Peanut Butter Cookies

This is a traditional peanut butter cookie recipe. Since its for holidays I have not reconstructed the recipe, it is full of calories and packed with scrumptious flavors. No need to feel guilty, after all it's holidays.... Enjoy.....


Happy Holidays to all....... Enjoy!!!!!

Peanut butter cookies is my favorite type of cookies. But each time I bake them, I used to be worried very much about the calorie in them. So i have tried many low calorie version, they come out pretty good. But traditional peanut butter cookies is something special for holidays. Will try to post the low calorie version of them soon.

I made this cookies for my fried kind at my place. All of them enjoy it so much and I was running out of cookies.... Another great thing about this cookies is that, they can freeze very well for a month. They can be turned into peanut butter and jelly cookie sandwiches in a flash....

So this Peanut butter cookies is going for 2 events, Sharmi of Neivedyam is hosting this sweet event Holiday Cookie Baking. Jz of Tasty Treats is hosting another cute event Santa's Holiday Challenge. All the best U guys for hosting such interesting events....

Ingredients :

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Unsalted butter, room temperature - 3/4 cup
Peanut butter - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Light brown sugar - 1/2 cup tightly packed
Large egg - 1
Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon
Vanilla extract - 1 teaspoon
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Procedure :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the large bowl cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy for 5 minutes in a mixer. Beat in the peanut butter.

Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat till combine. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture in small batches until all the flour is combined into the wet ingredients. Add to the peanut butter mixture and beat until incorporated. Fold in the chopped peanuts, if using. (If the batter is too soft to

Refrigerator the dough for about an hour.

Form small balls out of the dough, place it on the prepared baking sheet. Leave enough space in between as the cookies will expand while baking.

Now take a fork, dip it in white granulated sugar, make a crisscross pattern.

Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Cool and enjoy....

You may also like my:

Raspberry Milkshake

This is a cool and refreshing drink perfect either for a romantic dinner or a elegant party drink.

I make this drink quite often, as raspberries are my fav. Love the perfumeee smell of raspberries. Love to have them in my milkshake, smoothies and many more desserts. Most of the time I make milkshakes with skim milk and splenda to lower the calorie intake, but for parties and for special occasion I love to make it with whole milk.

Ingredients :

Raspberries - 1/2 cup
Whole milk(cold) - 2 cups
Sugar or Splenda(low calorie sweetener) as required
Some whipped cream, colored sugar and raspberries for garnish

Procedure :

Mix raspberries, milk and sugar in a large blender. Whip them for a few seconds and filter it on a sieve to remove the raspberries tiny seeds.

Pour the milkshake into a tall glass and top it with fresh whipped cream and raspberries.

Lemon - Herb Chicken With Garlic Mashed Potatoes And Roasted Veggies

This is a easy chicken recipe perfect for lunch.

Love lemon and chicken together, once I had this chicken in a restaurant near my place, loved it so much and this was the inspiration for this dish. I tried this the very next day I had it in restaurant. It turned out so good, we both of us loved it.

The side dishes are also so cool. Loved the garlic mashed potatoes, they are so creamy and satisfying with full flavor. On the other hand roasted veggies are good and healthy. This makes it as a fulfilling meal.

Lemon Herb Chicken

Ingredients :

Bone in Chicken - 2 lb
Fresh Lemon juice - 2 tablespoon
Italian herb seasoning blend - 2 teaspoon
Lemon pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Olive oil - 1 tabelspoon
Salt

Procedure :

Marinate the chicken with lemon juice, oil, salt and Italian herb blend for 1 hour in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350 degree. Place the chicken pieces on the roaster pan and roast it until cooked. (for abt 20 to 30 mins)

Remove it and sprinkle it with lemon pepper and serve it hot.


Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients :

Potatoes - 2 large
Garlic - 2 cloves
Butter - 2 tablespoon
Salt and Pepper
Hot milk as needed

Procedure :

Peel the skin and boil the potatoes in a large pot of water until done. Drain them and set it aside.

In the meanwhile, melt butter in pan and add the chopped garlic and let it infuse the flavor in the butter.

