Food For Thought-In Winter

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:  it is the time for home. 
-Edith Sitwell-

Savoury Rounds

Winter has approached again here.When the weather is cold and chilly the children get hungry very fast.Here is an easy to make recipe to feed the hungry ones during teatime or TV time.


Try this
Cut circles out of sliced bread.butter the bread and apply tomato ketchup on each piece.Mash boiled eggs :2,3 or 4 ( depending on the slices of bread you prepare) with cream cheese, mayonnaise and pepper.Spread this mixture  on the bread and bake for about 5 minutes.Serve warm on cold wintry afternoons.The kids love this..


Optional:garnish with grated cheese,parley or fried onions

Food For Thought

Cutting  stalks at noon time.Perspiration drips to the earth.Know that your bowl of rice, each grain from hardship comes.
-Chang Chan Pao-

Roasted Chicken

Since the children prefer chicken over beef or lamb,I have to find different ways of cooking chicken.They prefer to eat chicken without much spicy condiments and gravy.Here's their favourite.Roasted chicken with pepper and lemon.They had this for lunch yesterday.

This is a very simple form of roasting chicken:Wash and cut chicken into medium sized pieces.Rub over them with pepper and  salt.Place them in a  baking dish and drizzle lemon juice and dripping,preferably oil.I  put  some mint leaves  in between the chicken pieces to enhance the flavour.Baking time could take from 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours,Seal the baking dish with an aluminium foil for the first 1 hour. Remove the foil and  continue baking for the remaining of the cooking time.

Eating Out

My children  are  still  on holiday and last evening my daughter was complaining she was bored  being at home.I guess she found my cooking a bit boring too.So we decided to chill out and have an early dinner.Eating out once in a way is fine but we usually get stuck when ordering something for our vegetarian daughter.Surprisingly there was a vegetable item she liked at the restaurant we had gone to.

Hot and Sizzling -sauteed mushrooms, broccoli,onions and peppers served with a cup of chilly beans


The rest decided to taste something crispy,spicy  and  with some tangy flavours

The Sons about to indulge into a fruity grenadine  with a mixture of orange and pineapple 

Cookery Quote

Cookery is not chemistry. It is an art. It requires instinct and taste rather than exact measurements.”


- Marcel Boulestin-

Wattalappam ( Jaggery pudding)

This pudding is popular mostly in Muslim homes in my home country.Muslims prepare this dessert during special occasions like weddings and festivals.This pudding was originally known as the Malay pudding and later became to be popularly known as wattalappam.This dessert  is mostly steamed but for the last few years I have tried baking the pudding,by placing the  pudding bowl  in a tray with water.I believe it is as good as steaming.

 Wattalappam


Ingredients
10 eggs
1 pound jaggery
2 teacups thick coconut milk
1/2 teaspoons powdered cardamoms
A pinch of salt


Method
Break the eggs into a bowl and beat well .Scrape the jaggery and mix it with the eggs .Add the coconut milk ,cardamoms and the salt and mix well.Pour into  small moulds and steam for about 1 and  1/4 hours or until firm..
Baking takes a longer time to cook.It took me almost 2 and 1/2 hours for the pudding to be well cooked.

Eating Pittu

I made pittu or ( also known as puttu)  using pitu flour which was available in the supermarket.The recipe I borrowed from a sri lankan cookery book,(lakehouse cookery book).I made a chilly sambol, which is commonly known as lunu miris. Pittu  is delicious with  coconut milk spooned all over . 
Please come over to my kitchen for the recipe.

Successful Cooking Quote

"Happy and successful cooking doesn't rely only on know-how; it comes from the heart, makes great demands on the palate and needs enthusiasm and a deep love of food to bring it to life."

Georges Blanc, ‘Ma Cuisine des Saisons’