Banana Pudding

Thick and creamy vanilla flavoured pudding layered with vanilla wafers and banana slices.....what else can we think about a comfort dessert than this "Traditional Southern Style Banana Pudding".This unique pudding comes from Southern part of US,an ultimate comfort food, easy to make just with few ingredients and taste fabulous. One interesting thing I found was that in North Carolina band called 'Southern Culture on Skids' actually performs a song during some of their concerts called Banana Pudding accompanied by throwing banana pudding on their audience, sounds crazy isn't....

Banana Pudding

Yields 10 - 12 servings

Ingredients

Whole milk 4cups
Sugar 2cups
Softened Butter 4tbs
Egg yolks 4
All purpose flour 1/2cup
Banana 5-6
Vanilla wafers 1box
Salt 1/8tsp
Vanilla extract 2tsp

Method..

For making Custard...Combine the sugar, flour and salt in a bowl, and stir well to mix. Mash out any flour lumps with the back of your spoon and Set aside.In a bowl ,beat the egg yolks with fork or whisk .Just beat them well ,don't use hand beater.In a heavy bottomed pan,add butter ,then combined sugar,flour and salt mixture,egg yolks and milk , Cook, stirring constantly to avoid lumps and until the mixture thickens to the consistency of pudding on medium heat for about 5 - 10 Min's.Peel the bananas,slice into 3inch rounds .In a casserole or pudding tray,arrange vanilla wafers from edge to edge in row.Place the round sliced bananas now.Don't stint and put one slice of banana per wafer. Line those banana slices up edge-to-edge. Pour, spreading as necessary, half of the custard over the banana layer. Put down another layer of vanilla wafers, another layer of banana slices, and cover with the remaining custard. Ready to serve...Just serve right away or place in refrigerator for several hours ,press plastic wrap onto the surface of the warm puddings to prevent a skin from forming .Just before serving garnish with whipped cream,tutti fruiti ,cherries or grated chocolate as u wish...

For addition...

Beat the egg whites at high speed until they form soft peaks. Add the cream of tartar. At high speed, gradually add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the vanilla into the meringue, and spread the meringue over the pudding, sealing it at the sides of the dish. Bake in a preheated 375°F oven until meringue browns, 12 to 15 minutes.

Chemeen Peera

Chemmen is the most popular seafood in the World especially in Kerala.Prawns /shrimps are very healthy choice of food as they are extremely good source of protein, and very low in fat as well as calories. They also contain high level of vitamin that are essential for healthy skin, bones and teeth.In kerala,many variety of dishes are made with prawns,like Chemmen Theeyal,Chemmen Roast,Prawns Biriyani,Chemmen Vada...options are endless.Recently one of my friend made Chemmen Peera .Though I'm keralite,i wasn't aware that 'peera' can be made with Prawns also. Usually I make Meen peera with Smelt (Neetholi)or Sardines(Mathi).'Peera' is fish cooked with spices and coconut mix.Its an authentic kerala style dish with all spices ,coconut and curry leaves and which no masala is used. I'm sending to Radhika for JFI: Onion event.
Ingredients...
Prawns 1 lb
Grated Coconut 1/2cup
Red chilly powder 2-3tbsp
Turmeric powder 1/2tsp
Green chillies 5 nos
Shallots(small onions)15
Ginger 1inch piece
Curry leaves 1sprig
Coconut oil 3tsp
Salt to taste
Method...
Clean the prawns thoroughly,it should be peeled and deveined.Cut shallots into thin slices.Chop green chillies and ginger.In a pan ,put prawns,shallots,grated coconut,Green chilly,ginger,red chilly powder,turmeric powder,curry leaves,2tsp of coconut oil,salt.Cover it and cook for 15-20 Min's.Sprinkle some water if needed.Don't add too much water, coz prawns has moisture content .Once all water is evaporated,remove from flame.Add 1tsp of coconut oil and curry leaves at the end.Peera made in 'Man chatti' /Earthen pot taste more good than normal kadai's.If u don't like coconut oil,use any Vegetable oil.

Kerala Porota and Chicken Roast

The Spice Garden of India,Kerala got its name from the word "Kera" means coconut.A land full of coconut trees,an imp ingredient in the cuisine.The preferred medium of cooking is coconut oil.In cooking,kerala is a paradise of seafood ,with lots of spices,condiments,rich in colorand texture ,flavour and aroma .Cooking a meal is known as 'pachakam' in malayalam.Kochulli(shallots),kodumpuli(cocum),coconut,cardamom and other spices makes the cuisine spicy,tangy and lip smacking.'Karimeen' or 'Pearl spotted fish 'delicious and expensive fish in kerala.Rice,coconut and curry leaves includes the vital part in cooking.Kerala Porota is one of the popular dish in "Thattukadas"(Open resturants on road sides in kerala) which is the mallu version for 'Dhaba'.Porota is a (flaky pastry like ) multilayered flat bread , made with maida.Making them in thattukada style includes long labour and time consuming.Normally while making at home,its limited to strerching the maida balls into thin layer like chappati and rolling it into twisted circles as shown in the pic.I tried from Annita's My treasure My pleasure. ,it was very tasty n came out really well ,for my future reference,i have written the recipe here.


