Chilli Beef

Ingredients

Beef - ½ kg

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Ginger & garlic – 1 ½  tbsp, finely chopped

Green chilli - 2, chopped

Onion - 2, cubed

Capcium – 1 small, cubed

Soya sauce - 3 tablespoon

Chilli sauce - 1 tablespoon

Tomato sauce - 1 tablespoon

 Pepper powder – ¼  teaspoon

Vinegar- ½ tsp

Sugar – ¼  tsp

Beef stock - 1 cup

Cornflour - ½ teaspoon

Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp chopped

Salt - to taste

 Oil

Method

Cook beef with salt & turmeric. Keep the stock aside. Once it is cooled, cut the beef into thin slices. Heat oil in a pan & add ginger, garlic & green chili and sauté for 5 minutes. Add onion and sauté again. Add cooked beef & stir well. Add all 3 sauces, pepper powder, sugar, vinegar, capsicum & sauté for 5 minutes. Mix cornflour in the stock & add to the beef. Stir for 2 minutes. When the gravy becomes thick remove from fire. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Basic Vanilla / Chocolate Cake

Many of my friends were asking me for basic cake recipe to start with. This recipe is easy to prepare and yummy too. You can even convert the vanilla cake to chocolate cake by replacing half of the flour with cocoa powder.

I think this is the first cake I started with in the beginning of my baking experiments. You don’t have to be an expert in cooking to bake cakes. I would say, it is easy to prepare cake than preparing a biryani or chicken curry. You just have to whip up the ingredients and keep it in oven. Within 15 -20 minutes, cake is ready.

I always add or replace ingredients to make different cakes. You can add coffee decoction for coffee cake, or strawberry or pineapple essence to make strawberry or pineapple cake. But I don’t prefer any other essence apart from vanilla as the other essence give artificial flavor to the cakes. Instead you can add pineapple or orange juice or strawberry crush to make yummy cakes.. 

Ingredients

100gms flour

100gms sugar

100gms butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp baking powder

Method

Powder the sugar and keep it aside. Combine flour & baking powder. Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy and creamy. Add eggs one by one and beat till it turns cream in colour. Add vanilla essence. Now add flour little by little and fold in one direction. Don’t mix vigorously or you will end up breaking the air bubbles and the cake will be hard. Grease the baking dish with butter and flour and bake at 180 degree for 15 minute. Insert a tooth pick and check whether it is baked or not. If the tooth pick comes out clean, then the cake is baked, or bake for another 2-3 minutes.

·          The baking time varies in different oven. Some may require 20-25 minutes. My oven is   Samsung and I use microwave + convention option.

·         Don’t be scared or worried about folding the cake. You can just stir the cake lightly.

·         In order to get very soft cake, I usually separate the eggs and add egg whites and yolks separately except when I’m lazy or tired. If you are following this method, then you have to beat the egg whites till you get soft peaks. Make sure that your beater or bowl is dry without any trace of water. You can fold this while adding the flour.

Chunky fig jam

Ingredients

250 grams fresh figs

1 ½  cups Sugar

1 cup Water

2 Cinnamon sticks

1 star Anise

Method

Wash & chop the fresh figs into chunks. Heat a pan with water, sugar, cinnamon sticks, star anise and mix well until the sugar is dissolved. Add the fig pieces and cook them till the water evaporates and the syrup turns into light one thread consistency. Once it is cooled, keep in refrigerator.

It is a best accompaniment with toasted bread.

Got a long awaited title I dreamt for....Infy Super chef Winner... :-)

I don't know how to express my happiness.. Cooking was always my passion.I know I can cook well but I didn't have the confidence to participate in any cookery competitions.



Infy super chef season 2 

When I got a mail from Infosys Catering committee for Infy super chef season 2 competition, I thought of giving it a try..


Quiz in progress.. 

It was of 5 rounds.

• 1st round was quiz round. The catering committee got 800 registrations, out of that 285 participants turned up. It was a tough round, but all my readings helped and I was one of the 56 participants who got selected to the 2nd round.
• 2nd round was heatless cooking. I have prepared Worcestershire mayo veg salad and peach cooler. 15 people got selected to 3rd round.





