After the daring sweet punches I'd really been waiting for a savoury one and the fairy girl appeared with a simple fool proof recipe of quiche! The easy availability of ingredients tempted me to lay the hands on them without much delay.

• Sieve maida, salt and baking powder together. Grate in the butter and mix with the flour with your fingertips till it resembles coarse sand.
• Add in the beaten egg and water and gather it onto a soft dough.
• Roll it out on a lightly floured surface and lift it up carefully. Line the tin that you will be baking it in. If it breaks up you need to do a patch work, big deal! It wouldn't be seen outside! ;)
• Which ever tin you are using, make sure the dough comes a little way up the sides, so that it can hold the filling in.

• Heat oil and slightly fry the mushrooms. After the water has oozed out add in the onions and fry till caramelised.
• Switch off the flame.
• Add milk, cheese, beaten eggs, salt and pepper and mix well.
• Pour into the pastry case and bake for 25 mins or till golden brown.
• Let it cool in the tin completely. Serve it in wedges (I served them as such as mini quiches).

• I was happy to have baked perfect mini quiches, 25 in all following the recipe for the first time. The baking time was 15 minutes with temperature set to 200 deg c.

• The base-I avoided chilled water as the pastry dough was moist after kneading with the butter.I am still not sure whether the base requires a pre baking part as the top of the filling was a bit over browned, while the shells remained 'just cooked'. I am thinking of avoiding egg next time for a comparatively guilt free base ;)

• The filling-Since my husband and son dislike eggs I used only one instead of three in the original recipe for the filling.

• Again, I made the egg-milk-cheese mixture separately and poured it over the crust which was layered with the onion- mushroom mixture first (and used only 1/2 cup milk instead of 1) like sis did :)

• Blend the bread with cornstarch and ½ cup of milk and set aside.
  
• In a wide heavy bottom pan (non-stick is preferable), bring heavy cream and the remaining milk to a boil; make sure that you are stirring the milk frequently to avoid burning or scorching. Simmer on medium-high flame until the milk thickens from 3½ cups to about 2½ cups.
  
• Lower the flame to medium and slowly stir in the corn starch-bread mixture. Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. According to Manjulaji this step prevents the formation of icicles in kulfi.
  
• Next add sugar and mango puree. Let the mixture come to a slow simmer and cook for couple more minutes. Add elaichi & saffron; remove from heat and let cool completely.
  
• Pour into kulfi molds or into a glass dish. Freeze until set about 4 -6 hours or overnight.
  
• When using a glass dish to freeze, make sure you cover it with a plastic wrap touching the kulfi to ovoid icicle formation on the surface.

• To remove, simple place the molds/ glass dish in hot water for a minute and once the kulfi is out enjoy immediately.

•  Yellow Moong Dal : 1 cup
• Water to cook dal : 2.5 cups - 3 cups
•  Jaggery (I used the light brown color jaggery that comes in cubes) : around 4 to 5 cubes
• Water to melt jaggery : 1/2 cup
•  Coconut milk (I used the canned coconut milk) : 1 - 1.5 cups
•  Raisins lightly blanched in 1 tablespoon butter/ghee (just melt butter/ghee in a saute pan and add the raisins and in low fire, just keep stirring with a spoon until all the raisins have plumped up) : 1/2 cup
•  Garnish : powdered cardomom, grated nutmeg : 1/2 teaspoon each

•  Cook the Moong dal in water until it reaches a very mashable state (if you like the pudding to have some moong dal bits to bite, then dont cook until its totally in the pureed stage. I like them very much cooked and mashable)
• Melt the jaggery in the water and add it to the Moong dal which is on medium low fire, keep stirring until everything is well combined.
• Now add the coconut milk and reduce fire to low and keep stirring.
•  Add raisins, and the garnish. Stir to combine.
•  Serve hot/chilled 

Ice cream cake is my family’s all time favorite. We generally order it from outside for any special occasion.  ”Cold Stone Creamery” is almost everyone’s favorite ice cream shop here. I always love to create my own ice cream with a variety of combinations available over there.

