Xmas Fruit Cake (Kerala Christmas Fruit Cake)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 
Day 24: X for Xmas Fruit Cake

So here we are at probably the most difficult letter of all, X. There are very few dishes or veggies that start with the letter X, so this must have been a tough letter for everyone except for those cooking from Spanish or Chinese cuisines. I was initially planning to go with an adjective or a verb but finally ended up making this Kerala Style X mas Cake.

I was thinking of doing a post like xplore Malabar cuisine, xperience Kerala sadya or something on those lines. I even asked Rajani for her input and she said try a sadya meal by making dishes over couple of days. I was tempted but the amount of work involved seemed too tedious and with the husband traveling, it was way too much food for just me. It is one of my dream meal to make in my lifetime.

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Sabich (Israeli Vegetarian Sandwich) for #Food of the World

We are visiting the beautiful Middle Eastern country of Israel for this month's Food of the World event. Israeli cuisine includes local dishes by native Israelis and the Jewish dishes brought in by the Jews from the Diaspora. One of the most popular Israeli dish, Shashuka (eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce) was my fist pick for today, but then I saw this mouth watering Sabich sandwich on Serious Eats and it looked too good to pass up.

Sabich is an Israeli street food. It is supposed to be influenced from Iraqi Jewish immigrants. The Israelis took a traditional Iraqi breakfast spread of fried eggplants, boiled eggs etc and put it in a pita and made into a trendy delicacy.

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Apple Ricotta Cake

Blogging Marathon# 57: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Food52 Contest Recipes from here

Dish: Apple Ricotta Cake

I'm ending this week's marathon on a sweet note with this Apple Ricotta Cake from Food52. We went apple picking couple of weeks back and I had quite a few apples left. I also had some ricotta cheese that needed to be used up in the fridge. So I looked for recipes with apples and ricotta in Food52 and found this delicious cake recipe which happens to be the 'Best recipe with Fresh Ricotta' contest winner.

This recipe uses only 1 apple and doesn't really taste like an 'apple' cake. I'm not a big apple fan so that is totally fine with me, but if you are looking for an apple cake that tastes like an apple pie (or more apple'y'), then this is not for you.

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Roti Canai with Curry Sauce (Vegetarian Recipe)

Buffet on Table: Week 1 -- Combos from Countries

Day 2: Malaysia -- Roti Telur with Curry Sauce

Next we stop in Malaysia for an addictive combo of Roti Canai with Curry sauce. Some influence of Indian cuisine can be seen in Malaysian cuisine and this combo of roti with curry reflects a lot of it.

We have a really good Penang restaurant near us and they serve delicious roti canai. Unfortunately the curry sauce has chicken in it, so we end up eating just the bread. Penang is a state in Malaysia and is touted as the food capital of Malaysia.

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Vegetarian Green Eggs (with Spinach)

Blogging Marathon# 54: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Cooking from Kid's Books/ TV shows

Dish: Green Eggs with Spinach

My theme for this week's Blogging Marathon is very interesting, it is 'Kid's Delight -- Cooking from Kid's Books/ TV shows'. PJ is hosting this month's Kid's Delight event with this very unique and interesting theme. My son loves to read books and like any kid watches TV too. So I thought it would be fun to make some dishes from books & TV shows he reads and watches.

For the first day, I made Vegetarian Green Eggs from Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham children's book. Like other Dr. Seuss books it is a very child friendly book with lots of rhyming words in simple vocabulary that even beginning readers will understand.

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Indonesian Nasi Goreng for #Food of the World

We are going to Indonesia this month's #food of the world event. I made a very simple Indonesian dish called 'Nasi Goreng'. Nasi Goreng literally means 'fried rice' in Indonesia and it is simple rice dish spiced with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), shallot, garlic and chili and is accompanied by other ingredients like egg or other protein.

Nasi Goreng is stronger and spicier compared to Chinese fried rice with the addition of kecap manis and other spices. It can be eaten at any time of the day and many Indonesians eat it for breakfast. It is also a popular choice for late night supper served by street vendors.

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Parsi Style Crepes (Chapat)

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Parsi Dishes

Dish: Parsi Crepes (Chapat)
For the second day of this week's marathon, I made Parsi style Crepes. These are great to serve for breakfast or as an evening snack. They are thicker than a French crepe and thinner than a pancake. As Mother's day is fast approaching these crepes with berries is the perfect dish to serve for your mom.
I actually wanted to post the famous Parsi eggs & potato dish, Pateta per Eeda, today. I made the dish couple weeks back and clicked pictures too. It wasn't until I started to edit the pictures that I realized my potatoes were burnt and the dish looked awful. We are a potato and egg loving family, I guess our love for the ingredients blurred our eyes as we ate and didn't even notice the burnt bottom.

