Rum Balls

As the name suggest this recipe contain good amount of Rum and is only for adults. This recipe is one of the easiest of all. There is no cooking involved in this recipe( except for toasting nuts). Just combine all ingredients in to a dough and make a small balls..

This recipe should be made well in advance of Christmas, say like in 1st week of December.. as it should age well before consumption for it to taste better. It should be made around the same time of making Fruit Cake.. The end product after ageing is very smooth -texture wise and you get the kick of rum while eating it and just melts in your mouth.



Rum Balls

This recipe is adopted from joyofbaking.com with little modification.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (150 gms) Ground Almond/ Walnuts( toasted and ground- make sure you dont grind it to paste but just till it resembles breadcrumbs) ( I used only Almonds)
1 1/4 cups (125 gms) Finely Chrushed Biscuits(I used Marie Biscuit)
1/2 cup (60 gms)  Powdered Sugar
2 tbsp (15 gms) Cocoa Powder
2 tbsp Honey (or corn syrup or golden syrup, I used Honey)
1/4 cup (60 ml) Rum

Method

Once you prepare all the above ingredients there is nothing much left then to combine all and mix them thoroughly in a bowl. Once it resembles like dough cover the bowl with cling film and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.

After an hour, remove the cling film and make small balls of one inch each and keep on a baking sheet. You can make around 38 to 40 Rum balls out of this.

There are different ways to decorate the Rum balls. One way is to roll it in Icing Sugar, or in ground nuts, or Cocoa Powder or Dipping it in Chocolate. As you can see I did half the balls with the icing sugar and another half with chocolate dipping.

If  you wanna dip the balls in chocolate, put the balls back in refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Line a Parchment paper(butter paper) on the baking sheet and keep aside. Now remove the balls after 10 minutes and make the chocolate mixture. Take about 120 gms of chocolate and 1 tsp of butter in a heat proof bowl and melt them in double boiler. Once melted, remove from fire and dip the balls and coat them evenly on all sides and very gently remove them using the fork, let the extra drip down and arrange them on Baking sheet with butter paper. Do this with all the remaining balls and arrange them on the sheet well apart from each other. When all are done, place the baking sheet in the fridge and chill till the chocolate is set, say around 30-40 minutes. Once the chocolate is hardened, you can drizzle the rum balls with melted white chocolate( which I omitted  as I didnt get the white chocolate).

This can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for several weeks..
 

Raisin Cookies

Happy New Year 2013 once again..

As mentioned earlier, cookies were my weakest point, I couldnt get them right.. The problem which I realised was an uneven shapes of cookies and hence not good results... So this time I rolled the dough in a log and chilled it in refrigerator overnight. Then the next day cut it in equal size shapes and baked it in preheated oven and the results were amazing...

 

Ingredients

1 cup (226 gms) Butter
3/4 th cup Sugar
1 large Egg
1 1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
2 2/3 cups (345 gms) Flour (Maida)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 cups chopped Raisins

Method

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (for around 3-4 minutes) using electric hand mixer. Add vanilla and egg and beat again until properly incorporated..

In a seperate bowl sift the flour and mix it along with baking powder and whisk till incorporated.. And add this mixture in to the butter mixture and mix it using wooden spoon until it becomes a dough. Use your hands if you find it bit difficult to use the spoon like I did. Divide the dough in three balls and try to roll them into a nice smooth log and roll them in cling film and let it refrigerate overnight..

 

Next day line a baking sheet and preheat the oven at 190 degrees celcius. Cut the cookie dough in an equal size 1/2 inch thick squares and  bake it for 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely before you store in an airtight container.

 

 

 

Kuswar(Complete Christmas Delicacies)

This is the complete list of Kuswar that I made this time for Christmas..

Starting from Top left and going clockwise,

1. Gifts for community members
2. Raisin Cookies
3. Rum Balls
4. Traditional Fruit Cake (with rum and wine )
5. Boiled Fruit Cake(w/o alcohol)
6. Savoury Shankarpali
7. Brownies
8. Semolina and Coconut Cake

This Christmas was very special compare to all my earlier ones.. Not only because I made all the above goodies, but also because I distributed them to so many people.. like for example.. Gifts for our Community Members included Semolina and Coconut Cake, rum balls and Raisin Cookies; Brownies were made for Orphan Kids at Vidyankur near our Church.. One batch of Semolina and Coconut Cake was for my Sis in law to distribute in office and Shakarpali and Fruit Cakes were for us...

I did try one Eggless Chocolate cake (forgot to take the pic) and distributed it when people came home for Carol singing on 23rd Dec..

You will see recipes for all the above goodies in my coming post...

Happy New Year to all you followers.. Have a safe and fun filled 2013...Cheers!!!!

