OMG! It's Chocolate Heaven

Ok , I might be being a tad bit dramatic , but lemme tell you something , I went on a diet last week and boy , that was one week I will never get back , I was just miserable ,was having only fruits and vegetables and I had these terrible nightmares of a lettuce strangling me and a giant apple knocking me dead  ( naaah , just kidding ) but seriously  if I ever see one more lettuce or an apple I might just kill myself . More than me , my kids were behind my back to stop the diet coz they wanted cookies and I wouldn't make it for them until I was over with the diet . So finally my diet is over and my kids are happy and me too to an extent and made these cookies to celebrate my success ( or failure) . These are Nigella Lawson's double chocolate cookies and they are just so decadent , rich , chocolatey and I could go on and on about it , they are that good , they are just divine .

INGREDIENTS

125 gms dark chocolate melted
150 gms flour
30 gms cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
125 gms butter
75 gms light brown sugar
50 gms white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg cold
350 gms semi- sweet chocolate chips

METHOD

Cream the butter and the sugar till pale and fluffy
Add the vanilla and egg and beat again .
Add the melted chocolate
Mix together the dry ingredients and add them in the butter mix .
Stir in the chocolate chips .
Scoop out with a medium size ice-cream scoop and place on the baking tray about 3 inches apart .
Bake in a preheated 170 c oven for about 18 min .
Leave in the tin to cool and then transfer to the wire rack to cool and harden .
If you stay in a hot and humid country ( like me ) then chill the dough for a half hour so that the cookies will not flatten out like a disc .

P.S : The milk is skimmed ;)

Spicy Prawn and Mushroom with Egg Noodles

Have you guys heard of the floating book shop called the Logos Hope . It is a ship full of books and can you believe this all of the people who work there are not paid , they work voluntarily , just like it's name their main purpose is to bring hope to people . The money they make selling books is used for charity , what a noble idea it is right ? .In this day and age where selfishness and blatant disregard for others are the most common traits , people like these are very rare to find and everyone can learn something from them .

 They have all kinds of books on board and I  love to read books and especially how a new book smells ( I know it's weird ) ,I'll read anything but  my most favourite kind of books are cookbooks . I love to flip through the pages and drool  at the beautiful pictures . As a little girl , this ship used to come to our city once in a year and I used to bug my parents to take me there and came back a happy girl from there with a load of books and most of them used to be cook books , cooking was passion even then too . Sadly all good things have to come to an end ,the ship then stopped coming .Then something wonderful happened a couple of months back , the ship was scheduled to come here and you can imagine my excitement over that news , I just couldn't wait for it to get here and show my hubby and kids . Oooooh ! I really felt like a little girl again and took my hubby and the kids there and as usual bought a whole load of books and came back , going back there I had such wonderful memories and above all that I could show my kids my favourite place .

Ok enough of my blabbing , I am not boring you anymore , I just mentioned it because the recipe I am posting is from one such book I bought from there , it is a wonderful book with all easy recipes and noodles being my favourite I had to make this , it is spicy and aromatic and just yummy so here goes........

INGREDIENTS

1 tbsp oil
1 onion chopped
1 fresh red chilli chopped finely
1 tbsp thai red curry paste
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
250 gms prawns
400 gms canned button mushrooms
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
225 gms egg noodles
fresh coriander chopped

METHOD

Heat the oil and add the onions and chilli and saute for a couple of min.
Add the curry paste and the lemon zest and saute for a couple of min .
Add the prawns , mushrooms, lemon juice , fish sauce and the soy sauce .
Mix it all up and cook till the prawns are done .
Cook the noodles in boiling water for a few min and drain and toss it in the prawn mix.
Add the coriander and serve hot .

Stuffed Plantains

Like I had said in my earlier post -plantain frittata , many dishes are made with plantains and all of them are just super delicious and this is another delicacy which is also my hubby's favourite . The plantains are stuffed with a sweet coconut and egg mixture and shallow fried , it is crispy on the outside and soft and moist on the inside , it is just droolworthy . Here too it is just a handful of ingredients but the way it is cooked is what makes it special so here goes.............

