Nethili Vadai - Anchovies Fritters

As you might have noticed, I have just vanished from the blog world for quite some time now. Reasons have been many. Loads of work and then I have taken off from work for a few months on health grounds. These few days I get away, I wanted to relax and rest my body and soul. Right now, I'm in India with family and just enjoying the serenity. Though I'm busy all day, I have no stress now and I like it very much. In the meantime, I have finished my German Driving Theory Exam - which I kept postponing for about one year.

Coming to driving, after having learnt the many rules and regulations, traffic signs and how to behave in different situations, coming here to India and noticing the traffic, I just feel shocked. Nobody obeys rules!! The bitter truth is that, most of the people do not know about traffic rules. However, the traffic flows and functions in some kind of understanding against one another. And, it has been so for ages!! It is indeed a wonder.

Well, now, I just want to share quickly with you, one of my favourites at my in-laws place. My husband hails from a town located in the southern most part of India and famous for its culinary specialities, which are mostly a tasty blend between the Tamilnadu and Kerala cuisine. Located relatively close to the sea, there is never a shortage of sea-food at home. My mother-in-law prepares wonderful varieties out of them and Nethili vadai (Anchovies fritters) is just one simple delicacy which is sure to please anyone's taste buds.

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Makes: 15 pieces

Ingredients:
Anchovies - 250g
Gram flour - 3 Tbsp
Curry leaves and cilantro - a handful, chopped
Salt - to taste

To grind:
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Sombu powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Green chillies - 2 long, slit lengthwise
Ginger garlic paste - 1 Tbsp
Small onions - 10

Method:
Clean the anchovies. Take the anchovies in a heavy bottomed vessel, add some salt and a little water and cook them.

Grind the ingredients given under "To grind" to a coarse paste.

Drain the water from the cooked anchovies and add the ground masala paste to them. Add the gram flour and the chopped green leaves to them. Mix them all together like you would for preparing vadais or other fritters.

Heat oil in a kadai. Take small balls out of the mixture, tap them lightly, put into the hot oil and fry them golden brown.

Crispy Nethili vadai (Anchovies fritters) are ready.

You may enjoy these crispies as such with ketchup or as a side dish for meals. :)

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Fig Rolls

I wonder at what auspicious time I wrote my last post. Since the very next day, the winter in Frankfurt is being severe. It snows and it is unbelievably and unbearably cold. Sometimes there is no snowfall, the sun shines, yet it is unbelievably and unbearably cold. I wear several layers of clothing, the heating is on the upper high, yet it is unbelievably and unbearably cold.

Tja, with such low temperatures ranging around -6 C to -14 C even during the days, what can one expect? I have heard, the lakes in Frankfurt parks have frozen and people are playing, skating, etc on the frozen lake. I'm yet to see that during the weekend. I hope the river (River Main, a tributary of Rhine flows through Frankfurt) doesn't freeze. My colleagues optimistically add, "It is not that bad yet, you know!!". However, I see huge ice blocks floating on the river and I'm just scared. :(

These are the times, I hate going out or doing anything at all. I just want to cuddle up in the bed and sleep all the time. It takes me extra will power to get out of the bed, get ready and go to work. The thing I hate the most is the 5 minutes I wait for the bus, shivering in the cold, wiping my nose every now and then. Whatever it is, once I get to office, sitting at my place with a cup of warm tea and enjoying the snow fall outside the window does not fail to amuse me. :)

Fine, enough of my blabbering and over to the post. This is another entry to the most awaited Blog Hop Wednesdays. This time, I got to visit Vaishali's Ribbons to Pastas, an excellent blog with a variety of finger licking goodies to try out. I very much wanted to try a dish from her Sindhi cuisine, which is something very new to me. But, due to time constraints, I rather picked up a simple dish. This is an easy to prepare sweet/snack, yet very very nutritious. I hope you would remember my Dry Fruits Burfi, that I prepared a few days back. There were some dried figs left over and with these Fig Rolls, I found the perfect use for them.

