Thursday 10 November 2011

Apple Cinnamon Muffin

A very simple and nutritious snack with fruit, nuts and whole wheat flour. Very filling for hungry kids returning from school.
Ingredients:
1. Whole wheat Flour - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1/2 cup
3. Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
4. Cooking Soda - 1/2 tsp
5. Cinnamon Powder - 1 tsp.
6. Oil/Ghee - 1/2 cup
7. Apples Grated with seeds removed - 2 nos.
8. Finely chopped walnuts - 1/4 cup
9. Milk - 3/4 cup
10. Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp.

Sieve the flour with ingredients 3,4 and 5 three to four times. In a large bowl, combine the flour mixture with Items 2,6, 7, 8. Mix well adding milk. Add the vanilla essence and mix.Stir in one direction preferably till the mixture is smooth without lumps. Grease and dust a muffin tray and pour one ladle full of batter in each cavity in the muffin tray. Pre heat the oven to about 220 - 250 degree and bake the muffins at 200 degree for 20 minutes - 22 minutes. Yippee! The muffins are ready to be devoured by the little and big citizens of your household.

After 10 minutes remove the muffins and cool it on a wire rack so that the underside of the muffin also gets cooled. Storing it immediately in a dabba makes it 'sweat' and it will get spoilt easily.
I am also attaching a photo taken by my son of the only muffin which was left over in the evening. This amount of batter makes six big muffins.
Note: Oven is pre heated to a higher temperature to make up for the loss in temperature when you open the door to keep the muffin tray.

Saturday 5 November 2011

Nei Payasam


I tried making "Nei Payasam " otherwise called "Aravana Payasam" which is made for Bhagavati Seva . I am sharing the recipe here as it came out extremely well.
Ingredients:
2 cups Raw Rice
10 cups Jaggery (Powdered)
Coconut chopped into thin slices- 1/2 cup
Ghee (preferably Cow Ghee)- 350 ml.

Wash the rice well in water. Boil 5 cups water in a vengala panai or any open vessel as if you pressure cook it it will become smudgy. Water can be reduced by 1 cup if rice is very new. Put the rice in the boiling water and cook stirring once in a while seeing that it does not get stuck in the bottom of the vessel. After it is almost cooked (should not be smudged) put off the fire. Take the 10 cups jaggery and pour enough water to submerge it in an uruli or heavy bottomed wide mouthed pressure pan. When the jaggery is fully melted, strain it  for impurities and pour it back into the vessel again. Add the cooked rice and bring to boil. Keep on boiling stirring it often so that it does not get burnt and keep adding ghee little by little leaving about 100 ml for frying coconut. When it is quite thick and done, put off fire. Heat the rest of the ghee in a small kadai and fry the coconut pieces well in the ghee and add to the payasam. The Nei Payasam is ready!!