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Baked Eggs Fra Diavolo (Baked Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce)

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 14

Bake of the Day: Breakfast -- Baked Eggs Fradiavolo

As I was looking for recipes of baked dishes, I wanted at least a few to be without flour, sugar and the other usual bread ingredients. I got this recipe for baked eggs in a newsletter from Chef Central. I immediately added it to my mega marathon list.

We are a egg loving family -- both my kids absolutely love eggs in any shape or form. I stopped baking with eggs though because I find eggless bakes are so much easier and most of my extended family prefers eggless bakes. So after all the flour based bakes without eggs, here's a really simple recipe for baked eggs.

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Migas with Black beans

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 1/ Day 3

Theme: Brunch Recipes

Dish: Migas with Black beans

Eggs form a very important part in breakfast and brunch menus, for egg eaters that is. So when I'm planning a brunch for my egg eating friends, I usually make a frittata (a big fat baked omelette with lots of veggies) or a quiche (egg based pie). One of my Turkish friend recently introduced me to Menemen (Turkish scrambled eggs with veggies) and that tasted awesome.

While looking for some egg based dishes for this week's Brunch theme, I found this Migas recipe on Pioneer Woman site. This Migas is different from the traditional Spanish & Portuguese migas. In this Tex-Mex version eggs are scrambled along with corn tortillas, veggies and cheese. It is typically served with refried beans and corn or flour tortillas are used to fold all the ingredients into tacos.

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Baked French Toast with Chocolate Chips

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Holiday Specials

Dish: Baked French Toast

We all love French toast in our house. I have tried quite a few variations of French Toast recipes before, but this baked overnight French Toast recipe is something I tried recently with a friend for our Holiday brunch party.
We usually have pot lucks for most of our get-togethers and for the holiday brunch party I hosted, one of my friends suggested this Praline topped Overnight French toast by Paula Deen. She said she ate it at one of her friend's house and it was delicious. She sent the recipe over and we both made it together for the party. We actually put everything together the night before, which, by the way, only takes about 5 minutes and we spent the next 2 hours chatting :-) The next morning I baked it off in the oven, just before everyone came.

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Mini Éclairs with Strawberries & Cream

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Mini Eclairs

For Day 2 of this week's marathon, I have these cute little mini eclairs I made back in April for the Easter party at home. I was always under the impression that eclairs are very difficult to make, on the contrary these are quite easy to put together and are sure to impress the guests.
The first time I heard the word 'Éclair', I thought it the Cadbury chocolate eclairs we used to eat as kids. But this one is actually a French pastry that is made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with icing. It is very interesting to know that the word comes from French éclair 'flash of lightning', so named because it is eaten quickly in a flash.

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Balbuljata (Maltese Egg & Tomaotes) for #Food of the World

We are visiting Malta this month for Food of the Month event. I realized I didn't know about this country until I started looking for recipes for Food of the month event. Here's a little knowledge about Malta from Wiki: 'Malta is a southern European island country comprising an archipelago of 7 islands in the Mediterranean sea. The country covers just over 316 sq. km (122 sq.miles), making it one of the world's smallest and most densely populated country. Malta is a popular tourist destination with its warm climate and architectural & historical monuments.'
Maltese cuisine is highly influenced by Sicilian and English cuisine as well as Spanish, Maghrebin & Provencal cuisines. Having to import most of its foodstuffs, being positioned along the important trade routes and having to cater for the resident foreign powers who ruled the islands, opened Maltese cuisine to outside influences.

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Xalapa (Mexico) -- Vegetarian Mexican Brunch (Huevos Rancheros with Black beans)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: X for Xalapa -- Mexico

Dish: Vegetarian Mexican Brunch -- Black bean Huevos Rancheros, Spicy Home Fries & Sangrita

Today we are going to Xalapa, Mexico. Technically ther are no countries starting with X, so as a group it was decided that we pick a place that starts with X and then make a dish from that place or the country it belongs to. 'X' is the only alphabet that I didn't have a country or dish planned. First I decided to a place in Spain, but then I didn't want to miss the opportunity to cook from my favorite Mexican cuisine, so ended up with Xalapa, Mexico.
Another factor that made me want to do Mexican is Bobby Flay's Mexican brunch that he made on Cooking Channel. Every he made looked so good that I wanted to recreate the whole meal at home. Huevos Rancheros has been on my to-make list forever, so this gave me an opportunity to try it.

Huevos Rancheros or 'rancher's eggs' is a popular breakfast dish that has eggs and is traditionally served on rural Mexican farms. This dish consists of fried eggs served over fried corn tortillas and topped with tomato-chili sauce.

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Vegetarian McMuffin Sandwich

Blogging Marathon# 41: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: E-N Breakfast Items
Dish: M for McMuffin -- Vegetarian McMuffin Sandwich

For the final day of breakfast week for blogging marathon, I made M for McMuffin. McMuffin is a family of sandwiches served at the famous fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. The egg mcmuffin is the signature breakfast sandwich.

