Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie is an English dish, traditionally made with lamb or mutton. Americans typically make Shepherd's Pie with beef. Naming conventions aside, Shepherd's Pie is essentially a casserole, lined with cooked meat and vegetables, topped with mashed potatoes and baked. I used beef for making it.This dish is my all time favorite. The recipe is actually from my mom and I tried to build on that. I always had the feeling that it was very difficult to make. But it is not that difficult as I thought. But I should say it is time consuming. 'A' had a hectic day at office. So I thought I will make his favourite dish . I gathered the ingredients I thought I needed and went rummaging through my moms famous recipe book to find the recipe.

Recipe Source : My Mom


Ingredients

1 kg meat

salt

1 Handful red onions

1 handful garlic cloves

1 piece ginger

8 green chillies

2 tsp pepper powder

2 glassess water

Cook in cooker with weight. After 8 minutes, open and set aside 3 glassess stock. Mince the meat. Add 2 Tbs vinegar and keep.

4 large onions sliced long

4 Tomatoes finely sliced

8 Tbs Maida.

Heat oil. Fry the onions, when transluscent add the tomatoes and when oil seperates add the mince meat and mix. Cook the mince meat until it turns brown. Then add the maida and mix well for some time. Add the stock and boil and set down. Transfer the meat to a greased baking dish.

Potato Layer:

1 kg potatoes

Salt

2 Egg yolks

4 Tbs Milk

4 Tbs butter or ghee

Wash the potatoes and cook in pressure cooker with weight for 10 minutes with level water. Peel and mash the potatoes. Mix all the other ingredients. Spread over the meat in the baking dish. Bake for 15 minutes.

Chicken Biriyani

I have suddenly been bitten by the blogging bug. These days flipping through food blogs have become one of my favorite pass times, whether I make something out of it or not is a different question. The recipes should look really impressive and kinda easy to make, for me to come to that - "Try-it-out" mode. It's been quiet a long time that I am thinking about making Biriyani.It is something I ate with enjoyment, I had never dreamed that one day I would make these! As usual I asked my mom about the recipe. I religiously note down each and every step. I read through the whole thing and I must admit that I was a bit apprehensive about whether I can make it or not. Finally I rolled my sleeves in the afternoon and got down to start the preparation. So here is a virtual feast for all my friends out there with a chicken Biriyani.

Recipe Source : My Mom

Ingredients:

1. Rice - 1kg

2. Chicken - 1.5 Kg

3. Garlic - 1 Handful

4. Ginger - 7 Big Pieces

5. Green Chilly - 10 

6. Tomatoes - 3

7. Curd - 1 cup

8. Turmeric Powder - 1 teaspoon

9. Nuts - 1 Cup

10. Raisins -  1 Cup

11. Ghee - 1 Cup

12. Onions - 1 Cup

13. Coconut - 1 cup

14. Cardamom - 5 Each

15. Cinnamon -5 each

16. Cloves - 5 each

17. khus Khus - 2 Tablespoon

18. Jeera - 1/2 tsp

19. Lime Juice - 4 Tablespoon

20. Salt - To Taste

Method:

Rice:

Grind nuts and raisins. Boil the rice. Add cardamom, cinnamon, lime juice and paste of nuts and raisins to the cooked rice.

Chicken

Grind garlic, ginger, green chilly, tomatoes and apply on the chicken by adding curd, salt and turmeric powder. Cook the chicken in this paste and make the gravy very thick. 

Garnishing Layer:

Fry the onions first and when it turns light brown color add coconut and khus khus.

Put half portion of rice, ghee, and garnishing layer in the baking dish. Add chicken on top of it and put the balance rice. Add little ghee and 1/4th cup milk. Bake for 15 minutes at 180 deg c.  

Bread Halwa

Breads holds an important part in my daily food. I love bread in any form, whether it is plain uncooked bread or croissants ,Bread pudding , Bread uppuma, ...The list goes on........ During my childhood days I remember eating plain Bread by dipping in coffee. I can eat it even without butter or jam.. While I was staying in a hostel bread was my rescue from spoilt food. My husband don't like bread much. So these days I am not hogging on to bread the way I did it in the past. I was having a big sweet craving and I was planning to make Gajar Ka Halwa. Even though my husband is not so fond of sweets but he likes Gajar Ka Halwa. To my disappointment I couldn't see a single carrot inside the fridge. I was tempted to make a sweet to satisfy my taste buds. My creativity made me to use bread instead of carrots. My mom used to make different varieties of Halwa. But I haven't ever heard about using bread for halwa. I got even more excited and decided to try it out. You can try it out next time when you are having a craving.