I followed the original recipe almost exactly, however I would provide it here. For step by step instructions, please refer the original recipe.

Preparation Time: 15 mins
Makes: around 15 pieces

Ingredients:
Dried Figs: 200g
Dates: 5, chopped
Mixed nuts: 1 cup (pistachios, chopped almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, etc)
Ghee or Butter: 1 Tbsp

Method:
Cook the figs with very little water in a microwave for about 4 minutes. Blend the figs in a blender. Heat ghee in a heavy bottom pan. Add the blended figs to the pan and roast for a few minutes. Take off the flame and let it cool. Now add the chopped nuts and dates to the fig and mix well.

Roll the mixture into logs and cover it with a fresh foil. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. Just before serving, take the logs out. Cut them into pieces and serve as a snack.

Verdict:
The fig rolls were very tasty and packed with nutrients. We both really loved them and I would be making them again when I buy figs next time. The choice of nuts is entirely yours and you can make them with those available at hand. I have garnished them with powdered hazel nuts. Another variation would be to roll them as small balls instead of logs. And then again, roll them over coconut rasps. Oh! I just love this idea!! Thanks to Vaishali for the lovely recipe.

Sending this to Blog Hop Wednesdays - Week 14, hosted by Radhika of Tickling Palates and to Anyone Can Cook Series 41 of Taste of Pearl City.

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Mini-Brötchen with Olive Chutney

Winter this year in frankfurt is relatively mild. And, different. Different in the sense that, it is not snowy and white, as i have witnessed the last three years. It is just cold, gloomy, rainy and windy. Last winter, Frankfurt saw record level snow fall. In December 2010, it snowed in Frankfurt like never in the last year 40 years. It caused complete chaos in the highways, trains ran with unbelievable delays and even the international airport saw a complete still stand. This time, we hardly spot snow fall. I just wonder what's happening. Anyways, there is still more than a month to go, before we could say Winter is over. Let's see!!

Ok. Let's move on to the topic. What I'm going to share this time is a speciality in one of our favorite eat-outs. Pizza Pasta Factory is a chain of restaurants and they specialize in Italian dishes, like the name says. After we order our favorite pasta, we get this lovely combination of Brötchen and Olive Chutney as our starters. I like it so much that I wanted to make it at home for a long time. Last weekend the idea materialized. Believe me it is damn easy and tastes awesome.

Basically, Brot means bread and Brötchen means bun in German. German breads and buns are quite different from those in other places, especially in North America. The Germans like their buns to be a little hard with crisp crusts. During my initial days here, I used to wonder why are breads and buns so very hard here and it is a pain to just chew them. I was used to only the soft "Modern Bread", "Milka Bread" and the milk buns and coconut buns, back in India. Here, white breads are not common, if not rare. Crisp crusts are seen as a sign of good quality bread/buns. I got slowly used to these and I'm just loving them now.

These little buns or Mini-Brötchen are such crusty buns made out of the basic pizza dough. Well, we just have to prepare pizza dough and roll some of it into small berry sized balls and bake it. The rest of the dough can, of course, be reserved for our favorite pizza. I'm providing the recipe anyways, just in case, you haven't prepared pizza dough on your own.

Mini Brötchen:

Recipe Source: Adapted from Jamie Oliver's Pizza Dough
Preparation Time: 15 mins
Setting Time: 1 hr
Baking Time: 30 mins
Makes: around 30 pieces

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 400g
Dried Yeast - 1 packet
Brown Sugar - 1 Tbsp
Extra Virgin Olive oil - 2 Tbsp
Sea salt - 1 tsp
Lukewarm water - 300 ml

Method:
Sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add yeast, brown sugar and olive oil to the luke warm water and leave for about 5 minutes. When the water becomes frothy, start adding it little by little to the flour and mix well. Knead well with floured hands for about 5-10 mins until the dough becomes soft and springy.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover with a wet clean cloth. Set this in a warm place for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to about 180C. Now, take the dough in a well-floured clean surface. Punch the air back and knead a little. Start taking berry sized balls out of the dough. Roll them a little and arrange the cute balls in regular intervals on a baking sheet placed on a baking tray. Bake them for about 25-30 mins or until the upper crust turns golden brown.

