Almond - ella Chocolate Spread

Who does not love nutella? I do love it ! Nutella has hazelnuts and this is very expensive to use. I have found an healthy, easy and inexpensive way to make your own Almond - ella at home. I always make small quantity since this takes hardly any time to make. You can have a fresh jar at home very often.

Ingredients

1 Cup Almonds - lightly roasted
1 Tablespoon Oil
1 Cup heaped Dark Chocolate - finely chopped
A pinch of salt
1 Teaspoon cocoa powder - optional
A drop or two of Chocolate essence

Method

Add almonds to food processor or a small mixer jar and process for 10 minutes, scraping down the sides as necessary. At this point the almonds should start to clump together. Continue to process by adding the oil until you reach a liquid like consistency. Melt chocolate in small saucepan over very low heat. Stir consistently until completely melted and smooth. Add chocolate, cocoa powder, essence and salt to almond butter and process again until smooth. Transfer to jar or container and store at room temperature or in fridge. If you store at room temp, simply give the almond butter a stir before you use it. 

I hope you enjoy this homemade almond- ella. I been dipping strawberries, bananas in it and also spreading it on my rotis !  Yum ...m....y.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doingBM #47.
Labels:  Spreads, Blogging Marathon, Chocolate, Chutneys & Dips

Oats Honey Loaf

This bread recipe was given by Veena of Vegnation for the Blogging Marathon BM#47.

We use to get Honey and Oats Sandwich bread by Britannia , but suddenly they discontinued making it, we missed having that bread. When this recipe was shared by Veena I was very happy that, my desire of not only eating this bread but also baking it was fulfilled. Thanks Veena for this recipe.

Ingredients
3 Cups All purpose flour
3/4 Cup Oats
1 Cup Milk(HOT)
1/4 Cup Luke warm Water
2 ¼ Teaspoon Instant yeast
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1/4 Cup Honey
2 Teaspoon Butter
1 1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Method

Add sugar and yeast to the lukewarm water. Keep it aside for frothing. Add Butter to the hot milk and mix well so that it dissolves.Milk should be hot and not boiling . Now add the flour, oats, salt and mix in by hand. Add the yeast mixture to this and mix again. Now add honey to this milk mixture and mix thoroughly . Add the milk mixture to the flour yeast mixture and start kneading by hand till the forms a dough.

At this stage, take the bread to your kitchen platform and kneaded it for 10 more minutes.

Transfer this to a well oiled bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and let it rest in a warm place for 1 hr for it to double.

Now take out the dough to your kitchen platform and pat it into a rectangle approximately 9*5”.

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Brush the loaf with honey, sprinkle some oats on it and bake it for 30-40 minutes or till the loaf starts to brown and sound hollow on tapping.

Take out the loaf and remove the loaf and transfer the bread on a wire rack to cool. Slice when completely cooled.

Note:The dough will be sticky. Please resist the temptation to add more flour. Continue kneading,will give the best results for lovely bread.

This bread was soft and delicious. We enjoyed this bread.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doingBM#47.

Labels: Breads, Blogging Marathon.

BEER CHICKEN

This  recipe I, found on while surfing the net and have adjusted to our Indian taste using tandoori masala. This recipe I make very often and my daughter and her friend's simply love it. Though this is made with beer you will not get the taste of it in the chicken. The beer makes the chicken soft and moist, though baked then grilled it is still succulent and delicious.

Ingredients
2 Teaspoons Mustard oil
5 Chicken Drumsticks
1/4 Teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 Cup Beer
1 Teaspoon heaped Tandoori chicken masala
2 Tablespoon Honey
4 Garlic cloves - finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Coriander leaves - chopped
Juice of half a lime
Salt to taste.

Method

Rinse and pat dry your chicken drumsticks and give them a slit ( see pic) and toss them into a ziplock bag.

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl except the beer. 

Give the marinade mixture a good stir to mix it all together and taste it. Then add salt and seasoning according to your taste. Add the beer and whisk again.

Pour the marinade into the zip lock bag with the chicken. Seal it and massage the marinade into all the pieces of chicken. Let the chicken marinate for at leas couple of hours in the fridge, overnight would be best to let the chicken absorb all the flavors. 

Once the chicken has marinated arrange them on the baking tray.