I have been planning to try ice cream cake at home and finally I made it for my 3rd Wedding Anniversary last week. It just came out as I expected and we both loved it. It just tasted like the Cassata Ice cream from “Arun Ice creams” in India. It is so simple to make if you use the ready made ice creams. Here you go…

This is to make a 9″ round cake.

Ingredients:

• Semisweet chocolate – 1 cup
• Heavy cream – 3/4 cup
• Vanilla ice cream – 3 cups (1 1/2 pint)
• Chocolate ice cream – 2 cups (a pint)
• French Vanilla cake mix – 1 pack
• 9″ round baking pan

Method of Preparation:

1. For home made sponge cake recipe, please check here.
2. Make the base cake using half the pack of French Vanilla mix following the instructions given at the back of the package.
3. In between, boil heavy cream and add it to the semisweet chocolate chips in a bowl.
4. When chocolate starts melting mix them evenly to a smooth paste.
5. Once the sponge cake is ready, transfer it to a sheet. You can slice the top portion if it is too high to be a layer of the cake.
6. Line a nonstick 9″ round pan with plastic wrap allowing a few inch overhang on all sides. This is to easily transfer the cake to a serving plate.
7. Pour the melted chocolate in the pan and that serves as the bottom layer.
8. Cover the chocolate layer with the round sponge cake and refrigerate it for an hour till the chocolate is firm.
9. Spread the vanilla ice cream on top of the cake evenly and freeze it till it is firm which takes a minimum of 5 hours.
10. Melt the chocolate ice cream a bit and finally spread the chocolate ice cream on top and freeze it overnight.
11. If you don’t want to wait for the vanilla ice cream to set, you can cover the vanilla ice cream with some cookies or wafers and place it in the freezer for half an hour and then spread the chocolate ice cream and freeze it overnight.
12. To remove the cake from the pan, just lift the plastic wrap and carefully remove it from the cake.
13. Your ice cream cake is ready.

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• Whisk flours, salt, baking powder, yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
  
• Add 1 cup luke warm water (around 110ºF—a few degrees up or down is completely OK), oil and yogurt. Mix until the ingredients come together into a ball (add more water or flour as needed).
  
• Remove on to a floured surface and knead lightly until the dough is soft and smooth, about 5 minutes.
  
• Lightly oil the bowl and slide the dough back; cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1-2 hours or until the dough doubles in volume.
  
• Punch down and divide the dough into small balls depending on how big you want your naans. Place them on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 mins to 1 hour or until doubled in volume.
  
• Next roll them out into a circle and slightly stretch or pull on the ends to form an oval shaped naan. Brush them lightly with oil and stack them until ready to grill.
  
• Now to the easy part; grilling. Have the grill preheated and ready to roll: Place the oiled side down on the grill and let cook for about 1 minute. To get those beautiful grill marks, turn the naan at 45 degrees and grill again for 45 seconds. Oil the top side, turn it over, cover and grill for another 1-2 minutes. Remove and enjoy hot with your favorite curry.
  

• Heat 2tbsp ghee or oil in a medium sauce pan on medium-high heat. Add the cardamom pods (elaichi), cinnamon and bay leaves and cook until they sizzle and are aromatic, 5 to 10 seconds.
  
• Add ginger and garlic and fry to a golden-brown color, about 1 minute.
• Add 1/2 cup water and the tomato paste, red chili powder, paprika, salt, coriander, cumin and turmeric. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan and simmer until the water evaporated and a thin film of oil starts to form on the surface of the sauce, about 5 minutes.
• Add another 1/2 cup water and continue to simmer the sauce, covered, stirring occasionally, until the water evaporates and the oil film reappears on the surface, about 5 minutes.
  
• Repeat the addition and evaporation of water twice more to create a rich tasting, lush-red sauce.
  
• Stir in the onion paste and simmer, covered for another 5 minutes.
• Add kidney beans and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Uncover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce starts to thicken, 13-15 minutes.
• Pour in the cream and add the garam masala. Cook until the cream is warmed through, 1 to 2 minutes.
• Garnish with cilantro and serve.