Olive Chutney:

This one is absolutely easy to prepare and tastes awesome with any type of bread.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Makes: 1 1/2 cup chutney

Ingredients:
Olives - 300 g, pitted
Red Chili - 1, like the one shown in picture, chopped
Garlic - 3 small pods, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil - as needed

Method:

Blend everything except oil in a blender until coarse. Store in refrigerator until serving time. Just before serving, drizzle enough olive oil as needed for the consistency you like. This goes well with any bread.

We loved the combo very much. This is so simple, yet it would be a show stealer when inviting guests or in a party. Hope you enjoy them as well as we did.

Sending this as an entry to Zesty Palette's New U and Girlichef's Bake Your Own Bread. Also sending to Taste of Pearl City's Anyone can Cook: Series 40 and to Now Serving's Dip In - Chutney Chow Down.

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Banana Fritters

Everyone and everything here awaits Christmas now. It gets dark around 5pm and wherever you turn, you see cute little lights and candles, adorning huge and small christmas trees. The shops, malls, houses, railway stations and even my office has got the new Christmas look now. In Germany, Advent is celebrated as a tradition awaiting Christmas. It marks the four weeks before Christmas. Every week, one of the four candles in the advent wreath is lighted until Christmas. You can find more info in http://www.german-way.com/christmasAdv.html. It is really fascinating to know such things about the traditions and cultures in the lives of people in different countries.

Now, coming to the post, this is yet another entry for the Blog Hop Wednesdays, an event by Radhika of Tickling Palates. This time, I got the chance to visit Jabeen's Corner. I have been following her space for quite some time now and I really find her space interesting. The way she narrates things sometimes makes me feel as if I'm hearing her in person and the liveliness in her tone is contagious. I'm glad I got a chance to try something from her blog. As always, we (I and my husband) were browsing through her posts and when we saw Banana Fritters, we at once knew - that's it.

Banana Fritters, known as 'Pazham Pori' regionally, is a famous tea-time snack in Keralite households. As I'm writing the post, it brings me some of the unforgettable memories in my life. I very well remember where I first tasted these gorgeous snack. During our final year Engineering studies, we, a group of four friends were staying at one of our Keralite friend's house in Trivandrum, for doing our Project Work. Her mother is a wonderful cook. Inspite of her full time job, she passionately cooked varieties of tasty dishes for us all. Every evening, after we return tired from our day's work, we would find something special and tasty awaiting us in the dining table, along with tea. We used to savour these as hungry birds, chit-chatting and drinking tea. One such evening was when I got to taste these. It was wonderful that even banana can be fried and it tasted really awesome.

After that, it was in my in-laws place where I tasted them again. My husband's native is a town located quite close to the Kerala border in Tamilnadu and strongly influenced by Kerala cuisine. Every often, my mother-in-law would prepare these simple delicacies. It would all vanish within a few minutes, as everyone in family likes them. I, myself, have never prepared these and it's quite been some time sinced we ate them last. Well, now you could imagine my husband's enthu on seeing this in Jabeen's Corner.

I went ahead straight away and prepared these last Sunday. The recipe is so so simple, that there is really no need to repeat it. You can find it here. Just prepare the batter, dip the banana pieces and fry. You'll be surprised at the number of pieces easily going into your mouths within minutes.

Notes:

• The banana should be really ripe enough for a good taste. Long yellow coloured variety (Yethampazham) is well suited.
• I did not use turmeric, as like my mother-in-law's recipe.
• The amount of sugar can be adjusted according to the sweetness of the banana. It can very well be replaced with honey or maple syrup.

Thanks again Jabeen for the recipe. Happily sharing this with Tickling Palates' Blog Hop Wednesday - Week 10.

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Mango Kalakhand

In India, this is the time when an array of holidays line up the calendar marking the festival season. Celebrations are aplenty and festivals in India are always marked with good food and lots of sweets. I thought, it would be an apt time to share a simple sweet recipe.

