few seconds and turn off heat. When the fish turns warm, add the mashed potatoes and mix well, preferable using a potato masher. Knead the mix into a dough. Take a table spoon of the mix and shape it into a cutlet. I used a cutlet mould and ended up with very large ones. You can shape it according to your preference. Shape all the potato – fish mix.

Mix the rice flour with about 10 tbsp water (the mix should not be very watery), salt and pepper powder. The rice flour batter should be solid enough / liquid enough to coat the cutlet. Dip each cutlet into the rice mix and then coat it with bread crumbs and keep it ready. To avoid the bread crumbs from leaving the cutlet, place it in the freezer for half an hour and then keep it at room temperature for 10 minutes and then shallow fry in a non-stick pan.

These cutlets can be stored in the refrigerator (freezer) in an air tight container for upto a month.

Filter Coffee - - -- - - without filter

Somehow the chillness or the laziness of winter is keeping me away from the blog world. I thought I’ll jumpstart by preparing and writing about the illustrious and legendary Filter Coffee.

Well, the filter coffee is indeed a legendary drink especially if you have lived in Tamilnadu and experienced the taste of it in all those vegetarian restaurants after a nice masala dosa, poori masala or even a tasty plate of idlis.

Now that I live in Kerala once in a while we dine for Masala Dosa and the coffee is something that completes the meal. I drink filter coffee even at night.

Though I am all crazy about this coffee my efforts to own a filter has not yet been successful. May be I have not been able to convince my husband about the nostalgia that accompanies the filter coffee.

So I usually prepare the filter coffee without the filter by just placing the coffee in a tall tumbler or a slim / vertical jug overnight so that you can pour the clear coffee out the next morning leaving behing the residual coffee powder and a little bit of the liquid. This would give the same taste and you can decide how strong a coffee you need.

The decoction I prefer is medium because a very strong coffee would give me burning sesation.

Recipe inspired from Priya Sreeram’s Bon Appetite

the recipe for a medium strong filter coffee is as follows:

1 ¼ cup water

3 cup boiling hot milk

4 heaped tsp coffee powder

the method

Place the 4 tsp coffee powder in a silm jug or any vertical container. Boil the water and pour it over the coffee powder. Close the container immediately and let it stand overnight.

The next morning, carefully pour the coffee into another vessel (use a sieve if you need though it is not need because the coffee will be clear). Leave the residue with about ¼ cup coffee remaining in it.

Take out the clear coffee / decoction. Use ¼ cup decoction with ¾ cup milk. Add adequate sugar, mix and drink. I like the filter coffee in a bitter sweet taste.

the recipe goes to Radhika's Blog Hop

Pork Vindalho (Vindaloo)

Pork Vindalho is a much liked dish in Anglo-Indian homes, be it a Goan Anglo or a Fort Kochi Anglo. Tangy, yet delicate this is something worth trying!!

If you are not a pork eater, you can try this with beef.

If you are a vegan do check out the eggplant and potato vindaloo in this  blog.

This is a recipe which i had posted during the initial days of blogging. I am reposting it for this Christmas season.

the recipe

Pork – 1 kg

Ingredients for the Mustard & Red Chilly paste 

 Dry Red Chillies (whole – Kashmiri chillies are better) – 25 – 30 or 3 tablespoon kashmiri chilly powder

 Mustard – 1 1/2 tbsp

 Cumin – ½ tsp

 Pepper corns – 1 tsp

 Cardamom – 3

 Cinnamon – 2 cm piece

 Cloves - 5

 Garlic – 12 – 15 cloves

 Ginger – 3 cm piece

 Shallots (small onion) – 12 – 15

 Vinegar – 4 tbsp

 Tomato - 1

 Oil – 1 tbsp

 Onion – 1

 Turmeric – ½ tsp

 Salt – 1 ½ tsp

 Sugar – ½ tsp

the method

 In a mixer, finely powder the red chillies, mustard, cumin, pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. Add ginger, garlic, shallots, vinegar and tomato to the powdered mixture and grind to a fine past by adding required amount of water. 

 Cut the pork into flat 4 x 6 cm pieces or any preferred shape. Marinate the pork with Mustard & Red Chilly paste and salt for at least an hour.

 In a pan, add oil. Stir in the onion till translucent and add the turmeric. Add the marinated pork. Cook till done. Add sugar just before turning off heat (Alternatively, the meat can be cooked in a pressure cooker for 7 whistle). Serve with rice or bread.

The addition of 1 tbsp brandy at the end would give a tasty twist to the Vindalho / Vindaloo. 

Buttermilk Fruit Cake - - - - - Eggless

After the MARBLE FRUIT CAKE recipe, this is yet another fruit cake I prepared during this season. The reason is nothing but last Christmas i had kept the Kerala Fruit Cake / Plum Cake recipe to be published on the day before Christmas and it never happened. So this year I am on a spree to prepare fruit cakes and i have researched and shortlisted many recipes to be tried. Do stay tuned to this space for more fruit cake recipes.

This Buttermilk Fruit Cake recipe is adapted from Joy of Baking and this was just perfect. I have slightly adjusted the quantity of flour and buttermilk to suit the kind of maida / flour available in Kerala. I feel the volume of flour is less for what we get here. There is also a healthy twist to this recipe. I have added wheat flour to more than half part of the flour. The cake was perfect and there was lot of appreciation from my family and colleagues who had this cake. So, if you love some positive comments do try this one. It is a foolproof recipe (with lots of thanks to Joy of Baking).

the recipe

dry ingredients
Flour (Maida) – 100 gms
Wheat flour – 140 gms
Sugar – 160 gms
Nutmeg – 1/3 of a seed or 1 tsp nutmeg powder
Cinnamon – ¾ inch piece or 1 tsp Cinnamon powder
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Salt – 1 generous pinch

Dry fruits – coarsely chopped

Dark raisins – 80 gms
Dates – 100 gms approx ( I used about 15 dates)
Golden raisins – 100 gms

Wet ingredients 

Buttermilk – 250 – 260 ml
Melted butter (unsalted) – 120 gms
Vanilla extract – ¾ tsp


the method

Preheat oven at 170 C. Prepare a round cake pan by applying butter and dusting flour. Place a round sheet of butter paper , parchment paper or any white paper on the bottom of the pan.

Sieve the flour, wheat flour,  salt and baking soda once. Powder the sugar alongwith the nutmeg and cinnamon (if using whole spices). 

Place the flour mix in a bowl. Use about 1/4th of the flour to coat the dry fruits (this is to prevent the dry fruits from sinking into the bottom of the cake).

 To the remaining flour mix, add the sugar mix and mix well.

Melt butter in a pan and let it cool to room temperature. Pour the buttermilk and vanilla extract and mix well. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and add the flour coated dry fruits, mix quickly and immediately pour into a prepared pan. 

Bake at 170 C for 35 – 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If the cake starts to brown after about 15 to 20 minutes, cover the cake pan with a parchment paper.

Serve warm or cold.

We had this for breakfast. You can keep the dry ingredients ready a day or two before and keep the chopped dry fruits in the refrigerator. Whenever you feel like baking just mix and bake.

cheers...

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also read
Marble Fruit Cake