Worcestershire mayo veg salad and peach cooler

• 3rd round, we had to prepare a Soup, a starter and an Indian Breakfast dish. 11 got selected to 4rth round.

Cajun spiced potatoes, Cream of corn soup, Battura and paneer masala..

• 4rth round, we had to prepare an Italian starter, a main course with a ' surprise element' and a dessert. I have got 'spaghetti' as surprise element. From 11 participants, 5 got selected for the finals.

Dry fruit Spaghetti with grilled chicken, Seafood ravioli and nut coated thick sauce pudding.

• 5th round, we had to prepare a 5 course meal- Mocktail, Cuisine based soup and starter, Chef-Imitation main course and a dessert. We had 5 cuisines, Italian, Indian, American, Oriental and Mexican. I was not that confident of American cuisine and I was praying that I shouldn't get that.. but when I picked the chit, it was American cuisine. For a moment I was blank as I didn't know what to prepare for American starter. But finally my creative head found something.. :-)

Triple mocktail, Cream of Mushroom soup, Cheesy chicken balls with grilled veggies, Mushroom risotto with grilled vegetables and parmesan crisp and toffee banana with nut coated thick sauce pudding.

The judges were the Executive Chefs from Crown Plaza and Infosys Chefs.. Listening to the professional comments from the chefs I was scared, but when they announced the results I was on cloud nine.. I got a long awaited title as 'Infy Super Chef on 1st April 2015',the unforgettable day in my life...


When my dream come true.........







Dark & white chocolate pudding with strawberry crush

Ingredients

Milk - 2 cups

Dark Chocolate chips/ pieces -1/2 cup

White Chocolate chips / pieces -1/2 cup

Gelatin - 2 1/2 tbsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Condensed milk - 1 tin

Mint sprigs

Sugar (if required)

Method

Double boil 1/4 cup of water with 1 1/2 tbsp of gelatin. Keep it aside.

Boil 2 cups of milk along with condense milk and add melted gelatin. Remove from the flame. Separate the mix in two bowls and add dark chocolate in one bowl and white chocolate pieces in another bowl and stir well. The chocolates will melt by the heat of the milk.

Pour ½ of white chocolate mix in glasses or any pudding dish and keep in freezer for 15 minutes to set. Add ½ of dark chocolate mix on top of it and keep it freezer for another 15 minutes and repeat the process till the mix is over.

Serve with homemade strawberry or kiwi crush on top of the pudding along with a sprig of mint. (Cook chopped strawberries/ kiwies with sugar and 1tsp lemon juice)

About meeee....

I’m Minny Abraham, a modern girl in dressing but not so modern at heart, a little crazy, easy going girl who hailed from the traditional RC family from Kerala and is living in Bangalore .I’m one of the 5 siblings and the best part is I’m one among twin. Cooking became my passion ever since my mom taught me to cook when I was in 6^th standard. Since then I would always be in kitchen in my free time, experimenting with different ingredients. I’m in my best in baking and preparing desserts, may be because I’m so fond of sweets. I can even skip my dinner or lunch for sweets.

 I’m greatly influenced by western cooking and I prefer Chinese and continental dishes than traditional Kerala cuisine. Cooking is in my blood, as my father was an awesome cook (I still miss his cooking) and so do my mom . I love cooking so much that I always watch cookery shows( end up getting scolding’s  from my brother, who won’t even come near to kitchen other than to eat :-p) and end up buying cookery magazines..

How the food blog was born..

I used to post my recipe pictures in Facebook and my friends used to ask me for recipes and it was difficult for me to message the recipes several times and that’s how I thought of starting a blog.

All the recipes you find in my blog have been tried and tested in my kitchen. Most of them have been passed down to me from my mom, friends and my own creations. Some have been taken from old recipe books, magazines or online, and in such cases I have mentioned the same.

I appreciate all your feedback and comments and will try to reply to any queries as soon as I can.