Honey White Challah Bread ~ May 2012 Daring Bakers’ Challenge

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May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah!  Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

Our host Ruth grew up in a traditional Jewish household where this beautiful bread graced the table every week. She gave us lots of information and background relating to traditions of Challah. Believe it or not, the word “challah” does not actually mean bread.  Any whole loaves can be used at the Sabbath or holiday table for the traditional blessing.  Challah, instead, is the word referring to the portion of bread which, in the days of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, was set aside and given to the high priests. 

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Paneer Butter Masala Recipe / Paneer Makhani Recipe

There are several Paneer Butter Masala recipes on the net. This is how I make it at home. This doesn’t have much cream or butter in it and we can reduce or completely omit it when you make this on a regular basis. Usually when I make it just for us I never add cream and always reduce butter to half; trust me it still tastes great :).... This is a Lakshmi Nair recipe from the Magic Oven show..... in her original recipe she adds 1 cup of peas too; since we don’t like peas much I avoid adding it.... Also I try to avoid using food colours as much as I can, hence my curry is orangish and not red :)...... 

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Allipidi / Rice Dumplings in Sweetened Coconut Milk

Allipidi, a sweetened rice dumplings cooked in coconut milk is a classic Kerala breakfast or an evening snack/ nalumani palaharam. I usually make this for breakfast on weekends. So yesterday when I made this I thought of taking some fresh pictures and reposting. A perfect gluten free and vegan recipe from Kerala Christian homes....

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Erachi Podi Recipe / Homemade Meat Masala Powder/ Homemade Curry Powder

This is the same curry powder recipe I have mentioned in a lot of my previous posts.... If you have this Erachi podi / curry powder in stock you can whip up some veg or non-veg curries quickly.... We usually use this to make Beef Ularthiyathu (recipe coming soon), meat/ egg roasts or in veg or non veg mappas.... to make all these curries you only need to add a couple of spoons of this curry powder and you don’t need to add any other masala powders.... back home we make a big batch of this curry powder and if you store it well in air tight containers,  it will last for months without any problems.... I never use store bought curry powder/meat masala in any of my dishes.... I always have enough stock of this with me and I get my share of this curry powder from my mom’s sister.... Since she makes large quantities, she gives the cleaned and roasted spices to a mill to have it powdered..... You can make this in small quantities and powder it in your mixer grinder at home.... so here is how we make the curry powder at home.....

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Chocolate Fudge Cupcake Recipe

This is a soft chocolate cupcake that is not very sweet and hence perfect for doing any type of icing.... whether it’s filled inside or piped icing! Just select any icing that you fancy.... you can find some icing ideas from my previous posts here.

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Aloo Matar Masala Recipe / Potato & Peas Masala Recipe

Here we are not big fans of green peas....whenever I add green peas to fried rice or to some curry hubby very carefully removes the peas from his portion and keeps it nicely in a cornerof his plate:D... so I usually do not add peas to any curries / rice I make....but recently when I saw this recipe neatly written in my first recipe collection book I remembered how much I loved this curry when amma used to make it at home.... so I grabbed a packet of frozen peas and made this curry for myself.... surprisingly hubby who dislike peas liked this curry and told me not bad and it’s ok to have once in a while :).... This spicy curry goes very well with all kinds of Indian flat bread, flavored basmati rice or even with bread or Indian pav bun. 

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Chicken Tomato Curry Recipe / Chicken in Tomato Gravy

Here is a simple & easy to make chicken curry recipe to all who had requested me to post easy chicken recipes :)...This curry is sans a lot of spices as compared to the usual Indian curries and goes very well with all kinds of Indian flat breads. I got this recipe from my mother-in-law. This is my son’s current favorite curry for chapati and I hope you will also like this simple curry.

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