Tiger cake - lemon and chocolate sponge cake

Tiger cake - lemon and chocolate sponge cake

Ingredients:

200 g butter
2 1/2 dl sugar
3 eggs
4 dl flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 dl milk
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp vanilla powder
zest from 1 lemon

 

Preparation:

step 1
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C.

step 2
Mix melted butter and sugar add one egg at a time and mix until the batter turns white.

step 3
Blend flour and baking powder in another bowl and add to the batter. Add the milk and combine carefully. Don't mix to much as it will make the cake dense.

step 4
Pour 1/3 of the batter into another bowl, add cocoa and combine carefully.

step 5
Add vanilla powder and the lemon zest in the other batter bowl, combine carefully.

step 6
Pour half of the light batter into a loaf tin, then pour the cocoa batter and finally the rest of the light batter. Use a fork and stroke the batter a little bit to create a marble batter.

step 7
Bake in the oven for about 1 hour. Until the stick comes out clean when picking the cake.

Serve the cake with vanilla custard, ice cream or like I did, with melted dark chocolate, or just the way it is.
Bake in the oven for about 1 hour. Until the stick comes out clean when picking the cake.

Serve the cake with vanilla custard, ice cream or like I did, with melted dark chocolate, or just the way it is.

Kottayam style fish curry - meen curry

Kottayam style fish curry - meen curry

Ingredients:

1 kg fish, sliced and cleaned
2 teaspoons mustard powder
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
2 tablespoons ginger, julienned
1 bulb garlic, each garlic pod sliced into two, lengthwise
10 shallots, sliced lengthwise?
?4 pieces kudam pulli/fish tarmarind/gamboge (sun dried and smoked to a black colour)
2 tablespoons red chili powder
2 sprigs curry leaves
To taste, salt
As required, water
2 tablespoons coconut oil

 

Preparation:

step 1
Soak the kudam pulli in a cup of water for atleast 15 minutes.
Add two tablespoons of water to the chili powder, and make a thick paste.

step 2
Heat oil in a mann chatti or earthen pot. (Meen curry is always made in an earthen pot in Kerala, which contributes to the flavour of the dish. But you can use a normal non stick pan if you do not have an earthen pot). When the oil is almost smoking hot, add the mustard seeds, followed by the fenugreek seeds.

Once the mustard seeds have stopped spluttering, add the shallot slices and fry for a minute. Add ginger, and saute till the onions slices are golden brown.

step 3
Add the chili paste and saute on a low flame for a minute. (Expect to sneeze and cough at this point.) Add the kudam pulli along with water, the sliced garlic, curry leaves and one more cup of water. Mix well. Add salt, followed by fish pieces.

step 4
Once the curry comes to boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook uncovered till fish pieces are completely cooked.

step 5
Do not use a spoon to stir the curry while it is cooking because the fish is very soft. Instead, you can swirl the pot once in a while.

step 6
The fish curry tastes better the next day, enough time for all the flavours to be absorbed into the fish. Infact, as a rule, fish curry to be served at marriage receptions, is made the previous day itself.

step 7
Enjoy your fish curry with plain rice or brown rice.

Pepper potato

Pepper potato

Ingredients:

Potato 400 gms
Onion chopped 25 gms
Dry Red chilli 1 nos
Pepper 2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Garlic 3 - 4 medium flakes
Salt to taste
Oil 1 tbsp

 

Preparation:

step 1
1. Cook potatos in a pressure cooker adding salt to it. Keep aside and let it cool.
2. Peel the skin and cut the potato into small pieces.

step 2
3. Grind pepper, cumin, dry red chilli, garlic into a fine paste.

step 3
4. Heat oil in a thick bottom kadai. Add chopped onions and fry in a slow flame.
5. Add the ground paste, salt and turmeric powder when onion raw smell reduces and continue frying in a slow flame for 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Add potato and fry for 2 minutes. Add some water and cook till it becomes almost dry.

step 4
7. Serve hot with rice, variety rice and any Indian breads.