 

Christmas Delicacies

Christmas is just one week away, and I am so busy and excited to prepare some goodies and distribute among our community members, that I totally forgot to update my blog.. Till now I have just made some cookies, rum balls and Traditional Fruit cake..Still to make 2 batches of Semolina and coconut cake, brownies, and boiled fruit cake(w/o alcohol..for my son) ...If time permits, which I highly doubt, I would also like to try my hands on Neuri or Karanji.

It is always a proud feeling, when you bake homemade cookies..I am not a professional baker and I did not even have anyone who could teach me.. so I learnt most of my baking from Internet.. Cookies baking are my weak point, I could never get them right.. but I learned some techniques and it helped me in getting good results.. As you can see, my cookies came out nice this time, and I realised that its not the dough that was a problem, the problem was not to have uniform size of cookies while baking.. so this time I rolled the cookies dough in a log and refrigerated it for sometime and then sliced it in 1/4 inch thick slices and baked it in preheated oven..and it was perfect.. I made two types of cookies, one is Nankhatai and another one the raisin cookies. Please check out my next post for the recipes..

Kadhi with Urdachi Vadi

This kadhi is made at my in laws place.. but I loved it the first time I tasted.. Its the same Kadhi like we make, except instead of putting pakoras, we put Wadi made of Urad dals..

Ingredients

- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- two sticks of curry leaves
- 1 inch ginger
- 4 -5 cloves of garlic(medium size)
- 5-6 green chillies (big size)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 400 gms Curd
- 3-4 tsp gram flour (besan)
- one bowl Urad dal (soaked for one hour)
- few strands of Coriander leaves
- Salt
- pinch of hing

Method

For Making Wadis: Wash Urad dal for 3 times and soak it in enough water for around one hour. After an hour, drain the dal and grind it(adding very little water) till it becomes coarse. Then add 1/2 tsp cumin seeds and few curry leaves(snip it with kitchen scissor) and grind again in a fine paste. If you find it difficult to grind, you can add few tsp of water and then grind. Remove the paste in a vessel and add salt, pinch of hing and pinch of turmeric powder and mix well.

Heat a frying pan with 2 tbsp oil and shallow fry the wadi by putting the batter using teaspoon in a small balls. Fry it both the sides till it turns brown and transfer them in a plate with kitchen paper..Keep aside

For Making Kadhi: Take all the curd in a big bowl and whisk it till it turns creamy. Add gram flour and beat again till there are no lumps left. Add enough water and whisk till water gets incorporated (more like buttermilk consistency) and keep aside.

Make fine paste of ginger, garlic and green chillies.

Take a heavy bottomed vessel and heat two tsp of oil. Add remaining cumin seeds and let it crackle. Add curry leaves and ginger,garlic and green chillies paste and let it fry for few seconds. Lower the flame and add the curd mixture and keep stirring. Add turmeric powder and salt and keep stirring till it comes to a boil ( its important to continuous stir till it boils on slow flame, so that it doesnt curdle).. Adjust the seasoning and simmer for few minutes till you dont taste the rawness of gram flour. Add chopped coriander leaves and the wadis and close the flame and cover the lid.

it can be served with rice or even with chapathis..

Enjoy!!!
 

Mangalorean Chicken Curry

I learned most of my non veg cooking from my mother-in-law, and this recipe is one of them. This is one of the simplest recipe and yet very delicious.. I usually prefer this recipe when we have more number of guests..
October was the month of Rosary and the whole month we had prayers and dinner at our every community member's place, taking turns. It was fun.. When our turn came, we knew that the decoration part was to be done by my sweet hubby and son and the cooking part to be done by me...As you can see they did such a pretty job..

 

 

Well, as far as my part was concerned, I didnt wanted to stress too much, and so I decided on some simple stuff..

 

  - Chicken Curry( everybody feels good when thrs non veg as we all are pure non vegetarian)

  - Pav ( readymade from Bakery)

  - Cucumber Salad ( very simple - chopped onions, cucumbers, fresh coriander leaves, little hung curd, salt and pepper, little lemon juice.. thats it)

  - Some sweets ( Store brought Haldiram's Rasgullas)

 

I know you guys must be thinking, half of the stuffs are store brought, .. But hye.. there were 20 guests and it was the first time I was cooking for so many people... Neways at the end it was good, we felt so good... 

 

So here is the recipe for our Mangalorean Chicken Curry..(the chapathis were for my hubby as he prefers chapathis)

 

Ingredients

 

- 1 kilo chicken with bones(cleaned, washed and cut in medium size)

- 1 tsp coriander seeds

- 1 tsp cumin seeds

- 1/4 tsp mustard seeds

- 3/4 tsp turmeric powder

- 5-6 cloves of garlic

- 1 inch ginger

- 3 big onion sliced

- 1/2 fresh coconut grated

- 5-6 Dry red chillies( assortment of Bedki and Kashmiri)

- few curry leaves

- 1/2 tsp raw rice

- Tamarind paste of small lemon size tamarind

 

Method

 

Crush all the ginger and 4 garlic together. Marinate the chicken with turmeric powder and crushed ginger and garlic overnight or for few hours.

