Soft and Chewy Cookies

I have burnt my hands and some cookies in the look out for perfect soft chewy cookies like my favourite ones I buy from Millie's cookies/Subway white chocolate and macademia nut cookies.
There was always something missing,they were either too crisp/not thick enough/too sweet.
But this recipe works best and my friends can vouch for it who devoured the entire batch in one evening.

Next time I plan to experiment and make some variations of this .I may add some nuts or just white chocolate or mixture of everything.

Ingredients

170 g unsalted butter
100 g granulated brown sugar
50 g dark brown muscavado sugar
50 g granulated white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
250 g plain flour
2 table spoons corn flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
225 g chocolate chips or something like it in weight ( mixture of chocolate and nuts).

make sure eggs and butter are at room temperature.
 Method

1. In a large bowl add the butter and mix it with electric mixer until smooth and pale.

2. add the sugar mixture and beat again until smooth and fluffy.
3.Mix in the egg and vanilla.

4.In a separate bowl add all the dry ingredients - flour,corn flour,baking soda and salt.
5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
6.Add the chocolate chips and mix in. I added  a bit of chocolate chips and part of white chocolate and milk chocolate blocks which weighed 225 g altogether as in my house nothing lasts long and I can't save them from myself and my children.

7.It makes a soft dough and you need to chill it in fridge at least 1 hour to get the right results.

8.Remove the cookie dough from fridge and leave it at room temperature for 10 minutes.it will be crumbly but don't worry .Take a big table spoon amounts into hands and make into balls.

9.pre heat oven to 180 degrees.Line baking tray with parchment paper and I lightly pressed the balls once transferred and bake for 7-9 minutes.

10.Don't touch them when they come out as they will be puffy and soft.Leave them for 5 minutes and they will come to the right consistency you want.

Medical Student's Chocolate Brownie

Dear medical student,I am sorry if you ever come across my blog because I forgot your name.
This was given to me by a medical student who was shadowing me and I kept it safe and made it many times because it is the best and easiest Brownie recipe I have ever made.If I go to a restaurant and have a brownie for my dessert I keep comparing it to this recipe because not many meet my expectations.
I like my brownie to be soft and melting in the middle served warm with vanilla ice cream.
If I were making it to take to work I leave it few minutes longer in the oven so that I can cut it into even pieces.

Ingredients

175 grams Butter
175 grams dark chocolate(I prefer 70% cocoa solids)
125 grams self raising flour
350 grams dark muscavado sugar
4 eggs
85 grams hazel nuts

1. Melt butter and chocolate over low heat.

2. Mix flour,sugar,eggs in a bowl.

3.Add chocolate butter and nuts .Mix well.

4. Pour into brown tin lined with grease proof paper.

5. Bake for 40- 50 minutes at 180 c/gas mark 4

I used a 28 cm roasting tin for it as suggested by the medical student and I usually follow my baking recipes to the 'T' but you can use 23 cm cake tin I suppose.

Again baking time depends on whether you are using it for dessert or snack.I usually take it out when the tip of my skewer tip is still wet with chocolate mix .
Enjoy with a dollop of vanilla ice cream/whipped cream

Celery and Egg Fried Rice

It is a very simple but very delicious recipe.I was a bit sceptical about use of celery before I tried it but Once I made it I never made egg fried rice any other way.

Ingradients

1 cup cooked rice- the staler the better

2 eggs

2 sticks of celery

1 onion/ small bunch of spring onions

1 table spoon sesame oil

1  teaspoon ajinomoto/ monosodium glutamate

2 cloves garlic

red chilli flakes- according to taste

2-3 tea spoons dark soy sauce

few coriander leaves.

chop vegetables as above and grate the garlic.

In a wok /deep pan add a teaspoon of sunflower oil and break the eggs and scramble them.

Empty the scrambled egg onto a plate and into the same wok add another teaspoon of sunflower oil and add garlic and onions and some salt.fry for 2-3 minutes until onions are soft and then add the scrambled egg ,celery,soy sauce,chilli flakes and rice.

 sesame oil here is more for flavour so I just add it at the end with a pinch of ajinomoto and coriander leaves.

And that's it.It is delicious on its own as a light lunch or you can have it with some raita.

Citrus and Pistachio Cake

This is a very rich and indulgent cake and not for the faint hearted.You will know why once you look at the ingredients.

200 grams butter
250 grams caster sugar
3 eggs
100 grams shelled pistachio nuts
100 grams ground almonds
Zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon rose water
100 grams self raising flour

Icing

100 grams unrefined icing sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Edible flowers(optional)

Pre heat oven to 180c/gas mark 4 .Line the base of 23 cm cake tin with baking parchment.

In a bowl cream the butter and sugar together until white and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time stirring in between.I found that the trick to not curdle while adding eggs is to make sure butter and eggs are at room temperature and not just out of fridge.

I usually bash the pistachios in a zip seal bag.I find it easier and mess free rather than using pestle and mortar.

Then add them ,ground almonds,lemon zest and rose water to the creamed butter.I couldn't find my rose water bottle today I skipped it.

fold in the flour.Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes.Remove when done and let it cool

In a bowl mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice and spread this over the cake when cool.

Amma's Carrot Rasam

This is one of the quick and easy recipes which my mum makes quite frequently and goes down well with both children and adults alike.It is somewhat like carrot soup but only better tasting and spicier.It probably takes around 30  minutes to prepare from scratch. If you are on a diet may be you can have it with some brown rice as the only course .
Ingradients

5 Carrots   around 420 grams
4 Tomatoes
2 Onions
2 green chillies
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1 teaspoon sugar
2-3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon tamarind paste (optional)
fresh coriander leaves

For tempering

1 clove crushed garlic
2 dried red chillies
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon mustad seeds
pinch of turmeric powder
few curry leaves

First chop the vegetables into large chunks

Leave the green chillies but put everything else in a pressure cooker along with 3 cups of water and cook it for 3-4 whistles .If you don't have pressure cooker you can cook it in a pan but it just takes longer.Need to cook the vegetables until they are soft enough to put in a blender.

Let the vegetables cool for a few minutes and then blend them into a paste.

Transfer the paste into a large enough pot for the rasam and add 2 more cups of water  and 2 slit green chillies.

Then add 4 ingredients  1.A teaspoon of tamarind paste 2. 2-3 teaspoons salt. 3. one teaspoon sugar.4.one teaspoon crushed peppercorns.

Let it simmer for 10minutes.

Then prepare ingredients for tempering as above which are teaspoon mustard seeds,1 teaspoon cumin seeds,1 clove crushed garlic,few curry leaves, 2 dried red chillies and a pinch of turmeric powder.

 take a teaspoon of oil or clarified butter in a small pan and once it is hot add the tempering ingredients to it.Once it sizzles add it to the rasam mix and switch the flame off.I usually add fresh coriander at the end as it retains the colour and smell better.

Like a lot of foodies in the world, I am addicted to two things - 'fat' and 'heat'.So not surprisingly my favourite cuisines are Indian and Italian and sometimes I amalgamate the Two.
My comfortable zone of cooking is with Indian dishes but I make an attempt at others sometimes failing miserably.
But there are some recipes that I have tested and tried many times that turned out to be favourites of my friends and family.There are also some recipes of my friends and family that I like and wanted to keep forever somewhere safe.
So I thought 'why not create a blog, so me, my friends and family can all access recipes any time we want'.
Not everything in this blog is 'original ' or 'my own'. I am going to name every dish of it's source and inspiration and hopefully create an on-line cook book for all the food enthusiasts.