Recipes Cooking

The two week holidays are back and its that time of the year when I struggle to find ways to interest my pre-schooler boy outside of the iPad or DVDs. Last afternoon, it was baking time. I pulled out the Muffins Bible from the bookshelf, read out the recipe for Blueberry muffins to the son, made him wear his spiderman apron, spread newspapers on the kitchen table and we were all set to bake together. He promptly recruited my househelp as the sous chefs sous chef, i mean, his sous chef. We measured out the dry ingredients, and the boy threatened to stir it with so much enthusiasm that I thought there would be more flour outside the bowl than inside it. When it was time to crack the eggs, he wanted to do it all by himself, breaking each of them like coconuts on the tines of the fork. My househelps heart was in her mouth, in the fear that how much clean up wed have to do if he broke the eggs on the floor. Thankfully, it wasnt that much of a disaster. We managed to fill up the muffin cups and when I turned around to put it in the preheated oven, guess what I see? When my attention had turned elsewhere for a nanosecond, he had cranked up oven temperature to 250C, changed the oven setting to grill - one crazy sous chef indeed. After some rectifications, the muffin tin finally went inside and then he sat almost burning his nose by touching it to the oven glass, to wait for them to be ready.



Finally when it was out, he didnt mind his tongue getting burnt but he had to taste them immediately. This morning, I asked him if he could recall how we made the muffins, this is what he drew. This made me a happy mom :)




Lemon & Blueberry Muffins
Makes 15 medium sized muffins






Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil or 1/2 cup oil + 1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup milk (at room temperature)
Zest of two lemons
Juice of 2 lemons
1 cup blueberries* (frozen or fresh)

Directions
Preheat the oven at 190°C.
In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and mix well with a fork or a whisk.
Whisk the oil / butter, vanilla extract, eggs and milk in another bowl. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice, give it a quick whisk and add this to the big bowl of dry ingredients.
Gently fold in the blueberries.
Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper liners or grease them well with butter.
Divide the batter between the 12 muffin holes. If theres any extra, make in the next batch, or bake a baby cake with left over batter.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Shopping Guide
I used frozen blueberries that goes by the brand Delishh, found in the freezer section of Auchan Supermarket (Gopalan Mall), KR Puram. Rs.215 for 200 grams, they were of reasonably good size and freshness. This freeezer section also stocked frozen raspberries and blackberries. 


My Doodle recipe is a part of Easy Doodle Recipe contest at BlogAdda.com in association with TastyKhana.com

Ive heard about Cobnuts, but live a long way from Kent and have never had the priviledge of tasting them. A Cobnut is a type of hazelnut traditionally grown in Kent. They are harvested in their green state form mid August and with brown shells and husks by mid October. All the Kentish Cobnuts are sold dehusked from November onwards.  I still havent tasted the fresh green cobnuts but I can certainly recommend this Handmade Chocolate and Kentish Cobnut Fudge which was sent to me, for review, by Potash Farm.  The fudge has a smooth creamy texture with lots of small nut pieces through it and a rich chocolate flavour, it was a big hit with my husband.

Potash Farm have a range of nuts, fudges and brittles, chocolates, biscuits, preserves and sauces sold from their website. A 200g bag of Handmade Chocolate and Kentish Cobnut Fudge costs £5.25

YOU CAN GET A DISCOUNT OF 10% OFF ANY ORDER FROM POTASH FARM UNTIL 10TH OCTOBER 2013, JUST USE THE CODE: FARMERSGIRL 10

Im a big fan of olives and Oloves is a new way to eat olives as an on the go snack.  The little foil pack contains 30g of flavoured olives and there are four different flavours: Lemon and Rosemary, Basil and Garlic, Chilli and Garlic and Chilli and Oregano.  The Oloves were very tasty and the flavourings tasted natural.  One of the big pluses for this way of presenting olives is that there is no oil or brine in the packages and they are only 50 calories per pack.  Holland and Barret are currently selling packs of Oloves for 99p with two for £ 1.48.

 I also used one of the packs as part of my homemade pizza topping which worked well,  they stayed moist and added a great flavour to the pizza.

I was given a pack of this locally produced In House chocolate for my birthday.  Ive tried the Green and Blacks Spice Chilli chocolate, but this little bar packs a much bigger punch.  It has real pieces of dried chilli in the dark chocolate and a small piece is quite sufficient to give you a real buzz of chocolate and leave your tongue tingling from the heat of the chilli.  I loved it!

In House chocolates gained 6 Gold Great Taste Awards and 2 Shortlistings in the Scottish Food Excellence Awards, renowned as the Food Oscars of the Scottish food industry.  All the chocolates are made by hand in Scotland and they run chocolate workshops and have an online chocolate club.

I have already been raving about my crush on Mexican food ever since I opened that tiny tin of Chipotle chillies that Nupur got me. I dont know if winter has officially set in, in Hyderabad or is it some random cyclone effect - but the mornings and evenings are chilly and the day is generally cloudy. I am not a big sun person, so this suits me just fine. More so, I can indulge in infinite cups of tea, drink big bowls of soup for dinner and my taste buds suddenly develop a liking for spicy stuff. "Bring back the Chili" said my tastebuds to me yesterday. And opposites attract, dont they. What better way to complement the hot and flavour blasting chili than this mildly sweet cornbread, scented with cumin and coriander leaves?



