Cinnamon Rolls

That smell of cinnamon.. oh my God, when I finished baking these, my kitchen smelled heavenly! I am a big fan of cinnamon. Anything flavored with cinnamon has my heart. So certainly cinnamon rolls top the list. Let me warn you, guys this isn’t an easy recipe. Well, the effort might sound less, but the time it takes is something to be kept in mind. If you need flawless, tasty homemade cinnamon rolls, you need to be patient. The whole process will take up to 2-3 hours. This requires 1 hour for rising the dough, another 30 mins to rise the rolls and then 30 mins to bake plus 20 mins of other preparation. So lets start!

Ingredients:

Milk                                                  1 cup

Yeast                                                 2.5 tsp

Butter                                               100 gms

Sugar                                                6 tbsp

Egg                                                   1

Flour                                                 3.5 cups

Brown Sugar                                    3 tbsp

Cinnamon powder                           2 tbsp

Philadelphia Cream Cheese            100 gms

Powdered Sugar                              ¾ cup

Vanilla Essence                               1 tsp

Method:

1. In a bowl, pour 1 cup warm milk, 50 gms melted butter, yeast and 6 tbsp sugar.

2. Keep this on the kitchen counter until fermented. You can see the froth on the top when its done. 3. 3. This might take around 10-15 mins.

4. Once this is done, add one egg whisked and 3.5 cups of flour. 

5. Knead this well for a soft dough for about 5 mins. Dust more flour if necessary.

6. Grease a large bowl, add the dough and cover with a wet cloth.

7. Keep the dough for one hour for rising to double the size. Tip: if your kitchen is not warm, heat the oven for 10 mins, switch if off then transfer the bowl to the oven for an hour. This will help rise the dough quickly.

8. Once the dough has risen, roll it out in a rectangular shape. Not too thick and not too thin.

9. Now melt 50 gms of butter and spread on the dough. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon powder and spread above the butter.

10. Now, tightly roll this. Cut into equal sized starting from the middle. You will get up to 16 pieces from this recipe. 

11. Grease a pan and transfer these into a pan leaving enough space between them as this will also have to rise.

12. Cover this with a wet towel and keep for another 30 mins or until this has doubled the size. The below picture shows before and after.

13. Meanwhile, preheat the oven for 10 mins at 160C.

14. Once the rolls has risen, bake them for 30 mins or until light golden brown starts to appear on the top.

15. While this is baking, you can prepare the glazing. This is optional. I like it without glazing.

16. In a bowl, beat the cream cheese, melted butter and powdered sugar. Once the rolls are baked, add the glaze over it. 

Homemade cinnamon rolls are ready to serve.

Idiyappam/Nool Puttu

Not sure what is this called in your place. It is famous by the name idiyappam I guess. But in our place its called as Nool Puttu. This is a quick and easy breakfast item. However, I have this any time I like not necessarily for breakfast. What you require is a very good idiyappam maker and an idly steamer or normal steamer. The combination for this is enormous. The basic combo is green peas curry, chicken stew, veg kuruma, egg curry, egg roast etc. Refer to the curries in my blog I have tagged.

Ingredients:
Rice Flour/Idiyappam Powder       1 cup
Water                                              1 ¼ cup
Salt
Coconut oil

Method:
1. Dry roast the rice flour in a pan for 2 mins.
2. Remove from flame and heat 1.25 cups of water with little salt. Do not boil this just heat.
3. Now add this into the roasted flour and mix well with a wooden spoon.
4. Mix it until you can knead it with hand. The dough will be super-hot, be careful.
5. Knead well. Meanwhile, heat water in the steamer.
6. Now, apply oil inside the idiyappam maker, the tip and even on the idly steamer racks.
7. Fill the maker with the dough and pipe out. Refer to the image of the end-product.
8. Top with some grated coconut and steam for 5-7 minutes.
9. Yummy idiyappams will be ready to serve.

Green Gram/Cherupayar Curry

One of the best combinations for puttu, chappathi and even idiyappam. Easy and quick made curry.