Kerala Porota
Ingredients for making Dough...
Maida - 2 cups
Luke warm Water - as needed to prepare the dough
Veg Oil/Dalda - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Method...
Step 1.Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and knead the dough together thoroughly just like you prepare chappathi/roti dough.Keep it for 1 hr..covered with a wet muslin cloth or keep it in an air tight container.Otherise the top of the dough may become dry.
Step 2.Divide the dough into 10 equal portions of size a little less than tennis ball.
Step 3.Take a portion and apply some oil on it.In a flat surface apply oil again and roll out the portion to the maximum .(Make it as thin as possible both length wise and width wise..no need to be worried about the shape..eventhough it breaks in between..its fine..Our objective is to make it as thin as possible..)You can use a rolling pin for this one also.We are doing this instead of the excessive beating required to prepare porotta.Apply a little more oil over the rolled dough.Using both hands make pleates on the rolled dough(just like saree pleates) starting from one end.
Step 5.Then holding at one end of the pleated dough ,rotate it just like a spiral.Keep aside.See the picture below.


Step 6.Repeat the above procedure for each portions and keep it aside.(Its not as difficult as you read the recipe)Again use wet muslin cloth to cover it or keep it in an air tight container. Step 7.Heat a sauce pan until medium hot.Roll out each portion just like roti,but not soo thin.Porotta should be a medium thick.Remember do not apply any flour on it.You can apply some oil/ghee if you like.Cook each roti with a little butter/ghee for 1 or 2 minutes,turning frequently ,until speckled brown and firm.Keep the cooked porotta in an aluminium foil or in air tight container.
Step 8.When 3 or 4 porottas are done,place them in a flat surface and holding them between hands ,beat the hands together.(Just like clapping,but 3-4 porottas are between).do not beat them soo hard such as you break the porottas..:)We are doing this,just to seperate the different layers.Though a time consuming process,its very easy to prepare.


For side dish, i made Mishmash's Chicken Roast


The actual recipe asks for shallots and freshly grounded pepper..Here i made slight variations like 2lbs of chicken, Red onions and Store brought pepper powder...Even then the chicken roast tasted awesome.....

This is my entry to Jyothsna's RCI: Kerala.

French Style Orange -Yogurt Cake

Hi friends,Wishing u all a Happy n prosperous New year!!!! Hope all had wonderful New year celebrations.A bit late to wish coz we were on a long vacation.Had a real blast at Christmas and New year at San Francisco,Los Angeles and Las Vegas.A memorable and jolly trip with friends,ofcourse food was the main enjoyment,Got a chance to try different types of cuisines.Now after coming back,i put weight and feeling lazy to cook oops!!! back to routine....I was planning to make Kerala christmas cake . Due to lack of time,i couldt do it.I made a simple cake not to dissapoint 'S'.This is an old classic French Style grandmother's cake.Firstly its simple and healthy cake coz no butter is used only canola oil or veg oil can be used.Cake was sooo moist,tender and very flavourful coz of syrup added for glaze.This cake platter and spoon is a new year gift from my friend in SFO.

Ingredients for the cake

All purpose flour - 1.5 cups
Plain yogurt - 1/2cup
Large eggs - 3
Granulated sugar - 1 cup
Baking powder 2tsp
Orange zest - 2tsp
Canola oil 1/2cup

For Glaze

Freshly squeezed orange juice 1/4cup
Powdered sugar 1/2cup

Method

Preheat the Oven for 350F.In a bowl mix sugar,yogurt and eggs,stir still well blended or mix with hand beater for 2 min.In another bowl,combine the flour ,orange zestand baking powder.Now add flour to the wat ingredients in two portions,mix to just combine.Add oil and mix for 2 mins.Firstly it looks mess,keep mixing till it comes to a smooth batter.Pour the batter into a buttered round shape or square shape pan.Bake for 25- 30 mins or until the cake feels springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.Allow it to cool on the rack for 15 mins.Gently remove cake from the pan and set on a rack to cool completely.Now combine the orange juice and powdered sugar in a small bowl and spoon it gently over the cake.The glaze will be thin and will soak in like a syrup.

Notes:

Many variation can be made in this cake.For lemon version,try lemon juice with poppy seeds .For almonds version,try 1/2cup flour and 1/2 cup powdered almonds.