• In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Stir in the salt, EVOO, semolina & whole wheat flour.
  
• Gradually add in all-purpose flour until it forms a ball.
  
• Remove from the bowl and knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth, for about 10 minutes.
  
• Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place it in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.
• Degas the dough after 2 hours and let rise again for another 40 minutes. Now, punch it down and divide into smaller pieces and roll into pizzas: We made 6 individual thin crust pizzas the first time and for our second attempt, we made 5 individual thick crust pizzas.
  
• Heat the grill to medium hot; gently drape the rolled dough on the grill grate (either directly on the grill or you can buy a pizza grill topper) and grill for 1-2 minutes. This should be long enough to make it stiffer; brush EVOO on the grilled side and top with your favorite toppings. Grill for another 4-5 minutes until the toppings are hot and cheese is melted. Enjoy right away.
  

We love to have curd in everything. Like Curd semiya, Curd Idiyappam is also different and will be tasty.

Preparation time: 10 minutes (excluding Idiyappam preparation)
No of Servings: 1-2
Spice level:1

Ingredients:

• Idiyappam – 2 cups
• Curd – 1/2 cup
• Milk – 1/2 cup
• Salt – to taste

For Seasoning:

• Oil – 1 tbsp
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Pearl Onions – 4 (finely chopped)
• Curry leaves – a few
• Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp
• Green chillies – 2( finely chopped)
• Ginger – 1/4″ (finely chopped)

Method of Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients like how we do for curd rice.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds.
3. Then add the curry leaves followed by the green chillies, ginger and the chopped onions.
4. Fry them till they turn pink and to the Idiyappam.
5. Add the coriander leaves and serve it with pickle.

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Amazon has this wonderful deal for KitchenAid 80297 Gourmet Essentials 10-Piece Nonstick Hard-Anodized Cookware Set for $139.28.

• It has a 4.5 star customer rating
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• Pots and lids oven-safe to 400 degrees F; wash by hand; 1-year hassle-free replacement warranty

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Recently I started eating lot of greens. And I have been trying different recipes using greens. I adapted this recipe from YummyOYummy blog by yummy team. I made a few changes and tried it out. It came out really good.

Ingredients:

• Swiss chard white : 1 Bunch
• Onions : 1 (Medium) (Finely Chopped)
• Green Chilies : 3-4 ( According to your spice level)
• Oil : 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric Powder : 1/4 tsp
• Chili Powder : 1 tsp
• Grated Coconut : 1/4 cup
• Salt : to taste
• Curry Leaves : 4-5

Method Of Preparation:

1. Grind coconut with cumin seeds into smooth paste and put it aside.
2. Now wash the greens and chop them, also chop the stems into fine pieces.
3. Now in wide pan add the chopped onions and fry them for few minutes.
4. After that add chard leaves and stem.
5. Just sprinkle some water on top of them add salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder, curry leaves and green chilies. Cover them with lid and let it sit in the heat for few minutes.
6. When the above mixture is cooked add the ground coconut mixture into it. Mix it well.
7. Cover the lid and let it sit in the heat for 10  minutes or until it gets cooked fully.
8. Serve it hot with rice or chapathi.

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• 1 cup Cashews, whole or halved
• 1 cup Chickpea Flour (Senagapindi, Besan)
• 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
• A pinch of Soda
• Salt
• Oil for deep frying
• 1 tsp Ghee to roast cashews

Have you ever noticed a goat or a cow grazing? There is something common….those two animals keep chewing all the time. Seems like I have something in common with them :) Oh yes, I’ve told you several times about how I like to munch something every now and then. Can you believe it when I say that I start raiding my kitchen cupboards for some snacks after 10 mins of having BF or lunch? These days I find it really hard to resist the temptations especially when my FB newsfeed is always updated with some beautiful food snaps. Ok leave the internet and switch on the TV, almost every other channel is loaded with cookery shows, doesn’t look good, what about reading something and there again you can see some food pics, sigh! It feels like the Universe is conspiring for me to give into the temptation ;)

Usually I end up with some junk food for munching, but after some time I feel guilty and forcefully eat some supposed-to-be health bars and what not! I only wish that these health bars suppressed my munching temptation… but the effect is more depressing. I don’t like the taste of all this healthy crap and that’s when I realised how I miss those unhealthy flavoured junk food and stuff myself with the double the amount of junk. So much for trying to eat healthy.