Ingredients:

Green Gram/Cherupayar                1 cup

Coconut                                          1/2 cup

Garlic                                              2 cloves

Cumin seeds                                   1 tsp

Green chilly                                    1

Turmeric Powder                            1/4 tsp

Red Chilly Powder                         1 1/2 tsp

Mustard Seeds

Coconut oil

Curry Leaves

Salt

Method:

1. Cook the green gram in pressure cooker with enough water for 1 whistle.

2. Into this cooked green gram, add salt, turmeric powder, red chilly powder and boil for 5 mins.

3. Grind the coconut, green chilly and cumin seeds to a fine paste.

4. Add this to the cooked green gram.

5. Meanwhile, heat coconut oil in a pan and sputter mustard seeds and add chopped garlic and curry leaves.

6. Add this to green gram and cook until you get the desired consistency.

7. Enjoy the curry with some hot puttu or chappathi :)

Aval Pradhaman/Rice Flake Dessert

Happy Vishu everyone!! :) To those who are wondering what is Vishu. It is a Hindu festival being celebrated by South Indians. The festival marks the first day of Medam, the ninth month in the solar calendar followed in Kerala. As I am a Keralite, we celebrate all the festivals we can  Doesn’t matter what religion the festival belongs to! So this time, as I am still working from office, I had no time to prepare the Sadhya instead I decided to prepare the dessert hence the Aval Pradhaman. This is one of the easiest Payasams and Aval doesn’t take much time to cook. 

Ingredients:
Aval/Rice Flakes                                            1 ½ cups
Jaggery Melted                                              2 cups
Thin Coconut Milk                                        4 cups
Thick Coconut Milk                                      1 cup
Ginger Powder                                              ½  tsp
Cardamom Powder                                       1 tsp
Cashew nuts
Ghee

Method:

1. Melt the Jaggery with 1 cup of water and keep aside.

2. In a pan which you are going to prepare the pradhaman, heat 2 tbsp ghee.

3. Add the rice flakes/aval to this and roast for 2-3 mins.

4. Now add the melted jaggery to this and keep stirring until the water evaporates and it little thick in consistency.

5. To this, add 4 cups of thin coconut milk and keep stirring until the aval has cooked. To know this, check if the aval has come up and mixed with the milk and not settled at the bottom on the pan.

6. Add ½ tsp of ginger powder and 1 tsp of cardamom powder. 

7. Once it has reached the desired consistency, add the thick coconut milk, mix for 5 mins and switch off the flame.

8. In another pan, heat ghee, add cashew nuts and add on to the payasam. Ready to serve! 

Egg Curry with Coconut Milk

This is another add on from my childhood favorites. Not exactly the same but the similar curry used to be the combination for Pathiri in our house. This goes well with idiyappam, chappathi, pathiri, bread and even with some tasty ghee rice.     

Ingredients:             
Eggs                                         4
Onions                                     2
Ginger                                     Small piece
Green Chilly                           2
Tomato                                   1
Potato                                     1
Turmeric Powder                    ¼ tsp
Red Chilly Powder                 2 tsp
Coriander Powder                  1 tsp
Fennel Seeds                          1 tsp
Coconut Milk Powder            2 tbsp
Curry Leaves
Coconut Oil
Salt

Method:
1. Boil the eggs and keep aside.
2. In a pan, heat coconut oil and add fennel seeds.
3. Add sliced onions, green chili, ginger, salt and curry leaves to this.
4. Saute until light brown and add turmeric, coriander and red chilly powder.
5. Saute this until the raw smell goes off.
6. Now add sliced tomato and ½ cup water and saute until tomatoes are well done.
7. Add chopped potatoes to this and cover cook until potatoes are done.
8. Now add 1 cup of coconut milk. I used coconut milk powder but if you have fresh coconut, you can extract the milk.
9. Boil this for around 5 mins and add the boiled eggs to this. I have cut the eggs into half as I like it better that way.
10. Open and cook for 5 mins, off the flame and serve hot.

