Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tomato Chips - BM#13 - Day 6

Tomato Chips - BM#13 - Day 6
 
Dear All,

A heartily welcome to all my blog readers, with your support my blog is growing and growing. Thanks for all your valuable comments/suggestions.

Today is Day 6th in Blogging Marathon 13 and as you all know I have selected the theme "Seven Days of Chips". Chips is a very good friend of you when you want to pass time by seeing TV and munching something crispy or semi-crispy.  

As I am at office I opted to make chips using microwave oven method but without knowing how to work with it.

I have already posted 2 chips on fruits, so for the next two days you can see chips from vegetables. 

It's my own style of making things and as they taste good to me, I am posting it here, my cooking journal or my diary.

Medicinal Property of this fruit is: Tomato consumption has been associated with decreased risk of breast cancer, head and neck cancers and might be strongly protective against neurodegenerative diseases.Tomatoes and tomato sauces and puree are said to help lower urinary tract symptoms (BPH) and may have anticancer properties. Tomato consumption might be beneficial for reducing cardiovascular risk associated with type 2 diabetes. (Source: From wikipedia on tomato)

 
 


Ingredients:
Tomato - 1 riped one
Butter - 2 tsp
Pepper Powder - 3 tsp
Salt to taste




Method:
Cut the tomato into pieces and remove the water contents completely









Keep it in a oven for 3 minutes (in between I check them because even if a small fire comes out a fire alarm will ring and we all should run out of office)


Mix the tomato with butter, pepper powder and salt
 








Put the mixture back in the oven for another 3 minutes till the tomatoes turn to be crispy

 













Munch them while writing this post



Monday, February 20, 2012

Black grapes chips - BM#13 - Day 5

Black grapes chips - BM#13 - Day 5:

Black grape is a variety of grape and its widely used in making wine.


Black grapes contain three kinds of polyphenols, namely, flavanoid, phenolic acid, and resveratrol. Flavanoids are responsible for the dark hue of grapes. The darker the variety, the more the concentration of flavanoids you would find. This may be why black grapes are used more often for health reasons as compared to other varieties.  (Source: http://www.diethealthclub.com/health-food/black-grapes-health-benefits.html)

Knowing the uses of these black grapes I experimented making chips out of them today. I have given list of benefits after the preparation of chips.







Ingredients:
  • Black Grapes - 3 nos
  • Pepper Powder - 1 tsp




Equipment:
  • Microwave
  • Microwave Bowl

Method:
  • Chop the black grapes using your hand and remove the seed within it
  • Put in a microwave bowl for 4 minutes inside the oven
  • Grapes would have become crispy by that time
  • Sprinkle Pepper powder on them and munch it
 

Pineapple Pieces Chips - BM#13 - Day 4


Pineapple Pieces Chips - BM#13 - Day 4:

Pineapple is a fruit which is yellow in color. It is also called as ananas in native language.

Raw pineapple is an excellent source of manganese (45% DV in a 100 g serving) and vitamin C (80% DV per 100 g).


Mainly from its stem, pineapple contains a proteolytic enzyme, bromelain, which breaks down protein. If having sufficient bromelain content, raw pineapple juice can thus be used as a marinade and tenderizer for meat. Pineapple enzymes can interfere with the preparation of some foods, such as jelly or other gelatin-based desserts, but would be destroyed during cooking and the canning process. The quantity of bromelain in the fruit is probably not significant, being mostly in the inedible stalk.

Furthermore, an ingested enzyme like bromelain is unlikely to survive intact the proteolytic processes of digestion.

Any chips made out of fruit would turn out to be sweeter but to give a sweet cum hot style just add pepper to it and enjoy. I would like to stick to my words might be it is at work place or personally. Nowadays due to comments from my readers I am glad to try out one or the other recipe and munch it.