When I posted this eggless cinnamon recipe here, I never ever thought it would be one of the most popular recipes in the site. Because its a general tendency that we associate healthy food with awful taste, yep – I also do that. But that recipe was a revelation to me that healthy stuff can be tasty too and yes I’m sure there are other recipes also of the same category. This is one such recipe. Though the name of this cookie is Oatmeal & Raisin & Dates cookie, I re-christened it as Healthy Cookie. Yep, if you go through the ingredients, you’ll know it. I’ve customised the original  recipe to make a healthier version.

Another thing I liked about the recipe is that, its quite filling. Also its a good way to incorporate  oats in your diet. The cookie has a soft cakey texture with a slightly crusted top.

So shall we go ahead and bake some healthy cookies?

Here is the recipe:

1. Wheat flour (atta) – 1 1/4 cups + 2 tbsp
   Oats – 1 1/2 cups
   Baking powder – 1/2 tsp, slightly heaped
   Baking soda – 1/2 tsp, slightly heaped
   Soft light brown sugar – 1/2 cup, firmly packed
   Raisins – 1/4 cup, heaped
   Dates – 3/4 cup, chopped
   Chocolate Chips – 1-2 tbsp, (optional)
2. Vegetable Oil – 3/4 cup ( I used sunflower oil)
   Egg – 1, lightly beaten
   Milk – 5 tbsp

Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 375 F, 10 mins before baking. Lightly oil a baking sheet.

Mix together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, raisins, chocolate chips and dates in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix the egg, oil & milk together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture. Mix the mixture together well with either a fork or a whisk or a wooden spoon to make a soft but not sticky dough.

Place spoonfuls of the dough well apart on the piled baking sheet and flatten the tops down slightly with a fork. Transfer the biscuits to a preheated oven and bake for 10 -12 mins until golden. Remove from the oven, leave to cool for 2-3 mins, then transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool, Serve when cold or store in an airtight container. I got 18 cookies with the above qty.

Notes: You can also use plain flour or wholemeal flour instead of atta. I stored the cookie for 1 week @ room temperature in an airtight container. I used an ice cream scoop to drop the cookie dough on to the baking sheet. I lined the baking sheet with al.foil & baking paper.

Eggless version: Though I haven’t tried it yet, I’m guessing you can substitute the egg with some pureed banana. If you happen to try the eggless version, please do let me know.

Substitute for brown sugar: 1 Cup light brown sugar =

1 cup (215 grams) raw sugar

1 cup (200 grams) white granulated sugar

1 cup (200 grams) white granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup (60 ml)  unsulfured light molasses

For light brown sugar – substitute 1/2 cup (110 grams) dark brown sugar plus 1/2 cup (100 grams) white granulated sugar ( source: joy of baking)

Why not leave a comment? Quick, head on over to MariasMenu.com for more tasty, delicious and simple recipes! Remember to check out the Recipe Index to find some easy-to-cook dishes. Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about MariasMenu!

• 6 cups thick pohe or flattened rice
• 6 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• pinch asafetida
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 5-6 hot green chillies, chopped
• 7-8 curry leaves
• 1/4 tsp + 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 cup onion, chopped fine
• 1 cup potatoes, chopped fine
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• juice of 1 lime
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
• salt to taste

1. Place the pohe in a colander and rinse in cool water. Drain well and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a kadhai and when hot, add mustard seeds. 
3. When the mustard seeds do the dance of life, add asafetida followed by cumin seeds. 
4. Add green chillies and curry leaves and cover the kadhai to avoid oil getting all over your stove. Turn the heat down.
5. When things have calmed down some, uncover and add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder. Also add chopped onions and cook until they have softened.
6. Next, add chopped potatoes, grated ginger, a dash of lime and salt to taste. What you have here is your main masala. This needs to be spicy enough to carry the flavors through the entire batch of pohe. It needs to be very spicy.
   
