Kothu Parota and Parota

Ingredients:

Parota - 2

egg -1

curry leaves - few

tomato

onion chopped

green chillies

salt

pepper

To make parota:

maida - 1 cup

salt pinch

water

oil

Method:

Make a dough with the all purpose flour or maida. Keep it aside for 2 hours minimum. Then make balls and roll them out.

Fold them like how you do with a saree and then roll them into a ball.

Leave them again for 30 minutes

Then roll them out into parotas and cook on griddle.

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Thengai Mangai Pattani Sundal

Ingredients:

white dry peas - 1 cup
coconut grated - 3/4 cup or as needed
Mango raw grated - hand ful
salt
green chillies chopped - 4-5
curry leaves - handful
ginger - 1 in piece grated
mustard seeds
oil

Method:

Soak the peas overnight in water. Then cook them in pressure cooker for just one whistle.
Temper the mustard seeds, curry leaves, ginger, chillies and finally add the coconut and the mango  and the peas and sprinkle salt and mix them together.
Serve hot in a pottalam as shown as it is done in India the traditional way. Yep, it is wall street journal.

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Strawberry Tartlettes

Ingredients

For Crust

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, cut into small cubes
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold water

For Filling

1 bar cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup sugar
3-4 cup strawberries, hulled and halved
3 tbsp corn starch

Makes 8 servings

Method

* Blend flour, butter, sugar, and salt until moist crumbs form in a food processor for around a minute.
* Transfer the dough to small round tartlette pans.
* Roll out the pie crust with a rolling pin and place it in the tart pans and press with your fingers. Press the bottom with a dry measuring cup.
* Freeze crust until firm for about 10 to 15 minutes.
* Preheat oven to 350°
* Using a fork, prick crust all over. Bake until golden, 25 to 30 minutes, pressing down gently once or twice with a spoon during baking if crust puffs up. In fact, placing something heavy on the pie crust will be preferable. Cool completely in pan.
* For making the filling, in a medium bowl, mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth; spread mixture evenly in bottom of baked crust (still in tart pan).
* Chop the strawberries and place them into a saute pan
* Add one cup of sugar combined with three tablespoons of corn starch.
* Cook strawberries and sugar/cornstarch on medium heat.
* Using a whisk, crush strawberries as they soften and continue cooking on low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
* Pour the strawberry pie filling into your perfectly baked crust.
* Chill the pie for about 2 hours.

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Golden fried Potato chips

Call us old-fashioned, but we want our chips fried. Not that we have anything against microwaved ones. We are favour of that too. But we are sure you will agree with the fact that fried chips are definitely tastier.

Ingredients:

Potatoes- 2 large ones
salt to sprinkle
pepper(optional)


Method:

• Slice the potatoes (we used a mandoline here).
  
• Soak the slices in salted water for say 10 mins
• Dry the slices on a paper napkin.
• Drop the slices in hot oil and fry them.
• Sprinkle salt and pepper for taste.
• Golden fried potato chips ready.
• This will make a great tasty snack or a side for puliyodharai or lemon rice
  

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Ginger bread Man cookies...

Now with Christmas and New year around the corner, we thought cookies and cakes would be more helpful our viewers. Lets start with the more traditional ginger bread cookies. Though store bought ones are easier and we do it ourselves, homebaked ones are always special...so for those of you who want to try it in your kitchens, here you go.

Ingredients:

4 cups white whole wheat flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
11 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup dark natural cane sugar (i.e. muscavado), or alternately use a dark brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs
2/3 cup organic unsulfured molasses (blackstrap)
large grain sugar (turbinado) for decoration
popsicle sticks (optional)

Method:

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside.

In a large bowl by hand (or with an electric mixer) cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the sugar and mix again until light and creamy. Blend in the eggs one at a time and then the molasses. Add the flour mixture in two additions either by hand or on low speed. Divide the dough into two pieces, wrap each in plastic and chill for an hour or so.

Heat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the middle, and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats. Set aside.

Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop roughly 1/8-inch thick and cut into gingerbread men (or other desired shapes). Transfer to baking sheets and arrange a popsicle stick underneath each (if desired), no need to press the stick aggressively into the dough, gently is fine - the cookies will bake right onto the sticks. Sprinkle with sugar (optional) and bake for 7 -10 minutes (for 3 - 4-inch cookies), less for smaller cookies, more for larger.

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Jell-O Smoothie

Ingredients:

8 ounces prepared Jell-O (any flavor)
8 ounces milk
8 ounces sherbet (flavor to match Jell-O flavor)

Method:
Mix in a blender. Top with whipped cream and colored sugar, if desired.

Serves 2.

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