Unfortunately in the US, there are very limited options for vegetarians. It has been years when I last went to McD's. But I've heard that the Indian McD's have quite a few vegetarian options. My son is looking forward to his India trip this summer to visit Indian McD's.

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Kerala Egg Curry

This is a tasty egg curry cooked with spices in Kerala style to serve along with Appams. Everyone in my household loves eggs and I'm always looking for different egg curries and this one was like by everyone.

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Patterned Swiss Roll Cake

For this month's Home Baker's Challenge, Pallavi Purani gave us some delicious cakes to bake this month. On the list was Patterned Swiss Roll Cake. I recently watched Martha Stewart making Chocolate Swiss Roll cake on TV and mentally bookmarked it. I used Martha's cake recipe and the pattern recipe and technique from here.

I wanted to do a Spring pattern appropriate for this time of the year. I actually made this cake twice in 2 days because the first time I made, the cake broke when I tried to flip it from the baking sheet. I almost cried when that happened. I asked Gayathri on some tips and tricks she used to make her patterned cake. She was kind enough to answer all my questions, so mustered my courage and made it again.

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Dimer Dalna (Bengali Egg & Potato Curry)

Blogging Marathon# 38: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Revisiting Recipes
Dish: Dimer Dalna (Bengali Egg & Potato Curry)

It was a little difficult to choose just 3 dishes to revisit for this week's BM. With 900+ recipes on the blog and over half of them taken with no sense of style or knowledge of lighting, it became an impossible task to pick the ones that needed the most TLC.
In the end I decided to make dishes with the ingredients that I had on hand. So for the last day of this month's marathon, I made this Bengali egg & potato curry, Dimer Dalna, because I had some boiled eggs (which happen to be my kids favorite) and boiled potatoes in the fridge and this seemed to a tasty way to combine both the ingredients.

I am going to keep the post short because I'm getting really nervous about the upcoming month long  mega marathon like a student preparing for final exams. Even though almost all the dishes are cooked and clicked, I still have to start working on the posts. Hopefully I'll be done drafting my posts soon.

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Andalusian Courgette Tortilla (Zucchini Omlet)

For this month's 'International Food Challenge', Sharanya of Just Not the Cakes is taking us on a culinary tour of Andalusia, Spain. Andalusia is one of the most populous and second largest autonomous communities in Spain , stretching south from sunny cities Cordoba and Seville all the way to Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea . The name “Andalusia” was derived from the Arabic word “ Al- Andalus”. Andalusia boasts many delicious foods offering travelers a chance to stimulate their palettes while exploring.

Sharanya gave us 4 very simple recipes from the Andalusian region and I picked the Courgette Tortilla recipe. Spanish Tortilla is typically made with potatoes, but this Andalusian tortilla is made with zucchini. It is like a frittata or a fat baked omelette. This is a simple dish that is easy to prepare and served with a salad and bread on the side makes for a filling meal.

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Vegetarian Kimchi Fried Rice (Kimchi Bokkeumbap)

Blogging Marathon# 37: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Street Food from Around the World

Dish: Kimchi Fried Rice from Korea

My theme for this week's Blogging marathon got me very very excited. It is Street Food from around the world. Learning about the different dishes that are served as street food from various countries was very interesting and there are so many dishes that I wanted to make at home. But since we are posting for only 3 days, I had to narrow down my search to 3 dishes. Hopefully I can make the rest of my bookmarked dishes some time soon.
For the first day, I made Korean street food -- Kimchi Fried rice.From what I've read online, Koreans make fried rice with overripe kimchi that needs to be used up. I personally love fried rice because it s a great use of leftover rice and there are infinite variations to come up with.

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Caramelized Onion & Zucchini Quiche (with Spelt flour Crust)

To me making a pie crust has always been a daunting task. I've had couple of bad experiences both with homemade and store bought pie crusts in the past which made me avoid making a pie altogether. To be honest I'm not a big fan of pie. Given a chance I would rather enjoy the filling without the crust.

But quiche is a different story. I fell in love with quiche the first time I ate it about 10 years ago. One of my co-workers brought it over for potluck lunch and I probably ate almost the whole pie. I tried to recreate it at home a couple of time, but the pie crust failed me. I finally gave up on it. I never dared to make it even though it was always on the back of my mind.

Finally this weekend I decided it was time for me to try my hand at making the pie crust and quiche. I already had a bookmarked recipe for quiche with spelt flour crust from Culinate. It is not the recipe that made me bookmark the article, it is the way the author gives you confidence in making the pie crust. She makes you feel that anyone can make a pie crust and the detailed instructions really help. 

This pie crust is made of Spelt flour (equal quantity of whole wheat flour can be substituted here) and uses a stick of butter and half a stick of cream cheese. The dough is soft and really easy to handle. I had trouble fluting the edges and at one corner I trimmed too much of the excess which resulted in shrunken crust after baking. But that didn't really affect the final taste of the quiche, the crust turned was flaky & buttery.

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