Ingredients:
Pineapple: 2 pieces
Pepper Powder: 1 tsp

Equipment:
Microwave
Microwave bowl
Camera to click the snap

Method:


Chop the pineapple big pieces into smaller ones
Put it in a microwave bowl and allow it to get semi-crispy for 4 minutes
Sprinkle the pepper powder and munch it

As one of my blog reader, Vaishali says it wouldn't  be more crispy.











Chocolate Chips - BM #13 - Day 3

Chocolate Chips - BM #13 - Day 3:




You all would have known by now, that I am part of Blogging Marathon - 13 and I have selected "Seven Days of Chips" for this week. Here is my 3rd day chips called chocolate chips.

I was waiting to find and try out chocolate chips. While I asked my Google brother to find out he gave me a beautiful link at heavenlyhomemakers.

Chocolate Chips are small chunks of chocolate, which actually would be in round or flat bottomed teardrop shape. They are mainly used in cookies, pancakes, cakes, creammuffins and various types of pastry.

There are many flavors namely - semi-sweet chocolate, bittersweet chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, mint chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, and white and dark swirled chocolate chips. Out of them semi-sweet chocolate is the original one. Nestle and The Hershey company are among the top producers of chocolate chips. (Source: Wikipedia)

My assumption is, the kid's favorite breakfast - Chocos from Kellogg's resembles more or less like chocolate chips.









Now back to the recipe, it takes only 3 ingredients to make chips + 1 ingredient. Ha ha, 3 + 1 why couldn't I write 4 directly, this might be the readers question. The style of making it did not allow me to mention 4 directly. Read the below method of making it, I enjoyed it. Before going to the method let me tell you, here is one more technique how to melt butter as butter and not as ghee. :). Wait, don't scratch your head, when i read the post i did the same thing, but after doing it i have become good at it.

3 Ingredients to make choco chips:

Butter - 4 tbsp (i used amul butter)
Cocoa - 2 tbsp
Icing Sugar - 3 tbsp (reduce the quantity to make semi-sweet)

1 important Ingredient in making chips but we will not use it inside the chips. This was the excited part for me.
Water - 2 cups

Story: I wanted a glass jar to make this chips, I was searching in my kitchen on Saturday morning to get it, but no luck. Then I remembered about our dinner ware glass, ultimately I could use it. More than the family member who else will know what is available in the house, but as I use them less it did not flash immediately to me. I doesn't wanted to hide it as you readers, are my mentors.

Method:
Heat 2 cups of water in a bowl and wait till it boils
When the water starts boiling simmer the stove completely and place a glass jar/tumbler into the water
Add butter to it, and add cocoa powder and icing sugar star stirring continuously
Keep the butter paper on your tray ready, once the butter melts completely pour it onto the butter paper and spread it across
After sometime, leave it in your deep freezer for 4 to 5 hours it would completely dried
Now cut it into pieces and store it in air tight container.

Fact: Do you agree with me now, why i wrote 3 + 1 ingredient. Water was very important to melt butter but I never used it to make chips.




Chips photo:












Momma, I brought these chips from home to take photograph and realized only in the afternoon they had turned to be semi-solid again. So I have left them in refrigerator in office.  

Its worth glancing at what my other Blogging Marathoners are doing in BM# 13

Friday, February 17, 2012

Marie Biscuit Coffee Chips – BM#13 - Day 2

Marie Biscuit Coffee Chips – BM#13:

Shock by the name, does it look strange like me? Ha, ha Readers, I told the actual name of the chips what I named it. I am not sure if you have come across it or not but I am sure you would have come across Choco logs. While I was searching for what can be made out of cocoa and icing sugar on the other day I came across a post called Marie biscuit - Chocolate logs. I was surprised and clicked here. Recipe was quite interesting and innovative; sometimes to make children eat you should try different things with the same old ingredients else they will say “aiyoo, my mom cooks the same dish everyday”, my first son Aditya, passes this comment without even a second thought.