Now pour the garlic infused butter into the hot boiled potatoes and start mashing them. If it is too dry add some hot milk and make it as a fine paste. Season with salt and pepper.


Roasted Veggies

Ingredients :

Red, Orange, Green bell peppers - Cut in strips 1 cup
Onions - 1 medium cut into strips
Carrots - 1 small cut into strips
Green beans - small bunch cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
Dried oregano - 1/2 teaspoon
Garlic - 2 cloves
Salt and pepper
Olive oil - 1 tablespoon

Procedure :

Heat oil in a large skillet add garlic and saute it for few seconds. Now add all the veggies and roast it for few minutes. Now add dried oregano, salt and pepper and saute it until cooked or as needed.

Holiday Biscotti / Pistachios & Cranberry Biscotti

Biscotti are twice baked cookies. It is a type of Italian cookies. This is a cool recipe for any holiday season.

I got this recipe from a cookie recipe book. From the day I tried it, I have made it numerous times. Each time it is a hit among my friends and their kids. So I thought of sharing it with my blog friends.

This is buttery biscotti, Mostly biscotti are dry cookies that are great with tea but I love to make this rich butter biscotti for some festiveness. The small specks of green and red from the pistachios and the cranberry make it a real holiday baked goodies.

Ingredients :

All-purpose flour - 2 cups
Butter – ½ cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Egg – 2 large
Baking powder – 1 ½ teaspoon
Lemon Zest – 1 teaspoon
Vanilla extract – 1 ½ teaspoon
Pistachios – ½ cup chopped
Dried Cranberries – ½ cup
Salt – ¼ teaspoon

Procedure :

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl. Cream in butter and sugar in a large bowl until the butter is pale in color. Then add eggs one by one and beat it to a smooth mixture. Now add the lemon zest and vanilla and mix it well.

Now add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat it until blended. Mix in the pistachios and cranberries. The dough will be very dense.


Line a cookie sheet with foil and form the dough into a long. Bake until light golden, about 40 minutes.







Cool for 30 minutes.






Now slice the baked log on a diagonal to form biscotti shape. Arrange the biscotti on the baking sheet. Bake it until they are golden in color, about 15 minutes. Let it cool and enjoy

Chocolate Vanilla Trifle

This is a very quick and easy dessert. Only assembling is required.

Trifle can be made in a numerous combination through one's creativity. Once I had some friends for a dinner party, some orange pound cake was in my fridge so I ended up in creating this chocolate vanilla trifle. Every thing is store bought expect pond cake. It was a great hit that day, from that time I started making this quite often.

This is a very elegant party food which can be done perfect every time, cannot go wrong with this treat. One great thing about this dessert is that, this can be done a head a time before party. I love to make individual trifles than one larger one. Individual trifle is neat and clean.

Ingredients :

Orange Pound cake – 1 loaf
Vanilla pudding – 2 small tubs
Hershey’s Chocolate sauce – ½ cup
Fresh whipped cream, chocolate wafers, raspberry and mint for garnish.

Procedure :

Cut the pound cake in cubes. In an individual wide glass, arrange the cake cubes first.

Drizzle the chocolate sauce generously. Then add some Vanilla pudding on top.

Repeat the steps as needed. Finally top it with some whipped cream, raspberry, some chocolate wafers and mint.

Dhai Puri

                           Dhai puri is a satisfying and elegant evening time snack.

This is my favorite chat for ever. The nice thing about dhai puri is that, it can be put into in a flash if some ingredients are handy. Whenever I order dhai puri in a chat shop, I used to think it is very hard to make one in house. But once I found out the recipe I was really surprised how easy it was. The main key ingredients of any chat are the green chutney and the sweet and sour chutney.

Dhai puris are great for any parties or get together as they can be assembled fast. All the preparations can be made in advance and at the last minute it can be built. Love the green chutney and sweet chutney a lot. Sweet chutney can be good in freezer for a very long time. They taste very good for spicy samosa, pani puri, and for behl puri. On the other hand green chutney is also so versatile. They can be used in so many different ways in chats.

