Golden Honey-n-Oat Bars

Stepping out of the house and working definitely has it's benefits. I mean we all know the most obvious ones like earning your own money, being independent , developing yourself as an individual in the outside world etc etc. But the one thing I am most enjoying is getting to know my colleagues at work. I am learning so much everyday from each person that I work with, not only about work but so many other things as well. So I was thrilled to know that my colleague /friend A loves to bake. 'A' always gets the most delicious baked goodies for us to enjoy. Sometimes it's a freshly baked seeded bread , sometimes  a cheesecake or then the most delicious cherry cake I have ever had. Last week it was these Honey and Oat Bars that she made for us and to top it she even had copies of the recipe for us to take home and try out. So Sweet!!

Now you know me. Whenever I fancy a recipe I just have to make it at once even if that means tweaking the original recipe a bit because I do not have all the necessary ingredients at home. So I made these bars at home over the weekend. They turned out good, although the ones 'A' made were a lot better. The original recipe calls for soft brown sugar, I did not have any at hand so I used ordinary white sugar, instead of self-raising flour I used all purpose plain flour with a tspn of baking powder sifted along with it, and thirdly I did not have margarine, so I replaced that with butter. RESULT: Great tasting bars , just not as nicely chewy as her's. Mine turned out a bit biscuity. But nevertheless half of them have already been polished off. My son came home complaining as to why I had given him only one bar in his lunch box, and hubby had 3 of them for dessert after dinner. So it's safe to assume that the Honey-n-Oat Bars are a hit.

I have for you here the absolute original recipe . I would urge you to stick to the brown sugar even though I did not. This recipe makes about 20 bars
So here goes:


Ingredients :
3 cups rolled oats
1.5 cups self-raising flour
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup soft brown sugar
2 tblspns honey
1 cup margarine


Method:
Mix all the dry ingredients well together
In a pan melt the butter and add the honey to it
Mix the margarine and honey mixture well with the dry ingredients
Press the mixture into a greased baking tray and bake at 170deg C / 325deg F for 25 mins or till golden brown
Cut into bars while still warm and leave to cool in tin.


These are great with a cup of tea, or with a glass of milk for kids after coming back from school. They are also an interesting  travel snack or a  a lunch box treat

Coconut Strawberry Cupcakes

A  very BIG  HELLO to all of you after almost  a million years. Yes that's what it feels like to me today. Last post I put up was in October last year and after that I have kind of gone into a winter sleep where blogging is concerned. But that's only where blogging is concerned. A lots happened since then. The first break happened because my parents were here to visit us and ofcourse with them here obviously blogging was the last thing I could find time to do. They had a great stay and we did the touristy trips with them all over UK.


After they left I got a job. YES A JOB!!!! Isn't that great?  I now work in a Primary School as a Learning Support Assistant and I am happy with  my job. That's the second reason why I am not actively blogging. I am ofcourse cooking and entertaining but I now cook mostly in the evenings and my food pics taken in the evening are horrible. I have to also admit that many a times the food is eaten and polished off before I can photograph it. So no blog posts!


Then in Dec I went on my annual trip to India for 5 weeks. I spent the most fabulous 5 weeks there eating everything that I had missed in the last one and half year. It was  simply great being back in Pune and riding my Honda Activa and driving the Santro.  We had a blast and my son loved it. In his words "Aai INDIA ROCKS". What else did I need to hear.


But now I have been back since one month and things have fallen back into a routine with school and office and other activities and I am definitely back on the blogosphere.


A week back I baked these little cakes from a recipe from one of my most used books and that is The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking by Tarla Dalal.  Now in the book these cakes are called Madeleines, but I prefer to call them just "little cakes" as traditionally a Madeleine is a  shell shaped cake eaten at tea time and which is baked in special shell shaped moulds, so for me these are just small cakes or cup cakes which have a delicious coating of strawberry jam and dessicated coconut. These cakes come out beautifully each and every time and no matter how many I make they are never enough.