 

Dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds and mustard seeds and raw rice and keep aside. Heat little oil(around 1/2 tsp) in a pan and roast remaining garlic(sliced) and one onion (sliced) till it turns a little brown and keep aside. In the same pan, add curry leaves and dry roast till it becomes little crisp(dont burn) and keep it with roasted onion and garlic. At the end in the same pan add the dry red chillies and roast till it becomes crisp from both side(again make sure dont burn)... and let all the ingredients cool a little.

 

In a grinder or mixer add roasted coriander seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, raw rice, red chillies, and coconut(not roasted) and grind it till its fine paste by adding little water now and then as required.. At the end add roasted onions, garlic and curry leaves and grind it again till all the ingredients are very fine and smooth..

 

Heat a big heavy bottomed vessel with 2-5 tsp oil. Add 2 sliced onions and fry till light brown. Now add the marinated chicken and fry it for few minutes till it becomes little brown as this process will seal all their juices in it. Once done add tamarind paste and salt and mix well. Let it boil and then lower the flame to slow, close the lid and cook till its just cooked( around 15-20 minutes). Make sure thers is liquid in the chicken while cooking, if you find it dry add some water. Once its cooked , add the prepared red paste and mix well.. Add more water depending on the consisitency you require( if making for chapathis, keep it thick, for rice little less thick, but dont make too watery, it will loose its taste). Let it boil and simmer for few minutes till you see the oil coming on top. Adust the seasoning. Close the flame and let it sit for some time before serving.. This will ensure all the flavours are diluted nicely in the curry.. Somehow I find the same curry taste much better in the evening than in afternoon..

 

This can be served with rice, chapathis or Bread.. or even used as Kori Rotti..

 

 

 

 

Candied Orange Peels

Its already October and Christmas is just 2 months away.. Whenever I think of Christmas in terms of food.. all I can think about is my Mom in laws special chicken curry and chicken fry.. and Fruit Cake.. A traditional Fruit Cake requires quite a lot of preparation.. and this is the right time to start..

I am planning to make 2 types of Fruit cakes this time.. One for Adults and an another one for kids... Adult one is the special one and ofcourse the traditional one which is made some weeks in advance and is aged by brushing the cake with some brandy or rum once or twice a week.

I have a son now and he loves cake and so I would be making one more fruit cake but without alcohol and is loaded with dry fruits and candied peels ..

Traditional Fruit cake requires preparation some months in advance.. As the name suggest it is loaded with dry fruits.. walnuts, black currants, raisins, dates, prunes, candied peels, glace cherries, dried apricots, dried figs.. etc.. So the first part is to collect these ingredients... Dry fruits are easily available in the market, but candied peels can be bit difficult to find, but can be made at home like I did..
 

Very few ingredients are required to make candied peels..
 
- Peels of 3 Oranges
- 350 gms sugar
- 200 gms water
 
Candied peel making is a lengthy process though the ingredients are very few... Firstly clean the peels and cut it in strips and remove most of the soft fibre from it using a knife.. (I have used peels from two different kind of oranges, one is our Nagpur oranges and another one is the imported one and believe me our Nagpur orange's peels has lots of flavour compare to the other ones)
 

 
Take a big vessel and add sufficient water(to cover all the peels) and allow it to boil.. When it starts boiling, add the prepared peels and stir once to mix. Let it start boiling again.. and keep the flame on medium and cook it for 10 minutes..

 

Once its boiled for 10 minutes, discard the water and add fresh water to the peels and heat it again and let it start boiling.. After it start boiling, lower the flame to medium and cook again for 10 more minutes.. ( this process removes the bitterness from the peels and make it soft)... Do this process the third time as well.. and then drain the water and cover the vessel and keep it aside for a while...
 
After its cooled, Heat a pan and add 350gms sugar and 200 gms water and mix..Keep stirring till the sugar disolves.. then lower the flame and add the cooked peels... Mix well and let it simmer for 10 minutes...The mixture will appear foamy which means the peels has been cooked to the right consistency.. Switch off the flame and leave it to cool for 10 minutes.
 
After 10 minutes transfer the peels along with the syrup in a clean bowl and cover it and leave it overnight..
 

 
 
In the morning heat a vessel and add the soaked oranged peels along with the syrup and bring to a boil. Once it starts boiling reduce flame to low and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes... Make sure it doesnt burn.. Switch off the flame..and strain the peels and drain all the syrups...Spread the prepared peels on a tray or a plate,  making sure it doesnt overlap and let it cool completely...

 



Once its cooled completely ( in few hours) cut them in small cubes using kitchen scissor and store in an airtight container in the fridge...and it will stay for many months...

 

So next time, whenever you buy oranges.. make sure you reserve the peels.. and make candy at home....Hows that....Give it a try and let me know...Enjoy!!!