Ingredients :

Small Puris – 10
Potato – 2
Chat masala – 1 teaspoon
Whipped Yogurt – 1 cup
Sweet and Sour chutney – ¼ cup (recipe follows)
Green Chutney – ¼ cup (recipe follows)
Chat Masala – ½ teaspoon
Sev – ½ cup
Coriander leaves – ½ bunch
Salt

Procedure :

Boil the potatoes, mash them with chat masala, turmeric and salt.

Make a small hole on the top of the puri and fill them half the way with mashed potato.

Arrange then on the serving plate. Pour some green chutney on top of each puri. Then pour some sweet chutney on top of it.

Finally top it with whipped yogurt and garnish with sev, coriander leaves, chili powder and cumin powder.

Sweet and Sour Chutney:

Pitted dates – 1 ½ cups (chopped into small cubes)
Cumin seeds – 1 tablespoon (Dry roasted for 3 minutes)
Tamarind paste – 1 tablespoon
Chilli powder – 1 teaspoon
Salt
Water

Puree all the above ingredients except water, into a smooth paste. Then add water to adjust the thickness of the chutney. The chutney should be pourable.

(This will keep in the refrigerator up to 6 months thin it with water as necessary. This chutney tastes good with all type of chats.)

Green Chutney:

Mint leaves (chopped) – 1 cup
Coriander leaves (chopped) – 2 cup
Green chillies – 2
Cashew nut – 10
Garlic – 2 cloves
Sugar – 1 teaspoon
Lemon juice – 1 tablespoon
Salt

Combine every thing in a blender and grind it smooth paste. (This chutney also tastes great with all types of chat items, I use this for making Bombay sandwiches)

Blackberry Smoothie

Smoothies are always my favorite drink to have any time of the day. Love all types of berry smoothies.

This is a very simple smoothie recipe, which I always make for breakfast. Only the flavor differs some days. This is a very filling drink and gives a good kick start for the day. Some times I also make a mixture of berries.

Actually smoothies are very rich drink, but I have tried to make it as a low calorie drink by adding lot fat Yogurt and 0 calorie sweetener. There are many ways to make smoothies; some make it with milk and some with only fruits. I love to add plain Yogurt to my smoothies. I fell that blackberry has some what a bland flavor, so I like to add a dash of vanilla.

Ingredients :

Blackberry – ½ cup
Low fat Yoghurt – 1 cup
Vanilla extract – ½ teaspoon
Skim milk – ¼ cup
0 calorie sweetener (splenda) – 1 teaspoon
Whipped cream for garnish – optional

Procedure :

Blend all the above ingredients except whipped cream. Strain it if necessary. Pour it on the glass and garnish with whipped cream.

Jalebi

Whish u a happy and prosperous Diwali!.



(Img Source : Indiaglitz)

For every Diwali I used to try some new sweet. This time it is jalebi, I had many recipes for making jalebi from net, books and from our blogger friends. For so many days I was in puzzlement on selecting the recipe. Then finally I ended up in Asha’s jalebi recipe. It came out good. We loved it a lot. Thanks Asha……

I have used piping bag with small round hole tip to squeeze the jalebies out. I think an empty ketchup bottle can also be used, I use them for making funnel cakes.

There are many traditional ways to make jalebies, but this is one of the short cut methods to do one. These jalebies can be served warm. Warm jalebies are crispy than the normal ones.

Ingredients :

All purpose flour – 1 cup’
Yogurt – 1 tablespoon
Baking Powder – 1/8 teaspoon
Salt – ¼ teaspoon
Powder Sugar – 1 tablespoon
Yellow Food color – 1 pinch

For Sugar Syrup:

Sugar – 1 cup
Water – 2 cups
Cardamom Powder – ½ teaspoon
Saffron Strand – 1 pinch
Yellow Food color – 1 pinch

Procedure :

Mix all the ingredients for the jalebies and make a thick batter. The batter should be very thick. If the batter is thin the jalebies will be flat. Let the batter rest for 10 to 20 minutes.

Heat oil for deep frying. Fill the pipping bag or any other bottle with batter and hold it tight. Then make swirls like jalebies on the heated oil. Turn it over and fry till the bubble sounds is almost finished. Do not fry the jalebies for too long.