   
   
   
   Your main masala
7. Cover and cook on medium-low until the potatoes are cooked through.
8. While the spicy mixture is cooking, break up any clumps that may have formed in the  soaked pohe. To this, add 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp sugar, lime juice and salt to taste and toss to mix well.
   
   
   
   
   Soaked pohe
9. Add the pohe to the mixture in the kadhai in three parts, mixing well after adding each part. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if necessary.
10. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for about 7-10 minutes, allowing the flavors to meld well.
11. Either garnish with chopped cilantro or mix the cilantro into the pohe. Serve hot with tea.

1. My mother used to say "one fistful of pohe for each person, if there are other dishes; two fistfuls if that's all you're eating." Her hands were teeny but that ratio still holds. Six cups are just right for us to eat over two meals and six cups was just right for our Diwali party last year. 
2. More oil always makes everything taste better and so in this case, too. I use as many tablespoons of oil as cups of pohe when I am cooking for a crowd. When I cook for us, I halve that number. I add about 1/4 cup of water to the potatoes to help them cook faster. When I do this, the pohe always taste better when they are just made than they do the next day.  I sprinkle them with warm water before re-heating to moisten them up a bit. That helps some but not as much as using the additional oil would have.
3. I used eight chillies in these pohe and they were still not spicy enough. I couldn't believe it either!
4. Traditionally, pohe is served with a wedge of lime but I find it more convenient to add the lime to the soaked pohe and do away with flying wedges at the table and squirting lime juice in someone's eyes. 
5. I like to add spicy sev, especially bhujia sev, to my pohe for an extra zing and a crunch.
6. Fresh grated coconut is often used to garnish pohe.

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If you reproduce my recipes anywhere, please ensure that you give credit to the source:

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Recipe: means a set of directions with a list of ingredients for preparing something, especially food. It does not include my pictures or the content around the recipe.

Its been a while since I have updated my blog, I truly miss blogging if only there were 48hrs how I wish for that . I seriously had to make a choice and prioritize my tasks and within the parameters I have blogging sure was pushed down. Never the less every opportunity read it as few minutes of spare time I find I get started on blogging.

Had friends over the weekend and truly had a very fun evening. Thank god for we choose our friends and company we keep and I feel blessed to have chosen few very special people in my life.
Schools back on and activities are back on full swing, between chauffeuring kids to school and activities and events over the weekend hardly get time to breathe and take in a minute without an agenda.

I just couldn't resist fresh greens in desi stores spinach, methi, gongura, cilantro. Picked few bunches of all the above. My mom always whipped up quite few varieties of rices with fresh greens and so today's recipe is an inspiration from her.
Ingredients
2 bunches of fresh cilantro
1 cup fresh pudina
1 cup green peas ( I used frozen peas and carrot in today's recipe)
2-3 green chilies
2 tbsp of ginger finely grated
1 1/2 cups of basmati rice
2-3 bay leaves
6-8 cloves
about 10-15 pepper corns
star annise
tbsp of jeera
tbsp of garam masala (optional)
2 tbsp of butter
2-3 tbsp of oil.

Process
1. Chop coriander and pudina finely.


2. Heat about a tbsp of oil in a pan and add chopped cilantro and pudina and allow to fry for about 2-3 minutes.
3. Transfer contents into a blender and pulse into a fine paste.

• Combine flours, salt, sugar & yeast in a large mixing bowl.
  
• Melt butter and add along with egg to the flour mixture. Add water and mix until everything is well incorporated.
  
• Knead until it forms into soft, smooth dough. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
  
• Gently deflate the dough and divide into equal pieces. I was able to make 11 approximately equal sized rolls. Shape piece into a round 1” thick and flatten to about 3” across.
  
• Place the buns on a lightly greased baking sheet; cover and let rise for another 1 hour, until the buns are very puffy.
  
• Preheat the oven to 375ºF and bake the buns for 12-15 minutes until golden. Cool on rack.