In the morning I thought of getting carrot to office and then do carrot chips here. But as the time passed by due to my little son I had to rush to catch my office cab at the last moment. So I was just thinking what to prepare, if I go and ask one carrot the shopkeeper will look as if I have gone mad. If I take more I don’t know what to make from the remaining except cook mix with rice and eat. Time passed as the training is on in office and I felt in the afternoon to eat something let me cook in the oven a beautiful chips. I took rusk and went into my pantry but as they itself were crispy I thought it wasn’t a good idea. Then this chocolate logs appeared like a bright screen in front of my eyes. So thought let me put my hands on to it.

Ingredients:
Marie Biscuits – 8 Nos
Coffee Powder – 1 tsp
Milk – ¼ cup
Sugar – 1 (it was less in sweet so advisable to add 2)





Method:
Break the marie biscuits into small pieces (as small as possible)
Put it in a microwavable cooking box
Pressed “tea with milk” in my office coffee machine I got ¼ cup of milk
Added coffee powder to the milk and mixed well
Pour the mixture on to the biscuits and mix it well

Take a small heap and make it into desired shape
Keep it in oven for 6 minutes
Remove it and add the crispy rusk along with it and munch it





Thursday, February 16, 2012

Paneer Chips - BM#13 - Day 1

Paneer Chips – BM#13:

Hey blog readers, did you check the date today it is 16th of the month, so, what’s the special? Don’t be surprised it’s once again the time of blogging marathon. 18 bloggers are in this week and 24 are in next week while last month it was 15 and 23. It will be interested to see the new groups in every blogging marathon each one is unique. To watch out the groups in this months’ blogging marathon, just visit here. For previous entries, please click here

I am in the group of making “Seven days of Chips” along with Preeti. “Chips” not the Microsoft ones, but the one most of munch just to pass our time like snacks. Chips will use very few ingredients and they are crispy it can be either salt or sweet. It is made up of vegetables and fruits.

I checked my mails in the morning and found “finger chips” or “French fries” published by Preeti. It immediately stroke to me about the Paneer Fingers, which I used to have when we used to go for dinner/lunch along with friends or hubby. Due to training I was waiting for my lunch time, when it was up, I quickly had my lunch in 5 minutes (a dhal rice) and ran to the nearby food store called as food world. Checked out I could get “Nandini” Paneer. Nandini is very famous dairy farming unit in Karnataka originated from Karnataka. I checked if I can get 100gms of Paneer because I thought it would be more, but I could get only 200 gms. Thought it would be more, surprisingly when I started munching I realized it was just over in very short time.

Ingredients:
Paneer – 200 gms
Salt – to taste
Pepper Powder – to taste









Method:
Cut the paneer into small fingers/cubes (actually I should have done it long fingers itself)

Put it into a oven and leave it for 6 minutes, till you see a brown one (u know my style of heating it in a oven right leave it for 2 minutes and check how it is then again leave it for 2 minutes and check, 2 minutes and check)
Mix well with a kitchen knife or a fork and sprinkle salt and pepper nicely on it and again mix it
Leave it for another 4 minutes
Paneer Fingers is ready, put it into a bowl and munch it


Note:
You can also use salt and chilli powder to spinkle on paneer and have a different taste

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Vennai Puttu - ICC Feb 15 - Wedding Anniversary


Vennai Puttu - ICC Feb 15 - Wedding Anniversary:
I feel proud to say that I have been part of Indian Cooking Challenge in this month, February 2012 reason this recipe is not only been prepared by me but also by all the participants who have participated in Indian Cooking Challenge. Entry to this blog is restricted only for the users.

ICC is an event which happens every month. Host of this blog ICC, Srivalli would be selecting a recipe with the help of participant(s) and announcing it to the team. Whole team has to prepare the same dish and post it on their blog on 15th of every month. Post has to be in their own words with pictures and link it to the announcement page and also link it to the source.

Last time, I was late in taking up the challenge of making Pheni Pattar or Chiroti and had to give up. This time, the recipe was announced on Feb 2nd and I had enough of time to prepare. This recipe is called Vennai Puttu, it looks like halwa and tastes like Akkibele Payasa. It’s a special dish of Tamilnadu shared by Priya, one of ICC team member. Nirmala had shared this recipe.

