Pancakes

Pancakes are perfect for lazy mornings. Just whisk it up, let to rest for few minutes and fry them up. Indulge with maple syrup or strawberry syrup or honey. Top pancakes with any fresh fruits.

Ingredients:

Plain flour - 150g
Baking powder - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 2 tbsp
Egg - 1
Milk - 250ml
Salt - a pinch
Melted butter - 1 tbsp

How to make pancakes:

• Place all ingredients except the melted butter in a bowl.
• Using a whisk, mix the batter without any lumps.
• Let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
• Add melted butter just before frying the pancakes and mix.
• Heat a nonstick pan and grease with butter.
• Pour a ladle of batter on the pan on low flame.
• Turn pancakes once bubbles appear on top.

Uzhunnu vada

Back home, Mom makes uzhunnu vada very rarely. Because of it's tedious task of grinding the urad dal in ammikkallu and anything deep fried is not that entertained. Yes, she prefers grinding in ammikkallu.  Whenever craving for uzhunnu vada, we grab it from the Ruchi veg restaurant, Kozhikode. As always, home-made ones will be the best in taste and better in hygiene.

My first hands-on with making vada shape was pretty much ok.

Recipe Source: Mom

Ingredients:

• Urad dal - 1½ cups
• Green chilly - 3 nos
• Onion - 1 no, small size
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Curry leaf - few sprigs
• Black Peppercorns - 2 tbsp
• Baking soda - ½ tsp (optional)
• Oil - to deep fry
• Salt

Instructions:

• Clean and soak the urad dal in water for 5-6 hours. Then grind the soaked urad dal without adding water into a fine paste. But I had to add couple drops of water to get a fine paste.
• Coarsely crush the chopped onions, ginger, green chillies, curry leaves and peppercorns with a mortar & pestle.
• Add the crushed mixture to the urad dal paste. Add salt, baking soda and mix well with your hands.
• Heat oil in a deep pan. Let the oil be real hot and then reduce flame to medium.
• Wet your hands, make a ball shape out of the uzhunnu vada batter, gently press on your palms and make a hole in the centre just like shown in the picture.
• Drop it in the oil and let it cook, flip the vada till it's golden brown and crispy outside on both sides.
• Drain the hot vadas on a kitchen tissue to soak the excess oil.
• Serve hot with sambhar/chutney.

Notes:

Adjust the green chilly & peppercorns to your spice level.

Corn Sandwich

We had gone for a picnic along with my cousin Ritaechi & Radhuettan to Bowral Tulips Festival in Oct '12. I baked and packed Egg Puffs, Melting Moments cookies and brownies to munch on. Ritaechi called and told me she would be bringing sandwich.

Have to say, Ritaechi is truly a Masterchef. All of her recipes are very delicious and I've learnt few recipes from chechi which I would be posting later. Whenever we visit her home, she would prepare new dishes and  serve a minimum of 5-6 dishes. The dining table will be full of fantastic and variety dishes for her guests.

Ritaechi's corn sandwich was so yummy and we finished it all off. I got this recipe as well from her :) and have made 2-3 times. We all loved it.

Here goes the recipe and it is indeed an easy and very filling one with the crunchiness of corn kernels and very few ingredients. As Sathya is having pot luck today at office, I used 2 corn cobs. With 2 cobs, I could make 8 sandwiches. You can try this out this just 1 corn cob or a canned corn kernels and adjust the ingredients accordingly. Just spread butter on the bread slice and the filling, a simple sandwich is ready.

Recipe Source: Rita chechi

Ingredients:

Corn cobs - 2 nos
Onions - 2 nos (chopped)
Tomato - 1 no (chopped)
Green chilly - 1 no (finely chopped)
Salt
Pepper Powder
Oil - 2 tbsp (I use Extra virgin olive oil)
Coriander leaves - To garnish

Instructions:

• Cut the corn from the cob. I prefer to use fresh corn kernels rather than the canned ones. You may use canned corn kernels to ease your work.
• If using fresh corn kernels, microwave the kernels for 3 minutes with salt.  Mash the corn kernels after it's cooked. Not sure about the canned ones.If the canned ones seem raw, clean the canned kernels in water and microwave.
• Pour oil in a hot pan and add chopped onions and green chilly.
• When onions turn translucent, add the chopped tomatoes and let it turn mushy.
• Now add the corn kernels. Adjust salt and pepper powder to your taste.
• Fry the mixture for 5 minutes.
• Turn off the flame and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
• Once the mixture is cooled, you may fill it up.
• Spread butter on the bread slice and place 2 tsps of the mixture for filling.
• Serve it up :)