Indari (Indri) Appam / Pesaha (Passover) Appam with Step by Step Pictures and Video

Indari Appam or Pesaha Appam is unleavened bread made on Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday) among the Jacobites and Catholics in Kerala. During my childhood days, my mom used to make Indari Appam and Kurukku every year and I also follow that tradition. Since this is the first Pesaha after my father in law’s demise, we are not supposed to make Indari Appam this year. These are the pictures of the Indari Appam I made last year and the traditional method for making Indari Appam in Knanaya Jacobite Community is explained below.

Indari Appam / Pesaha (Passover) Appam

ഇണ്ടറി അപ്പവും കുറുക്കും I പെസഹാ അപ്പവും പാലും
(Makes around 20-22 Indari Appams)

Ingredients:
Roasted Rice flour-4 cups
Urad dal- 1 cup
Coconut-2 nos or (almost 4 cups of grated coconut)
Jeerakom/Cumin seeds-11/2 tsp
Garlic-4 cloves

Small Onion - 4 (optional)
Salt to taste

Method:

• Soak urad dal for two hours. Drain and grind to a smooth paste together with coconut, garlic, cumin seeds and salt, adding very little water. Mix this ground paste with rice flour and make soft and smooth dough. Do not allow this mix to ferment. Take small balls from the dough and flatten each ball on a piece of banana leaf with finger tips. Dip finger in water in between. Fold and steam the appams in Appanchembu (steamer) or in pressure cooker without keeping the weight, filled with enough water for 20-25 minutes.

Kurukku
Ingredients:
Rice flour-1 tbsp
Jaggery-250gm (melt jaggery with little water and strain the syrup)
Coconut milk -2 ½ cups
Roasted Cumin powder
Cardamom powder
Method:

• Mix rice flour with melted jaggery syrup and coconut milk. Cook this mix stirring continuously to a medium thick porridge. Flavor with roasted cumin and cardamom powder and remove from heat. Serve with hot Indari Appam.

I wish a blessed Passover to all my readers and friends!

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Sticky Nut Buns

Ingredients:

2/3 cup lukewarm milk
1 tbsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp caster sugar
4 cups strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon

For the filling:

1 1/2 cups soft dark brown sugar
5 tbsp butter
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup chopped pecan nuts or walnuts
3 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup raisins

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix the milk, yeast and sugar and leave aside until frothy. Combine the flour and salt, and rub in the butter. Add the yeast mixture, eggs and lemon rind.
• Stir to a rough dough. Knead until smooth, then return to the bowl, cover and leave until doubled in size.
• To make the filling cook the brown sugar, butter and water in a heavy pan until syrupy, about 10 minutes. Place 15ml/1 tbsp syrup in the base of 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle a thin layer of nuts in each, reserving the remainder.
• Knock back the dough and roll out to a 45x30cm/18x12in rectangle. Combine the sugar, cinnamon, raisins and reserved nuts. Sprinkle over the dough. Roll up tightly from long edge and cut into 1 inch rounds. Place in the muffin cups, cut sides up. Leave to rise for 30 minutes.
• Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Invert the tins onto a baking sheet, leave for 5 minutes, then remove the tins. Cool on a wire rack, sticky sides up.
  
  Note: I halved the recipe and baked in a small muffin tin and I got 12 small buns.
  

Sending these delicious Sticky Nut Buns to Rachel's Bread Baking Day (BBD) #28.BBD is an event created by Zorra.

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Sooji Pancake / Semolina Pancakes

Quick healthy & tasty pancakes!

Ingredients:
Semolina/ Sooji/ Rava-8 tbsp
Curd-7 tbsp
Salt- to taste
Mixed vegetables- 1 tbsp each of grated carrots, chopped capsicum, onions, peas, cabbage, tomato, & 1 green chilly .Mix everything and keep aside. You can also use boiled peas, dhal or sprouted greens etc
Oil for frying

Method:

• Mix semolina, curd & salt and keep aside for 10 minutes. (If the batter is too thick, add 1 or 2 tbsp water).
• Heat 1 tsp oil in a non stick frying pan and 1 tbsp of semolina- curd mix and top with the mixed vegetables, lightly flatten pancake with back of spoon.
• Cook for few minutes in low flame until the bottom of pancake is golden brown.
• Flip over and fry until vegetables are crisp and golden brown.
• Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

Sending this to Priya's Pancake Event.