In the meanwhile make a medium thick sugar syrup with the above sugar syrup ingredient. It should be before 1 string consistency.

Remove the jalebies from the hot oil and drain them for a while and soak them in the sugar syrup when the jalebies are still hot. Soak them for 10 minutes and remove from syrup and serve them hot

Cheese Garlic Bread

Who wouldn’t like warm garlic bread? Absolutely my favorite. There are many ways to make one. This is my way of making garlic bread.

I love to add cheese to my garlic bread. This is a perfect snack for evening tea. Kids love this lot. This is a perfect accompaniment for soups. I always make this for soups, without cheese.

The one main good thing in home made garlic bread is that, the amount of butter and olive oil can be controlled by me. Butter can be reduced to cut the calories or fat intake.

Ingredients :

French loaf bread – 1 loaf
Garlic – 5 cloves (minced)
Shredded mozzarella cheese – 1 cup
Butter – ½ stick
Olive oil – ¼ cup
Dried Oregano – ½ teaspoon
Dried Basil – ½ teaspoon
Salt and Pepper

Procedure :

Combine garlic, butter, and oil in a small saucepan. Heat the mixture over moderate-low heat for 5 minutes.

Now add oregano and basil and mix it well. Remove from heat.


Slice the French loaf in an diagonal and arrange it on a sheet pan. Brush the garlic and butter mixture liberally on the sliced bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.


Toast it in a 350 degree oven for 5 mins or till light golden color.

Remove from oven and sprinkle the bread with cheese and return it to the oven, changing the settings to broil and broil for 5 minutes or till the cheese is melted and golden brown.

Watermelon Cooler

This is a very cool drink perfect for a hot summer day or for any party of the year.

This is a very simple drink which can be made very fast from very regular ingredients. I make this drink always for any get together in my house. It has been a hit every time. Kids love this so much.

I some time add fresh mint to this drink for some refreshing flavor. This melon ice balls are real fun to have. I always save some in the freezer to top it on ice creams or in some other dinks to get some watermelon flavor. The same can be done with other melon also.

Ingredients :

Watermelon cubes – 2 cups
Sugar Syrup – 2 tablespoon or more as needed
Lemon juice – 2 tablespoon
Water – ½ cup
Watermelon ice balls

Procedure :

In a large blender add all the above ingredients and blend it, strain and add to a large pitcher.

Using a melon baller, scoop watermelon balls and place them in a sheet pan and freeze it in advance. Add them to the watermelon cooler, they serve as ice cubes as well as garnish

Omm Podi / Sev

Sev or Omm podi is a very famous snack in both south and north part of India. This is a recipe followed in south.

This is a very easy snack which I always make and store it in my pantry. They are very helpful for making many more chats like Bel puri, Dhai puri, raita etc….

For any festival or get-together, this is the first snack Mom makes in my house. I love it a lot. There are many variations that can be made to this sev. I sometime add chili powder to make a spicy version of sev. But traditionally only ajwani is added to sev. The big advantage for this snack is that, it is made with all simple ingredients and it can be made very quickly.

Ingredients :

Besan – 1 cup
Rice flour – 1 tablespoon
Ajwani – 1/4 teaspoon
Turmeric powder – 1/8 teaspoon
Salt – ½ teaspoon
Curry leaves – 10

Procedure :

Mix besan, rice flour, and turmeric powder, salt.

Powder the ajwani very fine and mix with the above mixture.

Add enough water and make a thick batter.

Grease the idiappam mold with oil and fill the batter in the mould.

Heat oil in a pan and press the mould with batter no the hot oil like an idiappam and deep fry it.

Remove from oil and drain it on a paper towel. Repeat this till the batter is finished and stacks all the deep fried ones in a bowl.

Deep fry the curry leaves and adds to bowl, let it cool. Now crush the sev with hands into small pieces.

Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is a hearty soup perfect for any time of the day. It is loaded with vegetables and makes a satisfying lunch or dinner.

In a traditional tortilla soup, corn tortillas are deep fried and added to the soup. But to make the work simpler I have used corn tortilla chips for the topping of the soup. The crunchiness of the chips pairs very good with this soup.

