Strawberry Oatmeal Bar

What do you do when you have Oats and Jam in your larder and no one is wanting to even look that way. Well, if you are NOT like me, you will search for a recipe to use that in something. Well, I was too lazy to even do that, so I dumped both into the fridge to keep it safe for atleast a few more days. And what happens? Maybe God also didnt want me to be lazy and wasting things. Today I open my mail and I get this notification that Pioneer Woman has made Strawberry Oatmeal bars... OOlalala, I go there just to read her post and see her clicks. O how I love her!!! and guess what, that was the easiest recipe ever and I had all the ingredients in my fridge except salt (that I had on the kitchen counter). And in a second I was measuring the ingredients and in a few minutes, the mix was inside the oven. And in half an hour I was having it hot. It is soooooooooooooooooo goooooood....
 So you can check her out here

Butter:  1 3/4 stick (a lil less than a cup)
Maida: 1 1/2 cups
Oats: 1 1/2 cups
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Baking Powder: 1 tsp
Strawberry Jam/Preserve: 1/2 bottle

Preheat oven 180C
Mix all the ingredients except the preserve.
Butter a baking a tray and sprinkle half the mix to the pan and press to pack it tight.
Now spoon the jam/preserve and spread it evenly (heat the jam for 30 sec in microwave so that it spreads without dragging the oats mix along)
Now sprinkle the rest of the oats mix on top and press/pat lightly so that it is packed on top.
Bake for 30-40 minutes till golden brown.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

This is the best ever Lemon cookies IVE EVER HAD. too good, melt in the mouth. I just dont know how to describe it. 
 I got the recipe from  here

 Butter: 1/2 cup
Sugar Granulated: 1 cup
Egg: 1
Lemon Zest: of 1 lemon
Lemon Juice: 1 tbsp
Maida: 1 1/2 cups
Baking Powder: 1/2 tsp
Powdered Sugar: 1/2 cup

Preheat oven 180C
Sieve maida and Baking powder.
Grease and dust your baking tray.
Cream butter and granulated sugar and add the egg, Lemon juice and zest and beat everything till well combined
Add the Maida and mix everything scraping the sides of the bowl.
You will have a sticky dough now.
Dip your finger in the powdered sugar and make balls out of the dough and roll it again in the powdered sugar.
Arrange on baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.
It wont be firm when you take out but will get crisp as it cools.
Once cool, store in airtight containers (In case it lasts for more than an hour)

Simple Karimeen Pollichathu (for the calorie conscious)

This is a simple Fish Pollichathu recipe, not your usual coconut milk gravy types. This is more for the calorie conscious gang, as this recipe doesn't use even a drop of oil but tastes good in spite of it.

Pearl Fish: 3

Chilly Powder: 1 tbsp

Pepper Powder: 3/4 tbsp

Ginger Garlic Paste: 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder: 1/2 tsp

Salt; as needed

 Make a paste of this with water and apply on the fish pieces

Take a banana leaf, clean properly and show it over a flame.
Place one fish piece on it

Wrap it properly and tie it with thread or the banana stem.
Sprinkle water on the tawa and place the wrapped fish on it.

Keep the lid and let it get cooked on medium flame.
Turn over once.

Serve warm with rice.

Easy Jeera Rice

There are so many ways to make Jeera rice. I myself follow 3 different recipes. But this is the easiest of the three, when you have no idea what to cook and when you are pressed for time and even for days you are too lazy to chop onions or clean the coriander leaves... :)

Basmati Rice: 2 cups

Water: 3 cups

Cumin: 1 tbsp

Ghee: 1 tbsp

Salt: as needed

Wash and drain the rice.

In a pressure cooker, heat ghee and add the cumin.

Add the rice to it and give a toss.

Add 3 cups water, salt and keep the lid.

When the steam comes out steadily, put the weight and wait for 20 seconds.

Turn off stove and just forget about it.

After 20 minutes, take off lid and you will have properly cooked Jeera rice.

Orange Cake in Microwave Convection

I hate baking in Microwave. For me all the perfect cakes are made in electric ovens or the Cooking range. But I have had so many people asking me how to do cakes in microwave. So now for them Iam trying to do it. This Cake is from The Cake Bible. Ive tweaked the recipe a lil bit, I mean, very slight changes.
 So how do I like it? Well, the cake is good, came out well but still I love the plain old regular oven (old habits die hard!!!!... :)

Maida: 11/2 cup or 300gms ( remove 3 tbsp from this)
Vanilla Flavoured Custard Powder; 3 tbsp
Baking Powder: 1.5 tsp
sugar: 3/4 cup (powder it)
Butter: 3/4 cup
Orange zest: of 1 orange
Orange Juice: 3 tbsp
Milk: 3 tbsp
Eggs:3

Sift together the maida, custard powder and baking powder.
Mix the orange zest and powdered sugar thoroughly.
Cream the butter and the sugar.
Beat the eggs and the milk and add to the butter mix and beat again.
Mix in the Flour mix. Beat slightly till all is mixed (Do not overbeat)
Add the orange juice.
Grease and flour a cake tin.
Pour the batter into it and smooth the top.
Press the convection button for 180C and press the start button.
When the Oven beeps, place the tin on the grill rack and keep it inside the oven.
Press convection again for 170C and start the oven.
After 10 minutes, change to 160C and bake for another 40 minutes. (keep an eye after 30 minutes)
Let it cool before turning into a wirerack.
Slice and enjoii... :)

 If you are using regular oven, Preheat to 180C and then bake at 180C till done.