Recipe Source : My Own


Ingredients

4 slices of bread

5 tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp ghee

1 cup boiled milk

Few roasted nuts

Method to Make:

Cut the bread into small pieces. It is optional to remove the corners. Roast the bread slices in 1 tbsp ghee till golden brown. Heat the milk and add the bread pieces to it. Keep stirring till the bread absorbs the milk and becomes soft.  Add sugar and nuts.  Mix well till sugar melts.  Add ghee and stir for a minute.

Fish Crumb Fry

Hey Guys, here I am again with a fish recipe. This one is from my Granny's household. My Granny's home is a meeting place for everybody. She loves entertaining guests. She used to cook very well but being plagued with all kinds of ailments has pretty much retired from cooking these days. But even now whenever I visit her she makes it a point to instruct the maids to prepare the dishes which I love the most. There was one cheduthy who used to come to help my granny whenever she has guests. That lady makes awesome food. My mom had taken few recipes from her. At that time the word 'Cooking' barely had root in my vocabulary. But even now I very well remember the taste of the food which she cooks. I was thinking of trying one of those dishes. I asked my mom about the recipe and I was surprised myself by hearing how easy and simple it is to make. When you are pressed for time and you have to make lot more dishes to fill your table top this dish is a good bet. Guys and girls, take out your pan and aprons and be ready for a short and rewarding cooking experience.

Recipe Courtesy: Rosy Cheduthy

                                         

Method to make:

Fish: 1 KG [ I used Fish Fillet ] 

Grind: 2 pieces ginger, 1/2 handful garlic, 1 Tbs pepper and 1 Tbs khus khus.Add salt and lime juice to make a thick paste. Apply on fish and keep for 2 hours.Then dip in beaten egg, roll in bread crumbs and press on both sides. Deep Fry.

Fish Pie

Something's Fishy -  Fish Pie

After moving to U.S myself and my hubby didn't have an opportunity to have fish.Having fish almost like everyday at my home I was tempted to have some. My actual plan was to bake a meat pie.But when I saw good fish at the super market, I grabbed on to it.

Recipe Courtesy:


Usha Benny , My Mom




Ingredients:

Fish Fillets - 1/2 kg

pepper Powder - 1 tsp

Red Onions - one Handful

Green Chillies - 6

Garlic Cloves - 5

Ginger - 1 small piece

Salt - To Taste

cook the fish in little water by adding all the above ingredients.

White Sauce:

Butter - 3 tablespoon

Red Onions - One handful sliced

Maida- 2 Tablespoon

Milk - 1 Glass

Eggs - 2

Grated cheese - Half Cup

Pepper Powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Salt - To Taste

Method:

Heat 3 tablespoon butter, fry the red onions, add maida and roast and set down.Add one glass milk and little water, little by little without forming lumps.Keep on fire and add salt, pepperpowder and beaten eggs and set down.Add the grated cheese and mix.

Put a small layer of chesse sauce in a pyrex dish.over that put the fish.Then put all the remaining cheese sauce.
Bake for 15 minutes till the top is reddish.

Inspiration to cooking

It's been a while since I am thinking about starting my own food blog. All thanks to my hubby dearest who accepts all the hits and flops from my kitchen and giving me motivation in writing all my experiences about the art of cooking. I was very skeptical about cooking during my college days. I always thought cooking is not my forte.Being the youngest in the family and completely pampered by my dad, I never had to enter the kitchen. My mom, a veteran in cooking and my lovely sisters used to make all the delicacies I like whenever I visit them. My mother was always worried about my lack of interest in cooking. I used to tell her I will learn it all by myself when necessity comes. After marriage, I started experimenting recipes.I soon realised that cooking is an art and found myself interested in baking.

I decided to start my blog with some of my baking Recipes.I am dedicating this blog to my mom who passed on all her culinary skills to me.

Mummy - I would love to try out all your recipes.