This can be made as a complete vegetarian soup by avoiding shredded chicken and replacing vegetable broth for chicken broth. Both the version tastes so good. The fresh oregano makes a lot of different in the soup. But some time when I run out them I use dried ones also.

Ingredients :

Shredded cooked chicken – 1 ½ cups
Onions, diced – 2 medium
Carrots, cubed – 1 big
Celery, cubed – 2 stalk
Corn kernels – ¼ cup
Garlic cloves, minced – 3 to 4
Chopped Fresh Oregano - 2 Teaspoon
Jalapeno, seeded and minced – 1
Ripe medium tomatoes – 3
Chicken stock – 1 quart box
Extra-virgin olive oil – 2 tablespoon
Salt as required
Cilantro leaves – 1 bunch
Tortilla chips – 1 cup for topping

Procedure :

1. Place a stockpot over medium heat and add olive oil. Add the onions, garlic and all other veggies and stir for 10 mins until the veggies cook.

2. Then add the jalapenos and tomatoes and cook for few more minutes. Then add the chopped oregano and half of the cilantro.

3. Now pour in the stock and check for seasoning. Simmer for 20 minutes. Finally add the shredded cooked chicken and stir the soup. Serve with chopped cilantro.

Shrimp Cutlet

This is a perfect snack for any type of party. Got this recipe from a old cook book. I have made a miniature version of a shrimp cutlet; this can be made as a big size or a jumbo size cutlet also.

I have added curry powder extra to the original recipe. I think curry powder make a lot of difference in this cutlet. This cutlet recipe became our family’s favorite right away when first tried. I follow the same recipe for making fish cutlet also, will post it soon.

I always like to deep fry my cutlets bcoz, I feel that deep frying absorb less oil then shallow frying, this may sound weird but I feel so…..

Ingredients :

Fresh shrimp – 10 (big)
Onions – 1 medium
Green chillies – 2
Potatoes – 1 medium
Ginger garlic paste – 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
Chille powder – ¼ teaspoon
Coriander powder – ½ teaspoon
Curry powder – 1 teaspoon
Fennel seeds – 1 teaspoon
Coriander leaves – ½ handful
Egg – 1
Bread Crumbs – ½ cup
Salt as required
Oil for deep frying

Procedure :

1. Cook the shrimp with some salt and turmeric powder. Cook potatoes and mash it and set it aside.

2. Add oil in a pan and fennel seeds let is turn golden brown, then add minced onions and green chillies and sauté it for 2 minutes.

3. In the meanwhile pulse the cooked shrimp in the food processor. (Don’t make it as a paste).

4. Now add ginger garlic and all other masala powder to the sautéing onions. Fry them until the raw smell of the masala are gone.

5. Then add the finely minced shrimp and sauté till every thing is mixed. Finally add the chopped coriander leaves. Let the mixture cool little bit.

6. Add the mashed potato to the shrimp mixture and knead it well and check for salt. Then make it to desired shape (I have made small balls).

7. Spread bread crumbed in one plate and beat the egg in another plate. Season both the egg and bread crumbs if needed.

8. Heat oil in a pan. Take one shrimp ball and dip it into the egg and then roll it on the bread crumbs until coated fully. Then deep fry it in the oil until they are golden brown. It will take only 2 minutes.

Eggless Banana Nut Muffins

Hi friends…..

I am back after a short break. How thing are going?. Hope u people are having a great time. I have missed many of my fellow bloggers interesting and creative recipes. Will have a quick look at them for sure.......

And in this break another interesting event happened, I met one of my blog friend, Kamala of "Moms Recipes" at my friends place.......Isn't it interesting.... It was so happy to meet her. We all had a great time.

This is a nice recipe for vegetarian friends. I made this for one of my best friend who is a pure vegetarian. This is a dense and moist muffin. The banana makes the muffins so moist and soft and the crunchiness from the walnuts make a perfect contrast in texture. I got this recipe from Saffron Hut's blog. I really have to thank her for this brilliant recipe. I have modified the recipe little bit by adding raw sugar instead of regular granulated sugar as i want to make it this muffin more of a vegetarian one.

