Macaroni Hotpot

This name itself is so cute, isn't it? One just feels like immediately digging in into this hot and comforting sounding food. Well this certainly does live up to its name. It is hot, cheesy and very comforting. That too with the weather in Chennai the way it is right now, all wet and rainy and shockingly enough COLD ( can you believe it?), one feels like eating foods that make one's insides all warm and (sorry to use the word again) comforted.

I had eaten this many many years ago at a friend's place. But never really thought of asking her how to make it or the recipe. But I simply remembered it as a delicious dish, which my kids also enjoyed.

The other day while going through a Tarla Dalal cookbook I chanced upon this recipe. It immediately rang a bell. (imagine that you are reading a comic book and when the character gets a brilliant idea, this bulb lights up above the characters head?? It was exactly like that !!!) I remembered instantly that this was what I had tasted at R's place.

Quickly took out all the ingredients and assembled it and then popped it in the oven.

Out came this delicious dish...

Any tweaking of the recipe will involve 1) cutting the vegetables into small bits rather than the rounds she has suggested and 2) maybe at some point add more tomatoes/tomato paste and substituting the baked beans with corn. Will give an update when I make it with corn.

Now for the recipe....

Ingredients:

100 grams shell or elbow macaroni

1 can Baked beans

3 capsicums, diced into 1 inch bits

3 onions, chopped into 1 inch bits

4 cloves, garlic minced

4 Tomatoes, skinned and chopped finely

5 tablespoons tomato puree

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon red chilli flakes

salt to taste

100 grams cooking cheese, grated

Method:

Cook the macaroni in a large pot of water till 'al dente'( 80 % done) and drain. It cooks further during the baking process and we dont want it all breaking it up. It should hold its shape even after the baking process.

Heat the butter in a pan and add the onions and the minced garlic.

When it gets translucent, add the capsicum and saute for a couple of minutes.

Add the tomatoes and cook till mushy.

Add the baked beans, tomato puree, red chilli flakes, macaroni and salt.

Put into a baking dish and generously sprinkle grated cooking cheese over and bake at 200 deg C for about 20 mins till the top is bubbling.

Serve hot. You can serve some garlic bread with it, if desired.

Malpuas, Hot and Sweet

90% of my working life has been in the hotel business, having done my hotel management. I loved working in that industry especially in the Food & Beverage department (no prizes for guessing why!!! I guess my interest in food was just blossoming then). But when I settled into work, I gravitated towards the Banquets which was very interesting. I helped in planning menus and execution of the dinners/parties/weddings. It helped me really develop an interest in food and understand the whole concept of menu planning. However much all this is taught theoretically, it is only when you do something practically that it is understood well. Also, I learnt a lot about the various cuisines of India because wedding menu planning is whole different ball game compared to dinner menus.

One very special dish on the menu which was often requested for, particularly for weddings would be hot Malpuas made on the spot and served along with Rabdi or vanilla ice cream. It was simply divine. I looked forward to this being featured on the menu because then I would have a yummy dessert to look forward to after a hard day's work. That was back in the day when I did not even look at the calorie count of anything. The combination of really piping hot Malpuas with ice cold rabdi or vanilla ice cream has to be tasted to be believed. It is the ultimate waistline busting dessert. It is so calorie laden, that even one look at it makes one gain a few pounds.

Malpuas are usually made of full cream mixed with flour and fried (albeit shallow, that is it's only saving grace) in ghee. It is then dipped into a hot sugar syrup flavored delicately with saffron and cardamom. And if one thought that the calorie intake was not enough at this point, it is served with chilled Rabdi.

Simply typing all this is making me feel I have put on a couple of pounds.


But now everything cannot be forsaken in life, can it? We have to have these treats every now and then.


So I lightened up the recipe and made it a little less calorie dense. Used milk instead of cream and shallow fried it in oil instead of ghee and on a non stick so that reduced the oil. This at least made me feel better about eating Malpuas.



So let me quickly move on to the recipe....

Ingredients:

100 grams Maida (all purpose flour)
100 grams fine Rava (semolina)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup milk
A few strands saffron
4 cardamoms peeled and coarsely powdered

For the syrup:
1 cup sugar
½ cup water
1 tablespoon rose water (optional)

Oil/ghee to fry

Method:

Make a batter with maida, rava, sugar and milk. The batter should be thick like idly batter. Add a little more milk if the batter is too thick. Add the saffron and cardamom to it. Keep aside for ½ an hour.
In a deep dish mix the sugar and water and boil till it becomes thick. Skim off any impurities. Add the rose water.
Heat the oil or ghee is a shallow frying pan till medium hot. Pour in a little batter and make a small circle of about 3 inches diameter.
Fry till it is golden and turn over and fry the other side as well.
Dip into the sugar syrup for a minute and strain.
Serve hot along with chilled rabdi.

Rabdi and Reminiscing About Childhood

I remember as a kid, everytime we had a party or an official do at home, my mother's favorite dessert to make would be rabdi with jelly. She was not at all culinarily challenged, but for some strange reason this would show up again and again. Even if there were other desserts, this just had to be on the menu. It was total overkill, even if it was tasty overkill.