I have baked cornbread some 3-4 times and this was THE. BEST. EVER. I am not exaggerating.
Especially if you are someone who has shied away from baking this because you dont eat eggs, you are in for a pleasant surprise. My husband quit eating eggs a few years ago and I am constantly figuring out ways to turn out decent baked stuff with replacements for egg and yesterday I hit gold. Flaxseed which is one of the best sources of Omega-3 for a vegetarian. You can buy the seeds and powder the quantity required for each recipe in a coffee grinder / chutney jar of mixer.

For each egg to be replaced - use 1 tbsp flaxseed powder whisked into 3 tbsp of very hot water. You will get an emulsion like beaten eggs and use it at the stage of the recipe when it calls for eggs.

This was most perfect match for the chili and I must add that my toddler son loved this too - in fact he was making it extremely difficult for me to take a picture, by digging his tiny fingers into it!


Recipe for Eggless Cornbread
Serves 3-4
Loosely adapted from Alton Browns Creamed Corn Cornbread recipe

In a large bowl, mix-
1 cup yellow cornmeal (Makkai ka atta)
1/2 cup all purpose flour (Maida)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk well-
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp flaxseed powder whisked into 6 tbsp hot water
1/2 cup milk

Extras
2 tbsp finely chopped pickled jalapenos or 1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds for garnish (optional, but gives a nice look to the bread)
1/4 cup frozen corn kernels (gives a nice sweet crunch, but I did not have it on hand, so did not use)

Directions
Preheat the oven at 200C.
Grease a loaf tin or line with tin foil.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry - till just combined and stir in the jalapenos, coriander leaves and corn kernels. I added a few spoons of the brine from pickled jalapenos as I found the mix somewhat dry. This gave a big flavour boost to the bread.
Pour into greased loaf tin. Flatten lightly with wet fingers and bake for 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Let it rest for 15-20 minutes outside, before slicing.
Serve warm with chili. Recipe for chili posted here.

Food shopping in Hyderabad

Flaxseed also called Alsi in Hindi and Tashi in Bengali (knowledge shared by my twitter friends) is available with most grocers nowadays.
In Hyderabad, you can buy it at -
Ratnadeep (Srinagar Colony / Madhapur)
Q Mart (Road no.2 Banjara Hills)
Hypercity (Inorbit Mall, Madhapur)
Fabindia outlets that stock food

Pickled Jalapenos are available in all supermarkets. American Garden, Frigata are some of the good brands.

Mmm, chocolate!  Lovely Cadbury Chocolate, there really is nothing quite like it.  Im a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to my Cadbury flavours, I tend to go for Fruit and Nut or plain Dairy Milk.  I would never have picked up these two flavours, but I surely wasnt going to refuse them when they were offered for review!


The Cadbury Dairy Milk with Daim was the bar I preferred, I enjoyed the contrast of the smooth melting Dairy Milk and the crisp, crunchy pieces of Daim bar.  Ive never really understood the appeal of the Oreo, I can see that they are the cookies of childhood for our US cousins, but we have prefectly good sandwich cookies in the UK. Anyway, I found the Dairy Milk with Oreo a bit too sweet for me and the filling had no contrast, being soft.  I scoffed it down anyway, but I wouldnt choose it. Everyone has their own favourites and Cadbury have plenty of new flavour combinations to choose from, something for everyone.  Personally the Dairy Milk Crunchie is calling to me....

The New Covent Garden Soup Co. are well known for their delicious chilled soups and they have introduced some new Skinny Soups,  I was sent Skinny Souper Green with Italian Basil Pesto


New Covent Garden Soup Co. Pulled Pork and Bean Soup is Soup of the Month for November and a substantial spicy meat and bean combination.  I served it with Quesadillas for a tasty and filling lunch.

Its always a particular pleasure for me to review Scottish products like this Scottish Rapeseed Oil from Borderfields.  Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil  is a home grown substitute for olive oil with a healthy balance of omega 3, 6 and 9.  It also has half the saturated fat of olive oil and no additives.

Borderfields Cold Pressed Scottish Rapeseed Oil is ideal for all kinds of cooking, baking, stir frying and drizzling.  I used it to roast some pumpkin chunks for a Kale, Pumpkin and Smoked Cheese Tart the oil has a lovely creamy flavour but it doesnt overpower the flavours of the food you cook in it.  I also roasted some the pumpkin seeds with spices to make a tasty snack.


Borderfields Cold Press Rapeseed Oil is available across the UK at Asda, Sainsburys, Aldi and Morrisons and at Tesco in the North and Scotland.
RRP of £3.99 for 500ml bottles:

I picked up this pack of Extremely Chocolately Honeycomb Crispies at Marks and Spencer, I didnt realise that they were designed to be low calorie for the Count on Us menu planner, when I chose them, but I have to say I was quite impressed.  Each square is individually wrapped (ideal for lunchboxes) and they are 120 calories per crispie.  They are nice an crunchy and you can really taste the honeycomb.

I was supplied with the following products for review:  Cadbury Dairy Milk with Daim, Cadbury Dairy Milk with Oreo; Covent Garden Soup Co. Pulled Pork and Bean and Skinny Souper Green with Italian Basil Pesto; Borderfields Scottish Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil.  

I purchased the Extremely Chocolatey Honeycomb Crispies and am sharing my review because I enjoyed them and thought you might too.

I was not paid for any of these reviews and all opinions are my own.