Ingredients :

Ripe bananas – 8(large) or 9(medium)
Raw sugar – 2 cups or regular granulated sugar – 1 ½ cups
Butter – 2/3 cup
Baking soda – 2 teaspoon
Baking powder – 2 teaspoon
Salt – ½ teaspoon
All purpose flour – 3 cups
Walnuts, chopped – 1 cup

Procedure :

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1. Mash the bananas well and set it aside. (almost like a pure)

2. Sieve the flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar. Beat them well for at least 2 minutes.

4. Now add the mashed banana to the butter mixture and whip it until mixed.

5. Next add the four in 3 batches, little by little and mix it with the banana mixture. Do not over mix it after adding the flour.

6. Then fold in the chopped walnuts into the batter and fill the lined muffin cups to ¾ the way. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

This will yield 24 large muffins

Crab Masala

Crab is my favorite seafood. This crab masala is my grandma’s recipe. I have just blindly followed her recipe as it always turns out perfect for me. I am very happy to share this with my friends.

Crab masala was one of the most preferred seafood for me. Two weeks back fortunately I found some small stone crab claws in my grocery store, so immediately bought some home. They were so fresh and tasted great.

This is my contribution for this month’s food blog event - Fishing trip conducted by Jeena of Jeena's Kitchen.

Ingredients :

Cleaned Crabs – 1 lb
Green Chilies – 4 to 5
Onions – 1 large
Tomato – 1 small
Ginger – 1 inch piece
Garlic – 4 pods
Chili powder – ¼ teaspoon
Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
Salt
Grated Coconut – ½ cup
Coriander leaves – few

For Tempering:
Mustard – ¼ teaspoon
Urad dal – ½ teaspoon
Curry leaves - 10

Procedure :

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the green chilies and fry them for few seconds. (be careful they can pop out from pan).

2. Then add the onions and tomato let it sauté it for few seconds and then add the ginger garlic and sauté till the raw smell is gone. Let it cool and grind it to a fine paste.

3. Then in the same pan add some oil and do the tempering with the above ingredients. Then add the ground mixture followed by the cleaned crab pieces.

4. Now add chili powder, turmeric powder, salt and 1 cup of water and stir it well, close the pan and allow the crab to cook. The crab will change the color when it is cooked.

5. In the meanwhile grind the coconut to a fine paste with some water and set it aside.

6. When the crab is cooked and the gravy come to a needed consistency, add the coconut paste and stir well. ( after adding the coconut it is not advisable to cook for a long time) Before removing form heat add the chopped coriander leaves and serve it with hot rice…..

Indian Flag Cookies

Happy Independence Day!

August 15th ------ What else day could be more special for an Indian…. So I have decided to celebrate this proud day with specially decorated cookies….. Yes flag shape cookies.

I made a plain sugar cookie and then covered it with a tri color fondant. I drew the wheel with edible writing ink pen.

Indian flag:
The Indian flag is a horizontal tricolour in equal proportion of deep saffron on the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom. The ratio of the width to the length of the flag is two is to three. In the centre of the white band, there is a wheel in navy blue to indicate the Dharma Chakra, the wheel of law in the Sarnath Lion Capital. This center symbol or the 'CHAKRA', is a Buddhist symbol dating back to 200th century BC.
The design of the National Flag of India was adopted by India's constituent assembly on 22nd july, 1947. It's use and display are regulated by a code.
The flag symbolizes freedom. The late Prime Minister Pandit Nehru called it a flag not only of freedom for ourselves, but a symbol of freedom for all people.

Info source – www. Indianchild.com

So this is my contribution for this weeks theme - Independence day! Conducted by Pooja of Creative Ideas .

Simple recipe for plain sugar cookies

Ingredients :

All purpose flour - 3 cups
Butter - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder - 2 teaspoon
Egg - 1
Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon

Preheat oven to 350°F.

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with a electric mixer.

