Badam Pilaf

Flavored rice is a must on special occasion and on weekends. I love to dish out flavored rice on weekends to enjoy with family and friends. There are abundance flavored rice recipes which can be found in net and one of those is, badam pilaf or almond rice. Since i have a bottle of whole almonds i made this delicious badam pilaf for Sunday lunch to go with my chicken gravy. I used long grain basmathi rice for this flavorful dish simply because i love the texture and taste. This rice dish best enjoy with any vegetarian or non vegetarian gravy of your choice.

Ingredients

2 cups basmathi rice
3 cups water
2 tbsp almond paste
1/4 cup almonds, skin peeled
1 star anise
4 cloves
2 pods green cardamom
1 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
1 bay leaf
1/3 tsp salt

Methods

Wash and soak basmathi rice with 3 cups water.

In a large pan, melt ghee over a medium heat and add star anise,clove,bay leaf and cardamom pods. Saute for 30 second.

Add the peeled almonds and almond paste. Saute for another 30 seconds.

Pour the mixture into the soaked basmathi rice and season with salt. Stir and cook for 15 minutes or till the rice turns fluffy.

Enjoy with your preference gravy.

Yorkshire Pudding

I always wanted to make Yorkshire pudding eversince i come across of the recepi in a cookbook. Eventhough the name suggests a pudding but Yorkshire pudding is definitely not a jelly like pudding instead its soft and fluffy dish made of roast drippings. This famous British side dish usually served along a roast and goes well with any roast gravy.

You have to work fast when preparing Yorkshire pudding..the key to the perfect pudding is the smoking hot drippings which make the pudding pop up while baking. You can substitute roast drippings with melted butter or vegetable oil. I love the richness and lightness of the pudding and will definitely making it again.

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
2 large eggs,room temperature
1/2 + 1/2 cup full fat milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup roast drippings/melted butter


Methods

In a bowl whisk egg and 1/2 cup milk till combined.

In a large bowl, combine combine flour and salt. Add the egg mixture and whisk well till no lumps.

Cover the mixture with cling wrap and rest the batter for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven at 425'F or 'C. Pour 1 tbsp of melted butter/roast drippings into a 12 cup muffin pan and place the pan in the oven until its smoking hot approximately 4-5 minutes.

Add the remaining 1/2 cup cold milk into the batter and whisk well. Remove the pan from the oven and quickly pour the batter evenly to the muffin holes.

Place the pan into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes,

Remove from oven and serve immediately as a side for your roast

Notes

• The muffin pan should be smoking hot and once you pour the batter it should sizzle. 

Passion Fruit Bundt Cake

Who doesn't love the sweet smelling passion fruit on desserts. Passion fruit pulps make an ideal for topping on pavlova,as a drink and add into your dessert for an extraordinary taste and fragrance. I personally love the fruity smell of passion fruit and never miss to buy whenever i come across of them. In Malaysia, passion fruit slowly gaining his place in desserts and drinks.

When i made a visit to a local wet market i bumped into a fruit stall selling passion fruits and i grabbed a bag of them. Tips to choose a good ripe passion fruit is always go for a purple and wrinkled skin fruit. I decided to bake a passion fruit bundt cake drizzle with passion fruit syrup which added the moistness to the soft and crumbly cake. For a perfect evening just get a big slice of the passion fruit cake with a cuppa.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
1 cup butter butter, room temperature
3 eggs, room temperature
5 tbsp passion fruit juice
Pinch of salt

Passion Fruit Syrup

1/2 cup passion fruit pulp
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp castor sugar


Methods

Preheat oven at 180'C or 350'F. Grease bundt tin evenly with butter and sprinkle with flour to coat every nook. Keep aside.

In a bowl, mix flour,baking powder and salt.

Using a hand/stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat at each addition. Add in the passion fruit juice and beat.

Add the flour and beat for 1-2 minutes or til combine. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 335-40 minutes or until a skewer insert in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the pan for 10-12 minutes and carefully invert to cool completely on a cooling rack.

For The Passion Fruit Syrup

In a saucepan over a medium heat, add passion fruit pulp,water and castor sugar. Stir till the sugar completely dissolves.

Simmer the mixture for 10-12 minutes to thickened. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Drizzle the passion fruit syrup over the cake. Slice and enjoy

Malabar Fish Fry

As promised yesterday, here is my fish fry recepi and its Malabar fish fry. I love fish dishes and this everytime i cook fish curry, fish fry is a must along side with any stir fry vegetables and the meal is complete. It has become a routine when there's a fish curry in house, fish fry has to be there. That how much i have become synomnous with fish fry.