I first learnt making Kalakhand from Taste of Pearl City. She showed me her recipe and motivated me to try it. My very first try was a hit. Since then, I've made them quite often, experimenting every time with different flavors. When I made this Mango Kalakhand, I was too excited at the bright orange color, that I thought, this really deserves being photographed. Now that I have these photos uploaded, I thought I could share the recipe too.

Serves: makes about 12 pieces
Preparation time: 18 mins

Ingredients:
Ricotta cheese - 1 cup
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1 cup
Mango puree - 1/2 cup
Saffron- a few strands soaked in warm milk
Cardamom powder - a tiny pinch
Ghee or butter to grease the bowl

Method:

Take a medium sized microwave safe bowl. Grease with a little ghee. Add all the ingredients in the bowl and mix them well. Microwave it in high for 5 minutes. Take the bowl out, give a stir and microwave again for 5 minutes. Repeat taking the bowl out and stirring and microwave again, but now in 2 mins intervals. Continue until the mixture is no more a liquid and has attained a steady consistency. Take care not to burn.
Now, take the bowl out and spread the mixture in a square tray and let it cool. Cut and enjoy!!

Note:

• It took in my microwave a total of 18 mins until done. That is, after the first two cycles of 5 mins microwaving, I did three times 2 mins microwaving and two times 1 min microwaving. Just make your best judgement according to your microwave.
• You can use mango puree from fresh mango pulp. Canned puree (Alfonso) works good as well.

This is sure to delight mango and sweet lovers alike. You can experiment with other flavors too. Chocolate flavor is our favorite too, where you might add a little of cocoa instead of mango puree.

This goes as an entry to Tickling Palates' Diwali Special - Sweets and Savories and Anu's Healthy Kitchen's Diwali - Festival of Lights and Kirthi's Kitchen's Serve It - Festival Potluck, co-hosted by Denny of Oh Taste and See.

Wish you all a Happy Diwali!!!

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Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

It is again a long time I have been away from blogging world. Reasons are many. As usual, busy work schedule was one among them. My system was infected with a Trojan for some days. Then again, other things kept me busy even during the long weekends. Little time was left to cooking and blogging :-( Anyways, I have this post sitting in my draft for sometime. So, I thought I must push it a little to get it posted somehow today.

During one of the long weekends we were blessed with in June, we went to visit one of our friends in a nearby town. It had been quite a long time we saw each other and hence had a lot to catch up with.

After a sumptuous meal and a hearty chit chat at her home, we all set out for Strawberry picking in the afternoon. It was a different experience altogether. For those who don't know what this means, let me explain. This is the season for Strawberries here. Farmers who cultivate strawberries open their farms for the public. We can go into the farm, pluck strawberries ourselves and at the end, weigh them and pay. It was my first time on such an expedition and it was totally fun. Taking a basket, walking through the field, searching for the ripe ones, tasting one or two in the meantime and filling our baskets. It was also fun to watch little kids there with their own cute little buckets. Atlast, I was amazed by the cheaper prices for those fresh ones, compared to buying from supermarkets.

Ok now, a load full of Strawberries. What do I do with them? I hate wasting food in any form. But, being poorly organized I am, it sometimes happens that I leave things unattended to in my fridge and end up wasting them. My husband is very strict about this and gets upset with me whenever I waste food. This time, I took a resolution to completely use them. And I am glad it so happened :-)

I prepared the following more than once and we both enjoyed them in full - Strawberry milk shake, Strawberry Breakfast Smoothie from Priya's Easy and Tasty Recipes and Strawberry Shrikhand from Jabeen's Corner.

Still, I wanted to bake something with the rest of them. My intention first was to make a good cake. But, rather settled for cookies, since the flour I bought last time is well suited for cookies. After some intensive search, I landed upon this post - Strawberry Shortcake Cookies. It attracted me at the very first sight and had a beautiful name too. Cookies with fresh fruit pieces to bite upon - sounded exciting!! This is my first experience with a short cake and I was quite anxious too.