Ingredients:

Rice – ½ cup
Water to grind – ½ of rice quantity
Cooked Channa Dal – ¼ cup
Jaggery – ¼ cup
Water for Jaggery Syrup – ½ of jaggery quantity
Ghee – 2 tsp
Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp
Water for sweet – twice of rice – 1 cup

Method:
Soak rice for atleast 3 hours. I had soaked it overnight.
In the morning remove the water from the rice and along with half quantity of rice blend it like idli batter and keep it aside.
Cook channa dal and keep it aside
Put jaggery in to a vessel and add water and make a medium consistency jaggery syrup
Pour water for the sweet and allow it to boil
Once the water starts boiling add grinded / blended rice batter and star stirring continuously so that it does not form lumps. Never stop stirring till the sweet is removed from the stove.
When the raw smell in the rice batter vanishes add jaggery syrup, cardamom powder and cooked channel dal and stir continuously till a mass like substance is obtained or the mixture leaves the side.
Grease a plate and pour the mixture on to it and spread it across.
When it is warm make it into desired shapes and then serve it.







Story: Yesterday was a right time for me to do this as it was our wedding anniversary and mom-in-law had prepared only kheer to celebrate the occasion. Just for info, it was our 9th anniversary and I was happy that I could do something on this special day.

I soaked the rice overnight and blended it and kept. I could do the sweet only in the afternoon as my little son was not well and I had to take him to doctor. In the afternoon when I checked the consistency of batter all the water was on top and the thick batter was settled down in the bottom. I removed the excess water and learnt the trick. If you add excess water while grinding might be this method can work out to remove the excess water.

Once I did the sweet, my hubby who will never eat sweet came and tasted a little told it looks more or less like akkibele payasa. That was the great surprise.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Alammurabha-MagicMingle-Feb2012


Alammurabha:

Alam in telugu means Ginger, which is hot. Almonds is a nut which is widely used in making sweets. A combination of this, wow isn't a wonderful thought. Thanks to Kalyani who runs this event, which is a monthly blog hop. Last month she had cinnamon and chilli.  I missed it out. This time also I thought I might miss it out, then I remembered my bookmarked post - almond-ginger truffles.

Ginger is grown at the root of the plant. Ginger has been claimed to decrease the pain from arthritis, though studies have been inconsistent. It may also have blood thinning and cholesterol lowering properties that may make it useful for treating heart disease. (Source: wikipedia).

Almonds is a nut which stands in the top of the list which is good to health because it reduces cholesterol greatly. 

Ingredients:
Almonds - 10 to 12 nos
Ginger - 2 inches
Dates - 3 nos
Sugar - 5 tsp

Method:
Roast almonds and keep it aside
Peel the skin of ginger and grate it into small pieces
Use the dates skin and throw the seed. I used wet ones not dried one.
Add roasted almonds, grated ginger and dates along with sugar and blend it well
As I used wet dates the mixture, turned out to be moist. Hence I could avoid adding ghee to mix the sweet.
Serve it.

Note:
Incase you use dry dates like lion dates and so on, kindly use ghee to mix the mixture.

Story: When I gave this to my co-brother and my sister-in-law (hubby's sister) she told this is "alammurabha". Great I was surprised because I never ate this after my marriage at my home or before marriage in my home. I was happy too. My co-brother told the concept is new as I have used ginger in sweet.

Submitting this to Magic Mingle #2 - Almonds and Ginger in the month of February 2012 at Kalyani's Blog


"Love Lock - Sweets #2" hosted at Killer on the plate this time but started by Vidhya Subramony on her blog, SweetKaramKapi.






 

"Just 4" event by Sobha @ good food.









Fast Food not Fat Food by Priya @ bon appetit.










Healthy and Hearty by SethiaJyothi.







Let's Cook Sweets series by Radhika on TicklingPalates