Note: These cakes need to be ideally baked in individual cup cake moulds, but I do not have those and baked them in a muffin tray which worked just fine


I have followed the recipe from the book word to word, and here it is for you.


Ingredients:

• 115 gms sugar
• 115 gms butter
• 2 medium eggs
• 115 gms self-raising flour
• 1/2 tspn lemon or vanilla essence (I used vanilla)
• 1/2 tea cup milk approx
• red jam (I used strawberry jam)
• dessicated coconut

Method:

• Sieve the flour
• Cream the butter and sugar very well  until light and creamy
• Beat the eggs well
• Add a little of the egg mixture to the butter and sugar and beat well. Gradually go on adding eggs beating well  all the time. If the mixture curdles, add a little flour ,mix well and then continue adding the eggs.
• Add the sieved flour and enough milk till the batter has a dropping consistency.
• Add the essence.
• Grease and dust your muffin tray or the cake moulds and fill upto 3/4 with the cake mixture.
• Bake at 400 deg F for around 20 mins.
• Cool the cakes
• Warm the jam and brush the cakes  with the melted jam.
• Roll the cakes in dessicated  coconut.

The cakes are now ready to eat. Try these they are simple to make and taste awesome

Wheat and coconut cream pudding

A couple of days back my good friend Kavita left UK and went back to India for good. Before leaving she gave me a bagful of groceries that she had left over and obviously couldn't finish before she left. This is a normal practice amongst us friends . Whenever one of us is leaving for good we kind of have a grocery distribution programme between us . The person who is leaving accumulates all the store cupboard groceries that she cannot use up and asks us to take what ever we fancy . So everyone kind of gets to explore her groceries which is fun . Although of course it is no fun to have one of your group leave forever. It leaves a kind of empty void that is very difficult to get used to.

So this time along with other things I got something that I had never used before. She had a container full of hand-threshed whole wheat from her family farm back home in India. So it was of the best quality ever. K said her mom-in-law and sisters in law make a kheer out of it although she had never tried it herself it UK. My initial enthusiasm on recieving it faded a bit when I saw the whole grain and wondered how I would cook it. I have cooked bulgar wheat before but this was something else altogether.

So I tentatively cooked it in my pressure cooker with some water. Thankfully it cooked beautifully and the kheer or pudding that I made from it turned out just fabulous. I cooked it in coconut milk and the taste was mind-blowing. So thanks to K for that! Bulgar wheat being widely available and imparting the same taste is my recommendation as a substitute to the wheat I used for this pudding

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Bulgar Wheat,

1 can of coconut cream

1/2 cup fresh grated coconut,

3/4 cup jaggery (or use light brown muscovado sugar)

a generous pinch of saffron,

1/2 a tspn of cardammom powder

1/2 cup approx milk (to thin the kheer if needed)

2 tblspns ghee (clarified butter)

Method:

Cook the Bulgar wheat with the grated coconut and some water in a pressure cooker for 3 whistles.

In another pan heat the ghee and add the cooked wheat and stir for a couple of minutes

To this add the coconut milk/cream from the can and stir it in well,

Next add the jaggery/sugar and the saffron . (you can soak the saffron in warm water or milk for some time but it's not neccessary)

Now simmer the kheer /pudding for a good 20 to 25 minutes on a very low heat, stirring occasionally so it does'nt stick to the bottom of the pan.

If you would like it a bit thinner in consistency add the milk. Remember it becomes thicker and thicker as it cools down, so it a good idea to have it a bit thinner than you would like when it is hot.

Switch off the heat after 25 mins and sprinkle the cardammom powder and stir it in well.

This pudding tastes good warm or chilled. We love it chilled. So I chilled it in the fridge for an hour before serving. To serve decorate with cashews or almonds or any dry -fruit of your choice.

