Buttermik Cornbread

I am in the process of cleaning my pantry now. I am leaving to India next week after my seven months long stay in the United States. When I look back it just feels like yesterday that I entered this country. I was very sad when I had to quit my job in India and to come here , that too for a very short stint. I knew that I won't be able to work in the States due to the visa formalities. Before leaving from India I started cribbing to 'A' about it. I am a person who can't sit inside the house even for few minutes. I am always on the run. When we reached here 'A' put a suggestion to me to start blogging. I didn't even know abot the term then. I started hopping through different blogs and found very interested in it. One fine day morning I told him that I am planning to start a food blog. He was very enthusiastic and encouraging about it. He knew how much I loved my job and how I am missing it now. He wanted me to be happy in every possible way and he was the first follower in my blog which is now followed by 59 people within 5 months. I am super duper happy and excited about it. All cheers to 'A' the man behind the scene. Without his inspiration and motivation I would have never done this.

I am going to introduce a recipe with corn meal. I am trying out quiet a few recipes with it. I am following Vrinda's recipe to the dot. My first attempt was corn meal crusted chicken and now I made a butter milk corn bread. I don't like to waste anything whether it is stuffs in my panty or my clothes. I will never throw any of my clothes which in turn makes my mom always crib about my never ending wardrobe. I have little bit of butter milk left  which I have used for the chocolate muffins. The end result was a sweet, soft, moist and a  little corn bread.

Recipe source : http://www.reciperoll.com/

Ingredients :

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

Directions :

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Melt butter in a large skillet. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Now add eggs and beat well until well blended. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture in pan. Stir in corn meal, flour and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

 Notes : If you want your cornbread to rise nicely, let as little time as possible elapse between combining the dry and liquid ingredients and putting it in the oven. Once the  baking soda and buttermilk get together, the rising action begins.Your cornbread is done when the edges turn a wee bit brown. There may be a few slight cracks closer to the edges of the pan.

I am sending this over to the week long celebration at Magpie Recipes for the grand winning of Team India winning the Cricket World Cup .

Bread Upma

An easy peacy breakfast for you and the best way of utilising bread before they stale. I am a huge fan of bread. I have mentioned about it in my earlier posts. I am not saying about it all over again. The Indian store near our apartment have all the basic stuffs. It is a bliss that we get canned coconut milk and shredded coconut over there. Our traditional kerala snacks like achappom, murukku everything is available. But I have found that both bread and milk they provide will be almost close to expiry. During several trips of Indian grocery store this has happened and we have even told the manager about it and of no use. Here you will get milk in one big can and it will take us atleast one week to finish it. Both of us are not active coffee drinkers. The bread craving inside me compelled me to have a sandwich for dinner and not with a second thought I put the bread packet into my shopping cart. When I came home I made the sandwich and next day morning the bread packet is looking at me and saying "you can use me fast or else you can throw me away". Then I got down myself to make one of my favorite breakfast item.

Recipe Source : My Mom

Ingredients :

Bread - 8 slices

Onion - 1

Green Chillies - 4

Dry chilli Bits - 4

Carrot Grated - 1

Salt - To Taste

Milk - Little (To sprinkle on the bread cubes) 

To Crackle : 

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp

Method :

Cut the bread into cubes and sprinkle enough milk on the bread cubes. Add a little salt also. Mix gently with hand or toss and keep for 10 minutes. Heat Oil. Crackle the items. Add the onion mix and fry. When the green chillies turn color add the bread pieces and mix. Add little more oil as required and fry the bread pieces. 

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.