Bake (make sure to oil the tray so the chicken doesn’t  stick) for 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees, turning over the pieces & basting it with the marinade every 7-8 minutes. Another way to check if the legs are done is to pierce a leg with a sharp knife down to the bone and if the flesh start peeling is it cooked or you’ll need to cook the chicken more. Once cooked just turn on only the grill and grill on maximum for 5 minutes turning the legs every 2 minutes for even browning.  Do not burn them, keep a watch.

Serve them up hot and garnished with some mint leaves and a squeeze of lime.

Sending this to the December Bake a thon event.

Labels: Chicken, Bake a thon

Bake-a-thon 2014

An InLinkz Link-up

Kartoffelbrot - German Potato Bread

For this months Tame the yeast challenge Priya Srinivasan’s shared this recipe with us. This bread was very tasty and easy to make. We all loved this bread. I also made some bread crumbs with the side pieces of the this bread and they came out crunchy when used.

Ingredients
1 Medium sized Potato
1.1/4 Cups of All Purpose flour
1/2 Teaspoon Instant yeast
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
3 Tablespoon Water (Water used to cook potato can be used)
1 Teaspoon Oil

Method

Wash and peel the potato and cut into 6 cubes. Cook them until soft. Let it cool completely. Drain and keep the water aside for kneading the bread.

Mash the potato fine. Now add the flour, yeast and salt to this and start kneading to make a soft dough. While kneading add water, oil slowly and knead the dough.

Once the dough holds a ball shape, take it to the kitchen counter, Knead around 10 minutes to get a smooth, dough. Let the dough rest in a well-oiled bowl for an hour or until it doubles.

Once it doubles, transfer the dough into a well floured kneading surface. Punch it down and shape it loosely into a ball. Do not handle the dough hard, just loosely roll it into a ball.

Grease a baking pan with oil or line a parchment. place the ball of dough into it and let it sit for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 220 C, using a scissor just make small cuts on top of the bread. Do not make deep cuts, bake the bread for 30 minutes or until the top is well browned. 

Take it out of the oven, remove the bread to a wire rack, let it cool completely. Slice and serve.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doingBM#47.


Labels : Breads, Blogging Marathon, Germany

BROILED FISH WITH POMEGRANATE RAISIN SAUCE WITH YELLOW RICE - AN IRAQI MEAL

This month in Mena's Cooking Club, I am travelling to Iraq our host Maryam choose this recipe for the savory. I have adapted this recipe to my taste. Recipe Source here

Ingredients

For the sauce
2 Tablespoons Vegetable oil
2 Medium onions -  chopped
1 Teaspoon Curry powder
1 Teaspoon Coriander powder
1/2 Cup  Pomegranate Juice
2 Medium T omatoes  - chopped
1 Capsicum - chopped
1 Tablespoon  Raisins
2 cloves garlic - thinly sliced
1 Teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup water

For the Fish
1 Teaspoon Mustard sauce
1 Teaspoon honey
250 Grams Basa or skinless fillet of salmon
1 tablespoon olive oil
Coarse salt, for sprinkling

To Serve Yellow Rice

Method
For the Sauce

In a skillet, heat the oil and saute onions until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add the curry powder and coriander and stir until fragrant, a few seconds. Add the pomegranate juice, tomatoes, capsicum, raisins, garlic, salt, black pepper, and water. Cook gently over medium heat, covered, until sauce thickens, 5 to 7 minutes. Keep warm.

For the Fish

Turn on the broiler. In a small bowl, stir the mustard and honey to combine. Line a flat baking pan with aluminum foil, and drizzle it with 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Arrange the fish (I used basa ) pieces on the pan, leaving space between them. Brush the fish with the mustard-honey mix, drizzle with the remaining oil, and sprinkle with salt. Broil for 5 minutes, then turn over the pieces and give them a brush of the mustard-honey mix and a sprinkle of salt. Broil until the surface is crisp and golden, 3 to 5 minutes. The fish is done when a knife gently inserted in the thickest part slides all the way through without resistance. Immediately transfer the fish pieces to a platter, and spread the pomegranate sauce around and between them. Sprinkle almonds all over the dish, and serve with the yellow rice.

Labels : Continental Cuisine, Fish, Mena Cooking Club,


An InLinkz Link-up