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, cream,  muffins 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

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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

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 13

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Paneer Chips - BM#13 - Day 1

Paneer Chips – BM#13:

Hey blog readers, did you check the date today it is 16^th 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. 

[BM-12 my entries]

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

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 13

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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 15^th 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 2^nd 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 9^th 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.

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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

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MicrowaveSemolinaPayasam-BlogHopver2.0-Feb2012

"Blog Hop Wednesday" is a monthly event and this is the second version which has been started at Radhika's blog. This event happens every second week of the month. It would be announced on Wednesday and within 3 days there should be an entry from your partner's blog, which Radhika would have intimated through her google group, "blog hop wednesday". 

I had been paired with Nirmala. She is in US and mom of two children who are married. Interesting thing is her daughter, Archana also writes a blog. She had quite interesting recipes. I had bookmarked her recipes - groundnut rice, microwave burfi and this one.

Semiya Payasam is an instant sweet done with Semiya or Semolina which will be like noodles but very short. I usually do it on a stove top, but doing it through Microwave in the office which served for my today's lunch is great. Thanks Nirmala for this recipe as I don't have stove inside the office and I am afraid to work with microwave as its very new to my style of cooking. In office, we get milk, biscuits, sugar, salt, fruits, and so on, as its software company and projects might have hectic pressure they have arranged for all these eatables.

Microwave ovens vary with their temperature and its very important to know what are they? Unfortunately, my office had not maintained its manual and for a beginner like me, its too difficult. So I usually do keep it for one minute, check out, again keep it for one more minute and check. This will go on till I have reached the end product.

Ingredients:

• Roasted Semolina - 1/2 cup
• Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Raisins - few
• Cashewnuts - few
• Ghee - 2 tsp
• Milk - 3 glasses (each glass is of 50ml)

Method:

• Boil Milk for 2 minutes

• Mix roasted  semolina, powdered sugar, raisins and cashewnuts and then keep it ready by the time milk boils

• Add the mixture along with ghee to the milk and keep it for 4 minutes, till the semolina turns to be soft

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ThenkaiDosa

ThenkaiDosa+Dosapowder

Thenkai Dosa:


Thenkai means coconut and dosa out of it. I was literally surprised to see this recipe in Shanthi's blog. 





First thing I remember about coconut is it is used to worship God in our Hindu culture. It's a must on festival days to make sweets or savories, to worship, in some of the houses it is used to take drishti/nazar lagna (evil eyesight).

Where is coconut found?

• Found across much of the tropic and subtropic area, the coconut is known for its great versatility as seen in the many domestic, commercial, and industrial uses of its different parts 

Coconut tree has got a tap root system means the roots is a straight line with root hairs on either of the side.

I remember a line of a poem in kannada "kelage upu niru kudive, mele sihi nira koduve" means i will drink salt water in the bottom, means what we pour for the roots is salt water but i give you sweet water which is coconut water.There are lot of uses from this tree.

What are the uses of coconut?

Coir:

Coconut Coir - used for pulling water

Copra:

Copra used for cooking

Dasara Celebration with copra

Coconut Oil used in soaps and cosmetics

Coconut Oil:

This parachute hair oil if you use it for your hair one hour before your head bath, the hair will be so smooth and soft. Thanks to Parachute.

Husks and Shells: The husk and shells can be used for fuel and are a source of charcoal. 

Olden Days Cooking Stove

In earlier days, when they used to boil water for bath using a place where they used to put these wooden logs, husks, shells, eucalyptus leaves etc. There husks/shells used to play a very good role. 

Coconut roots: The roots are used as a dye, a mouthwash, and a medicine for diarrhea and dysentery. A frayed piece of root can also be used as a toothbrush.

 

 

Coconut trunks: Trunks are used for building small bridges; they are preferred for their straightness, strength and salt resistance. In Kerala (India), coconut trunks are used for house construction.  

 

 

Coconut Timber: Timber comes from the trunk, and is increasingly being used as an ecologically sound substitute for endangered hardwoods. It has applications in furniture and specialized construction, as notably demonstrated in Manila's Coconut Palace.

 

Coconut milk: Coconut milk is obtained primarily by extracting juice by pressing the grated coconut's white kernel or by passing hot water or milk through grated coconut, which extracts the oil and aromatic compounds. This is used in making sweets. When it is refrigerated the cream comes to the top which gets separated from milk. The milk can be used to produce virgin coconut oil by controlled heating and removal of the oil fraction.

Processed Cocojal

Fresh Tender Coconut

Coconut water: Coconut water contains sugar, fiber, proteins, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and provides an isotonic electrolyte balance. It is consumed as a refreshing drink throughout the humid tropics and is gaining popularity as an isotonic sports drink.

When somebody falls sick and is in hospital the first thing offered is fresh tender coconut which has more water or only water. In other tender coconut we will have fresh coconut also which is so tasty to eat.

The same is processed and then stored for days together which is called Cocojal.

Because of its "n" number of uses it is also called and worshiped as "Kalpavriksha" means a tree which can give whatever you ask.

For more information refer to the source: Coconut

Ingredients: 

 

Whole Urad Dhal - 2 cups (1 cup = 100 gms)

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Method:

Soak urad dhal overnight in the morning blend it nicely with water.

Retain some urad dhal in the end and mix it with coconut and blend it till its smooth to touch.

Add salt and baking soda to the batter and keep it for fermentation for one hour. Batter should be thin in consistency.

 

Heat a tawa and pour little oil on top of it and pour the batter

Spread it across by rotating the tawa so that the batter spreads

Leave it get roasted, put oil on the batter and once crispy turn it to the other side

Remove it from the stove and serve it with chutney powder and/or with groundnut chutney

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