Ganapati Bappa Moraya

A very big Hello !!! to all my dear readers and blog friends. I am back after a very very long break and believe me I am now really really ready to blog again. My trip to India was super. It was one big social event. I was visiting friends and family left ,right and centre. Visited some nice restaurants too and ate lots of delicious stuff and inspite of all the hogging I did there I lost some weight. Isn't that amazing? I am very happy.

And here I am with my latest dish that I have just prepared minutes ago and is fresh off the stove. I couldn't have chosen a better day than today to start blogging again . Yesss! It's Ganesh Chaurthi today . That special festival of Maharashtra which is celebrated for 10 days with great pomp all over the state. Before starting any new venture we believe in praying to Lord Ganesh or Ganapati Bappa as he lovingly called in Marathi. It is believed that Ganapati can remove any obstacles that may be a hindrance in your way to success and that is the reason why any new venture is first started by praying to Lord Ganapati.

So I am definitely starting on a very good day. What I have for you today is also a very special dish made particularly on Ganesh Chaturthi as it is Ganapati Bappa's favourite. It is Modak. The one I have for you today is the fried version



Ingredients:
For the outer cover
1 cup Plain Flour,
2 tspn Fine Semolina,
3 tblspn very hot oil
A pinch of salt
Ingredients for the filling:
210 gms fresh shredded coconut
1 cup jaggery (palm sugar)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tspn cardammom powder
1/2 tspn nutmeg powder

Procedure:
Filling: (Filling can be prepared one day in advance and kept ready)
1. In a heavy bottom pan mix the coconut, jaggery and sugar on a moderate to low heat . Keep stirring until the the mixture loses moisture and becomes slightly dry. This takes about 10 t0 15 minutes
2. Switch off the gas and then sprinkle the two spice powders and mix well. The mixture is ready. Optionally you can make it richer by adding raisins, broken cashewnuts etc. Keep the mixture covered until you need it.

For the outer cover:
1. Mix all the ingredients and knead into a firm dough. Keep covered for at 30 minutes.
2. Before using soften the dough by drizzling a bit of Ghee (clarified butter) on it and pound it in a pestle and mortar. This is very tedious but very neccessary. It makes the dough pliable.
3. Now make small balls of dough. Roll out one ball at a time into a thin puri.
4. Place it on your palm and put a tspn full of filling in the centre. Pinch the sides of the puri at regular intervals and close the modak firmly from the top. Place the modak on a plate and cover the dish with a clean wet cloth so that the modaks do not dry out
5. Make all the modaks in the same way.
6. Deep fry 3 to 4 modaks at a time on a moderate to low heat. Let cool and then store a container.
This will make appoximately 21 modaks. The other version of Modak is the steamed version which is even more delicious. For the recipe click on the picture on the right side bar.

• Have also updated Chintu cartoon strip after a very long time. Sorry for not having updated for so long. Do scroll down and take a look.

Coconut Cream Barfi (Jihva for Ingredients: Coconut)

It was my idea that my posts during Christmas would be my last ones before leaving for India on my holiday, but Ashwini's event with Coconut as the chief ingredient was too good to miss. So I had to do it. This recipe has been on my mind since I saw Coconut Burfi-Fudge made by Saffronhut. Her photos were so tempting that I knew I had to make them. When I made these I did not follow her recipe but just used whatever was available at home and in whatever quantities . The result was not as picturesque as hers but taste gorgeous.

What I used:

2 cups grated frozen coconut,

1.5 cups sugar,

1/2 cup double cream,

1 tspn cardammom powder,

1 generous pinch saffron

Procedure:

• Heat a heavy bottom pan
• Mix the first 3 ingredients in the pan and cook on a gentle flame till the mixture begins to get dry at the edges. This takes about 25 mins,
• After the mixture starts moving along with the spatula switch off the heat and add the cardammom powder and the saffron strands mixed in a small amount of warm milk.
• Stir well and immediately turn out this mixture onto a greased tray and spread it evenly.
• Mark out the barfi pieces. Let cool and then cut out the pieces.
• Decorate with slivers of almonds