INGREDIENTS

2 large ripe plantains
5-6 tbsp of all-purpose flour
oil for frying

for the filling

1/2 cup grated coconut

2 eggs beaten lightly 

2 tbsp sugar 

a pinch of cardamom powder

METHOD

Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and add the coconut and saute it till you get a nice aroma .
Now add the eggs,sugar and cardamom  and stir it with a fork to scramble it and take it off the heat when the eggs are done.
Peel the plantains and keeping the top and bottom intact make a slit on all four sides .
Now stuff the fillings inside the plantains .
Make a paste out of the all - purpose flour by adding a little water to it .
Seal the plantains with this paste .
Heat oil in a large frying pan and shallow fry the stuffed plantains till it turns golden brown  .

Date and Coconut Fritters

I love to read the comments and let's face it comments are what we bloggers crave for , the excitement of checking in your recent post and wondering what all comments the post has got and I want to thank everyone who has posted a comment on here . I am saying this because something went wrong with the blogger here a day back and from the few handful of comments that I got , a couple of them went missing :( . Anyway glad that the blogger is up and working .Today's post is a favourite of mine which my mom makes . These fritters are crispy on the outside and soft and cake like on the inside , they are really delicious tiny bites so here goes.............

INGREDIENTS

12-15 soft dates
1/2 cup of freshly grated coconut
1 cup of self-raising flour
1 egg
a pinch of salt
water for the batter
oil for frying

METHOD

Mix the egg and water required with the self-raising flour to make a thick , smooth batter.
Add salt to it .
Now add the dates and coconut and use your hands to really mix the whole thing up by mushing the dates into the batter ( quite messy job , but fun too).
Now after you have had all the fun , deep fry spoonfuls of the mixture in hot oil till they turn golden brown .
Enjoy it hot .

Sweet Plantain Frittata

This is a simple dish with just a handful of ingredients but it tastes really great . In our place there are a lot of dishes made with these basic three ingredients and everything is quite popular . This particular dish is my son's favourite , he just loves it , if he could he would have it for all the three meals . It is perfect for breakfast or you can have it as a snack too , it is quite simple to make so here goes........

INGREDIENTS

3 large ripe plantains
4 large eggs
4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp flour
a handful of cashews or raisins ( optional )
oil for frying

METHOD

Peel and cut the plantains into cubes
Deep fry the plantain cubes till golden brown  and drain on absorbent paper
In a blender , blend the eggs , sugar and the flour
Pour the egg mix in a 10 inch baking dish
Top it with the fried plantain , cashews and raisins if using any
Bake in a preheated 180 c oven for about 20 min or till the top is firm 

Fondant Handbag and Make-up Set Cake

This is something I made for my friend's li'l girl , she wanted a handbag cake with make-up set in her fav colors which is pink and purple ,which is no surprise as all girls love pink and purple except for my girl , she seems to hate pink ( I wonder why ) but purple is fine with her . I made the handbag with two 9 inch cakes , I cut them in half and put them together and the base is two 10 inch square cake .

Again the cake is chocolate with chocolate ganache filling and whipped cream frosting , everything on the cake is edible , it's all made with marshmallow fondant . The li'l girl loved her cake and her most fav thing on the cake was the sparkling  blush , she actually saved it and the rest of the make-up stuff she distributed among her friends ( now that was really sweet of her ) . I was so happy and thankful that it all turned out fine as I have no idea what I am doing , for me somehow it all falls into place , thankfully .

Sweet and Spicy Fried Chicken

This recipe is my personal favourite , this is something my mom makes and now I make it very often as my kids are really fond of it . This is a very flavourful dish and the aroma is just mouth-watering . The chicken is first marinated with yoghurt and spices and fried and drizzled with a nice sweet and spicy sauce , all the flavours are really well balanced in this dish so here goes.....

INGREDIENTS

1 kg chicken drumsticks / whole chicken cut into small pieces
6-8 cloves of garlic
1 inch pc of ginger
1and 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 cup yoghurt
salt to taste
10-12 green chillies sliced in half
10 curry leaves
3-4 tbsp tomato ketchup
50 gms butter
Oil

METHOD

Remove the skin and wash and dry the chicken
make a paste out of the ginger and garlic
Mix the ginger and garlic paste with the yoghurt , salt and the spices .
Marinate the chicken with this mixture for about 4 hrs or preferably overnight
Heat oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken till done
Heat butter in a pan and melt the butter
Add the green chillies and the curry leaves and saute for a few sec
Add the tomato ketchup and the chicken and stir to coat the chicken well
Now add the reserved marinade liquid and cover and keep on low heat for about 5 min .
Serve hot .