2. Beat in egg, vanilla and lemon zest.

3. Sift baking powder with flour.

4. Add flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.

5. The dough will be very stiff, Blend in the last cup of the flour by hand.

6. Now roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut it into desired shape using a cookie cutter.

7. Place it on a cookie sheet and bake it for 20 mins to until light golden brown colour.

Cashew Nut Chikki

Who wouldn’t adore a big piece of chikki?...... Its my favorite sweet. The crunchiness from the nut and the chewiness form the sugar goes well together.

This is a very simple recipe but takes some practice to get it flawless. The key ingredient in chikki is jaggary and sometime sugar. I have seen my grandma making peanut chikki with jaggary but as I grew up my mom started making it with sugar, as sugar gave more crunchiness than jaggary which we all loved.

I make chikki with almost all the nuts available. Some times I make a combo of nuts also. They are great for outdoor picnics. Almond chikki is my hubby’s favorite and for me its cashew nut, love it so much. I used to roast the nuts in 325 degree oven for 10 minutes to make the chikki more crunchy.


So I am planning to send this recipe for this month's sweet series - Chikki and Laddu. Mythreyee of Paajaka recipes is hosting this sweet event.... All the best Mythreyee....

Ingredients :

Whole Cashew nut – 1 cup
Sugar – ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon

Procedure :

Preheat the oven to 325 degree.

1. Spread the cashew on the baking sheet and roast it in the oven for 10 minutes or till the nut turns to light golden brown.

2. Remove form oven and let it cool completely and chop the cashew nut to desired size.

3. Add sugar to a non stick pan and keep it in medium heat, do not disturb.

4. In the mean while, take two big plates or baking sheets which can be stacked one above the other. Spray 1 plate with non stick cooking spray, and also spray on the back side of the other plate.

5. Now the sugar will start to melt slowly and will become watery, now to test the consistency pour little sugar syrup into a bowl of water, it will solidify quickly and will be crunchy to eat. That is the correct consistency.

6. Now pour the chopped nuts into the sugar syrup and stir it continuously and remove form heat and pour it on the greased plate and top it with the other greased plate and press it to the thinness needed.(It will be very hot) Let it cool and break it into small pieces.

Vegetable Sweet Corn Soup

Hi friends…..
What’s up…… First of all sorry for taking a uninformed break. How r thing going on?...... Have missed a lot of interesting recipes and events these days.

Actually I was not felling well (very bad cold and fever) this started my break and many things (Guests to my place then had some summer trips) kept me very busy and was not able to sit in front of the system. Thank u to my dear friends who where in touch with me. Once again a big sorry for not informing about the break.

I did try some recipes in this break from my fellow bloggers and some from my cookbook collections too, but didn’t find time to click them…

This Vegetable Sweet Corn Soup is a very simple soup, suitable for all occasion. This soup can be turned out easily into a huge quantity. This soup was from one of my favorite south Indian chef Mr. Damodaran head of the MGR Catering College, Chennai. I got this recipe from one of his TV show. I tried this immediately after I saw his show, from that time it became my favorite soup ever. This is a vegetarian soup, but the same recipe can be turned easily into Egg Drop Sweet Corn Soup or Chicken Sweet Corn Soup. I have tried both the version, they tastes equally good.

Ingredients :

Onion – 1 big
Cabbage – ½ cup Shredded
Carrot – ¼ cup cubed
Beans – ¼ cup Diced
Capsicum – ¼ cup diced
Spring onions - few
Ginger garlic paste – 2 teaspoon
Water – around 10cups
Fresh Corn Kernels – ½ cup
Sugar – 1 teaspoon
Pepper
Ajinomoto – ½ teaspoon
Corn flour – 2 to 3 tablespoon
Salt
Butter – 2 tablespoon

Procedure :

1. Heat butter in a deep sauce pot. Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for few seconds then drop the finely diced onions to it and cook for 2 minutes.

2. In the meanwhile grind the fresh corn kernels into a fine paste and add it to the sauce pot.

3. Now add the vegetables and sauté it for few seconds till the vegetables are soft.

4. Add water, salt, pepper, ajinomoto and bring it up to a boil.

5. Mix corn flour with ¼ cup of water and pour it to the soup. Boil for 2 minutes.

6. Finally add sugar and sprinkle with green onions and fresh corn kernels and serve it hot.