CRAB CUTLET

When my son asked me to innovate something on crab other than making the usual Crab masala or crab kuzhambu, I have accepted the challenge. With the usual ingredients, I have also added a little quantity of white sauce along with the fresh bread crumbs to make it tastier. I got very tasty crab cutlets as a good result.


Tips: I have recently known that blue coloured crabs are tastier than the red and brown ones.

நண்டு கட்லட்

Ingredients:

Cooked crab meat- 1 big cup
cooked potato [medium]-1
Butter- 2 tbsp
Plain flour- 1 tbsp
Milk-100 ml
Finely chopped onion-1
Chopped coriander- 2 tbsp
Curry leaves- 1 arc
Salt to taste
Fresh bread slices-2
Turmeric powder- half tsp
Enough oil to fry

Grind the following to a coarse paste

Ginger- 1 tsp, small garlic flakes-5, fennel seeds- half tsp, a small piece cinnamon, green chillies-3

Procedure:

Mash the hot cooked potato.
Heat a small sauce pan and put the butter in it.
Add the plain flour and fry it to a slightly golden brown colour.
Pour the milk and cook on slow fire to a thickened mass.
Allow it to cool.
Hat a pan and add 3 tbsp of oil.
Add the chopped onion.
Fry it for a few minutes until it turns to golden brown.
Add the coarse paste with the turmeric powder and fry it for a few seconds.
Add the crab meat along with the potato, salt and the greens.
Cook for a few seconds until they are combined well.
Put off the fire.
Place the mixture in a bowl.
Add the white sauce.
Grind the bread pieces for a split of second.
Add these bread crumbs to the mixture.
Mix well, make small balls, flatten them and deep fry the cutlets to golden brown.
The delicious crab cutlets are ready!

Payasams - Badam Kheer and Carrot Payasam

BADAM KHEER - ALMOND MILK

Badam Milk and Potato Buns are specialities of all the Iyengar Bakeries in town. It was the ultimate combo which people relished after office hours or after an evening show at the local theatre. People even treated friends at the bakery to celebrate a promotion at their office or to announce the birth of a baby. This was old Mysore.
Even after the advent of Pizza Houses and Food Courts at malls, a treat of Badam Milk and Potato Buns at the Bakeries still has its own charm. Badam Milk has always been and is a 'hot' favourite of many connoisseurs.My husband always playfully refers to the delicious drink as 'Hot Badam Cold'!

INGREDIENTS
Milk - 1/2 lit
Almonds - 30
Sugar - 4 tbsps
Saffron strands - a few
cardamom - 2
Pacha karpoora - 1 pin head ( edible camphor)
METHOD
1. Soak almonds in boiling water for half an hour.
2. Remove the skin and grind the almonds with little milk into a slightly coarse paste.
3 .Boil the milk and stir in the almond paste and continue to boil for a few more minutes.
4. Add sugar and switch off flame.
5. Add saffron strands, powdered cardamom and pachakarpoora.

Badam Kheer can be relished hot or cold.

CARROT PAYASAM

Payasam using various vegetables is in today. Carrot payasam is my family's favourite.
INGREDIENTS
Carrots - 2 big ones
Milk - 1/2 lit
Cashew nuts - 10
Cardamom powder - 1 pinch
Raw carrot gratings - 1 tbsp
Cashew nuts and raisins - a few
Ghee - 1 tbsp
METHOD
1. Scrape and slice the carrots.
2. Pressure cook carrot slices along with the mentioned 10 cashew nuts .
3. Grind the cooked carrot slices and cashew nuts with little milk into a fine paste.
4. Boil milk and add the carrot cashew paste.
5. Continue boiling for few more minutes.
6. Add sugar and switch off flame.
7. Add cardamom powder.
8. Heat ghee and fry cashew nuts into a golden colour .
9. Add raisins followed by carrot gratings.
10. When the raisins bloat and the carrot gratings are slightly fried add to the payasam.

Relish carrot payasam while still hot.

Spicy Wheat Sesame Sticks

The evenings are very cold in my place. And a bowl of hot soup is very much welcome. I love bread sticks to go with the soup, which reminds me the train journeys where food is served. When I saw the sesame sticks recipe at Redchillies, it looked a quick recipe that could complement a bowl of soup. So those who have the yeast phobia, can surely give this a try.  This low fat,healthy sesame sticks are great to go with a bowl of soup or a cup of tea/coffee.

You need

Quick cooking oats - 1/2 cup

Wheat flour - 1 cup

Butter - 2 tblspn

Sesame seeds - 1/4 cup

Green chillies - 3 nos, ground to paste

Sugar - 1 tspn

Salt - 1/2 tspn

Baking powder - 1/2 tspn

Water - less than 1/2 cup

Method
Melt the butter. Coarsely powder oats. Reserve a tablespoon of sesame seeds.

Take powdered oats, wheat flour, melted butter, sesame seeds, chilli paste, salt ,sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Mix well until the mix resembles bread crumbs.

Sprinkle water little by little to get a stiff dough. Don't add all the water at once.

Leave the dough for 30 minutes. Divide into 4 balls. Roll out each dough ball between two greased plastic sheets or cling film. Roll thin to get crispy crackers.

Slice into rectangle strips. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 20 minutes until it is slightly brown. Flip the tray halfway through for even baking. I baked it in two batches. Got around 40 nos of 2 inch long strips.

The sticks were very tasty and can make a great snack to munch with out any guilt. I felt it tasted less spicy the next day.  To get more flakier and crispy sticks, you can increase the butter by another 2 tblspn.

Wishing all my readers, friends, fellow bloggers and their family a  very

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays