Crunchy Pecan and Maple Syrup Ice Cream with Butterscotch sauce topping

Exam fever is on and just 2 more days left before the BIG day!!
To cut down the heat I decided to chill myself over this crunchy creamy ice-cream..
To add in a little more guilty pleasure I gave it a butterscotch sauce topping..
Can it get any better than this? !!

Here is what you need
Recipe Source: ice-cream-recipes.com
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Cream
2 tablespoon Maple syrup
30 gms Pecan nuts chopped
1 table spoon brown sugar
25 gms butter

In a saucepan, slowly melt the butter then add the chopped pecan nuts. Sprinkle on the sugar, stir and cook on a medium heat for approx 3-4 minutes until the nuts are crisp.
Cooking on too high a heat will burn the pecan nuts and render a bitter taste.
Remove from the pan and place on a parchment paper to dry.
In a separate mixing bowl, pour in the milk, stir in the cream and maple syrup until well blended. Add the fried, chopped pecan nuts..
Transfer the complete mixture into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.

Alternately you can freeze the mixture in a refrigerator for few hours, take it out and blend it in a mixer for few seconds.Move it back to refrigerator again.
You can repeat the blending and freezing process once more to get smooth creamy finish



For the butterscotch sauce, add in about a tablespoon of butterscotch chips and a tablespoon of cream to a bowl, microwave for few seconds. Mix well and refrigerate.

Mambazha Pulissery/Ripe mangoes in Yogurt Gravy

This is one of my favorite Kerala delicacy..Mambazha Pulissery
Needless to say it makes me soo nostalgic..!
Brings back the sweet memories of the numerous summer vacations I spend with my cousins at my dad’s ancestral home, which by the way is surrounded by loads n loads on mango trees..
We kids used to gorge on ripe mangoes all day round till we get a tummy ache!!
This time around my mom managed to bring along some mangoes from my hometown and we made this yummiliicous dish!
It’s a sweet n sour n slightly spicy dish and excellent accompaniment to rice!!



Without further adieu here goes the recipe..

Here is what you need
3 small ripe mangoes
1/ 4 Cup yogurt
1/3 Cup water
1/2 tspn Turmeric powder
1/2 -1 tspn Chilly powder
Salt to taste

To grind
1/4 Cup grated Coconut
1 tspn Cumin seeds
2 Green chilies

For seasoning
1 tspn Oil
1/2 tspn Mustard seeds
1/2 tspn Fenugreek seeds
2 Dried red chilies cut lengthwise
2 stems curry leaves

Peel the mangoes and make few slits in the mangoes.
Place the mangoes in a shallow dish, add the water, salt, turmeric powder and chili powder
Cover and cook till the mangoes are almost cooked.
Now add in the ground paste and yogurt and bring to boil and stir gently.

Meanwhile make the seasoning by heating oil in a wok, add the mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds.
Once the mustard seed start to sputter, add the dried red chilies and curry leaves
Add the seasoning to the curry and give it a gentle stir..

There you have the tastiest Kerala delicacy ever!!

This is my entry to Healing food event hosted by Revathi and Siri

Off this goes to Kerala Kitchen

Pistachio and Cardamom Cookies

As I said before I have been giving baking lessons to my mom for the past few days
Here is our first creation:-) Pistachios Cardamom Cookies..
Needless to say my mom totally went all Aaa Ooo about it. She was like wow, it’s better than the ones we get in shops.
I guess moms will always admire their daughter’s creation no matter how bad it is!!
But these cookies got 5 star rating from my dad as well who by the way is an honest reviewer:-)
Common how bad can it get..its butter, sugar ,pistachio and cardamom..
With enough butter anything is good!!

Here is what you need
Recipe courtesy: Cookies from Murdoch books
140 gms all purpose flour
30 gms Rice flour
125 gms Butter softened
40 gms Icing Sugar
½ tspn Vanilla extract
30 gms Pistachios
4 Cardamoms

Preheat the oven to 160 Degree
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla in a medium sized bowl until pale and fluffy.
Sift in the flour together into butter mixture.
Add the pistachios and cardamom in a blender and pulse it for a few seconds
Add the finely chopped Pistachio cardamom mix to batter, mix well and form a soft dough.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Remove the mixture from the refrigerator, shape two tea spoons of dough into balls, flatten into 3 cm rounds and place it in a baking tray.
Bake it for 15-20 minutes until the sides start to turn golden.

Allow to cool on wire racks..and njoy the melt-in-your-mouth cookies!!

Muringakka Thoran / Drumstick Stir Fry

Yey..My parents are here and like any other lazy daughter, I have happily withdrawn from my kitchen and my mom have taken over as head chef !
Not that I am lazy brat..You see it’s just a timing problem..
By the time I wake up my mom would have already made breakfast and by the time I come back from office dinner is ready:-)
See.. I hardly have anytime to reveal my cooking skills to my parents.
To my surprise this time around I see that my mom have suddenly got some interest in baking !!
And yours truly has taken over the role of an earnest baking instructor and our baking lessons are going in full swing

For the past two weeks my mom have been telling about a small surprise she have picked for me from my hometown
And that turned out to be a small cast iron skillet!!! I hope this turns out to be my magic skillet:-)
I picked one of my fav dish as the inaugural dish for my cute little skillet..



Here is what you need..

For Grinding
1/3 Cup Grated Coconut
½ - 1 tspn Chili powder
½ tspn Cumin seeds

For tempering
1 tspn Oil
¼ tspn Mustard seeds
2 tspn Urud Dal
2 red chilies
Curry leaves 2 stems

Drumsticks 2-3 nos , cut in about 1.5 inch long
½ tspn turmeric powder
Salt to taste
¼ Cup water.

Transfer all 3 ingredients for grinding to a blender and give it a quick mix for few seconds. You don’t have to grind it to a paste form.
Add the oil to the skillet. Once oil is hot enough add in mustard seeds, urud dal , red chilies and curry leaves
Once the mustard seeds starts sputter, add the coconut mixture and stir for a minute.
Now you need to scoop out the mix from the skillet and keep aside in a bowl.
In the same skillet add in the drumsticks and a quarter cup water. Add in turmeric powder and salt.
Cover and cook till the drumsticks turn tender.
Add in the coconut mixture .Give it a gentle stir and cover and cook for a minute..

There you have a signature Kerala dish..Muringakka thoran..

Off this goes to Kerala Kitchen

Oats and Malted Milk Cookies

Lately I have been very irregular to blogging world
Lemme put the blame on the stupid exam I have to take by end of April
Not that I am a very studious girl but I am so scared to keep the book down.PMP book is part of my hand now.It’s even by my side while I am sleeping:-)
You know why….I believe a lot in Osmosis, where in particles flow from higher concentration to lower concentration..In layman terms-I am hoping that the book have some mercy on me and move some of the info from its pages into to my head
Now you know my sentiments..right?

Anyways finally I made some progress this weekend and completed two chapters yeyyyyyyyy….
So to treat myself I made these cookies!!

Here goes the recipe:
Recipe courtesy: Cookies from Murdoch books

125 gms Self raising flour
100 gms Rolled Oats
170gms Caster Sugar
40 gms Malted Milk powder/Horlicks
65 gms Desiccated Coconut
2 tbspn honey
150 gms unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees
Sift the flour, sugar and milk powder in a large bowl. Add in oats and mix together.
Heat honey, butter and 1 tablespoon water in a saucepan over low-heat until butter is melted
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the melted butter mix.
Stir well using a spoon until soft dough is formed.

Shape tablespoons of dough into balls, flatten it lightly and place it on cookie sheet well apart.
Bake for 15 minutes until the sides have turned golden brown

Let it cool on tray for few minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

This is my entry to Treat to eyes event hosted by Rumana