Sausage Pizza for Beginners (In Microwave Convection Mode)

This is for beginners who has just started experimenting with baking. I will do a detailed post later where you will make the pizza dough, pizza sauce etc from scratch and in a regular oven. But this one is done with all readymade stuff but you get the satisfaction of assembling it and also baking it. And also, my first post on how to do it in a microwave convection oven. My favourite on lazy evenings. Okay, here is how...

Sausage: 5 large thinly sliced
Pizza Base (store bought): 2 medium
Pizza Sauce (store bought): as required
Mozarella Cheese grated: generously or as much or as little as u like

Spread the Pizza sauce on the base (starting from centre outwards and make sure it reaches till the end.
Add a little grated cheese on top followed by sliced sausages.
Now generously add the grated cheese on top of it.
 Turn on convection mode and press for 240C and then press on weight button and choose the weight (in this case, it will be between 450-500gm) and preheat till you hear the beep.
(alternately, take ur user manual and check for pizza recipe and follow the instruction for the temperature and weight)
As soon as you hear the beep, place the prepared base on the grill rack and place this inside the oven and press start.
As soon as it is done, you will hear a beep.
(In case you have not entered the weight correctly, like youve entered a higher weight, then it might burn, so keep an eye if you are not sure of the weight and take it out when the cheese melts and the sausage is browned. Again, if youve entered a lower weight, it will be undercooked, so again you will have to cook at 240C till done)
Take this out and serve warm

Hot Butter Tiger Prawns

King Prawns: 16

Garlic: 4 pods or 50 cloves chopped fine

Ginger; 1 inch julienne

Onion: 1 small diced

Pepper: 1.5 tbsp

Salt: as needed

Butter; 2.5 tbsp

Carrot: 4 tbsp thin long slices.

Clean the Prawns under tap water and shell it keeping the head and tail intact.

Make a slit to remove the black thread. (its very easy to remove on big prawns)

Heat butter and saute the garlic and ginger.

When it browns along the edges, add the onion and saute for a minute.

Now add the prawns, pepper, salt and stir everything.

Keep the lid and let it cook on low flame for sometime.

Open the lid and add the carrot and give everything a saute and let the water dry up.

Take off fire. Serve as an appetizer. 

(Believe me, the carrot sauteed tastes so good but for me I didn't add the whole lot coz I was apprehensive, that's why u can see it on the plate- only a little of it went in to the sauteing)

Thenga Chammanthi

Coconut: 1 grated
Dried Red Chillies: 10
Shallots:4
Ginger: a small piece
Curry leaf: 1 sprig
Tamarind: a gooseberry sized ball.
Salt: as needed

Pulse the dried red chillies first and then add all the other ingredients and grind it till done.
Serve with Rice.

Srilankan Spicy Fish Curry

This is another recipe I learnt on my Srilankan trip. Remember I told u'll how I met a Tamil chef in a restaurant there? Siva was kind enough to give me the recipes of all the finger licking dishes I had there. This is Srilankan fish curry that we had at the restaurant. It was so spicy that my son started crying and my husband was sweating like anything!!! But I so loved it. Here Iam giving the Spicy version but you can reduce the green chillies according to your tolerance level.

King fish: 6 slices
Onion: 1 medim quartered
Tomato: 1 medium chopped
Green Chillies: 8-10 ( o yes, but please reduce if you serve it to kids)
Curry leaves: 2 sprigs
Chilly Powder: 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp
Coriander Powder: 1 tsp
Salt: as needed
Thin Coconut milk: 1 cup
Thick coconut milk: 1/2 cup

To Temper:
Coconut oil: 1 tbsp
Mustard: 1 tsp
Curry leaves: 1 sprig

Mix all the ingredients (except the thick coconut milk and the ingredients under "to temper") and cook on medium flame until done.

Add the thick coconut milk and let it boil along the edges.
Take off fire.
Add coconut oil in a kadai and splutter mustard and curry leaves and pour over this curry.
Serve with rice.

Pork Ullarthiyathu (Thattukada style)

This is an absolutely delicious Pork dish. Authentic Kerala style recipe handed down to me by my 3rd sis in law- Sofy. :) :) :)


Pork: 1 kg
Apply 1/ tsp turmeric powder and 1 tbsp oil on the pork and keep aside for 20 minutes


Masala:
Coriander Powder: 2 heaped tbsp
Chilly Powder: 1heaped tbsp

In a nonstick pan, fry this on low heat without oil.
Make sure it doesnt burn but yes, it has to become dark brown in colour.
when it reaches dark brown colour, pour a tbsp oil and take off fire.

To Marinate the Pork (the turmeric, oil applied Pork)
Onions: 2 sliced
Ginger garlic paste: 1 tbsp
Green Chilly: 2 slit
Curry Leaves: 4 sprigs
Garam Masala: 1 tsp
Vinegar: 1 tbsp

Mix everything properly and cook for 5 minutes in a pressure cooker. (that is 5 minutes on low flame after the first whistle)

To Saute:
Shallots: a handful
Garlic: 6 cloves sliced
Curry Leaves; 4 sprigs or loads... :)
Coconut Oil; 2 tbsp

Heat oil (I use the oil that floats on top of the cooked Pork, absolutely delicious plus we dont need to add extra oil)
saute the shallots, garlic and curry leaves till wilted
Add the masala powder and the cooked pork and mix everything properly.
Let it get fried for a few minutes.
Serve warm with rice.