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Chocolate Mocha Cake

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup cooking oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Mocha Cream Filling
Chocolate Cream Frosting
Chocolate sprinkles to decorate(optional)

Method:

• Grease and lightly flour two 9x 11/2-inch baking pans. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add water, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixture on low to medium speed till combined. Beat for 2 minutes on medium to high speed. Pour batter into prepared pans.
• Bake in a 350degree oven for 30-35 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.
• Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.
• Brush layers with liqueur or orange juice.
• Fill cake layers with Mocha Cream Filling and frost with Chocolate Cream Frosting.
  
  Mocha Cream Filling
  Melt 50gm semi-sweet chocolate and add 1 tbsp instant coffee crystals dissolved in 2 tbsp water and 30 gm sugar, mix well and keep aside to cool. Add 1 cup whipping cream and beat the mixture till thick.
  
  Chocolate Cream Frosting
  Bring 1 cup heavy cream to a boil, remove from heat and add 200gm chopped semi-sweet chocolate. Stir till chocolate is melted. Beat the mixture till thick.

Divya of Easycooking celebrating her second blog anniversary with “The best chocolate cake event" and I am sending this cake for her event. Wishing you many many wonderful years of blogging Divya!!!

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Milk chocolate and Passion Fruit Truffles!

I love chocolates and I also love passion fruit! My dad collects fresh passion fruit from his back yard which I convert to puree and carry with me to Kuwait to make juice, wine, pudding etc or even eat fresh mixed with sugar….yummmmy!!! :) Recently when I saw these two in the form of a Truffle in Aran’s blog Cannelle Et Vanille I wanted to make it immediately. All the ingredients except Apricot were with me, so with full confidence I tried this recipe that afternoon. I used Dates instead of Apricot, mixed everything and kept the ganache in the fridge to set. But my ganache never get hard even after keeping it in the fridge overnight. The whole thing looked like mousse. So I rechecked the recipe and found out that I had messed up with the amount of cream and so the truffles ended up as chocolate mousse. Nevertheless it tasted heavenly and we finished it off in two days! Two days back I had some guests for dinner and I again tried the same truffles with the correct amount of cream and this time I added Raisins instead of Apricot. Yes this time my ganache set well, and I got really soft very tasty Truffles.

Milk Chocolate and Passion Fruit Truffles

{Adapted from Cannelle Et Vanille by Aran}

Ingredients:

210 grams milk chocolate

25 grams dried apricots, small dice (first time I used Dates and second time Raisins)

1 tbsp water

80 grams (1/2 cup) passion fruit puree

45 grams (1/4 cup) heavy cream

1/2 tbsp honey

30 grams unsalted butter, room temperature

Method:

• Mix the chopped apricots/dates/raisins with the water and let them plump up.
• When you are ready to add them to the ganache, drain them and pat them dry with a paper towel.
• Place chopped milk chocolate in a bowl big enough to hold all ingredients.
• In a saucepan, bring cream, passion fruit puree and honey to a boil.
• Pour over the chopped chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Let this mixture cool a little bit.
• Add the softened butter and mix until all incorporated.
• Add the chopped and plumped apricots/dates/raisins.
• Let the ganache set in the refrigerator and when hard, make small balls and roll them in cocoa powder/powdered sugar or dip in melted chocolate.

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Strawberry and Banana Muffins

Adapted from Pam's For The Love of Cooking.



Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:
2 1/4 cup of flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, diced

Wet Ingredients:
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 stick of butter, melted
2 large ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Coat a muffin pan with cooking spray.
• In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients.
• After mixing, gently fold in the strawberries, making sure to coat them with flour - this helps prevent the berries from sinking while baking.
• In another large bowl, combine the wet ingredients (use a potato masher to break up the banana) until mixed thoroughly.
• Slowly combine the wet mixture into the dry mixture, stir until just combined - do not over mix the batter or you will have tough muffins.
• Fill the muffin tray with the batter, place in the oven and bake for 22-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• This recipe makes 12 muffins.

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Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Ingredients:
Boneless skinless chicken breast, finely chopped-2 cups
Sweet corn- 1 tin
Corn flour-3 tbsp
Salt to taste
Egg-1
Ajinomoto-1 tsp (opt)
White pepper powder-1/4 tsp


Method:

• Combine 5 cups water or stock, sweet corn, salt, ajinomoto and white pepper powder and boil.
• When it boils, add chicken pieces and stir to break up chicken pieces and cook for 5 minutes.
• Thicken with corn flour mixed with water and boil for 1 minute.
• Reduce heat and add the beaten egg in a thin stream and stir slowly with a fork in one direction.
• Serve hot.

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Fruitcake Truffles

This is a really quick and very tasty truffle if you have some left over Rich Fruit Cake!



Mix left over fruit cake crumbs with little alcohol or orange juice. Shape the crumb mixture into small balls. Melt some chopped semi sweet or bitter sweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Dip each ball, one at a time, coating in chocolate and shaking gently to remove the excess. Transfer to a wax-paper lined surface, when the chocolate coating sets serve.

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Savoury Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups self-raising flour

½ cup finely chopped sausages/ ham

½ cup grated cheese
1 cup of finely chopped mixed vegetables of your choice (carrots, capsicum, onion, mushroom etc)

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley/ corriander

125 g melted butter

1 cup milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

A small pinch of Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary & Basil (optional)

Method:

• Pre-heat oven 180°C and grease a muffin tin.
• Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
• Stir in butter, milk and egg until just combined. Do not over mix.
• Bake in oven for 15 minutes or until cooked and golden.

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The Classic Pineapple Pudding / China grass pudding / Moss pudding

When it came to desserts this was the family favorite and on any and every occasion my brother and I would always pester our Mom to make it. It’s simple to make and anyone can try this with utmost confidence as it will never fail them unless off course the China grass is of poor quality. Till today it remains one of my all-time favorites.




Ingredients:

Condensed Milk- 1 tin
Milk- 2 1/2 tin (measure in condensed milk tin)
Sugar- 5 dessert spoon (10 tea spoons)
China grass strands (Agar- Agar)-10 gm
Water- 1 1/2 cup
Pineapple chopped- 2 cups, heaped
Sugar-2 dessert spoon
Cloves / grambu-6 nos
Vanilla Essence-1/4 tsp
Vanilla Custard Powder-1 dessert spoon (2 tea spoon)
Thick Cream- 1/2 cup




Method:

• Stew chopped pineapple with 2 dessert spoon sugar and cloves. Removes from fire, when pineapple is cooked and there is 1/2 cup syrup. Keep aside.
• Chop China grass strands wash it with cold water and strain through a sieve. Soak china grass in 1 1/2 cups water and keep aside.
• Mix condensed milk and 2 tins of milk and heat stirring well. When this mixture gets hot add 5 dessert spoon sugar and 1 dessert spoon custard powder mixed in 1/2 tin milk. Keep stirring continuously and remove from fire just before the milk boils.
• Boil soaked china grass and when it dissolves strain into hot custard., and mix well.( make sure both the custard and melted china grass should be of same temperature).
• Cool the custard to lukewarm, add vanilla essence and 1/2 cup cream and mix well.
• Transfer to a dish and keep it in the fridge. When the pudding is half set, strew pineapple pieces with syrup over pudding and keep it back in fridge till completely sets and serve!

My blog turned 2 years!!! Happy Anniversary my bloggy dear :)

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