Warm Bread Pudding

This is an easy warm dessert. It was on a Friday morning when I returned from a BBQ night with friends and we decided to stay over until sunrise and I realize that I did not make anything for my cousins for the lunch dessert. I had to quickly find a dessert that I could prepare in less than an hour and which did not require to be kept in the fridge to set. Umm Ali is definitely the first thing that comes to mind but that needs 2 steps of baking and I had already made it for them couple of weeks ago. So, I had some left over bread, milk, egg and some milk mixture from tres leches. That was it and I made this pudding.

Pudding:
Ingredients
Bread slices cut into cubes 6 slices
Eggs 4
Tres Leches Milk (in the method) 3 cups
o Evaporated milk           1 tin
o Milk                         2 cups
o Condensed milk           ½ - 1 tin as per taste
Vanilla Essence         1 tsp
Nutmeg powder         ½ tsp
Cinnamon Powder         1 tsp
Method:
1. Preheat the oven for 10 – 15 mins at 180 C.
2. In a bowl, mix evaporated milk, milk, condensed milk, vanilla essence, nutmeg powder, cinnamon powder and mix well and keep aside.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and add in the milk mixture into it.
4. In a greased pan layer the bread cubes and pour the milk mixture over.
5. Bake it for 30 – 45 minutes or until done.
6. Let it cool for 1 hour before serving.

Salted Caramel:
Ingredients:
Soft brown sugar                            100 gms
KDD Thick Cream                         150 ml
Unsalted Butter                              25 gms
Salt                                                 1/4 tsp

Method
1. Heat a sauce pan and add all the ingredients and mix until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Boil this and keep mixing until thick.
3. Off the flame and cool for sometime.

Cut the pudding and serve with salted caramel and vanilla ice cream. Enjoy the warm pudding with some cold ice cream.

Lunch Combo 1 - Veg + Fish Fry

For me the this combination is a childhood memory! This curry is totally my mom's recipe. Not sure if this is being made in your houses too but I like to name it my mom's speciality. Every house has their own recipes I bet. Even the same curry might be made in different styles. I will be posting some Lunch combo ideas from my kitchen making it easy for you all. Here is one combo, rice, pumpkin n dry bean curry, lady's finger stir fry and fish fry to go with it.

Pumpkin and Dry Beans Curry: 
Ingredients:
Pumpkin                                                  500 gms
Unakkapayar/Dry Beans                         1 cup
Turmeric Powder                                    ¼ tsp
Red Chilly Powder                                  2 tsp
Coconut                                                   1 cup
Jeera                                                        1 tsp
Mustard seeds                                         1 tsp
Dried Red Chilly                                    1
Coconut Oil                                            1 tbsp
Curry Leaves
Salt
Water

Method:
1. Wash and cook the dry beans/unakkapayar. I normally keep this with enough water on pressure cooker for 2 whistles.
2. Once the pressure is gone, open the cooked and add chopped pumpkin, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, salt and boil until the pumpkins are soft and mushy.
3. Now, grind coconut and jeera with little water to a paste.
4. Add this to the cooked pumpkin and bean. Mix well and when it starts to boil, switch off the flame.
5. In a pan, heat coconut oil, sputter mustard seeds, add one dried red chilly and some curry leaves.
6. Pour this on top of the curry and serve hot with rice

Okra Stir Fry/Vendakka Mezhuku Piratti

Ingredients:

Lady's finger/okra                                   250 gms

Onion chopped                                       1

Green Chilly                                           2

Coconut Grated                                      1/4 cup

Coconut oil                                             1 tbsp

Mustard seeds                                        1 tsp

Dried Red Chilly

Curry Leaves

Salt

Method:

1. Cut the okra into small slices.

2. In a pan add 1 tbsp coconut oil, sputter mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chilly.

3. To this, add chopped onions and green chilly.

4. Saute this for 2 mins.

5. Now add the sliced okra and sauce until half done.

6. Add the grated coconut and saute until well done.

Fish Fry

Ingredients:

Any fish, I used mackerel

Red Chilly Powder                              2 tsp

Turmeric powder                                 1/4 tsp

Tamarind Pulp soaked in water           3 tbsp

Fennel Seeds                                       1 tsp

Curry Leaves

Salt

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients and marinate the fish for 15 mins.

2. In a pan heat coconut oil and fry the fish until well done.

Enjoy the best lunch :)