At that time, I think my siblings and I were heartily sick of rabdi with anything and so it was many years before I ventured close to anything which looked, smelt or tasted like Rabdi. But then as you grow up, childhood tastes start haunting you and you just have to recreate the taste for yourself. They take on a larger than life image (or should I say taste in this case?) in your mind's eye and soon you start craving for those tastes even if it is something you once hated.

So, sure enough I started wanting to eat rabdi again (obviously many many years after mom stopped making it).

Rabdi is one of the easiest desserts to make and goes awesomely well with any hot dessert like hot jalebis made on the spot, hot gulab jamuns , malpuas... rabdi pretty much goes with anything. Need I mention rabdi falooda, (as if I was not drooling enough already. To think I hated it so much at one time).

Think now I should head on and give you the actual recipe before I digress into other things.

Ingredients

2 Litres full cream milk
½ cup sugar
6-8 almonds slivered
10- 12 cardamoms, peeled and coarsely powdered
Few strands saffron dissolved in a teaspoon of hot milk

Method

Heat milk in a deep dish. Bring gently to a rolling boil. Reduce the flame and continue boiling the milk. Scrape/skim the top cream and keep adding it to the boiling milk. When reduced to half its quantity, add the sugar, cardamom powder and saffron. Garnish with slivered almonds. Chill and serve either by itself or with any of the items mentioned above.

This also goes as my entry for Think Spice Think Saffron hosted by Sunita of Sunitas World. Hope I am not too late.

Corn on Toast

Some days the kids come home with a heartfelt request. "Mom, I don't want regular food. Can't I have something different and yummier to eat?" It is always such a challenge. We have to get the fine balance of yummy and nourishing bang on. That's after all a mother's job. But I guess, sometimes its ok to have just a hearty snack even if it is not that nutritionally sound.

But nice and easy AND quick have to be the hallmarks of most things we make. One of the easiest snacks that I have made has to be corn on toast. It is hot, very filling and very easy on the tastebuds. And corn being the ultimate comfort food, the kids love it. And this recipe is pretty open to any amount of tweaking to suit personal tastes.

Ingredients:

2 cups corn steamed/boiled till done. (Can use corn niblets too. That does not need any steaming and tastes even better)

2-3 onions, chopped finely

1 green chilli chopped finely

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

1 to 1 1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon italian seasoning (I use the sachets that come with the pizza order)

1/2 teaspoon red chilli flakes

salt to taste

1/2 teaspoon pepper powder

4- 6 tablespoons grated cheese (I use Amul)

Method:

Heat butter on a medium flame. Add chopped onions and green chilli.

Fry till onions turn translucent.

Add the flour and fry for about a minute till it get gets cooked but not brown.

Add milk, stirring all the time so that there are no lumps.

Let it cook for about 10 minutes till it thickens and a saucy consistency is reached. Add the salt, pepper, seasoning and chilli flakes.

Let it get to be thick and not very liquidy(?). It should have the consistency of thick idly batter or thick cake batter.

Now add the cheese and stir till it melts.

Add the corn at this stage.

Serve hot on buttered toast.

The Quest For The Perfect Brownie

I am surrounded by a family of chocoholics. Chocolate in any form is devoured at a rapid pace in this household. I have yet to see this level of dedication to chocolate anywhere else. There are people in my family who at a chinese restaurant, will eat lychees with chocolate ice cream. That is the truth, cross my heart. There are others ( you know who you are!!!) whose idea of heaven on earth is Death by Chocolate eaten at Corner House, Bangalore. No visit to Bangalore is complete without one visit there. Damn the diet, and forget the calorie count. Everything is left by the wayside when it comes to chocolate for all of them.

Sure enough, genetics ensured that my son ended up being a chocoholic too. I have seen him "Drool"... Yes drool, no other word fits the description of him salivating when he sees a bowl of decadent chocolate mousse or an absolutely yummy chocolate truffle cake. When we are out at dinner, he will ensure that he orders the most chocolate saturated item on the menu. And eat it with such pleasure too. It is most amusing to watch him savour every bite of his chocolate.

In trying to satisfy his chocolate cravings I have been on the lookout for a nice fudgy brownie recipe almost forever (you know you can never have that absolutely perfect recipe for anything). Looked and looked and tried out many many recipes.

Finally got this one a couple of years back from a friend and then realised later that it was from the Hersheys site. The recipe is easy and the brownies come out really fudgy and chocolatey. For me the final approval obviously came from my son who rated it as "very nice, mummy. Can I have some more? Plenty more?"

It has a nice crumbly outside, and the insides are 100% melty gooey chocolate goodness. Needless to say, it is pretty rich (I mean, have you looked at the ingredients? :)

Here's the recipe....

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts(optional)

Method:

Heat oven to 170 deg C. Grease and flour 9-inch square baking pan. A suggestion here is to use parchment paper or foil to line the pan otherwise it may stick to the bottom.

Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl.

Add eggs and beat well with spoon.

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended.

Stir in nuts, if desired.

Spread batter evenly into the pan.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Dust with powdered sugar for decoration.