The result was absolutely fabulous. Is it the butter? Or the sugar or the cream which gave them such a taste? No no!! It is definitely those wonderful little red ones that made these cookies so lovely and yummy. They just melted in our mouths. I and my husband lost count of how many went in at one shot.

I followed the original recipe as it is. It yielded me nearly 50 cookies like the ones you see in the picture. I prepared them in batches. I left the last batch to bake for a little more time. The result was even more crunchier. I was not sure how long these cookies would hold with fresh fruits in it as it is almost like summer here. So, we finished them all up in 2-3 days. I would definitely bake these again, the next time I get such fresh berries and may be, take them to my office. Dear readers, do give a try!! You would just love it!!

I'm sending this post as an entry to aipi's US Masala - Bookmarked Recipes. See you all next time soon with a Travel post :-)

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Garlic Rolls

A few months back, we visited a friend of ours. It was in the holy month of Ramadan and we went for Iftar (breaking of the fast). The lady of the house is none other than the creator of Taste of Pearl City. They had arranged a fabulous Iftar Menu and I was like wowwww... There were many dishes and it was a very harmonious satisfying Iftar; may the Almighty bless them.

After returning home, my husband commented about a bread and said it was awesome. I wondered, which bread?? It was probably placed on the other side of the table and I guess, I didn't take the effort to reach it. But, when I called her and asked about it, she said that it was the Garlic Rolls and that the recipe was up on her blog. I immediately knew, I was going to try it.

The next weekend, I tried the recipe, my first ever bread, and here you can see the results.

Hhhhhmmm... :-) the bread was indeed awesome and it just melted in my mouth.One cannot stop with just one piece. In Tamil, we say, "Yaam petra inbam - peruga ivvaiyagam". I hope, those who read this also try these luscious rolls and enjoy like me.

This post goes to US Masala's Bookmarked Recipes and to the event "Tried and Tasted" of Oh Taste and See, organised by Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles.

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Printen

It's quite some time since my last post. I've been a little tied up with my job. A few weeks back, we bought some things in a Bio (Organic Food) Shop and while shopping I found a tiny booklet with a few Christmas recipes and was excited. I have gained confidence with baking, ever since I tried my hands on it and almost 80% of my baking experiences were a success. With that confidence, this time I wanted to try a cookies recipe.

Printen - They are a kind of cookies, famously called the Aachener Printen. Those authentic ones hail from a place called Aachen. I've never tasted them and neither do I know how those are prepared. I just followed the recipe given in that booklet. It was very easy to make and tasted absolutely wonderful. Here, you go...

Preparation Time: 15 Min
Baking Time: 12 Min

You need:

Plain flour – 250g
Soft Butter – 100g
Sugar – 50g
Honey – 150g
Zest of orange – 1 tsp
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Salt – a pinch
Cardamom – ½ tsp
Almonds – 100g
Fruit spread from Apricot

Method:

Blend sugar, butter and honey well to a fluffy mixture. To this, add the flour, orange zest, cardamom and salt and knead to dough. Cover this dough with a thin fresh foil and refrigerate for about half an hour.

Take the dough out and roll to about 5mm thickness. Now, cut into rectangular pieces. Place a baking sheet on a slightly buttered baking tray. Arrange the pieces on the baking sheet, with some distance between each other.

Now, slightly paint the pieces with the fruit spread on the top, using a baking brush. Press an almond into the centre of each piece.

Preheat the oven to 175C and bake the pieces for about 12 mins.

Note:

• The actual recipe called for 75g sugar. We found it a bit too sweet for cookies. So, I have reduced the amount of sugar to 50g in the recipe above.
• The actual recipe called for gingerbread spice. I have replaced it with cardamom.
  

My Printen were done exactly on the 12th minute, when they were beautifully brown gold in colour. The fruit spread coating and the orange zest gave a fabulous taste to the cookies. I was overwhelmed with the success.

I stored them in an air-tight container and for the next few days, after coming home from office and before cooking, they helped me keep my hunger away for sometime :-)

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