If you noticed in the recepi, i didn't use much ingredients to prepare my fish fry and there's no ginger as well. The ingredients required to make this delicious dish is simple and the preparation can be done in a jiffy (minus the marination hours of course). You may shallow fry the fish but i prefer to deep fry them for the extra crispiness that comes from the well coated masala. I served my fish fry with boiled white rice and stir fry pumpkin.

Ingredients

5 sliced fish,cleaned and wash (any white flesh fish)
6-8 pcs shallots
5 cloves garlic
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilly powder
1 tbsp peppercorns
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying


Methods

In a blender,grind together shallots,garlic,turmeric powder,chilly powder and peppercorns to a fine and smooth paste without adding water.

Add salt and lemon juice to the mixture and mix well. Coat the fish pieces evenly with the mixture on both sides and marinate the fish for 45 minutes to an hour.

Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the fish over a medium-low heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes and flip the fish to cook on the side. Remove from heat and drain the excess oil on a plate layered with kitchen towel.

Serve with white rice and gravy of your choice.

Vizag Fish Curry

As my paternal grandfather hails from Visakhapatnam Andhra Pradesh my late grandmother always cook this special Vizag fish curry especially for Sunday lunch. The beautiful fragrance of her tempering the ingredients will fill in the whole kitchen and i'll be eagerly waiting for lunch to be served. Grandma used to make variations to her recipe which is with added vegetables (tomato,eggplants,ladies fingers) and sometimes she just opted to go plain without veges in her fish gravy. In today's recipe I'm sharing with you her authentic Vizag fish curry with added vegetables.

I used pomfret but you can use any white fish for the gravy. Tamarind water is the key ingredient in any fish curry which add to the sourness most needed for the gravy. Fish curry tastes delicious when eaten on next day. Serve along with white rice and fry fish. Will share the recipe for fry fish tomorrow.

Ingredients

1 kg pomfret fish,wash and cleaned
5 green chillies,slit
2 large red onions,chopped
4-5 pcs okra/ladies fingers
1 large tomato
2 eggplants,cut into 4
2 sprig curry leaves
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tbsp chilly powder
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
4-5 tbsp cooking oil
2 tbsp chopped coriander
1 big lemon sized tamarind pulp
Salt to taste
1 1/2 cup water


Methods

In a bowl combine tamarind pulp and 1 1/2 cup water to extract thick tamarind paste. Discard the tamarind seeds. Keep aside

Heat oil in a large pot, and add mustard seeds. Once the seeds splutters, add fenugreek seeds and fry till slightly brown.

Add curry leaves and onions. Saute till the onion turns translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute.

Add the coriander powder,turmeric powder,cumin powder and chilly powder and fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the eggplants,tomato,ladies fingers,green chillies and tamarind water. Season with salt and cook for 5-7 minutes or till the eggplants turns soft..

Reduce heat to low medium and gently drop in the fish. Cover with lid and cook for 4-5 minutes. Give a gentle stir and cooked covered over low heat for 8-10 minutes till the gravy slightly thickens.

Off the flame and garnish with chopped coriander

Serve along boiled white rice.

Cheese Cornbread

A twist on basic cornbread recipe with added cheddar cheese to enhance the flavour of a classic and simple cornbread. I bought my yellow cornmeal on impulse without having any idea what to do with it. It happens when I'm in a shop supplying baking ingredients all the impulse buying taking place the moment you were surrounded with exotic and hard to resist stuffs.

Back home, i immediately started to surf net for an ideal recipe using cornmeal and came across of this simple and easy cornbread which i made a little changes with the measurement and opted to add cheddar cheese to enhance the flavor and taste. Thank goodness the cornbread turns out absolutely wonderful and I'm totally overwhelmed with the result. Cornbread made an ideal companion on cold night to serve along hot piping soup. Dunk a chunk of cornbread in your favorite soup and enjoy.

Ingredients

2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup + 3 tbsp cheddar cheese
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup softened butter
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
3 eggs, room temperature
3 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp granulated white sugar
1 tsp salt


Methods

Preheat oven to 400'F or 204'C . Line a 9'inch baking pan with parchment paper and keep aside.

In a bowl combine all purpose flour,cornmeal,salt and baking powder.

In a large bowl beat butter and sugar till soft and fluffy.

Add eggs and buttermilk and beat for another 1-2 minutes.

Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and stir just to combined.

Stir in the cheddar cheese and pour batter into the prepared baking pan.

Sprinkle with 3 tablespoon cheddar cheese and sugar

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer insert in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack.

Slice and serve


Notes

• Do not over mix the batter