Homemade Apple Sauce

In this Diwali vacation I had been to Himachal Pradesh for a holiday. In Himachal Pradesh one will find variety of apples and roasted ground nuts being sold at every junction and corner.   

Whenever we went sightseeing these two items would be a must in our bag. Here I found the golden apple so sweet and grainy could not resist picking up a few kilos back home. Some went in distribution to neighbours and friends. Still there was basket full remaining. I always wanted to make apple sauce, at last went ahead and prepared them from these apples. So here is the recipe very simple and hassle free.
This recipe is updated on May 14, 2021. For the update version I have ground the cinnamon to powder with a tablespoon of sugar.

Ingredients 

3 - 4 Medium Apples
1 Tablespoon  Sugar - optional
½ Cup Water
½ Teaspoon Cinnamon Powder

Method  

Peel and chop the apple to small pieces. 

In pan place the apples and pour the water, keep it on medium flame, when it comes to a boil cover with a foil and cook it for 20 minutes on slow flame stirring in between till dry.  

When the water dries, switch off the flame taste add if ground cinnamon sugar and stir. Let is cool completely then blend it in a blender. Fill it in a airtight container. Store it in the refrigerator for 2 -3 days. If you want it to last longer store in freezer it will last for months. 

Homemade Apple Sauce is ready. 

This goes well with any bread.  

Labels: Jams & Sauces, Apple, Vegan, Gluten free, Homemade, International Cuisine

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

YELLOW RICE

This month in Mena's Cooking Club I, am travelling to Iraq.   Our host Maryam  for this month choose an Iraqi Meal.  This yellow rice is served  with Broiled Fish in Pomegranate Raisin Sauce.

This Rice served with fish is traditionally made yellow in Iraq so that the eater can easily pick out the thorny, fine bones typical of the native fish.

Recipe Source here

Ingredients

1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 cups rice
3 1/2 cups hot water
1 teaspoons salt
3 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick

Method:
In a medium nonstick pot over medium heat, heat the oil until it shimmers. Add the turmeric and stir for a few seconds until fragrant. Stir in the rice, hot water, salt, cardamom, and cinnamon. Raise the heat to high and boil the rice until visible moisture is absorbed, about 5 minutes. Lower heat to low, and simmer rice, covered, for 20 minutes. Turn the rice gently with a wooden spoon 2 to 3 times while simmering to allow it to fluff. Serve with cardamom and cinnamon still in the rice, for garnish.

This yellow rice is served with this

Labels: Continental Cuisine, Rice, Mena Cooking Club,

An InLinkz Link-up

Halawat Sha’riyya (Sweet ‘n Golden Vermicelli Noodles)

This month in Mena's Cooking Club I am travelling to Iraq. Our host Maryam has chosen Iraq for this month's challenge.  This the sweet dish.

This recipe is taken from the book 'Delights from The Garden of Eden'.
Recipe source here

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter plus 1 tablespoon oil
175 Grams Vermicelli noodles
2 ¼ cups Hot water
A pinch of salt
1 cup  granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon rose water
½ cup broken walnut pieces, optional

For garnish
2 tablespoons coarsely ground nuts

Method

Melt butter with oil in a medium heavy pot add the noodles stirring constantly until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Carefully pour in hot water, and add salt. Stir, and bring to a quick boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, until the noodles start to soften,  5 minutes.

Add sugar, cardamom, rose water, and walnut, if used. Stir until sugar crystals dissolve. Let the pot simmer, covered, on medium-low, stirring 2 or 3 times, until moisture is absorbed, noodles look glossy, and sugar starts to stick to the bottom of the pot (12 to 15 minutes).

Immediately, spread it on a platter, and give it a generous sprinkle of ground nuts. Serve it warm. 

Labels: Continental Cuisine, Vegan, Mena Cooking Club

An InLinkz Link-up

Apple Pie

Let me tell you about my tryst with pie crust. The first attempt the apple pie tasted good but crust was soggy and filling wet. We ate the day it was made, the next day remaining went into the bin as it was wet, soggy,looking at it none of us wanted to eat. Then for Christmas I, made a quiche. The quiche filling was good but the crust was thick and hard. There was no joy in eating this, but since this time I made a very small quiche it got over in tasting. But I decided not to give up, there is a saying " Keep trying till you succeed".
So, right enough I applied this quote, made a another apple pie, but this attempt too was flop, the crust soggy and filling wet.
Then I went digging into my recipe books, found a recipe which I had written down from a television show. I tried this recipe, let me tell you that this recipe is so good that It's a keeper. The crust and the filling perfect. 
Since I, did not have brown sugar, the filling is looking cream, never mind the color what's important that, this apple pie was purr.....fect.  Do try this recipe and give me your feedback.  So here is the recipe.

Pie Filling
Ingredients
2 Medium size apples, cored, peeled & diced into 8 thick pieces
1/3 cup Brown sugar
1 Tablespoons flour
1/4 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon nutmeg
1 Tablespoons whole milk
1 Tablespoons butter

Pie Crust
Ingredients
20 Grams Powdered Sugar
240 Grams All purpose flour
100 Grams Butter ( I used amul butter so I did not add the salt)
A pinch of Salt
20 grams Shortening ( I used vanaspati ghee)
Cold water required for binding the dough ( about 2 - 4 tablespoons)

Method to make the Pie crust
 Measure out the cold water (you could even put it in the freezer for a few minutes). Sift together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl, grate the butter and ghee and mix it with your finger tips to form bread crumbs. When the flour begins to look like bread crumbs add cold water spoon by spoon and form into a dough. Moisten all of the flour with the water, using your hand to break up large clumps of flour. The dough will be rather shaggy, but you can add another teaspoon of water, if you see that all your flour isn’t moistened. Form the dough into two disks. The disks will be rough, and hard to shape together, but once they rest in the fridge for an hour, the moisture will redistribute and they’ll be easier to roll out. Chill the dough for at least an hour in the refrigerator. At this point, the dough will keep in the fridge for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three weeks. For freezing, roll the dough out into disks and wrap them in plastic film. This dough will be sufficient for 7 inch pie tin.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator. If necessary, allow it to sit for about 10 minutes or until it is soft enough to roll. Take the dough between two cling film ,roll the bottom crust 1/8 inch thick or less and little more in diameter of the pie crust pan. Transfer it to a pie pan. Trim the edges almost even with the edge of the pan. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for a minimum of 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes preheat the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Prick the pie crust with a fork all over, and bake it for 10 mins till you see the top slightly brown. Remove and cool.

Lets start with the filling. Combine apples, sugar, flour, and spices in a large bowl. Arrange the apple mixture in the pie dish. Dot the top with the butter and drizzle with milk. Top with the second pie crust, roll the crust 1/8 inch thick or less and little more in diameter of the pan. Transfer it to a pie pan. Trim the edge almost even with the edge of the pan. Take a fork/toothpick and prick the top crust. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for a minimum of 10 minutes.

Remove the pie from the refrigerator and brush it with milk, bake for 50-60 minutes,  Just 15 minutes before removing from the oven sprinkle little sugar on the top to get a caramel crusty color. 

As you can see in the pics I used every bit of dough to make a design on the top. Cool and cut.     HAPPY EATING  !!!!!

This goes to the Bake a thon December 2014 event.


Labels: Pie, Apple, Vegan, Bake a thon.

Bake-a-thon 2014

An InLinkz Link-up